Module 6 Reading Material资料文件与下载

Module 6 Communicative Language Teaching and Task-Based Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Assumptions and Principles

Before going through the assumptions and principles in CLT, let’s define the following four main terms related to language teaching.

Language Teaching Terminology:

1. Approach = “A set of assumptions dealing with the nature of language, learning, and teaching”

2. Method = “An overall plan for a systematic presentation of language based on a selected      approach”

3. Procedures = “An ordered set of techniques to execute a method”.

4. Technique = “Certain practices and behaviors to implement a procedure according to a method”.

Ten Core Assumptions in CLT:

1. Engaging in interaction and meaningful communication facilitates language learning.

2. Effective classroom learning tasks provide students the opportunities to extract meaning, expand language, notice how language is used, and take part in a meaningful interpersonal exchange.

3. Meaningful communication occurs when students process content that is relevant, purposeful,      interesting, and engaging.

4. Communication is a comprehensive process that often calls upon the use of several language      skills.

5. Language learning is facilitated both by activities that:

• involve inductive  or discovery learning of language rules, and

• involve the  analysis of language rules.

6. Language learning is a gradual process that involves creative use of language, and trial and error.

7. The ultimate goal of language learning is to be able to use the new language both accurately      and fluently.

8. Learners develop their own routes to language learning, progress at different rates, and have different needs and motivations for language learning.

9. The role of the teacher in the language classroom is that of a facilitator, who creates a classroom climate conducive to language learning and provides opportunities for students to use and practice the language and to reflect on language use and language learning.

10. The classroom is a community where learners learn through collaboration and sharing.

Principles of Communicative Language Teaching:

• Make real communication the focus of language learning.

• Provide opportunities for learners to experiment and try out what they know.

• Provide opportunities for learners to develop both accuracy and fluency.

• Link the different skills such as speaking, reading, and listening together, since they usually occur so in the real world

• Let students induce or discover grammar rules.

• Be tolerant of learners’ errors as they indicate that the learner is building up his or her communicative competence.

• Focus more on achieving communicative competence with students without neglecting      grammatical competence and on fluency without neglecting accuracy.

Grammatical Competence VS. Communicative Competence.

To achieve grammatical competence, Students learn the rules of sentence formation in a language.

But to achieve communicative competence students learn language through activities and they learn sentence formation and its use at the same time.

About the Grammatical Competence:

• The ability to produce sentences in a language.

• The knowledge of the building blocks of sentences (e.g. parts of speech, tenses, phrases, clauses, sentence patterns) and how they are formed.

• The unit of analysis and practice is typically the sentence.

• Accuracy is the main goal to achieve when learning a language.

About the Communicative Competence:

Communicative competence includes knowing how to:

• Use language for a range of different purposes and functions.

• vary our use of language according to the setting and the participants.

• Produce and understand different types of texts (e.g. narratives, reports, interviews, conversations)

• Maintain communication despite having limitations in one’s language knowledge.

• Achieve fluency, as well as accuracy.

Fluency VS. Accuracy.

Fluency Activities:

• Reflect the natural use of language.

• Focus on achieving communication.

• Require meaningful use of language.

• Require the use of communication strategies.

• Produce language that may not be predictable.

• Seek to link language use to context.

Accuracy Activities:

• Reflect classroom use of language.

• Do not require meaningful

• Communication

• Focus on the correct formation of examples of language.

• The choice of  anguage is controlled.

• Produce free-error sentences.

• Practice language out of context.

https://elttguide.com/communicative-language-teaching-clt-assumptions-and-principles/

Task-Based Language Teaching

Task-based Learning (TBL) is a TESOL approach that has roots in the Communicative Language Teaching method, where the teaching process is done entirely through communicative tasks. In order to fully acquire language, it must have real meaning by being used in natural contexts. With Task-based Learning, teachers ask students to complete purposeful tasks that elicit the use of the target language. Assessment centers around the general outcome of the task, rather than meticulously picking apart each element of speech. In doing this, you celebrate the successful, appropriate completion of a task, which in turn boosts student confidence immensely.

General Principles of Task-Based Learning

Relevant Tasks

Task-based Learning tasks can be categorized by the type of mental processes used in the activity, such as listing, comparing, problem-solving, creative thinking, and sharing personal experiences.

Tasks Are Extremely Varied, But All Share Several Common Features

They must focus on meaning and comprehension, rather than repetition and recitation. There must be a clearly defined outcome to determine the task’s effectiveness and the student’s success. For example, the task could be to book a transportation ticket over the phone. In this case, the outcome would be to successfully book the ticket. There must be a gap between teacher instruction, student performance, and end analysis. Lastly, it is highly effective if students are allowed to choose and utilize the resources that they deem necessary to complete the task. Please note: this does not include pulling out a phone and turning to Google translate.

Students Learn by Interacting

Sitting in a classroom and being lectured at for an hour is not conducive to language acquisition and production- nor is it good for confidence and a sense of enjoyment! Each student needs to be engaged and encouraged to participate.

Focus on Using and Eliciting Authentic Language

So many textbooks and foreign language classes center around memorizing and mimicking awkward grammar patterns that aren’t typically used in real life situations. The language that you use with students and that you want to instill in them needs to be genuine and viable in order for the experience to be effective and useful for them.

Errors Are a Natural Part of The Learning Process

While correcting them is important to a certain degree, you do not want to embarrass or dissuade students from trying to communicate. Praise students for task successes instead of picking out each tiny error. Errors can be fixed with time, but confidence can be shattered in a second.

Focus On the Process as A Whole Rather Than The End Product

Learning is just that: a process. Teachers must provide students with the tools that they need, give guidance, and encourage students to call upon previous language and personal experiences. This methodology does not result in a multiple-choice test grade. Each step of the process is equally important to task triumphs and, eventually, real world language success.

Participation in and Completion of Tasks Is Extremely Motivational

Tasks address real life needs and allow students to use their bag of language tools to meet those needs. Additionally, the use of tasks allows variation in the classroom, omits boredom (if planned properly), and encourages students to use a wide variety of communication styles and techniques, such as comparing, debating, and persuading.

Tasks Provide Two Key Processing Elements That Are Necessary for Language Learning: Input and Output

Copying lines and reciting a song or poem are incapable of meeting this criterion in their very design. Incorporating opportunities for both input and output into every task enable language learners to practice negotiation, listening and re-defining, rephrasing, and on-the-spot thinking- all things that occur naturally in our lives on a daily basis.

https://ontesol.com/task-based-learning/