Situational Language
Teaching
Background
It was an approach for ELT developed by the British linguists from the 1930s to the 1960s.
Two of the leaders in this movement
were Harold Palmer and A. S. Hornby.
Aim: To develop a more scientific
foundation for an oral approach to ELT than the Direct Method.
Harold Edward Palmer
Hornby, Albert Sydney
Vocabulary control
Vocabulary was one of the most important aspects.
Reading skills were emphasised as the goal of foreign language study in some countries.
Palmer, Michael West and others produced the Interim Report on
Vocabulary Selection (1936).
Later revised by West (1953) as A
Grammar control
Palmer’s view on grammar was very
different from the abstract model of Grammar Translation-Method.
Palmer, Hornby and other British
applied linguists analysed English and classified its major grammatical
structures into sentence patterns (later called ‘substitution tables’).
The Oral Approach and
Situational Language
The new method involved systematic principles of selection, gradation and presentation.
It was referred as the Oral Approach so as not to be confused with the
Direct Method.
One of its most active proponents in the 60s was the Australian George Pittman.
Main characteristics
1. Language teaching begins with
spoken language. Material is presented orally before it is presented in written form.
2. The target language is the language
of the classroom.
3. New language points are introduced
and practiced situationally.
4. Vocabulary selection procedures are
followed to ensure that an essential general service vocabulary is
Main characteristics
5. Items of grammar are graded
following the principle that simple forms should be taught before
complex ones.
6. Reading and writing are introduced
once a sufficient lexical and
grammatical basis is established.
How can SLT be characterised at the levels of approach, design, and
APPROACH
Theory of language
Teaching can be characterised as a type of British ‘structuralism’.
Speech was the basis of language.
Structure was the heart of speaking ability.
“Word Order, Structural Words, the few inflections of English, Content Words, will form the material of our teaching” – Frisby, 1957.
“Our principal classroom activity in the teaching of English structure will be oral practice structures. This oral practice of controlled sentence patterns should be given in situations designed to give the greatest amount of practice in English speech to the pupil” – Pittman, 1963.
Theory of learning
A type of behaviourist habit-learning theory.
“There are three processes in learning a language – receiving the knowledge or materials, fixing it in the memory by
repetition, and using it in actual practice until it becomes a personal skill” – Frisby,
1957.”
“The fundamental is correct speech
habits… The pupils should be able to put the words, without hesitation and almost without thought, into sentence patterns
which are correct. Such speech habits can be cultivated by blind imitative drill” –
Theory of learning
Like the Direct Method, SLT adopts an inductive approach to the teaching of grammar.
“If we give the meaning of a new word, either by translation into the home
language or by an equivalent in the same language, as soon as we
introduce it, we weaken the impression which the word makes on the mind” –
DESIGN
Objectives
To teach a practical command of the four basic skills of language.
Skills are approached through structure.
Accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar is crucial. Errors to be
avoided at all costs.
Automatisation of basic structures and sentence patterns is fundamental to
reading and writing skills; achieved through speech work.
The syllabus
Basic to teaching SLT is a structural syllabus and a word list.
Structural syllabus: a list of basic
structures and sentence patterns of English, arranged according to their order of presentation.
‘Situation’ refers to the manner of
presenting and practising sentence patterns.
Types of learning
A situational approach to present new
sentence patterns.
A drill-based manner of practising them.
The use of concrete objects, pictures, and realia, which together with actions and gestures can be used to
demosntrate the meanings of new language items.
Practice Techniques
Guided repetition. Substitution activities. Chorus repetition. Dictation. Drills. Controlled oral-based reading and writing tasks.
Learner roles
Initial stage: Ss listen & repeat;
respond to questions and commands.
Later learners may initiate responses and ask each other questions,
although teacher-controlled
introduction and practice of new language is stressed throughout.
Teacher roles
The teacher’s function is threefold: 1. A model.
2. Conductor of an orchestra.
3. A watchman.
Responsibilities:
1. Timing
2. Oral practice, to suport the textbook structures.
3. Revision (i.e. review)
4. Adjustments to special needs of individuals.
5. Testing.
6. Developing language abilities other than those arising from the textbook.
The role of instrumental material
Situational Language Teaching is
dependent upon both a textbook and visual aids.
Visual aids: charts, flashcards, pictures, sticks figures, and so on.
A carefully graded grammatical syllabus is a crucial aspect of SLT.
The textbook should be used “only as a
a guide to the learning process. The
teacher is expected to be the master of his textbook” – Pittman 1963
