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1458 © 2011 ACADEMY PUBLISHER THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES [34] Valdés, G. (1997). The teaching of Spanish to bilingual Spanish speaking students: Outstanding issues and unanswered questions. In M. C. Colombi & F. Alarcón, (Eds.), La enseñanza del español a hispanohablantes. Praxis y teoría (pp.8-44). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. [35] Valdés, G. (2002). Learning and not learning English. Latino students in American schools. New York: Teachers College. Maria Luisa Spicer-Escalante is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Linguistics (Ph.D. University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign, 2002). She teaches courses in Spanish and Linguistics both at the undergraduate and graduate level. She is the Co- Director of the Master of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University. Her research focuses on the pedagogical aspects of Second Language Acquisition, Bilingual Education, and Spanish Heritage Speakers in the United States.
ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 1, No. 11, pp. 1459-1470, November 2011 © 2011 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.1.11.1459-1470 Teaching and Learning English at Tertiary Level: Revisiting Communicative Approach © 2011 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Kun-huei Wu English Department, Aletheia University, Taiwan Email: au4284@mail.au.edu.tw Abstract—This study aims to discuss students’ and teachers’ awareness of various aspects of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and in light of the results, consider the pedagogical implications. Participants consist of nine non-native English teachers and 286 students in Taiwan’s universities. Data was collected through an attitude scale and interviews with the participants. Analytical results revealed that most of the students preferred the communicative-learning teaching approach as a means to improve their English proficiency. Both students and teachers showed positive attitude with some reservation toward four domains of CLT: group/pair work, grammar, student/teacher role, and peer/teacher correction. The results also showed that the difficulties—teacher-related, student-related, and educational-system related—encountered by non-native English teachers were complex. Teacher-related constraints included teachers’ low confidence in spoken English, deficiency in strategic and sociolinguistic competence, unfamiliarity with the target culture, lack of proper training in CLT, and low willingness to prepare communicative materials. Student-related constraints were mainly due to students’ insufficient proficiency, and educational-system related limitations consisting of large classes and grammar-based examinations. The findings of this study, which corroborated those of previous studies, suggest that many of the difficulties encountered by both Taiwanese students and English teachers over the past decades still persist to this day. Index Terms—Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), attitude, NNEST, NEST I. INTRODUCTION Although many people are opposed to the idea of English as an international ―lingua franca‖, it is generally acknowledged that English has become one of the most accepted medium of communication. Language communication ability plays an important role in the global village, in which economists emphasize that English proficiency is a form of human capital in the workplace (McManus, 1985). Taiwan aims to be one of the major economic partners in the world; language learners are therefore highly expected to emulate the communicative skills of native speakers. The influence of English as a global language compelled the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan to reform its English education policy. In 2001, English programs were implemented in the elementary school curriculum, aiming to provide a natural and enjoyable language learning environment. Before that, students started to learn English as one of their compulsory courses in junior high school. Due to the pressure of entrance exams, most students‘ learning experience is far from being natural and enjoyable. Accordingly, the average English proficiency among students, ranging from junior high school to university students, is still quite low when it comes to communicative use. Beginning in the 1970s, voice for improving students‘ communicative competence became louder; the thought of adopting another practical teaching method emerged. The Grammar-Translation and Audiolingual have been two of the most popular teaching approaches in Taiwan. As a result, communicative competence has long been neglected by Taiwanese teachers and students. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is one of the methods which accentuates its goal of language teaching on communicative competence (Hymes, 1972). It is seen as a teaching innovation and has widely spread over the past two decades. CLT is arguably today‘s most popular teaching method in the field of English language teaching (ELT). From its introduction into discussions of language and language learning, the term ―communicative competence‖ has prompted reflection. Although it is extensively practiced in the English as a second language (ESL) setting, CLT is not successfully applied in the English as a foreign language (EFL) setting. English teachers from countries such as China, Greece, South Korea, and Turkey have made attempts to implement CLT; however, research has shown that English teachers from these countries have faced many constraints that have hindered them from fully adopting this approach (Burnaby and Sun, 1989; Eveyik-Aydin, 2003; Karavas-Doukas, 1996; Li, 1998). Some of the more common constraints include large classes, grammar-based examinations, teachers‘ low English proficiency and lack of cultural knowledge, lack of communicative teaching materials, and students‘ low English proficiency. The results from the above studies affirmed the importance of understanding and taking into account teachers‘ and students‘ attitudes toward an innovative teaching approach (CLT) when attempting to implement such an approach. A. Communicative Language Teaching Communicative Language Teaching is an approach which highlights communicative competence as the goal of
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A Case Study of a Foreign Language
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