The importance of clt in the pragmatic development of language learners

CLT as a particularly apt approach for developing pragmatic competence of language learners

It is obvious that the main aim of teaching and learning English is practical which means to have a good language competency. In order to obtain this goal the teachers of foreign language should elect an appropriate teaching methodology which leads learners to achieving a good command of English. “The increased need for pragmatic language skills led to a demand that a stronger link be created between classroom learning and communicative language use, with the goal of making the classroom a meaningful preparation for ‘real-world’ communication” [2,112]. This new approach appeared to the language teaching in the 1970s and 1980s as the answer to different communicative purposes. In traditional methods language learning means the habit formation of grammar and vocabulary of target language, but this new approach supply the learners with other aspects of language which are required to master the target language. These aspects include the aim of the learner-why does he/she learn ENGLISH?; the setting- where does he/she use the language(context which is important in understanding pragmatics)? ; the role of the learner- which role does he/she assume? and also communicative events, notions, language varieties, grammatical and lexical content. Another peculiar feature of CLT is that it emphasizes not only on learning four language skills – listening, speaking, reading, writing but also gives opportunity to advance four communicative competencies of language – linguistic, pragmatic, sociolinguistic and strategic. This language teaching approach is confirmed by many teachers because in CLT the teacher can provide language learners with additional language examples which are essential to show how non-linguistic factors (culture, lifestyle, shared norms, history and other social circumstances) favor meaning construction in human communication. This non-linguistic factors facilitate to pertain true meaning of speech acts in target language in different contexts.

In CLT approach “it is pedagogically coherent to link learning activities closely to the learners’ target uses of the language. Learning by doing has a strong pragmatic justification: learners are involved in developing the skills they will require in given situations of use which means that classroom learning activities can serve as direct skill training in the relevant areas of use.” [2,55]