The Reform Movement in Language Teaching

The Reform Movement

• Language teaching specialists like Marcel, Prendergast, and Gouin advocated alternative language teaching approaches.
• Their ideas didn't gain widespread attention.
• Practical linguists such as Henry Sweet (England), Wilhelm Viëtor (Germany), and Paul Passy (France) gave reformist ideas credibility starting in the 1880s.
• Linguistics saw a revitalization as a discipline.
• Phonetics, the scientific study of language sound systems, was established, and gave insight.
• Speech, not written word, was the primary form of language, according to linguists.
• In 1886 the International Phonetic Association was established.
• The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was designed to accurately transcribe language sounds.
• One of the earliest goals of the association included improving the teaching of modern languages.
• Improving teaching methods were achieved by advocating for spoken language study, phonetic training, using conversational texts/dialogues, an inductive approach to grammar, and establishing associations within the target language.
• Linguists became interested in foreign language teaching controversies that emerged.
• These teaching ideas were defended in books, articles, and pamphlets.
• Henry Sweet (1845-1912) believed methodological principles should be based on scientific language analysis and psychology study.
• In "The Practical Study of Languages" (1899), Sweet set forth principles for teaching method development, including careful selection of what is to be taught, imposing limits, arranging the content based on the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), and grading materials from simple to complex.
• Wilhelm Viëtor (1850-1918) used linguistic theory to support his language teaching views, believing teacher training in phonetics would enable accurate language pronunciation.
• He argued that speech patterns, not grammar, were the fundamental elements of language.
• Published in the pamphlet "Language Teaching Must Start Afresh" in 1882, Viëtor critiqued Grammar Translation inadequacies and stressed the value of training teachers in phonetics.
• Reformers like Viëtor, Sweet, shared beliefs about principles for a new approach to foreign language teaching.
• Principles included: Spoken language is primary, findings of phonetics should be applied, learners should hear the language first, and words should be presented in meaningful contexts.
• Grammar rules should be taught after practicing grammar points in context (inductively).
• Translation should be avoided, with use of the native language to explain new words/check comprehension.
• These principles provided the theoretical foundations for a principled approach to language teaching. Primarily based on the scientific study of language and its learning.
• This also reflected applied linguistics beginnings, concerned with scientific study of second and foreign language teaching/learning.
• Scholars like Sweet, Viëtor, and Passy offered suggestions on applied linguistic principles.
• However, these suggestions did not become a widely recognized teaching method, and an interest in developing principles for language teaching out of naturalistic principles of language learning emerged.
• This led to the development of natural methods, and then eventually the Direct Method.

The Direct Method

• Gouin was among the first 19th-century reformers to build a methodology around observing how children learn language.
• Other reformers focused on naturalistic principles of language learning, and are known as advocates of a "natural" method.
• Attempts have been made throughout history to make second language learning mirror first language learning.
• Montaigne described being spoken to exclusively in Latin as a child, because his father wanted to speak it well.
• L. Sauveur (1826-1907) used intensive oral interaction and questioning to present and elicit language, and opened a language school in Boston in the late 1860s where his method was called the Natural Method.
• Sauveur and others argued that a foreign language could be taught without translation/native language use if meaning was conveyed through demonstration and action.
• F. Franke (German) wrote on direct association between forms/meanings in the target language (1884), and provided a theoretical justification for a monolingual approach to teaching.
• Language can be best taught by actively using it, instead of explanation of grammar rules.
• Teachers must encourage direct and spontaneous foreign language use, so learners would induce grammar rules; teacher replaced textbook.
• Its systematic attention started with pronunciation
• Previously known words could be used to teach
• Mime, pictures, and demonstrations were used to teach vocab

Direct Method Application

• Natural language learning principles provided the foundation for the Direct Method.
• The Direct Method was introduced in France and Germany by enthusiastic supporters (approved at the turn of the century) and became known in the USA, through Sauveur and Maximilian.
• Berlitz did not use the term "Direct Method;" and referred to the method used in his schools as the Berlitz Method.
• In practice the principles and procedures were: Classroom instruction conducted exclusively in the target language, use of everyday vocabulary/sentences, oral communication skills built through question/answer exchanges, inductive grammar teaching, oral introductions of new teaching points, concrete vocabulary taught with demonstrations/objects/pictures, abstract vocabulary taught by association of ideas, speech/listening comprehension taught, and emphasis of correct pronunciation/grammar.
• Guidelines followed in contemporary Berlitz include: demonstrating rather than translating, acting instead of explaining, asking questions instead of making speeches, correcting rather than imitating mistakes, using sentences rather than single words, having students speak more, using the lesson plan but not the book, following your plan but not jumping around, keeping the pace, and speaking normally.
• The Direct Method had success in private language schools like the Berlitz chain, where paying clients were motivated and native-speaking teachers were the norm.
• However it was difficult to implement in public secondary school education.
• Overemphasized/distorted similarities between naturalistic first language learning/classroom foreign language learning.
• The Direct Method also failed to considered the practical realities of the classroom, and lacked a rigorous basis in applied linguistic theory and criticized by Reform Movement proponents.
• The Drawbacks percieved included; required teachers to have native speaker fluency, dependent on teacher skills, and teachers may not be proficient enough to adhere to them
• Strict adherence to Direct Method principles could be counterproductive, since teachers avoided native language use, even when a brief explanation would be more efficient.
• Psychologist Roger Brown documented similar problems with strict Direct Method techniques.
• Brown observed a teacher struggle to convey the meaning of Japanese words through verbal gymnastics when translation would be more efficient.