THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE CASE STUDY APPROACH ON
A COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Annotation
Researchers in education have demonstrated that students’ active participation in the education process increases their learning and retention. Methods of small group activities, case studies and cooperative students’ projects give the opportunity to actively participate in the learning process. The goal of this paper is to describe the case study approach, helped to maximize student talking time in the language classroom. To obtain the data the writer conducted a non-participant observation. The result of this research from the observation is that students are more interested in learning process when they are involved into.
Key words: case study approach, structural language approach, communicative language teaching (CLT).
Аннотация
Білім саласындағы зерттеулер студенттердің оқу процесіне белсенді түрде атсалысуы олардың ұғынуы мен алған білімін тəжірибеде қолдана білуіне зор əсерін тигізетінін көрсетті. Шағын топтық жұмыстар, кейс-стади жəне ұйымдық əдістер студенттерге сабақ барысында белсенді болуға мүмкіндік береді. Мақаланың мақсаты – ағылшын тілі сабағында студенттің сөйлесімін дамытуға септігін тигізетін кейс-стади əдісін жан-жақты сипаттау. Мақалаға келтірілген мəліметтер осыған дейінгі зерттеушілердің пікірін талдап, саралау арқылы жинақталды.
Қорытындылай келе, студенттердің мақсатқа жету жолы өздеріне байланысты болса, олардың оқу процесіне деген қызығушылығын артады.
Түйін сөздер: кейс-стади əдісі, құрылымдық əдіс, тілді оқытудың коммуникативтік əдісі.
Цель статьи описать метод кейс-стади как метод, дающий возможность увеличить время разговорной речи студентов на уроке английского языка. Материалы предыдущих исследователей, приведенные в статье, собраны и проанализированы автором. Исследованием доказывается, что активное участие студентов в процессе обучения развивает у них способности запоминания материала и применения его на практике. Методы обучения в группах, кейс-стади и сотрудничество в обучении дают студентам возможность активно участвовать в учебном процессе.
Авторы статьи делают вывод о том, что студенты заинтересованы в процессе обучения тогда, когда ключ к решению задач принадлежит им.
Ключевые слова: метод кейс-стади, структурный подход, коммуникативный подход к обучению языка.
In the context of modern society, and especially in Kazakhstan, a newly developing country, standing on the threshold of globalization, the need for formation of its language skills for the population is as strong as ever.
The Republic of Kazakhstan is the one of Central-Asian country where the three lingual policy is assumed by President. Therefore, the formation and development of the new system of education in Kazakhstan, oriented to entry in the world educational space is urgent nowadays. If, previously the universities’ major aim was that of providing students with certain types of knowledge that they were expected to apply later, universities today focuses primarily on “life skills”. Our goal is to teach students to obtain knowledge by themselves and to work in ways that enable them to come up with new ideas. Generating idea is a key tenet of modern society. We need professionals who are competent talented, innovative and creative problem-solvers, skilled and critical thinkers. In this connection the formation of students’ communicative competence in ELT through case-study approach is essential. This is the fact that the State Program of Education Development in Kazakhstan for the period 2011-2020 recommends to improve communicative and professional competence and to achieve the Higher Education will have been entered to the Europe educational area. This makes our students study English language and not just study, but to provide them with the communication skills necessary for the different roles and situations in which they are likely to fi nd themselves after leaving university to make the learning of the English language more functional and purposeful.
Associated with American psychologists such as Bloomfi eld and Skinner, the structural approach is rooted in behaviorism, a theory which views language learning as learning a set of habits. In this approach, elements in a language are viewed as being linearly produced in a rule-governed way. Language samples can be exhaustively described at all levels, such as phonetic, phonemic and morphological. Linguistic levels are regarded as being pyramidically structured from phonemes to morphemes to phrases, clauses and sentences. The focus of language teaching in the Structural Approach is on speech. Another important tenet of the approach is that focus is on knowledge of language, with the ‘doing’ being subservient to knowing. The belief is that “Language learning comes about by teaching learners to know the forms of the language as a medium and the meaning they incorporate”. Focus, therefore, is on what Widdowson refers to as language usage, which is dependent on “knowledge of the grammatical rules of the language being learned.” Structural methods of language teaching include the grammar- translation method, the direct method, the oral approach or situational language teaching, and the audio lingual method [1].
CLT is based on a theory of language as a system of expression of meaning, the primary function of language being interaction and communication. Mhundwa also stresses the importance of meaning in CLT, which is what motivates learners to master the target language. There is a subservience and subordination of form to function. The focus is on communicative competence rather than on linguistic or grammatical competence.
Another characteristic of CLT is that classroom communication is planned and presented in ways that stimulate real life situations. Richards and Rodgers give examples of functional communicative activities as: giving and following directions, solving problems, using clues, conversations, dialogues, role plays and debates, all of which should not be memorized since, speech by its very nature is spontaneous. Such communicative activities facilitate co-operation and group work is one of the techniques that stimulate natural language activity in discussion and conversation. There is need for students to interact more with each other than with the teacher because CLT is both learner-centered and experience-based. So following these principles case study is the most perfect method in context of CLT [1].
The case method is a teaching approach that consists in presenting the students with a case, putting them in the role of a decision maker facing a problem.
As a part of CLT case study describes a reallife situation, usually a problem or problems that need to be solved. Case studies give basic information about a problem, about the main decision makers and other relevant background information. Then, they present a problem which needs to be solved, together with some additional information (often in the form of charts, graphs and tables) which may be helpful when looking for the best solution to the problem. It needs to be stressed that the qualitative and quantitative data presented in the case should not allow for easy answers. Rather, students should be encouraged to deduct, analyze, interpret and suggest various hypothetical solutions. Students prefer cases presenting problems that have appeared recently because then they know reality better. Some course-book authors and teachers write fi ctitious cases specifi cally for language teaching purposes. But the problem in Kazakhstan, that we do not have such kind of books. Therefore, to use this method ESL teachers need to solve this problem. Mini-case studies have great pedagogical value since they teach students how to use their theoretical knowledge of language combined with analytical thinking to solve realistic problems and use them in real life — all that in the medium of English.
The structure of a case may vary but the protagonist is always the same: a problem in life. That is probably why the case study method is sometimes called critical incidents or the problem method. Teaching English to adult students requires increasingly effective teaching materials. Case studies used in a language class give opportunities to extensively practice speaking and writing skills based on materials that are challenging and relevant for students. One of the possible methodologies of doing cases in language teaching includes the following steps:
— reading the case;
— discussing the situation in the company;
— analyzing and discussing the quantitative data;
— fi lling up information gaps and putting forward hypotheses;
— discussing weaknesses and threats;
— presenting company goals;
— presenting alternative solutions of the problem;
— discussing the solutions, comparing them and choosing the best one;
— presenting plan B;
— preparing an action plan, assigning tasks and setting the deadlines [2].
The fi rst step includes reading, the other ones develop speaking skills – students present their opinions, criticize, present their point and negotiate. Usually they work in teams and each team competes which other teams trying to offer the best solution to the problem. Students like doing case studies because then they are the decision-makers. They are not told what to say. They are the managers and the teacher is just an observer, mediator and facilitator. The case study method also provides an opportunity to develop writing competence. For instance one group of students may be asked to take the minutes of the meeting called to solve the problem or to write an agenda of the meeting. When the discussion at the meeting fi nishes and the fi nal decision is taken, all students are requested to use the information in a written form. It may be a letter, a memorandum, a list of points, a mind map, an action plan, a report, an e-mail or a note – any kind of writing tasks which best suits the situation. To do that they need instruction from their teacher on the layout, style and appropriate tone. The case study method gives teachers a lot of fl exibility in assigning tasks, roles and functions. The teacher should not blindly follow the instructions in the teacher’s book. Helpful as they are, they are not the only directions in using a particular case. Teachers should be encouraged to experiment and use cases as input materials that are alive in class – modifi ed, changed and exploited in various ways.
Thanks to their basic didactic qualities, case studies offer the following opportunities:
— to practice all language macro-skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing [3];
— to develop the productive language skills in a very intensive way;
— to analyze, present and discuss graphs, tables, charts and other quantitative data, — to practice analytical and managerial skills;
to incorporate develop communicative competence;
— to practice skills of presenting, negotiating, chairing and participating in;
— to enrich vocabulary;
— to practice intercultural skills [4], [5]. What needs to be mentioned here is the fact that case studies are a very good example of task-based activities which represent the student-centered approach. They can be used in Practical English Language or Public Speaking at a university level when teaching English to third and fourth year students. Teachers use case studies to present language learners with different kind of problems that need to be solved. Because students couldn’t be personally involved in such kind of situations, but they can discuss the issues objectively.
According to demands of modern society the result of the education at the educational foundation in the 21st century will be not only knowledge of concrete subject, but also applying this knowledge on practice in the future life. Among these qualities are the following: desire for improvement of language skills; formation of communicative competence in cross-cultural and interethnic communication; development such skills as will, single-midness, creativity, logic, initiative, empathy, diligence, and discipline.
The most successful way is case study approach. It helps teacher to make the learning process more reproducible, modern not only by form, but also by content: to build the learning process on the personal interests and experience of the student; to help in solving problems working with information, form communicative skills.
Taking everything into account, by case study approach, fi rstly, students learn to bring themselves to real life situation and communicate in any situation, think critically and express their own opinion; secondly, students get the knowledge independently, let them through their experience; thirdly, critical thinking’s methods teach democratic relations, encourage the active participation in the learning process, permit to believe in themselves and treat with respect to other’s opinions. Case study acrouses interest in students, the motivation of education changes, and as a result, students pay more attention to get extra information, interested for them.
REFERENCES
1 Rugare Mareva & Shumirai Nyota. Structural or communicative approach: A case study of English Language teaching in Masvingo urban and per urban secondary schools. http://www. academicjournals.org/ijel/abstracts/abstracts/ abstract2012/May/Mareva%20and%20Nyota. htm (accessed 15 September,2011).
2 Elżbieta Jendrych. Case Studies in Business
English Teaching. http://www.doksi.hu/get.php ?lid=17753&order=DisplayPreview (accessed 04.03.2011).
3 Richards C. J. & Schmidt, R. Longman Dic tionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics.
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Harlow: Longman. http://harvard business.org/ search/100011, (accessed 02.02.2011). 4 Byram M. Assessing Intercultural Competence in Language Teaching, http://inet. dpb.dpu.dk/infodok/sprogforum/Espr18/byram. html, (accessed 07.01. 2011).
5 Byram M. The roots of culture-in-language teaching. http://elt.britcoun.org.pl/forum/roots. htm, (accessed 02.02.2011).
6 State Program of Education Development for 2011-2020. www.edu.gov.kz/…/user…/ Gosprogramma_na_2011-2020_gody.pdf
(accessed 07.12.2010).
М.А. АСҚАРОВА, Е. ҚАЗЕЗ
Абай атындағы қазақ ұлттық педагогикалық университеті Алматы қ., Қазақстан ertai_kazez@mail.ru