Reconsidering Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): Insights from Magnan (2007)

This study reconsiders Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in Japan from Magnan (2007) and from the current issues in CLT in the U.S. where recent federal legislation，such as No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)，and private sector national guidelines，such as The National Standards for Foreign Language Education (ACTFL，1996)，have been put into effect. There have been some critical views of CLT-oriented English instruction in Japan mainly on the grounds that (1) there is more emphasis on fluency and communicative ability rather than accuracy，(2) high tolerance for student errors，and (3) the diminished emphasis on English grammar. Many Japanese teachers of English at junior high schools were sometimes skeptical on students' communicative competence and their grammatical knowledge in English language with spending too much in the language activities. "Are they really effective for developing international understanding and grammatical knowledge for the students under the ostensible basis on CLT?" This is the crux of the issue in CLT in Japan. There have also been critical views in CLT in the U.S. for the past decade due to the national goals in NCLB Act and ACTFL. Magnan (ibid) claims that students cannot accomplish these demanding goals under CLT-oriented instruction，due to Hyme's notion of "communicative competence" where meaning is bound to a particular discourse in a particular community. She claims the limit of CLT，suggesting seven possible routes toward the effective world language instruction in the U.S. In light of the insight from Magnan (ibid)，this study suggests "Virtual Society" with the use of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning). By introducing CALL to English classrooms，we could create a leaming environment where Japanese EFL students could contribute actively to meaningful exchanges and explore their intemational understanding to a certain extent with real-world tasks. At the same time，this could also promote autonomous learning for the students outside the classes