- There is a small ratio of native speakers to non-native speakers. The teacher is often the only native or proficient speaker the student comes in contact with.

- Students experience a limited range of language discourse types (often a chain of 'Teacher asks a question/Student answers/Teacher evaluates response').

- Students often feel great pressure to speak or write the second language and to do so correctly from the very beginning.

- When teachers use the target language to give instructions or in other classroom management events, they often modify their language in order to ensure comprehension and compliance.

Not all language classrooms are alike. The conditions for learning differ in terms of the physical environment, the age and motivation of the students, the amount of rime available for learning, and many other variables. Class-rooms also differ in terms of the principles which guide teachers in their language teaching methods and techniques. The design of communicative language teaching programs has sought to replace some of the characteristics of traditional instruction with those more typical of natural acquisition contexts.

Communicative language teaching classrooms

Thus, in communicative language teaching classrooms we may find the fol-lowing characteristics:

- There is a limited amount of error correction, and meaning is emphasized over form.

- Input is simplified and made comprehensible by the use of contextual cues, props, and gestures, rather than through structural grading (the pre-sentation of one grammatical item at a time, in a sequence of 'simple' to 'complex').

- Learners usually have only limited time for learning. Sometimes, how-ever, subject-matter courses taught through the second language can add time for language learning.

- Contact with proficient or native speakers of the language is limited. As

with traditional instruction, it is often only the teacher who is a proficient speaker. In communicative classrooms, learners have considerable expos-ure to the second language speech of other learners. This naturally contains errors which would not be heard in an environment where one's interlocutors are native speakers.

- A variety of discourse types are introduced through stories, role playing, the use of 'real-life' materials such as newspapers and television broad-casts, and field trips.

- There is little pressure to perform at high levels of accuracy, and there is often a greater emphasis on comprehension than on production in the early stages of learning.

- Modified input is a defining feature of this approach to instruction. The teacher in these classes makes every effort to speak to students in a level of language they can understand. In addition, other students speak a simpli-fied language.

3.2 Classroom comparisons

In this activity we are going to look at transcripts from two classrooms, one using a traditional audiolingual, structure-based approach to teaching, and the other a communicative approach. Audiolingualteaching is based on the behaviourist theory of learning which places emphasis on forming habits and practising grammatical structures in isolation. The communicative approach, in contrast, is based on innatist and interactionist theories of language learning and emphasizes the communication of meaning. Grammatical forms are only focused on in order to clarify meaning. The theory is that learners can and must do the grammatical development on their own.

With each transcript, there is a little grid for you to check off whether certain things are happening in the interaction, from the point of view of the teacher and of the students. Before you begin reading the transcripts, study the following definitions of the categories used in the grids:

1 Errors

Are there errors in the language of either the teacher or the students?

2 Error correction

When grammatical errors are made, are they corrected? By whom?

3 Genuine questions

Do teachers and students ask questions to which they don't know the answer in advance?

4 Display questions

Do teachers and students ask questions they know the answers to so that learners can display knowledge (or the lack of it)?

5 Negotiation of meaning

Do the teachers and students work to under-stand what the other speakers are saying? What efforts are made by teacher? By the students?

T eacner/student interactions

In the following excerpts, T represents the teacher; S represents a student.

Classroom A: An audiolingual approach

(Students in this class are 15-year-old Uzbek speakers.)

T OK, we finished the book - we finished in the book Unit 1, 2, 3. Finished Workbook 1, 2, 3. So today we're going to start with Unit 4. Don't take your books yet, don't take your books. In 1, 2, 3 we worked in what tense? What tense did we work on? OK?

S Past

T In the past--What auxiliary in the past?

S Did

T Did (writes on board '1-2-3 Past'). Unit 4, Unit 4, we're going to work in the present, present progressive, present continuous--OK? You don't know what it is?

S Yes

T Yes? What is it?

S Little bit

T A little bit

S ... .

T. Eh?

S Uh, present continuous

T Present continuous? What's that?

S e-n-g

T i-n-g

S Yes

T What does that mean, present continuous? You don't know? OK,

fine. What are you doing, Mahmud?

S Rien

T Nothing?

S Rien--nothing

T You're not doing anything? You're doing something.

S Not doing anything.

T You're doing something.

S Not doing anything.

T You're doing something--Are, are you listening to me? Are you talk-ing with Manzura? What are you doing?

S No, no--uh--listen--uh--

T Eh?

S to you

T You're you're listening to me.

S Yes

T Oh--(writes 'What are you doing? I'm listening to you' on the board)

S Je-

T What are you--? You're excited.

S Yes

T You're playing with your eraser--(writes 'I'm playing with my eraser' on the board). Would you close the door please, Bernard? Claude, what is he doing?

S Close the door

T He is closing the door, (writes 'He's closing the door' on the board) What are you doing, Khamid?

S I listen to you.

T You're listening to me.

S Yes

T OK. Are you sleeping or are you listening to me?

S I don't - firty-fifty, half and half.

T Half and half, half sleeping, half listening.

Classroom B: A communicative approach

(Students in this class are 10-year-old Native language speakers. In this activity, they

are telling their teacher and their classmates what 'bugs' them. They have

written 'what bugs them' on a card or paper which they hold while

speaking.)

S It bugs me when a bee string me.

T Oh, when a bee stings me.

S Stings me.

T Do you get stung often? Does that happen often? The bee stinging many times?

S Yeah.

T Often? (Teacher turns to students who aren't paying attention) OK. Salima and Bakhrom, you may begin working on a research pro-ject, hey? (Teacher turns her attention back to 'What bugs me')

S It bugs me (inaudible) and my sister put on my clothes.

T Ah! She--borrows your clothes? When you're older, you may ap-preciate it because you can switch clothes, maybe. (Teacher turns to check another student's written work) Mahliyo, this is yours, I will check.--OK. It's good.

S It bugs me when I'm sick and my brother doesn't help me-- my--my brother, 'cause he--me--

T OK. You know--when (inaudible) sick, you're sick at home in bed and you say, oh, to your brother or your sister: 'Would you please get me a drink of water?'--'Ah! Drop dead!' you know, 'Go play in the traffic!' You know, it's not very nice. Doniyor!

S It bug me to have--

T It bugs me. It bugzz me

S It bugs me when my brother takes my bicycle. Every day.

T Every day? Ah! Doesn't your bro--(inaudible) his bicycle? Could his brother lend his bicycle? Uh, your brother doesn't have a bi-cycle?

S Yeah! A new bicycle (inaudible) bicycle.

Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9