Effectiveness of Task-Based Learning In Improving Speaking Skills and Professional Vocabulary Knowledge while Teaching Maritime English
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31548/philolog2021.03.116Abstract
Introduction. The article is devoted to the study of the effectiveness of the use of "Task-Based Learning" (TBL) in teaching speaking and professional vocabulary to cadets of maritime universities. Communicative task in this research is considered as a type of activity in which the target language is used by a student for communicative purposes to achieve a certain outcome. At the same time, a chronology of the communicative task that consists of three stages (the pre-task, the task cycle, and language focus) should be followed.
The purpose of the paper is to determine the feasibility of using Task-Based Learning in improving speaking skills and knowledge of professional vocabulary while teaching English to cadets of maritime universities in Ukraine.
Materials and methods of research. The study involved 36 second-year cadets of the National University "Odessa Maritime Academy" (Odessa, Ukraine), studying maritime engineering. To determine the effectiveness of the use of TBL, cadets were divided into two groups of 18 participants in each one: the control group and the experimental one. In the control group, Maritime English was taught using traditional methods, whereas in the experimental group, it was taught using Task-Based Learning. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to process test results and open-ended questions in the cadets' questionnaires.
Results of the research. The results of pre-testing revealed that only 16.7% of the cadets of the experimental group had grades A for speaking and 11.1% for the knowledge of professional vocabulary. After the experiment, the percentage of the cadets who received the highest grade A for speaking tripled (50.0%), and for the knowledge of professional vocabulary increased four times (11.1% and 44.4%, respectively). At the pre-test, 22.2% of cadets received grades B for both speaking and the knowledge of maritime terminology, whereas after the course, their percentage almost doubled (to 44.4% and 38.9%, respectively).
Conclusions. The results of the study reveal the feasibility of using Task-Based Learning in teaching Maritime English to cadets of Ukrainian universities. The advantages of using TBL are improving knowledge of maritime terminology; increasing internal and external motivation for further learning of English; using authentic teaching materials, resources, and communicative situations close to cadets’ professional environment; using various forms of interaction in order to develop collaboration, critical thinking and the ability to comprehensively solve daily and emergency problems related to future work on vessels.
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