Abstract

Most EFL teachers only have a general idea of what communicative language teaching (CLT) is and hold many misconceptions about how to apply it in the language classroom. While CLT offers sophisticated ideas about what language is, it lacks a set of clear principles of how to teach language. This article argues that the lack of clear principles is due to the few connections that exist between CLT and models of L2 learning. It will also contend that CLT tends instead, to employ L1 learning theories which generally presume that in the right conditions, language learning will take place.