Linguists and Foreign Language Teachers

Since foreign language teachers are neither structural nor transformational linguists, the current controversy between the two linguistic schools has caused uncertainty about the validity of audiolingual techniques. Addressing itself to the foreign language teacher and his dilemma, the article briefly examines the two theories, their affinities, and their associations with more general theories of knowledge, particularly with learning psychology. It draws the implications of each position for the teaching of foreign languages and ends with the suggestion that we continue using structurally‐based audio‐lingual techniques, but enrich them with experimental infusions from the transformationalist position. While remaining alert for possible new developments in language teaching techniques, the teacher can then safely leave the infighting to the professional linguists

Dilemma · Epistemology · Foreign language · Foreign language teaching · Language assessment · Language education · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Position (finance · Sociology · Transformational leadership · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology · Second Language Learning and Teaching · Social Psychology