The theme of language and the leamer's communicative
needs is a familiar one in language teaching. In recent years
applied linguistics has been revitalized by attempts to describe
how language reflects its communicative uses, and by demonstrations
of how syllabus design and methodology can respond
to the need for communicative uses of language in classrooms
and teaching materials. This paper attempts to contribute
to our general understanding of how language use reflects
underlying communicative needs by considering some central
aspects of communication. Five assumptions about the nature
of verbal communication will be discussed; that communication
is proposition based, conventional, appropriate, interactional
and structured. These will be discussed in relation
to the communicative needs of second or foreign language
learners.
COMMUNICATIVE NEEDS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING
Date:
October 1982
Page No.:
1
Writer(s):
Jack C. Richards, Department of English as a Second Language, University of Hawii at Manoa
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