APPROACHES AND METHODS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING - Communicative Language Teaching

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

COMPONENTS

1. whether something is formally possible

2. whether something is feasible in virtue of the means of implementation available

3. whether something is appropriate in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated

4. whether something is in fact done, actually performed, and what its doing entails. This theory offers a much more comprehensive view than Chomsky’s view, based on abstract grammatical knowledge.

· Halliday described seven basic functions that language performs for children learning their first language:

1. instrumental function: using language to get things

2. regulatory function: using it to control behaviour of others

3. interactional function: using it to create interaction with others

4. personal function: using it to express personal feelings and meanings

5. heuristic function: using it to learn and to discover

6. imaginative function: using it to create a world of the imagination

7. representational function using it to communicate information.

· According to Halliday the supporter of functional approach to language use, linguistics is concerned with the description of speech acts or texts, since only through the study of language in use are all the functions of language, and therefore all components of meaning brought into focus.

COMPONENTS

· Grammatical competence

· Sociolinguistic competence

· Discourse competence

· Strategic competence

· Pragmatic competence

· Sociocultural competence

· Linguistic competence

#Learning a second language was viewed as acquiring the linguistic means to perform different kinds of functions.

#Some of the characteristics of this communicative view of language follow :

1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning.

2. The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication.

3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.

4. The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.

THEORY OF LEARNING

· Real communication promotes learning : communication principle.

· The carrying out of meaningful tasks promotes learning : task principle.

· Meaningful language (and activites) promotes learning : meaningfulness principle.

· Meaningful and authentic, not artificial, language use essential : meaningfulness principle.

· Focus : conditions for language learning rather than process.

· Acquisition is seen as the basic process involved in developing language proficiency and distinguished from learning.

· Acquisition is the unconscious development of the target language system as a result of using the language for real communication.

· Learning is the conscious representation of grammatical knowledge that has resulted from instruction.

# Johnson and Littlewood consider an alternative learning theary compatible CLT –a skill- learning that involves a cognitive and a theorical aspects.

· Cognitive aspect involves the internalisation of plans for creating appropriate behaviour.

· Behavioural aspect involves the automation of these plans so that they can be converted into fluent performance in real time.

DESIGN

>>>> Objectives

#Piepho discusses the following levels of objectives in a communicative approach :

1. an integrative and content level

2. a linguistic and instrumental level

3. an affective level of interpersonal relationships and conduct

4. a level of individual learning needs

5. a general educational level of extra-linguistic goals

# These are proposed as general objectives. Particular objectives for CLT cannot be deined beyond this level of specification, since such an approach assumes that language teaching will reflect the particular needs of the target learners which can be approached from a communicative perspective.

# Curriculum or instructional objectives for a particular course would reflect specific aspects of communicative competence according to the learner’s proficiency level and communicative needs.

>>>> The Syllabus

# One of the first syllabus models to be proposed was described as a notional syllabus which specified the semantic grammatical categories and the categories of communicative function.

# The council of Europe expanded and developed this into a syllabus that included :

· descriptions of the objectives of foreing language courses for European adults,

· the situations in which they might typically need to use a foreing language,

· the topics they might need to talk about,

· the functions they need language for,

· the notions made use of in communication,

· as well as the vocabulary and grammar needed.

# The results was published as ‘Threshold Level English’.

# There are several proposals and methods for what a syllabus might look like in CLT. Yalden describes the major current communicative syllabus types :

Type Reference

· structures + functions Wilkins

· functional spiral around a structural core Brumfit

· structural, functional, instrumental Allen

· functional Jupp and Hodlin

· notional Wilkins

· interactional Widdowson

· task-based Prabhu

# Products result from succesful completion of tasks.

For example, the product called ‘relaying a message to others’ can be broken into a number of tasks such as

· understanding the message,

· asking questions to clear any doubts,

· asking questions to gather more information,

· taking notes,

· arranging the notes in a logical manner for presentation,

· orally presenting the message.

TYPES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES

# The range of exercise types and activities compatible with a communicative approach is unlimited.

# Such exercise enable learners to attain the communicative objectives of the curriculum,

· engage learners in communication,

· require the use of such communicative processes as information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction.

# Littlewood distinguishes between ‘functional communication activities’ and ‘social interaction activities’ as major activity types in CLT.

** Functional communication activities include such tasks as

· learners comparing sets of pictures and noting similarities and differences,

· working out a likely sequence of events in a set of pictures,

· discovering missing features in a map or picture,

· solving problems from shared clues.

** Social interaction activities include

· conversation and discussion sessions,

· dialogues and role plays,

· simulations,

· skits,

· improvisations,

· debates.

# Classroom activities are designed to focus on completing tasks that are mediated through language or involve negotiation of information and information sharing.

LEARNER ROLES

** Negotiator between the self, the learning process, and the object of learning,

** Interactor

** Cooperator

# CLT emphasizes the processes of communication rather than mastery of language forms, so learners have different roles.

TEACHER ROLES

** to facilitate the communication process between all participants

** to act an interdependent participant within the learning-teaching group

** an organizer of resources an a resource himself

** a guide within the classroom procedures and activities

** researcher and learner

** need analyst- the CLT teacher determines and responds to learner language needs

** councelor

** group process manager – the CLT teacher organizes the classroom as a setting for communication and communicative activities.

THE ROLE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

# A wide variety of materials have been used to support communicative approaches to language teaching.

# Material are used as a way of influencing the quality of classroom interaction and language use.

# Materils have the primary role of promoting communicative language use.

# Three kinds of materials are currently used :

· text-based materials (numerous textbook)

· task-based materials (a variety of games, role plays, simulations, and task-based communication activities)

realia (the use of authentic, from-life materials in the classroom)

# Competencies

# Linguistic competence

· necessary-prevents static

· communication successful in spite of language rather than because of

· unequal communication

· reduced personality

· writing

# Discourse competence

· genretext type

· coherenceexpectation

· focus

· differences spokenwritten language

# Pragmatic competence

· what to whom, why and where and when

# Sociocultural competence

· languageculture

· social rituals

· socialcultural norms

· frode

· efficiencypoliteness

CONCLUSION

# CLT is the best considered an approach rather than a method.

# It refers to a diverse set of principles. These principles include :

· learners learn a language through using it to communicate.

· Authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal of classroom activities.

· Fluency is an important dimension of communication.

· Communication involves the integration of different language skills.

· Learning is a process of creative construction and involves trial and error.

# In CLT, the language learning is gradual, learners develop their own routes to language learning.

# Johnson identifies five core characteristics that underlie current applications of communicative methodology :

1. appropriateness

2. message focus

3. psycholinguistic processing

4. free practice

5. risk taking

# In CLT, there is much greater room for individual interpretation and variation than most methods permits.

# According to Wilkins, there is a functional or communicative definition of language that could serve as a basis for developing communicative syllabuses for language teaching.

# Wilkins’s contribution was an analysis of the communicative meanings that a language learner needs to understand and express.

# Wilkins attempted to demonstrate the systems of meanings that lay behind the communicative uses of language.

# British applied linguistics gave importance to the theoretical basis for a communicative of functional approach to language teaching.

· It is an approach that aims to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication.

· It pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language.

· According to Howatt, there is a strong and a weak version of CLT. The weak version which has become more or less standard practice in the last decade, stresses the importance of providing learners with opportunities to use their English for communicative purposes, and characteristically attempts to integrate such activities into a wider program of language teaching. The strong version advances the claim that language is acquired through communication, so that it is not merely a question of activating an existing but inert knowledge of the language system itself.If the former could be described as learning to use English, the latter entails using English to learn it.

· CLT has learner-centred and experience based view second language teaching.

Approach

Theory of Language

· The communicative approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as communication.

· Hymes held that such a view of linguistic theory was sterile, that linguistic theory needs to be seen as part of more general theory.

· The goal of language teaching is to develop communicative competence.

· For Chomsky, the focus of linguistic theory was to characterize the abstract abilities speakers possess that enable them to produce grammatically correct sentence in a language.

· Hymes’s theory of communicative competence was a definition of what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community.

· In Hymes’s view a person who acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for language use with respect to: