Communicative Language Teaching（コミュニカティブ・ランゲージ・ティーチング）
What is CLT?
Savignon (2002): "The essence of CLT is the engagement of learners in communication to allow them to develop their communicative competence" (p. 22).
1. Definitions of communicative competence
Canale and Swain (1980):
(1) grammatical competence
(2) sociolinguistic competence
(3) discourse competence
(4) strategic competence
Savignon (1997): "Communication is the expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning; and communicative competence is always context specific, requiring the simultaneous, integrated use of grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence" (p. 225).
2. Definitions of CLT
Brown (1994):
(1) Classroom goals are focused on all of the components of communicative competence;
(2) Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes;
(3) Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques;
(4) Students ultimately have to use the language, productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contextsﾓ (p. 245, italics original).
3. Is CLT the best method?
There is no best method (Prabhu, 1990). CLT is not a method but an approach (Brown, 1994, 2001; Omaggio, 1994; Richards & Rodgers, 1986; Sato & Kleinsasser, 1999; Savignon, 2002).
Savignon (2002): "CLT is properly seen as an approach, grounded in a theory of intercultural communicative competence, that can be used to develop materials and methods appropriate to a given context of learning" (p. 22-23).
In other words, "CLT represents a repertoire of teaching ideas rather than a fixed set of methodological procedures" (Omaggio, 1993, p. 105).
Therefore, language teachers need this "flexibility" and "adaptability" to meet learners' communicative needs (see Berns, 1990).
References
・ Brown, H.D. (1994). Principles of language learning and teaching (3th ed.).
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
・ Brown, H.D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to
language pedagogy (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
・Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1, 1-47.
・ Omaggio-Hadley, A. (1993). Teaching language in context (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
・ Prabhu, N.S. (1990). There is no best methodﾑwhy? TESOL Quarterly, 24, 161-176.
・ Sato, K., & Kleinsasser, R.C. (1999). Communicative language teaching (CLT): Practical understandings. Modern Language Journal 83 (4), 494-517.
・ Savignon, S.J. (1997). Communicative competence: Theory and classroom
practice (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
・Savignon, S.J. (Ed.). (2002). Interpreting communicative language teaching: Contexts and concerns in teacher education. New Haven: Yale University Press.
