An Empirical Study on Effects of Teaching Communication Strategies (CS) in Use of Materials Developed for Learning CS

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Major objectives of this two-year research project (2003-04) were twofold as reported below.Empirical study (2003): Using materials, ENGEL (English Generative Learning), for teaching communication strategies (CS) that were produced prior to the research project, an experimental CS training program (CSP) was given to 79 English learners (73 of them as final subjects for the study). Oral data were collected through 4 types of oral tests at pre-, post-, and delayed post test periods. Analyses of the data collected indicate that the CPS contributes to a large extent to restructuring learners' language knowledge and facilitating their processing efficiency and time and that it works to raise learners' learning motivation; however, further studies are needed to investigate how much it helps learners acquire new linguistic knowledge.Questionnaire survey (2004): 0n the basis of the first year's study, ENGEL was upgraded, and in order to conduct a follow-up questionnaire survey it was distributed to high school and college students who hoped to use it. Responses to the survey were obtained from about 110 students (about 1/3 of the entire ENGEL users to whom it was offered. (The survey was anonymous, and it relied on the users' free Will.) Revealed from the survey were that learning contents, especially the concept of CS, were understood fully by the users, that the learners' motivation was raised highly despite concern about the learning activities in use of a computer, and that many of them were eager to continue studying English in this way.The entire project could be fulfilled in two years as planned. The foci of the study have been placed mainly on CS used for lexical problems. The researchers of this study are hoping to extend the concept of CS to pragmatic aspects of language use which reflects more authentic language use.