Czech The Modern Audio-oral Course as an Introductory Phase of Learning Czech as a Foreign Language

The modern audio-oral course is an example of good practice, i.e. a method of teaching Czech as a foreign language introduced in intensive courses at the Institute for Language and Preparatory Studies at Charles University. The paper first describes the historical background on which the audio-oral approach is built. These include the socio-political situation in the United States and Europe during the 20th century, the increased possibility of traveling of goods and people due to rapid technological developement, and the resulting need for oral communication in multiple languages. We briefly describe the American audio-lingual method of language learning and its European parallel, the structural-global audio-visual method. Subsequently, we also find the essential features of their design in the course called Úvodní audioorálního kurzu (Introductory Audio-Oral Course, Hronová, 1971) and the course called Kurz českého jazyka pro azylanty (Czech Language Course for Asylum Seekers, Čemusová et al., 2004), which for us form a link between the aforementioned language learning methods and our modern audio-oral course. The description of this initial phase of learning Czech as a foreign language focuses on its basic components, i.e. visualization, pronunciation work, drill involvement, and approach to grammar and syntax presentation. An important point is the presentation of the technical aspect of the course, which influences and facilitates both the preparation of teaching and methodological materials, as well as work directly in the classroom and students' home preparation. The necessary quality preparation of lecturers for teaching in an audio-oral type of course cannot be overlooked. As a further step leading to the evaluation of the usefulness of the course, a memory testing of students is proposed, a survey to determine their attitudes and approaches to this mode of language transfer, as well as a survey among teachers who are the leaders of the whole process and are directly involved in the implementation of the proposed audio-oral input course.