A. Introduction
GTM is not a new thing in language
learning, which is only slightly different. The name that has been used by
language teachers for a few years ago. In ancient times this method is
called the "classical method" of the time used in the classical
language learning, such as Latin and Greek. At the beginning of this century,
this method is used to assist students in reading and understanding a foreign
language literature. But it is also expected that it is in studying or
understanding the grammar of the desired target language, students will become
more familiar with the language rules in accordance with the source language
and a deeper understanding of this will further help them in reading and
writing according to the source language to be better.
Finally concluded that it is
studying a foreign language will help the development of students in developing
intellectual, it can be recognized that the students will never use the target
language, but learning is very much needed mental.
B. Purpose
·
Describing how GTM is
developed from dead language
·
Explaining how GTM
advantages and disadvantages as a traditional method
·
Understanding GTM history and philosopy
DISCUSSION
A. BACKGROUND (History and
philosophy)
The grammar-translation
method is a method of teaching foreign languages derived
from the classical (sometimes called traditional) method of teaching Greek and Latin. In
grammar-translation classes, students learn grammatical rules and then
apply those rules by translating sentences
between the source language and their native language. Advanced students may be
required to translate whole texts word-for-word. The method
has two main goals: to enable students to read and translate literature
written in the target language, and to further students’ general intellectual
development.
The
grammar-translation method originated from the practice of teaching Latin. In
the early 1500s, Latin was the most widely-studied foreign language due to its
prominence in government, academia, and business.However, during the course of
the century the use of Latin dwindled, and it was gradually replaced by
English, French, and Italian. After the decline of Latin, the purpose of
learning it in schools changed. Whereas previously students had learned Latin
for the purpose of communication, it came to be learned as a purely academic
subject.
Throughout
Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, the education system was formed
primarily around a concept called faculty psychology. This theory dictated that the body
and mind were separate and the mind consisted of three parts: the will, emotion, and intellect. It was
believed that the intellect could be sharpened enough to eventually control the
will and emotions. The way to do this was through learning classical literature
of the Greeks and Romans, as well as mathematics. Additionally, an adult with such an education
was considered mentally prepared for the world and its challenges.
At first it
was believed that teaching modern languages was not useful for the development
of mental discipline and thus they were left out of the curriculum. When modern
languages did begin to appear in school curricula in the 19th century, teachers
taught them with the same grammar-translation method as was used for classical
Latin and Greek.[1] As a
result, textbooks were essentially copied for the modern language classroom. In
the United States of America, the basic foundations of this method were used in
most high school and college foreign language classrooms.
GT was in
fact first known in US as the Prussian method. GT dominated European and
foreign language teaching from 1840’s to the 1940’s, and in modified from it
continues to be widely used in some parts of the world today in the mid-and
late nineteenth century opposition to the GTM gradually developed in several
europen, countries Germany, England,
France, and other parts of Europe, new approaches to language teaching were
developed by individual language teachingspecialist, each with specific method
for reforming the teaching of modern languages, some of these specialist, like
C. Marcel, T, Prendergast, and F.Gouin, did not manage to archieve any lasting
impact, though their ideas are of historical interesting 1880’s henry sweet in
England, Wilhelm Vietor in Germany, and Paul Passy in France began to provide
the intellectual leadership needed to give reformist ideas greater credibility
and acceptance.
a. Definition
The
grammar-translation method of foreign language teaching is one of the most
traditional methods, dating back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. It was originally used to teach 'dead' languages (and literatures)
such as Latin and Greek
b. The principal Characteristics of GTM
The
grammar translation method has eihgteen caracteristics :
1. Classes
are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language.
2. Much
vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words.
3. Long
elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given.
4. Grammar
provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on
the form and inflection of words.
5. Reading of
difficult classical texts is begun early.
6. Little
attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in
grammatical analysis.
7. Often
the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the
target language into the mother tongue.
8. Little
or no attention is given to pronunciation.
9.
GTM is a way of studying a language that approaches the language first through
detail analysis of its grammar rules, which consist of morphology and syntax.
10.
reading and writing are the major focus
11.
vocabulary selection is based solely on the reading texts used and words are
taught through bilingual words list, dictionary and memorizing
12.
the sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice
13.
accuracy is emphasized
14.
grammar is taught deductively that is by presentation and study of grammar
rules which are then practiced though translation exercise
15.
the student native language is the medium of instruction
16.
it is a method for which there is no theory
17.
form, the form of structure was mechanical translation, the sentence was
constructed and illustrated the grammatical system of the language.
18.
situational method using vocabulary selection that controlled by grammar focus
on grammatical content of language courses paterns through an oral approach as
an essential component of reading proficiency.
c. APPROACH
ž Theory of language:
This method sees language from a structural point of
view .It focuses primarily on teaching deductively the grammatical units
involving little or no spoken communication and listening.
ž Theory of learning:
GTM as a process-oriented theory, sees language
learning mainly as a habit formation: Students are asked to constantly repeat
and memorize endless lists of grammar rules and vocabulary in order to produce
perfect translation.
d.
Design
The objectives:
1 The primary focus is on grammatical rules and writing
skills.
2 Students are expected to translate
accurately all the given texts.
e.
Syllabus
ž The GTM uses a lexico-grammatical and task based
syllabus: there is a strong focus on vocabulary and grammatical rules that are
learned contextually from the given texts to be translated. Therefore the
syllabus is build primarily on the grammatical points illustrated in the
text-book.
B.
The roles of
GTM in studying of language
a.
Learner roles
ž A student in this method is viewed as a processor and
passive holder for the information given to him. This means that he does not
influence the process of learning or even other students. In fact learners are
totally dependent on the teacher.
b.
Teacher role
ž In the GTM the teacher role is central as he controles
and determens every thing in the classroom whether it is content, tasks or
else, as well as correcting immediatly
the errors made by the students. This makes learners totally dependent on the
teacher as the source of information and direction as well.
c. The role of instructional materials:
ž This method requires only the use of the already existing
material which is the text book.
ž The text book then is both the syllabus and the
instructional material at the same time. It is the source that helps the
students master the grammatical rules of the target language and attain high
standrds in translation.
C.
Procedure of GTM
Typical GTM lessons follow this type of procedures :
ž Classes are
taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language
ž The structures of the foreign languages are learned by
comparing and contrasting with those of the mother tongue.
ž The teacher
assigns a text, gives a bilingual word list and illustrates the grammatical
rules found in the text.
ž Students memorize all the given informations and try
to practice them through translation of sentences and texts.
D. Techniques
The grammar translation method has nine Techniques :
1. Translation
of a Literary Passage (Translating target language to native language)
2. Reading
Comprehension Questions (Finding information in a passage, making
inferences and relating to personal experience)
3. Antonyms/Synonyms (Finding
antonyms and synonyms for words or sets of words).
4. Cognates (Learning
spelling/sound patterns that correspond between source
language
and the target language)
5. Deductive
Application of Rule (Understanding grammar rules and their exceptions,
then applying them to new examples)
6. Fill-in-the-blanks (Filling
in gaps in sentences with new words or items of a particular grammar type).
7. Memorization (Memorizing
vocabulary lists, grammatical rules and grammatical paradigms)
8. Use
Words in Sentences (Students create sentences to illustrate they know
the meaning and use of new words)
9. Composition (Students
write about a topic using the target language).
E. Advantages
a. The
phraseology of the target language is quickly explained. Translation is the
easiest way of explaining meanings or words and phrases from one language into
another. Any other method of explaining vocabulary items in the second language
is found time consuming. A lot of time is wasted if the meanings of lexical
items are explained through definitions and illustrations in the second
language. Further, learners acquire some short of accuracy in understanding
synonyms in the source language and the target language.
b. Teacher’s
labour is saved. Since the textbooks are taught through the medium of the
mother tongue, the teacher may ask comprehension questions on the text taught
in the mother tongue. Pupils will not have much difficulty in responding to
questions on the mother tongue. So, the teacher can easily assess whether the
students have learnt what he has taught them. Communication between the teacher
and the learners does not cause linguistic problems. Even teachers who are not
fluent in English can teach English through this method. That is perhaps the
reason why this method has been practiced so widely and has survived so long
F. Disadvantages
a. It
is an unnatural method. The natural order of learning a language is listening,
speaking, reading and writing. That is the way how the child learns his mother
tongue in natural surroundings. But in the Grammar Translation Method the
teaching of the second language starts with the teaching of reading. Thus, the
learning process is reversed. This poses problems.
b. Speech
is neglected. The Grammar Translation Method lays emphasis on reading and
writing. It neglects speech. Thus, the students who are taught English through
this method fail to express themselves adequately in spoken English. Even at
the undergraduate stage they feel shy of communicating through English. It has
been observed that in a class, which is taught English through this method,
learners listen to the mother tongue more than that to the second/foreign
language. Since language learning involves habit formation such students fail
to acquire habit of speaking English. Thus, they have to pay a heavy price for
being taught through this method.
c. Exact
translation is not possible. Translation is, indeed, a difficult task and exact
translation from one language to another is not always possible. A language is
the result of various customs, traditions, and modes of behavior of a speech
community and these traditions differ from community to community. There are
several lexical items in one language, which have no synonyms/equivalents in
another language. For instance, the meaning of the English word ‘table’ does
not fit in such expression as the ‘table of contents’, ‘table of figures’,
‘multiplication table’, ‘time table’ and ‘table the resolution’, etc. English
prepositions are also difficult to translate. Consider sentences such as ‘We
see with our eyes’, ‘Bombay is far from Delhi’, ‘He died of cholera’,
He succeeded through hard work’. In these sentences ‘with’, ‘from’, ‘of’,
‘through’ can be translated into the Hindi preposition ‘se’ and vice versa.
Each language has its own structure, idiom and usage, which do not have their
exact counterparts in another language. Thus, translation should be considered
an index of one’s proficiency in a language.
d. It
does not give pattern practice. A person can learn a language only when he
internalizes its patterns to the extent that they form his habit. But the
Grammar Translation Method does not provide any such practice to the learner of
a language. It rather attempts to teach language through rules and not by use.
Researchers in linguistics have proved that to speak any language, whether
native or foreign entirely by rule is quite impossible. Language learning means
acquiring certain skills, which can be learnt through practice and not by just
memorizing rules. The persons who have learnt a foreign or second language
through this method find it difficult to give up the habit of first thinking in
their mother tongue and than translating their ideas into the second language.
They, therefore, fail to get proficiency in the second language approximating
that in the first language. The method, therefore, suffers from certain
weaknesses for which there is no remedy
CONCLUSION
The Grammar Translation Method was developed for the study
of “dead” languages and to facilitate access to those languages’ classical
literature. That’s the way it should stay. English is certainly not a dead or
dying language, so any teacher that takes “an approach for dead language study”
into an English language classroom should perhaps think about taking up Math or
Science instead. Rules, universals and memorized principles apply to those
disciplines – pedagogy and communicative principles do not.
GTM was frequently used at the begening of the 20th
centuery but to day, many thinks that It is an unnatural method. The
natural order of learning a language is listening, speaking, reading and
writing. That is the way how the child learns his mother tongue in natural
surroundings. But in the Grammar Translation Method the teaching of the second
language starts with the teaching of writing and reading. Thus, the learning
process is reversed. This poses problems.
Teaching involves any instructional technique that
draws learners' attention to some specific grammatical form in such a way that
it helps them either to understand it metalinguistically and/or process it in
comprehension and/or production so that they can internalize it.
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