17 4. Knowing how to maintain communication despite having limitations in one’s
language knowledge e.g. through using different kinds of communication strategies
Richard also stated that one of the goals of CLT is to develop fluency in language use.
Fluency is natural language use occurring when a speaker engages in meaningful interaction and maintains comprehensible and
ongoing communication despite limitations in his or her communicative competence. Fluency is developed by creating
classroom activities, in which learners must negotiate meaning, use communication strategies, correct misunderstanding and work to
avoid communication breakdowns.
Fluency in speaking is one of the goals for people who learn English. It is one of the criteria that must be mastered for people who learn English. When
people are scored on their speaking, fluency is one of the criteria that is considered. It shows that fluency is an important part in speaking.
Moreover, according to Brumfit and Johnson 1979 and also Littlewood 1981 as cited in Richard and Rogers 2001:161, there are three elements of
learning theory in CLT, namely communication principle, task principle and meaningfulness. First is communication principle. It refers to the kind of activities
that involve real communication to promote learning. Second is task principle. It refers to activities in which language is used for carrying out and supporting
meaningful tasks to promote learning. Third is meaningfulness. It refers to the language which is meaningful to the learner that supports the learning process.
b. Principles in CLT
Larsen 2000:5 proposed some principles in CLT. Those are:
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
18 1. Whenever possible, authentic language language as it is used in the real
context should be introduced. 2. Being able to figure out the speaker’s or writer’s intention is part of being
communicatively competent. 3. The target language is the vehicle for classroom communication. It is not just
the object of the study. It means the teaching-learning activities are focused on the process of communication rather than just mastery the language forms.
4. Games are important because the learners have certain features in common with real communicative events. Through this way, learners can negotiate
meaning. Besides, having learners work in small group maximizes the amount of communicative practice they receive.
5. Learners should be given an opportunity to express their ideas and opinion. 6. Errors are tolerated and seen as a natural outcome of the development of
communication skill. 7. One of the teacher’s responsibilities is to establish the situations likely to
promote communication. 8. Communicative interaction encourages cooperative relationship among
learners. It gives an opportunity to work on negotiating meaning. The social context of the communicative event is also essential in giving meaning to the
utterances. 9. The teacher acts as the facilitator in setting up communicative activities and as
an advisor during the activities.
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19 10. In communicating, the speaker has a choice not only about what to say
something but also how to say it. 11. Learning to use language forms appropriately is an important part of
communicative competence. 12. Grammar and vocabulary that the learners learn follow from the function,
situational context, and the roles of the interlocutors.
c. Teaching Speaking in Communicative Language Teaching
Since the designed materials will be focused on speaking skill, it is important to know about speaking in depth. Speaking is one of the skills along
with four other skills, namely listening, reading and writing. As speaker, consciously or unconsciously, people use their speech to create an image of
themselves to others. By using speed and pausing, and variations in pitch, volume and intonation, they also create a texture for their talk that supports and enhances
what they are saying Luoma, 2004. It means that speaking is the skill that need to be mastered by people who learn language. However, Nunan 2003 states that
in learning a language, speaking can be considered the hardest skill to learn among all skills for two reasons. First, the person to whom we are talking is
waiting for our response right then. Second, we cannot edit and revise what we wish to say, as we can do writing. Therefore, the writer needs to know the
characteristics of speaking in order to be able to select appropriate activities to improve speaking ability.
In CLT, learners will have opportunity to speak because in this approach language learning is learning to communicate. The communicative competence is
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20 the goal of the approach. In order to make the teaching learning activities
conform to the principles of CLT, the writers also needs to know the principles in teaching speaking.
There are five principles for teaching speaking as stated by Nunan 2003: a be aware of the differences between second language and foreign language
learning contexts; b give learners practice with both fluency and accuracy; c provide opportunities for learners to talk by using group or pair work, and limiting
teacher talk; d plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning; e design classroom activities that involve guidence and practice in both
transactional and interactional speaking. After knowing the principles for teaching speaking go along with the communicative language teaching approach, the writer
can now design suitable activities for the materials.
4. Task-Based Language Teaching
