Communicative Language Teaching

Background

● Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) began in the late 1960s.

- It was discovered in the development of British language teaching traditions.
● Until then, the approach to teaching English as a foreign language was Situational
Language Teaching.
- Language was taught through the practice of basic structures in relevant situation-based
exercises.
● Noam Chomsky (1957) Syntactic Structures.
Chomsky had demonstrated that the current standard structural theories of language were
incapable of accounting for the fundamental characteristic of language - the creativity and
uniqueness of individual sentences.
● British applied linguists started to address the functional and communicative potential of
language.
- They recognized the importance of emphasizing communicative proficiency rather than
structural mastery in language teaching.
● Education was one of the Council of Europe's major areas of activity.
- The organization supported the international conferences on language education and
was engaged in fostering the formation of the
● International Association of Applied Linguistics.
- The need to identify and develop alternative language education approaches was
considered essential.
● Unit credit system (1971)
- A group of experts began looking into the potential of developing language courses
based on a unit-credit system.
➢ a system in which learning tasks are broken down into " portions or units, each of which
corresponds to a component of a learner's needs and is systematically related to all the
other portions" (van Ek and Alexander 1980: 6).
● D. A. Wilkins (1972), proposed a functional or communicative definition of language that
could serve as a basis for developing communicative syllabuses for language teaching.
- Wilkins' contribution consisted of an analysis of the communicative meanings that a
language learner must comprehend and articulate. Wilkins aimed to explain the systems
of meanings that lay underneath the communicative uses of language, rather than
describing the essence of language through standard concepts of grammar and
vocabulary.
● He described two types of meanings: notional categories (concepts such as time,
sequence, quantity, location, frequency) and categories of communicative function
(requests, denials, offers, complaints).
● Wilkins later revised and expanded his 1972 document into a book called Notional
Syllabuses (Wilkins 1976), which had a significant impact on the development of
Communicative Language Teaching.
● In the mid-1970s the scope of Communicative Language Teaching has expanded.
 ● Both American and British proponents now see it as an approach (and not a method)
that aims to
(a ) make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and
(b) develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the
interdependence of language and communication.
● Littlewood (1981: 1) states, "One of the most characteristic features of communicative
language teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural
aspects of language. "
- For others, it means using procedures where learners work in pairs or groups employing
available language resources in problem-solving tasks.
● Howatt distinguishes between a "strong" and a "weak" version of Communicative
Language Teaching.
- The weak version, which has been more or less normal practice in the last 10 years,
emphasizes the significance of giving learners opportunities to apply their English for
communicative purposes and, more importantly, strives to incorporate such activities into
a larger language instruction program. (In short, it is learning to use language). The
strong version of communicative teaching, on the other hand, asserts that language is
learned by communication and that it is not simply a matter of activating an existing but
inert knowledge of the language, but also of encouraging the development of the
language system itself. (Using language to learn it.)
● Finocchiaro and Brumfit (1983) contrast the major distinctive features of the Audiolingual
Method and the Communicative Approach, according to their interpretation.
- There are many differences between the audiolingual method and the communicative
approach and I suggest that you make time to read the handout because I will just give
one difference. So first is that in audio-lingual it demands memorization of structure-
based dialogue while in a communicative approach dialogs if used center around
communicative functions and are not normally memorized. So if you are to deliver
dialogs you have to memorize them well because you need to deliver them as is. While
in the communicative approach you don’t have to memorize dialogs as long as you give
the same point written in the dialog it’s okay.
● John Firth also stressed that language needed to be studied in the broader sociocultural
context of its use, which included participants, their behavior and beliefs, the objects of
linguistic discussion, and word choice.
● An important American national curriculum commission in the 1930s, for example,
proposed the adoption of an Experience Curriculum in English. The report of the
commission began with the premise that "experience is the best of all schools .... The
ideal curriculum consists of well-selected experiences" (cited in Applebee 1974: 119).
- Individual learners were also seen as possessing unique interests, styles, needs, and
goals, which should be reflected in the design of methods of instruction
Approach
Theory of Language
● The communicative approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as
communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972)
 referred to as "communicative competence”. Hymes coined this term in order to contrast
a communicative view of language and Chomsky’s theory of competence.
- The focus of linguistic theory, according to Chomsky, is to characterize the abstract
abilities that allow speakers to construct grammatically accurate sentences in a
language. Such a perspective of linguistic theory, according to Hymes, was sterile, and
that linguistic theory needed to be regarded as part of a larger theory that included
communication and culture.
● Hymes' communicative competency theory
- defined what a speaker needed to know in order to communicate effectively in a speech
community.
● In Hymes's view, a person who acquires communicative competence acquires both
knowledge and ability for language use with respect to
1. whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible;
2. whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in virtue of the means of
implementation available; - (wether something is convenient)
3. whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate,: adequate, happy, successful)
in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated;
4. whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and what
its doing entails. (Hymes 1972: 281)
- This theory of what knowing a language entails offers a much more comprehensive view
than Chomsky's view of competence, which deals primarily with abstract grammatical
knowledge.
● Halliday's functional account of language use.
● "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" (Halliday 1970: 145).
● Seven basic functions that language performs for children learning their first language:
1. the instrumental function: - using language to get things;
2. the regulatory function: - using language to control the behavior of others;
3. the interactional function: - using language to create interaction with others;
4. the personal function: - using language to express personal feelings and meanings.
5. the heuristic function: - using language to learn and to discover;
6. the imaginative function: - using language to create a world of the imagination;
7. the representational function: - using language to communicate information.
- Proponents of Communicative Language Teaching viewed learning a second language
in the same way: as obtaining the linguistic means to perform various functions.
● Canale and Swain (1980), four dimensions of communicative competence
Grammatical competence
➢ refers to what Chomsky calls linguistic competence and what Hymes intends by what is
"formally possible."
- It is the domain of grammatical and lexical capacity.
- It includes knowledge of vocabulary and rules of word formation, pronunciation/spelling
and sentence formation. (ability to create grammatically correct utterances),
Sociolinguistic competence
 ➢ refers to an understanding of the social context in which communication takes place,
including role relationships, the shared information of the participants, and the
communicative purpose for their interaction. (ability to produce sociolinguistically
appropriate utterances),
Discourse competence
➢ refers to the interpretation of individual message elements in terms of their
interconnectedness and of how meaning is represented in relationship to the entire
discourse or text.
➢ involves mastery of how to combine grammatical forms and meanings to achieve a
unified spoken or written text in different genres. (ability to produce coherent and
cohesive utterances) Cohesion is just the individual parts that are collected together and
are stick together for representation. Coherence is the attribute that is decided by the
end-user or reader, which determines whether the content seems meaningful,
understanding and useful.
Strategic competence
➢ refers to the coping strategies that communicators employ to initiate, terminate,
maintain, repair, and redirect communication. (ability to solve communication problems
as they arise).

● 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 for the expression of meaning.
2. The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.
3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.
4. The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features,
but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.
Theory of Learning
● Elements of an underlying learning theory can be discerned in some CLT practices.
● Communication principle: - Activities that involve real communication promote
learning.
● Task principle: - Activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks
promote learning.
● Meaningfulness principle: - Language that is meaningful to the learner supports the
learning process. Learning activities are consequently selected according to how well
they engage the learner in meaningful and authentic language use.

- These principles, as suggested by Littlewood and Johnson, can be inferred from CLT
practices (e.g., Littlewood 1981; Johnson 1982). They address the conditions needed to
promote second language learning, rather than the processes of
Languageinteractionbehavior Acquisition.
● Other theorists (e.g., Stephen Krashen, who is not directly associated with
Communicative Language Teaching) have developed theories cited as compatible with
the principles of CLT.
 - Krashen considers acquisition to be the most fundamental step in gaining language
proficiency, and he distinguishes it from learning.
● Acquisition refers to the unconscious development of the target language system as a
result of using the language for real communication.
● Learning is the conscious representation of grammatical knowledge that has resulted
from instruction, and it cannot lead to acquisition.
- During spontaneous language use, we use the acquired system to generate utterances.
The learned system can only act as a monitor for the acquired system's output.
Language learning, according to Krashen and other second language acquisition
theorists, occurs through the use of language communicatively rather than through the
practice of language skills.
Design
Objectives
● Piepho (1981) discusses the following levels of objectives in a communicative approach:
1. an integrative and content level (language as a means of expression)
2. a linguistic and instrumental level (language as a semiotic (signs or symbols) system
and an object of learning);
3. an affective level of interpersonal relationships and conduct (language as a means of
expressing values and judgments about oneself and others);
4. a level of individual learning needs (remedial learning based on error analysis);
5. a general educational level of extra-linguistic goals (language learning
within the school curriculum).
- These are proposed as general objectives that can be applied to any teaching
environment. Beyond this level of detail, precise CLT objectives cannot be established
because such an approach believes that language education would reflect the individual
needs of the target learners. These requirements could be in the areas of reading,
writing, listening, or speaking, all of which can be addressed through a communicative
perspective. Specific aspects of communicative competence might be reflected in the
curriculum or instructional objectives for a particular course, depending on the learner's
proficiency level and communicative needs.
The Syllabus
● The council of Europe expanded and developed the notion syllabus into a syllabus that
included descriptions of the objectives of foreign language courses for European adults,
the situations in which they might typically need to use.
- a foreign language, (e.g., travel, business), the topics they might need to talk
about (e.g., personal identification, education, shopping), the functions they
needed language for (e.g., describing something, requesting information,
expressing agreement and disagreement), the notions made use of in
communication (e.g., time, frequency, duration), as well as the vocabulary and
grammar needed (notional syllabus (Wilkins 1976), which specified the semantic-
grammatical categories (e.g., frequency, motion, location) and the categories of
communicative function that learners need to express. )
 ● There are at present several proposals and models for what a syllabus might look like in
Communicative Language Teaching. Yalden (1983) describes the major current
communicative syllabus types.
Type
1. structures plus functions
2. functional spiral around a
structural core
3. structural, functional,
instrumental
4. functional
5. notional
6. interactional
7. task-based
8. learner-generated

Reference
Wilkins (1976)
Brumfit (1980)
Allen (1980)
]upp and Hodlin (1975)
Wilki ns (1976)
Widdowson (1979)
Prabbu (1983) •
Candlin (1976), Henner Stanchina and Riley (1978)
● An example of such a model that has been implemented nationally is the Malaysian
communicational syllabus (English Language Syllabus in Malaysian Schools 1975) - a
syllabus for the teaching of English at the upper secondary level in Malaysia.
- This was one of the first attempts to organize Communicative Language Teaching
around a specification of communication tasks. Three broad communicative objectives
are broken down into twenty-four more specific objectives in the organizational schema
based on needs analysis. These goals are divided into learning categories, with a
number of outcome goals or products assigned to each.
● A product is defined as a piece of comprehensible information, written, spoken, or
presented in a non-linguistic form. "A letter is a product, and so is an instruction, a
message, a report or a map or graph produced through information gleaned through
language" (English Language Syllabus 1975: 5).
- As a result, the products are the result of successfully completing tasks.
For example, the product called " relaying a message to others" can be broken into a number of
tasks, such as
(a) understanding the message,
(b) asking questions to clear any doubts
(c) asking questions to gather more information,
(d) taking notes,
(e) arranging the notes in a logical manner for presentation, and
(f) orally presenting the message.
- For each product a number of proposed situations arc suggested.
- The inputs, communicative context, participants, desired outcomes, and limits are all
specified in these circumstances. These and other scenarios created by particular
teachers are the means by which students' interaction and communicative abilities are
realized.
Types of learning and teaching activities
● Littlewood (1981) distinguishes between "functional communication activities" and
"social interaction activities".
● Functional communication activities include such tasks as learners comparing sets of
pictures and noting similarities and differences; working out a likely sequence of events
in a set of pictures; discovering missing features in a map or picture; one learner
communicating behind a screen to another learner and giving instructions on how to
draw a picture or shape, or how to complete a map; following directions; and solving
problems from shared clues.
● Social interaction activities include conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues
and role-plays, simulations, skits, improvisations, and debates.
Learner roles
● Breen and Candlin describe the learner's role
● The role of the learner as a negotiator- between the self, the learning process, and the
object of learning-emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator within the
group and within the classroom procedures and activities that the group undertakes.
- In other words, the learner is should contribute as much as he gains, and thereby learn
in an interdependent way.
Teachers role
● Two main roles:
● The first role is to facilitate the communication process between all participants in the
classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and texts.
● The second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning-teaching
group.
- A third role for the teacher is that of researcher and learner, with much to contribute in
terms of appropriate knowledge and abilities, actual and observed ex[eroence of the
nature of learning, and organizational capacities.
● Other roles assumed for teachers are needs analyst, counselor, and group process
manager.
The role of instructional materials
- Materials are used in Communicative Language Teaching to influence the quality of
classroom engagement and language use. As a result, materials have a crucial role in
encouraging the use of communicative language.
● TEXT-BASED MATERIALS
● Morrow and Johnson Communicate (1979), for example, has none of the usual
dialogues, drills, or sentence patterns and uses visual cues, taped cues, pictures, and
sentence fragments to initiate conversation.
 ● Watcyn-Jones’s Pair Work (1981) consists of two different texts for pair work, each
containing different information needed to enact role plays and carry out other pair
activities.
● Texts written to support the Malaysian English language Syllabus (1975) likewise
represent a departure from traditional textbooks modes.
● TASK-BASED MATERIALS
● A variety of games, role plays, simulations, and task-based communication activities
have been prepared to support Communicative Language Teaching classes.
● These typically are in the form of one-of-a-kind items:
➢ exercise handbooks, cue cards, activity cards, Pair-communication practice materials,
Student-interaction practice booklets.
● REALIA
● Many proponents of Communicative Language Teaching have advocated the use of
"authentic," "from-life" materials in the classroom.
● These might include language-based realia, such as
➢ signs, magazines, advertisements, and newspapers, or graphic and visual
sources around which communicative activities can be built, such as maps,
pictures, symbols, graphs, and charts.
● Different kinds of objects can be used to support communicative exercises, such as a
plastic model to assemble from directions.
Procedure
● Finocchiaro and Brumfit offer a lesson outline for teaching the function "making a
suggestion" for learners in the beginning level of a secondary school program that
suggests that CLT procedures are evolutionary rather than revolutionary:
1. Presentation of a brief dialog or several mini-dialogs, preceded by a motivation.
(relating the dialog situation(s) to the learners' probable community experiences) and a
discussion of the function and situation-people, roles, setting, topic, and the informality or
formality of the language which the function and situation demand. (At beginning levels,
where all the learners understand the same native language, the motivation can well, be
given in their native tongue).
2. Oral practice of each utterance of the dialog segment to be presented that day (entire class
repetition, half-class, groups, individuals) generally preceded by your model. If mini-dialogs are
used, engage in a similar practice.
3. Questions and answers based on the dialog topic(s) and situation itself.
4. Questions and answers related to the students' personal experiences.
- but centered around the dialog theme.
5. Study one of the basic communicative expressions in the dialog or one of the structures
which exemplify the function.
- You will wish to give several additional examples of the communicative use of the expression
or structure with familiar vocabulary in unambiguous utterances or mini-dialogs (using pictures,
simple real objects, or dramatization) to clarify the meaning of the expression or structure.
6. Learner discovery of generalizations or rules underlying the functional expression or
structure.
- This should include at least four points: its oral and written forms (the elements of which it is
composed, e.g. "How about + verb + ing?"); its position in the utterance; its formality or
informality in the utterance; and in the case of a structure, its grammatical function and
meaning.
7. Oral recognition, interpretative activities.
- (two to five depending on the learning level, the language knowledge of the students, and
related factors).
8. Oral production activities-proceeding from guided to freer communication activities.
9. Copying of the dialogs or mini-dialogs or modules if they are not in the class text.
10. Sampling of the written homework assignment, if given.
11. Evaluation of learning (oral only), e.g. "How would you ask your friend to ______? And how
would you ask me to________ ?"
- These procedures are very similar to those observed in classrooms taught according to
the Structural-Situational and Audiolingual principles. Traditional techniques are not
rejected, but they are given a more extensive interpretation.
● Similar techniques are used in another popular textbook, Starting StrategIes (Abbs and
Freebairn 1977). Teaching points are introduced in dialogue form, grammatical items are
isolated for controlled practice, and then freer activities are provided. Pair and group
work are suggested to encourage students to use and practice functions and forms.
- The methodological procedure for these activities according to Littlewood
 The communicative procedure consists of two stages of activities: the precommunicative
stage and the communicative stage. The pre-communicative stage is further divided into
two periods: the structural period and the quasi-communicative period. During the
structural period, the teacher provides activities that will help students "to produce a
certain language form in acceptable activities". During the quasi-communicative period,
the teacher "isolates specific elements of knowledge or skill which compose
communicative ability, and provides the learners with opportunities to practice them
separately". By the time the students finish the first stage of activities, they have
developed "partial skills of communication". Now they are ready for the second stage of
activities. The communicative stage is also further divided into two periods: the
functional communicative period and the social interaction period. During the functional
communicative period, "the production of linguistic forms becomes subordinate... to the
communication of meaning", and the teacher provides such activities as will increase the
students' "skill in starting from an intended meaning". During the social interaction
period, the teacher requires the students "to go beyond what is necessary for simply
'getting meaning across', in order to develop greater social acceptability in the
language", and this stage "may also involve producing speech which is socially
appropriate to specific situations and relations

Sauvignon (1972 1983) however rejects the notion that learners must first gain control over
individual skills (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary) before applying them in communicative
tasks; she advocates providing communicative practice from the start of instruction.

Conclusion
Communicative Language Teaching is best considered an approach rather than a
method. CLT appealed to people who desired a more humanistic approach to education,
one that prioritized interactive communication processes. The communicative approach's
rapid adoption and implementation were aided by the fact that it quickly gained
orthodoxy in British language teaching circles, receiving the approval and support of
leading British applied linguists, language specialists, publishers, and institutions such
as the British Council (Richards 1985). The use of a communicative approach raises
fundamental questions about teacher preparation, materials development, and
assessment and evaluation. If the communicative movement in language teaching gets
momentum in the future, these kinds of questions will undoubtedly require attention.

CLT is an approach to language teaching that emphasizes interaction as both the means
and the ultimate goal of the study. Learners are in environment where they use
communication to learn and practice the targeted language through interaction with one
another.

As we have seen in the procedures and activities it promotes social interaction between
two or more parties. Its about Learning language by using it to communicate. And
learners also converse with their experiences because it also promotes learning
language skills in all types of situation. Not just using the language in the classroom but
also using or applying it outside the learning process.