A Comparative Study of two Second Language Teaching Approaches:I The Language AcqUisition and Conscious Rule-Learning Approaches
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Date
1984-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study was conducted in order to determine whether the
Language Acquisition Approach to language teaching is more
effective and functional than the Conscious Rule-learning
Approach in enhancing students' proficiency in English.
Six sections of freshman Social Sciences students were
selected and assigned into two groups, the study group and
the control group, by lot. A pretest was given before the
study started and the results showed that the~was no
significant dif~erence in English language proficienoy among
the groups.
The three sections of the study group were supplied with
a set of topics - topics that freshmen would find meaningful
and interesting, and that are related to their courses. The
students were expected to select topics and initiate discussions.
Each study group class was divided into small discussion groups
consisting of a maximum of four students. These small groups
worked independently in the selection and treatment of the topics.
Each member had a turn to come prepared and present his views to
others on topics assigned to him. To keep the students busy,
each member was then expected to write a report on what the group
discussed. Teacher's role was reduced to co-ordinating the
activities and acting as a partner.
The control group which had three sections was supplied
with teaching materials based on the Conscious Rule-learning
Approach. The materials consisted of adequate linguistic
descriptions of selected items, i.e., the descriptions of
the uses of "would," "could", "should" and conditional
sentences, and adequate exercises that would help to form
the desired habits. They consisted of oral drills and simple
sentence completion exercises. The teacher had the dominant
role and errors were deliberately and tirelessly corrected.
After six weeks, a post-test was given and the results
showed a significant difference in language proficiency
between the study groups and the control groups. A twotailed
t-test at a significance level of 0.05 was used to
determine the significance difference between the means of
.the groups.
On the basis of the findings, it was recommended that
non-native speakers ehould be taught English using the
Language Acquisition Approach. Moreover, it was recommended
that research must be conducted on ways of designing syllabus,
methodology. preparation of teaching materials and evaluating
performances based on the Language Acquisition Approach
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Keywords
Language AcqUisition