Audiolingual Method

Outline
 Introduction
 Historical background
 Theory of language and learning
 Characteristics of ALM
 Design
 Objectives
 Syllabus
 Types of activities
 Teacher and learners’ roles
 Classroom interaction
 Advantages and disadvantages
 Conclusion
DEFINITION
 The Audio-lingual Method (ALM), by its very name –
“audio” and “lingual” – refers to a language teaching
approach that focuses on two aspects of language, namely
listening and speaking.

 This approach chooses to emphasize on the first two

stages in the natural order of language learning (listening,
speaking, reading followed by writing) with the belief that
learners who are better speakers and listeners
consequently make better readers and writers.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
There are three main reasons that led to ALM :

1- The engagement of the US army into the WW II

2- USA needs to send troops around the world

during World War 2

3- Russia launched its first artificial satellite.

THEORY OF LANGUAGE
 Structural linguistics
1) Elements in a language were thought of as
being linearly produced in a rule-governed way
2) language samples could be exhaustively
described at any structural level of description
3) Linguistic levels were thought of as systems
within system.
THEORY OF LEARNING
 Behaviourism
The human being is an organism capable of a wide repertoire
of behaviors. The occurance of these behaviors is
dependent on three crucial elements in learning

a) Stimulus
b) Response
c) Reinforcement
 Cont’d

1. Foreign language learning is basically a process of

mechanical habit formation
2. Language skills are learned more effectively if the items to
be learned in the target language are presented in spoken
form before they are seen in written form
3. The meanings that the words of a language have for
thenative speaker can be learned only in a linguistic and
cultural context and not in isolation
CHARACTERISTICS OF ALM
Some characteristics of this method are:

 Drills are used to teach structural patterns

Teacher: There’s a cup on the table…repeat
Students: There’s a cup on the table
Teacher: Book
Students: There’s a book on the table.

 Speaking and listening competence preceded reading and

writing competence.
 Vocabulary is taught in context

 Focus is on pronunciation

 Correct responses are positively reinforced

immediately

 Use of the mother tongue is discouraged by the

students.
OBJECTIVES

Short-range objectives include training in listening

comprehension, and accurate pronunciation

Long-range objective, or the ultimate goal, is to develop in the

students the same types of abilities that native speaking have,
to use it automatically without stopping to think.
SYLLABUS
 Based on a linguistic or structure-based approach
to language teaching

1. Step by step linguistic syllabus

• Phonology
• Morphology
• syntax
2. Lexical syllabus of basic vocabulary
TYPES OF ACTIVITIES
 Typically, the audio-lingual method includes drills and
pattern repetition. There are four parts to this method.

 Repetition – the students repeat what the teacher says.

Example: Teacher – “I walk to school”. Students – “I walk to
school”.

 Replacement – the teacher says a sentence and the

students replace on of the words for a different word.
 Example: Teacher – “I walk to school”. Students – “I run to
school”.
 Restatement – the teacher says a sentence and the students
rephrase the sentence. Example: Teacher – “Tell me to walk to
school”. Students – “Walk to school”.

 Memorization- dialogs or short conversations between two

people are often used to begin a new lesson. Student memorizes
through mimicry.
 Example:
 Oumayma: Good morning Yassine
 Yassine: Good morning Oumayma
 Oumayma:How are you?
 Yassine: Fine thanks,and you?
 Oumayma: Fine. Where are you going.?
 Yassine: I am going to the post office.
 Oumayma : I am too, shall we go together?
 Yassine: sure. Let’s go.
 Backward build-up drill-
It is used when a long line of a dialog is given 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.
 Example:
 Teacher: Repeat after me. Post office
 Class: Post office
 Teacher: to the post office
 Class: to the post office
 Teacher : I am going to the post office.
 Class:I am going to the post office
 Chain drill- 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 and
the chain continues.

 Transformation drill- The teacher gives the students

a certain kind of sentence pattern, an affirmative sentence
for example. Students are asked to transform this into a
negative sentence.
 Complete the dialog-
Selected words are erased from a dialog students have
already learned. Students complete the dialog by filling the
blanks with the missing words.
ROLES
Teachers Students

 Central and active  They can be

 Model of the target directed by skilled
language training techniques
 Controls the process  External displays
of learning  Reactive role
 Monitors and  They do not initiate
controls the learner’s interaction
performance
CLASSROOM INTERACTION

 Students to student interaction in chain drills or

when students take different roles in dialogs, but
this interaction is teacher-directed.

 Most of the interaction is between teacher and

students and initiated by teacher.
ADVANTAGES
 The first method to have a theory
 Making language possible to large groups of
lerners
 Emphasizing sentence production
 Control over grammatical structures and
development of oral ability
 Developing the separation of the language skills
DISADVANTAGES
 Not developing language competence
 lack of effectiveness , and boredom caused by
endless pattern drills
 Learners having little control over their learning
 Teacher’s domination of the class
 Teacher-oriented materials
 Learners are not able to transfer skills to real
communication outside the classroom
Introduction

 The audio-lingual method,

or Army Method, is a style
of teaching used in teaching
foreign languages
 The Audio-Lingual method of
teaching had its origins during
World War II when it became
known as the Army method. It is
also called the Aural oral approach.
It is based on the structural view
of language and the behaviorist
theory of language learning.
 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.
But there are also some differences. The
direct method highlighted the teaching of
vocabulary while the audiolingual approach
focus on grammar drills
 ALM

Psychology: Linguistics:
Skinner Bloomfield
(1930s-50s) (1930s-50s)
Behaviorism Structuralism
Structural Linguistic
 Language is a system of structural
related elements, like phonological
units, grammatical units, and lexical
items, for the transmission of
meaning. So to learn the target
language is to master the elements of
the target language system.
Behavioral Psychology

 Language learning is habit-

formation.

 Mistakes, the bad habit, should be

avoided.
 Language skills are learned more
effectively if they are presented
orally first, then in written form.
 The meaning of words can be
learned only in a linguistic and
cultural context.
 Backward-up drill
 Backward build-up drill: to teach long
lines of dialogues:
 break down the line into several parts
 repeat a part of the sentence
 follow the teacher, students expand
what they repeated part by part until
they are able repeat the entire line.
 Dialog Memorization
 Students take the role of one
person in the dialogue and the
teacher the other.

 Switch roles and memorize the

other person’s part.
 Half of the class to take one role
and the other half to take the other

 Some pairs of students might

perform the dialogue for the rest
of the class.
 Chain Drill

 To make students ask and answer

questions with each other.

 It allows some controlled communication

among students and give the teacher an
opportunity to check students’ speech.
Multiple-slot Substitution Drill

 To give cue phrases, one at time, that fits

into different slots in the dialogue line.
 To recognize what part if speech each cue

is and make any other changes, such as

subject-verb agreement.
 To fit cue phrase into line where it belongs

and to say the line loudly.

 Transformation
Drill
To change a certain kind of sentence
pattern to another form.
 to transform an affirmative S. into a

negative S.
 to transform a statement into a question.

 to transform an active S. into a passive S.

 to transform a direct speech into reported

speech
 Question & Answer
Drill
 Students practice the target language with
answering questions and the question
patterns.

 Students answer the teacher’s question

quickly.
 Assessment of the
ALM
Positive contributions
 First , the ALM attempted to
develop language skills
without without reference to
the mother tongue or
translation as was the case
with GTM that precedes it .
 Second, it attempted to
make possible language
teaching to large numbers of
ordinary learners outside the
classroom.
 Third, it stressed syntax while
previous methods had only
been preoccupied with
vocabulary and morphology
 Fourth, it led to the
development of simple
teaching techniques
 The ALM limitations
 Basic method of teaching is repetition,
speech is standardised and pupils turn
into parrots who can reproduce many
things but never create anything new or
spontaneous.
Pupils became better and better at
pattern practice but were unable to use
the patterns fluently in natural speech
situations
 Pupils became better and
better at pattern practice but
were unable to use the
patterns fluently in natural
speech situations
 The ALM neglected students
individual differences and
styles of learning .
 The method was criticised
for the imbalance witnessed
in the teaching of skills .
Priority was given to listening
and speaking at the
expense of reading and
writing ..
 The ALM is a Teacher –
centred /directed/ dominated
method . No freedom , no
initiative is allowed to
students .
 The Teacher is considered
as the only source of
knowledge and the main
decision maker .
 Students are considered as
an empty vessel to be filled
with knowledge .
CONCLUSION