This study was originated from the questioning that many students have difficulties in communicating in English though there is a revised curriculum that aims for developing students’ communicative competence and some policies for invigoration of pr...
This study was originated from the questioning that many students have difficulties in communicating in English though there is a revised curriculum that aims for developing students’ communicative competence and some policies for invigoration of practical English. It means that there is a discrepancy between the purpose of English revised curriculum and real English learning processes in schools. I assumed that four skills of English would not be taught in a balanced way. Therefore, it is necessary to collect and research the students’ perception and satisfaction of learning 4 skills in their classroom.
Through this research, the major findings of the study are as follows. First, students think that listening and reading skills are taught and learnt enough in English classes. However, writing skills are dealt in a short time. As for the improvement in 4 skills, students respond that reading skills are the most improved than other language skills.
As for the activities of 4 skills, students use English just simply in listening and writing. There are few activities regarding the standards of ability-achievement by the national revised curriculum. In activities of writing skills, most of students respond that there are not any activities related to writing. It shows the students’ opportunities are usually limited. In teaching and learning English, major educational media are a textbook and CDs. As for the satisfaction of educational media, many students answer positively.
Second, there is the imbalance in the ratios of the 4 skills being taught and learnt in an English class. Teaching is concentrated on reading skills, so reading skills account for 41.4%. Listening skills account for 24.4%, speaking skills account for 20.4 %, and writing skills account for 19.6%. As for the reason that speaking and writing are hard to be handled in an English class, students answer that speaking is not dealt in assessment in school and they have poor ability in writing.
Third, regarding the satisfaction of 4 skills, listening skills take possession of the highest score (2.95). The lowest score is 2.53 of writing skills and a lot of students respond that the ratios of writing, speaking and listening are too low, thus they cannot improve their language skills. About reading skills, students answer the grammar translation method in reading blocks students from participating in the class. Over all 4 skills, there is little opportunity for students to join the class.
Fourth, according to students’ needs and the ways to improve the imbalance of 4 skills, students suggest ideal ratio in English teaching and learning. It is that the ratio of listening skills accounts for 29.63%, speaking skills accounts for 9.44, reading skills accounts for 20.79 and writing skills accounts for 20.27. It looks more balanced than the first result of the ratio of 4 skills in their English classes. To improve and fix the problem of imbalance in the ratio of 4 skills, first of all, students think that they need to be taught in an effective way for using practical English with increased teaching time. The next popular respond is that they need efficient teaching supplies and devices for English learning and assessment of 4 skills should be changed to evaluate English 4 skills in a balanced way.
The research findings above tell us that teaching and leaning 4 skills are not handled quantitatively as well as qualitatively in English classes. That students perceive they would not be taught 4 skills equally and effectively imply that educational policies and revised curriculum are not applied to real English classes in school, but teachers and students are also related to this discrepancy. If students have faith of what they learn and believe their teachers, and, of course, teachers constantly try to develop effective teaching approaches related to improvement students’ communicative competence under the reasonably practical policies and curriculum, we are able to enhance students’ satisfaction and improve their 4 skills with communicative competence.