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Abstract

This paper critically examines how teaching English with the “communicative approach” is better than grammar and translation method. Why do administrators love communicative approach? Market research says people want to speak English fluently to look confident and important. People want to learn English faster and that‟s why emphasis on communication comes with many drawbacks as it ignores the grammatical rules required in academic and other situations. The positive side of Communicative approach is that it lays importance on pattern; and sensitivity towards pattern in language acquisition is very helpful. In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) teachers belong to various linguistic backgrounds. In KSA people speak Arabic of various shades. In fact, the progress of English learning of Saudi students should have been spectacular with Arabic speaking Egyptian, Sudanese and Moroccan teachers through bilingual methods but the expected learning outcome has not been achieved. Many of our students see learning English as Pennycook says, “an unpleasant but sadly necessary occupation” (Harmer, page 5). It is always assumed that education is very boring and the ESL teachers like other teachers in other departments have the onus of making classes interactive and vibrant. It is also said that teacher-centred education is a traditional method which is one-sided because students remain passive. In order to have a vibrant class there is more and more focus on learner-centred education which requires students to learn and apply with small intervention and support from the teacher. However, learner-centred approach has many challenges because it works best in small classes or in an environment where learners have geared up themselves to learn and take the challenge to learn. It is noted that Olsen and Kagan‟s collaborative approach or team-based learning is quite successful in handling learning in large classes. This study is a descriptive research of the mixed results of various approaches and methods. In this paper, I will talk about the best practices like how the Think/pair/share method in a collaborative manner had shown some success in language learning through participation among students, and also helped in finding the reasons of poor performance of students in language learning classes.

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