The Structural view of language is the view behind the Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching. Speech was viewed as the basis of language and structure as being at the heart of speaking ability. This was a view similar to American structuralists, such as Fries, but the notion of the British applied linguists, such as Firth and Halliday, that structures must be presented in situations in which they could be used, gave its distinctiveness to Situational language teaching.

The theory of learning underlying Situation Language Teaching is behaviorism, addressing more the processes, than the conditions of learning. It includes the following principles:

• language learning is habit-formation
• mistakes are bad and should be avoided, as they make bad habits
• language skills are learned more effectively if they are presented orally first, then in written form
• analogy is a better foundation for language learning than analysis
• the meanings of words can be learned only in a linguistic and cultural context

Here are some of the objectives of Situational Language Teaching

• a practical command of the four basic skills of a language, through structure
• accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar
• ability to respond quickly and accurately in speech situations
• automatic control of basic structures and sentence patterns.

Situational Language teaching uses a structural syllabusand a word list

• A situational presentation of new sentence patterns
• drills to practice the patterns