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The Audiolingual Method (1950’s)

Outbreak of the World War II:

–Heightened the need to become orally proficient.

–“The Army Method” (an oral-based approach to language learning).

Influenced by structuralism and behaviourism

Identify the grammatical structures and the basic sentence patterns.

Practice these patterns by systematic attention to pronunciation and intensive oral drilling.

New material is presented in dialogue form.

There is dependency on mimicry, memorization of set phrases, and overlearning.

By constant repetition the learner develops habits. Language learning is seen as acquiring a set of appropriate mechanical habits; errors are not accepted because the lead to the development of bad habits.

The role of the teacher is to develop good language habits.

Other Characteristics

There is little or no grammatical explanation. Grammar is taught inductively.

Great importance is attached to pronunciation.

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

Successful responses are reinforced.

There is great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances.

TYPICAL AUDIOLINGUAL

ACTIVITIES

Dialog memorization.

Repetition drill: Students repeat the teacher’s model as accurately and as quickly as possible to learn the lines of the dialog.

Transformation drill: The teacher gives students a certain kind of sentence pattern. Students are asked to transform a sentence into a negative sentence.

Question-and-answer drill: This drill gives students practice with answering questions.

Complete the dialog: Selected words are erased from a dialog. Students complete the dialog by filling the blanks with the missing words.

CRISTIAN CAMILO REYES GALEANO

TEACHING METHODOLOGY