The communicative approach in the field of ESP

1. THE
COMMUNICATIVE
APPROACH
Authors:
Daniel Chimbolema
Angie Imbaquingo
Valeria Loza
Fabian Rodriguez
Saul Salazar

2. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
TEACHING (TLC)
BRIEF HISTORY
• The origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are
found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition
dating from the late 1960s.
• Back them, the Situational Language Teaching approach was the
norm.
• SLT was the major approach to teaching English as a FL.
• SLT consisted in internalizing the structures of the language.

3. ▪ The SLT did not fill the need to develop
language competence in language teaching.
▪ A group of experts saw the need to focus in
communicative proficiency rather tan
mastery of structures. (Richards, J.C. &
Rodgers, T.S.)
▪ Along with the changes in Europe it helped to
reform the language teaching.

4. ▪ Education was one of the Council of Europe's major
areas of activity. It sponsored international conferences on
language teaching, published monographs and books about
language teaching. The need to articulate and develop
alternative methods of language teaching was considered
a high priority.

5. ▪ In 1971 a group of experts began to investigate the possibility of
developing language courses, a system in which learning tasks are broken
into units.
▪ A British linguist, D. A. Wilkins (1972), proposed a functional or
communicative definition of language that could serve as a basis for
developing communicative syllabuses for language teaching. Wilkins's
contribution was an analysis of the communicative meanings that a
language learner needs to understand and express.
▪ Wilkins defined two categories of meanings:
Notional categories (concepts such as time, sequence, quantity,
location, frequency).
Communicative Function (requests, denials, offers, complains).

6. Communicative Approach aims to: make communicative competence
the goal of language teaching, and develop procedures for the
teaching of the four language skills.
There are two versions of the CLT:
▪ The weak version stresses the importance of providing learners
with opportunities to use their English for communicative purposes
('learning to use' English)
▪ The 'strong' version advances the claim that language is acquired
through communication. That it is not merely a question of
activating an existing, but inert knowledge of the language, but of
stimulating the development of the language system itself. ('using
English to learn it).

7. There is a difference between approach and method.
An approach is a way of
dealing with something or
somebody.
A method is the process used
or the steps taken to deal with
an issue or a person
Approach is the way in which you are going to teach, and
what and how you are going to teach.

8. When talking about teaching language we have to take into account the
theory of language.
• The Communicative Approach in language teaching starts from a theory
of language as communication.
• The goal of language teaching is what Hymes reffered to as
“communicative competence.”
• According to Hymes, a person who acquires communicative competence
acquires both Knoeledge and Ability for language use.

9. 1.- Whether something
is formaly possible.
4.- Whether something is
in fact done, permormed
and what its doing entail.
3.- Whether something
is appropiate in relation
to a context in which it
is used.
2.- Whether something
is convenient.

10. Another linguistic theory of CLT is the funtional language use, Halliday described seven
basic functions that language performs for children learning their L1:
1. Instrumental F.:
using language to get
things.
2. Regulatory F.: using
language to control the
behavior of others.
5. Heuristic F.: using
language to learn and
discover.
3. Interactional F.:
using language to
create interaction with
others.
6. Imaginative F.: using
language to créate a
world of the
imagination.
4. Personal F.: using
language to express
personal feelings and
meanings.
7. Representational F.:
using language to
communicate
information.

11. Learning an L2 was viewed by proponents of CLT as acquiring the
linguistic means to perform different kinds of functions.
Ask questions to get basic information.
Talk about yourself.
Describe the weather.
Leave pone messages.
Talk about a specific topic.

12. COMMUNICATIVE
LANGUAGE TEACHING

13. OBJECTIVES
1. An integrative and content level (language as a means of expression)
2. A linguistic and instrumental level (language as a semiotic system and an object of
learning);
3. An affective level of interpersonal relationships and conduct (language as a means of
expressing values and judgments about oneself and others);
4. A level of individual learning needs (remedial learning based on error analysis);
5. A general educational level of extra-linguistic goals (language learning within the
school curriculum).

14. SYLLABUS
 One of the first syllabus models to be proposed was described
as a notional syllabus (Wilkins 1976), which specified the
semantic-grammatical categories (e.g., frequency, motion,
location) and the categories of communicative function that
learners need to express.

15. SYLLABUS
The Council of Europe expanded and developed a syllabus that
included descriptions of the objectives of foreign language
courses for European adults, the situations in which they might
typically need to use a foreign language (e.g., travel, business),

16. SYLLABUS
▪ The topics they might need to talk about (e.g., personal
identification, education, shopping), the functions they needed
language for (e.g., describing something, requesting
information, expressing agreement and disagreement), the
notions made use of in communication (e.g., time, frequency,
duration), as well as the vocabulary and grammar needed.

17. Teaching and Learning activities
Formative quizzes
Problem-solving
Debates
Role-playsFreewriting
Small group activities

18. Learners’ Roles
▪ The learner is a negotiator (between
himself, the learning process, and the
object of learning). The implication is
that the learner should contribute as
much as he gains, and learn in an
interdependent way.
▪ Ss are expected to interact primarily with
each other rather than with the teacher.
▪ Ss give and receive information.

19. Teachers’ roles

20. The Role of Instructional Materials
support
communicative
approaches to
language
teaching
Materials as a
way of
classroom
interaction
promote
communicative
language use.

21. INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Richards and Rogers consider three kinds of materials
currently used in CLT:
Text-based materials
Task-based materials
Realia

22. ▪ Textbooks are important tools
because provide the major
source of contact students have
with the language apart from
input provided by the teacher.
▪ Also provide the basis for the
content of the lessons and
supplement the teacher's
instruction.
Text-based materials

25. ▪ A variety of games, role plays,
simulations, and task-based
communication activities have
been prepared to support CLT
classes.
▪ They are in the form of exercise
handbooks, cue cards, activity
cards, and interaction booklets.
Task-based materials

27. ▪ Many proponents of CLT have
advocated the use of
“authentic,” “from life”
materials in class. These
include: signs, magazines,
advertisements, newspapers,
pictures, symbols
Realia

29. PROCEDURE
▪ The methodological procedures reflect a sequence of activities
represented as follows:
Pre-
communicative
Activities
Structural
Activities
Quasi-
Communicative
Activities
Communicative
Activities
Functional
Communication
Activities
Social
Interaction
Activities

30. PRE-COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
▪ Aim: to give the learners fluent control over linguistic
forms, so the learners will produce language which is
acceptable
▪ Function: to prepare the learner for later communication.
▪ The teacher may begin the teaching with a communicative
activity
▪ Pre-communicative activities: drills, question-and-answer
practice

31. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
▪ Aims: (a) to provide ‘whole-task practice’, (b) to improve motivation,
(c) to allow natural learning, and (d) to create a context which
supports learning
▪ Functional communication activities: comparing sets of pictures and
noting similarities and differences, following directions, discovering
missing features in a map or picture.
▪ Social interaction activities: conversation and discussion sessions,
dialogues and role plays, simulations, debates.

32. CONCLUSIONS
▪ CLT is best considered and approach rather than a method, it
refers to a diverse set of principles that reflect a communicative
view of classroom procedures.
▪ CLT has passed through a number of different phases to apply
its principles to different dimensions of the teaching/learning
process.

33. ▪ The first phase was the need to develop a syllabus that was
compatible with the notion of communicative competence.
This led to proposals of syllabuses in terms of notions (a
context in which people communicate) and functions (a
specific purpose for a speaker in a given context).

34. ▪ The second phase, CLT is focused on procedures for
identifying learners’ needs and this resulted in proposals to
make needs analysis an essential component of
communicative methodology.

35. ▪ In the third phase, CLT is focused on the kinds of classroom
activities that could be used as the basis of a communicative
methodology, such as group work, task-work, and
information-gap activities.

36. There are five core identified characteristics that support
current applications of communicative methodology:
1. Appropriateness: language use reflects the situation of its
use and must be appropriate to that situation, the roles of
the participants, and the purpose of communication.
2. Learners need to be able to create and understand
messages, hence the focus on information sharing and
information transfer in CLT activities.

37. 3. Psycholinguistic processing: CLT activities seek to engage
learners in the use of cognitive and other processes in SLA.
4. Risk taking: learners are encouraged to make guesses and
learn from their errors.
5.Free practice: CLT encourages the use of “holistic practice!
involving the simultaneous use of a variety of subskills at a
time.

38. SOURCES
▪ https://www.slideshare.net/sergemaister/communicative-language-
teaching-15255081
▪ https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-diffences-between-
method-approach-some-139657
▪ https://es.slideshare.net/dinaranggraini/clt-presentation-34160403
▪ http://staffnew.uny.ac.id/upload/132298841/pendidikan/Materi+perkul
iahan+TEFL+Methodology-Classroom+Activities+in+CLT.pdf
▪ https://www.slideshare.net/ivanslides/what-is-clt?next_slideshow=1

39. THANK YOU GUYS
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