When the first edition of Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen was published, we believed we were offering a novel framework for classroom language teachers. Not only were we talking about new roles and responsibilities for instructors and students in classrooms, but we were also advocating new ways to conceptualize lesson goals and planning as well as a relatively new (at the time) approach to teaching grammar within a communicative framework.

In the course of working on this second edition, we came to understand that what for us may be old hat now (and sometimes difficult to go back to and revise!) is still very new for others. After all, a primary audience for this book is students who are taking their first course on language teaching. So we find once again that the framework outlined in this book will be novel to many. With this realization in mind, we explain here, as we did in the first edition, some of the premises on which this book is based.

What Is this Book about?

Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen is intended as a guide to help language teachers develop communicative classroom environments that blend listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Starting from the perspective that communication is the expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning—not rote repetition, the exchange of information in the service of a grammar lesson, or simply oral expression—the book explores various topics that lead to concrete suggestions for implementing communicative language teaching. Among these topics are the following:

• A classroom dynamic in which instructor and learner take on roles and responsibilities different from those they traditionally hold
• The important role of comprehensible, meaning-bearing input in second language acquisition, and suggestions for creating such rich input
• The process of developing and building toward proficiency goals in classroom lessons
• An examination of oral communication in the classroom, and suggestions for redirecting oral communication toward information-exchange tasks
• An approach to grammar instruction based on structured input and structured output activities that help learners connect meaning to grammatical form

This book is not the product of a particular theory, method, or school of thought. Instead, it culls from second language research as well as our own experiences as researchers, classroom teachers, language program directors, teacher educators, and materials developers. Many ideas and suggestions contained in Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen represent our attempts to shape practice out of research and theory on second language acquisition.

We wrote this book for graduate teaching assistants and undergraduate teacher education majors who might benefit from a directed exploration of communicative language teaching. We also wrote it for practicing teachers who need a resource manual for developing tasks and materials for their classrooms. For them, as well as for instructors-in-training, there are some two hundred activities and test sections throughout the book.

What’s Changed in this Edition?

For the second edition, we have thoroughly revised and updated the entire text. The major changes are as follows:

• The organization of the book has been substantially revised, and the grouping of chapters into units has been eliminated. Discussions of oral communication, information-based tasks, and building toward a proficiency goal now come early in the book rather than later. We think this reorganization corresponds better to the experiences of instructors, including ourselves, than did the organization of the first edition. In particular, moving the chapter on building toward a proficiency goal to an earlier position—it’s now Chapter 4—places the framework of the book at the beginning, where it should be.
• We have added new information on second language acquisition that we believe is essential for understanding the nature of communicative language teaching (Chapter 1).
• We have added a new chapter on issues in grammar learning and teaching (Chapter 6) to broaden the context in which we develop our own ideas.
• We have included an Appendix that contains a sample processing instruction lesson in its entirety so students can see how this approach to grammar instruction works.
• We have added sections on the teaching of culture where appropriate and useful.
• We have included three different types of activities at the ends of chapters to support learning and application both in the classroom and beyond it.
• We have added a Prologue to orient the reader and preview the topics to be covered in the text. We also use this section to explain how we view the teaching of culture and how culture is treated in this book. The Prologue is a substantially rewritten version of the first edition’s Epilogue.

The book, then, is still useful—we hope, more useful—for its intended audiences. For some, the book will service as a complete course. For others, it will direct their thinking about topics they are exploring in other readings. For still others, it will serve as a resource manual for developing communicative tasks and activities. In short, although we have updated and reorganized the book considerably, its purpose and audience remain the same.

How Is the Book Organized?

As mentioned, the book has been substantially reorganized. Chapter titles, which are fairly self-explanatory, are listed below. For those familiar with the first edition, we also include a brief explanation of the correspondence between the new organization and the organization of the first edition.

Chapter 1 From Atlas and Audiolingualism to Acquisition. This chapter includes some material from the first-edition Chapter 1 and a great deal of new material on second language acquisition.

Chapter 2 Working with Comprehensible Input. A revised version of the first-edition Chapter 3.

Chapter 3 Communicating in the Classroom. A revised version of the first-edition Chapter 8.

Chapter 4 Building Toward a Proficiency Goal. A revised version of the first-edition Chapter 13.

Chapter 5 Suggestions for Using Information-Exchange Tasks for Oral Testing. A revised version of the first-edition Chapter 9.

Chapter 6 Issues in Learning and Testing Grammar. A new chapter, using some ideas from the first-edition Chapters 5 and 6.

Chapter 7 Processing Instruction and Structured Input. A revised version of the first-edition Chapter 5.

Chapter 8 Structured Output: A Focus on Form in Language Production. A revised version of the first-edition Chapter 6.

Chapter 9 Suggestions for Testing Grammar. A revised version of the first-edition Chapter 7.

Chapter 10 Listening Comprehension. A revised version of the first-edition Chapter 4.

Chapter 11 Comprehending Written Language. A revised version of the first-edition Chapter 10.

Chapter 12 Writing and Composing in a Second Language. A revised version of the first-edition Chapter 11.

Chapter 13 Issues in Testing Comprehension and in Evaluating Writing. A revised version of the first-edition Chapter 12.

Special Features

Because we have used Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen with our own students, we have created a pedagogical framework to enhance the content of the chapters. "Pause to consider . . ." boxes, placed strategically throughout each chapter, invite students to stop and think about a particular issue. These boxes address such topics as classroom management, error correction, lesson planning, testing and evaluation procedures, and the components of communicative language ability, among many others. The teaching of culture is a new topic in several "Pause to consider . . ." boxes. In addition to providing students with opportunities for reflection, these boxes can be used as starting points for classroom discussion, topics for individual presentations in class, or writing assignments.

At the beginning of each chapter we have added a list of the main topics explored in the pages that follow ("In this chapter we explore: . . ."). This list previews the chapter for students, alerting them to the content of the chapter and providing an advance organizer.

Listings of Key Terms, Concepts, and Issues are included at the end of every chapter. As suggested by the title, this feature includes more than just the important terms used in the chapter; rather, it includes references to all the significant ideas presented in the chapter. Students can use this list as a review and self-test, making sure they have understood the content of the entire chapter.

New additions to the end-of-chapter materials are three different types of activities. Activities for additional discussion on selected topics from the chapter are included in Thinking More About It: Discussion Questions. Activities designed to promote hands-on research are included in Getting a Closer Look: Research Activities. And activities for the development of a language teaching portfolio are included in Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen: Portfolio Activities.

Many of the activities have been taken from the workbook that accompanied the first edition (though many others are new). WE have elected not to revise the workbook with this edition but instead to use the best of what it offered within the text itself. We also provide a Web site (www.mhhe.com/mclth2) with this edition that includes additional exercises, assignments, and other resources. Together, all of these features provide a rich, flexible, and active learning experience for those using the book in a course on language teaching.

Acknowledgments

In the first edition, we expressed thanks to a number of people who commented on the manuscript, used it in courses they taught, and reviewed it as part of the McGraw-Hill review process. We have added to their names below the names of those who offered comments and suggestions as part of our second edition review process; many of them used the first edition in courses on language teaching. Our thanks to all.

First Edition

Terry L. Ballman, University of Northern Colorado
Jane E. Berne, University of North Dakota
Paul Chandler, University of Hawaii
Jerome L. Packard, University of Illinois
Gail L. Riley, Syracuse University
Lourdes Torres, University of Kentucky
Cira Torruella, University of Illinois
Darlene Wolf, University of Alabama
Dolly J. Young, University of Tennessee
Donna Deans Binkowski, Kansas State University
William R. Glass, Pennsylvania State University
Carol Klee, University of Minnesota
H. Jay Siskin, University of Oregon
Susan Bacon, University of Cincinnati
Richard Kern, University of California, Berkeley

Second Edition

Lynne Marie Barnes, Colorado State University
Margaret Beauvois, University of Tennessee
Anna Bergström, University of Delaware
Gladys Brignoni, Old Dominion University
Robert L. Davis, University of Oregon
Carmen García, University of Virginia
Tony Houston, St. Louis University
Harry Howard, Tulane University
Jeanette Kraemer, Marquette University
Jennifer Lynn Lawrence, Colorado State University
Judith E. Liskin-Gasparro, University of Iowa
Sheri Spaine Long, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Susanne Rott, University of Illinois, Chicago

We owe continued thanks to Thalia Dorwick, Vice President and Editor in Chief of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Languages at McGraw-Hill Higher Education, who, in her previous capacity as Publisher of World Languages, got this book and the professional series rolling. We also owe thanks to William R. Glass, our new publisher, for getting this book into a second edition and to Kate Engelberg for her work as editor (a job that can never be thanked enough). Thanks are also extended to the Editorial, Production, and Design team who assisted with this book: Violeta Díaz, David Sutton, and Richard DeVitto.

Last but not least, thanks to those around us who have sustained us over the years. you know who you are, and you are loved for it.