The Application of Communicative Approach in Adults Oral English Teaching

Bian+Fei

Abstract：More and more adults are into learning English for travelling abroad so that enhancing adults English language competence for getting information and communication is indispensable. The paper first analyses the current situation in adults oral English teaching， then discusses communicative approach， finally explores its application.

Key words：communicative approach； oral English teaching； application

1. Introduction

Oral English teaching is a very important part in English teaching， because oral expression ability may reflects ones capacity of communication. However some people are not too optimistic about the current situation of oral English teaching in China.

2. The Current Situation of Adults Oral English Teaching

The traditional adults oral English teaching is centered on the teachers. It only emphasizes the importance of teachers teaching but neglects the function of learning and students feelings. The adults as students seldom play a major part in class. Therefore， the results dont come out satisfying. In the current mode of teaching， teachers occupy most of the time， but leaving less time and space for students to think and speak， which put students in a very passive position in the whole process of oral English teaching courses. Teachers leading role in class will prevent students from being creative， which may limit their thoughts and make them form a habit of following their teachers blindly without critical thinking.

3. Definition of Communicative Approach and its Main Features

The Communicative Approach is a teaching method that the students and teachers may use their target language to communicate with each other. It was put forward in 1970s in Europe. The most obvious characteristic is that communicative intention is almost everything. Students should make every effort to use the target language for various communication activities， such as games， role playing， problem solving， etc. Teachers must make full use of oral English materials to create more suitable situation so that students can practice their communication skills efficiently.

4. The Application of Communicative Approach

Speaking is one of the most important process and purposes in English learning. Adults not only should have courage to speak up but also should make full use of their knowledge to enrich conversation content. Students are the key subject of classroom teaching. Practice is not just an important way to form and develop their emotion but the origin of being emotional men. It enables adults to participate and practice in the whole process of oral English teaching to get a better understand of knowledge， train capability and appreciate thoughts and feelings.

Such as teaching the passage “Get around in Beijing”， first， teachers can let the adults watch a video about the traffic jam happened in school this week to arouse their attention and interest in this topic， which may bring students in a certain situation to hear the voice from a car or see the pictures of the moving automobiles or notice what are these people doing there. Thus it may help students be deep into the class naturally. Then try to let the students talk about some famous places in Beijing， for example， the Great Wall， Birds Nest， and the Water Cube and so on. Later， try to let the students talk about the means of transport such as taxi， plane， Pedicab and underground with the pictures presented on the screen. The teacher can lead the adults to think deeply and force them to speak as much as they can.

Next， teachers try to let the adults discuss the ways of transport to make a conclusion of the advantages and disadvantages of vehicles. Later， teachers can create a communicative situation in group discussion， which is helpful to activate students ability of speaking on the basis of independent thinking. According to the content， teachers can create communicative scene to lead students to talk or act it out through vivid language emotionally. Whats more， according to the characteristics of each section teachers can design different speaking tasks such as role-play， answering questions， presentation and so on. In this way， students may have lots of opportunities to speak. In the end， the adults can organize their language and make a brief conclusion about what theyve learned in this lesson.

If the content is related to a journey or something close to our life， teachers can bring the realistic stories into the oral English courses. In this way， students may express how they feel about their life at the same time， they will be much more familiar with the application of English on certain occasion. Moreover， they will realize that English that they've learned is practical in our daily life. Besides， students can make stories by themselves without time and space limit and share their life experience with each other. If the content is about some social problems， students can hold their own opinions and discuss them in the class or after class.

5. Conclusion

Communicative approach can attract the adults interest， and give them an easy atmosphere which is good to train their ability of communication and promote their integrated competence in English usage. It helps make English classes more colourful and lively and enables the students to become active language learners who can use English to communicate and manage their jobs more successfully with language skills.

【Bibliography】

[1] Krashen， S. and T. Terrell. The Natural Approach： Language Acquisition in the Classroom[M]. Oxford： Pergamon， 1982.

[2] 李 娜. A Comparative Study of Grammar Teaching in the Grammar-Translation， Audio-Lingual and Communicative Approaches[J]. 科技信息， 2012（20）： 198-200.

[3] 任瑞琪. The Effects of Grammar-Translation Method and Communicative Approach on Oral English Teaching[J]. 海外英語， 2016（09）： 89-90.

【作者简介】

卞斐（1991—），女，汉族，湖南长沙人，湖南科技大学硕士研究生在读，主要研究方向：学科教学（英语）。