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Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is believed to provide students with skills to communicate outside the classroom. It is tailored to engage students in meaningful language use through authentic tasks in real-world contexts focused on information exchange, critical thinking and problem solving. Meanwhile, Facebook also has the potential to enhance students’ communication and collaboration by engaging them in real-world contexts. Apart from creating a sense of community and engagement, Facebook enables more interactive communicative language learning activities. This study used the theoretical framework of CLT to examine how a triad of types of talk enhanced upper secondary students’ communicative competence on Facebook in Vietnam. This study utilised a three-phase convergent mixed method approach, including the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data. Three main ways in which a triad of types of talk fostered students’ communicative competence on Facebook were identified: (a) students became more active and were capable of applying their own previous knowledge; (b) students developed their communicative competence embedded in simulated real-world situations on Facebook; and (c) students cultivated their self-directed learning strategies to communicate with others in the real-world contexts enabled by Facebook. The findings also revealed three main ways that Facebook hindered the development of communicative competence: (a) students’ inexperience in Facebook learning; (b) Vietnamese cultural issues related to English teaching and learning; (c) unavailability of adequate time. The study also raised some implications for language learning in Vietnam and highlighted the important roles of Facebook as a complementary learning platform and a triad of types of talk in strengthening students’ communicative competence. Finally, this study encouraged ongoing research on the impact of a triad of types of talk on communicative competence on Facebook in accordance with the principles of CLT with different populations and subject areas.