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[Abstract] Language is an important tool and means of the social intercourse. The ultimate purpose of studying language is for the sake of communication. The paper attempts to analyze the problems existing in the traditional teaching method in China: students’ lacking opportunities for application of the language, the defects of examination system and the backward teaching method. So it is necessary to train students’ communicative competence. It demonstrates the importance of communicative competence and then puts forward some suggestions in training students’ communicative competence. Training students’ communicative competence is the need of new century. It enables students to exchange knowledge and emotions in different cultural backgrounds. Development of communicative ability is conducive to the effective communication.
[Key Words] communicative competence; the defects of teaching; traditional teaching; the importance of communication
【摘 要】 语言是交际的重要工具和手段，教学的最终目的就是为了交际。本文分析我国学生缺乏运用英语的机会，考试制度的弊端及落后的教学方式等传统英语教学中存在的问题，提出要全面提高教学质量，必须培养学生的实际语言交际能力。同时，通过阐述了交际能力的重要性，提出一些培养学生交际能力的建议。培养交际能力是新世纪的需要，是为了让学生能够在不同文化背景下进行情感交流和知识传递，交际能力的培养有利于交际的顺利进行。
【关键词】交际能力；教学缺陷；传统教学；交际重要性
1. Introduction
The language is an important tool and means of communication. The purpose of studying language is for the sake of communication.[1] According to new course target, it emphasizes that the point of English reforming is to reform English course which used to value the grammar and explain the phrases in detail, neglect the training of students’ practical use of language. It emphasizes that a course should base on the student’s interest, the life experience and the understanding level, such as experience, practice, participation, cooperation and the task-based teaching method. It should develop the student’s ability of comprehensive use of language.
The beginning of the 1970s saw a shift towards teaching methods that emphasizes communication. At the beginning it was largely a matter of redefining what the students had to learn to foster communicative competence rather than linguistic competence. “Communicative competence is the ability to use the language appropriately rather than the knowledge of grammatical rules implied in the academic style or the ‘habit’ of the audiolingual.”[2]
In China the communicative approach has been very much in vogue during the 1990s. The ‘new’ middle school English textbooks resulted from the communicative wave. This set of textbooks pay much more attention to communicative competence than before. Some experts write books about it. “For example, Professor Xuqing(2000,9) mentions the difference between traditional English testing and Communicative testing. The former is system-referenced, indirect and discrete, but the latter is performance- referenced, direct, integrated.” [3]
It is useful to improve English teaching quality completely and to train the student’s actual language communicative ability. Furthermore the substance of the teaching is communication. First, the teaching practice is the communication between teachers and students, an exchange of thought, the process of the information exchanges, the result of the teaching. Secondly, teaching is an activity. Through the social intercourse activity, students understand and master the language by operating the material. By interaction we can understand each other. But if we want to achieve this goal, we have to know something about the defect of traditional teaching.
2. The defects of traditional teaching method
2.1 Students’ lacking opportunities for application of the language
This is an objective factor. The reality is that students study English in a Chinese environment where the main medium of the language is through written form and English is the language reserved for contact with foreigners. We exchange information with foreigners in English. If we want to achieve this, we have to speak English. However, in our teaching we don’t provide opportunities for students to use the target language. As we know, in the traditional classroom, the teacher focuses on some English knowledge. The teachers just try their best to finish the teaching task so that they can’t provide students with enough time to practise their oral English. Students learn it passively. And it is impossible for an English teacher to take good care of each student in such a classroom. Obviously, it is difficult for each student to get the chance to practise using English in communication and most students are just wait-and-seers.
2.2 The exam system
China has a very rigid national college entrance examination system which plays an important part in the teaching process in middle schools. Given the pressure to enter university, it is not surprising that all efforts in the Chinese classroom tend to be focused on the exam, students are judged on examination results. And the exam papers mainly focus on reading comprehension and grammar knowledge, oral competence is never tested. Consequently, students are more interested in acquiring knowledge of language to pass the traditional examinations than in practising the language in use.
This exam-oriented teaching just revolves around the explanations of vocabulary items and grammar rules and the preparations for the tests. As a result, students may get high scores in the exams but can’t even use simple English for the purpose of real communication.
2.3 The backward teaching method
Many teachers incline to analyze grammar by doing some translation exercises. They are unfamiliar with current trends in English language teaching and are still used to the traditional way of teaching, which focuses on grammar and structure, on linguistic competence rather than on communicative competence. In the traditional teaching, language is treated as a knowledge subject-analyzed, explained and practised in much the same way as other subjects. The communicative skills, which require learners to practise in real situations, are totally ignored. English is taught and learned mostly in reading and reciting activities. So in the traditional teaching, teaching English is not for communicative purpose.
From the above, we can find that the traditional teaching has emphasized too much on the teaching of the language components and neglected the training of language skills. Although students learn English very well, they fail to communicate with the other people in English. That is, to achieve effective communication, it is of importance for teachers to develop students’ communicative ability as well as the linguistic knowledge. Here let us have a look at what communicative competence is.
3 Communicative competence
3.1 Definition of communicative competence
Communicative competence includes both the knowledge about the language and the knowledge about how to use the language appropriately in communicative situations.
“The term communicative competence is used in contrast to Noam Chomsky’s term linguistic competence, which is understood as the tacit knowledge of language structure and the ability to use this knowledge to understand and produce language. For Chomsky, competence simply means knowledge in other words. However, if we look at how language is used in real communication, we have to accept that real language use involves far more than knowledge and ability for grammar. In Hymes’s words, there are rules of use without which‘ the rules of grammar would be useless’, which simply means, besides grammatical rules, language use is governed by rules of use, which ensure that the desired or intended functions are performed and the language used is appropriate to the context.”[4]
“According to Hymes, communicative competence includes four aspects:
(!) knowing whether or not something is formally possible(grammatically acceptable), which is roughly equivalent to Chomsky’s linguistic competence;
(2) knowing whether something is understandable to human beings;
(3) knowing whether something is in line with social norms;
(4) knowing whether or not something is in fact done: Do people actually use language this way?”[5]
In other words, communicative competence entails knowing not only the language code or the form of language, but also what to say to whom and how to say it appropriately in any given situation. Communicative competence includes knowledge of what to say, when, how, where, and to whom.
3.2 The importance of communicative competence
When we master the communicative competence, we can speak. Speaking is the skill that students will be judged upon most in real-life situations. It is an important part of everyday interaction and most often the first impression of a person is based on his/her ability to speak fluently and comprehensibly. So, as teachers, we have a responsibility to prepare the students as much as possible to be able to speak in English in the real world outside the classroom and the testing room. When we can communicate with each other that means we have mastered a skill, just like swimming, driving a car, or playing ping-pong. When we know how to communicate, we can exchange information with other countries which has become necessary for the development of the country. The training of communication is the need of new century and the exchange of knowledge and emotions in different cultural backgrounds. The training of communication is also a part of self-living. So it is very important for us to learn communicative competence.
But how can we train students’ communicative competence? It is a difficult question. Now let’s discuss some practical ways of training students’ communicative competence.
4. Suggestions on training students’ speaking
4.1 The teaching principle
In the communication teaching, there are there principles: first, all activities designed and organized by teachers in clas [1] [2] [3] 下一页 |
