INVESTIGATING THE AGE APPROPRIATENESS OF THE DIRECT METHOD FOR BEGINNER-LEVEL LEARNERS

The appropriateness of the Direct Method (DM) in teaching English is reviewed based on scientific research. Firstly, academic articles, research, and approaches which were conducted on the effectiveness of this method on various age groups, psycholinguistic basis and the impact on language learning process are analyzed. Then, as a practical step of the research, observations and short experimental tasks were conducted with 10 students whose ages differed from one another. The result of the experiment shows that the connection of the effectiveness of DM and the age; in younger learners, higher motivation and quicker speech responses were observed due to the creation of a natural language environment, whereas in older learners, the effectiveness of the method may be limited by the need for additional explanations. The conclusion of the research points the importance of the age effect in choosing an appropriate method in teaching English.本研究基于科学研究，对直接法（Direct Method，DM）在英语教学中的适用性展开评述。首先，研究团队对围绕该方法在不同年龄层次学习者群体中的教学有效性、其心理语言学依据以及对语言学习过程的影响所开展的学术文献、既有研究及教学路径进行了系统分析。随后，作为本研究的实践环节，研究人员对10名年龄各异的学生开展了观察活动与简短实验任务。实验结果表明，直接法的教学有效性与学习者年龄存在显著关联：针对低龄学习者，由于营造了自然的语言环境，其学习动机更强、言语反应更为迅捷；而针对高龄学习者，该方法的教学有效性可能因需要额外补充解释而受到限制。本研究的结论指出，在遴选适配的英语教学方法时，年龄因素的影响至关重要。