Audiolingual Method

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Reading # 8 Richards, J. C. and Rodgers, T.S. Approaches and Methods in laneuaee teachin~. C.U.P., pp. 44
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The AudiolingualMethod

Background
The Coleman Report in 1929 recommended a reading-based approach to foreign language teaching for use in American schools and colleges (Chapter 1). This emphasized teaching the comprehension of texts. Teacliers taught from books containing short reading passages iii the foreigii language, preceded by lists of vocabulary. Rapid silent reading was tlie goal, but in practiceteachers often resorted to discussing the coiitent of the passage in English. Those involved in the teaching of Englisli as a second language in the United States between the two world wars used either a modified Direct Method approach, a reading-based approach, or a reading-oral approach (Darian 1972). Unlike the approach that was being developed by British applied linguists during the same period,there was little attempt to treat language content systematically. Sentence patterns and grammar were introduced at the whiiii of the textbook writer. There was no standardization of the vocabulary or granimar that was included. Neither was there a consensus o n wlint graiiiniar, sentence patterns, and vocabulary were rnost important for beginning, intermediate, or advanced learners. But the entryof the United States into World War 11 had a significant effect on language teaching in America. To supply the U.S. government with personnel who were fluent in German, French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Malay, and other languages, and who could work as interpreters, code-room assistants, and translators, it was necessary to set up a special language training program. The government commissionedAmerican universities to develop foreign language programs for inilitary persoiiiiel. Thus the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) wns establislied in 1942. Fifty-five American universities were involved i n thc program by the beginniñg of 1943. Tlie objective of the army programs was for students to attain conversiitional proficiency in a variety of foreign languages. Since this was not tliegoal of conventional foreign language courses in the United States, iiew approaches were necessary. Linguists, such as Leonnrd Blooiiifield a t Yale, had already developed training prograins as part ot thcir liriguistic research that were designed to give linguists and antliropologists mastery of American Indian lang~iagesand other Ianguager

Richards, J.C. y T.S. Rodgers (1987). TheAudiolingual Method. En Approaches and Methods in language teaching (pp. 44-63). Reino Unido: Cambridge University Press.

Este material es proporcionado al alumno con fines educativos, para la crítica y la investigación respetando la reglamentación en materia de derechos de autor. Este ejemplar no tiene costo alguno. El uso indebido de este ejemplar es responsabilidad del alumno.

The AudiolitzgualMethod they were studying. Texcbooks did not exist for such languages. The technique Bloomfield and his colleagues used was sometiines known as the "informant method," since it used a native speaker of the language - the informant - who served as a source of phrases and vocabulary and who provided sentences f o r imitation, a n d a linguist, who supervised the learning experience. The linguist didnot necessariiy know the language but was trained in eliciting the basic structure of the language from the informant. Thus the students and the linguist were able to take part in guided conversation with the informant, and together they gradually learned how t o speak the lariguage, as well as to understand much of its basic grammar. Students in such courses studied ten hours a day, six days a...