comparison between audiolingual and silent way

What are goals of teachers who use the method?
 Audio-Lingual Method : Teachers want their students to be able use the target language communicatively.
 The Silent Way : Teacher wants their students to be able use the language for self expression.
What is the rule of the teacher and students?
 Audio-Lingual Method : The teacher is directing and controlling the language behaviors of his students.
The students are imitators of the teacher’s model or the tapes she supplies of model speakers.
 The Silent Way : The teacher should respect the autonomy of the learners in their attempts at relating and interacting in the new challenges.
The role of the students is to make use of what they know.
What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
 Audio-Lingual Method : New vocabulary and structural patterns are presented through dialogs (learn through imitation and repetition). Drills (repetition, backward build-up, chain, substitution, transformation and question-and-answer) are conducted based upon the patterns present the dialog.
 The Silent Way : The teacher asks the students to describe their reactions to the lesson or what their have learned.
What is the nature of student-teacher and student-student interaction?
 Audio-Lingual Method : Student-student interaction in change drills.
Teacher and students interaction is initiated by teacher.
 The Silent Way : For much of the student-teacher interaction, the teacher is silence.
Student-student verbal interactions desirable and is therefore encouraged.
How are the feeling of the students dealt with?
 Audio-Lingual Method : There are no principles.
 The Silent Way : The teacher takes what they say into consideration and works with the students to help them overcome negative feeling which might otherwise interface with their learning.

How is the language and culture viewed?
 Audio-Lingual Method : The view of language has been influenced by descriptive linguists. Culture consists of the everyday behavior and lifestyle of the target language speakers.
 The Silent Way : Each language has also has its own unique reality, or spirit, since it was expression of a particular group of people. Their culture, as reflected in their own unique world view, is inseparable from their language.
What areas of language and skills are emphasized?
 Audio-Lingual Method : Vocabulary and pronunciation. The natural order of skills presentation is adhered to: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
 The Silent Way : Pronunciation and vocabulary. Pronunciation is also a focus on the structures of the language, although explicit grammar rules may never be supplied.
What is the role of the students’ native language?
 Audio-Lingual Method : A contrastive analysis between the students’ native language and the target language will reveal where a teacher should expect the most interference.
 The Silent Way : The students’ native language can, however, be used to give instructions when necessary, to help the student improve his/her pronunciation, for instance.
How is evaluation accomplished?
 Audio-Lingual Method : Students might be asked to distinguish between words in a minimal pair, for example, or to supply an appropriate verb form in a sentence.
 The Silent Way : The teacher given a formal test to students.
How does the teacher respond to students errors?
 Audio-Lingual Method : Students errors are to be avoided if at all possible through the teacher’s awareness of where the students will have difficulty and restriction of what they are taught to say.
 The Silent Way : The teacher would supply the correct language if the students are unable to self-correct and peers cannot help. But only as a last resort.