Information collection & exchange

 Audiolingual method (ALM) 
 
Background 
During the Second World War, army programs w
s
Audiolingual Method developed from these prog
p
formation. 
Distinguishing Features 
In the Audiolingual Method, skills are taught in the natural order of acquisition: listening, speaking, reading 
and writing. Audiolingual classes begin with a dialogue which introduces the lesson's sentence patterns. The 
students memorize this 
s
minimal pair drills where students learn to differentiate between sounds such as the vowels in "ship" and 
"sheep," "hit" and "heat," and "bit" and "beat." Lessons are sequenced according to grammatical complexity. 
Translation, considered to cause interference from the mother tongue, is not allowed. Learning is tightly 
controlled by the teacher, who follows the text closely. 
Im
Many of your students will be familiar with the type of activities
a
amazed by yo
a
To ensure that mindless chanting does not take over, you may wish to emphasize some of the speed and 
competitiveness promoted by the Audiolingual Method. Some of the games referred to in
h
tasks will oblige your stude
 Communicative language teaching 
The late 1960s saw a shift in focus from the Audiolingual Method and its prototypes to communicative 
language teaching. Figure 2.1 shows some of the differences between Grammar Translation, the 
Audiolingual Method, and Communicative Language Teaching. 
This shift evolved partly as a result of studies carried out by the Council of Europe, which began to identify 
the language needed in a variety of social situations by someone immigrating to Common Market countries. 
T
themselves in various situations. The studies had a major impact on the teaching of English as a foreign 
language. Teachers and curriculum designers began to look at content, at the kind of language needed 

---

when greeting or shopping. The emphasis on form, on explicitly learning grammar rules or practicing 
grammatical patterns, was downplayed in favor of an approach designed to meet learners' needs when 
using the language in daily interaction. 
There is no single text or authority on communicative language teaching. It is referred to as an approach that 
ims to make communication the goal of language teaching. Several models have evolved around this 
rinciple. This chapter presents the Communicative Approach, Total Physical Response, Natural Approach, 
nd Competency-Based Approach. As you will see, these approaches overlap. Communicative activities 
articularly are impossible to pin down to only one approach. 
takes 
lace. For instance, different language will be used when complaining to a teacher than when complaining to 
aking skills the aim is to be understood, not to 
peak like a native. In the sequencing of lessons, priority is given to learner interests and needs. This is in 
contrast to a grammar driven method which may start with verb tenses, and work through from the present 
imple to the conditionals. In the Communicative Approach, if a learner needs to know how to give advice ("If 
ive many examples of the kind of 
ctivities to be found in a classroom following the Communicative Approach. Learners usually work in pairs 
r groups for role play, information sharing, or problem solving. 
igure 2.2 is an extract from Skills for Learning, written by a team of writers at the University of Malaya. The 
g activity.