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The Bilingual Method

C.J. Dodson developed the Bilingual Method of Teaching English between 1967 and 1972. He did as a counterpart to the Audiovisual Method.

After reading “The Structural Approach”, you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my channel on YouTube.

He also had in mind the Direct Method. Because of that and having in mind that one of the biggest problems with the Direct Method is providing the meaning of words. He amid the Bilingual Method to try to establish meaning immediately, using the L1  and, in the initial stages, the printed word.

The Bilingual Method

In audio-visual courses basic dialogues are presented and practised over several months on a purely oral basis. Dodson, however, proposed a well-tested procedure where the printed sentence is presented simultaneously to the oral utterance from the beginning.

Teachers may read out the dialogue to the class just once with books closed, but as soon as they get the class to say the lines after them, books should be open and the class is allowed to glance at the text in between imitation responses as they listen to others, and look up when they speak themselves.

The Bilingual Method
C. J. Dodson

Dodson showed that provided the class is instructed to make the spoken sentence the primary stimulus, the imitation of sentences could be speeded up, without degradation of intonation and undue interference from the printed text.

The Printed Word

Having the printed word to glance at (whilst at the same time relying on the auditory image of the sentence just heard), pupils find it easier to segment the amorphous sound stream into manageable units and so retain the fleeting sound image. The retention benefits of the mutual support of script and sound outweigh possible interference effects (e.g. where ‘knife’ would be pronounced with an initial k-sound by German learners of English).

In both methods the preferred texts are dialogues accompanied by pictures, and orthographical interference is avoided by never asking the student to read aloud.

Experience in classrooms shows that students’ motivation increases with due to comprehension, high retention, and flexible procedure.

Teachers must be fluent in both foreign language and mother tongue, and must develop facility in the steps of the method in order to provide rapid cuing.

The Bilingual Method

The Printed Text

In the Direct Method, the printed text is made available from the very beginning. It is presented simultaneously with the spoken sentence, allowing the students to see the how the words are written. The pictures that come along the sentences help the understanding of the text sentences.

The bilingual method makes use of the traditional three P’s: presentation, practice, production. The three P’s are the three main stages of any language lesson.

The sandwich technique is used avoiding meaningless and hence tedious parroting of the learning input.

The Main Techniques

The sandwich technique involves the following process:

1. Introduce new word or phrase in L2 (English).
2. Give the idiomatic meaning in L1 (Hindi, Portuguese, Mandarin).
3. Repeat the new word or phrase in L2.

This technique and its variations are advocated strongly by Wolfgang Butzkamm, who many view as the heir to C.J. Dodson’s ideas.

Lesson-Cycle

A lesson-cycle starts out with the reproduction / performance of a basic dialogue, moves on to the variation and recombination of the basic sentences (semi-free use of language) and ends up with an extended application stage characterized by the free, communicative exploitation of the previous work.

Well-ordered activities are to take the students up to a conversational level in the shortest possible time.

Teachers may read out the dialogue to the class just once with books closed, but as soon as they get the class to say the lines after them, books should be open and the class is allowed to glance at the text in between imitation responses as they listen to others, and look up when they speak themselves.

The Bilingual Method

Dodson showed that provided the class is instructed to make the spoken sentence the primary stimulus, the imitation of sentences could be speeded up, without degradation of intonation and undue interference from the printed text. Having the printed word to glance at, students find it easier to segment the sound and so retain the sound image. The retention benefits of the mutual support of script and sound outweigh possible interference effects.

Pictures and slides, along with the teacher’s drawings should clarify the meaning of new words and structures.

It also provides the most direct form of access to meaning possible, the oral mother-tongue, at sentence level to give meaning to unknown words or structures. 

The Teacher (in English): Would you mind if I brought a friend?

Teacher (in German): Könnte ich vielleicht einen Freund / eine Freundin mitbringen?

The Teacher: Would you mind if I brought a friend?

Students repeat the sentence after him.

In Role of the Teacher in The Bilingual Method of Teaching English

The teacher chooses the closest natural equivalent which accomplishes what probably no other method of somaticizing can do so directly and so sensitively, i.e. conveying the precise communicative value of the utterance. Whereas an isolated word equivalent is neutral in terms of intonation, teachers can now show how the utterance is meant by using their voice and body (intonation, stress, gestures), both for the original sentence and for the equivalent.

The mother tongue thus proves to be the ideal means of getting the meaning across as completely and as quickly as possible. Bringing differences to light, contrasting and comparing, is seen as the most effective antidote to interference errors. Pupils who hear the French ‘Anniversare’ without at first linking it to ‘birthday’ would simply not understand. Dodson was able to show by controlled experiments that a combination of printed word, mother tongue equivalents, and picture strip (for retention of meaning, not for meaning conveyance), can bring a class more quickly to a point where they can act out a basic situation as freely and naturally as possible.

The Bilingual Method continues under careful management with around the clock feedback. It does it, to ensure that the important skills are learned before the final stage of spontaneous language use. All within an integrated lesson cycle. 

The Role of the Students in The Bilingual Method of Teaching English

Learners create new sentences by interchanging words and structures learned before.  This bilingual technique prevents students from giving ’empty’ answers.

It is a syntactic and semantic manipulation at the same time, a cognitive commitment in mental exercises, which avoid the students from becoming mechanical.

The Mirroring Technique

A literal and often ungrammatical translation, called mirroring, may be added just once if the new structure is not transparent to the learner:

Teacher (in German): Ich will ja nur eine Tasse Tee.

Students (in English) : All I want is a cup of tea.

Teacher (in German): Ich will ja nur eine Tasse Kaffee.

Students (in English): All I want is a cup of coffee.

Teacher (in German): Ich will ja nur eine ruhige Klasse.

Students (in English): All I want is a quiet class.

With the right type of substitutions, the teacher can help the students to perceive the structure as valid and relevant to their communicative needs.

Finally, students make up their own sentences or chain sentences together, and may thus deal into new situations.

The Bilingual Method

The native language (and to some extent the teacher ) is no longer needed, and the exercise becomes monolingual. This stage is called ‘independent speaking of sentences’ and regards it as the vital semi-creative intermediate step to genuine message-orientated communication.

Teaching Time

About one third of the whole teaching-time should be allocated to genuine communicative activities. For every lesson cycle, the transition must be made from role-taking to role-making. Bilingual exercises to foreign-language-only activities. Guided use to free use. From studying the language to studying topics meaningful in their own way. This constant change between focus on linguistic form and its use for message delivery is very important in the method. Bilingual method techniques fit well into a modern communicative approach.

The advantages of The Bilingual Method of Teaching English:

  • As the students begin their language learning journey, their destination is visible in their language teacher. The competence and confidence of the teacher as he/she moves from L1 to L2 and back again is a clear model for the student to copy.
  • The bilingual method allows easy glossing of difficult words and efficient explanations of points of grammar by using the mother tongue. 
  • The bilingual method ensures accessibility. Students beginning the daunting task of learning a new language can immediately find a level of familiarity, avoiding the terrors of that “deer in the headlights” stage of acquiring new skills.
  • Through the use of the mother tongue, meaning is conveyed efficiently,  and the teacher can ensure that concepts have really been grasped by adapting the pace of the lesson accordingly.
  • Though the bilingual method employs the students’ native language, it’s important to note that it’s predominantly the teacher who makes use of L1. This distinguishes it from the grammar-translation method which relies more on rote learning and the translation of texts. The bilingual method focuses more on using the language for oral communication. Students won’t be using their native tongue much in the classroom.
  • As with the direct method, basic texts make use of picture strips to accompany the dialogue. The bilingual method makes use of the written form of the language from the start. This allows students to begin to see the shapes of words as they repeat them orally.

The challenges of The Bilingual Method of Teaching English

  •  You need to be bilingual. Firstly, it requires the teacher to be bilingual in both the native language and the target language. No gringos teaching foreigners in distant lands.
  • Students may become over reliant on their first language. It can lead to a bad habit of filtering everything through the mother tongue. As language is more than just the simple substitution of one series of coded sounds with another, it is important to avoid this. Careful planning, preparation and reflection on the part of the teacher can ensure this does not happen.
  • The teacher needs to fully understand the principles underlying the method. So that it doesn’t turn into a thinly-veiled version of the grammar-translation method. Though grammatical structures are important in this method also, the bilingual method places great emphasis on attaining oral fluency. You’ll need to be extra certain that you maintain this focus in the planning and preparation stage. The principles of presentation, practice and production should ensure that this focus is maintained.

Books

Bilingual Education. Two important projects in the field of bilingual education were organized in Wales during the 1970s. The first was the Schools Council Bilingual Education Projects in Primary Schools. The second was Schools Council Bilingual Education Projects Secondary Schools. These two projects attracted the attention of educationists in various parts of the world where bilingual education is primordial.  This book brings together the evaluation by Professor CJ Dodson and by Dr. Eurwen Price. They assess the teaching methodology developed by Professor Dodson, used specifically during the Secondary School Project.

The Bilingual Reform eliminates a mistake of the century: the exclusion of the mother tongue from foreign language teaching. Two ideas are compared theoretically and practically in the book. The first, is that the student learns the language by using them. The second the student uses the L1 to help them learn the new language.

Teaching Intercultural. This book focus on the teaching and learning of intercultural communicative competence in foreign language classrooms in the USA. This book is the first to describe how teachers, might plan and implement innovative ideas based on sound theoretical foundations.

After reading all about The Bilingual Method of Teaching English, you can check my videos on this matter on my YouTube channel and you can check more about methods in the section Methods.

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The Audio Visual Method

This method is intended for teaching everyday language at the early stage of second/foreign language learning. It was based on a behaviorist approach, which held that language is acquired by habit formation.

After reading “The Audio Visual Method”, you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my channel on YouTube.

The audiovisual method refers to both sound and pictures which is typically in the form of slides or video and recorded speech or music; all is visual presentations that are shown by the teacher to the students. It can be called as a new trend because technology is used in this method such as, computers, televisions, language laboratories or the others which can support the teaching learning process in order to improve students’ skills.

The Audio Visual Method

The Teachers Role

However, unlike the Direct Method, the Audio-lingual Method didn’t focus on teaching vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drilled students in the use of grammar. Applied to language instruction, and often within the context of the language lab, this means that the instructor would present the correct model of a sentence and the students would have to repeat it. The teacher would then continue by presenting new words for the students to sample in the same structure. In audio-lingualism, there is no explicit grammar instruction—everything is simply memorized in form.

Potential offered to language teaching by tape-recorder was enormous – now possible to bring native speaking voices into classroom. Editing and self-recording facilities now available. Tapes could be used with tape recorder or in language laboratory. Early audio-visual courses consisted of taped dialogues, accompanied by film -strips which were designed to act as visual cues to elicit responses in the foreign language.

Dialogues

Most audio-lingual courses consisted of short dialogues and sets of recorded drills. Method was based on a behaviorist approach, which held that language is acquired by habit formation. Based on assumption that foreign language is basically a mechanical process and it is more effective if spoken form precedes written form. The stress was on oral proficiency and carefully- structured drill sequences (mimicry/memorisation) and the idea that quality and permanence of learning are in direct proportion to amount of practice carried out.

Disadvantages of Audio-Visual/Audio-Lingual Method

  • The basic method of teaching is repetition. Speech is standardized and pupils turn into parrots who can reproduce many things but never create anything new or spontaneous.
  • Pupils became better and better at pattern practice but were unable to use the patterns fluently in natural speech situations.
  • Mechanical drills of early Audio-Visual approach criticized as being not only boring and mindless but also counter-productive, if used beyond initial introduction to new structure.
  • Audio-Visual materials were open to same sort of misuse. Tendency to regard audio-visual materials as a teaching method in themselves, not as a teaching aid.
  • Soon became clear to teachers that audio-visual approach could only assist in presentation of new materials. More subtle classroom skills were needed for pupils to assimilate material and use it creatively. This final vital phase was often omitted by teachers.
  • New technology caught publishers and text-book writers unprepared. Very few commercial materials were available in the early stages. Those that did exist stressed oral and aural skills and didn’t develop reading and writing skills.
  • New materials necessitated extensive use of equipment with all associated problems of black-out, extension leads, carrying tape-recorders from classroom to classroom.
  • Some schools set up Specialist- Language rooms, but teachers still had to set up projectors and find places on tape.
  • Equipment could break down, projector lamps explode, tapes tangle – not sophisticated equipment of today. Hardware involved extra time, worry and problems, and, for these reasons alone, its use gradually faded away.
  • Series of classroom studies threw doubt on claims made for language laboratory. Showed that this costly equipment did not improve performance of 11+ beginners, when compared with same materials used on single tape-recorder in classroom.

The Technology in the Audio Lingual Method

But Audio-Lingual/(Visual approach did mark the start of the technological age in language teaching and it did introduce important new elements.

There was a study that the objective was the application of the audio-lingual method with the support of E-learning in the development of listening comprehension skills in English language teaching. The study was implemented with 58 students of English of level A2, divided equally, 29 for the experimental group where an intervention was carried out based on the method and use of E-learning, while 29 students were from the control group with a teaching traditional.

The analysis of the academic performance was based on the scores obtained by the students in the diagnostic test, the mid-term exam and the final exam. The results showed that there were significant improvements in the experimental group, exceeding the control group by 1.6 points in the average scores of the final test, which demonstrates the usefulness of the method.

This is the link to the study.

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ESL Worksheets

The Best ESL Worksheets EVER!!

Here you can find the best ESL Worksheets. These activities break the monotony of lecture mode and involve students in an active way. So the interest level goes very high. This makes the atmosphere of the classroom more motivating, free of learner’s anxiety, and communicative, which are some very essential things for an SL classroom. The world is full of worksheets, many of them made expressly for ESL or learning English. 

But not all ESL worksheets are made equal. Certain exercises are generally popular with learners because they are usually non-intimidating and user-friendly as well as providing a finite exercise (ideally one page) where learners get rapid feedback and can often judge for themselves their own abilities and progress.

They are also a convenient, often free, resource for teachers that can easily be saved and printed as required. A great worksheet guides your students through your lesson and suggest ways of teaching the content in an age appropriate way. 

esl worksheet

What makes an ESL Worksheet great?

A set of great worksheets allows for differentiation, particularly with younger students, giving them options to cut and paste, draw or write a response to demonstrate what they know. At the end of the day, we all give out worksheets, even the bad kind, because there are the days that this is what we need to do. 

We need to challenge ourselves to reduce the amount of worksheets we rely on and to up our game as teachers. Differentiate more, increase the complexity of the activity and critical thinking skills being used. Integrate technology, and hands-on learning opportunities more and increase student voice and choice in the classroom. 

Make sure to check the Ernesto Method and out social medias that are at the bottom of the homepage. To know more about my honest opinion on Worksheets you can visit my YouTube channel.

Verbs Worksheet
adjectives worksheet
prepositions worksheet
simple present worksheets
simple past worksheets
simple future worksheets
present continuous worksheets
past continuous worksheets
future continuous worksheets
present perfect worksheets
past perfect worksheets
future perfect worksheets
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School Owner

Don't Spend Money on English Teaching Materials

Here you can download (just click on the book) and get an excellent English Teaching Material for your school for free.

Every year, on January 1st, a reviewed and more complete material will be available to you. 

So don’t for to check this page every year. I wish you all the best and good luck!

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Functional Theories of Grammar

Functional Theories of Grammar

Functional theories of grammar are those approaches to the study of language that see functionality of language and its elements to be the key to understanding linguistic processes and structures.

These theories of language propose that since language is fundamentally a tool, it is reasonable to assume that its structures are best analyzed and understood with reference to the functions they carry out.

Functional theories of grammar belong to structural and humanistic linguistics. They take into account the context where linguistic elements are used and study the way they are instrumentally useful or functional in the given environment.

This means that functional theories of grammar tend to pay attention to the way language is actually used in communicative context. The formal relations between linguistic elements are assumed to be functionally-motivated.

Functional grammar broadens its purview beyond these structural phenomena, and hence its theoretical outlook is distinctive. It analyzes grammatical structure, as do formal and structural grammar; but it also analyzes the entire communicative situation: the purpose of the speech event, its participants, its discourse context.

Functionalists maintain that the communicative situation motivates, constrains, explains, or otherwise determines grammatical structure, and that a structural or formal approach is not merely limited to an artificially restricted data base, but is inadequate even as a structural account.

Functional Theories of Grammar

Functional grammar, then, differs from formal and structural grammar in that it purports not to model but to explain; and the explanation is grounded in the communicative situation.

Functional Theories of Grammar

Theories of grammar, grammatical analyses, and grammatical statements may be divided into three types: structural, formal, and functional. Structural
grammar describes ‘such grammatical structures as phonemes, morphemes,
syntactic relations, semantics, interc1ause relations, constituents, dependencies, sentences, and occasionally, as with tagmemics and glossematics, texts and discourses.

Another view on Functional Theories of Grammar

Functional grammar is a linguistic theory that states that all its components – affixes, words, sentences or phrases – carry important semantic, syntactic and pragmatic frameworks in the broader understanding of functionalities and linguistic processes of language. Using these functions, linguists are able to analyze grammar and apply the findings further in pragmatic, semantic, morphosyntactic, and phonological research.

Functional theories of grammar can entail functional linguistics, lexical functional grammar, as well as Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) model. The functional theories of grammar form a concept in words through three steps. First, by building on an interpersonal level, taking into account the context, using the pragmatic component. Second, by clearing every word and phrase of sense at the level of representation, using the semantic component. Third, by applying the morphosyntactic component, level phonological consider the sound of a linguistic utterance.

The contextual component is the portion of the expression that can only be understood in reference to what already shared in the conversation or to a shared knowledge of the environment. For example, in research, all pronouns form a part of the component context because they require knowledge of a precedent. The last component of the functional grammar can be applied in the output component, in which all the other pieces come together as a linguistic expression, whether spoken, written or signed. Trust the experts at Homework Help Canada, get a quote now.

Links

In this link you will find further instructions on Functional Grammar. In this talk, I introduce Halliday’s approach to the study of language.  It includes grammar, and a explanation on what he calls  ‘systemic’ and ‘functional’ approach.

After reading “ESL Teaching Online”, you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs. You can also visit my channel on YouTube.

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The Bilingual Method

C.J. Dodson developed the Bilingual Method of Teaching English between 1967 and 1972. He did as a counterpart to the Audiovisual Method.

After reading “The Audio Visual Method”, you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my channel on YouTube.

He also had in mind the Direct Method. Because of that and having in mind that one of the biggest problems with the Direct Method is providing the meaning of words. He amid the Bilingual Method to try to establish meaning immediately, using the L1  and, in the initial stages, the printed word.

The Bilingual Method

In audio-visual courses basic dialogues are presented and practised over several months on a purely oral basis. Dodson, however, proposed a well-tested procedure where the printed sentence is presented simultaneously to the oral utterance from the beginning.

Teachers may read out the dialogue to the class just once with books closed, but as soon as they get the class to say the lines after them, books should be open and the class is allowed to glance at the text in between imitation responses as they listen to others, and look up when they speak themselves.

The Bilingual Method
C. J. Dodson

Dodson showed that provided the class is instructed to make the spoken sentence the primary stimulus, the imitation of sentences could be speeded up, without degradation of intonation and undue interference from the printed text.

The Printed Word

Having the printed word to glance at (whilst at the same time relying on the auditory image of the sentence just heard), pupils find it easier to segment the amorphous sound stream into manageable units and so retain the fleeting sound image. The retention benefits of the mutual support of script and sound outweigh possible interference effects (e.g. where ‘knife’ would be pronounced with an initial k-sound by German learners of English).

In both methods the preferred texts are dialogues accompanied by pictures, and orthographical interference is avoided by never asking the student to read aloud.

Experience in classrooms shows that students’ motivation increases with due to comprehension, high retention, and flexible procedure.

Teachers must be fluent in both foreign language and mother tongue, and must develop facility in the steps of the method in order to provide rapid cuing.

The Bilingual Method

The Printed Text

In the Direct Method, the printed text is made available from the very beginning. It is presented simultaneously with the spoken sentence, allowing the students to see the how the words are written. The pictures that come along the sentences help the understanding of the text sentences.

The bilingual method makes use of the traditional three P’s: presentation, practice, production. The three P’s are the three main stages of any language lesson.

The sandwich technique is used avoiding meaningless and hence tedious parroting of the learning input.

The Main Techniques

The sandwich technique involves the following process:

1. Introduce new word or phrase in L2 (English).
2. Give the idiomatic meaning in L1 (Hindi, Portuguese, Mandarin).
3. Repeat the new word or phrase in L2.

This technique and its variations are advocated strongly by Wolfgang Butzkamm, who many view as the heir to C.J. Dodson’s ideas.

Lesson-Cycle

A lesson-cycle starts out with the reproduction / performance of a basic dialogue, moves on to the variation and recombination of the basic sentences (semi-free use of language) and ends up with an extended application stage characterized by the free, communicative exploitation of the previous work.

Well-ordered activities are to take the students up to a conversational level in the shortest possible time.

Teachers may read out the dialogue to the class just once with books closed, but as soon as they get the class to say the lines after them, books should be open and the class is allowed to glance at the text in between imitation responses as they listen to others, and look up when they speak themselves.

The Bilingual Method

Dodson showed that provided the class is instructed to make the spoken sentence the primary stimulus, the imitation of sentences could be speeded up, without degradation of intonation and undue interference from the printed text. Having the printed word to glance at, students find it easier to segment the sound and so retain the sound image. The retention benefits of the mutual support of script and sound outweigh possible interference effects.

Pictures and slides, along with the teacher’s drawings should clarify the meaning of new words and structures.

It also provides the most direct form of access to meaning possible, the oral mother-tongue, at sentence level to give meaning to unknown words or structures. 

The Teacher (in English): Would you mind if I brought a friend?

Teacher (in German): Könnte ich vielleicht einen Freund / eine Freundin mitbringen?

The Teacher: Would you mind if I brought a friend?

Students repeat the sentence after him.

In Role of the Teacher in The Bilingual Method of Teaching English

The teacher chooses the closest natural equivalent which accomplishes what probably no other method of somaticizing can do so directly and so sensitively, i.e. conveying the precise communicative value of the utterance. Whereas an isolated word equivalent is neutral in terms of intonation, teachers can now show how the utterance is meant by using their voice and body (intonation, stress, gestures), both for the original sentence and for the equivalent.

The mother tongue thus proves to be the ideal means of getting the meaning across as completely and as quickly as possible. Bringing differences to light, contrasting and comparing, is seen as the most effective antidote to interference errors. Pupils who hear the French ‘Anniversare’ without at first linking it to ‘birthday’ would simply not understand. Dodson was able to show by controlled experiments that a combination of printed word, mother tongue equivalents, and picture strip (for retention of meaning, not for meaning conveyance), can bring a class more quickly to a point where they can act out a basic situation as freely and naturally as possible.

The Bilingual Method continues under careful management with around the clock feedback. It does it, to ensure that the important skills are learned before the final stage of spontaneous language use. All within an integrated lesson cycle. 

The Role of the Students in The Bilingual Method of Teaching English

Learners create new sentences by interchanging words and structures learned before.  This bilingual technique prevents students from giving ’empty’ answers.

It is a syntactic and semantic manipulation at the same time, a cognitive commitment in mental exercises, which avoid the students from becoming mechanical.

The Mirroring Technique

A literal and often ungrammatical translation, called mirroring, may be added just once if the new structure is not transparent to the learner:

Teacher (in German): Ich will ja nur eine Tasse Tee.

Students (in English) : All I want is a cup of tea.

Teacher (in German): Ich will ja nur eine Tasse Kaffee.

Students (in English): All I want is a cup of coffee.

Teacher (in German): Ich will ja nur eine ruhige Klasse.

Students (in English): All I want is a quiet class.

With the right type of substitutions, the teacher can help the students to perceive the structure as valid and relevant to their communicative needs.

Finally, students make up their own sentences or chain sentences together, and may thus deal into new situations.

The Bilingual Method

The native language (and to some extent the teacher ) is no longer needed, and the exercise becomes monolingual. This stage is called ‘independent speaking of sentences’ and regards it as the vital semi-creative intermediate step to genuine message-orientated communication.

Teaching Time

About one third of the whole teaching-time should be allocated to genuine communicative activities. For every lesson cycle, the transition must be made from role-taking to role-making. Bilingual exercises to foreign-language-only activities. Guided use to free use. From studying the language to studying topics meaningful in their own way. This constant change between focus on linguistic form and its use for message delivery is very important in the method. Bilingual method techniques fit well into a modern communicative approach.

The advantages of The Bilingual Method of Teaching English:

  • As the students begin their language learning journey, their destination is visible in their language teacher. The competence and confidence of the teacher as he/she moves from L1 to L2 and back again is a clear model for the student to copy.
  • The bilingual method allows easy glossing of difficult words and efficient explanations of points of grammar by using the mother tongue. 
  • The bilingual method ensures accessibility. Students beginning the daunting task of learning a new language can immediately find a level of familiarity, avoiding the terrors of that “deer in the headlights” stage of acquiring new skills.
  • Through the use of the mother tongue, meaning is conveyed efficiently,  and the teacher can ensure that concepts have really been grasped by adapting the pace of the lesson accordingly.
  • Though the bilingual method employs the students’ native language, it’s important to note that it’s predominantly the teacher who makes use of L1. This distinguishes it from the grammar-translation method which relies more on rote learning and the translation of texts. The bilingual method focuses more on using the language for oral communication. Students won’t be using their native tongue much in the classroom.
  • As with the direct method, basic texts make use of picture strips to accompany the dialogue. The bilingual method makes use of the written form of the language from the start. This allows students to begin to see the shapes of words as they repeat them orally.

The challenges of The Bilingual Method of Teaching English

  •  You need to be bilingual. Firstly, it requires the teacher to be bilingual in both the native language and the target language. No gringos teaching foreigners in distant lands.
  • Students may become over reliant on their first language. It can lead to a bad habit of filtering everything through the mother tongue. As language is more than just the simple substitution of one series of coded sounds with another, it is important to avoid this. Careful planning, preparation and reflection on the part of the teacher can ensure this does not happen.
  • The teacher needs to fully understand the principles underlying the method. So that it doesn’t turn into a thinly-veiled version of the grammar-translation method. Though grammatical structures are important in this method also, the bilingual method places great emphasis on attaining oral fluency. You’ll need to be extra certain that you maintain this focus in the planning and preparation stage. The principles of presentation, practice and production should ensure that this focus is maintained.

Books

Bilingual Education. Two important projects in the field of bilingual education were organized in Wales during the 1970s. The first was the Schools Council Bilingual Education Projects in Primary Schools. The second was Schools Council Bilingual Education Projects Secondary Schools. These two projects attracted the attention of educationists in various parts of the world where bilingual education is primordial.  This book brings together the evaluation by Professor CJ Dodson and by Dr. Eurwen Price. They assess the teaching methodology developed by Professor Dodson, used specifically during the Secondary School Project.

The Bilingual Reform eliminates a mistake of the century: the exclusion of the mother tongue from foreign language teaching. Two ideas are compared theoretically and practically in the book. The first, is that the student learns the language by using them. The second the student uses the L1 to help them learn the new language.

Teaching Intercultural. This book focus on the teaching and learning of intercultural communicative competence in foreign language classrooms in the USA. This book is the first to describe how teachers, might plan and implement innovative ideas based on sound theoretical foundations.

After reading all about The Bilingual Method of Teaching English, you can check my videos on this matter on my YouTube channel and you can check more about methods in the section Methods.

Posted on

The Structural Approach

This is an approach that focus on the learner mastering the patterns of the sentences. It presents the idea of structures, which are the different arrangements of words in a accepted style or the other. The approach includes various modes in which clauses, phrases or word might be used. It is based on the assumptions that language can be best learnt through a scientific selection and grading of the structures or patterns of sentences and vocabulary.

After reading “The Structural Approach”, you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my channel on YouTube.

It is also known as Aural-oral Approach. Each language has its own pattern of structure. The structural approach is an outcome of the experiments carried out in language teaching in the army campus during World War II. Meaningful words are used in particular order. Every structure embodies an important grammatical point. A sentence needs a grammatical background.

The different arrangements or patterns of words are called structures. Here words are used in particular order to convey their sense and meaning. In this way structures are the tools of language and should not be confused with sentences. According to Brewington “Structural approach is a scientific study of the fundamental structures of the English language, their analysis and logical arrangement”. The structural approach to English is teaching the learner certain selected structures in a certain order. The different arrangement or patterns of words are called structures. Structure may be complete patterns or they may form a part of a large pattern. Language is viewed as structurally related elements for the encoding of meaning the elements being phonemes, morphemes, words, structures and sentence types.

Kripa K. Gautam

This approach as Kripa K. Gautam states “is based on the belief that language consists of ‘structures’ and that the mastery of these structures is more important than the acquisition of vocabulary. Since structure is what is important and unique about a language. The early practice should focus on mastering phonological and grammatical structures. Not on mastering vocabulary.” Kulkarni “emphasizes the teaching and learning of the basic items or materials that constitute the framework of language.” Whereas according to Yardi ‘structures’ as an “internal ordering of linguistic item”, and further adds that structures may be defined as “device that we use to make signal, to convey meanings, and indicate relationship.”

english teaching

Menon and Patel

According to Menon and Patel the following are the objectives of the new structural approach:

  • It lays the foundation of English by establishing through drill and repetition about 275 graded structures.
  • enables the children to attain mastery over an essential vocabulary of about 3000 root words for active use.
  • correlates the teaching of grammar and composition with the reading lesson.
  • teaches the four fundamental skills, namely understanding, speaking, reading and writing in the order names.
  • lays proper emphasis on the aural – oral approach, activity methods and the condemnation of formal grammar for its own sake.

Principles of the structural approach:

  • The importance of framing language Habits – The structural approach lays stress on the importance of forming language habit, particularly the habit of forming words in English.
  • Importance of speech – The structural approach is based on the principle of effective used of speech.
  • Importance pupil’s activity – The structural approach is based on the principles of the pupils’ activity. The importance of pupil’s activity rather than the activity of the teacher is the sure way to learning English.
  • The principle of oral work – Oral work is the sheet anchor of the structural approach. The basis and all the rest are built up from oral work.
  • Each language has its own grammar. Instead of teaching the grammar of the L2, its structures are to be taught. Each language has its own grammar.

Importance of language in the modern world

English plays an important role in our present Educational system and also in our National life. it has become one of the common language and a person one who is fluent in speaking English can be a world citizen. India is a multi-lingual country were there are many languages spoken in different parts of our country. English language helps to communicate with ease .through structural approach we can learn English or any other language fluently. structural approach teaches to learn sentences in a systematic manner which involves the structure, sequencing and pattern arrangement of a words to make a proper and complete sentences with meaning. Today the importance of English cannot be overestimated. It is a global language and it is the language of opportunities for the millions of youth around the world.

Maximum use of the foreign language

The emphasis by structural approach on the teaching of the graded structures of a language means that the classroom should have the maximum foreign language environment. This is characteristic feature in structural approach. Where grammar-translation method is used, the classroom is characterized by two factors: 1) practice in reading and writing and 2) maximum use of mother-tongue. In reaction to these practices structural approach advocates methods which would include – a) practice in the speech-skills, not because reading and writing should be neglected (as would be the case in the direct method), but that the teaching of the graded structures can be better undertaken through aural-oral work.

According to Puwarno

The arrangement of words in English is very important. The meaning of an utterance changes with a change in the word order. For instance:
There is a sentence ‘You are there’. Consider two other sentences made of two words but put in different order ‘Are you there?’ and ‘There you are’. The three sentences, although built of the same vocabulary items give different meaning because of a different way in which the words are arranged. These different arrangement or patterns of words are called ‘structures’.

the structural approach

Structures may consist of full utterances or they may fall on a part of a large pattern. F.D. French has defined a sentence pattern in these words: The word-pattern means a model from which many things of the same kind, and shade can be made like house or shoes which look the same. A sentence pattern is, therefore, a model for sentences, which have the same shade although made up of different words. For instance, there is a sentence in English: ‘I wrote a letter’. The formula of this sentence is SVO (Subject – Verb – Object). We can frame innumerate sentence on this pattern.

Researcher in the field of language teaching in the UK and USA have established that it is more important for the learner of the language to get mastery over the structures more than on vocabulary. So far we have concentrated more on the teaching of vocabulary than that of structures. A lot of work has been done on the selection and gradation of vocabulary but little work has been done on the selection and gradation of structures. It is as important to learn how to put words together as it is to know their meaning.

Getting Used to the Structural Approach

Unless the learners become familiar with the pattern of English, he will not be able to use vocabulary. Hornby has made a study of Sentence Patterns or Structures in English. He has found that there are approximately 275 structures in English and the learners of the language must master all of them. It should be remembered that the structure approach of language teaching is not a matter of language teaching but only an approach, which tells us what to teach while a method tells us how to teach. The Oral Method or the Audio-Lingual Method are the ones employed.

The structure approach is based on the following principles:

1. The important of a speech as the necessary means of fixing firmly all the ground works.

2. The important of forming language habits particularly the habit of arranging words in English sentence patterns to replace the sentence patterns of the learners own language.

3. The pupils’ own activities rather than the activity of the teacher.

My Own Approach

If you enjoyed reading about the Structural Approach, check how I created my own approach (The Ernesto Method) and see some of the ideas of the Structural Approach in it.

What is the Ernesto Method?

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Ernesto Method

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Ernesto Method 2025

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Gustavo Rubino Ernesto - Master Thesis

The backbone of The Ernesto Method

Vocabulary Acquisition Through Context

One of the most important principles in teaching ESL is providing vocabulary within meaningful contexts

This means that students should learn words in the environment in which they are most likely to use them

For example, using the most frequently used English words like “make,” “get,” “have,” and “want” in sentences such as

“I want to get a coffee.”

“She has a meeting at 3 PM.”

“Can you make me a sandwich?”

Students don’t just memorize vocabulary but understand how these words function within a sentence. They learn grammar, syntax, and sentence construction in tandem with vocabulary

Vocabulary Construction

Another important concept is vocabulary construction, where students are introduced to new words through combinations of words they already know

This approach emphasizes that vocabulary isn’t learned in isolation but within the structure of phrases and sentences, starting with simple structures such as:

“I have a car.”

“You need a pen.”

“They want to go home.”

These sentences build on a foundation of the most frequently used English words

As their understanding grows, the complexity of the sentences can be increased

Relevance of High-Frequency Words

Focusing on high-frequency words is essential because these words form the backbone of everyday communication

Research shows that learning the first 1,000-2,000 most commonly used words in a language covers around 80-90% of spoken and written text

For example:

“Let’s go to the store.”

“He likes to eat pizza.”

These use high-frequency words that beginners will encounter in nearly all aspects of communication

Combining Context and Construction

Ultimately, vocabulary acquisition is most effective when students are exposed to frequent words through context and construction.

For example, when teaching the word “make,” students could be given sentences such as:

“Can you make breakfast?”

“I made a mistake.”

Here, students see how the word is used across different scenarios and tenses, enhancing their understanding

This approach, especially with the most frequently used words, builds a strong linguistic foundation for further language development.

What is the Ernesto Method?

First step:

The research began on the premise that students learn second languages by creating memories within each word and as the frequency occurrence of that word increases stronger the memories become. 

English methodologies have been around for more than a century and most of the time they focused in form, grammar and error correction. These were the main issues regarding Grammar Translation Method and Audio-lingual Method, issues that Communicative Approach did not agree, suggesting that error correction can do more harm than good. In recent years, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) minimized the importance of form and grammar but keep it necessary if learners want to develop high levels of accuracy in the target language. All these issues are well documented and experimented but the issue of how students start, how is English presented to them, and their first encounter with the language seems not to be an issue. 

The corpora used was the British National Corpora (BNC). The British National Corpus (BNC) is a 100-million-word collection of samples of written and spoken language from a wide range of sources, designed to represent a wide cross-section of British English from the later part of the 20th century, both spoken and written. The creation of this methodology is based on three different queries made using the BNC. It accounts for the most frequent verbs, nouns and adjectives found on the restrictions set by the British National Corpora.

The restrictions on the query on the BNC account to 26 different children’s texts which total 517,990 words.

The most frequent verbs were deeming crucial for the understanding of the English language therefore the combination of verbs, nouns and adjectives obtained from the BNC corpora for the formation of construction were all based on a hierarchy that had the verbs on top.

Second step:

The Power Point brings the entire content of the methodology to the classroom.. Many of the issues presented were of linguistics nature, not well known by teachers, but they were presented in a very simple form with screen pictures of how the process was conducted. This first attempt of the methodology used Portuguese as a second language but any adjustments to a different language can be easily applied. The Power Point presentation can be checked on the Power Point lik below:

Teachers Presentation

Third step:

A pre- and post-test based on the methodology was created. The whole test can be analysed on the pdf file that follows. 

FAU VocabularyTest

As an example here is the first question. In it a picture of a of a school girl carrying a backpack and a lunch box appears. The correct answer is the letter A. The sentence reads “The girl was in school”, the words that come closer to be identified by the student would be “girl” and “school”. The average answer by the students to question number one in the pre-test was 66,6% and the post-test was 86.6%.

Fourth step:

The idea of this methodology is simple. It is to present constructions (sentences) with the most stimuli possible for the students in order for them to create a stronger synapse and therefore a memory of the word and its constructions.

Some examples follow:

The first construction given to students was “She was in school”. The verb “was” is the most frequent verb (6.72%)5 in the list of verbs created and citied before. The personal pronoun “she” is under a picture of a girl holding a lunch box and wearing a backpack (this picture will repeat itself six times, three other instances different pictures were used by the author to create new memories). The noun “school” is also under a picture. The noun in question is the 15th most frequent noun, occurring 0.42% of the time in the list of nouns.
The verb was written in a format that could be overwritten by the students. Therefore, reinforcing the experience and creating a memory.

When a second key was pressed in the same slide the verb appears in red, as to instruct students on what to do. This happened to all slides that contained sentences presented to students, creating then a pattern for what to do and what word to focus on.

The verb was presented, isolated and in red with its translation clear to students. It was asked of the teacher or instructor to repeat twice the questions “How do you say was in Portuguese?” and “How do you say estava in English? This processed was also repeated with each single verb presented to students.

The second construction given to students was “She was at the house”. The same verb (“was”) and the same personal pronoun (“She”) was used in this construction. Two words come with pictures in this construction, the personal pronoun and the noun. The noun “house” is the 13th most common noun in the noun list, appearing 0.45% of the time. Once again the verb is written in a form that can be overwritten by students, the sentence is translated word-by-word, when a second a key is press in the same slide the verb appears in red, as to instruct the students on what to do, the next slide shows the verb isolated with its translation clear to students and again the teacher or instructor was asked to repeat twice the questions “How do you say was in Portuguese?” and “How do you say estava in English?”.

The third construction given to students was “He said, no”. The verb “said” is the second most frequent verb (4.20%) in the list created. The personal pronoun “He” is under a picture of a little boy (this picture will repeat itself three times). Once again, the verb is written in a form that can be overwritten by the student, and the sentence is translated word-by-word. Again the teacher was asked to repeat twice the questions “How do you say said in Portuguese?” and “How do you say disse in English?”.

Fifth step:

A semester long methodology is being finished and will be released soon. It will have Portuguese as its second language but it has been built to easily change the second language. I hope you have enjoyed the idea behind my methodology and let me know what you think and if I can be of any assistance.