Primary School Teachers' Perceived Difficulties in Implementing Innovative ELT Methodologies in the Ethiopian Context

Abstract

curricular innovations in English Language Teaching (ELT) made by the adoption of communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in English as a
Foreign Language (EFL) contexsts have generally been difficult. A case study of 20 Addis Ababa Region primary school English Teachers'
perceived difficulties in implementing CL T reveals that the difficulties have their sources in the difference between the underlying educational theories
of Ethiopia and those of Western countries where CL T developed. The results suggest that, to implement CL T, Ethiopia as an EFL country will
need to change its fundamental approach to education, and the implementation of CL T should be grounded on the country's EFL realities.
Hence it should establish its own contingent of language education researchers in order to develop English teaching theories and methodologies appropriate to its context. The language education researchers, as change agents, should study teachers' perceptions of an innovation. How teachers as the implementers and end users of an innovation perceive its feasibility is a crucial factor in the ultimate success or failure of that innovation.