Audio-Lingual Method

Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching

Oral-based approach

rather than emphasizing vocabulary acquisition through exposure to its use in situations, the
Audio-Lingual Method drills students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns
has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology
It was thought that the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the target language was through
conditioning— helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and
reinforcement, so that the learners could overcome the habits of their native language and form
the new habits required to be target language speakers

CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE
T reads dialogue
All the instructions are in English
2 readings
3rd reading – students repeat each line
backward build-up - drill (expansion drill) – breaking down the troublesome sentence into
smaller parts starting from the end of the sentence
then the whole class say Bill’s lines, after that they switch roles (the class says Sally's lines)
then the class is divided into 2 groups (T stops them if she feels that they are straying too far
from the model
then all the boys take Bill’s role and all the girls read Sally’s lines
chain drill – every student gets chance to use the expressions in communication with others (each
student talks to student next to them, until all of them finish)
Then two students perform the entire dialogue, and other two (not all of them)
2nd major phase of the lesson
single-slot substitution drill – replacing one word or a phrase from a sentence with the one T
gives them (it is called cue)
(each cue is accompanied by the picture – the bank, the drugstore, the park etc.)
The similar procedure with subject pronouns (How are you?/How is he/she?/How are they? –
pointing to a boy, a girl, or more of them)
multiple-slot substitution drill - students must recognize what
part of speech the cue word is and where it fits into the sentence (cue: she)
transformation drill - This type of drill asks
students to change one type of sentence into another—an affirmative sentence into a
negative or an active sentence into a passive, for example
question and-answer drill
using pictures, asks questions and answers
asking ‘wrong questions’ (require negative answers)
The students have learned the lines of the dialogue and to respond without hesitation to her cues
in the drill pattern
In the next class teacher will:
Review the dialogue
Expand it with new lines
Introduce new vocabulary
Work on the difference between mass and count nouns (no grammar rule is given to students –
INDUCTIVE)
Pronunciation
Students make the dialogue
Supermarket alphabet game
Discussions about differences in the USA and Mali

OBSERVATIONS AND PRINCIPLES – from the book

TECHNIQUES
Dialogue Memorization
Backward Build-up (Expansion) Drill
Repetition Drill
Chain Drill
Single-slot Substitution Drill
Multiple-slot Substitution Drill
Transformation Drill
Question-and-answer Drill
Use of Minimal Pairs
Complete the Dialogue
Grammar Game