The Methodology Series

DM stands for the Direct Method
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Teacher’s goals in using this method
Enabling students to communicate in the target language. To that end, they, students, are to be made to think in the target language through much exposure to the studied language and not involving the mother tongue at all, if possible.

Teachers’ roles
* still assumes a position of authority
* directs in-class activities

Students’ roles
Less passive than they were in the GTM as far as they are prompted to communicate by the T.

Interaction patterns
* Teacher → Students: Most common as interaction is often initiated by the teacher.
* Students → Teacher: Less common, but students can initiate the talk by asking questions.
* Students → Students: They can also converse with each other to a certain limit.

Students affective aspect, is it considered?
There are no principles of the method that relates to this side.

Language and culture views
Language is primarily spoken more than written. That explains why students are taught common, everyday speech of the target language.
Culture is given a much more important stake ( if you consider everyday speech as part and parcel of every people’s culture)

Language areas emphasized
Vocabulary (dangling more towards everyday life speech) is emphasized over grammar. This latter is taught inductively.

Language skills emphasized
Speaking is emphasized over all other skills. This does not mean that reading, listening and writing aren’t taught. Usually, reading or writing learning is based upon what has been introduced and studied orally.

Position of students’ primary tongue
All classes are taught exclusively in the target language, and it is recommended that students’ mother tongue not to be used in class aiming, thus, at achieving a native-like fluency.
Even thinking in the target language is fostered and favored to achieve the aforementioned goal that of a native-like fluency in using the language.

Evaluation
* Students are asked to use the language, not to demonstrate their knowledge of it.
* Students can be interviewed to assess their oral performance/ fluency.
* Students can be asked to write a paragraph about something they have studied.
, etcetera.

Prepared by: Nouamane ERRIFKI
References:

Diane-Larsen, Freeman. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. England: Oxford University Press, 1990.

The Methodology Series

DM stands for the Direct Method
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Errors
T. urges his students to self-correct using different techniques.

Typical techniquesReading aloud
Students take turns in reading aloud sections of a text, dialogue or a play. The teacher, after every section, uses realia, pictures, mime or examples to explain.

Question and answer exercise
This exercise is exclusively carried out in the target language. It consists of questions to which students are to find answers. These latter should be in full sentences to practice new vocabulary and grammatical structures.

Student self-correctionSome techniques for students to self-correct:
1- T. asks students to make a choice between what they said and another alternative (this is also a way that can be exploited to know whether it is a mistake or an error.)
2- T. repeating the mistake with a questioning tone to draw the student’s attention to the mistake.
3- T. repeating the student’s sentence only to stop just before the mistake/ error.

Conversation practice
Only a particular grammatical structure is stressed at a time. It goes when the T. asks questions using a particular grammatical structure and students should answer them. Then students start questioning each other with a focus on the same grammatical structure.

Fill-in-the blank exercise
An activity where items, in the target language, are missing. Those items required to fill in the blanks are to be induced from previously presented lessons. They are not explicitly handed as it was the case for GTM’s fill-in-the blanks exercise.

Dictation
T. reads the passage three times:
1st instance of reading is for listening only
2nd T. reads slowly pausing after each phrase for students to write down the passage.
3rd this last instance of reading is for students to check their work/ passages.

Paragraph writing
Students are asked to write a paragraph, in their own words, about a subject connected to the theme (s) of the reading passage.

Criticism to the Direct Method
It was a success in private schools, but a fiasco in public education because of(s):
1- Budget Constraints,
2- Classroom Size,
3- Time,
4- Teacher Background (usually, non-natives)

Prepared by: Nouamane ERRIFKI