THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD (ALM)

GROUP 3

NAME STUDENT ID

Dương Ngọc Hoa 46.01.701.041

Vương Thị Minh Diệu 46.01.701.022

Nguyễn Trần Lâm Hưng 46.01.701.045

Vũ Ngọc Lưu Ảnh 46.01.701.011

1. When & Why did the ALM come into being?

The Audio-Lingual Method is an oral-based method that was researched by

Charles Fries of the University of Michigan in 1945 so it has sometimes been referred
to as the 'Michigan Method.'

The Grammar-Translation Method had been used to teach for thousands of

years. However, it took too much time for learners to be able to speak the target
language.

=> The Audio-Lingual method addressed a need for people to learn foreign
languages rapidly. From 1947 to 1967, the Audio-Lingual approach was the dominant
foreign language teaching method in the United States.

2. State its basic approach.

The basic approach of this method is to consider language learning as a process

of habit formation. It emphasizes 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). In other words, ALM requires students to repeat
sentences constructed by the teacher while the teacher is in complete control of student
learning. Hence, one of the key principles of the Audio-Lingual method is that the
language teacher should provide students with a native-speaker-like model.

● New vocabulary and structural patterns are presented through dialogues. The
dialogues are learned through drills (repetition, substitution backward build-up,
chain, transformation, and question-and-answer).

● Grammar is induced from the given examples without providing any explicit
grammar rules.

● Cultural information is contextualized in the dialogues or presented by the

teacher.

The habits of the student's native language are thought to interfere with the
students' attempts to master the target language. Therefore, the target language is used
in the classroom, not the students' native language.

=> Learners could overcome the habits of their native language and form the
new habits required to be target language speakers.

3. What is the ALM’s point of view in developing learners’ fundamental

communicative skills?

The purpose of language learning is to learn how to use the language to

communicate.

4. Are there any underlying theories of the ALM?

The underlying theories of this method come from the study of structural
linguistics and later the principles of behavioural psychology (Skinner 1957).

5. Read the experience, then answer the questions:

a. What kind of materials was used in this class? Why?

Pictures were used in this class. Because the teacher wanted her students to
immediately understand things she wanted them to talk about, without uttering the
students’ native language (L1).
 For example: After saying “I’m going to the post-office” and then showing a
picture of a bank, she said “I’m going to the bank”. By this way, the students could
infer what they have to mention if they see a similar picture.

b. What is the role of L1?

There’s no role of L1 in ALM.

c. What did the teacher do at the beginning of the class?

The teacher introduced a new dialogue.

d. Do you have any comments on the dialogue used in this class?

The dialogue used in this class is very basic and easy for students to remember
as well as follow.

e. Identify the grammatical structure used to teach students.

The grammatical structure used to teach students is: “I’m going to the post
office”.

f. How many drills were employed? What are they? How did the teacher
conduct these drills? Why were they used?

- There are 7 drills:

How What are How did the teacher conduct these Why were
many they? drills? they used?
drills
were
employed
?

1 Backward The teacher starts with the end of the Because when
Build-up sentence and has the class repeat just the the class
(Expansion) last two words. Since they can do this, comes to the
Drill the teacher adds a few more words, and line, ‘I’m
 the class repeats this expanded phrase. going to the
Little by little the teacher builds up the post office,’
phrases until the entire sentence is being they stumble a
repeated. bit in their
repetition.

2 Repetition After the students have repeated the Because the

Drill dialogue several times, the teacher gives teacher wants
them a chance to adopt the role of Bill the students to
while she says Sally’s lines. Before the remember
class actually says each line, the teacher these lines
models it. At the same time, the and get used
students have to listen carefully and to them.
attempt to mimic the teacher’s model as
accurately as possible.

3 Chain Drill The teacher addresses the student A chain drill

nearest her with, ‘Good morning, gives students
Adama.’ He, in turn, responds, ‘Good an opportunity
morning, teacher.’ She says, ‘How are to say the
you?’ Adama answers, ‘Fine, thanks. lines
And you?’ The teacher replies, ‘Fine.’ individually.
He understands through the teacher’s The teacher
gestures that he is to turn to the student listens and
sitting beside him and greet her. That can tell which
student, in turn, says her lines in reply students are
to him. When she has finished, she struggling and
greets the student on the other side of will need
her. more practice.
A chain drill
 also lets
students use
the
expressions in
communicatio
n with
someone else,
even though
the
communicatio
n is very
limited.

4 Single-slot The teacher begins by reciting a line This drill

Substitution from the dialogue, ‘I am going to the gives the
Drill post office.’ Following this she shows students
the students a picture of a bank and says practice in
the phrase, ‘the bank.’ She pauses, then finding and
says, ‘I am going to the bank.’ filling in the

From her example the students realize slots of a

that they are supposed to take the cue sentence.

phrase (‘the bank’), which the teacher

supplies, and put it into its proper place
in the sentence.

Now she gives them their first cue

phrase, ‘the drugstore.’ Together the
students respond, ‘I am going to the
drugstore.’ The teacher smiles. ‘Very
good!’ she exclaims. The teacher cues,
‘the park.’ The students chorus, ‘I am
 going to the park.’

5 Multiple-slot The teacher in this class starts off by Because the

Substitution having the students repeat the original teacher wants
Drill sentence from the dialogue, ‘I am going her students to
to the post office.’ Then she gives them be able to
the cue ‘she.’ The students understand make a right
and produce, ‘She is going to the post decision
office.’ The next cue the teacher offers concerning
is ‘to the park.’ The students hesitate at where the cue
first; then they respond by correctly word or
producing, ‘She is going to the park.’ phrase
She continues in this manner, belongs in a
sometimes providing a subject pronoun, sentence..
other times naming a location.

6 Transformati The teacher offers an example, ‘I say, Because this

on Drill “She is going to the post office.” You helps students
make a question by saying, “Is she to change a
going to the post office?” ‘ . statement into

The teacher models two more examples a yes/no

of this transformation, then asks, ‘Does question.

everyone understand? OK, let’s begin:

“They are going to the bank.” ‘ The
class replies in turn, ‘Are they going to
the bank?’.

7 Question- The teacher holds up one of the pictures Because this

and-answer she used earlier, the picture of a helps students
Drill football field, and asks the class, ‘Are practice with
 you going to the football field?’ She the question
answers her own question, ‘Yes, I’m pattern.
going to the football field.’ She poses
the next question while holding up a
picture of a park, ‘Are you going to the
park?’ And again answers herself, ‘Yes,
I’m going to the park.’ She holds up a
third picture, the one of a library. She
poses a question to the class, ‘Are you
going to the library?’ They respond
together, ‘Yes, I am going to the
library.’

‘Very good,’ the teacher says. Through

her actions and examples, the students
have learned that they are to answer the
questions following the pattern she has
modeled. The teacher drills them with
this pattern for the next few minutes.
Since the students can handle it, she
poses the question to selected
individuals rapidly, one after another.
The students are expected to respond
very quickly, without pausing.

g. Watch the clip and list the key structure and drills the teacher used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz0TPDUz3FU&t=100s

- The key structure: (the highlighted part)

+ Good morning.
 + Good morning madam. Would you like to have the cleanest house
in town?

+ Yes, of course I would.

+ Then, madam. You’ll need the amazing Hoover vacuum cleaner.

+ No, I don’t.

+ What? Why not?

+ Because my husband does the cleaning in our house.

+ Oh.

- The drills the teacher used:

+ Dialogue Memorization

+ Repetition Drill

+ Backward Build-up (Expansion) Drill

+ Chain Drill

+ Single-slot Substitution Drill

+ Question-and-answer Drill

6. Why is it true that learners taught with the ALM are well-trained
parrots? What techniques are used to achieve this purpose?

- The reason is that ALM enables students to repeat exactly what teachers
say and this leads to the consequence that students may not understand
the knowledge. So the students hardly use this knowledge and can
remember what teachers said.

- Techniques are used to achieve this purpose:

Dialog 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 dialog

Grammar game

7. Discuss why Vietnamese learners are afraid of making errors in the

classroom and consequently become reluctant in classroom participation.

Supposing a student, when speaking in front of the whole class with many
classmates staring at him, or when talking with someone better at English than him,
especially the native speakers, he surely fears being harshly judged or made fun of if
he commits (silly) mistakes in pronunciation, word use or grammar. This case happens
to almost everyone trying to learn a new language at some point, particularly the
beginners with higher chances of making errors.

From there, it’s often a downwards spiral: they can start feeling insecure and
their speech becomes more unclear and grammatically incorrect. In situations like this,
a lot of people consequently avoid speaking or even give up their studies, because they
falsely think that they will never be able to improve the skill or have surpassed the
years when they could still successfully learn a language.

8. Point out some similarities and differences between the DM and the
ALM.

DM ALM

Similarities oral-based approach:

- Although work on all four skills is covered, oral

communication on common, everyday speech is
 seen as basic and receives most of the attention.

- Thus the reading and writing exercises are based

upon what the students practice orally first.

- Pronunciation also receives attention right from

the beginning of a course.

The target language is used in the classroom, not the

students' native language.

There are student-to-student, teacher-student

interactions.

Culture is part of the language acquisition.

makes considerable demands on the teacher:

- near native pronunciation

- The teacher should be fluent in L2 because

he/she has to try very hard to get meaning across
in English and visual aids.

There are no principles of the method which relate to

how the feelings of the students are dealt with.

The method is appropriate for developing the skill of

listening and speaking in very young children who
love and have great ability to mimic.

Differences emphasizes vocabulary drills students in the use

acquisition through of grammatical sentence
 exposure to its use in patterns
situations

→ the order of the → the order of the

learning process: learning process:
meaning of words > grammatical patterns >
grammar vocabulary

Students are more passive Students learn in a

because they are given the mechanical way and may
chance to speak, read and become well-trained
ask questions by parrots.
themselves.

The method provides The technique of

interesting and exciting memorization and drilling
ways of learning English may be intensely tedious
through activities. and boring.

The teacher tries to get The teacher corrects

students to self-correct. students’
whenever possible. mispronunciation by
modeling the proper
sounds in the target
language.

9. What are minimal pairs? What is their use in the ALM? Work out 5 pairs for
a consonant sound.
 In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular
language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a
phoneme, toneme or chroneme, and have distinct meanings. They are used to
demonstrate that two phones are two separate phonemes in the language.

They are used in experience of the ALM class as follows:

A contrastive analysis (the comparison of two languages, in this case, the

students' native language and the target language, English) has led the teacher to
expect that the students will have special trouble with the pronunciation of words such
as 'little,' which contain /ɪ/. The students do indeed say the word as if it contained
/iː/. As a result, the teacher works on the contrast between /iː/ and /ɪ/ several times
during the week. She uses minimal-pair words, such as 'sheep,' 'ship'; 'leave,' 'live';
and 'he's,' 'his' to get her students first to hear the difference in pronunciation between
the words in each pair. Then, when she feels they are ready, she drills them in saying
the two sounds—first by themselves, and later in words, phrases, and sentences.

5 pairs for a consonant sound:

- rot - lot: help students discriminate between /r/ and /l/

- zip - gyp: help students discriminate between /z/ and /dʒ/

- save - safe: help students discriminate between /v/ and /f/

- bye - pie: help students discriminate between /b/ and /p/

- though - toe: help students discriminate between /ð/ and /t/

10. What techniques of the ALM do you like to use in your future teaching
situations? Why?

Chain drill

How it works: A chain drill gets its name from the chain of conversation that
forms around the room as students, one-by-one, ask and answer questions of each
other. The teacher begins the chain by greeting a particular student, or asking him a
question. That student responds, then turns to the student sitting next to him. The first
student greets or asks a question of the second student and the chain continues.
 Benefits of this technique: A chain drill allows some controlled communication,
even though it is limited. A chain drill also gives the teacher an opportunity to check
each student's speech. Every student has a chance to speak with both roles in a
dialogue. They practice communicating in complete grammatical patterns of a certain
context, which facilitates the understanding and use of these sentence structures and
vocabulary.

Transformation drill

How it works: The teacher gives students a certain kind of sentence pattern, an
affirmative sentence for example. Students are asked to transform this sentence into a
negative sentence. Other examples of transformations to ask of students are changing
a statement into a question, an active sentence into a passive one, or direct speech into
reported speech.

Benefits of this technique: Students are able to construct different types of

sentence structures based on an original one. They learn various grammatical sentence
patterns all at once and can interchange one another naturally, flexibly and quickly
without pause to think of each rule.

Use of minimal pairs

How it works: The teacher works with pairs of words which differ in only one
sound; for example, 'ship/sheep.' Students are first asked to perceive the difference
between the two words and later to be able to say the two words. The teacher selects
the sounds to work on after she has done a contrastive analysis, a comparison between
the students' native language and the language they are studying,

Benefits of this technique: Minimal pairs drill hopefully can help students in
differentiating and pronouncing words that have similar sound and practicing their
accuracy and fluency in reading aloud as well as oral ability. Minimal pairs drill is
considered to help students overcome their difficulty in pronunciation of English
sounds.