This document provides an overview of the Situational Language Teaching (SLT) approach. SLT was developed in the 1930s-1960s and emphasized teaching language through spoken practice of grammatical structures in real-world situations. Key aspects included using visual aids to introduce vocabulary and grammar points gradually, practicing through repetition and substitution drills, and focusing on automatizing basic sentence patterns to develop reading and writing skills. SLT viewed language learning as habit formation and the teacher's role was to model structures and conduct drills to build accurate speech habits.

1. Major: English Language and Literature
Applied Linguistics Session 5-6
(Students presentations on Approaches & Methods in
ELT+ Recap session)
Dr. Badriya Al Mamari
Academic year 2021/2022

2. Definition of CLT:
 The communicative approach is the theory that language
is communication. Therefore the final aim of CLT
(Communicative Language Teaching) is communicative
competence. Communicative language teaching makes use
of real-life situations that necessitate communication.

3. The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), started its
rise to prominence during the 1970s and 80s. It is a
method that overtook older and more traditional methods
such as the GTM, ALM.
The History of Communicative Language Teaching

4. Principle of CLT
 The first principle of CLT , authentic and meaningful
communication.
 Second, learners learn through using it to communicate.
Third, fluency is an important dimension of
communication.
 Third, communication involves the integration of
different language skills. The last, learning is a process of
creative construction and involves trial and error.

5. The Methodology of CLT:
Firstly, the point of grammar is taught and then the teacher asks
the students to carry out exercises to practice the point in
grammar. For example, the teacher is teaching the present
continuous and outlines the structure of the tense.
After this, the students are required to carry out activities where
they might use it in real life situations.
There are many activities that teachers can employ when using this
method. E.g. pair work, group work, and role plays work well.
Students should express language in the following broads: personal
(feelings, etc.), interpersonal (social and working relationships),
directive (influencing others), referential (reporting about things,
events, people or language itself), and imaginative (creativity and
artistic expression).
Teacher shouldn’t correct the student’s grammatical mistakes and
focuses only on the topic of communication, in order to increase the
students’ confidence.

6. Aim of the CLT
The aim of the communicative approach is to provide
students with real life communication lessons that try to
mimic the natural progression of language learning.
The idea is to make the target language more relevant to
real world situations rather than the classroom.

7. The nature of CLT:
 An emphasis on learning to communicate through
interaction in the target language.
 The introduction of authentic texts into the learning
situation.
 The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not
only on language but also on the learning process itself.
 An enhancement of the learner’s own personal
experiences as important contributing elements to
classroom learning.
 An attempt to link classroom language learning with
language activities outside the classroom.

8. The nature of CLT:
 a teacher using this method should create a range of
different activities that mimic the use of the English
language outside of the classroom, including: pair work,
group work, role plays, interviews, games, surveys ,etc.
 Emphasizes the ability to communicate the meaning of the
message, instead of concentrating on grammatical
perfection.
 The teacher can be the facilitator of the communication
process in the classroom. The teacher is expected to act as a
resource, an organizer of resources, a motivator, a
counselor, a guide, an analyst and a researcher.

9.  The students do most of the speaking, the interaction
should usually be the student to student and should
include the teacher only where necessary.
 Instruction in listening and speaking, as well as reading
and writing, is given within the context of handling
various learning tasks, which involve learners with
language.

10. Advantages of CLT:
 Learning second language through interaction, authentic
communication and negotiating meaning
 Understanding of English through active student
interaction; role play, games, information gaps ((i.e., “I/we
have what you need, and you have what I/we need to
complete our task”). The task cannot be completed
individually ;partners must work together to successfully
complete the assigned task).
 The communicative approach embraces the principle of
“learning by doing,” encouraging the use of English from
the beginning of instruction

11. Teacher and Student Roles
 A communicative classroom tends to be learner-centred,
which means that the teacher acts as a facilitator and monitor
who models successful communication and establishes an
environment that encourages communication.
 The students do much of the speaking, and often work in
pairs or groups to complete tasks cooperatively.
 In CLT, it is not the teacher’s job to prevent and correct all
errors, but to act as a counselor who models effective
communication (Richards and Rodgers, 1986).

12. Disadvantages of CLT:
 CLT does not focus on error correction. This is a
disadvantage as learners are forced to practice with
classmates who are not fluent in English.
 Another disadvantage is that the CLT approach focuses
on fluency but not accuracy. The approach does not
focus on error reduction but instead creates a situation
where learners are left using their own devices to solve
their communication problems. Thus they may produce
incoherent, grammatically incorrect sentences.

13. Typical Techniques:
1. Role play.
2. Games that involves communicative
activities.
3. Information gaps.
4. pair work, group work.
5. Surveys .
6. Interviews.
7. Textbooks.

15. Situational Language Teaching

16. Background
 It was an approach for ELT developed by the British
linguists from the 1930s to the 1960s.
 Two of the leaders in this movement were Harold
Palmer and A. S. Hornby.
 Aim: To develop a more scientific foundation for an
oral approach to ELT than the Direct Method.

17. Harold Edward Palmer
1877 - 1949

18. Hornby, Albert Sydney
1988 - 1978

19. Vocabulary control
 Vocabulary was one of the most important aspects.
 Reading skills were emphasised as the goal of foreign
language study in some countries.
 Palmer, Michael West and others produced the
Interim Report on Vocabulary Selection (1936).
 Later revised by West (1953) as A General Service List
of English Words.

20. Grammar control
 Palmer’s view on grammar was very different from the
abstract model of Grammar Translation-Method.
 Palmer, Hornby and other British applied linguists
analysed English and classified its major grammatical
structures into sentence patterns (later called
‘substitution tables’).

21. The Oral Approach and Situational
Language
 The new method involved systematic principles of
selection, gradation and presentation.
 It was referred as the Oral Approach so as not to be
confused with the Direct Method.
 One of its most active proponents in the 60s was the
Australian George Pittman.

22. Main characteristics
1. Language teaching begins with spoken language.
Material is presented orally before it is presented in
written form.
2. The target language is the language of the classroom.
3. New language points are introduced and practiced
situationally.
4. Vocabulary selection procedures are followed to ensure
that an essential general service vocabulary is covered.

23. Main characteristics
5. Items of grammar are graded following the principle
that simple forms should be taught before complex
ones.
6. Reading and writing are introduced once a sufficient
lexical and grammatical basis is established.
 How can SLT be characterised at the levels of
approach, design, and procedure?

24. Theory of language
 Teaching can be characterised as a type of British ‘structuralism’.
 Speech was the basis of language.
 Structure was the heart of speaking ability.
“Word Order, Structural Words, the few inflections of English, Content
Words, will form the material of our teaching” – Frisby, 1957.
“Our principal classroom activity in the teaching of English structure will
be oral practice structures. This oral practice of controlled sentence
patterns should be given in situations designed to give the greatest
amount of practice in English speech to the pupil” – Pittman, 1963.

25. Theory of learning
 A type of behaviourist habit-learning theory.
“There are three processes in learning a language – receiving
the knowledge or materials, fixing it in the memory by
repetition, and using it in actual practice until it becomes a
personal skill” – Frisby, 1957.”
“The fundamental is correct speech habits… The pupils
should be able to put the words, without hesitation and
almost without thought, into sentence patterns which are
correct. Such speech habits can be cultivated by blind
imitative drill” – French, 1950.

26. Theory of learning
 Like the Direct Method, SLT adopts an inductive
approach to the teaching of grammar.
“If we give the meaning of a new word, either by
translation into the home language or by an equivalent in
the same language, as soon as we introduce it, we weaken
the impression which the word makes on the mind” –
Billows, 1961.

27. Design, Objectives, the syllabus, activities, roles

28. Objectives
 To teach a practical command of the four basic skills of
language.
 Skills are approached through structure.
 Accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar is crucial.
Errors to be avoided at all costs.
 Automatisation of basic structures and sentence
patterns is fundamental to reading and writing skills;
achieved through speech work.

29. The syllabus
 Basic to teaching SLT is a structural syllabus and a word
list.
 Structural syllabus: a list of basic structures and sentence
patterns of English, arranged according to their order
of presentation.
 ‘Situation’ refers to the manner of presenting and
practising sentence patterns.

30. Types of learning
 A situational approach to present new sentence patterns.
 A drill-based manner of practising them.
 The use of concrete objects, pictures, and realia, which
together with actions and gestures can be used to
demosntrate the meanings of new language items.

31. Practice Techniques
 Guided repetition.
 Substitution activities.
 Chorus repetition.
 Dictation.
 Drills.
 Controlled oral-based reading and writing tasks.
 Pair-practice & group work.

32. Learner roles
 Initial stage: Ss listen & repeat; respond to questions
and commands.
 Later learners may initiate responses and ask each
other questions, although teacher-controlled
introduction and practice of new language is stressed
throughout.

33. Teacher roles
 The teacher’s function is threefold:
1. A model.
2. Conductor of an orchestra.
3. A watchman.
 Responsibilities:
1. Timing
2. Oral practice, to suport the textbook structures.
3. Revision (i.e. review)
4. Adjustments to special needs of individuals.
5. Testing.
6. Developing language abilities other than those arising from
the textbook.
(Pittman 1963)

34. The role of instrumental material
 Situational Language Teaching is dependent upon both a
textbook and visual aids.
 Visual aids: charts, flashcards, pictures, sticks figures, and so
on.
 A carefully graded grammatical syllabus is a crucial aspect
of SLT.
 The textbook should be used “only as a a guide to the
learning process. The teacher is expected to be the master
of his textbook” – Pittman 1963

35. References:
Alemi, M., & Tavakoli, E. (2016). Audio lingual method. In 3rd International
Conference on Applied Research in Language Studies (pp. 1-5).
Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2014). Approaches and methods in language
teaching. Cambridge university press.
Anthony, E. M. (1963). Approach, method and technique. English language teaching,
17(2), 63-67.