The Audiolingual Method essay

The approach developed by linguists at Michigan became known as the Oral Approach, the Aural-Oral Approach, and The Strucutral Approach. This influenced the way language were taught in the United States throughout the 1950s. The incoporation of the linguistic principles of the Aural-Oral approach with psychological learning theory became to be known as Audiolingualism.
     The Structural Approach developed by Fries and his collegues adding insights taken from behaviorist psychology. Audiolingual Method is a result of the combination of structural linguistic theory, contrastive analysis and aural-oral procedures.

As linguists discovered new sound types, new patterns of linguistic invention and organization a new interest in phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax was developed. Learning a language it was building blocks of the language and learning the rules by which these elements are combined. 

To the behaviorist, the human being is an organism capable of a wide repertoire of behaviors. The occurrence is depending on the 3 crucial elements:

1.- STIMULIS, serves to elicit behavior.

2.- RESPONSE, triggered by a stimulus.

3.- REINFORCEMENT, serves to mark the response as being appropriate and encourages the repetition of the response in the future.

The audiolingual method has two objectives: 

- short objectives include training in listening comprehension, accurate pronunciation, recognition of speech, symbols as graphic signs in writing. 

- long range must be language as the native speaker uses it.

The teaching of listening comprehension, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary are all related to development of oral fluency. The syllabus contains the key items of phonology, morphology, and syntax according to the language presented. The language skills are taught in the order of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

There are many types of learning and teaching activities, some are: dialogues which are used  for repetition and memorization,  drills and pattern  practices is a distinctive feature of the Audiolingual Method. The learner plays a reactive role by responding to stimuli. They have a little control over the content, pace or style of learning, the teacher’s role is central and active.

The procedure or process of teaching involves extensive oral instruction, the focus is on immediate and accurate speech.

To sum up, the audiolingualism, is a formal, rule-governed system. In fact, between Situational Language Teaching and Audiolingualism , there are similarities, for example, reflect similar views about the nature of language and of language learning, these views were developed from quite different traditions. 

TEAM
-Diana Marquez
-Mónica Aimé