Draft:Enhancing Language Learning Through the Communicative Approach: Principles, Methods, and Competencies

Enhancing Language Learning Through the Communicative Approach: Principles, Methods, and Competencies

The communicative approach of teaching languages blends cognitive and natural learning methods to achieve its primary goal: developing communicative competence (Hymes, 1971). The cognitive approach concept is all about emphasizing mental activities such as mind map, revision, and discussion. The natural approach prioritizes communication, reading and listing using group work to make the learners acquire the language. The global adoption of the communicative approach is a result of its great outcomes in achieving its primary objective. However, Grammar-Translation Method (GTM) is increasingly viewed as inadequate for modern language learning goals (communication), since the goal evolve the technique must too. The communicative language learning principles are: •	The focus is on making learners able to express themselves, emphasizing content over form. •	The theory taking in progress the learners’ communication skill, besides the way of thinking. It is a holistic theory developing the whole aspects of the personality. •	The course must include the target language’s culture. For the purpose of deepen understanding of its speakers. •	Emphasis the authentic materials to enhance learning effectiveness. The role of the teacher is a facilitator, creating a natural concept environment and encourage the students to use the target language. Students, meanwhile, are the core and the centre of the class. The teacher is a maestro, whilst the students are the orchestra members. In addition, student talking time (STT) takes longer time than teacher talking time (TTT). The activities employed in the communicative language teaching classes such as role play, discussions, information gaps exercises, and give feedbacks to promote meaningful language use. The assessment strategies take the shape of neither evaluation written text nor error correction but on task design that assesses students' language skills and proficiency levels. Communicative competence “The aspect that enable us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meaning” (Haymes 1967). According to Canale and Swan’s (1980), in order to communicate in an effective way must take in consideration the four competences: 1.	Linguistic competence: The knowledge of lexical items, grammar, morphology, syntax, semantic and phonology. 2.	Discourse competence: The ability to structure and connect sentences together in written or spoken language. 3.	Communicative (fluency) competence: Adaptation the language according to the social context, when and how to use certain types of vocabularies. 4.	Strategic competence: The skill of overcoming the difficulties with the language, employ alternative strategies for expressing thoughts and emotions effectively.