A study into the teaching and learning of English speaking skills at Al Jabal Al Gharbi University from the teachers' and students' perspectives

Abstract

case study provides insight into the teaching and learning of English speaking skills at the Libyan Al Jabal Al Gharbi University as a research context, investigating the teachers’ and students’ perceptions in terms of the level of adoption of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach in the speaking classes held at the institution. The lens of focus was placed on the main obstacles that might impede the effective adoption of the CLT approach in the study context. The results and the findings of this study will also help to facilitate the university decision makers in their planning and designing of the English language speaking skills curricula. In order to achieve valid and reliable results, this research adopted a mixed method approach that is represented through the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. A questionnaire was used to collect the quantitative data from students at different years of academic study, while semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to gather the qualitative data from the students and also those lecturers who teach speaking skills in the English language department at Al Jabal Al Gharbi University. The main findings of this research reveal that traditional approaches and techniques are more frequently employed in the institution to teach speaking skills, whereas CLT-based techniques and activities are limited, although it was also shown that some lecturers of speaking skills are able to apply CLT approaches and techniques, notwithstanding the many obstacles that impede their effective application. Moreover, the findings also highlight that a large number of students hold the belief that utilising communicative approaches to promote the acquisition of speaking skills is beneficial and enhances their language use, although a limited number of students believe that communicative approaches do not always support the development of their speaking competences, arguing that the more traditional approaches of language teaching are more effective in their view. This study also presents a number of obstacles identified by the speaking skills teachers and their students that present challenges in the context of applying the CLT approach.