The Audio-lingual Method

Introduction
• 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.
The Principles
• What are the goals of teachers who use the
Audio-lingual Method?
The teachers want their students to be able to
use the target language communicatively.
In order to do this, they believe students need
to overlearn the target language, to learn to
use it automatically without stopping to think.
Their students achieve this by forming new
habits in the target language and overcoming
the old habits of their native language.
What is the role of the teacher/students?

• The teacher is like an orchestra leader,

directing and controlling the language
behaviour of her students.
• She also responsible for providing her
students with a good model of imitation.
• Students are imitators of the teacher’s model
or the tapes she supplies of model speaker.
• They follow the teacher’s direction and
respond as accurately and as rapidly as
possible.
What are some characteristics of teaching
and learning process?
• New vocabulary and structure are presented through
dialogs.
• The dialogues are learned through imitation and
repetition.
• Drills are conducted based upon the patterns present
in the dialogue.
• Students’ successful responses are positively
reinforced.
• Grammar is induced from the example given; explicit
grammar rules are not provided.
• Cultural information is contextualized in the dialogues
or presented by the teacher.
• Students’ reading and writing is based upon the oral
work they did earlier.
What is the nature of student-teacher/ student-
student interaction?
• Most of the interaction is between
teacher and students and is initiated by
the teacher.
• There is student-student interaction in
chain drills or when students take
different roles in dialogues.
How is language and culture viewed?

• Everyday speech is emphasized in the

Audio-Lingual method.
• The level of complexity of the speech is
graded, however, so that beginning
students are presented with only simple
forms.
• Culture consist of the everyday behavior
and lifestyle of the target language
speakers.
What areas of language/ language skills
are emphasized?
• The structures of language are emphasized over all
the other areas.
• The syllabus are typically structural with the
structures for any particular unit included in the new
dialogue.
• The natural order of skills presentation is adhered to
listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
• The oral/aural receive most of the attention.
• Pronunciation is taught from the beginning, often by
students working in language laboratories on
discriminating between members of minimal pairs.
What is the role of students’ native
language?
• The habits of students’ native language
are thought to interfere with the
students’ attempt to master the target
language.
• A contrastive analysis between the
students’ native language and the
target language will reveal where a
teacher should expect the most
interference.
How does the teacher respond to student’
error?
• Student’ errors are to be avoided if at
all possible through the teacher’s
awareness of where the students will
have difficulty and restriction of what
they are taught to say.
The Techniques
• Dialogue 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 dialogue.
• Grammar game.
Conclusion
• New material is presented in the form of a dialogue.
• Based on the principle that language learning is habit
formation, the method fosters dependence on
mimicry, memorization of set phrases and over-
learning.
• Structures are sequenced and taught one at a time.
• Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.
Little or no grammatical explanations are provided;
grammar is taught inductively.
• Skills are sequenced: Listening, speaking, reading
and writing are developed in order.
• Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.
• Teaching points are determined by contrastive analysis
between L1 and L2.
• There is abundant use of language laboratories, tapes
and visual aids.
• There is an extended pre-reading period at the
beginning of the course.
• Great importance is given to precise native-like
pronunciation.
• Use of the mother tongue by the teacher is permitted,
but discouraged among and by the students.
• Successful responses are reinforced; great care is taken
to prevent learner errors.
• There is a tendency to focus on manipulation of the
target language and to disregard content and meaning.
The Silent Way

• Cognitive psychologist and transformational-generative

linguist argued that language learning does not take
place through mimicry; since people can create
utterance they have never heard before, they therefore
cannot learn a language simply by repeating what they
hear spoken around them.
• Psychologists and linguist argued that speakers form
rules, which allow them to understand and create
utterance
• Thus language must not be considered a product of
habit formation, but rather of rule formation.
• This method begins by using a set of colored rods and
verbal commands in order to achieve the following:
The Principles
• The teacher should start with
something the students already know.
• The teacher should give only what help
is necessary.
• Students should be able to use the
language for self expression to express
their thought, perception, and feeling.
• Students action can tell the teacher or
not they have learned
• Students should learn to rely on each
other and themselves.
• Learning involves transferring what one
know to new context.
• The teacher encourages group
cooperation
What are the role of the teacher/student

• The teacher is a technician or engineer.

• The role of the students is to make use
of what they know, to free themselves
of any obstacles that would interfere
with giving their utmost attention to the
learning task, and to actively engage in
exploring the language.
What are some characteristics of the
teaching learning process?
• Students begin their study of the language
through its basic building blocks, its sound.
• The teacher sets up situation that focus
student attention on the structure of the
language.
• The students receive a great deal of practice
with a given target language structure
without repetition for its own sake
• They gain autonomy in the language by
exploring it and making choices.
What is the nature of students-teacher
interaction?
• The teacher is silent.
• He is still very active, however – setting
up situation to force awareness,
listening attentively to students’ speech,
and silently working with them on their
production.
• Student-student verbal interaction is
desirable (students can learn from one
another) and is therefore encouraged.
What areas of language are emphasized?

• Pronunciation is worked on from the

beginning.
• All four skills are worked on from the
beginning of the course, although there
is a sequence in that students learn to
read and write what they have already
produced orally.
What is the role of students native
language?
• Meaning is made clear by focusing the
students’ perception, not by translating.
• Knowledge students already possess of
their native language can be exploited
by the teacher of the target language.
How is evaluation accomplished?

• He assess students all the time.

• The teacher does not praise or criticize
students behavior since this would
interfere with students’ developing their
own inner criteria.
How does the teacher respond to student
error?
• The teacher works with the students in
getting them to self-correct.
• If the students are unable to self-
correct and peers cannot help, then the
teacher would supply the correct
language, but only as a last resort.
The Techniques and Materials
• Sound-color chart
• Teacher’s silence
• Peer correction
• Rods
• Self-correction gestures
• Word chart
• Fidel chart
• Structured feedback