comparasion-of-CLT-and-TBLT.doc

张亚萌 Comparison of Communicative Language Teaching and Tasked-base Language Teaching13010701 15 樊旋There are many different approaches to teaching foreign languages. In my paper, l will compare these two teaching methods- Communicative Language Teaching and Tasked-base Language Teaching. These two method is very popular in EFL. Communicative Language Teaching(CLT) Although it takes more effort and creativity on the part of the instructor, CLT is a much more effective tool in teaching foreign language in the classroom. In CLT, the instructor generally teaches the second language entirely in the foreign language, even at the early levels of learning. The students communicate to each other and the instructor using meaningful sentences, and grammar instruction is almost never explicitly taught, instead it is implicitly taught through activities which involve games, cultural artifacts, or props. The students are much more involved in CLT. With communication at the forefront of learning, the student, after several weeks, will already have an astounding ability to converse in the second language.This method is learner-centered and emphasizes communication and real-life situations. Language is used for communication. For this reason CLT makes use of communication to teach languages. The role of the instructor in CLT is quite different from traditional teaching methods.The teachers role in CLT: In the traditional classroom the teacher is in charge and controls the learning. In CLT the teacher serves as more of a facilitator allowing students to be in charge of their own learning. The teacher still sets up exercises and gives direction to the class but the students do much more speaking than in a traditional classroom. This responsibility to participate can often lead to an increased sense of confidence in using the language. The Students role in CLT: In CLT students practice everyday situations that involve communication such as asking someone for the time. Social ContextIn CLT students learn about language in social contexts such as the difference between speaking with an elder and a peer. In these exercises the goal is for the student to communicate his or her needs and thoughts without worrying about having perfect grammar. The advantages of CLT: Firstly, it allows learners to use the target language in meaningful contexts, thus bringing the real world into the classroom. Even at the Beginner level students want to learn English to communicate with people in their community. They want to be able to make an appointment with their GP in person or on the phone, give reasons for ailments, speak to their childrens teachers, ask for information or advice and to be able to speak with people in the community.Secondly, the advantage is that this approach can be adapted to any level ranging from Pre-Beginner to Advanced and is suitable for classes comprising students with different linguistic backgrounds and varying levels of communicative competence, thus allowing learners to interact with each according to their level of proficiency Thirdly, the advantage is that the CLT approach enables the teacher to step back and take on the role of facilitator. The teacher is able to observe individual learning through various tasks and is able to determine and respond to students need. Fourthly, Communicative Language Teaching offers many areas and resources for the student, which the more outdated methods fail to offer. By using Communicative Language Teaching in the classroom, the students will feel more involved in the learning process. They will be more motivated, and will potentially learn more of the language at large, as opposed to using a more outdated method.Disadvantages of CLT:The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach does not cater to learners who come from cultures with traditional educational systems and different learning styles. CLT does not focus on error correction. This is a disadvantage as learners are forced to practice with classmates who are not fluent in English. They do not like talking with students who make mistakes. They want to learn to say things correctly and be corrected by the teacher whenever they make an error. They find it frustrating to chat with learners from different countries because they find their accent, pronunciation and speech unintelligible. These students cannot see the value of CLT, become de-motivated and are often reluctant to participate in activities. Yet when these same students are given a role- play situation which relates to a meaningful context, they struggle because they cannot do it. Another disadvantage is that the CLT approach focuses on fluency but not accuracy. The approach does not focus on error reduction but instead creates a situation where learners are left using their own devices to solve their communication problems. Thus they may produce incoherent, grammatically incorrect sentences. The weaker learners who struggle and cannot use the target language continue to make mistakes and eventually give up. The stronger students tend to lose patience with the weaker learners and hesitate to participate because they do not see the benefit. They dont feel challenged. During pair and group work activities teachers focus on accuracy through error correction because learners need to understand their mistakes. If errors are not corrected at this level, mistakes soon fossilize, causing problems with intelligibility. Through error correction, students become more aware of their weaknesses and soon start to listen and correct each other.In general speaking, I like this approach; it gives us an opportunity to talk more.Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) is widely promoted in English language teaching nowadays. Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) is, in fact, a further development of Communicative Language Teaching. It shares the same beliefs, as language should be learned as close as possible to how it is used in real life. However, it has stressed importance combine form-focused teaching with communication-focused teaching. Teacher roles in TBLT:Facilitator: In TBLT lessons, the teacher is generally a facilitator, always keeping the key conditions for learning in mind. Facilitating learning involves balancing the amount of exposure and use of language, and ensuring they are both of suitable quality. Organizer: In the TBLT framework, most of the emphasis is on learners doing things, often in pairs or groups, using language to achieve the task outcomes and guided by the teacher. The teacher is involved in setting tasks up, ensuring that learners understand and get on with them, and drawing them to a close. Although learners do tasks independently, the teacher still has overall control and the power to stop everything if necessary. Language guide: The part the teacher plays during each component of the task framework also varies according to its aim. At the end of the framework, where the focus turns to language form the teacher acts as language guide. Course guide: In a broader sense, the teacher is also the course guide, explaining to learners the overall objectives of the course and how the components of the task framework can achieve these. The role of students in TBLT: A number of specific roles for learners are assumed in current proposals for TBT. In TBLT, students need to be creative, flexible and independent. In class, they play the role of group participants, monitors and sometimes risk-takers and innovators. They are required to create and interpret messages for which they lack full linguistic resources and prior experience. The advantages of TBLT：First, TBLT can increase college students level of motivation to learn English. Compared to students in junior grades, students in the college are more willing to learn practical English because they are on the point of stepping into society. Students in college prefer to learn knowledge connected with their everyday life rather than learn fixed or obsolete grammatical articles from a text book because they consider grammar to be no practical help to them.Second, with their different life experiences, college students can benefit each other in language acquisition by adopting TBLT. Students in colleges are usually more than eighteen years old, and they come from all over China, even the world. Different backgrounds and abundant experiences make them complete their tasks according different ways of thinking. Specifically, when students exchange information which in outside their partners experience, they can create more ideas and share more varied topics than students in junior grades during the process of fulfilling their tasks. Third, TBLT benefits college students in exams. Some people doubt that whether TBLT helps students in their exams because it mainly practices students ability to communicate appropriately rather than on grammar which is generally required in Chinese exams. However, unlike exams for other grades, college exams emphasize meanings rather than correct and accurate grammar and lexis.Although TBLT has the above advantages in this teaching environment, it inevitably has drawbacks.The disadvantages of TBLT First, anxiety is a big problem in Chinese college English classroom which use the TBLT methodology. In the task-cycle phase, students are required to communicate with their classmates. College students are all adults and they are more likely to consider that it is a matter of shame if they perform badly in front of their peers than students would in junior grades. Second, the size of English classes in Chinese college is a problem for the implementation of TBLT when there are group tasks to be done. There are sometimes more than a hundred students in a single class because students in the same grade gather together. So it is hard to divide students into groups or pairs. On one hand, each student gets little chance to speak if the group is large because tasks are usually time-limited. On the other hand, it is difficult for the teacher to walk around and monitor all the students in order to give feedback to each group if there were lots of small groups.Third, TBLT is too demanding for many English teachers in Chinese colleges. Teachers who are not native speakers of English find that it is difficult for them to implement TBLT in the college classroom. It is argued that because of shift in teachers role in this kind of communicative class, the burden on teacher is lightened. However, Teachers actually take the roles of designer, motivator, facilitator, intruder, evaluator as the tasks precede TBLT brings add to their burden both before class and in class.As regards TBLT, there also some potential constraints that teachers need to know. The first is that it may not be effective for presenting new language items. The second constraint is time as teachers have to prepare task-based activities very carefully. The third is the culture of learning. Some students may find it difficult to adapt to TBLT. The fourth is level of difficulty. Students may find task-based learning quite difficult if they do not have sufficient linguistic resources to handle holistic communication.Each method has its merits