Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching Today
Jack C. Richards

cambridge university press

Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 2006 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. Communicative Language Teaching Today is distributed with permission from SEAMEO Regional Language Centre and is part of the Portfolio series by SEAMEO Regional Language Centre which holds the copyright to this material. First published 2006 Printed in the United States of America isbn-13 978-0-521-92512-9 paperback

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Table of Contents
Introduction 1 2

1 2 3 4 5 6

What Is Communicative Language Teaching? The Background to CLT 6

Classroom Activities in Communicative Language Teaching Current Trends in Communicative Language Teaching 22

14

Process-Based CLT Approaches – Content-Based Instruction and Task-Based Instruction 27 Product-Based CLT Approaches – Text-Based Instruction and Competency-Based Instruction 36 Conclusions References 45 46

Introduction
The ever-growing need for good communication skills in English has created a huge demand for English teaching around the world. Millions of people today want to improve their command of English or to ensure that their children achieve a good command of English. And opportunities to learn English are provided in many different ways such as through formal instruction, travel, study abroad, as well as through the media and the Internet. The worldwide demand for English has created an enormous demand for quality language teaching and language teaching materials and resources. Learners set themselves demanding goals. They want to be able to master

References: Auerbach, E. R. (1986). Competency-Based ESL: One Step Forward or Two Steps Back? TESOL Quarterly, 20 (3). Beglar, David, and Alan Hunt (2002). Implementing task-based language teaching. In Jack Richards and Willy Renandya (eds). Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press. Brumfit, Christopher (1984). Communicative Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Clarke, M., and S. Silberstein (1977). Toward a realization of psycholinguistic principles in the ESL reading class. Language Learning, 27 (1), 48–65. Feez, S., and H. Joyce (1998). Text-Based Syllabus Design. Australia: Macquarie University Krahnke, K. (1987). Approaches to Syllabus design for Foreign Language Teaching. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Littlejohn, A., and D. Hicks (1996). Cambridge English for Schools. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press. Prabhu, N. S. (1987). Second Language Pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Richards, Jack C., and Theodore Rodgers (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Second Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press. Richards, Jack C., and Charles Sandy (1998). Passages. New York: Cambridge University Press. Skehan, P. (1996). Second language acquisition research and task-based instruction. In J. Willis and D. Willis (eds). Challenge and Change in Language Teaching. Oxford: Heinemann. Van Ek, J., and L. G. Alexander (1980). Threshold Level English. Oxford: Pergamon. 46 Communicative Language Teaching Today Widdowson. H. (1987). Aspects of syllabus design. In M. Tickoo (ed). Language Syllabuses: State of the Art. Singapore: Regional Language Centre. Willis, Jane (1996). A Framework for Task-Based Learning. Harlow: Longman. Communicative Language Teaching Today 47