Unit 1

DESARROLLO DEL ENSEÑAMIENTO DE LENGUAS.

ACTUALES TENDENCIAS PARA EL ENSEÑAMIENTO DEL INGLÉS
COMO LENGUA EXTRANJERA.
LOS ENFOQUES COMUNICATIVOS.

1. THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING

2. A HISTORY OF TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE.
EARLY AND CURRENT TRENDS.
2.1. Key issues: Approaches vs. Methods
2.2. Up to the 18th century: The spread of ELT in Europe
2.3. Up to the 19th century:
Grammar Translations Method
Reform Movement
Structuralistic Model
2.4. The 20th century: A Communicative Approach
2.5. Post-Communicative Approaches
Neurolinguistic Programme
3. CONCLUSION AND EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
4. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Good morning, I’ve chosen unit 1 which title is DEVELOPMENT OF

LANGUAGE TEACHING. CURRENT TRENDS IN TEACHING OF
ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. THE COMMUNICATIVE
APPROACHES. This is a main topic, since we should know which are the
failures and the successful aspect of each method or approach. So, in order to
explain them clearly i’ve divided this paper into 4 parts: the first one deals
with the originsl of language teaching; the second, with the history of teaching
English as a Foreing Language (including 18 th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries
methods and approaches). Next, I wll provide you with some educational
implications and a conclusion. Finally, the bibliografy used to develop this
paper.
Let start then with...

1. THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING.

It was around the 5th century B.C. that in the ancient India a grammar of
Sanskrit was written and whose effects went far beyond the original
intentions of the authors. Afterwards, the early Greek aim was to prepare
intelletually young people to take leading roles in the activities of the state
and of society, and the Romans considered the teaching of rhetoric and
oratory important, with particular atttention to the development of character.
In the 17th century, Jan Amos Komesky, known as Comenius, is often said to
be the founder of the Didactics of Language, for him, the word ‘didactics’
means “the art of teaching”. In this topic, we will deal with some of the
methodological and theoretical principles and ideas which are still used in
modern linguistics nowadays.
Now let hve a look on ...

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2. A HISTORY OF TEFL. EARLY AND CURRENT TRENDS.

First of all let me explain some key issues to you...

a. Key issues: approaches vs. Methods

Developments in other fields such as linguistics, psychology, anthropology
and sociology have been the source of many methods and approaches
which searched continously the most effective methods for students to
learn a new language. The study of these theories is called today Applied
Linguistics.
Method was defined as “the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices
based on a particular theory of language and language teaching” or the
manner of teaching.
Focus or Approach is a language teaching philosophy that might be
interpreted and applied in a variety of different ways in the classroom.
Both methods and approaches are linked, in turn, to a set of features which
describes the underlying nature of language teaching methodology, for
instance, techniques and curriculum.
Techniques are the activities in the classroom, while the curriculum is a
document which contains the design of a concrete teaching and learning
programme; compounded of 3 parts: concepts (list of elements to be
taught); procedures (materials); and attitudes (the fact of learning a foreign
language and meeting new cultures).
Let begin with the teaching of English as a foreign language during the 18 th
century

b. Up to the 18th century: the spread of ELT in Europe

During the Middle Ages, the early educational systems of nations of the
Western world emanated from the Judea-Christian religious, combined
with traditions derived from ancient Greece philosophers like Socrates,
Plato and Aristotle. Teaching, then, centered on grammar, rhetoric, logic,
arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music; and the chief storehouse of

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learning were the monasteries. As a rule, however, education was the

privilege of upper classes.
During the Ranaissance educators emphasized such subject as history,
geography, music and physical training, and taught mostly in Latin
grammar schools. Montaigne, among others, in the 16 th century and
Comenius and John Locke in the 17 th century promoted alternative
approaches to education.
Beginning around the 16th century, 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.
That leads us to the next point...

c. Up to the 19th century

The first one is the Grammar Translation Method...

Grammar-Translation Method
Using the same basic procedures that were used for teaching Latin, the
modern language were taught in European Schools in the 18 th century.
Emphasis was on learning grammar rules, lists of vocabulary, and
sentences for translation which usually had little relationship to the real
world. Speaking the foreign language was not the goal. This method was
the dominant FLT in Europe from the 1840s to the 1940s, and a version of it
continues to be widely used in some parts of the world. There is no
literature that offers a rationale or justification for it or that attempts to
relate it to issues in linguistics, psychology or educational theory, so it is a
method for which there is no theory / focus. The main failures are that it
does not sound natural to a native speaker, produces difficult mistakes to
erradicate; tedious experience of memorizing endless lists of unusable
grammar rules and vocabulary; and little stress on accurate pronunciation,
and often creates frustration for students.
But there was a reform movement...

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The Reform Movement

Towards the end of the 19th century, teachers and linguistics began to write
about the need for new approaches to language teaching. This Reform
Movement laid the foundations for the development of new days of
teaching languages within the Direct Method and raised controversies that
have continued to the present day. Form 1880s, an intellectual leadership
gave greater credibility and acceptance to reformist ideas thanks to
linguistics like Henry Sweet in England, Wilhelm Viëtor in Germany, and
Paul Passy in France. Among the earliest goals of the association, we find
the leading role of phonetics within the teaching of modern languages. In
general, the reformers believed that grammar had to be taught inductively,
translation avoided, and language learning based on hearing the language
first, before seeing in written forms.
Next point is the Structuralistic Model...

Structuralistic model
As we have stated before, it was believed that language teaching should be
based on scientific knowledge about language that should begin with
speaking and expand to other skills. In the late 19 th and early 20th century,
linguistics became interested in the best way of language teaching. An
increasing attention to naturalistic principles of language learning was
given by other reformers, they are called a ‘natural method’. These ideas
spread and they became in the Direct Method, the first of the natural
methods, both in the UK and USA. It was quite successful in private
language schools, and difficult to implement in public secondary
education. Maximilian Berlitz promoted the use to intensive oral
interaction in the target language. L Sauveur described how their students
learned to speak after a month on intensive oral work in class, avoiding the
use of the mother tongue, even for grammar explanations. In the 1920s and
30s, the British appied linguistic Henry Sweet and other linguistics
recognized its limitations. The problems were: how to convey meaning
without translating, how to safeguard against misunderstanding without

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reference to the L1, and how to apply this method beyond elementary
stages. However, these principles developed into the British approach to
teaching English as a foreign language. This would lead to Audiolinguism
in US and the Oral Approach or Situacional Language Teaching in UK.
Let change the century: the 20th-century approach: Communicative

d. The 20th century: A Communicative Approach

Beginning in the mid-60s, there has been a variety of theoretical challenges
to the audiolingual method. Scholars such as Halliday, Hymes, Labov and
the American linguistic Noam Chomsky took the position that language is
creative (not memorized by repetition or imitation) and rule governed (not
based on habits). According to Chomsky, each human being has a LAD
(language adquisition device) which helps to create hypotheses about how
language is created. Error analysis in this case plays a central role in
language teaching. We have to accept errors as an integral part of the
learning process and, in fact, it is a very complex matter to discuss because
we have to decide where the errors come from and how important they are
and because errors mean that the learner is creating hypotheses.
For Hymes, the goal of language teaching is to develop ‘communicative
competence’, that is, the knowledge and ability a learner needs to be
communicatively competent in a speech comunity.
Halliday elaborated a functional theory of the main functions of language.
(see topic 28)
Canale & Swain identified four dimensions of Communicative
competence: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic
competence (see topic 4).
This Communicative Competence is considered an approach rather than a
method which provides a humanistic approach to teaching where
interactive processes of communication receive priority. Its rapid adoption
and implementation resulted from a strong support of British applied
linguistics, as well as institutions, such as the British Council.

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A teacher needs to be imaginative, energic and willing to experiment. This

approach is learner-centred approach and is being currently applied to
language teaching as a part of our current educational system, LOGSE,
based on communicative methods.
Finally, new approaches: Neuro-Linguistic Programme...

e. Post-Communicative Approches: NLP

The newest trend in teaching is called the Neuro-Linguistic Programme
and it is based in the theories of Bandler & Grinder (The Structure of Magic).
They explained that by understanding the inner language of the brain
anyone can learn to achieve the excellent result of the most experts
communicators, teachers and therapists.
NLP offers 3 important benefits:
a. A new model of how people learn (brain as a computer’s user
manual)
b. It delivers to teachers new ways to get students into the relaxed
state required to get knowledge.
c. It provides a model of what teaching is, how effective teachers
create a sense of ‘rapport’ with students.
According to NLP when students learn they are using the five senses. These
sensory systems are called Representational System in NLP, and each student
has his favourite one and learns through it. Effective teachers learn how to
speak in each of the representational systems, using the blackboard, diagrams
(for visual), discussions (auditory), etc.
NLP proves that students memorize information better if they are in a relaxed
state. The key ways to achieve this are:
 Anchoring: as if you were listening to a song which reminds you of
your youth
 Rapport: a kind of understanding among friends.
 Leading: inviting students to follow suggestions, rather than ordering.

3. CONCLUSION.

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The LOGSE fosters the communicative approach, together with the functional
grammar, which is in fact the organizationsl base of most textbooks. But it
does not mean that we cannot use other methods. Quite differently, as English
teachers, we must be eclectic, that is, to be able to identify different
approaches to language teaching, and be able to use those which benefit our
students in any particular stage. In order to select which method to use, we
must take into account our students, their age and level, and the goals and
objectives of the two stages we are dealing with: ESO and Bachillerato. We
must also remember that our objective is not merely to teach a language, but
to teach how to use the language for communicative purposes. Language,
therefore, will be considered as a tool, not as an end in itself.

4. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Bandler & Grinder (1975): The Structure of Magic. Meta Publication.
Canale & Swain (1980): Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching
Howatt, A. (1984): A History of English Language Teaching. Oxford: OUP.