unit-2-communicative-principles-and-taskbased-language-teaching.ppt

1、UNIT 2,Communicative Principles and Task-based Language Teaching,Aims of the unit,After learning the unit, you should be able to answer the following questions: 1. How is language learned in classrooms different from language used in real life? 2. What is communicative competence? 3. What are the im

2、plications of CLT to teaching and learning? 4. What are the main features of communicative activities? 5. What is Task-based Language Teaching? 6. How is Task-based Language Teaching different from PPP? 7. Are there limitations of CLT and TBLT?,If you are a teacher, how can you teach the following s

3、entence to your students?,Have you had your lunch?,The traditional teaching steps: Step 1 Teacher: Read the sentence, and then get the students to read the sentence after the teacher. Step 2 Teacher: Explain the meaning and translate the sentence into Chinese. Step 3 Teacher: Explain the grammatical

4、 structure or rules and tell the students to be clear and remember the tense used in the sentence: The present perfect tense, and the formation of this kind of tense (have + p.p), and the form of question and negation (Have/has+ subj.; Subj.+ have/ has + not), and their abbreviation: havent/hasnt. S

5、tep 4 Teacher: give more examples, such as: Have you had your breakfast? Answer: Yes, I have / No, I havent Step 5 Students: do pattern drills-read the examples aloud again and again. Step 6 Students: Do some written exercises.,In this way, the structure of the sentence will be learned and remembere

6、d, and some of the students may be able to compose grammatically correct sentences, e.g. Have you had your supper? Yes, I have. /No I havent.,But when two Chinese people meet in real life, Xiao Li says to Lao Wang: Have you had your lunch?,Li means (function): A question: ask if Wang has eaten the m

7、eal or not. Greeting: Hello. Invitation: Invite Wang to a meal (Come, its my treat) Suggestion: You should have your lunch.,For Chinese, its a usual informal greeting, and it has the same function as “Hello”. And whether the answer is “yes” or “no”, its also a greeting. But for English, it often mea

8、ns an invitation (Are you inviting me?) or a formal question (Why do you ask me such a personal question?). He will feel confused if the Chinese moves away without waiting for the answer.,So in communication, a certain sentence can be understood very differently in different situations. For students

9、, knowing how to make correct sentences is only one part of language learning. In real communication, its functional value can be more important. Students have to use language in real communication so as to build up the relationship between the communicative functions and the sentence structure.,1.

10、Language use in real life vs. traditional pedagogy,1) The ultimate goal of foreign language teaching 2) What and how to teach? 3) A big gap between language use in real life vs. traditional pedagogy Task 1 Ss brainstorm and presentation Teachers sum up of difference of language use in real life vs.

11、traditional pedagogy:,Activity 1: Compare with a partner and explain by discussing the following questions ：,Language use in real life vs. traditional pedagogy,the Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching,Grammar Translation,Direct Method,The Audio-lingual Method,Total Physical Response,2. Co

12、mmunicative competence 1) Solution: the adoption of communicative language teaching 2) The goal of CLT: develop students communicative competence, which includes both the knowledge about the language and the knowledge about how to use the language appropriately in communicative situations. Task 2 St

13、udents discussion and presentation Teachers sum up,Chomskys linguistic competence,the tacit knowledge of language structure and the ability to use this knowledge to understand and produce language. Competence: knowledge of the language system Chomskys theory: competence = knowledge of the language s

14、ystem= grammatical knowledge,Hymess communicative competence,“rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless”. Besides grammatical rules, language use is governed by rules of use, which ensure that the desired or intended functions are performed and the language used is appropriate

15、 to the context.,Hymess communicative competence includes four aspects,knowing whether or not something is formally possible which is roughly equivalent to Chomskys linguistic competence; (grammatically acceptable) Knowing whether something is understandable to human beings; (understandable) Knowing

16、 whether something is in line with social norms; (social norms)Knowing whether or not something is in fact done: Do people actually use language this way? Communicative competence includes knowledge of what to say, when, how, where, and to whom. (actual use),Hedges five components of communicative c

17、ompetence,Linguistic competence - knowledge of the language itself, its form and meaning Pragmatic competence - the appropriate use of language in social context Discourse competence - ones ability to create coherent written text or conversation and the ability to understand them (ability to express

18、 or to understand a topic logically and coherently by effectively employing or comprehending the cohesive markers used in the discourse /ability to initiate, develop, enter, interrupt, check, or confirm in a conversation),Strategic competence - strategies one employs when there is communication brea

19、kdown due to lack of resources Fluency- ones ability to link units of speech together with facility and without strain or inappropriate slowness or undue hesitation （Recent research suggests that teaching learners lexical phrases or chunks of language, also termed prefabricated language, can help le

20、arners produce the language more fluently because they can be easily retrieved from memory.）,3. Implications for teaching and learning,Linguistic competence Teachers need to help learners -achieve accuracy in the grammatical forms of the language; -pronounce the forms accurately; -use stress, rhythm

21、, and intonation to express meaning; -build a range of vocabulary; -learn the script and spelling rules; -achieve accuracy in syntax and word formation.,Pragmatic competence Teachers need to help learners -learn the relationship between grammatical forms and functions; -use stress and intonation to

22、express attitude and emotion; -learn the scale of formality; -understand and use emotive tone; -use the grammatical rules of language; -select language forms appropriate to topic, listener, or setting, etc.,Discourse competence Teachers need to help learners -take longer turns, use discourse markers

23、 and open and close conversations; -appreciate and be able to produce contextualised written texts in a variety of genres; -be able to use cohesive devices in reading and writing texts; -be able to cope with authentic texts.,Strategic competence Teachers need to enable learners -to take risks in usi

24、ng the language; -to use a range of communicative strategies; -to learn the language needed to engage in some of these strategies, e.g. What do you call a thing that/person who,Fluency Teachers need to help learners -deal with the information gap of real discourse; -process language and respond appr

25、opriately with a degree of ease; -be able to respond with reasonable speed in real time”.,Introduction,Communicative language teaching began in Britain in the 1960s as a replacement to Situational Language Teaching. This was partly in response to Chomskys criticisms of structural theories of languag

26、e and partly based on the theories of British functional linguistics, as well as American sociolinguists.,The goal of communicative language approaches is to create a realistic context for language acquisition in the classroom. The focus is on functional language usage and the ability to learners to

27、 express their own ideas, feelings, attitudes, desires and needs.,Open ended questioning and problem-solving activities and exchanges of personal information are utilized as the primary means of communication. Students usually work with authentic materials in small groups on communication activities

28、, during which they receive practice in negotiating meaning.,This method is learner-centered and emphasizes communication and real-life situations. The role of the instructor in CLT is quite different from traditional teaching methods. In the traditional classroom, the teacher is in charge and contr

29、ols the learning. In CLT the teacher serves as more of a facilitator, allowing students to be in charge of their own learning.,4. Principles of communicative language teaching suggested by Richard and Rodgers,Communication principle: Activities that involve real communication promote learning. Task

30、principle: activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning. Meaningfulness principle: Language that is meaningful to the learning supports the learning process.,Two versions of CLT: weak repetition; answering questions; producing response based on given cues;

31、Retelling Activities involve use of language in a completely different way from how language is used in reality.,Redefinition of language skills,Listening and speaking skills: Redefinition of listening and speaking in terms of the real communicative use - students should have the chance to listen to

32、 and produce what is meaningful, authentic, unpredictable, and creative if possible. Listening not only as the counterpart of speaking but as an individual skill with its own objectives,The reading skill,The reading skill is redefined to focus on the purpose of reading rather than on learning langua

33、ge. In CLT, reading is to extract meaning or information and the learning of language facilitate such a process. Different skills used for different purposes: skimming, scanning, etc.,The writing skill,In CLT, the writing skill has been expanded to focus on its communicative goals as well. Students

34、should practice writing what people write in everyday life and writing in the way people write in reality. Students should have the chance to write to express their own feelings or describe their own experiences, thus making the practice of writing meaningful and authentic.,CLT and the teaching of l

35、anguage skills,Summary Students should have opportunities to listen to and produce what is meaningful, authentic, unpredictable and creative if possible; In CLT reading is to extract meaning or information and the learning of grammar and vocabulary is to facilitate such a process; Students should ha

36、ve the chance to write to express their own feelings or describe their own experience.,Requirements for the teacher: - a high level of communicative competence. It requires that the teacher develops a wider range of skills beyond the presentation and explanation of grammatical structures (Hedge, 200

37、0). In a communicative classroom, a great deal of time is spent on managing learning, setting up activities, organising resources, guiding students in pair/group work. Task 6 Ss discussion and presentation,6. Features of communicative language teaching,1) Functional communicative activities Identify

38、ing pictures Discovering identical pairs Discovering sequence or locations Discovering missing information Discovering missing features Discovering “secrets” Communicating patterns and pictures Communicative models Discovering differences Following directions Reconstructing story-sequences Pooling i

39、nformation to solve a problem,Communicative activities,Communicative activities introduced by Littlewood (1981) in his classic book Communicative Language Teaching:,2) Social interaction activities,Role-playing through cued dialogues Role-playing through cues and information Role-playing through sit

40、uation and goals Role-playing through debate and discussion Large-scale simulation activities improvisation Task 7 Ss discussion and presentation,How to evaluate communicative classroom activities?,Rod Ellis (1990) six criteria for communicative activities Communicative purpose: The activity must in

41、volve the students in performing a real communicative purpose rather than just practicing language for its own sake. In order for this to occur there must be some kinds of “information gap” that students seek to bridge when they are communicating. Communicative desire: The activity must create a des

42、ire to communicate in the students. That is, even if communication is forced on the students, they must feel a real need to communicate.,How to evaluate communicative classroom activities?,Content, not form: When the students are doing the activity, they must be concentrating on what they are saying

43、, not how they say it. They must have some “message” that they want to communicate. Variety of language: The activity must involve the students in using a variety of language, not just one specific language form. The students should feel free to improvise, using whatever resources they choose.,How t

44、o evaluate communicative classroom activities?,No teacher intervention: The activity must be designed to be done by the students working by themselves rather that with the teacher. The activity should not involve the teacher correcting or evaluating how the students do the activity, although it coul

45、d involve some evaluation of the final “product” of the activity when the activity is over. This assessment should be based on whether the students have achieved their communicative purpose, not whether the language they used was correct.,No material control: The activity should not be designed to c

46、ontrol what language the students should use. The choice about what language to use should rest with the students. The value of an activity should be judged according to what the activity is aimed at in what context the activity is used. Task 8,Some main features of communicative activities (Ellis 1

47、990),Summary,Features of CLT: i. authentic and creative ii. meaning rather than form iii. relevant to the needsiv. task-based teachingv. functional approach,7. Task-based language teaching (TBLT),A further development of CLT: same belief,A task-based approach sees the language process as one of lear

48、ning through doing - it is primarily engaging in meaning that the learners system is encouraged to develop. ( Long and Crooks 1993),It stresses the importance to combine form-focused teaching with communication-focused teaching.,Why do we use TBLT?,The tasks will engage students, challenge them, and

49、 allow for contingent interaction.,Four conditions of language learning,Exposure ( rich, comprehensible input, language in use) Use ( of the language to do things, exchange meanings) Motivation ( to process and use the exposure: listen speak and write it) Instruction ( chances to focus on form ),The

50、 Task-based Approach,The task-based approach aims at providing opportunities for the learners to experiment with and explore both spoken and written language through learning activities which are designed to engage learners in the authentic, practical and functional use of language for meaningful pu

51、rposes.,The Task-based Approach,Task -based Learning offers an alternative for language teachers. In a task-based lesson the teacher doesnt pre-determine what language will be studied, the lesson is based around the completion of a central task and the language studied is determined by what happens

52、as the students complete it.,The Task-based Approach,So it aims to provide learners with a natural context for language useAs learners work to complete a task，they have abundant opportunity to interactSuch interaction is thought to facilitate language acquisition as learners have to work to understa

53、nd each other and to express their own meaningBy so doing，they have to check to see if they have comprehended correctly and，at times， they have to seek clarification,The Task-based Approach,By interacting with others，they get to listen to language which may be beyond their present ability，but which

54、may be assimilated into their knowledge of the target language for use at a later time Task presented in the form of a problem-solving negotiation between knowledge that the learner holds and new knowledge,Definitions of a task,Although TBLT has been around for about two decades, in the existing lit

55、erature there is virtually no generally accepted definition of task. As TBLT evolved and developed, different researchers have defined TBLT from different perspectives.,A task is “a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some reward. Thus examples of tasks include painting

56、 a fence, dressing a child. In other words, by task is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play and in between”. - Long (1985) A task is an activity which require learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought, and which a

57、llows teachers to control and regulate that process. - Prabhu (1987) a piece of classroom work which involve learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than on form. -Nunan (1989),Two types o

58、f tasks: 1) real-world tasks (the hundred and one things people do in everyday life and work) 2) pedagogical tasks ( things students are asked to do in the classroom) They are not contradictory, but complementary, each emphasizing certain aspects. On the one hand, if we are talking about language le

59、arning tasks, they cannot be a hundred percent real. After all, most activities in the classroom are designed with a purpose of learning and practicing the language in question. On the other hand, pedagogical tasks can be designed in such a way that they have a varying degree of resemblance to real-world thing.,In later definitions, it seems th