APPROACH

The Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching

Few language teachers are familiar with the terms Oral Approach or Situational Language Teaching , which refer to an approach to language teaching developed by British applied linguists from the 1930s to the 1960s. Even though neither term is commonly used today, the impact of the Oral Approach has been long-lasting, and it has shaped the design of many widely used EFL/ESL textbooks and courses, including many still being used today. One of the most successful ESL courses published, Streamline English (Hartley and Viney 1978), reflected the classic principles of Situational Language Teaching, as did many other series that have been widely used (e.g., Access to English, Coles and Lord 1975; Kernel Lessons Plus, O’Neill 1973; and many of L.G. Alexander’s widely used textbooks, e.g., Alexander 1967). Hubbard, Jones, Thornton, and Wheeler’s comment in 1983 still holds true today: “This method is widely used at the time of writing and a very large number of textbooks are based on it” (Hubbard et al. 1983: 36). It is important, therefore, to understand the principles and practices of the Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching.

Background

The origins of this approach began with the work of British applied linguists in the 1920s and 1930s. Beginning at this time, a number of outstanding applied linguists developed the basis for the principled approach to methodology and language teaching. Two of the leaders in this movement were Harold Palmer and A.S. Hornby two of the most prominent figures in British twentieth-century language teaching. Both were familiar with the work of such linguists as Otto Jespersen and Daniel Jones, as well as with the Direct Method. They attempted to develop a more scientific foundation for an oral approach to teaching English than was evidenced in the Direct Method. The result was a systematic study of the principles and procedures that could be applied to the selection and organization of the content of a language course (Palmer 1917, 1921).

Vocabulary Control

One of the first aspects of method design to receive attention was the role of vocabulary. In the 1920s and 1930s, several large-scale investigations of foreign language vocabulary were undertaken. The impetus for this research came from two quarters. First, there was a general consensus among language teaching specialists, such as Palmer, that vocabulary was one of the more important aspects of foreign language learning. A second influence was the study in some countries. This had been the recommendations of the Coleman Report and also the independent conclusion of another British language specialist, Michael West, who had examined the role of English in India in the 1920s. Vocabulary was seen as an essential component of reading proficiency.

This led to the development of principles of vocabulary control, which were to have a major practical impact on the teaching of English in subsequent decades. Frequency counts showed that a core of two thousand or so words occurred frequently in written texts and that a knowledge of these words would greatly assist in reading a foreign language. Harold Palmer, Michael West, and other specialists produced a guide to the English vocabulary needed for teaching English as a foreign language, The Interim Report on Vocabulary Selection (Faucett, West, Palmer, and Thorndike 1936), based on frequency as well as other criteria. This was later revised by West and published in 1953 as A General Service List of English Words, which became a standard reference in developing teaching materials. These efforts to introduce a scientific and rational basis for choosing the vocabulary content of a language course represented the first attempts to establish principles of syllabus design in language teaching.

Grammar Control

Parallel to the interest in developing rational principles for vocabulary selection was a focus on the grammatical content of a language course. Palmer had emphasized the problems of grammar for the foreign course. Much of his work in Japan, where he directed the Institute for Research in English Teaching from 1922 until World War II, was directed toward developing classroom procedures suited to teaching basic Grammar Translation Method, however, which was based on the assumption that one universal logic formed the basis of all languages and that the teacher’s responsibility was to show how each category of the universal grammar was to be expressed in the foreign language. Palmer viewed grammar as the underlying sentence patterns of the spoken language. Palmer, Hornby, and other British applied linguists analyzed English and classified in major grammatical structures into sentence patterns (later called “substitution tables”), which could be used to help internalize the rules of English sentence structure.

A classification of English sentence patterns was incorporated into the first dictionary for students of English as a foreign language, developed by Hornby, Gatenby, and Wakefield and published in 1953 as The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. A number of pedagogically motivated descriptions of English grammar were undertaken, including A Grammar of Spoken English on a Strictly Phonetic Basis (Palmer and Blandford 1939), A Handbook of English Grammar (Zandvoort 1945), and Horby’s Guide to Patterns and Usage in English (1954), which became a standard reference source of basic English sentence patterns for textbook writers. With the development of systematic approaches to the lexical and grammatical content of a language course and with the efforts of such specialists as Palmer, West, and Hornby in using these resources as part of a comprehensive methodological framework for the teaching of English as a foreign language, the foundation for the British approach in TEFL/TESL — the Oral Approach — were firmly established.

Theory of Learning

The theory of learning underlying Situational Language Teaching is a type of behaviorist habit-learning theory. It addresses primarily the processes rather than the conditions of learning.

Situational Language Teaching adopts an inductive approach to the teaching of grammar. The meaning of words or structures is not to be given through explanation in either the native language or the target language but is to be induced from the way the form is used in a situation. “If we give the meaning of a new word, either by translation into the home language or y an equivalent in the same language, as soon as we introduce it, we weaken the impression which the word makes on the mind” (Billows 1961: 28). Explanation is therefore discouraged, and the learner is expected to deduce the meaning of a particular structure or vocabulary to new situations takes place by generalization. The learner is expected to apply the language learned in a classroom to situations outside the classroom. This is how child language learning is believed to take place, and the same processes are thought to occur in second and foreign language learning, according to practitioners of Situational Language Teaching.

Objectives

The objectives of the Situational Language Teaching method are to teach a practical command of the four basic skills of language, goals it shares with most methods of language teaching. But the skills are approached though structure. Accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar is regarded as crucial, and errors are to be avoided at all costs. Automatic control of basic structures and sentence patterns in fundamental to readeing and writing skills, and this is achieved through speech work. “Before our pupils read new structures and new vocabulary, we shall teach orally both the new structures and the new vocabulary” (Pittman 1963: 186). Writing likewise derives from speech.

Nevertheless, the skill with which this activity is handles depends largely on the control of the language suggested by the teacher and used by the children… Only when the teacher is reasonably certain that learners can speak fairly correctly with the limits of their knowledge of sentence structure and vocabulary may he allow them free choice in sentence patterns and vocabulary (Pittman 1963: 188).

Learner Roles

In the initial stages of learning, the learner is required simply to listen and repeat what the teacher says and to respond to questions and commands. The learner has no control over the content of learning and is often regarded as likely succumb to undesireable behaviors unless skillfully manipulated by the teacher. For example, the learner might lapse into faulty grammar or pronunciation, forget what has been taught, or fail to respond quickly enough; incorrect habits are to be avoided at all costs. Later, more active participation is encouraged. This includes learners initiating responses and asking each other questions, although teacher-controlled introduction and practice of new language is stressed throughout.

Teacher Roles

The teacher’s function is threefold. In the presentation stage of the lesson, the teacher serves as a model, detting up situations in which the need for the target structure is created and then modeling the new structure for students to repeat. Then the teacher “becomes more like the skillful conductor of an orchestra, drawing the music out of the performers” (Byrne 1976: 2). The teacher is required to be a skillful manipulator, using questions, commands, and other cues to elicit correct sentences from the learners. Lessons are hence teacher-directed, and the teacher sets the pace.

During the practice phase of the lesson, students are given more of an opportunity to use the language in less controlled situations, but the teacher is ever on the lookout for grammatical and structural errors that can form the basis of subsequent lessons. Organizing review is a primary task for the teacher, according to Puttman (1963), who summarizes the teacher’s responsibilities as dealing with
1. timing
2. oral practice, to support the textbook structures
3. revision [i.e., review]
4. adjustment to special needs of individuals
5. testing
6. developing language activities other than those arising from the textbook
(Pittman 1963: 177-178)

The teacher is essential to the success of the method, since the textbook is able only to describe activities for the teacher to carry out in class.

The Role of Instructional Materials

Situational Language Teaching is dependent on both a textbook and visual aids. The textbook contains tightly organized lessons planned around different grammatical structures. Visual aids may be produced by the techer or may be commercially produced; they consist of wall charts, flashcards, pictures, stick figures, and so on. The visual element together with a carefully graded grammatical syllabus is a crucial aspect of Situational Language Teaching, hence the importance of the textbook. In principle, however, the textbook should be used “only as a guide to the learning process. The teacher is expected to be the master of his textbook” (Pittman 1963: 176).

Procedure

Classroom procedures in Situational Language Teaching vary according to the level of the class, but procedures at any level aim to move from controlled to freer practice of structures and from oral use of sentence patterns to their automatic use in speech, reading, and writing. Pittman gives an example of a typical lesson plan:

The first part of the lesson will be streess 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. oral practice (drilling)
5. reading of material on the new structures, or written exercises

Davies et al. give sample lesson plans for use with Situational Language Teaching. The structures being taught in the following lesson are “This is a…” and “That’s a…”

The teacher’s kit, a collection of items and realia that can be used in situational language practice, is hence an essential part of the teacher’s equipment.

Davies et al. likewise give detailed information about teaching procedures to be used with Situational Language Teaching. The sequence of activities they propose consists of the following:

1. Listening practice in which the teacher obtains his student’s attention and repeats an example of the patterns or a word in isolation clearly, several times, probably saying it slowly at least once (where… is… the… pen?), seperating the words.
2. Choral imitation in which students all together or in large groups repeat what the teacher has said. This works best if the teacher gives a clear instructure like “Repeat,” or “Everybody” and hand signals to mark time and stress.
3. Individual imitation in which the teacher asks several individual students to repeat the model he has given in order to check their pronunciation.
4. Isolation, in which the teacher isolates sounds, words, or groups of words which cause trouble and goes through techniques 1-3 with them before replacing them in context.
5. Building up to a new model, in which the teacher gets students to ask and answer questions using patterns they already kow in order to bring about the information necessary to introduce the new model.
6. Elicitation, in which the teacher, using mime, prompt words, gestures, etc., gets students to ask questions, make statements, or give new examples of the pattern.
7. Substitution drilling, in whcih the teacher uses cue words (words, pictures, numbers, names, etc.) to get individual students to mix the examples of the new patterns.
8. Question-answer drilling, in which the teacher gets one student to ask question and another to answer until most students in the class have practiced asking and answering the new question form.
9. Correction, in which the teacher indicates by shaking his head, repeating the error, etc., that there is a mistake and invites the student or a different student to correct it. Where possible the teacher does not simply correct the mistake himself. He gets students to correct themselves so they will be encouraged to listen to each other carefully.

Conclusion

Procedures associated with Situational Language Teaching in the 1950s and 1960s were an extension and further development of well-established techniques advocated by proponents of the earlier Oral Approach in the British school of language teaching. The essential features of SLT are seen in the “P-P-P” lesson model that thousands of teachers who studied for the RSA/Cambridge Certificate in TEFL were required to master in the 1980s and early 1990s, with a lesson having three phases: Presentation (introduction of a new teaching item in context), Practice (controlled practice of the item), and Production (a freer practice phase) (Willis and Willis 1996). SLT provided the methodology of major methodology texts throughout the 1980s and beyond (e.g., Hubbard et al. 1983), and, as we noted, textbooks written according to the principles of Situational Language Teaching continue to be widely used in many parts of the world, particularly when materials are based on a grammatical syllabus. Situational Language Teaching, with its strong emphasis on oral practice, grammar, and sentence patterns, conform to the intuitions of many language teachers and offer a practical methodology suited to countries where national EFL/ESL syllabuses continue to be grammatically based, it continues to be widely used.