Language teaching has a long,fascinating,but rather tortuous history.(Stern,1984) For over a century,there have been.many methods and approaches in language teaching.This article is mainly focused on three methods and approaches:the Grammar-translation Method;the Direct Method and Audio-lingual Approach and the Com-municative Approach.First We will define"method"and"approach",and then we will focus on the main character-istics.advantages and limitations of each method or approach.