Struggling to Implement Communicative Language Teaching: A Case Study from Senegal

Abstract

Diop offers a perspective from Francophone Africa, where English is at least a second foreign language for all learners. The longstanding adoption of a literacy-focused approach for the teaching of French contrasts with pedagogic principles recommended for implementation of the national ‘communicative’ English curriculum, first introduced 25 years ago. The teacher here has experienced that attempts to teach English in the manner that the curriculum recommends continue to be misunderstood and unappreciated by colleagues and leaders in his school context. Diop questions whether the national effort to implement a communicative curriculum for all learners remains worthwhile, when contextual factors, including the prevailing educational culture, the established pedagogy for learning French, limited classroom resources and a little clear need for oral English for most learners, make it so difficult.