UNIT 1

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE TEACHING. CURRENT

TRENDS IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN
LANGUAGE. THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACHES.
OUTLINE
• INTRODUCTION.
• Aims of the unit.
• Notes on bibliography.
• THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING.
• A HISTORY OF THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN
LANGUAGE.
• Key issues: approaches vs. methods.
• Up to the eighteenth century: The spread of English language
teaching in Europe.
• Ancient Times.
• Europe in Early Times. The decline of Latin.
• The nineteenth century: Approaches and Methods on language
teaching.
• The Grammar-Translation method.
• Individual reformers: Marcel, Prendergast and Gouin.
• The Reform Movement: Sweet, Viëtor and Passy. The role
of phonetics.
• The Direct Method. Natural methods from Montaigne to
Berlitz.
• The twentieth century: A communicative approach.
• The Communicative Language Teaching Approach.
• The influence of sociology and psychology on language
teaching.
• Approaches and theories of language and language
learning.
• Approaches of language and language learning.
• Influential theories on language learning.
• Language teaching methods.
• The Oral Approach and Situational Language teaching
method.
• The Audiolingual method.
• Total Physical Response.
• The Silent Way.
• Community Language Learning.
• Suggestopedia.
• NEW DIRECTIONS ON LANGUAGE TEACHING.
• CONCLUSION.
• BIBLIOGRAPHY.
• INTRODUCTION.
• Aims of the unit.
The present work aims to provide a detailed account of the evolution of
language from its origins, as an object of study, to a theory of language
teaching . As Albert C. Baugh (1993) states, the basis for an
understanding of present-day English and for an enlightened attitude
towards questions affecting the language today is a knowledge of its
origins.
A historical and cultural setting links the nature of language to a theory of
language teaching and a tradition in teaching English as a foreign
language from ancient roots to present-day trends. In order to do so,
subsequent sections will enable us to become better informed about the
different methods, approaches and language acquisition theories on
English teaching as a foreign language at different periods, where special
attention is paid to present-day communicative approaches. For
extensive comments, within the framework of different research fields, new
directions on language teaching are offered to reflect the learner’s need
within the current educational system. In a final section, a conclusion
examines the strengths and weaknesses of methods and approaches
from a broad perspective.
• Notes on bibliography.
Numerous sources have contributed to provide an overall basis for the
development of the unit. A valuable introduction to the study of
language is given by Otto Jespersen, Language: Its Nature,
Development and Origin (1922); David Crystal, Linguistics (1985); and
Baugh and Cable, A History of the English Language (1993). For a
historical overview of the tradition of language teaching, see Jack C.
Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in
Language Teaching (1992) and Howatt, A History of English Language
Teaching (1984). Among the many general works that incorporate the
teaching of English as a foreign language, see especially and Wilga
M. Rivers, Teaching Foreign-Language Skills (1981) and on theories of
language acquisition, see Krashen, S. D., and T. D. Terrell, The Natural
Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom (1983). The most
complete record of current publications on new directions in language
teaching is published by Asociación Española de Lingüística Aplicada
(AESLA) and its annual supplements. For a comprehensive overview, see
the following collections: Universidad de Alcalá, La Lingüística Aplicada a
finales del Siglo XX. Ensayos y propuestas (2001); Universidad de
Barcelona, Trabajos en Lingüística Aplicada (2001); and Universidad de
León, Perspectivas Recientes sobre el Discurso (2001). Bibliography is
fully presented at the end of this work.

• THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING.

It was around the fifth century B.C that in ancient India the early states of
language were written down as a set of rules. This was, in fact, a
grammar of Sanskrit whose effects went far beyond the original intentions
of the authors. According to Howatt (1984), a thorough education
consists not

only of the acquisition of knowledge, but the phys ical, mental, emotional,
moral, and social development of the individual. Hence, the early Greek
aim was to prepare intellectually young people to take leading roles in the
activities of the state and of society, and Romans considered the teaching
of rhetoric and oratory important, with particular attention to the
development of character. In the seventeenth century, Jan Amos
Komensky (1592-1670), commonly 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”. Language study and therefore, language
teaching was to be promoted in subsequent centuries through the fields
of philosophy, logic, rhetoric, sociology, and religion, among others,
providing the framework for the main task of linguistic scholars. This was
basically to study and understand the general principles upon which all
languages are built and in doing so, teach them better. Some of those
methodological and theoretical principles and ideas are still used in
modern linguistics nowadays.

• A HISTORY OF THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN

LANGUAGE. EARLY AND CURRENT TRENDS.
• Key issues: approaches vs. methods.
The extent and importance of the evolution of language teaching, and
therefore, the teaching of English as a foreign language, make it
reasonable to define some key concepts within this issue. Many theories
about the learning and teaching of languages have been proposed from a
historical perspective and many changes in language teaching methods
have occurred as well as changes in the kind of learners’ need.
Developments in other fields such as linguistics, psychology,
anthropology, and sociology have been the source of many methods and
approaches which searched continuously the most effective method for
students to learn a new language. The study of these theories is called
today applied linguistics.
A central concept to this process was that of method and was defined by
Howatt (1984) as “the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices
based on a particular theory of language and language learning”. The
search for innovations to find more efficient and effective ways of teaching
languages preoccupied teachers and applied linguistics throughout the
20th century.
Approaches are language teaching philosophies 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 design
features which describes the underlying nature of language teaching
methodology, for instance, learning objectives, syllabus specifications,
types of activities, roles of teachers, learners, materials, procedures and
techniques used. The proliferation of approaches and methods is a
relevant characteristic of contemporary second and foreign language
teaching.

• Up to the eighteenth century: The spread of English language

teaching in Europe.
• Ancient Times.
As we have stated previously, language teaching traces back to ancient
civilizations. As Richards & Rodgers (1992) state, the function of the
earliest educational systems was primarily to teach religion and to
promote the traditions of the people. Thus, in the Old Testament, one of
the aims and methods of education among the ancient Jewish traditions
was to teach their children a foreign language.
During the Middle Ages (15th-16th century), the early educational
systems of the nations of the Western world emanated from the Judea-
Christian religious traditions, which were combined with traditions derived
from ancient Greece philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
According to Howatt (1984), Christianity in the Middle Ages became a
powerful force in the countries of the Mediterranean region and other
areas in Europe. Many monastic schools, as well as municipal and
cathedral schools, were founded during the centuries of early Christian
influence. Teachings, then, centered on grammar, rhetoric, logic,
arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music, and the chief storehouse of
learning were the monasteries, which maintained archives that preserved
many manuscripts of the preceding classical culture, and during this
period universities were established in several countries, such as Italy,
Spain, France and England. Medieval education also took the form of
apprenticeship training in some craft or service. As a rule, however,
education was the privilege of the upper classes, and most members of
the lower classes had no opportunity for formal learning.
• Europe in Early Modern Times. The decline of Latin.
During the Renaissance period educators emphasized such subjects as
history, geography, music, and physical training, and taught mostly in
Latin grammar schools. Montaigne, among others, in the sixteenth
century and Comenius and John Locke in the seventeenth century,
promoted alternative approaches to education, making specific proposals
for curriculum reform and for changes in the way Latin was taught
(Howatt 1984), but since Latin had for so long been regarded as the
classical and therefore most ideal form of language, the role of language
study in the curriculum reflected the long-established status of Latin.
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.
During the 17th century there was a rapid growth of scientific knowledge,
which gave rise to its inclusion in courses in the universities of the
European countries and led to the exchange and spread of scientific and
cultural ideas throughout Europe. Children entering “grammar school” in
the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries in England were
initially given a rigorous introduction to Latin grammar (Howatt 1984) and
were often met with brutal punishment. Latin was said to develop
intellectual abilities, and the study of Latin grammar became an end in
itself.

• The nineteenth century: Approaches and methods on language

teaching.

• The Grammar-Translation Method.

As modern languages began to enter the curriculum of European schools
in the eighteenth century, they were taught using the same basic
procedures that were used for teaching Latin. 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, and oral practice was limited to students
reading aloud the sentences they had translated. This method came to
be known as the grammar-translation method and was the offspring of
German scholarship.
The grammar-translation method was the dominant foreign language
teaching method in Europe from the 1840s to the 1940s, and a version of
it continues to be widely used in some parts of the world. As Richards &
Rodgers (1992) points out, it is still used nowadays where understanding
literary texts is the primary focus of foreign language study. However,
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. Consequently, it has no advocates, as it is a method for which
there is no theory.
The main failures of the method are that it does not sound natural to a
native speaker; produces difficult mistakes to eradicate; tedious
experience of memorizing endless lists of unusable grammar rules and
vocabulary; and little stress on accurate pronunciation; and often creates
frustration for students.

• Individual reformers: Marcel, Prendergast and Gouin.

In the mid-late nineteenth century, increased opportunities for
communication among Europeans created a demand for oral proficiency
in foreign languages. The Grammar Translation method was challenged
by new approaches to language teaching developed by individual
language teaching specialists in several European countries. Some of
these specialists, like C. Marcel, T. Prendergast, and F. Gouin, did not
manage, according to Richards & Rodgers (1992), to achieve any lasting
impact, though their ideas are of historical interest. It was difficult to
overcome the attitude that Classical Latin was the most ideal for the way
language should be taught. (Howatt 1984).
The Frenchman Claude Marcel (1793-1896) emphasized the importance
of meaning in learning, proposing a rational method, and referring to child
language learning as a model for language teaching. The Englishman
Thomas Prendergast (1806-1886) created a mastery system on a
structural syllabus to work on basic structural patterns occurring in the
language. He was one of the

first to record the observation of children in speaking. The Frenchman

François Gouin is perhaps the best known of these reformers.
Gouin’s approach to teaching was based on his observations of children’s
use of language. They recognized the need for speaking proficie ncy
rather than reading or writing, and there was an interest in how children
learn languages. Attempts to develop teaching principles from
observation of child language learning were made but these new ideas
did not develop into an educational movement as there was not sufficient
organizational structure in the language teaching profession (i.e., in the
form of professional associations, journals, and conferences). However,
this would change toward the end of the nineteenth century, when a more
concerted effort arose in which the interests of reform-minded language
teachers, and linguists, coincided.

• The Reform Movement: Sweet, Viëtor and Passy. The role of

phonetics.
As the names of some of its leading exponents suggest (C. Marcel, T.
Prendergast, and F. Gouin), the Grammar Translation method was
challenged, and eventually, with no success due to a lack of the means
for wider dissemination, acceptance and implementation of their new
ideas on language teaching. However, toward the end of the nineteenth
century, teachers and linguists began to write about the need for new
approaches to language teaching, and through their pamphlets, books,
speeches, and articles, the foundation for more widespread pedagogical
reforms was set up. This Reform Movement, as it is known, laid the
foundations for the development of new ways of teaching languages
within the Direct Method and raised controversies that have continued to
the present day.
From the 1880s, an intellectual leadership gave greater credibility and
acceptance to reformist ideas thanks to linguists like Henry Sweet (1845-
1912) in England, Wilhelm Viëtor (1850-1918) 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;
Sweet (1899) set forth principles for the development of teaching
methods based on sound methodological principles (an applied linguistic
approach). For Viëtor, whose name is directly associated with a
phonetic method, speech patterns were the fundamental elements of
language, stressing the value of training teachers in the new science of
phonetics . In general the reformers believed that grammar had to be
taught inductively, translation avoided, and a language learning based on
hearing the language first, before seeing it in written forms.
These principles provided the theoretical foundations for a principled
approach to language teaching, one based on a scientific approach to the
study of language. However, none of these proposals assumed the status
of a method. They reflect the beginnings of the discipline of applied
linguistics. Parallel to the ideas put forward by members of the Reform
Movement was an interest in developing principles for language teaching
out of naturalistic principles of language learning, such as are seen in first
language acquisition. According to Rivers (1981), this led to natural
methods and ultimately led to the development of what we know as the
Direct Method.

• The Direct Method. Natural methods from Montaigne to Berlitz.

As we have stated before, these early reformers, who included Henry

Sweet of England, Wilhelm Viëtor of Germany, and Paul Passy of France,
believed that language teaching should be based on scientific knowledge
about language, that it should begin with speaking and expand to other
skills, that words and sentences should be presented in context, that
grammar should be taught inductively, and that translation should, for the
most part, be avoided.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, linguists became interested in the
problem of the best way to teach languages. An increasing attention to
naturalistic principles of language learning was given by other reformers,
and for this reason they are sometimes called advocates of a “natural”
method. In fact several attempts to make second language learning more
like first language learning had been made throughout the history of
language teaching. For instance, if we trace back to the sixteenth century,
we find out that the Frenchman Montaigne described his own experience
on learning Latin for the first years of his life as a process where he was
exclusively addressed in Latin by a German tutor.
These ideas spread, and these natural language learning principles
consolidated in what became known as the Direct Method, the first of
the "natural methods”, both in Europe and in the United States. It was
quite successful in private language schools, and difficult to implement in
public secondary school education. Among those who tried to apply
natural principles to language classes in America were L. Sauveur (1826-
1907) and Maximiliam Berlitz who promoted the use of intensive oral
interaction in the target language. Saveur’s method became known as
the Natural Method and was seriously considered in language teaching.
In his book “An Introduction to the Teaching of Living Languages without
Grammar or Dictionary” (1874), Saveur described how their students
learnt to speak after a month on intensive oral work in class, avoiding the
use of the mother tongue, even for grammar explanations. Berlitz,
however, never used the term “natural” and named his method “the
Berlitz method” (1878), and it was known for being taught in private
language schools, high-motivated clients, the use of native-speaking
teachers, and no translation under any circumstances. In spite of his
success, this method lacked a basis in applied linguistic theory, and failed
to consider the practical realities of the classroom.
In Europe, one of the best known representatives of language teaching
was Gouin who, in 1880 attempted to build a methodology around
observation of child language learning when publishing L'art d'enseigner
et d'étudier les langues. He developed this technique after a long struggle
trying to learn to speak and understand German through formal grammar-
based methods. However, their total failure and his turning to
observations of how children learn a second language is one of the most
impressive personal testimonials in the recorded annals of language
learning.
According to Richards & Rodgers (1992), although the Direct Method
enjoyed popularity in Europe, not everyone had embraced it
enthusiastically. In the 1920s and 1930s, the British applied linguist
Henry Sweet and other linguists recognized its limitations. They argued
for the development of sound methodological principles as the basis for
teaching techniques. These

linguists systematized the principles stated earlier by the Reform

Movement and so laid the foundations for what developed into the British
approach to teaching English as a foreign language. This would led to
Audiolingualism in the United States and the Oral Approach or Situational
Language Teaching in Britain. These models are the aim of next sections.

• The twentieth century: A communicative approach.

In this section we offer an overview of English language teaching since
1900, and specially of the teaching of English as a foreign or second
language. Since language is a part of society, and a part of ourselves, we
find a relationship between linguistics and other fields of study that shed
light on the old patterns and new directions in language teaching. During
the twentieth century, different methods have resulted from different
approaches to language and language learning, and also to the influence
of fields such as sociology and psychology on the study of language. Let
us now turn to the major approaches, teaching methods and theories on
language acquisition that are in use today and examine them according
to how they reflect their methodology.

• The Communicative Language Teaching Approach.

Communicative Language Teaching has its origins in two sources. First,
the changes in the British and American linguistic theory in the mid-late
sixties and secondly, changes in the educational realities in Europe.
Therefore teaching traditions until then, such as Situational Language
Teaching in Britain and Audiolingualism in the United States started to be
questioned by applied linguists who saw the need to focus in language
teaching on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery of
structures.
Meanwhile, the role of the European Common Market and the Council of
Europe had a significant impact on the development of Communicative
language teaching since there was an increasing need to teach adults the
major languages for a better educational cooperation. In 1971 a system
in which learning tasks are broken down into “units” is launched into the
market by a British linguist, D.A. Wilkins. It attempts to demonstrate the
systems of meanings that a language learner needs to understand and
express within two types: notional categories (time, sequence, quantity or
frequency) and categories of communicative function (requests, offers,
complaints). The rapid application of these ideas by textbook writers and
its acceptance by teaching specialists gave prominence to what became
the Communicative Approach or simply Communicative Language
Teaching.
Beginning in the mid-1960s, there has been a variety of theoretical
challenges to the audio-lingual method. Scholars such as Halliday,
Hymes, Labov and the American linguist Noam Chomsky challenged
previous assumptions about language structure and language learning,
taking the position that language is creative (not memorized by repetition
and imitation) and rule governed (not based on habits). For Hymes
(1972), the goal of language teaching is to develop a

“communicative competence”, that is, the knowledge and ability a learner

needs to be communicatively competent in a speech community.
Halliday (1970) elaborated a functional theory of the functions of
language, and Canale and Swain (1980) identified four dimensions of
communicative competence: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and
strategic competence. Chomsky leveled some criticisms at structural
linguistic theory in his book Syntactic Structures
(1957). He demonstrated that the fundamental characteristics of
language –creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences- were not
part of the structural theories of language.
This communicative view 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 leading British
applied linguists and language specialist, as well as institutions, such as
the British Council. However, some of the claims are still being looked at
more critically as this approach raises important issues for teacher
training, materials development, and testing and evaluation (Richards &
Rodgers 1992).

• The influence of sociology and psychology on language teaching.

Since language is not an isolated phenomenon, we are committed to
relate it to other aspects of society, behavior and experience through the
development of a theory between linguistics and other fields of study,
such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, philosophical linguistics,
biological linguistics, and mathematical linguistics. Among all the
interdisciplinary subjects, two of them have strongly contributed to the
development of the study of language teaching, thus, sociology and
psychology. The former, sociolinguistics studies the ways in which
language interacts with society in relation to race, nationality, regional,
social and political groups, and the interactions of individuals within
groups. The latter, psycholinguistics , focuses on how language is
influenced by memory, attention, recall and constraints on perception,
and the extent to which language has a central role to play in the
understanding of human development.
Main researchers on the field of sociolinguistics are the American
linguists Edwar Sapir and Leonard Bloomfield within a tradition on
Structuralism although they follow different lines. These grammarians
claimed that every language consists of a series of unique structures and
that the construction of sentences follows certain regular patterns.
However, Sapir points out how linguistics and anthropology reflects the
social aspect of language when dealing with race, culture and language,
whereas Bloomfield’s contribution is more scientific, clearly influenced by
psychology theories.
In the field of psychology, behaviorism has had a great effect on
language teaching as various scientists in the early to mid-1900s did
experiments with animals, trying to understand how animals behaved
under certain stimulus. Theorists as Ivan Pavlov and Skinner, believed
that languages were made up of a series of habits, and that if learners
 could develop all these habits, they would speak the language well. Also,
they believed that a contrastive analysis of languages would be
invaluable in teaching languages, and from these theories arose the
audio -lingual method, examined in the following sections.

Another interdisciplinary overlap, as Crystal (1985) states is

psycholinguistics. It is a distinct area of interest developed in the early
sixties and in its early form covered from acoustic phonetics to language
pathology. Most of its researchers have been influenced by the
development of generative theory where the most important area is the
investigation of the acquisition of language by children. Linguists such
as R. Ellis or Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell’s contribution show an
approach focusing on teaching communicative abilities and emphasizing
the primacy of meaning when second language acquisition is on study.
Chomsky’s view of linguistics is another important contribution to the
study of the human mind, as a branch of cognitive psychology, apart from
showing the weaknesses of structural grammar. Regarding the teaching
of languages, the psychological approach is related to questions such as
when and how children develop their ability to ask questions syntactically,
or when they learn the inflectional systems of their language.

• Approaches and theories of language and language learning.

• Approaches of language and language learning.
We saw in the preceding sections the relationship between method and
approach. Within the study of language different methods resulted from
different approaches as responses to a variety of historical issues and
circumstances. Since ancient times, linguists and language specialists
sought to improve the quality of language teaching, elaborating principles
and theories that came into force from the nineteenth century on.
Linguists such as Palmer, Skinner, Chomsky, and Krashen among others,
have contributed to this development of present-day approaches which
developed in current methods.
Following Richards & Rodgers (1992), theories about the nature of
language and of language le arning are the source of principles in
language teaching. Within a theory of language, at least three different
theoretical views provide current approaches and methods in language
teaching.
The first, the structural view, is the most traditional of the three. Within
its theory, language is a system of structurally related elements for the
coding of meaning, and is defined in terms of phonological and
grammatical units, grammatical operations and lexical items. Some
methods have embodied this particular view of language over the years.
Thus Audiolingualism, and contemporary methods as Total Physical
Response and the Silent Way, share this view of language. Supporters of
this view are linguists such as Edwar Sapir and Leonard Bloomfield within
a tradition on Structuralism although they follow different lines, thus
anthropological and linguistic respectively.
From the second, the functional view, language is seen as a vehicle for
the expression of functional meaning. A main tenet within this view is the
notion of communication within a theory that emphasizes the semantic
and communicative dimension rather than merely the grammatical
characteristics of language. Content is also organized by categories of
meaning and function rather than by elements of structure and grammar.

The third, the interactional view, sees language as a vehicle for the
realization of interpersonal relations and for the performance of social
transactions between individuals. Its main tenet is the creation and
maintenance of social relations focusing on the patterns of moves, acts,
negotiation, and interaction found in conversational exchanges.
In the words of Rivers (1981), the eclectic approach must be included
on language teaching theory due to its prominence on our present
educational system. For her, some teachers experiment with novel
techniques for more successful teaching, retaining what they know from
experience to be effective. This approach is supported by an honorable
ancestry, thus Henry Sweet and Harold Palmer. Its main tenets seek the
balanced development of all four skills at all stages, while retaining an
emphasis on the early development of aural-oral skills. Their methods are
also adapted to the changing objectives of the day and to the types of
students who pass through their classes. Moreover, to be successful, an
eclectic teacher needs to be imaginative, energetic and willing to
experiment. This approach is being currently applied to language
teaching as part of our present educational system, LOGSE, based on
communicative methods.

• Influential theories on language learning.

The four theories of language provide a theoretical framework to any
particular teaching method from a structural, functional, interactional and
eclectic point of view. However, we must bear in mind that they are
incomplete in themselves and need to be complemented by theories of
language learning. It is to this dimension that we now turn.
A theory of language learning needs a psycholinguistic and
cognitive approach to learning processes, such as habit formation,
induction, inferencing, hypothesis testing, and generalization. Most of its
researchers have been influenced by the development of generative
theory where the most important area is the investigation of the
acquisition of language by children. The most prominent figures in this
field are, among others, Stephen Krashen, Tracy D. Terrell and Noam
Chomsky.
Stephen D. Krashen developed a second language acquisition
research as a source for learning theories. He distinguishes two concepts
here, acquisition and learning , where acquisition is seen as the basic
process involved in developing language proficiency. For him, it is the
unconscious development of the target language system as a result of
using the language for real communication. Learning would be related to
the conscious representation of grammatical knowledge and non
spontaneous processes. He developed the Monitor Model on which the
Natural method was built.
Another theorist, Tracy D. Terrell is closely related to Krashen, since
they both wrote a book named The Natural Approach (1983), and their
theories emphasize the nature of the human and physical context in
which language learning takes place. Their learning theory is supported
by three main principles. Firstly, they claim that comprehension precedes
production (commonly known as ‘input’); secondly, they state that
production may emerge in stages and students are not forced to speak
before they are ready; and thirdly the fact that the course syllabus
consists of communicative goals, thus classroom activities are organized,
by topic, not grammar (Krashen & Terrell 1983).
Chomsky’s view of linguistics is another important contribution to the
study of the human mind, as a branch of cognitive psychology. Apart from
showing the weaknesses of structural grammar, Chomsky demonstrated
that creativity and individual sentences’ formation were fundamental
characteristics of language, not part of the structural theories of
language. His approach provides a humanistic view of teaching where
priority is given to interactive processes of communication.
We also find other less influential theories reflected on methods, thus the
Counseling-Learning and Silent Way method which focus on the
conditions to be held for successful learning without specifying the
learning processes. James Asher’s Total Physical Response (1977)
centers on both processes and conditions aspects of learning. Thus
coordinating language production with body movement and physical
actions is believed to provide the conditions for success in language
learning.
Charles A. Curran’s approach, the Counseling-Learning (1972), focused
mainly on creating the conditions necessary for successful learning,
such as a good atmosphere of the classroom, where intimacy and
security are a crucial factor together for students when producing
language. The Silent Way method, developed by Caleb Gattegno , is
also built on a conscious control of learning to heighten learning potential.
We also observe some fringe methodologies sharing certain theories of
language and theories of language learning. For instance, the linking of
structuralism and behaviorism which produced Audiolingualism.

• Language teaching methods.

• The Oral Approach and Situational Language teaching method.
This approach dates back to the 1920s and 1930s and develops a more
scientific foundation for an oral approach than the one evidenced in the
Direct Method. Its most prominent figures are the British applied linguists
Harold Palmer and A.S. Hornby, who developed the basis for a principled
approach to methodology in language teaching. The terms Oral Approach
or Situational Language Teaching are not commonly used today, but the
impact of the Oral Approach has been long lasting, and it has shaped the
design of many widely used textbooks and courses, including many still
being used today.
Therefore it is important to understand the principles and practices of
this oral approach which resulted from a systematic study of the lexical
and grammatical content of a language course. This approach involved
principles of selection, organization and presentation of the material
based on applied linguistic theory and practice. Thus, the role of
vocabulary was seen as an essential component of reading proficiency,
and parallel to this syllabus design was a focus on the grammatical
content, viewed by Palmer as the underlying sentence patterns of the
spoken language. This classification of English sentence patterns was
incorporated into the first dictionary

for students of English as a foreign language, and some grammatical

guides which became a standard reference source for textbook writers.
The Oral Approach was the accepted British approach to English
language teaching by the 1950s, but in the sixties, another active
proposal from Australia and termed situational, entered this approach
developing an influential set of teaching materials based on the notion of
“situation”, linking structures to situations. Its main leader was George
Pittman, and its main characteristics were as follows: material is taught
orally before it is presented in written form; introduced and practiced
situationally; and reading and writing are introduced only when sufficient
lexical and grammatical basis is established. The skills are approached
through structure.
This third principle became a key feature characterized as a type of
British “structuralism”, in which speech was regarded as the basis of
language, and structure was viewed as being at the heart of speaking
ability. In the words of Richards & Roberts (1992), this theory that
knowledge of structures must be linked to situations has been supported
by British linguists, giving a prominent place to meaning, context, and
situation. Prominent figures such as M.A.K. Halliday and Palmer
emphasized the close relationship between the structure of language and
the context and situations in which language is used.

• The Audiolingual method.

The origins of this method trace back to the entry of the United States
into World War II since the government aimed to teach foreign languages
to avoid Americans becoming isolated from scientific advances in other
countries. The National Defense Education Act (1958) provided funds for
the study and analysis of modern languages based on the earlier
experience of the army programs such as the so-called ASTP (Army
Specialized Training Program). This program was established for military
personnel in 1942 in American universities, and its main objective was for
students to attain conversational proficiency in different foreign languages
through significant drills.
This fact had a significant effect on language teaching in America, and in
fact, new approaches on language teaching were soon developed, and
toward the end of the 1950s a new approach emerged under the name of
Audiolingualism (term coined by Professor Nelson Brooks in 1964. It is
based in structural linguistics (structuralism) and behavioristic psychology
(Skinner’s behaviorism). Therefore, it is primarily an oral approach to
language teaching and there is little provision for grammatical explanation
or talking about the language.
The audio-lingual method aims at teaching the language skills in the
order of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and is based on using
drills for the formation of good language habits. Thus students are given
a stimulus, which they respond to. If their response is correct, it is
rewarded, so the habit will be formed; if it is incorrect, it is corrected, so
that it will be suppressed. As Rivers (1981) states, material is presented
in spoken form, and the emphasis in the early years is on the language
as it is spoken in everyday situations.

It was a methodological innovation which combined structural linguistic

theory, contrastive analysis, aural-oral procedures, and behaviorist
psychology. Therefore linguists such as Leonard Bloomfield, developed
training programs within an anthropological and linguistic tradition. The
best known of these programs was the “informant method”, based on a
strict timetable (ten hours a day during six days a week), fifteen hours drill
with native speakers and almost thirty hours of private study over nearly
three six-week sessions. Statistics show that excellent results were often
achieved in small classes of mature and highly motivated students.

• Total Physical Response.

Total Physical Response is linked to several traditions, such as
psychology, learning theory, and humanistic pedagogy. This method is
built around the combination of speech and action and was developed
by James Asher, a professor of psychology. For him, including
movements within the linguistic production reduces learner stress,
creating a positive mood which facilitates learning. This emphasis on
comprehension and the use of physical actions to teach a foreign
language is not new. In the nineteenth century, Gouin acknowledged a
situationally based teaching strategy in which action verbs served as a
basis for practicing new language items.
This method owes much to structuralist or grammar-based views of
language as most of vocabulary items and grammatical structures are
learned through an instructor. Asher still sees a stimulus- response view
as reminiscences of the views of behavioral psychologists, directed to
right-brain learning. The main goal is to teach oral proficiency at a
beginning level through the use of action- based drills in the imperative
form.
This method is updated with references to more recent psychological
theories and supported by prominent theorists as Krashen because of its
emphasis on the role of comprehension in second language acquisition.
However, Asher himself, points out the need for this method to be used in
association with other methods to be fully successful.
• The Silent Way.
Caleb Gattegno introduced this classroom technique wherein the teacher
remains silent while pupils output the language through simulated
experiences using tokens and picture charts as central elements. For
instance, a color-coded phonics (sound) chart called a fidel, with both
vowel and consonant clusters on it, is projected onto a screen to be used
simultaneously with a pointer, thus permitting the pupil to output
continually the target language in a sequence of phonemes.
Brightly coloured rods are integrated into this method for pupils to learn
spatial relationships, prepositions, colors, gender and number concepts,
and to create multiple artificial settings through their physical placement.

This method works effectively to promote small group discussion.

Students are encouraged to produce as much language as possible and
to self-correct their pronunciation errors through manual gesticulation on
the part of the instructor. The greatest strength of this method lies in its
ability to draw students out orally, while the teacher listens. This inner
criteria allow learners to monitor and self-correct their own production. It
is here where this method differs notably from other ways of language
learning.

• Community Language Learning.

As the name indicates, this method follows a “humanistic” approach
which was supported by Charles A. Curran, a specialist in counseling
and a professor of psychology at Chicago University. His method is
known as Counseling-Learning, and it redefines the roles of the teacher
(counselor) and learners (the clients) in the language classroom.
He developed a holistic approach to language learning, since human
learning is both cognitive and affective. For him, learning takes place in a
communicative situation where teachers and learners are involved in an
interaction. One of its main tenets is for the student to develop his
relationship with the teacher.
This process is divided into five stages and compared to the ontogenetic
development of the child. Thus, feelings of security are established;
achievement of independence from the teacher; the learner starts
speaking independently; a sense of criticism is developed; and finally, the
learner improves style and knowledge of linguistic appropriateness.
Curran wrote little about his theory which was to be developed by his
student, La Forge . He built a theory on “basic sound and grammatical
patterns” which started with criteria for sound features, the sentence, and
abstract models of language in order to construct a basic grammar of the
foreign language.
Since these humanistic technique of counseling students engage the
whole person, including the emotions and feelings (affective part) as well
as linguistic knowledge and behavioral skills, this method has been
linked to bilingual and adult education programs.

3.4.3.6. Suggestopedia.
In the 1980s and 1990s, an extremely esoteric method was developed by
a Bulgarian psychiatrist- educator called Georgi Lozanov. The most
outstanding features of this mystical method are, according to Rivers
(1981), its arcane terminology and neologisms, and secondly, the
arrangement of the classroom to create an optimal atmosphere to
learning, by means of decoration, furniture, the authoritative behavior of
the teacher and specially, through the use of music. Therapy theories are
the reason of using music in the classroom as Lozanov calls upon in his
use to relax learners as well as to structure, pace, and punctuate the
presentation of linguistic material.

Lozanov acknowledges following a tradition on yoga and Soviet

psychology, borrowing techniques for altering states of consciousness
and concentration, and the use of rhythmic breathing. In fact, teachers
are trained in a special way to read dialogues, using voice quality,
intonation, and timing. Lozanov also claims that his method works equally
well whether or not students spend time on outside study and promises
success to the academically gifted and ungifted alike.
In the own words of Lozanov (1978), Suggestopedia prepares students
for success by means of yoga, hypnosis, biofeeback or experimental
science. Its main features such as scholarly citations, terminological
jargon, and experimental data have received both support and criticisms.
However, Suggestopedia is acknowledged to appear effective and
harmonize with other successful techniques in language teaching
methodology.

• NEW DIRECTIONS ON LANGUAGE TEACHING.

What’s now, what’s next? The future is always uncertain when
anticipating methodological directions in second language teaching,
although applied linguistic journals assume the carrying on and
refinement of current trends within a communicative approach. They are
linked to present concerns on education, and they reflect current trends
of language curriculum development at the level of cognitive strategies,
literature, grammar, phonetics or technological innovative methods.
The Internet Age anticipates the development of teaching and learning in
instructional settings by means of an on-line collaboration system,
perhaps via on-line computer networks or other technological resources.
A critical question for language educators is about "what content" and
"how much content" best supports language learning. The goal is to best
match learner needs and interests and to promote optimal development
of second language competence. The natural content for language
educators is literature and language itself, and we are beginning to see a
resurgence of interest in literature and in discourse and genre analysis ,
schema theory, pragmatics, and functional grammar propose an interest
in functionally based approaches to language teaching.
Also, "Learning to Learn" is the key theme in an instructional focus on
language learning strategies. Such strategies include, at the most basic
level, memory tricks, and at higher levels, cognitive and metacognitive
strategies for learning, thinking, planning, and self-monitoring. Research
findings suggest that strategies can indeed be taught to language
learners, that learners will apply these strategies in language learning
tasks. Simple and yet highly effective strategies, such as those that help
learners remember and access new second language vocabulary items,
will attract considerable instructional interest.

• CONCLUSION.
On revising the literature on language teaching theories, it is possible to
get a sense of the wide range of proposals from the 1700’s to the
present, with their weaknesses and strengths, from grammar-based
methods to more natural approaches. There is still present a constant
preoccupation for teachers and linguists to find more efficient and
effective ways of teaching languages. This proliferation of approaches
and methods is a relevant characteristic of contemporary second and
foreign language teaching, and is only understood when the learner’s
need is approached from an educational perspective. These approaches
have been called natural, psychological, phonetic, new, reform, and
direct, among others.
In the middle -methods period, a variety of methods were proclaimed as
successors to the then prevailing Situational Language Teaching and
Audio-Lingual methods. These alternatives were promoted under such
titles as Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Community Language Learning, and
Total Physical Response. In the 1980s, these methods in turn came to be
overshadowed by more interactive views of language teaching, which
collectively came to be known as Communicative Language Teaching.
These CLT approaches include The Natural Approach and Community
Language Learning.
Special attention has also been paid to the role of the teacher as a
commander of classroom activity (e.g., Audio-Lingual Method, Natural
Approach, Suggestopedia, Total Physical Response) whereas others see
the teacher as background facilitator and classroom colleague to the
learners (e.g., Communicative Language Teaching, Cooperative
Language Learning).
Language learning theories have approached second language learning
on adults and children around first language acquisition model. Schools
such as Total Physical Response and Natural Approach claim that
second language learning must be developed in the same way as first
language acquisition although this is not the only model of language
learning we have. However, the Silent Way and Suggestopedia schools
claim that adult classroom learning must be developed in a different way
children do, due to different cognitive and psychological features.
Bibliography, in a final section, will provide a source for readers to detail
differences and similarities among the many different approaches and
methods that have been proposed

• BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Introduction to the study of language
• Jespersen, O. 1922. Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin .
London: Allen and Unwin.
• Crystal, D. 1985. Linguistics. Harmondsworth, England. Penguin Books.
• Baugh, A. & Cable, T. 1993. A History of the English Language. Prentice-
Hall Editions.
On origins and evolution of language teaching
• Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. 1992. Approaches and Methods in
Language Teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Howatt, A. (1984). A history of English Language teaching . Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
On approaches to language teaching and the teaching of English as a
foreign language
• Rivers, W. 1981. Teaching Foreign-Language Skills. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press.
• Krashen, S. D., and Terrell, T. D. 1983. The Natural Approach:
Language Acquisition in the Classroom. Oxford: Pergamon.
New directions in language teaching
• Revistas de la Asociación Española de Lingüística Aplicada (AESLA):
De la Cruz, Isabel; Santamaría, Carmen; Tejedor, Cristina y Valero,
Carmen. 2001. La Lingüística Aplicada a finales del Siglo XX. Ensayos y
propuestas. Universidad de Alcalá.
• Celaya, Mª Luz; Fernández-Villanueva, Marta; Naves, Teresa; Strunk,
Oliver y Tragant, Elsa. 2001. Trabajos en Lingüística Aplicada .
Universidad de Barcelona.
• Moreno, Ana I. & Colwell, Vera. 2001. Perspectivas Recientes sobre el
Discurso. Universidad de León.