Band 60-70: Academic Writing about Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching: Introduction, Advantages and Disadvantages as well as it is potential application to Turkish context

From birth to death, there is always learning in human life beginning at home continuing at school,in some courses and at university. At early stages of life, learners are introduced to classrooms at schools where teachers welcome them.Besides different subjects, they teach a foreign language and Charlemagne says ‘To have another language is to possess a second soul.’ From this statement, it can be comprehended that learning another language grows different thoughts,perspectives and makes people in different world. Then,there can be a good language atmosphere.The target language is undoubtedly an important step for learners to their near future world hence language education has a pregnant part to have a strong language.In classrooms,big spaces can be created with good methods.On that occassion, how to teach language to learners is the basic question.For this, many language teaching methods and approaches have been asserted for many years. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is one of the methods that can be used for this aim.This paper examines CLT approach with its background, advantages and application of this method in Turkish context.

Learning a language is not just learning linguistic structures since learners may know rules but  they may not use.That means communicative competence is necessary as well as linguistic competence and it is important for CLT.Found in changes in the British language teaching tradition,CLT firstly started to be used in the late 1960s.Its methods for teaching language have wide-ranging features.Approach of CLT aims communicative competence in learning a language and gives the knowledge of feeling free in language and communication, this is simply done by providing. Speaker who has communicative competence chooses not just what to say but also how to say but another speaker who has grammmatical competence knows grammar but he may not know what to say in any situation. Authentic language namely a language that tells real situations.Learners try to express their thoughts using different words and are given chance to suggest their ideas.Then, their mistakes are tolerated.One of the main responsibilities of a teacher is to prepare proper situations to improve communication among learners.Learners try to guess what the picture is to look like studying with a partner and they take a part in this game.After creating an imaginary situation,they are to learn how to behave in it. The teacher creates communicative activities and during this process they are the ones who advise.Hence, CLT is the method that is preferred and used effectively in classes by teachers.

CLT, basically based on ‘student centered’, is a method which assists learners to communicate in the target language using many different forms.With its techniques and activities, CLT method creates some advantages.For instance, one of the techniques of CLT is authentic materials, thanks to these materials, learners can practise what he has learned using real subjects in activities that enables to use language as well as the speakers of the target language.Another advantage of CLT is learners teach how to combine and reach concordance in language characteristics thanks to scrambled sentences given  a text with scrambled sentences and asked to put them in their original order.Then, language games used in CLT approach help learners to create valuable discussion practice when organized well.With picture strip stories, learners are asked what the picture looks like, there is information gap here, because learners do not know about the content of the picture, then seeing the picture, students can take feedback.Another serious strength with this method is that thanks to roleplays, learners can take different roles in different social contents, role activities also ensure information gaps and feedback to learners.Then, because CLT interaction centered contrary to traditional education system which consists of dependent relationship, learners begin to engage in stres-free conversation with their partners thanks to initiative and amicable relationships.Also, because teachers create non-threatening environment in their classes, students do not feel under pressure while participating the lessons, which brings independence so thanks to the stres-free atmosphere, learning can happen and learners are encouraged to learn.With its beneficial techniques and activities, CLT can be considered as an important method for learners in terms of its advantages.

Considering some of the following issues, implementation of CLT in Turkey may not work for many aspects.Teachers can encounter many difficulties in implementing CLT in their classrooms.As is known, students at CLT are communicators, they are engaged in negotiating meaning.While performing it,they try to express themselves and understand others, however they may not be capable enough in the target language, but in Turkey,the competence of students is not generally enough to participate in oral communicative activities.Main characteristics of CLT every activity is done with a communicative purpose. Students practice the language with some activities communicating in forms of plays,roles and work of solving problems, on the contrary, Turkey has an exam-oriented system and exams are grammar based. The goal of student is to pass standardized tests. In CLT, a teacher is someone who mostly organizes activities that ensures interaction among students and helps coaction and main coaction is student-student centered.However, in Turkey,a teacher comes and teaches grammar and finishes the lesson without doing any activity. These difficulties teachers may face in implementing CLT  in the Turkish context stem from insufficient teaching resources,crowded classes that do not provide interaction between students and mismatch of principles of CLT and education system of Turkey.CLT is interaction centered but students in Turkey do not have chance to practice it outside the classroom.Because of these handicaps, CLT may not applicable in the Turkish context.

This paper has attempted to provide an overview on CLT method based on its background,advantages and followed by implementation of CLT  in Turkish context. As explained above, CLT is a method that is important in terms of learning a new language .It aims at communicative competency in learning a language.The important part of competence includes using language forms appropriately, preparing proper situations to improve communications, feeling free, taking part in games. Authentic materials, scrambled sentences, games, strip stories, roleplays are the technics that are used in this approach.However, implementation of CLT in Turkey is not applicable.Teachers who are concerned to apply CLT method in their classrooms may encounter some barriers because of insufficient teaching resources, crowded classes, education system of Turkey.The  competence of Turkish students may not enough to participate in oral communicative activities.We can draw a conclusion, instead of exam-oriented system, it is more beneficial for students to practise, participate in oral communicative activities.If teachers give up teaching only grammar in every class and finishing the lesson without doing any activity, students can have a chance to improve their oral skills.Teachers should use different activities communicating in forms of plays, roles and work of solving problems.The goal of students should be then having interaction with one another instead of passing the standardized tests.All activities should ensure interaction among students and help coaction.If these conditions are provided and fullfilled completely, CLT can be one of the most efficient techniques in the well-designed education circle.

Note: This is an original piece of writing lease cite this website if you want to use it for any educational purposes. The text was produced by 1st year ELT student Büşra Yeşil at Erciyes University, Kayseri