What are CLT and ALM?

The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Audio-lingual Method

(ALM) have both importance in learning second language or foreign language around
the world to develop communication skills. But they differ from each other in different
aspect. One deals with meaning for communication, other deals with the structure, form
and rules.

The Communicative Language Teaching: The communicative language teaching

is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes
communication of a language. The CLT was the product of educators and linguists who
had grown dissatisfied with earlier Grammar Translation and Audio Lingual Methods,
where students were not learning enough realistic, socially necessary language. Through
this dissatisfaction the communicative language teaching (CLT) emerged.

The Audio Lingual Method: The audio lingual method or the Army method is
the mode of language instruction based on behaviorists’ ideology. This method
emphasizes the structure, form and rules of a language. The learner learns this method
by imitating. There is no explicit grammar instruction everything is simply memorized
in form. The teacher would then continue by presenting new words for the students to
sample in the same structure.
.

In the classroom, lessons were often organized by grammatical structure and

presented through short dialogs. Often, students listened repeatedly to recordings of
conversations (for example, in the language lab ) and focused on accurately mimicking the
pronunciation and grammatical structures in these dialogs. Example :

“Teacher: There's a cup on the table ... repeat

Students: There's a cup on the table
Teacher: Spoon
Students: There's a spoon on the table
Teacher: Book
Students: There's a book on the table.
Teacher: On the chair
Students: There's a book on the chair etc.”

The origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are to be found in the

changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the1960s. As an extension of
the notional-functional syllabus, CLT also places great emphasis on helping students use the
target language in a variety of contexts and places great emphasis on learning language
functions. Unlike the ALM, its primary focus is on helping learners create meaning rather
than helping them develop perfectly grammatical structures or acquire native-like
pronunciation. This means that successfully learning a foreign language is assessed in terms
of how well learners have developed their communicative competence, which can loosely be
defined as their ability to apply knowledge of both formal and sociolinguistic aspects of a
language with adequate proficiency to communicate.

1
Now, we will compare and contrast between the Audio-Lingual Method and Communicative
Language Teaching on the basis of different issues related.

Objectives:
Audio-lingual method:
i) The development of oral proficiency in the language through carefully
selected vocabularies which form a general service list for the learner to use.
ii) To make students able to use the target language communicatively and
automatically without stopping to think.

Communicative Language Teaching:

i) The main objective of CLT is to develop the communicative competence of
the learners.
ii) Learners are involved in the learning process so that language develops
automatically.
iii) All the basic four skills get equal emphasis.

Principles:
Principles of Audio-lingual method-
a) Language is speech and not writing. This implies that the emphasis is on correct
intonation.
b) Listening and speaking should be taught before reading and writing. It should be
realistic and situational from the start. The mastery of oral skills should precede
reading and writing which will act as reinforcements.
c) Language is a set of habit. Learning is controlled through behaviour.
d) It teaches the language not about the language.
e) Instructions are given in the target language.
f) Language forms occur within a context.
g) Students’ native language interferes as little as possible with the students’
attempts to acquire the target language.
h) Teaching is directed to provide students with a native-speaker-like model.
i) Analogy provides a better foundation for language learning than analysis.
j) Errors are carefully avoided because they lead to the formation of bad habits.
k) Positive reinforcement helps the student to develop correct habits.
l) Students are encouraged to learn to respond to both verbal and nonverbal stimuli.
m) The teacher is regarded as an orchestra leader-conducting, guiding and controlling
the students’ behavior in the target language.
n) Learning a foreign language is treated on par with the native language learning.

2
 o) A comparison between the native language and the target language is supposed to
help teachers to find the areas with which their students probably experience
difficulty: this is expected to help students to overcome the habit of the native
language.
p) Language is not seen separated from culture. Culture is the everyday behavior of
people who use the target language. One of the teachers’ responsibilities is to
present information about that culture in context.
q) Students are taken to be the imitators of the teacher’s model or the tapes.
r) The dialogue is the chief means of presenting vocabulary, structures and it is
learned through repetition and imitation.
s) Mimicry, memorization and pattern drills are the practice techniques that are
emphasized.
t) Most of the interaction is between the teacher and the learner and it is imitated by
the learner.
u) Listening and speaking are given priority in language teaching, and they precede
reading and writing.
v) Correct pronunciation, stress, rhythm and intonation are emphasized.
w) The meanings of the words are derived in a linguistic and cultural context and not
in isolation.
x) Audio-visual aids are used to assist the students’ ability to form new language
habits.

Principles of CLT-
a) Language as it is used in real context should be introduced.
b) Students should be able to figure out the speaker’s or writer’s intentions.
c) The target language is the vehicle for classroom communication.
d) One function may have many different linguistic forms.
e) Opportunities should be given to students to express their ideas and opinions.
f) Errors are seen as the natural outcome of the development of communication
skills.
g) Fluency is much more important than accuracy.
h) Creating situations to promote communication is one of the teacher’s
responsibilities.
i) The social context of the communicative events is essential in giving meaning to

3
 the utterances.
j) The teacher acts as an advisor during communicative activity, a facilitator of
students’ learning, a manager of classroom activity, or a co-communicator.
k) When communicating, a speaker has a choice about what to say and how to say it.
l) Students should be given opportunities to develop strategies for interpreting
language as it is actually seen by native speakers.
m) Students are communicators and are actively engaged in negotiating meaning.
n) Language is used a great deal through communicative activities such as games,
role-play, problem solving.
0) Communicative activities have three features: information gap, choice and
feedback.

Roles of the Teacher and the Students:

There are distinctions between communicative language teaching and audio-lingual method
in terms of the roles of teacher and student. In audio-lingual method, the teacher’s role is
central and active; it is a teacher-dominated method. The teacher models the target language,
controls the direction and pace of learning, and monitors and corrects the learners’
performance. Language learning is seen to result from active verbal interaction between the
teachers and learners. On the other hand, in communicative language teaching the learner
plays the central role and the teacher acts as a mediator.

Teachers in communicative classrooms will find themselves talking less and listening more–
becoming active facilitators of their students’ learning (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). The teacher
sets up the exercise, but because the students’ performance is the goal, the teacher must step
back and observe, sometimes acting as referee or monitor. A classroom during a
communicative activity is far from quiet, however. The students do most of the speaking, and
frequently the scene of a classroom during a communicative exercise is active, with students
leaving their seats to complete a task.

CLT: Teachers help learners in any way that motivates them to work with the language.
ALM: The teacher controls the learners and prevents them from doing anything that conflict
with the theory.
CLT: Learners are expected to interact with other people, either in the flesh, through pair and
group work, or in their writings.
ALM: Learners are expected to interact with the language system, embodied in machines or
controlled materials.
CLT: The teacher cannot know exactly what language the learners will use.
ALM: The teacher is expected to specify the language that learners are to use.

4
CLT: The teachers assume a responsibility for determining and responding to learner’s
language need.
ALM: The teachers have no responsibility to determine learner’s language need.

The Theory of language:

The theory of language underlying Audiolingualism was derived from a view proposed by
American linguists in the 1950s - a view that came to be known as structural linguistics.
Linguistics had emerged as a flourishing academic discipline in the l950s, and the structural
theory of language constituted its backbone. Structural linguistics had developed in part as a
reaction to traditional grammar. Traditional approaches to the study of language had linked
the study of language to philosophy and to a mentalist approach to grammar. Grammar was
considered a branch of logic, and the grammatical categories of Indo-European languages
were thought to represent ideal categories in languages.

The Communicative Approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language

as communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972) referred
to as “communicative competence.” Hymes coined this term in order to contrast a
communicative view of language and Chomsky’s theory of competence. Some of the
characteristics of the communicative view of language follow:

1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning.

2. The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication
3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses
4. The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but
categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.

The theory of learning:

Johnson (1984) and Lirtlewood (1984) consider a learning theory that they see as compatible
with CLT - a skill-learning model of learning. According to this theory, the acquisition of
communicative competence in a language is an example of skill development. This involves
both a cognitive and a behavioral aspect:

“The cognitive aspect involves the internalisation of plans for creating

appropriate behaviour. For language use, these plans derive mainly from the
language system - they include grammatical rules, procedures far selecting
vocabulary, and social conventions governing speech. The behavioural aspect
involves the automation of these plans so that they can be converted into fluent
performance in real time. This occurs mainly through practice in converting
plans into performance.” (Lirtlewood 1984: 74)

This theory thus encourages an emphasis on practice as a way of developing communicative

skills.

Krashen sees acquisition as the basic process involved in developing language

proficiency and distinguishes this’ process from learning. Acquisition refers to the
unconscious development of the target-language system as a result of using the language for
real communication. Learning is the conscious representation of grammatical knowledge that
has resulted from instruction, and it cannot lead to acquisition. It is the acquired system that
we call upon to create utterances during spontaneous language use. The learned system can

5
serve only as a monitor of the output of the acquired system. Krashen and other second
language acquisition theorists typically stress that language learning comes about through
using language communicatively, rather than through practicing language skills.

The Audio-Lingual method is based on the theory that language learning is a question
of habit formation. It has its origins in Skinner’s principles of behavior theory. Since learning
is thought to be a question of habit formation, errors are considered to be bad and to be
avoided.

To the behaviorist, the human being is an organism capable of wide repertoire of

behaviors. The occurrence of these behaviors is dependent on three crucial elements in
learning: a stimulus, which serves to elicit behavior; a response which serves to mark the
response as being appropriate) and encourages the repetition (or future (see Skinner 1957;
Brown1980).

Reinforcement is a vital element in the learning process because it increases the

likelihood that the behavior will occur again and become a habit. To apply this theory to
organism as the foreign language learner, the behavior as verbal behavior, the stimulus as
what is taught or presented of the foreign language, the response as the learner’s reaction to
the stimulus, and the reinforcement as the extrinsic approval and praise of the teacher or
fellow students or the intrinsic self-satisfaction of target language use. Language mastery is
represented as acquiring language stimulus-response chains.

Instructional materials:
In communicative language teaching, instructional materials have the primary role of
promoting communicative language use. In audio-lingual method, instructional materials
assist the teacher to develop language mastery in the learner.
Tape recorders and audiovisual equipment often have central roles in audio-lingual course. A
language laboratory may also be considered essential to provide the opportunity for further
drill work and to receive controlled error-free practice of basic structures. Three kinds of
material are currently used in CLT: text-based materials; task-based materials; and realia.

Techniques:
ALM demands more memorization of structure-based dialogs. Students memorize an opening
dialog using mimicry and applied role-playing. In CLT, dialogs, if used, center on
communicative functions and are not normally memorized. Communicative language
teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication. The teacher sets up
a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. Unlike the audio-lingual method of
language teaching, which relies on repetition and drills, the communicative approach can
leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to
their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from day to day. Students’
motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about
meaningful topics.

One of the key principles of the Audio-Lingual method is that the language teacher
should provide students with a native-speaker-like model. By listening, students are expected
to be able to mimic the model. Based upon contrastive analyses, students are drilled in
pronunciation of words that are most dissimilar between the target language and the first
language. Grammar is not taught directly by rule memorization, but by examples. The
method presumes that second language learning is very much like first language learning.

6
A comparative study is attempted below between CLT and ALM in terms of techniques:

Techniques used in ALM

1. Students listen to a native-like model such as the teacher of a tape-recorder.
2. Students repeat the new material chorally and individually.
3. Teachers correct students’ errors immediately and directly.
4. Dialogues are memorized by reversing roles between (teacher-student) (student-
student).
5. Students are encouraged to change certain key words or phrases in the dialogue.
6. Students write short guided compositions on given topics.
7. Students are encouraged to induce grammatical rules.
8. Students are involved in language games and role-play.
9. Filling-in the blanks exercise is used.
10. Minimal pairs are used.
11. Teachers ask questions about the new items or ask general questions.
12. Substitution drills, chain drills, transformation drills and expansion drills are used.
13. Language laboratory is used for intensive practice of language structures as well as
supra segmental features.
14. Dialogue is copied in students’ notebook.
15. Students are asked to read aloud.

Techniques used in CLT

1. Before presenting the material, a discussion of the function and situation is made
between students and teacher.
2. The teacher asks students to re-order sentences within a dialogue or a passage.
3. Students are involved in language games and role-play.
4. The class works in groups.
5. The teacher gives instructions in the target language.
6. A problem solving task is used as a communicative technique.
7. Questions and answers are of two types: those which are based on the material given
and those which are related to the student’s personal experiences and are centered around
the material theme.

Comparative study of basic features:

Here is a summary of the key features of the Audio-lingual Method, taken from
Brown (1994:57) and adapted from Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979).
(1) New material is presented in dialog form.
(2) There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases, and overlearning.
(3) Structures are sequenced by means of contrastive analysis and taught one at a time.
(4) Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.
(5) There is little or no grammatical explanation. Grammar is taught by inductive
analogy rather than deductive explanation.
(6) Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.
(7) There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids.
(8) Great importance is attached to pronunciation.
(9) Very little use of the mother tongue by teachers is permitted.
(10) Successful responses are immediately reinforced.
(11) There is great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances.
(12) There is a tendency to manipulate language and disregard content

7
David Nunan (1991:279) lists five basic characteristics of Communicative Language
Teaching:
(1) An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target
language.
(2) The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.
(3) The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on the language but
also on the learning process itself.
(4) An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important
contributing elements to classroom learning.
(5) An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside
the classroom