The Effect of Teaching Methods in Learning English Using the Qualitative Approach

Methodology

Difficulties in learning English have been a derailing problem affecting most students. This is because the learning process involves familiarizing oneself with the language that a student may initially have no clue about. Therefore, to help students to get along and catch up with the learning process, suitable methods of instruction must be applied for useful results. This research study explores the effect of teaching methods in learning English using the qualitative approach in a class with 20 students. The three methods chosen for assessment involves silent teaching, direct teaching, and audio-lingual method of teaching English.

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The qualitative approach for investigating the effect of teaching methods in learning English is very effective since the research seeks to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of each teaching method to the ability of students to grasp concepts and put into action what he or she learns in the classroom to the outside world. A qualitative approach will seek to engage students and teachers and enable them to give first-hand testimonies of the facts and real achievements that can be easily observed (Jalbani, 2015). During the process, it will be straightforward to examine the effectiveness of each method of teaching by considering the efficiency and proficiency in which students continually get the mastery of the English concepts they learn using the particular teaching method used. Hence, the qualitative approach is the best one for investigating lingual research problems such as this one.

The research study will use both primary and secondary methods of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting the data relevant for addressing the problem. Before conducting the research study, researchers will acquire an official endorsement and adequate informed consent from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) allowing the research activity to occur. When the research activity shall have been authorized, researchers will ensure to put into proper consideration, the measures for clear assessment and minimize any possible risks during the research process. The primary methods that will be used to collect data will include direct observation, audio recordings, and in-depth interviews. Direct observation will be used to investigate the proficiency of students in the classroom as they are taught the English language using various methods of teaching identified above (Check, 2012). During observation, students will be gauged based on the way they respond to questions asked by the teacher, their levels of interactivity and reactivity to various English words, the level of interest and enthusiasm in learning, improvements in pronunciation for English words, sentence constructions, and many more indicators of active learning. Direct observation will give researchers first-hand information and allow them to deduce professionally about the effectiveness of the particular teaching method used in teaching English (Jalbani, 2015). The audio recording will be used to collect data on the way students pronounce different English words during various particular methods of teaching and their interactivity during the classroom session. Apart from that, the researchers will also use direct interviews to get the views from both students and teachers concerning the effectiveness of various methods of teaching English. Researchers will use the random sampling method to pick five students for the direct interview. According to Emmel (2013), five students will be an adequate representation for the total population of students in the class of twenty. Interviews will seek to examine personal experience with the teaching method as well as their perspectives concerning the effects of the teaching methods. The administration of direct interviews will help researchers make a direct assessment of the effects of the various teaching methods through paying close attention to the emphases made by the respondents as well as through professional discernment for their interest or disinterest in a particular teaching method. Apart from the direct observation, audio recording, and interviews, other secondary sources of information will also be used such as the previous performance index for students in English taught using various teaching methods. The performance of students in the English language will tell a lot about the effectiveness of the various methods of teaching (Check, 2012). Therefore, it will be a relevant method of data collection for this study.

The analysis of the results will be done through content analysis whereby, the researchers will categorize the verbal and behavioral data collected during the study for the proper summary, classification, and tabulation. In addition to that, researchers will also apply narrative analysis to reformulate stories and responses obtained from the students and teachers during the interviews, taking into account various contexts for each case and the experiences of the interviewed respondents. Through the proper revision of the primary data collected during the study, researchers will derive important facts and findings from the study. Moreover, the discourse analysis method will also be used to analyze the talks, and direct answers collected through audio and video recording to find other additional details in the responses provided such as the fluency, emphasis, affect, and attitudes of various respondents to various teaching methods (Jalbani, 2015).

Conclusion

The researchers may likely face some problems during the study including improper understanding by the students or teachers especially as they administer the direct interviews. For example, a misunderstanding may arise in the case where a teacher may feel the interviewer is trying to disapprove of their favorite teaching methods (Check, 2012). Apart from that, a student chosen for an interview may become timid and not willing for the interview. Researchers will put suitable measures in place to address these anticipated challenges amicably by being very social, simple, and interactive to dispel any fear from the respondents. For this reason, the qualitative approach will be very effective for investigating the effect of teaching methods in learning English.

References

Check, J. W., Schutt, R. K., & Sage Publications. (2012). Research methods in education. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.

Emmel, N. (2013). Sampling and choosing cases in qualitative research: A realist approach.

Jalbani, L. N. (2015). Impact of effective teaching strategies on the students' academic performance and learning outcome. Place of publication not identified: GRIN Publishing.