What is Communicative Language Teaching??

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What is Communicative Language Teaching??
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Communicative Language

• Blends listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
• Is the expression, interpretation, and
  negotiation of meaning.
• Is comprehensible and meaning-bearing.

• Is not first learning some vocabulary, then some
  grammar, then finding something to talk about to
  use the vocabulary and grammar.
• Is not communication at the service of grammar
  learning.
• Is not rote repetition, the exchange of
  information in a grammar lesson, or simply oral
  expression.

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Change of roles for teacher and student

• Traditionally Teacher is authority, expert,
  control figure who transmits knowledge.
• Authoritative knowledge transmitters.
• Lecturing is the task.
• THE ATLAS COMPLEX ATLAS supporting the heavens
  on their shoulders. Full responsibility.
  Explanations.

• Traditionally Student is the passive audience,
  vessels into which the information is poured.
• Receptive role.
• Note taking is the task.

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Audiolingualism

• Instructor was key figure.
• Habit formation through repetition, imitation,
  reinforcement. Parrot.
• Memorizing dialogues, practicing sentence
  patterns.
• First language seen to interfere with SLA.
• Errors were evidence of bad habits.
• No attention given to comprehension
• No opportunity to use the language in a
  meaningful, communicative way, exchanging
  messages. Output was restricted.

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CLT

• Provides students with opportunities to
  communicate using language to interpret and
  express real-life messages.

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Phases of CLT

• Early CLT was restricted it was communication
  with the authority figure asking questions
  students not parroting but creating an answer.
• Question-answer session with teacher in charge.
• Teacher asks question, selects people, even
  finish the sentence offers explanation, asks
  more questions, etc.

• Next phase of CLT students allowed to work in
  pairs and pose questions to one another.
• Pair work but with the Atlas-like question and
  answer model.
• Even though they are answering, grammar practice
  tends to be the real intent.
• Teacher monitors for focus on form, rather than
  on communication and meaning.

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Next phase CLT

• Although roles had changed, the activities still
  emphasized formal correctness, not communication.
  
• Controlled exercises plus more open ended
  conversations.
• More natural feel but teacher is still
  controlling.

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Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

• Involves the creation of an implicit
  (unconscious) linguistic system.
• Is complex and consists of different processes.
• Is dynamic but slow.
• Most L2 learners fall short of native-like
  competence.
• Skill acquisition is different from the creation
  of an implicit system.

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Comprehensible Input IS

• the language that learners hear that is meant to
  convey a message. The learner is to attempt to
  understand what is being said.
• language embedded in a communicative interchange
  no matter how trivial of important.
• the learner attending to the meaning in order to
  respond to the content or to perform a task.
• the learner receiving lots of input so they can
  build up an implicit linguistic system.
• embedding clues into the input about the way
  language works.
• a critical factor in language acquisition.
• possible when motivation and a low anxiety
  environment exist.

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Successful Language Acquisition

• Cannot happen WITHOUT comprehensible input.
• Provides consistent and constant exposure to
  comprehensible input.
• Learners need opportunities to use the language
  in communicative interaction.
• Having to use the language pushes the learner to
  develop communicative language ability!!!

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The HOW of Acquisition

• Input processing how learners make sense out of
  the languages they hear and how they get
  linguistic data.
• System change Accommodation how learners
  incorporate a grammatical form into an implicit
  system of the language they are creating.
  Restructuring how the incorporation of a form
  can cause a ripple effect and make other things
  change without the learner ever knowing.
• Output Processing how learners acquire the
  ability to make use of implicit knowledge they
  are acquiring to produce utterances in real time.
  

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SLA is dynamic

• As long as learners continue to get input, the
  implicit system they create evolves constantly.
• Acquisition is dynamic (it evolves) but it is
  slow (takes years to build a system that is
  anywhere native like).
• Particular kinds of errors are made at particular
  stages. A structure evolves over time.

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Stages of Development

• Learners actively organize language in their
  heads independently of external influence.
• Certain kinds of errors and not others are made
  at certain times, and something produces certain
  patterns of L1 acquisition.
• Learners possess internal strategies for
  organizing language data and the strategies do
  not obey outside influences.

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Food for thought

• Skill acquisition is different from the creation
  of an implicit system. It is one thing to
  develop the implicit system. Being able to use
  it is different.
• Skill acquisition happens independently of the
  creation of the linguistic system.
• Languages are UNTEACHABLE we cannot force or
  cause the creation of the learners implicit
  system. Not can we force the acquisition of
  speech making procedures that are essential to
  skill development.
• We can only provide opportunities for acquisition
  to happen by providing chances to express real
  information, not merely information in drills.