The Audio-Lingual Method: Instilling habits at its core?

Introduction

Larsen-Freeman and Anderson (2016) defines the Audio-Lingual Method as the emphasis of oral language through vocabulary learning in authentic situations. The main feature of this method is the repetition of sentences to condition students into using the target language (Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2016). In this regard, the dialogue memorisation is the main technique involved in this method where students are made to imitate a prepared dialogue.

This entry aims to reflect on my experience in the Audio-Lingual Method in terms of its strengths, weaknesses and applicability in the Malaysian classroom.

Strengths

Improves listening and oral skills

This method was advantageous in promoting my listening skills.

Samawiyah and Saifuddin (2016) study states that the Audio- Lingual method allows students to improve their oral skills through the drilling of vocabulary in the dialogue given by the teacher.

In my experience as a recipient of the Audio- lingual method, the repetition of the sentences were instructed by the teacher to enable me to develop automaticity through the verbal imitation of the conversational dialogue between person A and B.

During the third cycle of repetition I was able to say the words with a faster pace. As a learner, this positively affected my motivation in learning English as I felt that I was gaining vocabulary.

Similarly, this method promotes listening skills through the pronunciation of spoken words through repetition (Samawiyah & Saifuddin, 2016). Here, as the dialogue was repeated numerous times, each time I read the sentence I became more observant to the pronunciation sounds of the words. At this stage, I became an active listener to the forms of the dialogue.

Nevertheless, it is debatable whether this method improved my oral and listening skills as longitudinal studies must be conducted to determine this statement.

Weaknesses

Habit theory

The key weakness of the Audiolingual method is the focus on habit formation in language learning.

Richards and Rodgers (2016) describe that the Audio-lingual method depicts language learning as a habit formation instead of conscious learning of English.

During the demonstration, I was not given the opportunity to understand the structures of the sentences as well as the meaning of the words.

This was detrimental because as soon as the lesson ended I could remember the sentences but was not able to explain the overall meaning of the dialogue. Throughout the lesson, there was emphasis on enunciating the exact words. However time was not allocated to enhance my understanding of the goal or conversational aim of the dialogue.

In the end, I believe that the teachers in this lesson were successful in prompting me to imitate the dialogue but failed to implement understanding through conscious learning of the target language.

Consideration

As a student teacher, I think this method will be appropriate in teaching my beginner level students’ spoken language in a short amount of time. On the other hand, this method does not cater for my understanding of the vocabulary. Hence, I would implement this approach with the inclusion of dedicated timing in explaining the use and meaning of the overall dialogue.

References

Samawiyah, Z., & Saifuddin, M. (2016). Phonetic Symbols through Audiolingual Method to

Improve the Students’ Listening Skill. Dinamika Ilmu: Jurnal Pendidikan, 16(1), 35-46. Retrieved from: https://iain-samarinda.ac.id/ojs/index.php/dinamika_ilmu/article/view/155

Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2016). Techniques and Principles in Language \

Teaching 3rd

edition-Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers. Oxford university press.

Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2014). Approaches and methods in language teaching 3rd

edition. Cambridge university press.