Second Language Acquisition

THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH:
There are many approaches to teaching English including the Grammar-Translation Method, the Direct Method, the Audio-Lingual Method, the Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Community Language Learning, Total Physical Response, and the Communicative Approach. Each has its own strenths and assumptions about second language acquisition. For teaching spoken English, I use and recommend the Communicative Approach.

The Communicative approach is based on the notion that the purpose of language is an important factor to consider in the teaching of language. Language is more than the aquisition of grammatical rules. Rather, the purpose of language is to enable people to accomplish tasks and communicate ideas in a social context. Language is important because of the functions it accomplishes for the speaker.

The goal of the Communicative Approach is to create as many opportunities as possible for genuine communication to take place. Thus teachers should create activities that gives their students oppurtunities to engage in communication that is as authentic as possible. By engaging in communication tasks, role plays, debates, small group discussions, guided dialogues, et cetera, students get opportunities to use the language in a meaningful and appropriate way.

The Communicative Approach better prepares students for real life communicative situations. In learning to speak English, the ability to use the language is more important than knowledge about the rules of the language. Communicative Teaching emphasizes the use of group work. Among other advantages is the fact that it allows many students to engage in communication simultaneously. Some traditional approaches only allow for one student to talk at a time. In a large class, this gives each student very little time for speaking.