COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

All the methods before 1970s had focused in the target language. But, In the 1970s teachers thought if they were doing the right thing to teach the communicative competence to their students. Communicative competence is not just dealing with grammar, semantics, words, phonetics… this is linguistic competence, and they noticed their students didn`t know how to use the language in a context, because they didn´t take in account the person they were talking with.

We have 10 principles while we talk about Communicative Language Teaching:

1      What are the goals of teachers who use the Communicative Language Teaching?
The goal is to allow students to communicate in the target language. They have to know the forms of language that exists, but this is not enough, they have to know also which form they have to use depending on the situation and the person they are talking to. 

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

      The teacher has to encourage students to communicate, he/se has to introduce communicative situations during the class. While the students are acting, he/she will answer the question the students have.
Students have to communicate with each others. They have an active role, because they have to make themselves understood and also they have to understand the others. They are responsible of their own learning.

3       What are some characteristics of the learning/teaching process?

      Everything is done with a communicative intention.
Activities have three characteristics:
- Information gap: it is when, in a conversation, one person knows something the other one doesn´t know.
- Choice: the communicator can choose what to say and how to say it.
- Feedback: you have feedback immediately because you know if your listener understands you or not.

4.       What is the nature of student-teacher interaction?

      More often the teacher provide the situation and the students have to communicate among them.

5.       How are the feelings the students deal with?

      Students will be more motivated to study a foreign language, because they feel they are learning something useful. They also enhance their security to express their ideas.

6.       How is language viewed?

      Students give live to language, communication helps you to know when you can use the different language functions.

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

      It depends on the level of the students, if they are beginners you should use simple forms, but if the students have higher level you should complicate the language.
Students work the four skills: in oral communication you use speaking and listening, but you can also do an interaction between the reader and the writer, the reader tries to understand the writer’s intention and the writer writes thinking on who is going to read.

8.       What is the role of the student´s native language

     Native language is permitted sometimes, but is essential to use the target language in explanations and activities. Students have to saw the language as a vehicle for communication, not just an object to be studied.

9.       How is evaluation accomplished?

      Teacher evaluates accuracy and also fluency. The student who has the most control language is not always the best communicator.

10.   How does the teacher respond to students errors?

      Errors during fluency-based activities are seen as natural progress of communication.

COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES YOU CAN DO IN CLASS

I took all these activities from http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/modules/speaking/06/

Comic Strip Stories

Description

One student recounts a story based on a comic strip. The listener must arrange the comic strip images to match the chronology of the story. The task can be made more difficult by introducing ‘distractors,’ images that are superfluous to the storyline. Thus, the listener musts determine which events (images) belong to the story and in what order they occur.

Materials Needed

•comic strips

Preparation

•Choose a comic strip that has a clear narrative structure. Make a copy of the comic strip to serve as the original story.

•Cut the strip into its individual images. Take another comic strip by the same cartoonist and do the same. Decide how many extraneous images you wish to keep as distractors.

•Make as many copies of the images as needed.

In Class

1. Tell the students the goal of the task, eg., to recount a story clearly so that the listener can reconstruct it with the aid of images. Encourage the listener to ask comprehension questions if the narrative is not clear.

2. Pre-teach any vocabulary or phrases that might be difficult for the students.

3. Give a time limit.

Information Gap

Description

Students are given a task to accomplish, but each group member only has part of the necessary information. The students must combine and synthesize their individual bits of information in order to solve a problem or make a decision.

Materials Needed

• Each student receives a master sheet as well as a set of specific information (aka clues).

Preparation

•Search for topics that can be visually presented such as geography via maps, genealogy via family trees, institutional and political organization via flow charts, statistical relationships via pie charts, diagrams and tables.

•Choose the visual aid and erase much of the information.

•The “missing” information that you removed must be distributed as ‘clues’ to the students. Make separate clues sheets with this missing information.

In Class

1. Tell the students the goal of the task, eg., to plan a trip using a map, to reconstruct a family’s genealogy, to discern social or economic trends using statistics, etc.

2. Pre-teach any vocabulary or phrases.

3. Give a time limit.

Ranking

Description

Small groups work together to construct a ranking of members that all belong to the same category (e.g., most expensive American colleges, most popular college majors, most deadly diseases, etc.). When the group reaches a consensus about their rankings, they may compare their results to actual data. Note: this activity can also be based on more subjective rankings (e.g., most over-exposed celebrities).

Materials Needed

•A master list of ranked items based on a reliable source (e.g., US census, newspaper survey, etc.)

• A list of the same items in the incorrect order to be given to each group

Preparation

•Create the two lists noted above and make copies

In Class

1. Tell the students that the goal of the task is to rank the items in the list.

2. Remind the students that they must reach a consensus. Thus, one of the most important aspects of this activity is to practice the art of persuasion. In other words, students must be ready to justify their rankings.

3. Pre-teach any vocabulary or phrases that might be difficult for the students.

4. Give a time limit.

REFERENCES

Bibliography:

DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN (2000) Techniques and Principles in language Teachin.

Webgraphy:

Foreign Language Teaching Methods. It has been seen in January 2014. Retrieved from http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/pdf/sp/speaking-template-e.pdf

Foreign Language Teaching Methods. It has been seen in January 2014. Retrieved from
http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/pdf/sp/speaking-template-d.pdf

Foreign Language Teaching Methods. It has been seen in January 2014. Retrieved from http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/pdf/sp/speaking-template-f.pdf