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From Defining to Designing: Communicative Specifications versus Communicative Methodology in Foreign Language Teaching

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Christopher J. Brumfit
Christopher J. Brumfit
Affiliation:
University of London
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Extract

This paper attempts to explore some of the implications of viewing language learning as a process that deals with a product that is not static. Language, we can increasingly see, is not a set of definable and prearranged tokens but a process of linguistic and cultural negotiation of meaning. Students have to develop their innate ability to use language for their own purposes in interaction with the purposes of other language users. Communicative syllabuses have been discussed partly through a recognition of this need, but a discussion of syllabus organisation is not enough, for the methodological implications are much more important. If languages are not, in principle, discrete, language teaching will not be served well if it is based on the assumption that we can specify the learner's product exactly. All syllabuses tend to concentrate on the product, or content. This paper argues that it is time to move away from syllabus definition, which has been adequately discussed for the current state of classroom practice.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , Fall 1980 , pp. 1 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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