Chapter 14 Communicative Language Teaching

1、Chapter 14 Communicative Language TeachingBackgroundvIn 1960s, just as Audiolingual Method was rejected, British approach, Situational Language Teaching met with criticism for teaching a language only by practicing basic structures in meaningful situation-based activities.Responses to criticism1. Am

2、erican linguist Moam Chomsky (1928-) in his work Syntactic Structures (1957) demonstrated that the current standard structural theories of language were incapable of accounting for the fundamental characteristic of languagethe creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences.2. British linguists su

3、ch as Christopher Candlin and Widdowson who drew on the work of British functional linguistics, American work in sociolinguistics and work in philosophy, saw the need to focus in language teaching on communicative proficiency. 3. The changing educational realities in Europe:vInterdependence of Europ

4、ean countries;vA regional organization for cultural and educational cooperation, Council of Europe, was established.vIt intends to promote education, published materials and sponsor international conference for language teaching, for the purpose of developing alternative methods of language teaching

5、.vBritish linguist D. A. Wilkins (1972) in a preliminary document defined and analyzed functional or communicative language and its meanings: notional categories and categories of communicative function.vLater, it was revised into a book called Notional SyllabusesDevelopmentvThose previous work on t

6、he theoretical basis for a communicative or functional approach to language teaching, the rapid application of the ideas by textbooks, and the equally rapid acceptance of the principles by teachers and curriculum centers and governments, helped to developed what referred to as the Communicative Appr

7、oach, or simply Communicative Language Teaching, or even notional functional approach and functional approach.ExpansionvBeginning as British innovation in 1960s and expanded in the mid-1970s.vBoth American and British proponents see it as an approach.vAims: To make communicative competence the goal

8、of language teaching, andTo develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills.Characteristics of CLTvComprehensiveness: no single text or authority on it, nor any single model that is universally accepted as authoritative.Little more than an integration of grammatical and functional te

9、aching.Using procedures where learners work in pairs or groups employing available language resources in problem-solving tasks.Yalden (1983) discusses 6 CLT design alternatives.Howatt distinguishes between a “weak” version learning to use, and a “strong” version using English to learn it.CLT and tra

10、ditional methods vRead Page 156-57, and you can find out the differences between CLT and traditional methods in every possible aspects.The Effect of CLTvWidely accepted.vInterpreted in varied ways:Savignon (1983) learning through conversationsMontaigne (1983) “Without methods, without a book, withou

11、t grammar or rules, without a whip and without tears, I learned”“Learning by doing” or “the experience approach”.vDirect rather than delayed practice of communicative acts.vLearner-centered and experience-based view of language learning.Approach: Theory of language Theory of language as communicatio

12、n. vHymes communicative competence (1972) The goal of LT is to develop “communicative competence”, to contrast with Chomskys “linguistic competence”. In Hymes view CC includes both knowledge and ability for language use with respect to:Sth. formally possibleSth. feasibleSth. appropriateSth. is entai

13、led in what is performedvHallidays functional account of language use (1970) “Linguistics is concerned with the description of speech acts or texts, since only through the study of language in use are all the functions of language, and therefore all components of meaning brought into focus.” Hs theo

14、ry of the functions of language: The instrumental function; The regulatory function;The interactional function; The personal function;The heuristic function; The imaginative function;The representational function vLearning a SL means acquiring linguistic means to perform different kinds of functions

15、.vHenry Widdowson in his Teaching Language as Communication (1978) focused on the communicative acts underlying the ability to sue language for different purposes.vCanale and Swain (1980) identified four dimensions of communicative competence:Grammatical competence what is linguistically possible;So

16、ciolinguistic competence understanding of social contexts;Discourse competence interpretation of message, and meaning in a coherent discourse or text;Strategic competence strategies communicators use to initiate, terminate, maintain, repair, and redirect communication. vTo sum up, CLT has a rich the

17、oretical basis, viewing language as the following:Language is a system for the expression of meaning.The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.The primary units of language are not merely its grammat

18、ical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.Approach: Theory of learningvLittle has been written about Learning theory of CLT, but in some practices, some elements are found:The communication principle: activities that involve real

19、 communication promote learning.The task principle: activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning.The meaningfulness principle: language that is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process.vThese principles mainly address the conditions needed to

20、 promote SL learning, rather than the processes of language acquisition. Recent accounts of theory of learning vTheory of language learning processes:Savignon (1983) surveys SLA research as a source of learning theory and considers the role of linguistic, social, cognitive, and individual variables

21、in language acquisition.Krashen sees acquisition as the basic process of developing language proficiency.Johnson (1984) and Littlewood (1984) consider a skill-learning model of learning, by which, the acquisition of communicative competence in a language is an example of skill development, involving

22、 both a cognitive and a behavioral aspect.Design: ObjectivesvGeneral objectives:An integrative and content level language as a means of expression;A linguistic and instrumental level language as a semiotic system and an object of learning;An affective level of interpersonal relationships and conduct

23、 language as a means of expressing values and judgments about oneself and others;A level of individual learning needs remedial learning based on error analysis;A general educational level of extra-linguistic goals language learning within the school curriculum.vParticular objectives: language teachi

24、ng will reflect the particular needs of the target learners such as in the domains ofReadingWritingListening or Speaking. Each of them can be approached from its own communicative perspective, reflecting specific aspects learners communicative needs. Design: The syllabusvNotional syllabus (Wilkins 1

25、976) specifies semantic-grammatical categories (e.g. frequency, motion, location) and the categories of communicative function:ObjectivesSituations learners need to use a FLFunctions language is needed forNotions in communicationVocabulary and grammar. Later it was published as Threshold Level Engli

26、sh.vWilkinss original notional syllabus met with criticism for only partial and imprecise description of semantic and pragmatic rules, lacking specification of procedures of applying the rules in communicative activities.vYalden (1983) described the major current communicative syllabus types:1. Stru

27、ctures plus functions; 2. Functional spiral around a structural core;3. structural, functional, instrumental;4. functional; 5. Notional; 6. interactional; task-based; 8. learner generated Current interest is in syllabus designs of 6-8, though specifications of organizing principles for them are not

28、fully accomplishedvThe Malaysian communicational syllabus (1975) is a good example looking to task specification and task organization as the appropriate criteria for syllabus.Three broad communicative objectivesTwenty-four more specific objectives based on need analysisLearning areas specified into

29、 outcome goals or productsA product is defined as comprehensible information, written, spoken, or presented in a nonlinguistic form, resulting from successful completion of tasks (See example on P. 75).vDiscussions of syllabus models continues in CLT literature.Design: Types of learning and teaching

30、 activitiesvIn classroom, types of activities focus on completing tasks mediated through language or negotiation of information and information sharing.vLittlewood (1981) distinguishes two major types of activities:“functional communication activities”: comparing sets of pictures, working out sequen

31、ce of events, discovering missing features in a map or picture“social interaction activities”: conversation and discussions, dialogues and role plays, simulations, skits, improvisations, and debates.Design: Learner rolesvDifferent learner roles in CLT than in traditional classroom: Negotiator and co

32、operator.No text, no grammar rules, no fixed classroom arrangement, and even no error correction.Learners interact primarily with each other rather than with teacher.Failed communication is a joint responsibility.Design: Teacher rolesvSeveral majors roles assumed for teachers in CLT:Facilitator: fac

33、ilitating the communication process between all participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and texts;Independent participant within the learning-process.vAs an organizer of resources and a resource himselfvAs a guide within the classroom procedures and a

34、ctivitiesvAs a researcher and learner vOther roles for teachers are:Needs analyst, counselor and group process manager.Design: The role of instructional materials Materials of three kinds have the primary role of promoting communicative language use.vText-based materials:Written around a largely structural syllabus.Containing visual cues, taped cues, pictures, and sentences fragments or information , or theme to initiate conversations, or pair work.vTask-based materials in