TESOL Essay THREE

Essay Three

The Advanced Audio-Lingual Method

By Syrbastyian Vzampfyier

How do we acquire language? How do we acquire the ability to communicate: to state our wants, needs and desires? How do we learn how to express our thoughts to affect the world around us?

We acquire language and the ability to communicate and express ourselves through watching, mimicking, and learning through trial and error. As all people do as infants and children.

The Advanced Audio-Lingual method applies the same natural acquisition techniques that people as children use to acquire their native language. From the moment we are born we are observers: we watch everything and as we watch we perceive patterns, we do not completely understand the patterns, but as soon as to recognise a pattern we begin to imitate it. This is how we begin to acquire our native language.

In the following, I will break the Audio-lingual method into parts and match these individual parts to how children acquire their native language.

l  The ESL/EFL instructor prepares a simple dialogue: Parents subconsciously prepare their language into simplified forms and structures before they speak to their infants or young children.

l  The EFL/ESL instructor either draws a scenario on a board or displays a picture of the scenario: The daily life of the child provides the scenarios also parents use toys to play act stories as well as children’s books, which have the scenarios displayed on the pages.

l  The EFL/ESL instructor performs the dialogue, playing both parts and, or roles. When doing this the EFL/ESL instructor uses (accentuated) body language and facial expressions. The students only listen in this stage: As you know, if you have children or have seen, parents accentuate their body language and facial expressions for the child. The body language and facial expressions are clear and direct match the words spoken by the parent. Furthermore, parents will over modulate the vocal tone and stress to give even more clarity to meaning of the words. Like the students in EFL/ESL class, the child mainly listens actively to what the parent is saying.

l  The EFL/ESL instructor repeats the entire performance again: Parents will repeat the same phrases and mini dialogues to their child. What parent has not read the same story from a children’s book to their child multiple times. If you observe the child as she/he listens to the parent repeating a sample of language, you will notice that the child begins to mimic the facial expressions and lip movements of the parent. The EFL/ESL student also begin to mimic the EFL/ESL instructor, maybe not as dramatically as a child, you see the student’s facial expressions match the instructor’s facial expressions more or less. In addition, the student’s lips will move as they internally copy what the instructor is repeating a sample of language.

l  The students now perform the dialogue as a group or in pairs with each other: Infants and young children talk to themselves. Infants will babble and young children will have mini conversations to themselves. Young children may use a toy, a doll or an imaginary character to practice language they have heard from their parent(s). The child may repeat the same language back to the parent, subconsciously the child is confirming if they have the language correctly.

l  When the students are confident with the dialogue they perform the dialogue by themselves in front of the class: As the child becomes more confident in a sample of language they will begin to apply the language more and more. When the child is confident they will begin to initiate the language and use in the language actively, with little or no prompting and, or assistance from the parent. In the same way, this is what the EFL/ESL student does when they perform the dialogues in front of the class.

l  The EFL/ESL instructor introduces substitutions for different parts of the sentences in the dialogue. These could be single word substitutions, multiple word and, or full sections of language i.e. gambits: “I would like a cup of coffee” to “I want a cup of coffee”, etc. The instructor prompts the student to start adding their own word or gambit substitutions: Like the EFL/ESL instructor, parents will introduce substitutions into the language they have to using with their child. For young children these substitutions will mainly consist of synonyms and antonyms of adjectives, and numbers with single versus plural noun forms. The child once they learnt the pattern(s) will start adding their own substitutions, like the EFL/ESL student.

l  At the end of the audio-lingual exercise the EFL/ESL instructor gives a written copy of the complete dialogue to the student. This copy may be used to review in a following lesson and, or for homework and review for the student on their own: While it is highly unlikely that a parent would give a written copy of the language to their child, the parent will have many interactions, in which the will repeat the same language. Also the children’s book that parents use to read to the child have the language in them, which the parent can use again in further reading sessions or the child by themselves may use to match word-sound and written-word.

Though it is somewhat impossible for older children, teenagers and adults to acquire another language in the same way infants and young children acquire their native language. There are a multitude of techniques and methods that simulate or use natural, instinctive, methods and techniques, which parents use to teach and children use to learn. The Advanced Audio-Lingual method is one such way. It mimics the interactions between a parent and a child. The parent: introduces the language, models it and repeat it. The child: listens to the language, repeats it, practices it and performs it. In the same way the EFL/ESL instructor is the parent and the student is the child.