[2024]Digital Global Overview Report 2024 Meltwater.pdf
Thesis of master one
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SUMMARY
Introduction…………………………………………..............................6
PART ONE: OBJECT OF THE STUDY…………………………………..6
Chapter 1: Presentation of the Topic………………………….………..8
Chapter 2: Elaboration and Specification…………………….…….13
PART TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW, CORPUS METHODS OF
ANALYSIS……………………………………………………………………16
Chapter 1: Literature Review……………………………………………18
Chapter 2: Justification of the Corpus……………………………….25
Chapter 3: Methods of Data Collection and Analysis……….….26
PART THREE: FINDINGS AND PERSPECTIVES……………………31
Chapter 1: Presentation of Major Axes of the Study……………..33
Chapter 2: The Suggested Outline of the Thesis……………………36
Chapter 3: Designing Tasks for Reading Comprehension from a
Communicative perspective ………………………………………….…36
Chapter 4: Bibliography…………………………………………………46
Chapter 5: Results, Findings and Research perspectives………..52
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..54
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To my uncle, Mister Yao Kouadio Dénis
Though the material representation of this thesis has been my
own work, the tasks would have been impossible without the
assistance of a large army of helpers who have over this academic
year assisted me in my research work. I would like to express my
sincere thanks to them. I cannot name them all on this page. But
among them, I wish to mention particularly my supervisor,
professor kouassi Jérôme for his useful time kindly consecrated
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to me for this study, all my teachers of the department of English
for their classes I attended during this academic year and their
pieces of advice that have been a stimulus to organize my own
ideas about this thesis, the Educational Research Network for
West and Central Africa in Côte d’Ivoire (ERNWACA-CI) for the
training time they have offered me.
I should like to thank the American cultural center, the numeric
francophone campus (AUF) of the University College of education
(ENS), and Mister Tuo Dognimin Arouna for their library
resources.
To all my peers of the department of English and particularly of
applied linguistics, I express my gratitude for your support of
every nature.
I should like to thanks my uncle Yao Kouadio Denis and my
cousins Bala Adama and Yao Kouassi Hypolite whose financial
support and advice along the way was invaluable.
Most of all, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my God whose
everlasting mercy and assistance always enlighten me and entails
me beyond my limits.
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INTRODUCTION
Among the world central languages including Chinese, Spanish,
Arabic and French, English has gained a hyper-central statute
because it addresses worldwide concerns. Obviously, teaching
that language has become a worldwide upsurge (Jérôme Kouassi,
2010:125). But teaching is a complex set of tasks (Bala Adama,
2006:77). It calls for a variety of challenges including curricula,
portofolios, syllabi, and materials. Among those challenges,
choosing a coursebook is not the least important of teaching
because a textbook in a language class particularly in a foreign
language one plays a cornerstone like role. The language teachers
as a whole and more especially the foreign language ones with the
least training, can be supported with the provide of the textbook
since it is facilitative material. It also constitutes for the learners
a mute teacher. That is why one could hear “un élève, un livre” to
mean that every student need a book. The success of the course
book itself depends on its faithfulness to the teaching methods
and the approaches that underlie its conception. In Côte d’Ivoire,
GFE is in use since the 1990s until today and has been twice
edited (1989 and 1999). Consequently, its evaluation seems to me
too relevant. That is why I have decided to measure its
communicativeness. And that is the theme of this study.
This paper will be articulated in three main parts. The first part
will consist in presenting the object of the research, the second
will be a review of the literature related to the topic of the study ,
a justification of the corpus and the methods of data collection
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and analysis , the last part will discuss the first findings and
propose some perspectives for the research itself.
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The concern in this first part can be summarized as the
presentation of the topic and the specification of the research
problem. In more detailed words, I will first of all retrace my
personal history with the topic of this study; I will situate the
topic in the field of its study and explain it. I will also discuss the
reasons why this study needs to be done. Another important
dimension is the specification of the research.
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CHAPTER ONE: THE PRESENTATION OF THE TOPIC
1-BACKGROUND ON THE CHOICE OF THIS TOPIC
When at school I could not yet read, I used to ground on
illustrative pictures to understanding texts in our textbooks. But
as early as I could read I got less interested in the pictures as
means to understand a text. Once at grammar school the same
phenomenon reappeared. And as long as I did not have an
English dictionary, pictures were my means of texts
comprehension. During my first two years at university, many
words in a text were familiar to me and i still had a poor
comprehension of them. Today, as a student in applied
linguistics, I feel the necessity to investigate issues related to my
former worries in order to have more insight into the difficulties I
experienced. My concern with the communicative perspective of
reading comprehension tasks in GFE 4è does not come from this
so personal past only. It also rises from my current attachment to
issues relating to the didactic implications of reading
comprehension in our context.
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2-EXPLANATION OF THE TOPIC, DOMAIN AND
SPECIALITY
2-1- FIELD OF STUDY
For a number of reasons, our topic “a look at reading
comprehension tasks in GFE 4è from a communicative
perspective” is the logical concern of an applied linguist.
To Richard Hudson,
“The main distinguishing characteristics of applied linguistics is its concern with professional
activities whose aim is to solve real world language-based problems, which means that research
touches on a particular wide range of issues: psychological , pedagogical , social , political ,
economic, as well as linguistic. As a consequence, applied linguistics tends to be
interdisciplinary”1
Dawn knight adds that
“Applied linguistics draws on range of disciplines including languages learning and teaching,
psychology of language processing, discourse analysis, stylistics, corpus analysis, literacy studies,
and language planning and policies”.2
These two complementary definitions of the concept of applied
1 Richards Hudson, Emeritus professor of Applied linguistics at University College of London
2
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linguistics well show that it is an immense field of study. It is
concerned with every social issue related to language. So it is not
devoted to any precise or specific concern. And this idea of
immensity is what H.G. Widdowson tries to stress on in writing:
“Applied linguists find themselves in an anomalous position, in a
no-man’s land they have made for themselves and not
infrequently under fire from both sides”3
Any time that linguists
will be solving social problems related to language, they will be
righteously called applied linguists. Therefore, applied linguistics
can be qualified as a professional linguistics. The topic “a look at
reading comprehension tasks in GFE 4è from a communicative
perspective” rises from a problem that language teachers,
language teaching textbook editors and language didacticians
meet in their daily professional activities. As language teaching
and learning is an applied linguistic concern, we can say that this
topic belongs to the broad domain of applied linguistics.
2-2 SPECIALITY
This topic is concerned with the evaluation of the reading
comprehension activities in the textbook GFE 4è from a
communicative perspective. It is related to foreign language
didactics in general and particularly the didactics of
comprehension. Didactics itself refers to the different
mechanisms and phenomena that intervene in the appropriation
of knowledge.
3
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2-3-EXPLANATION OF THE TOPIC
The meaning of this topic lies around the noun “look”. But an
essential phrase not yet defined is associated to that word to
make it specific. It is “reading comprehension tasks”. The
explanation of this topic calls for a distinct analysis of the
meaning of each of these two notions. The noun “look” does not
refer to the superficial sight as one could think it to be, it
supposes an analysis, a descriptive study. And that is not only a
free description for the only sake to get Go for English 4è known
but rather a critical description for the sake of an objective
evaluation. In turn, the phrase reading comprehension tasks
refers to its usual meaning. Reading comprehension tasks are the
classroom writing and speaking activities implemented after
reading a text in order to show that one well understands it. In
the end, the theme simply concerns the analysis of the reading
comprehension tasks in the GFE 4è textbook in order to see the
extent to which this textbook portrays faithfully communicative
language teaching.
3- JUSTIFICATION AND INTEREST OF THIS STUDY
There is not any common motive to every evaluation. An
evaluation may be motivated by dissatisfaction or short of
knowledge about using a material. Consequently, it is likely
to occur before, during and after the use of a material. But as
a general rule, it aims at providing a solution to a given issue
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about the material evaluated. In language didactics, it is
considered as one of the most practical challenges to
researchers. The evaluation that will be carried out in the
context of this research derives from my personal
dissatisfaction as a former user of the textbook Go for English
4è. It will consist in determining the factors conducive to the
development of communicative competence through reading
comprehension tasks in that textbook.
Given that the communicative approach to language
teaching and its implications for teaching materials in general
and particularly textbooks is the current concern of our
educational authorities, the outcomes of this reflection might
contribute to the operation of adequate choices for classroom
practices.
Moreover, the conclusions of this study might provide
English language textbooks editors with innovative ideas for
the integrative production of materials that effectively
integrate the communicative dimension of reading
comprehension tasks. They might also help our teachers,
practitioners and educational authorities make the right
choices in terms of textbooks which fit the requirements of
communicative language teaching, a teaching approach
currently in vogue in our context.
CHAPTER2: SPECIFICATION OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
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1-THE PROBLEM
The coherence of a didactic material with regard to the
underlying language teaching method is of paramount
importance in the field of language education. In cote-d'Ivoire,
educationalists and language didacticians care much about
issues related to the teachers, the curricula, the didactic methods
and the materials as well as the duration of classes. As a result,
the late history of English teaching in our country is a perpetual
didactic renewal. For instance, the former outcome-based method
(PPO) has been replaced by a process-based one (APC) known as
CBLT language education. The formerly used textbooks: English
for French Speaking Africa, African Ways in the 1980s have been
replaced by Go for English, English for Success and Let’s Keep in
Touch in the 2000s.
Sometimes, teaching materials are renewed in order to improve
them with regards to their underlying methodology or to try new
methodologies. When Go for English was published and began to
be used in the 1990s, the firsts two editions were abandoned.
And yet despite the edition of two new textbooks English for
success and Let's Keep in Touch, GFE is still in use. Despite its
merits recognized locally, and considering the requirements of
communicative language teaching, I wonder about the
communicative dimension of reading comprehension tasks in
GFE4è. . This main preoccupation calls for specific questions:
-Do reading comprehension tasks in GFE 4è fit the
requirements of communicative language teaching?
-If yes, what is their degree of communicativeness?
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-If not, why don’t they fit the criteria of communicative tasks?
-How can one make them more communicative?
2-OBJECTIVES
General objective:
This study aims at evaluating the degree communicativeness of
reading comprehension tasks of GFE 4è.
Specific objectives:
-To identify the reading comprehension tasks available in GFE 4è.
-To analyze the suggested tasks on the ground of the
communicative principles.
-To suggest some innovative way of designing communicative
reading comprehension tasks in GFE 4è.
3-HYPOTHESES
General hypothesis:
The reading comprehension tasks in GFE 4è are not as
communicative as they are supposed to be.
Specific hypotheses:
-The degree of authenticity of reading comprehension tasks in
GFE 4è is questionable.
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-Some of the reading comprehension tasks do not allow the active
involvement of all the learners.
This first part proves that the evaluation of the degree of
communicativeness of GFE 4è is a burning challenge for the
applied linguists interested in the didactics of comprehension
today.
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In this second major part of this project, I will first provide
background for my topic in order to determine the remaining
questions of it in need of research. I will justify the corpus this
study will found upon and the approach to use for the data
collection and analysis
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW
1- COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING
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Communicative Language Teaching is an approach to language
teaching and learning in use in the classrooms since the 1970s
(Jack C. Richards, 2006). Today every teacher claims his
classroom methodology to be communicative. However, their
definitions of that approach are sometimes different.
Consequently it seems necessary to propose here my
understanding of Communicative Language Teaching. To my
mind communicative language teaching is a classroom process-
based language teaching approach that aims at developing the
communicative competence of the learner. For Jack C. Richards,
communicative competence includes the following aspects of
language Knowledge: linguistic competence, sociocultural
competence, discourse competence, strategic competence
Marianne Celce-Murcia , Zoltan Dornyei, and Sarah Thurrel
(1995) have proposed a model of communicative competence.
They represent that model of communicative competence as a
pyramid enclosing a circle and surrounded by another circle. In
that schematic representation of communicative competence, one
can identify:
The sociocultural competence
The linguitic competence
The strategic competence
The actional competence
Discourse competence
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This model, to Celce-Murcia et al., better illustrates
communicative competence. Their conflict with Canale (1983) and
Richards lays on the sociocultural competence. According to their
chronological evolution of the proposed model, sociocultural
competence calls for another competence that they name actional
competence. Although they recognize sociocultural and actional
competences as parts of pragmatic knowledge, their opinion is
that actional competence derives from functional knowledge and
the sociocultural competence from the sociocultural knowledge.
This knowledge does not serve to the same communicative
purposes. While the actional competence serves to cope with
matters like interpersonal exchange, information sharing opinion
and feeling expression suasion, problems and future scenarios
expression. Sociocultural competence comprises social
contextual, stylistic appropriateness, cultural and non-verbal
communicative factors.
In a word, communicative competence is a many-sided
competence. Christian Puren (1993:32) writes that one of the
characteristics of the communicative approach is the great
diversification of its theories of reference. He adds that this
diversification, at the level of materials and classroom practices
conception, could produce only an effect of eclectism. More
clearly, he insists that the communicative approach is and
eclectic approach. Paulo Costa (2002) warns that without the
intention to declare the death of the textbook, the classroom
communicative activities need to be enough eclectic in order to
facilitate the development of the communicative competence as
an eclectic competence. Saying that communicative competence
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is an eclectic competence means that this competence comprises
different elements. William Littlewood (1981:6 ) explains in the
following words
“In discussing the various examples of communicative activities, I
propose to distinguish between two main categories, which I will
call functional communication activities and social interaction
activities:”
For the same reason, Jérôme Kouassi qualifies CLT as a
necessary disorder. He says:
The study of the communicative approach leads me to note the
existence of a disorder which has three dimensions: disorder
inherent to the nature of the communicative approach, mental
disorder experienced by learners and disorders which is
dependent on external deficiencies related to its implementation.
(2009:20)
The communicative approach is an ambiguous approach. Its use
is incongruent with regard to didactics and pedagogy. As a result,
it raises confusion to both teachers and learners. That is why
Jeremy Harmer (1983) explains that communicative language
teaching is not a method but an approach. To him, a method
supposes precise rules. And yet, communicative language
teaching employs every strategy that is likely to favor the
development of communicative competence. In the same line, I
posit that communicative language teaching is a syncretistic
approach to language teaching.
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2- READING COMPREHENSION
Mike Casper, Julie Cotton and sally westfall suggests that “the
main purpose for reading is to comprehend the ideas in the
material. Without comprehension reading would be empty and
meaningless”. In order to know the motives of such an opinion or
to discuss its validity, one should better understand what reading
comprehension is. For Heshan Suleiman Alyousef( 2oo6:63 )
“Reading can be seen as an interactive process between a reader
and a text which leads to automaticity or ( reading fluency). In
this process, the reader interacts dynamically with the test as
he/she tries to elicit the meaning and where variants kinds of
knowledge are being used: linguistics or systemic knowledge
(through bottom-up processing).
Clearly, reading is a dynamic interaction with a text in the end to
construct meaning. Michel Fayol(2003) defines comprehension
like an integrated and coherent mental representation of the
discourse or the text. He added that, the task of comprehension
depends on the purpose of the reader and always ends at an
interpretation. To him, comprehension is a cognitive activity.
In his taxonomy, Barret describes the activity of reading
comprehension in five steps:
- The literal comprehension ( recognition and recall)
- The reorganization ( analysis)
- The inferential comprehension ( implicit message)
- Evaluation ( external critique)
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- Appreciation (emotional response to the content)
This taxonomy suggested by Barret clearly indicates his
psychocognitivist inclination .without rejecting Barret’s view
Frank Serafini indicates “all four components, the texts, the
authors, the reader and the immediate and socio-cultural context
play an important role in every reading event in addition to the
cognitive strategies readers employ ”. That is also a reconciliation
of three theories of reading comprehension: the mental model, the
schema theory and the proposition theory.
Adams and Collins discuss a reading theory referred to as
schema theory. The goal of schema theory is to describe the
interaction between the content of a text and how that
information is shaped and stored by the reader. Reading from a
schema perspective means connecting new information from the
text to the prior knowledge of the reader in order to achieve
comprehension.
3 – EVALUATION
3-1-WHAT IS EVALUTION
Pierre Martinez cited in Jerôme Kouassi (2010:125) suggests that
evaluation consist in giving an appreciation or a value. Evaluation
in other words consists in highlighting the strengths and the
weaknesses a practice or a material.
After demonstrating, the relevance of evaluation in education,
Jérôme Kouassi (2010:125) defines three essential roles of this
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theory, the prognostic role, the diagnostic role and the explorative
role.
In a word, evaluation is a judgment. In education, administrative
matters as well as curriculum matters can be submitted to that
judgment.
3.2. MATERIALS EVALUATION
Material evaluation is a procedure that consists in examining
learning materials to establish their value (Tomlinson 2003) cited
in Paul Dickinson (March 2010). This evaluation is a micro
evaluation because it is concerned with a single subject. The need
in evaluating a course book, to Leslie E. Sheldon comes from the
reason that course books are often seen by potential consumers-
teachers, learners and educational purchasers as market
ephemera requiring invidious compromises between commercial
and pedagogical demands (1988 : 237). Or there is a gap between
textbooks production and their use. So they need to be evaluated.
I’m English teaching as foreign language context, David Williams
precise that the textbook should provide appropriate guidance for
the teacher of English who is not a native speaker of English. The
untrained, or partially trained, teacher who does not possess
native, like control over all aspects of English should not be left in
any doubt concerning the procedures proposed by the textbook
(1983:252) one should check the appropriateness of a textbook
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that is to be used in any foreign language classroom. That task is
a delicacious one because foreign language textbook plays an
outstanding role in the classroom. Rod Elis defines two types of
empirical evaluation of language teaching materials: a predictive
and a retrospective evaluation. To him a material might be
evaluated before or after use to make valid and reliable decision.
In this research, I will make a retrospective evaluation of the GFE
4è textbook.
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CHAPTER 2: JUSTIFICATION OF CORPUS
I- IDENTIFICATION OF THE CORPUS
The aim of this research is to evaluate the communicativeness of
the reading comprehension tasks in GFE 4è.
Consequently, my corpus consists essentially of the text-book
GFE. The study will focus on the different tasks suggested in the
book.
II-ORIGINALITY AN AUTHENTICITY
The originality and authenticity of my corpus lies in the fact that
GFE 4è is the book currently in use in our classrooms. The
underlying principles of the book clearly indicate that GFE is
based on communicative principles.
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
The methodology refers to the nature of the research, the methods
and instruments of Data collection and analysis one used in a
given study that can provide him with the appropriate response to
the question of that study. In a word, it is the approach in use for
truths worthy findings and results from a study.
1 -IDENTIFICATION OF THE TYPE OF RESEARCH
The topic of this research is a look at reading comprehension tasks
in GFE4è from a communicative perspective.As a result, this
research is an evaluation of the GFE 4è textbook so as to
highlight its communicative dimension or else value the strengths
and the weaknesses of the communicative approach in order to
make proposals that might contribute to its amelioration for more
communicativeness.
2- POPULATIONS
Population is the exhaustive list of objects that the units of
analysis are composed of. It is where one will select his sample.
In this research, my sample will be selected in the set of classes’
users of the GFE 4è on the territory of Côte-d’Ivoire. That
population is made up of public, private, vocational and
confessional schools. These Classes form together a homogeneous
population of academic learners of English as Foreign language.
All the members of that population have two years of English.
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3- DATA COLLECTION
The development of this study requires the collect of data with
different participants and instruments. Since my population of
study is too large and homogeneous, I will select randomly 15
boys and girls from Lycée Moderne of Port-Bouet and Collège
Moderne Descartes for their proximity to me and their differences
with regards to their nature and social standards. The choice of
equal number of male and female participants will help me to
create heterogeneity. Thirty English teachers also with more than
one year experience will take part in this study. The number of
thirty according to Cohen Louis et al.(2012:657) is the minimal
number in education that is why I am choosing it in my research.
I require also more than one experience in teaching during the
selection of the participants to make sure the participants know
the phenomenon under scrutiny.
4- INSTRUMENTS
In order to give this research a validity and reliability, I will use
data triangulation. In deed, I will use three instruments to collect
my data from the same participant. An aspect of the
Communicative Language Teaching is likely to escape to me if I
use only one instrument but with three instruments, I am sure to
gather the essential dimensions for the study.
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4--1 OBSERVATION
I will make direct observations of two different classroom
activities of reading comprehension with a checklist portraying
the principles of the communicative approach. That checklist will
be elaborated according to the framework devised by Nunan for
the analysis of the communicative tasks. I will measure the
authenticity of the materials, the flexibility of the activities, the
purposefulness and meaningfulness of the tasks, the organization
of the group class.
4-2- THE INTERVIEW
I am not able to foresee the content of that instrument .But in a
word I will collect through thirty interviews with teacher’s
explanations about the foundations that guide their choices
during the tasks and some comments on the content of the
GFE4è textbook. I will collect their opinions about the deficiencies
of the textbook GFE 4è with regards to the CLT. Therefore the
questions for the interview will come from troubles during the
observation.
4-3 THE QUESTIONNAIRE
That will be administered to 30 learners. It will consist in a
structured questionnaire. That questionnaire will be administered
to collect learner’s conscious and unconscious reactions to the
content of the GFE4è textbook. I will be elaborated so as the
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analysis of its results may help in discerning the
communicativeness of the tasks of reading in the GFE 4è. I will
measure the authenticity, the flexibility, the meaningfulness, and
the purposefulness of the tasks of the reading comprehension in
the GFE 4è.
5 -DATA ANALYSIS
The data analysis during this research will follow the logic of their
collection.
Consequently the data collected will be analyzed from a mixed
perspective.
5-1- THE QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
The different data collected from the observation and the
interview will be submitted to a qualitative analysis. In fact it is
the content, the quality and the meaning of the entities that this
analysis is concerned with. During the analysis of the data
collected, I will make summary and logical deduction of the
entities in order to draw a global conclusion about the strengths
and the weaknesses of the content of the GFE 4è textbook.
5-2- THE QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
The data collected from the questionnaire will be analyzed
according to the frequency of the entities. As a result, I will decide
whether an aspect of the content of GFE 4è illustrates or contra
dictates the CLT if an entity demonstrating so is frequent.
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5-3- DATA CROSSING
After the separate analysis of the data according to their
instruments of collection, I will contrast and compare them in
order to have a global opinion on the content of the textbook GFE
4è.
This second part is begins by an account on the communicative
language teaching, the reading comprehension, the material
evaluation in education. Then have followed the justification of
the corpus and the explanation of the methods of data collection
and analysis.
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In this third and last part of our research project, will take home
the current findings and the explanations of different future
perspectives to give to that study
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CHAPTER ONE: THE MAJOR PARTS OF THE RESEARCH
The objective of that research as foresaid is to evaluate the
communicative approach through the activity of reading
comprehension in GFE 4è. Two hypotheses have been evoked as
means to surrender this evaluation. The verification of those
hypotheses will take three different general bearings: a literature
review, a field study and some suggestions and recommendations.
1- THE REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In this orientation, I will summarize and explain the current state
of knowledge about my topic in order to situate it in relation to in
it background and determine the remaining questions or aspects
of the topic in need of research. In fact, I will make an account on
the theories, the ideas in the present researches relating to the
Communicative Language Teaching, the tasks of reading
comprehension, and the materials evaluation.
2-FIELD STUDY
This second step will be concerned with the analysis of my corpus
.That will be articulated in two major stages. The first of them will
be an explorative analysis of the content of both the textbook GFE
4è and the reading comprehension tasks in the classrooms. The
second one will be to criticize the results of the analysis with
regards to the principles of the Communicative Language
Teaching. Or else, during the criticism, I will establish the
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strengths and shortcomings of the textbook GFE 4è according to
the underlying method: the CLT.
3-SUGGESTIONS OR RECOMMENDATION
This axis of this research will be an answer to my last research
question: How can one make the tasks of reading comprehension
in the GFE 4è textbook more communicative? And that answer
more clearly will come as a therapy to overcome the different
deficiencies or shortcomings of the tasks of reading
comprehension in the GFE 4è establish during the field study.
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CHAPTER 2: SUGGESTED OUTLINE FOR THE MASTER II
THESIS
PART ONE: THE OBJECT OF THE STUDY
Chapter one Presentation of the research topic
Chapter two: Research problem
Chapter three: Justification of the corpus
Chapter four: Methodology
PART TWO: CHAPTER 1: LITTERATURE REVIEW
PART THREE: FIELD STUDY
Chapter One: Context of the Study
Chapter Two: Research Design
Chapter Three: Data Collection
Chapter Four: Data Analysis and Interpretation
PART FOUR: SUGGESTIONS OR RECOMMENDATION
Chapter One: Intervention
Chapter Two: Suggestion
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CHAPTER 3: DESIGNING TASKS FOR READING
COMPREHENSION FROM A COMMUNICATIVE PERSPECTIVE
This subpart of the present chapter will consist in giving a
descriptive account of what a communicative reading
comprehension task looks like. The task itself is a component of
language curriculum. That is to say to define this concept in
education one should recall the part that it plays in a curriculum.
David NUNAN has adapted a fine illustrative image from Breen
(1987: 23). To Breen any structured language learning Endeavour
which has a particular objective, appropriate content, a specified
working procedure and a range of outcomes for assumed to refer
to a range of work plans which have the overall purpose of
facilitating language learning from the simple brief exercise type,
to more complex and lengthy activities such as group problem-
solving or simulations and decision making. In other words, the
concept task stands for the work to carry during a course in order
to learn. Or simply, the didactic obstacle a candidate to
knowledge has to overcome so as knowledge may be constructed
our preoccupation here in communicative classroom context is to
know the way how a reading comprehension task should be
generated so as it might favor the development of communicative
competence. In a nutshell, what is the typology of the reading
comprehension with the easiest obstacle?
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The appropriate answer to that question requires a multi-
dimensional reflection. In order not to go astray the fine line of
communicative approach, I am analyzing the task of
communicative language teaching in the light of the framework
devised by Nunan for the analysis of communicative task.
(A framework for analyzing communicative tasks adapted from
Nunan, 1988.)
The components of the tasks in this framework are six : the
input, the goals, the activities, the settings, the teacher roles and
the learners role. These components will constitute the different
subparts of this analysis.
1 -THE INPUT:
The input is what the learners are exposed to; the piece of
language used in the classroom. David NUNAN refers to input as
the data that form the point of departure for the task. That is to
say, the language in the materials in use in the classroom. In a
reading comprehension classroom, the materials used as source
of input are texts. Those texts are sometimes illustrated by
pictures, photos or graphics. The question to answer here is to
Teacher roleGoals
Tasks Learner roleInput
SettingsActitivities
38. VI
know the type of material that facilitates the development of the
communicative competence. David said NUNAN
‘‘the development of communicative language teaching has led to
the use of more authentic materials’’
(syllabus design). In more clear words, for language teaching task
to be meaningful, they have to use real-life materials. Adds Jack
C Richards and Theodore S.Rodgers(2001:80)
Many proponents of communicative language teaching have
advocated the use of ‘‘authentic’’ ‘‘from-life’’ materials. These
might include language based realia, such as signs, magazines,
advertisements and newspapers or graphic and visual sources
around which communicative activities can be built, such as
maps, pictures, symbols, graphs and charts. Different kinds of
objects can be used to support communicative exercises such as
a plastic model from directions.
That is to say, every material not manufactured purposefully to
meet an academic goal but genuine social life materials.
Besides, a material is not sufficiently authentic on the mere
condition to have been collected from areal-life situation. If not
thinks widowson an, an abstract material could serve well than
that. But an authentic material ought to match with the learner’s
identity. Or else, every real-life material that pretends to
authenticity has also to be a share of learner’s daily life. That is
say to the readers with:
- Their age
39. VI
- Their education
- Their customs and culture
- Their needs
1-1 THE BENEFITS OF AN AUTHENTIC INPUT IN READING
COMPREHENSION
The purpose of an authentic material is the great chances that
such a material has to be more or less attractive and motivating
but particularly meaningful. Although an authentic material is
likely to be less attractive, or very motivating according to the
theme it discusses, learners generally feel concerned with it. To
Jack C Richard, arguments in favour of the use of authentic
materials include cultural information about the target language,
exposure to real language, close relation to learners and more
creativity.
2- THE SETTING
‘‘Setting’’ refers to the classroom arrangements specified or
implied in the task, and it also requires consideration of whether
the task is carried out wholly or partly outside the classroom’’.
The setting is therefore the learning situation or the place where
the task takes place that is referred to by NUNAN as
‘‘environment’’ and the type of social organization set up to
perform the task that he termed ‘‘mode”. Here I prevent that the
tasks under scrutiny are classroom so the concern to discuss is
40. VI
the type of social organization for the completion of the task or
mode according to NUNAN. The idea of setting in communicative
language teaching derives from the socio constructivists’ opinion
of the social nature of learning. As a matter of fact, learning, to
Jack C Richard is not an individual, private activity but a social
one that depends on interaction with others before being taken
up by individuals. The movement known as cooperative learning
reflects this viewpoints. (Jack C. R. 2006: 20). This statement is
the proof that communicative approach is home for the idea of
group works. Consequently, for a reading comprehension task to
be communicative, the class is to be organized in small groups, in
pairs or as a whole. In other words, the class should be organized
in such a way the interaction may be the possible. In a word, the
setting in communicative classroom is a shift from individual
tasks to group works. The reason for that shift is the fact that
learning is constructed more easily and effortlessly through
interaction than through cognition. That is what illustrates Ann
Galloway in saying.
“Language is an interaction; it is an interpersonal activity and has
a clear relationship with society”. Such an opinion stands that
the final goal of language; its lifeline and its raison d’être is the
interaction or simply without interaction there is not language. It
insists also that interaction is the source and the summit of
language. Accordingly language can be efficiently learnt through
interaction. Jolly and early, 1974:2 quoted by Christopher
BRUMFIT added “psychologically, group work increases the
intellectual and emotional participation or involvement of the
individual pupil in the task of learning a foreign language. Some
41. VI
pupils are more intelligent than others, while some (not
necessarily the same ones) are more gifted in learning languages,
some pupils are out going, communicative, extrovert
personalities, while others are shy, withdrawn introverts. In small
groups, all these types of learner can meet and mix,
compensating for one another’s story points and deficiencies as
language learners.”
That is to say first that group work is a way to engage the whole
personality of every learner in the task completion and group
work is a strategy to help each learner to transcend his limits and
help his peers doing so. Concretely, group work appears here as a
fertilizer to facilitate fluency development. The classroom to Jolly
and Early is a community where learning is a cooperative task.
3- THE ROLES
The communicative language teaching is a shift of the roles plaid
erstwhile both by teachers and learners in the language teaching
and learning methodologies “Role” refers to the part that ,learners
and teachers are expected to play in carrying out learning tasks
as well as the social and interpersonal relationships between the
participants.
NUNAN supposes that the classroom a multilateral ones in those
tasks to be completed by the teacher and the learner, the word
role stands for the responsibility of each one of them as a
stakeholder in the task implementation. More early, what the
respective responsibilities’ of the teacher and the learner should
42. VI
consist in so as to facilitate the development, communicative
competence though comprehension task.
3-1- THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER
The role of the teacher this study is interested in, is the
contribution of the teacher to the success of the classroom
activities. Been and candling (1980) quoted by NUNAN stated.
The teacher has three main roles in the communicative classroom. The first is to act a facilitator of the
communicative process, the second is to act as a participant, and the third is to act as an observer and learner.
Jack C. Richard on this new role of the teacher in a
communicative classroom in these words,
And teachers now had to assume the role of facilitator and monitor. Rather than being a model for correct
speech and writing and one with the primary responsibility of making students produce plenty of error free
sentences, the teacher had to develop a different view of learners errors and of her/his own role in facilitating the
language learning (2006:5).
From those two explanatory statements about the part plaid by
the teacher in the communicative classroom, one can conclude
that the teacher plays ascendant role in the task completion or
else his role may be sometimes useless because he is only a
guide, a support and no longer the knowledge possessor.
3-2-THE ROLE OF THE LEARNER
If the teacher, in a communicative classroom plays an unessential
and secondary role, the learner is the prime author of the
classroom tasks. Communicative language teaching is a learner-
centered approach so it is the learner who plays the central part.
Learning resides increasingly under his active, interactive,
43. VI
negotiative, contributive and receptive role. That is to say, the
learner constructs his own knowledge through a contributive
negotiation with his peers as important part of the learning
process or task completion.
4-THE ACTIVITIES
A classroom activity is everything done with the input during the
task implementation. They are language training activities of a
variety of types and features. William littlewood has classified
communicative activities in two major categories: the functional
communication activities and social interaction activities.
The functional communication activities refers to the learners
proficiency explains littewood “ the main porpose of the activity is
that learners should use the language they know in order to get
meaning accross as effectively as possible ”. (P20) In order words,
functional communication activities are carless about accuracy
and acceptability. Their stress is rather put on meaning
effectiveness. In a word, it answers the question, how succesfully
is the message conveyed? On the contrary, as far as social
interaction communicative activities are concerned, the stress is
laid on the linguistic accuracy and the social convenience and
acceptability. Some other issues relative to the communicative
classroom activities including the features and principles of the
communicative language teaching are the purposefulness, the
authenticity, the flexibility and meaningfulness. In order words,
when it comes to evaluate design a take in a communicative
classroom one wonders whether it is meaningful, purposeful,
flexible and authentic or not. An authentic activity “Should
44. VI
parallel the real world as closely as possible”. That is to say, an
authentic classroom activity is one that mirrors the real
life.“Without methods, without a book, without grammar or rules,
without a whip and without tears, I hard learned a latin as proper
as that of my schoolmaster”,
writes Montaigne (savignon 1983 : 47) this too constraintless
condition of learning language is what qualifies the principle of
flexibility.The purpose is the reason why one reads a text. A text
may be read to fulfill learning or an entertainment need. That
purpose, notices Elizabeth K. Knutson US Naval academy, affects
the reader’s motivation, interest, and manner of reading given
that purpose affects the task process. A communicative
classroom task needs to be purposeful. The meaning is the
dimension of an activity that improves learner’s fluency. Meaning
is the key that opens communication and the task completion
because a minimal language is needed to complete any classroom
task.
5- GOALS
Nunan defines goals as
“The vague general intentions behind any given learning task.
They provide a point of contact between the task and the broader
curriculum. The answer that a teacher might give to the question:
“why did you get learners to engage in task X (P4)? In short, goals
refer to the didactic outcome that is to be evoked as the
45. VI
justification tasks and the different components of that task.
“Communicative language teaching sets as its goal the teaching of
communicative competence”( op cit P2). That competence is made
up of four different competences: the linguistic competence, the
sociolinguistic competence, the sociocultural competence and the
discursive competence.
Conclusion
This subpart had to account on the different components of a
task in a communicative classroom. Those components
contribute cooperatively to the achievement of reading
comprehension task in communicative context. In deed, each of
those components can be found in tasks from every methodology.
So the question is to know, the way how a task of reading
comprehension is designed so as it should facilitate the
development of the communicative competence. I explain the
model of communicative task designing through an analysis of
the framework devised by David NUNAN. As a result, have came
to the truth that the six components of that framework in a
communicative classroom, illustrates the socioculturalism. I can
thus deduce that CLT is a sociocultural methodology.
46. VI
CHAPTER 4: BIBLIOGRAPHY
1-CORPUS
- Go For English 4è, Paris London and Oxford, Macmillan
Education Ltd, London et Oxford et EDICEF, Paris, 1999.
2-Other BOOKS AND ARTICLES
- Brumfits Christopher: Communicative Methodology in
Language Teaching, the Roles of Fluency and Accuracy, Great
Britain, Cambridge university press, 1992, P 166.
-Brumfit, C. From defining to Designing: Communicative
specifications versus communicative Methodology in foreign
language teaching studies in second language acquisitition:1-
9,1980
- Brumfit, C. J. and K. Johnson. 1979. The Communicative
Approach to Language Teaching.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-Christian PUREN, la Didactique des Langues Etrangères à la
Croisée des Chemins : Essai sur l’Eclectisme, Ecole Normale
Supérieure de Fontenay/Saint-Cloud, Didier ; P 210.
-HARMER Jeremy, the Practice of English Language Teaching.
United States of America, Longman, 1983,
47. VI
-Jack C. Richards, Communicative Language Teaching Today ,
United States of America, Cambridge university press, 2006 ,P47
-Jérôme KOUASSI, Evaluation et Didactique de l’Anglais, Langue
Etrangère : les Fondements d’une Inévitable Union, Abidjan, les
classiques des sciences sociales, P 125.
McDonough, J. and Shaw, C. (1993) Materials and Methods in
ELT. Oxford: Blackwell.
-Littlewood, William Communicative Language Teaching; an
Introduction, great Britain, Cambridge university press, 1991, P
108
-NORMAN David, ulf Levihn, Jan Anders H. Communicative
Ideas, an Approach with Classroom Activities, England,
commercial color press. London E7 P 1986, P 125
-NUNAN David, Syllabus Design, oxford; oxford university press,
1988, P 166
-NUNAN David, Designing tasks for Communicative Classroom,
Great Britain, Cambridge university press, 1991, P 211.
-Savignon J.S. Communicative Competence: Theory and
Classroom Practice, Texts and Contexts in Second Language
Learning , America,,Addisson-Wesley Publishing Company,Inc,
1983
49. VI
Dickinson Paul, Evaluating and Adapting Materials for Young
Learners, March 2010 P 22
Abbas pouhosein Gilakjani and Seyedek Masoumeh Ahmadi, the
Relationship between L2 Reading comprehension and schemata
theory: A matter of text familiarity, International journal of
information and Education Technology Vol 1 N° 2 june 2011. PP
142-149
Sheridan Marcia E. Indiana University at South Bend, theories of
reading and implications for teachers. PP 67-71
Franck SERAFINI, Rethinking reading comprehension definitions,
instructional practices, and assessment. PP 189-202
HESHAM Suleiman Al Yousef, Teaching Reading Comprehension
to ESL /EFL learners, Journal of language and learning volume
snumber 1, 2006 PP 63-73.
LIMA Laurent, la comprehension de l’écrit, laboratoire des
sciences de l’Education UPMF P28.
Dr Mahdi Afkhami Nia, Maître-Assistant, Quel Rôle pour la
Compréhension dans l’Enseignement d’une Langue Etrangère ?
Revue de la faculté des lettres et sciences Humaines Année 53
N°221. P 11.
Marianne Celce-Murcia, Zoltán Dornyei, Srah THURRELL,
Communicative Competence : A Pedagogically Motivated Model
with Content Specifications, Issues in Applied Linguistics Regents
of the University of California. Volume 6N°2. 1995 PP 5-35
50. VI
Jack C. Richards, Curriculum Approaches in language teaching:
Forward, central and Backward design. RELC journal 44 (1).
ROYER M. James, Cunningham Donald J. on the theory and
measurement of comprehension, june 1978.
John MUNBY, communicative syllabus Design: A socio-linguistic
Model for defining the content of purpose specific language
programs. P10
Richards, J.C. and Rodgers, T.S. Approaches and Methods in
language teaching CUP ,2001,PP 64-86.
Harison MohdSIDEK ,EFL reading instruction :
, Islamic science university of Malaysia, international journal of
instruction, July 2012 Vol 5 N°2 PP 109-128
Jiadong LIAO, Dacheng ZHAO, Grounded Theory Approach to
Beginning Teacher’s Perspectives of Communicative Language
Teaching Practice Electronic journal of Foreign language teaching.
2012 Vol.9 N°1 PP 76-90
XU Yang, Theories Analyzing Communicative Approach in China’s
EFL Classes Vol.3, N°1 March 2010 PP 159-161
Raymond Robert TREMBLAY et Yvan PERRIER, Les Outils et
Méthodes de Travail intellectuel, 2è ed. Les Editions de la
chenelière 2006 savoir plus : l’hypothèse et l’objectif de la
recherche P4
ALDERSON, Charles and BERETTA, Alan (Eds.), Evaluating
Second Language Education, Cambridge: CUP, 1992.
51. VI
ALDERSON, Charles J. et al., Language Test Construction and
Evaluation,Cambridge: CUP, 1995.
CANDLIN, Christopher N. and BREEN, Michael P., ‘Evaluating,
adapting and innovating language teaching materials’ TESOL,
TOMLINSON, Brian (ed.), Materials Development in Language
Teaching Cambridge: CUP, 1998.
WEIR, Cyril J., Communicative Language Testing, London:
Prentice Hall International Ltd, 1990.
SHELDON, Leslie E. (ed.), ELT Textbooks and Materials: Problems
in evaluation and development, Oxford: Modern English
Publications, 1987.
MARTINEZ Pierre, la didactique des langues étrangères, PUF,
Quesais-je ?, Paris, 1996.
REA-DICKINS, Pauline and Germaine, Kevin, Evaluation, Oxford:
OUP,1992.p107
52. VI
CHAPTER 5: RESULTS, FINDINGS AND PERSPECTIVES
During this final part of this study, my concern is to make the
balance sheet of the first findings, current worries and the project
of research program for the years to come.
1-FINDINGS
This first attempt to evaluate the communicativeness of the tasks
of reading comprehension in the GFE 4è, has prompted me in
reviewing the literary development in the communicative
approach, the task of reading comprehension and the theory of
evaluation. I have elaborated the methods of data collection and
analysis and suggested an outline as well as a bibliography for
my master II thesis.
2-PRESENT WORRIES
For this research to be more feasible, library resources and an
academic license should be provided to the researcher.
3-PROJECT OF PROGRAM
In order to direct successfully this research and make reliable
and valid suggestions likely to contribute to the amelioration of
the communicativeness of the reading comprehension tasks in
GFE 4è, I need an approximate time of nine months to structure
according to the following table.
53. VI
TASKS ACTIVITIES TIMING
Preparation Literature review 2 months
Start of the
project
Development of the guide
of questionnaire
and observation,
interview
1 month
Data
collection
Field surview 2 months
Data
analysis
Analysis / synthesis
/ interpretation
2 months
Report
development
Edition and publication 2 months
Total
duration
9 months
CONCLUSION
54. VI
After its first edition in 1989, the textbook GFE 4è has been
reedited in 1999 for a number of reasons including the
underlying methodology: the communicative language teaching.
My problem in this research was to know whether this second
edition succeeded in illustrating the CLT in this textbook. In order
to answer that question, I have decided to put my attention on
the tasks of reading comprehension for reasons already evoked.
The first finding I have come across in this project is the fact that
the communicative language teaching is a sociocultural and an
eclectic approach. So, during the research in the year to come, I
will see how the reading comprehension tasks in the GFE 4è
textbook portray the socioculturalism
Table of content
55. VI
Summary…………………………………………………….……………… I
Dedicace…………………………………………………..………………… II
Acknowledgements……………………………………………..………… III
Introduction………………………………………………………….…..…. 4
PART ONE: OBJECT OF THE STUDY……………………………..…
6
CHAPTER 1: PRESENTATION OF THE TOPIC……………………… 8
Origin of the topic……………………………………………………..…. 8
Domain, speciality, and explanation of the topic........................9
Justification of the topic……………………………………………….11
CHAPTER 2: ELABORATION AND SPECIFICATION OF THE
RESEARCH PROBLEM…………………………………………………13
problem ……………………………………….…….…………………….13
Objectives …………………………………………………………………14
Hypotheses ……………………………………………………………….14
PART TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW, CORPUS METHODS OF
ANALYSIS………………………………………………………………….16
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………….18
1-Communicative language teaching…………………………………18
2-Reading comprehension……………………………………..……….21
3-Textbook evaluation……………………………………………………22
56. VI
CHAPTER 2: JUSTIFICATION OF THE CORPUS…………………25
1-Identification of the corpus…………………………………………25
2-Originality and authenticity of the corpus………………………..25
CHAPTER 3: METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION AND
ANALYSIS…………………………………………………………………26
1-Identification of the type of study…………………………………26
2-
Populations...............................................................................26
3-Data collection......................................................................27
4- Instruments…………………………………………………………..27
1 Observation…………………………………………………………. …..27
2 the interview.....................................................................28
3 the
questionnaire………………………………………………………..28
5- data Analysis………………………………………………………….29
PART THREE: FINDINGS AND PERSPECTIVES…………………31
CHAPTER 1: PRESENTATION OF MAJOR PARTS OF THE
STUDY………………………………………………………………………33
1-literature review…………………………………………………………33
57. VI
3-field study……………………………………………………………….33
4-suggestions or recommendations…………………………………..34
CHAPTER 2: THE OUTLINE OF THE THESIS……………………..35
CHAPTER 3: AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THE STUDY…………36
1-input………………………………………………………………….……37
2-settings………………………………………………………….……….39
3-Activities………………………………………………………………….41
4-Roles……………………………………………………………………….43
5-Goals………………………………………………………………………44
CHAPTER 4: BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………..46
CHAPTER 5: RESULTS,FINDINGS AND RESEARCH
PERSPECTIVES…………………………………………………………..52
1-Findings…………………………………………………………………52
2-current worries……………………………………………………….52.
3-Project of program……………………………………………………52
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….54
Table of Content……………………………………………………………55
