A Study of Modified Audiolingual Method on Junior High School Students'' English Listening and Oral Performance

• Main Authors: Chia-Feng Wang, 王家豐
• Other Authors: Wenrong Tsay
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/90334919186830352002

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 教師專業發展研究所 === 102 === The study aimed to examine the effects of modified Audiolingual Method on junior high school students’ English listening and oral performance. In order to testify the adaptability and the effectiveness of modified Audiolingual Method in the English teaching field in junior high school, the researcher not only applied the principles of the Audiolingual Method (ALM) as the main methodical pedagogy but also incorporated the philosophy of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) characterized by meaningful tasks, authenticity and real-world simulation to remedy the criticism of the mechanic drill in ALM. Adopting the nonequivalent control group design in the quasi-experiment, samples in this study were eighth graders selected from two classes in a municipal junior high school in Taichung city. One of the classes was represented as the experimental group, while the other was as the control group. Students in the experimental group were taught based on the pedagogy of modified Audiolingual Method, and those in the control group received the typical didactic instruction. The experiment lasted for 13 weeks, with 78 teaching periods in total. With the General English Proficiency Test (formal tests for elementary learners) as the instrument for the pretest and posttest, the students’ scores on the listening and speaking subtests were analyzed by one-way ANCOVA, independent samples to distinguish the differences of students’ English listening and oral performance in two groups. The posttest scores of the experimental group and the control group showed significant differences. The findings revealed that the effects of modified Audiolingual Method on junior high school students’ English listening and oral performance are quite positive; students who received modified Audiolingual Method instruction have better achievement in the listening and speaking subtests, and the improvement on their listening performance is even more significant than that on their oral performance. It can also be concluded that there is no perfect and universal teaching method, and all the English teachers are thus advised to be eclectic. In this way, we can create our own teaching method by blending aspects of others in a principled manner. Based on the results of the study, the researcher also provided a discussion in which some recommendations have been made regarding instructional assistance and future studies.