In addition, there is often little contextualization of the grammar - although this of course depends upon the passages chosen and the teacher's own skills. Students may have difficulties "relating" to the language, because the classroom experience keeps them from personalizing it or developing their own style. Virtually no class time is allocated to allow students to produce their own sentences, and even less time is spent on oral practice (whether productive or reproductive). Obviously, there are many drawbacks to the grammar-translation approach. = I don't know where your book is.Īs Omaggio describes is, testing of the students is done almost exclusively through translation: "students had learned the language well if they could translate the passages well." (Omaggio 90) Grammar is taught with extensive explanations in the native language, and only later applied in the production of sentences through translation from one language to the other, e.g.ĭo you have my book? = Hast du mein Buch? Instead, readings in the target language are translated directly and then discussed in the native language, often precipitating in-depth comparisons of the two languages themselves. Very little teaching is done in the target language. Vocabulary in the target language is learned through direct translation from the native language, e.g. The major characteristic of the grammar-translation method is, precisely as its name suggests, a focus on learning the rules of grammar and their application in translation passages from one language into the other.
#German to english grammar translation free#
As Omaggio comments, this approach reflected "the view of faculty psychologists that mental discipline was essential for strengthening the powers of the mind." (Omaggio 89) Indeed, the emphasis on achieving 'correct' grammar with little regard for the free application and production of speech is at once the greatest asset and greatest drawback to this approach. It was originally used to teach 'dead' languages (and literatures) such as Latin and Greek, and this may account for its heavy bias towards written work to the virtual exclusion of oral production. The grammar-translation method of foreign language teaching is one of the most traditional methods, dating back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Grammar-Translation Method, Selected Lesson Plans BACK TO ESSAYS - SCREEN VERSION
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