Diane Larsen-Freeman

9
Communicative
Language
Teaching
INTRODUCTIO N
You may have noticed that the goal of mos t of the methods we have
looked at so far is for stu dents to learn to communicate in the target
languag e. In the 19705, th ough, edu cators began to question if they
were going about meeting the goal til the right way. Some observed
that students cou ld produce sentences accurately in a lesson, but could
not usc th em appropriately when genu inely communicati ng outside of
t he classroom. Others noted that being able to communicate requ ired
more than mastering linguistic structures. Students may know the rules
of linguistic usage, bur be unable co use the language (Widdowson
1978). It became clear that communication required that students
perform certa in functions as well, such as pro mising, inviting, and
declining invitations with in a social context (Wilkins 1976) . In short,
being able to communicate required 1110re tha n linguistic competence;
it requ ired communicative competence (Hyme s 1971)-kl1owing
when and how to say what to whom. Such observations contributed to a
shift in the field in the late 1970s and early 1980s from a linguistic structure
-centered approach to a Communicative Approach (Widdowson
1990).
Communicative Language Teaching aims broadly to apply the
theoretical perspective of the Communicative Approach by making
communicative competence the goal of language teaching and by
acknowledging the interdependence of language and communication .
What th is look s like in the classroo m may depend on how the tenets arc
interpreted and applied. Ne vertheless, we will follow our usual way of
und erstanding the theor y and ussociarcd practices by visiting a class in
which a form of Communicative Language Teaching is being practiced.
The class we will visit is one being conducted for adult immigrants to
Ca nada . These twenty people have lived in Canada for two years and arc
at a high-intermediate level of English proficiency. They meet tw o
evenings a week for two hours each class.