THE AUDIO -LINGUAL METHOD

Audio-lingual Method The theory behind this method is that learning a language means acquiring habits. There is much practice of dialogues of every situation. New language is first heard and extensively drilled before being seen in its written form. This method is based on the principles of behavior psychology. It adapted many of the principles and procedures of the Direct Method, in part as a reaction to the lack of speaking skills of the Reading Approach.New material is presented in the form of a dialogue.

Audio-lingual Method, like the Direct Method we have just examined, has a goal very different from that of the Grammar Translation Method. Grammar Translation Method did not prepare people to use the target language. While the communication in the target language was the goal of the direct method, there were at the time exciting new ideas about language and learning emanating from the disciplines’ of descriptive linguistics and behavior psychology. These ideas led to development of the Audio-Lingual Method. In the lesson the teacher will do the following

The dialog Sally : Good morning, Bill Bill : Good morning, Sally Sally : How are you? Bill : Fine, thanks. And you? Sally : Fine. Where are you going? Bill : I’m going to the post office Sally : I am too. Shall we go together? Bill : Sure. Let’s go

THINKING ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE Although it is true that this was a very brief experience with the Audio-lingual Method, let’s see if we can make some observation about the behavior of the teacher and the techniques that used. We will make our observations in order, following the lesson plan of the class we observed. Observation: The teacher introduce a new dialog The language teacher uses only the target language in the classroom. The language teacher introduces the dialog by modeling in two times. The students repeat each line of the new dialog several times. The students stumble over one of the lines of the dialog. The teacher initiates a chain drill in which each student greets another. The teacher uses single-slot and multiple slot substitution drills.

The teacher says, “very good”, when the students answer correctly. The teacher uses spoken cues and picture cues. The teacher conducts transformation and question-and-answer drills. When the students can handle it, the teacher poses the questions to them rapidly. The teacher provides the students with cues; she calls on in individual; she smiles encouragement; she holds up pictures one after another. New vocabulary is introduced through lines of the dialog; vocabulary is limited. Students are given no grammatical rules; grammatical points are taught through example and drills. The teacher does contrastive analysis of the target language and the students’ native language in order to locate the places where she anticipates her students will have trouble. The teacher writes the dialog on the blackboard toward the end of the week. The students do some limited written work with dialog. The supermarket alphabet game and a discussion of American supermarkets and football are included.

Reviewing the Principle 1.What are the goals of teachers who use the Audio-Lingual Method? 2.What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students? 3.What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process? 4.What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction? 5.How are the feelings of the students dealt with? 6.How is language viewed? How is culture viewed? 7.What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?

8. What is the role of the students native language? 9. How is evaluation accomplished? 10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?

REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES If you agree with above answer, you may wish to implement the following techniques; of course; even if you don’t agree, there may be techniques described below that you are already using or can adapt to your approach. Dialog Memorization Backward Build-up (Expansion) Drill Repetition Drill Chain Drill Single-slot substitution Drill Multiple-slot substitution Drill Transformation Drill Question and Answer Drill Use of Minimal Pairs Complete the Dialog Grammar Game

Conclusion The audio-lingual method has students listen to or view recordings of language models acting in situation. Students practice with a variety of drills, and the instructor emphasizes the use of the target language at all times. in audio-lingual method we don’t use the rules like in grammar translation method because in this case we are not focusing in how the student transfer the source language into target language (grammatically), but we are more concern in how they use it in their daily life particularly.