THE AUDILINGUAL METHOD

Linguists at the University of Michigan invented this method in the late 1950s. In the
Audiolingual method, students first hear a language. Later, they speak the language,
and after that, they read and write in it. This way of language teaching is similar to the
Direct Method. Like the Direct Method, the Audiolingual Method does not use the
students native language.
For example, if you are in an English class in Turkey, the teacher only speaks English,
and no Turkish. However, unlike the Direct Method, the Audiolingual Method does not
teach vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drills grammar.
In the Audiolingual method, grammar is most important for the student. In other
words, the student must repeat grammar patterns after the teacher. The students do
not learn lots of vocabulary.
This method also uses psychology. The students get a reward for speaking correctly.
They get punishment if they speak incorrectly; because it is based on habit formation,
which is established by stimulus, response and reinforcement.
It gives priority to speaking the target language, and using the native language is not
allowed.

CHARACTERISTICS

Speaking and listening competence preceded reading and writing competence.
Students practice particular patterns of language through structured dialogue
and drill until response is automatic.
Structured patterns in language are taught using repetitive drills. The emphasis
is on having students produce error free utterances.
Only everyday vocabulary and sentences are taught.
Mother tongue is discouraged in the classroom.
The three crucial elements in learning: a stimulus, a response and
reinforcement.

STRUCTURALISM
The structural view to language is the view behind the audio-lingual method. This
approach focused on examining how the elements of language related to each other in
the present, that is, synchronically rather than diachronically. It was also argued
that linguistic signs were composed of two parts, a signifier (the sound pattern of a
word) and a signified (the concept ormeaning of the word). The study of language aims
at describing the performance ,theparole as it is the only observable part of
language.

ADVANTAGES
It aims at developing listening and speaking skills which is a step away from the
Grammar translation method
The use of visual aids has proven its effectiveness in vocabulary teaching.

DISADVANTAGES
The method is based on false assumptions about language. The study of language
doesnt amount to studying the parole, the observable data. Mastering a language
relies on acquiring the rules underlying language performance. That is, the linguistic,
sociolinguistic, and discourse competences.
The behaviorist approach to learning is now discredited. Many scholars have proven its
weakness. Noam Chomsky ( Chomsky, Noam (1959). A Review of B. F. Skinners
Verbal behavior) has written a strong criticism of the principles of the theory.