IntroductionNowadays,thecommunicativeapproachhasbecomeacommontrendinELTinChina,andtheterm’communicativecompetence’isoftenheardwhenEnglishteacherstalkabouthowtoimprovetheirstudents’abilitytouseEnglishcommunicatively.MostteachersnolongerusetraditionalmethodsofteachingEnglish,particularlytoteachspeaking,whichusedtoberestrictedtosentence-patterningwithgivenvocabularyforsubstitutiondrills.Theynowuseallkindsofmethodstoteachspeaking,suchasgroupdiscussions,news/eventsreports,story-telling,arguing,expressingopinions,etc..Alltheseactivitiesaremeanttodevelopstudents’abilitytouseEnglishcommunicatively.Tomanipulatetheseactivitieswell,andgetstudentsactivelyinvolvedintheactivities,oneimportantfactorindevelopingcommunicativecompetenceshouldbeemphasised:strategiccompetence.
