j. Authentic language standards
k. Practice
l. Shaping of responses
m. Speed and style
n. Immediate reinforcement
o. Attitude with target culture
p. Content
q. Learning as the crucial outcome
C. Content Based Instruction CBI
CBI is a method of combining language and content learning with a language teaching aims. It refers to the concurrent study of language and
subject matters. Here, language is a vehicle to reach and get a set of content goals. In short, the language becomes the medium to convey informational
content of interests and relevance to the learners. Brown 2000: 234-235 gives examples of Content Based Curriculum:
1. programs of immersion for elementary students
2. programs of sheltered English for elementary and secondary students
3. writing across the curriculum and emphasizing the writing skills in
secondary schools and universities by teaching the students within subjects matters areas.
4. ESP English for Specific Purposes
Further, he explains that CBI gives a chance of the complete integration of language skills for example: for architecture, medicine,
engineering, etc. 16
The following are some definitions to make us more understand the terms of CBI:
1. CBI is “…the integration of particular content with language teaching
aims…the concurrent teaching of academic subject matter and second language skills” Brinton et al., 1989, p.2
2. CBI approaches “…view the target language largely as the vehicle through
which subject matter content is learned rather than as the immediate object of study” Brinton et al., 1989, p.5
3. CBI is aimed at ‘the development of use-oriented second and foreign
language skills’ and is ‘distinguished by the concurrent learning of a specific content and related language use skills’ Wesche, 1993
4. CBI is “…approach to language instruction that integrates the presentation
of topics or tasks from subject matter classes e.g., Math, social studies within the context of teaching a second or foreign language” Crandall
Tucker, 1990, p.187
D. Communicative Language Teaching CLT
The development of teaching approach, approximately 500 years ago, was dominated by Latin approach which is called grammar approach. In the
1940s and 1950s, teaching approach was determined by behaviourism proposed by Skinner. The program is a scientifically ordered set of linguistic
structures into the minds of learners through conditioning. In the 1960s, people get quite worried about how Chomsky’s generative grammar was
going to fit into language classroom and how to inject the cognitive code of a language into the process of absorption. The innovation of the 1970s brought
affective factors to the forefront of some wildly experimental language teaching methods. The late 1970s and early 1980s, we saw the beginnings of
what we now recognize as a communicative approach as we better and better understand the functions that must be incorporated into a classroom. The late
1980s and 1990s, we saw the development of approaches that highlighted the 17
fundamentally communicative properties of language, and classrooms were increasingly characterized by authenticity, real-world simulation, and
meaningful tasks. For the sake of simplicity and directness, Brown 2001: 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 the 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 aspect
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 an 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 bestowal of knowledge. Students are therefore encouraged to construct
meaning through genuine linguistic interaction with others.
It becomes clear that communication needs the students to perform certain functions as well, such as promising, inviting, and declining invitations
18
within a social context. In short, being able to communicate requires more than linguistic competence; it requires communicative competence – knowing
when and how to say what to whom. This observation contributes to a shift in the field in the late 1970s and early 1980s from a linguistic structure-centred
approach to a Communicative Approach.
Widdowson 1978 in Larsen – Freeman 2000: 121 describes that in
the 1970s, though, educators began to question if they were going about meeting the goal in the right way. Some observed that students could produce
sentences accurately in a lesson, but could not use them appropriately when genuinely communicating outside of the classroom. Others noted that being
able to communicate required more than mastering linguistic structures. Students may know the rules of linguistic usage, but be unable to use the
language. As a result, Communicative Language Teaching aims broadly to apply
the theoretical perspective of the Communicative Approach by making communicative competence the goal of language teaching and by
acknowledging the interdependence of language and communication. Littlewood 1981: 6 in Nunan 1989: 13 considers that CLT should
have the following skills: 1.
The learner must attain as high a degree as possible of linguistic competence. That is he must develop skill in manipulating the linguistic
system, to the point where he can use it spontaneously and flexibly in order to express his intended message.
2. The learner must distinguish between the forms he has mastered as part of
his linguistic competence, and the communicative functions which they perform. In other words, items mastered as part of a linguistic system must
also be understood as part of a communicative system. 3.
The learner must develop skills and strategies for using language to communicate meanings as effectively as possible in concrete situations.
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He must learn to use feedback to judge his success, and if necessary, remedy failure by using different language.
4. The learner must become aware of the social meaning of language forms.
For many learners, this may not entail the ability to vary their own speech to suit different social circumstances, but rather the ability to use generally
acceptable forms and avoid potentially offensive ones.
E. Communicative Competence
