Communicative language teaching and learning : interfacing theory and practice - the case of Botswana secondary schools

Abstract

Researchers world-wide and also in Botswana have highlighted the lack of compatibility between Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and the beliefs and traditions of specific contexts. This research seeks to contribute to this body of research by reporting on the interface between the theory and practice of CLT in Botswana’s urban junior secondary schools. One reason for the widely held perception in Botswana that there are problems with English second language proficiency can be found in the English second language secondary school classrooms. The quantitative data analysis saw some contradictory findings. On the one hand teachers appeared to approve of and knew what CLT was. On the other hand, their theoretical knowledge did not seem as sound as it should be. The teachers themselves seemed to feel that they were left out of the decision making process and their answers also suggested that they had to rely on their own initiatives to augment their teaching. In the qualitative part of the study it was demonstrated that little of the typical and most fundamental aspects of CLT were apparent in the classrooms. Limited attention is devoted to developing the learners’ skills and knowledge of how language is effectively used as a vehicle for conveying meaning in different socio-cultural contexts. In contextualising the findings within CLT research, the study attributes this discrepancy to, among others, what appears to be a top-down decision taken to implement the communicative curriculum in Botswana’s ELT, prior to ensuring that the CLT paradigm has been adequately conceptualized by the language teachers. The study recommends that pre-service and in-service training should be far more focused on preparing teachers for their new role as facilitators in the CLT classroom.