communicative-language-teaching交际语言教学法

communicative-language- teac

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交际语言教学法

Communicative language teaching

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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. Language

learners in environments utilizing CLT

techniques learn and practice the target

language through interaction with one

another and the instructor, study of

language for purposes other than language

learning), and use of the language in class

combined with use of the language outside

of class. Learners converse about personal

experiences with partners, and instructors

teach topics outside of the realm of

traditional grammar in order to promote

language skills in all types of situations.

This method also claims to encourage

learners to incorporate their personal

experiences into their language learning

environment and focus on the learning

experience in addition to the learning of the

target language.

According to CLT, the

[1]

goal of language education is the ability to

communicate in the target language.

This

[2]

is in contrast to previous views in

which

grammatical competence

was

commonly given top priority.

CLT also

[3]

focuses on the teacher being a facilitator,

rather than an instructor. Furthermore, the

approach is a non-methodical system that

does not use a textbook series to teach

English but rather works on developing

sound oral/verbal skills prior to reading and

writing.

Contents

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1

Background

1.1

Societal influences

1.2

Academic influences

2

Classroom activities

2.1

Role-play

2.2

Interviews

2.3

Group work

2.4

Information gap

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2.5

Opinion sharing

2.6

Scavenger hunt

3

Critiques

4

See also

5

References

6

Further reading

Background

[

edit

]

Societal influenc es

[

edit

]

Language teaching was originally

considered a cognitive matter, mainly

involving memorization. It was later thought,

instead, to be socio- cognitive, meaning that

language can be learned through the

process of social interaction. Today,

however, the dominant technique in

teaching any language is communicative

language teaching (CLT).

[4]

It was

Noam Chomsky

's theories in the

1960s, focusing on competence and

performance in language learning, that

gave rise to communicative language

teaching, but the conceptual basis for CLT

was laid in the 1970s by linguists Michael

Halliday, who studied how language

functions are expressed through grammar,

and Dell Hymes, who introduced the idea of

a wider communicative competence

instead of Chomsky's narrower linguistic

competence.

The rise of CLT in the 1970s

[4]

and early 1980s was partly in response to

the lack of success with traditional

language teaching methods and partly due

to the increase in demand for language

learning. In Europe, the advent of

the

European Common Market

, an

economic predecessor to the European

Union, led to migration in Europe and an

increased population of people who needed

to learn a foreign language for work or for

personal reasons. At the same time, more

children were given the opportunity to learn

foreign languages in school, as the number

of secondary schools offering languages

rose worldwide as part of a general trend of

curriculum-broadening and modernization,

and foreign-language study ceased to be

confined to the elite academies. In Britain,

the introduction of

comprehensive schools

,

which offered foreign-language study to all

children rather than to the select few in the

elite

grammar schools

, greatly increased

the demand for language learning.

[5]

This increased demand included many

learners who struggled with traditional

methods such as

grammar translation

,

which involves the direct translation of

sentence after sentence as a way to learn

language. These methods assumed that

students were aiming for mastery of the

target language, and that students were

willing to study for years before expecting

to use the language in real life. However,

these assumptions were challenged by

adult learners, who were busy with work,

and some schoolchildren, who were less

academically gifted, and thus could not

devote years to learning before being able

to use the language. Educators realized

that to motivate these students an

approach with a more immediate payoff

was necessary,

and they began to use CLT,

[6]

an approach that emphasizes

communicative ability and yielded better

results.

[7]

Additionally, the trend of

progressivism

in

education provided further pressure for

educators to change their methods.

Progressivism holds that active learning is

more effective than passive learning,

and

[6]

as this idea gained traction in schools there

was a general shift towards using

techniques where students were more

actively involved, such as group work.

Foreign-language education was no

exception to this trend, and teachers

sought to find new methods, such as CLT,

that could better embody this shift in

thinking.

[6]

Academic influences

[

edit

]

The development of communicative

language teaching was bolstered by new

academic ideas. Before the growth of

communicative language teaching, the

primary method of language teaching was

situational language teaching. This method

was much more clinical in nature and relied

less on direct communication. In Britain,

applied linguists began to doubt the

efficacy of situational language teaching.

This was partly in response to Chomsky's

insights into the nature of language.

Chomsky had shown that the structural

theories of language prevalent at the time

could not explain the variety found in real

communication.

In addition, applied

[8]

linguists such as Christopher Candlin

and

Henry Widdowson

observed that the

current model of language learning was

ineffective in classrooms. They saw a need

for students to develop communicative skill

and functional competence in addition to

mastering language structures.

[8]

In 1966, linguist and anthropologist

Dell

Hymes

developed the concept

of

communicative competence

.

Communicative competence redefined

what it meant to

addition to speakers having mastery over

the structural elements of language, they

must also be able to use those structural

elements appropriately in a variety of

speech domains.

This can be neatly

[2]

summed up by Hymes's statement,

are rules of use without which the rules of

grammar would be useless.

The idea of

[5]

communicative competence stemmed from

Chomsky's concept of the

linguistic

competence

of an ideal native

speaker.

Hymes did not make a concrete

[2]

formulation of communicative competence,

but subsequent authors have tied the

concept to language teaching, notably

Michael Canale.

Canale and Swain (1980)

[9]

defined communicative competence in

terms of three components: grammatical

competence,

sociolinguistic

competence,

and strategic competence. Canale (1983)

refined the model by adding discourse

competence, which contains the concepts

of

cohesion

and

coherence

.

[9]

An influential development in the

history of communicative language

teaching

was

the

work

of

the

Council

of Europe

in creating new language

syllabi.

When

communicative

language

teaching had effectively replaced

situational

language

teaching

as

the

standard by leading linguists, the

Council of Europe made an effort to

once

again

bolster

the

growth

of

the

new method. This led to the Council

of Europe creating a new language

syllabus. Education was a high

priority for the Council of Europe,

and

they

set

out

to

provide

a

syllabus

that

would

meet

the

needs

of

European

immigrants.

Among the studies used

[8]

by the council when designing the

course was one by the British

linguist,

D.

A.

Wilkins,

that

defined

language using

traditional categories of grammar

and vocabulary. The new syllabus

reinforced the idea that language

could

not

be

adequately

explained

by

grammar and syntax, and instead

relied on real interaction.

[8]

In the mid 1990s, the Dogme 95 manifesto

influenced language teaching through

the

Dogme language teaching

movement.

This proposed that published materials

stifle the communicative approach. As such,

the aim of the Dogme approach to language

teaching is to focus on real conversations

about practical subjects, where

communication is the engine of learning.

The idea behind the Dogme approach is

that communication can lead to explanation,

which will lead to further learning. This

approach is the antithesis of situational

language teaching, which emphasizes

learning through text and prioritizes

grammar over communication.

[10]

A survey of communicative competence by

Bachman (1990) divides competency into

the broad headings of

competence

grammatical and discourse (or textual)

competence, and

which includes both sociolinguistic and

illocutionary