Diane Larsen-Freeman

42 Th e Audio-lingnai Method The Audio-Lit/glial Method 43
the other students before him. If the student has difficult y think ing of
an item, the ot her students or the teacher helps.
8 A presentat ion by the teacher on supermarkets in the United States follows
the game. The teacher tr ies very hard to get meaning across in
English. The teacher answers the student's questions about the differences
between supermnrkers in the United States and ope n-air mar kets
in Mali. They also discuss briefly the differences between American
and Malian foot ball. The students seem very interested in the discussion.
The teacher pro mises to con tinue the discussion of popular
American sports next week.
THINKI NG ABOUT THE EXPER I ENCE
Although it is true that this was a very brief experi ence with the Audio­
Lingual Method, let's sec if we can make some observations about the
behavior of the teacher and the techniques she used. From these we shou ld
he able to figure out the principles underlying the method. We willmake our
ob servation s in order, following the lesson plan of the class we observed.
Observations
The teacher introduces a new
dialog.
2 The language teacher uses only
the ta rget language in the
classroom. Actions, pictu res, or
realia are used to give mean ing:
otherwise.
3 Th e language reacher introduces
the dialog by modelin g it
two times; she introduces the
drills by modeling the correct
answers; at other times, she
corrects mispronunciation by
modeling the proper sounds ill
the target language.
Principles
Language forms do not occur by
them selves; they occur most
naturally within a context.
The nat ive language and the target
language have separate linguistic
svsrcms. Thev shou ld be kept
apart so that 'the student s' nati ve
language interferes as little as
possible with the students' attempts
TO acquire the target language.
One of the language teacher's
ma jor roles is thnr of u mode l of
(he tar get language. Teachers
should prov ide students with a
good model. By listening to how it
is supposed to sound, students
should be able ro mimic the model.
Observations
4 The students repeat each line
o f the new dialog several
times.
5 The stude nts stumble over one
of the lines of the dialog, The
teacher uses a backward buildup
drill with this line.
6 Th e teacher initiates a chain
drill in which each student
greets anot her.
7 The teacher uses single-slot
and mult iple-slot substitution
drills.
8 The teacher says, 'Very good,'
when the students answer
correctly.
9 The reacher uses spoke n cues
and picture cues"
Io The teacher conducts
transformation and questionand-answer
drills.
11 When the student s can handl e
it, (he reacher poses the
question s to them rapidly.
Principles
Langua ge learning is a process of
hab it formation. The mo re often
something is repeated. the stronger
the habit and the greater the
learning.
It is impo rtant to prevent learners
from mak ing er rors. Errors lead to
the formation of bad habits. When
errors do occur, they should be immediately
corrected by the teacher.
Th e purpose of language learning
is to learn how to use the language
to commun icate.
Part icular par ts of speech occupy
part icular 'slots' in sentences. In
ord er to create new sentences.
students must learn which pa rt of
speech occup ies which slot.
Positive reinforcement helps the
students 10 develop cor rect habits.
Students should learn to respond
to hoth verba l and nonverbal
stimuli.
Each langu age has a fi nite num ber
of patterns. Patte rn practice helps
students to form habits which
enable the students to usc the
patterns.
Students should 'ove rlearn: i.e.
learn to answer automatically
without sto pping to think.