A comparison of learners' and teachers' attitudes toward communicative language teaching at two universities in Vietnam

Abstract

This study compares Vietnamese learners’ and teachers’ attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in terms of four factors: grammar instruction, error correction, group and pair work, and teachers’ role. A questionnaire was administered to 37 teachers and 88 university pre-intermediate to intermediate learners of English in Vietnam, and their responses were compared. The results show that both groups held favorable attitudes towards CLT, but that teacher participants had more positive attitudes than learner participants for all the factors, except group and pair work. The participants’ favorable attitudes were taken to indicate positive signals for the implementation of CLT in the Vietnamese context, since its core tenets, learnercenteredness and learner autonomy, appear to be accepted in the context of this study. However, the study also indicated that for CLT to be implemented successfully, it is important to consult learners in order to establish a match between teachers’ and learners’ views. Since both learners and teachers are major stakeholders in CLT, learners’ voices need to be heard before effective pedagogical decisions can be made.