English teachers' perception of communicative language teaching-a qualitative research

Being a widely used language, English has been taught as foreign language all over the world. For four decades, the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been the most prominent method in ESL and EFL communities. Based on this phenomenon, the purpose of this study was to evaluate teachers? perceptions of effective CLT teaching in Turkish EFL setting. The study was conducted with 5 English teachers using qualitative method. Due to purposive sampling, teachers differ in their age, gender, seniority and place of work. Interview technique is used for data collection and questions were formed using semi-structured interview forms. As a result it was found that even though the teachers are aware of CLT in terms of theoritical aspects, there are some issues to be discussed in terms of effective teaching. Furthermore, it was observed that there are certain obstacles English teachers face while teaching English. These obstacles have significant impact on effective application of CLT practises.This research is consistent with existing research findings in the same topic. Most of the studies pointed out that large classroom sizes, problems about educational system, insufficient time for reflecting on the teaching process inhibit effective languge teaching in EFL setting. In addition, this research reveals that it is a necessity for English teachers in Turkey to think more in-depth in personal and career development issues.Key words: Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), English as a Foreign Language (EFL), Effective Language Teaching?