EngIsh Conditional Sentences: A Comparative Analysis of the structural and Communicative Approaches in Teaching to Non-Native Speakers

Abstract

An experimental study was carried out in 1982 to test the effectiveness
of the communicative approach Vs the structural approach in the teaching
of English to non-native speakers. 78 students were taught and te ted in tasks
that require the use of conditional sentences. Initially 102 first year tudents
were randomly distributed into six groups. Three group formed the study
groups and the other three, the control O'roups. The st dy - groups were
taught using the "Communicative Approach" and the control groups using
the "structural approach". In the scores obtained, the tudy group PI,,-
formed better at a significance level of .05. The study groups were observed
developing interest, motivation, creativity, involvement and confidence as
the experiment progressed. On the basis of the finding, it is recommended
that the communicative approach is more appropriate for the teachlOg of
English to freshmen students, here. To this end, intensive research shoUld
be done in discourse analysis and need specification to facilitate the designing ?f a communicative syllabus.