While priority has been given to explaining the Grammar Translation approach and the Communicative Language Teaching approach due to their importance, it should be noted that there are a multitude of approaches that have been championed with greater and lesser degrees of success throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The ambition of this page is not to comprehensively outline all of these approaches, but rather to signal some of the more important ones of which the impact is still perceptible in how many popular textbooks teach languages. This page focuses on the following three approaches: 1) Audio-lingual, 2) Total Physical Response (TPR), 3) Task-based Learning.
The audio-lingual method is based on behaviorist theory, which postulates that certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through a system of reinforcement. The correct use of a trait would receive positive while incorrect use of that trait would receive negative feedback. The method advises that students should be taught the language directly using drill-like memorization activities whereby grammar is taught inductively. For example, with this method, an instructor would present the correct form of a sentence, which students would then repeat and memorize. Afterwards, the instructor would continue the lesson by presenting new words (sometimes explained in the native language of the students) that could be sampled in the same grammatical structure. These exercises would provide the “reinforcement” necessary for students to retain grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Students practice a particular grammatical structure, for example, until they can use it extemporaneously.
While a lot of second-language acquisition theory research does not support the efficacy of such an approach, one can nevertheless see its influence in the types of exercises that have students perform choral repetitions and drill-like fill-in-the-blanks activities that reinforce grammatical concepts. Below, there are examples of the types of activities inspired by the audio-lingual method.
Example dialogue:
Inflection: Teacher: I ate the sandwich. Student: I ate the sandwiches.
Replacement: Teacher: He bought the car for half-price. Student: He bought it for half-price.
Restatement: Teacher: Tell me not to smoke so often. Student: Don't smoke so often!
The following example illustrates how more than one sort of drill can be incorporated into one practice session:
“Teacher: There's a cup on the table ... repeat
Students: There's a cup on the table
Teacher: Spoon
Students: There's a spoon on the table
Teacher: Book
Students: There's a book on the table
Teacher: On the chair
Students: There's a book on the chair
*Adapted from: Wikipedia contributors. "Audio-lingual method." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 13 Oct. 2024. Web. 19 Feb. 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Audio-lingual_method&oldid=1250879131.
This approach to language learning is based on the coordination of language and physical movement. In other words, this approach not only avails itself of body language to help convey meaning while staying in the target language, but it also invites students to demonstrate comprehension by responding with some physical action. According to James Asher, a professor emeritus of psychology at San José State University who studied language acquisition in young children and proposed TPR, language is learned primarily through listening and reinforcement through physical response on the part of the learner, which engages the right hemisphere of the brain. Engaging with language physically, so to speak, represents a more natural way to reinforce language learning. Partisans of this approach tout the way in which it allows educators to stay in the target language while also providing comprehensible input to students. While some educators use TPR to teach grammar inductively (in other word, not directly), its most obvious and effective value lies in teaching vocabulary.
The majority of class time in TPR lessons is spent with language-body conversations as Asher refers to it, in which the instructor gives commands using the imperative mood. Students respond to these commands with physical actions. Initially, students learn the meaning of the commands they hear by direct observation. After they learn the meaning of the words in these commands, the teacher issues commands that use novel combinations of the words the students have learned in which they respond with a physical action modeled by the instructor. For instance, if the teacher says, "Stand up and clap." students watch the instructor model the utterance before they act it out themselves to show comprehension.
*Adapted from: Wikipedia contributors. "Total physical response." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 Nov. 2024. Web. 19 Feb. 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Total_physical_response&oldid=1256894952.
Considered a branch of communicative language teaching, task-based instruction focuses on authentic use of language to complete meaningful tasks in the target language. Consequently, the emphasis in task-based learning is less strict adherence to prescriptive notions of grammar and more the ability to convey meaning in order to accomplish a particular task, such as making an appointment at the doctor’s office, calling customer service, etc. In its most extreme iteration, task-based instruction involves the study of an entirely distinct subject in the target language. Thus, many upper-division literature, history, culture, and linguistics courses might be conceived of as task-based instruction as students learn about other subjects in the target language.
As its name suggests, this approach revolves around the development of “tasks” that allow students to engage in a meaningful exchange of information and practice real-life language situations. A task should have meaning as its primary focus. In a task, there is usually some sort of “gap” (information gap, reasoning gap, opinion gap, etc.) that needs to be bridged through exchange of information / language. Students must marshal their linguistic resources in order to cross this gap and meet the expected outcome.
Task-based activities are typically divided into three phases, with the first pre-task phase being designed to prepare students for the task they need to perform by showcasing useful vocabulary / grammar and/or offering an example of how the educator performs the task. After the pre-task, students work with partners or in small groups to perform the task, while the teacher simply observes and offers advice/help when necessary. The task is followed by a review opportunity during which students evaluate what was produced and offer feedback which the educator supplements.
According to N. S. Prabhu (whose book is linked under the module “Books on These Approaches” on the right), there are three main categories of task: information-gap, reasoning-gap, and opinion-gap.
Information-gap activity, which involves a transfer of given information from one person to another – or from one form to another, or from one place to another – generally calling for the decoding or encoding of information from or into language. One example is pair work in which each member of the pair has a part of the total information (for example an incomplete picture) and attempts to convey it verbally to the other. Another example is completing a tabular representation with information available in a given piece of text. The activity often involves selection of relevant information as well, and learners may have to meet criteria of completeness and correctness in making the transfer.
Reasoning-gap activity, which involves deriving some new information from given information through processes of inference, deduction, practical reasoning, or a perception of relationships or patterns. One example is working out a teacher's timetable on the basis of given class timetables. Another is deciding what course of action is best (for example cheapest or quickest) for a given purpose and within given constraints. The activity necessarily involves comprehending and conveying information, as in an information-gap activity, but the information to be conveyed is not identical with that initially comprehended. There is a piece of reasoning which connects the two.
Opinion-gap activity, which involves identifying and articulating a personal preference, feeling, or attitude in response to a given situation. One example is story completion; another is taking part in the discussion of a social issue. The activity may involve using factual information and formulating arguments to justify one's opinion, but there is no objective procedure for demonstrating outcomes as right or wrong, and no reason to expect the same outcome from different individuals or on different occasions.
*Adapted from: Wikipedia contributors. "Task-based language learning." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Dec. 2024. Web. 19 Feb. 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Task-based_language_learning&oldid=1263223938.
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