The Grammar-Translation Method instructs students in grammar and provides vocabulary with direct translations to memorize.
Grammar Translation Method
Definition : Grammar Translation Method is also called classical method because in the teaching of classical languages, Greek and Latin this method was used for the purpose of helping students read and appreciate foreign language literature. The philosophy behind this method is that the foreign language can be taught or learn through translation. In this method each phrase or sentence of English is taught by translating it into mother tongue.
The Grammar-Translation Method instructs students in grammar and provides vocabulary with direct translations to memorize.
Ex :- राम लिख रहा है.
Ram is writing a letter.
Where -
Ram - Subject.
Is - Helping verb.
Writing - Main verb.
A - Article.
Letter - Object.
In this method it is necessary for the student to memories the vocabulary of foreign language and the rules of grammar.
Principle :
1. The student's native language (mother tongue) is the medium of instruction and used as well to compare with the language studied.
2. The primary skills to be developed are reading and writing. It gives much emphasis to reading and writing aspects of language, it does not give much importance to listening and speaking skill, and almost none to pronunciation.
3. Basic unit of this method is always ‘word’. So, vocabulary is very important in this method.
4. In this method rules of grammar are taught deductively. Means student first learns the rules and later they move on to the example.
Ex :
1. सीता पत्र लिखती है.
Subject + Object + verb.
Student must memories above rule to translate. i.e.
Sita writes a letter.
5. It gives much emphasis to mother tongue. Without use of mother tongue Grammar translation method can’t be proceeded.
6. The fundamental principle of proceeding from known to unknown is followed throughout.
7. In this method Teacher gives student vocabulary building exercise and translation practice.
9. Teachers play an authoritarian role in the classroom and the predominant interaction is between teacher-student.
10. Translation is considered to be the most important classroom activity. The main procedure of an ordinary lesson follows this plan: a presentation of a grammatical rule followed by a list of vocabulary and, finally, translation exercises from selected texts.
11. An important goal is to be able to translate a language into other languages.
Advantage of Grammar Translation method :
1. It saves time and gives clarity to the mind of students, because it gives single equivalent
word in mother tongue instead of long definition.
Ex : -
Mango > आम.
Cat > बिल्ली.
House > घर.
2. Students become expert in reading and writing because there is a systematic study of rules of grammar.
3. This method is very convenient for teacher because it does not require any T.L.M., Chart paper, Modal and pre-planning.
4. The students are able to learn many items of English by comparison with mother tongue.
5. It is fastest and surest way of building vocabulary.
6. The structural patterns of two languages are compared and this comparison makes learning clearer and firmer.
7. The knowledge of rules helps the learners to avoid any types of mistakes.
8. By telling the meaning of the word or sentence in mother tongue, the teacher can at once make the students understand.
9. Knowledge is acquired gradually, by traversing the facts of language and the syntactic mechanisms, going from simplest to the most complex.
Disadvantage of Grammar Translation Method :
1. It does not give much importance to speaking and listening skills.
2. It ignores communicative competence.
3. It is unnatural way of teaching because it does not follow -
Listening > Speaking > Reading > Writing technique.
4. This method is teacher centered method. The teacher is the authority in the classroom.
5. In this method Idioms and phrases can not be taught well. Because Idiom and phrases are expression having a definite meaning.
6. It gives emphasis of rote memorization.
7. Students have to learn a lot of grammatical terms and too much weight falls on their memories. Frustration on the part of students and lack of demands on teachers are the effects of this method.
Activities :
- Answering comprehension questions on the text.
- Students find antonyms and synonyms words in the text.
- Vocabulary is selected from the reading texts and memorized.
- Sentences are formed using new words.
- Fill-in-the-blank exercises
- Writing compositions on the topic.
