



A review of the history of FLT
Fostering communicative competence
Communicative Language Teaching
TBLT
2015/4/13
1





The
The
The
The
The
grammar-translation method
direct method
audio-lingual method
functional-notional syllabus
communicative language teaching
2015/4/13
2

The Grammar-translation method
Traditional method / classical method; uses
translation and grammar study as the main
teaching and learning activities; a reflection of the
way Latin and Greek were taught; to help Ss read
and appreciate foreign language literature; seen as
an academic study
focus on grammatical rules, the memorization of
vocabulary, the inflection of words, translations of
texts, doing written exercises.
2015/4/13
3
The advantages of the Grammar-Translation Method:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Comparison between two languages helps students to
have a better understanding of the meaning of abstract
words and complicated sentences.
Systematic study of grammatical rules plays an important
role in fostering students’ ability of reading
comprehension and producing grammatically correct
sentences.
The focus on understanding literary texts provides the
situation in which reading and writing abilities are well
trained.
The Grammar-Translation makes few demands on
teachers although it often creates frustration for students.
The disadvantages of Grammar-translation method:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Overemphasis on translation can never emancipate
the learners from dependence on the first language.
The Grammar-Translation puts too much emphasis
on reading and writing and neglects listening and
speaking.
In the Grammar-Translation Method, the texts are
mostly taken form literary works. The language
learned often doesn’t meet the practical needs of the
learners.
Memorizing grammar rules and bilingual word lists
does not motivate students to actively communicate
in the target language.

The Direct method
A direct reaction to and a radical departure from the G-T method;
language learning was not an intellectual exercise but a necessity
for survival;
The rationale: a person should learn to speak a foreign language
by the same way as a child learn his mother tongue. (Gouin’s
story)
Some principles of the direct method:





Classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target
language.
Only everyday vocabulary and sentences were taught.
Grammar was taught inductively
New teaching points were taught through modeling and practice
Concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstration, objects,
pictures; Abstract vocabulary was taught through association of
ideas.
Advantages and disadvantages:
2015/4/13
6
The Advantages of the Direct Method:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The use of the target language as a means of instruction and
communication in the classroom contributes greatly to
forming the habit of thinking in the target language, which
is necessary in efficient real communication.
The emphasis on practice with new language items and on
language skills, rather than on language knowledge, is
important in achieving automaticity of using the target
language.
The emphasis on spoken language conforms to the
objectives of modern language teaching. Special attention
paid to pronunciation and intonation is desirable in teaching
spoken language.
Regarding listening and speaking as the basis of reading and
writing is strategic in fostering the four skills.
Using full sentences as teaching units makes foreign
language learning more natural and efficient for students to
understand a new text and acquire a language.
The Disadvantages of Direct method:
1.
2.
3.
The absolute avoidance of the native tongue
occasionally troubles the Direct Method in
teaching the meaning of abstract concepts.
Without explicit grammar explanation,
students lack a necessary knowledge of the
target language.
The Direct Method places a high demand on
the teacher.


The Audiolingual method
"The Army Method“, developed through a U.S. Army program
called ASTP ( standing for "Army Specialized Training Program.“)
An integration of structuralism and behaviorism, basic
assumption: SLL should be viewed as a mechanistic process of
habit formation
In this method, oral interaction was emphasized in pattern
drills, and conversation practices.










New material is presented in dialogue form.
There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases,
and overlearning.
Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.
There is little or no grammatical explanation. Grammar is taught
by inductive analogy rather than deductive explanation.
There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids.
Great importance is attached to pronunciation..
Very little use of the mother tongue by teacher
There is great effort to get the students to produce error free
utterances.
2015/4/13
9
The advantages of Audiolingual method:





The audiolingual theory is probably the first language teaching
theory that openly claims to be derived from linguistics and
psychology.
The Audiolingual Method attempts to make language learning
accessible to large group of ordinary learners.
The Audiolingual Method stresses syntactical progression and uses
pattern drills to help the students gain control over grammatical
structures, which is a much more interesting way of learning
grammar than working through written exercises. What’s more,
drilling can be positively beneficial in helping a student to develop
his oral ability.
The Audiolingual Method leads to the development of simple
techniques of varied, graded, and intensive practice of specific
features of the language, and more scientifically selected and
systematically arranged materials and structural patterns to go with.
The Audiolingual Method lays emphasis on listening and speaking
which did not gain so much importance from Grammar-Translation
Method.
The disadvantages of Audiolingual method:
1.
2.
3.
4.
The theoretical basis of the Audiolingual
Method was found to be weak.
Techniques such as pattern practice, drilling,
memorization, etc. are not resulting in
competence.
The teacher’s role is central and active in the
Audiolingual Method. Learners have little
control over the content, pace or style of
learning.
The Audiolingual method ignores the fact that
learning can be facilitated if all the channels
are open to students.

The Functional-notional syllabus (method)
a precursor of Communicative Language Teaching
a FNS textbook would be organized in the following sequence of
functional topics:









Introductions, greetings, good-byes;
Invitations, Apologies, Condolences;
Gratitude, Compliments, Congratulations;
Requests, Commands, Warnings, Directions;
Offers, Seeking Permission;
Advice, Intention;
Pleasure, Displeasure;
Expressing your opinion
… and so forth.
A typical unit of such a textbook would include presentation of
dialogues, conversation practice with classmate, situations in which
the student figures out "what would I say," role plays, etc..
2015/4/13
12

The communicative language teaching ---the current state of the art
developed as a reaction away from grammar-based
approaches such as the audio-lingual method
The goal of communicative language teaching is to
have students become communicatively competent.
2015/4/13
13

The goal of CLT is to develop Ss’ communicative
cometence, which includes both the knowledge about
language and the knowledge about how to use the langage
appropriately in communicative situations.
Task 1.
Work in pairs. Think about at least 3 situations where we are
likely to hear the question: “why don’t you close the door?”
Discuss how many functions it may have.
 Task 2.
Suppose you want to make a suggestion to somebody.
How many different ways are there to express this
intention? Write down as many ways as you can think of.
Then discuss in what situation you would use each of
them?
2015/4/13
14
Hymes’s understanding of
communicative competence

Linguistic competence Vs. communicative
competence
Linguistic competence (by Chomsky) is understood as
the tacit knowledge of language structure and the ability
to use this knowledge to understand and produce
language.
communicative competence (by Hymes) entails knowing
not only the language code or the form of language, but
also what to say to whom and how to say it appropriately
in any given situation.

4 aspects of communicative competence
(Hymes, 1979)
Knowing whether or not womething is formally
possible (grammatically acceptable);
Knowing whether something is understanable to
human beings;
Knowing whehter something is in line with social
norms;
Knowing whether or not something is in fact done.
2015/4/13
16
Hedge’s understanding of
communicative competence

Five components of communicative
competence (Hedge, 2000)
Linguistic competence
Pragmatic competence
Discourse competence
Strategic competence
Fluency
2015/4/13
17

Linguistic competence “is concerned with
knowledge of the language itself, its form
and meaning" (Hedge, 2000:46). It is an
integral part of communicative competence
and it is wrong to think that communicative
language teaching does not aim for high
standard of linguistic correctness.

Pragmatic competence is concerned with the
appropriate use of the language in social
context. In Hymes’s words, to know “when to
speak, when not, what to talk about with
whom, when, where and in what manner”.

Discourse competence refers to one’s ability
to create coherent written text or
conversation and the ability to understand
them (Canale and Swain, 1980). According to
Hedge (2000), it also includes one’s ability to
initiate, develop, enter, interrupt, check or
confirm in a conversation.

Strategic competence refers to strategies one
employs when there is communication
breakdown due to lack of resources.

Fluency means one’s ability to link units of
speech together with facility and without
strain or inappropriate slowness or undue
hesitation. Prefabricated language can help
learners produce the language more fluently.

Principles
Communication principle

Activities that involve real communication promote learning.
Task principle

Activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful
tasks promote learning.
Meaningfulness principle

Language that is meaningful to the learner supports the learning
process.
A weak and a strong version of CLT
2015/4/13
23

Features of communicative activities
2 categories of commnicative activties
Littlewood (1981)
Functional communication activities（功能交际活动）
We know that language has functional meanings. Therefore we
can devise communicative activities for the classroom which
emphasize this functional aspect of communication. The mani
purpose of the activity is that students should use the language
they know in order to get their meaning across as effectively as
possible. Success is measured primarily according to whether they
cope with the communicative demand of the activity. A typical
example of this kink of activity is an information-gap task.
2015/4/13
24
Social interaction activities：（社会交往活动）
We also know that appropriateness of language is another
important aspect of communicaiton. The students should
have the ability to take into consideration the functional
meaning of different language forms, and their social
meaning as well. The competent language user chooses
language which is not only functionally effective, but is also
appropriate to the social situation he is in. Role-play is one
of the most important techniques for creating a wide variety
of social situations and relationships in the classroom.
2015/4/13
25
Examples of communicative activities:

Functional
Identifying pictures
Discovering differences
Following directions
Reconstructing story sequences
…

Social interaction activities
Role-playing through cued dialogues
Role-playing through cues and information
Role-playing through situation and goals
Large-scale simulation activities
Improvisation
2015/4/13
26


TBLT is a further development of CLT. It shares the same beliefs, as
language should be learned as close as possible to how it is used in real
life. It has stressed the importance to combine form-focused teaching
with commnication-fovused teaching.
The nature of TBLT is learning by doing
Learning by doing motivates students to fulfill their potential. Learners
master the language by using it communicatively in the classroom,
although they still have to learn grammar and memorize vocabulary.
任务型语言教学的核心理念是学习者用语言做任务，在完成任务的过程中自然习
得语言。就英语而言，任务指有利于学生用英语做事情的各种语言实践活动。任
务型英语教学就是以具体的任务为载体，以完成任务为动力，把知识和技能融为
一体，让学生在完成任务的活动中自然地使用英语，在使用英语做事的过程中发
展和完善自己的语言能力。
2015/4/13
27

An example of TBLT ( from The 21st century )
任务型教学法能让学生在完成任务的过程中，学习和使用。
这里以“十年前的生活”课堂活动为例，介绍任务型教学中
语法教学的实用技巧。
2015/4/13
28
课程目标
该课程适用中级以下英语水平的学生群体，通过让学生讨论十年前的生活与如
今生活的差异，练习运用过去时态。
准备
* 教师准备一张自己十年前的照片（也可让学生每人准备一张自己十年前的照
片）。
* 准备一篇描述自己十年前生活状态的小文章（突出与现在的差异），例如从
前（不）喜欢或（不）习惯做的事情。
* 将这篇文章打印后当作讲义分发给每位学生。
任务前预热
教师向学生展示自己十年前的照片（可在教室内来回走动），并让学生讨论照
片与其本人有何不同。讨论中，教师无须纠正学生的语言错误，任其自由表达观点
、最后告诉学生，他们将会在接下来的任务中找到答案。
2015/4/13
29
任务
将学生分为三人一组，让其讨论自己十年前与现在的差异，时间为三至五分钟。教师将下列问
题写于黑板上，让学生围绕这些问题展开讨论:
* What did you look like?
* What was different about your life?
* Did you have different likes and dislikes? Different hobbies?
* Are you very different now?
在此过程中，教师在各组之间走动，旁听讨论，但无须纠正学生的语言错误。
讨论任务后，教师让每组准备一篇讨论报告，总结各自在十年中的变化。准备时间为五分钟时
间。
总结报告
每组代表发言，将报告内容传达给全班同学。最后，全班选出一位在十年中变化最大的学生，
并让该学生将自己的照片展示给全班同学。
任务后的听力练习
教师可播放一段英美学生完成相同任务时的录音，让学生思考其中有哪些异同。活动中，可向
学生提出问题，并让其快速回答。例如:What did I say about my hair? What did I say about
my job? 等等。如发现学生理解困难，教师可以重复播放录音。
2015/4/13
30
语言聚焦
为了让学生对目标语言有足够的认知，教师可从播放的录音中选择两个包含语法“used to” 的
句子，并写于黑板上。例如:I used to go to heavy metal concerts.或I used to have long
black hair.
检查学生是否理解句子含义。例如，针对第一个例句，可提问:
* Did I go to heavy metal concerts in the past? (Yes)
* Was it a regular occurrence? (Yes)
* Do I go to heavy metal concerts now? (No)
教师向学生讲解used to的用法（used to+不定式和didn’t use to +不定式），之后将录音
资料分发给学生，让其找出录音中运用used to的句子。
语言练习
教师让学生运用used to造句，写出自己在孩童时代常做的三件事情。完成后，学生们先互相
检查，随后教师从中选出一些好的例句写于黑板上。
后续自选练习
将学生重新分组，重新进行这一任务，以提高完成任务的质量。在这次任务中，学生们须尽量
使用used to,活动过程中，教师须纠正学生的语言错误。
2015/4/13
31
任务型教学
3P
序
号
1
2
3
基本
步骤
呈
现
Presentation
练
习
Practice
输
出
Production
教学内容
教师通过某种方式向学生呈现本
节课将要学习的新语言项目(为学而
学)
学生集体或成对地重复和操练句
型或对话直到能准确使用(为学而练
，练中学)
在这一阶段学生被期望能“自由”的
运用刚才这节课所学的知识。(为学
而用)
基本
步骤
前
任
务
Pre-task
任
务
环
Task
cycle
语
言
聚
焦
Language
focus
教学内容
让学生达成对本课主题和任务的初步认识；呈现与
主题和任务有关的单词和短语及相关知识。(意义优先
，为用而学)
通过任务的完成来促进学生语言知识、语言技能、
情感态度、学习策略和文化意识五个方面的发展。(用
中学，学了就用)
在这个环节学生被期望能自己思考、分辨和学习在
完成任务过程中遇到的新的语言知识并加以练习和运
用。(意义优先，为用而学)