MINISTRY OF HIGHER AND SECONDARY SPECIAL

EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN

ТЕRMEZ STATE UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
AND LITERATURE

COURSE PAPER
on the theme

« CLT Method »

DONE BY: 3rd course student of the English

language and literature department
Ro`ziyeva Dilafruz

SUPERVISOR: M.X. Mukumov

TERMEZ - 2022
 “ТАСДИҚЛАЙМАН ”
Тиллар ўқитиш методикаси ва таълим
технологиялари кафедраси
мудири: ___________________________
“_______”____________________2022 й

“Тиллар ўқитиш методикаси ва таълим технологиялари” фанидан курс

ишини бажариш бўйича

ТОПШИРИҚ

Талаба:_________________________________________________________
Курс ва гуруҳ:____________________________________________________
Курс иши раҳбари:_________________________________________________
Топшириқ бериш санаси:__________________________________________
Тавсия этилган адабиётлар:_______________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Курс иши таркиби(боб, бўлим, параграф):___________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Қўшимча вазифа ва кўрсатмалар:__________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

Курс иши бажаришнинг календарь режаси

Ҳафталар 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Қисмлар
Курс иши режаси
Кириш
Асосий қисм
Хулоса
Адабиётлар
Иловалар
Расмийлаштириш
Текшириш
Ҳимоя
Топшириш

Раҳбар _________________

2
 PLAN:

INTRODUCTION

MAIN PART:

1. What is CLT?
2. Academic influences
3. Classroom activities

CONCLUSION
LIST OF USED LITERATURE

3
 INTRODUCTION

As the language theories underlying the Audiolingual method and the

Sitiuational Language Teaching method were questioned by prominent linguists
like Chomsky (1957) during the 1960s, a new trend of language teaching paved its
way into classrooms. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), which is an
approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages, emphasizes interaction
as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. It is also referred to
as the “Communicative Approach”. Historically, CLT has been seen as a response
to the Audio-Lingual Method (ALM), and as an extension or development of the
Notional-Functional Syllabus. Task-based language learning, a more recent
refinement of CLT, has gained considerably in popularity.

A shift towards communicative proficiency

The increasing interdependency between the European countries necessitated a

need for a greater effort to teach adults the principal languages of the continent.
New goals were set in language teaching profession:

 The paramount importance of communication aspects of language.

 The increasing interest in meaningful learning.
 The growing centrality of the learner in teaching processes.
 The subordinate importance of structural teaching of language.

Notional / functional dimension of language

Applied linguists and philosophers addressed another fundamental dimension of

language: the functional and communicative potential of language. The speech act
theory showed that we do something when we speak a language. We use language
( cf Halliday 1975)

 to get things,

4
  to control behavior,
 to create interaction with others,
 to express personal feelings,
 to learn,
 to create a world of imagination,
 to communicate information.

Besides applied linguists emphasized a teaching of language based on

communicative proficiency rather than mastery of structures. instead of describing
the core of language through traditional concepts of grammar and vocabulary, they
(Van Ek & Alexander, 1975; Wilkins, 1976) attempted to show the systems of
meaning underlying the communicative use of language. They described two kinds
of meanings.

 Notional categories: concepts such as time, sequence; quantity, location,

frequency.
 Functional categories: requests offers, complaints, invitation …

In other words, a “notion” is a particular context in which people communicate. A

“function” is a specific purpose for a speaker in a given context. For example, the
“notion,” of shopping requires numerous language “functions,” such as asking
about prices or features of a product and bargaining.

One language competence or numerous competences?

For Chomsky, the focus of linguistics was to describe the linguistic competence
that enables speakers to produce grammatically correct sentences. Dell Hymes
held, however, that such a view of the linguistic theory was sterile and that it
failed to picture all the aspects of language. He advocated the need for a theory that
incorporates communication competence. It must be a definition of what a speaker
needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community.

5
 What is CLT?

Communicative language teaching (CLT), or the communicative approach

(CA), is an approach to language teaching that emphasizes interaction as both the
means and the ultimate goal of study.

Learners in environments using communication to learn and practice the

target language by interactions with one another and the instructor, the study of
"authentic texts" (those written in the target language for purposes other than
language learning), and the use of the language both in class and outside of class.

Learners converse about personal experiences with partners, and instructors

teach topics outside of the realm of traditional grammar to promote language skills
in all types of situations. That method also claims to encourage learners to
incorporate their personal experiences into their language learning environment
and to focus on the learning experience, in addition to the learning of the target
language.

According to CLT, the goal of language education is the ability to

communicate in the target language. This is in contrast to previous views in which
grammatical competence was commonly given top priority.

CLT also positions the teacher as a facilitator, rather than an instructor.

Furthermore, the approach is a non-methodical system that does not use a textbook
series to teach the target language but works on developing sound oral and verbal
skills prior to reading and writing.

Societal influences
Language teaching was originally considered a cognitive matter that mainly
involved memorization. It was later thought instead to be socio-cognitive:
language can be learned through the process of social interaction. Today, however,

6
the dominant technique in teaching any language is communicative language
teaching (CLT).
It was Noam Chomsky's theories in the 1960s, focusing on competence and
performance in language learning, that gave rise to communicative language
teaching, but the conceptual basis for CLT was laid in the 1970s by the linguists
Michael Halliday, who studied how language functions are expressed through
grammar, and Dell Hymes, who introduced the idea of a wider communicative
competence instead of Chomsky's narrower linguistic competence. [4] The rise of
CLT in the 1970s and the early 1980s was partly in response to the lack of success
with traditional language teaching methods and partly by the increase in demand
for language learning. In Europe, the advent of the European Common Market, an
economic predecessor to the European Union, led to migration in Europe and an
increased number of people who needed to learn a foreign language for work or
personal reasons. Meanwhile, more children were given the opportunity to learn
foreign languages in school, as the number of secondary schools offering
languages rose worldwide as part of a general trend of curriculum-broadening and
modernization, with foreign-language study no longer confined to the elite
academies. In Britain, the introduction of comprehensive schools, which offered
foreign-language study to all children, rather than to the select few of the elite
grammar schools, greatly increased the demand for language learning.
The increased demand included many learners who struggled with
traditional methods such as grammar translation, which involves the direct
translation of sentence after sentence as a way to learn the language. Those
methods assumed that students aimed to master the target language and were
willing to study for years before expecting to use the language in real life.
However, those assumptions were challenged by adult learners, who were busy
with work, and by schoolchildren who were less academically gifted and so could
not devote years to learning before they could use the language. Educators realized
that to motivate those students an approach with a more immediate reward was

7
necessary, and they began to use CLT, an approach that emphasizes
communicative ability and yielded better results.
Additionally, the trend of progressivism in education provided further
pressure for educators to change their methods. Progressivism holds that active
learning is more effective than passive learning. As that idea gained traction, in
schools there was a general shift towards using techniques where students were
more actively involved, such as group work. Foreign-language education was no
exception to that trend, and teachers sought to find new methods, such as CLT, that
could better embody the shift in thinking.
Later Canale and Swaine (1980) described four dimensions of communicative
competence.
 Grammatical competence: refers to what Chomsky calls linguistic
competence.
 Sociolinguistic competence: refers to an understanding of the social context
in which communication takes place (role relationships, shared beliefs and
information between participants …)
 Discourse competence: refers to the interpretation of individual message
elements in terms of their interconnectedness and how meaning is
represented in relation to the entire discourse or text.
 Strategic competence: refers to the coping strategies that participants use to
initiate terminate, maintain, repair and redirect communication

Learning theory
According to the the communicative approach, in order for learning to take place,
emphasis must be put on the importance of these variables:
 Communication: activities that involve real communication promote
learning.
 Tasks: activities in which language is used to carry out meaningful tasks
supports the learning process.
 Meaning: language that is meaningful and authentic to the learner boosts
learning.

8
 Academic Influences

The development of communicative language teaching was bolstered by

new academic ideas. Before the growth of communicative language teaching, the
primary method of language teaching was situational language teaching, a method
that was much more clinical in nature and relied less on direct communication. In
Britain, applied linguists began to doubt the efficacy of situational language
teaching, partly in response to Chomsky's insights into the nature of language.
Chomsky had shown that the structural theories of language then prevalent could
not explain the variety that is found in real communication. In addition, applied
linguists like Christopher Candlin and Henry Widdowson observed that the current
model of language learning was ineffective in classrooms. They saw a need for
students to develop communicative skill and functional competence in addition to
mastering language structures.

In 1966, the linguist and anthropologist Dell Hymes developed the concept
of communicative competence, which redefined what it meant to "know" a
language. In addition to speakers having mastery over the structural elements of
language, they must also be able to use those structural elements appropriately in a
variety of speech domains. That can be neatly summed up by Hymes's statement:
"There are rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless." The
idea of communicative competence stemmed from Chomsky's concept of the
linguistic competence of an ideal native speaker. Hymes did not make a concrete
formulation of communicative competence, but subsequent authors, notably
Michael Canale, have tied the concept to language teaching. Canale and Swain
(1980) defined communicative competence in terms of three components:
grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence.
Canale (1983) refined the model by adding discourse competence, which contains
the concepts of cohesion and coherence.

9
 An influential development in the history of communicative language
teaching was the work of the Council of Europe in creating new language syllabi.
When communicative language teaching had effectively replaced situational
language teaching as the standard by leading linguists, the Council of Europe made
an effort to once again bolster the growth of the new method, which led to the
Council of Europe creating a new language syllabus. Education was a high priority
for the Council of Europe, which set out to provide a syllabus that would meet the
needs of European immigrants. Among the studies that it used in designing the
course was one by a British linguist, D. A. Wilkins, that defined language using
"notions" and "functions," rather than more traditional categories of grammar and
vocabulary. The new syllabus reinforced the idea that language could not be
adequately explained by grammar and syntax but instead relied on real interaction.

In the mid-1990s, the Dogme 95 manifesto influenced language teaching

through the Dogme language teaching movement. It proposed that published
materials stifle the communicative approach. As such, the aim of the Dogme
approach to language teaching is to focus on real conversations about practical
subjects in which communication is the engine of learning. The idea behind the
Dogme approach is that communication can lead to explanation, which leads to
further learning. That approach is the antithesis of situational language teaching,
which emphasizes learning by text and prioritizes grammar over communication.

A survey of communicative competence by Bachman (1990) divides

competency into the broad headings of "organizational competence," which
includes both grammatical and discourse (or textual) competence, and "pragmatic
competence," which includes both sociolinguistic and "illocutionary" competence.
Strategic competence is associated with the interlocutors' ability in using
communication strategies.

10
 Classroom Activities

CLT teachers choose classroom activities based on what they believe is

going to be most effective for students developing communicative abilities in the
target language (TL). Oral activities are popular among CLT teachers, as opposed
to grammar drills or reading and writing activities, because they include active
conversation and creative, unpredicted responses from students. Activities vary
based on the level of language class they are being used in. They promote
collaboration, fluency, and comfort in the TL. The six activities listed and
explained below are commonly used in CLT classrooms.

Role-play

Role-play is an oral activity usually done in pairs, whose main goal is to

develop students' communicative abilities in a certain setting.

Example:

1. The instructor sets the scene: where is the conversation taking place? (E.g.,
in a café, in a park, etc.)
2. The instructor defines the goal of the students' conversation. (E.g., the
speaker is asking for directions, the speaker is ordering coffee, the speaker is
talking about a movie they recently saw, etc.)
3. The students converse in pairs for a designated amount of time.

This activity gives students the chance to improve their communication

skills in the TL in a low-pressure situation. Most students are more comfortable
speaking in pairs rather than in front of the entire class.

Instructors need to be aware of the differences between a conversation and

an utterance. Students may use the same utterances repeatedly when doing this
activity and not actually have a creative conversation. If instructors do not regulate
11
what kinds of conversations students are having, then the students might not be
truly improving their communication skills.

Interviews

An interview is an oral activity done in pairs, whose main goal is to

develop students' interpersonal skills in the TL.

Example:

1. The instructor gives each student the same set of questions to ask a partner.
2. Students take turns asking and answering the questions in pairs.

This activity, since it is highly structured, allows for the instructor to more
closely monitor students' responses. It can zone in on one specific aspect of
grammar or vocabulary, while still being a primarily communicative activity and
giving the students communicative benefits.

This is an activity that should be used primarily in the lower levels of

language classes, because it will be most beneficial to lower-level speakers.
Higher-level speakers should be having unpredictable conversations in the TL,
where neither the questions nor the answers are scripted or expected. If this activity
were used with higher-level speakers it wouldn't have many benefits.

Group work

Group work is a collaborative activity whose purpose is to foster

communication in the TL, in a larger group setting.

Example:

1. Students are assigned a group of no more than six people.

2. Students are assigned a specific role within the group. (E.g., member A,
member B, etc.)
12
 3. The instructor gives each group the same task to complete.
4. Each member of the group takes a designated amount of time to work on the
part of the task to which they are assigned.
5. The members of the group discuss the information they have found, with
each other and put it all together to complete the task.

Students can feel overwhelmed in language classes, but this activity can
take away from that feeling. Students are asked to focus on one piece of
information only, which increases their comprehension of that information. Better
comprehension leads to better communication with the rest of the group, which
improves students' communicative abilities in the TL.

Instructors should be sure to monitor that each student is contributing

equally to the group effort. It takes a good instructor to design the activity well, so
that students will contribute equally, and benefit equally from the activity.

Information gap

Information gap is a collaborative activity, whose purpose is for students to

effectively obtain information that was previously unknown to them, in the TL.

Example:

1. The class is paired up. One partner in each pair is Partner A, and the other is
Partner B.
2. All the students that are Partner A are given a sheet of paper with a time-
table on it. The time-table is filled in half-way, but some of the boxes are empty.
3. All the students that are Partner B are given a sheet of paper with a time-
table on it. The boxes that are empty on Partner A's time-table are filled in on
Partner B's. There are also empty boxes on Partner B's time-table, but they are
filled in on Partner A's.

13
 4. The partners must work together to ask about and supply each other with the
information they are both missing, to complete each other's time-tables.

Completing information gap activities improves students' abilities to

communicate about unknown information in the TL. These abilities are directly
applicable to many real-world conversations, where the goal is to find out some
new piece of information, or simply to exchange information.

Instructors should not overlook the fact that their students need to be
prepared to communicate effectively for this activity. They need to know certain
vocabulary words, certain structures of grammar, etc. If the students have not been
well prepared for the task at hand, then they will not communicate effectively.

Opinion sharing

Opinion sharing is a content-based activity, whose purpose is to engage

students' conversational skills, while talking about something they care about. [12]

Example:

1. The instructor introduces a topic and asks students to contemplate their

opinions about it. (E.g., dating, school dress codes, global warming)
2. The students talk in pairs or small groups, debating their opinions on the
topic.

Opinion sharing is a great way to get more introverted students to open up

and share their opinions. If a student has a strong opinion about a certain topic,
then they will speak up and share.

Respect is key with this activity. If a student does not feel like their opinion
is respected by the instructor or their peers, then they will not feel comfortable
sharing, and they will not receive the communicative benefits of this activity.

14
 Scavenger hunt

A scavenger hunt is a mingling activity that promotes open interaction

between students.

Example:

1. The instructor gives students a sheet with instructions on it. (e.g. Find
someone who has a birthday in the same month as yours.)
2. Students go around the classroom asking and answering questions about
each other.
3. The students wish to find all of the answers they need to complete the
scavenger hunt.

In doing this activity, students have the opportunity to speak with a number
of classmates, while still being in a low-pressure situation, and talking to only one
person at a time. After learning more about each other, and getting to share about
themselves, students will feel more comfortable talking and sharing during other
communicative activities.

Since this activity is not as structured as some of the others, it is important

for instructors to add structure. If certain vocabulary should be used in students'
conversations, or a certain grammar is necessary to complete the activity, then
instructors should incorporate that into the scavenger hunt.

Types of learning and teaching activities

The range of exercise types and activities compatible with a commu-

nicative approach is unlimited, provided that such exercises enable learners to
attain the communicative objectives of the curriculum, engage learners in
communication, and require the use of such communicative processes as
information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction. Classroom activities

15
are often designed to focus on completing tasks that are mediated through language
or involve negotiation of information and information sharing.

Learner roles

The emphasis in Communicative Language Teaching on the processes of

communication, rather than mastery of language.

Teacher roles

Several roles are assumed for teachers in Communicative Language

Teaching, the importance of particular roles being determined by the view of CLT
adopted. Breen and Candlin describe teacher roles in the following terms:

The teacher has two main roles: the first role is to facilitate the communica-
tion process between all participants in the classroom, and between these
participants and the various activities and texts. The second role is to act as an
independent participant within the learning-teaching group. The latter role is
closely related to the objectives of the first role and arises from it. These roles
imply a set of secondary roles for the teacher; first, as an organizer of resources
and as a resource himself, second as a guide within the classroom procedures and
activities.... A third role for the teacher is that of researcher and learner, with much
to contribute in terms of appropriate knowledge and abilities, actual and observed
experience of the nature of learning and organizational capacities. (1980: 99)

Other roles assumed for teachers are needs analyst, counselor, and group
process manager.

NEEDS ANALYST

The CLT teacher assumes a responsibility for determining and responding

to learner language needs. This may be done informally and personally through
one-to-one sessions with students, in which the teacher talks through such issues as

16
the student's perception of his or her learning style, learning assets, and learning
goals. It may be done formally through administering a needs assessment
instrument, such as those exemplified in Savignon (1983). Typically, such formal
assessments contain items that attempt to determine an individual's motivation for
studying the language. For example, students might respond on a 5-point scale
(strongly agree to strongly disagree) to statements like the following.

I want to study English because...

1. I think it will someday be useful in getting a good job.

2. it will help me better understand English-speaking people and their way

of life.

3. one needs a good knowledge of English to gain other people's respect.

4. it will allow me to meet and converse with interesting people.

5. I need it for my job.

6. it will enable me to think and behave like English-speaking people.

On the basis of such needs assessments, teachers are expected to plan group
and individual instruction that responds to the learners' needs.

counselor

Another role assumed by several CLT approaches is that of counselor,

similar to the way this role is defined in Community Language Learning. In this
role, the teacher-counselor is expected to exemplify an effective communicator
seeking to maximize the meshing of speaker intention and hearer interpretation,
through the use of paraphrase, confirmation, and feedback.

17
 GROUP PROCESS MANAGER

CLT procedures often require teachers to acquire less teacher-centered

classroom management skills. It is the teacher's responsibility to organize the
classroom as a setting for communication and communicative activities.
Guidelines for classroom practice (e.g., Littlewood 1981; Finocchiaro and Brumfit
1983) suggest that during an activity the teacher monitors, encourages, and
suppresses the inclination to supply gaps in lexis, grammar, and strategy but notes
such gaps for later commentary and communicative practice. At the conclusion of
group activities, the teacher leads in the debriefing of the activity, pointing out
alternatives

and extensions and assisting groups in self-correction discussion. Critics

have pointed out, however, that non-native teachers may feel less than comfortable
about such procedures without special training.

The focus on fluency and comprehensibility in Communicative Language

Teaching may cause anxiety among teachers accustomed to seeing error
suppression and correction as the major instructional responsibility, and who see
their primary function as preparing learners to take standardized or other kinds of
tests. A continuing teacher concern has been the possible deleterious effect in pair
or group work of imperfect modeling and student error. Although this issue is far
from resolved, it is interesting to note that recent research findings suggest that
"data contradicts the notion that other learners are not good conversational partners
because they can't provide accurate input when it is solicited" (Porter 1983).

The role of instructional materials

A wide variety of materials have been used to support communicative

approaches to language teaching. Unlike some contemporary methodologies, such

18
as Community Language Learning, practitioners of Communicative Language
Teaching view materials as a way of influencing the quality of classroom
interaction and language use. Materials thus have the primary role of promoting
communicative language use. We will consider three kinds of materials currently
used in CLT and label these text-based, task-based, and realia.

TEXT-BASED MATERIALS

There are numerous textbooks designed to direct and support

Communicative Language Teaching. Their tables of contents sometimes suggest a
kind of grading and sequencing of language practice not unlike those found in
structurally organized texts. Some of these are in fact written around a largely
structural syllabus, with slight reformatting to justify their claims to be based on a
communicative approach. Others, however, look very different from previous
language teaching texts. Morrow and Johnson's Communicate (1979), for example,
has none of the usual dialogues, drills, or sentence patterns and uses visual cues,
taped cues, pictures, and sentence fragments to initiate conversation. Watcyn-
Jones's Pair Work (1981) consists of two different texts for pair work, each
containing different information needed to enact role plays and carry out other pair
activities. Texts written to support the Malay-sian English Language Syllabus
(1975) likewise represent a departure from traditional textbook modes. A typical
lesson consists of a theme (e.g., relaying information), a task analysis for thematic
development (e.g., understanding the message, asking questions to obtain
clarification, asking for more information, taking notes, ordering and presenting in-
formation), a practice situation description (e.g., "A caller asks to see your
manager. He does not have an appointment. Gather the necessary information from
him and relay the message to your manager."), a stimulus presentation (in the
preceding case, the beginning of an office conversation scripted and on tape),
comprehension questions (e.g., "Why is the caller in the office?"), and paraphrase
exercises.

19
 TASK-BASED MATERIALS

A variety of games, role plays, simulations, and task-based communication

activities have been prepared to support Communicative Language Teaching
classes. These typically are in the form of one-of-a-kind items: exercise
handbooks, cue cards, activity cards, pair-communication practice materials, and
student-interaction practice booklets. In pair-communication materials, there are
typically two sets of material for a pair of students, each set containing different
kinds of information. Sometimes the information is complementary, and partners
must fit their respective parts of the "jigsaw" into a composite whole. Others
assume different role relationships for the partners (e.g., an interviewer and an
interviewee). Still others provide drills and practice material in interactional
formats.

REALIA

Many proponents of Communicative Language Teaching have advocated

the use of "authentic," "from-life" materials in the classroom. These might include
language-based realia, such as signs, magazines, advertisements, and newspapers,
or graphic and visual sources around which communicative activities can he built,
such as maps, pictures, symbols, graphs, and charts. Different kinds of objects can
be used to support communicative exercises, such as a plastic model to assemble
from directions.

Conclusion

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 Although CLT has been extremely influential in the field of language
teaching, it is not universally accepted and has been subject to significant critique.

In his critique of CLT, Michael Swan addresses both the theoretical and
practical problems with CLT. He mentions that CLT is not an altogether cohesive
subject but one in which theoretical understandings (by linguists) and practical
understandings (by language teachers) differ greatly. Criticism of the theory of
CLT includes that it makes broad claims regarding the usefulness of CLT while
citing little data, it uses a large amount of confusing vocabulary, and it assumes
knowledge that is predominately not language-specific (such as the ability to make
educated guesses) to be language-specific. Swan suggests that those theoretical
issues lead to confusion in the application of CLT techniques.

Where confusion in the application of CLT techniques is readily apparent is

in classroom settings. Swan suggests that CLT techniques often suggest
prioritizing the "function" of a language (what one can do with the language
knowledge one has) over the "structure" of a language (the grammatical systems of
the language). That priority can leave learners with serious gaps in their knowledge
of the formal aspects of their target language. Swan also suggests that in CLT
techniques, the languages that a student might already know are not valued or
employed in instructional techniques.

Further critique of CLT techniques in classroom teaching can be attributed

to Elaine Ridge. One of her criticisms of CLT is that it falsely implies that there is
a general consensus regarding the definition of "communicative competence,"
which CLT claims to facilitate. Because there is no such agreement, students may
be seen to be in possession of "communicative competence" without being able to
make full or even adequate use of the language. That individuals are proficient in a
language does not necessarily entail that they can make full use of that language,
which can limit an individual's potential with that language, especially if that
language is an endangered language. That criticism largely has to do with the fact
21
that CLT is often highly praised and is popular though it may not necessarily be
the best method of language teaching.

Ridge also notes that CLT has nonspecific requirements of its teachers, as
there is no completely standard definition of what CLT is, which is especially true
for the teaching of grammar, the formal rules governing the standardized version of
the language in question. Some critics of CLT suggest that the method does not put
enough emphasis on the teaching of grammar and instead allows students to
produce utterances, despite being grammatically incorrect, as long as the
interlocutor can get some meaning from them.

Stephen Bax's critique of CLT has to do with the context of its

implementation. Bax asserts that many researchers associate the use of CLT
techniques with modernity and so the lack of CLT techniques as a lack of
modernism. That way, those researchers consider teachers or school systems that
fail to use CLT techniques as outdated and suggest that their students learn the
target language "in spite of" the absence of CLT techniques, as if CLT were the
only way to learn a language, and everyone who fails to implement its techniques
is ignorant and cannot teach the target language.

The theories underlying the audiolingual method and the situational

language teaching were widely criticized during the 1960s. Noam Chomsky, for
instance, rejected the structuralist view of language and demonstrated that there is
a distinction between performance and competence. The goal of the linguist is to
study the linguistic competence native speakers are endowed with. He also
showed, rightly, that structuralism and behaviorism were unable to account for one
fundamental aspect of language, namely the creativity and uniqueness of
individual sentences.

22
 References
1. Nunan, David (1991-01-01). "Communicative Tasks and the Language
Curriculum". TESOL Quarterly. 25 (2): 279–295.
2. J., Savignon, Sandra (1997-01-01). Communicative competence : theory and
classroom practice : texts and contexts in second language learning. McGraw-
Hill.

3. Bax, Stephen (2003-07-01). "The end of CLT: a context approach to language

teaching". ELT Journal. 57 (3): 278–287.

4. Littlewood, William. Communicative language teaching: An introduction.

Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 541-545

5. Mitchell, Rosamond (1988). Communicative Language Teaching in Practice.

Great Britain: Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research.
pp. 23–24, 64–68.

6. Richards, Jack C. Communicative language teaching today. SEAMEO Regional

Language Centre, 2005.

7. Richards, Jack; Rodgers, Theodore (2014). Approaches and Methods in

Language Teaching (3nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 23–
24, 84–85.

8. CANALE, M.; SWAIN, M. (1980-03-01). "Theoretical Bases of

Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing".
Applied Linguistics. I (1): 1–47.

9. Savignon, Sandra J. (1987-09-01). "Communicative language teaching". Theory

into Practice. 26 (4): 235–242.

10. Bachman, Lyle (1990). Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing.

Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 84–92.

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11. Brandl, Klaus (2007). Communicative Language Teaching in Action: Putting
Principles to Work. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Phil Miller. pp. 284–297.

12. Richards, Jack (2006). Communicative Language Teaching Today. USA:

Cambridge University Press. pp. 14–21.

13. Swan, Michael (1985-01-01). "A critical look at the Communicative Approach
(1)". ELT Journal. 39 (1): 2–12.

14. Swan, Michael (1985-04-01). "A Critical look at the Communicative

Approach (2)". ELT Journal. 39 (2): 76–87.

15. Ridge, Elaine (1992). "Communicative language teaching: Time for review?"

16. Stokes, S. (2005). “Visual Literacy in Teaching and Learning: A Literature

Perspective”.
17. Bachman, Lyle (1990). Fundamental considerations in language testing.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

18. Canale, M.; Swain, M. (1980). "Theoretical bases of communicative

approaches to second language teaching and testing" (PDF). Applied Linguistics
(1): 1–47. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 2, 2013. Retrieved
September 29, 2013.

19. Færch, C., & Kasper, G. (1983). Strategies in interlanguage communication.

London: Longman.

20. Mitchell, Rosamond (1994). "The communicative approach to language

teaching". In Swarbick, Ann (ed.). Teaching Modern Languages. New York:
Routledge. pp. 33–42.

21. Richards, Jack C.; Rodgers, Theodore S. (2014). Approaches and Methods in
Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University
Press.

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Appendix
A child is able to produce an infinite number of sentences that s/he has
never encountered. This makes the factors of imitation, repetition, and habit
formation weak arguments to account for any language learning theory.

Acquiring or learning?

Stephen Krashen later advocated in his language learning theory that there
should be a distinction between learning and acquiring. He sees acquisition as the
basic process involved in developing language proficiency and distinguishes this
process from learning. Acquisition is an unconscious process that involves the
naturalistic development of language proficiency while learning is the conscious
internalization of the rules of language. It results in explicit knowledge about the
forms of language and the ability to verbalize this knowledge. Learning according
to Krashen can not lead to acquisition.

Syllabus

Communicative language teaching syllabus organizes the teaching

according to the notional and functional categories of language rather than
according to its structures.It concentrates on the following:

 Interactions: using language to communicate,

 Tasks: using language to perform meaningful tasks
 Learner: putting the learner’s interests, needs in the forefront.

Merits of CLT

There are many advantages in teaching according to the communicative

approach:

 CLT is a holistic approach. It doesn’t focus only on the traditional structural

syllabus. It takes into consideration communicative dimension of language.

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Appendix

 CLT provides vitality and motivation within the classroom.

 CLT is a learner centered approach. It capitalizes on the interests and needs
of the learner.
 In a world where communication of information and information technology
have broken new considerable ground, CLT can play an important role in
education.

Criticism

 Notional syllabus was criticized as merely replacing one kind of list, namely
a list of grammatical structures, with another list of notions and functions.
 The various categories of language functions are overlapping and not
systematically graded like the structures of the language.
 The communicative approach focuses on the use of language in everyday
situations, or the functional aspects of language, and less on the formal
structures. There must be a certain balance between the two.It gives priority to
meanings and rules of use rather than to grammar and rules of structure. Such
concentration on language behavior may result in negative consequences in the
sense that important structures and rules would be left out.
 The approach relies extensively on the functional-notational syllabus which
places heavy demands on the learners.
 A major principle underlying this approach is its emphasis on learners’
needs and interests. This implies that every teacher should modify the syllabus
to fit the needs of the learners.
 The requirements are difficult. Not all classrooms can allow for group work
activities and for teaching aids and materials.

In spite of its critics, CLT has gained widespread acceptance in the world
of language study. CLT can succeed, as long as teachers don’t completely reject

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Appendix

the need for the structure provided by grammar. Teachers must strive for
moderation and shouldn’t neglect the merits of other methods. CLT, in the hands
of a balanced teacher, can bring new life and joy to the classroom. Its vitality
makes it an important contributor to language learning approaches.

Talk the Talk

In an ESL classroom that uses the CLT method, students do most of the
talking. This enables students to practice communicating in English, continuously
talking with each other, rather than listening to an instructor's lecture. ESL teachers
can encourage students to interact with each other with minimal direct correction.
The intent behind the communicative approach to speaking is to have students
practice English without fear of awkwardness or making mistakes when learning a
new language.

Instead of interrupting or correcting students when they make mistakes,

instructors who utilize the CLT approach might use indirect feedback or
conversational redirections that do not interrupt a conversation. They might reform
faulty grammar (e.g., "his shoes is old" can be answered with, "yes, his shoes ARE
old") to give students clues for further conversation. However, variables such as
age and proficiency can influence how effective indirect and direct feedback are in
classrooms that utilize the CLT approach.

Real-Life Scenarios

Encouraging meaningful interactions, ESL teachers can utilize a wide

variety of individualized activities and meaningful tasks. Students might engage in
role-playing based on real-life scenarios such as discussing hobbies and popular
culture, negotiating prices when shopping or describing the plot of a book or movie
they have recently enjoyed. The focus is on utilizing real-world situations to allow

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Appendix

students to practice using language for context and content rather than learning
about grammatical rules and structure. Techniques include modeling, repetition,
pair and group work to help students develop communicative competencies.

Working Together

CLT activities are most effective when they allow students to work
together in pairs or groups. This mimics realistic communication that encourages
fluency over grammatical competence. Research has found ESL students usually
feel more confident and comfortable practicing their language skills and ideas
when working with other students. Since they are working with fellow English
Language Learners (ELLs), they often feel safer communicating without fear of
making mistakes.

Grouping and pairing students also encourages engagement with in-class

activities. For example, one might have students work together to play a game
where they must describe an object to each other in English so their peers can
guess what that object is. Having students work together not only encourages them
to engage with the language meaningfully, but it also holds the potential to gamify
the ESL classroom and incentivize active participation.

FluentU offers a helpful list of similar "outspoken" activities that

incentivize meaningful communication between classmates, ranging from reverse
charades games to mock television interviews.

Integrate Reading, Writing and Speaking

However, studies have found that these pairing and grouping

conversational techniques alone are not enough to promote active participation in
ESL classrooms. Instructors utilizing the CLT approach might also include work

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Appendix

reading, writing and listening, as these skills are also vital to ELLs' development as
English language speakers.

The integrated-skills approach to CLT brings these major language talents

together in activities. For instance, teachers might ask students to watch a video
online (listening), post their opinion about it in the comment section (writing) and
describe others' opinions from the comments section (reading). Activities that
integrate multiple language skills can enhance communication-based ESL
education by offering students the chance to practice multiple skills while also
offering teachers a chance to demonstrate best practices in each of these modes.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach that aims to

achieve communicative rather than linguistic competence through learner
interaction. Born in the 1980s, this strategy to language teaching is based on the
philosophy that, in order to learn a language, one must practice using that language
to communicate meaning to others.

Teachers who use the CLT approach in English as a Second Language

(ESL) classrooms encourage students to use English. To promote meaningful
language use, ESL teachers can utilize activities that encourage students to speak
in the performance of meaningful tasks. Interaction is both the method and the goal
of ESL education.

Many proponents of Communicative Language Teaching have advocated

the use of "authentic," "from-life" materials in the classroom. These might include
language-based realia, such as signs, magazines, advertisements, and newspapers,
or graphic and visual sources around which communicative activities can he built,
such as maps, pictures, symbols, graphs, and charts. Different kinds of objects can
be used to support communicative exercises, such as a plastic model to assemble
from directions.
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