Chapter 4: Communicative Competence in EFL Learning Revisited: Constructing a Pedagogical Framework Through Teacher-Based Reflection on Their Own Practice

Taking the concept of communicative competence as it relates to English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching and learning, this chapter first presents the challenges faced in the classroom by describing and analyzing day–to–day teaching practices at school, to then examine the ways in which teachers implement a CLT–based approach. The discussion reviews the scope of communicative competence as a key concept in teaching EFL at public schools, and relates these findings to research on semiotic resources and multimodality. The author argues that when teachers are aware of the opportunities to learn presented in their interaction with students, and use the tools available to them to understand the challenges they face, they may be able to identify both possibilities and limitations, which, in turn, can further the implementation of a communicative–competence–in–practice pedagogical approach.