MELT/ Situational Language Teaching/ C.H.

Lee 1

Week 2

Situational Language Teaching (or Oral Approach)

1. Background

Situational Language Teaching is an approach developed by British applied linguists from the
1930s to the 1960s.

1) Two leaders: Harold Palmer and A.S. Hornby

l What they attempted was to develop a more scientific foundation for oral approach to teaching
English than was evidenced in the Direct Method.
l The result: A systematic study of the principles and procedures that could be applied to the
selection and organization of the content of a language course

2) Vocabulary control
l Vocabulary: One of the most important aspects of foreign language learning.
- A core of 2000 or so words occurred frequently in written texts
- Knowledge of the words would greatly assist in reading a FL
l The increased emphasis on reading skills as the goal of foreign language study
l The first attempts to establish principle of syllabus design in LT

3) Grammar control
l Emphasized the problems of grammar for the foreign learner – Focus on the grammatical content
of a language course.
- Palmer’s view of grammar: different from what was seen in Grammar Translation Method
- Grammar as the underlying sentence patterns of spoken language

2. The Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching

l Systematic principles: Selection, gradation, and presentation

l The main characteristics:
1. Language teaching begins with the spoken language. Material is taught orally before it is
presented in written form.
2. The target language is the language of the classroom.
3. New language points are introduced and practiced situationally.
4. Vocabulary selection procedures are followed to ensure that an essential general service
vocabulary is covered.
5. Items of grammar are graded following the principle that simple form should be taught before
complex ones.
6. Reading and writing are introduced once a sufficient lexical and grammatical basis is established.

3. Approach

1) Theory of language
- British structuralism: the notion of situation
- Emphasized close relationship between the structure of language and the context a situations in
which language is used

2) Theory of language learning

- Behaviorism: Habit-learning theory
- Three processes: receiving the knowledge or materials, fixing it in the memory by repetition, and
using it in actual practice until it becomes a personal skill.
- Inductive approach to the teaching grammar: Explanation is therefore discouraged.
MELT/ Situational Language Teaching/ C.H.Lee 2

4. Design

1) Objectives
- To teach a practical command of the four basic skills of language
- Accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar

2) Syllabus
- Structural syllabus and a word list: a list of the basic structures and sentence patterns
- Not a situational syllabus (a list of situations and the language associated with them)

3) Types of learning and teaching activities

- A situational approach to presenting new sentence patterns and a drill-based manner of practicing
them
- The use of concrete objects, picture, and relia together with action and gestures to demonstrate the
meanings of new language items
- The practice techniques: guided repetition and substitution activities

4) Learner roles
- Listen and repeat what the teacher says, and respond to questions and commands.
- Learners have no control over the content of learning
- Later, more active participation

5) Teaching roles
- Three fold: a model, a manipulator, and a monitor
- Organizing review: teacher’s responsibilities - timing, oral practice, revision, adjustment, testing,
developing language activities

6) The role of instructional materials

- Textbook and visual aids (wall charts, flashcards, picture, stick figures, etc.)
- Teacher’s kit, a collection of items and realia

5. Procedure

- To move from controlled to freer practice of structures and form oral use of sentence patterns to
their automatic use in speech, reading, and writing.
- Pittman’s 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, the lesson would then
consist of four parts:
1. pronunciation
2. revision (to prepare for new work if necessary)
3. presentation of new structure or vocabulary
4. drilling (oral practice)
5. reading of material on the new structure, or written exercises.

- Davies et al. (1975)’s teaching procedures – See p. 46, 1. – 9.

6. Conclusion

l Situational Language Teaching is not a new approach, but only a new method.
- The first substantive teaching methodology (Essential features: Presentation-Practice-Production)
- Strong emphasis on oral practice, grammar, and sentence patterns
- Only target language should be used in the classroom.
l However,
- Emphasis too much on oral practice, particularly pronunciation
- Students have no control over the content of learning.