UNIT 1: THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE TEACHING.

CONTEMPORARY TRENDS
IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. THE
COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE TEACHING
a. THE INTRODUCTION OF MODERN LANGUAGES IN SCHOOLS
b. THE GRAMMAR-TRNSLATION METHOD
c. THE REFORM MOVEMENT
d. THE DIRECT METHOD
e. THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD
f. THE INFLUENCE OF COGNITIVISM
3. CONTEMPORARY TRENDS IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN
LANGUAGE
a. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN APPROACH AND METHOD
b. THE SILENT WAY
c. COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING
d. SUGGESTOPEDIA
e. TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR)
f. CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES
4. THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
a. ORIGINS
b. DESCRIPTION OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING
c. CONTEPORARY TRENDS IN CLT
5. CONCLUSION
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. INTRODUCTION

Learning a foreign language resembles somehow a pilgrimage to a far city. The journey is
sometimes enjoyable and easy, but sometimes the road to success is winding and uphill. The foreign
language learner always wants to take the easiest and fastest way to achieve their goal, that is why,
along history, a multiplicity of learning methods and approaches have been proposed. From the
Grammar-Translation Method to the most contemporary Communicative approach, all of them have
tried to provide a solution to the need of learning foreign languages. In this topic, we will analyse
the different trends that took place up until the 1960s and those which appeared afterwards,
including ultimately today’s most used Communicative Approach.

2. THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE TEACHING

Richards and Rodgers (1986) acknowledge that the changes that have taken place in the way we
teach foreign languages reflect the changing reality of this need across history. Today, bilingualism
and multilingualism are the norm rather than the exception. As a matter of fact, the Common
European Framework for the Reference of Languages (CEFR) establishes that Multilingualism is
the natural state of a European citizen. At first, Latin was the dominant language of education,
commerce, religion and government, so it was the language that was taught in schools primarily.
Then, in the 16th century, other languages made their way through the educational system thanks to

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the rise of the colonial empires that come to being. As the languages of the empires (Spanish,
French, Italian and English) took over, Latin started to lose importance. However, the model that
had been used for teaching Latin was the one used for teaching the other languages, and this was so
up until the 19th century, when new approaches started to appear.

2.1 The introduction of modern languages in schools

When modern languages began to be introduced in schools in Europe, it was normal that the
method they used to teach those languages was the one that had previously been used for teaching
Latin. Thus, textbooks consisted of statements of abstract grammar rules, lists of vocabulary and
sentences for translation. The goal of language teaching had always been to enable students to read
Latin, so the oral practice was left out. This was the regular practice of language teaching up until
the first half of the 20th century. In time, the method came to be known as the Grammar-Translation
Method.

2.2 The Grammar-Translation Method

Being the offspring of German scholarship, it was at first know in the USA as the Prussian Method.
The GT method dominated Europe until the 1940s. Richards and Rodgers defend that this method,
though discredited for multiple reasons, is still useful in contexts where understanding the written
language is the essential. Its main characteristics were:

- The goal is to learn a language in order to read its literature or to benefit from the mental
discipline and intellectual development. Thus, reading and writing are the focus. There is no
attention paid to listening and speaking.
- Language is studied through the analysis of grammar rules followed by the application of
these rules to exercises of translating sentences to and from the target language.
- Accuracy is emphasised over fluently, as there is no focus on the part of production.
- Vocabulary is taught through bilingual lists to be memorised and it is based on the texts
analysed and translated.
- Grammar is taught deductively by presentation and study of grammar rules.

2.3 The Reform Movement

In the late 19th century, teachers and linguists saw an urgent need for new approaches due to recent
changes in society, as for example, the expansion of railways in Europe which had allowed for
people to move around different countries in an easy way. Linguists like Henry Sweet in England
and others in Germany and France, together with the recent discoveries in the field of Phonetics,
came up with a number of ideas which revolutionised language teaching. The main ideas they
proposed were:

- The goal of study is spoken language.

- There must be phonetic training to establish good pronunciation habits.
- The target language must be conversational and oral, presented through conversation and
dialogues. The learner must hear before he can read.
- Words must be presented in sentences which are contextually meaningful.
- Grammar should be taught inductively, only after the learner has practised it.
- Translation should be avoided.

2.4 The Direct Method

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As a reaction against the GTM, the Natural Method appears. It was implemented by Sauveur in his
language school in Boston in the late 1860s. He believed that language could be taught without
translation if meaning was conveyed through demonstration and action, and grammar should be
learned inductive. This method gave the basis for the Direct Method, whose main tenets are:
- All communication in the classroom is made in the target language.
- The focus is everyday language.
- Listening comprehension and oral production are paramount; thus, the dynamics is
organised around question/answer exchanges between teachers and students.
- Grammar is taught inductively.
- Correctness in pronunciation and grammar is emphasised.
- The teaching of vocabulary is made through demonstration, objects and pictures.

This Method was quite successful in private language schools but its use started to decay by the
1920s outside of this context. Its main problems were the lack of enough external input as students
were not surrounded by the target language 24/7 and also the neurological connections created
by/for the mother tongue, which are not the same for a second or foreign language.

1.5 The Audio-Lingual Method

In the late 1920s appeared in the USA a series of teaching methodologies based on Structuralism.
Structuralism understood language learning as the mastery of the elements of the language and the
rules by which they are governed, from the phoneme, morpheme, the word and the sentence. For
this reason, oral language is paramount in structural linguistics, as we learn to speak before we learn
to read or write.

The Audio-Lingual method appeared in the USA in the late 1950s from a mixture of Structuralism
and Behavioural theories. For behaviourists, learning is a mechanical process of habit formation,
which is created by repetition of a stimulus-answer sequence. Thus, the pattern for learning a
second language is the one used for learning the mother tongue, which is done by imitation. For
them, learning consists basically of overcoming the differences between the mother tongue and the
second language.

A typical lesson based on the Audio-Lingual Method would be as follows:

1- Introduce the new linguistic issue, clearly demonstrating its meaning through non-verbal
means.
2- Show the target patter using examples.
3- The whole class participates in the mimics/memorisation following the pattern shown by the
teacher.
4- Progressive substitution activity, followed by a split of the group in two, followed by
individual answers.
5- Repetition of the first four steps using negative versions of the target.
6- Repetition of the first four steps using interrogative versions of the target.
7- Check the transfer by means of non-practised items. Ask for individual and group answers.

This method, however, presented a series of problems such as the fact that it conveys linguistic
accuracy but not fluency, as it is based on repetition drills, creating robot-like learners. Also, this
method lacks the capability of solving the gap between the theory learnt and the application to real-
life situations.

1.6 The Influence of Cognitivism

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In the 1960s, the behaviourist theory of learning and its didactic correlative, the audio-lingual
method was sharply criticised by Noam Chomsky. His generative grammar theory claimed that the
main characteristics of language are derived from mental innate aspects and through them, humans
process experience through language. Therefore, by applying a finite set of rules, an infinite range
of experiences can be expressed. Thus, learning is not based on habit formation, but on rational
acquisition of the finite set of rules. The human mind does not respond to stimuli mechanically, but
looks for the system or structure underlying them. This line of argument leads to the notion of
linguistic competence and it opened the way to cognitivism, which considers that the learner is an
active participant in the learning process. Cognitivism does not constitute an approach or method
but has had such influence on other methods, such as the questioning of the Audio-Lingual Method,
that it created a crisis in the USA that has not yet been solved and it gave rise to the rise of the
Communicative Approach, which will be dealt with later on.

3. CONTEMPORARY TRENDS IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN

LANGUAGE

As a reaction to the unsatisfactory results of traditional methods in the teaching of modern

languages, in the 60s and 70s appears in the USA the Language Learning Research Movement,
whose aim was to deepen into the nature of second/foreign language learning process. Also, in the
60s and 70s we find the appearance of the Humanistic Approach, where the teacher pays special
attention to the human values and relationships within the classroom, the learner is the centre of the
process of teaching-learning and the hidden curriculum is especially dealt with. However, before
describing the methodologies included in this trend, it is important to distinguish between approach
and method.

3.1 The distinction between approach and method

In 1963, Edward Anthony identified three levels of conceptualisation and organisation regarding the
theory of language and the theories concerning how languages are learned. These three levels are
approach, method and technique. Richards and Rodgers define approach as the level at which
assumptions and beliefs about language learning are specified; method is the level at which theory
is put into practice and at which choices are made about the particular skills, content and the order
in which it must be taught. Finally, technique is the level at which classroom procedures are
described.

3.2 The Silent Way: it is student-centred and gives special attention to the learner’s psychology
during the learning process. The teacher uses silence as an approximate tool, in the sense of
introducing each situation in the simplest possible way, while constantly taking into account
the comprehension, the situations and the contents. According to Richards and Rodgers, the
learning in this method is facilitated when the learner discovers or creates actively instead of
repeating or remembering. Learning is also facilitated by physical objects and also by
problem-solving, involving the item to be learned. As for grammar and lexicon, this method
follows a syllabus designed with structuralist criteria. The main innovation is in the
arrangement of activities inside the classroom, as the teacher tries to speak just 10% of the
duration of the class and communication takes place through gestures, mimics and visual
aid.

3.3 Community Language Learning: it is student-centred and it focuses on the affective needs
of the learner, which are paramount in order to make the foreign language learning process
possible. Language is understood as a social process, therefore the traditional definition of
communication as sender-message-receiver becomes insufficient. CLL aims at a cognitive
and affective learning, and after this process the learner must become autonomous in their

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 own learning. In order to achieve this objective, the learner needs to have four psychological
requirements represented by the acronym SARD: Security (he must be feel sure to achieve
success), Attention and aggression (because interest and participation are necessary to
learn), Retention and reflection to integrate the new items in the conceptual structure of the
learner, and Discrimination (classifying the new items and relating them to previously
known ones). However, this method has been criticised for the lack of adequacy of the
psychological base for the language learner, and the orientation and special training that the
teacher must receive in order to be able to carry out this methodology, as well as the absence
of a established syllabus.

3.4 Suggestopedia: Developed by the Bulgarian psychiatrist Lozanov, it was labelled a

revolution in language teaching. According to its creator, the human mind can reach
unexpected levels of memory if trained in the right circumstanced, which includes the
decoration of the classroom, arrangement of furniture, music, etc. This method tries to
exploit the hidden potential of the human mind by getting the learner into a state of deep
relaxation, close to hypnosis, by using yoga, rhythmic breathing and readings with music.
Suggestopedia states that it is the learner who must establish their own pace of learning and
objectives. The methodology typically lasts thirty days of working on a dialogue which
includes a vocabulary list and a grammar reference, and it includes imitation, role plays and
questions and answers, but especially listening activities.

3.5 Total Physical Response (TPR): Developed in 1977, it states that the process of learning a
second language in an adult is similar to that of a native language in a child. Before
producing verbal response, a child replies physically to commands given. Therefore, the
main objective of the TPR is to achieve a beginner’s level of oral skills. The adult, as the
child, should begin the learning process through physical action, and reach a productive
action only after a sufficient level has been attained. As for the syllabus, it follows a
structuralist point of view as to the presentation of grammar. The learner is primarily a
listener and performer, whereas the teacher plays an active and direct role, therefore it is
teacher-centred and that is one of the reasons why this method has been harshly criticised
and questioned.

3.6 Contemporary approaches: since the late 1980s and early 1990s, a number of new
methods have been proposed, amongst which we may highlight the following:

3.6.1 Computer Aided Language Learning (CALL): it may be defined as ‘the search for
and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning’. It has
evolved out of early efforts to find ways of using the computer for teaching or for
instructional purposes. For educators, the rapid introduction of new technology into
education has outpaced the ability of teachers to evaluate it properly. We may find
software development tools for projects, programming languages such as C, C+, C++
and Visual Basic or a language to publish on the World Wide Web (www) such as
Hypertext and HTML.
3.6.2 Content-based Instruction (CBI): it is based on a utilitarian conception of the target
language, it is oriented towards the acquisition of information and knowledge and it
allows for a high degree of innovative creation as it involves the learner in their own
process of language acquisition. It may be defined as the integration of particular content
with language-teaching aims.
3.6.3 Task-based approaches (1990-): it is a methodological idea which attempts to get away
from Presentation-Practice-Production (PPP) altogether. Students are not taught
language points in advance, but rather are given communicative tasks to prepare for.

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 These tasks require them to ask the teacher to give them whatever language bits they
might need in order to fulfil the task.

4. THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

4.1 Origins

Communicative language teaching has its origins in diverse factors which converged in the early
1960s. On the one hand, the words of the linguist Noam Chomsky which presented the tenets of
generative transformational grammar. On the other hand, the contributions of British applied
linguists who established the need to focus language teaching on communicative proficiency, and
not on an exclusive mastery of structures.
Another major cause for the communicative shift came from the transformation of educational
systems in Europe. The development of the European Common Market and the Council of Europe
focused on education as one of the major strategies for consolidation, and they sponsored
international conferences on language teaching, as well as the publication of monographs and books
about this topic.

4.2 Description of CLT

4.2.1 Approach

It is essential to understand CLT as an approach and not as a method. Its main features are the
following:
- The goal of language teaching is communicative competence, in opposition to
Chomsky’s linguistic competence. Actually, the term ‘communicative’ is to be
understood as referring to the process and to the goals of learning.
- The four language skills must be taught in a comprehensive way (listening, reading,
writing, speaking).

A central theoretical point of CLT is communicative competence, which is defined as the

expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning, and looks to second-language acquisition
research to account for its development. Then, CLT can be seen to derive from a multidisciplinary
perspective that includes linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and
educational research. This theory of language understands language as communication, therefore
the goal of language teaching is to develop communicative competence, that is to say, what a
speaker needs to know to be communicatively competent. To speak a language properly implies as
a consequence not only knowledge of the language, but the ability to use it in different registers
according to the situation.

4.2.2 Design

Essentially, the objectives of CLT reflect the needs of the learner (it is learner-centred). In this
sense, its target is to develop a communicative competence on the part of learners. This competence
must include functional skills as well as linguistic objects.

One of the most controversial issues of CLT has been the syllabus design: while some believe that
the syllabus issue should be abandoned altogether, others propose that the syllabus should be
centred on a grammatical base. However, in a general sense, a CLT syllabus must include:
structures, functions, notions, themes, tasks, situations, and cultural and experimental aspects.

4.2.3 Procedure

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A standard communicative session presents the following structure:

1. Pre-communicative activities, which include structural practice, quasi-communicative

activities, functional practice and social context.
2. Communicative activities, which include functional communicative activities (like sharing
information or identifying pictures) and processing information (like reconstructing-story-
sequences).
3. Social interaction activities, which include classroom management, cross-curricular
teaching, role-playing and simulations.

Thus, a typical lesson according to the principals aforementioned would be as follows:

1. Motivation and presentation of a brief dialogue in a situation close to the learner’s reality.
2. Oral practice of each utterance.
3. Questions and answers on the dialogue and the situation, or about the student’s personal
experiences concerning a similar situation.
4. Study one of the communicative expressions in the dialogue.
5. Discovery of generalisations or rules underlying the functional expression or structure.
6. Listening comprehension activities.
7. Oral production activities (from guided to free communication).
8. Imitation of dialogues.
9. Evaluation of learning.

4.3 Contemporary trends in CLT

Savignon (2006) recognises three major themes emerging within the field of CLT in the 21 st
century:

1. The highly-contextualised nature of CLT is constantly underscored. For him, CLT is an

approach that understands the language to be inseparable from individual identity and social
behaviour. A language defines a society and the society defines how a language is used.
2. In relation to the understanding of language as culture in motion and to the fact that most of
the world population is immersed, the term ‘native speaker’ has become useless.
3. Assessment seems to be test-bound as regardless of the level of the learner or their willing to
progress and continue their learning, they ultimately need to prepare for standardised
examinations which in some cases will determine their access to university degrees.

5. CONCLUSION

This unit shows the major trends in the history of language teaching, together with a description of
their fundamental principles, their objectives and their procedures and techniques. As observed
during the description of the evolution of methodologies, the history of language teaching goes
hand in hand with that of theories of language. When the GT Method was found to be insufficient,
the tenets of Saussure and later those of Behaviourism conceived language as a system of
grammatical rules and lexical items to be learnt in a stimulus-response-reward sequence. Then, con
Transformational Grammar challenged this conception, language teaching adopted a prominent
communicative approach which continues today.

Regarding the didactic application of this unit, we as teachers will not explain the different
methodologies to our students, but we can apply what we have learnt about the evolution of

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language teaching to everyday practice, in the materials used, the syllabus design and in the focus of
interaction. By analysing the different methods for teaching languages, we can come up with a
combination of what best suits the characteristics of our learners and provide a comprehensive way
of teaching.