The Audio-Lingual Method, or the Army Method or also the New Key is a style of

teaching used in teaching foreign languages. It is based on behaviorist theory, which

professes that certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through
a system of reinforcement—correct use of a trait would receive positive feedback while
incorrect use of that trait would receive negative feedback.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of second

and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of
learning a language. It is also referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of
foreign languages” or simply the “Communicative Approach”.

The Audio-Lingual Method (ALM) arose as a direct result of the need for foreign
language proficiency in listening and speaking skills during and after World War II. It is
closely tied to behaviorism, and thus made drilling, repetition, and habit-formation central
elements of instruction. Proponents of ALM felt that this emphasis on repetition necessitated
a corollary emphasis on accuracy, claiming that continual repetition of errors would lead to
the fixed acquisition of incorrect structures and non-standard pronunciation.

In the classroom, lessons were often organized by grammatical structure and

presented through short dialogs. Often, students listened repeatedly to recordings of
conversations (for example, in the language lab ) and focused on accurately mimicking the
pronunciation and grammatical structures in these dialogs. Example :

“Teacher: There's a cup on the table ... repeat

Students: There's a cup on the table
Teacher: Spoon
Students: There's a spoon on the table
Teacher: Book
Students: There's a book on the table.
Teacher: On the chair
Students: There's a book on the chair etc.”

The origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are to be found in the

changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the1960s. As an extension of
the notional-functional syllabus, CLT also places great emphasis on helping students use the
target language in a variety of contexts and places great emphasis on learning language
functions. Unlike the ALM, its primary focus is on helping learners create meaning rather
than helping them develop perfectly grammatical structures or acquire native-like
pronunciation. This means that successfully learning a foreign language is assessed in terms
of how well learners have developed their communicative competence, which can loosely be
defined as their ability to apply knowledge of both formal and sociolinguistic aspects of a
language with adequate proficiency to communicate.

Now, we will compare and contrast between the Audio-Lingual Method and Communicative
Language Teaching on the basis of different issues related.
Objectives:
Audio-lingual method:
The development of oral proficiency in the language through carefully selected
vocabularies which form a general service list for the learner to use.
ii) To make students able to use the target language communicatively and
automatically without stopping to think.

Communicative Language Teaching:

i) The main objective of CLT is to develop the communicative competence of
the learners.
ii) Learners are involved in the learning process so that language develops
automatically.
All the basic four skills get equal emphasis.

Principles:
Principles of Audio-lingual method-
a) Language is speech and not writing. This implies that the emphasis is on correct
intonation.
Listening and speaking should be taught before reading and writing. It should be
realistic and situational from the start. The mastery of oral skills should precede
reading and writing which will act as reinforcements.
c) Language is a set of habit. Learning is controlled through behaviour.
d) It teaches the language not about the language.
Instructions are given in the target language.
f) Language forms occur within a context.
g) Students’ native language interferes as little as possible with the students’ attempts
to acquire the target language.
h) Teaching is directed to provide students with a native-speaker-like model.
i) Analogy provides a better foundation for language learning than analysis.
j) Errors are carefully avoided because they lead to the formation of bad habits.
k) Positive reinforcement helps the student to develop correct habits.
l) Students are encouraged to learn to respond to both verbal and nonverbal stimuli.
m) The teacher is regarded as an orchestra leader-conducting, guiding and controlling
the students’ behavior in the target language.
n) Learning a foreign language is treated on par with the native language learning.
o) A comparison between the native language and the target language is supposed to
help teachers to find the areas with which their students probably experience
difficulty: this is expected to help students to overcome the habit of the native
language.
 p) Language is not seen separated from culture. Culture is the everyday behavior of
people who use the target language. One of the teachers’ responsibilities is to
present information about that culture in context.
q) Students are taken to be the imitators of the teacher’s model or the tapes.
r) The dialogue is the chief means of presenting vocabulary, structures and it is
learned through repetition and imitation.
s) Mimicry, memorization and pattern drills are the practice techniques that are
emphasized.
t) Most of the interaction is between the teacher and the learner and it is imitated by
the learner.
u) Listening and speaking are given priority in language teaching, and they precede
reading and writing.
v) Correct pronunciation, stress, rhythm and intonation are emphasized.
w) The meanings of the words are derived in a linguistic and cultural context and not
in isolation.
x) Audio-visual aids are used to assist the students’ ability to form new language
habits.

Principles of CLT-
a) Language as it is used in real context should be introduced.
b) Students should be able to figure out the speaker’s or writer’s intentions.
c) The target language is the vehicle for classroom communication.
d) One function may have many different linguistic forms.
e) Opportunities should be given to students to express their ideas and opinions.
f) Errors are seen as the natural outcome of the development of communication
skills.
g) Fluency is much more important than accuracy.
h) Creating situations to promote communication is one of the teacher’s
responsibilities.
i) The social context of the communicative events is essential in giving meaning to
the utterances.
j) The teacher acts as an advisor during communicative activity, a facilitator of
students’ learning, a manager of classroom activity, or a co-communicator.
k) When communicating, a speaker has a choice about what to say and how to say it.
 l) Students should be given opportunities to develop strategies for interpreting
language as it is actually seen by native speakers.
m) Students are communicators and are actively engaged in negotiating meaning.
n) Language is used a great deal through communicative activities such as games,
role-play, problem solving.
0) Communicative activities have three features: information gap, choice and
feedback.

Roles of the Teacher and the Students:

There are distinctions between communicative language teaching and audio-lingual method
in terms of the roles of teacher and student. In audio-lingual method, the teacher’s role is
central and active; it is a teacher-dominated method. The teacher models the target language,
controls the direction and pace of learning, and monitors and corrects the learners’
performance. Language learning is seen to result from active verbal interaction between the
teachers and learners. On the other hand, in communicative language teaching the learner
plays the central role and the teacher acts as a mediator.

Teachers in communicative classrooms will find themselves talking less and listening more–
becoming active facilitators of their students’ learning (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). The teacher
sets up the exercise, but because the students’ performance is the goal, the teacher must step
back and observe, sometimes acting as referee or monitor. A classroom during a
communicative activity is far from quiet, however. The students do most of the speaking, and
frequently the scene of a classroom during a communicative exercise is active, with students
leaving their seats to complete a task.

CLT: Teachers help learners in any way that motivates them to work with the language.
ALM: The teacher controls the learners and prevents them from doing anything that conflict
with the theory.
CLT: Learners are expected to interact with other people, either in the flesh, through pair and
group work, or in their writings.
ALM: Learners are expected to interact with the language system, embodied in machines or
controlled materials.
CLT: The teacher cannot know exactly what language the learners will use.
ALM: The teacher is expected to specify the language that learners are to use.
CLT: The teachers assume a responsibility for determining and responding to learner’s
language need.
ALM: The teachers have no responsibility to determine learner’s language need.

The Theory of language:

The theory of language underlying Audiolingualism was derived from a view proposed by
American linguists in the 1950s - a view that came to be known as structural linguistics.
Linguistics had emerged as a flourishing academic discipline in the l950s, and the structural
theory of language constituted its backbone. Structural linguistics had developed in part as a
reaction to traditional grammar. Traditional approaches to the study of language had linked
the study of language to philosophy and to a mentalist approach to grammar. Grammar was
considered a branch of logic, and the grammatical categories of Indo-European languages
were thought to represent ideal categories in languages.

The Communicative Approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language

as communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972) referred
to as “communicative competence.” Hymes coined this term in order to contrast a
communicative view of language and Chomsky’s theory of competence. Some of the
characteristics of the communicative view of language follow:

1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning.

2. The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication
3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses
4. The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but
categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.

The theory of learning:

Johnson (1984) and Lirtlewood (1984) consider a learning theory that they see as compatible
with CLT - a skill-learning model of learning. According to this theory, the acquisition of
communicative competence in a language is an example of skill development. This involves
both a cognitive and a behavioral aspect:

“The cognitive aspect involves the internalisation of plans for creating

appropriate behaviour. For language use, these plans derive mainly from the
language system - they include grammatical rules, procedures far selecting
vocabulary, and social conventions governing speech. The behavioural aspect
involves the automation of these plans so that they can be converted into fluent
performance in real time. This occurs mainly through practice in converting
plans into performance.” (Lirtlewood 1984: 74)

This theory thus encourages an emphasis on practice as a way of developing communicative

skills.

Krashen sees acquisition as the basic process involved in developing language

proficiency and distinguishes this’ process from learning. Acquisition refers to the
unconscious development of the target-language system as a result of using the language for
real communication. Learning is the conscious representation of grammatical knowledge that
has resulted from instruction, and it cannot lead to acquisition. It is the acquired system that
we call upon to create utterances during spontaneous language use. The learned system can
serve only as a monitor of the output of the acquired system. Krashen and other second
language acquisition theorists typically stress that language learning comes about through
using language communicatively, rather than through practicing language skills.

The Audio-Lingual method is based on the theory that language learning is a question
of habit formation. It has its origins in Skinner’s principles of behavior theory. Since learning
is thought to be a question of habit formation, errors are considered to be bad and to be
avoided.
 To the behaviorist, the human being is an organism capable of wide repertoire of
behaviors. The occurrence of these behaviors is dependent on three crucial elements in
learning: a stimulus, which serves to elicit behavior; a response which serves to mark the
response as being appropriate) and encourages the repetition (or future (see Skinner 1957;
Brown1980).

Reinforcement is a vital element in the learning process because it increases the

likelihood that the behavior will occur again and become a habit. To apply this theory to
organism as the foreign language learner, the behavior as verbal behavior, the stimulus as
what is taught or presented of the foreign language, the response as the learner’s reaction to
the stimulus, and the reinforcement as the extrinsic approval and praise of the teacher or
fellow students or the intrinsic self-satisfaction of target language use. Language mastery is
represented as acquiring language stimulus-response chains.

Instructional materials:
In communicative language teaching, instructional materials have the primary role of
promoting communicative language use. In audio-lingual method, instructional materials
assist the teacher to develop language mastery in the learner.
Tape recorders and audiovisual equipment often have central roles in audio-lingual course. A
language laboratory may also be considered essential to provide the opportunity for further
drill work and to receive controlled error-free practice of basic structures. Three kinds of
material are currently used in CLT: text-based materials; task-based materials; and realia.

Techniques:
ALM demands more memorization of structure-based dialogs. Students memorize an opening
dialog using mimicry and applied role-playing. In CLT, dialogs, if used, center on
communicative functions and are not normally memorized. Communicative language
teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication. The teacher sets up
a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. Unlike the audio-lingual method of
language teaching, which relies on repetition and drills, the communicative approach can
leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to
their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from day to day. Students’
motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about
meaningful topics.

One of the key principles of the Audio-Lingual method is that the language teacher
should provide students with a native-speaker-like model. By listening, students are expected
to be able to mimic the model. Based upon contrastive analyses, students are drilled in
pronunciation of words that are most dissimilar between the target language and the first
language. Grammar is not taught directly by rule memorization, but by examples. The
method presumes that second language learning is very much like first language learning.

A comparative study is attempted below between CLT and ALM in terms of techniques:

Techniques used in ALM

1. Students listen to a native-like model such as the teacher of a tape-recorder.
2. Students repeat the new material chorally and individually.
3. Teachers correct students’ errors immediately and directly.
4. Dialogues are memorized by reversing roles between (teacher-student) (student-
 student).
5. Students are encouraged to change certain key words or phrases in the dialogue.
6. Students write short guided compositions on given topics.
7. Students are encouraged to induce grammatical rules.
8. Students are involved in language games and role-play.
9. Filling-in the blanks exercise is used.
10. Minimal pairs are used.
11. Teachers ask questions about the new items or ask general questions.
12. Substitution drills, chain drills, transformation drills and expansion drills are used.
13. Language laboratory is used for intensive practice of language structures as well as
supra segmental features.
14. Dialogue is copied in students’ notebook.
15. Students are asked to read aloud.

Techniques used in CLT

1. Before presenting the material, a discussion of the function and situation is made
between students and teacher.
2. The teacher asks students to re-order sentences within a dialogue or a passage.
3. Students are involved in language games and role-play.
4. The class works in groups.
5. The teacher gives instructions in the target language.
6. A problem solving task is used as a communicative technique.
7. Questions and answers are of two types: those which are based on the material given
and those which are related to the student’s personal experiences and are centered around
the material theme.

Comparative study of basic features:

Here is a summary of the key features of the Audio-lingual Method, taken from Brown
(1994:57) and adapted from Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979).
(1) New material is presented in dialog form.
(2) There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases, and overlearning.
(3) Structures are sequenced by means of contrastive analysis and taught one at a time.
(4) Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.
(5) There is little or no grammatical explanation. Grammar is taught by inductive
analogy rather than deductive explanation.
(6) Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.
(7) There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids.
(8) Great importance is attached to pronunciation.
(9) Very little use of the mother tongue by teachers is permitted.
(10) Successful responses are immediately reinforced.
(11) There is great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances.
(12) There is a tendency to manipulate language and disregard content

David Nunan (1991:279) lists five basic characteristics of Communicative Language

Teaching:
(1) An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target
language.
(2) The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.
(3) The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on the language but
also on the learning process itself.
 (4) An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important
contributing elements to classroom learning.
(5) An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside
the classroom

Basic differences between the Audio-Lingual Method and CLT as presented by

Finocchiaro and Brumfit (1983) are given below:

Audio-lingual Communicative Language Teaching

1. Attends to structure and form more than Meaning is paramount
meaning
2. Demands memorization of structure-based Dialogs, if used, center around communicative
dialogs. functions and are not normally memorized.
3. Language items are not necessarily
Contextualization is a basic premise.
contextualized.
4. Language learning is learning structures, Language learning is learning to communicate.
sounds, or words.
5. Mastery, or"over-learning" is sought. It
depends on the teacher's how-to, it's not Effective communication is sought.
always.
6. Drilling is a central technique. Drilling may occur, but peripherally.
7. Native-speaker-like pronunciation is
Comprehensible pronunciation is sought.
sought.
8. Grammatical explanation is avoided.
We could find the same statement as the
right one, i,e," Any device which helps the Any device which helps the learners is accepted
learners is accepted - varying according to - varying according to their age, interest, etc.
their age, interest, etc."on Fries' book, "On
the Oral Approach".
9. Communicative activities only come after Attempts to communicate may be encouraged
a long process of rigid drills and exercises. from the very beginning.
10. The use of the student's native language
Judicious use of native language is accepted
is forbidden.
where feasible.
Translation may be used where students need or
11. Translation is forbidden at early levels.
benefit from it.

Reading and Writing can start from the first day,

12. Reading and Writing are deferred till
speech is mastered.
13. The target linguistic system will be
learned through the overt teaching of the
patterns of the system.
14. Linguistic competence is the desired
goal.
15. Varieties of language are recognized but Linguistic variation is a central concept in
if desired.
The target linguistic system will be learned best
through the process of struggling to
communicate.
Communicative competence is the desired goal
(i.e. the ability to use the linguistic system
effectively and appropriately).
not emphasized. materials and methodology.
Sequencing is determined by any consideration
16. The sequence of units is determined
of content, function, or meaning which
solely by principles of linguistic complexity.
maintains interest.
17. The teacher controls the learners and
Teachers help learners in any way that
prevents them from doing anything that
motivates them to work with the language.
conflict with the theory.
Language is created by the individual often
18. "Language is habit” so errors must be
through trial and error.
prevented at all costs.
19. Accuracy, in terms of formal correctness, Fluency and acceptable language is the primary
is a primary goal. goal; accuracy is judged not in the abstract but
in context.
20. Students are expected to interact with the Students are expected to interact with other
language system, embodied in machines or people, either in the flesh, through pair and
controlled materials. group work, or in their writings.
The teacher cannot know exactly what language
21. The teacher is expected to specify the
the students will use.
language that students are to use.
22. Intrinsic motivation will spring from an
Intrinsic motivation will spring from an interest
interest in the structure of the language.
in what is being communicated by the language.

Syllabus Designing:
Communicative language teaching often uses a functional-notional syllabus. A notional-
functional syllabus is more a way of organizing a language learning curriculum than a
method or an approach to teaching. In a notional-functional syllabus, instruction is organized
not in terms of grammatical structure as had often been done with the ALM, but in terms of
“notions” and “functions.” In this model, a “notion” is a particular context in which people
communicate, and a “function” is a specific purpose for a speaker in a given context. As an
example, the “notion” or context shopping requires numerous language functions including
asking about prices or features of a product and bargaining. Similarly, the notion party would
require numerous functions like introductions and greetings and discussing interests and
hobbies. Proponents of the notional-functional syllabus claimed that it addressed the
deficiencies they found in the ALM by helping students develop their ability to effectively
communicate in a variety of real-life contexts. Yalden (1987) has classified a number of
communicative syllabus types.

On the other hand, Audiolingualism is a linguistic, or structure based approach to

language teaching. The starting point is a linguistic syllabus which contains the key items of
phonology, morphology, and syntax of the language arranged according to their order of
presentation.

The Language skills are taught in the order of listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. Listening is viewed largely as training in aural discrimination of sound patterns. The
language may be presented entirely orally at first; written representations are usually withheld
from the learners in early stage.
Learning Techniques and Activities:
Communicative language teaching uses almost any activity that engages learners in authentic
communication. Littlewood (1981) distinguishes between “functional communication
activities” and “social interaction activities” as major activity types in Communicative
language Teaching. Functional communication activities include such tasks as learners
comparing sets of pictures and noting similarities and differences; working out a likely
sequence of events in a set of pictures; discovering missing features in a map or picture; one
learner communicating behind a screen to another learner and giving instructions on how to
draw a picture or shape, or how to complete a map; following directions; and solving
problems from shared clues. Social interaction activities include conversation and discussion
sessions, dialogues and role plays, simulations, skits, improvisations, and debates.

Dialogues provide the means of contextualizing key structures and illustrate situations
in which structures might be used as well as some cultural aspects of the target language.
Dialogues are used for memorization. Correct pronunciation, stress, rhythm, and intonation
are emphasized.

Comparative study of Criticism on CLT and ALM:

One of the most famous attacks on Communicative Language teaching was offered by
Michael Swan in the English Language Teaching Journal on 1985 Henry Widdowson
responded in defense of CLT, also in the ELT Journal (1985 39(3):158-161). More recently
other writers (e.g. Bax) have critiqued CLT for paying insufficient attention to the context in
which teaching and learning take place, though CLT has also been defended against this
charge (e.g. Harmer 2003).

The Communicative Approach often seems to be interpreted as: if the teacher

understands the student we have good communication. What can happen though is that a
teacher, who is from the same region, understands the students when they make errors
resulting from first language influence. One problem with this is that native speakers of the
target language can have great difficulty understanding them. This observation may call for
new thinking on and adaptation of the communicative approach. The adapted communicative
approach should be a simulation where the teacher pretends to understand only that what any
regular speaker of the target language would, and should react accordingly.

In the late 1950s, the theoretical underpinnings of the Audio-lingual method were
questioned by linguists such as Noam Chomsky, who pointed out the limitations of structural
linguistics. The relevance of behaviorist psychology to language learning was also
questioned, most famously by Chomsky’s review of B.F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior in 1959.
The audio-lingual method was thus deprived of its scientific credibility and it was only a
matter of time before the effectiveness of the method itself was questioned.

In 1964, Wilga Rivers released a critique of the method in her book, “The
Psychologist and the Foreign Language Teacher.” Subsequent research by others, inspired by
her book, produced results which showed explicit grammatical instruction in the mother
language to be more productive. These developments, coupled with the emergence of
humanist pedagogy led to a rapid decline in the popularity of audiolingualism.

Philip Smith’s study (1965-1969) termed the Pennsylvania Project, provided

significant proof that audio-lingual methods were less effective than a more traditional
cognitive approach involving the learner’s first language.
 Finally, we can say that both the Audio-Lingual Method and Communicative
Language Teaching are two methods firmly grounded in the linguistic and psychological
theory. Both may have some shortcomings and drawbacks but are both very effective and
widely used in language teaching and learning.