language Teaching Methods

Approaches and Methods in Language teaching was written by its authors because they felt there have been such a proliferation of methods and approaches to teaching second and foreign languages that clarification and understanding were necessary. The book gives a method by method account of the approaches and methods use in second and foreign language teaching. In the first chapter they give an introduction that covers a brief history of language teaching. In chapter two they unveil the single analytical model they will use for the entire book. This model “describes approaches and methods according to their underlying theories of language and language learning; the learning objectives; the syllabus model used; the roles of teachers, learners, and materials within the method or approach; and the classroom procedures and techniques that the method uses,” (Richards and Rodgers vii).

The authors then examine each approach or method by giving us the historical context within which it was framed. Further, they examine each of the discussed methods from three perspectives: approach; design; procedure. The eight methods and approaches covered include the following: Situational Language Teaching; Audiolingualism; Communicative Language Teaching; Total Physical Response; The Silent Way; Community Language Learning; The Natural Approach; Suggestopedia, (Richards, et.al.). This report will now analyze each of these

. . .
, and out of these doubts would evolve the communicative approach to language teaching. The communicative approach has two different versions that hold the following philosophy, “The weak version has become more or less standard practice in the last ten years, stresses the importance of providing learners with opportunities to use their English for communicative purposes and, characteristically, attempts to integrate such activities into a wider program of language teaching…The strong version…advances the claim that language is acquired through communication, so that it is not merely a question of activating an existing but inert knowledge of the language, but of stimulating the development of the language system itself,” (Richards, et.al. 66). In other words, the first version is learning to use English whereas the second version is using English to learn it. Total Physical Response is “a language teaching method built around the co-ordination of speech and action; it attempts to teach language through physical (motor) activity,” (Richards, et.al. 87). The approach is based around the psychological principle or trace theory of memory. This theory holds that the more something is retraced it will be more easily recalled bec
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Charles Curran, University Michigan, Oral Approach, Caleb Gattegno, Physical Response, Methods Language, Richards Rodgers, Suggestopedia Richards, language teaching, richards etal, foreign language, War II, approaches methods, language instruction, language learning, situational language, approaches methods language, methods language, teaching foreign, learning facilitated, methods language teaching, Press UK, teaching foreign language, language teaching chapter, method language instruction,
Approximate Word count = 1517
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

More Essays on language Teaching Methods