Classroom Instruction and Assessment in an EFL Context: A Compromise between Theory and Practice

Oryang Kwon
Seoul National University
(oryang@snu.ac.kr)

  Communicative language teaching and testing have been around for some time. They are now the buzz words and dominant approaches in English (or any) language teaching and testing. Most countries now adopt the communicative language teaching and testing as the “must” for classroom practice.
Indication of any doubt or discontent can stigmatize the person as ignorant or unenthusiastic, whether that person is a good teacher otherwise or not. However, classroom teachers are not always ardent pursuers of new approaches or methods. It has been the case with all other innovations in classroom instruction and/or assessment, English teachers have not been wholeheartedly embracing the new approaches in their classroom practice.
The present paper will address this issue of the gap between the theoretical imposition from above and classroom adoption/adaptation in language teaching and testing. The paper will identify the extent to which the CLT and testing are accepted in classrooms and the reasons for the gap between theory and practice. Then it will make suggestions for narrowing the gap.