Communicative Aspects of Teaching English and a Look at the Course New Horizon

English is, of course, a living language. Like every other human form of language that has existed throughout time, it is comprised of a lexicon (vocabulary) as well as a set of rules (grammar) which govern its use. Because it is a living language, we as ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers are concerned with how humans use it. The ultimate goal of our work as language teachers must be to empower our students with the ability to do things through their use of English. It is not enough to restrict their learning to memorizing vocabulary and drilling grammar rules, without applying these aspects of the language directly to how it can be used in human-to-human interaction. In this paper, the authors present arguments for the use of a communicative approach in English language education. We discuss reasons why the communicative approach to language may be more efficient for both teacher and student. We recommend the functional-notional approach as a foundation for designing lesson plans for teaching communicative English. Selected dialogs taken from the textbook, Mew Horizon English Course, used in junior high school English language education, are considered in a functional-notional setting.