18th century

[sheela]

The study of modern languages did not become part of the curriculum of European schools until the 18th century. Based on the purely academic study of Latin, students of modern languages did much of the same exercises, studying grammatical rules and translating abstract sentences. Oral work was minimal; instead students were required to memorise grammatical rules and apply these to decode written texts in the target language. This tradition-inspired method became known as the 'Grammar-Translation Method'.