Communicative Language Instructional Approach for Teaching Foreign Language: a Comparative Study

Benedictine University

Communicative Language Instructional Approach for Teaching Foreign Language: a Comparative Study

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO

THE GRADUTAION SCHOOL

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE

MASTER OF ARTS IN EDUCATION

BY

BARBARA J. WATSON

September 2008

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Statement of the Problem

The changing demographics in the United States and the explosive growth in the internet have created a unique need for high schools in the United States to improve communication in a second language. The shift in need is for the students to be able to communicate in the second language rather than simply understand the language. It is important to think in the second language and acquire communicative skills that allow for a meaningful exchange of information between the student of the second language and the heritage speaker. For decades, students in the United States have studied a second language, but in the last twenty years the need to study and understand a second language has evolved into a need to able to communicate in a second language (US Census, 2000).

This need to communicate in a second language has caused foreign language teachers to create a more communicative classroom with an added objective of assessing students’ proficiency in language competency. A communicative classroom is one that is organized around real-world scenarios. Practice activities are not centered on grammar structures; rather the vocabulary and grammar lessons serve to help the students successfully communicate an idea or an interaction with another student (Frantzen, 2002). Recent changes in the global economy warrant studying Spanish as a second language. Spanish-language media is one of the media industry's fastest-growing divisions. 2006 yielded an estimated 5.4% growth increase from the previous year in Spanish-language media according to TNS Media Intelligence (Becker, 1999). Spanish-language TV advertising grew 13.9% in 2006 to $4.28 billion, according to the company (Becker, 1999). The evidence that Spanish language is influencing business and the economy is found in the announcement that in 2006, Hispanic networks were added to the Nielsen Television Index (NTI), which is the national sample that tracks the English-language broadcast networks. (Hispanic networks were previously tracked in a separate Hispanic-TV sample). “Univision says that, in 2006, it beat ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox on 205 nights among adults 18-34 with its popular telenovelas, news, and variety-show stalwart Sábado Gigante” (Becker, 1999 p.1). Also, according to a 2002 New York Times article, communities in the U.S. are relying more on second language speakers to meet the needs of consumers and clients that speak limited or no English. Second language speakers are needed in many roles including the medical fields, education, retail, law firms and other service oriented businesses (New York Times, 2002).

A review of the 2000 U.S. Census reveals that nearly one out of five Americans speaks a language other than English at home. Of those surveyed, over 60% of the people that speak a language other than English speak Spanish. Spanish speakers increased from 17.3 million in 1990 to 28.1 million in 2000, which reflects a 62 percent increase in people that speak Spanish The report also shows that Spanish speakers are spread throughout the country, although Spanish speakers are concentrated in California, Texas and Florida. The West and South regions represent about three times the number of Spanish speakers (21 million) as the Northeast and Midwest regions combined (7 million) (U S Census Bureau, 2000).

Teachers entering the field of foreign language instruction need to decide if they will use the Traditional grammar-based instructional approach to teaching a second language, or will they use a Communicative Language approach to teaching a second language. In order to decide which approach is more effective, a teacher needs to determine which teaching approach uses best practices for students of foreign language given today’s climate of global changes and demographic changes. It is important to understand the difference between the Traditional Grammar-based approach and the Communicative Language Approach. The Traditional Grammar-based approach to teaching a second language “uses grammar as the base, the starting point and foundation, for the development of all language skills--speaking, listening, writing, and reading. Grammar Based Teaching (GBT) provides information about English grammar accompanied by numerous and varied practice opportunities” (Azar, 2007, p.8). The grammar approach “helps learners discover the nature of language, i.e., that language consists of predictable patterns that make what we say, read, hear and write intelligible” (Azar, 2007, p.3). The communicative language approach “makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication” (Galloway, 1993). “Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics” (Galloway, 1993, p.1). The Communicative Language approach, also know as the CL approach, allows students to think and learn in a second language. The goal of communicative language approach is to have students acquire the second language rather than study about the language (Krashen, 1997).

Importance of Study

It is important to do this study of Traditional grammar-based instruction versus the Communicative Language (CL) approach because teachers need to know which method provides the student with the best practices for learning the vocabulary and grammar, and how to use the language to sustain a conversation. Students need a level of competence to be able to speak a second language. Competence is “the kinds of knowledge people need in order to use language in meaningful interaction” (Missouri State University, 2007). The level of language competence shows how well a student can maintain a conversation or exchange of information.

A communicative classroom focuses on language competence. Haas (2000), found the following:

The objective of a communicative classroom is to increase the competence of second language when assessing oral proficiency skills. Utilizing effective comprehension strategies to emphasize reading comprehension achievement is an elementary schools’ most important task. Current methods of teaching a second language include a traditional grammar based system and C LT. (p.1)

Language competency is also known as language proficiency. The CL approach to teaching foreign language allows students to achieve a higher level of oral proficiency. This is significant because students are more involved in foreign language studies and students have more access to authentic communication opportunities now, more than ever before. A greater number of students are continuing their studies in secondary education to meet the demands for college and other job-related speaking opportunities. The need arises to compare the student outcomes of a grammar-based approach with the student outcomes of a communicative language approach.

The study will examine what the impact is of using the Communicative Language teaching approach with high school students. It is important to identify what is the perceived impact of using grammar-based instruction teaching approach with high school students. Communicative language approach reduces students’ affective filter which enables the students to attain a higher level of oral proficiency (Krashen, 1997).

High school students are positively impacted by the communicative language approach because a greater number of students complete a 4-year language program at the high school level and a greater number of students are registering for the Advanced Placement exam and passing the exam with a rating of “competent” (College Board, 2007). An AP Spanish Language course is comparable to an advanced level (5th- and 6th-semester or the equivalent) college Spanish language course (College Board, 2007). Emphasizing the use of Spanish for active communication, it encompasses aural/oral skills, reading comprehension, grammar, and composition. According to the College Board AP report for 2007, the overall change in number of students completing the AP Spanish Language exam in 1997 45,966 increased to 101,199 students completing the AP Spanish Language exam in 2007 (College Board, 2007). Of those students that completed the AP Spanish Language exam in 2007, the number that scored 3 or higher was 65,244 or 64.5% (College Board, 2007). One goal of communicative language approach is to increase the number of students continuing in the language, which is reflected in the percent increase of AP examinees (College Board, 2007).

Another critical element to effective teaching is whether either approach is perceived as preparing students for the district assessment and/or the oral proficiency district assessment. It is important to examine the effects of the communicative language approach on student outcomes compared to the outcomes of the traditional grammar-based approach.

Operational Definition of Terms

Coding: is defined as a procedure for transforming raw data into a standardized format for data analysis purposes. (Project Gold:http:

Communicative Competence: the four components of communicative language which are grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence. (Sato & Kleinsasser, The Modern Language Journal, 1999).

Communicative language teaching: uses almost any activity that engages learners in authentic communication including functional communication activities and social interaction activities. (LinguaLinks Library, 1999).

Convenience Sampling: is defined as a non-probability sampling strategy that uses the most easily accessible people (or objects) to participate in a study. Purposive/purposeful sampling: a non-probability sampling strategy in which the researcher selects participants who are considered to be typical of the wider population. (Project Gold: http:

Correlation: is defined as the degree of association between two variables. A tendency for variation in one variable to be linked to variation in a second variable. (Gold Project: http:

Discourse Competence: the ability to participate effectively in conversations (LinguaLinks Library, 1999).

Functional communication activities: Communicative language activities aimed at developing certain language skills and functions, but which involve communication (LinguaLinks Library, 1999).

Grammatical Competency: Grammatical competence is the ability to recognize and produce the distinctive grammatical structures of a language and to use them effectively in communication (LinguaLinks Library, 1999).

Guided Reading: defined as a means of teaching children to work with text, as they develop a network of key strategies that allow them to attend to information from different sources. It is a context in which a teacher supports each reader’s development of effective strategies for processing texts at increasingly challenging levels of difficulty (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996).

Highly structured activities: highly structured classroom activities such as teaching grammar rules, conducting drills, and teaching vocabulary lists (Gatbonton, Segalowitz 2005 The Canadian Modem Language Review).

Language proficiency: Level of competence at which an individual is able to use language for both basic communicative tasks and academic purposes (TESOL, 2008).

Mechanical Drill: Any learning event that is strictly grammar focused (Snider, Teaching German, 2005).

Non-Communicative activity: Classroom activities that did not require the kind of unpredictable exchanges communicative activities produce, including activities that require the learner to comprehend the stimulus without focusing on meaning and drills (Snider, Teaching German, 2005).

Purposive Style Sampling: based on previous knowledge of a population and the specific purpose of the research, investigators use personal judgment to select a sample (Fraenkal, J. & Wallen, N. 2003).

Reading Strategies: is defined as a way or means in which a child may construct a main idea during reading a passage of words, ideas, or concepts (Gunning, 2000).

Reading Comprehension: is defined as getting the interpretive or suggested meaning in reading, or to evaluate what is read in a critical way; the reconstruction of the intended meaning of a communication in order to accurately understand what is written or said (Harris & Hodges, 1997).

Second Language (L2): Any language that is not a native language, including a foreign language (VanPatten, 2003).

Social interaction activities: Communicative language activities such as conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues and role plays. (LinguaLinks Library, 1999).

Sociolinguistic competence: Sociolinguistic competence is the ability to interpret the social meaning of the choice of linguistic varieties and to use language with the appropriate social meaning for the communication situation (LinguaLinks Library, 1999).

Strategic competence: Also know as Functional competence, refers to the ability to accomplish communication purposes in a language. Greeting people is one purpose for which we use language. (LinguaLinks Library, 1999).

Traditional teaching methods: classroom activities that teach grammar rules,

Conduct drills, and teach vocabulary lists (Gatbonton, Segalowitz, 2005 The Canadian Modem Language Review).

Chapter III

METHOD

Research Questions

This study was designed to identify high school students’ perceptions of a communicative approach to teaching foreign language. The researcher in this study is not stating a hypothesis, but rather asserting research questions that pertain to the communicative approach to teaching a foreign language. There main questions directed the research.

1.Does implementing a communicative language approach to teaching foreign language prepare the students to achieve higher results on the final exam?

2.Does the communicative language approach prepare students to perform better on the year-end oral communication assessment?

3.Do students of the communicative language approach perceive themselves to be prepared for the final exam and the year-end oral communication assessment?

Participants

A non-random sample of participants was identified for this research project, based on the specific parameters of the study. The parameters for selecting the target group included only those individuals who are enrolled in level I high school Spanish in 2007-2008. The target population in this study therefore consisted of 90 high school students. These 90 students came from 3 sections of level 1 Spanish. The Traditional class had 27 students and the other 63 students came from the CL classes. The Traditional teacher that agreed to participate in the study taught only 1 section of level I Spanish. The CL teacher that agreed to participate in the study taught only 2 sections of level I Spanish. The decision was made to take the data from the all 3 sections that agreed to participate. All the students in these three sections were included in the study. Gender played no role in this study.

The high school that was sampled had several identifying factors. The school report card information was averaged against that of the state. The average Anglo-American population in the sampled school was 82% versus 54.9% of that of the state. The African-American population in the sampled school was 3.6% compared to 19.6% of the state. The average Hispanic population in the sampled school was 2.0% compared to 19.3 of that of the state. The Asian/Pacific Islander population in the sampled school was 12.3% versus 3.8% of that of the state. The average with regards to the low income rate is 3.2% in the sampled school versus 40.9% of that of the state. The limited-English proficiency rate in the sampled school was 0.0% versus 7.2% of that of the state. Lastly, the mobility rate in the sampled school was 3.3% versus 15.2% of that of the state. The average class size of the sampled schools was 21.3 versus the state average at 18.9 students.

Design of the study

The first research question is whether the communicative language approach and the traditional approach to teaching foreign language both prepare a student to achieve the same results on a district assessment test. It is important to describe the student exams of the study. The district final exam that the traditional students and the CL students took at the end of semester I and the end of semester II are the same exam. This exam is administered to every level I student in the district. The district oral assessment that each Traditional and CL student participated in is the same exam. Every level I student in the district participated in a semester I and a semester II oral assessment.

The second research question explores whether the communicative approach to teaching a foreign language is more effective for oral fluency than the other approach.

The third research question explores whether the students of the communicative language approach perceive themselves to be prepared for the final exam and the year-end oral communication assessment.

Apparatus

A mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods was chosen for this study. The researcher chose to conduct a qualitative study to examine measure the students’ perception of preparedness for the district assessment. All the students in the traditional class and all the students in the CL class participated in the survey in order to examine which students perceived themselves to be prepared for the district assessment.

A quantitative approach was taken to gather information regarding which method actually prepared the students for the district assessment. The researcher sought to find an answer to the question, “Which approach to teaching foreign language is most effective in preparing students for a level I Spanish district assessment?” This served as the researcher’s single most important guide. In order to find the answer, the researcher identified the participants in the study by identifying students learning Spanish in a communicative classroom and identifying students in a traditional grammar approach classroom. One teacher with one section of level I Spanish agreed to participate in the study. One teacher with two sections of level I Spanish agreed to participate in the study.

The survey apparatus was researcher created. There are 14 questions on the survey. The questions use a rating system. The survey instrument provides a rating scale for the participants to indicate their perceived level of preparedness for the district assessment. The target population rates the questions based on their own personal experience.

In order to ensure valid testing results, the survey instrument was field tested on level II Spanish students that were former students of the teachers targeted for the study. After the field test was returned and reviewed for comments and clarification, the survey was finalized and, along with the survey directions, was administered to the prospective students. A 14 question survey was completed by 90 of the 90 students and returned to the researcher. The survey was administered in the classroom and collected in the same class period. The researcher analyzed the data, looking for patterns or disparity between two study groups. A Lichert scale was used for each question in the survey. The results of the survey were tallied for the Traditional students. The results of the survey for the Communicative Language students were tallied. The results of the tallies were compared by looking at the Traditional students’ responses as compared to the responses of the CL students. The results for the one class of traditional and the two classes of CL were graphed side-by-side in percentages to compare similarities and differences in responses.