Larsen-Freeman (2000), the audio-lingual method, Army Method, or New Key, is a style of teaching used in teaching foreign languages. It is based on behaviorist theory, which postulates that certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through a system of reinforcement. The correct use of a trait would receive positive feedback while incorrect use of that trait would receive negative feedback.
This approach to language learning was similar to another, earlier method called the direct method. Like the direct method, the audio-lingual method advised that students should be taught a language directly, without using the students' native language to explain new words or grammar in the target language. However, unlike the direct method, the audio-lingual method did not focus on teaching vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drilled students in the use of grammar.
Applied to language instruction, and often within the context of the language lab, it means that the instructor would present the correct model of a sentence and the students would have to repeat it. The teacher would then continue by presenting new words for the students to sample in the same structure. In audio-lingualism, there is no explicit grammar instruction: everything is simply memorized in form.
The idea is for the students to practice the particular construct until they can use it spontaneously. The lessons are built on static drills in which the students have little or no control on their own output; the teacher is expecting a particular response and not providing the desired response will result in a student receiving negative feedback. This type of activity, for the foundation of language learning, is in direct opposition with communicative language teaching.
Charles C. Fries, the director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States, believed that learning structure, or grammar was the starting point for the student. In other words, it was the students' job to recite the basic sentence patterns and grammatical structures. Fries later included principles for behavioural psychology, as developed by B.F. Skinner, into this method.
Based on Skinner’s behaviorism theory, it assumed that a human being can be trained using a system of reinforcement. Correct behaviour receives positive feedback, while errors receive negative feedback. This approach to learning is similar to the direct method, in that the lesson takes place entirely in the target language.
The audio-lingual method was widely used in the 1950s and 1960s, and the emphasis was not on the understanding of words, but rather on the acquisition of structures and patterns in common everyday dialogue.
These patterns are elicited, repeated and tested until the responses given
by the student in the foreign language are automatic. Some characteristics of this method are:
• Drills are used to teach structural patterns
• Set phrases are memorised with a focus on intonation
• Grammatical explanations are kept to a minimum
• Vocabulary is taught in context
• Focus is on pronunciation
• Correct responses are positively reinforced immediately
The audio-lingual method is still in use today, though normally as a part of individual lessons rather than as the foundation of the course.
These types of lessons can be popular as they are relatively simple, from the teacher’s point of view, and the learner always knows what to expect.
Some of the most famous supporters of this method were Giorgio Shenker, who promoted guided self learning with the Shenker method in Italy, and Robin Callan, who created the Callan method.
This extensive memorization, repetition and over-learning of patterns was the key to the method’s success, as students could often see immediate results. Thus, once again based the explanations before, this research aimed to fill the research vacuum on the application of audio
lingual method in learning English, especially learning to write and see its application in writing skills, especially in practicing this method.
6.2. The Principles of Audio-Lingual Method
Some of the main principles of language learning in the audio
lingual method according to Larsen-Freeman (2000). One of these principles is that the second language learning process should be similar to that of first language acquisition.
This complies with the natural order of language learning which is listening, speaking, reading and finally, writing. It is believed that the learner first learns to speak what he has listened to, then read what he has spoken, and write what he has read. Therefore, audio-lingual method emphasizes on listening and speaking skills in order to facilitate the progress of reading and writing skills besides increasing communicative competency.
Another principle is that the second language is best acquired by habit formation. A habit is created when an action is repeated and is subsequently produced in response to certain stimuli almost without conscious activity. This is achieved via the repetitive pattern practices that are part and parcel of audio-lingual method.
Translation of the target language into the native language is considered harmful and will hinder acquisition of the second language.
Such translations are believed to impede the mastery or control of the second language. When the target language is used in all circumstances in the classroom, learners learn to make direct connections between the
vocabulary and its semantics in the target language itself, which is ideal for effective second language learning.
However, these principles are merely assumptions. Counter
arguments include: second language learning is completely different from native language acquisition in many different aspects. In addition, the natural order of language learning that audio-lingual method stresses on is irrelevant because the four language skills can be developed simultaneously rather than sequentially. The learning of a second language is not necessarily a process of habit formation where responses are elicited by stimuli, but also involves the cognitive. Finally, translation into the native language has proven a useful technique indeed in learning a second language, demonstrated in methods such as the Grammar Translation Method.
6.3. The Main Feature of Audio-Lingual Method
As aforementioned, audio-lingual method follows the natural order of language learning. The use of repetitive drills is justified in shaping a new "habit” for learning the second language. Stimuli-responses are expected and correct ones are immediately reinforced as conditioning, concurrent with the views of behavioural psychology.
The native language also plays a minimal role in the audio-lingual method. Only the target language is used within the classroom by both teacher and learners. New material in the target language is also
introduced in dialogue form, closest to a natural situational context for learners to gain communicative competence and skills.
Modeling is done by the teacher whereby a particular structure of sentence is spoken and learners repeat the sentence, mimicking its sound patterns and intonation, and aiming for identicalness. Slips in learners’
pronunciation of words in the sentence are immediately corrected by the teacher to avoid formation of "bad habits”.
Grammar rules are not taught explicitly but are expected to be induced by the learners through the various examples and patterns that are exposed to them during the lesson. Contrastive analyses are also done between the native language and the target language in order to draw learner’s attention to differences in pattern, structure and sound system of both languages.
6.4. Techniques of Audio-Lingual Method
According to Larsen-Freeman (2000), there are many techniques employed in the classroom that advocate the underlying principles (or assumptions) of the audio-lingual method, and are also based on the aforementioned two main schools of thought for the said method.
One of the main techniques used is of introducing new learning material in the form of a dialogue. A model conversation is analyzed, broken down and memorized through mimicry. Dialogues are seen as a natural conversational context that will aid learners in applying learned structures and vocabulary.
Many drills are used in this method. The backward build-up drill (expansion drill) breaks down a difficult sentence into smaller parts.
Usually the last phrase of the sentence is repeated by the learners and then parts are added on, or expanded, until learners are able to repeat the complete sentence without further trouble.
Single-slot substitution drills require the learners to substitute in cues given by the teacher into a particular slot in the sentence. Multiple- slot substitution drills on the other hand, require a higher level of competence from the learners. Learners must recognize particular slots within the sentence to substitute the cues given by the teacher, occasionally having to alter subject-verb agreements as well.
Other drills include the repetition drill, chain drill, transformation drill and question-and-answer drill. According to Larsen-Freeman (2000), here are examples of the different drills used in the audio-lingual method:
• R epetition d rill
Students are asked to repeat the teachers’ model as accurately and as quickly as possible. This drill is often used to teach the lines of the dialog.
• Chain d rill
The chain drill uses maybe the first few lines of a simple dialogue.
The teacher begins by addressing a student, or asking him a question.
The student responds, then turns to the student beside him and asks him a similar question. The second student responds and the chain goes on
until each student has participated. This allows for the teacher to check learner’s speech.
• T ra n sfo rm a tio n d rill
The teacher may give learners a question, and the learners are then required to formulate an answer from the form of the question given, and vice versa. Or, an affirmative sentence is given and learners need to transform it into the negative. This can be used for teaching active and passive sentences, as well as direct and reported speech.
• Q u e stion -an d-an sw er d rill
This drill allows for learners to practice answering questions accurately and rapidly. It can also be done the other way round, where the learners form the questions on cue.
• M u ltip le -s lo t s u b s titu tio n d rill
The teacher gives students a certain kind of sentence pattern, an affirmation 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.
• Use o f m inim al pairs
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