Methodology

A Seminar on:

Historical Background and

introducing methods and approaches
to language teaching

Dr.Omar Ilyas

Prepared & to be presented

By:
Raghda Qiryaqous

Contents of the Seminar

Historical Background
Why do we study methodology
Introducing methods, approaches , techniques
Mechanism of formulating methods to language teaching
Relationship between applied linguistics and language teaching
 First of all , methodology is an interdisciplinary area and multi
dimensional . In order to know what is methodology we have to look to some
definitions such as a definition by ( Richard & Schmidt 2000 . p:363 ) which is
"The study of the practices and procedures used in teaching , and the principles
and beliefs that underlie them" . Methodology includes the study of the
preparation of lesson plans , materials, and textbooks for teaching language. It is
the study of nature of language skills such as listening, reading ,etc. Methodology
means also the evaluation and comparison of language teaching method.

It is necessary to know what do we mean by teaching before going to

the history of teaching methods of language . so teaching is defined by
(brown.2000.p:7) as showing , helping learners to do something, giving
instructions, motivating in the study of something, providing with knowledge,
causing to know or to understand. Teaching also cannot be apart from learning
.Teaching is guiding , is facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn ,
setting the conditions for learning. It is necessary to understand how the
learners learn because this will reinforce our philosophy of education as
teachers , our teaching style, our approaches, methods, and techniques inside
the classroom.

In order to teach a language such as English language as a second or

Foreign language , there are methods and approaches to follow. But first it is
necessary to know how did these methods emerge for teaching language? and
what is the mechanism for formulating methods or how teacher can design a
method for teaching language. So to see how they emerged ,we can look to the
historical Background.
 Historical Background

In order to know the historical background of methods we can divide

the periods into four period classical period ,alternative period ,current
communicative period and post era period .
During the classical period for centuries Latin was being studied as
foreign language all over the world because it was the only language for
religion , government , education in the western world. However in the sixteen
century other languages such as English , Italian , French gained an importance
because of political changes in Europe and Latin displaced as a large spoken
and written communication .Children who entered grammar school in the
sixteen and eighteen century in England were introduced to grammar of Latin
which was taught through learning rules, study of conjugation and translation
of written sentences , So this method was called grammar translation method .
Everyone believed that Latin developed intellectual abilities , and when modern
languages began to enter the curriculum of European school in the eighteen
century , the same basic procedures that were used for teaching Latin applied
.These procedures were textbooks consisted of statements of abstract grammar
rules, lists of vocabulary and sentences for translation. This way of studying in
Latin had become the standard way of studying and teaching Foreign Language
such as English . So it is called as we referred grammar translation method
(1800-1900).

Later we have alternative periods which is the change from

grammar translation method to other more effective method. When the
grammar translation method developed in several European centuries ,
communication among Europeans demanded for oral proficiency in foreign
languages and ideas were discussed and defended by different linguists like
(Marcel, Prenergast and Gouin) who created new strategies
about language teaching for example Marcel focused on reading and said that
reading should be taught before other skills ,while the Frenchman Gouin made
an observation that teaching new items in context makes meaning clear.
However during the end of nineteenth century , there were opposite ideas from
grammar translation method and some linguists who led the Reforment
Movement such applied linguists (Henry Sweet ) and( Paul) who avoided the
translation and focused that teaching of grammar should be inductively by the
help of phonetics. This was the beginning of The Direct Method (1890-1930).
It was introduced by Bertliz in United States. Target language was the
dominant one in this method so some said it was better than GTM because it
gives importance for communication and showing progress in language
teaching because of using objects inside classroom.

Then there were methods such as Reading method (1920-1950)

introduced for English learners in German and India and Structural method
(1930-1960) by Harold Palmer who summarized the principles of language
teaching methodology such as initial preparation, Habit –forming, accuracy,
gradation ,proportion ,etc.

After that we have Current Communicative Period which led to

many popular methods such as Audiolingual method (1950-1970) , this method
came as a result of an attempt to improve on direct method. ALM was
developed by Fries and it viewed language as a behavior , coming up with more
structural materials and move from simple to complex .It required drills, so
structural patterns were taught by using drills, but also it became un satisfying
and lost its reputation.

During the same period of current communicative period another

method developed which is Communicative language teaching (1970-present )
(CLT) that took its origin from British language teaching tradition. The focus is
on communication , this means language was used for expressing meanings and
for communication and interaction. other methods emerged during this period
such as The silent way devised by Caleb Cattegno .The teacher is silent in the
class, and use of designed wall charts, and community language learning by
Charles Curran (CLL), which uses counseling learning theory in teaching
English . Furthermore there was another method like Suggetopedia (by
psychiatrist Lozanov) which is using of music, with relaxed environment. .

Moving to the last period of historical development of language

teaching which is Post Era Method. In this period we have methods such as
Task-based Language Teaching (TBL) , Content Based Instruction (CBI), and
Multiple Intelligence(MI).In TBL, the aim is to teach language by using target
language. As for CBI , the aim is to teach something by using target language.
Finally we have Multiple intelligence ,that teaching is based on contrasts of
intelligence of learners.

To conclude we can say changing in approaches to language teaching

came from changing method .Many methods have come and gone during the
last 100years in pursuit for the best method.
To conclude the most important methods chronologically ,we can put it as :

GTM (1800-1900)
DM(1890-1930)
Reading M (1920-1950)
Structural M (1930-1960)
ALM (1950-1970)
CLT (1970-present)
And others as we have mentioned above .

Although methods change and lose their reputation but Mackey

(1965.p 151 ) commented that although there has been a preference for
particular method at different time but methods continue in some form even
after fallen out of favour. For example GTM is still used in so parts of the
world .No method is better the another .A good teacher can take the advantages
of methods and dismisses the disadvantages.

Why do we study Methodology (this section is for suzan )

The study of methods is very important in teacher education in at least
five ways:
1- Methods aid teachers in bringing to conscious awareness the thinking
that underlies their actions. We know that teachers come to teacher training
with ideas about the teaching/learning process formed from the years they
themselves spent as students .A major purpose of teacher education is to help
teachers make the tacit explicit. By exposing teachers to methods and asking
them to reflect on the principles of those methods and actively engage with the
techniques, teacher educators can help teachers become clearer about why they
do what they do. They become aware of their own fundamental assumptions,
values, and beliefs. In turn, reflective teachers can take positions on issues that
result in the improvement of the society in which they live.

2 - Teachers can choose to teach differently from the way they were
taught. They are able to see why they are attracted to certain methods and
repelled by others. They are able to make choice that are informed, not
conditioned. They may be able to resist, or at least argue against, the imposition
of a particular method by authorities. In situations where a method is not being
imposed, different methods offer teachers alternatives to what they currently
think and do.

3- A knowledge of methods is part of the knowledge base of teaching.

With it, teachers join a community of practice. Being a community member
involves learning the professional discourse that community members use so
that professional dialogue can take place. Being part of a discourse community
confers a professional identity and connects teachers with each other so they
are less isolated in their practice.
 4- By being members of a professional discourse community, teachers
may find their own conceptions of how teaching leads to learning challenged,
Interacting with others’ conceptions of practice helps to keep teachers teaching
alive and to prevent it from becoming stale and overly routinized .

5 - A knowledge of methods helps to expand a teacher’s repertoire of

techniques. This in itself provides a further avenue for professional growth,
since some teachers find their way to new pedagogical positions by first trying
out new techniques rather than by entertaining new principles. Moreover,
effective teachers who are more experienced and expert have a large, diverse
repertoire of best practices which presumably helps them deal more effectively
with the unique qualities and idiosyncrasies of their students.

Approach, method, and technique

An American applied linguist Edward Anthony (1963:63-67) made us

to understand the difference between philosophy of language teaching at the
level of theory and principles and set of procedures for teaching language in
describing methods. He did so by identifying levels of conceptualization and
organization that he termed: approach, method, and technique. According to
Anthony 1963, "The arrangement is hierarchical. The organizational key is that
techniques carry out a method which is consistent with an approach." He
defined approach as a set of correlative assumptions about the nature of
language and language learning .According to him an approach is axiomatic
while method was more procedural and he defined it as "an overall plan for the
orderly presentation of language material, no part of which contradicts, and all
of which is based upon the selected approach." Finally, his idea of technique
referred to the ''actual implementation that take places classroom; "a particular
trick, stratagem, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective." He
saw techniques as being consistent with a given method and by extension, with
a given approach.
 So Edward's model refers to an approach as a level of assumptions at
which beliefs about language are specified. Method as a level at which theory
put into practice and at which choices are made about content and skills to be
taught. Finally Technique as a level at which classroom procedures are
described.

The advantage of Edward's framework was as useful way of

distinguishing the relationship between underlying theoretical principles and
practices derived from them, but the disadvantage is that , nothing is mentioned
about nature of methods such as role of teachers, role of learners, role of
instructional materials ,and also it didn't take into account how method and
technique are related or how approach is realized into a method . That’s why
this framework needed a revision and Richards and Roger did that as we see.

Approach, design and procedure

Richards and Rogers' 1986 expanded on Anthony’s three-level

framework; however, instead of approach, method and technique, they chose
the terms approach, design, and procedure. Their idea of approach was similar
to Anthony's, but they used level of design ( which means practical
implications in classroom objective , syllabus , etc.as we will explain it later
under the title mechanisms for formulating methods ) and term procedure
(more comprehensive than the term technique) to mean different techniques ,
behavior and practices observed in the classroom .Design & procedure were
broader in scope than Anthony's method and technique..
So To Conclude the notions :

- Approach : Assumptions and beliefs about language teaching and learning

- Design : Objectives, Syllabus, Activities, Roles of Teachers, Roles of
Learners, Materials

- Procedure: Implementational Phase

We can compare different methods and approaches in language teaching by
using the framework of Richard and roger that we referred to as:

Approaches :

- Approaches : Assumptions and beliefs about nature of language teaching

and learning. It refers to philosophy or belief system that amethod reflects .The
lingustic and psycholingustics aspects of approach are : Theory of language,
Theory of learning.Since we are not concerned now with learning ,so we will
explain theory of language only.

Theory of Language :Language is complex phenomenon and it can be studied

from different fields such as psychology,philosophy,etc.There are different
models of language that have influenced approaches and methods in language
teaching such as (Richards&roger:2014 :p:22-25):

Cognitive model: based on idea that language reflects properties of the mind.A
method which embodies this model is GTM which reflects the idea that the
learner has built up knowledge of principles of language by abstracting its rules
through study of grammar and through translation based activities.

Structural model : based on the idea that language is asystem of structurally

related elements for the coding of meaning , such as Phonological units
(phonemes), Lexical items (content & function word),etc.A method which
embodies this model is ALM.

Functional model:based on the idea that language is a vechile for expression

of fuctional meanings and for performing real-world activities.Amethod which
embodies this model is CLT
Interactional model: based on the idea that language is is a vechile for
realization of interpersonal relations and for performance of the social
transactions between individuals.A method which embodies this view is TBLT.

Sociostructural model : Based on the idea of alanguage as communicative

activity in which social context is central.Knowledge is constructed through
social interaction with others and reflects learners, culuture, beliefs.methods
which embody this model are TBLT,CBI.

Lexical model: based on the idea that language gives importance to the roles of
lexis and lexical chunks or phrases in language, and highlights the
interrelatedness of grammar and vocabulary.Method which embodies this
model is Lexical approach.

Genre model:based on the idea that there are norms of language usage such as
science,some concepts are summarized in (Feez 1998:5) as language is a
source of making system and this source consists of interrelated systems
.Methods which embody this model are CBI and Text-Based Instruction.

After we have explained theory of language which influences

different methods and approach,it is necessary to know how to formulate
methods and approaches for language teaching as follows:

Mechanism of formulating methods for language teaching

In order to design a method for language teaching ,it is necessary to take

into account :The objectives of the method ,the selection and organization of
language content (means the syllabus) , the learning and teaching tasks or
activities, the role of teachers and learners. We can exemplify this as follows: (
Richards & Roger 2014 .p:29-35):

Objectives :
Methods vary on what are their focus. Some methods ought to teach
oral skills and give priority to oral than to skills of reading and writing .others
emphasis on communicative skills and how a learner can express meanings ,
while others give more priority to vocabulary and grammar or to grammar and
pronunciation .So the outcome of method is based of it's goal or objective.

The Syllabus:
All methods have their way in selection , in organization the content of
the material to be taught , and in selection the language items such as words,
sentences, patterns, etc .Syllabus means the contents of subject matter (what to
talk ) and the linguistic matter (how to talk).Methods vary in the way they
organize the content according to the learners level such as for adult course
give more priority to immediate needs subject matter while for younger
concrete topics are prior to abstract topics.
Furthermore each method of language teaching that we have introduced earlier
underlies its syllabus , for example ALM consists of list of grammatical items
and constructions, and together associated with the lists of vocabulary items.

Types of learning and teaching activities:

The third component of design level of method analysis is the activities

and tasks inside classroom which distinguish methods . Differences among
methods at the level of approach manifest themselves in choice of different
kinds of learning and teaching activities such as of games, dialogues, and other
activities. For example ALM involves activities such as dialogue patterns ,
while CLT uses information gap activity. Activities are used for different
purposes for example interactive game activity can be used in CLT method to
introduce practices for interactive exchanges while the same game activity can
be used for motivation of learners.

Also we have other important components of method analysis such as:

Learners role:
This component means that the design of method reflects issues about
learners role such as learners activities ,their control over the content, their
pattern of groupings adopted, their influence to others, and their role as
processors, initiators ,etc.
There were methods that reflected dimensions to focus on the learner such
Humanistic methods .Also some methods viewed learner-centeredness such as
the Silent way method and Multiple intelligence method .Other roles of learners
appeared recently such as participant role in dialogue in Functional method
while active processor role in Task Based Language method .So their role is so
important in design level.

Teachers role:
Teacher role is also important and both roles of teacher and learner are
related to assumptions of language and language learning at the level of
approach. Teachers role involve the following :the functions that are expected
to do, their control of learning process, the degree of their determining of
content to be taught ,or their role as dominator, guider, model, director ,etc .For
some tradition methods such as ALM teacher is a source of language while for
others such as recent methods as TBLT teacher has a direct role. The relations
between teachers and learners can be symmetrical such as friend to friend or
can be asymmetrical such as that of therapist and patient. Finally the role of
teacher is important and the success in language teaching & learning can
depend on him if he provides with successful learning conditions.

Instructional materials role :

The role of instructional materials is to specify subject matter content,

defines day-to day objectives that constitute the goals of syllabus. Materials are
designed differently because they depend on the assumptions .The assumption
of learning initiated by teacher is different from that of

learner-self instruction. Some materials require trained teachers with near

native competence in the target language.
The instructional materials role reflects the following :the goal of materials (e.g
as facilitating interactions between learners ,etc.) , form of materials ( e.g
textbooks, audiovisual ,etc.),and the relation of materials to other sources of
input (whether they are major sources of input or just component of it).
Finally materials provide different tasks for learners , for example
TBLT provide task to master language beyond classroom, While Text Based
Instruction materials initiate process that enable learners to create text .So this
last component of method analysis is significant.
Applied Linguistics and Language teaching : (Corder:1973)

One of the subfields of applied linguistics is language teaching and

methods and procedures in language teaching assumed a more central role
within applied linguistics .In the latter part of twentieth century , various
attempts by linguists have been made to conceptualize the nature of methods
and to explore more systematically the relationship between theory and practice
within a method .The early applied linguists Such as Henry Sweet (1845-1912),
Otto Jespersen (1860-1943) and Harold Palmer(1877-1949) attempted to design
language teaching programs ,materials , courses. They also searched
answers to questions that are related in choosing and sequencing vocabulary
and grammar. Applied linguistic has significant influence on how second and
foreign languages are taught, so language teaching is the center issue of applied
linguistics . Any teacher of a second language or a foreign language should
know what to teach( this question can be described in linguistic terms as set of
categories, rules, lists of lexical items, and in sociolinguistic terms as set of
skills and language activities ) and how to teach? ,applied linguistics answers
these two questions or solves problems of content and method in language
teaching , and provide ways and methods to improve language teaching . One
of the roles of applied linguistics in language teaching is solving problems that
teachers may encounter in teaching language such as selection of the material
that should be taught, also organization and design the syllabus .So the content
of applied linguistics is extensive in language teaching.
REFERENCES:

Brown.H. (2000) principles of language learning and

teaching. Addison Wesley Longman.IC

Corder,S .(1973) Introducing to applied

linguistics.Penguin booksLtd.

Richards.j,Shmidt.R(2000) Longman dictionary of

Language teaching and applied linguistics: Great Britain
4ed

Richards, J.(2001) The Origins of language Curriculum

development. Cambridge university press.

Richards.J,Rogers.T.(2014). Approaches and methods

in language teaching. New York, Cambridge university
press.
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