The Grammar Translation Method

A historical sketch of the last hundred years of language teaching really must be set in the context of a prevailing, customary language teaching "tradition." for centuries, there were few if any theoretical foundations of language learning upon which to base teaching methodology. In the western world, "foreign" language learning in schools was synonymous with the learning of latin or Greek. Latin, thought to promote intellectuality through "mental gymnastics." was until relatively recently held to be indispensable to an adequate higher education.

Latin was taught by means of what has been called the classical method: focus on grammatical rules, memorization of vocabulary and of various declensions and conjugations, translations of texts, doing written exercises. As other languages began to be taught in educational institutions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the classical method was adopted as the chief means for teaching foreign languages.