Efl teaching grammar

The Grammar-Translation Method
The GTM has its origins in the late 1700s. However, the influence of the approach on ELT can be traced back to a period of approximately hundred years, from the 1840s to the 1940s, albeit it was heavily criticized as early as the 1880s. It is the rule rather than the exception that ideas about language teaching and learning do not replace each other overnight, but have a tendency to coexist for some time and often the future method takes up elements of interest from the previous method.
English was taught in the same way as the classical languages Greek and Latin, but of course English as part of the European syllabuses was not accepted before the 1890s. According to Richards and Rodgers (1986: 5), the GTM is “… a method for which there is no theory.”
Nonetheless, there are some typical characteristics of the GTM, some of which have survived to this day. First and foremost, abstract grammar rules were taught deductively, i.e. the rules were presented before practical examples of the rules were given. This method is also referred to as explicit grammar teaching.
Lists of words and grammar rules were typically used in the classroom. The point of departure in grammar was the sentence, whereas before the GTM the focus could be on the smaller parts of a sentence. The GTM claimed that, by focusing on the sentence, the process of language learning would be easier. Furthermore, the use of the L1 as the means of instruction was appreciated. Communication in the L2, in our case English, was in fact not a goal at all. Accuracy as opposed to fluency was the aim in language learning. Translation was emphasized, and thus L2 sentences were frequently translated into L1 sentences, and vice versa. When it came to language skills, the written skills (reading and writing) were of primary importance.
Richards and Rodgers (1986: 5) claim that the GTM is “… still widely practiced, but it has no advocates.” In today’s ELT, practices such as translation, using L1 in teaching L2, and the teaching of abstract grammar and technical meta linguistic terms are evidently derived from ideas developed during the period of the GTM.