A SITUATED LEARNING PRACTICE FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING CLASSES: TEACHING SPOKEN ENGLISH WITH AUTHENTIC

A SITUATED LEARNING PRACTICE FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING CLASSES: TEACHING SPOKEN ENGLISH WITH AUTHENTIC

EFE, Hüseyin
DEMİRÖZ, Hakan
AKDEMİR, Ahmet Selçuk

Situated Learning is a term first proposed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger as a model of learning in a community of practice. According to Lave and Wenger learning should not be viewed as simply the transmission of abstract and decontextualised knowledge from one individual to another, but a social process whereby knowledge is co-constructed; they suggest that such learning is situated in a specific context and embedded within a particular social and physical environment. Foreign language teaching is proved to be most effective and optimal only when it is performed in a setting of real communication and performance. The exposure to spoken language and cultural elements of foreign language is the best way of teaching the language itself rather than grammatical patterns and rules of the language. In this study, we aim to review ‗situational learning approach‘ in context with its role and efficiency of teaching spoken language. An experimental study was conducted on the university students in the prep classes at the School of Tourism in Erzincan University. 12 male and 11 female students in the control group and 14 male and 10 female students in the experimental group took part in the research. The language levels of the students were determined by a language proficiency test which is used as pre-test of the study. Language proficiency test composed of mainly dialogues including spoken language patterns. After 8 weeks of lectures with authentic sketches which were used as reading materials in experimental group and classical reading materials in control group, the students were given the same language proficiency test as post-test. When pre and post-test results were evaluated, we found that there was a significant difference between the pre and post-test results of the subjects on behalf of the students in the experimental group. In view of the findings obtained from the study, we can conclude that spoken language can be achieved by authentic sketches which are designed to serve as a situated learning setting.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2011-05

59