Objectives

The goal of the Audiolingual Method was to enable students to speak and write in the target language; to make students able to use the target language automatically without stopping to think; to form new habits in the target language; and to create overall communicative competence in learners.

In other words, it was thought that the most effective way to create communicative competence was for students to "overlearn" the language being studied through extensive repetition and a variety of elaborate drills.  The idea was to project the linguistic patterns of the language (based on the studies of structural linguists) into the minds of the learners in a way that made responses automatic and "habitual".  To this end it was held that the language "habits" of the first language would constantly interfere, and the only way to overcome this problem was to facilitate the learning of a new set of "habits" appropriate linguistically to the language being studied.

Key Features

Here is a summary of the key features of the Audiolingual Method, taken from Brown (1994:57) and adapted from Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979).

• Learning Theory: Learning is based on the principles of Behaviourism. Habit Formation is essential; therefore successful responses are immediately reinforced hoping that they will be repeated to form good habits. There is little or no grammatical explanation.  Grammar is taught by inductive analogy rather than deductive explanation. So, rules are induced from examples. Explicit grammar rules are not given. Learning is inductive. Habit formation is actualized by means of repetitions and other mechanical drills.

• Language Theory: Language is based on descriptive linguistics. Every language is seen as its own unique system. The system is comprised of several different levels. (i.e. phonological, morphological, and syntactic). Structures are sequenced by means of contrastive analysis and taught one at a time. Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills. Language is primarily for Oral Communication. Everyday speech and oral skills are important. Perfect pronunciation is required.

• Culture: Culture consists of everyday behaviour, and lifestyle of the target language community. Culture is presented in dialogues.

• Teacher’s Role: T is like an orchestra leader. S/he directs and controls the language behaviour of the students. T is a good model of the target language, especially for pronunciation and other oral skills. The differences between Sts’ L1 and L2 should be known by the teacher.

• Students’ Role: Sts are imitators of the teacher as perfect model of the target language or the native speakers in the audio recordings.

• Types of Interaction: T-St, ST- ST. Interactions are mostly initiated by the teacher.

• Vocabulary Teaching: Meaning is taught directly. L1 is prohibited because it may cause bad habit formations. Vocabulary is introduced through dialogues. Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context. Great importance is attached to pronunciation. There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases, and overlearning.

• Grammar Teaching: Explicit rules are not provided. Students induce the rules through examples and drills. Students acquire grammar by being exposed to patterns through mechanical drills.

• Materials: New material is presented in dialog form. There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids.

• Syllabus: Grammar points and sentence patterns are given in the order of simplicity in a structural syllabus.

• Role of L1: Very little use of the mother tongue by teachers is permitted or in some variations, L1 is not allowed in the classroom at all. It may cause interference and bad habit formtion in L2.

• Evaluation: Discrete-point tests are used. Each item (question) should focus on only one point of the language at a time. E.g. distinguishing between words in a minimal pair. Appropriate verb form in a sentence.

• Error Correction: There is great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances. Errors are corrected by the teacher since errors may cause bad habit formation.

• Sts’ Feelings: There are no principles related to Sts’ feelings.

• Skills: Listening and speaking are emphasised. There is a natural order of skills. 1. Listening 2. Speaking 3. Reading 4. Writing

Typical Techniques

Larsen-Freeman, in her book Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (1986:45-47) provides expanded descriptions of some common/typical techniques closely associated with the Audiolingual Method.  The listing here is in summary form only.

• Dialog Memorization

(Students memorize an opening dialog using mimicry and applied role-playing)

• Backward Build-up (Expansion Drill)

(Teacher breaks a line into several parts, students repeat each part starting at the end of the sentence and "expanding" backwards through the sentence, adding each part in sequence)

• Repetition Drill

(Students repeat teacher's model as quickly and accurately as possible)

• Chain Drill

(Students ask and answer each other one-by-one in a circular chain around the classroom)

• Single Slot Substitution Drill

(Teacher states a line from the dialog, then uses a word or a phrase as a "cue" that students, when repeating the line, must substitute into the sentence in the correct place)

• Multiple-slot Substitution Drill

(Same as the Single Slot drill, except that there are multiple cues to be substituted into the line)

• Transformation Drill

(Teacher provides a sentence that must be turned into something else, for example a question to be turned into a statement, an active sentence to be turned into a negative statement, etc)

• Question-and-answer Drill

(Students should answer or ask questions very quickly)

• Use of Minimal Pairs

• (Using contrastive analysis, teacher selects a pair of words that sound identical except for a single sound that typically poses difficulty for the learners - students are to pronounce and differentiate the two words)

• Complete the Dialog

(Selected words are erased from a line in the dialog - students must find and insert)

• Grammar Games

(Various games designed to practice a grammar point in context, using lots of repetition)