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Abstract：With the rapid development of economy and improvement position of English as an international language in our country，English teaching draw a lot of attention nowadays. In traditional English teaching，it's the teachers who manipulate everything in class，where students are seen as receivers of knowledge. Therefore，it lacks cooperation between teachers and students. Students have no opportunity to apply what they have learnt in class to practical communications. In this teachers-centered class，students are not able to bring themselves into full play，which explains the low quality of English teaching in some schools and students fail to communicate with others after many years' learning. Based on the theory of Communicative Approach，the paper analyses its advantages and existing problems in application and proposes some strategy of improving students'Communicative Competence.
Key words：Communicative Approach；Communicative Competence；Strategy.
中圖分类号：G642.0 文献标志码：A 文章编号：1674-9324（2012）08-0070-03
1.Chapter One Brief Survey of the Communicative Approach
1.1The background of the CA
At the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s，the rise of sociolinguistic pragmatics，discourse analysis，the theory of Communicative Competence，etc. started a revolution in the field of linguistics. Many linguists began to view language not only in terms of its structure，but also in terms of the communicative functions that it performs（Brumfit，C. J. & Johnson，K，1979）. The shift of emphasis in the aim of linguistic study exerted a great influence on language teaching，and finally it led to a new approach in language teaching-the Communicative Approach，whose teaching goal is to train and develop the students' linguistic competence，as well as their communicative competence.
1.2 Theoretical Bases
1.2.1 Theory of language.The CA in language teaching starts from a theory of language as communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes（Hymes，1972）referred as “communicative competence”，a term which is proposed first in his famous paper On Communicative Competence. Hymes's theory of communicative competence was a definition of what a speaker needs to know in order to be competent in a speech community.（He Zhaoxiong&Mei Deming，1998：7）In his view，a person who acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for language use with respect to：（1）whether（and to what degree）something is formally possible；（2）whether（and to what degree）something is feasible，which is related to learner's cognitive ability to recognize the feasibility of something uttered or written；（3）whether（and to what degree）something is appropriate covered what Chomsky categorizes as performance，and Hymes further broadens it by including contextual appropriateness and sociocutural acceptability. 1.2.2 Theory of Learning.In contrast to the amount that has been written in Communicative Language Teaching literature about communicative dimensions of language，little has been written about learning theory. Elements of an underlying learning theory can be discerned in some CLT practices，however .One such element might be described as 'the communication principle '：activities that involve real communication promote learning. A second element is 'the task principle'：activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote（Krashen，S.D.，1982）. These principles can be inferred from CLT practices（Littlewood，1981；Johnson，1979）. They address the conditions needed to promote second language learning，rather than the processes of language acquisition.
2.Chapter Two Advantages and Existing Problems of applying CA
2.1 Advantages of applying CA
From the analysis and exploration of the theoretic bases of the CA，we can summarize the following striking advantages of the Communicative Competence.
One of the most important goals of CA aims at strengthening students'communicative ability and comprehensive skills. Centering on the individual development of student'self-study，the CA successfully helps students abandon the passive attitude and acquire the initiative to study creatively.Furthermore，students learn English more effectively through the CA. This kind of language teaching offers a large number of natural situations to students and allows them to think actively and attain various language skills.
2.2 Existing problems of CA
The first problem concerns correcting the errors in communication made by students，including the grammar，misspelling，etc. Surely the teachers can help correct those things，yet the most difficult problem concerns how and when to do that. For example，what mistakes should be taken into consideration? When should they correct the mispronunciation and grammar? Only senior faculties know the suitable moment to point the problems out and afford help to the students.
Another problem in CA turns out that it may be difficult for teachers to evaluate students' performance in class，especially speaking and listening. Here are three main reasons. First，teachers perform the English teaching in a Chinese-speaking environment；as a result，students are not always aware of the way a native speaker responds. Second，the quality of the CA in various schools may differ from each other，which directly influences the reliability of the test. Moreover，as the tests are a lot distinguished from traditional ones，the main subjective items and the judging standards vary quite a lot according to different scores. In this case，the test results may be biased in some way. Therefore，in writer's opinion，it seems the Communicative Approach is more effective for the English majors in colleges who have both the desire and motivation to use English as their communication tool in their future work.
3.Chapter Three Strategy of Improving Students' Communicative Competence
3.1 Pay attention to the installment of general knowledge into students
The purpose of learning language is to apply，namely，to communicate. Due to learning language is a kind of social behaviors，it's controlled by culture. There is a close relationship between culture and communication. Culture is not affiliated to the five basic skills of language，but it exists behind language. An excellent student may encounter setbacks in learning if he ignores cultural factors，whose communication competence may also be restricted. In future society，a person without mastering multi-culture and beyond-culture communicative competence is incomplete. Mistakes of culture are more serious than that of language，for the former can hurt one's emotions. So，teachers should attach importance to the installment of general knowledge into students during teaching process. Only if teachers combine language，culture and communication together can make students be able to speak English in an appropriate and standard way.
3.2 Fire students with enthusiasm and establish a mutually communicative teaching model
In the process of language acquisition，students should be active participants，and what teachers adopt is a mutually communicative teaching model，which is to realize mutual-communication，mutual-effection，as well as mutual-promotion between teachers and students. Teachers should help and encourage students to overcome the fear of difficulty and to establish confidence.
3.3 Make use of modern teaching equipment to create communicative opportunity for students
The ideal pattern of language teaching is small-scale teaching. However，because the general condition in China is special，most schools have large-scale class，which makes teachers and students share one information space. This causes certain disturbance between them and many troubles in cultivating the speaking ability of students. The prevalence of multi-media and the Internet enables teaching classes more colorful. Students are able to look for foreign language-speaking targets on the Internet at any time. Besides，they can utilize the multi-media to hear their own voices，having a clear understanding of their pronunciation of every word so that arouse their enthusiasm to open mouth to speak English. 4.Chapter Four Conclusion
Based on the theoretic bases of the Communicative Approach，the paper has discussed its advantages and some existing problems，and put forward some methods of applying the CA in class and strategy of improving students'communicative competence. Some of the problems plaguing the application of the CA in English teaching，particularly those in syllabus design and textbook writing，deny an attempt an easy solution and are beyond the teachers' ability. However，something with the range of individual's control can be done provided both teachers and students are willing and ready to make relentless efforts. For example，the students' motivation can be better aroused if given more attention to，teachers' theoretical level can be improved through their own effort and better teaching and learning results can be achieved in the combination of theory and practice and the cooperation of the teachers and the students.
Language teaching is a complicated issue，which involves many disciplines such as linguistics，psychology，and sociology，ect. Furthermore，what language is and how it operates is still a matter of controversy. How human beings learn language and in what way they learn it as well as whether these are different processes or merely different manifestations of the same process is another question，which is still under investigation. Therefore，much more research work must be done in these fields in order to improve the practice of language teaching.
Bibliography：
[1]Brumfit，C. J. & Johnson，K. The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching[M].Oxford：Oxford University Press，1979.
[2]Carrol，B. Testing Communicative Performance：An Interim Study[J].Pergamon Institute of English，1980.
[3]Hymes，D.On Communicative Competence[J].Harmondsworth：Perguin，1972.
[4]刘妍.On Improving Students' Communicative Competence in Class.
[5]陈参.Communicative Language Teaching and Its Application to Spoken English Instruction.
[6]刘嘉莉.Communicative Approach and High School English Teaching.
[7]胡文仲.交際教学法初探[J].外国语，1982.
[8]何兆熊，梅德明.大学外语实施交际教学的意义与原则[J].东北师大学报，1998：7.
[9]纪文颖.任务语言教学对非英语专业大学生英语口语学习动机影响的实证研究[D].济南：山东师范大学硕士论文，2010-05-08.
Key words：Communicative Approach；Communicative Competence；Strategy.
中圖分类号：G642.0 文献标志码：A 文章编号：1674-9324（2012）08-0070-03
1.Chapter One Brief Survey of the Communicative Approach
1.1The background of the CA
At the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s，the rise of sociolinguistic pragmatics，discourse analysis，the theory of Communicative Competence，etc. started a revolution in the field of linguistics. Many linguists began to view language not only in terms of its structure，but also in terms of the communicative functions that it performs（Brumfit，C. J. & Johnson，K，1979）. The shift of emphasis in the aim of linguistic study exerted a great influence on language teaching，and finally it led to a new approach in language teaching-the Communicative Approach，whose teaching goal is to train and develop the students' linguistic competence，as well as their communicative competence.
1.2 Theoretical Bases
1.2.1 Theory of language.The CA in language teaching starts from a theory of language as communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes（Hymes，1972）referred as “communicative competence”，a term which is proposed first in his famous paper On Communicative Competence. Hymes's theory of communicative competence was a definition of what a speaker needs to know in order to be competent in a speech community.（He Zhaoxiong&Mei Deming，1998：7）In his view，a person who acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for language use with respect to：（1）whether（and to what degree）something is formally possible；（2）whether（and to what degree）something is feasible，which is related to learner's cognitive ability to recognize the feasibility of something uttered or written；（3）whether（and to what degree）something is appropriate covered what Chomsky categorizes as performance，and Hymes further broadens it by including contextual appropriateness and sociocutural acceptability. 1.2.2 Theory of Learning.In contrast to the amount that has been written in Communicative Language Teaching literature about communicative dimensions of language，little has been written about learning theory. Elements of an underlying learning theory can be discerned in some CLT practices，however .One such element might be described as 'the communication principle '：activities that involve real communication promote learning. A second element is 'the task principle'：activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote（Krashen，S.D.，1982）. These principles can be inferred from CLT practices（Littlewood，1981；Johnson，1979）. They address the conditions needed to promote second language learning，rather than the processes of language acquisition.
2.Chapter Two Advantages and Existing Problems of applying CA
2.1 Advantages of applying CA
From the analysis and exploration of the theoretic bases of the CA，we can summarize the following striking advantages of the Communicative Competence.
One of the most important goals of CA aims at strengthening students'communicative ability and comprehensive skills. Centering on the individual development of student'self-study，the CA successfully helps students abandon the passive attitude and acquire the initiative to study creatively.Furthermore，students learn English more effectively through the CA. This kind of language teaching offers a large number of natural situations to students and allows them to think actively and attain various language skills.
2.2 Existing problems of CA
The first problem concerns correcting the errors in communication made by students，including the grammar，misspelling，etc. Surely the teachers can help correct those things，yet the most difficult problem concerns how and when to do that. For example，what mistakes should be taken into consideration? When should they correct the mispronunciation and grammar? Only senior faculties know the suitable moment to point the problems out and afford help to the students.
Another problem in CA turns out that it may be difficult for teachers to evaluate students' performance in class，especially speaking and listening. Here are three main reasons. First，teachers perform the English teaching in a Chinese-speaking environment；as a result，students are not always aware of the way a native speaker responds. Second，the quality of the CA in various schools may differ from each other，which directly influences the reliability of the test. Moreover，as the tests are a lot distinguished from traditional ones，the main subjective items and the judging standards vary quite a lot according to different scores. In this case，the test results may be biased in some way. Therefore，in writer's opinion，it seems the Communicative Approach is more effective for the English majors in colleges who have both the desire and motivation to use English as their communication tool in their future work.
3.Chapter Three Strategy of Improving Students' Communicative Competence
3.1 Pay attention to the installment of general knowledge into students
The purpose of learning language is to apply，namely，to communicate. Due to learning language is a kind of social behaviors，it's controlled by culture. There is a close relationship between culture and communication. Culture is not affiliated to the five basic skills of language，but it exists behind language. An excellent student may encounter setbacks in learning if he ignores cultural factors，whose communication competence may also be restricted. In future society，a person without mastering multi-culture and beyond-culture communicative competence is incomplete. Mistakes of culture are more serious than that of language，for the former can hurt one's emotions. So，teachers should attach importance to the installment of general knowledge into students during teaching process. Only if teachers combine language，culture and communication together can make students be able to speak English in an appropriate and standard way.
3.2 Fire students with enthusiasm and establish a mutually communicative teaching model
In the process of language acquisition，students should be active participants，and what teachers adopt is a mutually communicative teaching model，which is to realize mutual-communication，mutual-effection，as well as mutual-promotion between teachers and students. Teachers should help and encourage students to overcome the fear of difficulty and to establish confidence.
3.3 Make use of modern teaching equipment to create communicative opportunity for students
The ideal pattern of language teaching is small-scale teaching. However，because the general condition in China is special，most schools have large-scale class，which makes teachers and students share one information space. This causes certain disturbance between them and many troubles in cultivating the speaking ability of students. The prevalence of multi-media and the Internet enables teaching classes more colorful. Students are able to look for foreign language-speaking targets on the Internet at any time. Besides，they can utilize the multi-media to hear their own voices，having a clear understanding of their pronunciation of every word so that arouse their enthusiasm to open mouth to speak English. 4.Chapter Four Conclusion
Based on the theoretic bases of the Communicative Approach，the paper has discussed its advantages and some existing problems，and put forward some methods of applying the CA in class and strategy of improving students'communicative competence. Some of the problems plaguing the application of the CA in English teaching，particularly those in syllabus design and textbook writing，deny an attempt an easy solution and are beyond the teachers' ability. However，something with the range of individual's control can be done provided both teachers and students are willing and ready to make relentless efforts. For example，the students' motivation can be better aroused if given more attention to，teachers' theoretical level can be improved through their own effort and better teaching and learning results can be achieved in the combination of theory and practice and the cooperation of the teachers and the students.
Language teaching is a complicated issue，which involves many disciplines such as linguistics，psychology，and sociology，ect. Furthermore，what language is and how it operates is still a matter of controversy. How human beings learn language and in what way they learn it as well as whether these are different processes or merely different manifestations of the same process is another question，which is still under investigation. Therefore，much more research work must be done in these fields in order to improve the practice of language teaching.
Bibliography：
[1]Brumfit，C. J. & Johnson，K. The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching[M].Oxford：Oxford University Press，1979.
[2]Carrol，B. Testing Communicative Performance：An Interim Study[J].Pergamon Institute of English，1980.
[3]Hymes，D.On Communicative Competence[J].Harmondsworth：Perguin，1972.
[4]刘妍.On Improving Students' Communicative Competence in Class.
[5]陈参.Communicative Language Teaching and Its Application to Spoken English Instruction.
[6]刘嘉莉.Communicative Approach and High School English Teaching.
[7]胡文仲.交際教学法初探[J].外国语，1982.
[8]何兆熊，梅德明.大学外语实施交际教学的意义与原则[J].东北师大学报，1998：7.
[9]纪文颖.任务语言教学对非英语专业大学生英语口语学习动机影响的实证研究[D].济南：山东师范大学硕士论文，2010-05-08.