An Investigation of Teachers’ and Students’ Attitudes Towards Communicative Language Teaching in a Saudi University

Abstract

This thesis investigates and compares teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the main principles of communicative language teaching (CLT) in a Saudi university. Several studies have discussed CLT in the context of teaching English as a foreign language. However, few have addressed learners’ attitudes towards CLT principles, and even fewer have compared the attitudes of teachers and students towards this approach. This study bridges this gap by examining teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards CLT principles in the context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This was achieved using a mixed-method approach, which included the teachers and students completing questionnaires, observing four teachers during classes, and conducting semi-structured interviews with the teachers and students. The key findings are as follows: (1) There is a mismatch between teachers’ and students’ attitudes as the teachers consistently displayed positive attitudes towards CLT principles, while the students’ attitudes were mixed; and (2) the teachers implemented more traditional approaches and used CLT principles infrequently. Further analysis revealed a contradiction between the teachers’ and students’ perspectives regarding the challenges experienced when implementing CLT, in that the teachers perceived a lack of motivation in the students’ use of the communicative approach, while the students attributed their silence to the Saudi cultural tradition of respectful silence. Based on these findings, numerous implications for the application of CLT in the KSA are provided. The thesis concludes with recommendations for future research and the limitations of this research.