Grammar Translation Method

 A method without a language and learning theory...

Hi everybody,
Today I will introduce a method, the Grammar Translation Method whose old name is the Classical Method. Let's take a look at the main features of the method in general.

This method was dominated in Europe from the 1840s to the 1940s. The underlying assumption of this method is: With the grammar of the target language, students would be able to understand the grammar of their native language, and they could speak and write their native language better. In other words, according to this assumption, the student's learning a foreign language helps his / her intellectual development. In this method, it is important that students successfully translate the literature in the target language into their native language rather than using the target language; in other words, instead of spoken language, literary language is the focus, and students are limited to study with literature and fine arts of the target language. The teachers 'criterion for evaluating students' success is the quality of the translations made by the students: The more successfully the students translated the literary text in the target language into their own language, the more successful they would be.

There are two main skills that the method aims to develop, these are reading and writing. Likewise, grammar and vocabulary teaching is also very important. There is little or no attention to listening and speaking. In this method, we cannot speak of any effort or attention to pronunciation.

The teacher has a very traditional role and she/he symbolizes authority in the classroom that decides students' answers are right or wrong. It is important for the teacher to get the correct answer from the student, when the student answers incorrectly, the teacher selects another student to get the correct answer or give the correct answer explicitly. The method has no principles regarding students' emotions. 

The teacher gives the students the text to be translated, the students work individually in their desks, and student-student interaction is unlikely. The direction of interaction in the classroom is from teacher to student, and students' interaction with each other is scarcely any. The biggest assistant of students is their dictionary. Students translate the text given, answer to the reading comprehension questions, or the questions in the worksheets by writing. It is free to use the mother tongue in the classroom and everyone speaks the mother tongue, including the teacher. Similarities or differences between the mother tongue and the target language are used to make learning easy. It is important for students to learn the structure of the target language and the rules of the target language are explained to the students explicitly. There is deductive teaching. Students are expected to apply the given rule to the given examples. There are long vocabulary lists in which students are expected to memorize them. Another important assumption of this method is that students can find equivalents of all words in their native language in other languages. Students are taught antonyms, synonyms, cognate words in the native and target languages, and non-cognate words that appear as cognate words.

The syllabus used is a structural syllabus and it is designed from simple to complex. Discrete grammar structures are taught in each lesson.

Now let's examine the techniques used in the method.

1)Translation of the literary passage for studying vocabulary and grammar structure of the target language

2)Reading comprehension questions and answering them in the target language based on their understanding of the reading passage

3) Antonyms and Synonyms

4) Cognates

5)Deductive application of rules

Grammar rules are presented and taught explicitly. Then students who understand the rule are expected to apply this rule to different examples.

6)Fill-in-the -blanks

Students are expected to fill in the blanks with new vocabulary items or items of a particular grammar type.

7)Memorization

8)Use words in the sentences to show their understandings

9)Composition

Students write a composition according to the given topic or a summary of a reading passage.

Now let's briefly summarize what we have learned.

*Learning a foreign language is a mental exercise, it helps students to speak and write their native language better. 

*Language learning enables the student to make mental exercise with the help of translation and memorization.

*Students would probably never use the target language.

*Reading and writing are the major focus.
*There is little or no attention to listening, speaking, and pronunciation.

*Grammar and vocabulary teaching is also very important.

*Written language is superior over spoken language.
*The teacher's role is the authority in the classroom. 
*Getting the correct answer from the student is very important.

* Students' success are evaluated with their translation.

*Everybody in the class is free to speak their native language.

*There is an interaction from teacher to student.

*Structural syllabus is used.

* Deductive grammar teaching, long vocabulary lists, translation, memorization, teaching cognates, antonyms, and synonyms are some techniques used in this method.

I hope this post will give you an idea of ​​how we have progressed in foreign language teaching from past to present, I will be here with explanations of another method in our next post!