“Communicative language teaching.”
Name :- Neelamba. R. Sarvaiya.
Course no:- 12-A English language teaching.
M.A.Sem-3
Roll no:-19
Topic:- “Communicative language teaching.”
Year:- 2014-2015
Submitted to:- Shree S.B.Gardi
English Department,
M.K. Bhavnagar
University,
Bhavnagar.
“COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
TEACHING”:-
The
origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CL
T)
are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition
dating from the late 1960s. In
Situational Language Teaching, language was taught by practicing basic structures in meaningful situation-based activities.
This
was partly a response to the sorts of ctiticisms the prominent American
linguist Noam Chomsky had leveled at structural linguistic theory in his now
classic book Syntactic Structures (1957). Chomsky had demonstrated that the
current standard structural theories of language were incapable of accounting
for the fundamental characteristic of language - the creativity and uniqueness
of individual sentences.
Another impends for
different approaches of foreign language taching came from changing educational realities in Europe. With the increasing interdependence of European countries came the need for greater efforts to teach adults the major languages of the European Common Market and the Council of Europe, a regional
organization for cultural and educational cooperation. Education was one of the Council of Europe's major areas of activity. It sponsored international conferences on language teaching, published monographs and books about language
teaching, and was active in promoting the formation of the International Association of Applied Linguistics. The need to articulate and
develop alternative methods of language teaching was considered a high priority
The work of the Council of Europe; the writings of Wilkins, Widdowson, Cand lin, Christopher Brumfit, Keith
Johnson, and other British applied linguists on the theoretical basis for a communicative or fun -ctional approa ch to language teaching; the rapid
application of these ideas by textbook writers; and the equally rapid acceptance of these new principles by Ilritish language teaching specialists, curriculum development centers, or
simply communicative approach, or simply communicative language teaching. Although the movement began as a largely British innovation, focusing on alternative conceptions
of a syllabus, since the mid- 1970s the scope of Communicative Language Teaching
has
expanded. Both American and British proponents now see it as an approach that aim to,
(a) make communicati ve competence the goal of language teaching.
(b) develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of
language and communication.
Its comprehensiveness
thus makes it diffcrcnl in scope and status from any of the other approaches or methods discussed.
Communicative Language Teaching means little more than an integration of grammatical and functional teaching. Littlewood states,
"One of the most characteristic features of communicative language
teaching is that it pays systematic attention to
functional as well as
structural aspects of language."
For others, it means using procedures where lea rners work in pairs ot groups employi ng avail able language
resources in problem-solving tasks.
Ø A national primary English syllabus based on a communicative approach.
For example,
defines the
focus of
the syllabus as the
"communicative functions which the forms of the language serve"
The introduction to the same document comments
that
"communicative purposes
may be of many different kinds. What is essential in all of them
is that at least two parties are
involved in an interaction or transaction
of
some kind where one party has an intention and the other party
expands
or reacts to the intention"
Communicative Language Toaching design alternatives, ranging from a model in which
communicative exercises are grafted onto an existing structural syllabus, to a learner-generated view of syllabus design.This is six communicative language teaching by Yalden(1983).
Howatt distingu ishes between a "strong" and a "weak" version of
Communicative Language Teaching:
Common to all versions of Communicative Language Teaching, however, is a theory of language teaching that starts from a communicative
model of language and language use, and that seeks to translate this into a design for an instructional system, for materials, for teacher and learner roles and
behaviors, and for classroom activities and techniques.
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 Chomsky held that,
Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-listener
in a completely homogeneous speech community, who knows its language perfectly
and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory
limitation, distractions, shifts of attention and interest, and errors (random
or characteristic) in applying his knowledge of the language in actual
performance.
Hymes's view,
a person who
acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for
language use with respect to
·
whether (and to
what degree) something is formally possible
·
whether (and to
what degree) something is feasible in virtue of the means
of implementation available.
·
whether (and to
what degree) something is appropriate, adequate, happy,
successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and
evaluated.
·
whether (and to
what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed,
and what its doing entails.
This theory of what
knowing a language entails offers a much more comprehensive view than Chomsky's
view of competence, which deals primarily with abstract grammatical knowledge
Personal function
|
SHAPE \* MERGEFORMAT
Instrumental function
|
Regulatory function
|
Heuristic function
|
Imagination function
|
Representation function
|
Interaction function
|
At the level of language theory, Communicative Language Teaching
has a rich, if somewhat eclectic, theoretical base. Some of the characteristics
of this communicative view of language follow.
1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning.
2. The primary function of language is for interaction and
communication.
3. The structure of language reflects its functional and
communicative uses.
4. The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical
and structural
features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning
as exemplified in discourse.
Theory
of learning:-
Communicative language teaching literature about communicative
dimensions of language, little has been
written about learning theory. Neither Brumfit and Johnson (1979) nor
Littlewood (1981 ), for example, offers
any discussion of learning theory. Elements of an underlying learning theory
can be discerned in some CL T practices,
One such element
might be described as the communication principle.
A second 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.
Learning activities are consequently selected according to how
well they engage the learner in meaningful and authentic language use.
Other accounts of Communicative Language Teaching, however, have
attempted to describe theories of language learning processes that are
compatible with the communicative approach. Savignon (1983) surveys second
language acquisition research as a source for learning theories and considers
the role of linguistic, social, cognitive, and individual variables in language
acquisition.
Acquisition refers to the unconscious development of the target language system as a result of using
the language for real communication.
Design:-
Objectives:-
Piepho
(1981) discusses the following levels of objectives in a communicative approach:
1. an
integrati ve and content level (language as a means of expression)
2. a
linguistic and instrumental level (language as a semiotic system and an object
of learning);
3. an
affective level of interpersonal relationsh ips and conduct (language as a
means of exp ressing alues and judgments about oneself and others);
4. a
level of individual learning needs (remedial learning based on error analysis);
5. a
general educational level o f extra-linguistic goals (language learning within
the school curriculum).
These are proposed as general objectives, applicable to any teaching
situation. Particular objectives for CLT cannot be defined beyond this level of
specification, since such an approach assumes that language teaching will
reflect the particular needs of the target learners. These needs may be in the
domains of reading, writing, listening, or speaking, each of which can be approached
from a communicative perspective.
The syllabus:-
One of the first syllabus models to be proposed was described as
a notional syllabus. whi ch specified the semantic-grammatical categories of
communicative function that learners needs to express.
Discussion of syllabus theory and syllabus models in Communicative
Language Teaching has been extensive. Some designs of communicative syllabuses
have also looked to task specification and task organization as the appropriate
criteria for syllabus design.
Procudure:-
Because
communicative principles can be applied to the teachin g of any
skill, at any level, and because of the wide variety of
classroom activities and exercise types discussed
in the literature and communicative language teaching, description of typical
classroom procedures used in a lesson based on CLT principles is not feasible.
Such procedures clearly have much in common with those observed in
classes taught according to Structural-situational and Audio-lingual principles. Traditional procedures are not
rejected but are reinterpreted. A similar conservatism is found 111 many orthodox
CLT Texts , such as Alexander's Mainline beginners (1978). Although each unit
has an ostensibly functional focus, new teaching points are introduced with
dialogues, followed by controlled practice of the main grammatical patterns.
The teaching points are then contextualized through situational practice. This
serves as an 1Otroductlon to a freer practice activity, such as a role play or
improvisation. Similar technique used in another popular textbook, Starting
Strategies (Abbs and Freebau~ 1977). Teaching points are introduced in dialogue
form, grammatical items are isolated for controlled practice, and then freer activities
are provided. Pair and group work is suggested to encourage students to ~se and
practice functions and forms. The methodological procedures underlying these texts
reflects a sequence of activities represented 10 Littlewood .
Pre communicative activities
I.
Structural
activities
II.
Quasi-communicative
activities.
Communicative activities
I.
Functional
activities.
II.
Social interaction
activities.
Learners must first gain control over individual skills
(pronunciation,. grammar, vocabulary) before applying them 10 communicative
tasks, she advocates providing communicative practice from the start of instruction.
Conclusion:-
Communicative
Language Teaching is best considered an approach rather than a method. It
refers to a diverse set of principles that reflect a communicative view of
language and language learning and that can be used to support a wide variety
of classroom procedures. These principles include,
ü Learners learn a language through using it to communicate.
ü Authentic and meaningful communication should be that goal of
classroom activities.
ü Fluency is on important dimension of communication.
ü Communication involves the integration of different language
skills.
ü Learning is a process of creative construction and involves
trials and errors.
Today, Communicative language
teaching they continues an its”classic” form, as is seen in the huge range of
course books and other teaching resources based on the principles of CLT.
It has influenced many other language teaching approaches and
methods that subscribe to a similar philosophy of language teaching.