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Rethinking Communicative Language‐Teaching: Reflection and the EFL Classroom
Author(s) -
TARVIN WILLIAM L.,
ALARISHI ALI YAHYA
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
tesol quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.737
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1545-7249
pISSN - 0039-8322
DOI - 10.2307/3587026
Subject(s) - contemplation , reflection (computer programming) , communicative language teaching , action (physics) , psychology , process (computing) , task (project management) , pedagogy , mathematics education , language education , epistemology , computer science , philosophy , engineering , programming language , physics , systems engineering , quantum mechanics , operating system
The contention of this paper is that many activities in the communicative language teaching (CLT) classroom discourage reflection or contemplation. The first part of this paper analyzes the prominence in CLT of phenomenalistic and intuitive activities which, with their emphases on conspicuous action and spontaneous response, suggest a proclivity to a nonreflective view of language acquisition. The second part, making use of what philosophers and psychologists have concluded about reflection, examines when, how, and why a person reflects. The last part of the paper discusses three types of CLT activities which could encourage reflection: task‐oriented, process‐oriented, and synthesis‐oriented. The conclusion is that more activities centered around reflective thinking should be incorporated in ESL/EFL classrooms to supplement the valuable phenomenally and intuitively oriented activities.