The fulfillment of the principles of the communicative approach to teach english as a second language: the case of public Costa Rican high schools

Abstract

In Costa Rica since 2003 the teaching of English was redesigned to follow the principles of the Communicative Approach, whose foundation is meant to provide students with classroom opportunities for interaction in a pleasant and cooperative environment to reach communicative competence. In order to achieve communication, professors must be aware of the teaching-learning strategies, direct and indirect, as part of the mediation process. Aspects such as classroom management, the materials to be used, the learning environment, and the assessment proposed by the Communicative Approach, as well as the methodological strategies used, are aspects that influence the second language teaching learning process, whose aim is the negotiation of socio-cultural meaning to have, both, competent and fluent English speakers. This case study is focused on analyzing the application of the principles of the Communicative Approach by high school teachers. The findings of this research revealed that the application of the approach has been misled by three aspects which are the misconceptions of the teaching of grammar, the overuse of reading comprehension to train students to pass the standardized test and the lack of understanding that each student is different in terms of particular needs, strengths and weaknesses. In the light of the results, a group of recommendations is given to second language high school teachers and authorities to deal with the situation.In Costa Rica since 2003 the teaching of English was redesigned to follow the principles of the Communicative Approach, whose foundation is meant to provide students with classroom opportunities for interaction in a pleasant and cooperative environment to reach communicative competence. In order to achieve communication, professors must be aware of the teaching-learning strategies, direct and indirect, as part of the mediation process. Aspects such as classroom management, the materials to be used, the learning environment, and the assessment proposed by the Communicative Approach, as well as the methodological strategies used, are aspects that influence the second language teaching learning process, whose aim is the negotiation of socio-cultural meaning to have, both, competent and fluent English speakers. This case study is focused on analyzing the application of the principles of the Communicative Approach by high school teachers. The findings of this research revealed that the application of the approach has been misled by three aspects which are the misconceptions of the teaching of grammar, the overuse of reading comprehension to train students to pass the standardized test and the lack of understanding that each student is different in terms of particular needs, strengths and weaknesses. In the light of the results, a group of recommendations is given to second language high school teachers and authorities to deal with the situation.