Effectiveness of CA-informed telephone conversation instruction in enhancing conversation abilities : a study of Thai EFL University learners

Abstract

The study investigated the effectiveness of CA-informed telephone conversation teaching in developing conversation abilities of Thai learners of English. The participants included 97 university students from several faculties enrolled in an elective English conversation course. Mixed methods were employed. The students were engaged in telephone conversations in both pre- and post-tests to determine the improvement in their conversation abilities. Open-ended questionnaires were also constructed to explore the students' attitudes after the treatment. The findings revealed a statistically significant difference between the pre- and post-test scores of the experimental and control groups. The experimental group outperformed the other group particularly in two aspects; namely, vocabulary and grammar. Most of the learners receiving the treatment also developed positive attitudes towards telephone conversation instruction, finding it beneficial in getting them to think systematically about conversation and to learn useful telephone expressions. It was suggested that although the instruction dealt with the inherent nature of conversation which might initially be difficult to grasp especially for low-proficiency students, it is still worthwhile for teachers to incorporate it into the classroom since such instruction can potentially help enhance their conversation abilities in the long run.