A contact approach to communicative language teaching : the validity and evaluation of a contact approach designed for Japanese students of English
This thesis is an exploratory investigation of the effectiveness of a Contact Approach for communicative language teaching. The approach centres around learner-guided contacts with native speakers of English in the target community setting. The subjects of the study were 159 Japanese high school and university students and four Japanese teachers of English. These subjects had had an average of five years of English language instruction in Japan and had come to Vancouver Community College in Vancouver, Canada, to take a two or three week Summer English course to improve their conversational skills. The theoretical side of the thesis stresses the importance of creating learning conditions that allow the learners to engage in meaningful communication with others, and also creating conditions that provide the learners with a sense of security and confidence so that their contacts with native speakers outside the classroom do not become a negative learning experience. The empirical side of the study looks at the effectiveness of such an approach to learning for meeting the learners' cognitive and affective needs. The evaluation is very much an illuminative one which draws on both qualitative and quantitative data.
Yildiz, N. E.
A contact approach to communicative language teaching : the validity and evaluation of a contact approach designed for Japanese students of English. This thesis is an exploratory investigation of the effectiveness of a Contact Approach for communicative language teaching. The approach centres around learner-guided contacts with native speakers of English in the target community setting. The subjects of the study were 159 Japanese high school and university students and four Japanese teachers of English. These subjects had had an average of five years of English language instruction in Japan and had come to Vancouver Community College in Vancouver, Canada, to take a two or three week Summer English course to improve their conversational skills. The theoretical side of the thesis stresses the importance of creating learning conditions that allow the learners to engage in meaningful communication with others, and also creating conditions that provide the learners with a sense of security and confidence so that their contacts with native speakers outside the classroom do not become a negative learning experience. The empirical side of the study looks at the effectiveness of such an approach to learning for meeting the learners' cognitive and affective needs. The evaluation is very much an illuminative one which draws on both qualitative and quantitative data.
contact communicative_language teaching validity evaluation contact design japanese_student english exploratory investigation effectiveness contact communicative_language teaching centre_around learner guided contact native_speaker_english target community setting subject study japanese high_school university_student japanese teacher english subject average english_language instruction japan come community college canada take summer english course improve conversational skill theoretical side stress_importance create learning_condition allow learner engage meaningful communication others also create_condition provide learner sense security confidence contact native_speaker outside_classroom become negative learning_experience empirical side study_look effectiveness learning meeting learner cognitive affective need evaluation much draw qualitative_quantitative data