The Direct Method

INTRODUCTION
The Direct Method has one very basic rule: no translation is allowed. In fact, the Direct Method receives its name from the fact that meaning is to be conveyed directly in the target language through the use of demonstration and visual aids, with no recourse to students’ native language (Diller 1978).

EXPERIENCE
The teacher is calling the class to order as we find seats toward the back of the room. He has placed a big map of the United states in the front of the classroom. The lessons is entitled ‘looking at a map.’ As the students are called on one by one, they read a sentence from the reading passage at the beginning of the lesson.

THINKING ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE
The principles of the Direct Method that can be inferred from our observations will be listed in the column on the right.


REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
Now let us consider the principles of the Direct Method as they are arrange in answer to the some questions posed earlier:
 What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
In order to do this, when the teacher introduces a new target language word or phrase, he demonstrates its meaning through the use of realia, picture, or pantomime ; he never translates it into the student’ native language. Students speak in the target language a great deal and communicate as if they were in real situations.
 How is language viewed? How is culture viewed?
They also study culture consisting of the history of the people who speak the target language, the geography of the country or countries where the language is spoken, and information about the daily lives of the speakers of the language.

REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES
The following expanded review of techniques provides you with some details which will help you do this.

Reading aloud
Students take turns reading section of a passage, play, or dialog out loud. At the end of each student’s turn, the teacher uses gestures, pictures, realia, examples, or other means to make the meaning of the section clear.

Conservation practice
The teacher asks students a number of questions in the target language, which the students have to understand to be able to answer correctly. In the class observed, the teacher asked individual students questions about themselves. The questions contained a particular grammar structure. Later, the students were able to ask each other their own questions using the same grammatical structrure.

Dictation
The teacher reads the passage three times. The first time the teacher reads it at a normal speed, while the students just listen. The second time he reads the passage phrase by phrase, pausing long enough to allow students to write down what they have heard. The last time the teacher again reads at a normal speed, and students check their work.

Paragraph writing
The teacher in this class asked the students to write a paragraph in their own words on the major geographical features of the United States. They could have done this from memory, or they could have used the reading passage in the lesson as a model.

CONCLUSION

Now that you have considered the principles and the techniques of the Direct Method somewhat, see what you can find of use for your own teaching situation.

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