In Defense of the Grammar Translation Method

I am going to take this opportunity to defend the Grammar-Translation method. The Grammar
Translation Method gets a really bad rap in the ESOL (ESL, EFL) world. But I find it to be
invaluable to my ESOL (ESL, EFL)
teaching situation and it should not be ruled out as a helpful teaching method in the ESOL
(ESL, EFL) classroom. I have been using Participatory Language Teaching as an inspiration for
much of my daily lesson plans which frowns upon the use of the Grammar Translation Method.
However, I cannot get away from the usefulness of the Grammar-Translation method for some
situations. I don't use the Grammar Translation Method in the ESOL (ESL, EFL) classroom as a
primary learning tool, but as a way to facilitate the learning process for the students with low
level of English proficiency.
The Grammar-Translation method was once very popular but has since been replaced with
methods that purportedly obtain better results. In my ESOL (ESL, EFL) classroom, for the first
part of the lesson the students read a short story in the target language and then translate it
sentence by sentence into their native language. Along with the reading "new words are
presented in a list (I accompany each word with a picture) with definitions in the" target
language (Richard-Amato p.16).
Many of you who will teach children in a public school overseas will find yourself in a mixed level
classroom of English language learners who all speak the same native language and you do not
but for a couple hundred words of foreigner speak (if you are lucky). Often times you will be
assigned a co-teacher who is a native speaker of that countries language. These co-teachers
may or may not show up for your ESOL (ESL, EFL) class, and may or may not have sufficient
proficiency in English to help you. At this point the Grammar Translation Method may be your
only way to communicate to the students.

Teaching Methods: Grammar Translation

Method is Useful in the ESOL (ESL, EFL)
Classroom
In Defense of the Grammar Translation Method
It is a difficult situation where you are essentially teaching two ESOL (ESL, EFL) classes
simultaneously; one an advanced level and the other a beginner level. Many times the only way
for me to communicate the
directions for an activity or to explain new vocabulary to the lower level ESOL (ESL, EFL)
students is to have the advanced ESOL (ESL, EFL) students translate the target language
material into their native language so that the low proficiency students can understand and
participate in the lesson. The Grammar Translation Method is sometimes the only way to handle
this type of teaching situation. While this may not be the best way to increase the English
proficiency of the advanced level students, it ensures that the low level students are able to
participate in class and be a part of the learning process.
*If you enjoyed this interesting and informative article on the Grammar Translation Method,
please view my other ESOL (ESL, EFL) articles by clicking my name "Tesl Goddess" .

Grammar translation
In applied linguistics, the grammar translation method is a foreign language teaching
method derived from the classical (sometimes called traditional) method of teaching
Greek and Latin. The method requires students to translate whole texts word for word
and memorize numerous grammatical rules and exceptions as well as enormous
vocabulary lists. The goal of this method is to be able to read and translate literary
masterpieces and classics.

History and philosophy

Throughout Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, the education system was formed
primarily around a concept called faculty psychology. In brief, this theory dictated that
the body and mind were separate and the mind consisted of three parts: the will,
emotion, and intellect. It was believed that the intellect could be sharpened enough to
eventually control the will and emotions. The way to do this was through learning
classical literature of the Greeks and Romans, as well as mathematics. Additionally, an
adult with such an education was considered mentally prepared for the world and its
challenges. In the 19th century, modern languages and literatures began to appear in
schools. It was believed that teaching modern languages was not useful for the
development of mental discipline and thus they were left out of the curriculum. As a
result, textbooks were essentially copied for the modern language classroom. In
America, the basic foundations of this method were used in most high school and
college foreign language classrooms and were eventually replaced by the audio-lingual
method among others.

Method
Classes were conducted in the native language. A chapter in a distinctive textbook of
this method would begin with a massive bilingual vocabulary list. Grammar points
would come directly from the texts and be presented contextually in the textbook, to be
explained elaborately by the instructor. Grammar thus provided the rules for assembling
words into sentences. Tedious translation and grammar drills would be used to exercise
and strengthen the knowledge without much attention to content. Sentences would be
deconstructed and translated. Eventually, entire texts would be translated from the target
language into the native language and tests would often ask students to replicate
classical texts in the target language. Very little attention was placed on pronunciation or
any communicative aspects of the language. The skill exercised was reading, and then
only in the context of translation.

Criticism
The method by definition has a very limited scope of objectives. Because speaking or
any kind of spontaneous creative output was missing from the curriculum, students
would often fail at speaking or even letter writing in the target language. A noteworthy
quote describing the effect of this method comes from Bahlsen, who was a student of
Pltz, a major proponent of this method in the 19th century. In commenting about
writing letters or speaking he said he would be overcome with "a veritable forest of
paragraphs, and an impenetrable thicket of grammatical rules." Later, theorists such as

Vietor, Passy, Berlitz, and Jespersen began to talk about what a new kind of foreign
language instruction needed, shedding light on what the grammar translation was
missing. They supported teaching the language, not about the language, and teaching in
the target language, emphasizing speech as well as text. Through grammar translation,
students lacked an active role in the classroom, often correcting their own work and
strictly following the textbook.

The Grammar Translation Method

The Grammar Translation Method is the oldest method of teaching in India. It is as old
as the international of English in the country. A number of methods and techniques have
been evolved for the teaching of English and also other foreign languages in the recent
past, yet this method is still in use in many part of India. It maintains the mother tongue
of the learner as the reference particularly in the process of learning the second/foreign
languages. The main principles on which the Grammar Translation Method is based are
the following:
1. Translation interprets the words and phrases of the foreign languages in the best
possible manner.
2. The phraseology and the idiom of the target language can best be assimilated in
the process of interpretation.
3. The structures of the foreign languages are best learned when compared and
contrast with those of mother tongue.
In this method, while teaching the text book the teacher translates every word, phrase
from English into the mother tongue of learners. Further, students are required to
translate sentences from their mother tongue into English. These exercises in translation
are based on various items covering the grammar of the target language. The method
emphasizes the study of grammar through deduction that is through the study of the
rules of grammar. A contrastive study of the target language with the mother tongue
gives an insight into the structure not only of the foreign language but also of the
mother tongue.
Advantages:
1. The phraseology of the target language is quickly explained. Translation is the
easiest way of explaining meanings or words and phrases from one language
into another. Any other method of explaining vocabulary items in the second
language is found time consuming. A lot of time is wasted if the meanings of
lexical items are explained through definitions and illustrations in the second
language. Further, learners acquire some short of accuracy in understanding
synonyms in the source language and the target language.
2. Teachers labor is saved. Since the textbooks are taught through the medium of
the mother tongue, the teacher may ask comprehension questions on the text
taught in the mother tongue. Pupils will not have much difficulty in responding
to questions on the mother tongue. So, the teacher can easily assess whether the
students have learned what he has taught them. Communication between the
teacher and the learner does not cause linguistic problems. Even teachers who
are not fluent in English can teach English through this method. That is perhaps

the reason why this method has been practiced so widely and has survived so
long.
Disadvantages:
1. It is an unnatural method. The natural order of learning a language is listening,
speaking, reading and writing. That is the way how the child learns his mother
tongue in natural surroundings. But in the Grammar Translation Method the
teaching of the second language starts with the teaching of reading. Thus, the
learning process is reversed. This poses problems.
2. Speech is neglected. The Grammar Translation Method lays emphasis on
reading and writing. It neglects speech. Thus, the students who are taught
English through this method fail to express themselves adequately in spoken
English. Even at the undergraduate stage they feel shy of communicating
through English. It has been observed that in a class, which is taught English
through this method, learners listen to the mother tongue more than that to the
second/foreign language. Since language learning involves habit formation such
students fail to acquire habit of speaking English. Thus, they have to pay a heavy
price for being taught through this method.
3. Exact translation is not possible. Translation is, indeed, a difficult task and exact
translation from one language to another is not always possible. A language is
the result of various customs, traditions, and modes of behavior of a speech
community and these traditions differ from community to community. There are
several lexical items in one language, which have no synonyms/equivalents in
another language. For instance, the meaning of the English word table does not
fit in such expression as the table of contents, table of figures, multiplication
table, time table and table the resolution, etc. English prepositions are also
difficult to translate. Consider sentences such as We see with our eyes,
Bombay is far from Delhi, He died of cholera, He succeeded through hard
work. In these sentences with, from, of, through can be translated into the
Hindi preposition se and vice versa. Each language has its own structure, idiom
and usage, which do not have their exact counterparts in another language. Thus,
translation should be considered an index of ones proficiency in a language.
4. It does not give pattern practice. A person can learn a language only when he
internalizes its patterns to the extent that they form his habit. But the Grammar
Translation Method does not provide any such practice to the learner of a
language. It rather attempts to teach language through rules and not by use.
Researchers in linguistics have proved that to speak any language, whether
native or foreign, entirely by rule is quite impossible. Language learning means
acquiring certain skills, which can be learned through practice and not by just
memorizing rules. The persons who have learned a foreign or second language
through this method find it difficult to give up the habit of first thinking in their
mother tongue and then translating their ideas into the second language. They,
therefore, fail to get proficiency in the second language approximating that in
the first language. The method, therefore, suffers from certain weaknesses for
which there is no remedy.

Conclusion

The grammar translation method stayed in schools until the 1960s, when a complete
foreign language pedagogy evaluation was taking place. In the meantime, teachers
experimented with approaches like the direct method in post-war and Depression era
classrooms, but without much structure to follow. The trusty grammar translation
method set the pace for many classrooms for many decades.
Monty Python made fun of the grammar translation method in their film Life of Brian.

grammar-translation method
grm r trnsle n,-trnz-Show Spelled[gram-er-trans-ley-shuh n,
-tranz-]
Show IPA
noun

a traditional technique of foreign-language teaching based on explicit

instruction in the grammatical analysis of the target language and
translation of sentences from the native language into the target
language and vice versa.

Sampling of the Suggestopedia and the Grammar Translation Teaching Methods with
The Condor Who Fell In Love

Daily Instructional Lesson Plan Worcester County Public Schools

Content Area(s)/Course/Grade:
Spanish (or ESL with the language roles
reversed)

Unit:
Suggestopedia

Lesson Topic:
The Condor Who Fell In Love

Date:
July 19, 2005

Teacher:
Hayley Minner

School:
SDMS

Student Outcome(s):
Students will be able to:
Recognize the differences between Spanish and English text.
Develop their Spanish listening skills during a read aloud.
Focus their minds on the task at hand.
Demonstrate comprehension through interactions and participation, using both the native and primary
languages.
Context for Learning
This lesson was developed for a beginning level Spanish class or for other students with no Spanish

background. In an ESL classroom, I would use this method to teach English by reversing the role of the two
languages.
The classroom environment should be enjoyable but relaxing; with comfortable chairs and with relia that
complements the text.
Prior to this lesson, students were given Spanish names and chose professions, in order to take on a different
persona (if given time, students would choose names and professions as an opening activity).
Instructional Delivery
Opening Activities/Motivation:
Gather students in a circle and encourage them to relax while listening to classical music. The teacher will
give them the text, in both Spanish and English, to refer to during the readings. Inform students to clear their
minds and follow along while the teacher reads in the target language, referring to the primary language for
comprehension when necessary.

Procedures:
1. Do not begin reading until the classical music has played for a couple of minutes and the students are
relaxed.
2. Begin reading the text in the target language.
3. Read passage one.
4. Change the music. Allow students to listen to the music for a couple of minutes before beginning to
read the next passage.
5. Read passage two.
6. Change the music. Allow students to listen to the music for a couple of minutes before beginning to
read the next passage (time permitting).
7. Read passage three (time permitting).
8. Allow students to listen and enjoy the music for a few more minutes.
9. Do not discuss the readings at this time!

Assessment/Evaluation (Formative/Summative)
Informal assessment through teacher observation.
After the lesson, students comprehension would be assessed through their participation and interaction in the
planning and presenting of their skit.
Closure:
After reading the three passages, inform the students that their homework for tonight is to read the text once
more before bed and then again in the morning before getting up.

****************************************************************************************************************

Daily Instructional Lesson Plan Worcester County Public Schools

Content Area(s)/Course/Grade:
Spanish (or ESL class with language
emphasis reversed)

Unit:
Grammar Translation

Lesson Topic:
The Condor Who Fell In Love

Date:
July 19, 2005

Teacher:
Hayley Minner

School:
SDMS

Student Outcome(s):
Students will be able to:
Identify various Spanish and English vocabulary words.
Translate Spanish text in to English using bilingual dictionaries.
Context for Learning
This lesson was developed for a beginning level Spanish class or for other students with no Spanish
background. This grammar translation lesson would also be suitable for an ESL class of Spanish students
after reversing the language roles, putting emphasis on using the Spanish to learn the English.
Students have been studying basic Spanish and have most currently finished learning Spanish verbs in the
preterite tense (if time allowed, a mini-grammar-lesson on the preterite tense would have preceded the
lesson).
Students are somewhat familiar with the text, The Condor Who Fell In Love.
Instructional Delivery
Opening Activities/Motivation:
Students will be given a list of vocabulary terms in English and Spanish to read over and memorize. An
extremely brief oral check for pronunciation would follow although the grammar translation approach does
not focus on oral fluency development.

Procedures:
1. Give students a copy of Spanish text from The Condor Who Fell In Love.
2. Have students read the Spanish version to themselves.
3. Have students translate the passage in to English using their prior knowledge and a bilingual
dictionary if necessary (students should be given parts of the passage so that they are able to fill in
blanks or small sections to avoid direct translation of large text).
4. Select students may read their translation, if time permits.
Assessment/Evaluation (Formative/Summative)
Students will be assessed according to their ability to correctly translate the text from one language to
another. A quiz, the following day, will assess students memorization of vocabulary terms.
Informal observations by the teacher will also be used to evaluate the students.
Closure:
Inform students that they are expected to complete a second page of grammar translations for homework.