ABSTRACT

Method of foreign-language instruction based on structuralist ( structuralism) principles and drawing on stimulus-response theory. The audio-lingual method became predominant in the United States in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, as the US government expanded its efforts to increase the number of people learning and teaching foreign languages. Its proponents believed that language learning is primarily a matter of developing proper mechanical habits, through positive reinforcement of correct utterances; that target language2 forms should be presented in spoken form before introducing their written representation; that analogy is a more effective mode of language learning than analysis, and that linguistic forms should be presented in context rather than as isolated items. Characteristic of audio-lingualism is the extensive use of pattern practice in instruction. ( also language pedagogy, second language acquisition)

References

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