The relationship between communicative approach in teaching english and motivation to learn

Abstract

The purposes of this study were 1) to examine the effects of the Communicative Approach on motivation to learn; 2) to clarify the relationship between learners' affective factors, motivation and performance in a Communicative Approach; and 3) to investigate the relationship between learners' affective factors and teaching methods : i.e. ATI effects. In order to investigate the affective side of Communicative Approach, the Grammatical Approach was adopted as a control condtion. Eighty -nine fifth graders (10-11 year-old) were assigned to one of the two approaches and were taught elementary English in a 10-day course. The results indicated that Communicative Approach tended to increase learners' motivation. Also, the results showed that learners' motivation correlated positively with performance in a Communicative Approach. Furthermore, ATI effects were observed between the attitudes towards foreigners and the two approaches when oral performance was used as a dependent variable. © 1992, The Japanese Association of Educational Psychology. All rights reserved.