ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE MAGHREB :

CURRENT ISSUES IN EVALUATION

PROCEEDINGS OF THE XITH MATE ANNUAL CONFERENCE

OUJDA , DECEMBER , 1990

EDITED BY Jilali SAIB

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CONTENT

PART ONE. PROGRAM PRESENTATION AND EVALUATION SECTION 1. ISSUES IN PROGRAM EVALUATION 6 CRITERIA FOR DEVELOPING LANGUAGE TEACHING 7 PROGRAM EVALUATIONS : WHO SHOULD EVALUATE LT PROGRAMS? Abdellatif ZAKI SECTION 2. PRESENTATION AND EVALUATION OF PROGRAMS (GENERAL) 26 AN EVALUATIVE REPORT ON THE ELT OBJECTIVES AT UNIVERSITY: A FOCUS ON THE LEARNER Moha ENNAJI 27 ELT IN TUNISIA: EVALUATION OF THREE SETTINGS Ridha SALHI 38 SECTION 3. LINGUISTICS PROGRAMS 41

AN EVALUATION OF LINGUISTICS COURSES AT THE MOROCCAN UNIVERSITY LEVEL:

THE CASE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, FES Fatima SADIQI 42 AN EVALUATION OF THE EFFICACY OF THE GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN ENGLISH: THE RABAT EXPERIENCE Jilali SAIB 48 SECTION 4. LITERATURE 64

AN EVALUATION OF THE TEACHING OF LITERATURE AT THE TERTIARY LEVEL :THE OUJDI EXPERIENCE

Mohamed DELLAL 65

TEACHING ENGLISH LITERATURE IN ALGIERS : PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES S.A. ARAB 70

FOR AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO LITERATURE TEACHING WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS

M’hamed BENSEMMANE 78

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LITERATURE TEACHING POLICIES IN THE DEGREE OF ENGLISH IN ALGERIA Sidi Mohamed LAKHDAR-BARKA 82

SECTION 5. ESP/EST 91

DO WE NEED AN ESP COMPONENT IN THE CURRICULUM OF THE LICENCE? Kamel KHALDI 92 THE IMPORTANCE AND IMPACT OF EST/ESP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BLIDA: THE PERSPECTIVE OF

AN ESP-FOUR YEAR "LICENCE" DEGREE Brahirn MANSOURI 103

PART 2. EVALUATION : TESTING METHODS SECTION 1. CENERAL ISSUES 114

WHEN CAN IT BE SAID THAT A LEARNER HAS LEARNED SOMETHING? LEARNER LANGUAGE, THE LEARNING PROCESS AND TESTING Mohammed MELOUK 115

SECTION 2. COMMUNICATIVE TESTING 123

TESTING THE COMMUNICATIVE USE OF ENGLISH Ahmed MEZIANI 124

TOWARDS COMMUNICATIVE TESTING: FROM PRAGMATISM TO THEORY Mohamed MILIANI 130

COMMUNICATIVE TESTING AT THE SECONDARY SCHOOL: SOME PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS A. SELLAM 134

SECTION 3. ITEM BANKING 142 TEST ITEM BANKS : WHAT THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY CAN DO FOR US Austin SANDERS 143 PART 3. EVALUATION : APPROACHES TO THE TEACHING OF SKILLS SUBJECTS SECTION 1. READING AND WRITING READING 149

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EVALUATING READING TEXTS Thomas MILLER 150

INVESTIGATING SOME WORD-SOLVING STRATEGIES IN EFL READING USING THE “THINK ALOUD” PROCEDURE

Faiza BENSEMMANE 160

READING IN AN ELT PROGRAMME: EVALUATION OR REVOLUTION?

Mohamed Khalil ENNASSIRI 167 ASSESSING COMPOSITION AT UNIVERSITY FIRST CYCLE Zoubida BELLOUT 170 SECTION 2. LISTENING AND ORAL PROFICIENCY 179

EVALUATION OF THE TEACHING OF LISTENING TO FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITIES OF ALGIERS AND BLIDA

Elies BENDALI - BRAHAM 180 SOCIOLINGUISTIC FACTORS IN THE LEARNING

OF ENGLISH PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM K. AIT SI SELMI 186

SECTION 3. THE TEACHING OF LITERATURE 190

TEACHING ENGLISH LITERATURE IN AN E.F.L. SITUATION: SAMPLE LESSON FOR FIRST YEAR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

H. BENSAOU 191 PART 4. EVALUATION : TEACHER-TRAINING AND TEACHER

SUPERVISION

SECTION 1. GENERAL ISSUES 197

PROFESSIONAL CHANGE, TEACHER TRAINING AND SELF-ESTEEM Donard BRITTEN 198

SECTION 2. THE PLUSES AND MINUSES IN SUPERVISORY PRACTICES 204

HOW CAN SUFERVISORS FOSTER AND CONTRIBUTE TO TEACHER TRAINING AND TEACHER DEVELOPMENT? A HUMANISTIC VIEW H. BOUHOUT & M. SAKAKI 205

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EVALUATION OF TEACHER TRAINING AND SUPERVISION PROGRAMMES Zohra BOUHAMADOUCHE 211

SECTION 3. TEACHER TRAINING IN ESP 220

TEACHER TRAINING IN ESP; SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR COURSE DESIGN El Mostapha EL HADDAD 221

SECTION 4. TEACHER-STUDENTS INTERACTIONS : IMPUT FROM INSIDE THE CLASSROOM 229 TO ASK DISPLAY QUESTIONS AND NOT TO ASK

REFERENTIAL ONES, THAT'S UNNATURAL INTERACTION Abdelmajid BOUZIANE 230

PART 5. EVALUATION: LEARNERS' REACTIONS TO TEXTBOOKS 237

ASKING LEARNERS ABOUT LANGUAGE LEARNING Safya FADEL CHERCHALLI 238

LIST OF PARICIPANTS AND THEIR INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS 242

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PART ONE

PROGRAM PRESENTATION

AND EVALUATION

SECTION 1

ISSUES IN PROGRAM EVALUATION

CRITERIA FOR DEVELOPING LANGUAGE TEACHING

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PROGRAM EVALUATIONS : WHO SHOULD EVALUATE LT PROGRAMS?

Abdellatif ZAKI

Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan Il, Rabat

This paper aims at raising some major issues in language program evaluation in general and how they bear on the Moroccan situation in particular. The issues are respectively, (i) who should conduct language program evaluations? (ii) the role of the evaluator, (iii) who are the stakeholders (constituents/parties) in language educational programs, and (iv) how to identify appropriate evaluation criteria? At the end of the paper, a case study will be presented to illustrate how these concepts have been used in the evaluation of a language program in Morocco. The conclusion will endeavour to summarize the principles of an appropriate approach to language program evaluation in Morocco. WHY IS THE STUDY OF EVALUATION IMPORTANT FOR LANGUAGE EDUCATION IN MOROCCO? My own interest in the evaluation of language programs in Morocco originated in a fortuitous encounter of an internal document of a foreign agency (henceforth: the document) which has traditionally provided free of charge language teaching personnel in secondary education; and which has, for reasons I have mentioned elsewhere, shifted its focus of interest to the area of ESP. This document was an evaluation conducted by the teachers of their host environments and synthesized by the director of the language program in the agency. What interested me first was that evaluations of departments, institutions, curricula, management approaches as well as persons have been/and were being by a group of individuals turned into language teachers, development and evaluation experts during a two-month training program. Not only was I surprised by the lack of ethical considerations and the flagrant departure from the deontological code by conducting an “evaluation” of institutions and departments that had no idea that they were being evaluated, or that the agency in question used its teachers to conduct this evaluation, nor even that these teachers accepted to “play the game”, but that the agency ended Up assigning credibility and reliability to the reports of the teachers at ail, and making judgments not only of the educational system of a whole nation, but of its language policy and its implementation programs. The questions that I had to raise when I read this evaluation report, which was not meant to be read by me, nor by any Moroccan researcher or administrator, were as follows: 1) Does a foreign agency operating in the educational system of another country have the same understanding of what is expected from it as the host educational system or not? 2) What is it that makes a person with no professional training in a discipline, but from a Western country, become an expert who requests special status which specifies that his function in the host institution should be one of leadership, development, and judgment? 3) What is the function of such evaluations for both the foreign agency and the political and ideological institutions it belongs to on the one hand, and for the various stakeholders in the host country, on the other hand?

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4) Why are some foreign agencies 50 interested in promoting some languages or types of languages? In other words, what do concepts such as ESP or “Français fonctionnel” really mean? 5) How true are claims such as a mastery of such a language is necessary for the access to science and technology? Which science and which technology? Is mastery of certain languages sufficient to have access to all sciences and technologies or are there some technologies and sciences which even a mastery of English and French will not make accessible? In other words, could the mastery of English or French be -in some cases at least-useless, or worse, a brake to the development of endogenous national technologies and knowledge more appropriate to the local environment and more coherent with the needs and expectations of the stakeholders as well as with the natural resources and the socio-economic structures? This set of questions could be summarized as follows: To what extent does/can mastery of a given foreign language secure and promote independence of political, economic, social and cultural decisions which lead to a locally defined "development"? It is this kind of questions, the reading of the document mentioned above, the discussions with the officers of the agency in question, and a reflection over the role and function of different languages in Morocco and in the world that shifted my traditional interest in technical issues of language learning and language teaching.. In fact, it became urgent tome to develop an understanding of my profession and my position in the socio-economic and cultural complex not only in Morocco but in the international division of labor and the new emerging politic and economic world order before I choose an academic focus or research concern. It is worth mentioning, here, that the document's evaluation of the language educational system as well as language policy in Morocco portrays a bankrupt and badly managed system and a total lack of awareness and control of the situation as well as a chronic impotence of the administration and the political system to deal with it There commendations can be summarized in encouraging the agency's sponsored teachers to be patient, tolerant, and hold firm onto the ideological principles of their agency which are, among others, a moral mission to help the people develop and acquire rational and modem working habits through contact with their "Moroccan counterparts". According to this document, the agency and its teachers have “civilizational" functions and objectives other than the mere teaching of English. This contact with this document and the subsequent discussions I had with those responsible for it were enough justifications for me to raise in public the issues I will address in this paper. These issues are: who should evaluate a language program? What are the criteria for evaluating a language program? What is the ethical code of the evaluation industry? What is the role of the evaluator/evaluation? When does/should evaluation start? What are the actual objectives of each language in the educational system? How have these objectives been developed? And to what extent have these objectives been met? I have also raised some questions which I will not deal with here, but which merit close attention and call for urgent investigation. These questions range from: What is the relationship between languages -national and foreign- in the Moroccan educational system and scientific research, technology transfer, and development? How does foreign language teaching “cooperation” fit in the general framework of political and economic constraints of Morocco and the relationships with other countries and international institutions? "WHO SHOULD EVALUATE L2 PROGRAMS?"

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In his article “Who Should Evaluate L2 Programs?”, Alan Beretta (forthcoming) starts by pointing out to the fact that unlike other fields of social intervention and education, language teaching, (and particularly ELT) has not developed rigorous traditions in program evaluation. He then proceeds to ask two major questions; namely (i) should the evaluator be an L2 expert or an expert in educational evaluation? and (ii) should the evaluator be an outsider or an insider? The first question highlights the fact that there may be limitations in the competence of both the L2 and the educational evaluation experts evaluating a language teaching program. In fact, neither may be necessarily prepared for the job. Beretta (1991) argues the following: “The issue would be unimportant if it could be demonstrated that there are many L2 specialists who are well-trained as evaluators. A cursory glance at our literature, as discussed above argues against this. The issue would be unimportant if it were possible for expertise to be combined in evaluation teams, but many evaluations are carried out by solo Operators. Thus, the issue is real.” There are in the literature arguments for and against each of the options. However, there are other options which promote either the training of ELT specialists in evaluation or evaluators in ELT theory and methods. Cronbach et al. (1980), for example, suggested that training programs for evaluators include “disciplinary preparation”. To arguments such as those given in (1), which ELT professionals are confronting evaluators with (namely, that it would be difficult to initiate evaluators in ELT principles) Worthen and Sanders respond as shown in (2). (1) “I respect your training as an evaluator, but I don't see how you can evaluate my language program adequately since you don’t know much about linguistics.” (Worthen and Sanders 1984:2). (2) Most theories in education are essentially primitive and most educational practices can be easily comprehended if they are clearly described. It is probably neither arrogance nor criticism which has led same social scientists to privately aver that they digest even the most complex educational theories in an afternoon... it must be fear of having our theories and practices demeaned as simple minded (...)which causes many educational specialists to contend that their work is too complex and filled with subtle nuances to be readily understood by outsiders (1984:8). Whether these statements describe an authentic situation or not is of little importance here. However1it seems tome that to say that whatever ELT or SLA theory principles and practices, as would be necessary for an evaluator to know, can be handled in a relatively short time would not be completely incorrect. Furthermore, it is now established that several of the evaluator’s responsibilities do not really prerequire mastery of the content of the program and that it is easier for an evaluator to become familiar with the principles of language teaching and learning than it is for the language teaching professional to master evaluation instruments and techniques. It is also argued that a professional evaluator would be less inclined to be biased either to wards or against the principles and the theoretical frame work underlying a program.

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However, some authors warn against what they eau the "JIJO evaluator" type, whom many agencies such as the British Council often use (Alderson & Scott: forthcoming). JIJO ( i.e. Jet-In Jet-Out) expert type of evaluations are those which Alderson & Scott describe as follows: "A common paradigm for the conducting of formal evaluations of language education projects, particularly those funded by British aid agencies, is that of the JIJO: Jet-In Jet Out Expert. Some eminent "expert" in applied linguistics, syllabus design, methodology or related aspects of language education is approached by an organization like the British Council or the Overseas Development Administration, and invited to visit a project in some exotic location, for a period of up to three weeks. During that time, the expert is to familiarize him or herself with the project, its aims and objectives1 its history, personnel, achievements, problems and hopes, and at the end s/he submits a report on the project, with recommendations as to the future development, abandonment or modification of the project. Its hopes and fears, its background, history and achievements or otherwise are supposedly laid bore and judgement passed by this JIJO, who has overnight added an expertise in the project to the already impressive list of expertise”. The argument is that the JIJO type of evaluation is not data-based, that the evaluator will necessarily have a very limited perspective of the project and its environment and will have to pass judgements based on reports Moreover, another problem without side evaluators, which Alderson and other authors have discussed, is the threat potential which their very presence or visit bears for the various parties in a program. In fact, because it will be often very difficult for an outside evaluator to develop an adequate understanding of a project, of its history, background and underlying underpinnings, he will be less sensitive to its specificities, to why it has developed in some ways and not in others, as well as to its everyday constraints. He will therefore pass judgements or make recommendations that may be detrimental to some parties. In short, as Scott says: "...he is quite likely to misrepresent the project, or worse, to dismiss its achievements". Furthermore, the mere presence of an observer or an evaluator Will alter the natural environment and the observations and measurements will therefore be affected. The evaluator will, thus, have to account for the impact of the observation and measurement instruments on his findings and their interpretation. My own point of view, concerning this issue, is that awaiting the advent of a new breed of professionals (whose field would be language program evaluation), language experts and evaluation experts will have to work closely together. They will have to do so not only to evaluate specific programs, but to develop theoretical and methodological knowledge and expertise relevant to language program evaluation. This knowledge could later on constitute the new culture of the yet-to-be-born discipline of “language Program Evaluation”.

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INSIDER Vs OUTSIDER EVALUATOR The question of whether the evaluator should be a language teaching or an evaluation expert may be summed up in three hypothetical possibilities: (i) the evaluator is a language teaching expert but not an evaluation expert; (ii) the evaluator is not a language teaching expert but an evaluation expert; (iii) the evaluator is both a language teaching expert and an evaluation expert. These throe hypothetical profiles do not however render the whole picture. In fact, the dimensions of outsider vs insider increase the possibilities, yielding thus a new set of possible combinations, namely: (i) outsider with expertise in language teaching but not in evaluation; (ii) outsider with expertise in evaluation but not in language teaching; (iii) outsider with expertise in both language teaching and in evaluation; (iv) insider with expertise in language teaching but not in evaluation; (v) insider with expertise in evaluation but not in language teaching; (vi) insider with expertise in both language teaching and in evaluation. One wonders about the possibilities of having outsider and/or insider evaluators with expertise in neither language teaching nor in evaluation. This would be an extreme case to which I will, unfortunately, not have time to get back to in this paper, but which is of great importance to us in Morocco, as we have witnessed nation-wide evaluations designed and run by members of this last category. THE ROLE OF THE EVALUATOR 1. Credibility Nevertheless, in the cases where the evaluator is an outsider and not a language teaching expert, one would expect the credibility level traditionally associated with outsider evaluators to be lowered. One would also doubt whether the lack of expertise in language teaching may balance the importance of the relative independence vis-à-vis program management outside evaluators may enjoy and which has traditionally served as an argument for preferring them to inside evaluators, or is this independence going to create other types of dependence. Alderson and Scott (forthcoming) argue that an insider evaluator's function should be at most one of advising on evaluation design, its execution and interpretation (Alderson & Scott 1991: forthcoming) as he may be subject to in-house pressures and concerns thus being vulnerable to public relations manipulations. They also argue that an outside evaluator can only validate internal evaluations after a program has already been evaluated internally. An alternative to the dichotomy insider vs outsider evaluator they suggest is that of participatory evaluation like the one conducted for the ESP Project in Brasil. In this particular case, the evaluator, who is referred to as a “consultant”, “…gave his opinion on the data that resulted, advised on its analysis, and to a degree on its interpretation. However, he did not present an independent analysis, or a contrary interpretation to those reached by the project participants.” It needs to be pointed out, however, that this evaluation raised the resistance of some participants in the projects. In fact, Alderson & Scott draw attention to some participants who

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held the view that it was the expert's job to design, conduct, analyse the evaluation and to formulate final statements and judgements about the project. This view was in contrast 7with that of the evaluator who perceived his responsibility in the whole process as "the contribution... to the quality of the study's design, its instruments, and to the adequacy of the interpretations of the results." Credibility being an issue for any type of evaluators, it has therefore to be established for participatory evaluation as well. All the above cases, however, some theoretical and procedural constraints remain in order: 1. The first theoretical constraint is whether the evaluator will construct instruments that will secure experimental-internal-validity and which will be unbiased. If so, which instruments and how will they be tested? 2. The second constraint concerns the control of variables so as to secure external validity and thereby a reasonable extent of generalisability. 3. The third constraint is that of formulating statements describing the effectiveness of the program. The limitations of these constraints maybe reduced by the following: (i) detailed observations and descriptions of what actually happens to/ in the program, in other words a sound diagnosis of the implementation stages and procedures (participant observation, ethnography thick descriptions, in addition to the traditional quantitative techniques), and (ii) a prior understanding and apprehension of what the whole program is really about. However, the evaluator will still have to take appropriate precautions in expressing causal relationships between the various components of the program and when formulating generalizations and extrapolations from statistical data or data compiled through direct observation or case studies. As it is often the case that evaluation concerns innovative programs, the evaluator needs first to identify the following: (i) the specific innovations, (ii) how they differ - theoretically and in practice - from former practices, (iii) how they have been introduced, (iv)how they have been implemented, (v) the internal and external factors liable to influence the implementation, (vi) the degree of the consensus about them, and (vii) how their expression of the goals of the program is either similar or divergent from those of the program discarded or innovated. In other words, whether the new program seeks to achieve the same goals as the former, or does it propose new goals. This latter point is crucial to the discussion as it may happen that the effectiveness of two different programs is evaluated according to the specified goals of the one but not the other.

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2. Definition of the role Because the evaluator is an agent of purposeful human intervention in socio-economic situations, the definition of his role will be relative both in space and in time therefore be an ever concept. Moreover, no such definition will be completely ideologically unbiased. The issue of the scientific objectivity of the evaluator is therefore meaningful only to the extent that human intervention in socio-economic organization is value free. As a consequence, what the student or analyst of evaluation matters can do will be limited to describing what evaluation roles have been in different contexts and to express his own preferences and options. In all cases, it would therefore be irrelevant to compare roles or to define them outside of some political or ideological framework. The following part will identify the major features which distinguish various roles which evaluators have assumed or claimed. In his definition of the role of the educational evaluator, Cronbach (1963) adds to the traditional definition, which consisted in the sole act of describing academic achievement, the dimension of describing instruction and its relationships with achievement as well. One of the major roles of the evaluator have, thus, included the effort of expressing generalizations about educational practice in general. In other terms, the evaluator is encouraged to transform his status from that of the technician to that of the scientist seeking general laws and universals. The first problem in defining the role of evaluation, and therefore of the evaluator, is the frequent discrepancies between the evaluator's own understanding of what his role should be and the commissioners' idea of what the evaluator should do. Furthermore, initial mutual understanding and agreements between the two contractors, the evaluator and the commissioner, often dissipate as the normal course of the evaluation unfolds. In fact, such agreements describing what is expected from the evaluator have often, if not traditionally, avered very brittle as the commissioners find out that the evaluator becomes more involved in matters which are either of no concern to them or which they prefer him not to be involved in. The evaluator's activities, the process of information-gathering he starts, and the necessary redefinition of his methodology and scope of the evaluation, often reveal to the commissioners implications and possible interpretations of their initial agreements which they could not predict at first. The result is that they will request the evaluator to abide by their own understanding and interpretation of the initial agreements. As early as 1967, Stake points out to the fact that "The countenance of evaluation beheld by the specialist in evaluation. The specialist sees himself as a "describer", one who describes aptitudes and environments and accomplishments. The teacher and school administrator, on the other hand, expect an evaluator to grade something or someone as to merit. Moreover, they expect that he will judge things against extended standards, on criteria perhaps little related to the local school's resources and goals. (Stake 1967:525)

This discrepancy between the views of the different parties in the evaluation contract reveals that the commissioners want to be judged and their work to be graded. According to Stake (cf. quote above), they even request to be judged against standards which might be irrelevant or inapplicable to their situations. The refusal or resistance to detailed descriptions of a program has only one explanation and it is refusal to disclose, reveal, and open up to investigation. Discrepancy exists also among the views of different evaluators and evaluation experts. Scriven (1967), that is in the same year as Stake, holds the opinion that there is no evaluation until judgement is passed. Other evaluators, however, argue, that if they were to make judgements and grade programs, giving support to some and withdrawing it from others, it might become difficult for them to have access to information or education management may

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even stop requesting evaluations. In response to Scriven's position that an evaluator must judge, Stake (op.cit.) suggests that the evaluator's difficulty of doing his job without judging can be solved if he sought judgements of others, (that is, those involved in the program). His role would then be to process and analyse judgements without having himself to make any. Some very interesting insights concerning this issue are found in McDonald's (1978) account of his evaluation of the national Development Programme in Computer-Assisted Learning. In this particular case, the initial agreement of the evaluator's role has been constantly open to renegotiations and debate. Another example of the difficulties in maintaining the same definition of the evaluator's role throughout the same evaluation enterprise is Aide man's experience with the Department of Education and Science and her Majesty’s Inspectorate. Re reports the contrasting views of the two parties in the following terms: "The DES permanent civil servant considered that a study funded by the DES should adhere to the propositions of the original proposal. As the DES had funded the study, they assumed the right to require that the enquiry followed those original specifications. Her Majesty's inspectors 'representatives, however, were more concerned about allowing the project to maintain its "academic freedom" and to develop according to the sort of information that was being collected, although adhering to a considerable extent to the "spirit" of the original proposal" (Aldeman 1979:9). Straton (1979) suggests that the problems in developing a working definition for evaluation on which both the evaluator and the commissioner will agree are relative to the degree of transparency or lack of it in a decision making system. The less transparent is the system, the more difficult it will be to define the role of evaluation and of the evaluator. The questions which need therefore to be addressed before any evaluation negotiations are started are of the following kind: (i) Is the decision making system well defined? (ii) Are roles and responsibilities within it transparent? (iii) Where does it get its institutional legitimacy? (iv) How is it perceived by the various parties and constituents within and without the system? A set of questions which Straton (1977) asked in an earlier article about a similar relevant to this discussion. (i) Is there some superordinate set of rules or professional code of behavior to which an evaluator should respond when conflict develops? (ii) Are there areas within which the evaluator has absolute authority, such as in study design, instrument development or data analysis?

In a short review of educational evaluation in Great Britain, F.H. Sparrow (1973) suggested that evaluation was "derived not from the use of a particular curriculum model but from the immediate needs of a practical situation. The approach to evaluation in Britain has thus been essentially pragmatic. In a largely non-doctrinaire atmosphere, the very word 'evaluation' has

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come to be used with different but overlapping meanings. While this might well cause dismay for any who would prefer a single definition, universally recognized, it has helped the Schools Council project evaluators to appreciate the diversity of roles they can be asked to play. (Sparrow 1973:2) The roles which Sparrow is talking about are the following: (i) expert on the organization and interpretation of feedback (ii) critical friend (iii) psychometrician (iv) purveyor of accurate information to teachers. All these roles confirm the above statement that no purposeful human action can be described or defined in terms of objectivity or scientific rigor. In fact, each of these roles can be analyzed in terms of preferences and choices and therefore in political terms. Organization and interpretation of feedback presuppose eliciting feedback, selecting which to organize and how to organize it, and imposing some meaning on them. This process can hardly be described as objective or scientifically rigorous as it would be difficult, if not impossible, to subject it to the principles of scientific investigation, or to formulate the interpretations, for instance, in falsifiable terms. The same argument holds for the other throe roles. Moreover, the pragmatic approach to educational evaluation issues which Sparrow talks about reflects the lack of a precise educational theory and a clear cut division of labour within the educational community. In fact, any role would be difficult to assign to an evaluator in the absence of a theoretical basis which would provide minimal evaluation criteria. We need, therefore, validation standards other than the classical concepts of scientific rigor and objectivity. In the following paragraphs, I will investigate other roles which have been claimed for the evaluator and endeavour to highlight some validation procedure for evaluation and its role. For the documentation of my arguments in this part, I will draw from Stake (1979) “validating Representation: The Evaluators Responsibility". MacDonald (1974) and Cohen (1973) argue that whatever the extent of the accuracy and relevance of information detained, this information will increase a constituent’s central over a program. Other authors have made the point that evaluators have several roles in society other than those professional ones related to evaluation, and consequently, being an evaluator does not mean one should not express value judgements or try to "protect a precious object in jeopardy” provided one keeps the qualities apart (Stake 1979:5). It is therefore implied that in his other social qualities, the evaluator can do what he is forbidden to do as an evaluator. Other authors, (e.g. Don Campbell (1977)), go one step further and describe what evaluation methodologists in fact do as developing “alternative political systems”. In addition to these constraints on the definition of the role of evaluation, the relevance of the basic principles of sociological analysis to the evaluation enterprise have also been frequently questioned. An example of these principles, which have been debated in the literature, is rationalism which has been described as a “presumption” (Stake and Easley 1978) and a fallacy. It is argued that it is “presumptuous” to think that rationalism may offer solutions to sociological methodology or that it will bring remedies to the flaws of educational systems through planning, research, and monitoring”. Likewise, concepts such as “productivity”

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bottom line”, etc. are discarded because they produce” poor representations of the diffuse and organic outcomes of education. Results of schooling are not well indicated by tests of competence or by attitude- rating scales, not because the test development is inadequate, but because the conceptualisation is inadequate” (Stake and Easley 1978:63). The problem is therefore how to achieve an appropriate representation of the situation. This representation, it is argued by the same authors, does not pose a problem because of the "imperfections" of the experimental or statistical approaches nor because of the limitations and constraints of technological approaches when applied to social programs, in other words, it is "a qualitative rather than a quantitative misrepresentation.” (Stake and Easley; op. cit:63). In the words of Halberstam (1972) “ We believe in indicators which fail to indicate.” The problem is therefore that the technology used in evaluation has not been questioned as to its validity for the specific type of job which evaluators have to do.

To summarize Stake's position, which to a large extent represents that of a whole generation of evaluators on this issue, the following quote seems to be eloquent: "The evaluation specialist's responsibility is primarily one of assisting constituents to make judgements about the quality of the program. To repeat, it is not one of finding causes to certain effects, nor of passing judgement as an independent observer, nor of recommending action The primary responsibility is helping ail those who have the existing and continuing responsibility for control prepare themselves to make new judgements" (64). A lot more has been said in evaluation literature about what the role of evaluation in general and that of the evaluator in particular should be. The major issues, however, are whether the evaluator is to pass judgement, endeavour to influence the evolution of organization structures, and to exert power over the decision-making community, to make recommendations, to reveal ail the information he collects to ail the stakeholders, or to withhold some of it from some constituents. Another debate raised questions such as the extent to which the evaluator should be involved in formulating evaluation questions and whether he should pay allegiance to the sole commissioners of the evaluation or to ail the parties involved or concerned in/by the program. The underlying concern in ail these issues is whether or not to consider the evaluator as a member of the decision making community or not; in other words, should the evaluator have any political power or not, and how much political tolerance should he be met with? In practical terms, should the evaluator be allowed to participate in the development of a program, in setting its objectives, identifying the stakeholders, allocating resources, and finally in implementing the program and informing ail the stakeholders or should he be only an instrument for seeking information desired by some particular parties in the program? In the former case, the evaluator would be entitled and expected to contribute to the development, implementation and monitoring of the program by virtue of the very knowledge he produces while collecting information about the various aspects of the program from the different constituents. In the latter case, however, the evaluator will be called for to assist the decision-making community or a fragment of it by providing information on questions they wish to answer in a certain way. It needs to be pointed out here, however, that an evaluator of whichever type will acquire some political power as he gets access to key information about a given program. In general,

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the power will increase proportionally to the increase and exclusivity of the information he collects. Moreover, the evaluator's decision to disclose this information or not to a given party will influence the relative power of this party. Thus, the evaluator becomes an agent which checks the balance of power within the community he is supposed to inform. In addition to this, ail evaluators being aware of the fact that the power which lies with the various stakeholders depends, at least partly, on the quality and the amount of the information they detain about a program, they may influence this power by choosing which information to disclose to whom, and which interpretations to suggest to whom. Some authors deal with this issue in terms of ethics, others do not dissociate it from the role of the evaluator which, they argue, is to influence policy and decision-making communities. JUDGEMENT IN EVALUATION The question of judgement, and whether it should be provided by the evaluator has also been open to debate. In fact, the position of evaluators varies from complete approval to complete disapproval. Stake, in the article quoted above states that "persons having the responsibility to evaluate some programs are expected to pass judgement on its worth. At the moment of evaluation, their responsibility is not primarily responsibility to understand, nor a responsibility to discern the causes of some effect, nor to make a decision about that program. The evaluation responsibility is a responsibility to make judgements"(55). On the other hand, other evaluators tend to recommend that evaluators refrain from expressing and formulating judgement and confine themselves to collecting and analysing information requested by the commissioners. That the role of the evaluator has been broadening in recent years has been illustrated in studies by David Cordray, Howard Bloom, and Richard Right (1987); Eleanor Chelimsky (1987), and Peter Rossi and Howard Freeman (1985). The general argument is that the boundaries of the evaluator’s role have been for the last decade reaching for new prerogatives other than the technical ones and for more “political” and “advisory” recognition. There is also in literature reviewing evaluation issues a consensus as to the tendency of evaluators to seek more and more involvement in the various stages of developing and implementing programs. In other words, evaluators are requesting claim also for being part of the decision-making community. Jody L. Fitzpatrick (1988), for instance, reports in her account of an evaluation she conducted the following: "Unlike many evaluations, the author was able to be involved in the early stages of program planning and development primarily due to her involvement in the proposal phase. This involvement provided important opportunities for the author to learn of the theoretical foundations or model for the program and to observe the relatively drastic metamorphosis of the program from conception to implementation. However, the author did not play the role of a neutral, detached observer during this stage. Instead, she assumed man y, varied roles to assist and advise in the development of a new delivery model for training school administrators in performance appraisal. She became involved in developing the model for the program, identifying and developing objectives, and defining the target population." Evaluation is therefore not a technical skill which can be resorted to in order to answer questions of a funding agency or some commissioners, it is rather an investigation of the holistic impact of a programmed scheme of socio-economic intervention whose specific

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purpose is to operate transformations of existing behaviour. Leonard Rutman highlights this fact when he writes: "The evaluator's role is seen, first and foremost, as a social scientist rather than a technician. Therefore, while the evaluator attempts to accommodate the information needs of decision-makers, an attempt should be made to include the concerns of others interested in the program as well as issues which have practical or theoretical significance. In many instances, this will produce a study which examines the program 's potentially negative effects and challenges its fundamental assumptions. it would be difficult to include questions in the evaluation which are not of immediate and practical concern to those who fund the study or administer the pro gram. Nevertheless, the evaluator is encouraged to push for the inclusion of critical questions and not to simply provide technical services. If an evaluator does so, the evaluation can serve as the basis of accountability to a wider audience". (1977:13). It can therefore be concluded from this last example that evaluators are endeavouring to transform their role from a mere technical job to a political function of control over the decision- making communities by influencing their choices and preferences, becoming thus not only inherent parts of these communities, but preponderant ones. This increasingly developing tendency does not always bother decision makers as they can use it to give scientific and technical credibility and justification to their political options and decisions which makes a political decision look like a technical and scientific choice. This latter point raises another aspect of the role of evaluation; namely, that if evaluation may be used to accredit policy, it can also be used to do exactly the opposite; that is, to discredit policy by offering interpretations and criticisms based on criteria presented as objective but which although often expressed in universal and general terms in evaluation - may, in fact, be formulated on preferences and choices diverging and deviating from those of the program. An evaluation may thus become a judgement not of the extent to which a program has achieved or not some specific goals and objectives, but rather of the initial choices and options of the program. This argument gains more currency as the discussions in the literature related to the analysis of concepts such as “goal”; “objective” ; “planning”; “'needs” etc., develop a consensus about the irrelevance of these concepts in programs of social intervention in general and in education in particular, on the one hand, and in evaluating these programs on the other hand. These concepts are currently being analysed as highly relative, dynamic and changing. As such, no use of them as universal and static is therefore meaningful in the study of human systems from which they take their very essence. In fact, questions such as the following reduce the concept of objective to a very faint, brittle and frail criterion to be used in any effort of assessing or measuring the achievement of any human enterprise: (i) “Whose objectives are we talking about?” (ii) "How have they been identified?"; (iii) "How appropriate is the program to achieve these objectives?"; (iv) "How is the implementation procedure (including management of the program, competence of the personnel, availability of resources, attitudes of beneficiaries, etc.) really able to implement the program?"; (v) "Has the program achieved what was achieved because or despite of the program, or still

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because of something else completely unrelated to the program?"; (vi) "Is the program flexible enough to change its objectives in the course of its implementation?"; etc. (vii) which alternatives were initially available and from which objectives and goals and resource allocation decisions have been made? This last issue is of particular importance as evaluators tend to deal only with the options selected and developed into programs, and neglect those options which have not been selected. They do not analyse in terms of what was something else has been included. The example of the choice of a language an educational system will therefore have always to be evaluated ed also in terms of the languages which, for some reason, have not been adopted as media of instruction. If one can, for purposes of evaluation, have access to data concerning an alternative which has actually been implemented, he can evaluate an option which has not been selected nor implemented on theoretical grounds an/or on the basis of other programs with similar objectives and in comparable environments. There are, for instance, in the literature, examples of programs which have been judged as successful because they have met their objectives (according to very formal and rigorous evaluations but which used the concept of objective as a basic criterion for measurement and judgement), but which caused more harm than good in that they had negative socio-economic as well as cultural side effects either on the beneficiaries themselves or on other members of society. A specific example is that which I mentioned somewhere else of this African country which ran an experimental educational project with the assistance of some international organization The objective of the program was to introduce Information Technology across the curriculum in some school districts of that country 50 as to provide the pupils with basic skills in the use of the computer and other electronic instruments to increase their abilities to learn and excel academically. At the end of the project, tests had shown that these objectives have been met to a very satisfactory extent. The students became fluent in the use of electronic equipment and had in fact acquired more knowledge than their colleagues in other school districts. The problem, however, is that after graduation, these students failed at the university level, dropped from the university and the job market of their own country could not absorb them as they were skilled in domains of no use to potential employers. The point is made without any comments or analysis of the situation. Some recent examples from our own educational system can also be given, but I will refrain from mentioning them specifically because I have not yet finished analysing them. Which of the roles described above should or can an evaluator of language teaching programs in Morocco assume. Can he or should he claim a right to be part of the decision-making community? In other terms, is he to be a real change agent or is he to serve some other forces? In yet clearer terms, is he to be allowed to exercise some political power or is he to be treated as a technician who should be satisfied by enforcing policies he did not contribute in formulating and to which he may even have strong objections?

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Evaluation Criteria A major component in setting up a range of criteria for any evaluation is the perceptions and attitudes of those responsible for the implementation of the programs in question as to a number of variables. In the case of language programs, these variables will include the qualitative, subjective and global assessments of teachers both of the programs per se, and of their relevance and ability to perform the behavioural changes expected from the programs. Furthermore, the perception of these changes will yield information not about the program alone, but on possible alternatives on the one hand, and/or possible improvements of some of its components. This is also to say that these criteria will have to be potent enough to identify shifts of focus, the degree to which adoption of an alternative implies the exclusion of other options, and whether the subject of evaluation encompasses an environment wide enough to account for the various interactions of the program with other socio-economic and cultural structures which the evaluation does not intend to influence. These criteria will have to seek accounts of individual perceptions as well as perceptions of groups of individuals and not some abstract universal truth or value. This is important as what makes a difference in the implementation of a program, its success or failure is not what quantifiable impacts or changes it achieves in the lives of people or in their environments, but the way these people perceive these changes. It is these perceptions which will determine their interactions with the program, its implementation apparatus and its objectives, and as such, they should concern the evaluator more than absolute values or realizations of the program. The question of which variables and/or criteria to use in the evaluation of language programs may be addressed in two different ways. The most obvious one would be a thorough review of relevant literature and the identification of a set of variables and criteria as have been developed for other evaluations in similar contexts and for the same purposes. This would imply a synthesis or a categorization of the identified variables in a manner that would bring these variables to bear as adequately as possible on the specific situations under study. It seems to us, however, that this effort will remain of limited methodological soundness as the variables would lack primary relevance and validity. This is to say that whichever variables or criteria adopted in this manner would need to be redefined in terms of their perception by the stakeholders in the enterprise evaluated. In fact, any 'borrowed" variable is meaningful only in as far as it operated within the conceptual framework of reference in which it has originated; otherwise, any appreciation of the phenomena studied would be only a faint approximation of the objective to be evaluated. The second option in the identification and selection of the criteria and variables evaluation of language programs is to seek them among the different stakeholders. In other words, the variables need to be, at least partly, negotiated with the various parties in the program. This negotiating process would determine, for instance, whether or not to include educational concepts such as “thinking and reasoning abilities” in the evaluating instruments of a reading course. Moreover, the decision of which language skills, or sub skills are be assessed for a given population seems to be difficult to make in any meaningful way without the participation of the program developers, the commissioners of the program, the students, the actual and the potential employers, the commissioners of the evaluation and the evaluators themselves. In fact, it would seem that no set of evaluation variables or criteria may be adopted for ail language programs regardless of their specific environmental constraints and features unless it could be hypothesized that this set lends itself readily to operate variously in different complex human contexts. This is of course impossible for obvious reasons which we

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will not need to enumerate or discuss here as they are not open to debate or at issue any longer. A set of variables needs, therefore, to exhibit in a dear manner some distinct and distinctive subsets which could be chosen for the processing of every specific situation. In other words, the specificity of programs can be dealt with only with a set of variables that can be adapted to the long and short-term objectives of the program as perceived and expressed by the various parties involved. Furthermore, the variables will also be chosen and determined according to the different purposes both of the program and the evaluation. An illustration of the former option would be, for instance, to adopt the evaluation nomenclatures proposed by Jen Nowakowski et al in their A Handbook to Evaluational variables: A Guide to Evaluation or D. Royce Saddler's work. In this handbook, the following variables are defined and recommended for the evaluation of "speaking and listening", "reading", "writing", and "study skills". Speaking and listening: mechanics of speech - spoken vocabulary - speaking for conversation - speaking for presentation - listening for facts/ information -listening for richness of meaning Reading: word recognition - word usage - vocabulary - syntax - critical comprehension - comprehension - foreign 1anguages Writing: spelling - punctuation - mechanics of sentences - written communication - symbolic systems in writing - foreign languages Study skills outlining and summarizing – note-taking - use of reference materials and books - use of library The first observation I can make is that my own search for possible criteria for the evaluation of these "skills" has yielded, to say it in a neutral way, a different categorization of the criteria according to which language programs are evaluated. That is to say, that the categories suggested above do not take into consideration the relativity of importance and relevance of the criteria. Moreover, the definitions given to each of the skills and the criteria, although I myself may have no problems accepting them, do not necessarily correspond to those given by the various stakeholders. Some examples of the discrepancies between the definitions of the evaluation criteria identified in the guide and those of the stakeholders in the Moroccan educational system are as follows. In the paragraph introducing reading variables, it is stated that "components of reading include associating meanings and sounds to the written letters or the graphic symbols of language and larger units of symbols such as sentences and paragraphs" (p.35). (emphasis mine). This statement implies that any evaluation of reading would have to assess in some way the ability of the student to associate "sounds to the written letters or the graphic symbols of language". Not only is there no research to support or document any positive correlation between the ability to associate sound to the graphic symbols of language and the ability to process written discourse for comprehension or instrumental purposes, but there is a general consensus among language learning and teaching professionals that voicing while reading might reduce the ability to process written discourse. To make a statement like the one just quoted above would reveal either the lack of expertise in the field of language learning and teaching or allegiance to some marginal theory for which there is no general professional consensus, at least in Morocco. In either case, this would be enough to deter us from a total reliance on

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prefabricated evaluation models. Above all, there seems to be in the identification of the components of the reading and writing processes a duality in the definition of some skills or sub skills which tends to weaken their potential validity as measuring criteria of a given performance or competence. This duality may be illustrated by the inclusion, for instance, of the "word usage" criterion under the "reading" category. Moreover, no reference is made to any research which supports the inclusion of this criterion in the battery of criteria identifying reading competence. In other words, no effort is made to document the argument that usage in general is -or can be- an indicator of reading competence. The irrelevance of the criterion "word usage" under this category becomes more serious when it is analysed into its components which are also to be used as indicators of reading competence. Such components include "creating new words by the use of suffix and prefix" (p.35). Other examples such as “generation of compound words” “use of figures of speech, idiomatic expressions, and slang expressions”, "use of variations of the basic sentence patterns", "use of both passive and active forms of sentences" are also proposed under various components of reading enabling skills for use in the evaluation of reading competence while, it seems to me, they might be more appropriately used as indicators either or both of writing and speaking competence. The purpose of the above discussion is not to criticize or point out some aspects of an educational evaluation model, which would require a more detailed analysis of ail the sections of the book, but to support the argument developed above that it would not be possible to adopt any ready- made model without first scrutinizing it, criticizing it and adapting it to the environment to be evaluated. The other set of criteria I would like to 100k at are those suggested by D. Royce Saddler. Although Saddler s concern is not specifically with program evaluation, but with academic achievement, his arguments hold also for my own purpose. Saddler argues that “judgements about quality are defended by referring characteristics of the object to criteria and standards external to the object” (1983:65). Another level of language program evaluation is the extent to which the expressed objectives of the program are the actual goals of the implementation instruments. By implementation instruments, I mean, in this context, all the organized educational and political efforts, investments, and resources capitalized for the achievement of the expressed objectives. To illustrate, I give the hypothetical example of a language program which specifies that some of its long- term objectives are to develop skills, competencies, abilities, which make it possible for its learners to (i) share their own life experience with the world at large, and (ii) to have access to scientific written materials printed in the target language. Of course one could imagine some tests which could measure the extent to which a learner has mastered such skills or developed such competencies. The problem however, is not whether the learner has developed these skills, but whether these skills are really necessary (i) for the expressed objective, and (ii) whether the expressed objective is the most efficient alternative for achieving the goal of accessing science and technology. It might be argued, for instance, that a translation of documents in the target language into the native language, or another language, could be a more efficient alternative. This is to say that before launching assessments of the degree to which an objective has been met or not, the relevance of the objective, its socio-economic and political reality and its various impacts and implications should be determined.

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To recapitulate the hypothetical example, for the objective of developing competencies related to expressing one's ideas, opinions, and sharing them with the world at large to be meaningfu1 and to have a socio-political reality and not an ideological one, the educational environment as well as the socio-economic and political context in which it is defined and it operates needs to tolerate freedom of speech, to provide opportunities of sharing ideas, and to make scientific reading materials available to the learners both during the learning stage and after they have learned. Such objectives would be mere ideologies should the educational and the political system not secure these minimal conditions. In this case, evaluation of the extent to which objectives are met will be an exercise in the absurd and at best a waste of time, energy, and funds. As a matter of fact, it has been pointed out tome, both by language teachers and students at the various levels, that mastery of French or English does not mean the ability to share or express one's ideas when even the physical possibility of meeting native country and the countries whose languages are mastered. The difficulties of getting a passport and the impossibility of getting a visa to these countries militate against these objectives. The goals of learning foreign languages in Morocco are therefore inherently different from those expressed in official documents. They need to be identified. CONCLUSION In this presentation, I have surveyed and discussed some of the major issues of language program evaluation, given some illustrations. of the limitations of using ready-made criteria, and of taking programs and their objectives for granted. I have also mentioned some ethical considerations related to the practice of evaluation and which, I have observed, some foreign agencies do not respect, at least in Morocco. To recapitulate the leading argument of this presentation, evaluation is a practice that cannot be dissociated from the various stages of a language educational program. It is, or has to be, an integral part of the initial decision making processes which select which language(s) to use for which educational function, as well as the stages of identifying and expressing the various goals and objectives of each language, operationalizing the goals and objectives into syllabi, teaching materials, testing instruments, methodological approaches, research concerns, etc. In all cases, evaluation will have therefore to seek to document not only the impacts of a program after it has been implemented, but more importantly, It will have to draw from available expertise, experience, concerns of ail the stakeholders and constituents of the educational enterprise to document future behaviour of a program as well. As such, the major role of evaluation will not be to correct errors after they have been made but to avoid making them beforehand. Editor's Note: The following is a selected bibliography for Mr Zaki’s paper, which was "Faxed" to us from the US. As can be noticed, it does not contain some of the works referred to in the text while it Contains others. Be this as it may, we are publishing it in toto because of the general nature of the paper and the wealth of information which the bibliography provides as regards issues in evaluation. (J. SAIB)

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BIB LIOGRAPHY Cronbach, L. (1982) Designing Evaluations of Educational and Social Programs. San Fran cisco : Jossey Bass. Cronbach et al (1980) Toward reform of program evaluation. San Francisco : Jossey Bass. Fetterman, D. M. (1988) Qualitative Approaches to Evaluation in Education. New York: Praeger. Goetz, J.P.; Le Compte, M. D. (1984) Ethnography and Qualitative Design in Educational Research. London : Academic Press, Inc. Creene, J. (1985) Triangulation in evaluation : design and analysis Issues". In Evaluation Review. Vol. 9 N05.pp 523-545. Guba, E.C. (1990) The Paradigm Dialog. London: Sage. Cuba, E.C. and Lincoln Y.S. (1981) Effective Evaluation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (1985) Naturalistic Inquiry. London : Sage. House, E.R. (1983) Philosophy of Evaluation New Directions for program Evaluation. San Francisco: Sage. Jorgensen, L.D. (1989) Participant Observation :A Methodology for Human Studies. London: Sage. Kennedy M.M. (1983) “The role of the In-house evaluator”. Evaluation Review 7:23-24 Murray, A.C. (1983) "Stakeholders as Deck Chairs'. In A.S. Bryk(ed.) Stakeholders-Based- Evaluation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Parlette, M. and Hamilton, D. (1978) Evaluation as illumination A new Approach to the study of Innovatory Programmes. In D. Hamilton et al. (eds.). Beyond the numbers Came. London: MacMillan Patton, M.Q. (1982)) Practical Evaluation. Beverly Hills, CA : Sage. Reichardt, C.S. and Cook, T.D. (1979) "Beyond qualitative versus quantitative method". In T.D. Cook and C.S. Reichardt (eds.) Qualitative and quantitative methods inevaluation Research. Beverly Hills, CA : Sage. - (1986) Utilization Focused Evaluation (2nd edition) Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. - (1988) "The evaluator's responsibility for evaluation". Evaluation Practice 9(2): 5-24. Ross, J.A. (1985) "Program Evaluation as problem Solving" .Evaluation Review Vol. 9, N06. 659-679. Shadish, W.R.Jr. and Epstein, R. (1987) "Patterns of program evaluation Practice Among Members of the evaluation research Society and evaluation Network". Evaluation Review, Vol. 11 N05, October. pp. 555-590. Sage Publications, Inc. Sieber, S.D. (1973) 'The integration of field work and survey methods". American Journal of Sociology 78:135-159. Scriven, M. (1980) The Logic of Evaluation. Inverness, CA : Edgepress. Skaburskis, A. (1987) "Research and managerial strategies for integrating evaluation research into agency decision making". Evaluation Review. Vol. 11,5: 612-630. Stake, E.R. (1975) Evaluating the Arts in education: a responsiveness Approach. Columbus, Ohio : Merril. -(1983) "Stakeholder influence in the Evaluation of Cities-in-Schools". In A.S. Bryk (ed.) Stakeholder-Based-Evaluation. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass. Stufflebeam, D.L. et al. (1971) Educational Evaluation and decision Making. Ithaca, Illinois: Peacock. Stufflebeam, D.L. (1972) "Should or can evaluation be goal-free". Evaluation Comment. 4:3. Stufflebeam, D.L., and WJ. Webster (1980) "An analysis of alternative approaches to evaluation". Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 2(3): 5-20.

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Stufflebeam, D.L. (1983) Task Force on Education For Economic Crowth. Action for excellence. Denver, CO: Education Committee of the State. Trend, M.C. (1979) "On the reconciliation of qualitative and quantitative analyses: a case study". In T.D. Cook and C.S. Reichardt (eds.) Qualitative and quantitative methods in evaluation Research. Beverly Hills, CA : Sage. Weiss, C.H. (1972)Evaluation Research:methods of assessing program effectivreness. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. - (1975) "Evaluation Research in the political context". In E.L. Streuing and M. Guttentag (ed s.) Handbook of Evaluation Research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. -- (1983) 'The Stakeholder influence to the Evaluation :Origins and promise". In A.S. Bryk (ed.) Stakeholder-Based-Evaluation :New Directions for program evaluation, n0 17. San Francisco Jossey- Bass. -(1983) 'Toward the future of stakeholder approachs in evaluation". In A.S. Bryk(ed.) Stakeholder-Based-Evaluation. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass. Wooldridge, R.J. (1981) Evaluation of Complex Systems :Neo Directions for program Evalu-ation. London : Jossey-Bass.

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PART ONE

PROGRAM PRESENTATION

AND EVALUATION

SECTION 2

PRESENTATION AND EVALUATION OF PROGRAMS (GENERAL)

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AN EVALUATIVE REPORT ON THE ELT OBJECTIVES AT THE UNIVERSITY: A FOCUS ON THE LEARNER

Moha ENNAJI

Faculty of Letters, Fès, Morocco INTRODUCTION This paper intends to evaluate the aims and objectives of teaching and learning English in Departments of English in Morocco, with a specific focus on the learner's needs. A word about the terminology to be used is in order. I distinguish three types of objectives following Widdowson (1978), Jonhson (1982) and Belfkih and Melouk (1985). First, aims are longterm expectations set out by officials in Higher Education. Second, goals which are mid4erm expectations are establi5hed by ELT decision-makers and professionals. Third, objectives are short-term expectations determined by the teachers of the different disciplines. The latter are pedagogic in nature and are concerned with the implementation of the EFL programme. The organisation of this paper is as follows. It will first highlight the aims, goals and objectives of teaching and learning English at the University. Second, I shall examine students' needs on the basis of a questionnaire administered to students in the English Department, at the Faculty of Letters, Fez. The last section is concerned with the analysis of the data and the discussion of aims, goals and objectives, on the one hand, and students' needs and interests, on the other. I. AIMS, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES The aims of teaching English in Higher Education at the national level are both socio-economic and educational; more specifically, English, like other university subjects, is taught for teaching, communicative, cultural and research purposes (cf. Plan quinquennal 1981-1985, MEN 1984:1). To achieve these aims, students are trained in the different skills which are meant to develop their intellectual abilities and prepare them for a professional occupation ("formation des cadres"). However, with the scarcity of jobs nowadays, this aim is not easy to attain, at least for the majority of English students. This new situation has led many decision-makers and teachers in the ELT profession to become doubtful about the practicality of such an aim. The remaining aims of ELT at the University are practically socio-cultural. English studies participate in the process of enlightenment, promotion of the intellect and knowledge of the world in addition to facilitating socio-cultural exchanges with English-speaking countries.

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In English Departments, English is taught for general and academic purposes given its status as a language of international communication (see Fishman 1977). In other words, English, which is studied in order; to facilitate the acquisition and transfer of scientific and academic knowledge, is considered as a win4ow on the developed world. In the last thirty years, Departments of English participated directly in the training of teachers at secondary and university levels. Today, with the economic recession, only few English graduates can find teaching jobs throughout the country. Many students have opted for English mainly for integrative purposes, i.e. for cultural purposes (see the last section). They are interested in developing their knowledge of the English language and culture. Rare are the graduates who end up doing research in English, unless they are fortunate enough to find a vacancy in a new English Department or go abroad for a post-graduate degree. As to course objectives, they can be divided into first cycle and second cycle objectives. In the first cycle - which lasts two years - students are trained in the four skills in order to enable them to communicate effectively in English A survey of the different course descriptions; in the Department of English in Fez reveals that written skills have more weight than the oral skills in terms of time allocation and the modes of assessment. For example, in first year, oral skills are allotted four hours per week, while written ones are allotted ten hours. As far as assessment is concerned, the oral subjects are tested only after students have passed the written exams; the latter are usually tested during long hours while the oral subjects are tested relatively quickly. Thus, on the whole, the first cycle courses serve as a general background for the study of English literature and linguistics. In the second cycle, in which studies last two more years, English studies are intended to develop the training that students were given in the first cycle and develop students' knowledge and intellectual abilities. Literature, linguistics, composition and introductions to research, and translation courses are introduced to provide students with a more solid background in English by developing fluency and accuracy. This cycle also aims at giving the student an insight into the different components of language, linguistics and literature as academic subjects of study. This amounts to stating that, in the second cycle, emphasis is basically on content courses except for two courses (translation and composition) which are taught to develop the written skill in English and to introduce students to research methods. A close look at the ELT curriculum at the university shows that the cultural component is obviously present as an implicit element of the programme. Thus, British and American literature and civilisation are taught because the students need to immerse in the socio-cultural context of English, in order to develop their awareness and understanding of the Anglo-American literature, life and institutions. At this point, the teacher plays the role of a cross-cultural interpreter" (Loveday,1982:49). English studies at the university require an important amount of cross-cultural awareness which is necessary to enable the students to come to grips with the different cultural features of the English and American language communities, on the one hand, and to bring students to a stage where they can use the language to express their own feelings and experiences in their own culture and way of life. This awareness of cross-cultural differences will no doubt make English cease to be a vehicle of an "alien culture" (Loveday, 1982:49). The African literature course, which was introduced in 1973, is taught in the third year. It serves the purpose of developing an understanding of the African culture and the Anglo-American culture. In the same vein, English students also take classes in Arabic and Islamic

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thought, and can choose to write their fourth year monograph on a topic related to Moroccan or African culture. A survey of the monograph topics selected by fourth year students reveals students' interest in comparative literature and linguistics. On another level, course objectives refer to the syllabus implemented at the university and serve as a means for outlining the content of the various courses, the teaching and learning procedures, as well as the mode of assessment of students' achievement. The course descriptions and objectives stress the aims shared by the teachers of the same subjects. Course objectives are the teachers' responsibility. It is the teacher's task to clarify these course objectives to their students at the beginning of the academic year. Course descriptions and objectives are important for the evaluation of teachers' requirements and expectations, as well as for the assessment of students' progress. In addition, course descriptions and objectives are useful in two ways: first, they help students understand the relevance and the interdependence of the different subjects (e.g. the interconnection between civilisation and literature, linguistics and literature, translation and linguistics, etc.); second, course descriptions and objectives indicate to students the method of evaluation used in the final exam. At any rate, course objectives must take into account students' needs and interests. II. STUDENTS' NEEDS Students' needs are often taken for granted and thus are neglected (cf. Marris, 1964). To understand and meet students' needs, we must know their motives for studying English at the university level before embarking on any reform or any discussion of the aims and goals of English at the university, or before deciding on the activities and means to put these aims into practice. In this regard, I administered a questionnaire to students in the English Department in Fès. The purpose was (i) to determine students' viewpoints and reasons for studying English and (ii) to elicit their attitudes and reactions to the aims, goals and objectives of studying English as set out by officials, ELT decision-makers, and teachers. It is hoped that students' responses will shed light on the motivation for their interest in English and on the language skills they favour. Their responses will also reveal to us the extent to which students know what they are expected to learn and the way in which they will be assessed in the exam. II.1. The data Four groups of students were administered the same questionnaire: a first year group of 156 students, a second year group of 52 students, a third year group of 75 students, and a fourth year group of 71 students. I chose to administer the questionnaire to first year students because (a) they have just joined the Department, and (b) the reasons why they have chosen to study English are still fresh in their minds, and (c) above ail, they have their own expectations of the different courses. The fourth year students' participation in the survey was meant to see whether their experience as students in the English Department has been fruitful, and whether they have realized the objectives which they set out to attain before joining the university. Fourth year students may

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also be in a good position to express their own needs and interests (academic and professional) and give their judgements about the current programme, or state clearly whether it is close or too distant from their own needs and goals. The first part of the questionnaire, which was about students motives for studying English, included twelve reasons. The students were asked to agree or disagree with these statements by circling the number which corresponded to their answers. The students' responses were added up and retrieved. The first type of question concerned the integrative or cultural reasons, the second the instrumental motives, and the third the importance of the four skills. The second part of the questionnaire addressed the issue of course objectives. This part was meant to elicit students' awareness of the objectives of teaching the different courses and to determine whether these objectives are close to their learning needs and interests.

III. RESULTS AND SUGGESTIONS

III.1. Results In this section, we will loo at students' responses to the different questions that they were asked. These results and responses are displayed on the tables below for ease of exposition. The question: what are your motives for studying English at the university? Table 1: first year student's responses to the above question no st.disag. disag. optn. agr. st.agr. tot. 1.To be familiar with the cultures 1% 6% 16% 50% 26% 99% and institutions of English speaking countries 2.To help develop cultural 5% 10% 26% 43% 15% 99% and educational exchanges with other countries 3.To help develop economic 15% 21% 42% 16% 6% 100% exchanges with countries 4.To be able to get a job 8% 7% 13% 37% 35%. 100% 5.To become a teacher 12% 20% 29% 26% 12% 99% 6.To become a researcher 8% 19% 40% 23% 10% 100% 7.To become an interpreter 5% 12% 33% 29% 21% 100% 8.To become an administrator 13% 24% 39% 16% 8% 100% 9.To further my studies ,abroad 3% 4% 11% 29% 52% 99% 10.To rend and understand 5% 12% 33% 29% 21% 100% material written in English 11.To speak to and 13% 24% 39% 16% 8% 100% understand foreigners 12.To Write or do 3% 4% 11% 29% 52% 99% scientific research in English

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According to these statistics, the majority of students either agree (50%) or strongly agree (26%) on the idea that they are studying English to develop their awareness and understanding of the cultures and institutions of English speaking countries; a total of 59% also agree that English may help develop educational and cultural exchanges with other countries This table shows that a total of 72% agree that they study English to be able to find a good job. 29% agree and 52% strongly agree that they chose English to be able to pursue their studies abroad. On another level, first year students seem to favour the oral skills over the written ones. As items 10 and 11 on table I show, the ability to speak and understand foreigners is rated highest by 88% of respondents while the ability to read written material occupies a second place for 79% of respondents. Here are a few remarks made by first year respondents: "I study English to understand technological material... to read instructions on TV booklets, for example"; "...because I really do like English". Table 2: Second year students' reasons for studying English no st.disag. disag. opin. agr. st.agr. Tot. 1.To be familiar with 0% 2% 10% 54% 34% 100% the cultures and institutions of English-speaking countries 2.To help develop cultural and 2% 4% 19% 50% 25% 100% educational exchanges with other countries 3.To he1p develop economic 13% 19% 42% 23% 2% 99% exchanges with countries 4.To be able to get a job 2% 4% 15% 29% 50% 100% 5.To become a teacher 6% 17% 31% 21% 25% 100% 6.To become a researcher 2% 10% 34% a7% 17% 100% 7.To become an interpreter 2% 8% 21% 29% 40% 100% 8.To become an administrator 4% 25% 29% 23% 19% 100% 9.To further my studies abroad 0% 2% 6% 31% 61% 109% 10.To read and understand 2% 6% 8% 44% 40% 100% material written in English 11.To speak to and understand 6% 4% 6% 48% 36% 100% foreigners 12.To write or do scientific 15% 29% 34% 13% 8% 99% research in English Table 2 presents evidence that a majority (88%) of second year students study English to become familiar with the cultures, literatures and institutions of English-speaking countries. 75% choose English to help develop cultural and educational links with other countries, and 79% agree that they study English to be trained for a good job. While 36% would like to become teachers, a total of 69% hope to become interpreters. Second year students are clearly very keen on pursuing their studies abroad since a total of 92% state that they chose English to facilitate furthering their studies in an English peaking country. Concerning the skills, a total of 85% of students favour the reading ones and the same percentage also gives the same weight to the oral ones. However, only a total of 21% of respondents either agree or strongly agree that they chose English to be able to write in this language or do research. This low rate

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may be explained by the fact that, perhaps, it is too early for second year students to know whether they can write or do research in English. Now, let us look at the third students' reasons for studying English. Table 3: Third year students' motives for studying English no st.disag. disag. opin. agr. st.agr. Tot. 1 To be familiar with the 5% 5% 8% 53% 28% 99% cultures and institutions of English-speaking Countries 2.To help develop cultural 7% 8% 23% 44% 18% 100% and educational exchanges with other countries 3.To help develop economic 21% 27% 37% 8% 7% 100% exchanges with countries 4.To be able to get a job 7% 7% 8% 33% 45% 100% 5.To become a teacher 3% 5% 21% 41% 29% 99% 6.To become a researcher 2% 7% 5% 46% 39% 99% 7.To become an interpreter 4% 8% 7% 40% 41% 100% 8.To become an administrator 20% 19% 39% 18% 4% 100% 9.To further my studies abroad 9% 13% 24% 39% 15% 100% 10.To read and understand 4% 9% 31% 32% 24% 100% material written in English 11.To speak to and 5% 20% 31% 25% 19% 100% understand foreigners 12.To Write or do scientific 20% 19% 39% 18% 4% 100% research in English As table 3 shows, third year students as well study English for cultural and instrumental purposes. 81% of them agree that they study this language to become familiar with the cultures and institutions of English-speaking countries. 63% chose English as an option to facilitate cultural and educational exchanges with other countries But only 15% say they study English to help develop economic exchanges with other countries. Concerning the instrumen-tal purpose, 79% of respondents have answered that they study English to be able to find a good job. Most of these students (53%) would like to join the teaching profession and 56% think that English studies would help them become interpreters. Additionally, 53% say that English would help them study abroad later. As for the importance of the skills, 56% of respondents think that English would help them read and understand material written in this language, against 44% who say that they are mainly interested in acquiring the ability to speak and understand English speakers. But, surprisingly, only 23% of students state that their main purpose for studying English is to be able to write or do scientific research in this language. Let us, for the sake of comparison, look at the feedback of fourth year students concerning the question of motives for studying English.

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Table 4: Fourth year students' motives for Studying English No st.disag. disag. opin. agr. st.agr. Tot. 1.Tobefamiliarwiththe 4% 6% 7% 76% 7% 100% cultures and institutions of English-speaking countries 2.To help develop cultural and 4% 8% 24% 54% 10% 100% educational exchanges with other countries exchanges with countries 4.To be able to get a job 4% 8% 8% 48% 31% 99% 5.To become a teacher 4% 11% 15% 46% 23% 100% 6.To become a researcher 6% 21% 28% 27% 18% 100% 7.To become an interpreter 8% 17% 38% 28% 8% 99% 8.To become an administrator 10% 28% 32% 23% 7% 100% 9.To further my studies abroad 6% 4% 10% 46% 34% 100% 10.To read and understand 0% 5% 6% 51% 38% 100% material written in English 11.Tospeaktoand 1% 11% 4% 55% 28% 99% understand foreigners 12.Towriteordo 15% 23% 27% 21% 14% 100% scientific research in English Table 4 shows that 83% of fourth year students study English to learn about the way of life and institutions of Eng1ish speaking countries, and that 63% of them would like to help cultural and educational links with these countries. But only 14% think that they study English to contribute to the development of economic exchanges with other countries. Fourth year students also study English for utilitarian purposes: 79% state that they chose English to be in a position to find a good job. 69% of the respondents are hoping to become teachers, as compared to 30% who think they would like to become administrators. The majority of students (80%) think that English can help them to further their studies abroad. Concerning the language skills, 89% of respondents give much weight to the reading skills and to comprehension, while 83% state that they are mainly interested in developing their oral skills. A lower rate of 35% of respondents state that one of the reasons for their studying English is to be able to write or do research in this language. From the statistics above, it seems that fourth year students are aware of the role of English in furthering one's studies abroad as 80% of them answered that they chose to study English in order to be able to pursue their studies abroad. In connection with the readings skills, 89% of fourth year students agree that they are crucial for their studies. Further, while fourth year students seem to give nearly equal value to the reading and speaking skills, third year students clearly give more weight to the reading ones (56% of third year students think English is useful to read and understand written English texts, whereas only 44% of them think English can enable them to speak to and understand foreigners). By way of contrast, 39% and 38% of both years think that their objective is to be

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able to write in English or do research in English. For the sake of illustration, here are a few statements made by fourth year students: "Now I don't know whether I’ll be fascinated by scientific research or not. This may be after having a job, but now, because books are rarely easily found; and if found they are expensive. As a student, I cannot cope with it." Another student wrote: "I'm studying English because I feel comfortable and at ease when I'm doing so." The second part of the questionnaire, which was about course objectives, included six questions. At first look, it is obvious that for most students, the aims and objectives of the different courses are not very clear. Let us examine the answers and percentages. Question 1: Are the aims and objectives of the different courses clear to you?

Table 5: Students' reaction to question 1 not very clear very no really little enough clear opin. Tot. F1.rst year 23% 23% 44% 7% 3% 100% Second year 6% 40% 42% 10% 2% 100% First year 15% 24% 52% 8% 1% 100% Fourth year 20% 25% 46% 7% 1% 99% This table shows that course objectives are not very clear for the students: only 7% of first year students, 10% of second year, 8% of third year and 7% of fourth year students think that the course objectives are very clear to them. The majority of respondents consider that they are clear enough for them (44% in first year, and 46% in fourth year). This is then a problem which can be resolved if teachers clarified their course objectives a bit more. Now, let us proceed to the second question. Question 2: Can these aims and objectives be reached in the expected time limits? Table 6: Students' reaction to question 2 never rarely don't know sometimes often Tot. First year 6% 10% 44% 36% 4% 100% Second year 4% 15% 33% 40% 8% 100% First year 8% 22% 17% 45% 7% 99% Fourth year 4% 21% 24% 42% 8% 99% Table 6 illustrates that not many students think that the course aims and objectives can often be attained within the expected time limits: only 4% in first year, 8% in second year, 7% in third year and 8% in fourth year think that they can often be reached. In the first year,44% of students don’t know whether these objectives can be reached at ail. This is understandable because they have only begun their studies at the university, and cannot imagine yet whether these aims are attainable in the required time.

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Question 3: In what way do these course objectives help you? Table 7: Students' reaction to question 3 to to pass learn the exam none of these Total First year 59% 33% 8% 99% Second year 52% 37% 11% 100% First year 28% 61% 11% 100% fourth year 46% 49% 4% 100% Thus, it is clear that most students are aware of the usefulness of the course objectives. 59% of first year respondents think that the aims and objectives stated in course descriptions or by the teachers can help them mainly to learn, while only 33% of them feel that they are helpful to pass the exam. About the same learning process, only a very low percentage of students think that these course objectives cannot help in any way. Question 4: What are the aims and objectives of the different courses centered on? Table 8: Students' reaction to question 4 the the the teaching teacher learner material Total First year 38% 19% 42% 99% Second year 27% 31% 42% 100% Third year 35% 20% 45% 100% Fourth year 31% 18% 51% 100% This table illustrates that the majority of students consi4er the aims and objectives of the different courses to be centered on teaching materials such as textbooks, handouts, etc. Only 19% of respondents in first year, 31% in second year, 20% in third year, and 18% in fourth year think that the aims and objectives are centered on the students. A great number of respondents think that these objectives are centered primarily on the teaching material and secondarily on the teacher. Question 5: What do you think English studies are relevant for? Table 9: Students' reaction to question 5 training developing one's learning for a job intellect Total First year 26% 26% 52% 100% Second year 21% 21% 62% 100% Third year 27% 27% 54% 100% Fourth year 24% 31% 45% 100% Table 9 shows that only 26% of all students think their English studies are relevant to their training for a good job. This low percentage can be accounted for by two factors: (i) the

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students realise that their English syllabus does not directly aim at training them for jobs in the future, and (ii) they are aware of the scarcity of job opportunities. These two factors led most students (53%) to state that English is relevant mainly for developing their intellectual ability. By contrast, only 21% of the total of students find the English programme to be relevant to their learning needs. This weak percentage may be ascribed to the lack of clarity in the course objectives. Question 6: To what extend are you satisfied with the different English courses? Table 10: Students’ responses to question 6 not don't very satisfied satisfied know satisfied Total First year 26% 54% 13% 6% 99% Second year 12% 61% 17% 10% 100% Third year 31% 56% 8% 5% 100% Fourth year 27% 66% 7% 0% 100% Here we notice that most students are satisfied with the content and methodology of teaching the different courses. 54% in the first year, 61%.in the second year, 56% in the third year and 66% in the fourth year. However, very few students are very satisfied: 6% in the first year, 10% in the second year, 5% in the third year and nobody in the fourth year. This low percentage is perhaps due to the difficult working conditions, poor library facilities and other amenities. The following statements made by fourth year respondents confirm the statistics above: - "I must confess that Some teachers are really helpful; others (few) are not really helpful!". "..it 15 the appropriate method that we lack in this university. Courses are taught at random." "I hope that some teachers get to understand that the teaching method 15 very crucial to the student." "..students are not encouraged to go beyond the syllabus." III.2. Suggestions From the survey presented in detail above, we can derive the following remarks and suggestions. First, students opt for English for academic purposes (cultural or integrative in the loose sense of the word) and utilitarian (instrumental) purposes. The survey sheds light on students' general needs, and interests which are basically. learning needs, academic needs1 and utilitarian needs. The teachers' task 15 to fulfil students' learning and academic needs as much as possible. Students' utilitarian needs may be met if both university teachers and decision-makers at a higher level can introduce new aims and goals for. teaching English. The project of a D.E.U.S. (Diplôme des Etudes Universitaires Spécialisées), which the Ministry of Education 15 planning to implement at the university level, 15 geared towards this aim. But if we are to train students to enable them to find appropriate jobs, then the English programme must be reviewed and adapted to these needs; the teaching staff also must receive adequate training for the new tasks. Second, I suggest that course descriptions and objectives be made clear and be explicitly explained to the students. As the survey shows, many students are neither aware of the objectives of teaching the different English subjects, nor of the way these subjects will be assessed at the end of the year.

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Third, the various course objectives must be learner- centered because, after ail, the efforts made by the administration and by the teachers evolve around the student who 15 the learning target Teachers are, then, invited to get closer to students as a first step towards meeting their learning, academic and utilitarian needs. Courses must be devised with the aims, objectives and the students' needs in mind. IV. CONCLUSION As a conclusion to this paper, I would like to state that the taught courses and their objectives must be re-examined and adapted to students' integrative (cultural) and instrumental (utilitarian) needs. Officials in Higher Education are also invited to revise the aims and goals of teaching English in Moroccan universities to make them compatible with the new needs and facts of the Moroccan society, by introducing, for example, a course in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in Faculties of Letters, designed for students who may choose a career in the administration or in the private sector. I do not claim that knowledge of English for general or specific purposes will guarantee jobs for students, but it will certainly prepare them to face the new socio-economic needs of this country. Additionally, I would like to draw teachers' attention to the importance of explaining course descriptions and objectives, as well as the modes of assessment of every course, to students at the very beginning of the academic year. As a matter of fact, even the objectives of each lecture must be made clear to the students. This move will help us focus on the learners' needs and achievement, thereby reaching our teaching objectives in the expected time limits. If these remarks and suggestions are taken into consideration, then improvements can be made, and significant headway can be made in the teaching-learning process. REFERENCES Belfkih, C. and Mellouk, M. (1985). "Aims, goals and objectives: some theoretical considerations". In An Evaluative Survey of English Language Teaching in Morocco. Rabat: A Special Publication of Attadris. pp. 38-45. Fishman, J.A., Cooper, R.L. and Conrad, A.W. (1977). The Spread of English. Rowley, Mass: Newbury House. Johnson, K. (1982). Communicative Syllabus Design and Methodology. Lon don: Pergamon Press. Loveday, L. (1982). The sociolinguistics of Learning and using a non-native language. Lon-don: Pergamon Press. Marris, (1964). The Experience of Higher Education. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Ouakrime, M. (1986). English Language Teaching in Higher Education in Morocco: An Evaluation of the Fes. Experience. Ph.D. Dissertation. Institute of Education, University of London. Widdowson, H.G. (1978). Teaching Language as Communication. London: Oxford University Press.

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37

ELT IN TUNISIA: EVALUATION OF THREE SETTINGS

Ridha SALHI Faculty of Letters,

Tunis

INTRODUCTION :THE LINGUISTIC SITUATION IN TUNISIA The aim of the paper is to investigate ELT in throe different settings in Tunisia, namely, the Pioneer English School, the Faculty of Letters in Tunis, and the Bourguiba Institute for Modem Languages. The first article of the 1957 Constitution states that Arabic is the language of the country. This is true to a large extent as no mention is made of the Arabic diglossia (Modem Standard Arabic versus Tunisian Arabic), or Berber. There are no figures about the community of Berber speakers, but they are considered to represent less than one percent (1%) of the total population. French, because of historical and cultural reasons, has a special status and functions as a second language whereas English is the first foreign language. 1. ELT IN SECONDARY EDUCATION In the minds of the Tunisian officials, English is viewed as an open window onto the outside world and a means of cultural enrichment. It is taught to ail students from the 4th year to the 7th year. In the last two years, German, Spanish and Italian were re4ntroduced as optional foreign languages. 1.1. The English Pioneer School (1981-1988) In the beginning of the 1980s, it was decided to create a pioneer secondary school where English would be the medium of instruction for all subjects. For the decision-makers, such a decision was motivated by the need of Tunisia for highly qualified graduates. In the context of relative economic growth, and the then-fashionable creed of transfer of technology, the educational authorities, in 1981, set up a school to train students in sciences only. It was believed that with a Baccalaureate degree, students would be well-equipped for studies in British and American universities. Teachers were recruited and given special training. New materials were designed and produced Entrance was very selective, the system was demanding, and competition was tough, but the Baccalaureate results were excellent. However, in 1988, English was abandoned, and French was used instead as a medium of instruction. Among the reasons for going back on Such a choice was the difficulty for the Tunisian government to send all students to Britain or the USA, and the refusal of these countries to provide financial assistance. The Pioneer English School experiment, though short-lived, is a significant case study of ELT and language policy in Tunisia.

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2. ELT IN HICHER EDUCATION At university level, English is an obligatory subject in most disciplines. Whether general English, business English; English for scientific purposes or English for academic purposes, the importance of English as an instrument to advanced studies and research cannot be denied. To obtain a high score at the: TOEFL examination, a sine-qua-non condition for postgraduate studies in the USA, constitutes a further incentive and a strong motivation. 2.1. Evaluation of ELT at the Faculty of Letters, Tunis I Interest in investigating ELT at this academic institution steins from my personal working experience and the particular status of this faculty. Being the oldest - it was created in 1960 - it has developed some traditions, but also some resistance to change and innovation. Today, the department of English is facing a number of problems at the centre of which is ELI. A restructuring of the degree programme has been undertaken, and a reform project has been submitted to the authorities for approval. 2.1.1. Curriculum First Cycle First Year Second year Language: Grammar 1 hr Grammar 1 hr Composition 2 hrs Composition 2 hrs Comprehension 2 hrs Comprehension 2 hrs Lab. (phonetics and Lab. (phonetics and Listening comprehension) listening comprehension) Translation: Arabic-English Arabic-English English-Arabic or French-English English-Arabic or French-English English-French English-French Literature: Novel GB and US novel Drama Shakespeare Poetry Romantic poetry Civilisation: Life in GB GB history Life in the USA US history Arabic: 2hrs 2hrs Second Cycle Students must take 4 certificates in the English department and 1

certificate outside. - Literature certificate : GB and US Literature - Civilization certificate : GB and US civilization - Stylistics certificate : Comparative stylistics Translation: theory and practice - Linguistics certificate : Introduction to linguistics (principles and concepts) The structure of English The history of English (language change and variation) 2.1.2. Problems of ELT at the Faculty of Letters The major problem is the poor achievement as shown by examination results and a low success rate. At the first cycle this could be explained by a number of factors such as

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A. The large number of students. e.g., in 1990-1991,18 groups of 40 students in first year 8 groups of 40 students in second year B. The lack of qualified staff (call for people from secondary schools) C. The gap between secondary ELT and department curricula. D. Inappropriate syllabi (e.g.1 literature in first year and history in second year; that is, the former is too early and the latter too detailed). E. The examination system : only final year exam (June and September sessions) and students are not allowed to repeat more than one year in the first cycle. At the second cycle, however, there is no limit to repeating. Consequently, students' attendance decreases as most of them are both studying and working. Another problem is the change of syllabus as subjects change every two years. Finally, some students may have individual difficulties with subjects and therefore, they are “stuck” with them for years. To sum up, the degree course in English is long and heavy. A good deal of responsibility incumbs upon the teachers who have no clear profile of the graduates. Indeed a majority end up as teachers of English without any ELT background or teacher training. Others opt for careers in foreign affairs, civil service, business, management, banking, airline companies, and they discover that whatever ELT they have acquired is of little help in these environments. 2.1.3. Suggested solutions The major solutions seem to given even more importance to ELT by reinforcing language subjects at the expense of literature and civilization. Practically, this means allotting more time, reviewing syllabus contents, catering for the requirements of the job-market, and finally, changing the examination system. 2.2. Evaluation of ELT at the IBLV Initially, the Institut Bourguiba des Langues Vivantes" (IBLV) was a language centre created by the Ford Foundation in order to promote the teaching of English to adults in evening classes. In 1976, and under the influence of US trained linguists, the IBLV became an institution of higher education offering two English-based degrees: translation and "Maîtrise Combinée des Langues" (MCL). Translators/interpreters and graduates with vocational skills, (i.e. knowledge of English and two other languages, including Russian, Chinese and Japanese), typing, and a variety of subjects, were thought to be in demand in a job market stimulated by foreign investment and relative prosperity. Because of economic recession, however, the great expectations did not materialize. By the end of the 1970s and early 1980s, the IBLV first graduates were the first victims of unemployment. The situation remained unchanged until 1990 when it was decided to abolish the MCL degree and restructure the degree programmes. In the new reform, students are given a more solid and varied training in English to better help them meet the requirements of a competitive job market. The IBLV degrees, past and present, are evidence of the necessity to relate ELT to the changing needs and demands away from the rigid mold of the literature oriented ELT at the Faculty of Letters.

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PART ONE

PROGRAM PRESENTATION AND EVALUATION

SECTION 3

LINGUISTICS PROGRAMS

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AN EVALUATION OF THE LINGUITICS COURSES AT THE MOROCCAN UNIVERSITY LEVEL : THE CASE OF

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, FES

Fatima SADIQI

Faculty of letters, Fes, Morocco INTRODUCTION There is no doubt that linguistics, as the scientific study of language, has infiltrated practically all aspects of the English teaching profession at ail levels, particularly at the university level. As an academic discipline, linguistics deals with language as a most intrinsic aspect of human inheritance; The discipline is thus bound to be multi-faceted. As a practical discipline, linguistics affects the content, the form, and the methodology of the teaching enterprise. The present paper reflects on the nature, quantity and quality Of the linguistics courses offered in our Moroccan universities, with a special focus on the department of English at the faculty of Letters in Fes. The statements I will present are mainly based on a questionnaire l which I have recently submitted to third and fourth year students (100 students from third year and 73 students from fourth year-i.e. the fourth year linguistics group). The two sets of students are interesting in the sense that the former have already had a one-year course of introduction to linguistics, whereas the latter have not had that chance. The paper is structured as follows: the first part centers around an interpretation of the questionnaire, and the second part includes a number of recommendations based on the results of the questionnaire. 1. AN INTERPRETATION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE The questionnaire reveals a number of interesting facts: first, in spite of the fact that third year students are supposed to have benefited from a one-year course of introduction to linguistics, 66% state that they know very little of linguistics, and more surprisingly, 14% say that they have no notion whatsoever of what linguistics is about The experience of starting a course on introduction to linguistics is recent in the English department of Fès; the academic year 1990-1991 is the second year of its implementation. The course is motivated by a genuine interest in improving the linguistics standard of our students. The previous third year syllabus was felt to be too overloaded and hence chapters on the nature, role and functions of language as well as preliminary notions on phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and sociolinguistics are relegated to the introductory second year course 50 as to allow a more fruitful concentration on the third year syllabus. The fact that 68% of fourth year students say they had very little knowledge of what linguistics is when they first came to third year, and the fact that 21% of these students say they had no idea of what linguistics is about when they first came to third year is understandable because these students did not have the chance to benefit from the introduction

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to linguistics course. The second thing which the questionnaire reveals is that there does not seem to be a gap-bridging between the academic aspect of linguistics as a discipline and the expectations of the students. 60% of third year students and 49% of fourth year students' find linguistics difficult because the terminology used in the discipline is too confusing. 17% of third year students and 8.2% of fourth year students blame the teachers for this state of affairs. Only 2% of third year students and 0% of fourth year students say they are not interested in the topic. 11% of third year students and 6.8% of fourth year students say they do not see the aims of linguistics but would like to do 50. The third fact that the questionnaire reveals is extremely important from the point of view of this paper. No less than 90% of third year students express their wish to be given examples from the languages they know 2. As to fourth year students, 97.2% express the same wish. The two percentages are huge and very significant Most students in both third and fourth years think that such examples will make them understand the linguistics concepts better. In the fourth year, students think that examples from other languages than English will allow them to feel more confident and more prepared to indulge in linguistic research later. I must add here that 26% of third year students and 13.6% of fourth year students consider the three answers under the fourth question3 as being relevant On the other hand, only 10% of third year students and 2.7% of fourth year students state that such examples will create confusion in their minds and hence hamper their learning. The fourth fact that the questionnaire reveals is that a good percentage of students in both third and fourth years think that linguistics is linked to their socio-cultural background including their family background. 52% of third year students and 63% of fourth year students hold this view. This is significant in the case of third year students as these have not done enough linguistics to sec the links between this field and the socio-cultural aspects of their environment. The fifth interpretation of the questionnaire shows that of the motivating factors, students think that the topic, i.e. linguistics, is by far the most important one: 51% of third year students and 36.9% of fourth year students think 50. I should add to this that 10% of third year students and 24.5% of fourth year students consider the teacher, the topic, the books and the job opportunities as equally motivating factors. What is significant here is that only 9% of third year students and 2.7% of fourth year students think that books alone are a source Of motivation for learning linguistics. The sixth conclusion to be drawn from the questionnaire is that no lessthan88% of third year students and 98.6% of fourth year students say they have a positive attitude towards linguistics. Only 7% of third year students and 0% of fourth year students say they have a negative attitude to wards linguistics. Furthermore, 5% of third year students and 1.3% of fourth year students say they have a neutral attitude towards linguistics. The percentages are understandable so far as fourth year students are concerned because these have chosen the linguistics option; however, the extremely high percentage of the third year students who say they have a positive attitude towards linguistics is rather surprising as these students have still the opportunity to opt for literature. Likewise, this high percentage does not correlate with the fact that 60% of the same group of students state. that linguistics is a difficult discipline. At the end of this section dealing with the interpretation Of the questionnaire, I would like to

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add that the eighth question is, in actual fact, meant for fourth year students only. I was personally curious to know what possible uses of linguistics students had in mind. The following is a list of such uses which I gathered from fourth year students' answers4: - Linguistics is useful for the study of other languages - Linguistics is useful for understanding our social structure - Linguistics is useful for understanding culture - Linguistics is useful for teaching linguistics - Linguistics is useful for finding jobs - Linguistics is useful for acquiring knowledge. 2. SYNTHESIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Having interpreted the questionnaire, the next step is to make a synthesis of the students’ answers and suggest a number of recommendations that will hopefully be taken into consideration. First, the students' answers differ according to their academic level. Fourth year students are more aware of the problems involved in the teaching and learning of the linguistics courses because they are more involved in the field of linguistics, but ail the answers I obtained suggest that the linguistics courses at the university level need a lot of restructuring: the practices used need to be revised in the light of the students’ needs and capacities as well as the needs and capacities of the teaching staff. For example, the second year course on intro-duction to linguistics needs a careful and intelligent designing. The global aim of the course should be geared towards explaining to students the aims and uses of linguistics as both an academic and a practical discipline. Further, there is no balanced and justified diversification of the linguistics branches in the third year in such a way that these branches are reflected in the specialized fields of the fourth year. We need to maintain continuity in the content of what we offer our students. Accordingly, a good coordination should be established and carefully con50lidated between the second year introduction to linguistics, the third year general linguistics, and the various specialized branches of linguistics that are taught in the fourth year. At present, the natural link which exists between these courses is not dear to the students, at least: 11% of third year students and 6.8% of fourth year students say they do not see the aims of linguistics but would like to do so. It seems that students, in general, do not grasp the overall underlying links between the various courses they are being offered at the university. For instance, a fourth year linguistics student would find some difficulty in seeing the link which exists between first and second year grammar courses and fourth year syntax course, let alone a link between linguistics and advanced composition or literature. Such logical links are not even conceivable for a large portion of our university students. One way of envisaging a solution to this problem is by resorting to continual assessment of what we teach in linguistics and how we teach it We should also, as teachers, continuously show to our students the inherent complementarily of the linguistics courses, on the One hand and of the bulk of the courses, we require them to take, on the other hand We need this continual assessment and checking because progress towards improving our courses in terms of content and implementation cannot be made otherwise. Second, the linguistics jargon and terminology are very versatile as everybody knows. The jargon is useful for the linguist who seeks to clarify more minute

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details every time, but this more than often creates a dilemma for students who are not linguists yet. Different books use different terminologies, and students spend more time memorizing the terms than on trying to identify the concepts these terms stand for. Our role as teachers is to simplify this jargon for our students, but not to the detriment of the concepts they represent. By simplifying the terminology used in the linguistics courses, we can work towards abolishing the long-rooted misconceptions and prejudices which circulate amongst our students, on the one hand, and on the other hand, we can work towards freeing these students from what might be termed a “linguistics complex” allowing them, thus, to make progress if they wish to. We are in a very good position to do 50 as no less than 10% of third year students and 35.6% of fourth year students state that linguistics is not a difficult topic. More significantly, only 2% of third year students and 0% of fourth year students say they are not interested in the topic altogether. It is amazing to note that a very high percentage of students say that they have a positive attitude towards linguistics although, at least in the case of third year students, a good percentage, 60%, say that linguistics is a difficult topic. Granting that difficulty is usually a hindering factor, it seems that it is the '”novelty” of linguistics which stimulates the curiosity of students and makes them more motivated to know and learn about this field of study. This is certainly true in the case of third year students as these are beginners in the field. Thus, the difficulty of a topic is not necessarily a hindering element in language teaching; difficulty may even be seen as a stimulator of curiosity at the beginners' level, and we, as teachers, should exploit this fact to the full. The third recommendation to make is linked to the socio- cultural background of students. In fact, although we teach in an English department, we have to somehow relate the linguistics courses to the socio-cultural background of our students. Higher education has an undeniable socio-cultural purpose, and the link between linguistics and the students' socio-cu1tura1 environment can be done in many different ways according to the different stages of teaching and to the material taught at these various stages. For instance, an analysis of 50me specific 50unds which are peculiar to Standard Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Berber, French or Spanish would be appropriate in a course of phonetics or phonology. Likewise, exemplification from our Moroccan socio-cu1tural context will only enrich the courses on socio-linguistics, psycholinguistics, language teaching, semantics, pragmatics, stylistics, or even morphology and syntax. Examples from the various languages that our students know will certainly allow potential linguistics students to be more prepared to write their monographs on a topic of their choice. Recall, at this juncture, that the 1983 Reform allows fourth year students to write their monographs on topics bearing on their national culture and languages such as Moroccan Arabic and Berber5 Moroccan students have the great advantage of being exposed to a wealth of languages and traditions which form their socio-cultural background. These, in my view, are not duly exploited in our teaching. Examples, exercises, etc., for practically all levels of linguistics should constantly draw from this socio-cultural background; such examples will certainly be more beneficial and relevant to our students than examples from Swahili or Ewe which, though objectively useful, are rather “alien” to our students and may even make the teaching of linguistics rather tiresome. Students themselves feel the need for such examples as the answers to the third and fourth questions show6. It is certain that making students work with data from languages they are most familiar with will only increase their self-esteem. We, as teachers, should make every

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effort to sensitize our students to the fact that, by having access to an analysis of aspects of their national culture, they will contribute to the proportion of this specific culture which characterizes the Moroccan context. It is true that we should not overestimate our students, but it is equally true that we should not underestimate them either. If our students are made to see the links between the courses they take and their own socio-cultural environment, this would only arouse their intellectual curiosity and make them think, reflect and perhaps create. Likewise, this will foster a positive attitude towards linguistics on their part and hence result in their own personal growth. The fourth recommendation to make is related to books. In fact, most of the general introductory linguistics books that are available for our students are addressed to Western students. To my knowledge, there are no such books which address our type of students. In other words, we sorely need textbooks specifically designed for our students. We need to help form students who can benefit from linguistics most by adapting it to their changing environment. If we go back to the questionnaire7, we will notice that the answers to the sixth question show that only 9% of third year students and 2.7% of fourth year students consider books a motivating element. This is significant because the contrary would be more logical. Students, in general, seem to be confused by books; they find them too difficult to understand besides the other complicating factor that the terminology often differs from one book to another. 3. CONCLUSION In this paper, I addressed mainly some of the pedagogical aspects that are linked to the teaching of linguistics at the university level in Morocco, a level where linguistics is gaining ground every day. Linguistics is now present in three out of four university years. I interpreted the questionnaire on which this paper is based, drew on my experience in surveying the problems and suggesting some solutions, but I left out many technical, and no less interesting, issues which bear directly on the assessment of the linguistics courses such as teaching facilities, teaching conditions, exam format, etc. Such issues will hopefully be taken up subsequently. The present paper is motivated mainly by a genuine interest and commitment to improving the teaching of the linguistics courses at the university level and hence, improving the general performance of our graduating students. The fulfilment of this ambitious aim is best done in the light of an objective evaluation of the linguistics courses we offer our students... NOTES 1. A sample of this questionnaire is given in the Appendix attached to this paper. 2. “Know” here is used in a non-technical sense, i.e. meaning speaking and understanding a language. 3. Cf. the Appendix at the end of this paper 4 Most third year students did not bother answering this last question, and this is understandable given the fact that they are beginners. 5. Cf. Article 16 of the Official Documents. 6. Cf. the Appendix attached to this paper. 7. Cf. the Appendix at the end of this paper.

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APPENDIX A sample of the questionnaire submitted to third and fourth year students of the Department of English. Fès, in November 1990. 1. Did you have any notion of what linguistics is when you first came to third year? How was your information? a. null b. very little c. average d. much e. further comments 2. Do you find linguistics a difficult topic? If yes, is it because: a. the terminology used is too confusing b. the teacher(s) does/do not clarify enough the meaning of the terminology c. you are not interested in the topic d. you do not see the aims of linguistics but would like to-do so e. further comments 3. Would you like to be given examples only from English or sometimes from languages you know such as Standard Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Berber, French, Spanish, etc.? a. yes b. no c. further comments 4. If your answer to question 3 is yes, is it because: a. it makes you understand the linguistics concepts better b. it makes you feel involved and hence encouraged to apply linguistics to some data you know c. it makes you feel better armed to indulge in linguistics research later d. further comments 5. Do you think that linguistics is related to any or all of the following aspects of your socio-cultural background? a. your social background b. your-cultural background c. your family background d. all aspects e. further comments 6. What are the major elements that motivate you to learn linguistics? a. the teacher b. the books c. the topic d. the job opportunities e. all elements f. further comments 7. What is your attitude towards linguistics? a. positive b. negative c. neutral d. further comments 8. What are, in your opinion, the possible uses of linguistics?

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AN EVALUATION OF THE EFFICACY OF THE GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN ENGLISH: THE

RABAT EXPERIENCE*

Jilali SMB

Faculty of Letters, Rabat, Morocco "Whether we have to do with the improvement of existing programmes or the devising of new ones, we must have means of evaluating our plans and their execution, a way of monitoring our activity. In other words, we need continuous information or feedback about our performance." (Pit Corder, 1977, p.350) INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficacy of the graduate programs that were run by the department of English at the Rabat Faculty of Letters1 These are: (a) the regular (or “old") program, and (b) the special intensive program called "Formation des Formateurs" (hereafter FF), which was offered between 1982 and 1987. My evaluation will focus mainly on the following components of the programs: course design and exam results. Two proposals giving the broad lines of markedly more efficient alternative programs are also presented. What is contended in this paper is the following: 1)of the two types of the graduate programs, the regular one is the least efficacious. 2)while relatively more efficacious, the FF program did not always produce the sort of educationally well-rounded and versatile instructors who were, and still are, needed in the young Faculties of Letters. 3)the existing regular program, which is governed by the 1975 legal text, is in need of a complete overhaul and of restructuring. The paper is subdivided into three parts. The first part discusses the rationale and motivation for the evaluation that is undertaken. The second part presents the graduate programs in the Rabat Faculty of Letters. The third part provides their evaluation and presents proposals for an alternative program with two schemes. This latter program contains the necessary elements which will make it both efficient and efficacious. I. RATIONALE AND MOTIVATION FOR THE EVALUATION The purpose of this part of the paper is to discuss the rationale and motivation which lie behind my wanting to evaluate the aforementioned graduate programs. For the motivation to be clear, it is thought worthwhile to place the modest endeavor here undertaken within the concerns of evaluation in general and in the field of Language Teaching (LT) in particular. I.1 Some General Issues in Evaluation As any professional evaluator will all too readily admit, assessing the efficacy of an educational program, be it large or small, is a major undertaking. It is a task that is very

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difficult to carry out because of, among other things, the many variables that have to be taken into consideration. Some of these variables relate to the following: (a) the kind Of program being evaluated; its aims and objectives; (c) the training and motivation of the teaching staff; (d) the curricula and the syllabi; (e) the kind of student population enrolled; (f) their motivation for enrolling in the program; (g) the means (financial and logistical) made available for the implementation of the program, etc. A full evaluation of the graduate programs at our Faculties of Letters should examine the effect of the aforementioned variables. In addition to the existence of these variables, many difficulties stand in the way of the evaluation of a program, indeed of anything. One such difficulty comes from the perception that one has of the concept of "evaluation" itself. Different perceptions of this concept would inevitably lead the evaluator to focus on particular aspects rather than others in a program Common wisdom, let alone scientific rigor, requires that one has to have a clear idea Of what meaning(s) to assign to the concept in question before one is to proceed to undertake any evaluation at all. Other issues relating to the kind of evaluation like the one envisaged here (e.g. whether it is pedagogical or business-like) need also to be addressed. Another difficulty derives from the nature of the "object" to be evaluated, where “object” is used here in a technical sense. One ought to know(or determine) what is it that one is evaluating. In addition, one is to know exactly, and beforehand, what aspect(s) of the object under study will be submitted to one's scrutiny. While, admittedly, this may appear as a simple truism, it needs mentioning, however. In the particular case which concerns us here, a good cognizance of ail the aspects of the programs being evaluated is a sine qua non condition for the validity of the evaluation. A further difficulty comes from the purpose(s) for which the evaluation is undertaken. These purposes play a crucial role in determining the nature and the orientation of the evaluation. In the case which interests us here (graduate programs in ELT), it should be made clear whether the purposes have to do with making these programs pedagogically efficient or coefficient, or both. Important determinants in the business of evaluation are (a) the credentials and training of the evaluator, (b) his her professional affiliation, and (c) the particular point of view in accordance to which s/he assesses. In the case which concerns us here, a relevant question to ask is: What should the evaluator be? Should s/he be an LT professional (i-e an “insider”) or somebody from outside LT (i.e an “outsider”); (cf Zaki, 1992,and the references therein cited, for a very informative discussion on program evaluation in ELT in general). In the event that the answer would be an ELT professional, a further question is: Should s/he be a practitioner or a former teacher holding an administrative position at the university or the ministry? Notice that the answers to these questions bear directly on the credibility of the evaluator and on the validity of the evaluation (cf Zaki, op.cit, in the present Volume). Also crucial to the validity of the evaluation are the time spent on it and its thoroughness. For, as Zaki (op.cit) mentions, some program evaluations have been made by “JIJO” (i.e Jet-In-Jet-Out) evaluators, after a period of up to throe weeks' (Alderson & Scott, quoted in Zaki, op.cit.) As to the second question raised above -concerning the points of view of the evaluator- there is no gainsaying the fact that it is a very important one. They determine the orientations of the evaluation and its outcome. In the particular case that interests us here, the efficiency of the graduate programs can be assessed from different points of view: the administrators', the teachers’, and the students’. Each group of these “protagonists” or “stakeholders” has its own specific cause(s) to defend

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Having raised a number of issues pertaining to evaluation in general, and evaluation in LT programs in particular, we can now turn to the rationale and motivation for my wanting to assess the efficacy of the graduate program at the Rabat Faculty of Letters. I.2. Rationale and Motivation. In the Moroccan context, the evaluation of the programs in higher education has been made mainly by, administrators (i.e officials from the ministry of education and the universities, foreign consultants). The same obtains for the blueprints of program restructuring. Students' input has been minimal because of their failure to agree on who should represent them. As for teachers, their input was solicited; however, their responses had to be made within the confines of a pre-established and constraining framework designed by the aforementioned administrators. What this amounted to was that it was in fact the administrative side that had a bigger say in anything concerning evaluation and restructuring. In the domain of academic research, little attention was afforded curriculum design and evaluation, which means that ail the programs which have been functioning up to now were devised by non-specialists. By and large, our LT professionals have come to the field of curriculum design owing to their involvement with the organization of study in their respective departments. Very few have received training in the field in question 2 However, as is mentioned in the quote given at the onset of the present paper, “evaluating our plans and their execution" and "monitoring our activity" are very essential for the “improvement of existing programmes or the devising of new ones." This is one of the overriding reasons why the graduate programs in English, in the Rabat Faculty of Letters, is being evaluated. Another reason is that it is high time that a practitioner highlights, in a published paper, their inadequacies. For a blueprint for the restructuring of the regular graduate program was worked out in 1983; yet, no restructuring has taken place. In the light of the foregoing points (cf. both SectJ.1 &L2), it would not be at all surprising if I characterized my evaluation as follows: 1.It is that of a practitioner with firsthand information about the graduate programs being evaluated, owing to his ten-year involvement with them. It is, therefore, not an evaluation of a "JIJO" expert 3. 2.It represents an academic's reflection, albeit an unsolicited one, on their efficacy, and not an administrator's. 3. It is motivated by a genuine search for ways to improve the efficacy of the regular graduate program, which has not been restructured since its inception (in the early 1970' s), in terms of course design and exam results. 4.It is not motivated, as that of a "JIJO" World Bank expert would be, by a desire to identify what Corder (1977:349) has referred to as "quantifiable categories, ultimately reducible to sums of money." 5.It is here presented in order to generate reflection on ways and means to restructure the only program being run nowadays: the regular (or "old") one.

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II. PRESENTATION OF THE FROGRAMS In this part of the paper, I present the graduate programs in terms of both their legal and pedagogical organizations. For this to be clear, a brief historical background needs to be provided. II.1. A Bit of History Historically, the Moroccan universities, in so far as the Faculties of Letters are concerned4 have known only two kinds of programs at the Master’s degree level: the regu1ar program" (hereafterRP)5 and the "special program" called "Formation des Formateurs"(FF). The former was devised in the early 1970's, along the lines of the "Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures (DES)" program inherited from the French administration. In fact, even though the name of the degree was changed in France into "Doctorat de 3ème Cycle"(1967), it has been maintained in Morocco. As for the latter program (i.e. FF), it was devised in 1981 for the specific and time/limited purpose of answering the pressing staffing needs of young Faculties of Letters. In the department of English in Rabat, it was run between 1982 and 1987 and has produced 4 groups of graduates in linguistics and 5 in literature. It was discontinued in Rabat in 1987. Another piece of information which is worth providing is that, while the access to RP was and is still open to all BA holders 6, this was not so for FF. Access to this latter program was severely limited both quantitatively and qualitatively: for any one FF group only 15 budgetary posts were allocated; only the best of the BA holders who had taken a fairly comprehensive competitive examination were admitted into this program. Moreover, other constraints were: (a) admitted students were to be full timers; (b) they were required to have marks of 12/20 or better in each unit (cf. below for the use of this term); they were not allowed to repeat a course, a unit, let alone a year. By contrast, students enrolled in RP can repeat as many years as they want to; however, they were allowed to take the exam only three times. As for the attendance, it was compulsory for FF students and not so for RP ones. Both programs required that the students write a fairly long MA thesis (around 200 type-written pages) and defend it in front of a jury composed of at least three professors. This requirement has been maintained for RP, a program that has been offered continuously in literature since the 1971-72 academic year. The linguistics program was closed twice: between 1973 and 1975, 1978 and 1980. II.2. The Regular Program (RF): This program consists of two components:(a) a year-round course work, and (b) thesis writing, with no time limit put on its completion. According to the legal text governing this program (enacted in 1975), the course work was allotted only three hours per week. However the practice in the Rabat Faculty of Letters has been to allot between 4 to 9 hours weekly, with the extra hours donated by the department. The need for more teaching time was felt the most in the linguistics Section of the program. This is so because of (a) the limited training of students in linguistics, and (b) the number of subjects which the teachers felt that the students had to take in order to have enough grounding in the field. The curricula were devised on the basis of staff availability; however, a great deal of care was taken to offer the most essential courses. Courses which were offered in the Literature Section between 1977 and 1990 had to do with the following7:

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1) The American Short Story The Modern English Novel; Modern Approaches to Literary Criticism; Literary Criticism; The Representation of Women in Fiction; The Historical Approach to Fiction; Canadian Literature. (N.B.: 3 to 4 courses were offered each year) In the Linguistics Section, two kinds of curricula were devised. The first one, given in (2) below, is that offered during what we refer to as the "P re-Reform" period (i.e between 1980 and 1983)8. (2) "Pre-Reform” Curriculum: General Linguistics; Phonetics and Phonology; Syntax and Morphology; Socio-linguistics & Psycholinguistics. (Rationale: enrolled students had only2 two hour courses in Linguistics at the BA level, one in 3rd year and the other in 4th year) The curriculum given in (3) is that devised during the “Post reform” period (i.e 1983 onward). (3)”Post-Reform" Curriculum: General Linguistics; Phonology and Morphology; Syntax & Semantics; Socio-linguistics & Discourse Analysis; Psycholinguistics; Applied Linguistics; Historical Linguistics. (N.B.: General Linguistics was replaced by Lexicology between 1988 and 1990. It is now replaced by Functional Syntax à la Martinet) A comparison between the curriculum in (2) and that in (3) reveals that the “post-reform”

program is a quite substantive one. Indeed, more courses are offered and almost all the subjects in linguistics are covered. The curriculum in (2) was dictated by two considerations: staff availability (4 vs.7) and the level of students. II.3. The FF Program This program differs from RP in a number of ways some of which were mentioned above (Sect.II.1.). Other differences are: (a) it is an intensive program run by a "Director of Studies" chosen from amongst the teaching staff; (b) its coursework lasts two years; (c) its weekly timetable has at least 8 class hour9; (d) FF students are required to spend a number of hours in a special section of the library reserved for them; (e) its curriculum contains a pedagogical unit (cf. 2nd year) for the purpose of training students for teaching at college level; (f) continuous assessment is incorporated. In (4) is given the curriculum of the program which was supervised by the present writer, between 1982 and 1984, in his capacity as the first Director of Studies for Linguistics. (4) a. First Year:

Unit I: Phonetics & Phono.I (3hrs); Syntax and Morpho.I (3hrs). Unit II: General Linguistics (2hrs). Unit III: Semantics & Pragmatics I (2hrs). Socio-linguistics & Psycholinguistics (2hrs). Unit IV Supervised Reading at the Library (8:30 - 11:30).

b.Second Year:

Unit lA: Phonology II (2hrs); Syntax & Semantics II (2hrs). Unit IB: Research Paper (2hrs for Phono.; 2hrs for Syntax and Semantics). Unit IIA: Language Learning Theories (2hrs). Unit IIB: Practicum (6hrs): (i) the teaching of skills courses;

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(ii) class observation; (iii) practice teaching. Unit III: Supervised Reading at the Library.

As can be seen in (4), the curriculum for the FF program consists of several units with a fairly adequate number of teaching hours. Unit II, in second year, has 8 hours per week and comprises throe subcomponents. It should be noted at this stage that RP has no practicum and no seminar leading to long term-paper writing (see below for other drawbacks). The FF program in Literature comprises the same number of units and weekly hours as the linguistics one. However, owing to the specificities of the field, the courses that were offered were distributed differently across the units. According to the input given tome by my literature colleagues, the distribution was not done in terms of core vs non-core subjects, as was done in Linguistics. In (5) is given one of the curricula of the Literature option. (5) The courses that were taught had to do with the following: a. First Year The Restoration and the 18th c.; The l8th c. satire (J); Modem literary criticism and scholarship; The makers of modern literature; Metaphysical poetry. b. Second Year: Unit I: Modular courses on the following: American post-modernism; The Restoration and the 18th c.(II); George Eliot and the 19th c.; Critical reading of Shakespeare; The Gothic novel; The Metaphysical poets (e.g. Donne). Unit IIA: (i) Applied Linguistics; (ii) Practicum. Having presented the two kinds of MA level programs that were run by the department of English at the Rabat Faculty of Letters, I turn now to the evaluation of their efficacy. III. HOW EFFICACIOUS ARE THE GRADUATE FROGRAMS? Even though, as stated above (Part I), many aspects of the programs need to be looked at, I have chosen to examine in this paper only two: (a) course design, and (b) program results. It is felt here that an examination of the two aspects focused on would reveal reliable indicators for the efficacy of the programs.

III.1. Course Design While the course design for the FF program contains within it elements of the sort which would ensure some degree of efficacy, it is not so for RP. In the following discussion, I will focus mainly on the linguistics programs. Being a specialist in Linguistics, I do not at ail feel qualified to comment on the design of the Literature course. To do so would amount to presumptuousness. The three aspects of course design which are of interest to us are: the duration of the programs, their curricula, and their requirements. Concerning the first aspect, I would not be overstating the case if I claimed that the one year duration -actually from Nov. to

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June- of the regular program, at 3 hours a week, is not an adequate time to cover ail that a student needs to know before setting out to write a Master's thesis. Having undertaken their studies within a BA program heavily dominated by Literature (cf. Saib, 1990), the kind of RP provided for in the legal text is clearly inadequate. Its inadequacy and inefficacy will not cease to be even if the number of hours were to be increased to 10 a week. A curriculum such as the one given in (3) requires more time to cover, especially that the syllabus for each course is a comprehensive one. The minimum time would be two years. As for the curricula, it is quite obvious that they comprise a very high number of courses and cover a wide range of subjects. Students, even the more diligent and motivated ones, have time and again complained about the difficulty to keep track of what is taught in each of the courses. Most students concentrate on some of the courses and neglect others, which defeats the purpose of having ail the courses in (3). If, however, these were (a) subdivided into core and non-core ones, and (b) distributed over a 2 to 3 year period (with the possibility of having intermediate and advanced courses for core subjects), this will make the post-reform RP more efficient and efficacious. Another factor which has made RP inefficacious concerns the scheduling of its courses. Until recently (1988), ail RP courses were given on Fridays and Saturdays 10. This amounted to subjecting the students 10 a concentrated “bombardment” with a wealth of information which they could not fully process nor digest. This scheduling and a lack of coordination between teachers concerning assignments have made it very hard for students, especially part timers, 10 complete reading ail the materials for anyone course. One consequence of this is that classroom time was taken up by lecturing, with little discussion involved. These inadequacies, if not aberrations, are avoided in the FF program. As can be determined from even a cursory look at (4), the design of this latter program has the following good features which have made it quite efficacious: (6)a. its course work lasts for two years, which ensures gradual progression and provides

ample time for learning to take place. b. classes are scheduled throughout the week.

c. the number of teaching hours (with the increase operated for the Linguistics Section) is quite adequate.

d. the number of its students is very limited: up to 15 students. e. they are ail full-timers, and attendance is compulsory. f. it is closely supervised. g. the compulsory library attendance ensures that materials are read. h. the marking scheme used in it ensures the maintenance of good standards.

i. it is learning-centered (cf. Saib, forthcoming), hence the important place afforded the pegagogical unit (2nd year).

j. repeating is prohibited; only penalty papers are allowed. k. long term paper writing is a good preparation for thesis writing. In fact, FF students' theses have been extensions of 2nd year long papers, in the majority of cases.

The presence in the FF program of the good features given in (6), does not mean that it is devoid of drawbacks. One problem with the program in question is that it does not have enough units to accommodate ail the subjects that are normally required in respectable linguistics sections or departments abroad. True, because of the flexibility of the program; hours were “borrowed” form Unit III (Supervised Reading); however, this was done at the expense of the students’ reading time. Another problem with the FF program ha to do with the

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curriculum of the second year: it is quite full and very demanding It would have been better if the time taken up by Unit Il were devoted to providing more grounding in the field. Another semester could have been added for teacher training and the writing of the long term-paper A third problem with the FF program is that most FF graduates had great difficulty completing their theses within the required time limits (3yrs). The reason is that their teaching duties did not leave them with enough time to work on their theses 11. Since the degree sought is an Ma by course work, a fairly well researched paper in the second year (cf. Unit IB) should have been accepted as a thesis written in partial fulfilment of the degree. FF students majoring in English should not have been required to turn in theses comparable in size to the voluminous ones (full with padding) completed in France. A clear distinction should have been made between preparing an MA degree by course work (i.e the FF case)and by research (i.e the case of RP and, until recently, the French programs). A fourth problem with the FF program concerns its aims: it was not clear whether its main aim was to train students for college teaching or for careers in both research and college teaching. To sum up, in so far as course design is concerned, the FF program contains a number of elements of the sort that make a program efficacious This is not the case for RP. Let us turn now to another element which must be taken into consideration in the evaluation under taken here: the results of the two programs. III.2. Results of the Programs Even though two types of results (exam results and contribution to personnel development) should be considered, only the first one is examined here. The other type was the subject of a previous paper (Saib,1990). If we take as the measure of efficacy the exam results achieved within the two programs, it will be patently clear that the FF program is the most efficacious and that RP is the least efficacious. For instance, of the 10 students who were admitted into the first FF program in Linguistics, only one failed. The others have gone onto finish and become Instructors in young Faculties of Letters. In fact, some of them are currently working on their doctorate in Morocco and abroad. In tables I & II below are given some examples of exam results achieved in the Regular Program during the pre-and post-reform periods. Both options (Literature and Linguistics) are covered. Table I: Results in the Pre-reform Period: Year Nber of stud. Nber of Cand. Pass Fail 1971-72 ?? Lit.: 04 01 03 Ling.: 02 01 01 1973.74 23 Lit.: 02 01 01 Ling.: 00 00 00 1975-76 41 Ling.: 06 W:02; O:02 04 Ling.: 12 W:07; O:06 06

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Table II: Results in the Post-Reform Period: 1988-89 Lit.: 271 Lit.: 37 W: 03; O : 03 34 Ling.: 249 Ling.:08 W: 02; O : 02 06 1989-90 Lit.: 268 Lit.: 23 W: 05; O : 05 18 Ling.: 247 Ling.:12 W: 04; O : 04 08 (N.B.: W= Written; O= Oral) The figures which appear in both tables are very revealing. The following remarks can be made concerning the percentages of exam-takers: (6)a. Even during the early period, the percentages of exam4akers are quite low: 8.69% in

A.Y. 1973-74, 43.90% in A.Y. 1975-76. b.During the recent years (1988-onward), their percentages are very low:

13.65% in Lit. and only 3.21% in Ling., in A.Y. 1988-90; in A.Y.1989-90, we have 8.48% in Lit and 4.85% in Ling.

Percentages of passing and failing students are even more revealing of the great inefficacy of RP. Consider the following figures (percentages are computed on the basis of the number of exam-takers): (7)a. In the Lit. Section, only 8.10% of students passed the exam for A.Y. 1988-89. For A.Y. 1989-90, the percentage is slightly higher because there were fewer exam-takers (23 as opposed to 37), viz. 21.7%.

b.In the Ling. Section, the percentages were as follows for the same two years: 25% and 33.33%, respectively. When the percentages are computed on the basis of total enrolments, the least one can say about them is that they are indeed very dismal. Consider the figures given in (8):

(8)a. In A.Y. 1988-89, only 1.10% of Lit. students and 0.86% of Ling. students passed the

exam. b.In A.Y. 1989-90, only 1.86% of Lit. students and 1.61% of ling. students passed the exam. There are many reasons for the high percentages of failure in RP, some of them were hinted at above (Sect.III.1). The following points should be added: 1. Even though the numbers of enrolled students are very high (e.g. 271 and 249), only between 50 and 60 students attend classes, in the best of times. of these attenders, about 2/3 do 50 on a regular basis. 2. Non-regular attenders are high school teachers who work in distant towns or whose time-table does not allow them to attend. 3. The students do not have the kind of grounding in the field that would enable them to follow in the graduate program. 4. The syllabus for each course is quite heavy, which discourages students from preparing for the exam.

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5. Since students are allowed to take the exam only three times, they do not want to run the risk of sitting for it if they do not feel adequately prepared. III.3. What Graduate Program(s) in English for Morocco? Even though the answer to the above question would be, in a nutshell, "any program but RP", we need not adopt whole sale, and without previous scrutiny, any of the various programs which have been suggested informally up to now. The more so that amendements can be hardly made once a proposal has received official sanction and been enacted by decree. Therefore, the wisest thing to do would be to take the time necessary to design more educationally sound and efficient learning-centered graduate programs. In what follows are given the broad lines of two proposals for the restructuring of the graduate programs in English, especially as concerns Linguistics. Our colleagues in the Literature Section may want to adapt some or ail of the elements of the programs here presented to their needs and those of their students. In making the proposals, my intention is not to compete with the official designers or "steal the show from them"; rather, it is to contribute to the on-going thinking about ways to restructure the graduate programs and making them efficacious. III.1. The Proposals Given (a) the kind of students who do undertake graduate studies in English, (b) their educational level, and (c) their needs and motivations, two programs appear to be necessary. The first one, which maybe referred to as "The Intensive Graduate Program (IGP)", will offer an MA by course work. It will have the following features: (9) IGP: a preliminary version a- Duration: 3 consecutive years, with possible subdivision into semesters. Start: 2nd half of September; End: end of June. b- Requirements: (i) Admissions: Entrance examination or at least Selection through file evaluation. (ii) Number of students: maximum 30 students (iii) Attendance: Compulsory. Absenteism recorded and sanctioned. (iv) Time-tabling: Distributed throughout the week. c- Curriculum: (i) Organized in terms of core and non-core subjects. Examples of core subjects: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, historical linguistics, field methods. Non-core subjects: dialectology, socio-linguistics, applied linguistics, discourse analysis, psycholinguistics. (ii) Courses incorporated into units and I or modules. d- Teaching Methods: • First Year: (i) Lecturing; (ii) Oral presentations by students. • Second Year: (i) Lecturing;

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(ii) Seminars. • Third Year: (i) Directed Study; (ii) Field Research. e- Assessment:

(i) Continuous Assessment; (ii) Final Exams and/or term papers. f- Specialization: Allowed only at the 3rd year level, during which thesis writing can start. g- Thesis: Between 100 and 200 pages, prepared under a supervisor of the student's choice. Defence: before a jury composed of at least 3professors. The second program, which may be called "The Extensive Graduate Program (EGP)"(cf.(10), differs from IGP in that its course work will be completed through a credit system (complete with prerequisites and other requirements). Once the required courses are completed satisfactorily, students are allowed to write a thesis under a supervisor of their choice. (10) EGF: a preliminary version: a- Duration: 5 consecutive years, possibly more. From Sept. to June. b- Requirements: (i) Admissions: same as for IGP. (ii) Number of students: 40 (iii) Attendance: not compulsory; however, regular attendance urged. (iv) Time-tabling: Fridays and Saturdays; possibly evening classes. (v) Enrolment in specific units while respecting prerequisites. c Curriculum: same as for IGP. d- Teaching Methods: same as for IGP. e- Assessment same as for IGP. The main difference is that the course work is completed through a credit system.

f- Thesis: same as for IGP. Alternatively, the degree could be earned through a certificate system: a candidate who passes the courses of a unit is awarded a certificate; once the necessary credits are accumulated, candidates are allowed to Write a thesis. A certificate system which may be envisaged would be: Certificate in Formal Linguistics IA (e.g. Phonetics + Phonology + Morphology); Certificate in Formal Linguistics IIA (e.g. Syntax + Semantics + Pragmatics); Certificate in Formal linguistics IIIA (e.g. Historical Linguistics + Data Analysis + Field Methods), etc. For second year, we would have certificates for advanced courses (viz. Formal Ling. IB, for example), and so on and so forth. Non-core subjects can also be lumpted into units for which certificates will be awarded; viz. Certificate in Applied Linguistics 112 ( e.g. Socio-linguistics + Psycholinguistics + Discourse Analysis), Certificate in Applied Linguistics II (e.g. Language Learning Theories + Language Teaching Methods), etc.

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These are some elements of the proposed programs or schemes for Linguistics. The legitimate questions which arise now are: (i) What is the rationale for them? (ii) What is their justification? Below, I give some elements of answer to these questions (for details, see Saib (forthcoming)). III.2. Rationale and Justification The schemes suggested abvove (Sect. III.1.) were dictated by throe concerns having to do with the following: (a) the kind of student population which enrol in our graduate programs; (b) the need to uphold the sort of high academic standards which will bestow more respectability upon these programs; and (c) the desire to make them both efficacious and efficient. Readers familiar with the profiles of the students who have enrolled thus far (up to 1990) will ail too readily agree with me that they are of at least two major types, based of their occupation: (a) High School teachers and other employees; (b) recent graduates. There are subtypes within each group, especially the second one, viz.: (i) grantees, (ii) students holding “service civil” positions, (iii) graduates who hold neither a working position nor a scholarship. Given the typology just given, it goes without saying that the students have different motivations for enrolling in the graduate programs. The differences also extend to the degree of their availability and hence to that of their attendance, which is an important element for making the programs both efficient and efficacious. These motivations playa major role in the development of their attitudes towards the contents of the programs, the ways these contents are covered, and in the formulation of their expectations. To ascertain this, let us consider some of these motivations. One motivation of High School teachers with whom I have discussed the graduate program design is to escape the doldrums and the routine of their work. Another is to do something about the intellectual "stagnation" -if not “regression” - which, they claim, results from teaching English to High School pupils, be they beginners (5th Form) or intermediate (6 & 7th Forms). Thus, enrolling in the graduate programs affords them the means to accomplish this, along with opportunities for seeking more intellectual growth. A third motivation is to earn a higher degree, which will enable them to join the teaching staff of the universities, at least as "Maître Assistants1' (i.e Instructors) 13. As for the graduate students belonging to the second type, a good number of them enrol in the programs for want of a better thing to do (e.g. having a job). However, those who are serious about their graduate studies have, understandably enough, educational and professional motivations. Educationally, they want to attain the kind of academic level which will make of them beginning scholars in their area of speciality. Professionally, most would like to embark on a college teaching career. Moreover, an important thing about this type of students is that their availability is not contingent, as is the case for that of Right School teachers, upon any work time-table. Most of them do not hold any jobs. Concerning students who can not attend regularlyl4, instead of being excluded de facto from the programs, they can enrol in EGP and "pace" themselves. This is indeed allowed for in the second scheme. Yet, given the time limitation imposed on the completion of the degree, they can not be "eternal" students as is the case in the present inefficacious program.

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The desire to uphold high academic standards is fulfilled, within the schemes proposed above, by the introduction of the selection system and other requirements, as well as the kind of curriculum which is suggested.' Other elements, which play a major role in fulfilling this desire, are: (a) the academic level of the admitted students; (b) the kind of teaching staff involved in the programs, their motivation and commitment, and their attitudes towards upholding high academic standards. Critics of the schemes suggested above will undoubtedly comment that what is here proposed is tantamount to having a first rate program (IGP) and a second rate one (ECP). Such is not the case, however. The fact that EGP may appear to be governed by less stringent requirements (e.g concerning attendance) does not make it second rate. The apparent “laxity" is a reflection of reality: (i) some well deserving students can not attend regularly, yet they should not be excluded offhand; (ii) some may require more time in order to "assimilate" ail the knowledge imparted. ECP was designed so as to answer the needs of this type of students. To have only IGP would favor solely those selected students who (a) can afford, financially, to undertake graduate studies, (b) live in or nearby Rabat and Fès. Well-deserving students from other areas and / or from poor social classes would be denied access to higher studies, which is unwarranted. Given the students' profiles and motivations presented in the foregoing, it stands to reason that those departments of English which are authorized to run graduate programs offer two schemes for the MA degree. One of them would be an intensive program (Viz. IGP) for those selected students who can attend regularly. The other one would be an extensive one (viz. EGP), for those selected students who either can not attend regularly or who can not cope with the fast pace and the pressures of IGP. To sum Up, it can be seen that the two schemes are justified both on educational and social grounds. Other schemes may be devised in order to answer the needs of the society at large and those of the enrolled students. Indeed, we should be thinking in terms of tracks other than those leading to college teaching and research, e.g. translation, communication, administrative writing, etc. Finally, another aspect of the graduate program which has not been touched upon is doctoral studies. The current system in Morocco is one which (a) allows ail MA holders to be admitted, (b) is not at ail structured or organized into courses, and (c) has only one scheme (viz. earning the degree by research, and this takes Up to ten years). Concerning its structuring, I think that it is high time that doctoral studies be organized in terms of advanced seminars meeting regularly. In addition, research units should be set Up, thereby creating conditions for doctoral candidates to advance in their work. More ideas for its structuring can be offered; however, this is the subject of a subsequent paper.

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IV. CONCLUSION This paper was concerned with evaluating the efficacy of the graduate programs which have been run by the department of English at the Rabat Faculty of Letters. Because of space and time limitations, this efficacy was here measured on the basis of course design and especially exam results. However, other aspects of the programs (e.g. students' profiles and motivations) were also examined, albeit succinctly. It is here concluded that two of the three contentions made at the beginning of the paper have received confirmation. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that the current graduate program (i.e RP) is both inefficient and inefficacious. Given this, the inescapable conclusion is that it is in dire need of a complete overhaul (cf. the third contention). The second contention - that the FF program did not always produce educationally well-rounded and versatile instructors - has not been entertained here because its examination would have made this paper longer than it already is. For some input on this issue, see Saib 1990 and Saib (forthcoming). It is hoped that the proposals made in this paper will stimulate more thinking about the state of our graduate studies in English, and that they will help in the design of efficient, efficacious, and learning-centered graduate programs. FOOTNOTES: * This paper is a sequal to the one delivered at the “English Language and Development” Conference, organized jointly by the Moroccan Association of Graduates from British Universities (MAGBU) and the Faculty of letters in Kenitra (See Saib, 1989). I would like to thank Dr Mohamed Chtatou, MAGBU president, for having invited me to present a paper and to chair a session. Thanks are also due to participants for their comments and queries. 1. The reason for restricting this evaluation to the Rabat program is that I do not have enough information on the one run by the department of English at the Fès Faculty. 2. One notable exception is Dr Mohamed Ouakrime, of the department of English at the Fès Faculty, whose doctoral dissertation (cf. references below) was entirely devoted to evaluating ELT in Higher Education in Morocco, based on the Fès experience. 3. A number of recent restructuring proposals in the Educational Field in Morocco are due to "JIJO" experts and their national collaborators. 4. Only the Rabat and Fès Faculties of Letters have, thus far, been authorized to run graduate programs. 5. The epithet "regular" started to be used to refer to the "old" program after the "special" FF program was created. 6. Starting in Nov 1991, a screening / se1ection system will be put into place at the two Faculties. Only a limited number of top ranking BA holders, to be determined within each department, will be admitted. A uniform grid (complete with a point system and other criteria)is used in processing the candidates' files. 7. The information on the Literature program was kindly given tome by my colleague Prof. Fouzia Rhissassi, who was also a Director of Studies. I would like to thank her for her help

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and encouragements. 8. After the reform of the BA program, more linguistics courses were introduced (cf. Saib, 1990, for a discussion of the place of linguistics in the BA curriculum). In fact, a literature and a linguistics options were introduced at the 4th year level. 9. This is according to the legal text. Actually, we had up to 14 weekly hours, because the first group of students needed a great deal of “gap filling”. The relative flexibility of the FF program allowed for that. 10.Starting in 1988, some courses were scheduled to be given on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well. 11.A few of the FF students could not meet the deadline and were forced to forego their college teaching position. 12.Applied Linguistics is here taken in its broader sense, i.e a field encompassing ail academic disciplines the main concern of which is applications of Theoretical Linguistics. The reason why I have not suggested that there be an additional scheme, which will be concerned solely with Applied Linguistics, is that such a program is offered at the Faculty of Education in Rabat. 13.Recent substantive pay raises obtained by academic personnel at the secondary level have cooled down the ardor with which some high school teachers wanted to join the teaching staff at the universities. Indeed, long-timers among them have become better paid than Assistant or even Associate university professors. 14.These are students employed full-time (i.e High School teachers and other employees), and students living in areas which are very far from Rabat and Fès (the only towns where graduate programs in English are run). REFERENCES Corder, S.P. (1977). Introducing Applied Linguistics. Harmonds worth, England: Penguin Books ltd. Ouakrime, M. (1986). English Language Teaching in Morocco: An Evaluation of the fès Experience. Ph .D. Diss., Univ. of London, Institute of Education. Onakrime, M. & Zaki, A. (Eds). (1990). English Language Teaching: The Maghrebi Experi-ence. Proc. of the Xth National Conference of the Moroccan Association of Teachers of English (MATE). MATE, P.O.B. 6223, Rabat-Instituts, Rabat. Saib,J. (1989). 'The Role of the Graduate Program in Academic Personnel Development." Ms; paper delivered at the First MAGBU Conference, 23 Nov. 1989. (cf. Acknowledgements above).

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Saib, J. (199Q). 'The Place of Linguistics in the English Curriculum: The Moroccan Case." In Ouakrime & Zaki (Eds), cf. above. saib,J. (Ed.)(1992). English Language Teaching in the Maghreb: Issues in Evaluation. Proc. of the XIth National MATE Confer- ence . [this Volume]. Saib, J (Forthcoming). "Making the Graduate Program in English Learning- Centered." To appear in the Proc. of the XIIth Natio- nal MATE Conference, 1992. Zaki, A. (1992). "Criteria for Developing Language Teaching Program Evaluations." In saib (Ed.), Cf. Ref. above.

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PART ONE

PROGRAM PRESENTATION AND EVALUATION

SECTION 4

LITERATURE

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AN EVALUTION OF THE TEACHING OF LITERATURE AT THE TERTIARY LEVEL : THE OUJDI EXPERIENCE

Mohamed DELLAL

Faculty of Letters, Oujda, Morocco

1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the currently used methods of the teaching of literature at the Tertiary Level (Oujda as a case in point) It should be made clear that drama and /or the theater genre will be excluded for it is a genre on its own right that requires methods and approaches other than the ones I intend to dwell upon. The genres to be focused on here are those that are read as texts; namely, the novel, the short story and the poem. Drama is, as short (1981) and other semioticians see it, problematic in the sense that a difference between the dramatic text and the performance text should be observed. So, to avoid controversy over which text should be given priority (the dramatic text or the performance one), I leave this point aside for further investigation. The teaching of the narrative form (the novel, the short story and the poetic form (the poem) as is currently conducted in our Department has mot been, in my view, done with clearly defined, demarcated objectives in mind. Teachers bring in their own experiences, with their advantages and disadvantages, and each of them demarcates, on an individual basis, objectives he/she wants enhanced. Given the fact that the training they have received differs from one person to another and even conflicts at times, the result is a very problematic situation where the learner is victimized, mainly through the grading system. Along this line of thought, the present paper aims at highlighting the short-comings of the above-mentioned state of affairs. It also aims at mapping out a set of objectives (as options) and ways of achieving them. 2. THE STATE OF AFFAIRS As has been mentioned above, the teaching of Literature (here the novel and the poem), is a polemical issue among teachers and has subsequent shortcomings on the learner(s). The polemics, in my view, steins from the training the teachers have received and also from the methods they use. Different backgrounds and methods yield, as a matter of fact, different results. These lead to a confusing situation for the learner. In fact, two approaches can be considered as underlying the above situation: a. One, supposedly, based on the theme; or "the Work-based Approach". (Harari: 1979, p. 74). b. And another based on the text; called "Textual-based-Approach" (Harari:1979, p. 74)

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2.1. The Work-Based View On reading Barthes and the Post-structuralist theories, Harari defines the 'Work" as follows: "the work is concrete, occupying a portion of book-space (in a library for example). . The work can be seen in bookstores, in card catalogues, and of course lists..." (1979, pp. 74-5) Taken as such, the above definition does not give any insight as to what the relation between the work and literature is. For the teacher of Literary Subjects (from the Work-Based perspective), as a matter of fact, the question is not simply one of space kept on the shelf or in the catalogues, but a matter of philosophical conviction s/he reached through personal experience; or through experience s/he has been spoon-fed over long periods of tutoring by his/her teacher. Having received his/her catechisms, the task of the would-be-teacher then becomes one of bequeathing the creed he had received to his progeny. The process is described by Harari as follows: "The work is…a process of filiation . Three things are postulated here: a determination of the work by the outside world (by race, then by history), a consecution of works among themselves, and an allocation of the work to its author. The author is regarded as the father and the owner of his work; literary research then learns to respect the manuscript and the author's declared intentions, while society posits the author's relationship with his work (these are the "author's “rights, which are actually quite recent; they were not legalized in France until the Revolution) (Harari: 1979, p. 78). The view defining the work as a "process of filiation" is not a thing related to the Leavisites alone (Leavis: 1948). The Marxists as well (Cf. Lukacs: 1972) have also engrafted the notion deeper by relating to the question of class struggle. The battle for keeping this creed alive is still going on among new theorists such as Macherey (1978), Eagleton (1981) and others, under the guise of "Structural" Marxism (the term is Seldon's: 1985) We notice that the process of filiation is centered around the Person of the author. I will consider this point in more detail below. From a methodological point of view, the Oujdi work-based experience has its own peculiarities as the students are fed with information about the author, his social background and even ready-made interpretations either in the form of notes they could lay han4s on or simply notes dictated by the teacher. But while this method appeals to both the teacher (in the sense that no complaints on the part of the students are made) and the students (in the sense that they have no examination problems), it, however, encourages dependence on a third-person's view to settle a presumably bi-lateral debate between the "students" and the "work". It is often said that some students are even dispensed with the reading of the work in class on the grounds that this is something they could do at home. Such an approach, as Barthes (1967) argues, turns the work into an object of consumption. The results of such an ill-conceived process are immediately felt as the students embark on the writing of monographs (which is the epitome of the four-years-acquired competence). It is a common complaint among teachers that students plagiarize. This is a testimony to the damage caused by such sterile methods.

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2.2. The Text-Based View What is referred to as a text-based view is the approach that deals with literature as a methodological field (Harari, 1979 p. 74). Here literature is viewed as a text that can be experienced through a constant activity of reproduction (Barthes, 1965; Derrida, 1979) Emphasis is, therefore, laid on the formal/structural and linguistic aspects that make the tissue of the text in the sense that" the text is held in language. It exists only as discourse" (Harari, 1979, p. 75). A strong argument in favour of a text -based view or textual approach is that it can help us to reach the pedagogical objectives suggested below. 2.2.1 a. Developing Skills A Textual Approach enables the teacher to foster a certain reading competence such as: a) Developing linguistic competence achieved through building up vocabulary and idiomatic competence; This, in return, helps to enlarge the linguistic repertoire of the learner(s). In addition, the reading pace is also enhanced in the sense that reading becomes a habit leading ultimately to easier articulation and, consequently, to a quicker-reading pace b) Developing the sense of observation achieved through skimming which is defined by Hyland (1990) as a "text-oriented form of surveying and refers to the method of glancing through a text to extract the gist or main points Generally speaking, about 75% percent of the text is disregarded." In more explicit terms, skimming involves knowing which parts of a text contain the most important information and reading only those..."(Hyland: 1990). If applied in the appropriate way, this technique would help the students develop reading skills that would enable them to extract preliminary information from the texts they study; such as deducing the content, or speculating as to what the content of the text could be by merely looking at the title. In a sense, activities like these are quite often targeted by teachers In Guided Reading classes as a warm-up before they embark on serious readings of the text. The same thing could be said about the other subject involving Textual Approaches in the second, third and fourth years. My argument is geared towards encouraging such techniques. c) The sense of observation can also be developed through enhancing scanning which is "a rapid search for specific information rather than general impression.. Scanning demands that the reader ignore all but the key item being searched for" (Hyland, 1990). Hyland specifies Five types of scanning exercises. These are: 1. The student races to locate a single item such as a word date, or name in a text (e.g., indexes, dictionaries or pages from telephone directories). Columnar material is easier to start with, as readers can be taught to sweep down the middle of columns in one eye movement 2. The student races to locate specific phrases or facts in a text.

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3. The students uses the key words in questions to search for indirect answers. 4. The student matches adjoining sentences, using supplied markers expressing relationships and logical patterns. 5. The student fills in missing link words from a text or reconstructs paragraphs from sentences to help rhetorical pattern recognition (Hyland, 1990). An illustration of some of these exercises would be to ask the students to trace up the guidelines of a particular passage, or particular structural aspect that may help them later to start interpretative moves. The following would be a good example (Cf. sect. 2.2.1.b.). 2.2.1b Illustration Questions: Find out the elements denoting contrasts in the following passage: There is in the Midlands a single-line tramway system which boldly leaves the country town and plunges off into the black, industrial countryside, up the hill and down the dale, through the long ugly villages of workmen 's houses, over canals and railways, past churches perched high and noble over the smoke and shadows, through stark, grimy cold little market-places, tilting away in a rush past cinemas and shops down to the hollow where the collieries are, then Up again, past a little rural church, under the ash trees, on in a rush to the terminus, the last little ugly place of industry, the cold little town that shivers on the edge of the wild, gloomy country beyond. There the green and creamy coloured tram-car seen to pause and purr with curious satisfaction. (Lawrence, in Hunter, 1972, pp. 192-30). The teacher could ask the students to underline with different colours the words and phrases denoting each of the elements being contrasted (in the passage above the first element is italicized and the second is in bold type). Once this has been achieved, s/he could ask them to try and find out what elements are being contrasted and what connotations they could deduce from that. In the passage above 'beauty" is being contrasted to “ugliness”. Scanning can, as has been demonstrated, teach the students two basic skills; (1) selection and classification of data, which consequently leads to (2) componential analysis and taxonomizing. These are techniques so dear to semioticians (Greimas: 1966). To summarize, these techniques can develop two parallel and complementary skills, namely: - Extensive Reading (related to skimming and scanning) - Intensive Reading (related to the after-scanning stage; i.e. the interpretative stage). If developed further, this stage can lead to some advanced tasks required for the study of a literary text, such as socializing the text - or what is commonly known as interpretation. 2.2.2. Approaching the Theme The split attempted above (i.e. developing skills and approaching the theme) is rather technical. It has been enacted, previously by other theoreticians (Widdowson: 1981) for the same reasons. In the teaching of literature this split would amount to what Derrida calls the

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Violent Hierarchy (Seldon: 1985) in the sense that one side has been, through the volition of the reader (or the teacher), made to prevail over the other part. This same argument lies behind our rejection of teaching the content alone (See section: 2.1). The textual Approach, advocated above, has the advantage of supplying the students with material extracted from the text to substantiate their interpretations. Readings of this type are a defiance to the Patriarchal Figure denying him/her the authority to decide on how the work should be read and what to read in the work. On the other hand, it allows students more freedom to interact with the text and come Up with as many meanings as their competence could lead them to. This is clearly stated in the following viewpoint held by Harari, among others: "The Text is read without the Father 's signature. The Text is plural .... it achieves plurality of meaning, an irreducible plurality (Harari, 1979, pp. 76-77). By going beyond the boundaries of the text, the students are not anymore dependent on the Godfathers (the author, the Critic and the Teacher). Reading then, becomes an activity of rewriting the text. In other words, it becomes a productive activity that excludes the consumptive role that reading the work with the signature of some Godfather requires. CONCLUSION In this paper, I have tried to evaluate the teaching methods used at the University Level. Here I have taken the University of Oujda as a case in point. Throughout, I have made suggestions on how to improve literature teaching methodology. One final point to add here. Skimming and scanning (of some narrative forms) should be taught at the secondary level, so as to bridge some of the gaps between the Tertiary and Secondary levels. REFERENCES Barthes, R. The Pleasure of the Text, trans. Richard Miller (London: Jonathan Cape, 1976) Derrida, J. Dissemination, trans. Barbara Johnson (London: Athlone Press, 1981). Writing and Differenoe, trans. Alan Bass (London: Routeldge and Kegan Paul, 1978). Eagelton, T. Walter Benjamin or Towards a Revolutionary Criticism (New Left Books, London: 1981) Greimas, AJ. Sémantique Structurale: Recherche de Méthode, Paris: Larousse, 1966 Harari, J.V. (ed.) Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Post-structuralist Criticism, Methuen, London, 1979 Hyland K. "Purpose and Strategy: Teaching Extensive Reading Skills", Forum, April 1990, p.16 Lawrence ,D.H. "Ticloets1 Please", Modern Short Stores, J. Hunter (ed.), 1972. pp: 129-30 Leavis, F. R. The Great Tradition. Penguin Books: Harmond worth: London, 1948 Lukacs, G. Studies in European Realism, Merlin Press, London: 1972 Macherey P. A Theory of Literary Production, trans. G. Wall (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London: Henley and Boston, 1978 Seldon, R. A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory . The Harvester Press, Brighton, 1985 Short, M. "Discourse analysis and the analysis of drama", in Applied Linguistics, Vol, Il, N.2, Lancaster University Press, 1981 Widdowson, H.G. "Models and fictions". in Applied Linguistics 1/2(1981), rpt. in Ex-plorations in Applied Linguistics, 2, Oxford University Press, 1984

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TEACHING ENGLISH LITERATURE IN ALGIERS

PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES

S.A. ARAB

University of Algiers, Algeria

What I propose to do in this paper is to provide some information on the ways in which English Literature is taught at the Department of English of the University of Algiers, laying the emphasis on some of the weaknesses, identifying the causes of such weaknesses, and putting forward a few tentative solutions with a view to improving our pedagogical performance. These solutions are currently being sought by a research team engaged in a rethinking of the syllabus and a redeployment of teaching strategies, starting with the First Year of the English degree course. What follows therefore is essentially a statement of progress resulting from a collective reflection based on a largely shared educational and ideological assumptions and aiming at eliciting enlightened and informed responses from the Conference participants. I shall begin with a description of our pedagogical practice as experienced by both staff and students, then move on to the reasons why this experience is often tinged with a certain frustration. This will entail an examination of the content and methods in Secondary Education, an attempt to determine the profile of the First Year student and an appreciation of the status of literature in the Algerian socio-educational system. Corrective proposals, with the First Year in mind, will be made on the basis of the data thus gathered. This will be the last, but by far, the most delicate point in this paper. For it is much easier to pinpoint what is wrong than to propose adequate solutions supported by an appropriate pedagogical rationale. This uncertainty, largely shared by the community of literature teachers, is, to my mind, ascribable to our reluctance to evolve a didactics of our own at a time when such a down-to-earth task proves to be overdue, particularly in view of the forays made into the subject of English Literature teaching by related disciplines. L. DESCRIPTION OF THE PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE Before embarking upon the subject of literature teaching itself, it is appropriate to give a brief account of the curriculum of studies of the "licence d'enseignement d'Anglais" of the University of Algiers. It is a four-year degree course at the end of which the graduate student in general engages in an English teacher's career in secondary schools. However, s/he may either do journalism, translation, banking, etc.... If deemed sufficiently able, s/he may pursue a course of studies and research at post-graduate level, leading on to a university junior lectureship. Throughout the four years, the curriculum is distributed among the following components are as follows: - Language practice, which is itself subdivided into oral comprehension and expression, and written comprehension and expression; - Language study, which breaks down into Linguistics, Phonetics and Grammar;

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- English for Specific Purposes; - Literature; - Civilisation. N.B. literature and Civilisation are not taught during the First Year, the emphasis being essentially on the consolidation of language skills). Literary Studies begin during the Second Year; at this stage, the course is divided between the following: - English Literature: from Chaucer to the 19th century social novel; - American Literature from the Colonial Period to the end of the 19th century. The Third Year is devoted to the 2Oth century in both English and American Literatures. 'n addition, there is a course in Modem African Literature in English. The Literature course runs simultaneously with a Civilisation course. During the fourth and final year, the student opts for one of the three literatures and relevant Civilisation courses. At this stage, the emphasis is on an in-depth study of an author, a genre, a literary period or movement, and the student is expected to write a long research paper on a topic that s/he has elected to study. Philosophically, the teaching of English Literature in Algeria is derived, for obvious historical reasons, from the Continental pr, to be more precise, the French approach. This was discussed by Su san L. Stern (1987) when she writes: "In the Continental tradition, English Literature studied as evidence of a distinctly foreign Civilisation or Cultural! and is integrally related to civilisation studies. European schools tend to concentrate on the study of British or American “Civilisation" as a background to English Literature. The order is sometimes reversed, i.e. literature provides a background for the study of civilisation its history, culture and language"1. But this philosophy does not hold great currency in the Algerian University now, especially in view of the changes that have taken place in our educational policy. On the one hand, the University entrants have been exclusively schooled in Arabic throughout Primary and Secondary Education, with French being relegated to the rank of a second language; which means that they have been further distanced from English as a result of their being less familiar with a European language and culture. This is why there is a wider cultural gap which must be bridged in literary studies. On the other hand, they are being less exposed to English than before (six years, instead of seven); which results in greater difficulty as concerns comprehension and expression. Yet, English Literature is still taught as if none of these changes had occurred. This situation has generated a marked dissatisfaction among students. They feel "cornered" by a subject (literature) whose immediate utility is rather clouded, and are inhibited by the teacher-oriented instruction which they are being subjected to. The emphasis is still laid on content and literary history, all too readily relying on received opinion as relayed by British and American anthologies, literary histories and criticism. Indeed, Literature is taught as if Algerian students were native speakers of English with all the familiarity that this implies in terms of literary tradition and cultural presuppositions. Students are expected to write essays as early as the Second Year on conventional topics requiring a fairly high level of depth of learning and abstraction. But these essays are generally written in an approximate English,

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which, at times, merely reproduces authorial idiosyncrasies, slang, archaisms, regional dialects features and are fraught with historical and cultural howlers. As to the content of each of these essays, it is, at worse, a simple plot summary (whatever the essay topic may be) and at best, a patchwork of more or less skillfully integrated quotations from "authoritative" critical works. We are clearly in the type of situation described by Henry Widdowson (1975) when he says: "It is not unusual to find literature teachers, both in first and second language situations, attempting to teach "literary classics" (presumably for either moral or cultural reasons or both) to learners whose know1edge of the system and use of English is so limited as to make the work being presented to them almost totally incomprehensible Very often the teacher resorts to translation and paraphrase to overcome linguistic difficulties Such a procedure not only has the effect of misrepresenting the nature of literature (...) but also of creating resistance to it in the reader's mind “2 The causes of this alienation are: (i) a lack of a sound and systematic didactics, based on clearly articulated national, educational and ideological assumptions; (ii) and insufficient coordination between Secondary Education and Higher Education. This is what appears from an analysis of the textbooks used in the lycées - an analysis which concentrates on literature, culture, language and pedagogical methods and techniques II. ANALYSIS Of SECONDARY EDUCATION TEXTBOOKS The following English Language textbooks have been examined: - New Lines 3, used in the first year of Secondary Education. - Midlines 4, used in the second year. - Think It Over 5, used in third and fourth year. 1. Literature Very few texts of a literary nature are included in these books. When they occur at ail, they are generally placed in the "Revise and Relax" or "Reading for Leisure" sections which close each pedagogical unit. These texts are not referenced. Moreover, no attempt whatever is made to draw the pupils' attention to both the literariness of the texts and their cultural import. The only justification for their inclusion in the books is their thematic relation with the topic of the unit under study, e.g. a passage from Alan Sillitoe's; "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner appears at the end of the unit entitled Sports". We find ourselves in a situation which is ail too familiar in E.F.L. Secondary Education, a situation rightly described in Short and Candlin (1986) as follows: (Literature teaching) is replaced by a surrogate literature, commonly in the form of textbook dialogues and short tales where learners are presented with the appearance of literature in the forms of texts devised to carry structure but none of its literary effects 6. Therefore, we can rightly deduce that English Department entrants have not the slightest

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notion of what English Literary History is, and are unaware of the diversity of literatures in the English language. Yet, they may already have an experience with literature in Arabic and French. They may also understand the literal meaning of a text presented to them. However, it is very likely that they would find themselves at a loss when called upon to formulate, orally or in writing, their responses to a literary text. This is so because they are totally ignorant of the appropriate analytical strategies and of the necessary literary critical terminology. This handicap is further aggravated by their superficial knowledge of the socio-historical matrix of the literature. 2. Culture The intention to bridge this cultural gap is unambiguously stated in the introductory note to the pupils using New Lines: Although our aim is to teach you to speak the language first of all, it would be unrealistic and artificial to avoid introducing selective and appropriate socio-cultural facts about the country and about the people who speak this language as a mother tongue. A language is not simply a chain of words and sounds. It cannot be separated from its cultural aspect7. But this intention is not fully realised. What we actually get are made-up stories about the "tribulations" of Rachid (the main character of New Lines) in England, as well as charts, drawings, cartoons, commercials, and other sources of "authentic" language. These refer mostly to activities of everyday life such as working, travelling, job-seeking, leisure, etc.; There are also texts of a socio-historical import, adapted from reviews, newspapers or encyclopaedias generally placed in the "Reading for Leisure" sections, e.g. simplified biographies of Elizabeth I, Shakespeare and Cromwell. As for literary texts, there are not accompanied by questions or commentaries. The pupil is left with simplistic vignettes emphasizing the "quaintness" of Britishness or with mortuary masks with no charitable guide to make those great figures of the past come to life. Thus, the cultural dimensions of literature teaching will have to be faced as it largely conditions the students' response to the texts both thematically and stylistically, and therefore aesthetically. But this response is likely to be further delayed by language difficulties. 3. Language The texts used in the Secondary Level are often contrived. They are there because they contain a definite number of grammatical and syntactical structures or language functions or because they suit the topic of the teaching unit. In the third book, in particular, the texts are mostly taken from reviews and journals such as the UNESCO Courier or adapted from journalistic reports or scientific essays. Prom a stylistic point of view, these texts are neutral, "colorless". They include no memorable line. They are essentially factual, with none of the stylistic "subversions" which are the hallmark of literary texts. It is no wonder then that students feel inhibited when confronted with a text deviating, ever so slightly from the informational kind. Indeed, an assessment of the papers of the 1987-1988 English Department entrance examination has revealed the following:

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(i) The majority of the candidates were quite incapable of understanding and appreciating a passage which departs somehow from standard structures and functions and which includes a relative degree of abstraction (in this particular case, a text by J.B. Priestly on the English countryside). (ji) Their productive skills are acceptable in grammar but within a limited range of rules and structures. (iii) Their vocabulary is limited, at times punctuated with anglicised borrowing from French, and their knowledge and use of idiomatic expressions is rather shallow. We can only conclude, with Short and Candlin (1986), that our First Year students 'cannot suddenly start to “recognise” and describe literary effects and to comment precisely on the use of language if they have been exposed only to unnaturally restricted language use'8. In the light of these findings, one is tempted to dispense with the teaching of literature altogether; in which case it would have to be scrapped out of the whole of the curriculum. But we are firmly convinced that exposure to good writing, backed with an appropriate methodology can help in the development of straight thinking and coin positional skills As Boileau (1674) puts it, " Ce qui se conçoit bien s'énnonce clairement; Et les mots pour le dire arrivent aisément9". (What is well thought out can be clearly expressed; and the words to say it come fluently). Furthermore, literature is now taught during the Second Year. Therefore First Year students, must definitely be prepared for that stage. The language consolidation aspect 15 being largely catered for by the weighty language study and language practice modules. Consequently, there is reason to believe that an "Introduction to Literary Appreciation" is badly needed in the first Year provided it is founded on linguistic accessibility, adopts a language based approach; and take s into account the other parameters which condition its credibility. And one of these parameters, which we have not considered so far, is the teaching methodology as obtains at Secondary Level. 4. Pedagogical Methods and Techniques These range from the structural approach in New Lines t6 the structural -functional approach in Midlines and think It Over , with a more intensive scope given to Communicative activities in the latter. As the authors of the textbooks tell us, The stated objectives of the structural approach, used in the sixties (and indeed, of most English methods) is to provide the pupil with an instrument of communication. It was assumed that the best way of reaching that objective was by making the pupil go through a progressive acquisition of carefully selected and graded grammatical structures. The teaching techniques devised to ensure such acquisition are derived from the assumptions that language is a set of habits and that any utterance is a response to a stimulus. The drilling of grammatical structures would therefore create language habits and consequently lead to language mastery. 10 This approach, though not entirely discarded, is given a more functionalist slant in Midlines:

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The functional approach begins with a very different conception of language teaching and learning that is that language, as meaningful communicative behaviour, can best be taught when units of meaning rather than units of grammar are the basis of the curriculum11 The communicative approach, which is adhered to in Think It Over, directs the pupils' attention to areas of communication which are of real interest to them, independently of the language learning process. They are thus made to learn and use the language in a subtler manner. As William Little wood (1987) tells us: a communicative approach opens up a wider perspective on language learning. It makes us more strongly aware that it is not enough to teach learners how to manipulate the structures of the foreign language. The must also develop strategies for relating these structures to their communicative functions in real situations and real time12 The communicative activities in Think it Over are scientifically oriented and the 'pupils are made to engage in exercises of a more speculative kind. The techniques of and skimming are used profusely and the four basic skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) constitute the core of the warm-up and follow-up activities. One general observation which emerges from this survey of secondary Education methods and techniques is that the structural approach is to be cast aside whereas the communicative approach is to be kept while improving upon it. Indeed, the structural approach, it seems to me, is antinomic with the teaching of literature at University Level. This is so because of the following: (i) the stylistic unpredictability of the literary text, especially for a learner who has been exposed to informational texts only which, furthermore, are rigidly made to fit the Procrustean bed of a particular structure or function13 (ii) the type of exercises (e.g. substitution and transformation drills), whereby pupils are made to formulate their responses, are of the "fit-to-measure" kind and frustrate the pupils' efforts to express themselves in a natural way. On the other hand, because it gives more scope for student self-expression, and precisely because literature is likely to arouse student creativity, it seems appropriate to investigate the ways in which Communicative Competence can be improved so as to be channelled towards self-instruction. But for this approach to be successful, the motivations, the intellectual level, the literary experience and the cultural and ideological assumptions of the students should not be ignored. This brings us to a tentative determination of the profile of the First Year student III. PROFILE OF THE FIRST YEAR STUDENT He (in fact I should say "she" given the high percentage of the female population in the English Department) is of the age range of 18-20. He holds a Baccalauréat Série Lettres, which means that he already has a substantial experience with literature both in Arabic and French, though Arabic literature is often taught in the biographical-historical vein, and French literature (with a fair amount of North African literature in French) is, at times, adapted so as to suit his level as a second language learner. He has studied English for six years, three in Middle School and three in Secondary School. His command of the language is of the Lower

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Intermediate level. He generally has a Third- Worldist outlook in politics, is brought up in an Arabo-Islamic environment, and is quite nationalistic in matters of culture. Hence, the necessity to be quite cautious in terms of text selection. He would tend to be baffled rather than enlightened by heavily culture-specific texts, especially those steeped in something Greco-Christian or Latin references. On the other hand, overtly simple texts may not measure up to his intellectual capabilities and potential for literary response. For, as Ronald Carter writes, Foreign students are capable of fuller responses to the text than is often realised. But they are not native-speaker responses and all responses need to be developed into fuller articulacy 14. And this articulacy can be achieved, in particular, through a more extensive development of writing and reading skills, including reading aloud, in view of the Phonetics-related difficulties that must necessarily be overcome. The profile of the Algerian student in English, with reference to his/her social integration in particular, is also determined by the status of foreign languages in the country. Being part and parcel of a State-planned development policy, the teaching of English literature is expected to conform to the national options as concerns this policy. IV. THE STATUS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN ALGERIA The objectives set by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education lay the emphasis on the instrumentality of English (cf. Midlines, Teacher's Book): As future users of English, [students] must be trained to extract meanings from a written document, to understand spoken messages and, to a lesser extent, to participate appropriately in interpersonal exchanges. However these utilitarian aims are balanced with the recognition that English can be used not only for vocational purposes, but for academic ones as well. There are no official guidelines issued by the Ministry of Higher Education with regards to foreign languages. However, one can safely assume that the educational policy on the subject is in line with the recommendations of the F.L.N. Party's National Charter 15.These can be summed up thus: - Whilst giving pre-eminence to the recovery and resumption of the national language (Arabic) at ail times, the acquisition of foreign languages is to be encouraged as these represent a gateway to up-to-date scientific information and technical expertise. Thus an uninhibited knowledge of the languages of culture will enable Algeria to partake in what is most creative and fruitful in world civilisation. - Consequently, the teaching of English literature must be made to shed its "anglo-centrist" cultural garment in order to find its way between the pragmatic and instrumental needs, on the one hand, and the civilisation and universalistic ideals, on the other hand. Therefore, English literature must be taught from an Algerian point of view. This means offering a perspective which will turn seemingly antagonistic values into areas of mutual understanding. - This implies a reshuffling of the literary canon, a redeployment of critical strategies, and

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above ah, a vigilant open mindedness, heightened by an "internalisation" of both the Algerian and the English culture(s) on the part of the teacher, who must be fully conscious of his role as cultural mediator. CONCLUSION To come back to the First Year, and to conclude a syllabus in literary studies is not only desirable but also feasible. It should be designed along the following lines: (i) integration of the various dimensions of literature (linguistic, cultural and aesthetic) and the four basic skills (listening speaking, reading and writing); (ii) extensive use of the students' communicative competence; (iii) text selection based on linguistic and cultural accessibility; (iv) emphasis on genre study and literary critical terminology ; (v) extending the scope of English literature so as to include examples from the various literatures of the English speaking world. Thus, while being based on attainable objectives, the teaching of literature may still respond to humanistic aspirations. As Paul Ginestier (1979) writes: Teaching literature, whether we like it or not, is , first of all to give a taste for reading, which in turn will improve language proficiency and pave the way to the pleasure of literary appreciation -leading to a better understanding of life 17 NOTES AND REFERENCES 1.Susan L. Stern, "Expanded dimensions to literature in ESI./ EFI: an integrated approach"

English Teaching Forum vol XXV no. 4, October 1987 2. Hemy Widdowson, Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature, (London: Longman, 1975) p.83. 3. New Lines, an English Coursebook, I A S, (Algiers: I.P.N., 1985) 4. Midlines, an English Course book, 2.A.S. (Algiers: I.P.N., 1986) 5. Think it over, an English Coursebook,3.A.S., (Algiers: I.P.N., 1987) 6. Michael H. short and Christopher N. Candlin; "Teaching Study Skills for English

Literature" in Literature and Language Teaching, CJ. Brumfit and R.A. Carter eds. (Oxford O.U.P., 1986) p.91

7. New Lines, p.5 8. Literature and Language Teaching, Op. cit., P. 92 9. Boileau,.L'Art Poetique, 1674, Chap. I, vers. 153-154. 10.Midlines, op. cit., Teacher's Book, p. 1 11.Ibid, p. 2 12.William Little wood, Communicative Language Teaching, (Cambridge: C.U.P., 1987) pp.

X-XI 13.See also Michael N. Long, "A feeling for language: the multiple value of teaching

literature", in Literature and Language Teaching, op. cit. p.42 14.Ibid, p. 128 15.See La Charte Nationale, Titre III, Section 1: "La Revolution Culturelle", p.66 16.On the necessity to make Eng. Lit. conform to the cultural expectations of foreign learners,

See in particular: L.A. Krsul, "Teaching literature at the university level'; English Teaching Forum, vol. XXW,no. 2, April 1986, Muhammad Raji Zughoul, “English Departments in Third-World Universities: language, linguistics or literature?" English teaching Forum, vol. XXIV, no. 4, October 1986; S.A. Arab, "L'enseignement de la litterature anglaise dans l'Université Algerienne, approche idéologique," L'Univesitd, n& 23, 1985

17. Paul L. Ginestier, Teaching Literature? (Hull: University of Hull, 1979) p. 13

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FOR AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO LITERATURE TEACHING WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS

ON CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS

M'hamed BENSEMMANE

University of Algiers, Algeria.

I. AIMS In this short paper dealing with teaching literature to FL undergraduates at beginner's level, I wish to argue for the need to adopt an integrated approach, taking account of both the extrinsic features of the text (cultural, biographical or historical implications), and the intrinsic features (the lexico- grammatical elements which confer cohesion and meaning to the text). I have mentioned the extrinsic aspects, first, because I believe that extratextual considerations should be discussed at the outset of a lesson, for they are likely to boost the student's interest and commitment, especially if similarities with his own cultural experiences can be identified and discussed. In the second part of my paper, I shah illustrate this approach with an African short story followed by a number of activities for literary appreciation and evaluation. It is believed that the suggested questions and activities around the text will first focus the student's attention on the context, so that some of the issues referred to by the writer will be fully grasped by them. This will pave the way to the skimming and scanning activities which will ensure that the student has totally understood the language of the text, and thus be in a position to infer meaning and to read the text 'between the lines," for interpretation. Despite the questions raised, in relation to what benefits EFL students would gain from learning the literature of the target language, most theorists and practitioners (eg. Brumfit, Carter, Vincent, McKay) have stressed all the advantages of such training. From the linguistic point of view, in particular, there are increase of lexical coherence, the acquisition of a refined language which includes the ability to detect subtle meanings and allusions, and the literariness of a text. Stylistic analysis of a text is widely advocated in relation to teaching EFL students for, as Michael Short and Christopher Candlin point out, foreign students have learned how to analyse sentences grammatically and frequently have a considerable awareness of English phonological structures. They are thus often more consciously aware of linguistic structure and better equipped to analyse it and its relationship to meaning then, say, the average student of English. Activities such as cloze and prediction exercises, deduction of meaning through implication, text summarizing or rewriting from different points of views, can indeed increase this awareness and develop in students appreciation of both content and form. However, Roger Gower has drawn attention to the limitations of such activities alone, stressing that they should be guided, and not be ends in themselves. I would suggest that extratextual information be carefully considered if one takes the view that texts carry messages that echo events and issues that stylistic analysis alone cannot elucidate.

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René Walleck and Austin Warren and, more recently, HLB Moody have stressed the importance of both 'extrinsic' and intrinsic' approaches to literature. I would, in particular, endorse the view held by Mohammed Raj Zughoul that a literature course in a third world context should take care of third world specificities 'n that connection he recommends the "avoidance of a literature that is imperialistic, racist or which conflicts directly with the moral, ethical and social codes of the students This coheres with the view taken by S.A. Arab and myself in a paper proposing a literature course that would take into account the Algerian students background. Thus, the integrated approach I have in mind would not only promote activities based on the language aspect, and pay attention to “texture”, “register” and “cohesion”, to use Guy Cook's terminology ('Texts, extracts and stylistic texture', in Carter and Brumfit: 1986, p. 152). It would also promote activities whose purpose is to supplement information (cultural, historical, philosophical or otherwise), inviting students to compare experiences referred to in the texts with their own, and note cross cultural references. It is hoped that this would create a feeling of identification and boost interest in literature. That would also call for a careful selection of texts, ones which would readily create motivation. Ultimately, the fusion with the two approaches, extrinsic and intrinsic, and the inclusion of cross-cultural references as an additional area of interest will help the student acquire the strategies needed for genuine literary appreciation. This approach, which has yet to be experimented on a long- term basis is motivated by personal experience and the frustration of marking third and final year undergraduates' papers, where the knowledge of critical terminology is poor and where discussions centre on text description (paraphrasing the author, etc.) rather than on stylistic and thematic effects. As a corollary, students also tend to mix up the various degrees of formality, i.e. levels of language, being unable to distinguish colloquial/oral from written English/forms. This state of affairs is not to be blamed on the students, of course, but on an educational philosophy which lays emphasis on practical and mechanical uses of English structures in secondary education, and where oral communication takes the lion's share. This policy has overlooked the pupils' need to develop their knowledge of world cultures and literatures which use the written medium, and hence acquire adequate reading and writing skills. Sets of activities such as the ones proposed below could sensitize students to treat texts as series of interconnected elements, lexical and grammatical, forming a diction in its most subtle and elaborate form, and which can qualify as literature. There are, in my view, four main areas of competence which the student will develop through the activities. I suggest the following: (i) By being exposed to a higher Level of language than the ordinary (except for dialogues), the student will diversify and improve his lexical potential. (ii) He will become aware of a more formal, more elaborate form of writing, and that, in turn, will raise his own writing competence. (iii) He will learn to distinguish between various literary styles (through the analysis of diction, tone and rhythm). From the productive point of view, he will learn to control the power of words and to convey accurately the tenor of his written messages. (iv) Some implications in the text refer the student to extra- textual issues. Thanks to proper

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guidance from the teacher, the student will gather the cultural, historical and biographical elements likely to help him grasp the meanings and allusions that could not otherwise be inferred from the text. II. PROPOSED ACTIVITIES A. Pre-reading Activities Prior to corning to class, students should collect readily available information on the following : - The writer (e.g. G.D. Killam, The Writings of Chinua Acheba, Heinemann, 1979). - Ibo culture (e.g. M.J.C. Echeruo and E.N. Obiechina, Igbo traditional life, culture and literature (Austin, Conch, 1971). i) Questions around the text The aim of this activity ("warming-up questions") is to draw attention to the issues involved, hinging on the interpretation of events as caused by the action of gods and spirits. A discussion could be started about polytheistic cultures. ii) Author's Biography The biographical data provided will help to situate the writer's attitude vis-à-vis the problems he examines in the short story. Ache be has devoted a great deal of his works to the dramatization of contacts between tradition and modernity in Nigeria. B. Reading activities Reading aloud (to check pronunciation and meaning) and silent reading will be followed by word explanation. The emphasis is laid on words referring to the colonial context and to the cultural/social background. i) Skimming and understanding The questions are geared to the information the students will gather from the text in order to get the gist of the story. ii) and iii) Vocabulary building, The aim of drill (ii) is to have the students learn synonyms and equivalent expressions. The task is made easier here from the fact that the equivalents are already provided in the questions, and the text contains the original terms used by the writer. Drill (iii) is a production exercise to check whether students can use/produce new words in appropriate contexts.

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iv) Cohesion in the text This activity requires the student to move from words into larger units of language such as phrases, clauses and sentences, and to look for inter sentential relationships. The student must note the importance of cohesive devices such as connectors, adverbials, etc. which make the text 'hold together' as a coherent whole. v) Follow up work : text summary This productive exercise is aimed is at making the student react to the text and express his global comprehension of the short story. C. Interpretation and style The first five questions draw attention to the characterization, and particularly to the contrast in belief between Ma and Julius Obi. Achebe uses such devices as paradox and irony to show the ambiguity in Ma's beliefs (part Christian and part animist). Note the paradox of: "Ma was a devout Christian", when we know how permeable she is to Ibo animist beliefs. Note also the irony contained in the following: "(Julius') education placed him above such superstitious stuff", in view of the fears he later experiences. The rest of the questions scan for possible interpretations of the text (irony, point of view), and study of the narrative (starting and finishing at the same point in time). [EDITOR'S NOTE :We apologize to Mr. Bensemmane and to the readership for not being able to recover the conclusion to his paper J. SAIBI]

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LITERATURE TEACHING POLICIES

IN THE DEGREE OF ENCLISH IN ALGERIA

Sidi Mohamed LAKHDAR-BARKA

University of Oran , Algeria

INTRODUCTION This paper is an attempt to pin down the causes of the chronic difficulties that crop Up in the transmission of knowledge in literature as it is taught In English at the University level in Algeria. Having no nation-wide statistical study, this work will basically proceed from empirical observations1. Throe didactic parameters determine this specific pedagogical situation (a) The lecturer; (b) The system; (c) The student. This reflection will progress in the form of a three- directional approach, two of which - The Lecturer and The System - are closely interwoven, since their evolution is simultaneous and dialectical at the same time. As for the third part, though it focuses on the student, it will develop separately from the other two. Indeed, as a product to shape, the student remains very much influenced by his much longer stay in the two previous systems he went through, i.e. the Primary and Secondary School systems. Literature lecturers are often professionally faced with a dilemma that stems from three rather antagonistic alternatives: 1) The first one, as I understand it, is induced by the very profile of the graduation (for some of them) and post-graduation that produced these lecturers. These schemes usually aim at QUANTITY. 2) The second one, as devised by the official programme of the Ministry of Higher Education, when implemented, is supposed to 'chain produce' Secondary level teachers. It provides for QUANTITY. 3) The third one, inherent to the student, derives from his career worries. It looks forward to EFFICIENCY. I. THE LECTURER'S PROFILE In most of the cases, lecturers have been trained through a quality-orientated system, either right from the graduation level for the lecturers who graduated before the mid-seventies, or through a sophisticated post-graduate scheme at least, for those who graduated after. Indeed, this period (1971-1974), depending on when each University applied the first 'Reform', marks the beginning of a pedagogical divergence in objectives between lecturers on the one hand, and students and programmes, on the other. This period, spanning over two to three years, breaks the continuum of higher educati9n policy in Algeria in two schools' or 'teacher training philosophies'.

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A. The licence ' Ancien régime ' : The first 'philosophy' inherited from the French system of education goes Up to 1972-1973, when the last students it produced graduated. In such a system, the training gave more weight to the knowledge of the foreign language but essentially as a civilization, a culture, the history of ideas that singles out that society. Consequently, the student's mind was very much shaped by- an unconscious process of comparative and contrastive cultural- anthropology. 'Through the gradual discovery of a way of thinking, a vision of life, language developed dialectically as the specific cultural means of its expression. The syllabus was conceived of as a form of training in 'Humanities' and therefore sanctioned by a degree labelled 'Licence es-Lettres', which might best be understood as a degree in Arts with a connotation of 'connaissance'. Maturity, intellectual apprehension and cultural curiosity were predominant criteria. B. Quality as a criterion The second source of quality as a criterion originates in the lecturer's postgraduate training. It varies according to the following : (b) Often the institution where he studied is highly specialized in the subject: a Department of

Literature, Comparative Literature, or African Literature, etc. Consequently, there is a wide discrepancy between the lecturers' in-depth knowledge in his field of interest and the rather shallow initiation level the institution requires from him.

In both cases, his teaching remains topical by the nature of his training and antagonizes the objectives of the system, as we will be described below. II. THE SYSTEM With the first reform, syllabuses and subject time allocation are restructured according to new targets: - Quantity Many more teachers are needed for Secondary Schools. - Utility Language is no more than a tool, a means to have access to documents, especially in transferred science and technology. If the objectives did change, the infrastructure (staff, equipments, etc.) remained almost unchanged. With the repeated pedagogical adjustments, (another euphemism for reforms2), the quality label of the former system becomes secondary to the first purpose of this new teacher training programme: the language per se in a quite utilitarian conception.

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The various reforms have divided and subdivided different subjects into 'teaching units', i.e. 'modules' that are supposed to be diachronically and /or synchronically complementary content-wise and scientifically compatible. However, the application of these subsequent alterations shows that this is not so. For instance, diachronically, we scarcely find any continuation within the same module as taught over the three or four years of the degree. Synchronically, within the same year, there is almost no connection whatsoever between modules that are complementary or even cognate, such as 'Written Expression, Literature, Civilization'. When there is one, it is often the expression of individual initiatives. The overall pedagogical harmony of the syllabus is marred by the systematic slicing off of subjects altering thus their scientific objectivity. Consequently, instead of harmony, we notice that the syllabus divides in two, throe and sometimes four main branches4. These end Up being taught on their own, for their own sake, because they are self-sufficient and each one can pretend to the status of science, correlatively denied to the concomitant branches. The training, therefore, develops as a disarticulated whole. Let us take some examples. 1) Linguistics : We see that linguistics becomes more and more instrumental to the understanding of other subjects such as philosophy, anthropology, psychology, literature etc., in countries that have centuries of university traditions. However, in this country, it tends to spread with the Status of science that will provide key answers to learning a language for a utilitarian purpose. 2) Civilization : It happens to be more a course on the history of the country of the language taught than an initiation to the cultural values and ideas of a people that have answered the equation of life and death specifically. 3) Literature : What does happen in literature ? First of ah, we notice a series of frustrating statements that are recurrent in the lecturer's opinions: * Almost no literary text is read as an entity (whether a short story, a novel, or a play) by the student, sometimes Up to the third year. * The theory of literature course sounds too pretentious when it comes to practice. It deviates into a series of critical ideas that hang in a referential vacuum by dint of elementary reduction in order to make it understood. * Surveys boil down to a list of dates or writers' birth, themes and publications since there is no steady reading background to sustain them. * How can we explain the antagonism the lecturer's objectives (expertise one should say) and the system's inability to optimize them? Literature used to provide the bulk part of the pedagogical load in the former system. After the reforms, new subjects (linguistics, E.S.P., T.E.F.L) are included at the expense of the time devote to literature. In the present system only 6.2% of the total amount of the weekly teachingload5 is covered by literature and this throughout the whole syllabus spanning over four years. Despite this tremendous cut in teaching load, not only is the content of the former system kept,

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but, on top of that, new literary trends like 'Third World Literature' 6 are squeezed into this already thin fringe of time. For the sake of illustration, let us see what this means in terms of the literature and cultural geography covered range of genres and literary traditions involved : - American Literature = two centuries. - British Literature = four centuries. - Third World Literature = Half a century over throe continents. One can but imagine the vanity and artificiality of the content surveys that any lecturer could eventually transmit to the student. Considering such a proposition of the equation time/content, one can see that what should be taught, and how, is often vain. To remain closer to the reality of facts, an initiation course, with a careful handling of this concept, brings the lecturer to a conscience tearing dilemma in front of two alternatives: a) Either teach literature with the knowledge and the expertise of his studies and long experience; b) Or brew some kind of 'bird's eye view' course pedantically called 'introduction to X Literature'. Often, the second alternative imposes itself on the lecturer because of: (i) on the one hand, the gap between the purpose of the programme and the conditions gathered to implement it; (ii) on the other hand, the student's elementary level of literary perception, as we will be considered below. III-THE STUDENT At this point, we should bear in mind a 'multilingual' society where the position of languages involved .is dichotomized between official and factual status. For instance, Arabic is the official (national) language but all students learn it in a diglossic with Dialectal Arabic. The same situation is true of French which is officially supposed to be a foreign language; yet its importance in practice raises sensitive and quite controversial issues. This situation is all the more delicate as the student considers literature as a secondary topic if not a kind of 'Cultural break'. Let us list down a series of observations that strengthens such an attitude: -The student doesn’t see where it will fit in professional curriculum later. He has not been sufficiently trained in it and, therefore, doesn't find it relevant to his future job as a Secondary School Teacher. -The very little he may gather comes from his rather narrow reading experience, most of which is confined to local newspapers. - Within this limited literary practice, there is a gap of two to throe years during which he has absolutely no contact whatsoever with the subject, i.e. roughly from the fifth form of Secondary School up to the second year at the university.

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His expectations are fundamentally motivated by efficiency and therefore "antagonize" the lecturer and the system, since there is no evidence of literature being taught later. The students' perception of literature is: (i) Compiling a corpus of solecisms; I have catalogued the most recurrent types of mistakes in their essays. This catalogue helped me to sketch out their reaction to this subject (ii) For them, it is an aesthetic extra, filtered through three linguistically determined cultural a-priories: the foreign language, the second acquired language7 and the native language. Let us examine these in turn.

A. English as a foreign language

Types of mistakes: - No creativity in writing: (formulation, wording, idioms, etc.) their ideas are expressed through set sentences, patterns or groups of words stored from modules such as 'Written Expression' and 'Listening Comprehension'. - Lack of originality: no creative incentive. They learn lecture notes by heart and tend to paraphrase the text studied. These frozen formulas operate as a stylistic straitjacket when they wish to initiate personal reflection and word subjective thoughts and impressions. They find it awkward to formulate ideas in situation. For, what is literature, if not thinking in situation and language at work? The students' “a priori” considerations are: - This language is supposed to lead to a professional activity, i.e. a job and no more. - Literature just like any other module, must teach. If it pretends to stimulate attitudes of the mind, to reveal, to connect facts of life, to appeal to personal appreciation, to taste, then it interferes with a more intimate field of their personality. Hence, it has nothing to do with 'Education'. As a result, they do not come to lectures in order to exchange ideas, to discuss what they have read with their classmates and submit their opinion to others. Instead, they attend lectures looking for literary ready-made answers, which they call documents or reading notes for the exam.

B. Classical Arabic as the second acquired language

Type of mistakes: - No methodology: Their essays are not structured according to a methodological order of ideas. They don't feel the need to persuade, to convince the reader. They assume that because they write it, it is credible.

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- Lack of coherence: Their ideas are too abstract, vague and general. They read as a series of statements that take too many value judgements for granted truths. Such a process whereby the hypothesis becomes a fact, excludes argumentative style. The students "a priori" considerations are: - This language carries scientific and religious functions. Its practice from Primary through Secondary to University develops patterns of reasoning relying on unequivocal belief. - This attitude fits science and religion that work respectively on theory, theorems, rules, and on postulates and doctrines. But at the same time, it inhibits ail forms of criticism, questioning, in human sciences and most specifically in literature. For them, argumentation is a mode of composition which goes with rational demonstration, logic, etc. It does not apply to literature, the world of imagination per se. Their world of imagination is totally invested by faith. When it occurs frequently and on a large scale, such a regular output of incoherence can only be understood as a symptom of, or as originating from the following: - the journalistic jargon which they are exposed, considering the cultural vacuum of their condition; - the training of 'lettres arabisées' students. We are aware that their training is heavily influenced by religious didactics: They take knowledge out of faith and not through critical perception. C. The native language dialectal Arabic Type of mistakes: - Elementary style: The vocabulary is very poor, loaded with oral figures of speech. They write as if there were no rules, no techniques, no principles of understanding, and evaluation. - Extrapolation into fiction: They interfere with characters and re-shape the theme and the action unconsciously. The students' "a priori" considerations are:: Dialectal Arabic is the language in which they have been brought up. using it provides them with an aesthetic tradition that determines the canons of their appreciation of the text. The examiner may discern the weight of strong Oral Tradition sequels still alive in their rapport to fiction, characters and situations as 'told'.

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While reading, they can create an imaginary setting where they perform with the characters of the story. Thy feel involved in the action, a position that shortens their critical perspectives. In any case, the literary experience is not perceived as an intellectual exercise. The reference to the text or background readings, the illustration with fact, quotations do not occur to them a necessity of the demonstration. Indeed, they did not grow up in a cultural milieu that could stimulate their reading curiosity. The expression of their daily routine is not written. Reading literature is not yet a cultural sign; nor is the need to own one's individual library as students and future teachers. CONCLUSION Probably as a consequence of high4evel planning, the academic staff feel a pressure to bend pedagogical prerogatives to the wishes and needs of bureaucratic management. Indeed, the implementation of, and adherence to administrative labels, ministerial notes, etc. usually prevail over the sound technical or didactic opinion of the professionals on the opportunity of programmes. They are the ones confronted with the tangible difficulties of higher education in Algeria. Yet, their concern remains without any impact on the various educational policies carried out so far. - The ill-being of teaching in general and literature in particular, stems from the contradictions between what this institution (M.E.S.) aims at producing, and what it actually turns out on the job market. - It pretends to shape a mature an4critical mind. The means and methods used give birth to a practical mind which can operate only through limited patterns of expression in the foreign language taught - The exclusion of literature from8 the foreign languages syllabus is mainly conceived of as a device to create a vacuum in order to jeopardize the background of Algerian literature in French, and correlative lyre-assert the monopoly of Arabic over this 'strategic' expression. - The feeling is that English developing as the first foreign language in Algerian is taught as a 'counter-language' in order to compete with French, which holds the privileged status of being a Lingua Franca9. - Training in English is then invested with an ' aggressive' pre-conceived cu1tural attitude. More than a conception of language learning, this 'philosophy' concretises into a doctrine whereby a process of cultural complementarily transforms into a process of acculturation. - The Institute of Foreign languages today can only produce 'des Techniciens Supérieurs de la Langue', Departments of Literature are yet to be created!

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NOTES 1This work is substantially supported with materials gathered from (a) the confrontation of experience and ideas with lecturers from the Department of English of the Institutes of Foreign Languages at the universities of Oran-Es-Senia, Algiers and Annaba; (b) the compilation and analysis of the various types of mistakes recurrent in the students' works; (c) the study of the different programmes and decisions as issued by the Ministry of Higher Education. 21971: the first reform; 1975-1976, 1984, 1987: “restructuration” of modules. The number of exams, from five to ten marks over eight working months , plus the number of students require a greater amount of time devoted to marking and correcting papers in class. The time is necessarily knocked off the overall teaching load. New criteria are thus implied: - students are assessed on tiny bits of knowledge. By making learning easier for them, passing or failing becomes a matter of arithmetic. - For the lecturers these conditions of assessment imply a new organization of their pedagogical duty. 3Academic year1974: 1st year (1st and 2nd semester, 8 modules by semester) 2nd year (3rd and 4th semester, 7 modules by Semester) 3rd year (5th and 6th semester, 7 modules by semester) In all 6 semesters and 44 modules 4Litterature, linguistics? civilization and T.E.F.L: these subject transform to entities which infer an administrative framework "le C.P.C. par matière", stating thus their autonomy from the remaining subjects. 5The syllabus now: 1st year: 22h Teaching load per week. No literature 2nd year : 23h “ “ “ American Literature 2h Brit. Lit. 2h 3rd year: 19h Am. Lit. 2h Brit. Lit. 2h Third Word Lit. 2h 4th year: 17h Seminars 3h Total: 81h 13 h 6On its own, Third World Literature covers four continents not to speak of the languages involved. This word may be a concept that defines a type of economic and political relationships between different parts of the world but it seems tome farfetched to apply a kind of homogeneous pattern of cultural expression to so vast a geographical area. 7This is a tentative approach for the sake of the analysis. Literature being a total intellectual experience because it involves intuitive, Sensitive, and intellectual apprehension plus memory, these "a priories" are sometimes closely interconnected, and it is delicate to distinguish clearly

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between them. 8This phobia of literature doesn't seem to be a local privilege nor is it contemporary as F. Shoshana states in La folie et la chose littéraire, Seuil, Paris, 1978, p.14 :" On entend trop souvent aujourd'hui que la littérature est chose périmée, qu'on ne veut plus en entendre parler. On peut encore, à la rigueur, parler de "texte", "d'écriture" - pas de littérature. De même qu'on enferme les fous et qu'on a enfermé la folie à l'intérieur des limites réductrices du concept esthétisant de "belles lettres" issu du libéralisme bourgeois en démystifiant le libéralisme, on prétend liqui4er, en finir avec la notion même de littérature, comme s'il ne sautait pas aux yeux que la chose littéraire débordait ces enjeux de l'idéologie bourgeoise, que la littérature non seulement excède, mais de fait subvertit de par cette définition réductrice, dans laquelle on a cherché, et on cherche encore, à l'emprisonner". 9Indeed French remains the "first" foreign language since it is taught coupled with Arabic at the level of the fourth year in primary schools. The actual status of French in Algeria today is still open to harsh debates over its cultural perspectives in this country.

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PART ONE

PROGRAM PRESENTATION ANDEVALUATION

SECTION 5

ESP/EST

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DO WE NEED AN ESP COMPONENT IN THE CURRICULUM OF THE LICENCE?

Kamel KHALDI

University of Algiers, Algeria.

INTRODUCTION ESP (or English for Special Purposes, as it was originally known) was, and still is, very fashionable in many parts of the world. It certainly was fashionable in the early 1970's in Britain, when many people readily jumped on the ESP bandwagon, probably because of the money clinging to its wheels. Part of this success was due to the fact that in many parts of the world, and particularly in the Arab world, it was assumed that since English was the language "par excellence" of Science and Technology, the mastery of this language would ensure the success of such a transfer. It is not surprising therefore, that the largest ESP projects (for example, the one developed for King Abdulaziz University, in Saudi Arabia) were initiated during that period. Our purpose however, is not to carry out an evaluation of ESP in the world, but more modestly, to look at the situation, past and present, of this particular subject in the English Department at the University of Algiers, where in the early 1970's (coincidence ?) a module called L.S.T. (Langues des Sciences et des Techniques) was introduced in the curriculum of the "Licence." The purpose was two-fold First, to familiarize students with the characteristics of scientific and technological writings, and, second, since the Department was primarily geared towards training future teachers of English for Secondary Education, to enable them, should the situation arise, to teach this type of English. It will be noticed, in passing, but this will be discussed later more extensively, that ESP was reduced to simple lexical and syntactical issues. In the process none of these aims was ever achieved. Otherwise, how would one explain the gradual decline and the eventual disappearance of this particular subject from the curriculum of the "Licence"? Why have successive Heads of the Department failed to keep this module "alive"? These are the questions which I shall attempt to answer in this paper. It is my contention that the failure of this module finds its roots in the lack of specifications in terms of (i) Course Objectives, (ii) Students" Needs, (iii) Teachers" Teaching-experience Requirements, (and that is probably what has driven the last nail in the ESP coffin), (iv) Teaching-Materials and Teaching Methodology. Before discussing each of these points in detail, however, I would like to establish, rather briefly, the general theoretical background against which my critical analysis will be carried out. My paper will thus be divided into two main parts: (i) A rapid survey of the theoretical developments in ESP which will allow us to establish the criteria features which will be used in our discussion, and (ii) A retrospective critical analysis of the teaching of the LST module,

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and suggestions for the development of ESP in the future. I. GENERAL BACKGROUND TO ESF 1.1. Definition of ESP Before defining ESP let us look at the term itself and see what this acronym stands for. For a long time, particularly in the early days of ESP, they stood for "English for Special Purposes". Gradually however, the "S" came to stand for “Specific”, i.e. "English for Specific Purposes". The difference may seem superficial and purely theoretical but a closer look will reveal that the distinction is rather important because when we say that the kind of English we are talking about is for "Special" purposes, this implies that there exists in the language some sort of restricted languages which constitute a small part of ESI', (and this was unfortunate1y the exclusive meaning with which the LST Course was designed). By contrast, the term "Specific" dearly emphasizes purposefulness, that is ESP is intended above all to be of clear and particular usefulness to the students. However, in practice today, everyone uses the label ESP without feeling a need to clarify what it stands for. Having thus defined the term "ESP" does not necessarily entail that we have answered the question: "what is ESP ?" We know now that it is meant for "specific" purposes, but we still have to define the criteria which make these purposes "specific", particularly since, as it will become clear in a moment, the label ESP has come to be used as an umbrella term which covers a variety of vocational and professional reasons for learning or teaching languages. It is now widely accepted (Perren, 1969), Mackay and Mountford, 1979) that there are three kinds of purpose: a. occupational requirements: for example for international telephone operators, civil airline pilots, and so on. b. vocational training programmes for example for hotel and catering staff, technical trades and so on. c. academic or professional study : for instance, Engineering, Medicine, Law and so on. It is now customary to look at ESP as being either "Occupational" or "Educational". In theca case of the former, or EOP (i.e. English for Occupational Purposes), it refers to the precise demands that specific occupations place upon communicative ability in English, such as technicians, hotel waiters, civil airline pilots mechanics and so on. In the case of the latter, or EAP, (i.e. English for Academic purposes), it refers to those communicative skills in English which are acquired for study purposes in a formal educational system, such as in Engineering, Mining, Medicine, and so on.

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This, of course, is not a clear cut distinction: there maybe an area where EAP and EOP overlap. For instance, people can work and study simultaneously; it is also likely that in many cases, the language learnt for immediate use in a study environment will be used later when the student takes up, or returns to, a job; but the general division is a sound and pragmatically useful one. This distinction becomes important in practice since job-oriented learners (i.e. in an EOP Course) are usually more pragmatic, intolerant of what they feel irrelevant, critical of unauthentic materials, and keen to achieve effective communication. In addition, students of Occupational English tend to be less academic, to have less previous language experience. The question that may be raised at this stage is 'What’s the relation between "ESP" and "ELI"' in general ?" In the late 1960's and early 1970's there were people who wished to suggest there was a difference between the two, but the consensus now is that ESP is clearly a type of ELT. 1.2. Developments in ESP In this section I shall look, albeit very briefly, at the historical development of ESP, and in particular at its relation with the corresponding development in linguistic and language learning theories, to see whether our LST module has followed these developments or not. Basically, we can distinguish four major stages: (i) Register Analysis In the early days of ESP, the basic assumption was that the language of specific areas, like Science and Technology was different from that of "General English". This association of science and technology with a special language (hence, in "ESP" the "S" = "Special") led to "Register Analysis", (i.e. the identification of the grammatical and lexical features of different registers). Thus, the English of, say, Electric Engineering, constituted a specific register different from that of, say Biology or General English. Thus, ESP was equated with certain structures, for example : frequent use of the passive, long nominal groups, present tense and 50 on. Teaching materials using this approach can be found in: "A Course in Basic Scientific English", Ewer and Lattore (1969); "The Structure of Technical English", Herbert (1965); "Writing Scientific English", Swales (1971). It is at this period that; in addition to these methodological criticisms, many researchers voiced their objections as to the use of the label "ESP" as a blanket term to cover a variety of purposes in learning English (This point has ready been discussed). An emerging line of research was soon to come up with the suggestion that instead of looking at the surface forms of the language, what was needed was a consideration of the purposes for which language is used. The shift bf focus from the sentence level to the level beyond the sentence was to see the beginning of a close association between ESP and the field of rhetorical or discourse analysis.

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(ii) Rhetorical or Discourse Analysis At the basis of this approach was the observation that although many foreign students are able to understand every word in a sentence and every sentence in a paragraph, they may still be unable to grasp the message conveyed in that paragraph, i.e. the writer’s underlying purpose. Thus, whereas register analysis has focussed on sentence grammar, the new approach aims at understanding how sentences combine in discourse to produce meaning. An example of early teaching materials illustrating the various rhetorical acts in scientific discourse is Allen and Widdowson's "English in Focus" series. The series also illustrates a fundamental principle of Widdowson's approach to the teaching of ESP the use of specially constructed texts as opposed to "authentic" or unadulterated materials (we shall come back to this point later). Widdowson justifies the use of constructed texts on the grounds that FL students cannot be expected to cope at the beginning of their course with the kind of authentic language they will be confronted with at the end of the course. (iii) The "concept-based" approach The "concept-based" or "notional" approach views the language of science in terms of "categories" close to Wilkins" (1976) "semantico- grammatical categories": eg. dimension, measurement, properties, and so on. This approach is exemplified by Bates and Dudley-Evans series Nucleus (1976) with titles such as General Science "Engineering", "Chemistry" and so on. Thus, the trend now is to carry out a detailed investigation of students" needs as well as procedures for relating language analysis more closely to learners" needs. (iv) The Process-oriented or Skills approach The Skills approach is seen as an attempt to take as its starting point not language itself but the thinking processes underlying its use. The basic hypothesis is that there are common reasoning and interpreting processes which make it possible for the learner to extract meaning from discourse regardless of the surface forms. Early work is attributed to Candlin et al. (1978) who set out this approach in general terms. Their skills analysis involved three levels: (a). Mode : (i.e. the study situation, eg. lecture, seminar, etc,) (b). Skills (macro-skills), (eg. reading comprehension), (listening comprehension) (c). Sub-skills (micro-skills) (i.e. micro-skills broken down into their component parts (eg. READING : extensive reading skimming, scanning WRITING note taking report-writing, etc.). In terms of materials, this approach generally puts the emphasis on reading or listening strategies. The characteristic exercises get the learners to reflect on and analyze how meaning is produced and retrieved from written or spoken discourse. (v) Needs Analysis Needs Analysis is generally used to refer to procedures for relating language analysis to

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learners' reasons for learning. Thus given that the purpose of an ESP course is to enable learners to function adequately in a target situation, then the ESP course design should proceed by first identifying the target situation and then carrying out a rigorous analysis of the linguistic features of that situation. the identified features will form the syllabus of the ESP course. (This is why Needs Analysis is also known as "Target Situation Analysis", or TSA for short). The most thorough explanation of needs analysis is the system set out by Munby in "Communicative Syllabus Design" (1978) in which he proposes a detailed profile of learners' needs in terms of communication purposes, communicative setting, the means of communication, language skills, functions, and so on. This approach works for both EAP and EOP. 1.3. ESP CHARACTERISTICS 1.3.1. Criterial Features of ESP The first criterion of ESP is that it is Goal Oriented: Students involved in an ESP course study English not for the sake of the English language as such, but primarily because they have to perform a task in that language. They may study English because they need to further their education(EAP) or because they need English in order to carry out their jobs (EOP). Thus the ESP student has a specific goal in mind; for instance, "At the end of the course, I want to be able to do this and that". It is, thus, quite understandable if such students feel reluctant to study Shakespeare, the characteristics of a narrative text, or how a typical English family lives. In order for such a goal to be attained a careful analysis of students" needs must be carried out. Needs Analysis constitutes the second criterial feature of ESP. By this, we mean finding out first what it is that students on a particular course need English for. (This point will be discussed in more details later). 1.3.2. Characteristics of an ESP course Like the evaluation of any teaching Course, an ESP Course can be carried out at three levels : The Learners, The teacher, and the Teaching Materials. a. The 1earners: In a traditional ESP Course, the majority of learners are adults (or "young adults") who have already developed a speciality, thus know their fields. They are, usually, highly motivated because they have an immediate need of the language, either for occupational or academic reasons. b. The Teacher The ESP teacher who is primarily a language teacher and NOT a science teacher must nevertheless have some knowledge in the particular subject(s) he is teaching. Unlike his

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colleague in a "General English" class, he must rely on his students for information on the subject taught, because they have more authority than him in the field. In addition to being familiar with the topic, he also needs to take account of developments in linguistic and learning theory as well as keep up with the current views on the place of the learner in the educational system. c. The Teaching Materials ESP Teaching Materials are usually one of three types: (i) "Genuine", or 'Authentic" Materials These are materials taken directly from a printed source and presented without alteration. It is obvious that if one wants to use this type of material, one needs a group of learners with a fairly solid background in English, because the problem is that one maybe led to have no control over the materials being used. The text may be strong on technical terminology or scientific method but lack the type of structures the teacher wants his students to practice. One way of making use of "genuine" materials, and ensuring that they contain the items one wants to work with, Is to adapt them somehow. (ii) "Adapted Materials" These materials allow the teacher to stress the features that he wants to work with but are quite difficult to construct. (iii) "Synthesized" or "Created" Materials By far the most popular among ESP teachers, these materials result from the process of taking "genuine" materials from two or more sources, deleting the unwanted items and fusing the remaining information into a continuous text. The advantage is that they give the teacher more control over the grammatical and lexical features than do other types of materials. Having thus discussed the theoretical background and the development of ESP, as well as the criterial features and the characteristics of an ESP Course, I think that we are now in possession of ail the elements which will allow us to turn our attention to a critical analysis of the teaching of ESP in the past. II. ESP PAST AND FUTURE 2.1. ESP In the Past I mentioned above the last nail being driven in the ESP coffin; I think it is time now to open that coffin, and use the corpse as our corpus and carry out an autopsy which would, I hope, reveal the causes of that death. Let me first mention what I consider to be a fundamental difference between the kind of ESP Course which I have been taking about so far, (i.e. a Course specially designed for a group of highly motivated people w ho are familiar with the subject being taught but not with the

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language), and the ESP Course (or English for SPECIAL purposes, LST as it was called) in the English Department. This latter was originally designed with two different but complementary purposes in mind : First, to familiarises students with Scientific and Technological writing; and second, to train them to teach this kind of English. It is quite obvious that we are dealing with two complete1y different problems: - In the former, or "pure" ESP course (be it EOP or EAP), content is not a problem but English is. - In the latter, English is not a problem, at least one would assume it is not, but any specific field (be it scientific, technological or otherwise) was. Thus, the task of the LST teacher in this case was quite a daunting one : Not only did he/she have to teach the language of a particular subject (i .e. terminology) which even he/she did not know, but at the same time s/he had also to teach that particular field to students who, assumingly, knew nothing about it. Let us first look now at the reasons behind the gradual decline and final disappearance of the LST module from the curriculum. I shall discuss the causes under two main headings, in terms of: (i) the criterial features of ESP in general, and (ii) the characteristics of an ESP course. (i) Criterial Features As already pointed out, ESP is, in essence, "Coal-oriented", and ESP students (at least in a "pure" ESP situation) have a specific goal in mind they know why they are studying. The question that we may ask ourselves therefore, is : "Do I Did our students know why they had to study this particular kind of English?" Before answering this question let us first look at the reasons behind the introduction of the LST module in the curriculum of the Licence in the early 1970s. As already pointed out, ESP was fashionable at that time and we readily jumped on the bandwagon without having previously thought about Why and How to do it? In fact, the very labelling of the module was in itself quite revealing it favoured "speciality" (i.e. "special languages" at the expense of "specificity" of goal. There was, thus, no consideration given to the possibility that ESP could also NOT be concerned with scientific or technological English. At the time the module was introduced, and because of prevailing linguistic and language learning theories, this attitude could have been understandable; but as ESP theory developed we, in the department, did not seem to be aware of that development and we remain frozen at the association ESP = LST, which had, as we snail see below, a negative impact on our teaching approach. Thus, the only Objective (or goal) behind the inclusion of this module in the curriculum of the Licence was simply to "familiarise students with Scientific and technological writing". Furthermore, the LST module was introduced in the First Semester of the third year, with no valid reasons.

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Let us see now if the LST module satisfied our second criterial feature (i.e. a careful Needs Analysis having been carried out before designing the Course). There was in fact, very little concern, if any, as to what our students were supposed to do with such a knowledge. If one looks at the way a particular Unit was taught, then one would be led to believe that students were expected to acquire some sort of scientific and technological knowledge, just for the sake of it. Furthermore, there was no provision made for the possibility that students could be involved in a situation where they had to teach this kind of English. We shah now turn to discussing the LST Course in terms of the characteristics of an ESP course. (ii) Characteristics of an ESP course: i.e. in terms of Students, Teachers, and Teaching Materials (a) The Students: As already pointed out, for 3rd Year students, a new subject was introduced in the curriculum with no obvious reason since no satisfactory answer could be given to their question "Why study ESP?". A question that even their teachers could not answer since most of them had the same feeling. Students" reluctance became even greater when they realized that the exploitation of the teaching materials involved not only practice of the structural and lexical characteristics of scientific texts, but also a knowledge of the particular scientific field the text was dealing with. It comes as no surprise therefore, if students" motivation was very low and their attitude negative. (b) The Teachers: If one of the major requirements of an ESP teacher is some knowledge of the (scientific) topic he is teaching, this requirement was far from being met. Ail ESP teachers were primarily "General English" teachers on whom a tragedy has befallen : They have been chosen teach the LST module. The other requirement, i.e. being familiar with developments in linguistic and language learning theory was seldom met as well : Most teachers were from a literary background. Furthermore, the allocation of the IST module was, in many cases, done as a stopgap measure : Teachers were given this module to complete their teaching schedule. Thus, most, if not ail LST teachers had no previous experience not only in the teaching of ESP or its theoretical background and development, but did not even have adequate knowledge of Linguistic and Language Learning theories, knowledge which could have helped them design and implement an ESP Course. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that each teacher was teaching this module in his own idiosyncratic way. It was therefore, quite understandable that these teachers who had inadequate training and very little experience felt genuinely terrified at the prospect of having to teach ESP. (c) The Teaching Materials

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Most materials were of the synthesized/created type we mentioned above. They were usually taken from various sources (Ewer and Lattore, Herbert, Swales) and covered a variety of topics. Thus, there were texts entitled "Economics", "Aviation", "The Cracking of Oil", etc., and no link was established between them. A typical Unit would be taught as follows: (i) Hand out: eg. "The cracking of Oil". (ii) Read the text -Explain the technical terms -Ask some students to read the text. (iii) The text would be followed by comprehension questions similar to the ones used in the exploitation of a "General English" text (iv) Exercises: The focus was put mainly on the structural characteristics of the text (Passive Voice, Present simple tense, etc.), without any attention being given to the communicative function or rhetorical organization of the text. (v) End of the lesson. This approach, typical of the "register-based" approach, did not evolve, as ESP teaching did, and became thus "fossilized". It comes as no surprise, therefore, if the teaching of this module gradually declined to be eventually abandoned. Finally let us mention the fact that this module has never been approached in terms of its "teach ability", i.e. training students to teach this kind of materials. Let us now turn our attention to putting forward some suggestions which, I hope, will contribute to the development of the teaching of ESP both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. 22. ESP in the Future? (a) At the Undergraduate level: Students must be made aware that the ESP module is not introduced in the curriculum for the sake of cramming their heads with scientific and technological knowledge, but solely for the purpose of familiarizing them with this particularly important register in view of preparing them to teach it, should they be asked to. The emphasis, therefore, will not be on "content" but on the functioning and organization of texts and their pedagogical implications. To achieve such a goal, one needs a careful selection of texts and to think carefully about the teaching methodology. (This will be discussed later). The problem at this stage, however, is that we do not know in advance what kind of institution (Lyée, Technicum, ITE, and so on) these students will be sent to, and thus, making a precise Needs Analysis difficult to establish. This difficulty will, as we shah see below, affect the type of texts used. In terms of Teachers, it will be obvious by now, that some sort of training in ESP is necessary. If such training has not been made available, it would then be preferable to allocate this teaching to someone who is already familiar with linguistic and language learning theories, and who has some experience in the design of a language course in general, and an ESP course in particular. In terms of Teaching Materials, I suggest a three- pronged approach: (i) Part of the course will be devoted to the study of the theoretical background and

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development of ESP. The emphasis will be particularly put on the fact that developments in ESP are not different from developments which took /are taking place in the field of ELT in general. This will reinforce the idea in students’’ mind that ESP is nothing but ELT: the only difference is in the terminology and in some specific grammatical and rhetorical structures. Thus, students will be introduced, for instance, to the "register-based" approach and shown how it derived from the structural approach itself the by-product of the Behaviorist-Structuralist approach. Similarly, when discussing the “discourse approach” they must be shown that it results from the convergence of various theories (Discourse Analysis, Socio-linguistics) and was first used in the design of ELT materials before being used in the teaching of ESP. (ii) The next part of the course will be the texts themselves; these must be chosen from a variety of sources in order to illustrate the theoretical approaches which would have been discussed above so as to give the students an idea of the various types of materials available on the market, and how one can exploit them. The problem at this level however, would be the selection of the topics to be covered, since, as I mentioned above, it is impossible to know beforehand where these students will teach. We shall have to select therefore, a variety of subjects linked by a common denominator (either syntactic or rhetorical, for instance) and stress the similarities of texts irrespective of the topic. (iii) The final part of the course will be to introduce students to elements of syllabus design since, in many cases, most ESP teachers have to design their own materials. It is also at this stage that students’’ attention must be drawn to the fact that ESP is not only concerned with Science and Technology but also with various vocational occupations. On the basis of ah these elements, I think that the ESP Course should be introduced in the 4th Year, because at this stage students are expected to be already familiar with most, if not all, linguistic and language learning theories as well as have some knowledge of the didactics of teaching a foreign language. Furthermore, since they are being taught a module of applied linguistics (called "Didactique"), one can incorporate in that module the methodology of teaching ESP. Thus, we shall have, on the one hand a course designed to familiarise students with ESP materials and ESP course design, and, on the other hand, a course designed to show students how to teach ESP. (B) At the Post graduate Level (a) Design of Teaching Materials For various institutions: for instance, School of Commerce, Institute of Economics, of Law, and so on. After a careful students" Needs Analysis, the research student will construct an ESP course specifically designed for this institution. It must be mentioned, in passing, that most of what is being done here, is on a "Do it Yourself" basis : Teachers who are presently in charge of this module, despite their great will and dedication, find it very difficult to carry out their jobs. The main problem in these institutions is that students (eg. Medicine) are required to study English, but this in no way affects their success in their Medicine course. Thus, in order to raise students' interests, attempts have been made to create materials which relate to students' field of study (eg. Medicine). Such an "ESP course" maybe specific in terms of topic or subject matter, but will have no specificity of goal. (b) Evaluation of existing ESP Courses

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In many places, ESP courses have been designed, or bought as such, but their application creates lots of problems. The research students may look at these courses and evaluate them in terms of (i) the institution's and students' needs, (ii) the teaching methods, (iii) the evaluation methods, and so on. (c) Teacher-training programmes for ESP teachers at University level In the whole country, there is no provision made for the training of ESP teachers at University Level. It is left for each Institute to recruit its own teachers, give them general guidelines, and leave them to themselves afterwards to decide on the teaching materials, teaching and evaluation methods. In some institutions, because of the failure of "general English," teachers, to cope with the requirements of this institution in terms of the teaching of English, they had to ask the subject teacher, who had previously studied in the US or Britain, to provide this teaching; and surprisingly, despite their lack of training as English teachers, they nevertheless had some success with their students (eg USTHB). The need for such a programme is even more crucial, since there is now, in the country, an institution which is in charge of training future post graduate students going to Britain (or the US) and thus needs teachers who are specialized in ESP. These are but some of the possible areas which the future "Magister "can get involved in, and I am sure that there are many others. CONCLUSION It is my belief that the English Department has missed and is. still missing many opportunities to establish itself as the leading institution not only for the teaching of English as a Foreign Language, but also as a major counselling or advisory service to other institutions. It is also my deep conviction that by developing the teaching of, and research in ESP, and I mean English for Specific Purposes (i.e. EOP and EAP), the Department will, at last, go beyond its not 80 easy role of a simple purveyor of teachers to secondary education. It should become a place to which all the institutions (academic or otherwise), which have something to do with the teaching or the use of English, will necessarily address themselves for professional advice. BIBLIOGRAPHY Allen, J.P.B. (1975), "English, science and language teaching : The FOCUS approach". EDUTEC, 9, Mexico City. Allen, J.P.B. and Widdowson, H.G. (1974), " Teaching the communicative use of English'' in IRAL 12/1. Candlin, C.N., Kirkwood, J.M. and Moore, W.M. (1978), “Study Skills in English Theoretical issues and practical problems” in Mackay, R. and Mountford, A. (eds), English for specific Purposes, London, Longman Lackstrom, J., selinker, L. and Trimble, M. (1973), "Technical rhetorical principles and grammatical choice", TÈSOL Quarterly 7:127-136. Strevens, P. (1977), "Special purpose language learning : A perspective", in Language Teaching and Linguistic Abstracts, 10/1, London, CUP.

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THE IMPORTANCE AND IMPACT OF ESTIESP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BLIDA: THE PERSPECTIVE OF

AN ESP-FOUR YEAR "LICENCE" DEGREE

Brahim MANSOURI

Department of English - Blida University , Algeria. Our paper will primarily deal with the scope and impact of EST (English for Science and Technology) within the University of Blida. As a matter of fact, at the University of Blida, EST has set the trends in the development of ESP (English for Specific Purposes). Hence, this impact has pushed the department of English to make an attempt to introduce an ESP option within its "Licence" degree cursus. Our main concern, at the department of English, is how to set up a suitable course/ syllabus for this task. The first, and perhaps easiest, task is to assess the present status, in the university of Blida, of EST/ESP. A particular interest is also to find out how Blida's programmes for EST/ESP (for non-language students) are organized and taught. The second task is to determine the learners' needs (needs analysis). For this purpose, we have just finished preparing a survey to be carried out, first within our university and at a second stage, within other Algerian universities. (See appendix for the questionnaires). The third and main task of our project is to elaborate (with the help of an ESP expert) a course syllabus, select and evaluate the teaching materials. Last, but not least, find ways and means of how to train or retrain the department's staff into ESP. The fact that English has become the international language of science and technology is neither unknown, nor disputed. The publication of major research is, by and large, done in English. Books and articles in the nature of science and technology are for the most part written by English- speaking authors, and even by those non-native speakers of English seeking to reach a wider readership. While university students in Algeria, and in other countries, do not fully grasp the importance of English at an early point in their studies, they certainly feel it as an asset during their last year, in particular, during the writing of their theses or research papers. This feeling is likely to remain with them throughout their professional careers. Having established that English has become a necessary tool for non-native speakers, scientists, technologists and all those who would like to read, or publish research materials in international journals, the question arises whether their professional training prepares them linguistically for all the English language activities. Not only is the teaching of ESP a recent phenomenon (in fact, it began in the rnid70's), but the bulk of the experience has come from the Middle East. Indeed, these countries have designed EST/ESP courses to meet the needs for English as a language of science, technology, business and international communication. They have primarily responded to the calls to make the

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content of the English courses offered relevant to the specific needs of specific groups of learners. The development of an adequate teacher training programmes for ESP is increasingly becoming felt - within some Algerian universities - as an essential element to the sustained demand for ESP teachers and courses. The demand for ESP teachers, from the various institutes of science and technology has, so far, not been met, either by the Algerian language departments, or the teacher training centers. In retrospect, the goals and objectives of English classes for language undergraduates and graduates need major reassessment because these students often become secondary school or university language teachers. Many have not failed to point out that English programmes have not been successful at the secondary school level in many Third World countries; Algeria is no exception. While this is not our main concern in this paper, it is a fact that has to be kept in mind, for the incoming first year undergraduate students are entering university with a poor command of English. To what extent can we succeed in introducing suitable EST programmes into our (Blida) various institutes is a key question. Moreover, how can the department of English integrate ESP into its four- year "licence" degree is yet another major challenge. INTRODUCING ESP IN THE FOUR- YEAR ENGLISH "LICENCE" DEGREE If innovative curricula programmes may be easier to introduce in newly established institutions than they are in older, already established ones, such project innovation has to undergo careful and thorough assessments before its implementation. For the survival of the new institution depends on the failure or success of the project. It is perhaps worth pointing out that Brida's university is amongst the few Algerian universities, geared towards science and technology, that has a language institute. This latter point has in many ways facilitated the process of establishing a good working relationship between the department of English and the various institutes of technology. An essential task, in our department, is to convince ail those who have different language specializations, that benefits could be derived from including ESP on the "licence" degree programme. The department of English, at the university of Blida, would like to make 'English for Specific Purposes' (ESP) an option for the four-year English "licence" degree. We are of the viewpoint that our undergraduate students should have a two-year course of 'common core' English and then be able to choose an option, i.e. cither opt for the 'classical' English degree, or choose ESP, for the remaining two years of the 'licence' course. However, prior to the design of the ESP course syllabus, we are currently working on a careful needs analysis. For this purpose we have prepared three different questionnaires, covering a wide range of questions. The first questionnaire is intended to find out as much as possible about the needs (for English) of the non-language students. The second questionnaire has been prepared for the subject specialist teachers (of the various institutes). Through this questionnaire, we seek to find out, not only about the teachers' needs for English, but also what they think their students' need for English are. We have also prepared a third questionnaire for ail likely employers in

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order to find out what they would expect from their future university recruits (with regard to English) and what their needs and uses of English are. We are fully aware that after receiving back the questionnaires and retrieving the data, our main task will be to analyse these findings. We would probably have to administer further questionnaires - to the same people - in order to obtain complete and viable feedback. We also intend to identify areas of difficulties that future ESP teachers might face. It is generally known that ESP teachers are not aiming at teaching the science student much that he does not already know; ESP teachers would only teach him how to deal with the same information presented in a different (but logically similar) language. Indeed, the position of language teachers in ESP classes is peculiar. They would no longer be the possessors of knowledge that has to be handed down to the class, but possessors of strategies enabling the science students to make the best uses of the language. It is widely acknowledged that EST/ESP teachers need not become experts in science, however, there is an urgent need for the teachers to acquaint themselves with the language of science. The ESP teachers should be able to exploit in the classroom the subject knowledge of the learners. In this respect, interaction between the various science and technology institutes (within the university of Blida) and the department of English can prove a very useful asset. CONCLUSION We, at the University of Blida, are very keen to learn from the experience accumulated in other non-English speaking countries, in the area of ESP teaching for university language graduates,, in particular in the Maghreb. For we certainly share common secondary schools and universities' programmes and difficulties. We know that the sources of ESP teachers' difficulties are attitudinal, conceptual, linguistic, methodological, and others have added the psycholinguistic aspect of language-teacher-training. Bearing in mind all the difficulties that are awaiting us in elaborating an ESP 'licence' degree programme, our next move will be to work, in close contact with an ESP expert in order to analyse the data collected from the needs analysis questionnaires, and only then can we think of elaborating a course syllabus for the third-year students. Afterwards we have to evaluate the teaching materials, and then decide which ones to select to meet our students' needs and objectives. Finally, we have to find the appropriate means which would allow the non-linguist specialists (and non-ESP-specialists) to train as ESP teachers' trainers. We would like to conclude by saying that, despite our modest experience in teaching EST to science students, we are fully aware that we are not undertaking an easy task. We are, however, aiming at elaborating an ESP course syllabus, for a 'licence' degree, flexible enough so as to allow us to evaluate it, immediately after the first graduation of our ‘licence’

undergraduates, and thus bring about any necessary change that-might arise during the course implementation

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Aban T.B., "ESP for Students of Science", English Teaching Forum, April 1979, pp. 66-70. David, Jj.S. Blackie, DJ. "Service English" for Students of Science and Technology", A TEFL Anthology, Selected Articles from the English Teaching Forum. 1973-78, pp. 255-53. Hawkes, H. "The Notional Syllabus; Discourse Analysis and ESP Materials", English Teaching Forum, April 1979, pp. 63-65. Hutchinson, T. and Walters, A., English for Specific Purposes, (Cambridge, 19&7). Richards, R. "Pride and Prejudice: The Relationship Between ESP and Training'; English for Specific Purpos4 Vol. 8,1989, pp. 208-222. Larsen-Pusey, M.A. and Pusey, C. "ESP in Colombian Public Universities", English for Specific Purpose, Vol. 6, N 1, 1987, pp. 45-52. Boys, O., "Main Components of an Introductory Pre-Service Teacher Training Course for ESP: A Third World Country Perspective", in ESP in Practice: Models and Challenges for Teachers, Pat Wilcox, (ed), (USIS, 1989).

QUESTIONNAIRE TO BE COMPLETED BY EMPLOYERS NAME OF THE COMPANY: NATURE OF THE COMPANY'S BUSINESS: WHICH LANGUAGE(S) DO YOU USE IN YOUR COMPANY a) Arabic b) French c) English d) Other(s) IF YOU USE ENGLISH, TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU DO SO (COULD YOU SPECIFY) - - WHAT DO YOU USE ENGLISH FOR? a) Correspondence b) Keeping up to date with news, in matters concerning your business c) Negotiate with your partners d) Make your products/Company known e) Other use(s) WHAT IS THE PERCENTAGE OF THOSE YOUR COMPANY EMPLOY WHO COULD SPEAK AND READ ENCLISH a) Very well b) Fairly well c) A little

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d) Not at ail OF ALL THE GRADUATES YOUR COMPANY EMPLOYS, WHAT IS THE PER-CENTAGE OF THOSE WHO HAVE GRADUATED a) In your field(s) of business b) In English c) In your field(s) of business but have graduated from English speaking countries FOR WHAT PURPOSE(S) WOULD YOUR COMPANY NEED ENGLISH: a) Read specialist reports b) Attend international meetings c) Conduct negotiations with foreign partners d) Make telephone calls with partners abroad e) Translate foreign correspondence f) Write your own business reports h) Any other purpose(s) DO YOU NEED ENGLISH LANGUAGE GRADUATES ? IF SO, WHAT DOES YOUR COMPANY NEED THEM FOR? a) Translation - For general English - For a specific kind of English which one(s), name them: b) Interpreting when you conduct business with foreign partners. If go, how often: - Ail the time - Most of the time - Occasionally c) Do you need them for a combination of (a) and (b)? d) To teach your own staff: - General English - Specific English - Both specific and general English - For any other purpose(s), name them: WOULD YOUR COMPANY LIKE TO EMPLOY ENGLISH GRADUATES IN: a) General English b) Technical English (i.e. Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, Electronics, Architecture, etc...) c) Social Science English (i.e. Economics, Banking, Finance, Commercial English, Insurance, etc...) d) Any other suggestion(s):

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- -

QUESTIONNAIRE TO BE COMPLETED BY THE STUDENTS OF THE INSTITUTE.

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF: NAME: DEPARTMENT: INSTITUTE: IN WHICH SCHOOL-YEAR ARE YOU? WHAT IS THE LANGUAGE OF YOUR INSTRUTION: WHICH "BACCALAUREAT" DO YOU HAVE? HAVE YOU STUDIED ENGLISH? (CROSS YOUR ANSWER(S)). a) At the "C.E.M." b) At the "Lycée" c) At university d) At a fee-paying school IF SO, FOR HOW LONG HAVE YOU STUDIED ENGLI SH? WHY DID YOU STUDY ENGLI SH? a) Was it your choice? b) Was it the only available option? c) Any other reason? DO YOU THINKYOU HAVE HAD ENOUGH ENGLISH ? YES I NO WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE: a) More English class : (how much per week) -…..hours per week b) The same as you are having now : (how much) - hours per week WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU NEED ENGLISH FOR? (HERE IS A LIST)

DEGREE OF NEED

VERY MUCH A LITTLE BIT NOT AT ALL

A FEW SUGGESTIONS

READING THE CLASS TEXT BOOK READING SPECIALIST TECHNICAL ARTICLES TAKING NGTES PROM LECTURES PARTICIPATING JN CLASS CONVERSATION GIVING ORAL PRESENTATION TAKING ORAL EXAMS SOCIAL INTERACTION 'N ENGUSH WRITING RESEARGH PAPERS WRITING ESSAYS EXAMS WRITING ÀISTRAGTS WRITING LETTERS ANY OTHER SUGGESTION(S)

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DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU CAN a) Read and understand the specialist materials you need? - Very well - Fairly well - Not at all b) Understand lectures and tutorials carried in English: - Very well - Fairly well - Not at all c) Carry a conversation with English native speakers - With ease - With difficulty - Unable to WHO DO YOU THJNK WOULD BEST MEET THE ABOVE NEEDS a) The English language specialist b) Your specialist teacher c) A language specialist in technical English COULD YOU GIVE SOME ARGUMENTS TO YOUR ANSWERS(S): - - - ANY OTHER SUGGESTION THAT MIGHT HELP THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AT YOUR INSTITUTE:

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QUESTIONNAIRE TO BE COMFLETED BY THE ACADEMIC STAFF OF INSTITUTE:

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF: NAME: DEPARTMENT: SUBJECT(S) TAUGHT HAVE YOU HAD ANYTEACHERS' TRAINING, IF SO HOW LONG? HOW LDNG HAVE YOU BEEN TEACHING? HOW WOULD Y0U RATE YOUR ENGLISH: a) Very good b) Fairly good c) Poor HAVE YOU EVER STUDIED IN AN ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY Which one? When? For how long? DO YOU USE ANY ENGLISH IN YOUR DAILY ACTIVITY? How often HOW DO YOU USE YOUR ENGLISH: a) Reading specialist articles b) Reading "English" newspapers c) Reading journals and periodicals d) Attending overseas seminars e)Others ARE YOU INTERESTED IN IMPROVING YOUR ENGLISH ? a) Why - b) Why not -

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STUDENTS YEAR

TOTAL HOURS PER WEEK

HOURS: WEEK

NUMBER OF ENGLISH CLASS-

TOPIC SPECIALIST

WHO TEACHES ENGLISH

LANGUAGE TEACHER/THE

NUMBER STUDENTS PER

CLASS

FIRST SECOND THIRD FOURTH FIFTH POST GRADUATION

WHICH LEVEL(S) DO YOU TEACH: (CROSS THE RIGHT ANSWER) a) Beginners b) Intermediates c) Advanced WHICH PEDAGOGICAL AJDS DO YOU USE? a) Text Books: Name them: - b) Articles (from which journals or periodicals): - - c) Audio-visuals (names) - - d) Others HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK IS ENGLISH FOR THE SUCCESS OF YOUR STUDENTS? - - IN WHAT WAYS ARE OR ARE NOT YOUR CURRENT ARRANGEMENTS SUFFI-CIENT TO MEET THE NEEDS OF YOUR STUDENTS: - - DO YOU FEEL THAT: a) English classes should start earlier at, the graduation level? If so, When?

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b) Your graduate students should have more hours of English? If so, How much? c) Your English classes should be conducted by: - English teachers specialists - Subject(s) specialists - A combination of the two (i.e. the English language teacher and the subject specialist) - An English teacher specialised in technical English IF ENGLISH IS TO BE TAUGHT FROM THE FIRST YEAR ONWARD, AT YOUR DEPARTMENT, INDICATE THE ORDER OF PRIORITY, PROM THE VIEWPOINT OF YOUR INSTITUTE:

DEGREE OF NEED

VERY MUCH A LITTLE BIT

NOT AT ALL

A FEW SUGGESTIONS

READING THE CLASS TEXT BOOK READING SPECIALIST TECHNIGAL ARTICLES TAKING NOTES FROM LECTURES PARTICIPATING IN CLASS CONVERSATION GIVING ORAL PRESENTATION TAKING ORAL EXAMS SOCIAL INTERACTION 'N ENGLISH WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS WRITING ABSTRACTS WRITING LETTERS ANY OTHER SUGGESTION(S)

DO YOU FEEL THAT THE ENGLISH TEACHING MATERIAL SHOULD BE SPECIFIC? IF SO, TO WHAT EXTENT? - - WHAT ARE YOUR STUDENTS ENGLISH NEEDS? a) Within your Institute - In the short run: - In the long run b) After graduation - Post-graduation - In their jobs

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IF YOU ARE ALREADY GIVING "SPECIALIST SUBJECTS" CLASS IN ENGLISH, WHAT ARRANGEMENTS HAVE YOU MADE TO HELP STUDENTS WHO ARE NOT PROFICIENT IN ENGLISH? a) Summarizing (verbally or in note form) the lecture, in another language - b) Providing glossaries of technical terms used in English: - c) Other procedures If so, list them: DO YOU FEEL THAT YOUR STUDENTS ARE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE LECTURES AND TUTORIALS THAT ARE CARRIED IN ENGLISH: a) With ease b) Some difficulties c) A lot of difficulties d) Not understanding at ail WHAT KIND OF DIFFICULTIES ARE YOU ENCOUNTERING IN YOUR ‘EN-GLISH’ SPECIALIST SUBJECT TEACHING? (IF ANY, LIST THEM)

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PART 2

EVALUATION: TESTING METHODS

SECTION 1

GENERAL ISSUES

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WHEN CAN IT BE SAID THAT A LEARNER

HAS LEARNED SOMETHING? LEARNER LANGUAGE, THE LEARNING

PROCESS AND TESTING

Mohammed MELOUK Faculty of Education, Rabat, Morocco

INTRODUCTION In the field of language teaching, and in the teaching of any subject for that matter, evaluation is of a paramount importance. Any evaluation procedure or technique bears, implicitly or explicitly! a number of assumptions about the specific objectives of learning as well as the learning process itself. These assumptions are then translated into programmes, syllabuses, teaching and testing techniques and procedures. While learning objectives have received a lot of attention over the last two decades, and are usually taken into account in the design and implementation of these stages, the learning process is rarely, if ever, considered. It is simply assumed to operate in the same way among different learners. Furthermore, its impact on learner performance is generally ignored. In fact, a look at most testing techniques, and especially the different uses of the results obtained will reveal that the learning process is assumed to be largely uniform and linear. Thus, learning performance in a given test is considered to he a true image of their knowledge and mastery of those language features being tested. However, both research and practice have shown that this need not be necessarily the case. Moreover, while language teaching is becoming more and more process-oriented, language testing is still based on evaluating the product only. The objective of this paper is to discuss and challenge some of the assumptions held in language testing about the acquisition process, with the hope of shedding some light on the implications for testing methodology. The contention here is that research on testing, because. of its pedagogical orientation, has largely ignored research on second language acquisition. In this context, some relevant questions are in order here: 1) To what extent do the testing techniques and procedures take into account the nature of the learning process? 2) Are our uses and interpretation of the results obtained by learners consistent with what is known about language in general, and learner language in particular ? The answer to these questions seems obvious. In fact, there seems to be a divorce between research on the learning process and research on testing which belong to two different areas of interest. It is argued here that any work in testing has to consider the following questions : What is the nature of the learning process and how does it show in the language (product) of learners? When can it be said that a learner has learned or acquired (no distinction implied)

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something ? The objective here is not to come up with definite answers, but rather to initiate discussion about evaluation techniques in the light of what is known about learner language and the process behind it. Furthermore, through consideration of these issues, it is hoped that matters relating to testing be considered, not only from an educational perspective, but especially from a psycholinguistic perspective within second language acquisition research. It is assumed here that these two are as need not be mutually exclusive. In other words, this implies that test designers and managers, including teachers, should be at the same time SLA researchers. In addition, test results should be analysed in a more productive way than is usually the case. 1. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS Just as with testing procedures, we find a number of assumptions about acquisition and learning behind any teaching approach or method. In fact, all the techniques used in one method or another are geared towards enhancing learning and acquisition, so that any successful learning is generally associated with a given technique or method. On the other hand, it is also assumed that any language aspects taught using that technique or method are acquired. However, experience shows that this .is not always the case. Moreover, how many times, we, as language teachers, have been faced with the situation of learners showing that they have learned certain language items on one occasion, and exhibiting difficulties with the same language items on another occasion? This can presumably be explained in terms of the following: a) Only certain aspects of a given linguistic item or feature taught are learned at a given time. Other aspects may come later or may be simply inferred, rightly or wrongly. For example, not all syntactic features of the present perfect and their distribution, nor their various functional uses can be acquired at the same time. b) Language rules, just like learning, are characterised by variability. In other words, rare are those rules which are categorical, with perhaps, the exception of morphology and morphosyntax where choices are generally binary. The implications for learning are quite clear here and these intricate factors explain the somewhat erratic performance of learners. In fact, this situation is quite frequent not only concerning various linguistic and other contexts, but also across skills. In other words, a learner may, on the one hand, acquire and subsequently show the knowledge of a rule at a given linguistic level (be it phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic or pragmatic) in a particular given context (word, structure, discourse). On the other hand, he/she may exhibit that knowledge in one skill (e.g speaking), but may fail in another one (writing). What are the implications of this state of affairs for any evaluation procedure? Should knowledge of language be assessed in terms of the various language levels or should ail the skills be taken into account? All of these questions have important bearings for syllabus design, teaching and especially testing. Concerning the latter, the question that has so far been asked is the following: What does it mean to know a language? The answer to this question (in terms of specific language features or sub skills) has largely served as a basis for the development of various proficiency tests, and to some extent, achievement tests for use in and out of the classroom. Through the use of these, conclusions about learners’ knowledge of the language are drawn. However, it is

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known that most testing techniques or evaluation procedures, however comprehensive they attempt to be, yield only a partial and somewhat distorted picture of what learners have learned. In addition, tests are usually built in the light of an idealised conception of the target language. Nevertheless, It is a fact that, though most descriptive accounts of the target language can be considered as relatively accurate representations of native speakers’

competence at the forma level, we do not yet possess a comprehensive model of native speakers functional uses of language. What is available now is only a fragmentary description of their functional competence. Concerning evaluation, another important observation relates to the fact that certain features of learners' productions in tests may be the product of the tests themselves (e.g Bialystok, 1981,1982) rather than a true picture of the learners knowledge. In this respect, the following question is relevant : To what extent does elicited language represent learners' mastery and knowledge of that language? In other words, should validity and reliability of tests be measured in terms of test features only or should other factors (e.g psycholinguistic processes, variability, etc.) be included in the design and implementation of tests? 2. SPECIFIC ISSUES 2.1. What is taught is learned wholly or partially. This can be easily tested. In general, classroom tests and exams of ail sorts are devised to evaluate directly the learners and indirectly the programmes. In ail of these, what is assessed is usually what is taught or what is found in the programmes/ syllabuses. It is generally claimed that the objective behind any evaluation procedure is to find out how much learners have learned or acquired of what they have been taught over a certain period of time. Another claim is that through evaluation, it is possible to judge the adequacy of programmes with the learners' real level and the aims of the programmes. But the question of how well learners have learned something is rarely, if ever, asked let alone be taken into account in the design of testing procedures and in the conclusions drawn from the results obtained. At this stage, perhaps it is useful to note that techniques and procedures used to assess learners for research purposes are quite different from those used for evaluation purposes, though sometimes those used for the second objective are used for the first one as well and vice versa. The former are usually attempts at assessing how well learners have acquired something or how well they perform in any of the four skills, either combined together or in isolation, whereas the latter are geared towards a quantitative view of learners' knowledge of the language in relation to a programme or a syllabus. This is not to suggest that qualitative aspects are left out, but the fact that any evaluation is translated in terms of grades and marks biases the conclusions drawn about learners acquisition and learning. In addition, tests and exams are usually designed to assess learners' achievement (in quantitative terms) rather than their proficiency which should be viewed in qualitative terms. This is ail the more important as learners' language is known to vary qualitatively and quantitatively at a given time depending on the type of test used7 and over time. Obviously test makers as well as syllabus designers, in most cases, strive to make their tests valid and reliable in that the tests themselves are prepared in such a way as to test what they are meant to test. Thus, a number of test formats and techniques are prepared in order to evaluate either specific features in isolation (such as in discrete point testing) or in combination (as in integrative testing). Among these, we find grammar tests at the sentence

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level (transformation, blank filling etc.), and at the discourse level (e.g tenses, preposition, connectors, etc), and pronunciation tests (e.g sound and phoneme discrimination, intonation, stress, etc). On the other hand, we also find tests designed to evaluate learners' mastery of the language in relation to skills. Thus, reading comprehension is tested in various ways, focussing on both vocabulary and discourse. At the same time, there are batteries of tests for evaluating oral proficiency. Writing is tested in many ways, with composition being the most privileged technique. Although ail of these tests yield valuable information about learners' knowledge of language -whether in terms of features or in global terms - the fact that only one type is used for each feature or for each skill limits the scope of the evaluation. Moreover, the translation of this evaluation into a quantitative measure (how much + a grade) obscures a lot of facts about learners' competence. In addition, is it always possible to find reliable and valid tests which evaluate learners' real knowledge of the various language levels, including formal as well as functional aspects such as pragmatic appropriateness. What criteria are to be used to take account of such features of language as redundancy and creativity? 2.2. What is learned/acquired is readily accessible (no matter the degree of acquisition). In general, not everything that has been taught is learned in the same degree and or in the same manner. Moreover, certain aspects and features are stored in long term memory, and others are stored in short term memory. Whether something is transferred from short-term memory into long-term memory will depend on many factors such as the relevance of the item to be stored, its degree of importance, its role in relation to other items (necessary, obligatory, optional, etc.), and its status in the teaching and learning process. On the other hand, not ail the items learned are readily and easily accessible, whether in spontaneous or elicited production. Moreover access to the learners' underlying knowledge of language is sometimes obscured by learners' production strategies, such as avoidance, circumlocution, paraphrase, etc. In addition, it is well known that learners internalise certain language aspects as memorised chunks, either in the form of prefabricated patterns or routines, and it is very difficult to decide whether learners know the underlying rule (be it syntactic or pragmatic) or not. 2.3.There is no difference between knowledge of language and control of that knowledge. By knowledge of language is meant the amount of information, structured in various ways and stored in memory (both short term and long term) either in the form of schemata or other types of cognitive organisation. In contrast, control of knowledge refers to the various cognitive and other operations performed on knowledge, viz. information retrieval, recall, structuring and restructuring (Bialystok, 1981: 82). In practical terms, this means that a given information (knowledge) may be present, but it is not exploited either because it is not readily accessible or simply the learner chooses not to use it. It may also mean that, even when it is used, it is not appropriately exploited because of a bad choice or misinterpretation or bad structuring. What are the implications for evaluation? Should knowledge of the language be the sole objective of testing procedures, or should control of that knowledge be taken into account, not only in the evaluation of results; but in the design of tests as well?

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2.4. Language rules and hence learner language, including errors, are consistent, regardless of task demands and contexts. This is not always the case, not only because learners resort to certain production/ communicative strategies, in addition to their performance being 'idiosyncratic' (Corder, 1981) and variable (Ellis, 1985;Tarone, 1988), but especially because of the variability of language rules themselves at ail levels (phonological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic), and according to context, including the linguistic context. Although most of the rules are stable in their discrete forms, variation exists in them, as the following examples illustrate (Celce-Murcia,1980): a) Word order, where a sequence of similar constituents is possible; e.g. ordering of pronominal adjectives: -There were two [Italian marble] statues in the hall [marble Italian] b) Contraction, e.g, He will do it. He'll do it. c) Substitution, e.g, AI goes to school, and [so do I] [I do too] My friend does not swim and I don't [either neither do I] When language is viewed in terms of written versus spoken form, decisions about rules become problematic. Consider the following: a) There is/ are a number of problems we have to discuss b) We were/got invited to the party. It can be argued that these types of problematic formal rules can be taught/ learned as exceptions. However, it remains to be seen whether they are less or more frequent in English. Moreover, available grammar books cannot tell us much about their relative frequency in both written and spoken language. The problem becomes even more intricate when language functions are considered. In fact, although a number of conventionalised uses of language forms have been identified in terms of their socio-pragmatic functions, we are still short of a detailed analysis of their distribution according to such variables as context of situation, speech event, and speech act (e.g Labov, 1972). In addition, we know very little about other non- conventionalised ways which are lin-guistically unpredictable, and hence indefinite. At the same time, nothing is known about their distribution nor frequency in language. As an example, Fraser and Nolan (1981) have identified over 34 ways of making a request. In the light of these issues, what are the implications for the evaluation of learners' performance, especially at the functional level? How can it be possible to arrive at a true representation of what learners really know? What relevant information can we extract from learner language? Undoubtedly these issues have important implications for test design as well as test evaluation. Perhaps, it is useful to turn to what is known about the learning process,

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which might help identify better ways of analysing and evaluating learner performance. 3. LEARNING AND ACQUISITION Generally, a learner learns some aspects of the language he/she is exposed to, or taught. Not everything heard or taught is acquired. In addition, very little is known about how learners process language input. In fact, while it is possible to evaluate how much learners have acquired, the fact remains that most of what is known about the acquisition process itself is the result of speculations or inferences made from their productions. Interesting theories have been proposed to account for the learning process. Undoubtedly, the most current influential theory is the Inter language Hypothesis which can be formulated, in terms of five operating cognitive principles (Selinker (1972): a) Language transfer b) Overgeneralisations of target language rules c) Transfer of training d) Strategies of L2 learning e) Strategies of L2 communication As concerns the nature of learner language or interlanguage (IL),it is presumably something along the lines of the definition suggested by Tarone, Frauenfelder and Selinker (1976:96): 'There exists a separate linguistic or psycholinguistic system (IL) which forms in the mind of the learner and which may take the form of a pidgin and which may develop into a separate dialect in its own right. This system draws on both the NA and TL, as well as other sources, for its surface forms.' A lot of research has been carried out to investigate IL as a product and as a set of strategies from both a linguistic and a psycholinguistic perspective. Thus, we know more about the significance of learners' errors (Corder; 1967, 1981) and the role played by the mother tongue and other previously known languages. A relevant question is in order here : How do the testing and evaluation techniques exploit the rich information provided by errors? In what ways can the psycholinguistic nature of errors be exploited in the design and administration of tests as well as in the interpretation of results? At the same time, certain aspects of learners' communication strategies as well as the learning ones are being unravelled. Thus, a number of strategies have been identified, among which the following seem to predominate (Tarone, 1977): a) Avoidance (topic avoidance, message abandonment) b) Paraphrase (approximation, word coinage, circumlocution) c) Conscious transfer (literal translation, language switch) d) Appeal for help e) Mime It must be pointed out that, apart from the last two, the other strategies are found in both spoken and written form. In addition, avoidance may be resorted to at all levels. The question here is: Do the testing techniques take these features into account? How can we make a better

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use of learner language to identify these strategies and to assess their role in the learners' knowledge and mastery of language? Most researchers would agree that the acquisition process is complex, and IL is an unstable phenomena, with instances of backsliding and fossilisation. On the other hand, learner performance varies, not only in terms of task demands, but especially according to context, including the linguistic context. Given this, what are the implications for language testing and evaluation techniques in general? 4. IMPLICATIONS FOR TESTING In the light of the preceding discussion, a number of tentative general principles can be drawn. 4.1. In the preparation of testing tasks, it is of a paramount importance to determine beforehand the exact nature and type of mastery of the language needed by the learner to succeed on each task. This step is very important in that it will help determine the choice of test types and test items. Some adaptation may be necessary in some cases to suit the purpose for which the test has been set. 4.2. A quantitative evaluation expressed in terms of how much has been learned accompanied by a grade is not enough to assess learners' mastery of the language. It should be followed by a qualitative analysis of the learner's performance. Some tests should be used as research instruments to investigate learners' overall proficiency and not only their achievement in quantitative terms. In other words, the learners' performance in those tests should be analysed in both linguistic and psycholinguistic terms so as to have an idea about their relative mastery of the features under investigation. 4.3. Since learner language varies according to context, including the linguistic context, the specific language features for which learners are to be evaluated should be tested in more than one context and using more than one technique. In this way, it becomes possible to have an idea about learners' knowledge and mastery of those features across different contexts. 4.4. In order to discover instances or areas of fossilisation and backsliding, it is important to test learners on the same language features at various intervals. 4.5. In order to achieve the above, teachers should be able to carry out a linguistic analysis, including contextual analysis of learner language as well as of those language items to be taught. In addition, they should have an insight into learner strategies, the learning process, and not only teaching techniques. 5. CONCLUSION This presentation has sought to throw some light on a number of issues pertaining to testing and evaluation. It follows that the divorce between work in these areas and second language acquisition research is no longer tenable. In fact, an attempt has been made here, through the discussion of some aspects of learner language and production to show indirectly that educational and pedagogical concerns of evaluation in general and testing in particular should not obscure a number of facts about learner language. Hence the need for a better exploitation of learner performance in tests through qualitative analyses and interpretations. This could be achieved if research on testing and evaluation is integrated with linguistic research, especially

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at the descriptive and interpretative levels. In fact, to achieve a better use of testing, and hence teaching, teachers should be able to engage into contextual analysis, using ail available sources and not only textbooks or grammar books. Furthermore, they should be able to interpret learners' linguistic performance, not only in quantitative terms, but also in relation to the various factors affecting learning and acquisition, including the learning process itself. This will entail, among other things, psycho linguistic explanations, analysis of input (textbooks, teacher talk, etc.) and their impact on learner language (output), etc. From what precedes, it is clear that the answer to the question - "when can it be possible to say that a learner has learned something"? - is not as easy as it may seem. However, answers to the issues discussed above constitute elements which may allow a more accurate representation of the constituents of learner language, and hence will provide more comprehensive ways of representing (and evaluating) learner language. In tact, a reconsideration of language testing and evaluation techniques in the light of the elements discussed in this paper will help improve those techniques at different levels: design, administration, analysis and interpretation. Thus, such concerns as test validity and reliability will be extended to incorporate factors other than the usual quantitative measures of the product. REFERENCES Bialystok, E. (1981) 'The role of linguistic knowledge in second language use’ Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 4:31-45 (1982) "On the relationship between knowing and using linguistic forms" Applied Linguistics, 3/3:181-2O6 Celce-Murcia, M. (1980) "Contextual analysis of English Application to TESL" In Larsen-Freeman (ed)(1980) Discourse Analysis In Second Language Research Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House Publishers. Corder, S.P. (1967) "'The significance of learners errors' "IRAL; 5/4:16-170(1984) Error Analysis and Interlanguage. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. (1985) "Sources of variability in interlanguage". Applied Linguistics, 5/2:138-155. Fraser, B. and Nolan, (1981) "The association of deference with linguistic form". International Journal of the Sociology of Language 27:93-109. Labov, W. (1972) Socio-linguistic Patterns. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press. Selinker, L. (1972) 'Interlanguage' IRAL, 10/3:209-231 Tarone, E. (1988) Variation In Interlanguage.London: Edward Arnold. Tarone, E.; Frauenfelder, U.; Selinker, L. (1976) "Systematicity / variability and stabil-ity/instability in interlanguage systems". Language Learning, 93-135.

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PART 2

EVALUATION: TESTING METHODS

SECTION 2

COMMUNICATIVE TESTING

123

TESTING THE COMMUNICATIVE USE OF ENGLISH

Ahmed MEZIANI

faculty of Education, Rabat, Morocco

1. INTRODUCTION A test has been defined as a procedure which is designed to elicit certain behaviour from which we can make inferences about certain characteristics of an individual. Testing as this definition implies, plays a major role. In fact, most foreign language teaching involves some sort of test or examination. Tests can ho used at the beginning of instruction to determine readiness; during instruction to determine students' progress, and at the end of instruction to determine its effectiveness. Thus, language testing is essential to language teaching. It provides goals and it monitors for both teachers and learners success in reaching those goals. It is a means not only for establishing goals, but also standards for teaching courses and syllabuses. 2. FROM ANALYSIS TO SYNTHESIS Approaches to language testing seem to fail along a continuum which stretches from 100% discrete item tests such as phoneme discrimination tests on the one hand, to completely integrative tests such as the essay, on the other. But it looks like most of the time, there is a fusion between the analytical and the integrative. This is the view that Davies (1978:149) takes when he declares that "the most satisfactory view of language testing and the most useful kinds of language tests are a combination of these two views, the analytical and the integrative". It goes without saying that, in communicative language testing, focus would be put on the integrative end of the continuum. This is because "whereas discrete items attempt to test knowledge of language one bit at a time, integrative tests attempt to assess a learner's capacity to use many bits of language at the same time." (Oller 1979:37). Oller bases his preference for integrative tests on the fact that discrete point analysis necessarily breaks the elements of language apart and tries to teach them (or test them) separately with little or no attention to the way those elements interact in a larger context of communication. What makes it ineffective as a basis for teaching or testing languages is that crucial properties of language are lost when its elements are separated. (Oller 1979:212). Integrative tests have now come under attack as well. Indeed, integrative tests such as Cloze, only tell us about a candidate's linguistic competence; they do not tell us anything directly about a student's performance ability. The main value of these tests, in their unmodified form at least, is in designating competence levels rather than relating performance to any external criteria. They are perhaps only of limited use where the interest is in what the individual student can or cannot do in terms of the various language tasks he may face in real life situations.

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Integrative tests such as cloze and dictation depend basically on a knowledge of the language system rather than the ability to operate this system in an authentic setting. Thus, integrative tests remain essentially usage-based as they do not represent genuine interactive communication. I think I am on safe ground here as most people would probably agree that testing a candidate's linguistic competence is a necessary but not sufficient component of a test battery. In this sense "Knowledge of the elements of a language in fact counts for nothing, unless the user is able to combine them in new and appropriate ways to meet the linguistic demands of the situation in which he wishes to use the language". (Morrow 1979:145). Similarly, Alderson (1979) has raised serious questions about the validity of the so-called integrative tests. He demonstrated that even in using the same passage, results are affected by altering the point where the deletions are started from, or by using a different nth rate deletion. 3. TOWARDS MORE COMMUNICATION IN LANGUAGE TESTING Having said that, one cannot but agree, I think, that the prime need of most of our learners is for an ability to understand and be understood in the foreign language with the constraints of particular language-using-circumstances. If we accept this as a working definition of language communication, then it becomes clear that language testing almost never takes place in isolation. It is done, and should be done, for a particular purpose and in a specific context. This context includes both the discourse of which individual utterances and sentences are part, and the socio-linguistic situation which governs to a large extent the nature of that discourse in both form and meaning. Communication in this sense is context - specific, and as Savignon (1983:9) suggests, it "takes place in an infinite variety of situations, and success in a particular role depends on one's understanding of the context and on prior experience of a similar kind." As I have tried to show earlier, a serious limitation of the analytical or skills model, as it is sometimes called, is its failure to recognize the full context of language use. Communicative language testing, on the other hand, comes up with a different language proficiency whose main characteristic is its recognition of the importance of context beyond the sentence to the appropriate use of language. We are ail familiar with the distinction between "literal understanding" and "inferencing" meanings that are not directly stated in a text. I would like to add something else to this dichotomy and introduce a "trichotomy" instead, viz. 1- reading the lines 2- reading between the lines 3- reading beyond the lines. Let me illustrate. 1. Twas brillig and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimbol in the wabe Ail mimsy were the borogroves And the mome raths outgrabe. Even though this text does not make any sense to a native speaker of English, it is possible to answer questions about it by simply reading the lines. - How were the toves? (Slithy) - What did the toves do? (gyre & gimbol) - Where did the toves gyre and gimbol? (in the wabe).

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Similarly, if we take a text like 2a. "The floor was dirty so Sally used the mop", we can read between the lines and understand that Sally used the mop to dean the floor. Reading 2b between the lines will result in a different interpretation: 2b. The floor was dirty because Sally used the mop. Actually, the authors of these two sentences (Bransford et al. 1984) state that native speakers who have read sentence 2b in an experiment reported that they have seen the sentence "The mop was dirty". Reading toward more communication, we can read beyond the lines. Sally first tried setting loose a team of gophers. The plan backfired when a dog chased them away. She then entertained a group of teenagers and was delighted when they brought their motorcycles. Unfortunately, she failed to find a Peeping Tom listed in the Yellow Pages. Furthermore, her stereo system was not loud enough. The crab grass might have worked but she didn't have a fan that was sufficiently powerful. The obscene phone calls gave her hope until the number was changed. She thought about calling a door-to-door salesman but decided to hang Up a clothesline instead. It was the installation of blinking neon lights across the street that did the trick. She eventually framed the ad from the classified section. The authors of this text, Bransford et al. (1984)', report that experimental subjects who were native speakers of English, had a difficult time understanding this passage until they were given a title for it. (Getting her neighbours to move). For this reason, a communicative language test should be designed1 as far as this is possible in a written examination, to evaluate the students' ability to use the language rather than to test their knowledge of the forms of the language. Clearly, a good command of the language forms is a prerequisite for the successful use of a language, but it does not guarantee successful use. In the communicative language testing model I will be presenting below, the emphasis is placed upon English as a "tool for use" rather than as a formal system. Emphasis is put on the communicative functions which the forms serve, rather than on the forms themselves. Any examination which has as its main aim the testing of the ability to put a language to use should, ideally, include an aural/oral element. Indeed, a test that is designed for communication should also include a test of listening and even of speaking. The technical and logistic problems in our school system have unfortunately so far proved inseparable. It is, however, essential to include the spoken language in a test in some way even if it has to be in the form of words written down. This is a good justification for the inclusion of dialogues in the test, and it is rewarding to see so many "Academies" make use of them in their examination papers.

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4. SAMPLES OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TESTS Communicative language tests might be expected to exhibit the following characteristics: 1. Emphasis on interaction between participants. This interaction determines how the

encounter evolves and ends. 2. Form and content of the language produced are to a large extent unpredictable. 3. A communicative language test has a purpose, i.e. it should fulfill some communicative function. 4. It employs domain-relevant tests. 5. It employs authentic texts. 6. Abilities would be assessed within meaningful and developing contexts. (RSA). 7. Integration of the four language skills is necessary whenever possible. 8. Appropriateness of the language used for the expression of meaning is necessary. 9. The tasks used in the test reflect realistic discourse processing. 10.Assessment of productive abilities is qualitative rather than quantitative. (Rating scales RSA). Sample 1 : Deciding the communicative function of an utterance. Examples: Select the best of the choices offered for each of the following situations. All responses must be polite. 1. You want to leave school early to see the dentist You say to your teacher: “I have to see the dentist..”. A) Can you leave me now? B) May I leave now? C) Please leave me alone. D) I shall be leaving you now 2. Tourist: I think I'm lost. Can you help me? You:…

A) Well, I don't think so. B) what have you lost C) Where do you want to go? D) I shall be leaving you now Sample 2: The Problem- Puzzle Cloze. Instead of the so-familiar reading text followed by comprehension questions, and in spite of the criticism addressed to the Cloze test, I suggest a modification of the latter, viz. a cloze procedure with a problem to solve. As is well known, there has been a great deal of research on the cloze procedure during the last twenty years or so. This research has generally shown a good correlation between scores obtained from more traditional methods of testing reading comprehension and tests based on the cloze procedure. Example (From Brumfit & Windeat, 1989). There were once two frogs at the bottom of two wells. They started to climb Up the sides of the wells. Everyday they climbed four metres, but every night they slipped two metres down the sides of the wells. Well A was eight-metres-deep, and well B was seven-metres-deep. When did each frog get out of its well? Can you guess the answer ?Were your guesses correct ? Complete the passage to find out.

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On the first day both the frogs climbed... metres the sides of the wells. But in the night they slipped ........... the bottom. On the next day the frogs climbed... metres the wells again. But in the night they stopped... the sides of the wells and then slipped metres... them. So then they were ....... metres... the bottom of the wells. The frog well A was... metres... the top, but the other frog was only... metres ...the top of well B. So on the next day the frog... well B climbed... the top, and then it got...the well. The other frog climbed... metres, and then it got... ........ So the frog... ....... climbed its well first, but both the flogs climbed... their wells on ...... day. Sample 3: Solving problems, following instructions Problem-solving activities which aim at testing the student's ability to carryout simple tasks set in English focus particularly on English as a tool for use. The tasks chosen should be, as far as is possible, ones which bear some relationship to the way in which the student might be called upon to use English in a 'natural' situation.

TODAY KEN HUNTER IN SPACE CARTAIN

- The city of the future - A spaceship that holds a million people - The movie that puts you in outer space DIRECTEC BY JOHN ESWARD

PRIZE LIST Pop corn Sandwiches Cola Orange Ice Cream Hot dog

TOMORROW STALLS Circle 2.30 5.30 full 7.30 full 9.30 full

Stalls Circle

ADVANCE BOOKING Stalls £4.00 Circle £ 4.50

BTHE M

Starring Director WILLIAMS Music

Sta 2.30

5.30 5.31

7.30 9.30

Here is a sample of questions that may be asked on a text likeIt is Friday and you are going to the cinema. (Situating the co 1. You want to buy the cheapest ticket for today. How much i2. Who is the actor in today's movie? 3. What movie is on tomorrow? 4. Who is the actor in tomorrow's movie?

SNACK BAR £ 1.00 2.50 1.50 1.00 0.80 1.00

EGO

lls

thnt

s i

TODAY £ 4.50 £ 5.00

INS Saturday NSTER RETURNS TOM BILL JOHN

KOUROS

TODAY Circle

Full Full

is. ext).

t?

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5. School finishes at 3:30 on Fridays and you have to be home before 9 p.m. Put a tick ( ) beside the time of the showing you will go to. 6. You are thirsty but you haven't got much money. Put a cross on the price list beside the cheapest drink you can buy. 7 A friend of yours wants you to buy two tickets for the last showing tomorrow night. How much will the tickets cost altogether? Sample 4: Interpretation of rules, notices, reports... So much of the English which our students encounter in their textbooks and supplementary materials has been adapted to the needs of the learner or especially written for him. This is justifiable, especially in the early stages, but it often means that the learner rarely comes into context with real language, authentic language used to convey messages and meaning rather than to illustrate the mechanics of English structure. Example:

TRAVEL AGENCY requires

JUNIOR CLERK Male or Female

for New Branch at Hillsborough Aged 16-18 years

School leaver would be considered Apply in writing to:

The Manager Hanckock Travel Ltd.

6 Middleton Road SHEFFIELD, 86

REFERENCES Alderson, J.C. 1979. 'The cloze procedure and proficiency in English as a foreign language". TESOL Quarterly 13/2, 219-28. Bransford, J.D., B.S. Stein and Shildon. 1984. "Learning from the perspective of the comprehender". In Alderson, J., Charies and A.H. Urquhard (Eds.) Rending in a foreign tanguage. London: Longman, 2844. Brumfit, A & S. Windeat. 1983. Communicative Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Davies, A. 1978. "Language testing. (Part 1)". Language teaching and linguistics Abstracts. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. 11/3, 145-159. Morrow, K. 1979. "Communicative language testing: Revolution or evolution". In A. Brumfit and K! Johnson (etis.) The Communicative approach to language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Oller, J.W. 1979. Language Tests at School. London: Longman. Savignon,SJ. 1983. Communicative competence: Theory and classroom practice.Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.

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TOWARDS COMMUNICATIVE TESTING:

FROM PRAGMATISM TO THEORY

Mohamed MILIANI

University of Oran ,Algeria INTRODUCTION It is my belief that some basic principles and fundamental concepts should be brought into pedagogical activity so as to allow English teachers to make the right decision to ensure effective learning/teaching. This paper is the result of: - a survey I conducted in the English department at the University of Oran, about the testing procedures used by colleagues. - a personal dissatisfaction with teachers' excessive concern for usage exclusive of authentic and purposive uses of language. - a belief that not enough (if not nothing) is being done to question Our testing practices. TESTING PROCEDURES IN USE IN THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT To avoid relying too much on personal attitudes and beliefs which may be wrong, an empirical research was carried out to make it more scientific. Putting aside the multifaceted problem of reliability encountered in numerous tests, I singled out the most salient snags (mostly face and predictive validity) Which characterized the bulk of tests examined. The main conclusion to be inferred from the study of the various test procedures was that the examiners seemed to be more concerned with expected and imposed, and thus no communication seeking responses rather than with unpredictable and personal reactions of students (the very essence of authentic acts of communication) even in areas where the student should show personal judgements of ideas and theories. A study of the types of tests (objective tests of the discrete-item kind), examination questions and teachers' comments, mostly about the grammaticality and/or style of the students' responses revealed that what the teachers sought was their students' ability to store and retrieve taught items but also their linguistic competence. Though for testing purposes it is convenient to make a dichotomy between linguistic and communicative competence, in reality they need to be viewed as components of the same continuum. Indeed, effective control of English in any situation requires more than the learner's linguistic or grammatical competence, it calls for his communicative competence which is the synthesis of linguistic competence (i.e. the mastery of linguistic items at word and sentence levels) and contextual competence (i.e. the ability to produce utterances appropriate to the context considered). The majority of testing techniques in use in the English department are: compositions, multiple-choice exercises and

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fill in-the-blank items. Tests which, in fact, are more concerned with checking whether taught items are assimilated or not. INADEQUACY BETWEEN THE TESTING PROCEDURES AND THE LEARNING OBJECTIVES Only a situation analysis can explain why the used testing procedures were said to be inadequate. The "Licence" programme has in fact a sole target/aim with a double set of objectives. The first group of objectives is EOP-oriented because of the primary aim of the Licence degree which is to prepare students to become teachers. Indeed, it is one of the teacher's tasks to impart in the student specific skills and sub-skills required for the latter's teaching career. The second group of objectives is geared towards the development of the students' skills for study purposes, EAP (tasks which the students will perform during the course of his learning such as : note-taking, listening to lectures, report writing, etc.) and their communicative competence. In an EAP situation, communicative competence may be defined as the ability to perform satisfactorily the language tasks acquired in a coursework environment. For his immediate EAP and future EOP needs (the latter not always catered for), any would-be teacher must be proficient in the target language. In the majority of cases, language proficiency is sacrificed on the altar of accuracy, which, on the other hand, does not mean that teachers should encourage the use by students of a pidgin- type English. Besides, communication is so important in class that it is practically impossible for the students not to speak, exchange ideas or negotiate through language as intelligibly as possible if they are to master the target language. In my own situation, I believe that a double testing approach should be advocated. In the first two years, where the emphasis is on the development of language skills, teachers should use discrete point forms of testing (objective tests like blank-filling, true/false and multiple choice types) with global or integrative tests (where you test communicative competence, interaction, fluency and the appropriateness of what is said in a given social situation). While in the two subsequent years where content-based subjects are more important, only global integrative tests should be used. Among integrative tests I would include: dictation, translation, cloze procedure, essays and interviews. Though unscientific, the generalization of a rule is always tempting. Thus, using my case study as a springboard, my contention here is to state that only a communicative approach to language teaching and testing can yield better results in ail educational institutions where English is taught in the Maghreb. Besides, because it is generally agreed that language is communication, one can only for testing purposes adopt a communicative approach. In addition, an "atomistic' approach (Lado) to language testing (i.e. use of discrete-point tests) does not render the dynamic aspect of communication. The mechanical knowledge of isolated linguistic segments is not systematically conducive to the real use of language. Nevertheless, an emphasis on the quantitative aspect of the learners' answers is of some interest but incomplete. In fact, we should be paying attention to how the learner best processes the linguistic items 50 that the receiver gets the message.

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WHY A COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO LANGUAGE TESTING? It is generally admitted that it is language use (i.e. the development of a purposeful and authentic linguistic behaviour) and not just language usage which should be the centre of our preoccupation. Besides, what should be of some interest to the teacher is not so much the quantitative aspect of an utterance but its qualitative weight. Considering my own language learning situation, one can state that the learner is not just a language user interested in isolated linguistic items, in which case we only test his linguistic competence. In fact, he is also a would-be teacher who will be in charge of specific activities and functions which means that he will be negotiating through language with his pupils. Furthermore, the communicative approach to language testing allows the introduction of two variables, i.e. unpredictability and authenticity of utterances at the level of content and form to be more or less faithful to true to life linguistic interchanges. Advocating a communicative approach to language testing is in fact to identify and specify what we think language proficiency means and because of the different types of communication (and thus proficiencies) the specification of the kind and level of proficiency is to be made in relation with the status, linguistic expectations and profile of the language producer and receiver. PREREQUISITES FOR AN IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO LANGUAGE TESTING To use a communicative approach to language testing one should be careful not to discard one of the following prerequisites or principles: i) One condition sine qua non for communicative testing is to provide an authentic context in which true-to-life communication takes place or puts the learners under certain conditions, which approximate to real life settings, where these testes will have to display their ability' to negotiate through English. ii) It is important to define and set the most common communicative tasks the learners will be asked to perform, to be able to test their communicative ability. We should pay attention to how effective students are when transmitting a message and not be too obsessed by the latter's well-formedness. iii) Tests ought to look for students' potential creativity by providing a great number of opportunities to use language in unpredictable contexts, unpredictability being the very essence of natural and genuine communicative interaction. Tests with set and known answers are to be avoided if our concern is the development of our students' communicative ability. iv) Proficiency tests, as defined by Heaton (1975): the proficiency test is concerned with measuring the students' control of the language in the light of what he will be expected to do with it in his better performance: of a particular task could be the solution to our problem because its target is what students can do with language. Besides, it can be geared to wards the student's study, job/and or communicative purposes; that is, if we want our learner to function successfully in immediate or future situations where specific abilities are called upon.

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CONCLUSION As a conclusion, one has to admit first that an improvement is needed in TEFL testing and evaluation procedures. In this paper, I have tried to show why communicative testing is appropriate and necessary in our EFL situation. My other conclusion is that we need to change our approach not just of testing but also that of teaching because, in secondary schools, textbook and methods are designed along notional- functional lines, whereas at the university many teachers still use very traditional teaching methods. In fact, what we are generating is a force of inertia which does not help the students learn with ease. Tests should not only be valid and reliable but also communicative. This very quality was put forward to avoid the use of tests which result in unauthentic linguistic behaviour and also to do away with the inability of students to come to terms with authentic language tasks. Naturally, communicative testing is not the answer to these deficiencies. It is part of the answer which a communicative approach to language teaching can bring to improve the overall TEFL picture at university level. Furthermore, testing at university level can only be thought of as being a component within a system the elements of which are intimately related. Any deficiency noticed in the end-product (the student's overall competence) of such a system (the "Licence" degree) cannot always be traced back exactly. In addition to this, the "compartmentalization" of the degree into different and isolated subjects, makes it ail the more difficult to put one's finger on the cause of the problem. Nevertheless, it is my earnest hope that the present paper will spark off some awareness as to the way(s) of testing and the importance of setting and correctly administering tests. One should not forget that our profession is one of the very few where constant questioning of everything we do in class is more of a virtue than a defect.

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COMMUNICATIVE TESTING AT THE SECONDARY

SCHOOL: SOME PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS

A. SELLAM

Faculty of Letters - Oujda INTRODUCTION In this presentation, I wish to shed some light on some Baccalaureates Exam papers, issued by the academies of Oujda, Meknès, Rabat, Kénitra, Al-Jadida and Marrakesh. the data considered are the exam papers that were administered at the end of the school years 1988-89 and 1989-90, respectively. Only the third-term papers administered to third year LM (Letters Moderns) or 3rdyear Perforation have been selected for this investigation. This choice is made deliberately according to two criteria : the criterion of the level of the classes and the criterion of proficiency, as those classes are considered to be the most advanced in the Moroccan secondary schools and as their achievements are expected to be the highest, compared with those of the other classes in the other sections. This tentative evaluation purports to answer two questions. First, to what extent does the present exam format reflect the current approach adopted, taking into account that this approach claims to belong to a communicative framework of language teaching? Secondly, based on the answer to the first question, what alternatives or suggestions might be considered for improving the current testing formula? I. INTRODUCING THE DATA What goals does the present Bac Exam battery aim to achieve? A cursory look at the data in question will reveal that the tests have a common configuration across the six academies considered. Typically, the papers have the following features: comprehension questions, language questions and a writing assignment. Leaving the third item aside, let us concentrate on the first two components in turn and analyse each one in the light of "communicativeness" (if I may use this word), to see what abilities are tested and how they are tested. 1. Comprehension Under this label, we find an inventory of comprehension questions that vary in nature and purpose, according to whether the class is a normal 3rd year "Letters Moderns" (LM) or a 3rd year Préformation. With respect to the former, the comprehension questions, tend for the most part, to belong to what might be termed factual questions or literal meaning questions (Nuttal, 1982:82). With respect to the Preformation Classes, a conscious effort is made to try and go beyond the surface meaning of the passage, as attempts are made to get the testees to reorganize the information contained in the passage, through what is called reorganization or reinterpretation questions (Nuttal, op. cit, ibid.). These aim at testing the students' ability to analyse the structure of the passage. To illustrate this, we may consider the following reorganization tasks:

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Task a: Students are asked to re-organize a set of events in a chronological order in order to work out the skeleton outline of the passage (Al-Jadida Academy, 3rd year Pref., March 1990). Task b: Organization of information in the form of a chart-filling exercise in terms of type of pollution and source of pollution. (Al-Jadida Ac., op. cit, ibid.) Task c: Information retrieval in a passage: find the three things that the interviewer looked for in the candidates; the target ability to be tested is to what degree the students are able to understand a passage and get its gist. (Meknès Acad., 3rd Year Pref., March 1990) Task d: In the same paper, a multiple-choice format is given to test the students' ability to see the essential intent of the writer. Task e: An Inference question given in a paper issued by the Rabat Academy : It runs as follows: "What kind of person was the tramp ? Give a moral description of him and justify it. (Rabat Acad., 3rd Year Pref., March 1990. In sum, ail the Comprehension questions across the six academies include any or all of the following types of questions: i) literai compréhension questions, ii) reorganization/re-interpretation questions, iii) inference questions (we should note that this last type is less frequent than the other two types). 2. Language Under this label, we find three types of testing items: grammar tests, cohesion tests and language function tests. a) Grammar testing It aims at testing the students' linguistic competence through the following types of exercises: transformations - use of tenses - morphological exercises of derivation - paraphrasing, etc. b) Cohesion Testing this group of tests aims at testing the students' ability to analyse a passage from the point of view of cohesion. One item is used in five academies: the item of reference of the anaphoric type through personal pronouns and deictic pronouns mainly. It is absent in the papers of Marrakech, though.

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c) Speech Function Testing This is deemed to be the most "communicative". It purports to test students' ability to recognize (identify) or produce a number of speech functions by means of a number of typical exercises such as the following: First: Recognition i) identify the target function(s) expressed by a sentence, and sometimes by a mini dialogue. Example: A- Where's may.....? B- Why don't you take your raincoat instead? (Oujda Acad., 3d LM, March 1990) ii) Alternatively, in the form of a multiple choice format, a set of speech functions are suggested to the testee to pick up the one that matches an utterance. Example: Ali says to his friend who is looking for a job, 'What about being a stuntman?" Ali is

A) offering B) suggesting C) giving an opinion D) requesting (Kenitra Acad., 3d year Pref. March 1990).

iii) Function-exponent matching: this aims at getting the students to match a number of speech functions with their target exponents: Example: A table of 4 speech functions to match their 4 counterpart exponents (Kenitra Acad., op. cit, Ibid). Secondly: Testing the production of speech functions Example: A mini-dialogue in the form of a scenario script is suggested:

A. (invites B to a party) B. (turns down the invitation politely) A. (expresses regret).

The target task is to express what is given in the form of a scenario script, using the appropriate language exponents. (Oujda Academy, 3d year LM, March 1990). II. THE WEIGHING OF THE TEST COMPONENTS As far as weighing is concerned, the comprehension component is marked out of seven marks; the language component is marked out of seven marks too, and the writing task is marked out of six marks. The overall score is out of 20 marks. This is valid for the most part, for all the papers produced by the various academies investigated.

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What should be noticed here, and since our focus is the criterion of "communicativeness", is how much weighing has been allotted to the items that are avowedly presented as communicative namely ,the speech function: recognition and production tasks; and to some extent, the cohesion task. Functional testing is actually allotted 2 marks out of 20, which represents 10% of the overall mark; the cohesion part is allotted 01 mark out of 20; which represents 5% of the overall mark. Obviously, the weighing of these two items, considered aspects of communicative language testing, is quite low. III.. ANALYSIS OF THE DATA IN THE LIGHT OF COMMUNICATIVE TESTNG 1. The Testing of Speech Functions Despite the recent proliferation of the models of communicative competence (hereafter CC) (cf. Skehan, 1988), we can, for our present purposes, be content with the model put forward by Canale (1983a). He suggests, after Hymes (1972) throe components that should be under CC: a linguistic, a socio-linguistic component and a discourse component. (cf. also Hymes' 4 riders, 1972). The last two components should be the focus of our attention for the time being. The socio-linguistic component involves our ability to use language appropriately, that is, to express speech acts with their elocutionary and perlocutionary forces, taking into account the right register and stylistic variation. The discourse component includes among other things, our ability to process language and produce it beyond the sentence/utterance level in its written as well as its oral modes. In other words, it amounts to analysing language as pieces of discourse from the point of view of textual cohesion as well as from the point of view of discourse coherence. The former is viewed in terms of form, Sentence meaning usage; the latter in terms of content, utterance, meaning and use. (Widdowson, 1973). So if we comeback to our data, we notice that both aspects of CC (socio-linguistic and discoursal) have been catered for, although in a rather sketchy way. If we adopt the communicative approach in its British version- which views language learning in terms of acquiring an inventory of speech functions - we can notice an obvious bias for this approach in our data (cf. Stern, 1981;Wilkins, 1976). The British approach may also be termed the formal approach (Ellis, 1982) as opposed to the in formal approach: the first one fosters learning, as opposed to the second one which fosters acquisition (Krashen, 1982). As a consequence, the formal version of the CA views testing as a matter of identifying and using speech functions, among other things, of course. We can therefore ask the question, whether by getting the students to learn a set of speech functions, we necessarily ensure that there would be transfer to acquisition, in other words, to the spontaneous use of language, when the need for communication arises. If we take Krashen's view, this process of transfer does not take place, as this involves different experiences and different inputs. According to Ellis (op. cit, ibid) however, this sounds counter intuitive, given the experiences of some language learners. As a consequence, we are likely to move from the formal to the

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informal communicative framework. Yet, this presupposes that the conditions for the spontaneous use of the items learnt in a more or less formal way should be secured in order to move from the pre-communicative stage to a really communicative one (Little wood, 1981). The testing of speech functions! as bas been shown in the data analysed, purports, for the most part, to probe abilities at a pre-communicative stage; it should, by no means, be viewed as genuine communication testing. Besides, a lack of adequate contextualization of the items to be tested might run the risk of developing in the learners the "habit" (as it were) of associating the speech functions with some set phrases. The situation would be similar to that of learning a number of grammatical structures but failing to use them appropriately when faced with a real need to communicate in a real-life situation. On the other hand, testing international speech functions through the medium of writing does not sound a very natural thing to does these ought to be presented for example in oral interviews, or some such simulation activity. Through such activities, we ensure that, besides the concern for expressing the required speech function in an appropriate way, the testee also demonstrates the ability to use the right prosodic features of stress and intonation and relate these to their relevant meanings and attitudes. In addition to that, some attention should actually be paid to the paralinguistic features and interaction strategies (such as turn taking) of the testee, as all of which form part and parcel of not only communicative competence but also of communicative performance. We should furthermore bear in mind that communication takes place in real time and under real psychological conditions. All of these features prove to be actually absent in our data. This is where a real challenge for a truly communicative testing framework lies. 2. SUGGESTIONS Given the proficiency level of the target students, one cannot possibly embark on all such testing activities as have just been mentioned. Given also the absence of an oral exam paper, and for want of a better solution, We might suggest the following ideas by way of expanding and enriching the present testing format: a) A scripted conversation might serve as a platform for recognizing/identifying various speech functions in a more contextual zed and more natural way than has been done so far. Testees might for example be asked to show the intention of one interact ant (the cautionary force) and its effect on his interlocutor (the elocutionary force). b) Linked to this activity, they might be asked to show the specific functions of the various prosodic features intonation contours namely and what meanings and attitudes they express: certainty, uncertainty, doubt, surprise, etc. c) Students might also be asked to re-write a dialogue after some of the situation parameters have been altered. This would ensure to what extent they can observe the variations of style and register. Altering decisions might affect, in turn, the setting, the topic, the roles of the interactants , the nature of the relationship that binds these together, etc.

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3.TESTING DISCOURSE PROCESSING:ANALYSIS AND SUGGESTIONS 3.1. Cohesion We have seen that the data analysed shows that this aspect of testing has affected one item only; namely, the cohesive device of reference of the anaphoric type. Depending on the level of achievement that we seek to assess in this respect, we can enlarge the inventory of cohesive devices and consider the following items as eligible in a Bac exam. a) Cohesion through Ellipsis and substitution - Ellipsis : Students maybe asked for example to supply the items that have been elided in a paragraph. - Substitution: Students may be asked to spell out the substituting expressions and get them to establish the link between these and the substituted entities. b) A very important cohesive device is the one subsumed under lexical cohesion. The types most in accord with the level of secondary school students are cohesion through repetition (of the same lexical item), synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy. 3.2. Coherence The processing ability related to this level of analysis (i.e. coherence) aims at working out how ideas hang together to forma unity of discourse. We should note in passing that coherence can exist without cohesion. If we go back to our data, once again, we may notice that some work at this level, has been attempted, especially with regard to 3d year Préformation classes: - organizing information in a certain order (chart filling) - extracting information - organization of information in a chronological order. This orientation should in fact be encouraged and further enlarged. We may think of the following ideas without claiming to be exhaustive. 3.2.1. Suggestions - Ideas to test comprehension of the gist of a passage: a) Give a title to the passage and justify it. b) Choose from a MC set of possibilities the most appropriate title of the passage and justify your choice. c) Pick up the most accurate statement that summarizes the passage from a set of alternative statements and justify it. -Testing the value of “discourse markers" (Nuttall, 1982:82) which indicate the functional value of sentences in a text. This item can best be envisaged in the form of a cloze test procedure. A passage may be administered with all the "discourse markers" deleted. According to Jonz (1987), this

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procedure seems to be much more interesting than the nth word type of cloze, for it enables the testee to analyse the passage as a unit of discourse, in order to perceive its line of thought, as it were. (For good references, see in this respect: Halliday and Hasan, 1976, 1989; Nuttall, 1982). 4. Questioning With respect to comprehension questions, we have seen that emphasis is laid on the factual type of questions, with some concession allowed for inference and interpretive questions. If our aim is real communication, or at least an approximation towards it, it is essential to include the personal response type of questions in the Bac paper. Such questions actually encourage the testee to respond personally to the facts in the passage and to go beyond them and express himself/herself with originality and creativity. This is indeed the best criterion of the communicative quality of his/her output. CONCLUSION To conclude, I wish to suggest that this rather sketchy survey of the Bac. Exam paper, although still discrete4tem dominated for the most part, can in fact be improved towards a formula that would include more of the communicative testing items. Communicative testing, in the real sense of the word poses a great challenge, as it is extremely difficult to evaluate what is considered by some authors "unique instances of human behaviour". Yet given the level of the target testees, who happen to have an intermediate level of proficiency in the best cases, the present testing format can only be supplemented by a number of exercises which seek to assess the students' discoursal processing power, although this unfortunately remains confined to written discourse. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ellis , R. (1982). "Formal and Informal Communicative Approaches". ELT Journal . Vol. 36, no Z Geten , R. (1987). "Oral Testing, the Battery Approach". E.T. Forum. No 2. Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan R. (1989). Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Jonz, J. (1987). 'Textual Cohesion and Second Language Comprehension". Language Learning. Vol. 37. N- 3. Littiewood, W. (1981). Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction. Cambridge, CUP. Oller, J.W. Jr (1979). Language Tests at School. USA. Savignon, S. (1987). "What's What in Communicative Language Testing". E.T. Forum. no 4. --(1990). "Les recherches en didactique des langues étrangères et l'approche communicative". Etude de Linguistique Appliquée. . No 77.

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Skehan, P. (1988). "State of the ART Article: Language Testing". Part I. Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. Stern, H.H. (1981). "CLT & L: Toward a Synthesis". In J. Alatis et al. eds. The 2nd Lang. Classroom. Directions for the 1980s. New York. Oxford. OUP. Widdowson, H. (1984). Explorations in Applied Linguistics, I. Oxford : OUP. Wilkins, W. (1976). National Syllabuses . A Taxonomy and its Relevance to Foreign Language Curriculum Development. London: OUP

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PART 2

EVALUATION: TESTING METHODS

SECTION 3

ITEM BANKING

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TEST ITEM BANKS : WHAT THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY CAN DO FOR US?

Austin SANDERS

British Council, Rabat , Morocco.

THE ITEM BANK DREAM OR NIGHTMARE? A test item bank is a collection of test or examination questions. Given the present state of technology, the collection will probably be held in a computer. Now not ah of us are very familiar with computers and not all of us really trust them. For this reason, I want to look first at what such a machine could do for us. Would it be a "dream machine", or would it be a nightmare, like the computer that sent me a telephone bill for five thousand pounds in England? Let’s 1ook at exactly what an item bank should do. In the simplest possible terms, it provides examinations (or at least examination questions), both for practice examinations and formal ones. It provides examinations at exactly the level you need. It provides them when you need them. It provides examinations that you know are valid and reliable, because ail the questions have been piloted and analysed before they go into the system. Let me repeat that. A well-set- up test item bank gives you good examinations (or practice material) at exactly the level you want, when you want it. So who would benefit from such a system ? Whose dreams would it make come true? Well, first there are the test writers in the fourteen Academies. Then there are the teachers in 5e, 6eme and 7e. Last, but certainly not least, there are the pupils in the same levels. An item bank can save an enormous amount of repetitive work for the test writers. It will not put them out of work but it would allow them to spend less time inventing different questions to test the same things. We shah see later that the item bank needs feeding and it needs feeding with good, trilled, statistically validated questions. Collecting and reusing questions would permit the test writers to devote more time to the quality of test item by. removing some of the pressure to continually produce quantities of new but inevitably rather repetitive questions. Both teachers and pupils would benefit, because the test item bank can give them quantities of relevant practice test materials at exactly the level and in the form of the examinations the pupils will take. We shah see later that it would even be possible to grade such practice materials by referring to the index of facility for each item. Provision of practice materials would take a writing and inventing load off the teachers concerned. Furthermore, the item bank would provide questions and tests which the teachers could use with great confidence, knowing that the form and level of the material had been carefully scrutinised before it got into the bank.

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Finally, the test item bank would provide formal examinations, the essentially progress tests of terms one and two and the achievement test of term three, which had a high degree of validity and reliability because of the statistical examination that questions would undergo before they got into the item bank. I believe that a test item bank, carefully constructed and administered, could lead to even fairer and more uniform examinations. The uniformity of level could be assured On a national scale without insisting on uniformity of content. Statistical control would help to ensure that different examinations had the same level, both in different regions at the same time and at different times in one region. At this point, let me suggest a possible objection, one that I suspect is already in some of your minds. It goes something like this : "We are certainly not going to let our children, our pupils, be examined by a computer. Conditions vary from place to place and from time to time. The Academies know the conditions in their areas and the experts in the Academies - highly qualified and experienced men and women - are the only people who can decide the content of an examination." Well, I agree completely1 and I will give you an example I overheard a little while ago. I quote from memory : "We know the schools opened late in X and we know that they had very few books for the first month in Y. Certainly very few pupils, if any, are going to complete the syllabus for the term. So, and please don't repeat this, I'm only examining Up to lesson 35 in the book'1. I don't know what the Ministry would say, but this seems tome to be a perfectly proper local reaction to local conditions. so how would our "dream machine" react to such a situation? If it was correctly set Up and used, I think it would permit the test writer/composer to react in exactly the same way. If the machine went ahead without taking any account of local conditions, then it would be a nightmare and we should, quite rightly, reject it. But the item bank is only a tool and the test writer must remain in control and able to take decisions. We shall see later that this is perfectly possible as well as essential. I hope we can agree, then, that a test item bank can offer some considerable benefits to pupils, teachers and test writers. But let us agree also that the educators must remain in control of what is, after all, only a tool. THE ESSENTIALS OF TEST ITEM BANKS We need to look now at some definitions and descriptions of item banks in order to find out more about them. Let's start with a tough definition, the toughest, in fact, and one which will enable me to improve upon some of my previous simplifications. "...a bank of carefully calibrated test items is more than a collection. it is a composition of coordinated questions that develop (sic), define and quantify a common theme and thus provide an operational definition of a variable “ (Wright & Bell, 1984) That is rather jumping into the technical deep end. But don't worry; we can look at it and decide what it ah means. "A bank of carefully calibrated test items" implies that the items, the questions, do not get into the bank until we know, in statistical terms, how well they work in practice. Each item will have been used, probably several times with several different populations, and its behaviour will have been statistically analysed. As a basic minimum, this analysis will consist of at Yeast two elements. First, the FACILITY INDEX (Baker, 1989) or

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the P VALUE (Millman & Artner, 1984).This is simply the proportion of candidates in a tested population who got the item right. If 85 candidates out of a hundred get item X right, then the facility index is 85/100 or 0.85. If only five candidates out of hundred succeed on item Y, then its facility index is 5/100 or 0.05.50, a high value indicates an easy item and a low value indicates a hard item. Facility values for different items are comparable, of course, only within the same population of candidates or pupils. Clearly, the same question might yield quite different P values if it were given to two groups, one group from5eand the other from 6e. However, we could hope to get very similar values for the same question given to a thousand 5e pupils in Oujda and another thousand Se pupils in Agadir. The second kind of calibration that would be needed is the DISCRIMINTON INDEX (Baker, 1989) or the ITEM-TEST CORRELATION (Hughes, 1989). This shows how well a question discriminates (or shows Up the difference) between those pupils who get high scores on the whole test and those pupils who get low overall scores. We haven't time for the details of the calculation, but, briefly, this involves identifying the top 27% of candidates on the whole test and the bottom 27%. Then, for each question, we count how many candidates answered correctly in each group. This will give us an index for each question which varies from +1.0, through zero, to -1.0. A high value, say 0.85, means that many high scorers got the question right but few low scorers did; in other words, the question discriminates well. If the value is zero, then the same numbers of high and low scorers got the question right; in other words, it is not discriminating well. When we get negative value sit shows that the question is effectively easier for low scorers than high scoring pupils; in this case we have a problem question which needs improving or replacing. This is what is meant at the most basic level by "calibrating test items". Please note, at this point, that an item, a question, does not get into the bank, the collection, until it has been calibrated in this way. A collection of uncalibrated test items is called an ITEM POOL (Choppin, 1978). So we can envisage the development of an item bank as the filtering of items from an item pool, through the calibration process, into the bank. Poor items do not get through, 50 the item bank consists only of good , proven questions, plus data on their past performance. Let's go back to our definition; I’ll repeat part of it "it is a composition of coordinated questions that develop, define and quantify a common theme...". "Quantify a common theme." These four words present a whole host of difficulties that I wish to indicate but not discuss in any detail. First of ail, what is the "common theme" that we hope to quantify? The unitary competence hypothesis, (e.g. Oller, 1979), is out of favour and out of fashion. It is very difficult now to believe that we can use integrative or any other testing to detect or test a single , unitary, language competence. Language knowledge and ability seems rather to consist of a number of interacting, probably hierarchical, competencies. This somewhat theoretical point has practical consequences for the mathematics of test item banks. Going back, yet again, to our definition, the item bank, by means of its calibration, seeks to "quantify a common theme". To provide strict and objective quantification seems to require the ability to place each examination candidate in her or his uniquely correct position on a scale of unitary language ability. Only by doing this could we accurately compare performances (perhaps nationally) of candidates who had taken different tests. To do this stringently requires the use of a mathematical device called a RASCH SCALE. This indicates the probability of a candidate getting an item right, expressed in terms of the difficulty of the item and the ability of the candidate. Both the statistics and the logic get moderately complicated at this stage. The main problem seems to be that the Rasch scale may only work satisfactorily for placement on a

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scale of unitary ability. We must doubt whether language ability is sufficiently simple to allow this mathematical device to be used. Let me give two short quotations to show two opposing points of view : "The simplicity the Rasch model is likely to prove indispensable in item banking." (Pollitt, 1979) and "The Rasch model is now seen as an inappropriate distraction, a piece of fools , gold. It looks good a first, but turns out on close inspection to be a worthless waste of time." (McClean & Ragsdale, 1983). THE SIZE OF A USEFUL ITEM BANK Let's examine another, much less demanding definition: "We define an item bank as a relatively large collection of easily accessible test questions." (Miliman & Arter, 1984). So how large is "relatively large"? We can illustrate this by reference to the Moroccan situation. Here I use some figures and examples from an unpublished paper by Gullies Haughton (1988) of Moray House. These figures are quite remarkable. Instead of considering individual questions, let us think about a pool or bank of sections of exam papers. By sections I mean the usual throe parts Language, Reading and Writing. Consider the fourteen papers written by the fourteen Academies for, say, Se Letters Moderns, term one 1990/91. We could recombine the sections of these 14 papers, putting, for example, Oujda's Language section with Fes' Reading section and Rabat's Writing section. In this way we could compose a very large number of alternative papers; the figure is 14 x 14 x 14=2744. You may object that, in this case, each section will appear in a number of different papers. But even if we eliminate this possibility and permit each section to appear only once, we still have 196 different possible combinations. This is obviously enough for some years of practice as well as formal examinations. At this point the distinction between an item POOL and an item BANK becomes important. We can only recombine sections of papers (or questions) in this way if we have processed the items sufficiently to be sure that the items and the sections they build Up are valid and reliable. Remember that items, questions or sections, only pass from the item POOL to the item BANK when they pass through a process of statistical examination. This we said would consist of at least determining the facility index and the discrimination index. But once items have passed through this quality control into the item bank, they become available for recombination to provide a vast quantity of examination and practise material. The point I wish to make here is that the work the Academies have already done provides large pool of items, almost certainly already quite large enough to provide the "relatively large collection" of items that is an item bank. If we recombine questions instead of just sections, the number of possible combinations rises sharply and the figures become quite astronomical. THE ORGANISATION OF AN ITEM BANK Let's return to that last definition. "We define an item bank as a relatively large collection of easily accessible test questions." What do Miliman & Armer mean by "easily accessible"? I think they mean that we must be able to get out of the bank exactly the kind of question that we want, when we want it. The questions in the item bank will have to be organised or classified in sufficient detail and with sufficient cross- referencing to make this possible and easy. What are the parameters, the characteristics, that we need to be able to specify? Clearly, level is one of the first. Haughton, in the paper already mentioned, suggests that level should be

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defined by stream (LM, SN or TI), year (5e, 6e or 7e) and term (1st, 2nd , 3rd). But in Morocco the three streams follow essentially the same syllabus but at different rates of progress. It seems to me that this would allow a simpler classification of level, running up from the first lesson of the first book to the last lesson of the last book. Or is this too simple ? I hope we agree that, sometimes, ex animations will take account of local conditions. Remember that anonymous remark I quoted where it w as decided for very good reasons to test less than the whole curriculum for the term. Do we let a robot computer take over and specify the level of an examination automatically? I should prefer to see such a system firmly under human control and I think a very simple classification for level may make this easier. I hope this does not bring us into conflict with the central authority, the Ministry of Education. Naturally, they would like each class to reach the right level at the right time. Perhaps they will insist upon the setting of examinations as though this ideal state of affairs were always realised. Speaking personally, I would favour a degree of local discretion in the essentially progress tests of first and second terms. It is more difficult to make such a case for the end-of-year examinations, which appear to be at least partly achievement tests. This is, perhaps, a detail, but details which involve humanity towards our pupils are never unimportant. For the next and subsequent parameters we have a number of possibilities. How you classify questions will depend on what you think you are testing. in Morocco, as I understand it, what has to be tested is set out in throe documents: 1) the syllabus as laid down in Circular 114 and expressed in 2) the text books and as defined in 3) Instructions Officials. Moroccan English examiners have a more explicit set of objectives than those in several countries where l have had to set national examinations. The examinations I have seen here have all been divided Up into the sections already mentioned: Language, Reading and Writing. This would be my choice for the second stage of classification. Further classification will involve cross-referencing between grammar, use, text types, and so on. For our purposes now it is enough to say that such a classification could be developed. Its form would require both deep thought and much negotiation. Probably this is one of those cases where you can please ail the people some of the time and some of the people ail the time, but certainly not all the people all the time. CONCLUSION To conclude, I should like to build up a description and definition of a test item bank which would, I believe, meet the needs of the Moroccan (or even a wider) system. 1) An item bank is a collection of test items. But not just any old items; they must have been

examined statistically so that they all carry certain credentials to prove that they are "good" items. So let us refine its definition further (2-5).

2) An item bank is a collection of proven, good test items. The bank has to be classified so that we can easily get out of it items of the right level and type.

3) An item bank is a collection of proven, good test items classified for level and type. We didn't specify how big the bank needs to be . But I think we saw that there is already in Morocco a large enough un calibrated item pool to provide, after processing, an item bank

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which would be big enough to yield generous quantities of practice and examination questions.

4) An item bank is a collection of proven, good test items, derived from an item pool by analysis for quality and classification for level and type. The collection will be large enough to provide generous quantities of practice items and formal examinations. Finally, we must be able to get out of the bank exactly what our pupils need, when they need it. So let us add, what is given in (5) below. The bank must be organised and housed in such a way that a human test compiler can easily access items to compile practice material and examinations which respond to the needs of the pupil population. There are two crucial elements here : First, the "human test compiler." You, the human teachers and educators must remain in control. The test item bank is only a tool, to be used by men and women. Second, "the needs of the pupils population"; this is why you, the teachers and other experts must retain control. The needs of the pupils are paramount

I believe that a test item bank for the continuous assess-ment of English would have much to offer pupils, teachers and the administration. I hope you agree. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my thanks first to MATE for inviting me to this, their eleventh conference. Thanks next to the various authorities in Oujda, for providing their excellent facilities and generous hospitality for participants like myself. And my thanks, finally, to the British Council -especially Morocco Director, John Weston- who encouraged and funded my attendance at the conference. BIBLIOGRAPHY Baker, D. (1989) Language Testing. Arnold Choppin, B.H. (1976) "Recent Developments in item banking". In D.N.M. Degruijter & LJ.Th. Van der Kamp (Eds): Advances in psychological & educational measurement. Wiley. Haughton, G. (1988) "Setting up and administering a test item bank". Paper given at a conference on testing in Rabat. Hughes, A. (1989) Testing for Language Teachers. Cambridge UP: McClean, L.D. & R.G. Ragsdale (1983) "The Rasch model for achievement tests". Canadian Journal of Education. V8, n 1. Millman, J. & J.A. Artner. (1984) "Issues in item banking". Journal of Educational Mea-surement. V21 n4. Oller, J.W. (1979) Language Tests at School. Longman. Pollitt, A.B. (1979) "Item Banking". In: Issues in Educational Assessment. Edinburgh. Wright, B.D. & S.A. Bell. (1984) "Item banks: What, Why, How". Journal of Educational Measurement. Vol. 21, no 4.

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148

PART 3

EVALUATION: APPROACHES TO THE TEACHING 0F SKILLS

SUBJECTS

SECTION 1

READING AND WRITING

149

READING EVALUTING READING TETS

Thomas MILLER

USIS, Rabat, Morocco. INTRODUCTION This paper will try to describe past ways of evaluating the difficulty of texts, demonstrate inadequacies in these approaches and propose a tool which can be used by the average teacher to assess the difficulty of a reading passage. SIMPLIFICATION OF TEXTS AS A SOLUTION TO EASE READING LEVEL Before the advent of the communicative approach, the criterion for reading difficulty was the frequency of vocabulary and difficulty of the grammar. Texts were simplified using vocabulary and structure lists such as West’s General Service List or Longman’s Structural Readers Handbook. Writers of simplified materials were guided by several principles: simplifying syntax involves basically a process of de-transformation in which complex sentences are broken Up into simple or compound sentences; nominalizations are resolved in separate sentences; tense relationships are standardized; modal meanings may he lexicalised; and anaphoric links are "filled in “. (Honeyfield, 1977, p. 432)). A comparison of texts i and 2 below shows how some of these mechanisms work. The underlined lines in text I indicate information not included in text 2. TEXT 1 1. This island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than the sea. sand, and 's about three miles long. Its breadth at no point exceeds a quarter of a mile. It 's separated from the mainland by a scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of reeds and slime, a favorite resort of the marsh- hen. The vegetation. as might be supposed. 's scant. or at least dwarfish. No trees of any magnitude are to be seen. Near the western extremity where Fort Moultrie stands, and where are some miserable frame buildings, tenanted, during summer, by the fugitives from Charles ton dust and fever, may be found, indeed the bristly parmetto; but the whole island, with the exception of this western point, and a line of hard, white beach on the sea- coast, 's covered with a dense undergrowth of the sweet myrtle so much prized by the horticulturists of England. The shrub here often attains the height off fifteen or twenty feet, and forms an almost impenetrable coppice, burthening the air with its fragrance. (Poe, 1843, p. 462) T-unit 21.3 (190-8)

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TEXT 2 2. This island 's about three miles long and 's nowhere wider than a quarter 0f a mile. A small slow stream of water runs between island and mainland. No trees 0f any size are to be seen. Near the west end are some poor wooden buildings, where people come in summer to get away from Charleston 's dust and sickness. Here may be found some of those trees known as palmettos. Ail 0f the island, except along the hard white seashore ,is covered thickly by sweet myrtle, a plant that grows here fifteen to twenty feet high, and spreads the sweetness of its flowers into the air. (Ladder Edition) T-unit 17.7(106-6) As can be seen, long complicated sentences are broken down into simpler ones. For example, the sixth sentence in the original version (beginning with 'Near the western extremity'), which contains 73 words is broken into three sentences in the simplified version for a total of 49 words (up to myrtle) Latinized words such as 'fugitives' are replaced by Anglo-Saxon ones, people (who) come to get away from'. The implied definition (see below) of 'myrtle is replaced by an overt definition in the simplified version. In the simplified version the information is less dense. But as honeyfield states, in simplified readers the reader has to cover more words to get a give amount of information. He calls this process ' homogenization ', or the flattening of information as it is spread uniformly over the whole text. In authentic material the information tends to be, 'localized in relatively isolated unpredictable items requiring high points in the reader's attention.1 (Honeyfield, 1977, p. 433). As information theory shows us (Smith 1971), the good reader searches for 'the less predictable items and skips what can be predicted. Unpredictable items, which more often than not are expressed by infrequent words, carry more information. Since readers are very sensitive to the frequency of words, they tend to focus on these to glean information from the text. Ina simplified reader, on the other hand, these information-bearing words are replaced by more frequent words so that the reader has fewer clues as to where the important information lies. This makes the text harder to read. Furthermore, in the Moroccan context, the Latinate words are usually identical to the French ones and are thus more familiar to Moroccan students than the Anglo Saxon replacements. In text 2 above the French cognates in list A have been replaced by non- cognates in list B. A B separate runs between magnitude size extremity end miserable poor fugitives people come to get away from fever sickness dense thickly1 Reducing the difficulty grammar may also reduce the cohesion and, in fact, make the text more difficult:

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TEXT 3 We were rather worried about the ropes. We did not think about them during the day. We were too busy. But we thought about them during the night. We lay on mats in the cabin. Then we could both feel and hear the ropes. The logs moved under us. They were like an animal breathing. The first two nights were the worst. later the water swelled the ropes. The ropes then held the nine logs together more tightly. But they still moved about. Kon-Tiki Expedition. Longman Structural Readers, Stage 6. (Honeyfield, 1977, p. 435). [T-unit 6.9] Because of the lack of imbedding and subordination, it is more difficult for the reader to sort out the relative importance of the information. Although the sentences below are longer, the relationship between the ideas is made more clear in the complex sentences. TEXT 4 Although we were worried about the ropes, we were too busy to think about them during the day. We thought about them during the night however, as we could both see, feel and hear them moving beneath us like an animal breathing. [T-unit 21] As can be seen, the highly simplified grammar is 'inadequate to the information load' (Honeyfield, 1977, p. 435), reducing cohesion and readability. Thus in terms of ease of reading, simplifying grammar and vocabulary alone is insufficient. Concentrating on grammar and vocabulary and ignoring other areas may remove sequence signals and obscure the communicative intent. AUTHENTIC TEXTS One of the indispensable features of the communicative approach was the shift to the use of authentic texts - texts not written for language teaching. However, the scale for judging the difficulty of reading passages was still largely based on grammar and vocabulary. One commonly used measurement, the T-unit, illustrates the pitfalls of this approach. A T-unit can be described as an independent clause plus its attachments. In other words, a T-unit must be a complete grammatical unit regardless of the number of dependent clauses contained. To calculate the T-unit, one simply finds the average number of words per complete grammatical unit. However7 the example below demonstrates one weakness of this approach: TEXT 5 John got up late and did not want breakfast and in fact did not feel like coffee either and just preferred a nice, quiet walk in the woods and a chat with some good friends. But his friends did not really want to walk and were not in the mood for a conversation either and suggested instead an expensive, heavy meal at the restaurant in the luxury hotel nearby. [69-2 = 34.5] The T-unit length of 34.5 would indicate that the passage is more difficult than text I above or text 7 below, which is clearly not the case. Furthermore, it is not only difficult for teachers to count words and calculate averages, but one can have widely differing results depending on

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how or how much one counts. For example, in text I above one would calculate a T-unit of 14.9 if one calculates the first seven T-units (up to 'bristly palmetto') and a T- unit length of 19.9 if one counts the first 9 T-units - a significant difference. FOCUS ON THE READER : BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE With learner-centered pedagogy in EFL, the focus moved from the text to the reader. In fact, Widdowson argues that texts cannot be authentic but only genuine (Williams; 1989, p. 219). Authentic resides not in the text but in the interaction of the reader and text. A reader's response is authentic if it corresponds to the intention' of the writer as expressed through and by rhetorical conventions. An example of an unauthentic response would be to read a literary text for the purpose of vocabulary building or grammar analysis (Williams, 1989,p.219). However, one cannot have an authentic response if the text is too difficult. Thus we have moved beyond a definition of authentic based solely on the reader’s response to a focus on the interaction of reader and writer. In fact, it can be argued that text is created by the interaction between reader and the printed page. Coherence, as defined by Enkvist, is the quality that makes text conform to a consistent world picture and therefore summarizable and interpretable (Enkvist, 1990, p. 14). If we lack sufficient background knowledge, we cannot even recognize cohesive markers in the text: TEXT 6 The Tylenol tragedy has touched off a wave of renewed concern this October about pintsize Smurfs, E.T. 's, and Wonder Women accepting candy from strangers. As the 31st approaches, city officials in dozens of towns across the country have banned trick-or-treating altogether, or restricted it to daylight hours. (McCagg, 1990, p. 115) [47-2=23.5] One cannot close the gaps in the structure of the message without access to information about the Tylenol poisoning incidents and Halloween. If one does not know that strangers poisoned bottles of medicine, or that children go from house to house accepting candy from strangers on Halloween, one cannot understand the reason for the “concern” expressed in the first sentence. One cannot find the link between 'strangers' implied in the Tylenol tragedy and with the 'strangers' giving candy. Although Halloween is never mentioned, “pintsize” (very small) and 'Smurfs, E.T. 's and Wonder Women' suggest children wearing costumes. If the reader was not sure the Halloween schema is appropriate, 'accepting candy from strangers' makes it certain. However, without the Halloween schema one cannot recognize that 'October' and 'the 3lst' are co-referential as are 'trick or treating” and “accepting candy from strangers”. In other words, without the Halloween schema one cannot even recognize the cohesive markers and certainly could not guess 'trick or treating' from context. Thus, background knowledge must be considered when judging the difficulty of a text. This has been confirmed by many experiments which show that readers with appropriate background knowledge demonstrate superior comprehension. Are some texts inherently more difficult than others? However, even when one knows a great deal about a subject, some texts are more difficult than others. Assuming that one has appropriate background knowledge, are any texts inherently more difficult that others ? Flick and Anderson (1980) found that for both native

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and non-native speakers, implicit definitions are more difficult to comprehend than explicit ones: Explicit Definition: Negative pressure is that type of pressure whose value is below atmospheric. Implicit Definition: From fluid mechanics it can be shown that as a fluid or gas passes through a venturi, its velocity increases; but its pressure decreases to some value below atmospheric. This negative pressure 's greatest at the point in the throat where the fule pick-up is located. (Flick and Anderson, 1980, p. 345). Meyer conducted experiments indicating that expository texts organized from general to specific are more easily comprehended than those organized in the opposite way (Williams, 1989, p. 220). Carrel and others have shown that understanding how a passage is structured is also an important factor in reading comprehension. Meyer has also gathered empirical evidence that there are five basic ways of organizing expository discourse, each which has specific kinds of impact on the reader (Carrel, 1984, p. 445). These are arranged from the loosely to the highly organized: a. Collection: loose group, listing, sequence of time. Sally got Up early, had a cup of coffee for breakfast and dragged herself to work. b. Description: one element subordinate t6another, topic & attribute, specification, setting, additional information to topic. Sally does not look good. She 's too skinny, has no energy and has bags under her eyes. c. Causation: ideas grouped chronologically & causally. Sally does not eat well, does not exercise and does not get enough sleep. As a result, she 's too skinny, has little muscle tone and has bags under her eyes. d. Problem-solution: all features of cause effect, additional feature of overlapping content in propositions in problem & solution. Sally does not eat well, does not exercise and does not get enough sleep. As a result, she 's too skinny, has little muscle tone and has bags under her eyes. If she exercised more, she would probably eat and sleep better and would thus feel and look better too. e. Comparison: opposing viewpoints. Last year Sally looked terrible. She was too skinny, had bags under her eyes and had no energy. This year she bounds up the stairs, has gained weight and has the complexion of a 16-year old. An analysis based on T-unit or vocabulary frequency would find the five passages above almost identical. The difference, however, lies in the number and complexity of the relationships posited. The collection (a) has a 4oose organization in which it is not necessary to comprehend the whole. The description (b) has a relation of general to specific. In the

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causation (c), on the other hand, the relation is not only chronological but causal. The relation in the problem- solution (d) has ail the aspects of the causal with the addition of the solution reversing these relationships. In fact, ail of the features of the description are included in the causation which-are included in the problem solution. The number and type of relationships gets more complicated with each step on the scale. In the problem-solution text the reader usually is responsible for more of the text. Certain genres tend to correspond to certain types of organization. Political essays often are of the comparison type; news articles are typically descriptive and scientific texts often of the problem-solution type. But a text can have combinations of the different text types. Carrel provides the example of superordinate and subordinate relations in a text such as a folk tale (Carrell, 1984, p. 444). Here one can have an overall problem-solution organization in which a protagonist confronts and resolves a problem which may contain a description. Descriptions usually serve as part of a larger whole. Thus; one can miss much of the information in a description and still get the point. This is one of the reasons that the description of the island (Text 1) can be reduced (Text 2) by more than half without the reader suffering (depending on how one defines comprehension). However, in a cause and effect text, for example, which contains a chain reaction, the reader must understand all steps to comprehend the whole. If both folk tales and scientific texts can be of the problem- solution type, why are scientific articles so much more difficult to read ?Perhaps one must consider not only the number and type of relationships between clauses but the density of information as well. Even for those students with some background in linguistics, the following passage is difficult to read: Text 7 It is possible that L2 readers ' expectations of pronouns may be guided by characteristic usage in their language. Huang (1984 and Kameyama (1985) have suggested that languages can be classified according to the extent to which they allow the use 0f a zero pronoun. Kameyama posits that pronoun usage in ail languages is controlled by both syntactic and pragmatic constraints. She refers to the syntactic constraint as a "syntactic overtness requirement" (SOR, p. 7), the extent to which pronouns must be overtly stated, and the pragmatic constraint as "zero anaphora permissibility" (ZAP, p. 3), the extent to which pronouns may be omitted if the information they convey is easily recoverable. Kameyama claims that "SOR and ZAP are 'two sides 0f a coin' in that the absence of SOR simply means the maximal ZAP and the minimal ZAP corresponds to the strongest SOR " (pp. 7-8). According to her analysis, the grammatical systems of those languages with strong SOR "must have overt subject and object phrases even when their reference is conceptually redundant" (p. 6). The grammatical systems of languages without strong SOR allow zero an anaphora "whenever the reference is immediately recoverable in discourse" (p 8). Kameyama's ZAP typology can be summarized as follows: Languages such as English and French have a strong SOR and therefore permit zero pronouns only under very narrow circumstances, such as in, 'I would like (0) to see you tomorrow. ' (Demel, 1990, p. 269) [T-unit = 190-8 = 21.31 The first throe sentences introduce information gradually and cause few problems for most readers. The first suggests that there may be a cause and effect relationship between the way pronouns are used in the students' own language and what they expect to find when reading a foreign language. The second suggests that languages may be classified according to how often the pronoun can be dropped. The third suggests that both syntactic (grammatical) and pragmatic (context) constraints affect pronoun use. The fourth sentence, which tries to

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combine ail of the ideas mentioned so far and which establishes a dependency relationship, is almost twice as long as the others. In sentences 5 through 8 the reader has to keep referring back to this sentence to understand the connection of ideas. Although the subsequent sentences are shorter, they are difficult because they assume comprehension of the combination of ideas expressed in sentence 5. There is a build-up of information throughout the paragraph as the ideas are first introduced and then classified, and tied together in cause and effect relationships. It is obvious from the above that density as well as interrelatedness of ideas must be considered when judging the difficulty of a text. It appears then that the relationship of T-unit length and difficulty of text is useful but insufficient as is that of text organization and difficulty, as well as density. How then can these insights be combined to construct a tool useful for teacher? A PROPOSED SOLUTION 2 weakness of relying on any one factor has been demonstrated, it that one must construct a tool that takes ail of the factors mentioned above into account3. One solution is to compare texts to criteria. The more factors one takes into Lint, the higher the probability will be that one will correctly assess the difficult However, taking too many criteria into account slows the evaluation process, making it too cumbersome for the teacher. One needs a tool that is both sophisticated and easy to use. The chart format (See Appendix) is useful because once one has a general impression of the difficulty of the text one can ignore most of the rest of the chart. For example1 using the chart, a teacher selecting a specialized journal can ignore the bottom two rows of the chart and most probably the third row as well. The teacher can be fairly sure the text will be at a superior level but can look at other columns besides the format one to be sure. In deciding the level of difficulty of a text, the format column is the most useful and should receive the most weight. For example, the text in the appendix is very similar in terms of author's task and structure and intent of discourse to text 7. Both are problem solution texts, both contain several causes and effects, etc. But the text in the appendix is at an advanced rather than a superior level because it is technical material for the general reader rather than a specialized journal4 . If comparing two superior texts such as text I and 7 - part of a novel versus part of a specialized journal, one would rate the text on linguistics as more difficult because of the dense, packed information and the amount of text for which the reader is responsible. Rather than count word s to ascertain T-unit length, teachers merely have to recognize embedding. Every criterion included in the lower rows can also be included in the higher ones. For example, in the author task column a text full of 'supported opinion' (superior) can include simple descriptions (intermediate level), or a superior level can contain expository writing (also included in the advanced level). The fact that there are four columns increases the probability that enough factors will be considered to identify the difficulty of the text. CONCLUSION This paper has tried to demonstrate that simplified readers are not necessarily easier to read. Formal procedures such as T-unit analysis may also give a distorted view because too many factors are ignored. Even a focus on discourse only is insufficient for the same reasons. A possible solution is to take ail factors into consideration giving more importance to the format.

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Once one has selected the appropriate format for the level of the students, one can look at the factors in the other column for a finer analysis. The analysis proposed above can also guide teachers as too more difficult portions of the same article. For example, in the news paper article in the appendix, a reliance on the format column only would suggest that the whole article is at the advanced level. However, within the article certain paragraphs such as paragraphs 1-3 may cause more problems for the reader than paragraph 4 because of the complexity of the tightly woven text. Paragraph 4 describing the reaction of the scientist to the experiment will probably be easier because it is less abstract and appeals to basic human. Thus, teachers can use the chart outlined above to predict trouble spots in their assigned texts and find remedies Or to select appropriate outside reading. This will affect the teacher's methodology as well. For example, recognizing that implicit definitions are more difficult than explicit ones, the teacher could ask leading questions to encourage students reading text 1 to tell what kind of plant 'myrtle' is. This is one example of why ail teachers must become materials evaluators even when teaching assigned texts.

NOTES 1. For a slightly different analysis, see Honeyfield's comparison of the second half of the Golf

Bug to a passage from a Regents graded reader fn American Classics (Honeyfield 1977, p. 432).

2. I am indebted to David Hiple, who initially gave me the idea of using the chart format. Much of the information included in the chart was gleaned from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign languages (ACTFL) reading scale.

3. The crucial factor of interest level is included only obliquely in the chart- 'for general reader'. One, of course, would try to tailor materials to the students' interest; but even in the same class interests can vary widely.

4. As suggested earlier, one aspect making texts difficult is the complexity of relationships in the text. the following describes the number of words per T-unit and briefly describes the function of each (in this text T units and sentences correspond):

(i) (18) suggests a CAUSE & EFFECT relationship exists between expectations and pronoun use in languages.

(ii) (26) suggests a CLASSIFICATION in languages exists relating to pronoun use. (iii) (16) suggests CAUSE may depend on syntactic & pragmatic constraints -EFFECT is how pronouns are used.

(iv) (50) DEFINES two types of languages depending on syntactic and prag-matic constraints

SOR & ZAP. (i) (35) Implied CLASSIFICATION - two types of languages (SOR & ZAP), CAUSE &

EFFECT relationship between pronoun use & pragmatik & syntactic constraints. (vi) (29) CAUSE & EFFECT for one type - SOR (syntactic). (vii) (21) CAUSE & EFFECT for other type ZAP (no syntactic). (viii) (39) EXAMPLE of CAUSE & EFFECT in languages, pronoun use and syntactic

overtness. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bazerman, C. (1985). '"'Physicists reading physics: Schema-Laden purposes and purpose-laden schema. Written Communication 2(1), 3-23.

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Block, E. (1986). "me comprehension strategies of second language learners". TESOL Guarterly, 18(3), 463-494. Carrel1, P. (1986). "me effects of rhetorical organization on ESL Readers". TESOL Quarterly1 18(3), 441-468 Connor, U. (1984). "Recall of text: Differences between first & second language readers". TESOL Quarterly, 18(2), 239-256. Demel, M. (1990). "me relationship between overall reading comprehension and coreferential ties for second language readers of English". TESOL Cuarterly, 24(2), 267-292. Dahbi, M. (1984). "The development of English writing skills by Moroccan university students". Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Goergetown University. Enkvist, N., & Akademi, A., & Finland, A. (1990). "Seven Problems in the study of coherence and interpretability". In A. Johns & U. Connor (eds.), Coherence in writing (p.9- 28), Alexandria: TESOL. Flick, W. &Janet A. (1980). "Rhetorical difficulty in scientific English: A study in reading comprehension". TESOL Quarterly, 19(3), 345- 351. Gaies, S. (1980). "T-unit analysis in second language research: Applications, problems and limitations". TESOL Quarterly, 14(1), 53-69. Honeyfield, J. (1977). "Simplification". TESOL Quarterly, 11(4), 432440. McCagg, P. (1990). Toward understanding coherence: A response proposition taxonomy". In A. Johns & U. Connor (eds.), Coherence in writing (p.113-127), Alexandria: TESOL. Poe, E.A. Complete and poems. Tisak USP Belgrade 1966. Smith, F. (1971). Understanding reading. Holt Rinehart & Winston, New York. Williams, E. (1989). "Reading in a foreign language at intermediate and advanced levels with particular reference to English language teaching". Language Teaching 22 (4), 217-228

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APPENDIX

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INVESTIGATING SOME WORD-SOLVING

STRATEGIES IN EFL READING USING THE "THINK ALOUD" PROCEDURE

Faiza BENSEMMANE

University of Algiers ,Algeria. INTRODUCTION Research in Second Language (SLI) learning indicates a growing emphasis on process rather than product and the importance of strategies in learning a SL (O’Malley, 1987; Rubin 1975, 1981; Politzer 1983; and McCroarty 1985) . It strongly suggests that good language learners use a variety of strategies 40 assist them in gaining command of SL skills. Current research into SL reading also focusses on strategies which are operations used by a reader to interact with written text and achieve comprehension. A number of empirical investigations have been conducted into readers strategies in NL and SL and their relationships to successful and unsuccessful readers. These have used two kinds of evaluating methods, retrospection and introspection also called the verbalization procedure, or think aloud procedure. Retrospection involves the reader's verbalization of his mental activity or thought processes after he has completed a reading task. Introspection or the think aloud procedure (henceforth TAP) involves the subject's verbalization of his mental operations as he performs a reading task. Subject's verbalized responses, or verbal protocols are tape-recorded simultaneously by the experimenter, who is often the language instructor, band analyzed. In introspection reader's behavior may be studied in two different ways: uninterrupted or non-stop reading behavior and interrupted behavior to investigate what the reader does when searching for a response2. The TAP of investigation seem sat present most promising in matters concerning the analysis of the cognitive processes involved in SL and FL reading, and the assessment of specific reading tasks reading performance in a target language generally. this procedure has recently attracted the attention of FL reading specialises and instructors who can obtain such assessment formally in classroom setting. Research into cognition and reading also claims the existence of schemata or global knowledge structures which enable the reader to reconstruct and interpret written messages (and oral ones too) These schemata are said to be activated by two basic modes of reading, as suggested by psycholinguists and researchers on cognition3 , i.e. : * bottom-up processing or decoding the visual input and processing incoming linguistic information. *Top-down processing or making predictions based on prior knowledge. These two modes of processing view the reader as an active participant in native and non- native reading. How does the successful reader use these modes when encountering missing or

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unknown items in texts? How much does the TAP contribute to the understanding of these reading behaviours? What other/ teaching purpose could the TAP serve ? I shah attempt to answer these questions in this paper. Thus I propose: (i) to explore one type of FL reading behavior, the word-guessing or inferencing behavior, to see the extent to which the lexical semantics and pragmatics of a text affect the performance of this task; (iii) to discuss the contribution of the TAP to the evaluation of readers' performance on specific tasks such as the word guessing or inferencing task. I. THE EXPERIMENT : DESIGN AND PROCEDURE For the design of this experiment I have elected to use cloze tests’. Therefore, the cloze procedure or item deletion procedure, was retained as the most appropriate to look into some of the inferential processes involved when unknown of an item and its replacement was dependent upon the following criteria: (i) the removed lexical item had overt linguistic links with other items of the text; (ii) the removed lexical item had no obvious links with other items, i.e. the links were covert. The cloze texts contained dues which were intersentential generally, but some texts allowed intrasentential' dues to operate. (Sec texts in appendix A). Finally, the texts were extracted and/or adapted from various sources such as The Guardian Newspaper, The Economist, New Society and good Housekeeping. They were of medium size, a minimum of 30 words and a maximum of 60 words. The experiment was conducted with a sample population of 20 undergraduate students of mixed abilities enrolled as first, second and third year students for the 'Licence" degree of English language and literature in the University of Algiers (1983); students were first handed out 10 doze texts each and were asked to supply one response only for each text, in any language of their choice, i.e. Arabic, French or English. No choice items were supplied, nor questions following the text. Thus their written responses (gap fillers) were meant to help us crosscheck their verbal protocols. Secondly, the students were told that they had to verbalize their responses, i.e. to think aloud while they were searching for the missing item. They were told that their responses were being tape recorded but the test would not be marked!). Some time was spent on instructing them on the procedure it self. 2. RESULTS AND COMMENTS In this investigation, which is exploratory in nature, we were not interested in the right answer, i.e. the desired terminal behavior but in readers' reasons for arriving tan answer, i.e. how the approach the problem The TAP has enabled us to identify some strategies used by successful and unsuccessful readers as they were grappling with the cloze texts. It is interesting to note that much of the general word guessing behaviours coincided with Hosenfeld's report of subjects' successful problem-solving behavior, i.e. - students read in broad phrases rather than in a word by word fashion, - students read with prediction - students skipped inessential words - they translated in their NL; here our students tended to use two languages, Arabic and French - they were sensitive to linguistic signals (different word order, repetitions, connectors,.. etc.); see Bensemmane (1985)6

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- they used orthographic information (capital letters, punctuation, etc.) - they used their world- knowledge. Some of the verbal protocols reported in Appendix B display these features. Thus our subjects word- guessing strategies have been classified into 3 basic types. (i) linguistic strategies (lexical semantic, syntactic), which tended to essentially use linguistic information and characterized unsuccessful readers; (ii) non-linguistic/pragmatic strategies, which tended to use non4inguistic information, thereby producing unsuccessful readers, too; (iii) interactive strategies, which tended to utilize both linguistic textual information and non-linguistic information, and characterized successful readers7. As the results show, success in word-guessing (and reading generally) is not a matter of kind of strategy used but of degree of use as all readers used both types of inferencing strategies in varying degrees. Successful readers used those strategies interactively, with both modes of reading, bottom-up and top- down, while unsuccessful readers overrelied on one strategy (as the protocols show). This investigation has also enabled us to look at the TAP as a valuable instrument of assessment of success and failure. What makes it attractive and reliable is that it gives the experimenter, or the language teacher an opportunity to look into the mental processes at work in problem-solving rather than consider the output only, i.e. the result of this mental activity. The analysis of readers' wrong responses (miscue or error analysis) alone, has some limitations and should be supplemented by an analysis of verbal reports. Ultimately, the TAI' could be seen as a teaching device for remedial purposes. By developing awareness of the thinking processes involved in inferencing and by acting upon them when necessary, one could train students into better, more successful word-guessing behavior and hence contribute to improve reading performance in a FL. CONCLUSION In this paper, I have tried to show that the TAP may be a useful one for evaluating inferential strategies in FL reading performance as well as developing better word-solving habits in non-native reading. By attending to the way FL readers arrive at a final response, teachers may be able not only to forma fairly reliable assessment of learners' performance but also to act upon the strategies them selves in remedial reading. However, there are some difficulties and limits to this approach related to the choice of the task and to the TAP itself. Indeed a cloze test may set limits to what the reader can achieve in reading, and may not be the best way to assess inferencing strategies, and thinking aloud may be taboo in some societies8. The TAP may also be difficult to operate with large classes. Nevertheless I suggest to look at the procedure as supplementary testing material which could have a dual purpose: (i) to evaluate learners/ readers' difficulties and (ii) train them into developing better, more successful reading habits.

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FOOTNOTES AND REFERENCES Editor's note: Due to time constraints, we could not separate between real footnotes and notes used to indicate references, hence the repeated mention "see the following references". 1 See the following references:

J.M. O’Malley, 1987, 'The effects of training in the use of learning strategies on learning English as a SL". In A. Wenden & J. Rubin (eds), learner Strategies in Language Learning, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Rail. J. Rubin, 1975, "What the good language learner can teach us", TESOL, vol. 9(2), pp. 41-52 J. Rubin, 1981, "Study of cognitive processes in SL teaching”, Applied Linguist, vol. 2 (2), 117-131. R.L Politzer, 1983, "An exploratory study of self- reported language learning behaviors and their relation to achievement'; Studies in SL Acquisition, vol. 6(1), 54-68 RI. Politzer &M. McGroarty, 1985, 'An exploratory study of learning behaviors and their relationships to gains in linguistic and communicative competence, TESOL, vol. 19 (1), 103-124.

2 other techniques include verbal self-reports with diaries. See A. Cohen & C. Hosenfeid,

1981, "Uses of introspection/ retrospection in learner-centered research, Language learning, vol. 26, 285-313, and C. Rosenfeld, 1977,1979, for an extensive discussion of these techniques. C. Hosenfeld, 1977, "A preliminary investigation of the reading strategies of successful and non-successful SL learners', System, vol.5, 110-123. C. Hosenfeld, 1979, "Cindy: a learner in today's FL classroom", in W. Born (ed) me FL learning in today’s classroom environment, Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Middlebury, Vermont, pp. 53-75.

3 See the following references

R.C. Anderson, 1977, The notion of schemata and the educational enterprise, in R.C. Anderson & RJ. Spiro (eds), Schooling and the acquisition of knowledge, Hillsdale, NJ.: Erlbaum. R.C. Anderson & Z. shiffrin 1980, 'The meaning of words in context," in Theoretical Issues in Reading Comprehension, RJ. Spiro, B.C. Bruce &W.F. Brewer (eds), Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum. D.E. Rumelhart, 1980, "5chemata:Thebuildingblocksofoegnition , m Spiro et al, op. cit.

4 See the following references:

FY. Greene, 1965, "Modification of the cloze procedure and changes in reading test performance", journal of Educational Measurement, vol. 2(2), 213-217. L.F. Bachman, 1982, 'The trait structure of cloze test scores", TESOL, Vol 16 (1), pp. 61-70.

5 It is interesting to note that some words were wrongly treated as clues. As Van Parreren et al remarked, "word forms act as strong 'field factors' which evoke strong but often incorrect associations" (cf. Van Parreren & M.C. Schouten-Van Parreren, 1981, "Contextual guessing: a trainable reader strategy", System's, vol. 9(3), 235-241.

6 See F. Bensemmane, 1985, Lexical cohesion and the Determination text intelligibility in non-native reading, Ph.D. thesis, Department of Linguistics, University of Bangor-Wales, G.B.

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7 The word 'interactive' is used here after Carrell's work on interactive reading in ESL. See P. Carrell, J. Devine & D. Eskey1 1988, Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, on this point.

8 It is worth noting at this point, that 2 subjects were reluctant to take part in the test and

needed our help in the practice sessions. This attitude was expected as there are personal and socio-cultural factors related to this procedure which are inhibitive. But it was also interesting to see that first and second year students were more cooperative and were willing to take part in this "adventure" - to quote one student’s words; this may be explained by the great number of laboratory sessions that the students enjoy in the first two years of their course and whose working conditions are similar to those of the experiment, i.e. understanding a message and solving a problem orally while being recorded.

APPENDIX A: TEXTS [Please note : EC means Extremely Cohesive; HC means Highly Cohesive; WC means Weakly Cohesive . This information was not given to student]. TEXT 1 The National Park Committee reported this year a man who drowned while

swimming in the underground waters of a cave in Derbyshire, another This seems to happen regularly in the spring season. (WC)

TEXT 2 Some firms offer cushions with a choice of natural or synthetic fillings Good quality

foam with a ten-year guarantee will last longer than a cheap feather filling. Feathers can , the oil dries out, leaving them dry and brittle and eventually they turn to dust. (HC)

TEXT 3 We have organized some splendid cookery demonstrations by the Dutch Dairy

Bureau followed by talks about wines from one of our Masters of Wine. Then, putting theory into practice, you'll have a chance of trying at least two of the you've watched being made, and sipping with expert guidance and discussion four beautiful wines to accompany your three-course lunch or dinner. (WC)

TEXT 4 Perhaps it is the innate good sense and good humour of the Tahitians which have

insulated them from some of the more damaging pressures of the 2Oth century lifestyle. They do not readily practices and methods which have served them well for generations, but will absorb the new with the old and make both work in harmony. (HC)

TEXT 5 Adele, quite surprised, endeavoured to show herself mistress of the room by her

civilities, and looked at the bright bars of her empty with concern. "Thank you, I'm quite warm, very warm", said Mrs Melville. "Allow me to stay here a little while, and do have the goodness to hear my third act. I have brought my book"; (WC)

TEXT 6 You can imagine what a lovely, surprise gift that a would make. Especially for a

relative who lives a long way away, or who has emigrated, or whom you simply don't see very often. (WC)

TEXT 7 The security forces who operated after the violence in Cairo and Alexandria had no

instructions to protect the administration buildings and kill the civilians. However, the population was. . .After the events, the army was sent on to the streets. (EC)

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TEXT 8 Some people are capable of treating their country the way some teenagers treat buses and phoneboxes. They live in the immediate present and are unaware of historical continuity and without culture. Today is a widespread social phenomenon. (EC)

TEXT 9 Separating hob and oven gives you several advantages over a freestanding cooker.

An oven at a convenient level makes life easier as it puts an end to bending and heavy dishes from a low level. Here we focus on built4n ovens and test their cooking performance and ease of operation. (EC)

TEXT 10 Then they talked about something else, the cost of heating, if they used their

cottages at ail in the winter. Claire had hoped the conversation would continue a little longer. Around rounds of drinks, while she put their cold supper on the table. They sat down, Claire felt unsatisfied. Or was it a sense of disturbance, just because they hadn't pursued the subject? (WC)

Instructions to students You have been given 10 passages. Each passage contains ONE blank which is a MISSING WORD. What you have to do is (1) Fill in the blanks with appropriate word s in any language you wish (English, Arabic or French); (2) As you work, TELL how you are getting your answer. just think out loud as you guess the word, in any language you wish (English, Arabic or French). What you tell yourself will be recorded. Time allowed : one hour. APPENDIX B: VERBAL PROTOCOLS Unsuccessful reader: linguistic strategic or pragmatic strategic. Examples: Subject 3: reads whole text subvocally, skips the word "drowned" possibly because he can't

pronounce it; Reads on then stops at gap. Continues to the end. Goes back to "another"; "another... another... another... cave no...sea son of ...swimming ...no...cave... yes". Sub-ject supplies the word "cave" [text 1].

Subject 14: reads whole text slowly, then rereads the phrase where the gap occurs, fills the

gap with "wine": reads on at least two of the wines you've watched being made...on leur montre comment on fait le vin... watch...watch wine being made....sipping wine with expert... (subject has added "wine") ...it's wine in gap ...wine wine... c'est wine... people drink wine with their food". Subject writes "wine" [text 3].

Subject 2: reads very slowly and subvocally; only part of the text is audible.

"demonstrations...how to make wine ...c'est un show...making wine for people...wine...hna ...ouhna...at least two of the wines you've watched being...". Subject reads whole text, audibly now and supplies "wine" [text].

Subject 7: reads whole text twice, then reads the first two sentences twice. "Claire had hoped

the...conversation they sat down...Claire felt unsatisfied... pourquoi... disturbance...the subject ... disturbs her. ...it's a...about marriage?…no... heating...the supper is cold ... cost of heating..: foukara ...la vie chère... ils sont pauvres... Claire ...had ...hoped the... conversation ...about their poor life la conversation... sur le sujet de leur ... misère ..."Subject fills the blank with "misery". [text 10].

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Subject 15: reads quickly then stops at sentences containing blank. "it puts an end to bending...and... c'est une position... she bends ..because... "heavy dishes from a low level... she puts dishes...in the au milieu... dans le four... to cook the dishes... heavy dishes ...she's on her knees ... elle prepare les plats ...maybe on the floor she's on the floor ...qaada ...lalla...mgaamza... bending to low level... it's easy... ease of operation ..." Subject supplies two words: "cooking" and "preparing" (text 9).

Successful reader: interactive Examples Subject 8: reads text once to the end, slowing down at gap. "...Tahitians... damaging

pressures... they do not...readily...readily ... but will will...but aha but...will accept...will absorb the new...they don't refuse practices and methods... aiment les traditions... l'ancien et le nouveau ... don't refuse the old things... but absorb the new". Subject writes "refuse" in gap. [text 4].

Subject 1: reads whole text slowly. "feathers... can... last...no…no.. the oil dries out.. they

dry... become ...qu'est ce que c'est ça ... braitle (subject can't pronounce "brittle")... and they turn to dust... ah.. voilà... the feathers... elles s'abiment ... can... kifech enqolo... can... dry... no...yefesdo ... nekteb s'abimer. Subject supplies "s'abimer" in blank. [text 2].

Subject 18: reads slowly and pauses after each sentence. "The security forces... proteet the

administration ... and kill ..... tuer les civils... how....... the population... was... ...... c'est les civils quoi... however... lakin... la population a été ...... was killed... oui... raghma thalik... however... c'est ça... was killed". Subject writes "killed" in gap.[text 7].

Subject 12: reads whole text, skipping some words and phrases like "quite surprised", "allow

me to stay here a little while' and "my third act". Then, "...looked at the ... empty bars... what bars?... thank you said Mrs Melville... 1'm warm, very warm... she's warm...... ça doit être une cheminée... her empty chimney... la cheminée... empty... il manque du bois...". Subject fills gap with "cheminêe". [text ].

Subject 1: reads whole text, then stops at gap. "they live in the... and are unaware of...

unaware... qu'est ce que c'est.. ils sont without culture sans culture... incultes quoi ... l'inculture... to day is a... social phenomenon treat their country...like...with violence...buses and phone- boxes... ils les cassent... peut- être... parce que historical continuity... l'histoire du pays... mouch met-thaqfin... incultes... la violence... le manque de culture... is a social phenomenon... Subject writes both "inculture" and "violence" [text 8].

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READING IN AN ELT PROGRAMME: EVALUTION OR REVOLUTION?

Mohamed Khalil ENNASSIRI

Faculty of Letters, Tetouan ,Morocco.

University teachers often complain that their students don't read as much as they should. This concern springs from the fact that reading is one of the most important activities at the university level. In fact, a very important feature of ELT at this level is that there is a reading list for almost every subject. But it has been noticed that students do their reading in ad-hoc ways, and often complain that the reading list is too long. The objectives of ELT in a given country are geared to the needs of this country; but the primary need of the learner is for him to be grounded in all the basic language skills; namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. Of the four skills that I have mentioned, reading is given the least importance. One of the reasons for this is the influence of the audiolingual methodologies. Audiolinguism stresses the supremacy of speech over the other language skills. Since Language, as a whole, is first and foremost a means of communication, it stands to reason that a language curriculum should be designed in such a way that the teaching of one skill is not done at the expense of other skills. The second thing that may have brought about this state of affairs is the absence of a course in reading in an ELT programme. It can be argued that first year university students have a course in guided reading as part of the language programme. However, this is not exactly what I mean by a course in reading. What I have in mind is a course designed for Moroccan students of English, and whose objective is to help these students approach this complex psycholinguistic process. But I would like to add, to anticipate possible misconceptions, that teachers of guided reading do all they can to teach students how to approach literary texts with a critical eye. However, the handling of the course is, more often than not, left to individual teachers. Also, the course aims at making students read to learn at a time when they still need to learn to read. Of course, we must not underrate our students' abilities; they can read fairly easily in their native language. But the problem arises when they read in English, because the written work introduces values, assumptions, beliefs and attitudes of the culture of which English is a vehicle. So, here their task is twofold : first they have to grapple with the linguistic aspect of the text (i.e. syntax and semantics); and second, they have to get an idea about these values, assumptions, beliefs, attitudes, etc., and how they compare with those of their speech community. Very often, they are ill-equipped to carry out this task. What is worse, perhaps, is that they fail to conceive of reading as an indispensable tool whereby they can have access to the written information which, together with other sources of information, goes into making Up a total mastery of English. Instead, they view reading, especially in the first year of college, as an exercise to drill grammatical and lexical items (I am alluding here to reading comprehension). But, again, to do justice to students, I must say that they are not to blame since in many cases reading boils down to just this.

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Reading is a means to an end. From the learners point of view, it should be a means to learn, to get pleasure and to communicate; from the teacher's point of view, it should be a means of putting the newly-acquired language skills to productive use; namely, to get thoughts through reading. And it is this technique of thought-getting while our students lack even at this advanced level. Very many of us have come across students whose spoken English is good, but wh6se thoughts are shallow. This discrepancy between form and content is attributable to the fact that students are not equipped with the too that would get them to the written information. This tool should include the following subskills: 1. The ability to determine the main idea of the text 2. The ability to relate supporting details and arguments to the main idea (cohesive devices, etc.). 3. The ability to use contextual dues to get the meaning of unfamiliar word s. 4. The ability to adjust reading to purpose. This means that they should be able to discard whatever is irrelevant to the task and concentrate mainly on the relevant parts (allusion is made here to skimming and scanning). Students at the faculty should have already developed a productive reading habit and should be ready for the more difficult and challenging task of reading to learn. To put it differently, the task of teaching students how to read with understanding should start in the lycée because it is at this level that they are taught the basic skills. At this level, the teacher should introduce the course, explaining as much as possible its constituents, its objectives and the efforts students are to make to realize these objectives. At the faculty level, however, teachers should aim at developing and improving their students' reading techniques so as to prepare them for the ultimate goal of reading for academic purposes. Reading is a silent and not demonstrable activity, which means that it's not very easy to see how students read, and what strategies they use to get meaning from the printed page. So, to ensure some standard technique/procedure in his class, the teacher should be as explicit as possible in his instructions about and presentation of the course. But above ail, in planning his lessons, he should take into account such factors as the linguistic proficiency of his students, the size of the class, the time allotted to the course and the objectives of the course. This is because different formulae apply to different students in different circumstances. Below, I review and assess the steps which teachers should follow to teach a reading course. 1.SELECTION OF THE READING LIST The first thing that the teacher should concern himself with is the selection of reading material for his students. The reason for this is that students sometimes feel they are insulted if the content of the text is not Up to their intellectual needs. Once I came across a comprehension text whose title was "how to make a stew". Now, honestly what can texts such as this one contribute to the students' knowledge ? of course, nothing. 2. TEACHING METHOD After the selection stage comes the method of teaching. We know that there are as many methods of teaching as there are teachers. But still this shouldn't stand in the way of a standard

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method o teaching. The latter method should subsume the following steps: 2.a. Going from what is general to what is specific This means that the teacher should allow the students to read the whole text in order to get the main idea. This should also apply to the faculty when texts are longer and more complex. It is not necessary, at this stage, for students to consult their dictionary very often to get the meaning of difficult words as this may thwart the reading process. And to ensure that students have got the general idea, the teacher can ask general comprehension questions whose aim should be to help students get a clear sense of the content of their reading. These general comprehension questions may include yes! no questions, false/true statements and multiple choice questions. These questions may not be appropriate for students at the faculty level, where students read for academic purposes. So, to check their understanding of the main idea, they may be asked to provide a summary of the section they have read, or simply to identify the most important information. 2.b. Asking specific questions. After the general questions, the teacher should ask specific questions. These involve questions about particular aspects of the text, and range from Wh-questions to questions about characters, style, cohesive devices, etc. The type of questions to be asked depends on the level of the students. But even at this stage, it is not advisable to ask too many questions about every detail as this may blur the picture which the students have got from their reading. Rather, the detailed questions must be pertinent to the main idea of the text, and above ail, they should recreate the author's world in the mind of the students. 2.c. Overcoming cultural interference. The teacher must help his students to overcome the problem of cultural interference. That is, he should provide background information about the cultural patterns of the target language because the source of difficulty for students can either be linguistic (i.e. due to unfamiliar words and complex sentence patterns), or cultural (i.e. due to unfamiliar cultural patterns) or a combination of the two. 2.d. Evaluation. Last, but not least, there should be an evaluation in the end, to sec how far the students have gone in the course, and what abilities they have acquired. This will have a dual function : it is a feedback for the teacher and motivation for the students. CONCLUSION Ail in ail, then, we just can't sit back and expect our students to pick-up reading skills automatically. An independent and appropriate course in reading that proceeds in the way outlined above is likely to develop in students a reading habit and prepare them for the more difficult task of reading for academic purposes.

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ASSESSING COMPOSITION AT UNIVERSITY FIRST CYCLE

Zoubida BELLOUT

Faculty of Letters, Oujda , Morocco.

INTRODUCTION Testing composition at university lower level has very frequently shown a certain weakness in attaining an effectively meaningful level of communicative ability. Such weakness should serve - for teachers as well as educators - as an impetus for further academic research in the domain of composition evaluation. If our students' composition tests are taken as a starting point to research, then a set of standards against which students achievement can be measured. We will have known, then, why, where and how our students writing ability is deficient. As acknowledged by pedagogues and educators, students' essays generally reflect not only their linguistic competence but their communicative competence as well. Therefore, analysing students' errors in composition will help the academic researcher at various levels. He will be able to make substantial changes not only at the level of the classroom testing and teaching methods, but at that of the departmental and its policies with respect to the course of composition and its evaluation. To put it more simply and clearly, academic research on composition assessment at lower tertiary level will help the teacher - who is at the same time the course designer - to do the following: 1) establish more appropriate tests for learners, 2) innovate or make the necessary changes in the teaching method, 3) make suggestions as to curricular design according to the linguistic and socio-cultural context of our students, 4) put our academic research at the service of its socio- economic environment. According to this principle, which calls for high- level research, our fourth year students have been encouraged to undertake studies that are deeply rooted in field work. A case in point is a B.A. monograph research on error analysis. This research was undertaken by E.C.N. a student of mine in the Linguistics Option in 1987. It is a case study of the errors made by Oujdi first year university students. 110 composition copies were investigated applying Corder's (1973) error analysis taxonomies. Corder's surface strategy taxonomy singles out errors and classifies them according to whether they are mistakes of omission, addition, misformation, misordering and archi/alternating forms). The other linguistic type of taxonomy views errors in terms of their syntactic, semantic and phonological deviation. The most important findings were recapitulated in a table on page 117 where the student (E.G.N) showed that "ail kinds of grammatical errors exist in our students' essays, but semantic, syntactic and interlingual errors exceed them”. (p. 11). Should we encourage the communicative ability of our students in writing irrespective of their syntactic semantic and interference errors, knowing that such semantic and interference errors might sometimes block communication altogether?

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Should we side with educators who claim that errors are an inevitable part of the learning process; or should we be more demanding on our students by penalizing their errors severely and side with applied linguists like Bell (1983) who states that: An error could become itself a stimulus which could reinforce itself and make the bad habit' deeply ingrained? The seemingly wiser attitude is that which singles out communicative errors from linguistic ones. But as far as my experience in composition teaching is concerned, such an artificial division is often quite impossible. A widely known latin proverb says: "Errare humanum est perseverare diabulicum". (The error is human but to repeat it is unforgivable) How should we, then, avoid the frequency of errors and evaluate students writing ability effectively? Personal experience has shown that some of the possible clues to be suggested can be enlisted under two main headings: (a) varying the number and enhancing the quality of composition tests within the classroom; (b) exam tests should reflect the teaching efforts and appeal to the reflection ability of students. I. CLASSROOM COMPOSITION ASSESSMENT Composition evaluation at lower tertiary level has to meet the immediate needs of our learners who are neither native speakers nor second learners of English. Given that they are foreign learners of this language, their need of frequent and much more elaborate tests seems to be stronger than that of the above-mentioned types of learners. Their age, which varies from 19 to 22 years, requires rather more challenging writing tests while their being exposed to three years of training at secondary school (5 hours a week) and six Baccalauréat written term exams in a predominantly communicative framework enables them to face the academic requirements. Hence, factors that might be of a paramount importance in assessing composition at the first university level are the following: 1) testing should be part and parcel of the learning process. 2) accuracy, fluency and rhetoric should inter-relate in tests. 3) alternating simulation writing tests and froe writing tests should be included. 4) focus on collective correction should be elicited from students. 1.1. The first point, which is writing tests should be incorporated in the teaching of composition, stresses the fact that there is nothing more helpful for a novice writer than testing his ability to write while teaching him. Since the composition course is allotted two hours a week, the teacher is the only one entitled to organize his course the way he sees it appropriate for his class. The tacit agreement among teachers is to devote one hour to theory and the other hour to practice. Within the limits of this convention, experience has shown that it is quite feasible to teach a composition point in the first hour and get students involved in its application through various tests or quizzes in the second hour. Composition testing - like composition teaching - has to be adjusted to the time factor and to be adapted to the linguistic, socio-cultural needs of our large classes. This first suggestion, then, emphasizes the importance of continual assessment in the course of composition at the first cycle of the university. 1.2. It is quite interesting to advocate the frequent use of tests in our teaching; but what sorts of tests should we devise or look for in the numerous composition textbooks at our disposal ?

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This leads us to the second point in our discussion which is: should we use tests that evaluate accuracy, fluency or rhetoric? According to personal experience, students, in this course, seem to appreciate being tested on fluency and rhetoric more than on their accuracy. Their boredom at grammatical exercises in composition courses can easily be felt by the instructor. Nonetheless, their essays are very seldom mistake4ree in the throe areas. Let us consider the syntactic errors in the following sentences display: (1) a. “When they will be adults, they cannot give up smoking".

b. "The student must respect the subject which is giving by the teacher". The student writer in both cases has misused the tenses. Such errors might be due to the not-yet-internalized target language rules. What is the best way to avoid such accuracy errors ? Is it more helpful for the student to be corrected by the teacher ? or to be led to self-correction? Is it rather more pedagogical to devise a test on the use of tense in time clauses for the whole class? My hope is to have these questions answered in a questionnaire I'll submit to the teachers concerned at the presentation session.

Fluency tests are generally devised in order to avoid semantic mistakes that would obstruct communication. Sentences like the following: (2) a. "The birds look for meat to eat and their little birds."

b. "Nice people having no problem are loving admirable, good looking and well made bearing this in mind it is not surprising us (Fr) that one has a hard hearted, is always in great suffer of mind and the body though he leads his life in discomfort, worries and trouble" (p. 85). The student researcher did complain about her being unable to provide a possible correction to this sentence.

This is, in fact, a typical sentence of a student who is much more concerned with getting his message through, but without the slightest attention to how it should be accurately formulated. Grammatically speaking, the beginning of this R.O.S. seems quite plausible and correct: the subject "nice people having no problem" precedes the verbal phrase "are loving admirable good looking and well made". Yet, upon closer analysis on the level of semantics, the sentence is almost non-sensical. The description of such people mixes moral with physical qualities without the necessary semantic markers. The truth value of the first proposition does not necessarily lead to the truth value of the second proposition. The cause-effect relationship is then violated. Moreover, lack of punctuation and the ignorance of composition rhetoric devices such as cohesion, adequate introduction, strong support, smooth transitions that achieve unity and coherence in writing are ail missing. Ail these errors have contributed to the total distortion of the message. How should the instructor set out to work out remedial tests to such faulty pieces of writing? In these circumstances, tests that are likely to be adequate are completion tests, cloze tests or tests that deal with the reorganization of scrambled sentences within a paragraph. Other similar communicative tests will be offered to colleagues specializing in this area during the presentation session. Another fertile area for errors in L.T.L. compositions is interference. It is quite conceivable, in a multilingual society such as ours, to find interlingual errors at the lexical, syntactic semantic and rhetorical levels. Sentences extracted from students in the first and second year compositions will help to illustrate these errors. (3) "1 broke the cup which "chair" for my mother" instead of “I broke the cup which was dear

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to my mother". This word completely distorts the meaning of the sentence because it is spelled c.h.a.i.r. The student seems to have borrowed the French meaning of 'cher' and has dressed it in an English spelling. Syntactic interference errors are also frequent in our students' essays. An instance is provided in (4). (4) a. "It arrived that I did wrong things" instead of “It happened that l did wrong things", and b. “It is not surprising us" instead of "It is not surprising for us". These errors originate from French borrowing. The semantic interference error in the sentence "The shops are starting to close one after one" is rather a direct borrowing from Moroccan Arabic. Rhetorical interference errors that deal with linking sentences, phrases and coherence problems can be attested in sentences like the following: (5) "I decided to go and meet his and ask him for some details", instead of "I decided to go and meet him in order to ask him for some details". Although this classification is not always an objective division of error types, I would like to focus on the semantic and rhetorical interference errors which most distort and distract the written communication. Kaplan (1972) claims that the logical pattern in writing differs from one language-family to another due to the different cultures at the basis of these languages. He defines this intimate relationship between logic and culture as follows. "Logic (in the popular, rather than the logician's sense of the word) which is the basis of rhetoric, is evolved out of a culture; it is not universal. Rhetoric, then, is not universal either, but varies from culture to culture and even from time to time within a given culture". (p. 246). Consequently, foreign learners for him, "have always been taxed by native speakers as lacking in organization, cohesion and totally out of focus. This is due to the fact that the foreign student is employing a rhetoric and a sequence of thought which violate the expectations of the native reader". How does an Arab learner of English break the logical patterns of the Indo-European "cartesian" logical model ? Kaplan maintains that Arab learners of English generally overuse synonymous parallelism in their writing. The writing devices that show this phenomenon of synonymous parallelism 'par excellence' are coordinating conjunctions. Instances of these are the sentence cited above (cf. (5)). and the following sentences: (6) a. “His father and mother are watching TV" b. "His sister in the kitchen cooks dinner". Instead, the student has to reformulate his sentences by using subordinating conjunctions or phrases to indicate coherence and 'logical thinking", as shown in (7). (7) a. "I decided to go and meet him in order to ask him for some details"; b. "His father and mother are watching TV; whereas, his sister is cooking dinner in the kitchen.

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Indeed, if we count our students sentences which are coordinatedly linked, we will find that they outnumber those which are subordinated. Nonetheless, Kaplan's analysis is to be accepted with a certain reservation in the sense that logic or rationality in thinking is rather universal. As far as rationalists are concerned, ail human beings are inherently endowed with logic irrespective of their cultural belonging. Therefore, if a novice writer of English happens to use such semantic and rhetorical errors, it does not mean that he lacks logical thinking; rather, these mistakes are partly due to the fact that he has not yet mastered the rules of the target language; and partly to the transposition of oral structures on writing. These semantic and rhetorical difficulties that characterize lower level university compositions are linguistically and pedagogically based rather than logically based. The tester in this respect has to elaborate exercises that test the students' ability to develop a cohesive and coherent paragraph out of a topic sentence and a set of supporting sentences. Tests that require from the student to develop a paragraph by way of explanation or enumeration or the use of examples might remedy rhetorical problems. Quizzes and exercises on the correct use of connectors might also be useful. To conclude this second suggestion, it seems then, that composition assessment in this lower tertiary level should inevitably involve accuracy, fluency and rhetorically based tests. This leads us to the third point in this paper where emphasis is laid on alternating similation writing tests and free writing tests. 1.3. Alternating testing for similation in class and free composition writing outside it makes our students feel the importance of composition courses. Frequently used in class tests, they help the foreign learner to recognize his errors, correct them and eventually avoid them in subsequent writing. Two weeks ago, my second year composition class were given the following descriptive passage from Carson McCullers "The Member of the Wedding". The paragraph is the following (8) "She was very black and broad shouldered and short. She had always said that she was thirty-five but she had been saying that for at least three years. Her hair was parted, plaited, and greased close to then skull, and she had a quiet and fiat face. There was only one thing wrong about Berenice; her left eye was bright blue glass. It stared out fixed and wild from her quiet, coloured face, and why she had wanted a blue eye nobody human would ever know. Her right eye was dark and sad...". During the first hour, students were asked to read the paragraph and single out the kind of phrases that are widely spread in the description. The organization of the description from the general to the particular, the introduction and the development of ideas and the way they are coherently linked were also discussed. In the second hour they were asked to write individually a descriptive paragraph on a person they know of. The response was quite positive. All the 40 students participated enthusiastically and got immediately involved in the task of writing. The teacher surveying their work, was asked from time to time to help with vocabulary words and the suitable structure students are in need of. The teacher did not hesitate to use the dictionary to make sure 0f the meaning and spelling of foreign English words' to foreign English learners. In sum, the class during that

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similation test looked rather like workshop than an ordinary composition class. The outcome of this experience was various descriptive topics in purely personal different ways of writing. A fact which made correction a pleasure to undertake. By way of example, I will give one of a student's paragraphs. It reads as follows: (9) He is a cruel man, a mischievous creature indeed. His very look seems to bear an expression which is far remote from what is human. To hold authority against his employees seems to be his very reason in life. His big, strongly-built body fills him with pride and self confidence. His head (bare bald) would be mistaken for the palm of a hand. His lashes are thick and his eyes glitter with a fierce, vicious light, as though a panther's. His curled lips never break into a sweet smile. He dare not unfold his white but false teeth because he believes it is a feeble point he can't help it Seems. Ail these ugly features make one shrink with fear from his very sight" (2nd year copy). Twelve copies out of twenty were fairly well written and were ranked A to B. Testing by similation, consequently, might prove to be useful for our students at university first cycle. Such in-class testing could be varied by a paragraph completion, a composition reorganization and other types of composition assessment. One of the greatest advantages of in-class similation tests is that they help our foreign learners to put pen to paper frequently and get rid of the psychological inhibition against writing. Similarly they help students to cope effectively with froe composition writing outside the classroom. 1.4. Another factor to be emphasized is collective correction elicited from students. The apprentice writer at tertiary lower level is a mature learner who needs to be introduced to grammatical concepts such as phrase, clause, subordination, coordination, etc... They are almost indispensable if one intends to talk with students about their writing. In a polysystematic stage - to borrow Corder's term - of learning the language, the learner is able to explain and correct his error. Through collective correction ilicited from students about their own mistakes, foreign composition learners will be able to explore the reasons behind their misuse of language. This kind of correction is, by no means, the only kind of correction that helps the student to avoid his mistakes and make his writing effectively communicative, there are other types of correction such as peer correction, pair correction, editing, etc... Having discussed the importance of the place, the content, the type and the correction of classroom tests in composition courses at tertiary lower level, it is time now to consider exam composition evaluation. II. EXAM COMPOSITION ASSESSMENT The general tendency in our exam testing of composition at university level is to administer free composition topics of 300 words to be written in throe hours time. No one denies the qualities of free composition as a means to assess the writing ability of the learner. It encourages the student to get a feeling of independent achievement in English. That is, he can write as freely as he can; the only rule he has to abide by is not to write off the topic. Such tests are, of course, very difficult to mark. Their subjective grading can, however, be alleviated if we combine them with a sample of the “objecticized” communicative tests discussed earlier. The mark of this exercise which tests the student on a particular writing task can, then, be

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combined to that given for the free test. The resulting mark would undoubtedly reflect more objectively the testee's writing achievement. In fact, exam tests at tertiary lower level have: (a) to reflect teaching efforts and testing techniques used in class; (b) to appeal to the students reflection ability and rational thinking. The tendency to overuse free composition assessment in our exams presupposes that, all throughout the academic year, our students have been exposed only to free composition topics to write on. All teachers - who have taught the course of composition- will certainly admit that this is not the case. Therefore, how should we devise exam tests that - if not mostly - can at least partly reflect the teaching method ? If the course contains a combination of teaching and testing activities and has made use of controlled writing tests as well as free composition tests, the exam test has to be composed of two main parts, the first one should give the student a sample paragraph lacking in connectors. He should - in this case - be asked to supply the adequate semantic markers and justify his choice. This first section might make use of other types which have been previously used in class. The second part of the final exam can remain as it used to be; that is, it should be a choice to write on either a free descriptive, or narrative or argumentative topic. The motivation for such suggestion does not stem only from the course nature but from my personal observation on exam days. The majority of students tend to leave the exam room before the due time. The students who stay until the end of the exam period are either too meticulous and perfectionist, or weak students who stay until the end in the hope of coming up with the necessary requirements. Therefore, the exam timing seems to be enough for the addition of such objective communicative tests that will not exceed an hour's time in addition to a 300 words free topic essay which, experience has shown, can be done in two hours' time. Combining these controlled tests with free composition in our final exams may have positive pedagogical and psychological effects. From the pedagogical side, they help evaluate effectively and fairly the writing ability of the testee. Furthermore, their effectiveness answers the condition of reliability which should characterize a good achievement test. As far as the psychological effect is concerned, the fact of preceding a free test by a controlled communicative type of composition test will, undoubtedly, increase the student's awareness of the techniques and devices involved in composition before he embarks on performing the writing task freely. Most importantly, the organization of exam tests in this particular manner will probably lead to better motivation on the part of our students in composition classes. Exam tests should also appeal to the student's reflection ability. The controlled tests that are to form the first part of the final exams should neither be discrete-point tests nor unnecessary long pieces of writing that distract the attention of the testee. They should rather be short paragraphs of six to seven lines introduced by clear and precise instruction as to what the student should do. The types of tests that can be used in this part are, for instance: 1) a paragraph where modifying phrases and clauses are missing and the student is required to

provide the necessary elements. 2) joining scrambled sentences in a sample paragraph and ask the student to justify the order

he has chosen. 3) transform the sentence beginnings in a paragraph where most sentences begin with personal

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pronouns. 4) construct a seven lines paragraph from a given topic sentence and a set of phrases sewing as

support. 5) outline a paragraph and comment on its organization. 6) reduce a long paragraph into a coherent and unified short paragraph and explain why you

omitted some sentences. 7) rewrite an informal short letter into a formal paragraph. 8) rewrite a direct speech passage into an indirect speech passage. These 'objectivized' composition tests are unlike discrete-item tests that assess the sequence of tenses, the use of prepositions, or other grammatical items independently from context. "such written grammar tests [according to vallette (1967 p. 231)] do not evaluate the student's ability to use the written language as a medium of personal communication". The communicative tests cited above do in fact appeal to the rational thinking of our students because they are asked to justify, explain, elaborate and develop the writing tasks they have been asked to perform. They, similarly, help the teacher to evaluate the student more fairly, and deduce whether the student has attended his composition courses regularly. Most importantly, these tests will help the student to increase and awaken his awareness to the coherence and cohesion and devices that ought to govern writing. Such tests will perhaps even alleviate the exam stress pressure on the student and open his eyes on how he should proceed in writing his free topic composition. This second part of the exam is legitimate at university first cycle because it allows the student to demonstrate his ability to organize his thoughts, to choose appropriate vocabulary, to formulate paragraphs; in short to express himself in writing. A crucial point to be discussed, though briefly, in this part is the way the choice is delivered to the testee. What seems to be plausible is to give the student two topics to choose from. If the ojectivized test offers a descriptive type of writing, then the alternation in free composition topics should be between narrative and argumentative and vice versa. In sum, if these propositions prove to be workable for the present teaching situation, then this kind of assessment will solve many problems. It will not only help students enhance the quality of their compositions but it will also help them get more motivated in the course of composition. Most importantly, the Subjective evaluation will be balanced by the fairly more objective one concerning the communicative tests which form half of the exam.

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REFERENCES El Guelaa, N. (1987) "Error Analysis, A case study of the First Year Oujdi University Students". A B.A. monograph. Mohamed I- Faculty of Letters, Oujda. Kaplan, R.B. (1972) "Cultural thought Patterns in inter-cultural Education". In Croft K. (ed.) (1972): Readings on English as a second Language For Teachers and teacher Trainees. Cambridge, Mass.: Winthrop Publishers, Inc. Raims, A. (1987) "Why Write? From Purpose to Pedagogy". FORUM Vol. XXV n 4, pp. 3641. Rivers, W.M. & Temperly, M.S. (1978) A Practical guide to the teaching of English as a second or Foreign Language. Oxford : O.U.P. Valette M.R. (1967). Modern Language Testing. New York: Harcourt Brace &Jovanovich, Inc. Winkler, C.A. & McCuen, RJ. (1974) Rhetoric made Plain. (3rd edition 1981). New York: Harcourt Brace & Jovanovich, Inc.

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178

PART 3

EVALUATION: APPROACHES TO THE TEACHING OF SKILLS

SUBJECTS

SECTION 2

LISTENING COMPREHENSION ORAL PROFICIENCY

179

EVALUATION OF THE TEACHING LISTENING TO FIRST YEAR STUDENTS

THE UNIVERSITIES OF ALGIERS AND BLIDA

Elies BENDALI - BRAHAM

University of Blida, Algeria.

A. INTRODUCTION 1. Educational background of the students Before I evaluate listening comprehension, I would like to start my paper by pointing out that we, teachers at the Universities of Algiers and Blida, should take account of the educational background of the students we have each year if we want to solve the language problems they face in class, and then, try to elaborate an adequate method of teaching listening comprehension. We should always keep in mind that our students education has been in Arabic. English is introduced as a third language only eight years after starting primary school (the second language is French starting in the fourth year in primary school). The number of hours of English ranges from two to five per week according to whether the pupils are in the CEM (College d'Enseignement Moyen) or in the Lycée and whether they go to a literary class or to a scientific one in the Lycée. I would like to mention here that at the University Level, they do seventeen hours of English per week during the first year. The CEM and the Lycée are not equipped for the teaching of Listening comprehension as is the case in our universities. They do not have language laboratories and videos. Even tape-recorders are not available there. Besides, the pupils are not exposed to authentic English through, for example, texts recorded by English native speakers. Therefore, these pupils will start an English degree at the University with little or no previous practice at ail in listening comprehension as we understand it at the Universities of Algiers and Blida. Indeed, listening comprehension can be a totality new subject to them. They also enter University with little knowledge of both the English culture and language. Some of them do not know how to write Latin letters properly and are unable to keep writing a straight line from left to right mainly because they are used to write from right to left in Arabic. The level of most of the first-year students is that of beginners. Having said this, I wonder how we, teachers of English, can help our students to get their degree in English. I would like also to talk about the teachers of English at the CEM and Lycée Level. But, first, I stress the fact that the teaching of English as it is conceived of at the University Level has to

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be re-evaluated in order to enable the students to cope gradually with the learning of General English. Few teachers of English have been in an English-speaking country. They themselves have little contact with the language . And even when they were themselves students, many of them were "silent" students; that is, they did not speak much English outside the classroom. And in class, they might have been used to answering questions but this meant one or two-minute talk once in a while. How, then, can these teachers teach adequately a foreign language (English)? How can they talk for more than twenty hours per week in English to their pupils in the CEM and the Lycée without having been exposed to authentic English, either by staying or being trained in England or in the United States of America? In addition to this, what about their reputation as English teachers when their pupils realize at the University Level that they were teaching almost another language when compared with the authentic English taught to them through tapes, videos,... (in terms of fluency, intonation, articulation, stress,...)? Another important thing which should be re-evaluated quickly lies, at the University level, among the staff-teachers themselves and the administration of the English Department. Debating a project of ranking the different skills taught from less important to most important and providing each skill with an appropriate coefficient, listening comprehension is given the lowest coefficient. Why? One of the reasons why listening comprehension is neglected is that some are perhaps unaware of its importance. It is, however, essential to say that these teachers are specialists in other fields such as the teaching of Literature or Civilisation. They are sometimes asked to teach listening comprehension (or oral comprehension) just to complete their teaching hours per week. They think that teaching listening comprehension is easy and that they would not have much work to do. The question that arises here is : What are they really teaching in listening comprehension? One should, of course, talk about the negative effects of this attitude on the students. These will fail to see the importance of listening comprehension. Such an attitude is demotivating. 2. Aims of teaching listening comprehension to first-year students. One of the aims of teaching listening comprehension at the Universities of Algiers and Blida, today, is to enable the first-year students to understand an authentic piece of recorded English. Unfortunately, this aim has not been reached yet. We teach listening as a skill in its own right. We agreed that the comprehension of a short text in English-should be taken into account during the session devoted to listening comprehension. Therefore, the teacher's task is to prepare his students to become "good listeners" and enable them to understand and comment on a piece of authentic English recorded on a tape. I illustrate. The students are expected by the end of their first year to be able to understand, for example, a BBC programme. The teacher should help his students develop their ability to understand a spoken text by limiting the number of the listening sessions to only two. 3. CHOICE OF THE TEXTS

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The teacher should select short texts for first-year students. The texts should he arranged in order of increasing difficulty. The teacher should also select texts having a relation with universal topics or everyday life situations such as work, travelling, childhood, friendship, etc. The teacher should also use both British and American materials so as to expose his students to the two varieties of English. Very often, listening to a song in English (with filling in the gaps) is a good stimulus. Through music, the students learn better. At the University of Blida, the material for listening comprehension is not available. The British Council American Cultural Service in Algiers are two good places where the teacher of listening comprehension can find what he needs. Rowever, I suggest that he devise his own listening material because I believe he knows his students' needs better. Now, I would like to talk very briefly about some of the pitfalls which the teacher ought to avoid when teaching listening comprehension. B. SOME PITFALLS 1. Note-taking The teacher should prevent his students from taking down notes while listening to a text because the aim to be reached in listening comprehension -as is stated above-is to enable them to understand authentic English without using a piece of paper and a pen. Without note-taking, the students concentrate more on what they listen to and develop good listening strategies. 2. Lexical difficulties explained before or in-between the listening sessions By not explaining the vocabulary of the text, the teacher is adding another task for the students. It is better to let them find out the meaning of the difficult words according to the context and if they are wrong, correct them at the end of the session. Raving always in mind the aim to be reached, I can say, here, that the students should be able to understand, for example, a BBC programme without a piece of paper, a pen or a dictionary. 3. One listening session Any teacher of listening comprehension comes very quickly to the conclusion that one listening session is not enough for first-year students to understand a short text in English. The teacher may give them the following clues which have always worked well in my classes: he may tell them to try to get the general idea of the text (what the text is about) during the first listening session; and to pay closer attention to the details during the second listening. The teacher may help them after the first listening by asking general questions such as 'how many persons are involved in the situation?', 'is it day or night?',... One more listening to the text should be added later in the second and third years. 4. Three or more listening sessions

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According to me, to allow the students to listen to a short text throe or more times is not a good method. If you play the recorded text three or more times, the students work less. And after a certain number of times of exposure to the same text, some students are able to memorize it almost completely. Knowing that, it is better to limit the number of listening sessions to only two. This creates anatmosphere of pressure on the students who in order to succeed have to work harder and obviously better. 5. Giving the questions before listening to the text Seeing the questions before the listening of the text leads many of the students to concentrate only on the answers provided in the text rather than on the text itself. They can answer the questions correctly while unable to say what the text is about. This can be checked by adding other questions at the end of the lesson; questions which are not given before the listening of the text Indeed, few students will be able to answer correctly these questions. 6. Giving the questions after the first listening and before the second one This method can be applied during the very first lessons of the academic year to gradually familiarize the students with listening comprehension which, as is stated above, is a new subject to them. The teacher will very soon notice, as for the previous point, that after receiving the questions the students will concentrate only on the answers during the second listening rather than on the situation developed in the text. Thus, the teacher should start, just after some lessons, giving the questions after switching off the laboratory. By not presenting the questions before the second listening, the teacher gives no dues on which to concentrate, and thus, forces his students to pay more attention to the understanding of the text. 7. Dictating the questions after the second listening session After the two listening sessions, the text is still fresh in the students' minds. If the teacher dictates the questions, the students will have time to forget some key information in the text. Therefore, it is better and convenient to type the questions and then hand them to the students as soon as the second listening session has been completed. 8. Oral and written answers Oral answers are spontaneous and thus the students are more likely to build up sentences which are syntactically and semantically wrong whereas written answers allow the students to think longer and make up better sentence. Since listening comprehension is linked with oral comprehension in Algerian Universities (both constitute a module), it is better to develop the oral skill. Asking the students orally saves time and, thus, during one lesson, several texts can be dealt with. But oral answers are not appropriate when you want to test the students and give them marks which reflect their comprehension of the text Indeed, during the test, if the teacher adopts the oral method of testing, he should come to class with as many texts as there are students in the group. For the test, the teacher should give the same text and ask the same questions to everybody. Thus, put under the same conditions for the test, the students have equal chance. Moreover, knowing that the test is written and not oral, the teacher should tram his students, throughout the year, to produce written answers. From time to time, he may collect some

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papers and mark them. The students work better when they know they are going to be evaluated. Marks are a good stimulus. 9. Giving the chance to the same students or to those who raise their hands By allowing the same students to answer, the teacher might find himself working with one group of students rather than with everybody else in class The students who do not want to answer because they are weak or shy will eventually lose interest in listening comprehension Therefore; the teacher has to make sure that everyone is involved in the exercises. 10. Multiple -choice questions (MCQ),yes /no questions, true/false questions According to me, this type of testing should be avoided because; on the one hand, it prevents the students from building up complete sentences and practising English and on the other hand, it does not reflect their real understanding of the text. In fact, they have 50% chance of giving the right answer. CONCLUSION Now, I would like to end this paper by putting forward my own' suggestions on how to improve the teaching of listening comprehension in first-year English degree. 1.When the lesson is over and before leaving the class, the teacher can, time permitting of course, move to reading the text and stop whenever there is a difficulty in order to explain it. This reinforces the students' understanding of the text. 2.The teacher ought to test his students during every lesson, collect all the papers even if the group is large, and mark them. At the end of the semester, he grades the average of the marks as the final mark. This proved to boa good method. The students are more motivated and they generally do their best to learn and succeed. 3. Some years ago, the teachers of listening comprehension at the University of Algiers including myself, agreed to adopt the following method when testing first-year students:. Allow students to listen to a short text in English only twice without note-taking.

- Then, hand five typed questions and give the students ten minutes to answer. (Most of the answers require only one-sentence answer).

- As for the marks: 4 points for each question: if the answer is right, the student gets 4/4 if there is a grammatical mistake in the answer, he gets 3/4 if there is a mistake in the English used in the answer, he gets 3/4 if there are mistakes in both grammar and English, he gets 2/4 In fact, if the learner has understood the text but can't express his answer correctly, he always gets the average mark 2/4. We agreed to give an average mark for comprehension. Let me illustrate this. Suppose the question is "how old is he?" and the appropriate answer is "he is 40":

if the student gives the right answer, he gets 4/4.

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if his answer is 1he was 40', he gets 3/4. if his answer is 'he 40 is', he gets 3/4 if his answer is 'he 40 was', he gets 2/4

This method of testing has been used at the University of Algiers since I suggested it to the teachers of listening comprehension in 1984.1 have been using it myself at the University of Blida since the creation of 'L'Institut des Langues Etrangères' in 1989. And I do hope teachers of listening comprehension will find it a good method of testing their first-year students. 4.To upgrade the level of the students in our universities, the two first years should be devoted only to the teaching of the language. After these two years, the students will have a better command of the English language. It is only then, that they will be able to start studying literature and civilisation during the 3rd and 4th years. In the current system, they start literature and civilisation in 2nd Year. I would like to make it clear here that during the two last years, the students will no longer deal with grammar, phonetics, written comprehension, listening comprehension, etc. After their two first years, they should be considered as 'proficient” in English. And in the 3rd and 4th years, they will do only literature and civilisation. 5.The Algerian Officials should start thinking about introducing the necessary equipment and pedagogical material for the teaching 6f listening comprehension in the CEM and the Lycée. They should also start training or retraining the teachers of the CEM and the Lycée a broad, in England or the United States of America. This will definitely improve the teaching of listening comprehension in Algeria. [Note : This paper is essentially based on my own experience as a teacher of listening comprehension to first-year students, English degree, at the Universities of Algiers and Blida].

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185

SOCIOLINGUISTIC FACTORS IN THE LEARNING OF THE ENGLISH

PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM *

K. AIT SI SELMI

University of Algiers, Algeria. Until recently, research into second or foreign language learning was based on the assumption that the main difficulty in the process of learning was the difference between the learner's native language and the foreign language, and that the main cause of errors was due to interference coming from the native language. The attention of researchers in the past two decades has shifted from the theoretical analysis of the languages involved in the learning situation to the study of learner’s errors as revealing of the language learning process within this framework, errors are considered as the product of the learner's internal processing mechanism and external factors. Rather than being deviant from a given norm, the performance of the learner is seen as a legitimate system of language in its own right, referred to as "idiosyncratic dialect'. According to Schmidt (1977:92), some facts about inter language phonology can be accounted for by "a careful, socio-linguistic ally-oriented, contrastive analysis." The learning of a second or foreign language in the school situation, as a curriculum topic, is often considered similar to that of any other school subject. However, second or foreign languages, unlike any other curriculum topic, have to be viewed as asocial psychological phenomenon. The explanation underlying this view is that most other school subjects involve learning elements of the student's own culture, whether the topic is mathematics, chemistry, geography, and these are taught in his own language. In the learning of a foreign language, the student is faced not only with learning new information (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation>, but also with acquiring new elements of a different ethno linguistic group. The new words, the new grammar, the new pronunciations are not simply new ways of dealing with old concepts; they are characteristics of another linguistic community. And the student is asked to acquire them, to make them part of his own knowledge, and own life. Therefore, the study of the learning process of a foreign language should not be limited to the classroom itself; it must be considered in the larger context in which the individual lives. Experimental evidence has shown that, in addition to internal processes, a large number of external social factors must be taken into account in the learner's foreign language performance. This paper is a summary of a study carried out in Algiers, which focused on the learning of the English phonological system by a group of Algerian pupils in relation to three main variables: firstly, their relative proficiency in Arabic and French; secondly, their sex and, thirdly, their social background. A number of other factors were also considered in the analysis of the data such as: The extent of the pupils' exposure to the languages involved whether through formal class materials or through other channels (T.V., radio, home, peer-group relations); the attitudes of the pupils towards English language learning, as well as the attitudes of the parents towards their children's education. In addition, the study examined the way in which these factors may be interrelated, within the socio-linguistic context of Algiers.

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The data for this study consisted not only of oral tests but of written and reading tests as well. The information on the pupils’ background was gathered from their responses to a questionnaire specially designed for the purpose of the study. The informants consisted of a group of pupils selected from monolingual and bilingual sections who had ail the same level of proficiency in English; an equal number of them were male and female. The pupils were chosen from a school in the centre of Algiers because it was expected to reflect the social characteristics of the population of the city. The tests used with the pupils consisted of two parts: the oral part comprised two sections. In the first one, the pupils were asked to repeat English sentences after a model, and, in the second one, they had to read a short dialogue in pairs, and a short passage singly. The written part of the test consisted in classifying words according to their pronunciation. A questionnaire was also given to the pupils to elicit information about their background. The first set of questions were concerned with pupils' family background : place of birth, number of years they had lived in Algiers, parents' occupation and level of education, etc... The second set of questions was meant to obtain information on their linguistic background 'the languages used at home, their relative proficiency in each of them, the frequency with wh'.ch they used them, etc. The third set of questions was concerned with their educational environment: the languages used in the school with their male and female peers,. their attitudes towards learning: English, their professional aspiration, as well as their parents attitudes towards their children's education, etc... The end of the questionnaire consisted of a series of questions of a more general nature concerning the pupils’ social activities in everyday life; such as hobbies, amount of reading in English, travelling, T.V. watching, etc... The analysis of the results was carried out in two stages: firstly the examination of the pupils' performance and the information obtained from the questionnaire; secondly, the relationship between the pupils' production of sounds and their social characteristics. Although the research was based on a small sample of learners and on only one aspect of foreign language learning (English phonology), it clearly emerged from the analysis of the data that there is a relationship between the pupils' performance and the social variables considered. The data supported the claim that the learner's interlanguage is dependent on their previous linguistic experience. In the case of Algerian learners who bring more than one language to the learning situation, the relative proficiency of the pupils in each of the languages involved plays an important role : the approximative system of the learner is affected by the degree of dominance exercised by one language over the other. Thus, although Arabic and French affected the pupils' performance in English, it appeared that the main source of influence was French, for the pupils from bilingual sections, and Arabic for those from monolingual sections. It also appeared that the pupils' experience in foreign language seemed to facilitate the subsequent learning of another foreign language: thus, the greater their experience in French, the better their performance in English.

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As regards the sex variable, the overall results showed that, as a whole, the girls performed better than the boys, probably because of their more favourable attitude towards the learning of a foreign language. Only in one instance did the girls score lower than the boys, i.e. for the realization of the English /r/ in words life "friends" - where they produced a uvular4ike consonant whereas the boys had a pronunciation closer to the model, i.e. a frapped /r/. Among other explanations, it was argued that the difference between these two pronunciations was due to a transfer of a socio-linguistic situation already existing in Algeria in relation to the French language. Indeed, the uvular pronunciation of the French /r/ is characteristic of Algerian women, whereas the apical pronunciation is seen as a marker of manliness? and as a symbol of nationalism and identification with the native Algerian community during the period of nationalism as opposed to the French community which used the uvular pronunciation. This attitude appeared to have extended to English which, like French, represents a foreign culture. Within the female pupils, it appeared that the girls from the bilingual sections scored higher than those from the monolingual sections, thus providing more support for the claim made earlier, that the learner's performance is positively affected by his/her previous experience in foreign language learning. The analysis of the data also showed that the pupils' performance was related to the social category to which they belong. For this purpose, the pupils were classified in groups on the basis of their parents' education which usually corresponds to their level of occupation. Overall, the pupils from the third category, i.e. those whose parents hold a higher education degree performed better than the others. However, in this case too, a few unexpected patterns occurred in the results of the pronunciation tests, especially concerning the realizations of English /θ/ and /δ/ which exhibited a great deal of variation, due to the replacement of these interdental sounds by their corresponding dental plosives /t/ and /d/ An explanation in terms of the inherent difficulty of English interdentals is possible, especially since these sounds have been reported to cause difficulty to learners of different linguistic backgrounds, such as French, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, etc... But in the case of Algerian learners, this substitution reflects a direct transfer from the native language, i.e. the Arabic pattern of socio-linguistic variation has been transferred into the foreign language (English). In fact /θ/ and δ/ operate as socio-linguistic markers in many Arabic speaking countries. Cohen (1970) reports that among other phonological features, Tunisian Muslims can be identified by their use of interdentals /θ/ and /δ/ as well as dental plosives /t/ and /d/, while Tunisian Jews have neutralised this opposition and use dental plosives only. Similarly, in Egypt, (Schmidt, 1977) the interdentals are replaced by sibilant sounds rather than plosives to indicate social class and educational background. The sibilants characterized illiterate and working class men and interdentals were typical of University students. In Algeria, these sounds characterize the regional origin. The pupils' performance for the pronunciation of the English interdentals indicated a definite relationship with their origin, with the pupils from urban origin producing fewer interdentals than those from rural origin. The finding of this investigation points to the fact that clear-cut conclusions could not be drawn in such a complex situation: the results stressed the necessity of considering the variables both separately and in relation to one another for a more adequate analysis of the pupils' performance. But the research indicated that additional factors must be considered in the analysis of learners' strategies in foreign language learning: The analysis provided some evidence that a number of features of the learners’ performance in the target language may be

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attributed to a transfer of socio-linguistic patterns which are characteristic of the learners’ behaviour in their first or second language. Although this study, presented here, was carried out on secondary school pupils, it seems to me that the results could be valuable to all teachers of English, whether secondary school or university teachers, who are interested in the assessment of students' performance or error analysis and other related subjects. * Editor’s note : The title for this paper has been slightly modified in order to reflect its main focus (viz. the learning of the English phonological system; see paragraph 4). Its original title was simply: "Sociological factors in the learning of English". REFERENCE Cohen, D. (1970). Etudes de linguistique sémitiques et arabes. The Hague : Mouton. Morsly, D. (1983). " Diversité phonologique du parlé français en Algérie : réalisation du /r/ ". In Langue française 60: pp. 65-77. Schmidt, R. (1977). “Socio-linguistic variation and language transfer phonology". In Working Papers in Bilingualism 12: pp. 79-95.

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189

PART 3 EVALUATION: APPROACHES

TO THE TEACHING OF SKILLS SUBJECTS

SECTION 3

THE TEACHING OF LITERATURE

190

TEACHING ENGLISH LITERATURE IN AN E.F.L. SITUATION: SAMPLE

LESSON FOR FIRST YEAR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

H. BENSAOU

University of Algiers, Algeria By way of contribution to the general debate on the teaching of English at University Level, I would like to share with you a few reflections on the teaching of English Literature to First Year students. In view of the fairly low linguistic competence of students entering the University, who are expected to embark on a literature course, this paper aims to make a few methodological remarks and suggestions 'on how to approach a literary text in order to develop in the learner an attitude to language use and, by extension, to a "literary" text-and to literature. Before I consider the lesson plan, I would like first to make a few recommendations which are, in my view, essential for a successful teaching of a literary text at this level. English literature classes for First Year students, in order for them to be effective as well as enjoyable should use: - a short4ength text, not more than 2 pages. - preferably self-contained - written in fairly straightforward, simple syntactical structures. - written in authentic English, that is, unaltered through simplification or otherwise, because simplification has its disadvantages. In Honey field’s view (1977, pp. 434-5): "Simplification tends to produce a homogenized product in which the information becomes diluted. The additional words in the text tend to spread the information out, rather than to localize the information. Furthermore, the simplification of syntax may reduce cohesion and readability. Since proficient readers rely heavily on localized information and cohesive devices, detecting these elements will contribute little to the development of reading skills'. It is also important to add at this point that the teacher is well advised to avoid lecturing and opt, conditions permitting, for a tutorial or a seminar mode of teaching. Besides, the text should be an excerpt from works by such modem or contemporary writers as D.H. Lawrence, George Orwell, Somerset Maugham, Tolkien etc. In drama, texts could be extracts from pl- ays by dramatists such as John Osborne, George Bernard Shaw, or Oscar Wild. In poetry, it impossible to use the sonnets of W.B. Yeats, or the poems of Lawrence or even Blake and Wordsworth. This list is by no means exhaustive; it only suggests the kind of texts both students and teacher need at this level. The teacher might, therefore, want to choose passages from the three main genres: self-contained extracts from a novel or a short story, a scene or a part of a scene, soliloquies or dialogues from plays, or simple short poems. Moreover, when it comes to selecting a text, a rule to be fol lowed is that a text, whatever its genre, should be exploitable (Nuttall, 1982, p.

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30) more explicitly: A text should firstly enable both the teacher and the students to ask interesting questions about the language and style of the text as much as about its content Secondly, it should develop and challenge the students' intelligence as well as their linguistic competence as learner-readers. The text should not make unreasonable demands on the learner's knowledge of English. This, however, does not mean that it should be restricted to simple, unsophisticated English. Thirdly, the text should not be culturally inaccessible but should remain a means to understanding the way other people feel or think - people with different backgrounds, problems and attitudes of their own. This humanistic aspect of literature is to my mind essential. If literature fails to achieve this essential goal; that is, to yield a universal heritage, a common humanity between individuals and people while also stressing differences, it becomes a useless "de-imitating" activity. Fourthly, a text should stimulate the students' interest. Experience has taught us that it is much more difficult to do a good job with an uninteresting text. The student - teacher interaction is livelier and more rewarding if the text they study appeals to the learners as well as to their teacher. For this purpose, I would suggest using thrillers, and polemical texts, bearing in mind that shorter texts usually lend themselves better to intensive study. Lastly, teachers should help the students (i) to develop their own skills, (ii) to make them aware of what they do and (iii) to motivate them. The purpose should be to provide students with the necessary techniques for approaching texts of various types to be read for various purposes, in order to develop their reading skills as much as their ability to understand and eventually analyse and appreciate the "literariness" of a text. So much for these general recommendations concerning the criteria for text selection and the goals to be achieved. What of text study itself? It is true that the study of a text docs not begin and end in class. It maybe divided into two Important stages. The first involving activities prior to coming to class; and the second stage would be the actual intensive study of the text in class. This study may continue after the regular formal sessions through home assignments. - Prior to coming to class: the teacher would make sure that the text to be studied has been read at home and some succinct, guided preliminary research (teacher guided in the early stages) has been carried out by students, involving useful background information likely to inform their study of the text and enhance their overall appreciation of it. This research, could focus on the author's life, his or her works, time and concerns; in more general terms about the political, socio-economic, cultural and philosophical context within which this author has written the text. If, for instance, a passage from a novel by Dickens is being studied, then some research on the so called Victorian period is needed, with special attention to be paid to the Factory System, the Poor Housing and the general philosophy of Utilitarianism. If a Lawrence text is under study, the students' research would focus on late Victorianism or the Modem Period and the First World War, and what this war has brought about in terms of social and cultural changes. For writers like Orwell and Osborne, 2Oth century attitudes towards Nationalism and the Cold War arc more relevant. These, again, are only examples of what might be done in text study. The teacher might orient the students towards specific research tasks.

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So much for the background research and the other activities that ought to be carried out prior to coming to class. In class, the teaching session may be structured in 5 essential phases: a) “Warming Up" or “Brain Storming" Activity. b) Text Comprehension: itself divided into several stages. c) Productive Skills. d) From Comprehension to Analysis and Interpretation. e) Productive Tasks A. Let us begin with the "Warming Up" activity. If, let's say, a text happens to be an extract from a novel by D.H. Lawrence, it is suggested that the teacher simply write down on the board the title of that novel, or the name of D.H. Lawrence or, perhaps more provocatively, some such title as "Lady Chatterley's Lover". This should, hopefully, trigger off reactions or questions about D.H. Lawrence's birth and death, his other works, his style and possibly his concerns and his attitudes towards traditional late Victorian moral values. This is only an example of how a warm up activity could be carried out. This could be applied to texts by other authors from other periods. This attempt is, to my mind, crucial to the communicative approach to literature teaching. If properly made, it seldom fails to fulfil its objectives; that is, it generates responses about the text studied or its author. Such an activity helps involve everyone in the class B. Text Comprehension This part of the lesson can itself comprise the following activities or exercises. 1- Silent Reading of the text for skimming purposes performed in class for the first 5 or 10 minutes of the session and the goals of which are: (i) To identify the main ideas of the text. The focus here is on global comprehension. (ii) To number parts of the text. The focus here is on text structure. (iii) To capture the atmosphere of the passage 2- Reading Aloud activity carried out by the teacher and by a few students in alternate turns, time permitting. This activity serves additional purposes. (i) It allows pronunciation correction. (ii) encourages good "chunking" of the text and, by the same token, offers the teacher a good opportunity to check students' reading speed, pitch and emotions, which convey the reader’s interpretation of the text. (iii) helps capture tone of the passage (iv) involves everyone in the story This type of reading is particularly effective in drama when conducted in the form of exchange of parts to be read or performed. It is then easier to check the students' reading speed, pitch and emotions. In the poetry class; reading short poems aloud can serve the same purposes. 3- Intensive Reading or "scanning" ( i.e. reading for details), its purpose being: (i) to elicit from students questions and answers related to the actual comprehension of the

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text: the 'What" type of questions. (ii) to sharpen the students' sense of the language used in the text through problems of vocabulary usage (e.g. synonyms vs antonyms). The emphasis here is on the “denotative” aspects of the diction used. (iii) It also helps students develop their "word-attack skills" or how to -tackle unfamiliar lexical items by using morphology of words, inference from context, or by using a dictionary (Nuttall, 1982, pp. 31-2). It now seems to me of vital -importance, once the different stages of reading have been completed, to set up the following tasks (Cf. section C, D, E). C. Productive Tasks such as: - To give a title (or a different title) to the passage. - To summarize the story (vocabulary extension exercise). - To make prediction of what is likely to happen next. - To imagine another ending to the story. D. From Comprehension to Analysis and Interpretation This task involves how to help the students develop their "text-attack skills” using all clues available in a text - including cohesion and rhetorical structure (Nuttall, 1982, chapters 7 and 8). The Comprehension phase of the session is meant to focus the learner's attention on particular cognitive skills which would anticipate both the form and the content of the text (Abbot, 1981, p. 89). Its purpose is to elicit from students questions on the 'Hows' and 'Whys' embedded in a text. In other words, it shifts the focus from language usage to language use; it marks the passage from text to discourse, from the functional to the aesthetic aspect of language, dwelling more markedly on the "connotative" dimension of language in a text. In "Interpretation" the students are meant to do the following: - infer from the passage (i.e. read between lines); - infer from the passage the context in which it was written; - draw conclusions; - recognize the writer's purpose and attitude; - recognize the relationship between the main ideas and their expansion (Abbot, 1981, p. 89); - follow the different stages of an argument, i.e. "rank" statements according to formal

dramatization within the passage; - focus the learner's attention on particular cognitive skills related to form and content,

structure and ideas (Abbot, 1981, p. 89); - appreciate the rhetorical technical and stylistic effects (i.e. the text “literariness") - their use, effect and purpose. - assess input of stylistic specific terminology, and figurative speech, etc.. At this stage, it is to be noted, the teacher should know what his objectives and priorities are and gear students towards recognizing particular cognitive skills and get them to show their competence in applying one or various skills. This brings us to the last phase of the session, which is concerned with another set of productive skills. E. Productive Skills They could focus on the following aspects of the text:

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- language and style - its historical and socio-cultural context - its "literariness" At this stage, it is worth mentioning that it is better to allow the text to suggest what activities and exercises are most appropriate for it. In other words, we should not "impose an exercise on a text" (Grellet, 1981, p. 10). Besides, "there must be variety in the range of exercises. This is an important factor in motivation" and "that a balance should be struck between leaving the students without any help on the one hand and on the other hand "squeezing the text dry" (Grellet, 1981, p. 10). In general terms, productive skills would consist in: - Rewriting the passage (or a dialogue) from a different point of view. - Commenting on the type of analog, metaphor, allegory or parable used, and what effects they are meant to produce on the readers. - Using all clues contained in the passage (stylistic, technical, etc) - Writing an essay of the skill and craft of the author. - Selecting information from a passage to support a particular point of view. - Extracting from the passage the most important information for a particular purpose. - Extending and complementing information given in a passage by personal research. (For

other more complex activities, see Teacher's Guide to Rea ding and Thinking in English Book 4).

It is the teacher's responsibility to grade the activities in order of increasing difficulty. Essay writing, for instance, if ever set as an exercise, should come last on the list because of the many demands it makes on the learner. What has just preceded is a somewhat schema tic view of an English literature class for 1st year students. What must be borne in mind is that quite often parts B and D (namely, Comprehension and Interpretation) often overlap and interlace as I have already implied. What also needs to be said is that the overall approach, if it is to be thorough and in order to bring out to attention and appreciation ail aspects of the text, should be an eclectic, integrated approach combining, with varying degrees of emphasis, the three following approaches depending on the nature of the text studied, the immediate needs of the students, and the teacher's objectives. 1- The Language-Based Approach which focuses attention essentially on language usage and use in the text. This approach attends carefully to the words on the page but there is some danger, if we stop there and leave out much of the "ideology" embedded in the text, the positioning of the writer, etc... 2- The Information-Based Approach which focuses on the writer, his life and environment. This approach has the advantage of relating text to context. According to the proponents of the Language-Based Approach, it is a conventional, but very valuable and necessary approach to literature study.

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3-The Personal Response-Based Approach which draws attention on the reader's own response (intellectual as well as emotional) to the text. It gives the reader a free rein (within limits imposed from text) to his interpretation. In poetry, I believe, this intuitive and impressionistic appreciation can find its way more easily into intellectual and emotional experience. The three approaches combined are a way to bridge the gap between the so-called "Aesthetic" and "Sociological" approaches to text and paves the way for "literary competence", which is the literature teacher's ultimate goal. It should be stressed, however, that for the specific needs of First Year Students the Language-Based Approach with its emphasis on language structures and language use would be in many cases the most valuable approach. REFERENCES Abbott , G. and Wingard, P. (eds.) The Teaching of English as an International language. Collins; 1981 Brumfit, CJ. and Carter, R.A.- (eds.) Literature and Language Teaching. Oxford: O.U.P.; 1986 Brumfit, Cj. (ed.) Teaching Literature Overseas: Language Based Approaches (E.LT. Docu-ments 114) Oxford: Pergamon; 1983 Carter, R.A. (ed.) Language and Literature: An Introductory Reader in Stylistics. London: George Allen and Unwin; 1982 Grellet, F. Developing Reading Skills : A Practical Guide to Reading Comprehension. Cam-bridge: C.U.P. ;1981 Honeyfield, J. "Simplification" TESOL Quarterly 11/4,1977 Mc Kay, S. Literature in the E.S.L. Classroom in Brumfit and Carter Literature and Lan-guage Teaching : Oxford. O.U.P. ; 1986 Nuttall, C. Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. London: Heinemann Educational Books ;1982 Widdowson, H. (ed.) Teacher's Guide to Reading and Thinking in English Books Z4. Oxford: O.U.P. 1979.

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PART 4

EVALUATION: TEACHER-TRAINING

AND TEACHER SUPERVISION

SECTION 1

GENERAL ISSUES

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PROFESSIONAL CHANGE, TEACHER TRAINING AND SELF-ESTEEM

Donard BRITTEN

Textbook Commission, Rabat, Morocco.

INTRODUCTION This paper first surveys some of the ways in which the teaching profession requires adaptability of its members. Readers are asked to consider the changes they have had to make in their own professional lives. Defenders of holistic teacher training-argue that the theoretical components of teacher "education" (unlike the practical components of mere "training") make for greater adapt ability later. But resistance to change is natural in teachers with a personal investment in their work, regardless the type of initial professional preparation they have undergone. Personal investment is an important source of self-esteem, and high self-esteem is characteristic of good teachers. Different levels of self-esteem can be distinguished and it is suggested that teachers who adapt most successfully to change are those with adequate levels of professional self-esteem but whose global self- esteem derives not only from the professional domain, but from other sources as well. There seems no reason to suppose that this depends on a holistic (theoretical) approach in initial training. HOW ADAPTABLE DO TEACHERS NEED TO BE? During a teacher's professional life, there are numerous factors that are continually changing, both in the system itself and in the individual teacher's professional circumstances. First, there can be changes in the place of the teacher's subject in the curriculum - where and when it is to be taught: the streams (sections) in which it is taught, the years during which they study it, and the timetable hours allotted to it. Then there are periodic changes in the syllabus - what is to be taught in the subject; in the methodology and official guidelines - the way it is to be taught; and in the textbooks and other materials - the tools for teaching it. Administrative requirements change (marks, school reports), as does the examining system and the type of exams set. Moreover, in a changing society the students change - their backgrounds, their attitudes, their behaviour. The school system changes continually, which affects the teacher's working conditions, the size of classes and so on. Finally, the individual teacher is likely to experience several job changes in the course of a typical career -moves to a different school, and perhaps type of school, and perhaps town; changes of inspector, of head teacher, of colleagues. Ail in ah, a teacher's life, in our day, is far from stable. HOW MUCH HAS THE ELT SCENE CHANGED SINCE YOU WERE AT SCHOOL? Some of the most powerful and enduring models of teaching that we carry with us throughout our careers are those of the teachers that we had when we ourselves were pupils, particularly if they were people we looked up to, as may often have been the case with teachers of the subject that we ended up teaching ourselves. (We often become most interested in the subject in which we have been most marked by our respect or admiration for a teacher). Many

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teachers are influenced by childhood models of this sort - ghosts from our schooldays which may (of ten unacknowledged) manipulate our classroom behaviour today. But the ELT of our schooldays was a far cry from today's. so the first change that many teachers have to make professionally is o break with the past, to make an effort not to reproduce inherited and out-of-date teaching models. HOW FAR HAVE YOU COME SINCE YOU FIRST TRAINED AS A TEACHER? If you trained as an English teacher in Morocco, say, six or more years ago, here are some of the changes in ELT at secondary level that you have probably had to take on board: - the charge from an audiolingual to a communicative approach - the replacement of a purely structural description of the language system to a mixed

structural and functional description - new textbooks in all classes - a new examination system and many new test types - a new skills balance, with much more importance given to reading - a new approach to speaking, with a distinction between fluency- oriented and accuracy-

oriented oral activities - new approaches to the other main skills (new comprehension tasks in reading and

listening; listening for acquisition; functional writing tasks) - new forms of grammar practice and vocabulary work. Well, now that we have got over these annoying changes, can ELT practitioners in Morocco look forward to a nice long period of stability, a time of post-revolutionary calm? Rave we learned a bit of peace? Surely it would be naive to hope so. Already process-writing [and small-group work are on the way, and changes in the testing scene can be expected soon. No, we have to reconcile ourselves to frequent changes in the future too, and our ability to cope with them is bound to be an important part of our professional competence. That is why we must now ask how good we are at coping with change. DID YOUR INITIAL TRAINING PREPARE YOU FOR INNOVATION, AND IF SO, HOW? Were you trained to use a single "method"? (Gattegno, the inventor of the Silent Way, said that a method was "a collection of techniques that have become fossilised".) How much theory did you get and how much practice? And how well did theory relate to practice? What did you and your fellow trainees think of the balance between theory and practice in your training, and what did you complain about most? The relationship between theory and practice is the most contentious issue in teacher training. The holistic view is that teacher education provides, not mere skills, but the theoretical basis for them: a "basis for the development of skills, but these skills can only be developed by teachers while they are actually teaching. It (should also] promote attitudes to students and colleagues, and to the process of thinking about teaching, which will enable continuous professional development to take place" (Brumfit, 1979:3). Holists say teachers should be educated for the exercise of a profession, not trained for a craft According to White head (1933:72f) a craft is "based on customary activities and modified by trial and error in individual practice"; whereas in a profession, "activities are subject to theoretical analysis, and are modified by theoretical conclusions derived from that analysis." Training (as for a

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craft) is said to provide a set of recipes - "a packaged, fixed set of procedures which are to be applied in any given case," whereas education (for a profession) gives us "a set of principles which can be used discriminatingly in a variety of cases" (White, 1979:26). The claim is that if you understand what you are doing - the where, when, how and why of it-you are better able to be creative, to be adaptable, and to evaluate your work (Cage & Berliner, 1975:21). Does YOUR experience confirm this explanation of the role of theory in teacher training? Have YOU been helped to develop as a teacher and to adapt to changes by your knowledge of, say, educational theory, child development, the psychology of learning, language analysis, socio-linguistics or psycholinguistics? Do you agree with Brumfit (1979.2) that it for practical problems are ever solved without recourse to principles of some kind"? "If they are unstated,' Brumfit goes on, "the risk is that they will be unexamined. In the end, teacher training must be about the principles of teaching rather than what to do in particular circumstances, for no two sets of circumstances are the same and there are few rules for ail occasions." The argument in short is, in Kurt Lewin's famous paradox, that "there is nothing so practical as a good theory". DID YOUR INITIAL TRAINING GIVE YOU THE NECESSARY PRATICAL SKILLS? Opponents of holistic teacher training criticise it for not having precise enough objectives, for not stating its objectives explicitly, for being correspondingly hard to assess, and for being too vague and theoretical .In Competency-Based Teacher Education (CBTE) the content of training is mainly-but not exclusively - practical, ail objectives are stated explicitly1 an½d these objectives are very precise so that their attainment is easy to assess. This does not mean, they say, that CBTE is mere "craft training". On the contrary, the full statement of practical teaching behaviours in the training objectives makes it easier to relate the theoretical components to them. The true "craft training" is the sort of teaching practice associated with a holistic approach - the unreflective, unanalysed imitation of an experienced class teacher. (This type of practical training has been dubbed "sitting with Nellie". Nellie is the most experienced worker in an imaginary factory; new recruits sit beside her and watch her working her machine until they are ready to have a go them selves: they analyse nothing, but simply copy the model.). But CBTE, the holists say, teaches trainees mere "1aundry lists" of low-level -even trivial - skills. It focuses too much on things that are easy to state objectively and 10 observe for purposes of assessment, and so it neglects the theoretical inputs that should give meaning to these behavioural elements. Well, was YOUR initial training more holistic or competency-based? And have the theoretical elements in it helped YOU to adapt to change? Do you think that it is enough to understand a proposed innovation in order to be willing to adopt it? Or is there not, rather, a natural tendency to feel some resistance to change? It is to this resistance to change that we now turn. WHY DO WE OFTEN RESENT AND RESIST CHANGE? Most of us put a lot of ourselves into our work. Some measure of successful professional practice is what makes one a teacher. Our skills, our competence in our work, the recognition

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we receive for it these are important for our self-respect In other words, w have a personal investment in our work. A demand for change implies criticism of past practice, or a need to improve on it. (It is different, of course, if the criticism comes from ourselves.) When people criticise the results obtained with a given textbook and argue for changing it, our reflex is to say, "What's wrong with the way I use this book? It seems all right tome, so why should I change?" As long as we have a commitment to our work, a personal investment in what we do, demands for us to change can only be perceived as aggressions against us. Mario Rinvolucri in a brilliant article (1981:52) invokes the "nightmare" of a teacher with so little commitment to his work that he is ready, with no anger, no resentment, no difficulty, to accept any change that is prescribed, and to implement it at once. This pliable, unprincipled individual - this plastic man -would be the pedagogical equivalent of the uncritical party-hack who, in a totalitarian one-party state, follows the party4ine unquestioningly, wherever it may lead. But if we are not of this type, what is the connection between our personal investment in teaching and our self-respect in general? SELF-ESTEEM 1. Positive feelings about yourself. Investment in your professional life is an important source - among other sources - of self-esteem. By this we do not mean conceit, big-headedness; that is an excess of self-esteem, an unrealistically high level of self-esteem. Nor is self-esteem reserved for those regarded by the world as great successes. It is rather, as the psychologist William James put it, the measure of one's success divided by the measure of one's pretensions. The person whose attributes and achievements are modest can still have a satisfactory level of self-esteem (etre bien dans sa peau) if his ambitions are modest; while someone who hopes for too much may be permanently disappointed and dissatisfied with himself. Studies have shown that high self-esteem (attitudes favourable to yourself) often goes with: - low ego-defensiveness (you are not too susceptible to criticism) - positive attitudes towards others (Burns, 1979:225ff) - field independence (Burns, 1979:257f) - and among teachers, effective teaching (evidence summarised in Wragg, 1982:26). Field-independent teachers tend to sec the class environment as being more under their control, and less under the control of dark, unmanageable external forces (Burns, 1979:257f). And Trowbridge (1973:140) reports that teachers with high self-esteem tend to: - provide more opportunities for students to talk - talk less themselves - spend less time on routine mechanical activities - encourage alternative answers and discussion - encourage students to make judgements. Teachers with low self-esteem, on the other hand, tend to: - stick to known and safe techniques - minimise personal involvement with students - prefer traditional methods with clearly defined teacher role, status

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- show rigid and task-oriented behaviour (Burns, 1979:3)5). Clearly someone with high self-esteem has many advantages as a teacher. But can anyone, realistically, have an invariably high opinion of himself? 2. Three levels of self-esteem It is customary to distinguish three levels of self-esteem (Brown, 1981:1 14f). At the highest level, one's global self-esteem is a measure of how favourably one perceives oneself in general, of how positive one's attitudes to oneself are. At the next level comes domain-specific self-esteem - the specific self-esteem that we feel as regards such domains as our social life, family life, religion, health or work; our capacity for study or for sport; our other interests, sense of humour, physical strength, intelligence, skill in language, other skills, artistic talent, strength of character or physical beauty. of course, one can have high specific self-esteem in some domains and low specific self-esteem in others. At the third and lowest level at which self-esteem is analysed, we have task self-esteem. Thus for a language teacher, and in the specific domain of work, there can be different levels of task self-esteem as regards such things as mastery of the foreign language, cultural knowledge, linguistic knowledge, class management, particular teaching skills, relations with students, understanding students' problems and so on. In normal adults, global self-esteem is relatively constant; but it can change with changes in specific self-esteem in one or more domains. Thus a higher level of self-esteem in the work domain, for example, will lead to increased global self-esteem. (Which will, in turn, lead to better performance. Nothing succeeds like success, as the saying goes.) Likewise, improved self-esteem in a number of precise tasks in the same domain will raise one's specific self-esteem in that domain. In this sense, improving one's professional skills can lead to real with: from m-service training to teacher development. Ask yourself now: Do you have high global self-esteem? Are you a secure person? In the domain of work, do you have high specific self-esteem? Are you confident professionally? And within the ELT domain, in what precise tasks do you have high task self-esteem? In what other tasks could you raise your self-esteem by improving your skill? Can we now relate these variables to your adaptability as a teacher? Self-esteem and capacity for change have seen that professional changes (especially innovations imposed on us consultation) may appear to devalue our personal investment in our work. This is a threat to our specific self-es teem in the domain of work. The teacher whose global self-esteem is drawn principally from the work domain, from teaching, is therefore likely to feel more threatened by professional change and is more likely to react defensively (to show ego-defensiveness). But if your self-esteem is more broadly based, if you are a secure person with other interests and other sources of satisfaction, if you have not put ail your eggs in one basket, then you will probably find it easier to adapt to innovation. None of this seems to depend on the type of initial training we experienced, whether holistic (and largely theoretical) or competency-based (and largely practical). Clearly the more

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effective the initial training and the greater the new teacher's starting competence, the higher his self-esteem will be at the outset. This is very desirable; but it is no guarantee of continued success and high self-esteem, say, five years into the profession. Is there then no more to be said about the connection between the type of initial training and the teacher's later adaptability? CONCLUSION :Theoretical training and the response to change up to now we have been talking about attitudes to change in general - about openness to change rather than about the acceptance of one specific change that maybe proposed. We might call this the ability to be objective about change and not to reject it out of hand. But, given this objectivity, our attitude to any particular innovation must depend, first and foremost, on our evaluation of what is proposed and a comparison of the old and the new. Now here it is quite possible that the teacher's theoretical baggage may be useful Understanding and evaluating a proposed change will certainly be easier for teachers with a knowledge of the relevant background disciplines in education, learning theory and applied linguistics - and of course an ability to relate that knowledge to the practicalities of teaching and learning. Teachers whose initial training was holistic are certainly likely to have more theoretical baggage than those whose training was competency-based; but there is no obvious reason to suppose that either group will necessarily have a better grasp of the relationship of theory to practice. We must then, it seems to me, leave open the question of which type of initial training better prepares us intellectually to evaluate a proposed innovation. Our ability to do se objectively and, in the case of a favourable assessment, to adopt the innovation willingly; is a matter of openness to change, and that seems to depend not on the type of training undergone, but on the level of each individual's self-esteem and the extent to which it is drawn from a range of domains other than teaching itself. REFERENCES Brown, H.D. (1981) “Affective factors in second language learning'. In Alatis, J.E. etc. (cd s), The Second Language Classroom. NY: OUP. Bruin fit, C.J. (1979) 'Integrating theory and practice". In Holden (1979) Burns, R.B. (1979) The Self concept: Theory, Measurement, Development and Behaviour. London: Longman. Gage, N.L. & D£. Berliner (1975) educational Psychology. Chicago: Rand Mc Na1l. Holden, S. (1979), Teacher Training. London MEP. Rinvolucri, M. (1981) "Resistance to change on in service teaching training courses Recherches et Echanges, 6/1. Trowbridge, N. (1973)"Teacher self concept and teaching style. In Chanan, G (ed}, Towards a Science of Teaching. Slough: NFER. White, R.V. (1979) "Training teachers to teach writing". In Holden ( 1979). White head, A.N. (1935) "Adventures in Idea s.'. British edition. Cambridge CUP.. Wragg, E.C. (1982) A Review of Research in Teacher Education. Windsor: NFER/Nelson.

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203

PART 4

EVALUATION: TFACHER-TRAINING AND TEACHER SUPERVISION

SECTION 2

THE PLUSES AND MINUSES

IN SUPERVISORY PRACTICES

204

HOW CAN SUPERVISORS FOSTER AND CONTRIBUTE TO TEACHER TRAINING AND TEACHER DEVELOPMENT? A HUMANISTIC VIEW

H. BOUHOUT & M. SAKAKI

Inspectorate of English, Oujda, Morocco.

In this paper, we shed some light on certain controversial issues pertaining to supervision. The focus will be mainly on classroom observation as it is one of the most common tools used in this field. The paper falls into two parts. The first starts with a theoretical background during which the different purposes for classroom observation will be highlighted. The second part will deal with the current state of supervision in Morocco. Special emphasis will be laid on some weaknesses in our supervisory practices, followed by some suggestions inspired by the humanistic approach which, we think, might hopefully help remedy the situation and orient our supervision towards more effective teacher development Let us first consider why teachers are observed in classrooms. Generally speaking, classroom observation is conducted for five purposes which run as follows: for teacher training, for teacher development, for teacher assessment, for observer development and finally for research. These purposes are not, as some people might think, discrete categories, but they rather tend to overlap. For the purpose of our paper, however, we are going to confine ourselves to the first three categories only, i.e. teacher training, teacher development and teacher assessment. A clarification of terminology is in order here. What is meant by teacher training? What does teacher development entail? What distinctions are there between these two components of teacher education? What does teacher assessment imply? 1. TEACHER TRAINING Teachers are observed for training purposes. Training is an educating strategy which aims at answering the question of “what to teach", i.e. the specification of the content of language teaching. It is also geared towards answering the question of how to teach”, i.e. the skills, techniques, procedures, etc., in short, the methodology. It is worth bringing to the surface here the philosophy underlying this kind of supervision. Training proceeds with the assumption that teaching is a finite skill which, once mastered, is believed to lead to effective results. To what extent is this true? There is no doubt that training has also a role to play in teacher education, but it is not enough by itself. In fact, it has some shortcomings. Principal among these are the static view that training has of the nature of teacher education and the atomistic and fragmented perceptions it takes of teaching as opposed to the dynamic and holistic nature of professional development Another shortcoming is that training courses may result in some habits which Maingay (1988) calls "ritual teaching behaviour", i.e. teaching which, to use Maingay's terms, "is unthinking, ... divorced from the principles... behind it. It is teaching behaviour that has set into patterns", conducted mechanically in the same way as a student manipulates a structure in the audiolingual drills or recites multiplication tables. The role of the observer in training is that of a knower, a giver, a source of knowledge, whose task is to "pour" information into a recipient, i.e. the trainee.

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Yet another shortcoming is that training tends to represent an end in itself, and it is not surprising therefore, to hear a trainee saying at the end of a training course: "now that I'm qualified, my professional education is over." And here lies the biggest danger. If we were to advise that trainee, we would rather tell him/her that what s/he has learned are merely some basics and ABCs of language teaching, and that now s/he is qualified: "the door is open to a new and exciting period of personal and professional growth." (Bolitho). This brings us to the second purpose for classroom observation, which is teacher development. 2. TEACHER DEVELOPMENT Like training, teacher development is also an educating strategy which aims at achieving change in teacher behaviour. However, they differ in the type of change they seek to bring about. While training is concerned with quantitative change, solely related to knowledge and skills, teacher development emphasizes qualitative change that has to do with attitude and awareness (Freeman, 1989). And if training adopts an atomistic approach to teaching, development is holistic in its outlook in that it takes into account ail the variables of the teaching/learning processes. As the tools employed are concerned, teacher development strives to change via awareness-raising or attention shifting. This aspect of the s job is crucial. The role of the observer using development strategy is to “develop the teacher's own critical thinking ability" (Williams, 1989) by inviting him/her to reflect upon his/her performance and see the principles underlying his classroom decision making. Thus, the observer shifts responsibility to the teacher and leads him/her towards self-appraisal and self destruction. The belief underlying this development procedure is that the process of development cannot but be internal, coming from within, idiosyncratic and unique. Unlike training, teacher development is concerned with asking the individual the question "why you teach what you teach the way you teach it". Such a question has a strong impact in the sense that it makes the teacher gain a deep insight into teaching practices, and consequently become more aware of the principles governing them. It also helps him/her avoid fossilizing into some ritual behaviour. This assumes that teaching is not static but rather an on-going and evolving process of change and growth. It is a constant questioning of one's performance whose outcomes are not necessarily immediate, but may emerge over a long period of time. So far, we have been capitalizing on the importance of teacher development and the crucial role it plays in teacher education. This, however, does not imply that we are undermining the value of teacher training. In fact, the importance of the latter lies in the fact that it serves as a starting point for development, for it cannot start from a vacuum. Therefore, training and development are both part of a continuum which can be schematized as follows. ………………1

Teacher background

(training starting point. External manifestations measurables

Development (cannot be precisely located unpredictable internal-on-going-process

Open Ended infinite

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The question now is: 'Where does the teacher stand in this continuum?". This will lead us to the third purpose of this paper, which is teacher evaluation. 3. TEACHER EVALUATION Assessment is problematic for supervisors in much the same way as the evaluation of students’ performance is for teachers. Let’s first raise the issue of why we assess teachers. Scriven (1967) distinguishes between formative and summative evaluation in curriculum assessment This distinction is useful and can also be applied to teacher evaluation. The supervisor starts by diagnosing or detecting first the weaknesses in a given teaching practice with the objective of finding ways of improving them The feedback obtained from diagnostic assessment will serve as data to work on for the purpose of improving the overall effectiveness of the teaching/learning process. And here comes the shift to formative evaluation which can be utilized either for training purposes or developmental ones depending on teacher variables such as background knowledge, professional preparation and experience, personality traits, etc., However, where teachers are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills, formative assessment should move in the direction of development and growth which can be achieved through focusing on raising teachers’ awareness. As Gattegno (1976) states, this “awareness is need to bring back what is known, work on it again to change it, make it more conscious, more precise, more useful, and connect it with other knowledge.” The role assigned to the observer within the development framework is that of cooperator, facilitator, understander, whose task consists of raising issues and questions for which solutions are generated by the teacher himself or herself. In this respect, Lortie (1975) asserts that teachers are largely self-made; the internalization of common knowledge plays only a limited part in their movement to work responsibly. Thus, the ultimate goal of “development evaluation” is to produce self-reliant teachers who develop their personal theory through self-evaluation and self discovery. (Stern, 1983). Summative assessment, on the other hand, is not pursued with the purpose of development Its objective is merely to see how the teacher measures up to a fixed standard and assign a grade. In other words, it is norm-referenced and presupposes that there is such a thing as “good” and "bad" teaching practices. 4.DESCRIPTION OF THE CURRENT SITUATION OF SUPERVISION IN MOROCCO So far, we have dealt with the theoretical background to supervision. We have pinpointed the different purposes for observing teachers. We have also defined the three concepts related to teacher observation and highlighted the distinction between them. Now, the question which araises is: where does supervision in Morocco stand? In other words, what objectives are being served by observation the Moroccan setting? How is supervision approached in our context? You don't need an expert to tell you what supervision in Morocco is like. It is quite obvious that it is traditionally-based and oriented to teacher-evaluation in rather summative fashion with little or no consideration for the teacher as a human being. To illustrate this, we invite you to follow with us an inspector into a classroom;

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It is 8.10 a.m. The teacher has just started the lesson when the inspector bursts m. After a quick exchange of greetings, the inspector picks Up the "cahier de texts” and collects some of the students' copybooks before he takes a seat at the back of the room. Panic-stricken and ill-at ease but with a simulated smile and calmness, the teacher orders his class to carry on with the les son while the inspector is busy jotting down notes on a blank sheet of paper. Once the lesson is over, the feedback session begins. In a very tense atmosphere, a stream of comments, focusing mainly on the negative points and on what should have been done, pours on the submissive teacher whose thoughts are elsewhere. If ever the teacher is fortunate enough to be allowed to respond to the inspector's criticism, he gets on the defensive, and sometimes goes so far as to blame things on last year's inspector, if not the inspector in front of him himself. The teacher and inspector would be better off if the post-observation session did not turn into a quarrel. The conclusions we may draw from this supervisory situation can be summed up m the following points: - We have here a case of a drop-in visit. The teacher is taken by surprise. No pre-observation meeting has been arranged. - this type of observation is threatening, frightening and anxiety-generating. The affective filter is high. - The observed teacher is not himself. He is not natural and is, consequently, not -fully engaged. - The 'blank sheet" refers to one of the non-structured observation tools used by the inspector. In this situation, the observation is impressionistic and subjective. - The feedback here is immediate. The teacher is not allowed time to reflect on his own performance. - The feedback is also directive, prescriptive, one-sided; it embodies power relationship and lacks responsibility sharing. Its climate is tense. - The inspector is being judgmental and consequently, the teacher is on the defensive. - The teacher's blaming of other inspectors alludes to inconsistencies among inspectors. - Such feedback has negative humanistic consequences. It can lead to friction, lack of mutual trust, outright hostility and even self-animosity. 5. A HUMANISTIC VIEW How can we make up for the current situation and improve our supervisory practices? In other words, how can supervisors foster teacher development? By asking these questions, we do not claim to have ready-made solutions. Ail that we have to offer are some ideas we would like to submit to your judgement There are various supervising approaches advanced by specialists in the field of teacher education. 'n addition to the throe models proposed by Freeman (1982) (supervisory, alternative and non-directive approaches,) Gebhard (1984) suggests two other models labelled collaborative and creative. Ail these approaches can be combined in various ways resulting in a wide range of options from which supervisors can make well-informed choices that best fit the requirements of different situations. Although we are aware of the fact that “any particular way of looking at things is only one from many other possible ways" as De Bono (1970) states, we find ourselves more inclined to wards creative supervision for the following reasons:

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- It does not exclude the other approaches. It integrates them. - It allows more freedom for both teacher and inspector and enhances flexibility and creativity. (insights from other fields are welcome.) - It shifts supervision responsibilities from the supervisor to other sources (peer observation, associations...). - It encourages self-responsibility and gives the right to se1f-direction. - It also encourages the use of varied observation tools and instruments. - And most importantly, it helps teachers to take a better view of their own worth, to increase their self-esteem and to create themselves anew in every action and in every decision making (Brown, 1980). Pondering over ail these points, one will not fail to see the tacit philosophy underlying them which we can refer to as humanism. The goal of teacher education in the humanistic framework is the facilitation of change, growth and development. Rogers (1951: 61), one of the proponents of the humanistic approach distinguishes three prerequisites for facilitation to take place: empathy, and authenticity. By empathy, he means the willingness and understand others and feel what they feel. By acceptance, he means the unconditional accepting of people for what they are. By authenticity, he means genuineness, i.e., being one self, not wearing a in ask or playing a role. These qualities are necessary ingredients in the management of effective teacher education. Unfortunately, they are almost missing in our context. The reason for this state of affairs is that, although these qualities may be present within un as supervisors, the problem is that when it comes to practice, they do not materialize for several reasons: Firstly, there is this discrepancy between our espoused theory, i.e. what we pretend to be and what we actually are. Secondly, there is in all of us a certain need and desire to dominate, which, we confess, is hard to overcome. However, overcoming it is by no means unattainable. Thirdly, our educational value system seems to stand in the way of the implementation of the humanistic approach even when we are willing to. This underscores the big effort awaiting supervisors in order to be humanistic counsellors. The three qualities referred to above along with the constraints are all related to the concept of detachment. Detachment presupposes working cooperatively and creatively on equal footing. It also entails discarding masks of superiority and omniscience and the encouragement of people to explore new ideas and new horizons. The ultimate goal of the supervisor who embarks on detachment is to lead people to self-appraisal, se1f-evaluation, self-reliance, and self-development. 'n one word, it leads to a democratic relationship between supervisors and teachers. Detachment also implies pulling down the "Berlin Wall”, i.e. the barriers that stand between supervisors and teachers. The shift in teacher education should non-judgmental, cooperative, non-personal, non-critical and less threatening. We must, however, bear in mind that it is also possible for supervisors to make their presence less threatening and bring teachers into their confidence by increasing the number of visits. In fact, it would be unfair to label teachers as "good” or "bad” after just one or two visits. What supervisors see is just “one episode" (Stern, 1985). As Bowers(1987) states, episodes such as these “can only be indicative...”. Moreover, supervisors... will never know with certainty...how the sample, which (they) have seen may be of (the teacher’s') overall and preferences"(Bowers, 1987). Increasing the number of visits will also ensure more reliability in teacher assessment and more harmony between supervisors and teachers. In this way, supervisors will no longer be a source of tension and frustration and an incarnation of power, but rather a helper, a facilitator, a collaborator, a persona-grata whose assistance will be always solicited by teachers.

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REFERENCES Bolitho, R. (Undated) "Teacher development. A Personal perspective" IATEFL News-letters, Bowers,R. (1978) "Developing perceptions of the classroom observation and evaluation, training and counselling”, ELT Document, 125. Brown, D. (1980) "Principals of language learning and teaching". De Bono, E. (1970) Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step. New York: Harper and Row Publishers. Freeman, D. (1982) "Observing teachers: three approaches to in-service training and development". TESOL, Quarterly, 16/1.-(1989) 'Teachers training, development and decision making a model of teaching and related strategies for language teacher education". TESOL, Quarterly, 23/1. Gattegno, C. (1976) "on knowledge. Educational solutions" Newsletter, 5(5). Lotrie, D. (1975) School Teacher. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Maingay,P. (1988) "observation for training, development of assessment?", in Exportations in Teacher Training, Longman. Roger, C.(1951) Client Centered Therapy, Boston: Houghton Mifflin. (1961) on Becoming a Person, Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Scriven, M. (1967) "The methodology of evaluation", in Tyler, Cagné and Scriven. Stern, H. (1983) Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching. Oxford : OUP. Williams, M. (1989) "A development of classroom observation", ELT Journal, 43/2.

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EVALUATION OF TEACHER TRAINING

AND SUPERVISION PROGRAMMES

Zohra BOUHAMADOUCHE

Inspector of English - Algiers, Algeria. INTRODUCTION We cannot separate teacher training from supervision. Both training and supervision are closely interrelated; hence, it is virtually impossible to work in either field without being constantly concerned with the other. They constitute two complementary aspects in language teaching. Why ? Because supervision helps in a way defining and adjusting the content of training courses. So, evaluating teacher training should be carefully related to supervision, in general, and classroom observation, in particular. But has it always been the case? This paper will show us, through to American ideas, criticisms of traditional supervision/evaluation, the present way of teacher training/evaluation in some Algerian middle schools, and a suggested way of supervising/evaluating which is partially being experienced. I. CRITICISMS OF TRADITIONAL SUPERVISION/EVALUATION For many supervisors, observation for development and observation for evaluation seem to be the same thing. The most immediate response to a teacher's performance is usually, "How does this teacher compare to the others I’ve observed ?"eva1uation tends to be very unreliable. Different supervisors often have extremely different reactions to the same performance. Because they tend to use themselves as standards, evaluations seem to focus on what the supervisors see as their own strengths and preferences. In this respect, supervisors tend to focus on the negative aspect of the teacher's performance and seem to keep in mind “What's wrong with this teacher's performance ?” Taking the teacher's psychological aspect into consideration, such a supervision promotes a sense of helplessness on the part of teachers. Ail authority and decision- making remain with the supervisor. Whereas we encourage teachers to involve their students in their own learning (the teacher’s work must be active, effective, involved, organized and useful), evaluation assigns no responsibility to teachers. Hearing such a language, for example, while discussing a lesson Supervisor Teacher "You should’ve... I should’ve You shouldn't have... I shouldn’t have… Why didn't you...? I could’ve Where you went wrong was... I don’t know why You could’ve... Everything was okay until you... It wasn’t terrible but you...

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gives rise to a strong feeling of confession, recrimination and defence. It is backward looking; it is the churning over of past mistakes. How does a teacher feel when he/she hears statements like these ? It makes him/her feel rather uneasy Such statements, coming up again and again between observers and teachers, suggest that there is a right way and many ways of going wrong. It breeds uneasiness and in security in teachers. It makes them feel they have made bad mistakes in choosing certain techniques or dues. Besides the assumption that there is such a thing as "good teaching" and that the supervisor will always be able to distinguish effective from in effective teaching, evaluation tends to be impressionistic and to focus on more things than teachers can hope to improve at one time. Evaluation shouldn’t be a one- time event, teachers have little or no opportunity to demonstrate progress or a willingness to change. Let’s see how supervision is led at present in some Algerian middle schools. The middle school inspectors in Algeria have to play the role of advisers, trainers, administrators and inspectors. However, we must specify that the main task is to deal with the pedagogical aspect of the work. We specify as well that supervisors have to deal with two broad kinds of teachers and subsequently with two broad kinds of training courses, each one aiming at a well defined goal. II. THE TRAINEE TEACHERS 1.Training When leaving the ITE (Institut de Technologie de l'Enseignement), the trainees are endowed with an initial training which is strengthened and completed at seminars and pedagogical meetings. This first training is rather theoretical, though the trainees have the opportunity to deliver their first lesson at the ITE. The In-service Training course for trainee teachers consists, at the beginning of the school year, of the following: (a) a four-day training module involving official instructions (i.e. official objectives to be attained through a clear un-derstanding of the syllabus, and official pedagogical documents), (b) a unit analysis done according to a general framework given as a pattern to be followed, (c) a lesson planning followed by a demonstration class with emphasis on the three main phases of a lesson in general. In this way, the method is given as well as some important techniques that could be applied straight forwardly and appropriately by the teacher (to his/her specific own way), and the final talk will be on test conception and test report. It seems to be heavy enough as a content. Yet, only the main principles of the broad titles already mentioned, are given to the trainee teachers to enable them to start their first teaching. It is advisable for the new teachers to follow this rigid framework to avoid the danger of being misled in their teaching till they acquire enough experience. Such a training is provided also to “supply-teachers” (“suppleants”) with additional sessions on linguistic competence and terminology used in English Language Teaching methodology. Workshops are set up to get at least a semi confirmation of the delivered training course and a synthesis is made up by the inspector. This is done in order to detect what was successfully carried out, and to locate the areas of difficulty. Such a result is going to be taken into consideration when planning the next training course.

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2. Classroom observation Here are three main questions to be asked by the supervisor before observing a class: - What am I evaluating? - Why am I evaluating? - Who am I evaluating? The trainee teacher (a probationary teacher) has to be observed teaching on two or throe. occasions before getting full qualified teacher's status if he deserves it. It is evident that we shouldn’t forget the inspector's role at this level; that is before the trainee teacher sits for his/her exam (CAPEF 2), not only should he pay attention to the pedagogical side of the exam, but to the exam regulations that are to be put into effect as well. As far as the pedagogical aspect is concerned, the supervisor will observe how correctly the teacher is able to apply the main phases of the development of a lesson and the capacity of keeping in mind the objective to be reached. Here is an example of the observation sheet that may "e used by the supervisor: * Class procedure a) Is the teacher clear about the objectives of the lesson? b) Is the teacher aware of the linguistic difficulties involved in teaching the lesson? c) Is the material well presented and effectively taught? d) Does the teacher follow the phases recommended for teaching the lesson? e) Does the teacher make good use of the class time? f) Is there a balance between the four skills (listening-speaking, reading, writing)? g) Is the teacher alert to the pupils' mistakes? h) Does the teacher train his pupils to use the language in communicative situations? i) Is the teacher's pronunciation clear and natural? At the end of this paper, I'll give samples of an observation sheet designed on the basis of my experience. * Teacher’s personality a) Does the teacher seem to be interested in teaching? b) Does he/she keep firm control of the class and take pupils into his confidence? c) Does he/she listen to the constructive criticism of the head (or senior) teacher ("professeur

principal")? All these listed points are to be evaluated but not in a very rigid way - except for the point concerning the phases recommended for teaching the lesson. On the whole, the probationary teacher (trainee teacher) should reflect an image of a perfectible element.

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III. THE QUALIFIED TEACHERS (OR INVOLVING SENIOR TEACHERS) 1.training courses Up to 1980 it was difficult for the teachers to distinguish between manipulating the language forms and using the language for the purpose of communication. That is, using the language in communicative situations. More emphasis has been put on the communicative dimension added to the audio-lingual method. In this respect, full training sessions (day study), based demonstrating communication through a scientific way, have been organized approach is then applied in the teaching of the actual textbooks workshops, during the training sessions. Demonstration class sessions are organized with focus on the communicative dimension showing move gradually from manipulating the language in meaningful sentences using the language in communicative activities. However, another m arose about the writing skill. This aspect of the language proved to be a little neglected. Writing at the practice phase was mainly limited to consolidation activities based on accuracy; that is, on the correct manipulation of the age. This is due to the teachers’ habit, since they are accustomed to audio method and to the timing allotted to the Arabic language. On way to remedy this deficiency was to orient the training sessions towards development of the writing skill in detail. Providing the teachers with activities based on the ability to manipulate correctly the language forms (i.e. to write correct grammatical sentences) and the ability to use these forms efficiently for communication purposes (1anguage forms are no longer an end in themselves). Through the development of a lesson, there should boa step of reinforcement the presentation phase done through writing. Some written consolidation activities after oral practice to get the semi-confirmation which will allow the teacher to move to the pupils' written, personal and free production, which is meant to use the language that has been up to now under the teacher's control ~ freer way. It is obvious that there should be an oral practice before each written step. As the last phase requires initiation in the development of writing paragraphs and composition, an extra hour has been added to the 9 AF curriculum. For more improvement of this aspect of the teaching, day- study sessions are regularly organized with the senior teachers. They are meant to develop and improve various types of communicative activities that can be based on a theme taking into consideration the pupils' level, motivation, interest, and taste. These senior teachers are given instructions about the way to analyse a didactic unit (that is defining the function, the language forms, the exponents1 the lexis, for use and recognition, the activities, the aids, and the recycling), to check the input of the unit and, eventually, to built up a new context more appropriate to the pupils, to plan any eventual activities more suitable to some specific schools, to built up a file of adequate visual aids. Finally, a list of various and efficient themes is given to these teachers to be applied and developed according to their needs, at the coordination meetings, in their respective schools

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For the units which are more complex, their preparation is done in collaboration with the senior teachers and put into brochures which are sent to the different schools. This is not a rigid framework to be followed, but a suggested useful way of dealing with these units. As has been already mentioned, a list of various and efficient themes (see list) is given to the teachers in order to apply it and develop it according to their needs in their respective schools. The senior teacher’s task is to hold coordination meetings, each one in his/her respective school, with the colleagues working in the same school. They should meet twice a month (since a didactic unit is covered approximately within a fortnight) to put into real practice the activities studied at the day-study session (with the inspector). To enable the inspectors participation in such a coordination meeting, a timetable, which sets the exact date and time as well as the theme to be worked out at this meeting, is set to him/her. As there is not enough time for inspectors to involve themselves in all appointments, reports on the different coordination meetings are sent to their office and checked with the teacher whenever a visit (an inspection) is operated. Let's move, then, to supervision which is developed at present in some Algerian middle schools. of course, we learn by doing, by trying out, by seeing for ourselves. The activities and instructions given previously are designed to point the way to some doors which the trainee or the qualified teacher may open and at his/her own pace, walks through. However, classroom observation proved that there is sometimes a discrepancy between what teachers are expected to achieve and what they actually achieve. This discrepancy lies mostly at the level of the production phase in the development of a lesson. Real communication is rarely reached by some teachers. Such teachers may find the context of the training course very ambitious and may not fully grasp it. Sometimes the preparation of the didactic unit at the coordination meeting is not done according to one’s real need; or it concerns only teachers presenting problems difficult to tackle. 2. Supervision a) the way of supervising is not is firm as it used to be. The language at the language at the interview is smoother and involves the participation of both the observer and 3rved teacher. Let's recall the kind of language used at a post-lesson discussion : Teacher Supervisor - "I decided to do… You did - I chose to do… the advantage of it was… - What do you think was the disadvantage of using… - And if I did… But a disadvantage would be… Another time you could choose another technique - 1’11 have to weight it up... " The language here seems free. The discussion is more concerned with different tactics and when there might be good times to employ them. The teacher is less concerned with moral obligations. The different techniques are discussed, weighed Up, and kept for future use in other situations.

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Teachers are not scared of making mistakes when they know that there is not one right way and lots of wrong ways. Ail the techniques might be right in some way and might have disadvantages. In this way, teachers are led to propose more efficient suggestions to deal with the part which went wrong.

* A classroom observation meant to

- encourage teachers to criticize their own performance

- to plan on the most effective presentation to the teacher of the data that the supervisor has collected

- to discuss possibilities for improvement and to agree on an objective (or a limited number of objectives) for the next observation

- to establish further a sense of trust and confidence between the supervisor and the teacher.

With teachers presenting complex problems (e.g. "supply teachers), a specific supervision drawn from American ideas, to tackle their teaching is being tried. It concerns the clinical supervision, developed as follows. We must notice however, that the inspector doesn't have enough time to cater to the increasing demand - mostly from supply teachers and some senior teachers. The ideal will be the reduction of the number of teachers within the inspectors area. b) Clinical supervision * A pre-observation interview aimed at:

- a real two-way communication - familiarizing the supervisor with the setting - discussing and agreeing on a specific objective or a limited number of specific objectives - discussing and agreeing on the supervisor’s role and the teacher’s responsibilities.

- begin a critique be focussing on strengths and positive behaviours - keep criticisms to a minimum - accompany each criticism with one or two suggestions for improvement - each criticism should "e accompanied by at least one example - end a critique on a positive note.

* Analysis and strategy session

Designed to enable the supervisor to reflect on what has been observed

- to anticipate what the teacher's reactions will be to the class and to state how best to encourage self-valuation by the teacher.

* A post-observation session intended

- to encourage the teacher to “talk through" the lesson - (for the supervisor) to provide relevant and constructive feedback to the teacher

-(for the teacher) to. provide feedback on the effectiveness of the supervision process

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Here is an example of what could be a clinical supervision (already applied)

* A preliminary meeting with the teacher

Inspector: What am I expected to see ? What is the objective of your lesson?

IEF: Is it going to be the first in the process?

IEF: Which kinds of students will be concerned ? Any specific objective you want

T: Understand the passage with out teaching keywords (students want to understand the passage word by word) IEF : Should I concentrate on 2 or 3 students or observe all the students ? What happened when they fail to understand vocabulary?

IEF: Well. This gives me more background (should give a greeting to the class).

* Analysis and strategy session

- to be treated with a great deal of caution

- Post-observation session

- a sort of interaction between the teacher and the supervisor

Teacher: Getting independent readers and showing how this task can be implemented over the year.

T: The last step of the unit.

me to observe?

T: What is worth observing

- attempt to go beyond evaluation but promoting teaching.

- Teacher and supervisor remain collaborators

- how to conduct a post-observation session?

It might be an interview; a written questionnaire to be read by the teacher, before the discussion. The supervisor tries to elicit from the teacher something so as to avoid talking to a passive teacher (i.e. "this is what you should have/haven't done...") IV. USEFULNESS OF FEEDBACK

By experience, feedback should be used by the teacher as a basis for self evaluation, as evidence of the need for improvement. The information given by the supervisor, being rather constructive than evaluative , leads to the avoidance of the defensive reactions taken by the teachers to the supervisor's observation. We must state that pedagogical meetings organized with a large number of teachers do not (remain) seem very efficient. Specific feedback given to teachers individually is more likely to be useful than general impression (e.g. data from a classroom map may help a supervisor to show a teacher precisely how many students did participate). Feedback should focus on remediable elements of the teacher’s performance. A shortcoming of a teacher’s performance should only be shown in a moderate way, followed by suggestions. It has been experienced with a few teachers that the feedback solicited by the teacher is more likely to be used than the one which is imposed, though observation is meant to be diagnostic and formative. Observation/Evaluation is most effective when it involves several

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visits and geared to individual teachers needs. V. CONCLUSION To highlight Evaluation of Teacher Training and Supervision, stress should be put on the improvement of the following:

- Teacher's self-evaluation

- Teacher's rapport with students

- Teacher's treatment of errors

- Effective assessment by teachers of students progress

- Encouraging collaboration among teachers

- Encouraging the use of communicative activities - Classroom management - Improving teachers' attitudes towards inspectors.

In this respect, supervisors should be constantly informed on the recent developments to get more efficient and effective training/supervision sessions. That is, specific, detailed, constructive sessions, to draw the teachers together and clarify their sense of direction. (Experience has proven that the handwriting problem in some 8th AF classes does not exist any more.)

Though the teacher’s work is sometimes tied up with decisions taken by examination boards and evaluative scale, a middle school inspector's task should reflect a picture which focuses on language learning .We must underline that supervision/evaluation tends to be less subjective in view of the recent developments mentioned in this paper. However, it is desirable that supervisors (working in the same area) decide on the designing of one model observation-sheet focusing on the teacher's gradual teaching progress, leading subsequently to a more balanced rating scale. (See accompanying sheet)

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OBSERVATION SHEET Teacher: Date: Unit: School: Class: Lesson: GRADE COMMENT Lesson Plan (Content) Beginning/Ending the lesson (context/real use) Use of Audio/Visual aids Clear, appropriate explanations Checks for understanding (activities) Distribution of turns (Participation) Croup/Pair work (Organization) Appropriate error correction Pace (give pupils time to think) (Too fast - too slow) Language / Voice Class control

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PART 4

AND TEACHER SUPERVISION

SECTION 3

EVALUATION: TEACHER-TRAINING

TEACHER TRAINING IN ESP

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TEACHER TRAINING IN ESP: SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR COURSE DESIGN

El Mostapha EL HADDAD

Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan H, Rabat, Morocco

INTRODUCTION One of the major obstacles standing in the way of ESP language teachers is linguistic problem. Teachers who are called upon to teach technical English sometimes have problems coping with the jargon of the discipline they are servicing. This article looks at this issue and makes recommendations as to the best way to solve this problem. 1.EST : LANGUAGE FOR COMMUNICATION In dealing with this point, it appears necessary that a few words are said in the beginning in order to paint a broad canvas of the major shifts that have occurred in linguistics in general and in EFL teaching in particular. There is enough evidence to suggest that linguistics is continuously in a state of turmoil brought about by its attempts to account for the communicative properties of language. The direct repercussion this has had on EFL teaching is leading it through a variety of approaches ranging from the structural, to the notional/functional. In a communicative approach to language teaching the focus is no longer brought to bear on sentence-oriented grammar' but on how language is used in the performance of communicative or rhetorical functions defining, exemplifying, classifying, describing. In support of this view Widdowson (1979) can be quoted: "...when we accept the need to teach age as communication we can obviously no longer think of language in of sentences. " The shift towards a more pragmatic use of language is exemplified by ESI' courses which basically reflect the communicative 'par excellence "...Teaching English as a medium for Science and Technology must involve us in the teaching of how scientists and technologists use the system of the language to communicate" (Widdowson:1979). Another area of applied linguistics which has developed alongside ESP/EST courses is Discourse Analysis. The purpose of discourse analysis is to make scientific expository style (both written or spoke) accessible to the learner via, for e.g. , the study of cohesive ties and logical connectors beyond the sentence level, text information structure, etc. The pedagogical implications of adopting a communicative approach would "e the design of courses that teach trainees the rhetoric of science and discourse analysis. This way, they would use and teach language more communicatively than the manipulation of structures. in this connection, Candlin et al (1975) write”.. in teaching EST... one is involving specialist learners in performing in the target language those mental processes and intellectual operations already familiar to them from “doing science” in their mother tongue”.

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2. THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF EST LINGUISTIC LEVEL In training for ESP/EST, trainees should "e familiarised with the distinctive features of the language of science for practical as well as pedagogical purposes. It should "e borne in mind that when we talk of the language of science, we should immediately have in mind the idea of 'specialist fields' for in the fashionable area of ESP, we find many varieties, i.e. English for Medicine, Agriculture, Metallurgy, Chemistry, etc. Swales (personal communication) contends that ... every society requires its members to use different varieties of language in different situations. “Each of these varieties has its distinctive features. In this regard, the practice of ESP practitioners and theoreticians tend to be quite pragmatic. Usually division into in view: if an 'English' has significantly distinct features requiring special pedagogical treatment, it is taken to "e a distinct variety. However, the question that begs an answer is to see whether ‘scientific’ English is a different language from 'general' English.

“Englishes” is done with pedagogical criteria

In many ways, the answer is yes, for even though "....the rules for sentence construction are the rules for the language as a whole and do not vary as between scientific and non-scientific discourse” (Strevens: 1971), they nevertheless have very little similarity of context and the circumstances of use of language are quite different. Despite the fact that “scientific” English and general' English share part of the lexis of the English language,..." The lexicon of special languages is their most obvious distinguishing characteristic" (Sager :1980). Scientific writing tends to adopt an impersonal style, which explains the high incidence of the passive voice. Writes Deagan, "...Scientists prefer to use impersonal sentences with passive verbs... They prefer to talk or write about things and processes rather than about persons and their actions" (Deegan: 1978). Scientific prose is also characterized by the high frequency of function words, modals. It is also characterized by the wide distribution of nouns and adjectives resulting in the tendency to use a nominalized style. The selective nature of scientific discourse has been demonstrated by Barper (1962) who provides ammunition for the non-inclusion, for example, of the present continuous in scientific teaching materials. Overall, then, one thing is indisputable: science texts have their own syntactic, stylistic and discoursal peculiarities that make them different from non-scientific general expository style. To back up this point, I quote Glasey (1981):"... Texts must meet certain communicative requirements which are reflected in specific features of style". 3. HOW DIFFERENT IS THE EST SYSTEM FROM THE GENERAL ENGLISH SYSTEM Talking about EST and the way it has been shown to differ from 'General' English in terms of style, structure and lexis leads us to talk about one point of discord, among ESP field specialists. That is the view propounded by Ewer (1979). Consider the following passage: "...The EST system corresponds so little with that of the English-teaching system the students are accustomed to, that they not only have no appropriate background framework into which they can fit the new information they are getting, but what background they do have is extremely misleading and gives rise to the erroneous preconceptions noted earlier."

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Such a statement is to be given a cautious welcome for it tends to give the ESP/EST system "an aura of separateness" from' general' English, whereas it is on this system that ESP/EST is built up. If we transpose the problem of "the misleading background" to the trainees we plan to prepare for teaching ESP/EST, then we will "e confronted with what Akermark (1983) suggests: "...He (Ewer) seems to feel that most teachers having taught general ELT courses are somehow 'spoiled' and have to be 'wiped clean' before acquiring the finer points of teaching specialized students." Teachers of 'general' English have a lot to contribute from their training and from their experience. In the case of the Moroccan trainees, they have a somewhat practical experience of the English language. What they need to the specific language o their 'job context'. What needs to be emphasised in this respect is that this knowledge of 'general' English which the trainee possesses, far from being an inadequate resource to which must be added a new or several new languages, remains a valuable tool. The idea of dealing with 'EST as a complete system' is also not seen favourably by McDonough (1983) who states that. This premise of a hermetically sealed system is open to question since it is essentially a fragmentationist viewpoint ... It underplays the very considerable point of contact between 'ESP' and 'general' English". 3.1. THE RHETORIC OF SCIENCE Preparing an Arts-trained teacher to teach EST would of necessity require enhancing his understanding ability of the rhetoric of science and the extent to which this relationship has been shown to determine both the semantic and the linguistic structure in scientific writing. In this connection, Mackay writes:

"...The scientist has systematic and highly sophisticated methods for managing and understanding happenings... The questions that the scientist asks, and the answers that follow are reflected in the kind of linguistic communication that the scientist employs."

(Mackay, 1978 138).

Trimble (1979) defines rhetoric as" the process a writer of scientific or technical English uses to produce a desired text". When writing a piece of scientific prose, the scientist makes use of the rhetorical functions of description, definition and classification as well as the rhetorical techniques of time order, space order and causality. Todd Trimble (1982) states that"... knowing how dear technicians, engineers) and scientists are depends, of course, on our analysis of their rhetorical style". Tadros (1976) provides a second definition. She states that"... Rhetoric refers to ail the techniques by which the writer organizes sentences into &unified paragraph in order to communicate."

Concerning tense usage in scientific writing, unlike, the traditional approach, the recent trend in linguistics has been the relationship of the concept of function to the structure of language. In other words, it is not the structures that are different but the rhetorical functions to which they are put which determine the linguistic form.

This new approach to tense in EST is through a concern to place rhetorical considerations first in handling material.

Lackstrom, Selinker and Trimble (1972) argue that:

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“…In technical English the present tense means 'generalisation” the present tense will occur where technical rhetoric requires the expression of the core idea." Without bringing other viewpoints to bear on tense usage in EST, suffice it to say that tense seems to be a more complex and controversial point than voice. However, constructive views to remedy this problem are presented by Swales (1981) through 'genres' (i.e. business letters, Article Introductions; textbooks are 'genres' because of their conventional patterning). Swales (personal communication) contends that "...There are no sets of linguistic features that uniquely characterize a variety of English called 'scientific' English. He argues that"... 'genre' is a communicative event with a recognized structure. For ESP, a perspective involving a whole range of 'genres' was a better approach to -understanding; the language than an approach via register".

3.2.. SYNTACTIC FEATURES PEDACOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

In ESP, there is wide recognition that teaching the whole formal system of language is pointless mainly because of time constraints and the specific purpose the learner needs to perform through language. Therefore, ESP courses adopt a selective approach in terms of the choice of the pertinent linguistic structures to be highlighted in the lesson. For pedagogical treatment, samples of texts can be analysed by trainees to see whether there are any syntactic features that occur frequently or can present the learners with comprehension problems. For example, one can count the percentage of sentences which have complex structures because of clauses embedded within other clauses. If it is discovered that such structures occur frequently, then they should be included "e made in their teaching materials. Heightening the trainees' awareness, and indirectly their learners', about embedded clauses will greatly help them in more processing of scientific discourse. Similarly, a suitable corpus of texts can be examined to work out the percentage of the non-finite clauses and have the trainees test whether these clauses can contribute towards reading comprehension difficulties on the part of the learners. In short, as Bejan (1979) claims"... The most rational way of developing a course is the systematic study of the structures which are numerically important and which are not."

Swales also adds : "... it is only within genres that viable correlations between cognitive, rhetorical and linguistic features can be established, for it is only within genres that language is sufficiently conventionalized and the range of communicative purpose narrow for us to hope to establish pedagogically employable generalisations that will capture certain relationships between form and function". (Swales: 1981).

3.3. DISCOURSE IN SCIENTIFIC ENGLISH Scientific English is said to be complex; but what makes it easier is the rhetorical force it has, which represents what the language is performing at any point in the text. In this respect, scientific discourse has a distinct purposive role and, as a result, is charaterized by discoursal features which sets it apart from 'general' English. In scientific writing, the emphasis is on thematic subject which means that the information is given at the beginning of the sentence (i.e. "topic sentence" or "core generalisation"), which represents the communicative point of departure for the rest of the discourse. A scrutiny of textbooks, research reports in the field of science may show that the patterns for presenting data, conducting arguments, organizing discourse, also the conventions for the overall formats of written discourse, are identical or substantially the same. Lackstrom, Selinker, Trimble (quoted by Urquhart (1976 p :37))

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suggest that there are 'Natural' as well as 'Logical Principles'. They refer to "... Those writing techniques which the technical author is virtually forced to use by the nature of his material" whereas the “Logical Principles" are"... Those writing techniques which the technical author deliberately chooses to impose on his material in order that the reader will see how he, the author, visualizes the rhetorical relationships of the material at this level". Since the engineer or technologist's discipline or 'world' shapes his language, teaching trainees should of necessity include training in efficient discovery and processing of discoursal structures common in scientific disciplines (i.e. discoursal formats such as Hoey's problem/solution or Swales' Aspects of Article Introductions). Training will aim at provoking the trainee’s conscious awareness that"... a text follows some kind of unconscious system and that everyone else is following the same system" (Williams: mimeo). Helping the trainees to decipher the 'cognitive' map that every scientific writer builds into the text is as important as training them to discriminate between what is merely facilitating and what constitutes the core content in a text. The question worth raising is how to show trainees that scientific writing follows a kind of system. This will "e discussed in what follows.

Another point worth emphasising in this respect is that the trainee’s educational background does not equip him /her for the recognition of cohesive devices or discourse markers, which is the reason why understanding scientific discourse is made difficult. The teaching of cohesive devices such as anaphora, the referential system, transitional moves, is of importance to the trainee. Also, the teaching of logical connectors will further the trainee’s understanding of utterances beyond the sentence level and will therefore develop his interpretative ability and this cognitive process of prediction.

In making the trainee aware of these relationships, the aim to speed up his acquisition of competency in the language of science and to allow him to evolve his own dynamics while he is learning scientific concepts and being involved in reasoning processes.

In considering the problem of lexis, it may "e worth clarifying from the beginning that vocabulary is one of the areas that has benefitted less from ESP research, though recently we have seen an interest into scientific vocabulary (i.e. Godman and Payne's Taxonomy of the lexis of Science). Textbook writers have emphasised the various functions of scientific discourse and have eschewed dealing with vocabulary. For the purpose of illustrating this point, Adams (1978) remarks that"... There is a tendency to teach vocabulary only when

3.4. TEXTUAL ANALYSIS One could take a suitable sample of text and analyse it for identification of frequently occurring predictive elements which tell a reader what is coming next and help him to grasp the structure of a text. The investigation will aim at doing for scientific texts what Tadros did for economic textbooks. If some regularly occurring patterns of predictive elements are discovered, these could "e incorporated in the teaching materials. It is also possible to undertake an analysis of the texts to identify the recurring patterns of discourse structuring. It is possible to have, as a model, the work done by Lackstrom on the structure of logical argumentation in scientific texts, and by Trimble on the macro-structuring of scientific texts in the form of core paragraphs physical paragraphs.

3.5. THE PROBLEM OF LEXIS

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driven to it, apologetically and with a guilty look over the shoulder. Much of the English teaching profession has become word-shy". Skeldon (quoted by Adams (1978)) ascribes this neglect to "... Lack of a coherent approach to vocabulary... one of the weaknesses of currently published materials." Robinson (1980:77) also suggests that we "...to consider vocabulary as the key issue in the teaching of ESP".

There is ample evidence to support the view that, in the study of the professional literature of Science and Technology, vocabulary constitutes one of the most serious hurdles encountered by literature-trained teachers. In fact, ESP exhibits a wide corpus of technical vocabulary together with certain language forms and uses (i.e. noun-compounding and verbs contextually determined) which are not common features in 'general' English. Furthermore, each discipline or EST "variety" (e.g. English for Agriculture, Medicine etc.) is likely to have a considerable number of lexical items whose use is mainly, or even exclusively, restricted to it.

"...Technical (which the scientist teaches); Non-technical (which is needed for everyday conversation, etc.) and Sub-technica1 (which is needed to support the students academically in an 'English' medium institution".

For the specialised vocabulary, there is consensus as to who would teach it. In this connection, Higgens writes"...It is not the job of the English teacher to teach technical vocabulary; it consumes too much time, and he will probably not do it well. The most he can do is to encourage the student to use a dictionary". (Higgens:1967). However, it is what have been termed 'the basic words' rather than the 'technical words' that can create difficulties. These 'basic words' have a high frequency in technical literature and also appear in non-technical expository writing. Jordan (1978) remarks that"... It is extremely important for the student to realise that it is not only the unfamiliar lexical items which cause problems in understanding but also the simplest of words, immediately recognizable in print but often misinterpreted or even unheard in speech”. Used in a scientific context which requires more precision, these basic words are"... purged of the ambiguity and vagueness of their meaning." (Caws: 1964).

However, since ESP specialists recognize that”... introducing unfamiliar lexis is a highly-skilled task" (Williams :1981), I concur with Swales’ view (personal communication) that the most appropriate way to teach vocabulary is to engage people in vocabulary rather than engaging their eyes or ears. Scientific vocabulary requires an exclusive pedagogical treatment. For this purpose, a terminological study should constitute part of the training programme. Methods such as word-formation, especially those categories most frequently found (i.e derivation, combination, conversion and abbreviation), should be given more emphasis since scientific vocabulary is made of roots plus suffix or prefix (e.g., cyto-, extra-, -logy etc.). The trainees should be sensitized to these aspects of lexis because they constitute the mainstay of se scientific vocabulary. Also, a taxonomic treatment of terms. According to

For many Moroccan L3 readers (i.e. Arabic, French, English), these vocabulary items might represent the biggest barrier to understanding scientific texts, for"...Understanding the vocabulary is second only to the factor of reasoning in the process of comprehension, and some writers would say it is even more important than reasoning." (Spache : 1966). It seems that the day-to-day problems of the ESP practitioners and teachers are lexical. Swales (1981) argues that "... reducing the load of lexical unknowns is obviously one part of a strategy for increasing accessibility". As far as scientific lexis is concerned, Swales (1981) distinguishes three categories:

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Goddman and Bayne (1981),"... Terms in a cluster may "e difficult to define in isolation but this can be avoided by a taxonomic arrangement". This leads us to talk about what can be done in a classroom situation in order to tackle the problem of lexis.

3.6. LEXICAL CONTENTS

For teaching purposes, a feasible mode of investigation could be to have representative and adequate samples of the reading materials from different textbooks, reference books, professional EST journals and to ask the trainees to identify the terms or expressions they do not know. Another activity, which can be carried within this framework, is to have a frequency count of the lexical items (nouns, verbs, adjectives). The trainees could then be subjected to vocabulary tests to ascertain their lexical deficiencies. The list of lexical items prepared on the basis of frequency counts could be further examined to see if some patterns of word formation occur frequently. Such patterns could be identified and given appropriate weight age in the teaching materials. For instance, if the texts show a high frequency of compound adjectives derived from post-nominal relative clauses or phrases ,this pattern could be made a teaching point Trainees will be referred quite often to use a scientific dictionary (e.g. Godman and Payne's Scientific Dictionary) as a practical tool to familiarise themselves with scientific and technical lexis.

2,1; Pergamon Press, New York, Edit. Mancill.

Bejan, N. (1979). 'Theoretical Preliminaries For Approaching English Terminology in Shipbuilding" In English for Science and Technology, Edit. Drobnic,22. January. Candlin,In English for Academic Study. London: The British Council.

4. CONCLUSION

These suggestions have been made with two aims in view : first to sensitize teachers to one of the knotty problems in an ESP situation (i.e. the specific jargon of the English they are servicing ); and secondly to propose inroads whereby this problem can "e overcome. I hope that we will all profit from these suggestions.

REFERENCES Adams - Smith, p E.(1983). 'The Acquisition of Technical English" In AI-Manakh, vol. 3, n°1 (December 1983). Akermark, J.(1983). “Teacher Training for ESP in Adult Education” The ESP Journal, vol.

Barber, C.L.(1981). "Some Measurable Characteristics of Modern scientific Prose" in Episodes in ESP, Edit. Swales, LSU, Univ. of Aston in Birmingham.

Oregon State Univ Issue

C.N., J.M. Kirkwood and H.M. Moore (1975). "Developing Study Skills in English"

Caws, P.. Philosophy of Science, D.Van Nostrand. Deegan, D.(1978). The Scientist Speaks" in ELI Monthly, Univ. of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, May 1978, No. 24. Ewer, J.R.(1979). “Teaching English for Science and Technology : The Specialized Training of Teachers and Programme Organizers" In Teaching English for Science Technology, Richards C Jack (Editor), SEAMEO RELC, Singapore Univ. Press. Glasey, R.(1980). "Emotive Features in Technical and Scientific English"(mimeo) pp.(20). Godman, A. and E.M.F. Payne. ( ). "A Taxonomic Approach to the lexis of Science" In English for Academic and Technical Purposes: Studies in Honor of Louis Trimble. Selinker, Hanzelli, Tarone (Editors), Newbury House Publishers, Inc. Massachusetts.

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Higgens, John J.(1981). "Hard Facts (Notes on Teaching English to Science Students)" In Episodes in ESP, Swales (Editor), LSU, Univ. of Aston in Birmingham. Jordan, R.R. and A. Mathews(1978). "English for Academic Purposes. Practice Material for the Listening Comprehension and Writing Needs of Overseas Students" In ELT Documents, English for Specific Purposes. London: ETIC Publications, the British Council. Lackstrom, J.G., L. Selinker and L Trimble (1972). "Grammar and Technical English" In English Teaching Forum, Vol. X, No. 5.

Mackay, R. and AJ. Mountford (1978). "A Programme in English for Overseas Postgraduate Soil Scientists at the Univ. of Newcastle" In English for Specific Purposes. Longman: London Mc Donough, Jo and T. French (1981). "Introduction" In ELT Documents 112 - The ESP Teachers Role, Development and Prospects. London The British Council. Mc Donough , J. (1984). ESP in Perspective A Practical Guide. London Collins Educational. Robinson, Pauline (1980). ESP (English for Specific Purposes). London: Pergamon Press. Sager, Juan C. et al.(1980) English Special Languages Principe and Practice in Science and Technology. Wiesbaden: Oscar Brandstetter. Spache, C.D.(1966). Toward Better Reading. Champaign, Illinois Garrard Publishing. Swales, J.M.(1981). Aspects of Article Introductions, Aston ESP Research Report no. 1, LSU, The Univ. of Aston in Birmingham. Strevens, P.(1971). "Alternatives to Daffodils" In Science and Technology in a Second Language, CILT Reports and Papers 7, Dec. Trimble, L.(1979). "A Rhetorical Approach to Reading Scientific and Technical English” In English Teaching Forum, Vol. XVII, n°4, Newton (Edit) pp. 1-5 and p.21 (6), 1979. Trimble, Todd, R.M.(1981). 'The Widening Role of the Linguist and the language", In English for Specific Purposes, July 1981, Oregon State Univ. Corvallis, Oregon. Urquhart, A.H.(1976). The Effect of Rhetorical Organisation on the Readability of Study Texts. Unpublished Ph. D. Thesis, Univ. of Edinburgh, p. 136-137. Widdowson, H.G.(1979). Explorations in Applied Linguistics, OUP. Willians R. (19 ). "Lexical Familiarisation in Content Area Text books" in The Reader an" The Text (Proceedings of 17th Annual Course and Conference of UKRA, Warwick; Ed. chapman, Heinemann).

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PART 4

EVALUATION : TEACHER-TRAINING AND TEACHER SUPERVISION

SECTION 4

TEACHER-STUDENTS INTERACTIONS : INPUT

FROM INSIDE THE CLASSROOM

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TO ASK DISPLAY QUESTIONS AND NOT TO ASK REFERENTIAL

ONES, THAT'S UNNATURAL INTERACTION

Abdelmajid BOUZIANE

Lycée Omar Ibn El-Khattab, Casablanca , Morocco.

Questioning behaviour in the SL/FL classrooms and the types of questions used by teachers during interactions with their students have been introduced to applied linguistic literature only recently. In fact, the literature that deals with the area of questioning in spoken mode goes back to the eighties. Throughout this literature, sensitizing teachers has been stressed in many instances. This is mainly the rationale behind giving this paper, in which I will share some ideas about oral questioning. I Will start with my main motive to explore this area, then I will review the literature, and then I will deal with data from a Moroccan EFL classroom. Finally, I will suggest some pedagogical implications. I. THE MOTIVE

It is obvious that, in order for teachers to change their behaviour in the classroom, they should be sensitized. Literature in the field of questioning has stressed that teachers may carry out certain teaching tasks ineffectively simply because they haven't been made aware of their deficiencies. Ezzaki (1986:12) claims that the overuse of literal comprehension questions in reading ".. .is not so much due to the lack of effort on the part of teachers and textbook writers as much as it is due to the fact that they haven't been sensitized to the importance of the higher order questions”. Similarly, many researchers have shown tangible and great benefits from experiments and training sessions conducted in the domain of oral questioning. A film show, in an experiment designed to improve teachers’ questioning skills, resulted in the increase of questions requiring multiples student responses, and the use of prompting and thought-provoking Also, it decreased the amount of questions repeated and answered by teachers themselves (Borg et al.1970:80, as reported in Richards 1987:213). project in which teachers’ questioning behaviours were compared before and after a training session yielded plausible results in improving the question use and the wait-time. The authors of the project proved that "...the new behaviours affected student participation patterns in ways believed to be significant for these students’ language acquisition" (Long et al. 1984:VI, as reported in Richards 1987:214). Based on quite the same research procedure, Brock (1986) proved that training teachers in asking referential questions affected positively learners’

performance (See there view of literature below). 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Not only is the literature dealing with: oral questioning recent, but also rare (Long and Sato, 1983:268; Brock, 1986:48; Lynn, 1987:23). In fact, Lynn pointed out that only four papers had put questioning in focus. Here are three of them as they are closely related to this paper.

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- ESL teachers ask fewer Information questions than NSs in informal conversation with NNSs outside classrooms.

imperatives; and secondly that teacher talk might develop over experience in classroom

2.1. Long and Sato (1983) compared ESL classroom discourse to Native Speakers (NS) Non7native Speakers (NNS) discourse outside the classroom -with special focus on forms and functions of questions posed in both contexts. Although they tested nine hypotheses, I’ll be dealing with only the ones that are relevant to my investigation: - ESL teachers ask more display questions than referential ones. - ESL teachers ask more display questions than NSs in informal conversation with NNSs outside classrooms.

- ESL teachers use different relative frequencies of questions,-statements, and imperatives than NSs in conversation with NNSs outside classrooms. The authors developed Kearsley's taxonomy of questions (See the appendix) and adopted the modified version to categorize the questions in their data. after the comparison; ail the four hypotheses were strongly confirmed. Accordingly, the authors found out that display questions predominated in ESL classrooms. They also remarked a different distribution of questions, statements, and imperatives in the compared settings They then concluded that ESL teacher talk is a very. distorted version of foreigner talk NS-NNS interaction. Furthermore, they investigated the nature of ESL teachers questions and pointed out that it was a three-step discourse pattern, as opposed to the two step pattern in the usual conversational pattern, initiative response feedback and initiative-response, respectively. Though "exploratory, the study suggested that the classroom interactional structure ought to be changed to mirror, to a certain extent, N-NNS discourse.

2.2 based on similar theoretical grounds, Pica and Long (1986) hypothesized firstly that the frequency display questions would be higher in the classroom and that ELS teacher speech compared to NS speech in informal N-NNS conversations would contain significantly different frequencies of questions,

the study consisted of two general parts. In the first part, like the previous study by long and Sato (1983),data. From the classroom were compared to those from outside the classroom (long’s unpublished data, 1980) .This comparison resulted in the confirmation of the first hypothesis. 'n the second part, experienced teacher were compared to inexperienced ones. The teachers' questions were analysed with regard to nature and proportion of questions. The inexperienced teachers used similar proportions of statements, questions, and imperatives as their counterparts. Both categories of teachers used much greater proportions of display questions than of referential ones. However, they differed in the fact that experienced teachers used a wider range of syntactic forms in their questions. These findings, together with others found in the first part of the authors' study, confirmed the conclusions of Long and Sato's (1983) and infirmed the second hypothesis. 2.3. Brock (1986), on the other hand, took as a starting point Long and Sato's findings (1983)and there by developed a way of improving teachers’ questioning behaviours. She aimed to find the effect of referential questions upon the length and the complexity of students' responses as well as on teachers' use of confirmation checks and clarification requests as an indication of the directional flow of communication. For these purposes, she

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trained two teachers to serve as a treatment group. The recordings of the interaction in the treatment teachers' . Classrooms were compared to those of two other untrained teachers – control group. The comparison yielded plausible results: the treatment teachers posed more referential questions; students’ responses to referential questions were longer than those supplied to display ones; students' speech in the treatment group was significantly complex - more connectors; treatment teachers used more confirmation checks overall, though not statistically significant; however, clarification requests were too small to be treated statistically. As a result, Brock insisted on introducing referential questions to class so as to satisfy the minimum requirement of SLA. The findings and the implications of the consulted literature have attempted to investigate what actually happens in the Moroccan EFL classroom. The most prominent features in the literature are of main concern in this paper. They are summarized in the following two research questions: 316 a) Which questions do Moroccan teachers of English ask? Display or referential ones? b) Do teachers follow the techniques of questioning behaviours suggested in the literature?

3. DATA COLLECTION

To test the aforementioned research questions, throe teachers were asked to record a ten-minute interaction with their students. However, because of technical problems - the poor quality of recording - only the recording of one teacher is dealt with in this paper. The recording was transcribed and the questions were coded using Long and Sato's version of kearsley's taxonomy (See the appendix).

The teacher in this study is a non-native speaker, a Moroccan teacher of English. The students are Moroccan adults who take evening classes in a private language school in Casablanca. They are taking an Intermediate III course, i.e. they have been taking throe hours a week of English for about seventy weeks. The class consists of both continuous and placed students.

The topic in focus was a follow-up of another similar topic, and presumably a brainstorming session for writing a parallel paragraph. The previous topic was based on a reading text about good qualities in an ideal wife and the recorded one was good qualities in an ideal husband. Being in a mixed class, the learners were not only interested but also highly motivated to express their points of view.

4. DATA ANALYSIS ANI) INTERPRETATIONS Before displaying the findings, I think it's worth operationalizing some basic concepts in this investigation: the definition of a question and a referential question. 4.1. What's a question? Neither the definition of a question nor what one question is has been given in any of the mentioned research studies (Lynn, 1987). In other articles, however, definitions and functions of questions are provided. They are defined as"... statements for which a reply is expected."

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(Kissock et al. 1982:2). These authors add that "when a question is asked, people are expected to have an answer and the answer is expected to be right" (ibid.). Another definition deals with the function of a question and states that "when people ask questions, it is because they don’t know the answer." (Xiaoju 1984, reprinted in Rosser et al. 1990:60). In the light of these definitions, what is counted as a question is every utterance that requires an answer regardless of who provides the answer, and that"...would usually stand alone with a question mark at the end: wh questions, inverted question, and uninverted raised intonation forms." (Lynn 1987:67). Rhetorical are beyond the scope of this paper, however. 4.2. Another problem lies in what one question is. Because questions are categorized and counted, it's sometimes difficult to make a sound and confident enough decision about the number of asked questions or about what category they belong in. I faced such difficulties and here are some examples from the data: a) T: Serious 0K? A woman should be serious. b) T: What are the qualities for the husband then? 0K ? (and immediately after, the T. asks)

What are the things admired in a man? c) The questions "what else ?" and "Do you agree about this?" have been repeated many times. One wonders whether it is justifiable enough to count (a) as one question, (b) as two or three questions, or (c) as many times as they occur in the interaction. This problem has been solved by counting each question only once, no !flatter how many times it is repeated or paraphrased. However, the problem of categorizing questions is tackled in the subsequent part.

The problem, however, is that of the research methods and the operational concepts one adopts in a research study. Long and Sato and other researchers must have counted the questions in their data in a different was, but nothing has been specified in their studies.

4.3. What's a referential question? The problem of coding questions is no less difficult. However, for research purposes, I consider a question a referential one if it requires (an) answer(s) that is (are) not known by the person who asks it. This definition is substantiated by Kramsch, who defines the two categories of questions in focus as follows"... display questions : questions in which the student is required to display a knowledge that the teacher already knows" and the referential ones, though the label is not cited by the author, are those where"... the teacher shows the information gap characteristic of natural discourse, in which speakers ask questions only when they need information they do not have" (in Rivers 1987:22). Based on the above mentioned concepts, the teacher asked 21 display questions and 9 referential ones. The total comes to 30. Strikingly, these figures do not compare well with those found in other studies. Long and Sato's figures are: Setting type Natural discourse ESL classroom of questions (NS - NNS) Display qs. 128 476 Referential qs 999 2

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Yet the answer to my first research question confirms the hypotheses in the literature because the display questions outnumber the referential ones. Had the teacher recorded the first part of the lesson, qualities of an ideal wife, he must have asked much more display questions.

T : OK (and then he continues)

Ss : Yeah (and then the T continues).

A third remark is that there is no instance where the students are given the opportunity to give various answers, though they might have held different opinions, particularly when they answered referential questions.

5. CONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPUCATIONS

The interpretation of the findings suggests that the news from the classroom remains unsatisfactory; yet my findings stand far from being generalizable. However, besides the claim for asking more referential questions in the classroom, it is claimed that such questions should be used effectively. Here are some tips, for teachers, to improve their questioning behaviour:

- Allotting enough time, wait-time after posing a question, to allow students to think eventually formulate their answers. Slow learners may have the opportunity to participate accordingly.

As for the second research question, some figures will depict the questioning behaviour of the teacher. He repeated eight questions and paraphrased twelve. He also answered twelve of his questions and repeated nearly ail the answers provided by his students. Here is an example:

SI : Serious T Should be serious ? Yes, serious S2 : Honest T : Honest S3 : Rich T : Honest S3 (again) : Rich T : Rich etc...

Although the teacher asked more referential questions than had been anticipated, he did not use them very effectively. My first remark is that the teacher did not give his students enough time to think about and especially to formulate their answers. In this way, he did not respect the wait-time factor because; in general, referential questions require a certain amount of time to be answered as they are usually addressed to high-thinking skills. Another remark is that the teacher did not trigger his students to show their competencies. Let's consider the following examples: T : Do you remember the word “loose"? Ss : Yes.

T : Do you all agree about that?

I think that it would have been more stimulating and therefore fruitful if the students has been asked to Justify their answers; and this is illustrated in this example: T : (talking about faithless husbands): What about women then? S : Yes teacher, if my husband isn't faithful tome, I won't... I am not... Ss : (mainly female) : It's the same, teacher.

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- Decreasing repeating and paraphrasing questions on the grounds that students are thinking about the answer(s) rather than assuming that the asked question has not been clear enough.

- Decreasing answering one's questions unless they are display questions which are meant to elicit a vocabulary item or a structural pattern.

- Decreasing the repetition of students' answers and keeping the praise to the minimum during an interaction on the basis of getting interaction in class as natural as possible. Naturally, the conversational pattern is two-step, i.e. Question-answer/ initiative-response.

Finally, I should confess that the scope of this paper is very limited in term a of research questions and the investigated areas of questioning as well as its data. J hope that it will stimulate other colleagues to conduct further research studies in this interesting area.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

- Encouraging students to ask questions whenever there is a need for that. For this purpose, one should teach different ways of asking questions in class, particularly those that are related to checking or getting information in a FL classroom, say 'What is the (English) for...?" "How do you spell/say...?" "What a word' mean? etc.

however, some learners, especially slow ones, may claim that they find some referential questions too difficult. Obviously, those who are not used to higher-order questions may not be able to answer them. The most effective way of making these learners familiar with such questions (and therefore improving their learning kills) is gradual training(Ezzaki, 1986; Adams-Smith in Peterson,1986:80).

By asking referential questions and making good use of questioning behaviour, some improvements will definitely take place. Students will come up with long and especially different responses. They will be so stimulated to talk that they may code- switch to compensate for their limited linguistic knowledge. They will also do better at some tasks that require genuine communication, i.e. skills of production: speaking and writing. Teachers, on the other hand, will use textbooks, though structurally designed, effectively and communicatively.

Adams-Smith, D.E. (1986). "Study Modes: Facilitating Progress from Teacher Dependence to Self-Directed Learning". In Peterson Pat Wilcox, ed. ESP in Practice, Washington D.C.: English Language Program Division & Cultural Affairs, USIA.

Brock, C. (1986). "The Effects of Referential Questions on ESL classroom Discourse". in TESOL Quarterly, 20/1:47-59.

Ezzaki, A. (1986). "Questioning in Language Education". In The Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Conference of MATE.

Kissock, C. and Lyortsumm, PT. (1982). A Guide to Questioning Classroom Procedures for Teachers. Hong Kong: Macmillan.

Kramsch, CJ. (1987). "Interactive Discourse in Small and Large Croups". In Rivers, W.M., Ed. Interactive Language Teaching, Cambridge: CUP.

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Long, M.H. (1983) "Native Speaker/Non-native Speaker Conversation in the Second Language Classroom". in on TESOL '8S, 1983:2)7-225. Reprinted in Long, M.H. and Richards, J.C. eds. (1987). Methodology in TESOL: A Book of Readings. Mass: Newbury House.

Lynn, B. (1987). Questions about Questions: an Enquiry into the Study of Teachers' Questioning behaviour in ESL Classroom, Unpublished MA Dissertation, Institute of Education, University of London. Pica, T. and Long, M.H. (1986). The Linguistic and Conversational Performance of Experienced and Inexperienced Teachers" in Day R.R. ed., Talking to Learn, Mass: Newbury Rouse. Richards, J.C. (1987). "The Dilemma of Teacher Education in TESOL" in TESOL Quarterly, 21/2. Kiajou, L. (1984). "In Defence of the Communicative Approach", in ELTI, vol.38/1, Re- printed in Rossner, R. and Bolitho, R. eds (1990), Currents of Change in English Language Teaching, Oxford: OUP.

I - ECHOIC

b. Clarification Requests (eg., What do you mean? I don't understand; What?)

d. Rhetorical: asked for effect only, no answer expected from listeners, answered by speaker (eg. Why did I do that? Because I. ..). (Long and Sato 1983:276)

Long, M.H. and Sato CJ. (1983). "Classroom Foreigner Talk Discourse: Forms and Functions of Teachers' Questions" in Seliger, H.W. and Long, M.H. eds (1983), Classroom Oriented Research in Second Language Acquisition, Mass: Newbury House

APPENDIX

Long and Sato's modified version of Kearsley's taxonomy of questions:

a. Comprehension checks (eg., Alright? OK?; Does everyone understand "polite"?)

c. Confirmation Checks (eg. S: Carefully T: Carefully? Did you say "he"?).

2- EPISTEMIC

a. Referential (eg. Why didn't you do your homework?) b. Display (eg. What's the opposite of "Up" in English?) c. Expressive (eg. It's interesting the different pronunciations we have now, but isn't it?).

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TO TEXTBOOKS

PART 5

EVALUATION LEARNERS' REACTIONS

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ASKING LEARNERS ABOUT

INTRODUCTION

Despite strong claims that learners are essential components in the learning process, they have rarely been asked to talk about their language learning experience. The aim of this paper is to report some of the learners' views on a new textbook The idea was not to find out whether that particular textbook needed improvement for those particular learners. The purpose was to assemble, through the ideas expressed by the textbook, some general notions of learners' views of language and language learning.

2. THE LEARNER AS A POSSIBLE SOURCE OF INFORMATION

The idea that learners could possibly contribute to the learning process is not a new one. The issue was raised already in 1967 with Corder's notion of built-in-syllabus' thus inviting teachers to conform to the learners rather than the converse (in Richard, 1974:27). Yet it is only recently that researchers have attempted to use learners as informants (I am referring here to those researchers interested in the study of learning strategies such as Cohen and Hosenfeld, 1981; Naiman et al, 1978, and others). Further indication that learners are able to reflect upon their language learning process is found in Wenden's investigation (1982) into how adult language learners react to the whole business of language learning . These studies are, of course, largely exploratory in nature and it is too early to generalize their findings. Nevertheless, a degree of consensus seems to emerge as far as conscious intervention is concerned.

3. THE LEARNERS' VIEWS ON THEIR TEXTBOOK

To have the learners' views, one has to go to the learners themselves and elicit information from them. In this study, information was elicited by means of several techniques: questionnaires, personal and group interviews as well as diaries.

The learners involved in the study ere in their fourth year of language learning experience. This meant that they would have had enough experience to be able to talk about it. At the time of the data collection a new Algerian textbook began to be used. Learners had been using it for nearly two years and so they were expected to be relatively familiar with it

The new textbook, locally produced, and ca lied New Lines, was designed along the 'communicative' approach to teaching. It was hoped to provide favourable conditions for learning because it is "based on the latest research in linguistics and the actual foreseeable vocational and cultural needs of Algerian learners of English" (Kisserli, 1981:4). From the

LANGUAGE LEARNING

Safya FADEL-CHERCHALLI

University of Algiers, Algeria.

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introduction of the book, it is clear that predicting how the learner learns best and what he needs to learn come from two sources other than the learner. On the one hand, there is 'research in linguistics' and, on the other hand, there is somebody who foresees the Algerian learners' needs (a team of Algerian teachers under the supervision of an inspector). Unfortunately, neither of these sources seem to be of great help to learners using the "modern Algerian book". Thus, it appears that further changes are necessary. Those changes would have to allow for the learners' views in the official decision-making.

so what issues were raised by learners in trying to evaluate their textbook ? It will be too long to list them all in this paper. So I am just going to give a few examples that I find interesting in terms of the major issues for language teachers.

3.1. Examples of issues raised by learners

3.2.1. The issue of self-study

Of the book so that we'd understand what the texts are ail about. Some of us don't even have dictionaries."

Another interesting issue is the issue of grammar.

One particularity interesting issue is whether the textbook is useful or not for self-study. The majority of the “strong” students do not think so. A close look New Lines indicates that it is not, apparently, particularly suitable for self study For example, it does not provide the keys to exercises; nor does it contain glossaries. Grammatical structures are not taught explicitly and most activities are pair-or group- work. However, it has a review of functions and a list of irregular verbs. The writers’ attempt to produce this review may be useful to learners who think in functional terms; but, from the data, it appears that they think in terms of grammar. What is striking is that the introduction to the students' book in written in English, with the assumption that learners will understand it From a professional judgement, one might infer that perhaps this book is not meant for self-study but only for use in the classroom

Thus, Ahmed wants to change the method because

“If the teacher is absent we can't understand the lesson on our own. When at home, we need a book where we don't have to depend on the teacher." In Faiza’s view, it is difficult to work by oneself when already the instructions require help from the teacher. She reports: “They aren't clear. If the teacher does not explain them we don't understand them by ourselves". Hamida observes "I like English but when I go to the book I am lost. There is no lesson in it I look for lessons there are not any."

Nora Suggests "A glossary of the different words either at the end of the text or at the end

3.1.2. The issue of grammar

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Observing the classes and going through New Lines, one can see that the students are now expected to generalize the grammar rules from a series of examples practiced in class. As a result, some of the "weeks" students said in their Interview that there was "no grammar" in class while some of the "strong" ones said that grammar was there but "abbreviated". It seems as if learners do not want to move away from grammar. They seem to perceive grammar as a useful learning device perhaps because it has always been the normal routine of classroom activities in their whole experience of language learning. Thus, perhaps, alterations in this routine may be felt as frustration because not only are learners expected to learn a "new" language but also to adapt to a "new" way of learning. For many students, grammar should be highlighted as can be inferred from Wahibastatement:

In defence of text-study, Amina observes: "Here for one text we have at least ten exercises ! I would've liked two or three exercises only and perhaps explaining poems. I know we don't understand them much but..."

’s

"There may be some grammar but we don't feel it... We don't feel we're doing any grammar this year!"

The teaching of grammar allowed Azzeddine to be ‘the best in the class in CEM'. Although he is still as good, he now finds it more difficult to understand the lesson because of two things. He states in his interview:

"I like English but I don't like the textbook and the teacher follows the textbook... I don't like it because grammar is not taught properly and also I get bored with the exercises as they are repetitive."

Given the uncertainty the "communicative" learning situation generates, Smain says in his interview that he prefers Practice and Progress.

"Because there is a lot of grammar in it : progressive form, affirmative, interronegative... It's very helpful especially for writing essays."

3.1.3. The issue of the number of exercises found in the textbook A great number of students think that the textbook contains too many exercises and that it would be better to spend more time on the "explication de texte". NewLines, they say, "is exercise after exercise". They feel they should "exploit a text". In Fatima's view: “We could perhaps have more questions on the text because the comprehension of a text is important. Here we don't seek to understand a text As soon as we start a text we jump to exercises. There are no questions on text."

It is interesting that Amina asks for poems. Working on poetry or reciting it is a pattern of learning in Arabic lessons. This may be in conflict with what is required in English lessons. Amina's interest in poetry also leads us to think of the question of literature teaching in a

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foreign language programme. While language and literature may appear to be distinct from the point of view of textbook writers, it could be that, for some learners, literature is also language. 4. CONCLUSION Psychologists, linguists, applied linguists, teachers and the like have tried hard to determined hat should be done to optimize the conditions for language learning. Yet, despite ail their efforts, there is, in various countries, a prevailing feeling of uncertainty and discouragement as to what might provide useful learning . The question raised is where to look next ? In this paper, I have suggested that we should look at the learner as a possible source of information. A knowledge of the learners' views is crucial as it may provide insights into their expectations, feelings, motivation and behaviour and this can supplement views we hold.

Bailey', K.H. (1980). "An introspective analysis of an individual's language learning experience", in Scarcella, R.C. and Krashen, S.D. (eds), 58-69.

Breen, B. (1975). The role of the pupil. London. Routledge & Kegan Paul. Cherchalli, S. (1988). Learners' reactions to their textbook (With special reference to the relation between differential perceptions and differential achievement): A case study of Algerian secondary school learners. Ph.D. thesis, University of Lancaster.

TESOL convention in Hawaii in May 1982.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allwright, R. (1978). "Abdication and responsibility in language teaching.'; Studies in 2nd language acquisition. 2/7,105-121.

Allwright, R.L. (1981). "What do we want teaching materials for?" ELT Journal, 36/1,5-18.

Breen, M.P. and Candun, C. (1980). "The essentials of a communicative curriculum in language teaching". Applied Linguistics, 1/2,89-111.

Wenden, N. A.L. (1986). "What do L2 learners know about their language learning? A second look at retrospective accounts". Applied Linguistics, 7/2, 186-205.

Yoro, C.A. (1982). "me language learner : a consumer with opinions". Paper presented at the 16th

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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

AND THEIR INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Ait Si Selmi,K. University of Algiers, Algeria.

Bellout, Mohammed I University, Oujda, Morocco.

Bensaou,H University of Algiers, Algeria.

Bensemmane ,M . University of Algiers, Algeria.

Bouhout,H Inspectorate of English, Oujda, Morocco.

Britten,D. Textbook Commission, Rabat, Morocco.

Mansouri,B. University of Blida, Mgerta.

Miliani,M. University of Cran, Algeria.

Sadiqi,F. Mohammed Ben AbdelIah University, Fès, Morocco.

Sakaki,M. Inspectorate of English, Oujda, Morocco.

Arab,S.A University of Algiers, Algeria.

Bendali-Braham,E. University of Blida, Algeria.

Bensemmane,F. University of Algiers, Algeria.

Bouhamadouche,Z. Inspectorate of English, Algiers, Algeria.

Bouziane,A. Lycée Omar Ibn A' Khattab, Casablanca, Morocco.

Dellal,M. Mohammed I University, Oujda, Morocco. El Haddan,M Hassan II Institute of Agronomy, Rabat, Morocco. Ennaji,M. Mohammed Ben Abdellah University, Fès, Morocco. Ennassiri,M.K Abdelmalek Es-Saâdi University, Tetouan, Morocco. Fadel-Cherchalli University of Algiers, Mgeria. Khaldi,K. University of Algiers, Algeria. Lakhdar-Baraka,SM University of Oran, Algeria.

Melouk,M. Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco. Meziani,A. Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco.

Miller,T. USIS, Rabat, Morocco.

Saib,J. Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco.

Salhi,R. Faculty of Letters, Tunis I, Tunisia. Sanders,A. British Council, Rabat, Morocco. Sellam,A. Mohammed I University, Oujda, Morocco. Zaki,A. Hassan II Institute of Agronomy, Rabat, Morocco.

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