The Perception and Practice of EFL Teachers in Teaching Vocabulary Using Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Kitaw Joseph Zewdu

doi:10.7176/jlll/68-01

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate EFL teachers’ perception and practice of using CLT in teaching vocabulary in an Ethiopian secondary school. It focused on identifying the teachers’ perception to vocabulary teaching, to assess how often they teach it using CLT, and identify the challenges they face in teaching vocabulary using CLT. In order to achieve these objectives, descriptive survey design was employed. The participants of the study were 10 EFL teachers selected using comprehensive sampling. As data gathering instruments, questionnaire, observation, and interview were used. Descriptive statistics techniques - frequency, percentage and mean- were applied for data analysis. The interview data was also analyzed using themes. The results indicated that EFL teachers have positive perception to teach vocabulary using CLT although their actual classroom practice does not match with their perceptions. They did not use the techniques regularly to present the vocabulary lessons. Moreover, the major problems identified as obstacles in the teaching and learning process were large class size, lack of interest of students and poor quality of the textbook. The issue of teaching vocabulary using CLT remained impractical. Thus, stakeholders have to work hard to reverse the situation of language teaching in these schools. Keywords— CLT, perception, practice, vocabulary, EFL teaching DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/68-01 Publication date: May 31 st 2020

Highlights

In contrast to the era of Grammar Translation method and Direct Method of language teaching, vocabulary teaching and learning has got more attention in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) since the 1970’s (Yuling 2005; Melaku, 2019).This is due to the shift of teaching language as a set of forms to functional system for a range of communicative purposes (Shejabala, 2006)
The teachers are in the opinion that the vocabulary activities should expose students to interactive activities, teachers play facilitative role in the process, the task should be meaningful for students, and the vocabulary teaching materials are expected to be more authentic for meaningful interaction and active learning; in this regard, both the students and teachers are expected to play active roles as part of the student-centered interactive class
This positive perception to the use of CLT in teaching vocabulary is conducive for the actual classroom practice.In connection to this idea, Citing other researchers (Prosser, Trigwell and Taylor 1994;Williams and Burden, 1997 & Patrick 2000), Kausar and Akhtar (2011) reported that teachers’ beliefs or perceptions highly affect their classroom practice and any mismatch between perception and practice results in confused instruction over the student population

Summary

Introduction

In contrast to the era of Grammar Translation method and Direct Method of language teaching, vocabulary teaching and learning has got more attention in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) since the 1970’s (Yuling 2005; Melaku, 2019).This is due to the shift of teaching language as a set of forms (grammatical, phonological, lexical) to functional system for a range of communicative purposes (Shejabala, 2006). Vocabulary is essential in expressing ideas and thoughts In relation to this point, Wilkins (1976) argues ‘without grammar, there are few things we can express; while without vocabulary, there is nothing we can express.’. Citing other researchers (Folse, 2008, Nation, 2013, and Hinkel , 2015), Lu (2017) reported that the vocabulary size students have highly affects the development of their writing skills in language learning classrooms. Further more, this is true for writing activities and for other language skills in the EFL setting. To be effective in a communication environment, the language learners have to be rich in vocabulary to express their ideas accurately and fluently

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion