Abstract:
The present research aimed at investigating EFL teachers’ awareness, belief, and practice of
principles of communicative approach. Descriptive survey design was employed to carry out the
study. Both governmental and private secondary schools found in Jimma town were used as the
study settings. Comprehensive sampling technique was used to select all EFL teachers in those
schools. Questionnaires, interview and classroom observation were used as data gathering
instruments to collect the data from the aforementioned study settings. While the quantitative
data were analyzed using the SPSS package Version 26, the qualitative data were presented,
analyzed and interpreted using thematic description. The findings of the investigation Showed
that though many teachers in the study site claimed that they have awareness of the principles of
communicative approach, their actual practice in the classroom apparently portrayed the
opposite fact. They delivered English language lessons without considering some routine
principles of communicative approach such as pre while and post-tasks. Majority of the
respondents claimed that implementing principle of CLT enhanced learners’ language learning.
However, they spent most of the allotted time by giving lecture. In addition, the participants
identified large class size, traditional grammar-based examinations and shortage of time to
prepare communicative materials as major challenges they faced in implementing CLT. It was
recommended that EFL teachers should get in-service trainings on how to implement CLT facing
the aforementioned and other possible challenges
