oral approach and situational language teaching

v The Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching

Palmer, Hornby, and other British applied linguist from the 1920s onward developed an approach to methodology that involved systematic principles of selection ( the procedures by which lexical and grammatical contentwas chosen), gradation ( principles by which the organization and sequencing of content were determined), and presentation ( techniques used for presentation and practice of items in a course ). Although all of Palmer, Hornby, and other english are english specialist and had different views on the specific procedures in teaching english, their general principles were reffered to as the Oral Approach to language learning. The oral approach was the accpeted British approach to english language teaching by 1950s.

An oral approach should not be confused with the obsolete Direct Method, which meant only that the learner was bewildered by a flow of ungraded speech, suffering all difficulties he would have encountered in picking up the language in its normal environment and losing most of the compensating benefits of better contextualization in those circumtances. (Pattison 1964:4).

One of the most active proponents of the oral approach was the Australian George Pittman. Pittman and his colleagues were responsible for developing an influential set of teaching material based on situational approach. These were published for worlwide use in 1965 as the series Situational English. The main characteristics of the approach were :

1.     Language teaching begins wit the spoken language. Material is taught orally before it is presented in witten form.

2.     The target language is the language in the classroom.

3.     New language points are introduced and practiced situationally.

4.     Vocabulary slection procedures are followed toensure that an essential general service vocabulary is covered.

5.     Items of gramma are graded following the principle that simple forms should be thaught before complex ones.

6.     Reading and writing are introduced once a sufficient lexical and grammatical basis is established.

It was then that the term Situational was used increasingly in reffering to the oral Approach. Later the terms Structural Situational Approach and Situational Language Teaching came into common usage. To avoid further confusion, we will use the term Situational Language Teaching to include structural-situational and Oral approach. How can Situational Language Teaching be characterized at the levels of approach, design, and procedure?

·        APPROACH

Theory of language

The theory of language underlying Situational Language Teaching can be characterized as type of British “structuralism”. Palmer, Hornby, and other British applied linguistic had prepared pedagogical descriptions of the basic grammatical structures of English and these were to be followed in developing methodology.  “Word order, structural words, the few inflections of English, and Conten Words will form the material of our teaching” (frisby 1957: 134). The British theoreticians, however, had a different focus to the version of structrualism the notion of “situation”. “Our principal classroom activity in the teaching of English Structure will be the oral practice of structures. This oral practice of controlled sentence patterns should be given in situations designed to give the greatst amount of practice in English speech to the pupil” (Pittman 1963: 179).

Theory of learning

The theory of learning underlying Situational language teaching is a type of behaviourist habit-learning theory. It adresses primarily the processes rather than the conditions of learning. Frisby, for example, cites Palmer’s views as authoritative:

As palmer has pointed out, there are three processses in learning a language- receiving the knowledge or materials, fixing it in memory by repetition, and using it in actual practice until it becomes a personal skill.

French likewise saw language learning as habit formation:

The fundamental is correct speech habits. The pupils should be able to put the words, without hestitation and almost without thought, into sentence patterns wich are correct. Such speech habits can be cultivated by blind imitative drill.(1950, vol 3:9).

Situational Language Teaching adopts an inductive approach to the teaching grammar. The meaning of words or structures is not to be given through explanation in either the native language or target language but is to be induced from the way the form is used in a situation. “ if we give the maning of new word, either language, as soon as we introduce it, we weaken the impression which the word makes on the mind” (Billoows 1961: 28). This is how child language learning is believed to take place, and the same processes are thought occur in second and foreign language learning, according to practicioners of Situational Language Teaching.

·        DESIGN

Objectives

The objective of the Situational Language Teaching method are to teach a practical command of the four basic skills of language, goals it shares with most methods of language teaching. But the skill are approached through structure. Automatic control of basic structures and sentence patterns is fundamental to reading and writing skills, and this is achieved through speech work. “before our pupils read new structures and new vocabulary, we shall teach orally bot the new structures and new vocabulary”

The sylabus

Basic to the teaching of English in Situational Language Teaching is a structural syllabus and a word list. In situational language teaching, structures are always taught within sentences, and vovabulary is chosen according to how well it enables sentence pattern to be taught. Frisby (1957:134) gives an example of the typical structural syllabus around which situational teaching was based:

1st lesson        this is ....               book, pencil, ruler,

                         That is ....             desk

2nd lesson       these are ....        chair, picture

                          Those are ....      window

Rather, situation refers to the manner of presenting and practising sentence pattern, as we shall see later.

Types of learning and teaching activities

The situation will be controlled carefully to teach the new language material. In such way that there can be no doubt in the leraner’s mind of the meaning of what he hears. Almost all the vocabullary and structures taught in the first four five years and even later can be placed in situation in which the meaning is quite clear. (Pittman 1963: 155-156)

By Situation, Pittman means the use of concrete objects, pictures and realia, which together with action and gesture can be used to demontrate the meaning of new language. The practice techniques employed generally consist of guided repetition and substition activities, including chorus repetition, dictation, drills, and controlled oral based reading and writing task. Other oral practice techniques are sometimes used, including pair practice and group work.

Learner roles

In the initial stages of learning, the learner is required to simply listen and repeat what the teacher says and to respond to question and commands.  For example, the learner might lapse into faulty grammar or pronunciation, and learner forget something they have gotten such as incorrect vocabulary, etc. This includes learner initiating responses and asking each other questions, although teacher controlled intruduction and practice of new language is stressed throughout.

Teacher roles

The teacher function is therefold. In the presentation stage of lesson, the teacher serves the model, setting up situation in which the need for the target structure is created and then modeling the new structures for students to repeat. Organizing review is a primary task for the teacher, according to Pittman (1963), who summarizes the teacher’s responsibilities as dealing with:

a.     Timing

b.     Oral practice

c.      Revision

d.     Adjusment to special needs of individuals

e.      Testing

f.       Developing language activities

The teacher is essential to the success of the method, since the textbook is able only to describe activities for the teacher to carry out in class.

The role of instructional materials

Situational language teaching is dependent on both a textbook and visual aids. The textbook contain tightly organized lessons planned around diffrent grammatical structures. Visual aids may be produced by the teacher or may be commercially produced. In principle, the textbook should be used “only as guide to the learning process. The teacher is expected to be master of his textbook.” (Pittman 1963: 176).

·        PROCEDURE

Classroom procedures in situational Language Teaching vary according to he level of the class, but procedures at any lavel aim to move from controlled to free practice of structures and from  oral use of sentence pattern to their automatic use in speech, reading, and writing. Pittman gives an example of a typical lesson plan :

The first part of the lesson will be stress and intonation practice. The main body of the lesson should then follow. This might consist of the teaching of a structure. If so, lesson would then consist of four parts:

1.     Pronounciation

2.     Revision

3.     Presentation

4.     Oral practice

5.     Reading of material on the new structure.

CONCLUSION

Procedures associated with Situational Language Teaching in the fifties and sixties are an extension and further development of well-established techniques advocated by proponents of the earlier Oral approach in the British school of language teaching. They continue to be part of the standard set of procedures advocated in many current British methodology texts (e.g., Hubbard et al. 1983), and as we noted above, textbooks written according to the principles of situational language.

Teaching continues to be widely used in many parts of world. In the mid-sixties, however, the view of language, language learning, and language teaching underlying Situational Language Teaching was called into question. We discuss this reaction and how it led to communicative Language Teaching. But because the principle of Situational Language Teaching, with its strong emphasis on oral practice, grammar, and sentence patterns, conform to the intuitions of many practically oriented classroom teachers, it continues to be widely used in the 1980s.