The document summarizes key aspects of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), including its underlying principles, roles of teachers and learners, characteristics of the teaching/learning process, types of interaction, views on language and culture, emphasized language skills, role of students' first language, evaluation approaches, differences from the Audio-Lingual Method, examples of materials and techniques, and models of syllabuses related to CLT. Specifically, it notes that CLT focuses on developing communicative competence, views language as a means for communication, emphasizes purposeful exchange of information between teacher and students and among students, and evaluates students' accuracy and fluency through both formal and informal assessments.

1. Practice II (2014) CAMILA ROLDÁN
Quiz on Communicative Language Teaching
1) Summarize the Principles that underlie CLT.
2) What are teachers’ roles and learners’ roles in CLT?
3) What are the characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
4) What kinds of interaction are there?
5) How are language and culture viewed?
6) What language skills are emphasized?
7) What is the role of students’ L1?
8) How is evaluation carried out? How do teachers respond to students’ errors?
9) Summarize 10 (ten) main differences between Audio-lingual Method and CLT.
10)What sort of materials/ techniques and activities can be used in CLT?
11)What models for syllabuses stemmed out from CLT?
1
Principles Description
Use of authentic language
Language as it is used in a real context should be
introduced.
Promote communicative
competence
This is done through the use of authentic materials and
the encouragement to develop strategies such as
understand the speaker’s/writer’s intention.
Instrumental use of target
language
The target language is used to communicate. So, it is not
seen as something to acquire at the end of the road;

2. Practice II (2014) CAMILA ROLDÁN
because it is during the journey that students learn.
Emphasis on the process of
communication
One function may be realized through several linguistic
forms and vice versa.
Language at Discourse level
Students learn about cohesion and coherence to
understand texts.
Purposeful language
exchange
Exchanges in real life happen because of a need to
communicate something, this is the best way to teach
students i.e. their communication has a clear goal or
purpose.
Foster critical thinking Encourage students to express their opinions and views.
Error tolerance Considered as a natural outcome of the development of
communication skills.
Teacher as facilitator and
advisor
Responsible to establish situations likely to promote
communication
Cooperative work &
relationships
Communicative interaction gives students opportunities
to negotiate meaning.
Relevance of context & use of
appropriate language forms
The social context of the communicative event is of
paramount importance in giving meaning to the
utterances. It also narrows the linguistic options which
are appropriate for the situation.
Freedom to use language Students are able to choose what to say and how to say
it.
Grammar & Vocabulary They succeed the function, situational context and roles
of the interlocutors.
2 The teacher facilitates communication in the classroom. His major responsibility is
to establish situations likely to promote communication. He acts as an adviser, when
students are solving activities, by supplying items of vocabulary and answering their
questions. He does not jump on errors but rather lets students continue talking to foster

3. Practice II (2014) CAMILA ROLDÁN
their communicative development. He also may be a co-communicator when he engages
in the activities along with the students.
Students are communicators who actively interact with each other and negotiate
meaning. They try to deliver their message as clear as possible and to understand their
interlocutor’s responses as well. In CLT, students are more responsible of their own
learning process as the teacher’s role is less dominant.
3 In Communicative Language Teaching almost everything is done with a
communicative intent. In this way, students are involved in different activities that
require from them to use the language for a clear purpose. Activities are truly
communicative have three features in common:
· Information gap: one person in the exchange possesses information or knows
something the other person does not.
· Choice: interlocutors have freedom in choosing form and content to deliver their
intended message.
· Feedback: as communication is purposeful, speakers can evaluate if they have
achieved their purpose by what their listeners respond. Without this feedback, we
would not be able to know to what extent our message has been understood.
Another characteristic of CLT is the use of authentic materials which allow students to
develop strategies to understand and to deal with language in real situations i.e. they
learn how to cope with similar situations in their lives.
One last characteristic of CLT is that students are encouraged to interact in small
groups which maximizes the time allotted to each student for communicating and reduces
levels of anxiety.

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4 There are two types of interaction: between teacher and students and among the
students themselves. The teacher may present part of the lesson acting as a facilitator of
the activities or as a co-communicator. Most of the time, teacher’s role is to prompt
meaningful communication among the students. On the other hand, students interact a
lot with one another through pair work, triads, small groups and whole group.
5 Language is viewed as a means for communication. Learners need the knowledge
not only of the linguistic forms but also of the different meanings and functions. Being
aware that one linguistic form may fulfill several functions and vice versa helps students to
accommodate the language appropriately to what they want to say. Moreover, the
context of situation and the context of culture influence our message; both its content
and its form.
6 Students work on all four skills. The emphasis is made on the understanding of
meaning and negotiations; students work with texts (written or oral) at suprasentential or
discourse level. They recognize cohesion devices and that the lack of them may hinder the
interpretation of the reader/listener. Besides, students are made aware of the fact that
meanings do not reside in the text but rather that they arise through the interpersonal
negotiation between speaker/ listener (immediate feedback) or writer/reader (delayed
feedback).
7 Judicious use of the students’ native language is allowed in CLT. However, most of
the time the target language should be used, whether it is to present information, to give
instructions, to clarify or explain and to give homework. In this way, students are

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embedded in the language and learn that language is a vehicle for communication as well
as the object of study.
8 Teachers evaluate both accuracy and fluency. They are measured during class,
while students interact through different activities, or with a more traditional/ formal
written test in which students have to write a letter, e-mail or a small piece of text with a
clear communicative purpose.
Errors of form are highly tolerated during fluency based activities and they are
seen as a natural outcome of the development of communication skills. Students can have
limited linguistic knowledge and still be successful communicators.
9
Communicative Language
Teaching
Audio-Lingual Method
Goals
To enable students to
communicate in the target
language.
To use the target language
communicatively. Students need
to overlearn the target
language.
Teacher’s role
Teacher as a facilitator
(establish situations likely to
promote communication) and
adviser (during the activities).
Co-communicator.
‘ Orchestra leader’: directs and
controls students’ behavior in
the target language. Models:
they provide the example which
students have to imitate.
Students’ role
Students are communicators
and more responsible of their
own learning.
Imitators of the teacher or
tapes. They follow the teacher’s
instructions.
Teaching / learning Everything done with Vocabulary, structural patterns

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process
communicative purpose.
Information gap is necessary.
Freedom of content and form
and possibility of feedback to
check if purpose was achieved.
& culture in dialogues and drills.
These are learned through
repetition. Successful responses
are reinforced. Grammar is
induced from examples.
Interaction
Teacher presents, facilitates,
and is sometimes a co-communicator.
Students
interact in pairs, triads, small
groups or whole group.
Mostly teacher directed.
Student-student interaction
when practicing dialogs.
Feelings Motivation is enhanced through
the use of language with a clear
communicative purpose.
No principle relates to this area.
Areas of language Language functions emphasized
over forms. From simpler to
complex forms. Work at
discourse level.
Vocabulary is kept to a
minimum while students master
grammatical patterns.
Language skills Four skills are practised. Oral skills are emphasized.
Students’ L1 Judicious use of L1 is permitted. It interferes with the students’
attempts to master the target
language.
Evaluation Teacher evaluates students’
accuracy and also their fluency.
Assessing both formally and
informally.
Discrete-point in nature.
Focus on accuracy /form.
Errors Mistakes are a natural outcome
of the students’ development
Mistakes lead to the formation
of bad habits. They are
immediately corrected and they
need to be prevented, if
possible.

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10 Appropriate materials to use in CLT are the following: scrambled sentences,
language games, picture strip stories, role plays, and also authentic materials such as
newspapers, magazines, TV programmes, realia.
11 One model of syllabus that stemmed out from CLT was the Notional syllabus
(Wilkins 1976).