Enhancing English Language Learners’ Conversation Abilities via CA-informed Sitcom Lessons

Abstract

The study investigated the effectiveness of Conversation Analysis (CA)-informed sitcom lessons in enhancing conversation abilities of Thai learners of English. The participants included 42 high school students enrolled in an English for Communication course at a public high school in Southern Thailand. Through 15-week sitcom lessons, they were taught how to construct conversation sequences to accomplish such sequential actions as greeting and leave-taking, dis/agreement, new announcement, compliment, invitation, and request, as well as to collaboratively analyze conversations from the sitcoms and role-play them at the end of each lesson. Before and after the series of lessons, the participants were engaged in role-play conversations that were videotaped for subsequent assessment of their conversation abilities. The findings from both comparative statistical and close single-case analyses revealed significant improvements in all the aspects assessed especially regarding grammar and appropriacy. Therefore, it is recommended that EFL teachers should apply CA principles to teaching English conversation, integrating conversations from authentic materials such as sitcoms to strengthen English language learners’ conversation abilities.

Implementing CA-T Model Lessons in Schools: A Preliminary Study in Southern Border Provinces of Thailand

“…Additionally, more recent studies conducted in a Thai context have provided encouraging findings that students receiving explicit CA-informed instruction interactionally outperformed those who did not. The students who received the CA-informed instruction reported a high level of satisfaction with the new conversation teaching approach, maintaining that it not only helped raise their awareness of the genuine nature and norms of ordinary conversation, but made them feel more confident in speaking and more adept at participating in English conversation (Sinwongsuwat, Nicoletti, & Teng, 2018;Sitthikoson & Sinwongsuwat, 2017;Teng & Sinwongsuwat, 2015b;Waedaoh & Sinwongsuwat, 2018).…”

“…CA has inspired a steadily growing body of research in L2 learning and teaching in the West (Barraja-Rohan, 2011;Gardner, 2012;Kasper, 2006, Mori, 2007Seedhouse, 2004;Sert, 2010;Sert & Seedhouse, 2011). However, in the East, particularly in the Thai ELT context, there has been a gradual emergence of 'applied-CA' or 'CA-like' studies (see, e.g., Choopool & Sinwongsuwat, 2017;Chotirat & Sinwongsuwat, 2011;Makeh & Sinwongsuwat, 2014;Naksevee & Sinwongsuwat, 2013;Nookam & Sinwongsuwat, 2010;Pitaksuksan & Sinwongsuwat, 2019;Rodpradit & Singwongsuwat, 2012;Sinwongsuwat, Nicoletti, & Teng, 2018;Sitthikoson & Sinwongsuwat, 2017;Teng & Sinwongsuwat, 2015ab;Ussama & Singwongsuwat, 2014;Waedaoh & Sinwongsuwat, 2018). These studies have stressed the importance of turning towards features of naturally-occurring talk, principally those unveiled through CA, when teaching and assessing Thai EFL learners' English conversational skills.…”

“…With this in mind, researchers have begun to consider other instructional approaches to supplement current CLT-based instructional materials and strategies. Many are turning towards the integration of other sociocultural/interactional approaches to enhance CLT (Kirkpatrick & Ghaemi, 2011;Kramsch, 2014;Kustati, 2013;Sun, 2014;Wu, 2013;Young, 1999) with a number of studies in Thailand suggesting that CLT could be more effective if aspects of Conversation Analysis (CA) were incorporated into CLT-informed English lessons (Choopool & Sinwongsuwat, 2017;Sinwongsuwat, Nicoletti & Teng, 2018;Sitthikoson & Sinwongsuwat, 2017;Teng & Sinwongsuwat, 2015a;Waedaoh & Sinwongsuwat, 2018).…”

CA-informed Interactional Feature Analysis of Conversations in Textbooks Used for Teaching English Speaking in Thai Secondary Schools

“…Investigating Thai non-English majors with elementary English proficiency (A2), Teng and Sinwongsuwat (2015), as well as Sitthaikoson(2017), confirmed positive results of integrating CA insights into CLT-oriented conversation lessons, with students in the experimental group receiving explicit CA informed instruction showing better communicative English performance and an increase in their confidence in both face-to-face and phone conversations. A subsequent study by Waedaoh (2018) recommended adding conversational materials such as sitcoms, movies and TV shows to enhance the effectiveness of CA-informed lessons. These materials increased Thai students' exposure to natural or near natural English, thereby enhancing their conversation abilities.…”

“…The missing of pre-sequencing, which is an important element of natural conversation, was also noted (Bernsten, 2002). The textbooks used often provide model conversations with limited features of naturally occurring talk for students, thus decreasing their opportunity for exposure to actual conversation practices in real life (Waedaoh, 2018;Wong, 2007). Researchers therefore recommended that authentic spoken language data be integrated into conversation teaching materials (Burns, 1998;Carter & McCarthy, 1997;McCarthy, 1991;Scotton & Bernsten, 1988;Thornbury, 2005).…”