What is Communicative
Language Teaching??
Communicative Language:
• Blends listening,
speaking, reading, and
writing.
• Is the expression,
interpretation, and
negotiation of
meaning.
• Is comprehensible and
meaning-bearing.
• Is not first learning some
vocabulary, then some
grammar, then finding
something to talk about
to use the vocabulary
and grammar.
• Is not communication at
the service of grammar
learning.
• Is not rote repetition, the
exchange of information
in a grammar lesson, or
simply oral expression.
Change of roles for teacher
and student
• Traditionally: Teacher is
authority, expert, control
figure who transmits
knowledge.
• “Authoritative knowledge
transmitters.”
• Lecturing is the task.
• THE ATLAS COMPLEX:
ATLAS supporting the
heavens on their
shoulders. Full
responsibility.
Explanations.
• Traditionally:
Student is the
passive audience,
vessels into which
the information is
poured.
• Receptive role.
• Note taking is the
task.
Audiolingualism
• Instructor was key figure.
• Habit formation through repetition, imitation,
reinforcement. Parrot.
• Memorizing dialogues, practicing sentence
patterns.
• First language seen to interfere with SLA.
• Errors were evidence of bad habits.
• No attention given to comprehension
• No opportunity to use the language in a
meaningful, communicative way, exchanging
messages. Output was restricted.
CLT
• Provides students with opportunities to
communicate using language to interpret
and express real-life messages.
Phases of CLT
• Early CLT was restricted;
it was communication
with the authority figure
asking questions; students
not parroting but creating
an answer.
• Question-answer session
with teacher in charge.
• Teacher asks question,
selects people, even finish
the sentence; offers
explanation, asks more
questions, etc.
• Next phase of CLT:
students allowed to work in
pairs and pose questions to
one another.
• Pair work but with the Atlaslike question and answer
model.
• Even though they are
answering, grammar practice
tends to be the real intent.
• Teacher monitors for focus
on form, rather than on
communication and
meaning.
Next phase CLT
• Although roles had changed, the activities
still emphasized formal correctness, not
communication.
• Controlled exercises plus more open ended
conversations.
• More natural feel but teacher is still
controlling.
Second Language Acquisition
(SLA)
• Involves the creation of an implicit (unconscious)
linguistic system.
• Is complex and consists of different processes.
• Is dynamic but slow.
• Most L2 learners fall short of native-like
competence.
• Skill acquisition is different from the creation of
an implicit system.
Comprehensible Input IS:
• the language that learners hear that is meant to convey a message.
The learner is to attempt to understand what is being said.
• language embedded in a communicative interchange no matter how
trivial of important.
• the learner attending to the meaning in order to respond to the content
or to perform a task.
• the learner receiving lots of input so they can build up an implicit
linguistic system.
• embedding clues into the input about the way language works.
• a critical factor in language acquisition.
• possible when motivation and a low anxiety environment exist.
Successful Language
Acquisition
• Cannot happen WITHOUT comprehensible input.
• Provides consistent and constant exposure to
comprehensible input.
• Learners need opportunities to use the language in
communicative interaction.
• Having to use the language pushes the learner to
develop communicative language ability!!!
The HOW of Acquisition:
• Input processing: how learners make sense out
of the languages they hear and how they get
“linguistic data.”
• System change: Accommodation: how learners
incorporate a grammatical form into an implicit
system of the language they are creating.
Restructuring: how the incorporation of a form
can cause a ripple effect and make other things
change without the learner ever knowing.
• Output Processing: how learners acquire the
ability to make use of implicit knowledge they are
acquiring to produce utterances in real time.
SLA is dynamic:
• As long as learners continue to get input, the
implicit system they create evolves constantly.
• Acquisition is dynamic (it evolves) but it is slow
(takes years to build a system that is anywhere
native like).
• Particular kinds of errors are made at particular
stages. A structure evolves over time.
Stages of Development
• Learners actively organize language in their
heads independently of external influence.
• Certain kinds of errors and not others are
made at certain times, and something
produces certain patterns of L1 acquisition.
• Learners possess “internal strategies” for
organizing language data and the strategies
do not obey outside influences.
Food for thought:
• Skill acquisition is different from the creation of an
implicit system. It is one thing to develop the implicit
system. Being able to use it is different.
• Skill acquisition happens independently of the creation of
the linguistic system.
• Languages are UNTEACHABLE: we cannot force or
cause the creation of the learner’s implicit system. Not can
we force the acquisition of speech making procedures that
are essential to skill development.
• We can only provide opportunities for acquisition to
happen by providing chances to express real information,
not merely information in drills.