The oral approach and situational language teaching

 Introduction
Situational language teaching is a
term not commonly used today, but it is an
approach developed by British applied linguists
in the 1930s to the 1960s, and which had an
impact on language courses which survive in
some still being used today (Richards & Rogers,
1986).
The Oral Approach and Situational Language
Teaching relied on the structural view of
language. Both speech and structure were seen
to be the basis of language and, especially,
speaking ability.

 Vocabulary control:
Vocabulary was seen as an
essential component for reading proficiency. The
second emphasis was on reading skills.

 Grammar control:
Also the interest was focus on
the grammatical content of a language course.
It has been believed that an analysis of English
and a classification of its principal grammatical
structures into sentence patterns (or situational
tables) could be used to assist learners to
internalize the rules and sentence structures.

 Theory of language

The Structural view of
language is the view behind the Oral Approach
and Situational Language Teaching. Speech was
viewed as the basis of language and structure as
being at the heart of speaking ability.

 Theory of learning
The theory of learning underlying
Situation Language Teaching is behaviorism,
addressing more the processes, than the conditions of
learning. It includes the following principles:

 Language learning is habit-formation.
 Mistakes are bad and should be avoided, as they make
bad habits.
 Language skills are learned more effectively if they
are presented orally first, then in written form.
 The meanings of words can be learned only in a
linguistic and cultural context.

 Objectives

 Teach a practical command of the four basic
skills of a language, through structure.

 Accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar.

 Ability to respond quickly and accurately in
speech situations.
 Automatic control of basic structures and
sentence patterns

 The syllabus
Situational Language Teaching
used a structural syllabus and a word list, where
the structures are always taught within sentences,
and vocabulary is chosen according to how well it
enables sentences patterns to be taught.
 Example by Frisby about the typical structural
syllabus around which situational teaching was
based:

 Types of learning and teaching activities
Situational Language
Teaching emplys a situtational approach to
presenting new sentence patttern and drill-
based manner of practicing them.
By situation (Pittman) means the use of:
 Concrete objects
 Pictures
 Realia
 Wich together with actions gestures can be used
to demonstrate the meanings of a new language
items.

 The role of instructional material
Situational Language
Teaching is dependent upon:

 Textbook: Contains organized lessons planned
about different grammatical structures.

 Visual aids: They are produced by the teacher or
commercially produced. They consist on wall
charts, flashcards, pictures and so on.

 Learner roles
In the initial stages the learner is
required simply to:
 Listen and repeat what the teacher says
 Respond questions and commands

 Teacher roles
 In the presentation stage the teacher serve as a
model (setting up situations)
 Then he becomes like the skillful conductor.

 Typical procedure in Situational Language
Teaching include:

 Procedures that move from controlled to freer
practice of structures.

 Procedures that move from oral use of sentence
patterns to their automatic use in speech,
reading and writing.

 A typical situational Language Teaching
lesson would start with stress and intonation
practice. Then the main body of the lesson
might consist of:

 pronunciation
 revision (to prepare for new work if necessary)
 presentation of new structure or vocabulary
 oral practice (drilling)
 reading of material on the new structure, or
written exercises.

Class with the Oral Approach Method

 First activity:

The students should say sentences representing that
they can see in the pictures. They have to say
immediately what the picture represent.

Example:

The student said:
 Yesterday it was sunny and today it’s raining.
 There is a book and there are two students.
 She was eating noodles.
 They were coocking fruit.

Second activity:
The teacher will show some images to the student
and the teacher will say the action that is happening in
the pictures. The students have to repeat that at least 2
times.

 Suitable for introduction to the language.
 Oral production without risk.
 An accessible method for teachers if they have good
curriculum.
 Is a method that does not requires many resources
 Is a good method if we use it in teaching pronunciation
or vocabulary
 Its strong emphasis on oral practice, grammar and
sentence patterns conform to the intuitions of many
practically oriented classroom teachers.

A boring teacher who is not sure about he's
teaching
 The learner has no control over the content of
learning. He is required simply to listen and repeat
what the teacher says and to respond to questions
and commands.
 This method do not account for the fundamental
characteristic of language namely the creativity
and uniqueness of individual sentences.

The oral approach and situational language teaching

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to The oral approach and situational language teaching (20)

More from camiss20 (14)

Recently uploaded (20)

The oral approach and situational language teaching