Get it right from the beginning
'Get it right from the beginning' is probably the proposal that characterizes more second and foreign language instruction than any other kind. Although communicative language teaching has come to dominate in some environments, the structure based approaches discussed in Chapter 5, especially grammar translation, remain widespread.
The grammar translation approach has its origin in the teaching of classical language (for example, Greek and Latin). Students were presented with vocabulary lists, often accompanied by translation equivalents, and grammar rules. The original purpose of this approach was to help students read literature rather than to develop fluency in the spoken language. It was also thought that this approach provided students with good mental exercise to help develop their intellectual and academic abilities.
In a typical activity, students read a text together line and are asked to translate it from the target language into their native language. Students may answer comprehension questions based on the passage, often in their first language. The teacher draws attention to a specific grammar rule that is illustrated by the text ( for example, a certain verb from ). Following this, the students are given an exercise in which they are asked to practise the grammatical rule by filling in the blanks with the appropriate verb from in a series of sentences that may mot be related to the text they have read and translated.
Audiolingual instruction arose in part as a reaction to the grammar translation approach. The argument was that, unlike grammar translation teaching in which students learned about the language, audiolingual teaching would lead students to actually speak the language ( Books 1960; Lado 1964 ). In Chapter 2, we saw that the audiolingual approach was based on behaviourism and contrastive analysis. The examples below reflectaudiolingual teaching. It is evident that, even though the emphasis on the oral language, students rarely uses the language spontaneously. Teachers avoid letting beginning learners speak freely become habits. So it is better to prevent these bad habits before they happen.