On the basis of evidence from general linguistic theory and psycholinguistic research, it is argued that the working hypotheses of the audiolingual habit theory are inconsistent with studies of human verbal learning tasks, and that transformation grammarians have shown convincingly that structuralist views of language are too narrow in scope. It…

MANY ATTEMPTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO DEFINE "AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD" FROM THE POINTS OF VIEW OF TWO COMPETING THEORIES OF LEARNING, THE BEHAVIORISTIC AND THE COGNITIVE. NONE HAS SUCCEEDED IN DEFINING SOME OF THE SPECIFIC TENETS TO BE ESTABLISHED FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING AS REQUIRED BY AN IMPROVED THEORY OF LANGUAGE LEARNING. A FLEXIBLE AND PROGRESSIVE…

THIS ADDRESS, GIVEN AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING (BERLIN, SEPTEMBER 1964), PRESENTS A GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE PRESENT SCOPE, ROLE, AND POTENTIAL USE OF RESEARCH IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY, AND MAINTAINS THAT THE BEST RESEARCH IS THAT WHICH IS CLOSELY ALLIED WITH THEORY, AND THE HARDEST TO…

This paper examines the belief that the best way of teaching English-as-a-second language (TESL) is to provide the student with opportunities for hearing and speaking "Standard" English. The author contests C.C. Fries' view that "...speech 'is' the language." In India, it is noted, the greatest single difficulty for students is…

The major approaches to language teaching (audiolingual method, generative grammar, Community Language Learning and Silent Way) are investigated to discover whether or not they are compatible in structure with an information-processing model of memory (IPM). The model of memory used was described by Roberta Klatzky in "Human Memory:…

Language, considered as a liberal art, is examined in the light of other philosophical viewpoints concerning the nature of language in relation to second language instruction in this paper. Critical of an earlier mechanistic audio-lingual learning theory, translation approaches to language learning, vocabulary list-oriented courses, graduate…

DESIGNED TO UPDATE THE CONTEMPORARY LANGUAGE TEACHER'S KNOWLEDGE OF THE INNOVATIONS IN HIS FIELD, THIS BOOK INTRODUCES SOME OF THE ESSENTIAL MAJOR AREAS OF WHICH HE SHOULD HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING TO APPROACH HIS WORK SCIENTIFICALLY. PART ONE, DEALING IN GENERAL TERMS WITH LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE LEARNING, SETS THE TONE OF THE BOOK WITH DISCUSSIONS OF…