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, or meaning which maintains interest. Communicative activities only come after the students have learned the usage grammars and vocabulary Attempts to communicate may be encouraged from the very beginning. We can see from the above contrast the different principles underlying the above two language-teaching approaches. These principles can be applied to teach a variety of language contents. However, different approaches may be used preferably to teach different skills. Both of the two approaches focus on meaning instead of on unattached grammar items. Comparatively, situational approach is more systematic and more fully developed. There are series of textbooks that are used to teach all kinds of language contents to students from the very primary level to advanced level. However, communicative approaches are interpreted in different ways by different linguists and teachers, and have no fixed syllabus model or procedure. Using situational approach, a teacher can systematically teach students graded vocabulary and grammar by putting them into concrete situations, which facilitates the students in learning the language knowledge by heart. For example, the teacher may teach the word “punctual” by telling the students an interesting story of what happened when someone was late for an appointment. Students are not likely to lose their interest in learning grammar and vocabulary as it happens in the Grammar-Translation Method when the teacher just makes up some unrelated sentences using this word, but the students may lack the practice of applying what they have learned into real communicative situations because the teacher is, for most of the time, the center of the class. So they maybe at a loss to communicate in the culture of the language studied as Johnson and Morrow (1981, p.1) point out that a large numbers of students in traditional grammar-based courses are structurally competent but communicatively incompetent. Communicative approach focuses on the communicative competence, using real-life communication in the target language between students to help the students learn the usage of words and grammar. The learners work all the time in English and the activities require them to speak and listen to English from the first day, not only writing and reading. For example, the teacher may manage a discussion on the topic why we should learn a foreign language. In this discussion, students may encounter the subjunctive mood as in the sentence “If I hadn’t learned English, I would not have been able to tell the foreigner the way to the station.” In a communicative class, students may have more chances to put the target language into practice, but they are more likely to make mistakes since the primary goal is to achieve fluency instead of accuracy. Students may also get confused at some grammar points because grammar is not the focus of this approach. Therefore, we can conclude that situational approach is better to be used to teach grammar and vocabulary as a supplement or improvement to the Grammar-Translation Method, while communicative approach should be followed in teaching oral English when the students have grasped the system of basic grammar points. IV. Application of SLT and CLT in teaching oral English to freshmen After investigating and comparing the theories and principles of SLT and CLT, we can apply them in solving the problems in the teaching of oral English to freshmen majoring in international trade as we discussed at