UNIT 1. THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE TEACHING. CURRENT TRENDS IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL). THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACHES APPROACHES..
INTRODUCTION. The present work aims to provide a detailed account of the evolution of language from its origins, as an object of study, to a theory of language of language teaching. Subsequent sections will enable us to become better informed about the different methods, approaches and language acquisition theories on English teaching as a foreign language at different periods.
1. THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING. It was around the fifth century B.C that in ancient India the early states of language were written down as a set of rules. This was, in fact, a grammar of Sanskrit whose effects went far beyond the original intentions of the authors. In the seventeenth century, Jan Amos Komensky (1592-1670), (1592-1670), commonly known as Comenius, is often said to be the founder of the Didactics of Language; for him, the word “didactics” means “the art of teach teaching ing”. ”. Langu Language age study study and and theref therefore ore,, langua language ge teach teaching ing was was to be promo promoted ted in subseq subsequen uentt centuries through the fields of philosophy, logic, rhetoric, sociology, and religion.
2. THE EVOLUTION EVOLUTION OF EFL TEACHING TEACHING FROM EARLY TO CURRENT CURRENT TRENDS. 2.1. Up to the eighteent eighteenth h century: century: the spread spread of the English English langu language age teachin teaching g in Europe. As previously stated, language teaching traces back to ancient civilizations. According to Richard & Rodgers (1992), the function of the earliest educational systems was primarily to teach religion and to promote the traditions of the people. Although there is no hard evidence of learning language procedures in ancient civilizations, it is though thoughtt that that some some of them them –Egyp –Egyptia tians, ns, Babylon Babylonian ians, s, Assyr Assyrian ianss- sent sent bilin bilingua guall deleg delegate ates, s, the the equivalent to modern day ambassadors. For centuries, and mostly up to the end of the Middle Ages (14 th – 15th centuries) Latin was the domina dominant nt langua language ge of educa educatio tion, n, comme commerce rce,, religi religion on and and govern governme ment nt in the the Weste Western rn World. World. Therefore, it was only natural for Latin to be the most widely studied foreign language. The chief storehouse of learning were the monasteries, in whose archives many manuscripts of the preceding classical cultures were preserved; during this period universities were established in several countries, such as Italy, Spain, France and England. Latin Latin was was taugh taughtt mainl mainly y throug through h rote rote learni learning ng of gramm grammar ar rules rules,, study study of decle declensi nsions ons and and conjugations, translation and practice in writing sample sentences. Such methodology, as will be seen below below with with the the Gramm Grammar-T ar-Tran ransla slatio tion n me metho thod, d, would would remain remain largel largely y unmo unmodif dified ied until until the midmidtwentieth century. When the need of learning Latin as a means of communication diminished, the study of classical Latin and the analysis of its grammar and rhetoric became the model for foreign language study from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. When modern languages began to enter school curricula of European schools in the eighteenth centu century, ry, they they were were taught taught using using the the same same basic basic proce procedur dures es that that were were used used for teach teaching ing Latin Latin.. Textbooks consisted of statements of abstract grammar rules, lists of vocabulary and sentences for translation. The goal of language teaching was to enable students to read Latin, hence oral practice was inexis inexisten tent. t. The The sente sentence ncess and and texts texts used used for educa educatio tion n had had no relati relation on to the the langua language ge of real real communication., communication., especially if we take into account that nobody spoke Latin any longer.
2.2. The nineteenth century: approaches approaches and methods on language language teaching.
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Unit 1. The evolution of language teaching. Current trends in the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL). The communicative approaches.
2.2.1. The Grammar-Translation Method. As we have stated before, as modern languages began to enter the curriculum of European schools in the eighteenth century, they were taught using the same basic procedures that were used for teaching Latin. The emphasis was set on learning grammar rules, lists of vocabulary, and sentences for translation which usually had little relationship to the real world. Speaking the foreign language was not the goal, and oral practice was limited to students reading aloud the sentences they had translated. This method came to be known as the grammar-translation method. The grammar-translation method was the dominant foreign language teaching method in Europe from the 1840s to the 1940s, and a version of it continues to be widely used in some parts of the world. The main failures of the method are that it does not sound natural to a native speaker; produces difficult mistakes to eradicate; tedious experience of memorizing endless lists of unusable grammar rules and vocabulary; and little stress on accurate pronunciation; and often creates frustration for students. 2.2.2. Individual reformers: Marcel, Pendergast and Gouin. In the mid-late nineteenth century, increased opportunities for communication among Europeans created a demand for oral proficiency in foreign languages. The Grammar Translation method was challenged by new approaches to language teaching developed by individual language teaching specialists. Some of these specialists, like C. Marcel, T. Pendergast, and F. Gouin, did not manage, according to Richards & Rodgers (1992), to achieve any lasting impact, though their ideas are of historical interest. The Frenchman Claude Marcel (1793-1896) emphasized the importance of meaning in learning, proposing a rational method, and referring to child language learning as a model for language teaching. The Englishman Thomas Pendergast (1806-1886) created a mastery system on a structural syllabus to work on basic structural patterns occurring in the language. He was one of the first to record the observation of children in speaking. The Frenchman François Gouin is perhaps the best known of these reformers. Gouin’s approach to teaching was based on his observations of children’s use of language. They recognized the need for speaking proficiency rather than reading or writing, and there was an interest in how children learn languages. 2.2.3. The Reform Movement: Sweet, Viëtor and Passy. The role of phonetics. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, teachers and linguists began to write about the need for new approaches to language teaching, and through their pamphlets, books, speeches, and articles, the foundation for more widespread pedagogical reforms was set up. This Reform Movement, as it is known, laid the foundations for the development of new ways of teaching languages within the Direct Method. From the 1880s, an intellectual leadership gave greater credibility and acceptance to reformist ideas thanks to linguists like Henry Sweet (1845-1912) in England, Wilhelm Viëtor (1850-1918) in Germany, and Paul Passy in France. Among the earliest goals of the association, we find the leading role of phonetics within the teaching of modern languages; Sweet (1899) set forth principles for the development of teaching methods based on sound methodological principles (an applied linguistic approach). For Viëtor, whose name is directly associated with a phonetic method, speech patterns were the fundamental elements of language, stressing the value of training teachers in the new science of phonetics . In general the reformers believed that grammar had to be taught inductively, translation avoided, and a language learning based on hearing the language first, before seeing it in written form. None of these proposals assumed the status of a method, although they reflect the beginning of the discipline of applied linguistics. Parallel to these ideas there was a growing interest in developing principles for language teaching from naturalistic principles on language learning, such as are seen in first language acquisition. All this led to natural methods and to what was to be known as the Direct Method. 2.2.4. The Direct Method. Natural methods – Sauveur and Berlitz. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, An increasing attention to naturalistic principles of language learning was given by other reformers, In fact several attempts to make second language learning more like first language learning had been made throughout the history of language teaching. These ideas
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Unit 1. The evolution of language teaching. Current trends in the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL). The communicative approaches.
spread, and these natural language learning principles consolidated in what became known as the Direct Method, the first of the "natural methods”, both in Europe and in the United States. It was quite successful in private language schools, and difficult to implement in public secondary school education. Among those who tried to apply natural principles to language classes in America were L. Sauveur (1826-1907) and Maximiliam Berlitz who promoted the use of intensive oral interaction in the target language. Saveur’s method became known as the Natural Method and was seriously considered in language teaching. In his book “An Introduction to the Teaching of Living Languages without Grammar or Dictionary” (1874), Saveur described how their students learnt to speak after a month on intensive oral work in class, avoiding the use of the mother tongue, even for grammar explanations. Berlitz, however, never used the term “natural” and named his method “the Berlitz method” (1878), and it was known for being taught in private language schools, high-motivated clients, the use of native-speaking teachers, and no translation under any circumstances. In spite of his success, this method lacked a basis in applied linguistic theory, and failed to consider the practical realities of the classroom. 2.3. The twentieth century: a communicative approach. During the twentieth century, different methods have resulted from different approaches to language and language learning, and also to the influence of fields such as sociology and psychology on the study of language. 2.3.1. The Communicative Language Teaching Approach. In 1971 a system in which learning tasks are broken down into “units” is launched into the market by a British linguist, D.A. Wilkins. It attempts to demonstrate the systems of meanings that a language learner needs to understand and express within two types: notional categories (time, sequence, quantity or frequency) and categories of communicative function (requests, offers, complaints). The rapid application of these ideas by textbook writers and its acceptance by teaching specialists gave prominence to what became the Communicative Approach or simply Communicative Language Teaching. Beginning in the mid-1960s, there has been a variety of theoretical challenges to the audio-lingual method. Scholars such as Halliday, Hymes, Labov and the American linguist Noam Chomsky challenged previous assumptions about language structure and language learning, taking the position that language is creative (not memorized by repetition and imitation) and rule governed (not based on habits). For Hymes (1972), the goal of language teaching is to develop a “communicative competence”, that is, the knowledge and ability a learner needs to be communicatively competent in a speech community. 2.3.2. The influence of sociology and psychology on language teaching. Since language is not an isolated phenomenon, we are committed to relate it to other aspects of society, behavior and experience through the development of a theory between linguistics and other fields of study. Among all of them, two have strongly contributed to the development of the study of language teaching, thus, sociology and psychology. The former, sociolinguistics studies the ways in which language interacts with society in relation to race, nationality, regional, social and political groups, and the interactions of individuals within groups. The latter, psycholinguistics , focuses on how language is influenced by memory, attention, recall and constraints on perception, and the extent to which language has a central role to play in the understanding of human development. Main researchers on the field of sociolinguistics are the American linguists Edwar Sapir and Leonard Bloomfield. These grammarians claimed that every language consists of a series of unique structures and that the construction of sentences follows certain regular patterns. However, Sapir points out how linguistics and anthropology reflects the social aspect of language when dealing with race, culture and language, whereas Bloomfield’s contribution is more scientific, clearly influenced by psychology theories. In the field of psychology , behaviorism has had a great effect on language teaching. Theorists as Ivan Pavlov and Skinner, believed that languages were made up of a series of habits, and that if learners could develop all these habits, they would speak the language well. From these theories arose the audio-lingual method. 2.3.3. Approaches and theories of language and language learning. Within the study of language different methods resulted from different approaches as responses to a variety of historical issues and circumstances. Linguists such as Palmer, Skinner, Chomsky, and
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Unit 1. The evolution of language teaching. Current trends in the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL). The communicative approaches.
Krashen among others, have contributed to this development of present-day approaches which developed in current methods. Within a theory of language, at least three different theoretical views provide current approaches and methods in language teaching. The first, the structural view, is the most traditional of the three. Within its theory, language is a system of structurally related elements for the coding of meaning, and is defined in terms of phonological and grammatical units, grammatical operations and lexical items. Some methods have embodied this particular view of language over the years. Thus Audiolingualism, and contemporary methods as Total Physical Response and the Silent Way, share this view of language. Supporters of this view are linguists such as Edward Sapir and Leonard Bloomfield. From the second, the functional view, language is seen as a vehicle for the expression of functional meaning. A main tenet within this view is the notion of communication within a theory that emphasizes the semantic and communicative dimension rather than merely the grammatical characteristics of language. Content is also organized by categories of meaning and function rather than by elements of structure and grammar. The third, the interactional view, sees language as a vehicle for the realization of interpersonal relations and for the performance of social transactions between individuals. In the words of Rivers (1981), the eclectic approach must be included on language teaching theory due to its prominence on our present educational system. For her, some teachers experiment with novel techniques for more successful teaching, retaining what they know from experience to be effective. This approach is supported by Henry Sweet and Harold Palmer. Its main tenets seek the balanced development of all four skills at all stages. Their methods are also adapted to the changing objectives of the day and to the types of students who pass through their classes. But these four approaches are incomplete in themselves and need to be completed by theories of language learning. Now we shall introduce some theories mostly based in the acquisition of language by children. The most prominent figures in this field are, among others, Stephen Krashen, Tracy D. Terrell and Noam Chomsky. Stephen D. Krashen distinguishes two concepts: acquisition and learning, where acquisition is the unconscious development of the target language system as a result of using the language for real communication. Learning would be related to the conscious representation of grammatical knowledge and non spontaneous processes. He developed the Monitor Model on which the Natural method was built. Another theorist, Tracy D. Terrell is closely related to Krashen, since they both wrote a book named The Natural Approach (1983). Their learning theory is supported by three main principles. Firstly, they claim that comprehension precedes production; secondly, they state that production may emerge in stages and students are not forced to speak before they are ready; and thirdly the fact that the course syllabus consists of communicative goals. Chomsky demonstrated that creativity and individual sentences’ formation were fundamental characteristics of language and priority is given to interactive processes of communication. 2.3.4. Language teaching methods. The Oral Approach and Situational Language teaching method. This approach dates back to the 1920s and 1930s. Its most prominent figures are the British applied linguists Harold Palmer and A.S. Hornby. It includes the following principles: language learning is habit-formation mistakes are bad and should be avoided, as they make bad habits language skills are learned more effectively if they are presented orally first, then in written form analogy is a better foundation for language learning than analysis the meanings of words can be learned only in a linguistic and cultural context • • •
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The Audiolingual method. Towards the end of the 1950s a new approach emerged under the name of Audiolingualism. It is based on structural linguistics (structuralism) and behaviouristic psychology (Skinner’s behaviourism). The
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Unit 1. The evolution of language teaching. Current trends in the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL). The communicative approaches.
audio-lingual method aims at teaching the language skills in the order of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students are given a stimulus, which they respond to. If their response is correct, it is rewarded, so the habit will be formed; if it is incorrect, it is corrected, so that it will be suppressed. Total Physical Response (TPR). This method is built around the combination of speech and action and was developed by James Asher, a professor of psychology. For him, including movements within the linguistic production reduces learner stress, creating a positive mood which facilitates learning. The basic principles are: Second language learning is parallel to first language learning and should reflect the same naturalistic processes Listening should develop before speaking Children respond physically to spoken language, and adult learners learn better if they do that too Once listening comprehension has been developed, speech develops naturally and effortlessly out of it. Delaying speech reduces stress. The Silent Way Caleb Gattegno introduced this classroom technique wherein the teacher remains silent while pupils output the language through simulated experiences using tokens and picture charts as central elements. Students are encouraged to produce as much language as possible and to self-correct their pronunciation errors through manual gesticulation on the part of the instructor. The greatest strength of this method lies in its ability to draw students out orally, while the teacher listens. Community Language Learning (CLL) It was developed by Charles A. Curran. It is known as Counselling-Learning, and it redefines the roles of the teacher (counsellor) and learners (the clients) in the language classroom. One of its main tenets is for the student to develop his relationship with the teacher. This process is divided into five stages and compared to the ontogenetic development of the child. Thus, 1. feelings of security are established; 2. achievement of independence from the teacher; 3. the learner starts speaking independently; 4. a sense of criticism is developed; and finally, 5. the learner improves style and knowledge of linguistic appropriateness. Suggestopedia In the 1980s and 1990s, an extremely esoteric method was developed by Georgi Lozanov. The most outstanding features of this mystical method are, its arcane terminology and neologisms, and secondly, the arrangement of the classroom to create an optimal atmosphere to learning, by means of decoration, furniture, the authoritative behaviour of the teacher and specially, through the use of music. •
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CONCLUSION. As we have seen, many approaches and methods have been proposed through history to reach the perfect way to learn a second language, many of them based on the way children learn their mother tongue, that is, based on first language acquisition. Some of them have proved to be partly successful, some others not so much. The conclusion is that none of these methods has proved to be the best one, and the only one we should use. Maybe the best method to use when teaching a second language might be a mixed method that would “pick up” the most successful aspects of the methods we know nowadays always introducing innovations that might help to reach the goal of making our students proficient in the second language.
BIBLIOGRAPHY - Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. 1992. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. - Howatt, A. (1984). A history of English Language teaching . - Rivers, W. 1981. Teaching Foreign-Language Skills. - Krashen, S. D., and Terrell, T. D. 1983. The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom.
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