The document discusses different language teaching methods and approaches. It defines the key difference between a method and an approach, with methods having more rigid guidelines and approaches being more flexible. Several historical teaching methods are outlined, including Grammar Translation, Direct Method, Audiolingual Method, and Total Physical Response. Community Language Learning and Suggestopedia are also summarized. The document notes that Communicative Language Teaching and Task-Based Teaching have become popular approaches in recent decades as they focus on developing students' communicative competence through interactive tasks.

1. Language Teaching
Methods and Approaches
By Mahmoud Ghadimi
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2. What’s the difference between a method and an
approach?
 The difference is to be found in their levels of flexibility.
 A method is a way of teaching where there are prescribed
objectives and guidelines, and the teacher has little or no
freedom when it comes to implementation.
 An approach is a way of teaching whose principles can be
applied in many different ways.
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3. Why learn ESL teaching methods and
approaches ?
• Demonstrating knowledge of these ESL teaching methods and
strategies makes you more marketable.
• Using TEFL/TESOL buzzwords during an interview can improve
your chances of getting hired.
• Using a variety of methods in the ESL classroom makes you a
more effective and engaging teacher.
• Understanding pedagogy helps you design better ESL
materials and lessons.
• Learning methodology can help you strategically use learning
objectives that will benefit your students.
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4. Grammar Translation Method (GTM) 1800s
 Teaching was equal to learning Latin or Greek
 Classes were taught in the mother tongue
 Vocabulary was taught in Isolated words or word lists (Literary
or religious)
 Grammar was taught deductively
 Long grammar explanations (Focus on Form)
 Classical Texts Translation or disconnected sentences
regardless of their context
 No attention to pronunciation at all or oral production
 No real world interaction or communication
 The method emphasizes accuracy over fluency
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5. Direct Method (DM) (early 1900s)
 Learning L1 =L2
 L1 not allowed in classes
 Only everyday sentences
 Small classes
 Q’s and A’s exchanges
 Inductive Grammar
 Concrete vocabulary > through demonstration
 Correct pronunciations and grammar emphasized
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6. Audiolingual Method (ALM)
Army Method (1942)
 Military intense courses focused on auditive and oral skills
 Systematic attention to pronunciation
 Grammar (Form) was presented as dialogues
 Set phrases and structures memorized intensively in long hours (mimicry
and repetition) (rote-learning)
 Inductive Grammar
 Vocabulary was taught in Context
 Little use of mother tongue
 Focus on Error-Free utterances
 Reinforcing and praising successful responses and negative feedback for
incorrect response 6

7. Total Physical Response (TPR) (James Asher)
 Memory is increased if stimulated through
physical association with motor activity
 Motor activity is a right-brain function that should
precede left-brain language processing
 Heavily utilized the imperative mode of language
 Effective in the beginning levels
 Standard for young learners ( they mostly learn by
commands)
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8. The Silent Way (SW) ( Caleb Gattengo)
 In teacher-student interactions the teacher is
silent, so the students work more
 The teacher speaks only to give clues
 Only applicable for elementary levels
 Only appropriate for adults
 No teacher correction only peer correction
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9. Suggestopedia (Georgie Lozanov)
 Emphasized on relaxed state of the mind so …
 Use of soft comfortable chairs, Baroque Music,Dim lighting
 Activities were carried out in soft comfortable seats with
music
 Teacher says you won’t need to try to learn. Learning will
come naturally.
 The methods includes deseggestion and suggestions
 The teacher read the new text which was translated in L1
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10. Community Language Learning (CLL)
 Group interact in an interpersonal relationship >
lessening Anxiety in community
 Sat in a circle with a counselor or a teacher outside
the circle
 First the client(the student) said something in his L1
then the counselor (the teacher) translated in L2
 Gradually the learner became able to make utterance
directly in L2
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11. Approaches
 Methods were popular and mainstream up until the
1990s
 Experts in the field started to suggest that the key
learning goal of language teaching and learning be
communicative proficiency.
 Different methods have different weaknesses that need
to be addressed, which therefore requires a flexible
teaching approach from the instructor, rather than a
rigid methodology.
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12. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 1990s,
 (CLT) quickly became the most popular approach and is now the
central paradigm in English language teaching.
 CLT emphasizes the engagement of learners in classroom activities
that replicate real-life situations, so they can practice how to
communicate in the real world outside the classroom.
 The teacher engages learners in the pragmatic and functional use
of language, with a focus on meaning and fluency, rather than form
and accuracy
 very much a practical rather than theoretical way of learning.
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13. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
1990s,
 The primary goal of CLT is for learners to develop communicative
competence which involves 1) linguistic competence, 2) sociolinguistic
competence, 3) discourse competence and 4) strategic competence.
 Features of CLT include communication through interaction (cooperative
and collaborative learning),
 the use of authentic texts and students contributing personal experiences.
Classroom activities, such as role plays, interviews, games and surveys are
completed in pairs and small groups, requiring debate, negotiation and
compromise.
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14. Task-based Teaching (TBT)
 Task-based Teaching (TBT) [and Task-based Learning (TBL)] is the approach
that TESOL Advantage advocates as best practice when it come to English
language teaching.
 TBT gives teachers a specific requirement to focus on – getting the students
to complete a task.
 Teachers worried about a lack of structure in the lesson, but now have clear
steps that create guidelines and boundaries –
 a pre-task,
 task
 and post-task.
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15. Task-based Teaching (TBT)
 Students become more empowered and motivated when they
complete tasks
 While TBT definitely has a greater focus on meaning than form,
teachers can add an optional language focus at the end of a task
to cover any grammatical issues that the task highlighted.
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16. END
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