Филологические науки/1. Методика преподавания языка и литературы

Ст.преподаватель, Фёдорова М.Л.

Костанайский государственный университет им.А.Байтурсынова

Methods of communicative teaching and cooperative learning at the lessons of foreign language

Communicative language teaching (CLT) and cooperative learning (CL) share a common characteristic: in a meaningful task students are asked to exchange information among themselves in small groups and/or with the teacher. This kind of student collaboration has two benefits. First, the whole class actively participates in a task at the same time and students can then compare their findings when the task is over; and second, the meaningful task is rehearsed in class for later use in real communication outside the classroom. In some ELT settings, many obstacles have deterred English teachers from using either CLT or CL in their classes. These include large class size, lack of training in communicative and cooperative techniques, and mistaking any group work for communicative teaching and cooperative learning. One obstacle that most educational establishments cannot overcome is the extensive language syllabus prescribed by the textbook. Actually, each level of a textbook is often a set of texts, which may include an all-in-one textbook, listening tasks, a grammar book, and sometimes a short story book. In theory, teachers have to follow the rationale and sequence of each chapter; but in reality, for a variety of reasons, teachers skip items in the textbooks. If the syllabus is too long and detailed, students’ abilities are low, or teachers have a heavy schedule of extracurricular activities, teachers may choose only the essential tasks, that is those that require little or no class preparation. When this happens, teachers have little flexibility to explore the use of communicative language teaching and cooperative learning in their classes. But it is necessary to find ways to adapt textbooks so that classes include more communicative and cooperative activities, especially for teachers who are hesitant to use communicative language teaching and cooperative learning because of textbook constraints. Even when teachers are required to have students complete tasks in the textbook, they can successfully apply the principles of communicative language teaching and cooperative learning.

Defining Communicative Language Teaching and Cooperative Learning Communicative language teaching began in Britain in the 1960s, as a replacement for the earlier, highly-structured method of situational language teaching. In this early model, students were given a specific situation or a dilemma that they had to solve. The given situations, more often than not, were irrelevant to the needs of students. For example, teenage students role played as the manager and staff of a company that was having a financial crisis. Unfortunately, many language textbooks are still presenting this model of situational teaching. This is because textbooks are written for a large readership in different countries where English may be the first, second, or a foreign language. If a teacher uses such an activity without any adaptation, English students will be distanced from the situation because the task won’t be meaningful to them. Communicative language teaching requires authentic communication, which includes a believable setting, a normal speed in speaking, a range of lexical items suitable for the students’ ages, and an overall promotion of learning. People should learn a foreign language for performing different functions. Therefore, it is natural to introduce authentic learning material in class. Cooperative learning tasks go a further step by encouraging students to work together and by promoting an equal opportunity for every student to participate in the activity. Improving self-esteem, enjoyment of learning, and interethnic relations are key in this approach. Cooperative learning also requires strategies for student collaboration and attention to how strictly the teacher should structure activities to help encourage effective cooperation. Indeed, many cooperative learning activities combine a group component with other components in which the teacher demonstrates and students work alone. In most cases, both communicative language teaching and cooperative learning require teachers to provide language support in terms of useful vocabulary and grammar so that students are able to succeed in the task. Students will benefit more from communicative language teaching and cooperative learning if they understand that communicating and sharing with peers is a language learning strategy that they can apply outside a class setting. Now everybody acknowledges the importance of such concepts stipulating that learners should be provided with greater opportunities for purposeful communication both inside and outside the classroom.

In the learning process, under the conditions of a modern credit system in Kazakhstan teachers should help learners to “learn how to learn” and think and act independently. Teachers should bear in mind the following rules of when they prepare for a communicative or cooperative activity:

1. The activity must be purposeful and meaningful. Students should be given convincing reasons for doing the activity, and they should know what they will have achieved upon completion of the activity.

2. The activity must be authentic. The items taught in the activity must suit students’ ages, habits, and environment. Students must be able to use the items for academic and non-academic purposes.

3. Teachers should feel free to adapt textbook activities.

4. Mechanical drills should not be the only activity in pair or group work.

5. A diversity of activities is needed.

It has never been suggested that a class should be organized in cooperative groups all the time. It is impractical to think that one or two approaches can work wonders for all students, even when they have identical educational backgrounds. Teachers have to make changes from time to time when delivering a lesson. Small modifications of activities, even when teachers have to follow textbook tasks, can easily adapt them for communicative teaching with minimal extra preparation for themselves or their students.

References:

1. Slavin, R. 1995. Cooperative learning: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

2. Widdowson, H. 1996. Authenticity and autonomy in ELT. ELT Journal, 50, 1, pp. 67–68.

3. Wilkins, D. 1972. The linguistic and situational content of the common core in a unit/credit system. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe.