The Summary of Communicative Langauge Teaching.docVIP

 BA English School of Foreign Languages, Hebust Approaches of L2 Acquisition 2011-12 SUPERVISOR: Mr. Peng James Yu Take-home exam BY Student’s Name Tian Lei This work is original and has not been submitted previously in support of a degree qualification or other course. DATE OF SUBMISSION: 2011/12/23 STUDENTS ID NO. 091301323 SIGNATURE: Approaches of L2 Acquisition The Summary of Communicative Language Teaching Communicative Language Teaching is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. We can also simply call it as “communicative approach”. The origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition. But some linguists in United State rejected that the linguistic theory underlying Audiolingualism in the mid-1960s, and then British applied linguists began to question the theoretical assumptions underlying Situational Language Teaching. The communicative approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972) referred to as “communicative competence”. The prominent American linguist Noam Chomsky and British linguists saw the need to focus in language teaching on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures. That is to say, the main function of language is communication; we have to provide more chances to students for improving their practical ability of communication in English. Another impetus for different approaches to foreign language teaching came from changing educational realities in Europe. Wilkins (1972), who described two types of meanings: notional categories and categori