After that, the teacher asks the students to change the sentence into negative form, interrogative, and negative interrogative with the same
way. For the final few minutes of the class, the teacher returns to the
dialogue with which she began the lesson. She repeat once, and then has the half of the class to their left do Bill’s lines and the half of the class to
her right do Sally’s. This time there is no hesitation at all. The students
move through the dialogue briskly. They trade roles and do the same. The teacher smiles, “Very good. Class finished”.
C
. General Concept of Grammar-Translation method
1. Understanding Grammar Translation Method
The Grammar-translation method which was first name as such in Germany in the 1780s introduced the idea of presenting students with
short grammar rules and word lists, and then translation exercises in which they had make use of the same rules and words.
Grammar-translation still has relevance today, though it is not practices as a method in the same way. But most language learners translate in their
heads at various stages anyway, and we can learn a lot about a foreign language by comparing parts of it with parts of our own.
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The important goal of GTM is the student to be able to translate each language to the other because the fundamental purpose of learning a
foreign language is to be able to read its literature. The primary skills to be developing are reading and writing. To do this, students need to learn
about the grammar rules and vocabulary of the target language. The teacher has big rule. He or she is the authority in the classroom.
Meanwhile the students do as he says so they can learn what he knows.
18
17
Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English, 2005, p. 30
18
Diana Larsen and Freeman, Technique and principles in Language Teaching second edition Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 11
In most GTM syllabus was follow for the sequencing of grammar points throughout texts, and there was an attempt to teach grammar in an
organized and systematic way. In a typical GTM text, the grammar rules are present and illustrate , a list of vocabulary items are present with their
translation equivalents, and translation exercises are prescribed.
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2. Characteristic of Grammar Translation Method
Grammar-translation method has many characteristic but the principal characteristics were these:
1 The goal of foreign language study is to learn a language in order to read as literature or in order to benefit from the mental discipline
and intellectual development that result from foreign language study.
2 Reading and writing are the major focus; little or no systematic attention is pay to speaking or listening.
3 Vocabulary selection is based solely on the reading texts used, and words are taught trough bilingual word list, dictionary study, and
memorization. 4 The sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice.
5 Accuracy is emphasized 6 Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.
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7 Grammar is taught deductively 8
The student’s native language is the medium of instruction.
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Formula on the white board and explains about the use of to be according to each subject.
T : For example “I am eating”, Rani sleeping”.
T : So , what is the continuous tense of “Syahif sits on the table”?
ST : Syahif sitting on the table.
19
Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Method in Language Teaching, 1986, p. 53
20
Ag. Bambang Setiyadi, Teaching English as a Foreign Language Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu, 2006. p. 36
21
Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Method in Language Teaching, 1986, p. 34
St a
rt N
o w
F in
is h
?
In P
ro g
es s
T : good T : It is used to expresses an action that is happening right now, to
express the beginning, progression or end of an action etc. For example:
T : For example „You are sitting now’ and „it is beginning to rain’
T : After the teacher explains the rules, she then draws the illustration about present continuous tense.
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T : the expresses n activity that is progress at the moment of speaking. We are at this point the time now, but the activity
began in the recent past, and will probably end at some point in the future.
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After reading over the rule and the examples, the students are asked to put the correct to be and to make the present participle from the words
given in order to make a good sentence in continuous form. They do the first two together.
1. Maria ___ _______ apple right noweat 2. Taupik ___ ______ on the street walk
22
Betty Scrampfer Azar, Undrstanding and Using English Grammar 2
nd
Ed, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents. 1989, p. 11
23
Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Grammar, Edinburg: Longman, 1999. p. 33
When the students are finished with this exercise, they read their answers aloud. After that, the teacher gives some exercises to the students
related.
3. Advantages and Disvantages of Grammar Translation Method