Communicative Language Teaching In China:A Comparative Case Study With Pakistan

The rising demand for enhancing communicative competence of English language learners in the world generally and in China and Pakistan particularly has resulted in the need for quality language teaching in both contexts.Both China and Pakistan are developing countries where teaching and learning English have been crucial in the sights of teachers and students since last few decades.However,the practice of English language teaching in China and Pakistan have not got satisfactory results due to poor methodology,out-dated syllabus,passive learning styles,lack of modern facilities,teacher-centered classrooms,large classrooms,exams-oriented system,and constriction and teacher autonomy.After learning English for many years,students in China and Pakistan at senior high school level(also known as higher secondary in Pakistan)have failed to develop their communicative competence.Since the introduction of Communicative Language Teaching(CLT),many teachers and researchers have turned their attention towards CLT and it has also been encouraged and adopted in many ESL/EFL contexts:The purpose of this study was to investigate the teaching practices of both Chinese and Pakistani secondary English teachers from a comparative perspective,in terms of developing their respective students' communicative competence in addition to teachers'attitudes and perceptions towards CLT,and the factors which they are confronted with while implementing CLT in English language teaching(ELT).Using a qualitative method,the present study involved five in-depth interviews with Chinese secondary English teachers and five in-depth interviews with Pakistani secondary English teachers.Meanwhile,documents including syllabus,teaching plan,and other related materials were also collected as supplementary data to be triangulated with the main source of data.The results showed that the traditional English teaching strategies applied by both Chinese and Pakistani English teachers,and the shifting of teachers' teaching commitment towards traditional approaches was not due to their personal determination rather it was the education system which caused the dilemma for them.On the contrary,the teachers possessed the crucial and imperative attitudes towards CLT,however,due to some limitations in terms of available facilities and opportunities of training have made teaching complicated in large classrooms and exams-oriented system.The passive roles of administration,constriction and teacher autonomy in terms of fulfilling the needs of learners also influenced the effective teaching of English in China and Pakistan.The present study contributed in the literature review and answered the questions regarding English language teaching and learning via CLT,its positive role in fulfilling the real goal of ELT,and the factors which influence CLT in ELT at senior high school level in China and Pakistan.Further studies are needed to establish a real learning environment by examining the application of CLT at different educational stages in China and Pakistan.