Communicative Language Teaching

10 Key excerpts on "Communicative Language Teaching"

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  Japanese Language Teaching

  A Communicative Approach

  • Alessandro G. Benati(Author)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Continuum

    (Publisher)

  Communicative Language Teaching 61 CLT approach. Johnson (1982) considers CLT to be a type of instruction which emerged from the growing discontent on the part of language teachers with previous methods of teaching, together with the need for a new method which would essentially bring the learner into closer contact with the target language community. Littlewood (1981) claimed that CLT makes us consider language not only in terms of its structures but also in terms of the communi-cative functions that it performs. Therefore, according to Littlewood this approach aims at understanding what people do with language forms when they communicate. As previously mentioned, the way Japanese is taught in the foreign language classroom has changed. Teachers of Japanese do not rely on a structural sylla-bus any longer and Japanese is taught in a more communicative way. Learners are encouraged to practice the language for communication purposes and therefore classroom tasks have increasingly become more communicative. The communicative approach to language teaching Linguistics and socio-linguistics influences The CLT approach is based on the assumption that it will lead to the develop-ment of both linguistic competence (knowledge of the rules of grammar) and communicative competence (a knowledge of the rules of language use). The development of a new communicative approach to language teaching is a complex one which is related to a number of disciplines. Chomsky’s criticism (1965) of behaviourist learning theories, in undermining the credibility of ALM, sets the framework for a more child-centred approach which favours a highly inductive approach. Chomsky has argued (1965) that language acquisi-tion cannot be the result of a process of habit formation through imitation and repetition. He argues that the exposure to linguistic data triggers the Language Acquisition Device which is the device responsible for acquisition.

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  A Kaleidoscope of Models and Strategies for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

  • Deborah Norland Ph.D., Theresa Pruett-Said(Authors)
  • 2006(Publication Date)
  • Libraries Unlimited

    (Publisher)

  3 Communicative Approaches 17 Communicative Language Learning English Skill Level: Beginning to Advanced Grade Level: Elementary to Adult Background Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was developed in the 1960s from the research and writ- ings of applied linguists in both Europe and North America who emphasized that language equaled com- munication (Canale & Swain, 1980; Savignon, 1983; van Ek, 1975). In Europe, this approach led initially to the institution of the notional-functional approach. In CLT, the goal of language teaching should not be translating and learning a set of rules but should be based on the goal of communicative competence. Communicative competence is most frequently defined as the ability to create meaning when interacting with others in the target language. Thus, the focus in CLT is on communication in authentic situations. Since the 1970s, this approach has been expanded on and has come to play a central role in most contemporary language teaching situations. Strategy Because CLT is such a broad orientation, it is difficult to give specific strategies. However, the broad guidelines are as follows: 1. Determine the communicative goals of the students. 2. Create situations and activities in which students produce authentic, meaningful, and contextualized communication. 3. Focus on accuracy only in as much as errors that would impede communication are corrected. Applications and Examples Authentic Role-Plays In this lesson, students are introduced to a number of conversations that might occur when one is a visiting international student. Examples might include being invited to someone’s house, making small talk at a party, being offered refreshments, and being asked to go out. 1. Students are asked what they would do and say in these various situations. This gives the teacher the chance to discuss not only vocabulary used but also cultural differences that might occur. 2. Students are given dialogues to practice in groups of two or three.

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  Handbook of Foreign Language Communication and Learning

  • Karlfried Knapp, Barbara Seidlhofer, Karlfried Knapp, Barbara Seidlhofer(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter Mouton

    (Publisher)

  18. Communicative Language Teaching Michael Byram and Marí del Carmen Méndez García 1. Introduction Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is often called an ‘approach’ and this indicates that there arose in the last few decades of the 20th century a certain mistrust of ‘methods’. From the beginning of the modern age of foreign lan-guage teaching, marked by Viëtor’s famous call for language teaching to start afresh ( Der Sprachunterricht muß umkehren ) in 1882, there have been many methods attempting to respond to the need to teach languages for purposes of communication. The major challenge has been to teach spoken language, since those who already learnt languages for purposes of reading the literature, phil-osophy and other cultural products of a country by studying grammar and prac-tising translation could easily adapt their skills to writing. New methods often revealed their emphasis on spoken language by their titles – ‘oral method’, ‘audio-lingual method’ – but failed to recognise adequately the differences be-tween spoken and written language and continued to make grammar the main focus and the acquisition of grammatical knowledge and skill the main task for learners. The focus of CLT changed the emphasis from almost exclusive atten-tion to grammatical competence by identifying other competences which are crucial in communicating through speech. In this sense, the most outstanding by-product of CLT has been a change in the ‘object’ that is taught and learnt. 2. History of Communicative Language Teaching According to Brumfit and Johnson (1979: 24–25), there are three main areas of enquiry which have played an important part in CLT: – The sociolinguistic, with Hymes, Gumperz and Goffman, among others working on ethnography of speaking, ethnomethodology and anthropology. – The philosophical, with language philosophers like Grice, Austin and Searle emphasising ‘speech acts’.

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  Understanding Context in Language Use and Teaching

  An ELF Perspective

  • Éva Illés(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  5

  Context in Language Teaching

  Introduction

  The language teaching approach that is concerned with the pragmatics of language use is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). CLT aims to teach learners of a second language to communicate and enable them “to do things with their words” (Cook, 2010, p. 16). CLT is thus directly related to pragmatics: It focuses on the “pragmatics of communication” (Cook, 2010, p. 26) and has the pragmatic function as its defining feature (Widdowson, 2009). The main concern is language use (Harmer, 2007), that is, “language as it is used in a real context” (Larsen-Freeman, 2000, p. 125), which makes contextualisation in CLT “a basic premise” (Richards & Rodgers, 2001, p. 156).

  The developments in linguistic theory and dissatisfaction with the structural-oral-situational approach and the audiolingual method have led to the introduction of CLT in language teaching (Richards & Rodgers, 2001; Widdowson, 2009). The shift of interest from structure and form to language use in linguistics has been transferred into language teaching and changed the basic tenets of how languages should be taught. It has been claimed that the main different between pre-CLT approaches and methods and CLT is that, whereas the former focuses on the linguistic system of the target language (TL), CLT’s main concerned is meaning (Richards & Rodgers, 2001; Rodgers, 2009). However, Widdowson argues (1998) that, in effect, what distinguishes CLT from previous language teaching movements is not that the pre-CLT approaches emphasise form rather than meaning, but the fact that while pre-CLT approaches promote the teaching of semantic meaning, in CLT the aim is to engage learners in the construction of pragmatic meaning, which then necessarily implies context. The example of “I am walking to the door” (Widdowson, 1998, p. 707) in the previous chapter illustrates the difference between attending to semantic or pragmatic meaning. In pre-CLT approaches the utterance is used to demonstrate the meaning of the present progressive tense with the teacher walking to the classroom door, thus replicating what can already be seen. In real-life communication, however, the purpose is not to display encodings but to get some intention across. If, for example, the host at a dinner party was walking to the door and describing their action at the same time, the guest would think that the speaker wants to convey an implicature, such as, “[H]e means he is going to call the police” (p. 707). In the actuality of language use, context is not duplicated but implied unless the speaker wants to convey an implicature as in the sample above. When there is reference to meaning in CLT, it happens in this pragmatic sense where context is invoked and complements language in communication. In Seidlhofer and Widdowson’s (2019) summary:

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  Communicative Language Teaching in Different Countries

  Teachers' and Students' Subjective Theories on CLT Concerning Cross-Cultural Awareness in Germany, Iran, the Netherlands, and Sweden

  • (Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Cuvillier Verlag

    (Publisher)

  Put differently, as Fäcke (2010: 43) maintains, „weit wichtiger ist hier die angemessene sprachliche Kommunikation Dieses Werk ist copyrightgeschützt und darf in keiner Form vervielfältigt werden noch an Dritte weitergegeben werden. Es g ilt nur für den persönlichen Gebrauch. 22 | P a g e je nach Situation und Gesprächspartnern. 7 “ In this sense, instead of focusing entirely on grammar and structure, CLT is concerned with spoken functions and notions of when and how to use the language appropriately. Therefore, communicative language teachers tried to teach their learners the functions and notions alongside grammatical points. The aim of this approach is to make the students involved in meaning Ͳ focused communicative tasks and provide them with ample exposure to language and plenty of chances to use it. Thus, com Ͳ municative activities in CLT commonly get students involved in real Ͳ time or realistic commu Ͳ nication. These kinds of activities or tasks have the following characteristics: 1. A desire to communicate 2. A communicative purpose 3. Content above form 4. Variety of language 5. No teacher intervention 6. No control of materials (Harmer, 2007: 69 Ͳ 70) In other words, CLT aims to improve the learners’ ability to communicate (Harmer, 2007: 70). CLT is considered by many (e.g. Richards & Rodgers, 1986; Brown, 1994a) as an ap Ͳ proach rather than a method; that is, it is a theoretical perspective about the nature of lan Ͳ guage and of language teaching. This approach was developed during the 1970s and is pri Ͳ marily connected with British applied linguistics. The origin of CLT was deeply associated with the emphasis given to socio Ͳ linguistics and pragmatics during this period (Johnson, 1998). Considering CLT as an approach, teachers needed to search for particular methods for teaching.

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  Methods and Methodologies for Language Teaching

  The Centrality of Context

  • Andy Curtis(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  4

  Communicative Language Teaching in Context

     

  Before reading this chapter, consider the following questions:

  • How would you define ‘communication’?
  • What do you understand by the term ‘communicative competence’?
  • Do you think ‘effective communication’ and/or ‘communicative competence’ is the same in your first language as it is in your other languages?
  • If so, why? Or, if not, why not?

  Introduction and Overview

  In this chapter, definitions (including my own) and descriptions of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are first presented, compared and contrasted, so that the readers can fully understand what is meant by CLT. This is a necessary starting point, because CLT can mean different things to different people, depending in no small part on how we conceptualize and articulate essential terms such as ‘communication’, ‘effective communication’ and ‘communicative competence’. In the second part of the chapter, the readers are taken inside the CLT classroom to give them a sense of what CLT looks like, linking the theory and the practice of CLT, using data from real classrooms, such as extracts from classroom transcripts.

  The third part of the chapter considers the pros and cons of CLT, as all methodologies have their benefits and limitations, to help the readers decide whether CLT is or would be a good fit with their particular language teaching and learning context. In this chapter, I also discuss what I refer to as ‘the dark side of CLT’, as one of the features of this book that distinguishes it from other books on methodology is the fact that the methodologies presented here are critically considered. By that, I mean they are considered in relation to the historical, geopolitical, cultural, economic, post-colonial and other aspects that have shaped the methodology. These considerations are designed to be different from the presentation of each methodology in some ‘neutral’ way, as though such aspects were not essential influences, when they clearly are key. The last part of the chapter includes a brief discussion of how the learning outcomes with CLT can be assessed.

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  Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics

  • Margie Berns(Author)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Elsevier

    (Publisher)

  Finally, CLT does not exclude metalinguistic awareness or conscious knowledge of rules of syntax, discourse, and social appropriateness. However, knowing a rule is no substitute for using a rule. The creative use of interpretive and expressive skills in both reading and writing requires practice. CLT can-not be found in any one textbook or set of curricular materials inasmuch as strict adherence to a given text is not likely to be true to the process and goals of CLT. In keeping with the notion of context of situation, CLT is properly seen as an approach or theory of intercultural communicative competence to be used in developing materials and methods appropriate to a given context of learning. No less than the means and norms of communication they are designed to reflect, communicative teaching methods will continue to be explored and adapted. Considerable resources, both human and mone-tary, are being deployed around the world to respond to the need for language teaching that is appropriate for the communicative needs of learners. In the litera-ture on CLT, teacher education has not received ade-quate attention. What happens when teachers try to make changes in their teaching in accordance with various types of reform initiatives, whether top-down ministry of education policy directives or teacher-generated responses to social and technological change? Several recent reports of reform efforts in different nations provide a thought-provoking look at language teaching today as the collaborative and context-specific human activity that it is. Redirection of English language education by Mom-busho, the Japan Ministry of Education, includes the introduction of a communicative syllabus, the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program, and overseas in-service training for teachers.

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  Language Education

  Teaching English in India

  • Nishevita Jayendran, Anusha Ramanathan, Surbhi Nagpal(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge India

    (Publisher)

  They focus on language fluency through real-life, authentic activities. Contrary to popular misconceptions that CLT-focussed activities stress speaking and listening skills alone, the CLT classroom addresses all language components through meaningful integrated activities. CLT is thus an approach that informs the planning and design of tasks ranging from role plays ; information gap activities ; speaking and conversation activities ; information gathering tasks, such as interviews; and sharing points of view and experiences, such as writing a recipe, creating invitations for school events, designing classroom games and so on) (Richards, 2006). Littlewood (2007), in his paper outlines a framework that designates activities on a communicative continuum. Non-communicative learning comprises tasks that are drills-and-rule-based or memory-based. Pre-communicative tasks primarily focus on language structure but offer some scope for meaningful language use, such as finding answers to comprehension questions from the text. Communicative practice shifts focus and emphasises communication through finding and sharing information such as information/reasoning gap activities found, for instance, in map-reading exercises. Structured communication allows for interaction and communication through role plays and interviews. Authentic communicative tasks involve real-life interactions through project work, debates, etc. (Littlewood, 2007). Littlewood emphasises that teachers who use the CLT approach in their classroom can aim to move towards the other continuum by passing slowly through all categories rather than through a dramatic shift from the first to fifth categories. Such an approach aligns with the Postmethod framework, as it allows teachers to consider learners’ backgrounds, levels, educational contexts and cultures, thereby successfully adapting it to their classrooms. Analyse the activities discussed in this chapter

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  Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching

  • Julieta Arjona Sumague(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Society Publishing

    (Publisher)

  9.4. GOALS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING Communicative Language Teaching sets as its aim on the educating of communicative capability. So, what does the term communicative teaching means? Maybe there is a clarification for this word which can be achieved by initially contrasting it with the idea of grammatical capability. 9.4.1. Communicative Language Teaching In the present times, competence denotes to the information that the user has of a language that stands for the capability to create sentences in any known language. It denotes to skill of the building element of sentences, for example the parts of speech, tenses, phrases, clauses, sentence patterns and how sentences are created. Grammatical competence is the focal point of various grammar practice booklets, which usually present a rule of grammar on the first page of the book and render the practice exercises to apply using the rules on the other page. The part of study and application is usually the sentence. Community Language Teaching and Learning 213 What students learn have much to do with what teachers focus in their teaching. The respondents indicated that majority of their teachers focused more on developing their subject knowledge (55%) as opposed to their English communication skills (25%) or both (20%). As the students were required to be ready with good English communication skills to brighten their career prospects, teachers should have emphasized skill development as opposed to mere subject knowledge. Students Share Their Knowledge and Personal Experience Language learning can be made more purposive to learners by allowing them to share their knowledge and personal experience. The data indicated that 77% of students shared their knowledge and personal experience in the classroom, 19% said they did not share and 4% did not respond to this question. Majority of students shared their knowledge and personal experience in the classroom.

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  The Communicative Syllabus

  A Systemic-Functional Approach to Language Teaching

  • Robin Melrose(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  1. The principles (and practice) of Communicative Language Teaching 1.0 INTRODUCTION This book is directed at two readerships who, until a few years ago, used to be one (or virtually one): applied linguists and language teaching specialists. Indeed, about fifteen or twenty years ago we thought we had found the great overarching principle that would guide the development of the subject into the twenty-first century: the communicative approach. Yet today there is a deep and uncomfortable divide in our field. For while the communicative approach drew its initial inspiration from linguistics, it now looks increasingly to educational theory, psychology and ethnography to show it the way forward. Linguistics still, necessarily, has a part to play in Communicative Language Teaching, but for many practitioners it has only a supporting role (the faithful retainer, perhaps?). In this book I hope to show that linguistics does indeed have the potential to be a star, to match the performance of those players at present strutting the stage. But first we need to look at the linguistic origins of the communicative approach, then trace its drift away from its parent discipline. 1.1 THE ORIGINS OF Communicative Language Teaching From the Second World War to the mid 1970's, language teaching was dominated by the oral-aural (audio-lingual) method. This assumed the approach to grammar of immediate constituent analysis, as developed by Leonard Bloomfield and his successors. The aim of immediate constituent analysis was to describe the structure of sentences without recourse to meaning (since, Bloomfield and his followers believed, descriptions of meaning were best left to anthropologists and sociologists).

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