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• Communicative Language Teaching

(CLT)

By: Jonathan Portada Mendoza Citlali Lizbeth Flores

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language.

The aims of CLT?

Make communicative competence the goal of language teaching.

Develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills.

The origins of (CLT) are found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition in the late 1960s.

Language was taught by practicing basic structures in meaningful situation-based activities.

Background

There was a need in Europe to teach adults the major languages. In 1971 a

group of experts began to investigate the possibility of developing language courses, in which learning tasks are broken into units.

In 1972, D. A. Wilkins proposed a functional or communicative syllabus for language teaching. His contribution was an analysis of the communicative meanings that a language learner needs to understand and express.

Background

Wilkins defined two categories of meanings:

1. notional categories (concepts such as time, sequence, quantity, location, frequency)

2. Categories of communicative function (requests, denials, offers, complaints). This was the birth of notional syllabuses, which had a significant impact on CLT.

Background

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) .

There are two version of the CLT:1. The weak version: providing learners with opportunities to use their English

for communicative purposes (learning to use English).2. The strong version advances the claim that language is acquired through

communication. Stimulating the development of the language system itself (using English to learn it).

Background

Theory Of Language The Communicative Approach in language teaching starts from a theory of

language as communication.

In Hymes’ view, a person who acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for language use.

Approach

Another linguistic theory is Halliday’s functional account of

language use. Halliday elaborated a theory of the functions of language. He described seven basic function that language performs for children learning their L1:

Approach

Approach1. Instrumental function: using language to get things

2. Regulatory function:using language to control the behavior of others

3. Interactional function: using

language to create interaction with

others

4. Personal Function: using

language to express personal feelings

and meaning

5. Heuristic function: using language to learn and to discover

6. Imaginative function: using language to create a world of the imagination

7. Representational function: using

language to communicate information

Learning an L2 was viewed by proponents of CLT as acquiring the linguistic means to perform different kinds of functions.

Functions/Topics• Ask questions to get to

know your classmates• Talk about yourself • Show you have

something in common

Functions/Topics• Say hello and

good-bye • Introduce yourself• Exchange

personal information

• Spell names• Thank people

Functions/ Topics• Describe the

weather• Leave phone

Messages• Talk about sports and

exercise • Say hoe your week is

going • Give exercise advice

Another analysis of communicative competence was found in Canale & Swain (1980), in which four dimensions of communicative competence:

Grammatical Competence

Communicative Competence

Sociolinguistic Competence

Strategic Competence

Discourse Competence

Grammatical competence: it is grammatical and lexical capacity.

Sociolinguistic competence: an understanding of the social context in which communication takes place, including role relationships, 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.

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

meaning

Theory of LearningElements of learning theory can be discerned in CLT: communication principle: activities that involve real communication promote learning. 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.

ObjectivesThe following are levels of objectives in a communicative approach: An integrative and content level (language as a means of expression)

An affective level of interpersonal relationships and conduct (language as a means of expressing values and judgments about oneself and others)

Design

One of the first syllabus to be proposed was notional syllabus (Wilkins, 1976), which specified the semantic- grammatical categories and the categories of communicative function.

The Council of Europe expanded and developed this into a syllabus that included : 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

Syllabus

The range of exercise

types and activities compatible with a communicative approach is unlimited.

Types of learning and teaching activities

Classroom activities are often designed to focus on completing tasks that are mediated through language or involve negotiation of information and information sharing.


Littlewood (1981) distinguishes between functional communication activities and social interaction activities.


Social Interaction ActivitiesConversation and discussion sessions, dialogues, role plays, simulations , skits, imrovisations and debates.

Functional Communication ActivitiesComparing sets of pictures and noting similarities and differences, discovering missing features in a map or picture.

The learner is a negotiator (between himself, the learning process, and the object of learning).

Ss are expected to interact primarily with each other rather than with the teacher.

Ss give and receive information.

Learner Roles

Teachers Role

Needs Analyst

Counselor Group process

manager

• CLT teacher assumes a responsibility for determining and responding to Ss language needs

• CLT teacher administer a needs assessment instrument to determine an individual's motivation for studying the language

• Based on the needs assessment results, CLT teacher plan instruction and activities that respond to Ss needs

• The CLT teacher-counselor, as in the Community Language Learning, is expected to exemplify an effective communicator seeking to maximize the speaker intention and hearer interpretation through the use of paraphrase confirmation and feedback.

• CLT procedures require teachers to acquire less teacher-centered classroom management skills.

• CLT teacher organizes the classroom for communication and communicative activities

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.


RealiaMany proponents of CLThave advocated the use of“authentic,” “from life”materials in class. Theseinclude: signs, magazines,advertisements,newspapers, pictures,symbols.


Procedure

Aim: to give the learners fluent control over linguistic forms, so the learners will

produce language which is acceptable Function: to prepare the learner for later communication. The teacher may begin the teaching with a communicative activity Pre-communicative activities: drills, question-and-answer practice

Pre-communicative Activities

Aims:(a) to provide "whole-task practice" (b) to improve motivation(c) to allow natural learning(d) to create a context which supports learning • Functional communication activities: comparing sets of pictures and noting similarities and differences, following directions, discovering missing features in a map or picture • Social interaction activities: conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues and role plays, simulations, debates

Communicative activities

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.

CLT has passed through a number of different phases to apply its principles to different dimensions of the teaching/learning process.

Conclusion

1. The first phase was the need to develop a syllabus that was compatible with

the notion of communicative competence. This led to proposals of syllabuses in terms of notions (a context in which people communicate) and functions (a specific purpose for a speaker in a given context).

2. The second phase, CLT focused on procedures for identifying learners’ needs and this resulted in proposals to make needs analysis an essential component of communicative methodology.

3. In the third phase, CLT focused on the kinds of classroom activities that could be used as the basis of a communicative methodology, such as group work, task-work, and information-gap activities.

Conclusion

Education

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