Language use

• A gap between language use in real life and traditional pedagogy

• 1. function

• 2. language skills

• 3. context

Communicative Competence

• 1. Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance

• 2. The components of communicative competence: linguistic, pragmatic, discourse, strategic, fluency

Implications for language teaching(1)

• 1. Linguistic competence

• --build a range of vocabulary.

• --pronounce the forms accurately.

• --learn the script and spelling forms.

• --achieve accuracy in syntax and word formation.

• --use stress, rhythm and intonation to express meaning.

(2)

• Pragmatic competence• --learn the relationship between forms and

functions.• --use stress and intonation to express attitude

and emotion.• --learn the scale of formality.• --understand and use emotive tone.• --know how to select language forms appropriate

to topic, listener or setting.

(3)

• Discourse competence

• --take longer turns, use discourse markers and open and close conversations.

• --use cohesive devices in reading and written texts.

• --cope with authentic texts and talks.

(4)

• Strategic competence• --take risks in using the language.• --use a wide range of communicative strategies. --learn the language needed to engage in these

strategies. Fluency --be able to respond with reasonable speed in

‘real time’. --deal with the information gap of real discourse.

Principles of CLT

• 1. communicative principle: activities that involve real communication promote learning.

• 2. task principle: activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning.

• 3. meaningfulness principle: language that is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process.

Components of CLT

• A. Language Arts, or language analysis• In ELT, language arts the accuracy of forms, including

syntax, morphology, phonology, spelling tests and so on.• activities: translation, dictation, rote memorization

• B. Language for a Purpose, or language experience• It is the use of English for real and immediate

communicative goals.

• C. My Language Is Me: my personal English language use.

• It relates to the learner’s emerging identity in English and implies respect for learners as they use English for self-expression.

• • (from the diary of a Japanese learner of English)• I just don’t know what to do right now. I might have been wrong

since I began to learn English. I always tried to be better and wanted to be a good speaker. It was wrong, absolutely wrong! When I got to California, I started imitating Americans and picked up the words that I heard. So my English became just like Americans. I couldn’t help it. I must have been funny to them, because I am a Japanese and have my own culture and background. I think I almost lost the most important thing I should not have. I got California English, including intonation, pronunciation, the way they act which are not mine. I have to have my own English, be myself when I speak English.

• D. You Be, I’ll Be: theater arts• On this stage, we play many roles, for which we

improvise scripts from the models we observe around us.

• E. Beyond the Classroom• Prepare learners to use English in the world beyond.

Tips about CLT

• A. CLT and traditional teaching

• B. CLT and grammar

• C. CLT and face-to-face oral communication

• D.CLT and Language Skills

Appropriate evaluation on CLT

• CLT has not replaced the previous approaches. It has only expanded the areas: language content (functions), learning process (cognitive style and information processing), and product (language skills).

• The essence of CLT is the engagement of learners in communication in order to allow them to develop their communicative competence.

• process oriented • task-based• discovery oriented

Communicative Activities

• The key assumption in CLT is that students learn the language through engaging in a variety of communicative activities.

• Criteria (Ellis 1990):• Communicative purpose• Communicative desire• Content, not form• No teacher intervention• No materials control

Activity 1 Read and act: practise similar dialogues

• A: Excuse me. What’s your full name, please?• B: James Allan Green.• A: Shall I call you James or Jim?• B: It doesn’t matter. It’s not important. But my friends call me Jim for

short.• A: OK, Jim.

• A: Excuse me. Are you a new student?• B: Yes, I am.• A: Glad to meet you. What’s your name, please?• B: Sun Huifang.• A: May I call you Huifang.• B: Of course, if you wish.

Activity 2 Work in pairs. Student A: Use the questionnaire below to interview your

partner. Take notes on the lines.Student B :Close your partner’s questions and answer them

according to your own situation.

• Questionnaire• 1. How long have you been learning English?• 2. When did you begin?• 3. Where did you begin learning English?• 4. Have you taken any English examination?• 5. Are you satisfied with your English?• 7. What are the biggest problems in your English

learning?• 8. Do you use a dictionary? If yes, what kind?

Activity 3

Pair-work: Ask your partner about yesterday.

Example: A: Where were you at 7 o’clock yesterday morning?

B: I was in bed.

Use these expressions:in bed in the garden at school

at the shop at home at the cinema

at the playground in the bath at my uncle’s home

Activity 4 Writing Practice

• A head-teacher is speaking to a teacher in her school, “ Next week we are going to clean the school as follows: Classroom Building 1 on Monday. Building 2 on Tuesday. The computer room and sound lab on Wednesday. The science labs on Thursday. The library and the Teachers’ Rooms on Friday. Please write a notice for the students and put it up. Thank you.”

• Work with your partner and write a large notice. Start like this:

• Classroom Building 1 will be…

• A. word guess• B. description• C. simple dialogue• D. cued dialogue• E. cued role-play• F. debate

(weather, traffic, vacation, etc)(weather, traffic, vacation, etc)

• Cued dialogue• You meet B in the street. You meet A in the street.• A: Greet B A:• B: B: Greet A• A: Ask B where he is going A:• B: B: Say going for a walk• A: Suggest somewhere to go A:• together• B: B: Reject A’s suggestion

and make a different one• A: Accept B’s suggestion A: • B: B: Express pleasure

•

• Cued role-play• Learner A: You arrive at a small hotel one evening. In the foyer, you

meet the manager(ess) and :• ask if there is a vacant room.• ask about the price, including breakfast.• say how many nights you would like to stay.• ask where you can park your car for the night. • say what time you would like to have breakfast.

• Learner B:You are the manger(ess) of a small hotel that prides itself on its friendly, homely atmosphere. You have a single and a double room vacant for tonight. The prices are $850 for the single room, $1500 for the double room. Breakfast is $150 extra per person. In the street behind the hotel, there is a free car park. Guests can have tea in bed in the morning for 50 cent.

Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT)

• What is a task?

• A task is essentially goal-oriented; it requires the group, or pair, to achieve an objective that is usually expressed by an observable result. This result should be attainable only by interaction between participants.

• (Ur 1996)

What is a task in FLT?

• Tasks are activities where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve an outcome.(Willis 1996)

• A task is an activity which requires learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought, and which allows teachers to control and regulate that process.

Components of a Task

• 1. purpose: making sure the students have a reason for understanding the task

• 2. context: real, simulated or imaginary and involves the location, the participants and their relationship, the time and other important factors

• 3. process: getting students to use learning strategies such problem solving, reasoning, inquiring, conceptualizing and communicating

• 4. product: there will be some form of outcome, either visible (a written plan, a play, a letter, etc.) or invisible (enjoying a story, learning about another country, etc.)

Activities Available in Classroom English Teaching

• Exercises

• Tasks

• Exercise-tasks• focus on individual language items

• purposeful & contextualised communication

• exercise Exercise-task task

Designing Tasks

• What is the objective of the task?

• What is the content of the task?

• How is the task to be carried out?

• In what situation is the task to be carried out?

Specific Steps in Designing Tasks

• 1. think about students’ needs, interests and abilities

• 2. brainstorm possible tasks

• 3. evaluate the list

• 4. choose the language items

• 5. prepare materials

• Comment on the goals and characteristics of TBLT by reading the following two samples.

Task 1

• 要求：下面每句都包含两个事件，教师引导学习者根据尝试判断这两个事件能否同时发生，并将判断意见写在每个句子的左边。

• （ 1 ）句中描述的两件事情一定具有某种联系。• （ 2 ）句中描述的两件事情可能具有某种联系。• （ 3 ）句中描述的两件事情没有联系，但它们是同时发生的。

• 1. She turned on the radio. The door bell rang.

• 2. The baby fell off the chair. The woman was very frightened.

• 3. The girl student took an umbrella. It was pouring outside.

• 4. The bus stopped. Many pupils were waiting at the station.

• 5. An old lady crossed the street. A car stopped with a screech.

• 6. There was no hot water. The drain was clogged.

• 7. The teacher was very angry. A student was sent out of the classroom.

• 8. The water streamed out of the container onto the carpet. After a quarter of an hour, the container was empty.

Task 2

• 说明：下面是关于过去、现在、将来发生的系列事件，教师引导学习者根据个人的理解完成填充任务，然后进行分组讨论。

• Present Past Future• Things that have already happened are .• Things that will happen are .• Things that are happening now are .• The year 2020 belongs to the .• The year 1980 belongs to the .• The year belongs to the present.

• My own past, present and future:• The age of six is .• The age of 20 is .• My present age is .

• These things belong to the past:• Birth• Being a baby

• These things belong to my present:• Going to school

• These things belong to my future:• Being grown up

• These things belong to the world’s past:• The Ice Age

• These things belong to the world’s present:

• These things belong to the world’s future:

TBLT: goals and characteristics

• A. Focus on the learning process. • Engage the learners in the real tasks.

• The learning process is the process of fulfilling the task. • B. Both form-focused and communication-

focused teaching.• Emphasize the teaching of language oriented toward the

learner’s communicative competence.

• C. beyond communicative competence: overall language ability.

Nativized TBLT

• A. task designing

• B. task preparing

• C. task presenting

• D. task implementing

• E. task reflecting

A. 设计• 1. 语言、情景真实性原则• 2. 语言形式、意义、交际功能与学习任务相结合的原则• 3. 任务梯度原则• 4. 兴趣原则• 5. 合作学习原则• 6. 师生和谐共创原则• 7. 创新意识培养原则• 8. 反思性原则

B. 准备• 学习者学习新语言知识、为运用所学新语言完成

任务所做的准备，即通常所说的语言学习阶段，也称任务前阶段。

• 1. 有计划的构建一个良好的学习环境；• 2. 全面掌握完成任务所需要的词汇和相关概念；• 3. 安排好学习者参与任务活动的次序。• 4. 多渠道获取相关信息。

C. 呈现• 任务介绍的目的：• 引导学习者进入任务情景；• 帮助学习者理解任务要求

• 具体活动：• 图式构建• 控制练习• 听力练习• 强化语言点活动• 自由度逐步扩大的练习活动• 教学任务的导入

D. 开展• 任务开展过程中的教师角色：

• 参与者• 监控者• 评价者• 资源、信息提供者• 氛围的营造者和维护者

E. 评价：反思性学习

• 目的：引导学习者重新审视 /反思任务过程，尤其关注完成过程中语言使用的正确性、得体性、流利性和复杂程度。

• 1. 语言使用的反思• 2. 任务表现的评价

• 小组活动评价表• 说明：参照学习者参与小组对话任务的实际情况，请标出相对应的数

字• 提示： 1 相当出色 2 中等以上 3 中等 4 中等以下 5 不太满意

• 学习者参与讨论• 学习者运用恰当的非语言方式• 学习者的发言与学习任务相关• 学习者进行了意义协商• 学习者使用现实中的信息进行交际• 学习者发表个人意见• 学习者引导其他学习者参与对话• 学习者以恰当方式表示赞同或反对• 学习者以恰当方式变换讨论话题

• 写作任务自我评价表• 说明：请对照下列标准，自我评价自己在写作任务完成过程中是否取得

进步。• 提示： 1 非常符合 2 基本符合 3 不确定 4 不太符合 5 完全不符合

• 评价标准 初稿 终稿• 第一段明确点出文章主题• 第一段富有趣味• 全文例证恰当• 全文段落结构过渡自然• 全文段落内容衔接紧密• 结尾进行展望，提出建议• 文中无语法、拼写、标点错误

返回

Sample 1: 以下是基于任务型课文教学的片段。

• 1. 准备活动• 师生相互问候，然后教师引导学生复习 father, mother, grandma, grandpa, b

rother, sister 等词汇。• 2. 导入活动• 教师向学习者介绍要学习的内容是如何制作宣传招贴画，来展示自己的家人

或朋友。• 3. 复习活动• 教师引导学习者复习学过的一些内容，然后将学习者分为两组，分别进行角

色扮演。• 4. 制作• 教师按照步骤示范招贴画制作的过程，学习者按照步骤制作招贴画。• 5. 演示• 教师向学习者演示如何介绍自己的招贴画。• 6. 介绍与准备• 学习者展开小组活动，相互介绍自己的宣传照贴画。• 7. 游戏• 教师引导学习者表演介绍家人的游戏。• 8. 介绍• 教师总结所学内容及学习者的进步，指出问题所在。