The Grammar Translation Method

The grammar translation method is sometimes called traditional. It is a foreign language teaching method which requires students to translate whole texts word for word and memorize numerous grammatical rules and exceptions as well as enormous vocabulary lists. So, very little attention is placed on pronunciation or any communicative aspects of the language. The skill exercised are reading and writing, and then only in the context of translation. The goal of this method is to be able to read and translate literary masterpieces and classics. However, the structures of the foreign languages are best learned when compared and contrast with those of mother tongue.
Some people consider this method as unnatural method, because, the natural order of learning a language is listening, speaking, reading and writing. That is the way how the child learns his mother tongue in natural surroundings. But in the Grammar Translation Method the teaching of the second language starts with the teaching of reading. Thus, the learning process is reversed. This poses problems.