Despite this apparent unanimity, many teachers remain somewhat confused about what exactly communicative language teaching is . At the more abstract end,there is general agreement that communicative language teaching involves an emphasis on communicating by means of the foreign language (the way in which this idea is expressed tends, as here, to be so vague as to make it difficult to disagree with); at the practical classroom end,communicative language teaching is strongly associated with a number of particular activity types,such as problem-solving and pair work. But in the middle ground, the area where theory meets practice,things become less certain. For example,what exactly does communicative language teaching set out to teach? Is there such a thing as a communicative language syllabus? If so, what does it consist of? Is it simply a notional-functional syllabus under a new name? Or does communicative language teaching only exist as a methodological approach, a way of helping learners to practise the skills needed to put their knowledge of of the foreign language into use?