It is based on behaviorist theory, which postulates that certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through a system of reinforcement.
Charles Carpenter Fries, the director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States, believed that learning structure or grammar was the starting point for the student.
[citation needed] Drills and pattern practice are typical (Richards, J.C. et al., 1986): Inflection: Teacher: I ate the sandwich.
The prime concern of American linguists in the early decades of the 20th century had been to document all the indigenous languages spoken in the US.
At the same time, behaviourist psychologists, such as B.F. Skinner, were forming the belief that all behaviour (including language) was learnt through repetition and positive or negative reinforcement.
Because of the influence of the military, early versions of the audio-lingualism came to be known as the “army method.”[4] As mentioned, lessons in the classroom focus on the correct imitation of the teacher by the students[citation needed].
The relevance of behaviorist psychology to language learning was also questioned, most famously by Chomsky's review of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior in 1959.
Some of the critique, namely its contention that audiolingual methods originated from Skinnerian radical behaviorism, was shown by Peter J. Castagnaro in 2006 to be misinformed.
[5] Philip Smith's study from 1965-1969, termed the Pennsylvania Project, provided significant proof that audio-lingual methods were less effective than a more traditional cognitive approach involving the learner's first language.
[6] Despite being discredited as an effective teaching methodology in 1970,[6] audio-lingualism continues to be used today although it is typically not used as the foundation of a course but rather has been relegated to use in individual lessons.
Some hybrid approaches have been developed, as can be seen in the textbook Japanese: The Spoken Language (1987–90), which uses repetition and drills extensively but supplements them with detailed grammar explanations in English.
Through repetition of phrases and sentences, a dialogue is learned by the first whole class, then smaller groups and finally individual learners.
The oral lesson learned in previous class is the reading material to establish a relationship between speech and writing.
Once learners mastered the basic structure, they were asked to write composition reports based on the oral lesson.
Texts, guides and course of study contain tests for evaluating progress in listening comprehension, but they rarely contain specific learning materials designed for the systematic development of this skill.