Communicative competence is now at the point where theory must be translated into practice, that is, where the functional approach must be developed into pedagogical content and strategies. An analysis is presented of the three main pedagogical approaches: the structural, situational, and functional approaches. Principles underlying the pedagogical applications of the concepts of communicative competence are described. Materials putting these principles into practice in order to teach oral expression was initiated in an experimental summer course in French for university students from Latin America who were in France to complete their scientific education. The initial part of the course was limited to "survival" modules, while the latter part of the course emphasized specialized oral expression. The content of the course fell under three headings: phonetics, oral grammar, and functional oral expression. In this experiment, the three pedagogical approaches were combined to reach better efficiency in the learning/teaching process. The analysis of comments by both learners and teachers points to new directions for research in the field of communicative competence. (Author/AMH)