A Brief Introduction to Communicative Language Teaching Method
Definition
Communicative language teaching is an approach to the teaching of cond and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. It is also referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” or simply the “communicative approach”.
Background and development of communicative language teaching
The idea of communicative language teaching developed in the UK in the early 70s. The earliest reference to the term, according to Brumfit, was made in Candlin’s paper “Sociolinguistics and Communicative Language Teaching” prented to the conference in London in 1971. The socio-linguistic theory emphasizes on meaning and communication and attempts to develop learners’ communicative competence from the socio-cognitive perspective. Rules should not be learned in isolation but should be linked with the functio
nal us of language. The specific functional needs of the learner have to be ascertained by a needs analysis. U, not merely usage, should be the objective of the CLT teacher. CLT thus posited an approach towards language teaching.
Since the notion of “communicative competence” was 交心谈心first put forward by Hymes in 1972, many rearchers and scholars have developed theories and practices of CLT method. With the advance of the notion, CLT approach have developed as an important language teaching method and replaced the previous traditional grammar teaching methods gradually.
Hymes introduced the concept of “communicative competence” in order to contrast to Chomsky's view of “linguistic competence”. Chomsky made a differentiation between linguistic competence and linguistic performance. For Chomsky, the focus of linguistic study is to show the speaker's abstract abilities which make them produce grammatically correct ntences. Hymes pointed out that such a view of li解平ngui梨花烫图片stic study was来到美国 meaningless, linguistic theory should be en as part of a broader theory combining com
munication and culture and stated that Chomsky's category of performance, which included just psychological restraints on performance and ignored all factors of social interaction.
In Hymes' opinion, a person who acquires communicative competence acquires not only the grammatical knowledge but also the ability to u the language as for if something is formally possible; if something is practical by the way of implementation available; if something is appropriate in relation to a context that it is ud; if something is done in fact.
The main characteristics and principles of CLT
CLT derives its esntial characteristics from the fact that at every stage-the tting of learning objectives, the development of learning contents, the elaboration and implementation of classroom activities, the judgment of learners' progress, and the definition of a syllabus—it focus on language as a medium of communication (Little, 1991). CLT has many characteristics which can be summarized as follows:
(1) Language teaching should pay more attention on meaning rather than form; (Johnson, 1982; Bnunfit, 1981);
(2)Fluency should be emphasized before accuracy (Finocchiaro &Bnmifit, 1981);
(3)After the learners have achieved fluency, the accuracy of expression should become the focus of teaching (Savignon, 1983);
中四声组词 (4)The quence of language prentation should be bad on the mantic considerations and the analysis of learners' needs rather than according to linguistic structure 广西梯田(Munby,1978);
(5) Since learning a language means learning to do things by way of the language, language teaching should be on the basis of activities (Littlewood, 1981);
(6)CLT focus systematic on functional as well as structural views of language, integrating the views into a more fully communicative idea (Littlewood, 1981);
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(7)Since authentic communication needs a real exchange of information, classroom communication should have information gap (Prabhu,1987);老家的故事
(8)Since language u is the main goal of language teaching, learners should be expod to real language in u on the basis of real materials (Allright,1981);
(9)Learners should be encouraged to improve the strategies to communicate meaning in real situations which may be above their prent level of language proficiency (Canale,1983);
(10) Learners should become subtle to the notion of suitableness in communication (Canale,1983).
Richands and Rogers stated that “there are some principles to be taken into consideration in practice: the task principle, the communication principle and the principle.” The followings are ven principles of CLT which summarized by Berns in 1990.
