Faculty of Education - Theses

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    Task-based learning for oral communication : a case study of Thai EFL learners
    Prasansaph, Wipada (University of Melbourne, 2009)
    This thesis reports on a study of teaching less competent Thai university students oral skills in English through Task-Based Learning (TBL). The study was guided by the following research questions: (1) whether TBL contributed to the students' speaking performance, (2) what obstacles hindered the development of speaking skill, (3) what experience the teacher researcher gained from the process of conducting TBL and (4) how TBL could be implicated in English teaching. The task-oriented approach to language teaching, gready influenced by CLT (Communicative Language Teaching), consists of three phases, namely the `Pre-task Phase', intended to prepare students' readiness before performing the task, the During-task Phase' � the time for students to perform the task and the `Post-task phase' � the language scrutiny after performing the task. Student participation in the study was on a voluntary basis. The participants were five non-English-majors, three mathematics majors and two Thai majors, of the Faculty of Education, at a university in Bangkok, Thailand, all of whom had received grade `C' or below for the first two fundamental English for communication courses. They attended totally twelve-week TBL lessons through six-task performance. Those tasks were `Pretending to be someone else', `Speaking from cards', `Speaking from pictures', `Library Tour Task', "Department Store Tour Task' and `Discussion Task'. The teacher researcher taught the lessons by herself. The data sources were 1) transcripts of classroom activities including the teacher researcher's and the students' speech, 2) transcripts of interviews: preliminary interview intended to survey students' problems in learning English, initial interview aimed to obtain the students' background of learning English and their needs in learning the language, post-task interviews asked the students' opinions towards each task after the post-task and the interview of the overall program after all tasks had been done and 3) the teacher's journals, containing field notes that the teacher researcher kept throughout the program. The data were analysed in terms of the cognitive (accuracy, fluency and complexity) and affective domains. Although there was no obvious evidence of participants' cognitive improvement, the affective side demonstrated increased risk-taking, raised self-esteem and lowed anxiety. Some supportive factors in task performance were found to be pre-task activities which provided knowledge and agreement prior to task performance, the safe environment provided through the teacher's feedback and the task conditions, which required both preparation outside class and impromptu speaking. Some obstacles were poor background of linguistic knowledge and inhibition to speak because of attitudinal factors, such as anxiety and shyness. The recommendation were made that in teaching English oral skills teachers should provide meaningful activities for students as well as speaking opportunities, arrange pre-task activities to build up students' readiness before performing tasks and provide opportunities for students to use their knowledge of other areas in practising speaking English.