Contribution of Classroom towards the Development of Communication Language Teaching in Sri Lanka. (With Special Reference to Kurunegala District)

Abstract

Most of language teachers (Sinhala, Tamil and English) claim to have made use of communicative methodology in their classroom. Communicative Language Teaching can be understood as a simple set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a language, kinds of classroom activities which best facilitate learning, and the roles of teacher and learners in the classroom. Language Teaching aims to teach communicative competence of which this includes several aspects, such as: knowing how to use language for a range of different purposes and functions knowing how to vary our use of language according to the setting and the participants (e.g., knowing when to use formal and informal speech or when to use language appropriately for written as opposed to spoken communication). The purpose of this research is to study the nature of contribution of classroom towards the development of communicative language teaching in Sri Lanka. The selection of the sample involved in the selection of 10 schools in Kurunegala district and the selection of students and Language Teacher’s in those Schools. Due to time and other constraints it was necessary to limit the sample for 10 schools in one district. Based on Attendance lists maintained by these schools, in order to give a fair chance to all, using simple random sampling method 05 students were selected to administer the questionnaire 1. The second questionnaire was administered among the language teachers of each school. (Two Language Teachers were selected by those schools according to the recommendation of principal.) Studies on the Communicative Language Teaching is one of the key research areas in the field of Linguistics. The analysis of data revealed the following major findings: School Class room has been playing a vital role in the promotion of language teaching in Sri Lanka .Translations of short passages into the Mother Tongue can be turned into an imaginative and highly interactive exercise to Develop Bilingual Language Ability. Interaction between the learner and users of the language is important to understand the language in a good manner. Creating meaningful and purposeful interaction through language is the most successful way to make a good language user. Also negotiation of meaning as the learner and his or her interlocutor arrive at understanding and learning through attending to the feedback learners get when they use the language. Trying out and experimenting with different ways of saying things is the easiest way to become familiar with any Language Teacher’s need Good Practice about Communicative Language teaching.