Conclusions 3

9.3. Recommendations for research
As might be expected, results from research in this study highlighted a number of areas meriting further examination, of which those of most relevance to programme design and evaluation are presented below:

1. Programme research: An immediate recommendation is that this study be replicated in another situation, and that the new programme be examined for evidence of a process of continuing growth, seen as beneficial to (and by) the participants. This programme could use comparable students, teachers, learning environments and texts, or it could simply be an application of recommended general concepts (figure B-26, table A-94) to any adult learning situation. Both approaches would have significance for programme design and evaluation.[6]

2. Syllabus research: Korean secondary teachers often observe that a student-centred approach (seem as inherent in task-based learning) is impossible in their grammar-focused test-driven situation. Until the education system moves from code-based to performance-based assessment, this situation would seem irresolvable. However, in light of Underwood's observation that: "Doing the same things with a different awareness seems to make a bigger difference than doing different things with the same awareness" (1989:260), it would be informative to devise a research project in which humanistic and student-centred teaching methods were applied to a formal syllabus. Research questions would examine whether attention to autonomy, affect, learning climate, etc., were possible in a "formal" infrastructure:

3. Trust: Establishment of classroom relationships based on trust was a major factor in the ANU programme, and central to the development of CMI, though there remains remarkably little on this topic in the literature. References that can be found (cf. Legutke & Thomas 1991:35; Sano et al. 1984:171; Underhill: 1989:258) overwhelmingly identify trust as essential to language learning, though in practice (as with the case of communicative classes [Karavas-Doukas 1996:187]) language classrooms often continue to be threatening environments, with teachers imposing their opinions of life and language learning, dictating what, how and when to study, chastising students for using the L1, accusing students of "cheating", refusing to believe students' excuses for being late, etc. On a less "obvious" level are the assumptions that the teacher takes into the classroom, and which often lead to micro-managed communicative activities, in which the teacher is the dispenser of communication, and in which traditional roles remain unchanged.

This recommendation therefore suggests a research project initially concerned with defining and describing "trust" in the classroom. This in itself would be beneficial in helping teachers and other educators to identify and reflect upon their true feelings for the students, and to investigate how their actions in the classroom manifest those feelings. More difficult would be to design a research project in which trust and its effect on learning were measured or represented in some way. The ethics of withdrawing teacher trust from a control group of students (in order to compare results) are questionable (even if the students consented to the research), but there is nonetheless a need for further examination of this vital quality.

4. Long-term attitude-change research: Though basic cognitive, affective and humanistic ideas in the ANU programme were supported in the relevant literature, a shortcoming of the research felt by the programme designer/ evaluator was the lack of verification of "lifelong" educational goals. Long-term research is thus needed on the effectiveness of learning (and teaching) strategies.

5. Learner training: Learner training was a significant part of the ANU programme, though largely implicit in the first two years of study. Given the debate on the extent of explicitness that is desirable (and effective) (Sinclair 1996, Willis 1996), and in the light of the importance of affect, and the neurology of the brain, further research into this aspect of language learning (i.e. the effectiveness of explicit learner training) would be valuable.

6. Teacher-training and attitude change: Karavas-Doukas (1996:188) and Wagner (1991) see attitude change as "an essential and inevitable part of any pedagogical innovation", without which "teachers will tend to interpret new information in the light of their own theories, and will tend to translate innovative ideas to conform with their own style of teaching" (Wagner 1991). Some attention was given to teacher-attitude change in this study (cf. chapter 8, page 249), but there remains a need for an extensive and rigorous investigation of teacher beliefs and attitudes (cf. Mitchell 1988: Munby 1982; Olson 1981; Mitchell & Marland 1989; Bennet 1976; Brown & McIntyre 1978), as well as the factors leading to attitude change, and of the process of change itself. Such research would be highly informative for teacher-trainers as well as for programme and curriculum designers:

In our quest for the improvement of language teaching, we have overlooked the language teacher. Exploration ... of teachers' perceptions of what they do and why they do it, holds promise for understanding the frequently noted discrepancies between theoretical understanding of second/foreign language acquisition and classroom practice. (Kleinsasser & Savignon 1991:299)

Courses designed to train teachers in the new approach focus on transmitting information about the new approach and persuading teachers of its effectiveness. When the teachers return to their classrooms, they misinterpret the new ideas and translate them to conform to their existing classroom routines - at the same time believing that they are doing exactly what the new approach calls for. (Karavas-Doukas 1996:194; cf. Lamb, 1995; Wagner 1991)

7. Classroom roles: A number of teachers commented that the programme necessitated a radical change in T/S roles, and that they had some problems with this (cf. table A-77, 87). Long (1983) investigated to what extent the teacher "made a difference" in the classroom, but this topic needs to be revisited and rigorously investigated taking account of subsequent findings relating to autonomy, affect, self-access learning, self-assessment, learner training, and complex classroom "connections". A useful item of research in this respect would be to define "facilitator", "language counsellor" and "language resource", and to describe how such roles differ from that of the conventional teacher:

As characteristics of the good facilitator, Carl Rogers profiles three qualities which we all possess, but which we do not develop: genuineness; unconditional acceptance; empathy. (Underhill: 1989:258)

8. Implications of advances in other disciplines: Recent advances in psychology and neurobiology (for example) have significant implications for language learning. The present study has focused on complexity theory, which some believe will have an "immense" impact on the human disciplines (Waldrop 1992, cited in Larson-Freeman 1997:141). Recommendation 8 therefore suggests extensive research into this contemporary science:

9. Assessment and evaluation: The evaluator in this study was an important part of the programme that was being formatively evaluated, and needed to understand the principles upon which it was formed. It would be interesting therefore to apply programme goals and evaluation methods to the evaluator, and to ask him/her to reflect on the process of evaluation in an "evaluator-journal"::

Innovative programs ... cannot sensibly be separated from the learning milieu of which they become part. ... The introduction of an innovation sets off a chain of repercussions throughout the learning milieu. In turn these unintended consequences are likely to affect the innovation itself, changing its form and moderating its impact. (Parlett & Hamilton 1975:145)

9.4 Conclusion
Presentation and discussion of the research instruments and their results (chapter 8), using a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data, generally confirms that all four research questions (section 1.2) were answered positively by the programme at ANULC. Students and teachers showed signs of attitude change in the direction of increased confidence, motivation and independence, and students' oral skills were observed to improve by the teachers. These changes were seen to be a result of the programme itself, which promoted reflection and evaluation of individual goals in students and teachers. The direction of change (research question 1a) was "... from fear to confidence" (table A-76), involving increased confidence, motivation and independence in learning (research question 2). The general perception of teachers was that the programme itself was responsible for this attitude change - "The programme makes the students confident and motivated" (table A-73, research questions 1ii, 2ii) - and that this was manifested (research question 2i) in general student behaviour inside and outside of class:

I'm very impressed with the way the programme has got the students speaking straight away. ... and they're very enthusiastic about it and I think the success is generating more enthusiasm as they go along. (Table A-82)

When I saw that the students were actually able to do the tasks that were set, I could see that the programme has actually worked in bringing that about ... they had actually learned from the programme. (Table A-73)

In the third year programme, in the second semester, ... I never gave a single assignment, but I would think that they [the students] worked 2 to 3 outside classroom hours for each classroom hour. (Table A-73)

In terms of improvement of oral skills (research question 3), teachers overwhelmingly agreed that this occurred during the research period (table A-75), and that the programme was responsible for this improvement (research question 3i):

Most definitely. The nature of the program emphasizes objective based communication, which requires the students to use their oral skills to accomplish many of the tasks. Students are encouraged to continue to develop and increase their present oral skill level as the activities become more and more complex. (Table A75)

We would also underline that, whatever is available to teachers in terms of tasks, techniques, or principles, there is no substitute for personal warmth, tolerance and a positive attitude to people: to oneself and to others. (Legutke & Thomas 1991:35)

[1] This could be interpreted as a positive change, since this would mean that 38% of students were more confident in 1999 than they were in 1998!

[2] See also its further development when the programme was taken to Seoul National University of Technology: http://www.plaza.snut.ac.kr/~lc.

[3] Components can also be seen as their own contexts – a climate of trust is engendered by a climate of trust.

[4] See recommendation number 4, page 303.

[5] TBLL = Task-Based Language Learning

[6] At the time of writing, a similar programme is being set up by the author in another university, though results will not be available for some time.