Impediments to the Application of Communicative Approach: Survey Among Saudi University Teachers

Abstract

Communicative language teaching (CLT), which is considered to be a promising approach to language teaching-learning, has appeared as a reaction to situational approaches which mainly focus on teaching structures in limited contexts rather than on communication. However, the applicability of communicative language teaching in all contexts is still under debate. This study intends to explore the impediments university lecturers face in applying communicative language teaching in Saudi Arabia’s social context. It also examines the feasibility of attaining communicative competence as a central goal of communicative language teaching. Twenty-six professors and lecturers from three universities were interviewed to collect the data. The findings revealed that in the social context of teaching English as a foreign language, the low English learning outcomes at secondary school and the low motivation of learners are some of the impediments to the successful implementation of CLT. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that communicative competence is difficult to attain in a society with an EFL context without engaging learners in various social interactions and multicultural contexts in real life. The mere sensitization of sociolinguistics competence will not serve the purpose of achieving communicative competence.