Direct Approach
By the end of the nineteenth century Direct Approach or Method emerged as a reaction to the Grammar Translation
Approach and its failure to produce learners who could communicate in the foreign language they were studying. This
approach stressed the ability to use rather than analyze a language as the goal of language instruction or in other words,
the main goal was to train students to communicate in the target language and to have an acceptable pronunciation. The
idea behind the Direct Approach was that we learn languages by hearing them spoken and engaging in conversation
(Hubbard, Jone, & Thornton 1983). In this approach, the learners are expected to imitate and practice the target
language until they become fluent and accurate speakers and, as there is no translation, it is assumed that they will learn
to think in the target language.
It is supposed that vocabulary can be acquired naturally through interactions during the lesson; therefore, vocabulary
is presented in context and is graded from simple to complex. In this approach, vocabulary is emphasized over grammar
(Larsen-Freeman, 2000). Concrete words are taught through objects, pictures, physical demonstration, and abstract
words are taught by grouping words according to a topic or through association of ideas (Zimmerman, 1997).
The Direct Approach was perceived to have several drawbacks. It required teachers who were native speakers or had
native-like fluency in the foreign language. Although it offered innovations at the level of teaching, it lacked a through
methodological basis (Sweet, 1899). Brown (1973) describes his frustration in observing a teacher performing verbal
gymnastics in an attempt to convey the meaning of Japanese words, when translation would have been a much more
efficient technique. Takefuta and Takefuta (1996) in their work on teaching methodologies summarize that before the
1940s, vocabulary teaching had been "taken lightly" under Grammar- Translation Method, or Direct Method.