Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) emerged in the late 1960s as an approach that focused on developing students' communicative competence rather than just grammatical rules. It aims to make language learning more authentic and interactive by emphasizing fluency and having students complete tasks and engage in activities that simulate real-life communication situations in pairs or groups. While CLT improves student-teacher relationships and engagement, it can be difficult to implement in large classes and does not ensure grammatical accuracy is sufficiently addressed.

1. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
TEACHING (CLT)
ENGLISH TEACHING
METHODOLOGY

2. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

3. HISTORY
• The origins of CLT are found in the
changes in the British language teaching
tradition, which considered grammar
competence as the foundation of the
language proficiency, dating from the late
1960s.

4. HISTORY
• CLT started its rise to prominence during
the 1970s and 80s for these reasons:

5. HISTORY
• Increase in demand for language learning in Europe
when the European Common Market opened
• More secondary and high schools started teaching
foreign languages
• In the UK, the appearance of comprehensive schools
gave all high school students the chance of studying a
foreign language.

6. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

7. BACKGROUND
• The CLT method based on the purpose of
communicative competence of language learning.
• Four aspects of communicative competence:
grammatical competence, socio-linguistic
competence, discourse competence, strategic
competence

8. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

9. GOALS
• CLT aims at providing students with authentic
communication lessons which try to imitate the
natural progression of language learning
• The authentic communication that imitate real life
situations is supposedly more fun and more
helpful for the students.

10. COMMUNICATION LANGUAGE TEACHING

11. FEATURES
• Communicative competence emphasis
• Fluency is emphasized
• Primary function: for interaction and
communication
• Students work in pairs or small groups, everyone
has an opportunity to talk

12. FEATURES
• Learner-centered, active learners
• Teacher: facilitator, analyst, counselors,
group process manager
• Instructional materials: encouraging
communicative language use

13. FEATURES
• 3 kinds of materials: text-based, task-based
and realia
• Dialogues, if used, center around
communicative functions
• Native language may be accepted.

14. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

15. STRONG POINTS
• Teacher – student relationship improved:
interactive, harmonious, not the type of
master-servant relationship

16. STRONG POINTS
• Emphasis on learner’s cognitive and
operational abilities: let the students
themselves think about and express their
views, developed in real life the capability
of using language to communicate.

17. STRONG POINTS
• Student’s interests enhanced: students get
close to life, act as the main character and
naturally become interested in the
language, learn the language for recreation

18. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

19. WEAK POINT
• Not sufficient concentration on the
accuracy or the correctness of grammar
errors
• Hard to create a real-life environment in
class, difficult to reproduce authentic
language use

20. WEAK POINT
• Difficult to use in a large class: problems
in monitoring and guiding students
• Causes troubles for students at low levels
of proficiency, resistance to involving in
class activities

21. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

22. PRINCIPLES
• Create a range of different activities that mimic
the use of the English language outside of the
classroom, including: pair work, group work,
role plays, interviews, games, surveys or learning
by teaching,...

23. PRINCIPLES
• Ensure that students have enough vocabulary
and understanding of the situation in which they
are learning before carrying out activities