What does the "Audio Lingual" method refer to?Describe the Goals, Principles, Advantages and Disadvantages of Audio Lingual Method.

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This assignment is written by Ishrat Jahan

Audio-lingual method

Audio-lingual method is a method used for teaching foriegn language, where oral method is the

main concern to learn, where students are made to listen to the teacher speak using the target

language and then repeat after the teacher in order to learn the target language.

A historical overview

According to Richards and Rodgers, During the second world war had a significant effect on

language teaching there. To supply the US Personnel who were fluent in German, French,

Italian, Chinese, Japanere, Maky, and other languages, and who could work as interpreters,

code-room assistants, and translators, it was necessary to set up a special language training

program. Thus, the Army specialized Training program (ASTP) was established in 1942. The

ASTP lasted only two years but attracted considerable attention in the popular press and in the

academic community. The United States had emerged as a major international power.

Thousands of foreign students entered the USA to study in Universities, and many of these

students required training in English before they could begin their studies. These factors led to

the emergence of the American approach to ESL, which by the mid-1950s had become Audio

lingualism.

Goals and principles

1. Main principle of the Audio- lingual Method is to help learners acquire accurate pronunciation.

2) To attain Conversational proficiency in a variety of foreign languages(Richard) and Rodgers).

3) To help learners form a habit of using some structures and patterns of a language's Context.

4 To develop speaking and listening skills.

5) To communicate in the target language properly.

6) To make learners competent to be successful in communication.

7) NO explicit grammatical instructions are given but it is taught inductively.

8) To enable students to respond quickly and innately in order to become fluent.

9) Language learners have no difficulties in comprehending printed materials.

Another principle can be added from (Brooks 1964:11) Brooks distinguished between short

range and long long range objectives of an audio lingual program.short range objectives include

training in listening comprehension,accurate pronunciation, recognition of speech symbol as

graphic signs on the printed page, and ability to reproduce these symbols in writing.

Advantage

One of the advantages as identified by (Abu-Melhim, 2009) is that the emphasis on the

listening and speaking skills at the early stages results in better performance of learners in

reading and writing in the later stages. Perhaps, that might be due to the great focus on

accurate pronunciation, intonation and stress. Consequently, this will also help learners to

recognize different uses of these features like questions, commands or statements

(Abu-Melhim, 2009).

Additionally, (Tuan & Duaan, 2010) suggested that the use of dialogues reduces stress of

conversational setting from the learners. Similarly, (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) reflected that ALM is

a stress-free method for learners as it is guided and controlled.

Besides, (Demirezen, 2010) pointed out that early treatment of learners' errors improves

linguistic competency, specifically pronunciation and phonology which may encourage learners

to speak language fluently (Micarelli & Boylan, 1997).

Disadvantage

The weaknesses of ALM On the other hand, the opponents of the ALM highlight that this

method does not meet the communicative needs of today 's generation (Walia, 2012). Language

as stated by (Burial, 1974) is not only a set of grammatical rules lexical or phonology in which

ALM concentrates on. (Brandt, 1988) mentioned that drilling hinders learners' proficiency of

using the language as they are not able to create speech spontaneously.

Furthermore, (Xie, 2014) pointed out that the extensive use of repetitive drills makes learning

dull and boring. Equally, (Abu-Melhim, 2009) illustrated that the excessive use of pattern drills

results in lack of motivation of the learners and as (Maleki, 2005) suggested that the loss of

learners' motivation affects negatively on the success of any method.

Conclusion

To sum up, Audiolingualism holds that language learning is like other forms of learning. Since

language is a formal, rule- governed system, it can be formally organized. Maximize teaching

and learning to efficiency. The audio Lingual method achieves quick success and popularity in

leading learning competence.

Reference or further study

*Approach and Methods in Language Teaching by Jack C. Richards and Theodore S.Rodgers.

*Approach and Methods in Language Teaching by Binoy Barman Bijoy Lal Basu