INTRODUCTION

The audio-lingual movement, which was to revolutionize second-language teaching in the United States, originated among experimental psychologists trying to establish their discipline as an exact science and cultural anthropologists and linguists studying unwritten Indian languages. As the ideas of these developing fields became more widely disseminated and as the need for second-language speakers became more widely recognized, a widespread reaction against grammar-translation procedures occurred. Stimulated by favorable public opinion and readily available public monies, the audio-lingual approach rapidly assumed a position of favor in second-language teaching. However, even though the proposed techniques and classroom procedures were eagerly adopted by teachers anxious for a change, the basic tenets were little understood. The purpose of this chapter is to outline the basic philosophy underlying audio-lingual theory.