Introduction

A reaction to earlier mechanistic pedagogies, Communicative Language Teaching emerged in the late 1970s to become the dominant worldwide pedagogy. It is now so well-established that to question its tenets can make a teacher vulnerable to capability procedures, re-education, and even redundancy. Its arrival on the world stage marked the beginning of a post-method era in which we are told enlightened educators no longer subscribe to any particular method. But, what about the Communicative Method? While advocates dodge this apparent conflict by pointing out it is an approach not a method, the very talk of a post-method era dissuades us from questioning its effectiveness. Is it the pinnacle of pedagogy? And does really it deliver what it promises? The answer to the first question is indisputably ‘no.’ Even today, second language acquisition is far less successful than first language acquisition. To answer the second question is more difficult and it requires a close analysis of the fundamental features of Communicative Language Teaching. A challenging remit given the wide variety of methods that it subsumes.