Post on 09-Feb-2023
doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.2n.1p.1
1
Teaching
English
Language
Skills for
School
Teachers: CTE
Programme
of
IGNOU Asha
Khare
(Indira
Gandhi
National
Open University, India)
Abstract
India is a multilingual country. English is the second most important language in the country
after the national language Hindi since it is taught as a compulsory subject in all the Indian
schools. In the educational system of a multilingual country, it becomes imperative to
improve the English Language teaching skills of the school teachers who come from various
linguistic backgrounds. The school teacher plays a vital role in the development of linguistic
skills of the students. What children learn can affect their later success or failure in school,
work, and their personal lives. As such, the school teachers need to improve their own
English language skills if they are teaching without any previous English language training.
This paper throws light on the communicative approach of English language teaching. It
introduces the Certificate in Teaching of English (CTE) programme of the Indira Gandhi
National Open University (IGNOU) and outlines the syllabus and the methods used by the
university to impart English Language Teaching skills to the elementary/secondary school
teachers through this programme with the obj
the learners and their learning process.
English teaching and school teachers
The English teachers in schools need professional training in language skills because they
come from various linguistic backgrounds due to the fact that the medium of instruction in
Indian schools is either English or the regional language. As such, it is imperative to focus on
the needs of learners in a particular community. It needs to be a collaborative activity as well
as an individual activity. The particular needs of individuals can be met in this manner. The
more highly skilled, motivated and effective are English teachers, the more effective learning
outcomes will be for students in English classrooms.
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As per Schon (1987), quality teaching is directly related to the development of a strong and
skilled teacher to respond to community and educational concerns, learning outcomes for
learners and take a more active role in curriculum planning, including building on and
refining existing practices and constantly develop excellent teaching practices.
To maintain and improve the quality of classroom English teaching, the institution should
provide initial teacher education and courses appropriate to the needs and requirements of
English teachers in close consultation with schools; provide teacher education and courses in
language appropriate to the needs and requirements of school teachers; liaise with employing
authorities in supporting new curriculum initiatives, designing new courses and supporting
professional development initiatives and maintaining an informed, relevant awareness of
current practices in schools since teachers' knowledge leads to more effective teaching and
learning in classrooms.
Teaching English language skills to English school teachers empowers teachers and meets the
identified needs of teachers and schools. It needs to be challenging, informative, innovative
and well planned. It is supposed to build skills, involve active participation and team work
and be professionally fulfilling and enjoyable.
Programme delivery in IGNOU
The University has an extensive network of Regional Centres, Learner Support Centres,
including Work Centres, Programme Study Centres and Partner Institutions in India (under
the convergence scheme), and other countries, through which it reaches out to its learners. At
these centres, learners are provided with support services in respect of subject-specific
academic counseling, listening/viewing of Audio/Video programmes, library facilities,
teleconferencing, video conferencing, computer access, laboratory work and other practical
work. For online programmes, the University has established Tele-learning centres at its
Regional Centres. Depending on the requirement, the University collaborates with private
entrepreneurs to provide work experience and tele-learning facilities to its learners.
Interactive Radio Counseling is broadcast from the studio in the University as well as from 26
FM radio stations across the country. EduSAT channel provides interactive lectures and
counseling to learners through SITs, as well as a few DTH platforms.
3
English language teaching and teacher training
English language teaching needs to assure an acquisition of linguistic features, interlanguage
patterns (the emerging linguistic system of the language learner), the impact of social and
cultural identity on language learning, and the need for intensity of exposure and
opportunities to use the language. With the knowledge of these concepts, teachers can
structure language learning appropriately for their learners, help them set realistic goals for
achievement of levels of proficiency over time, and understand why some students progress
faster than others and why some materials and methods work better with particular groups of
students than with others (Adger, Snow, & Christian, 2002).
(Borg, 2006; Freeman & Freeman, 1994). Opportunities should be provided for English
teachers to reflect on their own language learning experiences as they implement the same
strategies with their learners in their classes (Richards & Farrell, 2005; Smith, Harris, &
Reder, 2005).
Acquisition of components of language
Non-native language speakers (Hindi/Regional language) learn components of English
language (vocabulary, grammar, accent) differently (Burt, Peyton, & Adams, 2003; Doughty
& Williams, 1998; Eskey, 2005; Flahive & Bailey, 1993; Folse, 2004; Nation, 2000, 2005).
The non-native language speakers may not know enough words in English to be able to use it
correctly. Teachers of adult English language learners need to know what strategies for
teaching reading, writing, listening, and speaking are most effective with adults learning
English.
Certificate in Teaching of English (CTE) programme
The CTE programme, offered by the Indira Gandhi National Open University, is based on the
understanding of the learners. It ensures that the English language teaching/learning process
is near native and the teacher is able to explain the nature and structure of the English
language correctly to the learners. It helps the non-native English teachers to innovate
strategies for teaching the language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. It
teaches the English teachers new and more effective methodologies of classroom
management, material selection and evaluation. It provides an update on the current theories
4
in the area of English teaching. It deals with the practical problems of the teachers in the
classrooms. It attempts to understand the learner factors, i.e., aptitude, attitude, motivation,
age, sex and previous experience of learning. The aim of the programme is to make the
teacher aware that language is a dynamic entity and subject to variation and change. English
is spoken differently in different parts of the world as well as in different regions of India.
Hence, the over-
teacher.
There are four courses in this programme. Three courses are compulsory and one is optional
as per the following details:
Compulsory Courses
CTE-1 The Language Learner
CTE-2 The Structure of English
CTE-3 Teaching Strategies
Optional Courses
CTE-4 Teaching English-Elementary School
CTE-5 Teaching English-Secondary School
Methods of Teaching
The course CTE-1 focuses on the learners and gives their general description in terms of their
capabilities and learning resources (personal and social). It enables the teacher to:
Provide more efficient learning strategies
Assist learners in identifying their own preferred ways of learning
Encourage learners to set their own objectives
-evaluation
The course CTE-2 provides a good knowledge of the structure of English and its usage in
order to improve classroom strategies of teachers for teaching the Indian variety of English.
The course CTE-3 deals with the teaching strategies for creating special contexts to provide
learning opportunities and learning experiences and to support and promote learning of
English language by learners in India.
5
The course CTE-4 gives insight into the development of personality, cognition and language
development of the young learners of Elementary level. The teachers at this level have serious
responsibility because these learners are at a formative stage in their life and all the
dimensions of their personhood (emotional, social, physical and intellectual) are in the
making.
The course CTE-5 is meant for the middle and secondary school teachers. It is of practical
nature since it gives examples of classroom experiences to the teachers. New strategies as
well as new materials in teaching the four skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening are
suggested in it. Moreover, it deals with the new techniques in evaluating these skills too.
Conclusion
In the educational system of a multilingual country, it becomes imperative to improve the
English Language teaching skills of the school teachers who come from various linguistic
backgrounds. The school teacher plays a vital role in the development of linguistic skills of
the students. What children learn can affect their later success or failure in school, work, and
their personal lives.
The CTE programme of IGNOU is especially designed for those English teachers of
elementary/secondary school who teach in large classes with few resources, follow a set
syllabus and text book, have little time for lesson planning and lack teaching aids/equipment.
The programme helps them to gain insights about the language learners, not only as a
cognitive entity, but as a social being functioning in a multilingual environment. It enables
them to understand the nature of language as a dynamic entity, subject to variation and
change. It enhances their proficiency in English, not only in terms of structure of English
(sounds, words, grammar) but also at the level of discourse. It helps them to critically reflect
over their classroom experiences and innovate in teaching strategies so that they can teach the
four skills more effectively. It upgrades them in the prevalent new theories in terms of the
learners, learning process, classroom management, material selection and creation, evaluation
and methodology of teaching.
6
References Adger, C., Snow, C., & Christian, D. (Eds.). (2002). What teachers need to know about language. Washington,
DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Borg, S. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education. New York: Continuum. Burt, M., Peyton, J. K., & Adams, R. (2003). Reading and adult English language learners: A review of the
research. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Doughty, C., & Williams, J. (1998). Pedagogical choices in focus on form. In Doughty & J. Williams (Eds.),
Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (pp.114-138). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Eskey, D. (2005). Reading in a second language. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp.563-580). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Farrell, T. S. C. (2004). Reflective practice in action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Flahive, D. E., & Bailey, N. H. (1993). Exploring reading/writing relationships in adult second language
learners. In J. Carson and I. Leki (Eds.), Reading in the composition classroom (pp. 128-140). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Folse, K. S. (2004). Vocabulary myths: Applying second language research to classroom teaching. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Freeman, D. E., & Freeman, Y. S. (1994). Between worlds: Access to second language acquisition. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Nation, I. M. P. (2000). Learning vocabulary in lexical sets: Dangers and guidelines. TESOL Journal, 9(2), 6-10. Nation, I. M. P. (2005). Teaching and learning vocabulary. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second
language teaching and learning (pp. 581 595). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Richards, J., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2005). Professional development for language teachers. New York: Cambridge
University Press. Schon, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner . San Francicsco: Jossey Smith, C., Harris, K., & Reder, S. (2005). Applying research findings to instruction for adult English language
learners.Washington, DC: Center for Adult English Language Acquisition.
7
Oral Communicative
Activities
in the
Saudi
Third
Year
Secondary
EFL Textbooks
Zaky
H. Abu Ellif
and Nooreiny
Maarof
(Universiti
Kebangsaan
Malaysia, Malaysia)
Abstract
This study aims to examine the oral communicative activities found in the Saudi EFL third
year secondary textbooks and to determine the role they play in influencing the learners' oral
communication in English. A questionnaire of 52 items based on four domains is utilized to
explore the perception of Saudi EFL teachers regarding the oral communicative activities
found in the textbooks. The preliminary survey, conducted on a group of Saudi teachers who
are using the target textbooks, showed that the textbooks do not have highly communicative
activities for fluency development. The participants' rating of the activities, found in the
textbooks, was very low. The activities seem to be highly structured and lack free
communicative activities. The study shows that the textbooks require much modification.
Other types of oral communicative activities should be included to fulfill the goals of
developing the Saudi learners' oral fluency in English.
Introduction
Many researchers emphasize the role that textbooks play in the EFL classroom. Ansary et al.
(2002) argue that EFL textbooks are always used as the only source of teaching materials in
the classroom. According to De Matos (2000), the textbook is still considered as central to
teaching-learning process by the majority of teachers in most, if not all, national educational
systems. Ansary et al. (2002) also point out that teachers feel more secure when they have
ready-made textbooks. In some countries textbooks are not considered the most demanding
factor in EFL teaching and learning since other types of material take great participation in
shaping the curriculum. The situation in Saudi Arabia is a bit different. Teachers without in-
hand textbooks are unable to tackle the teaching process and learners as well consider the
early days in the school year, while they have a few periods before textbooks are distributed,
as waste of time. However, although these textbooks might offer guidance for many teachers,
they ignore the individual differences and inhibit teachers' creativity (ibid). The situation
doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.1n.1p.7
8
mentioned above brings out the outstanding role that textbooks play in teaching EFL in Saudi
schools. It also drives to ask whether these sets of textbooks fulfill the oral communicative
competence among Saudi learners. This question highlights the need to examine the points of
strength/weakness within the oral communication activities found in the target textbooks.
Arab learners and Oral communication in English
Rababah (2003) states that the eventual goal of English language teaching is to develop the
the real world. Successful communication refers to passing on a comprehensible message to
the listener. Kharma et al. (1989) state that ESL learners have serious difficulties in learning
English pronunciation, even when they are quite perfect in the other language skills
(vocabulary, grammar, reading, etc). Alseghayer (2007) states that the Saudi student, by the
end of the secondary school, has the minimum level of skills in English language. The student
is unable to hold a short dialogue, understand a reading text or write a short essay (ibid).
Rababaa (2003) concludes that Arab learners face problems in all the language skills.
However, most of their errors in English emerge in oral performance and their choice of
communication strategies. Even outstanding Arab learners of English have problems in
listening and speaking skills. Kharma et al. (1989) assert that Arab learners, who spend
hundreds of hours every school year in learning English, should be able to communicate
fluently and
attitude towards English language is a mere school subject to pass its test not a means of
communication. Rababaa (ibid) echoes Sulaiman's (1983) argument that the major problem
faced by Arab students attending universities is that they find it difficult to communicate in
English.
Oral communicative activities
National Center for Family Literacy et al. (2008, p.41) state that communicative activities
include any activities that encourage and require a learner to speak with and listen to other
learners, as well as with people in the program and community. Brown (2001) adapted
-item taxonomy of language-
teaching techniques under three main categories: a) controlled techniques, b) semi-controlled
techniques and c) free techniques. Under each technique he mentioned a group of tasks and
activities. Littlewood (1983) referred to two major activity types: a) functional
communication activities: ones aimed at developing certain language skills and functional
9
aspects of the language, but which involve communication, and (b) social interaction
activities, ones which emphasize social and functional aspects of communication, such as
conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues and role plays.
Nunan (2000) classifies the types of listening texts into monologue (planned and unplanned)
and dialogues (interpersonal and transactional). The interpersonal dialogues are also divided
Bygate (1987), identifies two main categories of speaking types, routines and negotiations.
Routines can focus either on information or interaction. Information routines contain types of
information structures which are either expository (e.g. narration, description, instruction,
comparison) or evaluative (e.g. explanation, justification, prediction, decision). Interaction
routines can be either service such as a job interview or social such as a party. Bygate
mentioned another feature of oral interaction for negotiation of meaning or management of
the interaction in terms of who is to say what to whom when about what (Nunan, 2000) (See
Figure 1). Brown (2001), Savignon et al. (2003) and Littlewood (1983) classified
communicative skills, techniques, tasks and activities in general with consideration of the
four linguistic skills. However, Murphy (1991) states that the oral communication skills are
speaking, listening, and pronunciation. Beale (2002) also refers to speaking, listening and
fluency.
10
Figure 1: Classification of listening and speaking tasks (Adapted from Nunan, 2000 &
Bygate, 1987)
Instrumentation
In this study, a 52-item questionnaire is utilized for the collection of data regarding Saudi
EFL teachers' perception of oral communicative activities in the EFL textbooks taught to the
11
third-grade of public secondary schools in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire is a relatively
popular means of collecting data among students (Nunan, 2002).
Questionnaire
The domains and items are based on the goals of this study. The questionnaire starts with
section (a) which requires the participants to provide some basic information. The next
sections (b e) consist of 52 items based on four domains, which are: (b) communicativeness
of the activities found in the Saudi third year secondary EFL textbooks (12 items), (c)
effectiveness of the activities found in the Saudi third year secondary EFL textbooks (12
items), (d) types of oral communicative activities in the Saudi third year secondary EFL
textbooks (26 items) and finally (e) recommendation to improve the current Saudi third year
secondary EFL textbooks. The 5-point Likert type scale was used to allocate numerical
values to the responses of domains B, C and D. The last domain of the questionnaire is an
open-end question where teachers are asked to state their suggestions and recommendations.
Instrument Validity
A panel of 10 experts from UM, UIAM, UPM, UUM, LIM KOK WING University
questionnaire has been achieved.
Data collection
A preliminary study was conducted by administering the questionnaire to a group of teachers
thought Saudi English website (www.saudienglish.net). The response rate was about 49
percent with 34 teachers out of70 responding to the questionnaire via email. Four responses
were excluded; three were not complete while the fourth had been answered carelessly. The
cronbach's alpha coefficient and Guttman Split-Half Coefficient reliability tests were used to
obtain the reliability estimate for the instrument. The results, in Table 1, refer to excellent
reliability:
Table 1: Reliability of the questionnaire The coefficient The value Cronbach's alpha .921 Guttman Split-Half .902
12
Data analysis
The participants' responses to the questionnaire were transferred to SPSS programme in order
to calculate the mean and standard deviation of all items and domains. The means of the three
domains are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: The mean of three domains in the questionnaire
No Domain Title Mean
B Communicativeness of the activities found in the Saudi 3rd year secondary EFL textbooks 1.673
C Effectiveness of the activities found in the Saudi 3rd year secondary EFL textbooks in developing oral communicative skills 1.675
D Types of Oral Communicative activities in the Saudi 3rd year secondary EFL textbooks 1.626
Table (2) shows how the means of all items are less than 2 on a scale of 5 grades. This shows
how all participants' responses fall between strongly disagree or disagree on the three
domains. This also reflects how the activities found in the Saudi third year secondary EFL
textbooks have low level of oral communicativeness and lack effectiveness in developing oral
communicative skills. The mean of domain (D) shows that the effective types of oral
communicative activities are hardly found in the target textbooks. For more details, the items
of each domain will be discussed separately.
Table 3: The mean and standard deviation of domain (B): Communicativeness of the activities found in the textbooks
No Item Mean Std. Deviation B1 The third year secondary textbooks give equal emphasis on the four skills (listening,
speaking, reading and writing). 1.73 0.785
B2 The textbooks incorporate listening activities which help students to communicate effectively in English. 1.93 0.868
B3 The activities in the textbooks enable students to communicate orally with each other in English. 1.87 0.973
B4 Oral communication activities (listening & speaking) in the textbooks are sufficient to develop oral fluency. 1.33 0.661
B5 The activities in the textbooks help students to speak English fluently. 1.3 0.596
B6 The activities in the textbooks help students to speak English accurately (grammatically correct). 1.87 1.167
B7 The activities in the textbooks help students to speak English properly (suitable language for each situation). 1.67 0.959
B8 The textbooks include activities that help improve the students' pronunciation. 1.67 0.922
B9 The dialogues in the textbooks help students practice free speaking. 2 1.339 B10 The pictures in the textbooks support the speaking skill. 1.33 0.802
B11 The two Writing textbooks (Term 1 & 2) contain enough listening and speaking activities. 1.67 1.028
B12 The themes in the textbooks enable students to communicate orally in English. 1.7 1.055
Mean B 1.6725
13
Table (3) shows how the means of all items are between 1 and 2 on a scale of 5 grades. This
shows how all participants' responses are either strongly disagree or disagree on all the
domain items. On the other hand, the standard deviation values are less than one or around
one which reflects some consensus among the respondents that the activities in the target
textbooks have low communicativeness as it is clear in figure 2 where on Y axis 1 refers to
(strongly disagree) and 5 refers to ( strongly agree).
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9 B10 B11 B12
Figure 2: Means of responses for each item in domain B
For domain (C) in the questionnaire, (Effectiveness of the activities found in the 3rd year
secondary EFL textbooks in developing oral communicative skills), table (4) represents the
means of responses for all items.
Table (4) shows how the means of all items are between 1 and 2 on a scale of 5 grades except
for items C2 and C3 which slightly exceed 2. This also shows how all participants' responses
either strongly disagree or disagree on all the domain items.
14
Table 4: The mean and standard deviation of domain (C): Effectiveness of the activities found in the 3rd year secondary EFL textbooks in developing oral
communicative skills No Using the activities in the textbooks, students are able to: Mean Std. Deviation C1 speak fluently in English. (express themselves easily) 1.4 0.675 C2 hold a telephone conversation in English. 2.07 1.048 C3 exchange information in English. 2.1 0.845 C4 express themselves in English without using Arabic. 1.83 0.648 C5 speak as well as they can write. 1.8 0.761 C6 answer questions based on a listening task. 1.47 0.681 C7 present a summary or a comment on a topic orally. 1.63 0.809 C8 make announcements in English. (e.g. school broadcasting). 1.53 0.819 C9 comment on a picture, movie or a game in English. 1.8 1.064 C10 debate or negotiate prices in English. 1.8 0.805 C11 conduct a simple interview. 1.47 0.86 C12 role-play using English. 1.2 0.407 Mean C 1.675
The standard deviation values are less than one or around one to reflect agreement among the
respondents that the activities in the target textbooks are not developing oral communicative
skills. Figure 3 shows how low the activities are ranked in promoting communicative skills.
00.5
11.5
22.5
33.5
44.5
5
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12
Figure 3: Means of responses for each item in domain C
The means for responses to the 27 items of domain (D) in the questionnaire, (Types of oral
communicative activities in the 3rd year secondary EFL Saudi textbooks), are shown in table
5 and figure 4.
15
Table 5: The mean and standard deviation of domain (D): Types of Oral Communicative activities in the 3rd year Secondary EFL Saudi Textbooks
No The following types of oral Communicative activities are included in the textbooks: Mean Std.
Deviation D1 Organizational elements 2.6 1.221 D2 Content explanations 1.4 0.814 D3 Setting 2.17 1.053 D4 Dialogues/ Narrative presentations 2.13 1.106 D5 Dictation 1.4 0.814 D6 Warm up 1.13 0.346 D7 Role-play demonstration: 1.5 0.63 D8 Dialogues/ Narrative recitation: 1.83 1.085 D9 Reading aloud 2.33 1.093 D10 Question-answer-display 1.47 0.629 D11 Drill: repetition, substitution with little meaning attached 1.7 0.952 D12 Meaningful drill 2.2 1.186 D13 Story telling 1.47 0.571 D14 Information transfer: e.g. Students fill out a diagram while listening. 1.77 1.104 D15 Wrap-up: Students listen to a summary. 2.1 1.125 D16 Question-answer, referential 1.7 0.915 D17 Cued narratives/Dialogues 1.43 0.626 D18 Narration/Exposition 1.53 0.571 D19 Brainstorming 1.4 0.563 D20 Role-play 1.67 0.661 D21 Games 1.3 0.466 D22 Problem solving 1.17 0.379 D23 Drama 1.33 0.479 D24 Simulation 1.27 0.521 D25 Interview 1.2 0.407 D26 Discussion 1.43 0.504 D27 Debate 1.27 0.45 Mean D 1.626
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Figure 4: Means of responses for each item in domain D
16
Table (5) shows how the means of all the 27 items are between 1 and 2 on a scale of 5 grades
except for 6 items (D1, D3, D4, D9, D12 and D15) which were higher than 2. However, none
of the item exceeded 3 degrees on the scale. This represents the participants' views on the
existence of these types of oral communicative activities in the target set of textbooks.
According to the means of responses, there is a severe lack of such activities in the textbooks.
The standard deviation values are also less than one or around one to reflect agreement
among the participants that these types of oral activities are not found in the target textbooks.
Regarding the last domain (E), (Recommendation to improve the current textbooks for the
third year secondary students), the respondents suggested the following:
- Totally replacing these textbooks, which are not capable to improve the students'
oral communication skills, with communicative textbooks that shed more light on
listening, pronunciation and speaking activities. (Suggested by four respondents)
- modifying the current textbooks by adding communicative sections. (Five
respondents)
- including listening and speaking in the monthly and final exams. (Eight
respondents)
- adding supplementary communicative textbook to the current textbooks. (Six
respondents)
Conclusion
The results of the preliminary study and the analysis of the survey match the results of
previous studies of Rababaa (2003), Kharma et al. (1989) and Alseghayer (2007). There is a
lack of oral communicative tasks and activities in the EFL textbooks that the Saudi third year
secondary student faces. The rating of all activities is generally less than 40-50 %.
Furthermore, the teachers, inquired about advanced oral communicative activities (free
techniques), declared the absence of such activities. The results of this study assert that the
textbooks require much modification or supplementary communicative materials to achieve
the goals of improving the Saudi learners' oral communicative skills.
17
References Al-Seghayer, K. (2007). Impediments to teach English in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. MOE forum
http://www.moeforum.net/vb1/showthread.php?t=87924. [3 February 2008] Ansary, H & Babaii, E. (2002). Universal characteristics of EFL/ESL textbooks: A step towards systematic
textbook evaluation. The Internet TESL Journal, VIII(2), February 2002. http://iteslj.org/Articles/Ansary-Textbooks/. [14 May 2009].
Beale, J. (2002). Is communicative language teaching a thing of the past? Babel, 37(1), 12-16. http://www.jasonbeale.com/essaypages/clt_essay.html. [16 September 2006].
Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. New York. Longman Press.
Bygate, M. (1987). Speaking. Oxford University Press. Google Books. http://books.google.com.my/books?id=XozCwaqSJFIC&printsec=frontcover. [30 August 2007].
De Matos, F. (2000). Learning Teachers as textbook evaluators: an Interdisciplinary Checklist. IATEFL Associate BrazTESOL. Issue 157, Oct/Nov 2000, http://www.iatefl.org/content/newsletter/157.php. [22 January 2006].
Kharma, N. & Hajjaj, A. (1989). Errors in English among Arabic speakers: analysis and remedy. England. Longman House.
Littlewood, W. (1983). Communicative language teaching: An introduction. New York. Cambridge University Press.
Murphy, J. (1991). Oral communication in TESOL: integrating speaking, listening, and pronunciation. TESOL Quarterly, 25(1).
National Center for Family Literacy and Center for Applied Linguistics. (2008). Practitioner toolkit: Working with adult English language learners. Louisville, KY, and Washington, DC: Authors.
Nunan, D. (2000). Language teaching methodology. Malaysia. Longman. Nunan, D. (2002). Research methods in language learning. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. Rababah, G. (2003). Learning Communication problems facing Arab learners of English: A personal perspective
TEFL Web Journal, 2 (1), 15. http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/mdajani/Pages/ArabLearners.aspx. [12 March 2007].
Savignon, S. J. & Wang, C. C. (2003). Communicative language teaching in EFL contexts: Learner attitudes and perceptions. IRAL, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 41(3), 223 ProQuest Education Journals.
18
Intertextuality
in
Text-based
Discussions Hamidah Mohd
Ismail
and Faizah Abd Majid
(Universiti Teknologi
MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia)
Abstract
One of the main issues often discussed among academics is how to encourage active
participation by students during classroom discussions. This applies particularly to students at
the tertiary level who are expected to possess creative and critical thinking skills. Hence, this
paper reports on a study that examined how these skills were demonstrated by a group of
university students who employed intertextual links during a follow-up reading activity
involving small-group text discussions. Thirty undergraduates who were in their fifth
semester of a TESL degree programme were prescribed reading texts consisting of two
chapters taken from a book. Findings reveal that intertextual links made during text
beliefs and values were
shared judicially among participants. Pedagogical implications for ESL classroom practice
include heightening the awareness amongst academics and students of the role of
tical and creative thinking skills in
a supportive classroom environment.
Introduction
Intertextuality is inherent in reading where a reader creates intertextual links with the text he
or she is reading and those that have been read, viewed, or heard. A t
1980, p.66). When a reader makes intertextual links, they not only enable the reader to
facilitate comprehension of the text, but the links also promote greater use of creative and
critical thinking skills (CCTS). Thus it is important that the role of the lecturer includes
facilitating students to construct intertextual links during and after reading.
Meaningful reading requires the reader to make connections with the world. In addition, it
also involves constructing intertextual readings and interpretations of a text while referring to
other texts as well. Hence, for a critical reader, the process of meaning making involves
doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.2n.1p.18
19
reconstructing and revisiting the meanings of a text due to the dialogic nature of the text
itself. In a reading classroom, intertextuality can be used as a comprehension strategy where
students make text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world connections during and after reading.
Intertextuality in text discussions
The purpose of this study is to examine intertextual connections in an oral discourse where
students engage in explicit text discussions in a reading classroom. In a traditional reading
class, post-reading activities entail students answering a set of questions pertaining to the
prescribed text and followed by a writing exercise based on a related topic. Hence, reading
become less meaningful to students and does not encourage the use of CCTS amongst the
students in the classroom.
as a collection of words or grammatical and syntactical constructions; students in turn
positions themselves to learn only those constructio
use their CCTS skills to relate the text totheir experiences, values and viewpoints in their text
discussions.
It is important that the lecturer facilitates text discussions while encouraging active
participation among students in the classroom. Hence, to promote active and engaging
discussions amongst students, Wade and Moje (2000) suggest using the participatory
approach where it allows students to interact with the text and other readers. The participatory
approach has been regarded as the predominant approach to teaching reading and subject area
knowledge (Alvermann & Moore, 1991; Goodlad, 1994). It is described as
in collaborative groups, searching through trade books or on the Internet for answers to their
research questions, or discussing a self-selected book in a peer-
Participatory approach is both teacher and student centered. It is teacher centered when the
teacher is active and in control while engaged in activities such as lecturing, explaining,
asking questions, demonstrating, giving assignments or instructions, monitoring behavior,
providing feedback, and assessing -centered requires
participation from the students such as listening, responding, reading aloud or silently,
working alone on independent seatwork, and taking tests.
20
Intertextuality can easily be applied in participatory approach when the reading text is
considered as a tool for both learning as well as constructing new knowledge. In this study,
participatory approach was used in an oral discourse constructed in discussions and
conversations. Two research objectives were identified in the study.
The first objective was to identify the prominent sources for intertextuality that students
re-contextualisation, re-storying and reflection, were used as a framework for this study. Re-
contextualisation occurs when the reader uses schematic knowledge to facilitate
understanding of the text. Re-storying transpires when the reader interprets the text by
narrating, using his or her personal life and social contexts, as sources. Meanwhile, reflection
is a form of reflective thinking where the reader is able to generate his or her own views,
values and conclusion. The second objective then was to characterize the three themes by
looking at how they emerge during text discussions.
Methodology
Participants and texts for discussion
The study employed purposeful selection of participants who were proficient in the English
language since the study examined the construction of intertextual links made during text
discussions. This key decision is strongly advocated by Creswell (1988) who suggests
purposeful selection of participants in a qualitative study. Hence, participants in this study
comprised of third year TESL undergraduate students from Universiti Teknologi MARA who
were competent in English, judging from the level of their study as well as their engaging
manner and active participation in discussions held in the classroom. Two texts that shared a
similar theme were selected for discussion purposes. The texts comprised of two chapters
The Last Lecture (2008). The first chapter described how a college professor
dealt with grief and his plans for the short future, while the second text represented his
strength and positive outlook on living life to the fullest. The two chapters were selected
based on their content and relevance to the topic that was discussed in previous lessons.
Data collection and analysis procedures
Data presented in this study were derived from a classroom of semester five TESL
undergraduates with a total of 30 students, comprising of 25 female and 5 male students. The
21
students worked in small groups (3 to 4 in a group) and the duration of the study was 3
weeks. In the first week, the first chapter was given to the students and after reading the text,
a small-group text discussion ensued, using English as the medium of discussion. Similarly,
the second week focused on reading the second text and followed by another round of text
discussion. In the third week, discussions were held based on the general concept to create a
common knowledge and share similar experiences. Discussions were led by the instructor
during the discussions so that more input could be extracted from the participants. Clips of
cartoon characters, Tigger and Eeyore, were shown on the projector to ensure that students
could identify the characters and link the information to the second text. In each text
discussion, students were required to express their opinions to three open ended questions
pertaining to the text.
Data were collected during the three lessons where discussions were audio-recorded and
transcribed verbatim. The study uses an ethnographic approach to discourse analysis where
the true nature of interaction and action were reflec
performed using an inductive approach in which the focus was more on patterns and key
themes found in the data. Subsequently, the key themes were then interpreted and connected
Results
namely, re-contextualisation, re-storying and reflection. Findings demonstrate how
intertextual connections emerged in the discourse between the students and how those links
promoted the use of CCTS throughout the discussions.
Re-contextualisation
Re-contextualisation occurred in the discussions when students related their personal
experiences and knowledge of the world with the reading text. However, diverse linguistic
they became more critical and re
that linguistic background plays a major role in a text discussion where it allows students to
re-contextualise the text by re-defining and affirming their stance of what could be thought as
appropriate to the immediate context. The findings revealed that text discussions allowed the
22
exchange of differing viewpoints and helped the students become more critical and reflective
readers. The following example illustrates this situation.
Example A: Discussion data extracted from Group #4 S3: I think Randy loved his work too much. All he could be thinking was work; he should be
thinking about spending time with his family. S1: Agreed. He was going to die. So spend time with his wife and kids. If I were
and spend my remaining days with my loved ones. How could he be so selfish and think only about his work and his ambitions?
S4: this is his way of telling everyone how much he loved his family. The way he talked about his
life ... more concerned about how his wife and kids would cope without him. S2: S4: L: S1: Initially I thought he was selfish because he wanted to do the lecture and spend precious little
time preparing work. Now I understand that it was for his wife and kids ... telling the world how much he loved them.
L: How did his family feel about this? S3: The way I interpret it, I think they must have felt left out because he was spending too much time
could celebrate with her, I would have felt hurt if I were the wife. S2: Most of the people I know who were dying spent much of their time on the hospital bed
surrounded by tearful relatives and friends. I want to be like Randy instead. All the tears in the world will not change the fact that death is already knocking on your door.
change of
viewpoints. Student 1 (S1) initially perceived the author as being a workaholic and selfish
thoughts as they helped each other share what was read and understood. Hence, re-
contextualisation provided students with the opportunities to re-look at the textual meaning
and collaboratively re-examine their comprehension and textual interpretation of the multiple
texts.
Re-storying
During the process of re-storying, students reconstructed themselves by forming narrative
interpretations using intertextual links between language, knowledge and experience. In the
study, students spontaneously shared their personal experiences during text discussions as
they shared their own life experiences in their conversations, thus making the discussions
longer and more engaging to all.
Example B: Discussion data extracted from Group #2 S3:
23
S1: Not cool for a man to cry. In movies, the women would cry for days till their eyes get swollen as
walking even when shot many times.
S2: I would be in tears for days, if I were him. L: Do we know anybody who has cancer and still fighting? S4: My close friend had cancer. She was very calm, like Randy. She never gave up hope, tried all
types of treatments hoping that the cancer will go away. But like Randy, she got her loved ones
her faith. I can understand how Randy felt. My friend died recently. But I am still awed by her courage and determination.
S3: Just look at her today. She looks healthier than any of us and the positive vibes that radiates from
ong a lot of other people with cancer and they survived. I strongly feel that -power and fate too, of course.
S2: as God determines our fate. Besides prayers, we must not stop trying to look for a cure.
S1: My aunt was strong. She fought hard and never stopped, never gave up hope. But in the end she lost the battle. It was a long battle for her and her family too. She had breast cancer but discovered it at late stage. Her kids were so affected after her death that they stayed away from
loss.
onal life and social contexts become two major
contributors in the re-
interpretation of the text. In the example, student 1 (S1) shared her personal experience and
concerns about a close relative who had to cope with a similar situation. By sharing
individual voices in the discussion, they shifted their attention away from the text and focused
students used re-storying as an intertextual link to interconnect the past, current and future
literary experience by using the text as well as themselves as resources for learning. This
proved to be a very meaningful learning experience for the students as they both explored and
me us
(Chi, 2001, p. 252).
Reflection
there is the basic assumption that learning is attributed to the process of reflection. Hence,
reflection in text discussion requires questioning strategy to promote it. In the study, students
were made aware of the context of situation and the role of the instructor was to initiate the
discussion with a real situation why people avoid talking about death.
Example C: Discussion data extracted from Group #1 L: Why do people stay away from talking about death?
24
S4: going to die one day, what more
S1: S2: Sorry to hear about your dad, but as a good Muslim you must include y
how a good son should do. Perhaps, God will answer your prayers and place him in heaven. S3:
p. But, am amazed at how Randy managed to put aside all
I wish I could be as strong as he was. L: Why do you think Randy did that? S1: So that his wife and ki
S4: Though we are only human, but we can still manage our life to the fullest. Like Randy, I think
the best way is to look back once in a while to see what else you need to accomplish in life so that you can manage the present and plan for the future. Randy did that, he knew what he wanted in life and he worked hard to accomplish them. And he managed to complete writing the lecture
admire his strength and willpower. S2:
know how much he loved his family and life.
Intertextual connection was evident when students reflected on their prior knowledge and life
experiences in a meaningful context. Reflection, as an intertextual link, allowed students to
use their CCTS during thinking, talking and reflecting processes. When students became
engaged in the text discussion, their reflective thoughts guided their talk and the issues were
then connected to the text being read. As such, the story read from the text became secondary
to the process. In example C, student 4 (S4) re-examined his earlier thoughts about dealing
with death and began to see the context from a broader perspective. As his viewpoint changed
positively, he was able to comprehend the textual meanings reflectively.
Conclusion
The idea behind this study is to offer fresh insights on how to promote intertextual
connections in reading classrooms using the participatory approach in a text-based discussion.
Both teacher and student-centered approaches were utilized during the text discussions and
the findings revealed that students were able to construct intertextual links using their critical
and creative thinking skills in a very meaningful context. Intertextual links constructed during
discussions allowed the students to share their personal experiences about social issues,
relationships, and life in general; hence giving the students a broader perspective beyond the
texts themselves.
Intertextuality is a potentially rich classroom resource in promoting reading comprehension
and textual interpretation. By highlighting the intertextual links students make during text
discussions, they become more engaged learners and heighten their awareness of their own
25
learning process. However, the role of the lecturer is also important in ensuring that all
students participate actively in the discussions as well as provide a supportive and
collaborative classroom environment for the students.
Some implications of this study involve both areas of research and teaching. Due to the
qualitative nature of this study, a more comprehensive research involving a larger number of
participants and different levels of language proficiency is needed for an in-depth
investigation of how intertextual links can promote greater comprehension and textual
interpretation in text-based classroom discussions. More effort should also be forwarded to
explicitly raise both teachers and students awareness of the importance of constructing
intertextual links to permeate their text discussions. This is particularly important in ESL
classroom settings where students require more classroom opportunities to share and
exchange ideas based on their personal and literary experiences. With intertextual links, there
exists multiple interpretive possibilities and both students as well as the teacher will have a
broader perspective that goes far beyond the text itself.
References Alvermann, D.E., & Moore, D.W. (1991). Secondary school reading. In R. Barr, M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, &
P.D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research: Volume II (pp. 951-983). White Plains, NY: Longman.
Chi, F.M. (2001). Intertextual talk as collaborative shared inquiry in learning English as a foreign language. Proceedings of the National Science Council, ROC Part C: Humanities and Social Sciences, 11(3), 247-255.
Creswell, J. W. (1988). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Gee, J. P. & Green, J. L. (1998). Discourse analysis, learning, and social practice: A methodological study. Review of Research in Education, 23, 119-169.
Goodlad, J.I. (1994). What schools are for. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation Collie, J., & Slater, S. (1987). Literature in the language classroom: A resource book of ideas and activities. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP.
Kristeva, J. (1980). Word, dialogue, and novel. In L. S. Roudiez (Trans.), T. Gora et al. (Eds.), Desire and Language (pp. 64-91), New York: Columbia University Press
Pausch, R. (2008). The last lecture. New York, NY: Hyperion. Wade, S.E., & Moje, E. B. (2000). The role of text in classroom learning. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D.
Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research: Volume III (pp. 609-627). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Wallace, C. (1992). Reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
26
Developing
Teacher
Oral
Competency
Framework
for
Secondary
School
Teachers:
Moving
Towards
Meaningful
Teaching
of
English
Language Fahainis Mohd. Yusof
and Hamida
Bee
Bi
Abdul
Karim
(Universiti
Utara
Malaysia, Malaysia)
Abstract
The secondary school English curriculum in Malaysia advocates that English could provide
greater opportunities for students to improve their knowledge and skills in cross cultural
settings. Additionally, they will be able to interact with students from other countries and
improve their proficiency in English. Given the increasing importance of international
interactions among English users from different backgrounds and the current approaches in
ELT pedagogy in literature, this paper examines the oral competency skills of a group of
English teachers. Data was collected in a seminar specially carried out for a group of selected
English teachers. Through micro-teachings sessions, the English teachers demonstrated their
use of oral communication skills in delivering the content of the subjects. This seminar was
an attempt to establish the collaboration among recognised Excellent English Teachers and
their colleagues to enhance their oral communication skills in classrooms. The results
indicated the potential of developing an oral competency framework that could be constructed
and referred to by secondary English teachers so as to enhance their effectiveness of teaching
the content knowledge to their students. This oral competency framework would provide an
excellent opportunity to help realise the purpose of using English as the medium of
instruction as proposed within the curriculum.
Introduction
In Malaysia, there is no set of agreed upon oral competency framework for secondary school
teachers. Research outside Malaysia shows that one set of competency framework does not
always fit teaching specialisations (Barblett & Maloney, 2002). This study is designed to
evaluate the oral competencies of secondary schools teachers in Malaysia.
The research will identify and evaluate the oral competencies in two areas, i.e. personal
competencies and professional competencies for secondary school teachers. The development
doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.2n.1p.26
27
of the nation depends on the quality of its education. The teacher is the most important factor
in the process of education. The quality and level of excellence in education depend upon the
quality and competence of the teacher.
Definition of key terms
Oral communication skills
Communication skills which contribute to effective teaching practice have been regarded as
important factors in teacher education courses (Lee, 1997). Bleach (2000, p. 10) states that
communication skills can be explored under two broad headings - verbal communication and
nonverbal communication and the ways in which these practices are used effectively in
and
the context of this study, teacher talk and language is one of the verbal communication skills
presented by Bleach (2000).
Therefore, communication skills in this study are regarded as the following: teacher talk and
language; skills of interacting; skills of transmitting an appropriate message by presenting;
explaining and discussing; checking the message has been received by questioning,
prompting and clarifying; and non-verbal communication skills used by the teachers in their
learning and teaching contexts and how their communication skills depend on each other.
Competence
According to Kalra (1997) competence is usually understood as quality performance. It
that does not change applicably when teacher moves from one situation to another.
Literature review
Secondary education in Malaysia
The role of English in the Malaysian education system underlies some issues with regard to
the teaching of English and Mathematics in English at secondary schools. The central focus
of the Secondary School English Language Program and Mathematics in Kurikulum Baru
28
Sekolah Menengah (New Secondary School Integrated Curriculum (NSSIC) is the
development of the four language skills - reading, writing, listening and speaking. In fact, it is
stipulated in the curriculum specifications that teaching is to emphasize oracy (listening and
speaking), literacy (reading and writing) skills and numeracy.
The current curriculum, NSSIC is based on the National Education Philosophy. The objective
is to create a wholesome individual with high moral values. The introduction of the NSSIC
curriculum into Malaysian secondary schools has brought changes to the roles of teachers and
students in the traditional classroom. For the teacher, the NSSIC requires a shift away from
the traditional strategies of teacher-dominated and teacher-directed classes. Teachers are
encouraged to develop a strategy of encouraging learners to take a more active role in their
own learning. In addition, the curriculum provides opportunity to students to develop their
talent in certain vocations. The main focus of the curriculum is on an integrated educational
approach. The approach incorporates knowledge with skills and moral values. It also
combines theory with practical training, curriculum with co-curriculum. Although
government officials have asked teachers to begin focusing on oral communication skills in
English instruction based on the communicative methodology, it is not clear whether the
majority of secondary school teachers have sufficient English competency to teach English
effectively or whether they even have confidence in their ability to instruct their students to
speak English.
Malaysian classrooms teaching, focus upon procedural competence, thus the quality of oral
communication that is actually taking place within Malaysian classrooms should be of great
concern especially if the teachers who are teaching English are themselves not competent in
English. The assumption is that students could learn both the language and the content with
appropriate instructional supports. Clearly, we need to identify some of those instructional
supports and the development of an appropriate oral competency framework will help serve
the purpose, that is, through the creation of meaningful oral communication skills standards
for meaningful; teaching and learning of English language. Moreover, research shows that
culturally and linguistically sensitive learning environments are essential for success in
create such environments, we must integrate principles of effective instructions for foreign-
language learners (Khisty, 2002).
29
Research in teacher education
Internationally, it is evident that large numbers of ESL teachers in secondary schools require
further professional development to improve their oral communication skills (Johnson, 1995).
Current views of professional development generally position teachers as active participants
who work democratically in learning communities to address issues surrounding their work.
A major goal is to
practice, drawing on what they have learned from various sources (Ball & Cohen, 1999;
Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Lieberman & Miller, 2001).
A recent Malaysian government document entitled Education Development Master Plan
2006-2010, which was launched in 2006, identified the importance of developing
professionalism among teachers in primary and secondary schools as one of the six strategies
stated. In this regard, Vision 2020 also emphasizes teacher training where the teachers have to
become researchers as well as reflective practitioners. By 2020, both educators and student
teachers should develop higher order intellectual capacities which allow them to critique their
experiences and think reflectively about the teaching knowledge base. One of the key
components of both documents is the urgent need for teacher education.
The development of their communication skills would certainly very much depend on how
their teachers orally communicated with them when teaching the content of the lessons. In
other words, to enhance academic success, teachers need to provide meaningful, content-area
instruction presented in a framework of appropriate language development skills. As teachers
foreign (English) language skills and content-area knowledge (Ovando & Collier, 1998), an
oral competency framework could provide an important guide for the teachers to identify and
implement the important linguistic concepts, especially within the domain of oral
competencies, in order to provide students with comprehensible input that is (slightly) above
ssroom, the most important model of
academic language and its meanings is the teacher (Khisty, 2002).
Vision 2020, which
calls for a technologically literate, critically thinking work force prepared to participate fully
National Philosophy
of Education. Teachers must be able to keep up with the rapid expansion of knowledge. This
30
is where language plays its role, because all knowledge including new knowledge is gathered,
developed and disseminated through language. This is because language cuts across all fields
of knowledge (Lee, 1997). Therefore, a positive and pro-active action is being taken by the
Teacher Education Division to train teachers with the knowledge of the English language and
Mathematics, i.e. the Oral Competency Framework for the secondary school teachers.
Research in teacher competency
According to Kalra (1997) competence is usually understood as quality performance. It is not
in the form of single and direct acts such as particular attitudes, habits or specific knowledge.
It is in the form of summation of some behaviours as clustered activities. In addition,
competence is a dynamic pattern of performance. It remains an estimate unless actually
power, skills, means or talent to perform his functions satisfactorily as a teacher. Teacher
competence infact, is a stable characteristic of the teacher that does not change applicably
when teacher moves from one situation to another.
the goal of communicative language teaching in
the classroom is crucial in stimulating and regulating the learning activities of students
(Savignon, 2001). Oral communicative instruction needs to be maximized when teachers
actively engage students in learning, use effective questioning and discussion techniques that
teaching techniques, and communicate with clarity and accuracy (Mastropieri & Scruggs,
2004). However, there has been little emphasis in teaching preparation programs on preparing
teachers to use oral communication effectively for teaching and learning activities
communication skills as demonstrated in the context of their teaching situations.
The need for teacher competency arises because the competent teacher possesses the ability to
provide for and personally utilize more positive reinforcement and the elimination of tension
within the classroom and to facilitate the development of more positive feeling within the
children. The ability to provide increased opportunities for children is to present unsolicited
facts, information and opinions during classroom teachings. At the international level, the
debate concerning teaching standards has been intense and resulted in the emergence of a
31
plethora of teaching standards frameworks. In some states in Australia, such as Western
Australia and Queensland, documents have been produced which outline the generic teaching
competencies for all teachers (Barblett & Maloney, 2002). Barblett and Maloney (2002) also
argue that teaching standards across the world have shown to increase teacher effectiveness
and influence positive outcomes for students. Standards guide teachers how to become better
at what they do so that learning takes place not only for students but for teachers as well.
It seems timely that within Malaysia, there ought to be a framework which identifies key
elements of effective teaching practice for English competent teachers to teach English. As
pointed out by Ingvarson (1998), a professional body is defenceless without standards and a
demonstrated ability to articulate standards for high quality practice is an essential credential
if a professional body is to be taken seriously by the public and policy makers.
Primary aim of study
Malaysian secondary school teachers with the focus on the teaching of English.
Research objectives
A significant number of objectives in this study will be achieved from the following:
To explore oral communications skills in the teaching of English.
To determine oral competencies required by secondary school teachers involved in the
Malaysian education system.
To make explicit the oral communication skills of English secondary school teachers.
accompany Teacher
Competency Framework.
competency framework.
and teacher training.
To document the Teacher Oral Competency Framework in reflecting the best teaching
practices that would be required of the Malaysian education system.
32
Research questions (RQ)
The study addressed the main research question:
What are the oral competencies required of teachers involved in teaching and learning of
English language at Malaysian secondary schools?
The specific research questions are:
secondary school classrooms?
Q2. What oral communication competencies should the teachers acquire in the near future?
Q3. How do teachers perceive their own oral communication skills in their teaching
contexts?
Q4. What kind of oral communication difficulties, if any, do teachers experience in
teaching?
Q5. How can the teachers use this framework to develop their oral competencies in
teaching?
Methodology
Research design
This study is conceptualized within the interpretive paradigm. Denzin and Lincoln (1998)
subsume interpretivism under qualitative research. Interpretivists are concerned with
understanding the meanings which people give to objects, social settings, events and
behaviours of others, and how these understandings in turn define the settings. In order to
retain the integrity of the phenomena under study, an interpretivist approach in research and a
qualitative study are needed to further provide a rich description of the Teacher Oral
Competency Framework. It is a spiral process of action, collation, reflection and review,
where the input of teachers will be incorporated in the development of the framework. Since
the framework. Therefore, data collection techniques will reflect this need. Data collection
methods consist of interviews, videotaping of classroom interactions and communications,
written editorial comments from experts and surveys will be used to provide the rich
descriptions.
33
Participants
Random and purposive sampling is chosen for sampling method in this study. Purposive
sampling is often used in qualitative research. According to Lincoln and Guba (1985),
purposive sampling allows the full scope of issues to be explored. Purposive sampling can be
very useful for situations where there is a need to reach a targeted sample quickly and where
sampling for proportionality is not the primary concern. Participants are selected because of
specific characteristics. Based on a purposive sampling procedure (Creswell, 2008), the
teachers were identified using the following purposes: variations in teaching experience,
professional capabilities and qualifications.
A significant number of participants in this study were drawn from the following:
1. A reference group of experts from the field locally and abroad. The local reference group
consists of Adjunct Professors; Professors Emeritus; Professors of Education; Directors
of Education from CDC, Teacher Division, States Education Directors. The abroad group
consists of representatives from Western Australian and New Zealand Education
Department and /or Queensland University of Technology.
2. Three focus groups of five English language teachers (Form 1, Form 2 and Form 4) from
the northern states of Malaysia.
Data collection
The data was collected in the following phases.
Phase One: Familiarization with the professional development context and selection of
participants
A reference group of experts from Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand were convened and
invited to comment on the language policy and the national curriculum, and teaching and
learning of English language. Document analysis and a brief literature review were conducted
on topics such as Teaching Standards Framework, effective teachings of English, and initial
stages of the teaching profession.
This phase enables the researcher to clarify the context of the study and to select participants
for Phase Two. The main objective is to familiarise the researcher with the context of
developing the framework. This phase involved an interview with the writer of the framework
in Australia and non participant observation.
34
Phase Two: Conducting a seminar
This phase enabled the researcher to collect information from the focus groups of expert
teachers on their oral communications skills in classrooms and their views on what kind of
oral communication skills teachers should have and would be able to do. The teachers will be
selected based on the following purposes: qualification; teaching experience; experience of
teaching at secondary schools and professional development.
While the participants were watching videos on teaching, the participants were asked to
observe and identify oral communication skills that were centred on the taxonomy which was
developed from three existing sets of categories: oral communication skills, communication
strategies, and non verbal communication. Data collected from videotaping will be
transcribed and analysed under the identified aspects of the oral communication skills
dimensions. The outcome of the analysis will be given to the teachers to be reviewed,
commented on, and edited.
Data analysis
As is typical in qualitative research (Creswell, 2008), an inductive analysis of the data was
adopted so that themes emerged from the data. Being an interpretivist study, there was on-
going data analysis of the corpus of data which included transcripts of classroom observations
field notes. The transcriptions and the field notes were used as a basis for identifying the main
contributions; sociating/establishing and maintaining classroom rapport; organizing/giving
instructions; directing; presenting/explaining; evaluating/correcting; and eliciting/questioning
to the students. The process of analysis involved examining and re-examining the data to
discover the emergence of recurrent patterns of oral communication skills. As the data was
varied and dense, it was necessary first to identify the most noticeable pre-determined
categories to allow for in-depth, thorough analysis.
As this study is primarily the analysis of transcripts of classroom communication, it was felt
that elements of discourse analysis should be used which refers to the procedures used for
examining chunks of written and spoken language (Allwright & Bailey, 1991). Being a
35
means of close examination
mind, however, that discourse analysis is a very broad term and covers many analytic
processes, from coding to more qualitative interpretations. The latter is the procedure adopted
in this study. Certain behavioural features of oral communication skills were examined to
allow for a qualitative interpretation of patterns.
Taking these considerations into account and being aware of the anti-positivist, interpretive
paradigm, the researcher chose to develop pre-determined categories which arose from the
data. A taxonomy was self-developed, as outlined below. According to McDonough and
McDonough (1997), a researcher can develop his or her own categories for some particular
(p. 108). In this stance, existing sets of categories were utilised to suit the
purpose of investigating patterns of oral communication skills which can only emerge from
the data.
The data were openly coded to allow for the data to be categorised. The transcripts proved to
be voluminous, which resulted in the identification of three sets of categories for further
analysis. These are as follows:
f oral communication skills (2000)
The first two categories of oral communication skills were developed for second language
classroom research in particular and language education in general. The first set of categories,
proposed by Bowers (1980), covered a wide variety of oral communication skills in teaching
The categories were used to analyse every utterance in the language lessons, either by
sociating/establishing and maintaining classroom rapport; organising/giving instructions;
directing; presenting/explaining; evaluating/correcting; and eliciting/questioning. These
aspects were all a focus of the present study of communicative competence. Therefore,
categories formed the first part of the taxonomy.
36
The second set of categories, proposed by Bleach (2000), included a nonverbal component of
oral communication skills and other verbal components. These categories were developed by
Bleach from normal teaching practice. A particular feature in these categories is that they
make use of different levels of generalisations. This includes three categories of oral
communication skills: teacher talk and language, explaining, and listening.
The above two sets of categories focused on mainly the same oral communication skills, as
communication skills and clearer definitions and examples. Examples of these oral skills are
the use of different sentence structures of teacher talk, basic skills of explaining, making
explanations easier to remember and understand, listening, and the different types of
nonverbal components of oral communication skills. Oral communication skills and non
verbal communication are related to the content of the lesson (Bowers, 1980; Bleach, 2000).
These skills were all a focus of the present study of communicative competence. Therefore,
In this study, a third set of categories was developed for communication strategies. These
strategies were adapted from Williams et al. (1997) who classified CSs into confirmation
checks, clarification requests and comprehending/comprehension checks. These categories
proved to be very useful for this study because many types of strategies observed in the data
-based. As
question type that seeks
repetition or confirmation of something in the other. Although these two strategies are
referred to as having the same meaning, the study included them both and made a distinction
third part of the taxonomy used in the
present study.
The present study is therefore innovative in nature and uses an eclectic approach, covering a
wide variety of oral communication skills and CSs. The advantage of the three-part taxonomy
was that it has the potential to identify every oral communication skill and communication
strategies that occurred.
The developed taxonomy includes three general categories: oral communication skills,
nonverbal component of oral communication skills and communication strategies. It should
37
be noted, however, that because of the nature of communication, some oral communication
skills could be in either category depending on the communicative context. The following
Table 1 shows categories of examples of oral communication skills observed in classrooms
and also a sample from the analysis of one participant.
Initial findings and discussions of the Development of Teacher Oral Competency
Framework
Phase one
The interviews were conducted in person in order to prompt responses from the education
gather in-depth information about teachers' competency and knowledge perceptions on oral
communication skills when teaching and learning took place. The interview was conducted
on 5 June 2009. The writer of the competency framework from Western Australia Education
Department stated that:
Professional attributes outline the characteristics that are readily identifiable as essential to effective teaching. These attributes ensure teachers are prepared for the challenges, demands and obligations of teaching. In addition, professional attributes provide the underpinning values, beliefs and skills for the decisions and actions teachers make in their day-to-day work. They describe the attitudes and behaviours through which teachers demonstrate their ability to facilitate student learning. Effective teachers demonstrate the following professional attributes . . . and one of those is effective communicator. Teachers have a presence that creates a
modifying their language according to the context and audience.
Phase two
The developed taxonomy includes three general categories: oral communication skills,
nonverbal component of oral communication skills and communication strategies. It should
be noted, however, that because of the nature of communication, some oral communication
skills could be in either category depending on the communicative context. The following
table shows categories of examples of oral communication skills observed in classroom and
also a sample from the analysis of one participant.
38
Table 1: Taxonomy of Categories Classroom
establishing and maintaining classroom rapport Good evening everybody. OK. Sit down.
Organizing/giving instructions
Directing Studen Presenting/explaining
Evaluating/correcting Eliciting/questioning (e.g. comprehension checks, clarification requests, confirmation checks, referential, display, expressive rhetorical )
Where do you come from?
Discussion Listening Teacher talk and language -Be simple, be short and be human The teacher varies the length of statements by using:
1. the concrete noun rather than the abstract; 2. the active voice rather than the passive; 3. the short sentence rather than the long; 4. the simple sentence rather than the
compound; 5. the direct statement rather than the
circumlocution; 6. people as the subject whenever possible.
What is a tray? Something you put the food on. When you go to cafetedrink on the tray. I want the answer I call you first Look at page 96 Okay next one You can draw if you want to
Tone, volume and pace of voice Appearance Eagerness and interest Nodding and head shaking Confidence and caring Confirming/confirmation checks Did you mean? Clarifying/ clarification requests
understand) Comprehending/comprehension checks All right? OK? Understand? Or Do you
know what I mean? Reformulating/reformulations (These utterances offer some modification of the previous utterance).
How do you spell: wives ? Which one, singular or plural?
Repetition (These are exact duplications of what has been uttered) t Circumlocution (The strategy of describing the characteristics features of intended meanings or express his/her meaning in several words
Emotion? What? Again?
Code switching (The strategy of drawing upon L1 to solve the problem)
Wha rojak ?
The present study indicated that the teachers of English usually incorporate the subjects with
many activities and visits to make them more interesting and thus the students may like these
teachers more. In the observed lesson, the materials were presented in an interesting way by
giving appropriate examples and illustrations whenever necessary. The lesson was mainly
presented by means of discussion. The content of the lessons was closely related to the
textbook used. Audio-visual aids are used in order to help the students understand the text
39
more intelligently, or to help them get better insight into the subject. The questions used in
the lesson were thought provoking with some guidance and direction for the better
understanding of them. Generally, a good learning atmosphere is created because the teacher
is warm and friendly.
Conclusions and implications
The Framework is based on the premise that effective teachers draw on a body of professional
knowledge in order to maximise their ability to improve student educational outcomes.
Knowledge of students, curriculum, subject matter, pedagogy, education-related legislation
and the specific teaching context is the foundation of effective teaching which enables
teachers to be responsive to the changing needs of students.
40
References Aitken, J. (1998). The capable teacher, Number 2, Summer 1998. Allwright, D., & Bailey. K.M. (1991). Focus on the language classroom: An introduction classroom research for
language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ball, D., & Cohen, D. (1999). Developing practice, developing practitioners: Toward a practice-based theory of
professional education. In G. Sykes & L. Darling-Hammond (Eds.), Teaching as a learning profession: Handbook of policy and practice (pp. 3-32). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Barblett, L. & Maloney, C. (2002). Describing standards for early childhood teachers: Moving the debate forward to the National level. Paper presented at the Annual General Conference for the Australian Association for Educational Research, Brisbane, December 1-5.
Bleach, K. (2000). . London: David Fulton Publishers. Bowers, R. (1980). Verbal behaviour in the language teaching classroom. Ph. D. Thesis, University of Reading. Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R.R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and
school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Creswell, J.W. (2008). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and qualitative
research. New York: Prentice Hall. Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1998). Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Publications. Ingvarson, L. (1998). Professional development as the pursuit of professional standards: The standards based
professional development system. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14(1), 127-140. Johnson, K. E. (1995). Understanding communication in second language classrooms. New York: Cambridge
University Press. Khisty, L. L. (2002). Mathematics learning and the Latino student: Suggestions from research for classroom
practice. Teaching Children Mathematics, 9(1), 32-35. Lee, P. (1997). Collaborative practices for educators: Strategies for effective communication. Minnesota: Peytral
Public Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (Eds.). (2001). Teachers caught in the action: Professional development that
matters. New York: Teachers College Press. Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Lee, P. (1997). Collaborative practices for educators: Strategies for effective communication. Minnesota: Peytral
Public Mahzan Bakar. (2006). Preface. In Ministry of Education Malaysia, Integrated Curriculum for Secondary
Schools: Curriculum Specifications Mathematics, Curriculum Development Centre, Ministry of Education Malaysia.
Mastropieri, M.A., & Scruggs, T.E., (2004). Effective classroom instruction. In C. Spilberger (Ed.), Encyclopedia of applied psychology. Oxford: Elsevier. (pp 687-691).
McDonough, J. & McDonough, S., (1997). Research Methods for English Language Teachers. London: Arnold. Ministry of Education Malaysia, Integrated Curriculum for Secondary Schools: Curriculum Specifications
English Curriculum Development Centre, Ministry of Education Malaysia. Ovando, C. & Collier, V. (1998). Bilingual and ESL Classrooms: Teaching in Multicultural Contexts. New
York: McGrawHill. - -Murcia (ed.),
Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Van Lier, L. (1996). Interaction in the language curriculum. London: Longman. Williams, J., Inscoe, R., & Tasker, T. (1997). Communication strategies in an interactional context: the mutual
achievement of comprehension. In G. Kasper & E. Kellerman (Eds.), Communication strategies: Psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives (pp. 304-322). London: Longman.
41
Linking
Task-based
Language
Teaching
and
Sociocultural
Theory: Private
Speech
and
Scaffolding
in
Reading
Comprehension Soheila Tahmasebi
(Islamic
Azad University, Abadan
Branch,
Iran)
Morteza
Yamini
(Islamic
Azad University, Shiraz
Branch,
Iran)
Abstract
In Sociocultural Theory, mediations in second language learning include (1) mediation by
others (2) mediation by self (3) and mediation by artifacts, which incorporates brilliant
insights for EFL contexts (Lantolf, 2000). Putting these ideas in a task-based method, the
present study aimed at examining the contribution of scaffolding and private speech in
social or interpersonal activities they engage in. Screened through an Oxford Placement Test,
54 EFL freshmen taking a reading comprehension course participated in this study and
formed two randomly divided groups and pretested using a 30-item TOEFL test of reading
comprehension. The control group benefited from a teacher, who paraphrased, summarized
and provided the meaning of the new words and expressions. The experimental group was
asked to do the same tasks through collaboration, private speech and artifacts. Students'
performances were video-taped to be used for discourse analyses and provide measures of
fluency, accuracy and complexity (Iwashita, Elder, & McNamara, 2001). Two types of
measurements were used: 1) a final test of reading comprehension, 2) an oral presentation of a
text whose readability matched that of the texts used during the experiment. The students'
performances on presenting the text orally were rated based on the idea units recalled
(Johnson, 1970). The data analysis revealed no difference between the two groups in the final
test, but in oral presentation, the experimental group outperformed the control group.
Introduction
The emergence of different learning theories has affected language teaching and has
eventually stimulated teachers to welcome some changes in language classes. Searching about
doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.2n.1p.41
42
some theories through task-based teaching might be a tempting issue as long as the findings
might bring about some new perspectives in language learning.
Sociocultural theory of Mind (SCT) developed by Vygotsky (1987) and Leontiev (1981) as
one of the influential theories in learning has ultimately influenced language teaching. SCT
has opened a new paradigm in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and has so deeply
affected the SLA that Lantolf (2000) coined "Sociocultural SLA". Describing SCT, Lantolf
argues that in higher mental activities a kind of mediation exists and what mediates the mind
is the social activity. In other words, this theory asserts that social activities organize endowed
capabilities like language and enable individuals to consciously control mental activities like
planning and problem solving. To further elaborate on the tenets of SCT, talking about the
opposite fronts, which suggest different views for language learning, seems necessary.
The dominant theories underlying SLA called behaviorism and cognitivism, focus on the
formation of language habits and the genetic knowledge of a person, respectively.
Sociocultural theories attempt to focus on the contexts, acts, and motives of language events
between individuals due to the fact that they are simultaneously social and cognitive.
Cognitive theorists argue that language, as a genetically endowed and innately controlled
phenomenon, follows some internally directed paths, and finally appear as a result of triggers
provided in the linguistic environment. They also put forward the modularity of language and
hypothesized that language learning is different from other forms of learning (Chomsky,
1972). According to this view, language is acquired even after minimal exposure to linguistic
data.
Like Chomsky, SCT theorists believe that the origin of language is in the mind, but they argue
that language learning is not different from other forms of learning. For language learning,
sociocultural theories use terms like "participation" instead of "acquisition" arguing that
language learning is not a matter of taking in some knowledge but of taking part in social
activities. These issues revitalize the debate over knowledge and use of language ignored in
some theories. Accordingly, Ellis (2003), elaborating on Sfard (1998) points out that in L2
learning, knowledge equals use and use brings about knowledge. That is, the distinction
between these two concepts is no further recognized in SCT principles.
43
In this regard, Nunn (2001) mentions five components called regulation, activity theory,
mediation, private speech, and the zone of proximal development central in SCT. Not having
been utilized in this study, the two first items are just briefly introduced.
Wertsch (1985, p.112) asserts that activity theory raises questions like "what the individual or
group is doing in a partic . This theory provides a framework to analyze what
learners do in interaction.
Wertsch (1985) also puts forward four levels of regulation for understanding and analyzing
issues like interaction, mediation, and relationships between people. The levels include (1)
Object-regulation; (2) Other-regulation; (3) Self-other-regulation; (4) Self-regulation; the last
one, as the ultimate level of attainment, is accomplished when an individual gains complete
control and ability to function independently.
Mediation
In SCT mediation of human behavior happens through tools and sign systems, with language
being the most important of all. According to Vygotsky (1987), tools and language are not
fixed, and they get new forms in human history and its cultural development; therefore,
language is no longer distinguished from its use. He further argues that external social speech
is internalized through mediation; therefore, society is connected to mind in this way.
When all forms of learning take place due to interaction, language learning cannot be an
exception. Artigal (1992) suggests social interaction as a newly recognized place for language
acquisition device. Eventually language acquisition is not the result of interaction but comes
true in the interaction. That is, language organizes thought and plays a bidirectional role: as a
means and as a manager; it involves how to use language to mediate language learning. It is
worth mentioning that in this view interaction could be both dialogic and monologic although
the role of the former is underlined as being more crucial. Vygotsky (1987) metaphorically
explains that social planes are precursors for any functions to appear in psychological planes.
ural development appear twice:
first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level. For example, language takes place
first between people (interpsychological), and then inside the child (intrapsychological). In
other words, social interaction is a prerequisite to cognitive development to transfer an
interpersonal process into an intrapersonal one (Nunn, 2001).
44
Conspicuous in SCT and related to interaction, is the concept of Zone of Proximal
Development (ZPD), which identifies the limit to which someone can learn new information
with the assistance of someone else who might be an expert, such as a teacher, or a fellow
learner at the same level or slightly higher level of competence than the learner. These
characters act as mediators between the student and the knowledge the student is trying to
understand and eventually assist the learner in reaching goals not likely to be accomplished by
the learner alone.
In ZPD each student owns two levels of learning potential: one potential is reachable by itself
knowledge from classmates can assist learners to obtain the ZPD while rote copying of
language knowledge is not so much determining. Besides scaffolding, private speech is
another way through which the person below ZPD could be assisted. Accordingly, our
internal mental ability to use and manipulate language is the result of mediation through
language. In other words, in SCT language development emerges out of talks in two distinct
ways: (1) through some forms of scaffolding when the learner is interacting with others; and
(2) through private talk when the learner tries to regulate his/her thoughts. Artifacts and signs
are also suggested as means of mediation, and language is considered as the most powerful
sign of mediation.
Scaffolding or collaborative learning
Proponents of SCT stress the roles played by other people i
mediators to help learners move to subsequent zones (Williams & Burden, 1997). The
concept of ZPD emphasizes that individuals are interdependent and social processes have
crucial roles in developing all forms of knowledge, including language (Xu, Gelfer, &
Perkins, 2005). As a major principle, the self-regulation (described in introduction) in SCT,
social process.
Oxford (1997)
cultural activities they experience. Therefore, SCT foregrounds the importance of learning
processes, rather than the educational outcomes. It is also suggested that the interpretation of
45
learning processes be considered in the immediate social situation and the sociocultural
context in which learning activities take place (Kumpulainen & Mutanem, 2000). It means
that sociocultural theorists deal with the development of language knowledge at a macro
level, rather than breaking language into its components.
Following these views, in L2 language learning, learners first produce linguistic forms and
functions while interacting with others, peers, native speakers or teachers, and subsequently
internalize them so that they can use forms and functions independently. In other words, in
SLA each individual learns language while mediated by others in the context of language
learning as a prerequisite for internalizing language.
Referred to as scaffolding by Vygotsky and cooperative learning by Brown (2001), this
concept emphasizes the role that interaction plays in SCT. As Jacobs et al. (2002) assert, the
link between second language learning and SCT is a perspective which highlights the way
through which L2 learners enhance learning according to the context and their relation with
other peers. Different researchers have empirically studied the issue of collaborative learning,
and almost all of them report positive evidence for collaborative learning as a useful method
in SLA settings. Scaffolding, collaborative dialogue, peer assistance, and self-assistance are
issues viewed from SCT perspectives by some researchers, including the present authors.
Similar to our study, Hall (1995) considered a teacher judged to be knowledgeable, highly
proficient, and providing a linguistically rich environment, however, the teacher's analysis
shows that instruction limited student opportunities to facilitating interactional development.
Hall (1995) also argues that the class format which was IRE-dominated (initiation, response,
follow-up evaluation) did not bring about interaction between students or teacher and
students.
Likewise, Anton (1999) focused on the degree to which classrooms are made either teacher-
centered or learner-centered through the discourse. Analysis of the discourse revealed how the
interactional style of the instructor directed student attention in the lessons, creating a sense of
cooperation for the classroom activities. Thus, a learning-centered environment was created.
Anton also found that learner engagement and negotiation of meaning are reduced when
instruction is not "proleptic" or when instruction lacks scaffolding in the ZPD. This includes
46
communicative moves by the instructor in the use of directives, assisting questions, open-
ended questions, pauses, gestures, opportunities to bid for the floor.
Ellis and He (1999) found that the dialogic construction in peer interaction provided far more
opportunities for learners to learn new words than did monologically constructed formats.
This leads to opportunities for use, and negotiation of meaning. This outcome characterizes
dialogically based interactions.
Mendoza (2004) studied the issue of second language vocabulary learning from a
sociocultural point of view and observed that participants shared their knowledge and used
both linguistic and non-linguistic forms of assistance in their conversations. He also
concluded that the participants concentrated mostly on meaning considering the three aspects
of word knowledge (i.e. form, meaning, and use Nation, 1990). Mendoza (2004) identified
evidence of learning in his analysis since learners demonstrated knowledge development
when asked in the quizzes, reviews, and games. Moreover, the analysis revealed features that
facilitated understanding of word form, meaning, and use. The participants took advantage of
nternalize knowledge about the words.
Chen (2008) studied the effectiveness of collaborative learning both theoretically and
practically and found CL successful from perspectives of (1) motivational theory (2) social
interdependence theory, (3) Piagetian sociocognitivism, and (4) Vygotskian socioculturalism.
To sum up these and similar results, we can say that scaffolding or collaboration, as well as
dialogic interactions are suggested since they put forward at least two priorities: the
interactions are meaningful and shared between all members of the group; learners practice
language while they are using it and investing on each other's abilities. Regarding the
outcome, learners are more socially knowledgeable since they have integrated knowledge of
language and social interaction.
Private speech
Vygotsky defines inner-speech as the internalization of external forms of dialogic
communication (Nunn, 2001). He means that when confronted with tasks beyond the ZPD,
47
children invoke private speech. Children manipulate their thought and language to find and
organize the solution to a task beyond their ZPD. Inner-speech or private-speech is somewhat
analogous to think-aloud tasks and close in meaning to metatalk (Ellis, 2003). It is believed
that inner-speech means to talk to oneself in order to express the actions required to
successfully complete a task; this form of self-mediation guides the person to carry out an
activity, which is beyond their current competence. This is seen as an insight to strategies and
processes learners use to complete a task.
Children talk to themselves even when they are in the company of adults. Such talks, regarded
as practice, prepare the child to control his/her mental operations while doing different tasks
like using language. In the same way, adults including L2 learners can benefit from private
speech and mediate themselves in language learning. Frawley and Lantolf (1985) refer to a
principle called continuous access and point out that adults continue to adopt the strategies
that they used to employ in the past. In other words, adults favor private talk strategies in
gaining control over language functions and forms as they used to when they were children.
Therefore, in SCT, interpersonal interaction is not the only realized way for mediating
language learning. Private Speech (PS) is another way through which language learners can
mediate themselves. Private speech is not talking to oneself in front of the mirror but as Ohta
(2001) suggests it includes imitation, mental rehearsal and responses that a learner provides in
his mind to questions the teacher has asked another student.
What went on theoretically explained some concepts to justify the place of private talk in SCT
in order to pave the ground for introducing the studies, which have experimentally, put this
component into practice. Winsler (2004) studied the effectiveness of private talk in regulating
one's thought and found that more than 95% of adults talk to themselves; moreover, he
categorized the findings of some studies on private speech some of which are presented
below:
1. Adult second language learners use PS in L1 in learning contexts to help them
acquire L2 (Broner & Tarone, 2001; Ohta, 2001).
2. Private speech in L2 for the service of learning among adult L2 learners is more
common in advanced learners than in beginning L2 students (Lantolf, 1997).
48
3. There are cross cultural/linguistic differences in how, and how much, adult L2
learners use PS for language learning (McCafferty, 1994).
4. Children use more PS in open-ended and creative activities than in closed-ended,
goal-
use in naturalistic settings can be due to the classroom context changing with age
rather than child age per se (Krafft & Berk, 1998).
Extended to L2 learning, these results can point to situations where learners use private
speech in developing their language skills. All in all, the results of these and similar studies
reveal that private talk accelerates learning and ends in socio-linguistic development.
The study: framework, questions, and the objectives
Following SCT ideas, it was assumed that Iranian EFL learners needed to be assisted by self,
by peers and by the teacher in a reading course, instead of being provided with large amount
of linguistic input by the teacher; therefore, this study aimed to study the effects of
scaffolding (collaboration) and private speech on students during a reading course. Thus, the
study put these two components of SCT in a task-based framework to measure the outcomes
qualitatively and quantitatively. In other words, through collaborative and private speech,
students were asked to accomplish some tasks. In this regard the following research question
was formed:
Does SCT have any effects on Iranian EFL students' reading comprehension?
This study tried to merge SCT theoretical tenets with TBLT methodologies. TBLT and SCT
are highly compatible (Nunn, 2001; Ellis, 2003). Sifting through studies and the results that
emerge from SCT, we concluded that using sociocultural frameworks may provide more
words, through linking SCT tenets to TBLT methods, we may not only get more information
about the nature of TBLT methodologies, but can benefit from natural classroom interactions
that lead to autonomous learners. Consequently, we can manage what and how learners
perform under different task conditions to develop and maximize learning-centered second
language acquisition (Nunn, 2001).
49
In this study, two of SCT components, private speech and collaborative learning, are
considered as effective conditions in performing reading comprehension tasks. In other words,
putting into a TBLT framework, collaboration and private talk, are used as factors which may
arizing and paraphrasing tasks.
Method
Participants
Based on their performance on a 50-item Oxford Placement test of reading comprehension, 54
EFL freshmen who scored higher among a population of 80, were invited to take part in this
study during a reading comprehension course. Students were randomly divided into two
groups, control and experimental. Since the study aimed at checking the effects of an
instruction, which incorporated SCT tenets, both groups were exposed to a 30-item TOEFL
test of reading comprehension. Except for the method used, the teacher, the source book, and
allotted time for both groups were the same.
Procedures
The source book for both groups was "Select Readings: Intermediate" by Linda Lee and Erik
Gunderson (2001). In both classes, after introductory questions and preliminary discussions,
the teacher or VCD read out the text. The parts distinguishing the two classes emerged
immediately after the passages were read once or twice.
For the experimental group, the teacher asked the students to do different tasks such as
paraphrasing, summarizing, and discussing the ideas presented in each paragraph. The teacher
suggested that students collaboratively and through private speech for every other paragraph
- carry out the suggested tasks. For example, if the students were asked to collaboratively
paraphrase the first paragraph, they were asked to paraphrase the second one by themselves,
i.e. practice private speech.
On the other hand, for the control group, as it is usual in most language classes, the teacher
paraphrased, summarized and discussed the ideas in each paragraph in the whole lesson.
Students asked their questions if they had any.
The participants of the two groups, called by the teacher or voluntarily, read some of the
paragraphs, summarized them or talked about them. During the class hours, students'
50
performances were videotaped to be used for discourse analysis and to be measured for
fluency, accuracy and complexity (Iwashita, Elder, & McNamara, 2001). This method
continued for eight ninety-minute sessions. At the end of the course, students were post-
tested using the same 30-item TOEFL test used in the pretest. Moreover, students were asked
to orally present some passages, and their performance was videotaped to be scored based on
the idea units presented. The selected texts, unseen by the students, had readability below or
close to that of the text in the textbook ranging from 10 to 11. The students' performance on
the oral presentation task was counted as twenty percent of their final scores.
Data collection
0-item TOEFL test were recorded. The performance of each student
on oral presentation was also scored based on the idea units provided. Also called a linguistic
unit (Bransford & Franks, 1971; Carrell, 1983) as well as an information unit (Roller 1990),
an idea unit comprises the minimal words necessary to express a thought or idea.
Accordingly, the number of idea units that students recalled after reading the text measured
provided useful
dealing with the data qualitatively. For example, the importance of ideas in each text affected
rating.
As a result, three types of scores were obtained: scores representing (1) pretest, (2) final test
and (3) oral presentations based on idea units recalled. These data were subjected to t-test.
Moreover, the video-taped performances were rated with regard to fluency, accuracy and
complexity of the discourse. In other words, in order to compare the performances of the two
groups during the instructions, descriptive analyses were used which discussed students'
performance during the process.
Results and discussion
Statistical analysis
All the data were subjected to descriptive statistics. The results are presented in Table 1. The
pretest results reveal that the two groups were not so different. This is, of course confirmed by
inferential statistics shown in Table 2. No statistically significant difference can be observed
51
between the means of the control and experimental groups. It can be concluded that the two
groups were equal to begin with.
Table 1: Descriptive statistics
Group N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Pretest Control 27 19.5556 5.47957 1.05454 Exprimental 27 18.9630 5.33120 1.02599 Finalexam Control 27 15.7778 4.03192 .77594 Exprimental 27 17.4074 4.55951 .87748 Oraltest Control 27 3.4815 1.69548 .32629 Exprimental 27 4.3704 1.33440 .25681
To see if the mean differences were statistically significant or not, independent-samples t-test
was run. The results are presented in Table 2.
Table2: Results of independent-samples t-test
Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means
F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed)
Mean Difference
pretest Equal variances assumed .354 .555 .403 52 .689 .59259
Equal variances not assumed .403 51.96 .689 .59259
finalexam Equal variances assumed .807 .373 -1.391 52 .170 -1.62963
Equal variances not assumed -1.391 51.23 .170 -1.62963
oraltest Equal variances assumed 259 .613 -2.141 52 .037 -.88889
Equal variances not assumed -2.141 49.28 .037 -.88889
As can be seen from Table 2, the two groups did not perform significantly differently in the
final exam, as the mean difference was not statistically significant. However, in terms of oral
paraphrases, they differed significantly. The experimental group outperformed the control
group.
Descriptive analysis dealing with aspects of discourse
Dealing with the results of tests used to check the effects of instruction is a useful method, but
to get deep insights about the events that happen in class we should directly consider the on-
52
going process that happens while implementing the tasks. Skehan (1998) suggests that
production requires some attention to form and distinguishes three aspects of production: (1)
fluency, the capacity of the learner to communicate meaningfully in real time (2) accuracy,
the ability of learners to use their interlanguage knowledge of language in production (3)
complexity, the utilization of interlanguage structures that are interesting, new, elaborate and
structured. For example, the number of words or false starts affects fluency, while the number
of self corrections or target-like uses of negation account for accuracy; frequent use of
conjunctions or number of turns would be considered as factors influencing complexity.
Ellis (2003) classifies these three factors and some specific measures used in various studies
(Appendix A) and argues that regarding the context, the emphasis on each of these factors is
classification. This framework for data analysis was used because it considered three aspects
of fluency, accuracy and complexity in learners' production. Since dealing with the
performances of all students needed detailed factor analysis and evaluating all students in one
session was impossible, it was decided to use the performance of those students who
performed in the ninth session; they did not exceed eight students in the control and nine in
the experimental group.
Although the performances of the two groups were very close in some aspects, e.g.,
complexity, they diverged in accuracy and fluency. For example, regarding the fluency,
students in the experimental group ran their ideas more smoothly since they used more words
per minute ( mean of 62 versus 50), ran more words in each turn (mean of 4 versus 3.5), and
used shorter pauses (12 versus 20). Regarding the accuracy, although both groups had
problems in managing tenses, using articles, and using plurals, again the experimental group
outperformed group one in other specific measures; percentage of error-free clauses for group
two against group one was (70% vs. 66%), moreover group two self-corrected their sentences
or their peers' sporadically while group one did not.
Both groups performed similarly in not using complex sentences, except for using three
conjunctions such as when, therefore, and because. Besides these numbers, the friendly and
active climate prevailing in the experimental group, where collaboration and private speech
prevailed, encouraged the students to participate more voluntarily in class discussions. They
were no longer afraid of making mistakes; their peers had already observed their mistakes and
53
helped them to overcome the problems. Moreover, their peers were within their reach to help
them when they ran out of some words.
Limitations and suggestions for further research
1. Merging SCT and TBLT, which is rarely dealt with, will end in more prosperous and
assuring results if studied in a longitudinal framework. As it might be recognized by
some readers, 8 sessions do not qualitatively provide the predicted results.
2. This study suffers limited number of raters, to put forward objective judgments and
enhance reliability of obtained scores for idea units it is suggested that more than four
raters be invited for scoring. Zhang (2008) used the judgments of eight English
professors in describing each unit qualitatively and quantitatively.
3. The effects of different SCT components were not considered in the present study.
Could we separate the results of private speech from collaborative learning, the
findings would favor a more precise perspective; furthermore, such distinct results
may shed some lights on the methods rendered by EFL teachers.
4. If some forms of factor analyses are rendered more assuring and precise results will be
provided. Other factors may also have a hand in enhancing or deteriorating EFL
learners language performances.
5. For the last point, we suggest that the effects of SCT through a TBLT method be used
for other language courses like conversation and writing.
54
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Appendix A: A classification of production variables used in task-based research, taken from Ellis (2005, p.117) Dimension Measures 1. Fluency Number of words per minute
Number of syllables per minute Number of pauses of one/two seconds or longer Mean length of pauses Number of repetitions Number of false starts Number of reformulations Length of run, i.e. number of words per pausally defined unit Number of words per minute
2. Accuracy Number of self-corrections Percentage of error-free Target-like use of clauses Target-like use of verb tenses Target-like use of articles Target-like use of vocabulary Target-like use of plurals Target-like use of negations Ratio of indefinite to definite articles
3. Complexity Number of turns per minute Anaphoric reference (as opposed to exophoric references) Lexical richness, e.g. number of word families used, Percentage of lexical to structural words, type-token ratio Proportion of lexical verbs to copula Percentage of words functioning as lexical verbs Percentage of occurrence of multi-propositional utterances Amount of subordination, e.g. total number of clauses divided by total number of c-units Frequency of use of conjunctions Frequency of use of prepositions Frequency of hypothesizing statements
56
The
Effect of Task-based
Activities
on
EFL
Learners'
Reading
Comprehension Naemeh Nahavandi
(Islamic
Azad University, Tabriz
Branch,
Iran)
Abstract
Nowadays, preparing learners to communicate successfully in language classes is of utmost
importance. But teachers face a lot of difficulties in teaching English in EFL contexts. One of
the major problems is students' unwillingness to take part in reading classes. Reading classes
seem boring for students who find no occasion to show their ability and no need to challenge
their brain to answer teachers' display questions.
Introduction
The truth might be teachers' unawareness of making language classes meaningful, and
therefore enjoyable and memorable for students. Task-based language teaching has been
proved to be an effective way for improving learners' linguistic and communicative
competence.
This study has investigated the effect of task-based activities on EFL learners' reading
comprehension. In order to accomplish the research, 60 learners were chosen in one of the
private institutions (Jahad-e-Daneshgahi) in Tabriz. An experimental method of research was
employed. The experimental group was taught according to the elements of task-based
learning. The control group didn't receive such treatment. After 18 sessions, a post-test was
given. Through the analysis of the obtained data, t-test, it was found that there were
significant differences between the control and experimental groups on the dependent
variable, reading comprehension. Therefore, there is an empirical piece of evidence to support
the language teachers who use this method.
Statement of the problem and purpose of the study
The kind of English language teaching that can be observed in most Iranian high schools and
private language institutes is that the teacher teaches and the students listen, then the student
doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.2n.1p.56
57
produce (or regurgitate information on a written test) and the teacher evaluates. The
knowledge is declarative, decontextualized and inert. Knowledge is not personally built or
applied. More progressive teaching is seen when teachers model strategies of learning in the
context of task completion, and then students try to do the task the same way the teacher did it
but teachers are often seen to spend a lot of time in class asking questions for which they and
students already know the answers; thus, there is no information gap to fill. In fact, these
display questions demonstrate usage rather than use of the target language. Display questions
only demonstrate knowledge of forms and structures while neglecting communicative
functions. They do not encourage improvisation or creativity. According to Widdowson
(1978), we must progress from learning about the language, (Language usage) to considering
how language works in a communicative sense, (Language use). Richards, Platt and Platt
(1992, as cited in Liao, 2001) claim that classroom activities will be mechanical and artificial
without information gaps.
Another kind of teaching, especially in private institutions is that teachers enter the class with
a task-based book in hand, saying" this is task one, now you are group A and you are group
B, do it". But are they really aware of what a task is, and how they should manage the class in
a task-based form. Most of the time, the straight- forward answer is no. There might be some
exceptions, too. But these are the things that happen in most of our classes in Iran.
My main purpose in conducting this research is focusing on meaning together with the form
of language. As far as I know, there have been little empirical studies on task-based language
teaching and learning within the Iranian context. There have been a lot of arguments among
researchers on what a task is, what its components are and so on. But there is little
information on how to use a task-based book in the class, what procedures to use, and how to
manage the class in task-based form. So, the main purpose of this study is to determine how
task-based activities affect learners' reading comprehension.
List of abbreviations
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
TBLT: Task-based Language Teaching
TBLL: Task-based Language Learning
TBA: Task-based Activities
PPP: Present Practice Produce
58
Introduction
Given that individual learning agendas determine what is "learnt" in the language
classroom, it is generally recognized that students need to be fully involved in what
happens there. Task-based learning satisfies this need, involving the learners at every
level of the educational process as they pass through comprehension, decision-making,
implementation, preparation, rehearsal, performance and reflection. If carried out in the
target language, these stages have obvious advantages in terms of authenticity and
meaning, but task-based work can also be beneficial in encouraging learners to address
their learning needs, to assess themselves, and to become self-directed (Finch, 1999, p.
179).
Since the mid 1980s (Nunan 1989a; Prabhu 1987; Skehan 1996), task-based syllabus design
and task-based teaching, which have their origins in research on second language acquisition
(SLA), has attracted some researchers and curriculum developers in second/foreign language
instruction as a result of wide-spread interest in the functional views of language and
communicative language teaching. As a result of such views, some practitioners and
researchers proposed that task should be the key unit within the syllabus. Task-based
Learning (TBL) grows out of the more general notion of communicative language teaching
(CLT). Task-based Learning (TBL) is an effort to incorporate what is known about the
processes involved in second language learning and in the findings of the second language
classroom which take task as the unit of analysis. In TBL students engage in interaction in
order to fulfill the task.
Zone of Proximal Development
In 1970s, there was agreement that language has to be acquired as a result of deeper
experience, that is, by means of some learning tasks. Since that time there has been an interest
among researchers and curriculum developers to pay attention to tasks as a main unit of
analysis in language teaching.
According to Wilhem, Baker, and Dube (2001), Vygotsky was the first person who
introduced the "Zone of Proximal Development". He believed that the notion of instruction
would have teachers doing complex tasks in meaningful contexts with students helping as
much as they can. He went on to claim that through repetitions of the tasks, students take on
59
more and more of the responsibility. Teacher helps them when they need him and he names
the new strategies which are employed by the student. Finally, students do the task on their
own (Bodrova & Leong, 1999; Moor, 2001; Curzon, 1997; Daniels, 2001).
When the child masters a new task, the things he could do with help yesterday is what he can
do independently today. Vygotskians believe that the things that lie outside of the child's ZPD
cannot be learned by the child, no matter what help is given. Assistance must be provided in
such a way that the child must actively construct and make meaning not just to respond but
assistance should be planned so that it can gradually be withdrawn over time, as the child is
able to perform independently (Bodrova & Leong, 1999).
Procedural syllabus
The procedural syllabus is associated with the work of Prabhu in India from 1979-1984.
Prabhu's procedural syllabus which is regarded as one version of TBL was built around a
syllabus which contained no linguistic specifications but instead involved a series of tasks in
the form of problem solving activities. Prabhu believes that the Bangalore project is teaching
through communication rather than pre-selection, which is a matching of notion and form.
Prabhu denies the sufficiency of a comprehensible input, but supports the idea that students
need plenty of opportunities to develop their comprehension abilities before any production.
He believes that acquisition of a linguistic structure is not an instant, one-step procedure and
agrees with Krashen that language form is acquired subconsciously by the operation of some
internal system of abstract rules and principles, when the learners' attention is not focused on
language; rather it is focused on meaning, i.e., task completion.
The main hypothesis of the Bangalore project was that structure could be learned when
attention was focused on meaning. For Prabhu, two consequences follow. The first includes
the prohibition of any linguistic syllabus, because he argues for natural classroom
communication. The content of lessons is planned according to tasks and activities, but there
is no pre-selection of linguistic content. The second consequence is to band formal teaching
procedures, like drilling and error correction, where the result is form-focus rather than
message-focus. In the general avoidance of these procedures the teacher is expected to
60
Task-based learning and teaching
Prabhu's procedural syllabus is one of the well-documented published researches on task-
based language learning. According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), in TBLT language
learning depends on immersing students not only in comprehensible input but also in tasks
which require them to negotiate meaning and engage in naturalistic and meaningful
communication.
According to Ellis (2002), the underlying principle in TBLT is that having learners perform
tasks will help them to develop knowledge and skills in the second language in accordance
with the way their own language learning mechanisms work. Tasks function as "devices for
creating the conditions required for language acquisition" (Ellis, 2002, p. 226). TBL implies a
shift from some traditional teacher roles. For Nunan (1989, as cited in Harmer, 2001),
teachers cannot always act as a controller if they want students to manipulate, comprehend
and interact with a task. For Allwright (1984, as cited in Foley, 1991), in order for lessons to
take place at all, classroom interaction has to be managed, and by all present, not just by the
teacher. Thus, for Allwright, it is not the content of the lesson that is the focal point or basis
for learning but the process of classroom interaction that generates opportunities for learning.
"Class behavior is owned by the whole group, of which the teacher is but one member"
(Kohonen, 1992, as cited in Bailey & Nunan, 1996, p. 53).
The implication for TBL is that if learners are provided with a series of tasks which involve
both the comprehension and the production of language with a focus on meaning, language
development will be prompted. The focus in TBL is on process rather than product, and on
how to learn rather than what to Learn. According to Nunan (1989b), task-based curriculum
involves 'an integrated set of processes involving, among other things, the specification of
both "what" and "how" (p. 1). According to Ellis (2003), various approaches to task-based
teaching reflect the issues such as "the role of meaning-based activity, the need for more
learner-centered curricula, the importance of affective factors, the contribution of learner-
training, and the need for some focus-on-form."Task-based pedagogy provides a way of
addressing these various concerns and for this reason alone is attracting increasing attention"
(p. 33). Nunan (1991a) mentions five features of task-based approach as follows:
1) An emphasis on learning to communicative through interaction in the target language
2) Introducing authentic texts into the learning situation
61
3) Providing opportunities for learners to focus not only on language but also on the
process itself
4) Enhancing learners own personal experiences as important contributing elements to
classroom learning
5) Linking classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom
Different kinds of tasks
Pica, Kanagy and Falodun (1993, as cited in Richards and Rogers, 2001) classify tasks in
accordance with the type of interaction that occurs in task accomplishment such as: jigsaw
tasks, information-gap tasks, problem-tasks, decision-making tasks and opinion exchange
tasks.
Prabhu (1987) identifies three broad task types: information gap, opinion gap, reasoning gap.
Nunan (1991b) distinguishes between interpersonal and transactional tasks. He defines the
former as one in which communication happens mainly for social purposes. And the latter as
one in which communication happens mainly to bring about the exchange of goods and
services. Richards and Nunan (1990) group tasks into different kinds of comparing,
preparing, evaluation, improving, listing, selecting, ranking, adding/completing and
rearranging.
Nunan (2001) distinguishes between real world and pedagogical tasks as follows: "Real world
tasks are communicative acts which are achieved through language in the world outside the
classroom. Pedagogical tasks are tasks that are carried out in the classroom" (p. 4).
Tasks, exercises and activities
For Skehan (1998, as cited in Brown, 2001) task is an activity in which meaning is primary;
there is some communication problem to be solved; there is some sort of relationship to
comparable real-world activities; task completion has some priority; and the assessment of a
task is in terms of outcome.
According to Nunan (1999), a task is communicative act which usually does not have a
restrictive focus on a single grammatical structure. An exercise usually has a restrictive focus
on a single language element and has a linguistic outcome. An activity has a restrictive focus
on one or more language items, but also has a communicative outcome.
62
Focus on form
Unless we encourage a focus on form, learners will develop more effective strategies for
achieving communicative goals without an accompanying development of their language
system. They
spite of the shortcomings of their language. As a result, they may fossilize at a relatively low
level of language development (Skehan, 1996, as cited in Willis & Willis, 2001, p. 174).
Skehan (1992, as cited in Willis & Willis, 2001) argues that learning becomes more efficient
if:
1) Within a task-based methodology, there is a need to focus on accuracy.
2) Within the task- based cycle, there is a critical focus on language form.
A focus-on-form can be achieved in a number of ways: When teachers respond to learner
errors, or when they draw learners' attention to the usefulness of specific forms in the task
they are performing, or when learners collaboratively try to solve some linguistic problems in
order to complete a task (Ellis 2003, p. 26).
Problem-solving activity
"Problem-solving is thinking in relation to some task whose situation is not immediately
obvious to the task performer" (Soden, 1994, pp.15-28). Brown (2001) defines problem-
solving as "an activity involving specified problem and limitations of means to resolve it; it
requires cooperation on part of participants in small or large group" (p. 135).
Information-gap activity
In a typical information/opinion gap activity each learner in a pair or group has information
which is partial or different from other partners. The task includes conveying
information/opinions not previously known to the other participant. One example of
information-gap activity is pair work in which each member has a part of information and
tries to convey it verbally to the other (Prabhu, 1987).
Opinion-gap activity
An opinion-gap activity involves "identifying and articulating a personal preference, feeling,
or attitude in response to a given situation" (Prabhu, 1987, p. 47).
63
Reasoning-gap activity
A reasoning-gap activity involves deriving some new information from given information
through processes of inference, deduction, practical reasoning, or a perception of
relationships or patterns (Prabhu, 1987).
Reading
According to Rivers (1981), until recently there has been great emphasis on listening and
speaking skills. As a result, foreign language teachers are sometimes accused of wishing to
produce "fluent chatterboxes who can speak the new language but have nothing worthwhile
to say because they have never been given the opportunity to share the thinking of the great
minds of another culture and so to widen the horizons of their knowledge and understanding"
(Rivers, 1981, p. 259). According to Clarke and Selberstein (1979, as cited in Lono, 1987)
reading is 1) an interactive process in which the reader forms a preliminary expectation about
the material then chooses the fewest, most productive cues necessary to accept or refuse that
expectation. 2) Reading is a twofold phenomenon including a process: comprehending, and a
product: comprehension. 3) Reading involves an interaction between thought and language
(p. 69).
From a psychological point of view reading is a problem-solving behavior that actively
involves the reader in the process of driving and assigning meaning. While doing so, the
reader is drawing on contextual information that contains syntactic, and discourse constraints
that affect interpretation. (Papulia, as cited in Rivers, 1981, p. 70)
For Widdowson (1979), the comprehension questions that are asked after reading require the
learner to rummage around in the text for information in a totally indiscriminate way, without
concerning what purpose might be served in so doing. "Reading is thus represented as an end
in itself, an activity that has no relevance to real knowledge and experience and therefore no
real meaning" (p. 180).
According to Paulston & Bruder (1976), as little time as possible should be spent on going
through the written comprehension questions. Class time is much better spent on inference
and opinion questions. "Teachers tend to waste a lot of time on comprehension exercises, and
it is unproductive"(p. 167).
64
For lots of reasons reading is the most important activity in any language class. Because it is
not only a source of information and a pleasurable activity, but also a means of consolidating
and extending one's knowledge of the world. Because of its great importance as a cognitive
process reading needs careful attention in language classes. Because it is a communicative act
between the reader and writer it requires an interactive and process-oriented methodology.
TBLT has strongly influenced thinking in the field of language teaching methodology. The
most well-know advice from learning specialists is that "the most effective and efficient
learning is meaningful learning" (Chastain 1988, p. 45). So the principal task for teachers is
neither repetition nor recycling, but that of helping the students discover strategies for
organizing their knowledge into meaningful hierarchies.
Using task-based activities in which every student takes part in understanding, evaluating,
discussing, problem-solving, negotiating meaning processes can be effective in meeting the
requirements of learner-centered classes. The learners and their world view that is shared
with each other in reading classes during performing task-based activities are of great
importance in TBLT. When the responsibility of learning and teaching shifts from teacher to
the learner, learners themselves take the responsibility for their own learning. They interact
with each other in pairs discussing, evaluating, agreeing, disagreeing, exchanging personal
information, solving problems all of which are process-oriented and which are of great
importance for challenging students' brains.
Procedure
This part consisted of five phases. First 60 female students were given a pre-test. The testees,
then, were divided into two 30-member groups on the basis of their obtained scores. As a
result, one group was chosen as the experimental group and another as the control group. The
division was done randomly.
The second phase was creating pairs in the experimental group. So I tried to put one strong
student and one weak student in each group. So fifteen nearly equal groups each consisting of
two students were formed.
The third phase which lasted for one 30 minute session concerned with familiarizing the pairs
with teaching methodology I wanted to apply in the class. They were told that each student in
one group, e.g. student A will read a part of the text and another student, e.g. student B will
65
read another part. They had to do their parts alone, and then in pairs they should exchange
their ideas and try to answer the questions that existed in their books in pairs. Then they
should report back to the class how they did the task and what conclusions they reached.
The fourth phase which lasted 16 forty-five minute-sessions was devoted to the treatment
itself. This phase included three stages:
A) Pre-task cycle.
B) Task cycle.
C) Post-task cycle.
The first stage was the pre-task stage (preparation). First, students were given a picture
related to the topic of the reading. Then they were asked to express their opinions, agreements
and disagreements. The students took part in activities that either helped them to recall words
or phrases which would be useful during the performance of the main task. I, as the teacher,
tried to ask as many referential questions as I could and reduced the number of display
questions as possible. The picture was considered as problem-solving task and opinion gap
activity because each student expressed different idea and information.
The second stage was the task cycle or follow up activities. Here, the learners performed the
task in pairs. Student A had a part of reading that student B didn't have, and vice versa. They
covered their parts alone, then after 10 minutes they worked in pairs and expressed their ideas
to each other. Then they reported to the whole class how they did the task and what
conclusions they reached. During this stage students worked in pairs to do the activities they
were asked to. These activities included information-gap, opinion-gap and reasoning-gap
activities.
The final stage was post-task cycle or follow up activities, which is also known as analysis
stage, during which students noticed interesting features or patterns in the text.
Meanwhile, the control group received no such treatment. They read their readings alone, and
then they listened to the teacher or to the more capable students to read it for the whole class.
They asked the meaning of the words that they did not know and finally answered the
teacher's questions.
66
Both the experimental and control groups' lesson plans were based on the same reading
selections and exercises. However, the experimental group's plans provided opportunities for
pair work and a lot of interaction between pairs. Conversely, students in control group
worked individually and shared their answers with the class. It should be mentioned that the
teacher was the same for both experimental and control groups and did her best not to favor
task-based learning against institution's method which is claimed to be task-based, to have
unbiased results.
The fifth and final stage was post-test which was done after the treatment. Students in both
control and experimental groups were given the same TOEFL questions as post-test.
The time between pre-test and post-test was long enough (two months) to reduce the test-re-
test effect. It should be mentioned that this test was given to discover the differences in the
results of the learners' achievement in both groups due to the given treatment.
Data analysis
Table 1: Pre-test, post-test results cx ex cSD eSD Pre-test
28/23
27/5
9/22
9/68
Post-test
29/5
33/4
9/02
8/48
Analysis of Pre-test Scores through t- test
(3/0 criticalobs tt )67/105/058 pd f
No significant differences at the pre-test stage
Analysis of Post-test Scores through t-est
(73/1 criticalobs tt )67/105/058 pd f Statistically significant difference at the post-test stage
Discussion and conclusion
Since the emergence of communicative approaches there have been a lot of views on the
nature of language teaching and learning. Nowadays, teaching is not seen as a product but as
67
a process. So activities in which students are involved in real communication and which
promote learning are considered very important. TBLT has proved itself useful in meeting
learners' needs and in providing lots of interaction opportunities in EFL classes.
With regard to Vygotsky's ZPD, it can be inferred that human learning occurs first through
interaction and then it becomes a part of individual's cognition. Therefore, learning occurs
when the learners interact with more capable peers. The implication for TBL is that if
learners are provided with a series of tasks which involve both the comprehension and the
production of language with a focus on meaning language development will be prompted. So
the trend has changed from what to learn to how to learn. But unfortunately, the concept of
TBLT has been misused by most English Language Institutions. And some teachers are not
even familiar with the basic principles of it.
In this research, I tried to investigate the effect of TBA in reading classes. The main purpose
was to observe whether there were any noticeable changes in EFL learners' performance
when the reading classes were taught by using TBLT and also to focus learners' attention on
the form of language together with the meaning. As such, the underlying hypothesis is that
(Task-Based Activities) TBA have positive effects on EFL learners' reading comprehension.
To confirm this hypothesis and to answer the proposed research question two homogeneous
groups were chosen and one group received the treatment, sharing readings in pairs. The
results indicated a difference between the mean scores of the two groups.
A t-test model was used to be confident about the significance of the differences. Using the
means and standard deviations obtained from the post-test the value of observed t was
calculated. Then the observed t was compared with critical t in 0/05 level of significance with
the df of 58. Since the observed t was greater than critical t, the proposed null hypothesis was
rejected. Consequently, we can be sure of the existence of a significant difference between
the two groups' performance after the treatment, and to confirm the main hypothesis and
research question positively.
We suggest that reading comprehension can be improved by using TBA, especially
information-gap, opinion-gap, reasoning-gap and problem-solving tasks, when each student
has part of the information that another student does not have, they try to fill the gaps of their
understanding by sharing their ideas and to solve the problems they face in answering
68
comprehension questions. In addition, when teachers ask some questions for which there is no
single correct answer (opinion-gap), students are encouraged to express their ideas which in
turn promotes language development.
69
References Bailey, K. M., & Nunan, D. (1996). Voices from the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. Bodrova, E., & Leong, J. D. (1999). Scaffolding in the Zone of Proximal Development, 3(4). Retrieved from
http://naecs.crc.uiuc.edu/opi-nl/volume3/number4.html Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, (2nd ed.).
New York: Longman. Chastain, K. (1988). Developing Second-Language Skills: Theory and Practice (3rd ed.). USA: Harcourt
Brace. Curzon, L. B. (1997). Teaching in Further Education: An Outline of Principles & Practice (5th ed.). New
York: Continuum. Daniels, H., (2001). Vygotsky and Pedagogy. London and New York: Routledge Flamer. Ellis, R. (2002). The Evaluation of Communicative Tasks. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials Development in
Language Teaching (pp.217-238). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Finch, A. (1999). The Task-based Classroom in Practice, KOTESOL Proceedings of PAC2 (The Second Pan
Asia Conference) Seoul, 179-190. Foley, J. (1991). A Psycholinguistic Framework for Task-based Approaches to Language Teaching. Applied
Linguistics, 12, 62-75. Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching (3rd ed.). England: Pearson Education Ltd. Johnson, K., & Johnson, H. (1999). Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Black well
Publishers Ltd. Liao, X. Q., (2001). Retrieved from:
http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol3,/no4/p38.htm. Lono, L. P. (1987). Teaching Reading Skills: A Guide for the ESL Teacher. In C. Cargill (Ed.), TESOL
Professional Anthology: Listening, Speaking, & Reading (pp. 67-80). USA: Volunted Publishers Inc. Moor, A. (2001). Teaching and Learning: Pedagogy, Curriculum and Culture. New York: Routledge Flamer. Nunan, D. (1989a). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. Nunan, D. (1989b). Understanding Language Classrooms: A Guide for Teacher-initiated Action. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. Nunan, D. (1991a). Communicative Tasks and the Language Curriculum, TESOL QUARTERLY, Vol. 15(2),
279-295. Nunan, D. (1991b). Language Teaching Methodology: A Text Book for Teachers. New York: Prentice Hall
International (UK) Ltd. Nunan, D. (1999). Second Language Teaching and Learning. U.S.A: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. Nunan, D. (2001). Aspects of Task-Based Syllabus Design, Hong Kong. Retrieved from http://
www.telus.net/linguistic issues/syllabus design.html-20-k. Paulston, C.B., & Bruder, M. N. (1976). Teaching English as a Second Language: Techniques and Procedures.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Prabhu, N.S., (1987). Second Language Pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Richards, J.C., & Nunan, D. (1990). Second Language Teacher Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. Richards, J.C., & Rodgers, S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. Rivers, W. M. (1981). Teaching Foreign Language Skills (2nd ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press. Skehan, P. (1996). A Framework for Implementation of Task-based Instruction, Applied Linguistics, Vol. 17(1),
38-59. Soden, R. (1994). Teaching Problem Solving in Vocational Education. New York: Routledge. Widdowson, H.
G. (1978). Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Widdowson, H.G. (1979). Explorations in Applied Linguistics 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wilhem, J., Baker, T., & Dube, J., (2001). Scaffolding Learning. Retrieved from
http://www.myread.org/scaffolding.htm. Willis, D., & Willis, J. (2001). Task-based Language Learning. In R. Carter & D. Nunan (Eds.). The Cambridge
Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, pp. 173-185). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
70
-efficacy
and
Imposter
Phenomenon
and
Their
Effects
on
Morteza
Yamini
and Forough
Behbahani Mandanizadeh
(Islamic
Azad University, Shiraz
Branch,
Iran)
Abstract
This study investigated the relationship between self-efficacy and imposter phenomenon and
their effects on EFL learners' writing ability. Participants were 94 male and female university
students. The aim was to find out how self-efficacy and imposter phenomenon would be
related, how these personal factors would relate to writing ability, and whether gender and
proficiency level would moderate between the personal factors and writing.
The instruments were Writing Self-Efficacy Scale, Harvey Imposter Phenomenon
Questionnaire, Oxford Quick Placement Test, and a written essay on a specified topic. The
findings revealed self-efficacy and impostorism were positively related, but only writing self-
ability, gender differences had no effects.
Introduction
Language is one of the most important tools of the technical man. Through listening and
ability to write effectively is increasingly gaining significance in our global community and
instruction in writing is thus assuming growing importance in both second and foreign
language education. The ability to write in a second language is widely recognized as an
important skill for educational, business and personal reasons. Hayes and Flower (1980, cited
in Weigle,
long term memory, and cognitive processes. In the area of writing, researchers have
confirmed that students' confidence in their writing skills is related both to writing
competence and to academic motivation variables such as writing self-concept, writing
apprehension, achievement goals, and the perceived value of writing (Pajares, Hartley, &
doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.2n.1p.70
71
Valiante, 2000). Since the present study aims at studying writing ability in relation to self-
efficacy and imposter phenomenon, a brief introduction of the traits are in order.
Self-efficacy
According to Bandura (1986), human achievement depends
behaviors, personal factors (e.g., thought, belief), and environmental conditions. Each
variable interacts with the other two to produce learning results that are idiosyncratic to the
individual. Bandura (1978, cited in Pajares, 1996) called this interaction reciprocal
determinism. Learners obtain information to appraise their self-efficacy from their actual
performances, their vicarious experiences, the persuasions they receive from others, and their
physiological reactions. Self-efficacy beliefs influence task choice, effort, persistence,
resilience, and achievement. Pajares and Schunk (2002) mention that self-efficacy beliefs
influence students' behavior in a number of ways. First, they influence the choices that
students make; students engage in tasks about which they feel confident and avoid those in
which they do not. At lower levels of schooling, this can be an exercise, for students often
have very little choice over the activities in which they must engage. As they get older,
however, they have greater control over course and activity selection, and their confidence
influences these decisions.
Self-efficacy beliefs also help determine how much effort students will expend on an activity
and how long they will persevere the higher the sense of efficacy, the greater the effort
expenditure and persistence. Self-efficacy beliefs also affect behavior by influencing students'
emotional reactions. The influence of self-efficacy beliefs, as mentioned above, can also be
attributed
as one of the skills to be learned by foreign learners is not an exception.
Imposter phenomenon
ychology
professor, and Suzanne Imes, a psychotherapist, in 1978 to describe a sample of more than
150 high-achieving women (Wick, 1997). Impostor Phenomenon (also known as the Impostor
Syndrome) has been defined in different ways of which the following are but examples: the
persistent belief in one's lack of competence, skill or intelligence in the face of consistent
objective data to the contrary; an internal experience of intellectual fraudulence, particularly
among high-achievers; the belief that one do
72
others have been deceived into thinking otherwise; an intense subjective fear of the inability
to repeat past success; a self-concept that one's record of accomplishments is not due to
ability but rather only due to luck, fate, charm, attractiveness, or having manipulated other
people's impressions; the secret conviction that one is truly less intelligent and competent than
one appears; and an unrealistic sense of one's competence in which one downplays strengths
and exaggerates or does not tolerate any deficiencies or weaknesses.
Want & Kleitman (2006) refer to the sound links between impostor tendencies and
personality. According to them, impostor feelings have been shown to correlate with
neuroticism, conscientiousness and extraversion personality dimensions. Thus, imposter
phenomenon provides a useful framework for learners' writing ability. As such, the purpose
of this study was to shed some light on the relationship between two internal constructs of
self-efficacy and imposter phenomenon and learners' writing ability and to investigate if the
said constructs could predict learners' performance on a writing task.
Overview
Although no previous studies dealing with the relationship between imposter phenomenon
and self-efficacy, and their predictive power in relation to foreign language learners' writing
ability were found, a wealth of research findings indicate that self-efficacy correlates with
achievement outcomes. Findings of two studies (Pintrich & Garcia, 1991 cited in Ghoreishi,
2003; Multon, Brown, & Lent, 1991) have shown that students who believe themselves to be
capable of successfully completing an academic task persist much longer than those who do
not believe so. Students needed to have both the will and the skill to be successful in
classrooms.
Thompson, Davis and Davidson (1998), in a study involving 164 undergraduate psychology
students (126 females, 38 males), investigated (1) the affective and attributional reactions of
imposters following success and failure feedback and (2) associations between imposter fears
and cognitive dispositions which are known to have links with either perfectionism or
depression. The results supported the elements of perfectionism in the extent to which
imposters externalized success, set high standards for self-evaluation and were self-critical.
dissatisfaction, guilt, humiliation), together with their tendency to attribute failure internally
and overgeneralize a single failure to their overall self-concepts corroborated the links
73
between imposter fears, anxiety, and depression. Therefore, an imposter fear is an anxiety-
related experience and is consistent with low self-esteem. Individuals with low self-esteem
tend to make overgeneralizations and this is reported to be a powerful predictor of depression
in both male and female college students.
Pajares, Johnson and Miller (1999) investigated the nature of gender differences in writing
self-beliefs held by elementary school students in Grades 3, 4 and 5 (N=363). Girls were
judged superior writers, but there were no gender differences in writing self-efficacy after
controlling for writing aptitude. However, most girls believed that they were better writers
than other girls or boys in their class or in their school. Only writing self-efficacy beliefs and
aptitude did predict writing performance in a path analysis that included writing
apprehension, self-efficacy for self-regulation, and perceived usefulness of writing. The
that boys and girls use a different metric when responding to the traditional self-efficacy
scale.
A study by Pajares and Valiante (2001) is grounded on the contention that some gender
differences in social, personality, and academic variables may be a function of gender
orientation the stereotypic beliefs about gender that students hold rather than of gender
itself. Participants were 497 students in a public middle school (250 girls and 247 boys).
Writing self-efficacy, writing apprehension, and writing self-concept were among the
instruments used in this study. The findings revealed that many gender differences in writing
motivation and achievement of middle school students might be a function of gender
orientation. Regardless of the strength of their feminine orientation beliefs, boys reported a
stronger preference than did girls for wanting to succeed in writing so as to display their
competence. All gender differences favoring girls in writing motivation and achievement
were rendered nonsignificant when feminine orientation beliefs were controlled.
Finally, Caselman, Self, and Self (2006) conducted a research to study the predictors of
imposter phenomenon among a sample of 11th and 12th graders. Multiple regression analyses
indicated that significant predictors of IP scores for females were Friend Support, Classmate
Support and Dependability. Only Friend Support significantly predicted IP scores for males.
The unique variance explained (UVE) by each of the variables was fairly modest, suggesting
74
that the variables were explaining a considerable amount of the same portion of the variance,
particularly for females.
Study
Participants
Ninety-four undergraduate students (68 female, 26 male) majoring in English at Shiraz Azad
University participated in this study. The participants were given a placement test (Allan,
2004) and on the basis of the results, they were classified into high, intermediate and low
levels. In this way, there were 27 low, 42 intermediate, and 25 high level students.
Instruments
The instruments used in this study consisted of two tests, namely, Oxford Quick Placement
Test, an essay-writing test, and two questionnaires, namely, Imposter Phenomenon Scale
(Harvey, 1982, as cited in Fried-Buchalter, 1992) and Writing Self-Efficacy Scale (Pajares, &
Valiante, 1999) . In order to make the imposter questionnaires clear for all participants, the
items were translated into their native language (Persian). This was then back translated into
English and was compared to the original version. The comparison showed that the two
versions included the same concepts and tapped the same issues.
Procedures
This study was conducted in two sessions. During the first session, the participants were
informed of the objectives and significance of the research, they were Oxford Quick
Placement Test. During the second session, participants were initially asked to provide some
demographic information about themselves. All respondents were ensured that the basic
principles of confidentiality would be observed and they would remain anonymous.
Following this, in order to avoid the order effect, the participants were randomly divided into
two groups. The first group was asked to complete 9 items on Writing Self-efficacy
Questionnaire and 12 items on Imposter Phenomenon Questionnaire. They had 30 minutes to
of a Pe
write the essay and the students in the second group responded to the questionnaires.
75
Analysis
First, to determine the relationship between learners' self-efficacy and imposter phenomenon,
a correlation analysis was used. Moreover, a regression analysis was conducted to make a
prediction about learners' performance on the writing task from their self-efficacy or imposter
phenomenon. Finally, two-way ANOVAs were run to determine whether sex and proficiency
level as moderator variables affect the learners' self-efficacy/ imposter phenomenon/ writing
ability.
Results and discussion
Correlational analysis
Correlational analyses for Self-efficacy, Imposter Phenomenon and Writing Performance
were run. The results are summed up in Table 1.
Table 1: Correlations among self-efficacy, imposter phenomenon and writing IP Writing SE Pearson Correlation .316** .312**
Sig. (2-tailed) .002 .002 N 94 94
IP Pearson Correlation .134 Sig. (2-tailed) -------- .197 N 94
As the above table illustrates, the correlational analyses reveal a positive relationship between
self-
cited in Thompson, Davis & Davidson, 1998). So, this study did not support the negative
correlation between self-efficacy and imposter feelings since there was a small but positive
correlation between SE and IP (r = .316). This implies that higher imposter feelings are
slightly associated with higher self-efficacy in writing. A possible reason can be due to the
weak predictive value of general rather than specific measures of imposter phenomenon.
There is also a positive relationship between self-efficacy and writing (r = .312) at the .01
level of significance. It indicates that an increase in SE is associated with an increase in
findings that revealed the writing efficacy beliefs of early adolescents with and without
learning disabilities. However, the relationship between writing and imposter phenomenon is
76
not statistically significant. It seems
writing ability.
Analysis of variance
To determine the effect of proficiency level and sex as two independent variables on self-
efficacy, imposter phenomenon, and writing as dependent variables, three sets of two-way
ANOVA were run. The obtained F-value for sex revealed a significant effect on writing self-
efficacy (Table 2). The mean for male students was found to be 76.19 while for female
students it was 65.09. This shows that male students reported higher writing self-efficacy than
females did.
Table 2: Results of two-way ANOVA (writing self-efficacy) Source Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Sex 1676.618 1 1676.618 6.86 .010* Level 1245.532 2 622.766 2.54 .084 Sex * Level 268.161 2 134.080 .549 .580 Total 26225.376 93
Table 3: Post hoc analysis on the effect of level on writing self-efficacy
(I) level (J) level Mean Difference (I-J) Std. Error Sig. 1(high) 2(mid) 7.3140 3.94912 .186
3(low) 12.0333* 4.33918 .025 2 (mid) 3(low) 4.7193 3.85634 .476
The findings are in line with those reported by Pajares, Johnson and Miller (1999), Pajares
and Graham, (1999); Pajares and Miller, (1995); and Pintrich and Schunk, (1996) that
revealed a significant difference between the performances of girls and boys on the self-
efficacy scale. Also the mean for low level learners significantly differs from that of high
level learners at the .05 level. So there is a difference between low and high level learners in
terms of their writing self-efficacy. From low to intermediate or from intermediate to low, no
difference is seen, but high level learners are more self-efficacious than low level ones. This
finding can be compared to that of Collins (1982 cited in Pajares & Miller, 1995) who
mentioned that ability was related to performance and children with high self-efficacy did
better in completing more problems correctly.
77
Regarding imposter phenomenon, there was no significant effect of sex or proficiency level
was there an interaction between the said
variables (Table 4).
Table 4: Results of two-way ANOVA (imposter phenomenon) Source Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Sex 3.082 1 3.082 .117 .734 Level 19.480 2 9.740 .369 .693 Sex * Level 1.119 2 .560 .021 .979 Total 2355.713 93
The finding that sex had no significant effect on imposter phenomenon is consistent with the
findings of Caselman, Self and Self (2006), and Thompson, Davis and Davidson (1998) who
found that both males and females experienced the secret feelings of IP almost with the same
degree. No significant effect of proficiency level on imposter phenomenon reveals that being
imposter does not depend on the proficiency level of the students. It can be the characteristics
of any person at different levels of proficiency.
Finally, the two-way ANOVA dealing with the effect of proficiency level and sex on writing
ability (Table 5) yielded a non-significant main effect for sex (F = 2.64, df = 1, sig. = .108).
This can be compared to the study by Pajares and Valiante, (2001) who reported that all
gender differences favoring girls in writing motivation and achievement were rendered non-
significant and they attributed gender differences in writing motivation and achievement of
middle school students to a function of gender orientation rather than of gender.
Table 5: Results of two-way ANOVA (writing ability) Source Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Sex 107.427 1 107.427 2.641 .108 Level 1550.033 2 775.017 19.055 .000* Sex * Level 72.801 2 36.401 .895 .412 Total 6484.915 93
Table 6: Post hoc analysis on the effect of level on writing ability
(I) level (J) level Mean Difference (I-J) Std. Error Sig.
1(high) 2(mid) 10.8305* 1.61099 .000 3(low) 13.7511* 1.77011 .000
2(mid) 3(low) 2.9206 1.57314 .184
78
The result pertaining to the main effect of proficiency level on writing ability was significant
(F = 19.05, df = 2, sig = .000). The mean score for high level learners significantly differed
from that of the intermediate students (MD= 10.83, sig= .000) and low level learners
(MD=13.75, sig= .000) at the .05 level. So there was a difference between low, mid and high
level learners in terms of their writing performance, but there was not any difference between
the intermediate and low level learners in this regard. It shows that the writing ability of the
learners increases as their proficiency level goes up, but this increase is gradual. The results
are in line with the study conducted by Goh and Foong (1997) which showed that the
proficiency level of the students had a significant influence on the use of two categories of
learning strategies: cognitive and compensation.
Regression analysis
The correlational analyses already revealed that imposter phenomenon and writing ability
were not related. However, the prediction power of self-efficacy had to be calculated.
Therefore, a linear regression analysis was run. Table 7 displays the model summary.
Moreover, to explore the significance of the analysis, the ANOVA table was consulted (Table
8), which reveals a significant relationship.
Table 7: Model Summary for self-efficacy and IP
Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate
1 .314a .099 .079 8.01481
a. Predictors: (Constant), IP, SE
As is clear in Table 7, the R Square or multiple correlation index is .099, indicating that about
variable.
Table 8: ANOVA Table in regression analysis for self-efficacy and imposter
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 639.332 2 319.666 4.976 .009a
Residual 5845.582 91 64.237
Total 6484.915 93 a. Predictors: (Constant), IP, SE b. Dependent Variable: Writing
79
Table 9: Coefficient in regression analyses for self-efficacy and imposter phenomenon
Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients
T Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 20.551 6.812 3.017 .003
SE .149 .052 .299 2.851 .005* IP .066 .174 .040 .381 .704
a. Dependent Variable: Writing
Table 9 shows that regression is significant at the 0.01 level for the independent variable of
self-efficacy, but not for the imposter phenomenon. That is, only self-efficacy significantly
predicts writing ability. The Beta value of the predicting variable of self-efficacy reveals that
one standard deviation unit change in the self-efficacy score would result in 0.29 units of
change in writing ability.
Conclusion
For this group of learners, self-efficacy was positively and significantly related to learners'
writing ability. Students who believed they could write and were confident in their skills
performed better. Also, self-efficacy correlated positively with imposter phenomenon. It
seems self-efficacious learners attributed their feeling of success to some external factors in
9% of the cases; in 91% of the cases they did not show imposter feelings. Learners'
psychological traits such as their self-efficacy beliefs and imposter feelings should be taken
into account by the FL educators in developing their writing ability. That is, to facilitate their
performance in L2 writing, the instructors should enhance the learners' self-efficacy. A
convenient atmosphere for students' learning is something that is suggested to be provided by
teachers. In such an atmosphere, learners have the chance to promote their self-efficacy in the
classroom and gain motivation and self-confidence while reducing anxiety and imposter
feelings. In view of the prominence of writing, a vital issue for educational psychology is
investigating the characteristics of effective instruction for writing. Since SE and IP are
important factors in learning, students should become aware of their existence and their
effects on their feeling and academic achievement.
80
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81
The
Effect of T Assistance
on
Malaysian
Rural L
Writing
Self-efficacy:
A
Case
Study Ilyana
Jalaluddin, Melor Md. Yunus, and Hamidah Yamat
(Universiti
Kebangsaan
Malaysia, Malaysia)
Abstract
-efficacy in writing
after assistance given by a teacher. The social cognitive theory and socio-cultural theory are
used as the theoretical
-efficacy. A case study approach is adopted where three
learners and a teacher were chosen from a form four class through purposive sampling.
ng self-efficacy is evaluated using a writing self-efficacy scale adapted from
Bottomley, Henk and Melnick (1998) and also classroom observation. Wang and Pape (2007)
categories were used as guidelines to analyze observation data in order to understand the
-efficacy phenomena in their learning to write. Overall, this study places a
heavy emphasis on the perceptions and actions of the selected form four learners and teacher
through non-participant classroom observations, interviews with each learner and teacher.
Introduction
Writing is a highly complex and demanding task that requires a number of skills to be
performed at the same time. It is a complex cognitive activity involving attention at multiple
levels: thematic, paragraph, sentence
texts rather than simply consume them and, writers often have minimal
solitary nature of the activity, with no immediate feedback and the effort needed to persist in
p.145). Although writing is teachable, the transformation of thought into written
communication is a difficult activity that requires many other levels of complementary skills.
doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.2n.1p.81
82
Some of the necessary skills contributing to the complexity of writing were described by
Montague and Leavell (1994, as cited in Scott and Vitale, 2003, p.220) Writing requires
coordination and integration of multiple processes, including planning, production, editing,
and revision. Composing requires prior knowledge of topic, genre, conventions, and rules as
well as the ability to access, use and organize that knowledge when writing.
Given the complexity of writing tasks, it is not surprising that learners experience a wide
variety of writing skill deficits and are often overwhelmed by writing activities (Scott &
Vitale, 2003). Scott and Vitale (2003) also identified tha
In Malaysia, there has always been concern about the achievement in English of learners in
Malaysian rural schools. The Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister at the time, Datuk Seri Najib
Razak (Utusan Malaysia, April 16, 2008) expressed his worries towards the declining English
achievement especially among rural learners since the results from two major examinations
(PMR and SPM) showed a big gap between the rural and urban learners. Detailed analysis by
the Malaysian Ministry of Education (2008) identified the writing section, which carried the
great
results (Utusan Malaysia, April 16, 2008). Chitravelu, Sithamparam and Teh Soo Choon
(2005) also pointed out that writing is the skill most Malaysian learners are less proficient in
and they do not know how to accomplish the written task in a satisfactory way. Year after
year, examiners have expressed great dismay at the fact that after having learnt English for
eleven years, Malaysian rural learners, in most cases, still fail to produce even a short
paragraph of intelligible writing (Samuel & Zaitun Bakar, 2008). This is because writing is a
complex task which involves many thinking skills, such as generating, organizing and
expressing ideas. Due to the challenges in writing, Malaysian learners are reluctant to use the
language, never try to communicate in English (Utusan Malaysia, April 16, 2008), and have
lower self-efficacy in the English language as compared to their counterparts in the city
(Rahil Mahyuddin, Habibah Elias, Loh Sau Cheong, Muhd Fauzi Muhamad, Nooreen
Noordin & Maria Chong Abdullah, 2006). In addition, writing becomes even more difficult in
Malaysian schools as in most places especially the rural areas, social interaction in English
such as with teachers or peers are almost non-existent (Chitravelu, Sithamparam & Teh Soo
Choon, 2005).
83
Given the problems faced by Malaysian rural learners in English writing, there is a need to
-efficacy and skills. Rec
roles have been given prominence in the Malaysian education field as this is the factor that
poses a great influence on the development of learners, both intellectually and emotionally
(Mok Soon Sang, 2008). Thus, in the area of writing, t
-efficacy and skills. This relationship is illustrated in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Inter-relationship of social and emotional factors with affective classroom management in the learning environment (Mok Soon Sang, 2008)
Figure 1 shows that a teacher needs to help learners to develop writing skills by giving
by the learners -
efficacy). Effective assistance allows learners to believe that they can carry out the writing
tasks, whereas negative comments or less assistance from the teacher reduces t
self-efficacy (Rahil Mahyuddin, Habibah Elias, Loh Sau Cheong, Muhd Fauzi Muhamad,
Nooreen Noordin & Maria Chong Abdullah, 2006). When the learners have high self-
efficacy, they feel competent and confident, and they are more willing to persevere when
confronting obstacles (Pajares & Valiante, 2008). As the learner works on his/her
composition, it also gives him/her the impression of how capable he/she is in writing, and
in writing also tells
the teacher of the type and level of assistance the learners need when completing the task
(Mok Soon Sang, 2008).
Based on the argument above, learners obviously need support from teachers in developing
positive self-beliefs in writing and finally help in improving their writing skills. Self-belief, or
-
1997,
pp.3). Self-
Social Factor: Teacher
Physical Factor Affective Factor: Self-efficacy
84
perform at a certain level and affects choice of activities, effort, an
Boscolo, 2008, p.148). From the social cognitive perspective, self-efficacy can affect how
individuals behave, their thoughts and emotional reactions in achievement settings. By having
-efficacy and as a result,
-efficacious individuals are more willing to participate,
to work harder, and persists longer in tasks and have less adverse reactions when
encountering difficulties tha
p.148). Researchers (Pajares & Johnson, 1995; Pajares, 2002a, 2002b; Linnenbrink &
Pintrich, 2003; Schunk, 2003; Rahil Mahyuddin, Habibah Elias, Loh Sau Cheong, Muhd
Fauzi Muhamad, Nooreen Noordin & Maria Chong Abdullah, 2006; Schunk & Zimmerman,
2007) who have investigated self-efficacy beliefs and essay writing agree that the two are
related. Thus, the teacher needs to act proactively by assisting the learners emotionally and
physically. It means that the teacher needs to be aware of how the learners feel or think; to
motivate and encourage them. At the same time, the teacher needs to support the learning
process by providing assistance in terms of materials, ideas, suitable approach and guidance
in writing.
Socio-
important components in the writing process and contribute to the improvement of the writing
self-efficacy and skills. Socio-cultural theory argues for viewing writing as a mode of social
action, and not simply as a means of communication. This means that a writing activity is
succeeded by an interactive and collaborative discourse in which mental activity is distributed
and shared between the teacher and l
processes are acquired on an intermental or social plane as the expert and novice jointly
p.209). Overall, writing involves particular kinds of people institutions and cultures. Thus, by
seeing writing as mediated means and a mode of social action, writing activities should be
recognized as collaborative, involving divisions of labor and forms of co-authorship. These
divis -to-face co-production of texts to the provision
ce is important to ensure
an effective cooperation.
85
The assistance provided by the teacher is represented by the concept of scaffolding proposed
by Vygotsky (1978). In other words, it refers to the assistance and interactional support given
by an adult in
sensitively tuned to what the learner presently understands, getting him to concentrate on
what he can/she can manage while the teacher fills in the parts that the learner canno
(Smith, 1997, p.24). Accordingly, scaffolding provides a facilitating context which allows a
writing task to be completed. As Donovan and Smolkin (2008) explained, judicious
questioning and commenting about a piece of writing provides the scaffolding
ideas to be further developed and clarified. In the end, the writer is better able to develop and
clarify ideas without the same level of support.
lends a picture to teaching of writing that assistance in the form of interaction or conversation
between the teacher (as a more capable individual) and the writers is important in molding
their writing skills and confidence in pursuing the task.
-cognitive
theory where a learner is seen as an active agent and needs to interact with his/her
environment in order to develop his/her skills and confidence in writing. Both theories
similarly propose the importance of reciprocal relationship between social environment and
learners as the main factor in learning and development, and thus bringing a different
perspective of teaching approach from traditional writing classroom. Based on both
theoretical explanations on self-effic
study -efficacy
development. In Malaysia, writing in English is part of the most important assessment in
education, in which rural learners are facing a major problem. Based on this scenario, it is
therefore pertinent to find out how teachers actually assist these rural learners and whether it
-efficacy. Specifically, two research questions discussed
in detail in this paper are:
1. How does the teacher assist rural area learners in teaching and learning of writing?
2. -efficacy?
Methodology
This study employs a case
-efficacy. In this study, a teacher and three learners were chosen
based on the writing self-efficacy scale adapted from Bottomley, Henk and Melnick (1998).
86
Data f -participant classroom observations
and interviews with the teacher and learners which were conducted once a week for five
months. Meanwhile, l -efficacy in writing was also
observed once a week -efficacy phenomena in their
learning to write.
prepared to show an interpretive description of their writing learning process which is
associated with self-efficacy.
-efficacy beliefs can be
classified into three categories: persistence in accomplishing language tasks, self-awareness
of English proficiency, and willingness to engage in language activities. These three
categories are used as the guidelines for this study. In addition, interviews were conducted
writing self-efficacy. In order to ensure that the measure and categories used to analyze data
from each observation and interview are reliable, the data were given to two raters for the
purpose of inter-rater reliability. These two raters analyzed the categories and data reported
between the two sets of rating over the coding of the items. According to Creswell (2008),
inter- ing any bias that any one individual might
reliability index was calculated using the Cohen Kappa measurement instead of just using
percentage agreement. This is bec
were analyzed and calculated using SPSS 14.0 to get the value of Kappa.
Findings and discussion
1. How does the teacher assist rural area learners in teaching and learning of writing?
Method 1: The teacher used MsWord to show and teach writing process to the learners.
During the lesson, the teacher prompted questions and did not give direct answers to the
learners. She would not directly teach the format of the essay, but developed the idea for the
writing first by discussing it with the learners. She would ask learners one by one and
esponses.
87
For example, on 1st July 2009, the teacher asked each learner to contribute ideas for the topic
asked Haslina to continue and suggest one idea. Haslina s This can improve and
achieve our lesson during study
After plan it...
the sentence did not fit into the paragraph. Other learners then suggested replacing it with
We must plan on how to achieve our goal
screen.
Method
and then
they were correcting their writing. She walked around the class and looked at how the
learners corrected their essay. She would sit with certain learners and asked why they made
the changes that they did. She also answered questions posed by the learners regarding the
comments she gave for their writing.
For example, on 8th July 2009, the learners were asked to correct their essays after the teacher
explained the mistakes in general. While the learners were correcting mistakes, the teacher
read her correction. Teacher pointed out that the sentence was incomplete as she used the
word but not referring to any noun. Teacher explained that is an adjective, so
there should be a noun after that. Farah said that she actually meant in English but
y or the short
one. Farah said , a short one. The teacher asked the class to guess the word for
g give the answer. The teacher finally
goatee
Method 3: The teacher liked to ask the learners to work in small groups when composing an
essay. She would limit 4 learners in a group and set a writing task. She would walk around
the class
many errors in their writing, she would sit down with the group and gave suggestions on how
to improve their essay. Once the learners completed their essay, they would have to present
88
their essay and from here, the teacher would explain to the class the mistakes that they did
when writing the essay.
For example, on 29th July 2009, the teacher asked the learners to form a group of four and try
to complete the story she gave in about 100 words. The teacher monitored each group, and
sebagai as
checked their gra
a
s
apo
to show belonging. The teacher advised
them to check again and said that the answer was wrong. After they finished, the learners
wrote their story on a mahjong paper and presented it to the class.
-efficacy?
oning and
discussion during the writing process. Learner A showed a positive development in terms of
confidence in writing where she became more confident to write when asked questions by the
teacher. On the other hand, Learner B felt a bit uncomfortable to write and was not confident
to pursue the task when the teacher kept checking and asking about her writing progress.
Similarly, Learner C also felt less confdent to write but only because she was embarrassed
and afraid when the teacher asked questions or sat with her to discuss her writing in class.
The summary is illustrated below according to the specific categories by Wang and Pape
(2007).
89
Table 1: Summary of learner A, self-efficacy development (High self-efficacy writer)
Aspects of self-efficacy Effects (Explanation) Persistence in accomplishing writing task (s)
- encouraged her to write more, - In class, she became active when provoked with questions by teacher and she frequently raised her hand even though her answers were wrong or the teacher did not ask her to answer.
Willingness to engage in language activities
- finishing tasks, - In class, when the answer and compared it with hers. She jotted down notes when other learner gave
Self-awareness of English proficiency
- - From the interview, she admitted that she understood her mistakes more after discussing it with the teacher in class rather than working on her own or with friends.
Table 2: Summary of learner B self-efficacy development (Average self-efficacy writer)
Aspects of self-efficacy Effects (Explanation)
Persistence in accomplishing writing task (s)
-She showed no interest in class, constantly day dreaming and she did not respond question. Instead she asked her friend to answer questions for her,
-In the interview, she admitted that she did not feel comfortable and could not speak in English. Thus, it made her unconfident to write as she was quite lost when the teacher asked questions and did not know how to start writing. To her, writing and speaking are two different things.
Willingness to engage in language activities
- She asked friends for help to correct her mistakes and admitted never sought
- In class, shin group discussions. In the interview, she admitted she felt more confident to
made her feel bashful to engage in the activity. Self-awareness of English proficiency
- sentence structure errors. Learner B however felt hers is average and could write well if in a group.
Table 3: Summary of learner c self-efficacy development (low self-efficacy writer) Aspects of self-efficacy Effects (Explanation) Persistence in accomplishing writing task (s)
- She became afraid and embarrassed when the teacher asked questions. She trembled and produced an unclear voice each time the teacher asked her questions, - She admitted in interview that she was very afraid if the teacher asked her anything and as a consequence she forgot all of her ideas, - She needed friends to help her give answers and only respond to the teacher if her friend checked her answers first. She admitted she felt confident if a friend looked at her answer first before responding to teacher.
Willingness to engage in language activities
- rred to dictionary. In group discussions, she worked on her own when her group was quiet by translating her writing from
working that way as she could write more. Self-awareness of English proficiency
- not translate her writing into English and that she was not good in English. She was quiet and lowered her head each time teacher commented on her work. - In the interview, she admitted that she could write more and feel more confident
close to.
90
Conclusion
The findings show that the three learners were able to seek options and foster their own
creativity to produce an effective piece of composition through discussion and questioning
technique was found to be helpful in improving the quality of written drafts. Therefore,
teachers should view themselves as facilitators in the writing tasks. They should provide help
and assistance to the learners-writers to clarify their ideas in the process of writing. As
indicated by the finding, the teacher not only helped the writers to clarify ideas but also to
develop their ideas as well. The teacher helped to improve the composition by giving new
ideas and different views on the topic. Besides that, the teacher also helped the writers to omit
unnecessary statements. Thus, this implies that evaluators of the compositions should not be
based only on grammatical and structural accuracy but the emphasis should also be given to
the clarity of expressions and ideas as well. In addition, coherence, cohesion and good choice
of words should also be parts of an effective composition.
However, questioning techniques may have different effects on writers with low or average
self- could boost the
high self-efficacy writers to write more and expand their ideas, low and average self-efficacy
writers might not experience the same changes. These writers may prefer to approach writing
differently. Therefore, determining the level of assistance in teaching is very important. In
other words, some writers may need more assistance than others. Working in groups is also
probably suitable as it allows the learners of various language proficiency levels or skills to
interact and exchange ideas with one another. Overall, the research shows that teachers need
to be aware of the kind of scaffolding that they need to provide for each writer who has a
different level of writing self-
the task.
91
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92
Peer-editing
Practice
in the
Writing
Classroom: Benefits
and
Drawbacks Ann Rosnida Md. Deni
(Sunway
University, Malaysia)
Zainor
Izat
Zainal
(Universiti
Putra Malaysia)
Abstract
Small scale studies have shown that peer-editing is beneficial to students as it increases their
awareness of the complex process of writing, it improves their knowledge of and skills in
writing and helps them become more autonomous in learning. Teachers too may benefit from
peer-
and strengths; and t
fifteen first-year degree students majoring in Tourism to view the usefulness of peer-editing
practice in enhancing their writing skills. Retrospective notes were taken to record stu
-
-
ions of peer-editing practice
in the writing classroom. Analysis of data gathered revealed that peer-editing practice
benefitted both the teacher and most of her students as it exposed important information that
could improve her teaching of writing and he
however, discloses that peer-
motivation and improvement in writing if they are not deployed properly.
Peer feedback in the writing classroom
According to Susser (1994, p. 35), one main element of the process approach to writing is to
activities are
carried out in the writing classrooms, one of which is peer feedback. Peer feedback or also
cover and explore ideas... and
doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.2n.1p.92
93
implemented peer feedback session can also help students develop a sense of audience (Leki,
1990; Tsui & Ng, 2000, Mangelsdorf, 1992). Furthermore, peer feedback sessions can lead to
the creation of students who can assess and improve their own writing (Lundstrom & Baker,
reader and reviewer of their own w
feedback practice may enhance cultural communication (Hansen & Liu, 2005, p. 31), reduce
Cohen, 2003). A study conducted by Yang, Badger & Yu, (2006, p. 179), reveals that even in
Problems with peer feedback
Peer feedback
revision types and quality of texts (Berg, 1999; Min, 2006). Despite such positive findings, a
number of research and experts have disclosed issues and problems that need to be addressed
prior to implementation of peer feedback practice in class. One main problem with peer
concerns over quality of feedback; the critical and sarcastic tones used and sincerity of peer
, as cited in Stanley, 1992, p. 219) study revealed peer
problems (Myles, 2004). Furthermore, students may tend to address surface errors and often
fail to respond to problems in meaning (Stanley, 1992). Leki (1990) further posits that
students who lack communication and pragmatic skills may not be able to convey quality
peer responses. In situations where students are from different cultures, cultural
misunderstanding may occur. Some cultures may refuse to accept student-centred activities
particularly if the culture prohibits verbal criticism due to the need to save face (White, 1994,
p. 115). I
reader--
at all.
94
According to Berg (1999), responding to writing is not a skill that students are familiar with
and requires the needs for opportunities to learn to respond to writing. In order for peer
feedback sessions to be effective, many researchers thus advocate the need to pre-train or
coach the students (Stanley, 1992; Berg, 1999, Rollinson, 2005; Min, 2006). Gere (1987 cited
critique writing in order to produce successful writing groups. Hansen and Liu (2005) suggest
the need for teachers to first model the process of peer response and to provide ample time to
familiarise students with peer response procedures. Due to the demand that peer feedback
practice relies on the importance of coaching or pre-training, it is thus unsurprising to find
many writing teachers excluding peer feedback sessions from their classes as they can be both
Rationale and significance of study
The study on peer feedback carried out by the teacher took place in a learning environment
where time was an issue. Extra time to conduct training on peer feedback required the teacher
to carry out the session outside class time which would not be welcomed by the students who
had a very packed schedule. The teacher, however, was a strong proponent of peer feedback
and believed that despite the unfavourable environment, peer feedback sessions could still be
carried out successfully. To reduce probability of students giving tactless, inappropriate
-editing checklists were utilised in the writing lessons.
According to Lamberg (1990, p. 68), the use of writing checklists can guide students in peer-
-
1995). Paulson (1992), another supporter of the use of checklists in the writing classroom,
may channel students attention to global items, not only focusing on grammar. Myles (2004,
-
feedback sessions. A study conducted by Curtis (1997, as cited in Jacobs, Curtis, Braine, &
Huang, 1998, p. 313) reveals that students valued both teacher and peer feedback. A
questionnaire survey of 121 L2 undergraduate students revealed that 93% of the students
95
surveyed wanted peer feedback when it was accompanied by teacher feedback (Jacobs,
Curtis, Braine, & Huang, 1998). A study by Tsui &Ng (2000, p. 167-168) reveals that
conferences would provide opportunities for oral feedback that has potential for negotiation
of meaning (Hyland & Hyland, 2006) and it would help students in rectifying writing
weaknesses identified by peer reviewer (Mangelsdorf, 1992). During writing conferences, the
for clarification... help writers sort through problems and assist students in decision-
(Keh, 1990, p. 298).
The objective of this study is to view the usefulness of peer feedback practice in enhancing
on pedagogical aspects
involving peer feedback practice in a time-constraint environment. It would also supply other
teachers with information on the benefits and drawbacks of peer feedback practice
experienced by the teacher in her teaching environment.
The participants/ setting
The study took place in a private university college involving 15 first and second semester
degree students majoring in Tourism and Hospitality Service Industry. All degree students are
required to take up an English for Specific Purpose course and the participants were required
to undertake UCS1002- English for Tourism Service Industry. UCS 1002 focuses on three
main areas: the first area focuses on developing relevant reading skills for effective reading of
academic text (10 hours); the second area focuses on developing academic writing skills
particularly on using appropriate style, tone and format in writing academic essays and
project papers (24 hours); and the third area focuses on developing specific writing skills
needed for tourism service industry (English for Workplace) (20 hours). All students who
Compulsory Subjects.
During the study, students were required to produce two academic essays-the first essay was
written in groups where students were required to select a topic to write collaboratively based
on several specific tourism/ hospitality topics given. The first peer feedback session was also
96
conducted in groups and in this instance students were not given the opportunity to select the
groups that would respond to their writing. The second part of the study required the students
to write a cause-and- effect essay; on the effects of cultural tourism on society. The second
essay was produced individually and during the second peer feedback session, students were
allowed to choose their own peer editors. Most students chose their friends or someone that
they were always seated with in class to be their peer editors.
The class consisted of students of different nationalities; 4 Malaysians, 1 from Thailand, 1
from Myanmar, 2 from Iran, 1 from Botswana, 1 from Maldives, 5 from Indonesia (one of the
Indonesian students is a resident of Dubai), Participants were a combination of students from
the elementary level (3 students), to the intermediate (9 students) and upper-intermediate
level (3 students) in English. Five out of fifteen students have done peer editing before and
Nature of study and data collection
The study conducted has qualitative features as it took place in its natural setting and it was
during the study were determined by studen
peer editing practice and time permitted to carry out these activities. Three methods were
utilised to collect data to identify the usefulness of peer-editing practice in enhancing
ills and to identify the benefits and drawbacks of peer feedback practice.
writing samples and peer-
and comments; and an open-
perceptions of peer-editing practice in the writing classroom.
The checklist
The peer-editing checklist comprised of four main sections 1) Content and Organisation-
Introduction, 2) Content and Organisation- Body, 3) Content and Organisation- Conclusion
and 4) Others. As the teacher needed to cover the syllabus at the same time, the checklists
distributed to the students covered contents that were taught in class. It contained statements
and questions that examined the ability of the students to:
97
Introduction
1) identify the type of introduction that was used
2) evaluate whether the introduction was interesting
3) evaluate whether the thesis statement was clear
4) identify whether the thesis statement contained a preview of main ideas
Body
1) identify whether the topic sentences in all the body paragraphs were clear ( if not
clear, students were required to underline the parts that were unclear)
2) identify the type of supporting details used in the body paragraphs
3) identify whether there were any sentences that were off the topic (students were
required to underline all unnecessary sentences)
4) evaluate whether the body was coherent flow smoothly from beginning to end (if
yes, they were required to tick the type of cohesive devices that were used repeating
key nouns, using consistent pronouns or using transition links to link ideas within
paragraphs)
5) indicate the expressions that were used to link ideas between paragraphs (if there were
any)
Conclusion
1) indicate the expression used to introduce the conclusion
2) identify whether the writer summarized the main points or paraphrased the thesis
statements in the conclusion
3) evaluate whether the conclusion has an effective ending
4) identify whether the writer introduced a new idea
Others
1) indicate the best features of the essay
2) indicate the areas that need further improvement
Procedure
The study was divided into two separate stages. The first stage involved a writing test to
style and tone, the process of writing (prewriting, drafting, revising) and essay writing (thesis
98
statement, components of an essay, topic sentences, coherence, cohesion) and they were then
marking samples indicated that most of the students in the class have serious problems in
writing involving both local and global concerns. Due to this, the teacher decided that the first
writing task and the first peer editing session were done in groups. This, she believed, could
assist students in their writing and in edi
collaborative effort. Students who selected topics were required to be seated together and
produce an essay based on the topic selected. These essays were then collected and given to
two other groups to edit. A peer-editing checklist was given to each group to assist them in
the essay. The pieces of writing and the completed peer-editing checklists were stapled
together and handed in to the teacher. Edited pieces of writing and content of checklist were
then checked by teachers. Before giving them back to the rightful owner, the teacher would
carry out a writing conference with the peer response groups to clarify comments made by
them that she found unclear. She would then carry out a writing conference with the writers
of the essay to discuss the content of the essay and the corrections made by peer response
writers that were not identified by their peer reviewers. In Stage 1, the peer response group
The second stage was carried out after lessons on cause-and-effect essay. Findings from
analysis of data collected during Stage 1, affect Stage 2 of the study in the following ways:
Students with low-proficiency level would not be involved in the second stage and their
future writing would be evaluated by the teacher; students were allowed to choose a peer-
editor that they were comfortable with; and students were not allowed to write comments on
allowed
In the second stage, students were asked to write an essay on the effects of cultural tourism on
society. After the essay was written, student will exchange his/ her paper with one another
also allowed to write comments in the essay. The essay together and the completed checklist
were then handed in to the teacher. The teacher would first check each edited writing and
checklist. She would then carry out a writing conference with the peer editor to clarify
99
comments made on the essay and the checklist. The teacher would then return the edited
piece of writing to the writer and discuss the content of the essay and the checklist together
mistakes made by the writers that were not identified by their peer reviewers.
Findings derived from retrospective notes
Before findings from retrospective notes are discussed, it is vital to explain the grouping of
students in Stage 1. In Stage 1, students were divided into 4 groups. Group A consisted of
five students, a combination of two upper-intermediate level students and three lower
intermediate students; Group B consisted of five students of intermediate level; Group C
comprised of three students of intermediate level and the last group, Group D, comprised of
one upper-intermediate level and one intermediate level student. Groupings were determined
by the topic that students selected. Students who selected the same topic would be placed in
the same group.
Reaction of peer editors
During Stage 1, it was observed that only two students (upper-intermediate) in Group A were
and two totally lost interest in the task. Students from Group B were found to be engrossed in
the editing process. Students in Group B appeared
writing and they were found to be carrying out lengthy discussion on both local and global
matters. While discussing the content, the teacher overheard one of the students commenting,
Group C consisted of average writers and they too were found to be thoroughly involved in
work, there was hardly any discussion carried out between the two students. Once one student
finished editing a piece of writing, she would then pass it to the other student in the group
who would then re-edit the paper.
writing. At this stage, four students (one intermediate level and three elementary level) were
not involved in the second stage of the study; two had dropped out of the course and the other
100
two (elementary level) had to be given other writing tasks as peer-editing was too difficult for
them.
Reaction of receivers of feedback
During Stage 1, all groups, except for Group C, were receptive of the comments made by
with the checklists). They started blaming one another for some of the spelling mistakes
identified by other groups. They mentioned several times to the teacher during the writing
conference that they have tried their best in writing the essay. One of the group members
mentioned this again before she left the class. (Group C took the longest time to produce the
essay).
During Stage 2, there was no significant observation that could be reported as students were
Findings derived from analysis of peer editing checklists.
Analysis of peer editing checklists gathered from Stage 1 and 2 revealed that students were
able to identify weaknesse
which were unclear thesis, and lack of coherence in writing. In addition, both peer response
groups who edited the piece of writing generated by Group D, succeeded in pinpointing
problems which included both local (grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary problems) and
writing also managed to identify the problem in writing which was lack of coherence. In the
second stage of the study, one peer editor, was successful in identifying all the problems that
her friend had in her writing which ranged from unclear thesis and topic sentences,
inadequate support, lack of unity and coherence to ineffective ending. Analysis of peer
writing. One peer editor for example was able to identif
which was the quality of points used to support the topic.
Despite these positive findings, analysis of checklists revealed that in some instances, some
students, regardless of whether they were working in groups or individually, were not able to
101
clearly stated and even contained preview of main ideas. Another example is of a peer editor
conclusion was the main aspect of the essay that needed to be improved when in fact, nothing
was wrong with it as it contained the recapitulation of the thesis statement, it was
writing
(the most prominent problem) in its writing but indicated that the best feature of the essay
Further scrutiny of peer editing checklists revealed that even though some students were able
writing, many gave vague comments. Some written comments on the best features of the
; and
Through writing conferences, these problems were highlighted and teacher indicated other
cher believed
that the peer editing practice would only result in serious confusion on what constitutes good
or bad writing.
lower order concerns (spelling, grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure etc.). In most
instances, peer response groups were able to identify errors and made accurate correction on
, for instance,
managed to locate and correct most surface errors, for example: (these (this) process; [We]
(not academic writing) can witness different nations updating (upgrading) the transport
systems....; In addition, nations [really up] (vocabulary) their tourism and hospitality
102
business...
skill is also plays an important role in order to succeed (achieve) the establishment sales
Despite (Other than) job-related skills, employees also need to have
communication skills in this (the) tourism industry.
esponse group had
such as for example
writing when it indicated that a paragraph in the essay was not cohesive and this was spot on.
for this paragraph No clear explation (supposed to be
explanation) between the second point and the conclusion
One group, Group B, in particular, was writing down rubber stamps comments that made
be more specific topic
sentence- not clear id not mention ;
not be used
Problems on meaning and other global concerns and major language problems (for example
sentence fragments), were mostly detected by the teacher and these were highlighted during
the writing conference. Without the writing conferences, the teacher believed that students
would not know which comments to take seriously and which should be ignored.
Findings derived from open-ended questionnaire
Twelve students answered the questionnaire and analysis of findings from the open-ended
questionnaire revealed that eleven students (91.6%) were generally positive of the peer
,
and they also stated that the peer editing practice:
helps (me) to understand what is expected
103
provides students with the chance to view and understand different ways of answering
the same (essay) question
is importan
Only one student voiced her concern over the benefits of peer editing practice. She indicated
that peer editing did not really work for her due to the following stated reasons:
Me and my friend still in the learning process, so he/ she might not give correct or
effective editing
the comments come from the lecture him/herself to guide me to a better quality of
work.
Analysis of questionnaire also revealed that 58% of the students generally felt either positive
or neutral towards their peer editors. The rest were quite sceptical as they were worried of the
quality and sincerity of the comments given. Students indicated the following to voice their
concerns:
If the peer editor is good and knows what he/ she is doing, I will feel that he/ she is
helping me. If it is the other way round, I may think twice about her ability (in editing
my work).
Because the editors are students, they may not know how to analyse and critic a
I appreciate those who honestly want to help correct, learn and give sincere comments
or suggestions
104
comments. These students stated the following to reveal their reluctance or scepticism over
work
Not exactly seriously
Yes, if he/ she is knowledgeable than me
comments or maybe correct my mistakes... more effectively
When asked what students thought of the peer editing checklist, 58% responded positively to
improve on
too descriptive bit confusing
unclear
Conclusion and pedagogical implications
The study was not able to neither prove nor disprove the usefulness of peer editing practice in
ambitious). One of the main reasons was due to too much teacher intervention during writing
and not peers. Despite this, the study has proven the usefulness of peer editing practice in
other aspects, for example, in making the classroom environment more interesting and
challenging; in providing venues for students to share, explore and identify different ideas
and approach to responding to a writing task; and to learn from one another particularly on
different styles of writing.
Analysis of data revealed, through the three data collection methods, shows that drawbacks of
peer editing practice outweigh its benefits. One of the main drawbacks is the low quality of
105
comments could make peer feedback a detrimental pr
most importantly to their writing. Another drawback of peer feedback practice is the low
receptivity of the comments received from peers by nearly 40% of the students who took part
in the study. This, she believes, was due to improper grouping, limited guidelines given and
inadequate checklists.
If future peer editing projects are to be implemented in her writing classrooms particularly if
they comprised of students with lower proficiency level, the teacher should take the following
considerations to improve the usefulness of the practice.
One area that needs to be improved is on the quality of guidelines and the way they are
provided. In this study, students were verbally guided throughout the process. In the
beginning they were verbally introduced to the practice where teachers informed them of the
benefits of such practice but she did not provide guidelines in black and white. She believed
that the checklists and the writing conferences would be adequate to guide the students
through the process. However, this was proven wrong. If future peer editing projects are to
take place in her writing classrooms, since time will still be limited to pre-train the students,
she should provide students with handouts on the following: the benefits of peer feedback,
what entails good peer feedback and bad peer feedback and samples of essays that were
properly edited by students. She will then carry out (at least one time), a class editing session
where an essay will be projected on a screen and the whole class will be editing the essay
together. Teacher will model to the students, the appropriate comments to write on the essay
believes the number of useless and inappropriate comments given will be limited, which
would improve the level of receptivity of peer comments and thus improve the usefulness of
peer feedback practice.
Another area that needs to be improved is on the way grouping is handled. Group editing
seems to be ineffective particularly when there is a combination of two levels of proficiency
in a group. To avoid this from happening, if group editing is to be reintroduced in her writing
classroom, she should either allow students to choose their own editors or put the students
with the same level of proficiency in one group. This will also apply to situations when
-to-one basis. This, she believes, can
106
help her in managing peer editing sessions better and most importantly, reduce inhibitions
and improve receptivity of comments.
As for the content of the checklists, she believes that this should be upgraded to provide better
guidelines. She noticed that the peer editing checklist utilised was not comprehensive enough
as certain problems like improper in-text citations, were not addressed. Wordings in the
made to the checklist to enable students to give better and proper peer feedback.
Future practice would include writing conferences as she believes that without this, the peer
editing practice, particularly if it is carried in a teaching environment where time is an issue
and students are of lower proficiency level, will just be a waste of time and may even have
true. Future
receptivity level of the task. There is no point of carrying out writing activities that would
have more downsides than benefits to the students. At the end of the day, it is all about
choosing activities that work for them.
107
References Journal of
Second Language Writing. 8(3), 215-241. Berger, V. (1990). The effects of peer and self-feedback. CATESOL Journal, 21- 33. Cotterall, S. & Cohen, R. (2003). Scaffolding for second language writers: producing an academic essay. ELT
Journal. 57(2), 158- 166. Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. (2nd Ed.).
London: SAGE publications. Dheram, P. K. (1995). Feedback as a two-bullock cart: a case study of teaching writing. ELT Journal. 49(2),
160-168. Hansen, J. G. & Liu, J. (2005). Guiding principles for effective peer response. ELT Journal. 59(1), p. 31- 38.
Language Teaching. 39, 83-101.
Jacobs, G. M., Curtis, A., Braine, G. & Huang, S. (1998). Feedback on student writing: Taking the middle path. Journal of Second Language Writing. 7(3), 307-317.
Keh, C. (1990). Feedback in the writing process a model and methods for implementation. ELT Journal. 44(4), 294-304.
Lamberg, W.(1990). Self-provided and peer-provided feedback. College Composition and Communication. (31-1), 63-69.
Leki, I. (1990). Potential problems with peer responding in ESL writing classes. CATESOL Journal, 5-19. Lundstrom, K., & Baker, W., (2009). To give is better than to receive: The benefits of peer review to the
re Journal of Second Language Writing. 18 (1), 30-43. Mangelsdorf, K. (1989). Parallels between speaking and writing in second language acquisition. In D.M.
Johnson & D.H. Roen (Eds.), Richness in writing: Empowering ESL students. pp. 134- 145. New York: Longman.
Mangelsdorf, K. (1992). Peer-reviews in the ESL composition classroom: what do students think? ELT Journal. 46(3), 274- 284.
Min, H. (2005). Training students to become successful peer reviewers. System. 33, 293- 308. Min, H. (20 Journal
of Second Language Writing. 15, 118-141. Myles, J. (2004). Feedback processes in second language writing: Conflict in student and teacher Preferences. In
K. Kaur & M.E Vethamani. (Eds). Second Language Writing (pp. 254-274). Kuala Lumpur: Sasbadi.
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 342 249. Rollinson, P. (2005). Using peer feedback in the ESL writing classroom. ELT journal. 59(1), 23-30. Tsui, A.B.M & Ng, M. (2000). Do second L2 writers benefit from peer comments. Journal of Second Language
Writing. 9 (2), 147-170. Sengupta, S. (1996). Peer-evaluation: ELT Journal. 52(1), 19- 28. Stanley, J. (1992). Coaching student writers to be effective peer evaluators. Journal of Second Language
Writing. 1(3), 217-233. Susser, B. (1994). Process Approaches in ESL/EFL Writing Instruction. Journal of Second Language Writing. 3
(1), 31- 47. White, E. (1994). Teaching and Assessing Writing. San Francisco:Jossey Bass Publishers. Yang, M., Badger, R., & Yu, Z. (2006). A comparative study of peer and teacher feedback in a Chinese EFL
writing class. Journal of Second Language Writing, 15, 179-200.
108
The
Effect of Two
Types
of Feedback
on
Iranian
EFL
Learners'
Tense-marker Production Somayeh Kazemi
Tari
(Islamic
Azad University, Qaemshahr
Branch,
Iran)
Abstract
Although many researchers have worked on the role of feedback in immersion programs on
second language learners' production, still little is known about the role of different types of
immediate feedback on the grammatical accuracy of learners' production. When, where and
with who different types of immediate feedback such as prompts and recasts and their
different subcategories might be appropriate? The purpose of the present research was to
know which types of immediate oral feedback could better help Iranian EFL learners to
produce the correct form of the tense markers of their target language English. One of the
primary objectives of the present study was to examine the effects of two types of oral
feedback namely explicit correction and implicit or-choice feedback on Iranian EFL
learners' production of different tense markers in English. The results were in favor of explicit
correction over implicit or-choice feedback in helping learners to produce correct
grammatical tense markers.
Introduction
The use of feedback in language teaching is nothing new. Traditional language teachers
immediately corrected their students' errors when they appeared in their utterances. There are
different views regarding the use of different types of feedback. Interlanguage researchers
argue that errors should be tolerated as much as they are the result of the learner's
communicative strategies. Another view is that errors should be ignored on the whole. Still
another view is that some types of errors should be corrected. Ellis (1990) provides taxonomy
of the type of errors that should be corrected by the teacher. According to Ellis (1990, pp. 54-
55), global errors, errors that affect the overall comprehensibility of an utterance, stigmatized
errors, and errors relating to the learner's next stage of development should be corrected.
doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.2n.1p.108
109
There are a number of studies that have elicited teachers' rationales for correcting errors.
Chaudron's (1986, in Chaudron, 1998, p. 136) research is among those. He compared the
corrections made by teachers in French immersion classes in Canada and found that teachers
corrected more "grammatical" (morphological and syntactic) errors in French classes (average
77%) than in other classes (average 37%). Also, Chaudron (1986, in Ellis, 1990, p. 73) found
that fewer discourse errors were corrected compared to morphological errors.
Although the terms "feedback" and "correction" are usually used interchangeably, but Long
(1977, cited in Ellis, 1990, p. 71) suggests the term "feedback" be used for the teacher's
information about the correctness of the learner's utterances, while the term "correction" be
used for the effect of feedback on learning. Ellis (1990, p. 71) uses error treatment and
corrective feedback synonymously and states that the broadest definition of treatment is "any
reaction by the teacher that clearly transforms, disapprovingly refers to or demands
improvement."
Correction may not always be effective; in order for the correction to be effective some
prerequisite must be met. Johnston (1988) states that correction is effective when:
1. The learner desires or needs to eradicate the mistake.
2. She is able to form an internal representation of what the correct behavior looks like.
3. She realizes that her performance is flawed.
4. She has the opportunity to perform in real condition. (cited in Ellis, 1990, p. 181)
Feedback to learners can be either explicit through overt correction or implicit through
negotiation work. Negotiation and interaction are important in L2 learning because as
Mackey and Philp (1998, in Kaplan, 2002, pp. 172-76) have shown interaction can provide
modified speech, confirmation check, comprehension check, clarification request, or-choice,
topic-focused, elaboration, on the spot learning, delayed learning, and testing a hypothesis.
And according to Mitchell and Myles (20
on face to face interaction and shared processes, such as joint problem solving and
There are different types of feedback compiled by Lightbown and Spada (2006), Ellis (1994),
Ellis (2003), and Doughty and Long (2003). Nassaji provides three types of focus of form
feedback: non-negotiated feedback, limited negotiation feedback, and extended negotiation
110
feedback (cited in Fotos & Nassaji, 2007, pp. 123-24). Brown (2007, pp. 277-78) has
provided taxonomy of six types of feedback that includes recast, clarification request,
metalinguistic feedback, elicitation, explicit correction, and repetition. Among these six types
of feedback, four types (i.e. clarification request, repetition, metalinguistic clues, and
elicitation) are related to prompts. These four types of prompts have one crucial feature in
common: "They withhold correct forms (and other signs of approval) and instead offer
learners an opportunity to self-repair by generating their own modified response" (Lyster,
2004, p. 405).
Among different types of feedback one type that has had too many contradictory results on
the learners' learning behavior is "recast". Recast is "an implicit type of corrective feedback
that reformulates or responds an ill-formed or incomplete utterance in an unobtrusive way"
(Brown, 2007, p. 277). Lyster (1998, in Kaplan, 2002, p. 177) found that learners could not
decipher whether recasts were signs of correction or approval. Lyster and Ranata (1997, in
Kaplan, 2002, p. 177) also found that recasts did not have immediate effect on subsequent
production. But Mackey and Philp (1998, cited in Kaplan, 2002, p. 177) considering delayed
effects of feedback showed that recasts had positive effect on learners' production.
Comparing the effects of recasts and prompts, Ammar (2008) found superior effects for
prompts over recasts in the acquisition of possessive determiners by Francophone learners of
English as a second language. She also found that prompts were particularly effective for
lower proficiency learners, whereas higher proficiency learners appeared to benefit similarly
from both recasts and prompts. Lyster (2004) explains the four types of prompt used in
French immersion classes mentioned before as follows:
1. Clarification requests
Student: Et le coccinelle . . .
Teacher: Pardon?
Student: La coccinelle . . .
2. Repetitions
to highlight the error. For example:
111
Student: La chocolat . . .
Teacher: La chocolat?
Student: Le chocolat
3. Metalinguistic clues provide comments, information, or questions related to the well-
Student: .
Teacher: Pas son carte
Student: Euh, sa carte?
4. Elicitation
allow students to complete
Teacher: Il vit où un animal domestique? Où est-ce que ça vit?
Student: Dans un maison
Teacher: Dans . . . ? Attention
Student: Dans une maison
Finally, Brown (2007, p. 278) classifies responses to feedback into three types: (1) uptake, (2)
repair, and (3) repetition.
Research questions
This study aims to test the effect of two types of feedback (i.e. explicit correction and
elicitation), which are hypothesized to trigger different degrees of cognitive processing and
awareness. The research questions are thus formulated as follows:
1. Will the use of explicit and implicit feedback in class improve Irania
to accurately apply English tense markers?
2. Which type of feedback is more effective explicit correction or implicit or-choice
feedback?
112
Research hypotheses
To find answers to the above mentioned questions the following null hypotheses were
formulated:
1. The use of explicit and implicit feedback in class will not improve Iranian EFL
2. Explicit correction feedback is not more effective than or-choice feedback on Iranian
EFL learners' production of tense markers.
Method
Participants
The participants in this study were females EFL students (n = 30) divided into two classes of
15. The students were all beginners. They received feedback on tense markers for 10 sessions.
Each of the two groups received a particular type of feedback. One group, designated as the
explicit correction group (Group A), received explicit correction following their errors in
tense markers, whereas the other group designated as the implicit or-choice group (Group B),
received or-choice feedback following errors in tense markers.
Procedures
Before instructional period, students received a fill-in-the-blank pretest and after the
instruction they received the same test as posttest (see Appendix A). During the ten-session
instructional period, students in the two groups received different types of feedback for 10
sessions. Each session some sentences that included one of the simple present, simple past
and present continuous tenses were extracted from one unit of the Intro book (Richards,
1997) and their structures were practiced by the students. For examples of these structures see
Table 1 below.
Table 1: Structures with simple present, simple past and present continuous tenses Tense markers Structures Simple present Wh-questions and statements with be
Simple present Wh-questions and statements Yes/No and Wh-questions with do Questions with how
Simple past Wh-questions and statements with be Simple past Wh-question and statements Past tense of be
Present continuous Yes/No and Wh-questions and statements
113
Then, the researcher asked the students some oral questions to elicit the tense markers that
were practiced on the same session or the sessions before. At the end of each session, the
students were asked to make dialogues about their own experiences using the structures
worked out on the same day and role play it in the class. During the whole class time students'
tense marker errors were immediately corrected in both groups. The explicit correction group
(Group A) received Type A feedback (i.e. explicit error correction) and the implicit or-choice
group (Group B) received Type B feedback (i.e. or-choice feedback). Examples of Type A and
Type B feedbacks for some errors extracted from teacher-student interaction in class are
presented in Table 2.
Table 2: Type A and Type B feedback with some examples extracted from teacher-student interaction
Feedback Type Example Type A (explicit correction
1 T: What did you eat for breakfast? S: I eated tea, bread and butter for breakfast T: 'I eated tea', no. I drank tea & I ate bread.
2 T: Where does your father work? S: My father work in bank. T: Uh uh! 'My father works' not 'my father work'.
3 T: What are you doing? S: I speak. T: 'I speak', no. 'I'm speaking'.
Type B (or-choice feedback)
1 T: What is Sara doing now? S: She listening you now. T: 'She listening to me' or 'she is listening to me'? S: She is listening.
2 T: What did you do yesterday? S: I /ri:d/ my book. T: Yesterday, 'you /ri:d/ your book' or 'you /red/ your book'? S: I /red/.
3 T: Did you go to bed late last night? S: No, I go to bed early. T: 'You go to be early' or 'you went to bed early'? S: I went to bed early.
Target features
To select the 3 target tense markers used in this stud
course book and selected the most frequent tense markers appearing in these materials. These
tense markers are presented in Table 3 with a few examples for each.
114
Table 3: Tense markers along with a few examples Tense Markers Examples Simple present They play football everyday.
She plays the piano. Simple past I walked home yesterday.
She went to the office. I read (pronounced /red/) an English book this morning.
Present continuous I am writing a story. She is smiling. They are listening to the teacher.
Treatment materials
Ten topics were selected from among the students' course book material. The material, which
included different topics such as greeting, daily schedule, clothes, families, and past
experiences, provided the communicative context for the present study. For the purposes of
this study, the topics for discussing and practicing different grammatical forms in the class
were selected from Intro, an international communication book written by Richards (1997).
The conversations and grammar exercises included in the book provided the context for
study.
Measures
assessed by using a written 20-item
fill-in-the-blank test for which they were given 25 minutes to complete. The same test was
used both as pretest and posttest. By comparing the pretest-posttest results with two t-tests the
effectiveness of each type of feedback was measured. Then another t-test was used to
compare the results of the two posttests to see which feedback was more effective.
Before the introduction of the study, in a pilot study conducted by the researcher, the 20-item
teacher-made test was administered to a group of 15 students at the same level with the
students in the researcher's classes to measure the reliability of the teacher-made test. By
using the Kuder-Richardson formula, the researcher measured the reliability of the test to be
about 0.70. The measured reliability was within an acceptable range.
115
Results and discussion
The means and standard deviations of the pretests and posttests of the two groups are shown
in Tables 4 and 5. Also, Figure 1 shows the means of the pretests and posttests for Group A
and Group B.
Table 4: Pretest means (M) and standard deviations (SD) for the two groups Group A¹ (n=15) Group B² (n=15)
M SD M SD 6.8 2.8 6.4 2.9
¹ Group A: explicit correction group ² Group B: or-choice group
Table 4 shows that the means for the two groups on the pretest have no significant difference:
t= 0.39, p<0.05. This confirms that the two groups were essentially equivalent before the
instruction started. From Figure 1, it is quite evident that the posttest means are significantly
higher than the pretest means: t=6.92, p<0.05 for Group A, and t= 4.30, p<0.05 for Group B.
This shows that both types of feedback (i.e. Group A feedback and Group B feedback)
improved the students' accurate use of tense markers in English.
The means of the two groups on posttest, shown in Table 5 and also evident in Figure 1 show
that the explicit correction group outperformed the or-choice group on the posttest: t=2.12,
p<0.05.
Table 5: Posttest means (M) and standard deviations (SD) for the two groups Group A¹ (n=15) Group B² (n=15)
M SD M SD 12.3 1.4 10.1 1.8
¹ Group A: explicit correction group ² Group B: or-choice group
116
Figure 1: The pretest and posttest means for groups A and B
The results of the t-tests rejected the first and second null hypotheses, thus confirming the
effectiveness of the two types of feedback, and approving the superiority of the Type A
feedback over Type B feedback on Iranian EFL learners' production.
The present study thus contributes to the arguments about the benefit of different types of
corrective feedback by confirming that explicit correction is more beneficial compared to or-
choice feedback to the beginner Iranian EFL learners in communicatively oriented
classrooms. In terms of pedagogical implications, these findings may not be generalizable to
other instructional contexts.
117
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Teaching Research, 12(2), 183-210. Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching (5th ed.). New York: Pearson Education. Chaudron, C. (1998). Second language classrooms: Research on teaching and learning. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. Doughty, C. J., & Long, M. H. (Eds.). (2003). The handbook of second language acquisition. New York:
Blackwell. Ellis, R. (1990). Instructed second language acquisition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fotos, S., & Nassaji, H. (Eds.). (2007). Form-focused instruction and teacher education: Studies in honor of Rod
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Appendix A: Pretests and Posttests
Complete these conversations using the correct form of the verb forms in parentheses. 1. A: What _______ (do) you do? B: I'm a student. I study English. A: What _______ (do) your mother do? B: She is a teacher. She _______ (teach) English at a school in Chicago. A: Is your father a teacher, too? B: No, he is a doctor. He _______ (work) in a hospital. 2. A: Is your sister looking for a job? B: Yes, she is. She _______ (work) in a restaurant now, but she _______ (look) for a job in a theater. She _______ (love) acting. 3. A: _______ (do) you _______ (do) anything special over the weekend? B: Yes, I _______. I _______ (go) shopping. I _______ (spend) all my money. Now I don't have any money. 4. A: What _______ (do) you _______ (do) last night? B: I _______ (see) the new Tom Cruise film. I _______ (love) it! 5. A: _______ (be) you in France last summer? B: Yes, I _______ (be). A: How long _______ (be) you there? B: I _______ (stay) there for a month.