Graduate and undergraduate students attitudes towards various aspects of communicative classrooms

Abstract

ABSTRACT Title: Graduate and undergraduate students1 attitudes towards various aspects of communicative classrooms Author: Serap Topuz Thesis Chairperson: Dr. Phyllis L. Lim, Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program Thesis Committee Members: Ms. Patricia J. Brenner, Dr. Arlene Clachar, Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program Although the Communicative Approach has been a major focus of language teaching and learning in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms for some time, little attention has been paid to the attitudes of students towards communicative activities. A common focus of many researchers is that it is necessary to attend to students' views and attitudes towards activities, whether they believe these activities are helpful for them as language learners (e.g., Green, 1993). The results of previous research indicate differences in the attitudes of student populations in English as a second language (ESL) and differences in learning style preferences in native speaking (NS) settings (Peck, 1991; Reid, 1987). It has been seen that attitudes varied according to variables such as age, status, educational background, home and community environment. These differences in attitudes of students of various ages towards activities and the differences in learning styles, of graduate and undergraduate students (Peck, 1991; Reid, 1987) inspired this researcher to investigate whether these differences exist in a Turkish EFL setting. Therefore, the basic focus of this research was to investigate graduate and undergraduate students'attitudes towards various aspects of communicative classrooms, specifically activities, by means of a survey at Çukurova University preparatory school, Adana, Turkey. In order to gather data on attitudes of graduate (G) and undergraduate (UG) students towards communicative classrooms, a 25-item questionnaire of communicative and noncommunicative statements was administered to 60 graduate and 60 undergraduate students in the preparatory program. In responding to the items on the questionnaire, the subjects were asked to indicate their responses for each statement on a 5-point scale, from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). In analyzing the data, the frequencies of responses falling into different categories were calculated for each item. The means for each of the 25 items were calculated separately for both G and UG students. In order to test the significance of differences between the groups, 25 it- tests of independent samples were done. Significant differences (p_<.05 or p_<.10) between the attitudes of G and UG students were shown in 5 of the 25 items. Gs favor practicing with cassettes or videotapes more than UGs. Despite the general communicative preference exhibited by both groups, Gs believe that accuracy is more important than fluency and that teachers should provide the grammar rules. Gs also emphasized the effectiveness of dialogue memorization. UGs are less interested in grammar, accuracy, and dialogue memorization; however, they likepair work more than Gs. While significant differences only appeared in 5 items, overall, results indicated that both groups showed higher preferences for communicative activities than for noncommunicative activities. Giving this type of survey to both Gs and UGs and comparing the results can help to raise teacher awareness in the selection of appropriate methods and activities. i