Natural Approach Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Audio-lingual Method (ALM)

Proposer/ advocator

Crashen & Terrell/ 1977 ?/1972 Charles Fries /1939

Goals Students can acquire the target languages in a natural and communicative situation.

Be able to communicate with others in the target language in different situations

Be able to listen, speak, read, and write in the target language, with emphasis on listening and speaking

Mother Tongue No mother tongue Both mother tongue and target language

Less mother tongue

Merits 1. Students acquire the target language in a natural and easy way.

2. Teaching materials are designed very well. Students ca acquire language from easy to difficult, from simple to complex, and from concrete to abstract.

1. Students have the opportunities to express their own thoughts and opinions.

2. Students have the opportunities to communicate with each other in the classroom.

3. Students can learn the culture of the target language because the teaching materials are related to the social environments.

4. The communicative situation makes students reconstruct their knowledge and thoughts, so students can learn to fluently speak the target language more easily.

1. Students can learn target language in natural order: listening—speaking—reading—writing.

2. Students can speak the correct answers without thinking by overlearning.

Limits 1. Students may use the target language fluently, but they cannot use it accurately.

2. Teachers should collect various teaching aids and use them appropriately.

3. Special teaching designs is necessary for the students with better abilities.

1. It’s difficult for a nonnative speaking teacher who is not very proficient in the target language to teach effectively. Teacher training and certification are needed.

2. Students’ pronunciation

1. It fails to teach the long-term communicative proficiency.

2. Structural linguistics didn’t tell us everything about language that we needed to know.

3. It’s impossible and unnecessary to teach

and grammatical knowledge is poor.

3. It is difficult for teachers to evaluate students’ expression in the learning process.

students without using native languages.

4. It’s boring for students to overlearn the drills and it’s tiring for teachers to teach.

Teaching Aids Visual aids, such as pictures, maps, advertisement; games

(a)Interesting and meaningful materials, such as linguistic games, role plays, and problem solving materials.(b) Technology—films, videos, TV, computers, can be used as teaching aids.

Textbooks, drills, tapes, language labs

Features 1. 5 important hypothesisA. the Acquisition-Learning H

Students acquire language subconsciously in the natural and communicative situations.

B. the Monitor HStudents may call upon learned knowledge to correct themselves when they communicate, but that conscious learning has only this function.

C. the Natural Order H The acquisition of

grammatical structures proceeds in a predictable order.

D. the Input (i+1) HStudents acquire language best by understanding input that is slightly beyond their current level of competence.

E. the Affective Filter HStudent work should center on meaningful communication rather than

1. Language learning is learning to communicate. The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.

2. Classroom goals are focused on all of the components of communicative competence and not restricted to grammatical or linguistic competence

3. Students learn to use the appropriate language forms in the different places.

4. Communicative activities include functional communicative activities and social interaction activities.

5. Teachers are assistants, guides, counselors and group process managers.

6. Students are expected to interact with each other

1. New material is presented in dialogue forms

2. There’s dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases, and overlearning.

3. Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.

4. There’s little or no grammatical explanation. Grammar is taught by inductive analogy explanation.

5. There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids.

6. It is based on Behaviorist psychology. Students’ successful responses are immediately reinforced and their errors are corrected immediately.

7. The teaching sequences are aural training, pronunciation training, speaking, reading, and

on form; input should be interesting and so contribute to a relaxed classroom atmosphere.

-------------------------------------2. The teacher was the source

of the learner’s input and the creator of an interesting and stimulating variety of classroom activities.

3. Learners don’t need to say anything during the “silent period” until they feel ready to do so.

4. Start with TPR commands.5. Use visuals, typically

magazine pictures, to introduce new vocabulary.

6. The focus in the classroom is on listening and reading abilities.

7. No sentence patterns practice and no error correction during the process of acquisition.

rather than with the teacher.

7. Learners should take the responsibility of the failed communication.

8. Language is created by the individual through trial and error. Correction of errors may be absent or infrequent.

9. Students can speak fluently but not accurately.

10. Four language skills are practiced. Reading and Writing can start from the first day, if desired.

writing.8. Structures are sequenced

by means of contrastive analysis and taught one at a time.

Hypothesis Definitionthe Acquisition-Learning H “Acquisition” is a unconscious and intuitive process of constructing the

system of a language. “Learning” refers to a process in which conscious rules about a language are developed. Learning cannot lead to acquisition.

the Monitor H Conscious learning can function only as a monitor or editor that checks and repairs the output of the acquired system.

the Natural Order H The acquisition of grammatical structures proceeds in a predictable order. Errors are signs of naturalistic developmental processes and during acquisition, similar developmental errors occur in learners, no matter what their mother tongue is.

the Input (i+1) H People acquire language best by understanding input that is slightly beyond their current level of competence. If an acquirer is at stage or level “i”, the input (s)he understands should contain “i+1.” Input should neither be so far beyond their reach nor so close to their current stage. The ability to speak fluently cannot be taught directly; it emerges

independently in time.the Affective Filter H The learner’s emotional state or attitudes as an adjustable filter that freely

passes, impedes, or blocks input necessary to acquisition. Three kinds of affective or attitudinal variables are: (1) motivation, (2) self-confidence (3) anxiety. The best acquisition will occur in environments where anxiety is low and defensiveness absent.

Direct Method Natural ApproachSimilarity

1. It emphasized that the principles underlying the method were believed to conform to the principles of naturalistic language learning in young children.

1. It is believed to conform to the naturalistic principles found in successful second acquisition.

DifferenceDM focuses on:1. Teacher monologues2. Direct repetition3. Formal questions and answers4. Accurate production of target language sentences

NA focuses on:1. Exposure input2. Optimizing emotional preparedness for learning3. Listening & Reading

Total Physical Response (TPR)

Community Language Learning (CLL)Counseling Learning Method

Proposer/ advocator

Asher/ 1964 Curran/1961

Goals Be able to respond physically to the sentences made in the target language.

To get the language competence and performance by asking questions.

Mother Tongue No mother tongue Both mother tongue and the target languageMerits 1. It provides rapid and

rather permanent language gains on early levels, so students can remember the learned vocabulary for a long time.

2. Students respond actively and feel interested in the learning processes.

3. It’s easy for teachers to teach students verbs.

1. Each student lowers the defenses that prevent open interpersonal communication.

2. The anxiety caused by the educational context is lessened by means of the supportive community.

3. The teacher’s presence is not perceived as a threat, but as a counselor.

Limits 1. It’s difficult to teach the abstract content with TPR

2. Students’ pronunciation is poor.

3. Teachers have to do obvious actions carefully or students would be confused and be misled by the unnecessary hints.

4. TPR has been an experimental model with volunteer students; its, not useful for the inactive students.

5. TPR is especially effective in the beginning levels of

1. The counselor-teacher can be too nondirective. Some intensive inductive struggle is a necessary component of second language learning. Learning “ by being told” is much better.

2. Translation is an intricate and complex process that is often “easier said then done.” If subtle aspects of language are mistranslated, there could be a less than effective understanding.

3. The training is required for an ideal knower. (s)he would have a perfect command of the foreign language and would have to be professionally competent in both psychology and linguistics.

4. It has limitations in a large-group situation with one teacher.

5. There’s a need for clients who speak a common language.

language proficiency, but then loses its distinctiveness as learners advance in their competence.

Teaching Aids No text. Body language and practical materials.

Various materials for different purposes; colored coded signals; tapes; recorders

Features 1. Based on 3 important hypothesis:

(A) the Bio-program HChildren, in learning their first language, appear to do a lot of listening before they speak, and their listening is accomplished by physical responses.

(B) the Brain Lateralization HMotor activity is a right-brain function that should precede left-brain language processing—speaking.

(C) Reduction of Stress HAn important condition for successful language learning is the absence of stress.

2. Imperative(祈使句) drills are the major classroom activity in TPR.

3. Commands are easy first, and then become more and more complex.

4. Students are listeners and performers. They do a lot of listening and acting until they master

1. The sense of belonging needed by both students and teachers.

2. Both teachers and students have the responsibility for the learning activity.

3. In a good knower-client relationship, there quickly develops a warm, sympathetic attitude of mutual trust and respect. The client emulates the language and person of the knower; the knower is fulfilled and enriched through the counseling-teaching experience.

4. More important to learners is the freedom and initiative they are permitted.

5. The most basic ingredient in CLL is a mutual interest, respect and concern of teachers for students and students for students.

6. A group of ideas concerning the psychological requirements for successful learning are collected under the acronym—SARD. (S-security, A-attention and aggression, R-retention and reflection, D-discrimination)

7. The teaching procedure:(a) The students sit in a circle, and the teacher(s) is(are)

outside the circle.(b) During the first stage, a tape recorder is normally used.

The only voices taped are those of the student-clients when they are speaking in the target language.

(c) The students initiate the conversation in their native language and the knower Translates it into the target language. They then repeat in the target language what they have heard the knower said.

(d) Students assist each other and they use the teacher when there is a need. The knower provides translation only when someone signals by raising his/her hand.

(e) Color coded signals are used. If red is flashed, an error has been made. If amber, there is a more suitable idiom and a better way. If green, the utterance is acceptable.

the commands. They are required to respond both individually and collectively.

5. Students respond to the commands physically. No verbal response is necessary.

Blue indicates native expertise.8. Students’ developmental stages:(a) The “Embryonic Stage” (胚胎期) Students are totally dependent on the teacher.(b) The “Self-assertion Stage”(自我肯定) The student-clients begin to show some independence and tries out the language.(c)IThe “birth Stage” (誕生期) The students speak independently. They are most likely to resent what they feel unnecessary assistance from the knower.(d) The “Reversal Stage”(逆轉期)

They are secure to take correction.(e) The “Independent Stage”(獨立期)

Interruptions are infrequent. They occur for enrichment and improvement of style.

The Silent Way Suggestopedia / SuggestologyProposer/ advocator

Gattegno/ 1972 Lozanov/ 1978

Goals Let students use the target language to express their own thoughts and feeling independently and develop the ability to correct their errors by themselves

Conduct the many negative “suggestions” or fears which inhibit learning feelings of incompetence and fear of making mistakes, and make students learn the target language in a relaxing atmosphere.

Mother Tongue Both mother tongue and the target language Both mother tongue and the target languageFeatures 1. Learning is facilitated if the learner

discovers or creates rather than remembers and repeats what is to be learned. The learners should develop independence, autonomy and responsibility.

2. Learners in a classroom must cooperate with each other in the process of solving language problems.

3. Teachers provide single-word stimuli, or short phrases and sentences once or twice, and then students must refine their understanding and pronunciation themselves.

4. Teachers utilize a set of Cuisinere rods—small colored wooden rods of varying lengths to introduce vocabulary, verbs and syntax, especially about the spatial relationships and related prepositions as well as every aspect of language ranging from comparisons to tense, the conditional and the subjunctive.

5. Teachers use a series of colorful wall charts to introduce pronunciation models, grammatical paradigms.

6. The teacher is silent as much as possible, and make students work out solutions themselves.

7. Four language skills are emphasized and students are encouraged to read and write the sentences they have heard and spoken.

8. Students correct the errors themselves and

1. In a relaxing atmosphere with carpeted floor, easy chairs and classic music –Baroque, integrated the use of music, the element of lecture and theater, through the reputation of the method and the instructor, students’ language competence, confidence and wills to communicate are reinforced.

2. Students are encouraged to be as “childlike” as possible, yielding all authority to the teacher.

3. Every student is provided a new name and a new role within the target language on the first day of class. They live with a new identity rather than struggle with a foreign language. The new names also contain phonemes from the target language culture that learners find difficult to pronounce.

4. The dialogues are presented to the students in three phases:(a) explicative reading(b) intonational reading(c) concert

5. Students engage in interaction activities to review the material and involve new utterances as much as possible.

6. The teacher maintains a solemn attitude towards the session and shows absolute confidence in the method.

teachers view these errors as the responses to the teaching and give students some hints and help.

Merits 1. Students interact not only with teachers but also with each other.

1. Students are willing and able to communicate in the target language and students learn the target language in a relaxing atmosphere.

2. Easy grammatical explanation helps students learn the target language more easily.

Limits 1. Teachers must know their teaching objectives clearly and make use of the teaching aids effectively.

2. Students may be confused with the symbols of the colored wooden rods.

3. Students waste too much time struggling with a concept that would be easily clarified by the teachers’ direct guide.

4. It is difficult for teachers to evaluate students’ progress in their learning process.

1. Students don’t concentrate on the language learning because eof the music.

2. Students’ speech is somewhat inaccurate grammatically and phonologically.

3. All students need to share a common native language.

4. Teachers must be proficient not only in the target language but also I students’ native language.

5. Not all teachers are skilled in acting, singing and choosing the appropriate music and not all students can appreciate the music.

Teaching Aids Cuisinere rods, phonic charts, transparencies A carpet, sofas, classic music tapes, flowers and pictures

Grammar-Translation Method (G-T) Direct Method (Natural Method)Proposer/ advocator

1840~1940 ?

Goals To learn a language in order to read its literature or in order to benefit from the mental discipline and intellectual development that result from foreign language study.

Students can understand the target language without translation

Mother Tongue Both mother tongue and the target language

No mother tongue

Limits 1 Students learn the target language indirectly.

2 Students just learn the knowledge of books not the common language, so they may have trouble applying their knowledge to the real social situations.

3 Students have poor listening and speaking ability because they seldom practice listening and speaking.

1. It overemphasizes and distorts the similarities between naturalistic first language learning and classroom foreign language learning and it fails to consider the practical realities of the classroom.

2. It lacks a rigorous basis in applied linguistic theory.

3. It requires teachers who are native speakers or who have native like fluency in the foreign language. It is largely dependent on the teachers’ skill, rather than on a textbook, and not all teachers are proficient enough in the foreign language to adhere to the principles of the method.

4. Sometimes a simple brief explanation in the students’ native tongue would have been a more efficient route to comprehension.

Merits 1 With translation of the native language, students can read and write the target language I an easy and meaningful way.

2 Students can learn the grammars of the target language with a systematic and correct way.

1 Students can learn the target language directly and systematically.

2 Students can pronounce correctly.3 Students can learn to use both the written

form and oral form of the target language.4 Students can have interest in learning.

Teaching Aids Textbooks and grammar books Pictures and articles related to the textbooksFeatures 1. Reading and writing are the major

focus; little or no systematic attention is paid to speaking or listening.

2. Vocabulary is based on the reading

1. Classroom instruction is conducted exclusively in the target language.

2. Only everyday vocabulary and sentences are taught.

3. Oral communication skills are built up in a

text used, and words are taught through bilingual word lists, dictionary study and memorization.

3. The sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice.

4. Accuracy is emphasized.5. Grammar is taught deductively.6. The student’s native language is the

medium of instruction.

carefully graded progression organized around question and answer exchanges between teachers and students in small-intense classes.

4. New teaching points are introduced orally before students see the written form.

5. Concrete vocabulary is taught through demonstration objects and pictures; abstract vocabulary is taught by association of ideas.

6. Both speech and listening comprehension are taught.

7. Correct pronunciation and grammar are emphasized; grammar is taught inductively.

8. Students have to offer the interesting materials to draw students’ curiosity to learn the target language.

The St. Cloud Method Microwave DeviceProposer/ advocator

?/1951 Stevick/1964

Goals To learn target languages in a situation presented by various media

To organize the power of the structure, vocabulary and communication of the target language in a short-term intensive language program.

Mother Tongue Both mother tongue and the target language Not limitedFeatures 1. A carefully structured course in which

students are immersed in multi-media language presentations.

2. Cultural, situational and nonverbal component should permeate the presentation.

3. The Direct Method is employed.4. Initially students watch a picture

sequence, then repeat the material chorally. Students don’t see the written language until after sixty hours of instruction.

5. Communication depends on asking questions and answering.

1. This device is like a microwave cycle. It consists of an utterance which includes a question and 4 to8 replies.

2. The cycle of instruction includes an M phase (mimicry, manipulation and mechanics) and a C phase (communication, conversation and continuity).

3. It should play “a supporting role” , or at most “a co-starring role” in language materials.

Merits 1. Because courses and related media are designed well, it is appreciated by non-native teachers who are not completely secure in the language they are teaching.

2. It produces better phonological than communicative competence.

3. It has proven more satisfactory with younger students than with those of college age.

4. The meaning of the pictures or films and the goal of course are easy to know.

1. Because of the different learning goals, students can learn different materials.

2. Students can communicate with others in the accurately structured target language in a short time.

Limits 1. Students’ communicative competence and performance are not good.

2. It is difficult for teachers to evaluate students’ progress in their learning process.

1. It just supplies variable activities instead of a complete course.

2. It sacrifices the practices of reading and writing to reinforce the listening and speaking competence.

3. It wastes too much time speaking and listening without writing.

4. It’s difficult to get the teaching media and appropriate teaching materials.

Teaching Aids Film strips are the dominant medium and pictures are supplement.

Variable materials for different special purposes

Situational Reinforcement Method Aural Discrimination MethodProposer/ advocator

Hall/1978 Winitz & Reeds/1973

Goals Be able to use the target to communicate in the real situations

Learn to discriminate the vocabulary, inflection, phonology and syntax by a visually-cued listening approach.

Mother Tongue Not limited Not limitedFeatures 1. Discard the sequenced grammatical

approach.2. It involves students in “authentic

communication.”3. It’s built in cognitive choices in order to

avoid mere mechanical repetition. Students may analyze language and use it effectively in the new situations.

4. Students learn concrete objects before they learn abstract ideas.

1. Teachers introduce vocabulary four or five times as fast as possible. Students listen to teachers’ pronunciation and then from four pictures select the one which best represents what they have heard.

2. Students don’t speak until they have mastered the basic structures and vocabulary of the target language.

Merits 1. Students enjoy the realistic situations which enhance students’ willing to learn.

2. By simulating the realistic language situations, students can understand what a language is and why to learn it.

3. Students learn to communicate with these materials quite soon and they can use the materials even outside the classroom.

1. It’s interesting and meaningful to utilize pictures as teaching media, and they attract students’ attention easily.

2. Students have the opportunities to think about the messages by judging the different pictures according to what they heard.

Limits 1. Teachers have to spend lots of time and energy creating the real situation and not every situation can be simulated well.

2. Excessive repetition is in the lesson format.

3. The unstructured-unsequenced material can give students the feeling that they are not making any real progress.

1. Students just can learn the concrete objects; they cannot learn the abstract ideas.

2. It focuses on listening competence, and ignores speaking, reading and writing. As a result, students’ listening ability is good, but their three other language abilities are poor. Therefore, it just can be seen as an assistant method rather than as a major teaching approach.

3. It lacks the variety of some methods and the relevance inherent.

Teaching Aids Authentic languages Pictures, tapes, and video tapes

Stylized Mnemonics Structured TutoringProposer/ advocator

Lipson/1971 Harrison/1976

Goals In order to learn the target language by recalling the memory of the drawings

Make students learn the target language in an individually structured course.

Mother Tongue Both mother tongue and the target language Both mother tongue and the target languageFeatures 1. Use translation at the outset of instruction.

2. A corpus of sentences is learned through choral repetition and translation, but drawings replace translation almost immediately.

3. Interesting and culturally relevant vocabulary is combined in exotic situations to teach the target language.

4. Some grammatical explanation are presented but the emphasis is on communication

5. The situations become more and more involved, new combinations of language are constantly generated.

1. Initially, this approach is used to teach disadvantaged children how to read. It involved volunteer tutors—adults or peers.

2. It focuses on reading and writing, even introduces to beginners during the second week of instruction.

3. It is an informal remediable course designed for the low-achievement students.

4. The courses are well structured. Students cannot learn the next unit until they reach the goals of the last unit.

5. Tutors spend 80 percents of their time on grammar during seven out of the eight units.

6. The tutors should be volunteers, and their mother tongue is the target language. Before they start to help the students, they have to be trained.

7. The students who must be literate native tongue, receive one-hour tutorial visits a week and work four to six hours on their own.

Merits 1. This approach is cognitive, culturally oriented, systematic and interesting.

2. Variable comprehensible drawings as cues to introduce vocabulary are interesting to students and can help them memorize the new vocabulary more easily.

1. Students can reach the learning objects in a short period of time.

2. It includes the negligible cost involved simply administrative and material charges.

3. Students get the needed help, so the good will is generated in their hearts.

Limits 1. This approach requires bilingual teachers.2. Not all teachers are artists; not every

teacher can draw pictures well.

1. It’s difficult to find volunteer native-speaking tutors overseas.

2. Some experienced teachers think their

3. Initially students should be linguistically homogeneous at least.

4. The bizarre situations of the drawings may create an amuse detachment on the part of learners.

teaching skills are bound under the tightly controlled tutorial materials.

3. It overemphasizes reading and writing, students’ speaking competence is ignored.

4. It’s boring with the one-by-one teaching.

5. Students may feel bored with the overemphasis on the grammar teaching.

Teaching Aids Pictures with explanatory words Well structured teaching materials