الفهرس 
ProblemOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 344 |  |  |
| | | from | 344 | | |
Abstract
This chapter is assigned to present the summary and conclusions of the study that have been reached after analyzing the data and discussing the results. It also presents the findings, recommendations and suggestions for further research.
5.1 Summary
The basic aim of teaching and learning English as a foreign language is to enable the learners to enhance their communicative competence and their language use. This indicates that language use should come as a top priority in learning any language rather than the mere explicit grammar instruction. In EFL contexts, language use is an important ability to enhance. This ability requires bringing learners’ real-world language into communicative use and involving them in meaningful authentic language use activities so that they can use the language actively. In addition to this, this ability requires understanding when, why and in what ways to produce language. Thus, authentic tasks embraced by technology were thought of as an effective alternative to engage learners in the practical use of the language through authentic communicative exchanges. Here comes the priority of inspiring learners to connect the knowledge received in classes with their lives so that this information can be used and reflected in new situations.
In spite of the importance of language use, the secondary stage students generally and the 1st year secondary stage students in particular lack the necessary language use components to communicate and use the English language effectively that prepare them to the university education. This problem may be due to the following limitations/reasons:
Frequently, students are reluctant to take part in oral/written activities because they do not see any relevance between these activities and their daily lives.
Lack of self-confidence, as most students feel embarrassed and hesitant in their attempts to use the language orally or in writing.
A large number of students have difficulty in communicating ideas and information, expressing feelings and experiences. They use ineffective vocabulary that cannot convey the meaning appropriately.
Most of the strategies implemented in class do not engage students in language use activities. English teachers often focus on the linguistic competence in terms of grammar and language usage as their ultimate goals in teaching neglecting the language use.
The exposure to authentic language input in English is limited, as it is a foreign language, and the lack of using the suitable online authentic language materials that facilitate this exposure.
Difficulty to achieve good standards of English language production and language use since the input that students receive may be insufficient.
Lack of using any of the attractive and enjoyable technological devices inside the classroom that can facilitate engaging the students actively in meaningful processing with the content delivered.
Because of the previous reasons, the students’ language use had to be enhanced. So, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of using a technological authentic task-based approach on enhancing the 1st year EFL secondary stage students’ language use. A program of five authentic tasks was designed and taught using a variety of online authentic language materials and technological devices. So, the following main question was raised:
What is the effect of using a technological authentic task-based approach on enhancing EFL secondary stage students’ language use?
In an attempt to answer the above question, the following questions had to be answered:
5. What are the basic components needed for using language of the 1st year secondary stage students?
6. To what extent do the 1st year secondary stage students master these identified components?
7. What are the components of a program based on a technological authentic task-based approach to enhance the 1st year secondary stage students’ ability of language use?
8. To what extent does the application of the program based on a technological authentic task-based approach affect the enhancement of the 1st year secondary stage students’ language use?
In order to answer the first question, a list of language use components was designed by the researcher to identify the basic and necessary language use components that the 1st year secondary stage students needed to be enhanced. Hence, based on its results, necessary language use components included in the current study were identified. See appendix (B). In order to answer the second question, the researcher administered a pre language use test upon the study participants to assess their language use abilities. See appendix (C).
In order to answer the third question, the researcher discussed the characteristics and features of the technological authentic task-based approach that could be used to enhance the 1st year secondary stage students’ language use in chapter two in detail. Based on these features and the identified components, an instructional technological authentic task-based program in five tasks going through language use orally and in writing was designed and taught by the researcher for enhancing the 1st year secondary stage students’ language use. In addition, the researcher discussed the study program in chapter three in detail. In order to answer the last question, the researcher analyzed the results of the language use pre/posttest and calculated the effect size and Blake’s modified gain ratio.
After that, the researcher designed an analytic language use rubric, see appendix (E), to assess the progress and the effect of the study program on each language use component. Then, the researcher reviewed the literature and the previous studies related to both language use and the technological authentic task-based approach in order to design the features of the study program. It consisted of five authentic tasks taught in eight weeks.
The study was based on a one-group, mixed research design. In this study, a class of 30 students (N=30) was randomly selected from the 1st year secondary stage students in Al-Khansaa’ governmental secondary school for girls, at Al-Salam Educational Zone, in Cairo governorate to represent the study group.
Before administrating the program, a pretest was conducted in order to assess the participants’ language use abilities and after conducting the treatment the posttest was administered. The results were analyzed statistically and qualitatively. They were in favor of the posttest. So, it could be concluded that the technological authentic task-based program was effective in enhancing the 1st year secondary stage students’ language use.
5.2 Findings
Through analyzing the data and the results, it could be stated clearly that the study program was effective in enhancing the 1st year secondary stage students’ language use and the following hypotheses were verified:
a. There is a significant difference between the participants’ mean scores on the language use pre and posttest administrations concerning the overall language use components in favor of the posttest mean scores.
b. There is a significant difference between the participants’ mean scores on the language use pre and posttest administrations in ‘Meaning Configuration’ in favor of their posttest mean scores.
c. There is a significant difference between the participants’ mean scores on the language use pre and posttest administrations in ‘Visualization’ in favor of their posttest mean scores.
d. There is a significant difference between the participants’ mean scores on the language use pre and posttest administrations in ‘Reflection of Knowledge’ in favor of their posttest mean scores.
e. There is a significant difference between the participants’ mean scores on the language use pre and posttest administrations in ‘Critical Inquiry’ in favor of their posttest mean scores.
f. There is a significant difference between the participants’ mean scores on the language use pre and posttest administrations in ‘Self-Expression’ in favor of their posttest mean scores.
5.3 Conclusions
In the light of the results of the present study, the following conclusions could be stated:
The present study provided an evidence for the effect of the study program on enhancing the 1st year secondary stage students’ language use abilities.
There was also evidence that using authentic tasks and authentic language use activities had a more positive effect on enhancing the 1st year secondary stage students’ language use abilities.
Integrating meaningful technological devices with different authentic language use activities assisted participants to communicate and interact with each other eagerly, and proved to promote participants’ active participation in discussions and various writing and speaking activities, which consequently contributed to enhanced language use.
There was evidence that the implemented online authentic language materials and technological devices fostered less controlled interaction between students as they could participate in functional activities such as oral reports, oral presentations, written reviews, critical writings, information exchange, mingling activities, and social activities such as projects, creative writing, group discussions, interviews and debates.
The implemented technological devices proved to be more effective in increasing the participants’ motivation for using the language since the activities of authoring online photo story e-books and publishing on blogs conducted by the participants are visible by others, which in turn motivated the participants to share and express themselves openly and freely.
The authentic language materials played an effective role in the enrichment of the participants’ vocabulary range and use, and in increasing their cultural awareness and level of attention.
It was evidenced that the participants established a connection with the implemented tasks and became more reflective and careful evaluators of their own performance since the participants’ needs, likes and interests were taken into account from the beginning. Moreover, the topics, objectives, and final product were relevant, meaningful, interesting, and useful to them.
Using authentic tasks, related to the participants’ daily lives, produced a positive effect on the participants in terms of engagement and confidence-building.
Participants’ pair work and group work proved to be influential in enhancing participants’ involvement in different language use tasks, which in turn encouraged them to enhance their language use abilities.
Using the pre/posttest was important in assessing the participants’ progress and giving a clear evidence for classroom observations done by the researcher.
Using active learning strategies embedded in the study program provided the participants with a good opportunity for deeper thinking and self-expression. Moreover, these strategies provided the researcher with significant insight into depth of understanding.
Using the classroom discussions, the researcher’s observations and field notes during the treatment enabled the researcher to gain an understanding of the participants’ performance and reflections in order to make responsive modifications in their interaction.
5.4 Recommendations
Based on the results of the current study, the following points can be recommended:
For EFL Researchers:
Language use rather than language usage needs to be given more attention and care in further studies and in EFL classes. More time and effort need to be exerted to enhance it and its components, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
For Curriculum Developers and Designers:
Using the technological authentic task-based approach in teaching English, especially, in teaching language use, should be put into consideration in EFL learning programs in different instructional stages.
Using enjoyable technological devices and suitable online authentic language materials in EFL programs should be taken into account in designing courses to different instructional stages.
For EFL Teachers:
Teachers should be involved in using the technological authentic task-based approach in teaching English to fulfill the optimal use for developing not only students’ language use abilities, but also important and necessary life skills.
Planning to use authentic tasks and authentic materials in EFL classrooms needs to be explored within a thorough methodological framework like that of Willis’ to enable learners to put language into functional, practical and actual use.
Teachers should try more authentic tasks and authentic materials in their classrooms, as they increase their learners’ levels of concentration, on-task behavior, and involvement in the target activity more than artificial materials.
Teachers should take their students’ likes and interests into consideration when designing tasks. This creates meaningful negotiation with students about what they want to learn. In that sense, students become committed decision-makers in terms of content as well as careful evaluators of their own performance.
When planning the task, it is important to allow students time for reflection. As a result, when students are asked to reflect on their performance, they learn to analyze what they have done well and what needs improvement.
For EFL Students:
Students should try to explore more innovative learning techniques based on self-directed learning by creating and building their own e-learning communities in order to prepare and train themselves to become successful language users and active, independent critical thinkers through engaging in more collaborative technology-mediated, authentic tasks to work on.
Chances should be given to students to practice authentic language use orally and in writing in a non-threatening atmosphere and in a real-world-like environment.
For the Field of EFL:
There is an urgent and necessary need to investigate, encourage and promote more contextualized EFL teaching and learning approaches that utilize online authentic language materials for effective EFL teaching and learning to keep pace with the current orientation for online and blended learning during the Covid-19 pandemic time.
5.5 Suggestions for Further Studies
According to the results of this study, more studies are suggested in the area of teaching language use. Here are some of the topics that deserve investigation:
A study that investigates the effect of using a technological authentic task-based approach on enhancing students’ language use at different educational stages.
A study that investigates the impact of authentic tasks and online authentic language materials on learners’ motivation in foreign language learning.
A study that uses technological authentic tasks in implicit grammar teaching with various educational stages to investigate the effect of a technological authentic task-based approach on developing students’ grammar use.
Further studies are required to be conducted so as to shed more light on the appropriate, effective uses of authentic tasks and authentic materials in language learning and the cultural issues encountered while implementing them.
More studies are needed to explore EFL learners’ difficulties when participating in technology-mediated tasks.
A study that explores the effect of using other appropriate technological devices that could support secondary school students to enhance their language use and other language components and to address and meet their needs during this ongoing outbreak Covid-19 pandemic situations.
A study that investigates the effect of using other appropriate approaches such as life-wide learning, self-directed learning, competency-based learning and inquiry-based learning on enhancing students’ language use, especially to the current Covid-19 pandemic situations and limitations.
More studies should be conducted to investigate the problems of teaching language use and the obstacles that affect enhancing other aspects in language use such as language use in interactive listening or reflective reading and pragmatics including speech acts, conversational implicature, etc.
Research into effective technology-based professional development opportunities for developing teachers’ technological knowledge, technological pedagogical knowledge, and technological content knowledge will be a positive addition to task-based language learning and technology-enhanced language learning literature.