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APPLIED LINGUISTICS
Muhammad Farkhan
ABSTRACT
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understand their native language better 2. Linguistics involves the study of the
through text analysis of the grammar of recurring patterns of the language.
the target language and translation. 3. The major focus of study is
The grammar-translation method, phonology and morphology.
in its purest form, had the following 4. Language is acquired through the
characteristics: over learning of its patterns.
1. Students first learned the rules of 5. All native languages are learned
grammar and bilingual lists of orally before reading ever occurs.
vocabulary pertaining to the reading Therefore, second languages should
or readings of the lesson. Grammar be learned in the “natural order”:
was learned deductively by means of listening, speaking, reading, and
long and elaborate explanations. All writing.
rules were learned with their 6. In learning languages, a student
exceptions and irregularities should begin with the patterns of the
explained in grammatical terms. language rather than with deductive
2. Once rules and vocabulary were learning of grammatical rules
learned, prescriptions for translating (Chastain, 1976:110).
the exercises that followed the The audiolingual method, also
grammar explanations given. known as the Aural-Oral, Functional
3. Comprehension of the rules and Skills, New Key, or American Method of
readings was tested via translation language teaching, was considered a
(target language to native language “scientific” approach to language
and vice versa). Students had teaching. Lado proposed the following
learned the language if they could “empirical laws of learning” as the basis
translate the passages well. for audiolingual methodology:
4. The native and target languages 1. The fundamental law of contiguity
were constantly compared. The goal states that when two experiences
of instruction was to convert L1 into have occurred together, the return of
L2 and vice versa, using a dictionary one will recall or reinstate the other.
if necessary. 2. The law of exercise maintains that
5. There were very few opportunities for the more frequently a response is
listening and speaking practice (with practiced, the better it is learned and
the exception of reading passages the longer it is remembered.
and sentences aloud) since the 3. The law of intensity states that the
method concentrated on reading and more intensely a response is
translation exercises. Much of the practiced, the better it is learned and
class time was devoted to talking the longer it will be remembered.
about the language virtually no time 4. The law of assimilation states that
was spent talking in the language. each new stimulating condition tends
to elicit the same response that has
The Audiolingual Method been connected with similar
The theory underlying the stimulating conditions in the past.
audiolingual method was rooted in two 5. The law of effect maintains that when
parallel schools of thought in psychology a response is accompanied or
and linguistics. In psychology, the followed by a satisfying state of
behaviorist and neobehaviorist schools affairs, that response is reinforced.
was extremely influential in the 1940s When a response is accompanied by
and 1950s. At the same time, the an annoying state of affairs, it is
structural, or descriptive, school of avoided (Lado, 1964: 37).
linguistics dominated thinking in that
field. Language teaching based on this Communicative Language Teaching
school of thought operated on the Richards and Rodgers (1986)
following premises: describe Communicative Language
1. Language is primarily an oral Teaching (CLT) as an approach rather
phenomenon. Written language is a than a method, since it is defined in
secondary representation of speech. rather broad terms and represents a
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Applied Linguistics, Muhammad Farkhan
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