Communicative Language Teaching for the Twenty-First Century

Within the last quarter century, communicative language teaching (CLT) has been put forth around the world as the ‘new’ or ‘innovative’ way to teach English as a second or foreign language. Teaching materials, course descriptions, and curriculum guidelines proclaim a goal of communicative competence.

WHAT IS CLT?

            There are four skills categories in language teaching : listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Speaking and writing were collectively described as active skills, reading and listening as passive skills. The skills needed to engage in speaking and writing activities were described subsequently as productive, whereas listening and reading skills were said to be receptive.

            The inadequacy of a four-skills model of language use is now recognized. And the short comings of audio lingual methodology are widely acknowledged. There is general acceptance of the complexity and interrelatedness of skills in both written and oral communication and of the need for learners to have the experience of communication, to participate in the negotiation of meaning.

HOW AND WHY DID CLT DEVELOP?

            Supplementary teacher resource materials promoting classroom CLT became increasingly popular during the 1970s. By encouraging learners for ask to information to seek clarification, to use circumlocution and whatever other linguistic and non linguistic resources they could master to negotiate meaning and stick to the communicative task at hand, teachers were invariably leading learners to take risks and speak in other than memorized.

            CLT thus can be seen to derive from a multidisciplinary perspective that includes linguistic, psychology, philosophy, sociology and educational research. Its focus has been the elaboration and implementation of programs and methodologies that promote the development of functional language ability through learner participation on communicative events.