My personal philosophy of methodologies, approaches, techniques in language teaching

My personal philosophy of methodologies, approaches, techniques in language teaching.

Universidad de Guanajuato

In the second language teaching exist many ways to teach, which are called methods and techniques. Through the years since the 19th century many new methods have come to be used in language teaching classes. Some of them are: Grammar translation method, the direct method, the oral approach, audiolingualism, total physical response, the silent way and community language learning. In the following paper only three methods will be consider: Grammar translation method, the direct method and the oral approach will be analyze and compare through my personal experience in using and applying them in class. Finally a personal opinion will be given about using a specific method or many in class.

As mention before three teaching methods will be cover in this paper; the first one is “The Grammar Translation Method”. This method was started through the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. It was specially created to teach classical languages through the use of literature in the target language. This method focuses on the reading and writing in the second language; which gives little attention to fluency neither approaches nor encourages the students’ communicative competence ("Methodology elt,”). The grammar translation method uses the students’ first language to teach in class, which can be a disadvantage of a language teaching method. It can be also frustrating for the students do to the reason that they can’t understand what people say and have to struggle mightily to express themselves at the most basic level (Stoitchkov, 2006).

Through the use of this method it has been seen that a teacher do not needs too much preparation for classes and it only helps two abilities to develop (writing and reading). Also the teacher can be helped through literature as material for the class In my personal experience using this method; I have noticed that students want to be able to communicate not only read in a second language, the students sometimes want to know the exact meaning of words, which is good but the class should not be directed only to meanings and translations, because they are not able to communicate.

Another method that was popularly used in the 19th century is “The Direct Method”. It is also known as the Natural Method, because the students learn how to communicate through practical language use. It was introduce by Sauver and Maximilian Berlitz. One of the reasons for this method to be developed was that the grammar translation method was not effective to learn how to use a foreign language. This method focuses on language first spoken and students learn how to communicate by using correct pronunciation and the four skills: speaking, listening, writing and reading are developed.

Through practice in class using this method, the students rarely use their first language and translation is banished from the classroom (PURWARNO, 2006). The students linked words to ideas of meaning with the use of realia and conversational activities. The students basically are learning how to communicate.

The third method it will be analyzed it is: “The Oral approach or situational teaching”. This method was developed through the 1930’s to 1950’s by two British linguistics Palmer and Hornby. This method is used through controlled vocabulary in spoken for; this is an important aspect for students in order to understand the target language (S.Rodgers & C.Richars,

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