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JadwigaTopolska-Pado
TheCommunicativeApproachoriginatedintheUKinthe1970sasare-
sponsetovarioushistoricalfactors,butmainlyasareactionagainsttheGrammar-
TranslationandAudio-LingualMethods.TheGrammar-TranslationMethod
madeapointoftranslatingisolatedsentenceswordforwordandoutofcontext
whereastheAudio-LingualMethodreliedheavilyonmonotonousdrillsandpat-
terns.Thedissatisfactionwiththeseasineffectiveanddull,amongotherthings,
ledtotheformulationofanewmethodinlanguageteaching.Someauthors(see
Gabrielatos2001forafulldiscussion)arguethatthemonolingualapproachwas
firstusedinschoolsinformerBritishcoloniesandseeitasimperialisticandop-
pressivetobothlanguagenormsandL1cultures.Needlesstosay,theseviews
refertocountrieswhereEnglishhadbeenoneoftheofficiallanguages.Still,
Iagreethat“itisessentialforELTprofessionalstohaveahistoricalperspective
ofattitudes,approachesandmethodswhichhaveinfluencedELTdecisionsand
practicesworldwide”(Gabrielatos2001:6).
TheCommunicativeApproachassumedthattheuseofL1andtranslation
shouldbeabandonedentirelyandstudentsshouldbeexposedtothetargetlan-
guageallthetime.L2shouldbetheobjectandthemediumofinstructioninorder
forthelearningprocesstoreflectnaturalisticlanguageacquisition.Theemphasis
wasonthedevelopmentofallfourskillsandachievingtheaimofcommunica-
tion,ratherthangrammaticalcorrectnessandaccuracy.
Althoughmanyothermethods,approachesandcombinationsofapproaches
havesprungupsincethen,in21st-centuryEuropetheCommunicativeApproachis
stillthemainstreammethodology.Thisismainlyduetoourgeographicalandcul-
turalclosenesstotheUK.Unliketeachersinsomeremotecountrieswithdissimi-
larcultures,forexampleJapan,HongKongorTaiwan,wheretheCommunicative
Approachisnotapplied,EuropeanteachersaredirectlyaffectedbythewholeELT
industry:Britishspeakerscometolectureatconferencesandinstructnon-native
teachers,Britishpublishersdominatethetextbookmarket,andBritishteachers
areemployedinschoolsoutsidetheUK.
BeingthetrendiestmethodologyinEurope,theCommunicativeApproachhas
slowlybutsteadilygrownintoasortofprevailingideology,leavingnumbersof
teachersfeelinguncomfortable,illateaseorevenliterallyguiltyofsiniftheydo
makeuseofL1inanykindofteachingsituation(Buckmaster2000,Gabrielatos
2001,KoppeandKremer2007,Owen2002).ItisbelievedthatL1intheclass-
roomisalwaysabadthing.UsingL1issimplyagainstoursenseofgoodteaching
practice,becauseweunderstandthatitfailstoprovideforourstudents’likely
needsandassuchitisirresponsibleandunprofessional.Consequently,most
teachersarenotwillingtodiscusstheissueopenlywiththeircolleagues,tosay
nothingoftheirinstructorsorlessonobservers.Sometimeseventhementionof
L1isenoughtobringdisapprovalandthereisnoroomforunbiaseddiscussion.
Yet,intherealmsofacademicresearchadebateontheissueoftheuseor
non-useofL1intoday’sclassroomshasbeengoingforsometime.Themain
argumentagainsttheuseofL1inaclasswhereallstudentsspeakthesamenative
