Unit_2_Communicative_Principles_and_Task-based_Language_teaching 1 1

Unit 2 Communicative Principles and Task-based Language teaching Aims of the unit:

1. how is language learned in classrooms different from language used in real life?

2. What is communicative competence?

3. What are the implications of CLT to teaching and learning?

4. What are the main features of communicative activities?

5. What is Task-based Language Teaching?

6. How is Task-based Language Teaching different from PPP?

7. Are there imitations of CLT and TBL?

https://www.sodocs.net/doc/f318354532.html,nguage use in real life vs. traditional pedagogy

Task 1.

Generally speaking language use in real life differs from traditional language teaching pedagogy in the following aspects:

In real life

In traditional pedagogy

How is Lang. used /taught?

1.Perform certain com- municative functions

2. Use all four skills

1.Focus on forms rather than functions

2 Focus on one or two skills

What parts of lang. are used/ taught

Language is used in a certain context

Isolate language from its context

II. What is communicative competence?

1. The goal of CLT

The goal of CLT is to develop students’ communicative competence, which includes both the knowledge about the language and the knowledge about how to use the language appropriately in communicative situations.

Task 2:

“Why don’t you close the door?”—a real question, a command or a complaint?

Task 4:

Discuss the possible meaning and function each may have.

l Flight CA 937 is now landing.

l The train is leaving in ten minutes.

l She is always complaining whenever you talk to her.

l He is making progress slowly

From the above tasks we can see that one language form may express a number of communicative functions and one communicative function can also be expressed by a variety of language forms.

2. Five main components of communicative competence.

Hedge discusses five main components of communicative competence: linguistic competence, pragmatic competence, discourse competence, strategic competence and fluency.

(1) Linguistic compete nce: “is concerned with knowledge of the language itself, its form and meaning”(Hedge, 2000)

(2) Pragmatic competence: is concerned with the appropriate use of the language in social context.

(3) Discourse competence: refers to on e’s ability to create

coherent written text or conversation and the ability to understand them.(Canale and Swain, 1980)

(4) Strategic competence: similar to communication strategies. It refers to strategies one employs when there is communication breakdown due to lack of resources.

(5) Fluency: one’s ability to “link units of speck together with facility and without strain or inappropriate slowness or undue hesitation”(Hedge)

3. Language competence and communicative competence

(1) C homsky’s theory: competence simply means knowledge of the language system: grammatical knowledge in other words

(2) Hymes’s theory: “there are “rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless”. Besides grammatical rules, language use is governed by rules of use, which ensure that the desired or intended functions are performed and the language used is appropriate to the context.

(3) Communicative competence: according to Hymes, communicative competence means people should know “what to say to whom and how to say it appropriately in any given situation”, which includes four aspects: . grammatically acceptable

. understandable

. social norms

. actually use

4. Implications for teaching and learning

Task 5:

Communicative competence

Implications for language teaching

(Teachers need to help learners)

Linguistic competence

l Achieve accuracy in the grammatical forms of the languages; l Pronounce the forms accurately;

l Use stress, rhythm and intonation to express meaning;

l Build a range of vocabulary;

l Learn the script and spelling rules.

l Achieve accuracy in syntax and word formation.

Pragmatic competence

l Learn the relationship between grammatical forms and functions;

l Use stress and intonation to express attitude and emotion;

l Learn the scale of formality;

l Understand and use emotive tone;

l Use the pragmatic rules of language.

l Select language forms appropriate to topic, listener or setting, etc.

Discourse competence

l Take longer turns, use discourse markers and open and close conversations;

l Appreciate and be able to produce contextualized written texts in a variety of genres;

l Be able to use cohesive devices in reading and writing texts;

l Be able to cope with authentic texts.

Strategic competence

l To take risks in using the language;

l To use a range of communicative strategies;

l To learn the language needed to engage in some of these strategies.

Fluency

l Deal with the information gap of real discourse;

l Process language and respond appropriately with a degree of ease;

l Be able to respond with reasonable speed in “real time”.

III. Principles of Communicative Language Teaching

1. Principles of CLT:

l Communicative principle: Activities that involve real communication promote learning.

l Task principle: Activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning.

l Meaningfulness principle: language that is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process.

2. Features of CLT

l authentic and creative

l meaning rather than form

l relevant to the needs

l task-based teaching

l functional approach

3. The implementation of language skills

(1) In listening and speaking, students should have the chance to listen to and produce what is meaningful, authentic, unpredictable, and reactive if ever possible.

(2) In reading. Since communicative courses focus on meaning rather

than on form, the reading skill is redefined to focus on the purpose of reading.

(3) In writing, students should make the writing more meaningful and authentic, that is to practice writing to express their own feelings or describe their own experience.

4. Communicative activities.

(1) MMC system. Mechanic drills, meaningful drills and communicative drills. / Functional communicative activities, and Asocial interaction activities,(P. 22)

(2) Six criteria for evaluating communicative classroom activities:

i. communicative purpose

ii. communicative desire

iii. content, not form

iv. variety of language

v. no teacher intervention

vi. no materials control

IV. Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT)

1. Definition of a task:

l [a task] is a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others,

freely or for some reward. Thus, examples of tasks include painting a fence, dressing a child, filling out a form, buying a pair of shoes, making an airline reservation, borrowing a library book, taking a driving test, typing a letter…In other words, by “task” is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in between. (Long 1985)

l …a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form.(Nunan 1989)

l Tasks are activities where the target language is used by the leaner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve an outcome.(Wills 1996)

l A task is essentially goal-oriented; it requires the group, or pair, to achieve an objective that is usually expressed by an observable result, such as brief notes or lists, rearrangement of jumbled items, a drawing, a spoken summary. This result should be stainable only by interaction between participants: so within the definition of the task you often find instructions such as “reach a consensus” or “find out everyone’s opinions”. (Ur 1996)

2. Four components of a task:

l A purpose: making sure the students have a reason for undertaking the task.

l A context: the task can be real, simulated or imaginary, and involves sociolinguistic issues, such as the location, the participants and other important factors.

l A process: getting the students to use learning strategies such as problem solving reasoning, inquiring, conceptualizing and communicating.

l A product: there will be some form of outcome, either visible (a written plan, a play, a letter. etc.) or invisible (enjoying a story, learning about another country, etc.)

3. Exercises, exercise-task and tasks

l Exercises: focus on individual language items

l Tasks: Purposeful and contextualized communication

l Exercise-task: halfway between tasks and exercises.

Task 10.

Activity 1: This activity has all the characteristics of a task.

l The workplan specifies what the two participants in the task are supposed to do.

l The primary focus is on meaning.

l Student A has to talk about the dangerous moment and student B is free to ask questions to clarify. The language use is similar to a natural communicative event.

l The outcome of this task is the completion of a picture by student B.

Activity 2: This activity is an exercise-task.

l This is an example of a cue-card activity. It has some of the features of a task. For example, it requires participants to interact orally and the participants are free to choose the linguistics resources.

l However, the primary focus is on form because the meanings are predetermined. Also, there isn’t a clear communicative outcome.

l The outcome is the performance of the activity. Therefore, the purpose of this activity is to practice language.

Activity 3: This is obviously an exercise.

l They primary focus is on form—the use of “any and “some” in questions and replies learners simply need to substitute items.

l The language use is by no means like the real-world communication.

Activity 4: This is an exercise-task.

l Telling a story from pictures where every student can see what is happening in each picture is not a task.

l It is simply a language practice activity—what communicative purpose is there?

l If there were two sets of pictures, and one group prepared a story based on their set of pictures and told it to a group who then had to arrange that set of pictures in the right order, this would create a communicative purpose, and therefore a need to listen. The latter would be a good task—initially with the teacher telling the story and the learners at tables arranging the pictures.

4. PPP and Task-based Language Teaching

(1) PPP teaching model: Presentation, Practice, Production

(2) The difference between PPP and TBLT

(see Figure 2.2 and 2.3 on P. 31 & 32)

Figure 2.2 TBL

Figure 2.3 PPP

l The way students use and experience language in TBL, is radically different from PPP.

l TBL can provide a context for grammar teaching and form-focuses activities. PPP is different in this aspect. (P.32)

5. How to design tasks?

(1) Question that should be considered before design tasks. l What is the objective of the task

l What is the content of the task?

l How is the task to be carried out?

l In what situation is the task to be carried out?

(2) The steps in designing tasks.

Sept 1: Think about students’ needs, interests, and abilities. Step 2: Brainstorm possible tasks.

Step 3: Evaluate the list

Step 4: Choose the language items.

Step 5: Preparing materials