| The purpose of this study was to explore the development of a student teacher's beliefs and perceptions about communicative language teaching (CLT) in the foreign language classroom over the course of the student teaching practicum. The design was a qualitative case study using the transcripts of interviews with the participating student teacher. The interviews focused on the participant's views about CLT, as well as the thought processes that were used to plan classroom instruction. Interviews also included the participant's reaction to the classes after they were taught. Secondary data sources included a research diary, the major elements of which came from observations of the participant's classroom instruction. The participants were a student teacher and a teacher educator at a university in the Southeastern United States.It was found that prior to the commencement of the practicum the student teacher's perception of communicative language teaching emphasized inductive teaching practices, deemphasized formal grammar instruction and depended upon the use of the target language in the classroom. Unfortunately, no significant changes took place in the student teacher's understanding of CLT during the practicum. The main reason was that the development of a communicative teaching methodology was thwarted by the conditions of the student teaching practicum and, in particular, to the student teacher's reaction to the students, the cooperating teacher, and to conditions that she perceived to be antithetical to foreign language teaching and learning.Even though communicative language teaching is the dominant paradigm for theorists and researchers, this study demonstrated that there is a substantial gap between theory and practice. One important reason for this is the way in which the student teaching practicum is structured. It is very difficult for inexperienced pre-service teachers to put into practice something about which they have a minimal understanding, particularly when the classroom environment works against the implementation of communicative language teaching practices. |
