Communication

Essay: Communication base of English language learning.

The ever-growing need for good communication skills in English has created a huge demand for English teaching around the world. Millions of people today want to improve their command of English or to ensure that their children achieve a good command of English. Opportunities to learn English are provided different many ways such asthrough formal instruction, travel, and study abroad, as well as through the media and internet. The world-wide demand for English has created an enormous demand for quality language teaching and language teaching materials and resources. Learners set themselves demanding goals. They want to be able to master English to a high level of accuracy and fluency. Employer too insists that theiremployees have good English language skills, and fluency in English is a prerequisite to success and advancement in many fields of employment in today’s world. The demand for an appropriate teaching methodology is therefore as strong as ever.

In many cases people have been studying a foreign language at least since they were in high school. Later in life students complain about the fact that inspite of having studied a language for several years they are not able to use the language at all. It is encouraging to know that this is not entirely the students fault. It is mostly a consequence of a traditional approach to language teaching with an enormous emphasis on grammar.

In the past it was thought that the grammatical rules of a language were the most important aspect of it.Students were forced to memorize hundreds of verb tenses and word lists, but they never really learned how to use the language spontaneously and naturally.

The writing and reading skills were also given precedence under the traditional method in detriment of the listening and speaking ones. As a result, the overall communicative competence of the students was very poor. Language is aboutcommunicating, not about grammar rules. And communication embraces a whole series of functions (seeking information, apologizing, expressing likes and dislikes, etc.) and notions (apologizing for being late, asking where the nearest restaurant is, etc.).

The communicative teaching method views language as a medium of communication. It recognizes that communication has a social purpose: thelanguage learner has something to say or to find out. In this teaching method importance is placed on helping the student get the message delivered. This is what really matters: if the student can understand and be understood. The communicative methodology is centered in helping the student develop certain skills and abilities: oral interaction and expression, hearing and reading comprehension,and writing expression, its approach gives primacy to oral work.

Direct contact with the language is very important. Not just from hearing the teacher, but also from using it and from hearing other people besides the teacher. Having personal contact with the language, practicing sounds, improvising and trying to make your own sentences and getting the chance to make mistakes and learn fromdoing so. Errors are a natural part of learning a language. Learners who try their best to use the language creatively and spontaneously are bound to make mistakes. Constant correction is not necessarily essential and can even be counterproductive, especially at the lower levels. Correction should be discreet and the teacher should take note of student's mistakes in order to help them discover ontheir own the correct way of speech. Meaning is given precedence over form.

In this language teaching method grammar is still taught, but less systematically, in traditional ways alongside with more innovative approaches. The communicative approach seeks to personalize and to localize language and to adapt it to student's interests. The use of idiomatic, everyday language and even slang...