Abstract
In this rapidly growing world, the significance of English language to be taken as “LinguaFranca” has been irrefutable as well as inevitable. Like several other progressing nations, Pakistan hasalso been facing challenges in educational field regarding the selection of a national curriculum, itsimplementation and integration. In Pakistan, English language is being taught as a compulsory subject upto school, college and university levels. But there are serious problems of communication faced by theteachers along with students in teaching-learning ESL. They are not confident enough and encountermental blockage while communicating in the target language. It raises questions on the appropriateness ofthe curriculum of English language teaching generally and different methods of teaching in particular. Inorder to study and address this issue, the researcher has gone through a number of theories of SLA andfound Stephen Krashen (1980) the most suitable for the current research. So, in this perspective theresearcher has conducted a collective case study of 5 English language teachers at University- level inPunjab, Pakistan in the light of Krashens’ SLA Theory. These teachers are teaching English language inthe public, private and elite class Institutions. They are reportedly imparting their knowledge through GTM,DM or the fusion of these two methods. These are the prevalent approaches of teaching English languagein the selected Institutions. The researcher has applied triangulation technique comprising oral interview,direct and participatory observations and qualitative questionnaire. After conducting an initial brief oralinterview of twenty five English language Instructors in the public and private sectors, the researcherselected 5 Instructors who showed their interest and willingness to be part of this project. After collectingthe data through the triangulation technique, it is analyzed by the researcher in the light of Krashens’ SLATheory to draw final conclusion and give recommendations. It is revealed as an outcome of this researchthat English language teaching system as witnessed in case of four out of five Instructors by the researcheris tilted towards the traditional approach of learning second language. The emphasis is largely on learningrather than acquisition of second language. It is not providing the comprehensible input i.e., meaningfulcommunication by sticking to the TL (target language) amongst learners such as proposed by StephenKrashen. On the other hand, the natural approach of teaching English language as witnessed in case of T2by the researcher is the most appropriate in achieving the CC (communicative competence) in the TL. Thusin view of the findings of this research, it is the need of the hour to switch the current system of teachingEnglish language in Punjab, Pakistan from learning onto acquisition for the purpose of augmentingundergraduate pupils’ critical thinking and communicative competence. Furthermore, the researcherpointed out salient features regarding comprehensible input including the classroom environment,teachers’ re-defined role, audio/ visual tools and appropriate curriculum as suggested by Krashen.