What are the advantages and disadvantages of Direct Method of Teaching English?

Advantages of Direct Method

(1) It makes the learning of English interesting and lively by establishing direct bond between a word and its meaning.

(2) It is an activity method facilitating alertness and participation of the pupils.

(3) According to Macnee, “It is the quickest way of getting started”. In a few months over 500 of the commonest English words can be learnt and used in sentences. This serves as a strong foundation of further learning.

(4) Due to application of the Direct Method, students are able to understand what they learn, think about it and then express their own ideas in correct English about what they have read and learnt.

(5) Psychologically it is a sound method as it proceeds from the concrete to the abstract.

(6) This method can be usefully employed from the lowest to the highest class.

(7) Through this method, fluency of speech, good pronunciation and power of expression are properly developed.

Disadvantages of Direct Method

(1) There are many abstract words which cannot be interpreted directly in English and much time and energy are wasted in making attempts for the purpose.

(2) This method is based on the principles that auditory appeal is stronger that visual. But there are children who learn more with visual than with their oral- aural sense like ears and tongue.

(3) The method ignores systematic written work and reading activities and sufficient attention is not paid to reading and writing.

(4) Since in this method, grammar is closely bound up with the reader, difficulty is experienced in providing readers of such kind.

(5) There is dearth of teachers trained and interested in teaching English in this method.

(6) This method may not hold well in higher classes where the Translation Method is found suitable.

(7) In larger classes, this method is not properly applied and teaching in this method does not suit or satisfy the needs of individual students in large classes.