Toward Quantifying Communicative Leander Hughes Saitama University Presented

Toward Quantifying ‘Communicative’ Leander Hughes Saitama University Presented at the JACET Kanto 5 th Annual Convention http: //sustainableink. files. wordpress. com

The Problem How to help learners acquire the most language in the shortest time …and do so as painlessly as possible. http: //jnksystem. exblog. jp/10216734/

‘Common Knowledge’ No teaching approach is better than any another …except for communicative approaches . . . that include some focus on form http: //ro. wikipedia. org/wiki/Fi%C 8%99 ier: Old_book_bindings. jpg /

But does CLT really work (better)? Nikolov & Krashen (1997) say YES! …but can we believe them? [N=29] Kuhlemeier, Mels, & van den Bergh (1996) say yes …maybe [N= 1134 to 1225] http: //alluscion. files. wordpress. com/

Research Question Do communicative activities lead to significantly greater language gain than noncommunicative activities? (Rodin, 1902)

‘Communicative’ activities require: At least two people both sending and receiving messages in the TL & directly comprehending those messages (Hughes, 2008, based on Canale, 1983)

Devising Our Experiment Two-way info gap One-way info gap Scripted skit Relax (do nothing)

Measures Before: Language aptitude test During: Info-gap performance & language produced (geneticcuckoo. blogspot. com) After: Post-test on vocabulary, grammar, and function(s), Attitude toward activity TWICE!

Hypothesis The communicative activity group will score highest on all post-tests (after controlling for language aptitude) (Young Frankenstein, 1974)

Problems? Controlling for initial proficiency differences the ‘practice’ effect the teacher Assumptions (Escher, 1960) short-term gain long-term acquisition Communicative/non-communicative ratio unimportant

Your thoughts are needed!

Leander Hughes (leanderhughes@gmail. com) This Power. Point: www. saitama-u. ac. jp/ceed/quantifyingcommunicative THANK YOU! Canale, M. (1983). From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy. In J. Richards & R. Schmidt (Eds. ), Language and communication. London: Longman. Hughes, L. S. (2008). A framework for assessing the communicative potential of language learning activities. The Saitama Journal of Language, 1, 19 -29. Kuhlemeier, H. , Melse, L. , & Bergh, H. van den (1996). Comparison of two German language courses in Dutch secondary education. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 22, 181– 205. Nikolov, M. & Krashen, S. (1997). Need we sacrifice accuracy for fluency? System, 25, 2, 197 -201. http: //sustainableink. files. wordpress. com

References (again) Canale, M. (1983). From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy. In J. Richards & R. Schmidt (Eds. ), Language and communication. London: Longman. Hughes, L. S. (2008). A framework for assessing the communicative potential of language learning activities. The Saitama Journal of Language, 1, 19 -29. Kuhlemeier, H. , Melse, L. , & Bergh, H. van den (1996). Comparison of two German language courses in Dutch secondary education. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 22, 181– 205. Nikolov, M. & Krashen, S. (1997). Need we sacrifice accuracy for fluency? System, 25, 2, 197 -201.