Communicative Language Teaching

(CLT)
1. Revision
2. Introduction
3. Background
4. What is communicative language teaching?
5. What is communicative competence?
6. Principles of communicative language teaching
7. Teachers’ roles
8. Learners’ roles
9. Practice in the classroom
10.Extra communicative activities (Word document)

1. Revision:

• Link each method with its main principle

1. Grammar a. Learning is a collective experience that should
Translation be facilitated through establishing interpersonal
Method relationships between the teachers and learners
2. Direct Method b. Students should be exposed to a list of
vocabulary and rule explanations followed by
translation activities
3. Silent Way c. The students need a relaxed but focused state
when learning the language through making use
of soothing, rhythmic music, and a comfortable,
relaxing environment
4. Audio Lingual d. Students should be taught in a natural way (in
Method the target language) in the same way children
learn their first language

5. Total Physical e. Students should be presented with language

Response patterns and dialogues, which they have to
mimic and memorize.
6. Suggestopedia f. Learning is facilitated if the learner discovers or
creates rather than remembers and repeats what
is to be learned with a silent teacher
7. Community g. Use and Understanding of the language should
Language be developed through movements of the student’
Learning body using imperative verbs

• The field of second language teaching has undergone may shifts

and trends over the last few decades. Numerous methods have
come and gone. However, it is generally believed that there is no
one single method that meets the goals of all learners. Why?

• Briefly explain the following statement:

Effective teaching is not about a method. It is about
understanding and implementing principles of learning

2. Introduction:

The communicative language teaching approach could be said to

be the product of educators and linguists who had grown dissatisfied
with the traditional approaches and methods (audiolingual and
grammar-translation methods , etc..). They felt that students were not
learning enough realistic, whole language. According to Richards
(1990), “When the communicative language teaching began on 1970s,
there was a movement way from the traditional approaches which
focused on the mastery of items of grammar and practice activities
such as memorization of dialogues”. For many years CLT created a
great deal of enthusiasm and excitement and language teachers and
teaching institutions all around the world soon began to rethink their
teaching, syllabuses and classroom materials.

3. Background:
In 1970s, educators began to question if they were going about
meeting the goal to communicate in the target language. Some
observed that students could produce sentences accurately in a lesson
but could not use them appropriately when communicating outside the
classroom. Others noted that being able to communicate required
more than mastering linguistic structures. Students may know the
rules of linguistic usage, but be unable to use the language. It became
clear that communication required that students perform certain
functions (inviting, requesting, complementing, apologizing, etc.)
within a social context. In short, being able to communicate required
more than the linguistic competence; it required knowing when and
how to say what and to whom. Such observations contributed to the
emergence of communicative language teaching.

4. What is Communicative Language Teaching?

Communicative language teaching (CLT) makes use of real-life

situations that necessitate communication. The teacher sets up a
situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. Unlike the
audiolingual method of language teaching, which relies on repetition
and drills, the communicative approach can leave students in suspense
as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to
their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from
day to day. Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to
communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics.

Richards and Rodgers (1986) described CLT as an approach rather

than a method, since it represents a philosophy of teaching that is
based on communicative language use. According to them, the main
pedagogical goal of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is
to develop learners’ communicative competence (i.e., the ability
to use the linguistic system in an effective and appropriate way).

5. What is Communicative competence?

Communicative competence includes the following aspects of
language knowledge:

1. Knowing how to use language for a range of different

purposes and functions

2. Knowing how to vary our use of language according to the

setting and the participants

3. Knowing how to produce and understand different types of

texts
 4. Knowing how to maintain communication despite having
limitations in one’s language knowledge.

Canale and Swain (1980, 1983) identify the above aspects into four
components of communicative competence:
• Grammatical competence: the knowledge of the language code
(grammatical rules, vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, etc.).
• Sociolinguistic competence: understanding of the social context
in which communication takes place, including role
relationships, the shared information of the participants, and the
purpose for their interaction
• Strategic competence: the ability to use the verbal and non-
verbal actions that L2 learners employ to reach their
communicative goals.
• Discourse competence: the ability to combine language
structures into different types of texts that are cohesive and
coherent.

6. Principles of Communicative Language Teaching

1. Language teaching is based on a view of language as

communication. That is, language is seen as a social tool that
speakers use to make meaning; speakers communicate about
 something to someone for some purposes, either orally or in
writing
2. Meaning is primary; contextualization is basic.
3. Attempts to communicate in TL are encouraged in the
beginning of instruction (in groups or in pairs).
4. Games are important because they have certain features in
common with real communicative events.
5. L1 is acceptable when feasible.
6. Communicative interaction encourages cooperative
relationships among students. It gives the students the
opportunity to work on negotiating meaning.
7. Activities and strategies for learning are varied.
8. Communicative competence is the goal of instruction.

7. Teachers’ roles

The teacher has two main roles:

1. To establish situations likely to promote communication in
the classroom
2. To act as an independent participant during the learning-
teaching process. This implies that the teachers should be:
a- An organizer and as a resource himself
b- A guide within the classroom procedures and activities
c- A researcher and a learner as well.
 Learners’ roles

1. The learner should be a negotiator between himself and the other

in the classroom.
2. He should interact with his peers or with the teacher to obtain
communicative purposes
3. He should contribute as much as possible he gains and thereby
learn in an independent way

8. Practice in the classroom

1. Students use the language a great deal through communicative

activities such as games, role plays, and problem-solving tasks,
information-gap activities.
2. These activities should not only help learners engage in
communication but also require them to use processes such as
information sharing, negotiation of meaning and interaction.
3. These activities can include:
a- Comparing sets of pictures and noting similarities and
differences.
b- Discovering missing features in a map or a picture
4. The use of authentic materials is very important
5. There should be less attention to grammatical rules but fluency
should never be encouraged at the expense of clear,
unambiguous, direct communication.
6. The materials should include all the four skills, that is, speaking,
listening, reading, and writing to support and encourage learners
to engage in communicative activities,