Some Current Problems in Communicative Language Teaching [microform] / Christopher Brumfit.

Three points are basic to communicative teaching. First, we do not know how language is learned and so cannot follow rigidly any one procedure in teaching a language. Secondly, teaching is not the obverse of learning. Teaching can be controlled, and the relationship between teachers and learners is...

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Online Access: Request ERIC Document
Main Author: Brumfit, Christopher
Format: Microfilm Book
Language:English
Published: [Place of publication not identified] : Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse, 1982.
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Summary:Three points are basic to communicative teaching. First, we do not know how language is learned and so cannot follow rigidly any one procedure in teaching a language. Secondly, teaching is not the obverse of learning. Teaching can be controlled, and the relationship between teachers and learners is more than simple input leading to output. Third, language use is dynamic, an interaction between persons; its use necessitates negotiating agreed cultural values. The teacher can provide the "tokens" of the language, but learners themselves must learn to use it, to adapt it to situations they have not chosen themselves, to say what they have not been explicitly taught to say. To respond to a learner's need to use language in natural situations, teachers must develop group-work techniques, create an environment and situations in which students can be free to use the basic patterns and vocabulary they have learned in ways they use their native language. With regard to syllabus, any syllabus can become communicative with a methodology that promotes dynamic language activity. The advantage of a notional-functional syllabus is that it requires the teacher to become sensitive to the range of things to be done in the foreign language and familiar with settings in which students could use the language they are learning. (AMH)
Item Description:Availability: Concordia Colloquium on Language Labs, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve West, Montreal, Quebec H3G-1M8, Canada ($15 for entire journal).
ERIC Note: Opening Speech to La Societe pour la Promotion de L'Enseignement de L'Anglais, Langue Seconde, Au Quebec (SPEAQ) Convention (Quebec City, Canada, June 2, 1982).
ERIC Document Number: ED228835.
Physical Description:12 pages
Reproduction Note:Microfiche.
Action Note:committed to retain
Preferred Citation of Described Materials Note:SPEAQ Journal, v6 n1 p13-23 1982.