A case study on implementation of communicative language teaching in 9th grades

Effective communication in a foreign language is seen as an important skill that individuals are expected to possess in the 21st century. The aim of this research is to examine the use of communicative language teaching in English classroom practices in 9th grade. For this purpose, 9th grade English lessons were observed; interviews were conducted with English teachers and students about the communicative langugage teaching. The descriptive research model was adopted in the study and the multi-case study design, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The case in this study is communicative language teaching. The study group consists of five different kind schools in the city center of Diyarbakır including Science High School, Social Sciences High School, Imam Hatip High School, Anatolian High School A and Anatolian High School B, and 151 9th grade students and five English teachers. Maximum variation sampling was used to determine the study group. Structured observation form was used to obtain the observation data, and semi-structured interview form was used for face-to-face interviews with teachers and students. In the analysis of the observation data, the basic unit of analysis was determined as activity and the percentages of the parameters in the observation form were calculated. Content analysis method was used in the analysis of the interviews conducted with the teachers and students. As a result of the observations made in the research, it was found that communicative activities were used less in the lessons, teacher-centered teaching was adopted, and that there is not enough space for students to interact with each other both individually and as a group work. In addition, while the structure and function dimension of language is mentioned, discourse and sociolinguistics dimensions are neglected; While the content is generally used in a wide range of subjects, it has been determined that the students do not have enough control over the content control. In terms of teaching materials used; it is concluded that the textbook is mainly used as main material in the courses. In terms of the source of the materials, it was found that materials such as textbooks prepared mostly for language teaching were used, student product materials were partially included and non-educational materials prepared for individuals whose native language is English were not used except one school. Teachers' views on communicative language teaching were gathered under the themes of teacher, language teaching policies, materials, group work, use of mother tongue and increasing communicative potential. Teacher theme consists of methodology, belief in language learning, cooperation and development of teacher competence categories. The theme of language teaching policies include exam-based education system, type of school and preparatory class categories. Materials theme compose authentic materials, smart board, books published abroad and books recommended by the Ministry of National Education categories. The theme of the group work is grouped under the categories of teacher attitude, student reactions and applicability. Under the theme of mother tongue use, there are categories of teacher attitudes and usage area. Finally, under the theme of increasing communicative potential, there are categories of activating the student, tolerating mistakes, exposure to target language and gender effect. Interviews with students were gathered under the themes of English learning motivation, perception of English proficiency, communicative language teaching in the classroom, classroom activities, books proposed by the Ministry of National Education, books of foreign origin, basic language skills and English usage opportunities. English learning motivation theme ise gathered under instrumental, personal and integration categories. The theme of English proficiency perception is composed of strengths and weakness categories while the theme of communicative language teaching in school consists of communicative language teaching is sufficient and communicative language teaching is not sufficient categories. Under the theme of classroom activities, there are categories of communication-oriented activities and text-based activities. The themes proposed by the Ministry of National Education and the books of foreign origin are composed of level and content categories. Under the theme of basic language skills, there are categories of speaking & listening and reading & writing. The English language usage opportunity theme includes computer and internet, family, social media and touristic areas categories. Developing an appropriate foreign language teaching method based on current theories and cultural characteristics of Turkey to improve the communicative competence of 9th grade students is suggested.