Community language learning advises teachers to consider their students as ‘whole person’. Whole person learningmeans that teachers consider not only their students’ intelect, but also have some undrstanding of the relationship among students’ feeling, physical reactions, instinctiveprotective reactions, and desire to learn.
Some of the activities are:
1. The teacher greets the students, introduce himself, and has the students to introduce themselves to build a relationship
2. The teacher tells the students what they are going to dothat evening and explains the first activity procedure and sets a time limit so the students have an idea what will happen in each activity and feel more secure
3. Students use language for communication through a conversation
4. The teacher stands behind the students as due to his superior knowledge. The students’ learning is facilitated, the threat is increased if the teacher remain the front of the class room
5. The teacher translates what the students want to say in chunks to give them what they need to be succesful and be sensitive to students’ level of confidence
6. The teacher tells them that they have only a few minutes remaining for the conversation; that make students more secure to know the limits of an activity
7. Students are invited to talk about how they felt during the conversation. Sharing about their learning experience allows learner to get to know one another and built community
8. The teacher accepts what each student says in order to create an accepting athmosphere where learners feel free to lower their defense and learning experience becomesless threatening
9.The teacher understands what the studentssayThe teacher counsels the students ; doesn’t for advise but rather shows them that he is really listening to them and understand what they are saying
10. The students listen to the tapeand give the Indonesian translation. Students feel more secure when they undrstand everything because the native language is used to make the meaning clear
11. The teacher ask the students to form a semicircle in front of the blackboard so they can see easily because it’s the teacher responsibility to clear structuring activities to succeed the completition of the activity
12. The teacher reassures the students that they will have time later on to copy the sentences. Learning at the beginning stages is facilitated if students attend to one task at a time
13. The teacher ask the students to give the Indonesian equivalents as he points to different phrases in the transcript. The teacher encourage the students’ initiative and independence
14. The teacher reads the transcript three times when the students relax and listen because students need quiet reflection time in order to learn
15. The students learn to listen carefully to see if what they say matches what the teacher is saying. Student need to learn to discriminate, for example, in perceiving the similiarities and differences among the target language forms
16. Students work together in group of three. In groups, students can begin to feel a sense of community and can learn from each other as well as the teacher
17. The teacher corrects by repeating correctly the sentence the students have created. The teacher should work in a non threatening way with what the learner has produced
18. The students read their sentences one to another member of the class it can built trust and can help to reduce the threat of the new learning situation
19. The teacher plays the tape two more times while the students listen. Retention will best take places somewhere in between novelty and familiarity when the material is too new or conversely, too familiar
Saturday 27 March 2010
Suggestopodia
Suggestopodia is the study of these suggestive factors in a learning situation. It is an approach to education whose primary objective is to tap the extraordinary reserve capacities we all possess but rarely if ever use. This method utilises techniques from many sources of research into how best we can learn. Such results are possible through the proper use of suggestion. The suggestive-desuggestive process allows students to go beyond previously held beliefs and self-limiting concepts concerning the learning process and learn great quantities of material with ease and enjoyment.
There are two basic kinds of suggestion: direct and indirect. Direct suggestions are directed to conscious processes, i.e., what one says that can and will occur in the learning experience, suggestions which can be made in printed announcements, orally by the teacher, and/or by text materials. Direct suggestion is used sparingly, for it is most vulnerable to resistance from the set-up. Indirect suggestion is largely unconsciously perceived and is much greater in scope than direct suggestion. It is always present in any communication and involves many levels and degrees of subtlety. It speaks as the second plane of communication and considers it to encompass all those communication factors outside our conscious awareness, such as voice tone, facial expression, body posture and movement, speech tempo, rhythms, accent, etc. Other important indirect suggestive effects result from room arrangement, decor, lighting, noise level, institutional setting - for all these factors are communicative stimuli which result in terms non-specific mental reactivity. And they, like the teacher and materials can reinforce the set-up, preserve the status quo, or can serve in the desuggestive-suggestive process. In other words, everything in the communication/learning environment is a stimulus at some level, being processed at some level of mental activity.
The more we can do to orchestrate purposefully the unconscious as well as the conscious factors in this environment, the greater the chance to break through or “de-suggest” the conditioned, automatic patterns of our inner set-up and open the access to the great potential of our mental reserves.
Sources, History, Initial Results
The artful use of suggestion as a means of facilitating the learning and communication process is, of course, and has always been, a part of nearly all effective teaching and persuasive communication. Not until the past twenty years, however, has the phenomenon of suggestion begun to be methodically researched and tested as to how it can and does affect learning. In This early research, investigated individual cases of extraordinary learning capacities etc., and theorised that such capacities were learnable and teachable. He experimented with a wide range of techniques drawn from both traditional and esoteric sources, including hypnosis and yoga, and was able to accelerate the learning process quite dramatically.
A positively suggestive authority is one of the most effective means which we as teachers / doctors can use, if we use it sensitively, wisely and purposefully.
The authority we are speaking of here has nothing to do with authoritarianism, traditional “strictness” or “toughness”. The creator defines it as “the non-directive prestige which by indirect ways creates an atmosphere of confidence and intuitive desire to follow the set example”. Authority, in its positive, suggestive sense, is communicated through our “global” presence, through all our non-verbal as well as verbal signals. Students can sense when we embody the values and attitudes we “talk about”. And when there is congruency in the many levels of our communication, we become believable, compelling, worthy of respect.
Intonation is strongly connected with the rest of the suggestive elements. The intonation in music and speec In suggestopedia we do not talk about infantilization in the clinical sense of the word, nor of infantility. Infantilization in the process of education is a normal phenomenon connected with authority (prestige). Infantilization in suggestopedia must be understood roughly as memories of the pure and naive state of a child to whom someone is reading, or who is reading on his own. He is absorbing the wonderful world of the fairytales. This world brings him a vast amount of information and the child absorbs it easily and permanently.
An important moment in suggestopedia. The artistic organisation of the suggestopedic educational process creates conditions for concert pseudopassivity in the student. In this state the reserve capabilities of the personality are shown most fully. The concert pseudopassivity (concentrative psychorelaxation) overcomes the antisuggestive barriers, creating a condition of trust and infantilization in the student, who in a naturally calm state accompanied by a state of meditation without special autogenic training can absorb and work over a huge quantity of information. In this state both brain hemispheres are activated”.
There are two basic kinds of suggestion: direct and indirect. Direct suggestions are directed to conscious processes, i.e., what one says that can and will occur in the learning experience, suggestions which can be made in printed announcements, orally by the teacher, and/or by text materials. Direct suggestion is used sparingly, for it is most vulnerable to resistance from the set-up. Indirect suggestion is largely unconsciously perceived and is much greater in scope than direct suggestion. It is always present in any communication and involves many levels and degrees of subtlety. It speaks as the second plane of communication and considers it to encompass all those communication factors outside our conscious awareness, such as voice tone, facial expression, body posture and movement, speech tempo, rhythms, accent, etc. Other important indirect suggestive effects result from room arrangement, decor, lighting, noise level, institutional setting - for all these factors are communicative stimuli which result in terms non-specific mental reactivity. And they, like the teacher and materials can reinforce the set-up, preserve the status quo, or can serve in the desuggestive-suggestive process. In other words, everything in the communication/learning environment is a stimulus at some level, being processed at some level of mental activity.
The more we can do to orchestrate purposefully the unconscious as well as the conscious factors in this environment, the greater the chance to break through or “de-suggest” the conditioned, automatic patterns of our inner set-up and open the access to the great potential of our mental reserves.
Sources, History, Initial Results
The artful use of suggestion as a means of facilitating the learning and communication process is, of course, and has always been, a part of nearly all effective teaching and persuasive communication. Not until the past twenty years, however, has the phenomenon of suggestion begun to be methodically researched and tested as to how it can and does affect learning. In This early research, investigated individual cases of extraordinary learning capacities etc., and theorised that such capacities were learnable and teachable. He experimented with a wide range of techniques drawn from both traditional and esoteric sources, including hypnosis and yoga, and was able to accelerate the learning process quite dramatically.
A positively suggestive authority is one of the most effective means which we as teachers / doctors can use, if we use it sensitively, wisely and purposefully.
The authority we are speaking of here has nothing to do with authoritarianism, traditional “strictness” or “toughness”. The creator defines it as “the non-directive prestige which by indirect ways creates an atmosphere of confidence and intuitive desire to follow the set example”. Authority, in its positive, suggestive sense, is communicated through our “global” presence, through all our non-verbal as well as verbal signals. Students can sense when we embody the values and attitudes we “talk about”. And when there is congruency in the many levels of our communication, we become believable, compelling, worthy of respect.
Intonation is strongly connected with the rest of the suggestive elements. The intonation in music and speec In suggestopedia we do not talk about infantilization in the clinical sense of the word, nor of infantility. Infantilization in the process of education is a normal phenomenon connected with authority (prestige). Infantilization in suggestopedia must be understood roughly as memories of the pure and naive state of a child to whom someone is reading, or who is reading on his own. He is absorbing the wonderful world of the fairytales. This world brings him a vast amount of information and the child absorbs it easily and permanently.
An important moment in suggestopedia. The artistic organisation of the suggestopedic educational process creates conditions for concert pseudopassivity in the student. In this state the reserve capabilities of the personality are shown most fully. The concert pseudopassivity (concentrative psychorelaxation) overcomes the antisuggestive barriers, creating a condition of trust and infantilization in the student, who in a naturally calm state accompanied by a state of meditation without special autogenic training can absorb and work over a huge quantity of information. In this state both brain hemispheres are activated”.
The Audio Lingual VS Silent Way Method
INTRODUCTION
The Audio-Lingual Method like The Direct Method we have just exmpined, is also an oral-based approach. However, it is very different in that rather than emphasizing vocabulary acquisition through exposure to its use in situatios, the Audio Lingual Method driils students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns. It also, unllike the Direct Method,has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology/Charles Fries (1945) of the University of Michigan led the way in applying principles from structural linguistics in developing the method, and for this season, it has sometimes been reffered to as the ‘Michigan Method.’ Later in its development, principles from behavioral psychology (Skinner 1957) were incorporated. It was thought that the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the target language was through conditioning-helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement.
EXPERIENCE
As we enter the classroom, the first thing we notice is that the students are attentively listening as the teacher is presenting a new dialog, a conversation between two people. The students know they will be expected to eventually memorize the dialog the teacher is introducing. All of the teacher’s instructions are in English. Sometimes she uses actions to convey meaning, but not one word of the students’ native language is uttered. Then the teacher says: ok class listen carefully.
Two people are walking along a sidewalk in town aere named Sally and Bill. Listen to their conversation:
Sally: Good morning, Bill.
Bill : Good morning.
Sally: How are you?
Bill : Fine, thanks, And you?
Sally: Fine. Where are you going?
Bill : I’m going to the post office.
Sally: I am too. Shall we go together?
Bill : Sure. Let’s go.
Listen one more time. This time try to understand all that I am saying,’ Now she has the whole class repeaT each of the lines of the dialog after her model. They repeat each line several times before moving on to the next line. When the class comes to the lines, I’m going to the ppost office,’ they stumble a bit in their repetition. The teacher, at this point,, stops the repetition and uses a backward build-up drill (expansion drill). The purpose of this drill is to break down the troublesome sentence into smaller parts. The teacher starts with the end of the sentence and has the class repeat just the last two words, and the class repeats this expanded phrase. Little by little the teacher builds up the phrases until the entire sentence is being repeated.
TEACHER: Repeat after me: Post office
CLASS : Post Office
TEACHER: To the post office
CLASS : To the post office
TEACHER: Going to the post office
CLASS : Going to the post office
TEACHER: I’m going to the post office
CLASS : I’m going to the post office
Through this step-by-step procedure, the teacher is able to give the students help in producing the troublesome line. Having worked on the line in small pieces, the students are also able to take note of where each word or phrase begins and ends in the sentence.
In effect; the class is experiencing a repetition drill where the task is to listen carefully and attempt to mimic the teacher’s model as accurately as possible. Next the class and the teacher switch roles in order to practice a little more, the teacher saying Bill’s lines and the class saying Sally’s. Then the teacher divides the clas in half so that each half gets to try to say on their own either Bill’s or Sally’s lines. To further practice the lines of this dialog, the teacher has all the boys in the class take Bill’s part and all the girl take Sally’s.
She then initiates a chain d ill with four of the lines from dialog. A chain drill gives students an opportunity to say the lines individually. The teacher listens and can tell which students are struggling and will need more practice. A chain drill also lets students use the expressions in communication with someone else, eventhough the communication is very limited. The teacher addresses the student nearest her with, Good morning,Jose.’ He, in turn, responds,’ Good morning, teacher.’ She says. ‘How are you?’ ‘Jose answers, ‘Fine,thanks. And you?’ The teacher replies, ‘Fine.’ He understands through the teacher’s gestures that he is to turn,says her lines in reply to him. When she has finished, she greets the student on the other side of her. This chain continues until all of the students have a chance to ask and answer the question. Then the teacher moves next to the second major phase of the lesson. She continues to drill the students with language from the dialog, but these drill require more than simple repetition.
The first drill the teacher leads is a single-slot substitution drill in which the student will repeat a sentence from the dialog and replace a word or phrase in the sentence with the word or phrase the teacher gives them. This word or phrase is called the clue. The teacher begins by reciting a line from the dialog, ‘I am going to the post office,’ Following this she shows the students a picture of a bank and says the phrase, ‘The bank. ‘She pauses,then says, ‘I’am going to the bank. ‘From her example the students realize that they are supposed to take the cue phrase, (‘the bank.‘), which the teacher supplies, and put it into its proper place in the sentence. Now she gives them their first cue phrase, ‘The drugstore. ‘Together the students respond, ‘I am going to the drugstore. The students chorus, ‘I am going to the park,’ Other cues she offers in turn are ‘the cafe,’ ‘The supermarket,’ ‘the bus station,’ ‘the football field,’ ‘and ‘the librsry.’ Each cue is accompanied by a picture as before. After thr students have gone through the drill sequence three times, the teacher no longer provides a spokencue phrase instead she simply shows the pictures one at a tim, and the students repeat the entire sentence, putting the name of the place in the picture in the appropriate slot in the sentence.This substitution drill is slightly more difficult for the student since they have to change the form of the verb ‘be’ , ‘to’ ,’is’, ‘or’, ‘are’, depending on which subject pronounthe teacher gives them.
Instead, after going through the drill a few times suplying oral cues, the teacher points to a boy in the class and the studens understand they are to use the pronoun’he’ in the sentence. Finally, the teacher increases the complexity of the task by leading the students in a multiple-slot substitution drill. This is essentially the same type of drill as the single-slot the teacher just used. However with this drill, students must recognize what part of speech the cue word is and where it fits into the sentence. The sthen they must make a decision concerning where the cue word or phrase belongs in the sentence also supplied by the teacher. The teacher in this class starts off by having the students repeat the originalom the dialog. ‘I am going to the post office’. Then she gives them the cue’she.’ The students understand and produce, ‘She is going to the post office,’ the next cue the teacher offers is ‘to the park.’ The student hesitate at first; then they respond by correctly producing, ‘She is going to the park.’ She continues in this manner, sometimes providing a subject pronoun, other times naming a location.
The substitution drills are followed by a transformation drill. This type of drill asks students to change one type of sentence into another-an affirmative sentence into a negative or an active sentence into a passive., for example, ‘I say, “She is going to the post office.” You make a question by saying, “Is she going to the post office?”
The teacher models ttwo more examples of this transformation, then asks, ‘Does everyone understand? OK,lets begin. “They are going to the bank.” “The class replies in turn, ‘Are they going to the bank?’ They transform approximately fifteen of these patterns, and then the teacher decides they are ready to move on to a question-and-answer drill. The teacher holds up one of the pictures she used earlier, the picture of a football field,and aaks the class. ‘Are you going to the football field?’ she answer, ‘ Yes, I’m going to the football fiel.,’ She poses the next question while holding up a picture of a park, ‘Are you going to the park?’ And again answer herself, ‘Yes, I’m going to the park.’ She holds up a third picture, the one of a library?’ She poses a question to the class, ‘Are you going to library?’ They respond together,going to the library.’
‘Very Good,’the teacher says. Through her action and examples, the students have learned that they are to answer the questions following the patterns she has modelled. The teacher drill them with this pattern for the nextfew minutes. Since the students can handle it, she poses the question to selected individuals rapidly, one after another. The students are expected to respond very quikly,without pausing. She works a little longer on this question-and-answer drill, sometimes providing her students with situations that require a negative answer and sometimes encouragement to each student. She holds up pictures and poses question one right after another,but the students seem to have no trouble keeping up with her. The only time she changes the rhythm is when a student seriously mispronounces a word. When this occurs she restates the word and work briefly with student until his pronunciation is closer to her own.
The students have learned the lines of the dialog and to respond without hesitation to her cues in the drill pattern.in lesson later this week the teacher will do the following:
1. Review the dialog
2. Expand upon the dialog by adding a few more lines, such as ’I am going to the post office. I need a few stamps.’
3. Drill the new lines and introduce some new vocabulary items through the new lines, for example:
‘I am going to the supermarket. I need a little nutter.’
‘... library ... few books.’
‘ drugstore. ... little medicine.’
4. Work on the difference between mass and count nouns, contrasting ‘a little/a few’ with mass and count nouns respectively. No grammar rule will ever be given to the students. The students will be led to figure out the rules from their work with the examples the teacher provides.
5. A contrastive analysis (the comparison of two language, in thia case, the students’ native language and the target language,English) has led the teacher to expect that the students will have special trouble with the pronunciation of words such as ‘little,’ which contain/l/. The student di indeed say the wor as if it contained/iy/. As a result, the teacher works on the contrast between /iy/ and /l/ several times during the week. She uses minimal-pair words, such as’sheep,’ ‘ship,’; ‘leave,’ ‘live’; and ‘he’s, ‘his’ to get her student first to hear the difference in pronunciation between the words in each pair.
6. Sometime toward the end of the week the teacher writes the dialog on the blackboard. Then the students copy the dialog in their notebooks. They also do some limited written work with the dialog. In one exercise the teacher has erased fifteen selected words from the expanded dialog. The students hato rewrite the dialog in their notebooks, supplying the missing words without looking at the complete dialog theycopied earlier.
7. On Friday the teacher leads the class in the ‘supermsrket alphabet game.’ The game stsrta with a students who needs a food item beginning with the letter ‘A.’ The students say, ‘I am going to the supermarket. I need a few apples.’ The next student says, ‘I need a little bread (or ‘a few bannas” or any other food item you could find i the supermarket beginning with the letter “B”). The third student continues, ‘I am going to the supermarket. He need a few apples,she need a little bread and I need a little cheese.’
The game continues with each player adding an item that begins with the next letter in the alphabet.
8. A presentation by the teacher on supermarket in the USA follows the game. The teacher tries very hard to get meaning across in English. The teacher answer the students question about the differences between supermarket in the USA and open-air markets in Mali. They also discuss briefly the differences between American and Malian football. The studentS seem very interested in the discussion.
REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
At this point we should turn to the ten question we have answered for each method we have considered so far:..
1. What are the goals of teacher who use the Audio-Lingual Method?
Teacher want their students to be able to use the target language communicatively. In order to do this, the. In order to do this, they believe students need to overlearn the target language, to learn to use it automatically without stopping to think.
2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
The teacher is like an orchestra leader, directing and controlling the language behavior of her students. She also responsible for providing her students with a goodmodel for immitators of the teacher’s model or the tapes she supllies of model speakers.
3. What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
New vocabulary and structural patterns are presented through dialog. The dialog are learned through imitation and repetition. Drill (such as repetition,backward build-up,chain,substitution,tranformation,and question-and-answer) are conducted based upon the pattern present in the -ialog. Grammar is induced from the examples given; explicit grammar rules are not provided.
4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?
There is student-to-student interaction in chain drills or when students take different roles in dialog,but this interaction is teacher-directed.
5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
There are no priciples of the method that relate to this area.
6. How is the language viewed? How is the culture viewed?
The view of language in the Audio-Lingual Method has been influenced by descriptive linguists. Every language is seen as having its own unique system. The system is comprised of several different levels phonological,morphological, and syntactic. Each levels has its own distinctive patterns.
7. What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?
Vocabulary is kept to minimum while the students are mastering the sound system and grammatical patterns. A grammatical pattern is not the same as a sentence. For instance,underlying the following three sentences is the same grammatical pat ern: Meg called,The Blue Jayswon,The team practiced.
The natural order of skills presentation is adhered to: listening,speaking,reading, and wriiting. The oral/aural skills receive most of the attention. Pronunciation is taught from the beginning, often by students working in language laboratories on discriminating between members of minimal pairs.
8. What he role of the student’s native language?
The habits of the students’ native language are thought to interfere with the students’ attempt to master the target language. A contrastive analysis between the students' native language and the target language will reveal where a teacher should expect the most interference.
9. How is eveluation accomplished?
The answer to the question is not obvious because we did not actually observe the students in the class taking a formal test. If we had, we would have seen that it was discrete-point in nature,that is, each question on the test would focus on only, one point of the language at a time.
10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?
Student errors are to be avoided if at all possible through the teacher’s awarences of where the students will have difficulty and restriction of what they are taught to say.
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES
IF you agree with the above answer, you may wish to implement the following techniques; of course,evwn if you do not agree, there may be techniques describe below that you are already using or can adapt to your approach.
DIALOG MEMORIZATION
Dialogs or short conversation between two people are often used to begin a new lesson. Students memorize th dialog through mimicry; student usually take the role of one person in the dialog, and the teacher the other. Another way of practicing the two roles is for half of the class to take one role and the other half to take the other. In the Audio-Lingual Method, certain sentence patterns and grammar points are included within the dialog. These patterns and points are later practiced in drills based on the lines of the dialog.
BACKWARD BUILD-UP (EXPANSION) DRILL
This drill is used when a long line of a dialog is giving students trouble. The teacher vreaks down the line into several parts. Then, following the teacher’s cue, the students expand what they are repeating part by part untill they are able to repeAT the entire lines. The teacher begins with the part at the end of the sentence (works backward from there) to keep the int keep the intonation of the line as natural as possible.
REPETITION DRILL
Students are asked to repeat the teacher’s model as accurately and as quickly as possible. This drill is often u sed to teach the lines of the dialog.
CHAIN DRILL
A chain driil gets its name from the chain of conversation that forms around the room as students, one-by-one, ask and answer question of each other. The teacher begins the chain by gretting a particultural student or asking him a question. A chain drill allows some controlled communication, eventhough it is limited. A chain drill also gives the teacher an oppoturnities to check each student’s sprech.
SINGLE-SLOT SUBSTITUTION DRILL
The teacher says a line,usually from the dialog then she says a word or a phrase-caalled cue. The major purpose of this drill is to give the students practice in finding and filling in the slots of a sentence.
MULTIPLE-SLOT SUBSTITUTION DRILL
This drill is similiar to the single-slot substitution drill. The difference is that the teacher gives cue phrase,one at time, that fit into different slots in the dialog line.
TRANFORMATION DRILL
The teacher gives students a certain kind of sentence pattern, an affirmative sentence for example. Other example of transformation to ask of student are changing a statement into a question, an active sentence into a passive one,or direct speech into reported speech.
QUESTION-and-ANSWER DRILL
This drill gives student practice with answering questions. The students should answer the teacher’s questions very quikly. This gives students practice with the question patterns.
USE OF MINIMAL PAIRS
The teacher pairs of words which differ in only one sound. For example: ‘ship/sheep’. Student ask to they teacheo read it and difference two words. The teacher selects the sounds to work on after she has done a contrastive analysis, a comparison between the students’ native language an dthe language they are studying.
COMPLETE THE DIALOG
Selected words are erased from a dialog students have learned. Students complete the dialog by filling the blanks with the missing words.
GRAMMAR GAME
Games like the supermarket alphabet game described in this chapter are used in the Audio Lingual Method. The games are designed to get students to practice a grammar point within a context and it is rather limited in this game.
The Audio-Lingual Method like The Direct Method we have just exmpined, is also an oral-based approach. However, it is very different in that rather than emphasizing vocabulary acquisition through exposure to its use in situatios, the Audio Lingual Method driils students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns. It also, unllike the Direct Method,has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology/Charles Fries (1945) of the University of Michigan led the way in applying principles from structural linguistics in developing the method, and for this season, it has sometimes been reffered to as the ‘Michigan Method.’ Later in its development, principles from behavioral psychology (Skinner 1957) were incorporated. It was thought that the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the target language was through conditioning-helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement.
EXPERIENCE
As we enter the classroom, the first thing we notice is that the students are attentively listening as the teacher is presenting a new dialog, a conversation between two people. The students know they will be expected to eventually memorize the dialog the teacher is introducing. All of the teacher’s instructions are in English. Sometimes she uses actions to convey meaning, but not one word of the students’ native language is uttered. Then the teacher says: ok class listen carefully.
Two people are walking along a sidewalk in town aere named Sally and Bill. Listen to their conversation:
Sally: Good morning, Bill.
Bill : Good morning.
Sally: How are you?
Bill : Fine, thanks, And you?
Sally: Fine. Where are you going?
Bill : I’m going to the post office.
Sally: I am too. Shall we go together?
Bill : Sure. Let’s go.
Listen one more time. This time try to understand all that I am saying,’ Now she has the whole class repeaT each of the lines of the dialog after her model. They repeat each line several times before moving on to the next line. When the class comes to the lines, I’m going to the ppost office,’ they stumble a bit in their repetition. The teacher, at this point,, stops the repetition and uses a backward build-up drill (expansion drill). The purpose of this drill is to break down the troublesome sentence into smaller parts. The teacher starts with the end of the sentence and has the class repeat just the last two words, and the class repeats this expanded phrase. Little by little the teacher builds up the phrases until the entire sentence is being repeated.
TEACHER: Repeat after me: Post office
CLASS : Post Office
TEACHER: To the post office
CLASS : To the post office
TEACHER: Going to the post office
CLASS : Going to the post office
TEACHER: I’m going to the post office
CLASS : I’m going to the post office
Through this step-by-step procedure, the teacher is able to give the students help in producing the troublesome line. Having worked on the line in small pieces, the students are also able to take note of where each word or phrase begins and ends in the sentence.
In effect; the class is experiencing a repetition drill where the task is to listen carefully and attempt to mimic the teacher’s model as accurately as possible. Next the class and the teacher switch roles in order to practice a little more, the teacher saying Bill’s lines and the class saying Sally’s. Then the teacher divides the clas in half so that each half gets to try to say on their own either Bill’s or Sally’s lines. To further practice the lines of this dialog, the teacher has all the boys in the class take Bill’s part and all the girl take Sally’s.
She then initiates a chain d ill with four of the lines from dialog. A chain drill gives students an opportunity to say the lines individually. The teacher listens and can tell which students are struggling and will need more practice. A chain drill also lets students use the expressions in communication with someone else, eventhough the communication is very limited. The teacher addresses the student nearest her with, Good morning,Jose.’ He, in turn, responds,’ Good morning, teacher.’ She says. ‘How are you?’ ‘Jose answers, ‘Fine,thanks. And you?’ The teacher replies, ‘Fine.’ He understands through the teacher’s gestures that he is to turn,says her lines in reply to him. When she has finished, she greets the student on the other side of her. This chain continues until all of the students have a chance to ask and answer the question. Then the teacher moves next to the second major phase of the lesson. She continues to drill the students with language from the dialog, but these drill require more than simple repetition.
The first drill the teacher leads is a single-slot substitution drill in which the student will repeat a sentence from the dialog and replace a word or phrase in the sentence with the word or phrase the teacher gives them. This word or phrase is called the clue. The teacher begins by reciting a line from the dialog, ‘I am going to the post office,’ Following this she shows the students a picture of a bank and says the phrase, ‘The bank. ‘She pauses,then says, ‘I’am going to the bank. ‘From her example the students realize that they are supposed to take the cue phrase, (‘the bank.‘), which the teacher supplies, and put it into its proper place in the sentence. Now she gives them their first cue phrase, ‘The drugstore. ‘Together the students respond, ‘I am going to the drugstore. The students chorus, ‘I am going to the park,’ Other cues she offers in turn are ‘the cafe,’ ‘The supermarket,’ ‘the bus station,’ ‘the football field,’ ‘and ‘the librsry.’ Each cue is accompanied by a picture as before. After thr students have gone through the drill sequence three times, the teacher no longer provides a spokencue phrase instead she simply shows the pictures one at a tim, and the students repeat the entire sentence, putting the name of the place in the picture in the appropriate slot in the sentence.This substitution drill is slightly more difficult for the student since they have to change the form of the verb ‘be’ , ‘to’ ,’is’, ‘or’, ‘are’, depending on which subject pronounthe teacher gives them.
Instead, after going through the drill a few times suplying oral cues, the teacher points to a boy in the class and the studens understand they are to use the pronoun’he’ in the sentence. Finally, the teacher increases the complexity of the task by leading the students in a multiple-slot substitution drill. This is essentially the same type of drill as the single-slot the teacher just used. However with this drill, students must recognize what part of speech the cue word is and where it fits into the sentence. The sthen they must make a decision concerning where the cue word or phrase belongs in the sentence also supplied by the teacher. The teacher in this class starts off by having the students repeat the originalom the dialog. ‘I am going to the post office’. Then she gives them the cue’she.’ The students understand and produce, ‘She is going to the post office,’ the next cue the teacher offers is ‘to the park.’ The student hesitate at first; then they respond by correctly producing, ‘She is going to the park.’ She continues in this manner, sometimes providing a subject pronoun, other times naming a location.
The substitution drills are followed by a transformation drill. This type of drill asks students to change one type of sentence into another-an affirmative sentence into a negative or an active sentence into a passive., for example, ‘I say, “She is going to the post office.” You make a question by saying, “Is she going to the post office?”
The teacher models ttwo more examples of this transformation, then asks, ‘Does everyone understand? OK,lets begin. “They are going to the bank.” “The class replies in turn, ‘Are they going to the bank?’ They transform approximately fifteen of these patterns, and then the teacher decides they are ready to move on to a question-and-answer drill. The teacher holds up one of the pictures she used earlier, the picture of a football field,and aaks the class. ‘Are you going to the football field?’ she answer, ‘ Yes, I’m going to the football fiel.,’ She poses the next question while holding up a picture of a park, ‘Are you going to the park?’ And again answer herself, ‘Yes, I’m going to the park.’ She holds up a third picture, the one of a library?’ She poses a question to the class, ‘Are you going to library?’ They respond together,going to the library.’
‘Very Good,’the teacher says. Through her action and examples, the students have learned that they are to answer the questions following the patterns she has modelled. The teacher drill them with this pattern for the nextfew minutes. Since the students can handle it, she poses the question to selected individuals rapidly, one after another. The students are expected to respond very quikly,without pausing. She works a little longer on this question-and-answer drill, sometimes providing her students with situations that require a negative answer and sometimes encouragement to each student. She holds up pictures and poses question one right after another,but the students seem to have no trouble keeping up with her. The only time she changes the rhythm is when a student seriously mispronounces a word. When this occurs she restates the word and work briefly with student until his pronunciation is closer to her own.
The students have learned the lines of the dialog and to respond without hesitation to her cues in the drill pattern.in lesson later this week the teacher will do the following:
1. Review the dialog
2. Expand upon the dialog by adding a few more lines, such as ’I am going to the post office. I need a few stamps.’
3. Drill the new lines and introduce some new vocabulary items through the new lines, for example:
‘I am going to the supermarket. I need a little nutter.’
‘... library ... few books.’
‘ drugstore. ... little medicine.’
4. Work on the difference between mass and count nouns, contrasting ‘a little/a few’ with mass and count nouns respectively. No grammar rule will ever be given to the students. The students will be led to figure out the rules from their work with the examples the teacher provides.
5. A contrastive analysis (the comparison of two language, in thia case, the students’ native language and the target language,English) has led the teacher to expect that the students will have special trouble with the pronunciation of words such as ‘little,’ which contain/l/. The student di indeed say the wor as if it contained/iy/. As a result, the teacher works on the contrast between /iy/ and /l/ several times during the week. She uses minimal-pair words, such as’sheep,’ ‘ship,’; ‘leave,’ ‘live’; and ‘he’s, ‘his’ to get her student first to hear the difference in pronunciation between the words in each pair.
6. Sometime toward the end of the week the teacher writes the dialog on the blackboard. Then the students copy the dialog in their notebooks. They also do some limited written work with the dialog. In one exercise the teacher has erased fifteen selected words from the expanded dialog. The students hato rewrite the dialog in their notebooks, supplying the missing words without looking at the complete dialog theycopied earlier.
7. On Friday the teacher leads the class in the ‘supermsrket alphabet game.’ The game stsrta with a students who needs a food item beginning with the letter ‘A.’ The students say, ‘I am going to the supermarket. I need a few apples.’ The next student says, ‘I need a little bread (or ‘a few bannas” or any other food item you could find i the supermarket beginning with the letter “B”). The third student continues, ‘I am going to the supermarket. He need a few apples,she need a little bread and I need a little cheese.’
The game continues with each player adding an item that begins with the next letter in the alphabet.
8. A presentation by the teacher on supermarket in the USA follows the game. The teacher tries very hard to get meaning across in English. The teacher answer the students question about the differences between supermarket in the USA and open-air markets in Mali. They also discuss briefly the differences between American and Malian football. The studentS seem very interested in the discussion.
REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
At this point we should turn to the ten question we have answered for each method we have considered so far:..
1. What are the goals of teacher who use the Audio-Lingual Method?
Teacher want their students to be able to use the target language communicatively. In order to do this, the. In order to do this, they believe students need to overlearn the target language, to learn to use it automatically without stopping to think.
2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
The teacher is like an orchestra leader, directing and controlling the language behavior of her students. She also responsible for providing her students with a goodmodel for immitators of the teacher’s model or the tapes she supllies of model speakers.
3. What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
New vocabulary and structural patterns are presented through dialog. The dialog are learned through imitation and repetition. Drill (such as repetition,backward build-up,chain,substitution,tranformation,and question-and-answer) are conducted based upon the pattern present in the -ialog. Grammar is induced from the examples given; explicit grammar rules are not provided.
4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?
There is student-to-student interaction in chain drills or when students take different roles in dialog,but this interaction is teacher-directed.
5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
There are no priciples of the method that relate to this area.
6. How is the language viewed? How is the culture viewed?
The view of language in the Audio-Lingual Method has been influenced by descriptive linguists. Every language is seen as having its own unique system. The system is comprised of several different levels phonological,morphological, and syntactic. Each levels has its own distinctive patterns.
7. What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?
Vocabulary is kept to minimum while the students are mastering the sound system and grammatical patterns. A grammatical pattern is not the same as a sentence. For instance,underlying the following three sentences is the same grammatical pat ern: Meg called,The Blue Jayswon,The team practiced.
The natural order of skills presentation is adhered to: listening,speaking,reading, and wriiting. The oral/aural skills receive most of the attention. Pronunciation is taught from the beginning, often by students working in language laboratories on discriminating between members of minimal pairs.
8. What he role of the student’s native language?
The habits of the students’ native language are thought to interfere with the students’ attempt to master the target language. A contrastive analysis between the students' native language and the target language will reveal where a teacher should expect the most interference.
9. How is eveluation accomplished?
The answer to the question is not obvious because we did not actually observe the students in the class taking a formal test. If we had, we would have seen that it was discrete-point in nature,that is, each question on the test would focus on only, one point of the language at a time.
10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?
Student errors are to be avoided if at all possible through the teacher’s awarences of where the students will have difficulty and restriction of what they are taught to say.
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES
IF you agree with the above answer, you may wish to implement the following techniques; of course,evwn if you do not agree, there may be techniques describe below that you are already using or can adapt to your approach.
DIALOG MEMORIZATION
Dialogs or short conversation between two people are often used to begin a new lesson. Students memorize th dialog through mimicry; student usually take the role of one person in the dialog, and the teacher the other. Another way of practicing the two roles is for half of the class to take one role and the other half to take the other. In the Audio-Lingual Method, certain sentence patterns and grammar points are included within the dialog. These patterns and points are later practiced in drills based on the lines of the dialog.
BACKWARD BUILD-UP (EXPANSION) DRILL
This drill is used when a long line of a dialog is giving students trouble. The teacher vreaks down the line into several parts. Then, following the teacher’s cue, the students expand what they are repeating part by part untill they are able to repeAT the entire lines. The teacher begins with the part at the end of the sentence (works backward from there) to keep the int keep the intonation of the line as natural as possible.
REPETITION DRILL
Students are asked to repeat the teacher’s model as accurately and as quickly as possible. This drill is often u sed to teach the lines of the dialog.
CHAIN DRILL
A chain driil gets its name from the chain of conversation that forms around the room as students, one-by-one, ask and answer question of each other. The teacher begins the chain by gretting a particultural student or asking him a question. A chain drill allows some controlled communication, eventhough it is limited. A chain drill also gives the teacher an oppoturnities to check each student’s sprech.
SINGLE-SLOT SUBSTITUTION DRILL
The teacher says a line,usually from the dialog then she says a word or a phrase-caalled cue. The major purpose of this drill is to give the students practice in finding and filling in the slots of a sentence.
MULTIPLE-SLOT SUBSTITUTION DRILL
This drill is similiar to the single-slot substitution drill. The difference is that the teacher gives cue phrase,one at time, that fit into different slots in the dialog line.
TRANFORMATION DRILL
The teacher gives students a certain kind of sentence pattern, an affirmative sentence for example. Other example of transformation to ask of student are changing a statement into a question, an active sentence into a passive one,or direct speech into reported speech.
QUESTION-and-ANSWER DRILL
This drill gives student practice with answering questions. The students should answer the teacher’s questions very quikly. This gives students practice with the question patterns.
USE OF MINIMAL PAIRS
The teacher pairs of words which differ in only one sound. For example: ‘ship/sheep’. Student ask to they teacheo read it and difference two words. The teacher selects the sounds to work on after she has done a contrastive analysis, a comparison between the students’ native language an dthe language they are studying.
COMPLETE THE DIALOG
Selected words are erased from a dialog students have learned. Students complete the dialog by filling the blanks with the missing words.
GRAMMAR GAME
Games like the supermarket alphabet game described in this chapter are used in the Audio Lingual Method. The games are designed to get students to practice a grammar point within a context and it is rather limited in this game.
The Direct Method
Introduction
The Direct Method has one very basic rule: No translation is allowed. In fact, the Direct Method receives its name from the fact that meaning is to be conveyed directly in the target language through the use of demonstration and visual aids, with no recourse to the students native language ( Diller 1978 ).
We will now try to come to an understanding of the Direct Method by observing an English teacher using it in a scuola media ( lower secondary school ) class in Italy. The class we observe is at the end of its first year of English language instruction in a Scuola media.
Experience
The teacher is calling the class to order as we find seats toward the back of the room. He has placed a big map of the United States in the front of the classroom. The teacher points to the part of the map the sentence describes after each has read his sentence. The passage begins:
We are looking at a map of the United States. Canada is the country to the north of the United States, and Mexico is the country to the south of the United States. Between Canada and the United States are the Great Lakes. Between Mexico and United States is the Rio Grande River. On the East Coast is the Atlantic Ocean, and on the West Coast is the Pacific Ocean. In the East is a mountain range called the Appalachian Mountains. In the West are the Rocky Mountains.
A students ask what a mountain range is. The teacher turns to the blackboard and draws a series of inverted cones to illustrate a mountain range. The student nods and says, ‘ I understand ‘. Another student asks what another ‘ between ‘ means. The teacher replies, ‘ you are sitting between Maria Pia and Giovanni. Paolo is sitting between Gabriella and Cettina. Now do you understand the meaning of ‘ between ‘? The student answers, ‘ yes, i understand ‘.
The question and answer session continues for a few more minutes. Finally, the teacher invites the students to ask question. Hands go up, and the teacher calls on students to pose questions one at a time to which the class replies. Later another student asks, ‘ what is the ocean in the West Coast? ‘. The teacher again interrupts before the clas ha a chance to reply, saying, ‘ What is the Ocean in the West Coast?..or on the West Coast? ‘. The student hesitates, then says, ‘ On the West Coast ‘.
‘ Correct ‘, says the teacher. ‘ Now repeat your question ‘.
‘ What is the ocean on the West Coast? ‘
The class replies in chorus, ‘ The ocean on the West Coast is the Pacific ‘.
After the students have asked about ten questions, the teacher begins asking questions and making statements again. The teacher next instructs the students to turn to an exercise in the lesson which asks them to fill in the blank. They read a sentence out loud and supply the missing word as they are reading. Finally, the teacher asks the students to take out their notebooks, and he gives them a dictation. The passage he dictates is one paragraph long and is about the geography of the United States.
During the remaining two classes this week, the class will :
1. Review the features of United States geography
2. Following the teacher’s directions, label blank maps with these geographical features. After this, the students will give directions to the teacher, who will complete a map on the blackboard
3. Practice the pronunciation of ‘ river ‘, paying particular attention to the / I / in the first syllable ( and contrasting it with / iy / ) and to the pronunciation of /r /
4. Write a paragraph about the major geographical features of the United States.
5. Discuss the proverb ‘ time is money ‘. Students will talk about this is in order to understand that people in the United States value punctuality. They will compare this attitude with their own view of time.
Thinking about the experience
Let us make some observations on our experience. These will be in the column on the left. The principles of the Direct Method that can be inferred from our observations will be listed in column on the right.
Observations Principles
1. The student read aloud a passage about United States geography. Reading in the target language should be taught from the beginning of language instruction; however, the reading skill will be developed through practice with speaking. Culture consists of more than the fine arts.
2. The teacher points to a part of the map after each sentence is read. Objects present in the immediate classroom environment should be used to help students understand the meaning.
3. The teacher uses the target language to ask the students if they have a question. The native language should not be used in the classroom.
4. The teacher answers the students questions by drawing on the blackboard or giving examples. The teacher should demonstrate, not explain or translate. It is desirable that students make a direct association between the target language and meaning.
5. The teacher asks questions about the map in the target language, to which the students reply in a complete sentence in the target language. Students should learn to think in the target language as soon as possible. Vocabulary is acquired more naturally if students use it in full sentence, rather than memorizing word lists.
6. Students ask questions about the map. The purpose of language learning is communication
7. The teacher works with the students on the pronunciation of ‘ Appalachian ‘. Pronunciation should be worked on right from the beginning of language instruction.
8. The teacher corrects a grammar error by asking the students to make a choice. Self-correction facilitates language learning.
9. The tacher asks questions about the students; students ask each other questions. Lesson should contain some conversational activity-some opportunity for students to use language in real contexts.
10. The students fill in blanks with prepositions practiced in the lesson. Grammar should be taught inductively. There may never be an explicit grammar rule given.
11. The teacher dictates a paragraph about United States geography. Writing is an important skill, to be developed from the beginning of language instruction.
12. All of the lessons of the week involve United States geography. The syllabus is based on situations or topics, not usually on linguistic structures.
13. A proverb is used to discuss how people in the U. S view punctually. Learning another language also involves learning how speakers of that language live.
Reviewing the principles
Now let us consider the principles of the Direct Method as they are arranged in answer to the ten question posed earlier:
1. What are the goals of teachers who use the Direct Method?
Teachers who use the Direct Method intend that students learn how to communicate in the target language.
2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
Although the teacher directs the class activities the student role is less passive than in the Grammar-Translation Method. The teacher and the students are more like partners in the teaching/learning process.
3. What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
Teachers who use the Direct Method believe students need to associate meaning and the target language directly. In fact, the syllabus used in the Direct Method is based upon situations or topics. Grammar is taught inductively, that is, the students are presented with examples and they figure out the rule or generalization from the examples. An explicit grammar rule may never be given. Students practice vocabulary by using new words in complete sentences.
4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?
The initiation of the interaction goes both ways, from teacher to students and from student to teacher, although the latter is often teacher directed. Students converse with one another as well.
5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
There are no principles of the method which relate to this area.
6. How is language viewed? How is culture viewed?
Language is primarily spoken, not written. They also study culture consisting of the history of the people who speak the target language.
7. What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?
Vocabulary is emphasized over grammar. Thus the reading and writing exercises are based upon what the students practice orally first. Pronunciation also receives attention right from the beginning of a course.
8. What is the role of the student native language?
The students’ native language should not be used in the classroom.
9. How is evaluation accomplished?
In the Direct Method, students are asked to use the language, not to demonstrate their knowledge about the language. They are asked to do so using both oral and written skills.
10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?
The teacher, employing various techniques, tries to get students to self-correct whenever possible.
Reviewing the techniques
are there answers to the ten questions with which you agreed? Then the following techniques may also be useful. Of course, even if you did not agree with all the answers, there may be some techniques of the Direct Method you can adapt to your own approach to teaching.
Reading aloud
Students take turns reading sections of passage, play, or dialog out loud. At the end of each student’s turn, teacher uses gestures, pictures, realia, examples, or other means to make the meaning of the section clear.
Question and answer exercise
This exercise is conducted only in the target language. Students are asked questions and answer in full sentences so that they practice new words and grammatical structures.
Getting students to self-correct
The teacher of this class has the students self-correct by asking them to make a choice between what they said and an alternative answer supplied. Another possibility is for the teacher to repeat what the student said, stopping just before the error. The student knows that the next word was wrong.
Fill-in-the-blank exercise
This technique has already been discussed in the Grammar-Translation Method, but differs in its application in the Direct Method. The students would have induced the grammar rule they need to fill in the blanks from examples and practice with earlier parts of the lesson.
Dictation
The teacher reads the passage tree times. The first time the teacher reads it t normal speed, while the students just listen. The second time he reads the passage phrase by pharase, pausing long enough to allow students to write down what they have heard. The last time the teacher again reads at a normal speed, and students check their work.
Map drawing
The class included one example of a technique used to give listening comprehension practice. The students were given a map with the geographical features unnamed. The student then instructed the teacher to do the same thing with a map he had drawn on the blackboard. Each student could have a turn giving the teacher instructions for finding and labeling one geographical feature.
Paragraph writing
The teacher in this class asked the students to write a paragraph in their own words on the major geographical features of the United States. They could have done this from memory, or they could have used the reading passage in the lesson as a model.
Conclusion
Now that you have considered the principles and the techniques of the Direct Method somewhat, see what you can find of use for your own teaching situation.
The Direct Method has one very basic rule: No translation is allowed. In fact, the Direct Method receives its name from the fact that meaning is to be conveyed directly in the target language through the use of demonstration and visual aids, with no recourse to the students native language ( Diller 1978 ).
We will now try to come to an understanding of the Direct Method by observing an English teacher using it in a scuola media ( lower secondary school ) class in Italy. The class we observe is at the end of its first year of English language instruction in a Scuola media.
Experience
The teacher is calling the class to order as we find seats toward the back of the room. He has placed a big map of the United States in the front of the classroom. The teacher points to the part of the map the sentence describes after each has read his sentence. The passage begins:
We are looking at a map of the United States. Canada is the country to the north of the United States, and Mexico is the country to the south of the United States. Between Canada and the United States are the Great Lakes. Between Mexico and United States is the Rio Grande River. On the East Coast is the Atlantic Ocean, and on the West Coast is the Pacific Ocean. In the East is a mountain range called the Appalachian Mountains. In the West are the Rocky Mountains.
A students ask what a mountain range is. The teacher turns to the blackboard and draws a series of inverted cones to illustrate a mountain range. The student nods and says, ‘ I understand ‘. Another student asks what another ‘ between ‘ means. The teacher replies, ‘ you are sitting between Maria Pia and Giovanni. Paolo is sitting between Gabriella and Cettina. Now do you understand the meaning of ‘ between ‘? The student answers, ‘ yes, i understand ‘.
The question and answer session continues for a few more minutes. Finally, the teacher invites the students to ask question. Hands go up, and the teacher calls on students to pose questions one at a time to which the class replies. Later another student asks, ‘ what is the ocean in the West Coast? ‘. The teacher again interrupts before the clas ha a chance to reply, saying, ‘ What is the Ocean in the West Coast?..or on the West Coast? ‘. The student hesitates, then says, ‘ On the West Coast ‘.
‘ Correct ‘, says the teacher. ‘ Now repeat your question ‘.
‘ What is the ocean on the West Coast? ‘
The class replies in chorus, ‘ The ocean on the West Coast is the Pacific ‘.
After the students have asked about ten questions, the teacher begins asking questions and making statements again. The teacher next instructs the students to turn to an exercise in the lesson which asks them to fill in the blank. They read a sentence out loud and supply the missing word as they are reading. Finally, the teacher asks the students to take out their notebooks, and he gives them a dictation. The passage he dictates is one paragraph long and is about the geography of the United States.
During the remaining two classes this week, the class will :
1. Review the features of United States geography
2. Following the teacher’s directions, label blank maps with these geographical features. After this, the students will give directions to the teacher, who will complete a map on the blackboard
3. Practice the pronunciation of ‘ river ‘, paying particular attention to the / I / in the first syllable ( and contrasting it with / iy / ) and to the pronunciation of /r /
4. Write a paragraph about the major geographical features of the United States.
5. Discuss the proverb ‘ time is money ‘. Students will talk about this is in order to understand that people in the United States value punctuality. They will compare this attitude with their own view of time.
Thinking about the experience
Let us make some observations on our experience. These will be in the column on the left. The principles of the Direct Method that can be inferred from our observations will be listed in column on the right.
Observations Principles
1. The student read aloud a passage about United States geography. Reading in the target language should be taught from the beginning of language instruction; however, the reading skill will be developed through practice with speaking. Culture consists of more than the fine arts.
2. The teacher points to a part of the map after each sentence is read. Objects present in the immediate classroom environment should be used to help students understand the meaning.
3. The teacher uses the target language to ask the students if they have a question. The native language should not be used in the classroom.
4. The teacher answers the students questions by drawing on the blackboard or giving examples. The teacher should demonstrate, not explain or translate. It is desirable that students make a direct association between the target language and meaning.
5. The teacher asks questions about the map in the target language, to which the students reply in a complete sentence in the target language. Students should learn to think in the target language as soon as possible. Vocabulary is acquired more naturally if students use it in full sentence, rather than memorizing word lists.
6. Students ask questions about the map. The purpose of language learning is communication
7. The teacher works with the students on the pronunciation of ‘ Appalachian ‘. Pronunciation should be worked on right from the beginning of language instruction.
8. The teacher corrects a grammar error by asking the students to make a choice. Self-correction facilitates language learning.
9. The tacher asks questions about the students; students ask each other questions. Lesson should contain some conversational activity-some opportunity for students to use language in real contexts.
10. The students fill in blanks with prepositions practiced in the lesson. Grammar should be taught inductively. There may never be an explicit grammar rule given.
11. The teacher dictates a paragraph about United States geography. Writing is an important skill, to be developed from the beginning of language instruction.
12. All of the lessons of the week involve United States geography. The syllabus is based on situations or topics, not usually on linguistic structures.
13. A proverb is used to discuss how people in the U. S view punctually. Learning another language also involves learning how speakers of that language live.
Reviewing the principles
Now let us consider the principles of the Direct Method as they are arranged in answer to the ten question posed earlier:
1. What are the goals of teachers who use the Direct Method?
Teachers who use the Direct Method intend that students learn how to communicate in the target language.
2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
Although the teacher directs the class activities the student role is less passive than in the Grammar-Translation Method. The teacher and the students are more like partners in the teaching/learning process.
3. What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
Teachers who use the Direct Method believe students need to associate meaning and the target language directly. In fact, the syllabus used in the Direct Method is based upon situations or topics. Grammar is taught inductively, that is, the students are presented with examples and they figure out the rule or generalization from the examples. An explicit grammar rule may never be given. Students practice vocabulary by using new words in complete sentences.
4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?
The initiation of the interaction goes both ways, from teacher to students and from student to teacher, although the latter is often teacher directed. Students converse with one another as well.
5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
There are no principles of the method which relate to this area.
6. How is language viewed? How is culture viewed?
Language is primarily spoken, not written. They also study culture consisting of the history of the people who speak the target language.
7. What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?
Vocabulary is emphasized over grammar. Thus the reading and writing exercises are based upon what the students practice orally first. Pronunciation also receives attention right from the beginning of a course.
8. What is the role of the student native language?
The students’ native language should not be used in the classroom.
9. How is evaluation accomplished?
In the Direct Method, students are asked to use the language, not to demonstrate their knowledge about the language. They are asked to do so using both oral and written skills.
10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?
The teacher, employing various techniques, tries to get students to self-correct whenever possible.
Reviewing the techniques
are there answers to the ten questions with which you agreed? Then the following techniques may also be useful. Of course, even if you did not agree with all the answers, there may be some techniques of the Direct Method you can adapt to your own approach to teaching.
Reading aloud
Students take turns reading sections of passage, play, or dialog out loud. At the end of each student’s turn, teacher uses gestures, pictures, realia, examples, or other means to make the meaning of the section clear.
Question and answer exercise
This exercise is conducted only in the target language. Students are asked questions and answer in full sentences so that they practice new words and grammatical structures.
Getting students to self-correct
The teacher of this class has the students self-correct by asking them to make a choice between what they said and an alternative answer supplied. Another possibility is for the teacher to repeat what the student said, stopping just before the error. The student knows that the next word was wrong.
Fill-in-the-blank exercise
This technique has already been discussed in the Grammar-Translation Method, but differs in its application in the Direct Method. The students would have induced the grammar rule they need to fill in the blanks from examples and practice with earlier parts of the lesson.
Dictation
The teacher reads the passage tree times. The first time the teacher reads it t normal speed, while the students just listen. The second time he reads the passage phrase by pharase, pausing long enough to allow students to write down what they have heard. The last time the teacher again reads at a normal speed, and students check their work.
Map drawing
The class included one example of a technique used to give listening comprehension practice. The students were given a map with the geographical features unnamed. The student then instructed the teacher to do the same thing with a map he had drawn on the blackboard. Each student could have a turn giving the teacher instructions for finding and labeling one geographical feature.
Paragraph writing
The teacher in this class asked the students to write a paragraph in their own words on the major geographical features of the United States. They could have done this from memory, or they could have used the reading passage in the lesson as a model.
Conclusion
Now that you have considered the principles and the techniques of the Direct Method somewhat, see what you can find of use for your own teaching situation.
The Grammar – Translation Method
Introduction
The grammar translation method formerly known as : the classical method; in the teaching of classic languages: Latin and Greek ( Chastain 1988 ). It purpose was to help student read and appreciate foreign language literature, and hoped that students become more familiar with their grammar of their native language through the study of the target language.
Experience
The students read a passage entitled “The Boys’ Ambition” by Mark Twain’s life on the Mississippi. Each student reads a few line and then translate what they have read into Spanish. The teacher gives them new vocabulary items. After finish reading and translating the passage, they are asked about their question in Spanish. For example: If one said : “What is paddle wheel? ”, the teacher replies : : Es una rueda de paletas”.
When the students have no questions, they will be asked to answer the comprehension questions at the end of the excerpt in English as well. The first question is taken as the example and it is discussed together but after that, the students will work all by their selves.
In addition, they have to answer in two types of questions. The first type is based on their understanding of the passage and the second one is related to their behavior or experience around the passage’s link. After that, the teacher guides in Spanish and students check their works. If the answer is correct, the lesson goes on but if it doesn’t, another student will be asked to help.
Listing is the next. Some words are taken from the passage, such as: ‘ambition’, ‘wharf’, etc and the students must name them in Spanish and contrary, some in English like: ‘love’, ‘noisy’, and ‘ugly’ must be matched with their opposite from the passage.
Cognates is: English words that look like Spanish words. Those in English which ended by ‘-ty’ in Spanish ended by ‘-dad’ and ‘-tat’. Example: possibility become possibilidad
The next section is deal with grammar. They review a description of two word or phrasal verbs. The new words that aren’t found in the passage must be translated into Spanish first.
The rule: If the two-word verb is separable, the direct object may come between the verb and its article. If the direct object is a pronoun, separation is necessary.
Ex : Jhon put away his book
Jhon put his book away are true
Other example : Jhon put away it
The teacher went the homework over are wrong
After reading over the clue and examples: students are asked to determined which words are separable and inseparable.
And to remain this week lesson, the students will be asked to:
1. Write out the translation of the reading passage into Spanish
2. State the rule for the use of direct object with 2 word verbs
3. Do the remaining exercise in the chapter with one set of irregular past participle forms
4. write their ambitions in target language
5. Memorize the vocabulary
6. Take a quiz on the grammar and vocabulary
REWRITING THE PRINCIPLES
1. The goal of teacher who use Grammar-Translation Method is: to be able to read literature written I the target language. In this part, students need to learn about the grammar rules and vocabulary of the target language.
2. The role of the teacher is: the authority in the classroom
The role of the students is: obey the teacher’s rule
3. Some characteristics of learning process is:
-Students are taught to translate from one language to others
-Students study grammar deductively
-Students learn grammatical paradigms like: verb conjunction
-Students memorize native language as well the target language vocabulary
4. The nature of the student-teacher interaction is : the most in the classroom while the nature of student-student interaction is little
5. The feelings of the students deal with : no principles of the methods are related to this area
6. The language viewed is : literary is considered superior to spoken language meanwhile culture is viewed as consisting of literature and the fine arts
7. Vocabulary and Grammar are areas of language emphasized. And on the other hand, in language skills : reading and writing are the primary work on the students
8. The role of the students’ native language:
Native language is the language that used in the most, because the meaning of target language will be clear if it translated into students’ native language
9. The evaluation is accomplished by : written test where students are asked to translate from their native to target language or vice versa. Also : questions about the target culture / grammar rules application.
10. The teacher responds the students error by : having the students get the correct answer
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES
• Translation of a literary passage
Translate a passage from the target language into native language . It focus on vocabulary and grammatical structures. The passages excerpt some particular grammar rules and vocabulary.
• Reading Comprehension
Students answer questions in target language based on their understanding of the passage. First group asking for information contained within the passage . Second group has to make inferences based on their understanding and the third group relates the passage to their own experience
• Antonym / Synonym
A set of words are given to be found either the synonym or the antonym from the passage
• Cognates
By learning the spelling or sound patterns that correspond between the languages. Memorize words that look like cognates but the meaning is different in native and target language
• Deductive application of rule
Grammar rules are presented with examples, including the excerption to each rules.
• Fill the blank
This is presented like games. Students are given series of sentences with words missing. And they have to fill them in with such vocabulary items like : preposition or verbs
• Memorization
Students are asked to memorize list of target language vocabulary list include grammatical rules and paradigms
• Use words in sentence and Composition
After learn words in phrasal verbs, they are asked to combine it into sentence then give them a topic to write about based on some aspect of the passage in the target language.
The grammar translation method formerly known as : the classical method; in the teaching of classic languages: Latin and Greek ( Chastain 1988 ). It purpose was to help student read and appreciate foreign language literature, and hoped that students become more familiar with their grammar of their native language through the study of the target language.
Experience
The students read a passage entitled “The Boys’ Ambition” by Mark Twain’s life on the Mississippi. Each student reads a few line and then translate what they have read into Spanish. The teacher gives them new vocabulary items. After finish reading and translating the passage, they are asked about their question in Spanish. For example: If one said : “What is paddle wheel? ”, the teacher replies : : Es una rueda de paletas”.
When the students have no questions, they will be asked to answer the comprehension questions at the end of the excerpt in English as well. The first question is taken as the example and it is discussed together but after that, the students will work all by their selves.
In addition, they have to answer in two types of questions. The first type is based on their understanding of the passage and the second one is related to their behavior or experience around the passage’s link. After that, the teacher guides in Spanish and students check their works. If the answer is correct, the lesson goes on but if it doesn’t, another student will be asked to help.
Listing is the next. Some words are taken from the passage, such as: ‘ambition’, ‘wharf’, etc and the students must name them in Spanish and contrary, some in English like: ‘love’, ‘noisy’, and ‘ugly’ must be matched with their opposite from the passage.
Cognates is: English words that look like Spanish words. Those in English which ended by ‘-ty’ in Spanish ended by ‘-dad’ and ‘-tat’. Example: possibility become possibilidad
The next section is deal with grammar. They review a description of two word or phrasal verbs. The new words that aren’t found in the passage must be translated into Spanish first.
The rule: If the two-word verb is separable, the direct object may come between the verb and its article. If the direct object is a pronoun, separation is necessary.
Ex : Jhon put away his book
Jhon put his book away are true
Other example : Jhon put away it
The teacher went the homework over are wrong
After reading over the clue and examples: students are asked to determined which words are separable and inseparable.
And to remain this week lesson, the students will be asked to:
1. Write out the translation of the reading passage into Spanish
2. State the rule for the use of direct object with 2 word verbs
3. Do the remaining exercise in the chapter with one set of irregular past participle forms
4. write their ambitions in target language
5. Memorize the vocabulary
6. Take a quiz on the grammar and vocabulary
REWRITING THE PRINCIPLES
1. The goal of teacher who use Grammar-Translation Method is: to be able to read literature written I the target language. In this part, students need to learn about the grammar rules and vocabulary of the target language.
2. The role of the teacher is: the authority in the classroom
The role of the students is: obey the teacher’s rule
3. Some characteristics of learning process is:
-Students are taught to translate from one language to others
-Students study grammar deductively
-Students learn grammatical paradigms like: verb conjunction
-Students memorize native language as well the target language vocabulary
4. The nature of the student-teacher interaction is : the most in the classroom while the nature of student-student interaction is little
5. The feelings of the students deal with : no principles of the methods are related to this area
6. The language viewed is : literary is considered superior to spoken language meanwhile culture is viewed as consisting of literature and the fine arts
7. Vocabulary and Grammar are areas of language emphasized. And on the other hand, in language skills : reading and writing are the primary work on the students
8. The role of the students’ native language:
Native language is the language that used in the most, because the meaning of target language will be clear if it translated into students’ native language
9. The evaluation is accomplished by : written test where students are asked to translate from their native to target language or vice versa. Also : questions about the target culture / grammar rules application.
10. The teacher responds the students error by : having the students get the correct answer
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES
• Translation of a literary passage
Translate a passage from the target language into native language . It focus on vocabulary and grammatical structures. The passages excerpt some particular grammar rules and vocabulary.
• Reading Comprehension
Students answer questions in target language based on their understanding of the passage. First group asking for information contained within the passage . Second group has to make inferences based on their understanding and the third group relates the passage to their own experience
• Antonym / Synonym
A set of words are given to be found either the synonym or the antonym from the passage
• Cognates
By learning the spelling or sound patterns that correspond between the languages. Memorize words that look like cognates but the meaning is different in native and target language
• Deductive application of rule
Grammar rules are presented with examples, including the excerption to each rules.
• Fill the blank
This is presented like games. Students are given series of sentences with words missing. And they have to fill them in with such vocabulary items like : preposition or verbs
• Memorization
Students are asked to memorize list of target language vocabulary list include grammatical rules and paradigms
• Use words in sentence and Composition
After learn words in phrasal verbs, they are asked to combine it into sentence then give them a topic to write about based on some aspect of the passage in the target language.