The Implementation Effect Of CLT In College EFL Reading Curriculum Of Chengdu University Of Traditional Chinese Medicine

CLT and TBLT have been widely explored and studied by many researchers in the field of English language teaching. There have been many studies conducted on the use of CLT in EFL settings. This study was designed to investigate the teaching of college English reading in Chengdu University of T.C.M.The main purpose of foreign language teaching is to communicate with language. Meanwhile. Communicative Language Teaching is the effective way to achieve the goal. Through out more than three decades. Communicative Language Teaching has been confirmed and spread widely. Communicative Language Teaching not only improves students’ communicative competence effectively, but also carries out the quality of education in foreign language teaching.The purpose of this paper is to examine the basic framework of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) reading instructional approach reflected in an EFL college curriculum in Chengdu University of T.C.M (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Based on such analysis, a comparison between non-communicative teaching methods and Communicative Language Teaching methodology is made to see if Communicative Language Teaching is the vital instructional approach for the college EFL reading curriculum of Chengdu University of T.C.M. This paper uses document results as the primary data collection. The coding of data analysis is grounded on the modifications of the components of Richards and Rodgers’s (2001) analysis of language teaching model. The whole curriculum is examined in terms of theories of reading English as second language, theories of SLA, and learner roles in relation to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) characteristics as well. The findings of the paper suggest that quite a few reading tasks in the selected intensive and extensive English reading curriculum are somewhat lacking CLT characteristics. The results of the study are discussed in relation to the current college EFL curriculum framework and their implications on the EFL extensive reading at the tertiary level in Chengdu University of T.C.M.This paper first presents an overview of college English teaching in Chengdu University of T.C.M., and then investigates the definition and principles of CLT which is followed by a brief history of CLT. Additionally, a review of existing literature related to communicative competence, as well as how it functions in CLT is presented. Moreover, this paper examines the impact of ESL vs. EFL contexts on the implementation of CLT methodology.A mixed methods research design was used for the research. Participants for this study were fifty-seven college teachers of English teaching at tertiary level. The main data modes of data collection consisted of questionnaire and semi-structured and informal interviews.The findings show that English teachers in Chengdu University of T.C.M. observe certain difficulties in implementing CLT in their teaching of reading. Those difficulties stem from four directions, namely, the students, the teacher, the educational system. and CLT itself. The results suggest that despite showing great interest in change and being eager to identify with CLT, teachers are not rather optimistic about the complete adoption of CLT, and thus feel that only by overcoming the difficulties from those four aspects, and by establishing more favorable conditions for the implementation of CLT can teachers truly benefit from CLT in their teaching of English reading.