This method of second language instruction was a further development or evolution of The Direct Method. World War II rose up and slapped the U.S. government in its linguistically challenged face, waking it to the need and definite lack of language competency to deal with the other nations of the world. Apparently, the U.S. continues to find itself in this position with International conflicts. The lesson has to be relearned over and over again that bilingual fluency is crucial for Americans. Without it, other nations, some of which are our enemies, have the distinct advantage.
The Audiolingual Method incorporated much from The Direct Method. To that method, it added the concept of recognizing patterns within languages to try and teach communication ability within the target language. Drills and extensive repetition exercises were used to impart an “over learning” of the material that could impart the patterns of the language and, hopefully, make automatic responses within the minds of the student when hearing and speaking the language.
To facilitate this, one engages in a lot of memorization of dialogues in the target language, complex but useful...