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APPENDIX C
Introducing Communicative Language Teach-ing
A short Teacher’s Guide
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Implementing CLT in a Low-Resource Environment of Bangladesh Sheikh Tuhin
As far you know, recently a new textbook has been introduced into our syllabus us-ing the communicative language teaching method. But unfortunately you were notprovided with enough instructions or have not been provided with a teacher’s bookto adopt you with the new teaching method. In this booklet it was tried to give you abasic idea on the communicative language teaching method and how you can wel-come the new method without much trouble. For your convenience a detailed guideon how to take class using communicative language teaching method has also beenadded here. Lesson 5, 6 and 7 from your book are covered in there.
What are the differences between the traditional methodand the communicative method?
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 The main aim of the communicative language teaching method is to teachthe learners about the structure, meaning and usage of the foreign or secondlanguage. Same word can carry different meaning in different situations.
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In CLT it is believed that the more a person uses a language, the more skilleds/he becomes in it. For that reason a lot of activities and games are used inCLT, so that the students feel more interested and motivated to use the lan-guage. There is a term called ‘authentic material’ in CLT and it means usingreal world objects in the classroom. Authentic material could be anything likenewspapers, magazines, photos, posters etc. It is believed that this authenticmaterial helps to build a communication between the classroom and the realworld. So in CLT classrooms authentic materials are used frequently.
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In this method teacher’s role is like an advisor and co-ordinator. In traditionalmethod teachers used to control and dominate the whole class, but it issomewhat different in CLT. Here teacher helps the students and guides themto acquire the language in a friendly way.
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Student’s feelings are very important here. It is claimed that if the studentsare not interested, then the learning does not take place. So in order to makethem interested a lot of activities like role-play, games, problem-solving etc.are used.
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Culture is also important in language teaching or learning. If anyone fromoutside of our country comes to learn our language and does not know ourwedding culture, then s/he would not understand what it means by ‘gaye-holud’. For the same reason teaching other cultures is also important in CLT.
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 There are four language skills in language teaching or learning: listening,speaking, reading and writing. In CLT students have to work on all the fourlanguage skills, whereas in traditional method the only importance was onreading and writing.
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It is important to use the English language in the classrooms as much as youcan. Even when you are going to describe them about some activities, tell itin English. If they don’t understand it then use the Bangla language. It is ad-vised not to use Bangla language unless you feel that it is necessary.
 
Implementing CLT in a Low-Resource Environment of Bangladesh Sheikh Tuhin
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 The test is not only to find out how accurately they can deliver or use theEnglish language, but also on the fluency. For that reason, if they make somemistakes, it is considered to be quite natural. There are some stages in lan-guage learning where certain kinds of mistakes are quite natural. From thesemistakes teacher can have an idea of his/her students language learningstage.
Dos and Don’ts:
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It is important to create a real communication in the classroom. Previouslywe were asking the students to translate some paragraphs from Bangla toEnglish or vice versa. But it does not make any real communication amongthem. Instead if we say to them that we are going to do a play on ‘hotel re-ception’ and some of them are going to be receptionist and the rest of themare going to be the guest at that hotel. Then if you show them in that situ-ation what kind of language are used and let them practice it among them-selves, then it would create a real communication between them. It also pre-pares them for the real world as they become aware of the language usagein some particular situation. Moreover, this is very interesting to them and itbecomes as a play for them and they start to enjoy it. As a result their con-fidences grow and it helps them to overcome the fear of learning a new lan-guage.
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 There should be enough time for the students to experiment and practicewith the new language they are learning. So whenever there is new activityintroduced to them, let them practice it for several times. Also try to changetheir roles in that activity, those who were playing role of visitors should thenbe told to play the role of receptionists and vice versa.
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Be patient to the student’s error. Even the English children also make mis-takes in their process of learning their own language. So it is natural thatyour students will also go through that phase. If you don’t stop them on theirevery mistake, then they will achieve fluency and competency on the lan-guage very soon.
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Previously we used to give much priority on the accuracy, but in communic-ative language teaching fluency is very important. So a good balancebetween this two is the expected from this method. So when you find thatyour students are using incorrect English, don’t correct them instantly.Rather point them down in your notebook and at the end of the class discussit before the whole class. This should be a general discussion and you shouldnot name someone and discuss what errors he made. This would discouragethe student from learning. Rather say like, ‘I’ve found that you’re making asmall error and that is ....’
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Group-work and pair-work are very important not only from the languageteaching perspective, but also for preparing them for the future. While work-ing in groups or pairs they learn to take responsibility and it also helps themto socialise with each other and teach them how to work collectively. It alsoteaches them to share with each other, which is very different from the tradi-tional method. Previously the only type of test they have to sit for was a writ-ten exam and there they have to answer a set of questions and were evalu-
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