【Abstract】This research investigates Chinese teachers’ teaching practice as well as their understanding and attitudes towards communicative language teaching (CLT) especially with regard to students’ interaction and participation in communicative activities in English classrooms in secondary level in China. Teachers selected in this study come from a secondary school located in a small inland city in China. This study aims to find out how teachers from less developed areas of China understand CLT as well as teacher and student’s role within it and what factors prevent students’ participation in communicative activities. Some implications and suggestions are provided at the end of the study that may help improve the ELT in vast less developed areas in China and help students to learn in a more enjoyable and effective way
　　【Key words】perceptions; CLT; interaction and participation; in classrooms
　　【作者簡介】沈谦，中南财经政法大学。
　　1. Introduction
　　Between 1986 and 1987 a large-scale survey was conducted by the State Education Commission to test the general ELT level in China. The finding of this survey reflected that most students only had a fragmentary knowledge of English and could not communicate in most simple English despite 900-hours’ worth English lessons (Hu, 2005a). Due to this survey, State Education Commission decided that a new wave of educational reform and the introduction of the communicative approach in ELT were urged and necessary (Anderson, 2001).
　　However, since then many researchers and teachers have noticed the big gap between what is promoted by the policy makers and what really happens in classrooms (Jin