英语毕业论文--The main methods and approaches in English teaching.doc

The main methods and approaches in English teaching Compare, contrast and critically evaluate the main methods and approaches that have been used in English language teaching, comment on the extent to which each of these can be used in your future teaching practice. Introduction Language teaching has a long, fascinating, but rather tortuous history. For over centuries, there are a lot of methods and approaches in language teaching. (Stern, 1984) But in this essay, only five main methods and approaches are discussed for developments in linguistics, psychology, pedagogy, and second language acquisition research have cast light on what is more likely and less likely to work. They are the grammar-translation method, the direct method, the audio-lingual method, situational language teaching, communicative language teaching. We will focus on their development, principal characteristics, advantages and drawbacks. The implication for the methods and approaches in my future teaching practice will be introduced briefly. 1. The Grammar-translation Method 1.1 The Development The grammar-translation method is one of the most traditional methods, dating back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was originally used to teach Latin and Greek which are not taught for everyday communication. However the method was gradually generalized to teach living or modern languages such as English or French, etc. It has been used by teachers of English for about a hundred years. 1.2 The Principal Characteristics The goal of the method is to read and translate the literary masterpieces and classics, not to communicate in the daily life. Grammatical rules are taught deductively in class; reading and writing are mainly focused; vocabulary is taught in the form of isolated word lists; no attention is paid to speaking and listening; little attention is paid to pronunciation; reading of difficult texts is begun early in the course of study; sentences are the basic unit of teach