DIRECT METHOD

OLEH :

THE 2ND GROUP

AFNI AJENG A.P (20400118012)

ANDI PANCAITANA BUNGAWALIE (20400118018)

MUH. PAJRI (20400118019)

AAS HANDAYANI (20400118021)

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTEMENT

TARBIYAH AND TEACHING SCIENCE FACULTY

STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITYOF ALAUDDIN MAKASSAR

I. BACKGROUND
HISTORY OF THE DIRECT METHOD
The direct method, also known as the conversational method or natural
method, was developed by Maximilian Berlitz (1852- 1921) was established in
Germany and France around 1900 as a reaction to the dissatisfaction with the
grammar Translation Method. It appeared as an answer to the shortcomings of the
Grammar Translation Method. It is a method for teaching foreign languages that
uses the target language, discarding any use of mother tongue in the classroom. As
teachers became frustrated with the students’ inability to communicate orally, they
began to experiment with new techniques. The idea was that foreign language
teaching must be carried out in the same way people learn their mother tongue.
In the western world back in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, foreign
language learning was associated with the learning of Latin and Greek, both
supposed to promote their speakers’ . At the time, it was of vital importance to
focus on grammatical rules, syntactic structures, along with rote memorization of
vocabulary and translation of literary text. There was no provision for the oral use
of the languages under study; after all, both Latin and Greek were not being taught
for oral communication but for the sake of their speakers’ becoming “scholarly?”
or creating an illusion of “erudition.” Late in the nineteenth century, the classical
Method came to be known as Grammar Translation Method, which offered very
little beyond an insight into the grammatical rules attending the process of
translating from the second to the native language.
It is widely recognized that the Grammar Translation Method is still one of the
most popular and favorite models of language teaching, which has been rather
stalwart and impervious to educational reforms, remaining standard and sine qua
non methodology. With hindsight, we could say that its contribution to language
learning has been lamentably limited, since it has shifted the focus from the real
language to a “dissected body” of nouns, adjectives and prepositions, doing
nothing to enhance a student’s communicative ability in the foreign language.
The last two decades of the nineteenth century ushered in a new age. In his the
Art of Learning and Studying Foreign Languages (1880), Francouis Gouin
described his “harrowing” experiences of learning German, which helped him
gain insights into the intricacies of language teaching and learning. Living in
Hamburg for one year, he attempted to master the German language by dint of
memorizing a German grammar book and a list of the 248 irregular German verbs,
instead of conversing with the natives. Exulting in the security that the grounding
in German grammar offered him, he hastened to go to the university to test his
knowledge but he could not understand a word. After his failure, he decided to
memorize the German roots, but with no success. He went so far as to memorize
books, translate Goethe and Schiller, and learn by heart 30.000 words in a
dictionary, only to meet with failure. Upon returning to France, gouin discovered
that his three-year-old nephew had managed to become chatterbox of French-a
fact that made him think that the child held the secret to learning a language.
Thus, he began observing his nephew and came to the conclusion that language
 learning is a matter of transforming perceptions into conceptions and then using
language to represent these conceptions. Equipped with this knowledge, he
devised a teaching method premised upon these insights. It was against this
background that the series method was created, which taught learners directly a
“series” of connected sentences that are easy to understand. For instance, I stretch
out my arm. I take hold of the handle. I turn the handle. I open the door. I pull the
door. Nevertheless, this approach to language learning was short-lived and, only a
generation later, gave place to the Direct Method, posited by Charles Berlitz. The
basic tenet of Berlitz’s method was that second language learning is similar to first
language learning. In this light, there should be lots of oral interaction,
spontaneous use of the language, no translation, and little if any analysis of
grammatical and syntactic structures.
II. APPROACH
- Theory of Language :
According to the definition of the direct method itself, we assume that
the theory of language related to the direct method is the second view of
language called the functional view. The functional view or the
communicative view is the view that language is a vehicle for the expression
of functional meaning. The semantic and communicative dimensions of
language are more emphasized than the grammatical characteristics, although
these are also included.
- Theory of Learning :
We assume that the theory of learning of the direct method is
condition-oriented theories where the nature of the human and physical
context in which language learning takes place are emphasized.

III. DESIGN
a. Objectives
The general goal of the Direct Method is to provide learners with a
practically useful knowledge of language. The purpose of language learning is
communication, hence students must learn how to speak and understand the
target language in everyday situations e.g. how to ask question as well as
answer them.
Objectives of the direct method include teaching the students how to use
the language spontaneously and orally, linking meaning with the target
language through the use of realia, pictures or pantomime (Larsen-Freeman
1986:24)- In order to accomplish the objectives, stundents must learn how to
think in target language and by not involving L1 in the language learning
process whatsoever. The basic purpose of this method is concerned the
meaning of word, expression gestures and language achievement which
directly related the picture something in your mind you think of it and have
such a clear memory or idea of it that you seem to be able to see it (Larson-
Freeman :1986)
 This method is based on the assumption that the learner should experience
the new language in the same way as he/she experienced his/her mother
tongue.
b. Syllabus
Syllabus used in the Direct Method is based upon situations (one unit
would consist of language that people would use at bank, another of the
language that they use when going shopping) or topics (i.e. geography, money,
or weather) (Larsen-Freeman 2000:29).
Situational syllabus perceives that language is related to the situation,
context and participants who are involve in. Ur (2000, as cited in Sabbah,
2018) defines situational syllabus as a syllabus in which contents are
organized according to situations in which certain language is likely to be
employed. In line with Ur, Yalden (1989, as cited in Sabbah, 2018) stated that
“the situational model that will comprise units indicating specific situations,
such as ‘at the post office’, ‘buying an Airline Ticket” or ‘The Job
Interview’.”
In situational language teaching, the sentences are used to taught
structure and the choice of vocabulary is according to how well it enables
sentence patterns to be taught.
Example of Situational Syllabus:
Example of situations include seing the dentist, complaining to the
landlord, buying at the bookstore, meeting a new student, asking direction in a
new town and so on.

A representative list in the situations Another representative list of situations

used in the continuing story is as is taken from supplementary
follows as: conversation text :
1. What’s in the news 1. The pet shop
2. More news 2. The service station
3. Fun and Game 3. Advertising
4. Tv news: Fire and ritz 4. Downtown
5. A Weight problem 5. Fire

c. Types of Learning and Teaching Activities

Some characteristics of the teaching/learning process
1. Student need to be associate the meaning and the target language directly.
The meaning of a particular vocabulary never been taught to the student by
just simply translate it into the student’s native language but through the
demonstration of every new vocabularies.
For the concrete vocabularies present in the immediate classroom
environment should be used to help students understand the meaning,
abstract vocabularies are taught by the association of idea
2. Grammar is taught inductively. The teacher not merely tell the student a
particular grammar rules, in contrast they do not give an explicit rule. The
 teacher taught grammar through giving example and the students figure
out the rule or generalization from the example
3. Listening and repetition: the students need to hear/listen how the language
is used pronounced, and how to incorporate it into their oral
communication.
4. Speaking: the students need to be able to practice the concepts of words
they are learning. Once they have seen it, seen examples, heard it, and
created an association of a word or concept in their mind, they will need to
put it into practice with actually speaking and communicating.
5. Reading in the target language should be taught from the beginning of
language instruction however the reading skill will be developed through
practice with speaking
6. Learning another language also involves learning how speakers of that
language live.
d. Role of Learners’
1. The student’s role is less passive than in Grammar Translation Method
(Larsen-Freeman 2000:28).As for direct method, students are required to
more active in asking and answering questions through oral language.
2. Students are asked to use the language, not to demonstrate their knowledge
about the language. So in the class, students are guided to practice their
skill of language, with the major focus of speaking skill.
3. Students are asked to do so using both oral and written skills.
e. Role of Teacher
In direct method, teachers introduce a new target language word or phrase
to the students and there is no mother tounge. Therefore, the role of the teacher
is as demonstrator because the teacher demonstrates the meaning of words
through the use of realia, pictures, or pantomime; they never translate it into
the students’ native language. The teacher is also a facilitator because he
facilitates the students with the target language. The teacher is the source for
the students to know the words in target language. The teachers provide
information of the target language including the culture consisting of the
history of the people who speak the target language. The teacher is the partner
of the students. Teachers interact with the students a lot, asking them questions
about relevant topics and trying to use the grammatical structure of the day in
the conversation.
The teacher can be the monitor of the students. He watches the students’
progress in using the target language. The teacher has the students self-correct
by asking them to make a choice between what they said and an alternative
answer supplied. Another possibility is for the teacher to repeat what the
student said, stopping just before the error. The student knows that the next
word was wrong. The teacher is also the initiator. He finds various techniques
to get the students to self-correct whenever possible. The teacher uses map
drawing as a technique to give listening comprehension. The teacher can use
paragraph writing as a technique for writing activity. He asks the teacher to
 write paragraph with their own words about the lesson studied. The students
can use their memory or use the passage in the lesson as the model.They are
similarly related to assumptions about language and language learning at
level of approach.Some see the teacher as a source of knowledge and
directionOthers see the teacher’s role as a catalyst, guide, consultant and
model for learning.Teacher’s roles in methods are related to those issues:
Types of functions teachers fulfill
Degree of teacher’s influence over learning.
Degree to which the teacher determines the content of learning
Types of interaction between teachers and learners.
f. Role of Instructional Materials
The primary goal of materials to present content, to practice content, to
facilitate communication between learners.
The form materials take textbooks, computers
The relation of materials to other sources of input
The abilities of the teachers: their competence in the language or degree of
training and experience.

IV. PROCEDURE
As stated earlier, language teaching presented through the direct method may
take different forms. No standardized procedure characterizes the method.
Different people may develop their own procedures as long as the procedures are
based on the principles of the method. Nowdays, there is not much literature
related to the method even though still many people use techniques that can be
classified under the principles of the method in teahing another language in the
classroom. The principle procedure is that language is first introduced through the
ear, and then reinforced through the eye and hand by reading and writing.
One of ways of teaching a language through the direct method is also
suggested by Titone (cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 12). This way is
actually not a procedure but more as a set of techniques suggested by Berlitz, one
of the American reformers who attempted to build a language teaching
methodology based on the direct method. These techniques are still popular
among language teachers even though these techniques are not arranged
procedurally.

Never translate: demonstrate

Never explain: act
Never make speech: ask questions
Never imitate mistake: correct
Never speak with single words: use sentences
Never speak too much: make students speak much
Never speak the book: use your lesson plan
Never jump around: follow your plan
Never go too fast: keep the pace of the student
Never speak too slowly: speak normally
Never speak too quickly: speak naturally
Never speak too loudly: speak naturally
Never be impatient: take it easy

As stated earlier that there is no fixed procedure of the direct method. This
causes confusion among language teachers; language teachers may argue that they
have used the direct method in the class even though they may not have used it in
a real sense. Refering to the concepts of approach, method and technique
introduced by anthony, which has been discussed in chapter one (cited in Richards
and Rodgers, 2001; 19), probably, the direct method is not real method since there
is no overall plan or language teaching. The method only fefers to assumptions
about language and language learning, and some techniques that have been
developed from the assumptions. It is understandable since the method had been
born long before the concept of method itself was introduced in 1963.

The birth of the direct method really contributed a great deal of improvement
in teaching another language in the word. Because of the method language
teaching gradually has swung from the teaching of grammar to teaching to
communicate in the target language. The direct method is believed to be the first
method that encourages language teachers to teach a second/foreign language by
modeling first language learning. In this method grammar is taught inductively
with no explanations of grammar rules, which is really an improvement in
language teaching.

Strategies for teaching using Direct Method:

1) Question and Answer

This exercise is conducted only in the target language. Students are
asked question and answer in full sentence so that they practice new words
and grammatical structures. They have the opportunity to ask question as well
as answer them.
2) Getting Student to Self-Correct
The teacher of this class has students self-correct by asking them to
make a choice between what they said and an alternative answer he suplied.
There are, however, other ways of getting students to self-correct.
3) Conversation Practice
The teache ask students a number of questions in the target language,
which the students have to understand tobe able to answer correctly. In the
class observed, the teacher asked individual students questions about
themselves. The questions contained a particular grammar structure. Later, the
students were able to ask each other their own questions using the same
grammatical structure.
4) Fill-in-the-blank
 This technique has already been discussed in the GTM, but differs to in
its application in the Direct Method. All the items are in the target language.
Furthermore, no explicit grammar rule would be applied. The students would
have induced the grammar rule they need to fill in the blanks from examples
and practice with earlier parts of the lesson.
5) Dictation
The teacher reads the passage three times. The first time the teacher
read it at a normal speed, while the students just listen. The second time he
reads the passage phrase by phrase, pausing long enough to allow students to
write down what they have heard. The last time the teacher again readsat a
normal speed, and students vheck their work.

Techniques for teaching using Direct Method:

1) Reading Aloud
Students take turns reading sections of a passage, play, or dialog out
loud. At the end of each student’s turn, the teacher use gestures, pictures,
realia, examples, or other means to make the meaning of the section clear.
2) Paragraph Writing
The teacher asked the students to write a paragraph in their own words
on the major geographical features of the United States. They could have done
this from memory, or they could have used the reading passage in the lesson
model.
3) Map Drawing
The class included one example of a technique used to give students
listening comprehension practice. The students were given a map with the
geographical unnamed. Then the teacher give the students directions such as
the following, ‘find the mountain range in the west. Write the words “Rocky
Mountains” across the mountain range.’ He gave instructions for all the
geographical features of the United States so that students would have a
completely labeled map if the followed his instructions correctly. The students
the instructed the teacher to do the same thing with a map he had drawn on the
blackboard. Each student could have a turn giving theteacher instructions for
finding and labeling one geographical feature
The teaching techniques rely mostly on are Reading aloud, question and
answer exercise, self-correction, conversation practice, fill-in-the-blank
exercise, dictation, and paragraph writing.
V. STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS
- STRENGTH:
1. It is a natural method which teaches language the same way the mother tongue
is acquired.Only the target language is used and the learning is contextualized.
It teaches the second/foreign language in the same way as one learns one’s
mother tongue. The language is taught through demonstration and
 conversation in context. Pupils, therefore, acquire fluency in speech. They are
quick at understanding spoken English. They can converse in English with
felicity and ease.
2. Its emphasis on speech made it more attractive for those who have needs of
real communication in the target language.
3. It was one of the first methods to introduce the teaching of vocabulary through
realia
4. There is no gap between active and passive vocabulary. This method does not
differentiate between active and passive vocabularies. According to this
method whatever is required for understanding through English is also
required for expressing through it. If English is taught through the mother
tongue, the gulf between the active and passive vocabularies is widened. The
learner acquires more of passive vocabulary because he concentrates on
understanding English rather than expressing through it.
5. This method is based on sound principles of education. It believes in
introducing the particular before general, concrete before abstract and practice
before theory.
- WEAKNESS
1. Major fallacy of Direct Method was belief that second language should be
learned in way in which first language was acquired – by total immersion
technique. But obviously far less time and opportunity in schools, compared
with small child learning his mother tongue.
2. 2. Is first language learning process really applicable to second foreign
language learning at later stage
3. 3.First language learning is essential part of child’s total growth of awareness
of world around him. He starts off with blank sheet, then starts
collecting/selecting organizing the experience of a totally new world,
perceived through his senses, by formulating a variety of pre-verbal concepts.
4. 4.Subsequently part of the process of learning how to live is the acquisition of
skills to verbalize his desires and aversions and to label his concepts, so as to
make living more sufficient and secure.
5. 5.Effectiveness of these verbalizing skills depends on maturation level of the
child / on type of environment on intelligence.
6. 6.Language is part of an intrinsic process through which child learns to
recognize/ deal with new situations.
 REFFERENCE

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (2nd edition).

Oxford University Press.

Richards, Jack C.; Theodore S. Rodgers (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language
Teaching. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.

Sabbah, Sabah S. (2018) English Language Syllabus : Definition, Types, Design, Selection.
Arab World English Journal (AWEJ).9(2). 127-142

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