Investigating the Impact of Negotiated Task-Based Syllabus on Adult Learners' Oral Fluency

Abstract

This paper aims at investigating one of the UAE-based private institutes’ current syllabus practices against the negotiated task-based learning ones. The present study intends to build a negotiated task-based syllabus and explore the perspectives of learners regarding the impact of a negotiated task-based syllabus on their oral fluency. Competency-based language learning and communicative language teaching have gotten unpredictable popularity over the past four decades. Task-based syllabuses are being advanced in an increasing number of educational settings by researchers in studies exploring the process that drives Second Language Acquisition. A convergent parallel mixed methods approach was employed to analyze quantitative and qualitative data. The study involved eight hours of observations identically to the same group of participants who were homogeneous in their English proficiency. The first part of the observation dealt with the control group in which the current syllabus was normally practiced while the experiment group targeted the task-based learning method where suggested topics were negotiated with the participants. In both groups, the participants were given the same formative assessment procedure. A questionnaire exploring the participants' attitudes and asking their preference of the two types of methodologies was also carried out. At the end of the eight-hour observation, focus group interviews were conducted to further validate the present study. While feedback of the formative assessment in both groups was relatively identical, participants showed better satisfaction to the negotiated task-based syllabus.