4.

THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD

Also called the aural-oral method, the audio-lingual method got its name from the Latin roots for hearing and speaking. Audio-lingualism emphasizes pattern drills and conversation practice. In the audio-lingual classroom, the teacher generally presents new material in dialogue form, and students are expected to mimic her pronunciation and intonation, which receive a great deal of emphasis. There is a great deal of stress on memorizing set phrases and over learning; learners acquire language patterns through repetitive drills. There is little grammatical explanation; the student learns grammar through analogy rather than explanation. Audio-lingual teachers place great importance on getting students to produce error-free speech. They immediately reinforce successful speech, and quickly correct errors. They teach vocabulary through pronunciation (not the written word), and they make regular use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids. In the classroom, the teacher strongly discourages the use of the students mother tongue. The techniques used in this method are: dialogue memorization, backward build -up drill, repetition drill, chain drill, single slot substitution drill, multiple slot repetition drill, question-answer drill, use of minimal pairs, complete the dialogue, grammar game. The most important learning principles of this method are the following: 1. Foreign language learning is basically a process of mechanical habit formation. Good habits are formed by giving correct responses rather than by making mistakes. By memorizing dialogues and performing pattern drills the chances of producing mistakes are minimized. Language is verbal behaviour that is, the automatic production and comprehension of utterances and can be learned by inducing the students to do likewise. 2. 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. Aural-oral training is needed to provide the foundation for the development of other language skills. 3. Analogy provides a better foundation for language learning than analysis. Analogy involves the processes of generalization and discrimination. Explanations of rules are therefore not given until students have practiced a pattern in a variety of contexts and are thought to have acquired a perception of the analogies involved. Drills can enable learners to form correct analogies. Hence the approach to the teaching of grammar is essentially inductive rather than deductive. 4. 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. Teaching a language thus involves teaching aspects of the cultural system of the people who speak the language. (Rivers 1964: 1922) In a typical audio-lingual class the following procedures could be observed. Students first hear a model dialogue (either read by the teacher or on tape) containing the key structures that are the focus of the lesson. They repeat each line of the dialogue, individually or in chorus. The teacher pays attention to pronunciation, intonation and

fluency. Correction of mistakes is direct and immediate. The dialogue is memorised gradually, line by line. A line may be broken down into several phrases if necessary. The dialogue is read in chorus, one half saying one speakers part, the other half the other speakers part. The dialogue is adapted to the students interest or situation, through changing certain key words and phrases. It is acted out by the students. Certain key structures are selected and used as the basis for pattern drills of different kinds. These are first practiced in chorus and then individually. 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. At the beginning level, writing is purely imitative and consists of little more than copying out sentences that have been practiced or write short compositions on given topics. Follow-up activities may take place in the language laboratory, where further dialogue and drill work is carried out. In the 1960s the whole audio-lingual paradigm was called into question: pattern practice, drilling, memorization. These might lead to language-like behaviours but they were not resulting in competence. Linguists claimed that practice activities should involve meaningful learning and language use. The lack of an alternative to audio-lingualism led in the 1970s and 1980s to a period of adaptation, experimentation, and some confusion. Several alternative methods appeared in the 1970s that made no claims to any mainstream language teaching method. These included Total Physical Response, the Silent Way, and Counseling- learning. These methods have attracted some interest at first, but have not continued to attract significant level of acceptance. Other proposals since then have reflected developments in general education and other fields outside the second language teaching community, such as Whole Language, Multiple Intelligences, Neurolinguistic Programming, CompetencyBased Language Teaching, and Cooperative Language Learning. Mainstream language teaching since the 1980s, however, has generally drawn on contemporary theories of language as a basis for teaching proposals. The Lexical Approach, Communicative Language Teaching, the Natural Approach, Content-Based Teaching and Task-Based Teaching are representatives of this last group. The concern for grammatical accuracy that was a focus of Audio-Lingualism has not disappeared, however, and continues to provide a challenge for contemporary applied linguistics.(see Doughty and William 1998). The most active period in the history of approaches and methods was from the 1950s to the 1980s. The 1950s saw the emergence of the Audio-lingual Method and the Situational Method, which were both superseded by the Communicative Approach. During the same period, other methods attracted smaller but equally enthusiastic followers, including the Silent Way, the Natural Approach, and Total Physical Response. In the 1990s, ContentBased Instruction and Task Based Language Teaching appeared. Other approaches, such as Cooperative Learning, Whole Language Approach, and Multiple Intelligences, originally developed in general education, have been extended to language teaching.

The different teaching approaches and methods that have emerged in the last 60 or so years, while often having very different characteristics in terms of goals, assumptions about how a language is learned, and preferred teaching techniques, have in common the belief that if language learning is to be improved, it will come about through changes and improvements in teaching methodology.