Translation method is also called grammar translation method, reading method and classic method. Translation method was first used as a foreign language teaching method in Europe to teach classical languages Greek and Latin, and was used to teach modern languages at the end of18th century and the middle of19th century. The teaching purpose of translation method is to cultivate students' ability to read foreign literary works and imitate model essays for writing. Its outstanding feature is that teachers teach in their mother tongue, and the teaching focus is on explaining and analyzing sentence components, phonetic and lexical changes and grammatical rules.

Translation has a long history, and its advantages are:

1. Students have clear grammatical concepts;

Strong reading ability, especially when encountering long and difficult sentences, you can understand the meaning by analyzing the sentence structure;

3. It helps to cultivate translation ability and writing ability.

The disadvantages of translation method are:

1. Ignoring oral English teaching, students' pronunciation and intonation are poor, which is not conducive to cultivating students' ability to communicate in foreign languages;

2. The single teaching method makes students lose interest easily.

Second, the direct method

Direct method is also called natural method, psychological method, dictation method and improvement method. In view of the shortcoming that translation method can not cultivate students' listening and speaking ability, direct method came into being in Europe at the end of 19. It contains three meanings: direct learning, direct understanding and direct application. Its main characteristics are: it is not allowed to use the mother tongue, and it uses intuitive means such as actions and pictures to explain words and sentences.

Direct method is very popular, its advantages are:

1. Adopting various visual teaching AIDS and widely using teaching methods close to life are helpful to cultivate foreign language thinking ability;

2. Emphasize direct learning and direct application, attach importance to language practice, and make students have high learning enthusiasm and great interest;

3. Paying attention to oral and phonetic teaching can effectively cultivate students' language use ability.

Its disadvantages are:

1. The exclusion of mother tongue makes it difficult for students to understand some abstract and complicated concepts;

2. There is no clear grammatical explanation, which leads to more grammatical errors in what students say.

3. Listening and Speaking Method (Listening and Speaking Method)

Listening and speaking method prevailed in the United States from 1940s to 1960s. After the outbreak of World War II, the United States needed to send a large number of soldiers to fight abroad, and soldiers needed to master the language of the country they went to. The government temporarily deployed foreign language teaching methods and linguists and experienced foreign language teachers to set up foreign language training centers to study accelerated foreign language teaching methods and train soldiers for six to eight months. The training method is listening and speaking, and the listening and speaking method was born. It absorbs many advantages of direct method and is influenced by structuralist linguistics and behavioral psychology. It is believed that foreign language learning is the formation of habits, and students' reaction is strengthened by imitation, mechanical practice and memory. Students do a lot of sentence exercises in class, regardless of meaning and context.

Its advantages are:

1. Cultivate students to use the language they have learned boldly and actively for dialogue, and have strong oral skills;

2. Sentence pattern drills are of great help to beginners, and the language is standardized;

Its disadvantages are:

1. A lot of imitation and mechanical practice are not conducive to the development of students' creative thinking;

2. Sentence pattern practice divorced from language content and context is not conducive to students' flexible use of language.

3. Relaxing reading and writing training is not conducive to the all-round development of students' practical ability.