Glossary audiolingual teaching

Approach to learning - learning strategy and the language of choice of teaching methods, implementing such a strategy; point of view on the essence of the subject, which must be taught.

Authentic task. An authentic task is a task carried out in the classroom that has all the characteristics of a real-life task carried out outside the classroom i.e. it is done for a purpose unrelated to language learning, and language is used purely in order to get the task done. Some people are strong advocates of using only authentic tasks in the classroom, while some believe authentic tasks need to be balanced with tasks that focus on language. Others think it is difficult to achieve a truly authentic task in the classroom as the tasks will have been contrived in some way by the teacher. Examples of authentic tasks are project work, carrying out surveys, group presentations.

Bilingual Method (Dodson (1967): this little-known method used in Wales depended on both languages being present in the classroom, in that meaning was conveyed by translation, not word by word but by gist.
Communicative teaching based language teaching on the functions that the second language had for the student and on the meanings they wanted to express, leading to teaching exercises that made the students communicate with each other in various ways. From the mid-1970s onwards this became the most influential way of teaching around the globe, not just for English.

Communicative competence. Communicative competence refers to an ability to communicate that depends not just on linguistic ability but also sociolinguistic ability, including appropriate use of language, management of discourse and recognising cultural practices in communication e.g. who makes eye contact with who. The growing awareness of communicative as opposed to linguistic competence had a big impact on language teaching and was behind the development of the communicative approach.

Community Language Learning (CLL) is a teaching method in which students create conversations in the second language from the outset, using the teacher as a translation resource.

Direct method. A method of language teaching popular until the early 1950s. The method advocated the use of only the target language in the classroom, and the use of student-teacher dialogue supported by visuals such as gestures or photos.