The Communicative Approach The Communicative Approach emphasizes that the goal of language learning is communicative competence

The Communicative Approach
    Good morning, boys and girls, today I’ll talk about the Communicative Approach. The Communicative Approach is an approach to second or foreign language teaching which emphasizes that the goal of language learning is communicative competence. Teaching materials used with the Communicative Approach often teach the language needed to express and understand different kinds of functions such as requesting, describing, expressing likes and dislikes. The approach follows a national syllabus and emphasizes the processes of communication to get information, and using language for social interaction with other people. Here I’d like to introduce the development of the Communicative Approach, its features, advantages and disadvantages.
    First, let’s have a look at the development of the Communicative Approach. In 1971, a group of experts began to explore if it was possible to develop a system in which learning tasks are broken down into "portions or units, each of which corresponds to a component of a learner’s needs and is systematically related to all the other portions". Among them, British linguist D. A. Wilkins’ document proposed a functional or communicative definition of language that could serve as a basis for developing communicative syllabuses for language teaching. In 1976, he revised his document into a book titled Notional Syllabuses. Since then, the scope of the Communicative Approach has expanded. During the process of taking the Communicative Approach into action, some variants appeared, such as the Natural Approach, Content-based Teaching and Task-based Teaching.
    The Natural Approach is a second or foreign language acquisition-based method. It emphasizes natural communication rather than formal grammar study. (1) The core of this approach is language acquisition which is considered to be a subconscious process. It aims to develop learners’ communicative skills, enable students to use the target language adequately and make their meanings clear. (2) The teaching process of this approach is divided into four stages: Pre-production, Early Production, Speech Emergence, and Intermediate Fluency.
    (3) Content-based Teaching is a second or foreign language teaching method which teachers teach students language skills in a highly integrated fashion through the target language while learning content such as science, mathematics, and English business. (4) There are three general models of Content-based Teaching: theme-based, adjunct, and sheltered.
    Task-based Teaching is a further development of the Communicative Approach, and focuses on the construction, sequencing, and evaluation of particular goal-related action complexes that learners carry out either by themselves or jointly. (5) It aims at providing opportunities for the learners to experiment with and explore both spoken and written language through learning activities. (6) During the process of using the Task-based Teaching, there are three stages; Pre-task, Task Cycle, and Language Focus.
    Second, let’s move to the features of the Communicative Approach. The Communicative Approach has several features. (7) The most obvious characteristic is that almost everything that is done has a communicative intent during the process of using this method. Meaning is paramount. (8) Another feature is that the activities in the Communicative Approach are always carried out by students in small groups. Students are encouraged to interact with each other in order to learn to negotiate meaning. Through these small group activities, students are engaged in meaningful and half-authentic language use rather than in the merely mechanical practice of language patterns. The last feature is that it is learner-centered second language teaching. In the Communicative Approach, classroom performance is managed not just by the teacher, but also by all participants. Teachers are not seen only as teachers, learners simply as learners. Instead of being the dominating authority in the classroom, (9) one primary role for the teacher is to facilitate the communicative process between all participants in the classroom and between these participants and the various activities and texts. The second role is to act as an interdependent participant within the learning-teaching groups.
    Third, I’ll say something about the advantages and disadvantages of the Communicative Approach.
    The Communicative Approach is widely accepted today because it has many advantages. (10) Firstly, it develops students’ communicative competence much better. Students are required to use the target language appropriately and commonly. (11) Secondly, the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing can be taught integrally by using the Communicative Approach. (12) Thirdly, it pays much more attention to students’ needs. The activities are based on the consideration of what the learners should most likely to communicate in the target language, so that students are likely to put more efforts into it and work more efficiently. (13) Finally, the Communicative Approach emphasizes the learner’s cognitive ability and operational capabilities, which allow the students themselves to think about and express their views, so that the ability of using the target language to communicate in real life is trained.
    Nevertheless, the Communicative Approach still has its limitations. (14) First of all, there is a problem of learners’ needs: how to identify the students’ needs in a short period effectively, to what extent learners can be said to have a common need. All these questions still don’t have any clear answers. Secondly, the Communicative Approach does not solve the problems of grammatical teaching well. (15) Communicative Approach just emphasizes the use of the language, but not the usage of grammar. Although grammar is not regarded so important these years, it is still an essential factor for mastering a second or foreign language. Finally, students are expected to interact primarily with each other rather than with the teacher, so correction of errors may be absent or infrequent. These will become obstacles when they are trying to get their language skills improved or further developed.
    OK, today we have briefly introduced the development of the Communicative Approach, its features, advantages and disadvantages. I hope that after today’s lecture, you’ll understand the Communicative Approach better. That’s all for today’s lecture. Thanks for your attention!