Communicative Language Teaching in an EFL Context: Learners' Attitudes and Perceived Implementation

Abstract

Communicative language teaching (CLT) applicability to English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts has recently been debated extensively. This study addressed 1525 Jordanian EFL school learners' attitudes and perceived implementation of traditional form-focused (FFI) instruction and communicative meaning-oriented instruction (MOI) of English. The data were collected using a 41-item questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and referential statistics. Results showed that students' preferences associated with MOI were relatively higher. Too, whereas EFL instruction met learners’ preferences associated with FFI, it rarely responded to learners' MOI needs. More precisely, despite some MOI practices, the gap between students’ preferences and teaching practices associated with MOI was much wider than that between students’ preferences and teaching practices associated with FFI. Female learners held relatively higher preference and reported significantly higher exposure to MOI. Compared to private-school learners, public-school learners held higher preference for and more involvement MOI. Low-proficiency learners reported higher preference to, and more practice of, FFI. These results were discussed, and recommendations were set accordingly. Index