INTRODUCTION

An endless variety of methods and approaches have been devised in the search for the best way of teaching a
foreign language. In fact, one of the main characteristics of contemporary FLT is the proliferation of teaching
methods.
Each method is based on a particular view of language learning and learning and usually describes the syllabus
model, the aims, the roles of teachers and learners and the materials used.
Today, FLT has incorporated into its objectives and procedures the functional and communicative potential
of language. FLT now focuses on communicative proficiency rather than on the mastery of structures. Scholars
who advocate this view developed the concept of the students’ communicative competence. This goal refers
to the social dimension of language, and implies the ability to use language.
Current language teaching has also been influenced by theories on L2 acquisition. The most influential view
was propounded by Krashen. He developed a method called The Natural Approach, emphasizing the primacy
of meaning in language.
These two approaches – the Communicative Approach and The Natural Approach – emphasize the importance
of meaning, as well as considering another element in language learning: humanistic factors. In this unit we
will look at the Communicative and Natural Approaches in depth. Their principles have been incorporated in
our current Educational System in Spain. We will also have a look at different techniques that focus on the
acquisition of communicative competence.
In the second part of this unit we will establish specific methodological foundations that can be useful
guidelines for teachers.
1 METHODS THAT FOCUS ON THE ACQUISITION OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
In order to teach a foreign language, new methods and approaches have been devised. During the 1970s, there
was a strong reaction against methods that stressed the teaching of grammatical forms and did not pay attention
to the way language is used in everyday situations. There was a great concern about teaching a foreign
language in a communicative way.
The American linguist Edward Anthony proposed a clarifying scheme in 1963 in which he identified three
levels of conceptualization and organization:
a) Approach. Approach is a set of correlative assumptions that deal with the nature of language and its
teaching. Therefore, it is formed by a theory of language and a theory of language learning.
b) Method. A method is a procedural. It is a global plan for the presentation of language material. This
presentation is based on the theoretical approach selected. Even though a method cannot contradict its
approach, it is possible to have more than one method within a certain approach.
c) Technique. Techniques are what really occurs in the classroom. They are consistent with a method and
therefore with an approach as well. They are explicit procedures used to accomplish a particular
learning objective or set of objectives.
Apart from this distinction, I will point out a model presented by Richards and Rodgers. They see that method
is theoretically related to an approach, organizationally determined by a design, and is practically realized in
a procedure. Thus, Richards and Rogers’ model identifies the following levels:
a) Approach. Similar to Anthony’s model.
b) Design. At this level, objectives, syllabus and content are determined. Moreover, the roles of the
teacher, learners and materials are specified.
c) Procedures. Similar to Anthony’s model.
Now that these two models have been considered, I will focus on the concepts of approach, design and
procedure. As far as approach is concerned, it is necessary to say that it refers to theories about the nature of
language and language learning both being used as the source of practices and principles in language teaching.
Design is the level of method analysis where the objectives, the syllabus, the types of learning tasks, the roles
of learners and teachers, and the roles of instructional materials are considered. Procedure consists of the
techniques, practices and behaviours that operate in the real teaching situation according to a particular
method.
1.1 THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
Background
The Communicative Approach was born in the 1970s as a reaction to the Audiolingual Method, which paid
more attention to structure than to its function. Noam Chomsky was partly responsible for these changes.
Chomsky rejected the structuralist approach to language description and the behaviourist ideas on language
learning. He said “language is not a habit structure. Ordinary linguistic behaviour characteristically involves
innovation, formation of new sentences and patterns in accordance with rules of great abstractness and
intricacy”. What struck Chomsky about language was its creativity, the capacity to generate completely novel
sentences endlessly.
He proposed a theory of language-learning that was an alternative to behaviourism. Chomsky argued that
sentences aren’t learnt by imitation and repetition but generated from the learners’ competence. Learners
should be encouraged to use their innate and creative abilities.
British applied linguists emphasized another fundamental dimension of language: its functional and
communicative potential. They saw language learning as the learning of communicative proficiency rather
than the mastery of structures. Scholar who advocated this view of language drew on the work of British
functional (Halliday), American sociolinguists (Hymes), as well as on works on philosophy. The work of these
scholars, together with the writing of the British linguist Wilkins in the 1970s, had a significant impact on the
development of a communicative approach to language teaching.
The Council of Europe incorporated a communicative view into a set of specifications for a First Level
Communicative Language Syllabus, called the Threshold Level. These threshold level specifications have had
a strong influence on the design of communicative language programmes and textbooks in Europe.
Theory of language
The Communicative Approach has been influenced by three linguistic theories:
1. Generative grammar: this theory arose from Chomsky’s generative ideas about language. Learners are
considered to be the agents of their own language competence. They possess the ability to produce
grammatically correct sentences. However, for Chomsky, competence simply implied the knowledge
of the language system, and didn’t include the social or communicative dimension.
2. Functional grammar: Halliday conceived a powerful theory about the functions of language. He drew
attention towards the importance of the world and our relationship with it in the formation of the
linguistic system. He saw language as a social and cultural phenomenon, whereas Chomsky saw it as
something biological. The problem of previous linguistic approaches was that they didn’t incorporate
meaning into their account of language.
3. Communicative competence: Hymes established a new concept on language theory that complemented
Halliday’s functional view: communicative competence. It’s defined as what a speaker needs to know
in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community. Hymes coined this term in contrast
with Chomsky’s theory of competence. Hymes maintained that Chomsky’s theory was incomplete,
and that a communicative and cultural dimension should be incorporated. A speaker doesn’t only need
the ability to use grammatical structures, but also to learn how to use those structures in a community.
Canale and Swain (1980) were two linguists who expanded the previous description of Hymes’, establishing
four dimensions of the communicative competence (subcompetences).
 1. Grammatical competence. This refers to the correct use of the linguistic code, i.e. the mastery of
grammatical structures, vocabulary and pronunciation.
2. Discursive competence. The ability to relate and combine grammatical forms, in order to achieve
coherent texts.
3. Sociolinguistic competence. The ability to produce and understand messages relating to social context,
participants and purpose; in other words, the appropriate use of language.
4. Strategic competence. It refers to participants’ verbal and non-verbal strategies: beginning,
maintaining or finishing a chunk of communication, avoiding ruptures in the transmission of the
message. These are the procedures which are necessary for communication to be effective.
These four skills are complemented by socio-cultural competence, which implies the knowledge of certain
cultural facts which are of key importance for us to understand a message completely.
Theory of learning
Teaching method relate to how learners acquire a language. These are the learning principles of the
Communicative Approach:
1. The communication principle: activities that involve real communication promote learning. When
students make an effort to communicate, they develop communication strategies that will help them
learn.
2. The task principle: meaningful tasks promote learning. During meaningful communication tasks,
learners acquire language subconsciously.
3. The meaningfulness principle: language that is meaningful to the learner encourages learning.
Learning activities must be selected, therefore, according to how well they involve the learner in meaningful
language use, rather than mechanical practice of language structures.
The syllabus
All methods involve decisions on the selection of language items. The first decision is the selection of the
items that are to be included in the course materials. The second is the organization of these items into the best
possible order. The final arrangements is the syllabus.
The Communicative Approach is based on a functional-notional syllabus. It means that the items of a language
are organized according to the functions and notions that learners need to communicate in the language. This
syllabus is usually contrasted with the structural syllabus, consisting on the arrangement of grammatical,
phonological and lexical items.
David Wilkins was the originator of the functional-notional syllabus. In his book Notional Syllabus he
described the process of designing such a syllabus. The Council of Europe expanded Wilkins’ ideas and
developed a syllabus, which was published as Threshold Level English, a set of specifications of what was
needed to achieve a reasonable degree of communicative proficiency in a foreign language. This syllabus has
had considerable influence on the design of methods and textbooks in Europe.
A functional-notional syllabus has a strong situational element. Functions have to be presented contextualized
in situations. The Threshold Level English includes all these elements:
1. Functions
a. Giving and receiving information.
b. Expressing attitudes.
c. Social conventions.
2. Situations
3. Notions
4. Topics
a. Personal identification
 b. Life at home
c. Education
d. Free time
e. Food and drinks
Activities
Communicative activities refer to tasks and exercises that the student carries out for real communication.
These activities focus more on the message than on the linguistic features of language. Children learn how to
speak without knowing anything about verbs, adjectives or verbal tenses.
The Communicative Approach believes that the practice of communicative activities will produce an
unconscious learning of the structures of the language. A communicative activity must be:

 Interactive. Two or more people are involved in the communicative interaction.

 Unpredictable. A student has to seek the information his/her partner has. This will create the necessity
and the desire to communicate.
 Within a context. This refers to the situational context (place, channel) as well as to the linguistic
context (cohesion in linguistic forms and vocabulary).
 Authentic. The language used should be genuine, that is to say, similar to an English-speaking
person’s.
 Developed within a relaxed atmosphere. If the student is under normal emotional conditions, the
learning will be more effective.
Teacher and learner roles
1. Teacher’s roles: the teacher’s roles in different methods are related to the following aspects: a) the
function they are expected to fulfil; b) the degree of control they have over the learning process; c) the
type of interaction with learners.
a. Facilitator. The teacher facilitates the communication process between the students.
b. Participant. Teachers are independent participants within the group.
c. Monitor. The teacher monitors students’ performance.
2. Learner’s roles: the learners’ roles in the communicative approach also differ from traditional language
teaching. Learners were seen as stimulus-response mechanisms whose learning depended upon
repetitive practice.
a. The learner has a higher degree of involvement in his/her own learning process.
b. Learners’ opinions, feelings and motivation are taken into account.
c. Higher autonomy from the teacher. Children are encouraged to work independently.
Materials
In the Communicative Approach, materials are considered to promote communicative language use. Three
types of materials are set out within this approach:
1. Text-based materials. Textbooks.
2. Task-based materials. Communicative language teaching is based on task-based learning, which means
the students have to achieve something through the use of language: role-play, simulations, games,
exercise handbooks, activity cards, pair work activities…
3. Realia. Communicative language teaching advocates the use of authentic materials, such as signs,
magazines, songs, chants, videos, stories, advertisements, visual resources. The use of authentic
materials contributes to reducing the distance between the classroom and the real world.
Procedure
This refers to the technique, practice and behaviour used when teaching a language according to a particular
method, the way in which a method handles the presentation, practice and consolidation phases.
The aim in Communicative Language Teaching is the students’ communicative competence in the language.
The students have to learn the language with accuracy, fluency and appropriacy. Therefore, the teaching
procedures must aim at these basic elements.
Accuracy is achieved by controlled practice of grammatical patterns, so the student can gain confidence when
using the language. Fluency, however, is achieved in freer practice, where the students use language in an
autonomous way. Contextualization will help students with the notion of appropriacy. Language must be
presented and practiced in context.
The methodological procedures in Communicative Teaching classrooms follow a sequence of activities, which
can be seen in this outline of a lesson:
1. Presentation of a dialogue.
2. Oral practice of the dialogue presented.
3. Questions based on the dialogue.
4. Questions related to the students’ personal experiences, feelings, etc.
5. Learner discovery of rules or generalizations underlying the functional structure.
6. Oral recognition.
7. Oral production.
8. Copying the dialogue.
9. Written exercises.
10. Oral evaluation of learning.
This procedure can be summarized in three steps:
1. Presentation of the linguistic pattern in context.
2. Practice. Pre-communicative activities.
3. Production. Communicative activities.

1.2 THE NATURAL APPROACH

Background
In the 1970s, Stephen Krashen proposed an influential view on L2 learning. The term natural emphasizes that
the principles underlying the method conform to the principles of how children learn their L1. The Natural
Approach also grew out of Tracy Terrell’s experiences while teaching Spanish in California. Krashen and
Terrell joined forces and created a theoretical rationale for the Natural Approach.
They identified the Natural Approach with direct or natural methods, which are “based on the use of language
in a communicative situations without recourse to the native language”. This approach places importance on
comprehension rather than production. There is an emphasis on exposure or input rather than practice.
Theory of language
Communication is the primary function of language. Krashen and Terrell see the Natural Approach as an
example of a communicative approach. However, they pay little attention to a theory of language. For them,
the nature of language emphasizes the primacy of meaning. Language is seen as a vehicle for communicating
meaningful messages. They stated that “acquisition can take place only when people understand messages in
the target language”. However, the mastery of structures of a language is achieved in stages. For the students
to progress to the next stage, they need to understand input language that is part of that stage.
Theory of learning
Krashen and Terrell based their method on a learning theory rather than on a particular view of language.
Their theory and research is grounded on L2 acquisition. The emphasis on acquisition lead Krashen to propose
several hypotheses about learning a L2:
 1. Acquisition/learning hypothesis.it claims that there are two distinct ways of developing competence in
a L2. One is acquiring the language, which is natural and unconscious language development, parallel
to L1 acquisition. Learning, by contrast, refers to a process in which conscious rules about the language
are developed. Learning, according to this theory, cannot lead to acquisition. In other words,
consciously learnt rules never lead to acquire knowledge.
2. The monitor hypothesis. This is a device that learners use to edit their language performance. Learners
may use learnt knowledge to correct themselves when they communicate.
3. The input hypothesis. It states that acquisition takes place as a result of learners having understood
input that is a little beyond their level competence. Input is a term used to mean the language that
students hear or read. This input should contain language that pupils already know as well as language
they have not previously seen.
4. The natural order hypothesis. It claims that the acquisition of grammatical structures proceeds in a
predictable order. Research has shown the certain grammatical structures or morphemes are acquired
before others in L1 acquisition in English, and a similar natural order is found in L2 acquisition. Errors
are signs of the acquisition of the language and they resemble those made by children when learning
their mother tongue.
5. The affective filter hypothesis. Krashen sees the learner’s emotional state as a filter that passes or
blocks the input which is necessary for acquisition. A low affective filter is desirable, since it will not
block this input. The affective filter has to do with the learners’ motivation, self-confidence and levels
of anxiety.
The syllabus
The Natural Approach is designed to develop basic communication skills. The communication aims are
expressed around these areas: situations, functions and topics. This seems to derive from Threshold Level
specifications.
The syllabus will also depend on the students’ interests and needs. List of functions, topics and situations are
mere syllabus suggestions, not specifications.
Activities
The main goal of learning activities is to promote subconscious acquisition, rather than conscious learning.
Krashen and Terrell often recommended techniques and activities from other methods, which are adapted to
the principles of Natural Approach:

 Command-based activities
 Direct method activities
 Group work activities
 Situation-based practice activities
These familiar activities are used to focus on providing comprehensible input within a classroom atmosphere
that minimizes learner anxiety and increases the students’’ self-confidence.
Teacher and learner roles
1. Teacher’s roles: the teacher has these basic roles:
a. The teacher is the primary source of comprehensible input for acquiring the target language.
The teacher provides constant input while using non-linguistic clues for the students to
understand the message.
b. The teacher should create an interesting and friendly atmosphere, in which there is a low
affective filter for learning. There are several ways of achieving this: 1) we shouldn’t correct
students’ errors: 2) we should provide students with interesting subject matters; 3) we should
allow students to speak when they feel ready.
2. Learner’s roles: the learner’s roles change depending on their stage of linguistic development:
 a. In the pre-production stage, students take part in language activities without having to answer
in the target language. However, they are expected to respond to physical commands.
b. In the early-production stage, students’ speech consists of single words.
c. In the speech-emergent phase, students are engaged in role-play exercises and games to five
personal information and opinions.
Materials
The primary objective of materials in the Natural Approach is to promote comprehension and communication.
Materials help to understand the input and therefore help to acquire the language. Material in this approach
comes from realia rather than from textbooks.
Procedure
From the beginning of a class, emphasis will be placed upon presenting comprehensible input in the target
language. Learner are not required to speak until they feel ready, but they are expected to respond to commands
and questions made by the teacher. When learners are ready to talk, the teacher will provide simple response
opportunities to comprehension questions.
During the procedure the teacher will maintain a constant flow of comprehensible input, using pictures,
gestures, repetitions, paraphrasing, etc. to ensure the understanding of the input.
2 TECHNIQUES THAT FOCUS ON THE ACQUISITION OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
Many different methods have been devised in the search of the best way of teaching a foreign language. In
this section I will look at certain techniques used in FLT, which focus on the acquisition of communicative
competence. The techniques we are going to describe next will be used in the fluency practice stage, once the
students have practiced the structure. These techniques will encourage real communication between students.
By real communication we mean that there is a desire to communicate and a purpose or objective to achieve,
as in real life. Teachers will have to create the conditions for the students’ interaction, such as organizing pair
and group work techniques and designing communicative activities.
2.1 PAIR AND GROUP WORK
From a communicative point of view, the classroom is not the best place to learn a language. It has space and
time limitations that prevent real communicative to a real situation, this can be done through pair and group
work.
Pair and group work are important techniques to improve the students’ use of English and they are very useful
in large classes, where students have few opportunities to participate. These techniques involve the whole
class working separately, in pairs or small groups, at the same time. Using these activities in the practice and
production stages allows students to talk about their opinions, ideas and interests.

 Pair work. This interaction can be complicated at the beginning, pair work is a very good method to
practice in a lively way what has already been learnt. Pair work is usually used in the practice stage
and in a great number of activities, whether speaking, writing or reading. The main advantages are:
o More practice. If the students practice a linguistic form simultaneously, the time they spend
speaking is longer than if they had to speak one by one.
o It improves personal relationships. Relationships within partners improve with communicative
interaction: they get to know each other better, they can share their knowledge and they have
to opportunity to help each other.
o Similarity with real life. The situation of being face to face with a speaker is more similar to
real life than being asked by the teacher all the time.
o Increased self-confidence. Pair work increases self-confidence in the student because they are
not coerced by the teacher’s figure.
 Pair work also presents problems: more noise, loss of time during organization, impossibility of
correcting all couples, risk of them using their mother tongue, etc. –but, all in all, the advantages of
pair work outweigh the disadvantages.

 Group work. In group work there is three participant or more involved in an activity. This is ideal for
activities of freer production. In fact, fluency is developed with this type of grouping. There are many
reasons for using group work in the class:
o It increases the amount of time of student talking time.
o It gives students the sense of using the language communicatively.
o It increases self-confidence in the use of language.
o It is more dynamic than pair work, because there is a greater scope for discussion.
o Group work is potentially more relaxing than pair work, since the latter puts greater demand
on cooperating closely with only one person.
Of course, the problems that apply to pair work can equally be applied to group work. The solutions
depend mainly on the good organization and a confident and positive attitude towards these techniques.
One of the biggest problems with group work is the selection of group members. A teacher can form
groups where weak and strong students are mixed together.
2.2 TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE
This method was developed by James Asher, a professor of psychology in a California University. The name
comes from the emphasis placed on the actions that learners have to make. The method attempts to teach
language through physical activity.
Asher sees successful foreign language learning as a parallel process to child first-language acquisition. He
argues that children respond physically to adults’ commands before they produce verbal responses. Therefore,
second-language learners should imitate the first-language acquisition process.
The principles of this method are:
1. Comprehension abilities precede productive skills. Speaking is delayed until oral comprehension is
established.
2. Teaching should focus on meaning rather than form.
3. Teaching should reduce learner stress. The teacher must create a positive mood in the learner by
delaying oral production and by asking for game-like movements.
4. The verb in the imperative is the central linguistic form around which language learning is organized.

2.3 FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES

These activities in which students look for information (information-gap activities) or solve problems
(problem-solving activities). As we have already seen, these activities, along with the next type, are typical of
the Communicative Approach.

 Information-gap activities. In these activities there is some missing information the student must
discover.
 Information-gap games. Games create a friendly atmosphere in the classroom.
 Problem-solving activities. This type of activity is collaborative: students work together to find a
solution to a problem or task.

2.4 SOCIAL INTERACTION ACTIVITIES

These are activities in which the students’ social abilities are practiced. They help with the learning of
everyday language and encourage oral production.

 Dialogues. Students practice a model dialogue or an open dialogue.

  Role-play. Students pretend they are someone else in an imaginary situation.
2.5 HUMANISTIC ACTIVITIES
Another approach, which has gained importance in FLT, is concerned with the humanistic aspects of learning.
Teaching is not only teaching a language, but also helping learners to develop themselves as whole persons.
These beliefs have led to a number of methodologies and techniques. These techniques use the students’ lives,
feelings and opinions for interpersonal exchange. They are designed to create a positive atmosphere in the
classroom and to improve partner relationships. These activities are highly motivating and encourage real
communication. Examples of these activities:

 Describing personal experiences.

 Giving opinions.
 Discussions.
 Reaching-a-consensus activities.
 Cooperative writing.
 Exchanging letters.
 Writing to penfriends.

2.6 PROJECTS
Projects ensure communicative uses of spoken and written English. These techniques are prototypical
techniques in Communicative Language Teaching and in Task-Based approaches.
This technique can be adapted to all levels and abilities and is therefore very well-suited to large classes with
mixed-ability students. Next, we will point out the advantages of using project work in the English class:

 They help students develop good study skills.

 They give students opportunities for skill integration.
 They often link the classroom with the real world.
 They encourage social skills.
Projects have to be carefully planned, and the teacher’s role is crucial. He/she must present the project and
involve the students in it. Donn Byrne suggests the following procedure:

 Presentation and discussion

 Preliminary activities
 Main activities
 Processing of materials
 Production
At the presentation stage, the teacher introduces the topic by establishing a few main aspects. He/she can ask
the students questions, to see how much they know about the subject. Then the teacher can prepare preliminary
activities to increase the students’ interest in the topic.
Next, the teacher divides the students into groups and begins the main activities: interviewing, questionnaires,
discussion, reading, researching, and so on.
At the production stage, groups will have to agree on what their final product will look like; it has to include
text and illustration, and be as attractive as possible. Here are some examples of projects:

 An individual file with texts, pictures or magazine cuttings about the students’ favorite animals.
 A class magazine with articles, photos and pictures taken by students.
 A tourist guide with texts, maps and photos of the where students live.
  A presentation about traditions of English-speaking countries.
3 SPECIFIC METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
We have looked at techniques and procedures that will encourage communication skills. We will continue by
listing important methodological principles that influence the FLT context. These principles have influenced
the design of our current curriculum in Primary Education.
1. Language is an instrument of communication. Language is seen as a system of communicative acts,
not simply a system of structures and words. Learning a language, therefore, implies learning how to
communicate in it correctly, fluently and appropriately.
2. Communicative competence. The final goal in FLT is the students’ communicative competence. This
competence can be defined as a set of subcompetences:
3. Constructivism. Constructivism is probably the predominant learning theory, generally speaking.
Learners construct their own competence quite autonomously and independently. Therefore, the
teacher must help students “learn how to learn”.
4. Learner-centered curriculum. The students are considered the center of the teaching process.
Communicative situations must be based on their needs and interests, and the activities used in class
must be somehow related to their personal experiences. The connections between the new language
and the students’ experiences promote a more meaningful learning process, as well as increasing
motivation.
5. Contextualization. Traditionally, language items were presented in isolation, out of context. Current
curricular activities show language in a contextualized, more realistic and natural way. A specific
setting, the participants taking part in conversation, all have an important effect on what is said and
how it is said.
6. Cooperative learning. The students is not only supposed to learn from the teacher, but also from his/her
classmates. Activities such as pair and group work encourage collaborative work and socialization in
the classroom.
7. Comprehensible input. At early stages, the oral receptive skill (listening) is essential. The level of
difficulty must be slightly beyond the learner’s competence.
8. Silent period. Teachers should respect a learner’s natural silent period. They must not insist on the
pupils speaking all the time. Pupils must demonstrate a desire to communicate and feel ready for it.
9. Errors. Errors must be seen as something natural and logical, since they are positive evidence of the
learning process. The teacher must analyze errors and encourage the learner’s progress.
10. Pleasant classroom atmosphere. Learning cannot lead to genuine acquisition if learners’ attitudes aren’t
favorable towards learning. The classroom atmosphere must be interesting and friendly.
11. Oral skills precede written ones. In the early stages, oral skills have priority, since speech is the most
direct and natural way of interaction in a communicative act.
12. Gradual complexity. Simple language elements that focus on students’ interests will be taught before
others that are complex and more distant from the students’ real life.
CONCLUSION
The goal of current FLT is for the student to achieve communicative competence, the teacher must be aware
of the principles and procedures of this approach.
The Communicative Approach incorporates the social dimension of language, which is the ability to use
language. This has important implications in the establishment of the syllabus, activities and language teaching
techniques.