The Methodology of Foreign Language Teaching

The term "методика" has several correspondences in English: methodology, methods

and methodics. The latter is recognized by a few scholars. In our course of lectures the
word methodology will be used for "методика" and "методологiя" of teaching English as
a foreign language.
There are several definitions of this term:
1. Methodology (from Greek methodos – спосіб, шлях дослідження або
пізнання, logos – поняття, вчення) is a framework of organization for teaching which
relates linguistic theory to pedagogical principles and techniques.
2. Methodology is a branch of pedagogy which deals with peculiarities of teaching a
certain subject.
3. Methodology of FLT is a body of scientifically tested theory concerning the teaching of
foreign languages in schools and other educational institutions.
4. Methodology is a system of principles and ways of organization and construction of
theoretical and practical activity as well as a teaching about this system.
5. Methodology is a science which studies aims, content, means, principles, techniques
and methods of a system of instruction and education on the material of a foreign
language.

Methodology integrates the acquired knowledge of English, didactics, psychology,

linguistics and formulate basic professional and pedagogical habits and skills. In
G.Rogova's opinion, methodology covers three main points:
1. aims of TEFL;
2. content of TEFL;
3. methods, principles and techniques of TEFL.
But it becomes evident that the three components do not constitute the whole
teaching/learning process. The activities of learners and teachers, their interaction
(symmetrical or assymetrical) and the role of instructional materials are the outstanding
constituents. The task of methodology is to integrate the relationships among them and to
draft requirements for each of them.
Teaching a subject is viewed here not simply as the delivery of prescribed formulae,
imparting a certain amount of knowledge, but also developing habits and skills, but also as
activity.
To attain these aims in the most effective way constitutes the main subject of any
methodology. The methodology determines the laws, principles, aims, content, methods,
techniques, and means (media) of teaching. The actual teaching of a language may differ
in the analysis of what is to be taught, in the planning of lessons, in the teaching
techniques used, in the type and amount of teaching done through mechanical means and
finally, in the testing of what has been learned.

Basic Categories of Methodology

The methodology of TEFL seems to embody such basic categories on which there is
general agreement among those who have studied the subject: methods, principles,
techniques, aims and means of instruction.
A method is a model of instruction based on definite theoretical provisions, principle,
techniques and aims of instruction.
A method is also a specific set of teaching techniques and materials generally backed by
stated principles.
A method determines what and how much is taught (selection), the order in which it is
taught (gradation), and how the meaning and form are conveyed (presentation). Since
presentation, drill and repetition may also be the concern of the teacher, the analysis of the
teaching/leaning process must first determine how much is done by the method and how
much by the teacher.
Aim is a direction or guidance to establish a course or procedure to be followed. The
teacher should formulate long-term goals, interim aims and short-term objectives. What
changes he can bring about in his pupils at the end of the week, month, year, course, and
each particular lesson [57, p.36-37]. Hence, aims are planned results for pupils in learning
a FL. The aims are stimulated by the syllabus and other official directives. They are:
practical, instructional, educational and developing (formative).
Practical aims cover habits and skills which pupils acquire in using a foreign
language. A habit is an automatic response to specific situations, acquired normally as a
result of repetition and learning.
A skill is a combination of useful habits serving a definite purpose and requiring
application of certain knowledge.
Instructional aims develop the pupils’ mental capacities and intelligence in the
process of FLL (foreign language learning). Educational aims help the pupils extend their
knowledge of the world in which they live.
Formative or developing aims help develop in learners sensual perception, motor,
kinaesthetic, emotional and motivating spheres.
Principles are basic underlying theoretical provisions which determine the choice of
methods, techniques and other means of instruction.
Technique in the methodology of TEFL is the manner of presentation, demonstration,
consolidation and repetition.
Means is something by the use or help of which a desired goal is attained or made
more likely.

The Content of FLT

One of the essential categories of FLT is the content or what to teach. It is impossible
to determine the content of FLT without referring to linguistics - a science that deals with
the study of languages as a definite system of codes. Thus, linguistics describes the
standard use of the language, a set of rules, which cover this use. It also studies the usage,
i.e. the way people use words and expressions in speaking and writing, as well as stylistic
means, phonological, morphological, syntactical and lexical items. Consequently, the
dichotomy between language and speech plays an important role in FLT. Language is a
system of signs and speech is a manifestation of this language system in concrete
communicative acts. Both language and speech make up two sides of the same
phenomenon, one whole, and at the same time each of them has specific units.
Principles of FLT
The methodology of FLT is based on fundamental principles of didactics:
- the principle of conscious approach;
- communicative approach;
- differentiated and integrated instruction;
- activity;
- visuality;
- accessibility and durability;
- individualization;
- consecutiveness;
- systematic approach;

Choosing and using the right teaching approach is an important consideration for all
language educators. Get it right and students progress towards fluency at pace in a calm
and enjoyable learning environment. But get it wrong and students can quickly become
demotivated and disengaged, particularly in formal education settings where they might
not have a chance to choose to take a second language based on their own motivation.

Grammar-Translation Method
This method has been with us through the centuries and is still with us. It has had
different names; at one time it was called Classical Method since it was used in the
teaching of the classical languages, Latin and Greek. The method involves many written
exercises, much translation and lengthy vocabulary lists. The teacher describes in detail
the grammar of the language, focusing on the form and inflection of words. This method
aims at providing an understanding of the grammar of the language in question expressed
in traditional terms, and at training the students to read and write the target language,
rather than mastering the oral and aural skills. To do this the students need to learn the
grammar rules and vocabulary of the target language. It was hoped that, by doing it
students would become more familiar with the grammar of the native language and that
this familiarity would help them speak and write their native language better. It was also
thought that foreign language learning would help students grow intellectually; it was
recognized that students would probably never use the target language, but the mental
exercise of learning it would be beneficial anyway.

Students study grammar deductively: that is, they are given rules and examples, they
are told to memorize them, and then are asked to apply rules to other examples. They also
learn grammatical paradigms such as the plural of nouns, degrees of comparison of
adjectives and adverbs, verb conjugations, etc. They memorize native language
equivalents for foreign language vocabulary lists.

The techniques of G-TM imply bilingual vocabulary lists, written exercises, elaborate
grammatical explanations, translation, and total involvement in reading and writing.

The objectives of G-TM are non-utilitarian - confined to understanding of literature that

gives keys to great classical culture.

The advantages of this method lie in its limited objectives: understanding of written
language and some basic writing and translation. The method is not demanding for the
teacher (simple preparation from a textbook and little physical endeavour).

The disadvantages of this method include a total neglect of spoken language,

communication skills; the use of esoteric vocabulary, and monotonous procedures in class.

Thus, the Grammar-Translation Method is simply a combination of the activities of

grammar and translation. The teacher begins with rules, isolated vocabulary items,
paradigms and translation. Pronunciation either is not taught, or is limited to a few
introductory notes. Grammar rules are memorized as units, which sometimes include
illustrative sentences.

Harold Palmer's Method.

Harold Palmer, the great English authority and teacher, experimented extensively with the
question-answer method. He considered question-answer work to be "the most effective of
all language learning exercises ever devised" [cf. 46].
Palmer insisted, however, that if this technique was to be carried out successfully, all
questions asked by the teacher must be carefully planned and thought out beforehand.
Questions should never be haphazard, either in form or content. Specifically, H. Palmer
thought that any question asked by the teacher should be of a nature that admits the
following:
a. an obvious answer, not an answer that requires one or more complicated acts of
judgement on the part of the student;
b. an easy answer, not one that requires the use of words, facts, or constructions
unknown to the student;

c. a relevant answer, i.e., a direct answer involving only a moderate change through
the process of conversion, substitution, or completion of the material contained in
the teacher's question.

In H. Palmer’s view, there are three stages of learning:

1. Receiving knowledge.
2. Fixing it in the memory by repetition.
3. Using the knowledge by real practice.
4.
Direct Method
The Direct Method (DM) appeared as a reaction to GTM and the failure to produce
learners who could use the foreign language they had been studying.

The Direct Method was based on the belief that students could learn a language through
listening to it and that they learn to speak by speaking it - associating speech with
appropriate action, like the way the children learn their native tongue. The Direct Method
received its name from the fact that meaning is to be related to the target language directly,
without going through the process of translating into the student's native language.

The various "oral" and "natural" methods that developed at the turn of the century may be
grouped under DM. The students learn new words and phrases from objects, actions and
mime. When the meaning of words could not be made clear, the teacher would resort to
semantization but never to native language translations. From the beginning, students are
accustomed to hearing complete meaningful sentences in the target language. Grammar is
taught at a later stage inductively, i.e. numerous examples of a certain principle are
presented and the rule is then inferred from these examples. An explicit grammar rule may
never be given.

+Students learn to think in the target language as soon as possible. Vocabulary is acquired
more naturally if students use it in full sentences, rather than memorizing long lists of
words. Vocabulary is emphasized over grammar. Although work on all four skills occurs
from the start, oral communication is seen as basic. Thus, the reading and writing
exercises are based upon what the students have orally practised first. Pronunciation also
receives due attention from the beginning of the course. Besides studying everyday
speech, the learners also do history, geography, and culture of the country or countries
where the language is spoken.

The teacher who employs DM asks the students to self-correct their answers by asking
them to make a choice between what they said and alternate answer he supplies. There are,
of course, other ways of getting students to self-correct. For example, a teacher might
simply repeat what a student has just said using a questioning voice to signal to the student
that something was wrong with it. Another possibility is for the teacher to repeat what the
student said, stopping just before the error. The student then knows that the next word was
wrong. There are also other options of remedial work [cf. 16; 46].

Audio-Lingual Method
The Audio-Lingual Method (A-LM), like the Direct Method we have just examined,
has a goal very different from that of the Grammar-Translation Method. The Audio-
Lingual Method was developed in the United States during the Second World War. At that
time there was a need for people to learn foreign languages rapidly for military purposes.
As we have seen, G-TM did not prepare people to use the target language. While the
communication in the target language was the goal of DM, there were at the time exciting
new ideas about language and learning emanating from the disciplines of descriptive
linguistics and behavioral psychology.
We can trace the Audio-Lingual Method rather directly to the "scientific" linguistics of
Leonard Bloomfield and his followers. Both behavioristic psychology and structural
linguistics constituted a reaction against a vague and unscientific approach to the questions
of human behavior, including the acquisition of knowledge.
Every language, as it is viewed here, has its own unique system. This system is comprised
of several different levels: phonological, lexical, and syntactical. Each level has its own
distinctive features.
Everyday speech is emphasized in the Audio-Lingual Method. The level of complexity
of the speech is graded so that beginning students are presented with only simple forms.
The structures of the language are emphasized over all other areas. The syllabus is
typically a structural one, with the structure for any particular unit included in the new
dialogue. Vocabulary is also contextualized within the dialogue. It is, however, limited
since the emphasis is placed on the acquisition of the patterns of the language.

Georgi Losanov's Method or Suggestive Method

Few methods have been met with claims ranging from sensational to sceptical:
mysterious and costly, a highly questionable new gimmick (one critic has unkindly called
it “a package of pseudo-scientific material“) and far remote from language teaching styles
as language sleep learning, meditative relaxation, electrical and sound impulses
(E.Davydova), etc.
Suggestopedia as G.Lozanov called his pedagogical application of "The Science of
Suggestology" aims at neutralizing learning inhibitions and de-suggesting false limitations
that cultural norms impose on learning.
The suggestive method or Suggestopedia is a modification of direct method. The
originator of this method believes, as does Silent Way's Caleb Gattegno, that language
learning can occur at a much faster rate than what ordinarily transpires.
In G. Losanov's view the reason for the pupils’ inefficiency is that they set up
psychological barriers that block the way to learning. They fear that they will be unable to
perform, that they will be limited in the ability to learn, and finally fail. One result is that
the learners’ full mental powers are not engaged (cf. CC-LT). According to G.Losanov
and his proponents, only five per cent of the learners’ mental capacity is used. In order to
make better use of the mental reserves the limitations, which they think we have, need to
be "desuggested". Suggestopedia, the application of the study of suggestion to pedagogy,
has been developed to help students eliminate the feeling that they cannot be successful
and, thereby, to help them overcome the barriers to learning.
The behaviourist principles of G. Losanov's method assume the form of five maxims:
1. Get the learners to utter the same structure repeatedly.
2. Get them to do so correctly.
3. Do this through good grading of structures by arranging them in order of difficulty and
by introducing them one at a time if possible.
4. The behaviourist approach is repetition and drilling to the point where the learner
automatically makes the correct response.
5. Lessons must be designed so as to prevent the learners from making mistakes.
Behaviourist psychology described all learning (including language acquisition) as a
matter of conditioning – as the formation of habits through responses to outside stimuli.
Thus, one learns a language through mimicry, memorization and analogy.

Communicative Approach
A comparative study of methods and approaches in TEFL/TESL has shown that the past
methodologies seem to have pursued too narrow objectives. A flexible uniform language-
teaching strategy should be based on a careful selection of facets of various methods and
their integration into a cohesive, coherent working procedure that will suit the realities of
the particular teaching situation. It is assumed that the goal of language teaching is the
learner’s ability to communicate in target language. It is assumed that the content of a
language course will include linguistic structures, semantic notions, and social functions.
Students regularly work in groups or pairs to transfer meaning in situations where one
student has information that the others lack. Students often engage in role-play or
dramatizations to adjust their use of the target language to different social contexts.
Classroom materials and activities are often authentic to reflect real-life situations and
demands. Skills are integrated from the beginning: a given activity might involve reading,
speaking, listening and perhaps also writing. The teacher’s role is primarily to facilitate
communication and only secondarily to correct errors. The teacher should be able to use
the target language fluently and appropriately. Written activities should be used sparingly
with younger children. Children of six or seven years old are often not yet proficient in
mechanics of writing in their own language.
In methodological literature of the last two decades the word “communicative” is the
most frequently used one. Communicative method (sometimes referred to as approach)
grew out of the works of anthropological linguists who view language first and foremost
as the system of communication (Hymes, 1972; Halliday, 1973).This method stresses the
need to teach communicative competence as opposed to the linguistic competence: thus,
functions are emphasized over form. The long and complex history of communicative
competence and the importance of the relation between ideas about the nature of language
and their social, intellectual and cultural contexts have become a major concern not only
for methodologists, linguists, but also for psychologists and social theorists.
Communicative theory enables learners to realize that every speech act takes place in a
specific social situation. Psychological factors (the learners’ age, sex, complement of the
group, pupil’s personality, their roles, etc.) as well as linguistic factors (a topic of
discussion, type of discourse; a colloquial, informal or formal variety of English (also
known as register) play a crucial role here. In other words appropriateness and
accessibility of speech in the particular social situation are as equally important as
accuracy of pronunciation and grammar.
Communicative competence is the ability of learners to use the language
appropriately for the given socio-cultural context. To do this the learners should be able to
manage the process of negotiating meaning with the teacher and among themselves.
Communicative competence is not a compilation of items, but a set of strategies or
creative procedures for realizing the value of linguistic elements in contextual use, an
ability to make sense as a participant of spoken or written discourse by shared knowledge
of code resources and rules of language use.
The content of communicative instruction is based on the concept that the process of
instruction and the model of communication. All this does not necessarily mean that the
process of instruction is the exact replica of the process of communication. When we
communicate, we use the language to accomplish some function, such as persuading,
arguing, agreeing, disagreeing or promising. Moreover, we carry out these functions
within an appropriate social context. A speaker will choose a peculiar way to express his
argument according to his intent, his level of emotion, and what his relationships with the
collocutor are. For example, he may be more direct in arguing with his friend than with his
senior.
Communication has parameters that are difficult to prognose, i.e. there are no certain
guidelines to govern this interactive process. To model communication means to establish
basic constraints, its underlying principles which include:
1. individual approach;
2. functional approach (stresses the context rather than the very structure of language);
3. communication-oriented activity;
4. personal involvement;
5. situational approach;
6. novelty;
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), a widely recognized and effective
language teaching approach. The primary focus of CLT is enabling students to
communicate confidently in real-world situations by engaging in authentic and interactive
learning activities. The key elements of CLT, as identified by David Nunan, which
emphasize interaction, authentic texts, learner-centeredness, personal experiences, and a
connection between classroom learning and language activation outside the classroom.
The advantages of CLT include learning with a clear purpose, fostering a student-centered
approach, increasing student engagement, promoting lesson variability and creativity, and
developing all core language skills. Teachers in a CLT classroom take on roles as
facilitators, guides, and co-communicators, enhancing the learning experience for students.