THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH IN MAKING AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE TEACHERS AND THE STUDENTS IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASS

Introduction

Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) refers to teaching English to students whose first language is not English. TEFL usually occurs in the student's own country, either within the state school system, or privately, e.g., in an after-hours language school or with a tutor. TEFL teachers may be native or non-native speakers of English. Because the learners or the students are not the native speakers of English, the misinformation often occurs in the EFL class itself. They sometimes couldn’t get the teachers do really mean when the teachers explain about the materials or even when they order them to do the tasks. But even though those things happen a lot, the students often don’t feel eager to ask the teacher for the further explanation. For that reason the effective communicative should be made in the EFL class. The effective communication is made when the sender of a message communicates with the intended recipient. There has to be a correlation between what the sender is thinking about and what the receiver is thinking about (Winbow, in the journal: The Importance of Effective Communication). An EFL class is just like a ship at the sea where the teacher as the captain and the students as the crew. As Winbow said in his journal, most of the causes of maritime accident are the misinformation of the command.

The Communicative Approach in Making an Effective Communication between the Teachers and the Students in EFL Class

As said before in the introduction, an EFL class could be said like a ship at the sea where the teacher as the captain and the students as the crew. As Winbow said in his journal, most of the causes of maritime accident are the misinformation of the command. An effective communications are essential ingredients to safe and efficient operations. If the class wants to have a safe and efficient operation, there must be an effective communication between the teacher and the students. So in the end the ship got the harbor successfully. But now the question is how an effective communication in the EFL class could be made?

Teaching English as a foreign language also refers to the Communicative language teaching (CLT), an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. It is also referred to as communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages or simply the communicative approach. Out of the many approaches and methodologies available to the language teacher, the Communicative Approach has proven one of the most successful in providing confident learners who are able to make themselves effectively understood in the shortest possible time. It is therefore the teacher’s responsibility to create situations which are likely to promote communication, and provide an authentic background for language learning. The approach tends to be a student-centre than a teacher-centre. A teacher’s main role is a facilitator and monitor rather than leading the class. Teachers in communicative classrooms will find themselves talking less and listening more--becoming active facilitators of their students' learning (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). The teacher sets up the exercise, but because the students' performance is the goal, the teacher must step back and observe, sometimes acting as referee or monitor. A classroom during a communicative activity is far from quiet, however. The students do most of the speaking, and frequently the scene of a classroom during a communicative exercise is active, with students leaving their seats to complete a task.

A lot of students or learners in EFL class love using the communicative approach just like it shows in the result of the Kavaliuauskiene’s research in his journal English for Specific Purposes: Learners’ Preferences and Attitudes more than half of the learners favor a communicative approach to perfecting their language skills. They prefer working in pairs/small groups, taking part in projects and practicing English by talking to their peers. As Widiawati said in her journal: The Teaching of EFL Speaking, In Indonesian Context: The Sate of the Art, role-play and dialogue make students speaks as naturally and communicatively possible.

Learning to speak in English here means it requires more than known its grammatical and semantics rules. Students need to know how native speakers use the languages in the context of structured interpersonal exchange. In the other words, effective oral communication requires the ability to use the language appropriately in social interactions (Shumin, 2002: 204). The Communicative Approach initially prioritizes communicative competence over accurate grammar. Grammar is hidden within the body of a lesson and highlighted and focused upon once the context has been set.

The research also shows that most of the learners also prefer getting information themselves, listening to recording in class and taking notes.

Even though the teacher is only a facilitator or a monitor, the teacher in this approach is tend to be a more update teacher, have a lot of ways in making the class more live. Because of that the teachers have to develop themselves, gaining novels idea, so the English classes not become monotonous and not rewarding (Pakkan, in his journal: Teacher Development: An important issue).

Conclusion

In conclusion, if the goal of the approach is reached not only by the students but also by the students, the effective communication is possible to emerge. The communicative approach here let the teachers know, understand and could serve what the learner’s need and the students also could get what’s the teacher point and what they ordered to because the communication between them and their teacher made effectively.