English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFL METHODOLOGY 155Communicative <strong>Language</strong> <strong>Teach<strong>in</strong>g</strong>Communicative <strong>Language</strong> <strong>Teach<strong>in</strong>g</strong> (CLT) can be said to be the current dom<strong>in</strong>antmethodology. Even <strong>in</strong> countries where CLT has not been adopted <strong>in</strong> the state sector, mostm<strong>in</strong>istries of education appear to be mov<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong> direction. Many of <strong>its</strong> practitioners,however, would espouse it on <strong>in</strong>tuitive rather than theoretical grounds. It has become anumbrella term which covers a wide range of classroom practices. Many teacher tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>gcourses teach the classroom practices without expla<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the underly<strong>in</strong>g pr<strong>in</strong>ciples, whichhas led to a mistrust of theory among many teachers. However, it is the theoretical basisof CLT which is orig<strong>in</strong>al; many of the classroom practices with which it is associated arefound elsewhere (see Figure 8.3 for examplc).If we look at the questions asked at the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g of this chapter, we can answer thefirst, about the desired outcome, by say<strong>in</strong>g that for CLT the desired outcome is that thelearner can communicate successfully <strong>in</strong> the target language <strong>in</strong> real situations, rather thanhave a conscious understand<strong>in</strong>g of the rules govern<strong>in</strong>g that language. (It should beremembered that this was also the outcome sought by Audio-L<strong>in</strong>gualism.)Our second question looked at the model of language. For CLT the model of languageis one which considers language as it is used rather than as an abstract system.The conceptof‘communicative competence’ is the key to this (Widdowson 1978, Hymes 1971, Canaleand Swa<strong>in</strong> 1980). A theoretical model of language was developed to <strong>in</strong>clude ideas abouthow language is actually used to communicate <strong>in</strong> real life situations. Chomsky had alreadyproposed a dist<strong>in</strong>ction between ‘competence’ and ‘performance’, the former be<strong>in</strong>g whatthe speaker knows and the latter be<strong>in</strong>g what the speaker actually does, with both seen <strong>in</strong>purely l<strong>in</strong>guistic terms. This idea was developed to <strong>in</strong>clude ideas of appropriacy and thesocial use of language, giv<strong>in</strong>g rise to the concept of ‘communicative competence’. In orderto def<strong>in</strong>e communicative competence, Hymes proposed a four po<strong>in</strong>t model concerned withwhat a speaker both knows and is able to use (Hymes 1971). The po<strong>in</strong>ts of this model areas follows: what is formally possible <strong>in</strong> a language, what is feasible given the means ofimplementation, what is appropriate given the context, and lastly, what is <strong>in</strong> fact done.In an environment where the exist<strong>in</strong>g orthodoxy of Audio-L<strong>in</strong>gualism had beendiscredited, the concept of communicative competence helped shape new models oflanguage teach<strong>in</strong>g and learn<strong>in</strong>g. CLT has been described as:an approach that aims to (a) make communicative competence the goal of languageteach<strong>in</strong>g and (b) develop procedures for the teach<strong>in</strong>g of the four language skills thatacknowledge the <strong>in</strong>terdependence of language and communication. (Richards andRogers 1986: 66)These basic pr<strong>in</strong>ciples have been applied <strong>in</strong> a variety of ways. However, Richards and Rogershave isolated three key elements which they feel characterise CLT classroom practice andthe theory of learn<strong>in</strong>g underly<strong>in</strong>g it:One such element might be described as the communication pr<strong>in</strong>ciple: Activities thatpromote real communication promote learn<strong>in</strong>g. A second element is the taskpr<strong>in</strong>ciple: Activities <strong>in</strong> which language is used for carry<strong>in</strong>g out mean<strong>in</strong>gful taskspromote learn<strong>in</strong>g. A third element is the mean<strong>in</strong>gfulness pr<strong>in</strong>ciple: <strong>Language</strong> thatis mean<strong>in</strong>gful to the learner supports the lcarn<strong>in</strong>g process. (Richards and Rogers1986: 72)