1. Chapter Nine
The Communicative Approach

2. Definition
An approach to foreign or second language teaching which emphasizes that the goal of language learning is communicative competence

3. Background
Developed in the 1970s in Europe
Reaction to the structural approach to language teaching
The need for change in language teaching method

4. language used in real life and traditional FLT.
Functions and forms
Languages skills
ways
In real life
The traditional FLT
consequence
perform certain communicative functions.
all skills, including the receptive and productive skills.
used in a certain context.
isolate language from its context.
focuses on forms
one or two language skills
The learners have learned a lot of sentences or patterns, but they are unable to use them appropriately in real social situations.
The students are puzzled about how to use the language in a particular context.
The learners cannot use the language in an integrated way.

5. Conclusions
The language we teach in traditional FLT is not what we use in real-life communication.

6. Theoretical Basis

7. Theory of language
Language is for communication.
Language is used in context.
The relationship between form and meaning is not a one-to - one correspondence.
Discourse analysis studies language above sentence level.

8. Theory of language
Pragmatics studies how language is used in communication.
Hymes and his notion of communicative competence
Halliday and his functional account of language use
Richards and Rodger’s summary of the communicative view of language

9. Theory of learning
CLT should follow the natural acquisition process.
Language is best learned through use in social context.
Effective language learning will take place if the emphasis is on communication.
Language learning is a process of meaning negotiation.

10. Basic Principles

11. Main features
1. Communicative purpose; (information gap)
2. Communicative desire; (real need)
3. (Focus on ) Content, not form; (message)
(Exchanging information, not pattern practice)

12. 4. Variety of language; (not just one language form, free to improve/create)
5. No teacher intervention; (done by Ss; no correcting or evaluating how Ss do it; assessment is based on the ‘product’ or on communicative purpose rather than on the language.)

13. Objectives
The final goal of FLT :
to enable the learners to use the foreign language in work or life (communicative competence).
we should teach:
that part of the language that will be used in the way that is used in the real world.

14. Techniques
Ways of integrating language skills:
listening and note-taking using audio-video materials
giving oral presentation
role-play/simulation etc.

15. Techniques
Ways of developing separated skills:
speaking: problem solving activities,
simulation/role-play etc.
listening: putting pictures in correct sequence,
following directions on a map, checking off
items in a photograph, completing a grid（地
图上的坐标方格）, time table, or chart etc.

16. Techniques
reading: skimming
scanning
text unscrambling（文本解读）
information transfer etc
writing (mainly done in three steps):
gathering ideas
working an drafts
preparing the final version

17. Procedures
1) Presentation and comprehension (Students listen, then answer questions.)
2) Demonstration of functional patterns （功能范式）(The teacher exemplifies （举例说明）each functional pattern.)
3) Practising functional patterns (Students practise the dialogue in pairs.)

18. Procedures
4) Free production (Students make mini-dialogues of their own.)
5) Checking students’ work
6) Reading new materials (integrating reading and writing)
7) Writing based on reading

19. Summary and Comments

20. Advantages
1) Wider considerations of what is appropriate and what is accurate
2) Wider range of language
3) Realistic and motivating language practice
4) Drawing on （利用）learners’ knowledge and experience

21. Disadvantages
1) Unclear about how rules of use can be taught
2) Difficult to tailor syllabus（教学大纲） to students’ needs
3) Fossilization （固化）of learners’ errors