Putting the Communicative Syllabus in Its Place

well. Although one wishes the learner to become both linguistically and communicatively competent, the development and use of a communicative syllabus are faced with a number of problems, some of which are: the present lack of knowledge about the constituents of communicative competence, speaking rules, and the relation between linguistic form and function; the heavy demands it places on the learner; and the difficulties of providing an effective context for a speech act and of dealing with cultural clashes between the speaking rules of the learner's first language and English. These problems raise questions concerning the viability of the communicative approach in some language learning situations and point to the fact that each situation must be considered individually. Four language learning situations are discussed.