To What Extent is it appropriate or indeed possible to adopt a Dissertation

To What Extent is it appropriate or indeed possible to adopt a communicative language eaching approach in your current teaching - Dissertation Example to adopt a Communicative Language Teaching approach 1. Introduction The Japanese are well known for their poor achievement in English language education, especially in terms of oral proficiency. Even after six years of learning English as a compulsory subject at secondary school, few Japanese people can successfully communicate in English. However, English has now become an essential language for global communication. With this need in mind, the subject ‘Oral Communication’ began to be offered in 2003 in Japanese schools in combination with an implementation of the ‘New Course of Study’. This innovative new curriculum emphasises the application of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methodology in the classroom in Japan in order to improve the communicative abilities of Japanese learners of English. However, most Japanese teachers of English (JTE) claim that they face some difficulties in implementing the CLT methodology into their current teaching env ironment. They attribute the difficulties mainly to external factors, such as large-class sizes, an over emphasis on college entrance examinations, and Japanese students’ passive attitude towards CLT. Studies (e.g. Li, 2001; Leng, 1997; Ellis 1996) show the difficulty of implementing CLT in non-Western countries, as in China, Korea, and Vietnam from the perspective of ‘cultural appropriateness’ in their teaching context. In Japan also, CLT is difficult to apply in the real classroom in the context of teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language). Stern (1992) points out that one of the most difficult of problems in making classroom teaching communicative based is the absence of native speakers. However, by utilising Assistant Language Teachers (ALT) allocated in every Prefecture in Japan together with the JET Program (the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program), a successful CLT class can be established in a Japanese high school teaching environment, especially in an ‘Oral Communication’ English class through team-teaching conducted by JTE and ALT. This study will discuss the current teaching environment in Japanese high schools and will try to identify possible ways by which a CLT approach can be successfully adopted. The sociocultural, educational, and student and teacher related factors will be considered for suggesting a ‘culturally appropriate’ CLT approach appropriate for the Japanese secondary education environment. 2. CLT: Definition and its theoretical background The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methodology regards language as a means of communication and aims to develop ‘communicative competence’ in the language learners (Hymes 1971, 1972; Canale & Swain, 1980). The theory of language as a tool for communication is therefore central to the concept of CLT and the goal is also clear. As stated by Larsen-Freeman (1986), all the tasks that are undertaken during CLT have a ‘communicativ e intent’. The purpose is to enhance authentic and meaningful communication by providing comprehensive input and by using authentic language learning material (Kern & Warschauer,