二语习得期末作业.doc

Communicative Language Teaching

Abstract:As long as the Communicative Language Teaching was introduced

into China, it had been applied to language teaching immediately and

gradually subsitute for our traditional teaching methods. This paper ,first of

all,introduces Communicative Language leaching in an all-round way by

elaborating the primary principles of communicative language approach from

five aspects.Then it go on to deal with the Communicative Approach in China

and list some useful class activities that may utilize in the teaching process. At

last, the passage also give some comments and suggestions on this approach.

Key words:CLT;principIe;class activities;evaluation

1 .Introd action

The origins of the Communicative Language Teaching are to be found in

the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late

1960s. In the late sixties, the current situational approach was questioned.

British applied linguistics began to emphasize the fundamental dimension of

language teaching at that time- the functional and communicative potential of

language. Scholars like Christopher Candlin and Henry Widdowson drew on

the work of British functional linguistics such as John Firth, and Halliday,

American work in socioliguiticis like Dell Hymes as well as work in

philosophy and argue for focus in language teaching on communicative

proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures.

In 1971, a group of experts began to investigate the possibility of

developing language courses on a unit-credit system. At that time, Wilkins,a

British linguist proposed a functional or communicative syllabus for language

teaching. He attempted to demonstrate the systems of meaning that lay behind

the communicative uses of language. He described two types of meanings, the

notional categories and categories of communicative functions. He had his

ideas published in Notional Syllabus (Wilkins 1976).

Chomsky had demonstrated, in Syntactic Structures (1957),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.Consequently, a new language teaching approach is

needed that not only should emphasize on mere mastery of structures but also

on communicative proficiency.

Communicative Language Approach(CLA) is a system of teaching

method that takes language function as the key link to cultivate students,

communicative ability. The theoretical origin of this approach can be traced

back to the work of anthropological linguists (e.g. Hymes, 1972) and the

functional linguist (e.g. Halliday, 1973), who take the view that language is

for interaction and communication and language has functions related to

society. In this light, language study has to look at the use

(function) of language both in its linguistic and its social or situational text.

Communicative Language Teaching (or Communicative Approach) is an

approach to foreign or second language teaching which emphasizes that the

goal of language teaching is communicative competence. Communicative

language teaching can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of

language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kinds of classroom

activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in

the classroom. Although CLT is regarded by many linguists and teachers as

the most effective approach among those currently used in ELT, the question

of whether it is adaptable for English language teaching in China is still an

controversial issue that has aroused lots of heated discussions.

2. Primary Principles of CLA

CLA has to follow some primary principles, which are illustrated below.

2.1 Approach

CLA accepts the structural view of language and added a functional view

to it. Structural view focuses on the grammatical forms of language, while the

functional view looks at what the structural forms express in specific context.

Accordingly, social context is important in deciding what linguistic forms to

use. In addition, the awareness of culture is viewed as sociocultural

competence.

2.2 Teacher and student roles in CLA

2.2.1 The Role of the Teachers

Communicative language teaching is the generally accepted norm in the

field of second language teaching. In CLT the teacher serves as more of a

facilitator, allowing students to be in charge of their own learning.