Abstract:
The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach has become the prevailing language teaching methodology across the world. However, the process about the beginning language teacher's application of CLT in teaching foreign language is not yet explored in past research. This paper reports the use of CLT through the beginning Mandarin teacher's perspectives. A grounded theory approach is employed as the research methodology. Data was collected from interviews of eight beginning Mandarin teachers. Major findings suggest a three-dimension explication for the beginning teachers' practice of CLT in teaching Mandarin as a foreign language. The epistemic dimension indicates the beginning Mandarin teachers' concepts of CLT; the perceptual dimension reveals the teacher's concerns of CLT as against their preferences, teaching objectives and surroundings; and the situational dimension explicates the teacher's adaptation of CLT in their particular teaching situations. It argues that the integral, emergent process of the three dimensions demonstrates a process of beginning teachers' transmission of the CLT theory into practice.