Ideas about good teaching emerged from one-off ethnographic observations of six 'communicative' university English language classes in China and India. The lessons were all taught by non-native speakers in classes of between 25 and 45. Through analysis of the behaviour and physical environment of the culture of each classroom, it emerged that aspects of a popular view of 'communicative' connected with group- work, oral practice and teacher withdrawal may be questioned. Instead, cultural continuity between traditional and innovative forms emerges as an essential feature of successful communicative language teaching.
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