CLL Reflection.

Hello guys. Here I am today reflecting on CLL.

Communicative language teaching is an effective method which is being used in foreign and second language teaching environments. It is an applicable method because it serves a communicative aspect to the language teaching and this is very important for the students in this environment in terms of gaining communicative skills. By this method fluency comes to surface by saving the language learning from bombarded accuracy aspect. By giving more importance to the communicative aspect of language, the students can perform intensive communicative skills and professionalize the fluency of the language they are learning. However, even though this enlightened way of teaching language has so many benefits, it should be applied appropriately in order to be effective and successful. For example, because it is a new trend in the EFL context, the teachers in Albania are afraid of applying it their lessons because they do not have enough education to perform the necessities of it and they mostly conflict that the student type and the activities do not suit while applying the CLT method. Moreover, there are curriculum issues and the books supplied by the state are not based on the CLT method, so the teachers are always frustrated when they cannot apply the theory in practice. That is a big problem of EFL context in Albania. For example, when a teacher tries to apply group work so as to make the students learn in a communicative environment, the students think that they are not doing anything related to the lesson, but it is just a game spending the important time just for the sake of unimportant things, so the students have also problems stemming from their habits to learn grammar deductively and explicitly. Furthermore, they find the CLT methods insufficient for their future because their knowledge will not be evaluated by that method, but by testing in state examinations. By these situations, we can understand that even though CLT continue to survive as a beneficial and effective method, there are still concerns about it, especially in Albania. Another misconception of CLT is about the aspect of grammar, the teacher think that CLT is lack of teaching grammar and it is just a facilitator to teach grammar, it cannot be an end. However, it is not the case because CLT defends that grammar should be taught inductively and implicitly, so group work can help to teach the grammar inductively in an interactive way. I think when the CLT method is used appropriate, it manages to be an end to teach grammar very effectively and the students can comprehend the structures implicitly, so this can help them for long term learning. All in all, by examining these misconceptions we can say that CLT is a method that can be improved day by day and applied all the aspects of teaching because of the needs of the new trend students, the curricula and language learning itself.

See you next week! Xx