The Audiolingual

Method
 Origins
Army method
World war
the Army Specialized Training
entry of the United States into
Program (ASTP) was established in 1942.
World War II had a significant
55 US universities were involved in
effect on language teaching
the program by the beginning of 1943.

Need ASTP Objective New challenge

To supply the US government with
personnel who were fluent. Since communication was not the goal
To attain conversational proficiency
in a variety of foreign languages. of conventional foreign
German, French, Italian,
language courses in the US, new
Chinese, Japanese, Malay, and
approaches were necessary.
other languages

interpreters, code-room
assistants, and translators
 Origins Contd.
Bloomfield: informant method • used a native speaker of the language who served as a source of
technique phrases and vocabulary and who provided sentences for imitation
• a linguist, who supervised the learning experience

The linguist
The course
did not necessarily know the language but
was trained in eliciting the basic structure 10 hours a day, six days a week
of the language from the informant. 15 hours of drill with native speakers
20 to 30 hours of private study spread over 2 to 3 week sessions.
the students and the linguist were able to
take part in guided conversation with the
informant
together they gradually learned how to
speak the language, understand much of
its basic grammar
 Issues of Army Method
In small classes of mature and highly
motivated students, excellent results were
often achieved.
ASTP lasted only about two years but
attracted considerable attention of linguists.
The United States had now emerged as a major
international power.
There was a growing demand for foreign expertise
in the teaching of English.
Foreign students entered the USA to study in
universities, and many of these students required
training in English.
For the next ten years the “Army Method”
and its suitability for use in regular language
programs were discussed.
The “ methodology” of the Army Method, like
the Direct Method, derived from the intensity of
contact with the target language rather than
from any well-developed methodological basis.
These factors led to the emergence of the American
approach to ESL, which by the mid-1950s had
become Audiolingualism.
 Framework for Audiolinguism

Structural linguistic theory

University of Michigan
developed the first English
Contrastive analysis Language Institute in
the United States

Aural-oral approach

Behaviorist psychology
 Structural linguistic theory
University of Michigan developed the first
Rejected approaches such as Grammar, or “structure,”
English Language Institute in
those of the Direct Method, in was the starting point.
the United States (1939)
which learners are exposed to

Charles Fries, director of the institute, was trained in the language, use it, and

structural linguistics, and he applied the principles of gradually absorb its

structural linguistics to language teaching. grammatical patterns.

• The structure of the language was identified with its basic sentence
patterns and grammatical structures.
• The language was taught by systematic attention to pronunciation and
by intensive oral drilling of its core sentence patterns.
• Pattern practice was an essential classroom technique.
 Contrastive analysis
Fries set forth his principles of structural
linguistics in Teaching and Learning English
as a Foreign Language (1945)
The problems of learning a foreign language were
attributed to the conflict of different structural systems
(i.e., differences between the grammatical and
phonological patterns of the native language and the
target language). Contrastive analysis of the two languages
would allow potential problems of
interference to be predicted and
addressed through carefully prepared
teaching materials.
 Aural-Oral Approach
aural training
Linguists at Michigan and other universities developed an approach:
Oral Approach Aural-Oral Approach Structural Approach
Oral Approach Oral Method of the 1920s as developed in Britain

pronunciation
training

• Language was identified with speech,

and speech was approached through speaking,
structure. reading, and
• This approach influenced the way writing
languages were taught in the United
States throughout the 1950s.
 Behaviorist psychology
Empirically based approach to the study of human behavior

The human being is an organism capable of a wide repertoire of behaviors.

Occurrence of these behaviors is dependent on three crucial elements in learning

Skinner’s Behaviorism theory

 Behaviorist psychology
Empirically based approach to the study of human behavior

The human being is an organism capable of a wide repertoire of behaviors.

Occurrence of these behaviors is dependent on three crucial elements in learning

A response
• which serves to • which serves to mark the
elicit behavior response as being appropriate
• triggered by a (or inappropriate)
stimulus • encourages the repetition (or
suppression) of the response
in the future

A stimulus
Reinforcement
 Techniques
Dialogues
Repetition drill

Expansion drill

Clause combination drill

Background build-up drill
( or back chaining)
Completion
Use of minimal pairs
 Advantages

• developing listening and speaking

skills ( improvement compared to the
Grammar translation method)
• Emphasizing sentence production
• Making language teaching possible to
large groups of learners
 Disadvantages

• boredom caused by endless pattern

drills
• insufficient language competence
• Teacher-centred classroom
Reference Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of
language learning and teaching (4th
ed.). New York: Longman