Exploring the Implementation of Communicative Language Teaching in the Philippines: A Tertiary Teachers’ Perspective

Abstract

Several studies have been conducted on teachers’ perception and implementation of communicative language teaching (CLT) in Asia. However, how CLT is implemented in the Philippine context and how it is perceived by tertiary teachers is underexplored. Thus, this study sought to determine the beliefs, practices, and problem encountered by tertiary teachers in implementing CLT. Ten experienced tertiary teachers from a private university in the Philippines were purposively selected to participate in the study. Using a 34-item questionnaire, this study used a survey method to determine the beliefs, practices, student’s reactions, and problems encountered pertaining to CLT. The findings revealed that teachers did not extensively integrate the principles of CLT into their beliefs. The results also reflected how they implement CLT in their respective classrooms. Findings further showed that teachers did not extensively employ tasks, syllabus, and materials that would realize CLT in language classrooms. Interestingly, Audiolingual Method remains to have some influence in teachers even if they claim to use CLT. These findings can be attributed to several contextual factors such as class size, limited class hours, and teachers’ and students’ attitude. Several implications for teaching and future studies are discussed. The findings prove to be significant in several ways. First, it provides language teachers baseline information on their current practices which is crucial to extending their teaching repertoire and developing teacher development programs. Second, the findings can be used as a springboard for further studies on teaching practices in ESL/EFL contexts using other methods of elicitation, such as think-aloud protocol and logs.