A BRIEF HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to present a brief overview of the main English language teaching methods as for more than a century it was thought that the successful acquisition of a foreign language depended on the teaching methodology. The beginning of English language teaching was marked by the traditional, classical method grammar/translation following into the steps of classical language teaching, Latin and Greek. However, from the very beginning it was opposed by the intuitive approach of learning a language through practice only, which is the forerunner of the direct/oral method. The development of technology and the improvement in communication led to more modern approaches such as the audiolingual and audiovisual methods and, later on, to the functional and communicative methods. Last but not least, some of the latest findings in psychology developed the so-called humanistic approaches which consider that feelings and emotions play an important part in acquiring a foreign language. Praised and criticized, in turn, all these methods have brought an important contribution to the development of English language teaching.

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