Natural Approach (Teaching)

DEFINITION

The natural approach is one of many Methods and approaches that still used by many teachers and lecturers nowadays. It was originally formulated by Tracy Terrell in 1977, who wished to develop a style of teaching based on the findings of naturalistic studies of second-language acquisition. After the original formulation, Terrell worked with Stephen Krashen to further develop the theoretical aspects of the method.

Terrel and Krashen identified Natural Approach as a “tradtional” approache to language teaching because it based on the use of the language in communicative situations without recourse to the native language, and without reference to gramatical analysis, gramatical drilling, or a particular theory of grammar.

According to Richard & Rodgers in 2001, The Natural Approach is one of the language teaching methods based on observation and interpretation of how learners acquire both first and second languages in non-formal settings.

CHARACTERISTIC

Terrell and Krashen themselves characterized the natural approach as a "traditional" method and contrasted it with grammar-based approaches. The natural approach shares many features with the direct method based on the idea of enabling naturalistic language acquisition in the language classroom; attempted to mirror the processes of learning a first language, provide learners with a practically useful knowledge of language, translation and grammar explanations were rejected, learners were exposed to sequences of actions, and the spoken form was taught before the written form. They differ in that the natural approach puts less emphasis on practice and more on exposure to language input and on reducing learners' anxiety, less emphasis in teacher monologues, direct repetition, formal questions and answers, and less focus on accurate production of target language sentences.

Beside those characteristic, there are others characteristic of The Natural Approach, such as:

1.      It aims to develop basic communication skills, to foster naturalistic language acquisition in a classroom setting, and to create situations in the classroom that are intrinsically motivating for students.

2.      Focuses on input, comprehension, meaningful communication, and understanding messages in the foreign language and puts less emphasis on error correction and grammatical rules. As Terrel and Krashen statement that “acquisition can take place only when people understand the messages in target language” (1983:333) that implied language as the vehicle for communicating meanings.

3.      Language output is not forced, but allowed to emerge spontaneously after students have attended to large amounts of comprehensible language input.

4.      Learners were initially exposed to meaningful language, not forced to speak until they felt ready to.

5.      A lot of teacher talk, made intelligible through the use of visual aids and actions (gesture as in TPR for the beginner level).

6.      Efforts are made to make the learning environment as stress-free as possible.

7.      Early speech goes through natural stages (yes or no response, one- word answers, and lists of words, short phrases, and complete sentences.)

8.      It is primarily intended to be used with beginning learners.

Theory of Learning

            Based on Krashen’s Language Acquistion Theory, there are five hypothesis of the Natural Approach, they are:

1.      The Acquisition / Learning Hypothesis

It claims that there are two distinctive ways of developing competence in a second or foreign language; acquisition and learning. Acquistion refers to unconscious process that involves naturalistic development of language proficiency through understanding language and through using language for meaningful communicative. In contracst, Learning refers to a process in which conscious rules about a language are developed. 

2.      The Monitor Hypothesis

It claims that we may call upon learned knowledge to correct ourselves when we communicate. Monitoring output requires learners to be focused on the rule and to have time to apply it.

3.      The Natural Order Hypothesis

According to the Natural order Hypothesis, the acquistion of gramatical structures proceeds in a predictable order. It means that learners acquire the grammatical features of a language in a fixed order, and that this is not affected by instruction.

4.      The Input Hypothesis

It explains the relationship between what the learner is exposed to of a language (the input) and language acquisition that is language is acquired by exposure to comprehensible input at a level a little higher than that the learner can already understand.

5.      The Affective Filter Hypothesis

Krashen sees the learner’s emotional state or attitude as an adjustable filter that freely passes, impedes, or blocks input necessary to acquisition. It also states that acquirers with a low affective filter seek and receive more input, interact with confidence, and are more receptive to the input they receive. It means that learners must be relaxed and open to learning in order for language to be acquired. Learners who are nervous or distressed may not learn features in the input that more relaxed learners would pick up with little effort.

These five hypotheses have obvious implications for language teaching. In sum, these are:

1.      As much as compherensible input as possible must be presented.

2.      Whatever helps comprehension is important. Visual aids are useful, as is exposure to a wide range of vocabulary rather than study of syntactic structure.

3.      The focus in the classroom should be in listening and reading; speaking should be allowed to “emerge”.

4.      In order to lower the affective filter, student work should center on meaningful communication rather than on form.

STAGE

comprehension stage Terrell focuses on students' vocabulary knowledge. His aim is to make the vocabulary stick in students' long term memory, a process which he calls binding.[11] Terrell sees some techniques as more binding than others; for example, the use of gestures or actions, such as in Total Physical Response, is seen to be more binding than the use of translation.[11]

According to Terrell, students' speech will only emerge after enough language has been bound through communicative input.[11] When this occurs, the learners enter the early speech stage. In this stage, students answer simple questions, use single words and set phrases, and fill in simple charts in the foreign language.[12] In the speech emergence stage, students take part in activities requiring more advanced language, such as role-plays and problem-solving activities

PRACTICE

classroom activities that can facilitate language acquisition (as opposed to language learning):

    "Content (culture, subject matter, new information, reading, e.g. teacher tells interesting anecdote involving contrast between target and native culture.)"[11]

    "Affective-humanistic (students' own ideas, opinions, experiences, e.g. students are asked to share personal preferences as to music, places to live, clothes, hair styles, etc.)"[11]

    "Games [focus on using language to participate in the game, e.g. 20 questions: I, the teacher, am thinking of an object in this room. You, students, have twenty questions to guess object. Typical questions: is it clothing? (yes) is it for a man or a woman? (woman) is it a skirt? (yes) is it brown? (yes) is it Ellen's skirt? (yes)]"[11]

  "Problem solving (focus on using language to locate information, use information, etc., e.g. looking at this listing of films in the newspaper, and considering the different tastes and schedule needs in the group, which film would be appropriate for all of us to attend, and when?)"

At beginner level, lots of TPR activities are called for, where learners simply respond to instructions by performing physical actions, such as pointing at things, handing each other objects, standing, walking, sitting down, writing and drawing. At higher levels, the focus is still on providing comprehensible input, in the form of listening or reading tasks, where learners order pictures, fill in grids, follow maps, and so on.

lesson at elementary to intermediate

1.      The pictures are displayed around the room, and the students are asked to point at the appropriate picture when the teacher names it.

2.      The students listen to a tape of a person (or the teacher) describing what they habitually eat at different meals; the students tick the items they hear on a worksheet.

Practice 1 – 5^th Grade of Elementary School Students

(Using TPR, Yes/No Question and Complete Sentence)

T          : Could you clean the white board please?

S₁           : (Clean the board without saying anything)

T          : Thank you. Hold on, I want to ask you about this picture.

              Have you seen this picture before?

S₁           : (Nod)

T          : Do you know who painted this picture?

S₁           : No.

T          : That’s Ok. I’ll tell you then. This is the Masterpiece of Leonardo Da Vinci.

              It’s displayed on the          Museum in Paris, France.

              Ok, you can go back to your chair.

              Now, I want to ask you. Did you hear what I talked to him about?

S₂           : (Nod)

T          : If so, you should know the answers of my following questions.

              Is Monalisa displayed in Paris?

S₂           : Yes.

T          : Good, you’re a good listener. Then, who painted Monalisa?

S₂           : Leonardo painted the picture.

T          : Great. Thank you very much.