COMMUNICATIVE

LANGUAGE TEACHING
STRATEGIES
ERIKA JENNY M. ROCENA
Ateneo de Manila Junior High School
English Subject Area
How would you
describe your
students
nowadays?
CONTEXT:

21st Century
Learners
and Language
Learning
 There is a
disconnect
between the way
students live and
the way they are
taught, and
student
engagement
ultimately suffers.
 21st Century Learners

Surfers and
scanners–
not readers
and digesters
 21st Century Learners

Tech-savvy, but crave personal

contact
 21st Century Learners

Everywhere but nowhere,

connected but disconnected
21st Century Learners

These tech-savvy,
multimedia,
multitasking digital
natives navigate
everyday life far
differently than
many of their digital
immigrant teachers.
 How do we make these 21st
century learners engage in and
appreciate decades- or centuries-
old texts?
COMMUNICATIVE
LANGUAGE TEACHING
 Harry Potter Book 5,
DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS
Prof. Umbridge: Wands away CLASS
and quills out. We
will be following a carefully structured, theory-
centered course of defensive magic this year.

Ron Weasley: We’re not going to use magic?

Prof. Umbridge: Why, I can’t imagine any

situation arising in my classroom that would
require to use a defensive spell! A theoretical
knowledge will be more than sufficient to get
you through your examination, which, after all,
is what school is all about.
Communicative Language
Teaching
• Approach to teaching
• Goal: communicative
competence
• Primary focus of language
is communication

• Language use is the

driving force of language
development
Communicative Language
Teaching

Linking of all skills together, since they

occur in the real world simultaneously
 Meaningful
communication results
from students
processing input that is
relevant, purposeful,
interesting, and
engaging
 COMMUNICATION
CLT
Principles
TASK

MEANINGFULNESS
 Focus on cooperative
and collaborative
learning
CLT
Principles
CONTEXTUALIZATION
of learning
 We enter
through THEIR
door, but we will
make sure they
will exit through
OUR door.
 CLT STRATEGIES FOR
READING
•Activities that strengthen inferencing
skills
•Activities that check and enrich
understanding
•Supplements
CLT
ACTIVITIES:

Developing
Inferencing
Skills
ASKING QUESTIONS TO MAKE
INFERENCES
• Students should develop
the skill of making logical
inferences by looking for
supports (details) in a text.

• You, as teacher, can guide

them in making inferences
by ASKING THEM to
pinpoint details.
DEVELOPING INFERENCING
SKILLS
What is this ad trying to say?
DEVELOPING INFERENCING
SKILLS
What is this ad trying to say?
DEVELOPING INFERENCING
SKILLS
What is this ad trying to say?
DEVELOPING INFERENCING
SKILLS

PRE-READING

• Predicting the
plot and conflict
through book
cover/movie
poster
DEVELOPING INFERENCING
SKILLS

PRE-READING

• Previewing the
plot’s conflict
(embody the
characters)
DEVELOPING INFERENCING
SKILLS

PRE-READING

• Previewing the
plot’s conflict
(embody the
characters)
DEVELOPING INFERENCING
SKILLS

PRE-READING

• Previewing the
plot’s conflict
(embody the
characters)
DEVELOPING INFERENCING
SKILLS
1. Choose a challenge,
hurdle, or obstacle
PRE-READING that you were able to
conquer in the past
two years (Gr. 7 and
Grade 8). (ex. A terror
Previewing the teacher, a difficult
reading material, a
plot’s conflict challenging project, an
(relating personal issue in class, KFD,
etc.)
experiences to 2. Interpret your chosen
challenge into a
the text) monster. Make it look
scary. Draw your
monster on the paper.
CLT ACTIVITIES:

Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION
Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION

Contextualized
role play

Assume that the characters are students in

the classroom. How will they react? What will
they say?
Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION

Contextualized
role play
Assume that you are the Council of Elders,
and you will give your classmates their
lifelong job based on yoru observations on
their aptitude, interests,and abilities.
Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION

Retelling a
story from
another
character’s
POV
Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION

Creating a
playlist that
reflects
significant plot
points
Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION

Creating a
playlist that
reflects
significant plot
points
Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION

Making memes
(characterization
and plot)
Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION

Making memes
(characterization
and plot)
Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION

Making memes
(characterization
and plot)
Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION

Making memes
(characterization
and plot)
Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION

Making memes
(characterization
and plot)
Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION
Making memes
(characterization and plot)
Contextualization for
COMPREHENSION

Stating the
theme or moral
through creative
means
CLT ACTIVITIES:

Contextualization for
ENRICHMENT
Contextualization for
ENRICHMENT

Re-imagining the text into

another form

Merchandise items
Contextualization for
ENRICHMENT

Re-imagining the text into

another form

Merchandise items
Contextualization for
ENRICHMENT

Re-imagining
the text into
another form

Board games
Cellphone app
Video game
Contextualization for
ENRICHMENT

Re-imagining
the text into
another form

Theme park rides

Contextualization for
ENRICHMENT

Writing their
own story
Contextualization for
ENRICHMENT
Writing their own story
Contextualization for
ENRICHMENT
Writing their own story
Contextualization for
ENRICHMENT

Adaptation
of the story

Macbeth set in a
1950s diner
Contextualization for
ENRICHMENT

Creating
fictional
social media
accounts
Suppleme
nts
THE INTERNET AS
SUPPLEMENT

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder what you are.”
THE INTERNET AS
SUPPLEMENT

“Hey Jude, don’t make it bad.

Take a sad song and make it
better.”
(Hey Jude – The Beatles)
THE INTERNET AS
SUPPLEMENT

“Last Christmas, I gave you

my heart, but the very next
day, you gave it away.”
MODERN ADAPTATIONS
MODERN ADAPTATIONS
 COMMUNICATION
CLT
Principles
TASK

MEANINGFULNESS
Some
reminders in
using CLT
CLT activities
are heavily
learner-
centered, but as
teachers, we still
need to process
and give
feedback on the
output.
“Having fun” is
not the goal of
CLT. We do
them to
accomplish a
pedagogical
goal.

Having fun is
simply a bonus.
Have a clear set of
rubrics.

Make sure that

plot accuracy will
still be
incorporated in it.
Through CLT, students
learn to:
• Take part in
meaningful
interpersonal
exchange
• Experience more
personalized and
holistic learning
• Develop critical and
creative thinking skills
Love the text.
Passion is contagious! 
Be patient in finding the
crevices in the text that
can serve as your
passageway to
contextualizing.
Thank you for listening! 

erocena@ateneo.edu