Communicative Approach

The communicative approach to language learning ushered in the beginning of learner-centeredness in language learning. Previously, in the mid-20th century, language teachers followed highly prescriptive methods, and language learning was understood to be primarily a matter of habit formation around various grammatical structures. That approach to language teaching and learning is described elsewhere in this encyclopedia.

The communicative approach can be strong or weak. The weak version stresses the importance of language learners to use the target language for communicative purposes. The strong version stresses that language is acquired through communication. The weak version has to do with learning to use the target language; the strong version has to do with using the target language to learn it.

In the 1960s, American linguistic theory began to change. Some of these changes stemmed from Noam Chomsky's assertion that to know a language is not simply habit formation and learning and applying rules of grammar. Knowing a language, according to the new thinking, also involves innovation and creativity. The communicative approach also drew from the works of Dell Hymes, John Gumperz, and other sociolinguists who questioned the competence-performance distinction and advanced the idea of language usage in social settings for communicative purposes. In Great Britain, the communicative approach developed slightly differently, partially from the concepts of language notions and functions and partially from concepts related to task-based learning. Language learning within these understandings became more a matter of developing students' proficiency in communicating meaning and less one of replicating structurally accurate language through rote exercises with little or no meaning.

The communicative approach arrived at a time when the field of language teaching appeared ready for a new approach because the winds of change were prevailing in the general educational community. During this period, there was increased interest in cooperative learning methods, multiple-intelligences theory, authentic assessment, and other learner-centered approaches to teaching and learning across the curricula. Traditional language learning methods such as the audio-lingual method went out of favor, and the communicative approach offered a humane, less dreary way to learn.

The communicative approach is considered an approach, not a method, because there is no single universally accepted linguistic theory, learning theory, or instructional model that all teachers and learners follow. Instead, language teaching procedures and syllabi are grounded in broad theoretical concepts and beliefs about language acquisition. Because of this theoretical breadth, the communicative approach has been accessible to practitioners from a variety of traditions. Many have been able to identify with it and interpret it in different ways.

Since its emergence in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the communicative approach has gone through a number of phases. The first phase reorganized the teaching syllabus from one based on structure to one based on communicating meaning. In the second phase, attention was paid to analyzing learner needs and making that analysis an essential component of the approach. In the third phase, the focus was on developing interactive, group-oriented learning activities.