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Казанский вестник молодых ученых Традиции и инновации в методике преподавания иностранных языков
УДК 372.881.111.1
КОММУНИКАТИВНЫЙ ПОДХОД ПРИ ОБУЧЕНИИ АНГЛИЙСКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ В СПЕЦИАЛЬНЫХ ЦЕЛЯХ
З.К. Абдурахмонова
Аннотация. В этой статье обсуждается роль коммуникативного подхода при обучении английскому языку, в частности английскому языку в специальных целях и предлагаются методы использования этого подхода. Применение коммуникативного подхода во всех языковых навыках, включая грамматические навыки, ведёт к эффективности при обучении английскому языку. Выбор аутентичных материалов, учитывая потребности и интересы студентов, также способствует их прогрессу в обучении.
Ключевые слова: коммуникативное обучение языку, коммуникативный подход, коммуникативная компетенция, грамматическая компетенция, аутентичные материалы
In our country the role of English language s increasing due to many reasons which include need of English knowledge to enter university in home country or abroad, to take professional development course in a foreign country, to get a better job with many opportunities and so on. For the last several years, young people are getting more interested in learning English as they are becoming aware that this serves as a way to achieve their goals. At universities, teachers of English try to work towards improving students' language skills. One of the most difficult issues in teaching ESP (English for Specific Purposes) learners is that they can read, listen and comprehend material at their level, but they are likely to struggle in dealing with receptive skills, i.e. speaking and writing skills. In this article, I want to discuss role of communicative language teaching (CLT) in enhancement of the learners' language skills and how CLT can help them to improve their language skills.
When we talk about communicative language teaching, it is worth mentioning that a number of researchers provided their views on the idea of communicative language teaching. Some teachers see communicative language teaching as methodology or approach that mainly comprises speaking activities, whereas researchers introduce a more deep and thorough concept of this approach. For instance, Richards (2006) states that communicative language teaching can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom. The goal of communicative language teaching is teaching communicative competence. He compares this term with the concept of grammatical competence. Many grammar practice books focus on grammatical competence and introduce a rule of grammar on one page, and provide exercises to practice using the rule on the other page. Learning a language does not consist of only grammatical competence as students can master rules of English grammar but lack abilities to use the language for meaningful communication, which is meant by the term communicative competence. As for Littlewood (2011), the key concept of communicative competence, which includes linguistic competence but goes beyond it, renovated language teaching by resetting its goals and the methods to achieve them. It was also helpful in explaining why so many learners achieve low levels of communicative ability through structure-based methods.
Thompson (1996) agrees with Richards (2006) saying that an appropriate amount of class time should be devoted to grammar and adds hat the view of grammar "moved away from the teacher covering grammar to the learners discovering grammar. The first thing that should be taken into consideration is development of communicative abilities that also includes a certain amount of grammar study. As Savignon (1991) mentions, grammar is important; and learners seem to focus best on grammar when it relates to their communicative needs and experiences. Teachers integrating communicative language teaching do not exclude their familiar materials. They can use their grammar-translation textbook to support a communication focus or if textbooks are designed to promote communication, they can be adopted for teaching grammar
З.К. Абдурахмонова
КОММУНИКАТИВНЫЙ ПОДХОД ПРИ ОБУЧЕНИИ АНГЛИЙСКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ В СПЕЦИАЛЬНЫХ ЦЕЛЯХ
and translation. The main point is that teacher understands how language-learning takes place (Savignon, 2002).
What does communicative language teaching comprise in itself? Based on the above mentioned, it certainly entails familiarizing with grammar rules. Also communicative language teaching mainly assumes motivating students to participate in and express their thoughts about the communication in different situations whether these are related to their future professional needs or the present day needs concerning language learning (Thompson, 1996). By communicative language teaching, we shouldn't understand only oral communication, it can be reading and writing because in reading and writing the process of conversation between the author and the reader takes place and they both deal with interpretation, expression, and negotiation of meaning (Savignon, 2002). In CLT communication activities range from pair work and small group work to teamwork and whole group discussions and these activities might focus on the students' needs and interests. Thompson (1996) suggests the students can work collaboratively to do a grammatical exercise, solve a problem, analyze the new language structures in a text, prepare a questionnaire for other members of the class, or agree on the opinion they want to present to the class.
In case of ESP, CLT plays a significant role because such learners need language skills in order to use them in their future jobs or even university study fields. Provided they have reached pre-intermediate level, it would be more appropriate and efficient for them to practice specific kinds of language and communicative skills rather than focus on general English. Here needs analysis is the first step to begin with in order to find out what kinds of communication the learners really need in their educational or occupational settings, as well as language features of those particular settings. The ways of conducting needs analyses are various mostly including interviews, surveys, observation, and analysis of language samples gathered in different settings (Richards, 2006). The same approach was taken by the ESP Reform Project, which is implemented in Uzbekistan in collaboration with the British Council. However, this project covers such areas as curriculum development, material design, assessment, alignment of international standards and retraining of teachers, it definitely takes into consideration CLT in all its manifestations. For instance, curriculum development and material design demand integration of teaching strategies involving CLT so that students can keep motivated and improve their knowledge of English.
In using CLT classroom activities should represent real life which might be accomplished through applying authentic sources as the basis for classroom life. There are two opposing views among researchers about use of authentic materials. The researchers who support the use of authentic sources characterize authentic materials as providing cultural information about the target language, providing exposure to real language, relating more closely to learners' needs, and supporting a more creative approach to teaching. On the contrary, those against the use of authentic materials claim that it is the learning processes facilitated by the classroom activities that should be authentic. According to them created materials can be more motivating and superior because they are developed around a graded syllabus whereas authentic materials often contain difficult and irrelevant language and using authentic materials is a burden for teachers. Despite this controversy, the latest textbooks and other teaching resources are developed based on magazine articles and adopt a similar standard of production as real world sources such as popular magazines. (Richards, 2006).
Teaching English progresses with the search for the new approaches which facilitate better learning opportunities for students and though CLT is not new, yet one of the productive ways to encourage learners to expand their knowledge of language. It does not matter to what extent teacher uses grammar rules and structures, it is desirable to derive these rules during communicative activities whether they are a pair work, a small group work or a whole group work. In addition, I would like to point out that authentic materials serve as a great source in CLT, since they have real life impact on the learner. Certainly, there could be some difficulties
Казанский вестник молодых ученых Традиции и инновации в методике преподавания иностранных языков
for teachers who find them too complicated but teachers who want to make the learning process more interesting and invigorating will find the ways and strategies to overcome obstacles by trying to easify and adjust the authentic materials to the needs of their learners. Thompson (1996) says that teachers have the opportunity to re-evaluate their beliefs and practices; they have an incentive to develop their skills; they are encouraged to enjoy themselves in their work, to avoid dull repetition of the same predictable set of materials, activities, and answers year in, year out.
CLT contributes a lot to learner's progress in their language study and demands high level of proficiency and expertise from the teachers. However, the game is worth the candle and why not take great efforts to achieve success in both teaching and learning? As Littlewood (2011) shares his opinion, "The experience of natural, untutored second language acquisition shows that through participating in interaction, learners not only consolidate their capacity to communicate with their existing knowledge of the language but actually extend this knowledge."
Литература
1. Littlewood, W. (2011). Communicative language teaching An expanding concept for a changing world In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning Volume II. (pp. 545-548). UK: Taylor & Francis e-Library.
2. Richards, J. C. (2006). Communicative language teaching today. (pp. 2-21).
3. The USA: Cambridge University Press.
4. Savignon, S. J. (1991). Communicative language teaching: state of the art. TESOL Quarterly, 25 (2), 269-273.
5. Savignon, S. J. (2002). Communicative curriculum design for the 21st century. English Teaching Forum, 3-7.
6. Thompson, G. (1996). Some misconceptions about communicative language teaching. ELT Journal, 50(1), 9-15.
Сведения об авторе
Абдурахмонова З.К., преподаватель Андижанского машиностроительного института, e-mail: zarifahon@gmail. com
COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH IN TEACHING ESP Z. Abdurakhmonova
Abstract. This article discusses the role of communicative approach in teaching English, particularly in teaching ESP and suggests ways to use this approach. Applying communicative approach in all language skills including grammar can lead to efficiency in teaching English. Choosing authentic materials taking into account students' needs and interests also contributes to their learning progress.
Key words: communicative language teaching (CLT), communicative approach, communicative competence, grammatical competence, authentic materials
Data about the author
Abdurakhmonova Z., Assistant teacher, Andijan Machine-building Institute, e-mail:[email protected]
