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The Audiolingual Method ALM. Definition. [Lat. audire ‘to hear ,’ lingua‘tongue ’] ( also audio- lingualism ).
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Definition [Lat. audire ‘to hear,’ lingua‘tongue’] (also audio-lingualism) The Audiolingual Method is a method of foreign language teaching which emphasizes the teaching of listening and speaking before reading and writing. It uses dialogues as the main form of language presentation and drills as the main training techniques. Mother tongue is discouraged in the classroom.
If you were to teach linguistics, which language teaching method will you use?
Background The Audiolingual Method was founded during World War II (1939-1945 ) for military purposes in the USA: The U.S. military required people to speak and understand foreign languages. At that time, the U.S. government found it a great necessity to set up special language-training programs for military personnel . The method was popular in the 1950s and 1960s especially in the US but also widely used in many other parts of the world. The method died out in the 70s.
It adapted many of the principles and procedures of the Direct Method in part as a reaction against the lack of speaking skills of the Reading Approach. Charles Fries(1945) ledtheway in applyingprinciplesfromstructurallinguistics in developingthisapproach. In 1957 principlesfrombehavioralpsychology (Skinner) wereincorporated.
The Purpose The purpose of language learning is to attain conversational proficiency in the foreign language andto use it communicatively. Teacher’s goal: Focus on students’ pronunciation, and train their ability of listening and speaking through dialogues and drills and enabling them to acquire new habits.
Principles • The audiolingual method is influenced by ideas in other disciplines (fields of thought). • It is based on the principles of behaviorism (behavioral psychology) and linguistics (in particular structuralism. • This linguistic and (behavioural) psychological base contains the following beliefs about language and language learning:
NATURE OF LANGUAGE: Principles of Structural Linguistics • Speech = language. (priority of speech over writing). Why? • A child first learns how to speak • Most people speak more than write • Some lgs have no writing system Spoken language comes before written language = orallanguageisprioritised over writing. Writingshouldbepostponed. • Each language has its own unique structure and rule system. (the theory of Structural linguistics) • Focus on the structure. Vocabularywillbelearntlater.
Underlying approach, the influence of linguistics Skills are sequenced: • Listening, • speaking, • reading • and writing. Attention to the differentlevels of a language (phonetics, phonology,morphology, and syntax) Developed in this order
Underlying approach, the influence of linguistics • Teaching points are determined by contrastive analysisbetween L1 and l2. • Arabic: VSO • English: SVO • Arabic: الخيل و الكلاب والقطط • English: horses, dogs and cats Examples:
NATURE OF LANGUAGE LEARNING: BEHAVIOURISM Principles (Linguistics and BehaviouralPsychology) 1 Language learning (as a process of habit-formation) is learned through forming habits, through conditioning & reinforcement. 2 Positive Reinforcement (of correct responses) makesbehaviouroccuragain and become a habit. Three crucial elements for anykind of learning: • stimulus, • response • reinforcement 3 Forming new target language habits means overcoming native language habits. The major challenge of foreign language teaching is getting students to overcome the habits of their native language: their influence
Principles - Behaviorism The more often something is repeated, the stronger the habit and the greater the learning, hence, the importance of repetition and drills. Positive reinforcement helps the students to develop correct habits. Thus, the method fosters dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases and over-learning: learningismechanic.
Characteristics • New structural patterns and vocabulary are presented through conversations. (vocabularyisstrictlylimited and learnt in context.) • Great importance isgiven to precise native-likepronunciation. (accuracy or fluency? What about error correction?) • Emphasis on mastering grammatical patterns. • Little or no grammatical explanations are provided; grammar is taught inductively.
Inductively? • Explicit teaching of grammar is avoided. • The grammar point is taught ONLY in well-constructed contexts. • The grammar point is taught through well-chosen clear examples. • The grammar point is over-taught creatively through drills and repetition.
She is a witch. I am a student. He is a prince. He isn’t a cowboy. She……… a caveman. I …………….. a spy. They are students. You are students. They are football players You …football players. They aren’t football players. They ……… students.
Structures are sequenced and taught one at a time. The teacher insures that all of the utterances which students make are actually within the practiced pattern. In the previous example, only ONE grammatical structure is being taught: BE in simple present. Similarly, the use of the AUX verb have should not suddenly switch to have as a main verb • A repetitive drill is used: A model is given and then students are asked to practice the model. • The use of pictures and highlighting the relevant constructions make it unnecessary to explain grammar explicitly /
The Techniques Typical Procedure / strategies/ activities in an ALM Course Drills and pattern practice are essential in the Audiolingualmethod. (Richards, J.C. et-al. 1986).
Hereis a typicalprocedure in an audio-lingual course. • Usually, a lessonsbeginswith a model dialog. • Studentshear the dialogue. • Studentsrepeateach line of the dialogue. • Certain keywords or phrases maybechanged in the dialogue. • Key structures from the dialogue serve as the basis for pattern drills of differentkinds. • The students practice substitutions in the pattern drills More details:
(2) repeat the dialogue (a repetition drill ), Objective: listen carefully and attempt to mimic (imitate) the teacher's model as accurately as possible. Repetitive drills can also be used to teach structural patterns.Studentrepeat an utterance as soon as theyhearsit (individually or in chorus). In a repetitive drill , a model is given and then students are asked to practice the model focussing on on accuratepronunciation & grammar. (1) Listen to the dialog, (3) Memorize dialogue (DialogMemorization), (4) Act / perform the Dialog (Role playing) Students use mimicry and appliedroleplaying to present the dialog and experimentwithlanguage and non-verbal elements (eg. Gesture).. .
Example of the use of the "backward buildup" technique BackwardBuildUp, alsocalledExpansion drill: The purpose of this drill is to break down a long and/or difficult sentence into smaller parts starting with the end of the sentence and having the class repeat just the last two words. Since students can do this, the teacher adds a few more words, and the class repeats this expanded phrase building the phrases little by little until the entire sentence is being repeated. Target Pattern: Those boys will be eating in the cafeteria tomorrow. TEACHER Repeat after me: Tomorrow in the cafeteria tomorrow will be eating in the cafeteria tomorrow Those boys will be eating in the cafeteria tomorrow. Exercises in Backward Building) Target Pattern: I'm going to the post office. TEACHER Repeat after me: post office. CLAS S Post office. TEACHER To the post office. CLASS To the post office. TEACHER Going to the post office . CLASS Going to the post office. TEACHER I'm going to the post office. CLASS I'm going to the post office.
Objective: A chain drill gives students an opportunity to practice (the lines in a dialog) individually Chain Drill: A chain of conversation formsaround the classroomas the teachergreets or questions a student and the latter respondsand thenturns to the nextstudentandgreets or askshim a question and the chain continues. Teacher: 'Good morning, Jose’. Student: 'Good morning, teacher.‘ Teacher: ‘greet your neighbor.‘ The student then turn to the one sitting beside him and greet her Example: Very similar to a شتي الديب game in Moroccan culture
Example: Teacher : He boughtthe car for half-price. Teacher: the book Student: He boughtthe book for half-price. Alternatively the pattern couldbe: Teacher: He boughtthe car for half-price. He boughtitfor halfprice. Teacher : television Objective: practice creating new sentences and learn which parts of speech occupy which positions (slot). Substitution / Replacement drills: one key wordor phrase in a sentence or pattern (froma dialogue) isselected andreplaced by another There are Simple Substitution Exercises (Single-slot substitution) and Multiple Substitution Exercises (Multiple-slot substitution)
Objective: Transformation / Restatement Drill: Studentschange one type of sentence into another – an affirmative sentence into a negative or an active sentence into a passive, for example. Examples: From statements to questions: The teacherprovides a statement : "She is going to the post office."Thentransformsitinto a question. "Is she going to the post office?” Teacher: “They are going to the theatre” Students: From questions to statements: An extension of thisactivityisturning a statementinto an order: Teacher : He makes a lot of noise. Student : Don'tmake a lot of noise!
Examples: fill in the gap using am, is or are/ am not, isn’t and aren’t: Fill in the blanks, Studentsfill in the blanks in the sentences provided by inserting the proper English words. This activityismuchlike a close activity. They are students. They aren’t football players They are football players They ……… students He is a prince. He isn’t a cowboy. I am a student. I …………….. a spy
Dialog completion Completing Conversations An alternative exercise could be to have students write complete sentences following specific patterns on sequences of words such as I, go , supermarket and he, need, butter. • the teacher can erase a number of selected words from a dialog and ask the students to supply the missing words which they have probably already memorized. Complete the Dialog:
Objective: Dictation: Usinganypiece of literatureat the students' readinglevel, the teacherreadsthe piecealoudseveral times. The studentsthenwritedown whattheyhear. The ideais to writewhatthey have heard as literally as possible. Listenpurposefully to determine main ideas and important details.
Objectives: Flashcards: A flashcard or flash card is a piece of paper that is used as a learning aid.
Objectives: The Alphabet Game: The teacherpicks a semanticfield, such as the supermarket. And says: "I amgoing to the supermarket. I need a few apples." (The teachernamessomethingbeginningwithA.) The first studentsays, "I amgoing to the supermarket. I need a few apples and I need a few bananas." The game continues in thismannerwitheachconsecutivestudentadding an item beginningwith the nextletterafterrepeating the items namedbeforetheirown. Participate in sharedlisteningexperiences. Shareideas and experiences in large and small groups.
Use of minimal pairs • Examples: • pair word s, such as • 'sheep,' 'ship' ; • ' leave,' 'live'; and • 'he's,' ' his‘ Minimal pairs are words that are similar in pronunciation except for one sound • Objective: • Enabling the students to hear the difference in pronunciation between the words in each pair and drill them in saying the two sounds
Other Techniques The followingexampleillustrates how more than one sort of drill canbeincorporatedinto one practice session :“Teacher: There's a cup on the table ... repeatStudents: There's a cup on the tableTeacher: spoonStudents: There's a spoon on the tableTeacher: BookStudents: There's a book on the tableTeacher: On the chairStudents: There's a book on the chair
DM and ALM The audiolingual approach to language teaching has a lot of similarities with the direct method.
Direct Method & ALM Similarity Both were considered as a reaction against the shortcomings of the Grammar Translation method, both reject the use of the mother tongue and advocate teaching language directly without using L1, both are oral-based approaches that stress that speaking and listening competences precede reading and writing competences.
Direct Method & ALM Diversity • But there are also some differences. • The direct method focuses on the teaching of vocabulary while the audiolingual method focuses on grammar drills with sentence patterns.
Direct Method & ALM It also, unlike the Direct Method, has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology. Principles from behavioral psychology (Skinner, 1957) were incorporated into the theory. It was thought that the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the target language was through conditioning - helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement. Learners could overcome the habits of their native language and form the new habits required to be target language speakers.
Teacher/student role: • Most of the interaction is initiated by the teacher. • The teacher is a model of the target language to be imitated, he exerts control over the student • By listening to how it is supposed to sound, students should be able to mimic the model. • Students should ‘overlearn’, learn to answer automatically without stopping to think.
Materials in an Audio-Lingual Lesson • Use of lab, audio tapes and visual aids • Flashcards (A flashcard or flash card is any of a set of cards bearing information, as words or numbers, on either or both sides, used in classroom drills or in private study. One writes a question on a card and an answer overleaf. ...(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashcards)
What aspects of language and culture are emphasized? The method • Emphasizes the teaching of speaking and listening before reading and writing (Priorities in the Abilities Hierarchy: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing) -the order children follow when learning their native language • Uses dialogues and drills. • Emphasis on structure; oral/aural skills, pronunciation through lab setting, minimal pairs. Everyday speech is emphasized in the Audio-lingual Method. The level of complexity of the speech is graded, so that beginning students are presented with only simple patterns. • Vocabulary is kept to a minimum while the students are mastering the sound system and grammatical patterns.
Language & Culture • Language cannot be separated from culture. Culture is not only literature and the arts, but also the everyday behavior / lifestyle of the people who use the target language. One of the teacher’s responsibilities is to present information about that culture.
Role of Mother tongue • Discourages use of mother tongue in classrooms (Use of the mother tongue by the teacher is permitted, but discouraged among and by the students. ) • The idea is that the native language and the target language have separate linguistic systems. They should be kept apart so that the students’ native language interferes as little as possible with the students’ attempts to acquire the target language.
What about errors? How does the teacher respond to student errors? • Successful responses are reinforced; great care is taken to prevent learner errors. • Errors lead to the formation of bad habits. When errors do occur, they are immediately corrected by the teacher. • Mistakes= imperfectlearning: the formation of the habit is not complete.
How is evaluation accomplished? Students might be asked to distinguish between words in a minimal pair, for example, or to supply an appropriate verb form in a sentence.
Pros and Cons: Advantages Vs. Drawbacks Of theAudiolingualMethod
Advantages with using ALM 1) Students are taught a foreignlanguagedirectly, withoutusing the students’ native language in the classaroom.Theytry to explain new words or grammar in the targetlanguagedirectly. 2) Students become good at pattern since theyget a chance to practice and master a number of audiolingual techniques such as repetition, inflection, replacement and restatement.
3. The audiolingualmethodissaid to be a self- teachingmethod. 4. It aimsatdevelopinglistening and speakingskillsthroughrepetititionwhichis a stepawayfrom the Grammar Translation method.. 5. It gives the learner the ability to communicatequicklybecause of the emphasis on speaking and listening 6. There is an abundant use of languagelaboratories, tapes and visualaids.
