Techniques &
Principles in
Language Learning
History of Language Teaching
Chapters Key Acronyms
• The Grammar-Translation Method
• The Reform Movement and The Direct Method • TL: Target Language
• The Oral Approach & Situational Language Teaching • NL: Native Language
• The Audio-Lingual Method
• Ss: Students
• ESL: English as a Second Language
• The Silent Way
• EFL: English as a Foreign Language
• Desuggestopedia /Whole Language Approach
• ESP: English for Specific Purposes
• Community Language Learning/ The Lexical Approach • SLA: Second Language Acquisition
• Total Physical Response/ Competency Based Language • GTM: Grammar-Translation Method
Teaching
• ALM: Audio-Lingual Method
• Communicative Language Teaching / The Natural Approach • SW: Silent Way
• Content Based Instruction • CLL: Community Language Learning
• Task Based Language Teaching / The Political Dimensions of • DES: Desuggestopedia
Language Teaching and the Participatory Approach
• Learning Strategy Training, Cooperative Learning and
Multiple Intelligences/ Emerging Uses of Technology in EFL
Teaching and Learning / The post Methods era
ESL
The History of Language Teaching
• Changes in language teaching methods
throughout history have reflected
- recognition of the changes in the kind of
the proficiency learners need, (for example?)
- they have also reflected changes in theories
of the nature of language and language learning.
The History of Language
Teaching
• A move toward the oral
proficiency rather than the
reading comprehension as the goal
of the language study.
The History of Language
Teaching
• From both contemporary and historical point
of view bilingualism or multilingualism is the
norm rather than the exception.
• It has been estimated that some 60% of World
population today is multilingual.
The History of Language Teaching
• Foregin Languagae learning has always been an
important practical concern
• Today’s controversies reflect contemporary
responses to the question that have been
asked often throughout the history of language
teaching.
• What Language is the world’s most widely
studied foreign language today ?
• What language was dominant 500 years ago?
What languages were dominant
through history? And Why?
• In the 15th cent. Latin (and partly Greek) was
the dominant language of
• education
• Commerce MA PhD
• religion and
• government
in the Western World.
What languages were dominant
through history?
In the 16th century
• French
• Italian and
• English
gained importance as a result of political
changes in Europe.
What languages were dominant
through history?
• In the 16th Century
--- Latin gradually became displaced as a language of spoken
and written communication.
--- and the status of diminished from that of a ‘living’ language
to that of an ‘occasional’ subject in the school curriculum, the
study of Latin took a different function.
--- The study of classical Latin ( the Latin in which the classical
Works of Virgil, Ovid and Cicero was written) and the analysis
of its grammar and rhetoric became the model for foreign
language study from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
The way language was taught
before new methods
In the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, students
at grammar schools in England were initially
given a detailed introduction to
• Latin Grammar through rote(mechanical)
learning of grammar rules
• study of declensions and conjugations
• translation
• long bilingual lists of vocabulary
The way language was taught
before new methods
• Once basic proficiency was established,
students were introduced to the advanced
study of grammar and rhetoric.
• Gaps in knowledge were often met with brutal
punishment.
The way modern languages were
taught in the 18th century
‘As the Latin language ceased to be a normal vehicle for
communication there emerged new justifications for teaching
Latin. It was said to develop intellectual abilities. It was even
called to be mental gymnastics and the study of this dead
language became an indispensable basis for all forms of higher
education (V. Mallison, cited in Titone 1968:26)
As modern languages entered the curriculum of European schools
in the 18th century, they were taught using the same basic
procedures that were used for teaching Latin.
The way modern languages were
taught in the 18th century
Textbooks consisted of:
• statements of abstract grammar rules
• lists of vocabulary
• and sentences for translation
Speaking the foreign language was not the goal
Oral practice was limited to students reading aloud their
sentences they had translated into and out of the target
language.
They bore no relation to communication
19th Century
• By the 19th century this method, initially used to teach
Latin, became the standard way of studying foreign
languages in schools.
• A typical textbook in mid 19th century thus consisted of
chapters and lessons organized around grammar points.
• Each grammar point was listed, rules on its use were
explained
• And it was illustrated by sample sentences.
• Oral work was almost none (minimum)
THIS APPROACH TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING BECAME
KNOWN AS THE GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION METHOD
Reference
• Richards, J. & Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches
and methods in language teaching. New York,
USA: Cambridge University Press
