A Study on Pcl Second Year Students' Proficiency in communicative Functions in English

Abstract

This research is an effort to find out the students' proficiency in using the appropriateexpressions of language to serve various communicative functions in the given situations.The communicative functions against which the students' proficiency was tested wereselected from those included in the newly introduced textbook at PCL first year of T. U.namely 'New Headway, Intermediate Students' Book' on the basis of most commonfunctions that are likely to occur in everyday communicative life in general. In this textbook different communicative functions are supposed to be taught and learned under thetitle of 'Everyday English' at the end of each unit. So, primarily this research is to see howfar the students who completed their PCL first year in the academic year 2062/063 doingthe textbook mentioned including two others namely Chinar I (Anthology) and AcademicEncounters which primarily deal with reading and writing skills in English, could showthe proficiency in using those communicative functions in the extended settings of dailycommunication. In order to carry out this study the researcher collected data from thePCL second year (academic year 2063/064) students studying in the campuses ofKathamndu valley. Thetotal sample population of the study comprises 120 students and they were selectedby using stratified random sampling procedure. The tools that the researcher made use ofwere two types of test items carrying 25 full marks each; receptive in which studentswere to recognize the expressions appropriate to serve various communicative functionsin the given situations and productive in which students had to produce the appropriateexpressions on their own to fulfill various communicative functions in the givensituations. While coding students' responses, each appropriate receptive answer wasassigned 1 score and 2 score for the correct productive response. The scores obtainedfrom the students were tabulated on the basis of variables specified. On the basis of thecollected data the students' proficiency in using appropriate expressions of language toserve those communicative functions was determined by using simple statistical tools such as average and percentage. The findings of the study show that the averagecommunicative proficiency of the students as a whole is 46.06 percent. And the studyalso shows that I.A. students are better than those of I.Ed. The study consists of four chapters. Chapter one deals with general background ofthe study, review of related literature, objectives of the study and significance of thestudy.Chapter two deals with methodology which entails sources of data, sampling populationand sampling procedure, tools for data collection, process of data collection andlimitation of the study. Chapter three entails analysis and interpretation of the data. The data has been analyzedunder content-oriented variables and informant-oriented variables. Chapter four consists of findings and recommendations made on the basis of the findings.The findings of the study show that students are better in the productive use of language for communicative purpose i.e. they are more proficient in using appropriate expressionsof language on their own to serve those communicative functions understudy rather thanin recognizing the expressions appropriate to serve those communicative functions in thegiven situations. The findings also show that the communicative proficiency of thestudents of PCL in HSS both receptive and productive is better compared against those ofPCL in Ed's counterparts.