Applied Linguistics Lecture 9: Language Teaching Methods 1 Learning theories in action 1 The Audiolinguial Method (alm)



Download 25.24 Kb.
Date05.08.2017
Size25.24 Kb.
#26562
Applied Linguistics

Lecture 9: Language Teaching Methods
9.1 Learning theories in action
9.1.1 The Audiolinguial Method (ALM)
Also known as the ‘Army Specialized Training Program’ or the “Army Method”

based on the structusalist/behaviorist school of thought

 language is taught through a “scientific descriptive analysis

habit formation model is advocated till error-free utterances are conditioned by reinforcing successful response avoiding errors till extinguished.

 The classical and operant conditioning provided the foundation of mimicry drills and pattern practice of trial-and-error.

 language was thought of to be the surface structure and not meaningful structures.

Major characteristics:


  1. New material is presented in a dialogue form.

  2. There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases, and over-learning.

  3. Structures are sequenced by means of contrastive analysis and taught one at a time.

  4. Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.

  5. There is little or no grammatical explanation: grammar is taught by inductive analogy rather than deductive explanation.

  6. Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.

  7. There is much use of tapes, language labs and visual aids.

  8. Great importance is attached to pronunciation.

  9. Very little use of the mother tongue by teachers is permitted.

  10. Successful responses are immediately reinforced.

  11. There is a great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances

  12. There is a tendency to manipulate language and disregard content.


Advantages:

  • ALM is rooted in theoretical perspectives.

  • Materials were carefully prepared, tested and disseminated to educational institution.

  • Success” could be more overtly experienced students as they practiced their dialogues in off-hours.

Disadvantages:

  • It fails to teach long-term communicative proficiency.

  • Language is NOT learned by habit formation and over learning.

  • Errors are not necessarily avoided.

  • It focuses on the Surface Structures of language only.



9.1.2 Community Language Learning (CLL)

Founder: Charles Curran

Inspired by Rogers’s humanistic view of education,


 The teacher and students join together to facilitate learning through interpersonal communication that values each individual in the group.

 Each person lowers the defenses to communicate freely with less anxiety.

 Teacher is a “counselor” rather than a “threat”

 The teacher’s role is to center his or her attention on the client (the students) and their needs (student-centered learning).


Curran (1972) has designed the “Community Language Learning (CLL)” model for based Rogers’s view:


  • Students (clients) are seated in circles in groups with the teacher (counselor) outside the circle.

  • Students first establish interpersonal relationships in their native language.

  • The student can communicate in the native language (e.g. English) and the counselor translates the utterance back to the learner in the second language (e.g. Japanese).

  • The student can learn by repeating the Japanese sentence.

  • If desirable, the learner can tape the conversation for later listening trying to gain the knowledge about the second language inductively.

  • If desirable, the counselor can be more directive explaining certain linguistic rules or items.

  • After many sessions (moths or years), the learner can gain more familiarity with the foreign language and can communicate more directly, and the teacher can be less directive till the learner becomes independent.

The “Community Language Learning (CLL)” has advantages and disadvantages:




Advantages:


Disadvantages:

  • The teacher can become too nondirective.

  • CLL lacks more direct deductive learning.

  • CLL depends on the translation expertise; if subtle aspects of language are mistranslated, the effectiveness of understanding the target language will be less effective.

9.2 Children and adults: from theory to practice
9.2.1 Total Physical Response (TPR)
Founder: James Asher
 Inspired by the fact that children learn their first language first by listening then speaking,

 and that listening is accompanied by physical response.

 This is because the right brain functions before the left brain.

 Because motor activity is a right-brain function, it should precede language processing.


In TPR,


  • Students do a great deal of listening and acting. They are like actors in a play.

  • Teacher is very directive in orchestrating a performance. He/She is like a director of a stage play.

  • The teacher gives commands to get students move about. “Open the window”; “Close the door”; “Stand up”; “Sit down”; “Pick up the book”; “Give it to John”. No verbal response is necessary.

  • The teacher uses imperatives for more complex syntax “Draw a triangle on the chalkboard”; “Walk quickly to the door and hit it”; “Walk slowly to the door and jump”; and “Put your tooth brush in your book”.

  • The teacher uses interrogativesWhere is the book?”; “Who is John?”; etc. Students feel comfortable enough to venture verbal response to questions and to ask questions and process continues.


Advantages:

  • TPR is effective in the beginning levels of language proficiency.

  • TPR is useful to view class activity.

  • TPR makes the communicative classroom more successful by providing both auditory input and physical activity.

  • TPR is considered a stress-free method where learners are not overly self-conscious and defensive.

Disadvantages:

  • TPR is not distinctive for advanced learners’ competence.


9.2.2 The Natural Approach (NA)
Founders: Steven Krashen & Tracy Terrell
Inspired by Krashen’s theories of Second Language Acquisition
 Learners should benefit from delaying production until speech “emerges”

 Learners should be relaxed in the classroom

 As opposed to TPR, in NA a great deal of communication and acquisition should take place.

 NA advocates the use of TPR at the beginning level of language learning, when “comprehensible input” is essential for triggering language acquisition.


In NA,


  • NA aims at the goal of basic interpersonal communication skills through natural-like everyday language situations- conversations, shopping, listening to the radio, etc-.

  • Learners are remained a “silent period” until they have a “comprehensible input” enabling them to talk.

  • The teacher provides a “comprehensible input” that is understandable to the learners or just a little beyond their level.

  • The teacher provides learners with a “comprehensible input” by creating stimulating variety of classroom activities-commands, games, skits, and small-group work.




Advantages:

  • NA lessens anxiety in which students feel relaxed.


  • Students will be self-confident when they start talking.




Disadvantages:

  • Delaying of oral production till after “comprehensible input” can be pushed too far while the teacher should encourage students to talk from the beginning.

  • The word “comprehensible” is not easy to determine.

  • An over-reliance on the role of input to stimulate the output while language learning is an interactive process.

Reading:

Brown (4th ed.): 103-8

Brown (5th ed.): 78-80; 110-4




LANE 423 –2010/11




Download 25.24 Kb.

Share with your friends:




The database is protected by copyright ©ininet.org 2024
send message

    Main page