Communicative Language Teaching

By Ge Fang Feb 9, 2011

Agenda
Goal of language teaching

View of second language learning

The background to CLT

Classroom activities in CLT

Discussion
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Goal of Language Teaching

Communicative competence
Use language for different purposes and functions Vary language use according to settings and the participants Produce and understand different types of texts (e.g., narratives, reports, interviews, conversations) Maintain communication despite having limitations in ones language knowledge (e.g., using communication strategies)

Grammatical competence
Knowledge of the building blocks of sentences
- Parts of speech - Tenses - Phrases - Clauses - Sentence patterns

Knowledge of how sentences are formed

View of Second Language Learning

Language learning results from processes such as
Interaction between learners and users of the language Collaborative creation of meaning Creating meaningful and purposeful interaction through language Negotiation of meaning as learners and their interlocutors arrive at understanding Attend to feedback learners get when they use the language Attend to language one hears and try to incorporate new forms into ones developing communicative competence Try out and experiment with different ways of saying things

Planning of a Language Course

Syllabus design or course design (Content)
Decisions on what vocabulary and grammar to teach at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels Which skills and micro-skills to teach and in what sequence

Methodology
How best teach the contents of a syllabus

Traditional Approaches (Up to the late 1960s)

Grammatical competence rst priority Methodologies
Audiolingualism - Direct instruction - Repetitive practice and drilling

Memorization of dialogs Question and answer practice Substitution drills Guided speaking and writing practice

Structural-situational approach

Classic CLT (1970s-1990s)

Develop learners communicative competency
5W + H Why Where Whom Why What What How How How What Description Example Purpose for which learners wish to acquire the target language For business, in the hotel industry, or for travel Settings in which they use the target language Roles learners and their interlocutors assume Communicative events in which learners participate Language functions involved in those events Notions or concepts involved Discourse and rhetorical skills Variety of the target language and the level learners reach Grammatical content Lexical content (vocabulary) In an ofce, on an airplane, or in a store traveller, salesperson talking to clients, students in a school Make telephone calls, have casual conversations, have meetings Making introductions, giving explanations, or describing plans Leisure, nance, history, religion Storytelling, giving a business presentation American, Australian, or British English

Classic CLT (1970s-1990s) (Contd)

A communicative syllabus
A skill-based syllabus - Focus on the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking, and breaks each skill down into its component micro-skills - For example, listening skill divided into the following micro-skills

Recognizing key words in conversations Recognizing the topic of a conversation Recognizing speaker attitude toward a topic Recognizing time reference of an utterance Recognizing speech at different rates of speed Identifying key information in a passage

- Stress an integrated-skills approach to the teaching of the skills, since these skills often occur together in real life
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Classic CLT (1970s-1990s) (Contd)

A functional syllabus - Organized according to the functions the learner should be able to carry out in English, such as expressing likes and dislikes, offering and accepting apologies, introducing someone, and giving explanations - Vocabularies and grammar are then chosen according to the functions being taught A notional syllabus - Based around the content and notions a learner would need to express A task syllabus - Specify the tasks and activities students should carry out in the classroom Threshold Level - the rst widely adopted communicative syllabus

Classic CLT (1970s-1990s) (Contd)

Principles of CLT methodology
Make real communication the focus of language learning Let learners experiment and try out what they know Be tolerant of learners errors Let learners develop both accuracy and uency Link different skills (speaking, reading, writing, listening) together Let students induce or discover grammar rules

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Classroom Activities in CLT - Types of Practice

Mechanical, meaningful, and communicative practice
Types of practice Mechanical practice Meaningful practice Communicative practice Denition Controlled practice where student dont need to understand the language Language control is provided but students make meaningful choices Real information is exchanged, and language used is not totally predictable Example The funniest person I know is my friend Bob.

Use superlative form of these adjectives to describe people you know Brave honest, interesting, smart, generous Use the above sentence and ask each other follow-up questions A: My neighbor is the bravest person I have ever met B: What did she do? A: She is a reghter, and once she saved a child from a burning building

Exercise sequence: from mechanical, to meaningful, to communicative practice

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Classroom Activities in CLT - Characteristics

Develop communicative competence by linking grammatical development to communication ability Create the need for communication, interaction, and negotiation of meaning Allow both inductive and deductive learning of grammar Make use of content that connects to students lives and interests Allow students to apply what they have learned to their own lives Push for authentic materials

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Classroom Activities in CLT - Examples

Information-gap activities
Purpose - In real communication, people communicate to get information they dont possess Example 1 - Steps

Students divided into A-B pairs Teacher has two sets of pictures Student A has one picture Student B has a similar picture with a number of slight differences Students sit back to back and ask questions to nd out the differences between the two pictures

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Classroom Activities in CLT - Examples (Contd) Map A Map B

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Classroom Activities in CLT - Examples (Contd)

- Application 1

Give each pair of students a map and a set of places they need to nd

Map A - Library? Books Galore? Mikes Meats Butcher? Toys R Us? Petco Pet Store? Pay Less Shoes? Longhorns Steak Restaurant? Memorial Hospital? Map B - Blue Moon Caf? The Post Ofce? Jones Fruit and Vegetables? Goodwill Bargain Clothes? Publix Supermarket? Belks Department Store? Sugar Magnolia Bakery? Ofce Supplies? Dr. Branchs Ofce

Student with map A ask student with map B the location of the places he need to nd

Student with map A asks, Where is the library? Student with map B replies, The library is on Main Street. Student A then asks, Is it a big building or a small one? Student B replies, Its a big building.

As the two students ll in the places, the questions will change to allow the use of more prepositions of place

Which store is between the Post Ofce and Jones Fruit and Vegetables? What is the big store opposite Memorial Hospital?

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Classroom Activities in CLT - Examples (Contd)

- Application 2: Elmer

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Classroom Activities in CLT - Examples (Contd)

Example 2 - Steps

Students practice a role play in pairs Student A is given a cue card with some information, student B needs to obtain information from Student A They role-play the interaction without looking at each others cue cards

- Application 1

Student A plays the part of a clerk in the railway station who has information on train departure, prices, etc. Student B needs to obtain information on departure times, prices, etc.

Student A - clerk at railway station

departure date and time, price, serial #, etc.

Student B - passenger
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Classroom Activities in CLT - Examples (Contd)

Jigsaw Activities
Steps
- Class divided into groups, each group has part of the information needed to complete an activity - Class t the pieces together to complete the whole

Example 1
- Teacher plays a recording in which three people with different points of view discuss their opinions on a topic - Teacher prepares three different listening tasks, one focusing on each of the three speakers points of view - Students divided into three groups, each group listens on one of the three speakers opinions - Students rearranged into groups containing a student from group A, B, and C

Group A
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Group B

Group C

- They now role-play the discussion using the information they obtained

Classroom Activities in CLT - Examples (Contd)

Example 2 - Teacher divides a narrative into twenty sections (or as many sections as necessary) - Each student gets one section - Students move around the class, listen to each section read aloud, decide where in the story their section belongs - Finally students put the entire story together in the correct sequence
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Classroom Activities in CLT - Examples (Contd)

Task-completion activities Information-gathering activities (=fact nding in listing) Opinion-sharing activities (=ranking of order/comparing) Information-transfer activities (matching)
Take information in one form and represent it in a different form - Students read instructions on how to get from A to B and then draw a map showing the sequence - Students read information about a subject and then represent it as a graph

Reasoning-gap activities
Deriving some new information from given information through the process of inference, practical reasoning - Working out a teachers timetable on the basis of given class timetable

Role plays

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