The communicative approach in language teaching emphasizes that language is a means of communication, with the goal being communicative competence through meaningful interaction. Teachers play a facilitating role, focusing on student communication and minimizing their own talking time while providing relevant materials and activities. Classroom activities and materials must be carefully selected to match student levels and should encourage real-life social interactions and language use.

1. The Communicative Approach

2. What is the communicative approach?
The communicative approach is the theory
that language is communication.
Therefore the final aim of CLT (Communicative
Language Teaching) is communicative
competence.

3. The Principles of the Communicative
Approach:
 Learners learn through using language to
communicate
 Authentic and meaningful communication should be
the goal of classroom activities
 Fluency is an important dimension of communication
 Communication involves the integration of different
language skills
 Learning is a process of creative construction and
involves trial and error

4. So what is the teacher’s role in this?
The teacher has two main roles:
• To facilitate the communication process in the classroom
• To act as an independent participant within the learning-
teaching group
The teacher is also expected to act as a resource, an organiser of
resources, a motivator, a counsellor, a guide, an analyst and a
researcher.
There are many other minor roles of a teacher, some of these
would include being an actor and an entertainer. After all, a
good lesson must be interesting or the students will ‘switch
off’ and learn nothing.

5. In practical terms, what does that mean?
It means that we need to concentrate on the
following:
Teacher – Student activities
Activities
Materials

6. Teacher-Student Interaction
Since communicative competence is our aim, it is essential that students
be given every opportunity to practise communicating. In the
communicative classroom teacher talking time (TTT) must be kept to a
minimum. This is not to say that the teacher shouldn’t speak at all, but
TTT should be controlled and appropriate.
The classroom should be learner centred.
The teacher’s role is to facilitate student communication which is done
through careful selection of materials and activities relevant to the aims of
the lesson in which they are used.

7. Communication can be
divided into two
categories
• Input
• Output
The four communicative
skills can be put into
these categories
OUTPUT
Speaking
Writing
Input
Reading
Listening

8. Whichever of these skills is being taught the
main focus must be on the student and not on
the teacher. The interaction should usually be
the student to student and should include the
teacher only where necessary. During most
classroom activities the teacher will monitor
and intervene only where necessary.

9. A model for part of a communicative
lesson
Stage 1
Teacher (T) gives a short presentation of a grammar or vocabulary point. T then gives
students (Ss) opportunity to practise the point in a controlled exercise. (Interaction: T›Ss)
Stage 2
Ss carry out the controlled exercise while T monitors and intervenes where appropriate.
(Interaction: S‹›S)
Stage 3
The Ss are asked to take part in an activity designed to get them to produce the vocabulary
and grammar they have been taught. T monitors and notes errors and interesting points. T intervenes only
when asked or when absolutely necessary. (Interaction: S‹›S)
Stage 4
Feedback session, in which T feeds back in a non-threatening way the errors s/he noted
during the activity. Ss also have the opportunity to clear up puzzling points. (Interaction: T‹›Ss)

10. The lesson extract follows a method called
Presentation-Practice-Production or PPP for
short.
This was the standard method until a few
years ago. Now there are a number of
possibilities open to the teacher.
You will be introduced to these at a later
stage.

11. Activities
Classroom activities should, as far as is possible,
be carried out in the target language (English).
Having said this, there may sometimes be
occasions where allowing the students to briefly
discuss a point in their native tongue can promote
greater understanding and assimilation of new
information. This is controversial issue and should
not usually be permitted.

12. There are many different types of activities. They
provide speaking, listening, writing and reading
practice as well as aiding production.
A few
ideas for activity types
Games Role-plays Simulations Information Gaps

13. Where do I find activities?
They can be found in books containing supplementary material such as
the Reward Resource Packs.
Many teachers enjoy creating their own activities, which can be tailored
specifically to their classes needs.
Activities used in the classroom must be selected carefully as if they are
above the level of the students they can destroy self-confidence and if
below they can bore the students.
Activities usually involve the students working together either in pairs or
in small groups.

14. Activities are often used to practise real-life
situations involving social interaction and so a
high level of social and functional language
should be expected.

15. Materials
Materials fall into three broad categories:
 text-based,
 task-based
 realia.
They can be used as the basis for classroom
activities. Once again not only must the activity be
appropriate to the level of the students but the
materials used must be appropriate too.

16. Text-based materials
For example practice exercises, reading
passages, gap fills, recordings, etc. can be
found in almost any course book as well as in
books containing supplementary materials.
They form an essential part of most lessons.

17. Task-based materials
These include game boards, roleplay cards,
materials for drilling, pairwork tasks, etc.
They might be used to support 'real life' tasks
such as role playing booking into a hotel, or a
job interview.

18. Realia
This includes such things as magazines, newspapers, fruit and
vegetables, axes, maps - things from the real world outside
the classroom.
They can be used in many activities.
For example, fruit and vegetables could be used in a shopping
activity, an axe could be used to show the effect of using the
present perfect continuous on a short action verb.

19. So what does the communicative
approach mean in practical terms?
We should now understand that the teacher's
job is to get their students to communicate
using real language by providing them with
instruction, practice, and above all
opportunities to produce English in activities
which encourage acquisition and fluency.

20. In conclusion
CLT should be fun for both teacher and
students.
Enabling students to communicate
successfully is also very rewarding.