LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:1 January 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
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         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Enhancing Speaking Skills of ESP Students
Using Activity Based Learning Techniques

Dr. Sunanda M. Shinde, M.A., M.Phil., PhD. PGCTE and Mahesh B. Shinde, M.A., Ph.D.

Abstract

This paper discusses the effectiveness of Activity Based Learning (ABL) used to teach speaking skills to Engineering students in a private university in Maharashtra. The present study was used to determine the effect of ABL on the development of the speaking skills of first-year B. Tech students. Pre-assessment and post-assessment equivalent design was used to collect the data of the research. Total one hundred students of FY B.Tech. were selected as subjects of the study. Pre-assessment was done at the commencement of the course. Then ABL techniques were used to teach the selected topics. After the completion of the selected content, post-assessment was conducted to measure the development of the speaking skills among students. The findings of the study showed that ABL is an effective and essential way to enhance ESP students’ speaking skills since the selected students’ post-assessment score was significantly different from their pre-assessment score.

Keywords: Activity Based Learning, ESP, speaking skills

Introduction

Learning is acquiring new knowledge, behavior, skills, values, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesizing different kinds of data. While learning the content by just listening to teachers; if students are encouraged to process the information with higher-order thinking such as comprehension, analysis, synthesis, application, and metacognition they will understand the content better. Students will be able to remember the content learned throughout their life, to relate the information to any life situation, and will be able to connect it with past learning, build their own knowledge (Garner, 1987). The present paper focuses on one of such opportunities provided to students to use the inputs received in various activities and evaluate the impact.

In case of ESP students, especially engineering students, it is quite relevant to see if traditional ways of teaching the courses such as Communication Skills, Soft Skills, Professional Communication, etc., are really giving expected outcomes. Most of the students joining such professional courses are either from rural/semi-urban or from low exposed urban background. Except a very few of them, all lag expected command on English in general and on speaking skill in particular. In addition, when they start learning the concerned courses in traditional lecture-based/teacher-centric way, they get almost no exposure to develop the skills expected in the corporate/professional atmosphere. Therefore, there is indeed a need to switch to ABL and provide these ESL learners essential exposure to develop such essential skills one of which is effective speaking. The researcher here is not denying the practice of using various activities by a few teachers. However, the fact is that mostly these activities are completely un-designed, unguided, and unmonitored. Moreover, the impact/outcome analysis is done seldom by these teachers. Therefore, the present paper highlights the outcome of the well-designed, properly guided, and monitored activities used for developing speaking skills amongst ESP students.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. Sunanda M. Shinde, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. PGCTE
Assistant Professor in English and Communication Skills
D. Y. Patil College of Engineering, Kasaba Bawada, (Autonomous)
Kolhapur 416006, Maharashtra
sunandagpatil@gmail.com

Dr. Mahesh B. Shinde, M.A., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor in English and Communication Skills
KIT’s College of Engineering (Autonomous)
Kolhapur-416113. Maharashtra
maheshshinde11l@gmail.com
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