Diane Larsen-Freeman

16 The Grammar- Translation Method The Grammar-Translation Method 17
Observations
Principles
3 Th e teacher asks stude nts in Th e ability to communicate in the
their nat ive language if they target lan guage is not a goal of
ha ve any questions . A student foreign lang uage instr uction.
asks one and is answered in
her nati ve language.
4 Stude nts write out the answers The pr imary skills to be developed
to reading comprehension are reading and writing. Little
questions.
attention is given to speaking and
listening, and almost none to
pronunciation.
S The teacher decides whether
an answer is correct or not. If
the answer is incorrect, the
teacher selects a different
st udent to supply the co rrect
answer or the reacher herself
gives the right answer.
Th e teacher is the authority in the
classroom. It is very important
that students get the cor rect
answer.
(, Students tr anslate new words It is possible to find native
from English into Spa nish. language equ ivalents for all ta rget
language wo rds.
7 Stud ents learn that English Learning is facilirarc d through
' vty' corresponds to -dad an d attention to similar ities between
-tad in Spanis h.
the target lan guage and the native
language.
8 Students arc given a grammar It is important for students to
rule for the lise of a direct learn about the form of the target
object with two-word verbs . langua ge.
9 Students a pply a rule to Deductive application of an
examples they arc given. explicit gra mmar rule is a useful
peda gogical techn ique.
10 Students memori ze Language learning provides good
vocabulary.
menta l exercise.
Observations
11 The teacher asks students to
state the grammar rule.
12 Students memorize present
tense, past tense, and past
part icip le for ms of one set of
irregular verbs.
REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
Principles
Students shou ld be conscious of
the grammatical ru les of the target
language.
Wherever possible, verb
conjuga tions and other
gramm atical para digms should be
committed to memory.
There were other activi ties planned for the rema inder of the week, but in
this book we will follow the practice ofnot listing an observation un less it
leads to our discovering a different principle of the method.
T he principles of th e Grammar-Translation Met hod arc organi zed below
by answering the ten questions posed in Chapter 1 (pages 7-8). No t all
the questions are addressed by the Gram mar-Tra nslation Method; we
will list all th e questions, however, so tha t a com pa rison among th e mcth ­
ods we will st udy will be easier for you to make.
1 What are the goals of teachers who use the Grammar-Translation
Method?
According to th e teachers who usc the Grammar-Translation Method,
a fundamental purpose of learn ing a foreign language is to be able
to read literature written in the target language. To do th is, students
need to learn about the grammar rules and vocabulary of the target
language. In addition, it is believed that studying a foreign lang uage
provides student s with good menta l exercise which helps develop their
minds.
2 What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
T he roles arc very traditional. T he tea cher is the authority in the classroom.
The stu dents do as she says so the y ca n learn what she knows.
3 What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
Students arc taught to translate from one lan guage to another. O ften
what they translate ar e readings in the target language about some