Communicative Language Teaching

【Abstract】In China， many undergraduates of English majors are still feared of communicating with others for lack of communicative competence after learning English over 10 years. To improve their communicative competence， communicative language teaching is the best choice. This paper is about Communicative Language Teaching and a syllabus based on it for the course Oral English for English majors in first and second year.

【Key words】Communicative Language Teaching； communicative competence； undergraduate students； oral English

【作者簡介】朱睿茜，女，陕西西安人，西安外国语大学在读研究生，西安外国语大学英文学院2017级外国语言学及应用语言学专业。

I. Introduction

In traditional classes， the teacher usually speaks through the whole class， while students just take notes and mechanically recite vocabularies， sentence patterns and grammar. So it is accustomed to seeing the phenomenon of deaf and dumb English. The writer hopes the teaching plan adopting communicative language teaching in this paper may help students to improve students communicative competence.

Communicative Approach（CA） can also be called Communicative Language Teaching（CLT）. Widdowson （1979） shows that “the CA concentrates on getting learners to do things with language， to express concepts and to carry out communicative acts of various kinds.” A crucial element of communicative approach to language teaching is the adoption of a methodology which will encourage learners to do things with the language they are learning.

II. The underlying theories of communicative language teaching

1.Communicative Competence

The concept of Communicative Competence was first presented by Dell Hymes， an American sociolinguist. He（1972）believes that communicative competence is “when to say， when not to say， and where， how and what to talk about to whom”. Generally speaking， communicative competence refers to the ability to achieve a certain kind of communicative goal by using linguistic means and paralinguistic communicative strategies.

2.The Second Language Acquisition Theory

The Second Language Acquisition Theory， proposed by the American linguist Stephen D. Krashen. He distinguishes “acquisition” and “learning”. “Acquisition” is a subconscious process and a consequence of natural communicating. “Learning” is a conscious process， conducted through the strict teachers instruction in classroom and is completed by conscious exercises.

III. A Syllabus Based on Communicative Language Teaching

Course objectives：

Students are expected to be able to voice their views appropriately.

Course schedule：

Class 1：Introduction to this Lesson course and Lesson 1；Class 2：Lesson 2～3；

Class 3：Lesson 4～5；Class 4：Role Play （Teacher will set five situations of daily life， students are required to play roles.）；Class 5：Lesson 8～9；Class 6：Lesson 10～11；

Class 7：Role Play （Teacher will set five situations of daily life， students are required to play roles. ）

Implementation：Suppose there are 25 students in the class. In every class， the teacher will first let students familiarize the vocabulary and sentence patterns related to certain topics by means of listening to tapes. Then the teacher will give topics appeared in texts and ask students to discuss. During the class， the teacher will function as a co-communicator a corrector， and a commentator.

Class 4 & Class 7：

Reviewing part： A brief review of the previous classes.

Role play part： The teacher distributes five role cards printed with five distinct situations of daily life， and asks five groups to choose one card for their role plays.

Interaction and assessment part： After each group s performance， other group members could ask questions.

Teachers assessment part： The teacher makes assessment about each groups performance， and correct their mistakes. Then， the teacher concludes the class.

IV. Conclusion

The Communicative Language Teaching has become increasingly popular among teachers and educators. It could foster learners communicative competence and help students communicate with others in English effectively and appropriately. Therefore， this syllabus adopts CLT to develop students communicative abilities. Although some scholars propose some criticisms of CLT in recent years， it still have positive effects on learners communicative competence.

References：

[1]Hymes，D.（1972）.On communicative competence.Harmondsworth： Penguin.