Development and Validation of a Communicative Language Teaching Program for Filipino College Students
University of Santo Tomas - Graduate School
ABSTRACT
This study deals with the development and validation of a program in communicative language teaching (CLT) that integrated task- and content-based approaches in teaching oral communication. It is therefore a hybrid program that also highlighted viewing literacy and transcoding as macro-skills that can promote oral proficiency. It was proposed and developed primarily to improve communicative competence in English of second language learners in Philippine tertiary institutions. Needs assessment was conducted to contextualize the design of the program. Extensive reviews of literature identified effective practices that may bear on program design and implementation. Focus group discussions were convened and perceptions on CLT approaches were surveyed from students and teachers as inputs to program design and as descriptors of program outputs. A pre-experimental descriptive study using a single group pretest–posttest design was conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed program. A short-term tryout was undertaken using 40 college students in an English course offered in a provincial private university in the Philippines. Pre- and posttest measures of oral proficiency were gathered by multiple raters using self-designed rubrics and audio-visual recordings of classroom sessions before and after the implementation of the CLT program. The CLT program that was developed and presented in this paper thus featured, among others, innovative classroom activities such as interactive and collaborative games, dyads and group discussions, and film viewing. These were undertaken across three major communicative exercises: impromptu, extemporaneous speech, and debate. All activities were contextualized within practical situations using contemporary content that students and teachers can relate to. Pre-post comparisons showed significant gains in oral proficiency levels after the tryout. The proposed program may thus be deemed effective if not promising in terms of attaining the program objective. Recommendations for program improvement and further research and evaluation were likewise forwarded.
KEYWORDS
communicative language teaching, communicative competence, oral proficiency, ESL, second language