About Several Issues of Communicative Approach

Communicative competence theory and communicative approach principles, fruits of the development of modern linguistics, especially social linguistics, impel foreign language teaching research to transfer from teaching method focus to learning process focus and the focal point of foreign language teaching to ascend from form accuracy on the sentence level to meaning fluency on the discourse level, and thereby set off a revolution in the theory of and a great leap forward in the practice of foreign language teaching. Communicative approach is a way of syllabus design and principles of foreign language teaching that take communicative competence as the ultimate goal. The intension of communicative competence determines that communicative approach can be a meeting point for various schools of foreign language teaching and a kind of eclecticism between grammar-vocabulary syllabuses and functional-notional syllabuses. The breakthrough point in exploring communicative approach strategies and methods lies in an appropriate disposal of linguistic competence and communicative competence in foreign language teaching and learning. The leading EFL strategies and methods to be formed in future need to be personalized, varied and eclectic in nature and take communicative competence as the ultimate purpose.