Communicative
Language Teaching
Language as communication
A brief history of CLT
Begginins of CLT can be found in the late
Sixties,as a response to Situational Language
Teaching.
Chomsky s criticisms
Candlin,Widdowson,Firth,Halliday
,Hymes,Gumperz,Labov,Austin,Searle.
Historical context
New reality in Europe:
European Common Market and Council
Europe.This supranational organizations
emerged from the changing times of the Cold
War.
It was necessary to develop creative language
methods teaching so as to contribute to the
cultural and educational cooperation among the
countries.
Anthropological View
The focus on communicative and contextual
factors in language use has an antecedent in
the works of Bronislaw Malinowski and John
Firth
Halliday and Hymes developed their work
based on this anthropological
Whether something is formally possible
Whether something is feasible in virtue of the mean of
implementation available
Whethere sometimes is appropriate (adecuate,happy,
successful) in relation to a context in which it is used
and evaluated
Whether something is in fact done,actually performed,
and what its doing entails.
Some characteristic of this communicative view
language follow:
-language is a system for the expression of
meaning
- the primary function of language is to allow
interaction andl communication
the structure of language reflects its functional
and communicative uses
the primary units of language are categories of
functional and communicative meaning as
exemplified in discourse
Theory of Learning
Little has been written about the theori of learning
but underlying theory can be discerned in some CLT
practices:
Activities that involve real communication
promotes learning
Activities in which language is used for carrying
out meaningful task promote learning
language that is meaningful to the learne
support the learning process
Design
Objectives
An integrative and content level
A linguistic and instrumental level
An affective level of interpersonal
relationship and conduct
A level of individual learning needs
A general educational level of extralinguistic goals
The syllabus
First syllabus model to be proponed was described a
notional syllabus which specified the semanticgrammatical categories and the category of
communicative function that learners need to express
THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE
-the notion of mode use in communication
-the situation in which they might need to used foreign language
-the topics they might need to talk about
- the functions they needed the language for
-the vocabulary and grammar needs
Notional syllabus model was critized by British
applied linguistic replaced one kind of list (for
example a list of grammar items) with another
( a list of notions and functions)
Yalden (1983)
Described as the major current communicative
syllabus types with reflective sources to each
model.
TYPES OF LEARNING AND
TEACHING ACTIVITIES:
The range of exercises and activities
compatible with a communicative approach is
unlimited.
Classroom activities are often designed to
focus on completing tasks thatare mediated
through language or involve negotiation of
information and information sharing.
Littlewood distinguishes between Functional
communication activities and Social Interactional
Activities:
The former one includes tasks such as
Learners comparing sets of Pictures an noting similarities and
differences
Working out a sequence of events in a set of Pictures.
Discovering missing features in a Map or pictures
One learner communicating behind a screen to another learner and giving
instructions on how to complete a map or draw a picture;
Following directions and solving problems from Shared Clues
The second one includes:
conversation and discussion,
dialogues and role plays,
simulations,
improvisations and debates
TEACHER ROLES
According to Breen and Candlin teachers have
two main roles:
Facilitator
Participant
Other roles can be:
Needs analyst:
The teacher assumes a responsability for determine and
respond to learner language needs.
Counselor:
the teacher counselor is expected to exemplify an
affective communicator seeking to maximize the meshin
of speaker intention and hearer interpretation, through the
use of paraphrase, confirmation and feedback
Group process manager
:The teacher has the responsability organize the
classroom or setting for communication activities
The role of instructional materials of
communicative approaches
Text based:
There are textbooks in which their tables of
contents suggest a kind of grading and
sequencing of language practice
Task-based materials
A variety of games, role plays, simulations and
task based communication activities have been
prepared to support communicative language
teaching classes
Pair communication
In pair communication materials, there are
typically two sets o materials for a pair of
students, each set containing different
kinds of information then each student will
fit their respective parts of the jigsaw
Realia
It might include magazines,
advertisements, and newspapers, or
graphic and visual sources around which
communicative activities can be built, such
as maps, pictures, symbols, graphic charts
Procedure
Pair and group work is suggested to
encourage students to use and practice
function and forms
To introduce dialogues followed by practice of the
grammatical patterns
Focus
To use group activities, language games and role plays
Some authors suggest
Presentation of a dialogue
Oral practice Study one of the communicative expression by
using pictures or simple real objects and dramatization to
clarify the structure
Oral recognition, copying and sampling of the homework
Evaluation oral only.
1.Presentation of a brief dialog or several mini-dialogues,
preceded by a motivation
(relating the dialogue situation(s) to the learners probable
community experiences) and a discussion of the function and
situation people, roles, setting, topic, and the informality or
formality of the language which the function and situation
demand (motivation can be given in their native tongue)
2. Oral practice of each utterance of the dialogue segment to
be presented that dai
3. Questions and answers based on the dialogue topic and
situation itself
4.Questions and answer related to students
personal experiences but centered around the
dialogue theme
5.Study one of the communicative expressions in
the dialogue or one of the structures which
exemplify the function by using pictures, simple
real objects and dramatization to clarify the
meaning f the expression or structure
6.Oral recognition, interpretative activities,
copying , sampling of the written homework
assignment and evaluation of learning, oral only.
Conclusion
CLT is considered an approach and not a
method so its methodology is something in
discussion
CLT has influenced our current curriculum
design after 2007 with the LEN
