CLT and Communicative Competence
What is Communicative Language Teaching and Communicative Competence?
Effective teaching approaches should be based on sound pedagogical principles and should be research based. A language teacher can use a variety of teaching methods and techniques based on the individual needs of the students. There is no absolute method or technique that should be used, as the learner’s needs are diverse and the learner uses language for a variety of purposes. In the curriculum resource, the Communicative Language Teaching approach is adopted.
According to Savignon (2007, p. 250), Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was based on “a functional understanding of language (what language does rather than merely what it says). "
Savignon (2007, p. 209) stated that “the essence of CLT is the engagement of learners in communication in order to allow them to develop their communicative competence.” Furthermore, Savignon (2007, p. 210) proposes that, “when two or more languages come together, two or more persons come together. And the engagement that follows invariably involves issues of power and identity.”
The activities in Gibbons' (2015) book encourage communication between learners, their peers and the teacher. Through collaboration, students can learn the rules of language.
Vygotsky (1962, as cited in Alkhirbash, 2023) also believed that people learn through interaction in social contexts.
Hymes (1972, in Alkhirbash, 2023) introduced the term communicative competence and recognised the importance of the social context for communicative competence to be achieved. Hymes (1972, as cited in Alkhirbash, 2023, p. 1312) says that “social life influences outward performance and internal competence.” According to Alkhirbash, Hymes (1972, as cited in Alkhirbash, 2023, p. 1312) defined communicative competence as “the ability not only to control linguistic form but also to use grammatical competence in a variety of communicative contexts.”
According to Cazden (2011, p. 366) Hymes definition of communicative competence included “knowledge of forms, but also knowledge of form-function relationships learned from the embeddedness of all language use in social life.”
As Bauman & Sherzer (1975, p. 108) notes, "Hymes’ notion of competence is a competence for use, involving the knowledge and ability to speak in ways that are both grammatical and socially appropriate.” Hymes according to Bauman & Sherzer (1975, p. 113) viewed a speech community as one “which focuses on shared rules for speaking… and communities with “mutually complementary resources and rules for the production and interpretation of socially appropriate speech.”
Gibbons (2015) book supports communicative competence of EAL/D learners in the suggested language activities and by the communicative approach used in the resource.
According to Alkhirbash, Little et al, (1994, as cited in Alkhirbash, 2023, p.1311), stated the communicative approaches “emphasise teaching language in terms of real-life situations , interactive communication, and meaningful context, whereas traditional methods of teaching second language concentrate on grammatical rules, imitation, drillings, and memorisation.” The communicative approach, to language learning is adopted in the activities and teaching advice in Gibbons'(2015) book.CLT supports Krashen’s (2002, as cited in Alkhirbash, 2023)
two hypotheses, Comprehension Hypothesis and the Affective Filter Hypothesis. Krashen (2002, as cited in Alkhirbash, 2023, p. 1312) argued that when you combine these two hypotheses, “we acquire language when we receive
comprehensible input in a low anxiety situation”, rather than “by learning
about language, by studying rules and by memorising vocabulary.”
This belief aligns with the teaching approach outlined in Gibbons' (2015) book which encourages using activities in a positive environment, where language is learnt in a meaningful context, rather than through rote learning of grammar rules.
Berns (1990, as cited in Savignon, 2007, p. 211) discusses the core tenets of CLT which include language as communication, “a social tool which speakers and writers use to make meaning.” The learner is seen as diverse, and culture shapes their communicative competence.
Savignon (2007, p. 213) stated that,“the goals of CLT depend on learner needs in a given context.” Furthermore, Savignon (2007, p. 213) states that, “CLT is properly viewed as an approach, or theory of intercultural communicative competence to be used in developing materials and methods appropriate to a given context of learning.”
The importance of fluency in language learning:
Gibbons (2015) acknowledges the importance of learning to read fluently for EAL/D learners, for gaining meaning from a text and for learning English. Gibbons (2015) describes the importance of prior knowledge and familiarity of a text, but also the need for phonemic, phonics and vocabulary knowledge. Gibbons (2015, p. 175) states, "the more fluently and widely EL students read, the more they will gain exposure to the second language." Gibbons (2015) also acknowledges that students should be supported by the teacher to read information texts and more difficult books.
Fluency was also noted as a principle in language teaching by Nation (2007) and by Nation and Macalister (2009) in their pedagogical principles of language teaching.
The importance of fluency in reading is described by Grabe (2010, p.72) who says that fluency is “the ability to read rapidly with ease and accuracy, and to read with appropriate expression and phrasing. It involves a long incremental process and text comprehension is the expected outcome.”
Fluency in L1 occurs through exposure to a large amount of reading and rereading of texts and vocabulary knowledge. Studies on fluency and L1 reading comprehension according to Grabe (2010), have shown the correlation between fluency and reading comprehension. Extensive reading also supports vocabulary growth.
The research according to Grabe (2010) on L2 fluency, is more limited but “generally supports the importance of word reading fluency, passage reading fluency, extensive reading, and reading rate training on vocabulary and reading comprehension improvements.” Grabe (2010) notes that these types of activities should be a part of a reading curriculum. Nation (1991, as cited in Grabe, 2010) promoted the importance of oral rereading for L2 reading fluency. According to Grabe (2010, p. 78) “students must be taught to use..words..fluently, and automatic word recognition skills need to be developed gradually through fluency-orientated activities.” Nation states (1996, as cited in Grabe, 2010, p. 78) “it is not surprising…that developments in fluency are related to developments in accuracy.” Nation (2009, as cited in Grabe, 2010, p. 78) proposes that “fluency is…accompanied by improvements in accuracy and complexity.”
Communities of practice:
Another aspect of language learning to explore is the idea of communities of practice.
According to Wenger (2011, p. 1), “communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” Wenger (2011, p. 5) continues that learning for the student needs to go beyond the classroom and to connect to the broader community, "the school is not the privileged locus of learning..it is not a self-contained, closed world in which students acquire knowledge to be applied outside, but a part of a broader learning system."
Learning is viewed, not according to Lave and Wenger (1991, as cited in Maynard, 2001, p. 41), “as individual cognitive processing but as a process of participation in ‘communities of practice.” According to Maynard (2001) in this view of learning, the learner gradually communicates through talking and participates with the community and incorporates the culture. Through talking the learner acquires meaning and norms for that community. This situated learning perspective sees learning as involving the whole person including their culture and the context in which they are learning.
According to Lave and Wenger (1991, as cited in Maynard (2001, p. 41), “learning within the socio-cultural community therefore involves becoming a different kind of person: it involves the construction of identities.” According to Maynard (2001, p. 42) the cultural knowledge gained by the learner “gives order, significance and meaning to teachers’, and student teachers’, experiences.”
Community of practice is however, complex as shown according to Maynard (2001), from research at the University of Wales Swansea where student teachers' anticipated the role of teachers as mentors. The interviews showed that according to Bakhrin (1986, as cited in Maynard, 2001, p. 50) that,“students’ thinking and practice were subject to different pressures which pulled them towards the norm." The students were influenced by internal pressures, such as the need to succeed as a teacher and external pressures such as appropriate ways of working.
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