SEMINAR ON AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD & S-O-S APPROACH(structural oral situational approach)

AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD

Language teaching involves many methods and approaches. There were methods, highlighting the importance of exposing the learner to the target language. Slowly, they began to fade into forms, which gave importance to listening and speaking. Later it was felt that it would be better if the learners could learn certain patterns and vocabulary to be able to communicate in the target language. Thus it led to the designing of a new method called audio-lingual method.

                      Audio lingual method which is also known as aural-oral method, is a foreign language teaching technique which emphasizes the teaching of listening and speaking rather than reading and writing. The principle underlying this approach is that “language is primarily speech”. It uses dialogues as the main form of language presentation and drills as the main training techniques. Mother tongue is discouraged in the classroom.

In the period of World War II, United States required linguists to set up special training program which would be emphasized on fast and easy foreign language acquisition. As a result the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) was established in 1942. The ASTP, the so-called Army method, had a significant impact on linguistics and the way foreign languages were taught. Later in 1950’s this army method came to be known as Audio-lingual method.

                      The learning theory underlying the Audio-lingual Method is behaviorism. Learning takes place if there is a stimulus and for every stimulus, there may be a response. If the response is reinforced properly, learning becomes a habit.

  

The main characteristics of audio-lingual method are:

·       New materials are presented in dialogue form.

·       Memorizing dialogues that are based on structure is encouraged.

·       Great importance is attached to pronunciation

·       Grammatical explanation is avoided.

·       The skills of writing and reading are not neglected, but the focus throughout remains on
      listening and speaking.

·       Drilling is taken as a prime technique.

·       Linguistic competence is the goal.

·       There is great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances.

·       Focuses on structure and form more than meaning.

TYPES OF ORAL DRILLS

Repetition drill

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.:                              

         Teacher                      Students

         This is a book  →      this is a book.

Substitution drill

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.:      

                 Teacher               Cue word            Students

      They drink coffee  →        tea           →      they drink tea

Question and answer drill

The drill gives students practice with answering questions. The students should answer the teacher’s question very quickly.

Single Slot Substitution Drill

Teacher states a line from the dialog, and then uses a word or a phrase as a "cue" that students, when repeating the line, must substitute into the sentence in the correct place.

Multiple-slot Substitution Drill

Same as the Single Slot drill, except that there are multiple cues to be substituted into the line.

Clause combination drill

Students learn to combine two simple sentences into a complex one.

e.g.:

Teacher: It may rain. He’ll stay at home.

Students: If it may rain, he’ll stay at home.

Chain drill

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.:

Teacher: Hello, what’s your name?

       Student 1: My name is Alfred. (He turns to the student next to her.)

       Hello, what’s your name?

       S2: My name is Susan (She turns to the student next to her.)

       Hello, what’s your name?

       S3: My name is john.

ADVANTAGES OF AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD

       ·      This method made it possible to teach large groups of learners.

·       It emphasizes everyday cultural traits of the target language.

·       It put stress on listening and speaking skills.

·       This is the first language learning method which is grounded on a solid theory of               language learning.

     

           DISADVANTAGES OF AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD

·       It is a mechanical method since it demands pattern practice, drilling, and memorization over                functional learning and organic usage.

·       It prefers accuracy to fluency.

·       Teacher dominated method.

·       The theoretical foundation of the Audio-lingual Method suffers from inadequacy.

·         It considers only language form, not meaning.

The acceptability of this theory mainly lies in its solid theoretical base. This is also the first language learning method to consider the learner’s communicative competence to certain extent. Despite these positive traits the theory declined in practice for its dearth of scientific credibility. However, the theory exerted a major influence on the upcoming teaching methods and still continues to be used today in language teaching methodology, although in limited scope.

S-O-S APPROACH (Structural Oral Situational

Approach)

The Structural Approach

A structure in English is the way in which words and word groups are arranged to form meaningful words. It is based on the assumptions that language can be best learnt through a scientific selection and grading of the structures or patterns of sentences and vocabulary. After a careful selection procedure, 250 example structures were identified in the late 1960’s. But now we have only 100 prescribed structures to study. This approach is known for selection, gradation and presentation.

The selection and gradation of structural approach was done on the basis of their:

·   Usefulness -   Only useful items are listed.

·   Frequency -The structures must be selected with a high frequency of occurrence.

·   Teach ability - Items easy from teaching point of view (The present continuous                                          tense is introduced earlier than the simple present).

·   Productivity - The structures that can give rise to more sentences are listed at 
                              the top, when compared to those which have no scope.

The Principles underlying structural approach 

·       Language is primarily speech.

·       Importance of Framing Language Habits.

·       Importance is given to student's activity rather than the activity of the teacher.

·       Language learning may be very effective if the structure of the language is presented in the context of the child’s mother tongue.

·       Each language as its own Grammar - Instead of teaching Grammar of the target language, its structures are to be taught.

It is essential that the structures are drilled properly and repeated in meaningful contexts. Substitution tables can be used to drill the patterns.

                            SUBSTITUTION TABLES

Substitution table is an arrangement in columns of units which can be combined to make sentences. It is used while teaching structures of English to students. The aim of such substitution table is to condition the pupils into using the correct forms of the structure by getting them to imitate or produce many examples of correct forms. Substitution table was invented and developed by H.E. Palmer. The name derives from the fact that different words in different columns of the table can be substituted, thereby producing a large number of examples of that construction.

 For Example:

1	2	3	4
I We You They He She It	have been has been	Watching tv Painting dancing raining cleaning the room	for an hour since 8 ‘o’clock

With the help of the above table, present perfect continuous tense sentences like “It has been raining since 8 ‘o’ clock” can be taught. Not only this sentence but also students can create more number of sentences using this substitution table.

                                  A substitution table can be used as a testing table too. In a testing table, only certain items can be combined to frame correct choice of words from the columns of the table to construct meaningful sentences.

                                  

ADVANTAGES OF STRUCTURAL APPROACH IN TEACHING ENGLISH

·       It has emphasis on the four fundamental skills, such as, listening, understanding,                 speaking, reading and writing.

·       It facilitates the learning of English by imparting knowledge of its structures.

·       It promotes everyday English.

·       It enables the students to speak English correctly.

·      By the learning of the structure of sentence the child automatically learns grammar,word        order and use of words.

 

DISADVANTAGES OF STRUCTURAL APPROACH

·       It is suitable for lower class students.

·       Continuous teaching of structures and their repetition make the atmosphere dull.

·       Reading and writing ability of the students are neglected.

·       It is very difficult to get skilled teachers for this purpose.

·       It is not suitable for the higher classes.

ORAL APPROACH

It is a flexible method. The emphasis is on the spoken method. Some people can use a language for oral communication only. They are illiterate, but they can understand their language and also respond suitably. Learning to speak a language is by far the shortest road to learning to read it and write it.

The teacher will try to make use of their own oral skills and of the students:

·    To introduce language items (structural and vocabulary items)

·    To discuss the reading passages and poems

·    To teach composition writing

·    To prepare the students orally for doing the written exercises.

The oral method is not a complete method in itself, but is a necessary feature or phase of a complete method. It helps to approach the language from many different ways, by means of many different forms of work.

ADVANTAGES OF TEACHING ENGLISH THROUGH ORAL METHOD

·       Natural way of learning any language

·       It is a good introduction to the other more difficult skills mainly, reading and writing.

·       It is the only way by which we can ensure economical use of class time.

SITUATIONAL APPROACH

This is yet another approach that goes hand in hand with structural and oral approach, namely situational approach. All items are presented through pleasurable and interesting activities in proper situations. Hence these put together and called S-O-S approach. According to this approach the English as a second language should be taught by forming links between the new words and the real situations encountered by the child while learning their mother tongue. All the items are learnt by a child in real situations. The situation in which the child learns his mother-tongue are repeated again and again and whatever the child understands or expresses about his experiences of his own life are then in same way connected with the terminology of the English Language.

In this approach, mother tongue can be used:

·       To discuss any matter that is too difficult to understand.

·       To confirm that the situational meaning has been understood.

·       Understanding of abstract concepts.

ADVANTAGES OF SITUATIONAL APPROACH

 ·       It creates interest among the students.

·       Emphasis is given on learning by play.

·       Action chains make the classroom atmosphere lively.

·       Lot of material aid is used to make the learning stable.

·       The teacher can make his illustrations clear by using various materials or by pictures etc.

DISADVANTAGES

·       It is suitable only in the lower classes as this approach cannot be made applicable to
      the senior classes.

·      Trained teachers are required for it.

·      Prose, poetry, rapid reader etc. cannot be taught through this approach.

   The teacher plans situations using the

·       Environment: classroom, outside the classroom, school premise, society etc.

·       Teaching aids: objects, models, pictures, charts, stories, anecdotes, incidents, events etc.

TYPES OF SITUATIONS

Contrived situation: Situation planned by the teacher at home for their teaching purpose.

Spontaneous situation: Those situations that can be cropped and made use of if the teacher is resourceful.

Thus the S-O-S approach is the systematic presentation and practice of carefully selected and graded grammatical structures of English in effective and meaningful situations. Sustained efforts for training teachers in S-O-S approach have to be made for the effective use of any approach.