THE MISSING LINK IN COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING: RETHINKING TEACHER PROFICIENCY IN INDIAN SECONDARY ESL CLASSROOMS

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has significantly shaped English language education policy in India, particularly at the secondary school level. Curriculum frameworks emphasize communicative competence, learner interaction, and functional language use. Despite these policy commitments, classroom practices frequently remain grammar-oriented and examination-driven. While structural constraints such as large class sizes and assessment pressure are widely acknowledged, teacher communicative proficiency has received comparatively limited sustained analysis. This paper argues that teacher proficiency constitutes a central yet underexamined factor in the persistent gap between communicative policy and pedagogical practice. Drawing on research in teacher cognition, English-for-Teaching, teacher agency, and professional identity, the paper reconceptualizes proficiency as context-specific, functional, and developmental rather than native-like. It further examines how linguistic insecurity, cognitive load, and assessment misalignment constrain teachers’ enactment of communicative pedagogy. The paper concludes that meaningful implementation of CLT in Indian secondary ESL classrooms depends on sustained investment in classroom-based language development, institutional support structures, and assessment reform. Communicative reform requires not only curricular change but also the linguistic empowerment of teachers as confident classroom practitioners.