The Communicative Approach

The Communicative approach has become the accepted "norm" in the field language training. This approach focuses the paractical application of the target language in ‘real-life’ situations, as well as developing the linguistic fluency of second language learners. This approach also equips students with the necessary tools for generating unrehearsed language performance outside of the classroom, facilitating life-long language learning.

The Communicative approach incoporates five different learning-types into the classroom:

Interactive Learning: 

This concept goes right to the heart of communication itself, stressing the dual roles of "receiver" and "sender" in any communicative situation.  Interaction creates the "negotiation between interlocutors" which in turn produces meaning (semantics).  The concept of interactive learning necessarily entails that there will be a lot of pair and group work in the classroom, as well as genuine language input from the "real world" for meaningful communication.

Learner-centered Learning: 

This kind of instruction involves the giving over of some "power" in the language learning process to the learners themselves.  It also strives to allow for personal creativity and input from the students, as well as taking into account their learning needs and objectives.

Cooperative Learning: 

This concept stresses the "team" like nature of the classroom and emphasizes cooperation as opposed to competition.  Students share information and help eachother, achieving their learning goals as a group.

Content-based Learning: 

This kind of learning joins language learning to content/subject matter and engages them both concurrently.  Language is seen as a tool or medium for aquiring knowledge about other things, instantly proving its usefulness.  An important factor in this kind of learning is that the content itself determines what language items need to be mastered, not the other way around.  When students study math or science using English as the medium, they are more intrinsically motivated to learn more of the language.

Task-based Learning: 

This concept equates the idea of a "learning task" to a language learning technique in itself.  This could be a problem solving activity or a project, but the task has a clear objective, appropriate content, a working/application procedure, and a set range of outcomes.