Communicative Approach in ELT to Left-behind Children in Rural Area of China

摘要

As economy in China developing rapidly, the population of rural young couples seeking jobs far away from their home has doubled and redoubled, their children who are left behind in rural area turn into a buzzword recently. How to teach left-behind children English has become a thorny problem for teachers and the society. This paper investigated the possibility that Communicative Approach has positive impact on English Language Teaching (ELT) to leftbehind children in rural area of China. A concise review of the literature related to the theory, research and application of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was conducted as two parts, a demonstration of the current teaching situation of left-behind children in rural area of China, a presentation of definition of CLT and its application in China. T test of paired samples and quantitative study were applied in this paper. 40 left-behind children from one poverty-stricken area in China were chosen randomly, and divided into experimental group and control group equally. After teaching with CLT for three months, the experimental group improved much more vastly than the control one. Then it was concluded that CLT is in the position to improve English teaching for left-behind children in rural area of China by building self-confidence and arousing interests through communicating with each other in English. In this way the left-behind children may be equipped with a better understanding of how English is used in a real life, thus making English an interesting subject and a useful tool to make greater achievements.