26 h. Students should learn to respond to both verbal and nonverbal
stimuli. etc.
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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.
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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.
27 Students memorize an opening dialog by using mimicry and applied
role-playing. b. Backward Build-up Expansion Drill
Teacher breaks a line into several parts; students repeat each part starting at the end of the sentence and expanding backwards
through the sentence, adding each part in sequence.
c. Repetition Drill Students repeat teachers model as quickly and accurately as
possible. d. Chain Drill
Students ask and answer each other one-by-one in a circular chain around the classroom.
e. Single Slot Substitution Drill Teacher states a line from the dialog, then uses a word or a phrase as
a cue that students, when repeating the line, must substitute into the sentence in the correct place.
f. Multiple-Slot Substitution Drill Same as the Single Slot drill, except that there are multiple cues to
be substituted into the line. g. Transformation Drill
Teacher provides a sentence that must be turned into something else, for example a question to be turned into a statement, an active
sentence to be turned into a negative statement, etc. h. Question-and-Answer Drill
Students should answer or ask questions very quickly. i. Use of Minimal Pairs
Using contrastive analysis, teacher selects a pair of words that sound
identical except for a single sound that typically poses difficulty for the learners - students are to pronounce and differentiate the two
words.
j. Complete the Dialog Selected words are erased from a line in the dialog - students must
find and insert. k. Grammar Games
Various games designed to practice a grammar point in context, using lots of repetition.
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From the techniques mentioned above, the writer concludes that language acquisition is acquired by habit formation through oral
exercises by imitating and repeating. In this approach, the teacher is like a leader, directing and controlling the language behavior of the students.
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http:www.englishraven.commethod_audioling.html
, Retrieved on Sunday, 22
th
, June, 2009.
