This approach was developed by British applied linguists from 1930s to 1960s in Great Britain.

BACKGROUND LEADERS OF THIS MOVEMENT: A.S.HORNBY and Harold PALMER These leaders were familiar with the work of Daniel Jones and Otto Jespersen.

EFL/ESL TEXTBOOKS AND COURSES  Streamline English  Access to English  Kernel Lessons Plus

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DIRECT METHOD AND SLT? -Oral approach is more scientific than Direct Method. Vocabulary and Grammar are carefully selected and graded in SLT. SLT is based on behaviorist habit formation.

THE ASPECTS OF METHOD Vocabulary control Grammar control

VOCABULARY CONTROL One of the most important aspects of foreign language learning. Emphasis on reading skills as the goal of foreign language learning.

THE GUIDES TO THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY The Interim Report on Vocabulary Selection” by Faucett, West, Palmer and Thorndike in 1936 “A General Service List of English Words” by Michael West in 1953

GRAMMAR CONTROL - The underlying sentence patterns of spoken language. - Substitution tables to help internalize the rules of English sentence structure by Palmer, Hornby and other British applied linguists.

DICTIONARIES & BOOKS  ♦ The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English in 1953: Hornby, Gatenby, Wakefield  ♦ A Grammar of Spoken English on a Strictly Phonetic Basis: Palmer and Blandford  ♦ A Handbook of English Grammar: Zandvoort  ♦ Guide to Patterns and Usage in English: Hornby

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF APPROACH 1- Language teaching begins with the spoken language. 2-The target language is the language of the classroom. 3- New language points are introduced situationally. 4- Vocabulary selection procedures are followed. 5- Items of grammar are graded following the principle that simple forms should be taught before complex ones. 6- Reading and writing are introduced once sufficient lexical and grammatical basis is established.

1- Theory of language 2- Theory of learning

THEORY OF LANGUAGE STRUCTURALISM  Word order  Structural words  The few inflections of English  Content words

THE LEADERS OF POWERFUL VIEWS OF LANGUAGE British Linguists  J.R. Firth  M.A.K. Halliday

THEORY OF LEARNING Behaviorist habit-learning theory. Primarily processes rather than the conditions of learning.

SLT adopts an inductive approach to the teaching of grammar.

DESIGN  OBJECTIVES  THE SYLLABUS  TYPES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES  LEARNER ROLES  TEACHER ROLES  THE ROLE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

OBJECTIVES  A practical command of the four basic skills of a language through structure  Accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar  Errors are to be avoided at all costs  Automatic control of basic structures and sentence patterns

THE SYLLABUS  Structural syllabus  A word list

TYPES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES  A situational presentation of new sentence patterns  A drill-based manner of practicing ( chorus repetition, dictation, controlled oral-based reading and writing tasks)

LEARNER ROLES

In the initial stages;  Listening and repeating what the teacher says  Responding to questions and commands  No control over the content of learning

Later;  More active participation  Initiating responses  Asking each other questions

TEACHER serves as ♦ A model (modeling the new structure for students to repeat) ♦ A skillful manipulator (using questions, commands, etc to make the learner produce correct sentences) ♦ A review organizer (timing, oral practice, testing and developing language activities)

THE ROLE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS  A textbook (as a guide)  Visual aids (wall charts, flashcards, pictures, stick figures and so on.)

PROCEDURE  Moving from controlled to freer practice of structures and from oral use of sentence patterns to their automatic use in speech,reading and writing.

LESSON consists of : 1- Pronunciation 2- Revision 3- Presentation of new structure or vocabulary 4- Oral practice (drilling) 5- Reading of material on a new structure

THE SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES 1- Listening practice 2- Choral imitation 3- Individual imitation 4- Isolation 5- Building up to a new model 6- Elicitation 7- Substitution drilling 8- Question answer drilling 9- Correction

STRENGTHS  Suitable for introduction to the language  Values practical grammar and vocabulary  An accessible method for teachers if they have good curriculum  Inexpensive to use

WEAKNESSES Teacher-controlled Ineffective Boring

WHY DID IT FAIL?

It failed because of a requirement for a closer study of the language itself and a return to the traditional concept that utterances carried meaning in themselves.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) replaced Oral Approach and SLT by the late of 1960s.

REFERENCES J.C.Richards & T.S.Rodgers. (2001). Oral Approach and SLT. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Second Edition. p On-line Available: he_oral_approach.2FSituational_language_teachin g aysToApproachLanguageLearning/SituationalLang uageTeaching.htm