PEDAGOGY COURSE

The Communicative Approach

Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT)

Communicative and
Functional Approach
 Background
The communicative approach seeks to make
meaningful communication and language use
a focus of all classroom activities.
The method came as a reaction against the
grammar-based approaches such as the
audiolingual method and grammar-
translation methods of foreign language
instruction that ignored that the goal of
language learning is COMMUNICATIVE
COMPETENCE.
• In order to explain communicative
competence we have to explain first what is
meant by competence. Competence is the
knowledge one has (of a language).
Performance is the exercise of that
knowledge.
Competence is of two types:
• Grammatical competence, which includes
knowledge of the linguistic system of a
language, such as knowledge of the grammar
and vocabulary of the language
And
• Communicative competence, which includes
refers to knowing how to use language
appropriately. The latter includes :
 Communicative competence
1. Knowledge of rules of speaking (e.g.
• Knowing how to begin and end conversations,
• knowing what topics may be talked about in
different types of speech events,
• knowing which ‘address forms’ (e.g. Tu – vous)
should be used with different persons one speaks
to and in different situations
3. Knowing how to use and respond to different
types of speech acts, such as requests, apologies,
thanks, and invitations.
(e.g.-thank you – you’re welcome).
• The communicative approach was developed
particularly by British applied linguists
(Christopher Candlin and Henry Widdowson : John
Firth, Halliday- Labov, Hymes, Gumprez- John Searl
and John Austin) in the 1980s
• Communicative competence represents a shift
in focus from the grammatical (or linguistic)
competence to the communicative
competence of the language.
 Goal
• The approach emphasizes that the goal of
language learning is COMMUNICATIVE
COMPETENCE (the ability to use a language to
achieve one's communicative purpose /
communicative intent)
• The method focuses on the language needed to
express and understand different kinds of
functions, such as requesting, describing,
expressing likes and dislikes, etc.
 Purpose: Communication
While grammar is still
important in the CLT
classroom, the emphasis
is on communicating a
message.
CLT emphasizes
communication in real-
life situations since
communicative
competence is context
specific.
 Social Context
Thus, CLT stresses social and
situational contexts of
communication.
Students learn how to use
language in different
social contexts based on
the situation, the role of
the participants and the
appropriate choices of
register and style.
Here are examples of lg variation:
-speaking with an elder or a peer
(relationships of participants) – who & whom
-Use of lg in different jobs or
professions (formal, informal, the
use of jargon or slang may or may
not be appropriate.) –when &
where
-Different places (market, work
place…) - where
• “For example, the English
statement ‘It’s rather hot in
here’ could be seen as a
request, particularly to
someone in a lower role
relationship, to close a window
or door or to turn on the
heating”.
 Principles of CLL
The major principles of Communicative Language Teaching are:
1. Enabling students to acquire the ability not only to apply the
grammatical rules of a language (in order to form grammatically
correct sentences) but also to know when and where to use the
sentences and to whom.
2. Focus in on meaning, not form (Notions/functions). language is
used to communicate
3. authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal of
classroom activities
4. fluency and accuracy are both important goals in language
learning. Provide opportunities for learners to learn both accuracy
and fluency
5. communication involves the integration of different language
skills: Link the different skills
a. Make real communication the focus of language learning
 Features of CLT
• The use of authentic materials, authentic
language use
• students engage in real communication with
one another
• Material is presented in context
• It pays attention to registers and styles in terms
of situation and participants.
• Fluency and accuracy (different competencies)
• development of autonomous learners
 Fluency vs. accuracy
• Natural use of language • Accurate practice
occurring when a which focuses on
speaker engages in creating correct
meaningful interaction examples of
and maintains language use
comprehensible and
ongoing communication
despite occasional
errors.
 Teacher and Student Roles
• Teacher roles
(1) To facilitate communication
(2) To be a co-communicator

• Student roles
Communicator
 Error correction
• The instructor does not correct speech errors
directly (tolerance to learner`s errors)
• learning is a process of creative construction
and involves trial and error
 The role of the first language
• Students are allowed to respond in the target
language, their native language, or a mixture
of the two.
• Let students induce and discover grammar
rules
 Advantages of the CA
• (1) Students will be more motivated

• (2) Students have opportunities to express

themselves

• (3) Student security is enhanced

• Authentic material use is encouraged through
the use of:
1. Recorded conversations
2. Novels
3. Short stories
 Disadvantages of the CA
• Difficulty in evaluating students’
performance
• Teachers should be able to use the
target language fluently and
appropriately
 Typical
techniques
Scrambled
sentences
 Use of information gaps activities
• Do you communicate to get information
that you know or information you don’t
know?
 Use of information gaps activities
• “An important aspect of communication in CLT is the notion of
information gap. This refers to the fact that in real
communication, people normally com- municate 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 class-
room if students go beyond practice of language forms for their
own sake and use their linguistic and communicative resources in
order to obtain information.
In so doing, they will draw available vocabulary, grammar, and
communication strategies to complete a task. The following
exercises make use of the informa- tion-gap principle:”
• “Communicative Language Teaching TodayClassroom Activities in
Communicative Language Teaching” by Jack C. Richards
• “Students are divided into A-B pairs. The teacher has copied two sets of
pictures. One set (for A students) contains a picture of a group of people.
The other set (for B students) contains a similar picture but it contains a
number of slight differences from the A-picture. Students
must sit back to back and ask questions to try to find out how many
differences there are between the two pictures.
Students practice a role play in pairs. One student is given the
information she/he needs to play the part of a clerk in the railway station
information booth and has information on train departures, prices, etc.
The other needs to obtain information on departure times, prices, etc.
They role-play the interaction without looking at each other’s cue cards.”
• “Communicative Language Teaching TodayClassroom Activities in
Communicative Language Teaching” by Jack C. Richards
 “Examples of information gap activities-
Activity1:
Student B: The torn picture Que manque‐t‐il dans
ta photo?
You and your partner have two different parts of
the picture. Exchange information to know what
the people are doing on the other side.
Modèle : Toi: Y a‐t‐il des gens qui descendent du
bus?
Ton partenaire: Non, personne ne descend du bus.
Student A : The torn picture Que manque‐t‐il dans
ta photo?
You and your partner have two different parts of
the picture. Exchange information to know what
the people are doing on the other side.
Modèle : Toi: Y a‐t‐il des gens qui font du vélo?
Ton partenaire: Oui, une dame fait du vélo. »
 Cross-word puzzle
• Language games: cross-word puzzle
• ABRACADABRA Puzzles
ARROW
Find these words.
BALL AND RING
CHINESE RINGS
CORKSCREW
CRYSTAL CLEAR
DEAD END
DOUBLE VISIONEQUALIZER
FLIGHT TEST
GRAND PRIX
HAVE A HEART
MOUSETRAP
PINETREE
SHOCKWAVE
SHORT CIRCUIT
SILENT PARTNER
SLEIGHT OF HAND
SLINGSHOT
SOMETHING FISHY
SPUTNIK
TOUCH WOOD
TRIPLE CROWN
TRIPLE PLAY
TRIPWIRE
 puzzle

• Solving
puzzles, etc.
• “What thing
travels
round the
word
without
leaving its
place?”
• Role plays
Picture strip story
SPOT THE DIFFERENCES
 Further CLT activities

A. Task- completion activities: puzzles

games, map-reading.
B. Information gathering activities: survey,
interviews
C. Information- transfer activities: question
and answer
What is common among all these activities?

• Emphasis on group and pair work

• Fluency and accuracy
• Two types of Activities:
 SAMPLE 1

• “A group of students of mixed language abilities

carry out a role play in which they have to adopt to
specified roles and personalities provided for them
on cue cards. These roles involve the driver,
witness, and the policeman at a collision between
two cars. The language is entirely improvised by the
students”
 Activities focusing on fluency
• The use of language.
Classroom/ natural? • Natural
• Focus of the task? • Achieving communication
• Use of language in
• Meaningful use of
context or out of
language in context
context?
• The use of any
communication • Requires the use of
strategies? communication strategies
• Is the type of language
produced predictable? • Non predictable
 SAMPLE 2
“Students are practicing dialogs. The dialogs contain
examples of falling intonation in wh-questions. The
class is organized in groups of three. Two students
practicing the dialog and the third one playing the
role of the monitor who checks that the others are
using the correct intonation pattern and correct
them where necessary. The students rotate their
role between those monitoring and those reading.
The teacher moves around listening to the groups
and corrects them where necessary.”
 Activities focusing on accuracy
• Natural use of language/ • Classroom language
classroom language?
• Achieving communication/ • Focus on the formation of
uttering correct examples of correct examples of
intonation? language
• Use of language in context/ • practice samples of
practice small sample of language.
language?
• Need meaningful • Does not require
communication? meaningful communication
• Choice of language is
• Free choice of language? controlled.
 Accuracy or fluency?
• “Students in groups of three or four complete an
exercise on a grammatical item, such as choosing
between the past tense and the present perfect, an
item which the teacher has previously presented and
practiced as a whole class activity. Together students
decide which grammatical form is correct and they
complete the exercise. Groups take turns reading out
their answers.”
 Accuracy or fluency?
• “The teacher and a student act out a dialog in which a
customer returns a faulty object she has purchased to
a department store. The clerk asks what the problem
is and promises to get a refund for the customer or to
replace the item. In groups, students now try to
recreate the dialog using language items of their
choice. They are asked to recreate what happened
preserving the meaning but not necessarily the exact
language. They later act out their dialogs in front of
the class.”
 Mechanical, meaningful, and
communicative practice

• Controlled practice activity

mechanical
• Carried without necessarily
understanding the language
they are using.
Mechanical, meaningful, and
communicative practice

• language control is still

Meaningful provided
practice
• students are required to
make meaningful choices.
 Mechanical, meaningful, and
communicative practice

• Use of language within

Communicative real communicative
context
practice
• Real information is
exchanged
• Language use is totally
not predictable
Sample of these
activities.
 The Impact
• “Communicative language teaching led to a re-
examination of language teaching goals,
syllabuses, materials, and classroom activities
and has had a major impact on changes in
language teaching world wide. Some of its
principles have been incorporated into other
communicative approaches, such as Task-Based
Language Teaching, Cooperative Language
Learning, and Content-Based Instruction.”
• British and American proponents of CLT
consider it as an approach (not a method)
that aims to (a) make communicative
competence the goal of language teaching
and (b) develop procedures for the teaching
of the four language skills that acknowledge
the interdependence of language and
communication.
• Here, Littlwood (1981:1) states: “One of the
most characteristic features of CLT is that it
pays systematic attention to functional as
well as structural aspect of language.”

• More and more, Howatt distinguishes

between a strong and a weak version of CLT:
There is, in a sense, a strong version of the
communicative approach and a weak version.
The weak version which has become more or
less standard practice in the last ten years,
stresses the importance of providing learners
with opportunities to use their English for
communicative purposes and,
characteristically, attempts to integrate such
activities into a wider program of language
teaching… The strong version of
communicative teaching, on the other hand,
advances the claim that the language is
acquired through communication…(1984: 279)
• “Which of the statements below do you think characterizes
communicative language teaching?
• 1. People learn a language best when using it to do things rather than
through studying how language works and practicing rules.
• 2. Grammar is no longer important in language teaching.
• 3. People learn a language through communicating in it.
• 4. Errors are not important in speaking a language.
• 5. CLT is only concerned with teaching speaking.
• 6. Classroom activities should be meaningful and involve real
communication.
• 7. Dialogs are not used in CLT.
• 8. Both accuracy and fluency are goals in CLT.
• 9. CLT is usually described as a method of teaching.”