[Red5]

In more conservative approaches grammar plays a primary role and communication is often merely a pretext for grammar analysis. In CLT grammar plays a secondary role, supporting the primary goal of communication. The psychological basis for this approach is rooted in the cognitive theory that you must acquire systematic knowledge of a language in order to use it spontaneously and that such knowledege must be acquired through application, not learned by abstract analysis.

From: http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/langu...210/210clt.htm

Here are a couple of links about communicative language teaching:

http://www.abacom.com/~nathan/clt.htm

http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/comlangteach/index.htm