The communicative approach to language teaching reflects social tendencies of the period. The open and liberal ideas of the 20th and 21st century have challenged standard models of language teaching and changed the understanding of the teacher’s competences. The article hypothesizes a strong correlation between the language teacher’s expertise in communication and quality of the communicative language teaching. In order to better account for the communicative approach, it is said that the language teacher needs to enrich the communicative competence. The article also raises the question of the relevance of the communicative competence of the language teacher, as well as discusses the insufficient treatment of the issue in comtemporary Lithuanian academic environment.