Proposal for the application of the audio lingual method for the development of the listening compre

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

PROPOSAL FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILL IN 9th GRADE, COLEGIO JUSTO GONZÁLEZ CARRASCO, CIUDAD ARCE, LA LIBERTAD, 2009-2010.

GRADUATION WORK TO OBTAIN THE BACHELOR DEGREE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

PRESENTED BY: YOLANDA SILVIA AVELAR CARDOZA RICARDO ULISES PÈREZ ALFARO LINDA MARGARITA RIVERA FLORES

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR 2010

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGÒGICA DE EL SALVADOR FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÒN

RECTOR: Ingeniero Luis Mario Aparicio

VICERECTORA ACADEMICA: Licenciada Catalina Rodríguez de Merino

DECANO DE LA FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÒN: Licenciado Jorge Alberto Escobar

INDEX Chapter I Conceptual Framework Introduction General and Specific objective Background Justification Statement of the problem Findings and limitations Concepts and categories Chapter II Theoretical Framework Theoretical and methodological theories Empirical Framework Theoretical and methodological research formulation Development and theoretical definition Chapter III Operative Framework Description of the subject for research Gathering data procedures Specification of the techniques to the data analysis Chronograme Resources used on the research Preliminary table of contents on final report Bibliography Annexes

CHAPTER I CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK INTRODUCTION This research deals with a study on The Audio-lingual Method (this method helps students to develop the listening comprehension and they are able to practice the speaking skills) and its application in a private school. The Audiolingual Method facilitates the learning process of the English Language. This method has a main target: To develop in ninth grade students capacities of how to use the English Language as a native language; so they can express themselves in any social context.

The application of The Audio-lingual Method contributes in an English class with the development of listening and speaking skills in English students. Teachers must know how to apply different elements of this method, and use them in an adequate way. On the other hand, it is considered a tool that facilitates the learning process. Students ought to memorize or repeat, also, to listen and speak.

This research pretends to discover how effective The Audio-lingual Method is once is immersed in Salvadoran private and public schools.

The information written before describes the research, which is divided in three parts: the first part is the conceptual framework which has definitions of The Audio-lingual Method by different linguistics. It contains a background about the method, and a short description of the problem in the private school. It also has justification focused in the importance of the research, the statement of the problem and goals and limitations that the research has. The second part includes the theoretical methodological that were analyzed after having consulted several authors´ points of view in English language teaching and how its empirical framework was elaborated. The

last part includes students’ population,

techniques and instruments used to gather the data, and analysis of the observed information sheet and its results.

GENERAL AND SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

General Objective: To check the effectiveness of the Audio-Lingual method as a resource to develop the oral skills in English in the English class of the 9th grade students from “Justo Gonzalez Carrasco” private school, in Ciudad Arce, La Libertad.

Specific Objectives: 1- To motivate the English Language Learning process in 9th grade students from Justo “Gonzalez Carrasco” private school, using The Audio-Lingual Method.

2. To suggest the application of strategies and techniques of the Audio-Lingual method in the English class, in order to enhance the four basic skills of the English Language Learning process in the 9th grade students from “Justo Gonzalez Carrasco private school, in Ciudad Arce, La Libertad.

BACKGROUND: A new method in terms of language teaching methodology was applied during World War II, when America became aware that it needed people to learn foreign languages very quickly as part of its overall military operations. The "Army Method" was suddenly developed to build communicative competence in translators through very intensive language courses focusing on aural/oral skills to supply the United States Government with personnel who were fluent in German, French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Malay, and other languages; and who could work as interpreters.

This in combination with some new ideas about language learning coming from the disciplines of descriptive linguistics and behavioral psychology went on to become what is known as the Audio-lingual Method (ALM). But, the entry of the United States into World War II, had a significant effect on language teaching in America. Code-room assistants, and translators, were required to reinforce the students on the aural-oral skills. It was necessary to set up a special language training program which gathered the techniques and strategies to rush the students’ acquisition of a new language. Thus, the government commissioned American universities to develop foreign language programs for military personnel.

As a result of this, The Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) was established in 1942, and fifty- five American universities were involved in the program by the beginning of 1943.1 The objectives of the army programs were for students to attain conversational proficiency in a variety of foreign languages. Since this was not the goal of conventional foreign language courses in the United States, new approaches were necessary. Linguists, such as Leonard Bloomfield at Yale, had already developed training programs as part of their linguistic research that were 1

Richards, J.C. y T.S. Rodgers (1987) The Audio-lingual Method.. Approaches and Methods in language teaching (pp. 44)

designed to give linguists and anthropologists mastery of American Indian languages and other Languages.

Textbooks did not exist for such languages. The technique of Bloomfield and his colleagues was sometimes known as the "informant method,"2 since it used a native speaker of the language called “The informant�, who served as a source of phrases and vocabulary and who provided sentences for imitation; and a linguist, who supervised the learning experience. The linguist did not necessarily know the language, but was trained in eliciting the basic structure of the language from the informant. Thus, the students and the linguist were able to take part in guided conversation with the informant, and together, they gradually learned how to speak the language, as well as to understand much of its basic grammar.

Students in such courses studied ten hours a day, six days a week. There were generally fifteen hours of oral and aural drill with native speakers, and twenty to thirty hours of private study spread over two to three six-week sessions on the same drills. Native speakers provided students with build conversations to learn them by heart, and then they were encouraged to change some parts of the conversations by adding new vocabulary and structure; all followed by the oral repetition of the native speakers. This was the system adopted by the army, and in small classes of mature, and highly motivated students, excellent results were often achieved.

Though, The Army Specialized Training Program lasted only a few years, it attracted considerable attention in the popular press and in the academic community. For the next ten years the "Army Method" and its suitability for use in regular language programs was discussed. But the linguists who developed the ASTP were not interested in primarily language teaching. The "methodology" of the Army Method, like the Direct Method, derived from the intensity of contact with the target language, rather than from any well-developed methodological basis.

2

Richards, Jack C, Rodgers Theodore S. (2001) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press. United State of America

It was an innovative program mainly in terms of the procedures used and the intensity of teaching rather than in terms of its underlying theory. However, it did convince a number of prominent linguists of the value of an intensive, oralbased approach to the learning of a foreign language. Linguists and applied linguists during this period became increasingly involved in the teaching of English as a foreign language.

America had now emerged as a major international power. There was a growing demand for foreign expertise in the teaching of English. Thousands of foreign students entered the United. States to study in universities, and many of these students required training in English before they could begin their studies.

These factors led to the emergence of the American approach to ESL, which by the mid-fifties had become Audiolingualism.

In 1939 the University of Michigan developed the first English Language Institute in the United States; it specialized in the training of teachers of English as a foreign language and in teaching English as a second or foreign language.

Charles Fries, director of the institute, was trained in structural linguistics, and he applied the principles of structural linguistics to language teaching. Fries and his colleagues rejected approaches like those of the Direct Method, in which learners are exposed to the language use it, if gradually absorbed its grammatical patterns.

For Fries, grammar, or "structure," was the starting point. The structure of the language was identified with basic sentence patterns and grammatical structures.

The language was taught by systematic attention to pronunciation and by intensive oral drilling of its basic sentence patterns. Pattern practice was a basic classroom technique. “These basic patterns that constitute the learners’ task. They require drill, and more drill, and enjoy enough vocabulary to make such drills possible"3(Hockett 1959).

Michigan was not the only university involved in developing courses and materials for teaching English. A number of other similar programs were established, some 3

Charles Francis Hockett, (2003)The Origin of Speech, in Scientific American, , pp.89-97

of the earliest being at Georgetown University and American University, Washington, D.C., and at the University of Texas, Austin. U.S. linguists were becoming increasingly active, both within the United States and abroad, in supervising programs for the teaching of English (Moulton 1961). In 1950 the American Council of Learned Societies, under contract to the U.S. State Department, was commissioned to develop textbooks for teaching English to speakers of a wide number of foreign languages. The format the Linguists involved in this project followed was known as the "general form". A lesson began with work on pronunciation, morphology, and grammar, followed by drills and exercises. The guidelines were published as Structural Notes and Corpus: A Basis for the Preparation of Materials to Teach English as a Foreign Language (American Council of Learned Societies 1952)4.

In many ways the methodology used by U.S. linguists and language teaching experts at this period sounded similar to the British Oral Approach, although the two traditions developed independently. The American approach differed, however, in its strong alliance with American structural linguistics and its applied linguistics applications, particularly contrastive analysis. Fries set forth his principles in Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language (1945), in which the problems of learning a foreign language were distributed to the conflict of different structural systems (ยก.e., differences between the grammatical and phonological patterns of the native tongue and the target language). Contrastive analysis of the two languages would allow potential problems of interference to be predicted and addressed through carefully prepared teaching materials. Thus was born a major industry in American applied linguistics systematic comparisons of English with other languages, with a view toward solving the fundamental problems of foreign language learning.

This new method incorporated many of the features typical of the earlier Direct Method, but the disciplines mentioned above added the concepts of teaching linguistic patterns in combination with something generally referred to as 4

Moulton, William G. A (1961). Linguistics Guide to Language Learning

"habit-forming". This method was one of the first to have its roots "firmly grounded in linguistics and psychological theory"5 (Brown 1994:57), which apparently added to its credibility and probably had some influence in the popularity it enjoyed over a long period of time. It also had a major influence on the language teaching methods that were to follow and can still be seen in major or minor manifestations of language teaching methodology even to this day.

Another factor that accounted for the method's popularity was the quick success it achieved in leading learners towards communicative competence.

Through extensive mimicry, memorization and over-learning of language patterns and forms, students and teachers were often able to see immediate results. This was both its strength and its failure in the long run, as critics began to point out that the method did not deliver in terms of producing long-term communicative ability.

But the popularity was not to last forever, cognitive psychologists developed new views on learning in general, arguing that mimicry and rote learning could not account for the fact that language learning involved affective and interpersonal factors that learners were able to produce language forms and patterns that they had never heard before. The idea that thinking processes themselves led to the discovery of independent language rule formation (rather than "habit formation"), and a belief that affective factors influenced their application, paved the way toward the new methods that were to follow the Audio-lingual Method. Wilga River in 1964 strongly criticized the misconceptions of the ALM, because of its failure to teach long-term communicative proficiency, so the ALM’s popularity wanted because she stated that language was not really acquired through a process of habit formation and over learning, that error was not necessarily to be avoided at all costs, and that structural linguistics did not tell us everything about language that we needed to know.

5

Brown Dougles H. (1994)Principles of Lenguage Learning and Teaching. Third edition, Prentice Hall Regents. United States of America

Our early history has worked hard to improve the education in El Salvador; in fact, a lot of documents establish that in the colonial era our country lacked of adequate schools to teach natives to speak Spanish.

Before 1770, according to Archbishop Pedro Cortez y Larraz6 in San Salvador there was no school for teaching Christian beliefs, reading, writing, or teaching grammar to children. In the rest of the country, the educational structure was then administered by priests. The failure of the system according to the representatives of the church was made by the teachers´ gaps, or “because the students who did not pay their fees, simply went to other schools”. (Cortez y Larraz and Aguilar Aviles, 1995)7 In 1808, the data on education failure were: 88 teachers for 86 schools in a 165,278 inhabitants that is an average of 1,982 students for every classroom.

Considering that most of the population was indigenous who needed to learn the language from the King.

In 1824 the Federal Constitution of Central America, established that Educational service is a congress faculty. Hence, there is not an autonomous instance to handle with this, so there is not any reliable information at the time.

In October 8th, 1932 occurred the first attempt to reform the education in El Salvador, according to the first rules for elementary teaching, all towns should have a school administered by a community committee.

Many years after, during the presidential administration of General Salvador Castaneda Castro, the Junior High School was created, which was made of the first three years of secondary school, followed by two years of high school.

In 1948-1950 Some publications about educational programs were distributed, they contained methodological suggestions. Also, the creation of experimental schools to apply modern methods and teaching techniques.

6 7

Pedro Cortés y Larraz. (1997) Descripción geográfico-moral de la Diócesis de Guatemala. (Guatemala: Tipografía Nacional; 2 Vols.)

Pedro Cortés y Larraz. (1995) Descripción geográfico-moral de la Diócesis de Guatemala. (Guatemala: Tipografía Nacional,)

In 1968 was created the educational television and the specialized school for teachers. The authorities decided to increase one year more for the high school level. Basically, it was the birth of the English language teaching Program in El Salvador.

Ever since, many decisions on the educational process have been considered for the purpose of improving the quality of education in this country; some of them have provided important tools to change some of the pedagogical misconceptions, but some others did not have a considerable impact for the teaching process.

“As it was found by the MINED before the creation of the COMPITE program, most of the teachers in public schools use traditional methodologies” 8; such as: Grammar and translation method, which is centered in the written part of the language; so that, the students acquire the grammar skill through translation, but no oral communication. Sometimes English teachers do not use an innovated method they only written vocabulary, phrases and sentences on the board, or give grammatical drills to the students. Another method is the Audio-Lingual which was created mainly to develop oral abilities in a specific communicative environment. It has been emphasized in the relationship between linguistic structure, and Skinner’s Operation Conditioning theory. All above, have contributed to enhance just some of the basic skills in the learning process, but not all of them.

In 2001 was created the “Plan 2021”, one of which most important goals are the English Language Teaching based on competences according to the job market demands and standards. So the government invested a considerable amount of its Gross Domestic Product on the acquisition of technology and teachers training to reaching the goal mentioned before.

Some factors still continued to block the English language learning process in Salvadoran students, one of them are the lack of students` disposition in their

8

Compite, (2004)Bases para una Juventud Bilingüe, Ministerio de Educación, P 8

learning process, the lack of adequate didactic resources, the lack of oral evaluations and the lack of specialized English teachers9.

In El Salvador, some English teachers in public schools have applied different methodologies for many years, but these have not helped students enough to develop their oral competence in English as a foreign language.

COMPITE program was not created for the students to memorize vocabulary, or greet in English, but they get the proficiency in their four basic skills as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Its main target is to improve the communicative competence through appropriate methods that teachers apply in their English class. This program is specially designed to English students of Basic Public School (7th, 8th, and 9th grade) and in High School”10. Due to the COMPITE program, English teachers from public schools have started to implement new methods in their teaching styles. Some pioneers from this movement have started to implement the Audio-Lingual method with the updated changes as a tool to help the students’ oral proficiency. As an example the American School from El Salvador, can be mentioned, where teachers implement methodologies focused on the oral and aural skills, without leaving behind the reading and writing ones. It is applied the Peace Corps “On-Going Learning Manual”11 which tries to improve the students’ ability to communicate their ideas orally at first, and then written. But, there are still many teachers in public and private schools who do not yet want to get involve into the new focus on the new methodology for the English Language Teaching Process.

JUSTIFICATION: With the globalization of markets worldwide, communicating effectively in English has become a requirement to enter in the job market, and specially, service market which provides men and women the opportunity to get better 9

Gobierno de El Savador. Ministerio de educación (2001)http://www.mined.gob.sv/sistemas/noticias/vnoticias.asp?opcion=2&id=568 Compite, (2004)Bases para una Juventud Bilingüe, Ministerio de Educación,. P 8 11 Volunteer On-Going (2000)Language Learning Manual, Peace Corps. December 2000.

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incomes and job stability to support their family demands in a growing country like this one.

The Ministry of Education of El Salvador (MINED) is trying to improve the English Language Teaching Learning process in public schools because it is considered in this way students are going to have more opportunities in the job market, and service market as pointed above.

This is the cornerstone which leads us to conduct this research study though we understand it is difficult to diagnose and provide tools to solve the problem from every sector, and level of Salvadoran schools. That is why it has been chosen as a sample the students in ninth grade of the private Junior High School “Justo Gonzalez Carrasco� located in the small town of Ciudad Arce, at the province of La Libertad, by suggesting the application of the strategies and techniques of the Audio-Lingual method and its updated applications, in order to enhance the four basic skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing as such, though with an oral and aural emphasis.

To get the stated goal teachers must adapt to this new plan and change the traditional methodologies for new ones, if they really want to succeed in the Teaching Learning process. One of these methodologies is the Audio-Lingual method, which is based on communicative application and provides students with the speaking skills. Unfortunately, this method has been applied in a very limited way in private and public schools.

This research might be a good resource for people who are interested in teaching a foreign language through the application of the Audio lingual method, because some suggestions and focuses are going to be presented for University graduates majored in English Language Teaching, so they could find a good option to teach English and develop oral expression among themselves and among their students in their professional practice. Also, they can find useful definitions about what the Audiolingualism and its different strategies and techniques.

But, it is important to explore the starting level that students have before the application of the Audio-lingual method, that is why, the researchers must design a placement test which measures the listening and speaking skills acquired by the students with the application of traditional methodology in the classroom, and the level of their students’ at the end of the application of the Audiolingualism. All the above mentioned is to know the effectiveness of the method.

Finally, this research might help to change some teachers´ paradigms in public and private schools, because as it was mentioned before, most of the teachers are still applying traditional methodologies, based on the grammar translation method and vocabulary building. Some of them are still just writing on the board and following repetition drills. Many teachers know there are other ways to develop English Learning oral expression, but not all of them apply them. So, this proposal might help the students to acquire a foreign language as their mother tongue and to enhance the oral performance through the language use.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

Is the Audio-Lingual method an effective tool to improve the communication skills in Salvadoran students from the ninth level of junior High School at the “Justo Gonzalez Carrasco” private school, in Ciudad Arce, La Libertad?

The Audio-Lingual Method helps students to get listening comprehension and speaking skills but the real problems the teamwork has observed is that in some private schools teachers do not have the necessary resources (tapes, TV, CD’S, book, between others) to teach.

And teachers do not have enough training to apply this method to improve the listening comprehension and speaking skills in students.

In experiences at Universidad Pedagógica, The Audio-Lingual Method can help students of ninth grade of Justo Gonzalez Carrasco Private School to develop the listening and speaking skills. The teamwork pretends that this work can be a reference for teachers at Justo González Carrasco private school to apply The Audio-Lingual Method and improve the listening and speaking skills through different methodological strategies this method has.

FINDINGS AND LIMITATIONS:

Audio-lingual Method is a method of foreign language teaching which emphasizes the teaching of listening and speaking before reading and writing. It uses dialogues as the main of language presentation, and drills as the main training techniques. Mother tongue discourages in the classroom. This method helps students to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement.

In this way, some researchers have studied the method. There are many different opinions about this approach given by researchers.

Many enquirers have given their point of view about the Audio-lingual method. For Wilga Rivers in 1964, released a critique of the method in her book, “ The Psychologist and the foreign language teacher� produced results which showed explicit grammatical instruction in the mother language to be more significant proof that Audio-lingual method was less effective than a more traditional cognitive approach involving the learner’s first language.

Some investigators say that this method was proven to be ineffective; Noam Chomsky attacked the structuralism approach and the behaviorist theory12.

Nevertheless, Jeremy Harmer said that Audio-lingual methodology seems to refuse all forms of language processing that help students sort out new language information in their own minds. He says that this method is a methodology for both teachers also students.

AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD

12

http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/almmethods.htm

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

1. The Audio-lingual theory is probably 1. The theoretical basis of the Audiothe first language teaching theory that Lingual method was founded to be openly claims to be derived from weak. linguistics and psychology.

2. Making language teaching possible 2. to large groups of learners.

Not

developing

language

competence, lack of effectiveness, and boredom caused by endless

3. Emphasizing sentence production,

pattern drills.

control over grammatical structures and development of oral ability

3. Learners having little control over their learning.

In the acquiring and learning of a language appear different processes, because the students of a language may have knowledge, whereas the native speakers have the capacity to use it13. The learners lead to the conscientious development of declaratory knowledge and the acquisitions leads to the procedural knowledge, of real and incontinent form.

Finally, the Audio-lingual method represents another useful advance in order to response to learners need and preferences. It depends of the teacher’s responsibility to apply it in a correct way. The best place where students can acquire the knowledge is at school. So, teachers should take into account this method, for a better future of the learners.

CONCEPTS AND CATEGORIES: CONCEPTS: 13

Mendoza Fillola, Antonio (2003) Didáctica de la Lengua y Literatura, by Pearson Education SA. Madrid España

Method: It is a way to do something and it is procedural practice that teachers can use in a class to develop the students’ abilities of a foreign language14.

Education: It is a collection of previous learning experiences which causes several effects reflected on students’ behavior15. An important stage to achieve the educational process is a private school that is a place where formal instruction is given and where students can get their knowledge in a gradual form.

CATEGORIES: Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning to the learners and Learning is acquiring or getting knowledge of a subject or skill by study or experience. Among the direct agents to develop the learning process, it is found the English teacher who has studied at the university for three years and it is certified by Minister of Education to teach English as a foreign language. Another direct agent in this process is the English students who have studied at school and are taking an English subject as a foreign language.

Language: It is a system of communication by sound, operating through the organs of speech and hearing, among members of a given community, using vocal symbols, possessing arbitrary conventional meaning16. Foreign language learning means to acquire basic skills of any language (listening, speaking, reading and writing). So, an English class is a subject, and it is a stage where students can acquire these skills, and where teachers can use different types of methods to develop the students’ abilities to get a foreign language.

Methodology: It is the study of the pedagogical practices in general; it is a theoretical research that can be found in all kinds of books, magazines, and Internet. Besides, a methodology is also considered by activities that students do, and the resources that the teacher could apply in an English class. Activities are 14

Richards, Jack C: Rogers Theodore.(2001). Approaches and methods in Language Teaching, second edition. Cambridge Unversity Press. United State of America.

15 Harmer, Jeremy. (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching. England, Pearson Education Limited, England 16 Hadley, Alice Omaggio. (2001) Teaching Language in Context.

the process of acting or doing something to perform the learning in English students; so that, they can be used in an English class to get the acquisition of a second language, and resources are tools that may help, support or supply in an English class to improve the students´ abilities.

Technique: It is a way in which something is or should be practiced to achieve an immediate objective. It is implementation and it takes place in the classroom.

Among these techniques associated with audio-lingual method can be mentioned: Dialogue Memorization, students are given a short dialogue to memorize then, they must use mimicry and applied role playing to present the dialogue.

Backward Build up, provides students with the sentences fragments found in the materials section.

Complete the dialogue, have the students-fill in the blanks in the dialogue provided.

Multiple- Slot Substitution Drill, to give cue phrases, one a time, which fits into different slots in the dialogue line.

Audio-lingual Method: (ALM) It is a method of foreign or second language teaching with emphasizes the teaching of listening and speaking before reading and writing. Speaking the English language is the main purpose of the students.

Reading is the process of recognizing written words and understanding their meaning, writing. The good writing carries a meaningful message and the use of good English. Listening, a technique for improving understanding of what is being said by taking into account how something is said and the nonverbal signs and body language that accompany it.

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL THEORIES: Is the Audio-Lingual method an effective tool to improve the communication skills in Salvadoran students from the ninth level of junior High School at the “Justo Gonzalez Carrasco” private school, in Ciudad Arce, La Libertad?

The Audio-lingual method is an approach that can help students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns. This method was derived from a study proposed

by American linguistics in the 1930´s and 1940´s. The method then came to know as structural linguistics with “Bloomfield and Fries”1 as its representatives.

The audio-lingual method is also named the Aural-Oral Method because the method uses exercises such as patterns, practice dialogues which make use of mimicry (imitation) and memorization of material presented as a model.

The Audio-lingual method’s origin is mainly American. It was developed during the Second World War. At that time, the U. S. government found it a great necessity to set up a special language training program to supply the army forces with a foreign language. Therefore; the government commissioned American Universities to develop Foreign Language Programs for military personnel. Thus, the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) was established in 1949 the emergence of the Audio-lingual Method resulted from the increased attention to Foreign Teaching Language in the U.S. towards the end of the 1950´s.The need for a radical change and rethinking of Foreign Language Teaching Method (FLTM) made Language Teaching specialists set about developing a new method that 1

Leonard Bloomfield and Charles Fries 1945

could be applicable to conditions in U.S. colleges and Universities classrooms.

They draw on the earlier experiences of the Army program and the Aural-Oral or structural attitude developed by “Fries” and his colleagues, adding insights taken from the Behaviorists psychology.

2

This combination of structural linguistic theory, aural-oral procedures, and behaviorist psychology led to the audio-lingual method, which was widely adopted for Teaching as a Foreign Language in North American colleges and universities all around the world dealing with EFL. Structural linguistics view language as a system of structurally related elements (such as phonemes, morphemes, words, structure, and sentence types) for the expression of meaning. According to a structural view, language has the following characteristics in the audio-lingual method: •

Elements in language are produced in a structural way.

•

Language samples could be exhaustively described at any structural level of description.

The structural linguistics believed that the primary medium of language is oral, that is language is speech. This view of language offered the foundation for the audio-lingual method in language teaching in which speech was given in a priority.

The Audio-lingual method is the first theory to recommend the

development of a language teaching theory on declared linguistic and psychological principles. A method of teaching can not be based simply on a theory of language. It also needs to refer to the psychology of learning and to a learning theory. The learning theory of audiolingualism is the behavioral psychology which is an empirically based approach to the study of human behavior.

To apply this theory to language learning is to identify the organism as the Foreign Language learner, the behavior as verbal performance, the stimulus as 2

Leonard Bloomfield and Charles Fries 1945

what is taught, the response as the learner’s reaction to the stimulus, and the reinforcement as the approval or praise of the teacher or fellow students.

According to this behaviorist psychology, learning a language is a process of acquiring a set of mechanical process of habit formation. According to Skinner “The events or stimuli and reinforces that follow a response and that tend to strengthen behavior or increase constitute a powerful force in the control of human behavior.”3 WHAT IS THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD? Based on the bibliographical, Interviews and on line research, the researchers have gotten the main aspects of the Audio-lingual Method to conceptualize it. The Audio-lingual method or Aural-oral method emphasizes as a whole to teach English as a foreign language also it is emphasized on repetition which the teacher is directing and controlling the language behavior of the students. Students are imitators of the teacher’s model. The Audio-lingual Method is an important method in the learning of a new language because it helps students to develop the listening comprehension and they are able to practice the speaking skill.

PRINCIPLES OF THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD The audio-lingual method has important principles which allow students to develop the listening and speaking skills; the researchers have selected the more relevant ones, such as:

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•

Language occurs most naturally within a context.

•

Language learning is a process of habit formation.

•

Students have to be able to use the target language to communicate.

•

Particular parts of speech occupy particular “slots” in sentences.

•

Enable students to form the habits of using the patterns.

•

Instructions are given in the Target Language.

Principles of Learning and Teaching. pp. 77-78

•

Correct pronunciation, stress, rhythm and intonation are emphasized.4

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD: The researchers have consulted a series of books and references regarding the Audio Lingual Method, in which the following characteristics are similar to all of them so, to get a better acquisition of the foreign language in English Students.

The teachers must consider the following characteristics of this method: •

. There is dependence on memorization of set phrases, and over learning.

•

. Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.

•

. There is little or no grammatical explanation.

•

. Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.

•

. There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids.

•

. Great importance is attached to pronunciation.

•

. Very little use of the mother by teaches are permitted.

•

. Successful responses are immediately reinforced.

•

. There is a great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances.5

TECHNIQUES OF THE AUDIOLINGUAL METHOD: Once again, the researchers have summarized the main techniques in the Audio-lingual method. There are several techniques in this method that English teachers may use to develop the Listening comprehension competence in their students, among these may be mentioned:  Dialogue memorization: Students are given a short dialogue to memorize.

Then, they must use mimicry and applied role playing to present the dialogue.

Examples of dialogues that could be used are included in the material sections.  Build Backward up sentences: Provide students with the sentences fragments found in the materials section. Students repeat each part of the

4 5

www.myingilizce.com/index.php Principles of Learning and Teaching pp.. 77-78

sentence started at the end of the sentence and expanding backwards through the sentence adding each part in sequence.  Transformation Drills: The teacher provides a question which must be transformed into a statement. An extension of this activity is to have the students make a question out of a statement.  Dialogues completion: Have the students fill in the blanks in the dialogues provided. The proper English word must be inserted into the text.  Chain Drill: To make students ask and answer question with each other. It allows some controlled communication among students and gives the teacher an opportunity to check student’s speech.  Multiple-Slot Substitution Drill: To give cue phrases, one at time, that fits into different slots in the dialogue line. To recognize what part of speech each cue is and makes any other changes, such as subject-verb agreement. To fit cue phrase into line where it belongs and to say the line loudly.  Questions and answers Drill: Students practice the target language with answering questions and the question patterns students answer the teacher’s question quickly.

The Audio-lingual Method in language teaching pretends to develop the listening and speaking proficiency. So, this method is an approach that helps students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns. Moreover, it is a great way to make the learners memorize the new sentences in a short time since it emphasized on the repetition6.

6

deltastuff.blogspot.com/.../audiolingual-method.html

EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK: This research has been done using the quality descriptive method for getting real information from the actors of the English learning (teacher-students); moreover, in the process of building information the teamwork have used some instruments such as: surveys, criteria check lists, bibliographical resources and interviews.

It has been carried out at Justo Gonzรกlez Carrasco, a private school located in Ciudad Arce, La Libertad. This private school has 21 teachers, and there are 508 students. This school is divided in 4 buildings and each one has 5 classrooms.

The teamwork observed that the climate of the institution is not adequated for learning English as EFL (English Foreign Language) for the reasons mentioned before.

However, in this school, students attend one of the following schedules: morning shift from 7:00am to 12:00m and the afternoon shift from 1:15pm to 5:15pm. This school has a vision and mission to perform a significative learning in students.

School Vision: to be an institution of spiritual principles in academic and quality service.

School Mission: to teach with responsibilities through fundamental biblical principles and academic vanguard knowledge.

Justo Gonzรกlez Carrasco, private school has 508 students, 21 teachers.

There are four teachers who teach English as a foreign language, three facilitators work in the morning shift and the other facilitator works in the afternoon shift, students receive English classes from kindergarden to ninth grade and in the afternoon shift students receive classes from kindergarden to seventh grade.

This research is going to be developed specifically in ninth grade; the English teacher is Edwin Berrios. He is not specialized in the English Language his major is in Spanish at Universidad Nacional de El Salvador; however, he has been working in the English area for 5 years in the same private school. Therefore, he has a lot teaching experience. Sometimes, the English teacher applies the Audiolingual method in his classes so, he uses Audio-lingual activities where students participate one-on-one or in front of the class. It was observed by the researchers that this method is not applied correctly. Some activities are not stimulating students to participate. The teacher uses some activities that can be mentioned for example: •

Writing the topic on the board

•

Writing grammar structure on the board.

•

Next, he explains the lesson in the target language. Afterwards, he explains the lesson in Spanish so students comprehend the class clearly. Teacher also, uses Audio-lingual task but no the Audio-lingual method. It is necessary to give the facilitator a teacher’s training in this method.

The English teacher for ninth grade teaches the class three hours per week.

Some of these classes are in different schedules; his lesson plan is more alike, for instance: Teacher starts the class writing the date and the topic on the board. After that, he greets his students asking, how are you? He waits for their answers. Then he writes the vocabulary and grammar structure on the board, next he develops the topic. During the class the teacher applies the repetition drill because some students are imitating the pronunciation of the teacher. Also, the teacher uses the chain drill. One student tries to read a sentence correctly after another chooses different partner, and the chain continues. During the class he speaks both languages English and Spanish.

When he explains a topic uses the English language occasionally, if students do not understand, he tries to explain one more time. After that, he notices that students do not comprehend, so then again, uses the Spanish language to explain them. Finally, the teacher asks if students have any question to clarify the doubts that they might have.

This section implies the analysis of the used tools to gather information: The teamwork has used different instruments to analyze the reliability and the validity of the research. The tools were: check lists, surveys, bibliographical resources and interviews.

The check list was mandatory, because it permitted us to know the elements, techniques, and other type of activities the teacher was applying regarding to the method. This check list was based on the main features of the Audio-Lingual Method. The main features are mentioned in the book; it contains seventeen items criteria about the Audio-Lingual Method described as follow:

CHECK LIST- ORAL ASSESSMENT  Does teacher uses the dialog technique to motivate students to learn?  Are students asked to repeat the teacher’s model as accurately and as quickly as possible?  Do students produce longer sentences into a complex one or are asked to give short answers?  Are dialogues normally memorized or parts of it?  Are students expected to interact with other through pair and group work?  Do students’ errors being avoided if at all possible through the teacher’s awareness of where students will have difficulty? 

Is the teacher directing and controlling the language behaviour of his students?

 Do students imitate the teacher’s model or the tape he supplies from the model speak?  Are students expected to react to the educational stimuli?  Are students participating in shared language experiences?  Does the teacher make connections between text, prior knowledge, and personal experience?  Are students sharing listening experiences?  Is English language learned through listening and speaking activities?  Does the Teacher help learners in any way to motivate them to work with the language?  Are Pronunciation skills revised?  Is Translation used for students need or benefit from it¨?  Is the teacher the main actor in the class?

This check list gave real information about how the teacher of the school was applying the Audio-Lingual method. It also allowed optimizing the application of it.

Moreover it provided previous information on how the students at Justo

Gonzalez Carrasco were doing in their listening comprehension and speaking skills.

The information gathered will contribute with the analysis of the results and will show if the students in the school had improved their listening comprehension and speaking skills by using the Audio-Lingual Method.

CHECK LIST WITH ENGLISH CRITERIA ABOUT THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD

 Teacher uses the dialog to motivate students to learn.

This criteria helped the teamwork to know if the English teacher used in his classes communicative dialogues. This technique is basic and essential for the learning of the students.

 The English Language is learning through listening and speaking activities.

These criteria allowed the teamwork to know what type of activities was applied in English classes that pertain to the Audio-lingual Method.  The translation technique is used where students need or benefit from it. It allowed to know if the teacher translated sentences, expressions, or any given English utterances

in his classes. This technique in the audio-lingual

method permits using the native language with students when it is necessary.

 Pronunciation observed.

It allows controlled communication among students and gives the teacher an opportunity to check student’s speech.  The teacher makes connections between text, prior knowledge, and personal experience. It pretends to verify if the given topics were related with student’s prior knowledge.

 The facilitator helps learners during the process to motivate them to work with the language. It allowed knowing if the teacher encouraged the students to learn the language through different kind of activities.

This instrument helped us to know if the audio-lingual method was being applied completely.

The oral evaluation had ten questions which pretended students to answer in an oral way given coherent answers about themselves these questions were:

ORAL EVALUATION

1. What is your name?

2. Where do you live?

3. Where are you from?

4. How are you?

5. How old are you?

6. What are your favorite colors?

7. What are your favorite pets?

8. What is your last name?

9. What is your hobby?

10. What time is it?

Student’s surveys had six questions about their thoughts of the application of the audio-lingual method these questions were:

1- Did you like the English classes develop by the English teacher? It pretends to discover if the students noticed any change in the way the class was given.

2- Did you comprehend the topics? It pretends students make a comparison about comprehension skills between the topics given during the first two trimesters and the last trimester 3- Do you think that the use of several didactics material help you to understand the class? It pretends to verify if the didactic material used in the development of English classes were adequate for comprehension and development of listening skills.

4- Did you participate in the classes? This question pretends to show if the activities from Audio-Lingual Method were focused to motivate the students to participate during the class.

5- Do you consider that the class climate was good during the classes? This question pretends to show if the students had self confidence needed to ask questions in class.

6- Do you think that you had more opportunities to learn English by using different activities related to the audio lingual method? This question pretends to show if students were the main characters in the learning process.

This student’s survey pretends to know their opinion about the completely application of the audio-lingual method so; they could compare the classes given during the first and the last term. At this level, the students could have a judgement about whether they liked the class or not with this method.

Besides, they could also analyze if their listening comprehension and speaking skills had improved during the time of the full application of the audioLingual Method.

To add more completeness, a survey was administered to the teacher which had five questions where the teacher could express his opinions about the audio-lingual method: The questions were:

1. What do you think about the Audio Lingual Method?

2. Do you think the Audio- Lingual Method helps students to improve or develop their listening comprehension and speaking skills?

3. Do you think the activities stimulate students’ participation?

4. Do you think the resources are important in English classes?

5. Would you recommend the Audio-Lingual Method to English teachers to apply it in their English classes?

All the questions above have allowed the teamwork to discover if this method has been accepted by the teacher. This information was valuable for researchers about his personal point of view towards the method.

TECHNIQUES AND DATA ANALYSIS After the application of the instruments to collect the data, the teamwork analyzed them and discovered how students had improved their listening and speaking skills by the end of the year by using the audio-lingual method in the English classes to present and discuss the information collected, the results are shown by presenting different charts and their respective analysis for each question. In the next page the chart shows information about students’ grades gotten in the first two trimesters in contrast with the last trimester of the school year in which the audio-lingual method was applied.

Chart of the students’ grades during the school year Nº 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

NAMES Aquino Herrera, David Mauricio Arteaga Santeliz, Mercedes Guadalupe Baños Hernández, Stephanie Michelle Bernal Valle, Erick Adrian Bonilla Guzmán, Diana Carolina Carranza Figueroa, Saúl Alexander Cueva Villafranco, Irene María Fuentes Alas, Anderson Antonio Galdamez Castillo. Yoselin Maricruz Guzmán Zerceño, Herbert Alexander López Valle, José Roberto Martínez Guillen, Tito Alexander Molina Guardado, Neydi Crisabel Nerio, Brayan Alberto Ramírez Oliva, Rafael Enrique Rivera Ayala, Lizzie Daniela Rodríguez Chávez, Yosselin Carolina Rodríguez Cienfuegos, José Bonifacio Román Chávez, Josue Abner Salazar Martínez, Melvin Alexander Sandoval Aquino, José Rodrigo Valle Grijalva, Silvia Marielos

FIRST PERIOD 6.7 6.4 4.6 6.9 9.0 6.9 5.4.

6.5 4.3 8.5 7.8 4.4 9.2 4.8 5.4 9.0 5.3 6.2 6.8 4.7 6.9 8.3

SECOND PERIOD 5.3 8.4 7.9 7.3 6.8 7.7 7.2 4.0 6.2 9.3 7.7 7.9 8.3 6.8 4.2 8.9 6.9 6.3 6.5 7.4 5.3 9.2

THIRD PERIOD 8.0 8.9 8.0 9.3 9.5 8.9 7.5 7.3 8.0 9.7 8.9 8.4 9.0 7.9 6.7 9.8 8.5 9.0 8.4 8.9 7.5 9.7

FINAL GRADE 7 8 7 8 8 8 7 6 6 9 8 7 9 7 5 9 7 7 7 7 7 9

This chart allows knowing in which way the students have improved in the last period.

To give more information: in the first period 14 students passed the subject and 8 of them failed it. So, in the second period 18 students passed the subject and 4 of them failed it. Nevertheless, in the third period all the students passed the subject.

It means that nobody failed it, and the applying of the Audio-lingual method helped students to develop more the listening and oral skills.

DATA ANALYSIS At the end of the application of the Audio-lingual Method, the teamwork wanted to prove the progress of the students in the English classes so, the teamwork carried out an oral evaluation. The researchers asked some questions to each student and for each right answer students received one candy and for wrong answer they did not. The teamwork and the teacher used a technique of the Audiolingual Method to do an oral exercise; it was a Question and Answer Drill where students practiced the target language. About the questions above, students showed that they knew what they were answering. Although, one of the students failed the oral exercise it was so satisfied because 21 students passed it with good grades.

Nº 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

STUDENTS’ NAME Aquino Herrera, David Mauricio Arteaga Santeliz, Mercedes Guadalupe Baños Hernández, Stephanie Michelle Bernal Valle, Erick Adrian Bonilla Guzmán, Diana Carolina Carranza Figueroa, Saúl Alexander Cueva Villafranco, Irene María Fuentes Alas, Anderson Antonio Galdamez Castillo. Yoselin Maricruz Guzmán Zerceño, Herbert Alexander López Valle, José Roberto Martínez Guillen, Tito Alexander Molina Guardado, Neydi Crisabel Nerio, Brayan Alberto Ramírez Oliva, Rafael Enrique Rivera Ayala, Lizzie Daniela Rodríguez Chávez, Yosselin Carolina Rodríguez Cienfuegos, José Bonifacio Román Chávez, Josue Abner Salazar Martínez, Melvin Alexander Sandoval Aquino, José Rodrigo Valle Grijalva, Silvia Marielos

GRADE 8 9 9 8 9 8 8 8 9 10 7 9 10 9 4 10 8 8 9 7 8 10

SUMMARY CHART ABOUT THE RESULTS FROM STUDENTS’ SURVEY

The survey was applied to 22 students it was so important to do it in order to verify the students` experiences with the Audio-Lingual Method. Also, the surveys have been analyzed in a graphic way to be more representative and to show in an easy way the students answers.

Nยบ Questions Yes 1 Did you like the English classes given by the English 21 teacher?

No Total 1 22

2 3

Did you understand the given topics?

22 Do you think that the didactics materials used in class 22 helped you to understand the classes?

0 0

22 22

4 5 6

Did you feel motivated to participate in the classes?

Do you consider that the class climate was good?

Do you think that you had more opportunities to learn English?

TOTAL

20 20 19

2 2 3

22 22 22

124

8

GRAPHICS First question: Did you like the English classes given by the English teacher?

YES= 21 NO= 1

The graphic shows that 100% of the students answered YES to the first questions.

It means that they liked to receive the English classes giving by the English teacher using the method. So, this method can be effective.

Second question: Did you understand the given topics?

YES= 22 NO= 0

It shows that 100% of the students answered YES to the second question. It means that with the Audio-Lingual method students assimilated the topics given during the last trimester.

Third question:

Do you think that the didactics materials used in class helped you to understand the classes?

YES= 22 NO= 0

The graphic above shows that 100% of the students answered YES to the third question. They considered that the didactics material used in class were important because it helped them to understand better the classes.

Fourth question: Did you feel motivated to participate in the classes?

YES= 20 NO= 2

According to the question number four the 95% of the students answered YES. However the 5% of the students answered NO to the same question. It means that using the Audio-Lingual method in a correct way students can be encouraged.

Fifth question: Do you consider that the class climate was good?

YES=20 NO= 2

According to the graphic the 91% of the students answered YES to the question five. They considered that the class climate was good during the classes developed in the last trimester. In contrast, the 9% of the students answered NO to the same question. So, with the use of the method students felt comfortable themselves.

Sixth question: Do you think that you had more opportunities to learn English?

YES= 19 NO= 23

The last graphic shows that 86% of the students answered YES to the question six.

So, they considered that they had more opportunities to learn English. However the 14% did not agree. Most of them thought with the use of this method facilitates the English Language learning process.

TEACHER´S SURVEY ANALYSIS OF THE QUESTIONS The teamwork considered that it is important to have the teacher’s opinion and experiences about the Audio-Lingual Method the survey was applied in open questions. The questions are presented with the answers given by the teacher.

Also there is an analysis per each one.

QUESTIONS

TEACHER´S ANSWER

ANALYSIS

1. What do you think Well. I think that Audioabout the Audio- Lingual Method. It’s a best Lingual Method? way to improve the foreign language specially English.

In this question the teacher thinks that Audio-Lingual Method is an appropriate method to teach English language in order to have better results in English language teaching.

2. Do you think that the Audio-Lingual Method helps students to improve or develop their listening comprehension and speaking?

Yes, I consider that the students must develop their listening comprehension, because it’s not easy to understand some new vocabulary or new expressions.

The teacher answers to the question “yes” he believes that students have to develop the listening skill; he considers that learning new vocabulary and expressions can be acquired.

3. Do you think the activities stimulate students´ participation?

Yes, the activities stimulate student’s participation because. It’s a good strategy to break the routine that the teacher speaks English all the time.

The English teacher answer is yes to the question because he believes to use good strategies can create a nice environment in order to students participate in the class and that they can feel comfortable when they work with different activities.

4. Do you think the resources are important in the English classes?

The resources are always important in the English classes. There are many different kinds about it, but the teachers have to choice the best resource to

The answer is affirmative Mr. Berríos thinks that there are different resources also he says it is important to use in the English classes but he

5. Would you recommend the Audio-Lingual Method to English teachers to apply it in their English classes?

get a goal.

considers that teachers must use those which permit to get the goals of the teacher.

The Audio-Lingual Method is important to teach English and it’s a way to get better results with the students. Also I want to know some methods of English, because I’m not English teacher but I try to learn more about it.

Mr. Berrios agreed with the researchers about this method because he thinks it is a way to get positive results in the English students. He is able to know more about the method for applying in future students.

This chart reflects that the English teacher of ninth grade knows the AudioLingual Method that helps students to learn English with. So, students could express their opinions also they could participate during the activities. The teacher believed that students improve a lot in listening and speaking skills.

THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL RESEARCH FORMULATION:

DIAGNOSING THE ELEMENTS OF THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD In ninth grade the teamwork of researchers have used a check list to recognize the elements of the audio-lingual method that teacher has applied in the classes. The check list contains criteria items that identify the Audio-Lingual Method in different classes. Also it is part of the data base to obtain the results of the research.

Observers: Criteria item from the Audio-lingual method.

Private school: Justo González Carrasco Facilitator: Edwin Berrios

Grade: Ninth grade

Number of students: Twenty two

Objective: Identify Elements of the Audio-lingual method.

Criteria check list for both teacher and student

1. Does the teacher use a dialog to motivate students to learn? (line by line) 2. Are Students asked to repeat the teacher’s model as accurately and as quickly as possible?

3. Do students produce longer sentences into a complex one? Or are they asked to give short answers?

4. Are dialogues normally memorized or parts of them?

5. Are Students expected to interact with others through pair and group work?

6. Are the students’ errors avoided if at all possible through the teacher’s awareness of where students will have difficulty?

7. Is teacher directing and controlling the language behaviour of his students?

8. Do students imitate the teacher’s model or the tape he supplies from the model speaker?

9. Are students expected to react to English stimuli?

10. Do students participate in shared language experiences?

11. Does the teacher make connections between text, prior knowledge, and personal experience?

12. Do students share listening experiences?

13. Is English Language Learning through listening and speaking activities?

14. Does teacher help learners in any way to motivate them to work with the language?

15. Are pronunciation skills revised?

16. Is translation used for students need or benefit from it?

18. Is the teacher the main actor in the class?

Yes

No

Sometimes

Observations

SUBJECT: English UNIT N° 1

UNIT NAME Making friends in the neighbourhood7

GRADE: ninth STUDENT’S NUMBER: 22

CONTENTS CONCEPTS

•

Professional and academic background of relatives and neighbors.

• Plans for the weekend.

• Expressions to make formal and informal invitations • Accept/refuse formal and informal invitations.

Grammar in context.

Will/be going to in all forms I’ll go to the museum.

He’s going to do the dishes.

Yes-no questions.

Are you going to see the movie?

ACHIVEMENTS INDICATORS

PROCEDURES

Keeping confidentiality on others, professional and academic records.

Recognizing plans for the weekend from different sources.

Valuing the role of socialization among neighbors.

the weekend.

7

Lesson plan of ninth grade teacher

Keeping confidentiality on others professional and academic records.

Promoting sound activities for the weekend among neighbors Valuing the role of socialization among neighbors.

Expressing acceptance or refusal properly when being invited.

Expressing acceptance or Appreciating the importance of intonation refusal properly when in communication of meaning being invited.

Writes about plan for the weekend using Appreciating the proper grammar and assertive language. importance of intonation communication

meaning.

RESOURCES

AXIS

Promoting sound activities a weekend among neighbors.

in Expressing plans for

TRANSVERSAL

ATTITUDES

Listening Selecting key information on people’s professional and academic background.

Speaking Giving and eliciting, information on professional and academic background

TIME

of

Elaborate invitations (notes, card, and flyers) with appropriate word choice and grammatical accuracy.

11 hours Values

CD player

Students must accept Teacher’s polite invitations

Books Student’s Books

BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE METHODOLOGY USED IN THE RESEARCH: In ninth grade at Justo González Carrasco private school are around twentytwo students registered in the morning shift for the year 2009. They are taken English class as a foreign language, but only 13 students got high grades in the first semester. To understand what the problem in the class was, the team work of the researchers had done a list to recognize the elements of The Audio-lingual Method that the English teacher has not been using yet or he sometimes uses in his classes.

Among these elements can be mentioned: 1. The teacher teaches a dialogue line by line, 2. Students are asked to repeat the teacher’s model as accurately and as quickly as possible.

3. students produce longer sentences into a complex one, 4. Dialogues are always memorized.

5.

Students are expected to interact with other people through pairs and group work.

6. Students’

errors

are

avoided

if

at

all

possible

through

the

teacher’s awareness of where students will have difficulty.

7. The teacher is directing and controlling the language behaviour of his students.

8. Students are imitators of the teacher’s model of the tapes he supplies of the model speaker.

9. Students are expected to react to stimuli, participate in shared language experiences, make connections between text- prior- knowledge- and personal experience.

10. Students share listening experiences, English language learning through listening and speaking activities.

11. the facilitator helps learners during the process to motivate them to work with the language,

12. Pronunciation is observed.

13. Translation is used where students need or benefit from it.

14. The teacher is the central actor in the class.

The teamwork of researchers believe that If the teacher Edwin Berrios would apply in sequence and orderly the elements mentioned before, he would possibly succeed in the application of this method, and class performance would it be much better.

DEVELOPMENT AND THEORETICAL DEFINITION: Through out our experience as teachers we have observed that teachers in public and private schools have done the best to use different methods for teaching EFL such as: (Audio-lingual Method, Grammar and Translation Method, Direct Method) to teach the basic skills but especially listening comprehension and speaking skills in English students. However, MINED published reports related to these methodologies used by the teachers give the opinions that has been difficult for students to achieve to learn English, due to that in many public and private schools, teachers have not innovated their classes with recent and efficient methods to improve EFL. Thus, the Audio-lingual Method has represented an option to English teachers, so they can use it in the communicative drills, task and evaluations. This method also has a variety of techniques and resources to perform the acquisition for a foreign language by students.

According to the researchers, through readings about this method the Audio-lingual Method is focused in listening comprehension and speaking skills. In the Audio-lingual, students are given in dialogues and drills form the basics of Audio-lingual classroom practice. The activities are based primarily on functional development (listening, speaking), reading and writing.

Besides, teachers can classify a system of exercises according to the level of the class, for instance: Exercises which include Dialog memorization, Backward Build up sentences, transformation Drills, Dialog completion, Chain drills, and

Multiple slot substitution drill. The researchers have found that the teachers apply the Audio-lingual Method in order to improve the listening and speaking skills, but before reading and writing are necessary because students can put it into practice the prior learning in these way students can show their abilities in the Foreign Language. Therefore, they can associate grammar structures, vocabulary, and new expressions in real life situations. Moreover, the teacher has to use introductory dialogue evaluations which are important in the Audio-lingual Method to find out if students are improving their speaking. Also, the teacher can evaluate student’s comprehension in the English Language.

The researchers consider that teachers should be clear with objectives, techniques, and evaluations, they want to apply. Besides, the teacher must be aware what he/she wants to achieve in his or her students. On the contrary, the lack of listening and speaking techniques, can affect students discourse and progress.

For the application of the audio-lingual Method in the classroom teachers and students have different experiences through the Learning English as a Foreign Language. Teachers must facilitate the listening comprehension and speaking in the classroom, and during the activities, they must act as facilitators, answering student’s questions and monitoring their performance. The teacher may also make notes of the student’s mistakes during fluency activities and work later with accuracy based activities. The facilitator role is less dominant than a teacher center method; students are more responsible of their own learning in that way student’s role has changed using the audio-lingual method. The fact is that the audio-lingual method has destroyed all paradigms that only teachers talk in the class. In using this method the teacher gives students an opportunity to express themselves, share their ideas and forces students to interact with others.

One of the most obvious features of the Audio-lingual Method is that all activities are done in order to develop listening and speaking skills. That means students use the language through listening activities such as, games, dialogues,

tape recordings, DVD, songs and so on. In this way, students are more motivated to study a foreign Language since they feel that they are listening something useful.

CHAPTER III OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBJECT FOR RESEARCH: On the year of 2009 at the private school Justo González Carrasco in ninth grade there were twenty two students, the average ages were from fourteen to eighteen and all of them were taking English as a foreign language.

According to the English teacher’s evaluation at the end of the first term only four students got high grades in the English subject, but in the second term eight students improved their score and got good grades. Students practiced the English language during the classes through different activities given by the teacher. At the beginning of the English class some students were uncomfortable learning the instructions and the practice meanwhile others enjoyed to practice the language. At the end, ninth grade students at Justo Gonzalez Carrasco have developed their listening and speaking skills with the use of the Audio-Lingiual Method and everybody got confidence and they learned the English language as well.

The english teacher’s background at Justo Gonzalez Carrasco School: The English teacher of the ninth grade was graduated at Universidad Nacional de El Salvador, in the field of Spanish Language and has taken many English courses. He has been working in this private school for five years. It is important to say that he was teaching English using the Audio-Lingual Method without any proper knowledge of it. He was driven by motivations to teach it.

GATHERING DATA PROCEDURES: The first information was to observe if the teacher used or was using the Audio-Lingual Method and how much knowledge he had on it. Then the researchers designed an observation sheet which contained eighteen criteria cored on the method. This criteria is fully explained for its use in the check lists, it also allowed us to know if some elements were missing in the application of the Audio-Lingual Method in classes.

After observing many classes at the school the researchers noticed that the application of the Audio-Lingual Method was not fully completed. So, the teamwork proposed to the teacher the application of the Audio-lingual Method in ninth grade students.

After the researchers noticed that the English teacher improved his teaching techniques because he used several activities that he had not used before, therefore student’s evaluation included oral, dictations drills and other communicative components.

As a result of five months using

the Audio-Lingual Method the

researchers administered two different surveys; one for the English students and another for the English teacher. The students’ survey contained six questions related to the opinions about the method.

The teacher’s survey contained five questions which allowed the teamwork to know the teacher’s thoughts about using this method. The final part was an oral exam given to the students which consisted on ten questions.

With this kind of results researchers could verify students’ oral progress.

SPECIFICATION OF THE TECHNIQUES TO THE DATA ANALYSIS: This research is basically descriptive, and is presented here the specifications and information process about the topic, the teamwork observed the real learning process and development of the skills by using the AudioLingual method, as well as the collected data in a coherent and scientific way.

This has been done through direct observation by using check lists such as; oral assessments done with students to know how effective was in the application of the Audio-lingual method by the English teacher of ninth grade.

CHRONOGRAME March 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 1.11 2.12 3 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5

April

May

June

July

August

Sept.

October

Nov.

Dec.

January

Feb.

Activities: Research Document / Research 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 Research Documented Gathering the bibliography Bibliographical and summary file cards Concept and category file cards Introduction Background Justification Statement of the problema Findings and limitations Concept and category of the research Editing the first draft The first draft delivered Meeting with the advisor Field Research Theoretical fundamentation Empirical Framework Field observation Planning Tools Applying Tools Procedures for gathering data Analysis of the information gathered Methodological and research formulation Theoretical definition and development Editing the second draft The seconf draft delivered Meeting with the advisor Operative Framework Description of the subject for research Editing procedures for gathering data Editing the development of the pilot scheme Specification of the technique to the data analysis Editing the final draft

RESOURCES CONSIDERED FOR THIS RESEARCH  HUMAN RESOURCES English Teacher: He is the guide and the English teacher.

Students of ninth grade: They took the English subject during the 2009 school year. The last months of the school year almost everybody got a good development in the English subject.

The teamwork considers that this research was successful due to that the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Audio-Lingual Method benefited thee students according to the topic.

 LOGISTICAL RESOURCES To obtain the research was essential to contact the principal on the private school for asking permission to the principal of the school to do the investigation, also attending the library at Universidad Pedagógica and others to get best information relating to the topic. The teamwork visited several times the English teacher of the private school to ask permission to attend and observe the English classes.

PRELIMINARY INDEX  CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK This is the component that shows the general and specific objectives that the teamwork wanted to perform during the research. Finding and limitations referring to the research based on different theories investigated. In other words information referring to other researchers related with this method. The concepts illustrate the essential elements to study the Audio-Lingual method in the private school.  THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK In the second chapter of this research there is an explanation about the methodological frame of the Audio-Lingual Method. This section contains the Empirical Framework which refers about the real description of the school where it has been carried out the research. A full description about how the English teacher used the method, according to his knowledge and how he developed the activities during the classes. Also, there is a description on the evaluations administrated to the students by the teacher and the behaviour of the students at the moment of the class development. After that, it can be found a methodological and theoretical research formulation. It means the data gathering. Researchers used a check list to find out what elements of the Audio-Lingual Method the teacher was using.

An outline of the methodology used in the research is shown in which the models of oral exercises are found the surveys administered to the teacher, students and the teacher’s interview. At the end of the second part, there is a theoretical definition and development, where the teamwork had expressed their own theory about the Audio-Lingual Method and the benefits of it.  OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK This is the last part of the research it contains a description of the subject of research which is the effectiveness of the Audio-lingual method,

a teacher

description, his studies and experience in the English language and how he applies the Audio-Lingual Method in his classes with students of ninth grade.

We have included description on how many students were in ninth grade, ages, and the grade evaluations given by the teacher in the class with the application of the Audio-Lingual Method. Also, it can be found the procedures for gathering data, the process which helped us to know the learning facts of students in the English class, situation of the school climate and the application of the method in ninth grade. After that, this research specifies techniques used during the development of the research which shows if the general and specific objectives were accomplished. Finally, all the resources used during the research were applied, so that they were very important to analyze the data, also was very important the information collected which allowed researchers to prove that by applying in all concepts the Audio-Lingual Method helps students in the development of the listening comprehension and speaking skills in ninth grade at the private school Justo Gonzalez Carrasco. For that, we concluded that the general objective and specific objectives described in chapter one of this research have been proved and this research can be used for further information in other schools in which English as ESL is being taught.

SUGGESTIONS FROM THE RESEARCHERS With the use of the Audio-Lingual Method the researchers achieved the development of the listening comprehension and speaking skills in ninth grade students at Justo GonzĂ lez Carrasco. Private school. So, the researchers verified the effectiveness of the Audio-Lingual Method, for it was so important to motivate the English Language Learning Process in those students. Also, the researchers considered that was so important to suggest to the teacher the application of strategies and techniques of this method in order to develop the listening and speaking skills. Moreover, with the use of this method the students feltl more comfortable learning another language because it has different activities and drills that help students in the English Language Learning process.

BIBLIOGRAPHY • Brown Douglas H. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, Third Prentice Hall Regents. United States of America 1994.

•Charles Francis Hocket, This origin of speech, in Scientific American, 2003.

•Compite, Bases para una Juventud Bilingüe, Ministerio de Educación, 2004.

• Freeman, Diane Larsen. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching.

Oxford University, Oxford New York 2000.

• Hadley, Alice Ommagio. Teaching Language in context 2001.

• Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Pearson Education Limited. England 2001.

• Mendoza Fillola, Antonio. Didáctica de la Lengua y Literatura. Pearson Educación S.A. ; Madrid España 2003.

• Moulton, William G.A Linguistic Guide to Language Learning 1961.

• Pedro Cortés y Laraz. Descripción geográfico moral de la Diócesis de Guatemala. Tipografía Nacional, 1995.

• Pedro Cortèz y Laraz. Descripción geográfico moral de la Diócesis de Guatemala. Tipografía Nacional, 1997.

• Richards, Jack C, Rodgers Theodore S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Second Edition. Cambridge University Press. United State of America 2001 • http://www.mined.gob.sv.

• Http://coe.sdcv.edu/moral/almmethods.htm.

• Http://virtual.auprides.org.sv.

• Http//:www.mined.gob.sv/sistemas/noticias/,asp?opción=2&;d=568 • •

Http//www.myingilizce.com/index.php Http//deltastuff.blogspot.com/.../audiolingual-method.htm

ANNEXES

ANNEXE 1 Poll #1 Justo González Carrasco private school Oral evaluation Grade: 9th Teacher: __________________________________

date: ___________

Number of students: 22 Main Objective: To evaluate students’ receptiveness and productiveness ability to answer the questions using real information about themselves.

1. What’s your name?

2. Where do you live?

3. Where are you from?

4. How are you?

5. How old are you?

6. What is your favorite color?

7. What’s your favorite pet?

8. What is your last name?

9. What is your hobby?

10. What time is it?

ANNEXE 2 POLL # 2 Justo GonzĂĄlez Carrasco private school Student: _____________________________________

ninth grade.

Number of students: 22 Objective: to know the student’s opinions about the English classes given by the researchers.

Instruction: mark with an X yes or not, according your point of view.

1. Did you like the English classes develop by the researchers?

Yes

no

2. Did you comprehend the topics?

Yes

no

3. Do you think that the didactics material help you to understand the class?

Yes 4. Did

you

feel

motivated Yes

no to

participate

in

the

classes?

no

5. Do you consider that the environment was good during the classes?

Yes

no

6. Do you think that you had more opportunities to learn English?

Yes

no

ANNEXE 3 POLL # 3 Justo González Carrasco private school Teacher’s name: _______________________________________ Number of students: 22 Objective: To know the teacher’s opinion about the application of The Audio-lingual Method in English students of ninth grade.

Indications: Answer the following questions according to your opinion.

1. What do you think about The Audio-Lingual Method?

2. Do you think that The Audio-Lingual Method helps students to improve or develop their listening comprehension and speaking?

3. Do you think the activities stimulate students’ participation?

4. Do you think the resources are important in the English classes?

5. Would you recommend The Audio-Lingual Method to English teachers to apply in

it

their

English classes?

ANNEXE 4