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APPROACHES AND METHODS IN ELT

THE GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION METHOD

In applied linguistics, the grammar translation method is a foreign language teaching method derived from traditional approaches to the teaching of Latin and Greek in the nineteenth century. It was in fact first known in the United States as the Prussian Method.

Johann Seidenstcker Karl Pltz H. S. Ollendorf Johann Meidinger

They suggestThe GTM was the offspring of German Scholarship, the object of which was

to know everything about something rather than the thing itself

The aim of teaching Latin and Greek was (and is) obviously not so that learners would be able to speak them. The aims were/are rather to develop: Logical thinking Intellectual capacities to attain a

generally

educational and civilizing effect An ability to read original texts in the languages concerned , at least in the better learners.

Classes were conducted in the native language. A chapter in a distinctive textbook of this method would begin with a massive bilingual vocabulary list. Grammar points would come directly from the texts and be presented contextually in the textbook, to be explained elaborately by the instructor.

Gra asse e i

ar t li

s r i e t e r les f r r s i t se te ces.

s tra slati a ra ar rills l e se t exercise a stre t e le e it t c atte ti t t e c te t. would be deconstructed and translated.

Sentences

Event l ng

lly, entire texts

l

e tr nsl ted fr m the t rget ld ften ask

ge int the native lang age and tests

st dents t repli ate lassi al texts in the target lang age.

Very little attenti n as placed n pr nunciati n r any communicative aspects of the language.

The skill exercised translation.

as reading, and then only in the context of

According to Prator and Celce-Murcia in Teaching English as a econd Foreign Language (1979:3), the key features of the Grammar Translation Method are as follows:

Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language.

Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words.

Long

elaborate explanations of grammar

rules Grammar

provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words.

Reading

of difficult classical texts is begun early.

Little

attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis.

Often

the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue. or no attention is given to pronunciation.

Little

Translation of a Literary Passage(Translating target language to native language)

Reading Comprehension Questions(Finding information in a passage, making inferences and relating to personal experience)

Antonyms/ ynonyms(Finding antonyms and synonyms for words or sets of words).

Cognates(Learning spelling/sound patterns that correspond between L1 and the target language)

Deductive Application of Rule(Understanding grammar rules and their exceptions, then applying them to new examples)

Fill-in-the-blanks(Filling in gaps in sentences with new words or items of a particular grammar type)

Memorization(Memorizing vocabulary lists, grammatical rules and grammatical paradigms)

Use Words in Sentences(Students create sentences to illustrate they know the meaning and use of new words)

Composition(Students write about a topic using the target language)

(Freeman-Diane Larsen, Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching,1986:13)

Virtuall

no class ti e is allocated to allow

students to produce t eir own sentences, Even

less ti e is spent on oral practice

(w et er productive or reproductive) There

is often little contextualization of the

ra

ar.

The type of error correction that this method requires can actually be harmful to the students' learning processes Little or no attention to pronunciation This method gives pupils the wrong idea of what language is and of the relationship between languages.

Deplorable to

assume that language is only acquired through translation skills, and this at the expense of oral skills translation standard - caused by grammatical techniques effect of this method is on pupil's motivation. Because (s)he cannot succeed leads to frustration, boredom and indiscipline

Low

Worst

Students

in this method develop the ability to read prestigious literary texts. also learn to read and write in the target language accurately, which is a necessity

They

The Grammar Translation Method is still common in many countries even popular. Brown in his book Incremental Speech Language (1994) attempts to explain why the method is still employed by stating:

This method requires few specialized skills on the part of teachers. Grammar rules and Translation Tests are easy to construct and can be objectively scored. Many standardized tests of foreign languages still do not attempt to test communicative abilities, so students have little motivation to go beyond grammar analogies, translations and other written exercises.

Very few modern language teaching experts would be quick to say that this is an effective language teaching method, and fewer would dare to try and assert that it results in any kind of communicative competence. As Richards and Rodgers (1986:5) state,

"It is a method for which there is no theory. There is no literature that offers a rationale or justification for it that attempts to relate it to issues in linguistics, psychology, or educational theory."

And yet the Grammar Translation Method is still common in many countries - even popular. Brown attempts to explain why the method is still employed by pointing out

"It requires few specialized skills on the part of teachers. Tests of grammar rules and of translations are easy to construct and can be objectively scored. Many standardized tests of foreign languages still do not attempt to tap into communicative abilities, so students have little motivation to go beyond grammar analogies, translations, and rote exercises." (1994:53)

The method by definition has a very limited scope of objectives. Because speaking or any kind of spontaneous creative output was missing from the curriculum, students would often fail at speaking or even letter writing in the target language. Criticisms toward the Grammar-Translation Method have led to the development of the Direct Method. This method is based on natural language learning principles in which the target language is used exclusively as the instruction language

http://oswaldoipc.wordpress.com/2007/0

6/22/the-grammar-translation-method/ http://purwarnolinguistics.blogspot.com/2006/01/gramm ar-translation-method_13.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_tr anslation Richards, J, Approaches and methods in Language Teaching, 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2001