This approach was
developed by British
applied linguists from
1930s to 1960s in Great
Britain.
BACKGROUND
LEADERS OF THIS MOVEMENT:
A.S.HORNBY
and
Harold PALMER
These leaders were familiar with the
work of Daniel Jones and Otto
Jespersen.
EFL/ESL TEXTBOOKS AND
COURSES
 Streamline English
 Access to English
 Kernel Lessons Plus
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN DIRECT METHOD AND
SLT?
•-Oral approach is more scientific than Direct Method.
•Vocabulary and Grammar are carefully selected and
graded in SLT.
•SLT is based on behaviorist habit formation.
THE ASPECTS OF
METHOD
• Vocabulary control
• Grammar control
VOCABULARY CONTROL
• One of the most important aspects of
foreign language learning.
• Emphasis on reading skills as the
goal of foreign language learning.
THE GUIDES TO THE ENGLISH
VOCABULARY
•The Interim Report on Vocabulary
Selection” by Faucett, West, Palmer
and Thorndike in 1936
• “A General Service List of English
Words” by Michael West in 1953
GRAMMAR CONTROL
- The underlying sentence patterns of
spoken language.
- Substitution tables to help
internalize the rules of English
sentence structure by Palmer, Hornby
and other British applied linguists.
DICTIONARIES & BOOKS
♦ The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of
Current English in 1953: Hornby,
Gatenby, Wakefield
 ♦ A Grammar of Spoken English on a
Strictly Phonetic Basis: Palmer and
Blandford
 ♦ A Handbook of English Grammar:
Zandvoort
 ♦ Guide to Patterns and Usage in
English: Hornby

THE CHARACTERISTICS
OF APPROACH
1- Language teaching begins with the spoken
language.
2-The target language is the language of the
classroom.
3- New language points are introduced
situationally.
4- Vocabulary selection procedures are
followed.
5- Items of grammar are graded following
the principle that simple forms should be
taught before complex ones.
6- Reading and writing are introduced once
sufficient lexical and grammatical basis is
established.
1- Theory of language
2- Theory of learning
THEORY OF LANGUAGE
STRUCTURALISM
 Word order
 Structural words
 The few inflections of English
 Content words
THE LEADERS OF
POWERFUL VIEWS OF
LANGUAGE
British Linguists
J.R. Firth
 M.A.K. Halliday

THEORY OF
LEARNING

Behaviorist habit-learning
theory.

Primarily processes rather
than the conditions of learning.
SLT adopts an
inductive approach
to the teaching of
grammar.
DESIGN






OBJECTIVES
THE SYLLABUS
TYPES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING
ACTIVITIES
LEARNER ROLES
TEACHER ROLES
THE ROLE OF INSTRUCTIONAL
MATERIALS
OBJECTIVES

A practical command of the four basic
skills of a language through structure

Accuracy in both pronunciation and
grammar

Errors are to be avoided at all costs

Automatic control of basic structures
and sentence patterns
THE SYLLABUS

Structural syllabus

A word list
TYPES OF LEARNING AND
TEACHING ACTIVITIES

A situational presentation of new
sentence patterns
A drill-based manner of practicing
( chorus repetition, dictation, controlled
oral-based reading and writing tasks)

LEARNER
ROLES
In the initial stages;
 Listening
and repeating what
the teacher says
 Responding to questions and
commands
 No control over the content of
learning
Later;
More active participation
 Initiating responses
 Asking each other questions

TEACHER serves as
♦A
model
(modeling the new structure for students to repeat)
♦A
skillful manipulator
(using questions, commands, etc to make the
learner produce correct sentences)
♦A
review organizer
(timing, oral practice, testing and developing
language activities)
THE ROLE OF
INSTRUCTIONAL
MATERIALS
A
textbook (as a guide)
 Visual aids
(wall charts, flashcards, pictures, stick
figures and so on.)
PROCEDURE

Moving from controlled to freer
practice of structures and from
oral use of sentence patterns to
their automatic use in
speech,reading and writing.
LESSON consists of :
1- Pronunciation
2- Revision
3- Presentation of new structure or
vocabulary
4- Oral practice (drilling)
5- Reading of material on a new
structure
THE SEQUENCE OF
ACTIVITIES
1- Listening practice
2- Choral imitation
3- Individual imitation
4- Isolation
5- Building up to a new model
6- Elicitation
7- Substitution drilling
8- Question answer drilling
9- Correction
STRENGTHS
Suitable for introduction to the language
 Values practical grammar and vocabulary
 An accessible method for teachers if they
have good curriculum
 Inexpensive to use

WEAKNESSES
•
Teacher-controlled
• Ineffective
• Boring
WHY DID IT
FAIL?
It failed because of a requirement
for a closer study of the
language itself and a return to
the traditional concept that
utterances carried meaning in
themselves.
Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT) replaced Oral Approach and SLT
by the late of 1960s.
REFERENCES

J.C.Richards & T.S.Rodgers. (2001). Oral
Approach
and SLT. Approaches and Methods in Language
Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. Second Edition. p.36-47.
On-line Available:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_education#T
he_oral_approach.2FSituational_language_teachin
g
 http://www.sil.org/LinguaLinks/languagelearning/W
aysToApproachLanguageLearning/SituationalLang
uageTeaching.htm