Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1989. 19/3. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 19)
Budai, László: Some Basic Assumptions Underlying Foreign Language Teaching Strategies
- 92 — oral teaching of grammar and vocabulary; — extensive listening and imitation until forms become automatic; — the use of dialogues and dramatization. By emphasizing the importance of spoken language and discarding the use of translation, the Direct Method was paving the way for the Audiolingual Method , which held sway in the 1950s and 1960s. The primacy of speech over writing was also promoted by the t work of cultural anthropologists such as Sapir (1921), structural linguists such as Bloomfield (1933) as well as behaviourist psychologists such as Skinner (1957). The anthropologists' exploration of Indian languages involved spoken raw material and required a descriptive method of handling an unfamiliar language. This is the origin of American structuralism, which considers language as a self-contained system of interrelated parts. Units of meaning are discovered on the basis of formal patterning rather than the explicit use of notional or semantic criteria. The theory of learning underlying the Audiolingual Method is behaviourist; this views language acguisition as a process of habit formation and conditioned responses to external stimuli. The Audiolingual Method places emphasis or» the ceraful selection and strict grading of structures, oral practice and repetition. The order of presentation of the language skills are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Grammatical structures are embedded in short dialogues which are to be learned by heart; vocabulary is kept to a minimum. The presentation of the dialogue is followed by choral, then individual drilling. Meaning is viewed as secondary in importance compared to formal competence. Pattern drills and substitution tables are often mechanical, although they may also be followed by an analysis of grammatical points built on the learner's knowledge of principal rules of grammar. This gives the learner the intellectual knowhow to comprehend the given patterns and discourages meaningless memorization. Special emphasis being laid on the production of correct sentences, error is to be avoided at all costs as encouraging the formation of bad habits. It is also assumed that the majority of errors are due to the fact that languages are structurally different and the habits of the mother tongue acguisition interfere with
