The primary aim of this paper is to explore potential synergies between Māori pedagogy and what is known as ‘communicative language teaching’. A brief outline of some changes and developments in approaches to language teaching and learning over the last few decades is followed by a summary of some of the main characteristics of communicative language teaching (CLT) and of different approaches to the conceptualization of Māori pedagogy. Some of the primary characteristics of communicative language teaching are then explored in the context of Māori pedagogy and it is argued that there are some important synergies between the two.