ASSIGNMENT

Language Teaching Methods and Classroom Dynamics

For

Jabreel Asghar

By

Muhammad Umer Azim.

ASSIGNMENT QUESTION :

i. Write a note on Communicative Approach in

Language Teaching with reference to its essential
components. (Pg 1 to 4)
ii. Discuss the Scope of communicative teaching and
learning in Pakistani context. Do you find some
advantages or obstacles in using this method in
your context ? (Pg 5&6)
iii. Suggest how the approach can be applied in a more
effective and practical way to the context you are
familiar with. (Pg 7)

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 An Attempt to Acknowledge.

As you can see the assignment is divided into three parts

so my answer will also be following the same pattern.

PART 1

Definition of Communicative Language Teaching

Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics defines

the Communicative Approach or Communicative Language Teaching as
“an APPROACH to foreign or second language teaching which emphasises
that the goal of language learning is COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE. ”
(Richards et al 1992:65) According to the same dictionary, the approach
which has been developed by British applied linguists as a reaction away
from grammar-based approaches

a) teaches the language needed to express and understand

different kinds of functions

b) is based on a NOTIONAL SYLLABUS or some other

communicatively organised syllabus

c) emphasises the process of communication, such as using

language appropriately in different types of situations; using
language to perform different kinds of tasks, e.g. to solve puzzles,
to get information , etc.; using language for social interaction with
other people.

Historical Background

The origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) dates back late

1960s. Until then Situational Language Teaching represented the major
British Approach to teaching English as a foreign language. In Situational
Language Teaching, language was taught by practising basic structures in
meaningful situation-based activities. But just as the linguistic theory
underlying Audiolingualism was rejected in United States in the mid-
1960s, British applied linguists began to call into question the theoretical
assumption underlying Situational Language teaching. (Richards and
Rodgers 1991:64)

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American Linguist Noam Chomsky had demonstrated that the current
standard structural theories of language were incapable of accounting for
the fundamental characteristics of language -the creativity and
uniqueness of individual sentences. Then, British applied linguists
emphasised another fundamental dimension of language that was
inadequately addressed in current approaches to language teaching at
that time -the functional and communicative potential of language. They
saw the need to focus in language teaching on communicative
proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures. (Ibid)

As the scope of Communicative Language Teaching has expanded, it was

considered as an approach rather than a method, which aims to;

i- make communicative competence the goal of language

teaching

ii- develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills
that acknowledge the interdependence of language and
communication. (Richards and Rodgers 1986:66)

Nunan offers five features to characterise the Communicative Language

Teaching.

1. An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the

target language

2. The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

3. The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on

language but also on the learning process itself.

4. An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as

important contributing elements to classroom learning.

5. An attempt to link classroom language learning with language

activation outside the classroom. (cited in Brown 1994a :78)

Brief Notes on Communicative Language Teaching (What

is it ?)

It starts from a theory of language as communication, and the goal of

language teaching is to develop “communicative competence.”

The theory of communication is Halliday’s functional account of language

use. He described seven basic functions that language performs for
children learning their first language, and learning a second language was
similarly viewed as performing different kinds of functions. These are:

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 1.Instrumental Function (“I want”) : used for satisfying material
needs

2.Regulatory Function (“do as I tell you”) : used for controlling

the behaviours of others

3.Interactional Function (“me and you”) : used for getting along

with other people.

4.Personal Function (“here I come”) : used for identifying and

expressing the self.

5.Heuristic Function (“tell me why”) : used for exploring the world

around and inside one.

6.Imaginative Function (“let’s pretend”) : used for creating

a world of one’s own.

7.Informative Function (“I’ve got something to tell you”) used for

communication new information.(Richards et al 1992:104)

Different conceptions about communication (such as Grammatical

competence, Sociolinguistic competence, Discourse competence,
Strategic competence) are put forward as dimensions of Communicative
competence. (Richards and Rodgers 1986:71)

To sum up, from the viewpoint of theory, “it (The Communicative

Language Teaching) is therefore a unified but broadly-based theoretical
position about the nature of language and of language learning and
teaching .” (Brown 1994b :244-45)

On the same topic, Richards and Rodgers argue that “at the level of
language theory, Communicative Language Teaching has a rich, if
somewhat eclectic, theoretical base. Some of the characteristics of this
communicative view of language follow.

1.Language is a system of the expression of meaning

2.The primary function of language is for interaction and

communication

3.The structure of language is reflects its functional and

communicative use

4.The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and
structural features, bur categories of functional and communicative
meaning as exemplified in discourse. (Richards and Rodgers 1986:71)

As to the theory of learning, little has been found in literature, but we can
find some elements underlying the Communicative Language Teaching

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Practices. One of these elements is “communication” principle. (Ibid.)
According to Morrow, activities that are truly communicative should have
three features. (cited in Larsen Freeman 1986:132)

1.Information gap: During the communication some knowledge

exchange should take place. Asking to someone who knows what
today is “What is today?”, and getting his response is not a true
communication. Besides, Scrivener states that we normally
communicate when one of us has information (facts, opinions,
ideas, etc.) that another does not have. This is known as an
“information gap” (1994:62)

2.Choice: In communication, the speaker should have the choice of

what to say and how to say.

3.Feedback: True communication is purposeful. Speaker can

evaluate whether or not his purpose has been achieved based upon
the information he receives from his listener.

If the listener does not have an opportunity to provide the speaker with
such feedback, then the exchange is not really communicative.

Second element is the task principle. Activities in which language is used

for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning. Harmer states that
there has been an agreement that rather than pure rote learning or de-
contextualised practice, language has to be acquired as a result of some
deeper experience than the concentration on a grammar point, and
supports his view with the results of Allwrights’s experiment and Prabhu’s
Bangalore Project. (1991:34-35)

Third element is the meaningfulness principle. According to the principle,

language that is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process.

Another example of examining the features of communication is Richard’s

discussion on “several components of communicative competence in
foreign language learning.” (1983) He mentions the five features of
communication brief explanations of which are summarised below:

1.Communication is meaning-based: The first step in learning to

communicate is to learn how to create propositions, for language is
comprehensible to the degree that hearers are able to reconstruct
propositions from the speaker’s utterances. But, communication in a
foreign language implies more than constructing propositions, because
speakers use them in a variety of ways, for example, asking, affirming,
denying, expressing an attitude etc.

2.Communication is conventional: Language learner’s ultimate goal

seems to be having native speaker syntax and usage, and be able to
produce infinitive number of novel utterances by using these

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‘internalised’ rules. Since there are strict constraints imposed on the
creative-constructive capacities of speakers, which limit how speakers
encode prepositional meanings, communication largely consists of the
use of language in conventional ways. Besides, these constraints affect
both the lexical and grammatical structure of discourse. Conversational
openers routine formulae, ceremonial formulae and memorised clauses
are features of conventionalised language.

3.Communication is appropriate: Mastery of a foreign language not

only requires use of conventional utterances that express prepositional
meaning but also knowledge of different communicative strategies and
styles according to the situation, the task and the roles of the
participants.

4.Communication is interactional: Conversation between people has

an “interactional function” which can be called as the use of language to
keep open the channels of communication between people and to
establish a suitable rapport. Generally, in the initial stages of conversation
with a stranger, speakers introduce carefully chosen topics that reflect
mutual agreement. Choosing safe topics which satisfy hearer’s desire to
be right is called “phatic communion”, and the mechanism of phatic
communion include speaker’s repertoire of verbal and visual gestures,
and speaker’s stock of ‘canned topics’ and formulaic utterances.

5.Communication is structured: Another aspect of communication is

its ongoing organisation which can be viewed from two different
perspectives: a macro perspective that reveals the differences in
rhetorical organisation that reflect different discourse ‘genres’ or ‘tasks’;
and a micro perspective showing how some of the processes by which
discourse is constructed out of individual utterances are reflected in
speech.

Here I conclude my first portion of discussion on communicative approach

it basically a copy work from different web-sites and books. In the next
part I wont be discussing the advantages of Communicative Language
Teaching as they are already discussed in the above section. I will be
discussing the problems or obstacle I using this method.

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 PART 2
OBSTACLES IN USING COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

This is the most important part of the assignment. let us consider some
important facts about it before pondering into the suitability and problems
of Communicative Language Teaching.

FACTS

• When we examine the background Communicative Language

Teaching, it faces many contributions from different theories and
teaching experiences. This variety acts as a factor preventing
people from reaching a consensus on many aspects of
Communicative Language Teaching.
• Communicative Language Teaching is widespread, that is, there are
many practitioners in different countries, cultures and language
backgrounds use the approach and evaluate according to criteria of
their own. As a result there have been variety of ideas, application
of these ideas, suggestions, deviations from what it had been
originally and a variety of interpretations most of which are made
subjectively. This phenomenon is natural result from the viewpoint
of the demand to teach language.

Teaching-Learning Methods in Pakistan ( Historical background )

Let us roam though the history of language teaching-learning in Pakistan.

We have always used the methodologies that are teacher centred. There
is no scope of real activities in them. The main method in use was and is
Grammar-Translation Method. Today the teacher e have are the product
of GTM and it is near to impossible for them to break the psychological
barriers and to accept any other method of teaching.
If we observe the development of second language teaching theories in
the West, they have started from GTM they moved to Direct Method,
Audio-Lingual Method, Situational Language Teaching and after a long
journey Communicative Language Teaching appeared on the scene and
the quest is still on. Now here a question comes, How is it possible for
Pakistani teacher to leave the intervening steps of the Ladder (Teaching
Methods Development) and jump on the present one that is
Communicative Language Teaching. As I have already discussed in ‘Facts’

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that Communicative Language Teaching is actually the mixture of all the
methods before it. So the knowledge of all the previous method is
necessary which is not with our teachers and learners at present.

Grammar

Grammar is one of the most important factors in language learning and

teaching which is ignored in this method or approach. It is one of the
major drawback or hurdle to be adopted by Pakistani teachers.
It is my feeling that fluency is important but accuracy is more important
than fluency. I have experienced in my teaching carrier that it is easy to
become fluent after being accurate but it is extremely difficult to unlearn
the wrong structures at the later stage of your life and learn the new and
accurate ones.

Spoken Language

There is over-emphasis on spoken language in Communicative Language

Teaching. It says the more you speak I variety of real life situations the
more you learn. But in Pakistani context students are exposed to
language just for 40 to 45 min. out of 1440 min. in a day. The student is
not able to speak for more than 4 to 5 min. inside the classroom. So
technically it goes wrong in Pakistani context where there is no practice of
language. If we talk in general it does not promote communication with
self or communication through reading and writing etc. it emphasises
more on out put (Speaking) than on input (reading & Listening) which is
impossible.

Cultural Differences.

Widdowson notes that “Communicative function are cultural specific I the

same way as linguistic forms are language specific” (Cited in
Stratton1977:130). I totally agree with Widdowson . Pakistani culture is
totally different from the culture of Britain.
Pakistani student is suffering from tri-lingualism what to talk about bi-
lingualism. He /she thinks in his or her local language and then translate it
into Urdu and then he/she wrestles to covert it to English that is hell of a
task. Most of the time word to word translation from Urdu to English can
land one serious trouble. Now you can object that Communicative
Language Teaching is used to avoid translation but it cant change the
thinking processes of a common man. Especially where learner is already
exposed to extensively used two other languages which are inevitable for
him. In this situation you cant made him think in the third language.

Communicative Language Teaching Places Heavy Demands on

(non native) Teacher

Communicative Language Teaching places high demands on the teacher

than other widely used approaches. Because he cannot predict everything

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clearly, he has to be ready to listen to not only what learners say but also
how they say. Besides, he has to interact with the learners in as natural
way as possible. These points impose non-native teacher higher-level
language proficiency.
“The communicative classroom requires a teacher of extraordinary
abilities: a multi-dimensional, high-tech. Wizard of Oz like person yet of
flesh and blood. He or she must be confident without being conceited,
judicious without being judgemental, ingenious without being unbridled,
technically skilled without being pedantic, far sighted without being far-
fetched, down-to-earth without being earth-bound inquiring without being
inquisitive – the list is endless.”(Medgyes 1986:14)
In Pakistan we don’t have highly skilled English Language Teachers
who can perform the highly demanding responsibilities.

Curriculum/ System

There is no syllabus available for the real application of this method in

Pakistan. It is impossible to teach through the method when you don’t
have the relevant activities and curriculum. Apart from it at present the
curriculum which we are following is based on GTM and all our exams are
based on this method only . In this situation if you are teaching your
student through this Communicative Language Teaching method you are
doing injustice with your students, as the wont be able to score marks in
exams and fell short of merit.

Economic Problems

Pakistan is a poor country and we cant afford the luxury of

Communicative Language Teaching because it is too expensive. Some
private schools are using it but they are serving only a very small fraction
of society. Public Sector cant think of this method to be used.

With the above discussion I am closing the second part of assignment.

PART 3

SUGGESTIONS FOR EFFECTIVE APLICATION OF THIS APPROACH

Communicative Language Teaching approach can be made useful in

Pakistani context by a lot of hard work on part of teachers and
researchers. Both teachers and researchers need to work together to find
out the ways and means through which the original method can be
moulded to serve our purpose effectively. I have got some suggestion,
which are as under.

Teachers Training.

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Educational change imposes great responsibility on teacher training
institute. They have to an effective role if we want to implement
Communicative Language Teaching. For the purpose we need expert
teachers of English Language. At present we don’t have teachers who are
psychologically fit to teach through this method because they are product
of GTM. It is needed that Teacher training institutes develop extensive
training programmes that can equip teachers with the required skills of
English Language Teaching through Communicative Language Teaching.
They need to provide required background as well as real usage of this
method for the welfare of their students.

Need to Develop Curriculum

There is the dire need to develop curriculum based on Communicative

Language Teaching without curriculum and needful activities it is useless
to try this method. The top researchers, experienced teachers and
qualified curriculum developers need to sit together to develop the
curriculum keeping in view our culture, religion and national
requirements. Only then it will be effectively used.

Funds

Government need to invest more on Education. At present the

Government is allocating a humiliating fraction of total budget to
Education. For the better implementation of this method and to improve
the educational standard it is needed that Teaching should be made a
highly rewarding profession so that the top notch of every field should join
it with privilege. Government have to spend money on educational
research and encourage researchers for better results.

Grammar Translation Method and Communicative Language

Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching cant be adopted purely because it is

too demanding for Pakistani students. It can land him in inferiority
complex because he feels much safer in the lap of his first language. It is
needed to develop activities that beautifully mix the activities of
Communicative Language Teaching i.e. Discussions, debates, sharing,
problem solving etc. and we can take vocabulary exercises from GTM.
Input to the student should be in L1 and L 2 and out put should be
maximum in Target Language. It provides the learner confidence to speak
because he knows exactly what he is speaking. Exams should also be
planned in the same way to facilitate students.

Here I conclude my assignment. Thanks.

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References:

1. http://www.silinternational.net/lingualinks/LANGUAGELEARNING/Wa
ysToApproachLanguageLearning/CommunicativeLanguageTeaching.
htm
2. http://www.cal.org/ERICCLL/DIGEST/gallow01.html
3. http://www20.uludag.edu.tr/~acan/studies/C%20LTeaching.htm
4. www.aber.ac.uk/~mflwww/clteach.html

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