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In English Language Teaching (ELT), methods and approaches can never exist in
isolation. Language pedagogy is far from any marvel or miracle. Innovative methods and
approaches evolve, and it appears as though cumulative action is at work. The trend towards
change can be spotted with a minute observation; so it is with Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT).
Language serves multipurpose functions. It is a tool for communication, a
resource for creative thought, a framework for understanding the world, a key to new
knowledge and human history, and a source of pleasure and inspiration as well.
The Connections Standard is about linking the study of language and literature to
other disciplines (for example, art, music, film, history, among others) and about getting
students to experience unique viewpoints available only through a particular language and its culture.
This paper argues the importance of analyzing texts (written, oral, visual and
audio-visual) in language teaching. The objective is to give students the chance to
position themselves in relation to distinct perspectives and cultures, and to make
connections between language and other symbolic ways of making meaning, between language
and other disciplines, and between language and culture. These connections are not easy
to make, but they are essential if we are to prepare our students for the broadest range
of language use and allow them to achieve their full communicative potential. The present scenario notices that literature has been ignored for too long and at
the cost of language teaching. "Literature was forgetting its origin as language the
gulf widened with the beliefliterature for the humanist and the language for the
scientist" (Brumfit and Carter, 1986, p. 43). But, literature is by far the best source and means
for teaching language in context and in use. |
