The Audio-lingual Method

Introduction• This method is based on the

principles of behavior psychology. • It adapted many of the principles

and procedures of the Direct Method, in part as a reaction to the lack of speaking skills of the Reading Approach.

The Principles• What are the goals of teachers who use the

Audio-lingual Method?The teachers want their students to be able to

use the target language communicatively. In order to do this, they believe students need

to overlearn the target language, to learn to use it automatically without stopping to think.

Their students achieve this by forming new habits in the target language and overcoming the old habits of their native language.

What is the role of the teacher/students?

• The teacher is like an orchestra leader, directing and controlling the language behaviour of her students.

• She also responsible for providing her students with a good model of imitation.

• Students are imitators of the teacher’s model or the tapes she supplies of model speaker.

• They follow the teacher’s direction and respond as accurately and as rapidly as possible.

What are some characteristics of teaching and learning process?• New vocabulary and structure are presented

through dialogs.• The dialogues are learned through imitation

and repetition.• Drills are conducted based upon the patterns

present in the dialogue.• Students’ successful responses are positively

reinforced.• Grammar is induced from the example given;

explicit grammar rules are not provided.• Cultural information is contextualized in the

dialogues or presented by the teacher.• Students’ reading and writing is based upon

the oral work they did earlier.

What is the nature of student-teacher/ student-student interaction?

• Most of the interaction is between teacher and students and is initiated by the teacher.

• There is student-student interaction in chain drills or when students take different roles in dialogues.

How is language and culture viewed?• Everyday speech is emphasized in

the Audio-Lingual method.• The level of complexity of the

speech is graded, however, so that beginning students are presented with only simple forms.

• Culture consist of the everyday behavior and lifestyle of the target language speakers.

What areas of language/ language skills are emphasized?

• The structures of language are emphasized over all the other areas.

• The syllabus are typically structural with the structures for any particular unit included in the new dialogue.

• The natural order of skills presentation is adhered to listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

• The oral/aural receive most of the attention.• Pronunciation is taught from the beginning,

often by students working in language laboratories on discriminating between members of minimal pairs.

What is the role of students’ native language?

• The habits of students’ native language are thought to interfere with the students’ attempt to master the target language.

• A contrastive analysis between the students’ native language and the target language will reveal where a teacher should expect the most interference.

How does the teacher respond to student’ error?

• Student’ errors are to be avoided if at all possible through the teacher’s awareness of where the students will have difficulty and restriction of what they are taught to say.

The Techniques• Dialogue memorization.• Backward build-up (expansion) drill.• Repetition drill.• Chain drill.• Single-slot substitution drill.• Multiple-slot substitution drill.• Transformation drill.• Question-and-answer drill.• Use of minimal pairs.• Complete the dialogue.• Grammar game.

Conclusion• New material is presented in the form of a dialogue. • Based on the principle that language learning is

habit formation, the method fosters dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases and over-learning.

• Structures are sequenced and taught one at a time. • Structural patterns are taught using repetitive

drills. Little or no grammatical explanations are provided; grammar is taught inductively.

• Skills are sequenced: Listening, speaking, reading and writing are developed in order.

• Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.

• Teaching points are determined by contrastive analysis between L1 and L2.

• There is abundant use of language laboratories, tapes and visual aids.

• There is an extended pre-reading period at the beginning of the course.

• Great importance is given to precise native-like pronunciation.

• Use of the mother tongue by the teacher is permitted, but discouraged among and by the students.

• Successful responses are reinforced; great care is taken to prevent learner errors.

• There is a tendency to focus on manipulation of the target language and to disregard content and meaning.

The Silent Way

• Cognitive psychologist and transformational-generative linguist argued that language learning does not take place through mimicry; since people can create utterance they have never heard before, they therefore cannot learn a language simply by repeating what they hear spoken around them.

• Psychologists and linguist argued that speakers form rules, which allow them to understand and create utterance

• Thus language must not be considered a product of habit formation, but rather of rule formation.

• This method begins by using a set of colored rods and verbal commands in order to achieve the following:

The Principles• The teacher should start with

something the students already know.• The teacher should give only what

help is necessary.• Students should be able to use the

language for self expression to express their thought, perception, and feeling.

• Students action can tell the teacher or not they have learned

• Students should learn to rely on each other and themselves.

• Learning involves transferring what one know to new context.

• The teacher encourages group cooperation

What are the role of the teacher/student

• The teacher is a technician or engineer.

• The role of the students is to make use of what they know, to free themselves of any obstacles that would interfere with giving their utmost attention to the learning task, and to actively engage in exploring the language.

What are some characteristics of the teaching learning process?

• Students begin their study of the language through its basic building blocks, its sound.

• The teacher sets up situation that focus student attention on the structure of the language.

• The students receive a great deal of practice with a given target language structure without repetition for its own sake

• They gain autonomy in the language by exploring it and making choices.

What is the nature of students-teacher interaction?

• The teacher is silent.• He is still very active, however –

setting up situation to force awareness, listening attentively to students’ speech, and silently working with them on their production.

• Student-student verbal interaction is desirable (students can learn from one another) and is therefore encouraged.

What areas of language are emphasized?

• Pronunciation is worked on from the beginning.

• All four skills are worked on from the beginning of the course, although there is a sequence in that students learn to read and write what they have already produced orally.

What is the role of students native language?

• Meaning is made clear by focusing the students’ perception, not by translating.

• Knowledge students already possess of their native language can be exploited by the teacher of the target language.

How is evaluation accomplished?

• He assess students all the time.• The teacher does not praise or

criticize students behavior since this would interfere with students’ developing their own inner criteria.

How does the teacher respond to student error?

• The teacher works with the students in getting them to self-correct.

• If the students are unable to self-correct and peers cannot help, then the teacher would supply the correct language, but only as a last resort.

The Techniques and Materials• Sound-color chart• Teacher’s silence• Peer correction• Rods• Self-correction gestures• Word chart• Fidel chart• Structured feedback