{"id":45813,"date":"2017-06-14T15:42:45","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T19:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/communicative-language-teaching-lesson-plan\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T04:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T09:18:10","slug":"communicative-language-teaching-lesson-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/educator\/communicative-language-teaching-lesson-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Communicative Language Teaching Lesson Plan Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keeping a class engaged and interested is always a challenge.<\/p>\n

This was especially true when it came time for speaking practice<\/a> and classroom conversations\u2014the students were nervous, shy and reluctant to utter sentences.\u00a0It was a struggle to\u00a0even get words out.<\/p>\n

That was until I read about Communicative Language Teaching (CLT),\u00a0which prioritizes competent communication in the target language over rule-based grammar or translation to the native language.<\/p>\n

Want to learn more about how CLT works<\/a> to liven up your classroom?<\/p>\n

Then keep on reading. I’ve got activities and a great CLT lesson plan just waiting for you to use in your next class.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What Is Communicative Language Teaching?<\/h2>\n

CLT developed in the late 1960s, due in part to frustration with existing teaching approaches, which some felt were too focused on the structures and rules of language. They felt that language education should focus instead on the function of language: namely communication.<\/p>\n

Many scholars across the U.K. and the U.S. started to study and propose\u00a0new methods for teaching “communicative competence.”<\/a>\u00a0 One significant development was the Council of Europe’s support<\/a> of this new approach to language teaching.<\/p>\n

Today, different educators may view or use CLT differently<\/a>, but in essence, CLT puts the highest priority on students’ ability to effectively communicate in the target language. So, as with the substitute teacher above, the idea is to get students talking, sharing ideas and engaging authentically with the target language, not just mastering grammar rules.<\/p>\n

Before we explore our sample lesson plan,\u00a0we will take a look at some of the different types of activities you can incorporate into your own CLT lessons.<\/p>\n

Effective Communicative Language Teaching Activities<\/h2>\n

Information Gap Activities<\/h3>\n

The substitute teacher mentioned above used an information gap activity<\/a> to get the students talking. The person with the problem had to gather information to find out why people could not help them. This is a common type of activity to get students talking, because\u00a0that is the point of\u00a0communication\u2014to exchange information.<\/p>\n

The task does not have to be free form, nor does it have to be structured exactly like the substitute teacher’s activity above. Essentially,\u00a0to create one of these activities, you just need to give students an objective that can only be completed by communicating with one another.<\/p>\n

Classic versions of this activity involve giving pairs of students texts or pictures that are each missing different details, so they can work together to fill in all the\u2014you guessed it\u2014information gaps.<\/p>\n

“Spot the difference”<\/a> activities with pictures are also a common information gap activity, particularly with beginner students. For more advanced students, you can create an information scavenger hunt, with a list of questions that Group A\u00a0needs to solve by talking with\u00a0Group B. Here are some example scavenger hunt questions to get you started:<\/p>\n