Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1989. 19/3. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 19)

Budai, László: Some Basic Assumptions Underlying Foreign Language Teaching Strategies

- 93 the learning of new linguistic habits. Contrast ive .linguistic analysis is therefore of great importance in the selection and grading of slue turns for teaching purposes, Linguistic competence being the focus of interest, little systematic attention is paid to the way stucturns can tie applied to communicative situations in ttie expectation that communication will naturally follow. With tills approach the learner is able to produce correct sentences, but in real situations ttie true test of communication too often eludes him. In spite of Noam Chomsky's scepticism concerning ttie direct relevance of linguistic and psyctiological theories to language teaching ("1 am, frankly, rather skeptical about the significance, for the teaching of languages, of such insights and understanding as has boon attained in linguistics and psychology" 1966: 43 ), his work gave added impetus to the 'cognitive' reaction to 'behaviourist

' theories of learning, which is due to ttie emphasis placed on ttie creative aspect of language use and the intrinsic organizing capacity of the mind. The fact that, according to Chomsky we produce and comprehend new sentences on ttie basin of a limited number of grammatical rules has given consciuos learning a new respectability, and lias helped shift the emphasis from teacher-centred to le

arner-centre

d strategies where problem-solving activities are of prime importance. With communicative approaches ttie stress has shifted from accuracy to fluency. Cognitive code learning claims that language learning is ttie acquisition of rules, that individuals learn in different ways and that errors are an inevitable and useful aspect o? learning, informing the teacher about the learning strategies adopted by the learner at various stages, and giving a sign of ttie learner's attempt to communicate independently

. In sum, in more recent strategies to be discussed below, ttie learner has become ttie centre of interest, linguistic competence and accuracyhave given way to communicative competence and fluency, and errors, presupposed by natural communication, creativity and fluency, receive appropriate treatment. "Ttie latest prodigy of the language teaching world", one of the most powerful influences on foreign language teaching methodology has oeen ttie Communicative Approach, "a cover term for all those approaches which have as their primary emphasis ttie development of