Communicative Language Teaching in Practice

The first two stages of a research project on the teaching of second languages in Scotland using the communicative approach are reported. In the first stage, 59 language teachers in 20 schools were interviewed concerning their understanding of the notion of communicative competence and its development in the classroom. In the second stage, French instruction was studied in four secondary schools in central Scotland. The first chapter summarizes 15 themes emerging in the teacher interviews. Chapters 2-7 report on the study's second stage, including: analysis of practice foreign language, communicative foreign language, and English-medium teaching activities observed at the four schools; transcriptions and discussion of four role-playing and two simulation activities observed as part of the study; five classroom communicative activities used to convey information about the language or impart background knowledge about French culture in addition to serving communicative purposes; the linguistic features of teacher talk at each school; teacher communication strategies and pupil repair strategies; and functional differentiation in classroom language choice. Supporting materials and a 63-item bibliography are appended. (MSE)