Keys for an investigation into the origins of the communicative methodology in language teaching

Abstract

The historical study of how languages have been taught and learnt proves again and again that new methods are rarely found. It is more common to find the restatement of similar principles and/or ideas in a different way, closer to the context in which we are involved in each period of time (decade, century, etc.). It has usually been too quickly accepted, particularly since the end of the nineteenth century, that new methodologies will solve the tiresome task of learning foreign languages. According to this belief, the «latest method» is considered the ideal one, the «magic pill» that will substitute old and inefficient recipes. An analysis of the sources that underlie communicative methodology will try to illustrate how it is dependent on previous trends, linguistics, psychology and pedagogy. The understanding and shaping of a communicative methodology will certainly be easier if we go back to the roots and sources from which it emerged.