Ii alternative approaches and methods

II Alternative approaches and methods
The period from the 1970s through the 1980s witnessed a major para­digm shift in language teaching. The quest for alternatives to grammar-based approaches and methods led in several different directions. Main­stream language teaching embraced the growing interest in communica­tive approaches to language teaching. The communicative movement sought to move the focus away from grammar as the core component of language, to a different view of language, of language learning, of teachers, and of learners, one that focused on language as communica­tion and on making the classroom an environment for authentic com­munication. This "communicative movement" and related approaches are discussed in Part III. However, other directions for language teaching also appeared during this period, and these are the focus of Part II.
Whereas Audiolingualism and Situational Language Teaching were mainstream teaching methods developed by linguists and applied lingu­ists, the approaches and methods described in this section were either developed outside of mainstream language teaching or represent an ap­plication in language teaching of educational principles developed else­where. The former case is represented by such innovative methods of the 1970s as Total Physical Reponse, Silent Way, Counseling Learning, Sug-gestopedia, and more recently Neurolinguistic Programming and Multi­ple Intelligences. Rather than starting from a theory of language and drawing on research and theory in applied linguistics, these methods arc developed around particular theories of learners and learning, sometimes the theories of a single thcorizer or educator. These methods arc conse­quently relatively underdeveloped in the domain of language theory, and the learning principles they reflect are generally different from theories found in second language acquisition textbooks. One exception is the Lexical Approach, which is based on an alternative syllabus model to that found in grammar-based methodologies, one that gives priority to vocab­ulary and lexical phrases as the building blocks of communicative compe­tence. A different case is represented by Whole Language and Competency-Based Instruction. These are movements that emerged within mainstream education and have later been applied and extended to second and foreign language teaching.
Alternative approaches and methods of the 1970s and 1980s have had a somewhat varied history. Although Total Physical Response, Silent


Part 11
Way, Counscling-Learning, and Suggestopedia did not succeed in attract­ing the support of mainstream language teaching, each can be seen as stressing important dimensions of the teaching-learning process. They can be seen as offering particular insights that have attracted the attention and/or allegiance of some teachers and educators, but they have each seen their popularity rise and wane since the 1970s. Today, in most places, they are of little more than historical interest. The fate of others, such as the Lexical Approach, Whole Language, Neurolinguistic Programming, and Multiple Intelligences, has yet to be fully determined. Because of the limited influence of most of the approaches and methods described here and because many of them have a relatively slight literature, we have generally provided less detailed description than for the approaches and methods described in Parts I and III. Competency-Based Instruction, however, has a different status, since it is used as the framework for the design of national curricula in English as well as other subjects in some countries.