Abstract:
To examine English teachers' understanding and application of communicative language teaching. The population of the study was 242 English secondary school teachers in schools in Nakhonpathom educational service area. The study consisted of two phases: survey and observation, the participants of the study were divided into two groups as well. In the survey, all 242 teachers completed the communicative language teaching knowledge and understanding test. The test was adapted from Uraiwan Saringkanan (1983). It consisted of 22 multiple choice items. The test was used to assess the participants' understanding of communicative language teaching in six aspects: objectives, content, teaching and learning activities, teachers' and learners' roles, materials and assessment. Then, the researcher observed four classes of four participants from the survey phase. COLT was used as an observation checklist. An interview was conducted after each observation. The observation and interview were used to examine the participants' application of communicative language teaching in their classes. The test results showed that teachers in Nakhonpathom understood the concept of communicative language teaching well. The average score was 17.63 (S.D. = 2.53). The total score was 22 points. The participants appear to understand the objective of communicative language teaching the best whereas they understood the aspect of teachers' and learners' roles worst. The results from the observations showed that the participants who had better understanding of communicative language teaching applied the approach more than those who had poorer understanding.
