Sabtu, 20 Maret 2010

The Comparison of the Audio-Lingual Method and the Silent Way



The Audio-Lingual Method
The Silent Way
Teachers want their students to be able to use the target language communicatively. In order to do this, they believe students need to over learn the target language.
Teachers help their students to develop their own inner criteria and independence for correctness. Students should be able to use and the language for self-expression-to express their thought, perceptions, and feelings.
The teachers are like an orchestra leader, directing and controlling the language behaviour of her students. She is also responsible for providing her students with a good model for imitation. Students are imitators of the teacher’s model or the tapes she supplies of model speakers.
The teacher is a technician or engineer. ‘Only the learner can do the learning, ’but the teacher, relying on what his students already know, can give what help is necessary, focus the students’ perceptions, ‘force their awareness, ‘and ‘provide exercise to insure their facility’ with the language. The role of the students is to make use of what they know, to free themselves of any obstacles that would interfere with giving their utmost attention to the learning task, and to actively engage in exploring the language.
New vocabulary and structural patterns are presented through dialog. The dialogs are learned through imitation and repetition. Drills are conducted based upon the patterns present in the dialog.
The students receive a great deal of practice with a given target language structure without repetition for its own sake. They gain autonomy in the language by exploring it and making choice. The teacher asks the students to describe their reactions to the lesson or what they have learned.
There is student- to -student interaction in chain drills or when students take the different roles in dialogs, but this interaction is teacher- directed. Most of the interaction is between teacher and students and is initiated by the teacher.
When students’ feelings interfere, the teacher tries to find ways for the students to overcome them. Also, through feedback sessions at the end of lessons, students have an opportunity to express how they feel.
Everyday speech is emphasized in the Audio-Lingual Method. The level of complexity of the speech is graded, however, so that beginning students are presented with only simple patterns. Culture consists of the everyday behaviour and lifestyle of the target language speakers.
Each language also has its own unique reality, or spirit, since it is the expression of a particular group of people. Their cultures, as reflected in their own unique world view, are inseparable from their language.

Vocabulary is kept to a minimum while the students are mastering the sound system and grammatical patterns. A grammatical pattern is not the same as a sentence.
There is no fixed, linear, structural syllabus. Instead, the teacher starts with what the students know and builds from one structure to the next. As the learners’ repertoire is expanded, previously introduced structures are continually being recycled. The syllabus develops according to learning needs.

The target language is used in the classroom, not the student’s native language.
The students’ native language can be used to give instructions when necessary, to help a student improve his or her pronunciation, for instance. The native language is also used during the feedback sessions.

Each question on the test would focus on only one point of the language at a time.
Although the teacher may never give a formal test, he assesses student learning all the time. Since teaching is subordinated to learning, ‘the teacher must be responsive to immediate learning needs.

Student’s errors are to be avoided if at all possible through the teacher’s awareness of where the students will have difficulty and restriction of what they are taught to say.
Student errors are seen as a natural, indispensable part of the learning process. Errors are inevitable since the students are encouraged to explore the language. The teacher uses student errors as a basis for deciding where further work is necessary.