COMMUNICATIVE

LANGUAGE TEACHING

 Inventor:

This method is based partly in the

theories of Brititish functional linguists
such as: Firth, Halliday, and the
American sociolinguistics Hymes,
Gumperz and Lavob.
Country

U.S.A

of Origin: Great Britain

Theory of language: language is for communication

and linguistic competence and the knowledge of forms
and their meanings are part of the communicative
competence. Another aspect of this knowledge is to
learn the use of the language.

Theory of learning:
Activities that involve real communication promote
learning
Activities in which language is used for carrying out
meaningful tasks promote learning
Language that is meaningful to the learner promotes
learning.

 Role

of the teacher: the teacher facilitates

the communication in the classroom, and he
also acts like an adviser and a guide.

Role

of the student: Ss are

communicators. They are actively engage in
trying to make themselves understood and
in understanding others.

Use

of the mother tongue: can be used.

However, whenever possible the target
language should be used.

Activities:
Scrambled

Language

Picture

Role

sentences

Games

Strip Story

Play

Techniques:
Communicative language teaching uses almost any
activity that engages learners in authentic
communication. functional communication activities
in which communication is involved, and social
interaction activities, such as conversation and
discussion sessions, dialogues and role plays.

MATERIALS
o

Language materials authentic to native

speakers of the target language. (news
paper, radio and television broadcast,
menus, weather forecast, timetables).

For beginner students it is possible to use

realia with out a lot of language.

EVALUATION
A

teacher can informally evaluate students

performance in his role as an adviser or cocommunicator.
For formal evaluation an integrative test is
used which has a real communicative
function.
In order to assess students writing skill, a
teacher might ask them to write a letter to a
friend.

Modes of interaction
T-Ss,

Ss-Ss, Ss-T

Students feelings
Students

are given an opportunity to

express their individuality by having them
share their ideas and opinions on a regular
basis.

AREAS OF LANGUAGE
EMPHASIZED
Language

functions might be emphasized

over forms.

Students

work with language at the

suprasentential or discourse level.

STUDENTS ERRORS
Errors

of form are tolerated during fluencybased activities and are seen as a natural
outcome of the development of
communication skills.

The

teacher may note the errors during

fluency activities and return to them later
with an accuracy-based activity.

Advantages
will be
more motivated by
learning to
communicate.

Disadvantages

Students

Students

will learn
to communicate
effectively.

No

grammar rules
are presented.

REFERENCES

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and

Principles in Language Teaching. (second ed.).
Oxford University Press.

http://www.englishraven.com/method_communicati
ve.html

http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/languagelearning/way
stoapproachlanguagelearning/CommunicativeLang
uageTeaching.htm