The following article is a tour along the amaziing history of language teaching

1. A VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF
LANGUAGE TEACHING
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2. The history of language teaching is pretty much kind of fascinating. It is my
purpose in this paper, to write about the issues which made this history inviting to
be known. In the lines ahead, I will refer to the major characteristic of the early
methods, their teaching principles, the technological progress as well as the
changes which emerged at the age and made language teaching history worth
knowing and studying.
The two major languages of those ancient times were Latin and Greek. They were
used and taught among the scholars of the time for academic purposes. Literature
and philosophy were the age- fashioned subject matters. The exciting chapters of
language history are rooted in the seventeenth century. The political changes
experienced in Europe as well as the advent of the print as a revolutionary
technological progress made a clear way for other languages emerged and were
entrenched in the social network of the age.
As new languages arose (vernacular languages modern languages-) a linguistic
division came. Latin and Greek were still the means for having access to literature
and philosophy while the vernacular languages took over their role in the social
network for everyday communication. These languages became increasingly
necessary as they started to play an important role in the study of literature, arts
and philosophy. Latin and Greek were no longer the only means for study and
learning.
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3. These changes gave birth to methods to teach the new languages. The first
method that came into stage was the grammar- translation. The implementation
of this method suggests that people´s particular language needs, methodological
principles, learning objectives and communicative objectives have always been
entrenched in language teaching. Language instruction in line to this method was
taught in the mother language. Lengthy vocabulary list were given to the students
for memorization tasks.
The formal study of the language system together with its rules and exceptions
was the only way for learning. Communicative activities were performed in
association with translation exercises. These tasks provided the learners with the
exact meanings of texts. The next items will feed you with some more details
concerning with language instruction in the translation and grammar method.
• The grammar translation method became firmly entrenched in the 19
century
• It consisted of the formal study of the language
• It was rooted in the formal teaching of Latin and Greek
• Grammar rules ,list of vocabulary and sentences for translation
• The objectives were to train the students to read the literature written in the
foreign language and to write it accurately
• The translation was the technique used to extract the meaning from the text.
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4. • The learning process was as follows: The students try to understand the
logic of the grammar. They learn the rules and the exceptions by heart and
memorize vocabulary list.
• Teachers were more preoccupied with written exercises and lengthy
bilingual lists of vocabulary
• The aim of the teacher was the completion of the exercises in each lesson
and covering all the lessons contained in the book.
• The foreign was not used in the language room to any extent.
• The written exercises were repetitive and the language presented was
academic and unreal.
It is evident in these items that this method to language teaching and learning did
not foster communicative competence. It only focused on written communication
among scholars.
The nineteenth century allowed a new path for language teaching to set up. Once
vernacular o modern languages had gained great popularity innovations to
language teaching and learning did not take too long to show off. The innovations
took place in Europe (France, German and other parts of Europe). The
educators of the time recognized the need for language proficiency rather than
reading comprehension grammar like in the former method. The innovations
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5. sought new and different ways to teach the modern languages (the vernacular
ones) and an interest on how children learn languages came into its own.
The advent of the phonetics as system and the study of the spoken language
embodied the reform movement which took place in German and France. This
sought a more pragmatic and communicative view of the language. Reformers’
major tenets were grounded on the fact that methodological principles should be
based on scientific analysis of language and a study of psychology as well as the
inductive approach to the teaching of grammar.
The influence of phonetics in foreign language teaching placed great importance
on the teaching of the spoken language before the written. The inductive approach
to the teaching of grammar, teaching by meaningful contexts of communication
and the tenet that words should be used in sentences and these sentences in
meaningful contexts was strongly stressed.
There are several methods in the history of language teaching. Five in total to be
more precise. These were coined the early methods. Once the grammar translation
method had declined others methods arose with new tenets of how language
should be learn and taught. The first method which came into stage was the direct
method. Unlike the grammar- translation method, this fosters the L2 as the means
of instruction. Some aspects of this method that are worth considering can be read
down through:
• It arose in the middle of 19 century.
• It advocates the avoidance of first language use
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6. • It stresses the ability to use the foreign language rather than analyzing
it.
• It focuses on learning the language for everyday life.
• It uses the language at functional level.
Then the next method that was at the hand of the time was the reading method.
This searched for the students´ reading proficiency in L2. The lines ahead will
show you the whole picture of this method.
• It arose for foreign language learning as a better option and the aim
was the development of the reading skill.
• The students were expected to learn to read in the same way they did
in L1.
• New words were inferred in context.
• Translation was discouraged
• Reading could either be intensive or extensive
• Intensive reading: The teacher checked the degree of comprehension
• Extensive readings: learners read on their own
• The oral practice was related to the text, the study of grammar to the
needs of the reader.
The third method that came into action was the oral or situational method. This
retook the study of grammar by having the students repeat controlled- sentence
pattern. The students did much oral practice of the grammatical structures. This
method advocated the items as follows:
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7. • The oral practice of structures by controlled sentence patterns in
given situations.
• The use of the target language as the means of instruction.
• Extension techniques were introduced once sufficient lexical and
grammatical basis was established.
The other two methods that made part of this history were the audio-lingual and the
cognitive code approach. The former is best known as the army method because it
was the method adopted to train the USA soldiers. This method used as its major
technique the drill repletion or the dialogue repetition. The latter is the code-
cognitive approach. This method has as a principle the mastery of the grammatical
structures to produce new language.
As a way of conclusion I want to highlight some facts that were evident in the early
methods. They were all pedagogically specific. Their particular tenet about the
language sought a certain level of language proficiency. Finally, their particular
views about the language pursued a revolutionary way to teach grammar and the
spoken language.
Throughout this paper I hope to have demonstrated the major issues about
language teaching history and early methods that make them worth studying as
well as their teaching principles and particularities.
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