Can a Classroom Be Too Communicative?

Can a Classroom Be Too Communicative?

TESOL Matters Vol. 9 No. 6 (December 1999/January 2000)
From the column of the TESOL English as a Foreign Language Interest Sectionby Irene E. Schoenberg

An indirect communicative approach, one in which learning takes place indirectly and the focus is on communication, has been regarded for years as an effective way of getting students to develop fluency in English. Indeed, a communicative approach has become the mission of many ESL programs, and many material writers, teacher trainers, and program directors have successfully incorporated this approach into their materials and classrooms. But a communicative approach has not always worked as well in the EFL setting.

A communicative approach is more difficult in an EFL environment because the students' use of English is unnatural, their motivation is weaker, and their expectations of how a class should be conducted often conflict with the notions underlying a communicative classroom. A good communicative activity asks students to do a task, gather information from a partner, or express an opinion about an engaging topic. ESL students have no alternative but to use English to communicate because their classmates and teacher do not know their language. In the EFL situation, on the other hand, we as teachers expect students to communicate with equal enthusiasm in the target language, even though everyone speaks the same language. We aim for authenticity of materials and situations, but we ask students to willingly ignore their highly developed communication skills in their own language and communicate in the target language at what for them is often the level of a 4-year-old child.

It is unnatural, some may think absurd, to communicate important information in a second language when both speakers are articulate in the same first language. And the need to use the target language is always more distant for the EFL student than for the ESL student. ESL students have the real, immediate need to speak English as soon as they leave the classroom. If they learn in class how to ask for pizza with mushrooms, they will get immediate gratification upon leaving the classroom and asking for such a pizza in the pizza place next door. By the time EFL students get to a pizza place that requires the use of English, their appetites and enthusiasm will surely have dampened.

Another difference between the ESL and the EFL setting is the students' cultural expectations with regard to teachers' roles and classroom management. ESL students are uncertain what to expect because they are the outsiders. They are therefore more willing to accept or go along with untraditional or unusual methods. EFL students, on the other hand, may lose confidence in a teacher who abdicates some authority and waits for students to take more responsibility, as is necessary in a communicative approach. For instance, EFL students may even think their teacher is betraying cultural norms by the loss of authority that accompanies methods in which the teacher is not the focus but is rather a coach or facilitator. Finally, EFL classrooms are often large and have unmovable seats, which inhibits the pair and group work that typifies communicative activities.

Even ESL programs have begun to realize that an indirect communicative approach has some drawbacks. Although communicative activities can add fun and excitement to classes, problems occur in programs or classes that overuse an indirect communicative approach. First, it is extremely difficult to assess what students have learned, and it is difficult to recycle material taught. It is also hard to improve accuracy without focusing on form and teaching it explicitly. Finally, there is the issue of planful learning. Applied linguists and cognitive psychologists have found that most people learn best and most efficiently when they know what they are trying to learn, focus on it, and practice it in a progression from a more controlled to a more natural process.

An awareness of the differences between EFL and ESL students may help EFL teachers come to a comfortable balance between a language and a communicative focus. In fact, most ESOL programs today are using an eclectic approach that features a lot of communicative activities but at the same time focuses on language form and accuracy.

The popularity of an eclectic approach today stems from the awareness that the art of teaching lies in being sensitive to the particular needs and expectations of students, not by being tied down to a particular methodology or approach. So, although a communicative approach is a wonderful technique, there are instances in which a classroom can be too communicative.