The Evaluation of Main Methods and&

The Evaluation of Main Methods and Approaches in Language Teaching

Xia Xin

夏欣

 湖北www.lwkoo.cn经济管理干部学院  430079

Abstract： Language teaching has a long， fascinating， but rather tortuous history. (Stern， 1984) For over a century， there have been many methods and approaches in language teaching. This article is mainly focused on three methods and approaches: the Grammar-translation Method; the Direct Method and Audio-lingual Approach and the Communicative Approach. First we will define “method” and “approach”， and then we will focus on the main characteristics， advantages and limitations of each method or approach.

Key words: methods  approaches advantages  disadvantages

      It is worthwhile discussing briefly the difference between these three aspects which are often used in foreign language teaching. A technique is the procedure used by teachers in the classroom. In other words， it is what the teacher actually does in the classroom to implement a method which is， in turn， consistent with an approach. Approach is an integrated set of theoretical and practical beliefs， including both syllabus and methods. It is the why in language teaching and it provides principles. As for method， it is the how; it is the application of the detailed aspects of an approach consisting of a number of techniques used in a systematic way to achieve the aim of language teaching.

1    The Grammar-translation method                             

      The grammar-translation method was widely used until two or three decades ago. The method was originally used to teach Latin， a language which was not taught for everyday communication.                 However the method was gradually generalized to teach living or modern languages such as English or French， etc. It has been used by teachers of English for about a hundred years.

1.1  The main characteristics of grammar-translation method

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