In the classroom – Professor Jack C. Richards

How can teachers balance communicative language teaching with the necessity of grammar instruction?

Teachers can balance communicative language teaching and grammar instruction by treating grammar as a tool for communication rather than as a separate subject. In practice, this means the following:

1. Start from meaning, not from rules
Teachers should design tasks in which a specific grammar point is naturally needed (e.g., the past tense to tell stories, conditionals to give advice).
Students should first attempt to complete the task using their existing linguistic resources.
Only afterwards should the teacher highlight the target structure, showing how it allows students to express meaning more clearly, accurately, or precisely.

This aligns with a focus on form approach:

the main classroom focus remains on understanding and expressing meaning
attention is briefly drawn to grammatical form as it arises in communication

For example:

recasts: a student says “Yesterday I go…” and the teacher reformulates “Yesterday I went…”
quick clarification: the teacher writes a couple of examples on the board, underlines the form, checks understanding, and then returns to the activity

These are short, targeted interventions rather than long rule explanations.

2. Integrate grammar into communicative tasks
After a brief grammar focus, the structure should be used immediately in meaningful communication, for example:

information‑gap activities that require the target form
role plays, problem‑solving tasks, or surveys built around the structure
purposeful writing tasks (e.g., emails, reviews, stories) in which the grammar is essential

3. Revisit grammar cyclically through richer communication
Teachers should accept that one exposure is rarely sufficient.
Key grammar points should be recycled in later lessons through new contexts, topics, and skills.
Each encounter keeps the focus communicative while gradually increasing accuracy.

4. Differentiate the level of explicitness according to learners’ needs

At lower levels: focus on simple, high‑frequency patterns with extensive oral practice and minimal metalanguage.
At higher levels: provide more explicit explanations, contrastive analysis (L1 vs. L2), and detailed form‑focused feedback in speaking and writing.

Since some learners prefer clear rules while others benefit more from implicit learning, a combination of approaches is most effective.

5. Use correction strategically
During fluency activities, teachers should correct only errors that impede communication or relate to the target structure.
More detailed accuracy work can be reserved for post‑task stages, writing feedback, or short “grammar clinics.”
This maintains students’ willingness to communicate while still supporting linguistic development.

6. Encourage noticing and reflection
Teachers can use short noticing activities with authentic texts, such as underlining verb forms, reordering sentences, or inferring rules from examples.
Asking questions like “Why do they say it this way here?” encourages learners to reflect before receiving explicit explanations.
Students can then articulate simple grammar rules in their own words.

In summary, communicative tasks should form the backbone of lessons, with brief, purposeful grammar instruction woven in through a focus on form that emerges from—and feeds back into—real communication.

Question:

Submitted by Abbas Masoumi, PH.D student ELT, Iran

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using discipline specific materials versus general academic materials in an advanced ESL class?

Dr. Richards responds:

Discipline specific materials offer the advantage of preparing students for the discipline specific genres, text-types and vocabulary of their disciplines, and also connect more closely with the learners’ interests and needs.

Question:

Submitted by Andualem Gelaw Tigabu, Limu Genet High school, Ethiopia

What is the difference between content-based and task-based language teaching?

Dr. Richards responds:

Please see the article in my publications – Communicative Language Teaching Today – which discusses both of these methods.

Question:

Submitted by Amin

Is it appropriate for an English teacher to translate new words into the students’ mother tongue? If so, how much and how many words?

Dr. Richards responds:

Translating new words into the mother tongue is sometimes an obvious and useful strategy when students encounter unknown words in a text. However, before deciding to use translation the teacher should ask:
How important is this word in the text?
Is it a word that the students will need for active use or simply for recognition?
Is it a low frequency word that the students are unlikely to need and that they may not encounter often again?

If the teacher decides that the word is useful and important, he or she should also ask:
Can the meaning of the word be inferred from the context or because it is similar to a word in the students’ mother tongue?
Can the students make an intelligent guess about the meaning of the word?
Can they check the meaning of the word in their dictionary?

If after reviewing the options the teacher decides that translation is a quick and effective way of introducing a new and useful word, the students can write the translation of the word on the margin of the text or in their workbook.

If it is a low frequency and not very useful word, quickly provide the translation and move on.

Question:

Submitted by 孙赫, Luoyang Normal University, China

What are the teachers’ role and the students’ role in Grammar-Translation Method and The Direct Method?
What are some common classroom activities in Grammar-Translation Method and The Direct Method?

Dr. Richards responds:

Grammar translation:
Teacher’s role: to provide translation of new grammatical items, to answer students’ questions about the meaning of items, to monitor students’ work for grammatical accuracy, to develop translation activities:
Students’ role: to learn and practice grammar rules, to try out new grammar items in spone and written texts
Common classroom activities: translation of sentences from one language to another: writing sentences using the new grammar

Direct method:
Teacher’s role: to present new items through the use of questions and demonstration, to monitor students’ production for accuracy, to avoid use of the mother tongue
Students’ role: to listen and repeat, to ask and answer questions
Common classroom activities: drills and repetition activities: question and answer activities

Question:

Tina, Ridgeway Campus UNZA, Zambia

What are the principles of the eclectic approach?

Dr. Richards responds:

The term “eclectic approach” refers to a teaching approach that is not based on a single method (e.g. task-based teaching, or CLIL) but that draws on several different method principles that are made use of in practice. It is a problem-based approach to teaching that is based on the following principles:

What particular problem do my learners encounter in mastering this aspect of language or language use?
What procedures can I make use of from available methods and approaches that could be used to address this problem?

Question:

Submitted by Gafur Khamroev, Uzbekistan

What is the difference between mother tongue teaching and foreign language teaching?

Dr. Richards responds:

In many countries when students come to school their mother tongue has already been established and teaching in this case may involve learning to read and write a language which the children can already speak. The children have already benefited from thousands of hours of contact with their mother tongue. In the case of a foreign language however, the starting point may be zero, and a limited amount of time may be available in school for foreign language instruction. In this case a careful structured and gradual introduction to the foreign language is normally used, based on a corpus of the most frequent words, phrases and structures.

Question:

Submitted by Mehrnoosh Panahandeh, Tehran, Iran

When a student gives you a word in his/her native language and asks you for the translation, what is the best solution?

Dr. Richards responds:

There is no reason not to give the translation of a new word. The mother tongue can be a useful resource in teaching and it is a natural reference point for learners. Translation activities which involve students translating words can be the basis of fun activities such as games and group work tasks. Remember however that students come to class to practice English so use translation when needed as a springboard to learn and practice using English.

Question:

Submitted by Ali Abdulhussain, Iraq

What is the importance of discourse in listening comprehension? I usually notice many students that make sense of each sentence they listen to but cannot reconstruct meaning as a whole unit of discourse?

Dr. Richards responds:

The goal of teaching listening is to help students understand discourse, that is, to understand samples of authentic spoken texts. To achieve this, a listening course must gradually move from sentence-based listening, to helping understand texts. This often involves taking learners beyond bottom up processing to make use of top down processing – listening that goes beyond the sentence level and that makes use of knowledge of the context, the topic, the setting, the participants and their purposes.

Question:

Submitted by Hezi Brosh, USA

What is the difference between Language learning strategy and classroom task/activity?

Dr. Richards responds:

A strategy is the action a learner takes to resolve a particular learning issue or problem. So when reading a difficult text, skimming it first for a general idea of the content before reading it more closely, is an example of a reading strategy.

A classroom task or activity is something the teacher assigns the learners to do in order to achieve a specific learning outcome. Dictation is a task or activity, as is jigsaw listening or completing a cloze passage.

Question:

Submitted by Kemal, Turkey

Should we ask learners to produce whole sentences when answering questions? For example, when I ask “Who is late for school?” they only say “James”.

Dr. Richards responds:

Short responses are more natural than complete sentences, since a complete sentence repeats information the speaker already knows. One of the maxims of conversational interaction is to provide sufficient information to be understood but not too much information. Providing too much information sounds pedantic. An adult who does this is known as a bore.

Question:

Submitted by Juriah, Indonesia

What is the role of curiosity in students’ learning and how to activate it?

Dr. Richards responds:

I am not aware of research on this topic specifically in relation to second language learning, however if you do a google search you will discover a host of articles on this topic, ranging from pop psychology to more serious discussions of the topic.

Question:

Submitted by Meriem, Algeria

What is the difference between collaborative learning and cooperative learning? What is their relation with Competency Based Approach?

Dr. Richards responds:

Collaborative learning and cooperative learning mean the same thing and are part of an approach that emphasizes maximum use of cooperative activities involving pairs and small groups of learners.Neither have anything to do with competency-based instruction, which is an approach to curriculum development that organizes teaching in relation to learning outcomes that are described in terms of competencies or observable skills. For further information see Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: Richards and Rodgers 2014.

Question:

Submitted by Muhammad Shujaat, Saudi Arabia

In coursebooks, usually the sequence of a listening lesson proceeds from the general to the particular and then the students pair-check their answers. Is this proof enough that students are developing their listening or does there have to be another dimension of the strategy development for better listening?

Dr. Richards responds:

It depends on the kind of text students will listen to and what their purposes for listening are. Listening to a news story involves a different approach to listening than listening to casual conversation. So first one has to consider the type of text, the level of complexity of the text, what background knowledge students bring to the text, and the listening purpose. The choice of listening task or activity that you use should provide guided practice in listening. Support for listening can be given through pre-teaching key words, by activating background knowledge, and by establishing an appropriate listening purpose. A series of tasks can be used that first require global listening, and then move to more detailed listening.

Question:

Submitted by Ali Abdulhussain, Iraq

What is the difference between the language we teach in schools, language institutions, coursebooks etc and the daily language spoken in an English-speaking country?

Dr. Richards responds:

In schools there is a very limited amount of time available to teach English so a very restricted range or words, structures etc can be taught. Obviously native-speaker- English is very different, since it has been acquired over many years and is used in many different contexts and for many different purposes. There will hence be a big gap between the language of the classroom or textbook and the language people use in English-speaking countries. These days media, technology and the internet enable learners to access authentic uses of English outside of the classroom.

Question:

Submitted by Weldehaweria Gebrekrstos, Ethiopia

We teachers are required to use authentic materials to enrich learners’ use of the language. What advice can you give?

Dr. Richards responds:

When textbooks and commercial materials were the primary sources of classroom teaching and learning, a debate that emerged was the use of authentic materials versus created materials. Authentic materials refers to the use in teaching of texts, photographs, video selections, realia, and other teaching resources that were not specially prepared for pedagogical purposes. Created materials refers to textbooks and other specially developed instructional resources that have been prepared to include examples of specific grammatical items discourse features. Dialogs in course books, for example, might be specially written to highlight certain grammatical choices or to illustrate specific conversational strategies. Hence, it was often argued that authentic materials are preferred to created materials because unlike the often rather contrived content of much created material, they contain authentic language and reflect real-world uses of language.

Typical claims for and against the use of “authentic” materials are:

For

They have a positive effect on learner motivation.
They provide authentic cultural information about the target culture.
They provide exposure to real language.
They relate more closely to learners’ needs.
They support a more creative approach to teaching.

Against

Created materials can also be motivating for learners.
Authentic materials often contain difficult language.
Created materials may be superior to authentic materials because they are generally built around a graded syllabus.
Using authentic materials is a burden for teachers.

In many language programs, teachers use a mixture of created and authentic materials because both have their advantages as well as limitations. Furthermore, the distinction between authentic and created materials is increasingly blurred because many published materials incorporate authentic texts and other real-world sources. And today many books take on the aura, if not the actuality, of authenticity, containing considerable amounts of photographically reproduced “realia”, in the form of newspaper articles, maps, diagrams, memo pads, menus, application forms, advertisements, instructional leaflets and all the rest. Some books, indeed, almost entirely consist of authentic material, including illustrations, extracted from newspapers, or magazines.

In addition, this debate has become less relevant in today’s world since the Internet provides ready access to authentic materials of every kind. Classroom teaching and classroom materials hence serve to prepare learners to navigate, explore, and access authentic materials related to their needs and interest through the Web, as we discuss further below. There is no reason, therefore, why textbooks and other classroom materials should not contain a mix of authentic and created texts depending on the intentions of the materials.

When choosing authentic materials care must be taken to ensure they are at an appropriate level for learners, and that that they are used in a way that supports learning rather than causes frustration for learners.

Question:

Submitted by Yassin Elidrissi, Morocco

Some methodologists choose the following model to teach speaking: setting up, speaking practice, and feedback. Is this model conducive to a better mastery of the speaking skill?

Dr. Richards responds:

Yes, it is. Speaking activities can either have an accuracy focus or a fluency focus, or sometimes both. The “setting up” involves careful modeling, guided practice, leading to freer practice.

Question:

Submitted by David Chacha, Tanzania

Can you suggest methods and techniques for young learners?

Dr. Richards responds:

A number of principles can inform the following approaches to teaching young learners.

Build teaching around activities and physical movement.
Link language learning to physical activities by having children use and hear English for making things, drawing pictures, completing puzzles, labelling pictures, matching words and pictures, playing games, acting out movements in response to instructions and other activities that involve hands, eyes and ears. Teachers often make use of TPR activities (activities based on linking language with actions, drawing on the method known as total physical response). Many listening activities for young children use this principle, such as activities in which children listen and respond to commands (e.g. ‘sit down’, ‘turn around’, ‘touch your nose’), listen and choose a picture, listen and draw a picture or listen and number a sequence of actions in a picture. Similarly, speaking activities with young learners may involve use of songs, dialogues, chants and fixed expressions that students can practise in different situations.

Build lessons around linked activities.
Since young learners have limited attention spans, it is important to include several short activities in a lesson and to move quickly from one activity to another. Activities of five to ten minutes in length are most successful. A balance between the following kinds of activities is often useful:

Quiet / noisy activities.
Different skills: listening, talking, reading / writing.
Individual work / pair work / group work / whole-class activities.
Teacher–pupil / pupil–pupil activities.

Build lessons around tasks.
A task is a meaning-focused activity that requires learners to draw on and use their existing linguistic resources to complete a task, such as drawing a picture from oral instructions, or working in pairs or groups and sequencing a series of pictures to complete a story. The key features of classroom tasks for young language learners are:

They have coherence and unity for learners (from topic, activity and/or outcome).
They have meaning and purpose for learners.
They have clear language-learning goals.
They involve the learner actively.

Provide scaffolding.
Scaffolding refers to how a child learns through collaboration with a more knowledgeable partner (a parent, a classmate, a teacher). When children work collaboratively on tasks (such as sequencing pictures in a story, completing a puzzle or completing an information-gap task), more proficient learners can often provide the scaffolding less proficient learners need.

Involve students in creating resources that support their learning.
Learners can draw pictures of the characters they hear in a story or create puppets to help retell a story. They can colour pictures of items and characters from stories. They can find pictures in magazines, related to a theme or topic in a lesson, and bring them to class. In my Quebec primary classes mentioned earlier, we did not use a textbook. The children created their own coursebook, as the course developed, using the resources that formed the basis of the course.

Build lessons around themes.
Lessons can be built around topics or themes, such as animals, friends, food or family, for very young learners; and for older learners, themes can be drawn from subjects in their other classes and the community, such as transport, country life, travel and famous people. Theme-based lessons provide continuity across activities and enable English learning to be connected to the children’s lives.

Choose content children are familiar with.
Teaching can also be built around familiar content from the children’s culture, such as stories and events (e.g. national holidays or cultural practices). Since the learners will be familiar with talking about these topics in their native language, it will be easier for them to connect with how they can talk about them in English.

Use activities that involve collaboration.
Children enjoy socializing with other children, and activities that work best with young learners are those in which children are working with others in pairs or groups, rather than remaining in their seats, listening to the teacher. Activities that involve collaboration require careful preparation to ensure that children have the words and expressions they need in order to carry out an activity.

Create a supportive learning community in the classroom.
A class of young learners needs to become a community of learners – that is, a group of learners with shared goals, needs and concerns. Thinking of a class as a community means seeing it as a place where each child in the class cooperates and collaborates to achieve the class’s common goals. This leads to more productive learning. Children who interact and collaborate with other learners develop a more positive attitude towards learning and a greater sense of self-confidence than those in other learning arrangements.

Use enjoyable activities that children can accomplish without frustration.
Young learners enjoy taking part in activities that they can successfully achieve, but which also offer some kind of challenge. Activities of this kind depend on the teacher providing language input and modelling for young language learners, where the teacher and the materials are the primary source of language.

Provide rich language support.
Since the learners will have little knowledge of English to call upon, they need careful language support for learning activities. Success will depend on the teacher providing language models, demonstrating the way the activities can be carried out in English and providing the language support an activity depends upon.

Give clear goals and feedback.
Children like to be successful at things they do in class. In order to achieve this, it is important to set clear goals for children and to let them know when they have been successful, or if not, why not. Praise for success is very important for young learners, for example, by using stars, stickers, points or smiley faces.

Use English for classroom management.
Use English for instructions, for routines such as forming groups, for introducing activities, for giving feedback and for other teaching processes.

Use the mother tongue when needed.
While the goal of teaching young learners is to use as much English in class as possible, when teaching homogeneous classes, it is quite appropriate to use the mother tongue when necessary to explain the meaning of words and expressions and to help explain activities. Occasional use of the mother tongue provides a comfort zone for young learners, though the teacher and students should not become over-dependent on it.

Bring speakers of English to class.
Where possible, it is useful to invite speakers of English to class to meet the learners. These could be children from an international school or older children who are now quite advanced in English. They can ask and answer simple questions, take part in a role play and do other activities that will interest and motivate the learners.

Question:

Submitted by Octavio Americo Blamssone, Universidade Pedagogica, Mozambique

What are the reasons for poor speaking skills among second language learners?

Dr. Richards responds:

There are many reasons that may account for difficulties learners sometimes have with mastering speaking skills. These could include:

Inadequate classroom conditions (too many students in a class)
Lack of motivation
Poor quality teaching
Poor quality materials
Little opportunity provided to practice speaking
Personality factors (anxiety, shyness etc)

Question:

Submitted by Carlos, Tanzania

What are your views on improvisation in teaching?

Dr. Richards responds:

When one observes experienced teachers in their classrooms, one is struck by their apparent effortless management of the different dimensions of lessons. They may not need to refer to a lesson plan, because they are able to create effective lessons through monitoring their learners’ response to teaching activities and can create learning opportunities around important teaching moments. Their teaching can be viewed as a kind of skilled improvisation. Over time, experience leads to the development of routines that enable classroom activities to be performed fluently, automatically and with little conscious thought and attention, enabling the teacher to focus on other dimensions of the lesson . Experienced teachers engage in sophisticated processes of observation, reflection and assessment, and make ‘online’ decisions about which course of action to take from a range of alternatives that are available. These interactive decisions often prompt teachers to change course during a lesson, based on critical incidents and other unanticipated aspects of the lesson. For example, the principles which prompt teachers’ improvisations could includes:

Serving the common good: Change focus to a problem that many learners experienced in the class.
Teach to the moment: React to immediate opportunities that arise during lessons.
Furthering the lesson: Move the lesson on when possibilities are exhausted.
Accommodating different individual learning styles: Improvise with different teaching strategies.
Promoting student involvement: Allow space for students to participate.
Distribute the wealth: Stop particular students from dominating the class, and  encourage other students to take turns.

As teachers accumulate experience and knowledge, there is, therefore, a move towards a degree of flexibility in teaching and the development of the ability to improvise.