Communicative Language Teaching in English teaching and learning

张红砚

【Abstract】Language is a means of communication. Communicative Language Teaching is an effective approach for English teaching and learning .This paper， first of all， introduces Communicative Language Teachings background and the basis theory of CLA. Then it analyzes the primary principles and the goal of Communicative Language Approach. Finally， it put forward that communicative language teaching is best considered an approach rather than a method.

【Key words】communicative language teaching； approach； communicative competence.

1. Introduction

The origins of Communicative Language Teaching can be dating from the late 1960s. American linguists Noam Chomsky had demonstrated that the current standard structural theories of language were incapable of accounting for the fundamental characteristic of language-the creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences in his classic book Syntactic Structures （1957）. British applied linguists emphasized another fundamental dimension of language that was inadequately addressed in current approach to language teaching at that time-the functional and communicative potential of language. They saw the need to focus in language teaching on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures.

2. Communicative Language Approach

There is no doubt that foreign language teaching is to cultivate students' communicative competence of using a foreign language. Howatt （1984） distinguishes between “strong” and “weak” version of Communicative Language Teaching. Communicative Language Teaching， more an approach than a method， has a reasonable degree of theoretical consistency， which can be discerned at levels of language and learning theory.

3. Teaching Activities in Communicative Language Approach

Classroom activities are often designed to focus on completing tasks that are mediated through language or involve negotiation of information and information sharing. These attempts take many forms. In a communicative language teaching classroom， there are a lot of communicative activities between the students， such as pair work， group work， role-play and discussion.

Littlewood（1981） distinguishes between “functional communication activities” and “social interaction activities” as a major activity types in Communicative Language Teaching. Functional communication activities include the task that learners could compare sets of pictures and note similarities and differences； could work out a likely sequences of events in a set of pictures； could discovery missing features in a map or pictures； Social interaction activities include conversation and discussion sessions， dialogues and role plays， simulations， skits， improvisations， and debates. Role plays and simulations are very useful tools.

4. The Main Features in Communicative Language Teaching

In a communicative language teaching class， the teacher has two main roles： the first role is to facilitate the communication process between all participants in the classroom， and between these participants and the various activities and texts. The second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning-teaching group. The role of a learner as a negotiator-between the self， the learning process， and the object of learning-emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator within the group and within the classroom procedures and activities which group undertakes. The teacher's role in communicative language teaching is completely different from that of any previous approach.

5. Conclusion

The communicative language teaching，which is best considered as an approach rather than a method， primarily stems from theory of language as communication， and comprises a variety of other theories and practices. Communicative Language Teaching motivates students better who would probably be more willing to put more effort into using target language in a communicative way and It is less wasteful of time since this approach emphasized only what is relevant and necessary. The advantage of communicative approach has proved by many teachers and learners； however questions have been raised currently by some applied linguists and educators.Therefore， the teachers should select a set of tasks based on the approach.

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