Pakistani Government Secondary Schools Students ’ Attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching and Grammar Translation in Quetta , Balochistan

Students’ attitudes towards an English language teaching approach play an important role for its implementation success or failure. This study measured Pakistani government school students’ attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Grammar Translation (GT). A survey instrument was used to assess students’ attitudes. Data were collected from students at two government secondary schools located in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan. A total of 204 students (102 females and 102 males) participated in this present study. Overall, students showed favorable attitudes towards CLT. In contrast, students showed either less favorable attitudes or a neutral stance towards GT. Finally, this study suggests that policy makers consider adopting or adapting CLT to teach English in the aforementioned schools. Recommendations for future research are also suggested.


Introduction
Government secondary schools in Balochistan, Pakistan are public Urdu-medium schools that provide free education to students.Hence, majority attends public schools.Most importantly, English is taught through grammar translation using Urdu and other local languages in the public schools in Pakistan (Shamim, 2009).As a result, students learn the grammar rules of the language but they cannot learn to communicate in the language.Celce-Murcia (2014) rightly states that a major disadvantage of using grammar translation is learners are unable to communicate in the target language.
However, possessing the ability to communicate in English is the key to executive jobs and academic success in Pakistan.For example, in Pakistan, all the national merit-based examinations such as central superior services examinations (CSS), provincial services examinations, and others are conducted in English.This means that unless students are proficient in English, they cannot access the jobs.Moreover, students also need to be proficient in English so that they can gain academic success because after grade 10 English is the medium of instruction in the country.Therefore, I would argue that the purpose of English language teaching and learning in government secondary schools should be to build students' communicative ability rather than merely teaching the grammar rules of the English language.
Learners' attitudes towards the type of teaching and learning approach play important role to its implementation successes or failure.Hence, the main purpose of this study is to measure the students' attitudes towards communicative language and grammar translation method.As mentioned above, in Balochistan, the majority of the students attend government secondary schools, yet, to the best of the researcher's knowledge not a single research study has been conducted regarding the teaching and learning of the English language in the aforementioned school settings.This is the first time a study is being conducted in a setting like Balochistan, which is the least developed province in Pakistan and is far behind the other provinces in the field of education.

Literature Review
Language learning takes place when the learners are engaged in the meaningful interaction in the target language rather than simply teaching the grammar rules (Richards, 2006).Savignon (1972) conducted a study to investigate the benefits of communicative-based activities on second language learning.The participants were university students of different proficiency levels who were learning French.It was found that those who were taught with the communicative-based activities performed better in both fluency-and accuracy-based tasks than those who were taught with only a structural-based approach (as cited in Savignon, 2001).Likewise, Littlewood (2010) conducted a study to measure students' perceptions towards three different types of English language classroom activities: control-oriented teaching, communicative-oriented teaching, and form-oriented teaching.The participants were 410 tertiary students in four Asian countries (Hong Kong, Japan, Mainland China and Singapore).They were asked to fill out an online survey, which was developed on the basis of exploratory interviews.Except for Japanese students, it was found that students in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Singapore showed positive inclination towards communicative-based teaching than control-oriented teaching and form-oriented teaching.Similarly, Saeed and Rao (2013) conducted an experimental study to assess the usefulness of CLT at intermediate level (12 th grade students) in Punjab, Pakistan and found that CLT is better approach of teaching English than GT.

Research Questions
1) What are the government secondary school students' attitudes towards GT in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan?
2) What are the government secondary school students' attitudes towards CLT, in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan?

Assumption
This study was based on the assumption that the students most likely wanted to be taught English with the communicative approach than simply rely on GT.Therefore; it was assumed that they most likely show positive attitudes towards CLT.

Participants
Purposive sampling was employed.After approval from IRB, data were collected from students at two government secondary schools located in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan.Student data were collected in an all girls high school and an all boys high school.There were 204 student participants: 102 girls and 102 boys.Eighty-eight percent of the students were 10 th graders and 12% were 9 th graders.Their ages ranged from 12 to 20 years.The average was age about 16 years old (15.6).

Instrument
A survey instrument (Appendix A) was used to assess students' attitudes towards English language teaching and learning.To develop the survey instrument, the researcher reviewed some of the existing attitudinal questionnaires, which measured learners' or teachers' attitudes towards CLT.The survey instrument that was used by Li (1998) and Karim (2004), for example, provided insight and ideas for the development of the survey instruments in the present study.In addition, the researcher also reviewed and adapted the list of strategies measured on Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (Oxford & Burry-Stock, 1995).
The surveys were piloted with10 students in an MA in TESOL program at California State University, Los Angeles.Based on their comments, minor changes were made to the questionnaire.One native speaker of Urdu then translated the student questionnaire from English to Urdu (Appendix B).Additionally, Google translator was also used to look up some technical words.To check the validity of the instrument, two experienced English language lecturers then translated the Urdu version of the student questionnaire back into English.No major differences were found.

Data Analysis
The 18 survey questionnaire items used to measure students' attitudes towards the CLT and GT English language instruction methods were factor analyzed.A Maximum Likelihood extraction method and Varimax rotation was used.An eigen-value of one criterion was used to determine the number of factors present for the above-mentioned construct.Factor analysis confirmed the presence of two underlying factors: CLT and GT.
The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Version 12.0 (SPSS V. 12.0) was used for the data analysis.Descriptive statistics were performed.Mean, standard deviation, and correlation were computed.Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify underlying constructs.Two sample independent t-tests were computed to determine if attitudes toward CLT, and GT differed by gender.
The survey instrument for students was in Urdu, therefore, their open-ended responses were translated into English and then transcribed.The transcribed comments were then reviewed to identify major themes.

Results
Students' attitude mean ratings on the CLT and Grammar Translations (GT) items are presented in Table 1.The CLT items "Teacher should act as a guide in teaching English language" (4.70); "The aim of English language teaching should be to help students communicate in English" (4.66); "Ordering scrambled sentences is a good language classroom activity" (4.65), and "English newspapers should be used for improving learners reading skills" (4.58) had the highest student mean ratings.However, the items "The aim of English language teaching should be to help individuals to learn grammar rules of English;" "Group work should seldom be used in the language teaching" had the lowest mean ratings 3.23 and 3.25, respectively.Based on a rating scale where 3 represents neither agree nor disagree the students seem to be expressing a neutral stance on these two grammar translation items.In examining Table 1, it is evident that in the CLT items the students showed more favorable ratings than the grammar translation items.
Table 1.Mean rating and standard deviations on the students' attitudes towards English language teaching items (n = 204)

Item
Mean SD CLT

1)
The teacher should act as a guide in teaching English language.4.70 0.57 2) The aim of English language teaching should be to help students to communicate in English.The aim of English language teaching should be to help individuals to learn grammar rules of English.

Exploratory Factor Analysis of CLT and Grammar Translation Items
The questionnaire contained several items designed to measure students' attitudes towards CLT and GT.These items were factor analyzed to determine if they were separate factors.Exploratory factor analysis with Maximum likelihood extraction and Varimax orthogonal rotation (assumes the factors are not correlated) were computed.
An Eigen value of one criterion was used to identify the number of factors.The factor analysis identified two factors: GT and CLT.Exploratory factor analysis results are presented in Table 2.As shown in the Table 2, overall, all factor loadings were .30or above.Factors loadings for the grammar translation were relatively higher than the CLT loading.Two factors loadings on the CLT items were less than .30.The items "Students should be made responsible for their learning" and "Speaking English in pairs should be done in the classroom" had a loading of .196and .265,respectively.The aim of English language teaching should be to help individuals to learn grammar rules of English.
.698 7 The teacher should provide all the information to the language learners.
.349 8 Group discussion should seldom be used in the classroom.
.800 9 English newspapers should seldom be used for improving learners' reading skills. .768 10 The aim of English language teaching should be to help students to communicate in English. -261 11 The teacher should act as a guide in teaching English language. .404 12 Group discussion is an effective activity in the language classroom..590 13 English newspapers should be used for improving learners' reading skills. .408 14 Ordering scrambled sentences is a good language classroom activity.
.542 15 Students should be made responsible for their learning. .196 16 Group work is an effective language teaching strategy. .656 17 To improve English listening skills, audiotapes should be used in the language classroom. .305 18 Speaking English in pairs should be done in the classroom..262 Note.CLT = Communicative language teaching, GT = Grammar translation.

Mean Comparisons
Based on the factor analysis, the items that loaded on the CLT factor were summed to create a total scale score.
The items that loaded on the GT factor were summed to create a total scale score.Two-sample independent t-tests were computed to determine if there was a significant difference between male and female attitudes towards CLT and GT.Mean differences and t-statistic are presented in Table 3.As shown in Table 3, there was no statistically significant difference between male's (21.45) and female's (22.29) ratings on the GT composite total scale score.In addition, both male and female's average scores on the GT composite score were relatively low (the highest rating possible on the scale was 45).This appears to indicate that both male and female rated the GT approach less favorable than CLT.On the other hand, there was a statistically significant difference between male's and female's rating on the CLT composite scale.Female participants rated the CLT items (39.24) significantly higher than male (37.81).This indicates that women had significantly higher favorable ratings on the CLT approach than men.Note.GT = Grammar translation. p < .05.
A summary of students' responses to the open-ended question ("What are some other characteristics of a good English language learner?") is presented in Table 4.The participants expressed their responses in various ways.Some of them addressed the question whereas others expressed solely their attitudes towards English language and its role and importance in the world in general and in particular in Pakistan.Some of the participants provided recommendations.As shown in Table 4, overall 50% of the students in general stated that a good English language speaks English.Of the fifty percent, 20% of the students stated that a good English language learner speaks English in the class, nearly eighteen percent (17.8%) stated that a good English language learner does not hesitate to speak, and slightly over five percent (5.17%) stated that a good English language learner initially speaks regardless of whether they speak correctly or incorrectly English.Slightly over six percent (6.32%) stated that a good English language learner tries to speak English.Nearly 10% (9.77%) of the student participants stated that a good English language learner is motivated and interested in learning the English language. A topic should be discussed once in a week in the class at least.
 Take admission in English language center. Establish English language center. Not translate words for words in the native language.
10% Total 100% In summary, overall students showed favorable ratings towards CLT.In contrast, students showed either less favorable attitudes towards GT or neutral rating.

Conclusion
This study measured students' attitudes towards CLT and grammar translation.Overall, the results of this study showed that students (Mean = 38.52)had positive attitudes towards CLT.On the other hand, students (Mean = 21.88)showed less favorable or neutral attitudes towards grammar translation.Moreover, there were no gender differences.Both male (Mean = 37. 81) and female (Mean = 39.24)student participants had more positive attitudes toward CLT than the grammar translation approach.Therefore, it may be possible that a hybrid type of teaching or curriculum, which integrates CLT with grammar translation as suggested by (Jin & Cortazzi, 2011;Li, 1998;Pham, 2007;Rao 1996) needs to be considered in government secondary schools in Quetta, Balochistan.
No treatment or any kind of demonstration was given to the participants regarding CLT-based English language instruction or activities.Thus, in the future, the participants may be given a treatment or a demonstration.Then, their attitudes could be measured towards CLT.Moreover, private school students and government schools students' attitudes may also be measured and compared.In future, college and university level students' attitudes could also be measured in Balochistan, Pakistan.
Shamim, F. ( 2009).English as the language for development in Pakistan: Issues, challenges and possible solutions.In H. Coleman (Ed.), Dreams and realities: Developing countries and the English language (pp.291-309).

Survey Instrument
Pakistani Students' Attitudes towards English Language Learning Section A

Background Information
Instructions: Please answer the following questions.

Table 2 .
Exploratory factor analysis results for theCLT and GT items (n = 204)

Table 3 .
Mean rating and t-statistic on the CLT and GT composite score by gender(n = 204)

Table 4 .
Summary of the participants' responses to the characteristics of a good English language learner with percentage (n = 174)

Good English Language Learner Description of opinions Percent Speak English
Teachers should speak English in the class  Group work should be conducted in the class  Teachers should provide opportunities for speaking English.
Please read each statement and circle the number, which best represents your view.