Diane Larsen-Freeman

46 The Audio-Lingual Method
conrcxrualized in the dialogs or presented by the teacher. Stude nts'
reading an d written work is based upon the oral wo rk they did
earlier.
4 What is the nature of student- teacher interaction? What is the nature
of student-student interactio n?
Th ere is stu dent- to-s tude nt interaction in cha in drills or when st ude nts
take different ro les in dialogs, but this inte raction is teac her-directed.
Most of the interaction is between teacher and students and is init iated
by the teacher.
5 How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
T here arc no pr inciples of the metho d that relate to this area.
6 How is the langu age viewed? How is the culture viewed?
The view of language in the Audio-Ling ual Method has been influenccd
by descriptive linguists. Every language is seen as having its own
unique system. Th e system is comprised o f several different levels:
phonological, morphological, and syntactic. Each level has its own distinctive
patterns.
Everyday speech is emphasized in the Audio-lingual Method .
T he level ofcomplexity of the speech is graded, how ever, so that beginning
students are presented with only simple patte rns. Cu lture consists
of the everyday behavior and lifestyle of the target language speakers.
7 What areas of language are emphasized? What Language skills are
emphasized?
Voca bulary is kept to a minimu m while the students arc mastering the
sound system and gra mmatica l patterns. A grammatical pattern is not
the same as a sentence. For instance, underlying the following three
sente nces is the same gramma tical pattern: Meg called, 'l1) C Blue jays
umn, Th e team practiced.
Th e natural order of skills presentation is adhered to: listening,
spea king. readi ng, and wr iting. T he or al/aural skills receive most of the
attention . Wha t studen ts wr ite they have first been introduced to
orally, Pron unciation is ta ught fro m the beginning , often by stude nts
working in language la borato ries on discriminating between mem bers
of minimal pairs.
8 What is the role of the students' native language?
The Audio-Lingual Method 47
T he ha bits of the students' native language are thought to interfere
wit h the students' attempts to master the ta rget language. Therefore,
the target language is used in the classroom, not the students' native
language. A contrastive analysis between the students' native language
and the ta rget language will revea l where a teacher should
ex pect the most interference.
9 How is evaluation accomplished ?
The answer to this question is not obvious because we did nor actually
observe the student s in this class taking a formal test. If we had, we
would have seen that it was discrete-point in nature, tha t is, each question
on the test wou ld focus on only one point of the language at a time.
Students might be asked to distinguish betw een words in a min ima l
pair, for example, or to supp ly an appropriate verb form in a sentence.
10 How does the teacher respond to student errors?
Student errors are to be avoided if at all poss ible throu gh the teacher's
awareness of where the students will have difficulty and restriction of
wha t they are taught to say.
REV IEWING THE TECH NIQUES
If you agree with the above answers, you may wish to implement the following
techniques; ofco urse, even if you do nor agree, there may be techniques
described below that you are already using or ca n adapt to your approach .
Dialog memorization
Dialogs or short con versations between two people are oft en used to
begin a new.."lesson. Students memorize the dialo g through mimicry; students
usually tak e the ro le ofone person in the dia log, and the teacher the
ot her. After the st ude nts ha ve learned the one person 's lines, they switch
roles an d memorize the othe r person's parr. 1\uor her wa y of pra cticing the
two ro les is for half of the class to tak e one role and the ot her half co tak e
the other. After tilt' dialog has been memorized, pa irs of individual students
might perform th e dial og for the rest of the class.
In the Audio-Lingual M ethod, certai n sente nce patterns and gra mmar
points arc included within the dialog. These patterns and points are later
pract iced in drills based on the lines of the dia log.