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1.4.TheNaturalandtheDirectMethods
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readingwhentheirpronunciationwascorrect.Theorthographywasmisleading
indevelopingproperpronunciationandsowasitsuseasthenotationforpro-
nunciation.Asaresult,phonetictranscriptionwasintroducedtoteachingEnglish
andFrench.Oraltechniquesincludedquestion-and-answeractivities,retelling,
andsummarizingtostimulatethelearnerstousethenewmaterial.Themedium
ofcommunicationintheclassroomwastheforeignlanguagewhilethenativelan-
guagewasreservedsolelyforprovidingthemeaningofsomevocabularyitems.
TeachersoftheReformMovementwerenon-nativespeakersofthetargetlan-
guage.Howatt(1984:173)states:‘TheReformMovementconsistedofnon-native
teacherswhoacceptedthebasicsenseofthemonolingualprinciple,butdidnot
seeanyadvantageinanextremistview.,
Theprincipleoftheconnectedtextwaswellaccepted.Thelawofassocia-
tionwasrecognizedbythenewlyemergingscienceofpsychology,whereasthe
learningmaterialconsistingofabsurd,disconnectedsentencesillustratingpoints
ofgrammarwasstronglycriticized.Tobelearned,thematerialhadtobeinter-
nallyconnectedtoallowassociations.Translationwasdiscouragedforfearof
undesirableassociationsbetweenthenativeandtheforeignlanguagepreventing
thedevelopmentofthelanguagetobelearned.Thetextwastreatedasthemate-
rialforlearningrulesofgrammarinductively,ratherthantheillustrationofthe
rulesalreadylearned.Manyauthorssuggestedlearninggrammarafterthetext,s
presentation.
Thecontrastbetweeninductiveanddeductivelearningofgrammarrules
shouldbeclearbynow.Inductionisthereasoningoperationinwhichwedraw
conclusionsfromtheparticulartothegeneral.Inthecaseoflanguagelearning,
thismeansprogressingfromsamplesentencesinwhichcertainformsappearto
ageneralizationaboutformsandtheircontext,expressedintheformofarule
(astatementabouttheprinciplegoverningtheoccurrenceoftheform).Deduction
isareverseprocessinwhichwestartwiththegeneralizationandmakeinferences
regardingthespecificinstancesoftherule.Inthecaseoflearninggrammar,this
startswiththepresentationofagrammarrule,whichissubsequentlyillustrated
withvarioussamplesentences.
1.4.TheNaturalandtheDirectMethods
TheessenceoftheDirectMethodcanbeexplainedwithaquotefromHowatt
(1984:234):‘TheDirectMethodoriginatedinadesiretodosomethingthatthe
schoolsofthetimewerenotdoing,andcouldnotdo,namelytoteachforeignlan-
guagesaspracticalskillsforeverydaypurposesofsocialsurvival.Questionsof
educationalvalueand‘worthwhileness,wereirrelevant,whatmatteredwasthe
abilitytocommunicateeffectivelyinordinary(‘trivial,)life.,
ItwouldbeimpossibletomakearigorousdistinctionbetweentheNatural
andtheDirectMethod.‘Natural,comesfromNature,anditisbasedontheobser-
vationofthenaturalprocessthroughwhichchildrenlearntheirmothertongue.