Communicative language teaching: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:22, 17 October 2023

Revision as of 20:05, 22 November 2023

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{{Short description|Approach to language education}}

'''Communicative language teaching''' ('''CLT'''), or the '''communicative approach''' ('''CA) '''), is an [[language-teaching approach|approach]] to [[language teaching]] that emphasizes [[Social interaction|interaction]] as both the means and the ultimate goal of study.

Learners in environments using communication to learn and practice the target language by interactions with one another and the instructor, the study of "authentic texts" (those written in the target language for purposes other than language learning), and the use of the language both in class and outside of class.

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=== Academic influences ===

Already in the late 19th Centurycentury, the American educator [[John Dewey]] was writing about learning by doing,<ref>1897 My Pedagogic Creed</ref> and later that learning should be based on the learner's interests and experiences.<ref>1910. How We Think.</ref> In 1963, American psychologist [[David Ausubel]] released his book ''The Psychology of Meaningful Verbal Learning'' calling for a holistic approach to learners teaching through meaningful material. American educator Clifford Prator published a paper in 1965 calling for teachers to turn from an emphasis on manipulation (drills) towards communication where learners were free to choose their own words. <ref>Prator, Clifford H. "Development of a Manipulation-Communication Scale. NAFSA Studies and Papers." English Language Series 10 (1965).</ref> In 1966, the sociolinguist [[Dell Hymes]] posited the concept of [[communicative competence]] considerably broadening out [[Noam Chomsky]]'s syntactic concept of competence. Also, in 1966, American psychologist Jerome Bruner wrote that learners construct their own understanding of the world based on their experiences and prior knowledge, and teachers should provide scaffolding to promote this.<ref>1966. Toward a Theory of Instruction.</ref> Bruner appears to have been influenced by [[Lev Vygotsky]], a Russian psychologist whose [[zone of proximal development]] is a similar concept.

Later in the 1970's1970s British linguist [[M.A.K. Halliday]] studied how language functions are expressed through grammar.<ref name=":8">Littlewood, William. ''Communicative language teaching: An introduction''. Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 541-545541–545</ref>

The development of communicative language teaching was bolstered by these academic ideas. Before the growth of communicative language teaching, the primary method of language teaching was situational language teaching, a method that was much more clinical in nature and relied less on direct communication. In Britain, applied linguists began to doubt the efficacy of situational language teaching, partly in response to Chomsky's insights into the nature of language. Chomsky had shown that the structural theories of language then prevalent could not explain the variety that is found in real communication.<ref name=":10">{{Cite book|title=Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching|last1=Richards|first1=Jack|last2=Rodgers|first2=Theodore|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-1-107-67596-4|___location=Cambridge|pages=23–24, 84–85|edition=3nd}}</ref> In addition, applied linguists like Christopher Candlin and [[Henry Widdowson]] observed that the current model of language learning was ineffective in classrooms. They saw a need for students to develop communicative skill and functional competence in addition to mastering language structures.<ref name=":10" />