Native-speakers tend to stress communicative fluency while non-native speakers tend to stress linguistic accuracy in error treatment : a classroom study conducted within the jurisdiction of the English language program in the Academic Division of Saudi Aramco Training Department

摘要

Within the context of communicative language Teaching, teachers have a tendency to\udstress communicative fluency rather than linguistic accuracy in error treatment. This study\uduses Aramco ESL teachers, students, and classes where teachers from different-educational\udbackgrounds teach English to adult Saudi employees within its English language program, as\udan example to explore this tendency.\udThe study hypothesis that native-speakers, given their different educational\udbackground tend to stress communicative fluency while the non-native speakers tend to stress\udlinguistic accuracy. Hence, the study attempts to present an account of how these teachers\udlook at errors and how they treat them in class, to reach some findings about this hypothesis.\udThe study applies multiple methods in data collection including a teacher's\udquestionnaire designed by the researcher, followed by classroom observations along with\udaudio-recordings of those classes. The classroom observation scheme used is adapted from\udSpada and Frohlich's COLT observation Scheme-Part A- (Communicative Orientation of\udLanguage Teaching). The students' preferences to error treatment were also explored by using\uda students' questionnaire designed by the researcher, to add dimensions to the findings.\udTo analyse elements in the research context, Likert Scale for coding responses to the\udquestionnaires was used to provide numbers and percentages for analysis.\udThen, samples of classroom discourse collected from the audio-recorded observations were\udtranscribed to analyse teachers behavior toward errors in class.\udTo add further dimensions to the findings, the findings were discussed in view of\udChaudron's illustration in his model: Features and Types of Corrective Reaction in the Model\udof Discourse. The findings were also discussed in view of Chaudron's Table: Rate of Error\udProduction and Teacher Treatment, for the same reason.\udBy using Chaudron's model and table in the discussion, the study aims to provide a\udsound interpretation of the strategies that Aramco teachers use to treat errors and whether\udthese strategies reflect principles of Communicative Language Teaching.\udThe study identifies several distinctive issues from the research context including\udopinions and beliefs of Aramco teachers and students about errors treatment. It also identifies\udtypes of strategies these teachers use in treating their students' errors in class, and provides\udconclusions that demonstrate that both NSs and NNSs have beliefs and strategies that promote\udboth communicative fluency and linguistic accuracy although NNSs showed noticeable\udtendency for linguistic accuracy more than their native-speaking counterparts did.