[3] Characteristic features of the direct method are: The direct method in teaching a language is directly establishing an immediate and audiovisual association between experience and expression; words and phrases; idioms and meanings; and rules and performances through the teachers' body and mental skills, avoiding involvement of the learners' mother tongue.
Introduction of new word, number, alphabet character, sentence or concept (referred to as an Element) : NOTE: Teachers should be aware of "high-frequency words and verbs" and prioritize teaching for this.
This makes the lessons more "real world," and it allows for some confusing distractions to the student and employs organic variables common in the culture and locale of language use.
[7] The direct method was an answer to the dissatisfaction with the older grammar translation method, which teaches students grammar and vocabulary through direct translations and thus focuses on the written language.
At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Sauveur and Franke proposed that language teaching should be undertaken within the target-language system, which was the first stimulus for the rise of the direct method.