Berfin KARAÇÖL

201910214046

Fatih YAVUZ

ELT Programs and Approaches

23 May 2021

A BRIEF LOOK TO EMERGENCE OF CLT AND ESP

‘’The Audiolingual method advocated aural training first then pronunciation training,
followed by speaking, reading, and writing.’’ (Yang, 2018) The primary focus of the
audiolingual method was to gain oral proficiency. Grammar was taught from dialogues and
drills to improve oral proficiency through imitation.

However, in the 1960s audiolingualism started to decline. Noah Chomsky was influential
in that process since he rejected the behaviorist theory which audiolingual laid its
foundations on. He argued that the human brain had an innate mechanism that allows
children to acquire language and learners should use their innate and creative abilities to
produce language. Thus, this resulted in the decline of audiolingualism since it was seen as it
had a week and wrong theoretical foundations. Also, practitioners of audiolingualism
discovered that practical results did not meet the expectations, the classroom activities were
boring and repetitive, and it was teacher-centered.

The Situational Language Teaching(SLT) or Oral Approach developed by British

linguistics between the 1930s and 1960s. It is based on a structural view of language. The
primary focuses of Situational Language Teaching are mastery of high-frequency vocabulary
and reading and teaching grammatical structures through situational tables.

Similar to Audiolingualism in the USA, SLT declined in the 1960s too. A part of this
decline was caused by Noah Chomsky’s rejection of behaviorist theory which led British
linguistics to question SLT. Another reason was the changing realities of Europe. The
increasing interdependence of European countries led to a bigger need for the teaching of
European languages. Therefore, the need for developing alternative methods for language
teaching was a high priority.

Soon after this changing views about language teaching led to the emergence of
communicative language teaching. Communicative language teaching was a response to
changed views about the nature of the language and the language learning needs. It dates the
back to late 1960s and 1970s. The centrality of grammar in language teaching was getting
questioned. Therefore, linguistics started to give attention to developing language programs
that focused on communicative competence as well as the teaching methods to develop
communicative skills. The 1970s were a period where communication became more
important.

Communicative language teaching was also a response to the changing needs of language
teaching in Europe too. As the focus of language teaching shifted from grammar teaching,
more consideration was given to how language is used in different social contexts too.
Therefore, the ability to use language appropriately in specific settings, roles of the
participants, and the nature of dialogue was called communicative competence.

An important element of CLT is called communicative competence. Communicative

competence refers to a learner’s ability to use language to communicate successfully. It deals
with delaying a comprehensible message that is used in a suitable situation.

In 1980, linguists Canale and Swain published an influential article in which they defined
four aspects of communicative competence. They defined communicative competence as
follows:

 Grammatical competence: the ability to identify lexical, morphological, syntactical,

and phonological features of a language and use these features to understand and
translate words and sentences. Therefore, it deals with the language rules and its
symbols without the message.

 Sociolinguistic competence: the ability to use language appropriately in a given

setting, topic, and participants’ roles.
 Discourse competence: the ability to produce coherent and cohesive utterances.

 Strategic competence: the ability to recognize and repair communication breakdowns,

close gaps in one’s language knowledge, and understanding the context.

These changed views about language learning created a distinction in English

learning too. After WWI there was an enormous development in scientific, technical and
economic areas which led to the flow of money and knowledge into western countries all
of which communicated through English. Thus, English became important in business
which resulted in a distinction between English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and general
English (GE).

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), there is not any difference between
general English(GE) and English for specific purposes (ESP) in theory, their differences
lie in practice.

ESP is centered around the learner’s needs and goals, whereas GE is concerned with
language learning that covers many language skills and cultural aspects of English.

Generally, learners of ESP are adults with various degrees of awareness of their
language needs. These needs often depend on occupational or social etc. circumstances.
On the other hand, GE is given as a compulsory lesson at schools in which generally the
concerns of learners are to pass necessary tests.

Baştürkmen (2006) points out that GE tends to set out from a definite point to an
indeterminate one, however, ESP sought outs speed learning to a known destination in
order to reach specific objectives.

Onwards from 1950s and 1960s is a period where communication was becoming
more important. While, linguists were questioning already existing language teaching
methods and approaches, they were also looking for new ones too. All of this led to the
creation of CLT and ESP, while Audiolingual method and The Situational Language
Teaching declined.
REFERENCES
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THE AUDIOLINGUAL METHOD. Mueeza. (2014). Retrieved 18 May 2021, from

https://sukasukawiji.wordpress.com/2014/08/14/the-audiolingual-method/.

What is Grammatical Competence | IGI Global. Igi-global.com. Retrieved 18 May 2021,

from https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/grammatical-competence/12429.

Difference between linguistic competence and communicative competence. Brainly.in.

(2018). Retrieved 18 May 2021, from https://brainly.in/question/6563856#:~:text.

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Center for Open Educational Resources & Language Learning, T. Communicative

Competence | Foreign Language Teaching Methods: Speaking. Coerll.utexas.edu. Retrieved
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Lamri, C., Heddam, F., & Bensafa, A. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ESP AND EGP.
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