Communicative Language Teaching English Language Classroom Abstract When Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was first developed in the 1970s, it was widely seen as the definitive response to the shortcomings of previous approaches and the communication needs of a globalized world. As such, it was exported enthusiastically over the world as a readytouse package of ideas and techniques. From the outset, however, there was no clear consensus about its nature and teachers experienced difficulty in defining and implementing it. There is now a widespread view that teachers need to adapt CLT to suit specific contexts. The aim of this paper is to identify the definition of CLT, its advantages and disadvantage in applying in English language classrooms. In this study, 17 articles on the Internet, journals as well as books were collected and analyzed. The definition of CLT is categorized in meanings and features. The paper also proved the benefits and disadvantages of CLT on applying in teaching English in classroom. It concluded with the real situation of adapt CLT in English teaching and learning in Vietnamese context.
HANOI UNIVERSITY Km Nguyen Trai Road, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Vietnam Telephone:(84-4)3854 4338; Fax:(84-4)3854550 E-mail: hanu@hanu.edu.vn; Website: www.hanu.edu.vn ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET Family Name: Vu First Name: Thi Thuy An Unit Title: ACADEMIC WRITING Assignment Title: COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS Name of Lecturer: MA CHU QUANG BINH Date Submitted: 29th, June, 2016 Class: 1PGN32 Student Contact Telephone No./Student Email Address: Thuyan0912@gmail.com STUDENT DECLARATION I DECLARE THAT THIS ASSIGNMENT IS ORIGINAL AND HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED FOR ASSESSMENT E LSEWHERE I DECLARE THAT THIS ASSIGNMENT IS MY OWN WORK AND DOES NOT INVOLVE PLAGIARISM OR COLL USION I GIVE MY CONSENT FOR THE ELECTRONIC VERSION TO BE EXAMINED BY RELEVANT PLAGIARISM SOF TWARE PROGRAMS I HAVE MADE A PHOTOCOPY OR ELECTRONIC COPY OF MY ASSIGNMENT, WHICH I CAN PRODUCE IF T HE ORIGINAL IS LOST FOR ANY REASON SIGNED: DATED: MARKS COMMENTS: Lecturer’s Signature: ……………………………………… Date: ……………… Running head: CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM Communicative Language Teaching English Language Classroom Vu Thi Thuy An Hanoi University CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM Communicative Language Teaching English Language Classroom Abstract When Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was first developed in the 1970s, it was widely seen as the definitive response to the shortcomings of previous approaches and the communication needs of a globalized world As such, it was exported enthusiastically over the world as a ready-to-use package of ideas and techniques From the outset, however, there was no clear consensus about its nature and teachers experienced difficulty in defining and implementing it There is now a widespread view that teachers need to adapt CLT to suit specific contexts The aim of this paper is to identify the definition of CLT, its advantages and disadvantage in applying in English language classrooms In this study, 17 articles on the Internet, journals as well as books were collected and analyzed The definition of CLT is categorized in meanings and features The paper also proved the benefits and disadvantages of CLT on applying in teaching English in classroom It concluded with the real situation of adapt CLT in English teaching and learning in Vietnamese context Key words: Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Communicative Approach CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM Introduction It is said that learning is all about behavior and education is modifying behavior To modify and manage this complex behavior of human beings, methodologists have put tremendous effort in studying various teaching methods, finding materials and providing resources for teachers and learners Teachers, at the same time, have devoted great attempt to figure out the most suitable way to apply to their own teaching context As the demand for an appropriate teaching methodology is as strong as ever, teaching methods should be recognized as a guideline which drives the whole language learning process Some teaching methods focus centrally on the input to the learning process while the others pay much attention to the output one GrammarTranslation, which dominated the second language (L2) classroom in the early years of the nineteenth century in Western countries, for example, focus more directly on instructional processes Others, such as Audio-lingual or Communicate Language Teaching (CLT) concentrate on the outcomes of learning and use outcomes or products as the starting point in planning teaching The Audio-lingual Method developed in response to the need for Americans to learn the languages of their allies and enemies alike during World War II, aims at helping learners “to be able to use the target language communicatively” Meanwhile, in the Communicative Approach, given the benefits of applying Communicative language Teaching (CLT) in the setting of a language learning classroom, it is not surprising that many teachers are interested in integrating this teaching method into the language-learning syllabus As a matter of fact, CLT has spread over a large scale in just a short period of time; and there is no doubt that it has influenced many other language teaching approaches Due to Swan (1985) CLT has resulted in a real improvement in the speed and quality of language learning Contracy to this view, Brown (2007) suggested that CLT approach focuses on fluency but not accuracy in grammar and pronunciation This paper, taking this argument as starting point, provides the basic definitions of CLT then determine advantages and disadvantages of CLT in English language classrooms and if real the real situation of adapt CLT in English teaching and learning in Vietnamese context CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM Methods While doing this study paper, because of limited time, secondary research method was pursued 17 articles and books relating to the research questions of applying CLT in English language class in Vietnam were selected to analyze All of them were taken from Journal of Language and Linguistics Studies, internet-based full articles in PDF format were careful chosen, basing on website’s ability as well as the high number of citations and books written by worldwide famous authors in my study field such as David Nunan, Brown Douglas, Richard Jack… It is obviously certain that the choice of all above writings was motivated by the need control as much as possible for such variables as relevant topic, writers’ nationality, levels of experience and expertise, publication year, and the special features of sub description Results CLT was developed in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s and popularized by the British Council and the Council of Europe According to the analysis of articles, there are a number of definitions of CLT Richard & Rorger (1986) defined “CLT is an approach that aims to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching of four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication” (p.66) Ellis, in 1996, showed that CLT was a reaction to language teaching methods that seemed ineffective such as Grammar-Translation, Audio-lingual method, in developing learners who can communicate in both in speaking and writing which is suitable with their needs Richards (2006) shares the same thought with Ellis that Communicative Language Teaching is a set of principles about teaching including methods and syllabus of teacher and learner’s learning style and the responsibility of teacher and learners in the classroom CLT is a language teaching approach based on the linguistic theory of communicative competence Developing communicative competence in learners is the goal of CLT CLT emphasizes “humanism,” which focuses on students’ needs and individual affective factors; advocates several languagelearning principles, as opposed to an articulated learning theory; and draws from several language teaching methods Therefore, CLT is an approach rather than a method of English language teaching More specific, Communicative Language Teaching is most often defined as a list of general principles or features One of the CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM most recognized of these lists is David Nunan's (1991) five features of Communicative Language Teaching which are an emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language, the introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation, the provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning management process, an enhancement of the learner's own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning and an attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom These five features are claimed by practitioners of Communicative Language Teaching to show that they are very interested in the needs and desires of their learners, as well as the connection between the language as it is taught in their class and as it used outside the classroom Under this broad definition, any teaching practice that helps students develop their communicative competence in an authentic context is considered an acceptable and beneficial form of instruction Relating to this research question, what are the benefits of CLT and what makes CLT such a trustful and reliable tool for language teachers? First of all, CLT concentrated on the interaction between students and teachers Nunan (2010) explains that teacherstudent relationship is an interactive, harmonious relationship, rather than the traditional education, the kind of master-servant relationship Secondly, in a classroom environment, CLT shows total respect for the students According to Nunan (2012), traditional classroom teaching of English only emphasized the teachers on the knowledge of the systematic and integrity, which is a teacher-centered, knowledgecentered from the medieval "scholastic" teaching methods inherited – one consequence of the neglect of student ability The communicative teaching emphasizes the learner's cognitive ability and operational capabilities, which allow the students themselves to think about and express their views, thus trained in real life the ability to use language to communicate Moreover, Savignon (2002) emphasizes that applying CLT can greatly improved the students’ interest – one major aim of teachers in a session It is also stated that “CLT has highlighted the fundamentally communicative properties of language, where classrooms are increasingly characterized by authenticity, real-world simulation, and meaningful tasks” (Wyatt, 2009) He also adds that CLT attempts to go beyond purely grammatical and discourse elements in communication and probe the nature of social, cultural, and pragmatic features of language Classroom becomes CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM a real setting where the students became the main character; naturally they were interested in the English language, to learn English as a pleasure Last but not least, Swan (1985) stated that “During the last few years, under the influence of the “Communicative Approach”, language teaching seems to have made great progress” (p.2) The process is shown in changes in a lot of things, especially in methodology The boring and mechanical exercise types which were so common in last decades have been replaced by a splendid variety of exciting and engaging practice activities Due to Swan, such progress in course design has resulted in a real improvement in the speed and quality of language learning However, every coin has two faces; there are strong arguments against communicative language teaching According to Brown (2007) the main deviating characteristic of the CLT approach, compared to other more traditional approaches, is that CLT approach focuses on fluency but not accuracy in grammar and pronunciation That means in the CLT classroom there is less attention paid to the discussion of grammatical rules and more attention is given to fluency and authentic language usage, students, therefore, may produce incoherent and grammatically incorrect sentences Some people, besides, claim that The CLT approach is great for intermediate student and advanced students, but for beginners some controlled practice is needed; and applying CLT in classroom means that the monitoring ability of the teacher must be very good Others worry that Grammar Teaching Practices make application of this approach difficult Japan is a typical example for this Although the Japanese education ministry (MEXT) has introduced policies to try to encourage CLT in Japanese schools, studies have shown that Japanese teachers of English have tended to continue to use the traditional yakudoku (grammar-translation) style of education He also points out that the pressure to prepare students for the grammatically oriented university entrance tests has often been cited as the cause for this phenomenon However, it should be highlighted that emphasis on communicative competence is opposed to the traditional emphasis on grammatical competence, which refers to “the knowledge of the building blocks of sentences for example parts of speech, tenses, phrases and how sentences are formed” ; though these grammatical features play an important part in language learning it needs to be taken into account that “one can master the rules of sentence formation in a language and still not be very successful at being able to use the CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM language for meaningful communication” It is undeniable that CLT focuses on “all components of communicative competence including grammatical, discourse, functional, sociolinguistic, and strategic” And it is the teachers’ job to engage learners and help them to focus on not only the “flow” of comprehension and production inside classroom both receptively and productively, but also in unrehearsed context of the real world This paper also digs deep on a distinctive characteristic of CLT that are really helpful for students which is oral communicating ability Oral communicating in L2 is an important educational goal in any language classrooms Teachers have attempted to stimulate autonomous practices among learners in our own classroom with the final aim that helping them to be actively involved in gaining input through interaction with language acquisition in order to increase the amount of utterance This awareness ought to help to develop autonomous learners who can continue to develop their language skills beyond the classroom In CLT, communicative competence is the desired goal and fluency is the primary goal In a classroom of Communicative approach, students are expected to interact with other people, either in oral practice, through pair and group work, or in their writings Dialogues, if used, centered on communicative function CLT also principally focus on meaning which will strongly motivate students due to the fact that intrinsic motivation will spring from an interest in what is being communicated by the language It is true that some of the characteristics of CLT make it difficult for a non-native teacher “who might not be very proficient in the second language to teach effectively” Being a nonnative means that no matter how well a language is acquired there is always the possibility that certain nuances of the language could be beyond the teachers abilities, which limits the ability of the teacher to effectively guide the learners in a productive and coherent manner This, though, should not discourage non-native teachers in pursuing an understanding of this fascinating approach to language teaching Back to Vietnam, in 1986, Vietnam adopted a socialist-oriented market economy under the State management Since then, the economic relations between Vietnam and other countries in the region and in the world have expanded massively As a result of this international integration, the demand for a skilled labor force having good command of English has become increased and English has been the CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM foreign language of first choice in the country Unlike before, people tended to learn English with the aim of communicating Many language students listed speaking ability as one of their main objectives of study, either because they would acquire some personal satisfaction from being able to speak a second language or because they feel it would be beneficial in chasing other interests or career goals Most of them admit that among the four skills, they have the least confidence in speaking and even though most of them have been studying English for nearly ten years, they still fell anxious and worried facing a foreigner or being in an unfamiliar English-speaking environment However, the communicative competence in English of Vietnamese workforce has not met the requirements of the employers A large number of fresh university graduates “have not been employed by foreign enterprises because of their poor English listening and speaking skills” Several studies conducted with the aim of improving the quality of teaching and learning English in Vietnam show that “traditional pedagogy, emphasizing the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary rather than communicative competence” is one of the causes of the problem Unfortunately, despite the great efforts made in teacher education programs, the quality of English teaching and learning in Vietnam is still a concern for many educators (Le, 2007; Pham, 2004, 2007; Sullivan, 1996) Since the early 1990s, therefore, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has quickly become popular in Vietnam and continued in its classic form as seen in the huge range of course books and other teaching resources that cite CLT as the source of their methodology As Le (1999) revealed, two essential factors encouraging the use of CLT in Vietnam are the support from government policy and Vietnamese teachers’ favorable view of this approach, as evidenced by a number of studies Even until now, during this period of renewing and innovating education, with a number of new policies and long-term projects, perhaps the majority of language teacher when asked to identify the methodology they think as an ideal type for a typical English classroom environment will refer to “communicative” as the methodology of choice According to Lien (as in Hiep, P H, 2007), CLT is a good teaching method as it aims to create such an uninhibited atmosphere in the classroom In contrast to grammar classrooms, communicative ones are always exciting with a lot of activities; learners are always motivated and feel interested in the activities in class Moreover, according to job requirements in Vietnam, English proficiency is what many people try to get to have a good job Many companies require applicants to be able to communicate in English Therefore, if learners can not speak out any words in CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM English, they may easily lose their opportunities Discussion The first matter in this research is the definition of CLT Through some definitions of CLT and its features, it is clarify to language teachers and learners that CLT characterized as a broad approach to teaching, rather than as a teaching method with a clearly defined set of classroom practices Also, the result of the study indicates that the communicative approach emphasizes the idea of an effective communication between the teacher and the students and focuses on language as a medium of communication Additionally, all main characteristics of CLT, which also affects to teaching process, has not mentioned in this study The findings also indicate the benefits and difficulties in applying CLT in English language classes and how CLT is applying in Vietnam teaching context It is clarify that CLT is becoming more popular in English language classrooms in Vietnam and has influenced many other language teaching approaches However, there is some doubt about how teacher apply CLT effectively in classrooms such as how teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life or whether or not learners and teachers hold the same attitudes towards CLT An idea of CLT marked a departure from traditional language teaching as CLT views that learning is learned through the process of struggling to communicate Emphasis on real-world use and application is active acquisition and real learning; and meaningful real-world language use is exactly what CLT concerns itself with At the moment CLT seems like an exciting and interesting approach but whatever teaching method or approach one decides to act upon it is important that the learners are motivated and that the material, and the way the learners work with the material, is varied CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM 10 REFERENCES Babu, K T S (2013) English Language Teaching Methods-An Overview The Dawn Journal.2 Brandl, K (2008) Communicative language teaching in action: Putting principles to work Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall Brown, H D (2007) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (3rd ed.) White Plains: Pearson ESL Marland, F M.P, Dashwood, A., Son, J B (2004) Teaching a Foregein Language: One Teacher’s Practical Theory Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(3), 291311 Ellis, G (1996) How culturally appropriate is the communicative approach? ELT Journal, 50(3), 213-218 Hiep, P H (2007) Communicative language teaching: Unity within diversity ELT journal, 61(3) 193-201 Le V C (1999) Language and Vietnamese pedagogical contexts Retrieved from www.greenstone.org/greenstone3/sites/nzdl/collect /literatu/import/Teacher %27s%20Edition/Canh01.pdf Morison, L C L M K (2007) Research Methods in Education, Routledge Falmer Nunan, D (2012) Learner-Centered English Language Education, Routledge Press Nunan, R C D (2010) The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Cambridge University Press Pham, H.H (2004) Trained in the West, teaching in the East: Vietnamese teachers returning from TESOL courses abroad Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Melbourne Pham, H H (2005) Imported Communicative Language Teaching: Implication for local teachers English Teaching Forum 43(4), 2-9 CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM 11 Renandya, J C R W A (2006) Methodology in Languge Teaching: An Anthology of Curent Practice, Cambridge University Press Richard, J C (2006) Communicative Language Teaching Today, Cambridge University Press Savignon, S J (2002) Interpreting Communicative Language Teaching: Contexts and Concerns in Teacher Education, New Heaven: Yale University Press Tanada, T (2009) Communicative Language Teaching and its Cultural Appropriateness in Japan, Doshisha Studies in English 84: 107-123 Wyatt, M (2009) Practical Knowledge Growth in Communicative Languge Teaching The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language 13(2) [...]... CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM 10 REFERENCES Babu, K T S (2013) English Language Teaching Methods-An Overview The Dawn Journal.2 Brandl, K (2008) Communicative language teaching in action: Putting principles to work Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall Brown, H D (2007) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (3rd ed.) White Plains:... Communicative Language Teaching: Implication for local teachers English Teaching Forum 43(4), 2-9 CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM 11 Renandya, J C R W A (2006) Methodology in Languge Teaching: An Anthology of Curent Practice, Cambridge University Press Richard, J C (2006) Communicative Language Teaching Today, Cambridge University Press Savignon, S J (2002) Interpreting Communicative.. .CUMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROM 9 English, they may easily lose their opportunities Discussion The first matter in this research is the definition of CLT Through some definitions of CLT and its features, it is clarify to language teachers and learners that CLT characterized as a broad approach to teaching, rather than as a teaching method with a clearly defined set... language classes and how CLT is applying in Vietnam teaching context It is clarify that CLT is becoming more popular in English language classrooms in Vietnam and has influenced many other language teaching approaches However, there is some doubt about how teacher apply CLT effectively in classrooms such as how teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life or whether or not... Interpreting Communicative Language Teaching: Contexts and Concerns in Teacher Education, New Heaven: Yale University Press Tanada, T (2009) Communicative Language Teaching and its Cultural Appropriateness in Japan, Doshisha Studies in English 84: 107-123 Wyatt, M (2009) Practical Knowledge Growth in Communicative Languge Teaching The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language 13(2) ... the study indicates that the communicative approach emphasizes the idea of an effective communication between the teacher and the students and focuses on language as a medium of communication Additionally, all main characteristics of CLT, which also affects to teaching process, has not mentioned in this study The findings also indicate the benefits and difficulties in applying CLT in English language. .. departure from traditional language teaching as CLT views that learning is learned through the process of struggling to communicate Emphasis on real-world use and application is active acquisition and real learning; and meaningful real-world language use is exactly what CLT concerns itself with At the moment CLT seems like an exciting and interesting approach but whatever teaching method or approach one... %27s%20Edition/Canh01.pdf Morison, L C L M K (2007) Research Methods in Education, Routledge Falmer Nunan, D (2012) Learner-Centered English Language Education, Routledge Press Nunan, R C D (2010) The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Cambridge University Press Pham, H.H (2004) Trained in the West, teaching in the East: Vietnamese teachers returning from TESOL courses abroad Unpublished doctoral... Marland, F M.P, Dashwood, A., Son, J B (2004) Teaching a Foregein Language: One Teacher’s Practical Theory Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(3), 291311 Ellis, G (1996) How culturally appropriate is the communicative approach? ELT Journal, 50(3), 213-218 Hiep, P H (2007) Communicative language teaching: Unity within diversity ELT journal, 61(3) 193-201 Le V C (1999) Language and Vietnamese pedagogical contexts