The Audio-lingual method found some pace in the USA toward the end of 1950s.

This
method has a history. The two world wars caused innovations in the approaches in teaching
of English as a 2nd language, especially in the United States.

These innovations were a kind of modifications in the Direct Method. With the entry of the
US into the Second World War, language teaching underwent a further change owing to the
new needs and objectives.

It was during this war that US officials realized the need of personnel who were fluent in
major foreign languages and who could do the job of translators and interpreters. To reach
this goal, there was the urgent need of special training program.

As a result, Army Specialized Training Program was initiated in 1942 with the special
objective to train fluent speakers of foreign languages in the shortest possible time. The
program was also known as Army Method.

The initial point of Audio-lingual Method was also grammar and pronunciation by oral drills
and practice. This method had strong connection with the Structural linguistics.

Features of Audio-Lingual Method

 The teacher treat all the four skills equally and teach them separately.
 In audio-lingual syllabus, dialogue has the dominant role to play.
 There is much focus on Language Laboratory as an important teaching aid.
 Like Direct Method, there is no importance of Mother Tongue.

The teacher teaches the four skills in the following order - Listening, Speaking, Reading and
Writing. Dialogues with useful vocabulary and common structures of communication always
play a major role.

Aims of Audio - Lingual Method -

 Main focus is on oral learning. So aim is to enhance listening and speaking skills.
 Main aim is to achieve development of communication skills.
 Practice is more important in learning foreign language. So the main focus is on this
aspect.
Advantages of A-L Method -

 This method is teacher-dominated. Teacher's role is very important.

 Main focus is on Listening and Speaking skills.
 The method can be used for a larger group of learners.
 This method demands pattern practice, drilling and memorization.
Disadvantages of Audio-lingual method -
  No heed on communicative competence.
 Main focus is on language form, not on meaning.
 The learner assumes a passive role during the learning process.
 There is no equal focus on all the four skills.

Direct method: Good method makes teaching good. So a teacher has to be very choosy as far
as methods are concerned. There is a bunch of methods. Some of them are  Grammar
Translation Method, Bilingual , Eclectic , Direct Method etc. In this blog post, we shall talk
about Direct Method, basic principles, advantages and disadvantages.

Direct method of teaching English means teaching English directly using target language.

Here the target language is English. A teacher doesn't use the mother tongue in the class. Nor
are the students allowed to use it. This method is totally in contrast of Translation Method.

A huge no of teachers are in favour of this method in teaching English. Webster in

New International Dictionary has written -

Direct method is a method of teaching a foreign language, especially a modern language

through conversation, discussion and reading, in the language itself, without the use of
pupil's language, without translation.....

The teachers teach words by pointing to object or picture or by performing actions. But some

experts don't consider it a method at all. According to them, it s a principle, system that
operates through many methods.

Basic Principles of Direct Method - 1. Direct relation between thought and words - Using this
method, a learner things and speaks using the same medium. 2. Oral ( Speaking ) Practice - This
method emphasizes on oral practice for everyone.

3. Functional Grammar - This method doesn't put emphasis on theoretical grammar. The main stress
is on functional grammar.

4. No use of Mother Tongue - There is the complete prohibition on the use of mother tongue.
Therefore, learners' main focus is on learning the Foreign language.

5. Limited Vocabulary - This method advocates the use of limited vocabulary, daily-use words. The
words must be from requirement or needs of the learners.

6. Sentence as the unit of speech - Here, the unit of speech is a sentence. There is the emphasis on
speaking the complete sentences.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Direct Method -

Advantages -
1. The focus is on Oral Practice. Therefore, the pronunciation improves.

2. In teaching vocabulary such as words, idioms, this method is good.

3. As there is direct relation between thought and expression, it helps the learners in having good
fluency. Using direct method, a teacher helps students having good command over English.

4. In this method, the teacher proceeds from particular to general and from concrete to abstract.

5. It makes the teaching English easier and more pleasant. A teacher uses various images/ pictures to
illustrates his/her point.

6. This method creates the suitable environment for learning English Language.

7. As the unit of speech in Direct Method is a sentence, students learn to speak complete sentences
without any hesitation. So they get confidence with command over good English.

Disadvantages -

1. Owing to over-emphasis on oral practice, the other skills namely reading and writing are ignored
to a great extent.

2. Average and below average students, especially from rural background, find difficulty to grasp the
things taught via this method.

3. This is an expensive method as the teacher is to use some aids for teaching.

4. For this method, competent teachers must be there. But there is the dearth of good English
teachers in the country. Incompetent teachers can't use this method successfully.

5. In the early stage of learning, this method is completely unsuccessful.

6. The background at home must also be foreign language friendly for this method. The students
whose parents can speak English well get more benefit from this method.

Despite its shortcomings, this method is good. But the teacher must be able to modify it for the
benefit of the whole class.

Grammar translation method

This Grammar- Translation Method is also called Classical Method of teaching English.This method

has enjoyed a very good reputation among the Indian teachers and the students, still enjoying.

In grammar translation method, translation and grammar are equally important. This method had its
origin in Germany and was popular from 180s to 190s.this method is also called as classical method
because it is the oldest method of teaching of English. It emphasis on grammatical explanation and
translation of a language pattern. Regardless of a purpose for which a particular language pattern is to
be taught to the pupils. In this method rule is often memorized and subsequently cited to explain a
similar situation. The mother tongue becomes the medium of instruction of teaching. So students
need to memorize the rules of grammar and translate passages from mother tongue onto English and
vice-versa. Translation Method means teaching a target language (here it is English) by translating it
into mother tongue. The teacher translates each word and sentence in to the mother tongue. This is
one of the simplest ways of teaching a foreign language. Neither the teacher nor the taught have to
make extra efforts to learn the target language.

Advantages of Translation Method -

1. This method is useful in the class in which there are a large no of students.

2. It is beneficial to use in the class where there are students of various levels - very intelligent and
not-so-very intelligent.

3. It helps teacher much to clear the meaning of a word and sentence to the students easily by
translating them in to the mother tongue.

4. The students understand the things very easily if taught using this method.

5. It doesn't consume the time in finishing the syllabus.

6. Precise pictures of things can easily be made in the minds of the learners using this method.

7. This Method is very useful for the average and below-average students.

Disadvantages of Grammar-Translation Method -

1. No oral work takes place in the class room due to this method. Only teacher speaks.

2. The main focus remains only on the mother-tongue and the target language remains ignored.

3. No Speaking in the target language is possible. The only thrust remains on the reading.

4. The students don't develop the power of thinking in the target language. They become mentally
lazy.

5. It doesn't help the students to learn correct pronunciation of English Language of the target
language.

6. Main emphasis is given on the Rules of Grammar.

7. Students try to do everything by translating.

8. This method doesn't involve the students mentally and it is just like story telling method.
Community language learning

Community Language Learning methods takes it is principle from the more general Counseling-
Learning approach developed by Charles A Curran studied adult learning for many years. Curran
believed that a way to deal with the fears of students is for teacher to become language counselors.
It is language teaching method in which students work together to develop what aspect of a language
which they would like to learn. Also based on counseling-approach in which teacher acts as a counselor
and a paraphraser, while the learner is seen as client and collaborator. So we can think like teacher as a
consular, students as a client, learning as counseling.

Advantages of CLL: Works well with lower level students who are struggling in spoken English, lower
students anxiety and overcome threatening affective filter, it create a warm sympathetic and trusting
relationship between teacher and learners, train students become independent, counselor allow to
learners to determine types of conversation.
Disadvantages of CLL: Some learners find it difficult to speak on tape, in order to student become
independent, teacher might neglect the need for guidance, teacher has to be highly proficient in target
language and in the language of students, it is time consuming to carry out, translation is an intricate
and difficult task.

Community Language Learning (CLL) is the name of a method developed by Charles. A. Curran, an
expert in consulting at Loyola University of Chicago. Experiences of Curran, which led him to reach
at the conclusion, that counseling techniques can be applied to learning in general. In general
language, counseling is a person who gives advice, help and support to others who have problems or
somehow need them. At CLL, teachers take on the role of counselors and treat students like their
clients.

Community language learning (CLL) was primarily designed for monolingual conversation classes
where the teacher-counsellor would be able to speak the learners' L1. The intention was that it
would integrate translation so that the students would disassociate language learning with risk taking.
It's a method that is based on English for communication and is extremely learner-focused. Although
each course is unique and student-dictated, there are certain criteria that should be applied to all CLL
classrooms, namely a focus on fluency in the early stages, an undercurrent of accuracy throughout
the course and learner empowerment as the main focus.
 How it works in the classroom
How it works in the classroom in a typical CLL lesson? There are five stages:
Stage 1- Reflection

I start with students sitting in a circle around a tape recorder to create a community atmosphere.
 The students think in silence about what they'd like to talk about, while I remain outside the
circle.
 To avoid a lack of ideas students can brainstorm their ideas on the board before recording.
     Stage 2 - Recorded conversation

Once they have chosen a subject the students tell me in their L1 what they'd like to say and I
discreetly come up behind them and translate the language chunks into English.
 With higher levels if the students feel comfortable enough they can say some of it directly in
English and I give the full English sentence. When they feel ready to speak the students take the
microphone and record their sentence.
 It's best if you can use a microphone as the sound quality is better and it's easier to pick up
and put down.
 Here they're working on pace and fluency. They immediately stop recording and then wait
until another student wants to respond. This continues until a whole conversation has been recorded.
Stage 3 – Discussion

 Next the students discuss how they think the conversation went. They can discuss how they felt
about talking to a microphone and whether they felt more comfortable speaking aloud than they
might do normally.
 This part is not recorded.
Stage 4 – Transcription

Next they listen to the tape and transcribe their conversation. I only intervene when they ask for
help.
 The first few times you try this with a class they might try and rely on you a lot but aim to
distance yourself from the whole process in terms of leading and push them to do it themselves.
Stage 5 - Language analisis

I sometimes get students to analyse the language the same lesson or sometimes in the next lesson.
This involves looking at the form of tenses and vocabulary used and why certain ones were chosen,
but it will depend on the language produced by the students.
 In this way they are totally involved in the analysis process. The language is completely
personalised and with higher levels they can themselves decide what parts of their conversation they
would like to analyse, whether it be tenses, lexis or discourse.
 With lower levels you can guide the analysis by choosing the most common problems you
noted in the recording stages or by using the final transcription.
 Advantages

 Learners appreciate the autonomy CLL offers them and thrive on analysing their own
conversations.
 CLL works especially well with lower levels who are struggling to produce spoken English.
 The class often becomes a real community, not just when using CLL but all of the time.
Students become much more aware of their peers, their strengths and weaknesses and want to work
as a team.
Disadvantages
 In the beginning some learners find it difficult to speak on tape while others might find that
the conversation lacks spontaneity.
 We as teachers can find it strange to give our students so much freedom and tend to intervene
too much.
 In your efforts to let your students become independent learners you can neglect their need
for guidance.

Comprehension approach
ADVANTAGES of communicative approach
 Communicative approach is much more pupil-orientated, because it is based on
pupils’ needs and interests.
 Communicative approach seeks to personalise and localise language and adapt it to
interests of pupils. Meaningful language is always more easily retained by learners.
 Seeks to use authentic resources. And that is more interesting and motivating for
children.
 Children acquire grammar rules as a necessity to speak so is more proficient and
efficient.
DISADVANTAGES
 It pays insufficient attention to the context in which teaching and learning take place
 The Communicative Approach often seems to be interpreted as: “if the teacher
understands the student we have good communication” but native speakers of the target
language can have great difficulty understanding students.
 Another disadvantage is that the CLT approach focuses on fluency but not accuracy.
The approach does not focus on error reduction but instead creates a situation where
learners are left using their own devices to solve their communication problems. Thus
they may produce incoherent, grammatically incorrect sentences.