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1the Principles of Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach to teaching foreign languages that emphasizes authentic communication and real-world language use. The primary goal of CLT is to develop students' communicative competence through tasks and activities that involve meaningful exchanges of information. Key principles of CLT include using tasks as the organizational structure, promoting learning through hands-on activities, providing rich comprehensible input, encouraging cooperative learning, focusing on form and meaning, and recognizing affective factors like motivation, anxiety, and attitudes.

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869 views2 pages

1the Principles of Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach to teaching foreign languages that emphasizes authentic communication and real-world language use. The primary goal of CLT is to develop students' communicative competence through tasks and activities that involve meaningful exchanges of information. Key principles of CLT include using tasks as the organizational structure, promoting learning through hands-on activities, providing rich comprehensible input, encouraging cooperative learning, focusing on form and meaning, and recognizing affective factors like motivation, anxiety, and attitudes.

Uploaded by

Simeonov Alina
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1Communicative Language Teaching

CLT in recent years has become a fashionable term to cover a variety of developments in syllabus design and, to a lesser
extent, in the methodology of teaching languages. CLT is a collection of approaches to and classroom procedures for
teaching languages. It is based on the theory that the primary function of language use is communication. Its primary goal for
learners is to develop communicative competence, or simply put, communicative ability. In other words, its goal is to make
use of real-life situations that necessitate communication.

Communicative competence is defined as the ability to interpret and enact appropriate social behaviors, and it requires the
active involvement of the learner in the production of the target language. Such a notion encompasses a wide range of
abilities: the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary (linguistic competence); the ability to say appropriate thing in a certain
social situation ( sociolinguistic competence); the ability to start, enter, contribute to, and end a conversation and to do it in a
consistent and coherent manner ( discourse competence); the ability to communicate effectively and repair problems caused
by communication backgrounds ( strategic competence).

Factors affecting communication: participants; settings; scene; form of message; topic; purpose; choice of code

T’s and Ss’ roles: T = facilitator, advisor, communicator; ss = communicators

T – S interaction: T initiates situations that prompt communication, ss interact with each other.

Views on language and culture: Knowledge of forms and meaning as well as functions; oral/aural skills receive most of the
attention; all 4skills are developed from the start; culture is the everyday lifestyle of people who use the language;

Role of ss’ MT: Can be used in the classroom, but the Fl is used as a vehicle for communication

Evaluation/assessment: Ss’ accuracy and fluency

Ss’ errors: tolerated during fluency-based activities

The main principles of the CLT are:

1. Use tasks as an Organization Principle


For decades traditional methods of language teaching have used grammar topics or texts (dialogues, short stories) as a basis
for organizing a syllabus. With CLT methodologies this approach has changed: the development of communicative skills are
placed at the forefront, while grammar is now introduced only as much as needed to support the development of these skills.

2. Promote learning by doing


A task- based approach implies the notion of learning by doing. This concept is not new to CLT methodologies, but it has
been recognized and promoted as a fundamental principle underlying learning throughout history by many educators. It is
based on the theory that a hand- on approach positively enhances learner’s cognitive engagement. In addition, the new
knowledge is better integrated into long- term memory, and easier retrieved, if tried to real-world events and activities.

3. Input needs to be rich


While developing our native tongue, growing up speaking in our native language we are exposed to a plethora of language
patterns, chunks, and phrases in numerous contexts and situations over many years. Such a rich exposure to language
ultimately allows us store language in our brains that we can retrieve and access as whole chunks. Needless to say, there is no
way we can replicate this rich input in the classroom, but we can try it to be as rich as possible. In the classroom environment,
this can be achieved through the use of wide range of materials, authentic and simplified, as well as teachers maximum use of
the target language. Materials need to be authentic and reflect real-life situations and demands. The teacher must maximize
the use of target language.

4. Input needs to be meaningful, comprehensible and elaborated


The information we process must be meaningful. This means the information being presented must be clearly relatable to
existing knowledge that the learner already possesses, so the new information will be easily assimilated, or “attached” to the
learner’s cognitive structure. This develops learner’s ability to actually use language for communication. In language learning
input cannot be meaningful unless it is comprehensible. This means that the learner must be able to understand most of what
the speaker (or writer) is saying and to figure out what the speaker is saying if he is to attach meaning to the speech stream
coming at him. In the classroom we can modify the language- we can slower speech rate, use some comprehensive checks-
“You mean…” , “What are you saying is….”, simplify language, etc. This is the elaborating input.

5. Promote cooperative and collaborative learning


In general education, cooperative or collaborative learning has long been recognized as a strong facilitator of learning.
Classrooms are organized so that students work together in small cooperative teams, such as groups or pairs, to complete
activities.

6. Focus on form
The focus on form approach to explicit grammar teaching emphasizes a form-meaning connection and teaches grammar
within contexts and through communicative tasks.

7. Provide error corrective feedback


In a general sense, feedback can be can be categorized in two different ways- positive feedback ( teacher demonstrate
agreeing, praising or showing understanding), or negative feedback-error correction. Here, the teacher is an advisor and has
corrective function on a student faulty language behavior. As learner produce language, such evaluative feedback can be
useful in facilitating the progression of their skills toward more precise and coherent language skills.

8. Recognize and respect affective factors of learning.


Over the years, consistent relationships have been demonstrated between language attitudes, motivation, performance
anxiety, and achievement in the second language learning. Needless to say, all teachers eventually experience how learners
feel about the target language or how their attitudes toward it impact their motivation and subsequently their success. There
are clear relationships between the good motivation and the success and on the other hand- between anxiety and their fault.
Sometimes they demonstrate stress, nervousness, even bodily responses such as faster heartbeat. Anxiety as a personal trait
must be recognized and kept at a minimal level for learning to be maximized.

CLT Principles

• Language is more than a set of rules. Language is a dynamic resource for the creation of meaning. We need to
distinguish between ‘learning that’ and ‘knowing how’.

• Communication is in the centre of the curriculum.

• The goal of that curriculum is to make individuals able to communicate in the target language.

• The means are the classroom activities leading to this capability.

• It is valuable for learners to focus on form.

. The learner must attain as high degree as possible of language competence (ability to manipulate the language to
express his intended message).

. The learner must distinguish between the forms he has mastered and their communicative function.

. The learner must skills and strategies for using language to communicate meaning as effectively as possible in
concrete situations, use feedback to judge his success and if necessary, remedy his failure by using different language.

. The learner must become aware of the social meaning of language form.

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