A PRAGMATIC STUDY ON APPLYING COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH IN

A PRAGMATIC STUDY ON APPLYING COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH IN CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING COURSES Hui-Wen Chen Assistant Professor, Department of Translation and Interpretation Studies Chang Jung Christian University

INTRODUCTION • Insufficient English listening and speaking abilities • Teaching objective – Enhance their basic English listening comprehension – The transference skills from English (foreign language) to Chinese (mother language).

RESEARCH QUESTIONS • Instructor’s reflection and pragmatic study • To investigate – Teaching concept based on constructivism – Teaching approach based on communicative teaching • To explore advantages and disadvantages of the instructor’s teaching method • To provide suggestions for teachers

SUBJECTS • Participants: 133 Translation and Interpretation Studies major sophomores • Including 15 repeaters, 2 minors, 2 transfer students, and 2 returning students who went abroad for 1 -year exchange program • Numbers for each class: 42, 35, 27, and 29 • Pre-took a two-semester required course Basic Chinese-English Translation in the 1 st year

COURSE • • • One-semester course Required course Once a week, two periods Consisting of 15 weeks, 30 periods Textbook: World English 2: Real People, Real Places, Real Language (Johannsen & Chase, 2010), National Geographic

CLASS ACTIVITIES • Summary exercises • Consecutive interpretation • Closed platform on website

EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE • Use of “Encouraging Stamps” (ES) and “Encouraging Cards” (EC) • Observation of teaching assistant • Instructor’s remarks • Others

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION • Instructor’s Observation and Reflection Note • Students’ Evaluation on the Course

STUDENTS’ EVALUATION OF THE COURSE Teaching Strategy Course Design Class Manage ment Selfevaluation Method of Evaluation

CONCLUSION AND LIMITATION • ECs provided direct and immediate feedback to students • ESs facilitated students to: – Correct their mistakes – Learn how to interpret more precisely and ideally – The technique of gist summary

CONCLUSION AND LIMITATION (cont. ) • Role of the TA – Guided and consulted for the students – Applied collaborative learning approach – Supervised learning progress optimally • In a communicative teaching approach: – Students were the main speakers in class – Instructor was merely a beholder and facilitator • Gist summary at the beginning 10 minutes – Facilitated students to come to class on time – Enhanced their class attendance rate – Improved students’ skills in extracting gist and paraphrasing

CONCLUSION AND LIMITATION (cont. ) • The majority of students confirmed the communicative teaching approach used in the course • Although the course lasted only one semester, the subjects observed in this study encompassed the whole range of sophomores of the year • The results may be used as reference for design of course activities and method of evaluation