On the communicative language teaching approach in a Saudi EFL tertiary setting

الملخص EN

Successful language teaching entails adopting a successful teaching method that has its own stated goals and the appropriate techniques to achieve these goals.

The world of language teaching has witnessed the development and diminution of several teaching approaches and methods.

The last three decades were the time in which the most prevalent teaching method, i.e.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT, hereafter), emerged and achieved its worldwide outspread.

The success of a teaching method depends on the user, i.e.

the teacher; the teacher needs to be aware of the nature of the method he/she uses, its objectives and the most appropriate way of implementing it.

Moreover, the teacher’s perception of such a method would without doubt contribute positively or negatively to the entire teaching process.

However, how is such a perception formed? What factors contribute to this process? In addition, how far can this either facilitate or inhibit the implementation of a certain language teaching method? The current study explores Saudi male and female university teachers’ perceptions of the CLT.

Considering the variable of gender, this study will investigate how far male and female teachers’ education, teachers’ experience, teachers’ and learners’ attitudes to CLT and teachers’ and learners’ level of L2 proficiency contribute to their perception of CLT.

Furthermore, it aims at finding out the perceived difficulties in using CLT in the study context, and in the Saudi Arabian higher education setting in general