CPR - Tanger (English Department - class 2011/2012)

Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking in a Second Language

Introduction
Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p. 13). Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance. In order to teach second language learners how to speak in the best way possible, some speaking activities are provided below, that can be applied to ESL and EFL classroom settings, together with suggestions for teachers who teach oral language.
What Is "Teaching Speaking"?
What is meant by "teaching speaking" is to teach ESL learners to:
• Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns
• Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language.
• Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter.
• Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence.
• Use language as a means of expressing values and judgements.
• Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency.
How To Teach Speaking
Now many linguistics and ESL teachers agree on that students learn to speak in the second language by "interacting"communicative language teaching and collaborative learning serve best for this aim. Communicative language teaching is based on real-life situations that require communication. By using this method in ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other in the target language. In brief, ESL teachers should create a classroom environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that promote oral language. This can occur when students collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task.
Activities To Promote Speaking
1- Discussions
After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons. The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups. Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher. In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things. For example, students can become involved in agree/disagree discussions. In this type of discussions, the teacher can form groups of students, preferably 4 or 5 in each group, and provide controversial sentences like “people learn best when they read vs. people learn best when they travel”. Then each group works on their topic for a given time period, and presents their opinions to the class. It is essential that the speaking should be equally divided among group members. At the end, the class decides on the winning group who defended the idea in the best way. This activity fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and students learn how to express and justify themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with the others. For efficient group discussions, it is always better not to form large groups, because quiet students may avoid contributing in large groups. The group members can be either assigned by the teacher or the students may determine it by themselves, but groups should be rearranged in every discussion activity so that students can work with various people and learn to be open to different ideas. Lastly, in class or group discussions, whatever the aim is, the students should always be encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so on.
2- Role Play
One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing. Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles. In role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel. Thus, the teacher can tell the student that "You are David, you go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night, and…" (Harmer, 1984)
3- Simulations
Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations different than role plays is that they are more elaborate. In simulations, students can bring items to the class to create a realistic environment. For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on. Role plays and simulations have many advantages. First, since they are entertaining, they motivate the students. Second, as Harmer (1984) suggests, they increase the self-confidence of hesitant students, because in role play and simulation activities, they will have a different role and do not have to speak for themselves, which means they do not have to take the same responsibility.
4- Information Gap
In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs. One student will have the information that other partner does not have and the partners will share their information. Information gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information. Also, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the information the others need. These activities are effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language.
5- Brainstorming
On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time. Depending on the context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate ideas quickly and freely. The good characteristics of brainstorming are that the students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas.
6- Storytelling
Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates. Story telling fosters creative thinking. It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have. Students also can tell riddles or jokes. For instance, at the very beginning of each class session, the teacher may call a few students to tell short riddles or jokes as an opening. In this way, not only will the teacher address students’ speaking ability, but also get the attention of the class.
7- Interviews
Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people. It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions. Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized. After interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class. Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his or her partner to the class.
8- Story Completion
This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which students sit in a circle. For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he or she stops narrating. Then, each student starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped. Each student is supposed to add from four to ten sentences. Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on.
9- Reporting
Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine and, in class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news. Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth telling their friends in their daily lives before class.
10- Playing Cards
In this game, students should form groups of four. Each suit will represent a topic. For instance:
• Diamonds: Earning money
• Hearts: Love and relationships
• Spades: An unforgettable memory
• Clubs: Best teacher
Each student in a group will choose a card. Then, each student will write 4-5 questions about that topic to ask the other people in the group. For example:

If the topic "Diamonds: Earning Money" is selected, here are some possible questions:
• Is money important in your life? Why?
• What is the easiest way of earning money?
• What do you think about lottery? Etc.
However, the teacher should state at the very beginning of the activity that students are not allowed to prepare yes-no questions, because by saying yes or no students get little practice in spoken language production. Rather, students ask open-ended questions to each other so that they reply in complete sentences.
11- Picture Narrating
12- This activity is based on several sequential pictures. Students are asked to tell the story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria provided by the teacher as a rubric. Rubrics can include the vocabulary or structures they need to use while narrating.
13- Picture Describing
Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is to give students just one picture and having them describe what it is in the picture. For this activity students can form groups and each group is given a different picture. Students discuss the picture with their groups, then a spokesperson for each group describes the picture to the whole class. This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills.
14- Find the Difference
For this activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given two different pictures, for example, picture of boys playing football and another picture of girls playing tennis. Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in the pictures.
Suggestions For Teachers in Teaching Speaking
Here are some suggestions for English language teachers while teaching oral language:
• Provide maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by providing a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials and tasks, and shared knowledge.
• Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice different ways of student participation.
• Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time. Step back and observe students.
• Indicate positive signs when commenting on a student's response.
• Ask eliciting questions such as "What do you mean? How did you reach that conclusion?" in order to prompt students to speak more.
• Provide written feedback like "Your presentation was really great. It was a good job. I really appreciated your efforts in preparing the materials and efficient use of your voice…"
• Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking. Correction should not distract student from his or her speech.
• Involve speaking activities not only in class but also out of class; contact parents and other people who can help.
• Circulate around classroom to ensure that students are on the right track and see whether they need your help while they work in groups or pairs.
• Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities.
• Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves in the target language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken language.
Conclusion
Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning. The ability to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life. Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking. Rather than leading students to pure memorization, providing a rich environment where meaningful communication takes place is desired. With this aim, various speaking activities such as those listed above can contribute a great deal to students in developing basic interactive skills necessary for life.These activities make students more active in the learning process and at the same time make their learning more meaningful and fun for them.

أشهر نظريات التعلم :

للتعلم نظريات متعددة ومن اشرها في المجال نظريات التعلم السلوكي والإدراكي والبنائي. وهي على النحو التالي:

المدرسة السلوكيةBehaviorism School :

أسسها ثورندايك Thorndike (1913) وبافلوف Pavlov (1927) وسكنر Skinner (1974) والتي ترتكز على أن التعلم هو تغير في السلوك الملحوظ والناتج عن الاستجابات للمثيرات الخارجية في البيئة (Skinner, 1974)والسلوكية تجعل من المتعلم كالصندوق الأسود black box وترى أن العمليات الداخلية العقلية لدى المتعلم غير مهمة، حيث يرى سكنر انه من المستحيل إثبات العمليات الداخلية بأي إجراءات علمية متاحة، ويجب أن يتم التأكيد في الأبحاث على العلاقة بين السبب والنتيجة والتي يمكن تأسيسها بالملاحظة. (Gilbert and Dabbagh, 2005)
و نظم التعلم المعتمدة على الحاسب المبكرة تم تصميمها وتطويرها اعتمادا على المدرسة السلوكية في التعلم Behavior approach
أهم خصائص التعلم من المدخل السلوكي:
للمدرسة السلوكية خصائص تميزها عن غيرها في تفسيرها للتعلم ومن أبرز خصائصها ما يلي:
- يحدث التعلم عند الاستجابة الصحيحة التي تتبع مثير معين.
- يمكن التحقق من حدوث التعلم بالملاحظة الحسيه للمتعلم على فترات زمنيه.
- يركز على القياسات والملاحظات السلوكية.
- يستخدم مبدأ أن المتعلم صندوق ما يحدث بالداخل غير معلوم.
- يركز على العلاقة بين متغيرات البيئية والسلوك.
- التعليم يعتمد على استخدام التعزيز والمتابعة لسلوك المتعلم.
- السلوك يوجه بالأغراض والغايات.
- الأسباب تعزى للسلوك.
- يتم التحديد المسبق للشروط التي تحقق حدوث السلوك

المدرسة الإدراكيةCognitivism School :

في مرحلة لاحقة عن المدرسة السلوكية أتت المدرسة الإدراكية في التعلم Cognitive School والتي ترى أن التعلم هو عملية عقلية والمتمثل في استخدام الذاكرة، والدافعية والتفكير وان الانعكاسات تلعب دور رئيس في التعلم، والإدراكيون يرون أن التعلم عملية داخلية، وان محتوى التعلم يكون بقدر سعة وعمق معالجة المعلومات لدى المتعلم و على بنية المعلومات لديه (Anderson and Elloumi,
أهم خصائص التعلم من المدخل الإدراكي:
تتميز المدرسة الإدراكية في التعلم بالخصائص التالية:
- التعلم هو تغير في حالة الإدراك والمعرفة.
- تحقق المعرفة يوصف بأنه نشاط عقلي يستلزم الترميز والبنية العقلية الداخلية عند المتعلم.
- المتعلم ينظر إليه كمشارك نشط في عملية التعلم.
- التركيز في بناء قوالب المعرفة (على سبيل المثال التعرف على المتطلبات السابقة للمحتوى الذي يتم تعلمه )
- التركيز على البناء والتنظيم والترتيب لتسهيل المعالجة المثلى للمعلومات.
- التركيز على كيفية التذكر، والاسترجاع، والتخزين للمعلومات في الذاكرة.
- التعلم يرى على انه عمليه نشطة والتي تتم من خلال المتعلم والتي يمكن أن تتأثر بالمتعلم.
- مخرجات التعلم لا تعتمد فقط على ما يقدم المعلم ولكن على ما يفعله المتعلم من أجل معالجة المعلومات.

المدرسة البنائيةConstructivismSchool :
تعد من أكثر المداخل التربوية التي ينادي بها التربيون في العصر الحديث، وهي تتداخل مع الإدراكية في كثير من النقاط إلا أنها تتميز عنها بتأكيدها على توظيف التعلم من خلال السياق الحقيقي، والتركيز على أهمية البعد الاجتماعي في إحداث التعلم. والمدرسة البنائية لها أكثر من منظور في التعلم وهي بشكل عام تؤكد على أن الفرد يفسر المعلومات والعالم من حوله بناء على رؤيته الشخصية، وان التعلم يتم من خلال الملاحظة والمعالجة والتفسير أو التأويل ومن ثم يتم الموائمة أو التكييف للمعلومات بناء على البنية المعرفية لدى الفرد، وان تعلم الفرد يتم عندما يكون في سياقات حقيقية واقعيه وتطبيقات مباشره لتحقيق المعاني لديه. (Anderson and Elloumi, 2004)

والتعلم البنائي يرى أن المتعلم نشط وغير سلبي وان المعرفة لا يتم استقبالها من الخارج أو من أي شخص بل هي تأويل ومعالجة المتعلم لأحاسيسه أثناء تكون المعرفة، والمتعلم هو محور عملية التعلم بينما يلعب المعلم دور الميسر ومشرف على عملية التعلم، ويجب أن تتاح الفرصة للمتعلمين في بناء المعرفة عوضا عن استقبال المعرفة من خلال التدريس (Duffy and Cunningham, 1996) واهم نشاط في التعلم البنائي هو التعلم الواقعي situated learning والذي يرى أن التعلم يتم في السياق contextualize.
وللبنائية في التعلم أوجه متعددة، حيث أكدت أعمال بياجيه (Piaget,1960) وبرونر (Bruner ,1990) على فكرة انه ما يحصل في العقل يجب أن يكون قد تم بنائه بالفرد عن طريق المعرفة بالاكتشاف، مع التركيز على عملية التمثيل assimilation والتكييف accommodation للمعرفة، ويكون الإحساس بالمعنى متلازم مع التفسير الذاتي للفرد. بينما يؤكد ديوي Dewey على أن المعرفة تتم من خلال النشاط والخبرة وفي ربط الأشياء والتي يتم فيها التفاعل مع البيئة بما فيها الشق الاجتماعي، والتعلم عملية نشطة للبناء وليست اكتساب للمعرفة، وان المعرفة لا تقتصر على الحالة العقلية mental state بل تتجاوز ذلك إلى الخبرة في علاقات الأشياء ببعضها وليس لها معنى خارج هذه العلاقات (Dewey, 1910/1981, p. 185). وفي منظور آخر يقدم فيجوتسكي Vygotsky التعلم البنائي الاجتماعي Social constructivism والتي يؤكد فيها على السياق الثقافي والاجتماعي للتأثير على التعلم من خلال تفاعل الأطفال مع اقرأنهم والآباء والمعلمين في التطوير الإدراكي cognitive development، ويرى هانج Hung أن البنائية تركز على التالي:

- التعلم هو عملية بنائية نشطة ولا تتم عبر اكتساب سلبي للمعرفة.
- يمكن أن تبنى المعرفة في سياق اجتماعي.
- أن تفسير المعرفة يعتمد على عاملين وهما المعرفة والاعتقادات السابقة في الذاكرة. وعلى السياق الثقافي والاجتماعي الذي تبنى من خلاله (Hunge, 2001, 283)
أهم خصائص التعلم من المدخل البنائي:
تبرز خصائص التعلم البنائي في عدد من النقاط ومنها ما يلي:
- المتعلم يبني الترجمة الخاصة به للعالم بالاعتماد على التجارب والتفاعل.
- المعرفة مضمنه في السياق الذي تستخدم فيه (المهام الحقيقية تعطي تعلم ذو معنى في الأوضاع الواقعية)
- يولد فهم جديد عن طريق تجميع المعرفة من مصادر متنوعة تلاؤم المشكله التي يتم دراستها (استخدام مرن للمعرفة flexible use of knowledge)
- الاعتقاد بان هناك أكثر من طريقه وأكثر من منظور لتنظيم العالم وكياناته (منظور متعدد للبنيه في بيئات التعلم)
- الاعتقاد بان المعاني توجد بواسطة الأفراد عوضا عن تواجدها في العالم بشكل مستقل.
ويوضح الجدول(1) مقارنة بين نظريات التعلم الثلاث من خلال بعض محاور المقارنة مع ملاحظة أن المؤلف قسم البنائية إلى قسمين بنائيه بسيطة وبنائيه اجتماعيه

الجدول (1)
Key concepts of dominantlearning theories
مفاتيح المفاهيم في نظريات التعلم الغالبة

البنائيةالاجتماعية
Socialconstructivist

البنائية
Constructivist

الإدراكية
Cognitivism

السلوكية
Behaviorist

النظرية
المحور

استخدام وسائط مناقشة لغويه من منظورات متعددة

الاكتشاف الشخصي والممارسة

تحويل ومعالجة المعلومات والاستراتجيات

المثير والاستجابة

التعلم

التعلم التعاوني وأسلوب حل المشكلات

حل المشكلات في الأوضاع الواقعية والاستقصائية

الحفظ وتطبيق القواعد

الحفظ والاستظهار

نمط التعلم
Learning Style

التخطيط للدعم (سقالات) scaffolds في خطوات التعلم

التخطيط لمتعلم نشط ومنظم ذاتيا

التخطيط لاستراتيجيات تعلم إدراكي

العرض للتدريب والتغذية الراجعة

استراتيجيات التعليم

اكتشاف منظورات متعددة ومعاني مشتركة

الاكتشاف الذاتي

إعادة الإنتاج والتوسع

التعزيز

مدونة الأسرة

http://www.pogar.org/publications/other/laws/family/morocco-familycode2004-a.pdf

hhhh

that's a bitter truth..

oh !! interesting

وثائقي أسرار لغة الجسد

Lesson planning

A lesson plan provides a guide for managing the learning environment. As one of the teacher’s roles is that of designer and implementor of instruction, the preparation of lesson plan will ensure the organization of the English lesson according to some criteria. In this post I will present the components of a lesson plan.

Components of lesson plans
Lesson plans must include these components:

Information about the learners.
Objectives:
Lesson plans must involve a unifying theme, an overall general purpose to accomplish by the end of the lesson period. They must include clear statements of what learners will be able to do by the end of the lesson. For example:
Enable learners to…
or by the end of the lesson students will be able to…
Procedure
Logical sequencing
Who does what?
How much time?
How to do?
What to do?
Aids
Realia, data show, audio-visual aid…
Anticipated difficulties and reserve tasks
What might go wrong?
How to deal with it?
Follow up and assignment.
Prepare a follow up that help students personalise their new knowledge.
Assign a homework whenever possible to keep learners busy at home.
Include an evaluation to get feedback at the end of each unit.
Things to consider when prepeing lesson plans
Here are a few things to consider:

Be clear about what you want to include in your lesson. Having a an overall knowledge of what you want to accomplish will provide clarity and cohesion to your lesson.
A lesson must have a unity. There should be a kind of natural movement from one section to another.
A lesson plan shouldn’t be too challenging or too easy. Predetermine whether or not you are trying to accomplish too much or whether or not your activities are far bleow students abilities. This has important consequences as far as students motivation is concerned.
Prepare reserve activities in case of unpredictable events.

The Audiolingual Method

Ⅰ. Key points
1.Definition (定义)
The Audiolingual 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.
2.Background
The Audiolingual 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 ”(当地人法), 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(弗里斯), 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 to foreign language teaching in the U.S. towards the end of the 1950s.The need for a radical change and rethinking of foreign language teaching methodology made language teaching specialists set about developing a method that was applicable to conditions in U.S. college and university classrooms. They drew on the earlier experience of the army programmes and the Aural-Oral or structural Approach developed by Fries and his colleagues, adding insights taken from behaviorist psychology. This combination of structural linguistic theory, aural-oral procedures, and behaviourist psychology led to the Audiolingual Method, which was widely adopted for teaching foreign languages in North American colleges and universities.
3.Theoretical Basis
1) theory of language
The theory of language underlying Audiolingualism was derived from a view proposed by American linguists in the 1930s and 1940s. The view then came to be known as structural linguistics with Bloomfield and Fries as its representatives. Structural linguistics views language as a system of structurally related elements for the expression of meaning. These elements are phonemes, morphemes, words, structures, and sentence types. The grammatical system consists of a list of grammatical elements and rules for their linear combination into words, phrases, phrases and sentences.
According to a structural view, language has the following characteristics:
(1) Elements in a language are produced in a rule-governed (structural) way
(2) Language samples could be exhaustively described at any structural level of description.
(3) Language is structural like a pyramid, that is, linguistic level is system within system.
(4) Language is speech, not writing.
(5) Languages are different.
The views of language above offered the foundation for the Audio lingual Method.
2) Theory of learning
1）Behaviourist psychology
The learning theory of Audiolingualism is behavioral psychology which is an empirically based approach to the study of human behaviour. Behaviourism tries to explain how an external event (a stimulus) caused a change in the behaviour of an individual(a response) without using concepts like“mind”or “ideas” or any kind of mental behaviour. Behaviourist psychology states that people are conditioned to learn many forms of behaviour, including language, through the process of training or conditioning.
(2) The three crucial elements in learning: a stimulus, a response and reinforcement. (学习中三个决定性因素：刺激、反应和强化)
The occurrence of these behaviours is dependent upon three crucial elements in learning: a stimulus, which serves to elicit behaviour; a response triggered by a stimulus; and reinforcement, which serves to mark the response as being appropriate (or inappropriate) and encourage the repetition (or suppression) of the response in the future. Learning is thus described as the formation of association between stimuli and responses.
(3) The application of this theory to language learning(该理论在语言学习中的运用)
To apply this theory to language learning is to identify the organism as the foreign language learner, the behaviour as verbal behaviour, the stimulus as what is taught (language input), the response as the learner’s reaction to the stimulus, and the reinforcement as the approval or praise (or discouragement) of the teacher or fellow students.
(4) Language learning: a mechanical process of habit formation(语言学习：一个机械的习惯形成过程)
According to this behaviourist psychology, learning a language is a process of acquiring a set of appropriate language stimulus-response chains, a mechanical process of habit formation.
4.Basic Principles(基本原则)
1） Main features(主要特征)
By drawing on the structural linguistics and behaviourist psychology, the Audiolingual Method formed its own distinctive characteristics.
There are mainly five of them:
(1) Separation of language skills into listening, speaking, reading and writing, with emphasis on the teaching of listening and speaking before reading and writing;(
(2) Use of dialogues as the chief means of presenting the language
(3) Emphasis on certain practice techniques: mimicry, memorization and pattern drills;
(4) Discouraging the use of the mother tongue in the classroom
(5) Use of language lab.
(6) Objectives

3) Techniques（教学技巧）
Dialogues and pattern practice form the basis of audiolingual classroom practice. The use of them is a distinctive feature of the Audiolingual Method. The techniques used by the Audiolingual Method are:
(1) Repetition drill（重复练习）：This drill is often used to teach the lines of the dialogue. Students are asked to repeat the teacher’s model as accurately and as quickly as possible.e.g.:
T S
This is a book→This is a book.
Students do this without looking at their book. They have to produce the appropriate sounds first.
(2) Substitution drill( 替换练习)：The students repeat the line from the dialogue which the teacher has given them, substituting the cue into the line in its proper place. e.g.:
T C S
They drink wine. → beer→They drink beer.
→coffee→They drink coffee.
→tea→They drink tea.
The major purpose of this drill is to give the students practice in finding and filling in the slots of a sentence.
(3) Question-and-answer drill(问答练习)：The drill gives students practice with answering questions. The students should answer the teacher’s question very quickly. It is also possible for the teacher to cue the students to ask questions as well. This gives students practice with the question pattern. e.g.
1. T: Are there any questions? Ss: No, there aren’t any.
T: Is there any milk? Ss: No, there isn’t any.
T: Are there any sandwiches? Ss: No, there aren’t any.
T: Is there any wine? Ss: No, there isn’t any.
2. T: he read The Times Ss: What did he read?
T: He said “Good morning.” Ss: What did he say?
T: He saw “The Sound of Music. ” Ss: What did he see?
(4) Expansion drill(扩展句子训练)：This drill helps students to produce longer sentence bit by bit, gradually achieving fluency. The main structure is repeated first, then students have to put cue phrase in its proper place. e.g.
T: They go to the cinema.
Ss: They go to the cinema.
T: On Sundays
Ss: They go to the cinema on Sundays.
T: Always.
Ss: They always go to the cinema on Sundays.
T: Nearly.
Ss: They nearly always go to the cinema on Sundays.
(5) Clause combination drill (合并句子练习)：Students learn to combine two simple sentences into a complex one. e.g.
T: It may rain. He’ll stay at home.
Ss: If it may rain, he’ll stay at home.
T: It may be sunny. We’ll go to the beach.
Ss: If it may be sunny, we’ll go to the beach.
T: It may snow. They’ll go skating.
Ss: If it may snow, they’ll go skating.
(6) Background build-up drill( or backchaining逆向读句练习):This drill is used when a long line of dialogue is giving students trouble. The teacher breaks down the line into several parts. The students repeat a part of the sentence, usually the last phrase of the line. Then, following the teacher’s cue, the students expand what they are repeating part by part until they are able to repeat the entire line. The teacher begins with the part at the end of the sentence (and works backward from there) to keep the intonation of the line as natural as possible. This also directs more student attention to the end of the sentence, where new information typically occurs. e.g.
T: the flowers
Ss: the flowers
T: watering the flowers
Ss: watering the flowers
T: is watering the flowers
Ss: is watering the flowers
T: Ian is watering the flowers.
Ss: Ian is watering the flowers.
(7)Chain drill(完成链接练习) ：A chain drill gets its name from the chain of conversation that forms around the classroom as students, one-by-one, ask and answer questions of each other. The teacher begins the chain by greeting a particular student, or asking him a question. That student responds, and then turns to the student sitting next to him. e.g.
T: Hello, what’s your name?
S1: My name is John Smith. (He turns to the student next to her.) Hello, what’s your name?
S2: My name is Mary Clinton. (She turns to the student next to her.) Hello, what’s your name?
S3: My name is Peter.
……
(8)Completion (完成句子练习)：Students hear an utterance that is complete except for one word, and then repeat the utterance in completed form. e.g.
T: I’ll go my way and you go_____
Ss: I’ll go my way and you go yours.
T: We all have____own troubles.
Ss: We all have our own troubles.
(9) Use of minimal pairs (最小成对练习，又称语音辨别练习) ：The teacher works with pair of words which differ in only one sound; students are first asked to find the difference between the two word and later to say the two words. e.g.
ship—sheep live—leave leap—lip bit—beat
4)Procedures(教学步骤)
In a typical audiolingual lesson the following procedures will be observed:
(1)Recognition (认别) : Students first hear a model dialogue (either read by the teacher or on the tape) containing the key structures that are the focus of the lesson and try to understand the meaning of the dialogue with the help of the teacher’s gestures, mime, and context or situation established in advance.
(2)Imitation and repetition (模仿和复述)：The students repeat each line of the dialogue, individually and in chorus. The students must imitate the right pronunciation, intonation and fluency.
(3) Pattern drills (句型操练)：Certain key structures from the dialogue are selected and used as the basis for pattern drills of different kinds.
(4) Follow-up activities (补充练习)：The students now are allowed to look at their textbooks. They are usually asked to do some follow-up reading, writing or vocabulary activities. This will guide their use of the language.

A sample lesson
In order to come to a better understanding of this method, let us now enter a classroom where the Audiolingual Method is being used. The students are English beginners:
Class begins, the teacher reads the following dialogue to the students who are expected to imitate and eventually memorize it:
T: All right, class. I’m going to read a dialogue to you. Listen carefully.
Sally: Good morning, Bill.
Bill: Good morning, Sally.
Sally: How are you?
Bill: Fine, thanks. And you?
Sally: Fine. Where are you going?
Bill: I’m going to the post office.
Sally: I am too. Shall we go together?
Bill: Sure. Let’s go.
T: Listen one more time. This time try to understand all that I am saying. (Now the teacher has the whole class listen to her. Sometimes she uses actions to help convey meaning. All of the teacher’s instructions are in English.)
T: Understand? Now I’m going to repeat the dialogue. Say each of the lines of the dialogue after me. (The students repeat each line several times before moving on to the next line, When the class comes to the line “I’m going to the post office”, they stumble a bit in their repetition. The, at this point, stops the repetition and uses a backward build-up drill. )
T: Repeat after me: post office.
Ss: post office.
T: to the post office
Ss: to the post office
T: going to the post office
Ss: going to the post office
T: I’m going to the post office.
Ss: I’m going to the post office.
(The students repeat the dialogue after the teacher several times.)
T: Good. Now I’m going to talk for Sally and talk for Bill.
T: Good morning, Bill.
Ss: Good morning, Sally.
T: How are you?
Ss: Fine, thanks. And you?
T: Fine. Where are you going?
Ss: I’m going to the post office.
T: I am too. Shall we go together?
Ss: Sure. Let’s go.
Next the class and the teacher switch roles in order to practise a little more, the teacher saying Bill’s line and class saying Sally’s. Then the teacher divides the class in half so that each half gets to try say on their own either Bill’s or Sally’s line. To further practise the lines of this dialogue, the teacher has all the boys in the class take Bill’s part and all the girls take Sally’s.
T: Fine. Now. Look at John and me. Then do the same.
T: Good morning, John.
J: Good morning. Miss Brown.
T: How are you?
J: Fine, thanks. And you?
T: Fine.
Then John understands through the teacher’s gestures that he is to turn to the student sitting beside him and greet her. That student, in turn, says her lines in reply to him. When she has finished, she greets the students on the other side of her. This chain continues until all of the students have a chance to ask and answer the questions. Since there are 40 students in the class, the teacher divides the class in half and asks the other half do the same. The last student from each half directs their greeting to each other.
T: Now, I’d like two of you to perform the whole dialogue for the class. Anyone wants to try? (A boy and a girl put up their hand, when they have finished, two others do the same. Not everyone has a chance to say the dialogue, but by now the teacher is sure the students know the dialogue rather well.)
T: Now, look at these pictures: a bank, a drugstore, a park, a bus station, a library, a school (Each time she shows a picture, she says the phrase, and the students get the meaning and sound of that phrase.) I’m going to the bank.(From her example the students realize that they are supposed to take the cue phrase, “the bank”, which the teacher supplies, and put it into its proper place in the sentence. )
T: I’m going to the bank---the drugstore
Ss: I’m going to the drugstore.
T: the bus station
Ss: I’m going to the bus station.
T: the park
Ss: I’m going to the park.
T: the library
……
After the students have gone through the drill sequence three times, the teachers no longer provides a spoken cue phrase. Instead she simply shows the pictures at a time, and the students repeat the entire sentence putting the name of the place in the picture in the appropriate slot in the sentence.
T: Now, I’m going to the post office. Sally. (The students understand and produce “Sally is going to the post office.”)
T: Bill
Ss: Bill is going to the post office.
T: to the park
Ss: Bill is going to the park.
T: she
Ss: She is going to the park.
T: Bill and Sally
Ss: They are going to the park.
T: to the post office
Ss: They are going to the post office.
T: Very good. Next we’ll do different thing. I say, “She is going to the post office.” You make a question by saying, “Is she going to the post office? ” I say, “He is going to the park.” You ask, “is he going to the park?” Does everybody understand? Ok, let’s begin.
T: They are going to the park.
Ss: Are they going to the park?
T: My mother is going to the drugstore.
Ss: Is she going to the drugstore?
……
When the class has had enough practice, the teacher decides to move on to the next drill.
T: (Points at a picture) Are you going to the football field? (She answers her own question.) Yes I’m going to the football field. (She holds up a picture of a school.) Are you going to the school? (She herself answers.) Yes, I’m going to the school. (Then she poses a question to the class.) Are you going to the library? (The class respond together.) Yes, I’m going to the library.
T: Very good. (She again shows the class one of the pictures, a supermarket this time, and asks.) Are you going to the bus station? (She answers her own question.) No, I’m going to the supermarket. Now, answer my questions according to the pictures I show you.
T: (Holding up a picture of a library) Are you going to the library?
Ss: Yes, I’m going to the library.
T: (turns to student 1 with a picture of a school) Are you going to the library?
S1: No, I’m going to the school.
T: (Turns to student 2 with a picture of a park) Are you going to the school?
S2: No, I’m going to the park.
T: Good. Now look at the dialogue in your book, read it in pairs and then use the phrases on the phrases on the blackboard to take the place of “the post office.” Work in pairs. (She writes the following phrases on the blackboard: the park, the school, the café, the bus station, the supermarket, the drugstore, the library, etc.)
For the final few minutes of the class, the teacher returns to the dialogue with which she begins the lesson. She repeat it once, then has one half do Bill’s lines and the other half do Sally’s. The students move through the dialogue smoothly. They then swap roles and do the same. The teacher smiles, “Very good. Class dismissed.” (Adapted from Larsenfreeman, 1986)
5. Summary and Comments (总结和评价)
1) Advantages: (优点)
（1）The first method to have a theory (第一个具有理论基础的外语教学法)
The audiolingual theory is probably the first language teaching theory that openly claims to be derived from linguistics and psychology.
(2) Making language teaching possible to large groups of learners (使语言教学得以大范围地在学习者中进行)
It attempts to make language learning accessible to large groups of ordinary learners. With large classes, drills are of particular use in that they maximize student participation.
(3) Emphasizing sentence production , control over grammatical structures and development of oral ability (强调句法、掌握语法结构、提高口语能力)
The Audiolingual Method stresses syntactical progression and uses pattern drill to help the students gain control over grammatical structures, which is a much more interesting way of learning grammar than working through written exercises. What’s more, drilling can be positively beneficial in helping a student to develop his oral ability.
(4) Developing simple techniques and making use of language lab (教法简单易行，使用语言实验室)
It leads to the development of simple techniques of varied, graded, and intensive practice of specific features of the language, and more scientifically selected and systematically arranged materials and structural patterns to go with. Moreover, the teaching techniques with tape recordings and language lab drills offer practice in speaking and listening which are considered of primary importance in language learning.
(5)Developing the separation of the language skills (对语言能力进行了分类)
The Audiolingual Method develop 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.
2)Disadvantages(缺点)
（1）Weak basis of its theory(理论基础薄弱)
The theoretical basis of the Audiolingual Method was found to be weak. The behaviourist theory could not possibly serve, as a model of how humans learn language, since much of human language is not imitated behaviour, but is created anew from underlying knowledge of abstract rules.
(2) Not developing language competence , lack of effectiveness , and boredom caused by endless pattern drills (不能发展语言能力 ，效果不大 ，句型操练枯燥无味)
Techniques such as pattern practice, drilling, memorization, etc. might lead to language like behavior, 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.
（3）Learners having little control over their learning (学习者几乎无法控制他们的学习)
Learners play a reactive role by respond 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.
(4) Teacher’s domination of the class (教师控制着课堂的教学活动)
The teacher’s role is central and active .It is the teacher who always dominates the class. The teacher models the target language, controls the direction and pace of learning, and monitors and corrects the learner’s performance.
(5)Teacher-oriented materials(教材的编写以教师为中心)
Materials in the audiolingual Method are primarily teacher-oriented. The teacher’s book contains the structured sequence of lessons to be followed, and the dialogues, drill, and other practice activities.
II.points for discussion (思考题及参考答案)
1．Is there anything in Audiolingual Method you find useful in your teaching situation? Why or why not?
Yes, there are many useful things we can learn from the Audiolingual Method. (1)It states language is a structured system and rule governed. If language learning were organized according to its structure, language learning would be easier, especially to adult learners. (2)The Audiolingual Method considers language ability made up of four skills and these skills can be taught separately. Since the natural order of skill acquisition is listening, speaking, reading, and writing, the Method gives the primary stress to the first two of the four skills. Speech is more basic to language than the written form, and listening and speaking are the basic form of verbal communication. In the classroom, the language skills are taught in the order of listening, speaking, reading and writing. (3)Using pattern drills is the center of practice in Audiolingual Method. It can help students not only gain control over grammatical structures, but also develop their oral ability. (4)The Audiolingual method also provides language teachers with many useful techniques. The simple drilling techniques provide varied, graded and intensive practice of specific features of the language. The simple and direct approach is especially appropriate for young students and less gifted ones. Moreover, teaching technique with tape recordings and language lab drills offer practice in speaking and listening, which are considered of primary importance in language learning.
2.What conditions are needed if you want to apply the Audiolingual Method in your teaching?
The general objective of the Audiolingual Method is to enable the students to use the target language comunicatively. They should be able to respond quickly and accurately in speech situation. Therefore, teaching materials should be structurally based; the chief means of presenting the language should be the use of dialogues. And it is better to have tape recorders and other audiolingual equipment which often have central roles in an audiolingual classroom. A language lab is considered essential in it. If these conditions are met, we could possibly apply the Audiolingual Method in our teaching.
3.Does it make sense to you that language learning results from habit formation? Why or why not?
To a certain extent, language learning results from habit formation. The model of stimulus-response- reinforcement accounts for how a human being learns a language. In learning language, the stimulus is what is taught (language input), the response is the learner’s reaction to the stimulus, and the reinforcement is the praise of the teacher or fellow students. The habit is the result of stimulus, correct response and reward again and again. The more frequently this happens, the stronger the habit becomes. Language learning is a process of acquiring a set of language stimulus-response chains, a mechanical process of habit formation.
4.Should the commission of errors be prevented as much as possible? Why or why not?
It depends on the using of language situation and the purpose of language teaching. When the focus of teaching is on language form, and when the students are doing mechanical pattern drills in the classroom, the teacher should correct the students whenever errors are committed. But when the students are engaged in communication, and the focus is on getting meaning across, errors should not be tacked on the spot, because they would be too much concerned with language forms and would never develop oral ability. Unless communication is affected by the errors, students should not be corrected. In the same way, there might be more correction of errors in written than in oral communication.
5.Should the major focus be on the structural pattern of the target language? Why or why not?
It depends on the developmental language stages of the learners. The major forms could be on the structural pattern of the target language when your objective at the beginning stage is to get the students to master the structures of the language. It also depends on your view of language and your view of language teaching. If you hold that language is a system of structures without considering the other aspects of the language, the major focus should be on the structural patterns. And if you consider language teaching is to teach language as a body of knowledge, not to develop students’ ability as a communication tool, then the focus should be on the structural pattern of the target language. Otherwise, the major focus could be on the other areas.
6.Is dialogue a useful way to introduce new material? Why or why not?
Yes, dialogue is a useful way to introduce new material. Dialogues can provide a natural context for the language forms as long as it is from real communication, not artificially expressed. Dialogues show the learner how language is used in real language interaction, and they can be good models of oral communication. Dialogues are also believed to reflect the cultural aspects of the target language. Certain sentence patterns and grammar points are included within the dialogue. These patterns and points are later practiced in drills based on the line of dialogue.
7.Should dialogues be memorized through mimicry of the teacher’s model? Why or why not?
No, dialogues should not be memorized through mimicry of the teacher’s model. A dialogue is an individual case of language communication, between two persons. It only tells the students that when the participants take a certain kind of social role, in a certain kind of situation, about a certain topic, conversation goes that way. Dialogues are thought to provide meaningful context for the key structures and to illustrate situation in which those structures might be used. Here, meaning is the center of a dialogue, and human communication varies. No dialogue is held in exactly the same way, in the same kind of situation and about same topic. Students do not have to memorize the teacher’s model. Student should try their best to develop their language competence, including communicative competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence etc, so that they can use the target language communicatively.
8.Are structure drills valuable pedagogical activities? Why or why not?
Yes, structure drills are valuable pedagogical activities in language learning. With large classes, drills are of particular use in that they can maximize student’s participation. A one-word cue on the part of the teacher can elicit a complete utterance form the students and an enormous number of such utterances can be produced within the space of two minutes. With judicious mixing of choral and individual drill, each student can have the chance to respond productively about five times a minute in class of twenty students or fewer. However, drills should be used judiciously, if over used, students will get bored.
9.Could you adapt any of techniques to your own teaching? Why or why not?
Yes, we could adapt some kinds of techniques used by the Audiolingual Method, such as dialogues and pattern drills. The use of dialogues and pattern drills is a distinctive feature of the Audiolingual Method. They form the basis of audiolingual classroom practice. Dialogues are thought to provide meaningful context for the key structures and to illustrate situations in which those structures might be used. Certain sentence patterns and grammar points are included within the dialogue. Various kinds of pattern drills are used for different purpose. Some key structures from the dialogue are for the dialogue are selected and used as the basis for pattern drills of different kinds.
10.Which of the principles of the Audiolingual Method are acceptable to you?
Among the five principles of the Audiolingual Method, we think “Language is speech, not writing ” and “Language are different.” are more acceptable to us. The former means that language is first speech and written form is only the recording of speech. Speech is more basic to language than the written form. In the classroom, the language skills are taught in order of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The later means that the native language and the target language have separate linguistic systems, so there is usually no exact equivalent between two languages. The habits of the students’ native language would interfere with the students’ attempts to master the target language. They should be kept apart so that the students’ native language interferes as little as possible with the students’ learning of the foreign language.