Exploring teacher’s roles in communicative language teaching: A qualitative study in an informal English basic course

Abstract

Abstract

The implementation of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) requires the teacher to adopt multiple roles to facilitate effective English learning in the classroom. This study was motivated by the need to understand how the teacher acts while applying CLT principles to enhance students’ communicative competence. The purpose of this research is to explore the roles of the teacher in teaching English through CLT, an examining the strategies they employ to engage learners in meaningful communication. This study employed a qualitative approach involving classroom observations, interviews with the English teacher and students, and systematic data analysis through data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The findings indicated that the teacher implemented CLT by predominantly acting as a facilitator, while also functioning as a controller, prompter, and tutor through providing clear instructions, modelling language use, and offering timely support to enhance students’ communicative participation and competence. Taken together, Effective CLT delivery is contingent upon teachers’ enactment of multifaceted roles (facilitation, motivation, resource mediation, and assessment) and their adaptive, creative, and professionally grounded practices that enable student-centred learning and the development of communicative competence.

Keywords: communicative language teaching; informal English course; teacher roles