Comunicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Communicative Language Teaching is a natural follow-on from the reaction during the 70s against previous methods which over-focused on teaching grammatical structures and template sentences, and which gave little or no importance to how language is actually used practically. Educators began to question the adequacy of rules of linguistic usage when the learner cannot use them appropriately in real life situations outside the classroom. This necessitated a shift ( in late 1970’s and early 1980’s ) from a linguistic centered approach to a communicative approach (Widdowson 1990)

“One of the most characteristic features of communicative language teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional

The weak version of CLT focuses on integrating activities related to using English for communicative purpose into a program of language teaching. In other words, a version of learning to use English. Whereas the strong version focuses on stimulating existing language system to further develop it ( using English to learn it)

The communicative approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972) referred to as "communicative competence”

Hymes's theory of communicative competence was a definition of what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community. The basic tenets of communicative teaching theory is :

1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning.

2. The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.

3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.

4. The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in

Inspired by CLT further research in methodology centered around communication. It gave rise to content based Instruction(CBI), Task based language Teaching (TBLT) and Participatory approach. In these approaches rather than “learning to use English” students “use English to Learn” (Howatt 1984: A History of English Language Teaching). Content Based Instruction (CBI) focuses on the topic or subject matter: students learn the subject using the target language. It is assumed that language learning happens naturally where student unconsciously acquire the language. The process of language learning in this method is interesting and motivating. Participatory approach, which is a brainchild of Brazilian language educator Paulo Freire, is similar to the ideology of Content based instruction but incorporates content that is of relevance and interest to the students. The themes derive from real issues that affect students’ daily lives where language learning is used as a vehicle to solve social problems. The goal of this method is to use language learning as a tool to provide solutions to social problems that impact learners in their daily