皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) ChapterⅠ Introduction The application of methodology is always closely connected with times. In times of economic globalization, people with different languages in different countries communicate with each other more and more frequently. And what emerges at the times require is the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is, on the one hand, the product of the development of sociolinguistics, etc.; on the other hand, it is the results of the prosperity of Western Europe. Just as China at the turn of the century, Western Europe also needs a linguistic terrace to achieve the goal of communication. Thus the upsurge of the CLT has its deep-rooted background. But what we can not ignore is…. Chinese foreign language teachers tend to complete their training at home. It’s no hard to imagine their authentic mastery of a foreign language. In addition, due to the continual rigid examination system in China, the “jug-mug” teaching model has been deep-rooted in this land. The rigid examination system drives teachers and students…. Since CLT was introduced by Chinese scholars from western countries and applied in Chinese context, its effect has been being a hot topic. So through expounding the background and characteristics of CLT and analyzing the survey of CLT used in China, the author discusses the limitations and feasibilities of its use in Chinese context, which is 1 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) expected to help Chinese teachers of English make best use of the teaching approach in China. 2 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) ChapterⅡ Literature Review Through tracing back the origin and the development of CLT and presenting its proponents’ various definitions, the author can see it is common to all that communicative approaching in language teaching starts from a theory of communication and has the aim to develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the independence of language and communication. The paper firstly makes a general study of CLT, including the background, the definition and the characteristics of CLT. 2.1 Background of CLT The origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s. At that time, the major British approach to teaching English as a foreign language was Situational Language Teaching, in which language was taught by practicing basic structures in meaningful situation-based activities. Some British linguists began to …. With the increased interdependence of European common market, the council of Europe found it urgent to develop alternative methods for developing courses, which focused on the needs of European learners. Wilkins proposes a functional or communicative definition of language that could serve as a basis for developing communicative syllabi for 3 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) language teaching (Wilkins, 1978: 165). His communicative analysis was …. 2.2 Definitions of CLT Recently there is not a standard definition of CLT. For the definition of CLT, its proponents are active to stack the cards in their favor. Richards and Rodgers pointes out that CLT starts with a theory of language as communication, and its goal is to develop learner’s communicative competence (Richards & Rodgers, 2001: 139). And Ellis sees CLT as an approach that aims to develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the independence of language and communication (1985: 155). Howatt distinguishes between “strong” and “weak” version of CLT, he states: There is, in a sense, a “strong” version of the communicative approach and a “weak” version. The weak version stresses the importance of providing learners with opportunities to use their English for communicative purposes. The “strong” version of communicative teaching, on the other hand, advances the claim that language is acquired through communication. If the former could be described as “learning to use” English, the later entails “using English to learn it”. (1984: 277) From this statement, it can be seen that CLT is a general term to describe the methodology which teaches language learners how to communicate efficiently and which, on the whole, pays systematic attention to language functions as well as language structures. 4 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) 2.3 Characteristics of CLT As for as the characteristics of CLT concerned, there are many different expressions. According to Larsen and Freeman, they think that there are three the most obvious characteristics of CLT. They think that almost everything that is done with a communicative intent, that is, students use the language a great deal through communicative activities like games, role-plays and problem-solving tasks and using authentic materials and its learner-centered and experienced-based view of second language teaching are required Larsen and Freeman (Larsen &Freeman, 1986: 156). Besides, Richards and Rodgers pointes out the characteristics as fellows: a. Relating the language they teach to the way in which English is used. b. Activities in which students have the opportunities to determine what they want to say independently of the teacher. c. Exposing students to examples of natural language rather than material which has been written for language teaching purposes. (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 135) Thus, the author thinks CLT has the following five features: (1) It stresses the need to allow students opportunities for authentic and creative use of the language; (2) It focuses on meaning rather than form; (3) It suggests that learning should be relevant to the needs of students; (4) It advances task-based language teaching. Students should be given tasks to perform or problems to solve in the classroom; (5) It emphasizes a functional approach to language leaning. Also, to be competent in the 5 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) target language, learners should acquire not only linguistic knowledge, but also the culture of that language. 6 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) ChapterⅢ Methodology The author adopted Willing’s (1988) questionnaire format with some modifications, because the Willing’ s questionnaire is more objective and less intention-loaded, with few preconceptions and no specific predictions lying behind the choice of individual questions. As the author’s aim was to collect, in an unprejudiced way, a large amount of questions about CLT used in the middle school by English teachers was designed in the believe that the subjects’ answers could reflect their actual teaching styles. The whole questionnaire has 19 multi-choices. The questions 1 to 4 are to know the background of subjects; questions 5 to 9 are designed to investigate the subjects’ knowledge of CLT; questions 10 to 19 are related to the use of CLT in their English class. All the question items are simple questions, phrased in the second person as concisely and simply as possible so as to avoid any misunderstanding. The author chose 5 English teachers from middle school of Lu’an city to do the pilot study to find out the shortcoming of questionnaire and further to redesign it according to their feedback. The participants involved in this questionnaire are 40 English teachers whom are chosen from middle schools of Lu’an City randomly, ranging in age from 25 to 50. And the questionnaires edited in Chinese are delivered to every participant to make them do it at their free time. After 7 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) being finished, the questionnaires are collected back from the participants as soon as possible so as to avoid being lost. The author hands out 50 questionnaires and 45 of them are collected and 40 are valid. In the next chapter, the author will analyze the results. 8 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) ChapterⅣ Results and Analysis The data collected from this questionnaire (see Table1 and 2) reveals that in Chinese context, the use of CLT in middle school has some limitations and feasibilities and we can have many ways to make best use of it, so that it can be made for English language teaching in China. From the Table1 below, we can see…. According to Table 2, there are some beneficial factors to use CLT in English class, but many Chinese specific conditions limit the application of CLT. 95% of the subjects express that they are familiar with CLT and 96% of the subjects use CLT in English-open class, which indicates that most of the English teachers have tried to use CLT consciously in English class. Besides, some good external factors are very useful to the adaptation of CLT in English class in Chinese context. From Table2, we can find that 85% of the subjects say that the New English Curriculum Standard in middle school makes them to use CLT in English class and some of them join the training about CLT. Items Question YES NO 95% 13% 88% 74% 46% 5% 87% 12% 26% 54% Number Question5 Question6 Question7 Question8 Question9 9 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) Question10 Question11 Question12 Question13 Question14 Question15 Question16 Question17 Question18 Question19 81% 89% 98% 85% 10% 94% 76% 13% 95% 17% 19% 11% 25 25% 90% 6% 24% 87% 5% 83% Table 2. The results of the questionnaire on the use of CLT in middle school However, 87% and 88% of the subjects involved in the questionnaire have express they do not often use CLT but the Chinese traditional teaching methodology respectively, which demonstrates that…. 10 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) ChapterⅤ Discussion According to the results of the questionnaires, the author finds that the CLT used in Chinese context has some limitations and feasibilities. Therefore, the author is to discuss those two aspects respectively and carefully and then propose some suggestions about how to make best use of CLT in Chinese context in accordance with the results and analysis of the questionnaire. 5.1 Limitations on the Use of CLT in Chinese Context Based on the analysis of the results of the questionnaire, we can find some specific situations or features of English language teaching in China to limit the use of CLT. 5.1.1 Teaching Physical Conditions In CLT, it would be ideal if the number of students in a class is no more than 16 (Munby, 1988: 34). The students should sit in a circle with chairs and desks moveable and the classroom comfortable. Some audio-visual aids like objects, tapes and slides are effective means of arousing the students’ interest and of creating some social contexts to let them practice their communicative skills. However, in China, as the questionnaire showed, 89% of the subjects think that …. 5.1.2 New English Curriculum Standards In CLT, the syllabus is normally notional and situational (Munby, 1978: 145). It emphasizes on social contexts rather than linguistic forms. It is 11 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) learner-based and the functional features answer the questions of where and when the learner will need the target language, in which sentence are always presented in association with actions, time etc. The materials adopted in the textbooks are mainly based on predictions of the real situations in which the learner is likely to…. 5.1.3 Roles of the Teachers and Students In CLT, the most important role of a teacher is to act as a facilitator of his students’ learning, setting up such activities as information gap exercises for them to work out or by suggesting some tasks for students to undertake (John, 1989: 263). A teacher may also play …. 5.1.4 Accuracy and Fluency in English Class Accuracy is a relative term, based on a social judgment of the language used by a speech community and on the mode of literary sources which has a strong degree of idealization and inflexibility (Widdowson, 1978: 67). The written forms dominate the spoken ones. For acquiring accuracy, the learners are often given …. 5.2 Feasibilities on the Use of CLT in Chinese Context Firstly, with China’s entering WTO and the prospect of 2008 Beijing Olympics Games, the orientation of foreign language teaching is practically turning to train the students’ effective performance in actual communicative context. At the same time, CLT has brought …. 12 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) Besides, from Table 2, 85% of the subjects say that the New English Curriculum Standards in middle school makes them to use CLT in English class and 46% of the subjects joined the training about CLT, which demonstrates that …. Moreover, 95% of the subjects express that they are familiar with CLT and 96% of the subjects use CLT in English-open class, which indicates that English teachers in China are getting to knowing more about the CLT and most of them have accepted it as a teaching methodology. Therefore, now, more and more English teachers are …. 5.3 Suggestions on the Use of CLT in English Class in Chinese Context According to the data of Table2, 46% and 74% of the subjects express that their own English proficiency and class organization ability respectively limit their use of CLT in English class. Thus the author is to discuss how to best use of CLT in English class from those teachers’ deficiency. Firstly, the teachers should improve their own English proficiency. Chinese has a proverb, which says that if you want to give students a cup of water, you must have a barrel of water. That means, to be a good teacher, he or she should be …. Secondly, the English teachers should have high abilities to organize their classroom activities. 74% of the subjects express that their own 13 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) class organization ability limit their use of CLT in English class. In the second language classroom, teacher’s techniques to organize the classroom activities directly contributing to the students’ intrinsic motivation which can help teachers manage and organize the classroom activities better…. 14 皖西学院 2009 届本科毕业论文(设计) ChapterⅥ Conclusion Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), borne in the western countries in the late 1960s, is an approach that considers the functional and social factors in language use. It is…. Based on the survey of CLT used in middle school in Chinese context, the author has a basic knowledge of the application of CLT in China and concludes the following two points. One is that the Chinese specific conditions or features like Chinese teaching physical conditions, educational system and the roles of teachers and students limit the use of CLT. The other is that in Chinese context, there is some feasibility for CLT to use and the author gives some arguments to support it. Besides, the author also discusses how to make best use of CLT in Chinese context from the teachers’ aspects. As the author has already discussed in the paper, CLT still could work in Chinese context. There are, however, many issues unsolved. The first problem, one of no small importance, is the training of competent teachers at a large scale, for the communicative approach sets very high demands on teachers. In short, what CLT requires in order to be effective are …. 15