Direct method

The direct method of teaching foreign languages, sometimes also called the natural method, by using the learners' native language and uses only the target language. And the characteristic features of the direct method are:

• teaching vocabulary through pantomiming, real-life objects and other visual materials
• teaching grammar by using an inductive approach (such as: learners find out rules through the presentation of adequate linguistic forms in the target language)
• centrality of spoken language (including a native-like pronunciation)
• focus on question-answer patterns
• teacher-centeredness

The principles of Direct method are:

1. Classroom instructions are using the target language.
2. Only everyday vocabulary and sentences are taught.
3. Oral communication skills are built up in a carefully graded progression organized around question-and-answer exchanges between teachers and students in small, intensive classes.
4. Grammar is taught inductively.
5. New teaching points are introduced orally.
6. Concrete vocabulary is taught through demonstration, objects, and pictures; abstract vocabulary is taught by association of ideas.
7. Both speech and listening comprehensions are taught.
8. Correct pronunciation and grammar are emphasized.
9. Student should be speaking at least 80% of the time during the lesson.
10. Students are taught from inception to ask questions as well as answer them.

Historical context

The direct method was an answer to the dissatisfaction with the older grammar translation method, which teaches students grammar and vocabulary through direct translations and thus focuses on the written language.

There was an attempt to set up conditions that imitate mother tongue acquisition, which is why the beginnings of these attempts were called the natural method. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Sauveur and Franke proposed that language teaching should be undertaken within the target-language system, which was the first stimulus for the rise of the direct method.