The Audiolingual Method

1、 chapter six the audiolingual method. key points(学习要点)1.definition (定义) the audiolingual method is a method of foreign language teaching which emphasizes the teaching of listening and speaking before reading and writing. it uses dialogues as the main form of language presentation and drills as the m

2、ain training techniques. mother tongue is discouraged in the classroom.2.background(产生背景) the audiolingual method was developed in the u.s. during the second world war. at that time, the u.s. government found it a great necessity to set up a special language-training program to supply the war with l

3、anguage personnel. therefore, the government commissioned american universities to develop foreign language program for military personnel. thus the army specialized training programme (astp) was established in 1942.the objectives of the army programme were for students to attain conversational prof

4、iciency in a variety of foreign languages. the method used was known as the “informant method ”(当地人法), since it used a native speakers of the language, the informant , and a linguist. the informant served as a source of language for imitation, and the linguist supervised the learning experience. the

5、 intensive system adopted by the army achieved excellent results. linguists and applied linguists during this period were becoming increasingly involved in the teaching of english as a foreign language. in 1941 the first english language institute in the u.s. was established to in the university of

6、michigan. the director of the institute was charles fries(弗里斯), who applied the principles of structural linguists to language teaching. the result is an approach which advocated aural training first, then pronunciation training, followed by speaking, reading and writing. the emergence of the audiol

7、ingual method resulted from the increased attention to foreign language teaching in the u.s. towards the end of the 1950s.the need for a radical change and rethinking of foreign language teaching methodology made language teaching specialists set about developing a method that was applicable to cond

8、itions in u.s. college and university classrooms. they drew on the earlier experience of the army programmes and the aural-oral or structural approach developed by fries and his colleagues, adding insights taken from behaviorist psychology. this combination of structural linguistic theory, aural-ora

9、l procedures, and behaviourist psychology led to the audiolingual method, which was widely adopted for teaching foreign languages in north american colleges and universities.3.theoretical basis(理论背景)1) theory of language (语言理论)the theory of language underlying audiolingualism was derived from a view

10、 proposed by american linguists in the 1930s and 1940s. the view then came to be known as structural linguistics with bloomfield and fries as its representatives. structural linguistics views language as a system of structurally related elements for the expression of meaning. these elements are phon

11、emes, morphemes, words, structures, and sentence types. the grammatical system consists of a list of grammatical elements and rules for their linear combination into words, phrases, phrases and sentences. according to a structural view, language has the following characteristics:(1) elements in a la

12、nguage are produced in a rule-governed (structural) way. (语言成分是以一定规则（结构）出现的) (2) language samples could be exhaustively described at any structural level of description. (语言实例可以在任何结构层次上进行详尽的描述) (3) language is structural like a pyramid, that is, linguistic level is system within system. (语言结构像金字塔，即语

13、言层次的大结构系统里有小结构系统)(4) language is speech, not writing. (语言是口头的话语，不是笔头的文字)(5) languages are different. (语言各不相同)the views of language above offered the foundation for the audio lingual method. 2) theory of learning(学习理论)（1）behaviourist psychology（行为主义心理学）the learning theory of audiolingualism is behavi

14、oral psychology which is an empirically based approach to the study of human behaviour. behaviourism tries to explain how an external event(a stimulus) caused a change in the behaviour of an individual(a response) without using concepts like“mind”or “ideas” or any kind of mental behaviour. behaviour

15、ist psychology states that people are conditioned to learn many forms of behaviour, including language, through the process of training or conditioning.(2) the three crucial elements in learning: a stimulus, a response and reinforcement. (学习中三个决定性因素：刺激、反应和强化)the occurrence of these behaviours is dep

16、endent upon three crucial elements in learning: a stimulus, which serves to elicit behaviour; a response triggered by a stimulus; and reinforcement, which serves to mark the response as being appropriate (or inappropriate) and encourage the repetition (or suppression) of the response in the future.

17、learning is thus described as the formation of association between stimuli and responses.(3) the application of this theory to language learning(该理论在语言学习中的运用) to apply this theory to language learning is to identify the organism as the foreign language learner, the behaviour as verbal behaviour, the

18、 stimulus as what is taught (language input), the response as the learners reaction to the stimulus, and the reinforcement as the approval or praise (or discouragement) of the teacher or fellow students. (4) language learning: a mechanical process of habit formation(语言学习：一个机械的习惯形成过程) according to th

19、is behaviourist psychology, learning a language is a process of acquiring a set of appropriate language stimulus-response chains, a mechanical process of habit formation. 4.basic principles(基本原则)1） main features(主要特征) by drawing on the structural linguistics and behaviourist psychology, the audiolin

20、gual method formed its own distinctive characteristics.there are mainly five of them:(1) separation of language skills into listening, speaking, reading and writing, with emphasis on the teaching of listening and speaking before reading and writing;(把语言分成听、说、读、写四种技能，在教学中强调先听说，后读写；)(2) use of dialogu

21、es as the chief means of presenting the language;(对话是语言教学中的主要形式；)(3) emphasis on certain practice techniques: mimicry, memorization and pattern drills; (强调模仿、记忆、和句型操练；)(4) discouraging the use of the mother tongue in the classroom;(在课堂教学中避免使用母语；)(5) use of language lab.(使用语言实验室) 2）objectives(教学目标) t

22、he general objective of the audiolingual method is to enable the target language communicatively, short-range objectives include training in listening comprehension, accurate pronunciation, reading comprehension and production of the audiolingual method are the development of mastery in all four lan

23、guage skills, beginning with listening and speaking, and using these as a basis for the teaching of reading and writing. long-range objective, or the ultimate goal, is to develop in the students the same types of abilities that native speaking have, to use it automatically without stopping to think.

24、 3) techniques（教学技巧）dialogues and pattern practice form the basis of audiolingual classroom practice. the use of them is a distinctive feature of the audiolingual method. the techniques used by the audiolingual method are:(1) repetition drill（重复练习）：this drill is often used to teach the lines of the

25、dialogue. students are asked to repeat the teachers model as accurately and as quickly as possible.e.g.: t sthis is a bookthis is a book.students do this without looking at their book. they have to produce the appropriate sounds first.(2) substitution drill( 替换练习)：the students repeat the line from t

26、he dialogue which the teacher has given them, substituting the cue into the line in its proper place. e.g.: t c sthey drink wine. beerthey drink beer. coffeethey drink coffee. teathey drink tea.the major purpose of this drill is to give the students practice in finding and filling in the slots of a

27、sentence. (3) question-and-answer drill(问答练习)：the drill gives students practice with answering questions. the students should answer the teachers question very quickly. it is also possible for the teacher to cue the students to ask questions as well. this gives students practice with the question pa

28、ttern. e.g. 1. t: are there any questions? ss: no, there arent any.t: is there any milk? ss: no, there isnt any. t: are there any sandwiches? ss: no, there arent any.t: is there any wine? ss: no, there isnt any. 2. t: he read the times ss: what did he read? t: he said “good morning.” ss: what did he

29、 say? t: he saw “the sound of music. ” ss: what did he see?(4) expansion drill(扩展句子训练)：this drill helps students to produce longer sentence bit by bit, gradually achieving fluency. the main structure is repeated first, then students have to put cue phrase in its proper place. e.g.t: they go to the c

30、inema.ss: they go to the cinema.t: on sundaysss: they go to the cinema on sundays.t: always.ss: they always go to the cinema on sundays.t: nearly.ss: they nearly always go to the cinema on sundays.(5) clause combination drill (合并句子练习)：students learn to combine two simple sentences into a complex one

31、. e.g.t: it may rain. hell stay at home.ss: if it may rain, hell stay at home.t: it may be sunny. well go to the beach.ss: if it may be sunny, well go to the beach.t: it may snow. theyll go skating.ss: if it may snow, theyll go skating.(6) background build-up drill( or backchaining逆向读句练习):this drill

32、 is used when a long line of dialogue is giving students trouble. the teacher breaks down the line into several parts. the students repeat a part of the sentence, usually the last phrase of the line. then, following the teachers cue, the students expand what they are repeating part by part until the

33、y are able to repeat the entire line. the teacher begins with the part at the end of the sentence (and works backward from there) to keep the intonation of the line as natural as possible. this also directs more student attention to the end of the sentence, where new information typically occurs. e.

34、g.t: the flowersss: the flowerst: watering the flowersss: watering the flowerst: is watering the flowersss: is watering the flowerst: ian is watering the flowers.ss: ian is watering the flowers.(7)chain drill(完成链接练习) ：a chain drill gets its name from the chain of conversation that forms around the c

35、lassroom 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, and then turns to the student sitting next to him. e.g.t: hello, whats your name?s1: my name is john smith. (he tu

36、rns to the student next to her.) hello, whats your name?s2: my name is mary clinton. (she turns to the student next to her.) hello, whats your name?s3: my name is peter.(8)completion (完成句子练习)：students hear an utterance that is complete except for one word, and then repeat the utterance in completed

37、form. e.g.t: ill go my way and you go_ss: ill go my way and you go yours.t: we all have_own troubles.ss: we all have our own troubles.(9) use of minimal pairs (最小成对练习，又称语音辨别练习) ：the teacher works with pair of words which differ in only one sound; students are first asked to find the difference betwe

38、en the two word and later to say the two words. e.g.shipsheep liveleave leaplip bitbeat 4)procedures(教学步骤)in a typical audiolingual lesson the following procedures will be observed:(1)recognition (认别) : students first hear a model dialogue (either read by the teacher or on the tape) containing the k

39、ey structures that are the focus of the lesson and try to understand the meaning of the dialogue with the help of the teachers gestures, mime, and context or situation established in advance.(2)imitation and repetition (模仿和复述)：the students repeat each line of the dialogue, individually and in chorus

40、. the students must imitate the right pronunciation, intonation and fluency.(3) pattern drills (句型操练)：certain key structures from the dialogue are selected and used as the basis for pattern drills of different kinds.(4) follow-up activities (补充练习)：the students now are allowed to look at their textbo

41、oks. they are usually asked to do some follow-up reading, writing or vocabulary activities. this will guide their use of the language. a sample lesson in order to come to a better understanding of this method, let us now enter a classroom where the audiolingual method is being used. the students are

42、 english beginners: class begins, the teacher reads the following dialogue to the students who are expected to imitate and eventually memorize it: t: all right, class. im going to read a dialogue to you. listen carefully. sally: good morning, bill. bill: good morning, sally. sally: how are you? bill

43、: fine, thanks. and you? sally: fine. where are you going? bill: im going to the post office. sally: i am too. shall we go together? bill: sure. lets go. t: listen one more time. this time try to understand all that i am saying. (now the teacher has the whole class listen to her. sometimes she uses

44、actions to help convey meaning. all of the teachers instructions are in english.) t: understand? now im going to repeat the dialogue. say each of the lines of the dialogue after me. (the students repeat each line several times before moving on to the next line, when the class comes to the line “im g

45、oing to the post office”, they stumble a bit in their repetition. the, at this point, stops the repetition and uses a backward build-up drill. ) t: repeat after me: post office. ss: post office. t: to the post office ss: to the post office t: going to the post office ss: going to the post office t:

46、im going to the post office. ss: im going to the post office.(the students repeat the dialogue after the teacher several times.)t: good. now im going to talk for sally and talk for bill. t: good morning, bill. ss: good morning, sally. t: how are you? ss: fine, thanks. and you? t: fine. where are you

47、 going? ss: im going to the post office. t: i am too. shall we go together? ss: sure. lets go. next the class and the teacher switch roles in order to practise a little more, the teacher saying bills line and class saying sallys. then the teacher divides the class in half so that each half gets to t

48、ry say on their own either bills or sallys line. to further practise the lines of this dialogue, the teacher has all the boys in the class take bills part and all the girls take sallys. t: fine. now. look at john and me. then do the same. t: good morning, john. j: good morning. miss brown. t: how ar

49、e you? j: fine, thanks. and you? t: fine. then john understands through the teachers gestures that he is to turn to the student sitting beside him and greet her. that student, in turn, says her lines in reply to him. when she has finished, she greets the students on the other side of her. this chain

50、 continues until all of the students have a chance to ask and answer the questions. since there are 40 students in the class, the teacher divides the class in half and asks the other half do the same. the last student from each half directs their greeting to each other. t: now, id like two of you to

51、 perform the whole dialogue for the class. anyone wants to try? (a boy and a girl put up their hand, when they have finished, two others do the same. not everyone has a chance to say the dialogue, but by now the teacher is sure the students know the dialogue rather well.) t: now, look at these pictu

52、res: a bank, a drugstore, a park, a bus station, a library, a school (each time she shows a picture, she says the phrase, and the students get the meaning and sound of that phrase.) im going to the bank.(from her example the students realize that they are supposed to take the cue phrase, “the bank”,

53、 which the teacher supplies, and put it into its proper place in the sentence. ) t: im going to the bank-the drugstore ss: im going to the drugstore. t: the bus station ss: im going to the bus station. t: the park ss: im going to the park. t: the library after the students have gone through the dril

54、l sequence three times, the teachers no longer provides a spoken cue phrase. instead she simply shows the pictures at a time, and the students repeat the entire sentence putting the name of the place in the picture in the appropriate slot in the sentence. t: now, im going to the post office. sally.

55、(the students understand and produce “sally is going to the post office.”) t: bill ss: bill is going to the post office. t: to the park ss: bill is going to the park. t: she ss: she is going to the park. t: bill and sally ss: they are going to the park. t: to the post office ss: they are going to th

56、e post office. t: very good. next well do different thing. i say, “she is going to the post office.” you make a question by saying, “is she going to the post office? ” i say, “he is going to the park.” you ask, “is he going to the park?” does everybody understand? ok, lets begin. t: they are going t

57、o the park. ss: are they going to the park? t: my mother is going to the drugstore. ss: is she going to the drugstore? when the class has had enough practice, the teacher decides to move on to the next drill.t: (points at a picture) are you going to the football field? (she answers her own question.) yes im going to the football field. (she holds up a picture of a school.) are you going to the school? (she herself ans