The role of project works as the principal element of a communicative approach

As Tom Hutchinson from the Lancaster University (1996September) mentioned that the Project work captures better than any other activity the two principal elements of a communicativeapproach. These are a concern for motivation, that is, how the learners relate to the task; and a concern for relevance, that is, howthe learners relate to the language. We could add to these a third element: a concern for educational values, that is, how the language curriculum relates to learner. Let's look at these elements in a bit more detail. A foreign language can often seem a remote and unreal thing. This inevitably has a negative effect on motivation, because the students don't see the language as relevant to their own lives. If learners are going to become real language users, they must learn that English can be used to talk about their own world. Project work helps to bridge this relevance gap in three ways. First, project work helps to integrate the foreign language into the network of the learner's own communicative competence. Second, project work helps to make the language more relevant to learners' actual needs, because they are learning how to communicate about their own world -- about their house, their family, their town, and so forth. Third, project work establishes a sounder relationship between language and culture. With project work the language acts as a bridge, enabling two cultures to communicate with each other. There is a growing awareness among language teachers that the process and content of the language class should contribute towards the general educational development of the learner. Project work encourages initiative, independence, magination, self-discipline and co-operation together with cross-curricular skills development where knowledge gained in other subjects may be used in the English class. [1]

The communicative approach is based on the idea that learning language successfully comes hrough having to communicate real meaning. When learners are involved in real communication, their natural strategies for language acquisition will be used, and this will allow them to learn to use the language.

Practising question forms by asking learners to find out personal information about their colleagues is an example of the communicative approach, as it involves meaningful communication. Classroom activities guided by the communicative approach are characterized by trying to produce meaningful and real communication, at all levels. As a result there may be more emphasis on skills than systems, lessons are more learner-centred, and there may be use of authentic materials.[2]

Communicative approach first was used in 1970’s and it has become ,ore or less standard method for teaching foreign languages, especially in the primary and secondary levels of education. Communicative language teaching makes use of real-life or simulations in order to promote effective language use. The teacher sets up a situation and the students have to perform like they were in real life situation. This enables the teacher to talk less and analyses more listening to the students. As well as, it is much more beneficial for the students, too. “Because of the increased encouragement to participate fully, they gain confidence through direct experience in what they can achieve, motivating them to use the language more frequently and allowing them to learn more quickly” –claims Steve Wheatley. [3]

Above we have just gotten acquainted with the communicative approach in language learning and project works- what they are, how they were formed first and how they can be useful while designing the classes. Now let us mix these two things up together and discuss how they can be used effectively and usefully. As it was mentioned above by the scholars when the project works were started to be used in the classes it boosted both effectiveness in teachers work and students’ performance. Because it enabled them to feel more in real life situation which could not be given by the other previous methods like audiolingual and grammar-translation methods. In those methods the students learned just the grammar and new vocabulary but when it came to establish this knowledge into practice they faced a lot of difficulties as they did not have any experience.

Communicative way of teaching foreign language eliminated this problem noticeably. Since in this method they can imagine themselves in every single situation of the life and learn through it.

As well as, it gives really a lot of important opportunities for the teacher to monitor the erformances of his/her students. The best way of implementing communicative approach into practice is absolutely through project works. For instance, teacher may give the students a project like taking interview from tourists foreign countries about their job satisfaction. In this procedure, first the students will have the opportunity to talk with the native speakers of the language, secondly they can gather a lot of interesting information about jobs and overviews of the foreigners and thirdly they will boost their speaking-listening capability during the project and while defence.

To conclude, project works might give both students and the teachers a treasure of practicing communicative skills as they are full of communication. Teacher can make use of them to be more effective during the classes and monitor the success of their students better. Students can take the advantage of practising their productive skills such as listening and speaking, as well as feeling like they were in the same atmosphere.