The document provides a history of language teaching methods from the 19th century to modern times. It begins with the Grammar Translation Method which dominated European language teaching from 1840-1940s and focused on grammar rules, translation, reading, and writing. In the late 19th century, specialists like Marcel, Prendergast, and Gouin created new strategies emphasizing meaning and oral proficiency. The Reform Movement in the early 20th century advocated principles based on linguistic analysis and speech. This led to the Direct Method, which aimed to think directly in the target language without translation. While popular in Europe, it declined in schools by the 1920s. Modern methods from the 1950s on included Audio-Lingual, Situ

1. The History of Language Teaching By Eric Hoopengardner & Alexandra Thomas

2. Grammar Translation Method The offspring of German scholarship. (p5, Richards & Rodger) Principal Characteristics A way to study language that approaches the language first through detailed analysis of its grammar rules, followed by application of the knowledge to the task of translating sentences and text into and out of the target language. Reading and writing are the major focus. The sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice. Accuracy is emphasized. Grammar is taught deductively. The student native language is the medium. (p6, Richards & Rodger) Dominated European and foreign language teaching from 1840 – 1940’s. (p5, Richards & Rodger)

4. Emphasizing the importance of meaning in learning , proposed reading should be taught before other skills. (p7, Richards & Rodger)

6. Speech patterns were considered the fundamental elements of language. (p10, Richards & Rodger)

8. Modern Era of Grammar The most active period in the history of approaches and methods was from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. (p15, Richards & Rodger) The 1950’s & 1960’s saw the emergence of the Audio-lingual Method, Situational Method, and Communicative Methods. (p15, Richards & Rodger) In the 1990’s Content-Based Instruction and Task-Based Language teaching emerged. (p15, Richards & Rodger) Approaches such as cooperative learning, whole language approach, and multiple intelligences were used in general classrooms have been extended to the second language setting. (p15, Richards & Rodger)

9. Questions Slide 1.Using your experiences from either learning or teaching a foreign language, which techniques did you find most successful and also which were least successful? Refer back to the different trends and principles mentioned in the article. 2. What are your thoughts on the Direct Method? When reading the principles and procedures, do you think this method would work well in today’s schools? Why or why not?

10. The Direct Method. (2006, January, 17). Retrieved September 23, 2011. From http://purwarno-linguistics.blogspot.com/2006/01/direct-method.html. Richards, J.C. and Rodgers, T. (2001). A brief history of language teaching. In Richards, J. & Rodgers. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, 2nd Edition. . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 3-17.