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Narration for Improving Language Competence

Dr. Rajendrasinh Jadeja

Dr. Ranganayaki Srinivas

 

A Study To Analyse The Effect Of Narration Of Stories With A View To Identifying Its Usefulness In Improving The M A [ELT] Students’ General Language Competence.

 The teaching and learning of English in India is beset with a number of problems. In most schools and colleges students face problems in coping with their study because of their poor language competence in English. Even the students who have learnt English as a second language for about 8 years and who have studied English Literature as their major subject at the degree level do not possess the required competence to pursue their post graduate courses successfully. Unless the students’ basic language competence is improved they would find it very difficult to complete all the challenging assignments given to them as part of their M A [ELT] course. A number of ways have been tried so far to improve their linguistic and communicative competence but they have not yielded satisfactory results.

 The present study takes up the `Comprehension Hypothesis’ of Krashen and provides `Input’ to the students in the form of stories narrated in class. These stories are narrated in English and they are based on classics taken from different languages. This study uses the experimental design. There is no control group and hence the results of the improvement in the post test are further validated by the performance of the students in a number of oral and written class assignments as well as the final examination. The opinion of the students as well as the narrators about the experiment is collected through written reports and informal interviews.

 There was significant improvement in the performance of the students both in the tests during the experiment and later as part of their M. A ELT course. They were able to perform better in the seminars and written assignments as well as the annual examination.

Publications in Journals and seminar papers related to the research

Þ     ‘Language Exposure and Language Acquisition’. ELTip Newsletter. Vol.1. No. 1. October: 1999.

Þ     ‘The Effect of Narration on Language Competence’, Journal of English and Foreign Languages [JEFL]. Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages [CIEFL]. Hyderabad. No.  26 December:  2000.

 Awards Related to the Research

 Þ   Hari Om Ashram Award for the best Research Paper in English for, ‘The Effect of Narration on Language Competence’ , Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar, 2001.

Þ   Award of a trophy as Gaurav Chinnah, by the Cahrutar Vidyamandal, Vallabh Vidyanagar for research work conducted on M. A. [ELT] students.  

 

 

H M Patel Institute of English Training & Research, Vallabh Vidyanagar - 388120, Gujarat, India

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