The Direct Method Principle: The trainer conducts the lesson only in the target language. Translation slows down the student’s response in the target language and also reduces the time available for practising the target language.

The Talking Time Principle: The trainer gives the student the opportunity to speak as much as possible and restricts his/her own utterances.

The Oral Principle: Books are closed for most of the lesson since the inlingua method concentrates on speaking, not on reading.

The Structures Principle: The trainer concentrates more on teaching structures rather than on individual words.

The Correctness Principle: The trainer teaches in such a way that most of the sentences produced by the student are correct.

The Diagnostic Principle: Trainers first diagnose the extent of the student’s knowledge before supplying a model or providing a solution. This effectively reduces re-teaching.

The Inductive Principle: Students learn language patterns through examples, not explanations. inlingua believes that it is better for a student to induce his/her own rules and grammar, rather than be given a set of rules and explanations by the trainer.

The Creative Principle: Students are given the opportunity to express personal opinions, experiment and use language creatively in the classroom.

The Psychology Principle: The method is flexible and allows the trainer to make the students feel at ease and take their individual needs into account.

The Structural/Functional Principle: Trainers combine the structural and functional approaches to language learning. Structures are taught while constantly relating them to functional situations. This makes the learning process more natural and realistic.