COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

Communicative language teaching rose to prominence in the 1970s and early 1980s as a result of many disparate developments  in both Europe and the united State. 
Chomsky had shown that the structural theories of language prevalent at the time could not explain the creativity and variety evident in real communication
comunicationChristopher  Candlin and Henry Widdowson  began to see that a focus on  structure was also not helping language students  

  CLT is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching, rather than as a method of teaching with a clear set of classroom practice. Thus, it is most often defined as a list of general principles or features. One of the most well known of these lists is David Nunan (1991) five features of CLT:

    Emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language.
    The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.
    Providing opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the process of learning itself.
    An increase in learners own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning.
    Attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom.These five features are claimed by practitioners of CLT to show that they are very interested in the needs and desires of their learners as well as the relationship between language as taught in their class and as it used outside the classroom. Under the broad umbrella definition, any teaching practice that helps students develop their communicative competence in an authentic context is considered a form acceptable and beneficial instruction. Thus, in the classroom CLT often takes the form of pair and group work requiring negotiation and cooperation between learners, fluency-based activities that encourage learners to develop their confidence, role-plays in which students practice and develop language functions, as well as the judicious use of activities focused grammar and pronunciation.In the mid 1990s Dogma 95 manifesto influenced language teaching through movement Dogme language teaching, which states that the published material can withstand the communicative approach. Thus the goal of the Dogme approach to teaching is to focus on real conversations about real subjects so that communication is a learning machine. This communication may lead to an explanation, but that this in turn will lead to further communication.