The development of language teaching

UNIT 1
THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE TEACHING. CURRENT TRENDS IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH.

1. INTRODUCTION

2. A HISTORY OF THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREING LANGUAGE
2.1. Up to the eighteen century.
2.1.1. Ancient civilisations.
2.1.2. Middle Ages.
2.1.3. 16th and 17th Century.
2.1.4. 18th Century
2.2. The 19thcentury: Approaches and Methods on language teaching.
2.2.1. The Grammar-Translation method.
2.2.2. The Reform Movement: Gouin and The role of phonetics.
2.2.3. The Direct Method: Berlitz.
2.3. The 20th century: A communicative approach.
2.3.1. Situational Language teaching method and the Audiolingual method.
2.3.2. New Methods: The Silent Way, Sugestopaedia, TotalPhysical Response.
2.3.3. The Communicative Language Teaching Approach.
2.3.4. The Eclectic Approach.


3. NEW DIRECTIONS ON LANGUAGE TEACHING.
3.1. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages

4. CONCLUSION.

1.INTRODUCTION
In this unit we are going to look at the different methods that have been used for language teaching throughout history. We can distinguishthree main schools of thought: The first one focuses the attention on grammatical structures. Although it has begun to disappear, it partly survives in the design of some textbooks. The second one focuses on communication, so the great objective is the development of the student’s communicative capacity. With the third school of thought, the task-based and the project-based approach develop. Theconcept and practice of communication evolves towards richer forms. The foreign language is considered as an instrument. Language teaching has to bear in mind the student’s characteristics and his way of learning, the task which has to be carried out, the learning strategies and the attitudes, etc.
We will examine all of these styles throughout this unit. The information that we will use hasbeen mainly taken from Richards, J and Rodgers (1986); Rivers, W. (1981); Baugh, A., and Cable T. A (1993).

2. A HISTORY OF THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS FOREING LANGUAGE.

2.1. Up to the 18th century.
Although we have no evidence of language learning procedures it is known that Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians… sent bilingual delegates. As Richards and Rodgers state, the function of theearliest educational systems was primarily to teach religion and to promote the traditions of the people.
In Middle Ages Latin was the most important language, usually used as a second language: It was the dominant language of education, government and commerce. It was taught in the monastic schools through rote learning of grammar rules and translation.
During 16th and 17th century, vernacularlanguages (French, Italian and English) gained in importance as a result of political changes in Europe, and Latin gradually became displaced as a language of spoken and written communication. These languages were taught using the same basic techniques that had been used to teach Latin, which became the model of all language study. The system could hardly be said to be communicative. The L1 was usedall the time and the role of the learner was basically passive. Through this concept the Grammar Translation Method (or Traditional method) was developed.

2.2. The 19th century: Approaches and Methods on language teaching.
Grammar-Translation Method was the dominant foreign language teaching method in Europe during 19th century. It was of German origin and it was known in the USA as ThePrussian Method. It is a mainly book-oriented method of learning the grammatical system of the language. The main purpose of this method was to enable students to read literature in target language; Language learning involves the memorisation of rules and vocabulary related to first language meaning by means of massive translation practice. Grammar-translation lays no emphasis on the speaking or...