Class-Room Procedures for Teaching English or any Other Languages in Communicative Approach

CLASS-ROOM PROCEDURES FOR TEACHING ENGLISH OR ANY OTHER LANGAUGES IN COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

In most traditional classroom, the entire class is involved. But in communicative language teaching a class should be divided for individual work, pair work, small group work, and whole class work.
The advantages of pair work and small group work are the following:
1. Pupils catch more language practice. They have to speak English more than they do if the work is done around the class.
2. Pupils are active participants. Discussion and communication are not limited to only bright student.
3. Pupils feel secured. They feel less anxiety when they are working in pair or small group than when they are ‘on show’.

Problems:
1. The pair work or group work is generally noisy but it is maintained that noisy is purposeful and pupils themselves are not disturbed by the noise.
2. The teacher cannot watch the performance of all the students/pairs/group and it is difficult for him to rectify (to correct or to put something right) the mistakes committed by them.
3. The teacher does not have sufficient control over what the students do. To overcome this difficulty he should give clear instructions to pupils about when to start, what to do and when to stop. He may also move about in the classroom in order to monitor the strength and weaknesses of the learners. If required he may also participate in the classroom activity as co-communicator.

Unanswered Question
According to Richards and Rodgers, the following questions about the communicative approach are still debated.
1. Can the Communicative Approach be applied to all levels in a language-teaching program?
2. Is the Communicative Approach equally suited to ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) situations?
3. Does the Communicative Approach require grammar-based syllabuses to be abandoned or merely revised?