Proceedings (Oct 2018)

Omani Students’ Perceptive of Communicative Language Teaching Approach in Higher Education in Oman: Its Practice

  • Mouza Said Al Kalbani,
  • Josu Solabarrieta,
  • Ahmad Bin Touq

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2211333
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 21
p. 1333

Abstract

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This study aimed to analyze and understand learners’ attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach in a foreign language context in higher education in Oman. In the literature review, learners’ attitudes play a strong role in determining the success of innovations in instructional practices (Savignon and Wang 2003). In addition to that, this study is considered as an evaluative study to explore teachers’ implication of CLT and the impact of this implication on students “communicative competence”, which is considered as an ultimate goal of communicative language teaching in a foreign langue context (FL). The importance of this study is due to its significance to come up with a clear understanding of Omani learners’ beliefs considering teaching and learning process. It also aims to specify the impact of CLT as an effective teaching approach in English as a foreign language (EFL) among higher education students and to specify any difficulties or challenges that might hinder CLT implementation in the Omani context. To achieve this, a quantitative study had been used to collect data from both teachers and learners. The participants of this study were 631 students (189 male and 391 female) who were enrolled in Intensive English language programs (IELP) in Foundation Institute (FI) in two Universities (210 students from public university and 421 students from private university) and those participants were from three different English proficiency levels (247 level 1, 155 level 2 and 229 level 3). The analysis revealed that students perceived classroom’s practice to be more oriented towards using strategic and grammatical competence and less towards sociolinguistic and intercultural competences. Additionally, Omani learners reported statistically significant correlation between CLT practice. The students’ gender, language proficiency and education context affected how students perceived classroom practice.

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