2.3. Previous Related Studies in the Field
2.3.4. Commentary on the Previous Related Studies
It was quite perspicuous from the above literature that TBI is effective and useful to tackle students’ speaking weaknesses both inside and outside the Egyptian context. The reasons for this were accredited to the communicative environment created, the cognitive process activated and the mental lexicon developed by TBI. The above literature also showed that when TBI was compared to other traditional teaching strategies such as GTM, TSLT and 3Ps, TBI tended to be more effective, especially with high-proficiency students. This was ascribed to the high cognitive information processing required by TBI to complete the assigned tasks including the
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ability of students to notice the gap in their own language, to reflect on the produced language and to connect the newly-learned language knowledge to the existing one.
To differentiate between GTM and 3Ps based on the above reviewed literature, the following five main points were provided. (1) The first language (mother tongue) is the medium of instruction in GTM while the second language (target language) is the medium of instruction in 3Ps. (2) There is a gap between language and thought in GTM while this gap is minimized in 3Ps; that is, students in GTM have to think in their native language before translating their thoughts into the other language while students in 3Ps are learned to think directly in the target language. (3) The rules of grammar in GTM are memorized by students before being illustrated by teachers while the rules of grammar are illustrated by teachers at the very beginning (during the presentation phase of teaching). (4) With regard to classroom interaction or communication, it mostly happens in GTM through the “question and answer” technique while it occurs in 3Ps through some controlled and free practices during the second and third phases of teaching respectively. (5) Regarding the developed skills, GTM enlarges students’ knowledge of words as they learn to consult dictionaries to know the meaning of new words and this enhances the development of the translation skill, while 3Ps enriches students with ample knowledge of structure, provides students with opportunities to practice the presented linguistic knowledge and gives feedback on students’ produced language, resulting in the development of students’
productive language skills.
Additionally, the results from the studies on the impact of TBI on the three CAF components were contradicting with some studies confirmed the trade-off effect between one or two components of CAF with the others as a result of students’ limited attentional capacities to attend to all three CAF components at the same time, while other studies rejected the trade-off
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effect by corroborating the ability of TBI to draw students’ attention to both language meaning and form and then the development of the three CAF components at the same time.
Moreover, the above literature showed that researchers tended to use monologic tasks rather than dialogic tasks in their investigation into the impact of TBI although dialogic tasks seemed to be more effective. This was attributed to the following reasons; (1) monologic tasks are easier to be measured, (2) monologic tasks are more controlled tasks, and (3) students’
performance is more predictable with monologic tasks than with dialogic tasks.
In addition, teachers’ conflicting beliefs towards the influence of TBI on students’
speaking performance were obvious in the related literature. Some recommendations were also given to enhance effective practices of TBI in the classroom, including the adoption of flexible TBI to suit the diversity of students’ proficiency levels especially with large class sizes and limited availability of time. Other recommendations included providing extensive training on TBI to promote teachers’ familiarity with TBI and its principles, changing the current assessment systems to focus on assessing students’ communicative skills and adjusting the current instructional materials to be more goal-oriented and communicative-focused.
Ultimately, having reviewed the related literature, the researcher was able to identify the gap in the previous research, represented in the dearth of studies on TBI as an effective teaching approach and a desirable one by teachers to boost students’ speaking performance in Egypt.
That is, only one study was executed to examine the impact of TBI on students’ speaking performance, and one study was conducted to explore teachers’ beliefs towards TBI.
Additionally, taking into account the recommendations of the previous related research in Egypt, this study was also an attempt to build on the previous research in the current context;
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namely, it was conducted on a larger number of students from a different educational background and school level over a longer period of time.
Hence, this study was conducted to bridge the gap of the literature and build on the previous research in the Egyptian context, leading to a better understanding of the impact of TBI on students’ speaking performance, and thus, it was considered a useful attempt to tackle the problem of the current research. Similarly, due to the lack of research on teachers’ beliefs towards TBI in Egypt, this study attempted to bridge this gap by looking into teachers’ beliefs towards TBI and the challenges against its perfect implementation in the Egyptian milieu, resulting in a thorough understanding of the most favorable elements associated with its application, and then, maximizing its benefits in the classroom.
Indeed, incorporating two major components of research into a TBI-related study;
investigating the effects of TBI on students’ speaking performance and exploring teachers’
beliefs towards TBI, added more strength to this study and made it a unique one. To explain this, unlike previous research in Egypt, it enabled the researcher to collect both quantitative and qualitative data about the research problem and then benefiting from and covering the limitations of using a single research approach and to support the quantitative data with more concrete evidence on the impact of TBI. Thus, it increased the chances of obtaining more valuable information and accurate data about the subject matter of the present research.
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CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1. Introduction
This study tended to investigate TBI as an effective teaching strategy to boost secondary students’ speaking performance in the Egyptian context. The aim was to reach the preferable instructional practices that can be used in the classroom to enhance students’ production of more fluent, lexically sophisticated, lexically diverse and syntactically complex language.
Additionally, it explored teachers’ beliefs towards the successful application of TBI to support the quantitative results with more tangible evidence and to cover the limitations of a single research approach.
The present chapter, through the following lines, provided reasonable explication of the decisions made by the researcher with regard to the current research approach and methods.
This included elaboration on the espoused mixed-methods approach and the embraced pragmatic paradigm. It also encompassed details about the research site, population and instruments. The chapter ended with a discussion of the critical issues anticipated by the researcher throughout all research phases, including all validity, reliability, credibility, objectivity and ethical issues anticipated by the researcher and his plans to deal with those issues.
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