Universidad Central del Ecuador Description of Audio Lingual Method

1. ESTHELA ROBALINO
FERNANDA JIMENEZ
SARA TAPIA

2. What is Method?
Method:
 It is an established, habitual, logical, prescribed practice or systematic process of
achieving certain goals with accuracy and efficiency, usually in an ordered sequence
of fixed steps.
 It is a careful or organized plan that controls the way something is done.

3. • Due to the World War II soldiers needed to become orally proficient
in the languages of their allies and enemies as quickly as possible.
• This teaching technique was initially called the Army Method, and
was the first to be based on linguistic theory and behavioral
psychology.
When did this method start?

4. • It is based on Skinner’s Behaviorism theory, which says that a human
being can be trained using a system of reinforcement.
• This approach to learning is similar to the Direct Method, in that the
lesson takes place entirely in the target language.
• These patterns are occasioned, repeated and tested until the responses
given by the student in the foreign language are automatic.
The context is important

6. The Audio-lingual Method was widely used in the 1950s and 1960s, and the emphasis
was not on the understanding of words, but rather on the acquisition of structures and
patterns in common everyday dialogue.

7. • Drills are used to teach structural patterns
• Set phrases are memorized with a focus on intonation
• Grammatical explanations are kept to a minimum
• Vocabulary is taught in context
• Audio-visual aids are used
• Focus is on pronunciation
• Correct responses are positively reinforced immediately
Some characteristics of this method are:

8. Modern Usage
• The Audio-lingual Method is still in use today, though normally as a
part of individual lessons rather than as the foundation of the course.
These types of lessons can be popular as they are relatively simple,
from the teacher’s point of view, and the learner always knows what
to expect.

9. Examples:
• Inflection: Teacher: I ate the sandwich.
Student: I ate the sandwiches.
• Replacement: Teacher: He bought the car for half-price.
Student: He bought it for half-price.
• Restatement: Teacher: Tell me not to smoke so often.
Student: Don't smoke so often!

10. Developments & Problems
• This extensive memorization, repetition and over-learning of patterns was the key to the
method’s success, as students could often see immediate results, but it was also its weakness.
• The method’s insistence on repetition and memorization of standard phrases ignored the role of
context and knowledge in language learning.
• As the study of linguistics developed, it was discovered that language was not acquired through a
process of habit formation, and that errors were not necessarily bad.
• It was also claimed that the methodology did not deliver an improvement in communicative
ability that lasted over the long term.

11. Why the audio-lingual method failed?
• Philip Smith's study from 1965-1969, termed the Pennsylvania Project, provided significant proof
that audio-lingual methods were less effective than a more traditional cognitive approach
involving the learner's first language.

12. CONCLUSION
• To make the students able to use the target language
communicatively and automatically without stopping to think.
• To help the students get structural sentence patterns or language.

13. Bibliography:
• Oxford Dicctionary
• When – 1950 to 1970, some sporadic or selective use today
• Focus – Sentence and sound patterns
• Characteristics – Listening and speaking drills and pattern practice
only in English
• Supporters – B.F. Skinner
• Research in http://blog.tjtaylor.net/method-audio-lingual/