4. Audiolingual Method.pdf

ENGLISH TEACHING METHODS Audiolingual Method  Army method & Aural oral approach Drills students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns. Introduction Has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology. Was developed by Charles Fries in...

ENGLISH TEACHING METHODS Audiolingual Method  Army method & Aural oral approach Drills students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns. Introduction Has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology. Was developed by Charles Fries in 1945 by applying principles from structural linguistics. Later, principles from Skinner’s behavioural psychology were also incorporated. The way to acquire the sentence pattern of the target language was through conditioning. Learners could overcome the habits of their native language and form the new habits required to be target language speakers.  Structuralism This approach focused on examining how the elements of language related to each other in the present, that is, ‘synchronically‘ rather than ‘diachronically‘. It was also argued that linguistic signs were composed of two parts, a signifier (the sound pattern of a word) and a signified (the concept or meaning of the word).  Army method & Aural oral approach Introduction Drills students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns. Has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology. Was developed by Charles Fries in 1945 by applying principles from structural linguistics. Later, principles from Skinner’s behavioural psychology were also incorporated. The way to acquire the sentence pattern of the target language was through conditioning. Learners could overcome the habits of their native language and form the new habits required to be target language speakers.  Behaviorism B. F. Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant Conditioning According to this principle, behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be repeated. Skinner (1948) studied operant conditioning by conducting experiments using animals which he placed in a 'Skinner Box'  Results Neutral operants: responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated. Reinforcers: Responses from the environment that increase the probability of a behavior being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative. Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior.  Other methods The Audiolingual Approach to language teaching has a lot of similarities with the Direct Method. Both were considered as a reaction against the shortcomings of the Grammar Translation method, both reject the use of the mother tongue and both stress that speaking and listening competences preceded reading and writing competences. The direct method highlighted the teaching of vocabulary while the audiolingual approach focus on grammar drills  Objectives The objective of the audiolingual method is accurate pronunciation and grammar, the ability to respond quickly and accurately in speech situations and knowledge of sufficient vocabulary to use with grammar patterns. Particular emphasis was laid on mastering the building blocks of language and learning the rules for combining them. It was believed that learning structure, or grammar was the starting point for the student.  Goals of the teacher who uses the method Teachers wants their students to be able to use the target language communicatively. 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.  Role of the teacher and students The Teacher Directs and controls the language behaviour of the students. Role model for imitation Students Imitates the teacher. Follow the teacher’s directions. Respond as accurately as fast as possible.  Characteristics of teaching/learning process New vocabulary and structural patterns are presented through dialogues. The dialogues are learnt through imitation and repetition. Drills are conducted based upon the patterns present in the dialogues. Student’s successful responses are positively reinforced. Grammar is induced from the examples given. Cultural information is contextualized in the dialogues or presented by the teacher. Reading and writing is based on the dialogue.  Classroom interaction Interaction in initiated by teacher. Most interaction is between teacher and students. Student-student interaction in chain drills and when they play different roles in dialogues.  Areas of Language emphasized Vocabulary is kept to a minimum while the students are mastering the sound system and grammatical pattern. Order of skills : Listening, speaking, reading, writing. Students only write what they learnt orally. Pronunciation is taught from the beginning.  Role of native language The habits of the students’ native language are thought to interfere with the students’ attempts to master the target language. Target language is used in the class not the native language. A constructive analysis of the target language and native language reveals where interference will likely appear.  Evaluation Each question will only focus on only one point of the language at a time. Distinguish between words in a minimal pair. Supply an appropriate verb form in a sentence.  Error correction Student errors are to be avoided. Teacher must be aware where errors might occur and avoids it by restricting what students are taught to say. TECHNIQUE  Repetition drill Students are asked to repeat the teacher’s role model as accurately and as quickly as possible.  Dialogue memorization Dialogues and short conversation between two people. Students memorize the dialogue through mimicry. Students take the role of one person and the teacher the other. After the student has learnt their lines, they switch places and memorize the other person’s role. Another way is half class take one role and the other half take the other role. After the dialogue is memorized, pairs of individual students will perform the dialogue for the rest of the class. Certain sentence patterns and grammar points are included within the dialogue. These patterns are later practised in drills based on the lines.  Backward build-up (expansion) drill This drill is used when a long line of a dialogue is giving students trouble. The teacher breaks down the line into several parts. The students repeat a part of the sentence, usually the last phrase of the line. Then, following the teachers cue, the students expand what they are repeating part by part until they are able to repeat the entire line. The teacher begins with the part at the end of the sentence (and works backward from there) to keep the intonation of the line as natural as possible. This also directs more student attention to the end of the sentence where new information typically occurs.  Chain drill Students, one-by-one, ask and answer each other’s question. The teacher begins the chain by greeting a particular student, and asking him/her a question. The student responds, then turns to the student sitting next to him. The first student greets and asks a questions and the chain continues. A chain drill allows some controlled communication. It also gives the teacher an opportunity to check each student’s speech.  Single-slot substitution drill The teacher says a line, usually from the dialogue. Next, teacher says a word or phrase (cue) The students repeat the line the teacher has given them, substituting the cue into the line in its proper place. The major purpose of this drill is to give the students practice in finding and filling in the slots of a sentence.  Multiple-slot Substitution Drill This drill is similar to the single-slot substitution drill. The difference is that the teacher gives cue phrases, one at a time, that fit into different slots in the dialogue line. The students must recognize what part of speech each cue is, or at least, where it fits into the sentence, and make any other changes, such as subject–verb agreement. They then say the line, fitting the cue phrase into the line where it belongs.  Transformation Drill The teacher gives students a certain kind of sentence pattern, an affirmative sentence for example. Students are asked to transform this sentence into a negative sentence. Other examples of transformations to ask of students are: changing a statement into a question, an active sentence into a passive one, or direct speech into reported speech.  Question-and-answer Drill This drill gives students practice with answering questions. The students should answer the teacher’s questions very quickly. the teacher will cue the students to ask questions as well. This gives students practice with the question pattern.  Use of Minimal Pairs The teacher works with pairs of words which differ in only one sound; for example, ‘ship/sheep.’ Students are first asked to perceive the difference between the two words and later to be able to say the two words. The teacher selects the sounds to work on after she has done a contrastive analysis, a comparison between the students’ native language and the language they are studying.  Complete the Dialogue Selected words are erased from a dialogue students have learned. Students complete the dialogue by filling the blanks with the missing words.  Grammar Game The games are designed to get students to practice a grammar point within a context. Students are able to express themselves, although in a limited way. There is also a lot of repetition in this game.