Audio-Lingual Method PDF

THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD Q. Look at the phrase ‘The Audio-lingual method’. What do you think are the goals of this method? The audio-Lingual Method General goals Use the target language for communication Develop the same language abilities that native speakers have, that is to use the languag...

THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD Q. Look at the phrase ‘The Audio-lingual method’. What do you think are the goals of this method? The audio-Lingual Method General goals Use the target language for communication Develop the same language abilities that native speakers have, that is to use the language automatically Students achieve this by forming new habits in the target language See learning language as learning a system and subsystems Emphasise learning structures The audio-Lingual Method Learning theory Theoretically grounded in behaviourism Learning languages is like other forms of learning Language learning is mechanical habit formation Three key elements Stimulus Response Reinforcement The audio-Lingual Method The human being = organism with a set of behaviors, which occur, depending on three key elements: Stimulus= serves to elicit behavior Response: trigged by a stimulus Reinforcement: serves to mark the response as being appropriate (or inappropriate) and encourage the repetition (or suppression) of the response (Richards & Rodgers, 2014, p. 63) The audio-Lingual Method Stimulus Organism Response behavior Reinforcement (behavior likely to occur again and become a habit) No reinforcement/ Negative reinforcement (Behavior not likely to occur again) (Richards & Rodgers, 2014, p. 63)  The audio-Lingual Method The role of the teacher and learners The teacher monitors the learning process plays a central and active role The learner Plays a reactive role Responds to stimulus, and repeat The audio-Lingual Method Emphasise the audio-visual use Emphasise listening and speaking before reading and writing Emphasise pronunciation Draw on dialogs as the main form of language presentation and drills as the main technique Discourage use of mother tongue in the classroom Language learning occurs through training and conditioning. The audio-Lingual Method Emphasise accuracy and practice using techniques such as drills, mimicry, memorization; errors are avoided. No explicit grammar rules are taught; rules are induced from examples. New vocabulary and structures are presented through dialogs. The syllabus is mainly a structural one. Dialogs are remembered through drilling and repetition. Techniques (Coursebook, pp. 42-44) Read and share your understanding. Demonstrate the technique via relevant examples. Group 1. Techniques 1-3 Group 2. Techniques 4-6 Group 3. Techniques 7-9 Group 4. Techniques 10-12 Techniques Technique 1: Dialog memorization Students memorize through mimicry. Students usually take the role of one person in the dialog, and the teacher the other. Half of the class take one role, and the other half take the other role. After the dialog has been memorized, students might perform the dialog for the rest of the class. In the Audio-Lingual Method, certain structures or grammar points are included in the dialog. These patterns and points are later practiced in drills. Techniques Technique 2: Dialog memorization Jane: What are you doing this weekend? Mary: I’m going to the beach. Jane: What are you doing there? Mary: I’m building sandcastles with my friends. Techniques Technique 3: Backward build up/ Expansion Drill Is used when a long line of a dialog is giving students trouble. The teacher breaks down the line into several parts. The teacher begins with the part at the end of the sentence and work backward from there. The students repeat a part of the sentence, usually the last phrase of the line. Following the teacher’s cue, the students expand what they are repeating part by part until they are able to repeat the line. Techniques Technique 4: Backward build up/ Expansion Drill Jane: What are you doing this weekend? Mary: I’m going to the beach. Techniques Technique 5 : Repetition drill Students are asked to repeat the teacher’s model as acccurately, and as quickly as possible. Techniques Technique 6: Chain drill Students, one by one, ask and answer questions. The teacher begins the chain by greeting a particular student, or asking him a question. That student responds, then turns to the student sitting next to him, who greets or asks a question of the next student and the chain continues. Techniques Technique 7: Single-slot Substitution Drill Jane: What are you doing this weekend? Mary: I’m going to the beach. Jimmy: What are you doing this weekend? Lauren: go simming Jimmy: What are you doing this weekend? Lauren: play football Techniques Technique 8: Multiple-slot Substitution Drill Similar single-slot substitution drill. The difference is that the teacher gives cue phrases, one at a time, that fits into different slots in the dialog line. The students must recognize what parts of speech each cue is, where it fits into the sentence, and make any other changes such as subject-verb agreement. They say the line, fitting the cue phrase into the line where it belongs. Techniques Technique 8: Multiple-slot Substitution Drill Jane: What are you doing this weekend? Mary: I’m going to the beach. Tom: tomorrow? Andy: visit my grandparents James: next week? Micheal: go to the cinema Techniques Technique 9: Transformation drill Students are asked to transform an affirmative sentence into a negative sentence. change a statement into a question, an active sentence into a passive one, or direct speech into reported speech. Techniques Technique 10: Question-answer drill This drill gives students practice with answering questions Students should answer the teacher’s questions very quickly. Techniques Technique 11: Use of minimal pairs hit/heat ship/sheep thick/ though, … Technique 12: Complete the Dialog Jane: What ___________ you doing this weekend? Mary: I ___________ going to the beach. Techniques Technique 13: Grammar games Games are designed to get students to practice a grammar point within a context. Students are able to express themselves, though it is rather limited. There is a lot of repetition in this game. PRACTICE Use some of the techniques above to teach this structure “Would you like to …?” Discussion: Work in groups of four, discussing the advantanges and disadvantages of the Audio-Lingual method. Advantages Students learn chunks of language Make it possible to teach a large group of learners Develop sentence production and oral ability Disdvantages Weak theoretical foundation; humans have inate abilities to learn a language, and learn language through experience of using it. What students learn in the classrom does not transfer to real life communication. Boredom and disatisfaction due to overlearning, extensive repetition and drilling Teacher dominates the class; students play a passive, reactive role and have little control over their learning. Teacher-oriented materials REFERENCES Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed.). NY: Pearson. The slides presented here draw mainly on Methodology 4: Theory of Teaching and Learning by Faculty of English, University of Foreign Languages, Hue University.