Developing communicative competence

children was well below the level of the tests. It turned out that the children did not even understand basic vocabulary, one of them asked in Hungarian “What does gehen mean?” pronouncing the verb gehen (=to go) in a wrong way. The children seemed bored and uninterested during the whole lesson. The language teacher explained after the lesson that these children were incredibly weak at grammar that is why she had to practice it again and again. However, choosing inappropriate tasks and inappropriate methodology did not seem to contribute to developing children’s grammatical competence.

Considering findings of perceived difficulties of disadvantaged learners might indicate that methods of the grammar-translation approach do not lead to significant results. It supports the findings of Nikolov (2003) that traditional language teaching is more favourable for children with better language aptitude and cognitive skills.

Furthermore, this methodological approach is not in line with recommendations for young learners which involve less emphasis on reading and writing and more emphasis on communication, and improving oral-aural skills should be preferred to developing literacy skills (Nikolov and Curtain, 2000). Using overwhelmingly activities of the grammar-translation method may contribute to the lagging achievement among disadvantaged children and children with special needs.

foreign language. The following oral tasks were observed during classroom observations: answering teachers’ questions, oral reporting, reciting dialogues in forms of role plays and communication games.

Developing communicative competence did not seem to be the principal aim of the lessons. Teachers gave several reasons for neglecting developing speaking skills.

One comment referred to few speaking activities in the course book:

More emphasis should be placed on speaking, language exams require it, and we mainly use it in our everyday lives, but I need to follow the textbook. [S2TG1]

Other arguments were related to low grammatical knowledge of the children:

The problem with communicative tasks is that they can’t conjugate verbs, but German has a lot of conjugation. [S1TG1]

One teacher assumed that children had low memory abilities and consequently, poor vocabulary which also affected their speaking skills:

I think good memory is essential for speaking. First, words need to be learnt and remembered. They can’t do it, therefore they can’t speak German. Maybe later, next year, we will do more speaking activities.

[S5TG1]

Teaching reading and writing seems to be more important than the practice of speaking although McKay (2006) asserts that for young second language learners “a lack of oral language in the target language constitutes a major drawback for literacy development”

(p. 178). Doing mainly exercises aimed to develop writing and reading skills of special needs (especially dyslexic) children constrains time available for speaking activities, :

Special needs children need a lot of writing-reading practice, which takes time from speaking. [S1TE1]

I’ve considered concentrating on speaking with children with dyslexia, however, I also have to practice writing-reading with the others. [S4TE1]

Teachers complained that creative or communicative tasks were frequently disturbed by negative classroom behaviour that is why these exercises are exceptional in their language classes:

If half of the class dislikes it, they spoil it and it leads to chaos.[S3TE1]

Behaviour problems also discouraged teachers from using pair work in communicative tasks:

The oral tasks, mainly the ones that they should perform in pairs, are problematic due to their behaviour. So we don’t do it. [S4TE2]

In larger groups, speaking activities seemed to be even more neglected:

In big groups it’s really impossible to develop a conversation. We choose to improve their writing instead. [S4ET1]

An interesting incident in an English class with teacher (S2TE1) indicates how difficulties with literacy can discourage children from communicating. The children were practicing a role-play in English and seemed to enjoy it. One of the boys who had been identified as disadvantaged before the lesson, was happy to act out his part at the beginning. However, he made several mistakes and the teacher asked him to read his part and not to tell it by heart because of the high number of mistakes he made. While reading, he started to become reluctant and stressed, then he stopped the previously loose and uninhibited game. Difficulties with reading may discourage children from communicating. Empathic teacher’s behaviour and appropriate methodology may be useful in situations like this.

Favourite classroom activities identified by the teachers were games including language games, puzzles, board games and competitions. The following comments indicate that communication games were among the most popular games:

They enjoy things they can perform. If we have a text that has roles in it, they love it very much. [S4TG2]

Dialogues we usually listen to first, they repeat the lines after the tape and then they can act it as well. They love it.[S6TE1]

They enjoy acting situations very much. [S4TE2]

One of the reasons of the popularity of communication games might be the above described strengths of disadvantaged children as being more open, extroverted and communicative, in addition, the vivid oral traditions of Roma communities (Réger, 1987) might contribute to children’s better oral abilities. Teacher S1TE2 argued that she liked using communicative games because children become more confident in communication, in addition, they develop motivation while surreptitiously teaching.

In the majority of the observed classes, hardly any time was devoted to listening tasks, in spite of the fact that the necessary equipment (tape-recorder and CD player) was available. Moreover, English classes in School S3 were usually held in a language laboratory equipped with computers, however, computers or headphones were almost never used because the teacher found it hard to control children as they used the computers for playing, in addition, they had damaged some of the computers. Most frequent listening tasks involved doing course book exercises related to listening or listening to teacher’s or peer’s reading. The most frequent reason for not using many listening activities was the lack of listening materials. One of the teachers exclaimed that disadvantaged children seemed not to enjoy listening at all:

To tell the truth, listening activities make them nervous, and they get angry if they don’t understand everything. [S2TG2]

In this case, probably the teacher herself was not convinced of the usefulness of listening tasks, moreover, appropriate instructions and familiarity with listening routines caused the failure of listening tasks.

Comments from children’s interview do not support the above described negative attitude of children to listening activities: listening seems to be a neutral classroom activity it was not mentioned as a favourite activity (only listening to songs), or as an unpopular task. Some children in School S6 regretted not having ever listened to English CDs or cassettes.

Using songs in language classes can serve various purposes: they help to develop listening comprehension, they may reinforce vocabulary, revise grammar, it helps with correct pronunciation, stress and intonation (Nikolov, Mihaljević Djigunović, Mattheoudakis, Lundberg and Flanagan, 2007), and they may provoke cultural discussions (Abbott, 2002). Moreover, it is an important part of multisensory language teaching because of the cognitive benefits of songs and can be particularly useful for learners with special needs (see details in Section 2.7.1). In Multiple Intelligences theory, the preferred mode of learning a language for people with musical intelligence should be listening to songs according to Wilson (2008). Activities with songs may provide an enjoyable and motivating learning environment, furthermore, “a meaningful context for practicing and automatizing language skills” (Abbott, 2002, p. 17).

Disadvantaged children were described by having special musical interests and talents as one of their strengths:

But if we take a tape or a tape recorder out, for which we don’t have too much time, unfortunately, they like it very much, the rhythm, they drum

It indicates that using music and songs have the possibility to give the children more confidence to become involved in the language learning process by contributing from their musical knowledge.

Several teachers reported a sharp distinction between the attitudes to songs of younger and older learners:

When some holiday is approaching, I always play typical German songs for them, but only the younger ones like them, under Grade 6. [S1TG1]

I use songs more frequently in the lower primary section, because the older children don’t really like them. [S5TG1]

In the early years I teach them a good number of songs, they love them.

Counting-out rhymes as well. They love this. In Grade 5 it still works.

But why doesn’t it work in Grade 6? Students wouldn’t open their mouths then. [S2TG2]

Wilson (2008) suggests taking songs with older language learners as seriously as any other text, not only as a break from routine, a time filler or as a source of enjoyment.

Teenagers tend to be more critical, therefore clear and concrete explanations should be given so that they can see the relevance of the task. Moreover, older children are concerned with the impression they make on their peers, that is way they might reject singing. The choice of songs should also be age-appropriate. Abbott (2002) summarizes the suggestions for incorporating activities with songs even in adult classes. She states that the age and proficiency level of learners should be taken into consideration. The lyrics of the songs should be linked to the topic or functions of the lesson. A variety of pre- and post listening activities help to motivate children and reinforce the vocabulary and grammar used in the lyrics.

One teacher of English did not experience the negative attitude of older children indicating that using appropriate methodology may prevent children’s rejection:

In this class of Grade 6 children always look forward to the song at the end of each chapter in the book, they like it, we discuss what it is about, its melody, they even have favourites, songs with a nice rhythm or lyrics.

I usually take songs used in the lower primary section into classes in the upper primary, too, if there aren’t suitable exercises in the textbook, e.g.

to learn about the parts of the body. [S2TE1]

If the only source of songs is the textbook recordings, songs may become boring for both the teacher and the children, furthermore it also puts limits on listening opportunities:

We listen to the songs in the textbook only, well, they’re very boring for me now. So are they for the children, I guess. In year 4-5 they like songs, but in year 6 students don’t enjoy learning poems and songs anymore.

They’re not interested in them from then on. [S4TE2]

We don’t have a lot of songs in our textbook, so we don’t often listen to them. [S4TG2]

Teachers reported to use rhymes only in the lower primary section, usually in the first year of language education in Grade 4:

Children enjoy rhymes, even the older ones, the smaller children love them. [S6TG1]

Using songs was a considerably rare activity of the observed language classes.

There was only one occasion when a song was sung in School S1 in Grade 4 at the beginning of the lesson to create an enjoyable environment. In children’s interviews, songs were listed as favourite activities by seven children, which indicates that they are

popular activities. Two children regretted not listening to songs any more, they only used to listen to songs in Grade 4. Two boys from Grade 7 stressed that they did not like the songs they listened to in English classes because they were old-fashioned (for example songs by the Beatles).

The musicality of children was indicated by an incident during an English lesson in school S3. A dyslexic boy in Grade 6 was sitting in the back, seemingly not participating in the classroom activities, however, he kept writing. At the end of the lesson, the researcher asked him what he was writing and he showed bashfully but also proudly the paper: he was composing lyrics of songs in Hungarian. He confessed he couldn’t follow the lesson, and in cases like this, he usually sang silently and created lyrics. This incident also shows that musical talents of children could be exploited also for the purpose of language learning.

In children interviews, games were usually mentioned only when asked about.

As a matter of fact, they often recalled only past experience of playing games which happened in previous years. Children enjoyed talking about games they used to play, several of them regretted “not playing any more” (S5CH2), “in previous years we used to play much more” (S4CH4), “in Grade 4 we even played with puppets” (S1CH7).

Findings of interviews and classroom observations indicate that the majority of foreign language teachers neglect an ordinary but useful teaching technique of listening to songs in language teaching. Songs could be used effectively not only in the lower primary section, but also in the upper primary with appropriate methodology. The significance of oral language for language development has been widely recognised.

Several intervention programs for improving literacy skills (see details in Section 2.5) and phonological awareness training programs for dyslexic learners (see details in Section 2.7.1) are based on the prominence of listening and speaking activities, which

also verifies that speaking and listening should not be neglected when teaching foreign languages to disadvantaged learners. Listening, speaking, reading and writing need to be given equal emphasis.