Communicative Task and its Effect:Focus on Form Activity on the Third Person Singular Agreement at a Cram School in Japan

Abstract

This paper examined if students accustomed to non-communicative teaching methods could learn target grammar more easily, enjoy the lesson, and advance communicative skills if taught using communicative teaching methods. Two tasks were designed to teach the third person singular agreement on the verb in English to junior high school students studying at a cram school in Japan. The students’ performance on the use of the target grammar form was analyzed initially through recorded oral reports from an interview activity and via the second oral reports from an information gap activity 3 days later. The results of the initial and second error rates in the oral reports suggest that the activities were successful. The students enjoyed the activities while focusing on the form and the class was considered a success. This study is valuable since it challenged traditional way of teaching English at Japanese cram schools and changed the students’ consciousness toward English education.