The Attempt of Communicative Teaching Method by a New Teacher

My Teaching Philosophy

In the 1970s, a ‘sociolinguistic revolution’ happened, where the emphasis given in linguistic to grammar was replaced by an interest in ‘language in use. Hymes (1970) paper ‘ on communicative competence’ was mentioned, with its exploration of the notion of ‘the appropriate’ as a dimension important in language studies. When I came to the Undergraduate University, these classes mainly focus on the basic knowledge of the language. Until I was in my junior year, I began to learn some knowledge of teaching. At the same time, I read some books such as introduction to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching by Keith Johnson, a course in language teaching method by Wangqiang, and so on. By a period time of learning, I find the communicative teaching method is helpful for my teaching in the future. 

In China, what many English teachers do in the classes is to help students get a grade in the exam. So many students including myself find their spoken English is poor when they begin to learn in the University. Just like what Newark(1966) mentioned in his paper, students may be entire ‘ structurally competent’, yet be unable to perform even the simplest communicative task. Because these students lack the opportunity to use grammar rules although they remember these rules well. So they may get a grade in the exam, but they can’t produce structurally correct sentences.

How can we help ‘structurally competent’ but ‘communicatively incompetent’ students? Communicative teaching is a good method to help them. Johnson(1980a) argue that ‘conveying information’ is often an essential part of communication（though by no means always-perhaps you can think of some exceptions）. Because of the lack of unknown information, students would have the motivation to communicate with others to get information. The information gap is a typical activity in communicative teaching. Students can do communicative drills in information gap activities. So they would repeat one grammar structure several times, which help them master the structure. Except for information gap activity, role play is also an effective activity. In role-playing exercises, students act out parts in a small-scale ‘drama’ specially set up to practice chosen functions.

Fortunately, I have the opportunity to apply role play in my teaching. I used to have a part-time job as an English-spoken teacher in my hometown which is a small county. My students were in the first year of junior high school. And I chose Harry Potter as the teaching material to design a role-play activity. First, we watched the video chosen from Harry Potter. Students felt very excited about the following activity. Then I gave them actors’ lines on the blackboard and taught them how to read. Students were divided into several groups and choose the role they wanted to play. Students felt very hard to read these lines correctly and fluently because there were so many unknown words. Their passion gradually passes away. Finally, they needed to perform in the whole class. The result effect was not as good as I imagined. After the class, I reflected for a while, I find there were many parts I need to pay attention to. First, the material I chose may be too hard for them although they are interested in it. Second, I should make them get familiar with these new vocabularies in some ways rather than directly telling them the meaning of these vocabularies. Third, I may give students the opportunity to dress up to make them feel more like the character they play. So in communicative teaching, the choice of teaching materials is very important. We need to consider students’ interests, students' language proficiency and the need of society. 

Nowadays, more and more English teachers are willing to try new teaching methods in their teaching. But when we use these teaching methods, there are a lot of places we need to consider. All in all, students should be the center of the class. 

 Reference: 

Hymes, D. 1970'On communicative competence'. In Gumperz, J. J. and Hymes, D. (eds) Directions in Sociolinguistics New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Nemark, L. 1966' How not to interfere with language learning'. Reprinted in Brumfit, C.J. and Johnson, K.(eds) The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press, 160-6.

Johnson, K. 1980a ' Making drills communicative'. Reprinted in Johnson, K. Communicative Syllabus Design and Methodology Oxford: Pregramon Institute of English, 1982, 192-200.