Direct method

THE DIRECT METHOD

The Reform Movement
TheDirectMethod
Linguists, such as Henry Sweet (1845-1912)in England, Wilhelm Viëtor (1850-1918) İn Germany, and Paul ÉdouardPassy (1859-1940)in France too became interested in the controversies that emerged about the best way to teach foreign languages, and ideas were fiercely discussed and defended in books( The Practical Study of Languages by H. Sweet), articles and pamphlets(Language Teaching Must Start Afresh by W. Viëtor).
Reformers in the late 19th century shared many beliefs about the principles on which a new approach to teaching foreign languages should be based.

TheDirectMethod
The late nineteenth-century reformers shared the following beliefs:
Knowing a language is being able to speak it.
Great stress on correct pronunciation and target language from outset.
Second language learning must be an imitation of first language learning, as this is the natural way humans learn any language.
The written word / writing should be delayed until after the printed word has been introduced.
The learning of grammarductively/ translating skills should be avoided.
All above items must be avoided because they hinder the acquisition of a good oral proficiency.

The Direct Method
Teachers, frustrated by the limits of the Grammar Translation Method in terms of its inability to create communicative competence in students, began to experiment with new ways of teaching language like Direct Method in post-war and depression era classrooms. This method’s name comes from the fact that meaning is to be conveyed directly in the target language. And it’s also called Natural Method as it’sbased on thewaychildrenlearntheirnativelanguage.

DirectMethod
Aim: The Direct Method aims at establishing the direct bond between thought and expressions and between experience and language. It is based on the assumption that the learner should experience the new language in the same way as he experienced his mother tongue.
Its main features are:
Only the use of target language is allowed in class,
Students are encouraged to think in the target language,
Grammar should be taughtinductively,
This method is based on sound principles of education.It believes in introducing the particular before general, concrete before abstract and practice before theory.

The teacher should demonstrate not explain or translate,
Vocabularyshould be learned in fullsentencesratherthanmemorizingwordlists,
Pronunciationshould be worked on rightfromoutset,
Self-correctionfacilitateslanguagelearning,,
First speaking is taught and then reading and writing,
The learner should be actively involved in using the targetlanguage in realistic everyday situation,
Thesyllabus is based on situationsortopics, not usually on linguisticstructures,
Objectsshould be usedtohelpstudentunderstandthemeaning.
DirectMethod

A comparison between the Direct Method and the Grammar Translation Method
D.M
G.T.M
avoids close association between the second language and the mothertongue.
lays emphasis on speech.
follows the child’s natural way of learning a language.
teaches the language by ‘use’
does not favour the teaching of formal grammar at the early stage.
maintains close association between the second language and the mother tongue.
lays emphasis on translation.
follows the adult’s natural way of learning a language.
teaches the language by ‘rule’.
teaches formal grammar from the very beginning.

DirectMethod
There were many linguistsin the 19th century who tried toapply natural principles of learning language, as a child does, to the second language classroom.
Among those whobestpresentedthemethod were
F. Franke: thoughta languagecouldbest be taughtbyusing it actively in theclassroom.
L. Sauveur: used intensive oral interaction in the target language.
M. Berlitz : referredtoDirectMethodused in his school as the ‘’BerlitzMethod’’.

The main guidelines for teaching oral language in Berlitz schools:
DirectMethod
Never translate: demonstrate
Never explain: act
Never make a speech: ask questions
Never imitate mistakes: correct
Never speak with single words: use sentences
Never speak too much: make students speak much
Never use the book: use your lesson plan
Never jump around: follow your plan
Never go too fast: keep the pace of the student
Never speak too slowly: speak normally
Never speak too quickly: speak naturally
Never speak too loudly: speak naturally
Never be impatient: take it easy

Strategies Using Direct Method
DirectMethod
Q & A:The teacher asks questions of any nature and the students answer.
Dictation:The teacher chooses a grade appropriate passage and reads the text aloud.Teacherreadsthepassagethreetimes.
Reading Aloud:Students take turn reading sections of a passage, play or dialog out loud.
Getting Students to Self-Correct:The teacher should have the students self-correct by offering them a choice between what they said and the correctanswer.

DirectMethod
ConversationPractise: Theteacherasksstudents a number of questions in thetargetlanguagewhichthestudentsareabletoanswercorrectly. Later, thestudents ask eachothertheirownquestionsusingthesamegrammaticalstructures.
Map Drawing: Studentsaregiven a mapwithoutlabeledthenthestudentslabel it byusingthedirectionstheteachergives.
ParagraphWriting : Thestudentsareaskedtowrite a passage in theirownwords. They can do thisfrommemoryoruse a readingpassage in thelesson as a model.

DirectMethod
TheGoal of teachersis toencourage students to think in the target language.
The Role of theteacheris todirecttheclassactivitiesandthe role of thestudent is moreactivethantheyare in Grammar TranslationMethod.
Theinteractionsbetween ‘’student-teacher’’ can gobothways:
Teachertostudents
Studentstoteacher
Theteacherandthestudentsarelikepartners in theteaching/learningprocess.
Students can alsoconverseeachother in thetargetlanguage.

Advantages:
DirectMethod
One of its positive points is that it promises to teach the language and Not about the language.
It is a natural method which teaches language in the same way the mother tongue is acquired. Only the target language is used and the learning is contextulaized.
Its emphasis on speech made it more attractive for those who have needs of real communication in the target language.
It is one of the first methods to introduce the teaching of vocabulary through realias.

DirectMethod
Criticism
In spite of its achievements, the direct method fell short from fulfilling the needs of educational systems. One of its major shortcomings is that it was hard for public schools to integrate it. As R.Brown (1994:56) points out, the Direct Method” did not take well in public schools where the constraints of budget, classroom size, time, and teacher background (nativespeakersornativelikefluency) made such a method difficult to use.”
After a short popularity in the beginning of the 20th century, it soon began to lose its appeal because of these constraints. It then paved the way to the Audiolingual Method.

BibliographyandFurtherReading
Larsen-Freeman, D. 2000. TechniquesandPrinciples in LanguageTeaching; OxfordUniversityPress.
Richards, J. C.& Rodgers T. S. 2001. ApproachesandMethods in LanguageTeaching; Cambridge UniversityPress.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_method_education
http://purwarno-linguistics.blogspot.com/2006/01/direct-method.html
http://www.englishraven.com/method_direct.html

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Direct method

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