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.
