Description:
<jats:p><jats:bold>ABSTRACT</jats:bold> Conventional foreign language programs commonly fail to lead to fluency because their sequential (cue‐and‐response) approach provides insufficient access to the natural flow of language. A novel technique introduced here can offer systematic and controlled practice in connected discourse while emphasizing the oral discourse features of the target language: rhythm, tempo, and pausing, as well as the alternation of suprasegmental patterns and contours typical for connected speech. A simultaneous mode of cuefeeding makes it possible for the learners to listen to, read along with, and imitatively record texts concurrently. The resulting discourse practice helps them assimilate and gain familiarity with the properties of fluent speech in the target language. The paper explains the principles of Audio‐Lectal Practice (ALP) and the fifth skill required to master this technique, and it discusses how such a program operates. First test results on the effect of imitative speech practice on spontaneous speech and its fluctuation in fluency are cited from an experimental ALP program at the University of Tuebingen.</jats:p>