Communicative Approach

The best teaching method for young learners, will depend on a variety of factors – including
age, cultural background, needs, preferences, etc. As a teacher, I’ll have to play by the rules
of the Curriculum imposed and combine the programme with my method. However, I think
the most effective method is the communicative approach. So let's take it in steps. The
communicative approach looks for understanding behind the language and not just
memorising rules and words because that's the way it has to be.
They use real situations to communicate between themselves and the teacher. Through these
real-life examples, students will feel closer to the language and make sense of what they are
saying. It doesn't matter if he knows the rules if he doesn't give them a purpose, if he doesn't
understand why this is so. Students help each other and feel more confident of themselves.
Within a classroom, the class is a group, they are a team. Yet everyone is an individual - with
their own purposes, goals, dreams, their own proficiency. We are all at different levels
because we process information differently.
For example, in a group, students could make meaningful use of language if they pretend
they are in an interview. They will have to rethink rules, vocabulary, understand why certain
words are chosen for the context at stake.
Bent Flyvbjerg – a Danish economic geographer - having no connection with the teaching of
a language – quoted:
“Communicative and deliberative approaches work well as ideals and evaluative
yardsticks for decision making, but they are quite defenceless in the face of
power.”
I will comment on the fact that he talked about "decision making". When we use a non-
native language or one that we are still learning, we like to think and rethink any word that
might be wrong or in the wrong place. Now, the power of decision making (of choosing one
word over another, for example: "I like going out" - "I love going out") can transform the
whole essence of the sentence. This may or may not be the student's intention. And by
connecting this specific use of the chosen word with the meaningful background, everything
makes sense. Our culture, our values, the way we live and experience the world, give us
different views on language itself.
And the power that Bent refers to - I can relate it to the power that the teacher has within the
classroom, even if he/she is a guide, an encourager, someone who gives support. But despite
that, he is still the head of that whole group of students.
Beyond the whole social, economic environment, this method always looks for its meaning
and importance in the real world - and the world of communication and its importance.
Because language connects people.
As Kim Namjoon of the boygroup BTS once said: "There's no language barrier between us.
'Cause I don't care in what language you sing. As long as you're happy,we're happy too."
Ana Cardoso