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THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE TEACHING. MODERN

TRENDS IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN
LANGUAGE. THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH.

To introduce this topic, I’d like to say that in the long search for the best way of
teaching a foreign language, hundreds of different approaches, or methods, have
been devised. Each method is based on a particular view or theory of language
learning, and usually recommends the use of a specific set of techniques and
materials, which may have to be implemented in a fixed sequence. Ambitious
claims are often made for a new teaching method, but none has yet been shown to
be intrinsically superior.

In the first section of my essay, I’ll be looking at the main methods applied in the
past to teach foreign languages, then in my second section I’ll deal with the more
modern trends of the later decades of the twentieth century, including a detailed
look at the Communicative Approach and the two main developments within more
recent communicative teaching: Content-based and Task-based teaching.

My main source for the writing of the topic has been David Crystal’s book How
Language Works , published by Penguin in 2006, but I’ve also consulted the latest
edition of Harmer’s work The Practice of English Language Teaching, as well as
Richards and Rodgers’ book, published by Cambridge in 1986, Approaches and
Methods in Language Teaching.

Beginning then with section one, I will deal with the main methods used in the past.

The Grammar-Translation method derives from the traditional approach to the

teaching of Latin and Greek, and was particularly influential in the late 19 th and
early 20th centuries. Its primary purpose was to enable students to access and
appreciate great literature, while helping them understand their native language
better through extensive analysis of the grammar of the target language and
translation. Learning mainly involved the mastery of grammatical rules and the
memorizing of long bilingual lists of literary vocabulary, related to texts which are
chosen more for their prestigious content than for their interest or level of linguistic
difficulty. Comprehension of the rules and readings were tested via translation from
the target language to the native one and vice versa. There was little emphasis laid
on the activities of listening or speaking/ listening and speaking practice.

This approach dominated early work in modern language teaching. A minority still
find its intellectual discipline appealing; but the vast majority of teachers now
recognize that the approach does little to meet the spoken language needs and
interests of today’s language students

The approach which arose as an alternative to the Grammar-Translation method is

known as the Direct or Natural Method, implemented by L. Sauveur (1826-1907)
and based on the active involvement of the learner in speaking and listening to the
foreign language in realistic everyday situations. No use is made of the learner’s
mother/native tongue; learners are encouraged to think in the foreign language,
and not to translate into or out of it. A great deal of emphasis is placed on the
development of accurate pronunciation, being formal grammatical rules and
terminology not explicitly taught and assumed to be learned through practice.
The Direct Method continues to attract interest and enthusiasm, but it is not an
easy approach to use in school/implement in state education. In the artificial
environment of the classroom, it is difficult to generate natural learning situations
and to provide everyone with sufficient practice. It was often criticised because it
lacked a rigorous foundation in applied linguistics and methodology.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the British applied linguist Henry Sweet and other linguists
argued for the development of sound methodological principles as the basis for
teaching techniques. They laid the foundations for what developed into the British
approach to teaching English as a foreign language. This would lead to
Audiolingualism in the United States and the Oral Approach in Britain. These
models are the aim of the next section.
Let us start with the Oral Approach, appeared in Britain in the 1920s. It was the
first move in what can be called the structuralist direction. In the 1960s, this
approach was referred to as the Situational Approach, due to the greater emphasis
placed on the situational presentation and practice of language. Grammar is learnt
by an inductive process, graded from simple to more complex forms.

The other model was the Audio-lingual method. This approach was derived from
a view proposed by American linguists in the 1950s, namely, structural linguistics.
It understood language learning as a mastery of the elements of the language and
the rules by which these elements are combined, from phoneme to sentence.
The emphasis is laid on everyday spoken conversation with the primary objective
of oral proficiency, and language is seen as a process of habit-formation: structural
patterns in dialogues about everyday situations are imitated and drilled (first in
choral speech, then individually) until the learner’s responses become automatic.
After that, the students may refer to their textbook, and follow-up reading, writing or
vocabulary activities based on the former dialogue.
This approach can develop considerable conversational fluency in a learner, and
was widely used, especially in the 1950s and 1960s.

In the mid-seventies these principles began to be questioned. As a consequence,

the Communicative Approach was born, which would become the most relevant
movement in teaching practice. With this, I move on to the second section of my
topic.
During the 70s, there was a widespread reaction against methods which stressed
the teaching of grammatical forms and paid little or no attention to the way
language is used in everyday situations. A concern developed to make FL teaching
communicative by focusing on learners’ knowledge of the functions of language,
and on their ability to select appropriate kinds of language for use in specific
situations. Increased interest was shown in the situations themselves, and in the
kind of language the learner would be likely to meet, for example, at a bank or
when eating out.
Situational syllabuses aimed to recreate these situations, and to teach the various
linguistic activities involved, such as requesting, thanking, complaining and
instructing.
Notional (or functional) syllabuses provided a major alternative to teaching based
on grammatical forms. Here, the content of a course is organized in terms of the
meanings (notions) learners require in order to communicate in particular
functional contexts. Major communicative notions include the linguistic expression
of time, duration, frequency, quantity, location and motion. Major communicative
functions include persuasion, emotional expression, and the marking of social
relations.

Parallel to the focus on communication, in the later decades of the 20th century, a
number of new and radically different approaches came to the fore, often grouped
together under the heading humanistic because of the way they focus on the
innate skills and abilities assumed to be present in all learners. For example,
Suggestopedia is based on the view that the brain has great unused potential
which can be exploited through the power of suggestion. In their opening lesson,
learners are presented with large amounts of the foreign language. The text is
translated, then read aloud in a dramatic way against a background of classical
music. The aim is to provide an atmosphere of total relaxation and enjoyment, in
which learning is incidental. This is an approach based on the science of
suggestion. Devised by a Bulgarian psychiatrist, it was originally used as a general
teaching method in that country’s primary schools; elsewhere, it has mainly been
applied in the field of adult foreign language teaching.
Teaching involves the presentation of dialogues and vocabulary, which the student
has to study and memorise. Learners are presented with large amounts of L1, first
in written form and then in the spoken form. The emphasis, therefore, is wholly on
informal communication; no attention is paid to grammatical errors.

Other humanistic methods are, for example, The Silent Way, Community
Language Learning, and Total Physical Response, all of which claim to
increase interactive communication by encouraging relaxation and enjoyment.

Communicative approaches to teaching, based on meaningful language use,

encourage learners to do things with information, such as guessing, searching,
matching, exchanging, and arranging, through enjoyable activities such as puzzle-
solving, role-play and games.
Communicative methods have attracted universal interest and much influenced the
practice of modern foreign language teaching. But there has also been a critical
reaction, as linguists and teachers encounter problems in providing a principled
basis for interrelating the proposed notions and functions. Of particular importance
is the need to provide learners with principles that will enable them to make a
‘bridge’ between functional aspects of language and the correct use of formal
structures. Proponents of the approach have recognised these problems and there
has been considerable discussion of the way communicative teaching might
develop in the future.

As far as teaching materials are concerned, the days are long gone when class
materials consisted only of a grammar book and a dictionary. Today, there is a
vast quantity of printed materials ( course-books, workbooks, graded readers,
posters, magazines…) and these are supplemented by a range of materials using
other media, such as CDs, DVDs, toys, games…and of course the computer and
the internet, which provide a huge potential for learning.
Moreover, learning a foreign language today is likely to mean learning a great deal
about the foreign civilisation and culture at the same time. A cultural perspective is
needed in order to grasp the social significance of a linguistic feature or to follow
the subject matter of daily conversation. For example, in every country, knowing
the names of the most famous men and women of a culture, whether they are
political figures, media stars, or football players, is a major factor in really
understanding the meaning of a newspaper report, a debate on television, or the
course of a conversation.
However, the application of a communicative approach in the classroom has been
problematic : a strictly communicative syllabus giving priority to functional language
use over structural practice, and to fluency over accuracy, has not been generally
adopted; the textbooks we use in class are still organised according to grammar
and vocabulary; grammar exercises are easy to correct and evaluate, but
communicative competence is not; activities taking place in a classroom can only
rarely be genuinely communicative, etc. Perhaps the main problem is that many
teachers find that ‘teaching pupils to communicate’ is a vague aim, and that the
way to do so is also unclear.
A more successful realization of communicative principles is perhaps found in both
content-based and task-based teaching programmes.
Content-based programmes involve the teaching of subject matter content in the
foreign language, for example, using English to teach other school subjects. This
approach has been used with some degree of success in many parts of the world,
and here in Extremadura, it is becoming more widespread, with many schools now
teaching part of their curriculum in English.
In task-based learning, language forms are not prescribed in advance, and so
learners are free to use any language they can in completing the required task.
The interest of the task motivates the learners to use the language in natural
communication, and completing the task successfully is the aim. Task-based
learning can work particularly well when, as again is our case here in Extremadura,
pupils have the latest technology at their disposal: computers and the internet can
provide access to limitless information, which makes task-based teaching a very
attractive and effective option.
Another point to bear in mind is the need for variety in our classrooms: when
children have begun learning English at the age of three and come to secondary
education with nine years of English classes behind them, variety in our
methodology is a real need in order to maintain motivation.
Immersion Teaching is an approach that has developed to meet the linguistic
needs of people who live in bilingual communities. Ss study subjects in both
languages from the day they start school.
One of the most important projects to put the task-based approach into practice
was the Bangalore Project. In the 1980s Prabhu instituted an innovative
curriculum project in secondary schools in India whereby he devised a series of
meaning-focused activities. They required Ss to understand, convey or extend
meaning and where attention to language forms is only incidental. Prabhu argues
that, at least in the context of this school-based project, the most effective teaching
took place through activities that pushed the cognitive boundaries of Ss.
Most recent tendencies are to use what J. Harmer refers to as a Balanced
Activities Approach derived from teaching/learning practicalities. A Balanced
Activities Approach means that the methodology has a balance between the
components we wish to include and sees Ss’ interest and involvement in the
learning process as a dominant factor in language teaching. It has a more human
aspect, which of their continuing interest in the language programme.
There are other approaches apart from the ones here, but these are generally
considered to be the most relevant ones. Over the years, research has shown that
theories on language learning are more complimentary than contradictory, and the
same happens with methods originated from them.

In conclusion, it can be said that language teaching methods must evolve to meet
new needs. The contemporary attitude is flexible and open: it is recognised that
there are several ways of reaching the goal of foreign language competence, and
that teachers need to be aware of a range of methods, in order to find the one
most appropriate to the learner´s needs and circumstances, and to the objectives
of the course. It is frequently necessary to introduce an eclectic approach, in which
aspects of different methods are selected to meet the demands of particular
teaching situations.