The structural – situational method.

This method is widely used at the time of writing and a very large number of textbooks are based on it. Best it, also has important links with the audio lingual method especially as far as the way the language to be taught is organized (the “structural” ingredient). New language is presented in the form of modal patterns or dialogues. Much use, too, is maid of repetition and analogous pattern drilling.

However, great care is always taking to present and practice language within a situation. Billows explains the word “situation” in the passage you are about to read. The purpose of the situational ingredient is to ensure a meaningful context for language practice. (Another word for this

is “contextualization”). In other words it aims to avoid meaningless and mechanical practice.

There are quite a number of prominent methodologists who have contributed to foreign language teaching and English in particular. In conclusion, it should be said that between the grammar-translation method however modified and direct method in various modification there have been mixed or in between methods. The advocates of the latter method try to avoid the extremes of the former. “Language learning” by Peter Humboldt is an example of such a method.

The chief tendency in the development of Methods abroad may be characterized by a scientific approach to the teaching of foreign languages, extensive use of linguistic science, psychology, psycholinguistics, and experimenting. The progress made in the sphere or phonetics, vocabulary and grammar study has shed fresh light on the content, i.e., on what to teach, what linguistic material should be used for developing audio – lingual skills and written language.

The practical application of some theoretical views of American descriptive structural linguists and psychologists, such as the primary of the spoken over the written language, has – led to the oral approach to foreign language teaching; the treatment of language as a complex of habits and skills, as a form of social behavior, has been realized in teaching a foreign language, i.e., a reaction of the organism as a who to a social environment. The learner should know what a native speaker’s response would be in a certain situation.

In this article “Learning English as behavior” M. West gives the following examples of wrong and right responses:

Know what they speak but how they speak, or rather how they converse. In a behavioral method of teaching it is necessary to combine a correct and systematic build -up of linguistic elements (structures and carefully selected vocabulary) and a vital and behavioral use of the language. M. West says: “Ideally one needs television or a film so that the pupil may not merely hear how the English language is behaved but see it behaved as well. The behavioristic stimulus-response and reinforcement theory in psychology adopted by foreign language teaching has resulted in repetitive drill of

certain patterns of language or in pattern practice; for the purpose language laboratories, programmed instruction, and other innovations have been offered. However this has not brought the result which were promised and expected. The behavioral method has begun to be strongly criticized by psychologists and by the teachers and students themselves. As a consequence of this criticism the cognitive code-learning theory has been proposed. It is considered a more modern and sophisticated version of the grammar-translation method.

The Cognitive Approach is a reaction to the behaviorist features of the Audio-lingual Approach as well.

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES:

1. There is emphasis on communication, or communicative competence (i.e. being able to use the language).

2. Language acquisition is seen as rule (not habit) formation: deductive explanation of grammar is preferred.

3. Pronunciation is de-emphasized, since it is considered futile for most students to try to sound like native speakers.

4. Group work and individualized instruction are encouraged.

5. There is renewed interest in vocabulary, especially the expansion of passive vocabulary for reading purpose.

6. The teacher is viewed as a facilitator rather than a figure of absolute authority.

7. The important of comprehension especially listening comprehension - is emphasized.

8. Errors are seen as an inevitable by product of language learning; systematic study, interpretation, and where possible remediation is of concern.

9. The written language skills (reading and writing) and the spoken language skills (listening and speaking) are viewing as being of equal importance, rather than the former secondary the latter primacy.

10. Repletion in and of itself discourage; silence is recognized as useful and often necessary.

11. There is contextualization of all teaching points through the use of audio-visual aids, stories, or other opposite means.

12. The use of the mother tongue and translation are permitted.

13. There is increased interest in the affective domain: the attitude of the teacher and student are seen as important, human sensitively crucial, and the quality of interaction is significant variable.

14. Bilingual-bicultural proficiency is seen as an ideal goal.

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING.

The late 1960s saw a shift in focus from the audio-lingual method and its prototypes to communicative language teaching, this shift evolved partly as a result of studies

carried out by the council of Europe, which began to identify the language needed in a variety of social situations by someone integrating to Common Market countries. The studies sought to evaluate how language itself is used how native speakers of a language express themselves in various situations. The studies had a major impact on the teaching of English as a foreign language. The teachers and curriculum designers began to look at content, at the kind of language needed when greeting or shopping. The emphasis on form, on explicitly learning grammar rules or practicing grammatical patterns, was downplayed in favorer’s needs when using the language in daily interaction.

There is no single text or authority on communicative language teaching. It’s make communication the goal of language teaching. Several models have evolved around this principle: the Communicative Approach. Total Physical Response, Natural approach, and competency based approach. These approaches overlap.