Methods of Foreign Language Teaching in the 19th and 20th Century

During the history of foreign language teaching many methods and approaches have been developed to teach students language competence and performance. In this respect more or less successful techniques have been developed.
Literature often distinguishes between methods and approaches used in language teaching. Jack Richards and Theodore Rodgers “describe an approach as a set of beliefs and principles that can be used as the basis for teaching a language”. They can be interpreted and applied individually and extended by new methods. According to Richards and Rodgers, methods are teaching systems that are specific about teaching techniques and the roles of learners and teachers. They do not allow interpretation and are acquired by the teachers through training. In the following essay mainly teaching methods will be described.
Beginning with the Grammar Translation method and ending with Humanistic approaches, this essay will focus on a couple of the main foreign language teaching methods and approaches in the 19th and 20th century. First it will be described how language teaching approaches and method can be analysed. Then some techniques will be explained. Here the focus will be on the main principles of the techniques and their effect on the learner. From some minor methods and approaches only central aspects will be considered.