ESL & Native Speakers

Subjects in the study consisted of Arab ESL students, all of whom had been originally taught English by non-native speakers of the language and who were now taking ESL classes with native-speakers of English. All subjects were pre- and posttested using a researcher-designed instrument measuring language proficiency. The instrument was designed using the cloze procedure.

One half of the students were assigned to ESL classes where conversation with native speakers of English was not emphasized (the formal instructional environment condition) and the remaining one half of the students were assigned to ESL classes which emphasized conversations with native speakers of English (the informal instructional environment condition). Both classes provided 15 hours of instruction per week for 15 weeks.

A comparison of the pretest scores of students in both condition using the t-test analysis evidenced no significant difference indicating that both groups of subjects began the study equated for English language proficiency. A comparison of the posttest scores of students revealed that students in the informal instructional environment condition exp

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size conversation and so the context variable was insufficiently operationalized. This argument is supported by the finding that although ESL students generally liked their programs and teachers, they felt, regardless of the instructional program they were in, that there was a need for more practice in conversational skills. Of course not all educators agree with the notion that ESL instruction is maximized through the inclusion of a good deal of informal conversation with native speakers. Slade and Gardner (1993) argue that the traditional instructional approach is effective for second language learning, stating that casual conversation can be adequately described, that it has a grammatical structure, and that it is of benefit to English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners for the structure of conversation to be explicitly dealt with. In other words, it is possible for ESL students to learn casual conversation without being in an ESL class that emphasizes conversation with native-speakers because all of the crucial elements in discourse can be described. As to these crucial elements, Slade and Gardner (1993) state that two central issues surround the teaching of casual conversation. These are: (1) whether to simplify the l
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Some common words found in the essay are:
According Perez, Test Test, Arab ESL, Language Proficiency, Slade Gardner, Instructional Prior, Collection Methods, Fluency Test, Language Center, Pretest Posttest, native speakers, instructional environment, conversation native, english language, conversation native speakers, speakers english, esl students, esl classes, informal instructional, language proficiency, english proficiency, native speakers english, informal instructional environment, instructional environment condition, english language proficiency,
Approximate Word count = 4288
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)

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