COMMUNICATIVE

LANGUAGE
TEACHING

 Inventor:

This method is based partly in the

theories of Brititish functional
linguists such as: Firth, Halliday,
and the American sociolinguistics
Hymes, Gumperz and Lavob.

Country

U.S.A

of Origin: Great Britain

Theory of language: language is for communication

and linguistic competence and the knowledge of forms
and their meanings are part of the communicative
competence. Another aspect of this knowledge is to
learn the use of the language.

Theory of learning:
Activities that involve real communication to promote
learning
Activities in which language is used for carrying out
meaningful tasks promote learning
Language that is meaningful to the learner promotes
learning.

 Role

of the teacher: the teacher

facilitates the communication in the
classroom, and he also acts like an adviser
and a guide.

Role

of the student: Students are

communicators. They are actively engaged
in trying to make themselves understood
and in understanding others.

Use

of the mother tongue: can be used.

However, whenever possible the target
language should be used.

Activities:
Scrambled
Language
Picture
Role

sentences

Games

Strip Story

Play

Techniques:
Communicative language teaching uses
almost any activity that engages learners in
authentic communication. functional
communication activities in which
communication is involved, and social
interaction activities, such as conversation
and discussion sessions, dialogues and role
plays.

MATERIAL
S
o

Language materials authentic to native

speakers of the target language. (news
paper, radio and television broadcast,
menus, weather forecast, timetables).

For beginner students it is possible to use

realia with out a lot of language.

EVALUATIO
N

teacher can informally evaluate

students performance in his role as an
adviser or co-communicator.
For formal evaluation an integrative test
is used which has a real communicative
function.
In order to assess students writing skill, a
teacher might ask them to write a letter to
a friend.

Modes of interaction
T-Ss,

Ss-Ss, Ss-T

Students feelings
Students

are given an opportunity to

express their individuality by having them
share their ideas and opinions on a
regular basis.

AREAS OF LANGUAGE
EMPHASIZED
Language

functions might be emphasized

over forms.

Students

work with language at the

suprasentential or discourse level.

STUDENTS ERRORS
Errors

of form are tolerated during

fluency-based activities and are seen as a
natural outcome of the development of
communication skills.

The

teacher may note the errors during

fluency activities and return to them later
with an accuracy-based activity.

Advantages
will be
more motivated by
learning to
communicate.

Disadvantages

Students

Students

will learn
to communicate
effectively.

No

grammar rules
are presented.

REFERENCES

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and

Principles in Language Teaching. (second ed.).
Oxford University Press.
http://www.englishraven.com/method_communicat
ive.html
http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/languagelearning/
waystoapproachlanguagelearning/Communicativ
eLanguageTeaching.htm