Transcript What is Communicative Language Teaching?

Susan Colville-Hall, Ph.D.
[email protected]
SIAS Workshop
July 12, 2011
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For students to create and sustain the
interactional dynamics of the learning
environment
To use of oral communication in constructive
activities such as: stating the topic,
paraphrasing the learning material, referring
to personal knowledge, generating questions
and creating meaning and coherence from
the individual interactions that occur in class
and within groups.
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For learners to construct meaning and
knowledge and act upon those constructions,
For learners to have the desire to learn and
be responsible for such learning.
For learners to have intrinsic motivation for
learning
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Communicative competence
Linguistic structures & grammar rules
Language accuracy
Functional approach of language
Reaction to grammar translation & audio-lingual
methods
◦ Emphasizes communicative activities that involve
the real use of language in daily life situation
◦ Integration of form and meaning experiences
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Grammar is a support for the students’
communicative needs and experiences.
“One demonstrates grammatical competence
not by stating a rule but by using a rule in the
interpretation, expression, or negotiation of
meaning” (Sauvignon, 1980).
Includes broader features of discourse,
sociolinguistic rules of appropriateness,
communication strategies, strategic
competence
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Based on a multifaceted view of
communication and language
Can use tasks and small group learning or a
whole class format
Can be manifested through pair work, group
work, and information gap activities AND a
variety of other practices that may be better
suited to the local context
◦ rhythmically tuned responses to teacher elicitations
◦ playful narratives
◦ oral symphonic performances
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Pay attention to the selection of text and
sequencing of materials (learners needs)
Content-based instruction
◦ history, music, or literature
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take into account the affective as well as the
cognitive aspects of language learning
not everyone is comfortable in the same role
wider the variety of communicative, or
meaning-based, activities
◦ opportunity to familiarize with those roles
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make use of pair work as well as group work
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Students may play many roles, roles for which
we improvise scripts from the models we
observe around us
Child, parent, foreigner, newcomer,
employer, employee, doctor, or teachers, all
are roles that help learners embrace certain
expected ways of using language in real life
situations
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Familiar roles may be played focusing more
on communication and interpretation of
meaning
Improvisations are important to selfdiscovery and growth
Theater arts can provide learners with the
tools they need to act—that is, to interpret,
express and negotiate meaning in a new
language.
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Activities can include both scripted and
unscripted role playing, simulations, and even
pantomime
Ensemble-building activities familiar in
theater training have been used very
successfully in language programs to create a
climate of trust
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Is that of a coach
to provide support, strategies, and
encouragement for learners as they explore
new ways of being
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The purpose of communicative activities in
the classroom is to prepare learners to use
the foreign language in the world beyond
‘‘field experiences’’ may successfully become
the core of the course, which then becomes a
workshop where learners can compare notes,
seek clarification, and expand the range of
domains in which they learn to function in the
second language
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Contemporary radio and television programs,
videos, and feature-length films may be
available along with newspapers and
magazines.
Visitors from the SIAS community may be
able to visit the classroom and relate their
experiences
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Internet provides opportunities to interact on
a variety of topics
◦ prearranged exchanges
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Can make use of World Wide Web sites to
obtain a range of information, schedules,
rates, locations, descriptions, and sources.
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games, role plays, simulations, and taskbased communication activities - prepared to
support Communicative Language Teaching
classes.
exercise handbooks, cue cards, activity cards,
pair-communication practice materials, and
student-interaction practice booklets.
Still others provide drills and practice material
in interactional formats (Willis, 1994).
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There are typically two sets of material for a
pair of students, each set containing different
kinds of information.
Sometimes the information is
complementary, and partners must fit their
respective parts of the "jigsaw" into a
composite whole.
Others assume different role relationships for
the partners (e.g., an interviewer and an
interviewee).
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(1) Language as it is used in real context should
be introduced;
(2) Students should be able to figure out the
speaker’s or writer’s intentions;
(3) The target language is the vehicle for
classroom communication;
(4) One function may have many different
linguistic forms;
(5) Opportunities should be given to students to
express their ideas and opinions; (6) Errors are
seen as the natural outcome of the development
of communication skills;
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(7) Fluency is much more important than accuracy;
(8) Creating situations to promote communication is
one of the teacher’s responsibilities;
(9) The social context of the communicative events is
essential in giving meaning to the utterances;
(10) The teacher acts as an advisor during
communicative activity, a facilitator of students’
learning, a manager of classroom activity, or a cocommunicator;
(11) When communicating, a speaker has a choice
about what to say and how to say it;
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(1) Before presenting the material, a
discussion of the function and situation is
made between students and teacher;
(2) The teacher asks students to re-order
sentences within a dialogue or a passage;
(3) Students are involved in language games
and role-play;
(4) The class works in groups;
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(5) The teacher gives instructions in the
target language;
(6) A problem solving task is used as a
communicative technique;
(7) Questions and answers are of two types:
those which are based on the material given
and those which are related to the student’s
personal experiences and are centered
around the material them (Willis, 1994).
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1)Teaching is learner-centered and
responsive to learners' needs and interests;
(2) The target language (TL) is acquired
through interactive communicative use that
encourages the negotiation of meaning;
(3) Genuinely meaningful language use is
emphasized, along with unpredictability,
risk-taking, and choice-making;
(4) There is exposure to examples of
authentic language from the TL community;
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(5) The formal properties of language are
never treated in isolation from use; language
forms are always addressed within a
communicative context;
(6) Learners are encouraged to discover the
forms and structures of language for
themselves;
(7) There is a whole-language approach in
which the four traditional language skills
(speaking, listening, reading, and writing) are
integrated (p. 91-93).
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(12) Students should be given opportunities to
develop strategies for interpreting language as it
is actually seen by native speakers;
(13) Students are communicators and are actively
engaged in negotiating meaning;
(14) Language is used a great deal through
communicative activities such as games, roleplay, problem solving;
(15) Communicative activities have three
features: information gap, choice and feedback
(Tan 2005; Willis, 1994).
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Goal is communication in a language other
than English
Focus the five Cs
Communication,
Culture,
Connections with other disciplines,
Comparisons with students' native languages and
cultures
◦ Communities (use of the foreign language in
communities outside the classroom)
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