The Grammar Translation Method

Definition

The Grammar Translation Method (also known as the classical method, the traditional method, the prussian method), is a method of foreign language teaching in which the primary focus is on the study of the target language grammar, vocabulary and ultimately the translation of native language texts or sentences into the target language.

Main Principles

The underlying assumptions of the Grammar Translation Method are as follows:

• Translation interprets the words and phrases of the foreign languages in the best possible manner.
• The phraseology and the idiom of the target language can best be assimilated in the process of interpretation.
• The structures of the foreign languages are best learned when compared and contrasted with those of mother tongue.

Background

The Grammar Translation Method (GTM) is reportedly the oldest and the most traditional method of foreign language teaching. Although the history of the Grammar Translation Method is not well-documented, it is generally assumed that the method stemmed from the teaching methods of Latin and to a lesser extent from Greek (Howatt, 1984). In the early 15^th century Latin was the major foreign language due to its extensive usage in the government, academic, and business sectors. However, in the 16^th century due to political upheavals, the importance of Latin gradually declined and some other languages such as French, Italian, and English gained prominence. In the 18^th century, these languages were included in the curriculum of educational institutions of Europe. The first country to adopt the Grammar Translation Method was Germany, especially by Prussia, for which this method is also referred to as the Prussian Method. This teaching method was modelled after the same principles followed in the teaching of Latin; hence formerly it was also called the Classical Method. The method saw its heyday in the 19^th century and came to be known as the Grammar Translation Method. However, its practice gradually ceased after the emergence of the Direct Method.

Major Characteristics

The major characteristics of the Grammar Translation Method as per Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979, p3) are as follows:

1. Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language.
2. Much vocabulary is taught in the form of a list of isolated words.
3. Long elaborate explanation is taught in the form of lists of isolated words.
4. Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words.
5. Reading of classical texts is begun early.
6. Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis.
7. Often the only drills are drills in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue.
8. Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.

Although Richard and Rogers (1986, p5) claimed that the Grammar Translation Method has no theoretical basis, it is possible to describe the method in terms of customary levels of Approach, Design, and Procedure:

Approach

Theory of Language:
The theory of language underlying the Grammar Translation Method is Traditional approach to linguistics. The proponents of Traditional Linguistics mainly stressed on the written form of language. Their attitude towards rules was prescriptive as they gave priority to the usage to the use. They held that only the languages used by the great writers are the correct forms and any deviant variety was impure. They also maintained that the Latin models could be used to describe any languages of the world.

Theory of Learning:
The theory of learning underlying the Grammar Translation Method is Faculty Psychology, which claims that the human mind has separate faculties to perform various tasks. Each faculty could be individually trained to attain proficiency. Under the assumptions of Faculty Psychology, understanding and memorization of complicated grammatical rules of languages were considered to be an important prerequisite for the development of the human mind.

Design

Objectives:
The principal objectives of the Grammar Translation Method are as follows:

• To enable the students to read, write, interpret, and translate the target language literature.
• To make the students aware of their native language structure and vocabulary.
• To improve the students’ reading, writing and translation skills through rote learning of vocabulary lists and grammar rules of the target language.
• To develop the students’ general mental discipline.

The Syllabus:
The Grammar Translation Method follows a Structural Syllabus since the primary focus is to master the grammar rules and vocabulary of the target language.

Teacher Roles:
In the Grammar Translation Method, the teacher is the sole authority in the classroom as he controls and determines everything such as the content, tasks, etc. Furthermore, the teacher also provides the students with correct answers/feedbacks when they make errors.

Learner Roles:
The students are passive receiver of knowledge as they blindly follow whatever the teacher instructs them to do. The students are rarely allowed to start any interaction with the teacher. Whatever interaction occurs it is generally initiated by the teacher.

The Role of Teaching/Learning Materials:
The role of teaching/learning/instructional materials according to this method is to provide literary texts and encourage students to practice translation exercises. The texts also incorporate vocabulary lists and grammar rules for the students to memorize necessary for developing reading, writing and translation skills rather than listening and speaking.

Techniques/Procedure

In the Grammar Translation Method, the classroom procedure includes: a presentation of a grammatical rule, followed by a list of vocabulary and, finally, translation exercises from selected texts (Stern 1983, p453). Other activities and procedures can be the following:

• reading comprehension questions about the text;
• identifying  antonyms and synonyms from words in the text;
• memorising vocabulary selected from the reading texts;
• forming sentences with the new words;
• recognising and memorising cognates and false cognates;
• practising fill-in-the-blank exercises;
• writing compositions from a given topic.

Advantages

Although the Grammar Translation Method has been violently criticized under multiple grounds, yet it is not devoid of positive traits. The advantages of the Grammar Translation Method are as follows:

1. As the classes are carried out in the mother tongue, teaching takes less effort and time, while the students can also learn much comfortably. Moreover, the teacher can assess whether the students grasped the lessons or not.
2. The translation exercises help the students to compare the native language with the target language, which in turn enhance their ability to understand the meaning of words and complicated sentences. In this way, they can learn the target language grammar in a relatively easy way.
3. The focus on understanding of the target language literary texts increases the students’ reading and writing skills.
4. The Grammar Translation Method also enables the students to understand how the mother tongue functions, in order to give them the capacity to communicate its thought.
5. The memorization of grammar rules and vocabulary of the target language provides the students with good mental exercise which helps to develop their mind.
6. As this method chiefly stresses on developing reading and writing skills, the teacher does not necessarily need to be fluent in the target language.
7. The study of target language literature helps the students to learn the best forms of language.
8. The emphasis on accuracy enables the students to learn the correct grammar of the target language.

Disadvantages

Despite its wide acceptance, the Grammar Translation Method has been criticized for a number of shortcomings:

1. The overemphasis on accuracy leads to repeated corrections of errors which hinders the consistency of learning.
2. This method overemphasizes accuracy to fluency.
3. It is a teacher-centred method since the role of the student is passive.
4. It ignores communicative competence as the goal of learning.
5. Little or no emphasis is given on listening and writing skills.
6. The students often fail to speak in real-life situations since they are familiarized with the target language culture through reading passages rather than by direct interaction with the target language elements.
7. Learning often gets dull and tiresome since the students need to memorize lots of vocabulary items and grammar rules.

Conclusion

Although the Grammar Translation Method is greatly devoid of any reference to the present-day language usage, still today it is used in foreign language teaching, especially in the third world countries. Much of its popularity stems from its relatively simple teaching requirements. Anyone with good reading and writing skills can teach language as per the Grammar Translation Method, no fluency in the target language is required. Therefore, it is apparent that this method will always occupy its place in the field of foreign language teaching to some extent and its use will not cease that abruptly either.

 

 

 

 

References

Barman, Dr. Binoy, Zakia Sultana, and Bijoy Lal Basu. ELT: Theory and Practice.

Dhaka: FBC, 2006.

“Faculty Psychology.” Wikipedia. 2015. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 6 January 2015

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faculty_psychology>.

“Grammar-translation method.” Wikipedia. 2015. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 6 January 2015

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar-translation_method>.

“Grammar Translation Method.” English is not difficult, Guys. 2015.

Fhary Ar Rachman. 6 January 2015

<http://fharrachman.blogspot.com/2010/12/grammar-translation-method.html>.

 

“Grammar Translation Method.” Grishamareetu. 2015. Grishamareetu. 6 January 2015

<https://grishamareetu.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/grammar-translation-method/>.

“Grammar Translation Method.” Methodology (ELT). 2015. 6 January 2015

<https://oswaldoipc.wordpress.com/2007/06/22/the-grammar-translation-method/>.

 “History of English Language Teaching.” EnglishClub. 2015. EnglishClub. 6 January 2015

<https://www.englishclub.com/tefl-articles/history-english-language-teaching.htm>.

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The Semantic Feature Analysis

Definition

The meaning of each word in a language is formed of a set of abstract characteristics known as semantic features (also known as Semantic Properties, Sense Components, Semantic Markers, Semantic Components), which acts as the determinant for distinguishing one word from another. The method by which the meaning of a word is analyzed into a set of semantic features is called the Semantic Feature Analysis (also called the Contrast Analysis, the Componential Analysis).

Theoretical Assumptions

The theoretical assumptions underlying this approach are as follows:

• The total meaning of a word can be analyzed in terms of a number of distinct elements or semantic features.
• One kind of word can be distinguished from another by extracting the main features.

Discussion

In the Semantic Feature Analysis, a word is analyzed in terms of a number of components of meaning. That is, during such analysis, the word is broken down into meaningful components which form the total sum of the meaning in a word. These components are not part of the vocabulary itself; the theoreticians postulated them in order to facilitate the description of the semantic relationship between the words of a given language. They could be considered as semantic universals as they may possess the same characteristics in all languages.

The Semantic Feature Analysis is capable of determining the presence or absence of semantic features. For example, by finding out the right semantic property of a word the learner is able to choose the appropriate noun for using it as the subject of a verb:

The above sentence is syntactically sound unless we judge it in terms of meaning. From the semantic point of view, the sentence is quite nonsensical, because, here the noun “television” has been inappropriately used as the subject of the verb “killed”. That means the noun “television” does have the right property to enable it to kill a person. Therefore, although the sentence is structurally correct, it is odd due to its meaninglessness.

Objective/Purpose

The main objective of the Semantic Feature Analysis is to guide the students to analyze the meanings of selected vocabulary items from a topic which they are familiar with. It also aims to show the learners how words are both similar and different, thereby emphasizing the uniqueness of each word in the language.

Procedure/Strategy

The Semantic Feature Analysis employs a chart to identify the basic features shared by key vocabulary words in a sentence or topic of discussion. By analyzing such a chart the learner is able to detect connections, make predictions and master important concepts. He will be also able to realize things that he doesn’t know yet, so he will know what additional research he need to do. The Semantic Analysis is prepared by observing the following steps:

1. The teacher first chooses a topic to be studied.
2. He then draws a chart.
3. In the left column of the chart, the teacher puts some key vocabulary items related to the topic. During the selection of key vocabulary words the teacher tries not to list any words which the students already might know.
4. Then across the top row of the chart, the teacher lists a set of meaningful features that some of the vocabulary items might have.
5. After that, the teacher asks the students to put a “+” (plus) sign in cells in which a given vocabulary word possesses an appropriate feature, and a “-” (minus) sign where it doesn't. The following is an example of the chart for the Semantic Feature Analysis:

The television killed the man
	Features/Property/Components of Words ↓
Key Vocabulary ↓	animate	human	male	adult
television	-	-	-	-
man	+	+	+	+
woman	+	+	-	+
boy	+	+	+	-
girl	+	+	-	-

From the above chart, we can guess that the word “television” in English involves the features (-animate, -human, -male, -adult). Therefore, it is obvious that the word “television” cannot be related to a living entity.

Advantages

1. The Semantic Feature Analysis helps to develop the learner’s ability of comprehension and vocabulary skills.
2. Such an analysis creates ample scope for the learners to examine the related features to distinguish one word from another.
3. The Semantic Feature Analysis helps the learner to understand the conceptual meaning (also known as denotative meaning) of words, which is the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word-meaning.
4. The Semantic Feature Analysis increases the learner’s ability to choose the right word in the right place.
5. The Semantic Feature Analysis provides opportunity for the teacher to know the learners’ knowledge about the topic of discussion; therefore, it allows the teacher to mould his instruction accordingly.

Disadvantages

1. The Semantic Feature Analysis is incapable of explaining the connotative or figurative meaning of words.
2. Although The Semantic Feature Analysis is capable of describing of words that share certain fairly obvious semantic properties, it fails to analyze all vocabulary items of the language.
3. The Semantic Feature Analysis is Limited in focus and mechanical in style.

References

“Componential analysis.” Wikipedia. 2013. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 10 November 2013

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Componential_analysis>.

“Semantic Feature Analysis.” AdLit.org. 2013. WETA Washington, D.C. 10 November 2013

< http://www.adlit.org/strategies/22731/>.

“Semantic Feature Analysis.” Reading Rockets. 2013. WETA Washington, D.C.  10 November 2013

< http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/semantic_feature_analysis/>.

“Semantic Feature Analysis.” Edweb. 2013. San Diego State University. 10 November 2013

< http://edweb.sdsu.edu/triton/guides/SFA.html>.

“The Theory of Componential Analysis in Semantics.” Neo English System. 2013.

Neo English System. 10 November 2013

< http://neoenglishsystem.blogspot.com/2010/12/theory-of-componential-analysis-in.html>.

Yule, George. The Study of Language. 2^nd ed. Cambridge: CUP, 1996. 115-116.

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The Audio-lingual Method

Definition

The Audio-lingual Method (also known as the army method, the aural-oral method, or the new key), is a method of foreign language teaching in which the students learn language by repeating/imitating the recurring patterns/dialogues of everyday situations by a succession of drills. The Audio-lingual Method strongly dominated the field of education in the 1950s and 1960s.

Background

First Phase

World War II suddenly necessitated the United States to produce a band of orally proficient speakers of different foreign languages. The US government then commissioned the American universities to develop a special language course for the army officials that would focus on aural or oral skills. This project was established in 1942 and labelled as the Army Specialized Training Programme (ASTP). The method was also known as the Informant Method since it employed a native speaker of the language, the informant, and a linguist. The informant served as a source of language for imitation, and the linguist supervised the learning experience. Due to its association with the army, the method, later on, came to be known as the Army Method.

Second Phase

Towards the end of the 1950s, there had been an increased attention to foreign language teaching in educational institutions. Therefore, the educational planners came forward to develop a new method of language teaching. This need for change was materialized as per the classroom needs of American colleges and universities. The planners modelled their method based on the Army Specialized Training Programme (ASTP), the Structural Linguistics and the Behaviourist Theory. This combination of the trio of approaches led to the development of the Audio-lingual Method (a term coined by professor Nelson Brooks in 1964), which was widely adopted for teaching foreign languages in North American colleges and universities.

Characteristics

The basic distinctive features of the Audio-lingual Method are as follows:

Approach

The theoretical bases behind the Audio-lingual Method are as follows:

Theory of language: The theory of language underlying the Audio-lingual Method is Structuralism. According to the structural view, language has the following characteristics:

1. Speech is more basic to language than the written form.
2. Language structure and form are more significant than meaning.
3. Elements in a language are produced in a rule-governed (structural) way.
4. Language samples could be exhaustively described at any structural level of description.
5. Language is structural like a pyramid, that is, the linguistic level is a system within a system.
6. Languages are different since every language has its own unique system.

Theory of Learning: The theory of learning underlying the Audio-lingual Method is Behaviorism, including the following principles:

1. Human beings learn language in the same way as other habits are learned through the process of training or conditioning.
2. As language learning is a process of habit formation, repetition leads to stronger habit formation and greater learning.
3. The learning of a foreign language should be the same as the acquisition of the native language.
4. The habits of the native language will interfere with target language learning.
5. Language cannot be separated from culture as culture represents the everyday behaviour of the people who use the target language.
6. Language learning is the outcome of stimulus (what is taught) – response (learner’s reaction to what is being taught) – reinforcement (approval or disapproval of the teacher) chain.
7. Positive reinforcement helps the students to develop correct habits.
8. Mistakes should be avoided as they help to form bad habits.
9. Analogy is a better foundation for language learning than analysis.

Design

The design of the Audio-lingual Method is materialised through the following considerations:

Objectives:  The objectives of the Audio-lingual Method are as follows:

1. To enable the students to learn how to use English in everyday oral communication.
2. To encourage the students to produce utterances with accurate pronunciation and grammar.
3. To grow the students’ ability to respond quickly and accurately in speech situations like native speakers.

The syllabus:  The Audio-lingual Method follows a Structural Syllabus.

Learner Roles: In the Audio-lingual method the students play a passive role as they don’t have any control over the content or the method of learning. The students are mere imitators of the teacher's model. Their sole objective is to follow the teacher’s direction and respond as precisely and as promptly as possible.

Teacher Roles: In the Audio-lingual Method the teacher has an active role as he is the sole authority to control and direct the whole learning programme. He monitors and corrects the students’ performance. He is also responsible for providing the students with a good model for imitation. The teacher endeavours to keep the students attentive by varying drills and tasks and choosing relevant situations to practice structures.

The Role of Teaching/Learning Materials: In the Audio-lingual Method the materials are predominantly teacher-oriented. The instructional materials basically contains the structured sequence of lessons to be followed, the dialogues, drills, and other practice activities, which would hopefully enable the teacher to develop language mastery in the student.

Technique/Procedure

Typically, the audio-lingual method proceeds through drills or pattern practice. It gives overemphasis on pattern practice since it conditions the students to form habits of correct responses. The teacher strictly conducts, guides and controls the students’ behaviour in the target language. New vocabulary and structural patterns are presented through sentences/dialogues. The teacher presents the correct model of a sentence/dialogue and the students endeavour to repeat it again and again until they achieve the same accuracy. The students' successful responses are positively reinforced. The teacher allows limited use of mother tongue in the classroom so that the students can learn the target language without any interference from the native language system. In this model, the natural order of skill acquisition is sequenced as listening → speaking → reading → writing. The theory basically concentrates on listening and speaking skills. But it is also true that the oral skills receive most of the attention. The learner’s reading and written work is based upon the oral work they did earlier. In the process of pattern practice, the learner first acquires the structural patterns and then the vocabulary items. The grammar rules are taught through examples and drills, but no explicit grammar rules are provided. The vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in the context. Therefore, it is clear that the lessons in the Audio-lingual Method are chiefly built on drills. Generally, the drills are conducted based upon the patterns present in the dialogue:

Repetition Drill: The teacher utters a dialogue and asks the students to listen carefully. The students then try to replicate the dialogue as accurately and as quickly as possible.

Replacement Drill: The teacher utters a dialogue and the students try to repeat the dialogue by replacing a phrase or clause by one word. For instance:

Teacher: I broke the flower vase accidentally.
Students: I broke it accidentally.

Restatement Drill: The teacher says a dialogue and in response the students rephrase it. For example:

Teacher: Tell me to slice the bread.
Students: Slice the bread.

Expansion Drill:  The teacher says a dialogue and the students respond by adding a new word in a certain place in the sentence. For Example:

Teacher: I get up early. (always).
Students: I always get up early.

Inflection Drill: In such a drill the students repeat the teacher’s utterance by changing the form of a word. For example:

Teacher: I drafted the letter.
Student: I drafted the letters.

Chain Drill: Such a drill features a conversation between the students in a circular sitting around the classroom. The teacher initiates the chain conversation by asking a particular student a question. The student responds and turns to the student next to him. In this way, the students continue the conversation by asking and answering questions to each other.

Transposition Drill: This drill enables the students to be able to change the word order in a sentence when a new word is added. For example:

Teacher: I'm not going to come with you.
Student: Neither am I.

Transformation: The teacher says a dialogue and asks the students to change the form of the sentence, such as an affirmative sentence into a negative or an active sentence into a passive. For example:

Teacher: This is my car (affirmative).
Student: This is not my car (negative).

Dialogue Completion Drill: The teacher says an incomplete dialogue by erasing some words that the students learned earlier. The students then try to complete the dialogue with the missing words. For instance:

Teacher: I ____ never seen such a ____ scenery before.
Students: I have never seen such a beautiful scenery before.

Grammar Games: The teacher sometimes creates an opportunity for the students to practice the newly learned grammatical materials through different games. The games help the students to practice grammar elements in context, although in a limited scope.

Question-and-answer Drill: In this drill, the teacher asks questions and the students try to answer the teacher’s question very quickly.

Contrastive Analysis: It is the comparison between the students’ native language and the target language. This drill enables the teacher to find out where the students will feel troubled by the interference from the target language.

Use of Minimal Pairs: The teacher familiarizes the students with pair of words which differ in only one sound. For example, alter/altar. The teacher asks the students to find the difference in meaning between the two words.

Integration Drill: The teacher says two separate sentences and the students then combine them into one sentence. For example:

Teacher: I fed the dog./ The dog was very hungry.
Students: I fed the dog which was very hungry.

Single-slot Substitution Drill: The teacher utters a dialogue and also says a word or phrase as a cue. The students repeat the dialogue by using the cue in appropriate place.

Multiple-slot Substitution Drill: The teacher utters a dialogue and also provides more than one cues. The students repeat the cues in suitable places in the dialogue with necessary changes.

Restoration Drill: Students create a sentence from a sequence of separate words. For example:

Teacher: ran/away/man.
Students: The man ran away.

Advantages

1. This is the first language learning method which is grounded on a solid theory of language learning.
2. This method emphasises the everyday cultural traits of the target language.
3. It provides the opportunity to learn correct pronunciation and structure.
4. This method made it possible to teach large groups of learners.
5. It puts stress on listening and speaking skills.

Disadvantages

1. The theoretical foundation of the Audio-lingual Method suffers from inadequacy.
2. It is a mechanical method since it demands pattern practice, drilling, memorization or over-learning.
3. It is a teacher dominated method.
4. Here, the learners have a passive role, since they have little control over their learning.
5. This method does not put equal emphasis on the four basic skills, such as listening, speaking, reading and writing.
6. It considers only language form, not meaning.
7. This method does not pay sufficient attention to communicative competence.
8. It prefers accuracy to fluency.

Conclusion

The acceptability of this theory mainly lies in its solid theoretical base. This is also the first language learning method to consider the learner’s communicative competence to a certain extent. Despite these positive traits, the theory declined in practice for its dearth of scientific credibility. However, the theory exerted a major influence on the upcoming teaching methods and still continues to be used today in language teaching methodology, although in a limited scope.

References

“Audio-lingual Method.” Wikipedia. 2013. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 4 September 2013

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio-lingual_method>.

“Audio Lingual Method (ALM).” novaekasari09. 2013. novaekasari09. 4 September 2013

< http://novaekasari09.wordpress.com/2011/06/12/audio-lingual-method-alm>.

Mendez, Juan Carlos , Brenda , Joaquin, and Mario David Mondragon “The Audio-lingual Method.”

SlideShare. 2013. SlideShare Inc. 4 September 2013

<http://www.slideshare.net/MarioDavidMondragon/audio-lingual-method-111>.

Barman, Binoy, Zakia Sultana, and Bijoy Lal Basu. ELT: Theory and Practice. Dhaka: FBC, 2006. 150-153.

Richards, Jack C., and Theodore S. Rodgers. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching.

2^nd ed. Cambridge: CUP, 2001. 50-67.

 “The Audio Lingual Method.” SIL International. 1999. SIL International. 4 September 2013

< http://www-01.sil.org/lingualinks/languagelearning/waystoapproachlanguagelearning/TheAudioLingualMethod.htm>.

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