Some of the important features of the communicative approach to language teaching are enhanced interaction and lessons that are student- rather than teacher-centered. These features assume increased student talking time and cooperation. One way to reach this is to implement pairwork or groupwork.
What?
Pairwork is a stage at a lesson when students:
Work together to complete a certain task
Have a discussion
Why?
Students tend to be less self-conscious when talking to a peer than to a teacher. This promotes fluency
Pairwork takes the pressure of providing correct answers off your students' shoulders
It develops soft skills, such as teamwork
It helps you save time
When?
At the Lead-in, Task 2 and Follow-up stages of a skill-based lesson
At Controlled Practice and Freer Practice stages of a language-based lesson