TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING: A STUDY OF ENGLISH TUTORS IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION, GHANA

Understanding and addressing teachers' perceptions are essential steps in promoting effective implementation of modern language teaching methodologies. While research on CLT practices and its associated challenges and perceptions is widespread among EFL communities, such studies are missing among ESL language teacher educators preparing the practising teachers to propel the pedagogy effectively. It is unclear in the ESL context whether the English language teacher educators can effectively employ the pedagogy to train their student-teachers to drive home new language teaching approaches such as CLT. In this study, I examined the perception that teacher educators hold about CLT in six thematic areas, using Eagly and Chaiken’s (1998) ABC Model of Attitude as analytical framework to measure teacher beliefs of CLT principles. A convergent parallel-mixed methods design was employed with questionnaire and focus group interview as research tools. The study found out, on a 7-point rater scale, that CELTs’ perception of communicative language teaching in the colleges of education is positive in five thematic areas: CLT as student-centered learning (6.372); teachers’ knowledge on CLT principles (6.068); CLT as integrated skills pedagogy (5.314); CLT as collaborative learning (5.307) and CLT being authentic and functional language use (4.498). In spite of this positive perception, the teachers hold the belief that assessment strategies in the college classroom are not aligned with CLT principles (2.407). The teachers also believe that CLT applicability in CoE classroom to achieve the literacy standard-based curriculum goals is threatened by tutors’ loyalty to product-based approach to language teaching. The study made some recommendations to enhance CLT applicability in the teacher training institutions. Article visualizations