Communicative Language Teaching and Its Implication on English as a Second Language

Citation: Halima Abu DABBAN & Abubakar Mohammed SANI, PhD (2021). Communicative Language Teaching and Its Implication on English as a Second Language. Yobe Journal of Language, Literature and Culture (YOJOLLAC), Vol. 9, Issue 1. Department of African Languages and Linguistics, Yobe State University, Damaturu, Nigeria. ISSN 2449-0660

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING AND ITS IMPLICATION ON ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

By

Halima Abu DABBAN
Abubakar Mohammed SANI, PhD

Abstract

English in Nigeria is taught and learnt as a second language and the aim of teaching and learning English is for communicative competence. Thus, this paper examines the communicative language approach to English teaching and learning, for it is an approach that aims to make communicative competence the goal of language learning. More so, the paper identified principles and classroom implication of using communicative language learning. Constraints to its implication amongst which are the nature of our examination, large classes, level of teachers’ comprehension of the method were clearly discussed. The immerse importance of English language in Nigeria educational process is widely recognized by all and so it among the recommendations that teachers’ proper pedagogical training, large classes and nature of our examination in secondary schools need urgent attention. In order to ensure the ultimate achievement of our educational goal.

Keywords: Language, Second Language, English Language, Communicative Language Teaching.

1.0 Introduction

Language is generally a means of communication for result-oriented purposes. Language evolves round our mental life, our perceiving, our remembering, our attending, our comprehending, our thinking, and our attempt to make sense of our experiences in the world. Language therefore functions as a communicative tool in human communications which are said to be social units.

Language and education are intertwined; knowledge is imparted through language. And language education was borne out of the second language learning and teaching aspects of linguistics, in a bid to teach or learn a language, usually a second or foreign language (Ashituabe, 2012). The second language in Nigeria is English. English language in addition to our mother tongue is used at all levels of human communication in Nigeria. According to National Policy Education (2004), English language is to be learnt as second language (L2) because of its functionality in a multi-ethnic nation like Nigeria. Politically, socially and economically English language is the medium of communication and it is the medium of instruction as far as education is concerned in Nigeria.

The role of English language in our educational system makes it necessary to aim at a high standard in the direction of teaching and learning it. For the students need to demonstrate a good level of communicative competence in both written and spoken English before being certificated for academic success from secondary school and then upward transition to the tertiary institution. This implies that English language teaching should be concerned with the knowledge, abilities, and skills which learners need to possess so as to use language appropriately in real communication situations. And so, the best approach to teaching English is of utmost importance. And as pointed out by Nguyen (2014), there is no point in providing well prepared lesson plans if students do not learn from them. In line with the above, this paper discusses communicative language teaching as an approach to practical teaching of English Language geared towards helping learners achieve good communicative competence.

2.0 Review of Previous Studies

 Studies have been carried out by researchers to find out the impact of the CLT method on the students’ learning of English language, teaching of different aspects of English language using CLT attitude of teachers to CLT and challenges to its implementation in the classroom. Within the same perspective, the studies and the current study focus on the importance of CLT to English language learning and teaching. But this paper differs in the sense that, it focuses on the impact of CLT to teaching and learning of English language as a second language and the challenges to its implementation in classroom practices.

 The CLT method would have potential usage. Bal (2006) study five different Turkish public schools on actual classroom practices and attitudes towards CLT. In his findings, he observes that though teachers are aware of CLT and hold positive attitudes towards CLT, but they do not actually use it in their classroom. More so, teachers’ lack of practical knowledge, grammar based syllabuses and large classroom were identified to be factors preventing teachers from implementing CLT in Turkey.

 Another research on CLT and its implementation is that of Lewis and McCook (2002) in Karim (2004). The research reveals that Vietnamese teachers tried to apply new ideas of CLT but also used the traditional norms and value in their educational system which indicates that they could not avoid local educational theories totally despite their willingness to implement CLT. In line with this study, Karavas-Donkas’s (1996) reveals that some English language teacher in Greek hold favorable attitude towards CLT but the classroom practices differed significantly. The teachers seem to be more comfortable with the combination of traditional and communicative approach.

 Fahim and Hastroode (2012) as cited in Uzoma and Ibrahim (2018) in their work investigate the effect of CLT method in the development and writing of argumentative essay by Iranian students. They divided their respondents into two; experimental and control groups. They exposed the experimental group to communicative approach while the control group to other conventional method. The group exposed to CLT performed excellently than the other group.

Similarly, Uzoma and Ibrahim (2018) findings from the study in Sokoto revealed that the group taught narrative essay using CLT performed significantly better than students taught using Audio-Lingual Method (ALM). This finding is in line with Ajiboye’s (2007) research on teaching informal letter writing using CLT. He mentioned that the group taught with CLT displayed a high level of an improved performance compared to the group taught with conventional method.

In sum, these studies are based on experimental approach and draw on the conclusion that CLT has very positive impact on teaching and learning of English language. This current work is different in the sense that it is a position paper. However, it equally focuses on the potentials of CLT to classroom practices as well as challenges to its implementation. And so, the perspective of the paper is clearly the same with the reviewed works in terms of communicative language teaching and its implication to English language learning.

3.0 Teaching English as a Second Language in Nigeria

Language acquisition is the process by which human acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate. Second language is another language learnt after having the basics of a first language. Contemporary linguists use the term L1 to refer to a first or native language and the term L2 to refer to a second language or a foreign language that is being studied (Richard, 2020). Similarly, Enamul (2017) posits that second language is any other language learnt or acquired after the mother tongue or first language acquisition. The second language is said to be learnt because the exposure to language is structured through language teaching. The second language is said to be learnt because the exposure to language is structured through language teaching.

In Nigeria, the objectives of teaching English as a second language are:

§ to provide students with sound linguistics basis for further learning in tertiary and vocational institutions;

§ to equip school learners with a satisfactory level of proficiency in English language usage, in their place of work;

§ to stimulate the love for reading;

§ to promote the art of spoken English as a medium for national and international communication;

§ to enhance and develop further the various skills and competence already acquired (Adegoke, 1981).

These objectives as identified by Adegoke (1981) means that the teaching and learning of English should be in terms of developing both the linguistic and the communicative competence of learners involving the use of language for various kinds of social interactions. What comes to mind as an approach to adopt for an overall achievement of these objectives is the communicative language teaching approach. The communicative approach as posited by Maisamari (1999) has been advocated by linguists such as Littlewood, Brumfit, Widdowson, and Williams as a result of the realization that students in developing countries who have been exposed to several years of formal English teaching remain deficient in the actual use of the language.

4.0 Communicative Language Teaching CLT

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of second or foreign language. It is an approach of systematically applying the processes, strategies and principles of communication to language teaching and learning. It emphasizes developing communicative competence skills for communicating generally. In other words, its goal is to make use of real life situations that necessitate communication.

As it is assumed that using a language is the most effective way to learn it. Similarly, the framework of communicative approach is based on this idea; learning a language successfully comes from communicating “real” meaning. Thus, learners are involved in real communication; work together to negotiate meaning in order to accomplish a given communicative task. In this context, learning activities ought to be practical, meaningful and the activities are expected to challenge learners to think freely and increase their competence. Meanwhile, enjoyable tasks that can help language learning are encouraged. For communicative approach recommends teaching through enjoyable activities.

From the above discussion, fundamentally, communicative language teaching emphasizes communicating using the target language; task-based activities within meaningful context and the integration of all language skills for effective communication. In addition, a key guiding principle of this approach is that method or technique of teaching should be less important than the learning goal of being able to use the language effectively.

4.1 Classroom Implication of CLT

The communicative use of language in the classroom is essentially an integrative process. The various skills and aspects of language are interrelated; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. What is required is the opening up of all possible lines of communication in the classroom for the learner. This will enable learners try from the very beginning not to only understand messages produced by other speakers but also to produce their own utterances in the second language, expressing their own ideas and meaning (Marton, 1988).

As Richards and Rodgers (2001) explain, communicative learning activities are those which promote learning through communication itself. CLT enhances the skills of listening and speaking because they form a base to the acquisition of the other two skills of reading and writing. The listening and speaking skills are enhanced through interactive tasks such as role-play, public speaking, impromptu speech, dictation, debates, listening comprehension among others.

A classroom during a communicative activity is not quiet. The students do most of the speaking and frequently the scene of a classroom during the exercise is active (Anusu, Barasa and Omulando, 2014). They went on to explain that the language teachers’ needs to ensure the appropriate opportunities are provided for learners to develop the skills. They recommended that reciting poem, telling stories, dramatizing, listening to good models of the language can facilitate the acquisition of these two skills in a meaningful context. As the learners perform most of the tasks, the teacher becomes facilitator of his students learning.

In this case, the language teacher serves mainly as a facilitator, designing activities that are geared towards communication and monitoring pupils progress, as well as stepping in when necessary, when errors occur, the teacher may note them without comment so as not to disrupt the flow of the activity, instead addressing the issue of difficulties at a later time (Larsen-Freeman and Anderson, 2011).

Within the framework of a communicative approach, the students are obviously the focal point of classroom activity. While in traditional language classroom, the instructor is generally the dominant figure and the pupils assume a passive role as they receive direct instruction. This implies most of the lesson is spent by the teacher talking, asking questions, demonstrating while the learner is passive and answer questions only when asked to. The teacher as the facilitator, the observer and need analyst under CLT approach is expected to provide learners with ample opportunities to speak English. For indeed, the highest goal of learning English is for the learners to speak accurately, fluently, confidently and appropriately in a variety of contexts.

Based on the above, Brown (2007) also confirmed that communicative competence is the goal of language classrooms and can be achieved by constant and extensive language use as emphasized by CLT. Equally confirmed when engaged in CLT activities is the ultimate successful language learning experience are created through interactive and meaningful communication. Littlewood (1981) summarized contributions of CLT activities as providing learners with whole-task practices, structured to suit learners’ level of ability and help maintain and enhance learning motivation. It should be noted that CLT activities allow natural learning.

4.2 Principles of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

The teacher’s role in a communicative class is very important. He plans the communicative tasks for the students with the objective of providing them a rich language environment (Bedabur, 2020). The following are some of the principles of CLT:

§ Meaning is given prime importance: the main focus is to make the learners learn to communicate within a meaningful context. Authentic materials such as pictures, posters, wrappers, labels, advertisement will help the students to connect with things they already know.

§ Communicative functions are more important than linguistic structure. The learner needs to know the communication functions of the structures and not the rules of their formation.

§ The target language is used in the classroom. The focus is to make the learner able to communicate in the target language.

§ Language should be taught integrating all language skills and not by only one. Listening and speaking, reading and writing should be enforced into the selected activities for the learners.

§ Priority is given to providing diverse, interesting and abundant communicative activities: games, problem solving, tasks and role play.

§ Finally, in using CLT, learner-centred activities (where the learners manage their own learning and are motivated leaving the teacher as a facilitator) is emphasized.

4.3 Challenges to the Implementation of CLT

Nature of examination in Nigeria does not encourage aspects of CLT such as dialogue, role-play, debate, impromptu speech and others. This is because in exam questions on such areas are neglected; and most times exams are conducted within limited time frame. In the context of Keyan, the teaching of language is examination based, the teacher still dominates the teaching process while the students remain passive. More so, learning interest of learners were not taken into account (Amusu, Barasa and Omulando, 2014). Likewise, in Nigerian context, a study conducted by Igbenyi (1988) in Benin City to find out the effect of CLT method on the achievement of secondary school students in English reading comprehension. The study revealed that CLT method was more effective than the traditional method in the teaching of reading comprehension.

And according to Mehtab (2012) grammar translation method posts a barrier to implementing communicative approach. He went on to say most of the teachers in Bangladesh were trained using Grammar Translation Method (GTM). Another problem identified is the issue of motivation, if teachers are to motivate students; they equally need to be motivated. In addition, teachers’ workload, large classes, students’ interest to learn as well as provision of authentic learning and teaching materials are all factors to consider when we talk about barriers to implementation of CLT.

In relation to Nigeria context, the above mentioned challenges are not far-fetched in our schools especially in language teaching classes. Our teaching and learning is tied to the nature of our examinations. Most language teachers lay emphasis on grammar neglecting other aspects of English language especially oral English (Olaoye, 2007). Another clear issue is that Nigerian schools have been into traditional method of teaching English language and the language is only studied for the purpose of obtaining good grades in class and not to interact and acquire the language skills (Onotere, 2008).

Similarly, a review of Li’s (1998) survey of constraints to CLT in Korea is summed up under teacher, student, educational system and CLT itself. For the teacher, it is a case of deficiency in spoken English, low strategic competence, misconceptions about CLT, and insufficient time. For the student, low English proficiency and motivation to advance communicative competence. The educational system constraints include, large class size, grammar-based examinations, insufficient funding etc. and CLT per se is a case of lack of effective and efficient assessment instruments. 

5.0 Conclusion

The communicative language teaching approach is one of the best approaches that can be used to address the challenges faced by students in terms of learning English and the teaching by teachers in Nigerian schools. This is because its focus is on communicative competence which requires knowledge of the rules of the language and proper usage. It makes the learning experience learner-centered, rather than being teacher-centered, which makes for easy learning of ideas or concepts.

However, the approach is faced with a lot of challenges. Teachers of English language exhibit non-challant attitude towards the approach and fail to carry out CLT-based activities because they prefer the traditional method of teaching. In addition, the class size, nature of our examination and students background (low level of proficiency and interest in English) are also constraints to the implementation of CLT in our schools.

English language teachers have to be aware of the importance of applying CLT to classroom practices and do their best to motivate the learners to participate in the classroom interactive activities. The communicative approach to language teaching is a good option in our bid to improve teaching of English as a second language, if the teacher has access to various activities and ideas to facilitate instruction and promote effective communication among learners.

6.0 Recommendations

i. The government should ensure a well-structured CLT training programme for the teachers of English at both primary and secondary level. This will enable them have a clear idea about CLT theory and practices.

ii. The government and school authorities need to provide teachers with proper materials related to CLT that will guide the students and increase communicative task.

iii. Smaller class sizes are encouraged. If that is not possible, teachers should be encouraged to implement certain strategies to encourage group work and cooperative based activities. Teachers need also to manage large groups properly.

iv. Another problem has to do with teaching English. The teaching periods need to be reviewed. English needs to be given extra care. It needs to be well planned and effectively taught if the students are to communicate in the language, teachers and students should do their best to ensure successful learning process.

v. As some teachers are overloaded, their work-load should be reduced. To do that, authorities concerned should recruit more teachers. Teachers, especially for English do not get enough time to prepare authentic lessons or try new innovative tasks. So they settle for the traditional method such as GTM.

vi. Another problem is that teachers are not paid accordingly and most time not as at when due. For this reason, they will not show any interest to spend extra time for thinking about the classes of the schools they teach in or explore the needed pedagogy. The school authorities should take proper measures regarding this fact. If this problem is not handled, then youngsters will lack interest and motivation to start their career as a teacher. This will eventually affect the quality and quantity of people who come into the profession.

vii. Examination and assessment system must have to be changed. Too much importance is be given to grammar which is not the only aspect of English language. More so, different types of assessment should be introduced by teachers for productive learning. So, examinations should be designed in ways which will make the students think creatively and will also assess the listening and speaking skills of the students.

viii. Lastly, it is recommended that more training and retraining of teachers is needed. Though some teachers have been trained on CLT and development skills but they do not have the scope to use that in the real situation. Some lack the guidance to use it in real situation. So if the teachers are given some practical demonstration on how they will teach students using CLT methods then it will help in their actual profession. There is also a need of teachers to be supervised whether they are implementing the learning of the trainings in their classes or not.

References

Adegoke, A. (1981). Curriculum theory and disciplines. Jas Publishers

Ajiboye, A.T. (2007). Comparative study on the effects of two methods of teaching narrative skills in the upper level primary school in Oyo State. Journal of Language Teaching and Research. 3(4) 567 - 589

Anusa, O.M., Baras, P.L. and Omulando, C.A. (2014). Teacher’s role in the application of communicative language approach in teaching listening and speaking in schools in Logari District, Kenya. Journal of Research and Method in Education. 4(5): 04 – 20

Ankitaben, A.D. (2015). Characteristics and principles of communicative language teaching. International Journal of Research in Human and Social Sciences. 3(7)

Ashituabe, J.L. (2012). Language and language education in Nigeria. Journal of Education. 1(1) 8 – 14.

Bal, S.M. (2006). Teachers’ perceptions of communicative language teaching (CLT) in Turkish EFL setting: Theory vs practices. [M.A. thesis], Cukurova University, Adana.

Bedadur, N. (2020). Authentic materials and communicative approach to language teaching. http://www.teachersofindia.org/content/authentic_material_and_communi- cative approach_to_language_teaching

Brown, H.D. (2007). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. Pearson Education, Inc.

Enamul, H. (2017). An introduction to the second language acquisition. Bangladesh.

Federal Republic of Nigeria, FRN (2004). National Policy on Education. FRN

Igbenyi, A. (2007). “The relevance of linguistic theories to the teaching of English; using the communicative approach”. T.Y. Obah, E.J. Otagbumage, and Chris, A. (eds). Nigerian Journal of Contemporary Language and Communication Studies. 3(1 and 2): 23 – 28.

Karim, K. (2004). Teachers’ perceptions, attitudes and expectations about communicative language teaching (CLT) in post-secondary education in Bangladesh. [MA thesis], University of Victoria.

Keravas-Doukas, E. (1996). Using attitude scales to investigate teachers’ attitudes to the communicative approach. English Language Teacher Journal 50(3): 187 - 198

Larsen-freeman, D. and Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in language teaching. Oxford University Press.

Li, D. (1998). It’s always more difficult than you plan and imagine. Teacher’s perceived difficulties in introducing the communicative approach in South Korea. TESOL 32 (4) 667 – 753.

Littlewood, W. (2000). Communicative language teaching: An introduction. Cambridge University Press.

Littlewood, W. (2002). Foreign and second language learning. Cambridge University.

Maisamari, A.M. (1999). The teaching of the use of English in tertiary institution: The approach of English for specific purposes. Tamaza Publishing.

Marton, W. (1988). Methods in English language teaching: Frameworks and options. Prentice-Hall.

Mehtab, S. (2012). Difficulties and challenges in implementing CLT in Bangladesh. [M. A Thesis].

Nguyen. H. T. (2014). Factors affecting English language teaching and learning in higher education. English Language Teaching; 7(8).

Olaoye, A.A. (2007). Introduction to sociolinguistics. Ogunleye Publishing and Printing Press.

Onotere, A.C. (2008). Towards promoting the use of spoken English in Nigeria. Primary and post primary education system. Journal of Qualitative Education. 4(2), 101

Richard, N. (2020). What is a second language? https://www.thoughts.com

Richards, J.C. and Rogers, T.S. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge University Press.

Uzoma, B.N. and Ibrahim, M. (2018). Effects of communicative language teaching approach on students’ performance in narrative essay and informal letter writing among senior secondary schools in Sokoto State, Nigeria. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) 2(3): 184 – 190.

Wikipedia Encyclopedia (2012). Second-language acquisition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ second_language_acquisition

Williams, D. (1990). English language teaching: An integrated approach. Spectrum.