Situational Language Teaching (SLT)

Situational Language Teaching (SLT) is a way to teach English using real-life situations. Teachers use pictures, objects, or actions to show meaning. Students learn by speaking and listening first. Grammar and vocabulary are taught through examples. Reading and writing come later. The focus is on correct sentence use in real situations. Lessons are planned around everyday scenes. SLT helps students use English naturally in daily life. It was popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

Key concept:

• SLT is called the oral approach.
• Vocabulary and grammar are taught through oral practice.
• Much more clinical method that relies less on direct communication.

Brief history:

• SLT was developed by applied linguists from the 1930s to the 1950s.
• SLT became the accepted British approach to English language teaching by the 1950s.

Objectives: There are four basic objectives or purposes of SLT.

• Practical command of the four basic skills of a language through structure.
• Accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar.
• Ability to respond quickly and accurately in speech situations.
• Automatic control of basic structures.

Principles:

• Language learning means habit formation.
• Mistakes must be avoided because they form bad habits.
• SLT focuses on effective language skills because it maintains oral skills at first and then written skills.
• The linguistic and cultural contextual meaning of the words.

Syllabus:

• Basic words and phrases.
• Basic sentence structures and patterns.
• Everything is to be taught against the backdrop of situations.

 Materials:

Several situation-based dialogues mean how to talk in different situations, such as in a restaurant or airport.

Textbooks or visual aids, pictures, may be used for teaching.

Roles of teacher:

• Teachers are directors.
• Teachers must be skilled manipulators so that they can answer all questions of learners and develop learners’ skills.

Roles of students:

In SLT, the role of students is divided into two stages which are as follows:

• The initial stage in which students simply listen and repeat what their teacher says.
• In the later stage, students participate in interaction among themselves.

Procedure or Features:

A situational presentation of new sentence patterns and repeated drills of the patterns are central for SLT. According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), the followings are the features of SLT:

• Speaking and listening begins from the very outset.
• As a medium of instruction, the target language is to be used in the classroom.
• New chapters are introduced and practised in accordance with the backdrop of situations.
• Only essential vocabulary is covered.
• Grammar is taught step by step, that means from simple to complex.
• Reading and writing are gradually introduced after establishing basic grammatical and lexical concepts.

Limitations or disadvantages:

• Teachers found it difficult to present all the items in appropriate situations, which form an extra burden for teachers.
• A boring teacher who is not sure about what he is teaching.
• The learner has no control over the contents of the learning.
• Not account for the fundamental characteristics of language, namely the creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences.

Finally, it is said that SLT is an interesting second language teaching method widely used worldwide.