If we intend to give our students good audio-oral skills as well as reading and writing skills, we can hardly ignore the use of the language laboratory. But this does not necessarily mean that machines can provide answers to all our problems: the real answer does not lie in buying taperecorders or in merely having a modern language laboratory, but in a mental effort toward the discovery of appropriate audio-oral methods. Then what are, or what should be, the appropriate methods? This is a brief report of experiments we have carried out at International Christian University for the last two years in teaching French as a foreign language.Our principles for the basic course have been: (1) The analysis of the language should be based on its spoken form. The most desirable order in which language skills are presented is Hearing-Speaking-Reading-Writing. If we want our students to speak correct French, we should tell them realistically what happens in the spoken language. For example, it is obvious that in spoken French, -s is no more the usual sign for the plural, -e is no more the usual sign for the feminine. Another point is that French is far from "phonetic" in its spelling. If the student sees e.g., il vendent before he has learned to pronounce [ilvad], it is likely that the visual impression of vendent will interfere with his pronunciation: he sees ent, therefore he tends to pronounce it. This is why the active acquisition of the spoken forms must precede the acquisition of the written forms. (2) The language should be taught in terms of structure and structural patterns. The most natural way to learn a language is certainly the way we learned our mother tongue. But doesn't it take a lot of time? What we are after is a method which will secure good audio-oral results in the shortest possible time. We have to realize that the teaching of a foreign language is a complex undertaking which must be thoroughly planned. In that sense our method is artificial to a certain extent, but it is at least scientific. The structural approach provides for a systematic study. Through systematic classification the linguistic phenomena are grouped in such a way that one discovers important structural relationships which encompass a greater range of linguistic facts than the traditional rules. This leads us to another problem, which lies in the dialogue approach. The dialogue approach is similar to the "natural" method. But even if the student can fluently use the dialogues he has memorized, that does not always mean that he can express himself easily in all situations. The dialogues are often based on situations and have a variety of structures which he has not thoroughly mastered yet, or worse, which he has never learned. We agree that practice with dialogues is necessary, but those dialogues should be chosen in a logical order, namely: 1st step: Dialogues which have basic expressions for the pro-nunciation drills. 2nd step: Dialogues which contain only such structures as have been mastered. 3rd step: Dialogues which are natural and which are syntheses of the structures already practiced. (3) The student should review systematically in the language laboratory. In the early stages, the work done in one class should be thorough-ly reviewed before the next class meets. This is best done in the language laboratory, for the review must be individual in order to be truly effective. In class, we present some new materials and give basic drills. Then, in the laboratory, we train the students so that their use of structures, forms and vocabulary will be automatic. Again in class, we strengthen the speech automatisms already acquired. Keeping these 3 principles in mind, we would like to take up the problem of pronunciation. Experiments indicate that: (1) Emphasis should be put on both "physiological guidance" by a teacher in class and "listening-repetition

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Research into the effect of frequency response of language laboratory audio equipment is necessary, because it is wasteful to pay for higher and lower frequencies which are not needed. No minimum frequency response has been established on the basis of research, but relevant data from studies in speech analysis may give us significant information for determining the minimum frequency response.

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By Audio-visual method I mean making use of certain kinds of media, whether the teaching materials be direct [i.e. some actual objects or real things] or indirect [e.g. sounds represented in some way or other]; the effect being achieved in the fact that the media are rightly connected with corresponding verbal representations through auditory and visual sensations. In the sense meant here, visual sensation covers the field of reading and writing; the auditory sensation that of hearing and speaking. Now in considering the Chinese language we notice that its teaching in New China attaches much importance to the well-balanced, impartial development of the four elements : hearing, speaking, reading and writing. From the above-mentioned standpoint I divide the learning process into six stages in order to obtain better functioning of the auditory and the visual sense: (1) Reliance on the auditory sense....hearing (principal) and speaking (subordinate). (2) Transition from the auditory sense to the visual....hearing (principal) and speaking (principal) 〜 reading (subordinate). (3) Combined Use of the auditory and the visual sense....hearing (principal) and speaking (principal) + reading (subordinate) and writing (subordinate). (4) Transition from the visual sense to the auditory....reading (principal) and writing (principal) 〜 speaking (subordinate). (5) Combined Use of the auditory and the visual sense....reading (principal) and writing (principal) + speaking (subordinate) and hearing (subordinate). (6) Reliance on the visual sense....reading (principal) and writing (subordinate). And then I shall arrange these stages into three courses: A course = [1] + [2] base B course = [3] + [4] application C course = [5] + [6] research and lastly I shall explain what I call the D course in which the above mentioned courses are summarized: [figure]

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