TESOL and the Communicative Approach

Communicative Approach

Applying the Communicative Approach to TESOL Classrooms

The communicative approach is a style of teaching language that focuses on interaction as the ultimate goal of study and also the means with which it is carried out (Mitchell, 1994; Richards & Rodgers, 2001). While some call it a teaching method, many argue that it is not a method but a broad approach (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). There are no clearly defined sets of practices that are used in the classroom in this approach, which encourages the students to speak to one another and interact in the language they are learning, overlooking issues such as incorrect grammar or other difficulties (Whong, 2011). While it may seem simplistic, it serves to help learners become much more comfortable interacting in a new language, as opposed to forcing them to study grammar rules and other guidelines before they can actually start to practice their new language (Savignon, 2000).

Because the communicative approach is a very different way of teaching people English and can be used on young children all the way up through adult learners, there are concerns and considerations with it that have to be addressed. The study of the communicative approach as it relates to TESOL is one that is worthy of exploration. This will provide a higher level of insight into whether the communicative approach is one that should be more readily adopted, or whether it does not provide students of ESL what they actually need to know when it comes to ensuring that they can speak the language with others correctly. They must be capable of learning the grammar rules and other guidelines after they have been speaking the language (often incorrectly) with others, which worries some critics of the method (Richards & Rodgers, 2001; Savignon, 2000).

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to carefully consider the communicative approach, and whether it is a logical choice for the TESOL classroom. Studies have shown that the communicative approach works because it encourages students who are learning English as s second language to interact with one another (Whong, 2011). By interacting with others who are also learning the language, students learn from the mistakes of others and get comfortable speaking in a new language (Whong, 2011). Once the students have achieved some level of linguistic comfort, they are then introduced to the grammar rules, allowing them to adjust the way they speak but helping them to avoid losing the comfort they have already achieved with the language (Mitchell, 1994). In order to determine whether that is an accurate assessment of the issue when it comes to a TESOL classroom, however, more research will be required to study the thoughts and beliefs of those who use this method.

Research Questions

The research questions for this study will focus on teachers in TESOL classrooms who use the communicative approach, as this will allow the researcher to collect their impressions and feelings when it comes to how the approach in question actually works when it comes to the value of student learning. Students will also be questioned, because this will allow the researcher to draw conclusions regarding whether teacher and student perceptions of the quality of the communicative approach is TESOL classrooms match or are similar in nature. The specific research questions are as follows:

Does the communicative approach improve teacher motivation and experience in the ESL classroom?

Does the communicative approach improve learning for ESL students?

Literature Review

When it comes to the TESOL classroom, there are a number of ways in which students can learn. The communicative approach is not a new option, but it is one that has not been seen as frequently because it is less structured (Savignon, 2000). Not every teacher feels comfortable with a lack of structure in his or her classroom, and that can result in TESOL instructors not using all of the options at their disposal (Whong, 2011). In turn, that can lead to students who struggle with what they are supposed to be learning, because they do not have the proper methods to help them succeed in the right way (Mitchell, 1994). As time has moved forward, though, more teachers have adopted the communicative approach with ESL students, because they have found that it provides a high level of both comfort and success for a number of students (Whong, 2011). While not the right choice for everyone, no teaching method is going to be acceptable to every student all the time. The uniqueness of the individual learning experience, however, is brought to light by using the communicative approach (Mitchell, 1994; Richards & Rodgers, 2001).

This uniqueness comes from allowing each and every student to talk to one another, and there are classroom exercises where this interaction is greatly encouraged (Savignon, 2000). The more a student learns about speaking to others in a second language such as English, the more the student is able to convey meaning and provide information to others in that language. Even if the grammar is not always correct in the beginning, the goal is to get the student using the language frequently so he or she develops some fluency with it and is comfortable using it with and around others (Mitchell, 1994). Many students do not progress quickly in ESL classes or they do not continue to maintain a high level of English fluency, because they do not use the language with others on a daily basis (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). That can mean a great deal of wasted effort that has gone into teaching them, and can lead to frustration for teachers and students (Savignon, 2000).

Teachers of ESL who use the communicative approach, however, are believed to have more success with their students because those students are able to actually speak in the language they are trying to learn. It is a form of immersion, which has been shown to work very well when a person is attempting to learn a new language (Whong, 2011). Much like immersion, students in communicative approach classrooms are asked to speak in English as much as possible, and often must interact with others using only English if they wish to ask for something (Mitchell, 1994). Of course they are spoken to in both languages by the teacher and taught words and phrases, but what they do not do is spend countless hours and days memorizing sentence structure and grammatical rules (Whong, 2011). Anyone who has learned English as a second language can generally point out that English can be a difficult language to learn, even with the best of teachers.

There are many slang words and phrases, and often a word is spelled the same way but pronounced differently, depending on the context of the sentence (Whong, 2011). Additionally, words that are pronounced the same are not used the same way, because they have different meanings (whether and weather, for example). This can lead to a high level of confusion for those who are attempting to learn English, and when they are subjected to nothing but rules and more rules before they can really start to learn the actual speech patterns and words, it can quickly become overwhelming and demoralizing (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). With that in mind, the communicative approach is able to reduce the level of this for many students and allow them to learn English in a more free-form way where they pick up information from others who are also learning (Whong, 2011).

To be truly fluent in the English language, one must master the rules of grammar, sentence structure, and other issues. However, there is no proof that doing so first is the only way to teach ESL learners properly. For TESOL instructors, the goal is to make sure the students leave with the command of the English language they were promised when they entered the classroom (Mitchell, 1994). That is true for young children who are learning English in school, and for adult learners who would like to speak and understand English better (or at all) (Savignon, 2000). The way in which the teacher arrives at providing that value to the students is something that is up for debate, as there are many different ways a person can be taught something. Not every person handles issues the same way, and not every person learns the same way or at the same speed. What "clicks" with one person when it comes to learning English may fall flat with another person. However, studies into the communicative approach have shown that interaction with others who are also learning the language is a successful way to teach students of all ages (Richards & Rodgers, 2001; Whong, 2011).

Overall, success in the ESL classroom depends on a number of factors, including the quality of the teacher and the desire of the student (Whong, 2011). When learning English is made more enjoyable, however, and when it seems to be easier because interaction with others is possible early on in the process, more students have a desire to learn and will continue to work on doing so (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). That benefits the students, the teachers, and the whole of society, which can make exploration of the communicative approach highly valuable for study purposes. Teachers who are not embracing the communicative approach as at least part of their strategy for teaching ESL students may be missing out on a highly valuable instructional tool (Whong, 2011). That also means, of course, that their students are missing out on quality instruction that could help them succeed, which is worth addressing with further study.

Methodology

Research Design

The methodology of any study is particularly important, because it provides insight into how the study is being conducted and the value it can potentially provide for the future. This study will utilize a qualitative approach via questionnaires provided to both teachers and students (see appendices B & C). Qualitative research is a popular method for studies of this kind, as it addresses the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs of the study participants (Mackey & Gass, 2012). Statistical information can also be used to determine how well a method or approach works for teaching and learning ESL, but the researcher is particularly interested in how the students and teachers feel about their experiences with the communicative approach and how they would rate that approach in helping them have personal success in the classroom. In order to determine that, the questionnaires in the Appendices will be used so the researcher can collect data regarding the perceived value of the communicative approach when it comes to TESOL and the students who take those classes.

The use of questionnaires makes for a relatively simple research design that can easily be used by the researcher without complication. Questionnaires can also reduce the time that is used to conduct a study, because they can be handed out to bigger groups and collected all at once (Bowern, 2008; Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007; Ross, Seedhouse, & Richards, 2011). That gives the researcher all the needed data quickly and efficiently, so the work of analyzing it can begin (Denzin, 2012a). From that point, the researcher is able to determine the answers to the research questions, thus drawing conclusions for the study that can be considered by those who want to do further research into an issues in the future, and those who may have considered the issue in the past but had not made a decision as to whether or acknowledge or address the issue (Holliday, 2007; Krathwohl & Smith, 2005).

In short, the researcher is using the qualitative method because it is the best choice to determine how both teachers and students feel about using the communicative approach in a TESOL classroom. The qualitative method looks at the how and why of making decisions, and is used to focus on a deeper understanding of human behaviour (O'Keeffe & McCarthy, 2012). In this case, the study will examine whether a more interactive method such as the communicative approach is a better choice for those who want to (or need to) learn English as a second language, how that is found to be accurate, and why the method is a preferable one based on other methods that could also be used to teach ESL students. Using a qualitative method generally means smaller samples (Denzin, 2012b; Do-rnyei, 2007; Payne, 1997). That will be the case here.

While the sample will still be larger than some qualitative studies, there is no need to provide questionnaires to thousands of teachers and students in order to collect significant information regarding the perceived valuable nature of the communicative approach. Questionnaires can be used for the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data, so they are good choices for a number of different types of studies (Denzin, 2012c; Mackey & Gass, 2012; Mackey & Gass, 2005). The main differences between questionnaires used in those two types of studies are the questions that are asked (Krathwohl & Smith, 2005). Qualitative studies focus on the how and why, while quantitative studies are more focused on the what and when (O'Keeffe & McCarthy, 2012; Richards, 2003). It is an important distinction for the researcher to make when conducting a study, so the needed information can be properly collected in order to answer the research question(s) presented.

Participants

This study will be exploring both teacher and student perceptions of the communicative approach in the ESL classroom, so both teachers and students will be asked to complete questionnaires. This is very important, considering enough data is needed to ensure that the research questions can be adequately answered by the researcher in a thorough and timely manner. For purposes of the study, and because of space, time constraints, and the nature of the classroom, the researcher will collect more student responses than teacher responses. There is simply a much larger population of students than there are teachers, and a study should be relatable when it comes to the population used for it (Duff, 2008; Ladefoged, 2003). Studies that provide a skewed perception of what would be seen in the outside world are often not taken as seriously and may not be able to provide a true understanding of what is actually accurate when it comes to the feelings and thoughts of those who would find themselves in the situation the study sought to analyze.

To that end, the study will collect questionnaires for 20 teachers and 100 students. This will provide the researcher with enough responses from which to draw conclusions, but will not require the researcher to address massively large groupings of data that may become too repetitive or overwhelming and thus lose the message the majority of participants were trying to convey. The researcher also has time constraints which must be considered, as there is a timescale for completing the research to which the researcher must adhere. With that in mind, the researcher would be unable to address the responses of thousands of participants, and would not be able to work with the data in a way that would be valuable to the study or the future readers of that study. The data collected must be able to be analyzed and used properly, or the research questions cannot be adequately answered.

Reliability and Validity

Studies must be reliable and valid in order to be successful (O'Keeffe & McCarthy, 2012). When a study is created without both reliability and validity, that study is not one upon which further studies can be based, or one on which readers can rely (Denzin, 2012a; Krathwohl & Smith, 2005). In that sense, there is no point in these kinds of studies because they fail to provide true answers to the research questions and do not acknowledge the actual importance of the information being studied (Payne, 1997; Richards, 2003). To avoid this, the researcher will take care with both reliability and validity in the research instrument and the information collected and analyzed in order to adequately answer the research questions. The research instrument used here will be considered valid because questionnaires are a common method of inquiry when attempting to conduct a study on the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs of others (Holliday, 2007). By using questionnaires, the researcher can ask a number of questions that can all be used to determine the participants' thoughts on the topic of the communicative approach in the TESOL classroom.

Reliability is established through the actual collection of data from willing participants to the study (Krathwohl & Smith, 2005; Ladefoged, 2003). Assumptions can be logically made that the data is reliable because it has been collected from both teachers and students who have experience in the TESOL classroom and who have experience with the communicative approach either as an instructors or as a second-language learner. Information collected straight from the source is generally accepted as reliable for the purposes of a qualitative study (O'Keeffe & McCarthy, 2012). This reliability is very important if the researcher wishes to have any kind of credibility with those who may want to build on the study in the future. Additionally, reliability is important in the replication of the study, because good studies must be able to be replicated in order to ensure that they provide value to the reader and that they were correctly performed (Ladefoged, 2003; Mackey & Gass, 2012).

Ethical Considerations

With any study involving human subjects, there are ethical considerations to be addressed (Denzin, 2012a; Payne, 1997; Richards, 2003). What specific types of considerations are important will depend on the actual study, the questions being asked, and how the data is being collected (Krathwohl & Smith, 2005; O'Keeffe & McCarthy, 2012). In other words, handing out a questionnaire to a number of people would not be seen to have the same level of ethical consideration as performing an experiment which could potentially be harmful. However, ethical considerations cannot be ignored because they are a vital part of doing research and required to be addressed by the researcher (Denzin, 2012a). Researchers who fail to address proper ethical considerations can end up with problems they would prefer to have avoided, including potential lawsuits.

With the collection of data from questionnaires, the researcher has to serious ethical concerns such as those that might come from performing an experiment. Despite this, the researcher will be collecting a signed consent form (see Appendix A) from each person who participates in the study, so the researcher is "covered" and protected from potential harm based on concerns brought to light by study participants in the future. In return for the collection of signatures on the consent forms, the researcher must take care to ensure that the study data is handled properly, and that it is not provided to others who should not be seeing it. The goal is to use the data as a collective piece of information, and not to provide any identifying characteristics of any of the participants in the study. Strict confidentiality is required on the part of the researcher (Richards, 2003). The consent form and proper treatment of the data will protect the researcher and the study participants from any potential issues and handle the concerns over ethical considerations.

Timescale

The timescale of the study is very important. It is expected that the researcher will take between one and two weeks to locate the participants for the study. At that time, the researcher will provide the questionnaires, which will need to be returned within two weeks in order to be included in the study. If possible, the researcher will reach an agreement with some teachers to hand out the questionnaires in class, so they can be collected and returned more easily. Once all the data is collected, a one week period is needed to analyze the data, after which the researcher estimates another three weeks to complete the study and provide a written document addressing the research, detailing the analysis of the findings, and providing answers to the research questions. That allows for a total, maximum time to completion of two months, although it is possible that the study will be completed within six weeks. This will depend on how long it takes to locate participants, and how long those participants take to return their completed questionnaires for the researcher's analysis.

Limitations

All studies have limitations that have to be considered, and this study is no exception to that rule. The main limitation of the study is that it only collects information from a small number of teachers and students. While their experiences with the communicative approach in the ESL classroom are very valid, that does not mean these experiences can be extrapolated out to every other student or teacher who has used or been exposed to the communicative approach. That can have a significant effect on the study from the standpoint of how much it really addresses the true feelings of the majority of those who use this approach to teaching or learning English as a second language. That type of limitation is generally the case with any study that collects data from a small group.

Another limitation of the study is the questionnaire, because it does not lend itself to an in-depth examination of thoughts and feelings. Further studies could be done using interviews or focus groups, as these might provide even more insight into the issue. However, the questionnaires will still provide an excellent starting point for this research and can help future researchers determine what direction they may want to take with their own studies into the issue. In that way, the study can be very valuable, despite its limited scope and the lack of in-depth information that can be collected from participants.