TEACHER'S ATTITUDE TOWARD COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING AND PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IN ITS IMPLICATION: THE CASE OF KEBADO GOVERNMENTAL SECONDARY SCHOOL GRADE 10

ABSTRACT This study is about communicative language teaching. It attempted to find out secondary school English language teachers' attitudes towards communicative language teaching. It also set out to investigate the possible impediments that may hinder the implementation of the approach in the classrooms. Thus, the following two basic questions were formulated: 1) what are teachers' attitudes towards the communicative approach in English language teaching and learning? 2) What are the constraints that act against a successful implementation of the communicative approach in the Ethiopian English language teaching and learning context? A questionnaire that consisted of 30 items was distributed to 120 students and 10 English language teachers in Kebado secondary governmental schools that are found in Sidama Regional State at Dara Woreda. The questionnaire was primarily designed for collecting data as regards teachers' attitudes towards communicative language teaching and students. For in-depth scrutiny of the problems teachers face in implementing CLT, ten teachers (one from each class) were interviewed and subsequently observed while teaching in the classrooms. Findings revealed that teachers’ use of Communicative Language Teaching promotes learners’ centeredness in taking responsibility for their own learning process. Teachers should understand the basic principles of CLT; tasks and activities of CLT must be negotiated and adapted to suit students’ needs rather than being imposed on them.The findings indicated that teachers generally have mildly favorable (positive) attitudes towards communicative language teaching. Though the results indicate that teachers have mildly positive attitude towards communicative language teaching, implementation of CLT can be more effective if teachers have strong attitude towards it. It is therefore, suggested that policy makers, syllabus designers, teacher educators and other concerned bodies should take into account teachers' attitudes and beliefs. Besides, in adopting an innovation, it is important to consider the circumstances it is operating so that the communicative approach can fit well in to the Ethiopian English language teaching / learning context.