The Audio-Lingual Method and the Communicative Method: A Study of Methods of Teaching Chinese in North America

This thesis is a study of the two models of teaching Chinese language– the Audio-Lingual Language Teaching Method and the Communicative Language Teaching Method. The author analyzes how the two methods determine their corresponding teaching objectives and teaching processes as well as are influenced by teaching conditions. This study also examines the current status of Chinese language teaching in North America and tries to identify problems and proposes solutions to them.The Audio-Lingual Method is a model of teaching language based on a Behaviorist understanding of language and Structural Linguistics which regards learners’acquisition of knowledge and skills of a language as the fundamental goals of teaching but ignores the cultural and social contexts and the communicative functions of the language. This method focuses on repetition and relentless corrections of errors, a way of preventing learners from forming bad behavioral habits. As this method can hardly motivate learners to learn, it makes learning the language a boring task. The Audio-Lingual Method is supported by non-interactive technologies, such as tape recorder, radio and TV, which are unable to provide students with opportunities to practice the language in real cultural and social contexts.The Communicative Language Teaching Method is based on humanistic theories and Social Linguistics, which designs language teaching according to the learners’needs in actual social contexts. This method emphasizes on creating an actual language environment for learners to practice the target language and considers teaching cultural background knowledge as a necessary part of teaching, so that learners will not only be able to use what they have learned in classrooms but also learn from interactive practice when taking the course. The Task-Based Method is a recently developed method of the Communicative Language Teaching Method, which proves to be effective and attracts more and more educators’attention. The modern computer technologies also provide the Communicative Method with more opportunities and better tools. The multi-media equipment effectively supports the Communicative Language Teaching Method by providing learners with opportunities of simulating actual social lingual environment of the target language. Computer network is directly used for communication. They both are training the communicative ability for the students.Both the Audio-Lingual Method and the Communicative Method are currently used in language teaching in North America. Based on the analysis of the theories and the practice of teaching Chinese language in North America it shows that the Communicative Language Teaching Method is the method consistent with the standards of teaching Chinese language set by governmental regulations and thus the existing practice of Audio-Lingual Method should eventually be replaced by the Communicative Method. To reach this goal, the educators should be given more opportunities to keep their knowledge up-to-date and make efforts to acquire new ideas and improve their teaching skills. With the development of modern technology, the one-way information input for the Audio-Lingual Method should be replaced by two-way interactive information exchange for the Communicative Method. This situation can be improved by developing interactive online teaching and interactive software.