THE VARIETY OF CLT

The influence of CLT has spread to the Asian countries where English has been taught as second or foreign language teaching as well as the development of CLT modification. One of its versions is Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT). As Richard point out that ‘both task-based and content-based instruction is an extension of the CLT movement but which take different routes to achieve the goals of communicative language teaching-to develop learners’ communicative competence’. While Nunan ( in Littlewood, 2007:243) reveals that CLT is an overarching concept ( a broad, philosophical approach to the language curriculum which task-based language teaching represents a realization at the level of syllabus design and methodology. Furthermore Littlewood argues that TBLT as ‘a development of  within the communicative approach’, in which the crucial feature is that communicative ‘task’  serve not only as major components of the methodology but also as unit around which a course may be organized. Furthermore, Nunan (1999) defines TBLT as “an approach to the design of language courses in which the point of departure is not an ordered list of linguistic items, but a collection of task.  In other words, TBLT has the same purposes in equipping students with communicative ability. However, TBLT, focus on tasks experience whereas CLT concerns with fluency based-activities that motivates learner to develop their self-confidence and language function.

The second version of CLT is notional-functional syllabus. A notional functional syllabus is a way of conducting learning and teaching curriculum than a method or approach to teaching. According to Brown (1994) ‘in a notional functional-syllabus, the instruction is not organized in terms of grammatical structure as had often been done with the ALM, but in terms of notions and functions’. In this pattern, notion refers to the context where the speakers begin communicating whereas a function is much more dealt with the specific purpose of conducting communication. For example, a context of hotel relates with numerous language functions such as asking for hotel booking, asking or order menus, asking for hotel location. Based on this reasoning it can be revealed that notion and function in language are means of developing teaching materials which encourage students to explore their ideas beyond the classroom situation. As a foreign language teacher, notional functional-syllabus may be applied based on the curriculum goals. In addition, it is also relevant if applying in English for Specific Purpose class (ESP) such as English for bar and tourism, English for nursing, and English for banking. In addition, latest versions of CLT assume that communicative language use cannot be learned through individual sentences isolated from broader communicative context.