Page 43 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

The Communicative Approach

approachesandmethodsofthetime,thecommunicativeapproach changed
the focus from the teaching of the foreign language as a system to teaching
the language as communication (Howatt & Widdowson, 2004). According to
thefundamentalprinciplesofcommunicativelanguageteaching(CLT),alan-
guage is best learnt by being used to communicate, in other words, learning
an FL means acquiring different linguistic means to perform different com-
municative functions.
Some of the most distinctive features of CLT are (Harmer, 2007; Richards &
Rodgers, 2001):

• the teaching goals should reflect the learners’ proficiency and commu-
nicative needs,
• learners should have a desire to communicate something and a pur-
pose for communicating (e.g. to express an opinion, to order a meal in
a restaurant, to ask for information in a letter etc.),
• ratherthanfocusingsolelyongrammarandvocabulary,weshouldtake
into account the language functions and teach the learners to use ap-
propriate language forms in different contexts and for different pur-
poses,
• activities should involve learners in realistic situations where they are
focused on the content of what they are saying rather than on the lan-
guage form,
• theprimarygoalisfluency,not accuracy,andit isachievedthrough trial
and error,
• the teacher’s role is that of facilitator and monitor, while learners are
seen as active participants in the learning process.

Learnerscan achievecommunicativecompetencesin an FLbyengagingin
meaningful communication, using authentic materials which reflect real life
situations. While the range of activities used in CLT is endless, some of the
more typical activities are: role-play and simulation, information gap activi-
ties,interviewsandsurveys,communicativegames,discussionsanddebates,
and several other activities which are focused on achieving communication.
For example, an information gap activity emerges from the observation that
in everyday lives people commonly communicate in order to get some in-
formation, such as asking somebody for a mobile phone number or direc-
tions to a post office. In information gap activities used in the classroom, we
can recreate such realistic situations for learners so they will be able to ex-
changeunknown information.In orderto completethetask,theywillhaveto
draw on the grammar, vocabulary and communication strategies available to
43