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SUMMARY
Introduction…………………………………………..............................6
PART ONE: OBJECT OF THE STUDY…………………………………..6
Chapter 1: Presentation of the Topic………………………….
………..8
Chapter 2: Elaboration and Specification…………………….…….13
PART TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW, CORPUS METHODS OF
ANALYSIS……………………………………………………………………16
Chapter 1: Literature Review……………………………………………
18
Chapter 2: Justification of the Corpus……………………………….25
Chapter 3: Methods of Data Collection and Analysis……….….26
PART THREE: FINDINGS AND PERSPECTIVES……………………31
Chapter 1: Presentation of Major Axes of the Study……………..33
Chapter 2: The Suggested Outline of the Thesis……………………
36
Chapter 3: Designing Tasks for Reading Comprehension from a
Communicative perspective ………………………………………….…
36
Chapter 4: Bibliography…………………………………………………46
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Chapter 5: Results, Findings and Research
perspectives………..52
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..54
To my uncle, Mister Yao Kouadio Dénis
Though the material representation of this thesis has been my
own work, the tasks would have been impossible without the
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assistance of a large army of helpers who have over this
academic year assisted me in my research work. I would like to
express my sincere thanks to them. I cannot name them all on
this page. But among them, I wish to mention particularly my
supervisor, professor kouassi Jérôme for his useful time kindly
consecrated to me for this study, all my teachers of the
department of English for their classes I attended during this
academic year and their pieces of advice that have been a
stimulus to organize my own ideas about this thesis, the
Educational Research Network for West and Central Africa in
Côte d’Ivoire (ERNWACA-CI) for the training time they have
offered me.
I should like to thank the American cultural center, the numeric
francophone campus (AUF) of the University College of
education (ENS), and Mister Tuo Dognimin Arouna for their
library resources.
To all my peers of the department of English and particularly of
applied linguistics, I express my gratitude for your support of
every nature.
I should like to thanks my uncle Yao Kouadio Denis and my
cousins Bala Adama and Yao Kouassi Hypolite whose financial
support and advice along the way was invaluable.
Most of all, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my God
whose everlasting mercy and assistance always enlighten me
and entails me beyond my limits.
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INTRODUCTION
Among the world central languages including Chinese, Spanish,
Arabic and French, English has gained a hyper-central statute
because it addresses worldwide concerns. Obviously, teaching
that language has become a worldwide upsurge (Jérôme
Kouassi, 2010:125). But teaching is a complex set of tasks (Bala
Adama, 2006:77). It calls for a variety of challenges including
curricula, portofolios, syllabi, and materials. Among those
challenges, choosing a coursebook is not the least important of
teaching because a textbook in a language class particularly in
a foreign language one plays a cornerstone like role. The
language teachers as a whole and more especially the foreign
language ones with the least training, can be supported with
the provide of the textbook since it is facilitative material. It
also constitutes for the learners a mute teacher. That is why
one could hear “un élève, un livre” to mean that every student
need a book. The success of the course book itself depends on
its faithfulness to the teaching methods and the approaches
that underlie its conception. In Côte d’Ivoire, GFE is in use since
the 1990s until today and has been twice edited (1989 and
1999). Consequently, its evaluation seems to me too relevant.
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That is why I have decided to measure its communicativeness.
And that is the theme of this study.
This paper will be articulated in three main parts. The first part
will consist in presenting the object of the research, the second
will be a review of the literature related to the topic of the
study , a justification of the corpus and the methods of data
collection and analysis , the last part will discuss the first
findings and propose some perspectives for the research itself.
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PART ONE
OBJECT OF THE STUDY: THE RESEARCH
TOPIC AND THE PROBLEM
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The concern in this first part can be summarized as the
presentation of the topic and the specification of the research
problem. In more detailed words, I will first of all retrace my
personal history with the topic of this study; I will situate the
topic in the field of its study and explain it. I will also discuss the
reasons why this study needs to be done. Another important
dimension is the specification of the research.
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CHAPTER ONE: THE PRESENTATION OF THE TOPIC
1-BACKGROUND ON THE CHOICE OF THIS TOPIC
When at school I could not yet read, I used to ground on
illustrative pictures to understanding texts in our textbooks. But
as early as I could read I got less interested in the pictures as
means to understand a text. Once at grammar school the same
phenomenon reappeared. And as long as I did not have an
English dictionary, pictures were my means of texts
comprehension. During my first two years at university, many
words in a text were familiar to me and i still had a poor
comprehension of them. Today, as a student in applied
linguistics, I feel the necessity to investigate issues related to
my former worries in order to have more insight into the
difficulties I experienced. My concern with the communicative
perspective of reading comprehension tasks in GFE 4è does not
come from this so personal past only. It also rises from my
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current attachment to issues relating to the didactic
implications of reading comprehension in our context.
2-EXPLANATION OF THE TOPIC, DOMAIN AND
SPECIALITY
2-1- FIELD OF STUDY
For a number of reasons, our topic “a look at reading
comprehension tasks in GFE 4è from a communicative
perspective” is the logical concern of an applied linguist.
To Richard Hudson,
“The main distinguishing characteristics of applied linguistics is its concern with professional
activities whose aim is to solve real world language-based problems, which means that research
touches on a particular wide range of issues: psychological , pedagogical , social , political ,
economic, as well as linguistic. As a consequence, applied linguistics tends to be
interdisciplinary”1
Dawn knight adds that
1 Richards Hudson, Emeritus professor of Applied linguistics at University College of London
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“Applied linguistics draws on range of disciplines including languages learning and teaching,
psychology of language processing, discourse analysis, stylistics, corpus analysis, literacy studies,
and language planning and policies”.2
These two complementary definitions of the concept of
applied linguistics well show that it is an immense field of study.
It is concerned with every social issue related to language. So it
is not devoted to any precise or specific concern. And this idea
of immensity is what H.G. Widdowson tries to stress on in
writing: “Applied linguists find themselves in an anomalous
position, in a no-man’s land they have made for themselves and
not infrequently under fire from both sides”3 Any time that
linguists will be solving social problems related to language,
they will be righteously called applied linguists. Therefore,
applied linguistics can be qualified as a professional linguistics.
The topic “a look at reading comprehension tasks in GFE 4è
from a communicative perspective” rises from a problem that
language teachers, language teaching textbook editors and
language didacticians meet in their daily professional activities.
As language teaching and learning is an applied linguistic
concern, we can say that this topic belongs to the broad domain
of applied linguistics.
2-2 SPECIALITY
This topic is concerned with the evaluation of the reading
2
3
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comprehension activities in the textbook GFE 4è from a
communicative perspective. It is related to foreign language
didactics in general and particularly the didactics of
comprehension. Didactics itself refers to the different
mechanisms and phenomena that intervene in the
appropriation of knowledge.
2-3-EXPLANATION OF THE TOPIC
The meaning of this topic lies around the noun “look”. But an
essential phrase not yet defined is associated to that word to
make it specific. It is “reading comprehension tasks”. The
explanation of this topic calls for a distinct analysis of the
meaning of each of these two notions. The noun “look” does not
refer to the superficial sight as one could think it to be, it
supposes an analysis, a descriptive study. And that is not only a
free description for the only sake to get Go for English 4è known
but rather a critical description for the sake of an objective
evaluation. In turn, the phrase reading comprehension tasks
refers to its usual meaning. Reading comprehension tasks are
the classroom writing and speaking activities implemented after
reading a text in order to show that one well understands it. In
the end, the theme simply concerns the analysis of the reading
comprehension tasks in the GFE 4è textbook in order to see the
extent to which this textbook portrays faithfully communicative
language teaching.
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3- JUSTIFICATION AND INTEREST OF THIS STUDY
There is not any common motive to every evaluation. An
evaluation may be motivated by dissatisfaction or short of
knowledge about using a material. Consequently, it is likely
to occur before, during and after the use of a material. But
as a general rule, it aims at providing a solution to a given
issue about the material evaluated. In language didactics, it
is considered as one of the most practical challenges to
researchers. The evaluation that will be carried out in the
context of this research derives from my personal
dissatisfaction as a former user of the textbook Go for
English 4è. It will consist in determining the factors
conducive to the development of communicative
competence through reading comprehension tasks in that
textbook.
Given that the communicative approach to language
teaching and its implications for teaching materials in
general and particularly textbooks is the current concern of
our educational authorities, the outcomes of this reflection
might contribute to the operation of adequate choices for
classroom practices.
Moreover, the conclusions of this study might provide
English language textbooks editors with innovative ideas for
the integrative production of materials that effectively
integrate the communicative dimension of reading
comprehension tasks. They might also help our teachers,
practitioners and educational authorities make the right
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choices in terms of textbooks which fit the requirements of
communicative language teaching, a teaching approach
currently in vogue in our context.
CHAPTER2: SPECIFICATION OF THE RESEARCH
PROBLEM
1-THE PROBLEM
The coherence of a didactic material with regard to the
underlying language teaching method is of paramount
importance in the field of language education. In cote-d'Ivoire,
educationalists and language didacticians care much about
issues related to the teachers, the curricula, the didactic
methods and the materials as well as the duration of classes. As
a result, the late history of English teaching in our country is a
perpetual didactic renewal. For instance, the former outcome-
based method (PPO) has been replaced by a process-based one
(APC) known as CBLT language education. The formerly used
textbooks: English for French Speaking Africa, African Ways in
the 1980s have been replaced by Go for English, English for
Success and Let’s Keep in Touch in the 2000s.
Sometimes, teaching materials are renewed in order to
improve them with regards to their underlying methodology or
to try new methodologies. When Go for English was published
and began to be used in the 1990s, the firsts two editions were
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abandoned. And yet despite the edition of two new textbooks
English for success and Let's Keep in Touch, GFE is still in use.
Despite its merits recognized locally, and considering the
requirements of communicative language teaching, I wonder
about the communicative dimension of reading comprehension
tasks in GFE4è. . This main preoccupation calls for specific
questions:
-Do reading comprehension tasks in GFE 4è fit the
requirements of communicative language teaching?
-If yes, what is their degree of communicativeness?
-If not, why don’t they fit the criteria of communicative tasks?
-How can one make them more communicative?
2-OBJECTIVES
General objective:
This study aims at evaluating the degree communicativeness of
reading comprehension tasks of GFE 4è.
Specific objectives:
-To identify the reading comprehension tasks available in GFE
4è.
-To analyze the suggested tasks on the ground of the
communicative principles.
-To suggest some innovative way of designing communicative
reading comprehension tasks in GFE 4è.
3-HYPOTHESES
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General hypothesis:
The reading comprehension tasks in GFE 4è are not as
communicative as they are supposed to be.
Specific hypotheses:
-The degree of authenticity of reading comprehension tasks in
GFE 4è is questionable.
-Some of the reading comprehension tasks do not allow the
active involvement of all the learners.
This first part proves that the evaluation of the degree of
communicativeness of GFE 4è is a burning challenge for the
applied linguists interested in the didactics of comprehension
today.
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PART TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW, CORPUS AND
METHODOLOGY
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In this second major part of this project, I will first provide
background for my topic in order to determine the remaining
questions of it in need of research. I will justify the corpus this
study will found upon and the approach to use for the data
collection and analysis
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CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW
1- COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING
Communicative Language Teaching is an approach to language
teaching and learning in use in the classrooms since the 1970s
(Jack C. Richards, 2006). Today every teacher claims his
classroom methodology to be communicative. However, their
definitions of that approach are sometimes different.
Consequently it seems necessary to propose here my
understanding of Communicative Language Teaching. To my
mind communicative language teaching is a classroom process-
based language teaching approach that aims at developing the
communicative competence of the learner. For Jack C. Richards,
communicative competence includes the following aspects of
language Knowledge: linguistic competence, sociocultural
competence, discourse competence, strategic competence
Marianne Celce-Murcia , Zoltan Dornyei, and Sarah Thurrel
(1995) have proposed a model of communicative competence.
They represent that model of communicative competence as a
pyramid enclosing a circle and surrounded by another circle. In
that schematic representation of communicative competence,
one can identify:
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The sociocultural competence
The linguitic competence
The strategic competence
The actional competence
Discourse competence
This model, to Celce-Murcia et al., better illustrates
communicative competence. Their conflict with Canale (1983)
and Richards lays on the sociocultural competence. According
to their chronological evolution of the proposed model,
sociocultural competence calls for another competence that
they name actional competence. Although they recognize
sociocultural and actional competences as parts of pragmatic
knowledge, their opinion is that actional competence derives
from functional knowledge and the sociocultural competence
from the sociocultural knowledge. This knowledge does not
serve to the same communicative purposes. While the actional
competence serves to cope with matters like interpersonal
exchange, information sharing opinion and feeling expression
suasion, problems and future scenarios expression.
Sociocultural competence comprises social contextual, stylistic
appropriateness, cultural and non-verbal communicative
factors.
In a word, communicative competence is a many-sided
competence. Christian Puren (1993:32) writes that one of the
characteristics of the communicative approach is the great
diversification of its theories of reference. He adds that this
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diversification, at the level of materials and classroom practices
conception, could produce only an effect of eclectism. More
clearly, he insists that the communicative approach is and
eclectic approach. Paulo Costa (2002) warns that without the
intention to declare the death of the textbook, the classroom
communicative activities need to be enough eclectic in order to
facilitate the development of the communicative competence
as an eclectic competence. Saying that communicative
competence is an eclectic competence means that this
competence comprises different elements. William Littlewood
(1981:6 ) explains in the following words
“In discussing the various examples of communicative
activities, I propose to distinguish between two main categories,
which I will call functional communication activities and social
interaction activities:”
For the same reason, Jérôme Kouassi qualifies CLT as a
necessary disorder. He says:
The study of the communicative approach leads me to note the
existence of a disorder which has three dimensions: disorder
inherent to the nature of the communicative approach, mental
disorder experienced by learners and disorders which is
dependent on external deficiencies related to its
implementation. (2009:20)
The communicative approach is an ambiguous approach. Its
use is incongruent with regard to didactics and pedagogy. As a
result, it raises confusion to both teachers and learners. That is
why Jeremy Harmer (1983) explains that communicative
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language teaching is not a method but an approach. To him, a
method supposes precise rules. And yet, communicative
language teaching employs every strategy that is likely to favor
the development of communicative competence. In the same
line, I posit that communicative language teaching is a
syncretistic approach to language teaching.
2- READING COMPREHENSION
Mike Casper, Julie Cotton and sally westfall suggests that “the
main purpose for reading is to comprehend the ideas in the
material. Without comprehension reading would be empty and
meaningless”. In order to know the motives of such an opinion
or to discuss its validity, one should better understand what
reading comprehension is. For Heshan Suleiman
Alyousef( 2oo6:63 )
“Reading can be seen as an interactive process between a
reader and a text which leads to automaticity or ( reading
fluency). In this process, the reader interacts dynamically with
the test as he/she tries to elicit the meaning and where variants
kinds of knowledge are being used: linguistics or systemic
knowledge (through bottom-up processing).
Clearly, reading is a dynamic interaction with a text in the end
to construct meaning. Michel Fayol(2003) defines
comprehension like an integrated and coherent mental
representation of the discourse or the text. He added that, the
task of comprehension depends on the purpose of the reader
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and always ends at an interpretation. To him, comprehension is
a cognitive activity.
In his taxonomy, Barret describes the activity of reading
comprehension in five steps:
- The literal comprehension ( recognition and recall)
- The reorganization ( analysis)
- The inferential comprehension ( implicit message)
- Evaluation ( external critique)
- Appreciation (emotional response to the content)
This taxonomy suggested by Barret clearly indicates his
psychocognitivist inclination .without rejecting Barret’s view
Frank Serafini indicates “all four components, the texts, the
authors, the reader and the immediate and socio-cultural
context play an important role in every reading event in
addition to the cognitive strategies readers employ ”. That is
also a reconciliation of three theories of reading
comprehension: the mental model, the schema theory and the
proposition theory.
Adams and Collins discuss a reading theory referred to as
schema theory. The goal of schema theory is to describe the
interaction between the content of a text and how that
information is shaped and stored by the reader. Reading from a
schema perspective means connecting new information from
the text to the prior knowledge of the reader in order to achieve
comprehension.
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3 – EVALUATION
3-1-WHAT IS EVALUTION
Pierre Martinez cited in Jerôme Kouassi (2010:125) suggests
that evaluation consist in giving an appreciation or a value.
Evaluation in other words consists in highlighting the strengths
and the weaknesses a practice or a material.
After demonstrating, the relevance of evaluation in education,
Jérôme Kouassi (2010:125) defines three essential roles of this
theory, the prognostic role, the diagnostic role and the
explorative role.
In a word, evaluation is a judgment. In education,
administrative matters as well as curriculum matters can be
submitted to that judgment.
3.2. MATERIALS EVALUATION
Material evaluation is a procedure that consists in examining
learning materials to establish their value (Tomlinson 2003)
cited in Paul Dickinson (March 2010). This evaluation is a micro
evaluation because it is concerned with a single subject. The
need in evaluating a course book, to Leslie E. Sheldon comes
from the reason that course books are often seen by potential
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consumers-teachers, learners and educational purchasers as
market ephemera requiring invidious compromises between
commercial and pedagogical demands (1988 : 237). Or there is
a gap between textbooks production and their use. So they
need to be evaluated. I’m English teaching as foreign language
context, David Williams precise that the textbook should
provide appropriate guidance for the teacher of English who is
not a native speaker of English. The untrained, or partially
trained, teacher who does not possess native, like control over
all aspects of English should not be left in any doubt concerning
the procedures proposed by the textbook (1983:252) one
should check the appropriateness of a textbook that is to be
used in any foreign language classroom. That task is a
delicacious one because foreign language textbook plays an
outstanding role in the classroom. Rod Elis defines two types of
empirical evaluation of language teaching materials: a
predictive and a retrospective evaluation. To him a material
might be evaluated before or after use to make valid and
reliable decision. In this research, I will make a retrospective
evaluation of the GFE 4è textbook.
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CHAPTER 2: JUSTIFICATION OF CORPUS
I- IDENTIFICATION OF THE CORPUS
The aim of this research is to evaluate the communicativeness
of the reading comprehension tasks in GFE 4è.
Consequently, my corpus consists essentially of the text-book
GFE. The study will focus on the different tasks suggested in the
book.
II-ORIGINALITY AN AUTHENTICITY
The originality and authenticity of my corpus lies in the fact that
GFE 4è is the book currently in use in our classrooms. The
underlying principles of the book clearly indicate that GFE is
based on communicative principles.
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
The methodology refers to the nature of the research, the
methods and instruments of Data collection and analysis one
used in a given study that can provide him with the appropriate
response to the question of that study. In a word, it is the
approach in use for truths worthy findings and results from a
study.
1 -IDENTIFICATION OF THE TYPE OF RESEARCH
The topic of this research is a look at reading comprehension
tasks in GFE4è from a communicative perspective.As a result,
this research is an evaluation of the GFE 4è textbook so as to
highlight its communicative dimension or else value the
strengths and the weaknesses of the communicative approach
in order to make proposals that might contribute to its
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amelioration for more communicativeness.
2- POPULATIONS
Population is the exhaustive list of objects that the units of
analysis are composed of. It is where one will select his sample.
In this research, my sample will be selected in the set of
classes’ users of the GFE 4è on the territory of Côte-d’Ivoire.
That population is made up of public, private, vocational and
confessional schools. These Classes form together a
homogeneous population of academic learners of English as
Foreign language. All the members of that population have two
years of English.
3- DATA COLLECTION
The development of this study requires the collect of data with
different participants and instruments. Since my population of
study is too large and homogeneous, I will select randomly 15
boys and girls from Lycée Moderne of Port-Bouet and Collège
Moderne Descartes for their proximity to me and their
differences with regards to their nature and social standards.
The choice of equal number of male and female participants will
help me to create heterogeneity. Thirty English teachers also
with more than one year experience will take part in this study.
The number of thirty according to Cohen Louis et al.(2012:657)
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is the minimal number in education that is why I am choosing it
in my research. I require also more than one experience in
teaching during the selection of the participants to make sure
the participants know the phenomenon under scrutiny.
4- INSTRUMENTS
In order to give this research a validity and reliability, I will use
data triangulation. In deed, I will use three instruments to
collect my data from the same participant. An aspect of the
Communicative Language Teaching is likely to escape to me if I
use only one instrument but with three instruments, I am sure
to gather the essential dimensions for the study.
4--1 OBSERVATION
I will make direct observations of two different classroom
activities of reading comprehension with a checklist portraying
the principles of the communicative approach. That checklist
will be elaborated according to the framework devised by
Nunan for the analysis of the communicative tasks. I will
measure the authenticity of the materials, the flexibility of the
activities, the purposefulness and meaningfulness of the tasks,
the organization of the group class.
4-2- THE INTERVIEW
I am not able to foresee the content of that instrument .But in
a word I will collect through thirty interviews with teacher’s
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explanations about the foundations that guide their choices
during the tasks and some comments on the content of the
GFE4è textbook. I will collect their opinions about the
deficiencies of the textbook GFE 4è with regards to the CLT.
Therefore the questions for the interview will come from
troubles during the observation.
4-3 THE QUESTIONNAIRE
That will be administered to 30 learners. It will consist in a
structured questionnaire. That questionnaire will be
administered to collect learner’s conscious and unconscious
reactions to the content of the GFE4è textbook. I will be
elaborated so as the analysis of its results may help in
discerning the communicativeness of the tasks of reading in the
GFE 4è. I will measure the authenticity, the flexibility, the
meaningfulness, and the purposefulness of the tasks of the
reading comprehension in the GFE 4è.
5 -DATA ANALYSIS
The data analysis during this research will follow the logic of
their collection.
Consequently the data collected will be analyzed from a mixed
perspective.
5-1- THE QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
The different data collected from the observation and the
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interview will be submitted to a qualitative analysis. In fact it is
the content, the quality and the meaning of the entities that
this analysis is concerned with. During the analysis of the data
collected, I will make summary and logical deduction of the
entities in order to draw a global conclusion about the strengths
and the weaknesses of the content of the GFE 4è textbook.
5-2- THE QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
The data collected from the questionnaire will be analyzed
according to the frequency of the entities. As a result, I will
decide whether an aspect of the content of GFE 4è illustrates or
contra dictates the CLT if an entity demonstrating so is
frequent.
5-3- DATA CROSSING
After the separate analysis of the data according to their
instruments of collection, I will contrast and compare them in
order to have a global opinion on the content of the textbook
GFE 4è.
This second part is begins by an account on the communicative
language teaching, the reading comprehension, the material
evaluation in education. Then have followed the justification of
the corpus and the explanation of the methods of data
collection and analysis.
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PART THREE
RESULTS, FINDINGS AND PERSPECTIVES
In this third and last part of our research project, will take home
the current findings and the explanations of different future
perspectives to give to that study
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CHAPTER ONE: THE MAJOR PARTS OF THE
RESEARCH
The objective of that research as foresaid is to evaluate the
communicative approach through the activity of reading
comprehension in GFE 4è. Two hypotheses have been evoked
as means to surrender this evaluation. The verification of those
hypotheses will take three different general bearings: a
literature review, a field study and some suggestions and
recommendations.
1- THE REVIEW OF LITERATURE
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In this orientation, I will summarize and explain the current
state of knowledge about my topic in order to situate it in
relation to in it background and determine the remaining
questions or aspects of the topic in need of research. In fact, I
will make an account on the theories, the ideas in the present
researches relating to the Communicative Language Teaching,
the tasks of reading comprehension, and the materials
evaluation.
2-FIELD STUDY
This second step will be concerned with the analysis of my
corpus .That will be articulated in two major stages. The first of
them will be an explorative analysis of the content of both the
textbook GFE 4è and the reading comprehension tasks in the
classrooms. The second one will be to criticize the results of the
analysis with regards to the principles of the Communicative
Language Teaching. Or else, during the criticism, I will establish
the strengths and shortcomings of the textbook GFE 4è
according to the underlying method: the CLT.
3-SUGGESTIONS OR RECOMMENDATION
This axis of this research will be an answer to my last research
question: How can one make the tasks of reading
comprehension in the GFE 4è textbook more communicative?
And that answer more clearly will come as a therapy to
overcome the different deficiencies or shortcomings of the tasks
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of reading comprehension in the GFE 4è establish during the
field study.
CHAPTER 2: SUGGESTED OUTLINE FOR THE
MASTER II THESIS
PART ONE: THE OBJECT OF THE STUDY
Chapter one Presentation of the research topic
Chapter two: Research problem
Chapter three: Justification of the corpus
Chapter four: Methodology
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PART TWO: CHAPTER 1: LITTERATURE REVIEW
PART THREE: FIELD STUDY
Chapter One: Context of the Study
Chapter Two: Research Design
Chapter Three: Data Collection
Chapter Four: Data Analysis and Interpretation
PART FOUR: SUGGESTIONS OR RECOMMENDATION
Chapter One: Intervention
Chapter Two: Suggestion
CHAPTER 3: DESIGNING TASKS FOR READING
COMPREHENSION FROM A COMMUNICATIVE
PERSPECTIVE
This subpart of the present chapter will consist in giving a
descriptive account of what a communicative reading
comprehension task looks like. The task itself is a component of
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language curriculum. That is to say to define this concept in
education one should recall the part that it plays in a
curriculum. David NUNAN has adapted a fine illustrative image
from Breen (1987: 23). To Breen any structured language
learning Endeavour which has a particular objective,
appropriate content, a specified working procedure and a range
of outcomes for assumed to refer to a range of work plans
which have the overall purpose of facilitating language learning
from the simple brief exercise type, to more complex and
lengthy activities such as group problem-solving or simulations
and decision making. In other words, the concept task stands
for the work to carry during a course in order to learn. Or
simply, the didactic obstacle a candidate to knowledge has to
overcome so as knowledge may be constructed our
preoccupation here in communicative classroom context is to
know the way how a reading comprehension task should be
generated so as it might favor the development of
communicative competence. In a nutshell, what is the typology
of the reading comprehension with the easiest obstacle?
The appropriate answer to that question requires a multi-
dimensional reflection. In order not to go astray the fine line of
communicative approach, I am analyzing the task of
communicative language teaching in the light of the framework
devised by Nunan for the analysis of communicative task.
(A framework for analyzing communicative tasks adapted from
Nunan, 1988.)
Teacher roleGoals
Tasks Learner roleInput
SettingsActitivities
VI
The components of the tasks in this framework are six : the
input, the goals, the activities, the settings, the teacher roles
and the learners role. These components will constitute the
different subparts of this analysis.
1 -THE INPUT:
The input is what the learners are exposed to; the piece of
language used in the classroom. David NUNAN refers to input as
the data that form the point of departure for the task. That is to
say, the language in the materials in use in the classroom. In a
reading comprehension classroom, the materials used as source
of input are texts. Those texts are sometimes illustrated by
pictures, photos or graphics. The question to answer here is to
know the type of material that facilitates the development of
the communicative competence. David said NUNAN
‘‘the development of communicative language teaching has led
to the use of more authentic materials’’
(syllabus design). In more clear words, for language teaching
task to be meaningful, they have to use real-life materials. Adds
Jack C Richards and Theodore S.Rodgers(2001:80)
Many proponents of communicative language teaching have
advocated the use of ‘‘authentic’’ ‘‘from-life’’ materials. These
VI
might include language based realia, such as signs, magazines,
advertisements and newspapers or graphic and visual sources
around which communicative activities can be built, such as
maps, pictures, symbols, graphs and charts. Different kinds of
objects can be used to support communicative exercises such
as a plastic model from directions.
That is to say, every material not manufactured purposefully to
meet an academic goal but genuine social life materials.
Besides, a material is not sufficiently authentic on the mere
condition to have been collected from areal-life situation. If not
thinks widowson an, an abstract material could serve well than
that. But an authentic material ought to match with the
learner’s identity. Or else, every real-life material that pretends
to authenticity has also to be a share of learner’s daily life. That
is say to the readers with:
- Their age
- Their education
- Their customs and culture
- Their needs
1-1 THE BENEFITS OF AN AUTHENTIC INPUT IN READING COMPREHENSION
The purpose of an authentic material is the great chances that
such a material has to be more or less attractive and motivating
but particularly meaningful. Although an authentic material is
likely to be less attractive, or very motivating according to the
VI
theme it discusses, learners generally feel concerned with it. To
Jack C Richard, arguments in favour of the use of authentic
materials include cultural information about the target
language, exposure to real language, close relation to learners
and more creativity.
2- THE SETTING
‘‘Setting’’ refers to the classroom arrangements specified or
implied in the task, and it also requires consideration of
whether the task is carried out wholly or partly outside the
classroom’’. The setting is therefore the learning situation or
the place where the task takes place that is referred to by
NUNAN as ‘‘environment’’ and the type of social organization
set up to perform the task that he termed ‘‘mode”. Here I
prevent that the tasks under scrutiny are classroom so the
concern to discuss is the type of social organization for the
completion of the task or mode according to NUNAN. The idea
of setting in communicative language teaching derives from the
socio constructivists’ opinion of the social nature of learning. As
a matter of fact, learning, to Jack C Richard is not an individual,
private activity but a social one that depends on interaction
with others before being taken up by individuals. The
movement known as cooperative learning reflects this
viewpoints. (Jack C. R. 2006: 20). This statement is the proof
that communicative approach is home for the idea of group
works. Consequently, for a reading comprehension task to be
communicative, the class is to be organized in small groups, in
VI
pairs or as a whole. In other words, the class should be
organized in such a way the interaction may be the possible. In
a word, the setting in communicative classroom is a shift from
individual tasks to group works. The reason for that shift is the
fact that learning is constructed more easily and effortlessly
through interaction than through cognition. That is what
illustrates Ann Galloway in saying.
“Language is an interaction; it is an interpersonal activity and
has a clear relationship with society”. Such an opinion stands
that the final goal of language; its lifeline and its raison d’être is
the interaction or simply without interaction there is not
language. It insists also that interaction is the source and the
summit of language. Accordingly language can be efficiently
learnt through interaction. Jolly and early, 1974:2 quoted by
Christopher BRUMFIT added “psychologically, group work
increases the intellectual and emotional participation or
involvement of the individual pupil in the task of learning a
foreign language. Some pupils are more intelligent than others,
while some (not necessarily the same ones) are more gifted in
learning languages, some pupils are out going, communicative,
extrovert personalities, while others are shy, withdrawn
introverts. In small groups, all these types of learner can meet
and mix, compensating for one another’s story points and
deficiencies as language learners.”
That is to say first that group work is a way to engage the whole
personality of every learner in the task completion and group
work is a strategy to help each learner to transcend his limits
and help his peers doing so. Concretely, group work appears
VI
here as a fertilizer to facilitate fluency development. The
classroom to Jolly and Early is a community where learning is a
cooperative task.
3- THE ROLES
The communicative language teaching is a shift of the roles
plaid erstwhile both by teachers and learners in the language
teaching and learning methodologies “Role” refers to the part
that ,learners and teachers are expected to play in carrying out
learning tasks as well as the social and interpersonal
relationships between the participants.
NUNAN supposes that the classroom a multilateral ones in
those tasks to be completed by the teacher and the learner, the
word role stands for the responsibility of each one of them as a
stakeholder in the task implementation. More early, what the
respective responsibilities’ of the teacher and the learner
should consist in so as to facilitate the development,
communicative competence though comprehension task.
3-1- THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER
The role of the teacher this study is interested in, is the
contribution of the teacher to the success of the classroom
activities. Been and candling (1980) quoted by NUNAN stated.
The teacher has three main roles in the communicative classroom. The first is to act a facilitator of the
communicative process, the second is to act as a participant, and the third is to act as an observer and learner.
VI
Jack C. Richard on this new role of the teacher in a
communicative classroom in these words,
And teachers now had to assume the role of facilitator and monitor. Rather than being a model for correct
speech and writing and one with the primary responsibility of making students produce plenty of error free
sentences, the teacher had to develop a different view of learners errors and of her/his own role in facilitating the
language learning (2006:5).
From those two explanatory statements about the part plaid by
the teacher in the communicative classroom, one can conclude
that the teacher plays ascendant role in the task completion or
else his role may be sometimes useless because he is only a
guide, a support and no longer the knowledge possessor.
3-2-THE ROLE OF THE LEARNER
If the teacher, in a communicative classroom plays an
unessential and secondary role, the learner is the prime author
of the classroom tasks. Communicative language teaching is a
learner-centered approach so it is the learner who plays the
central part. Learning resides increasingly under his active,
interactive, negotiative, contributive and receptive role. That is
to say, the learner constructs his own knowledge through a
contributive negotiation with his peers as important part of the
learning process or task completion.
4-THE ACTIVITIES
A classroom activity is everything done with the input during
the task implementation. They are language training activities
of a variety of types and features. William littlewood has
classified communicative activities in two major categories: the
VI
functional communication activities and social interaction
activities.
The functional communication activities refers to the learners
proficiency explains littewood “ the main porpose of the
activity is that learners should use the language they know in
order to get meaning accross as effectively as possible ”. (P20)
In order words, functional communication activities are carless
about accuracy and acceptability. Their stress is rather put on
meaning effectiveness. In a word, it answers the question, how
succesfully is the message conveyed? On the contrary, as far as
social interaction communicative activities are concerned, the
stress is laid on the linguistic accuracy and the social
convenience and acceptability. Some other issues relative to
the communicative classroom activities including the features
and principles of the communicative language teaching are the
purposefulness, the authenticity, the flexibility and
meaningfulness. In order words, when it comes to evaluate
design a take in a communicative classroom one wonders
whether it is meaningful, purposeful, flexible and authentic or
not. An authentic activity “Should parallel the real world as
closely as possible”. That is to say, an authentic classroom
activity is one that mirrors the real life.“Without methods,
without a book, without grammar or rules, without a whip and
without tears, I hard learned a latin as proper as that of my
schoolmaster”,
VI
writes Montaigne (savignon 1983 : 47) this too constraintless
condition of learning language is what qualifies the principle of
flexibility.The purpose is the reason why one reads a text. A
text may be read to fulfill learning or an entertainment need.
That purpose, notices Elizabeth K. Knutson US Naval academy,
affects the reader’s motivation, interest, and manner of reading
given that purpose affects the task process. A communicative
classroom task needs to be purposeful. The meaning is the
dimension of an activity that improves learner’s fluency.
Meaning is the key that opens communication and the task
completion because a minimal language is needed to complete
any classroom task.
5- GOALS
Nunan defines goals as
“The vague general intentions behind any given learning task.
They provide a point of contact between the task and the
broader curriculum. The answer that a teacher might give to
the question: “why did you get learners to engage in task
X (P4)? In short, goals refer to the didactic outcome that is to be
evoked as the justification tasks and the different components
of that task. “Communicative language teaching sets as its goal
the teaching of communicative competence”( op cit P2). That
competence is made up of four different competences: the
linguistic competence, the sociolinguistic competence, the
sociocultural competence and the discursive competence.
VI
Conclusion
This subpart had to account on the different components of a
task in a communicative classroom. Those components
contribute cooperatively to the achievement of reading
comprehension task in communicative context. In deed, each of
those components can be found in tasks from every
methodology. So the question is to know, the way how a task of
reading comprehension is designed so as it should facilitate the
development of the communicative competence. I explain the
model of communicative task designing through an analysis of
the framework devised by David NUNAN. As a result, have came
to the truth that the six components of that framework in a
communicative classroom, illustrates the socioculturalism. I can
thus deduce that CLT is a sociocultural methodology.
CHAPTER 4: BIBLIOGRAPHY
1-CORPUS
- Go For English 4è, Paris London and Oxford, Macmillan
VI
Education Ltd, London et Oxford et EDICEF, Paris, 1999.
2-Other BOOKS AND ARTICLES
- Brumfits Christopher: Communicative Methodology in
Language Teaching, the Roles of Fluency and Accuracy, Great
Britain, Cambridge university press, 1992, P 166.
-Brumfit, C. From defining to Designing: Communicative
specifications versus communicative Methodology in foreign
language teaching studies in second language acquisitition:1-
9,1980
- Brumfit, C. J. and K. Johnson. 1979. The Communicative
Approach to Language Teaching.Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
-Christian PUREN, la Didactique des Langues Etrangères à la
Croisée des Chemins : Essai sur l’Eclectisme, Ecole Normale
Supérieure de Fontenay/Saint-Cloud, Didier ; P 210.
-HARMER Jeremy, the Practice of English Language Teaching.
United States of America, Longman, 1983,
-Jack C. Richards, Communicative Language Teaching Today ,
United States of America, Cambridge university press,
2006 ,P47
-Jérôme KOUASSI, Evaluation et Didactique de l’Anglais, Langue
Etrangère : les Fondements d’une Inévitable Union, Abidjan, les
classiques des sciences sociales, P 125.
VI
McDonough, J. and Shaw, C. (1993) Materials and Methods in
ELT. Oxford: Blackwell.
-Littlewood, William Communicative Language Teaching; an
Introduction, great Britain, Cambridge university press, 1991, P
108
-NORMAN David, ulf Levihn, Jan Anders H. Communicative
Ideas, an Approach with Classroom Activities, England,
commercial color press. London E7 P 1986, P 125
-NUNAN David, Syllabus Design, oxford; oxford university press,
1988, P 166
-NUNAN David, Designing tasks for Communicative Classroom,
Great Britain, Cambridge university press, 1991, P 211.
-Savignon J.S. Communicative Competence: Theory and
Classroom Practice, Texts and Contexts in Second Language
Learning , America,,Addisson-Wesley Publishing Company,Inc,
1983
-Sim D.D., Laufer – Dvorkin B. Reading comprehension course;
selected strategies, Collins ELT , P 41.
VI
Oerback KARIN Didacts and Didactizing, P 25
James H. Berry, SC4, Levels of Reading comprehension
copyright © 2005 P3.
Doumbia Issiaka, Côte d’Ivoire : Les manuels d’anglais dans le
système scolaire. Evolutions et perspectives (dissertation
Project)
YAHOT Christophe, Programmes scolaies en Afrique et Enjeux
du troisième Millénaire P7.
Tijani Y. O. Lingustique Appliquée, didactique des langues,
laquelle est prioritaire dans une classe de Français
préliminaire ?
James Gilbert ,Constructivism within the second language
classroom, , Brise state university 2010
Aja Dailey, implementing task-based language teaching in
Korean classrooms, P 19.
Paulo Costa, Enseignant de Français en Angola, compétence de
communicaion et didactique des langues étrangères : la liaison
ratée ! PP 56-61
Dickinson Paul, Evaluating and Adapting Materials for Young
Learners, March 2010 P 22
Abbas pouhosein Gilakjani and Seyedek Masoumeh Ahmadi, the
Relationship between L2 Reading comprehension and schemata
theory: A matter of text familiarity, International journal of
VI
information and Education Technology Vol 1 N° 2 june 2011. PP
142-149
Sheridan Marcia E. Indiana University at South Bend, theories of
reading and implications for teachers. PP 67-71
Franck SERAFINI, Rethinking reading comprehension definitions,
instructional practices, and assessment. PP 189-202
HESHAM Suleiman Al Yousef, Teaching Reading Comprehension
to ESL /EFL learners, Journal of language and learning volume
snumber 1, 2006 PP 63-73.
LIMA Laurent, la comprehension de l’écrit, laboratoire des
sciences de l’Education UPMF P28.
Dr Mahdi Afkhami Nia, Maître-Assistant, Quel Rôle pour la
Compréhension dans l’Enseignement d’une Langue Etrangère ?
Revue de la faculté des lettres et sciences Humaines Année 53
N°221. P 11.
Marianne Celce-Murcia, Zoltán Dornyei, Srah THURRELL,
Communicative Competence : A Pedagogically Motivated Model
with Content Specifications, Issues in Applied Linguistics
Regents of the University of California. Volume 6N°2. 1995 PP 5-
35
Jack C. Richards, Curriculum Approaches in language teaching:
Forward, central and Backward design. RELC journal 44 (1).
ROYER M. James, Cunningham Donald J. on the theory and
measurement of comprehension, june 1978.
VI
John MUNBY, communicative syllabus Design: A socio-linguistic
Model for defining the content of purpose specific language
programs. P10
Richards, J.C. and Rodgers, T.S. Approaches and Methods in
language teaching CUP ,2001,PP 64-86.
Harison MohdSIDEK ,EFL reading instruction :
, Islamic science university of Malaysia, international journal of
instruction, July 2012 Vol 5 N°2 PP 109-128
Jiadong LIAO, Dacheng ZHAO, Grounded Theory Approach to
Beginning Teacher’s Perspectives of Communicative Language
Teaching Practice Electronic journal of Foreign language
teaching. 2012 Vol.9 N°1 PP 76-90
XU Yang, Theories Analyzing Communicative Approach in
China’s EFL Classes Vol.3, N°1 March 2010 PP 159-161
Raymond Robert TREMBLAY et Yvan PERRIER, Les Outils et
Méthodes de Travail intellectuel, 2è ed. Les Editions de la
chenelière 2006 savoir plus : l’hypothèse et l’objectif de la
recherche P4
ALDERSON, Charles and BERETTA, Alan (Eds.), Evaluating
Second Language Education, Cambridge: CUP, 1992.
ALDERSON, Charles J. et al., Language Test Construction and
Evaluation,Cambridge: CUP, 1995.
CANDLIN, Christopher N. and BREEN, Michael P., ‘Evaluating,
adapting and innovating language teaching materials’ TESOL,
VI
TOMLINSON, Brian (ed.), Materials Development in Language
Teaching Cambridge: CUP, 1998.
WEIR, Cyril J., Communicative Language Testing, London:
Prentice Hall International Ltd, 1990.
SHELDON, Leslie E. (ed.), ELT Textbooks and Materials:
Problems in evaluation and development, Oxford: Modern
English Publications, 1987.
MARTINEZ Pierre, la didactique des langues étrangères, PUF,
Quesais-je ?, Paris, 1996.
REA-DICKINS, Pauline and Germaine, Kevin, Evaluation, Oxford:
OUP,1992.p107
CHAPTER 5: RESULTS, FINDINGS AND
PERSPECTIVES
VI
During this final part of this study, my concern is to make the
balance sheet of the first findings, current worries and the
project of research program for the years to come.
1-FINDINGS
This first attempt to evaluate the communicativeness of the
tasks of reading comprehension in the GFE 4è, has prompted
me in reviewing the literary development in the communicative
approach, the task of reading comprehension and the theory of
evaluation. I have elaborated the methods of data collection
and analysis and suggested an outline as well as a bibliography
for my master II thesis.
2-PRESENT WORRIES
For this research to be more feasible, library resources and an
academic license should be provided to the researcher.
3-PROJECT OF PROGRAM
In order to direct successfully this research and make reliable
and valid suggestions likely to contribute to the amelioration of
the communicativeness of the reading comprehension tasks in
GFE 4è, I need an approximate time of nine months to structure
according to the following table.
VI
TASKS ACTIVITIES TIMING
Preparation Literature review 2 months
Start of the
project
Development of the
guide of questionnaire
and observation,
interview
1 month
Data
collection
Field surview 2 months
Data
analysis
Analysis / synthesis
/ interpretation
2 months
Report
developmen
t
Edition and publication 2 months
Total
duration
9 months
CONCLUSION
VI
After its first edition in 1989, the textbook GFE 4è has been
reedited in 1999 for a number of reasons including the
underlying methodology: the communicative language
teaching. My problem in this research was to know whether this
second edition succeeded in illustrating the CLT in this
textbook. In order to answer that question, I have decided to
put my attention on the tasks of reading comprehension for
reasons already evoked. The first finding I have come across in
this project is the fact that the communicative language
teaching is a sociocultural and an eclectic approach. So, during
the research in the year to come, I will see how the reading
comprehension tasks in the GFE 4è textbook portray the
socioculturalism
Table of content
VI
Summary…………………………………………………….……………… I
Dedicace…………………………………………………..…………………
II
Acknowledgements……………………………………………..…………
III
Introduction………………………………………………………….…..…. 4
PART ONE: OBJECT OF THE STUDY……………………………..…
6
CHAPTER 1: PRESENTATION OF THE TOPIC……………………… 8
Origin of the topic……………………………………………………..…. 8
Domain, speciality, and explanation of the topic........................9
Justification of the topic……………………………………………….11
CHAPTER 2: ELABORATION AND SPECIFICATION OF THE
RESEARCH PROBLEM…………………………………………………13
problem ……………………………………….…….…………………….13
Objectives …………………………………………………………………14
Hypotheses ……………………………………………………………….14
PART TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW, CORPUS METHODS OF
ANALYSIS………………………………………………………………….16
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………….18
1-Communicative language teaching…………………………………
18
VI
2-Reading comprehension……………………………………..……….21
3-Textbook evaluation……………………………………………………
22
CHAPTER 2: JUSTIFICATION OF THE CORPUS…………………25
1-Identification of the corpus…………………………………………25
2-Originality and authenticity of the
corpus………………………..25
CHAPTER 3: METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION AND
ANALYSIS…………………………………………………………………26
1-Identification of the type of study…………………………………26
2-
Populations...............................................................................26
3-Data collection......................................................................27
4- Instruments…………………………………………………………..27
1 Observation………………………………………………………….
…..27
2 the interview.....................................................................28
3 the
questionnaire………………………………………………………..28
5- data Analysis………………………………………………………….29
VI
PART THREE: FINDINGS AND PERSPECTIVES…………………
31
CHAPTER 1: PRESENTATION OF MAJOR PARTS OF THE
STUDY………………………………………………………………………33
1-literature review…………………………………………………………
33
3-field study……………………………………………………………….33
4-suggestions or
recommendations…………………………………..34
CHAPTER 2: THE OUTLINE OF THE THESIS……………………..35
CHAPTER 3: AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THE STUDY…………36
1-input………………………………………………………………….……37
2-settings………………………………………………………….……….39
3-Activities………………………………………………………………….41
4-Roles……………………………………………………………………….43
5-Goals………………………………………………………………………44
CHAPTER 4: BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………..46
CHAPTER 5: RESULTS,FINDINGS AND RESEARCH
PERSPECTIVES…………………………………………………………..52
1-Findings…………………………………………………………………52
2-current worries……………………………………………………….52.
3-Project of program……………………………………………………52
VI
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….54
Table of Content……………………………………………………………
55