1. Introduction
Towards the end of the late
1800s, a revolution in language teaching philosophy took place that is seen by
many as the dawn of modern foreign language teaching. Teachers, frustrated by
the limits of the Grammar Translation Method in terms of its inability to
create communicative competence in students, began to experiment with new ways
of teaching language.
Basically, teachers began
attempting to teach foreign languages in a way that was more similar to first
language acquisition. It incorporated techniques designed to address all the
areas that the Grammar Translation did not - namely oral communication, more
spontaneous use of the language, and developing the ability to think in the
target language.
Perhaps in an almost reflexive action, the method also moved as far away as possible from various techniques typical of the Grammar Translation Method - for instance using L1 as the language of instruction, memorizing grammatical rules and lots of translation between L1 and the target language.
Perhaps in an almost reflexive action, the method also moved as far away as possible from various techniques typical of the Grammar Translation Method - for instance using L1 as the language of instruction, memorizing grammatical rules and lots of translation between L1 and the target language.
The appearance of the "Direct
Method" thus coincided with a new school of thinking that dictated
that all foreign language teaching should occur in the target language only,
with no translation and an emphasis on linking meaning to the language being
learned. The method became very popular during the first quarter of the 20th
century, especially in private language schools in Europe where highly
motivated students could study new languages and not need to travel far in
order to try them out and apply them communicatively. One of the most famous
advocates of the Direct Method was the German Charles Berlitz, whose schools
and Berlitz Method are now world-renowned.
English Language Teaching has
been subjected to a tremendous change, especially throughout twentieth century.
Perhaps more than any other discipline, this tradition has been practiced, in
various adaptations, in language classroom all around the world for centuries.
While the teaching of Math or Physics, that is, the methodology of teaching
Math or Physics, has, to a greater or lesser extent, remained the same, this is
hardly the case with English or language teaching in general.
The Direct Method
was the outcome of a reaction against the Grammar Translation Method. It was based
on the assumption that the learner of a foreign language should think directly
in the target language. According to this method, English is taught through
English. The learner learns the target language through discussion,
conversation and reading in the second language. It does not take recourse to
translation and foreign grammar. The first verses are taught while pointing to
objects or pictures or by performing actions. According to H.G. Palmer, The
Direct Method has the following:
a. Translation in every shape or form is
banished from the classroom including the use of the mother tongue and that of
the bilingual dictionary.
b. Grammar, when it is taught, is taught
inductively.
c. Oral teaching precedes any form of
reading and writing.
d. The use of disconnected sentences is
replaced by the use of connected texts.
e. Pronunciation is taught systematically in
accordance with the principles of phonetics and phonology of the target
language.
f. The meanings of words and forms are
taught by means of object or natural context.
g. The vocabulary and structure of the
language are inculcated to a large extent by the teacher and answered by
students.
2. The History of
Direct Method
In the western world back in the
17th, 18th and 19th centuries, foreign
language learning was associated with the learning of Latin and Greek, both
supposed to promote their speakers’ intellectuality. At the time, it was of
vital importance to focus on grammatical rules, syntactic structures, along
with rote memorization of vocabulary and translation of literary text. There
was no provision for the oral use of the languages under study; after all, both
Latin and Greek were not being taught for oral communication but for the sake
of their speakers’ becoming “scholarly?” or creating an illusion of “erudition.”
Late in the nineteenth century, the classical Method came to be known as
Grammar Translation Method, which offered very little beyond an insight into
the grammatical rules attending the process of translating from the second to
the native language.
It is widely recognized that the
Grammar Translation Method is still one of the most popular and favorite models
of language teaching, which has been rather stalwart and impervious to
educational reforms, remaining standard and sine qua non methodology. With hindsight,
we could say that its contribution to language learning has been lamentably
limited, since it has shifted the focus from the real language to a “dissected
body” of nouns, adjectives and prepositions, doing nothing to enhance a
student’s communicative ability in the foreign language.
The last two decades of the
nineteenth century ushered in a new age. In his the Art of Learning and
Studying Foreign Languages (1880), Francouis Gouin described his “harrowing”
experiences of learning German, which helped him gain insights into the
intricacies of language teaching and learning. Living in Hamburg for one year,
he attempted to master the German language by dint of memorizing a German
grammar book and a list of the 248 irregular German verbs, instead of conversing
with the natives. Exulting in the security that the grounding in German grammar
offered him, he hastened to go to the university to test his knowledge but he
could not understand a word. After his failure, he decided to memorize the
German roots, but with no success. He went so far as to memorize books,
translate Goethe and Schiller, and learn by heart 30.000 words in a dictionary,
only to meet with failure. Upon returning to France, gouin discovered that his
three-year-old nephew had managed to become chatterbox of French-a fact that
made him think that the child held the secret to learning a language. Thus, he
began observing his nephew and came to the conclusion that language learning is
a matter of transforming perceptions into conceptions and then using language
to represent these conceptions. Equipped with this knowledge, he devised a
teaching method premised upon these insights. It was against this background
that the series method was created, which taught learners directly a “series”
of connected sentences that are easy to understand. For instance, I stretch out
my arm. I take hold of the handle. I turn the handle. I open the door. I pull
the door. Nevertheless, this approach to language learning was short-lived and,
only a generation later, gave place to the Direct Method, posited by Charles
Berlitz. The basic tenet of Berlitz’s method was that second language learning
is similar to first language learning. In this light, there should be lots of
oral interaction, spontaneous use of the language, no translation, and little
if any analysis of grammatical and syntactic structures.
3. Definition
Direct Method: Sometimes also called
natural method, is a method for teaching foreign languages that refrains
from using the learners'''' native language and just uses the target language. It was
established in Germany and France around 1900.
4. Principles
a.
Classroom instructions are conducted exclusively in the
target language.
b.
Only everyday vocabulary and sentences are taught. (the
language is made real)
c.
Oral communication skills are built up in a carefully
graded progression organized around question- and-answer exchanges between
teachers and students in small, intensive classes.
d.
Grammar is taught inductively.
e.
New teaching points are introduced orally.
f.
Concrete vocabulary is taught through demonstration,
objects, and pictures; abstract vocabulary is taught by association of ideas.
g.
Both speech and listening comprehensions are taught.
h.
Correct pronunciation and grammar are emphasized.
5. The teaching techniques
rely mostly on:
a.
Reading aloud
·
Students take turns reading sections of a
passage, play, or dialog out loud.
·
At
the end of each student's turn, the teacher uses gestures, pictures, realia,
examples, or other means to make the meaning of the section clear.
b. Question and answer exercise
Students are asked questions and
answer in full sentences so that they practice new words and grammatical
structures. They have the opportunity to ask questions as well as answer them.
c. Getting
students to self-correct
·
The teacher may have students self-correct by
asking them to make a choice between what they said and an alternative answer
he supplied.
·
The
teacher might simply repeat what a student has just said, using a questioning
voice to signal to the student that something was wrong with it.
·
Another
possibility is for the teacher to repeat what the student said, stopping just
before the error. The student knows that the next word was wrong.
d. Conversation
practice
·
The teacher asks students a number of questions
in the target language.
·
The
questions contained a particular grammar structure.
·
Later,
the students would be able to ask each other their own questions using the same
grammatical structure.
e. Fill-in-the-blank
exercise
All the items are in the target
language; furthermore, no explicit grammar rule would be applied. The students
would have induced the grammar rule they need to fill in the blanks from
examples and practice with earlier parts of the lesson.
f. Dictation
The teacher reads the passage three
times. (a) The first time the teacher reads it at a normal speed, while the
students just listen. (b) The second time he reads the passage phrase by
phrase, pausing long enough to allow students to write down what they have
heard. (c) The last time the teacher again reads at a normal speed, and
students check their work.
g. Map
drawing
·
The aim is to give students listening
comprehension practice. The students are given a map with the geographical
features unnamed. Then the teacher gives the students directions.
·
The
students then instruct the teacher to do the same thing with a map he had drawn
on the blackboard.
·
Each
student could have a turn giving the teacher instructions for finding and
labeling one geographical feature.
h. Paragraph
writing
·
The teacher may ask the students to write a
paragraph in their own words based on the reading materials.
·
Students could do this from memory, or they
could use the reading passage in the lesson as a model.
6. The Goal
The
Direct Method aims at establishing the direct bond between thought and
expressions and between experience and language. It is based on the assumption
that the learner should experience the new language in the same way as he
experienced his mother tongue. In the Grammar Translation Method, the foreign
concept or idea is first translated into the mother tongue and then understood.
But in the Direct Method the intervention of the mother tongue is done
away with the learner understands what he reads or hears in the second or
foreign language without thinking of the mother tongue equivalence. Likewise,
he speaks or writes the foreign language without the need of translating his
thought or idea from the mother tongue into the second/foreign language. He
acquires, what Champion calls that instinctive, unerring language sense which
we all possess in variant degree in the mother tongue, and which superseding
all rules, grammar and dictionaries, resting at bottom on the direct
association between experience and expression, is the only sure guide in the
use of language.
a.
For the teacher and students are:
·
Teachers who use the Direct Method intend that
students learn how to communicate in the target language.
·
Students should learn to think in the target
language.
7.
The role for the teacher and students is the teacher and the
students are more like partners in the teaching/learning process.
8. There
are some advantages of using direct method :
- The students are motivated to understand and pronounce words or sentences in foreign language that thought by the teacher, especially when the teacher uses media/ realia.
- The students get more experience in speaking foreign language even only simple sentences at first.
- The students are trained to speak in foreign language well.
9. There are some
disadvantages of using direct method :
- The weakness in the Direct Method is its assumption that a second language can be learnt in exactly the same way as a first, when in fact the conditions under which a second language is learnt are very different
- Teaching and learning process will be passive if the teacher can not motivate the students to participate the class discussion.
- It is hard to apply in Indonesia since several teachers in Indonesia are not expert in speaking English.
REFERENCES
http://www.iolpmezunu.com/f67/unit-2-direct-method-28463/
http://nezh-ibanez1216.blogspot.com/2010/03/summarize-direct-method.html
http://festyranty.blogspot.com/2010/03/summary-of-direct-method.html
http://it-taken.blogspot.com/2010/12/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-direct.html
http://english-mom.blogspot.com/2010/12/definition-of-direct-methode-what-is-it.html
http://novaekasari09.wordpress.com/2011/06/12/direct-method-as-one-of-language-teaching-approaches/
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar