Audio Lingual Method

1. Definition

The Audiolingual Method is a method for foreign language teaching which emphasized the
teaching of listening and speaking before reading and writing. This method is combination
between behavioral psychology and linguistic. It’s also called “Army Method” because this
method is appeared since the World War II for the American armies who had to learn language
quickly and intensively. The structural theory of language constituted its backbone.Structural
linguistic view language as a system of structurally related elements for the expression of
meaning. These elements are phonemes, morphemes, words, structures and sentence types. The
language teaching theoreticians and methodologists is behavioral psychology which is is an
empirically based approach to the study of human behavior. Behaviorism tries to explain how an
external even (a stimulus ) caused a change in the behavior of an individual (a response) without
using concept like ”mind” or “idea”.

In the Audiolingual Method, the students first hear a language. Later, they speak the language and
after that, they read and write in it. Mother tongue is discouraged in the classroom when this
method is used. The Audiolingual Method does not learn lots of vocabulary. Rather, the teacher
drills speaking and grammar because in this method, grammar is most important for the student. In
other word, the student must repeat grammar pattern after the teacher.

2. Goals and Principles

The general goal of the Audiolingual Method is to enable the target language communicatively.
And there are two objectives in Audiolingual Method such as;

Brook distinguishes between short-range and long-range objectives of an Audiolingual program.

Short-range objectives include training in listening comprehension and accurate pronunciation.
Long-range objectives or the ultimate goal is to develop the student’s abilities are same like what
native speakers have, to use it automatically without stopping to think.

The main principles on which the audio lingual method is based are the following :

Foreign language learning is basically a process of mechanical habit formation. The student are
able to give correct response rather than by making mistake.
Language skills are learned more effectively if the items to be learned in the target language are
presented in spoken form before they are seen in written form. Aural-oral training is needed to
provide the foundation for the development of other language skills.
Drills can enable learners to form correct analogies. Hence the approach to the teaching of
grammar is essentially inductive rather than deductive.
The meaning that the words of a language have for the native speaker can be learned only in a
linguistic and cultural context and not isolation.
3. Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

Learners be able speaking the target language comunicatively.

Learners have no difficulties to understand the lesson as it is carried out in the mother tongue.
Learners are able to give correct response directly.
Learners more concern about the combination between behavioral psychology and linguistic.

Disadvantages:

Speaking or any kind of spontaneous creative output was missing from the curriculum.
Students lacked an active role in the classroom.
Very little attention is paid to communication.
Very little attention is paid to content.
Process of learning only focus in speaking.
Because of all these disadvantages, instructors tried to find better ways to remedy the pitfalls of
the audiolingual method.

4. The Application of Audiolingual Method in Teaching Reading for Junior High School

In applying Audiolingual Method for teaching speaking, I will take the material about daily
conversation. The Material is for first grade of Junior High School. As we know, in teaching
speaking the students must try to speak English about something based on the material in order to
improve their speaking ability, I will use Audiolingual Method and help the students to improve
speaking ability through dialogue, so the students able to speak English very well.

1) I will do the brainstorming to catch the students’ attention.

2) I will explain about how to make a dialogue.

3) I will give the students an example of dialogue and ask them try to make a dialogue.

4) After the students try to make a dialogue and ask them come in front of the classroom and
show the dialogue to their friends.

5) After the students show the dialogue, the teacher ask another students about the dialogue that
their friend had showed.