Challenges Teachers Face In The Use Of The Communicative Language .

International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)ISSN (Online): 2319-7064Impact Factor (2012): 3.358achieve communicative success when we finally get it right.It is upon this premise that the study based in assessing theactivities and roles the learners played. By considering thesetwo the study hoped to find learners who were strugglingtirelessly to use language without giving up.Since CLT emphasizes on ‘task-oriented, student-centred’language teaching practice, it offers an interactive,harmonious relationships between teacher and student. Thisis as opposed to the traditional education to kind of masterservant relationship. It also emphasizes the learner’scognitive ability and operational capabilities, which allowthe students themselves to think about and express theirviews, thus trained in real life the ability to use language tocommunicate. Students’ interest is also greatly enhancedthrough use of simulated scenarios. They move closer to lifeand become the main character.CLT starts from a theory of language communication. Thegoal of language teaching according to this theory is todevelop what Hymes [12] refers to as communicativecompetence. In Hymes’ view, the person who acquirescommunicative competence acquires both knowledge andability for language use.According to Panda and Stroupe [13], communicativelanguage teaching, which focuses on both the structural andfunctional characteristics of language learning, is anapproach that is uniquely suited to aid one goal of studentcentred language instruction. This is to increase thecommunicative opportunities students have during any classsession, particularly in large classes (using pair and groupwork). Additionally, teachers can engage students throughouta course by using project work with groups, based on topicsor issues of interest to students.According to Johnson and Johnson (as cited in Richards &Rodgers [1]), there are five core characteristics that underliecurrent applications of communicative methodology. Theyare:1. Appropriateness: Language used reflects the situations ofits use and must be appropriate to that situationdepending on the setting, the roles of participants, andpurpose of the communication.2. Message focus: Learner needs to be able to create andunderstand messages, that is, real meanings. Hence thefocus on information sharing and information transfer inCLT activities.3. Psycholinguistics processing: CLT activities seek toengage learners in the use of cognitive and otherprocesses that are important factors in second languageacquisition.4. Risk taking: Learners are encouraged to make guesses andlearn their errors. By going beyond what they have beentaught they are encouraged to employ a variety ofcommunication strategies.5. Free practice: CLT encourages the use of holistic practiceinvolving the simultaneous use of a variety of sub-skills,rather than practicing individual skills one at a time.Paper ID: 020154391.1.1. Language Instruction/Trends in the ClassroomThe Bullock report (Des, as cited in Pollard and Triggs,1997) emphasizes the critical role of language in learningand suggests that all teachers should be seen as languageteachers. This has sometimes been taken to mean the sharedresponsibility of all teachers for improving their pupils’grammar, spelling and punctuation. Such goals are importantand in some schools is the subject of policies for languageand skill development across the curriculum. They go on tosuggest that learning involves using language to engage withand order experience so that new ways of understanding andpresenting reality are developed. We learn through languageand we express our understanding in language.How best then can we enable pupils to become confidentmembers of these new language communities? The questioncan be answered by considering how teachers and pupils uselanguage in their interactions in the classroom. They say thatembedded in the nature of the classroom heavily is on ‘cuedelicitation’ (where to be ‘right’ the pupils had to guess whatthe teacher was thinking) and teacher’s main concern was toget through the set of planned activities. There are echoeshere of reasons advanced for the predominance of thetransmission mode [14]. They point out to teacher’s needs tokeep pupils on task and under control and also to emphasizethe ‘basics’ and performance rather than depth ofunderstanding.For the author’s of both studies the issues have widerimplications. In making the ethical decision to prepare pupilsfor choice and responsibility, teachers implicitly choose alsoan interpretation view of learning. “Teaching in whichtransmission predominates is the negation of educating forliving” [15].A rapidly changing society requires pupils to learn to beflexible, adaptable, multi-skilled problem-solvers who canapply learning in new situations. At the same time there isemphasis on qualifications, examination success, standardsand statistical comparison of results all linked explicitly orby inference to economic and moral revival. In addition, theNational Curriculum is expressed in subjects andunderpinned by the idea of cultural transmission. In makingchoices about classroom communication, teachers are thusbalancing a number of potentially conflicting demands andthe decisions they make about ‘who does the talking willinevitably reflect their values, beliefs and responses to someof these unresolved dilemma’.It is good to collect data rather than rely on impressions. Areflective teacher needs to investigate how much time isspent in talking and listening in a whole class teachingsession. Ask questions like: How much talking is there? Whois doing the talking? Are there differences between boy/girls,high/low attainers? What is the teacher talking about? Whatis the pupil talk about? Information of this kind can highlightthe pattern of talk in a classroom. It can often reveal aspectswhich surprise us, because it is so difficult to be aware ofhow much we talk, to whom and why, while we areengrossed in the process of teaching itself.Volume 3 Issue 9, September 2014www.ijsr.netLicensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY85

International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)ISSN (Online): 2319-7064Impact Factor (2012): 3.358There is plenty of evidence that, in the context of curriculumpressures, large class sizes and the demands of assessment,parity of attention is difficult to achieve. One feature whichoften causes problems is that there are variations in both thequantity and quality of teacher attention which is given todifficult categories of pupils.1.1.2. The Use of CLT in KenyaAn observation of the roles played by English languageteachers is one of the tasks in this study. This is meant toestablish whether the teacher is conversant and abreast withmodes of teaching that are recommended. Of specificinterest in this study is the teaching of listening andspeaking, through the CLT approach which is learnercentred. Sifuna [16] states that in order to develop learners’speaking and writing abilities, there is need for languageeducation. It is the language education that is of interest inthis study – what modes of teaching do teachers use inteaching languages? The study sought to find out if CLT isused in teaching listening and speaking.Competence in all aspects of language enables the student toperform in all other subjects. In addition, the school leaverwill require good English in a large variety of professional,commercial and day-to-day transactions in Kenya and theinternational environment [17]. As a medium of instructionand an official language in Kenya, fluency in both writtenand oral communication in English is emphasized. In orderto achieve fluency students must be encouraged to habituallyuse the language while in and out of school [18].Furthermore, schools need to set aside time for debates andpublic speaking competitions. This would enable students to:situations of language creative enough to manipulatelanguage to suit different situations.Barasa and Ong’ondo [20] quote Mbiti, a onetime chiefinspector of schools as saying that the development ofcompetence depends to a large extent on whether thestudents are given sufficient opportunity to becomeproductively involved in practical language-using situations.Many schools in Kenya (and elsewhere too) fail to providesuch opportunities. Their study further reveals that teachingof language is mostly done for linguistic competence and notcommunicative competence. Apparently, communicativeskills are inadequately represented in language courses.Barasa and Ong’ondo [20] report significant differencesbetween the Drama students and non-drama student inspeaking, writing and consequently communicativecompetence. These revelations are very relevant to thecurrent study which is arguing for the use of drama andother forms in a CLT class as a means towards achievingcompetence in listening and Speaking.Bigambo [21], in The Role of Speaking and Writing inCommunicative Competence, notes that communicativecompetence could be achieved through guided practice inSpeaking and Writing. However, he notes that in KenyanSecondary school classrooms, learning language forexamination purposes seems to be the only reality.Bigambo’s study revealed that communicative competencecan be achieved through guided practice. Through CLT, theteacher will act as the facilitator or guide leading learnerswho are practicing language in a bid to achievecommunicative competence.1.2 Challenges in the Use of CLT1. Practice what they have learnt2. Asses themselves in terms of improvement in spokenlanguage3. Compare their competence in speech.Whereas fluency in speech serves vital functions forsecondary school leavers, the teaching of oralcommunication in Kenya remains a problem. This calls for aconscious effort to improve it. What is more is that oral skillsare now examinable unlike in the past.Studies conducted on communication in Kenya show thatalthough the government is committed to train its teachers[19], the attainment of oral communication objectives ininstitutions of learning is still questionable. Secondary schoolstudents for example tend to face speech problems. Thisundermines the relevance of training given in speech work.Barasa and Ong’ondo [20] report in their study, Impact ofDrama on English Language Teaching, which despite theobjectives and activities of English, most secondary schoolleavers in Kenya cannot speak nor write competently in theEnglish language. According to them, this fact has beenexpressed by a number of scholars, educators, governmentofficials, employers, politicians and journalists. KNEC hasconfirmed this general incompetence in communication. InPaper 1, which tests listening and speaking, KNEC reportsthat in 2006 exam, out of the maximum score of 60, themean score was 30.71. This was a mere average mark. Theyalso comment that students of language be exposed to variedPaper ID: 02015439Li [22] cites difficulties faced by teachers and EFL studentsin Korea when attempting to introduce a communicativeapproach as including students’ lack of motivation fordeveloping communicative competence; low Englishproficiency, and resistance to class participation. In additionto these are teachers’ misconceptions; lack of training inCLT combined with deficiencies in sociolinguisticcompetence; little time for developing materials forcommunicative classes, and large classes. Other difficultiescited include grammar based examinations; insufficientfunding, and lack of support.1.2.1. Criticism against CLTSome researchers have criticized the CLT approach byarguing that a communicative curriculum, however wellconceived, cannot by itself guarantee meaningfulcommunication in the classroom because communication iswhat may or may not be achieved through classroomactivity. It cannot be embodied in an abstract specification.Data-based, classroom oriented investigations conducted invarious contexts by various researchers such asKumaravadivelu [23] and Nunan [24] observe that form wasmore prominent than function and grammatical accuracyactivities dominated communicative fluency ones. Theyconclude that there i growing evidence that, in acommunicative classroom, interactions may, in fact, not beVolume 3 Issue 9, September 2014www.ijsr.netLicensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY86

International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)ISSN (Online): 2319-7064Impact Factor (2012): 3.358very communicative after all. Kumaravadivelu [23] hasanalyzed lessons taught by teachers and confirmed thesefindings: even teachers who are committed to CLT can fail tocreate opportunities for genuine interaction in the classroom.Some researchers connect several features of CLT to earliermethods such as the direct method and audio-lingual method.In fact, a detailed analysis of the principles and practices ofCLT would reveal that it too adhered to the samefundamental concepts of language teaching as the audiolingual method it sought to replace, namely the linear andadditive view of language learning and the presentationpractice production vision of language teaching.These and other reports suggest that, in spite of the positivefeatures mentioned earlier, CLT offers perhaps a classic caseof a child centred based pedagogy that is out of sync withlocal linguistic, educational, social, cultural and politicalexigencies. The result has been a gradual erosion of itspopularity, paving way for a renewed interest in task basedlanguage teaching (TBLT), which, according to some is justCLT by another name. The task-based language teachingapproach uses a work plan that requires a learner to processlanguages practically in order to achieve an outcome that canbe evaluated in terms of whether the correct or appropriatepropositional content has been conveyed. To this end, itrequires to give primary attention to meaning and to makeuse of their own linguistic resource, although the design ofthe task may predispose them to choose particular forms. Atask is intended to result in language use that bears aresemblance, direct or indirect, to the way language is usedin the real world.According to Bax [25], CLT has served the teachingprofession for many years. One of the reasons for itspopularity, as described by Mitchell [26], for example, wasits function as a corrective to perceived shortcomings withother approaches and methods. While it has, to some extent,achieved that aim, traditional methods still prevail in manyparts of the world, and the benefits of an emphasis oncommunication are widely accepted in principles byprofessions everywhere. According to Bax, there is anassumption that a country without CLT is somehowbackward. It is assumed that CLT is not only modern but isin fact the only way to learn a language properly.The aim in teaching a language is to open up its resources tothe learner so that he or she may find the right words andsentences to convey the meaning intended. The call is foreclecticism and for building up language pedagogy based onconstant observation, evaluation of actual teaching andinterdisciplinary co-operation. The critics of CLT are,therefore, on the right track as their criticism helps build on atime-tested approach to teaching language which this paperfinds still very valuable in. The study dealt with listening andspeaking. How best can these two skills be learnt? Thelearners should be given opportunities to practice thelanguage?All the CLT user needs to do is to borrow a little from otherapproaches like the TBLT approach which allows the learnerto pay attention to meaning, engage with grammar, includepragmatic properties, use authentic communication,Paper ID: 02015439emphasize on the importance of social interaction andintegrate language skills. What matters is that the learner iscommunicating efficiently and effectively at the end of theday. Some have actually argued that TBLT is just CLT byanother name.Recent articles in the ELT Journal offer interesting debateson CLT. Drawing on a study of teaching beliefs andimplementation of CLT in Vietnam, it is argued that inherentin CLT is a view of language learning and teaching that mostteachers aspire to. In Bangladesh, in a bid to improve thequality of ELT, teachers of English have been encouraged,even required to adopt a CLT approach. To facilitate thesuccessful implementation of these changes, besidesintroducing local training programs to familiarize teacherswith CLT, teachers of English from Bangladesh have alsobeen sent overseas, especially to English speaking west, forfurther training. He argues that it is time to replace CLT asthe central paradigm in language teaching with a contextapproach which places context at the heart of the profession.He argues that the dominance of CLT has led to the neglectof one crucial aspect of language pedagogy, namely thecontext in which that pedagogy takes place. Bax [25], in fact,concludes his criticism by suggesting an eclectic approachwhich may well be the best way to deal with a variedclassroom where the context approach is given prominence.In response to this criticism, the author wishes to point outthat, in a bid to demonize CLT, Bax [25], in fact exalts it.His main quarrel is that CLT is popular and is considered tobe generally ‘the way we should teach’ in the world. Surelymany scholars must have seen the benefits of this approach.In addition, the purely context approach vouched for by Baxcould interfere with the standard variety of English. After allEnglish is considered an international lingua-franca.Following Bax’s advice could lead to very many varieties ofEnglish that could end up confusing the world speaker ofEnglish.Bax’s other argument that CLT emphasizes oncommunication, adds weight to this paper. The paper arguesfor an approach that will enhance listening and speaking, i.e.oral communication. The learners should talk so that theteacher gets to hear their weaknesses and strength. Theteachers will then design correct remedial exercises andprovide more opportunities for practice. The issue ofignoring content by the CLT users is merely an error ofomission which can be rectified and CLT remains prominentin Kenya, and specifically in Lugari District. After all Baxdoes not argue that CLT is useless. He only indirectlysuggests an additional factor to the factors in learning alanguage that is methodology, lexis and content. Task-basedlearning is a more recent refinement of CLT.1.3 Statement of the ProblemThe nature of the language is strictly functional and itspurpose is to promote communication. Communicationneeds both the material to be communicated and the mediumto be used to communicate the material. Although oral skillsare vital, most learners exhibit lack of mastery of spokenEnglish. Outside the classroom mo

The communicative approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop communicative competence [1]. The purpose of CLT is to provide the learner with unrestrained access to the social, cultural and pragmatic aspects of language. CLT aims at achieving communicative .