SAMPLE OF EXPECTED RESPONSES FOR THE ASSIGNEMENT

SAMPLE OF EXPECTED RESPONSES

(a)   TITLE: Communicative Language Teaching and Learner Participation: A Case Study Of Selected Secondary Schools in Blantyre

Statement of the Problem

The circumstances surrounding the implementation of the CLT approach in secondary schools in Malawi posed a threat to the achievement of interactive learner involvement in classroom discourse, which is a key determiner of effectiveness in the implementation of the approach. In fact, Mchazime (2001:75-76) aptly stated the problem created by the promotion of learner participation in the implementation of the communicative language teaching approach when he says that:

The new curriculum represents a major paradigm shift for the practicing teachers in Malawi. It is known that whenever paradigms shift,…there is a seeming loss of self-confidence, authority and power in the classroom. This is because the long experience that teachers may have gained over many years of teaching is challenged and perhaps even shaken… The transition from the structural approach to communicative language teaching has…been too swift for many teachers to internalise…CLT may be viewed by many as too demanding…Some of them might be falling back on their old practices while using the new communicative materials.

Mchazime’s (2001) observations present some of the threats facing the effective implementation of the CLT approach in the classroom. It was against these challenges that the study was meant to investigate the extent to which the implementation of the CLT approach had promoted learner interactive participation in classroom discourse and to find out the problems which both the teachers and the learners were facing in the implementation of the approach.

(b)   The problem was identified through a reflective thinking on what is going on in schools as far as English language teaching is concerned. Later it was refined through literature review to see what has been put in place by other scholars

Or

The problem was identified through looking at current researches that have been done in the area of study and was able to come up with one of the problems suggested by scholars for further investigation