Essay : Audiolingual Method written by Irfan Suryana

The Audiolingual Method for Elementary School

          In the era, it is needed that using a right method to teach language with a certain purpose is important because it will influence the success of teaching itself. There are many aspects that must be considered to use a certain method in teaching language, for example approach, design, and  procedure. Frankly there are lots of methods with each purpose such as Grammar-Translation Method (GMT), Direct Method, The Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching, The Audiolingual Method, Communicative Language Teaching, Total Physical Response, The Silent Way, Community Language Learning, The Natural Approach, and Suggestopedia. However, The Audiolingual Method is the most effective method that is used for courses.
          An interesting thing of The Audiolingual Method is the history. The Audiolingual Method came up in U.S. because of World War Two. In that time, U.S. Government needed people who were influent in some languages such as German, French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Malay, and other languages in order to work as interpreters, code-room assistants, and translators in military personnel. The goal of this method is to become conversationally proficient in a certain language.
          The Audiolingual Method is very effective method that is used for elementary school because students who are in elementary schools will learn language easily with a guide from teacher. Students in elemntary school will be hard to learn language if the teacher use the other methods sucah as Communicative Language Teaching because in Communicative Language Teaching teacher asks the students to discuss or present material in target language. The concept of The Audiolingual Method can be dialogue memorization. The goal of this concept is students can develop their oral skills by repeating a series of dialogues. The dialogue is about daily conversation, for example how to order food, how to greet people, and so on. Teacher will use short dialogue and students will able to repeat the dialogues with a partner, transform questions into statements, and complete a dialog using nouns, verbs, or adjectives.
          In this method, The drills of The Audiolingual Method are imitation and repetition (Behaviorism) so that in class teacher will give out the dialogue and he will read the dialogue to the students. If necessary,  he will explain words of dialogue that students do not understand. The students will read the dialogue to themselves and to the teacher. Then, they will pair up with another student to practice the dialogue. After that, they will come to the front to practice the dialogue in front of the class. The students can create their own dialogue by changing the names or things of the old one and the teacher will ask the students a few questions.
          In brief, there are lots of methods in teaching language with different purposes and The Audiolingal Method is one of them which come up because of World War Two. This method is effective for students who are still elementary school. The drills of The Audiolingual Method are imitation and repetition so that it will make easier for students to learn target language.
         

          

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