Dissertation

Communicative Language Teaching in Georgia

Author: Natalia Edisherashvili
Date: 03 June 2014
Links: Published by LOT; Full text available in Leiden University Repository

In a globalizing world, the majority of language learners need to study foreign languages for real-life purposes in order to be able to communicate across the borders of their own country and to stay connected with the rest of the world. This is especially important for the population of smaller countries like Georgia, whose native language is spoken only in its own territory.

Strongly prioritizing foreign language education since post-Soviet times, subsequentgovernments of Georgia have been making efforts to transform language teaching in such a way that it meets Georgian learners’ practical, communicative needs. Certain ambitious efforts to this end have been visible in recent years. However, to what degree the policies that have been implemented have had effect on the actual classroom setting is largely under-investigated.

The present investigation aims at exploring whether the instruction provided at secondary schools in the capital meets the requirements of Communicative Language Teaching and whether the aims of improving learners’ communicative proficiency are met. As the study reveals, even though at the theoretical level the imposed teaching methodology is well accepted, many difficulties are observed in practice. It has, moreover, been detected that at private schools the situation is more promising than at public ones.

This study attempts to provide a better understanding of the English language teaching situation in Tbilisi today. It also provides recommendations with regard to what needs to be changed so that language teaching offered at schools better achieves its aims.