Did you know that “information gap” actually stemmed from the Direct approach used in the 1910s? A few weeks ago I asked a student to describe her ideal classroom and dictate the description. The others had to draw the map of this classroom based on the dictation. Well, that’s also a typical activity of the Direct Approach…

What about: “Before you really read the text, I would like you to list all the proper nouns you see… all the numbers you see… “. Nothing new again, “skimming and scanning” strategies date back to the 1930s and the “Reading Approach”. 

Minimal pairs, chain drills, gamification? The Audio Lingual Approach, the 40s.

Anticipatory activities (pre-listening and pre-reading activities)? The Cognitive Approach: 60/70s

Dramatization, positive reinforcement? The Affective-humanistic Approach, the 70s.

Paying particular attention to the different approaches used throughout history can help us take informed decisions. Knowing about past approaches (purpose, strategies & content) will help you choose the best techniques according to your purpose, instead of choosing techniques primarily because they are fashionable or because they fit your personality. 

Teach English Now! Theories of Second Language Acquisition is a free course on Coursera offered by Arizona State University. It focuses on 8 approaches from the Grammar Translation Approach to the Communicative Approach.