History of English Language Teaching

Name               : Abibah

NIM                : 2201409052

Rombel            : 03

The History of English Language Teaching

            The English language teaching tradition has been subjected to a tremendous change, especially throughout the twentieth century. Perhaps more than any other discipline, this tradition has been practiced, in various adaptations, in language classrooms all around the world for centuries. While the teaching of Maths or Physics, that is, the methodology of teaching Maths or Physics, has, to a greater or lesser extent, remained the same, this is hardly the case with English or language teaching in general. Here, there are some milestones in the development of this tradition, which we will briefly touch upon, in an attempt to reveal the importance of research in the selection and implementation of the optimal methods and techniques for language teaching and learning.

Language Teaching can be viewed in three parts:

I.              Traditional Approaches (Up to the late 1960s)

               In language teaching, traditional approaches focuses on grammatical competence as the basis of language proficiency. It is because a belief that grammar could be learned by using repetitive practice and drill through direct instruction. In a process of teaching, the grammar is given in deductive application of an explicit grammar rule. It means students are presented with grammar rules and then they apply the rules to examples they are given. It is contrast with inductive one that students are given examples of sentences containing a grammar rule. The assumption was language learning meant building up list of sentences and grammatical patterns and learning to produce these accurately and quickly in the appropriate situation. The command of oral drilling and practice expanded the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The techniques that were used included memorization of dialogs, question and answer practice, substitution drills and various forms of guided speaking and writing practice. Besides, the accuracy of pronunciation and mastery of grammar also were paid attention through the process of learning because if students made errors these would become a permanent part of the learner’s speech. The methodologies include Audiolingualism/ Aural-Oral Method) and Structural-Situational Approach/Situational Language Teaching. Syllabuses consisted of word lists graded across levels.

The procedures of a typical Audiolingualism were:

1.      Students hear a model dialog first

2.      The dialog is adapted to the students’ interest or situation

3.      Certain key structures from the dialog are selected and used as the basis for pattern drills of different kinds

4.      The students may refer to their textbook

5.      Follow-up activities may take place in the language laboratory

In the Situational approach there were three-phase sequences, known as P-P-P :

1.      Presentation means new grammar structure is presented by means of conversation or short text and teacher explains the new structure and check students’ comprehension of it.

2.      Practice means students practice to use the new structure through drills or substitution exercises.

3.      Production means students practice to use new structure in different contexts using their own content or information to develop their fluency with the new pattern.

II.           Classic Communicative Language Teaching (1970s to 1990s)

               Because of the old methods of language teaching in Traditional Approach, in the 1970s there was a broader concept in language teaching. It was argued that language ability was not only about grammatical competence but included the other aspects of language. In grammatical competence it was needed to produce grammatically correct sentences. But, besides that, the communicative competence was also needed in using language communicatively. Communicative competence was developed within the discipline of linguistics and appealed to many within the language teaching profession. It focuses that the goal of language teaching should be achieved. Communicative Language Teaching created a great deal of enthusiasm and excitement when it appeared as a new approach to language teaching in the 1970s and 1980s. At that time, language teachers and teaching institutions all around the world began to rethink their teaching, syllabuses and classroom materials that was within a communicative approach. The starting point was not grammar anymore.

The syllabus in Classic Communicative Language Teaching should identify the following aspects of language use in order to develop the learner’s communicative competence:

1.      A detail consideration of the purposes

2.      Some idea of the setting in which students will want to use the target language

3.      The socially defined role the learners will assume in the target language

4.      The communicative events in which the learners will participate

5.      The involving language functions in those events

6.      The involving notions or concepts

7.      The involving skills in the ‘knitting together’ of discourse

8.      The variety or varieties of the target language that will be needed

9.      The grammatical content that will be needed

10.  The lexical content or vocabulary that will be needed

III.        Current Communicative Language Teaching (late 1990s to the present)

               In 1990, the implementation of communicative language teaching has been wide. The process of second language learning that has developed was evolved by using communicative language teaching to develop our understanding about it. It is taking socio cultural issues into CLT, i.e. CLT today refers to a set of generally agreed principles to be applied in different ways, depending on the teaching context, the age of learner, their levels, their learning goals, etc.

               In current communicative language teaching, there are many principles:

1.      When learners are engaged/involved in the interaction and meaningful communication, second language learning is facilitated.

2.      Effective classroom learning tasks and exercises provide opportunities for students to negotiate meaning, expand their language resources, notice how language is used, and take part in meaningful exchange.

3.      The students processing content that is relevant, purposeful, interesting, and engaging achieves meaningful communication.

4.      Communication is a holistic process that often calls upon the use of several language skills or modalities.

5.      Language learning is facilitated both by activities that involve inductive or discovery learning of underlying rules of language use and organization , as well as by those involving language analysis and reflection.

6.      Language learning is a gradual process that involves creative use of language and trial and error. Although errors are a normal product of learning the ultimate goal of learning is to be able to use the new language both accurately and fluently

7.      In developing learners’ own routes to language learning, they have different needs and motivations for language learning.

8.      Successful language learning involves the use of effective learning and communication strategies.

9.      The role of the teacher in the language classroom is that of a facilitator, who creates a classroom climate conducive to language learning and provides opportunities for students to use and practice the language and to reflect on language use and language learning.

10.  The classroom is a community where learners learn through collaboration and sharing.

There are two extentions of Communicative Language Learning:

1.        Process-based methodologies

They include Content-based instruction and Task-based instruction.

2.        Product-based methodologies

They include Text-based instruction and Competency-based instruction.

          In general, Communicative Language Teaching is considered as a set of principles about goals of language teaching (communicative competence versus grammatical competence), how learners learn a language (mastery of grammatical competence versus meaningful and purposeful interaction and collaboration with negotiation of meaning), the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitates learning (memorization of dialogs and drills versus pair/group work activities, role play, and project work), and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom (Richards, 2005).