Communicative Language Teaching T1 112010153 Full text

3 Since every teacher in different schools has different attitudes toward CLT, this study was conducted to investigate and answer the research question, “What are teachers‟ attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching in Senior High Schools?” This research question was aimed at finding out teachers‟ knowledge of CLT and how they see CLT as an effective approach to be implemented in the classroom. It is important since how well teachers implement CLT in teaching and learning process in the classroom depends on their attitudes toward it. Many studies were designed to find out teachers‟ attitudes toward CLT widely in the whole country which only gives the information of the case in general. This study was designed to investigate teachers‟ attitudes toward CLT in a smaller scope and more specific area, which was in senior high schools in Salatiga – Central Java. Teachers in these schools apply CLT as English learning approach in the classroom. The reason underlying the implementation of CLT is because the latest Indonesian curriculum expects students to be active in the learning process. Another reason is that it can help students to learn English as a foreign language in which later on they can also use it to communicate meaningfully in any real life situation. Therefore, this study was done to identify how teachers in senior high schools in Salatiga apply CLT and what their attitudes towards it. It is necessary to examine the teachers‟ attitude towards CLT in order to improve the quality of language teaching and learning process in EFL context in Salatiga. Literature Review

1. Communicative Language Teaching

Littlewood 1981 states that CLT means to pay systematic attention to both functional and structural aspects of language to develop a communicative ability. There are 4 two aspects of CLT which are „what to teach‟ and „how to teach‟. The „what to teach‟ aspects of this approach gives more importance on language functions rather than grammar and vocabulary. The second aspect of „how to teach‟ states that there should be “plentiful exp osure to language in use and plenty of opportunities to use it” for the development of a student‟s knowledge and skills, Harmer 2001. CLT wants to involve students in real or realistic communication through different activities. In this case the accuracy of target language is less important than successful achievement of the communicative task Harmer, 2001. Richards and Rodgers 2001 viewed that CLT aims at making communicative competence as the goal of language teaching and developing procedures for the teaching of the four language skills. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes 1972, as cited in Ansarey 2012, referred to as “communicative competence.” The primary focus of CLT is to facilitate learners in creating meaning not in developing grammatical structures or acquiring native –like pronunciation Ansarey, 2012. CLT views language as system for the expression of meaning where the main function of language is to permit interaction and communication Richard, 2001, as cited in Ansarey, 2012.

2. Communicative Competence in Real Context