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Communicative Language

Teaching (CLT)
Presentation’s outline
• Background
• Approach: Theory of Language and Theory of Learning.
• Design: Syllabus, Types of Learning & Teaching Activities, Learner &
Teacher roles, and The Role of Instructional Materials.
• Procedures
• Conclusion
Background
• Communicative language teaching (CLT), or the communicative
approach, is an approach to language teaching that emphasizes
interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of study.
• The origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are found in
the changes in the British language teaching in the late 1960s.
• Back then, the Situational Language teaching approach was the
major approach to teaching English as a FL.
• SLT is based on a structural view of language.
• British applied linguists rejected the theoretical assumptions
underlying Situational Language Teaching because the focus on
language teaching was the mastery of structures rather than on
communicative proficiency.
Background
• British applied linguists such as Christopher Candlin and Henry
Widdowson began to see that a focus on structures was also not
helping language students.
• A group of experts saw the need to focus in communicative
proficiency rather than mastery of structures. (Richards, J.C. &
Rodgers, T.S. p.64)
• Sandra J. Savignon, Christopher Candlin, D.A. Wilkins and Henry
Widdowson along with others promoted the CLT approach.
• Along with the changes in Europe it helped to reform the language
teaching.
Background
• In 1972, D. A. Wilkins proposed a functional or communicative
definition of language that could serve as a basis for developing
communicative syllabuses for language teaching.
• Wilkins defined two categories of meanings: notional categories
(concepts such as time, sequence, quantity, location, frequency) and
categories of communicative function (requests, denials, offers,
complaints). This was the birth of notional syllabuses, which had a
significant impact on CLT.
• Communicative Approach aims to: make communicative
competence the goal of language teaching, and develop
procedures for the teaching of the four language skills (listening,
speaking, reading and writing) that acknowledge the
interdependence of language and communication.
Background
• There are two version of the CLT:
• The weak version stresses the importance of providing
learners with opportunities to use their English for
communicative purposes (learning to use English).
• The strong version advances the claim that language is
acquired through communication. That is not merely a question
of activating an existing but inert knowledge of language, but of
stimulating the development of the language system itself (using
English to learn it).
Approach
Theory Of Language
• The Communicative Approach in language teaching starts from a
theory of language as communication.
• The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972)
referred to as “communicative competence.” Hymes coined this term
in order to contrast a communicative view of language and
Chomsky’s theory of competence.
• In Hymes’ view, a person who acquires communicative competence
acquires both knowledge and ability for language use.
Approach
• Another linguistic theory of CLT is Halliday’s functional account of
language use. Halliday elaborated a powerful theory of the functions
of language. He described seven basic function that language
performs for children learning their L1:
Approach
7. Representational
4. Personal function:
1. Instrumental function: using
using language to
function: using language to
express personal
language to get things communicate
feelings and meanings
information

2. Regulatory
5. Heuristic function:
function: using
using language to
language to control the
learn and to discover
behavior of others

6. Imaginative
3. Interactional
function: using
function: using
language to create a
language to create
world of the
interaction with others
imagination
Approach
• Another influential analysis of communicative competence was found
in Canale & Swain (1980), in which four dimensions of
communicative competence are identified:

Grammatical Sociolinguistic
Competence Competence

Communicative
Competence

Discourse Strategic
Competence Competence
Approach
• Grammatical competence: it is the domain of grammatical and
lexical capacity.
• Sociolinguistic competence: an understanding of the social
context in which communication takes place, including role
relationships, the shared information of the participants, and the
communicative purpose of the interaction.
• Discourse competence: the interpretation of individual
message elements in terms of their interconnectedness and of
how meaning is represented in relationship to the entire
discourse text.
• Strategic competence: refers to the coping strategies that
communicators employ to initiate, terminate, maintain, repair,
and redirect communication.
Approach
• At the level of language theory, CLT has a rich theoretical base.
Some of the characteristics of this communicative view of language
follow:
• language is a system for the expression of meaning;
• the primary goal of language is to allow interaction and
communication;
• the structure of language reflects its functional and communicative
uses;
• the primary units of language are categories of functional and
communicative meanings.
Approach
Theory of Learning
• According to the communicative approach, in order for learning to
take place, emphasis must be put on the importance of these
variables:
• One element is the communication principle: activities that involve
real communication promote learning.
• Another element is the task principle: activities in which language is
used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning.
• A third element is the meaningfulness principle: language that is
meaningful to the learner supports the learning process.
Syllabus
• One of the first syllabus models to be proposed was described
as a notional syllabus (Wilkins, 1976), which specified the
semantic-grammatical categories and the categories of
communicative function that learners need to express.
• The Council of Europe expanded and developed this into a
syllabus that included the following: description of the
objectives of FL courses, situations in which they might
typically use an L2 (travel, business), topic they might need
to talk about (education, shopping), functions they needed
language for (requesting information, expressing agreement &
disagreement), the notions made use of in communication
(time, frequency, duration), as well as vocabulary and
grammar needed.
Syllabus
• Communicative language teaching syllabus organizes the teaching
according to the notional and functional categories of language rather
than according to its structures. It concentrates on the following:
• Interactions: using language to communicate,
• Tasks: using language to perform meaningful tasks
• Learner: putting the learner’s interests, needs in the forefront.
SYLLABUS
Types of learning and
teaching activities
• Littlewood (1981) distinguishes between functional communication
activities and social interaction activities.

• Comparing sets of pictures and noting


similarities and differences, discovering missing
Functional features in a map or picture, one learner
Communication Activities communicating behind a screen to another one
giving instructions on how to draw a picture or
shape.

• Conversation and discussion sessions,


dialogues, role plays, simulations, skits,
Social Interaction improvisations and debates.
Activities
Learner roles
• The learner is a negotiator
(between himself, the
learning process, and the
object of learning). The
implication is that the
learner should contribute as
much as he gains, and
learn in an interdependent
way.
• Students are expected to
interact primarily with each
other rather than with the
teacher.
• Students give and receive
information.
Teacher roles

Needs analyst Counselor Group process manager

• CLT teacher assumes a • The CLT teacher-counselor, • CLT procedures require


responsibility for determining as in the Community teachers to acquire less
and responding to Ss Language Learning, is teacher-centered classroom
language needs. expected to exemplify an management skills.
• CLT teacher administer a effective communicator • CLT teacher organizes the
needs assessment seeking to maximize the classroom for
instrument to determine an speaker intention and hearer communication and
individual’s motivation for interpretation, through the communicative activities.
studying the language. use of paraphrase,
• Based on needs confirmation, and feedback.
assessment results, CLT
teacher plan instruction and
activities that respond to Ss
needs.
The Role of Instructional
Materials
• A wide variety of materials have been used to support communicative
approaches to language teaching.
• CLT view materials as a way of influencing the quality of classroom
interaction and language use.
• The primary role of materials is to promote communicative language
use.
• There are three kinds of material currently used in CLT: text-based,
task-based, and realia.
The Role of Instructional
Materials

Text-based materials
There are numerous
textbooks designed to direct
and support CLT. Their table
of contents suggest a kind
of grading and sequencing
of language practice.
The Role of Instructional
Materials

Task-based materials
A variety of games, role plays,
simulations, and task-based
communication activities have
been prepared to support CLT
classes. They are in the form of
exercise handbooks, cue cards,
activity cards, and interaction
booklets.
The Role of Instructional
Materials

Realia
Many proponents of
CLT have advocated
the use of “authentic,”
“from life” materials in
class. These include:
signs, magazines,
advertisements,
newspapers, pictures,
symbols.
Procedure
• The methodological procedures reflect a sequence of activities
represented as follows:

Pre-communicative Communicative
Activities Activities

Functional
Structural
Communication
Activities
Activities

Quasi- Social
Communicative Interaction
Activities Activities
BASIC PRINCIPLES
1. People learn a language by using it to communicate.
It was once widely thought that learners must first have a strong
knowledge of grammar before they were ready to communicate. In
CLT, learners are encouraged to practice communicating during all
stages of the learning process, including the beginning stages,
regardless of their grammatical ability.
2. Meaningful communication should be the goal of classroom activities.
Communicative activities that involve spontaneous speech in
scenarios and situations that the learners are likely to find
themselves in are frequently used to encourage authentic (or
realistic) communication. Dialogues, if used, are not usually
memorized but are allowed to occur more naturally and
spontaneously.
BASIC PRINCIPLES
3. Learning to communicate is a process that involves trial and error.
As learners create language through communicative practice, it is
accepted that errors may occur frequently as they try to discover
what works and what doesn’t. This is a natural part of the learning
process and one that helps communicative competence. Learners
are not expected to be perfect in their communication but they are
expected to try to communicate the best they can.
4. Learner errors are often not corrected immediately but can be
corrected later.
It is considered that the fluency of a learner’s speech is more
important than its accuracy. This means that correcting learner errors
immediately would interrupt the communication process and the flow
of the learner’s speech. Errors are noted by the teacher but they are
often not brought up until a later time if necessary.
ADVANTAGES
• There are many advantages in teaching according to the
communicative approach:
• CLT is a holistic approach. It doesn’t focus only on the traditional
structural syllabus. It takes into consideration communicative
dimension of language.
• CLT provides vitality and motivation within the classroom.
• CLT is a learner centered approach. It capitalizes on the interests
and needs of the learner.
• In a world where communication of information and information
technology has broken new considerable ground, CLT can play an
important role in education.
DISADVANTAGES
• The CLT approach focuses on fluency but not accuracy in grammar
and pronunciation. According to Hughes (1983) communicative
language teaching leads to the production of “fluent but inaccurate”
learners. What is predicted to happen here is the danger of giving
priority to fluency over accuracy in CLT classes.
• The CLT approach is great for intermediate student and advanced
students, but for beginners some controlled practice is needed.
Students with low levels of proficiency in the target language may
find it difficult to participate in oral communicative activities and, if the
exams used by any institution are grammar based, communicative
fluency may not be appropriate.
DISADVANTAGES
• The monitoring ability of the teacher. Despite teachers’ best efforts,
classroom activities are not actually real-life and it can be difficult to
reproduce truly authentic language use and to facilitate genuine
interaction. Moreover, a major principle underlying this approach is its
emphasis on learners’ needs and interests. This implies that much
more effort is expected that every teacher should modify the syllabus
to correspond with the needs of the learners.
• Students are expected to interact primarily with each other than with
the teacher.
Conclusion
• CLT is best considered an approach rather than a method.
• Approach refers to a diverse set of principles that reflect a
communicative view of language and language learning used to
support a variety of classroom procedures.
Thank you!

Prepared by:
Marabe, Lyndel Queency L.
AB LLT – 4
Jan. 16, 2017

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