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    What Is The Communicative Approach?

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    Brenda Palacios
    The communicative approach is a language teaching method that focuses on developing students' real-world communication skills over grammatical rules. It aims to engage students in authentic activities like information sharing and role plays that require using language pragmatically. In this approach, the teacher facilitates learning rather than directly instructing, and lessons emphasize fluency, accuracy practice, and integrating different language skills. It has influenced modern teaching methods by shifting the focus from form to meaning and communication.

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    What Is The Communicative Approach?

    Uploaded by

    Brenda Palacios
    87 views5 pages
    The communicative approach is a language teaching method that focuses on developing students' real-world communication skills over grammatical rules. It aims to engage students in authentic activities like information sharing and role plays that require using language pragmatically. In this approach, the teacher facilitates learning rather than directly instructing, and lessons emphasize fluency, accuracy practice, and integrating different language skills. It has influenced modern teaching methods by shifting the focus from form to meaning and communication.

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    Communicative Approach of Didactic of the Language II

    Original Title

    COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

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    The communicative approach is a language teaching method that focuses on developing students' real-world communication skills over grammatical rules. It aims to engage students in authentic activities like information sharing and role plays that require using language pragmatically. In this approach, the teacher facilitates learning rather than directly instructing, and lessons emphasize fluency, accuracy practice, and integrating different language skills. It has influenced modern teaching methods by shifting the focus from form to meaning and communication.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    87 views5 pages

    What Is The Communicative Approach?

    Uploaded by

    Brenda Palacios
    The communicative approach is a language teaching method that focuses on developing students' real-world communication skills over grammatical rules. It aims to engage students in authentic activities like information sharing and role plays that require using language pragmatically. In this approach, the teacher facilitates learning rather than directly instructing, and lessons emphasize fluency, accuracy practice, and integrating different language skills. It has influenced modern teaching methods by shifting the focus from form to meaning and communication.

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    of 5

    COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

    What is the communicative approach?

    The Communicative Approach – or Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) – is a teaching


    approach that highlights the importance of real communication for learning to take place. In this
    post, you’ll find definitions, examples and ideas for classroom activities.

    The communicative approach is based on the idea that learning language successfully comes
    through having to communicate real meaning. When learners are involved in real communication,
    their natural strategies for language acquisition will be used, and this will allow them to learn to
    use the language.

    Example
    Practising question forms by asking learners to find out personal information about their
    colleagues is an example of the communicative approach, as it involves meaningful
    communication.

    In the classroom
    Classroom activities guided by the communicative approach are characterised by trying to produce
    meaningful and real communication, at all levels. As a result there may be more emphasis on skills
    than systems, lessons are more learner-centred, and there may be use of authentic materials.

    In the Communicative Approach, real communication and interaction is not only the objective in
    learning, but also the means through which it takes place. This approach started in the 70s and
    became prominent as it proposed an alternative to the then ubiquitous systems-oriented
    approaches, such as the Audiolingual method. That means that, instead of focusing on the
    acquisition of grammar and vocabulary (grammatical/linguistic competence), the Communicative
    Approach aimed at developing the learner’s competence to communicate in the target language
    (communicative competence), with an enhanced focus on real-life situations.

    According to Jack C. Richards, a learner can develop communicative competence by:

    This change has had a huge impact on


    classroom materials, course books, teaching techniques and the teacher’s role in the
    classroom, and still influences English language teaching and learning up to this day. 

    Some key features of the Communicative Approach 

    ● Lessons have communicative aims


    Communicating meaning is the main goal in CLT, and language is seen as a tool for learners to
    reach this aim. For this reason, the syllabus of courses that adopt a Communicative Approach
    to teaching favour lesson aims that will help students practice and develop their linguistic
    competence, rather than their grammatical competence. In order to achieve this, different
    types of syllabi were created, amongst them, the functional-notional syllabus, that enables
    learners to focus on the meaning (function) of language and practice it in a realistic setting:

    Besides that, the syllabus might also include work on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Listening
    and Speaking), as their development is vital for students to perform real-life goals. The skills are
    many times worked with simultaneously in what is known as integrated-skills approach. For
    instance, in a listening lesson, students can be asked to watch a video online and post their
    opinion about it in the comment section. Instead of just asking learners to leave their comment,
    the teacher might work on the appropriate language, vocabulary and register for this text
    explicitly, integrating the writing skill in a listening lesson.

    This is desirable when adopting the Communicative Approach because it seems more realistic: in
    genuine communication, skills are seldom employed in isolation, and an integrated-skills approach
    simulates what happens in real life. The source of the texts in skills lessons is also important. In the
    Communicative Approach, authentic texts are usually favoured, as they might provide learners
    with exposure to a more genuine use of language.  

    ● Teacher acts as a facilitator in the learning process

    In the Communicative Approach, learners are at the centre of instruction. That means that the
    teacher’s role has changed when compared to previous methodologies such as Audiolingualism
    and the Direct Method. The teacher is now seen as a facilitator in the learning process, and some
    of the responsibilities attributed to them are:

    ● Fluency and accuracy practice


    In order to help learners improve their communicative competence, it is important to provide a
    range of practice activities. Although the ultimate aim is genuine communication, there is room for
    activities and exercises that ensure students practice language in a more controlled manner,
    focusing on the development of accuracy. These should not, however, be the only source of
    language practice. Activities that focus on the development of fluency are a vital part of a
    Communicative Approach lesson, as they give learners the opportunity to communicate meaning

    Activity types and classroom tips:

    As the teacher is not the centre of instruction anymore, activities in the Communicative Approach
    usually favour student-student interaction and maximise learners opportunities to speak. The
    activities below can be used to provide learners with practice of the language, and the level of
    support given might vary depending on the stage of the lesson, the lesson aim, and the students’
    level of ability. Nevertheless, it is important to stress that preparing students to perform tasks is a
    vital step for the successful completion of activities and the development of their communicative
    competence. Here are some activities that can be used in a Communicative Approach lesson:

    ⮚ Role-plays: In role-plays, learners are given an imaginary situation and are asked to
    perform a different role or act as themselves in a particular scenario. Role-plays enable
    learners to imagine themselves in realistic situations and “rehearse” before they need to
    use English in real life. They are also fun and motivating for some learners.  

    ⮚ Information-gap activities: Information-gap activities require learners to talk to each


    other and find out missing information they need to perform a certain task. The
    information missing might include words, numbers and even drawings. The main point is
    to get students to talk and work collaboratively to share all information they need.

    ⮚ Jigsaw activities: Jigsaw activities involve learners reading, listening or performing


    different tasks at the same time and later sharing what they have done with their peers.
    For example, half of the students can be asked to watch a video on a certain topic and the
    other half can be asked to watch a different video, with a different viewpoint. After
    learners watch the videos and complete tasks for comprehension, they are asked to share
    what they had found out with their peers.  

    ⮚ Open-ended discussions and debates: Debates and discussions can be a useful tool for
    fluency practice. They enable learners to share their own views on topics and use their
    communicative resource to convey ideas, make points, and agree and disagree with
    others. Debates are usually engaging and provide a rich resource for teachers to assess
    their learners’ communicative competence. However, preparation for debates should be
    done thoroughly to help students succeed.

    Developments of the Communicative Approach

    After its advent in the 70s, the Communicative Approach branched out into different approaches
    and methodologies that aim at helping learners develop their communicative competence and is
    now a term that encompasses different approaches to teaching and learning. Some of these
    approaches are:Project-based learning, Task-based learning, Content-based instruction, Dogme
    ELT
    The origins of the Communicative Approach have arisen both in linguistics and in language
    teaching as a “reaction against the view of language as a set of structures” (Brumfit and Johnson
    3). Formerly, linguistics was concerned mainly with the structure of a language, and as language
    teaching is closely connected to contemporary linguistic view, language teachers were mainly
    interested in grammatical correctness. In other words, “the „form‟ rather than the „meaning‟ has
    dominated the teaching“ (Brumfit and Johnson 2). Eventually, it had been found that the
    knowledge of grammar rules itself does not enable students to use the language for
    communicative purposes sufficiently.

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