English Language Teaching (ELT)

Our field is pretty unique, but nonetheless it's really interesting. Our field of English Language Teaching (ELT) wasn't born out of main stream teaching and education, but out of Linguistics: a subject with no relationship to education. I suppose, it's because of that, we've evolved our own ideas, experiences, concepts and things. Today, ELT is perhaps the most dynamic group within the education sector.

We've gone through our phases, and so here's are the highlights of our evolving teaching teaching methods and approaches:

Grammar Translation Method. Over two hundred years ago, the countries, which today make up Germany, were separate sovereign states. The business people and traders here were literally in the centre of European trade. If they wanted to sell or buy goods that weren't available locally or abroad, they typically had to use other country's language when they traveled. Before the days of language schools, these traders had to teach themselves other languages. What they did was they got a novel and a bilingual dictionary, and simply translated it. Over the course of time, this evolved into what we've got today: worksheets where students practice transforming, and using sentences and vocabulary. It was good for grammar, vocabulary and spelling, but not for listening, pronunciation and communication.

The Natural Way (aka: The Berlitz Method). Was devised over a hundred years ago, by a guy who figured that you can just teach people by telling them things, they would 'naturally' pick it up; much in the same way as a child learns her first language. The assumption is, if it works for children, it should work for adults. This idea holds some water, especially as this guy started the oldest commercial language school in the world: Berlitz. However, this ignores the fact that the 'critical period' (the ages of 0 to about 13) is where we are sensitive to languages, after which, language learning becomes difficult. Today, Berlitz is now moving on from that and is taking up a teaching approach that has far more scientific support and real success: The Task Based Approach.

Audio-Lingual Method. This was born out of the US Army's need at the conclusion of WWII to train their grunts into being able to speak to the locals. It was found that there weren't enough competent Japanese speakers (or German speakers) for them to be able to do their job in those countries. They also considered future needs. So, they asked a Linguist (not a language teacher, not an educator, not an educational psychologist, nor even a languages professor) to devise a way to get the G.I's able to make moves on the native women. So, the Audio-Lingual Method was born. Simply put, it's 'listen and repeat; listen and repeat; and listen and repeat'. There was no communicative element to it, and so by the late 1960's the call to dump it was too great.

Others. There were others in the 1950's: The Community Language Learning (CLL) Method (each student in turn recording one word at a time onto a cassette); Suggestopedia (students are in a trance-like state in large comfortable arm chairs whilst the teacher speaks to them); and Total Physical Response (used mostly in children's lessons today). Most of these were dreamt up by people who just jumped on the 'invent a method' band wagon.

Methods and Approaches: Basically put, a Method is like a template for a lesson plan. It was strictly adhered to, and you just simply 'plugged in' the language needed for the lesson. Preparation was minimal, and real success was also minimal. Approaches, by contrast are free of such strict lesson plans, and the 'approach' is a philosophy of either what a language is, or a philosophy of how successful language acquisition can be achieved. Today, we've mostly dumped Methods.

Communicative Language Teaching Approach. Was thought up in Europe, and that's where it got most of it's support, and where it got most of its success. Essentially, it viewed actual communication as the central element of language use, and therefore language learning. It used practice as a means of instilling knowledge, and it re-introduced grammar activities and vocabulary activities used in the earlier part of the 20th century, albeit, in games formats. It's still quite popular today, but not so much in traditional countries, where passing exams are important (see Li 1998). Most textbooks today (like Headway and New Interchange) were designed around these principles. Though, talking as a means of learning (Skehan 1998) is kind of like going on a hike with no map.

Task Based Learning Approach (aka Task-Based Teaching). Is essentially the newest kid on the block, and with the most scientific support, suggesting it's the most efficient teaching approach that we have today, and anyone who uses it, isn't just awesome, but totally trendy. Essentially, the idea is you follow a 'Test, Teach, Test' lesson format. Test: give students train time tables and tell them to find a way to get from City A to City B, and monitor. Once you've seen their common problems, then you Teach, to fill in their specific gaps in language. Then test again. The second time they should be more successful. That's it in it's stripped down form, but there's a lot more to it these days. Here's a sample lesson plan.

References

Li, D. (1998). ‘“It’s always more difficult than you plan and imagine”: Teachers’ perceived difficulties in introducing the Communicative Approach in South Korea’. TESOL Quarterly, 32(4) 677-703

Skehan, P. (1998). A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Bibliography