时间：2022-10-09 11:55:28
Abstract： In English teaching， teachers should help students to overcome many problems by useful teaching method. The author mainly discusses the difference between the two methods by the historical background， origin， function and role. Both SLT and CLT can be used to teach English， but we need to compare them， evaluate them and adapt principles that suit to our own teaching situation best.
Key words： English teaching， Situational Language Teaching， Communicative Language Teaching， students’ problems
The origins of Communicative Language Teaching （CLT） are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s. Until then， Situational Language Teaching（STL） represented the major British approach to teaching English as a foreign language. In Situational Language Teaching， language was taught by practicing basic structures in meaningful situation-based activities. But just as the linguistic theory underlying Audiolingualism was rejected in the United States in the mid-1960s， British applied linguists began to call into question the theoretical assumptions underlying Situational Language Teaching. This was partly a response to the sorts of criticisms the prominent American linguist Noam Chomsky had leveled at structural linguistic theory in his now classic book Syntactic Structures. Chomsky had demonstrated that the current standard structural theories of language were incapable of accounting for the fundamental characteristic of language—the creativity and the uniqueness of individual sentences. British applied linguists emphasized another fundamental dimension of language that was inadequately addressed in current approaches to language teaching at that time—the functional and communicative potential of language.
Situational language teaching
Reading and writing are introduced once a sufficient lexical and grammatical basis is established， while Situational Language teaching uses a structural syllabus and a word list. Structures are always taught within sentences， and vocabulary is chosen according to how well it enables sentence patterns to be taught. The practice techniques employed generally consist of guided repetition and substitution activities， including chorus repetition， dictation， drills， and controlled oral-based reading and writing tasks.
Communicative language teaching
Communicative language teaching assumes that language teaching will reflect the particular needs of the target learners. These needs may be in the domains of reading， listening， writing， or speaking. And each of the former skills can be approached from a communicative perspective.
The comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of SLT &CLT in teaching
In university English teaching， many freshmen are shy and don’t want to communicate with each other in the process of teaching. They also don’t want to recite new words and rules of new grammar. So being as English teacher， we have to make students speak English as often as possible， and make then have the ability to learn by themselves. Generally speaking， English speaking proficiency can only be acquired in the process of speaking English students communicative ability can not be learned simply by means of reading materials and studying grammars. It needs much practice. Therefore， the only way is to make efforts to get the class going on in English.
Moreover， English teacher should make students be center. In situational Language teaching， Reading and writing are introduced once a sufficient lexical and grammatical basis is established， while Situational Language teaching uses a structural syllabus and a word list. Structures are always taught within sentences， and vocabulary is chosen according to how well it enables sentence patterns to be taught. The practice techniques employed generally consist of guided repetition and substitution activities， including chorus repetition， dictation， drills， and controlled oral-based reading and writing tasks. Since the purpose of teaching a foreign language is to enable the learners to use it， and then it must be heard， spoken， read， and written in suitable realistic situations. Neither translation nor mechanical drills can help if they are not connected with practical life. The situational language teaching methods focused on the need to practice language in meaningful situation-based activities.
By contrast， teachers in communicative classrooms will find themselves talking less and listening more. The teacher has two main roles： the first role is to facilitate the communicative process between all participants in the classroom， and between the various activities. The second role is to act as an independent participant within the language-teaching group. The teachers set up the exercise， but the students’ performance is the goal. So， the teachers must step back and observe， sometimes acting as a monitor. A classroom during a communicative activity is not quiet. The students do most of the speaking， and the classroom during a communicative exercise is active. To participate， students may find they gain confidence in using the target language. Students are more responsible mangers of their own learning. Thus creativity is incorporated into communicative competency. Focusing purely on language form i.e. syntactic structures was considered too narrow. Communicative language teaching therefore seeks to bring learners into closer contact with authentic language examples together with the promotion of fluency over accuracy.
Conclusion
By creatively adopting CLT and SLT principles and activities， an English teacher may be able to solve problems in various teaching situations， such as students’ reluctance to talk in English. However， none of teaching approach is a cure-all that is sufficient enough to be used as the sole basis of teaching， and we must subtract the essence out of each teaching approach and apply it creatively to our own teaching situation. Both SLT and CLT can be used to teach oral English， but we need to compare them， evaluate them and adapt principles that suit to our own teaching situation best. Every teacher should find a best teaching method that will give students most benefits.
References：
Howatt， A. （1984）. A history of English language teaching. Oxford： Oxford University Press.
Richards， J.， & Rodgers， T. （2001）. Approaches and methods in language Teaching （2nd ed.）. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press