1. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): Practical Understandings
Author(s): Kazuyoshi Sato and Robert C. Kleinsasser
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 83, No. 4 (Winter, 1999), pp. 494-517
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2. Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT): Practical Understandings
KAZUYOSHISATO ROBERT C. KLEINSASSER
Centre Language Teachingand Research
for Centre Language Teachingand Research
for
The University Queensland
of The University Queensland
of
BrisbaneQLD 4072 BrisbaneQLD 4072
Australia Australia
Email:yoshis@usiwakamaru.
or.jp Email: robertk@lingua. uq.edu.au
arts.
The aim of this article is to report on a study that documented the views and practices of
communicative language teaching (CLT) by Japanese second language inservice teachers.
Compared to theoretical developments of CLT (e.g., see Savignon, 1991), little is known
about what second language teachers actually understand by CLT and how they implement
CLT in classrooms. Using multiple data sources including interviews, observations, and sur-
veys, the article reports how teachers defined CLT and implemented it in their classrooms.
The study identified how teachers actually dealt with CLT in their classrooms teaching Japa-
nese. It is interesting to note that their views and actions dealt little with the academic
literature pertaining to CLT or their education (be it preservice or inservice) in learning
about CLT. Instead, teachers resorted to their personal ideas and experiences, solidifying
their notions of foreign language (L2) teaching in further pursuing their evolving concep-
tions of CLT.
EVER SINCE HYMES (1971) DISCUSSED THE tion, we begin by defining CLT by using various
idea of communicative competence and Canale sources from academia and government policy to
and Swain (1980) considered its implications for highlight some of the numerous views from these
language teaching, communicative language particular perspectives. We further include an
teaching (CLT) (Savignon, 1991) has achieved Australian context to help define CLT from a
prominence. Conference papers, articles, and policy perspective, while also allowing such infor-
books abound that support and promote CLT.In mation to situate our study. We then explore the
the main, scholars advance CLT by exploring its relevance of teacher beliefs, knowledge, and
meaning and use in classrooms. Writers consider practices. Here we review CLT investigations and
various facets and mutations of CLT, providing highlight the complexity of understanding rela-
valuable codification of CLT elements (e.g., tionships among beliefs, knowledge, and prac-
Berns, 1990; Brown, 1994; Howatt, 1984; Little- tices. Inherent in such a presentation is the need
wood, 1981; Mitchell, 1988; Richards & Rodgers, to explore change. This we do briefly, with the
1986; Savignon, 1983, 1997; Savignon & Berns, discussion culminating in offering the research
1984, 1987; Schulz & Bartz, 1975). Even within questions. Our intent here is to argue for a theo-
the expanding literature concerning CLT, how- retical base from language teachers' perspectives.
ever, its meaning for practitioners receives scant We next outline the research methodology for
attention. the project. This combined information positions
In this research project, we document second the presentation of our findings, followed by a
language (Japanese) teachers' CLT using their discussion of issues.
perspectives.1 To set the stage for this investiga-
COMMUNICATIVELANGUAGE TEACHING
TheModernLanguage
Journal, 83, iv, (1999)
0026-7902/99/494-517 $1.50/0 Savignon (1983, 1997) suggested that a class-
?1999 TheModernLanguageJournal room model of communicative competence in-

3. Sato and RobertC. Kleinsasser
Kazuyoshi 495
cludes Canale and Swain's (1980, later refined in and receptively" (Brown, 1994, p. 245, italics
Canale, 1983) four components that are gram- original). Richards and Rogers (1986) concluded
matical competence, sociolinguistic competence, that
discourse competence, and strategic compe-
tence. She further proposed five components of Communicative LanguageTeaching is best consid-
a communicative curriculum that include lan- ered an approachrather than a method. Thus al-
though a reasonabledegree of theoreticalconsis-
guage arts, language for a purpose, personal sec-
ond language (L2) use, theater arts, and beyond tencycan be discernedat the levelsof languageand
the classroom (Savignon, 1983, 1997). These ele- learningtheory,at the levelsof designand procedure
there is muchgreaterroomfor individual interpreta-
ments together help support both theoretical tion and variationthanmostmethodspermit.(p. 83)
and practical foundations for CLT.Yet, it is clear
that Savignon (1997) did not rely on these as the These perspectives, among others, offer possibili-
sole arbitrator of CLT. In particular, with regard ties of what CLT is, and their various authors give
to the four competences she concluded, ideas of what can transpire in a L2 classroom. Yet,
not all views of CLT are necessarily the domain of
Whatever relative
the of
importance the various com-
academicians. As will be discussed next, national
ponents at any given level of overallproficiency,
one
and state initiatives give an additional view of
must keep in mind the interactivenature of their
The whole of communicative CLT.
relationships. compe-
tence is always somethingother than the simplesum To understand CLT in Australia better, we offer
of its parts.(p. 50) an overview of this country's recent (second) lan-
guage initiatives. The past 20 years in Australia
The same could also be said about the five cur- have been supportive of and exciting for the
riculum components. Moreover, Savignon (1991)
teaching of foreign languages or Languages
cast an even wider net over what influences and Other Than English (LOTE), as they are pres-
challenges the promotion of CLT: ently called. Clyne, Jenkins, Chen, Tsokalidou,
CLTthus can be seen to derivefrom a multidiscipli- and Wallner (1995) overviewed the latest initial
nary perspectivethat includes, at least, linguistics, push regarding languages in Australia. They re-
psychology,philosophy,sociology,and educational ported that in 1976 the Committee on the Teach-
research.The focus has been the elaborationand ing of Migrant Languages in Schools (CTMLS)
of
implementation programand methodologiesthat recommended that, starting in their primary
promote the development of functional language years, children be given opportunities to learn
abilitythroughlearnerparticipation communica-
in other languages and understand other cultures.
tive events. Centralto CLTis the understanding of
They further relayed that a Senate report (1984)
languagelearningas both an educationaland politi- on national language policy advocated principles
cal issue. (p. 265)
such as competence in English, maintenance and
To be sure, there are other conceptualizations development of languages other than English,
of communicative competence and CLT. For in- and opportunities for learning L2s. This report
stance, Bachman (1990) charted a theoretical eventually led to the National Policy on Lan-
framework for communicative language ability guages (Lo Bianco, 1987) "which actually recom-
that includes knowledge structures, strategic mended implementation strategies and govern-
competence, psychophysiological mechanisms, ment spending in innovative areas which were
context of situation, and language competence. accepted by the federal government" (Clyne et
Language competence is further divided into or- al., 1995, p. 6).
ganizational competence (grammatical and tex- The development of students' communicative
tual competences) and pragmatic competence skills in L2s was emphasized around the same
(illocutionary and sociolinguistic competences). time. The Australian Language Levels (ALL) Proj-
Brown (1994) proposed a definition of CLT to ect responded to the Senate (1984) and Lo Bi-
include the following issues: (a) "Classroomgoals anco (1987) policies on languages and developed
are focused on all of the components of commu- curriculum ideas for the teaching of L2. Austra-
nicative competence"; (b) "Language techniques lian Language Levels (ALL) Guidelines (Scarino,
are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, Vale, McKay,& Clark, 1988) were published and
authentic, functional use of language for mean- subsequently Pocket ALL (Vale, Scarino, & McKay,
ingful purposes"; (c) "Fluency and accuracy are 1991) was published as a handy teacher's guide.
seen as complementary principles underlying These guidelines included topics such as the eight
communicative techniques"; and (d) "students principles of language learning, the goals of lan-
ultimately have to use the language, productively guage learning, the table of language use, devel-

4. 496 The ModernLanguageJournal83 (1999)
oping modules for a syllabus, resources, and as- LOTE teachers in L2 learning and teaching envi-
sessment. Each state followed ALL Guidelines and ronments.
developed and wrote language syllabi. The
Queensland Department of Education (1989), SKETCHINGA THEORETICALBASE
for instance, promoted the five ALL goals for lan-
guage learning: a communication goal, a so- We highlight the importance of teacher beliefs
ciocultural goal, a learning-how-to-learn goal, a in this project, for as Pajares (1992) acknowl-
language and cultural awareness goal, and a edged in his synthesis of 35 empirical educational
knowledge goal. Among these goals, emphasis was investigations, "Allteachers hold beliefs, however
placed upon communication: "Language-learn- defined and labeled, about their work, their stu-
ing programs are aimed at the development of dents, their subject matter, and their roles and
communicative competency in a particular lan- responsibilities" (p. 314). However, a variety of
guage" (p. v). As a result, various LOTE syllabi conceptions of educational beliefs appears in the
followed these general guidelines. The Japanese literature.2 Citing Nespor's (1987) influential
Senior Syllabus, for example, referred to the pri- work, Pajares suggested that "beliefs are far more
mary objective by stating that "bythe end of Year influential than knowledge in determining how
12, learners should be able to communicate in individuals organize and define tasks and prob-
standard Japanese" (Board of Senior School Sec- lems and are stronger predictors of behavior" (p.
ondary Studies, 1995, p. 4). In addition, the six 311). Pajares promoted 16 "fundamental assump-
assessment criteria tasks that LOTE teachers were tions that may reasonably be made when initiat-
to implement included: ing a study of teachers' educational beliefs" (p.
324). These assumptions include, among others,
1. Assess the students' ability to communicatein the notions that (a) beliefs are formed early and
the language. tend to self-perpetuate; (b) some beliefs are more
2. Use authentictexts. incontrovertible than others; (c) beliefs about
3. Give students the opportunity to speak and teaching are well established by the time a stu-
write from their own experience. dent gets to college; (d) changes in beliefs during
4. Call for unrehearsedresponses from the stu- adulthood are rare; (e) beliefs are instrumental
dent. in defining tasks and selecting the cognitive tools
5. Allow students' responses to be matched to with which to interpret, plan, and make decisions
criteriaand standards. regarding such tasks; (f) individuals' beliefs
6. Provide informative feedbackto students to strongly affect their behavior; and (g) knowledge
allow them to manage their own learning. (Board and beliefs are inextricably intertwined (for com-
of Senior Secondary School Studies, 1996, p. 1, plete discussion of all 16 assumptions, see Pajares,
italics original) 1992, pp. 324-326).
The tenuous relationship between beliefs and
These criteria follow the ALL Guidelines(Scarino knowledge creates a possible tension. Although
et al., 1988). In short, over the past 2 decades the Pajares (1992) readily admitted that it is difficult
promotion of LOTE learning and the develop- to distinguish knowledge from beliefs, he argued
ment of LOTE students' communicative skills Nespor's (1987) point "that beliefs have stronger
have been promoted vigorously in national and affective and evaluative components than knowl-
state policy documents. LOTE teachers in schools edge and that affect typically operates inde-
during the past decade have received either train- pendently of the cognition associated with knowl-
ing or inservices in CLT because of the national edge" (p. 309). Richardson (1996) seemingly
and state initiatives to develop students' commu- agreed that although the distinction between be-
nicative abilities in LOTE. There is little insight, liefs and knowledge remains fuzzy, beliefs influ-
however, into how LOTE (Japanese) teachers ence teaching practice more directly than knowl-
perceive these views and implement these ideas. edge and that the "relationship between beliefs
There is also a dearth of information concerning and actions is interactive" (p. 104). Moreover,
how LOTE teachers perceive the views of the Richardson (1994) assigned the teacher the role
academicians. LOTE teachers' beliefs, knowl- of one who mediates ideas, constructs meaning
edge, and practice of CLT remain somewhat of a and knowledge, and acts upon those construc-
mystery in the CLT literature. Yet, as we will see tions. She maintained that, in order to under-
next, it is precisely teachers' beliefs, knowledge, stand how teachers make sense of teaching and
and practice that need to be reviewed in order to learning, one should focus on teachers' beliefs
understand better just how CLT is understood by and practices. (Such a view appears to contrast

5. Sato and RobertC. Kleinsasser
Kazuyoshi 497
slightly with the view that teachers' decision-mak- classrooms, they offered students few opportuni-
ing is based upon knowledge and skills [e.g., ties for genuine communicative language use in
Shulman, 1986, 1987]). the class sessions that he recorded. Although the
Regardless of theoretical stance, empirical lesson plans of these teachers might have con-
studies consistently reveal the difficulties of pro- formed to the sorts of communicative principles
moting knowledge and skills that challenge or advocated in the CLT literature, the actual pat-
contradict currently held beliefs and practices terns of classroom interaction resembled tradi-
(see, e.g., the reviews by Richardson, 1996, and tional patterns rather than what he identified as
Wideen, Mayer-Smith, & Moon, 1998). In L2 genuine interaction. Karavas-Doukas (1996) re-
teacher studies in general, there is definitely a ported similar findings in the responses of 14
tendency for those studied to rely on their pre- Greek teachers of English to an attitude survey
conceived beliefs, and there appears to be little and in the observations she made of their class-
alteration in traditionally (form focus, teacher- rooms. She found that the survey results leaned
led) held images of L2 teaching (see, e.g, toward agreement with CLT principles, but when
Johnson, 1994; Lamb, 1995; Neustupny, 1981). she observed the classroom teaching environ-
Nonetheless, studies that specifically single out ments, "classroom practices (with very few excep-
typical CLT also reveal glimpses of links among tions) deviated considerably from the principles
beliefs, knowledge, and practices. On the one of the communicative approach" (p. 193). Al-
hand, a few studies show little change in teacher though she acknowledged that there were
beliefs, knowledge, or practice, whereas, on the glimpses of communicative approaches, the
other hand, a few studies reveal the possibility for teachers in her sample favored traditional ones.
change in teacher beliefs, knowledge, or practice. In this case, traditional meant, "Mostlessons were
Thus, these studies provide evidence that the teacher-fronted and exhibited an explicit focus
challenges found in L2 teaching literature are on form" (p. 193).
little different from the controversy in the wider As indicated earlier, not all of the news is bleak.
teaching literature. The extent to which teachers Okazaki (1996) completed a longitudinal study
can or will actually change is an issue within using surveys to find out whether preservice
teacher education, regardless of discipline. teachers changed their beliefs concerning CLT
For example, Thompson (1996) discovered after a 1-year methodology course. She con-
four misconceptions that were common among cluded that although beliefs of preservice teach-
his colleagues concerning the meaning of CLT: ers were not easily swayed, some of them were
(a) not teaching grammar, (b) teaching only influenced in the desired direction by what Wen-
speaking, (c) completing pair work (i.e., role den (1991) called persuasive communication,
play), and (d) expecting too much from teachers. which aims at changing participants' beliefs by
Thompson mentioned that a surprisingly large reflective teaching. For example, she reported
number of teachers invoke erroneous reasoning that the teachers' emphasis increased on such
for criticizing or rejecting CLT. He concluded items as the learner's role and decreased on such
that the future development of CLT depended items as pronunciation and error corrections. Ku-
upon correcting these misconceptions. Fox maravadivelu (1993) studied two teachers whom
(1993) surveyed first-yearFrench graduate teach- he identified as "'believers' in the CLT move-
ing assistants at 20 universities in the U.S. and ment" (p. 14), and who both had masters degrees
analyzed their responses according to the defini- in ESL. With one teacher he promoted the effec-
tions of communicative competence (CC) set tiveness of five macrostrategies for successful CLT
forth by Canale and Swain (1980). She reported (see also Kumaravadivelu, 1992). He then tran-
that teaching assistants did not conceptualize lan- scribed the two teachers' classes and concluded
guage according to this particular model of CC. that the episodes showed "different kinds of class-
Instead, the participants relied on grammar at room input and interaction" (p. 18). One group
the expense of communicative activities. She con- was motivated, enthusiastic, and active. The same
cluded that their beliefs about language teaching group in the second session was less motivated,
and learning should be exposed so that they less enthusiastic, and much less active. Although
could develop their beliefs and knowledge about he identified session one as a speaking class, and
CLT. session two as a grammar class, he believed that
Even teachers committed to CLT often seem to the use of the macrostrategies given to the
show a very superficial adherence to CLT princi- teacher in session one "contributed to this re-
ples. As Nunan (1987) discovered, although the markable variation in the communicative nature
teachers in his study had goals for communicative of the two episodes" (p. 18). Regardless of the

6. 498 The ModernLanguageJournal83 (1999)
theoretical and practical problems of such a featurein this literature that someone outside the
is
study, Kumaravadivelu (1993) claimed effective- classroomdecides what changes teacherswill make.
ness for strategy training with regard to teachers' (p. 11, italicsoriginal)
uses of CLT.In a study concerning L2 teaching in It is interesting to note that Nunan (1987) and
more general terms, Freeman (1993) maintained Kamaravadivelu (1992, 1993, 1994) offered evi-
that four foreign language teachers (citing two dence (from "someone outside the classroom")
illustrations) changed their ideas about teaching that highlighted this specific issue within the L2
when they were introduced to the discourse of
teaching profession. For instance, Nunan identi-
current professional issues and notions. fied strategies, such as using referential questions
In summary, the controversy in the teacher that could be used to increase the opportunities
change literature about teachers' beliefs and for genuine communication, and Kumaravadi-
practices continues. As Richardson (1996) com- velu increased from 5 to 10 the number of
mented:
macrostrategies that might now come to influ-
ence the ideas of a principled communicative
Perhaps the greatest controversyin the teacher
change literature relatesto the difficulty changing
in approach (see Celce-Murcia, Dornyei, & Thur-
beliefs and practices.For some scholars,beliefs are rell, 1997). However, neither of the authors ex-
thoughtto be extremelydifficult,if not impossibleto plained how the teachers adapted the referential
change. This apparentdifficultyis often used as an questions or macrostrategies into situation-spe-
explanation the sense thatteachersarerecalcitrant
of cific problems or how the teachers developed
and do not like to change.Anothergroupof scholars their beliefs, knowledge, and practice with regard
and educators,however,are optimisticthat teachers
to CLT. In other words, the authors seemed to
and teacher education studentscan change and, in
and have ignored the teachers' actual developmental
fact,often do change theirbeliefsand practices,
thatprograms help them do so in significant
can and processes and stages, or else they neglected to
worthwhile directions.(p. 110) uncover and document how the teachers actually
dealt with an innovation such as CLT.
Such a comment may be a bit shortsighted, if In short, these studies, reviews, and narratives
not overgeneralized. Many of the studies cited
portray the complexity of the issues pertaining to
above neither integrate information from a vari- beliefs, knowledge, and practices and focus on the
ety of data sources nor give a complete picture of interplay among them. Despite the theoretical de-
the interaction among beliefs, knowledge, and
velopments and policy acceptance of CLT for nu-
practice. Some relied on scales or interviews merous L2 learning environments, many ques-
alone, others completed only observations, while tions linger concerning how teachers think about
still others tried surveys and observations but and use CLTin classrooms. It seems worthwhile to
omitted interviews. Most of the studies concern-
investigate further the perspectives of L2 teach-
ing CLT mentioned the fact that multiple data ers, that is, how they view, learn about, and imple-
sources would eventually help address the limita- ment CLT.In addition, within the Australian con-
tions of the work already completed. Moreover, text of teachingJapanese in high schools, there is
many of the L2 teacher studies concerning CLT little known about inservice LOTE teachers' per-
seemed to rely on the extent to which the prac-
spectives about CLT. These teachers of Japanese
tice of CLT notions adhered to CLT principles as in Australia have identified such problems in their
put forth in the professional literature. Richard- teaching as articulation, low proficiency level, and
son (1990) pointed out in more global terms the lack of quality inservices, good materials, and
difficulties educational change issues bring to school support (Kawagoe, 1989; Koide, 1976).
classrooms: Nonetheless these inservice LOTE (Japanese)
however, note that change,
It is important, to research- teachers have not been studied in any great
based or otherwise,is defined in this literatureas depth, especially regarding their ideas about CLT
teachersdoing somethingthat othersare suggesting and practice. This omission triggers several
they do. Thus, the change is deemed as good or broader questions: How is teachers' knowledge
appropriate, resistanceis viewedas bad or inap-
and about CLT developed or understood in light of
propriate. Eventhe recentworkthatis more sensitive the fact that national and state directives urge the
to teachers'norms and beliefs fails to question the
reformsthemselves(Donmoyer,1987). Further,the acquisition of communicative LOTE abilities?
constantchanges that teachersmakewhen meeting How are teachers implementing CLT ideas at the
the changingneeds of the studentsin the classroom classroom level? How do teachers actually teach in
or tryingout ideasthattheyhearfromother teachers language classrooms in a country and state that
is not recognized in these formulations.A critical promote communicative competence? These un-

7. KazuyoshiSato and RobertC. Kleinsasser 499
answered questions guided this investigation and 1 male). Three teachers had less than 3 years
promoted the analysis undertaken for this article. experience teaching Japanese, 3 teachers had 3
Our overall goal was to uncover teachers' beliefs to 6 years teaching experience, 2 teachers had 6
and knowledge about CLT in connection with to 10 years teaching experience, and 2 teachers
their practices in an Australian context-a goal had 10 to 13 years teaching experience.3 Their
overlooked and understudied by both researchers professional preparation also varied. Four teach-
and policy-makers. The following questions pro- ers (including the nativeJapanese speaker) com-
vided focus: pleted a Postgraduate Diploma in Education-a
1. What are Japanese LOTE teachers' beliefs 1-year course-and 1 holds a Master of Arts in
and knowledge about (communicative) language Applied Linguistics. Three teachers holding the
Postgraduate Diploma in Education degree ma-
teaching?
2. How do they implement CLT in their class- jored in Japanese for their undergraduate stud-
rooms? ies, while the native Japanese speaker majored in
French. The rest of the teachers started to teach
3. How are their beliefs and knowledge about
(communicative) language teaching acquired Japanese without any formal academic prepara-
tion in Japanese LOTE teaching. Their majors
and developed?
variously represented the disciplines of biology,
commerce, economics, English, and music. Some
DATA
OVERVIEW,PARTICIPANTS, of the teachers finished short-term inservice pro-
COLLECTION, AND DATAANALYSIS
grams on Japanese language and LOTE instruc-
In order to reveal teachers' beliefs, knowledge, tion after they had already begun teaching.
and practices about CLT,we employed triangula- Among the 9 native Australian English speakers,
tion that included qualitative and quantitative 7 teachers experienced living in Japan for 1 to 2
data sources (or multiple data sources) of LOTE years, 1 teacher stayed for 6 years, and 1 teacher
teachers' perspectives. Mathison (1988) argued made four trips to Japan, lasting 2 to 3 weeks per
that "the use of any single method, just like the visit. In other words, most of the teachers who did
view of any single individual, will necessarily be not receive formal academic preparation had ex-
subjective and therefore biased" (p. 14). There- periences overseas in the target language culture
fore, she valued triangulation where one con- before they began teaching Japanese. In addi-
structs meaningful explanations from multiple tion, 8 of the 10 teachers also taught such other
data sources-sources that may appear inconsis- subjects as English (3), mathematics (1), social
tent or contradictory rather than cohering sciences (1), history and social education (1),
around a single proposition. This use of multiple music (1), and sports (table tennis, 1). Pseudo-
sources is especially important in exploring be- nyms for the 10 teachers are used throughout the
liefs, practices, and mandates. Pajares (1992) data presentation (see Table 1).
reminded researchers of the dimensions in re-
searching beliefs: Interview
It is also clear that, if reasonableinferences about As researchers, we developed an open-ended
beliefs require assessmentsof what individualssay, interview protocol. After an initial pilot interview,
intend, and do, then teachers' verbal expressions, we made several modifications. For example,
predispositions to action, and teaching behaviors
must all be included in assessments of beliefs. Not to background questions were separated from the
do so calls into question the validity of the findings major interview questions so that the interview
and the value of the study. Traditional belief invento- could focus on specific questions (e.g., under-
ries provide limited information with which to make standings of CLT,use of the textbook, the role of
inferences, and it is at this step in the measurement grammar, communicative activities, and teacher
process that understanding the context-specific na- development). Ultimately, we developed and re-
ture of beliefs becomes critical. (p. 327) fined 20 questions following Spradley's (1979)
descriptive questions so that the respondent
Participants would display "perspectives and moral forms"
(p. 107). A standardized protocol was established
Ten state (public) school teachers ofJapanese to focus on certain issues following Spradley's
(including 9 native Australian English speakers recommendations. Twelve major questions were
and 1 native Japanese speaker) in 10 different then agreed upon, and two more pilot interviews
state high schools in a large Australian metropoli- were conducted to test their efficiency. The final
tan area participated in this study (9 female and interview protocol was completed, with minor

8. 500 TheModernLanguageJournal 83 (1999)
TABLE1
Participantsin the Study,Including Their Participationin the Three Data Collection Strategies
Name Years Degrees(s) Study Interview Survey Observation
Teaching Area(s)
Sean 1.5 BA, PGD Japanese and Asian Studies Yes Yes No
Margaret 5 BA Economics Yes Yes Yes
Tracey 5 BA, PGD Japanese and Linguistics Yes Yes No
Joan 6.5 BA History and English Yes Yes Yes
Alicia 13 Diploma of Commerce Yes Yes Yes
Education
Debra 13 BA, PGD Japanese and History Yes No Yes
Jane 4 BA, MA English and Applied Yes Yes Yes
Linguistics
Laura 8 BA Music Yes Yes Yes
Tamara 2.5 BS Biology Yes Yes Yes
Yumiko .75 BA, PGD French Literatureand Yes Yes Yes
Japanese
Note.Pseudonymsare used throughout the article. PGD=PostgraduateDiploma in Education (apanese), for
Yumikoa PostgraduateDiploma in Education (French).
modifications of wording. All 10 interviews were recorded as participant observations. In the
transcribed for descriptive data and analyzed. other classrooms our notes were made as ob-
Each interview (10 total) was conducted in En- server only. A total of 20 classroom observations
glish except for the interview with the nativeJapa- offered evidence about Japanese language in-
nese speaking teacher, which was recorded and struction.
transcribed in Japanese and subsequently trans-
lated into English by one of the researchers.
These transcribed interviews provided descrip- Survey
tive data for analysis. To add a dimension not tapped in the pre-
viously explained data sources, we adapted the
Foreign Language Attitude Survey for Teachers
Observations (FLAST; for a full description see Savignon,
1983). Specifically, the responses to the survey
Classroom observations followed the inter- uncovered teachers' individual differences and
views. The researcher was usually seated at the overall general attitude. Nine of the 10 teachers
back of the classroom and occasionally moved returned the questionnaires. Their Likert-scaled
around the class. Field notes taken on site docu- responses were analyzed using descriptive statis-
mented the progression and procedures of each tics and the computer program StatView (1993).
lesson. Adhering to Silverman's (1993) warning Although Savignon warned that FLAST was not
to avoid early generalizations, we focused on what meant to be scored, she also proposed that
was observable: setting, participants, events, acts,
and gestures (Glesne & Peshkin, 1992). In addi- the answers teachers give will depend on their inter-
tion, immediately following the observations, we pretation of the questions as well as on their second
reviewed and expanded all notes to include fur- language learning and teaching experiences. A com-
ther information and detail (Glesne & Peshkin, parison of responses, however, will reveal the differ-
ences in attitude among teachers working together,
1992; Spradley, 1979). The observations of Japa- presumably toward similar goals. (p. 122)
nese class lessons were completed two to three
times in each of eight of the Japanese language It was precisely these differences of interpretation
classrooms. Two teachers requested not to be ob- among a group of professional language teachers
served. Furthermore, 2 other teachers wanted to and the comparison of these differences with in-
use the native Japanese researcher as a native terview and observation data that, we believed,
informant, so in these classrooms it was not pos- could further reveal and better delineate teach-
sible to observe a typical class session. However, ers' attitudes toward CLT. Responses were nu-
the interactions in these particular classes were merically coded and those items receiving a mean

9. Sato and RobertC. Kleinsasser
Kazuyoshi 501
of 3.6 or higher were those with which teachers veys, while also offering a glimpse of what actually
agreed (the closer to 5, the more strongly teach- happened in Japanese language teachers' class-
ers agreed with it). Those items receiving a mean rooms. Their conceptions of CLT serve as a cata-
of 2.4 or lower were those with which teachers lyst to promote their understandings. We hope to
disagreed. Items falling between 2.4 and 3.6 were show that the challenges they face help clarify, in
those with which teachers neither agreed nor dis- part, why they understand CLT the way they do.
agreed, perhaps giving evidence of some uncer- In the second part, we uncover where these teach-
tainty among the participants as a group. ers think they learned about CLT. We acknowl-
edge how teachers situate their own under-
Analysis standings about CLT (and L2 teaching, in
general). The three data sources help articulate
In the main, qualitative inductive approaches how these LOTE teachers view (communicative)
were used to analyze the data for this article (for language teaching as an evolving enterprise, a
complete introductory discussion see Glesne & phenomenon that continually challenges them in
Peshkin, 1992). In this instance, data were pe- their hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly L2 teach-
rused and trends, categories, and classifications ing and learning experiences.
were developed using the constant comparative
method, suggested by Glaser and Strauss (1967), Towarda Definition of (Practical)CLT
and other similar procedure descriptions or
analysis suggestions from more recent publica- The teachers gave few complete descriptions
tions (e.g., Foss & Kleinsasser, 1996; Kleinsasser, about what CLT was and held varying, even frag-
1993). Themes that emerged from the various mented, views. Yet, these fragmented views can be
data sources were identified, compared, and de- explained by the challenges these teachers faced.
veloped into the analysis presented below for the The 10 participants revealed their beliefs about
L2 profession. In addition, the act of writing itself CLT in broad terms and many concurred that
was also part of the analysis. As Krathwohl (1993) CLT was neither fully articulated nor necessarily
suggested, an integral part of their instructional repertoires.
Writingenforces a discipline that helps articulate
half-formed ideas. Somethinghappens between the Language Teachers
WhatJapanese Said, Responded,
formationof an idea and its appearance paper,a
on and Did
latencythat somehowresultsin the clarificationand
untanglingof our thinking.Writinghelps bring un- One teacher eloquently overviewed the notion
conscious processingto light as articulatedsynthe- that CLT was not yet established, giving valuable
sizedstatements.(p. 81)
insight into many of the teachers' feelings. A sen-
Glesne and Peshkin (1992) reminded that: "The timent that CLT was a "work in progress" fore-
act of writing also stimulates new thoughts, new shadowed evolving understandings of CLT by the
connections. Writing is rewarding in that it cre- participants in this study. When asked, "How do
ates the product, the housing for the meaning you define CLT?"she replied:
that you and others have made of your research
It'sa difficultquestion.Well,I supposethe definition
adventure. Writing is about constructing a text" of [a] CLT method has not been establishedyet.
(p. 151). Moreover, the researchers sought to de- There are some varietiessuch as task-based some
...
velop this particular presentation so that readers rigid scholarssuggestnot [even] using Englishin a
could enter into the events studied and vicari- class.So, I am at a loss whatCLTis. I thinklanguage
ously participate in creating text (Eisner, 1991). teachingshould be related to students'experiences
Instead of talking about qualitative data, here it is and interests whichcreatenaturalsituations them
for
actually presented.4 to speak.I supposeit is important,but I don't know
whetherit is communicative not. (Yumiko)
or
CLT:PRACTICALUNDERSTANDINGS Four main conceptions about CLT were dis-
cussed by the teachers: (a) CLT is learning to
In this section, we bring together data from communicate in the L2, (b) CLT uses mainly
interviews, surveys, and observations to describe speaking and listening, (c) CLT involves little
teachers' beliefs, knowledge, and prac- grammar instruction, (d) CLT uses (time-con-
tices-their understandings-of CLT. In the first suming) activities. How teachers talked about and
part, we outline the salient issues they conveyed defined their notions of CLT were developed
in the interviews and responded to on their sur- through these four main conceptions that were

10. 502 The ModernLanguageJournal83 (1999)
revealed through LOTE (Japanese) teachers' 1989; Koide, 1976; Lange, 1982] and became par-
voices, responses, and actions. ticularly highlighted when foreign language or
LOTE instruction spread to primary schools
CLTIsLearningto Communicate theL2. Almost
in
[Clyne, 1977; Heining-Boynton, 1990]). The
all teachers globally defined CLT as learning to
teachers relayed their frustrations when discuss-
communicate with other people using the L2. A
few specifically added to that definition the idea ing these problems with (communicative) lan-
of using language for real purposes. Participants guage teaching.
As Japanese language teaching and learning
relayed their sentiments as the following teachers became popular (and required) in primary
did.
schools, these high school teachers faced articu-
I would hope that I would, ought to teach students lation problems. Alicia described how the teach-
how to communicate both orally and in a written ers did not necessarily welcome previous lan-
form so that I would expect them to hold a conversa- guage learning experiences by their students in
tion at the best of their ability. (Debra) primary schools. Tracey maintained that LOTE
It's teaching language that can be used by students in
teaching needed to be accepted and supported
real life, in real life-like situations. It's used for real within the school and wider community, and Yu-
purposes. There must be some need to communicate miko yearned for collegiality.
in order to be able to challenge the students to use
language communicatively. (Joan) I think the most difficult thing is [the] students com-
Learning to communicate was an important ing from [the] primary school. Some of them maybe
attribute of CLT, and, through the survey, these have 3 years, and some of them maybe have 1 year in
teachers agreed that the students' motivation to primary school, some of them have nothing. Then,
continue language study was directly related to they're coming to Year 8. And it's very difficult to
have the mixed classes. Then, when you're getting to
their success in actually learning to speak the
Year 9, you have students who are coming to doJapa-
language. They also suggested that students did nese in Year 9, who have no Japanese, who have
not have to answer a question posed in Japanese various experiences [and you start] all over again.
with a complete sentence and strongly agreed (Alicia)
that one could not teach language without cul- Another issue is at the moment, we're in [a] real
ture, while concurring that cultural information transition period in the community with acceptance
should be given in the L2 as much as possible. and nonacceptance of LOTE teaching as valuable.
These teachers were clearly aware that simulated Some people value it, some people don't value it at
all. And some of the people in the community don't
real-life situations should be used to teach conver-
value it, or colleagues [within the school don't value
sational skills, yet were ultimately realistic in
it either]. So that's very difficult until we have a cul-
agreeing that most language classes did not pro- ture of, no, not a culture of, uh, a mindset, where
vide enough opportunity for the development of
having a second language is valuable. That's the be-
such conversational skills. It is clear that teachers ginning and the end. Learning all languages is valu-
saw the value in what CLT offered; nonetheless, able. That's it. So you learn it all through primary
their scepticism about attaining communicative [school], secondary [school]. It's exactly the same,
skills surfaced. The participants neither agreed science, English, math you do it. It's just part of what
nor disagreed that the ability to speak a language you do. But we are not there yet. So until we get to
was innate; therefore, they believed that everyone that point, this transition is very difficult. We have an
opposition from others. (Tracey)
capable of speaking a first language should be I also feel it's difficult to receive support from the
capable of learning to speak a L2. Although there school just because I'm not Australian. I think it's
was the potential for communication in their
true. We don't usually communicate with other col-
classrooms, the teachers were unsure about the leagues. We talk to each other only within close
extent to which they had the time to promote it friends. Though it's not related to language teaching
and whether or not all students were capable of directly, I think it is a problem. (Yumiko)
learning it.
Three challenges created further tensions for On the survey the LOTE teachers as a group
teachers in promoting communication in the L2. neither agreed nor disagreed that they needed to
These included subject matter articulation, lack be fluent themselves to begin to teach communi-
of institutional support, and their own lack of catively. Nonetheless, during the interviews, the
proficiency in the L2. (These three issues have teachers commented on their own (inadequate)
plagued the language professions in both Austra- language proficiency; however, many reported
lia and the U.S. [e.g., Ariew, 1982; Australian Lan- that they tried to use the L2 as much as possible.
guage and Literacy Council, 1996; Kawagoe, Tamara felt insecure about her language profi-

11. Sato and RobertC. Kleinsasser
Kazuyoshi 503
ciency. Joan responded that, as she became more ing. In short, her L2 learning experiences
confident with her L2 proficiency and ability to seemed to have formed a belief that CLT used
meet students' needs, she moved further away only speaking and listening.
from the textbook. Tamara was not afraid to be The survey results reinforced the significance
honest. Joan decided to go back to university to of speaking and listening skills, or at least sug-
finish her 3rd year of Japanese study. gested that there might be an order to how skills
were learned. The teachers agreed that the in-
Also, my ability to speak Japanese. Sometimes I feel struction of such skills preceded the teaching of
like my language is not sufficient to challenge the
students, to push them. I don't think I give them reading and writing, that L2 acquisition was most
successful when based on an oral approach, and
enough listening experience, because I am insecure
of my ownJapanese. (Tamara) that students could still be successful in learning
In terms of the daily use of textbook, I am surprised to communicate in a L2 even if they did not read
to find that I am moving further and further away well. The teachers did not attribute weak oral
from [the] use of the regular textbook. Every year competence to a lack of objective means in teach-
level has one, but I find as I become more confident ing it. Nonetheless, assessment of students' lan-
with my language, and as I become more confident to
guage abilities caused some concern.
meet the needs or interest of the students and differ- The LOTE teachers found that assessment
ent topics, I want real Japanese language, not the
tasks that were focused on the four skills offered
textbook. (oan)
another slight obstacle. It is interesting to note
The teachers reported that CLT meant learn- that the LOTE teachers emphasized that CLT
ing to communicate in the L2. The interview and meant speaking and listening; however, the gov-
survey data showed how they coped with what this ernment guidelines for communicative assess-
meant to them. The challenges, however, seemed ment included all four skills, each seemingly
sometimes to outweigh the benefits of making given equal weighting. The teachers' concerns
communication in the L2 a reality. Nonetheless, dealt with the number of tests and the lack of
the first conception served as a general reminder cohesion among the skill examinations.
about the global purpose of CLT. This focus on
And we have four tests at the end of each semester,
communication led to the second conception
reading, writing, listening, and speaking. And the
that these teachers think writing and reading are middle of each semester, we have two tests. In the
not as prevalent (important) as listening and middle of [the] first semester, if we test reading and
speaking. writing, then, in the middle of [the] second semester,
we test speaking and listening. So by the end of the
CLT Uses Mainly Speakingand Listening.A sec- year we've tested four skills, three times. (Margaret)
ond trend from the data revealed that several Well, according to the senior curriculum, I am re-
teachers viewed CLT as focusing extensively on quired to give them a certain number of tests in what
speaking and listening skills. The following they call the four macro skills-reading, writing,
quotes represented this general view. speaking, and listening. They all have to be separate
tests. So I have to give them one of each kind of tests
The goal of the teaching is that at the end of learning each term. I basicallyjust give them tests, you know. I
the language, people can actually talk in the language will have a passage written in Japanese on a topic that
with the native speakers understand [ing] what we've studied. And they have to read it and they have
they're saying and be [ing] able to communicate their questions in English and they have to answer in En-
ideas rather than just being able to read and write. glish. So it's just as a comprehensive test. Listening,
(Margaret) well, I'll have [a] passage in Japanese. I'll read it and
My understanding of CLT is that you teach so that then they'll have questions in English. So they don't
[the] students hear it and so that they speak it. I see it. Theyjust think they read it. Then, they have to
would try where it's possible to teach something new answer in English. And speaking, I just give them
by actually speaking. [...] I think writing needs a little some topics to talk about and they have to talk. (Role
explanation to teach the pattern and get them to play or interview?) Oh, both. So, that's how I evalu-
write the pattern. [. . .] And perhaps because I ate, just standard, four micro skills tests. I'm not par-
learned Japanese as an adult and learned it commu- ticularly looking for communicative skills as such, but
nicatively, I didn't learn a lot of writing at the time. just as four micro skills, which is the prescribed way
Writing was the neglected skill. So I suppose I've been of testing. (Sean)
very aware of CLT. (Alicia)
The tension between CLT and skills became
At the completion of her interview, Alicia re- apparent. The teachers saw two completely differ-
vealed again that she learnedJapanese communi- ent issues and proceeded with what they per-
catively in speaking and listening, but not in writ- ceived they had to do in their classrooms for their

12. 504 The Modern Language Journal 83 (1999)
students. It is interesting to note that many of nation. So that's why I like [a] combination of both
them did not see, or present, how the competing systems. (Jane)
conceptions could be reconciled. They allowed Debra was in a dilemma, because she was not
their understanding of skills (through policy) to
allowed to offer a grammar test according to the
outweigh their promotion of CLT (especially in government's guidelines of communicative as-
using speaking and listening). Items from the sessment.
survey further revealed that the group thought
that dialogue memorization was an effective tech- I think that [the] writing test is the main worry. It is
the big worry, because it takes us a lot of time. Actu-
nique in the process of learning a L2 but dis-
agreed over the belief that mastering L2 gram- ally this is the big problem with CLT,because our tests
have to be communicative, too. So we can't have a
mar was a prerequisite to developing oral
communication skills. This disagreement could grammar test. We can't have a test where you have to
do multiple choice. No, we can't. We can't do it at all.
be why some teachers saw these other skills (read- So what we have to do is trying authentic material for
ing and writing) as a means to focus on grammar. students to read. (Debra)
These issues and challenges only seemed to rein-
force the third conception about the role of The participants were challenged over what to
in CLT. do with grammar in their learning environments.
grammar
Most teachers did not discuss the role of gram-
mar in CLT because they thought grammar was
CLT Involves Little Grammar Instruction. Quite a
not part of CLT. Neither did they understand
few teachers understood CLT as not involving
completely the guidelines for not allowing gram-
grammar, or any type of language structure. Al-
mar to be included in their testing. Yet they re-
though some teachers did not directly mention
layed difficulties in teaching it when it came to
grammar usage, many alluded to the problem of
how, if at all, to include it. discussing what went on with language teaching
in their classrooms. Although some did not know
Another issue in LOTE learning and teaching is that the role of grammar in CLT as revealed in the
"Is communicative teaching good?" Because people definitions above, others blamed English teach-
have taken it so far to the point of the banning of ers for not teaching grammar or felt it difficult to
grammar teaching or of the banning of drilling, of present grammar in an interesting way, or both.
the banning of all little parts. You have to do at some
points, to learn Hiragana [apanese syllabary], you Uh, these are difficult questions. What's the role of
have to write out over and over after practice. But in grammar? Uh, I think grammar is important so that
communicative language, you think, "Ican't do it. It's meaning is not lost, but I try not to correct the stu-
not communicative." So that's the burden. ... So dents' grammar too much, when they speak, because
when I [was] first teaching grammar, it had very little, I don't want to inhibit them. I don't think it is [a] very
very little place. We did lots of talking, lots of reading important thing. I treat it as a building block, and
and writing and listening, but not so much grammar. then, hopefully that will make students practice what-
Which is the mistake of, I think, part of the flow in ever language they've learned before. And if there
communicative teaching. I almost expected that stu- are many minor mistakes on grammar, I don't fix
dents would pick it up. They would somehow work it them up on it. Yeah, I can't answer that question very
out without me saying "'wo' is the object.... It well. (Tamara)
would work if you guess. Sometimes I still do that. For a number of years now, they haven't really been
(Tracey) teaching even in English very much. I found a lot of
It's using Japanese whenever possible in the class- my students at high school don't really know much
room. But I'm not particularly a communicative lan- about the technical aspects of English language. So it
was discouraged for some years. The teaching of En-
guage teacher, because I love teaching grammar....
While I like some aspects of it, I very much dislike glish grammar was discouraged. So a lot of the stu-
some ... aspects of it... while I was studying inJapan, dents have gone through the high school system not
I had a teacher who was studying [the] communica- really learning English grammar. So then, you know,
tive method. And she believed that she did not ex- I think it's unfortunate. So it's hard to teach them
plain grammatical points in the text. She believed you Japanese grammar if they don't understand English
should get to understand them from the atmosphere. grammar. (Sean)
And that was very frustrating as a student. So that's
The conundrum of grammar's place within
why I don't like it so much, because I love to under- CLT (or language teaching in general, for that
stand the grammar. And I think many of the best
students do. And students we have doing Japanese matter) was further highlighted in the survey re-
are often very analytical thinkers. AndJapanese to me sults. As a group, these teachers were uncertain
is a little bit like math. And students thought of it like about the importance of having students learn
math. So sometimes it's possible to have a little expla- rules of grammar (they neither agreed nor dis-

13. Sato and RobertC. Kleinsasser
Kazuyoshi 505
agreed) but were adamant that the grammar- Then, we give them ... extrathingsthey can add to
translation approach to L2 learning was not effec- it. Then, theymustlearnand presentit in a class.Do
tive in developing oral communication skills. On role-play or so. And in Year9 [it is] similar, but there's
more freedom. By the time you get to Year 12, just
the one hand, these LOTE teachers accepted that
talk. (Laura)
student responses in the L2 did not have to be
linguistically accurate. They further agreed that
when a student made syntactical errors, the er- WhatJapanese LanguageTeachers Did: Traditional
rors should be accepted as a natural and inevita- Practices.Regardless of the role grammar had ac-
ble part of language acquisition and that ideas cording to the individual teachers or what teach-
can be exchanged spontaneously in a foreign lan- ers said about accommodating learning styles,
guage without having linguistic accuracy. On the many findings from classroom observations con-
other hand, the LOTE teachers agreed that if first founded the information given by the teachers in
language (L1) teachers taught grammar the way their interviews and on their surveys. Grammar
they should, it would be easier for them to teach was more central in their language teaching than
a L2. The participants further agreed that when these LOTE teachers admitted. The teachers
the foreign language structure differed from that were more didactic in their instruction than they
of the LI, sometimes extensive repetitions, sim- related and less concerned with individuals than
ple and varied, were needed to form the new with the class as a group entity. Whether or not
habit. They agreed that pattern practice was an they were teaching communicatively, grammar
effective learning technique and that the estab- was a central focus in the observed classrooms.
lishment of new language habits required exten- For example, although most teachers said that
sive, well-planned practice on a limited body of they used role-play, games, simulations, and so
vocabulary and sentence patterns. on, classes observed for this study were heavily
It is interesting to note that puzzlement over teacher-fronted, grammar was presented without
issues surrounding grammar also manifested it- any context clues, and there were few interactions
self within another challenge teachers had with seen among students in the classrooms (this de-
learning styles. Most teachers acknowledged that scribes what we mean by "traditional practices").
they had to be aware of students' learning styles, Most Japanese teachers used English extensively
especially different styles between year levels. to explain grammatical points and give instruc-
They tended to agree with the survey item that all tions; L2 communicative use and speaking in the
students, regardless of previous academic success L2 by students, in particular, were not as preva-
and preparation, should be encouraged and lent as one might assume from listening to the
given the opportunity to study a foreign lan- interviews or reading the survey results. TheJapa-
guage. Nonetheless, learning styles offered an ad- nese teachers readily allowed students to answer
ditional focus that some felt was not at all part of in English. A few teachers tried to integrate cul-
CLT. Moreover, here teachers related that some ture into their lessons. In short, most teachers
students wanted a grammar focus.
displayed traditional practice tendencies. The fol-
All Grade11 and 12 wantto studyin a formalway.So lowing selected examples typicallyportrayed what
was seen in the Japanese language classrooms.
even though I introduce a communicative activity, For instance, Tamara started her lesson for
they don't want to get involvedin it. They are more
interestedin grammatical Year 12 with a Kanji (Chinese characters) quiz.
explanations.But, for ex-
ample,Grade10 get along well with me. They really
like interestingtopics and start to speak. So I feel At the beginning, she handed out quiz sheets to eve-
more comfortable juniors.Seniorsseem to have
with ryone. She gave students 10 minutes to complete the
acquireda formalwayof studyinglikeJapanesestu- quiz. While students were working on the quiz, she
dents .. .This is where the difficulty lies, I feel. (Yu- wrote grammatical points on the board. After the
miko) quiz, she started to explain the grammar (passive
Uh, Year 8, they learn patterns. We teach them, you form) by using English sentences as examples. Then,
know, 'This is the pattern." If you want to say, I like she explained it with Japanese sentences. While she
French and I like math, and I hate science. Then, we explained verb conjugations, students wrote them
teach them to say, ". . . ga suki," ". . . ga kirai desu." down in their notebooks. After that, she showed verb
Then, we give them a list of subjects. And we get them cards and made students say passive forms. It was like
to talk. So they can express their own feeling inJapa- drills. Then, she asked students to open the text-
nese. We did the same things with sports and hobbies books, and they did exercises that transformed active
and families.... And then, if we are doing something sentences into passive ones. She called on each stu-
like [the topic of] restaurant, then, we give them a dent individually and let him or her answer. Finally,
dialogue. We get them to learn the basic dialogue. she asked students to create their own sentences by

14. 506 TheModernLanguageJournal 83 (1999)
using passive forms. After a few minutes, the bell Students came in the classroom in a line. First, she
rang. (Observation of Tamara) reviewed the grammar structure (potential form) on
the blackboard. She asked a yes-no question to indi-
This was her lesson. There was little interaction vidual students. Then, she reviewed Kanji using
between the teacher and the students, and little cards. Students read several cards, each time the
among the students. Moreover, this lesson pro- teacher showed the card to them several times. After
vided little evidence of attention to varying learn- that, she told the students to open the textbook. They
ing styles. Grammar points were explained de- did translation exercises. She asked individual stu-
ductively without any context clues and were dents to answer them. Then, she asked two students
followed by mechanical exercises in textbooks. to read the short model conversation. She asked an-
Yumiko is a native Japanese teacher. She just other pair to read it. She gave the students five min-
utes to practice the skit in pairs. After that, she asked
started teaching in the academic year after she
for volunteers. Students were shy. So she asked two
finished her Postgraduate Diploma of Education.
pairs to perform the skit without looking at the text-
The following is her Year 12 lesson. She said in book. The rest of the class helped the performers
her interview that communicative activities did when they got stuck. The bell rang, and she told the
not work for Years 11 and 12, because these stu- students that they would practice the skit more next
dents liked a more formal way of study, especially time. (Observation of Margaret)
grammatical explanations.
Margaret related in her interview that she had
She spent most of her lesson speaking Japanese.
difficulty motivating Year 8 and 9 students and
First, she gave an example to introduce a new sen-
tence pattern in context. She kept on giving other managing their discipline. Although she stated
that "in Year 10 and 11 and 12 by the students
examples in Japanese. Each student was checking
the new function with the handout the teacher had who have chosen to do the subject, my teaching
method is totally different. I do lots of question-
given them previously. Then, after several examples,
she asked yes-no questions to students. But students naires, lots of games, and lot of more discussion,
answered in English. Sometimes students asked role-play ... ," she actually relied here on tradi-
questions in English about the content of the topic tional practices. As our interview, survey, and ob-
or examples. There were no interactions among stu- servation data coalesced, it became clear that ten-
dents. Then, she started to give another example to sions abounded over grammar instruction,
introduce another grammatical point. They re-
learning styles, and CLT. The challenges of meet-
peated the same process. Finally, she introduced
three new Kanji words. She wrote them on the black- ing students' needs continued to give focus to the
teachers' daily instruction, while their idea of
board and she made sure of the meaning of each
CLT as minimal grammar instruction was mud-
word by asking individual students. Students an-
swered in English. There were no exercises with dled in the quagmire of what they did or thought
Kanji in sentences. The lesson stopped here. (Ob- they had to do.
servation of Yumiko)
Activities.The final
CLT Uses (Time-Consuming)
This native-speaking Japanese teacher took conception evidenced in the interview data was
pride in her approach to introducing grammar in that CLT used activities that must be fun, and
contexts. In her interview, she stated, "I often use almost all teachers admitted that preparing such
many examples in Japanese to explain a new jovial activities was time intensive. Although the
word. I keep on saying it until students can guess survey showed that teachers disagreed with the
what it is. I like it that way." Nevertheless, students statement that a good foreign language teacher
answered in English during this lesson. No inter- did not need audiovisuals to build an effective
action among students could be seen, and it program, they agreed that if language teachers
needs to be remembered that this teacher men- used all the audiovisual equipment, materials,
tioned that she relied little on communicative and techniques the experts say they should, there
activities because "they don't want to get involved would be no time for eating and sleeping, much
in it." At this stage, she seemed to give up even less teaching. TheseJapanese teachers also nearly
trying to get them involved. She believed that agreed (mean 3.4) that individualizing instruc-
certain students' learning styles outweighed us- tion was really not feasible in L2 classes (which,
ing communicative activities. in a surprising way, ties in with their issues regard-
Margaret did a lesson for Year 10. Although she ing their reports of learning styles). Tracey com-
attempted to use role-play, it was in reality a dia- mented that teachers felt they were failing if the
logue memorization. Overall, she relied heavily class did not include fun elements, and Sean dis-
on traditional practices. cussed how he coped with the issue.

15. Kazuyoshi Sato and Robert C. Kleinsasser 507
It's from CLT or I'm not sure where it comes from. exercise. But I don't teach from the textbook, usually
But there is an understanding that as LOTE teachers I teach something new, before they look at the text-
we must have our classes, [they] must be fun, they book. So we need more time to prepare our own
must be entertaining, and so [we] play lots of games materials. It's quite hard. It's not like Japan where
and kill ourselves trying to entertain our students. If they use, everybody uses the same, and same day,
they are not, if it is not entertaining, we feel like we're same page.... I think I need time to prepare the
failing. And students also [say], 'That's boring, Miss." resources for the students. I think that's really impor-
And you think, of course, everything has some bor- tant. To make flash cards, to make the lesson interest-
ing, bad, some not interesting parts, right? So that's ing, we need to have really more time. (Debra)
another part. (Tracey) The time to reflect as a teacher. [... ] And I teach 27
My understanding of communicative teaching is, I out of 35 lessons a week. [... ] I might have three or
suppose, teaching in a way rather than just learn [ing] four lessons a week at most of my own preparation
grammar or translat[ing] from one language to an- and correction time. What I would really love is the
other. It involves using learning activities where the luxury of something like a position, a head of Depart-
students are actually engaged in communicating with ment, where you have [a] half time table, half teach-
other people, of course, usually within [a] class ing, half managing, where you would have time to
group.... In that way, I suppose, they are supposed look at resource materials available and slowly and
to learn how to use the language more easily than just carefully put together a course. (Joan)
to try [the] grammatical translation [way] to learn-
ing.... But I have not really used them very much. Another major challenge to CLT and its activi-
Well, it's time-consuming. Of course, it's so much ties was discipline. Margaret revealed in her inter-
easier to use [a] textbook. I mean it would be nicer if view that discipline was the priority and that there
it was a textbook with a lot of communicative learning was little room for her to use communicative ac-
activities in it. To be always making every week, for tivities in Grade 8 classes. Jane also used a similar
every lesson, to make activities in it, it's very time-con-
technique to "settle students down."
suming and [I] just wonder, I don't have that much
time to spend on it. Because I have other subjects and But unfortunately a lot of our students, lots of stu-
another class to teach, too. (Sean) dents I am teaching at high school at Year 8, they are
forced to studyJapanese. So they have very negative
Quite a few participants said they occasionally
attitudes. So if I speak to them in Japanese in the
used CLT activities in classrooms. Alicia described
classroom, they switch off from what they want to
her use of a fun activity. know. So all of the time I have to speak in English
So you can use group activities or pair activities, inter- anyway. And they are quite badly behaved students
views, they can be interviewing. For instance, another anyway.So the way that I teach Japanese is not really
communicative. It's more like I've got to keep these
thing the Year 10 just learned is to say when is your
kids quiet, more behaved for 35 minutes. And the
birthday. So they have to go around and ask 10 peo-
main idea is not that I'm teaching at all. The main
ple that question.... So that's communication. They
can go around and ask. This school is very interest- idea is discipline. (Margaret)
ing. Hardly anybody was born in [suburb]. So I use Nearly everyday I give them a little quiz to start with
activities like that as often as I can. And then also for the lesson, quite often. And it might be grammar or
listening, for instance, today, with one of my Year 10 vocabulary or Kanji or something. Almost everyday,
classes, I was pretending to be their phone answering particularlywith Grade 8, it settles them down. If they
machine. I'm the answering machine. So they had to write something, they can concentrate on it. (Jane)
take notes. So I pretended to be the person. So I
made suggestions. (Alicia) Although LOTE teachers agreed that language
learning should be fun, they disagreed that L2
Almost all teachers reported they needed more acquisition was not and probably never would be
time to prepare materials for CLT activities, relevant to the average Australian student. But
which related directly to the fact that these teach- they neither agreed nor disagreed as a group that
ers perceived there existed a lack of good materi- one of their problems in teaching a L2 was that
als including textbooks for communicative lan- they tried to make learning fun and games. Some
guage instruction. teachers agreed, others disagreed, and there was
no consensus.
We don't use the textbook everyday.My Grade 8, they
have no textbook. Next year we'll have one, but this Yet, student motivation and LOTE teachers'
concerns about it appeared throughout the inter-
year we don't, because the textbook was not commu-
nicative. It was too boring. For Grade 9 we have Is- views. As seen in previous quotations and discus-
shoni just for the first time this year. So I use this sions, these teachers struggled to motivate their
perhaps half of the time. So after four lessons maybe students. This particular issue gained momentum
I'll use it for part of the lessons. And then, we'll use when the teachers admitted to their difficulties
this to practice. And they can use this for a homework with subject matter articulation, grammar in-

16. 508 The Modern LanguageJournal 83 (1999)
struction, acknowledgment of individual learn- music, then, they can read a music magazine or watch
the video clip, or [sing] some Japanese songs or
ing styles, and questionable assessment items. Stu-
dent motivation also affected the decision on something like that. And that makes them more in-
terested. (Debra)
whether or not to try out CLT.Jane expressed her
difficulty in motivating students who, especially in CLT activities appeared, at first glance, to influ-
Grade 8, had to take the subject. Note further ence student motivation, but this was not neces-
that she again highlighted and integrally related sarily the case. Instead, their focus on form and
the issue of learning styles. student discipline made these teachers shy away
from CLT activities, or relegate them to the more
The most critical issue at the junior level is that be-
advanced language learners. Moreover, it ap-
cause they are not streamed academically, we have [a]
very wide range of ability from very good to very poor peared that the lack of availability of CLT activi-
[students in the] language class we have today. And ties (or time to create them) caused these teach-
so we must teach "Hiragana."But some students can't ers practically to ignore them. Time was not what
master that. So they are already dropping behind. So these teachers had, so CLT activities were not a
by the end of the year, there's a very wide gap. And priority. This low priority was apparent in the
those students who are very poor become very resent-
scarcity of CLT activities (of any kind) seen dur-
ful. And it's very hard to maintain the interest level of
ing observations.
everyone, when there's such a wide gap. So that's one
of the most critical issues. And I don't know what the What Japanese Language TeachersDid: Innovative
answer is, we should stream or what we should do. But Practices. It was obvious that the teachers believed
that also subtracts from CLT,because, of course, they that CLT activities created too much work for
can't understand. They're slower learners. So they
them, because few participants were observed to
can't write, they can't stand what is happening as well
use such activities in the classroom. In contrast to
as the better students. So that's one of the most criti-
their use of the traditional practices mentioned
cal issues. (Jane)
previously, only a few teachers used student-stu-
Tamara revisited the value of learning another dent interactions or made students use the lan-
language: guage for real purposes. Of these, two teachers
also attempted to use Japanese to a greater extent
And also I think it important that students see a value
than the other teachers did. As mentioned above,
in learning another language, because if they don't
Alicia reported using some innovative ideas. Her
see it as just another subject that they have to do, I
don't think we're going to have a right attitude to lesson for Year 9 gave further insight into her
learning about cultures. And if they are not inter- practices.
ested in culture, then, it's also going to make it diffi-
First, she reviewed some Kanji numbers. She held
cult for them to pick up the language. (Tamara)
cards and asked each student to read one. The stu-
Debra lamented the fact that students lacked dent picked up the card. She told the student inJapa-
nese to show the card to everyone. Others repeated
motivation because they did not particularly care
the number. She tried several cards. All these words
for discrete-point learning:
were related to the topic "restaurant." Then, she
I think sometimes, [students] lack the motivation to showed a Japanese tea cup, a sake cup, and other
really study a language, the skills of the language. For things asking questions in Japanese. Students an-
swered in Japanese. She checked homework. Those
example, I can teach them some new words or new
who did not do the homework stood up, and they
Kanji, but students find it very hard to learn. The
students must realize that they need to study. And, of were told to come back to the classroom during
course, if they had a trip toJapan, that would be good lunchtime to show the homework. Then, they did
motivation for them. (Debra) translation exercises from the textbook. After giving
instruction for the next homework assignment, she
Debra did encourage students in Years 11 and gave students 10 minutes to prepare for a role-play (at
12 to involve themselves in theJapanese language the Japanese restaurant) in groups of 3 to 4. One stu-
dent was a waiter/waitress, and the others were cus-
by watching TV programs and reading. These
activities would, she felt, encourage the students tomers. She walked around the class and sometimes
to be motivated to learn in her advanced classes. answered students' questions. Then, four groups per-
formed in front of the class. Three groups mainly fol-
And I'm trying to build up the materials that we have lowed the model dialogue, but the last group was in-
at school so that students can be interested in the teresting because the students did not follow the
subject. So, for example, if we have students in class, model dialogue. They made the class laugh. She made
who are interested in sports, they can read some some comments on their performance-"Well done"
sporting magazine, so [we] watch the baseball or and a little tip about how to order at aJapanese restau-
Sumo on TV. Or if the students are interested in rant. (Observation of Alicia)