Communicative Language
Teaching Today
FLTA Pre-semester Orientation
August 27, 2007
Nelleke van DeusenScholl
Language Teaching
• Edward Anthony (1963): What is a
method?
• Three elements:
• approach: “a set of assumptions dealing
with the nature of language, learning, and
teaching”
• method: “an overall plan for systematic
presentation of language based on a
selected approach”
• technique: “specific classroom activities
consistent with a method, and therefore in
harmony with an approach as well”
(source: H.D. Brown, 2002, p. 9)
From traditional approaches to the “postmethod” era
• Traditional approaches (up to the late 1960s)
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•
•
•
Grammar-translation
Audiolingualism
Direct Method
Cognitive approach
• Classic communicative language teaching
(1970s to 1990s)
• communicative competence
• notional-functional syllabus
• Natural Approach
• Current communicative language teaching (late
1990s to present)
The “post-method” era
• Nunan (1991, 228):
• “It has been realised that there never was
and probably never will be a method for all,
and the focus in recent years has been on
the development of classroom tasks and
activities which are consonant with what
we know about second language
acquisition, and which are also in keeping
with the dynamics of the classroom
itself.”
Methodology
Source: Rodgers, 2001
Discussion break
• Which approach(es) have you
personally experienced as a learner?
• What were your impressions and
what is your assessment of the
approach(es)?
• Which approaches are most and
least appealing to you? Why?
Communicative competence
• Linguistic: Knowing how to use language for a
range of different purposes and functions.
• Sociolinguistic: Knowing how to vary our use of
language according to the setting and the
participant (e.g. knowing when to use formal and
informal speech)
• Discourse: Knowing how to produce and
understand different types of texts (e.g. narratives,
reports, conversations)
• Strategic: Knowing how to maintain communication
despite having limitations in one’s language
knowledge (e.g. through using different kinds of
communication strategies)
Principles of communicative language
teaching
• Make real communication the focus of language
learning
• Provide opportunities for learners to experiment and
try out what they know
• Be tolerant of learners’ errors as they indicate that the
learner is building up his or her communicative
competence
• Provide opportunities for learners to develop both
accuracy and fluency
• Link the different skills such as speaking, reading, and
listening together, since they usually occur so in the
real world
• Let students induce or discover grammar rules
(source: Richards, 2006)
Activity
One Function, Many Forms:
Requests
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Open that window for me.
Open that window for me, would you?
Can you open that window for me?
Would you open that window for me?
Could I ask you to open that window for me?
Would you be so kind as to open that window for
me?
It’s pretty stuffy in here, don’t you think?
-MaryAnn Julian
Many Functions, One Form:
Imperative
Functions
 Giving advice
 Giving an order
 Giving a warning when there is danger
 Making a polite request
 Politely offering something
 Giving directions/instructions
-MaryAnn Julian
Activity:
Teaching Compliments
1. Identify two additional forms that obtain with compliments.
 Statement:
I like your haircut.
 Exclamation with “What”: What a nice tie!


2. Put three compliments into contexts that illustrate appropriate
usage. Be sure to include responses to the compliments.
Ten core assumptions in CLT
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Second language learning is facilitated when learners are
engaged in interaction and meaningful communication.
Effective classroom learning tasks provide opportunities
for students to negotiate meaning, expand their language
resources, notice how language is used, and take part in
meaningful interpersonal exchange.
Meaningful communication results from students
processing content that is relevant, purposeful,
interesting, and engaging.
Communication is a holistic process that often calls upon
the use of several language skills or modalities.
Language learning is facilitated both by activities that
involve inductive or discovery learning of underlying rules
of language use and organization, as well as by those
involving language analysis and reflection.
Ten core assumptions in CLT, ctd.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Language learning is a gradual process that involves creative
use of language, and trial and error. Although errors are a
normal product of learning, the ultimate goal of learning is to
be able to use the new language both accurately and fluently.
Learners develop their own routes to language learning,
progress at different rates, and have different needs and
motivations for language learning.
Successful language learning involved the use of effective
learning and communication strategies.
The role of the teacher in the language classroom is that of a
facilitator, who creates a classroom climate conducive to
language learning and provides opportunities for students to
use and practice the language and to reflect on language use
and language learning.
The classroom is a community where learners learn through
collaboration and sharing.
(source: Richards, 2006)
Classroom activities in CLT
• Accuracy vs. fluency
• Activity types:
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•
•
•
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information gap
jigsaw
task-completion
information-gathering
opinion-sharing
information-transfer
reasoning-gap
role plays
Discussion break
• Can you give an example of an
activity that you might use in your
classroom?
• What type of activity is it?
• Is the focus on accuracy or on
fluency?
The CLT paradigm shift:
8 major changes in approaches to language teaching
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Learner autonomy: Giving learners greater choice over their
on learning both in terms of content and process.
The social nature of learning: Learning is a social activity that
depends on interaction with others.
Curricular integration: Language is linked to other subjects in
the curriculum.
Focus on meaning through content-based teaching.
Diversity: Learners learn in different ways and have different
strengths.
Thinking skills: Students learn language to develop and apply
higher order thinking skills (critical and creative thinking).
Alternative assessment: Multiple forms of assessment
(observation, interviews, portfolios, journals, etc.) can be used
to build a comprehensive picture of what students can do.
Teachers as co-learners: The teacher is viewed as a facilitator
who is constantly trying out different alternatives, i.e. learning
through doing.
Extensions of the CLT movement
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•
•
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Content-based instruction
Task-based instruction
Text-based instruction
Competency-based instruction
Final thoughts
•What difficulties
might students and
teachers face because
of changes in their
roles using a
communicative
methodology?
References (on Bb)
• Richards, Jack. C. 2006.
Communicative Language Teaching
Today. Cambridge University Press.
• Richards, J. and Renandya, W. 2002.
Methodology in language teaching.
An anthology of current Practice.
• Rodgers, T. 2001. Language
Teaching methodology. ERIC Digest.