Diane Larsen-Freeman

44 The Andio-lingnal tvietbod
Observations
12 The teacher provides the
students with cues; she calls on
individuals; she smiles
cncouragcrncnr: she holds up
pictures one after another.
13 New vocubulury is introduced
thro ugh lines of the dialog;
voca bulary is limited.
14 Students are given no grammar
rules; grammatical points arc
ta ught t hroug h examples and
dr ills.
15 The teacher docs a cont rastive
analysis of the ta rget language
an d the students' nati ve
language in order to locate the
places where she ant icipates
her students will have trouhle.
16 The teacher wr ites the dialog
on the blackboard to ward the
end of the week. The students
do some limited wrin en work
with the dialog and the
sentence dr ills.
Principles
T he teacher should be like an
orchest ra lead cr-c-conducring,
guiding, and controlling the
students' behavior in the target
language.
The ma jor objective of langua ge
reaching should be for students to
acqu ire the structura l pattern s;
students willlearn vocabular y
afte rward.
Th e learning of a foreign language
shoul d be rhe same as the
acquisition of the native language.
We do not need to memorize rules
in order to use ou r native
language. The rules necessary to
lise the target language will be
figured out or indu ced from
exa mp les.
The ma jor challenge of foreign
language reach ing is getting
students to overcome the habi ts
of their native language. A
comparison between th e nativ e
and target language will tell the
teacher in what areas her students
will probab ly experience
difficulty.
Speech is more basic to language
than the written fonn . The
'uarural or der'- the order child ren
follov..· when learning their native
language- of skill acquisition is:
listening, spea king, read ing. and
writing.
Observations
17 The supe rma rket alphabet
game and a discussion of
Amer ican supermar kets and
football arc includ ed .
REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
The Audio-Ungual Method 45
Principles
Language cannot he sepa rated
from culture. Culture is not onl y
lirerarure and the arts, hut also the
everyda y behavior of the people
who usc the target language. On e
of the teac her's respo nsibilities is
to present inform ation about t hat
culture.
At this point we should turn to the ten questions we have answered for
each method we have considered so far,
1 What are the goals of teachers who use the Audio-Lingual Method?
Teachers want their stu dents to he able to use the ta rget language
communicatively, In order to do this, they believe students need to
overlearn the target language, to learn to usc it automatically witho ut
sto pping to think , Their students achie ve this hy forming new habits
in the target language and overcomin g the old habits of their native
language.
2 What is the rote of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
T he teacher is like an orchestra leader, directing and con trolling the
language behavio r of her srudenrs. She is also responsible for providing
her srudcnts wit h a good mod el for imitation. Students arc imitato rs of
the teacher's mod el or (he tapes she supplies of model spea kers. They
follow the reacher's direction s and respond as accurately and as rapid ly
as possible.
3 What are some characteristics of the teaching/ learning process?
New vocab ulary ;1I1d structura l pattern s arc presented th rough
dialogs. The dia logs arc learn ed thro ugh imitati on and repetition.
Drills (such as repetition, backward build-up. chain, substitution,
rrunsformarion, and question-and-answer) art' conducted based upon
the patterns present in the dialog. Students' successful responses arc
positively reinforced. Gra mmar is induced from the exa mples given;
exp licit gra mmar rules are not provided. Cultural information is