English teachers' and learners' perceptions of the effectiveness of teaching communicative language strategies

The objectives of the study are to illustrate ' The Perceptions of the Teachers' and Learners' of Effectiveness of Teaching Communicative Language Strategies' in secondary schools 12th grade inside Erbil city in the north of Iraq in terms of gender, ages, and branches with considering different socio- economic. To achieve these goals the researcher based on descriptive study and a quantitative data tool used to collect the results that were (a questionnaire for the students, questionnaire for the teachers, questionnaire for the supervisors, written and oral test, and classroom observation and checklist). The sample taken from the students is 510 both (male and female), (scientific, and literary), from age 16- 20. The results of the students' questionnaire show that their teachers do not apply communicative language strategies, and most of them still use grammar- translation method for English language teaching. They like group work to share their ideas, but the large of the classes do not allow them to apply this, and also they do not have the chance of oral presentation that is one important strategy in communicative learning and mostly depend on their native language to comprehend English language. The result of the tests show that female better than male, scientific branch students' degree higher than literary and those students their age equal or younger than 18 scored higher in compare with older than 18. About the teachers' perception some of them do not believe on importance and usefulness of the communicative approach for teaching EL for some reasons such as, (large number of the students in the classes, lacks of the audio- visual aids, and lacks concerning culture factors). Teachers do not apply communicative strategies to enable the learners' to create motivation so as to learn and acquire the main language skills. Concerning supervisors they believe that teachers need high proficiency in order to apply communicative approach. And also they mentioned that teachers have low resources and less time for material preparation. With a great number of them have responded that teachers have lack of training and full understanding of communicative approach. The other point that supervisors' mentioned that the existing syllabus is not suitable for communicative activities and most EL teachers do not use technology facilities in their classes and they have low ability to communicate in the target language which is EL in their classes that would be the mean to motivate students'' to communicate with each other in the EL.