Grammar translation method

Grammar translation method

As a team and according to our research the grammar translation method is one of the oldest ways of acquiring a target language. There are two goals that this method is looking forward to completing with full success, the two main objectives are: reading and writing, in other words it is needless to mention that their goal will never be acquiring the ability to communicate in the target language, or rather, students are considered successful if they can translate from one language into another.

No student has to be concerned about improving their speaking and listening skills while almost zero attention to pronunciation is given. In this kind of method the only authority is the teacher and for them It is really important that the students get the correct answer as many times as possible; this might probably sound like teachers are actually engineers creating new computers instead of students, but It is just because of the method itself because students do not have to acquire a skill related to productivity when using the target language, they have to learn a set of grammatical rules so they know when making a mistake and correct it; however they hardly will think about any idea further than required.

Some experts have even mentioned that this method is all the opposite from the direct method because one of the characteristics of the grammar translation method is that they get to learn through attention to similarities between target language and the native one which is something that a direct method teacher will never allow in their life. It is also considered that grammar itself helps students to have a good mental exercise and to use in a different level their critical thinking in their everyday life, just like mathematics every learner has to be conscious of the rules of the target language.

Techniques

- Reading and comprehension questions
- Antonyms and synonyms
- Fill in the blank
- Translation of literacy passage
- Memorization
- Use words in sentences
              Deductive application of rules

Any teacher that applies this method should be aware that the criteria to be evaluated should always be: Grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, written tests and questions about the target language culture or applying grammar rules.

In the following chart, some advantages and disadvantages will be shown.

Pros Cons
Teachers do not need a lot of preparation Students are passive and less self-directed
Students' reading and writing skills are well trained Students might be poor at communicative skills because of lacking of practice and content knowledge
Comparison between two languages helps students to have a better understanding of abstract words and complicated sentences. The process is reserved, how we naturally learn our mother tongue is listening, speaking, reading and writing.


Source:
Cognate (Words). 2015 http://grammarabout.com/of/c/g/cognateterm.htm

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