Abstract:

The present study examines whether the reading and speaking skills of A2 level students who attend English lessons in a Private Language Institute could be improved through the application of communicative material. To be more specific, an action research was carried out in an A2 level class of a Private Language Institute. New supplementary material was constructed based on the principles of the Common European Framework (CEFR) and the Communicative Approach. The CLA has been chosen because it is in accordance with the principles of the CEFR. Two groups of A2 level students participated in this research, a control and an experimental group. The Conventional material, which is the course book used by the private institute, was applied to the students of the control group, while in the second group, also known as the experimental group, the new material was taught which was adapted to the students’ needs. A pre-test, which was the same for both groups, was given out to the students of both groups in order to measure their reading skills. At the end of the 10 lessons, a post-test, which was the same for both groups, was handed out to both groups in order to measure the development of their reading skills and their language development. In addition to this, a semi-structured interview was conducted to all students who attended both classes so as to measure the students’ speaking skills.

As far as the findings are concerned, the post-test of the control group pointed out a slight drop concerning the grades they have acquired in the pre-test. The grades of their pre-test were higher than the grades of the post-test. We can conclude from the results of the students’ post-test that their reading skills did not improve. On the other hand, the post-tests of the experimental group indicated that the students improved their reading skills, as there was a slight improvement in the grades which were acquired. The last part of this research included the carrying out of the semi-instructed interviews in which the students of both groups participated. The semi-structured interviews were utilized as a tool for the measurement of students’ speaking skills. As it was expected, the control group was not familiar with the oral production of language, in contrast to the students of the experimental group who were more fluent in their production of oral language.

Keywords:

Communicative Language Teaching Approach, reading skills, speaking skills, CEFR, A2 level.