CLT

BACKGROUND


A British linguist, D. A. Wilkins contribute an analysis of the communicative meanings that a language learning needs understands and express. Communicative Language Teaching can be called with notional functional approach. American and British proponent now see it as an approach (and not a method) that aims to:
a) make communicative competence the goal of language teaching
b) develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication.
CLT using procedures where learner work in pairs or groups employing available language resources in problem-solving task.
Finocchiaro and Brumit (1983) contrast the major distinctive features of the Audio lingual Method and the Communicative Approach, according to their interpretation:
Audio lingual Communicative Language Teaching
1. Attend to structure and form more than meaning
2. Language learning is learning structures, sounds, or words
3. Reading and writing are deferred till speech is mastered
4. Linguistic competence is the desired goal
5. The teacher control the learners and prevents them from doing anything that conflict with the theory.
6. Student are expected to interact with the language system, embodied in machines or controlled materials
7. The teacher are expected to specify the language that student are to use. 1. Meaning is Paramount

2. Language learning is learning to communicate
3. Reading and writing can start from the first day, if desired
4. Communicative competence is the desire goal
5. Teacher help learners in any way that motivates them to work with the language

6. Student are expected to interact with other people, either in the flesh, through pair and group work, or in their writing
7. the teacher cannot know exactly what language the student will use.

I. APPROACH
A. Theory of Language
The community Approach in language start from a theory of language as communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972) referred to as “Communicative Competence”
Its theory was a definition of what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community.
Another theorist frequently on the communicative nature of language is Hennry Widdowson. a more influential analysis of communicative competence is found in canal and swain (1980), in which four dimension of communicative competence are identified: Grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence.
At the level of the language theory, CLT has characteristics of this communicative view of language follow:
1. Language is a system or the expressing of meaning
2. The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication
3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses
4. Thee primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse

B. Theory of Learning
Elements of an underlying learning theory can be discerned in some CLT practice by Johnson (1982). It might be described as the communication principle:
*First, its activities that involve real communication promote learning,
*Second, its activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful task promote learning
*Third, language that meaningful to the learner supports the learning process.
Savignon (1983) survey second language acquisition research as a source for leaning theorist and considers the role of linguistic, social, cognitive, and individual variables in language acquision.

II. DESIGN
A. Objectives
Phiepho (1981) discuss the following levels of objectives in a communicative approach:
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 effective level of interpersonal relationship and conduct(language as a means of expressing values and judgements about oneself and other)
4. a level of individual learning needs (remedial learning based on error analysis)
5. a general educational level of extra-linguistic goal (language-learning within the school curriculum)

B. Syllabus
Example of such a model that has been implemented nationally is the Malaysian communicational syllabus. These objectives are organized into learning areas, for ech which are specified a number of out come goals and products. The products such as:
a. understanding the message
b. asking questions to clear any doubts
c. asking question to gather more information
d. taking notes
e. arranging the notes in a logical manner for presentation
f. orally presenting the message

C. Types of learning and teaching activities
Classroom activities are often designed to focus in completing task that are mediated through language or involve negotiation of information and information sharing.
Functional communication activities and social interaction activities as major activity types in CLT.

D. Learners Roles
Breen and Caldin describe the learner’s role within CLT in the following term:
The Learners as negotiator-between it self, the learning process and the object of learning emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator within the group undertakes. The implication for the learner is that he should contribute as much as he gains and thereby learn in an interdependent way

E. Teachers Roles
1. Needs analyst
The CLT teacher assumes a responsibility for determining and respondingto learner language needs. Typically, such formal assessments contain items that attempt to determine an individual’s motivation for studying the language.
2. Counselor
The teacher-counselor is expected to exemplify an effective communicator seeking to maximize the meshing of speaker intention and hearer interpretation, through the use of paraphrase, confirmation, and feedback.
3. Group process manager
Guidelines for classroom practice ( e. g. Litllewood 1981; Finochiaro and Brumfit 1983) suggest that during an activity of the teacher monitors, encourages, and suppresses the inclination to supply gaps in lexis, grammar and strategy but notes such gaps for later commentary and communicative practice.
The teacher leads in the debriefing of the activity, pointing out alternatives and extension and assisting group in self-correction discussion>

F. The role of instructional materials
1. Text-based materials
Language teaching text by Morrow and Johnson’s Communicate (1979) for example has none of usual dialogues, drills, or sentence pattern and uses visual cues, taped cues, picture and sentence fragment to initiate conversation.
2. Task-based material
To support CLT classes, these typically are in the form of one of kind items; exercise hand books, cue card, activity card, activity card, pair-communication practice materials, and student-interaction practice booklets.
3. Realita
Many proponent of CLT such as sign, magazine, advertisements, and newspaper, or graphic and visual source around which communicative activities can be built, such as maps, pictures, symbols, graphs, and charts.

III. PROCEDURE
CLT procedures are evolutionary rather than revolutionary:
1. Presentation of a brief dialog or several mini-dialog
2. oral practice of each utterance of the dialog segment to be presented
3. question and answers based on the dialog topic
4. question and answers related the students’ personal experience but centered around the dialog theme
5. study one of the basis communicative expression in the dialog or one of the structures which exemplify the function.
6. Learner discovery of generalization or rules underlying the functional expression of structure.
7. oral recognition, interpretative activities
8. oral production activities-proceeding from guided to free communication activities
9. copying of the dialog or mini dialogs or modules if they are not in the class text
10. sampling of the written homework assignment
11. evaluation of learning (oral only)



CONCLUSION
CLT principles includes:
Learners learn a language through using it to communicate,
- Authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal of class room activities,
- Fluency is an important dimension of communication,
- Communication involves the integration of different language skills,
- Learning is a process of creative construction and involves trial and error.
Johnson and Johnson (1998) identify core characteristics that underlie current applications of communicative methodology:
1. Appropriateness
2. Message focus
3. Psycholinguistic processing
4. Risk taking
5. Free practice
Some focus centrally on the input to the learning process. Thus Content-Based Teaching stresses that the content or subject matter of teaching is of primary importance in teaching. Some teaching proposals focus more directly on instructional factor and Learning factor. Outcome is another dimension of the process of communication and is central in Competency-Based Language Teaching.