Behaviourist SLA
Learning and Teaching Foreign Languages
Classroom Illustration
THE AUDIOLINGUAL METHOD
Sample answers
1. Introductory routine
a. What aspects of this activity derive from structural principles?
Selection of short question and answer for practice.
b. What aspects of this activity are behaviorist?
Repetition of line of dialogue for memorisation, and of /h/ sound, expected to be
difficult because absent from first language (contrastive analysis). Overlearning of
short phrases, no opportunity for learner initiative or choice, either in form of
utterance or content of response.
c. Can we talk about conditioning in these circumstances?
Yes; the learners are conditioned to produce an automatic response – Fine, how are
you? - whenever the cue question How are you? is provided. After sufficient
repetition, they are likely to respond similarly when the teacher arrives in school, for
example, or even on meeting her in the street.
2. A what?
a. What type of activity is described here?
A drill
b. Is the activity meaningful or mechanical?
There is a pretence of meaningful use, since the students are pretending to have
forgotten the new word, but there is no opportunity for the students to change the
expressions used.
1/5
Shona WHYTE
unt.unice.fr/uoh/learn_teach_FL
Behaviourist SLA
Learning and Teaching Foreign Languages
Classroom Illustration
c. After presenting and practising several new animal words, the teacher checks
students' comprehension and memory by presenting 4 flashcards and asking for
volunteers to name the animals. When she points to the bear flashcard, the students
chorus 'a what.' What has happened here? What are the implications for this approach
to learning?
The learners have incorrectly established a connection between the word 'what' used
to elicit repetition and the picture of a bear, intended to elicit the word 'bear.' This
example shows the dangers of a purely behavioristic approach to overlearning forms
without paying sufficient attention to their meaning and use in context.
3. Chain drill
a. Identify the behavioristic and structural aspects of this activity.
Short questions and answers are drilled, contrast between two sounds is highlighted,
overlearning by repetition is used to help memorisation.
b. What other activities might the teacher use to extend the learning produced in this
context?
Have learners produce questions on seeing the flashcards, with another learner giving
the response. Add another question such as How old are you? with another flashcard.
The teacher can also set up game, such as 'Fly-swat' where flashcards for known words
or expressions are displayed on the board. Teams send one member to stand back to
the board as the teacher calls out one word or expression. The first learner to touch
the correct card wins.
In all these activities, learners are practicing the association between the aural form
of a word or expression and a meaning, represented by the flashcard, in a form of
stimulus-response pairing reminiscent of B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning.
2/5
Shona WHYTE
unt.unice.fr/uoh/learn_teach_FL
Behaviourist SLA
Learning and Teaching Foreign Languages
Classroom Illustration
4. Learning and evaluating
http://s.mound.free.fr/skyblues67/classroomQUIZ/classroomsounds.htm
a. Devise behaviorist learning activities from this online activity.
Example:
Learners practice English words for 32 classroom objects via an online listening
activity. They listen and repeat three to five new words each session, self-testing at
the end of each session by saying the word before listening to check.
b. How can the learners be evaluated without recourse to the written form (which the
audio-lingual method tends to leave until after the aural/oral forms are acquired)?
After a number of sessions, the learners are evaluated via a pencil-and-paper test
consisting of twenty questions, where the teacher calls out the number of the item
and the name of an object, and the students write the question number under the
correct picture (see pages 4 and 5 of this handout).
T: One, pen
Students write number 1 under picture of pen.
3/5
Shona WHYTE
unt.unice.fr/uoh/learn_teach_FL
Behaviourist SLA
Learning and Teaching Foreign Languages
4/5
Shona WHYTE
unt.unice.fr/uoh/learn_teach_FL
Classroom Illustration
Behaviourist SLA
Learning and Teaching Foreign Languages
5/5
Shona WHYTE
unt.unice.fr/uoh/learn_teach_FL
Classroom Illustration