By Trinh Thi Thu Hien - EFL 523 Listening and Speaking Techniques Course

email: huyhienminh@yahoo.com - Home phone: 084 383 33 220 - Mobile: 098 919 6885

Some ideas about Communicative Language

Teaching by Mr Pham
Communicative language teaching is a sentence which has talked
recently in some seminars or meeting and in university.
In my opinion Mr Pham talked about real situation in teaching English
in Vietnam. He gave some useful suggestion in order to push up the
teaching methods following communicative language teaching. In
Vietnam in general and in my school particular, communicative
language teaching is taking.
I myself have taken part in some workshops about communicative
language teaching and had been taught when I was a student. I know
that language is spoken out is meaningful and convert. I have tried my
best to teach my students do not become deaf and dump after seven
years learning English. At first my students were interested in because
they were getting new ways in learning English, they had chance to
speak out and show their feeling. Day by day I realize that they didn’t.
My students are in high school. So their aims are to pass the
examinations in schools. If they intend to study abroad they will enroll
an instant course in listening and speaking for about six months and
then they continue to study when they are oversea. Why most of them
are likely to learn in that way. The answer is not new. I myself try to use
new method in teaching English by using communicative one. But my
students do not find interesting because all examinations are only
about grammar structures, vocabularies, and some writing by multi-
choice questions. My students do not like us who are learning to
receive a degree of high education. We have clear purposes, teaching
English is our jobs. Meanwhile, English is not a subject that students
want to learn at a university.
Besides, the theme which is taught is also important. If the theme is
close to the real life, my students are interested in. If the theme is not
like that students do not pay attention. For example, when I teach
about party, students discuss very excitingly. But when I guide them to
 By Trinh Thi Thu Hien - EFL 523 Listening and Speaking Techniques Course
email: huyhienminh@yahoo.com - Home phone: 084 383 33 220 - Mobile: 098 919 6885
learn about other topic such as .........they argue that it is far from their
knowledge. Time of teaching lesson is one of main reason for not
teaching communicative language well. I can make a calculation
simply that in a academic year students have about 130 lessons
including tests revision...etc. Meanwhile there are about 40-45
students in a class. In average, each student only has about one
hundred minutes per academic year. Moreover, activities outside class
is not often even is not. We can not deny the realistic I mean we lack
English evironment in the real life. English is something that is only to
study at school as one subject like literature, biography, geography
and so on whereares English is a language, it is needed speaking out,
writing and listening constantly.
In some seminars or workshop, people focus on communicative
language teaching with some useful suggestions for teaching method. I
agree with them that we are teaching students to become perfect
English learners: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language
focus. That is a big aim we need to reach.
In conclusion, in an era intergation and globalization, the requirements
of communicative competence is big. I and my collegues hope that
communicative language teaching will fulfil in near future to meet the
demand of the world communication. Over the difficulties, students will
understand what language is learnt for.