Audio-Lingual Method v/s Total Physical Response

Name: Eduardo Mansilla C.

Date: 28/04/08

Audio-Lingual Method started with military purpose during the Second World War
and it is based on behaviourism that Pavlov and Skinner made famous. There is the
belief that a language can be acquired through language habits such as listening and
repeating sentences and sounds.
Total Physical response is a language learning method that started in the 60’s and 70’s
and it is base on the belief that the process of learning a language has to begin with
listening comprehension before production. Total Physical Response has to do with the
coordination of speech and action. The teacher gives commands to the students and the
pupils have to demonstrate that they understand the commands by performing them.

Among these methods, there are some similarities that make them alike in some ways.
One of those similarities between both methods is that the teacher is a model to be
followed and imitated by the students. In the audio-lingual method, the students imitate
the teacher’s pronunciation of the new vocabulary that is presented. In the TPR, the
students are supposed to imitate the nonverbal language that the teacher produce in
order to convey meaning.
Another resemblance between them is that Listening and speaking language are
emphasised over written language. In audio-lingual method, the teacher emphasises the
pronunciation by making the students listen utterances and repeat them. Students have
to pay attention to what the teacher say to perform the correct action in order to
motivate the learners to produce oral language naturally.

Even thought these methods have some characteristics in common such as the ones
mentioned above, they also have differences that make both methods different from
each other.
One of the aspects that make each method distinct is that TPR method is a longer
process to acquire oral language than Audio-lingual method. In classes with total
physical response; the teacher has to wait for the student until he is prepared to
produce oral language. On the other hand, Audio-lingual method forces the students to
produce oral language immediately.
Another difference is how the methods deal with the students’ feelings. Audio-Lingual
Method doesn’t pay attention to the students’ emotions, while Total Physical Response
really focuses on the learners’ feeling because it was especially developed to help people
reduce the stress of learning a new language.
We can also mention the way teachers respond to errors as a difference between both
methods. The teacher that uses the Audio-lingual Method has to pay special attention
to the students’ errors. That contrasts with TPR because the teacher has to tolerate the
errors that the students make and just correct major errors unobtrusively.

Even though the fact that these two methods have the aim to develop listening and
speaking because they are the skills that we master first when we learn our mother
tongue they are completely different. Both methods have opposite concepts of human
beings. Because of this, both methods have advantages over each other. Even though
this deference they can be complemented but obviously the teacher has use a
methodology according to his beliefs most of the time.