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language skills separately by stressing “skill orientation and rote memorization,
where teachers pay a great deal of attention to reading and writing instruction.”
Another problem that Su sees with the lessons that stick to the Traditional Approach
is that those “are teacher-centered and emphasize linguistic over communicative
competence.” This represents a problem since the ultimate
goal of the language
classroom is communication.Su also states that instruction tends to be skill-oriented,
emphasizing the acquisition of hierarchically arranged skills, with the teacher acting
as the central authority. Students are viewed as passive participants.
As Su (2003) states in Su this traditional teaching procedure decreases
students‟ motivation and interest in learning English. Students are encouraged to
identify a large number of individual words, idioms, and grammatical structures to
enhance their language competence rather than use the language for real
communicative purposes.
2.2.
Authentic communication
Authentic communication refers to the use of English in oral or written
speeches, which is important because it is widely accepted “that being able to
interact with others through the medium of English is of crucial importance in
today‟s world”(Senior, 2011). Therefore, Authentic Communication can be defined
as the situation in which “students
share personal information, anecdotes,
feelings,opinions,cultural information and so on” (Senior, 2011).
Considering this,the reaction of the teacher when the student communicates
authentically is very important. The teacher is expected to demonstrate genuine
interest on what the student expresses, and not only
notice if the accuracy of
students‟ speech is correct. It is important for students to know that the teacher
values what they are saying, especially in the case of shy students. If they receive a
positive response towards their speech, their self esteem can improve and they may
feel more confident to continue to express their opinions.
A very important aspect on this topic for teachers to consider is that they
cannot “force (…) students to communicate authentically: it must happen in a
natural and organic way” (Senior, 2011). As long as they see that their classmates
share ideas, and considering the reaction of the teacher towards this, they will feel
confident enough to express their
own opinions, whether orally or in writing.
The topics discussed during the lesson also contribute to create an
environment as authentic as possible, affecting the body language of speakers and
listeners “the speakers becoming more intense and eager, and the listeners more alert
and attentive, perhaps even leaning forward to hear what the speaker is saying”
(Senior, 2011).
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“Some teachers believe that it‟s important to control all communication that
occurs in language classrooms, because when left to their own devices, students will
make significant numbers of linguistic errors. To a certain extent they‟re right. It‟s
very difficult for students to focus on both content and form at the same time. Often,
when authentic communication is taking place, students struggle to find the words
to express what they want to say. They often use creative,
non-standard ways of
conveying meaning: gestures, imitation, paraphrasing, circumlocution,
analogies
and so on. In these circumstances, accuracy tends to fly out of the window. But this
doesn‟t matter: we can focus on accuracy at other points in our lessons” (Senior,
2011).
To sum up, teacher can take advantage of students‟ natural eagerness to share
ideas and demonstrate what they know. This natural desire can be used as an
effective tool that will contribute to create an environment in which students feel
free to express themselves, and that can help them to develop both their receptive
and productive skills, since the objective of language is to communicate real and
meaningful things and considering that the more
teachers allow authentic
communication within the classroom, the more motivated students will become.
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