Communicative Language Teaching

Cris D. BarabasEnglish 212N Summer Term 2013

University of San Carlos

Presentation Outline

I. What is communicative language teaching?II. The nature of learners’ learningIII. The background to CLTIV. Implications for methodologyV. Classroom activities in CLTVI. CLT and cooperative learningVII.The push for authenticity VIII.Current trends in CLT

Tracing back…

• Concurrent developments in Europe & North America

• First proposed in the 1970s?• British linguist (1960s?): Communicative

Approach aims to make communicative competence (Hymes, 1972)

• Council of Europe: notional-functional concepts of language use syllabus

A methodology of choice?WHY?•Does it mean teaching conversation?•An absence of grammar in a course?•An emphasis on open-ended discussion activities?

The goals of language teaching

•Communicative competence vs. grammatical competence

Communicative competence is what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community.

Four dimensions of communicative competence (Canale and Swain, 1998)• Grammatical competence• Sociolinguistic competence• Discourse competence• Strategic competence

How is communicative competence viewed?

• Knowing how to use language for a range of different purposes and functions

• Knowing how to vary our use of language according to the setting and the participants (formal vs. informal speech, when to use language appropriately for written as opposed to spoken communication)

How is communicative competence viewed?• Knowing how to produce and understand

different types of texts (narratives, reports, interviews, conversations)

• Knowing how to maintain communication despite having limitations in one’s language (through using different kinds of communication strategies)

How learners learn a language?

CLT as partly a response to the changes of understanding the processes of second language learning in the past 30 years

Before…

• Mastery of grammatical competence• Language learning as a process of mechanical

habit formation• Good habits are formed by having students

produce correct sentences and not through making mistakes

Before…

• Errors were to be avoided through controlled opportunities for production (either written or spoken)

• Memorizing dialogs and performing drills, the chances of making mistakes were minimized

• Teacher-controlled learning

CLT Innovation/Change in perspective• Interaction between the learner and users of

the language• Collaborative creation of meaning• Creating meaningful and purposeful

interaction through language• Negotiation of meaning as the learner and his

or her interlocutor arrive at understanding

CLT Innovation/Change in perspective

• Learning through attending to the feedback learners get when they use the language

• Paying attention to the language one hears (the input) and trying to incorporate new forms into one’s developing communicative competence

• Trying out and experimenting with different ways of saying things

The background to CLT

With respect to the groupings of the language teaching trends in the last 50 years:

Phase 1: traditional approaches (late 1960s)Phase 2: classic CLT (1970s-1990s)Phase 3: current CLT (late 1990s-present)

Phase 2: classic CLT (1970s-1990s)

• the shifting of attention to the knowledge and skills needed to use grammar

• the communicative competence• developed within the sub-discipline of

sociolinguistics

What would a syllabus that reflected the notion of communicative competence look like and what implications would it have for language teaching methodology?

CLT (1970s and 1980s)

• Purposes• Setting• Socially defined role• Communicative events• Language functions

CLT (1970s and 1980s)

• Notions• Discourse/rhetorical skills• Variety• Grammatical content• Lexical content

• Communicative Syllabus (skill-based & functional)

• English for Specific Purposes

Implications for Methodology

• 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 of his or her communicative competence

Implications for Methodology

• 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

Classroom activities in CLTActivities Focusing on Accuracy Activities Focusing on Fluency

Reflect classroom use of language Reflect natural use of language

Focus on the formation of correct examples of language

Focus on achieving communication

Practice language out of context Require meaningful use of language

Practice small samples of language Require the use of communication strategies

Do not require meaningful communication Produce language that may not be predictable

Control choice of language Seek to link language use to context

Classroom activities in CLT

II. Mechanical, Meaningful, and Communicative PracticeIII. Information-Gap ActivitiesIV. Jigsaw ActivitiesV. Task-completion: puzzles, games, map-readingVI. Information-gatheringVII. Opinion-sharingVIII. Information-transferIX. Reasoning-gapX. Role-plays

The emphasis on cooperative learning

• Learn from hearing the language used by other members

• Produce a greater amount of language than they would use in teacher-fronted activities

• Likely to increase in motivational level• Bigger chance to develop fluency

The push for authenticity

• Language classroom=preparation for survival in the real world

“Classroom activities should parallel the ‘real world’ as closely as possible. Since language is a tool of communication, methods and materials should concentrate on the message and not the medium. The purpose of reading should be the same in class as they are in real life.”

-Clarke and Silberstein (1977)

Changes in approaches to language teaching (Jacobs and Farrel, n.d.)1. Learner autonomy2. The social nature of learning3. Curricular integration4. Focus on meaning5. Diversity6. Thinking skills7. Alternative assessment8. Teachers as co-learners