Teaching Methods: Grammar Translation Method is Useful in the ESOL (ESL, EFL) Classroom

I am going to take this opportunity to defend the Grammar-Translation method. The Grammar Translation Method gets a really bad rap in the ESOL (ESL, EFL) world. But I find it to be invaluable to my ESOL (ESL, EFL) teaching situation and it should not be ruled out as a helpful teaching method in the ESOL (ESL, EFL) classroom. I have been using Participatory Language Teaching as an inspiration for much of my daily lesson plans which frowns upon the use of the Grammar Translation Method. However, I cannot get away from the usefulness of the Grammar-Translation method for some situations. I don't use the Grammar Translation Method in the ESOL (ESL, EFL) classroom as a primary learning tool, but as a way to facilitate the learning process for the students with low level of English proficiency.

The Grammar-Translation method was once very popular but has since been replaced with methods that purportedly obtain better results. In my ESOL (ESL, EFL) classroom, for the first part of the lesson the students read a short story in the target language and then translate it sentence by sentence into their native language. Along with the reading "new words are presented in a list (I accompany each word with a picture) with definitions in the" target language (Richard-Amato p.16).

Many of you who will teach children in a public school overseas will find yourself in a mixed level classroom of English language learners who all speak the same native language and you do not but for a couple hundred words of foreigner speak (if you are lucky). Often times you will be assigned a co-teacher who is a native speaker of that countries language. These co-teachers may or may not show up for your ESOL (ESL, EFL) class, and may or may not have sufficient proficiency in English to help you. At this point the Grammar Translation Method may be your only way to communicate to the students.

It is a difficult situation where you are essentially teaching two ESOL (ESL, EFL) classes simultaneously; one an advanced level and the other a beginner level. Many times the only way for me to communicate the directions for an activity or to explain new vocabulary to the lower level ESOL (ESL, EFL) students is to have the advanced ESOL (ESL, EFL) students translate the target language material into their native language so that the low proficiency students can understand and participate in the lesson. The Grammar Translation Method is sometimes the only way to handle this type of teaching situation. While this may not be the best way to increase the English proficiency of the advanced level students, it ensures that the low level students are able to participate in class and be a part of the learning process.

*If you enjoyed this interesting and informative article on the Grammar Translation Method, please view my other ESOL (ESL, EFL) articles by clicking my name "Tesl Goddess" .

Reference:

Richard-Amato, P. (1996). Making It Happen: Interaction in the Second Language Classroom (Second Edition). New York: Longman.