A-Comparison-Between-the-Audiolingual--and-the-Communicative-Language-Teaching-Approach.doc

A Comparison and Inspiration Between the Audiolingual Method and the Communicative Language Teaching Approach in Engilsh Teaching【Abstract】 The Audiolingual Method and the Communicative Language Teaching Approach are the two basic and important teaching principles .An analysis of the theoretical base、the main features、and a comparison of the basic techniques of the two mehtods lead us to conclude that each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages. There is no hard-and-fast rule. We should select the suitable teaching method or approach to design teaching programs and keep our class procedures more lively and effective.【Key words】the Audiolingual Method the Communicative Language Teaching Approach behaviorist theory interaction structual linguisticscommunicative competence. 1. IntroductionWe live in the world of languages which are used for us to communicate. We need get more and more information from some other countries and communicate with them.This made it necessary to learn some foreign language. But how to learn a second language and how to use it? The research on a second language teaching methodology is related to the development of linguistics, phychology and sociology. Teaching methods are the application of theoretical findingand positions. Nowadays new teaching methods are cropping up one after another. The reseach on language teaching methodology has brought about a great conflict in the field of teaching English as a second language. Involved in this as rivals are, for one side, the defenders of the Communicative Teaching and for the other, the guardians of the Audiolingual Method. Which method should we choose for practise? It is urgent necessityto explore them. An analysis of their theoretical bases and teaching principles will lead us to conclude that each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages. Known these can give us more inspirations for our English teaching. 2. Background and Theoretical Foundation（1）The Audiolingual MethodBackgroundThe Audio-lingual Method was developed in the U.S. during the Second World War. At that time, the U.S. government found it a great necessity to set up a special language-training program to supply the war with language personnel. Therefore, the government commissioned American universities to develop foreign language program for military personnel. Thus the Army Specialized Training Programme (ASTP) was established in 1942.The objectives of the army programme were for students to attain conversational proficiency in a variety of foreign languages. The method used was known as the “informant method” since it used a native speakers of the language, the informant, and a linguist. The informant served as a source of language for imitation, and the linguist supervised the learning experience. The intensive system adopted by the army achieved excellent results. Linguists and applied linguists during this period were becoming increasingly involved in the teaching of English as a foreign language. In 1941 the first English Language institute in the U.S. was established to in the University of Michigan. The director of the institute was Charles Fries who applied the principles of structural linguists to language teaching. The result is an approach which advocated aural training first, then pronunciation training, followed by speaking, reading and writing.The emergence of the Audiolingual Method resulted from the increased attention given to forign language teaching in the United States toward the end of 1950s. Audiolingualism and materials based on audiolingual principles continue to be widely used today.Theoretical FoundationTheoretically, the Audiolingual Method is based on “structural linguistics” and “behavioristic psychology” (Celce-Murcia 1979:17), Structural linguistics regarded language as a system of structurally related elements for encoding meaning These elements are phonemes, morphemes, and syntactic (phrases, clauses, sentence types), structural linguists systematically and scientifically described the different levels of linguistics structure in a langguage. It was assumed that learning a language was a matter of mastering the elements and learning the rules by which these elements are cimbined. An important tenet of structural linguistics was that the primary medium of language is oral: Speech is language. Moulton proclaimed the linguistic principles should be based:” Language is speech, not writing A language is what its native speakers say, not what someone thinks they ought to sayLanguages are different” (quoted in Rivers 1964:5)（2）The Communicative Language Teaching BackgroundCommunicative Language Teaching(CLT) began in Britain in the 1960s as a replacement to the earlier structural method, called Situational Language Teaching. This was partly in response to Chomskys criticisms of structural theories of language and partly based on the theories of British functional linguistis and American sociolinguists. At that time, much more communication was required in the European continent among the countries, and the formation of International Association of Applied Linguistics was also promoted. Under these circumstances, the Communicative Method emerged and was quickly welcomed. Besides these, at that time, the Notional Syllabuses published in 1976 which was proposed by D. A. Wilkins had a significant impact on the development of CLT. Currently, CLT is also greatly accepted and encouraged in Chinese second language classroom, which actives the class and gain great harvest in a communicative way .Theoretical FoundationThe communicative approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as communication. The goal of teaching is develop what Hymes (1972)referred to as “communicative competence.”In Hymess niew, a person who acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for language use. Hymess theory of communicative competence was a definition of what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speechAnother theorist frequently cited for his view on the communicative nature of language is Henry Widdowson. In his book Teaching Language as Communicative (1978), Widdowson presented a view of the relationship between linguistic systems and their communicative values in text and discourse. A more recent but related analysis of communicative competence is found in Canale and Swain (1980), in which four dimensions of communicative competence are identified: grammartical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence. 3. Definition of AudioLingual Method and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)AudioLingual MethodThe Audio-Lingual Method, or the Army Method, is a style of teaching used in teaching foreign languages. It is based on behaviorist theory, which professes that certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through a system of reinforcementcorrect use of a trait would receive positive feedback while incorrect use of that trait would receive negative feedback. The Audio-lingual Method is a method of foreign language teaching which emphasizes the teaching of listening and speaking before reading and writing. It uses dialogues as the main form of language presentation and drills as the main training techniques. Mother tongue is discouraged in the classroom.Communicative LanguageCommunicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. It is also referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” or simply the “Communicative Approach.”4. The main features of The Audiolingual Method and Communicative Language Teaching The Audiolingual Method（1）By drawing on the structural linguistics and behaviourist psychology, the Audiolingual Method formed its own distinctive characteristics. There are mainly five of them: Separation of language skills into listening, speaking, reading and writing, with emphasis on the teaching of listening and speaking before reading and writing; Use of dialogues as the chief means of presenting the language; Emphasis on certain practice techniques: mimicry, memorization and pattern drills; Discouraging the use of the mother tongue in the classroom;Use of language laboratory.(2)The audiolingual Method also believe that speaking and listening are the basic form of verbal communication, therefore reading and writing should come after the first two.(3) The Audiolingual Method uses dialogues to present the language. They hold that dialogues can provide a natural context for the language forms.(4) The Audiolingual Method believes that language is complex system of habits and drills can be used to help form this habit.(5)Foreign language learning results from practice and practice could lead to automatization. Language learning is not a problem of learning the knowledge, but one of practice.(6)The Audiolingual Method believes that only when the learner has a good mastery of both the native and the target language can he be trained to do translation.(7) The Audiolingual Method insists on accurate reproduction of sentence patterns and their attitude towards students language error is negative.(8)A language lab is considered essential in an audiolingual classroom. It provides the opportunity for further drill work and to receive controlled error-free practice of basic structures.(9) Learners are play a reactive role by responding to stimulate, and have little control over the content, pace, or style of learning.(10) The teachers role is central and active. The teacher models the target language, controls the direction and pace of learning, and monitors and corrects the learners performance.The Communicative Language Teaching (1) Language learning is learning to communicate. The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.(2) Classroom goals are focused on all of the components of communicative competence and not restricted to grammatical or linguistic competence(3) Students learn to use the appropriate language forms in the different places.(4) Communicative activities include functional communicative activities and social interaction activities.(5) Teachers are facilitaters, guides, counselors and group process managers.(6) Students are expected to interact with each other rather than with the teacher.(7) Learners should take the responsibility of the failed communication.(8) Language is created by the individual through trial and error. Correction of errors may be absent or infrequent.(9) Students can speak fluently but not accurately.(10) Four language skills are practiced. Reading and Writing can start from the first day, if desired.(11) Its learner-centered and experience-based view of second language teaching (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, p. 69).(12) A wide variety of materials have been used to support communicative approachs to language teaching, such as text-based, task-based, and realia materials.5.Compare Advantages and Disadvantages of the Audiolingual Method and Communicative Language Teaching Approach(1) The Audiolingual MethodAdvantages The Audiolingual Method attempts to make language learning accessible to large group of ordinary learners. With large classes, drills are of particular use in that they maximize student participation.While previous methods tended to be preoccupied with vocabulary and morphology, the Audiolingual Method stresses syntactical progression and uses pattern drills to help the students gain control over grammatical structures, which is a much more interesting way of learning grammar than working through written exercises. Whats more, drilling can be positively beneficial in helping a student to develop his oral ability.The teaching techniques with tape recording and language lab drills offer practice in speaking and listening which are considered of primary importance in language learning. The technique of mim-mem and pattern drills gives students more thorough practice in using grammar pattern. The Audiolingual Method develops the separation of the language skills into a pedagogical device, that is listening, speaking, reading and writing. It lays emphasis on listening and speaking which did not gain so much importance from Grammar-Translation Method. Disadvantages This approach to language learning was similar to another, earlier method called the direct method. Like the direct method, the audio-lingual method advised that students be taught a language directly, without using the students native language to explain new words or grammar in the target language. However, unlike the direct method, the audio-lingual method didnt focus on teaching vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drilled students in the use of grammar. Techniques such as pattern practice, drilling, memorization, etc. might lead to language like behaviour, but they are not resulting in competence. Teachers complain about the lack of effectiveness of the techniques in the long run, and students complain about the boredom caused by endless pattern drills.Learners play a reactive role by responding to stimuli, and thus have little control over the content, pace or style of learning. They are not encouraged to initiate interaction, because this may lead to mistakes. Materials in the Audiolingual Method are primarily teacher-oriented. The teachers book contains the structured sequence of lessons to be followed, an the dialogues, drills, and other practice activities. The audiolingual here ignores the fact that learning can be facilitated if all the channels are open to students.(2) The Communicative Language Teaching Advantages:The most obvious advantage in communicative language teaching is that of the increase of fluency in the target language. Communicative teaching encourge students to participate in, sometimes accompanied by scenes or simulated scenarios, so that students more close to life, the students became the main character, naturally they were interested in the English language, to learn English as a pleasure. This enables the learners to be more confident when interacting with other people and they also enjoy talking more. The approach also leads to gains in the areas of grammatical/sociolinguistic/discourse/strategic competence through communication . Disadvantages: One major disadvantage might be that it is difficult for the teacher alone to check the language use of every student, especially in a big class. The students are allowed to make mistakes but they need to be corrected preferably not whilst in the middle of a conversation - by the teacher in order to improve and so as not to make the same mistake again and again. Therefore it is not helpful if theres only one teacher for one class. Another point concerning the teacher might be that it depends on the teacher how motivating or boring the lesson will be. The teacher needs to prepare the material at home and needs to make it as motivating and creative as possible so that the students find the tasks meaningful and motivating, and are eager to communicate with each other. 6. Summary(1) With the Audio-Lingual Method, instructors would present correct models of sentences and students would have to repeat them. Teachers would then continue the process by presenting new words for students to sample in structures. In audio-lingualism, there is no explicit grammar instructioneverything is simply memorized in its form. The aim is to train students to practice particular constructs until they can use them spontaneously. In this manner, lessons are built on static drills in which students have little or no control on their own output. Teachers are not providing responses that will result in negative feedback. This type of activity, for the foundation of language learning, is in direct opposition with communicative language teaching.(2) As an extension of the notional-functional syllabus, CLT places great emphasis on helping students use target languages in various contexts and learning language functions. Unlike the ALM, its primary focus is to help learners create meanings rather than help them develop perfectly grammatical structures or acquire native-like pronunciation. This means that successful learning of a foreign language is assessed in terms of how well learners have developed their communicative competence. Successful learners can loosely be defined as possessing abilities to apply knowledge of both formal and sociolinguistic aspects of a language with adequate proficiency to communicate. Any teaching practice that helps students develop their communicative competence in an authentic context is deemed an acceptable and beneficial form of instruction. Thus in the classroom, CLT often takes the form of pair and group work requiring negotiation and cooperation between learners, fluency-based activities that encourage learners to develop their confidence, role-plays as well as judicious use of grammar and pronunciation which are in the form of focused activities.7. Inspiration Between the Audiolingual Method and the Communicative Language Teaching ApproachIn my opinion, the Audiolingual Method and the Communicative Language Teaaching Approach are the two different teaching theories. Both of them have its own characteristics. The Aduiolingual Mthod stresses oral skills with accurate pronunciation and grammar and the ability to respond quickly and accurately in speech situations. So for some ABC learners, its useful to help them to get the oral skills, listening skills more quickly. And the Communicative Language Teaching stresses that language learning comes about through using language communicatively,