Direct Method - ELT

THE DIRECT METHOD
As with the Grammar Translation Method, the Direct Method is not new. Its principles have been applied by language teachers for many years. Most recently, it was revived as a method when the of instruction became learning how to use a foreign language to communicate. The Direct Method has one very basic rule : No translation is allowed. In fact, the Direct Method receives its name from the fast that meaning is to be connected directly with the target language, without going through the process of translating into the students’ native language.
EXPERIENCE
The teacher is calling the class to order as we find seats toward the back of the room. He has placed a big map of the United States in the front of the classroom. He asks the students to open their book to a  certain page number. The lesson is entitled “Looking at the Map.” As the students are called one by one, they read a sentence from the reading passage at the beginning of the lesson. The teacher points to the part of the map the sentence describes after each student has read his sentence.
After the students finish reading their passage, they are asked if they have any questions.  The teacher answer their question and asks some of his own. The question and answer session continues for a few more minutes. Finally, the teacher invites the students to ask question. Hands go up, and the teacher calls students to pose question one at the time, to which the class replies. The teacher allows the class to answer the question.
The teacher next instructs the students to turn to an exercise in the lesson to fill in the blanks. They read sentence out loud and supply the missing word as they are reading. Finally, teacher asks the students to take out their notebooks and he gives them dictation. The passage he dictates is one paragraph long and is about the geography of the United States.
During the remaining two classes this week, the class will :
1.    Review the features of United States geography.
2.    Following the teacher’s directions, label blank maps with these geographical features. After this, the students will directions to teacher, who will complete a map on the blackboard.
3.    Practice the pronunciation of “river”, paying particular attention to the /I/ in the first syllable.
4.    Write a paragraph about the major geographical features of the United States.
5.    Discuss the proverb “Time is Money”. Students will talk about this in order to understand that Americans value punctuality. They will compare this attitude with their attitude with their own view of time.
THINKING ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE
Let’s make some observation on our experience. The principles of the Direct Method that can be inferred from our observations will be listed below.
OBSERVATION    PRINCIPLES
1.    The students read aloud a passage about United States geography.    Reading in the  target passage should be taught from the beginning of language instruction; however, the reading skill will be develop through practice with speaking. Language is primary speech.
2.    The teacher points to a part of the map after each sentence is read.    Objects present in the immediate classroom environment should be used to help students understand the meaning.
3.    The teacher users the target language to ask the students if they have a question. The students use the target language to ask their questions.    The native language should not be used in the classroom.
4.    The teacher answers the students’ question by giving examples.    The teacher should demonstrate, not explain or translate. It is desirable that students make a direct association between the target language meaning.
5.    The teacher asks questions about the map in the target language, to which the students reply in a complete sentence in the target language.    Students should learn to think in the target language as soon as possible. Vocabulary is acquired more naturally if the students use in full sentences, rather than memorizing word lists.
6.    Students ask questions about the map.    The purpose of language learning is communication (therefore students need to learn how to ask questions as well as answer them).
7.    The teacher works with the students on the pronunciation of “Appalachian”.    Pronunciation should be worked on right from the beginning of language instruction.
8.    The teacher corrects a grammar error by asking the students to make a choice.    Self-correction facilities language learning.
9.    The teacher asks questions about the students, the students ask each other questions.    Lesson should contain some conversational activity-some opportunity for students to use language in real contexts. Students should be encouraged to speak as much as possible.
10.    The students fill in blanks with prepositions practices in the lesson.    Grammar should be taught inductively. There may never be an explicit grammar rule given.
11.    The teacher dictates a paragraph about United States geography.    Writing is an important skill, to be developed from the beginning of language instruction.
12.    All of the lesson of the week involve United Stated geography.    The syllabus is based on situations or topics, not usually on linguistic structures.
13.    A proverb is used to discuss how Americans view punctuality.    Learning another language also involves learning how speakers of that language live.

REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
The principles of the Direct Method :
1.    What are the goals of teachers who use the Direct Method ?
Teachers who use the Direct Method intend that students learn how to communicate in the target language. In order to do this successfully students should learn to think in the target language.
2.    What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
Although the teacher directs the class activities, the student role is less passive than in the Grammar Translation Method. The teacher and the students are more like partners in teaching/learning process.
3.    What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
Teachers who use the Direct Method believe students need to associate meaning in the target language directly.  In order to do this, when the teacher introduces a new target language word or phrases, he demonstrates its meaning through the us e of pictures. Students speak in the target language a great deal and communicate as if they were in real situations.
4.    What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?
The initiation of the interaction goes both ways, from teacher to students and from students to student to teacher, through the latter is often teacher directed. Students converse with one another as well.
5.    How are the feeling of the students dealt with?
There are no principles of the method which relate to this area.
6.    How is language viewed? How is culture viewed?
Language is primarily in spoken, not written. Therefore, students study common, everyday speech in the target language. They also study the culture consisting of the history of the people who speak the target language, the geography of the country of countries where the language is spoken, and information about the daily lives of the speakers  of the language.
7.    What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?
Vocabulary is emphasized over grammar. Although work on all four skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) occurs from the start, oral communication is seen as basic.
8.    What is the role of the students’ native language?
The students’ native language should not be used in the classroom.
9.    How is evaluation accomplished?
We didn’t actually see any formal evaluation in the class we observed; however, in the Direct Method, students are asked to use the language, not to demonstrate their knowledge about the language. They are asked to do so using both oral and written skills. For example, the students might be interviewed orally by the teacher or might be asked to write a paragraph about something they have studied.
10.    How does the teacher respond to student errors?
The teacher, employing various techniques, tries to get students to self-correct whenever possible.
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES
     Reading Aloud
Students take turns reading sections of passage, play, or dialog out loud. At the end of each student’s turn, the teacher uses gestures, pictures, examples, or other means to make the meaning of the section clear.

     Question and Answer Exercise
This exercise is conducted only in the target language. Students are asked questions and answer in full sentences so that they practice with new words and grammatical structure. They have the opportunity to ask questions as well as answer them.

     Getting Students to Self-Correct
The teacher of this class has the students self-correct by asking them to make a choice between what they said an alternate answer he supplied. There are, however, other ways of getting students to self-correct. For example, a teacher might simply repeat what a student has just said, using a questioning voice to signal that something was wrong with it. Another possibility is for the teacher to repeat what the student said, stopping just before the error. The student knows that the next word was wrong.

     Conversation Practice
The teacher asks students a number of questions in the target language, which the students have to understand to be able to answer correctly. In the class observed, the teacher asked individual students questions about themselves. The question contained a particular grammar structure. Later, the students were able to ask each other their own question using the same grammatical structure.

     Fill-in-the-blank Exercise
This technique has already been discussed in the Grammar-Translation Method, but differs in its application in the Direct Method. All the items are in the target language; furthermore, no explicit grammar rule would be applied. The students would have induced the grammar rule they need to fill in the blanks from examples and practice with earlier parts of the lesson.

     Dictation
The teacher reads the passage three times. The first time the teacher reads it at a normal speed, while the students just listen. The second time he reads the passage phrase by phrase, pausing long enough to allow students to write down what they have heard. The last time the teacher again reads at a normal speed, and the students check their work.

     Paragraph Writing
The teacher in the class asked the students to write a paragraph in their own words on the major geographical features of the United States. They could have done this from memory, or they could have used the reading passage in the lesson as a model.