The Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching

Palmer and Hernby and other British applied linguists from the 1920s onward developed
an approach to methodology that involved systematic principles of selection (the
procedures by which lexical and grammatical content were chosen), gradation (principles
by which organization and sequencing of content were determined), and presentation
(techniques used for presentation and practice of items in a course). This approach was
referred to as the Oral Approach to language teaching. This is not to be confused with the
Direct Method, which, although it uses oral procedures, lacks a systematic basis in
applied linguistic theory and practice. The main characteristics of the approach are as
follows:
1. Language teaching begins with the spoken language. Material is taught orally
before it is presented in written form.
2. The target language is the language of the classroom.
3. New language points are introduced and practiced situationally
4. Items of grammar are graded following the practice that the simple forms should
be taught before complex ones (inductive method).
5. Reading and writing are introduced once a sufficient lexical and grammatical
basis is established.

The theory of language underlying Situational Language Teaching (SLT) can be

characterized as a type of British “Structuralism”. Speech is regarded as the basis of
language and structure is viewed as being at the heart of speaking ability. The emphasis
now is on the description of language activity as part of the whole complex of events
which together with the participants and relevant objects, make up actual situations
(Halliday, et.al, 1964).
The theory of learning underlying Situational Language Teaching (SLT) is a type
of behaviourist habit-learning theory. It addresses primarily the processes rather than the
conditions of learning.
The objectives of SLT are to teach a practical command of the four basic skills of
language. But the skills are approached through structure. Accuracy in both pronunciation
and grammar is regarded as crucial, and errors are to be avoided at all costs. Automatic
control of basic structures and sentence patterns is fundamental to reading and writing
skills and this is achieved through speech work (Pittman, 1963). Writing likewise derives
from speech.
Basic to teaching of English in SLT is a structural syllabus and a work list. A
structural syllabus is a list of the basic structures and sentence patterns of English,
arranged according to their order of presentation.
 Situational Language Teaching employs a situational approach to presenting new
sentence patterns and a drill-based manner of practicing them. By situation, Pittman
(1963) means the use of concrete objects, pictures and real, which together with actions
and gestures can be used to demonstrate the meanings of new language items.
The practice techniques employed generally consists of guided repetition and
substitution activities, including chorus repetition, dictation, drills and controlled oral-
based reading and writing tasks. Other oral-practice techniques are sometimes used
including pair practice and group work.

The Audiolingual Method

The approach developed by linguists at Michigan and other universities which
became known variously as the Oral Approach, the Aural-Oral Approach and the
Structural approach, advocated aural training first, then pronunciation training, followed
by speaking, reading, and writing. Language was identified with speech and speech was
approached through structure. The incorporation of the linguistic principles of the Aural-
Oral approach with state-of-the-art psychological learning theory in the mid-fifties led to
the method that came to be known as Audiolingualism. The combination of structural
linguistic theory, contrastive analysis, aural-oral procedures and behaviourist psychology
led to the Audiolingaul Method. Audiolingualism (the term was coined by Professor
Nelson Brooks in 1964) claimed to have transformed language teaching from an art to
science, which would enable learners to achieve mastery of a foreign language effectively
and efficiently.
Structural Linguistics developed in part of a reaction to traditional grammar. The
term structural refers to these characteristics:

1. Elements in a language are thought of as being linearly produced in a rule-

governed (structured) way.
2. Language samples can be exhaustively described at any structural level of
description (phonetic, phonemic, morphological, etc.)
3. Linguistic levels are thought of as systems within systems – that is, as being
pyramidally structured; phonemic systems have led to morphemic systems and
these in turn have led to the higher-level systems of phrases, clauses, and
sentences.
Out of these various influences emerged a number of learning principles, which
have become the psychological foundations of Audiolingualism and have come to shape
its methodological practices. Among the mere central are the following:
  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.
 Language skills are learned more effectively if the items to be learned in the target
language are presented in spoken from before they are seen in written form.
 Analogy provides a better foundation for language learning than language
analysis. Analogy involves the processes of generalization and discrimination.
Explanations of rules are not given until later. Drills can enable the learners to form
correct analogies. Hence, the approach id inductive rather than deductive.
 The meanings that the words of a language have for the native speaker can be
learned only in linguistic and cultural context and not in isolation. Teaching a
language thus involves teaching aspects of cultural system of the people who
speak the language (Rivera, 1964).
Audiolingualism is a linguistic or structure-based approach to language teaching.
The starting point is the linguistic syllabus, which contains the key items of phonology,
morphology and syntax of the language arranged accordingly 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 basic sound
patterns. The language may be presented entirely orally at first; written representations
are usually with-held from learners in early stages. When reading and writing are
introduced students are taught to read and write what they have already learned to say
orally.
Dialogues and drills form the bases of audiolingual classroom practices. Dialogues
provide the means of contextualizing key structures and illustrate situations in which
structures may be used as well as some cultural aspects of the target language.
Dialogues are used for repetition and memorization. Correct pronunciation, stress,
rhythm, and intonation are emphasized. After a dialogue has been presented and
memorized, specific grammatical patterns in the dialogues are selected which become
the focus of various kinds of drill and pattern-practice exercises.
The use of drills and pattern practice is a distinctive feature of the audiolingual
Method. Various kinds of drills are used. Brooks (1964: 156-161) includes the following:
1. Repetition.
EXAMPLE:
This is the seventh month.
----This is the seventh month.
2. Inflection.
EXAMPLE:
I bought the ticket.
----I bought the tickets.
3. Replacement.
EXAMPLE:
He bought this house cheap.
----He bought it cheap.
4. Restatement.
EXAMPLE:
Tell him to wait for you.
----Wait for me.
5. Completion.
EXAMPLE:
I’ll go my way and you go.
----I’ll go my way and you go yours.
6. Transposition.
EXAMPLE:
I’m hungry. (so)
----So am I.
7. Expansion
EXAMPLE:
I know him. (hardly)
----I hardly know him.
8. Contraction
EXAMPLE:
Put your hand on the table.
----Put your hand there.
9. Transformation.
 EXAMPLE:
He knows my address.
----Does he know my address?
10. Integration.
EXAMPLE:
I know the man. He is looking for you.
----I know the man who is looking for you.
11. Rejoinder.
EXAMPLE:
Thank you.
----You’re welcome.
12. Restoration
EXAMPLE:
students/waiting/bus
----The students are waiting for the bus.

Noam Chomsky, the MIT linguist, rejected the structuralism approach to language
description as well as the behaviorist theory of language learning. According to him,
sentences are not learned by imitation and repetition but “generated” from learner’s
underlying “competence”.
The whole audiolingual paradigm was called into question. This created a crisis in
American language teaching circles from which a full recovery has not yet been made.