A Comparative Study Of Teachers’ And Students’ Views On Communicative Language Teaching In College English Teaching

Since the early1980s, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has beenintroduced into China, and accepted by many researchers and teachers as a valid andinnovative teaching method for English teaching. In fact, the ultimate goal of applyingCLT is to enhance students’ communicative competence by meaningfulcommunicative activities and task-oriented teaching method. Although theimplementation of CLT has obtained wide spread in China, English teachers have metmany obstacles and constraints in implementing it in English classroom. Therefore,this study investigated the current situation of applying CLT in Chinese colleges.This study was carried out in a college, Jiangxi Province. For collecting data toanswer research questions, questionnaires and semi-structured interview were used inthe study.15teachers and180English majors of Jiangxi Normal University wereasked to respond to a questionnaire, and5teachers and15students were required toparticipate in an interview. By analyzing the data, the survey explored the teachers’and students’ attitudes toward CLT. In addition, it also compared the similarities anddifferences of teachers’ and students’ perceptions to CLT through such aspects as:(1)grammar accuracy or language fluency;(2) preference on group work;(3) obedienceto teachers’ instruction;(4) role of grammar explanation;(5) roles of teachers andstudents and teaching process. At the same time, the study tried to point out theproblems that hinder teachers to apply CLT and students’ development ofcommunicative competence. It’s hoped that the findings and implications of the studywould bring benefits to EFL educators and learners.The findings of this study reveal that:(1) the students prefer communicativeactivities to non-communicative activities, and they favor the student-centeredclassroom teaching style. However, some traditional factors affect their developmentof communicative competence;(2) the teachers have positive attitudes to CLT andapproval to communicative principles, but some factors, such as big class, grammar-based examination system and EFL context and so on, hinder theimplementation of CLT in the actual teaching environment;(3) there are similaritiesand differences between teachers’ and students’ views to CLT. They have achievedgreat consensus on some communicative activities and non-communicative activities,such as group work, roles of teachers and student and teaching process and fluencyand so on. In addition, they also have different opinions on obedience to teachers’instruction and the explanation of grammatical rules in English;(4) despite of positiveattitudes of teachers and students toward CLT, there are some constraints that obstructthe implementation of CLT in Chinese colleges.On the basis of the above findings, the study provides the following suggestionsfor English teaching and learning to promote the efficiency of CLT in Chinesecolleges. It is suggested that teachers should reconcile CLT and traditional teachingapproach for conducting communicative activities and non-communicative activities.They should also reform the current examination system and reduce class size. Finally,teachers should make use of authentic materials and create more opportunities for thereal use of the English language.