Teachers' perceptions of the Communicative Language Teaching approach in a teacher training program in Indonesia

Abstract

This study investigated the perceptions of teachers of the Junior High and the Senior High Schools on the Communicative Language Teaching ( CLT ) in Irian Jay a province, Indonesia. Forty- six participants were involved in this study, i.e., twenty JHS teachers, twehty SHS teachers, four headmasters and two supervisors. Three instruments: questionnaire, interview and field study were employed to collect the data. Interviews and field study were carried out by the researcher in Indonesia. Spearman's rho was used to correlate answers about teaching principles of CLT and chi-square tests were used to examine responses on the relevance of subjects and the influence of the course on professional knowledge and teaching skills. The participants' opinion on the most and the least useful units was discussed based on the calculated frequency. The problems faced by the participants in implementing CLT were analyzed. The benefits of CLT were analysed and categorized into positive and negative points. Results indicated that both teaching levels have positive perceptions on CLT. Both groups showed an overall similarity in problems faced in their teaching, on the usefulness and the relevance of units presented in the Teacher Training despite some minor differences. It is argued that it is necessary for the teachers to give consideration to the teaching of vocabulary. It is also desirable to train the teachers to design tests which are valid and reliable.

Date of Award	1998
Original language	English
Supervisor	Kathie Panfil (Supervisor)