The audio-lingual method, Army Method, or New Key,[1] 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. [2]
This approach to language learning was similar to another, earlier method called
the direct method. [3]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 Carpenter 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.
The students were given only “enough vocabulary to make such drills possible.”
(Richards, J.C. et-al. 1986). Fries later included principles of behavioural psychology,
as developed by B.F. Skinner, into this method.[citation needed]
New. The Audio-lingual Teaching Method
With the outbreak of World War II armies needed to become orally proficient in the
languages of their allies and enemies as quickly as possible. This teaching technique
was initially called the Army Method, and was the first to be based on linguistic theory
and behavioral psychology.
Explanation
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.
Emphasis is on the acquisition of patterns in common everyday dialogue.
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
Audio-visual aids are used
Focus is on pronunciation
Correct responses are positively reinforced immediately
Modern Usage
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.
Developments & Problems
This extensive memorization, repetition and over-learning of patterns was the key to the method’s
success, as students could often see immediate results, but it was also its weakness.
It was discovered that language was not acquired through a process of habit
formation.
The method’s insistence on repetition and memorization of standard phrases ignored the role of
context and knowledge in language learning. As the study of linguistics developed, it was discovered
that language was not acquired through a process of habit formation, and that errors were not
necessarily bad.
It was also claimed that the methodology did not deliver an improvement in communicative ability
that lasted over the long term.
Summary
When – 1950 to 1970, some sporadic or selective use today
Focus – Sentence and sound patterns
Characteristics – Listening and speaking drills and pattern practice only in English
Supporters – B.F. Skinner, Leonard Bloomfield, Robin Callan
By Alex Taylor
