Foreign Language Teaching in Bahrain: From Theory to Practice

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the implementation of the foreign language curriculum in secondary schools in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The research was guided by three questions: How is the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach enacted in the English and French curricula? How is the Bahraini curriculum for languages implemented in secondary schools? And how do teachers‟ practices align with the mandated national curriculum? Using a qualitative design, this research gathered data through semi-structured interviews to six of English and French teachers, five classroom observations and analysis of curriculum documents. The study used Jacobs and Farrell‟s (2003) framework to examine the alignment of the school curricula with the features of CLT. The analysis of curricular documents of both French and English reveals that these curricula reflect almost all of Jacob and Farrell‟s (2003) eight changes that fit with the CLT paradigm shift in second language education. This level of adoption to the CLT approach was attributed to the educational policies and values that the Ministry of Education and the country take for designing their curricula. The teachers‟ implementation of the curriculum was analysed against these criteria: L1 use in the classroom, classroom activities and teaching materials, teachers‟ roles, inclusion of culture, and assessment practices. Overall the study found that the teachers‟ practices follow a CLT approach which is the required approach by the MoE, in other words, they are aligned with the intended curricula. This alignment between the teachers‟ practices and the mandated curricula seemed to contradict results from studies in similar contexts, and it was attributed to the teachers‟ professional development and their positive attitudes towards and beliefs about that curriculum. Nonetheless, there are some difficulties that the teachers face when implementing the curriculum in their teaching practice such as: Large classes and students low English proficiency. Regardless of these difficulties, it was evident that the teachers‟ practices were in line with the intended curriculum and that they do follow a CLT approach in teaching. The study draws implications for teaching English and French in Bahrain, laying out suggestions for overcoming the difficulties and challenges in the implementation of both curricula in the country.