Audio-Lingual Method By Ika, Sarniati and St.Hariati

AUDIO- LINGUAL METHOD

I.     Introduction

Audio- lingual method is developed in the time of 1960’s. It was first developed in United States during Word War II. At that time many soldier needed to learn foreign language for immediately military purposes. Therefore this method also called army method. The purpose of the method is to clarify student’s pronunciation and train their ability in listening

This approach to language learning was similar to another, earlier method called the Direct method. Like the Direct Method, the Audio-Lingual Method advised that students be taught a language directly, without using the students’ native language to explain new words or grammar in the target language. However, unlike the Direct Method, the Audiolingual Method didn’t focus on teaching vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drilled students in the use of grammar.

Charles Fries (1945), the director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States, believed that learning structure or grammar was the starting point for the student. In other words, it was the students’ job to orally recite the basic sentence patterns and grammatical structures. The students were only given “enough vocabulary to make such drills possible.

II.  Discussion

a.      The principle of Audio lingual Method

The principles of the method derive from the aims of learning a foreign language. The aims of the method include some aspects of language learning. The linguistics aims of the ALM are:

1.      Language learners are able to comprehend the foreign language when it is spoken at normal speed and concerned with ordinary matters.

2.      Language learners are able to speak in acceptable pronunciation and grammatical correctness.

3.      Language learners have no difficulties in comprehending printed materials.

4.      Language learners are able to write with acceptable standards of correctness on topics within their experience.

The aims mentioned above have basic principles in learning teaching interaction. Since the primary aim is the ability in communication, language learners and their language teacher should use the target language at all times. The language teacher should greet his/her students in the target language from the first day of their language class. Their mother tongue is not used unless it is necessary and translation into their mother is prohibited. Intensive drills should be provided so that language learners can have enough practice of using the grammar of the spoken language. Drilling is a central technique in this method. The final goal of language learning process is that language learners are able to communicate in target language with native-speaker-like pronunciation. Through this method language learners learn structures, sound or words in contexts.  

Here is a summary of the key features of Audio lingual Method, taken from Brown (1994) and adapted from Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979).

1)      New material is presented in dialog form.

2)      There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases, and overearnings.

3)      Structures are sequenced by means of contrastive analysis and taught one at a time.

4)      Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.

5)      There is little or no grammatical explanation. Grammar is taught by inductive analogy rather than deductive explanation.

6)      Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.

7)      There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids.

8)      Great importance is attached to pronunciation.

9)      Very little use of the mother tongue by teachers is permitted.

10)  Successful responses are immediately reinforced.

11)  There is a great effort to get students produce error-free utterances

b.      Audio Lingual Method in Practice

In Audio lingual method the lesson in the classroom focus on the correct imitation of the teacher by the students. Not only are the students expected to produce the correct output, but attention is also paid to correct pronunciation. Although correct grammar is expected in usage, no explicit grammatical instruction is given. Furthermore, the target language is the only language to be used in the classroom.

Observation:

Ø  The teacher introduces a new dialog.

Ex:

Sally          : Good morning, Bill.

Sally          : Good morning, Sally.

Sally          : How are you?

Bill : Fine, thanks. And you?

Sally          : Fine. Where are you going?

Bill : I’m going to the post office.

Sally          : I am too. Shall we go together?

Bill : Sure. Let’s go.

Ø  The language teacher uses only the target language in the classroom. Actions, pictures, or realia are used to give meaning otherwise.

Ø  The students repeat each line of the new dialog several times.

Ø  The students stumble over one of the lines of the dialog. The teacher uses a backward build-up drill with this line.

Ø  The teacher initiates a chain drill in which each student greet another.

Ø  The teacher use single-slot and multiple-slot substitution drills.

Ø  The teacher says, ’very good,’ when the students answer correctly.

Ø  The teacher uses spoken cues and picture cues.

Ø  The teacher conducts transformation and question- and- answer drills.

Ø  The teacher provides the students with cues, she calls on individuals; she smiles encouragement; she holds up pictures one after another.

Ø  New vocabulary is introduced through lines of the dialog; vocabulary is limited.

Ø  Students are given no grammar rules; grammatical points are taught through examples and drills.

Ø  The teacher does a contrastive analysis of the target language and the students’ native language in order to locate the places where she anticipates her students will have trouble.

Ø  The teacher writes the dialog on the blackboard toward the end of the week. The students do some limited written work with the dialog and the sentence drills.

    

c.       Techniques:

1.      Dialog memorizing

To begin a lesson, usually the teachers provide a dialog or short conversation between two people. Through mimicry students memorize the dialogue. Students usually take the role of one person in the dialog, the teacher and other. After the students have learned the one person’s line, they switch roles and memorizing the other’s part. Another way of practicing the two roles is for half of the class to take one role and the other half to take the other. After the dialog has been memorized, pairs of individual students might perform the dialog for the rest of the class. In Audio=lingual method, certain pattern and grammar points are included within the dialog.

2.      Backward build-up (expansion) drill

This drill is used when a long line of a dialog 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 teacher’s 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.

3.      Repetition Drill

Students are asked to repeat the teacher’s model as accurately and as quickly as possible.

4.      Chain Drill

A chain drill get its name from the chain of conversation that form around the  room as  students, one by one ask and answer question of each other. The teacher begins the chain by greeting a particular student, or asking him a question. That students responds, then turn to the student sitting next to him. The first student greets or asks a question of the second student and the chain continues. A chain drill allows some controlled communication, even though is limited. A chain drill also gives the teacher an opportunity to check each student’s speech.

5.      Single-slot substitution drill

The teacher says a line usually from the dialog. Next the teacher says a word or phrase – called the 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.

6.      Multi-slot substitution drill

This drill is similar with single-slot substitution drill. The difference is the teacher gives cue phases, one at a time, that fit into different slots in the dialog line. The students must recognize what part of speech is cue is, or at least, where it firs 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.

7.      Transformational drill

The teacher gives students a certain kind of sentences pattern, and affirmative sentence for example. Students are asked to transform this sentence into a negative sentence. Other examples of transformation to ask of students are changing the statement into question, an active sentence into a passive one, or direct speech into reported speech.

8.      Question and answer drill

This drill give students with answering question. The students should answer the teacher’s questions very quickly. Although we did not see it in our lesson here, it is also possible for teacher to cue the students to ask question as well. This gives students practice with the question pattern.

9.      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 constrastive analysis, a comparison between the students’ native language and the language they are studying.

10.  Complete the dialog

Select word are erased from a dialog student have learned. Students complete the dialog by filling the blanks with the missing words.

11.  Grammar game

Games like the supermarket alphabet are designed to get students to practice a grammar point within a context. Students are able to express themselves, although it is rather limited in this game.

III.             Conclusion

Language acquisition result from habit formation. The habit of the native language interfere the target language learning. The commission of errors should prevent as much as possible.

Reference:

Freeman, Diane Larsen. Second edition. Techniques and Principles in Language Learning. Oxford University Press.

The Audiolingual Method. 2003. Retrieved on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio-Lingual_Method.

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