Limitations of structural approach

The structural approach undoubtedly is of great utility in teaching English to children at all levels. It has worked in the field of English teaching. It has a few shortcomings which are given below:

  • In the structural approach, the learners have to be given a lot of practice. This type of teaching might make the process of teaching-learning dull and mechanical for a few learners.
  • Teaching by structural approach requires the services of really competent and hard-working teachers. But there is a dearth of this type of teacher in our country. Teaching by structural approach will be successful only if we have a structurally graded syllabus.
  • Now when the emphasis is on the communicative approach, the structural approach cannot be given more importance and weightage.

Thus we find that the principles of the structural approach are very sound. They are straight way helpful in the teaching/learning of a language.

But the structures are many and English being a foreign language, it is not an easy job to have mastery over all the structures. So there is a need of selecting the structures. It is done based on some principles.

The structural approach is an improvement in the traditional methods of teaching English in India. It has made teaching-learning scientific. It has also brought a system, variety, life and activity to the teaching of English. Some people still say that this approach has faced an utter failure in the schools. It is quite wrong to say that. It needs competent teachers and hard work on their shoulders.

For making it a success, Menon and ‘Patel have suggested in their book. The Teaching of English as a Foreign Language “Good teachers, smaller classes, provision for up-to-date audio-visual aids, textbooks, written by the new syllabus are the pre-requisites for the success of the structural approach.” To Sum up, the structural approach makes young learners keen and active. It has opened up their lips and justified the truth of the famous Chinese proverb, “Nothing can be taught, though everything can be learnt.