How can Japanese teachers of English go about introducing more communicative activities suitable for their contexts? This article discusses an attempt by a high school teacher to implement communicative language teaching (CLT) in her classes while responding to institutional pressure to use "yakudoku" (a traditional grammar translation…

The field of English as a second language has gone through a number of changes in the last decades and has seen extreme adjustments throughout the methods of teaching and curriculum planning. This article finds the relevance of the old methods to the new methods. After providing the background it becomes apparent that almost all the older methods…

Translation studies stem from comparative literature and contrastive analysis. It involves the transfer of messages between two different language systems and cultures, and Munday (2001, p.1) notes that translation "by its nature" "is multilingual and also interdisciplinary". Translation subjects are the texts in various…

This article describes the Trans-Cultural Comparative Literature Method, an innovative way to use literature to teach advanced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. This method originated from the authors' discovery of common themes and points of view as they compared Turkmen and English literary texts. While the method employs activities…

Second language study in French universities includes both modern language (literary) and foreign language (communicative) approaches, although teaching is dominated by the literary strand. Traditional educational models based on the transmission of knowledge are unable to accommodate recent progress in our understanding of learning theory, which…

Implementing process pedagogy in an L2 writing classroom has its own limits for students with low English proficiency. Although L1 writers commonly benefit from writing multiple drafts, most of the low English level Korean college students in my English composition class did not benefit from the revisions. This article introduces an innovative…

The controversy over the place of translation in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is a thriving field of inquiry. Many older language teaching methodologies such as the Direct Method, the Audio-lingual Method, and Natural and Communicative Approaches, tended to either neglect the role of translation, or prohibit it entirely as a…

As with language teaching and learning, many factors are at work disregarding of which makes teaching absolutely futile. This introspective paper shows that teaching is bound to many other factors not normally regarded within the framework many teachers apply. Practicality of teaching methods is highly dependent on the kind of learners; that is,…

Language teaching approaches and methods have cast light on the language teaching theory and practice. There are still many controversies about their usefulness and appropriateness. This paper tries to analyze their effectiveness and weakness of several most influential teaching approaches and methods: Grammar-translation Method, Direct Method,…

Discusses a semi-independent eclectic teaching model, designed to alleviate some of the problems of intermediate-level language classes. It attempts to capitalize on the virtues of a variety of approaches by combining features of each that best accomplish specific language teaching goals. (EKN)

Describes research done at the University of Liverpool with undergraduates learning beginning German to compare the effectiveness of grammar-translation and audiolingual teaching methods. Discusses lack of experimental support for the hypothesis that the learners' background in arts or science can be correlated with the comparative effectiveness…

"Yakudoku," the traditional, non-oral method of teaching language in Japan, is described and compared with the grammar translation method of language instruction. The methods differ in that "yakudoku" focuses mainly on translation of the foreign language text into Japanese, with grammar instruction a secondary concern, and that…

Surveys some of the principal theories and methodologies in second language instruction. (EKN)

The communicative approach has brought second language instruction a long way from strict grammar-oriented pedagogy, carrying with it a return to meaning, less repetition, emphasis on the learner, and attention to the social and pragmatic aspects of communication. (MSE)

A centenary tribute to Wilhelm Vietor, whose work marked the start of modern methods of language teaching in Europe, describes the educational philosophy behind the reform movement. The movement focused on the value of spoken language and established an alternative to the grammar translation method. (MSE)