Proceedings of The 8th International Conference on Research in Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Communicative Orientation Of EFL Instruction In Turkish Primary Classrooms
Sena Sayıcı, Asst. Prof. Ferdane Denkci Akkaş
ABSTRACT:
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been used worldwide since the late 1970s and in Türkiye since 1997. However, studies show that this approach is not fully implemented in EFL contexts. In this respect, this study aims to investigate the communicative orientation of language classrooms in Türkiye by observing the real practices of two primary school EFL teachers practicing in different settings: private and public schools. Additionally, the study aims to demonstrate any differences between these contexts in terms of applying the principles of CLT and if there are any discrepancies between what the teachers believe and implement. This qualitative study was designed as a case study to examine the teachers’ practices in-depth. The data were collected through observation by using the COLT Observation Scheme (Part A) developed by Spada and Fröhlich (1995), field notes, and semi-structured interview forms. The amount of time allocated for each activity and episode of each lesson was determined to analyze the observations, and then the percentages of the categories in the observation form were calculated. Additionally, interview data were analyzed through descriptive analysis. The results revealed that the private school teacher was more interpretation-oriented and followed the principles of the CLT method more than the public school teacher while the public school teacher was more eclectic and mixed traditional and meaning-oriented activities in her lessons.
keywords: CLT; EFL; Young Learners; Primary School; Türkiye