The Effectiveness of Using Communicative Language Teaching in ESL Classroom by EFL Teachers; An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Success of any innovation in the field of education directly associated with learners’ perceptions about that. Communicative Language Teaching is an innovation and this article attempts to discover learners’ attitude and perceptions regarding this. This study will be very useful in Pakistan where implementation of CLT is in hot discussion and mostly researchers worked on the perceptions and attitude of teachers. This study is quantitative in nature. Data was collected from students through questionnaire that was adapted from the study of Sandra J.Savignon and Chaochang Wang (2003). The goal of the study is to explore: what reputation Grammar Translation Method and Communicative Language Teaching are enjoying, what new is introduced to fit CLT in Pakistani educational system, whether learners have positive attitude towards communication based activities or not, what are the problems that challenge the implementation of CLT in classrooms, what perceptions do students have towards communication based activities, which classroom activities are serious threat in meeting the goal of communicative ability. Findings show that teachers are aware about the importance of CLT and learners have positive attitude and perception towards communication based activities. Functional English and English Comprehension is taught that resulted learners can understand classic literature and English movies as well. There is a fair possibility of adopting CLT but their prolonged attachment with Grammar Translation Method, examination system, emphasis on accuracy, preference of mother tongue are the hindrances that blur the concept of implementation of CLT in Pakistan’ classrooms.