There are various features to the communicative language teaching approach, including the integration of reading, writing, and speaking. For example, a teacher may ask students to watch a video and then write a one to two sentence opinion about the video on the board. Students will then read each other's opinions and discuss how they felt about what they watched. This allows for multiple skills to be practiced at once, which is beneficial to a student's ability to communicate effectively with others.
CLT also uses groups or pairs for activities, which allows for collaboration to be instilled in the language-learning classroom. Group work or work in pairs allows for students to discuss, practice, and master material without feeling isolated in the process of learning a new language. Often times, students who work together will feel more comfortable practicing fluency over the mistakes they make in their grammar. This ensures that students are on the road to becoming fluent in the new language through collaboration, where students may learn from one another and work together.
The communicative approach uses tools, and technology for a personalized learning approach as well. Each student learns differently and has different interests, so through CLT, teachers can make learning more individualized to best meet the needs of their students. For example, students may enjoy talking about sports or popular culture, so the teacher may ask students to discuss those areas with one another through multiple activities, such as role-playing real-life scenarios, group discussion or pair discussion, among other various activities that encourage collaboration.
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Role-playing is an effective activity that is often used in the CLT classroom. For example, some students may love shopping, so the teacher decides that they should discuss their love of shopping through a role-playing activity. One student will act as the cashier while the other will act as the customer. Through this role-playing activity, the two students can have a conversation that one may often hear between cashiers and customers in real life, such as being asked how the weather is, how their day is going, what brings them into the store, and so much more.
Interviews are also a great way to use CLT in the classroom. For example, students may be put into a group together and asked to interview each other about their interests, such as what hobby is their favorite. The teacher may then ask students to relay the information they learned from each peer by giving a summary of the other student's favorite hobby and why it is their favorite. This allows for students to repeat the information they heard but also work together in an informal, low-stakes manner that does not make them feel like they are learning on their own.
Group discussions and pair discussions are effective ways to prioritize student-to-student interaction, which creates a more open and safe atmosphere. When students are listening to a teacher give a lecture, they may not retain that information as much as they would if they were asked to put their skills to practice in a low-stakes way, such as through group discussion. When students have their mistakes pointed out, such as grammatical mistakes they made on a worksheet, they may feel like they alone are not capable of learning. When put in groups or asked to practice the language with others, they might see that they are not alone in the process of learning a new language.
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There are multiple advantages to utilizing the communicative approach in the classroom. One advantage is that it is holistic, which means that the approach to language focuses on the whole picture rather than smaller aspects of it. Instead of focusing on grammatical errors, teachers who use CLT will focus on fluency and the student's interests over other means of acquiring language skills, such as learning grammar through worksheets.
CLT is also engaging as it focuses on what the students want to talk about. For example, students in the classroom may want to talk about a major pop culture moment that happened. The teacher may realize that this is a great way for the students to communicate with one another about something they are interested in instead of having them talk about something that is not engaging to them. The communicative approach is also a learner-centered approach, which means that the activities in class are focused on and driven by the students and their needs and interests.
Despite these advantages to CLT, there are also multiple disadvantages. One disadvantage is that CLT is a less formal approach that focuses on fluency rather than accuracy, which makes it a more basic approach. While fluency is an important aspect of the language learning process, having their errors go without correction may hinder the students' ability to form a sentence that is grammatically correct. CLT can also be very time-consuming for teachers, as the less formal approach and learner-centered nature of it can take away from lessons that may work to prioritize coherence in speaking and writing. It may also be time-consuming to create lessons that are more individualized.
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Communicative language teaching (CLT) is also called the communicative approach, which focuses on teaching language through communication. This approach looks at communication as both a goal and a method for English language learners (ELLs), who are students whose first language is not English. CLT aims to aid the development of student communication and interaction skills so they can communicate effectively and confidently in real-life situations. This includes having students engage in classroom activities such as role-playing real-life scenarios, interviewing each other, or having students' group or pair together to discuss their favorite things, such as their favorite food, holiday, sport, and so much more.
There are various benefits to utilizing CLT. It is holistic, which focuses on the whole picture of learning a new language over the smaller aspects of it, such as grammar competence or syntax. This can also be seen as a disadvantage to CLT, as not focusing on grammatical accuracy or coherence can hinder the student's ability to produce complete written and/or spoken coherent sentences. CLT is engaging, and the communicative approach is also a learner-centered approach, in which activities in class are focused on and driven by students instead of teachers. CLT, despite its benefits, can be very time-consuming for teachers who have to create individualized lessons.
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Video Transcript
English Language Learning
Lilah is a new teacher. Her students are English language learners, sometimes abbreviated ELLs, or students whose first language is not English. Lilah isn't sure how to approach teaching them. She wants to do the best she can for them, but what is that? Should she give them grammar lessons and worksheets? Should she have them engage in discussions with classmates?
There are many different ways to approach teaching English language learners. To help Lilah plan, let's take a closer look at one of them, the communicative approach.
Communicative Approach
One way to think about teaching ELLs is to use the communicative approach, also called communicative language teaching. You'll probably notice right off the bat that the name has a lot in common with the word 'communication.' That's not by accident: the communicative approach focuses on teaching language through communication.
Of course, the goal of any language instruction is to learn how to communicate. But in communicative language teaching, communication is not only the goal but the method of teaching. The teacher in a communicative language classroom acts as a guide or facilitator and students engage in class activities to learn the language.
For example, Lilah might set up an activity where she asks students what their favorite holiday is and why. She can pair the students up and have them talk to one another about it while Lilah walks around the room and helps the pairs out. Through this activity, the students are learning the language through their discussion with other students. That is, they're learning through communication.
Notice that this is very different than if Lilah stood at the front of the classroom and explained the rules of English grammar to her students and then gave them worksheets. That method might also be focused on teaching students how to communicate, but the actual work in the classroom (the teacher explaining, the worksheets) is not communication, so it's not the communicative approach.
Strengths & Challenges
Lilah thinks that the communicative approach sounds great. She wonders why every teacher doesn't use it. After all, it just seems perfect. Communicative language teaching has both strengths and challenges, which is why not everyone uses it to teach.
On one hand, it's easy to see the strengths of the communicative approach. Communication is the reason for language, and the fact that this method is rooted in communication is a big plus. It's also holistic, meaning that it approaches language from a big picture perspective.
Students also find it engaging. After all, it's much more fun to talk about your favorite holiday than to fill out a worksheet or listen to a teacher talk about past perfect tense. Finally, the communicative approach is a learner-centered approach, meaning that the class activities are focused on and driven by the students instead of the teacher.
However, there are also some challenges that come with communicative language teaching. For one thing, it focuses on basic communication and not the formal structures of language. This could lead to limitations in language acquisition. For example, if Lilah never teaches her students about the correct grammar structure, they might not learn it. This is especially true for complex language structures.
In addition, the communicative approach can be very time-consuming for teachers. This is because it needs to be adapted for each student based on his or her skills and levels. Lilah could spend hours planning and executing the class activities so that every student gets what they need.
Lesson Summary
English language learners, sometimes abbreviated ELLs, are students whose first language is not English. One approach to teaching ELLs is the communicative approach, also called communicative language teaching, which focuses on teaching language through communication. In communicative language teaching, communication is not only the goal, but also the method of teaching.
Communicative language teaching has both strengths and challenges. The strengths of communicative language teaching include that it's rooted in communication, it's holistic, engaging, and a learner-centered approach, meaning that class activities are focused on and driven by the students instead of the teacher. Challenges include that it focuses on basic communication and not the formal structures of language and that it can be very time-consuming for teachers.
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