Bilingual method

The bilingual method of foreign language teaching was developed by C.J. Dodson (1967) as a counterpart of the audiovisual method. In both methods the preferred basic texts are dialogues accompanied by a picture strip. The bilingual method, however, advocates two revolutionary principles based on the results of scientifically controlled experiments in primary and secondary schools. In contrast to the audiovisual method and the direct method, the printed text is made available from the very beginning and presented simultaneously with the spoken sentence to allow learners to see the shape of individual words. Also, from the outset meanings are conveyed bilingually as utterance equivalents in the manner of the sandwich technique, thus avoiding meaningless and hence tedious parroting of the learning input. The pictures are seen primarily as an aid to recall and practice of the related dialogue sentences rather than as conveyors of meaning. The mother tongue is again used in the oral manipulation of grammatical structures, i.e. in bilingual pattern drills.

The architecture of the bilingual method is best understood as a traditional three-phase structure of presentation – practice – production. A lesson cycle starts out with the reproduction of a dialogue, moves on to the oral variation and recombination of the dialogue sentences, and ends up with an extended application stage reserved for message-oriented communication. The method is listed in Eppert’s Lexikon (1973: 171) under the headword Konversation, where its eight teaching steps are described "The eight steps lead from imitation to free conversation," i.e. unlike the grammar-translation method, but like the direct method and the audio-lingual method it focuses on the development of oral skills.

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