What is Communicative
Language Teaching??
Communicative Language:
• Blends listening, • Is not first learning some
vocabulary, then some
speaking, reading, and grammar, then finding
writing. something to talk about to
use the vocabulary and
• Is the expression, grammar.
interpretation, and • Is not communication at the
service of grammar
negotiation of learning.
meaning. • Is not rote repetition, the
exchange of information in
• Is comprehensible and a grammar lesson, or
meaning-bearing. simply oral expression.
Change of roles for teacher
and student
• Traditionally: Teacher is
authority, expert, control
• Traditionally:
figure who transmits Student is the
knowledge.
• “Authoritative knowledge
passive audience,
transmitters.” vessels into which
• Lecturing is the task. the information is
• THE ATLAS COMPLEX:
ATLAS supporting the poured.
heavens on their • Receptive role.
shoulders. Full
responsibility. • Note taking is the
Explanations.
task.
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.
CLT
• Provides students with opportunities to
communicate using language to interpret
and express real-life messages.
Phases of CLT
• Early CLT was restricted; it • Next phase of CLT: students
was communication with the allowed to work in pairs and
authority figure asking pose questions to one another.
questions; students not • Pair work but with the Atlas-
parroting but creating an like question and answer
answer. model.
• Question-answer session with • Even though they are
teacher in charge. answering, grammar practice
• Teacher asks question, selects tends to be the real intent.
people, even finish the • Teacher monitors for focus on
sentence; offers explanation, form, rather than on
asks more questions, etc. communication and meaning.
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.
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.
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.
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!!!
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.
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.
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.
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 learner’s 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.
