24 where the language is spoken. Correct responding the stimuli must be done
by the students continuously in order to become a habit.
2. The Characteristics of Audio Lingual Method
Marianne Celce-Murcia in her book Teaching English as a Second or foreign Language Second Edition summed up the characteristics of
the following list: a. Lessons begin with dialogues.
b. Mimicry and memorization are used, based on the assumption that language is habit formation.
c. Grammatical structures are sequenced and rules are taught inductively.
d. Skills are sequenced: listening, speaking, reading, writing postponed.
e. Pronunciation is stressed from the beginning. f. Vocabulary is severely limited in initial stages.
g. A great effort is made to prevent learning errors. h. Language is often manipulated without regard to meaning or
context. i. The teacher must be proficient only in the structures, vocabulary,
etc. that she is teaching since learning activities and materials are carefully controlled.
34
Other characteristics of Audio Lingual Method according to H.H. Stern those are:
a. Separation of the skills-listening, speaking, reading, and writing-and the primacy of the Audio Lingual over the graphic skills.
b. The use of the dialogues as the chief means of presenting the language.
c. Emphasis on certain practice techniques, mimicry, memorization, and pattern drills.
d. The use of the laboratory. e. Establishing a linguistic and a psychological theory as a basis for the
teaching method.
35
The writer assumes that in the Audio Lingual Method, the learners should have a strong effort to get the language acquisition. They do a lot
34
Marianne Celce-Murcia, Teaching English as a Second or foreign Language Second Edition,Heinle Heinle Publishers, Los Angeles, 1991. p. 6
35
H.H. Stern, Fundamental Concept of Language Teaching , …, p.462.
25 of listening and speaking by imitating and repeating the teacher
instruction, they also memorize the structure. It is clearly seen that one of the language teacher‟s major roles is a model of the target language.
Teacher should provide students with a native-speaker-like model. The material presented gradually from listening, speaking, reading and writing
but it is emphasized on spoken language as its teaching objective.
3. The Principles of Audio Lingual Method
William as quoted by Wilga M. Rivers has summarized the five “slogan of the day” guided the teachers to the preparation of teaching
material and to classroom technique, “Language is speech not writing… A language is a set of habit… Teach the language not about the
language… A language is what the native speakers‟ say, not what someone thinks they ought to say… Languages are different”.
36
According to Diane Larsen-Freeman in her book, Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, the principles of The Audio-Lingual
Method are: a. Language forms do not occur by themselves, they occur most
naturally within a context. b. The native language of the target language and the target language
have separate linguistic systems. They should be kept their apart so that the students‟ native language interferes as little as possible with
the students‟ attempts to acquire the target language. c.
One of the target language teacher‟s major roles is that of a model of the target language. Teachers should provide students with a good
model. By listening to how it supposed to sound, students should be able to mimic the model.
d. Language learning is a process of habit formation. e. It is importance to prevent learners from making errors.
f. The purpose of language learning is to learn how to use the language
to communicate. g. Positive reinforcement helps the students to develop correct habit.
36
Wilga M. Rivers, Teaching Foreign -Language Skills, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968, p. 37.
26 h. Students should learn to respond to both verbal and nonverbal
stimuli. etc.
37
Richard and Rodgers 1986 also list four essential principles of Audio-Lingual Method:
a. Foreign language learning is basically a process of mechanical habit formation.
b. Item presented in spoken form before they are seen in written form. c. Analogy provides a better foundation for language learning than
analysis. d. The meanings that the words of a language have for the native
speaker can be learned only in a linguistic and cultural context and not in isolation.
38
From those principles, the learning activity started by drilling the dialogues before written form, it means that the students must imitate
and repeat the teacher instruction before coming to the text. It is a process of habit formation.
The habits of the students‟ native language would interfere with the
students‟ attempts to master the target language. They should be kept apart so that the students‟ native
language interferes as little as possible with the students‟ learning of the
foreign language. The teachers must be a good model as a native speaker; they must teach how to use the language to communicate in the
classroom or daily life as the objective of this method. This method demands the teachers to be skillful in speaking.
4. The Techniques of Audio Lingual Method
Diane Larsen-Freeman, in her book Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching 1986:45-47 provides expanded descriptions of
some commontypical techniques closely associated with the Audio- Lingual Method. The listing here is in summary form only.
a. Dialog Memorization
37
Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching,New York: Oxford University Press, 1986,p 42-43
38
Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in , …, p.51.
