Communicative Approach

Communicative Approach to Language Teaching

Definition of the 'Communicative Approach'

          The term communicative approach' was developed by Wilkins (1972), who proposed a functional or communicative definition of language that could have served as a basis for developing communicative syllabuses for, national and functional approaches are all the synonyms used to mean the same thing.

          According to Halliday (1976), a communicative/functional approach to language teaching means:

(i)                  Investigating how language is used

(ii)                Trying to find out the purposes that language serves for us and

(iii)             How we are able to achieve those purposes through listening and speaking, reading and writing. It also means seeking to explain the nature of language in fundamental terms i.e. seeing whether language itself has been shaped by use and in what ways the form of the language has been determined by the function, it has been evolved to serve.

          This approach serves as the backbone of a language course based on language functions or speech acts rather than on units of grammar or situations with a grammar focus. As the purpose of language teaching is to communicate, the learners are to teach functional use of language rather than grammar and its rules.

Origin of Communicative Approach

          In 1971, a group of experts began to investigate the possibility of developing language course. The group used studies of the need of European language learners. D. A. Wilkins (1972) proposed a functional or communicative definition of language that could serve as a basis for developing communicative syllabus for language teaching. Wilkins's' contribution was an analysis of the communicative meanings that a language learners need to understand and express. He attempted to demonstrate the systems of meaning that lay behind the communicative uses of language through traditional concept of grammar and vocabulary. Wilkins in his notional syllabus has described two types of meaning viz. (i) categories of communicative function viz. requests, denials, offers, complaints and (ii) notional categories (concept such as time, sequence, quantity, location, frequency).

Objectives of the Communicative Approach

          Both American and British proponents of the communicative approach to language teaching have explained the communicative approach aims at:

(i)                  Making communicative competence, the goal of language teaching and using language as a means of expression.

(ii)                Making communicative or developing the procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the inter-dependence of language as a semiotic system and an object of learning.

(iii)             Making language as a means of expressing values and judgement about oneself or others

(iv)             Using language learning within the school campus curriculum.

          Those above objectives, though meant for 'communicative approach' are generally applicable to any teaching situation. There is no particular objective of communicative language teaching, only since such an approach assumes that language teaching will reflect the particular needs of the target language learners. These needs may be in the domains of reading, writing listening or speaking each of which can be approached from communicative perspectives.

Processes of Teaching Communicative Approach

          There have been various ways of teaching any approach of any language. So, in this communicative approach, too, some processes of teaching have been put forward. Among the, the well-established processes have been discussed below.

                      Presentation

                      Controlled Practice

                      Free Practice

          The teaching policy may change at each of these stages. So let's discuss them in details.

(i)      Presentation

          At this stage, the teacher is firmly in control and doing most (if not all) the talking. There is no possibility of error, because the student is not invited to speak.

(ii)     Controlled Practice

          At this stage, the teacher remains in control. The possibility of errors has been reduced to a minimum, but when they occur, the teacher corrects them until the class produces the forms correctly. At this stage, students' talking time is equal to or greater than teacher's talking time.

(iii)    Free Practice

          At this stage, the teacher relaxes control. Mistakes will occur, but students will correct each other or themselves when challenged much greater than teacher's talking time. The teacher will only intervene if serious problem is arisen.

In fact, there is no abrupt shift from on stage to another. There may be a change of the context for practice when shifting from the controlled to the free practice stage. As to the shift form presentation to the controlled practice, anyone will agree that it is practically impossible to separate these stages because one stage will flow inevitably into the other.

          The above figure shows that the analysis of the teaching process as separated into three distinct stages is, therefore, more of a typical analysis than an exact description of what happens in the classroom. In practice, the three stages are moulded together, into a pattern which represents a smooth transition from total teacher control to nil teacher control. The process is a continuum.

Importance of 'Communicative Approach' to Language Teaching

          The 'Communicative approach' being new in our context may have created some problems for the beginners. It has, nevertheless, great importance in our English language teaching\learning system. They may be broadly discussed here below.

                      It is important in the sense that it takes the communicative facts of language into account from the beginning without losing grammatical and situational factors.

                      It can make the student sensitive to the need of appropriate language in a given situation. Besides, the 'Communicative Approach' to language teaching focuses on the more important goal of using the language for a purpose.

                      This approach enormously enhances motivation. Instead of learning to manipulate language item in vacuum, the student will be able to recognize the practical value of the language he learns

                      It is important for specialist courses viz. Scientists, Pilots, Doctors etc.

  

Conclusion

          Communicative Language Teaching is best considered an approach rather than a method. Thus although a reasonable degree of theoretical consistency can be discerned at the level of language and learning theory, at the level of design and procedure. There is much greater room for individual interpretation and variation than most methods permit. It could be that one version among the various proposals for syllabus, models, exercise types and classroom activities may gain wider approval in the future, giving communicative language teaching a status similar to other teaching models. On the other hand, divergent interpretation may lead to homogeneous sub-groups.