The controversy over the place of translation in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is a thriving field of inquiry. Many older language teaching methodologies such as the Direct Method, the Audio-lingual Method, and Natural and Communicative Approaches, tended to either neglect the role of translation, or prohibit it entirely as a…

The problem: The purpose of this study was to examine the perspectives of both teachers and students toward the CL (Cooperative Learning) Jigsaw technique as an instructional approach within university level English learning in Taiwan. Method: A qualitative descriptive approach was utilized to discover and interpret the elements of both…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS[TM]) compared to the Grammar-Translation approach for acquiring and retaining new vocabulary in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class. The subjects were adult Hispanic learners with limited literacy. An experimental design approach was used to gather…

As with language teaching and learning, many factors are at work disregarding of which makes teaching absolutely futile. This introspective paper shows that teaching is bound to many other factors not normally regarded within the framework many teachers apply. Practicality of teaching methods is highly dependent on the kind of learners; that is,…

This study examined the attitude of teachers of Arabic as a foreign language toward some of the most well known teaching methods. For this reason the following eight methods were selected: (1) the Grammar-Translation Method (GTM), (2) the Direct Method (DM), (3) the Audio-Lingual Method (ALM), (4) Total Physical Response (TPR), (5) Community…

In this study the author tries to assess the effects of Theme-based Oral Approach (TOA) on the oral English proficiency of non-English majors as well as students' leaning motives and interests resulted from the approach in EFL class of China. The study follows the quantitative and qualitative method in light of questionnaire, interview, class…

The population of English as a Second Language (ESL) learners has increased significantly in higher education settings in the United States today. It has been reported that Japanese ESL students are generally unsuccessful when studying in English speaking countries. The typical way of reading in English for Japanese students is the…

Vietnamese has to face a cross-culture issue with the teaching and learning of English as Vietnamese culture is "villagers' culture" which considers relationships in village as family relations and an emphasis "on hierarchical, social order in their dealings with one another" (Ellis, 1995: 9) with a traditional teaching method…

Interview guides and a questionnaire were developed in order to find what factors demotivated students in Japanese high school English classrooms. Five college students who were attending two private universities and one public university shared their views about demotivation in the interviews. Forty-two students at a public university responded…

Language teaching approaches and methods have cast light on the language teaching theory and practice. There are still many controversies about their usefulness and appropriateness. This paper tries to analyze their effectiveness and weakness of several most influential teaching approaches and methods: Grammar-translation Method, Direct Method,…

A mini-lesson in Spanish vocabulary was taught to undergraduates unfamiliar with the language using one of two predominant L2 teaching methodologies, the grammar-translation approach or the communicative approach. Both experimental groups showed significant improvement in learning the target language over the baseline measure set by the control…

This research study compared the effects of three instructional methods--collaborative synchronous online communication, asynchronous online communication, and independent study as traditional in grammar translation method--in English reading comprehension. A quasi-experimental research design included pre and post reading comprehension tests for…

Discusses the value of using translation exercises in the second language classroom, specifically for the insight they afford into the organizations of meanings in different languages and cultures. (EKN)