Direct Method

Background

The direct method of teaching was developed around 1900 in Germany and France. It is sometimes called the natural method because the aim is to teach students in a similar way that they acquire their first language.

     The direct method of teaching came as a response to the shortfalls of the grammar-translation method, which works to teach grammar and translate vocabulary from the native language of the student.

Therefore, the grammar-translation method relies heavily on the written language, whereas the direct method places the emphasis on both listening and speaking.

Although the direct method isn’t limited to teaching foreign language, it is however, often used for this purpose. In fact, you can see evidence of it being used in many English classrooms around the world today. The aim of this method for teaching English is to immerse the students in English, the teacher would use realia, visual aids and demonstrations to teach English to students.

The teacher would in this instance focus on repetitive patterns of teaching with grammar being taught inductively. This means that the rules of grammar are not taught directly, instead students would learn to change different parts of the sentence. For example, “I go to school”, the word go could be changed for other verbs like walk, run, jog, drive, etc.

In practice it stood for the following principles and procedures:

1.       Classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target language.

2.       Only everyday vocabulary and sentence were taught.

3.    Oral communication skill were built up in carefully graded progression organized around question-and-answer exchanges between teachers and Students in small , intensive classes.

4.      Grammar was taught inductively.

5.       New teaching points were introduced orally.

6.  Concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstration, objects, and pictures; abstract vocabulary was taught by association of ideas.

7.       Both speech and listening comprehension were taught.

8.      Correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized.

These principles are seen in the following guidelines for teaching oral language, which are still followed in contemporary Berlitz schools:

Never translate: demonstrate

Never explain: act

Never make a speech: ask questions

Never imitate mistakes: correct

Never speak with single words: use sentences

Never speak too much: make students speak much

Never use the book: use your lesson plan

Never jump around: foll ow your plan

Never go too fast: keep the pace of the student

Never speak too slowly: speak normally

Never speak too quickly: speak naturally

Never speak too loudly: speak naturally

Never be impatient: take it easy

Methodology

       The direct method of learning English is fairly simple. In consists, primarily, of just five parts.

        Show – The student is shown something so that they understand the word. For example, they might be shown realia or other visual aids such as flash cards for nouns. The teacher might use gestures to explain verbs, and so on.

       Say – The teacher verbally presents the word or sentence, taking care to pronounce the word correctly.

       Try – The student then tries to repeat what the teacher is saying.

        Mould – The teacher corrects the students and ensures that they are pronouncing words correctly.

       Repeat – Finally, the students repeat the word a number of times. Here the teacher uses a number of methods for repetition, including group repetition, single student repetition and other activities designed to get the students to repeat the word.

Advantages

        Probably the biggest advantage of this method of teaching English is that it actually teaches the language and doesn’t teach about the language. Furthermore, due to its emphasis on speech, it is better for students who have a need of real communication in English. Finally, this method introduced the use of teaching vocabulary using realia, which is still widely used today when teaching English to speakers of other languages.

Disadvantages

        One major disadvantage for this method is that is works on the assumption that a second language is learnt exactly the same way as the first. Second language acquisition varies considerably from first language acquisition.

        Another criticism of the direct method is that it was hard for public schools to integrate it. In his book, R. Brown (1994:56) explains that the direct method wasn’t successful in public schools because of “constraints of budget, classroom size, time, and teacher background (native speakers or native like fluency) made such a method difficult to use.”