Communicative Language Teaching In the 1970s educators began to question if they were going about meeting the goal

in the rightway. ome observed that students could !roduce sentences accurately in a lesson but could notuse them a!!ro!riately when genuinely communicating outside of the classroom. "thers notedthat being able to communicate required more than mastering linguistic structures. In this way# itbecame clear that communication required that students !erform certain functions as well. obeing able to communicate required more than linguistic com!etence# it required communicativecom!etence $%nowing when and how to say what to whom&. uch observations contributed to ashift in the field in the late 1970s and early 19'0s from a linguistic structured centered to acommunicative a!!roach. Communicative language teaching aims broadly to a!!ly the theoretical !ers!ective ofcommunicative language a!!roach by ma%ing communicative com!etence the goal of languageteaching and by %nowledging the interde!endence of language and communication. (")L "* T+, T,)C+,The goal is to enable students to communicate in the target language. To do this# students need%nowledge of the linguistic forms# meanings and functions. Communication is a !rocess# %nowledge of the forms of the language. -"L, "* T+, T,)C+,The teacher facilitates communication in the classroom. In this role# one of the ma.orres!onsibilities is to establish situations li%ely to !romote communication. /uring the activities heacts as an adviser# answering student0s questions and monitoring their !erformance. )t othertimes he might be a co1communicator# engaging in the communicative activity along withstudents. tudents are# above all# communicators. They are actively engaged in negotiating meaning. ince the teacher0s role is less dominant# students are seen as more res!onsible manager. T,)C+I2( )2/ L,)-2I2( 3-"C, )lmost everything that is done is done with a communicative intent. tudents use the language agreat deal through communicative activities. )ctivities that are truly communicative# according to4orrow $19'1& have three features in common5 information ga!# choice and feedbac%. )n information ga! e6ists when one !erson in an e6change %nows something the other !ersondoes not. In communication# the s!ea%er has a choice of what she will say and how she will say it. True communication is !ur!oseful. ) s!ea%er can thus evaluate whether or not his !ur!ose hasbeen achieved based u!on the information she receives from his listener. )nother characteristic of CLT is the use of authentic material. It is considered desirable to givestudents the o!!ortunity to develo! strategies for understanding language as it is actually used. *inally# we noted that activities in CLT are often carried out by students in small grou!s. T7/,2T1T,)C+,- I2T,-)CTI"2 )2/ T7/,2T1 T7/,2T I2T,-)CTI"2 The teacher may !resent some !art of the lesson. )t other times# he is the facilitator of theactivities# but he does not always himself interact with students. ometimes he is a co1communicator# but more often he establishes situations that !rom!tcommunication between and among the students. tudents interact a great deal with one another. They do this in various configurations5 !airs#triads# small grou!s and whole grou!. /,)LI2( 8IT+ T+, *,,LI2( "* T+, T7/,2T "ne of the basic assum!tions of CLT is that by learning to communicate students will be moremotivated to study a foreign language since they will feel they are learning to do something usefulwith the language. Teachers give students an o!!ortunity to e6!ress their individuality by havingthem share their ideas and o!inions. *inally# student0s security is enhanced by the manyo!!ortunities for coo!erative interaction. L)2(7)(, 9I,8 Language is for communication. Linguistic com!etence is .ust one !art of the communicativecom!etence. )nother as!ect of communicative com!etence is %nowledge of the functionslanguage is used for. Learners need %nowledge of forms and meanings and functions. +owever# they must also use this%nowledge and ta%e into account the social in order to convey their intended meaninga!!ro!riately. )-,) "* L)2(7)(, )2/ L)2(7)(, :ILL T+)T )-, ,43+) I;,/

Language functions might be em!hasi<ed over forms. Ty!ically# a functional syllabus is used. "nlythe sim!ler forms would be !resented at first# but as students get more !roficient in the targetlanguage# the functions are reintroduced and more com!le6 forms are learned. tudents wor% with language at the su!rasentential or discourse level. They learn about cohesionand coherence. -"L, "* T+, T7/,2T0 2)TI9, =udicious use of the student0s native language is !ermited in CLT. +owever# whenever is !ossible#the target language should be used not only during communicative activities# but also fore6!laining the activities to the students or in assigning homewor%. ,9)L7)TI"2 ) teacher can informally evaluate his student0s !erformances in his role as an advisor or co1 communicator. *or more formal evaluation# a teacher is li%ely to use an integrative test which hasa real communicative function. T,C+2I>7, )2/ 4)T,-I)L )uthentic materials5 )dherents of CLT advocate the use of language materials authentic to native s!ea%ers of thetarget language. crambled sentences5 This ty!e of e6ercise teaches students about cohesion and coherence !ro!erties of language. Theylearn how sentences are bound together. Language games5 If they are !ro!erly designed# they give students valuable communicative !ractice. 3icture stri! story 3roblem ? solving tas%s wor% well in CLT because they usually include the three features ofcommunication. 8hat0s more they can be structured so that students share information of wor%together to arrive at a solution. This gives them !ractice in negotiating meaning. -ole !lay5 They give students the o!!ortunity to !ractice communicating in different social conte6ts and indifferent social roles.