On the applicability of communicative language teaching (CLT) pedagogy in rural Taiwan.

摘要

This study was conducted to investigate rural G1-G12 English teachers' perceptions of the existing Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) pedagogy in Taiwan, their practice of CLT in their classrooms, difficulties they have encountered and supports they need. A mixed-method approach, combining a questionnaire and interviews, was used to gather the needed quantitative and qualitative data. Findings of the study show that most of the teachers (differing from many previous studies) believe that the cultivation of students' communication competence is important. They comply with CLT's tenets and support the MOE's CLT policy. They try to realize CLT activities both inside and outside their classrooms in spite of many difficulties (resulting from teachers themselves, students, parents and the school system) which still need to be overcome. The study also reveals that to make CLT more applicable, teachers request English and CLT training opportunities and other assistance from parents and school authorities.