Communicative Language Teaching in Libya

Communicative Language Teaching in Libya

Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) cumulates the goals and processes in classroom learning. According to Cornelius-White and Harbaugh (15)

, the competence of the teacher and students in communicating and understanding the concept is important in communicative language teaching. Communicative competence is an ability to observe social norms associated with language and use the language in a social context. Communicative language teaching is a learning approach which emphasizes on communication as a goal of language learning Akerlind 322()

Competence is defined to entail, interpretation, expression, application and negotiation of looks and meanings used Remesal 27.

Communicative teaching looks at the learners communicative needs in order to provide a curriculum design basis. Putting focus on the leaner needs, a framework to elaborate a program's goal will be easily developed.

Challenges of Communicative Language Teaching in Libya

Quality of Education

According to Orafi and Borg (89)

the need to educate many people in a short time creates a classical challenge of the education quality vs. quantity. This is a problem in Libya and many other developing countries. Classes in Libya are congested and due to this nature it becomes difficult for the teacher to give personalized attention to each and every student; also the teacher cannot determine whether he/she is effectively communicating to each and every student. It is also very difficult to work in groups. According to Richards (127)

in many instances, the teachers tend to form a smaller class within the normally big class mostly consisting of the students in front ignoring the rest of the students and especially those at the back. This seems to satisfy the teachers, some schools do not own enough facilities and equipment for all the students such as laboratories and computers.

Teachers Training

Almost all educational innovations need teachers to change their practices in class and take up new modes of teaching. Training of the teachers is an essential factor in implementing the process. Lack of training for the teachers makes it difficult for teachers to implement any new CLT in Libya Richards ()

. Giving teachers short briefs intermittently about a new innovation is also wrong. This is because it will not sufficiently equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills for successful implementation of CLT. According to Angelides, Stylianou and Gibbs (514)

real alteration in practice cannot be born of short programs teachings. Most teachers in Libya have not been trained and therefore, the implementation of CLT becomes a challenge.

Instructional Materials

The use of text books only and applied GTM is another limitation faced by Libyan teachers as this limits the communication between the teacher and student. The use of only one type of instructional materials is a great limitation to communicative language teaching. This is because there is only one way of expressing oneself which may not be efficient.

Role of the Teacher

The teacher may lack adequate training of teaching methodology and enough proficiency in all communicative areas. This is because in almost all classes, successful learning depends greatly on the teacher. Lack of good preparation, lack of good planning, lack of enough materials and lack of class organization will surely lead to poor communicative language teaching.

Teacher-Student Interaction

Questioning patterns is one of the most common strategies for a teacher and a student to interact. When teacher-student interaction lacks, then communicative language teaching cannot be achieved since the communication lines are already stressed. The social-cultural factor in Libya does not help either because it requires that there may be respect to the teachers from the students. This encourages passive learning in the classes which should not be the case.

Social Cultural Factors

It is common knowledge that the educational process in any society is influenced by its society's social cultural factors, According to Cohen, Manion and Morrison (75)

Students and teachers operate within a socio-cultural setting and their prospects dictated by the norms of the said setting. In Libya, the Teacher imparts knowledge on the students as they (students) sit quietly and listen, no questioning or arguing with the teacher. This is considered rude, impolite and lack of respect for the teacher. Due to lack of interruption, the teachers happen to be the sole authorities, because of this perception the teachers are forced to appear knowledgeable and be able to answer all questions asked by the learners Carless 391.

This is a great limitation that needs to be addressed because the great responsibility may make Libyan teachers fail to adopt other teaching methods due to insecurity or students may be discouraged form asking any questions all together. All this influences what happens and what does not happen in Libya Classes.

Recommendation

Capacity of Classrooms

There is need to limit the number of people who should be educated within a given period of time to enable quality education as opposed to quantity education. Reducing the number of students in a class, will decongest the classroom and will give the teacher a personalized attention to each student. Due to the fact that the students will be fewer, the teacher will also get to know whether there is effective communication between him and the learners. It also will be easy to work in groups and teachers will not be tempted to form a smaller class within the big class. All schools should also have enough equipment and facilities Carless 394()

Communicative language teaching has a big influence on language development and should show leaner's learning processes and communicative needs. Communication between, teacher and student or student and student can enhance or hamper learning. Therefore, suitable communication skills are needed keeping in mind the needs for each student, their discernment and level of understanding. According to Creswell (56)

there is incompatibility between the teachers' perception of actual behavior while in class and perception of communicative language teaching.

Education Policy Reforms

In teachers training, it is recommended that the teachers are themselves trained or taught well so that they can effectively teach their students. According to Sablonniere, Taylor and Sadykova (630)

, 'Powerful teaching of teachers is a major factor determining the extent to which effective execution of either new educational policies or reforms on the curriculum According to Sablonniere, Taylor and Sadykova 631()

, teachers need to learn the knowledge and skills to enforce something, especially if it varies from what exists. Carless further argues that if adequate retraining does not take place, then even the teachers who were eager about an invention can get frustrated and finally turn against it. The training of the teachers should also consider the dynamics of change and possible obstacles so as to be able to face the problems that come with attempts to implement communicative language teaching in institutions or classrooms.

Proficiency

For effective communicative language teaching, the teacher needs to be fully prepared. Be fully proficient in all areas of communicative competence and have professional skill. Since the success of the learning process depends on him, he should select his teaching materials carefully, perfectly plan his lessons, properly organize his activities in the classroom and occasionally changes his teaching techniques and strategies his work will be extremely easy and very successful because well organized and prepared teachers tend to manage their classes well, they will also be able to manage the class groupings well and change them now and then for effective leaning and utmost discipline Creswell 57()