ASSIGNMENT
Topic:
Communicative Approach
Submitted By,
Anjali Krishnan
English
INTRODUCTION
Communicative approach is an approach to
language teaching that emphasizes interaction or communication as both the
means and the ultimate goal of study. Communicative approach rose to prominence
inthe1970’sand early 1980’s. Until 1960’s situational approach was in vogue in
teaching English as a second language or a foreign language. The works of men
like Hymes(1972) and Halliday (1973) prepared the ground for a change.
According to them, language is first and foremost a system for communication.
Hymes advocated that the goal of language teaching is the development of
communicative competence. Widdowson in his book, Teaching English as
Communication, focuses on the communicative acts underlying the ability to
use language for different purposes. According to Canale and Swain, there are
four communicative competence.
They are;
·
Grammatical
competence-Domain of grammatical and lexical capacity.
·
Socio-linguistic
competence-Understanding of social context in which communication takes place.
·
Discourse competence-Interpretation of individual
message elements.
·
Strategic
competence-Use of strategies that communicators employ to initiate, terminate,
maintain, repair and redirect competence.
These
studies gave birth to communicative approach towards the end of 20th
century.
Major
Assumptions Of Communicative Approach
.
1. Goal
of language teaching is to develop in learners the ability to communicate in
the target language.
2. Content of a language course will include
semantic notions and social functions, not just linguistic structures. Syllabus
is designed around functions and notions of language.
3. Students
regularly work in groups or in pairs to transfer and negotiate meaning in
situations where one person has information that others lack.
4. Students
often engage in role-plays or dramatization to adjust their use of the target
language to different social context.
5. Skills
are integrated from the beginning; a
given activity might involve reading, speaking, listening and perhaps also
writing.
6. The
teacher’s role is primarily to facilitate communication and only secondarily to
correct errors.
7. Classroom
materials and activities are often authentic to reflect real life situations
and demands.
8. The
teacher should be able to use target language fluently and appropriately.
Characteristic
Features
All communicative syllabuses are
marked by the following characteristics;
Ø They
all aim to make the learner attain communicative competence, that is, use
language accurately and appropriately.
Ø The
prime focus is on the learner. The teacher is just a facilitator, who manages
the environment and the materials which will help the students to become
autonomous learners.
Ø Communicative
syllabus rely on authentic materials.
Ø The
tasks set are purposeful and meaningful. Communicative task can be judged
immediately for its success by the learner himself.
Ø Syllabuses
emphasize the functions of language rather than the rules.
Ø Communicative
tasks aim to make learners fluent (especially during the early stages) as well
as accurate in their use of the target language.
Techniques In Communicative
Approach
In
communicative approach, information gap tasks are used. An information gap
occurs in a situation where one person knows something which other people do
not. Information gap tasks are introduced in the classroom using the following
techniques;
v Language
games-are communicative when they are
characterized by three features; information gap, choice and feedback.
v Mind
engaging tasks-are given to the learner to draw
out the best in him. Many problem solving activities are a part of
communicative approach.
v Role
play-Since an ability to manipulate language
in a social context is an important aspect of communicative competence, most
communicative materials include role play as a part of the activities.
v Retrieving
text order-This is done through scrambled
sentences and scrambled picture techniques. By doing these activities learners
become aware of the discourse features which are distinct from grammatical
features.
v Group
work/pair work-forms an important part of any
communicative activity, for peer interaction is an effective means of acquiring
some language features which are not available in a formal teacher fronted classroom.
Learner And Teacher Roles
Communicative approach
emphasizes self direction for the learners as the teacher won’t be around to
guide them the whole time. The learner should enter in to the situations where
communication takes place as much as possible to increase his communicative
proficiency. Teachers no longer rely on activities that require repetition,
accuracy and the memorization of sentences and grammatical patterns. Instead
they require the learners to negotiate meaning and interact meaningfully in the
target language. Learners have to participate in classroom activities based on
a cooperative rather than individualistic approach to learning.
The teacher adopts
different roles. On the one hand she is a facilitator, a guide and a helper and
on the other hand a coordinator, an idea person and a co-communicator. She
talks less and listens more to the students. The teacher also identifies the
students’ learning strategies and helps them to improve themselves if necessary
and shows them how to work independently. Teacher gives up her status as a
person of authority. It is the teacher’s responsibility to be creative and
prepare appropriate material.
Advantages
and Disadvantages
The most obvious
advantage of communicative approach is the increase of fluency in target
language. This enables the learners to be more confident when interacting with
other people. It improves healthy relationships, active interactions and
develops pupil’s confidence. This approach is pupil centered and considers all
pupil’s skills individually.
Disadvantages of
communicative approach are;
è
Over emphasis on oral
work.
è
Ignorance on systematic
teaching of grammar.
è
Over consumption of
time.
è
Lack of proper need to
speak English.
è
Requires competent
teachers.
è
Lack of appropriate
syllabus.
è
Lack of instantaneous
correction.
Conclusion
The shift of
importance from form to meaning, from a rigid single method to an eclectic one
and from teacher centered to student centered, all converged in communicative
approach. This approach sounds perfect in theory but, it has certain problems
when implemented. How to correct students is a big issue. Teachers do not
discourage communication by pointing out the mistakes of the students. This
spirit of encouragement given to communication sounds ideal but, it may create
problems. Teachers may find it difficult to evaluate students’ performance. In
this approach, the skills of reading and writing are completely comparatively
neglected.
As any
other approach, communicative approach
also have advantages and disadvantages. Communicative approach can be used best
for the development of communicative skills in a learner. But a proper
supervision of the teacher is compulsory while implementing this approach.
Bibliography
& Nagaraj,
Geetha, English Language Teaching Approaches,
Methods, Techniques. Kolkata; Orient Logman, 1996. Print.
& Anandan,
K.N, Tuition to Intuition. Calicut; Transcend, 2006. Print.
& Jamaluddeen,
Effective Teaching of English. Manjeri; Quality publishers, 2012. Print.
Webliography
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