Vocabulary in the Approaches to Language Teaching - From the Twentieth Century to the Twenty-first

Oct 1, 2026

This study provides an overview of nine twentieth-century approaches to language teaching, focusing on how vocabulary was viewed and which instructional techniques were used to teach vocabulary within each approach. It analyzes the emergence of each new approach and the reasons behind that shift, then reviews the current status of vocabulary teaching. The study also examines the causes of ongoing debates among vocabulary researchers, concluding that a fully systematic, principled model for vocabulary instruction has not yet been established.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

I. Introduction

II. The History of Vocabulary Teaching in the Twentieth Century

A. Grammar Translation Approach

Vocabulary in the Approaches to Language Teaching: From the Twentieth Century to the Twenty-first Saied Ketabi University of Isfahan, Iran Email: [S.ketabi@yahoo.com](S.ketabi@yahoo.com) Sara Hashemi Shahraki University of Isfahan, Iran Email: [sara_m_hashemi@yahoo.com](sara_m_hashemi@yahoo.com) Abstract—This study gives an overview of the nine twentieth-century approaches to language teaching and demonstrates how vocabulary teaching was regarded and what techniques were used to teach vocabulary in each of the approaches. The reasons of the emergence of a new approach to language teaching are pointed out for each approach as well. Finally, the current status of vocabulary teaching and the causes of debates among vocabulary researchers are discussed. It can be concluded that although a systematic and principled approach to teaching vocabulary has not yet been found, teaching vocabulary learning strategies explicitly has attracted the attention of many researchers around the world. Index Terms—vocabulary teaching, language teaching approaches, strategy training I. INTRODUCTION After many decades of being neglect and receiving little importance, teaching and learning second language (L2) vocabulary has now markedly become into the focus of interest of many applied linguistic researchers and language teachers (Barcroft, 2004; Decaricco, 2001; Read, 2000) . Moreover, lexical competence is currently acknowledged to bea core component of communicative competence by many vocabulary specialists, which provides much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read and write (Coady & Huckin, 1997; Richards & Renandya, 2002) . In the past, it was thought that vocabulary could simply be learned effortlessly, and received only incidental attention in many textbooks and language programs. However, mastering vocabulary is one of the most challenging tasks that any learner faces when learning a foreign language and, thus, many language learners devote a great deal oftime on memorizing lists of L2 words and rely on their bilingual dictionary as a basic communicative resource; furthermore, they consider L2 acquisition as essentially a matter of learning vocabulary. The low status of vocabulary teaching in past years can largely be attributed to the language teaching approaches which were dominant at that time. Changes in language teaching approaches throughout history have reflected shifts in theories of the nature of language and of language learning; they have also reflected recognition of changes in the kind of proficiency learners need. Takefuta and Takefuta (1996) in their bibliographic study emphasized the close relationship between vocabulary teaching and teaching methodologies of English. In this light, the purpose of this article is to explore how vocabulary instruction was regarded in the different approaches to language teaching based on the classification proposed by Celce-Murcia (2001), and more specifically to give an overview of the importance each approach has placed on vocabulary teaching and to discuss the possible shortcomings of each approach. Finally, the current status of vocabulary teaching is discussed. Celce-Murcia (2001) classifies the major trends in language teaching in the twentieth century into nine approaches, namely, (1) Grammar-Translation, (2) Direct, (3) Reading, (4) Audiolingualism (United States), (5) Oral-Situational (Britain), (6) Cognitive, (7) Affective-Humanistic, (8) Comprehension-Based, and (9) Communicative. The importance given to vocabulary and the way it was taught within each of these approaches are briefly discussed in the next part. II. THE HISTORY OF VOCABULARY TEACHING IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY A. Grammar Translation Approach Grammar Translation, an extension of the approach used to teach classical languages to the teaching of modern languages, dominated foreign language teaching from the 1840s to the 1940s. In its modified form, this approach continues to

FAQs

How does the study frame the importance of vocabulary in language teaching approaches?

It reviews how vocabulary teaching was regarded across nine twentieth-century approaches and outlines the instructional techniques each approach used.

What time span and number of approaches does the paper cover?

The study surveys nine approaches to language teaching from the twentieth century and traces how vocabulary teaching changed within that historical development.

What does the paper conclude about a systematic approach to vocabulary teaching?

It concludes that a systematic and principled vocabulary-teaching approach has not yet been found, although strategy-focused vocabulary learning has gained strong research attention.

Oct 1, 2026

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