TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS COMMUNICATIVE 
               LANGUAGE TEACHING IN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS 
                              Ratih Widyastuti 
                                     
                                     
         Abstract 
             This  study  attempts  to  investigate  teachers‟  attitudes  towards  Communicative 
         Language Teaching (CLT) in senior high schools. Since the Indonesian latest curriculum, 
         students  are  asked  to  be  active  and  teachers  should  facilitate  them,  CLT  is  the  most 
         appropriate approach used in the classroom. However, the implementing of CLT in senior 
         high schools in Salatiga has not been effective yet. One of the causes of the incompatibility 
         between the existing theory and implementation of CLT in the classroom may be teacher 
         attitudes (Karavas-Doukas, 1996). Therefore, it is important to investigate teachers‟ attitudes 
         towards CLT. 
             This  study  was  conducted  in  three  different  senior  high  schools  in  Salatiga.  The 
         subjects of the study were six English teachers in those schools. The data for the study were 
         collected from interview using open-ended questions. 
             The analysis of the data shows that teachers believe that CLT is the most appropriate 
         approach in improving students‟ speaking ability. However, grammar is also important to be 
         learned in this approach to make the students able to deliver messages of the communication 
         well. Therefore, when students make some errors in their speaking practice, teachers will 
         make the correction and give the right examples. Pair or group work is also believed as the 
         effective  way  in  implementing  CLT  since  it  can  reduce  the  tension  in  the  classroom. 
         Teachers‟  roles  in  CLT  are  as  the  facilitator,  motivator,  and  controller  of  teaching  and 
         learning process in the classroom. Within this sense, the teachers all agree that students are 
         the main subject who involving directly in this approach. 
          
         Key words: Communicative Language Teaching, Teachers‟ Attitudes toward CLT, English 
         Teachers in Salatiga 
          
         Introduction 
             English is the international language which is widely used by many people from many 
         different countries. Since it is important for Indonesian people to learn English as the foreign 
         language,  English  has  become  the  main  course  in  high  schools.  In  the  latest  Indonesian 
         curriculum, students are asked to be active and teachers should facilitate them in the teaching 
         and learning process done in the classroom. It causes English teachers should apply certain 
                                                             1 
          
       teaching method or approach that fits the goal of the teaching and learning process in the 
       classroom. 
          There are many methods and approaches that teachers can use in teaching English. 
       One teaching approach in which teachers become the facilitator in teaching and learning 
       process is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Since learning English is not only a 
       matter  of  learning  vocabulary  and  the  language  rules,  but  also  developing  the  learners‟ 
       communicative ability,  CLT  is  one  of  the  approaches  in  learning  English  that  helps  the 
       learners to develop their communicative ability in using the language. According to Chang 
       (2011), CLT contributes teaching practices that develop learners‟ abilities to communicate in 
       a second language. However, in this case, English is as a foreign language for the students in 
       Indonesia.  Since  English  is  a  foreign  language,  Indonesian  students  do  not  really  have 
       chances to apply their English outside the classroom. Therefore, CLT is also the effective 
       approach to help students apply their English, especially through communication inside the 
       classroom. 
          In  the  implementation of CLT, teachers should be more concerned in helping the 
       students to improve their communicative ability rather than master the language structure. 
       However, in applying CLT, every teacher has different attitudes toward it. Liao (2003, as 
       cited in Chang, 2011) conducted a study which showed that high school English teachers‟ in 
       China  had  positive  attitudes  toward  CLT  which  they  support  to  implement  CLT  in 
       developing learners‟ communicative ability. On the other hand, Taiwanese teachers thought 
       that EFL students have no immediate need to communicate in English but they need grammar 
       and reading skills in order to learn content knowledge (Chang, 2011). One of the causes of 
       the incompatibility between the existing theory and implementation of CLT in the classroom 
       may be teacher attitudes (Karavas-Doukas, 1996). 
                                                2 
        
          Since every teacher in different schools has different attitudes toward CLT, this study 
       was conducted to investigate and answer the research question, “What are teachers‟ attitudes 
       towards  Communicative  Language  Teaching  in  Senior  High  Schools?”  This  research 
       question was aimed at finding out teachers‟ knowledge of CLT and how they see CLT as an 
       effective  approach  to  be  implemented  in  the  classroom.  It  is  important  since  how  well 
       teachers implement CLT in teaching and learning process in the classroom depends on their 
       attitudes toward it. 
          Many studies were designed to find out teachers‟ attitudes toward CLT widely in the 
       whole country which only gives the information of the case in  general.  This  study  was 
       designed to investigate teachers‟ attitudes toward CLT in a smaller scope and more specific 
       area, which was in senior high schools in Salatiga – Central Java. Teachers in these schools 
       apply  CLT  as  English  learning  approach  in  the  classroom.  The  reason  underlying  the 
       implementation of CLT is because the latest Indonesian curriculum expects students to be 
       active in the learning process. Another reason is that it can help students to learn English as a 
       foreign language in which later on they can also use it to communicate meaningfully in any 
       real life situation. 
          Therefore, this study was done to identify how teachers in senior high schools in 
       Salatiga  apply  CLT  and  what  their  attitudes  towards  it.  It  is  necessary  to  examine  the 
       teachers‟ attitude towards CLT in order to improve the quality of language teaching and 
       learning process in EFL context in Salatiga. 
           
       Literature Review 
       1.  Communicative Language Teaching 
          Littlewood  (1981)  states  that  CLT  means  to  pay  systematic  attention  to  both 
       functional and structural aspects of language to develop a communicative ability. There are 
                                                3 
        
        two aspects of CLT which are „what to teach‟ and „how to teach‟. The „what to teach‟ aspects 
        of  this  approach  gives  more  importance  on  language  functions  rather  than  grammar  and 
        vocabulary.  The  second  aspect  of  „how  to  teach‟  states  that  there  should  be  “plentiful 
        exposure to language in use and plenty of opportunities to use it” for the development of a 
        student‟s knowledge and skills, Harmer (2001). CLT wants to involve students in real or 
        realistic  communication  through  different  activities.  In  this  case  the  accuracy  of  target 
        language is less important than successful achievement of the communicative task (Harmer, 
        2001). 
           Richards  and  Rodgers  (2001)  viewed  that  CLT  aims  at  making  communicative 
        competence as the goal of language teaching and developing procedures for the teaching of 
        the four language skills. The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972), as 
        cited in Ansarey (2012), referred to as “communicative competence.” The primary focus of 
        CLT is to facilitate learners in creating meaning not in developing grammatical structures or 
        acquiring native –like pronunciation (Ansarey, 2012). CLT views language as system for the 
        expression of meaning where the main function of language is to permit interaction and 
        communication (Richard, 2001, as cited in Ansarey, 2012). 
         
        2.  Communicative Competence in Real Context 
           CLT has been introduced in EFL context to improve students‟ abilities to use English 
        in  real  contexts  (Littlewood, 2007, as cited in Ansarey, 2012). The success of learning a 
        foreign  language  does  not  only  depend  on  how  well  learners  have  developed  their 
        communicative competences but also how much they are able to apply their knowledge of 
        language in real life situations. Foreign language teaching must be concern with reality; that 
        is  with the reality of communication as it takes place outside the classroom and with the 
        reality  of  learners  as  they  exist  outside  and  inside  the  classroom  (Littlewood,  1981). 
                                                     4