The ecology of communicative language teaching: Reflecting on the Singapore experience

Abstract

This paper addresses the ecology of communicative language teaching (CLT) by reflecting on the Singapore experience. It reviews how CL T was conceptualized, advocated and implemented in stages/phases as reflected in the different syllabuses by the Ministry of Education, Singapore. In anchoring the discussion against a historical backdrop and examining the ecology and evolution of English language teaching in Singapore, it focuses on two English Language syllabuses published in 1991 and 2001 respectively. It illustrates the operational issues in reference to the two syllabuses, with a focus on the ecology of such pedagogical innovations and how the ecological nature of CL T is mirrored in the syllabuses. Highlighting issues such as mismatches between what the syllabus documents stipulate and what practitioners bring into English language classrooms and how success in implementation can be achieved when training is provided timely, it also discusses theory-practice connection and the integration issue that is most often debated in the teacher-education literature. It concludes with a discussion of possible implications of the Singapore CL T experience for ELT in China.