Information collection & exchange

F
1972. Reprinted by permission. 
EXAMPLE OF THE AUDIOLINGUAL METHOD 
U
L 
I This is a book. That's a door. 
This is a book, and that's a door. 
I.I 
ts with This is a (book) and That's a (door). Use the pictures above or objects in the 
cla
Lesson One 
THINGS IN THE SCHOO
Practice statemen
ssroom. 

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nouns book 
 box 
 chair 
 door 
 map 
 pencil 
 picture 
 table 
 wall 
 window 
 
 
 a 
 and 
 is 
 that 
 this 
 
 
that + is = that’s 
1. book 
a book 
This is a book. 
2. box 
______ 
____________ 
. chair 
______ 
____________ 
3
4. 
___________ 
5. 
____ 
6. door 
7. 
______ 
8. 
___ 
9. window 
10
_ 
____________ 
1.2
_____________ 
 not. 
it 
o 
pencil 
______ 
_
table 
______ 
________
a door 
That's a door. 
map 
______ 
______
picture 
______ 
_________
______ 
____________ 
. wall 
_____
Practice statements with This is a (book), and that's a (door).
book/door 
1. This is a book, and that's a door. 
 
chair/ map 
2. _____________,
 
pencil/picture 
. _____________, _____________ 
3
 
table/window 
4. _____________, _____________ 
 
box/wall 
5. _____________, _____________ 
II Is this/that a book? Yes, it is. 
 this/that a chair? No, it's
Is
n
not 

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yes 
it + is = it's 
1.3
Us
ow, etc.). 
Practice "yes-no questions" with Is this/that a (book)? And the short answers Yes, it is and No, it's not. 
e the pictures and objects in the classroom. S1 means "Speaker 1" (may be student, group, r

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Figure 7.6 From English for Today, Book 1, edited by William R. Slager. McGraw-Hill Book Company, 
1972. Reprinted by permission. 

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Figure 7.7 From English for Today, Book 1, edited by William R. Slager. McGraw-Hill Book Company, 
1972. Reprinted by permission. 
Practical experience with the "pure" Audiolingual Method shows that, one way or another, sophisticated 
tudents will demand grammar explanation from the teacher. In a class of able Japanese students being 
ught the lesson from English for Today, one would expect that sooner or later one of them would ask for 
ord order of "This is a______ " is different from the order of its counterpart in 
apanese. Practical experience using the approach with unsophisticated students shows that they have no 
oint out that the material learned in class is of little relevance in real-life situations. 
hey also point out how boring and artificial drilling is, and how little classroom language drills resemble 
rk is ill advised, in that the postponement denies both teacher and students the 
use
n on the student accustomed to 
riting things down. 
If y
are likely to need or 
ant some grammatical explanation, and if grammar isn't your forte, you'll need some help. Later on in the 
gual your text is, you might also have to augment it with materials to make the lessons more relevant 
nd interesting to your students. If you have students experienced with Grammar Translation, you might 
 Co
 teaching 
here are many variations of communicative language teaching, some of which were discussed in Chapter 
in common is that grammatical aspects of the language are considered 
less important than language use. Students are taught sentences and vocabulary appropriate to situations 
ey find themselves in. In this kind of approach, model sentences and grammatical explanation and practice 
unication. 
xample 
igures 7.8-7.10 are from ExpressWays, a typical communicative textbook. The lessons in the book consist 
information they 
need to create variations on the model. As a final step, students are instructed to provide their own 
info
s
ta
an explanation as to why the w
J
idea how to extract the abstract sentence pattern from the model or drill sentences. They are likely to wind 
up not learning very much at all unless the teacher supplements the drill with translations and direct 
explanations of the meaning of the sentences and words. 
Critics of the approach p
T
actual use of the language. It has also been argued that, with students literate in their native language, the 
postponement of written wo
of well-developed learning tools and places a heavy memory burde
w
Ramifications 
our textbook is based on the Direct Method or Audiolingual Method, your students
w
chapter there is a section on reference grammars, the source of such help. Depending on how purely 
Audiolin
a
have to supplement the textbook with grammar discussion and explanation. 
mmunicative language