CLT in ESL and EFL Context: A Challenge to Civil Engineering Teachers in Indonesia

Abstrak

Characteristic and Principle of the communication approach to language learning and
teaching has given appropriate and positive strategies in order to produce student’s ability in
communicative competence. One of its positive principles of this approach is students learn
English not in order to know the language rules but in order to use it in communication.
However it can be said that this approach only gives specific advantages to ESL countries but
not for EFL context. It is because there are many EFL teachers such as English teachers in
Indonesia still encounter difficulties in applying CLT in their classroom. This article gives
essential solutions in order to encounter this issue towards teaching English in civil engineering
classroom in Indonesia as EFL country. It is said that in order to accomplish the success in
language teaching, English teachers in civil Engineering should improve their quality in
communicative competence as well as their teaching strategy to combine and implement into
communicative classroom approach, syllabus and material based on learner needs and interest
in authentic situation.