The Grammar Translation Method

the grammar translation is derived from traditional approaches to the teaching of Latin and Greek in the
nineteenth century’ . Even though the method has been used a long time ago, this method is still useful to
our current education system. According to Richard and Rogers, the grammar translation method is a way of
studying a language that approaches the language first thought detailed analysis of its grammar rules,
followed by the application of this knowledge through the task of translating sentences and text into and out
of the target language.
*The first advantage is that grammar rule is taught deductively. This means that the students are taught
about the grammar rule and then they have to apply to the new examples. It is important for the student to
learn about the grammar rule of the language. This will make them use and apply the language better. They
can lessen their mistake when they know about the grammar rule. They also will be able to explain about the
grammar rule of certain words when they have the knowledge.
Next, translation is the easiest and shortest way to understand English. This is because most primary school
children do not familiar with this language. They can only understand their mother tongue. So, by teaching
English using the mother tongue, the students manage to catch up with their study better. Translation is
very important element in learning English for these children. The other advantage is the students have
been introduced to the literature texts during the early years of their study. It is a good sign that the
students learn about literature during the lesson. When they have learnt about the literature texts, they
manage to interpret the literary passages well based on their experience during the learning process in the
class. They can show their understanding in literature by managing to interpret the literary texts.
*There are also disadvantages of this method. The first AD is less participation from the students. This
method is teacher-oriented. The teacher has the full authority to control the class. So, the inputs of the
learning are given by the teacher from the beginning of the lesson until the end. The students’ job in the
class is to hear to the teacher’s instruction without questioning anything. They are like silent learners. There
is no discussion or sharing opinion occurs during the lesson. As a result, the pupils’ cognitive skill and critical
and creative thinking will not develop. Not only that, the teacher also is the one to decide whether the pupils’
answers are correct or not. If the pupils do not manage to get the correct answers, the teacher will give the
correct answers to the pupils. The teacher does not even try to give the pupils another chance to answer to
the questions. They will not become autonomous learner. This is one of the teacher-centred methods in the
learning process. These skills are required for the pupils to develop so that they will be able to understand
their learning better and manage to do well in their study. Not only that, the other disadvantage is little or no
attention given to the speaking skill. According to Brown (2001), it does virtually nothing to enhance a
student’s communication ability in the language. This is because they only do the reading and writing during
the class. The pupils are not exposed to any other skills in learning like listening, speaking and writing. These
skills are vital for the pupils in their learning. By learning a lesson with these skills, they will be able to
understand the lesson and manage to complete all the works given by the teacher.
The last disadvantage of grammatical translation method is much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of
isolated words. The teacher gives the meaning of single words instead of the meaning of the sentences or
phrases. For example, the teacher gives the meaning of the word ‘happy’ in the mother tongue. The pupils
only know the meaning of the word ‘happy’. There are also other words that related to the word ‘happy’ like
‘happiness’, ‘happily’ and many more. When reading sentences that have the word ‘happiness’, the pupils
may become confused. This is because they only know the meaning of the word ‘happy’.

Features and Criticisms

The core features of the Grammar Translation Method can be summarized as follows:
1.Students are taught to translate directly from the target language into their native language.
2.Students pick up the grammar rules deductively.
3.Lists of target vocabulary are presented with their translation equivalents in the native language.
4.In the teaching and the learning process, the native language rather than the target language is predominantly used.
5.Strong focus on student accuracy during translation, with teacher correction by simply providing the correct answer

the method is still in wide use as there are certain advantages when using this approach:
1.The teacher need not be especially proficient in the target language and still be able to teach it.
2.Misunderstandings and difficulties in communication between the students and teacher are minimised as
the teacher can explain clearly in the students’ native language. This decrease ‘wasted time’ in the class.
3.Comprehension and students’ understanding is easily tested as the teacher can ask
questions in the native language.
4.Because the teacher is less involved, challenges such as large class sizes and students of very different
ability levels are less of an issue with the GTM

v3 Compelling Reasons Why the Grammar-translation Method Still Deserves a Place in

Your Classroom
1. It’s a good starter kit for language learning
For all its admitted limitations, the grammar-translation method is still a good way to start the
journey of any language learner.

Why?

Because of its central casting of the learning of vocabulary.

It would really be very difficult for students to make serious headway with any language, using any
technique/method, if they did not first, at the very least, have a basic vocabulary on which to
build.
Granted, the presentation of vocabulary can do with some major overhauls from the olden days:
Instead of a dry word list, vocabulary can be presented with pictures of the actual objects in full
color. FluentU lets your students start learning words with video and multimedia flashcards from
the very beginning of their language journey. FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos,
movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning
lessons.
There is something to be said about occasionally learning vocabulary rote, though. This method is
often criticized as lacking experiential and contextual depth. While I personally do share this
sentiment, I also make a little room for the practice of simply memorizing vocabulary, especially
the first sets of words learned by language learners.
As kids, we were never given a piece of paper to memorize, true. We had to figure out meaning
through context. And that’s why it took us a while to know the difference between words like
“water” and “drink.”
But your students don’t have to start like this. They can be given an advantage by memorizing a
few starter vocabulary words, just to get the ball rolling.
This way, when you throw out a sentence like “The man is fat,” they won’t be so clueless that you
have to explain every single word in that statement, missing out on a lot of other, more important
teaching opportunities in the meantime.
Here’s a good way to go: Before every chapter or lesson, provide a vocabulary handout. A piece of
paper with six measly words on it will do. Ten should be the max. Make the list interesting. Add
some colors or pictures to go with the words. You can even just draw funny stick figures to
illustrate meaning—for “sad,” you could draw the classic face with the upside-down smile.
This initial vocabulary, while learned rote, will pave the way for other methods, like the natural
and audio lingual methods, to effectively make their own contributions to the learning process.
Your students can later greatly expand their vocabulary from those few words they memorized
initially.
And you can cement that rote learning and go on to make it more memorable by bringing in the
necessary context and tasks that are so important to their long-term learning.

2. It takes out the guessing game

The good thing about grammar rules is that they can be applied to a whole array of contexts and
situations. Sure, there are exceptions, but the rules allow you to see the bigger picture.

The grammar-translation method, because of its focus on the rules, takes much of the trial-and-
error out of learning. Instead of needing to be divined from numerous and varied contexts, the
regulations are placed on a silver platter, where they await application.
They stare your students in the face and let them know if an error has been committed, allowing
them to immediately self-correct. Knowing the rules provides a certain rationale for your students
of why this word form and not the other one is used. Without the rules, they’d be in an endless
loop or wild goose chase trying to figure out why a Spanish verb is conjugated this way and not
that way.

With English plurals, for example, there is a rule that says, “If a word ends with Y, change the Y to
I and add ES.” So for the word “competency,” its plural form would be “competencies.”

That’s it! Isn’t that quick and painless?

Let your students know that if they know the rules, they can trust that they’ll end up with a
grammatically sound statement. And you can lock in that learning with activities from creative
lesson plans and save everyone huge amounts of time.

Just like with vocab memorization, though, the presentation of grammar rules could do with a
whole lot of revision. So one thing you can do, for example, is to give your students a “cheat
sheet” for grammar rules (one cheat sheet per grammar topic). Textbooks are not only heavy,
they are psychologically heavy. They look formal and daunting. A single sheet is much more
approachable.

Let the size be as small as half of a 3×5 index card. This should force you to weed out rules that
are rarely observed even by native speakers. Don’t cram students’ brains with the minutiae that
only rarely come up in the language. Let these cheat sheets be about the “greatest hits,” the most
common rules that do the most good for your students.

3. It supports that all-important reading skill

The slide of the grammar-translation method has to a certain extent had a negative effect on the
view educators and students hold of reading and writing in the target language. Speaking and
conversation skills have more often received the attention they deserve, but sometimes this has
been to the detriment of engaging with a language’s written form.

To be able to converse in a language is definitely important, no question about that. But the ability
to read and comprehend its written form is just as imperative—especially in today’s world. Having
that ability just makes everything easier. Imagine a tourist pushing to no avail a door that clearly
says, “Pull.” But written language isn’t just for tourists who need to look at road signs or scan a
menu, it’s for every language learner.

Much of the useful information on the World Wide Web is in written form. And it’s often not in
English. Today’s technology offers so much information and knowledge, but much of that
information and knowledge is in other languages.

I’m not just talking about foreign language websites, either. There are rich social media
discussions that your students can participate in if they can engage meaningfully with native
speakers. One cannot understand and appreciate, much less participate, in those affairs if not
decently versed in a language’s written form.

So while speaking and conversing are vital, there is also a need to be fluent in the written form—
especially when we’re talking about living languages, unlike Latin. There are native speakers who
are writing in modern languages every day.
To give your students the benefit of studying the written language through the grammar-
translation method in a modern classroom exercise, ask them to translate online material in the
target language.

This can be a newspaper article, a movie synopsis, a traditional recipe, even a sliver of the
comments section of a popular blog.