1. Adapt Don’t Adopt
Historical Bases of Today’s Options
Magda Enriquez Beitler

2. Approaches on a Pendulum

3. To use a language
To analyze a language

4. Teach Use
Johan Amos Comenius – 1631
Students:
• Imitate
• Repeat
• Limit vocabulary
• Practice reading
• Get meaning through pictures

5. Teach Analysis
Karl Ploetz –(1880)
Grammar Translation

6. Teach Use
François Gouin (1880)
 Exclusive use of target language in the
classroom
Alexander von Humboldt (1886)
 Language cannot be taught, one can only
create conditions for learning to take place

7. Teach Use
International Phonetic Association – (1896)
- Spoken form of language is primary and it should be
taught first
- Phonetics should be applied to language teaching
- Teachers and learners should be trained in phonics

8. XX Century

9. Theory
Approach Philosophy
Research Paradigm

10. Method Set of Procedures

11. Classroom Device
Technique
Activity

12. Nine Approaches of the XX Century

13. Grammar Translation
 Instruction is given in L1
 Little use of target language for
communication
 Focus is on grammar, reading texts,
translations
 Teacher does not have to speak
target language

14. Direct Approach
 No use of L1
 Conversational style
 Use of actions and pictures
 Grammar is learned inductively
 Reading is for pleasure
 Target culture is taught inductively
 Teacher must be proficient in L2

15. Reading Approach
 Reading comprehension is emphasized
and grammar is only taught as needed
 Vocabulary is first controlled and then
expanded
 Translations are used
 Teacher does not need good oral
proficiency

16. World War II
Urgent need to Communicate

17. 1945
US - Audiovisual Approach
UK - Oral or Situational Approach

18. Audio-lingualism
 Lesson begins with dialogue
 Use of mimicry and memorization
 Use of listening, speaking, reading in a
sequence. Writing is postponed
 Grammatical structures are also sequenced
 Controlled vocabulary and pronunciation to
prevent learners’ mistakes
 Teacher must be proficient in the structure
given by the learning activities and materials

19. Oral-Situational
 Inspired in behaviorist psychology (Skinner
1957)
 Spoken language L1
 All materials are presented orally first
 Only target language is used in the classroom
 Grammatical structures go from simple to
complex
 New items are presented and practiced
situationally

20. Cognitive
 Inspired by cognitive psychology
(Neisser1967) and the Chomsky Revolution
(1959, 1965)
 Language is acquired, not learned, and
grammar is taught deductively
 Learning is individualized
 Reading, writing and vocabulary are important
 Errors are part of the learning process
 Teacher must be proficient in target
language

21. Affective Humanistic
 Inspired in the concept of affective
consideration
 Emphasizes respect, meaningful
communication and cooperative learning
 Learning environment is more
important than materials or methods
 Cooperative learning
 Teacher is viewed as facilitator and
should be proficient in L1 and L2

22. Comprehension-Based
 L2 is acquired in the same form as L1 (Krashen and
Terrell, 1983)
 Listening comprehension is very important to
spontaneously develop speaking, reading and writing
 Learners:
 Begin by listening to comprehensible input
 Speak only when they feel comfortable
 Progress by scaffolding comprehensible input
 Uses rules to monitor learning
 Can understand and be understood
 Teacher can use audiotapes and videotapes when
not a native speaker

23. Communicative
 Goal is for learner to communicate in
target language
 Cooperative learning
 Uses authentic language and real life
situations
 Skills are integrated from the
beginning
 Teacher is a facilitator who is
proficient in target language

24. XXI Century

25. Communicative Language Teaching CLT
Passive
Listening
Viewing = Input
Reading
Receptive

26. Active
Speaking
Writing = Output
Productive

27. Input must be comprehensible
Output must communicate

28. Listening
Viewing
Passive
Reading

29. Active participants
in the interpretation,
expression and
negotiation of
meaning

30. Communicative competence includes
not only grammatical competence,
but pragmatic competence in an
interactive way

31. Communicative Competence
Grammatical Competence
-The ability to recognize the lexical,
morphological, syntactic and phonological
features of a language not by stating the rule
but by using the rule.

32. Discourse Competence
-Bottom-up processing- Identification of
isolated words helps understand the whole
-Top-down processing – Understanding the
theme or topic helps understand the whole
-Coherence
-Cohesion

33. Socio-cultural competence or
Cultural awareness
- Understanding of social context in which language
is used
- The roles of the participants
- The information they share
- The function of the interaction

34. Strategic Competence
- Communicative competence is relative
- Coping is needed

35. ?
Question is…
?
? ?
?
How do we as teachers can facilitate
Communicative Language Teaching?