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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

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Chapter 5: Results, Findings and Research

perspectives………..52

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..54

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

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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 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.

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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 and analysis , the last part will discuss the first

findings and propose some perspectives for the research itself.

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PART ONE

OBJECT OF THE STUDY: THE RESEARCH

TOPIC AND THE PROBLEM

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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

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current attachment to issues relating to the didactic

implications of reading comprehension in our context.

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

1 Richards Hudson, Emeritus professor of Applied linguistics at University College of London

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“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 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

2

3

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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.

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.

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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 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

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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

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

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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?

-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

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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.

-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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PART TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW, CORPUS AND

METHODOLOGY

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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

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CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1- COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

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:

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The sociocultural competence

The linguitic competence

The strategic competence

The actional competence

Discourse competence

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

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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 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

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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.

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

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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)

- 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.

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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

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

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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 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

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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.

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)

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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.

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

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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 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

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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.

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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PART THREE

RESULTS, FINDINGS AND PERSPECTIVES

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

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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 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

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of reading comprehension in the GFE 4è establish during the

field study.

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

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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

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

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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?

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.)

Teacher roleGoals

Tasks Learner roleInput

SettingsActitivities

VI

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

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

VI

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

- 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

VI

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 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

VI

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 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

VI

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 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.

VI

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, 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

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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 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”,

VI

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 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.

VI

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.

CHAPTER 4: BIBLIOGRAPHY

1-CORPUS

- Go For English 4è, Paris London and Oxford, Macmillan

VI

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,

-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.

VI

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

-Sim D.D., Laufer – Dvorkin B. Reading comprehension course;

selected strategies, Collins ELT , P 41.

VI

Oerback KARIN Didacts and Didactizing, P 25

James H. Berry, SC4, Levels of Reading comprehension

copyright © 2005 P3.

Doumbia Issiaka, Côte d’Ivoire : Les manuels d’anglais dans le

système scolaire. Evolutions et perspectives (dissertation

Project)

YAHOT Christophe, Programmes scolaies en Afrique et Enjeux

du troisième Millénaire P7.

Tijani Y. O. Lingustique Appliquée, didactique des langues,

laquelle est prioritaire dans une classe de Français

préliminaire ?

James Gilbert ,Constructivism within the second language

classroom, , Brise state university 2010

Aja Dailey, implementing task-based language teaching in

Korean classrooms, P 19.

Paulo Costa, Enseignant de Français en Angola, compétence de

communicaion et didactique des langues étrangères : la liaison

ratée ! PP 56-61

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

VI

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

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.

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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.

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,

VI

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

CHAPTER 5: RESULTS, FINDINGS AND

PERSPECTIVES

VI

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.

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

developmen

t

Edition and publication 2 months

Total

duration

9 months

CONCLUSION

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

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

VI

2-Reading comprehension……………………………………..……….21

3-Textbook evaluation……………………………………………………

22

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

VI

PART THREE: FINDINGS AND PERSPECTIVES…………………

31

CHAPTER 1: PRESENTATION OF MAJOR PARTS OF THE

STUDY………………………………………………………………………33

1-literature review…………………………………………………………

33

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

VI

Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….54

Table of Content……………………………………………………………

55