The Audio-Lingual Method and The Silent Way

The Audio-Lingual Method, like the Direct Method we have just examined, is also an oral-based approach. It also drills students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns. ‘Michigan Method’ principles from behavioral psychology. It was thought that the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the target language was through conditioning-helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement. Learners could overcome the habits required to be target language speakers. The purpose of this method is to form habit formation and speaking the target language automatically. Students become independent by relying on themselves. The teacher, therefore, should give them only what they absolutely need to promote their learning. This situation is different with audio-lingual method where in the audio-lingual method the teacher has a role as a model for students.The learning process of the silent way is students begin their study of the language through its basic building blocks, its sounds. These are introduced through a language-specific sound-color chart. Relying on what sounds students already know from their knowledge of their native language, teachers lead their students to associate the sounds of the target language with particular colors. Later, these same colors are used to help students learn the spellings that correspond to the sounds and how to read and pronounce words properly.