“The history of English Language Teaching”;
Introduction
The history of English Language Teaching (ELT) starts from the 15th Century. The first phase is from the beginning of the 15th century to the end of 18th century and second phase is from the 19th century. The third and modern stage is from the beginning of the 20th century to the present age. In Europe, during the end of 14th century French gave way to English language and schools in Europe started teaching English. Educational institutions in Europe taught English along with other modern and classical languages. During the 19th century, due to various factors, a rapid development of ELT was made both in Europe and British colonies. During this period the English speaking population increased to several billions from the previous few millions.
English became the major language of England during the reign of King Henry IV. Later during the 15th century King Henry V proclaimed English as the official language and by the end of the 15th century law books were made available in English language. Even during this period grammar schools in England taught in Latin, though the people were communicating in English. English textbooks, including grammar text books were not available until 17th century. Following the Latin texts, Teachers used dialogue forms, related to everyday life, in question answer style, to teach English.
By the end of the 16th century pro-Reformationists from Spain and Italy and large number of French people arrived in England. This unexpected scenario encouraged educationalists in England to bring out ELT text books to teach English to non-English speaking Europeans. Among these immigrants, there were teachers who knew English and some of them started teaching English language to the immigrants from Europe. These teachers could be considered the first non-native English language teachers. Knowledge of English helped many of the migrant community to improve their career prospects and business. Jacques Bellot prepared and published two English text books – ‘The English School master’ and ‘Familiar Dialogues’ from 1580 to 1590. These textbooks were in an everyday dialogue format. Publication of these text books encouraged many others to bring out ELT books and notable among them was ‘The French School-master’ (1972) brought out by Holly band, which was depended up on by teachers for several decades.
After the return of Italians and other Europeans to their respective countries by the end of the 16th century, ELT in England temporarily came to a standstill. English language lovers could not stop teaching of Latin and Greek in schools of England. During this period John Webbe, who gave prominence for pictures for teaching, and J.A. Comenius, who gave less importance to grammar, published ELT textbooks.
Interest in English philosophy and literature prompted people from many European countries like Germany, Denmark and Netherlands to start learning English. French revolution and Restoration also are some of the reasons for people to show interest in English language. Also plays of Shakespeare and poems of romantic poets attracted many Europeans to English language learning. By 18th century the Russians started learning the English language. In Russia, Michael Permskii brought out a translation of ‘Practical English Grammar’ to Russian language prompting others to do the same. In 1797, John Miller published ‘The Tutor or A New English and Bengalee Work’ from Bengal, India. This book can be considered as the first non-European ELT book.
In the European secondary schools, English was taught as an additional language and ELT was called TEFL (Teaching English as Foreign Language). English was a special subject and the teaching methods of Latin and Greek helped ELT teachers. With the launching of Grammar Translation method in Germany in 1780s, new ELT theories and approaches, like Berlitz schools, for meeting the specific needs were implemented by different countries in their institutions. Too many methods made it necessary for reforms in the ELT sector. Scientific study of language learning, psychology of language learning, paved the way for theoretical foundation of the language learning Pedagogy.
In British colonies English was taught and ELT was called TESL, i.e., Teaching English as Second Language. In these countries England wanted its colony citizens to learn English in addition to their mother tongue. This was for employing the native people who had good knowledge of English, to work in government departments. In colonies like Canada, USA, Australia, and New Zealand, English became the official language. But in countries like India, Burma, Srilanka etc., they ruled over the natives and here the native people were given education which included English language teaching. In addition to the government initiative, Christian missionaries also engaged in imparting education to the natives. European knowledge, culture, literature etc., were imparted to the colony citizens in addition to ELT.
The next stage of ELT, i.e., from the beginning of 20th century to the present can be divided into three phases. First phase is from 1900 to 1946 (after the Second World War), from 1946 to 1970 and the third phase from 1970 to the present. During the second phase of the growth of English language, the term ELT was generally accepted. Incorporation of applied linguistics added resources and some scientific base to ELT. New learning theories, approaches and methods of teaching made it necessary for designing the target language learning techniques.
In the beginning of the second phase, ELT institutes along with BBC, British Council and publishers of ELT books were located only in London city. This scenario changed with the arrival of a large number of immigrants from erstwhile British colonies to United Kingdom during 1960 because of its economic prosperity. It was a great task to teach the children of these immigrants. During this period ELT was called ‘English for Immigrants’. By 1970 it was renamed as (TESL) Teaching English as Second Language.
The acronym ELT came into being after the publication of the British Council journal, ‘English Language Teaching’ in 1946. In due course English language teachers’ training programmes were started to make the ELT more effective. Hornby’s writings on situational approaches brought ELT’s focus again on classroom which until then depended more on theory because of the influence of Applied Linguistics.
The establishment of Association of Recognized English Language School (ARELS) in 1960, made ELT a full-time profession and ARELS was a source for ELT resources. People from non-English speaking countries started learning English for going to English speaking countries for higher education. Conferences conducted by various associations including ARELS helped the EFL and ESL teachers to share their views, knowledge and experiences. The requirement of English language was different for people and this necessitated the birth of English for Special Purposes in 1970s. Audio lingual methods for teaching were introduced in France, and from 1960s film scripts and tape recorders were used to teach English. Later ELT professionals started using television also for effective teaching.
‘Communication’ is one of the primary purposes behind language teaching which greatly influenced ELT during the third phase. The preparation of curriculum and text books, evaluation was based on this premise. Initiation of new language learning theories lead to the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) which became the most acceptable language teaching method for ELT professionals. New text books became a necessity because both learners and teachers wanted activities related to real-life experiences and communication. Two categories of English language learners were identified by Van Ek (1980): the first group was general threshold level, who had a basic need of English language. The teaching materials and teaching method should help them achieve it. The second category of learners required English for special purposes (ESP). Various branches originated from ESP like, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), English for Occupation Purposes (EOP), English for Science and Technology (EST), etc.
This development made ELT professionals to bring out large number of textbooks meeting specific requirements of different learners. Some of them were: ‘English in Physical Science’ (Allen and Widdowson, 1974), ‘Nucleus’ (M Bates and T Dudley-Evans, 1976) which had a volume in General Science. These teaching materials helped ELT to be more flexible and the focus was on language skills than grammar. In addition, British Council developed an English language proficiency test, called English Language Testing Service (ELTS) which was later changed to IELTS.
Some ELT professionals wanted teachers and learners to stick to basics and to look for alternative learning strategies. In 1976, Earl W Stevick published a book, ‘Memory, Meaning and Method’. Stevick wanted ELT professionals to relook into earlier strategies. Stevick called these previous methods as ‘humanistic’ methods, and they are Gattegno’s ‘silent Way’, Curran’s ‘Community Language Learning’, Asher’s ‘Total Physical Response’ and Lozanov’s ‘suggestopedia’. Stevick used this term in his book ‘Humanism in Language Teaching’ (1990). Some of the later ELT theoreticians are S.D. Krashen, N.S. Prabhu.