A comparative study on the effects of AIM on oral language production skills
Year: 2011
Type: report
Abstract: A comparative study on the effects of AIM on oral language production skills Nowadays, teaching French as a second language on secondary high schools demands a lot of effort from teachers and the results are often disappointing. It is for those reasons that Wendy Maxwell from Canada developed the Accelerative Integrated Method (AIM), which has become very much used, not only in Canada but also, for example, in Holland. Though increasingly used, so far there is only little scientific evidence supporting the implementation of AIM on a larger scale. The research that we have performed tries to fill that gap. Whilst my colleagues focus on written proficiency and dyslectic students, I have examined the effects of AIM on oral proficiency. Using the SOPA method, 4 classes of first year high school students (ages 12-13) have been interviewed and their oral proficiency level has been rated on three different aspects: oral fluency, oral vocabulary and listening comprehension. Two of the classes had been AIM-instructed during one year (56 participants), whereas the other 2 classes (48 participants) had received a more traditional instruction (Carte d’Orange). The test consisted of three different tasks after which they were assessed on fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. The test results indicate a clear difference between the two groups in favor of the AIM-instructed classes on all three measured aspects of oral proficiency, hence supporting the implementation of AIM on a larger scale. In addition we looked at the impact of scholastic aptitude on the effectiveness of AIM (no significant effects) and the role of the instructor, where we found some interesting phenomena.
Author: Daan Jans
Institution: University of Groningen
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2517914328