A CONCISE OVERVIEW OF SOME ESL METHODS

Abstract

Different theories concerning the nature of language and language learning when applied to the actual ESL situation have given rise to a considerable array of instructional methods. In the sixties, methods were linked to linguistics and psychology, and this was evident in the audiolingual method. Contemporary methods are based on areas that were unknown or unconsulted by the linguists and psychologists of the fifties and sixties. According to Richards and Rodgers (1985:16) these areas are

..studies in textual cohesion, language functions, speech-act theory, sociolinguistic variation, presuppositional semantics, interaction analysis, ethnomethodology and face- face analysis, ethnography of speaking, process analysis, and discourse analysis.

Some contemporary methodologies are the Silent Way, Total Physical Response, Communicative Language Teaching, Counseling Learning, and Suggestopedia.