The communicative approach to second language instruction has gained disproportionate publicity in the language teaching profession through the Communicative Teaching Project in Bangalore, India. Because of a series of articles and books and presentations at conferences advertising the project's alleged innovativeness and effectiveness, it has become an anchor for the advocates of the communicative approach. No attempt has been made to make a truly objective and reliable evaluation of the expensive project, but it has been leant credibility by the prestige of a number of organizations and individuals associated with it. Elsewhere, the technique has not been as successful. Language teaching is suffering from overdependence on theory and inadequate respect for practice, in which eclecticism is more useful than slavish advocacy. (MSE)