COMMUNICATIVE TEACHING: METHODS AND PRACTICES IN TEACHING ENGLISH AT LOWER SECONDARY STUDENTS

Jeremy Harmer discusses the nature of communication and its relevance to various stages of learning. He emphasizes the importance of integrating skills, discusses the differences and similarities in learning to speak and write. There are some generalizations that we can make about the majority of communicative events and these will have particular relevance for the learning and teaching of foreign languages for very young learners The basic aim of foreign language teaching is to endow the students with linguistic competence to help them adapt to the necessities of society, to use the language functionally in order to achieve the expected effect. Teachers should cover a multitude of linguistic areas and skills in an integrated way. They also must use methods and techniques to make classroom activities became efficient only if the students are involved in the interaction and participate actively. This paper will focus on several methods and strategies which made English teaching attractive at the lower secondary school students. In spite of his/her apparently secondary role, the teacher's importance is not diminished within communicative classes. No longer a central figure in the classroom, the teacher is still a source of guidance and help, a psychological support (especially for those who are slow to develop independence), sometimes a co-participant in the communicative act, but never, under any circumstances, should s/he become a dominating figure.