Enhancing positive effects for the communicative + language teaching activities in English classrooms Nguyen Van M

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM TP HỒ CHÍ MINH 
TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC 
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE
ISSN: 
1859-3100 
KHOA HỌC GIÁO DỤC 
Tập 16, Số 8 (2019): 216-226 
EDUCATION SCIENCE
Vol. 16, No. 8 (2019): 216-226
 Email: tapchikhoahoc@hcmue.edu.vn; Website:  
216 
Research Article 
ENHANCING POSITIVE EFFECTS FOR THE COMMUNICATIVE+ 
LANGUAGE TEACHING ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH CLASSROOMS 
Nguyen Van My 
Ho Chi Minh City University of Education 
 Corresponding author: Nguyen Van My – Email: nguyenvanmy@hcmue.edu.vn 
Received: April 10, 2019; Revised: July 13, 2019; Accepted: July 18, 2019 
ABSTRACT 
Nowadays, most English teachers have widely applied the Communicative Language Teaching 
activities (the CLT activities) in English classrooms as a foreign language (EFL) because of their 
outstanding effectiveness. In spite of having many benefits for learning and teaching English, 
activities in CLT also have problems with mixed-level students, un-motivated students and large class 
sizes, as well as lack of language environment for foreign language acquisition. This article is about 
how to enhance the positive effect for the CLT activities by using technology equipment. In this 
article, the author reviews the crucial theory of the improvement effects for the CLT activities, and 
therefrom practical activities are designed to teach English speaking skills. 
Keywords: Communicative Language Teaching activities, mixed – level learners, student’s 
learning motivations, technology equipment. 
1. Introduction 
Understandably, most English teachers around the world have applied the CLT 
activities in EFL classrooms. Many experts, however, have claimed that as mixed – level 
learners, some of the learners may obtain more benefits from these tasks than others. In 
addition, other critics have argued that the CLT activities are not enough to acquire a target 
language (L2) because they are implemented only within a “monolingual community”. 
As mentioned by Manag (2007), “within that wider community, we would need to 
create a learning environment in which the classroom was less rigidly defined so that 
students could reach into the target communities and contribute actively to meaningful 
exchanges there”. Therefore, students should be immersed in target communities and 
consequently, they would gain communicative competence in real-world situations. 
It is obvious that linguistic environment plays an important role in the development of 
language skills for non-native learners while acquiring foreign languages. According to 
Cite this article as: Nguyen Van My. (2019). Enhancing positive effects for the communicative language 
teaching activities in English classrooms. Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Journal of Science, 16(8), 
216-226. 
Tạp chí Khoa học Trường ĐHSP TPHCM Nguyen Van My 
217 
Wang (2009), for the children, when exposure to the different languages, they not only 
acquire their first language but also can acquire the foreign language. For those abroad or 
mixed with speakers of another language, they have a pressing desire to communicate and 
to get their meaning across. They have many opportunities to speak and experiment with the 
language. 
In other words, it is important for all learners to immerse in the target language (L2) 
because non-native learners might have opportunities to practice interactively the target 
language skills. However, most of the recent EFL classrooms often have poor language 
environment condition for learners. Perhaps, adopting technology equipment in teaching 
English is the best solution to these aforementioned problems because of several following 
arguments. 
Min (2013) proposes that the use of multimedia technology motivates students to learn 
English. Instead of the traditional teaching methods that are unpopular and less effective in 
the English language classrooms, multimedia technology, with the help of audio, visual and 
animation effects, motivates students to learn English quickly and effectively. In addition, 
with such features as abundant-information and crossing time and space, multimedia 
technology creates a real-life or native speaking country context for English language 
teaching. 
It must be said in conclusion that the development of technology in this era makes 
positive benefits for teaching English as a foreign language. In addition, it will certainly 
continue to have more enormous achievements in the future. What follows is a general 
overview of the approach of enhancing positive effects for an English lesson applied the 
CLT activities, including some features of the CLT activities, as well as effectively raising 
student motivations by adopting technology equipment keeping up with the Industry 4.0. 
2. Literature review 
2.1. Understanding of the communicative language teaching activity 
A lot of attempts have been made to provide an insight into the definition of the 
communicative language teaching activity. According to Harmer (2010), “activities in CLT 
typically involve students in real or realistic communication, where the successful 
achievement of the communicative tasks they are performing is at least as important as the 
accuracy of their language use”. 
In his introduction to classroom activities in the CLT, Richards (2006) shows that the 
CLT activities in classrooms includes two general types – “activities focusing on fluency” 
and “activities focusing on accuracy”. In detail, activities focusing on fluency which reflect 
natural use of language, focus on achieving communication, require meaningful use of 
language, and produce language that may not be predictable. By contrast, activities focusing 
on accuracy which reflect classroom use of language, focus on the formation of correct 
examples of language, practice language out of context, or control choice of language. 
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Furthermore, Richards (2006) also divides activities in CLT into three different kinds 
of practice – mechanical, meaningful, and communicative. Following this, mechanical 
practice refers to a controlled practice activity which students can successfully carry out 
without necessarily understanding the language they are using. Meanwhile, meaningful 
practice refers to an activity where language control is still provided but where students are 
required to make meaningful choices when carrying out practice. In addition, communicative 
practice refers to activities where practice in using language within a real communicative 
context is the focus, where real information is exchanged, and where the language used is 
not totally predictable. 
In 2001, Richards & Rodgers mention the major activity types – functional 
communication activities and social interaction activities in the communicative language 
teaching. According to these authors, functional communication activities include such tasks 
as learners comparing sets of pictures and noting similarities and differences; working out a 
likely sequence of events in a set of pictures; discovering missing features in a map or 
picture; one learner communicating behind a screen to another learner and giving 
instructions on how to draw a picture or shape, or how to complete a map; following 
directions; and solving problems from shared clues. Social interaction activities include 
conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues and role plays, simulations, skits, 
improvisations, and debates. 
2.1.1. Advantages of the communicative language teaching activity 
As mentioned by Richards (2006), most of the CLT activities involving pair and group 
work, have many benefits for EFL students. In the grouping activities, students can learn 
when listening to other students in the group. Students are able to produce more output that 
they would utter in teacher-centered instruction, they can be engaged in speech because they 
feel more comfortable speaking to their peers, and they can develop fluency. 
In their seminal paper of 2004, Nguyen & Nguyen suggest that the communicative 
approach has the ability to help learners study and practice not only communicative skills 
but also grammar patterns. Besides, these authors claimed that communicative lessons are 
more effective than grammar-translation lessons in helping learners raise their ability to 
produce statements correctly and appropriately. Learners were more motivated when they 
experienced more interesting and active communicative grammar lessons than their friends 
did in the control class. 
The implementation of CLT has brought a lot of advantages for Teaching English as a 
foreign or a second language. As concluded by Richards (2006), unlike audio-lingual and 
grammar-translation methods, communicative teaching emphasis on “task-oriented, student-
centered” language teaching practice and creates a positive environment for the classroom 
activities such as group discussion, subject discussion and debates, which can other more 
opportunities for communication among students and between teachers and students. In 
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other words, it makes the “linguistic environment” for students to practice the four English 
skills. 
2.1.2. Disadvantages of the communicative language teaching activity 
When discussing problems of the communicative language teaching activity in English 
classrooms, Thamarana (2015) have come to the conclusion that activities in the CLT 
approach are great for intermediate students and advanced students, but for beginners, some 
controlled practice is needed. According to the author, students with low levels of 
proficiency in the target language may find it difficult to participate in oral communicative 
activities and, if the exams used by any institution are grammar based, communicative 
fluency may not be appropriate. 
In addition, Richards (2014) concludes that the unfavorable class-size, especially, 
classes of 50 or more students are very popular in some countries making opportunities for 
authentic communication difficult. Large class sizes tend to favor receptive activities 
involving reading and listening because they are less demanding and time-consuming for the 
teacher than productive activities involving speaking and writing in pairs or groups. 
As a result, the teacher-centered instruction that does not provide students with critical 
unrehearsed language practice and individual attention. The combination of grammar-based 
instruction, the limited oral interaction of students in the class, and inadequate opportunities 
to speak English outside of class with foreigners or to travel abroad does not support the 
development of communicative competence. 
Another problem is the fact that students may feel too shy or embarrassed to speak in 
class or perform in front of an audience, especially in English. “This type of performance 
anxiety and other feelings students have in the language learning process have long been an 
important consideration in ELT” (Harmer, 2010, p. 91). 
2.2. Solutions to the problems of the communicative language teaching activity in 
English classrooms 
In the following section, some of the solutions to these problems, including raising 
student motivations and applying the technology equipment in English classrooms, will 
particularly be provided. This attempt is best wished to enhance the positive effects for the 
communicative language teaching activities in English classrooms. 
2.2.1. Raising student motivations 
We absolutely know that an effective English lesson depends not only on the teaching 
approach but also on student learning motivation. A reasonable explanation for this argument 
may be that when students come to class, they bring with them their own personalities and 
their own learning expectations. “Their behaviors will also be influenced by their current 
circumstances and by what happens in the lessons. There is always, as well as, the possibility 
of interpersonal tensions between students, or between students and their teacher” (Harmer, 
2015, p. 93). 
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Harmer (2015) also mentions that writers on motivation divided the motivations into 
extrinsic and intrinsic. In particular, extrinsic motivation is from outside the leaners 
themselves and may, for example, be provoked by the need- or the desire – to pass an exam, 
or by the fact that the learner has a trip to a foreign country and needs to get their language 
up to a communicatively efficient level. In addition, intrinsic motivation is described as a 
“passion for learning” and “a sense of competence while performing challenging tasks”. 
Students who are intrinsically motivated are driven by a desire to succeed in class and by 
what happens in the lesson. 
Therefore, the primary function of teachers’ management role is to motivate the 
learners who are demotivated and to nurture who are already well motivated to the task of 
learning a foreign language. 
2.2.2. Applying the technology equipment in English classrooms 
Today, one of the most popular personal devices is the mobile phone which can be 
used for recording and playing multimedia contents. Students can greatly benefit from 
having a camera on the cell phones for documenting visual materials and collecting scientific 
data. Additionally, browsing with cell phones is one convenient way for students to surf 
online. Most of the modern mobile phones are incorporated with browsing applications such 
as Opera Mini, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome. Mobile 
phones have the downloading feature which can be used by students and tutors to download 
various kinds of materials through their mobile phones easily. Teachers can download video 
through their mobile phones and present them to students through a TV set available in the 
classrooms. 
In order to create a linguistic environment for foreign language acquisition, one of the 
effective solutions is to use English videos available on the Internet in the English lesson. 
According to Harmer (2015), watching films can help students see how intonation matches 
facial expression and what gestures accompany certain phrases. Following this way, students 
can adjust themselves their pronunciation followed the English speakers. 
Along with the problems of the CLT activities, including mixed-level students, 
unmotivated students, and large class sizes, English teachers might use tape recorders or 
other audio recording devices in helping students overcome their difficulties in the English 
speaking skills front of the class. According to Armstrong (2000), tape recorders or other 
audio recording devices, including some software, are among the most valuable learning 
tools in any classroom. This is because they offer students a medium through which to learn 
about their linguistic powers and help them employ verbal skills to communicate, solve 
problems, and express inner feelings. 
The most noticeable feature of Industry 4.0 is the development of Artificial 
Intelligence (AI). The AI is applied popularly in many fields of modern life, including 
aspects of the English language because of its special effects. According to Hilfer (2018), 
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“AI and machine learning have great potential to provide targeted speaking practice for many 
adult learners. Machine learning has long been the cornerstone of speech recognition for the 
automation of speaking instruction and targeted pronunciation training.” 
As mentioned above, students may feel embarrassed to speak or perform in front of 
the class, especially in English classrooms. Fortunately, Artificial intelligence might be the 
best solution in this situation. McClure (2018) points out that the AI enables the digital 
courseware to address the individual needs of learners at a level that is difficult to achieve 
in a classroom. In particular, the AI allows students to choose appropriately English courses 
for their individual needs, as well as identifies students’ weaknesses so that they receive 
extra presentation and practice of those concepts and content. 
From some above illustrations, engaging the technology equipment in English 
classrooms is the effective solution to the problems of the CLT activities. In addition, we 
can conclude that a noticeable challenge for English teachers is to use effectively advantages 
of technology equipment in teaching English keeping up with the Industry 4.0. 
3. Procedure 
The following is to describe a particular lesson using mobile phones and social 
networks to support the implementation of the CLT activities in English classrooms. In this 
situation, students will work in groups and complete a learning project (making a video about 
their family). 
3.1. Background information 
Learning objectives: The purpose of the lesson is for students to 
 Improve the four English skills, but speaking skills is in priority 
 Work in groups of five or seven students 
 Make a speech in about 10 – 15 minutes 
Student level: The lesson should take place after students had exposure to the basic 
structure of the English language, including the descriptive adjectives, and simple sentence 
structures. The lesson is best used in the context of pre-intermediate English language 
learners 
Class size: The lesson can be implemented in large sized classes from 30 to 40 students 
Organization: individual, groups, and the whole class 
Language focus: Descriptive adjectives, Simple sentence structures 
Alternatives: Review on the English tenses, including the present tenses and past 
simple tense 
Teaching method: Communicative language teaching (CLT), including main activities 
such as Task-completion activities, Opinion-sharing activities, Information-transfer 
activities, Roleplays, or Project-based activities 
Technology equipment: Mobile phones, social networks, and apps for teaching and 
learning English 
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3.2. The implementation of the lesson in English classrooms 
Particularly, the lesson might be implemented following steps 
Step 1: Teachers divide the class into groups. In each group includes from 5 to 7 
students 
Directions to Students: Work in groups of five to seven students 
1 The topic for this lesson is Talking about your family 
2 Each person in the group must have a job to do. Using Table 1, write the names of 
everyone in the group and what each person will do 
Table 1. The task template of each student in groups 
Name: What this person will do: 
A 
B 
C 
Step 2: In the class, teachers show video models of native speakers about this topic. 
Similar videos are available on the Internet, retrieved from some websites 
( or www.youtube.com). Teachers can choose some of them that are 
suitable for the learning content of the lesson. Based on what students saw in the video, they 
can outline something necessary to complete in this project, as well as practice their listening 
skills 
Step 3: In the class, teachers ask students to practice in pairs. In this way, students 
create dialogues following some available questions provided by the teacher 
 Where are you from? 
 How many people are there in your family? 
 What does your father/mother/sister look like? 
 What is your father/mother/sister like? 
 What activities do you often do with your family? 
This activity enables students to practice interactively their speaking skills in pairs 
before they work in groups to complete their projects (making a video about their family at 
home). 
Step 4: Individ