Summary


THE NATURAL APPROACH APPLICATIONS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS

In this study, the effect of natural approach applications in language teaching on speaking skills in primary school 4th grade English lesson was investigated. The study was carried out in a state school affiliated to Eskişehir provincial directorate of national education. A classroom at the school is designed to enable natural approach practices. This English practice class consists of stationery, pharmacy, grocery store, greengrocer, travel agency, store and cafe areas. Mixed research method was used in the study. While the three-week pilot study was lasting nine lesson hours, the nine-week implementation lasted 27 lesson hours. There were 15 students in the control group and 17 students in the experimental group. Quantitative data in the study were obtained by using the "English Speaking Skills Rubric for Primary School Students" applied to the experimental and control groups as a pre-test and post-test. A normality test was performed to see whether the data were normally distributed or not. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Mann Whitney-U test, which is one of the non-parametric tests. Qualitative data based on teacher and student views on the way the natural approach is applied in the classroom environment and the application process; observation, interview form, researcher's diary, student diaries and student products were obtained and analyzed descriptively. The interviews were held in the natural approach classroom, in the learning area desired by the students. As a result of the findings obtained from quantitative and qualitative data As a result of the research, it was found that the natural approach improved the English speaking skills of primary school 4th grade students and that teachers and students had positive views on the use of the natural approach in English lessons. In this direction, as a result of the research, suggestions were made to popularize the natural approach practices in English lessons and to benefit from the approach for the development of other language skills.



Keywords

English speaking skill, foreign language teaching at primary school, natural approach.



References