Communicative Approach 交际教学法

Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Grammat has a great impact on Communicative Approach. On the basis of this, Communicative Approach is gradually formed. Systemic-Functional Grammar has two components: systemic grammar and functional grammar. Systemic grammar aims to explain the internal relations in language as a system network, or meaning potential. Functional grammar aims to reveal that language is means of social interaction, based on the position that language system and the forms that make it up are inescapably determined by the uses or functions which they serve.

 The Communicative Approach is an approach to second or foreign language teaching which emphasizes that the goal of language learning is communicative competence. Teaching materials used with the Communicative Approach often teach the language needed to express and understand different kinds of functions such as requesting, describing, expressing likes and dislikes. The approach follows a National syllabus and emphasizes the processes of communication to get information, and using language for social interaction with other people.

1．The Development of the Communicative Approach

In 1971, a group of experts began to explore if it was possible to develop a system in which learning tasks are broken down into “portions or units, each of which corresponds to a component of a learner’s needs and is systematically related to all the other portions”(Richards and Rodgem,1986). Among them, British linguist D.A. Wilkins’ document proposed a functional or communicative definition of language that could serve as a basis for developing communicative syllabuses for language teaching. He focused on the communicative dimension of the language rather than the grammar and vocabulary, and in 1976，he revised his document into a book titled Notional Syllabuses, which had a significant influence on the development of Communicative Approach. Since then, the scope of Communicative Approach has expanded. Its opponents “see it as an approach that aims to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication.”(Richards and Rodgers，1986) Different people have different ideas and understanding about the concept and use of the Communicative Approach, so during the process of taking Communicative Approach into action some variants appear, such as the Natural Approach, Content-based Teaching and Task-based Teaching.

The Natural Approach is a second or foreign language acquisition-based method which focuses on authentic communication as its primary goal. It emphasizes natural communication rather than formal grammar study and is tolerance of learners’ errors. The core of this approach is language acquisition which is considered a subconscious process. It aims to develop learners’ communicative skills, enable students to use the target language adequately, and enable students to make their meaning clear. The teaching process of this approach is divided into four stages: Pre-Production, Early Production, Speech Emergence, and Intermediate Fluency.

Content-based Teaching is a second or foreign language teaching method which teachers teach students language skills in a highly integrated fashion through the target language while learning content such as science, mathematics, and English business. There are three general models of content-based teaching: theme-based, adjunct, and sheltered. The theme-based model integrates the language skills into the study of a theme,  cross-cultural differences in marriage practices，natural wonders of the world，or a broad topic such as change．The theme must be very interesting to students and must allow a wide variety of language skills to be practiced, always in the service of communicating about the theme．This is the most useful and widespread form of content-based instruction today,  and it is found in many innovative English learning textbooks．In the adjunct model，language and content courses are taught separately but are carefully coordinated．In the sheltered model，the subject matter is taught in simplified English tailored to students’ English proficiency level.

Task-based Teaching is a further development of the Communicative Approach, focuses on the construction, sequencing, and evaluation of particular goal-related action complexes that learners carry out either by themselves or jointly. It aims at providing opportunities for the learners to experiment with and explore both spoken and written language through learning activities which are designed to engage learners in the authentic, practical and functional use of language for meaningful purposes. The English linguist Willis thinks that “task” is an activity in which target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose in order to achieve an outcome. During the process of using the Task-based Teaching, there are three stages: pre-task, task cycle, language focus.

2． The Features, Advantages and Disadvantage of the Communicative Approach

The Communicative Approach has several features. The most obvious characteristic is that almost everything that is done with a communicative intent during the process of using this method. Meaning is the paramount. Another feature is that the activities in the Communicative Approach are always carried out by students in small groups. Students are encouraged to interact with each other in order to learn to negotiate meaning. Through these small group activities, students are engaged in meaningful and half-authentic language use rather than in the merely mechanical practice of language patterns. The last feature is that it is learner-centered second language teaching. In the Communicative Approach, classroom performance is managed not just by the teacher, but also by all participants. Teachers are not seen only as teachers, learners simply as learners, instead of being the dominating authority in the classroom, one primary role for the teacher is to facilitate the communicative process between all participants in the classroom and between these participants and the various activities and texts. The second role is to act as an interdependent participant within the learning-teaching groups (David and Ann, 2001).

The Communicative Approach is widely accepted today because it has many advantages.  Firstly, it develops students’ communicative competence much better. Students are required use the target language appropriately and commonly. Secondly, the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing can be taught integrally by using the Communicative Approach. Thirdly, it pays much more attention on students’ needs. The activities are based on the consideration of what the learners should most likely to communicate in the target language, so that students are likely to put more efforts into it and work more efficiently. Finally, the Communicative Approach emphasizes the learner's cognitive ability and operational capabilities, which allow the students themselves to think about and express their views, so that the ability of using the target language to communicate in real life is trained.

Nevertheless, the Communicative Approach still has its limitations. First of all, there is a problem of learners’ needs: how to identify the students’ need in a short period executively, to what extent learners can be said to have a common need. All these questions still don’t have any clear answers. Secondly, the Communicative Approach dos not solve the problems well of grammatical teaching. Communicative approach just emphasizes the use of the language, but not the usage of grammar. Although grammar is not regarded so important these years, grammar is still an essential factor for mastering a second or foreign language. Finally, students are expected to interact primarily with each other rather than with the teacher, correction of errors may be absent or infrequent. These mastics will become obstacles when they are trying to get their language skills improved or further developed.