Teaching Language as Communication

Published in 1978, Widdowson's slim Oxford volume argued something that now seems obvious but was genuinely clarifying at the time: knowing grammar rules is not the same as being able to use language to communicate, and language teaching must develop the latter. The distinction he draws between usage and use became foundational to the Communicative Language Teaching movement, and the book is still being cited in applied linguistics scholarship nearly five decades later — which is a remarkable shelf life for academic work. The honest caveat is equally plain: this is a narrow specialist text for language teachers, TESOL graduate students, and applied linguists, and it holds no interest or relevance outside that audience. Within that audience, however, it remains an important and surprisingly readable piece of disciplinary history.