Chapter v summary and conclusions

84

Chapter V Summary and Conclusions

5.1 Introduction

Language is essentially a skill; it is not a content subject. There are four

fundamental skills of language. They are Listening, Speaking, Reading and

Writing.

In the beginning, teaching of English in India was completely literature

oriented in which this literature had western influence. Little attention was

paid to linguistic aspects of English. The Indian teachers at school level

followed the translation method. Structural or traditional grammar was taught.

The above scenario has now changed. Our educationalists have understood the

practical importance of language. They have realized that language is more

important than literature. So our syllabuses have become language oriented.

Curriculum (2006) of secondary level is based on communicative approach.

The major thrust of this curriculum is on development of basic language skills

i.e. Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing (LSRW)

Teachers who are now teaching this curriculum were taught by translation

method during their schooling. To teach this new skill based curriculum these

teachers must be well equipped and competent. So in the present research the

researcher had tried to develop language skill training programme for B.Ed.

students.

5.1.1 Importance of Language skills for B.Ed. students

In this curriculum, teaching of languages is expected to be focused on

linguistic aspects. Curriculum of English has following characteristics (preface

IX std. English textbook 2006):-

Learner centered curriculum:

The curriculum of English is learner centered. The role of the learner is

that of an active participant and the facilitator. The focus is on learning

process itself.

Chapter v summary and conclusions

85

Need based curriculum:

The curriculum of English takes into consideration the needs of the learner

and the society at large. The learner needs to be equipped with language

skills which will enable him to make effective use of English language in

different context.

Value oriented curriculum:

Language education cannot focus only on development of language skills

it has to nurture basic values as well.

Skill based curriculum:

The major thrust of this curriculum is on development of basic language

skills Listening, Speaking, and Reading (LSRW). The basic assumption

here is that language is a skill subject and not a content subject.

Nature and importance of these four skills are as follows:

Nature of listening comprehension.

While speaking it is the learner who himself selects the language that is used.

While listening however he cannot have any control over the language that is

used. He has to extract meaning from whatever language is directed at him. So

listening is also an active skill such as speaking skill. Listening demands

active involvement from the listeners in order to reconstruct the message that

the speaker intends. Successful listening involves:

-- Skills in segmenting the stream of speech into meaningful words and

phrases.

-- recognizing word classes.

-- relating the incoming message to one’s own background.

-- identifying the rhetorical and functional intent of an utterance or part of an

aural text

-- interpreting rhythm, stress and intonation to identify information focus and

emotional and attitudinal tones.

Chapter v summary and conclusions

86

-- extracting gist / essential information from longer aural texts without

necessarily understanding every word.

Nature of speaking or oral communication.

Oral communication is an activity that involves two or more people. In it the

participants are both speakers and listeners and they react to what they hear

and make their contributions at high speed. Each participant has an intension

or set of intentions that he wants to achieve in the interaction. Each participant

has to be able to interpret what is said to him which he cannot predict exactly

either in terms of form or in terms of meaning and reply with what he has at

his disposal in a way that takes account of what has just been said and which

reflects his own intensions at this point in the interaction. (Scott 1983-70)

The primary function of written language is transactional to convey

information. The interactional function on the other hand is listener oriented.

Its purpose is to establish and maintain social relationship.

Primarily transactional spoken language is frequently concerned to get things

done in the real world for e.g. a boss dictates a letter, a teacher explains an

English construction to a class, a student requests for permission to leave the

room etc.

Successful oral communication according to Nunan (1989:32) involves

developing:

→The ability to articulate phonological features of language

compehensensibly;

→ Mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns;

→ An acceptable degree of fluency;

→ Transactional and inter personal skills;

→ Skills in taking short and long turns;

→ Skills in management of interaction;

→ Skills in negotiating meaning;

Chapter v summary and conclusions

87

→Conventional listening skill (successful conversation requires good listeners

as well as good speaker);

→ Skills in knowing about and negotiating purpose for conversations;

→ Using appropriate formulae and fillers.

The nature of Reading

Reading is not on invariant / unchanging skill: there are different types of

reading skill which correspond too many different purposes we have for

reading.

White (1983, 87) suggested that we read in order to obtain information which

is presented in written form. By information he means content which is

cognitive (or intellectual) referential (or factual) or affective (or emotional).

Reading is a purposeful activity. Developing purposive reading skill in the

student, involves training him to adopt a number of different reading styles

related to his reason for reading. We will have to develop the ability to switch

reading styles according to purpose.

Pugh (1978, 68) distinguishes the styles and techniques of reading as follows:

- SCANNING (To locate known items)

- SKIMMING (To gain an idea of organization of the text)

- RECEPTIVE READING (To discover accurately what the writer wishes to

say)

- RESPONSIVE READING (To reflect on what the writer has written).

Nature of Writing

Writing is not a natural activity. All physically and mentally normal people

learn to speak a language. Yet all people have to be taught how to write. This

is crucial difference between the spoken and written form of language. There

are other differences as well.

Writing unlike speech: is displaced in time. Indeed this must be one reason

why writing originally involved since it makes possible the transmission of a

Chapter v summary and conclusions

88

message from one place to another. A written language can be received, stored

referred back any time. It is permanent in comparison with the ephemeral

(“here one minute gone the next.”) character of spoken language even of

spoken language that is recorded or tape or disc.

Thus this is the present situation regarding approaches and curriculum of

English language. The aim of this skill based curriculum is to help students to

master the language skills. But the researcher found position of English in

respect of teaching is not so far good. Teaching of English starts from std. I in

the state of Maharashtra, who opt for Marathi medium. Working as a teacher

educator the researcher experienced that there is dearth of good English

teachers in schools. The result is that the standard of teaching and learning

English has been deteriorated. English is taught only from examination point

of view. The result is that the students cannot achieve mastery over language

skills. So there is need to give skill based training at B.Ed. level so that these

would be teachers will master language skills and inculcate the same in their

students, in the same way as they are taught . Thus language skills are very

important for B.Ed. students because they are supposed to teach new skill

oriented syllabus which is introduced from 2006.

5.1.2 Need of the research problem

While teaching B.Ed. students the researcher realized that the students require

training for enhancement of language skills- LSRW. On helping B.Ed.

students to improve their language skills the researcher is helping the students

to apply their acquired knowledge to their actual classroom teaching

throughout their professional career.

5.2 Statement of the problem

“Development of language skill training programme in English for B.Ed.

students”

Chapter v summary and conclusions

89

5.2.1 Explanation of terms

1 Language skills:

Basic language skills are listening, speaking, reading and writing. In this

research context functional usage of these skills at secondary level is

considered.

2 Training programme:

Training programme was prepared by the researcher and it consists

following procedural steps:-

Listening skill:

- Pretest

- Orientation on nature and importance of listening skill

- Listening exercises, listening activities such as performing transferring

information discriminating etc.

Speaking skill

- Pretest

- Orientation on nature and importance of speaking skill.

- Speaking skill activities to develop linguistic competence,

communicative activities such as identifying pictures, giving

instructions/ description/explanation, making appropriate responses,

social interaction activities, using English in the classroom.

Facilitation dialogue etc.

- Post test.

Reading skill:

- Pretest

- Orientation on nature and importance of reading skill

- Learning experiences and reading activities to develop reading

skill such as loud reading activities, silent reading activities-

Chapter v summary and conclusions

90

matching words to pictures, word meaning from the context,

reading comprehension, jumbled paragraph, true false, close

exercises etc.

- Post test.

Writing skill:

- Pretest

- Orientation on nature and importance of writing skill

- Teaching writing skill using techniques such as copying,

dictation, proof reading, cognitive exercises, close procedure,

conversation, combinations, controlled writing such as controlled

and guided composition, sentence combining, parallel writing

etc.

- Post test.

The programme does not aim at developing the skills one after another but it

was simultaneous development of all four skills. Duration of the programme

was 40 clock hours.

5.3 Objectives of the research

To develop language skill training programme for B.Ed. students

To study effectiveness of training programme in terms of LSRW skills

with the help of oral and written achievement tests.

5.4 Tools of data collection

Written achievement tests for testing writing skill and reading

comprehension

Oral achievement test for testing listening, speaking and reading skill

5.5 Research hypothesis

Training programme of language skills enhances performance of at least 80%

of student teachers at least up to 80% marks (mastery level) in the post test of

language skills.

Chapter v summary and conclusions

91

As the research is based on four language skills the performance will be

measured for four post tests. So there were four sub hypotheses they are as

follows;

Training programme of language skills enhances performance of at least 80%

of student teachers at least up to 80% marks (mastery level) in the post test of

A) Listening skills

B) Speaking skills

C) Reading skills

D) Writing skills

5.6 Scope and limitations

This research was limited to Pune city only

It was restricted to student teachers having English methodology as

one method

Student teachers were restricted to one university only

The language skills mentioned are related only with B.Ed. syllabus of

English method

5.7 Related literature and researches

Review work was done in S.N.D.T. Women University, Pune University

libraries. Various internet web sites were also referred.

Conclusions from literature survey

Various volumes of books and journals and published research papers helped

the researcher in formulating her own procedure for the research work. A brief

idea about how various findings given in the paper and articles helped the

researcher to formulate her own strategy of research work is given below.

Activities, exercise, strategies, technologies and suggestions mentioned by the

following authors and internet topics helped the researcher to formulate her

own strategy for conducting language activities;

The Language exercises of Aparaj S.M.( 1991) for developing auditory

abilities.

Chapter v summary and conclusions

92

Suggestions given by Rao, Ramchandra K., Nijalingappa P. and Pillai

Swaminathan S(1998) were implied for development of

communication skill.

Strategies for developing Language skills given in the Internet Topic

“Essentials of language teaching” by NCLRC provided effective

strategies.

“English as a Second language.” by Kenneth Beare, provide listening

tips. Practice exercises for speaking skill given in the topic “Intonation

and stress, key to understand and being understood”. Literacy-based

assistive screen-reading technology.

The following test following helped the researcher to construct language skill

tests;

Reading comprehension test of Ahuja G.C. and Ahuja pramila (1988), the five

part test prepared by Rao Ramchandra (1998), questionnaires constructed by

Mathew Anjilivellie (1989), silent reading comprehension test used by Vora

R.R., Multiple choice Reading comprehension Test constructed by Chawla

Swarn, reading and speaking skill tests prepared by Tapkir D.(2007) and task-

based English speaking test (TBEST) by Witt, Autumn Song (2010) provided

guide line for construction of LSRW skill tests researcher came to know what

types of questions can be given to assess skills, some questions from above

related researches were used, these researches also provided criteria for

checking those tests which were useful while checking the tests.

In the research of Yakimchuk Daniel (2010) where he tried to improve English

language proficiency of undergraduate second language learners through

literacy based assistive technology. In his study he determined a significant

effect of use of screen reading software, 84% of his participants reported that

screen reading software improved their reading, 75% reported improvement in

listening and 56% reported improvement in writing 84% reported that they

had positive effects on their academic performance and improvement of study

skills and 78% reported that their confidence level increased. The findings of

this research are in a line with the researcher.

Chapter v summary and conclusions

93

5.8 Research methodology

Selection of experimental design depends upon the information, the researcher

wanted to explore with respect to a particular problem. To test the hypothesis

the experimental design selected by the researcher was a Pretest post test

single group design

Research design

Pretest post test single group design

1 Pretest

2 Implementation of programme

3 Post test

Pre-testing was done only to ensure that the students have not reached the

mastery level in LSRW skills. Scores of pretest were not considered during

data analysis.

5.9 Development of programme

After decision about the method and design the first step researcher took was

to develop language skill training programme which was developed through

following steps

The first step in developing or designing training programme is to identify

needs and decide the task. Once the task decided, selection and sequence of

the content as well as training strategies were also decided. All these matters

were discussed separately in this chapter

Chapter v summary and conclusions

94

Following flowchart describes

Selection of content

Skill items – 1. Orientation about nature and importance of each skill

2. Orientation about sub skills of each skill in detail

3. Activities to develop each skill

Identification of needs and decision of tasks

Implementation of programme

Evaluation of the training programme

Selecting teaching methods

instructional

strategies/training

Selection of sample

Selecting sequence of content

Development of instructional material

Preparation of tests

Expert’s comments

Pilot test

Students’ feedback

Chapter v summary and conclusions

95

Nature of training programme

Schematic of activities and learning experiences

Orientation about nature and importance of each skill

Orientation about sub skills of each skill

Activities to develop listening skill

Activities to develop speaking skill

Activities to develop reading skill

Activities to develop writing skill

Teaching aids and other study material

1. Orientation about nature and importance of each skill

2. Orientation about sub skills of each skill

3. Following were the activities to develop listening skill (how was it

delivered)

a) Listen to the pairs of words and write ‘s’ if the vowel in the pair are

same, write ‘D’ if they are different.

b) Listen to the pairs of words and write ‘s’ if the consonant in the pair

are same, write ‘D’ if they are different.

c) Listen to the words and write 1 if the stress is on the first syllable,

write 2 if the stress is on the second syllable.

d) Listen to the words and write 2 if the word is bi- syllabic, ‘3’if

word is tri syllabic and ‘4’ if word is Monosyllabic.

e) Listen to the following sentences and write ‘F’ if the sentence is in

the falling intonation write ‘K’ if the sentence is in rising

intonation.

f) Performing task.

This is individual activity. Researcher asked learners to listen

attentively and selectively and perform the task accordingly. The

Chapter v summary and conclusions

96

learner is expected to extract only that information which is relevant

to the task, success in this activity is measured in purely practical

way whether the (non linguistic task) is performed correctly or not:

g) Identification and selection.

Researcher says set of words. The learner listens to the set of words

and finds the odd word from the set.

h) Lerner was given set of two pictures which are similar in content

but contain a number of distinguishing features. The learner listen a

description of one and selects the picture which the spoken text

refers to.

i) The learner was given set of five pictures in front of him. He was

supposed to listen 4 descriptions and select the appropriate picture

being described.

j) Sequencing

Learner was supposed to identify pictures that were described

through story and place them in correct sequence.

k) Locating

l) Listen to the conversation and answer the questions about

conversation

4. Activities to develop speaking skill

a) Pronunciation - Drill

b) Sentence drill

c) Learners were given chits each student picked up one chit think for

two–three minutes and talked on the topic for 2 minutes or nearly

10 sentences

d) Making Appropriate Response

e) Role Playing

f) Conversation facilitation dialogues to provide student teachers with

a stock of useful expression were introduced.

Chapter v summary and conclusions

97

(Clichés of conversation, fluently used expressions, Conversational

greetings.) Practice was given to use such expressions. Some

model conversations were shown

5. Activities to develop reading skill

a) Match the sentences to pictures

b) Match the sentences halves

c) Loud reading practice

d) Silent reading

e) Word meaning from context exercise

f) Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below

6. Activities to develop writing skill

a) copying

b) Substitution table

c) Dictation

d) Dicto comp

e) Proof reading

f) Cognitive exercise

g) Write the selection without stopping to choose the correct missing

words. Read the selection again to see if it makes sense.

h) Close procedure

i) Rewrite the sentences replacing the singular nouns with plurals and

make all the necessary changes

j) Rewrite the sentences replacing the plural nouns with singular

Chapter v summary and conclusions

98

k) Combination

l) Guided composition

m) Parallel writing

More activities were added according to the needs of student teachers

Detail programme is provided in the appendix

7. Teaching aids and other study material

a) Study material was collected from books, news papers and internet

b) Language games were collected from books news papers and internet

c) Activities were also collected from books related to language skill from

Cambridge university press and internet

d) These activities were checked by experts and pilot test were also taken and

changes were made according to the suggestions

5.10 Implementation of programme and data collection

After planning of the programme it was executed with pre and post testing.

The duration of the programme was from 8th

October 2009 to 2nd February

2010 and it took 38 and 1/5 hours to complete.

Time Schedule of the Programme

Day Date Time minutes Clock

Hours

Thursday 08/10/2009 7.30 to 9.00 a.m 90 min. 1&1/5

hours

Friday 09/10/2009 8.00 to 9.00 a.m 60 min. 1 hour

Saturday 10/10/2009 9.00 to 12.00 a.m 180 min. 3 hours

Sunday 11/10/2009 10.00 to 12.00 a.m 120 min. 2 hours

Monday 12/10/2009 8.00 to 9.00 a.m 60 min. 1 hour

Wednesday 14/10/2009 8.00 to 9.00 a.m 60 min. 1 hour

Chapter v summary and conclusions

99

Thursday 22/10/2009 8.00 to 9.00 a.m 60 min. 1 hour

Friday 23/10/2009 8.00 to 9.00 a.m 60 min. 1 hour

Saturday 24/10/2009 2.30 to 3.30 p.m 60 min. 1 hour

Monday 26/10/2009 8.00 to 9.00 a.m 60 min. 1 hour

Tuesday 27/10/2009 8.00 to 9.00 a.m 60 min. 1 hour

Wednesday 28/10/2009 8.00 to 9.00 a.m 60 min. 1 hour

Saturday 07/11/2009 2.00 to 4.00 p.m 120 min. 2 hours

Sunday 08/11/2009 10.00 a.m to 2.00

p.m 210 min.

3 & 1/5

hours

Wednesday 11/11/2009 8.00 to 9.00 a.m 60 min. 1 hour

Friday 13/11/2009 4.30 to 5.30 p.m 60 min. 1 hour

Monday 16/11/2009 8.10 to 9.00 a.m 50 min. ---

Monday 23/11/2009 9.30 to 11.00 a.m 90 min. 1 & 1/5

hours

Saturday 19/12/2009 1.00 to 2.30 p.m 90 min. 1 & 1/5

hours

Sunday 20/12/2009 9.00 to 12.00 a.m 180 min. 3 hours

Sunday 03/01/2010 9.00 to 11.00 a.m 120 min. 2 hours

Tuesday 26/1/2010 9.15 to 12.15 a.m 180 min. 3 hours

Thursday 28/1/2010 8.00 to 9.00 a.m 60 min. 1 hour

Friday 29/1/2010 8.00 to 9.00 a.m 60 min. 1 hour

Monday 01/02/2010 8.00 to 9.00 a.m 60 min. 1 hour

Tuesday 02/02/2010 2.00 to 3.30 p.m 90 min. 1 & 1/5

hours

Total 2360 min. 38 & 1/5 hours

Chapter v summary and conclusions

100

5.11 Analysis and interpretation of data

In the present research the researcher has done both quantitative and

qualitative data analysis. In order to test the hypotheses the researcher has

used chi-square test, a non parametric statistical procedure of inferential data

analysis. Qualitative analysis was done by using quantifications.

Quantitative data analysis

Research Hypothesis:

Training programme of language skills enhances performance of at least 80%

of student teachers at least up to 80% marks (mastery level) in the post test of

A) Listening skills

B) Speaking skills

C) Reading skills

D) Writing skills

Null Hypothesis: Observed percentage of performance of student teachers

in A) Listening B) Speaking C) Reading D) Writing skill will not be

significantly less than expected percentage (i.e. 80% of student teachers

will achieve 80% marks) at .01 level.

Hypotheses testing

Statistics is an indispensable tool in the hands of the researcher that enables

them to make inferences or generalizations about populations from their

observations of the characteristics of samples.

In the present research in order to make inferences the researcher has applied

chi-square test, a test to determine if the proportions of two categories differ

from the expected proportions.

Formula of chi square test

x² = ∑ (fo-fe )2

fe

Chapter v summary and conclusions

101

Data analysis:

In the present research hypothesis (A) is “Training programme of language

skills enhances listening performance of at least 80% of student teachers at

least up to 80% marks (mastery level) in the post test of listening skills.”

The expected and observed performance is as shown in the table

Observed %

Expected%

The observed performance clearly indicates that the expectation is fulfilled

and hence there is no need to apply the chi square test.

We can conclude that training programme is effective for listening skill.

The graph below is an indicator of enhancement of listening skills

Percentage of student

teachers below 80% marks

Percentage of

student teachers

above 80% marks

0 100

20 80

Chapter v summary and conclusions

102

hypothesis (B) “Training programme of language skills enhances speaking

performance of at least 80% of student teachers at least up to 80% marks

(mastery level) in the post test of speaking skill.”

The expected and observed performance is as shown in the table

Observed %

Expected %

The observed performance clearly indicates that the expectation is fulfilled

and hence there is no need to apply the chi square test.

We can conclude that training programme is effective for speaking skill.

The graph below is an indicator of enhancement of speaking skills

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Mar

ks

Students Sr. No.

Speaking skill pretest post test marks

Pre test

Total out of

150 Post test

Total out of

150

Below 80% Above 80%

0 100

20 80

Chapter v summary and conclusions

103

hypothesis (C) “Training programme of language skills enhances reading

performance of at least 80% of student teachers at least up to 80% marks

(mastery level) in the post test of reading skill.”

The expected and observed performance is as shown in the table

Observed %

Expected %

The observed performance clearly indicates that the expectation is fulfilled

and hence there is no need to apply the chi square test.

We can conclude that training programme is effective for reading skill.

The graph below is an indicator of enhancement of reading skills

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Pre testTotal out

of 40 Post testTotal out

of 40

Reading skill pre test and post test marks

Mar

ks

Students sr. No.

Below 80% Above 80%

0 100

20 80

Chapter v summary and conclusions

104

hypothesis (D) “Training programme of language skills enhances reading

performance of at least 80% of student teachers at least up to 80% marks

(mastery level) in the post test of reading skill.”

The expected and observed performance is as shown in the table

Observed %

Expected %

In writing skill student teachers have not acquired the expected level so it is

necessary to test the hypothesis statistically

To test the above null hypothesis we need to apply chi square test.

Null Hypothesis: Observed percentage of performance of student teachers

in Writing skill will not be significantly less than expected percentage (i.e.

80% of student teachers will achieve 80% marks) at .01 level.

Chi square is calculated with the help of

http://www.graphpad.com/welcome.htm Chi-square test result

P value and statistical significance:

Chi squared equals 68.063 with 1 degrees of freedom.

The two-tailed P value is less than 0.0001

By conventional criteria; this difference is considered to be extremely statistically

significant. Hence null hypothesis is to be accepted and research hypothesis is to

be rejected.

Below 80% Above 80%

53 47

20 80

Chapter v summary and conclusions

105

Conclusions:

x² value is less than P value hence the difference is significant in observed and

expected frequency of facts, here expected frequency for above 80% was 12

where as observed frequency is 7 for the same this is significantly lower than

expected hence null hypothesis is rejected but research hypothesis that In post

test 80% student teachers will acquire at least 80% mastery also is to be

rejected.

Qualitative data analysis

In the present research researcher has made an attempt to analyze and interpret

data (observations during the programme, students’ opinions about training

programme etc.) with the help of qualitative analysis.

Observations of students during the programme were analyzed skill wise

first. Further these observations of students were classified according to four

changes which were observed during the programme. These changes are:

1) change in attitude

2) change in habit

3) change in behavior

4) change towards language skill development

The researcher has used quantification for counting number of occurrences of

above changes in students.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

post test out of 40

Writing skill pre test post test marks

mar

ks

Students Sr. No.

Pre test out of 40

Chapter v summary and conclusions

106

To specify these changes the researcher has used colours as follows

1) Orange colour to show change in attitude

2) Pink colour to show change in habit

3) Green colour to show change in behavior

4) Blue colour to show change towards language skill development.

Brief Description

Following is description of change in attitude

Prior to implementation of the programme researcher observed following

behavior of the students

1) Either they skip the class or would not pay attention,

2) They were less interested,

3) They would not do their assignment.

After implementation of the programme following changes were observed

1) Students were eager and excited to know about skills and sub skills.

2) They were excited to know about stress, rhythm and intonation also

tried to make use of them.

3) They were eager to know each and every minute pronunciation,

diphthongs and their articulation and practice each diphthong to find its

articulation.

4) They willingly learn writing techniques including creative writing.

5) Students started thinking about each skills and its importance.

Following is the description of change in habit

First of all students made themselves listen carefully which was very

important habitual change. They were pronouncing each word using correct

articulation which helped them to get rid of their hesitation. They also change

their reading habits they learn to hold book properly, they read confidently.

Their pronunciation was correct. Training helped to inculcate proper writing

habits in them.

Following is the description of change in behavior

Students were very serious while learning language skills. Each student was

taking sincere efforts to learn at their best. They told the researcher to repeat

vowels and consonants and description of articulation. They showed interest in

Chapter v summary and conclusions

107

speech act theory and imaginary writing. They enjoy pronouncing words and

sentences with proper stress. They could write and select proper content for

imaginary writing.

Following is the description of change towards skill development

Listening practice helped students to develop habit of careful listening. It also

helped them to understand minute stress differences in words. Practice of

syllabic words helped to develop accurate listening of the words. Listening

skill orientation, practice and activities helped students to master listening

skill. They understand accents in sentences, they carefully understand what is

rhythm and how does it work. Students pronounce sentences correctly using

falling rising intonation. They practice and started using sentences. They

brought dictionary and started finding words for their expressions. These

activities helped students to master conversation skill. Students willingly

practice loud reading they tried to use advanced learners dictionary to

understand proper pronunciations. Students confidently used British Received

pronunciations. Students were reading the sentences carefully and trying to

understand the contextual meaning of the words and sentences, they used

dictionary to find out meanings of the words and paraphrase the passage

correctly. Students learn to write in proper format, they were trying to write

grammatically correct sentences they could write news properly with headline,

dateline and leading paragraph and short continuing paragraph. Their sentence

construction, grammar and use of tense were correct. They could complete

guided compositions and story in their own words. They could writ essay with

the help of points given.

5.12 Conclusions

Hence it can be concluded that

- In Listing, speaking and reading skill 80% students could achieve 80%

marks after implementation of programme

- In writing skill 80% students could not achieve 80% marks

- writing skill programme needs improvement

Chapter v summary and conclusions

108

5.13 Notable experiences

Experiences with students

Students of sample group were very cooperative. They willingly

participated in the activities and gave their opinions regarding the

whole programme which found useful for qualitative analysis.

In the beginning students were hesitating to converse, loud reading,

and speech on one topic. When they realize that level of their

classmates is same no one is perfect they started to take part willingly

and co operated their friends to improve and slowly with the progress

of the programme hesitation came to almost zero level.

This helped to build confidence in them

When they started to converse in English they were little fluent but

accuracy was the problem

Peer sharing in bringing accuracy helped prior to researcher’s

intervention

Some Marathi words were used in conversation

Tape recorder was one of the modes for their skill development.

Initially they were reluctant for recording as they knew about the

mistakes committed by them but it helped to improve their

performances. Researcher tried to convince them and the reluctance

was reduced.

Problem of reluctant was not faced when they were facing the camera.

5.14 Discussion, Implication and contribution of the study

For the students

It will be useful for students who are second language learners of English; it

will provide guidelines for learning languages. Present research work will

provide guidelines for the students who are doing research in the field of

language skills.

For the teachers

Present research is useful for teachers of English, while teaching skill based

syllabus they can use some strategies from this programme.

Chapter v summary and conclusions

109

Apart from teaching learning strategies programme contains evaluation

strategies these evaluation strategies will help the teachers for continuous

comprehensive evaluation of English subject.

Programme is useful for pre-service and in-service secondary school teachers

of English.

For the policy makers

Present research will provide guidelines for policymakers while developing

English curriculum. Programme will be helpful for text book writers. There is

some training to appear in various public service competitive examinations

this programme is useful for such type of training.

5.15 Suggestions for further researches

Research can be undertaken for language skills like communication

skill, presentation skill, discussion skill etc. at various educational

levels from primary to tertiary Titles can be as follows

- Development of communication skill training programme in

English / (any other language).

There is no need to limit particular language because such research can

be done in regional languages. Title can be as follows

- Development of language skill training programme in

Marathi/Hindi /Urdu/any other regional language.