Post CLT or Post-Method: major criticisms of the communicative approach and the definition of the current pedagogy

Abstract

The paper is focused on the origin and definition of the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach as well as its major criticisms. The study aims at examination of typical features of CLT to establish the reason why none of the methods or approaches so far has come to replace it; whether it is plausible to suggest that any such method or approach will appear in the future; whether it is possible to describe the current situation as post-method. In order to achieve this goal strengths and weaknesses of the CLT approach have been scrutinised and its influence on the present day post-method state has been explored. The authors state that in spite of all criticisms, CLT has a great impact in the present teaching context. Having given special attention to the description of post methods pedagogy, it is obvious that this condition may be considered as a consequent stage, which has emerged as a result of CLT breakdown. Nevertheless, the term “post-CLT” seems to be general and does not reflect the specificity properly, i.e. coexistence of various approaches and methods with the focus on context requirements.