Communicative Approach (or Communicative Language Teaching – CLT)
Until the mid-late 1960s, the Situational Approach in the UK and Audiolingualism in the US had dominated. However, by the middle 60s both were being questioned. Perhaps the prime academic mover behind this was Noam Chomsky, whose Syntactic Structures (1957) demonstrated convincingly that structural linguistics was incapable of accounting for the fundamental characteristics of language, in particular the apparent ability of language users to generate an infinite number of unique, individual sentences.
Although Chomsky might be said to have been the originator of the change, it was really those (like Hymes) who were criticising his approach as ‘sterile’ who informed the work of the leading reformers of CLT, such as Widdowson and Candlin.
Hymes’s view of communicative competence was:
A person who acquires communicative competence, acquires knowledge and ability for language use with respect to:
1. whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible;
2. whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in virtue of the means of implementation available;
3. whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate (adequate, happy, successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated;
4. whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and what it entails.
Hymes 1972: 281 quoted in Richards & Rodgers 2001 Approaches & Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge
The Council of Europe (a regional organisation for cultural and educational co-ordination) reacting to the increasing interdependence in the members of the then Common Market was attempting to draw up a ‘unit-credit’ system, in which learning tasks could be broken down into “portions or units, each of which corresponds to a component of a learner’s needs and is systematically related to all other portions” (Van Ek & Alexander, 1980). In particular, the British linguist D A Wilkins proposed the analysis of language in terms of grammar and vocabulary. He described two types of meaning, Notional categories (ideas such as time, duration, quantity…) and Functional categories (requests, denials, complaints…).
The itemised lists of functions / notions, situations and roles were incorporated by the Council of Europe into a set of specifications for a first level communicative syllabus known as the Threshold Level (later an intermediate level, known as Waystage was introduced). The specifications of the Council of Europe continue to influence course book writers, syllabus designers and exam writers. The work of the Council, together with that of linguists such as Wilkins, Widdowson, Candlin, Brumfit and other (mostly British) applied linguists led to what has become known as the Communicative Approach.
Some of the characteristics of the communicative view of language are as follows:
1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning.
2. The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.
3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.
4. The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.
Though comparatively little has been written on the theories of learning associated with CLT, the following principles can be inferred from its practice:
1. Activities which involve real communication promote learning
2. Activities in which the language is used to carry out meaningful tasks promote learning.
Until the mid-late 1960s, the Situational Approach in the UK and Audiolingualism in the US had dominated. However, by the middle 60s both were being questioned. Perhaps the prime academic mover behind this was Noam Chomsky, whose Syntactic Structures (1957) demonstrated convincingly that structural linguistics was incapable of accounting for the fundamental characteristics of language, in particular the apparent ability of language users to generate an infinite number of unique, individual sentences.
Although Chomsky might be said to have been the originator of the change, it was really those (like Hymes) who were criticising his approach as ‘sterile’ who informed the work of the leading reformers of CLT, such as Widdowson and Candlin.
Hymes’s view of communicative competence was:
A person who acquires communicative competence, acquires knowledge and ability for language use with respect to:
1. whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible;
2. whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in virtue of the means of implementation available;
3. whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate (adequate, happy, successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated;
4. whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and what it entails.
Hymes 1972: 281 quoted in Richards & Rodgers 2001 Approaches & Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge
The Council of Europe (a regional organisation for cultural and educational co-ordination) reacting to the increasing interdependence in the members of the then Common Market was attempting to draw up a ‘unit-credit’ system, in which learning tasks could be broken down into “portions or units, each of which corresponds to a component of a learner’s needs and is systematically related to all other portions” (Van Ek & Alexander, 1980). In particular, the British linguist D A Wilkins proposed the analysis of language in terms of grammar and vocabulary. He described two types of meaning, Notional categories (ideas such as time, duration, quantity…) and Functional categories (requests, denials, complaints…).
The itemised lists of functions / notions, situations and roles were incorporated by the Council of Europe into a set of specifications for a first level communicative syllabus known as the Threshold Level (later an intermediate level, known as Waystage was introduced). The specifications of the Council of Europe continue to influence course book writers, syllabus designers and exam writers. The work of the Council, together with that of linguists such as Wilkins, Widdowson, Candlin, Brumfit and other (mostly British) applied linguists led to what has become known as the Communicative Approach.
Some of the characteristics of the communicative view of language are as follows:
1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning.
2. The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.
3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.
4. The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.
Though comparatively little has been written on the theories of learning associated with CLT, the following principles can be inferred from its practice:
1. Activities which involve real communication promote learning
2. Activities in which the language is used to carry out meaningful tasks promote learning.
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