This document discusses the background and key principles of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). It describes how CLT emerged in response to the need for language teaching to focus on communicative proficiency. CLT is not based on any single model and draws from theories of communicative competence, language functions, and the purposes of language. Central to CLT is that the goal of language teaching is communicative competence and that language learning involves developing skills for communication. Accuracy and fluency are both important aims.

1. Instituto Pedagógico de Caracas
Departamento de Idiomas Modernos
Cátedra de Lingüística
Didáctica del Inglés
Prof. Mirna Quintero
Bach.
Irania Salmerón
Vanessa Contreras

2. Background
 Before CLT Situational Language Teaching (SLT)
 Practice of basic structures in meaningful situation-based activities.
 It was based on structuralism.
 Developers: Hornby, J.R. Firth, M. A. Halliday.
 Late 60s: there was a need to focus language teaching on
communicative proficiency.

3.  It was necessary to teach adults the major language of…
The European Common Market
The Council of Europe
 It was considered a high priority to articulate and develop
alternative methods of language teaching.
 Mid 70s: the scope of Communicative Language Teaching had
expanded.

4. Background
 Developers: D.A. Wilkins
Henry Widdowson
Christopher Cadlin
Christopher Keith Johnson
 Aims of CLT:
A) “Make a communicative competence the goal of language teaching,
and…
B) Develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that
acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication”
(Richards J. & Rogers T. 1999)

5. CLT Characteristics according to
Finocchiaro and Brumfit (1983)
 Meaning is paramount.
 Dialogs, if used, center around communicative functions and are not
normally memorized.
 Contextualization is a basic premise.
 Language learning is learning to communicate.
 Comprehensible pronunciation is sought.
 Any technique which helps the learners is accepted - varying according
to their age, interest, etc.
 Communicative competence is the desired goal.
 Fluency and acceptable language is the primary goal.
Quoted in (Richards J. & Rogers T.( 1999)

6. “There is no single text or authority on it, nor
any single model that is universally
accepted as authoritative.”
(Richards J. & Rogers T. 1999)

7. Based on:
 Hymes’ Theory (communicative competence)
 Halliday’s Theory (functions)
 Widowson’s view (Purposes of Lg.)

8. How well does the student combine the
language’s elements to speak or write in
English?
How well the person uses both
verbal forms and non-verbal
communication to compensate
for lack of knowledge in the other Ability to use the language
three competencies correctly, how well a person
has learned features and
rules of the language
Ability to use language
correctly in specific social
situations
Brown, 2009

9.  The primary function of language is for interaction and
communication.
 The structure of language reflects its functional and
communicative uses.
 The primary units of language are not merely its
grammatical and structural features, but categories of
functional and communicative meaning.

10.  Learner centered and experience based.
 Skill-syllabus & functional-syllabus based.
 Meaningful tasks.
 Functional activities.
 Social interaction activities.
 Accuracy and fluency are sought.
 Students induce or discover grammar rules.
 The teacher facilitates and monitors the
process.

11.  link grammatical development to the ability to
communicate.
 create the need for communication and
interaction.
 allow students to apply what they have learned
to their own lives.
 make use of authentic texts to create interest
and to provide valid models of language.

12. “According to CLT, the acquisition of
communicative competence in a language
is an example of skill development. This
involves both a cognitive and a behavioral
aspect”
(Johnson & Littlewood, quoted in Richards & Rodgers, 1999)

13. Krashen’s Theory (Language Acquisition)
“Acquisition refers to the unconscious development
of the target language system as a result of using
the language for real communication”
“Learning is the conscious representation of
grammatical knowledge that has resulted from
instruction, and it cannot lead to acquisition”

14. 1. Activities that involve real communication
promote learning.
2. Activities in which language is used for
carrying out meaningful tasks promote
learning.
3. Language that is meaningful to the learner
supports the learning process.

15. Communication
is
paramount.

16. Brown, P. (2009). What’s CTL? [Blog en linea]
Language Matters. Disponible: http://language
instinct.blogspot.com/2006/09/what-is-clt-language-
competencies.html [Consulta: 2011, Octubre 25]
Richards, J. (2006). Communicative Language Teaching
Today. NewYork: Cambridge Press.
Richars & Rodgers (1986). Approaches and Methods in
Language Teaching. NewYork: Cambridge Press.