LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY REVIEW

Ricardo Schtz In learning languages, a distinction is usually made between mother tongues, second languages, and foreign languages. A mother tongue is the first language or languages one learns (or acquires) as a child. When immigrants come to a new country and learn the language of that country, they are learning a second language. On the other hand, when English-s ea!ing students in the "nited #tates learn $rench or # anish in school, or when %ra&ilians study English in %ra&il, they are learning a foreign language. 'he acronyms E#( and E$( stand for the learning of English as a #econd and as a $oreign (anguage. )any theories about the learning and teaching of languages ha*e been ro osed. 'hese theories, normally influenced by de*elo ments in the fields of linguistics and sychology, ha*e ins ired many a roaches to the teaching of second and foreign languages. 'he study of these theories and how they influence language teaching methodology today is called a lied linguistics. 'he grammar-translation method (+,th, +-th and early ./th century), for e0am le, is an early method based on the assum tions that language is rimarily gra hic, that the main ur ose of second language study is to build !nowledge of the structure of the language either as a tool for literary research and translation or for the de*elo ment of the learner1s logical owers, and that the rocess of second language learning must be deducti*e, requires effort, and must be carried out with constant reference to the learner1s nati*e language. 'he audiolingual a roach, which was *ery o ular from the +-2/s through the +-3/s, is based in structural linguistics (structuralism) and beha*ioristic sychology (#!inner1s beha*iorism), and laces hea*y em hasis on s o!en rather than written language, and on the grammar of articular languages, stressing habit formation as a mode of learning. 4ote memori&ation, role laying and structure drilling are the redominant acti*ities. Audiolingual a roaches do not de end so much on the instructor1s creati*e ability and do not require e0cellent roficiency in the language, being always railed to sets of lessons and boo!s. 'herefore, they are easy to be im lemented, chea to be maintained and are still in use by many ac!aged language courses (es ecially in %ra&il). %y the middle of the ./th century cogniti*e sychologists li!e 5ygots!y and 6iaget bring u theories that hel to e0 lain the limited effecti*eness of the traditional rescri ti*e and mechanistic a roaches to language teaching. 'hese theories ser*e as a basis for the new natural- ommuni ati!" a##roa $"s. %eginning in the +-7/s, 8oam 9homs!y and his followers challenged re*ious assum tions about language structure and language learning, ta!ing the osition that language is creati*e (not memori&ed), and rule go*erned (not based on habit), and that uni*ersal henomena of the human mind underlie all language. 'his :9homs!ian re*olution: initially ga*e rise to eclecticism in teaching, but it has more recently led to two main branches of teaching a roaches; the humanistic a roaches based on the charismatic teaching of one erson, and content-based communicati*e a roaches, which try to incor orate what has been learned in recent years about the need for acti*e learner artici ation, about a ro riate language in ut, and about communication as a human acti*ity. )ost recently, there has been also a significant shift toward greater attention to reading and writing as a com lement of listening and s ea!ing, based on a new awareness of significant differences between s o!en and written languages, and on the notion that dealing with language in*ol*es an interaction between the te0t on the one hand, and the culturally-based world !nowledge and e0 erientially-based learning of the recei*er on the other.

'here ha*e been de*elo ments such as a great em hasis on indi*iduali&ed instruction, more humanistic a roaches to language learning, a greater focus on the learner, and greater em hasis on de*elo ment of communicati*e, as o osed to merely linguistic, com etence. In addition to 9homs!y1s generati*ism, the ad*ances in cogniti*e science and educational sychology made by <ean 6iaget and (e* #emeno*ich 5ygots!y in the first half of the century strongly influenced language teaching theory in the +-3/s and =/s. 'hese new trends fa*oring more humanistic *iews and utting a greater focus on the learner and on social interaction ga*e way to the Natural ("#A) and Communi ati!" (England) a roaches. 6sychologist 9harles 9urran1s 9ommunity (anguage (earning and >rashen1s and 'errell1s 8atural A roach (in the +-,/s) are good e0am les of this latest trend in language teaching.

6iaget e 5ygots!y, ais da sicologia cogniti*a contem or?nea, enfati&am que conhecimento @ construAdo em ambientes naturais de interaBCo social, estruturados culturalmente. 9ada a rendi& constrDi seu rD rio a rendi&ado baseado em e0 eriEncias de fundo sicolDgico resultantes de sua artici aBCo ati*a no ambiente. A artir de ensadores como 6iaget e 5ygots!y, obser*a-se um declAnio de credibilidade nos m@todos de ensino *igentes, abrindo-se es aBo a teorias menos rescriti*as e mecanicistas e mais naturalistas e cogniti*istas. 8oam 9homs!y re*oluciona a lingFAstica nos anos 7/ afirmando que lAngua @ uma habilidade criati*a e nCo memori&ada, e que nCo sCo as regras da gramGtica que determinam o que @ certo e errado, mas sim o desem enho de um native speaker instruAdo que determina o que @ aceitG*el ou inaceitG*el. )ais recentemente as id@ias de 9homs!y assaram a ins irar a metodologia de ensino de lAnguas na direBCo de uma abordagem humanAstica baseada em comunicaBCo e intermediaBCo de um orientador carismGtico e artici aBCo ati*a do aluno. #te hen >rashen finalmente nos anos ,/ cria o Natural Approach, tra&endo ao ensino de lAnguas estrangeiras as contribuiBHes de 6iaget e 5ygots!y I sicologia educacional. Em seu li*ro (Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition) >rashen estabelece uma distinBCo entre estudo e assimilaBCo de idiomas e conclui que o ensino de lAnguas eficiente nCo @ aquele que de ende de receitas didGticas em acote ou que busca a oio de equi amentos caros, mas sim aquele que e0 lora a habilidade do instrutor em criar situaBHes de comunicaBCo autEntica, nCo necessariamente dentro de uma sala de aula, que enfati&a o interc?mbio entre essoas de diferentes culturas, e que dissocia as ati*idades de ensino e a rendi&ado do lano t@cnico-didGtico, colocando-as num lano essoal- sicolDgico.
Agradecemos a )Grcia 'erra ela colaboraBCo na inter retaBCo do ensamento de 5ygots!y.