Language Teaching Methods Explained
Direct Method
We use this method because we speak in the language that we are learning. The teacher speaks in the target language. The aim is to teach students in a way that they acquire the target language similarly to how they acquired their first language. This method immerses the student in English. The teacher uses realia, visual aids, and demonstrations to teach English to students.
Advantages
- Actually teaches the language and doesn’t teach about the language.
- Introduced the use of teaching vocabulary using realia, which is still widely used today when teaching English to speakers of other languages.
Disadvantages
- One major disadvantage is that it works on the assumption that a second language is learned exactly the same way as the first.
- Second language acquisition varies considerably from first language acquisition.
- It was hard for public schools to integrate.
- In the class, we aim to create real situations.
- Requires interaction with native speakers.
Total Physical Response
Total Physical Response (TPR) is a method for teaching language using physical movement to react to verbal input in order to reduce student inhibitions and lower their affective filter.
When the teacher uses TPR, they play three roles:
- Order Taker: Gives commands.
- Model Provider: Demonstrates the action.
- Action Monitor: Checks if students followed and understood.
TPR involves students listening and following the teacher’s instructions, doing everything the teacher says. The teacher must use clear pronunciation and simple instructions, helping students understand by using gestures or performing the actions themselves. TPR instruction requires no translation or L1 (first language) support. It can help students and teachers transition to an English language environment.
Multisensory Learning
Each student uses multiple learning channels and has different strengths. It is important for students to use as many channels as possible to best learn, understand, and retain new information. There is a necessity of using both the left brain (verbal, logical, auditory) and right brain (visual, spatial, artistic).
Some professionals also stress the importance of using all of the 8 intelligences as channels of information; the more modes used to learn new information, the more effectively and completely the material is acquired. The philosophy is to utilize multisensory learning to better leverage an individual’s strengths and to provide multiple channels of learning to improve depth of understanding and information recall.
This method is used because words and pictures work better than words alone. Care should be taken not to overload a learner’s visual channel, for example, with rapidly changing graphics.
Grammar Translation Method
The GTM focuses on translating grammatical forms, memorizing vocabulary, learning rules, and studying conjugations. The teacher explains the rules in the student’s first language, and then simple words are put into grammatical structures. This method is considered necessary because students need to know the meaning of every single word.
Grammar rules are presented and studied explicitly. Grammar is taught deductively and then practiced through translation exercises. The primary skills developed are reading and writing. Hardly any attention is paid to speaking and listening skills.
The goal of foreign language learning is the ability to understand texts written in the foreign language. The mother tongue is used as the medium of instruction. Language learners are not expected to be able to use the target language for communication. The emphasis on achieving correct grammar with little regard for the free application and production of speech is the greatest weakness of this method.
The teaching approach also affects how student learning is evaluated.