Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching

The Audio-Lingual Method

• Behaviorism deeply affected the American linguists of the time. What resulted was a type of linguistics known as structural linguistics.

The Audio-Lingual Method

• Most structural linguists believed that the best way to master a new language was through repetitive practice with various language structures or sentence patterns. Learning a language, they thought, required the learner to form “speaking habits” that conformed to the structure of the target language.

The Audio-Lingual Method

• The Audio-Lingual Method, like the Direct Method, is also an oral-based approach. However, it is very different in that the Audio-Lingual Method drills students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns.

It also, unlike the Direct Method, has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology. It has principles from behavioral psychology (Skinner, 1957)were incorporated. It was thought that the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the target language was through conditioning—helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement.

• It also, unlike the Direct Method, has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology. It has principles from behavioral psychology (Skinner, 1957)were incorporated. It was thought that the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the target language was through conditioning—helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement.