ASSESSING THE CHALLENGES OF IMPLEMENTING COMMUNICATIVE GRAMMAR TEACHING IN GURSUM AND AWUBERRE SECONDARY SCHOOLS: GRADE 10 IN FOCUS

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to assess the challenges of implementing communicative grammar teaching in Gursum and Awuberre Secondary Schools. In this study, the sequential explanatory design or strategy was employed. Qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used to address the research questions. Four teachers and some randomly selected students from both schools were included. To gather the valuable information three instruments, namely semi-structured interviews for teachers, classroom observation, document analysis and questionnaire for students were used. The data from the interview of teachers, classroom observation and the document analysis were analyzed qualitatively. Also by creating thematic frame work, topics and sub-topics, the gathered data through students’ questionnaire was analyzed and interpreted quantitatively by using percentage and frequency of the responses of the questions. The result of the study indicated that the implementation of grammar for communicative purposes was associated with various problems. This was due to poor background of students in the elementary levels where most of the classroom instructions were given using L1. Besides, the teaching preferences to apply communicative activities through the various strategies incorporated in the textbook also contributed for the challenges. The data also showed that the teachers were not frequently integrating the form of the language structures in to meaningful communication activities. The tasks and activities that were designed for communicative purposes were skipped by the EFL teachers. In addition, at this grade level students are highly exam-oriented. As a result, their main focus is on exam-based questions disregarding the most significant exercises designed for communicative purposes. As a result most teachers were forced to teach mainly exam-based topics disregarding the other aspects of language especially significant for their oral and written activities. In these schools, grammar was presented in an isolated and decontextualized way. Finally, teachers should integrate the various tasks incorporated in the textbook to the practice of communicative activities.