Topic 13

History of the development of didactics of foreign languages: from the Grammar Translation Method to current approaches

History of the evolution of didactics foreign languages

Traditional approach

More modern approaches

Two new approaches appeared

New tendencies in Foreign Language Learning

According to Anthony (1963) an approach is a set of assumptions about the nature of language and language teaching. A method is a more specific plan, based on an approach, on how to select and present the content. It is a practical realisation of an approach, including teaching principles and techniques. Lastly, a technique is any single implementation of a method, what really occurs in the classroom.

According to Richard and Rodgers (1986) we can define an:

Approach: as the theoretical foundation of teaching, it contains the theory of language and the theory of language learning.

Design: as a set of decisions concerning the teaching practice: objectives, contents, activities, role of the teacher, role of the students and the materials.

Procedure: it is the implementation level.

GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD

Traditional approach of teaching classical languages where there was a lot of learning by heart the rules and conjugations of a language, as well as constant use of translations with the objective of learning to read literature. Features: explicit grammar rules, learning it deductively, promoting written skills over the oral ones.

DIRECT METHOD (1860)

Sauveur argued that a foreign language could be taught without translation or use of the L1. Meaning was conveyed (communicated) directly through demonstration and action. According to Franke, a language could best be taught by using it in class. The aim is to help students to communicate in the target language.

It understands learning as a process of conditioning, closely related to Behaviourism. Hence, pupils were given constant and repetitive practice in the form of drills.

Derived from Skinner’s Behaviourist Theory, based on stimulus-response-reinforcement, as learning a L2 is learning a set of habits, considered as a process of imitation and reinforcement, trying to avoid errors as much as possible. Emphasis on oral communication, boring and full of drills.

TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR), Asher

Based on the theory that students learn more and better if they are moving. It joins physical movement and language. The teacher voices some commands and the students act by them. The objective is that after that they will be able to voice them as well and then read and write them.

NATURAL APPROACH, Krashen (1970s)

The objective is to develop the communicative skills. It is closely related to Krashen’s Monitor Model which has 5 hypotheses: Acquisition-learning H. (separation between learning and acquiring); Monitor H. (conscious language is used to monitor and not produce output, because it requires focusing on the rules and having time to apply it); Input H. (language is acquired by exposure to higher level input); Natural order H. (acquire grammatical features in a fixed order) and Affective filter H. (learners must be relaxed and open to learn in order to acquire language).

CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING (CLIL)

It is a competence-based teaching theory with the idea to teach the subject and the language at the same time, using language as a tool to communicate and not as an aim itself.

COOPERATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING (Group work)

Focused on the idea that teaching should make maximum use of cooperative activities and interactions, because students are likely to scaffold each other.

STUDENTS’ CENTRED APPROACH

The main aim is to develop learner autonomy and independence by putting the responsibility of learning into the students’ hands. Students choose what and how they will learn..

The multiplicity principle advocates that there isn’t an only valid method, but that methodology should be varied and flexible, adapting to students’ characteristics and needs.

SILENT WAY, Gattegno 1976

Methodology based on the idea that teachers should be as quiet as possible and to encourage the students, who learn inductively, to speak as much as possible. Eliciting responses and inspire them to correct their own mistakes.

COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING, Curran (1976)

Students work together to develop what aspects of language they want to learn with the goal of achieving communication based on conversation and interaction. The main problem is that the L1 is used almost always.

SUGGESTOPEDIA, Lozanov (1970s)

This theory applies positive suggestion in teaching, following the notion that with positive suggestion learners will be more willing to learn and participate, stimulating learning. Using music. Phases: introduction, concert session (active and passive), elaboration and production.

Humanistic Approaches

Nowadays

COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH, Langs (1970s)

The goal is to achieve the CC through the use of skill integration, thus avoiding L1 and acquiring language though its use. Recommended by the European Council.

Balanced view between: accuracy and fluency, formal learning and informal acquisition, deductive grammar instruction and real language use, and among the four basic linguistic skill.

three principles that are crucial within the communicative approach:

Flexibility: adapting the contents and the activities to the students' capacities and needs. Variety: offering a wide range of possible ways to access to the new contents, closely related to the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) ​​​​​​. Integration: understood in two ways: integration with other areas of the curriculum, setting a more global teaching scenario. And integration of the four basic skills. According to Read (1991), advantages: continuity, realism, appropriateness, input before output, variety, recycling, of activities, increased confidence.