An Investigation Into Teachers’ And Students’ Perceptions Of Communicative Language Teaching In English Teaching In A University

As Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an effectual method to help develop students’ communicative competence in ESL classroom, since the 1980s, researchers and teachers in China have been attempting to introduce CLT into EFL context in English teaching in Chinese university, and have, so far, achieved a great success in improving EFL teaching in the classroom. However, they have encountered many obstacles and conflicts in implementing CLT in class, therefore, it is necessary for us to investigate the teachers’and students’perceptions of CLT in order to find out the difficulties they come across in EFL classroom.This study aimed at investigating students’and teachers’perceptions of communicative language teaching (CLT) in Jiangxi Normal University.128 students (sophomore) and 15 English teachers answered the questionnaires. Besides,10 students and 5 teachers participated in the interview to provide their detailed views related to the questionnaires. The study aimed to:1) explore the students’perceptions of the difficulties in developing communicative competence; 2) investigate the obstacles for teachers in implementing CLT; 3) manage to figure out some implications to overcome the obstacles. The instruments adopted in the research were the questionnaire and interview. The questionnaires’data were typed into the computer and analyzed by SPSS 19.0. What the interviewees said were audio-taped and transcribed to support the data of the questionnaire.The study revealed a number of findings regarding the teachers and students’perceptions of CLT. First, the students had positive attitudes towards CLT, and most of the participants in the research enjoyed an integration of CLT and traditional methods in teaching target language. They agreed that teachers were not authorities, and that teachers and students were equal in class. Secondly, although some teachers remained somewhat confused about what exactly CLT was, most of the teachers held favorite attitudes towards CLT and were glad to organize communicative activities in class. They also agreed that the students should be the center of knowledge transmission while the teachers should take the role as facilitators. Next, all the students agreed that they had difficulties when teachers used CLT to develop their communicative competence. Teachers also claimed there were challenges in implementing CLT. All these difficulties and challenges originated from EFL context, traditional lesson and Grammar-based examination, big class size and limitation of class time, traditional learning styles and habits.On the basis of the findings above, some suggestions can be offered for English teaching and learning in Chinese university. (1) Teachers should create opportunities for authentic use of language, and meaningful task-oriented activities should be organized. Also, authentic materials should be provided, and teachers should encourage students to make friends with oversea students. (2) The educational department ought to develop the test formats and evaluation criteria that guarantee the assessment of communicative skills. (3) The class size should be reduced in order that CLT can be utilized more efficiently. Besides, the government should take some actions to provide adequate funding for schools. (4) Teachers should integrate Communicative approach with traditional methods. They should follow an eclectic approach, and use flexible methods in their classroom teaching. To do this, teachers should be trained in how to use various methods to the teaching of English.