Every teacher adapts a particular way of going about the complex task of teaching.i.e choosing the appropriate teaching method which are very significant for the effectiveness of teaching. Many methods that exist today are based on innumerable old methods that have been tried before. The grammar translation method or the classical method is one of the oldest teaching methods that was very popular and successful in the education field. Its based on a wide variety of principles in order to achieve the main goal of this method that is to come to read and analyze the latin/greek literature, and the use of the grammar rules of the target language in order to translate it into the source language, and compare the rules of grammar in the source language in order to translate the passage back into the target language { It’s based on two of its major principles “translation and grammar”, hence the name of the method}. In the classroom where this method is implemented, the teacher is the authority in the class, errors were forbidden which implies that fluency was less important than accuracy, reading and writing were considered as primary skills and were chosen over listening and speaking, and the memorization of the vocabulary lists and grammar rules was the main focus.
In the mid of the 19th century, Europe experienced a wave of increasing opportunities due to the industrialization and international trade and travel. So, there was a need to develop oral proficiency in languages. Because of the inadequacy and inefficiency of the previous method (GTM), the direct method was developed in response to it. Although the direct method brought new techniques and made some noticeable changes, still some of the principles of GTM were implemented in class, such as the teacher-centric classrooms. By the rejection/ refrain of using translation by the teacher and the learner, and teaching grammar inductively opened the door for the learners to be more active than passive.
In addition to that, The prohibition of the native language use inside class as well as the encouragement of self correction helped to better teaching and learning. Furthermore, reading and writing were very much neglected in this method while a great focus was put on developing the listening and speaking skills that made fluency and communication more important than grammar. It’s also called the natural method since it’s based on the assumption that the learning of the second language was seen as parallel to the acquisition of the child’s first language(second language can be learnt in exactly the same way as a first).
Although this method helped greatly the learners to get disposed of their speaking anxiety so they could express themselves easily and freely, it also got them trapped in the risk of developing inaccuracy in the foreign language that could lead them to making so many mistakes resulting in hindering their learning.
