Portfolio 8 - Extended definition

Audiolingualism stands for the Audio-lingual Method and can be defined as a way of teaching

foreign languages which has been derived from the structural linguistic theory, contrastive

analysis, behaviourist psychology and the oral procedures. This method has been introduced

by the structural linguist Charles Fries in the mid-fifties in the US. It is based on an aural-oral

approach with a primacy of the audio-lingual skills: listening and speaking over the graphic

skills such as reading and writing. The main characteristics of the method include: attention

to pronunciation, structure as starting point, usage of dialogue to present the language as well

as putting an emphasis on the language practice techniques including mimicry, memorisation

and intensive oral drilling.