COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

Communicative language teaching was originated from the changes in the British situational language teaching, when different linguistics and teachers saw the importance to focus the language on the communicative proficiency, it is to say to teach the learners how to communicate in English efficiently. When we talk about communicative language, we also made reference to how the language is used in everyday situations and in its goal the “communicative competence” it differs to the situational language teaching and grammar translation method which focused in the mastery of structures and it doesn´t allow to the learner develop his communicative skills.

Many authors have writing about the most distinctive features of these methods for example Finochiaro and Brumfi (1983) made a contrast between audio-lingual and communicative language teaching, the last one centered in the meaning and in the language use in order to communicate. It differs of the audio lingual method which focused on the structures, sounds and words and in the importance of the linguistic competence. Audio lingual and grammar translation method were rejected by educators and linguistics because of its foreign language instruction. Grammar translation involved the learner to spend a lot of time in understanding the language instruction, in focusing in the analysis of the target language particularly its grammar and also in the use of translation exercises, after the rejection of these methods the word ”communication” become so relevant in the development of the language and it was divided into several kind of functions like the use of some exercises for example teachers gave to the learners some key words, sentences and phrases that allow them to practice everything they learn, because the purpose of communication is to develop the capacity to express and interact, it can develop doing some kinds of exercises like ask questions, order dishes at restaurants and another kinds of activities that in my personal opinion develop the language and create new ways to see the teaching foreign languages.

Casanare and Swain had given a more pedagogical analysis of communicative competence in which the four dimensions of the language are identified; grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategical competence, these four competences areas allow us to know how to use the language grammar, syntax, vocabulary, sociolinguistic and besides teach us how to use and respond to the language appropriately, knowing how to interpret the context in coherent way and the most important it places great emphasis in helping learners to use the target language in real situations and on learning language function. As I see this approach involves all elements in communication its social, cultural, and pragmatic features of language, it explores pedagogical means in real life integrating the communication in classroom and in general I is concerned with how to facilitate the language learning among students and how to reach in the students their fullest potential in the language management.