Language pedagogy
In 1963, the University of Michigan Linguistics Professor Edward Mason Anthony Jr. formulated a framework to describe them into three levels: approach, method, and technique.
[3] His method was more procedural; "an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which contradicts, and all of which is based upon, the selected approach.
"[3] Finally, his concept of technique referred to the actual implementation in the language classroom; "a particular trick, stratagem, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective.
[7] However, it did not clearly define the difference between approach, method, and technique, and Kumaravadivelu reports that due to this ambiguity there was "widespread dissatisfaction" with it.
[8] These new terms were intended to address limitations in Anthony's framework,[9] and also gave them specific criteria by which they could evaluate different "methods".
[11] Kumaravadivelu also points to similar objections raised by Pennyworth and by the Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning.
[citation needed] At school, the teaching of grammar consists of a process of training in the rules of a language which must make it possible for all the students to correctly express their opinion, to understand the remarks which are addressed to them and to analyze the texts which they read.
The objective is that by the time they leave college, the pupil controls the tools of the language which are the vocabulary, grammar and the orthography, to be able to read, understand and write texts in various contexts.
Grammar makes it possible for each pupil to understand how his mother tongue functions, in order to give him the capacity to communicate his thought.
[17] The government realized that they needed more people who could conduct conversations fluently in a variety of languages, work as interpreters, code-room assistants, and translators.
[17] The U.S. Army Specialized Training Program created intensive programs based on the techniques Leonard Bloomfield and other linguists devised for Native American languages, where students interacted intensively with native speakers and a linguist in guided conversations designed to decode its basic grammar and learn the vocabulary.
[2] The U.S. Army Specialized Training Program only lasted a few years, but it gained a lot of attention from the popular press and the academic community.
The audio-lingual method truly began to take shape near the end of the 1950s, this time due government pressure resulting from the space race.
The mainstay of the chapter was "pattern practice," which were drills expecting "automatic" responses from the student(s) as a noun, verb conjugation, or agreeing adjective was to be inserted in the blank in the text (or during the teacher's pause).
[2] A number of large-scale investigations about language learning and the increased emphasis on reading skills in the 1920s led to the notion of "vocabulary control".
It was discovered that languages have a core basic vocabulary of about 2,000 words that occur frequently in written texts, and it was assumed that mastery of these would greatly aid reading comprehension.
The main proposed benefit was that such theoretically based organization of content would result in a less-confusing sequence of learning events with better contextualization of the vocabulary and grammatical patterns presented.
[2] Many of the structural elements of this approach were called into question in the 1960s, causing modifications of this method that led to communicative language teaching.
It was established in Germany and France around 1900 and is best represented by the methods devised by Berlitz and de Sauzé, although neither claims originality and it has been re-invented under other names.
Learning of writing and spelling should be delayed until after the printed word has been introduced, and grammar and translation should also be avoided because this would involve the application of the learner's first language.
The method relies on a step-by-step progression based on question-and-answer sessions which begin with naming common objects such as doors, pencils, floors, etc.
Based on his experience as a Latin teacher, he thought the best way to do this would be memorize a German grammar book and a table of its 248 irregular verbs.
One of which is the teaching of subjective language, where the students must make judgments about what is experienced in the world (e.g., "bad" and "good") as such do not relate easily to one single common experience.
Despite a number of criticisms[21] it continues to be popular, particularly in Europe, where constructivist views on language learning and education in general dominate academic discourse.
TBLL is a further refinement of the CLT approach, emphasizing the successful completion of tasks as both the organizing feature and the basis for assessment of language instruction.
Suggestopedia was a method that experienced popularity especially in past years, with both staunch supporters and very strong critics, some claiming it is based on pseudoscience.
At first it was an offshoot of Total Physical Response that also included storytelling, but it has evolved into a method in its own right and has gained a large following among teachers, particularly in the United States.
The Growing Participator Approach (GPA) is an alternative way of thinking about second language acquisition, developed by Greg Thomson.
The Six Phase Program utilises a number of techniques, such as TPR, to quickly grow the leaners comprehension ability without the use of English.
GPA influences include Vygotsky, as well as "the psycholinguistics of comprehension and production, usage-based approaches to language, linguistic anthropology and discourse analysis.
