Learner-Centered Communicative Language Teaching: Needs Analysis Revisited

The development of the communicative approach to language teaching and language learning, started only a few years back with the pilot work done in several centers for research in applied linguistics and by the language project group of the Council of Europe, has now reached a stage where it can safely be said that the pace has been set, and that a return to a strict linguistic or structural approach is not likely to occur. This does not mean, though, that all is for the best in the best of all possible language teaching worlds: all the pedagogical issues raised by the new approach have not been solved, nor thoroughly thought out yet, and our current practice, still in its exploratory stage, is largely based on intuitions and rules of thumb.