Historical Teaching Approaches

A knowledge of the history of ELT is valuable as a source of information about teaching methods and to avoid repetition of past mistakes. The key teaching method of the nineteenth century was the Grammar-Translation Method. While it is usually criticized for not teaching communicative competence, it has a number of benefits including imparting social and cultural knowledge. From the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, the forty-year Reform Period was characterized by four methods. Claude Marcel’s Rational Method divided language into impression (reception) and expression (production). Marcel believed impression should precede expression. Thomas Prendergast’s Mastery System was based on observations of how children learn their mother tongue. Francis Gouin’s Series Method eschewed explicit grammar teaching and instead used sequences of actions to teach language. In Sauveur and Berlitz’s Direct Method, all input was in the target language. Overall, innovative educators of this period looked to first language acquisition for pedagogical inspiration. As a result, they favoured methodology which prioritized listening and speaking over reading and writing, and linked language to use.