Communicative Language Teaching

 

Communicative Language Teaching 

What is CLT?

The communicative approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972) referred to as "communicative competence." Hymes coined this term in order to contrast a communica­tive view of language and Chomsky's theory of competence.

 

Chomsky held that linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-listener in a completely homogeneous speech community, who knows its language perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as mem­ory limitation, distractions, shifts of attention and interest, and errors (random or characteristic) in applying his knowledge of the language in actual performance.

 

The Communicative Approach is based on the idea that learning a language successfully comes through having to communicate real meaning. In the Communicative Approach, the main objective is to present a topic in context as natural as possible.

 

What are the goals of teachers who use CLT?

The goal is to enable students to communicate in the target language because communication is a process; knowledge of the forms of language is insufficient.

 

What are the principles of CLT?

·       Authentic language should be introduced.

·       Being able to figure out the speaker's or writer's intentions is part of being communicatively competent.

·       Work at the suprasternal level.

·       Opportunities to share opinions.

·       Errors are tolerated.

·       Cooperative relations among students.

·       Social context is essential

·       Teacher acts as a facilitator.

·       The grammar and vocabulary the students learn follow from the function, situational context and the role of the interlocutors.

·       Students are coached on strategies.

 

What is the role of the teacher in CLT?

The teacher facilitates communication in classroom, so he/she has major responsibilities like:

·       Establishing situation to promote communication

·       Acting as advisor

·       Answering students’ questions

·       Monitoring performance

·       Noting students’ error

·       Acting as co-communicator

 

What is the role of students in CLT?

Students in CLT are seen as more responsible for their own learning.

 

What is the nature of student-teacher interaction?

Teacher interacts with the students and the students interact between themselves and with the teacher.

 

What are the characteristics of CLT?

·       The Whole is more than the sum of its parts

·       The processes are as important as the forms

·       Information gap

·       Choice

·       Feed back

·       Learning by doing

·       Mistakes are not always a mistake

 

 

How is the language viewed?

Language is for communication.

 

How is culture viewed?

Culture is the everyday lifestyle of people who use the language.

 

What areas of language are emphasized?

Language functions might be emphasized over forms.

 

What language skills are emphasized?

Students work on all four skills from the beginning.

 

What is the role of the students’ native language?

Students’ native language is permitted in CLT.

 

How is evaluation accomplished?

A teacher is likely to use an integrative test which has a real communicative function. In order to assess students’ writing skill, for instance, a teacher might ask them to write a letter to a friend.

 

How does the teacher respond to student errors?

Errors of form are tolerated during fluency-based activates and are seen as a natural outcome of the development of communication skills.

 

What are the techniques of CLT?

Authentic materials

To overcome the typical problem that students cannot transfer what they learn in the classroom to the outside world, and to expose students to natural language and a variety of situations, Adherents of CLT advocate the use of authentic language materials.

 

Scrambled sentences

The students are given a passage or a text and which the sentences are in a scrambled order.   They are told to unscramble the sentences so that the sentences are restored to their original order.  This type of exercises learner students about the cohesion and coherence properties of language.  They learn how sentences are bound together.

 

Language games

Games are used frequently and CLT.  the students find them enjoyable, and if they are properly designed, they give students valuable communication practice.  Games that are truly communicative have three features of communication:  information gap, choice, and feedback.

 

Picture strip story

One student in a small group was giving a strip story.  she showed the first picture of the story to the other members of her group and asked them to predict what the second picture would look like.  An information gap existed- the students and the groups didn't know what the picture contained.  They had a choice as to what their production would be and how they would word it.  they received feedback, not on the form but on the content of the prediction, by being able to view the picture and compare it with their prediction.

 

Role-play

Role plays are very important in CLT because they give it you that's an opportunity to practice communicating and different social contacts and in different social roles for example the teacher tells the students who they are and what they should say and maybe provide them with their situation they have two talking about but this achievement determine what they will say.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Diane Larsen-Freeman. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press, USA.