A.

APPROACH, METHOD, AND TECHNIQUE

In the century spanning the mid-l880s to the mid-l980s, the language-teaching

profession may be aptly characterized by a series of methods that rose and
declined in popularity. It appears that some practitioners in this time hoped to
define the ultimate method, one of that would be generalizable across widely
varying audiences, contexts, and languages. Historical accounts of the profession
tend to describe a succession of methods, each of which was more or less
discarded as a new method took its place (Larsen-Freeman, 2000; Richard &
Rodgers, 2001).

What is a method? About four decades ago Edward Anthony (I963) gave us a
definition that has admit-ably withstood the rest of time. His concept of "method"
was the second of three hierarchical elements, namely approach, method, and
technique. An approach. according to Anthony, was a set of assumptions dealing
with the nature of language, leaming, and teaching. Method was described as an
overall plan for systematic presentation of language based upon a selected
approach. Techniques were the specific activities manifested in the classroom that
were consistent with a method and therefore were in harmony with an approach as
well.

To this day, for better or worse. Anthony's terms are still in common use
among language teachers. For example, at the approach level, a teacher may
affirm the ultimate importance of learning in a relaxed state of mental awareness
just above the threshold or consciousness. The method that follows might
resemble, say, Suggestopedia (a description follows in this chapter). Techniques
could include playing baroque music while reading a passage in the foreign
language. getting students to sit in the yoga position while listening to a list of
words, or having learners adopt a new name in the classroom and role-play that
new person.

A couple of decades later Jack Richards and Theodore Rodgers (1982, 1986)
proposed a reformulation of the concept of "method.' Anthony's approach,
method, and technique were renamed, respectively, approach. design. And
procedure, with a superordinate term to describe this three-step process, now
called "method," A method, according to Richards and Rodgers, was "an umbrella
term for the specification and interrelation of theory and practice" (I 982: 154). An
approach defines assumptions, beliefs, and theories about the nature of language
and language learning. Designs specify the relationship of those theories to
classroom materials and activities. Procedures arc the techniques and practices
that arc derived from one's approach and design.

Through their reformulation, Richards and Rodgers made two principal

contributions to our understanding of the concept of method:

1. They specified the necessary elements of language-teaching designs that

had heretofore been left somewhat vague. Their schematic representation
of method described six important features of designs: objectives, syllabus
(criteria for selection and organization of linguistic and subject matter
content), activities, learner roles, teacher roles, and the role of instructional
materials.

2. Richards and Rodgers nudged us into at last relinquishing the notion that
separate, definable, discrete methods are the essential building blocks of
methodology. By helping us to think in terms of an approach that
undergirds our language designs (curricula), which arc realized by various
procedures (techniques), we could see that methods. as we still use and
understand the term, are too restrictive, too pre-programmed, and too "pre-
packaged." Virtually all language-teaching methods make the
oversimplified assumption that what teachers “do" in the classroom can be
conventionalized into a set of procedures that fit all contexts. We are now
all too aware that such is clearly not the case.

Richards and Rodgers's reformulation of the concept of method was soundly

conceived; however, their attempt to give new meaning to an old term did not
catch on in the pedagogical literature. What they wanted us to call "method" is
more comfortably referred to, I think, as "methodology in order to avoid
confusion with what we will no doubt always think of as those separate entities
(like Audiolingual or Suggestopedia) that are no longer at the centre of our
teaching philosophy.
 Another terminological problem lies in the use of the term designs; instead,
we more comfortably refer to curricula or syllabuses when we refer to design
features of a language program.

What are we left with in this lexicographic confusion? It is interesting that the
terminology of the pedagogical literature in the field appears to be more in line
with Anthony's original terms, but with some important additions and refinements.

Methodology: Pedagogical practices in general (including theoretical

underpinnings and related research). Whatever considerations are involved in
"how to reach” are methodological.

Approach: Theoretically well-informed positions and beliefs about the nature

of language, the nature of language learning, and the applicability of both lo
pedagogical settings.

Method: A generalized set of classroom specifications for accomplishing

linguistic objectives. Methods tend to be concerned primarily with teacher and
Student roles and behaviours and secondarily with such features as linguistic and
subject-matter objectives, sequencing, and materials. They are almost always
thought of as being broadly applicable to a variety of audiences in a variety of
contexts.

Curriculum/syllabus: Designs for carrying out a particular language program.

Features include a primary concern with the specification of linguistic and
subject-matter objectives, sequencing, and materials to meet the needs of a
designated group of learners in a defined context. (The term "syllabus” is usually
used more customarily in the United Kingdom to refer co what is called a
"curriculum" in the United States.)

Technique (also commonly referred to by other terms): Any of a wide variety

of exercises, activities, or tasks used in the language classroom for realizing
lesson objectives.

B. CHANGING WINDS AND SHIFTlNG SANDS

 Albert Marckwardt (1972: 5) saw these "changing winds and shifting sands”
as a cyclical pattern in which a new method emerged about every quarter of a
century. Each new method broke from the old hut rook with it some of the
positive aspects of the previous practices. A good example of this cyclical nature
of methods is found in the "revolutionary" Audiolingual method (ALM) (a
description follows) of the mid-twentieth century. The ALM borrowed tenets from
its predecessor the Direct Method by almost half a century while breaking away
entirely from the Grammar Translation Method. Within a short time, however,
ALM critics were advocating more attention to thinking, to cognition, and to rule
learning, which to some smacked of a return to Grammar Translation!

What follows is a sketch of the changing winds and shifting sands of language
teaching over the rears.

C. THE GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD

Latin, thought to promote intellectuality through "mental gymnastics; was

until relatively recently held to be indispensable to an adequate higher education.
Latin was taught by means of what has been called the Classical Method: focus on
grammatical rules, memorization of vocabulary and of various declensions and
conjugations, translations of texts, doing written exercises.

As Other languages began to be taught in educational institutions in the

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Classical Method was adopted as the
chief means for teaching foreign languages. Little thought was given to teaching
someone how to speak the language; after all, languages were not being taught
primarily to learn oral/aural communication, but to learn for the sake of being
"scholarly" or, in some instances, for gaining a reading proficiency in a foreign
language. Since there was little if any theoretical research on second language
acquisition in general or on the acquisition of reading proficiency, foreign
languages were taught as any other skill was taught.

ln the nineteenth century the Classical Method came to be known as the

Grammar Translation Method. There was little to distinguish Grammar
Translation from what had gone on in foreign language classrooms for centuries
beyond a focus on grammatical rules as the basis for translating from the second
to the native language. Remarkably, the Grammar Translation Method withstood
attempts at the turn of the twentieth century to "reform" language-teaching
methodology (see Gouin's Series Method and the Direct Method, below), and to
this day it is practiced in too many educational contexts. Prator and Celce-Murcia
(I 979: 3) listed the major characteristics of Grammar Translation:

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

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

3. Long, elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given.

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

5. Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early.

6. Little attention is paid to the cement of texts, which arc treated as exercises
in grammatical analysis.

7. Often the only drills arc exercises in translating disconnected sentences

from the target language into the mother tongue.

8. Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.

On the other hand, one can understand why Grammar Translation remains so
popular. It requires few specialized skills on the part of teachers. Tests of grammar
rules and of translations are easy to construct and can be objectively scored. Many
standardized tests of foreign languages still do not attempt to tap into
communicative abilities, so students have little motivation to go beyond grammar
analogies, translations, and rote exercises. And it is sometimes successful in
leading a student toward a reading knowledge of a second language. But, as
Richards and Rodgers (1986: 5) pointed out, "it has no advocates. It is a method
for which there is no theory. There is no literature that offers a rationale or
justification for it or that attempts to relate it to issues in linguistics, psychology,
or educational theory" As you continue to examine language-teaching
methodology, you will understand more fully the “theorylessness” of the
Grammar Translation Method.

D. GOUIN AND THE SERIES METHOD

The history of “modern” foreign language teaching may be said to have begun
in the late 1800s with Francois Gouin, a French teacher of Latin with remarkable
insights. Gouin had to go through a very painful set of experiences in order to
derive his insights. Having decided in midlife to learn German, he took up
residency in Hamburg for one year. But rather than attempting to converse with
the natives, he engaged in a rather bizarre sequence of attempts to “master” the
language. In the course of the year in Germany, Gouin memorized books,
translated Goethe and Schiller, and even memorized 30.000 words in a German
dictionary, all in the isolation of his room, only to be crushed by his failure to
understand German afterward. At the end of the year Gouin, having reduced the
Classical Method to absurdity, was forced to return home, a failure.

But there was a happy ending. After returning home, Gouin discovered that his
three year old nephew had, during that year gone thought the wonderful stage of
child language acquisition in which he went from saying virtually nothing at all to
becoming a veritable chatterbox of French. Gouin spent a great deal of time
observing his nephew and other children and come to the following conclusion:
Language Learning is primarily a matter of transforming perceptions into
conceptions. So Gouin set about devising a teaching method best on these insight.
And thus the Series Method was created, a method that taught learners directly
and conceptually a “series” of connected sentences that are easy to perceive.

E. THE DIRECT METHOD

The “Naturalistic” simulating the “natural” way in which children learn first
languages approaches of Gouin and a few of his contemporaries did not take hold
immediately. A generation later applied linguistics finally established the
credibility of such approaches. Thus it was that at the turn of the century, the
Direct Method became quite widely known and practiced.
 Richards and Rodgers (1986:9-10) summarized the principles of the Direct
Method:

1. Classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target

language

2. Only everyday vocabulary and sentence were taught

3. Oral communication skills were built up in a carefully traded

progression organized around question and answer exchanges between
teachers and students in small, intensive classes.

4. Grammar was taught inductively

5. New teaching points were taught through modeling and practice

6. Concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstration, objects, and

pictures abstract vocabulary was taught by association of ideas

7. Both speech and listening comprehension were taught

8. Correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized

The Direct Method enjoyed considerable popularity at the beginning of the

twentieth century. One of the best known of its popularizers was Charles Berlitzs.
In the middle of the twentieth century, the Direct Method was revived and
redirected into what was probably the most visible of all language teaching
“revolution” in the modern era, the Audio Lingual Method.

F. THE AUDIO LINGUAL METHOD

In the half of the twentieth century, the Direct Method did not take hold in the
United State the way it did in Europe. The highly influential Coleman Report
(Coleman, 1929) had persuaded foreign language teachers that it was impractical
to teach oral skills and that reading should became the focus. Thus school returned
in the 1930s and 1940s to Grammar Translation, “the handmaiden of
reading”(Bowen, Madsen, and hilferty,1985).

Than World War II broke out, and suddenly the United State was thrust into a
worldwide conflict, heightening the need for Americans to become orally
proficient in the languages of both their allies and their enemies. The U.S military
provided the impetus with funding for special, language courses that focused on
aural/oral skills, these course came to be known as the (ASTP). Characteristic of
these courses was a great deal of oral cavity pronunciation and pattern drills and
conversation practice with virtually none of the grammar and translation found in
traditional classes. In all its variations and adaptations the Army Method came to
be known in the 1950s as the Audiolingual Method.

The Audiolingual Method was firmly grounded in linguistic and psychological

theory. The characteristics of the ALM may be summed up in the following list
(adapted from Prator and Celce Murcia 1979)

1. New material is presented in dialog form

2. There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases, and

over learning

3. Structures are sequenced by means of conservatives analysis and

taught one at a time

4. Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills

5. There is little or no grammatical explanation. Grammar is taught by

inductive analogy rather than by deductive explanation

6. Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context

7. There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids

8. Great importance is attached to pronunciation

9. Very little use of the mother to teachers is permitted

10. Successful responses are immediately reinforced

11. There is a great effort to get students to produce error free utterances

12. There is a tendency to manipulate language and disregard content

For a number of reasons, the ALM enjoyed many years of popularity, and
even to this day, adaptation of the ALM are found in contemporary
methodologies. Challenged by Wilga Rivers’s (1964) eloquent criticism of the
misconceptions of the ALM and by its ultimate failure to teach long-term
communicative proficiency, the ALM’s popularity waned.

4. Total Physical Response

James Asher (1977), the developer of Total Physical Response (TPR), actually
began experimenting with TPR in the 1960s, but it was almost a decade before the
method was widely discussed in professional circles. TodayTPR. with simplicity
as its most appealing facet, is a household word among language teachers.
Gouin designed his Series Method on the premise that language associated
with a series of simple actions will be easily retained by learners. Much later,
psychologists developed the •trace theory" of learning in which it was claimed
that memory is increased if it is stimulated, or "traced." through association with
motor activity.
Asher (1977) noted that children,in learning their first language, appear to do a
lot of listening before they speak, and that their listening is accompanied by
physical responses (reaching, grabbing, moving,
looking, and so forth). According 10 Asher, motor activity is a right-brain function
that should precede lcft·br:1in language processing. Asher was also convinced
that language classes were often the locus of 100 much anxiety, so he wished to
devise a method that was as stress-free as possible. where learners would not feel
overly self-conscious and defensive. The TPR classroom, then, was one in which
students did a great deal of listening and acting. TI1c teacher was very directive in
orchestrating a performance: "The instructor is the director of a stage play in
which the students are the actors.

5. The Natural Approach

In fact, the Natural Approach advocated the use of TPR activities at the
beginning level of language learning when "comprehensible input" is essential for
triggering the acquisition of language.
There are a number of possible long-range goals of language instruction. In
some cases, second languages arc learned for oral communication; in other cases
for written communication; and in still others there may be an academic emphasis
on, say, listening to lectures, speaking in a classroom context. or writing a
research paper. The Natural Approach was aimed at the goal of basic personal
communication skills, that is, everyday language situations-coversations,
shopping, listening to the radio, and the like. The initial task of the teacher was to
provide comprehensible input, that is, spoken language that is understandable to
the learner or just a little beyond the learner's level. Learners need not say
anything during this "silent period" until they feel ready to do so the teacher was
the source of the learners' input and the creator of an interesting and stimulating
variety of classroom activities- commands. games, skits, and small-group work.
In the Natural Approach, learners presumably move through what Krashen
and Terrell defined as three stages:
(a)The preproduction stage is the development of listening comprehension skills.
(b)The early production stage is usually marked with errors as the student
struggles with the language. The teacher focuses on meaning here. not on form,
and therefore the teacher does not make a point of correcting errors doting th.is
stage (unless they arc gross errors that block or hinder meaning entirely).
(c)The last stage is one of extending production into longer stretches of discourse
involving more
complex games, role-plays, open-ended dialogues, discussions. and extended
small-group work.

I. FUNCTIONAL SYLLABUSES
Beginning with the work of the Council of Europe (Van Ek & Alexander
1975) and later followed by numerous interpretations of •notional• syllabuses
(Wilkins 1976), Notional-Functional Syllabuses (hereafter referred to as NFS)
began to be used in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
The distinguishing characteristics of the NFS were its attention to functions as
the organizing clements of English language curriculum. and its contrast with a
structural syllabus in which sequenced grammatical structures served as the
organizers.
 "Notions," according to Van Ek and Alexander (1975), are both general and
spectnc. General notions are abstract concepts such as existence, space, time,
quantity, and quality. They arc domains in which we use language to express
thought and feeling. Within the general notion of space and time, for example, arc
the concepts of location, motion, dimension, speed, length of time, frequency, etc.
"Specific notions" correspond more closely to what we have become accustomed
to calling "contexts" or "situations: Personal identification, for example, is a
specific notion under which name, address, phone number, and other personal
information are subsumed. Other specific notions include travel, health and
welfare, education, shopping,
services, and free time.
In Brown (1999), for example, the following functions are covered in the first
several lessons of an advanced beginner's textbook:
I. Introducing self and other people
2. Exchanging personal information
3. Asking how to spell someone's name
4. Giving commands
5. Apologizing and thanking
6. Identifying and describing people
7. Asking for information

J. TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION, ACTION, AND RESEARCH

l. (I) Since this chapter refers to some basic principles and issues that are normally
covered in a course in second language acquisition and Mitchell and Myles 1998),
it is quite important at this point for you to review such material. For example,
varied theories of learning are implied in all the methods just reviewed: the role of
affective factors in second language acquisition is highlighted in some methods;
conscious and subconscious
(or focal and peripheral) processing assumes various roles, depending on the
method in question. If you encountered concepts or issues that you needed to
brush up on as you read this chapter, make some lime for a thorough review.
2. (G) Given the choice of Richards and Rodgers's or Anthony's earlier model of
looking at the concepts of approach, method, design, procedure, and technique,
which is preferable? Direct small groups to discuss preferences. If there is
disagreement, groups should try to come to a consensus. Make sure groups deal
with Richards and Rodgers's rationale for the change,
3. (G) Consider the Series Method, the Direct Method, and the Audiolingu:11
Method. Assign a different method co each of several small groups. The task i, lo
list the theoretical foundations on which the method rested and share findings with
the whole class.
4. (C) Richards and Rodgers (1986: ;) said Grammar Translation "is a method for
which there is no theory." Is this too harsh a judgment? Ask students if they agree
with the theorylessness of Grammar Translation and why.
5. (G/C) Review the five "designer" methods (class size permits, assign a method
to each of five different small groups, where each group will "defend" its method
against the Others. TI1c group task is to prepare arguments in favor of its method,
questions to ask of other methods, and counter-arguments against what other
groups might ask them. After a modified debate, end with a whole-class
discussion.
6. (C) Three of the five "designer" methods (CLL, Silent Way, and Suggestopedia)
were (and still are, to some extent) proprietary, with their own commercial
publishing and educational company. Ask students 10 consider how that fact
might color (a) the objectively with which its hackers promote each method and
(b) public reception to it?
7. (C) Chapter 1 described a classroom lesson in English as a second language.
Ask students 10 look hack through that lesson now and, in light of the various
methodological positions that have occupied the last century or so of language
teaching, 10 determine how the activities/techniques in the lesson reflect some of
the theoretical foundations on which certain methods were constructed. For
example. when the teacher did a quick choral drill, how would one support that
technique with principles that lay behind the ALM?
8. (G/C) Ask students in small groups to review the cycles of "shifting sands"
since Gouin's time. How did each new method borrow from previous practices.
What did each reject in previous practices? Each group will then share their
conclusions with the rest of the class. On the board, you might reconstruct the
historical progression in the form of a time line with characteristic, listed for each
era." If time permits, try to determine what the prevailing intellectual or political
mood was when certain methods were flowering. For example, the ALM was a
product of a military training program and flourished during an era when
scientific solutions to all problems were diligently sought.