CLT

1. PRACTICE II, DIDACTICS OF ELT and
Practicum Primary School level.
Adjunto Regular a/c Prof. Estela N.
Braun (2018). Teacher Assistants: Prof.
Vanesa Cabral.
Lucrecia Corral- PRACTICAL 18
QUIZ con Communicative Language Teaching (2018)
1. Summarize the Principles that underlie CLT.
The CLT main aims are to enable students to communicate in the target
language and to develop procedures for the teaching of the four
language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and
communication.
In communicative language teaching:
● Meaning is paramount.
● Communicative competence is the desired goal (i.e the ability to
use the linguistic system effectively and appropriately).
● Language is created by the individual, through trial and error.
● “Authentic language” (as it is used in real context) should be
introduced.
● The teacher gives directions for activities in the target language.
● The emphasis is on the process of communication rather than just
mastery of language forms.
● The teacher acts as facilitator in setting up communicative
activities and as advisor during the activities.
● Students should be given an opportunity to express their ideas
and opinions.
● Errors are tolerated and seen as natural outcome of the
development of communication skills.
● Communicative interaction encourages cooperative relationships
among students.
2. What are teachers’ roles and learners’ roles in CLT?
The teacher facilitates communication in the classroom. His/her
responsibility is to establish situations likely to promote communication.
During the activities he acts as co-communicator and adviser, answering
students’ questions and monitoring their performance. He might make
note of their errors to be worked on at a later time during more accuracy-
based activities.

2. Students are communicators because they are actively engaged in
negotiating meaning even when their knowledge of the target language is
incomplete. In this role, students are seen as more responsible
managers of their own language.
3. What are the characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
In CLT almost everything is done with a communicative intent. Students
use the language through communicative activities that require the use of
language for clear purposes. There are truly communicative activities
that have three features in common:
★ INFORMATION GAP: one person in the exchange possesses
information or knows something that the other person does not.
★ CHOICE: interlocutors have freedom in choosing form and content
to deliver their intended message.
★ FEEDBACK: speakers can evaluate if they have achieved their
purpose by what their listeners respond. Without this feedback, we
would not be able to know to what extent our message has been
understood.
Another important feature of CLT is the use of authentic materials which
are considered desirable to give students an opportunity to develop
strategies for understanding language as it is actually used.
One last characteristic is that students are encouraged to interact in
small groups. This interaction maximizes the time allotted to each pupil
for communicating and reduces levels of anxiety.
4. What kinds of interaction are there?
There are two types of interaction:
➔ Between teacher and students.
➔ Among the students themselves.
On the one hand, the teacher may present part of the lesson acting as a
facilitator of the activities or as communicator. Most of the time, teacher’s
role is to prompt meaningful communication among the student. On the
other hand, students interact a lot with one another through pair work,
triads, small groups and whole groups.
5. How are language and culture viewed?
As regards communicative competence, it is essential to know the
functions used for language. Thus, learners need the balanced
knowledge of forms, meanings and functions. Being aware that one

3. linguistic form could fulfill several functions, helps learners to
accommodate the language appropriately to what they want to say.
Culture needs to be taken into account, because the context of a
situation influences the message. Cultural context refers to the everyday
lifestyle of people who use the language.
6. What language skills are emphasized?
In CLT, students work on all four skills from the beginning. Reading and
writing can start from the first day and effective communication is sought.
Only the simpler forms would be presented at first, but as students get
more proficient in the target language, the functions are reintroduced and
more complex forms are learnt. Also, pupils work with language at the
suprasentential or discourse level and learn about cohesion and
coherence. Besides, learners are made aware of the fact that meaning
do not reside in the text but rather they arise through the interpersonal
negotiation between speaker/writer and listener/reader.
7. What is the role of students’ L1?
Wise use of the students’ L1 is permitted in CLT. However, the target
language should be used not only during communicative activities, but
also for explaining the activities to the students or in assigning
homework. Pupils realize that L2 is a vehicle for communication, not just
an object or subject to be studied.
8. How is evaluation carried out? How do teachers respond to
students’ errors?
A teacher evaluates not only student’s accuracy but also fluency. A
teacher can informally evaluate his/her students’ performance in his/her
role as an adviser or co-communicator. For more formal evaluation, the
teacher can take an integrative test and in order to assess writing skills,
students have to write a letter to a friend.
Errors are tolerated during fluency-based activities and are seen as
natural outcome of the development of communication skills. The teacher
may note the errors during fluency activities and return to them later with
an accuracy-based activity.
9. Summarize 10 (ten) main differences between Audio-lingual Method
and CLT.
AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD CLT
This method attends to structure Meaning is fundamental.

4. and form more that meaning.
Mastery (over-learning) is sought. Effective communication is
sought.
Translation is forbidden at early
levels.
Translation may be used where
students need or benefit from it.
Drilling is a central technique. Drilling may occur, but
peripherally.
Native-speaker like pronunciation
is sought.
Comprehensible pronunciation is
sought.
The teacher controls the learners
and prevents them from doing
anything that conflicts with the
theory.
Teacher help learners in any way
that motivates them to work with
the language.
Language is “habit” so errors must
be prevented.
Language is created by the
individual,through trial and error.
Demands memorization of
structure-based dialogues.
Dialogues are not normally
memorized.
Language learning is learning
structures, sounds or words.
Language learning is learning to
communicate.
Grammatical explanation is
avoided.
Any device that helps the learner
is accepted.
10. What sort of materials/ techniques and activities can be used in
CLT?
Some appropriate materials used in CLT are:
➢ Authentic materials
➢ Scrambled sentences
➢ Language games
➢ Picture strip story
➢ Role play
11. What models for syllabuses stemmed out from CLT?
Some models of syllabus that stemmed out from CLT were:
-The work of the Council of Europe.
- The writings of Wilkins (The National Syllabus (1976) had a significant impact
on the development of CLT)

5. - The writings of Widdowson, Candlin, Christopher Brumfit, Keith Johnson, and
other British applied linguists on the theoretical basis for a communicative or
functional approach to language teaching.
GRADE: EX CELLENT.