QUESTION:

Submitted by SM Hosseini, Iran

We have only a session (75 minutes) in a week to teach English in junior schools and are asked to use CLT as the approach? What is your view?

DR RICHARDS RESPONDS:

It is not possible to learn a language with only 75 minutes a week of

classroom input. Under those circumstances very specific and restricted

targets should be established, in terms of what is reasonable to expect

in terms of vocabulary acquisition, reading, and so on. CLT is a general

approach that is based on the principle that one learns a language

through communication and that classroom activities should involve

interaction and communication through English. However a reasonable

level of proficiency is needed before this is possible so it would be

unrealistic to expect CLT principles to be very effective in these

circumstances. Perhaps reading ability would be a more realistic goal.