ABSTRACT

The need to make the teaching and learning of language less abstract and more pragmatic and relevant to the students of higher institutions has generated changes in the approach to the teaching of English language as communicative skills. It places emphasis on the use of language in real life situation for the learners to be proficient. The need for communicative competence of the average Higher Institution students has become a growing concern to English language educators and specialists, as well the society at large. The attempt to address the problem of incompetency resulted to the shift of focus on language education to participatory teaching methodologies for the functional improvement in communicative skills of our students. This paper therefore, attempts to examine how the communicative approach could be applied in teaching Higher Institution Students to acquire the necessary skills effectively which will enable them to communicate competently in either spoken or written English and in different facets of communication.