Exploring the Challenges of the Communicative Language Teaching Approach in the EFL Context of Arab Learners

The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching (CLT) has been the dominant method for teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Arabic-speaking countries for over four decades. However, in recent years, there have been criticisms and debates regarding the effectiveness of this approach and its impact on learning outcomes. An exploratory study investigated this further, involving 206 university students from Lebanon and Jordan. An online questionnaire consisting of four sections was administered via Google Forms in the spring of 2023 to gather the students’ responses. To ensure the reliability of the questionnaire, the internal consistency reliability was calculated using Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient. Descriptive and inferential statistics were then employed to address the research questions, including independent samples t-test and the Mann-Whitney U test. The study’s findings revealed that CLT continues to cause tautness amongst instructors and Arab students alike. In conclusion, this study suggests ways in which CLT can be acclimatized to the needs of non-native learners in this poly-lingual and universally interlaced era.