INTRODUCTION The Audio-Lingual Method was developed in the United

States during World War II. At that time there was a needfor people to learn foreign languages rapidly for militarypurposes.

The Grammar-Translation Method did not prepare peopleto use the target language. While communication in thetarget language was the goal of the Direct Method, therewere at the time exciting new ideas about language andlearning.

OBSERVATIONS & PRINCIPLES

1. The teacher introduces a new dialog

Language forms do not occur by themselves; theyoccur most naturally within a context.

2. The language teacher uses only the targetlanguage in the classroom. Actions, pictures, or

realia are used to give meaning otherwise.

The native language and the target language have separatelinguistic systems. They should be kept apart so that thestudents' native language interferes as little as possiblewith the students' attempts to acquire the target language.

3. The language teacher introduces the dialog by modeling it two times; she introduces the drills by modeling the correct answers; at other times, she corrects mispronunciation by modeling the proper sounds in the target language.

One of the language teacher's major roles is that of amodel of the target language. Teachers should providestudents with a native-speaker-like model. By listeningto how it is supposed to sound, students should beable to mimic the model.

4. The students repeat each line of the new dialog several times.

Language learning is a process of habit formation. Themore often something is repeated, the stronger thehabit and the greater the learning.

5. The students stumble over one of the lines of the dialog. The teacher uses a backward build-up drill with this line.

It is important to prevent learners from making errors.Errors lead to the formation of bad habits. Whenerrors do occur, they should be immediately correctedby the teacher.

6. The teacher initiates a chain drill in which each student greets another.

The purpose of language learning is to learn how touse the language to communicate.

7. The teacher uses single-slot and multiple-slot substitution drills.

Particular parts of speech occupy particular "slots" insentences. In order to create new sentences, studentsmust learn which part of speech occupies which slot.

8. The teacher says, "Very good" when the students answer correctly.

Positive reinforcement helps the students to developcorrect habits.

9. The teacher uses spoken cues and picture cues.

Students should learn to respond to both verbal andnonverbal stimuli.

10. The teacher conducts transformation and question-and answer drills.

Each language has a finite number of patterns. Patternpractice helps students to form habits which enablethe students to use the patterns.

11. The teacher provides the students with cues; she calls on individuals; she smiles encouragement; she holds up pictures one after another.

The teacher should be like an orchestra leader-conducting, guiding, and controlling the students'behavior in the target language.

12. New vocabulary is introduced through lines of the dialog; vocabulary is limited.

The major objective of language teaching should be forstudents to acquire the structural patterns; studentswill learn vocabulary afterward.

13. Students are given no grammar rules; grammatical points are taught through examples and drills.

The learning of a foreign language should be the sameas the acquisition of the native language. We do notneed to memorize rules in order to use our nativelanguage.

The rules necessary to use the target language will befigured out or induced from examples.

REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES

1. What are the goals of teachers who use the Audio-Lingual Method? Teachers want their students to be able to use the target

language communicatively. In order to do this, theybelieve students need to overlearn the target language, tolearn to use it automatically without stopping to think.

Their students achieve this by forming new habits in thetarget language and overcoming the old habits of theirnative language.

2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?

The teacher is like an orchestra leader, directing andcontrolling the language behavior other students.

She also is responsible for providing her students with agood model for imitation.

Students are imitators of the teacher's model or the tapesshe supplies of model speakers.

They follow the teacher’s directions and respond asaccurately and as rapidly as possible.

3. What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?

New vocabulary and structures are presented throughdialogs.

The dialogs are learned through imitation and repetition.

Students' successful responses are positively reinforced.

Grammar is induced from the examples given; explicitgrammar rules are not provided.

4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?

There is student-to-student interaction in chain drills orwhen students take different roles in dialogs, but thisinteraction is teacher directed.

Most of the interaction is between teacher and studentsand is initiated by the teacher.

5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with?

There are no principles of the method that relate tothis area.

6. How is language viewed? How is culture viewed?

Everyday speech is emphasized.

The level of complexity of the speech is graded, however,so that beginning students are presented with only simpleforms.

Culture consists of the everyday behavior and lifestyle ofthe target language speakers.

7. What areas of language are emphasized? What languages kills are emphasized?

The structures of the language are emphasized over all theother areas. The syllabus is typically a structural one, withthe structures for any particular unit included in the newdialog. Vocabulary is also contextualized within thedialog.

The natural order of skills presentation is adhered to:listening, speaking, reading and writing. The oral/auralskills receive most of the attention. Pronunciation istaught from the beginning.

8. What is the role of the students' native language?

The habits of the students' native language are thought tointerfere with the students' attempts to master the targetlanguage.

Therefore, the target language is used in the classroom,not the students' native language.

A contrastive analysis between the students' nativelanguage and the target language will reveal where ateacher should expect the most interference.

9. How does the teacher respond to student errors?

Student errors are to be avoided if at all possiblethrough the teacher's awareness of where the studentswill have difficulty and restriction of what they aretaught to say.

REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES

Dialog Memorization

Dialogs or short conversations between two people areoften used to begin a new lesson. Ss memorize the dialogthrough mimicry ("mim-mem"); Ss usually take the roleof one person in the dialog, and the T the other.

After the Ss have learned the one person's lines, theyswitch roles and memorize the other person's part.Another way of practicing the two roles is for half of theclass to take one role and the other half to take the other.After the dialog has been memorized, pairs of individualSs might perform the dialog for the rest of the class.

Backward Build-up (Expansion) Drill

This drill is used when a long line of a dialog is giving Sstrouble.

T breaks down the line into several parts. Ss repeat a partof the sentence, usually the last phrase of the line. Then,following the T’s cue, Ss expand what they are repeatingpart by part until they are able to repeat the entire line.

T begins with the part at the end of the sentence andworks backward from there. This also directs morestudent attention to the end of the sentence, where newinformation typically occurs.

Repetition Drill

Students are asked to repeat the teacher's model asaccurately and as quickly as possible.

This drill is often used to teach the lines of the dialog.

Chain Drill A chain drill gets its name from the chain of conversation

that forms around the room as Ss, one-by-one, ask andanswer questions of each other. T begins the chain bygreeting a particular S, or asking him a question. That Sresponds, then turns to the S sitting next to him. The firstS greets or asks a question of the second S and the chaincontinues. A chain drill allows some controlledcommunication. A chain drill also gives the T anopportunity to check each S’s speech.

Single-slot Substitution Drill

T says a line, usually from the dialog. Next, T says aword or a phrase-called the cue. Ss repeat the line Thas given them, substituting the cue into the line in itsproper place. The major purpose of this drill is to givethe Ss practice in finding and filling in the slots of asentence.

Multiple-slot Substitution Drill

This drill is similar to the single-slot substitution drill.The difference is that T gives cue phrases, one at atime, that fit into different slots in the dialog line. Ssmust recognize what part of speech each cue is, whereit fits into the sentence, and make any other changes,such as subject-verb agreement. They then say theline, fitting the cue phrase into the line where itbelongs.

Use of Minimal Pairs

T works with pairs of words which differ in only onesound; for example, "ship/sheep.” Ss are first asked toperceive the difference between the two words andlater to be able to say the two words. T selects thesounds to work on after she has done a contrastiveanalysis, a comparison between the Ss’ native languageand the language they are studying.

Complete the Dialog Selected words are erased from a dialog students have

learned.

Ss complete the dialog by filling in the blanks with themissing words.

Grammar Game

Games like the supermarket alphabet game describedin this chapter are often used in the Audio-LingualMethod. The games are designed to get Ss to practice agrammar point within a context. Ss are able to expressthemselves although it is rather limited in this game.

Notice there is also a lot of repetition in this game.

CONCLUSION

Does it make sense to you that language acquisitionresults from habit formation? If so, will the habits ofthe native language interfere with target languagelearning?

Should the commission of errors be prevented asmuch as possible?

Should the major focus be on the structural patterns of the target language?

Which of these or the other principles of the Audio-Lingual Method are acceptable to you?

Is a dialog a useful way to introduce new material?

Should it be memorized through mimicry of the teacher's model?

Are structure drills valuable pedagogical activities?

Is working on pronunciation through minimal-pair drills a worthwhile activity?

Would you say these techniques (or any others of the Audio-Lingual Method) are ones that you can use as described?

Could you adapt any of them to your own teaching approach and situation?

ACTIVITIES

Apply what you have understood about the Audio-Lingual Method.

Read the following dialog. What structure is it trying toteach?

SAM: Lou's going to go to college next fall.

BETTY: What is he going to study?

SAM: He's going to study biology. He's going to be a doctor.

BETTY: Where is he going to study?

SAM: He's going to study at Stanford.

2. Prepare your own dialog to introducea new structure to your students.