Gabriel Molina – Didactics I, 2019

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Why communication?

● The need for communication is as strong as ever:

there’s a high demand for real language
● People look for all possible ways to learn English
● They want to learn English for communicative
purposes
● Learners, travelers, employees, etc. have practical
requirements for their own English
Why Communicative Language
Teaching? (CLT)

● It is a set of principles that revolve

around communication in terms of:

→ Goals
→ The learner and the language
→ Teacher & learner roles
CLT Goals:

● It’s main goal is to teach

communicative competence.

→ Knowing how to use language for

different purposes and functions
→ How to adapt language pragmatically
→ Repairing communication through
using communication strategies
CLT Learner and the Language:

● Perception has moved from

mechanical grammatical competence
to:
→ Collaborative learning
→ Mutual negotiation of meaning
→ Learning helped by feedback
→ Experimenting and doing to learn
CLT Teacher and learner roles:

● Communicative needs changed both

roles:
→ Students became more involved in
their own learning process as well as
more aware through cooperation
→ Teachers became facilitators and
monitors that don’t correct directly
and are not the constant deliverers
CLT Activities:

● CLT activities are deployed to achieve

a communicative methodology in the
classroom.
● The types available are : Accuracy Vs
Fluency, Mechanical, Meaningful &
Communicative practice and GAP
activities
Accuracy Vs Fluency activities:

● Fluency is one of the main goals of CLT:

practicing it reflects real-life language
use and is solely focused on
maintaining communication, even if
there are some errors (i.e.: a role-play)
● Accuracy is centered on small samples
of language that focus on correct
production form. These require little
actual communication. (i.e.: group
work with dialogs)
Mechanical, Meaningful &
Communicative practice:

● These are three practice activities:

→ Mechanical: highly controlled environments
(i.e.: subst. Drills)
→ Meaningful: less controlled as there are
choices to be made. Forms are still provided to
choose from (i.e.: using a map + prepositions
to provide information on locations)
→ Communicative: even less controlled where
real information may be used. (i.e.: drawing a
map of their neighborhood and answering
questions about it)
Information Gap activities:

● A basic communicative pillar: in real life,

people negotiate information they do not
have to achieve communication, so it’s a
main focus of CLT and they should be
included in the lesson.
→ An example is giving slightly different
pictures to students A and B so they negotiate
the information and differences that are
missing through their own perspective to
complete the activity
Extra considerations: 1

● Emphasis on pairwork: most activities

are dealt with through this group
arrangement. Some benefits are:
hearing the language from other
members, having more practice
opportunities, motivational levels are
bound to increase, among others.
Extra considerations: 2

● The nexus between the classroom and real-

life is highly valuable for CLT.
Activities should mirror Real-life
encounters as much as possible.
→ They should relate to their needs
→ They should provide exposure to real
language
→ They should provide cultural learning
→ They should support a more creative
approach to teaching and learning
1→ SLIDE 3

2→ SLIDES 4-7

3→ SLIDES 8-11

4→ SLIDES 12-13

Sources: Richards, J. 2006. Communicative

Language Teaching Today. Cambridge University
Press. Retrieved on August,