A Teacher Action Research Study of the Potential for Communicative Learning Activities to Improve the Listening and Speaking Proficiency of Primary Students at a Private School in Thailand.

Reports of the implementation of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in Thailand suggest that its success has been hampered by the key constraints of teacher-centredness, passive learning practices, national assessment requirements and student behaviours socially-prescribed by the dominant religio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Fisher, David W.
Format: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2021
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/66171/
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author Fisher, David W.
author_facet Fisher, David W.
author_sort Fisher, David W.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Reports of the implementation of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in Thailand suggest that its success has been hampered by the key constraints of teacher-centredness, passive learning practices, national assessment requirements and student behaviours socially-prescribed by the dominant religion of Theravada Buddhism. This action research study seeks to measure the success of a set of communicative activities designed to promote listening and speaking proficiency, implemented in a primary class at a private school in northern Thailand. Evaluation of the outcomes involved video, interview and journal data collected from the students, teaching assistant and researcher. The results showed that students demonstrated the most successful learning through communicative activities that harnessed the potential of a teacher’s talk to actively engage students, included a competitive element that promoted student interaction, and provided opportunities for students to use language meaningfully. The research serves to confirm the findings of studies in multiple contexts that emphasise the importance of meaning-oriented activities to successful language teaching and learning, and refute the suggestion that educational culture in Thailand necessarily incapacitates students from being able to learn English communicatively. Keywords Communicative Language Teaching (CLT); communicative activity; teacher talk; meaningfulness
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spelling nottingham-661712021-11-02T15:59:50Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/66171/ A Teacher Action Research Study of the Potential for Communicative Learning Activities to Improve the Listening and Speaking Proficiency of Primary Students at a Private School in Thailand. Fisher, David W. Reports of the implementation of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in Thailand suggest that its success has been hampered by the key constraints of teacher-centredness, passive learning practices, national assessment requirements and student behaviours socially-prescribed by the dominant religion of Theravada Buddhism. This action research study seeks to measure the success of a set of communicative activities designed to promote listening and speaking proficiency, implemented in a primary class at a private school in northern Thailand. Evaluation of the outcomes involved video, interview and journal data collected from the students, teaching assistant and researcher. The results showed that students demonstrated the most successful learning through communicative activities that harnessed the potential of a teacher’s talk to actively engage students, included a competitive element that promoted student interaction, and provided opportunities for students to use language meaningfully. The research serves to confirm the findings of studies in multiple contexts that emphasise the importance of meaning-oriented activities to successful language teaching and learning, and refute the suggestion that educational culture in Thailand necessarily incapacitates students from being able to learn English communicatively. Keywords Communicative Language Teaching (CLT); communicative activity; teacher talk; meaningfulness 2021-08-04 Dissertation (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/66171/1/Fisher_David_Dissertation_Cabral.pdf Fisher, David W. (2021) A Teacher Action Research Study of the Potential for Communicative Learning Activities to Improve the Listening and Speaking Proficiency of Primary Students at a Private School in Thailand. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)]
spellingShingle Fisher, David W.
A Teacher Action Research Study of the Potential for Communicative Learning Activities to Improve the Listening and Speaking Proficiency of Primary Students at a Private School in Thailand.
title A Teacher Action Research Study of the Potential for Communicative Learning Activities to Improve the Listening and Speaking Proficiency of Primary Students at a Private School in Thailand.
title_full A Teacher Action Research Study of the Potential for Communicative Learning Activities to Improve the Listening and Speaking Proficiency of Primary Students at a Private School in Thailand.
title_fullStr A Teacher Action Research Study of the Potential for Communicative Learning Activities to Improve the Listening and Speaking Proficiency of Primary Students at a Private School in Thailand.
title_full_unstemmed A Teacher Action Research Study of the Potential for Communicative Learning Activities to Improve the Listening and Speaking Proficiency of Primary Students at a Private School in Thailand.
title_short A Teacher Action Research Study of the Potential for Communicative Learning Activities to Improve the Listening and Speaking Proficiency of Primary Students at a Private School in Thailand.
title_sort teacher action research study of the potential for communicative learning activities to improve the listening and speaking proficiency of primary students at a private school in thailand.
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/66171/