BA in Language Arts for Teacher
Education, Palestine
Workshop 3: Aims
Dr Martin Hyde
Dr Pamela Aboshiha
Canterbury Christ Church University
 1 Analysis of the teaching of the 4 skills.
 2. Teacher training strategies related to the 4 skills
and the teaching strategies manual.
 3. Application of the teaching skills and strategies to
the ‘English for Palestine’ course books and
classrooms.
Communicative Language Teaching
–practice and principles
A lesson- what principles is this teacher working from?
Feasibility in your contexts ?
 1. A recent newspaper : whenever possible
authentic language is introduced
 2. Underlining the reporters’ predictions: being able
to work out the writer’s intention is part of being
communicatively competent.
 3. Directions in the target language: L2 is a vehicle for
classroom communication
 4. Students try to say the predictions in different words:
one function can have many forms and therefore a variety
of language forms are presented together. Emphasis is on
the process of communication, rather than mastery of
forms.
 5. Students unscramble sentences of the newspaper
article: students work at discourse level.
 6. Students play a language game: games have features in
common with real life – a purpose to an exchange. There is
immediate feedback to the speaker and negotiation of
meaning.
 7. Students are asked how they feel about
predictions: students should be given the opportunity
to express their ideas and opinions.
 8.A student error is ignored: errors are tolerated and
seen as a natural outcome of language development.
 9. The teacher gives the students a strip story: one of
the teacher’s major responsibilities is to promote
situations to encourage communication.
 10. The students work with a partner to predict what the
next picture will be: interaction encourages negotiation of
meaning and co-operation.
 11. The students do a role-play: the social context of the
communicative event gives meaning to the utterances.
 12. The teacher reminds them that one of the students is
‘the boss’: learning to use language appropriately is an
important part of communicative competence.
 13. The teacher moves from group to group offering
advice: the teacher acts as a facilitator.
 14. The students discuss alternative forms to use with
colleagues: in communicating we have a choice about
what to say and how to say it.
 15: The students need to watch TV or listen to the radio for
homework: students should be given opportunities to
listen to language as it is used authentically.
 (from Larsen-Freeman, 2000)
Questions ???
 To what extent are these CLT principles compatible
with the Palestinian context of your own
undergraduates or teachers in middle schools?
 Are these principles compatible with the text books?
 Could they be made more compatible – how ?
 How could you use this activity with your undergraduates?
 Larsen- Freeman, D. (2000) Techniques and Principles
in Language Teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press