The table of contents:

I. Introduction

II. The communicative Learning Theory.

a) A survey of communicative approach
b) Some characteristics of the teaching process
c) Principles of communicative approach
d) The role of Teacher

III. Integrating the specific means of language learning in the lesson

structure.

IV. Speaking skill

a) Characteristics of speaking skill
b) Problems in getting learners to talk
c) Solutions

V. Negative Critics

VI. Conclusions

VII. Bibliography

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I. Introduction

It is known that the purpose of learning a secondary language is generally speaking is to

communicate fluently in target language. One of the most important productive skills used in the
process of teaching is communication. One of the important concerns of our days is how to teach
the students? What are the best methods to manage their abilities and interest? There are several
approaches for learning a foreign language such as: the audiolingual theory, the cognitive code
theory, the humanistic theory, the silent way, suggestopedia …. and the communicative learning
theory. Each of them put stress upon something such as: structures, vocabulary the function of
language in the process of learning but the communicative learning theory is considered now one
of the integrated and modern approaches. It says that the goal of language teaching is
communication. Language is used most effectively in communication processes. This approach
therefore strongly advocates careful attention to use rather than merely form/meaning. It would
also favor functional-notional organization of teaching materials generally authentic one.
The dominant idea belong to communicative approach because “the aim of all our
teaching is to train the student to communicative efficiency” according to Jeremy Harmer in his
book: ‘’The practice of English language ‘’1991.

II. The communicative Learning Theory.

a) A survey of communicative approach

The teaching of language involves developing the ability to produce sentences, to

understand what was said into a process of listening and speaking. Adherents of the
Communicative Approach acknowledge that structures and function are important. When we
communicate, we use the language to accomplish some function, such as arguing, persuading or
promising. Someone knowing a language knows more than how to understand, speech, read and
writes sentences. We are generally required to use our knowledge of language system in order to
achieve some kind of communicative purposes. We perform an act of communication like
explaining something or giving commentary during the process of teaching and learning. In this
respect I consider this method an integrated method because we use it when we teach
vocabulary, structures of sentences, and the function of language or grammar rules and so on.
The modern tendencies in the process of teaching in our days are to put the student in the
middle of interest and their interest is the ability to speak and to understand the language. The
goal of this method is that learners will be able to become communicatively competent, able to
use English appropriately in a given social context. So language learning is learning to
communicate ‘real-life ‘situations because contextualization is a basic premise. Another goal is
that the learners will be able to manage the process of negotiating meaning with interlocutors. It
is obvious that the act of oral speaking is predominant in this method. Furthermore, since
communication is a process, it is insufficient for student to simply have knowledge of target
language forms, meanings and functions.
Students must be able to apply this knowledge in a negotiate meaning. It is through the
interaction between speaker and listener (or reader and writer) that meaning becomes clear
according to Adrian Doff. The listener gives the speaker feedback as to whether or not he
understands what the speaker said. In this way, the speaker can revise what he had said and try to
communicate his intended meaning again, if necessary. Each of these different purposes for
speaking implies knowledge of the rules that accounts for how spoken language reflects the

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context or situation in which speech occurs, the participants involved and their specific roles and
relationships and the kind of activity the speakers are involved in.
David Nunan (1991, p:279) offers five features to characterize The Communicative
Learning Theory:
*An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language; this means
that is necessarily to use only English in classroom;
* The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation. This implies to use authentic
materials with native speakers;
*The provision of opportunities for learners to focus not only on language but also on the
learning process itself.
*An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements
to classroom learning;
*An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom.
A common assumption among language teachers seems to be that the essential task is to
teach a selection of words and structures, that is to say elements of usage, and that this alone will
provide for communicative needs in whichever area of use is relevant to the learners. The
knowledge of structures and vocabulary are important. However, they feel that preparation for
communication is inadequate if only they are taught. Students may know the rules of language
usage, but will be unable to use the language use. (Diane Larsen-Freeman: Tehniques &
Principles in language technique pg 123)

b) Some characteristics of the teaching/learning process.

Since the topic for discussions are chosen by the teacher, the learners are active engaged
in the practice speaking and discussions.
The most obvious characteristic of the communicative approach is that almost everything
that is done is done with a communicative purpose. This approach emphasizes task-oriented
activities that involves the exchange of information, with focus on fluency and also pay attention
to learners’ motivation and self -expression. Generally the learners are encouraged expressing
freely their opinion about the topic into most creative way possible. Functions are emphasized
over forms. At first level of study simple forms for each functions are taught, then more complex
forms. Students work on all four skills from the beginning but is emphasized the speaking and
listening skill.
Activities that are truly communicative, according to Morrow (in Johnson and Morrow
1981).,have three features: information gap(the situation in which different parts of piece of
information are known by different people who, therefore need to communicate each other to
gain complete information and therefore fill in gap ), choice, and feedback.
One of the most activities used in communication is: information gap activities. This activity is
described as an exchange of information. Once the students have produced certain language
forms and are able to distinguish between forms and functions we can move on to another stage
whose aim is to develop the students’ ability to find language which will convey meanings
effectively in specific situations. We have to devise activities which emphasis the function aspect
of communication and make students use the language they know in order to get meanings
across.
You have to set up a situation in which student A posses information which student B
has to discover .Students A provides information only in response to appropriate prompts.
Students have to work together in pairs to overcome this situation.
Examples of such activities can be: identified pictures, speaking about things in common,
discovering identical pairs, discovering sequences or locations, discovering missing information,
problem solving activities, role play and so on.

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 In communication, the speaker has a choice of what she will say it. For example
expressing a possible action he/ she can use many different structures (the modal verbs: can, may
be or other structures: possible).
The feedback activity implies an exchange of information into a debate or discussion.
True communication is purposeful. (Underhill 1981 page 128).
There is used informal evaluation when teacher advises or communicates or formal
evaluation through integrative test with real communicative function.
Further, because the traditional approach to education requires a degree of memorization,
the ability to recall with precision what has been taught in the terms in which it has to be
reproduced by the learner, this feature is disparagingly described as “learning by rote.” The
implication is that the learner’s mind has not been required to be engaged in the process. Finally,
the assumption that, to the traditionalist, knowledge is something that already exists causes this
approach to be seen as backward-looking at a time when new knowledge is being created and
reshaped at a bewildering rate.
Criticisms of progressive education, particularly in its extreme forms, have concentrated
on the folly, as this is perceived, of allowing children to decide when and how they are to learn
anything.
The purpose of that questioning is to encourage the minds of the learners to understand,
to arrange, and to act on the material with which they are required to engage. In this sense,
learning is active; indeed it is interactive, with the teacher responsible for ensuring the direction
that this learning takes but with the learner consistently being challenged to shape it to his or her
needs. Education of this kind has increasingly become a feature of effective schools and school
systems worldwide. In the process, the long-standing conflict between traditional and
progressive approaches to teaching and learning, with the time-consuming controversies to
which this gives rise, has a real prospect of being resolved. (Sir Peter Newsam )

c) Principles of communicative approach.

According to Diane Larsen -Freeman in Techniques & Principles in language technique

during a communicative activity using these approach we discover the following principles:
- Authentic language into real life situations.
- The target language is a vehicle for classroom communication, not just the object of study.
-Since the focus of the course is on real language use, a variety of linguistics forms are
presented.
-Students should be given the opportunity to express their ideas and opinion. They must learn
about cohesion and coherence, those properties of language which bind the sentence together
with a meaning and a sense.
-There is a purpose to exchange the information through a language games.
-Errors are tolerated .Focus on the fluency of language.
-Teacher is the promoter of communication. The relationship between teacher and learner is
determined thereby. The learner is seen as the person who does not yet have the required
knowledge or values and the teacher as the person who has both and whose function it is to
convey them to the learner.
- The goal is to have one’s students become communicative competent. Communicative
competence involves being able to use the language appropriate to a given social context.
- Student’s success is determined as much by their fluency as it is by their accuracy.
- Communicative interaction encourages cooperative relationship among students. The amount
of speaking increases between student-student interactions.
-The teacher is the promoter of conversations and acts as an adviser during communicative
activities.
-The grammar and vocabulary that the student learns follow from the function, situational
context, and the roles of interlocutors.

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d) The role of teacher

The role of the teacher is a facilitator, manager of learning. Teacher facilitates students’
learning by managing classroom activities, setting up communicative situations, students are
communicators, actively engaged in conversation. Generally, the topic is chosen by teacher
appropriately by ’’ real-world” of family, holidays, pastime ,sports, environment , so on in the
sphere of students’ interest. He or she tries to maintain the conversation, to arise speaking upon a
topic. Classroom activities should be selected on the basis of problems learners experience with
different aspects of speaking and the kinds of interaction the activities provide.
The question now arises: which areas of use would appear to be most suitable for learners
at the secondary level, the level at which most general foreign language course is introduced? A
common assumption among language teachers seems to be the essential task is to teach a
selection of words and structures, that is to say elements of usage, and that is alone will provide
for communicative needs in whichever area of use is relevant to the learner.(Widdowson
Teaching Language as communication)
It is common view among language teachers that they should attempt to associate
language they are teaching with the situations outside the classroom, to what they frequently
refer to as ‘’the real –world the family, holidays .and so on. The language teacher always has to
know about something other that the language is teaching. Traditionally, this knowledge has
been of the culture and literature associated with the particular language. Thus, the English
teacher is expected to know a good deal about British and American institution, social tradition,
custom and so on since his textbook so often draw freely from such sources for their ‘subject
matter’. All that is being suggested is that the teacher should acquire some limited knowledge of
the subjects taught by his colleagues (history, geography, chemistry..). (Widdowson Pg15-17)
The teacher is not seen as at the center of the educational process, he or she is reduced to
becoming a “facilitator” of children’s learning; in extreme cases unprepared even to answer
simple questions or directly to teach anything at all, on the assumption that the only things a
learner really learns are those things which he or she has “discovered for himself.”
Teachers in communicative classroom will find themselves talking less and listening more
becoming active facilitators of their students’ learning ( Larsen- Freeman 1986).
Teacher sets up the exercise but because the student’s performance is the goal, the teacher
must step back and observe, sometimes acting as a referee or monitor. Teacher is the sole source
of input and feedback and often a dominant participant in the practice, exemplifying a typical
pattern, giving a drill, reinforce the speaking, breaking the ice during the activity.
The students do most of the speaking activities. They usually are divided into groups-
works or pair work. Teacher initiates interactions between students and participants sometimes.
Students interact a great deal with each other in many configurations. Individuality is
encouraged, as well as cooperation with peers which both contributes to sense of of emotional
security with the target language.

III) Integrating the specific means of language learning in the lesson structure
(Teaching Aids)

Teaching a foreign language, English in our particular case involves the use of extra-
materials or devices to ensure the fluency of the teacher’s approach on the one hand, and to
provide a large variety of input in order to meet all the students’ need on the other one. As we
see in this method we need some authentic material with the purpose to improve English in a real
situation. Audio-visual aids, such as real objects, pictures, charts, words cards, books, magazines
and audio aids such as a tape recorder, are used not only during the presentation of new material,
but also while checking the students’ understanding and knowledge and a support for

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communication. Culture is the everyday situations, lifestyle of native speaker of the target
language. Non-verbal behavior is important.

Teaching aids as authentic materials:

- facilitate understanding
-foster skills;
-provide support for activities;
- stimulate students to learn better and more easily;
- Make the lesson more interesting and enjoyable.

The most commonly met devices in the course of an English lesson are undoubtedly,
tapes, videos, computers and dictionaries.
We frequently use in communicative approach extra material such as tapes and video.
Today’s theory and practice of teaching a foreign language can hardily ignore the extensive use
of these, one might say, basic facilities.
One of the common means of teaching is the tape because it provides an authentic
language. Audio tapes have for some time become indispensable in the process of teaching and
acquiring listening skills. The learners have the possibility to hear an authentic language into real
situation and can notice the differences in pitch, intonation, pronunciation, the increase or
decrease the voice. With tape recording covering such a large variety from songs to speeches,
from pronunciation section to short- stories, or from interviews to weather forecasts, it is obvious
that a listening activity can find its place at any moment of the lesson, depending of the teacher’s
choice.
However, using tape recorders can also became a distressing experience, basically in the
case of classes with a large numbers of students. It is hard to imagine thirty or more students
sitting in silence listening to a tape, especially when the students in the back row find it difficult
to hear. Students may often fell threatened since, if they begin to understand what they are
hearing, they will gradually lose the thread, while the tape goes on restlessly. In time, this may
develop a felling of insecurity for certain students. In order to cope with, or better, to avoid it, the
teacher will have to use some strategies, such as a through lead-in, or visual back-up, which will
reassure the listeners.
As a teacher I usually use it during the lesson for all levels in special as a good possibility
to hear an authentic native speaker and not only. It is either a good helper or promoter of
increasing speaking during the class.
Video tapes are not quite enjoy the popularity of audio tapes, probably because of the
financial investment they require in Romanians’ school (buying a television set, a video player,
providing at least one classroom for using them), but also because of the possibility of diverting
student’s attention towards other things, such as visual contact, gesture, or surrounding events.
Video material is very much like television, after all, and students, like all of us perceive
television as means of relaxation, or entertainment.
With all of these it is a good extra material for students. They are delighted .Once these
problems have been dealt with; there is a series of video-specific techniques, which can provide
the support for a communicative activity. I will give some techniques here:
- Silent viewing.
The teacher plays the video with the sound turned off. The students speculate about what
the characters are saying. Only then do they watch the tape with sound to check their predictions.

-Freeze frame.
The teacher might create expectations by freezing a frame on the screen .The students
then predict what the character will do or say. These activities increase the attention upon
behavior, improve the speaking and provide a lot of fun.

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-Jigsaw viewing.
Let half the class watch without sound and the other half hear without a picture. The students
can then compare notes and build a complete picture of what had happened. The students are put
in the situation to communicate each other to cooperate in meaning and to pay attention upon
coherence and cohesive of sentences.
In general the goal of using these materials is to help you to design and organize your
speaking and listening activities so that the students will easily progress from classroom
situations to real world situations, the purpose of acquisition of knowledge of English language.
Students will always have gapes in their linguistic repertoire (in understanding or
vocabulary) but is important is that we should equip them with a lot of practice to compensate
for them.

IV). Speaking skill

IV a) Characteristics of speaking
The most important purpose of teaching is to make the students to talk a lot. Here are some
characteristics of a successful activity of speaking:
-An activity is successful when the speakers talk a lot in a fluency and accuracy way. They are
motivated and interested in the topic.
-The participation is equal. The most of the students have a chance to speak, generally in a pair
work or group work. The teacher helps the students to produce language not only to listen his/her
information.
-The motivation is higher because the students are interested to speak instead foe example to do
some grammar exercises or to write.
-the language used at an acceptable level while speaking to each other is at a lower level of
vocabulary than they usually do.

IV.b) Problems in getting learners to talk:

*the students aren’t interested in the topic. The task may be difficulty or easy
*lack of knowledge in vocabulary or they haven’t the necessary linguistic capabilities to match
with the linguistic demand of the activities.
*the atmosphere in the class is tense
*inhibitions from the students’ part. In general, they are worried about making mistakes in front
of other students or may be they are frightened by the criticism of teacher.
*The students have anything to say because they haven’t any reason to express themselves.
*Low or unequal participation when only one student speak a lot and the others don’t interfere
*The use of mother language.
*Errors of form are considered natural; students with incomplete knowledge of target language
can still succeed as communicators.

IV.c) Solutions:

-using pair work or group work that decrease the students’ inhibitions and increase the amount of
learners’ talk .Group work safes time and gives everybody opportunity to speak. It is true that
not all of the students’ utterances produced are correct. In this case, the teacher should monitor
the groups or choose one student from each group to monitor the activity.
-To give some instruction on training in discussions skills meaning that the teacher should
include instruction about participation when she introduces the group work discussion.
-The teacher should make a careful choice of topic in order to stimulate interest.

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-The teacher should walk from one group to others helping the students and remind them to use
target language.

V.) Negative critics

Although a lot of famous methodologists have praised and evaluated this theory as being
the most valuable of all there have also being lengthy critiques about it.
One of the most important belongs to Michael Swann in “A Critical look of
communicative approach” ( 39/3 ,1985) in which he calls it a good creative ‘dogma’ .
The reasons for his critique address the following:
·There is something else that needs to be learn, which this method doesn’t insist on:
vocabulary, referential lexis because: ’Function without lexis are no better than structures
without lexis”;
· Other skills not mentioned by Widdowson in his “Teaching Language as
Communication” are also encouraged: predicting, adjustment and negotiation.
· Teaching of functions and notions cannot replace the teaching of grammar;
· Learners should become fluent in whatever aspects of language not only functions but
also skills like: speaking, understanding, reading and writing;
·The idea of ‘real-life” situation is a ‘fallacy’ because very often communicative courses
achieve the appearance of communication without reality, for example using “information gap
exercises”.

VI.)Conclusions

Learning a foreign language is a gradual process and is our job as a teacher to help them
to achieve not only information but also to integrate them in outside world of classroom.
This approach is a productive way to improve them not only the information through our chosen
topics but also to practice the function of language into most appropriate way in a real context
with a real situation.
Students speak and their communicative skills develop only in an encouraging
atmosphere and this approach stimulates the cooperation and it is a supportive and reciprocal
relationship between teacher and students and among students.
The authentic material provides a context for practicing a multitude of functions of
language in special those used in real-life situation.
It helps students to develop skills in managing interaction at an interpersonal level. The
students are motivated to find out new meanings of the words, to improve his knowledge upon a
topic and to have a personal opinion about it. Whether the emphasis is on reception or
production, and obviously this emphasis will vary in different situations according to learner
needs, exercises in use will necessarily relate to the underlying ability to interpret and will allow
for the integration of reading and writing as aspects of that ability not only speaking or listening.
The teaching of language as communication ,according to Widdowson calls for an
approach which brings linguistics skills and abilities into close association with each other .Even
though a particular exercises may focus on a particular skill or ability, it effectiveness will often
require the learner to make references to other aspect of his communicative competences.
Students can express their own ideas through the target language which increase the level
of personal involvement and motivation and so on.
In the intervening years, the communicative approach has been adapted to the
elementary, middle, secondary, and post-secondary levels, and the underlying philosophy has
spawned different teaching methods known under a variety of names, including notional-
functional, teaching for proficiency, proficiency-based instruction, and communicative language
teaching.

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VII. Bibliography:
.

1.Larsen-Freeman: Techniques& Principles in language techique, pages,123-

132,Oxford University Press, 1986
2. Widdowson, H G : Teaching Language as Communication, Oxford University
Press 1990
3. Harmer, Jeremy : A practical Course in English Language Teaching.Chapter
Productive skill. Longman 2001
4.Doff, Adrian: Teacher’s workbook.pag 124-139.Cambridge University Press
1992.
5.Codruta Mirela Stanisoara: Interactive English Language Traning Course for
Students and not only. Ed Aramis 2003
6.Nunan, David 1995-Designing task for the communicative Clasroom.Cambridge
University Press
7. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation.Peter
Newman:Teaching and learning