The Oral Approach and

Situational Language Teaching

Presented to:
Dr. Maria Maldonado

Presented By:
Sonia Rafique
Sundus Javaid
 Introduction
Situational Language teaching is a term not commonly
used today, but it is an approach developed by British
Applied Linguists in the 1930s to the 1960s. The impact of
Oral Approach is long- lasting and it has shaped the
design of many widely used ESL/EFL text books.

The Oral approach and Situational Language Teaching

emphasized on presentation of structures in situations.
Speech, structure and a set of basic vocabulary were
seen to be the basis of language and especially speaking
ability was focused in this approach.
 Vocabulary Control
vocabulary was seen as an essential component
for reading proficiency. The second emphasis
was on reading skills. This led to the
development of principles of vocabulary control.
Frequency counts showed that a core of two
thousand or so words occurred frequently in
written texts and that a knowledge of these
words would greatly assist in reading a foreign
language.
 Grammar Control

Also the interest was focus on the grammatical

content of a language course. It has been
believed that an analysis of English and a
classification of its principal grammatical
structures into sentence patterns (or situational
tables) could be used to assist learners to
internalize the rules and sentence structures.
 Theory of language

The structural view of language is behind Oral

and situational Language Teaching. Speech is
viewed as the basis of language and structure as
being the heart of speaking ability.
 Theory Of Learning
The Theory of learning underlying Oral and Situational
Language Teaching is Behaviorism, addressing more the
processes, than the conditions of learning. It includes the
following principles:

 Language learning is habit formation.

 Mistakes are bad and they should be avoided, as the
develop bad habits.
 Language skills are learned more effectively if they are
presented orally first, then in written form.
 The meanings of words can be learned only ina
linguistic and cultural context.
 Objectives

To teach a practical command of all four basic

skills through structure.
Accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar.
Ability to respond quickly and accurately in
speech situations.
Automatic control of basic structures and
sentence patterns.
 The Syllabus

Situational Language teaching used a structural

syllabus and a word list, where the structures are
always taught within sentences, and vocabulary is
chosen according to how well it enables sentence
patterns to be taught.
The syllabus was not therefore a situational syllabus
in the sense that this term is used for, rather
situation refers to the manner of presenting and
practicing sentence patterns.
 Types of Learning and Teaching
Activities
Situational Language teaching employs a situational
approach to presenting new sentence patterns and
drill based manner of practicing them. By situation
Pittman means the use of :

 Concrete objects
 Pictures
 Realia
 Which together with actions and gestures can be
used to demonstrate the meanings of a new
language item.
 The Role of Instructional Material

Situational Language teaching is dependent

upon:
Textbook: Contains organized lessons planned
about different grammatical structures.
Visual Aids: They are produced by the teacher
or commercially produced. They consist of
wall charts, flash cards, pictures, stick figures
and so on.
 Learner Roles

In the initial stages of learning, the learner is

required simply to:

Listen and repeat what the teacher says.

 Responds question and commands.

Later, more active participation is encouraged.

 Teacher Roles

In the presentation stage, the teacher serves as

a model( setting up situation).
Then the teacher becomes more like a skillful
conductor.
The teacher is required to be a skillful
manipulator, using questions, commands, and
other cues to elicit correct sentences from the
learners.
 Procedure

A typical Situational Language Teaching lesson

would start with stress and intonation practice.
Then the main body of the lesson might consist of:

 Pronunciation
 Revision
 Presentation of new structures or vocabulary
 Oral practice(drilling)
 Reading of material on the new structure or
written exercises,
 Step By Step procedure

Presentation: introduce material

Controlled practice: intensive, teacher
controlled
Free Practice: students independent practice
Checking: teacher elicited usage
Further practice: new situations and
combinations
 Conclusion
Oral and Situational Language teaching
approach is suitable for introduction of a
language. It is a good method if we use it in
teaching pronunciation and vocabulary. But it
does not provide any room for creativity and
uniqueness of individual sentences as it only
allows learners to listen and repeat what the
teacher says and to respond to questions and
commands.
Thank You