Филологические науки / 1 Методика преподавания языка

G.Tastanova, R.U.Latanova

L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan

Communicative Language Teaching

The problem of learning languages is very important today. Foreign languages are socially demanded, especially at the present time, when the progress in science and technology has led to an explosion of knowledge and has contributed to an overflow of information. The indispensable factor of learning language is applying appropriate methods and approaches. The field of linguistics and teaching in the 20th century is marked by the development of different foreign language teaching methods and approaches. Perhaps the majority of language teachers today, when asked to identify the methodology they employ in their classrooms, mention “communicative” as the methodology of choice.

The communicative method precisely defines objectives headed by free communication through conversation, reading, listening comprehension and writing. For those aims, the communicative method uses contemporary elements of tele-, radio communication, etc. which are natural in the world of exchanging information. Communicative language teaching sets as its goal the teaching of communicative competence. Communicative competence includes the following aspects of language knowledge[3;3]:

· Knowing how to use language for a range of different purposes and functions

· Knowing how to vary our use of language according to the setting and the participants (e.g., knowing when to use formal and informal speech or when to use language appropriately for written as opposed to spoken communication)

· Knowing how to produce and understand different types of texts (e.g., narratives, reports, interviews, conversations)

· Knowing how to maintain communication despite having limitations in one’s language knowledge (e.g., through using different kinds of communication strategies)

An important aspect of communication in CLT is the notion of information gap. This refers to the fact that in real communication, people normally communicate in order to get information they do not possess. This is known as an information gap. More authentic communication is likely to occur in the classroom if students go beyond practice of language forms for their own sake and use their linguistic and communicative resources in order to obtain information. Many other activity types have been used in CLT, including the following [3;19]:

Task-completion activities: puzzles, games, map-reading, and other kinds of classroom tasks in which the focus is on using one’s language resources to complete a task.

Information-gathering activities: student-conducted surveys, interviews, and searches in which students are required to use their linguistic resources to collect information.

Opinion-sharing activities: activities in which students compare values, opinions, or beliefs, such as a ranking task in which students list six qualities in order of importance that they might consider in choosing a date or spouse.

Information-transfer activities: These require learners to take information that is presented in one form, and represent it in a different form. For example, they may read instructions on how to get from A to B, and then draw a map showing the sequence, or they may read information about a subject and then represent it as a graph.

Reasoning-gap activities: These involve deriving some new information from given information through the process of inference, practical reasoning, etc. For example, working out a teacher’s timetable on the basis of given class timetables.
Akram & Mehmood report an experimental study conducted to know the importance of introducing the communicative approach in ELT. They write “CLT enhances the learners’ confidence and it gives a sense of satisfaction to the teacher as well in the sense that s/he is successful in making the students use the foreign language in their conversation. CLT gives clarity to the expression… communicative approach is better than all the other methods of language teaching in general and Grammar Translation Method (GTM) in particular because the GTM is more concerned with teaching about language rather than language itself whereas communicative approach establishes a direct bond between the experience and the expression.” [1; 175]

Since the language classroom is intended as a preparation for survival in the realworld and since real communication is a defining characteristic of CLT, an issuewhich soon emerged was the relationship between classroom activities and reallife. Some argued that classroom activities should as far as possible mirror thereal world and use real world or “authentic” sources as the basis for classroom learning. Clarke and Silberstein thus argued: Classroom activities should parallel the “real world” as closely as possible. Since language is a tool of communication, methods and materials should concentrate on the message and not the medium. The purposes of reading should be the same in class as they are in real life. [2; 51]

Arguments in favor of the use of authentic materials include:

· They provide cultural information about the target language.

· They provide exposure to real language.

· They relate more closely to learners’ needs.

· They support a more creative approach to teaching.

Communicative proficiency will become easier to achieve only when one has grasped the necessary knowledge of language (such as grammar). For societies whose first (and second) language is not English, there is still a need for structural practices so that the foundation of linguistic knowledge can be built up before further communicative tasks are given. Yalden suggests the proportional approach in course designing. In this design, students learn more form than meaning at an early stage and as time increases (and as students’ language proficiency improves), the intervention of communicative functions increases. At this later stage, the emphasis on form can be gradually reduced [4; 94].

There are two product-based approaches of CLT: Text-Based Instruction and Competency-Based Instruction [3;42].

Text-Based Instruction, also known as a genre-based approach, sees communicative competence as involving the mastery of different types of texts.

Communicative competence thus involves being able to use different kinds of spoken and written texts in the specific contexts of their use. This view of language owes much to the work of the linguist Michael Halliday. According to Feez and Joyce (1998), TBI is thus based on an approach to teaching language which involves:

· Teaching explicitly about the structures and grammatical features of spoken and written texts

· Linking spoken and written texts to the cultural context of their use

· Designing units of work which focus on developing skills in relation to whole texts

· Providing students with guided practice as they develop language skills for meaningful communication through whole texts.

Competency-based language teaching (CBLT) is an approach that has been widely used as the basis for the design of work-related and survival-oriented language teaching programs for adults. It seeks to teach students the basic skills they need in order to prepare them for situations they commonly encounter in everyday life.

Communicative approach of teaching can be considered as one of the most effective methods in teaching language. CLT includes diversity of tasks that help students to improve their communication skills. Of course fluency cannot be gained without accuracy. Therefore we apply the knowledge of grammar in practice-communication. As mentioned above, communication skills impart confidence to students and a sense of satisfaction to teacher because she/he makes students use language in speech. Today CLT can be seen as describing a set of core principles about language learning and teaching, as summarized above, assumptions which can be applied in different ways and which address different aspects of the processes of teaching and learning. Task-based instruction for example, advocates the use of specially designed instructional tasks as the basis of learning. Others, such as competency-based instruction and text-based teaching, focus on the outcomes of learning and use outcomes or products as the starting point in planning teaching.

References

1. Akram, M. & Mehmood, A. (2011). “The need of communicative approach (in ELT) in teacher training program in Pakistan”, in Language in India

2. Clarke, M., and S. Silberstein (1977). Toward a realization of psycholinguistic principles in the ESL reading class. Language Learning

3. Jack. C Richards. Communicative Language Teaching Today. Cambridge University Press, 2006

4. Yalden J. 1987. Principles of Course Design for Language Teaching. NJ: Prentice Hall International.