Reading and Audio Lingual Approaches - My Views

This is for a peer-graded assignment in the course: Teach English Now! Theories of Second Language Acquisition by Arizona State University through Coursera.

 Week 3

Please respond to the following prompts. Each response should be 5-7 sentences.

a. Discuss the differences between the Reading Approach and the Audio Lingual Approach.

These approaches are more familiar and similar to today’s pedagogy of language learning. The Reading Approach focuses more on the writing and reading skills of the learners, while the Audio Lingual Approach focuses more on the speaking and listening skills of the learners. When you think about it, it pretty much covers the 4 skills needed in language learning.

These approaches have huge differences in their purpose, content and technique. With the Reading Approach using books, vocabulary lists and translation paragraphs to help students pass their tests in schools, the Audio Lingual Approach use audio recordings or simply their teacher to speak in the foreign language to them over and over for them to retain how it spoken and heard for them to be able to use it in a conversation. While the Reading Approach stretches the student’s learning that accompanies their other subjects in school, the Audio Lingual Approach makes use of repetition for faster retention and memorization that will equip learners to converse with the speakers of the language.

These approaches can be good to use together as they pretty much cover the 4 skills of language learning, however there are also things that might not be appropriate for today’s age, like relying alone on standardized tests and drills or relying alone on memorization through audio recordings. We also have different types of learners and we need to keep in mind that not all students can learn through reading alone or listening alone.

b. Which approach most closely aligns with your current teaching style?

As much as the Reading Approach is most likely used in a classroom setup, my current teaching style is more on the Audio Lingual Approach and its use of repetition. With the Reading Approach, it usually teaches the guidelines, rules and use of grammar styles while Audio Lingual Approach focuses more on how students express their ideas and how they converse to native speakers.

As a teacher or instructor of English as a Second Language, most of the time my job is to complement what their classroom teacher teaches them. For example, if my students are from Japan, then they will learn the rules and uses of grammar through their Japanese English teacher, as it might be easier for them to understand if the discussion uses their native tongue, and after their grammar discussion, this is where I come in as someone who practice speaking English with them and give more instruction through correction and repetition of expressions.