The main techniques used by the Grammar-Transiation Method

The principies of the Grammar-Transiation Method.

GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION METHOD

THE LANGUAGE TEACHER

Becoming a foreign language teacher means becoming a member of a professional community. In turn, becoming a member of a community means acquiring the common knowledge and shared values of that community. According to Dr. Garza, beginning teachers should aim to acquire the following:

1. A knowledge of the spoken and written language.

2. A knowledge of how language in general is put together.

3. A knowledge of pedagogy.

These three types of knowledge translate into different professional abilities. For example, the first knowledge area means that the teacher can speak and write the foreign language with a high level of proficiency. The second knowledge area implies that the teacher can explain the workings of grammar and vocabulary to naive learners in a way that is both logical and informative. The third knowledge area—pedagogy—is crucial for putting things into practice. In other words, applying this knowledge to your own classroom means knowing how to create an environment conducive to learning.

The Grammar-Translation Method is not new. It has had different names, but it has been used by language teachers for many years. At one time it was called Classical Method since it was first used in the teaching of the classical languages, Latin and Greek. Earlier in this century, this method was used to purpose of helping students read and appreciate foreign language literature. Even today, in spite of its obsolescence, it has not entirely died out as some textbooks still in use and the practice of some classes are there to prove.

1) It emphasises the study and translation of the written language, as it is considered superior to spoken language.

2) Successful learners are those who transíate each language into the other, though they cannot communicate orally.

3) Reading and writing are the main language skills.

4) Teachers play an authoritarian role in the classroom and the predominant interaction is between teacher-student.

5) Students must learn grammatical rules overtly and deduce their applications to exercises.

6) Students have to know verb conjugations and other grammatical paradigms.

7) The basic unit of teaching is the sentence.

8) The student's native language is the médium of instruction and used as well to compare with the language studied.

The Grammar-Transiation Method focuses on the teaching of the foreign language grammar through the presentation of rules together with some exceptions and lists of vocabulary translated into the mother tongue. Translation is considered its most important classroom activity.

The main procedure of an ordinary lesson followed this plan: a presentation of a grammatical rule, followed by a list of vocabulary and, finally, translation exercises from selected texts (Stern 1983: 453).

Other activities and procedures can be the following:-reading comprehension questions about the text;-students find antonyms and synonyms from words in the text;-vocabulary is selected from the reading texts and it is memorised; sentences are formed with the new words; -students recognise and memorise cognates and false cognates; -fill-in-the-blank exercises;-writing compositions from a given topic.

The major dísadvantages of the Grammar-Translation Method.

1 No account of present-day language usage is presented. Norms are imposed from the great literaiy authors.

2 Secondary grammatical points, lists of forms and examples receive a lot of attention; some definitions and explanations are often incoherent because of their heterogeneous críteria. As a result facts about the language are confusing for the students.

3 It gives a predominant place to morphology but neglects syntax. Therefore, rules enabling the leamers to c»nstruct systematically correct complex sentences are not presented.

4 It gives an exaggerated importance to faults to be avoided by the leamer and to exceptions, emphasising the prescriptive and mechanical aspect of language.

5 Translations are often unsatisfactory as they are done word by word.

6 Students have to leam a lot of grammatical tenns and too much weight falls on their memories. Frustration on the part of students and lack of demands on teachers are effects of this method.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11