This study was conducted in order to determine whether thernLanguage Acquisition Approach to language teaching is morerneffective and functional than the Conscious Rule-learningrnApproach in enhancing students' proficiency in English.rnSix sections of freshman Social Sciences students werernselected and assigned into two groups, the study group andrnthe control group, by lot. A pretest was given before thernstudy started and the results showed that the~was nornsignificant dif~erence in English language proficienoy amongrnthe groups.rnThe three sections of the study group were supplied withrna set of topics - topics that freshmen would find meaningfulrnand interesting, and that are related to their courses. Thernstudents were expected to select topics and initiate discussions.rnEach study group class was divided into small discussion groupsrnconsisting of a maximum of four students. These small groupsrnworked independently in the selection and treatment of the topics.rnEach member had a turn to come prepared and present his views tornothers on topics assigned to him. To keep the students busy,rneach member was then expected to write a report on what the grouprndiscussed. Teacher's role was reduced to co-ordinating thernactivities and acting as a partner.rnThe control group which had three sections was suppliedrnwith teaching materials based on the Conscious Rule-learningrnApproach. The materials consisted of adequate linguisticrndescriptions of selected items, i.e., the descriptions ofrnthe uses of "would," "could", "should" and conditionalrnsentences, and adequate exercises that would help to formrnthe desired habits. They consisted of oral drills and simplernsentence completion exercises. The teacher had the dominantrnrole and errors were deliberately and tirelessly corrected.rnAfter six weeks, a post-test was given and the resultsrnshowed a significant difference in language proficiencyrnbetween the study groups and the control groups. A twotailedrnt-test at a significance level of 0.05 was used torndetermine the significance difference between the means ofrn.the groups.rnOn the basis of the findings, it was recommended thatrnnon-native speakers ehould be taught English using thernLanguage Acquisition Approach. Moreover, it was recommendedrnthat research must be conducted on ways of designing syllabus,rnmethodology. preparation of teaching materials and evaluatingrnperformances based on the Language Acquisition Approach