Bridging Technologically the Past and the Present of Communicative English Language Teaching

International Conference on Quality in Higher Education. ICQH 2013 , Sakarya, Türkiye, 12 - 14 Aralık 2013, ss.158-170, (Tam Metin Bildiri)

Effective English Language Teaching practice has an important place in Higher Education in

Turkey. English proficiency gained enormous momentum not only in higher education, but

also in other sectors of society. The global world presupposes that we participate and

communicate in international networks for a variety of daily transactions. Yet, in Turkey, we

still have many language learners who are unable to attain fluent English proficiency required

of today’s world despite years of English language instruction. In an attempt to tackle this

issue, this paper aims to find new methodologies that can respond to the increasing need for

learning English. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is analysed as an effective

language teaching methodology. CLT has been adopted by many English language educators

and teachers throughout the world especially nowadays, because globalized world

prerequisites that we use English effectively in various communicative situations. This

encourages us to have a close look at CLT in the past and present to update this methodology

for the modern day context. With the changing face of technology, it is imperative to present

language learners to various technological tools in their language learning process.

Technology can be integrated into CLT methodologies so as to build a competent language

teaching pedagogy. Emergence of CLT will be contextualized historically, and thus, its

theoretical and practical promises will be re-examined. Looking into what worked and failed

historically in CLT English methodologies will imply future insights into language teaching

practices. We strive to draw on scholarly research supporting technologically informed CLT

methodologies to provide success not only in oral proficiency, but also in all four language

skill areas- reading, writing, listening and speaking for the modern day language learner.