An Assessment of Communicative Language Teaching Implementation in Primary Schools in Zamfara State

Communicative language teaching has been the official pedagogical framework for English language instruction in Nigerian primary schools since curriculum reform in the early 2000s, yet implementation fidelity varies dramatically across states and between urban and rural schools. This study assesses the extent and quality of communicative language teaching implementation in primary English lessons in Zamfara State, using classroom observation, teacher questionnaires, and head teacher interviews across fifteen primary schools in Gusau and Anka LGAs. A communicative language teaching observation checklist covering meaning focus, task-based activity, learner interaction, error correction approach, and authentic material use was applied to thirty observed lessons. Findings indicate that observable communicative features are present in only forty-one percent of observed lessons on average, with the remaining lessons showing predominantly form-focused, teacher-fronted grammar instruction. Rural schools in the sample show significantly lower communicative feature scores than urban schools. Teacher questionnaire data reveal that most teachers are familiar with the communicative teaching philosophy but identify inadequate resources, large class sizes, examination pressure for grammar testing, and insufficient initial training as barriers to consistent implementation. Head teacher interviews confirm that most professional development activities in the past three years have not addressed communicative methodology. The study recommends a targeted in-service communicative methodology training programme for Zamfara State primary English teachers and a review of assessment instruments to reduce their present grammar-only bias. Keywords: communicative language teaching, primary schools, Zamfara State, implementation assessment, English pedagogy.