Significance of the Research

communicative competence the goal of language teaching and by acknowledging the interdependence of language and communication Larsen-Freeman: 2000. CLT is best understood as an approach, rather than a method Richards Rodgers, 2001. Brown 2007: 241 concerns that it is a unified but broadly based, theoretically well informed set of tenets about the nature of language and of language learning and teaching. For the sake of simplicity and directness, Brown 2000: 43 offers the following six interconnected characteristics as a description of CLT: 1 Classroom goals are focused on all of the components grammatical, discourse, functional, sociolinguistic, and strategic of communicative competence. Goals therefore must intertwine the organizational aspects of language with pragmatic. 2 Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes. Organizational language forms are not the central focus, but rather aspects of language that enable the learner to accomplish those purposes. 3 Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques. At times fluency may have to take on more importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in language use. 4 Students in a communicative class ultimately have to use the language, productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts outside the classroom. Classroom tasks must therefore equip students with the skills necessary for communication in those contexts. 5 Students are given opportunities to focus on their own learning process through understanding of their own styles of learning and through the development of appropriate strategies for autonomous learning. 6 The role of the teacher is that of facilitator and guide, not an all-knowing bestower of knowledge. Students are therefore encouraged to construct meaning through genuine linguistic interaction with others. Richards 2006: 2 says that communicative language teaching sets its goal of the teaching of communicative competence. He states that communicative competence includes the following aspects of language knowledge. 1 Knowing how to use language for a range of different purposes and functions 2 Knowing how to vary our use of language according to the setting and the participants e.g., knowing when to use formal and informal speech or when to use language appropriately for written as opposed to spoken communication 3 Knowing how to produce and understand different types of texts e.g., narratives, reports, interviews, conversations 4 Knowing how to maintain communication despite having limitations in one’s language knowledge e.g., through using different kinds of communication strategies In recent years, language learning has been viewed from a very different perspective. It is seen as resulting from processes such as: 1 Interaction between the learner and users of the language 2 Collaborative creation of meaning 3 Creating meaningful and purposeful interaction through language 4 Negotiation of meaning as the learner and his or her interlocutor arrive at understanding 5 Learning through attending to the feedback learners get when they use the language 6 Paying attention to the language one hears the input and trying to incorporate new forms into one’s developing communicative competence 7 Trying out and experimenting with different ways of saying things Richards: 2006 Richards 2006: 5 states that in CLT, learners had to participate in classroom activities that were based on a cooperative rather than individualistic approach to learning. Students had to become comfortable with listening to their peers in group work or pair work tasks, rather than relying on the teacher for a model. They were expected to take on a greater degree of responsibility for their own learning. And teachers now had to assume the role of facilitator and monitor. Rather than being a model for correct speech and writing and one with the primary responsibility of making students produce plenty of error-free sentences, the teacher had to develop a different view of learners’ errors and of herhis own role in facilitating language learning. CLT gives changes from traditional lesson formats where the focus of language teaching and learning was on mastery of grammar and practice through controlled activities toward the more meaningful language teaching and learning