Communicative Language Teaching
The current state of the art
Communicative language teaching is the generally accepted norm in the field of second language teaching.  CLT suggests communicative language and language acquisition, and the approach proposes way for learners to internalize a second language and to experiment in a classroom context.  Therefore, the classroom context is used to create activities to teach students how to react in a real world situation, not to fake real-world situations.  Its basic features are:
  1. An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language.
  2. The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation (Authentic material is a must, because students cannot extrapolate to the real world from their learning on made-up material)
  3. The provision of opportunities for learners to focus not only on language, but also on the learning process itself.
  4. An enhancement of the learner's own personal experience as important contributing elements to classroom learning.
  5. An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom.

 
 

Information taken in: Brown, Douglas H. Teaching by Principles. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall Regents.