COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

What is Communicative Language Teaching?

Communicative language teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication. The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. Unlike the audio lingual method of language teaching, which relies on repetition and drills, the communicative approach can leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from day to day. Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics.

Margie S. Berns, an expert in the field of communicative language teaching, writes in explaining Firth's view that "language is interaction; it is interpersonal activity and has a clear relationship with society. In this light, language study has to look at the use (function) of language in context, both its linguistic context (what is uttered before and after a given piece of discourse) and its social, or situational, context (who is speaking, what their social roles are, why they have come together to speak)" (Berns, 1984, p. 5).

Communicative Language Teaching aims broadly to apply the theoretical perspective of the Communicative Approach by making communicative competence the goal of language teaching and by acknowledging the interdependence of language and communication.

What are the goals of teachers who use communicative language teaching?

The goal is to enable students to communicate in the target language. To do this students need knowledge of the linguistic forms, meanings, and functions. They need to know that many different forms can be used to perform a function and also that a single form can often serve a variety of function. They must be able to choose from among these the most appropriate form, given the social context and the roles of the interlocutors. They must be able to manage the process of negotiating meaning with their interlocutors. Communication is a process; knowledge of the forms of language is insufficient.

What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?

The teacher facilitates communication in the classroom. In this role, one of his major responsibilities is to establish situations likely to promote communication. During the activities he acts as an adviser, answering students' questions and monitoring their performance.

Students are, above all, communicators. They are actively engaged in negotiating meaning – in trying to make themselves understood and in understanding others – even when their knowledge of the target language is incomplete.

What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?

The most obvious characteristic of CLT is that almost everything that is done is done with a communicate intent. Students use the language a great deal through communicative activities such as games, role plays, and problem-solving tasks.

Another characteristic of CLT is the use of authentic material. It is considered desirable to give students an opportunity to develop strategies for understanding language as it is actually used.

What is the nature interaction between student-teacher and student-student?

Teacher is the facilitator of the activities, but he does not always himself interact with the students. Sometimes he is a co-communicator, but more often he establishes situations that prompt communication between and among the students.

Students interact a great deal with one another. They do this in various configurations; pairs, triads, small groups, and whole groups.

How are the feelings of the students dealt with?

One of the basic assumptions of CLT is that by learning to communicate students will be more motivated to study a foreign language since they will feel they are learning to do something useful with the language. Also, teachers give students an opportunity to express their individuality by having them share their ideas and opinions on a regular basis.

How is language viewed? How is culture viewed?

Language is for communication. Linguistic competence, the knowledge of forms and their meanings, is just one part of communicative competence. Another aspect of communicative competence is knowledge of the function language is used for.

Culture is the everyday lifestyle of people who use the language. There are certain aspects of it that are especially important to communication – the use of nonverbal behavior, for example, which might receive greater attention in CLT.

What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?

Language functions might be emphasized over forms. Typically, although not always, a functional syllabus is used. A variety of forms are introduced for each function. Only the simpler forms would be presented at first, but as students get more proficient in the target language, the functions are reintroduced and more complex forms are learned.

Students work on all four skills from the beginning. Just as oral communication is seen to take place through negotiating between speaker and listener, so too is meaning thought to be derived from the written word through an interaction between the reader and the writer.

What is the role of the students' native language?

Judicious use of the students' native language is permitted in CLT. However, whenever possible, the target language should be used not only during communicative activities, but also for explaining the activities to the students or in assigning homework.

How is evaluation accomplished?

A teacher evaluates not only the students’ accuracy, but also their fluency.

How does the teacher respond to students errors?

Errors of forms are tolerated during fluency based activities and are seen as a natural outcome of the development of communication

Total Physical Response

What is Total Physical Response?

Total Physical Response (TPR) is one of new methods developed by James Asher, a professor of psychology at San José State University, California, USA, to aid learning foreign language. TPR is a language learning method which is based on the coordination of speech and action. It is linked to the trace theory of memory, which holds that the more often or intensively a memory connection is traced, the stronger memory will be. In TPR classroom, students respond to commands that require physical movement.

Asher defines that the method of TPR relies on the assumption that when learning a second language or a foreign language, that language is internalized through a process that is similar to first language development and that the process allows for long period of listening and developing comprehension prior to production (www.wikipedia.com).

TPR is based on the premise that the human brain has a biological program from acquiring any natural language in the world including the sign language of the deaf. The process is visible when we observe how infants internalize their first language (www.tprsource.com/asher.htm). Asher looks to the way that children combine both verbal and physical aspects. A child responds physically to the speech for the parent. The responses of the child are in turn positively reinforced by the speech of the parent. For many months the child absorbs the language without being able to speak. With TPR the teacher tries to mimic this process in class (www.tprworld.com/organizing).

TPR is also named the comprehension approach since of the importance given to listening comprehension. In TPR, students listen and respond to the spoken target language commands of their teacher. If they can perform the teacher’s instructions it means that they know the meaning of the words.

What are the goals of TPR?

TPR was developed in order to reduce the stress people feel when studying foreign language and thereby encourage students to persist in their study beyond a beginning level of proficiency. Teacher who use TPR believe in the importance of having their students enjoy their experience in learning to communicate in a foreign language (Larsen and Freeman; 2000:113).

What is the role of teacher and students?

In the teaching learning process using TPR method, teacher plays an active and direct role. According to Larsen and Freeman (2000: 113) teacher is the director of all students’ behaviors. Asher (1977) as quoted by Richard and Rodgers, (1986: 93) states “The instructor is the director of a stage play in which the students are the actors”. It means that teacher is the one who decides what to teach, who models and presents the new material, and who selects supporting materials for classroom use. Teacher is encouraged to be well prepared and well organized so that the lesson flows smoothly and predictable.

Learners in TPR have the primary roles of listeners and performers. They listen attentively and respond both individually and collectively. They have little influence over the content of learning since the content is determined by the teacher who must follow the imperative form for lesson (Richard and Rodgers 1986:93). According to Larsen and Freeman (2000: 113), the students are imitators of the teacher’s nonverbal model. There will be a role reversal with individual students

directing the teacher and the other students.In TPR, learners monitor and evaluate their own progress. They are encouraged to speak when they feel ready to speak that is when a sufficient basis in the language has been internalized.

What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?

The first phase of a lesson is one of modeling. The instructor issues commands to a few students, then performs the actions with them. In the second phase, these same students demonstrate that they can understand the commands by performing them alone. The teacher next recombines elements of the commands to have students develop flexibility in understanding unfamiliar utterance. These commands, which students perform, are often homorous.

After learning to respond to some oral commands, the students learn to read and write them. When students are ready to speak, they become the ones who issue the commands.

How the interaction occur?

The teacher interacts with the whole group of students and with individual students. Initially the interaction is characterized by the teacher speaking and the students responding nonverbally. Students perform the action together. Students can learn by watching each other.

How are the feelings of the students dealt with?

One of the main reasons TPR was to reduce the stress people feel when studying foreign language. One of the primary ways this is accomplished is to allow learners to speak when they are ready. Forcing them to speak before then will only create anxiety.

Another way to relieve anxiety is to make language learning as enjoyable as possible. The use of zany commands and homorous skits are two ways of showing that language learning can be fun.

How is language and culture viewed?

Just as with the acquisition of the native language, the oral modality is primary. Culture is the lifestyle of people who speak the language natively.

What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?

Vocabulary and grammatical structures are emphasized over other language areas. These are embedded within imperatives. The imperatives are single words and multi-word chunks.

Understanding the spoken word should precede its production. The spoken language is emphasized over written language.

What is the role of the students' native language?

TPR is usually introduced in the students' native language. After the introduction, rarely would the native language be used. Meaning is made clear through body movements.

How is evaluation accomplished?

Teachers will know immediately whether or not students understand by observing their students' action. Formal evaluations can be conducted simply by commanding individual students to perform a series of actions. As students become more advanced, their performance of skits they have created can become the basis for evaluation.

How does the teacher respond to students errors?

Teachers should be tolerant of the students errors and only correct major errors. Even these should be corrected unobtrusively.