University Center of Si El Haoues

Barika Institute of Foreign Languages

Department of English

Module: Didactics
Level: 3rd year
Instructors: Boulahia Shahrazed & Chaima Guezzi

25 April 2022

The Audio Lingual Method

Background History:

The emergence of the audio lingual method, was caused by two phases in history, that will be
explained in the following:

First Phase:

World war two had a significant impact on language teaching in America, it was necessary
to set up a special learning program, so that the Americans would not be isolated from
scientific advances, the US government was also in need of personnel who were fluent in
different languages, such as German, French, Italian, Chinese and other languages, who could
work as translators, interpreters and code room assistants. Therefore, the government
commissioned different universities all over the United States to develop foreign language
programs for military personnel, this has led to the emergence of the Army Specialized
Training Program (ASTP), also known as the “informant method” a technique created by
Leonard Bloomfield, which involved a native speaker “the informant” who was a source of
vocabulary and would produce sentences for imitation, and a linguist who wasn’t necessarily
fluent in the language but could monitor and observe the basic grammatical structure, the
student and the linguist would both participate in the learning process. This method was
created and established in 1942 and officially adopted by universities by the beginning of
1943, to create new approaches of language learning that were not existent in the US at the
time.
Second Phase:

By the end of the 1950s, an increased attention was showed towards foreign language
teaching in universities and educational institutions. Therefore, linguists came forward to
develop a new method of language teaching. This time, this need for change was established
depending on the needs of American colleges and universities, rather than the Army program.
While this method was modeled by (ASTP), the Structural Linguistics and the Behaviorist
Theory. This trio of approaches led Charles Fries, who is the director of the English
language institute at the university of Michigan, to develop the Audio-lingual Method, which
was widely adopted for teaching foreign languages in North American colleges and
universities.

Theory of language: The characteristics of language of ALM are identical to structuralism,

since it is the base theory which underlies it :

1. The speech form tends to be more basic than the written form.
2. The form and the structure of language are more significant than meaning.
3. Elements in a language are produced in a rule-governed (structural) way.
4. Language is structural like a pyramid, the linguistic level is a system within a
system.
5. Language is primarily what is spoken and only secondarily what is written.

Principal of the (ALM)

1. In this theory, language learning is a mechanical process of habit formation and

reinforcement. Language is taught hrough imitating dialogues and preforming
different drills, this process reduces the production of mistakes and breakdowns,
however, when a mistake occurs, it’s immediately corrected by teachers and correct
responses are rewarded.
2. Language is taught using the target language rather than L1 , the target
language(English) is used as the medium of instruction.
3. Language is learned within its cultural context, since the objective of this method is to
achieve fluency like native speakers, learning it involves learning aspects of its culture
as well.
4. The grammar is not provided directly, it’s usually extracted from dialogues and other
tasks. rather then the teacher stating grammar rules in a deductive manner, grammar is
learned in an inductive style.

The role of the teacher in ALM:

This method is a teacher dominated method, the teacher is the leader and director of the
course, he is the center of attention in the classroom and he is responsible for controlling the
direction and pace of learning, correcting errors and providing a variety of tasks and activities.
According to Brooks teachers should be able to do the following:

- Control and harmonize the learning of the four skills in this order( listening, speaking,
reading and writing)
- Decide when to use and not use L1 in the classroom
- Teach the spoken language in the form of dialogues
- Guide learners in memorizing vocabulary
- Get learners to participate in activities
- Reward correct utterances as a way of positive reinforcement
- Teach literary forms such as short stories
- Teach the language within its cultural context
The role of learners in ALM:

Learners are merely imitators in this method, they follow the guidance of teachers until they
achieve correct responses. Learners don’t have control over the content or the style of learning
and learner to learner interaction is not encouraged, the attention must be put on the teacher
and what is he saying.

Classroom activities in ALM: Dialogues and drills are the basic activities used in this
method.

Dialogues: they provide a realistic and concrete version of the language, through repeating
and memorizing the dialogues, students learn to use the target language automatically. this
method of repeating creates a habit of using language easily and more comfortably.

Drills: drills are the feature that makes this method unique and different than the others, there
are many types of drills such as:

- Repetition drill
- Backward Build-up
- Question and answer drill
- Substitution drill
- Chain drill

Criticism:

1- This is a teacher centered method. The ALM makes considerable demands upon the
teacher.
2- The basic steps of imitation, repetition, and reinforcement turns student into “parrots”
who can produce many good utterances but can never create anything new.
3- Students lacked an active role in the classroom.
4- Very little attention is paid to communication and content.