EFFECTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT BASED ON WHOLE LANGUAGE APPROACH WITH CODE-SWITCHING TEACHNIQUE TO ENHANCE LISTENING AND SPEAKING ABILITIES OF PRESCHOOLERS

Abstract

The purpose of this quasi-experimental research were to study and compare listening and speaking abilities among preschoolers before and after a English language experience management based on the Whole Language approach and code-switching technique. The participants of the study consisted of 30 preschoolers aged 3 to 4 years at Piboonbumpen Demonstration School, Burapha University, in the second semester in the academic year 2020. During the eight-week experiment of the English language experience management, they participated in four 25-minute sessions per week (32 sessions in total). The research instruments used were: (1) lesson plans of the English language experience management based on the Whole Language approach and code-switching technique through four main steps: preparing pre-reading experience; examining predictions from  pictures in a story;  checking the predictions from storytelling; and making word predictions from sentence structures and meaning of the word, and integrate the steps of code-switching  technique into sub-steps, namely review, demonstration, practice, and summary of understanding; and (2) assessment scale of preschoolers’ listen and speaking abilities. The statistic used for data analysis were mean, standard deviation, and independent t-test.

Major findings were as follows: 1. The English listening and speaking ability of preschoolers before the experiment was at the “Needs Improvement” level, and after the experiment at the “Good” level. That is, the listening ability before the experiment was at the “Needs Improvement” level (=1.18, SD=.31) and after the experiment was at the “Good” level (=2.79, SD=.30). The speaking before the experiment was at “Needs Improvement” level (=1.23, SD=.28) and after the experiment was at the “Good” level (=2.57, SD=.46). 2. The English listening and speaking abilities of the preschoolers after the experiment was significantly higher than those before, at the .05 level.