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Real Reality Revisited: An Experimental Communicative Course in ESL
Author(s) -
MONTGOMERY CAROL,
EISENSTEIN MIRIAM
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
tesol quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.737
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1545-7249
pISSN - 0039-8322
DOI - 10.2307/3586832
Subject(s) - course (navigation) , communicative language teaching , linguistics , psychology , pedagogy , language education , philosophy , physics , astronomy
This article describes an experimental oral communication course (OCC) offered at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey, and reports the results of a pilot study to evaluate its initial success. The OCC was designed around weekly, structured field trips to sites where students typically need to communicate in English. Each field trip unit consisted of three related classes. In the class prior to a trip, students listened to tapes, practiced functional language, and decided on what information they wanted to obtain. The trip consisted of a tour of the site, followed by a discussion with a resource person. In the subsequent class, students evaluated the trip and reviewed the new language used and the information gained. Students taking the OCC were also enrolled in a required, grammar‐based ESL course. They were compared with a control group taking only the required course. In general, the area of greatest improvement of the OCC group, as compared with the control group, was grammatical accuracy. In addition, a significantly larger number of OCC students passed the component ESL course. Learners evaluated the OCC experience favorably.