The Bell Tolls for Communicative Language Teaching

Abstract

The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching posited the view that language was a social tool and consequently language teaching objectives should be aligned with such a view of language. The notion in itself was not new. Locker had way back, about three hundred years ago, recommended that language should be learnt by use rather than by systematic study (cited in Stern: 1983:96). Thus although the notion of communicative competence is not new the term communicative competence became the rallying cry of communicative language teaching (CLT). Rules should not be learned in isolation but should be linked with the functional uses of language. These specific functional needs of the learner have to be ascertained by a needs analysis. Use, not merely usage, should be the objective of the CLT teacher. CLT thus posited an approach towards language teaching.