I
have taught many English classes in Korea (which is an English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) setting), and most, if not all, of the students would say they often
feel reluctant or balk at speaking up their thoughts in
English. It is because they fear making a mistake in grammar or in collocating the proper vocabulary to
make themselves clearly understood in English. That is why and how I have
become very interested in the approach of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
as an EFL instructor.
Unlike
Grammar-Translation (GT), which emphasizes reading, deduction, comprehension before attempting production, and
accuracy, CLT focuses on communication. Then, “What do we know about real
communicative activity?” (Mulling, 1997, p.3). It is a willful and meaningful
action, which involves one speaker conveying information for some reason and
the other or listener responding. Through the exchange of one’s thoughts and opinions
focusing on the message, not on the accuracy of utterances, communication is made. Thus teachers who implement CLT
are urged to encourage students to actively participate in the classroom
procedures of activities without being interrupted by grammatical correction.
Berns (1984, p.3) writes that “language is interaction: it is interpersonal
activity and has a clear relationship with society. In this light, language
study has to look at the use/ function of language in context, both its
linguistic context and its social, or situational context”. This idea is
actualized through various kinds of communicative activities in my CLT classes
in which interaction among students plays an important role. Communicative
activities involve in-class conversation that is less or not controlled by the
teacher so that students feel truly engaged in a real-life communication.
According
to my personal teaching experience, most students feel comfortable speaking in
English when their mistakes of any kind are not pointed out or corrected on the
spot, but brought up as a review session at the end of the class (NOT by being
singled out as individuals). This way, I was able to enhance students’
communicative competence – not only grammatical but also sociolinguistic,
discourse, and strategic competences as well - in the EFL classes. As a
language teacher, I do hope that all EFL students are provided with ample
opportunities at least inside their classrooms to speak up rather than to be
corrected in terms of their grammar all the time. Through the communicative
approach with spoken English, students will be helped advance in written English
as well as spoken English itself. Yes, I
believe in the power of CLT to unlock the secret of making language classrooms
noisy!
References
Gebhard,
J. (1999, May). Teaching students to
communicate in English:
Considerations
for non-native speakers of English. Paper presented at a
workshop on EFL Teaching
Materials and Pedagody, Foshan, China
Mulling,
S. S. (1997). Getting them to talk:
Communicative activities
for
the ESOL classroom. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 409731)
Expressions
to feel reluctant:
(verb) to be not eager to do….
to balk at doing….:(verb)
to resist and object to something; to shy away from doing something
to collocate:
(verb) to place/ arrange (words) together or in proper order; arrange side by
side.
deduction: (noun)
the drawing of a conclusion by reasoning
utterances: (noun)
statements/ vocal expressions
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