Abstract

Communication is the purpose of language and the basic principle of communicative approach to language teaching. The main objective of CLT is to develop “communicative competence” as Hymes (1972) called it. Hymes’ model was expanded by Canale and Swain (1980) who tried to “determine the feasibility and practicality of developing what we shall call the ‘communicative competence’ of students" (Canale& Swain, 1980, p.1). The aim of this study is to find out the features of Communicative Approach to Language Teaching from the textbook of English of grade 3 (2019-20) published by the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board, Lahore (Pakistan). The amount of communicative language teaching (CLT) features in a book usually varies depending on how the CLT principles are conceptualized by the textbook designers. Some of the previous checklists (e.g. AbdelWahab, 2013: Aftab, 2011; Arshad & Mahmood, 2019;Kausar, Mushtaq & Badshah, 2016; Litz, 2005) were consulted to prepare a comprehensive checklist for the study. On the basis of this checklist the data was evaluated qualitatively. It was observed that the book lacks certain features of CLT such as equal proportion of language skills, pronunciation activities, integrated language skills, original and independent use of language. The findings of the study suggest a revision of the book and the activities it include if it has to be according to the CLT principles.