Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices and Challenges in Using Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in an ESL Context in the Philippines

Abstract

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has as its fundamental goal the promotion of communicative competence. Over the last two decades, many ESL classrooms have adopted CLT into their curricula. Much of this research notes that teachers' beliefs play a critical role in their understanding and their implementation of CLT in their classrooms. There were however, only a small number of studies that focused on teachers' beliefs of ESL specifically in the context of the Philippines. This small-scale research project attempts to address this by exploring Filipino primary language teachers' beliefs toward CLT, their practices in implementing CLT and the challenges they encountered in using CLT.Qualitative research methodology was used in this study. A descriptive online survey was distributed to 17 primary language teachers from a private school to gather data pertaining to teachers' beliefs, practices and challenges in implementing CLT. The data was analysed using frequency and percentages. To delve deeper into the findings, semi-structured electronic mail interviews were conducted to six teachers. The data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).The findings reveal that teachers claimed they do not always use CLT in teaching the English language. Whilst they claimed they use CLT in their classroom instruction, when examined, their beliefs were at times incompatible with CLT theory. This made their conceptual understanding of CLT ambiguous. The issues identified by participants mainly concerned the preparation of materials, students' inability to take an active role in their own learning and the uncontrolled use of first language during classroom activities.

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Author Information
Jacky-Lou Maestre, Ateneo de Davao University, Philippines
Maria Gindidis, Monash University, Australia

• Category: ACLL ACTC 2016, ACLL2016, Oral Presentation, Paper Available
• Tag: Constructivist approaches,

Posted by James Alexander Gordon

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