ALR B3 | Communicative Language Teaching

Question 1

In the early 1960s, the terms ‘_____’ and ‘_____’ were all the rage.

Answer 1

communication, communicative

Question 2

Communication had been invoked as a tool for post-war reconstruction; mass media were now being credited with turning the word into a ‘_____’.

Answer 2

global village

Question 3

Driven by innovations in technology, university
courses on ‘communication _____’ and ‘communication _____’ proliferated.

Answer 3

studies, sciences

Question 4

To sell anything or to get votes, ‘communication skills’ were considered _____.

Answer 4

essential

Question 5

At the same time, a new branch of linguistics was emerging: sociolinguists were training their sights on the relationship between _____ and _____, interested less in language as an abstract system and more in how it is put to use in actual communication.

Answer 5

language, society

Question 6

It was in this intellectual climate, in 1966, that Dell Hymes put forward the idea of ‘_____’, i.e. ‘competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when, where, in what manner’ (Hymes 1972).

Answer 6

communicative competence

Question 7

Communicative competence, it followed, involves
more than having a _____ of the sum of the _____ that were enshrined in the typical syllabuses of the time.

Answer 7

command, grammatical structures

Question 8

It involves being
sensitive to the effect on language choices of such contextual factors as the purpose of the _____ and _____ between the participants.

Answer 8

exchange, relation

Question 9

Communicative competence was to become the ‘_____’ that would underpin _____ and give it its name.

Answer 9

big idea, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Question 10

It came to fruition a few years later with the publication of a number of courses based not on a syllabus of grammatical structures but on a syllabus of _____ – such as making requests, complaining, narrating and so on.

Answer 10

communicative functions

Question 11

As an _____ to one of the first of these
courses, _____ (Abbs, et al. 1975) the writers quoted David Wilkins (1976), a consultant on the Council of Europe project, to the effect that:
what people want to do through language is more important than the mastery of language as an _____.

Answer 11

epigraph, Strategies, unapplied system

Question 12

If emphasis is placed on learning a language for communicative purposes, the methods used to promote learning should _____ this.

Answer 12

reflect

Question 13

A communicative methodology will therefore encourage students to _____ language in pairs and groups, where they have equal opportunity to ask, answer, initiate and respond.

Answer 13

practise

Question 14

The teacher assumes a
_____, initiating activity, listening, helping and advising.

Answer 14

counselling role

Question 15

Students are encouraged to communicate effectively rather than merely to _____ grammatically correct forms of English

Answer 15

produce

Question 16

By realigning the goals of instruction away from grammatical _____ and towards _____ (however defined), and by making a strong commitment to _____, i.e. that communication is best acquired by communicating, the quality and quantity of classroom interaction was set to change radically.

Answer 16

accuracy, fluency, experiential learning

Question 17

The Council of
Europe had urged the adoption of _____ syllabuses, i.e.
syllabuses made up of items such as requesting, making comparisons,
narrating, duration.

Answer 17

functional-notional

Question 18

Others argued for a _____ syllabus. Either way, allegiance to the grammar syllabus – on the grounds that grammar items are
more _____, easier to sequence, and, of course, easier to test – was unshakeable.

Answer 18

task-based, generaliable

Question 19

And, since grammar items are not easily learned by _____, the ‘_____’ teaching cycle that had originally been proposed, in which learners communicate to the best of their ability, and then get feedback, was sidelined and re-packaged as Task-based Language Teaching (see chapter
16).

Answer 19

experience, fluency first

Question 20

It was replaced by a less deep-end version of CLT, in which _____ activities (typically with a structural focus) precede _____ activities.

Answer 20

pre-communicative, communicative

Question 21

Effectively, the PPP model inherited from
Situational Language Teaching (see chapter 14) was dusted off and
stretched a little, so as to include more _____ activities (such as information-gap tasks, role plays and discussions) but not a lot else changed.

Answer 21

production

Question 22

By the time English language teaching became a global industry in the
1980s and 1990s, it was this ‘_____’ version of CLT that was taken to be the _____. In many EFL contexts there was no ‘_____’ at all.

Answer 22

weak, default form, communicative revolution

Question 23

If widespread _____ is any indication of effectiveness, then CLT – especially in its weak form – would seem to have worked.

Answer 23

adoption

Question 24

Most teachers,
teacher educators, publishers and institutions subscribe, in principle, at
least, to ‘_____’.

Answer 24

being communicative

Question 25

What this means is not always clear, but
there seems to be a general commitment to the idea that _____ is at least as important as _____, that language is a _____ as much as a _____, and that the goal of second language learning is _____,
rather than _____.

Answer 25

fluency, accuracy, skill, system, communicative competence, native-like mastery

Question 26

However, CLT has not been without its critics. Resistance to CLT in many (especially non-Western) contexts is argued on the grounds that it might not be appropriate in cultures where _____ is valued more highly than _____, and where _____, not _____, is the goal of
language education.

Answer 26

theoretical knowledge, practical skills, accuracy, fluency

Question 27

Moreover, a method that prioritizes _____ would seem to favour teachers who are themselves
_____, which in many – perhaps most – EFL contexts is not necessarily the case.

Answer 27

communicative competence, communicatively competent

Question 28

The lasting legacy of CLT is the idea of the ‘_____’.

Answer 28

communicative activity

Question 29

That is to say, an activity in which there is a genuine exchange of _____, and where participants can use any communicative means at their disposal.

Answer 29

meanings

Question 30

In other words, they are not restricted tot he use of a _____ grammar item.

Answer 30

pre-specified

Question 31

Whether or not a programme consisting solely of such activities enables language acquisition has been thrown into doubt by research suggesting that a ‘_____’ - such as attending to features of the grammar - is necessary.

Answer 31

focus on form

Question 32

But such activities have made _____ more interesting, and even fun.

Answer 32

classrooms