Communicative Language Teaching ( Clt ) Approach - 1367 Words

The field of second language learning has undergone, in the past few decades, many changes. Nonetheless, from a variety of methods that have come and gone, one has been adopted as pioneer, which is the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach. Nowadays, in fact, Communicative Language Teaching is one of the most common teaching methods adopted by teachers of second and foreign languages all over the world. Its origin can be found in the late 1960s early 1970s in the British academic system, which was undergoing a serious of changes that reflected, none other than, the changes that were occurring in society. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of what Communicative Language Teaching is, what are its main distinguishing and†¦show more content†¦On the other hand, American linguists, based on Chomsky’s language acquisition theory and concept of linguistic competence, started rejecting the Oral Approach. This was the contingent cause for a shift in Britainà ¢â‚¬â„¢s language teaching method, SLT. In fact, also Britain’s linguists began questioning SLT’s practical and theoretical foundations. Therefore, both Chomsky’s studies as well as the criticality British linguists had towards the more traditional methodologies led to the advent of the Communicative Language Teaching approach. This approach was very advanced for the time. It revolutionised the strategies of language learning and also changed the role of the language teachers as well as the language learners. In contrast with some of the methodologies previously adopted, its main goal is to teach the scholars the ability to communicate. Thereby, Communicative Language Teaching bases itself upon the concept of language competence, which is considered the actual basis of proficiency in a language. Hence, teaching activities involve students in real-life communicative situations in which the communicative task is of more importance than the grammatical accuracy. Other exercises such as games, songs, problem solving and role-plays also are used in classrooms. It must be said that each of these activities are sowed on the learners needs, therefore, if the class