Speech is more basic to language than the written form. The "natural order"- the order children follow when learning their native language - of skill acquisition is: listening, speaking, reading, and writing .
Language cannot be separated from culture. Culture is not only literature and the arts, but also the everyday behavior of the people who use the target language.
The major objective of language students should learn to respond to both verbal and nonverbal stimuli (The teacher uses spoken cues and picture cues).
The major challenge of foreign language teaching is getting students to overcome the habits of their native language.
1. WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF TEACHERS WHO USE THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD?
Teachers want their students to be able to use the target language communicatively. In order to do this, they believe students need to overlearn the target language, to learn to use it automatically without stopping to think. Their students achieve this by forming new habits in the target language and overcoming the old habits of their native language.
2. WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER? WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE STUDENTS?
The teacher is like an orchestra leader, directing and controlling the language behavior of her students. She \ he also is responsible for providing her students with a good model for imitation.
Students are imitators of the teacher's model or the tapes she supplies of model speakers. They follow the teacher's directions and respond as accurately and as rapidly as possible.
3. WHAT AREAS OF LANGUAGE ARE EMPHASIZED? WHAT LANGUAGE SKILLS ARE EMPHASIZED?
The structures of the language are emphasized over all the other areas. The syllabus is typically a structural one, with the structures for any particular unit included in the new dialog. Vocabulary is also contextualized within the dialogue. It is, however, limited since the emphasis is placed on the acquisition of the patterns of the language.
The natural order of skills presentation is adhered to (to stick to): listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The oral/aural skills receive most of the attention. Pronunciation is taught from the beginning, often by students working in language laboratories on discriminating between members of minimal pairs.
