Modern Learning Methods

The modern language learner has many advantages over his/her ancient counterpart. In fact, you can learn much more from a language school today than you would have 50 years ago. Why can we say that? Because there have been a multitude of advances in language teaching and learning methods over recent years, and these make learning much easier.

Let me give you a brief, very rough history of language-teaching methodologies. In ancient times, languages were taught through reading thick, boring texts out loud, while a teacher corrected every little mistake the student(s) made. Texts were dissected and grammar points were driven into the learners’ minds through endless verbal and written exercises—many or which meant hours of reciting the same phrases, again and again.

That method changed little through the centuries, and is summarized under an umbrella called the “grammar/translation method.”

What is the problem with the grammar/translation method? It is really very sound in theory, and is still used to some extent by nearly all successful teachers and learners of languages. But there was one problem: in a classroom, pure grammar/translation simply didn’t work. It was a disaster!

Now, over the last century, more money and efforts have been put into searching for scientific help in language teaching and learning. Today, driven mainly by the massive global business of ESL (English as a second language), scientists and researchers and methodologists have banded together to invent a wide variety of teaching methods, which can be used selectively in schools and courses.

Today, you don’t just recite exercises and translate texts when you take a language course. You may have communicative activities, reading comprehension activities, gap fill exercises, and a plethora of other methods, all folded into one eclectic teaching scheme.

Nowadays, we have sociolinguists, applied linguists, and neurolinguists all working together in a field that is simply called “second language acquisition.” Aren’t you glad you have all these options in front of you?

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