THE ILLUSION OF INNOVATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Abstract

Foreign language learning has been an inextricable part of the human life for hundreds of years. Whether being goaded by matters of diplomacy, economy or culture, people have always faced the need for communication in both their native and “foreign tongues”. Modern instructor training courses, however, tend to completely ignore foreign language teaching history thus augmenting the impression that nothing but grammar-translation method existed before the XIX century. We decided to explore the ways foreign languages were taught in the major civilizational centers of the past (Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome and Ancient Middle East). We have discovered that some of the “innovative” approaches/methods/techniques of the present hark back more than two millennia. It seems that there is indeed nothing new under the sun in the area of foreign language teaching. A possible explanation to his phenomenon is the inherent limitations imposed upon language learning by both anatomical and functional organization of the human brain.