The Application of Communicative Language Teaching in the English Reading Teaching

【摘 要】隨著交際式教學引入，我國外語教學強調了課堂教學的交際目的，但大多數集中在口語、聽力課堂，忽視了閱讀課堂。本文從中國英語閱讀教學的現狀及發展趨勢出發，探討了如何在英語閱讀教學中采用的一系列課堂活動，注重培養學生語言交際能力的教學法的重要性及具體要求和操作方式。

【關鍵詞】交際教學法；閱讀教學；交際

【Abstract】With the introduction of the Communicative Language Teaching， the foreign language teaching of China emphasized the aim of communicative in classroom teaching， but in most cases of speaking and listening class has been neglected. This paper discusses how to adopt a series of classroom activities on teaching English reading in current situation of the Chinese English reading course and the trend of development. It attaches importance of the teaching methods on cultivating students’ communicative competence and specific requirements and methods of operation.

【Key words】communicative language teaching（CLT）； reading teaching； communication

1. Introduction

T Communicative Language Teaching came into being in the beginning of 1970s.It has become a dominant method in English teaching since then and has been accepted by most of English teachers after years of development and improvement. The nature of reading is an active process of conforming and communicating. Readers need to communicate with the writer’s message， the new information， and their own experience with learning language in certain environment made by teachers. The CLT begins with a brief dialogue or several mini-dialogues for oral utterance practice based on topic and situation related students’ personal experience to study basic communicative expressions. The CLT helps to foster students’ communicative language production and is believed to be an ideal teaching method in reading course to further improve teaching effects.

2. The Background of the Communicative Language Teaching

The CLT begins with the urgent need of language communication proficiency， since the situational approach could not meet learner’s critical needs to communicate meaning. British applied linguists emphasized another fundamental dimension of language that was improperly named at that time in language teaching and guided communication leading to students’ comprehensive reading ability. Teachers’ and students’ traditional roles are innovated in the process. Teaching materials are more authentic and practical for students to contact， imitate and express themselves with language structure.

3. The current situation of reading teaching in China

About the current situation reading teaching course of China， the translation and composition method is adopted in the traditional English teaching. Teachers lead students to analyze an article in specific renowned rhetoric mode firstly， then copying the essays is decorated， teachers always judge score of students according to grammar.

The reading class focuses on growth of grammar knowledge. As a result， the students become slower and lower efficiency readers. They are used to seeing written materials in uttering the study， regardless of background， the overall view textbooks and the author’s attitude， this kind of undesirable habits affect their speaking activities， and gradually form a passive language learning attitude.

4. Implementing the Communicative Language Teaching in the English reading course

To further illustrate the CLT approach in practice， an application is presented here. Reading is not just for studying vocabulary and grammar through text but also for students to get latest information and knowledge， so they can improve cognitive level， and the abilities to analyze and solve problems. Specifically， teachers should direct students in the reading process to predict， think， get information， then analyze， infer， and judge to know the content， significance of passage， and how the language works and grasp the author’s writing purposes. Good comprehension needs decoding， forecast and many other channels so that skills cultivation should be combined with reading， in which the reader initiatively coordinates his or her knowledge with the textual information through identification， inducement， guessing， testing and assessment.

5. Conclusion

The CLT activities provide teaching environment and a sense of achievement for students. With the completion of teaching activities， students experience the learning process in language environment， practice the language skill and improve the communicative competence. Only realistic context relevant to student’s language and communicative needs can enable teachers best encourage the students to involve in communication in language environment and language learning is learning to communicate. The CLT practice helps to cultivate students’ communicative competence through interactive activities， which meets the target of teaching.

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