What is the recent and latest approach of teaching english

4 New Approaches to Teaching English: Give the People What They Want!

Ever get tired of seeing the same old teaching routines?

I can still remember my old high school French lessons.

Every day our teacher served up the same menu: Memorizing verbs, answering worksheets, taking dictation and repeating, repeating, repeating.

But there’s one problem.

That was 25 years ago!

The prevalence of social media and the internet as a whole have changed the way people learn languages–for the better. It’s imperative for modern language teachers to address the needs and interests of today’s students.

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4 New Methods of Teaching English in the Modern Classroom

While traditional methodologies such as the audio-lingual and direct methods still offer useful elements, they’re clearly outdated in the modern classroom. The communicative approach, which was in vogue in the late ’90s, is still widely considered as the latest advancement in modern language teaching. Most TESOL/TEFL training programs still live and swear by it.

However, it has become clearly evident that the needs of modern students have outpaced teachers’ and book publishers’ best strategies.

This article will take a closer look at four fresh teaching strategies that are grand slam with students.

1. Task-based Approach

Traditional curriculum design and class planning revolved around the topics considered useful for students. This meant students were to learn the grammar and vocabulary that educators thought students needed to know.

Student input was minimal to say the least.

What we learned from this is why it’s imperative to build lesson plans around activities that all students can feel comfortable with and relate to.

The task-based approach represents a significant paradigm shift since the focus on content has shifted to skills and competencies. So, planning and design aren’t about what’s taught, but why it’s taught.

This approach isolates individual skills and competencies in order to teach material students actually need to know to meet their goals and objectives.

Sample tasks could be ordering in a restaurant, booking a hotel room, or perhaps more advanced tasks like critiquing a movie or voicing their opinions about politics. In this approach, the language taught revolves around the task itself, not the other way around.

For this method to work, teachers must understand their students’ needs and expectations in order to design lessons that help their students succeed. Grammar, vocabulary and language skills are just the vehicles that enable students to achieve their final outcomes.

Before adopting the task-based approach, educators must ask themselves, “Why are my students learning English?”

Educators must then look at ways to help their learners achieve their personal and/or professional goals.

The answers to these questions will help create a program that’s relevant to your students.

2. Project-based Approach

Much like the task-based approach, the project-based approach is meant to address students’ real needs by adapting language to the skills and competencies they truly need personally and/or professionally.

The application of this approach begins by determining the one, global objective that the individual or group of students have.

For example, if you’re teaching a business English class, you should look at why students are in the class to begin with and plan accordingly. One time when working for a corporate client, I taught a room full of accountants who were all vying for promotions up for grabs in their company.

Naturally, I taught them differently than I would students interested in learning casual English conversations because of the nature of their jobs. They had to produce specific monthly reports in English for multiple departments in their office. So, we broke one sample report into sections and analyzed each segment. Each student prepared the sections as if they were the real thing.

In class, discussed the difficulties my students encountered, in addition to covering all the vocabulary and grammar needed to complete each section. Their final project was a finished report they could submit to their boss for approval, and the criteria we used to create the report was based their company handbook. It was a lot of work, but we had fun with it.

But what if you have a class full of teenagers who don’t want to be in class to begin with? Start by doing a needs assessment, looking at what they’re interested in and what topics they really need to know.

This assessment will lead to the design of one overarching project that will become the end result of the class, term or course. This project can be anything from an oral presentation to a large-scale production such as a class play. Whatever the case, the project must be comprised of individual tasks that lead students to the goals in the assessment.

Think of the project as their final, comprehensive assessment. Whereas small tests or the completion of individual tasks are cumulative assessments. Just remember, your evaluation criteria must be clear so students know what they’re being graded on.

3. Lexical Syllabus

While the previous two approaches focus heavily on the skills and competencies that students need to develop, this approach focuses on what language students actually need to produce. In particular, the actual words that students need to understand in order to conduct specific tasks.

This approach is based upon the core language that students need to know given their needs. Again, professional students need very specific vocabulary pertaining to their field. For instance, “profit” is an essential term for business students, much the same way “scalpel” is to medical students.

Moreover, any other language taught outside of this core language is meant to be supplementary and intended to enable students’ communication within their respective fields. Topics such as movies and hobbies may take a back seat to things like booking a hotel or describing work experience. Nevertheless, there are common skills in all fields, such as saying your name or providing personal information.

Since this approach focuses on content, tasks and homework assignments should focus on students’ true needs. Therefore, assessment should be based upon what students actually achieved. Examples of these assessments include writing an email for a job application or arranging a time for an interview.

This approach requires teachers to understand what students really need right away, focus on that, and then expand students’ horizons as their communication skills develop. The good news is that there’s quite a bit of research on this topic, leading to word lists teachers can focus on.

Since these lists can be quite long, it’s good to categorize them into sections like “weather and seasons” so lessons can focus on this specific vocabulary. For beginners, 10 words would make for a great lesson.

Activities can range from matching pictures and definitions to working with dialogues. An advanced twist could be to describe their favorite seasons, or even speculate about what they could do in the summer or winter. The sky truly is the limit.

This is where technology can be a teacher’s best friend. Since this method focuses on learning the right vocabulary, there are plenty of classroom programs and apps that can help students learn in an engaging way.

For example, you can use FluentU to give life to those vocabulary lists your students are studying. FluentU’s authentic content like movie trailers and music videos allow students to hear new words in natural use in these videos. This is a great way to reinforce their learning and help them understand how to actually use their vocabulary words.

You can upload a list of words for your students to study, which will create flashcard decks. Each flashcard is equipped with audio pronunciations, grammar information, example sentences and even video clips from FluentU videos where the word appears.

Students can also search for a word to see it in a video or watch videos they’re interested in and pick up new words from the interactive subtitles. Assign vocabulary lists or videos for homework and you’ll be able to see the questions each student got wrong. This will help you assess each individual student’s needs, allowing you to adapt your lesson accordingly.

Students can also download the iOS or Android app, or use FluentU in a browser.

This brings me to my next point…

4. Using Smartphones in the Classroom

Since just about everyone has some sort of internet access or data plan, banning smartphones may end up being a lost opportunity to further enhance learning experiences.

Love them or hate them, smartphones are a part of modern life. Many teachers consider them to be a distraction since most students hate to part with them. Is there a common ground?

Smartphones provide many useful tools for students such as dictionary, translator and grammar reference apps. Much like computers, students need to understand that their phones aren’t for play or personal use, but to be used as learning tools.

A great dictionary/translator/grammar reference tool is WordReference.com mobile app, available on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store. Aside from translations, WordReference has a thesaurus, English dictionary and a forum where other users can comment on difficult words or expressions.

A good example of how smartphones enhance classroom learning is the scavenger hunt exercise. Here, students must go through websites to find the information they need to fill out a worksheet. Students can also use their devices to access free, online exercises that reinforce language and/or skills seen in class.

The key issue here is to be creative with the use of smartphones. Other uses for smartphones in the classroom could be polling apps, surveys or even recording, yes, recording! Students can record themselves in action, which is perfect helping them receive feedback on specific tasks and activities.

Survey Monkey is another fun app to add to your English classroom. It lets you create surveys, which students can conveniently access from their phones and answer right away. This can be used as an assessment tool or as part of a portfolio of activities. For example, students could even design survey questions, fill them out, analyze results and then create a presentation of those results.

One other use that I personally find appropriate for smartphones and tablets is going paperless. If there are PDF versions available for the textbooks or materials you’re using, this could allow you to simplify students’ lives while being environmentally friendly.

Again, it’s important to make sure that students use their technology for classwork and not becoming distracted by it.

Bringing It All Together

While traditional approaches do provide a solid foundation for effective language teaching, it’s important to understand that these techniques don’t always address students’ current needs. In fact, the communicative approach, still widely preached as the latest and greatest approach, is already due for a makeover of its own.

Next time you’re preparing for a new group of students, or want to change the way you teach your current ones, consider the following:

Combine that with effective use of technology in the classroom, and you’ve got a winning formula no teacher can ignore.

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✍️Other approaches and methods to teaching English: pros and cons

Below we are going to review several popular ELT (English language teaching) methods and approaches. First of all we should note, that there are no “good” and “bad” methods, as each of them has its own advantages and

📗Grammar translation method VS Communicative Approach

Grammar translation method is one of the oldest in ELT and unfortunately still widely used at some schools. The main goal of this method is to enable a student to read texts in a foreign language, presuming that this might influence on other skills development in a magical way.

With all its disadvantages, the Grammar Translation method still exists at schools and even more – at the lessons of most teachers.

We consider that it is possible to use the elements of this method, i.e. some of its activities at our classes.

Let’s look into its main principles and activities to compare it with Communicative Approach:

📘Direct method VS Communicative Approach

The direct method is based on the idea that the student should think in the second language directly. The target language is taught to young learners in practically the same natural way as their native language.

This method is good for small groups or individual classes but requires excellent skills of the teacher in keeping the mother language of the students away from the class. It is practically impossible to use the direct method at schools where there are constraints of time, classroom size and teacher background (the method requires native fluency).

Let’s look into its main principles and activities to compare it with Communicative Approach (and see they have a lot in common):

🙋‍♂️Total Physical Response

Total Physical Response (TPR) is a method built around the coordination of speech and action.

When parents talk to their young child who is still unable to react verbally, the child would respond with gestures, gradually building association between the gesture and the words, pronounced by the parents. TPR implements this idea into the classroom, making this method perfectly effective for young learners.

The main idea of TPR is that new vocabulary is presented through gestures and miming.

Activities used at the lesson:

TPR is easily combined with the Communicative Approach when teaching young learners. At AllRight we call this “Speaker method”.

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10 Flexible Language Teaching Approaches That Are Totally Approachable

Ever heard the saying, “There’s more than one way to crack an egg”?

For the flexible language teacher, that’s certainly the case.

They have a blast with any random props that happen to be in sight, and come up with new ideas at the drop of a hat.

Would you like to be so nimble and flexible that you can surmount any challenge that comes up in the classroom?

Would you like to be the teacher students turn to when they really want to learn?

Then you’ll have to be familiar with the tried and tested teaching approaches that have been in development ever since chalk was invented. In this post, we look at 10 of those. Use them right and be the best teacher that you can be.

But before we go into the approaches, we’ll first look into four distinct theoretical orientations for teaching language that back them up and bolster them.

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How the Different Approaches Differ?

The approaches that will be presented here have overarching assumptions and philosophies that they’re based on.

In short, they are what they are because of a set of beliefs held by their proponents.

The different teaching approaches in this post can be classified into four theoretical orientations: structural, cognitive, psychological and functional.

Let’s look at each perspective briefly.

Structural approaches believe that language can be reduced to a learnable set of building blocks. There are rules, known as grammar and syntax, that govern how to combine these basic elements. These rules can be memorized to achieve a high level of proficiency in a language.

Some proponents would even go so far as saying that there’s a predetermined sequence in which a language should be learned. Grammar textbooks are the most commonly used material in this category.

The cognitive perspective in learning a language puts the learner smack in the center of everything. Cognitive approaches look to answer questions like: How can a language be effectively learned? How does one make a set of vocabulary words memorable and get them embedded in the long-term memory?

According to this kind of approach, the techniques, strategies and even the sequence of lessons are learner-led and can’t be predetermined. Learning a language is a conscious, rational, information-processing event.

Here, language learning is seen through issues like learner motivation and predisposition, a location’s conduciveness to learning, teacher-student dynamics, stress levels, etc. Is the teacher supportive enough to the students? Is the classroom dynamic facilitating or inhibiting the acquisition of the language?

Many of the insights in this category are borrowed from counseling and social psychology.

Functional approaches often emphasize spoken language over written language, and profess that language isn’t a set of grammar rules but rather a tool for communication. This has tremendous implications for the types of activities or the materials employed.

Anything that lies outside the ambit of passing on meaningful information is just unneeded complication. Communicative approaches often eschew grammar textbooks in exchange for speaking drills and question-and-answer interactions where students get a feel for what speaking the language in conversation is really like.

Now that we know the four broad categories that the approaches are based on, next we’ll discuss the approaches that can animate the events that happen inside the classroom.

Keep in mind that each activity may not fall neatly into one category. It may blend two or more of these categories. In fact, you might adopt one approach and add elements of unrelated categories to it!

Bottom line, don’t become strict about how these approaches are employed in the classroom, just be aware of what they are and how they’re best used.

10 Tried, Tested and Trusted Language Teaching Approaches

You’ll likely notice that the approaches have some interesting relationships with each other. They overlap, support, complement and even contradict each other.

It’s safe to say that no single approach can answer all of every teacher’s questions, so it’s in your best interest to be open-minded enough to try all of them and begin to see which one works best in which situations.

They all do have their own merits and minuses. It’s up to you, the teacher, to use the proper approach to get the job done given your unique classroom and assortment of students.

1. Grammar-translation Approach

This is the scene: A teacher stands in front of the class, telling her students to turn their textbooks to chapter four, “Verbs and Tenses.” She writes on the board the different ways of forming the past tense of verbs. She lists the general rules, and this list is promptly followed by—you’ve guessed it—the exceptions to the rules, those special cases that make grammar so exciting.

This is the classic way of teaching language. It began as a method to teach Latin and Greek and was generalized to teach any second language. The Grammar-translation Approach uses the students’ native language to teach the target language.

If you’re over 30, have ever learned language via the textbook or have spent many a night memorizing a list of 30 foreign words, you’ve experienced the Grammar-translation Approach.

Grammar and vocabulary are memorized rote. Plenty of written examples and drills are given where grammar rules are elegantly observed:

The dog is black.

The cats are cute.

The approach has strong structural underpinnings and the emphasis is on the correct use of grammar, regardless of the substance or context. The Grammar-translation Approach is best when the goal is for the students to read/write the target language, as well as appreciate its literature.

2. Direct Approach

Okay, turn Grammar-translation Approach on its head. What do you get?

Right. We have the Direct Approach. It’s a response to the Grammar-translation school and, this time, rather than the written form, the emphasis is on the spoken language and the development of oral skills.

Grammar isn’t taught explicitly but is learned inductively by the students through repeated exposure to the spoken language. Activities like pantomiming, word-picture association, question-answer patterns, dialogues and role playing give the students the chance to figure out the rules for themselves. And good news for your students—there are no grammar drills or analyses of written sentences.

Oh, and by the way, only the target language is used in class. That’s a biggie. As teacher, you won’t use the students’ mother tongue to teach concepts. Listening and comprehension thus become central to this approach. There are no vocabulary lists to memorize, but there are a lot of words and phrases to listen for and become more familiar with.

All things considered, it wouldn’t be hard to understand why the Direct Approach has also been called as “The Anti-grammatical Method” and “Reform Method.”

3. Reading Approach

This is a very specific approach designed for a specific type of language learner.

The type of student that most appreciates this method probably never intends to interact with native speakers in the target language. She may be a psychology doctoral candidate studying German in order to understand the experts in her field. Or she may be a culinary student whose only desire is to make lots of delicious food and understand the French techniques in her gastronomie book.

A student like this requires only one linguistic skill: Reading comprehension.

So you do away with pronunciation and dialogues. Vocabulary words are learned in context. The little grammar that you teach must be oriented towards understanding a piece of reading. You need to teach elements like conjunctions, which nestles phrases and sentences together, and negation, which changes the meaning of a sentence by 180 degrees.

In the Reading Approach, learning a language is employed as a means to a higher end. This approach has both structural and functional underpinnings.

4. Audiolingual Approach

This approach is also known as “The Army Method.” At the height of the events in World War II, military personnel needed to learn the languages of allies and enemies alike as they swept through the fields of Europe and Asia.

The approach, which blossomed in the 50s and 60s, is all about structural patterns. Proponents believe that a language can be reduced to a basic set of sounds. Combine them and you have spoken words. Those words, when phonetically joined, become phrases and later become sentences.

Unlike the Reading Approach, the Audiolingual Approach gives higher priority to the spoken form than the written form. Classes are generally held using the target language.

Activities like role playing are dialogues are drilled into students until they get the pronunciations and rhythm right. And because Audiolingualism borrows from the behaviorist school of psychology, languages are taught through a system of reinforcement.

A single word like “Good!” with a pat on the back, a clap from the class, a star on her paper are some of the reinforcements used. (Side note: How do we know if something is a “reinforcement”? Answer: If it makes the students feel good about themselves or about the situation, then it is one.)

Mistakes on the other hand, are quickly, but gently corrected. The end goal is the forming of linguistic speaking habits through correct repetitions.

5. Communicative Approach

What good would it do any of your students if they know all the different ways of conjugating a verb but fail to communicate a coherent message?

Communication is essentially the rationale for language and the Communicative Approach seeks to develop those skills that enable students to meaningfully engage with each other.

Interactive activities are the hallmark of this approach. As the teacher, your responsibility is to give the students as much opportunity to give and receive meaningful communication as possible. For example, you can let students introduce themselves, share their hobbies using the target language. Instead of just presenting the language, you’re giving them a task that can only be accomplished by using the target language.

The difference between statements shared in a round of show and tell and those found in textbooks is that the former are much more meaningful to your students. They’re purposeful and in context—not a list of discordant sentences used to illustrate a rule of grammar. Authentic materials are used every so often.

A poster touting a concert or a flyer about some huge sale at a mall can be fertile ground for learning. In the Communicative Approach, students experience the target language as experienced by native speakers.

6. The Silent Way

Imagine a teacher who talks as little as possible.

You better believe it’s more than a fantasy. Proponents of this “alternative” approach believe that teaching too much can sometimes get in the way of learning. It’s argued that students learn best when they discover rather than simply repeat what the teacher said.

The Silent Way uses silence as a teaching tool. Your students might feel you’re giving them the silent treatment if you don’t keep things friendly and explain the process to them. You’re really encouraging them to do the talking themselves.

You’re encouraging learners to be independent, to discover and figure out the language for themselves. Learning the target language is therefore seen as a creative, problem-solving process—a engaging cognitive challenge.

So how does one teach in silence?

Well, because you talk as little as possible, you need to employ plenty of gestures and facial expressions to communicate with your students. You can also use props.

A commonly used prop option is Cuisenaire Rods—rods of different color and lengths. In an English class for example, you can pick up any rod and say, “rod.” Pick another one, point at it and say “rod.” Keep on repeating until students understand that “rod” refers to the objects in front of them.

Then pick a green one and say, “green rod.” With an economy of words, point to something else green and say, “green.” Keep on repeating until students get that “green” refers to the color.

7. Community Language Learning

It’s called Community Language Learning because the class learns together as one unit. Not listening to the same lecture, but interacting in the target language. The teacher’s role is that of a counselor, a guide, an encourager.

Here’s what might happen in an innovative CLL class: Students sit in a circle. Because the approach is learner-led, there’s no set lesson for the day. The students decide what they want to talk about. Someone might say, “Guys, why don’t we talk about the weather?” That student will then turn to the teacher (who’s standing outside the circle) and ask for the translation of his statement. The teacher, acting as facilitator, will give him the translation and ask him to utter it out loud. She’ll guide his pronunciation at the same time. The class, listening to the teacher and student, are already learning from the interaction.

When the teacher is satisfied that the first student got the pronunciations right, she’ll deliver her statement to the group again. (There’s a recorder standing by to record the first line of conversation.)

After that, another student might chime in to say, “I had to wear three layers today.” She then turns to the teacher for help. The process is repeated until a whole conversation is saved in the recorder.

This conversation is then transcribed and mined for language lessons featuring grammar, vocabulary and subject-related content.

In this approach, the students work as a community—learning together and negotiating the lessons. Your role as a teacher is to encourage them to open up, participate in the discussion and contribute to the whole process.

8. Functional-notional Approach

The Functional-notional Approach recognizes language as purposeful communication. That is, we talk because we need to communicate something. There’s purpose and meaning behind the sounds that come out of our mouths.

In essence, we have verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives and so on in order to express language functions and notions.

When we speak, we do it to inform, persuade, insinuate, agree, question, request, evaluate and perform other “functions.” We do it to talk about concepts (“notions”) like time, events, action, place, technology, process, emotion, etc.

So a teacher’s first stop when using this approach is to evaluate how the students will be using the language.

For example, when teaching very young kids, you might want to teach them language skills that would help them communicate with mommy and daddy, or with their friends. So, you can teach them key social phrases like “thank you,” “please” or “may I borrow.”

When dealing with business professionals, a different syllabus would be in order. You might want to teach them formal forms of the language, how to delegate tasks, how to vocally appreciate a job well done. You could create role playing scenarios where students get a basic feel for typical workplace situations. For example, in a marketplace situation, you can teach functions like asking a question, expressing interest or negotiating a deal. Notions involved could be about prices, quality or quantity.

You can certainly teach grammar and sentence patterns, but they’re always subsumed by the purpose for which language is used.

9. Natural Approach

The Natural Approach takes its cues from how first language is naturally learned by children. That process is then simulated for teaching adults a second language.

Just as there’s a “silent period” when babies don’t utter a single comprehensible word, the Natural Approach gives time for learners to simply listen and absorb the language. Producing correctly pronounced words and phrases comes later in the learning curve. The emergence of speech isn’t a first priority. Listening comprehension is the priority.

So, early on in the process, students don’t need to speak at all. They have to observe, to read the situation, to guess the meanings of words, to make mistakes and self-correct, just like babies!

In addition, the Natural Approach sees a difference between “learning” and “acquisition.”

Learning a language requires textbooks, grammar lessons and rote memory. Acquiring a language only requires an immersive process of repetition, correction and recall. While other methods have teachers leading students in a choral pronunciation of words written on a board, the Natural Approach has the teacher bouncing a ball and repeatedly saying “ball.” She’s also showing them pictures of different kinds of “balls.” She has the class play a game with the object. Or she hides the object and says, “find the ball!”

The Natural Approach believes that the more the students lose themselves in the activity, the better their handle on the language will be.

10. Total Physical Response

Total Physical Response is an approach to language teaching where gestures, actions and movements play a vital role in language acquisition.

Remember when you were a kid and adults would tell you to do all kinds of things, like “catch the ball,” “pick up your doll” or “open your mouth”? Well, TPR is going back to those good old days.

TPR believes that when your students see movement and when they themselves move, their brains create more neural connections that make for more efficient language acquisition.

That’s why, when you teach TPR, you’ll be flailing your hands a lot, widening your eyes and moving your body. This isn’t so you can catch up on your exercise. This is to teach your students basic language skills.

After demonstrating several times what “jump” looks like, for example, you’d then ask students to perform the action themselves. Guess what, this won’t only invigorate them, but will also make the word “jump” so memorable they’ll find it very hard to forget.

Another pillar of this approach is that learning a language should be stress free. Pop quizzes and exams are dropped in exchange for fun activities like “Simon Says” where you ask students to perform actions like “close your eyes,” “raise your left arm” or “pick up the red ball.”

With TPR, it’s like having an ice-breaker all the time. Your class would be so fun that word will get around.

So those are 10 approaches that could serve as guides to your teaching endeavors.

Like I said, they do overlap and there’s not one method for the language teacher. You now have 10 roads to take.

My advice is, take all of them, and have a blast while at it. My hope is that you’ll positively impact your students through what has been outlined here.

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Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: CLT, TPR

Teaching a foreign language can be a challenging but rewarding job that opens up entirely new paths of communication to students. It’s beneficial for teachers to have knowledge of the many different language learning techniques including ESL teaching methods so they can be flexible in their instruction methods, adapting them when needed.

Keep on reading for all the details you need to know about the most popular foreign language teaching methods. Some of the ones covered are the communicative approach, total physical response, the direct method, task-based language learning, sugguestopedia, grammar-translation, the audio-lingual approach and more.

Language teaching methods

Most Popular Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: Top 11

Here’s a helpful rundown of the most common language teaching methods and ESL teaching methods. You may also want to take a look at this: Foreign language teaching philosophies.

#1: The Direct Method

In the direct method, all teaching occurs in the target language, encouraging the learner to think in that language. The learner does not practice translation or use their native language in the classroom. Practitioners of this method believe that learners should experience a second language without any interference from their native tongue.

Instructors do not stress rigid grammar rules but teach it indirectly through induction. This means that learners figure out grammar rules on their own by practicing the language. The goal for students is to develop connections between experience and language. They do this by concentrating on good pronunciation and the development of oral skills.

This method improves understanding, fluency, reading, and listening skills in our students. Standard techniques are question and answer, conversation, reading aloud, writing, and student self-correction for this language learning method.

#2: Grammar-Translation

With this method, the student learns primarily by translating to and from the target language. Instructors encourage the learner to memorize grammar rules and vocabulary lists. There is little or no focus on speaking and listening. Teachers conduct classes in the student’s native language with this ESL teaching method.

This method’s two primary goals are to progress the learner’s reading ability to understand literature in the second language and promote the learner’s overall intellectual development. Grammar drills are a common approach. Another popular activity are translation exercises that emphasize the form of the writing instead of the content.

#3: Audio-Lingual

The audio-lingual approach encourages students to develop habits that support language learning. Students learn primarily through pattern drills, particularly dialogues, which the teacher uses to help students practice and memorize the language. These dialogues follow standard configurations of communication.

There are four types of dialogues utilized in this method:

This technique’s name comes from the order it uses to teach language skills. It starts with listening and speaking, followed by reading and writing, meaning that it emphasizes hearing and speaking the language before experiencing its written form. Because of this, teachers use only the target language in the classroom with this TESOL method.

Audio-Lingual Foreign Language Teaching Method Demo

#4: Structural Approach

Proponents of the structural approach understand language as a set of grammatical rules that should be learned one at a time in a specific order. It focuses on mastering these structures, building one skill on top of another, instead of memorizing vocabulary. This is similar to how young children learn a new language naturally.

An example of the structural approach is teaching the present tense of a verb, like “to be,” before progressing to more advanced verb tenses, like the present continuous tense that uses “to be” as an auxiliary.

The structural approach teaches all four central language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It’s a technique that teachers can implement with many other language teaching methods.

Most ESL textbooks take this approach into account. Easier to grasp grammatical concepts are taught before the more difficult ones.

Most popular methods and approaches and language teaching

#5: Total Physical Response (TPR)

The total physical response method highlights aural comprehension by allowing the learner to respond to basic commands, like “open the door” or “sit down.” It combines language and physical movements for a comprehensive learning experience.

In an ordinary TPR class, the teacher would give verbal commands in the target language with a physical movement. The student would respond by following the command with a physical action of their own. It helps students actively connect meaning to the language and passively recognize the language’s structure.

Many instructors use TPR alongside other methods of language learning. While TPR can help learners of all ages, it is used most often with young students and beginners. It’s a nice option for an English teaching method to use alongside some of the other ones on this list.

An example of a game that could fall under TPR is Simon Says. Or, do the following as a simple review activity. After teaching classroom vocabulary, or prepositions, instruct students to do the following:

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#6: Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

These days, CLT is by far one of the most popular approaches and methods in language teaching. Keep reading to find out more about it.

This method stresses interaction and communication to teach a second language effectively. Students participate in everyday situations they are likely to encounter in the target language. For example, learners may practice introductory conversations, offering suggestions, making invitations, complaining, or expressing time or location.

Instructors also incorporate learning topics outside of conventional grammar so that students develop the ability to respond in diverse situations.

CLT teachers focus on being facilitators rather than straightforward instructors. Doing so helps students achieve CLT’s primary goal, learning to communicate in the target language instead of emphasizing the mastery of grammar.

Role-play, interviews, group work, and opinion sharing are popular activities practiced in communicative language teaching, along with games like scavenger hunts and information gap exercises that promote interaction among students.

Most modern-day ESL teaching textbooks like Four Corners, Smart Choice, or Touchstone are heavy on communicative activities.

#7: Natural Approach

This approach aims to mimic natural language learning with a focus on communication and instruction through exposure. It de-emphasizes formal grammar training. Instead, instructors concentrate on creating a stress-free environment and avoid forced language production from students.

Teachers also do not explicitly correct student mistakes. The goal is to reduce student anxiety and encourage them to engage with the second language spontaneously.

#8: Task-Based Language Teaching (TBL)

With this method, students complete real-world tasks using their target language. This technique encourages fluency by boosting the learner’s confidence with each task accomplished and reducing direct mistake correction.

Tasks fall under three categories:

Popular classroom tasks practiced in task-based learning include presentations on an assigned topic and conducting interviews with peers or adults in the target language. Or, having students work together to make a poster and then do a short presentation about a current event. These are just a couple of examples and there are literally thousands of things you can do in the classroom.

It’s considered to be a modern method of teaching English. I personally try to do at least 1-2 task-based projects in all my classes each semester. It’s a nice change of pace from my usually very communicative-focused activities.

One huge advantage of TBL is that students have some degree of freedom to learn the language they want to learn. Also, they can learn some self-reflection and teamwork skills as well.

#9: Suggestopedia Language Learning Method

This approach and method in language teaching was developed in the 1970s by psychotherapist Georgi Lozanov. It is sometimes also known as the positive suggestion method but it later became sometimes known as desuggestopedia.

Apart from using physical surroundings and a good classroom atmosphere to make students feel comfortable, here are some of the main tenants of this second language teaching method:

TESOL methods and approaches

#10: The Silent Way

The silent way is an interesting ESL teaching method that isn’t that common but it does have some solid footing. After all, the goal in most language classes is to make them as student-centred as possible.

In the Silent Way, the teacher talks as little as possible, with the idea that students learn best when discovering things on their own. Learners are encouraged to be independent and to discover and figure out language on their own.

Instead of talking, the teacher uses gestures and facial expressions to communicate, as well as props, including the famous Cuisenaire Rods. These are rods of different colours and lengths.

Although it’s not practical to teach an entire course using the silent way, it does certainly have some value as a language teaching approach to remind teachers to talk less and get students talking more!

#11: Functional-Notional Approach

This English teaching method first of all recognizes that language is purposeful communication. The reason people talk is that they want to communicate something to someone else.

Parts of speech like nouns and verbs exist to express language functions and notions. People speak to inform, agree, question, persuade, evaluate, and perform various other functions. Language is also used to talk about concepts or notions like time, events, places, etc.

The role of the teacher in this second language teaching method is to evaluate how students will use the language. This will serve as a guide for what should be taught in class. Teaching specific grammar patterns or vocabulary sets does play a role but the purpose for which students need to know these things should always be kept in mind with the functional-notional Approach to English teaching.

#12: The Test Teach Test Approach (TTT)

This style of language teaching is ideal for directly targeting students’ needs. It’s best for intermediate and advanced learners and definitely don’t use it for total beginners!

There are three stages:

Want to give it a try? Find out what you need to know here:

Language Teaching Approaches FAQs

There are a number of common questions that people about second or foreign language teaching and learning. Here are the answers to some of the most popular ones.

What is language teaching approaches?

A language teaching approach is a way of thinking about teaching and learning. An approach produces methods, which is the way of teaching something, in this case, a second or foreign language using techniques or activities.

What are method and approach?

Method and approach are similar but there are some key differences. An approach is the way or dealing with something while a method involves the process or steps taken to handle the issue or task.

How many approaches are there in language learning?

Throughout history, there have been just over 30 popular approaches in language learning. However, there are around 10 that are most widely known including task-based learning, communicative approach, grammar-translation and the audio-lingual approach. These days, the communicative approach is all the rage.

What is the best method of English language teaching?

It’s difficult to choose the best single approach or method for English language teaching as the one used depends on the age and level of the students as well as the material being taught. Most teachers find that a mix of the communicative approach, audio-lingual approach and task-based teaching works well in most cases.

Have your say about Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching

What’s your top pick for a language teaching method? Is it one of the options from this list or do you have another one that you’d like to mention? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

Also, be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy teachers, like yourself, find this useful information about approaches and methods in language teaching and learning.

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She’s taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 60 books for English teachers and English learners, including 101 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults and 1001 English Expressions and Phrases. She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

9 Different Methods of Teaching the English Language in 2022 [Updated]

Table of Contents

“Classroom”, a word that brings to our mind a setting wherein a teacher stands in front of a class of 30 to 40 students, delivering a lecture with a specific gravity in his/her voice. This is the method of teaching that was prevalent when we were in school some two decades ago. However, things have changed over the years, and though it was one of the most effective methods of teaching English to young students, it no longer considered the same now. This is due to various reasons, maybe because:

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Language teaching, like any other topic, has undergone a lot of changes. It has shifted to role-plays, interactive games, short visuals, etc. from the traditional ways, such as lectures by facilitators with only a blackboard to support and spell repetition and grammar worksheets, have shifted to role-plays.

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In general, everything you teach needs to be relevant to the students’ environment, as students are the focal point of the teaching and learning process.

In line with the words of W.B Yeats, ‘Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire,’ the teachers of the 21st century have improvised specific methods to make learning more fun and easily understandable.

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Language teaching has its challenges. Most of the time, it is a foreign language that the learner can’t pick up from his/her surroundings, and you should teach patiently and systematically so that the students become confident and can read, write and speak the language effortlessly.

The English language is the language of the world, and English teachers have changed their methods of delivery over the years to suit the present scenario. In this article, I will be discussing specific popular and efficient ways of teaching the English language, which fulfills the demand of modern learners.

Primary Methods of Teaching English

According to Asher and James (1982), “Methods are the combination of techniques that are used and plasticized by the teachers in the classrooms to teach their students and approaches are the philosophies of teachers about language teaching that can be applied in the classrooms by using different techniques of language teaching.”

Here I will list out the Primary Methodologies for Teaching English. Some of Them are Time Tested Practices, and Some are New.

Grammar Paraphrasing-

This method of teaching English is a classic one used since the 16th century. This approach was improvised for teaching the Latin language, which was not commonly learned and spoken by people. The method of teaching English focused on translating the texts in Latin to the native language and then gaining it, in line with the grammatical rules and vocabulary of Latin. The rote learning method is the most used method to learn vocabulary.

Later on, this method was used to learn other languages that were considered a second language. Thus, it applies to English as well.

This approach lacks in the fact that it is not a very good way of teaching to communicate appropriately in English.

Though this old-fashioned method has received a lot of criticism in modern times, many institutions still use it, especially by those who want to study English scientifically.

Natural Method –

This method of teaching English, also known as the direct method, seems to be a response to the Grammar translation technique. In this process, the teacher who is aiming to teach English as a second language, asks the learner to think in English so that they can communicate in English.

The technique aims at building a connection between thought and expression. It required the teacher to strictly prohibit the student from using his/her native language. The learner is supposed to perfectly express himself/herself in English, with proper accent and usage of grammatical skills.

This method of teaching English is used in modern times and is useful in teaching to communicate in English. As the student thinks and talks in English in real-life situations, they learn the language accurately, and there is no rote learning or translation. This might take some time, but whatever is learned has a long term effect on our memory.

Audio Lingual –

This method of teaching English was initially called ‘the Army Method,’ as it was devised during the second world war when it became necessary for soldiers to learn the language of their opponents. It resembles a direct method in a way. This approach is based on thinking in the language and expressing thoughts in the same. And in the process, learning happens.

The Teaching process is based on Skinner’s theory of behaviorism and his representative experiment of operant conditioning. According to which a positive reinforcement helps in learning new things.

In this approach, the student is supposed to learn the language’s structure and everyday usage rather than emphasize understanding the words. Patterns of commonplace discussions are taught, and the learners repeat it, followed by testing. This process is carried on until the student answers correctly.

To sum up, the process of the audio-lingual method is characterized by conventional drilling of set phrases which are used in daily communication, and grammatical rules are not emphasized upon, the vocabulary taught is contextual, the technique uses audiovisual aids. It focuses on pronunciation, and, lastly, any correct response is immediately reinforced positively.

The method of teaching English is used until now and is suitable for learning to communicate properly in English or any other second language. Still, extensive relearning and memorization led to a lack of routine learning of English, which developed an obstacle in diverse communication.

Find below the Graphical Representation of a Comparison Between the Three Methods.

Humanistic Approach –

During the 1970s, teaching and learning course underwent a radical change wherein the learner’s innate potential and acquired skills were the focal point of the education process. A few teaching methods were devised based on this idea, and these were grouped under the title of the humanistic approach.

Some of the Methods of Teaching English under the Mumanistic apProach are:

Suggestopedia–

This method of teaching English is based on the fact that the mind has great potential and can memorize information by suggestions. This method uses certain principles of memory to teach English as a second language.

The learners are provided with chunks of new information in the original language (English in our case), and it is read aloud with classical music in its background. This activity is known as a concert reading.

The idea of suggestopedia is to provide a relaxed atmosphere for the mind to learn and retain that information. This method is useful if the learner is shy or apprehensive.

The supporters of this technique include Georgi Lozanov, whose methods have become Accelerated Learning Movement.

Silent Way-

This method of teaching English, also known as the Natural approach, is based on the idea of how human beings learn to speak their mother tongue. Caleb Gattegno devised this method of language teaching. According to him, the teacher should be silent as much as possible, but the students should be motivated to speak the language. The silent way method uses elements such as color charts and the colored Cuisenaire rods, etc. Certain principles on which this method is based are:

Learning happens when the learner learns to discover new things about the foreign language and is creative rather than repeating what is taught.

Learning is encouraged by physical objects in the surrounding.

It is based on problem-solving

This method of teaching English is perfect for beginners or young learners of English.

Total Physical Response-

This method involves acting out language rather than speaking. It can be through mimicry or only responding to audiovisual cues. Games like ‘Simon says…’ or the charades are classic examples of this method of teaching.

This method is a fun way of learning language and therefore is very useful.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)-

This method applies to schools where most of the important subjects are taught in English. This is prevalent in modern classrooms. The focus is on the content, and the lessons are tailored to suit the student’s needs and preferences.

CLIL is effective in teaching students the real-life application of the English language as a means of expressing culturally.

Communicative Language Teaching-

This broad term is an accepted standard of teaching English in modern times. It does not focus on grammatical fluency. Instead, it emphasizes on communicating the meaning of the message; in other words, it focuses on how well a person (non-native speaker) can deliver in the English language.

The various characteristics of this method are:

Any single method has its strengths and weaknesses. Therefore it may not be suitable for a specific learner, so the teacher in this approach uses a combination of techniques to make the language understandable.

This is the most contemporary method of teaching a foreign language and is very useful.

Now let us Sum up Specific basic Approaches to Teaching English in Modern Times.

Operative Tips for Teaching English to Beginners

Teaching English to young learners or novices is always a challenge. Especially English as a foreign language is taught to groups who are either monolingual or may be multi-lingual but not native speakers. We need to be more careful and need to keep in mind a few things when teaching English to beginners.

Think of the probable challenges you may face and keep a solution ready. This makes teaching effective and learning fun for new learners.

In Conclusion

Teachers are the torch bearers of a civilized society. For ages, teachers have used different methods, approaches, and styles to suit the child’s requirements. Teaching English as a second language is a challenge as we can see that for non-native speakers, various methods need to be devised. In India, English teaching is an exciting task, as we are multi-lingual and have a diverse socio-economic background. Still, general thinking identifies the English language as a mark of being literate. So teachers of this century put together all the methods to find the best one for our country. Although too much use of visual aids and gamification of education are still not widespread in our country.

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