International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163, www.ijtra.com Special Issue 18 (June, 2015), PP. 20-25 20 | Page LEARNERS’ PERCEPTION OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE ENGINEERING INSTITUTES IN PUNJAB Maninder K. Kainth, Dr. Mahesh Kumar Research Scholar, Associate Professor, Department of Management and Humanities, SLIET University, Longowal, India Abstract-This article reports the views of 680 students from 34 engineering institutes affiliated to Punjab Technical University (PTU) in the state of Punjab, India. The research instrument used for the survey was a questionnaire consisting of 26 questions based on basic tenets of CLT including thematic categories like group work and pair work, importance of grammar, error correction and evaluation, teachers’ role, learners’ role and curriculum design. The questionnaire adapted from Karavas-Doukas (1996) composed of 5-point Likert-type open-ended items. The results obtained from the survey revealed that the engineering students in Punjab have a moderately high perception of the Communicative principles but they do have certain misconceptions about CLT which are primarily because of their lack of understanding and exposure to CLT. It is apparent from the study that only by orienting the students towards the communicative approach and its importance can we maximize their views and make CLT a successful endeavor for English language teaching at the engineering and technology institutes in the Indian contexts. Index Terms- learners’ perception, communicative language teaching (CLT), English language teaching (ELT), Engineering English I. INTRODUCTION With the herald of globalization, English language has established itself as a global passport for professional success. Keeping in view the significant status of India in the current global market, it has become increasingly important for the technically skilled youth of India to be proficient in English communication. Thus, the role of English language teaching in the engineering and technology institutes has become all the more important. The English language teaching skills and strategies are to be developed keeping pace with the current demands of the global market. There is a strong need to pay more attention to the development of learners’ competence in the communicative use of language and focus on a more effective and successful method for English language teaching. One such teaching method which has gained immense popularity in the recent past of language teaching is Communicative Language Teaching (henceforth CLT). The concept of CLT is not new to India but its effectiveness as an important tool for English language teaching needs to be reinforced. Incorporating CLT into the English language classrooms is primarily dependent on the attitudes and conceptions of the concerned teachers and learners. Though a great deal of research has been conducted on the teachers’ attit ude towards CLT in the Asian contexts, researchers have given limited attention to learners’ perception of the CLT principles and activities especially in the field of technical education in India. According to Williams and Burden, “learners’ perceptionsand interpretations…have been found to have the greatest influenceon achievement” (as cited in Brown, 2009: 46). Reiterating the importance of students’ perceptions, Little wood states, “if the kindof teaching that the teacher offers to the students creates opportunitiesfor the kind of learning that the students feel is worthwhile and enjoyable,then the students will be more ready to engage with what is takingplace and learning will be more effective” (2010: 47).Certain misconceptions and misinterpretations of CLT among the learners are one of the main reasons for difficulties in implementing CLT in the ELT classrooms.For CLT to be implemented successfully, it is important to understand the learners’ view-point as well. Since both learners and teachers are major stakeholders in CLT, learners’ voices need to be heard before effective pedagogical decisions can be made. Thus, through this paper a sincere effort is made to understand the disparate attitudes of learners towards the CLT principles and their practical implementation in the engineering institutes in the state of Punjab. II. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The subjects of this study were 680 studentsfrom 34 engineering institutes of Punjab. 20 students were randomly selected from each of the 34 institutes selected for the study. The instrument used for the survey was a questionnaire consisting of 26 questions based on the basic tenets of CLT including thematic categories like group work and pair work, importance of grammar, error correction and evaluation, teachers’ role, learners’ role and curriculum design. Out of the 26 statements, 13 are favorable (statements 1,5,7,10,11,13,15,17,18,19,23,25 and 26) and 13 are unfavorable (statements 2,3,4,6,8,9,12,14,16,20,21,22 and 24). The questionnaire adapted from Karavas-Doukas (1996) composed of 5-point Likert-type open-ended items. Since, the questionnaire consists of favorable and unfavorable statements, the coding of the data follows the given pattern: The favorable items or statements which directly address or are consonant with the communicative language teaching principles were coded as: ‘Strongly Agree’ (SA) =5; ‘Agree’ (A) = 4; ‘Undecided’ (U) =3; ‘Disagree’ (D) =2 and