Learners’ Roles Types of Teaching Learning Activity Based on the Natural Method
The technique used in the classroom will be suited to the condition of the class. It will depend on the learners’ level, the objective of the lesson, and the
material given. However, there are distinctive features of the teaching learning activities in the Natural Method. In summary, the techniques practiced in the class
as proposed by Krashen and Terrell 1983 and Richards and Rodgers 1986 are as follow.
1. The teacher speaks in the target language to provide much comprehensible input.
2. The language used in the class should be simple, and use “here and now” principle. The vocabulary taught is daily vocabulary and things around
them. 3. The vocabulary taught is repeated over and over while talking naturally.
4. The teacher can show the real object of the word, use gesture and demonstration to make the meaning comprehensible. Whatever helps
comprehension is important. Visual aids are useful. 5. Teacher talk begins with TPR Total Physical Response. The students
respond physically to the teacher order. 6. Teacher talk should be like foreigner talk. Foreigner talk is characterized
by a slower rate of speech, repetition, restating, use YesNo instead of Wh- questions, and other changes that make messages more comprehensible to
person of limited language proficiency. 7. Students are not expected to use a word actively until they have heard it
many times After the students are ready to talk and familiar with the words, the teacher encourages the students to produce words
8. The teacher doesn’t force the students to speak if they are not ready for it. 9. In order to lower the affective filter, student work should center on
meaningful communication rather than on form, input should be interesting and contribute to a relaxed classroom atmosphere.
10. Producing errors is considered normal. Hence, errors are tolerated in the early learning.
In all these activities, the instructor maintains a constant flow of “comprehensible input”, using key vocabulary item, gesture, mime, context, repetition, and
paraphrase to ensure the comprehensibility of the input.