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COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
Karimova Mahliyoxon
Student of Andijan State Foreign Language Institute
Abstract: Today, communities are increasingly facing rapid and profound
changes and tensions that affect the social, economic, and political aspects of life.
The role of education has also become questionable in the millennial era. A matter
of fact, 21 century education requires a gradual shift in curriculum construction
focusing on the transferable competencies that learners need to develop in
instructional settings. In today's knowledge-based, types of skills and competencies
that students need to gain are different from in the past. Emphasizing the
communicative competence is one of the most influential developments in language
education. The implementation of communicative activities in EFL/ESL classroom
prepares learners to use English in the world beyond based on their own needs,
interests and opportunities.
Keywords: communicative competence, communicative approach, social
language, task-based language learning, text-based teaching.
The role and influence of English today are gaining a higher speed in the
world. The main factors for this phenomenon include expanding communication
with the world after gaining independence and increasing speed and scope of
information exchange in the global village. The dominant position in the internet
space by the language of the published content is firmly held by English, which is
a strong motivation to learn English for those who wish to promote their global
competencies [1;19]. A communicative approach is an approach which is
worldwide known and established it has established itself in many parts of the
world as a way of teaching languages, especially English. It is the approach that
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has prevailed in English Language Teaching over the past 50 years, and it is still
used nowadays [2;34].
The origins of the Communicative Approach are to be found in the late 1960s
and early 1970s. The communicative approach is the product of some linguists and
educators who had grown dissatisfied with the previous two methods used for
foreign language teaching; the audio-lingual method and Grammar-translation
method. These great linguists and educators who contributed to the rise of this
worldwide used approach are Hymes, Chomsky, Wilkins, Van Ek and Alexander,
and the Council of Europe.
However, all these linguists and educators felt that students during those
years were not learning the language in the right way. They claimed that they did
not learn the 'whole language' and realistic language. Students did not know how
to communicate outside the classroom in real life situations, using the appropriate
social language. So far they were relying on the structures of language instead of
relying on functions and notions of language. This made them unable to
communicate in the culture of the language studied [3;90].
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.
Communicative language teaching can be understood as a set of principles
about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kinds of
classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and
learners in the classroom.
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Communicative competence includes the following aspects of language
knowledge:
Knowing how to use language for a range of different purposes and
functions;
Knowing how to vary our use of language according to the setting and the
participants;
Knowing how to produce and understand different types of texts;
Knowing how to maintain communication despite having limitations in one's
language knowledge.
So, Communicative Language Teaching is an approach to the teaching
foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate
goal of learning a language [4;94].
Principles of CLT:
In the CLT approach, the meaning is given prime importance. The main
focus of the approach is to make the learners able to understand the intention and
expression of the writers and speakers.
In this approach, it is believed that communicative functions are more
important rather than linguistic structures. Littlewood states that «one of the most
characteristics features of communicative language teaching is that it pays
systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language, combine
these into a more fully communicative view». Each language has a limited number
of sentence patterns. Mastering only those sentence patterns does not help the
learners to communicate in the target language. The learner needs to learn the
communication functions of those structures.
While using the CLT approach in teaching language, the target language is
used in the classroom. The target language is a vehicle for class room
communication, not just the object of study [1;56]. Because if the learners continue
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to use their native languages, they are not able to communicate in the target
language. It is believed that the native language should be used judiciously.
Appropriate use of language is emphasized rather than accuracy. Accuracy
comes at the later stage. It is believed that when the learners learn to use the
language appropriately accuracy comes automatically.
Language should be taught by integrating all language skills and not by only
one skill. It means communication approach is not limited to only speaking skill;
reading and writing skills should be developed.
Language cannot be learnt through rote memorization. It cannot be learnt in
isolation. It should be learnt through social interaction. To communicate in the
target language, there is a need to struggle with language. Richards and Rodgers
state that the target linguistic system will be learned best through the process of
struggling to communicate.
While using this approach, the major focus is to make the learner able to
communicate in the target language. Errors are tolerated by the teacher because
what is more important is to make them able to speak in the target language. The
teacher should not correct them during the activities in which they are using the
target language. The teacher can note the errors of the learners and make it correct
after the activities are over.
CLT approach provides opportunities to communicate in the target language
to the learners.
It encourages teacher-student and student-student interaction. It helps to
encourage the cooperative relationship among students. The teacher should give
work in a group or in pair which give opportunities to share the information among
them. It also helps to promote communication among them. Richards and Rodgers
state that students are expected to interact with other people, either in the flesh,
through pair and group work, or in their writings.
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CLT approach provides the opportunities to the learners not only about what
to say and but also about how to say.
The teacher should create situations which help to promote communication.
The teacher should teach them how language should be used in a social context.
The teacher should give activities such as role play which help the learners to learn
the language in social context.
Language teaching techniques should be designed in such a way that it
encourages the learners to use the target language. Functional aspects of language
should be given importance.
Dramas, role plays, games should be used in the classroom to promote real
communication.
-Students should be given opportunities to listen to language as it is used in
authentic communication. They may be coached on strategies for how to improve
their comprehension [8;98].
Today CLT can be seen as describing a set of core principles about language
learning and teaching, as summarized above, assumptions which can be applied in
different ways and which address different aspects of the processes of teaching and
learning. Some focus centrally on the input to the learning process. Thus content-
based teaching stresses that the content or subject matter of teaching drives the
whole language learning process. Some teaching proposals focus more directly on
instructional processes. Task-based instruction, for example, advocates the use of
specially designed instructional tasks as the basis of learning. Others, such as
competency-based instruction and text-based teaching, focus on the outcomes of
learning and use outcomes or products as the starting point in planning to teach.
Today CLT continues in its classic form as seen in the huge range of course
books and other teaching resources that cite CLT as the source of their
methodology. In addition, it has influenced many other language teaching
approaches that subscribe to a similar philosophy of language teaching.
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Communicative Language Teaching is an approach which provides an
opportunity to the learners to communicate in the target language. The use of the
functional aspect of language makes them able to communicate in the target
language in their day to day life. The activities which are used in CLT approaches
such as dramas, role plays, and games make learning enjoyable.
Generally, communicative language teaching makes use of authentic
material because it is important to give them the opportunity to understand how
language is actually used outside the classroom. Students are involved in real life
situations tasks that require communication. In this approach, the teacher sets up a
situation, in which students are likely to be involved in real life. In some activities,
the outcomes of them are unknown to the students. The result depends on their
reactions and responses. Thus, they will be kept motivated and they will be kept in
suspense until they finish the activity and see the clear outcome [6;11]
Furthermore, in a communicative language teaching class use the language
through communicative activities. Most of these exercises are completed through
pair and group work.
Those activities give students the opportunity to be involved in real or
realistic communication.
Normally those activities are fluency-based activities, such as role-plays,
games information gap activities, interviews [7;27].
The communicative approach supports that learning is more student centered
than teacher centered. A typical communicative language teaching lesson follows
a PPP model. The teacher may present some part of the lesson, and students
complete some exercises, but then students produce the language in freer activities
that help them to communicate. As a result, the student talk is increased, whereas
the teacher talk is decreased. The teacher establishes situations which promote
communication and he facilitates students' communication. During the activities,
he does not interrupt them, but he monitors their performance. Error correction is
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not immediate. If he notes a mistake and he realizes that he has to work on it, he
does it later during a more accuracy-based activity. However, the role of students
is to communicate by negotiating to mean. Even if their knowledge of the target
language is not complete, they still have to try and make themselves understood,
but also understand their classmates' intentions of communication.
The communicative approach is based on the idea that in order to learn a
second language successfully, you have to communicate real meaning. Thus, when
learners are involved in real communication, their natural strategies for language
acquisition will be active and used, and this will allow them to learn to use the
language.
References:
1.
Brandl, K. (2008). Communicative Language Teaching in Action, New
Jersey, Pearson Prentice Hall.
2.
Brumfit, C. J. (1984). Communicative methodology in language teaching:
The Roles of Fluency and Accuracy. Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press.
3.
Spada, N. (2007). Communicative Language Teaching: Current Status and
Future Prospects. International Hand Book of English Language Teaching
(Part I). New York, Springer.
4.
Newmark, P. (1981). Approaches to Translation (Language Teaching
Methodology Senes). Oxford, Pergamon Press. https://doi. org/10.1017.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263100005222
5.
Weir, C. J., & Weir, C. J. (1990). Communicative language testing. Hemel
Hempstead, Prentice Hall.
6.
Savignon, S. J. (1991). Communicative language teaching: State of the art.
TESOL quarterly, 25(2), 261-278.
https://doi.org/10.2307/3587463
7.
Morrow, C. K. (2018). Communicative language testing. The TESOL
encyclopedia
of
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language
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https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0383
