The Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching
It refers to an approach to language teaching developed by British applied linguists from the
1930s to the 1960s.
One of the most successful ESL courses published, Streamline English reflected the classic
principles of Situational Language Teaching, as did many other series that have been widely
used. Hubbard, Jones, Thornton, and Wheeler’s comment in 1983 still holds true today:
“This method is widely used at the time of writing and a very large number of textbooks are
based on it”
Background
The origins of this approach began with the work of British applied linguists in the 1920s and
1930s. Two of the leaders in this movement were Harold Palmer and A. S. Hornby. The
result was a systematic study of the principles and procedures that could be applied to the
selection and organization of the content of a language course.
Vocabulary control
One of the first aspects of method design to receive attention was the role of vocabulary. In
the 1920s and 1930s, several large-scale investigations of foreign language vocabulary were
undertaken. The impetus for this research came from two quarters. First, there was a
general consensus among language teaching specialists that vocabulary was one of the
most important aspects of foreign language learning. A second influence was the increased
emphasis on reading skills as the goal of foreign language study in some countries.
Vocabulary was seen as an essential component of reading proficiency.
This led to the development of principles of vocabulary control. Frequency counts showed
that a core of two thousand or so words occurred frequently in written texts and that a
knowledge of these words would greatly assist in reading a foreign language. Harold Palmer,
Michael West, and other specialists produced a guide to the English vocabulary needed for
teaching English as a foreign language, The Interim Report on Vocabulary Selection. These
efforts to introduce a scientific and rational basis for choosing the vocabulary content of a
language course represented the first attempts to establish principles of syllabus design in
language teaching.
Grammar control
Palmer had emphasized the problems of grammar for the foreign learner. Much of his work
in Japan was directed toward developing classroom procedures suited to teaching basic
grammatical patterns through an oral approach. His view of grammar was very different from
the abstract model of grammar seen in the Grammar-Translation Method. Palmer viewed
grammar as the underlying sentence patterns of the spoken language. Palmer, Hornby, and
other British applied linguists analyzed English and classified its major grammatical
structures into sentence patterns (later called “substitution tables”), which could be used to
help internalize the rules of English sentence structure. With the development of systematic
approaches to the lexical and grammatical content of a language course and with the efforts
of such specialists as Palmer, West, and Hornby in using these resources as part of a
comprehensive methodological framework for the teaching of English as a foreign language,
the foundations for the British approach in TEFL/TESL – the Oral Approach – were firmly
established.
-aca habla más del oral a99roach igual se me hace, lo 9use 9or las dudas-
The Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching
Palmer, Hornby, and other British applied linguists from the 1920s onward developed an
approach to methodology that involved systematic principles of selection (the procedures by
which lexical and grammatical content was chosen), gradation (principles by which the
organization and sequencing of content were determined), and presentation (techniques
used for presentation and practice of items in a course. Their general principles were
referred to as the Oral Approach to language teaching.
-Em9ieza hablando del oral a99roach 9ero des9ues sigue con el situational a99roach-
One of the most active proponents of the Oral Approach in the 1960s was the Australian
George Pittman. Pittman and his colleagues were responsible for developing an influential
set of teaching materials based on the Situational Approach.
Pittman was also responsible for the situationally based materials developed by the
Commonwealth Office of Education in Sydney, Australia, used in the English programs for
immigrants in Australia. These were published for worldwide use in 1965 as the series
Situational English. Materials by Alexander and other leading British textbook writers also
reflected the principles of Situational Language Teaching as they had evolved over a
20-year period. The main characteristics of the approach were as follows:
1. Language teaching begins with the spoken language.
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
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
It was the third principle that became a key feature of the approach in the 1960s, and it was
then that the term situational was used increasingly in referring to the Oral Approach. Later,
the terms Structural-Situational Approach and Situational Language Teaching came into
common usage. To avoid further confusion, we will use the term Situational Language
Teaching (SLT) to include the Structural-Situational and Oral approaches.
Approach
Theory of language
The theory of language underlying Situational Language Teaching can be characterized as a
type of British “structuralism.” Speech was regarded as the basis of language, and structure
was viewed as being at the heart of speaking ability. The British theoreticians, however, had
a different focus to their version of structuralism – the notion of “situation.” “Our principal
classroom activity in the teaching of English structure will be the oral practice of 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”.
The theory that knowledge of structures must be linked to situations in which they could be
used gave Situational Language Teaching one of its distinctive features. Many British
linguists had emphasized the close relationship between the structure of language and the
context and situations in which language is used. In contrast to American structuralist views
on language, language was viewed as purposeful activity related to goals and situations in
the real world. “The language which a person originates . . . is always expressed for a
purpose”.
Theory of learning
The theory of learning underlying Situational Language Teaching is a type of behaviorist
habit-learning theory. It addresses primarily the processes rather than the conditions of
learning.
Situational Language Teaching adopts an inductive approach to the teaching of grammar.
The meaning of words or structures is not to be given through explanation in either the
native language or the target language but is to be induced from the way the form is used in
a situation. Explanation is therefore discouraged, and the learner is expected to deduce the
meaning of a particular structure or vocabulary item from the situation in which it is
presented. Extending structures and vocabulary to new situations takes place by
generalization. The learner is expected to apply the language learned in a classroom to
situations outside the classroom.
Design
Objectives
The objectives of the Situational Language Teaching method are to teach a practical
command of the four basic skills of language. The skills are approached through structure.
Accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar is regarded as crucial, and errors are to be
avoided at all costs. Automatic control of basic structures and sentence patterns is
fundamental to reading and writing skills, and this is achieved through speech work.
The syllabus
Basic to the teaching of English in Situational Language Teaching is a structural syllabus
and a word list. A structural syllabus is a list of the basic structures and sentence patterns of
English, arranged according to their order of presentation. In Situational Language Teaching,
structures are always taught within sentences, and vocabulary is chosen according to how
well it enables sentence patterns to be taught.
The syllabus was not therefore a situational syllabus in the sense that this term is sometimes
used. Rather, situation refers to the manner of presenting and practicing sentence patterns,
as we shall see later.
Types of learning and teaching activities
Situational Language Teaching employs a situational approach to presenting new sentence
patterns and a drill-based manner of practicing them. By situation Pittman means the use of
concrete objects, pictures, and realia, which together with actions and gestures can be used
to demonstrate the meanings of new language items.
The practice techniques employed generally consist of guided repetition and substitution
activities, including chorus repetition, dictation, drills, and controlled oral-based reading and
writing tasks. Other oral-practice techniques are sometimes used, including pair practice and
group work.
Learner roles
In the initial stages of learning, the learner is required simply to listen and repeat what the
teacher says and to respond to questions and commands. The learner has no control over
the content of learning and is often regarded as likely to succumb to undesirable behaviors
unless skillfully manipulated by the teacher. Later, more active participation is encouraged.
This includes learners initiating responses and asking each other questions, although
teacher-controlled introduction and practice of new language is stressed throughout.
Teacher roles
The teacher’s function is threefold. In the presentation stage of the lesson, the teacher
serves as a model, setting up situations in which the need for the target structure is created
and then modeling the new structure for students to repeat. Then the teacher “becomes
more like the skillful conductor of an orchestra, drawing the music out of the performers”.
The teacher is required to be a skillful manipulator, using questions, commands, and other
cues to elicit correct sentences from the learners. Lessons are hence teacher-directed, and
the teacher sets the pace.
The teacher is ever on the lookout for grammatical and structural errors that can form the
basis of subsequent lessons. Organizing review is a primary task for the teacher, according
to Pittman (1963), who summarizes the teacher’s responsibilities as dealing with:
1. timing
2. oral practice, to support the textbook structures
3. revision
4. adjustment to special needs of individuals
5. testing
6. developing language activities other than those arising from the textbook
The role of instructional materials
Situational Language Teaching is dependent on both a textbook and visual aids. The
textbook contains tightly organized lessons planned around different grammatical structures.
Visual aids may be produced by the teacher or may be commercially produced; they consist
of wall charts, flashcards, pictures, stick figures, and so on. The visual element together with
a carefully graded grammatical syllabus is a crucial aspect of Situational Language
Teaching. The textbook should be used “only as a guide to the learning process. The
teacher is expected to be the master of his textbook”.
Procedure
Procedures at any level aim to move from controlled to freer practice of structures and from
oral use of sentence patterns to their automatic use in speech, reading, and writing.
Pittman gives an example of a typical lesson plan:
The first part of the lesson will be stress and intonation practice. . . . The
main body of the lesson should then follow. This might consist of the teaching
of a structure. If so, the lesson would then consist of four parts:
1. pronunciation
2. revision (to prepare for new work if necessary)
3. presentation of new structure or vocabulary
4. oral practice (drilling)
5. reading of material on the new structure, or written exercises
- es mas extenso el ejem9lo en la 9ag 45-
Davies et al. likewise give detailed information about teaching procedures to be used with
Situational Language Teaching. The sequence of activities they propose consists of the
following:
1. Listening practice in which the teacher obtains his student’s attention and repeats an
example of the patterns or a word in isolation clearly
2. Choral imitation in which students all together or in large groups repeat what the teacher
has said
3. Individual imitation in which the teacher asks several individual students to repeat the
model he has given in order to check their pronunciation.
4. Isolation, in which the teacher isolates sounds, words, or groups of words which cause
trouble and goes through techniques 1–3 with them before replacing them in context
5. Building up to a new model, in which the teacher gets students to ask and answer
questions using patterns they already know in order to bring about the information necessary
to introduce the new model.
6. Elicitation, in which the teacher, using mime, prompt words, gestures, etc., gets students
to ask questions, make statements, or give new examples of the pattern.
7. Substitution drilling, in which the teacher uses cue words to get individual students to mix
the examples of the new patterns.
8. Question-answer drilling, in which the teacher gets one student to ask a question and
another to answer until most students in the class have practiced asking and answering the
new question form.
9. Correction, in which the teacher indicates by shaking his head, repeating the error, etc.,
that there is a mistake and invites the student or a different student to correct it. The teacher
gets students to correct themselves so they will be encouraged to listen to each other
carefully.
Conclusion
Procedures associated with Situational Language Teaching in the 1950s and 1960s were an
extension and further development of well established techniques advocated by proponents
of the earlier Oral Approach in the British school of language teaching. The principles of
Situational Language Teaching, with its strong emphasis on oral practice, grammar, and
sentence patterns, conform to the intuitions of many language teachers and offer a practical
methodology suited to countries where national EFL/ESL syllabuses continue to be
grammatically based, it continues to be widely used, though not necessarily widely
acknowledged.
