These were supported with qualitative results from learners’ diaries, case-study interviews with subjects from both groups and transcripts of classroom interaction. The hypothesis was tested with a batch of eight pre/post- course measures, designed to tap into different aspects of learners’ communicative competence or language skills: a) Listening b) Pronunciation c) ‘C’-Test d) Grammar e) Vocabulary f) Discourse completion task (DCT) g) IELTS oral interview h) Student- student role-play. The control group received input from two textbooks commonly used in Japanese universities, while the experimental group received input from authentic materials (films, documentaries, ‘reality shows’, TV comedies, web-based sources, home-produced video of native speakers, songs, novels and newspaper articles), designed to allow students to ‘notice’ features of the discourse which could help them develop some aspect of their communicative competence. Ninety-two 2nd year English major students, of similar proficiency levels, were assigned to either a control or experimental group for the period of the trial. It was hypothesised that the ‘richer’ input provided by authentic materials, combined with appropriate awareness-raising activities, would be better able to develop a range of communicative competencies in learners (linguistic, pragmalinguistic, sociopragmatic, strategic and discourse competences).
The research described in this thesis reports on a 10-month quantitative/qualitative classroom-based study, carried out at a Japanese university, investigating the potential of authentic materials to develop learners’ communicative competence.
For accuracy, unpressured online planning condition helped the dramatic performance of test takers in terms of proportion of error free T-units of all T-units, although the difference was not significant (P= 0.09). The results obtained from t-test revealed that the opportunity to engage in careful online planning, with utilization of concept mapping as a writing facilitator strategy, does not enhance the complexity and fluency of written performance significantly, but quite the opposite, it reduces the discourse measures in testing context. Iranian intermediate-level EFL learners (N = 40) were assigned to the two task conditions. unpressured online planning with application of the strategy of concept mapping, and pressured online planning without the application of the strategy of concept mapping) on EFL learners' complexity, accuracy, and fluency of their written productions in testing context were investigated. The effects of two online planning conditions (i.e. The purpose of the current study was to explore the effect of different online planning conditions on EFL learners' writing test performance in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency.
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