* Assistant Professor (Senior), English School of Social Sciences and Languages, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu-632 014, India
**Senior Professor (Retd.), School of Social Sciences and Languages, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu-632 014, India
Though teaching of English language has gained importance in educational institutions at all levels from primary schools to universities, various reports and surveys on communication skills of students are quite negative in the sense that many of our students are not communicatively competent enough to fare well in interviews, their respective professional careers and the global market. Mere completion of the prescribed text-books in schools and colleges do not bring about the desired output. The main task of the English teachers is to develop the communication skills of learners through essential and challenging task-based approach. Beginning with an introduction on the significance of developing the communicative competence of students, the paper advocates an innovative approach in the direction of tracing out some of the possible bottlenecks in expansion of the English language in the existing socio-cultural and multi-lingual milieu, analyzes the primary reasons for the lack of communication skills of students even at higher levels, and highlights some practical measures to improve the overall English language teaching.
Communicative competence, passive language skill, linguistic inadequacy, developmental stage in language learning
