Rubiales, Janus Abiel S.Jaime, Jessa Mae A.

Villanueva, Jewel Rose A.

•British linguist: Harold Palmer and A.S. Hornby, 1920s to 1960s•It involves Systematic principles of selection, gradation and presentation.

ORAL APPROACH AND SITUATIONAL LANGUAGE TEACHING

•SELECTION- the procedures by which lexical and grammatical content were chosen.•GRADATION- principles by which the organization and sequencing of content were chosen.•PRESENTATION- techniques used for presentation and practice items in a course.

1) Language teaching begins with the spoken language.

2)The target language is the language of the classroom.

3) New language points are introduced and practiced situationally.

CHARACTERISTIC

4) Vocabulary selection procedures are followed.

5)Items of grammar are graded following a principle.

6)Reading and writing are introduced once a sufficient lexical and grammatical basis is established.

CHARACTERISTIC

•VOCABULARY CONTROL - focuses on vocabulary and reading is one of the most salient traits of SLT.  In fact, mastery of a set of high frequency vocabulary items is believed to lead to good reading skills.•GRAMMAR CONTROL

- An analysis of English and a classification of its prominent grammatical structures into sentence patterns, also called situational tables, is believed to help learners internalize grammatical rules.

FEATURES

•Theory of Language - The theory of language underlying Situational Language Teaching can be characterized as a type of British “structuralism.” •Structuralism is the methodology that elements of human culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure. It works to uncover the structures that underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel.

APPROACHES

•Speech is regarded as the basis of language and structure is viewed as being the heart of speaking ability.•“The emphasis now is on the description of language activity as part of the whole complex of events which, together with the participants and relevant objects, make up actual situation” (Halliday, McInTosh and Strevens 196:30)

•Theory of Learning - The theory of learning underlying Situational Language Teaching is a type of behaviourist habit-learning theory. It addresses primarily the processes rather than the conditions of learning. • Learning theories are conceptual frameworks

describing how information is absorbed, processed, and retained during learning. •Cognitive, emotional, and environmental

influences, as well as prior experience, all play a part in how understanding, or a world view, is acquired or changed and knowledge and skills retained.

APPROACHES

To teach a practical command of the four basic skills of language

Approach through structure Accuracy in both pronunciation and

grammar errors to be avoided Automatic control of basic structures and

sentence patterns is fundamental to reading and writing skill

OBJECTIVES

Structural syllabus and a word list Basic structure and sentence

patterns

THE SYLLABUS

Note: situation = manner of presenting and practicing sentence patterns

Situational language teaching employs a situational approach presenting new sentence patterns and a drill-based manner of practicing them.

Guided repetition and substitution activities e.g. Chorus repetition, dictation, drills, and controlled oral-based reading and writing tasks

Pair practice and group work

Types of Learning and Teaching Activities

Learner Roles-required to simply listen and repeat what teacher says-respond to questions and commands-active participation is encouraged

Teacher Roles-serves as a model-setting up situations in which the need for target structure is created-modelling the new structure for students to repeat

•ADVANTAGES- Situational Language Teaching is still attractive to many teachers who still believe in structural practice of language. Its practicality in the teaching of grammar patterns has contributed to the survival of the approach until recently. Besides, its emphasis on oral practice still attracts support among language teachers.

•DISADVANTAGES - Many premises underlying the approach have been criticized. For example Chomsky (1957) showed that the structural and the behaviouristic approaches to language are simply incorrect as they do not explain the fundamental feature of language learning: the ability to create novel and unique sentences. Children do not acquire their mother tongue through repetition and habit formation. There must be, however, an innate predisposition that lead them to a certain kind of linguistic competence.

REFERENCE

• http://www.myenglishpages.com/blog/situational-language-teaching-oral-approach/

END OF SLIDETHANKS!