The Comunicative Approach

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The late 1970s and early 1980s witnessed the beginnings of what we now recognise as a “communicative approach” as we better understood the functions that must be incorporated into a classroom (Brown, 2007). Meaning was important in CLT while grammar was ignored completely. Grammar would be acquired unconsciously. During the last decades, technology was progressed quickly and people demanded to be developed. CLT was more appropriate because it required interacting with speakers of other languages especially from the developed countries in order to receive advantages of technology and cultural interactions. Scholars strongly believed that students would learn language fast if they interacted with other language users in different context to negotiate…show more content…
It could be said to be product of educators and linguists who had grown dissatisfied with the audio-lingual and grammar-translation methods of foreign language instruction. They felt that students were not learning enough realistic, whole language. Furthermore, students did not know how to communicate using appropriate social language, gestures, or expressions. Admittedly, they were at a loss to communicate in the culture of the target language. In the 1970’s interest and development of communicative style teaching mushroomed. Authentic language use and classroom exchanges where students engaged in real communication with one another became quite popular. As Allen and Widdowson (1991) state there was a need for a new approach to language teaching which would shift the focus of attention from the grammatical to the communicative properties of language, in order to show the student how the language system is used to express scientific facts and…show more content…
According to Harmer (1982) communicative activities are those which form the following characteristics: (a) desire to communication; (b) variety of language; (c) a communication purpose; (d) content not form; (e) no teachers’ intervention; and (f) no materials control. Regarding Harmers’ characteristics, one can say that communicative activities serve different purposes. They provide a setting or an opportunity for learners to use the target language and express their personal ideas. Moreover, communicative activities foster learners’ imagination and expression through life-like situations. In addition, these activities develop the learner’s oral fluency putting more emphasis on what to say rather than how to say it. The focus put forward is on the meaning of the massage instead of the accuracy and exactitude of the

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