Revisiting Communicative Language Teaching Approach in Teaching ESL Speaking Skills

As the world heads into modernisation, English is widely spoken by non-native speakers due to the globally competitive market. Teaching speaking in ESL classrooms has always been a massive problem since many learners are struggling to utter simple sentences despite years of learning English. By introducing the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) into the existing curriculum, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach is being prioritised to teach spoken interaction among ESL pupils. This systematic review aims to investigate the implementation of the CLT approach in teaching speaking skills in ESL classrooms. By adopting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) review methodology, 37 were extracted out of 360 CLT-related articles from Google Scholar and ERIC databases based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Based on the selected articles from 2018 to 2022, the findings reveal that teachers and pupils view the CLT approach positively regarding its effectiveness in sustaining speaking skills in ESL classrooms despite the challenges faced. Future research is suggested to fill in the gap of this study by investigating the perceptions of the education stakeholders towards implementing the CLT approach under the ESL context.