As a reaction to the grammartranslation
approach, the communicative
approach is recommended, for example, in
teaching English 101 and 102 at Srinakharinwirot
University. The approach is briefly described as
follows:
1. The content is sequenced by
linguistic functions such as greetings, telephoning,
shopping etc.
2. Meaningful communication and
practical use of language are focused.
3. Integrated skills are taught.
4. Implicit explanations of grammar
are given.
The following example is taken from
New interchange I by Jack Richards (1997).
In unit 9, the functions are asking and describing
peopleûs appearance; identifying people. All
listening, speaking and other activities are
involved with the above linguistic functions.
However, as it is the first book of the series, the
reading and writing activities are rather limited
(Richards, 1997: 18-9).
Criticisms
1. Exercises are too steep. Only a
limited number of exercises are devoted to the
teaching of each skill. Then they move on to
another step.
2. Students cannot generalize rules
from the exercises. Students who have learned
a grammatical structure cannot use it in some
other contexts.
3. Written exercises are limited
because learning activities must be oriented to
listening, speaking and reading as well.
4. Errors are tolerated if they do not
impede the communication. As a result, broken
English is frequently found because students
falsely assume that they can ignore
grammaticality.
5. Most of the activities are oral;
therefore, the students cannot retain what they
have learned in their long-term memory.
Many Thai teachers say that the
communicative approach has a very harmful
effect on the English teaching in Thailand. Thai
students produce broken English; yet, they are
not aware of the errors they make.
As an attempt to teach the students
after their psychological process, the process
and interactive approaches are proposed. They
are used mostly to teach reading and writing.
The basic assumptions of the approaches are as
follows:
1. Learning is a cognitive process in
which a teacher can intervene.
2. The cognitive process is recursive.
Students are encouraged to write and revise