Diane Larsen-Freeman

36 The Audio-Lingual Method The Audio-Lingual Metho d 37
Two peopl e arc walki ng along a sidewalk in town. T hey kno w eac h
ocher, and as they meet, they sto p to ta lk. One of them is named Sally and
the other on e is nam ed BilLI will ralk for Sally and for Bill. Listen to their
conversation:
SAL LY
II I J. t.
S A I.LY
BIL L
SALLY
RJ L L
SA J. LY
BILL
Listen one more time. This time try to understand all that I am saying.'
Now she has the whole class repear each of the lines of the dialog after
her model. They repeat eac h line severa l times before moving on to the
next line. Wh en the class com es to the line, 'I'm going to the post office,'
th ey st umb le a bit in their repet ition. Th e teac her, at thi s point, sto ps the
repet itio n a nd uses a backwa rd build -up dr ill (expansion dri ll). Th e pu r­
pose of this dri ll is to break dow n the troublesom e sentence into sma ller
parts . Th e reacher sta rts wit h the end of the sentence and has the class
rep eat just the last two words. Since they can do this, the teacher adds a
few more word s, and the cla ss repeats this expan ded phrase. Litt le by little
the teacher builds up the phrases until the en tire sentence is being
repeated.
TEACHER
C LAS S
TEACHER
CI.ASS
T E AC IJ EH
C I.A S s
T E A C II E R
C l.ASS
Good morning, Hill.
Good morning, Sally.
How are you ?
Fine, thanks. And you?
Pine. Where arc you going?
I'm going to the post office.
I am too. Shall we go together?
Sure. Let's go.
Repeat after me: post office.
Post office.
To the post office.
To the posroffice.
Going to the post office.
Going to the pos t office.
I'm going to the post office.
I'm go ing to the post office.
T hrou gh this step -by-ste p proced ure, rhe teac her is a ble to give rhc stu ­
dents help in pro duc ing the troublesome line. I laving wo rked on the line
in small pieces, rbe students arc also ab le to ta ke note of wh ere eac h word
or phrase begins and ends ill the sentence.
After the stude nts have repeated the dialog sever al times, the teacher
gives them a cha nce to ad opt the role of Bill wh ile she says Sally's lines.
Before the class act ua lly say s each line, the teacher mo dels it. ln effect; the
class is experiencing a repetition drill wh ere the task is to listen ca rcful!v
an d attempt to mimic the teacher's model as accu rately as pos sible. '
Next the class and the teacher switc h ro les in order to practice a little
more, the teacher saying Bill's lines and the class saying Sally's. Th en the
reacher divides the class in half so that each ha lf gets to try to say on their
own either Bi ll's or Sally's lines. T he teac her stops the st udents from time
to time when she feels they arc straying too fa r from the model, an d once
again provides a model, which she has them atte mpt to co py. To fur ther
practice the lines of this dialo g, the reacher has all the boys in the class
take Bi11's part and all the girls take Sally's.
She then initiates a chain drill with four of the lines from the dia log. A
chain drill gives students an opportunity to say the lines individually. The
teacher listens and can tell which students arc srruggling and will need
more practice. A chain drill also lets students use the expressions in communication
with someone else, even t hou gh the communication is very
limi ted . T he teacher addresses the st udent nearest her wit h, 'G ood morning,
jose.' He, in turn , responds, 'Good morning, teacher.' She says, 'How
are you ?' Jose answers , ' Fine, thanks. And you?' Th e reacher replies,
' Fine.' He understand s throu gh the reacher's gestures thar he is to turn to
the st udent sit ting beside him and greet her. Th at student, in rum , says her
lines in reply to him. Wh en she has finished, she greets the st udent 0 11 the
other side of her. This chain cont inues unti l all of the st udents have ,1
chance to ask and ans we r the qu estions. T he last stude nt directs the greeting
to the teacher.
finally, the teacher selects two st udents to perform the entire dialog for
the rest of the class. When they arc finished, two others do the same. Nor
everyone has a chance to say the dialog in a pair today, but perhaps they
will some time this week.
Th e teacher moves next to the second major phase of the lesson. She
con tin ues to drill the students with language from the dialog, but these
drills requ ire more than simple repe tit ion. The first drill the reacher lead s
is a single-slot subsr iturion dr ill in wh ich the students will repeat a sentence
from the dialog an d replace a word Ot phrase in the scnrence wit h
the word or ph rase the teacher gives them. Thi s word or phrase is called
the cue.
T he teac her begins by reciting a line from the dialog, ' I am go ing to the
posr office.' Followi ng this she shows the students a picture of a bank and
says the ph rase, 'The bank. ' She pau ses, then says, ' I am going to the bank.'
From her exa mple the stude nts real ize that they are supposed to take
the cue phrase ('the bank') , wh ich the teacher supp lies, and put it into its
proper place in the sentence.