In the 1970 and 1980, however, thes

In the 1970 and 1980, however, these endemic problems of the direct method were bypassed by radical ‘new’ ideas. The so-called natural approach revived the notion—previously promulgated under exactly the same name in the nineteenth century!—that an adult learner can repeat the route to proficiency of the native - speaking child. The idea was that learning would take place without explanation or grading, and without correction of errors, but simply by exposure to ‘meaningful input’. This approach was based upon theorizing and research in SLA which purported to show that learners, whatever their first language, would follow an internally determined natural order of their own, and that neither explicit instruction nor conscious learning had any effect.