49
In the 1970-s the educators and linguists became dissatisfied with the Grammar-Translation
Method of foreign language instruction. They felt students were not learning enough realistic,
whole language. Students did not know how to communicate using appropriate social language,
gestures, or expressions. Being in a foreign country students were at a loss to communicate in the
culture of the language studied.
Thus, CLT became a popular way of teaching. Authentic language began to be used and
students were engaged in real communication with one another. In CLT the goal is to make students
become communicatively competent. Communicative competence involves being able to use the
language appropriate to a given social context.
Students work on all four skills from the beginning. At the beginning fluency is more
important than accuracy. Errors are tolerated, they are the natural outcome of the development of
communication skills.Students use a language a great deal through communicative activities, such
as games,
role-plays, problem solving tasks. Very often students work in pairs and small groups.
As our experience shows mainly these two methods are applied by foreign language teachers.
But, unfortunately the GTM prevails. Why does it happen? We think there are several reasons for
this:
- the GTM does not require specialized skills on the part of the teacher
- knowledge of grammar rules can be objectively scored
- translation
is quick and easy
- lessons are in the native language
For example, in presenting grammar structures most teachers don‘t use pictures, time lines,
matching, texts to make students induce the grammar rules themselves. Instead, they show the table
and explain the form of the grammar structure. Thus, form comes first and meaning is often not
perceived by the students. Students can tell by heart the rule about the Present Perfect tense, but not
use it. Vocabulary is also often presented in the form of vocabulary lists with the native language
equivalents. The use of pictures, synonyms, antonyms is minimal. Speaking is also restricted, it
involves retelling of the text or learning the dialog by heart. There is no pair or group work at all.
The teachers who use CLTorganize their lessons in accordance with the principles of the
communicative approach: they use authentic materials, interactive tasks and activities, work with
language at discourse level.At the lessons the teacher uses picture strip stories, role-play, games.
There is the real interaction between students and teacher. The teacher‘s role of the authority in the
GTM changes
into the role of advisor, monitor, co-communicator in CLT.
Advantages of the Communicative approach are obvious:
- student-oriented;
- interaction between students and teachers;
- increased motivation.
As for grammar structures in CLT most of them are presented inductively.Presentation should
be clear, reasonably brief, interesting, efficient and appropriate.Techniques and resources for
presentation are: pictures, time lines, matching, writing on the board, story telling, role-play, charts,
dialogs, texts, modeling, explanation, realia, songs, poems, games.
For example, to present the structure the «Present Perfect Continuous tense» the teacher draws
pictures on the board and gives the following situation: «A woman starts waiting for a bus at four o‘
clock. At five o‘clock the bus comes. She‘s been waiting for an hour».
Teacher asks the class and individual students to repeat the sentence:«She‘s been waiting for
an hour». He may then write the structure on the board and elicit from the students the meaning and
use of the structure. Some other examples can be given. Then students explain how the structure is
formed.
To present the structure «tag questions» teacher uses technique «matching». He shows the
table which has two columns. In the left column the following sentences are written: «He lives in
Paris. We don‘t speak French. He can play tennis well. They are sleeping now. David wasn‘t at
home at five».
50
In the right column there are the question tags: can‘t we, was he, do we, doesn‘t he, aren‘t
they. Students make an attempt to match the sentences in the left column with the tags in the right
column. In such a way, they induce the grammar rules themselves.
From these two examples it is clear that grammar lessonsсan become meaningful and
interesting if students discover things themselves, if they focus on the structure without being
trapped in grammatical terminology and rules.It also helps to develop their cognitive abilities.
Besides GTM and CLT, teachers apply some elements from other methods and approaches.
One of such methods is the Total Physical Response method, which was developed in the 70-s
by James Asher. It is based on the principle that listening comes before production. In the TPR
teacher says the command and students do the action. Teachers successfully use the TPR at the
junior stage of instruction in teaching vocabulary connected with actions (smile, jump, sleep), in
teaching tenses (Present, Past, Future Continuous), in teaching classroom language (open your
books), in story telling.
For example, in teaching the Present Continuous tense the teacher says to the student:«Sit
down». When he sits teacher says:«He is sitting». Then other imperatives and sentences in the
Present Continuous follow.
For practicing the Present Continuous tense teacher uses the mime game. He writes some
sentences on the cards, one student performs actions in front of the class. Student mimes the Present
Continuous sentences until the other students say the whole correct sentences. Example sentences:
- You are packing your suitcase
- You are painting a fence
- You are wiping your face with a napkin, etc.
Advantages of the TPR:
- it is
fun and easy
- it does not require a great deal of preparation on the part of the teacher
- it is a good
tool for learning vocabulary
- there is no age barrier
Another approach used by the teachers in the senior grades is Lexical approach. It was
developed in the 90-s. It states that lexis is the basis of the language and it plays the central role. Its
aim is to help students acquire vocabulary and retain it for a longerperiod of time. For this, teachers
make students notice lexical chunks (upside down, out of my mind) and collocations (terrible
accident, totally convinced).
A good way to make students notice lexical chunks and collocations is to say that they will use
them later. For example, if students are to read the text about someone‘s hobby, their task will be to
describe their own hobby. In the Lexical approach teachers help students manage their own
learning, learners become discoverers. They observe, classify, make generalizations.The advantages
of the Lexical approach:
- students make discoveries
- it awakens
the language awareness
TBL was formedand became wide-spread in the 80-s. The students are placed in the situation
like in the real world, a situation where real communication is essential for doing a specific task.
There are three sections of TBL: pre-task, task cycle, language focus. There are some similarities
between CLT and TBL:
- the nature of the tasks is the same (coming up with some possible solutions to a social
problem by exchanging ideas or composing a letter or advice to a friend).
However, there are some differences between them in the use of the mother tongue in class in
the way of evaluating and teacher‘s reaction to errors:
- In CLT for explaining the task only the target language is used. In TBL a bit of the native
language for explaining some difficult points is allowed.
-In CLT teachers evaluate students‘ knowledge formally and informally. They do this
informally in their role of advisor or co-communicator and formally by giving students integrative
tests which have real communicative functions. Teachers can give tests at the end of the course