EFL teachers' perspective about implementing the CLT in teaching in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract EN

English teachers' familiarity with effective teaching methods is a fundamental matter that deserves to be researched, as it reflects on the process of teaching the language and improving students' language achievement.

The specific research questions are listed as follows: What are EFL teachers' perceptions about CLT? What are the difficulties and challenges that face EFL teachers in adopting CLT in the classroom? What are the EFL teachers' impressions towards the effect of CLT on students’ communicative competence? The researcher followed the descriptive approach through the survey method.

This study aimed at exploring EFL teachers' perceptions about using Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia education.

The sample was randomly selected, totaling (188) teachers.

Participants consisted of (132) male teachers and (56) female teachers in K-12 and higher education stages.

The questionnaire of the research was designed to cover four dimensions: EFL teachers’ perceptions about CLT, the difficulties and challenges in adopting CLT in the classroom, the impressions of EFL teachers towards the effect of using CLT and the role of the teacher in CLT classroom.

The results revealed that EFL teachers in Saudi education, to some extent, have a lack of understanding of the principles and procedures of the CLT method in EFL learning and teaching.

The results also revealed that the most critical obstacles to using this method in teaching English are: large numbers of learners, uncontrolled use of the mother tongue within the time of classes and lectures while teaching English and the current examination system.

The role of the teacher in CLT is not so clear for Saudi EFL teachers.

The targeted teachers are unanimous on that the role of the teacher according to this method are facilitating, modeling communication or communicating with the learner in English.

The researcher recommends that there should be more attention to training EFL teachers to implement the CLT method to teach Saudi students how to communicate with others in English in line with the 2030 vision towards openness to international cultures and societies-