These are my answers to the Week 5's assignment of the Course "Teach English Now! Lesson Design and Assessment", which I'm studying on Coursera:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/language-theories/home/welcome
a. The differences between the Comprehension Approach and the Communicative Approach
The Comprehension Approach and the Communicative Approach are different in these following aspects. First, the Comprehension Approach focuses on understanding the meaning of the language rather than any other skill while the Communicative Approach targets at all the four skills of learning a language: speaking, reading, writing and listening. Second, in the Comprehension Approach, visual aids, observable actions and repetition are used in classrooms to make the meaning of verbs, nouns, prepositions, and the whole sentences clear, whereas in the Communicative Approach, teachers use carefully leveled books with high interest themes, grammars, learner strategies to tackle the language. Last but not least, classroom techniques also differs in the two approaches, the Comprehension Approach uses commands, action sequences, and role reversal to help students gain confidence in acquiring the language while the Communicative Approach uses games, role play, exercises to create communication opportunities to practice the language.
b. The approach that most closely aligns with my current teaching style
Although these two approaches are different but I don't oppose to any but I'm able to combine these two in my teaching style. In my classes, I'm leaning towards the Communicative Approach with useful materials for communication such as books with interesting themes and role play. However, in role play, I encourage students to use objects, visual aids and actions to make their rehearsal in the target language comprehensible for the audience.
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