Conclusion

The appearance of Communicative Language Teaching on the world stage some fifty years ago fired the imaginations of language educators disaffected with the monotony of structuralism and audiolingualism. It swept aside competing methodologies to become a new world order ruled over by prominent educators with those who question its precepts cast out of its gates. But is it the pedagogical utopia that we have been looking for? Or does it promise more than it can deliver? A close inspection reveals that Communicative Language Teaching lacks a coherent theory of language learning. And without the guidance of a theory, it overrelies on spoken output while underspecifying input. As a result, it misuses class time and prevents learners from achieving their full potential. But what, if anything, can challenge the power of the status quo? While it is not suitable for all levels or for all teaching environments, usage-based second language instruction is a context-driven multimedia language learning pedagogy which translates current cognitive linguistic theory into practice. It is often said that you can’t teach a second language like a first one. That’s true. You can’t teach one, but you can learn one.