The communicative approach Communication is an important part of life to socialize and fit into a society that changes every

day. Communication skills are essential in all ways of life. People spend more of half their daily time on communication through writing, reading, listening, speaking, etc. Effective communication is an essential component for organisation success. Communication skills are as important as logical skills for youngsters aiming at a bright career. Communications hold the key. Poor communication skills, low confidence levels and improper body language have resulted into negative consequences in their lives. I have noticed a number of problems that interfere in effective communication. Some of the problems of students are given below: Some students write well, but they are not able to express themselves orally. Some speak fluently, but cannot write without grammatical errors. Some are comfortable speaking among themselves in a small group, but are not comfortable facing the audience or the teacher. Some having problems with their body language and use inappropriate with others, some find it difficult to maintain eye contact. Some are always misunderstood (dont listen). To be successful, a person requires an integrated set of communication skills. These skills comprise, writing skills, speech skills, listening skills, nonverbal skills. One should have communication skills, while reading, writing, listening, speaking, conversation with various groups of people, like family, friends teachers, etc.This lead us to the concept of communicative competence The concept of communicative competence is about a shift in the approach method and technique in language pedagogy. Linguists say that There are rules of use without which the rules of grammar will be useless. A diference was made between the grammatical rules that enable the users to frame correct sentences and the rules of the use of the languages to accomplish some kind of communicative purpose. Phonology, Lexis and Syntax, which are objects of linguistic description constitute only a part of the elements in the code used for communication. The meaning of a phrase, a word, etc. do not depend entirely on its form; a lot depend on who says what, to whom, where, why, in what manner and in what effect. In other words, the context of situation in which an utterance is said, who said it, and to who are very important. For instance, the occurrence Can I have the salt please? is interrogative in form but expresses a polite request in a dining room. Grammatical knowledge is not enough to help us participate effectively in communicative situation. In addition to acquainting oneself with the forms of language, one must know about the communicative approach:

What is the communicative approach? The communicative approach (CA) was developed by Robert Langs MD, in the early 1970's. It is a new theory or paradigm of emotional life and psychoanalysis that is centered on human adaptations to emotionally-charged events--with full appreciation that such adaptations take place both within awareness (consciously) and outside of awareness (unconsciously). The approach gives full credence to the unconscious side of emotional life and has rendered it highly sensible and incontrovertible by discovering a new, validated, and deeply meaningful way of decoding unconscious messages. This procedure-called trigger decoding--has brought forth new and highly illuminating revisions of our understanding of both emotional life and psychotherapy, and it calls for significant changes in presently accepted psychoanalytic thinking and practice. In the communicative approach 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 texts. The second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning-teaching group. The latter role is closely related to the objectives of the first role and arises from it. These roles imply a set of secondary roles for the teacher; first, as an organizer of resources and as a resource himself, second as a guide within the classroom procedures and activities. A third role for the teacher is that of researcher and learner, with much to contribute in terms of appropriate knowledge and abilities, actual and observed experience of the nature of learning and organizational capacities The Communicative Method suggest the following activities 1 Focuses on language as a medium of communication. Recognizes that all communication has a social purpose - learner has something to say or find out. 2 Communication embraces a whole spectrum of functions (e.g. seeking information/ apologizing/ expressing likes and dislikes, etc.) and notions (e.g. apologizing for being late / asking where the nearest post office is). 3 New syllabuses based on communicative method offered some communicative ability from early stage. Graded Objectives in Modern Languages - movement which flourished in 1970's and 80's raised pupils' motivation through short-term objectives and through teaching language appropriate to a range of relevant topics and situations (e.g. shopping/ hobbies/ exchanges). 4 Languages were taught in a vacuum - language for the sake of language / passing exams - rather than language for true communication.

Distinguish between language as a 'medium' level communication and as a 'message' level communication, ex. 1) Young lady teacher is teaching 7 years pupils to say how old they are. They are merely practicing the pattern in the foreign language, for the sole purpose of mastering the construction - teacher actually knows the age of the class - pupils also know that the teacher knows their age, they are all performing at 'medium' level, i.e. practicing how to say it in the language but with no added purpose. 2) Suddenly, a curious member of the class raises his hand and asks the young lady teacher. This is language being used at a totally different and higher level, i.e. 'message' level ( pupil doesn't know the teacher's age, but actually uses the construction practiced at the 'medium' level for a specific purpose, namely that of finding out the teacher's age! One has to practice language at 'medium' level first in order to be able to exercise it at 'message' level. The problem is that a great number of teachers never used to go beyond 'medium' level and use the language for true purposes of sending and receiving 'messages'. They were teaching pupils 'about' the language, about its patterns and rules, rather than using it actively for real purposes! Teaching was left almost totally at 'medium' level. Very this to test true communicative ability or to use the language spontaneously. 5 Classroom activities maximize opportunities for learners to use target language in a communicative way for meaningful activities. Emphasis on meaning (messages they are creating or task they are completing) rather than form (correctness of language and language structure) - as in first language acquisition. 6 Use of target language as normal medium for classroom management and instruction - reflects naturalistic language acquisition. 7 Communicative approach is much more pupil-orientated, 8 Learners should be able to go to foreign country, prepared for reality they encounter there. Need to be able to cope / survive in a variety of everyday situations. 9 Classroom should provide opportunities for rehearsal of real-life situations and provide opportunity for real communication. Emphasis on creative role-plays/ simulations/ surveys/ projects/ playlets - all produce spontaneity and improvisation - not just repetition and drills.

10 More emphasis on active modes of learning, including pairwork and group-work - often not exploited enough by teachers fearful of noisy class. 11 Primacy of oral work. Emphasis on oral and listening skills in the classroom. Contact time with language is all-important - paves way for more fluid command of the language / facility and ease of expression. Not just hearing teacher, but having personal contact themselves with language, practicing sounds themselves, permutating sentence patterns and getting chance to make mistakes and learn from doing so. 12 Errors are a natural part of learning language. Learners trying their best to use the language creatively and spontaneously are bound to make errors. Constant correction is unnecessary and even counter-productive. Correction should be discreet / noted by teacher - let them talk and express themselves - form of language becomes secondary. 13 Communicative approach is not just limited to oral skills. Reading and writing skills need to be developed to promote pupils' confidence in all four skill areas. By using elements encountered in variety of ways (reading/ summarising/ translating/ discussion/ debates) - makes language more fluid and pupils' manipulation of language more fluent. 14 Grammar can still be taught, but less systematically, in traditional ways alongside more innovative approaches. Recognized that communication depends on grammar. Disregard of grammatical form will virtually guarantee breakdown in communication. 15 Language analysis and grammar explanation may help some learners, but extensive experience of target language helps everyone. students need to hear plenty said about the topic in the foreign language at regular and recurrent intervals, so they are exposed to the topic and can assimilate it. (Not mere passive acquisition of certain lexical items). 16 Communicative approach seeks to personalize and localize language and adapt it to interests of students. Meaningful language is always more easily retained by learners. 17 Use of idiomatic/ everyday language (even slang words) this is kind of language used in communication between people - not a 'medium'/ grammatical/ exam-orientated/ formal language! 18 Makes use of topical items with which students are already familiar in their own language motivates pupils arouses their interest and leads to more active participation.

19 Avoid age-old texts - materials must relate to students own lives / must be fresh and real (texts developing language but not communicative language) Changing texts and materials regularly keeps teacher on toes and pupils interested. 20 Language need not be laboriously monotonous and 'medium' orientated. Can be structured but also spontaneous and incidental. Language is never static. Life isn't like that - we are caught unawares, unprepared, 'pounced upon!' students need to practice improvising/ ad-libbing/ talking off the cuff, in an unrehearsed but natural manner. 21 Spontaneous and improvised practice help to make minds more flexible and inspire confidence in coping with unforeseen, unanticipated situations. Need to 'go off at tangents' / use different registers / develop alternative ways of saying things. 22 Communicative approach seeks to use authentic resources. More interesting and motivating. In Foreign language classroom authentic texts serve as partial substitute for community of native speaker. Newspaper and magazine articles, poems, manuals, recipes, telephone directories, videos, news bulletins, discussion programmes - all can be exploited in variety of ways. 23 Important not to be restricted to textbook, never feel that text-book must be used from cover to cover. Only a tool / starting-point. With a little inspiration and imagination, text-book can be manipulated and rendered more communicative. Teacher must free himself from it, rely more on his own command of language and his professional expertise as to what linguistic items, idioms, phrases, words, need to be drilled / exploited/ extended. 24 Use of visual stimuli: flashcards, etc. - important to provoke practical communicative language. (3 stages presentation / assimilation/ reproducing language in creative and spontaneous way). Conclusion The communicative approach is only deemed successful if the teacher understands the student. The goal is to have students speak the language fluently enough for native speakers to understand what they are saying. Beside teachers should try to use communicative approach in speaking lesson, because using communicative approach is one types of speaking experience that is interesting. Teachers also should be smart and creative in using communicative approach in the classroom because successful language learning depends on the teachers technique to use the communicative approach, since the teacher is the fundamental classroom aid to language learning