THE ORAL APPROACH AND SITUATIONAL LANGUAGE TEACHING

A. INTRODUCTION

The terms of Oral Approach or Situational Language Teaching are developed by

British applied linguist from the 1930s to the 1960s. It has shaped the design of many
widely used EFL/ESL textbooks and courses. Beginning at this time, a number of
outstanding applied linguists developed the basis for a principled approach to
methodology in language teaching.

The goals of Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching are to teach a
practical command of the four basic skills of language, but the skills are approached
through structure. Accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar is regarded as crucial,
and errors are to be avoided at all cost. Automatic control of basic structures and
sentence patterns is fundamental to reading and writing skills, and this is achieved
through speech work. New structures and new vocabularies are taught orally.

B. EXPLANATION

Harold Palmer and A.S. Hornby are the most prominent figures in British twentieth-
century language teaching. Oral Approach and Situational Language teaching relied on the
structural view of language. The main characteristics of the approach were as follows:

1. Language teaching begins with the spoken language. Material is taught orally
before it is presented in written form.

2. The target language is the language of the classroom.

3. New language points are introduced and practiced situationally.

4. Vocabulary selection procedures are followed to ensure that an essential general

service vocabulary is covered.

5. Items of grammar are graded following the principle that simple forms should be
taught before complex ones.

6. Reading and writing are introduced once sufficient lexical and grammatical basis
is established.

1. Approach
 The theory of language underlying Situational Language Teaching can be
characterized as a type of British structuralism. Speech was regarded as the basis of
language, and structure was viewed as being at the heart of speaking ability. The
principle classroom activity in the teaching of English structure will be the oral
practice of structures. The oral practice of controlled sentence patterns should be
given in situations designed to give the greatest amount of practice in English speech
to the pupil. Language was viewed as purposeful activity related to the goals and
situations in the real world.
The theory of language learning underlying Situational Language Teaching is a
type of behaviorist habit-learning theory. The meaning of words or structures is not to
be given through explanation in either the native language or the target language but
is to be induced from the way the form is used in a situation. Explanation is therefore
discouraged, and the learner is expected to deduce the meaning of a particular
structure or vocabulary item from the situation in which it is presented. The learner is
expected to apply the language learned in a classroom to situations outside the
classroom.
2. Design
a. Objectives
The objectives of the Situational Language Teaching method are to teach a
practical command of four the basic skills of language. The skills are approached
through structure. Accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar is regarded as crucial,
and errors are to be avoided at all cost. Automatic control of basic structures and
sentence patterns is fundamental to reading and writing skills, and this is achieved
through speech work. New structures and new vocabularies are taught orally.
b. The syllabus
Basic to teaching of English in Situational Language Teaching is a structural
syllabus and a word list. Structures are always taught within sentences, and
vocabulary is chosen according to how well it enables sentence patterns to be taught.
The course will consist of a list of sentence patterns (statement patterns, question
patterns, and request or command patterns).
c. Types of learning and teaching activities
Situational Language Teaching employed generally consist of guided repetition
and substitution activities, including chorus repetition, dictation, drills, and controlled
oral-based reading and writing task. The learners are required simply to listen and
repeat what the teacher says and to respond questions and commands. The meaning of
 new words and sentence patterns is not conveyed through translation. It is made clear
visually (objects, pictures, action, mime)
3. Procedure
According to Pittman, the first part of the lesson will be stress and intonation
practice, the main body of the lesson should then follow. The lesson consists of:
1. Pronunciation
2. Presentation of new structure or vocabulary
3. Oral practice or drilling (related to the situation)
4. Reading of material on the new structure or written exercise.

C. COMPARATIONS
Actually this is a little bit difficult to make a comparison according to other expert.
It is because the objective of an oral approach and situational language teaching are the
four basic skills of language (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). Other experts
such as David Nunan, Jeremy Harmer, Jim Scrivener, Douglas Brown just tell about how
the way to teach speaking only.
The writer just tries to make the comparisons between the oral approach / SLT and
teaching speaking because there have the same similarities in the some aspect.
1. The Book from the title Language Teaching Methodology by David Nunan
David Nunan use the oral language / spoken language as the method in his book.
Although the objective just for basic speaking skill. This is different from SLT method
which has the objective on the four basic skills. The similarity is on the spoken language.
David Nunan use spoken language as the activity learning. It means that the language is
used on the classroom is a target language. The other similarities are how to make the
habit and an expected that the students use a target language outside the class.
2. The Book from the title The Practice of English Language Teaching by
Jeremy Harmer
Jeremy Harmer use spoken language as the method for learning speaking activity.
The similarity between this method and SLT is the drilling on the classroom activity. The
teacher asks the student to repeat what the teacher says. The weakness of Jeremy
Harmers book is on the objective. It is because the objective just for the speaking skill.
3. The Book from the title Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener
The objectives of Jim Scriveners method are become more fluent and confident.
The similarities are in using visual aids, repeating what the teacher says, doing oral
grammar, and reading the course book. The weakness of the method is the teacher do not
teach the writing skill.
4. The Book from the title Teaching by Principles by H. Douglas Brown
The method is named Oral Communication. The objectives of this method are
accuracy and fluency. Douglas Brown prioritize the two of clearly important speaker
 goals of accurate (clear, articulate, grammatically, and phonologically correct) language
and fluent (flowing, natural) language.

D. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brown, H. Douglas. 2001. Teaching by Principles, An Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy, Second Edition. New York: Pearson Education.
David, Nunan. 1991. Language Teaching Methodology, Textbook for Teachers. New Jersey:
PrenticeHall.
Harmer, Jeremy. 2001. The Pracice of English Language Teaching Fourth Edition. London:
Longman.
Richards, Jack, C, and Theodore S. Rodgers. 2001. Approach and Methods in Language
Teaching, Second Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Scrivener, Jim. 2005. Learning Teaching, A Guidebook for English language Teachers.
London: Macmillan.