What is the best teaching method for learning English?
Methods and approaches to teaching English have developed rapidly, especially in the previous 40 years. It is important that language learners and training managers, as well as teachers, understand the various teaching methods and techniques so you are able to navigate the market, make educated choices, and boost your enjoyment of learning a language. The following is a summary.
Each teaching method is based on a particular vision of understanding the language or of learning processes, often using specific techniques and materials used in a set sequence. The main teaching methodologies are listed below in the chronological order of their development:
- Grammar Translation Method - the classical method
- Direct Method - discovering the importance of speaking
- Audio-lingualism - the first modern methodology
- Humanistic Teaching Approaches - a range of new holistic methods applied to language learning
- Communicative Language Teaching - the modern standard method
- Principled Eclecticism - fitting the method to the learner, not the learner to the method
According to academic research, linguists have demonstrated that there is not one single best method for everyone in all contexts, and that no one method is inherently superior to the other methods listed above.
Also, it is not always possible - or appropriate - to apply the same methodology to all learners, who have different objectives, environments and learning needs.
An experienced professional language teacher always adopts the Principled Eclecticism approach, deciding on the most suitable technique and applying the most appropriate methodology for that learner's specific objectives, learning style and context.
Each of the methods for learning English as listed above is summarized individually on a separate page, including an overview of the various methods grouped under the category Humanistic Teaching Approaches and an explanation of the current 'standard' in English language learning - the Communicative Language Teaching method.
The final section on the Principled Eclecticism approach includes a useful ten-point guide for teachers and English language students on the best teaching and learning techniques.