2014/9/5

1. A review of the history of FLT Fostering communicative competence Communicative Language Teaching TBLT 2014/9/5 1

2. The grammar-translation method The direct method The audio-lingual method The functional-notional syllabus The communicative language teaching 2014/9/5 2

3. The Grammar-translation method Traditional method / classical method; uses translation and grammar study as the main teaching and learning activities; a reflection of the way Latin and Greek were taught; to help Ss read and appreciate foreign language literature; seen as an academic study focus on grammatical rules, the memorization of vocabulary, the inflection of words, translations of texts, doing written exercises. 2014/9/5 3

4. The advantages of the Grammar-Translation Method: • Comparison between two languages helps students to have a better understanding of the meaning of abstract words and complicated sentences. • Systematic study of grammatical rules plays an important role in fostering students’ ability of reading comprehension and producing grammatically correct sentences. • The focus on understanding literary texts provides the situation in which reading and writing abilities are well trained. • The Grammar-Translation makes few demands on teachers although it often creates frustration for students.

5. The disadvantages of Grammar-translation method: • Overemphasis on translation can never emancipate the learners from dependence on the first language. • The Grammar-Translation puts too much emphasis on reading and writing and neglects listening and speaking. • In the Grammar-Translation Method, the texts are mostly taken form literary works. The language learned often doesn’t meet the practical needs of the learners. • Memorizing grammar rules and bilingual word lists does not motivate students to actively communicate in the target language.

6. The Direct method A direct reaction to and a radical departure from the G-T method; language learning was not an intellectual exercise but a necessity for survival; The rationale: a person should learn to speak a foreign language by the same way as a child learn his mother tongue. (Gouin’s story) Some principles of the direct method: Classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target language. Only everyday vocabulary and sentences were taught. Grammar was taught inductively New teaching points were taught through modeling and practice Concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstration, objects, pictures; Abstract vocabulary was taught through association of ideas. Advantages and disadvantages: 2014/9/5 6

7. The Advantages of the Direct Method: • The use of the target language as a means of instruction and communication in the classroom contributes greatly to forming the habit of thinking in the target language, which is necessary in efficient real communication. • The emphasis on practice with new language items and on language skills, rather than on language knowledge, is important in achieving automaticity of using the target language. • The emphasis on spoken language conforms to the objectives of modern language teaching. Special attention paid to pronunciation and intonation is desirable in teaching spoken language. • Regarding listening and speaking as the basis of reading and writing is strategic in fostering the four skills. • Using full sentences as teaching units makes foreign language learning more natural and efficient for students to understand a new text and acquire a language.

8. The Disadvantages of Direct method: • The absolute avoidance of the native tongue occasionally troubles the Direct Method in teaching the meaning of abstract concepts. • Without explicit grammar explanation, students lack a necessary knowledge of the target language. • The Direct Method places a high demand on the teacher.

9. The Audiolingual method "The Army Method“, developed through a U.S. Army program called ASTP ( standing for "Army Specialized Training Program.“) An integration of structuralism and behaviorism, basic assumption: SLL should be viewed as a mechanistic process of habit formation In this method, oral interaction was emphasized in pattern drills, and conversation practices. New material is presented in dialogue form. There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases, and overlearning. Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills. There is little or no grammatical explanation. Grammar is taught by inductive analogy rather than deductive explanation. There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids. Great importance is attached to pronunciation.. Very little use of the mother tongue by teacher There is great effort to get the students to produce error free utterances. 2014/9/5 9

10. The advantages of Audiolingual method: • The audiolingual theory is probably the first language teaching theory that openly claims to be derived from linguistics and psychology. • The Audiolingual Method attempts to make language learning accessible to large group of ordinary learners. • The Audiolingual Method stresses syntactical progression and uses pattern drills to help the students gain control over grammatical structures, which is a much more interesting way of learning grammar than working through written exercises. What’s more, drilling can be positively beneficial in helping a student to develop his oral ability. • The Audiolingual Method leads to the development of simple techniques of varied, graded, and intensive practice of specific features of the language, and more scientifically selected and systematically arranged materials and structural patterns to go with. • The Audiolingual Method lays emphasis on listening and speaking which did not gain so much importance from Grammar-Translation Method.

11. The disadvantages of Audiolingual method: • The theoretical basis of the Audiolingual Method was found to be weak. • Techniques such as pattern practice, drilling, memorization, etc. are not resulting in competence. • The teacher’s role is central and active in the Audiolingual Method. Learners have little control over the content, pace or style of learning. • The Audiolingual method ignores the fact that learning can be facilitated if all the channels are open to students.

12. The Functional-notional syllabus (method) a precursor of Communicative Language Teaching a FNS textbook would be organized in the following sequence of functional topics: Introductions, greetings, good-byes; Invitations, Apologies, Condolences; Gratitude, Compliments, Congratulations; Requests, Commands, Warnings, Directions; Offers, Seeking Permission; Advice, Intention; Pleasure, Displeasure; Expressing your opinion … and so forth. A typical unit of such a textbook would include presentation of dialogues, conversation practice with classmate, situations in which the student figures out "what would I say," role plays, etc.. 2014/9/5 12

13. The communicative language teaching ---- the current state of the art developed as a reaction away from grammar-based approaches such as the audio-lingual method The goal of communicative language teaching is to have students become communicatively competent. 2014/9/5 13

14. The goal of CLT is to develop Ss’ communicative cometence, which includes both the knowledge about language and the knowledge about how to use the langage appropriately in communicative situations. Task 1. Work in pairs. Think about at least 3 situations where we are likely to hear the question: “why don’t you close the door?” Discuss how many functions it may have. Task 2. Suppose you want to make a suggestion to somebody. How many different ways are there to express this intention? Write down as many ways as you can think of. Then discuss in what situation you would use each of them? 2014/9/5 14

15. Hymes’s understanding of communicative competence • Linguistic competence Vs. communicative competence • Linguistic competence (by Chomsky) is understood as the tacit knowledge of language structure and the ability to use this knowledge to understand and produce language. • communicative competence (by Hymes) entails knowing not only the language code or the form of language, but also what to say to whom and how to say it appropriately in any given situation.

16. 4 aspects of communicative competence (Hymes, 1979) Knowing whether or not womething is formally possible (grammatically acceptable); Knowing whether something is understanable to human beings; Knowing whehter something is in line with social norms; Knowing whether or not something is in fact done. 2014/9/5 16

17. Hedge’s understanding of communicative competence Five components of communicative competence (Hedge, 2000) Linguistic competence Pragmatic competence Discourse competence Strategic competence Fluency 2014/9/5 17

18. Linguistic competence “is concerned with knowledge of the language itself, its form and meaning" (Hedge, 2000:46). It is an integral part of communicative competence and it is wrong to think that communicative language teaching does not aim for high standard of linguistic correctness.

19. Pragmatic competence is concerned with the appropriate use of the language in social context. In Hymes’s words, to know “when to speak, when not, what to talk about with whom, when, where and in what manner”.

20. Discourse competence refers to one’s ability to create coherent written text or conversation and the ability to understand them (Canale and Swain, 1980). According to Hedge (2000), it also includes one’s ability to initiate, develop, enter, interrupt, check or confirm in a conversation.

21. Strategic competence refers to strategies one employs when there is communication breakdown due to lack of resources.

22. Fluency means one’s ability to link units of speech together with facility and without strain or inappropriate slowness or undue hesitation. Prefabricated language can help learners produce the language more fluently.

23. Principles Communication principle Activities that involve real communication promote learning. Task principle Activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning. Meaningfulness principle Language that is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process. A weak and a strong version of CLT 2014/9/5 23

24. Features of communicative activities 2 categories of commnicative activties Littlewood (1981) Functional communication activities（功能交际活动） We know that language has functional meanings. Therefore we can devise communicative activities for the classroom which emphasize this functional aspect of communication. The mani purpose of the activity is that students should use the language they know in order to get their meaning across as effectively as possible. Success is measured primarily according to whether they cope with the communicative demand of the activity. A typical example of this kink of activity is an information-gap task. 2014/9/5 24

25. Social interaction activities：（社会交往活动） We also know that appropriateness of language is another important aspect of communicaiton. The students should have the ability to take into consideration the functional meaning of different language forms, and their social meaning as well. The competent language user chooses language which is not only functionally effective, but is also appropriate to the social situation he is in. Role-play is one of the most important techniques for creating a wide variety of social situations and relationships in the classroom. 2014/9/5 25

26. Examples of communicative activities: Functional Identifying pictures Discovering differences Following directions Reconstructing story sequences … Social interaction activities Role-playing through cued dialogues Role-playing through cues and information Role-playing through situation and goals Large-scale simulation activities Improvisation 2014/9/5 26

27. TBLT is a further development of CLT. It shares the same beliefs, as language should be learned as close as possible to how it is used in real life. It has stressed the importance to combine form-focused teaching with commnication-fovused teaching. The nature of TBLT is learning by doingLearning by doing motivates students to fulfill their potential. Learners master the language by using it communicatively in the classroom, although they still have to learn grammar and memorize vocabulary. 任务型语言教学的核心理念是学习者用语言做任务，在完成任务的过程中自然习得语言。就英语而言，任务指有利于学生用英语做事情的各种语言实践活动。任务型英语教学就是以具体的任务为载体，以完成任务为动力，把知识和技能融为一体，让学生在完成任务的活动中自然地使用英语，在使用英语做事的过程中发展和完善自己的语言能力。 2014/9/5 27

28. An example of TBLT ( from The 21st century ) 任务型教学法能让学生在完成任务的过程中，学习和使用。 这里以“十年前的生活”课堂活动为例，介绍任务型教学中语法教学的实用技巧。 2014/9/5 28

29. 课程目标　　该课程适用中级以下英语水平的学生群体，通过让学生讨论十年前的生活与如今生活的差异，练习运用过去时态。准备　　* 教师准备一张自己十年前的照片（也可让学生每人准备一张自己十年前的照片）。　　* 准备一篇描述自己十年前生活状态的小文章（突出与现在的差异），例如从前（不）喜欢或（不）习惯做的事情。　　* 将这篇文章打印后当作讲义分发给每位学生。任务前预热　　教师向学生展示自己十年前的照片（可在教室内来回走动），并让学生讨论照片与其本人有何不同。讨论中，教师无须纠正学生的语言错误，任其自由表达观点、最后告诉学生，他们将会在接下来的任务中找到答案。 2014/9/5 29

30. 任务　　将学生分为三人一组，让其讨论自己十年前与现在的差异，时间为三至五分钟。教师将下列问题写于黑板上，让学生围绕这些问题展开讨论:　　* What did you look like?　　* What was different about your life?　　* Did you have different likes and dislikes? Different hobbies?　　* Are you very different now?　　在此过程中，教师在各组之间走动，旁听讨论，但无须纠正学生的语言错误。　　讨论任务后，教师让每组准备一篇讨论报告，总结各自在十年中的变化。准备时间为五分钟时间。总结报告　　每组代表发言，将报告内容传达给全班同学。最后，全班选出一位在十年中变化最大的学生，并让该学生将自己的照片展示给全班同学。任务后的听力练习　　教师可播放一段英美学生完成相同任务时的录音，让学生思考其中有哪些异同。活动中，可向学生提出问题，并让其快速回答。例如:What did I say about my hair? What did I say about my job? 等等。如发现学生理解困难，教师可以重复播放录音。 2014/9/5 30

31. 语言聚焦　　为了让学生对目标语言有足够的认知，教师可从播放的录音中选择两个包含语法“used to” 的句子，并写于黑板上。例如:I used to go to heavy metal concerts.或I used to have long black hair.　　检查学生是否理解句子含义。例如，针对第一个例句，可提问:　　* Did I go to heavy metal concerts in the past? (Yes)　　* Was it a regular occurrence? (Yes)　　* Do I go to heavy metal concerts now? (No)　　教师向学生讲解used to的用法（used to+不定式和didn’t use to +不定式），之后将录音资料分发给学生，让其找出录音中运用used to的句子。语言练习　　教师让学生运用used to造句，写出自己在孩童时代常做的三件事情。完成后，学生们先互相检查，随后教师从中选出一些好的例句写于黑板上。后续自选练习　　将学生重新分组，重新进行这一任务，以提高完成任务的质量。在这次任务中，学生们须尽量使用used to,活动过程中，教师须纠正学生的语言错误。 2014/9/5 31