Difficlties in Executing CLT in Ethiopia: Mismatch Between Policy Imperative and Classroom Realities

Abstract

Despite the widespread adaptation of communicative approach in ESL contexts, research entails that curricular innovation promoted by the adaptation of CLT in EFL countries have generally been difficult. The literature in curriculum innovation suggests that teachers’ understanding of an innovation is central to its success. A study of group of Ethiopian secondary school EFL teachers’ perceived difficulties in adapting CLT reveals that the difficulties have their own roots in the difference between the underlying educational theories of Ethiopia and those of western countries. The result suggests that to adapt CLT, EFL countries like Ethiopia needs to change their central approach to education and that the execution should be gradual and grounded in the countries own real pedagogic situation. In the long run, the countries need to be reliant on the findings of local research in order to develop English teaching theories more suitable for their context. Change agents must study teachers’ perceptions of an innovation to ensure its success.