ESL II Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

ESL II - Essay Example On the other hand, some students would be happy to wait and listen to their teachers of the lesson delivered and then develop strong concepts in learning English. Some students are keen to learn the basics or grammar as the foundation of learning English while others would be try to put the words in place by listening to the language conversation. It is, therefore, important for the teachers to switch to right approaches by understanding the needs of the classroom. Traditional methods The traditional methods of teaching English as a foreign language talk about the approaches of teaching English in a way that has been followed over the years. Various educationalists and eminent personalities could be spotted who have learnt English in the traditional approach. The traditional methods have been described below. Grammar Translation The grammar translation approach is one of the oldest approaches that were carried out in earlier days for teaching Latin in the countries of Europe. This is an intellectual way of learning language which was later applied by the teachers in the lessons of English as a foreign language. The method concentrates more on the reading and writing of English language. The speaking and the listening skills are not really tested in this approach. The teacher provides the students with the grammatical exercises and the students are asked to solve the problems. The students are first questioned orally and followed by answering the exercises in writing which is the major part of grammar translation. The only communication in this method is between the student and the teacher where the teacher plays the authoritarian role. Example of grammar translation method includes explaining the grammatical rules and concepts with the help of presentation, written exercises to the students. Direct Method The direct method of teaching developed languages in the nineteenth century when the educationalists observed the child language learning trends and applied t he direct method of learning English as a foreign language for the learners. In this method, the translation of the foreign language is not required. The students are required to read aloud the specialized texts of grammar and vocabulary in English language. The emphasis is put on guided conversation of the students where the teachers play an important role in helping the students to understand the usage of various words in English. Examples of the direct method of learning English as a foreign language includes conduct of exercises using fill-in-the-blanks, dictation and demonstration to the students by the teachers. The students also required to undertake comprehension exercises directly in English in order to understand the foreign language through the direct method. Audio lingual The audio-lingual method of teaching English as a foreign language developed from the time of Second World War when the army personnel were trained to speak in different languages such as German, French , Japanese, etc. This method has been later applied for teaching English