The Audiolingual Method
The Audiolingual Method (ALM) gained attention in the 1950s, largely in the USA where it was rooted in the military's need during World War II to train large volumes of personnel in disparate languages. Although it claimed to have turned language teaching from an art to a science, it shared several aspects with the Direct Method. Both were a reaction to the perceived failures of the Grammar-Translation Method. Both ban the use of mother tongue, and both prioritize listening and speaking skills over reading and writing. ALM is nevertheless different in several ways. It drew on early-20th century beliefs of 1) behaviourism that anything could be learned through conditioning; and 2) structuralism and structural linguistics that emphasized grammatical structure. In ALM, grammar is prioritized over vocabulary, and accuracy over fluency, giving learners few opportunities to produce errors which are seen as potentially "contagious". Ultimately, the learner will speak "automatically".
Typical features of an Audiolingual Method lesson:
- target language/some mother tongue
- teacher-centred
- mechanical habit-formation activities with little opportunity for ("bad habit"-causing) mistakes
- immediate reinforcement of correct responses
- presentation of new structural patterns and vocabulary through oral repetition and memorization of scripted dialogues
- oral pattern-drills of key structures from dialogues (repetition drills, chain drills, substitution drills...)
- inductive learning of grammar rules based on dialogues (ie no explicit grammar teaching)
- use of tapes, visual aids and ultimately language labs
- reading and written work based on earlier oral work, sometimes given as homework
