The Best Communication Approach for 2025: Best Guide to Communicate Effectively

Table of Contents

Communication Approach: Definition, Examples, Process

Introduction

A language is a means of communication. A language is meant by which human beings communicate with each other. Through this process individuals inform each other of their desires, their plans, their feelings about objects, events. To make communication effective the users of language require knowledge of the social meanings of the linguistic forms and their function.

In this article, you would learn about the communication approach to foreign language teaching. This approach is also called the functional approach or the national approach. Some important concepts of this approach are the following:

What is communication approach:

The key idea in this approach is that language is a tool for social communication and to acquire the ability to communicate in a foreign language. The learner must use that language in a real communicative situation.

The advocates of this approach take a functional view of language, i.e as language functions in the society or in a given social situation. Therefore, it is the meaning (the function of the language) which is more important than its form. The message that is to be conveyed has preference over the grammatical pattern of the language. As social situations differ in their nature, the choice of language must vary accordingly. The choice of words and phrases are determined by the given social situation in which the communication is taking place. Many factors are involved in a social situation such as:

Social status of the persons and their mutual relationship in social terms. For instance, whether the communication is taking lace between two friends, or between the employer and an employee etc.
Nature of the event being communicated. Whether it is an alarming event such as the report of a fire in a house, felicitation on success in the examination, the communication of a normal everyday life event.
Getting information from a stranger, asking the way to the railway station or to a bus stop. Similarly giving information about places, time and public amenities etc.
Introducing people at social gatherings and so on

The key pint in the communication approach is that the most appropriate language should be used in every social situation so hat the message is correctly conveyed and the speaker does not cause any annoyance to the listeners. Hence, the emphasis is on the choice of the right words, the right intonation and the right gestures and facial expressions.

How to Create Best Communication Approach:

The followings are the assumptions of the communication approach –

The ability to communicate in a language is best acquired by using that language in a real communication approach.
Communicative ability is usually acquired quite easily and rapidly if practiced in actual life situations, grammatical accuracy on the other hand increases slowly and after gaining a lot of experience in the language.
That a conscious understanding of grammar is a pre-requisite to acquiring communicative competence is a faulty notion. It may be helpful to some students but it cannot be true for all.

Historical Background of Communication Approach:

The communication approach became prominent during the middle of the 1970s. Although there are some other factors which contributed to the development of this approach, the most immediate one was the expansion of the European Common Market.

During 1970s, European Common Market had expanded and there was a growing need to bring the member of the countries closer together. As each country had its own separate language, there arose the problem of effective communication. The council of European Common Market appointed a commission to study the problem and to find its solution.

After examining the situation, the commission put forward the recommendations in practical terms for teaching the foreign language skills which were needed by the adults who wanted to be able to communicate successfully while visiting a foreign country and with foreign visitors who came to their home countries, and to be able to establish social relationships with those whom they come across. These goals were the first ideas of what came to be known as the central concept of communication competence.

How to Develop Communicative Approach Skills:

Among other factors contributing to the development of this approach may be mentioned that the teaching by grammar-based traditional approaches does not produce the ability to communicate efficiently and effectively. The traditional approaches focused on the form of the language, i.e. the grammatical accuracy or linguistic accuracy and neglected the social dimension of the situation in which communication takes place.

The learner is not made conscious of the fact that he should choose the language appropriate to the occasion. As a result of this neglect of the social as well as cultural aspect of the language and undue emphasis on the linguistic correctness, the traditional methods, failed to produce graduates who could make effective communication in the given social situations. The communication approach is an attempt to correct this situation.

Key Factors in the Communication Approach:

The followings are the key factors of the communication approach –

The language form:

This means the grammatical patterns of the language, they are also referred to as linguistic patterns. Hence, the terms grammatical or linguistic competence, i.e. the ability to produce language patterns which are grammatically correct. For instance, “Switch on light is grammatical form”, “Would you mind switching the light on, please”, and “Switch on the light, will you”, are all different grammatical forms.

The language function:

This means the message which a grammatical pattern conveys i.e. the meanings of the language in a social situation. For instance, the above quoted sentences about switching on the light can be spoken in particular situations.

The first sentence would be spoken by a senior person addressed to a person who is junior to him in position. For instance, a bank manager can say this to his peon.

The second sentence can be spoken to a stranger only with whom the speaker has no social relationship and a sort of formality exists between them.

The third sentence can be addressed by a friend to friend between whom there is a degree of frankness.

The point to note here is that each social situation calls for an appropriate form of language. All language forms are not indiscriminately applicable to all situations. In the communication approach, language is chosen keeping the social situation in view. In other words, it is the function of the language which is more important and which determines the form.

Communicative Competence:

This is key concept in this approach. It means that the learner should be competent enough to communicate in the target language most effectively. He should be able to choose the language patterns most appropriate to the context and the situation keeping the social positions of the persons involved in the communication and the character of the event being communicated. This ability to use the language is referred to as communicative competence in the literature. As a matter of fact, to produce communicative competence in the learners is the cherished goal of this approach.

What are the qualities needed for best communication approach:

W. Little Wood, an expert of the communication approach, identified four areas which should be recognized and developed:

Communication approach builds on linguistic competence (grammatical competence). The learner should be able to use the grammatical patterns spontaneously. He should feel at ease in order to express the meanings he wants to convey.
The learner must be able to use the grammatical forms as the functions of the language.
The learner must be able to communicate as effectively and efficiently as possible by assessing how much the other participates in the conversation already know and understand.

Who can make most effective communication approach:

In his book “Communicative Language Teaching” W. Littlewood makes a difference between those who can manipulate grammatical structures of a foreign language and those who are efficient communicators in it. He says – “The most efficient communicator in a foreign language is not always the person who is the best at manipulating its structure”.

It is often the person who is almost skilled at processing the complete situation involving himself and his learner, taking account of what knowledge is already shared between them. When the recommendations of the Council of Europe were translated into the form of syllabus, the items in these language courses were not lists of grammatical categories which the student should learn but rather, lists of things which the learner would be able to do in the target language when he had achieved a specified degree of communicative competence. For example, the learner should be able to:

Ask the way to a bus stop or to a railway station
Give directions for going to a bank or a post office
Introduce his friend at a party.

Conclusion:

It may be summed up that communication approach views language as a tool for cultural situations. The communication approach attaches more importance to the function of the language than to its form. A general feeling prevailed that the traditional approaches did not produce communicative competence in the learners.

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