Guillermo D. Basualdo, Argentina
In my opinion, communicative language is a very important skill to develop in a class, but I agree with those who think that it is not very effective in classes where the number of students is more than 25. In this moment I am teaching English in a primary school and in one of the classrooms I have to work with forty students and doing communicative activities is nearly impossible. I really believe that in this cases what we, teachers, have to do is to work in small groups, I mean, to divide the class in small groups and ask them to do an oral activity like role plays etc. and finally the rest of the students can add something, give an opinion or correct some mistake. In conclusion, communicative skills are essential in any language. So, although oral activities are very difficult to do in crowded classrooms, we can not teach English omitting communicative language, we have to include it in any way.

Lenny Quintero, Colombia
I´m student of university the second level, and I don´t know very good the topic, but I believe that implemented with large classes is good, because the people practice more speaking and listen more time the language.

Maria C. Costa, Portugal
Using the CLT approach even in large classes, lessons really acquire a different dynamic. Focusing on topical issues has always been more appealing for the learner as well as motivating both for the teacher and learner, in our point of view. If the class has regularly been provided with clear guidelines on the Tasks/Activities, and these have been carefully organised (taking into account the learners' language proficiency level),we'll certainly contribute to make our learners gradually feel more confident while using the target language to communicate to their peers about their experiences, expressing their views on the topics or role-playing. I wouldn't say the class might become noisier. It will certainly get more lively, effectively communicative, which gives our learners a real boost! They even feel they can improve grammar structures simultaneously. We believe the whole process also enhances grammar items learning! What is more, it generates a great deal of enthusiasm.

Dogan, Turkey
When they study in the small groups, CLL can certainly attain its aim.

Youhanna, Morcos
I don't believe that it can work with a large number of attendants because of the lack of communication and understanding.

Eric, Taiwan
The primary purpose of CLT is to improve effectively English capability of students. If you can discuss and communicate with students to understand what they need in CLT, I believe it is easier to decide whether CLT be implemented with large classes.

Rajendran, India
Practically it's quite difficult to carry out in a large class room where the attentiveness of the learners is lower and hence yield less successful learning.

Tunisia
CLT is almost impossible to implement in larger classes.

Pham thi Linh, Vietnam
I say sometimes just because it depends on the learning attitude of each learner. Normally, there are about 70 students in my English class. It's not easy for me to motivate all of them to be in the mood of speaking English.

Betul,Turkey
If the students have specific level in English, CLT will be effective in order to improve themselves. For me, this method must be applied for adult learners because monitoring and controlling the students can be easier. Also this method is necessary for self esteem.

Julio Aniceto, Brazil
I think CLT can be used in large classes but the teacher must be careful because it will be harder to monitor the students, especially if they are teens. We've tested it here in Brazil and it worked. I think it's even better than teaching for 10 students only.

Guliya Shaimova ,Uzbekistan
I think to know grammar is also very important but even the students who don't know grammar they can speak with mistakes but they are speaking and when we teachers correct their mistakes they will learn again and it will be in their mind forever.

Christine, Tunisia
If you believe, as I do, that it is essential to produce language in order to acquire it, then communicative language teaching is one of the best ways to ensure that each students produces as much language during a lesson as possible. I disagree with India, Angela and Marcella. Communicative language teaching can be used with beginners, and if used with imagination can be extremely motivating. My answer to China as regards weaker students is that it is often easier for weaker students to perform in small groups and pairs than in front of the whole class. You need to plan your progress round the room in a very large class in order to listen to as many students as possible and not to be discouraged if you cannot listen to everyone all the time. To Marcella I would say that if planned carefully and clearly explained, communicative language teaching really works with teenagers, as they can see for themselves that language learning is more than just an academic exercise, and can be fun.

Nigeria
In order to make CLT work for large classes, group approach to teaching should be adopted.

India
Communicative grammar cannot be introduced to a group which cannot understand English. So the first step is to teach them some fundamental structures which will be some help to them to understand English. In the lower class if all the teachers talk only in English the little ones will pick up the language and the communicative approach will be helpful. But in higher classes the language itself is a problem. Then how to go with communicative grammar?

Angela, China
I agree that you can use CLT with larger classes but it's more difficult to monitor larger classes because it's difficult to monitor them all and the classroom may be overcrowded. It is important to encourage weaker students to participate and this can be tricky in classes of 50+.

Sridevi Lazaras, India
I think even though class is full of students communication becomes effective if both the speaker& receiver are attentive in delivering and receiving the message. A speaker can attract the receivers with good oral and written communications and also non verbal communication like facial expressions,body movement, gestures, physical appearance etc. Then the receivers concentrate on the message and give good feedback to the speaker, whatever strength they may be. So whether CLT Works for large classes or not depends upon the teacher and the students. If there are no verbal and nonverbal barriers it really works out in large classes.

Egypt
I believe so much in communicative language teaching. If students can't meet native speakers or live in a natural English speaking environment, so we have to compensate them by providing a well developed communicative teaching class. For primary classes pupils can be divided into groups mainly in order to help them communicate and at the same time give the teacher the chance to follow them individually as much as possible. Yet we have to bear in mind that teachers here in Egypt are restricted mostly by time and schedule. Yet I still believe if teachers are well trained and have good guidance and a well designed plan, this can be fulfilled.
As for prep and secondary students, we have to enthuse them into their own schedules by encouraging them to get involved into class discussion to help them express their own ideas and feelings and thus we tempt them to speak out their minds and get interested in joining our English classes. Different communicative activities can help them a lot in understanding the different lessons and in getting them interested in learning them and thus facilitating our work.
Once, years ago when I was a young teacher, I had to go through a grammar lesson that was set in the scheduled book about the present simple and present cont., that was of course too easy for secondary students, so I divided the class into groups to imagine going into a restaurant and invent different food menus and improvise conversations between a customer and a waiter and i helped them by complicating conversational situations. It was great fun and the students were so enthusiastic and thus most of them benefited from the conversational practice and helped others who we weaker to communicate and improve. Then I moved to summing up the lesson with a quick revision on the required tenses which were used during these conversations. I remember that later on, whenever we had a grammar lesson, the students used to ask for such activities. Such activities also help in improving the students' listening skills later on. Not to mention the other language skills as well.

Marcella Fratta, Italy
CLT works in large classes if learners are really motivated and self-disciplined which is not often the case with young learners aged 13-19. Their span of attention is very short ,their motivation in using the target language is very weak so they need smaller groups to be better involved in the activities proposed by the teacher and use the language to communicate.

Francis Boima
I think that the suggestion that it is only possible to use the communicative form of teaching in a class of small number of pupils is completely untenable since I believe that on the other hand, it is the moment and time that one should use time and effort effectively to ones own advantage, demonstrating skills and expertise in transferring the knowledge of communicating in the English language. I am of this opinion because I actually went through the phase of teaching first of all to a group of children not more than ten or twelve and later on, to the teaching of twenty or so pupils in the same classroom, due to some kind of educational reforms. Of course, at first, it was a very challenging and daunting task since I was actually not prepared for the test but as time went on and the situation becomes not a matter of whether I could, but that I should, I started thinking and spontaneously began having real solutions to a real situation. I found out that it is even better to use the language all the time and the set book only to introduce new theories and rules to the students. Sometimes, it is so easy to communicate with my pupils that the book is only referred to when it comes to grammatical rules and complex issues. The fact is that it is a bit difficult at the beginning when you find this big and diverse crowd of personalities standing in front of you waiting for your instructions but as time goes on, and you applying this system of communicating with them in an organized but albeit difficult way there is bound to be some fruits of success.

Maja Hadzic
I think it should definitely work better with large classes, since all the students are talking at the same time - in pairs and groups - which is not the case with other approaches. So, never mind the number of students - it's always manageable!

Neetu Mishra
Dividing the large class into small, manageable groups, adequate preparation and forethought by the teacher will help in creating an excellent language learning environment. It would be a demanding but worthwhile effort.

Ursula Huancas, Peru
Well, it's really hard work with large classes, moreover it's a matter of planning and attitude, depending how energetic you feel for the challenge. Try it, it'll be worth it!

Patricia Ashley, China
I have had great results with classes of 45 to 70. Dividing the class into groups of 6 to 8 makes for activity work, results in easy teacher participation and a classroom filled with noisy English conversation.

Farushee, Malaysia
With prepared handouts and planned activities, an enthusiastic teacher come facilitator could make the whole class noisy with strings of meaningful English language utterances.

Nelson Ramiro, Maputo-Mozambique
CLT works if it's carefully planned. Teachers need to find topics and activities that can trigger the students' interest. This will lessen the teacher's work in the classroom. Try it, you'll like it.

Broklyn, New York
This method is very effective it is the key of success. Instruction is clear and also encourages the team work.

Naima, Morocco
I tried some communicative activities with large classes of about 48 students and it worked successfully. Of course the class becomes a bit noisy but the teacher should be patient. Such activities have more advantages than drawbacks!!

Youhanna Morcos
The fewer number in in class, the higher concentration and benefit I get.

Mohammad Sadegh Enbrahimi, Iran
In most cases the answer to this question would be yes, unless the students are too young or the teacher can not manage the class as they should or the teacher is not able to give clear instructions on every single task the students are given. But having more students in the class will certainly make it more difficult to handle the class and manage the time perfectly.

Maria Annabeth, Philippines
Here in the Philippines, most schools both in public and private, we have an average of 50 to 60 students in one classroom. We have been actively using CLT since 2004 especially in English subject. I have been teaching English for 7 years. It is common for us to handle 60 students in a class. CLT has been a great help. I find it easier, more interactive and more effective. Students will be given enough opportunities to express their ideas, feelings, and opinion in an issue or a topic. Instead of giving the lecture for an hour, I will just be giving instructions, facilitating and monitoring the students' performances and progress on the communicative skills being processed. By constantly doing it, one day, students will just realize that they are already good in English.

Anugya Dixit, India
CLT can be implemented with large classes also, but for that we need a powerful strategy because when you do something in large scale strategy is needed...and one more thing in the large class' favour is that the large number of students make the studies more easy and comfortable.

Nick Manley, France
As has been said it works if you are an active teacher and don't mind working in the classroom rather than from behind a desk. Once the class is used to the idea and if there is a good sense of humour it works well. I think I would find the job very boring without this approach. The only problem I have had is with classroom design - raised banks of chairs don't make it easy

Greg Kerry, China
I have worked with very large university classes (50-70) here and they can be effective - even with fixed seating where students can't move around: two or three side by side, groups of four where one pair turns round to face the other. However, monitoring can be difficult and, as someone else has already commented, much depends on students' interest and motivation.

Kate M. Wong, Trinidad West Indies
Good classroom management is the key to success in any approach teachers use. Well set up tasks, with clear instructions and goals for each member of a group or pair together with careful monitoring and feedback make CLT an exciting and rewarding approach even with large groups. We use a video camera to record interactions which helps the monitoring process enormously, and makes feedback much more meaningful. Recently we have used this approach in simulations with medical personnel in a 'Health Centre' involving reception, nurses checking vital signs, patient consultations with doctors, and follow through. Despite the careful management this requires, and groups working simultaneously, which means noise, it is very effective. Participants really enjoy the challenge of doing a task which prepares them for the reality of their life at work. CLT certainly requires careful planning, but it is worth all the effort.

Murat Kayacan, Turkey
If we form 3 groups in overcrowded classes and give each of them 10 points before beginning the lesson with a competition, they will be eager to learn and answer the questions. If you wonder why I start the competition by giving 10 points, the reason is that in such classes, they talk to each other noisily at times and I reduce their points instead of giving them "minus".

Divya, India
Yes, CLT is very effective. But, I think the teacher should plan well in advance what topic he or she is going to teach and how he or she is going to teach.

Christina Kwok, Switzerland
I have a lot of difficulty doing this even though I continue to try, as a newly-qualified teacher, working with a group of 25 IT/electronics technicians who don't all have the same language proficiency (Pre-int through to Upper-int). Group work often becomes noisy affairs, have difficulty monitoring, often spend too much time helping either the more dependent ones or the advanced ones who have more ideas to contribute but still need help formulating them. I often find myself balancing the communicative method with more lecture-oriented lessons cos' I'm afraid of losing control of the class.

Vijayalakshmi Krishnan, India
I would say that CLT is more effective for larger classes than for smaller ones. Group work and pair work make the learner responsible for his/her task. The students feel less inhibited with their group and this also encourages co-operative learning. This in itself shifts the focus from the teacher to the learner, which is one of the principles of CLT.

Clare, Marbella, Spain
CLT is an essential element of large class teaching because it encourages participation, exploration and promotes learner autonomy. It engages learners and subsequently makes classroom management, if anything, easier.

CLT places the teacher firmly in an observer role and is therefore a useful method to adopt when making assessments of speaking and listening skills, with large groups in particular. (Much less time consuming than other forms of assessment).

It facilitates a classroom dynamic that diverts focus onto the learners themselves, rather than the teacher.

I'd suggest that if you're not using CLT in large classes then you're in danger of teaching 'language', rather than 'communication' - and what is language without communication? How valid are your classes without CLT?

Elena, Romania
All depends on the Sts command of language at a certain point. CLT works with large classes if they all really have the same command of English, not only on the documents. Otherwise, this method neither works with small groups nor with large ones...

Kristina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
A small number of students in group encourage more teaching attention with more flexibility in planning the course content around the individual needs of the students.

Nidia Cecchetto Reuter, Argentina
Of course, it can. I think that it is a very useful approach since the emphasis is placed on the process of communication, rather than mastery the language structures. I have more than 30 students so I do pair work, and small groupings. The students contribute as much as they gain, so they learn in an interdependent way. Our task, as teachers, is to facilitate the communication process between all the learners in the classroom. CLT emphasizes real life and communication in context so I choose different real life situation such as buying clothes, food, going out, asking the time, directions etc. In other words any approach is valid if the students talk and communicate in English.

John, China
Currently all of my classes have more than 25 students, some as many as 40, and I have had classes with as many as 60. And I regularly use CLT for all of them (they are university level, spoken English classes, but I have also recently used CLT in a postgraduate, academic writing class). The students do pair practice, small group discussions, mingling activities, etc. They not only benefit more from these types of activities, but they also enjoy them more than the teacher-centered one in their other classes.
The biggest problems with such large classes are:
1) Keeping the students on task. With so many students it is difficult to monitor everyone and to keep them participating in the activity and using English. However, I have found that interesting topics and lively activities helps keep them on task. And also I control the length of time for the activities. Giving students too much time is a sure way to cause them to go off task.
2)Space. Some of the classrooms are small and crowded, and it is difficult for the students to move around or to move the desks. But we still manage, and for some activities I just take the entire class outside.
and 3) The noise. Having so many students talking at the same time can be noisy at times. But at least they are being noisy in English!

Su, Taiwan
It works for large classes when students are active in finishing the tasks and less dependent on the teachers during the tasks. Or else, it is more effective for small classes. Students will be less dependent on the teachers when their English proficiency is ok /enough for the tasks. And students will be more active when they feel interesting in the tasks. Therefore, it seems to me that the sameness of learners' interest and English language proficiency level should be required in applying CLT successfully in large classes. However, in reality, these samenesses are much harder to reach in larger classes. So, yes, it can work for large classes, but I guess it might works for small classes more often.