audio-lingual method

The Audio-lingual Teaching Method

In practice

2

Audio-lingual method

As mentioned, lessons in the classroom focus on the correct imitation of the teacher by the students. The students are expected to produce the correct output, but attention is also paid to correct pronunciation. Although correct grammar is expected in usage, no explicit grammatical instruction is given. Furthermore, the target language is the only language to be used in the classroom. Modern implementations are more lax on this last requirement.

Askarkyzy Aruzhan

Bekbolatova Ayaulym

TFL 21-7

Oral drills

Repetition: the student repeats an utterance as soon as she hears it.

Inflection: one word in a sentence appears in another form when repeated.

Replacement: one word is replaced by another.

Restatement: the student rephrases an utterance.

Main features

4

Audio-lingual method

The 2nd game

• Each skill (listening, speaking, reading, writing) is treated and taught separately.
• The skills of writing and reading are not neglected, but the focus throughout remains on listening and speaking.
• Dialogue is the main feature of the audio-lingual syllabus.
• Dialogues are the chief means of presenting language items. They provide learners an opportunity to practice, mimic and memorize bits of language.
• Patterns drills are used as an important technique and essential part of this method for language teaching and learning.
• The language laboratory was introduced as an important teaching aid.
• Mother tongue was not given much importance, similar to the direct method, but it was not deemphasized so rigidly.

5

"guess the voice"

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages:

• Listening and speaking skills are emphasized and, especially the former, rigorously developed.
• The use of visual aids is effective in vocabulary teaching.
• The method is just as functional and easy to execute for larger groups.
• Correct pronunciation and structure are emphasized and acquired.
• The learner is in a directed role; the learner has little control over the material studied or the method of study.

Disadvantages:

• The behaviorist approach to learning is now discredited. Many scholars have proven its weakness.
• It does not pay sufficient attention to communicative competence.
• Only language form is considered while meaning is neglected.
• Equal importance is not given to all four skills.
• It is a teacher-dominated method.
• It is a mechanical method since it demands pattern practice, drilling, and memorization over functional learning and organic usage.
• The learner is in a passive role; the learner has little control over their learning.

Historical roots

3

The Audio-Lingual Method

Introduction

1

The Audio-Lingual Method

The method is the product of three historical circumstances. For its views on language, it drew on the work of American linguists such as Leonard Bloomfield. For the same reason, a strong focus on oral language was developed.

At the same time, behaviourist psychologists such as B.F. Skinner were forming the belief that all behaviour (including language) was learnt through repetition and positive or negative reinforcement. The third factor was the outbreak of World War II, which created the need to post large number of American servicemen all over the world. It was, therefore, necessary to provide these soldiers with at least basic verbal communication skills. Because of the influence of the military, early versions of the audio-lingualism came to be known as the “army method.”

The Audio-Lingual Method is like the Direct Method. It is an oral approach. It drills to the students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns.

 It is unlike the Direct Method, has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology. It was thought that the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the TL was through conditioning- helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement.

Techniques

Skills are taught in the following order: listening, speaking, reading, writing. Language is taught through dialogues with useful vocabulary and common structures of communication. Students are made to memorize the dialogue line by line. Learners mimic the teacher or a tape listening carefully to all features of the spoken target language. Pronunciation like that of native speaker is important in presenting the model. Through repetition of phrases and sentences, a dialogue is learned by the first whole class, then smaller groups and finally individual learners.

William Moulton describes language learning

• Language is speech, not writing.
• A language is a set of habits.
• Teach the language, not about the language.
• A language is what its native speakers say, not what someone thinks they out to say.
• Languages are different.