Oxford Companion to the English Language by Tom McArthur

Author:Tom McArthur [McARTHUR TOM]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780199661282
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2018-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

The situational approach

Almost from the start of the Reform Movement, practitioners used conversation readers in their teaching, often with texts in phonetic script, such as E. T. True and Otto Jespersen, Spoken English (1891) and H. Palmer and F. G. Blandford, Everyday Sentences in Spoken English (1922). In the 1960s–70s, many textbooks took such a practical approach further, grouping their teaching units around situational themes such as At the Hairdresser and The Post Office. The dialogues and narratives in the text derived from these settings, and teachers were expected to produce appropriate material to support action-based language use within the situation defined by the chosen topic. The strength of the topic was language appropriate to a situation, but its weakness, the difficulty of generalizing what is learned, led to its being used more in collaboration with other procedures than in its pure form.

The notional-functional approach

In the early 1970s there developed in Europe an approach to LT that focused on two kinds of semantic and performative criteria: notions, such as time, place, quantity, emotional attitudes; and functions, such as describing, enquiring, apologizing, criticizing. The introduction of such ideas has influenced subsequent syllabuses and coursebooks. However, courses whose content is entirely notional and functional are often difficult to teach and learn from, because some notions and functions presuppose a knowledge of grammar and vocabulary for which no provision may have been made. It is probable that no definitive list of notions or of functions exists or may even be possible, but the concept has proved useful.

The cognitive code approach

This approach to language teaching, which developed especially in the US in the 1960s, advocates conscious (cognitive) awareness of the structure of the target language and argues that study of rules of pronunciation and grammar will give learners a practical command of that language. The learners are presented material which targets a given structure, the rules for which they work out inductively. Once the rules are consciously understood, the learners apply them to meaningful practice of the language. Some commentators see it as the grammar–translation method in a new form, others as essentially a rejection of behaviourism and the audio-visual method.

Humanistic approaches

In the 1970s, approaches deriving from various psychological therapeutic models became popular, particularly in the US, as a means of humanizing language teaching. Humanistic approaches emphasize the shared interests and needs of teachers and students and provide a caring environment in which to learn. While very different in the techniques and strategies adopted, these shared a concern to develop the full psychological potential of individual learners. For example, Caleb Gattegno’s Silent Way seeks to give the learner maximum investment in the language-learning process, by reducing the spoken role of the teacher as much as possible. Highly formal charts for pronunciation and grammar, together with Cuisenaire rods for manipulation, provide the major teaching aids. Georgi Lozanov’s Suggestopedia is based on the view that relaxation enables learners to exploit their capacities for language acquisition to the maximum degree. Emphasis is placed on comfortable surroundings, use of music and chanting, and trust in the authority of the teacher.

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