ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a critical review, in rough chronological order, of some influential language-teaching methods and approaches. The review starts with the traditional Grammar-Translation Method, which was the method used in academically oriented secondary schools from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. It concentrated on developing reading, writing and translation skills. This is contrasted with the Direct Method, sometimes called the Berlitz Method, which was developed at the very end of the nineteenth century to cater for adults who needed foreign language conversational skills. It used native speaker teachers, who spoke only the target language in class. Attention is then given to the Audiolingual Method, current especially in the USA from the 1950s and 1960s onwards. It was based on structuralist theories of language and behaviourist theories of learning. Situational Language Teaching (SLT), which was more popular in Britain at this time and emphasised teaching language in context, is also reviewed. Two alternative approaches of the 1970s, both of which aimed to make language learning a less stressful experience for learners, are then mentioned. These are Total Physical Response (TPR) and Community Language Learning (CLL).
Considerable attention is then given to the major paradigm shift in language-teaching methodology which occurred with the introduction of the communicative approach from the 1970s onwards and became generally known as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) and Cooperative Language Learning are then presented as two related further developments of CLT which have been particularly influential on language teaching since about 1990. Two further major developments in methodology are then presented. The first is Self-Directed Language Learning (SDLL), which derives from the emphasis on developing learner autonomy and takes the idea of TBLT and Cooperative Language Learning a step further. The second development is Competence-Based Language Teaching (CBLT), which is a response to the demand for standardised achievement benchmarks and owes much to TBLT in its emphasis on task performance in the classroom. Finally, it is explained why present-day EFL teaching is sometimes referred to as the post-methods era, and developments such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) are briefly mentioned.
