Learning Vocabulary for Saudi Arabian Students Research Proposal

Learning Vocabulary for Saudi Arabian Students - Research Proposal Example Focusing on the methods of teaching the English language, vocabulary was disregarded and reduced, while grammar and pronunciation were given more emphasis (Al-Jabri, 2005). According to Harmer (2007), teachers are very unsure of how to determine a suitable method of teaching English because of the variety of different approaches and methods available. They can gradually, with experience, create their own method of teaching. This could be the most appropriate method they can use according to the context they teach in (Scrivener, 2005). Students usually choose a low-effort strategy when they are required to do a task (Krashen, 1987). They seem to prefer translation of new vocabulary rather than getting their meanings from the contexts or from doing pair-works (Prince, 1996). It is significant to shed light on the effectiveness of the English teaching methodologies in order to increase the awareness of English teachers to re-evaluate their teaching methods, considering the applicability of these methods on the social and cultural situations. Based on my teaching experience, therefore, I propose to investigate whether the Grammar- Translation method is more effective than CLT approach at the vocabulary level. Much has been said and talked about the traditional ways of teaching. One of the ways is the Grammar Translation Method which dates back to the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries when foreign language learning was associated with the learning of Latin and Greek. In the process of teaching and learning English, translation is used in the Grammar Translation Method. According to Boey (1970) the student is first required to learn the vocabulary lists consisting of L2 words and its equivalent L1 words. L1 is used to teach the grammatical rules of L2. Thereafter, practice exercises are given to students where they have to translate the L1 sentences into L2 sentences by applying the grammatical rules to the vocabulary learnt. On the other hand, the main aim of the Communicative Language Approach (CLT) is to produce churn out students who are communicatively competent. In this method, the teacher first gives a presentation and thereafter, students are made to use the language through activities, such as games, role plays and problem solving tasks. (Larsen, 1987) According to Maleki (2005), the main purpose of these two languages - GTM and CLT was to promote the intellectual skills of its speakers. Therefore, it was extremely important to focus on sentence structure, grammatical rules, learning of vocabulary and translation of literary texts. The other method which is now more prevalent for teaching is the Communicative Language Approach. Wen Wu (2008) stated that Communicative Language Approach is mainly based on the idea that the primary function of language use is communication. According to Al-Shabbi (1994), due to its emphasis on fluency over accuracy approach, the Communicative Language Method has not paid much attention to spelling in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom. Even the great appeal of Communicative Language Teaching has not been able to overcome the psychological barriers which becomes a hindrance in the learning process. Though it's unfortunate, that CLT is quite in use,