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:
- Communication purpose: Activities must have a genuine communicative goal, not just practice of forms.
- Meaningful interaction: Learners engage in real information exchange: information gaps, opinion gaps, reasoning gaps.
- Authentic language: Input reflects how language is actually used, not artificially simplified grammar showcases.
- Learner-centredness: The learner's communicative needs drive syllabus design and classroom activity.
- Integration of skills: Reading, writing, listening, and speaking are used together as they are in real life.
- Toleration of error: Errors are a natural part of developing communicative ability. Fluency is valued alongside Accuracy.
- 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.
See Also
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.