In a brief introduction, this article expresses the concern that the concentration on the external components in audiolingually-oriented foreign language programs has diverted attention from the instructional fundamentals of time, learning processes, environmental structure, and teacher and student roles. A review of such basic principles of the "linguistic" method as (1) primacy of sound, (2) intensiveness, (3) inductive grammar, (4) words in context, and (5) linguistic interference is followed by an evaluation of the intensive method that refers to the modifications made in the traditional foreign language context by the linguist. Programed instruction is defined, discussed, and evaluated in the concluding half of the article. Suggested for research is further experimentation with more flexible (1) organizational frameworks, (2) use of the language laboratory as a teaching machine, and (3) student and teacher roles. (AB)