Communicative Approach in Teaching English for 3rd Year English Department Students: Advantages and Weaknesses

English as international language is learned by many people all over the world. In certain country, like Indonesia, English is still regarded as foreign language different from in Philippine or Malaysia in which English is their second language. These different positions make the emergence of various ways of teaching English. This writing is aimed at describing one way of teaching English called communicative approach. The object of this writing is to see the advantages and weaknesses of this method applied for the beginners. The research is conducted at English Department Andalas University where third year students become the subject. Data are collected by observational method with note-taking and interviewing technique. The analysis is done by using referential identity method related to the concept proposed by Savignon (2002). The result of analysis is descriptively presented. Having analyzed data, it is found three advantages and three weaknesses of using communicative approach in teaching English for 3rd year English Department students. The advantages are (1) enhancing students’ competence in speaking English in various situation; (2) encouraging students to practice their English in real communication; (3) stimulating the students to speak communicatively; (4) motivating students to be brave interacting using English. The weaknesses are (1) focusing much on meaning not form; (2) regarding learning structure is useless and irrelevant; and (3) discouraging students who have lack vocabularies to speak. Keywords: Communicative Approach, English as an International language, English communication