Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi, this is a student majoring in TESL.

I am thinking of writing a thesis related to "Communicative Language Teaching". More specifically, I would say, "How to help elementary students improve their speaking skills through Communicative Language Teaching". The teaching patterns of CLT might vary by individual teachers, I think, but generally the method is known to have lots of strong points in that students use the language a great deal through communicative activities such as games, role plays, and problem-solving tasks. Also the basic curriculum are supposed to be formed on the basis of students' interest in their real lives.

If you have any experiences of teaching English through CLT, please let me share your feelings and know-hows about them. And if you have useful information about the method like teaching plans, nice articles, books, websites etc., please direct me there.

Thanks.

Hi,

I wonder if you realise that CLT has been the pillar of ELT under a British tradition of ELT for the last 30 years. The great names on the teacher training front are Widdowson, Harmer, Rinvolucri, Bolitho, Underhill (all Brits), Stevick, Rivers, Douglas Brown (US), Nunan (Australian) and Richards (New Zealand), the last two being currently basedin Hong Kong and Singapore.

As a web-site I recommend www.iatefl.org.uk

At the nitty-gritty classsroom level, the best of the CLT course books are Headway (or American Headway) - OUP; Reward (or its Americasn version - Move Up) - Macmillan; English File - OUP; First Certificate Gold - Longman; and I suppose I shouldn´t overlook Richards´Interchange though personally I do not find it original in approach.

You mention especially the elementary level. It is worth saying that to get beginner learners well underway to an intermediate level, CLT has not trurned a blind eye to other techniques and approaches including Total Physical Response and the Silent Way. To cover this, some argue that they adopt an eclectic approach; others say we are in a post-CLT age;
and yet others stress a cross-curricular and or task-based approach.

I have recently received a booklist for the Cambridge ESOL (UK) CELTA course. I would be happy to send this to you if you are interested.

Roddy Kay