The structural view of language

Introduction

The structural view of language is that language is a system of structually related elements for the transmission of meaning. These elements are usally descibed as

phonological units (phonemes)
grammatical units (phrases, clauses, sentences)
grammatical operations (adding, shifting, joining or transforming elements)
lexical items (function words and structure words)

Areas of research drawn on

Here are some of the areas of research in this view of language:

linguistic analysis
textual discourse analysis

Target of language learning

The target of language learning, in the structural view, is the mastery of elements of this system.

Methods based on this view

Some of the language learning methods based on this view of language are:

the Audiolingual method
Total Physical Response
the Silent Way

Source

Adapted from Richards and Rodgers 1986