Question

The extensive use of pattern drills, repetition, and memorization of dialogues is a defining characteristic of which language teaching method?

• A. Silent Way
• B. Audio-Lingual Method
• C. Communicative Language Teaching
• D. Total Physical Response

Answer 1

Answer:

B. Audio-Lingual Method

Understanding the Audio-Lingual Method (ALM)

• The Audio-Lingual Method (ALM), also known as the New Key or Army Method, emerged in the mid-20th century.
• It was heavily influenced by behaviorist psychology (e.g., B.F. Skinner) and structural linguistics (e.g., Leonard Bloomfield), focusing on habit formation.
• ALM gained prominence in the United States after World War II, driven by the need for military personnel to quickly acquire foreign language proficiency for intelligence and communication purposes.

Key Characteristics of the Audio-Lingual Method:

• Pattern Drills: This is a cornerstone feature, involving repetitive practice of grammatical structures. Examples include:
  • Repetition Drills: Students repeat after the teacher.
  • Substitution Drills: Students replace a word or phrase with another.
  • Transformation Drills: Students change the grammatical form of a sentence (e.g., from active to passive).
  • Question and Answer Drills: Students practice specific questions and answers.
• Repetition and Memorization: Extensive repetition of phrases, sentences, and dialogues is crucial to embed linguistic patterns and responses into the students' minds, fostering automaticity.
• Emphasis on Oral Skills: ALM prioritizes listening and speaking (aural-oral skills) over reading and writing. Pronunciation and intonation are highly emphasized.
• Dialogue Memorization: Students learn dialogues by heart, which serve as models for various linguistic situations.
• Inductive Grammar Learning: Grammar rules are not explicitly taught at first; students are expected to deduce them through exposure and practice with patterns.
• Teacher-Centered Approach: The teacher acts as the model and drill conductor, controlling the pace and content of the lesson.
• Immediate Error Correction: Errors are typically corrected immediately to prevent the formation of 'bad habits'.

Important Considerations for Competitive Exams:

• The primary goal of ALM is to develop communicative competence by forming good linguistic habits, though later methods criticized its lack of authentic communication.
• It views language learning as a process of habit formation, similar to learning any other skill, through stimulus-response-reinforcement.
• ALM is often contrasted with the Grammar-Translation Method (which focuses on rules and translation) and later, the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach (which emphasizes meaningful interaction).
• While effective for developing basic fluency and accurate pronunciation, ALM has been criticized for leading to boredom, lack of creativity, and the inability to use language in novel situations.