2. The Characteristics and The Principles of Communicative
Approach
The students use the language a great deal through communicative activities such as games, role plays, and problem solving tasks.
According to Morrow activities that are truly communicative have three characteristics that are: information gap, choice, and feedback.
a. Information gap, in this course of doing the activity, one participant should
be in a position to tell one or more other people something that the others do not yet know.
b. Choice, the speaker must have some role in deciding exactly what he says
and how he will say it. This also means that there should be some uncertainty in the mind of the listener about the speaker will say next.
c. Feedback, what the speaker say to the person he is communicating with
depend not only on what the other person say, but also what the speaker wants to accomplish via the conversation.
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Finocchiaro and Brumfit said some characteristic of communicative approach. They are:
a. Meaning is paramount
b. Dialogues, if used, enter around communicative functions and are not
normally memorized c.
Contextualization is a basic premise d.
Language learning is learning to communicate e.
Effective communication is sought f.
Attempt to communicate may be encouraged from the very beginning g.
Drilling may be occur, but peripherally h.
Translation may be used where students need or benefit from it
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Keith Morrow and Keith Johnson in Diane Larsen freeman, Techniques and Principles in Language teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 132
i. Reading and writing can start from first day, if desired
j. The target linguistic system will be learned best through the process of
struggling to communicate k.
Communicative competence is desired goal i.e. the ability to use the linguistic system effectively and appropriately
l. Linguistic variation is a central concept in materials and methodology
m. Teacher help learners in any way that motivates them to work with the
language n.
Students are expected to interact with people, either in the flesh, through pair and group work, or in their wrings
o. Intrinsic motivation will spring from an interest in what is being
communicated by the language.
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Here are the main core principles which make it most successful language learning approach in used today. Keith Johnson said that there are
five principles in “communicative” type, they are: a.
The information transfer principle is it focuses attention on the ability to understand and convey information content. One way to practice this
abilities is “communicative” to the extent that the students is being asked, not to comment, but to extract certain pieces of information and to transfer
them onto the application forms. b.
The information gap principle, which makes this conveying of information possible, there is certainly information transfer, but transferring and
conveying are not quite the same thing. One reason this principle is important are: firstly, it permits genuine information flow in the class; the
students tell each other things they do not already know. Secondly, created whereby the assessment of written or spoken work focus attention on
whether it succeed in “getting the message across” c.
The jigsaw principle is a version of involving an information gap.
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Mary Finocchiaro and Christopher J. Brumfit, The Functional National Approach: from Theory to practice London: Oxford university Press, 1983, p.91
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