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1.Foreignlanguageteachinginahistoricalperspective
Sweet,whichhavebecomealaughingstockintheliteratureonforeignlanguage
teaching:
Thecatofmyauntismoretreacherousthanthedogofyouruncle.
Wespeakaboutyourcousin,andyourcousinAmeliaislovedbyheruncleandheraunt.
Mysonshaveboughtthemirrorsoftheduke.
Horsesaretallerthantigers.
Seidenstrücker,sdisconnectedsentencesespeciallyconstructedforteaching
grammarwereturnedintoaprinciplebyKarlPlötz(1819–1881),whowasan
influentialfigureinforeignlanguageteachinginEuropelongafterhisdeath.His
methodwasdividedintotwoparts:(1)rulesandparadigms,and(2)sentencesfor
translationfromandintothetargetlanguage.Throughoutthenineteenthcentu-
ry,languageteachinginschoolsfollowedPlötz,stechniques.Itwasamatterof
usingthefirstlanguagetoacquirethesecond,rotelearningofgrammarrules,put-
tinggrammaticallabelsonwords,andapplyingtherulesbytranslatingsentences.
TheGrammarTranslationMethoddominatedforeignlanguageteachingin
thenineteenthcentury.Becauseoftheactivitiesitproposedandtheemphasison
thewrittenlanguage,themethodwasappropriateforbecomingskilledingram-
maticalanalysisandreading.Needlesstosay,inthemeantimetheneedsand
expectationstowardlanguagelearningchangedratherdramaticallyandthe
methodcameunderattackforitsobsoleteproceduresandmaterials.
1.3.ReactionstotheGrammarTranslationMethod
AlternativeswhichemergedinreactiontotheGrammarTranslationMethod
stressedteachingaforeignlanguagewithoutthemediationofexplicitgrammar
instruction,i.e.directlyfromtextandconversation,andtheprimacyofthespok-
enlanguageoverreadingandwriting.Oneoftherepresentativesofthisreaction
wasClaudeMarcel(1793–1896),whosoughtinspirationforforeignlanguage
teachinginthewaychildrenlearntheirnativelanguage.Hearguedfortheaboli-
tionoftranslationandgrammarrulesandstressedtheroleofmeaning,making
apointfortheteachingoflanguagefirstbycomprehensionoftexts,listening,
followedbyspeakingandwriting.In1867hewroteatreatiseTheStudyof
LanguageBroughtBacktoItsTruePrinciples,ortheArtofThinkingintheForeign
Language,accordingtowhichlisteningandreadingmakeupmostoftheinstruc-
tionandformaltrainingingrammarisavoided.Prendergast(1806–1886)also
lookedatchildrenlearningtheirnativetonguetonoticethattheyusesituational
cluestointerpretutterancesandmemorizewholephrasestobeusedinspeaking
(RichardsandRodgers,1986).By1866,aprivateschoolforteachinglanguages
withanaturalmethodwasopenedbyHenness,whichwasintendedasanextreme
reactionagainstthegrammartranslationmethodsofPlötz,Ahn,andOllendorf.
Itwasbasedontherecurrentideathataforeignlanguageistobelearnedinthe
samewayasthechildlearnshisorhermothertongue.Themethodwasfairly