1. Universidad Católica de la Ssma. Concepción
Education Department
English Pedagogy
Essay: „Communicative
Approaches‟.
Authors: María de los A. Betancur Murillo.
Paulina Ramírez González.
Subject: Applied Linguistics.
Teacher: Ms. María Angelica Fuica.
Concepción, September, 30.
COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH.

2. Nowadays, thanks to the new communication systems, education had suffered a
revolution in a lot of scopes, for example in second language learning methodologies. For
this reason, many teaching methods had born, such as „Communicative Approach‟, also
known as „Communicative Language Teaching‟(CLT). Thisapproachof second language
acquisition is definedasa language teaching approach, in which the most important point is
the interaction as a mean and as the final objective in language learning.But, is it really
adequate for present schools?
Historically, CLT was born in late 1960, when structuralism was call in question.
This model proposed answers to Chomsky‟s interrogations to the structural theories (about
lack of responses to essential characteristics of the tongue, e.g. originality,
singularity).Furthermore, experts on this field considered that Communicative
Competencewas more important than language structures, because in this way, the learning
covered a more complete understanding, for the reason that it is conceived as the capacity
that each student have to utilize the knowledge about formal and sociolinguistic aspects of
the tongue, in order to use it in the correct way.
CLT was an answer for „Audio-lingual method‟, which emphasizes in listening and
speaking, but, it did not allow the development of Communicative Competence, that is too
much important to CLT; and also asan extension of „Notional-functional method‟, which
pay all attention in the purposes to uselanguage in different contexts, that is, it “focuses on
what people want to do or what they want to accomplish through speech” (Learning Ace,
n.d.). Related to this, Littlewood (1981) says: “one of the characteristics of the
Communicative Approaches of other languages is that it worries about the functional
aspects of the language as of the structural ones. Classroom lessons are likely to be
organized around concepts such as „asking for things‟ in different social settings, procedure
by means of students worked in small groups and the purpose is that they can use the
linguistic resources in tasks of resolution of problems”.
Now, in order to extend the concept of Communicative Competence, that was
defined previously,is important to say that it is composed by two versions: the weak
version, that is related to the habitual practice, when is central to give the students the

3. opportunity of use the language. And the strongest version is associated with the classroom
situation, when students learned language by communication.
Another author, David Nunan (1996), conceived CLT as a general teaching model,
being that, it implies all the skills in one method and it searches global learning and
comprehension. Consequently, this approach is guided by five principles that are focuses on
the needs and interests of each student, there are: 1. It emphasizes in the language
communication through the interaction; 2. It uses real-life situations to learn language; 3.
Students have the chance of think in the learning process, not only in the tongue; 4.
Personal experiences are important like learning elements; 5. CLT tries to link up
knowledge acquired in class with real life.
So, basically this methodology searches to lead to negotiation and cooperation
between students, to create fluidity through acomfortableenvironment, and, in the same way
to improve pronunciation and grammar. It is of this manner, because one of the most
important things is that students feel comfortable at the moment of learning a second
language, as well as the relation between the language used in classroom and language used
outside the classroom.
Thus, arelevant factor to heed thatcan make the difference at the moment of learn a
new language, is the time of exposure of people with the language. It has been
demonstrated that students in their early teens are quicker and more effective second
language learners. The ideal age for learning a new language may be during the years from
about ten to sixteen when the maturation of cognitive skills allows a more effective analysis
of the regular features of the second language being learned.
Concluding, if we use Communicative Approach in the process of second language
acquisition is essential to interact with other people, because it allows students‟
development as a social entity, in order to prepare them for real life. On one hand, it is the
idea that if we use this method, we extend the skills about abstract and critic thought, that is
the ability of think, tools that were forgotten in other approaches. On the other hand, we
have older instruments to use, as memorization and repetition, those are useful implements
that now had been forgotten, and for this reason, today students cannot pay attention and
memorize words or simple definitions; it is a big problem for all people that hope to learn
or to teach a language.Hence, at the moment of teaching, the studentsought to have the

4. opportunity to express themselves and share their knowledge about language. For a correct
comprehension is necessary to know how to use language accurately, appropriately, and
flexibly. But anyway, is important to unite resources used in different approaches, as those
named above, so as transmittingthe knowledge to the learners through all the possible
learning styles.

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
- Littlewood, William (1981). Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction.
Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
- Nunan, David (1996). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom.
Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
- Richards, J. and Rodgers, T. (1986).Approaches and methods of language teaching.
Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
- Brown, H.D. (1994). Principles of language learning and teaching. New Jersey.
Prentice Hall.

6. WEBGRAPHY.
- Learning Ace (n.d.). A functional-notional approach to language learning. Extracted
in September, 9th
, from
http://www.uwec.edu/esl/minors/TESOL/FunctionalNationalSylllabus.pdf