The Fundamentals of
Communicative Language Teaching
Janice M. Aski
Department of French and Italian
[email protected]
Communicative language
teaching makes use of reallife situations/contexts that
lead to communicating in
meaningful ways about
particular topics.
What is the PURPOSE of
communication in this
lesson? What makes it
MEANINGFUL?
Communicative Goal of this
brief lesson:
Students will learn how to
greet a classmate, introduce
him/herself, ask the name of
his/her classmate and where
s/he is from.
Which of the following is a communicative goal?
A. The objective of this lesson is to teach students
expressions for greetings, the first- and secondperson forms of the verb “to be” (e.g. I am
from…) and basic question forms.
B. In this lesson, students will greet each other
and learn where their classmates are from
so that we can identify how many people are
from Ohio.
Which of the following is a communicative goal?
A. In this lesson, students will learn the singular
and plural forms of the verb “to like” and six
different Italian foods.
B. By the end of the lesson, students will be
able to tell their partner which foods they like
and do not like from a typical Italian restaurant
menu.
Which of the following is a communicative goal?
A. The objective of this lesson is find out peoples’
favorite color and what that color says about
their personality.
B. The objective of this lesson is to teach
students the vocabulary for colors.
Interlanguage is the mental
representation of the language being
developed by a learner as s/he tries
to approximate the target language.
Interlanguage is based on the
learner’s personal experiences with
the language, so no two learners
have the same interlanguage at any
particular point in time.
Interlanguage is created through:
A. Positive evidence: the correct language
model provided by the instructor and
the text and
B. Negative evidence: when there is a
mismatch between the learner’s
language and the target.
Just because you have taught it
doesn’t mean that they have
acquired it!
Students need multiple exposures
to a structure in different contexts
in order to acquire it.
Students will keep getting it wrong
until all the evidence has been
processed and the structure has
been incorporated into their
interlanguage system.
Bottom line: Errors are
good and acquisition
takes time!
Change the model sentence, substituting the
correct form of the verb.
Model: I go to the store.
Instructor’s cue
1. you
2. he
3. she
4. we
Student response
You go to the store.
He goes to the store.
She goes to the store.
We go to the store.
Input
+
1
Il ristorante ‘da Luigi’
Il vino
La bistecca
La pizza
Le patatine fritte
I dolci
Gli spaghetti
Effective language tasks:
1. jigsaw tasks
2. information gap tasks
Jigsaw task: Mamma!
What if you were trying to find long-lost family
members and you had some pieces of information, but
not many, to go on? Your instructor will give each
student a card with information about an imaginary
person on it (name, marital status, city in which s/he
lives, profession, ect.). Everyone will go around the
room, meet each other and ask and answer questions
in Italian to find the other members of their imaginary
families. When you think you’ve found everyone, sit
down together in a group. When everyone is seated,
be prepared to introduce your family member(s) to the
rest of the class.
(Aski and Musumeci 2006:116)
Information gap activity: Discovering
Sandra and Alberto’s weekly schedules
• Part 1: With the class, create appropriate
descriptions of Sandra and Alberto. Remember to
include their ages, physical and emotional
characteristics and likes/dislikes.
Sandra
Alberto
Part 2: Work in pairs. Your instructor will give you
two agendas. One partner completes the weekly
agenda for Sandra and the other completes the
agenda for Alberto.
Sample agenda for Sandra (Alberto’s is the same):
Sandra
1 PM
7 PM
10 PM
Thursday Friday
Saturday Sunday
Part 3: Complete the second agenda by asking
your partner questions about the agenda s/he
completed in the second part of the activity.
Example: S1: What does Alberto do at 10 PM on
Saturday?
S2: He studies and then goes to bed.
(Adapted from Aski and Musumeci 2006)
Our Goal:
MEANINGFUL
PURPOSEFUL
INTERACTION
Works cited and helpful resources
• Aski, Janice M. and Diane Musumeci. 2006. Avanti! 2nd edition. Boston:
McGraw Hill.
• Brandl, Klaus. 2008. NeCommunicative Language Teaching in Action:
Putting Princlples to Work. w Jersey: Prentice Hall.
• Gass, Susan M. 1997. Input, Interaction, and the Second Language
Learner. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Lee, James F. and Bill VanPatten. 2003. Making Communicative Language
Teaching Happen. Boston: McGraw Hill.
• Omaggio Hadley, Alice. 2001. Teaching Language in Context. 3rd edition.
Boston: Thompson Heinle.
• Shrum, Judith L. and Eileen W. Glisan. 2000. Teacher’s Handbook. 2nd
Edition. Boston: Heinle and Heinle Thompson Learning.