Abstract
In the Universities across Saudi Arabia, English is a compulsory course at the first level undergraduate education. A student should pass in the first level English course in order to continue his/her chosen field of study. English language courses at the undergraduate level are intended to improve communication skills of the students. Course content is linked to communicative activities and students are expected to participate in the classroom sessions. Students' participation in communicative activities also contributes to their scores. This paper gives an overview of communicative language teaching in Saudi undergraduate classrooms. Regular assessments are necessary to monitor students' progress in English language skills. Since a course book is designed with a variety of communicative activities, each of this emphasizing particular processes and procedures, influence the learning outcomes. An understanding of motivational elements in students' academic career reveals their attitudes in learning a foreign language. A discussion of motivation skills and assessment processes in Saudi EFL classrooms gives insights about the success and failures of communicative activities. This paper also discusses current pedagogical practices and approaches to communicative activities in the EFL classroom. Most often EFL teachers have difficulty in making skilful and effective use of assessment in a CLT classroom to identify students' skills. A theoretical review on the developments in communicative approach presented in the paper outlines its relevance in EFL classrooms. Monitoring the regular progress of undergraduate EFL students is a central aspect of teaching because it is linked to decision making about the choice of processes and procedures that facilitate classroom learning.