Let’s see if the following features of the behavioristic approach have any place in modern classrooms. I think they do, but in a very limited manner.

I have discussed the differences between behavioristic and communicative approach in my 1st article under CLT heading.

The characteristics of behavioristic classes

1 They are teacher-centered and the focus is on the teacher control all the time. The flow of thoughts strictly controlled by the teacher who makes questions and gets answers from students one at a time.

My own language classes were like this in the 1960s. We had to raise our hands, get up from our desks with a lot of noise, give the (predicted) answer and then sit down. Everything that was said and done was about the text in our books. Or we translated texts from Finnish into English or vice versa. No free talk, no opinions asked, no pair or group work. Oh, how much time was wasted!

2 In exams students reproduce what was taught to them which leads to rote learning, learning things by heart. In lessons teachers are not interested in what is going on in our minds and how we feel. In technical terms, the students’ cognitions, emotions and internal operations of the mind are ignored. The students are given fragmental lumps of information without any link to previous knowledge.

In lessons like these the teachers do not care if our thinking skills are developed and if we are bored in the lessons or if we have opinions of our own or if we wish to challenge the ideas presented. The teacher is all-knowing and what he/she knows is enough and no other knowledge is needed for the highest grade. The teacher does not realize that most things in learning cannot be observed or even be measured from outside, externally. Learning is so much more than reproducing what the teacher says.

3 In language lessons behaviourists favour mechanical exercises and drills. Stimulus/question and predictable responses are favoured.

• First of all, with beginners the teacher is obliged to be in control for a long time until the students have learnt how to study the language, how to check their understanding of the text by translating it into their mother tongue. Still, even beginners can quickly become creative with their limited language if they are given a chance.
• Secondly, mechanical drills which were typical in language labs in the 1970s are perfectly ok provided they are practised orally in pairs or the teacher gives the prompt and the WHOLE class responds at the same time. In these exercises the (weak) students are requested to make minor changes and the focus is in the new grammatical point.
• Thirdly, the key to success is to know the true level of the class. Sometimes the students simply are low-achievers and the only things they can do are the mechanical exercises.

Still, most student deserve something much more challenging and enjoyable than this kind of teaching, so do not let them down.