Trace the development of language teaching being sure to show how any change in method or approach reflected the linguistic theory of the time.

As is probably evident by the number of multilingual speakers around the world Language teaching has been around for many centuries. Over this time language needs and theories have changed immensely and these changes have reflected in the changing methods of Language teaching.

Prior to the 18th and 19th Centuries Language teaching would probably have focused on classical languages such as Ancient Greek or Latin where scholars would have been drilled in perfect grammar and translation. Latin in particular was considered to be a language of prestige and the way in which it was taught became a model for the way any language could be taught.

The grammar translation method (gtm) popular between the mid 18th and late 19th Century focused on direct translation from texts in and out of the target language. There is l

Popularity for the communicative approach has grown however questions have been raised as to how suitable it is for non native teachers, and how it can be adopted in situations where students are still required to take grammar based tests.

Brooks distinguished the objectives of the ‘audio lingual approach’ 1964 as being either long or short-range objectives. The ‘short range’ objectives included listening comprehension and accurate pronunciation. The long range objective was to achieve a language as a native speaker would use it. This is achieved through a syllabus containing key items such as phonology, morphology and syntax, and the language skills are taught in the order of Listening Speaking reading and writing. Having reached its peak in the 1960s ‘audiolingualism’ attracted criticism from amongst others the generative linguist Noam Chomsky whose works rejected the behaviourist approach. He argued that language learning could not be achieved solely by repetition and imitation as this would not explain why language learners had the ability to form sentences and utterances which they had never before heard.

· analogy is a better foundation for language learning than analysis

Some topics in this essay:
According Howatt, Richards Rogers, Richards Rodgers, Greek Latin, Audio Linguists, Noam Chomsky, Direct Method, Language Teaching, Leonard Bloomfield, Languages English, language teaching, language learning, language language, according howatt, direct method, richards rogers, according howatt 2000, method approach, spoken language, foreign language, target language, listening speaking reading, nature language language, richards rogers 1986, theories nature language,