The Audiolingual Method ALM

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.

Historical Background

BackgroundThe 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) led the way in applying principles from structural linguistics in developing this approach.

In 1957 principles from behavioral psychology (Skinner) were incorporated.

Objectives and Principles

The Purpose• The purpose of language learning is to attain conversational proficiency in the foreign language and to 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.

*Accurate pronunciation and grammar

*Ability to respond quickly and accurately in speech situations

*Knowledge of sufficient vocabulary to use with grammar

patterns.

THEORETICAL BASE

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• The audiolingual method is based on the principles of behavioral psychology and structuralism and the aural-oral approach to language teaching,

• This linguistic and (behavioural) psychological base contains the following beliefs about language and language learning:

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Principles

• Speech = language. Spoken language comes before written language = oral language is prioritised over writing. Writing should be postponed.

• Each language has its own unique structure and rule system. (the theory of Structural linguistics)

• Focus on the structure. Vocabulary will be learnt later.

Principles of Structural Linguistics

NATURE OF LANGUAGE:

Underlying approach, the influence of linguistics

Skills are sequenced: 1. Listening, 2. speaking, 3. reading 4. and writing.

Developed in this order

Attention to the different levels of a language (phonetics, phonology,morphology, and syntax)

Underlying approach, the influence of linguistics

• Teaching points are determined by contrastive analysis between L1 and l2.

• Arabic: VSO• English: SVO

• Arabic: والقطط الكلاب و الخيل• English: horses, dogs and

cats

Examples:

1 Language learning (as a process of habit-formation) is learned through forming habits, through conditioning & reinforcement.

2 Positive Reinforcement (of correct responses) makes behaviour occur again and become a habit. Three crucial elements for any kind of learning:

stimulus, response reinforcement

3 Forming new target language habits mans overcoming native language habits. The major challenge of foreign language teaching is getting students to overcome the habits of their native language. Principles (Linguistics and Behavioural Psychology)

NATURE OF LANGUAGE LEARNING: BEHAVIOURISM

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: learning is mechanic.

Characteristics and Techniques

Characteristics• New structural patterns and vocabulary are

presented through conversations. • Vocabulary is strictly limited and learnt in

context.• Great importance is given to precise native-like

pronunciation.• 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.

He is a prince.

He isn’t a cowboy.

She is a witch.

She……… a caveman.

I am a student.

I …………….. a spy.

They are students. They aren’t football players.

They are football players They ……… students.

You are students.You …football players.

1. 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

2. A repetitive drill is used: A model is given and then students are asked to practice the model.

3. The use of pictures and highlighting the relevant constructions make it unnecessary to explain grammar explicitly / The model and listening to the dialogue 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 Audiolingual method. (Richards, J.C. et-al. 1986).

Here is a typical procedure in an audio-lingual course.Usually, a lessons begins with a model dialog. •Students hear the dialogue. •Students repeat each line of the dialogue. •Certain key words or phrases may be changed in the dialogue. •Key structures from the dialogue serve as the basis for pattern drills of different kinds. •The students practice substitutions in the pattern drills

More details:

(1) Listen to the dialog,

(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.

Student repeat an utterance as soon as they hears it (individually or in chorus). In a repetitive drill , a model is given and then students are asked to practice the model focussing on on accurate pronunciation & grammar.

(3) Memorize dialogue (Dialog Memorization),

(4) Act / perform the Dialog (Role playing) Students use mimicry and applied role playing to present the dialog

and experiment with language and non-verbal elements (eg. Gesture)...

Backward Build Up, also called Expansion drill:

Example of the use of the "backward buildup" technique

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.

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.

Exercises in Backward Building)

Chain Drill: Objective:

A chain drill gives students an opportunity to practice (the lines in a dialog) individually

• A chain of conversation forms around the classroom as the teacher greets or questions a student and the latter responds and then turns to the next studentand greets or asks him a question and the chain continues.

• Teacher: 'Good morning, Jose’. • Student: 'Good morning,

teacher.‘ • Teacher: 'How are you ?'

Student: ' Fine, thanks. And you?'

• The teacher: ' Fine.‘• The student then turn to the

one sitting beside him and greet her

Example:

Very similar to a الديب game in شتيMoroccan culture

Substitution / Replacement drills:

Example:

Teacher : He bought the car for half-price.

Teacher: the book

Student: He bought the book for half-price.

Alternatively the pattern could be:

Teacher: He bought the car for half-price. He bought it for half price.

Teacher : television

• one key word or phrase in a sentence or pattern (from a dialogue) is selected and replaced by another

There are Simple Substitution Exercises (Single-slot substitution)

and Multiple Substitution Exercises (Multiple-slot substitution)

Objective: practice creating new sentences and learn which parts of speech occupy which positions (slot).

Transformation / Restatement Drill:

Objective:

• Students change 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 teacher provides a statement :

"She is going to the post office." Then transforms it into a question. "Is she going to the post office?”

• Teacher: “They are going to the theatre” Students:

• From questions to statements:• An extension of this activity is

turning a statement into an order: • Teacher : He makes a lot of noise.

Student : Don't make a lot of noise!

 

Fill in the blanks,

Examples: fill in the gap using am, is or are/ am not, isn’t and aren’t:

Students fill in the blanks in the sentences provided by inserting the proper English words. This activity is much like 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

• 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.

• 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.

Complete the Dialog:

Dictation: Objective:

• Using any piece of literature at the students' reading level, the teacher reads the piece aloud several times. The students then write down what they hear. The idea is to write what they have heard as literally as possible.

• Listen purposefully to determine main ideas and important details.

Flashcards: Objectives:

• A flashcard or flash card is a piece of paper that is used as a learning aid.

The Alphabet Game: Objectives: • The teacher picks a semantic

field, such as the supermarket. And says: "I am going to the supermarket. I need a few apples." (The teacher names something beginning with A.) The first student says, "I am going to the supermarket. I need a few apples and I need a few bananas." The game continues in this manner with each consecutive student adding an item beginning with the next letter after repeating the items named before their own.

• Participate in shared listening experiences. Share ideas and experiences in large and small groups.

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Use of minimal pairs

Examples:pair word s, such as 'sheep,' 'ship' ;' leave,' 'live'; and 'he's,' ' his‘

Objective:Enabling the students to hear the difference in pronunciation between the words in each pair and drill them in saying the two sounds

Minimal pairs are words that are similar in pronunciation except for one sound

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Question/answer drill - Verbal Question/Answer Exercises

Grammar games

Other Techniques

The following example illustrates how more than one sort of drill can be incorporated into 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 ALMThe 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.

• 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.

Direct Method & ALM

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)

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What aspects of language and culture are emphasized?

The method 1. 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

2. Uses dialogues and drills. 3. 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.

1. 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= imperfect learning: 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 the

Audiolingual Method

Advantages with using ALM1) Students are taught a foreign language directly, without using the students’ native language in the classaroom. They try to explain new words or grammar in the target language directly.2) Students become good at pattern since they get a chance to practice and master a number of audiolingual techniques such as repetition, inflection, replacement and restatement.

3. The audiolingual method is said to be a self- teaching method.

4. It aims at developing listening and speaking skills through repetitition which is a step away from the Grammar Translation method..

5. It gives the learner the ability to communicate quickly because of the emphasis on speaking and listening

6. There is an abundant use of language laboratories, tapes and visual aids.

Disadvantages with using ALMAudiolingualism stresses the mechanistic aspects of language learning and language use. It turn Students into parrots who produce many things but never create anything new or spontaneous : Dialogues recited and MemorizedBoring and mindless - Mimic native speakers dependence on mimicry and memorizationEmphasize the “Form”, not the “Meaning”.Emphasis laid on correction and not on understanding the message. It was also known as the Mim-Mem method because students would mime and memorize dialogues before going on with drills.

cons

• The audiolingual method doesn’t focus on teaching vocabulary, the teacher drills students primarily in the use of grammar.

• This type of lesson is highly teacher centererd.

Criticism• The Audiolingual approach came under criticism from

different sides:• -Jeremy Harmer « Audiolingual methodology seems to

banish all forms of language processing that help students sort out new language information in their own minds »

• -Rebecca Domar « Reading is easier than understanding the spoken word…, because in reading one can proceed at the speed which suits him best, one can re-read that which he did not understand at first reading, one can look up unfamiliar words. All this is impossible when listening to someone talk. For similar reasons writing is easier than speaking. »

• A drill is an instructional exercise aimed at perfecting a skill by regular and repeted practice.

• Introduce the drill in this way:• a. Focus (by writing on the board, for example)• b. Exemplify (by speaking model sentences)• c. Explain (if a simple grammatical explanation

is needed)• d. Drill

• Drills:• What are drills?• Why are drills essential in in the audiolingual

method? (What theoretical bases of linguistics or psychology make drills essential in the audiolingual method?)

• Drills are presented in the order of increasing complexity of student response.

• Thus: imitation first, single-slot substitution next, then free response last.

Drill

Types of Drills:

A mechanical drill• A mechanical drill is one where only one

answer is acceptable and where comprehension is not required in order to produce a correct response.

• Example: book --> this is a book. pen --> this is a pen.What techniques is this one? Substitution, replacement

•A meaningful drill is one where only one answer is acceptable, but understanding is required in order for the student to produce a correct response.

 Teacher reads a sentence  Student chooses a response

 I'm hot.I'm cold.I'm thirsty.I'm hungry.

 I'll get you something to eat.I'll turn on the air conditioning.I'll get you something to drink.I'll turn on the heater.

Meaningful drill

Example:

What technique is represented by this drill? Multiple choice selection

A communicative drill is one where more than one answer is possible but the choices open to students are rather limited and understanding is essential.

 Teacher Student completes cues

 - What time did you get up on Sunday?- What did you have for breakfast?

 - I got up _____ .- I had _____ .

Communicative drill

What type of technique is represented by this drill? Sentence completion

Example:

Another type of drill could called creative “drill”? requiring a free

response as in questions requiring students to:

compareargue

commentanalyze

etc.

• An audio-lingual lesson• Audio-lingual class-room activities• Conduct oral/aural drills and pattern practice.

• We shall see two lessons from ......................Program.

• Observing each lesson, answer the following questions:

LANGUAGE TEACHING in Practice

1. How are the theoretical guidelines of the audiolingual method applicable in the classroom?

2. How many vocabs are used in each listening material?

3. What are the grammar points in each lesson?4. Which types of drills are used in each lesson?5. How are the vocabs of the first lesson enforced in

the second one?6. Are there any drills in the lessons where grammar

is taught non-inductively?

Questions

The decline of Audioligualism

• Audiolingualism reached its period of most widespread use in the 1960s and was applied both to the teaching of foreign language in the United States and to the teaching of English as a second or foreign language.

The International Phonetic Association• The International Phonetic Association lays emphasis on the teaching of oral

language. Created in 1886, its declaration of principles is compiled in six articles:

• “1. Foreign language study should begin with the spoken language of everyday life.

• 2. Pupils must be familiarized with the sounds of the FL. Conventional spelling is postponed.

• 3. The most common sentences and idiomatic phrases must be introduced at a first stage. Dialogues, descriptions and narratives will follow in a natural, easy way.

• 4. Inductive way for first levels. Grammar must be postponed. • 5. The FL meaning must be explained with direct reference to objects or

concepts and not to the native language. • 6. When writing is introduced, a sequence is recommended from reproduced

texts to free composition. Translation belongs to the most advanced stage of the course. “

Thank you for your attention

ACTIVITIES (Diane Larson-Freeman)• A Check your understanding of the Audio-lingual Method.• 1 Which of the following techniques follows from the principles of the

Audio- Lingual Method, and which ones don't? Explain the reasons for your answer.

• a The teacher asks beginning-level students to write a composition about the system of transportation in their home countries, If they need a vocabulary word that they don 't know, they are told to look in a bilingual dictionary for a translation.

• b Toward the end of the third week of the course, the teacher gives students a reading passage. The teacher asks the students to read the passage and to answer certain questions based upon it. The passage contains words and structures introduced during the first three weeks of the course.

• c The teacher tells the students that they must add an 's' to third person singular verbs in the present tense in English. She then gives the students a list of verb s and asks them to change the verbs into the third person singular present tense form.

ACTIVITIES (Diane Larson-Freeman)• 2 Some people believe that knowledge of a first

and second language can be helpful to learners who are trying to learn a third language. What would an Audio-Lingual teacher say about this? Why?

ACTIVITIES (Diane Larson-Freeman)• B Apply what you have understood about the Audio-Lingual Method.• Read the following dialog. What subsentence pattern is it trying to

teach ?• SAM Lou 's going to go to college next fall .• BETTY Where is he going?• SAM He's going to Stanford.• BETTY What is he going to study?• SAM Biology. He's going to be a doctor.• Prepare a series of drills (backward build- up, repetition , chain, single

slot substitution, multiple slot substitution, transformatinon, and question-and -answer] designed to give beginning level EFl students some practice with this structure. If the target language that you teach is not English, you may wish to write your own dialog first. It is not easy to prepare drills. so to check yours, you might want to try giving them to some other teachers.

• 2 Prepare your own dialog to introduce your students to a sentence or subsentence pattern in the target language you teach.