Task 2: Reflective Essay

As a teacher, there is a need to learn a variety ways of teaching. One method

of teaching will probably not suitable to use towards all types of situations. A method
of teaching needs to change from time to time. According to Larsen-Freeman and
Anderson in their book title Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching,
teaching and learning process depends on the specific and unique needs of the
students. Hence, for ELT Methodology course TSL 3103, my group and I were
assigned to demonstrate one of the methods used to a particular language teaching
context. As a result of draw lots, my group and I were needed to demonstrate an
audio-lingual method in an English language classroom.
Audio lingual method derives from the Behaviourist models of learning. By
using the Stimulus-Response-Reinforcement model, it relied heavily on drills to form
these habits; substitution was built into these drills so that in small steps the students
was constantly learning and was shielded from the possibility of making mistakes
(Harmer J, 1983). In addition, the structure uses for drilling are provided by the
teacher, since audio-lingual method is very teacher centred. In order to carry out task
1, my group and I are required to find a suitable structure for the learners. We started
our task by brainstorming the suitable 20-minutes activity and lesson plan for an
audio-lingual classroom. My group had chosen occupation as our lesson themes.
We also set out our target learners is year 3 from local primary school. The goals
that we decided to achieve at the end of our virtual audio-lingual classroom are to
make students understand kinds of occupation, students able to use occupations
vocabularies in the sentences and dialogue provided and students able to use the
target language communicatively.
During our demonstration of an audio-lingual class, we started our induction
by asking the students ambitions. It helped them to focus and develop their interest
toward todays lesson. Then we moved to the second stage that is making the
children understand kinds of occupations. We introduced several occupations by
using pictures. This technique will help students to imagine and have a better
understanding of occupations. In audio-lingual classroom the teacher will only use
the target language. Since English is not the L1 of the learners, using pictures and
teaching aids will help them to have a better understanding of the things that they
are learning. After that, we provided the students with structural dialogue. Using this
dialogue we asked them to listen carefully while we act out. Next, we read the text
and drilling them to repeat after us. Any mispronunciations were immediately
corrected and if the students stumble over one of the lines in the dialogue, a
backward build up drill is used. This will prevent learners from making errors.
After the students were able to pronounce and memorized the structural
dialogue, a chain drill were carried out. In chain drill, we make the students
communicate with each other by using the same dialogue. This will help them to
learn how to use the language to communicate. Next, the students were drilled using
single-slot substitutions drills. In this activity, the students were introduced by
particular parts of speech occupy particular slots in sentences. They were required to
learn which part of speech occupies which slot. This activity will help the learners to
learn on how to create new sentences. Finally, at the end of our lesson we gave
praises to every student that has done well. This positive reinforcement helps the
students to develop correct habits.
Further, our lecturer Mr Lim Chin Chye and peers were giving us several
comments regarding our audio-lingual demonstration. We have received positive
feedbacks from them saying that our demonstration was clear and every features of
an audio-lingual method were smoothly put inside. The audience even rate us 18
over 20 for our demonstration. However, there were also some suggestions to
improve our presentation. We were required to improve our pronunciation. My group
and I had wrongly stressed out word in the sentence. In English, the verb are stress
out more than the pronouns and yet we had done vice versa. In addition, my group
and I had also made a dangerous attempt during the slotting activity. We put an
article a in every blank slot of occupations. This will make the students confuse as
there are also occupation that starts with article an such as an engineer.
An audio-lingual method seems like a perfect method to be used as it drills
students to speak in the target language accurately. It also improves the listening
and speaking skills of the learners. However, there are lots of weaknesses in this
method. The weaknesses are the students might get bored since there are always
repeating the same structure, the students listening and speaking skills might get
improve but not their writing skill, and the students will use an odd way of
communication since they are only memorizing the structure provided. These
weaknesses should be improved. For example, the students might get bored of the
same structure of an audio-lingual classroom then as a teacher we can improvise the
learning process to be interesting. If these weaknesses are improved, this method
will be a perfect method to use in teaching and learning process.
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