Como aprendemos inglés a través del método comunicativo

HOW DO WE LEARN ENGLISH THROUGH THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH?

A competency in English as a Second Language involve four major skill, they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing (Heaten, 1973: 3). All of them are the basic skills that should be learnt by the students in language teaching and learning process in the term of their education. Generally, when we talk about the Communicativecompetence, we think it is a linguistic term which just refers to a learner's second language ability. But It not only refers to a learner's ability to apply and use grammatical rules, also to form correct utterances, and know how to use these utterances appropriately. In achieving the goals there are many kinds of method used by the teacher in their learning process, one of them is calledCommunicative Approach. Through the influence of communicative language teaching, it has become widely accepted that communicative competence should be the goal of language education, central to good classroom practice (e.g. Savignon 1998). The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and theultimate goal of learning a language. It is also referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” or simply the “Communicative Approach”.
it is not too different from Communicative Language Teaching that makes use of real-life situations that neccessitate communication, the teacher sets up at situation that students are likely to encounter in real life (Aritonang:2004).
Out of the many approaches and methodologies available to the language teacher, the Communicative Approach has proven one of the most successful in providing confident learners who are able to make themselves effectively understood in the shortest possible time. It is therefore the teacher's responsibility to create situations which are likely to promote communication, and provide anauthentic background for language learning.
According to the communicative approach, the educator’s role is a facilitator and monitor rather than leading the class. In other words, "the guide by the side" and not "the sage on the stage”. In the same way, the lessons are usually topic or theme based, they are built round situations/functions practical and authentic in the real world, for example in aclassroom a teacher asking for information, complaining, apologizing, job interviews, telephoning and dialogues which are used that centre around communicative functions. Classroom activities guided by the communicative approach are characterised by trying to produce meaningful and real communication, at all levels. As a result there may be more emphasis on skills than systems, lessons are morelearner-centred, and there may be use of authentic materials. Those activities set by the teacher have relevance and purpose to real life situations - students can see the direct benefit of learning. In addition, Use of songs and games are encouraged and provide a natural environment to promote language and enhance correct pronunciation. Teachers should work within the former principles of thecommunicative approach while taking into consideration the needs, interests, and learning styles of their students. Inside these limits, teachers are free to choose from a range of techniques and strategies which are consistent with research into how students best learn or acquire a language.
According to this approach learners are expected to become competent communicators in the language, ableto convey meaning to others, motivated with this approach as they have an interesting what is being communicated, as the lesson is topic or theme based. These strategies let learners to interact with their partners, in pairs or groups, to encourage a flow of language and maximize the percentage of talking time, rather than just teacher to student and vice versa. But mainly, the goals of the...