Collaborative Renga 

Jerome Berglund (italic) 

Christina Chin (plain) 

chalk outlines

never an artist

to applaud

round the bend 

a Banksy graffiti

jewelweed

survival 

as defiance

giant caterpillars

on the leafless plants

rainstorm 

brewing tea after 

an afternoon nap 

ants jostling

for egg salad 

mango tree 

a bat clicks round 

the darkness

he doesn’t think of

deer ticks ‘til later

rainy night 

a sniffing snake 

at the window 

sometimes got to use

decorative towels 

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE.

Annotation: In recent years, CLT has become one of the most effective and popular methods in English language teaching. So, this article discusses the basic principles and practical application of the communicative language teaching (CLT) method, which is widely used in English language teaching. The article emphasizes the importance of real-life communication and interactivity between students in language learning. It also explains the basics of the CLT method – such as focusing on fluency, meaningful communication and student-centered teaching. The article describes how students’ communicative competence can be developed through classroom activities such as role-playing games and group discussions. Finally, the advantages of the CLT method are emphasized – it helps to develop motivation, self-confidence and fluency. This article may be useful for English language teachers and students preparing to become teachers.

Key words: language teaching methods, fluency development, learner-centered approach, speaking activities, real-life communication, motivation.

One of the most important and fundamental principles of CLT is to learn a language through real-life interactions, not just by memorizing grammar rules. This method focuses on speaking clearly and fluently rather than on grammatical errors. In CLT, the teacher plays a key role in helping students use the language in a purposeful and meaningful way. Unlike traditional, teacher-centered approaches, CLT is student-centered, meaning students are very active participants. For example, instead of translating sentences based on certain rules, students are asked to tell their partner their daily routine or talk about topics they encounter in everyday life. In such situations, students learn to use the language naturally and can speak confidently in real-life situations.

A range of classroom exercises are used in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) to motivate students to interact and have meaningful conversations. The exercises are intended to give students useful English assistance while reflecting real-world scenarios. Role-playing, group discussions, pair work, problem-solving exercises, and information gap exercises are among the most popular activities. Instead of merely memorising or repeating grammar, these exercises enable students to actively engage with the language. For instance, in a role-playing game, one student assumes the role of a user administrator, while the other assumes the role of a user registering. This enables students to engage in communicative tasks by posing, observing, or asking questions that are relevant to everyday circumstances. Information exchange exercises are another popular approach, in which students are given a portion of the material and must communicate with one another in English to finish the task. These kinds of activities add interest and effectiveness to the language learning process. For instance, whereas one student might have a list of travel-related activities, another might have a bus schedule. When answering questions about vacation planning, they will need to use verb tenses, everyday vocabulary, and other language. Students gain confidence, teamwork, speaking and listening skills, and the capacity to think in English through these interactive, goal-oriented activities. Through these exercises, they improve their real-world language skills and get ready for successful communication outside of the classroom.

For language learners of all ages, the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach offers a number of significant benefits that make it enjoyable in addition to being effective. Its ability to foster a supportive and engaging learning environment is among its most significant benefits. Students can express themselves freely and develop confidence in such a setting. This lessens the anxiety that comes with making mistakes when learning a language. Students practise more and progressively improve their fluency when they are not afraid to speak.

Second, the CLT approach enhances students’ communication abilities, particularly their capacity for listening and speaking clearly. In a pair assignment, for instance, students are tasked with organising a trip together. They are compelled to discuss subjects like time, travel, and competition, which leads to meaningful language learning. CLT’s capacity to inspire students and heighten their interest in the lesson is another significant benefit. because the tasks are frequently enjoyable, creative, or relatable to real life.

Students are inspired to be more active as a result. They consequently take charge of their language proficiency development and engage in the active learning process. The CLT approach also helps students improve their problem-solving, collaboration, and critical thinking abilities. They practise speaking up, listening to others, sharing ideas, and coming up with solutions when they work in groups. These “soft” skills are crucial for academic and professional settings in addition to language learning. Generally speaking, CLT gives students critical social skills that are necessary in everyday life in addition to language.

In conclusion, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is a strong and useful method that is changing the way English is taught and learnt. CLT helps students become more fluent, confident, and practical with their language skills by having them learn through real-life situations. It helps with language skills as well as social, cognitive, and emotional growth through activities that involve the learner and methods that focus on the learner. As methods for teaching languages change, CLT is still a useful and inspiring way to teach people how to communicate effectively in today’s world. Because of this, CLT should be the main focus of English classes today.

References:

1.Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (5th ed.). Pearson Education.

2.Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2014). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

3.Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.

4.Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching (4th ed.). Pearson Longman.

5.Littlewood, W. (2004). The Task-Based Approach: Some Questions and Suggestions. ELT Journal, 58(4), 319–326.

6.Savignon, S. J. (2002). Interpreting Communicative Language Teaching: Contexts and Concerns in Teacher Education. Yale University Press.

7.Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology: A Textbook for Teachers. Prentice Hall.

8.Scrivener, J. (2011). Learning Teaching: The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Macmillan Education.

KNOCK KNOCK

A soft knock on the front door.
I opened the door.
It was a man I had never seen before.

What can I do you for, I said

He said, I need someone to talk to.  I need help.
Well no one is here right now, I said.
I really need someone to talk to, he said

I said, Well come on in. You don’t look like you’re feeling too well.

Would you like a glass of water?

Do you have a beer?

I got a beer from the refrigerator.
We sat down at my kitchen table

Well, come on, I said, I don’t have all day.
What do you want to talk about?

I did have all day but sometimes a man has to feel important.
What do you have to do that’s so important, he asked?
Never mind, I said.
Long story short, he said, I’m afraid of my girlfriend’s husband.
She told him we’re having an affair and he wants to kill me.

Why would she do something so crazy, I said.
Because she loves to be spanked on the ass, he said.

She loves me and wants to marry me.
Why don’t you marry her?

Because I’m married, he said.
Someone knocked an angry knock on the front door, again and again and again.

Mars, an angry man yelled from my front porch, I ’m going to kill you. I know You’re in there.

Whoever you are, I yelled, go away or I’ll call the police.
I looked out the window, saw a guy in flip-flops walk across my lawn into the house next door without knocking.

You’re having an affair with a woman who lives next door to you? I asked

Do you have any weed, he asked?
Are you in love with this woman?

No, he said, but she’s so damn hot.
Does your wife know about this affair?
Why should I tell her? That would be damn stupid and just cause trouble.

 Knowing her, she would just tell all the neighbors.

What’s your plan, pendejo?
I moved to Kansas City but she telephoned me every night, begging me to come back.  I told her I was dating a new girlfriend, an intelligent, compassionate women that doesn’t appeal to me like you do because you are the best lover I’ve ever had.

Have you had many lovers? she asked
Do you mean lovers I was in love with?

Yes, she said.
That memory has been wiped away, I said, laughing into my iPhone.
It was a joke.
She didn’t think it was funny.      

Do you like fish? she asked.
Yes, I said, I do.

Well take a perch, she said.
I never want to talk to you again.
She hung up.

I moved back home to Tulsa,
Moved back in with my wife, next door to my former lover.
Her husband and I have become damn good friends.
He chugged his beer, turned his baseball cap backwards,
Got up from the table, shook my hand, said,
Thanks old man.
I couldn’t have ended this affair without your advice.
You’re the best neighbor I’ve ever had.

TAMARISK TREE

The tamarisk tree wears a green diaphanous gown &
    needs a shave

A ladder of stars beneath an arroyo feeds her children

The tamarisk tree traces her genealogy to angels &
     the eternal pilgrimage of fish

The tamarisk tree near La Joya, near a cemetery where
     I hear a baby rabbit cry itself to death

The tamarisk tree is not Christian, has never read the
    Bible

She loves to chant Buddhist mantras

Jesus Christ was once her secret lover

She loves hawks, psychedelic mushrooms, Wittgenstein,
    Gertrude Stein, Buffy St.-Maria, Patti Smith, Pablo
        Picasso and the old Bob Dylan

Dear dear tamarisk tree

Tiny glaciers slide beneath her holy bark

Blue porcelain dolphins frolic in her white gloved hands

She is surrounded by the shadow of Einstein

The tamarisk tree plays tungsten horn in her spare time

She has eyes for Little Orphan Annie

She is terrified surrounded by America’s fear and greed

She remembers when and where music became transparency
    solidified

Blind fish swim in her iridescent roots

A lather of clouds in her hair of ocean foam

Tiny winged beings in her superluminal womb

She is a breathing grave

Dances for the sun

Loves the moon

Is bi-sexual and horny

Sunlight glides over her skin like the soft mouth of
    a dream lover

The drum in her leaves skips a beat

Poor tree

She has never seen the transcendental light of
    Taos

She has never seen a cubist painting or Marx Brother’s
    movie

Georgia O’Keefe forgot to paint the tamarisk tree

The tamarisk tree understands

Dear dear tamarisk tree

Peace 

Speaking for food

Bombs are coming in my left

Bombs are coming in my right

The smell of a coffee becomes a dream

People are targeted

Suffering

Starvation

Hypocrisy the cry for freedom

Governments they are counting their money

Over the bodies of dead children

Do you want this life

How much Human you feel today

We are all victims in the mind of narcissist

men with power

Peace

Unknown word

EVA Petropoulou Lianou 

Greece

THE MOTHER SUPERIOR 

(An Ode to Most Kind Mother Earth) 

When supports of the world fail, 

And I feel lonely 

And helpless, 

I fall upon my Lord

To whom I address my woes

He dresses my wounds 

And I go to sleep contented.

But it is not always so.

Quite often, 

When gods fail to address my issues

When pain keeps dripping like blood 

And when gods are silent 

And his men too 

I know still I have some one to go.

In the world a son who fails 

Rushes into the lap of his mother

And cries his grief out 

Has the mother ever asked him

Wait, let me think a bit?

Never. 

A mother never disappoints.

But a mother is a timed entity

Cannot be with you 

Always to succour your woes 

But pains, hurts and insults 

Are the staple diet 

On which we humans have to survive 

In this desperate situation 

When neither God is around 

Nor mother 

And you feel 

Enough is enough

There is a Mother Superior 

Who opens her unquestioning arms for us.

(*Mother superior is the Earth that receives all back ….without any questions)

….

HOPE IS THE THING WITH PETALS

Nothing blossoms here except these sunflowers.
Not the hibiscus our mother planted by the orchard,
or these lilies we buried with a prayer.
Only these golden heads, standing with outstretched arms
embracing sunlight.

I plucked one yesterday,
rubbed its velvet against my cheek,
and wondered if yellow can teach me something
about staying alive.
I plucked another before your voice broke out.
When it cracked open, you sounded like
a drum calling back its own silence.
We both turned our faces to the window
and hoped answers would someday fall in with the light.

Today, at dawn,
we laughed like oiled doors on rusted hinges,
swinging open and shut stories of childhood foolishness.
We swore we would sink our fears beneath Agbami—
that river where frogs sang falsetto
as boys drowned things without dying.

At noon, the sun’s heat made you bow to the sand
where you dragged a stick & spelled nothing,
etching lines like someone trying to draw
an escape route without a map.

At dusk, you smeared olive oil on your wrists again,
said it keeps the ghosts from tightening their ropes at midnight.
You looked like a man holding himself by a thread—
fear had teeth, and you were offering your neck.

I didn’t ask questions.
But I’m still here, plucking petals again,
asking if you still believe.

Peace Ogunjemilua is a writer whose works explore nature and narratives rooted in cultural depth. He has contributed articles to magazines and was featured in the Nigerian Student Poetry Prize. He is a Sprinng Writing Alumnus, and he also interns as an architectural writer at Rethinking the Future (RTF). Peace runs a blog called ThinkGreen, focused on sustainable design, and with a background in architecture, he brings a unique perspective to his writing. Aside from reading, he loves graphic art and music.