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GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD (GTM) Faisal Rahman University of Ahmad Dahlan [email protected] Abstract In language teaching and learning, there are several methods those are used for the effectiveness of the teaching learning activity, the methods are conducted by researcher to help teacher in te...

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GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD (GTM) Faisal Rahman University of Ahmad Dahlan [email protected] Abstract In language teaching and learning, there are several methods those are used for the effectiveness of the teaching learning activity, the methods are conducted by researcher to help teacher in teaching the language, time by time, the methods experienced many change and development based on the situation and school of thought of teaching and learning a language, every method has different character, technique and implementation. This paper is going to elaborate about the grammar translation method (GTM) that is used in nineteenth century to teach English as foreign language, this method is based on the goal of grammatical competence, to achieve the goal this method has several characteristic and technique those will be used in its implementation. Keyword: GTM, method, language teaching and learning. A. introduction Language is crucial in human life where without it people cannot communicate with others, express their feeling and explore their mind, thus, learn language is very important for human, especially a language that can connect many people in several countries that have different mother tongue. The most powerful language is English because it can connect many people to communicate each other even English is called as The World Language. So, the most important language to be learned is English. In conducting a language course, there are several things to be planned, such as the decision of the course and the way to achieve the decision, like Richard (2006: 6) argued that: In planning a language course, decisions have to be made about the content of the course, including decisions about what vocabulary and grammar to teach at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels, and which skills and micro skills to teach and in what sequence. Decisions about these issues belong to the field of syllabus design or course design. Decisions about how best to teach the contents of a syllabus belong to the field of methodology.

Researchers have conducted some methods in language teaching and learning that can be used by teacher for the effectiveness of the teaching learning activity, they always develop the method depends on the situation and the development of technology, for centuries, there were few of any theoretical foundation of language learning upon which to base teaching methodology, some of the methods of teaching language are: Grammar Translation Method, Direct Method, Audio Lingual Method, Total Physical Response, Silent Way, and Suggestopedia. In western, foreign language (Greek) was taught by Classical Method that focuses on grammatical rules, translation of texts, memorization of vocabulary and of various declensions and conjugation, and doing written exercises (Brown, 2001: 18). In the nineteenth century the Classical Method came to be known as Grammar Translation Method (GTM .This method was used for the purpose of helping students read and appreciate foreign language literature and hoped that the students would become familiar with the grammar of their native language through the study of the grammar of the target language and that familiarity would help them speak and write better in their native language (Larsen-Freeman, 2000: 11). GTM is a method that based on the target of grammatical competence that focuses on the grammar as a basic of a language it is like Richard (2006: 3) mentioned that grammatical competence refers to the knowledge grammar that account of ability in producing a sentence. B. Historical Background Grammar translation method was firstly used in the middle of nineteenth century in Germany, it is like Tetzner (2004) stated that grammar -translation method (GTM) to teach foreign language dominated from the mid-nineteenth century to the beginning of World War Two and it is still used in some countries today. In the late eighteenth century, the first place which began to establish GTM as the main method to teach a second language at national high schools, known as Gymnasiums was Prussia in Germany. In this century GTM was the only widely used teaching method in the schools, not only in Germany also in other European countries. Originally it was used to teach Greek and Latin. Due to this historical background GTM is also known as the traditional or classical method, as the grammar school method or in America as the Prussian method. Along with industrialisation more opportunities for communication had been arising especially in Europe

and consequently new methods for language teaching were developed in order to meet the needs of the new class of language learners (Howatt, 1997 in Tetzner, 2004). C. Characteristic of GTM Every method has its own characters which should be known teacher to teach language, GTM also has its own characteristic, like Prator and Celse-Murcia (1979: 3) in Brown (2001: 19) mentioned that the major characteristics of GTM are: 1. Classes are taught in the mother tongue with little active use of the target language. 2. Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words. 3. Long, elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given. 4. Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words. 5. Reading of difficult classical text is begun early. 6. Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis. 7. Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue. 8. Little or no attention of pronunciation. The characteristic can be used by teacher as an outline of GTM usage in a class, while for the way to use GTM is its technique. D. Techniques of GTM There are some techniques those are used in implementing GTM, every technique is related with the others, according to Larsen Freeman (2006: 19-20), the techniques are: 1. Translation of a literary passage The students translate a reading passage from the target language into the native language. The translation may be written or spoken both. 2. Reading comprehension questions The students answer questions in the target language based on their understanding of the passage they are read. 3. Antonyms/synonyms The students ordered to find out the antonym of some words in the passage.

4. Cognates The teacher teaches the students to recognize cognates by learning the sound patterns or spelling that correspond between the languages. 5. Deductive application of rule Grammar rules are presented with examples. Exception to each rules are also noted. Once the students understand a rule, they are ordered to apply it to some different examples. 6. Fill in the blanks The students are given a series of sentences with word missing and they fill in the blanks with new vocabulary items or with items of particular grammar type. 7. Memorization Students are given lists of target language vocabulary words and their native language equivalents and are asked to memorize them. Students are also required to memorize grammatical rules and grammatical paradigms such as verb conjugation. 8. Use words in sentences In order to show that students understand the meaning and use of a new vocabulary item, they make up sentences in which they use the new words. 9. Composition The teacher gives the students a topic to write about in the target language. The topic is based upon some aspect of the reading passage of the lesson. Those techniques can be used separately or united in an implementation of teaching learning activity. E. Advantages and Disadvantages of GTM Every method in teaching foreign language has advantages and disadvantages that should be taken into account by teacher, GTM also has some advantages and disadvantages, Gorzky (nd) mentioned that the advantages of GTM are (i) it reduces the teacher stress, the students translate the text from target language into native language, so the teacher involvement is rarely necessary, and teacher who is not fluent in target language, especially English is able to teach by using this method, (ii) it focuses on grammar, sentence structure and word meaning, in can help the students to learn how to read and write in the target language. In the other site, Gorzky (nd) mentioned the disadvantages of this method are (i) less learner or students motivation and participation, because GTM is not interactive method,

the students will not be motivated, and also there is less students participation and teacherlearner relationship because they just learn from a textbook, (ii) unnatural and inaccurate pronunciation, the students only learn about the grammar and word meaning from a textbook, it makes them do not know how to pronounce the words naturally and accurately. Those are some advantages and disadvantages of GTM, the teacher should give attention to those when he/she want to use GTM in teaching language on the class. F. Implementation of GTM Based on the techniques above, implementation of GTM is divided into four phases: first, the teacher gives the students a reading text, second, the students ordered to read the text silently, third, the teacher help the students to identify a grammar rule in the text and translate the text word by word directly and fourth, the students memorize the grammar rule and the translation. See the process below:

teacher gives the reading text

read the text silently

memorize the grammar rule and the translation of the words

identifying the grammar rule and translating the text word by word

For example, here is an activity of teaching learning activity using GTM: At beginning of the class, the teacher gives the students a text entitled „Nyi Roro Kidul‟: Nyi Roro Kidul Dewi Kandita was an unlucky princess. Her father, Prabu Siliwangi of Pajajaran, had many wives. Because Dewi Kandita and her mother (Queen Mayangsari) were very beautiful, all the mistress, the king‟s wives were jealous. They used some kind of black magic to curse Dewi Kandita and her mother. The princess and the queen became ugly and dirty.

Dewi Kandita‟s life changed after she was cursed. She and her mother wandered in the forest. Unfortunately, her mother didn‟t survive, she died. Dewi Kandita was confused and upset. She cried until she fell asleep. She had a dream. She herself jumped into the water and was free from the curse. When she got up, she jumped into the sea without a second thought. She turned into a buaetiful lady. She was beautiful as she was before. Then she realized that she was no longer a human. Dewi Kandita became a powerful goddess. She rules all „creatures‟ on the southern coast of Java and she is known as Kanjeng Ratu Kidul (Nyai Roro Kidul). She wanted to get even with her father. She became a primary bride of Mataram‟s kings, the rivals of Pajajaran king. People say she traps males who wear green clothes while they walk along the shore. They are swallowed by the waves and are either missing or dead. People still believe that they have become her guards or male companion. Silently, the students read the text, then identifying the grammar rule and translating word by word by the teacher‟s help: Generally, the text is structured as simple past tense, because there are some to be was and were also the text generally use verb 2, such as: had, became, wandered, died , cried, thought, got up, etc. The first sentence: “Dewi Kandita was an unlucky woman”S+ to be+ complement The sentence structure is simple past tense as a nominal sentence because there is no verb in the sentence. The translation of the words in the sentence are: “Dewi Kandita: name of a woman. Was: a to be that shows the action is happened in the past, the meaning is adalah. An: an article to shows that the woman is alone, the meaning is seorang Unlucky: an adjective word to classify the noun „woman‟, the meaning is tidak beruntung. Woman: a noun, the meaning is wanita”. The activity is repeated till the end of the text, and then the students are ordered to memorize the grammar rule of the text and the translation of the words in the text. G. Conclusion Grammar Translation Method (GTM) is on of classical method that is used in teaching foreign language, this method focuses on the grammar rule and words meaning and do not give attention to the pronunciation of the words.

There are some characteristics, techniques, advantages and disadvantages of Grammar Translation Method (GTM) those should be taken into account by the teachers who want to use this method in teaching foreign language in the class to avoid some mistakes.

References: Prator, Clifford H. and Celce-Murcia, Marianne, 1979. An outline of Language Teaching Approaches, in Brown, H. Douglas. (2001). Teaching by Principles. 2th edn. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Brown, H. Douglas. (2001). Teaching by Principles. 2th edn. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Larsen-Freeman, Diane. (2000). Technique and Principles in Language Teaching. 2nd edn. Oxford University Press. Richard, Jack. C. (2006). Communicative Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press. Tetzner, Rene. (2004), Grammar Translation Method. Louton: University of Louton. [online] available at http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/53246/the-grammar-translation-method. Retrieved at march 16th 2014 Gorsky, Victoria. (nd). Advantages and Disadvantages of GTM. [online] available at http://www.ehow.com/info_8059435_advantages-disadvantages-gtm-tefl.html. Retrieved march 16th 2014...