Methods of Teaching Language

 The following is the chronology of the ELT (English Language Teaching) method:
a) The Grammar-Translation Methods
b) The Direct Method
c) The Audio Lingual Method
d) The Silent Way
e) Desuggestopedia
f) Community language hearing
g) Total Physical Response
h) Communicative Language Teaching

a) The Grammar Translation Method

 The grammar translation method is a method of teaching foreign languages

derived from the classical method of teaching Greek and Latin.
 In these classes, students learn grammatical rules and then apply those rules
by translating sentences between the target language and the native
language.
 It originated from the practice of teaching Latin.
 The method has been rejected by scholars and has no theoretical basis.

b) The Direct Method

 The direct method of teaching is also called natural method of teaching

foreign language and refrains from using the learner’s native language and
uses only the target language.
 It was established in Germany and France around 1900 and contrast with the
Grammar Translation Method.
 Characteristic features of the direct method are:
 Teaching concepts and vocabulary through pantomiming, real life
objects and other visual materials.
 Teaching grammar by using an inductive approach (i.e. having learners
find out rules through the presentation of adequate linguistic forms in
the target language.)
 Centrality of Spoken language
 Focus on question-answer patterns
 The Techniques used in this method are – Question-answer exercise,
dictation, Reading out loudly, student self-corrections, conversation practice
and paragraph whiting.

c) Audio Lingual Method/ Army Method/ New Key

  This method of teaching foreign language is based on Behaviorist theory
which postulates that humans can be trained through a system of
reinforcement.
 This method was similar to direct method like, student should be taught a
language directly without using student’s native language to explain new
words or grammar in the target language.
 The only it differs from the direct method is that; this method does not focus
on teaching vocabulary.
 The behavioral psychology as developed by B.F. Skinner was included in this
method by Charles C. Fries.
 In this method skills are taught in the following order: Listening, Speaking,
Reading and Writing.

d) The Silent Way

 The Silent Way of language teaching methods was created by Caleb

Gattegno that makes extensive use of silence as a teaching method.
 Gattegno introduced this method in his 1963 book Teaching Foreign
Languages in Schools: The Silent Way.
 It is usually regarded as an alternative language teaching method.
 Silence is used as a tool to emphasize learner’s autonomy and active
student’s participation.
 The teacher uses a mixture of silence and gestures to focus student’s
attention to elicit response from them, and to encourage them to correct their
own errors.
 Pronunciation is seen as fundamental to the method; Evaluation is carried out
by observation and teacher may never set a formal test.

e) Desuggestopedia

 Desuggestopedia is a teaching method developed by the Bulgarian psycho-

Therapist Georgi Lozanov in 1970’s.
 The theory applied positive suggestion in teaching and is now a days called
de-suggestive learning.
 The method for adults includes long sessions without movement and
materials that are appropriate for adults.

f) Community Language Learning (CLL)

 CLL is a language teaching method in which students work together to

develop what aspects of a language they would like to learn.
 It is based on Counseling approach in which the teacher acts as a counselor
and a paraphraser while learner is seen as a client and collaborator.
g) Total Physical Response (TPR)

 TPR is a language teaching method developed by James Asher.

 It is based on the coordination of language and physical movement.
 In this method, instructors give commands to students in the target language
and students respond with whole-body actions.
 This method is an example of the comprehension approach to language
teaching.

h) Communicative Language Teaching

 This approach of language teaching emphasis interaction as both the means

and the ultimate goal of study.
 Classroom activities used in Communicative Language Teaching include the
following-
i. Role-Play
ii. Interviews
iii. Information-gap
iv. Games
v. Language exchanges
vi. Surveys
vii. Learning by Teaching
viii. Pair-work

Noam Chomsky
(1949-2008)
 Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist,
historian, logician, social critic and political activist.
 Noam Chomsky is described as ‘The Father of Modern Linguist’.
 He is also a major figure in Analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of
“Cognitive Science”.
 Linguistic Theory: Universal Grammar, Transformational generative grammar,
minimalist program.
 Terms Invented by Chomsky
1. “Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”
  This sentence was composed by Chomsky in his 1958 book “Syntactic
Structure” as an example of sentence that is grammatically correct but
syntactically nonsensical.
2. “Chomsky Hierarchy”
 Chomsky Grammar is a containment hierarchy of classes of formal grammars.
This hierarchy was described by Chomsky in 1956.

 Chomsky Hierarchy consists of following levels: –

1. Type-0 grammars (Unrestricted grammar)
It includes all formal grammars.

2. Type-1 grammars (Context-sensitive grammars)

It generate the context-sensitive languages

3. Type-2 grammars (Context-free grammars)

It generate context-free language

4. Type-3 grammars (Regular grammar)

It generate the regular languages

Digital Infinity

 It is a technical term in theoretical linguistics. This term explains the idea that all human
languages follow a simple logical principle, according to which a limited set of digits –
 irreducible atomic sound elements are combined to produce an infinite range of
potentially meaningful expressions.

Internal Language and External Language (I-Language and E-Language)

 In 1986 Chomsky proposed a distinction between I-Language and E-Language, similar

but not identical to the competence/performance distinction.

Formal Grammar

 Formal Grammar is a set of production rules for strings in a formal language. The rules
describe, how to form strings from the languages alphabet that are valid according to
language’s syntax.

Generative Grammar

 Generative Grammar is a linguistic theory that considers Grammar to be a system of

rules that is intended to generate exactly those combinations of words which form
grammatical sentences in a given language.

Minimalist Program

 In linguistics the Minimalist program is a major line of enquiry that has been developing
inside generative Grammar since the early 1990’s starting with a 1993 paper by
Chomsky.

Plato’s Problem

 The term given by Chomsky to “The problem of explaining how we can know so much”
given our limited experience.
 Chomsky believes that Plato asked (Using modern terms), how we should account for
the rich, intrinsic, common structure of human cognition, when it seems undetermined by
extrinsic evidence presented to a person during human development.
Scansion

 Scansion or a system of scansion is the act of determining and graphically representing

the metrical character of a line of verse.
 To understand any form of scansion it is necessary to appreciate the difference between
meter and rhythm.

Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

 Second Language Acquisition or Second Language Learning is the process by which

people, learn second language. It is a sub-discipline of applied linguistics.
 The central theme of SLA research is that of Inter language, the idea that the language
that learners use is not simply the result of difference between the languages that they
already know and the language that they are learning, but that it is a complete language
system in its own right with its own systematic rules.
 The inter language gradually develops, as learners are exposed to the targeted
language.
 The languages that learner already know can have significant influence on the process
of learning a new one, this influence is known as ‘Language Transfer’.
 The primary factor that drives SLA, is the language input that learner receive. Learners
become more advanced the longer they are immersed in the language they are learning.
 SLA can be affected by individual factors such as – age, learning strategies and
affective factors.

I. A. Richards
 British literary critic Ivor Armstrong Richards (Pen name - Richie) is considered as one
of the founders of School of Interpretation known as "New Criticism".
 His books especially The Meaning of Meaning (with C. K. Ogden in 1923), a pioneer
work on Semantics, Principles of Literary Criticism (1924), Practical Criticism (1929)
 and The Philosophy of Rhetoric proved to be founding influences for the New
Criticism.
 In The Foundation of Aesthetics (Co-authored by Richard Ogden & James Wood,
1922), I, A. Richard mapped out the principle of Aesthetic reception which lay at the
root of is literary theory.
 In The Meaning and Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought
and of the Science of Symbolism, work out the triadic theory of Semantics (Richard
with C. K. Ogden)
 Finally, in work The General Basic English Dictionary and Times of India Guide to
Basic English (1938)- Richards and Ogden developed their most internationally
influential projects – “English Program for the Development of an International
Language” (based with 850-words vocabulary).
 Richards believed that if we read poetry and can make sense of it "in the degree in
which we can order ourselves, we need nothing more".
 He gave his idea on the term ‘New Rhetoric’, which is about, how language works.
Meanings are decided by "How words are used".

Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar

(1930).
 Basic English is an English based controlled language created by linguist and
Philosopher C. K. Ogden (Charles Key Ogden) as an International auxiliary language
and as an aid for teaching English as a second language.
 Ogden's associate I. A. Richards, promoted its use in schools of China.
 Ogden allowed only 18 verbs which he called Operators. His general introduction says
"There is no 'Verbs' in basic English."
 Ogden wrote in his The System of Basic English-
"What the World needs most is about 1000 more dead language - and one more
alive".
 Ogden prescribed that only one student should learn an additional 150 word list along
850 basic words for everyday work in some particular field by adding a list of 100
words particularly useful in a general field (e.g.: Science, verse, business, etc) along
with a 50 word list from a more specialised subset of that general field, to make a
basic 1000 vocabulary for everyday work and life.
 Ogden assumed that any student should be already familiar with 200 International
words. Therefore, a first level student should graduate with the core vocabulary of
around 1200 words.
 According to Ogden – “A realistic general core vocabulary could contain 2000 words
(the core 850 words + 200 International words + 1000 words for the general fields of
trade, economics and science).”
 His lesser known concept ‘Feed Forward’, according to Richards’ concept of
anticipating the effect of one words by acting as our own critic.
 Richards served as a mentor and teacher of William Empson and F. R. Leavis. Others
who are influenced are Cleanth Brooks and Allen Tate.
 According to OED, Richards coined the term “Feed Forward” (1951) at the 8th Annual
Macy Conferences.
 The four kinds of meanings are introduced by Richards i.e. Sense, Tone, Intention and
Feeling.

Major Works of IA Richards

1. Mencius on the Mind: Experiments in Multiple Definitions (1932)

2. Basic Rules of Reason (1938)

3. Interpretation in Teaching

4. Basic in Teaching: East and West (1935)

5. Science and Poetry (1826), revised as Poetries and Science (1970)

6. Coleridge on Imagination (1934)

7. The General Basic English Dictionary (along with C. K. Ogden): 1930 with total
words: 850

 Full title - Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar.
 The first word in the dictionary is 'a'.

Practical Criticism (1929)

 Practical criticism is the formal study of English literature. It first appeared in the book of
I. A. Richards in 1929 in Practical Criticism: A Study of Literary Judgement"
 It began in 1920's with a series of experiments by the critic I. A. Richards.
 In 1929, Richards analysed the result of his experiments and reported the result in his
work Practical Criticism: A Study of Literary Judgement.
 The most influential student of Richards was William Empson, provided the basis for
Practical Criticism in his Seven Types of Ambiguities (1930).
 Using a method of practical criticism, a reader would look strictly at the words on the
page when interpreting the work and would ignore the author's biographical information
and the historical context in which the book was written.
 If we are to look at a poem and only analyse the words as they appear with no
contextual information then we are doing practical criticism.
 William Empson finds 7 types of ambiguities in the poetry, they are:

1. Metaphor: When two things are said to be alike when they have different
properties. This is an ambiguity. (It is the foundation of New Criticism)
2. Two or more meanings are resolved into one.
3. Two ideas that are connected through context can be given in one word
simultaneously.
4. Two or more meanings that do not agree but combine to make clear a
complicated state of mind in the author.
5. When the author discovers his idea in the act of writing. Empson
describes a simile that lies halfway between two statements made by the
author.
6. When a statement says nothing and the readers are forced to invent a
statement of their own, most likely in conflict with that of the author.
7. Two words that within context are opposites that expose a fundamental
division in the authors mind.

W. K. Wimsatt
(1907 - 1975)

 William Kurtz Wimsatt was an American Professor of English is remembered for

developing the concept of ‘Intentional Fallacy’ (with Monroe Beardsley) and "The
Affective Fallacy” (with Beardsley).
 Wimsatt contributed several theories to criticism landscape through his major
work The Verbal Icon: Studies in the meaning of Poetry (Essay 1941 - 52).
 His other important works are -
 Hateful Contraries: Studies in Literature and Criticism
 Literary Criticism: A Short History (with Cleanth Brooks :1957)

The Intentional Fallacy (False Appearance) (1954)

 It appeared in his essay "Verbal Icon" (1954) which he wrote with Monroe
Beardsley.
 The intentional Fallacy is derived from "confusion between the poem and its
origins”.
 Essentially it occurs, when a critic puts too much emphasis on personal,
biographical or external information when analysing a work.
  Intentional Fallacy is claimed to be the error of interpreting an evaluating a
literary work by reference of evidence, outside the text itself, for the intention -
the design and purpose of its author.
 It was first published in ‘The Sewanee Review’ (1946).

The Affective (Emotional) Fallacy (1949)

 It appeared in Wimsatt and Beardsley's The Verbal Icon (1954).
 They defined Affective Fallacy as -
 "The error of evaluating a poem by its effects - especially its emotional
effects - upon the reader. As a result of this fallacy, "the poem itself as an
object of specifically critical judgement, tends to disappear, so that
criticism ends in impressionism and relativism".

Note: Fallacy means mistake in thinking that keeps us away from real
understanding.