Introduction to language history teaching

Analyze the following questions and answer them individually in your notebook.Why do you think it’s important to know the

approaches and methods of language teaching?How do you think this class will help you in your

future teaching practice?Make a list of the different language teaching

methods and approaches that you remember from previous classes. Compare them with a partner and complement your list.

Work in teams of 3 or 4 and discuss the following questions:What are the reasons why language teaching

methodologies change through time?Imagine living in the following scenarios. Discuss if

learning a L2 would be useful in that scenario and why:oAn American soldier in WWIIoA merchant during the 1700soA high profile politician during the 1930soA scholar during the peak of the Roman Empire

Why language teaching changes through time?

Changes in language teaching methods throughout history have reflected:The changes in the kind of proficiency learners

need.The changes in theories of the nature of language

and language learning

Lingua Franca

Whereas today English is the world’s most widely studied foreign language, 500 years ago it was Latin.

Latin was the dominant language of education, commerce, religion, and government in the Western world.

In the 16th century, French, Italian and English gained importance as a result of political changes in Europe

How the study of classic Latin influenced language teaching

The status of Latin diminished from being a living language to a subject in the school curriculum, but still it was regarded as the most ideal form of language.

The study of classical Latin and its works (Virgil, Ovid, Cicero) were analyzed grammatically and rhetorically.

During 16th-18th centuries, children had to study Latin rigorously: learning grammar rules, conjugation and translation. Punishment for mistakes

The same “method” was used to study other languages during the 17th to 19th centuries.

There were occasional attempts to promote alternative approaches to education:oRoger Ascham and Montaigne in the 16th centuryoComenius and John Locke in the 17th century

(curriculum reform, and the way Latin was taught)

The grammar translation method

Grammar-Translation Method

See prezi

Language teaching innovations in the

1800’s

Rejection of the G-T method

Toward the mid 1800’s, a huge factor contributed to a questioning and rejection of the G-T method:Increased opportunities for communication among

Europeans created a demand for oral proficiency in foreign languages.

Because of this, new approaches to language teaching were developed by individual language teaching specialists to reform the teaching of modern languages.

No lasting impact

Some of these specialists, such as Marcel, Prendergast and Gouin, didn’t manage to achieve any lasting impact.

Though, their ideas are of historical interest, because some of them where later included or adapted in more modern methodologies.

The Frenchman Marcel

Marcel referred to child language learning as a model for language teaching

Emphasized the importance of meaning in learning

Proposed that reading be taught before other skills

The Englishman Prendergast

Prendergast was one of the first to record the observation that children use contextual and situational cues to interpret utterances and that they use memorized phrases and “routines” in speaking

He proposed the first “structural syllabus”, advocating that learners be taught the most basic structural patterns occurring in the language.

The Frenchman Gouin

Gouin is the best known of these reformers.He developed an approach to teaching a foreign

language based of his observations of children’s use of language.

He believed that language learning was facilitated through using language to accomplish events consisting of a sequence of related actions

His method was known as the “Gouin Series”

See prezi

The “Gouin Series”

The approach he advocated was to have "themes" such as “Opening doors” and to have students memorize sentences in sequence relating to the theme:I walk toward the door

I get near the door

I get to the door

I stop at the door

I stretch out my arm

I take hold of the handle

I turn the handle

I open the door

The “Gouin Series”

The key points are that:

It's more important to learn sentences to speak than words,

Verbs are the key elements in sentences, and Sentences are more easily learned when they form

a narrative (they form a logical sequence)Gestures and actions help understand the

meaning

The “Gouin Series”

The importance of Gouin’s method

Gouin’s emphasis on the need to present new teaching items in a context that makes their meaning clear, and the use of gestures and actions to convey the meanings of utterances, are practices that later became part of important methods such as:Situational Language TeachingTotal Physical Response

Both of which we are going to see during this course

The Reform Movement

New ideas of teachers and linguists coincided

Specialists such as Marcel, Prendergast and Gouin did much to promote alternative approaches to language teaching, but their ideas failed to receive widespread support.

From the 1880’s, however, linguists such as Sweet in England, Vietor in Germany and Passy in France, began to provide the intellectual leadership needed to give reformists ideas greater credibility and acceptance.

Teachers and linguists ideas were similar.

The discipline of linguistics revitalized

This acceptance did much for the field of linguisticsPhonetics (the scientific analysis and description of

the sound systems of languages) was established, giving new insights into speech processes.

The International Phonetic Association was founded in 1886, and its International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was designed to enable the sounds of any language to be accurately transcribed.

The role of the International Phonetic Association

One of the earliest goals of the International Phonetic Association was to improve the teaching of modern languages. It advocated:

1. The study of the spoken language

2. Phonetic training to promote good pronunciation

3. The use of conversations texts and dialogues to introduce conversational phrases and idioms

4. An inductive approach to grammar teaching

5. Teaching new meanings through establishing associations with the native language.

Linguists become interested in language teaching methodologies

Linguists began to take part in the discussions about the best way to teach foreign languages and began writing and publishing their ideas.

Sweet

Sweet wrote in his book “The Practical Study of Languages” 4 principles for the development of a teaching method:

1. Careful selection of what to be taught

2. Imposing limits on what is to be taught

3. Arranging what is to be taught in terms of the 4 skills

4. Grading materials from simple to complex

Vietor

Vietor used linguistic theory to justify his views on language teaching.

He argued that training in phonetics would enable teachers to pronounce the language accurately.

For him, speech patterns and not grammar, were the fundamental elements of language.

In general, the reformers believed that:

The spoken language is primary and the teaching methodology should be oral-based

The findings of phonetics should be applied to teaching and to teacher training

Learners should hear the language first, before reading it.

Words should be presented in sentences. And sentences should be practiced in meaningful contexts and not as isolated, disconnected elements.

Translation should be avoided, but the L1 can be used in some situations.

The birth of Applied Linguistics

Those principles provided theoretical foundations for a language teaching approach based on science.

They reflect the beginnings of the discipline of applied linguistics (that branch of language study concerned with the scientific study of second and foreign language teaching and learning)

The role of the Reform Movement in the LTM

None of Sweet’s or Vietor’s proposals assumed the status of a method, but they set the grounds for the future methodologies.

Parallel to the ideas put forward by members of the Reform Movement, was an interest in developing naturalistic language learning, such as are seen in L1 acquisition.

This led to what have been named “natural methods” and ultimately led to the development of what came to be known as the direct method.

Review-preview discussion questions

¿How the study of classic Latin and Greek influenced language teaching?

Describe the characteristics of the G-T method¿What factor contributed towards the rejection of the

Grammar-Translation Method?¿Which 2 study fields came together during the

Reform Movement to change language teaching?Which sub-field resulted from this efforts?If none of the ideas that surfaced during the Reform

Movement acquired a status of method, then how this stage is important?

The Direct Method

Early stages of the Direct Method

Gouin had been one of the first of the 19th Century reformers to attempt to build a methodology around observation of child language learning.

Other reformers toward the end of the century likewise turned their attention to naturalistic principles of language learning.

In fact, at various times throughout the history of language teaching, attempts have been made to make L2 learning more like L1 learning

Early stages of the Direct Method: the Natural Method

Among those who tried to apply natural principles to language classes in the 19th century was Saveour, who used intensive oral interaction in the target language, employing questions as a way of presenting and eliciting language.

Saveour opened a language school in Boston in the late 1860’s, and his method soon became referred to as the Natural Method.

Early stages of the Direct Method: the Natural Method

Saveour and other believers in the Natural Method argued that a foreign language could be taught without translation or the use of the learner’s native language if meaning was conveyed directly through demonstration and action.

Early stages of the Direct Method: the Natural Method

Franke said a language could be best taught by using it actively in the classroom.

Frank thought rather than using analytical procedures that focus on explanation of grammar rules in classroom teaching, teachers must encourage direct and spontaneous use of the foreign language in the classroom. Learners would then be able to induce rules of grammar.

The birth of the Direct Method

These natural language learning principles provided the foundation for what came to be known as the Direct Method

The Direct Method refers to the most widely known of the natural methods.

It became very popular first in Europe and then in the US through its use by Saveour and Maximilian Berlitz.

See Prezi

The Berlitz teaching guidelines

Never translate: demonstrateNever explain: actNever make a speech: ask questionsNever imitate mistakes: correctNever speak with single words: make sentencesNever speak too much: make students speak muchNever use the book: use your lesson planNever go too fast: keep the pace of the studentNever speak too slowly: speak normallyNever speak to quickly: speak naturallyNever be impatient: take it easy

The rise and fall of the Direct Method

The Direct Method was quite successful in private language schools, such as Berlitz

But it was difficult to implement in public secondary school education because it failed to consider the realities of the classroom.

In addition, it lacked a rigorous basis in applied linguistics theory.

Among other drawbacks, it was largely dependent on the teacher’s skill, rather than on a textbook

By the 1920’s, use of the DM in noncommercial schools in Europe declined.

The Coleman Report

A study began in the US in 1923 that concluded that no single method could guarantee successful results.

The study argued that trying to teach conversational skills was impractical because of the limited time available to foreign language teaching in schools and the irrelevance on conversation skills for the average American college student.

The study was published as “the Coleman Report”

The Coleman Report

The Coleman Report, argued that a more reasonable goal for a foreign language course would be reading knowledge.

So reading the goal of most foreign language programs in the US.

The emphasis on reading continued to characterize foreign language teaching in the US until World War II.

The methods era

One of the lasting legacies of the Direct Method was the notion of “method” itself.

The controversy over the Direct Method was the first of many debates over how a second and foreign language should be taught

The history of language teaching throughout the 20th century saw the rise and fall of a variety or approaches and methods, the major examples of which will be covered in this course