Afghan EFL Teachers’ perceptions towards Grammar-Translation Method (GTM)

Abstract

AbstractThe purpose of the present study was to explore the perceptions of Afghan EFL teachers towards the use of Grammar-Translation Method (GTM) in English classrooms. It aimed to investigate the use of different techniques of teaching English to students through the application of GTM in classrooms. Furthermore, the study sought to determine how GTM helped teachers to use translation technique to translate short passages and other language items and effects of GTM on Afghan teaching classrooms through students’ performance. The study also tried to find out differences in the perceptions teachers by gender, age, first language, and teaching experience. The data collected from 150 participants who were teaching English at Takhar University and other English language centers. The study employed Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.0 to analyze the data. The results of the study revealed that teachers liked and welcomed GTM to be applied in English classrooms. Furthermore, the results also showed that participants considered GTM a very important method of teaching because it helped them teach grammar rules properly. Another finding of the study was that teachers would often translate short passages, instructions and any language items into L1 in order to help learners to learn the target language. Moreover, the study revealed that applying Grammar-Translation Method in language classroom affected the students’ performance. It also showed that there were not any statistically significant differences by their gender, age, and teaching experience except their language.

Keywords

• GTM
• Grammar-Translation Method
• Afghan EFL teachers
• perceptions
• effect