Implementing the CLT Approach in Online Instruction during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Opportunities and Challenges Encountered by Thai EFL University Lecturers

Abstract

As a consequence of the COVID-19 outbreak, Thai EFL teachers have been assigned to change their teaching platform from traditional face-to-face to online classes during lockdown periods. In light of this change, the study attempts to explore the teachers' views and their implementation of the CLT approach in online education in consideration of the fact that the approach was claimed to be the preferred approach in classroom-based instruction. Accordingly, three research instruments; namely, questionnaire, individual interview, and focus group discussion were applied to elicit information and access the teachers' viewpoints and their in-depth online teaching experiences. Thai EFL teachers perceived that communicative-based online teaching increased classroom interaction, encouraged student engagement, and promoted student's self-directed learning. However, a number of challenges, including the lack of student attention and discipline, large class size, and technology difficulties, were revealed as the perceived barriers to implementing the CLT approach in the Thai EFL online classroom context. Overall, this study is assumed to shed light on Thai EFL teacher's communicative-oriented online teaching practices and contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the field of online English language teaching in Thai higher education.