An Investigation of EFL Teachers’ Awareness, Beliefs and Practices of Using Principles of Communicative Approach: Secondary School Teachers of Jimma Town in Focus

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