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CLT

MethodologyCommunicative Language Teachingcommunicative approachCLT

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach to language teaching that takes communicative competence as its goal and meaningful interaction as its primary means. It emerged in the 1970s as a reaction against audiolingual and grammar-translation methods, which prioritised structural accuracy over the ability to communicate. CLT is not a method with fixed procedures but a set of principles that can be realised through diverse classroom practices.

Theoretical Roots

CLT drew on converging ideas from several fields:

  • Dell Hymes (1972) coined communicative competence, arguing that knowing a language requires more than grammatical knowledge -- it requires knowing what is appropriate in context.
  • Henry Widdowson (1978) distinguished between usage (knowledge of linguistic forms) and use (the ability to deploy those forms for communicative purposes), arguing that traditional teaching focused almost entirely on usage.
  • D.A. Wilkins (1976) proposed organising syllabuses around notional-functional categories (Language Functions like requesting, apologising, suggesting) rather than grammatical structures. This became the basis of the Council of Europe's Threshold Level and later the CEFR.
  • Michael Halliday's systemic functional linguistics provided the view that language is fundamentally a resource for making meaning, not a set of rules to be mastered.

Weak vs Strong CLT

Howatt (1984) identified two versions:

  • Weak CLT -- Learners need opportunities to use language communicatively, but this is integrated into a broader programme that also includes explicit teaching of forms. Most mainstream ELT operates here: a structural or functional syllabus with communicative activities. PPP (Present-Practice-Produce) is a typical weak-CLT lesson shape.
  • Strong CLT -- Language is acquired through communication itself. Learners discover the language system through engaging in communicative tasks, not through pre-teaching. TBLT represents the strongest version of this claim, where tasks drive the syllabus and form is addressed reactively.

Core Principles

CLT is better understood as principles than prescriptions:

  1. Communication purpose -- Activities must have a genuine communicative goal, not just practice of forms.
  2. Meaningful interaction -- Learners engage in real information exchange: information gaps, opinion gaps, reasoning gaps.
  3. Authentic language -- Input reflects how language is actually used, not artificially simplified grammar showcases.
  4. Learner-centredness -- The learner's communicative needs drive syllabus design and classroom activity.
  5. Integration of skills -- Reading, writing, listening, and speaking are used together as they are in real life.
  6. Toleration of error -- Errors are a natural part of developing communicative ability. Fluency is valued alongside Accuracy.
  7. Teacher as facilitator -- The teacher sets up communicative situations rather than controlling all language production.

Common Misconceptions

  • "CLT means no grammar teaching" -- False. CLT includes grammar, but grammar serves communication rather than being an end in itself. Focus on Form within communicative tasks is fully compatible with CLT.
  • "CLT means only speaking activities" -- False. Reading and writing are communicative acts. A well-designed reading task with a genuine purpose is CLT.
  • "CLT is a single method" -- False. CLT is an umbrella approach. TBLT, content-based instruction, and many coursebook-driven lessons all operate within CLT principles.

CLT is grounded in communicative competence as its theoretical target and realised through approaches ranging from PPP (weak CLT) to Task-Based Language Teaching (strong CLT). It connects to Language Functions as an organising principle, to Fluency as a valued outcome, and to Focus on Form as the mechanism for integrating grammar work within meaning-focused activity.

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