Communicative language teaching.

What is CLT?

Communicative Language Teaching

1. Language learning is learning to communicate using the target language.

1. The language used to communicate must be appropriate to the situation, the roles of the speakers, the setting and the register. The learner needs to differentiate between a formal and an informal style.

1. Communicative activities are essential. Activities should be presented in a situation or context and have a communicative purpose.

1.  Typical activities of this approach are: games, problem-solving tasks, and role-play. 

1. There should be information gap, choice and feedback involved in the activities.

1. Learners must have constant interaction with and exposure to the target language.

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2. Development of the four macro-skills — speaking, listening, reading and writing — is integrated from the beginning, since communication integrates the different skills.

1. The topics are selected and graded regarding age, needs, level, and students’ interest.

1. Motivation is central. Teachers should raise students’ interest from the beginning of the lesson.

1. The role of the teacher is that of a guide, a facilitator or an instructor.

1. Trial and error is considered part of the learning process.

1. Evaluation concerns not only the learners’ accuracy but also their fluency.

Its basic characteristics:

1. learning to communicate through interaction .

2. The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.

3. learners focus on language and the learning process itself.

4. An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences.

5. linking classroom language learning with language activities.

1. Meaning is paramount.

1. Dialogues, if used, enter around communicative functions and are not normally memorized.

1. Contextualization is a basic premise. (Meaning cannot be
   

1. understood out of context. Teachers using this approach will
   

1. present a grammar topic in a meaningful context.
   

The role of the teacher is to be facilitator of his students‟ learning. He suggests that language teachers need to assist learners by providing them with frameworks, patterns and rules to develop their communicative language skills.

The Demerits:

Teacher must be a very knowledgeable person.

Students and teacher must understand each other.

.Inadequate use of authentic materials can damage

the course.

CLT approach focuses on fluency but not accuracy.

Classroom Activities

1-Role-play

Role-play is an oral activity usually done in pairs, whose main goal is to develop students' communicative abilities in a certain setting.

Example:

1. The instructor sets the scene: where is the conversation taking place? (E.g., in a café, in a park, etc.)

1. The instructor defines the goal of the students' conversation. (E.g., the speaker is asking for directions, the speaker is ordering coffee, the speaker is talking about a movie they recently saw)

1. The students converse in pairs for a designate...      
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                 2-Interviews

An interview is an oral activity done in pairs, whose main goal is to

develop students' interpersonal skills in the TL.

Example:

1. The instructor gives each student the same set of questions to ask a partner.

1. Students take turns asking and answering the questions in pairs.