2.2. History of methodology

Since Methodology of teaching languages dates back to Ancient Greece a great number of methods, methodological techniques and systems of teach­ing have been accumulated. A brief and oversimplified survey is rather useful for language teachers which would encourage them to learn more about the origins of their profession and help them evaluate the origin of the meth­odological techniques they use as well as many so-called innovations or new approaches which emerge from time to time [56, 3; 81, 10].

Below there are analyzed at length only basic methods and approaches, those which have had a decisive influence on development of Methodology and have been widely used in teaching foreign languages in general and comprehensive schools.

2.2.1. The Classical Greek Method

It was applied in Ancient Greece in the second and first centuries ВС and during first centuries of AD. When renewed in the 19-th century it has got the name of "the Method of the Governess". It was used to teach the Greek lan­guage to the Romans so that they were able to assimilate all the knowledge, data and scientific information, as well as court laws, culture and art accu­mulated and registered by that time only in Greek [50,6]. To convey the form and meaning of the Greek language Greek tutors of those times-in terms of modern methodology — used three approaches. The main ones were: gram­matical approach, direct approach and, to some extent, integrated approach.

To teach reading there were used hand-copied written manuscripts in the target language. To teach speaking there were invited tutors of Greek nation­ality speaking no Latin. They served as governors or governesses and lived in families of Romans and spoke Greek to them. Taught like this both at home and in school, people could understand and use the classical Greek language [51; 82].

It is worth mentioning that in some countries nowadays "the Method of the Governess" was widely used in Europe and especially in Russia from the times of Peter I. It is used even nowadays. However the conditions it was used in Ancient Greece and now are rather different [52, 107].

As one can see, the goal of the classical Greek method was to teach learn­ers all four types of speech activities: speaking, reading, writing and listening comprehension. These goals were socially grounded, satisfying the demands of the Roman Empire in its need of people having different kinds of profi­ciency in the Greek language.

According to the modern classification of Foreign Language Teaching Approaches we can say that the Greek Method refers to two methodologi­cal approaches: the Direct Approach because grammar was taught lexically and the Integrated Approach because all types of speech activities were taught simultaneously.

2.2.2. The Grammar-Translation Method

Historical Significance of the Grammar-Translation Method. The meth­od developed under the influence of the classical Greek method. It was the method by means of which the educated elites of all European countries be­came fluent readers, speakers and writers of the Latin language and owing to their knowledge of Latin they were able to go into their professions. Before

the Renaissance Latin (and Greek in a lesser degree ) was used as a language of higher learning throughout Europe because by that time most of the Eu­ropean vernaculars hadn't had their written languages. Latin was the official language in all European countries and till the 9-th century was used in all Europe as a language of everyday communication. Moreover, even in the 19-th century it was used in all European countries as a language of science, phi­losophy, religion, government, courts, commerce, politics, business, art and culture.

So, it can be inferred that studying Latin by means of the Grammar-Trans­lation Method was in great demand and was socially backgrounded.

The Grammar-Translation Method is the most long-lived method of teach­ing foreign languages , it dominated in Europe up to 1940 and its elements are widely used nowadays [56; 80].

However, appraising the method as a whole it should be said that its goals and techniques didn't stay unchanged during the centuries of its application because the method changed with the course of the time.

Not all methodologists in the world are unanimous in appreciating its true value. A great lot of them, especially those dealing with teaching oral speech, consider the Grammar-Translation Method as a one aimed at teaching formal grammar only and having nothing to do with speech com­munication.

On the other hand, judging from the peculiarities the method has under­gone during various historical periods one can state that at different historical epochs the Grammar-Translation Method has served different aims which reflect the changes in the kind of language and speech proficiency the society needed at various social formations.

Taking the above into account, application of the Grammar-Translation Method can be reasonably divided into five periods, each being caused by social, economic, geopolitical and linguistic changes in Europe.

The first period lasted up to the 9-th century AD.

The second period -up to the second half of the 17-th century.

The third period — up to the end of the 18-th century.

The fourth — up to the beginning of the 20-th century [56, 4; 51, 4-9].

The fifth period has lasted up to now. The Grammar-Translation Method, being integrated into the process of teaching foreign languages along with other methods, was used in schooling up to the second half of the 20-th cen­tury. And it can be stated with certainty that in its rather modified form it is also used nowadays.

First Period in Application of Grammar-Translation Method

Using the terms of modern methodology, it can be stated, that during the first two periods of the existence of The Grammar-Translation Method its ulti­mate goal was developing communicative speech competence in Latin in read­ing, speaking, writing, and listening comprehension.

Up to the 17-th century Latin was taught in special schools where learn­ers' progress in it was a means of getting education in every field of knowl­edge, culture and art. Before the 12-th century these schools had been pro­totypes of future universities, centers of science and culture. Learners from various European countries lived there for some years depending upon the grade of education they were to get [56, 4-5; 51, 6-9]. The procedure was as described below. Grammar was taught in class but not as a separate set of linguistic rules isolated from speech activity. On the contrary, it was first taught in speech patterns which learners had to make up in a great number on their own using the lexis from the classical text on their profession. These speech utterances had to be memorized. Then an appropriate grammati­cal rule was given. The teaching process was followed and supported with intensive and extensive reading of classical texts. Crude dictionaries were used [56, 3].

When written languages of European vernaculars had been formed proper dictionaries were compiled. Only then teachers began to intensively use trans­lation as a basic methodological technique. At further stages of teaching learn­ers read texts on rhetoric and had to write compositions and take part in oral disputes and discussions on the problems of the profession [51,4]. Oral speech in Latin was also studied but not in class. It was mastered naturally: learners arrived at these schools from various regions of Europe and there were no common language to communicate with each other. That's why it became a must at the campus of the schools to use Latin as a language of everyday communication.

By that time it was discovered that "the grammar of the classical texts had differed much "from that of the Latin being used as a lingua franca — the lat­ter subsequently being labeled vulgate Latin, i.e. Latin of the common peo­ple. Major differences had developed between the classical Latin described in the Renaissance grammars, which became the formal object of instruction in schools, and the Latin being used for everyday purposes" [56, 4].

In the 9-th century with the pass of the time European vernaculars de­veloped and the Latin which had been used as a lingua franca began to be abandoned, while classical Latin went on being used in written texts and in

schools. This was the end ofthe first period of the development of the Grammar-Translation Grammar. At those times the Grammar-Translation Method can be considered within two methodological approaches: the Grammar-Transla­tion Approach and the Direct Approach.

No doubt that during the first period of its development the Grammar-Translation Method was a very progressive and socially dependent method of teaching which met the demands ofthe social and economic class structures in all European countries. Mastering ofthe Latin language by means ofthe Grammar-Translation Method made the unique foundation on the basis of which all the elites of Europe got not only higher education but later be­came proficient in all branches of knowledge accumulated by mankind by that time.

Second Period in Application of Grammar-Translation Method

The second period in application ofthe Grammar-Translation Method start-ed?X the 9-th century AD. Its peculiarity was that the analytical approach to teaching Latin used in class increased while the conditions for natural mas­tering oral speech in Latin were lost. Nevertheless, besides grammar ofthe written classical Latin students of these schools were taught how to use this written language orally for conducting oral professional and scientific disputes in class. It was the same written language in which compositions and essays were written however used in its oral reproduction. In everyday life students were made to use conversational Latin, though it wasn't natural and turned to be constrained.

Along with the necessity of studying Latin — because in all European countries it was still the language of science, philosophy, religion, culture, art, literature, government, education, courts, politics and business — there grad­ually formed a social and economic necessity to study national languages of European neighbouring countries. At those times there was no other system of teaching languages than the Grammar-Translation Method. It became an end in itself and was considered the only possible method of teaching. That's why methodologists applied it to teaching all the vernaculars of Europe. Moreover they tried to attribute all the peculiarities ofthe grammatical system ofthe Latin language to the grammatical systems of all European languages. It often violated the linguistic nature ofthe language studied (for example, according to this approach English was taught as a language having a wide case system: Nominative — a tree; Possessive (or Genetive) — of a tree; Dative — to a tree; Accusative — a tree; Instrumental — with a tree).

At the second period of its existence the Grammar-Translation Method was a means of implementation of a number of methodological approaches, among them are: the Reading Apporoach, the Functional Grammar Approach and the Grammar-Translation Approach.

Third Period in Application of Grammar-Translation Method

By the middle of the 17-th century there starts the third period of the Grammar-Translation Method. The Grammar-Translation Method was used both for teaching Latin and for teaching national languages of Europe.

At this period Latin acquired a special social and intellectual status. It was the period of the decline of Latin as a conversational language even in scien­tific and other professional fields of knowledge. However, there was developed a conception according to which to study Latin meant developing intellec­tual abilities. Culturally and intellectually it was very prestigious for people to study, know and read Latin as well as to understand and use scientific terms, popular expressions and winged words in Latin. As it was a dead language the main goal of mastering it was to understand classical texts in Latin. So, it was quite reasonable that first of all people needed to be taught reading. And the Grammar-Translational Method contained a sequence of clear-cut meth­odological techniques of teaching reading: the process of instruction started with learners' making up a great lot of grammatical patterns on their own in which they had to use the new grammatical phenomenon and lexis from their professional texts, then they were made to memorize these patterns and only after it an appropriate grammatical rule was suggested to them, all this being followed by intensive reading and translating classical texts on the students' profession as well as by writing treatises and thesis in Latin. So, in teaching Latin as a dead language which was still used in law, jurisprudence, science and religion the principles of the Grammar-Translation Method continued to be a great success for training national political, legal, scientific and cultural elites of all European countries. At this period of its development the Grammar-Translation Method used to teach Latin answered the demands of the Reading Approach and the Grammar-Translation Approach.

At the same time, application of the Grammar-Translation Method for teaching national languages of Europe didn't show much progress and suc­cess because at that time the kind of proficiency people needed in modern languages differed much from that in the Latin language. Applied to teaching new languages, the Grammar-Translation Method was not socially condi­tioned and didn't meet in full the demands of the social class structures of

European countries. At those times in teaching English, German, French and other national languages as foreign ones the methodological techniques and procedures of the Grammar-Translation Method didn't work properly -ecause the conditions of teaching them didn't coincide with those of teach-

ng Latin. It resulted in the Grammar-Translation Method's turning into a kind of hindrance for mastering new European languages. There appeared a need in a somewhat different method of teaching.

J. A. Comenius, a Czech scholar, suggested not to teach learners gram-

• itical rules and analysis but to use imitation, initially limited vocabulary, some help in reading and speaking and use of pictures [56, 4]. However there *ere no answers in Comenius's theory how to help learners achieve progress

n reading texts giving no grammatical recommendations to them. We can only have some suppositions as to why Comenius theory of teaching foreign languages didn't gain the upper hand over the Grammar-Translation Meth­od, and some of them will be discussed later.

Fourth Period in Development of Grammar-Translation Method

The fourth period of the Grammar- Translation Method refers to the beginning 4 the 19-th century and lasted for about a century. The analytical Grammar-Translation Approach became firmly entrenched as a method for teaching -ot only Latin but modern languages in the USA and in all European coun-r.es [56, 6]. At the fourth period of its development the Grammar-Translation Method served as a procedure to put the Reading approach into practice.

Fifth Period in Development of Grammar-Translation Method

The fifth period of the Grammar-Translation Method starts in the 1930s of tbe 20-th century.

C.Richards and S.Rodgers write about rather wide application of Gram­mar-Translation Method even in the 1940s, however, they notice it was not ~.e leading method of teaching. It was used being integrated with some other Dcwty created methods [80].

Its elements and techniques in a rather modified form are widely used nowadays, particularly in situations when reading and understanding literary ir.d specialized texts as well as ones of other functional styles is the primary :"orce of foreign language studies. So, nowadays the Grammar-Translation Method functions as a part of the procedure of the Reading Approach.

So, it was shown that both of the two methods of teaching foreign lan­guages described above, i.e. the Greek Method and the Grammar-Transla­tion Method, were socially dependent.