COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING A REMEDIAL APPROACH

ABSTRACT This paper seeks the possibilities of applying the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) a remedial Approach for slow learners. Teaching is more than ust imparting knowledge to students. Teaching is also about effective communication and without the capacity to effectively communicate the students from different background cannot perform well at various fronts of social life. Call Centres! shopping malls! trade fairs etc.! all need young personnel! at least fluent in "nglish. Learning to speak is an important goal in itself! for it e#uips students with a set of skills! which they can use for the rest of their lives. $peaking is the mode of communication most often used to e%press opinions! make arguments! offer e%planations! transmit information! and make impressions upon others. $tudents n e e d t o s p e a k well in their personal lives! future workplaces! social interactions! and political endeavors. They will have meetings to attend! presentations to make! discussions and arguments to participate in! and groups to work with. &f basic instruction and opportunities to practice speaking are available! students position themselves to accomplish a wide range of goals and be useful members of their communities. 'emedial Approach is all about identifying slow learners and giving them necessary guidance to help them overcome problems. The paper concludes with suggestive remarks about Communicative Language Teaching a remedial Approach and also provides a solution for the teachers! which will help slow learners to have a better grasp in Communicative skills. Introduction The conte%t of teaching situation started changing around the year ())). $ocio*economic factors played a ma or role in this change. Those

desirous of immigration to the developed countries need professional help for clearing tests like T+",L! &"LT$! etc. 'emedial teaching is to ensure the desired #uality of learning. &t is very essential in ensuring effectiveness in learning and in improving the #uality of education. &t is a ty pe of teaching aimed at correcting errors or addressing gaps in knowledge. &n this process! the teacher! like the physician! uses test instruments to find out the difficulties in "nglish language learning. -ence! the avenues where "LT is re#uired in &ndia are unlimited today. Traditional Engli ! Cla roo" in India &n a typical &ndian "nglish classroom! the teacher occupies the center* stage. &t is he.she who reads the te%t mostly aloud! gives the meanings of difficult words and translates as and when he.she thinks it is necessary. &n &ndia! students admitted to undergraduate courses come from different walks of life. At the undergraduate level! "nglish Language Teaching continues to be largely content*based rather than skill*based! in spite of attempted reforms by both university and $tate bodies. The result is that even after attending ten or more years of "nglish classes! students often graduate from /overnment colleges with no basic communicative skills in "nglish. Therefore remedial approach education teachers should be trained to tailor their classes to wide range of different learning styles. Paradig"atic C!ang# There is a paradigmatic shift in the way "nglish has been regarded and taught. &t is now being increasingly considered as a skill and a means of communication. This has resulted in changing the traditional roles of materials! teachers and students. At the syllabus design level! the emphasis has been more on specifying and organi0ing the language content in a semantic way. Communicative competence has been accorded pre*eminence over structural competence.

R#"#dial A$$roac! %or lo& l#arn#r 'emedial teaching is identifying slow learners and giving them the necessary guidance to help them overcome their problems! after identifying their areas of difficulty. Contrary to what is said! remedial teaching is done perfunctorily without identifying their areas of difficulty and underlying cause for lagging behind. $ome students are unsympathetically branded as 1block heads2 without an earnest attempt to know the real cause of their slow learning. Co""unicati'# Languag# T#ac!ing (CLT) According to -ymes (3455)! Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) marks the culmination of a movement that originated as a reaction against the teacher*dominated! form*focused! traditional methods of language teaching! which often fail to e#uip the learners with communicative competence. Communicative Language Teaching was introduced in 6ritain in the 345)s as a replacement to the earlier $tructural 7ethod! called $ituational Language Teaching. 7any researchers have contributed to the development of theory and practice of the Communicative Language Teaching Approach like 6rown! 3489: 6rumfit and ;ohnson! 3494: -ymes! 349(: <attinger! 348=: <unan! 3489 and 3484: 'ossner! 3488: $avingnon! 348>: ?hite! 3484: @alden! 348>. According to 6rown (344=)! Athe primary goal of CLT is to develop communicative competence! to move beyond grammatical and discourse elements in communication and probe the nature of social! cultural! and pragmatic features of language.B The range of e%ercise types and activities compatible with a communicative approach is unlimited! provided that such e%ercises enable learners to communicate! interact and share information. $ome of the important language activities of CLT like information gap! ig

saw activities! role play and pair . group work etc. are presented below. In%or"ation Ga$ An important aspect of communication in CLT is the notion of information gap. This refers to the fact that in real communication! people normally communicate in order to get information they do not possess. This is the classic gap e%ploited by the communicative approach. $tudent A had some information! perhaps concerning the prices of food. $tudent 6 needs to know these prices! and so asks A #uestions to find the information. The information gap is ideally suited to pair and small group work and usually relies upon pre* prepared information cards. &n doing so! they will ac#uire available vocabulary! grammar! and communication strategies to complete a task. *ig+ a& Acti'iti# These are also based on the information*gap principle. Typically the class is divided into groups and each group has part of the information needed to complete an activity. The class must fit the pieces together to complete the whole. &n doing so! they must use their language resources to communicate meaningfully and thus take part in meaningful communication practice. Learning takes place from simple to comple%. Pair ,or- and Grou$ ,or7ost of the activities reflect an important aspect of classroom tasks in CLT! that they are designed to be carried out in pairs or small groups. 6rown (344=) proposes that communication is likely to occur in the classroom when a significant amount of pair work and group work is conducted. Through completing such activities in this way! learners will obtain several benefitsC i) They can learn from hearing the language used by other members of the group.

ii) iii) iv)

They will produce a greater amount of language than they would use in teacher*fronted activities. Their motivational level is likely to increase. They will have the chance to develop fluency (6rown! 344=). According to 'ichards and 'odgers (())3)! many other activities are

used in CLT! as presented belowC i) Task*completion activitiesC pu00les! games! map*reading and other kinds of classroom tasks in which the focus is on using ones language resources to complete a task. ii) &nformation gathering activitiesC student conducted surveys! interviews and searches in which students are re#uired to use their linguistic resources to collect information. iii) +pinion*sharing activitiesC activities where students compare values! opinions! beliefs! such as a ranking task in which students list si% #ualities in order of importance which they might consider in choosing a date or spouse. iv) &nformation*transfer activitiesC these re#uire learners to take information that is presented in one form! and represent it in a different form. ,or e%ample they may read instructions on how to get from A to 6! and then draw a map showing the se#uence! or they may read information about a sub ect and then represent it as a graph. v) 'easoning gap*activitiesC these involve deriving some new information from given information through the process of inference! practical reasoning etc. ,or e%ample! working out a teacherDs timetable on the basis of given class timetables. vi) 'ole*playsC activities in which students are assigned roles and

improvise a scene or e%change based on given information or clues. T!# Rol# o% T#ac!#r and L#arn#r in T!# CLT Cla roo" According to 6reen and Candlin (348))! the teacher has two main roles * the first role is to facilitate the communication process between all participants in the classroom! and between these participants and the various activities and te%ts. The second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning*teaching group. The learners are no more passive recipients of the language. They are e%pected to participate in classroom activities that are based on a cooperative rather than individualistic approach to learning. $tudents have to become comfortable with listening to their peers in group work or pair work tasks! rather than relying on the teacher for a model. They are e%pected to take on a greater degree of responsibility for their own learning. T!# N##d %or CLT Teachers of "nglish recogni0e that traditional pedagogy! emphasi0ing the ac#uisition of grammar and vocabulary rather than communicative competence! does not meet the re#uirements of "nglish learning in an era of liberali0ation and globali0ation. Eepending on the cultural! or even the physical setting! a teacher can use tasks and small group learning or a whole class format. +ften a combination of the two is appropriate. Thus! to adopt CLT as a new teaching approach within a traditional education would re#uire rethinking and ad ustment of some long*held beliefs and values in remedial point of approach. Proc#dur# to %ra"# r#"#dial A$$roac! The procedure to frame remedial approach involves two steps. They are* a) Anal. i o% co"$l#/ $#r%or"anc# into it co"$on#nt u0 -ill 1 ,or e%C The component of &ndirect narration areC

 Fnderstanding the dialogue from together with reporting verbs and reported speech. Fnderstanding the correct reference of pronouns use in reported speech. 'ecogni0ing the types of sentences used in the reported speech. 'ecogni0ing the tense used in the reported speech. Ability to modify pronouns! tense forms reporting verbs! and sentence constructions. $kill to use proper punctuation marks. 0) D#'#lo$ing t# t %or #ac! o% t!# co"$on#nt -ill 1 +n a daily basis we work with people who have different opinions! values! beliefs! and needs than our own. +ur ability to e%change ideas with others! understand others2 perspectives! solve problems and successfully utili0e the steps and processes presented in this training will depend significantly on how effectively we are able to communicate with others. The act of communicating involves verbal! nonverbal! and paraverbal components. The verbal component refers to the content of our messageG the choice and arrangement of our words. The nonverbal component refers to the message we send through our body language. The paraverbal component refers to how we say what we say * the tone! pacing and volume of our voices. Conclu ion CLT remedial approach to structuring the curriculum! which involves confronting identifying around two decades to gain acceptance among learners. There are indeed some problems in implementing CLT in our country. Large numbers of student in a class! unsuitable seats for pair.group work (immovable benches H small classrooms)! the lack of resources (library books! cyclostyling! photocopying facilities etc)! and lack of audio and video

e#uipment are some of the reasons which hamper the implementation of CLT techni#ues in the "nglish classrooms. -ence! teachers need to continually e%amine the situation and relate it to learner participation! autonomy! and e#uality in their changing conte%t. 'emedial teaching is a boon to the slow learnerDs fraternity to overcome the barriers and challenge the limits in learning. R#%#r#nc# Andrews! $. Communicative Language Teaching $ome &mplications for Teacher "ducation. Perspectives in Communicative Language Teaching. "ds. I. ;ohnson and E. Jorter. LondonC Academic Jress! 348>.3(8*>8. 6rown! /ordon. English - The Worlds Language. Thu 39 ;anuary ())8 www.number3).gov.uk.output.Jage3=(84.asp 6rumfit! C. and ;ohnson! I. The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching. <ew @orkC +%ford F J! 3494. Curran! C. A. Counseling-learning in Second Languages. Apple 'iver! &ll. Apple 'iver Jress! 3495. -owatt. A. J. '. A History of English Language Teaching. +%fordC +%ford F J! 348=. -ymes! E. n Communicative Competence. $ociolinguistics! "ds.;. 6. Jride and ;. -olmes -armondswortthC Jenguin! (349()C (54*4>.

Littlewood! ?. Communicative Language Teaching. <ew @orkC Cambridge F J! 3483. <attinger! ;. '. Communicative Language Teaching! A "e# $etaphor. T"$+L Kuarterly!38.> (348=)C >43*=)9. <orman! E. Things That $a%e &s Smart! 'efending Human Attri(utes in the Age of the $achine) 'eading! 7AC Addison*?esley Jublishing Company! 344>. <unan! E) 'esigning Tas%s for the Communicative Classroom. <ew @orkC CFJ!3484. 'ichards! ;. and T. 'odgers. Approaches in $ethods in Language Teaching. CambridgeC CFJ! 348(. @alden! ;. The Communicative Sylla(us! Evolution* 'esign and +mplementation. +%fordC Jergamon! 348>.