COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH: THE STUDY OF SPOKEN ENGLISH BY SKYPE

Nowadays the communicative approach is considered to be the most effective way of language teaching. This method is widely used by a number of leading language schools in the world. Online foreign language school Skype-language.com also actively uses this very approach while teaching English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Russian as a foreign language.

What is the communicative method all about?

It lays great stress on the importance of developing English communication and listening skills. Moreover, it implies teaching reading, writing, grammar and enrichment of vocabulary.

In other words, the overriding objective of the lessons of English and other languages via Skype is not to provide you with too much abstract knowledge in language. It lies in efforts to make you assimilate the language easily. As a result you will be able to speak grammatically correct straight off the cuff.

The main principles of communicative language teaching will help you speak effective English (or any other foreign language).

The process of learning itself is based on communication. With the help of communicative tasks you can master English conversation skills and it’s considered to be the best way of practice. The types of exercises can be absolutely different. They can start from exchanging information and lead to discussion of abstract philosophical problems. These include talks about economic crisis, global warming, the way women and men drive the car (who is better) or talks about the best and worst movies.

Communication is not seen as committing “useful phrases” to memory. It’s more when the person decides on his or her own what to say and the teacher of English has to prepare him/her for that. These tasks and not only (for example, working out routes, reaching a compromise, choice of the best candidate, planning of an event, preparation of a presentation, radio program and so on) model real life situations. All this allows students to go back to the material learnt before and moreover, to go through and make students realize all their individual language problems.

VOCABULARY. The work on vocabulary is being done at the lessons. English words are assimilated through the natural way. The tasks correspond to your personal experience. Gradually you start enriching your vocabulary list which include a great variety of speech clichés and fixed expressions. After English online lessons it’s just advisable to repeat them.

LISTENING. Eachlessonincludesworkonlisteningskills. Audio activities help you become more skilled at grabbing key words and word combinations out of speech. Apart from that, you will acquire the ability to keep the heard words in mind and form sentences with them.

READING. Training course for practical English communication includes the work on effective reading skills as well. Effective reading skills mean the ability to identify the general idea of the text and the ability to find key information with a limited amount of time.

WRITING. Polishing the writing skills, students are learning how to edit their own texts, complete effective writing in thought mode in a logical and interesting way. Besides, learners are taught international writing styles in order to further work with the written documents like (resume, private, business and email letters, autobiography, etc.)

SPEAKING. A standard work schedule for the general English online lesson via Skype is the following- 70% of talking time is assigned to learners and 30%- to teachers. Different methods of communicative approach allow achieving this plan.

“First learn to swim, then you will get a place filled with water to practise”- this is not an example of the communicative approach.

People in communicative groups already start speaking at the first lesson. The mother tongue appears as extra help only in critical situations and moreover, till the definite level. After you can explain everything with the help of examples, how it would happen if you lived in England or the USA.

The mother tongue functions in the same way. If you do not overload brain with the exact translation of each word you come across, the process of learning will get much easier. The reason for that is because your brain can remember the way it worked when you were small. Analyzing the translation from one language to another causes the language barrier. At the first lessons, it has to be overcome! So, use a “buoy”-our online teacher and jump in the water!

The communicative method works fast and effectively. Try it and make the best of it!

People wishing to know the communicative method and teaching styles of our online tutors of English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese and Russian as a foreign language from Skype-Language, are welcome to book a first trial lesson before paying for the lessons. By means of that, you can see how the method works and later decide if this teaching style suits you.