4.1

Theory 1: Grammar translation.

The theory of grammar translation basically means that you learn your foreign words from a wordlist. First, the words were explained to the pupils and after that they just had to cram them into their heads. The most common exercises that fitted this way of learning were translation exercises and dictation. This way of learning has a bad name, mainly because pupils forgot the words that they studied immediately after they took their test.[1]

Theory 2: The silent way

The silent way involves as little help as possible from a teacher, students are supposed to become independent in their language solving problems. The silent way is considered as a harsh teaching method because the teaching is very distant.[2]

Theory 3: Communicative language teaching

First of all, the communicative language teaching technique is an approach, not a theory. It includes focusing on the useful aspects of a foreign language, not just grammar and linguistics. Aspects such as fluency and accuracy aren’t nearly as important as just speaking or writing the language.[3]

Theory 4: The audiolingual method

A method based on linguistic and psychological theory. The pupils will learn a foreign language based on audio and visuals, rather than learning grammar-rules. Pronunciation is important.[4]

Theory 5: The reading approach

Only the grammar rules are taught, there is no or minimal attention paid to pronunciation and/or learning conversational skills. This method includes a lot of reading, both in and outside class.[5]

 

4.2

When I first had to learn English I was about ten years old. Our teacher began the lesson by asking us: ‘Who knows an English word?’ and I remember that everyone was surprised by how many words we could name even though we never had a single English lesson before in our lives.

In secondary school we had to learn French and German as well. I don’t recall any special introduction to German, but we did have one regarding the French language. We had to learn to count to twenty in French and no-one in my class had had a single French lesson before, thus we were all a bit worried that we were going to fail. The opposite happened. Our French teacher showed us a childish-looking video about counting to twenty and I remember that everyone was confused and giggling, but the teacher said: ‘Even the pupils in their last year on this school still use this video.’ It was true. When I was in my last year of Havo, my friends and I still used this video and other ones that had the same concept to learn for our exams.

My school also let us read a lot of books in different languages, so that we would pick up the language better. Especially for English we’ve read a lot of novels, sadly most of them were dreadfully boring. Therefore, I believe that my school used the reading approach in it’s language classes. We also worked a lot with the grammar translation theory and I can conclude that most students indeed forgot the learned words as soon as the test was over. Which is a pity, because it is so useful to know as many foreign languages as possible. Luckily, I’ve had a few teachers who had their own ways of teaching us a foreign language (like my French teacher with the video about counting to twenty) so that we did not forget the words we had to learn after the test.

 

[1] http://www.philseflsupport.com

[2] www.englishclub.com

[3] www.englishclub.com

[4] www.englishclub.com

[5] http://moramodules.com