6 most used teaching methods in ESL

ESL students who live in an English speaking countries have a huge advantage. They can easily learn the English language because they can practice what they learn in ESL classes everyday.
However, majority of English learners live in their native country where English is not their first language. These students are not fortunate to practice their English language regularly. They can only communicate in English during English classes at school. As a result, these students do not get the same opportunity to use the language and put it into practice.
In teaching ESL/EFL learners, this “natural language acquisition” is impossible to use in the classroom. Students must learn the English language in different ways. Because of this, there are many methodologies created by English linguistics to make the language learning easy and not complicated. The most used techniques are the following:

• Grammar Translation
• Audio Lingualism
• PPP
• Task-based Learning
• Communicative Language Teaching
• Community Language Learning

Grammar Translation – this method has been used for hundred of years. Its principle is based on finding appropriate terms which is equivalent to the students native language. However, “the major drawback with grammar translation is that it seems to prevent the students from getting the kind of natural language input that will really help them acquire the language. Students will learn the language rather than the language itself.”
Audio Lingualism – this method is based upon the behaviorist theories of learning. It suggest that English learning must based on long repetition-drills where the learner would be “conditioned into using the language correctly.” Many linguists believe that this method is not applicable anymore. However, this method of language drills are still used by many teachers. It is also helpful for low level students.
PPP(Presentation, Practice, Production) – In this method, the teacher present the target language by explanation and demonstration to the students. Then the student will practice the language in a controlled manned before doing the production stage. It has been proven that this method is effective in teaching English language to low level student. But it is not useful in teaching higher level student who already know a lot.
Task-based Learning – this method is more focus on giving task to the students. The teacher will only help the learners if it is necessary, like explaining or providing solutions to the problem while doing the task.
Communicative Language Teaching – this method is stressing the importance of English speaking. The students are given more exposure to the language by doing real life situations like role-playing.
Community Language Learning – In this method, the students sit in circle while the teacher is standing outside the circle. The students will decide what will they talk about. The chosen topic will be the center of discussion. This method makes the learning more ‘student-centered’. The only responsibility of the teacher is to assist the students of their language problems during the discussion.
Which methodology is the best? It is difficult to decide which method is the best to use. With so many different styles in teaching the English language, it is only the teacher who can decide what he/she will use. In addition, the personality and the culture of the students should be considered too.
In conclusion, teaching the English language can be summed up with these ideas:

• Students need a lot of exposure to the English language.
• Students need proper guidance and feedback from the teacher to learn the English language better.
• Students must be given more communicative tasks because this is the weakness of the majority of EFL/ESL learners.
• Vocabulary and grammar are both important in building the English foundation of the student.