Communicative Approach Strategies for English Language Teaching

This paper focuses on Communicative Approach strategies used by teachers in teaching English in secondary schools, and the challenges teachers and students face in using such strategies in classes. Data collection was done in four government secondary schools within Mzuzu City in Malawi. Data were collected by using questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations. Key findings reveal that most teachers frequently use communicative approach strategies in teaching English language such as pairing, debates, group discussions, filling in gaps, and dramatization. The study indicates that even though communicative approach strategies are used in classrooms, there are some challenges which hinder the implementation, namely inadequate SCIREA Journal of Education http://www.scirea.org/journal/Education December 3, 2020 Volume 5, Issue 2, April 2020


Introduction
Communicative Approach (CA) has been discussed by different scholars like Widdowson (1978), Richards and Schmidt (2002) and Littlewood (2013) as the best method for teaching English language to the students.
The introduction of CA in Malawian secondary schools aimed at helping students to be competent in English. This is because, for many years now, English language has been taught in secondary schools in Malawi but the yield in proficiency is a serious problem particularly in government schools. Although CA has been introduced in secondary schools, students in most cases are not given enough time to use the language in classrooms since teachers put much emphasis on teaching grammar rather than using various CA strategies in classrooms that would help students to be competent in reading, writing and speaking.
The study focused on analysing CA strategies used by teachers in teaching English language in secondary schools. Since the effective use of CA strategies help students to have confidence in speaking, writing and reading English language, the language skills obtained through such strategies make students to comfortably communicate with different people at school, at home or in the working places before and after the completion of their studies in secondary schools. The study further aimed at examining challenges the teachers and students face in using CA strategies. 41

Communicative Approach
The introduction of CA in Malawian secondary schools aimed at helping students to be competent in English. This is because for many years now, English language has been taught in secondary schools in Malawi but the yield in proficiency is a serious problem particularly in government schools. Although CA has been introduced in secondary schools, students in most cases are not given enough time to use the language in classrooms since teachers put much emphasis on teaching grammar rather than using various CA strategies in classrooms that would help students to be competent in listening, reading, writing and speaking. This is supported by Chiyembekezo et al. (2019) who underscore that "language teaching should focus on the provision of opportunities to learners so that they can use English for communication. Enough time should be spent on language activities, which in turn require learners to perform what they will actually do outside the class in the real world" (p. 4).
That being the case, this study focused on analysing CA strategies used by teachers in teaching English language in secondary schools which enables students to enhance English proficiency.
Since the effective use of CA strategies help students to have confidence in speaking, writing and reading English language, the language skills obtained by using CA strategies make students to comfortably communicate with different people at school, at home or in working places before and after the completion of their studies in secondary schools since English is the official language in country.

English Language Teaching Approaches
The globally spread of English language has influenced different scholars to think and write on how this language can appropriately be taught in schools at different levels of education all over the world. Pascal (2017) argues that in the long search for the perfect method of English Language Teaching (ELT) many approaches have been developed such as Grammar Translation Method, Direct Method Approach and Audio-Lingual Method which improved the version of structural approach.
Similarly, Audio-Lingual aimed at developing communicative competence of students using dialogues and drills, as it makes students capable of producing speech.
In order to build students communicative competence in the second language learning, the term Communicative Competence was developed by Hymes (1972). In supporting Communicative 42 Competence, Widdowson (1978) developed what is now called Communicative Language Teaching or Communicative Approach (CA). Richards and Schmidt (2002, p. 90) define Communicative Language Teaching as "An approach to foreign or second language teaching which emphasizes that the goal of language learning in communicative competence and it seeks to make meaningful communication and language use a focus of all classroom activities". Littlewood (2013) describes Communicative Language Teaching in two ways: Communicative perspective on language and a communicative perspective on learning. Littlewood (2013) submits that "The communicative perspective on language is primarily about what we learn. It proposes that when we learn a language we are primarily learning not language structures but language 'functions' [how to do things with words] (p. 3)". He further argues that communicative perspective on learning focuses on how we learn, especially in our natural capacities to 'acquire' language simply through communication without explicit instruction.
In concurrence with this, Pascal (2017) emphasises that debates, pair/group works, morning speech, the use of question and answers, modelling, storytelling, dramatization, class presentation, comprehension questions, teaching vocabulary and pronunciation and the use of teaching materials are some of the important communicative approach strategies which teachers use in teaching English which are influential in enhancing students proficiency in the language.
The communicative approach was developed particularly by the British applied linguists such as Littlewood, Klippel and Larsen-Freeman in the 1980s as a reaction away from grammar-based approaches such as Situational Language Teaching and the Audio-Lingual Method (Richards & Schmidt, 2002).

Communicative Approach in Malawi
Malawi is a country in the southern part of Africa and the country is divided into the Northern, Central and Southern regions and each region has several languages (Chitera, 2009). The Malawi Institute of Education (2013) states that "English is a second as well as the official language in Malawi where it is used to transact business in government, education, commerce, industry and the legal system. English promotes unity and facilitates communication within Malawi's multilingual society, as well as with other countries" (p. xi). Failure to understand and 43 communicate in English may hinder someone to perform better at school and in the working places.
Since English is the medium of instruction in Malawi, its main goal is to help secondary school students to develop a high level of competence in English as a second language for the following reasons (Malawi Institute of Education, 2013, p. xi): i) It is a medium of instruction and should be mastered to ensure that students understand their books and materials most of which are in English.
ii) Proficiency in English is essential for employment opportunities such as in the media, teaching, medical and the legal professions.
iii) English is a major tool for dissemination of information on various critical issues such as HIV and AIDS, gender, democracy, human rights, the environment, population, and other contemporary issues through various media including the internet. iv) Proficiency in English allows people to experience other cultures through reading books, listening to the radio, television and other print and electronic media. issued the teaching techniques that teachers must follow during the teaching and learning process, namely question and answer, buzz groups, discussion, role play and debate. Moreover, Pascal (2017) is of the view that if these strategies are used effectively they may help students build their English communicative competence.
Although CA has been introduced in Malawian secondary schools the implementation has some hiccups due to teachers persistently clinging to the Grammar Based Method in which the focus is on teaching grammatical rules rather than building the communicative competence in students. In this case, students' participation in CA classrooms is limited since CA strategies are rarely used.
This makes students to have difficulties in comprehending the language skills such as writing, reading, listening and speaking.
In addition Chiyembekezo et al. (2019) emphasise that "Learners should be given more opportunities to the use of language in the classroom, as it helps them to develop the courage to speak in public for longer periods in a clearer, continuous and comprehensive manner" (p. 5).
Teachers in most cases dominate the English classes rather than giving chances to students for them to use the language in the classroom. In order to achieve spoken skills in CA classroom, Diana (2014) argues that "teachers should be facilitators in CA classroom and students should take active participation in the activities that are assigned to them" (p. 38).
The purpose of the study was to analyse CA strategies used by teachers in teaching English language that enhance secondary school students' proficiency in the language.

The Origin of Communicative Approach
The teaching of English language has been largely influenced by different approaches of the second language teaching. 45 Richards and Rodgers (2001) contend that "The origins of CA are found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s. This came in as a response to criticize the American linguist Noam Chomsky who had levelled at structural linguistic theory in his book Syntactic Structures of 1957" (p. 153). Chomsky demonstrated that the standard structural theories of language were incapable of accounting for the fundamental characteristics of language the creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences.
However, due to Chomsky's views, the British applied linguists emphasized another fundamental dimension of language that was inadequately addressed in approaches to language teaching at that time the functional and communicative potential of the language (Richards & Rodgers, 2001).
Thus in 1971, a group of experts begun to investigate the possibility of developing language courses on a unit-credit system, a system in which learning tasks are broken into portions or units each of which corresponds to a component of a learners' needs and systematically related to any other portions (Richards & Rodgers, 2001).
However, the scholars who advocated the view of CA to language teaching were such as Widdowson (1978) and Candlin (1981) who saw the need to focus in language teaching on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures.
The work of these experts above bore some fruits such that textbooks were written and new curricula were developed in favour of Communicative Approach. Similarly, Richards and Richards et al. (2001) say that "Since 1970s both Americans and British proponents have seen that Communicative Approach aims at making communicative competence the goal of language teaching and developing the procedures to the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication" (p.155).

The current status of English in Malawian schools
The Education Act passed by the Malawi Parliament in November 2013 states that, "English shall be the medium of instruction for standard 1 -8 and section 78 of the Act adds that "The medium of instruction in schools and colleges shall be English" (Government of Malawi, 2013, p.42). Chiyembekezo et al. (2019) contend that "English is offered as a core and mandatory subject so that students learn at all levels of national education. It is an academic success tool; therefore, it is pertinent that one should be proficient and must strive to become an expert in English 46 encompassing all the four aspects (that is, writing, speaking, listening, and reading) as an ideal native speaker" (p. 13).
Malawi Institute of Education (2013) states that "English as a subject of study in secondary schools consists of two components, namely Language and Literature. Engagement with literature in English provides the students with opportunities to apply to real life situations the lessons learnt from literature" (p. xi).
Similarly, Moyo (2017) claims that "The choice of English in Malawi, post-colonial Africa and elsewhere in the world goes beyond the notion of better opportunities for higher education and subsequent better employment prospects. For purposes of communication across Malawian borders, English is still, largely, the preferred language in diplomatic discourse, international trade, particularly outside Zambia and Mozambique and also the language of cultural diffusion, to some considerable extent" (p. [4][5].

Research Approach
The study used the mixed method, that is, quantitative and qualitative approaches. Quantitative method was used to emphasize on the objective measurements and numerical analysis of data which were collected through interview and questionnaires. Qualitative approach was used to analyse data collected through classroom observation by narrating and giving the descriptions to the records.

Research Design
The case study design was used in order to collect data from a small part of the population and deal with that particular area in order to come up with a good and precise data that represented the whole population of Mzuzu City, because CA is being used in teaching English language in the secondary schools. The descriptive design was employed in the study in order to describe CA strategies that are used in teaching English and the roles that each strategy plays in enhancing proficiency in the language.

Area of the study
The study was conducted in four government secondary schools which are found in Mzuzu City in Northern region of Malawi. The reason for selecting this area was that, most of the students in this place are multilingual, that is, they speak Chitumbuka, Chichewa and English languages.
Chitumbuka is the mother tongue to most of the students and it is also the common language spoken in the Northern region of Malawi where the study was conducted. Chichewa is the national language, which means students use both Chitumbuka and Chichewa languages inside and outside the classroom.

Sampling procedure
The study used both the probability and non-probability sampling techniques. The probability sampling involved simple random sampling for selecting Form Four students to whom a questionnaire was administered. Teachers were selected purposively because they had more information and experiences on how CA strategies are being used in teaching English, the challenges they face and the ways of promoting CA in order to enhance language proficiency to the students in the language.

Sample Size
The study involved four government secondary schools within Mzuzu City. The sample size further included 48 respondents which were distributed as follows: 40 students from Form Four classes and eight English teachers from four secondary schools within Mzuzu City.

Data Collection Instruments
The data collection methods which were employed in the study were questionnaires, structured interviews and classroom observation.

CA strategies used in teaching English language
Teachers and students through interviews and questionnaires respectively indicated that there are a number of CA strategies that are used in teaching English language in classrooms.

The effects of using CA strategies in Classrooms
The study through interviews and questionnaires revealed that CA strategies are really used in Malawian secondary schools and the activities influence students to speak and write good English. Table 5 shows the reasons why it is important to use CA strategies in secondary schools. The language skills students obtain from CA strategies The use of CA strategies in classrooms has great impact to the learners such that the intended language skills are obtained. Table 4.6 shows the language skills students get from CA strategies.

Filling in gaps
Writing and reading skills 5 13

Drama
Speaking and listening skills 20 53

The challenges teachers and students face in CA classes
Challenges that teachers and students face in using CA strategies and ways of improving CA in secondary schools were also analysed.

Challenges pertaining to teachers in using CA strategies
In the interview teachers came up with the challenges (see Figure 1) that they face in using CA strategies. 50

Figure 1 Challenges teachers encounter in using CA strategies
In interview teachers emphasised that "Students do not have enough time to conduct different activities in the classroom like dramas and debates since doing such CA activities needs enough time for the students to prepare and perform so as to understand the content." Due to this, teacher-centred method is used in which teachers feed the students with all the materials required to be taught rather than students to search for the materials on their own.
Also, the study revealed that teachers do not have enough teaching materials to use in CA classroom. One teacher said: We have few books for both English Grammar and Literature at our school which make us fail to help students to acquire reading skills hence, most students write wrong spellings in essays during examinations.
Teachers commented that, they do not have enough skills on how they can help impaired students.
One respondent contended:

Challenges students face in using CA strategies
The Communicative Approach aims at helping students to learn the second language. In the process of using CA strategies there are some challenges that students face.

Ways of promoting CA strategies
The study also focused on ways in which CA could be well promoted in secondary schools.
Section 4.5 presents the challenges which students and teachers face in using CA strategies. The following are the ways which have been suggested by the respondents to promote the use of CA in secondary schools. Through the interview which was conducted, one teacher stated: 52 Teachers should make good preparations for the lessons before they go to class to teach. This makes the teacher to choose the proper CA strategy that fits the topic and the students who will benefit from the activities. Failure to plan well the lesson leads to poor delivery of the intended materials and poor language proficiency to students.

Discussion of the Findings
Specific objectives in this study were to investigate the CA strategies used by teachers in teaching English in secondary schools in Malawi and the challenges teachers and students face in using CA strategies in class. This section discusses the findings as presented in the preceding sections.

The CA strategies used in secondary schools
The study reveals that teachers use different CA strategies in teaching English language. The CA strategies revealed were debates, role plays, pairing, group discussions, filling in gaps, and drama.
These CA strategies help students to become competent in English language. The findings on the study correlates with Pascal's (2017, p. 81) study conducted in Tanzanian secondary schools which found out that, teachers use various CA strategies in secondary schools such as drama, storytelling, vocabulary teaching and pronunciations, class presentation, comprehension questions, question and answers, morning speech, pair/ group work, debates, role play and songs.
The use of CA allows students to engage themselves in the practical use of the language. In this case, Alamri (2018) adds that "Communicative Approach allows language learners to express their views through collaborative activities undertaken during classes" p. 132.
The findings also reveals that through the use of CA strategies, students enhance good classroom interaction, they understand the subject content, build confidence among themselves, think critically, speaking English fluently inside and outside classrooms, acquire vocabulary items and language skills. This is in line with Pascal (2017) study which found out that "Communicative Approach helps students to think, reason, analyse the lesson as they know English, memory retention and hence easily to be reproduced. It helps students as well to understand what has been asked as it works with the language skills" (p. 96). Therefore, the use of CA activities bring the real life situation in classroom as students perform different activities that happen in societies in order to enhance English language.
Moreover, the findings of this study indicate that students gain different language skills when they perform CA activities in classrooms. The study noted that through the use of CA strategies, 53 students gain language skills. The findings concur with Irmawati (2012, p. 93) who found out that through reading skills students would guess the meaning of the word based on the context used.
Students can also determine the main idea of a reading text and differentiate the fact and idea in the text. Also, through listening skills, students would be able to give answers on the oral questions about a topic, fill in the chart/table based on the oral information and to do the task based on instruction given orally in English. Additionally, through speaking skills students would be able to give questions and answers on a topic, report the result of the discussion and share opinion about something important in the classroom. Lastly, through writing skills students would be able to make summary of reading a text, write the answer in order to understand the text and write a formal letter and a friendly letter in a good and good format. This means that if there could be regular use of CA strategies in classroom then students' proficiency in English would be enhanced.

The challenges teachers and students face in using CA
Through the study findings, some of the challenges teachers and students face in using CA strategies in secondary schools were revealed as discussed in the subsequent sections.

Inadequate time for CA activities
The study revealed that there is a problem of shortage of time to conduct some of the CA activities in classrooms. The study noted that forty (40)

Lack of CA teaching and learning resources
The study findings indicate that some of the schools do not have enough learning materials that could help in enhancing teaching and learning English language. Similarly, Ahmad and Rao (2013) study found out that teachers should be provided with computers and enough learning resources so that innovative and creative teaching would apply in Communicative Approach. The use of textbooks in classrooms enable students to gain reading skills, writing skills and speaking 54 skills but if the books are scarce in schools, then students would get difficulties to enhance language skills.

Mother tongue interference
The findings of the study indicate that students use their local language (Chitumbuka) inside and outside the classroom which hinders them to be competent in English language. When performing CA strategy, students code-mix or code switch when they want to express something in English language. By doing that students' proficiency is being hindered and they remain with few vocabulary items. The findings correspond with Manalullaili (2013) study which found out that students learn English because it is one of compulsory subject at school. The students have the responsibility to try as much as possible to practise the language so as to be fluent since English is an official language in Malawi.

Inclusion of disabled students in classrooms
The study reveals that CA classes consist of both impaired and regular students. In this case teachers find difficulties to teach English language using CA strategies to the impaired students since teachers do not have enough experience and expertise in handling special needs students. In support to this, Chiyembekezo et al (2019, p.18) argue that the problem of having special needs students in inclusive classes in Malawian secondary schools was caused by the newly adopted inclusive education system which allows both special needs students to study together with regular students. Thus, if some students have speech problems or they have hearing impairment, it will pose a challenge to English teachers on how to help them appropriately.

Overcrowded classrooms
The findings of the study indicate that large number of students in the classrooms which make teachers fail to control the class when students perform activities. The findings are in line with Pascal's (2017) study conducted in Tanzanian secondary schools, which indicate that, "Large number of students in classes makes the use of CA strategies to be difficult for a teacher to control a large class not only that but also it is difficult to apply some of strategies because the teacher cannot get enough time to mark the students' work" (p. 111).
Few students taking part in performing CA activities 55 The results of the study reveal that few students take part in performing CA activities in classroom since students think that taking part in debate, drama or role-play need someone to be competent in the language. The findings concur with the study of Ahmad and Rao (2013) in China which concludes that some students lack the knowledge of the structure of language, even though they pass the examinations every year, yet their knowledge of English is still not enough and they hesitate in participating in classroom activities. Therefore, teachers should put much effort to motivate the students to take part in CA activities besides of having limited knowledge in the target language.

Feeling shy
The study found out that students feel shy to communicate in English in the classroom. Since most of the students are not competent in the language they feel shy to speak in front of other students for fear that they can be laughed at by their fellow students. Due to this, students avoid participating in CA activities. The results are in line with Pascal (2017) study which says; "If learners are not communicative competent in the language then it is very difficult in the application of CA strategies as it is a serious barrier because CA is interactive in nature" (p. 113).

Noise making during CA activities
The findings indicate that students make noise when conducting CA strategies which disrupt the teaching and learning process. As a result, teachers sometimes fail to get the intended outcome of the CA activity performed in the classroom.

Conclusion
The study aimed at analysing application of CA strategies which enhance English proficiency in secondary schools and the challenges teachers and students face in using such strategies. From the study findings the following conclusions are drawn: CA strategies are perceived positively by teachers and students in secondary schools. There are different CA strategies that are commonly used in teaching English language in Malawian secondary schools such as pairing, question and answers, debates, group discussions, role plays and filling in gaps. The CA strategies are used in classrooms in order to help students to obtain competence in English language. However, the findings indicate that drama and debate need more time for the students to prepare and perform within 40 or 80 minutes in classrooms. Due to this teachers rarely use CA strategies for fear that they could not be able to complete the syllabus.
Moreover, the use of CA strategies helps students to gain different languages skills, namely listening, writing, reading and speaking skills. Students achieve such skills when they participate fully in the classroom activities.
According to the findings, teachers have the responsibility of facilitating teaching and learning process by advising students on what to do in classrooms. However, the study findings show that teachers dominate classrooms instead of being advisors of the students as far as students-centred approach is concerned. Additionally, teachers have the role of making a good plan for the lessons, assessing students in all areas of language skills and the role of coordinating classroom activities.
Moreover, the findings show that students have the role of participating fully in the CA activities, such as asking questions in English language class, listening attentively to teachers and their fellow students in classroom and to speaking English language inside and outside the classroom.
This calls for the students to participate fully in CA strategies for them to be competent in the language.
Lastly, the study found out that despite the use of CA strategies in secondary schools, teachers and students find different challenges such as inadequate time to demonstrate CA activities in classrooms, lack of CA teaching and learning resources that would influence learners to be competent in the language, mother tongue interference to both teachers and students in the classroom, failure to help students with disabilities in the inclusive schools, overcrowded