Communicative English

Assignment Paper E-C-304 English Language Teaching-1

Topic- Communicative English

Rajyaguru Mansi D

M.A. Part – 1

SEM- I

Roll No -12

Year – 2010-11

Department of English

Communicative Language Teaching:

Back Ground:

The origins of communicative language teaching (CLT) are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s. Until then, situational Language Teaching represented the major British approach to teaching English as a foreign language. In sutiational language Teaching language was taught by practicing  basic strucress in meaningful siatution based activities but just as te linguistic theory underlying audio lingualism was rejected in the United states in the mid 1960s, Briths applied linguists began to call into question the theoretical assumptions underlying Situational Language Teaching.

By the end of the sixties it was clear that  the situational approacy…. Had run its course. There was no future in continuing to pursue the chimera of predicting language on the basis of situational events. What was required was a closer study of the languare itself and a return to the traditional concept that utterances carried meaning in themselves and expressed the meanings and tensions of the speaker and writers who created them.

Approach :

The communicative Approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972 )referred to as “Communicative competence.” Hymes wined this term in order to contrast a communicative view of language and chomsk’s theory of competence. Chomsky held that

Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-listned in a completely homogeneous speech community, who knows its languageperfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory lirnitation mdistraction, shifts of attention and interest, and evers in applying his knowledge of the language in actual performance.

Learning a second language was similarly viewed by proponents of communicative language . Teaching as acquiring the linguistic means to perform different kinds of functions.

At the level of language theory, communicative language teacing has a rich, if somewhat eclectic ,theoretical base. Some of the characteristics of this communicative view of language follow :

1.   Language is a system for the expression of meaning.

2.   The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communications,

3.   The Structured of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.

4.   The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.

Types of Learning and Teaching activities:

The range of exercise types and activities compatible with a communicative approach is unlimited, provided that such exercises enable learners to attain the communicative objectives of the curriculum engage learners in communication , and require the use of such communicative processes as information sharing, negotiation, of meaning, and interaction ,classroom activities are often designed to focus on completing tasks that are mediated through language or involve negotiation of information and information sharing.

Learners Roles :

The emphasis in communicative language teaching on the processes of communication. Rather than mastery of language forms, leads to different roles for learners from those found in more traditional second language classrooms Bren and Candlin describe the learns’s role within CLt in the following terms :

The role of lerner as negotiator between the self, the learning process, and the bject of learning emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator within the group and within the classroom procedures and activities which the group undertakes . The implication for the learner is that he should contribute as much as he gains, and theory learn in an interdependent way.

Teacher Roles :

Several roles are assumed for teachers in communicative language Teaching, the importance of particular roles being determined by the view of CLT adopted Bron and Candlin describe teacher roles in the following terms :

The teacher has two main roles : the first role is to facilitate the communication process between all participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and texts. The second role is to act as an independent participant within te learning – teaching group. The latter role is closely related to the objectives of  the first role and arises from it. These roles imply a set of secondary roles for the teacher, first, as an organizer of resources and a resource himself second as a guide within the classroom procedures and activities ….. A third role for the teacher it that of researcher and learner, with much to contribute in terms of appropriate knowledge and abilities, actual and observed experience of the nature of learning an organization capacities.

Needs Analyst:-

The CLT teacher assumes a responsibility for determining and responding to learner language needs. This may be done informally and personally. Through one-to one sessions with students,in which the teacher talks through such issues as the student’s perception of his or her learning style, learning assets, and learning goals, it may be done formally

Through administering a needs assessment instrument such as those exemplified in sawinon . Typically , such formal assessments contan items that attempts to determine an individual’s motivation for  studying the language. For example, students might respond on 95 point scale to statements such as the following :

I want to study because   :

1.   I think it will someday be useful in getting a good job.

2.   It will help me better understand English speaking people and their way of life.

3.   One needs a good knowledge of English to gain other people’s respect.

4.   It will allow me to meet and converse with interesting people.

5.   I need it for my job.

6.   It will enable me to think and behave like English-Speaking people.

Task Based Materials:

A variety of games, role plays, simulations, and task-based communication activities have been prepared to support communicative language teaching classes. These typically are in the from of one-of a kind items: exercise handbooks, cw cards, activity cards, pair communication practice materials, and student – interaction practice booklets. In pair communication materials, there are typically  two sets of material for a pair of students, each set containing different kinds of information. Sometimes the information is complementary and partners must fir their respective parts of the “Jigsaw” into a composite whole others assume different role relationships for the partners . Still others provide drills and practice material in interaction formats.

Many proponents of communicative language Teaching have advocated the use of “Authentic”, “From –Life” materials in the classroom. These might include language- based realics , such as signs, magazines, advertisements, and newspapers or graphics and visual sources around which communicative activities can be built , such as maps, pictures m symbols, graphs and charts.

Different kinds of objects can be used to support communicative exercises, such as a plastic model to assemble from directions

Submitted to Devershi sir;

Department of English,

Bhavnagar University.