Secondary School Students’ Beliefs, Perceptions and Attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Structural Approach (SA)

Abstract

In English language learning, there are mainly two instructions being used in classroom teaching which are the Communicative Language Teaching and Structural Approach. Many studies have looked into teachers’ perceptions of implementing both approaches in the classrooms; few have looked into students’ beliefs, perceptions and attitudes with respect to these English language instructions in classroom practices. This study investigates the students’ beliefs, perceptions and attitudes with regard to classroom practices focusing on Communicative Language Teaching and Structural Approach. The objectives of the study were to investigate students’ beliefs, perceptions and attitudes towards English language instructions and the correlation between students’ beliefs, perceptions and attitudes of the students toward Communicative Language Teaching and Structural Approach. 134 Form 4 students from a selected secondary school in an urban area in Seremban were chosen in a cluster sampling for this study. A set of questionnaires using 5 points Likert scale was used as one of the instruments in gathering the data. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation were used to investigate the students’ beliefs, perceptions and attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching and Structural Approach. For inferential statistics, Pearson Correlation was used to analyse the correlations between the students’ beliefs, perceptions and attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching and Structural Approach. The findings of the study showed positive students’ beliefs, perceptions and attitudes toward Communicative Language Teaching as well as Structural Approach. However, the weightage inclined more toward Communicative Language Teaching. There is a significant correlation between the student’s beliefs, perceptions and attitudes toward Communicative Language Teaching and Structural Approach.