The Grammar Translation Method

The Grammar Translation Method is a method of teaching any foreign language in its simplest way. It is the oldest method used since ages to teach Latin or Greek languages. Hence it is also known as the classical or traditional method of teaching languages. In the United States, this method was first known as the Prussian Method.

The grammar–translation method is a traditional method of teaching foreign languages. In Grammar–translation classes, students learn the rules of grammar and then apply them by translating sentences from the target language into their mother tongue. At a higher level, students may be required to translate the entire text word-for-word.

This method has two main goals:

-to enable students to read and translate literature written in the source language, and

-to further students' general intellectual development.

The Grammar Translation Method originated from the practice of teaching Latin, in the early 16th century. Students then learned Latin for communication, but after the language died out it was studied purely as an academic discipline. When teachers started teaching other foreign languages like English, French and Italian in the 19th century, they followed the same translation-based approach.

Since the Grammar Translation method aims at developing students' reading ability and their general mental discipline, it focuses on reading and writing and has developed techniques which facilitate the learning of reading and writing only. As a result, speaking and listening are neglected.

The material used for the Grammar–translation method is textbooks. A chapter in such a textbook would begin with a bilingual vocabulary list and then grammatical rules for students to study and sentences for them to translate.

In this method, classes are conducted in the student's native language. Grammatical rules are presented and learned deductively, and students learn grammar rules by rote. Then they practice the rules by doing grammar drills and translating sentences to and from the target language. More attention is paid to the form of the sentences. Tests often involve translating classical texts.

Characteristics

1.     The student’s native language is the medium of instruction.

2.   Reading and writing are focused, and no attention is paid to speaking and writing.

3.   The sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice. More time is devoted to translating sentences into and out of the target language.

4.   Accuracy is emphasized. Students are expected to attain high standards in translation.

5.    Grammar is taught deductively- i.e., by presentation and study of grammar rules, which are then practised through translation exercises.

6.   Words are taught through bilingual word lists. Vocabulary items are presented with their translation equivalents.

7.    Reading difficult text is begun early.

8.   Little or no attention is paid to the pronunciation of words.

Techniques used in GTM Class

1.      Translation of a literary passage

The students translate a reading passage from the target language into the native language. The translation may be written or spoken.

2.    Reading comprehension questions

The students answer questions in the target language based on their understanding of the passage they read.

3.    Antonyms/synonyms

The students are asked to find out the antonym of some words in the passage.

4.    Deductive application of the rules.

Grammar rules are presented with examples. The exception to each rule is also noted. Once the students understand a rule, they are instructed to apply it to some different examples.

5.     Fill in the blanks

The students are given a series of sentences with words missing and they fill in the blanks with new vocabulary items or with items of a particular grammar type.

6.    Memorization

Students are given lists of target language vocabulary words and their native language equivalents and are asked to memorize them. Students are also required to memorize grammatical rules and grammatical paradigms such as verb conjugation.

7.     Use words in sentences

To show that students understand the meaning and use of a new vocabulary item, they make up sentences in which they use the new words.

8.    Composition

The teacher gives the students a topic to write about in the target language. The topic is based upon some aspect of the reading passage of the lesson.

Advantages

1. It saves time and effort.

2. It enriches the learner’s vocabulary.

3. Correct knowledge of the grammar insisted.

4. Students acquire good grammar skills.

5. It is applicable to all levels

Limitations

1. It restricts the skills of speaking and listening to a foreign language.

2. Since the reading skill is facilitated first, the natural order of learning language (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) is ignored.

3. Speaking skills in the target language are neglected.

4. It develops bookish knowledge about the language, listening and speaking do not get due importance.

5. It emphasizes the rules of grammar more than the use.

6. This method encourages students to think first in their mother tongue and then to translate their thoughts into English. This hinders fluency.

In the mid and late 19^th century opposition to the Grammar-Translation Method gradually developed in several European countries. This resulted in laying the foundations for the development of new ways of teaching languages.

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Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

 Ozymandias (Line 10) - Ozymandias is the ancient Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II. He was a powerful king of ancient Egypt who ruled from (1301-1234 B. C.).  This poem is about the ruins of his statue, said to have been found in the Sahara Desert. Shelley describes a crumbling statue of Ozymandias as a way to portray the transience of political power and to praise art’s power of preserving the past.

 Shelley had read the ancient Greek writer Diodorus Siculus’s transcription of the inscription on Ozymandias’s pedestal, and this poem emerged from a friendly poetry competition Shelley had with a friend, where the prompt was to compose a sonnet incorporating that transcription.

Form:

Ozymandias is a sonnet- a fourteen-line poem metered in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is ABABACDCEDEFEF. It has no characteristic octave and sestet structure.

Poem

 I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . .

The speaker of the poem begins by stating that he had met a traveller who came from an ancient country, here possibly, Egypt. The traveller told him about two large stone legs of a statue stand upright in the desert. The legs lack a torso or trunk to connect them.

                                             …..Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Near the legs, there is the broken face of the statue lying half buried in the sand. The statue's facial expression is a frown and a wrinkled lip, which form a commanding, haughty scorn on the broken face.

           Tell that its sculptor well those passions* read

Which yet survive, stamped* on these lifeless things,

The expression shows that the sculptor of the statue understood the passions, i.e., emotions of the person the statue is based on (Ozymandias’), and still those emotions survive, carved or imprinted forever on that inanimate stone.

*Passions (Line 6) - “Passions” refers to Ozymandias’s emotions, i.e., his arrogance, hatred, and sense of superiority. The sculptor originally read those “passions” on Ozymandias, and then carved them onto the stone, where from everyone could read those emotions.

*Stamped (Line 7) - Stamped means “carved or engraved.” However, “stamped” also calls to mind what Ozymandias wanted to do to his opposition: stamp them out. The use of "stamped" implies that Ozymandias’s tyranny is permanently branded into the statue along with his other features. 

The hand that mocked* them, and the heart that fed;

In making the face, the sculptor’s skilled hands mocked up a perfect recreation of those feelings and of the heart that fed those feelings. The hand is that of the sculptor and it is said to copy the image of Ozymandias vividly. The heart of the sculptor understood the emotions of Ozymandias and managed to show them effectively in the statue he made. Synecdoche has been used in the lines 'The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed'.

*Mocked (Line 8) - As he describes the artist who made the statue of Ozymandies, the traveller notes the features of the statues face as well as the “hand that mocked them.” Mock, in this context, has two meanings. First, it means both to make a copy or replica, as in the phrase "mock up." Second, it means to make fun of someone, as in "the bully mocked his victim's appearance. "By using the word "mock," the traveller suggests on the one hand that the sculptor made an excellent likeness of Ozymandias, but also that, by portraying Ozymandias's arrogant cruelty so vividly, the sculptor ridiculed, or at least implicitly critiqued him.

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

The words inscribed on the pedestal of the statue read: "My name is Ozymandias, the King who rules over other Kings. Behold what I have built, all you who think of yourselves as powerful, and despair at the greatness and superiority of my accomplishments."

Nothing beside remains*. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

There is nothing else in the area. Surrounding the remnants of the large statue is a never-ending and barren desert, with empty and flat sands stretching into the distance.

*Remains (Line 12) - “Remains” in this poem can have three different meanings. It can be the verb “to remain,” which means, “nothing else is left,” or it could be one of two nouns. 1. “Remains” can refer to a historical relic or object, so the sentence would mean that there is nothing left apart from the artifact of the statue. 2. "remains" could also mean a corpse, in which case the broken statue is being metaphorically portrayed as a dead human body: there was nothing besides these remains.

Identity Card by S. Joseph

 

 

S. Joseph (born 1965) is an Indian poet writing in Malayalam in the post-modern era. He was born in the village of Pattithanam near Ettumanoor, Kottayam. Joseph began writing poetry very early, at the age of 16. He has published a number of works on contemporary issues that affect the common man and also the ones who toil in the lower rungs of society. He works as a lecturer in Malayalam at Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam. His poetry collection Uppante Kooval Varakkunnu won the 2012 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award. He was bestowed with the prestigious Odakkuzhal award in 2015, for his contributions to Malayalam poetry.

His poetry collections:

• Karutha Kallu (Kottayam: D. C. Books, 2000)
• Meenkaran (Kottayam: D. C. Books, 2003)
• Identity card (Kottayam: D. C. Books, 2005)
• Uppante Kooval Varakkunnu (Kottayam: D. C. Books, 2011)
• Vellam Ethra Lalithamanu (2011).
• Chandranodoppam (DC Books:Kottayam)

Dalit writers like S. Joseph captures Dalit community life in urban and rural settings. In their arguments and narratives, the caste acquires a new meaning. Joseph emerged as a pioneer of contemporary Malayalam Dalit poetry by narrating the first-hand experience of agony and alienation. His poems give an authentic and genuine voice to Dalits. He was able to challenge the age-old Brahminical poetic traditions while offering verses that soothed the wounds of the lower caste people. His work is a rare example of Dalit literature that borrows inspiration from across India's states, a feat that is challenging because of linguistic barriers. His poems meditate on the cruelties of caste while simultaneously speaking of the beauty, love and generosity with which a Dalit person deals with such cruelties.

His poetry is about down-to-earth people who are missing from Kerala’s group photograph- weavers, fisher-folk, labourers, farmers and other common people who lead less ‘noble’ lives. His poems are noted for the detailed portraits of Dalit life.

We all know that Kerala state is renowned for its educational achievement. But in the very same state, how the class of a person turns out to be a cause of discrimination is well expressed by S. Joseph in Identity Card.

 “Identity Card”

In my student days
a girl came laughing.
Our hands met kneading
her rice and fish curry.
On a bench we became
a Hindu-Christian family.
I whiled away my time
reading Neruda’s poetry;
and in the meanwhile I misplaced
my Identity Card.
I noticed, she said
returning my card:
the account of your stipend
is entered there in red.

These days I never look at
a boy and a girl lost in themselves

They will depart after a while.
I won’t be surprised even if they unite.
Their Identity Cards
Won’t have scribbling in red.

In this poem, the poet shows a world where love seldom triumphs over caste identity. The poem starts with a nostalgic memory- when the poet was a college student, he had a love affair with a classmate. She came to the class with a smiling face, they shared a bench and food, and enjoyed the thrill of touch.

Our hands met kneading

her rice and fish curry.

On a bench we became

a Hindu-Christian family. (3-6)

The past love affair is portrayed with the visual image of the young lovers sharing a lunch of rice and fish curry on the same plate, the romantic experience they shared as their hands met while kneading the rice. Sitting on a bench, they became a Hindu-Christian family. The poet is trying to say that the difference in religion does not impede the course of love.

The poet then continues to say that he spent his time in a pleasant lazy way reading Neruda's poetry. He believed in an egalitarian society and he found Inspiration in Neruda's poetry which was driven by political motives. Neruda was a Chilean poet known for his love poems and revolutionary political ideas in his poems. He read Neruda’s poetry because those poems gave a voice to a population that was ignored by their government and by the upper classes. Those poems gave courage and pride to the struggling working class.

Then the poet comes to a turning point in his affair. One day he misplaced his identity card. He never imagined that he would lose his love along with the identity card. His girlfriend found his lost identity card and gave it to him saying,

the account of your stipend

is entered there in red. (13-14)

The moment she noticed the stipend amount he receives on his identity card; it marked the end of their relationship. He loses his upper-caste ladylove because of the red-ink entries found on his Identity Card. The card and stipend he receives as a Dalit, mark his caste and class and cost him his love. Although religion is not a matter in a love affair, the cast is. His caste makes love impossible for him in a pseudo-modern society that pretends to be a secularist. The red scribblings on his identity card have become modern-day caste mark in a state, where conversions to Christianity was promised with the disappearance of caste identity and discrimination. Here, anti-reservationists considered those who had made use of reservations and stipend as inefficient. It still continues.

This incident caused him to change his belief system regarding romantic affairs. Now whenever he sees a boy and girl deeply in love, he is sure that they will depart very soon for the same reason of his. Even if they unite, he wouldn’t be surprised because that boy will never be a Dalit. This is a short poem where much lies unsaid between red scribbles on a college ID card and intensely charged lines of verse. S. Joseph depicted the plight of a Dalit who has no right even in his love relations.

The theme of Marginalization in the poem

Caste discrimination is a common experience for people who belong to lower Castes and the Speaker has realized it very young in his life. The 'girl' who came 'laughing' at his life rejects him for his caste. See the line- 'Returning my card'. It is symbolic of the closure of their relationship. The 'card' was supposed to remove the oppression and lack of status attributed to the Dalits. S. Joseph expresses through this poem, the subaltern experience of the speaker who is loved once but later neglected by others for his caste. The speaker in the poem ridicules the 'subaltern marginalization' through his poem.

 The speaker was discredited by his lover for being a Dalit and realizes that caste will always remain a factor in the relations and associations of people with one another. After the incident, he decided to distance himself from his lovers. He knows that only people belonging to the same caste have the possibility of uniting. The identity card is an image of Indifference, resignation and loss of hope, He thinks that Dalit Identity will remain marginal and discriminatory always.

In the Indian context, the poem sums up the issues of the Adivasis, the Dalits with the responsibility falling on the issue of 'lower caste' or even 'out-caste'; and also people who are perceived as backward. 

 The 'religion-caste' nexus, an instance of a 'historical wrong' still taints the claims of modern Indian secularism. Being a Dalit student denied his freedom in a county that we call secular democratic. Even in the mind of children, this dangerous discrimination is being injected by society. The real betrayal is not singular or by an individual; it is a many-layered betrayal by politics, a government, and an era. What he encounters is not a traditional taboo but a modern stigma.

To conclude, the poem is written in free verse. It doesn’t conform to any traditional elite model of versification. The diction is simple and lucid. The poem is a portrayal of the Dalit experience of rejection and pain brought about by his birth into an underprivileged caste.

 

                                     

 

KUBLA KHAN by S.T Coleridge

Introduction

Kubla Khan: or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment   is a poem by the Romantic poet Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in 1816. As it was narrated in the preface, “he was reading Purchas his Pilgrimage by Samuel Purchas [written in 1625], a work describing Shangdu or Xanadu, the summer capital of the Yuan dynasty founded by the Mangol  Emperor Kubla Khan and fell asleep after reading. He then continued for about three hours in a profound sleep, during which time he had the most vivid confidence, that he could not have composed less than from two or three hundred lines. On Awaking he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved.” “At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock... and on his return to his room, found, to his surprise and embarrassment, that though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purpose of the vision, yet, with the exception of some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the rest had passed away.” 

Form of the Poem

The poem is divided into three irregular stanzas, in which the speaker moves loosely between different times and places. The meter employed is Iambic Tetrameter- a line consisting four iambic feet. A tetrameter line has four iambic feet; an iambic foot contains two syllables, one unstressed followed by one stressed.

 

Stanza 1

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

The first stanza is a description of Kubla Khan’s majestic pleasure- dome which was built in the capital city of Xanadu at his command. Kubla Khan was the grandson of the legendary Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. It was a place where the sacred River Alph flowed through the vast caves (cavern measureless to man) and fell down to a sunless sea - where there was no sunlight.

•  Alph may be an allusion to the river Alpheus, a river in Greece that was made famous in classical literature.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:  
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

The capital city of Kubla Khan was built in a fertile land of about 10 miles (10 square kilometers) surrounded by walls and towers protecting them (walls and towers were girdled round). There were beautiful gardens where through streamlets flowed in a zigzag manner (sinuous rills). There were many trees with sweet fragrant flowers (many an incense-bearing trees). These sunny spots of greenery were enclosed by forests as old as the hills (forests as ancient as the hills).

 

Stanza 2

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

In the second stanza continues the description of Kubla Khan’s capital city. There was a green hill and a deep chasm (abyss) slanted down the hill across thickly grown cedar trees (athwart a cedarn cover). The place seemed to him as a savage place, as an enchanted place haunted by a woman weeping for her demon-lover under the light of the fading moon.

 And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:

A powerful fountain gushed forth with great turbulence from this abyss (chasm) violently and continuously. It was like the earth surrounding the fountain was breathing heavily with quick and short breaths. (The sound of rushing water seemed to the poet like ‘fast thick pants’ of the earth as if it was tired from doing some heavy work.)

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:         

And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever   

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Huge fragments of rocks tossed up and fell down intermittently like hailstones from the sky (like rebounding hail); or like chaffy grain raining down when beaten with a flail (a tool used in the past to separate grain from their outer layer). Amidst these dancing rocks the sacred river Alph poured out continuously.

 Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:    

And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The sacred river Alph flowed through woods and valley wandering in a zigzag way (meandering with a mazy motion). Then it reached the caverns, the depth and breadth of which cannot be measured by man (caverns measureless to man). Finally, the river fell down with a commotion (sank in tumult) into the calm and tranquil ocean (lifeless ocean). In the midst of this great noise, Kubla Khan heard the voices of his ancestors foretelling the coming war (Ancestral voices prophesying war). Kubla Khan became addicted to a luxury in his pleasure dome. So, his ancestors urged him to shake off his luxurious life and be ready to adventures and wars.

     The shadow of the dome of pleasure
     Floated midway on the waves;
     Where was heard the mingled measure
     From the fountain and the caves.
     It was a miracle of rare device,
    A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

The shadow or the reflection of the pleasure dome floated midway on the waves in the river. The mixed sound (mingled measure) of water flowing in the river and the echo created by the caves was heard from there. The palace was a miracle created by rare architectural design (a miracle of rare device) which combined a summer and winter palace; the dome was open to the sun while its underground chambers were kept cool by ice (A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!)

 

Stanza 3

     A damsel with a dulcimer
     In a vision once I saw:
     It was an Abyssinian maid,
     And on her dulcimer she played,
     Singing of Mount Abora.

In the third stanza the poet starts describing another vision he had seen earlier. He had seen an Abyssinian girl singing about Mount Abora on her dulcimer (a musical instrument with strings).

     Could I revive within me
     Her symphony and song,
     To such a deep delight 'twould win me
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!        

And all who heard should see them there,

 Now the poet remembers the powerful music he once heard in the vision. He wishes if he could revive the ravishing music of that Abyssinian girl. Such a powerful music would make him and his ideas more attractive and appealing to the people. He imagines that with such a music he would build the amazing pleasure dome of Kubla Khan in the air. All those who heard his song about the sunny dome and the surrounding landscape should see them there.

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

People who witnessed this magic would cry out: “Be careful! Look at his flashy wild eyes and floating unkempt hair! (They would stand awestruck seeing his flashing eyes and floating hair).   Draw a circle around him three times. Close your eyes with devotion (holy dread). He had eaten honey-dew (heavenly food) and drunk the milk of paradise.” (The poet has tasted the manna and nectar of divine poetic inspiration)