Down through the years, there has been a wide range of approaches used to teach EFL/ESOL. We will summarize some of these ‘traditional' approaches. We'll leave it to you to decide if you want to explore these in greater depth.

The Grammar-Translation Approach

• Developed in the 19^th century to teach Latin and Greek.
• The main aim of studying a foreign language is to be able to read its literature.
• The emphasis in class is on reading/writing, not on listening/speaking.
• The foreign language is explained and discussed in the students’ native language.
• Most lesson time is spent translating written sentences/texts, which have little resemblance to spoken communication, from/into the foreign language.
• Despite having little to no theoretical basis underpinning it, this method is still used in some institutions today.

The Direct Approach

• Emerged in the late 19^th century.
• It is based on the principle that a learner can learn a second language much like she learns a first language.
• Language is acquired ‘directly', and exclusively, in the target language, e.g., English, via active demonstration by the teacher. 
• The students' native language and all translation are excluded from the classroom.

Audiolingual Approach  

• Language learning is all to do with habit formation. Language classes should, therefore, concentrate on the formation of speech habits by using a series of mechanical and repetitive oral drills.
• The learning consists mainly of the accurate imitation and memorization by students of sentences or dialogues modeled by the teacher.
• Language is a matter of speech, and so classroom work concentrates almost exclusively on speaking.

From the 1970s onwards, other approaches arose, principally to counter the mimic-heavy, pattern-based teaching approaches of the previous decades. These include Total Physical Response (which we'll touch on in a later Module), the Silent Way, Suggestopedia, and the Natural Approach. All these approaches have had different degrees of success.

Remember this!

It would be silly not to recognize that all of these approaches have included some teaching elements that have been useful at some time or another for teaching. Beware of anyone who dismisses all these approaches. It's maybe because they do not know enough about them! 

When reflecting on teaching approaches, one thing that should spark our interest is when a profound and notable transformation takes place – a sea change or paradigm shift (a shift from one way of thinking to another).

One such sea change in the approach to teaching took place in the 1970s and 1980s, and it is still gathering strength at this moment. This period saw the introduction of what is commonly known as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) or the Communicative Approach.

We'll come to this in a few moments.