THE AUDIO LINGUAL METHOD
v Audio Lingual Method is an oral-based approach.
v It drills students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns.
v It is based on behavioral psychology.
v It conditions, help learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement.
v It is habit-formation.
v Combination of structural linguistic theory, contrastive analysis, aural-oral procedures, and behaviorist psychology led to the Audio Lingual Method.
APPROACH
Theory of Language
v Audiolingualism was proposed by American linguists in the 1950s.
v It is also known as structural linguistics.
v The term structural referred to these characteristics:
v The primary medium of language is oral.Speech is language.
· Language is primarily what is spoken and only secondarily what is written Elements in a language were thought of as being linearly produced in a structured way.
· Language samples could be exhaustively described at any structural level of description.
· Linguistic levels were thought of as systems-that is,as being pyramidally structured.
v .Speech has a priority in language teaching written symbols aren’t used until later.
v In International Congress of Linguists,American linguist William Moultan proclaimed the linguistic principles on which language teaching methodology should be based.
· Language is speech,not writing.
· 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 ought to say.
· Languages are different.
Theory of Learning
v There are influences of behaviorism on ALM.
v The occurence of behaviors is dependent on three crucial elements in learning:
· A stimulus; which serves to elicit behavior.
· A response triggered by a stimulus.
· Reinforcement; which serves to mark the response as being appropriate and encourages the repetition of the responses in the future.
v Reinforcement is a vital element in the learning process because thanks to it,behavior will occur again and eventually become a habit.
v Language mastery is a set of appropriate language stimulus-response chains.
v Learning principles which become the psychological foundations of Audiolinguism and came to shape its methodological practices are:
· Foreign language learning is basically a process of mechanical habit formation.Language is verbal behavior-that is,the automatic production and comprehension of utterances.
· Language skills are learned more effectively if the items to be learned in the target language are presented in spoken form before they are seen in written form.
· Analogy provides a better foundation for language learning than analysis.The approach to the teaching of grammar is essentially inductive rather than deductive.
· The meanings that the words of a language have for the native speaker can be learned only in a linguistic and cultural context and not in isolation.
DESIGN
Objectives
v Brooks distinguishes between short-range and long-range objectives of an audiolingual program.
v Short-range objectives include training in listening comprehension, accurate pronunciation, recognition of speech symbols as graphics signs on the printed page, and the ability to reproduce these symbols in writing.
v Long-range objectives must be language as the native speaker uses it.There must be some knowledge of a second language as it is possessed by a true bilingualist.
v Oral proficiency is equated with accurate pronunciation and grammar and the ability to respond quickly and accurately in speech situations.
v The teaching of listening comprehension, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary are all dependent on prior oral skills.
The Syllabus
v Audiolingualism is a linguistic or structure-based approach to language teaching.
v A contrastive analysis of the differences between the native language and the target language.
v A lexical syllabus of basic vocabulary items is usually specified in advance.
v The language skills are taught in the order of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
v Vocabulary is kept to a minimum while the students are mastering the sound system and grammatical patterns.
v The oral/aural skills receive most of the attention.
v Recognition and discrimination are followed by imitation, repetition, and memorization.
v Only when the learner is thoroughly familiar with sounds, arrangements and forms does he center his attention on enlarging his vocabulary
v He concentrates on gaining accuracy before Striving for fluency.
Types of Learning and Teaching Activities
v Dialogues and drills form the basis of audiolingual classroom practices.
v Dialogues are used for repetition, imitation, and memorization.
v Correct pronunciation, stress, rhythm, and intonation are emphasized.
v Positively reinforced.
v Grammar is induced from the examples.Grammatical explanations are avoided.
v The use of drills and pattern practice and backward repetition are distinctive features of the Audiolingual Method.
v After a dialogue has been presented and memorized, specific grammatical patterns in the dialogue are selected and become the focus of various kinds of drill and pattern-practice exercises.
v Various kinds of drills are used.Brooks includes the following:
· Repetition
· Inflection
· Replacement
· Completion
· Transposition
· Expansion
· Contraction
· Transformation
· Integration
· Restatement
· Rejoinder
· Restoration
Learner Roles
v Learners are viewed as organismsthat can be directed by skilled training techniques to produce correct responses.
v Learners play a reactive role by responding to stimuli, and thus have little control over the content, pace or style of learning.
v They aren’t encouraged to initiate interaction, because this may lead to mistakes.
v Learners are imitators.
Teacher Roles
v The teacher’s role is central and active.He is like an orchestra leader.
v It is a teacher-dominated method
v The teacher models the target language, control the direction and pace of learning, and monitors and corrects the learners’ performance.
v The teacher provides learners with a good model for imitation.
v Language learning is seen to result from active verbal interaction between the teacher and the learners.
The Role Of Instructional Materials
v Instructional materials in the Audiolingual Method assist the teacher to develop language mastery in the learner.
v They are primarily teacher-oriented
v A student textbook isn’t used in the elementary phases of a course because students are primarily listening, speaking, and responding
v Exposure to the printed word isn’t desirable because it distracts attention from the aural input.
v When textbooks and printed materials are introduced to the student,they provide the text of dialogues and cues needed for drills and exercises.
v Tape recorders and audiovisual equipment often have central roles in audiolingual course.
v A language laboratory is essential.It provides the opportunity for further drill work and to receive controlled error-free practice of basic structures.
Deal with Errors
v Students’ 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.
Goals
v Teachers want their students to be able to use the target language communicatively .
v Overlearning automatically without stopping to think.
v Forming new habits through overcoming the old habits
Student-teacher interaction/student-student interaction
v Interaction is teacher directed.
v Student-student interaction: with chain drills and dialogues.
The View of Language and Culture
v The view of language is influenced by descriptive linguists.
v Each level has its own distinctive patterns.
v Everyday speech is emphasized.
v The level of complexity of the speech is graded.
The Role of Native Language
v The habits of the students’ native language are thought to interfere with the students’ attempts to master the target language.
v The target language is mostly used in the classroom instead of the native language.
v Difficulties in L2 learning are due to interference from L1.
In a typical audiolingual lesson,the following procedures would be observed:
- Students first hear a model dialogue containing the key structures that are the focus of the lesson.They repeat each line of the dialogue individually and in chorus.The teacher pays attention to pronunciation, intonation, and fluency.Correction of mistakes of pronunciation or grammar is direct and immediate.The dialogue is memorized gradually, line by line.The students don’t consult their book throughout this phase.
- The dialogue is adapted to the students’ interest or situation,through changing certain key words or phrases.
- Certain key structures from the dialogue are selected and used as the basis for pattern drills of different kinds.Some grammatical explanation may be offered at this point, but this is kept to an absolute minimum.
- The students may refer to their textbook, and follow-up reading, writing, or vocabulary activities based on the dialogue may be introduced.
- Follow-up activities may take place in the language laboratory, where further dialogue and drill work is carried out.
The Decline of Audiolingualism
v The theoretical foundations of Audiolingualism were attacked as being unsound in terms of both language theory and learning theory.
v Practitioners found that the practical results fell short of expectations.
v Students were often found to be unable to transfer skills acquired through Audiolingualism to real communication ouside the classroom
v Many students found the experience of studying through audiolingual procedures to be boring and unsatisfying.
v Chomsky rejected the structuralist approach to language description as well as the behaviorist theory of language learning.
v According to him;language is not a habit structure.
v Chomsky proposed an alternative theory of language learning to that of the behaviorists.Chomsky argued that much of human language use is created anew from underlying knowledge of abstract rules.Sentences are generated from the learner’s underlying competence.
v Temporary relief was offered in the form of a theory-cognitive code learning.This referred to a view of learning that allowed for a concious focus on grammar and that acknowledged the role of abstract mental process in learning rather than defining learning in terms of habit formation
Teachers;
v Introduce a new dialogue
v Use a backward build-up drill
v Use a repetition drill
v Initiate a chain drill
v Leads a single-slot substitution drill
v Praise the class during the practice
v Use multiple-slot substitution drill
v Use a transformation drill
v Use pictures again and select individuals
And then teachers;
v Review the dialogue
v Expand on the dialogue by adding a few lines.
v Drill the new lines and introduce new vocabulary
v Work on the mass and count nouns.
v Use contrastive analysis.
v Write the dialogue on the blackboard.
v Use the supermarket alphabet
