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1) ¿Quién habló?
2) ¿Cuántos años tienen?
3) ¿Dónde están?
4) ¿De qué hablaron?
5) ¿Sabían que estaban escuchando a ellos?

(2011, October 06). Learn Spanish (Greeting Introduction) - Lerne Spanisch (Begrüßung) - Aprende Español. Retrieved September 06, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWaBQ-ZUm-c

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Learn Spanish (Greeting + Introduction) - Lerne Spanisch (Begrüßung) - Aprende Español

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[Charlie Brown Cartoon]. (n.d.). Retrieved September 6, 2017, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-speak-call-center-la-charlie-browns-teacher-hans-fleischer

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What does Communicative Langauage Teaching look like in the Classroom?

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What does Communicative Langauage Teaching look like in the Classroom?

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Student-centered classroom: Students do most of the speaking

Active Classroom: Students out of their seats to complete tasks

Teacher's Roles: Referee, Mentor, Facilitator, Good listener

Example Activities:
1) Role Plays
2) Talk Show Interview
3) What I Youtubed last weekend
4) News Reporting
5) Objectified (Charades using the TL)

D., S. (n.d.). 5 Communicative Language Teaching Activities That Give Students the Gift of Gab. Retrieved September 06, 2017, from http://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator/communicative-language-teaching-activities/

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Would Tiger Woods be any good at golf if he never actually practiced his swing hundreds of thousands of times?

Would Michael Jordan be MJ if he never spent thousands of hours practicing, hitting and missing those shots?

Would native speakers learn their language if they never actually opened their mouths to practice it?

The communicative approach to language teaching believes that in order to learn a language, one has to practice using it to communicate meaning to others. Language learners gotta keep on talking. They gotta keep on telling people their stories, jokes and opinions.

So we've got five activities for you that will do just that for your students-keep them talking.

Instead of you shhhh-ing them when they get louder and rowdier, you'll let them talk each other's ears off in a highly productive way.

But wait a minute, what exactly is communicative approach to language teaching?

I thought you'd never ask.

What Is the Communicative Approach?

In the 1960s and '70s there was a growing suspicion surrounding the efficacy of the grammar-translation approach to teaching language.

This approach was of the mind that language has building blocks, and you combine these building blocks in order to come up with meaningful communication. There are specific rules (a.k.a. grammar and syntax) on how these blocks are combined.

Students learn by being drilled on the different rubrics of the language. But educators, particularly in Britain, were beginning to ask, "If the end goal of language is communication, then why am I spending 45 minutes of each class teaching my students about every verb tense on the face of the earth? And while I'm talking non-stop, why are my students not even opening their mouths to practice the language?"

Europe, at this time, was becoming increasingly integrated, with people traveling to many other nearby countries, prompting the mass learning of languages. Students were asking, "I just wanna know where the bathroom is! I don't need to know these thirteen tenses of one Spanish verb cold to do that!" Or "What good to me is knowing 30 Italian translations of the different vegetables when I never go to the market."

The communicative approach was born in this milieu, out of the need to go back to the fundamental reason for language, why we want to learn a second or third language-to be able to communicate.

All the rest of learning is noise-bells and whistles. Nice to know, but it can sometimes get in the way of actually acquiring the language.

So in the communicative approach, a lot of talking is done by the students as they start practicing what it's like to actually have the words roll off of their tongues. They don't just sit in class and listen as a teacher lists every exception to a grammar rule.

Students interact with each other-awkwardness, grammar mistakes and all. Guided by their teacher, they engage in role playing, pretending to talk about last night's game, haggling the prices of stuff, recalling the plot to the latest blockbuster-all real-world situations where there's a need to communicate meaning.

This is very different from walking to the blackboard, holding a piece of chalk and writing the Russian translation for the word "dog."

With the communicative approach, interaction becomes both the Method and the Goal of teaching.

In the next section, we learn five activities that will involve exactly that-interaction, communication, transmission of meaning. They'll coax your students out of their shells and into the road of language acquisition.

5 Outspoken Activities for Highly Communicative Language Teaching

1. Next Level Role Plays

Role playing is an important communicative activity. It allows your students to practice the target language in a safe environment where mistakes are no big deal. They'll get a feel for what it's like wielding the language in different situations and contexts.

This is the difference between you talking about a "hammer"-how to hold it, the different parts and uses-and your students actually "swinging the hammer around," pounding the walls or aiming for the nail.

Assign scenes to student pairs - (this will maximize their speaking time). The scenes can be anything, but make it relevant for your wards. If you have a class of business professionals, make it about a meeting or a sales situation, for example. If your class is composed of high school students, try a mess hall or a dorm room situation. A 30-second dialogue is already enough.

The complexity of the dialogues will depend on whether your students are beginners or advanced learners. With advanced learners, you can probably just assign the students roles or a situation and let them have a go at it. Your role then will be to provide live commentary and correction.

For beginners, it will be a lot different.

You'll have to give each pair their lines. Write the whole dialogue on a piece of paper. Write the lines in the target language first, followed by their English translations. This will be very helpful in letting beginners know what the dialogue is all about.

Send the pairs off to practice on their own.

Visit each pair in their practices and monitor their progress. It's very important that you explain the context of the dialogue. What's the motivation for the characters? Why are they acting that way?

Listen to the practice and check their pronunciation. If you can suggest gestures and props for the scene, so much the better.

After a day or two of practice, let the pairs present in front of the class. This is one is very important because it's a chance for the whole class to learn from the scenes of the other pairs. You need to be very active in explaining what the scene is all about. If it's two best friends talking, then explain why they were talking informally, for example.

Let the pair present the dialogue twice or thrice and provide live commentary and corrections on the second go. Explain the scene to the class. This is very important because meaning of our communications are vested in the contexts and the roles that we play.

Language is meaningful only in context. This is one of the emphases of the communicative approach.

2. The Talk Show Interview

Here, students will experience what it's like being the host of a talk show or being the guest answering questions in front of a live studio audience.

Again, let the students work in pairs. The host student prepares five questions and writes them on a piece of paper. This question list will be given ahead of time to the celebrity student so they can prepare an answer for them. Instruct the "celebrity" students to give answers in complete sentences. Three sentences for beginners should be just right.

Reminder: Go around the classroom to make sure the questions are worded correctly and are in their proper format.

Give the pair a day to rehearse their Q&A segment.

The next day, if possible, have an "interview set" arranged in front of the class to help students get in character.

Let the pairs present their segment. For the benefit of the whole class, you can do a live commentary or translation as they go along.

So, for example, if one of the questions in a Spanish class is, " ¿Cuáles son tus pasatiempos?" (What are your hobbies?), you can interpose and maybe say, " Pasatiempos, class, she's asking about his hobbies now."

If the other student answers with " Me gusta jugar al futbol." (I love to play football.), you can then tell the class, "So, Stephen loves to play football, right? Please, continue." But don't be overbearing to the point of distraction-pick your spots right.

In an advanced class, you can probably have an impromptu question from the "audience."

Process the activity after the pairs have presented. Ask them, for example, if they have any questions about asking questions in the target language.

Maybe not immediately the day after, but reserve a session for when the students switch roles and the "host" becomes the "celebrity" guest and will be responding to questions this time.

3. Objectified

Have students draw from rolled sheets of paper containing names of different objects. Their job, using the target language, is to describe and give plenty of hints so that the class can discover what the object is.

Unlike Charades, in Objectified, students are allowed-in fact, they're required -to speak. They can say whatever they want, short of naming the object. They can gesture away, they can use the full repertoire of body language in order to shine the spotlight on the correct answer. Give each student two minutes to work the room and see what happens.

The student who guesses the correct word gets some brownie points. The student who's able to communicate the correct answer gets double brownie points.

Imagine your intermediate level Japanese language student walking into a corner store in Japan to ask the shop owner if they're selling ice cream. They'll use all of their relevant vocabulary to describe the ice cream. they'll gesture like crazy just so the owner can understand. They're trying to communicate meaning the best way they can, using what they already know.

This is very much what happens in Objectified. The student in front is trying to pass meaningful information to the whole class. Don't worry if their grammar is less than perfect. Never mind that their sentences aren't polished. As long as they're able to pass along meaningful information, then they're engaging in the communicative approach to learning a new language. Their grammar will get better in time.

4. What I YouTubed Last Weekend

Notice how students, in their spare time, click that "share" button quite often? They pass onto others some interesting, funny, inspirational and awesome videos. It gives them great pleasure to let their friends see what they've seen. They want their friends get the same laugh, feel the same tug to the heart or the same jaw-dropping experience.

Why not take advantage of this entrenched social- technological dynamic and do the "sharing" inside the classroom? Let your students tell about the most awesome thing they've seen on YouTube over the weekend. The only catch is that they should do this in the target language. Encourage your students to also relate their feelings, insights and opinions about what they've seen.

This is essentially a reporting activity, where students will stand in front of the class (or perhaps remain seated at their desks) to tell all about the most memorable video they saw over the weekend. Afterwards, you can let them watch the videos in class if there's time. For an added challenge, put them on in a mixed up order and have the class identify which video was presented by which student previously.

While they're speaking, don't interrupt or correct them. It's perfectly normal if they struggle with grammar and syntax. It's all part of the process of learning a new language anyway. One learns a language by talking it, albeit imperfectly. This is still miles better than only opening one's mouth after one has perfected all the grammar rules.

5. News Reporting

Here students perform anchor duties and tell the news using the target language.

In news reporting, there's an economy of words used. It's laser focused for getting the information across. Telling the news is akin to telling a story, and training your wards using this technique will give them the opportunity to practice talking about events and dishing out information. It's like being in the center of a gossip huddle. And just like the previous activity, this is done individually.

Let the students choose a topic of their liking. They could choose to report on sports, politics, business, showbiz, lifestyle-anything they might see reported on TV. But unlike their favorite CNN anchors, they won't be reading from a script. They'll have to commit their piece to memory really tell a story! A 30-second clip would be more than enough.

So, the first thing they'll need to do is compose their piece on a sheet of paper. Depending on their skill level, they could start by writing the story in English, then translating it to the target language. Ask for a copy of their story so you can polish it a little more and return a corrected draft.

After a few days of practice, let the students do their thing in front of the class.

Listen to them and follow with the copy of the story in your hand. But consider that only as a guide. Truth is, they don't really need to memorize the script word for word, so don't jump on every miss, don't get your nose bent on every mistake. Don't even think of the grade that you're going to give the student. Watch, smile and be supportive.

The important thing for each of these activities is really just to let the students know that, in spite of any awkward pauses, they can survive using the target language-and that in spite of the mistakes and the misses, they'll still be appreciated by the teacher and the whole class when they take their seats.

When you get to this point of teaching where students don't look at their mistakes like monsters in the closet, when students know they can butcher the target language, make mistakes and learn along the way, you mimic in your class how the native speakers, as toddlers, flunked their way to success in their own language.

Through the non-threatening reactions of their primary caregivers-they pushed on to become the fluent native Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish native speakers that they are today.

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5 Communicative Language Teaching Activities That Give Students the Gift of Gab

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Would Tiger Woods be any good at golf if he never actually practiced his swing hundreds of thousands of times?Would Michael Jordan be MJ if he never spent thousands of hours practicing, hitting and missing those shots?Would native speakers learn their language if they never actually opened t

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Students use of the TL becomes meaningful when they are asked to communicate in real-life scenarios.

Why?: Students like to interact and share their opinions and perspectives on topics that are important and authentic to them.

Intrinsic Motivation: The opportunity to use meaningful communication motivates students to figure out how to express themselves in the TL in these scenarios.

Other Outcomes: Students gain confidence in using the TL

Students play a central role in managing their learning in the classroom

[Three boys role-playing]. (n.d.). Retrieved September 6, 2017, from http://www.thegazette.com/storyimage/GA/20120715/NEWS/307159974/AR/0/AR-307159974.jpg

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Social Context, Gestures and Expressions Matter!

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Social Context, Gestures and Expressions Matter!

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W. (n.d.). An Embrace: Context Matters [Russian President Boris Yeltsin and President Mintimer Shaimiyev of Tatarstan ]. Retrieved September 6, 2017, from https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/sexuality-20/socialization-and-human-sexuality-137/social-context-and-sexual-behavior-757-6186/images/an-embrace-context-matters/

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Teachers set up Real Life Situations for students to listen to and interact with language (Communicate!): 

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Teachers set up Real Life Situations for students to listen to and interact with language (Communicate!): 

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The Why, When, and Who of Communicative Language Teaching:

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The Why, When, and Who of Communicative Language Teaching:

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Problem: Students did not learn appropriate social language, gestures, or expressions through the  audio-lingual and grammar-translation method

Solution: Creation of Communicative Language Teaching in the 1970s

Who: Linguists and Teachers

Formal Language [Stick Figures]. (n.d.). Retrieved September 6, 2017, from https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1090:_Formal_Languages

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Communication is the Key [Teacher with students]. (n.d.). Retrieved September 6, 2017, from http://www.myenglishpages.com/blog/communicative-language-teaching-communicative-approach/

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Teachers create opportunities for students to use and acquire authentic and meaningful language (in the TL) by creating real-life communication scenarios, settings, and activities for students to practice in.

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"Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction and Sample Activities"

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"Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction and Sample Activities"

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by Ann Galloway

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ERIC Identifier: Publication Date: Author:
Source:

Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction and Sample Activities. ERIC Digest.

This digest will take a look at the communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages. It is intended as an introduction to the communicative approach for teachers and teachers-in-training who want to provide opportunities in the classroom for their students to engage in real-life communication in the target language. Questions to be dealt with include what the communicative approach is, where it came from, and how teachers' and students' roles differ from the roles they play in other teaching approaches. Examples of exercises that can be used with a communicative approach are described, and sources of appropriate materials are provided.

WHERE DOES COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING COME FROM?

Its origins are many, insofar as one teaching methodology tends to influence the next. The communicative approach could be said to be the product of educators and linguists who had grown dissatisfied with the audiolingual and grammar-translation methods of foreign language instruction. They felt that students were not learning enough realistic, whole language. They did not know how to communicate using appropriate social language, gestures, or expressions; in brief, they were at a loss to communicate in the culture of the language studied. Interest in and development of communicative-style teaching mushroomed in the 1970s; authentic language use and classroom exchanges where students engaged in real communication with one another became quite popular.

In the intervening years, the communicative approach has been adapted to the elementary, middle, secondary, and post-secondary levels, and the underlying philosophy has spawned different teaching methods known under a variety of names, including notional-functional, teaching for proficiency, proficiency-based instruction, and communicative language teaching.

WHAT IS COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING?

Communicative language teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication. The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. Unlike the audiolingual method of language teaching, which relies on repetition and drills, the communicative approach can leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from day to day. Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics.

Margie S. Berns, an expert in the field of communicative language teaching, writes in explaining Firth's view that "language is interaction; it is interpersonal activity and has a clear relationship with society. In this light, language study has to look at the use (function) of language in context, both its linguistic context (what is uttered before and after a given piece of discourse) and its social, or situational, context (who is speaking, what their social roles are, why they have come together to speak)" (Berns, 1984, p. 5).

WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF COMMUNICATIVE EXERCISES?

In a communicative classroom for beginners, the teacher might begin by passing out cards, each with a different name printed on it. The teacher then proceeds to model an exchange of introductions in the target language: "Guten Tag. Wie heissen Sie?" Reply: "Ich heisse Wolfie," for example. Using a combination of the target language and gestures, the teacher conveys the task at hand, and gets the students to introduce themselves and ask their classmates for information. They are responding in German to a question in German. They do not know the answers beforehand, as they are each holding cards with their new identities written on them; hence, there is an authentic exchange of information.

Later during the class, as a reinforcement listening exercise, the students might hear a recorded exchange between two German freshmen meeting each other for the first time at the gymnasium doors. Then the teacher might explain, in English, the differences among German greetings in various social situations. Finally, the teacher will explain some of the grammar points and structures used.

The following exercise is taken from a 1987 workshop on communicative foreign language teaching, given for Delaware language teachers by Karen Willetts and Lynn Thompson of the Center for Applied Linguistics. The exercise, called "Eavesdropping," is aimed at advanced students.

"Instructions to students." Listen to a conversation somewhere in a public place and be prepared to answer, in the target language, some general questions about what was said.

1. Who was talking?

2. About how old were they?

3. Where were they when you eavesdropped?

4. What were they talking about?

5. What did they say?

6. Did they become aware that you were listening to them?

The exercise puts students in a real-world listening situation where they must report information overheard. Most likely they have an opinion of the topic, and a class discussion could follow, in the target language, about their experiences and viewpoints.

Communicative exercises such as this motivate the students by treating topics of their choice, at an appropriately challenging level.

Another exercise taken from the same source is for beginning students of Spanish. In "Listening for the Gist," students are placed in an everyday situation where they must listen to an authentic text.

"Objective." Students listen to a passage to get general understanding of the topic or message.

"Directions." Have students listen to the following announcement to decide what the speaker is promoting.

"Passage." "Situacion ideal...Servicio de transporte al Aeropuerto Internacional...Cuarenta y dos habitaciones de lujo, con aire acondicionado...Elegante restaurante...de fama internacional."

(The announcement can be read by the teacher or played on tape.) Then ask students to circle the letter of the most appropriate answer on their copy, which consists of the following multiple-choice options:

a. a taxi service

b. a hotel

c. an airport

d. a restaurant

(Source: Adapted from Ontario Assessment Instrument Pool, 1980, Item No. 13019)

Gunter Gerngross, an English teacher in Austria, gives an example of how he makes his lessons more communicative. He cites a widely used textbook that shows English children having a pet show. "Even when learners act out this scene creatively and enthusiastically, they do not reach the depth of involvement that is almost tangible when they act out a short text that presents a family conflict revolving round the question of whether the children should be allowed to have a pet or not" (Gerngross & Puchta, 1984, p. 92). He continues to say that the communicative approach "puts great emphasis on listening, which implies an active will to try to understand others. [This is] one of the hardest tasks to achieve because the children are used to listening to the teacher but not to their peers. There are no quick, set recipes.

That the teacher be a patient listener is the basic requirement" (p. 98).

The observation by Gerngross on the role of the teacher as one of listener rather than speaker brings up several points to be discussed in the next portion of this digest.

HOW DO THE ROLES OF THE TEACHER AND STUDENT CHANGE IN COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING?

Teachers in communicative classrooms will find themselves talking less and listening more--becoming active facilitators of their students' learning (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). The teacher sets up the exercise, but because the students' performance is the goal, the teacher must step back and observe, sometimes acting as referee or monitor. A classroom during a communicative activity is far from quiet, however. The students do most of the speaking, and frequently the scene of a classroom during a communicative exercise is active, with students leaving their seats to complete a task.

Because of the increased responsibility to participate, students may find they gain confidence in using the target language in general. Students are more responsible managers of their own learning (Larsen-Freeman, 1986).

WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT COMMUNICATIVE TEACHING?

All of the following documents on communicative language teaching are in the ERIC database. They can be read on microfiche at any library housing an ERIC collection or purchased in microfiche or paper copy from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS), 7420 Fullerton Road, Suite 110, Springfield, VA 22153-2852 (1-800-443-3742).

REFERENCES

Ben-Barka, A. C. [1982]. "In search of a language teaching framework: An adaptation of a communicative approach to functional practice." (EDRS No. ED 239 507, 26 pages)

Das, B. K. (Ed.) (1984). "Communicative language teaching." Selected papers from the RELC seminar (Singapore). "Anthology Series 14." (EDRS No. ED 266 661, 234 pages)

Littlewood, W. T. (1983). "Communicative approach to language teaching methodology (CLCS Occasional Paper No. 7)." Dublin: Dublin University, Trinity College, Centre for Language and Communication Studies. (EDRS No. ED 235 690, 23 pages)

Pattison, P. (1987). "The communicative approach and classroom realities." (EDRS No. ED 288 407, 17 pages)

Riley, P. (1982). "Topics in communicative methodology: Including a preliminary and selective bibliography on the communicative approach." (EDRS No. ED 231 213, 31 pages)

Savignon, S. J., & Berns, M. S. (Eds.). (1983). "Communicative language teaching: Where are we going? Studies in Language Learning," 4(2). (EDRS No. ED 278 226, 210 pages)

Sheils, J. (1986). "Implications of the communicative approach for the role of the teacher." (EDRS No. ED 268 831, 7 pages)

Swain, M., & Canale, M. (1982). "The role of grammar in a communicative approach to second language teaching and testing." (EDRS No. ED 221 026, 8 pages) (not available separately; available from EDRS as part of ED 221 023, 138 pages)

Willems, G., & Riley, P. (Eds.). (1984). "Communicative foreign language teaching and the training of foreign language teachers." (EDRS No. ED 273 102, 219 pages)

Readers may also wish to consult the following journal articles for additional information on communicative language teaching.

Clark, J. L. (1987). Classroom assessment in a communicative approach. "British Journal of Language Teaching," 25(1), 9-19.

Dolle, D., & Willems, G. M. (1984). The communicative approach to foreign language teaching: The teacher's case. "European Journal of Teacher Education," 7(2), 145-54.

Morrow, K., & Schocker, M. (1987). Using texts in a communicative approach. "ELT Journal," 41(4), 248-56.

Oxford, R. L., et al. (1989). Language learning strategies, the communicative approach, and their classroom implications. "Foreign Language Annals," 22(1), 29-39.

Pica, T. P. (1988). Communicative language teaching: An aid to second language acquisition? Some insights from classroom research. "English Quarterly," 21(2), 70-80.

Rosenthal, A. S., & Sloane, R. A. (1987). A communicative approach to foreign language instruction: The UMBC project. "Foreign Language Annals," 20(3), 245-53.

Swan, M. (1985). A critical look at the communicative approach (1). "ELT Journal," 39(1), 2-12.

Swan, M. (1985). A critical look at the communicative approach (2). "ELT Journal," 39(2), 76-87.

Terrell, T. D. (1991). The role of grammar instruction in a communicative approach. "Modern Language Journal," 75(1), 52-63.

REFERENCES AND RESOURCES

Berns, M. S. (1984). Functional approaches to language and language teaching: Another look. In S. Savignon & M. S. Berns (Eds.), "Initiatives in communicative language teaching. A book of readings" (pp. 3-21). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Gerngross, G., & Puchta, H. (1984). Beyond notions and functions: Language teaching or the art of letting go. In S. Savignon & M. S. Berns (Eds.), "Initiatives in communicative language teaching. A book of readings" (pp. 89-107). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Larsen-Freeman, D. (1986). "Techniques and principles in language teaching." Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Littlewood, W. (1981). "Language teaching. An introduction." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Savignon, S., & Berns, M. S. (Eds.). (1984). "Initiatives in communicative language teaching." Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

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Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction and Sample Activities. ERIC Digest.

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ERIC Identifier: Publication Date: Author: Source: This digest will take a look at the communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages. It is intended as an introduction to the communicative approach for teachers and teachers-in-training who want to provide opportunities in the classroom for their students to engage in real-life communication in the target language.