Communicative teaching of english as a foreign language: an approach haunted by traditional and structural myths

Abstract

This study discusses the hypothesis that language teachers at a college where students major in the L2 have still been perpetuating traditional and structural myths in their practice, which might be one of the possible causes for the learners' unsuccessful L2 acquisition. In our procedure we cross-checked the results of teachers' interviews, with the students' questionnaires, the analysis of the materials and tests and a classroom lesson observation. The results show that although there is an attempt to adopt communicative materials and employ some communicative techniques, the traditional and structural myths still interfere deeply in the learning process.