Grammar-Translation

Method
Presented by
Pisey CHAN
Outline
I. Objectives
II. Definition
III. History
IV. Teaching Demo
V. Principles
VI. Techniques
VII. Summary
VIII. Pros and Cons
IX. Conclusion
X. Reference
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 Objectives
At the end of this presentation, you will be able to:

become clearer about grammar-translation method

apply this method effectively in teaching
help your teachers understand better about this method
expand your teachers teaching techniques
helps your teachers deal more effectively with the unique
qualities and idiosyncrasies of their students (Arends
2004)

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I. Definition
What is grammar-translation method?

Grammar-Translation Method is a traditional way of

teaching foreign language; in the class, students
learn grammatical rules and apply them by
translating from L1 to L2 and vice versa.

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II. History
It was the first method used in teaching classical
languages, Latin and Greek (Chastain 1988)

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III. Teaching Demo
Grammar: Nouns and Adjectives
1. What is a noun?
Noun is a word indicating a person, animal, place, thing or
idea.
Ex: a car, a cat
2. What is an adjective?
Adjective is a word describing or modifying nouns or
pronouns.
Ex: an expensive car.
Rule: In English, adjs come before nouns while they come
after nouns in Khmer. .
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IV. Principles
1. Learning a language is being able to read literature
written in it.
2. Students are considered successful language learners if
they can translate from one language into another.
3. The ability to communicate in the target language is not
the goal of the foreign language instruction
4. Primary skills to be developed are reading and writing.
small attention is given to speaking and listening while
almost zero to pronunciation

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IV. Principles ( Cont.)
5. Teacher is the authority. It's important the students get
the correct answer.
6. It's possible to find language equivalents for all target
language words.
7. Learning is facilitated through attention to similarities
between target language and native language.
8. It's important for the students to learn about the form of
target language.

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IV. Principles( Cont.)
9. Deductive application of an explicit grammar rule is a
useful pedagogical technique
10. Language learning provides good mental exercise.
11. Students should be conscious of the grammatical rules
of the target language.
12. Wherever possible, verb conjugations and other
grammatical paradigms should be committed to
memory.

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V. Techniques
1. Cognates
2. Reading comprehension questions
3. Antonyms/Synonyms
4. Fill-in-the-blanks
5. Translation of literacy passage
6. Memorization
7. Use words in sentences
8. Deductive application of rules
9. Composition

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VI. Summary
Goal :enabling students to read literature written in the
target language.
Teacher is the source of knowledge and authority
Characteristics
students translate words to words and readings in the
target language about some aspect of the culture of the
target language community
grammars are deductively taught students memorize
grammatical paradigm, language equivalents.
classes are taught in students' mother tongue

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Summary(Cont.)
Language areas and skills: grammar, vocabulary, reading
and writing
Evaluation: written test and questions about the target
culture or applying grammar rules

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VII. Pros Vs Cons
Pros
teachers do not need a lot of
preparation
students' reading and writing
skills are well-trained
comparison between 2
languages helps students have
a better understanding of
meanings of abstract words
and complicated sentences.
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Cons
Students are passive and less
self-directed
students might be poor at
communicative skill because of
lacking practice and content
knowledge
The process is reversed; how
we naturally learn our mother
tongue is listening, speaking,
reading and writing.
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VIII. Pros Vs Cons (Cont.)
Cons

Pros this method is limited to native

native teachers are not teachers.
required No exact translation rule due
Systematic study of to variation of languages.
grammatical rules plays a main the texts are mostly excerpts
role in enhancing students of literary works; thus,
ability of reading language learned might not
comprehension and correctly meet the practical needs of the
grammatical writing learners.

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VIII. Conclusion
The fundamental reason for learning another language should
be an ability to communicate in it rather than reading a
literature written in it, which quite contraries to the first
principle;
However, it is undeniable that this method is still useful in
students' language learning in some ways. Firstly, translation
exercise can help learners have better understanding of
meanings of complicated words and sentences. Secondly,
learning grammatical rules reinforces their reading skill and
enable them to produce correctly grammatical sentences.
Therefore, this method would be very suitable for learners
who aim to master their writing and reading skills.

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IX. Reference
Cognate(Words). 2015. http:// grammar. about.com /od/c/g/
cognateterm.htm (accessed October 14, 2016).

Larsen, D.& Anderson, M. (2011), Grammar-Translation Method,

Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (3rd ed., pp11-
22). Oxford: Oxford University Press

Spanish Cognates. n.d. http://www.linguasorb.com/spanish/cognates/

(accessed October 14, 2016).

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