Situational_language_teaching
5. The Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching
5.1 Introduction
The oral approach was developed from the 1930s to the 1960s by British applied linguists such as Harold Palmer and A.S. Hornsby, who attempted to formally develop a scientifically-founded approach to teaching English. A number of large-scale investigations about language learning and the increased emphasis on reading skills in the 1920s led to the notion of "vocabulary control". Parallel to this was the notion of "grammar control".
◆Vocabulary control
Several large-scale investigations of foreign language vocabulary showed that vocabulary was one of the most important aspects of foreign language learning and the increased emphasis on reading skills as the goal of foreign language study implied that vocabulary was an essential component of reading proficiency.
It was discovered that languages have a core basic vocabulary of about 2,000 words that occurred frequently in written texts, and it was assumed that mastery of these would greatly aid reading comprehension.
Choosing the vocabulary content of a language course represented the first attempts to establish principles of syllabus design in language teaching.
◆Grammar control
Grammar control emphasized the sentence patterns most-commonly found in spoken conversation, very different from the abstract model of grammar seen in the Grammar-Translation Method. Such patterns were incorporated into dictionaries and handbooks for students.
5.2 Difference between the Oral Approach and the Direct Method
Difference:
◆methods devised under the oral approach would have theoretical principles guiding the selection of content, gradation of difficulty of exercises and the presentation of such material and exercises.
◆Such theoretically-based organization of content would result in a less-confusing sequence of learning events with better contextualization of the vocabulary and grammatical patterns presented.
◆All language points were to be presented in "situations". Emphasis on this point led to the approach's second name. Such learning in situations would lead to students' acquiring good habits to be repeated in their corresponding situations.
◆Teaching methods stress PPP—3Ps (presentation (introduction of new material in context), practice (a controlled practice phase) and production (activities designed for less-controlled practice)).
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5.3 The main characteristics of the approach
◆ 1. Language teaching begins with the spoken language. Material is taught orally before it is presented in written form.
◆ 2. The target language is the language of the classroom.
◆ 3. New language points are introduced and practiced situationally.
◆ 4. Vocabulary selection procedures are followed to ensure that an essential general service vocabulary is covered.
◆ 5. Items of grammar are graded following the principle that simple forms should be taught before complex ones.
◆ 6. Reading and writing are introduced once a sufficient lexical and grammatical basis is established.
5.4 Approach
5.4.1Theory of language
?British "structuralism.": Speech was regarded as the basis of language, and structure was viewed as being at the heart of speaking ability.
?The British theoreticians had a focus to their version of structuralism - the notion of "situation." "Our principal classroom activity in the teaching of English structure will be the oral practice of structures. This oral practice of controlled sentence patterns should be given in situations designed to give the greatest amount of practice in English speech to the pupil" (Pittman 1963: 179).
The theory is that knowledge of structures must be linked to situations in which they could be used
Many British linguists had emphasized the close relationship between the structure of language and the context and situations in which language is used.
"The emphasis now is on the description of language activity as part of the whole complex of events which, together with the participants and relevant objects, make up actual situations" (Halliday, Mclntosh, and Strevens 1964: 38).
Thus, in contrast to American structuralist views on language, language was viewed as purposeful activity related to goals and situations in the real world.
5.4.2 Theory of learning
The theory of learning underlying Situational Language Teaching is a type of behaviorist habit-learning theory.
Palmer’s views are cited as authoritative:
As Palmer has pointed out, there are three processes in learning a language: receiving the knowledge or materials, fixing it in the memory by repetition, and using it in actual practice until it becomes a personal skill.
E.g. The pupils should be able to put the words, without hesitation and almost without thought, into sentence patterns which are correct. Such speech habits can be cultivated by blind imitative drill. (French, 1950, vol. 3: 9 )
◆Situational Language Teaching adopts an inductive approach to the teaching of grammar.
◆The meaning of words or structures is not to be given through explanation in either the native tongue or the target language but is to be induced from the way the form is used in a situation. ◆"If we give the meaning of a new word, either by translation into the home language or by an equivalent in the same language, as soon as we introduce it, we weaken the impression which the word makes on the mind" (Billows 1961: 28). Explanation is therefore discouraged, and the learner is expected to deduce the meaning of a particular structure or vocabulary item from the situation in which it is presented.
◆The learner is expected to apply the language learned in a classroom to situations outside the classroom. (This is how child language learning is believed to take place, and the same processes are thought to occur in second and foreign language learning, according to practitioners of
Situational Language Teaching.)
5.5 Design
5.5.1 Objectives
The objectives of the Situational Language Teaching method are to teach a command of the four basic skills of language, but the skills are approached through structure.
Accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar is regarded as crucial, and errors are to be avoided. Automatic control of basic structures and sentence patterns is fundamental to reading and writing skills, and this is achieved through speech work. "Before our pupils read new structures and new vocabulary, we shall teach orally both the new structures and the new vocabulary" (Pittman 1963: 186).
5.5.2 The syllabus
a structural syllabus + a word list
A structural syllabus is a list of the basic structures and sentence patterns of English, arranged according to their order of presentation. In Situational Language Teaching, structures are always taught within sentences, and vocabulary is chosen according to how well it enables sentence patterns to be taught.
For example: Frisby (1957: 134) gives an example of the typical structural syllabus around which
5.5.3 Types of learning and teaching activities
Situational Language Teaching employs a situational approach to presenting new sentence patterns and a drill-based manner of practicing them.
“situation” implies the use of concrete objects, pictures, and realia, which together with actions and gestures can be used to demonstrate the meanings of new language items.
The practice techniques consist of guided repetition and substitution activities, including chorus repetition, dictation, and drills, and other oral-practice techniques are sometimes used, such as pair work and group work.
The form of new words and sentence patterns is demonstrated with examples and not through grammatical explanation or description. The meaning of new words and sentence patterns is not
conveyed through translation. It is made clear visually (with objects, pictures, action and mime). Wherever possible model sentences are related and taken from a single situation. (Davies, Roberts, and Rossner 1975: 3)
5.5.4 Learner roles
In the initial stages of learning, the learner is required simply to listen and repeat what the teacher says and to respond to questions. The learner has no control over the content of learning. For example, the learner might lapse into faulty grammar or pronunciation, forget what has been taught, or fail to respond quickly enough; incorrect habits are to be avoided at all costs. Later, more active participation is encouraged. This includes learners asking each other questions.
5.5.5 Teacher roles
The teacher's function is threefold.
◆In the presentation stage of the lesson, the teacher serves as a model, setting up situations in which the need for the target structure is created and then modeling the new structure for students to repeat.
◆Then the teacher is required to be a skillful manipulator, using questions and other cues to elicit correct sentences from the learners. Lessons are hence teacher directed, and the teacher sets the pace.
◆During the practice phase of the lesson, students are given more of an opportunity to use the language in less controlled situations, but the teacher is ever on the lookout for grammatical and structural errors.
5.5.6 The role of instructional materials
Situational Language Teaching is dependent upon both a textbook and visual aids. The textbook contains tightly organized lessons planned around different grammatical structures. Visual aids may be produced by the teacher or may be commercially produced; they consist of flashcards, pictures and so on. The visual element along with a carefully graded grammatical syllabus is a crucial aspect of Situational Language Teaching, hence the importance of the textbook. The textbook should be used "only as a guide to the learning process. The teacher is expected to be the master of his textbook" (Pittman,1963: 176).
5.6 Procedure
Procedures aim to move from controlled to freer practice of structures and from oral use of sentence patterns to their automatic use in speech, reading, and writing.
Pittman (1963: 173) gives an example of a typical lesson plan:
The first part of the lesson will be stress and intonation practice.... The main body of the lesson should then follow. This might consist of the teaching of a structure. If so, the lesson would then consist of four parts:
1. pronunciation
2. revision (to prepare for new work if necessary)
3. presentation of new structure or vocabulary
4. oral practice (drilling)
5. reading of material on the new structure, or written exercises.
The following is a sample lesson plans for use with Situational Language Teaching. The structures being taught in the following lesson are "This is a ..." and "That's a ...".
?Teacher, (holding up a watch) Look. This is a watch. (2 x ) (pointing to a clock on wall or table) That's a clock. (2 x) That's a clock. (2 x) This is a watch, (putting down watch and moving across to touch the clock or pick it up) This is a clock. (2 x ) (pointing to watch) That's a watch. (2 x ) (picking up a pen) This is a pen. (2 x) (drawing large pencil on blackboard and moving away) That's a pencil. (2 x ) Take your pens. All take your pens. (students all pick up their pens) ?Teacher. Listen. This is a pen. (3 x ) This. (3 x )
?Students. This. (3 x )
? A student. This. (6 x )
?Teacher. This is a pen.
?Students. This is a pen. (3 x )
?Student, (moving pen) This is a pen. (6 x )
?Teacher, (pointing to blackboard) That's a pencil. (3 X ) That. (3 X)
?Students. That. (3 x )
? A student. That. (6 x)
?Teacher. That's a pencil.
?Students, (all pointing at blackboard) That's a pencil. (3 x)
?Student, (pointing at blackboard) That's a pencil. (6 x )
?Teacher. Take your books, (taking a book himself) This is a book. (3x)
?Students. This is a book. (3 x )
?Teacher, (placing notebook in a visible place) Tell me...
?Student 1. That's a notebook.
Davies et al. likewise give detailed information about teaching procedures to be used with Situational Language Teaching.
1. Listening practice in which the teacher obtains his student's attention and repeats an example of the patterns or a word in isolation clearly, several times, probably saying it slowly at least once (where ... is ... the ... pen?), separating the words.
2. Choral imitation in which students all together or in large groups repeat what the teacher has said.
3. Individual imitation in which the teacher asks several individual students to repeat the model he has given in order to check their pronunciation.
4. Isolation, in which the teacher isolates sounds, words or groups of words which cause trouble and goes through techniques 1-3 with them before replacing them in context.
5. Building up to a new model, in which the teacher gets students to ask and answer questions using patterns they already know in order to bring about the information necessary to introduce the new model.
6. Elicitation, in which the teacher, using mime, prompt words, gestures, etc., gets students to ask questions, make statements, or give new examples of the pattern.
7. Substitution drilling, in which the teacher uses cue words (words, pictures, numbers, names, etc.) to get individual students to mix the examples of the new patterns.
8. Question-answer drilling, in which the teacher gets one student to ask a question and another to
answer until most students in the class have practiced asking and answering the new question form.
9. Correction, in which the teacher indicates by shaking his head, repeating the error, etc., that there is a mistake and invites the student or a different student to correct it.