School of Education

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Browsing School of Education by Author "Abdala, Jafari"

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    Teacher’s perception and classroom practices in the application of communicative language teaching in secondary schools in Tanzania
    (University of Dar es salaam, 2020) Abdala, Jafari
    This study aimed at investigating teacher’s perceptions of and classroom practices in the application of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in the secondary schools in Tanzania. There were three research questions; 1) what are teachers’ perception of Communicative Language Teaching? 2) What are the classroom practices in the teaching and learning of English Language? How do teachers’ perceptions reflect their classroom practices? The study was conducted in Tanga. Tanzania. The study used a qualitative approach and it was a case study by design. It involved six secondary schools and twelve English Language teachers. The study used a constructivist theory and used a conceptual framework to show the relationship of elements of the study. Method used to collect data were classroom observation, interviews and documentary reviews. Data obtained were analyzed qualitatively through thematic analysis. Findings indicate that, teachers perceive CLT as an approach which focuses more on communication and not grammar; as a learner centered or participatory approach rather than teacher cantered and as a very useful approach in Language teaching. However teachers expressed their perceived towards the application difficulties of CLT in the classrooms. They claimed that CLT is difficult to practice because of difficult language used in the books meant for teaching. As such learners cannot comprehend the language contained therein With regard to classroom practice the study found the following: Teachers mostly teach grammar, linguistic forms and analysis and rarely do they teach language for communication. As for classroom activities, it was found that that these contents are taught through question and answers, group or pair tasks, role play and classroom presentations. Contrary to the assumptions of CLT on the use of authentic materials, teachers use books most of the time in the teaching of English Language. Yet, roles of teachers are more instructor or supervisor which is against CLT that calls for the teachers to be facilitators or need analyst. As for assessment, teachers were observed assessing their learners using written tests, assignments either in class or take home and rarely assess learners’ spoken language. It was further learned that teachers’ classroom practices do not fully reflect the CLT principles. This is because CLT activities, roles of the teachers, the use of books to teach and assessing using written test do not align to CLT principles for effective mastery of communicative competence. Further, it was found that teachers’ perceptions do not reflect the classroom practices especially on the content taught. This is due to the fact that teachers perceive CLT as an approach that focuses on communication and not grammar, yet during the sessions, teachers were observed focusing more on grammar and not communication. This study concluded that learners, poor mastery of communicative competence is due to the fact they are partially involved in the classes. The study recommends the following: professional development though training the teachers about CLT so that they gain mastery of the approach. There should be oral assessments in English Language. The government should work out on the challenges of large class size and poor infrastructure. The study recommends for further study about how CLT is practices in the better resourced schools versus poor resourced ones