Frontiers of Language and Teaching

Volume 2 2011

Proceedings of the 2011 International Online Language Conference (IOLC 2011)

ISBN-10: 1612335594 ISBN-13: 9781612335599 Boca Raton, Florida, USA

Table of Contents Training EFL Students in Cultural Event Planning and Implementation .................................5 Comparison of Time Adverbials in English and Macedonian in a Corpus of Written Works Translated from Macedonian into English by English Native Speakers ................................ 15 Exploring the Use of Audio Files in Foreign Language Mobile Learning: Tips for Educational Practitioners ..................................................................................................... 28 Experimentation of English Language by Some Women Writers: Shashi Deshpande, Bapsi Sidhwa, Uzma ASlam Khan and Tony Morrison.................................................................. 37 Teaching Academic Genres in Digital Contexts ................................................................... 46 Analysis of the Function of Picture Books and Decoding Images in Children Literature ...... 52 Postcolonialism, Children, and their Literature..................................................................... 63 Text-oriented Competence and the Ways for its Achievement .............................................. 75 Contrastive Linguistics: Rhetorical Study of Social Deixis of English and Persian Novels as Non-Academic Texts ....................................................................................................... 82 Language and Gender: Do Women Speak a Better Language? ............................................. 90 Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) in Persian: Counter Evidence for its Universality ............. 94 Tasks in Language Teaching: A New Orientation .............................................................. 104 Scaffolding: A Factor of Second Language Development .................................................. 110 Pedagogical Application of Weblogging in EFL Education: Practices and Challenges ....... 119 English Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Islamic Azad University Students of Sirjan and Its Relation to Major .......................................................................................................... 133 Organizing Vygotskian-based Mediating Classrooms to Enhance EFL Learners Communication Abilities ................................................................................................... 143 Demotivating Factors in the EFL Environment .................................................................. 151 Teaching EFL Writing in Russia: Traditional and Current Approaches in Teaching Writing Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 157 ESP Education in Tunisia: the Way for a Reform............................................................... 166 Polysemy in Adults Second Language Acquisition and Learning: The Cases of apophrase and Morphology me in Modern Greek .................................................................. 172 Devoicing of Voiced English Stops and Affricates [ b, d, g, dz ] in Word-final Position: An Articulation Problem for Turkish EFL Learners ................................................................. 183 Computer Assisted Pronunciation Teaching: From the Past to the Present with its Limitations and Pedagogical Implications .......................................................................... 193 2

Secondary School Students Used to Traditional Lessons Face Cooperative Learning: Perceptions over Time and Differences due to Gender ....................................................... 203 Enhancing English Vocabulary Learning Using SMS in Rural Areas ................................. 211 Teaching Potential of Mass-Media Concepts...................................................................... 216 Blended Learning in a Traditional Classroom .................................................................... 223 Student Perceptions of Language Learning with Facebook: An Exploratory Study of Writing-Based Activities.................................................................................................... 230 Comparative Analysis of Pragmatic Formulas with Opaque Inner Form in English and Turkish Languages ............................................................................................................ 250 Enhancing Texts Written Language Characteristics through Grammatical Metaphor in Research Articles ............................................................................................................... 258 The Importance of Teaching Writing in a Communicative way in EFL Classes in Albania 274 An Exploratory Study of Hedges Used in the EFL Yemeni Undergraduates Job Application Letter .............................................................................................................. 280 The Effect of Model Essays on Developing Accuracy and Complexity of EFL Learners Writing in the Iranian Context............................................................................................ 288 Autonomous Learning: Is it one size fits all?...................................................................... 311 English to Ameliorate the Productivity of the Organizations: The Effect of Knowing English on the Attitudes of the Students of Management.................................................... 321 The Effect of Cooperative Teaching Techniques on the Comprehension and Production of L2 Idioms .......................................................................................................................... 327 Language Instruction and Acquisition (Case study: West Africa) ....................................... 334 Reading Story Books and Its Impact upon Language Development in Persian Child Discourse........................................................................................................................... 339 Language Teacher Education in Brazil: Discourses of pre and in-service teachers .............. 355 The Interface between Morphology and Pragmatics in Persian Affixes and Clitics ............ 365 Metaphonological Awareness and Learning English Pronunciation .................................... 372 Opportunities and Challenges in ELT: A Teachers Pride vs. Plight ................................... 381 A Scheme for the Study of Arabization Planning ............................................................... 388 The Use of CALL in Improving Speaking Competency for Information and Technology Department Students .......................................................................................................... 394 MTBMLE in the Philippines: Perceptions, Attitudes, and Outlook..................................... 405 Monolinguals, Multilinguals and Size of Receptive Vocabulary......................................... 415 Gender of teacher and learning of EFL students in Iran ...................................................... 423 3

The Need for Self-Directed Training to Improve ESP Learners Self-Directed Language Learning at Distance Education of Iran .............................................................................. 429 Teaching Adults: Some Techniques and Strategies for Developing Adults Language Proficiency ........................................................................................................................ 437 The Impact of Teacher Feedback and Peer Feedback on the Writing Performance of EFL Students with Different Learning Styles ............................................................................. 445 The Business of Business English: An Overview ............................................................... 453 Similarities and differences of wrong English Pronunciation among the Chinese, Indian and Malaysian Speakers ..................................................................................................... 454 Incorporating Peer Feedback in ESL Classroom: Learning through Reflection ................... 455 Transgressing the Written Literary Norm and Redefining Textness in Contemporary Childrens Literature .......................................................................................................... 465 Secondary School EFL Teachers beliefs about English Language Assessment in Iran ...... 476 Analyzing Vantage Point in Local and Global TV News: A case of Free Direct and Free Indirect Quotations ............................................................................................................ 484 An Investigation of Iranian EFL Learners Formality of Writing Regarding Their Emotional Intelligence ....................................................................................................... 500 English Language Teaching in India and Body Language .................................................. 510 Motivation to Complete Homework: Insights from ESL/EFL Learners in Malaysia ........... 514 Specific Aspects of Teaching Foreign Languages to Seniors, students of Universities of the Third Age..................................................................................................................... 520 EFL Learners Sensitivity to Linguistic and Discourse Factors in the Process of Anaphoric Resolution ......................................................................................................................... 526 Education Must Change: Time for PBL?............................................................................ 540

Training EFL Students in Cultural Event Planning and Implementation Dr. Liliana Landolfi Universit degli Studi di Napoli LOrientale, Italy lilando2@tin.it Abstract The academic year 2009/2010 has seen the birth of a new post-bachelor degree in Languages and Intercultural Communication in the Euro-Mediterranean Area at the University of Naples LOrientale, Italy. The nature of this degree is unusual since it represents a joint venture between the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures and the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy. Graduates are meant to leave the program with a keen awareness of the importance of the multilingual and intercultural approach required to mediate, re-mediate and inter-mediate the ties that keep members of the multi-faceted Mediterranean reality connected. In order to satisfy some of the degree goals and cultivate mediation skills via verbal, non-verbal, and persuasive communication, first-year students attended a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) course on communication, with a special focus on Peace Education. Theory and practice combined and culminated in the implementation of the first academic convention entirely organized and run by EFL students. Peace Open Day 1 (POD 1) was held on May 26, 2010. Organizers, participants, academicians, and radio interviewees attested its full success and hoped for a POD 2 to see the light in a near future. Recent developments demonstrate that the obtained success was not ephemeral. This paper supports CLIL methodology; traces the main steps in the implementation of a cultural event as the outcome of a laboratory for foreign language learning, presents original data taken from the convention, and advocates the inclusion of peace education in foreign language curricula. Keywords: CLIL-based Methodology, Mediation skills, Peace Education Opening Scenario Recent developments of the Barcelona Process (1995) are oriented toward the creation of a Mediterranean Union (MU) that may represent and characterize, within the larger European (EU) frame, the specific peculiarities, diversities, and congruities of the Mediterranean coastal countries. These developments pushed the language committee members of the faculties of Foreign Languages and Literatures and Arts and Philosophy at the University of Naples LOrientale Italy, to create a new co-directed post-bachelor degree, entitled Languages and Intercultural Communication in the Euro-Mediterranean Area (LM), that could offer interested students a learning environment where they could investigate and face the MU multifaceted reality, as well as be trained for the new mediating professions that the interwoven contemporary realities of the Mediterranean area would need. Enrolling students could choose between two parallel curricula, LM-38 or LM-92, both made up of 120 credits and to be completed over a two-year path (for details see http://www.unior.it). The degree started in the academic year 2009/2010 and has just successfully concluded its first complete cycle. It promotes understanding and respect of world languages and cultures but gives particular attention to the ones that are in use within the Mediterranean area. To be more precise, students are offered the possibility of studying, understanding, 5

and experimenting with these languages: Albanese, Arabic, Bulgarian, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Russian, Slavic languages, and Spanish. Yet the general focus of the degree is not confined to the study of languagesit goes beyond. It touches upon other aspects of the above-mentioned languages and cultures, such as their philological roots and relevant literatures. It also analyzes their cultural, political, religious, and socio-economic transformations, and focuses on their historical, geographical, and artistic specificities. Further, in consideration of the fact that in our fast-changing world and international sociocultural and politic interconnections, knowing how to communicate in English is of help for world-wide contacts, mediations, and interactions, the degree is also designed so as to allow students to develop and potentiate their knowledge of English as a lingua franca (Mauranen and Rant, 2009; Ostler, 2010) and as an international vehicle of communication. During the degree, students become more and more aware of how much todays world needs a multilingual and intercultural attitude to mediate, re-mediate, and inter-mediate among state members of the Mediterranean reality. This attitude is the most powerful ingredient for peaceful relationships creating and maintaining a sound and long-lasting net of harmonic relations, effective connections, and healthy social rapport. In general, students have less innate understanding of multicultural issues than lay adults. But that situation can be changed if students become open to a multilingual and intercultural way of thinking, are offered the possibility of stepping above the barriers and limitations of a single language and culture, and stay tuned in to others languages, cultures, and needs. The LM degree is organized so that this type of awareness is gradually built through the various teaching/learning settings that students are offered, in the diverse subject matter, and via the different teaching styles professors adopt. Frontal teaching, interactive seminars, self-access paths (guided, semi-guided, and autonomous), practical laboratories, external/internal stages, and independent self-directed research projects on topics specific to the degree are just some of the most frequently adopted learning environments in use. They weave a harmonic, multifaceted, and strategic pedagogical network that favors and supports the various kinds of intelligence (Gardner, 2006) and learning styles (Reid, 2005). Methodological Framework Multilingual and intercultural issues (Neuliep, 2009), with their multifaceted and everchanging aspects, are better touched upon and understood if interactants work within practical boundaries and self-experience some of the overt issues and/or covert implications connected with multiculturalism and plurilingual education (Council of Europe, 2007; Commission of the European Communities, 2008). Thus, the two-year course of English (16 credits for a total of 100 frontal teaching hours) of the LM degree was designed so as to develop/potentiate communication skills (first year) and instill/encourage leadership and guidance skills (second year) within a peace-oriented framework common to both years. The Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) methodological framework (Eurydice, 2006; Socrates-Comenius, 2006) was chosen for both years so as to allow for traditional language-related aspects (e.g., grammar, linguistics, textuality, pragmatics) to be taken care of, and diverse content focuses to be developed across years. The Eurydice study (2006) suggests that CLIL is a generic term to describe a variety of classroom environments where a second language (L2), a minority language, or any equally 6

official/national language is used to teach other than the L2 language itself. This definition expands the one proposed by Marsh (2002) but still leaves out teaching/learning situations where the content to be learned is taught via the language to be acquired. Landolfi (2009) has further expanded the definition and proposed to consider CLIL environments all those language settings where contents other than the L2 (e.g., communication skills, mediation techniques, public speech delivery, peace education, leadership, and so on), are taught via the target language (English in the present case). Though the most appropriate definition of CLIL is still being debated, the validity of a CLIL approach for second-language learning (SLL) has been accepted all over the world. Initially, CLIL settings have found significant applications in elementary and secondary schools in Europe (Dillon, 2008; Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols, 2008). To date, however, CLIL instruction has been fully accepted and welcomed also at university level, and its advantages are visible in a number of studies (Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010; Sisti, 2009). Indeed, the latest university-level reforms in Italy (http://www.istruzione.it/) encourage that a number of subjects in different disciplines be taught in a foreign language (http://www.miur.it/UserFiles/2897.pdf),. Pedagogical Structure of the Course Within this post-bachelor degree, I conducted the two courses of English Language and Linguistics (first and second year). The first-year course, which is the only one the present paper reports about, took place in the first semester of the academic year 2009-2010 and was organized so that the majority of the above mentioned pedagogical settings could be experimented with. The course (8 credits) lasted fifty class hours and was totally conducted in English. Besides the support of the traditional book-based tools, the syllabus was enriched with the facilities offered by a variety of more contemporary media, including educational videos, YouTube videos, movies, short TV segments, TV ads, Internet-available interviews, and audio-files on communication modes and peace matters. Students, however, were also required to attend a fifty-hour grammar-based course of English run by a native speaker, and to work autonomously, outside the classroom context, for a minimum of one-hundred extra hours. Further, the students who contributed to the convention, that followed and derived from the course (soon to be described), also attended a 20-hour laboratory (2 credits) on Cultural event planning and implementation (see Tab. 1). As Tab.1 shows, within a CLIL frame, the first year of the course dealt with verbal (Knapp & Hall, 2009; Perkins, 2007), non-verbal (Warthon, 2009), and persuasive (Brock & Green 2005; Hogan, 2007) communication investigating peace education and peace maintenance (Bajaj, 2008) as content areas. The second year, instead, focussed on leadership and guidance. (Once again, the results of the second-year, though highly positive, are not reported in this paper.) These choices derived from and responded to a number of decisions. Major among them was the consideration that, in a degree oriented toward language mediation and intermediation, the acquisition of communication skills becomes fundamental as well as the instillation and the development of peacemaking and peacenurturing skills.

Table 1: Pedagogical structure of the course of English Language and Linguistics I and II FIRST YEAR Hours for Language course Course Credits independent study CLIL focus hours (native hours speaker) and team-work - Verbal, non-verbal and persuasive communication 8 50 50 100 - peace education and peace maintenance LABORATORY on Cultural event planning and implementation Lab. Hours Focus Planning and implementing POD 1: - integrated strategies: brainstorming sessions, decisionmaking meetings, task assignments and task accomplishments 20 - contacts inside/outside university - management of time, money, formalities, tasks, responsibilities, etc. SECOND YEAR Language course Hours for hours (native independent study speaker) and teamwork 50 100

Credits

Credits

Course hours

CLIL focus Leadership and guidance for peace education and peace maintenance

50

During the first year, a variety of techniques and daily praxes were used to train students in communication skills. These included brain-storming, problem solving, creating and compiling questionnaires, analyzing texts, interviews, debates, class speeches, presentations, demonstrations, argumentations, mind maps, sequential thinking, lecturettes, and role-playing. Students were involved in the integration and factual use of all the skills linked to SLL, ranging from oral/written comprehension and production to guided, semiguided, and autonomous activities. An array of learning settings and formats (e.g., selfstudy, pair work, group work, teamwork, e-learning, and chats) was adopted to make students capable of dealing with their personal/interpersonal conflicts (Weeks, 1994) in their private and social lives, as well as becoming peace promoters via focusing on topics connected, but not limited to, non-violent communication (Marshall, 2003). Students were also trained in cross-cultural understanding (Samovar, Porter & McDaniel, 2011) and conflict resolution (Ramsbotham, Woodhouse & Miall, 2011) via practical role-playing and cross-class encounters. Roots of POD 1 The innovative content areas selected for the LM first course of English, the integrated framework offered by CLIL methodology, the freedom students experienced throughout the course, together with the possibility they were granted of speaking out about (Landolfi 2011) aspects related to their learning path in the process of developing their performance, the attention paid to the different learning styles, as well as the variety of daily praxes and 8

learning strategies adopted in class, galvanized the students and made the class a real success in a number of ways, to the point of triggering, in the students, the desire to go beyond the class requirements and experiment with the creation of a public event (see next section). For example, just to mention some of the positive results, it is worth considering that a huge majority of the students (90%): attended more than 85% of the course lessons, though there was no attendance requirement, as for other university courses enjoyed and happily co-constructed an active, re-active, and pro-active classroom atmosphere appreciated the full-immersion setting that was created during class hours, group work, pair work, teamwork, and role-playing during class hours and beyond, as expressed in the anonymous final class comments and reactions maintained constantly active an e-mail channel among class members and professors worked on creative and independent peace-connected research projects developed a new sense of awareness toward language learning, language matters, and learning responsibilities got excellent grades applied for and got Erasmus scholarships (80% of the students) completed all the courses that were required during the first year, in spite of the fact that in other degree, the percentage of fuoricorso (students who do not complete all the yearly academic requirements in time) is high Indeed, the list could be longer, as the dots suggest and the students anonymous comments at the end of the course indicate. However, and most of all, remarkable resulted the students enthusiasm and full cooperation in the successful accomplishment of the course requirements, as well as the friendly sense of cooperation among class members, which was gradually built during language-oriented activities on peace matters inside and outside the classroom. These factors worked as a propellant trigger toward activating other learning settings (e.g.: the peace cafe, the rainbow circle) where the students integrated peace-matters and language learning. Thus, given the quality of the students research projects, in a full democratic modality, it was decided that the students who wanted to transform their research projects into formal presentations for a public event on peace matters, could take part in a language laboratory on Cultural event planning and implementation (2 credits), thus be trained and become active organizers of such an event. To my surprise, the consensus was almost total: 85% of the students agreed on experimenting practically what they had learned during course hours and share their project findings with fellow students and academicians. This ideawhich initially seemed to all the students and to me -, quite shocking for the embedding tradition-geared academic context and almost impossible to be reached by fourth-year students of English (as students who attend the first year of a post-bachelor degree are called)turned out to be an interesting challenge. It was a perfect way to transform CLIL methodology into CLIL practice. Further, given that LM graduates are expected, among other things, to become event planners, the organization of a convention (as students decided to call the event) resulted in perfect alignment with the degree requirements. For the university, it was going to be the first time to host a convention totally organized and run by fourth-year students. For the students themselves, the event was going to be the first time to experiment with what they just learned in class, practice communication modes, and use English for a public speech. 9

Indeed, the planning and the implementation of the event turned out to be a great social and linguistic growth experience for the students (as their anonymous comments attest) who volunteered to play an active role. In spite of all the possible difficulties (students innate shyness for public performances, technical support, time boundaries, etc.) and constraints (university permission, location, sponsoring support, etc.), the conjoined efforts of students, language instructors, students families, and university exponents concretized and gave birth to the cultural event Peace Open Day 1 (POD 1). Planning and Implementing POD 1 POD 1 took place on May 26, 2010, at the University of Naples LOrientale under the auspices of both faculties chairs and language exponents, in the presence of students, professors, family members, friends, and media technicians. It turned out to be a felicitous experience for all the participants, regardless of their roles, as well as for people in the audience (check a radio interview on the event http://www.radiorientale.unior.it/index.php?start=30 ). However, as all the academicians who have organized conventions or other socio-cultural public events would agree, a lot of work was necessary for the convention to become a reality. Indeed, any convention, even if only one day long, requires many days of advance planning and a significant amount of patience among the organizers. POD 1 was not an exception, and students had to work really hard to organize and run the entire event in English. My role, as supervisor and coordinator, was intentionally indirect and unobtrusive, though present and constant. I was supported by Robin Lindsay, the active native-tutor who had worked with the students during course hours. Robin took care of polishing up the students public performance, monitoring the linguistic, phonological, and syntactic aspects of their presentations. The students who enrolled in the laboratory met two hours, twice a week, for ten weeks in a row. All the planning aspects were taken care of during the laboratory hours. The laboratory was in English (with some Italian interference), structured informally, articulated in brainstorming sessions, decision-making meetings, task assignments and task accomplishments (Vella 2000), oral and written reports, minute taking, training on PowerPoint and video-making, try-outs, and more. These activities were fundamental to touch upon, put into practice, and solve the various aspects necessary for the implementation of POD 1. In turn, all the students worked as in-progress reporters, taking formal minutes on what was achieved in the laboratory hours and touching upon the weekly task assignments, the contacts to develop, the remaining steps to be accomplished, etc. Students self-decided to be speakers (see Appendix A for the program) or helpers both behind the scenes and during the event (hostess, moderator, videographer, reporter, videoDJ, interviewer, food and beverage provider, and so on). Regardless of this division, but respectful of their personal attitudes and wishes, the students self-selected to work within one of five teams: CONTACT KEEPERS, FUND RAISERS AND MONEY HOLDERS, SETTING ORGANIZERS, REFRESHMENT SUPPLIERS, and GADGET PROPONENTS. Though, all of the students were responsible for making decisions and managing the entire process, each team had its own specific tasks to accomplish and to report about during the weekly meetings. In particular: had to create and maintain contacts within and beyond the academic environment, write e-mails, create an invitation and a welcoming refrain, work on the brochure and the event program, contact and get a consensus from
CONTACT KEEPERS

10

moderators, keep team members informed on who was doing what, what and how something had to be done, and in what time. FUND RAISERS AND MONEY HOLDERS had tasks related to finding sponsors, writing letters to promote the event, and virtually administering the little monetary fund that was granted by both faculties. They had to check about the cost of all refreshments and beverages, be responsible for buying what was agreed upon, and delivering everything to the refreshments supplier-team. SETTING ORGANIZERS had to identify the location (see photo 11), ask for permission, organize diverse settings for the presentations and the breaks (coffee and lunch). They were responsible for providing electronic support, video-taping the event, creating (see Appendix B) a photo-album (before, during, and after the social event), as well as for embellishing the convention area (flowers, speaker names, trays with water, etc.) and cleaning it after the event. REFRESHMENT SUPPLIERS were to search on the Internet and identify recipes for typical dishes of the various Mediterranean coastal countries and prepare some of them (see photos 13 and 14) for the Lunch (Arab hummus, French rolls, Greek salad and eggplant salad, Italian fluid chocolate for fruit skewers, Lebanese couscous, Spanish gazpacho, Turkish sesame crackers, etc.). They also had to draw a food map (see photo 13), prepare a list of the ingredients, and copies of the recipes, gather utensils to serve during the event, and arrange taste samplings during laboratory hours for team members. GADGET PROPONENTS had to take care of all the aspects linked to what speakers would wear during the convention (badge, names, lucky clover, etc.) and the convention visitors would take with them after the convention (e.g.: A peace thought for the day, a little sticker to wear, etc.) and contribute to during the event (e.g.: Give-us-a-comment card, Give-us-a-hand card, etc.). They had to search for peace definitions, aphorisms on peace, acronyms for PEACE (see photo 4), take care of the actualization of the POD Tapestry (see photos 5, 7, and 8), and prepare the opening video Welcome to POD 1 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/6n8860) and closing video Backstage alive (http://www.sendspace.com/file/wrg6vi).

Students were constantly involved with taking decisions and solving problems in relation to all of the facets that the realization of POD 1 was bringing to light. Though on the surface they were organizing a public convention, at a deeper level they were learning how to activate a variety of personal skills, working together and helping each other toward the achievement of a common goal. They were living through the concepts about effective communication skills they had been learning. Dynamics of mediation and inter-personal mediation, as well as social re-mediation were constantly active during the academic meetings as well as in the students social lives. Positive and negative emotions (Landolfi, 2009), stress reactions, fears and conflicts did occur but they were all faced and dealt with in an action mode (I face a problem and I act on it searching for a solution.) rather than in a re-action mode (I encounter the problem but I run away or dismiss/minimize it.). Operational and functional seeds were implanted for the peace holders of tomorrow. Indeed, the sound and long-lasting net of harmonic relations, effective connections, and healthy rapport that the students were capable of creating during the laboratory hours were a significant added value to the entire implementation. The acquired communication skills practiced within a CLIL-based peace education framework contributed positively to the human growth of the students.

11

Conclusive Remarks When learning a foreign language, students are generally asked to perform in class in guided or semi-guided contexts of communication which are meant to simulate real situations and are subject to the teachers control and, most unfortunate, evaluation. The possibility for them to perform in the target language and for real purposes are very limited indeed. This situation, which is particularly true in academic settings with overcrowded classes and time limits for program accomplishment, does not favor linguistic independence, expressive spontaneity, and personal creativity. As a result, students linguistic performance generally suffers, and they remain at scholastic level that is not acceptable in the international world we all live in. On the contrary, letting the students organize and put on a cultural event gave them the opportunity of acting on their proficiency level and foreign language awareness. Students gained a flavor of what they could reach becoming communicatively skilled and fluent in English. That represents a significant accomplishment for citizens of the Mediterranean area, where dozens of languages coexist and intermingle and where an appropriate and functional knowledge of English, as a lingua franca, is a valid tool for activating contacts and maintaining them. Indeed, as it appeared clear from the students final comments and the personal communications during office hours throughout the school year, a number of co-occurring factors made the difference between a traditional Language and Linguistics course of English and a CLIL version of the same. Students mentioned zoomed out valuable considerations (see listed below) which, far from being exhaustive, support the qualities that CLIL methodology offers. For these students, among the things so far mentioned, both pedagogically relevant and socially valid factors made the difference. For example, they all stated appreciation and enjoyment for the pleasant and relaxed classroom atmosphere; class-members support; possibility of openly manifesting difficulties and learning blocks so to be helped immersion in a language learning environment where the L2 was spoken all the time; building of social and collaborative relationships across class participants multimedia support and the use of electronic and visual devices; acquisition of presentation and video-making skills various forms of interaction: in class, outside the class, during the collaborative study groups and/or the teamwork; practical and concrete implementation of a cultural event; public recognition of the implemented efforts, besides professors availability and unobtrusiveness.

All of these favorable aspects became manifest particularly thanks to the CLIL environment and the selected content areas. Indeed, the findings of this study seem to highlight that the more the students become co-actors in the learning experience, the better their results. In the context so far described, the organization and implementation of a social event turned out to be a highly productive environment for a CLIL approach. Selfconsciousness about their role as language learners and self-awareness about the required proficiency level, as well as their learning modalities and their novel capacity as selfevaluators of contents and personal achievements, nurtured via a number of tools offered

12

at different stages of the course, made students more and more aware of their overt/covert intended goals as well as about the ways to achieve them. All of these considerations support the design of the recent academic reform in Italy. They suggest that university students are ready for CLIL experiences, and call for a new generation of language professors, open to the methodological changes CLIL requires. In the contemporary globalized world where everything is fast, the possibility of achieving two goals at once (content and foreign language learning) seems very appealing, and CLIL settings are an efficient and functional answer to modern demands of expertise in foreign languages and in a variety of contents. I would like to conclude this paper thanking all the members of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures and the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy who contributed with their warm support to the positive accomplishment of POD 1. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the group of students I had the opportunity to lead. It was definitely one of the most enriching group with whom I have had the joy and the privilege of working. References Bajaj, M. (2008). (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Peace Education. Charlotte, NC. Information Age Publishing, Inc. Barcelona Declaration adopted at the Euro-Mediterranean Conference 27/28-11-1995. [Online] Available at: http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2005/july/tradoc_124236.pdf [Accessed 3 July 2011]. Brock, T.C. & Green. M.C. (2005). (Eds.) Persuasion: Psychological Insights and Perspectives. London. SAGE Publications Inc. Commission of the European Communities. (2008). Multilingualism: An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitment. Brussels. [Online] Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/pdf/com/2008_0566_en.pdf [Re-accessed 7 July 2011]. Council of Europe. (2007). From Linguistic Diversity to Plurilingual Education: Guide for the Development of Language Education Policies in Europe. [Online]. Available at: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Guide_niveau2_EN.asp [Accessed 29 June 2009]. Coyle, D., Hood, P. & Marsh, D. (2010). Content and Language Integrated Learning. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. Dillon, A.M. (2008). The CLIL approach in Irish primary schools. A multilingual perspective. CLIL practice: Perspectives from the Field. [Online]. Available at: http://www.atriumlinguarum.org/contenido/print%20Article.pdf [Re-accessed 20 June 2011]. Eurydice. (2006). Content and Language Integrated Learning(CLIL) at School in Europe. Brussels. Eurydice. Garner, H. (2006). Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons. New York. Basic Books. Hogan, K. (2007). The psychology of Persuasion. Gretna, LU. Pelican Publishing Company. MUIR (2011). CLIL Methodology at University Level. [Online]. Available at http://www.miur.it/UserFiles/2897.pdf [Accessed July 5 2011]. MUIR (2011). Italian University Reform 2010. [Online]. Available at http://www.istruzione.it/ [Accessed July 5 2011]. Knapp, M. & Hall, J. (2009). Non-Verbal Communication in Human Interaction. 7th Edition. Boston, MA. Wadsworth Publishing Co.

13

Landolfi, L. (2009). CLIL in the class of English in Flora Sisti (Ed.). CLIL Methodology in University instruction: Online and in classroom. An emerging framework. Urbino. Guerra Edizioni. pp.175-189. Landolfi, L. (2009). Emotions and visualizations: where heart and mind intermingle In Azadeh Shafaei- Mehran Nejati (Ed.) Annals of language and Learning: Proceedings of the 2009 International Online Language Conference (IOLC 2009). Boca Raton. Universal-Publishers. Landolfi, L. (2011). Voice to Students 7th International Conference on Education. Samos Conference proceedings. Athenes. Stadiou, TK. Volume B. pp. 164-169. Marsh, D. (2002). CLIL/EMILE The European dimension. Jyvskyl. University of Jyvskyl UniCOM- Continuing Education Centre. Marshall, B.R. (2003). Non Violent Communication: A Language of Life. 2 nd Edition. Encintas, CA. PuddleDancer Press. Mehisto, P., Marsh, D. & Frigols, M.J. (2008). Uncovering CLIL. Printed in China. Macmillan Books for Teachers. Mauranen, A. & Ranta, E. (Eds.). (2009). English as a Lingua Franca. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Neuliep, J.W. (2009). 4th Edition. Intercultural Communication: A contextual Approach. London. SAGE Publications Inc. Osteler, N. (2010). The Last Lingua Franca. New York. Walker & Company. Perkins, P.S., (2007). The Art and Science of Communication: tools for effective Communication in the Workplace. Hoboken, N.J. John Wiley & Sons Inc. POD 1 videos. (2010). Welcome to POD 1 [Online]. Available at http://www.sendspace.com/file/6n8860 [Accessed July 26 2011] and Backstage alive [Online]. Available at http://www.sendspace.com/file/wrg6vi. [Accessed July 26 2011]. Ramsbotham, O., Woodhouse, T. & Miall, H. (2011). Contemporary Conflict Resolution. 3 rd Edition. Cambridge. Polity Press. Reid, G. (2005). Learning Styles and Inclusion. London. Paul Chapman Publishing. Samovar, L.A., Porter, R.E. & McDaniel, E.R. (2011). Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Boston, MA. Wadsworth Publishing Co. Sisti, F. (2009). (Ed.). CLIL Methodology in University instruction: Online and in classroom. An emerging framework. Urbino. Guerra Edizioni. Socrates-Comenius 2.1. (2006). CLIL across Contexts. A Scaffolding Framework for CLIL Teacher Education. [Online]. Available at: http://clil.uni.lu/ [Re-accessed 4 July 2011]. Vella, J. (2000). Taking Learning to Tasks: Creative Strategies for Teaching Adults. San Francisco, CA. Jossey-Bass Inc. Publishers. Warthon, T. (2009). Pragmatics and Non-verbal Communication. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. Weeks, D. (1994). The eight essential steps to conflict resolution. New York, NY. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam.

14

Comparison of Time Adverbials in English and Macedonian in a Corpus of Written Works Translated from Macedonian into English by English Native Speakers Jovanka Jovanchevska-Milenkoska University American College Skopje, Macedonia jovankaj@uacs.edu.mk

Abstract This paper deals with time adverbials as lexical temporal sentence elements, and presents the results of a time adverbials research in English and Macedonian. The research treats differences and similarities of time adverbials from morphological, syntactical, and positional point of view. Corpus in this research is mainly literary and fewer academic works translated (fully or partly) from Macedonian into English by English native speakers. Main accent was put on the positional features of time adverbials in both languages. The problems encountered in the course of the research are discussed in this paper as well, such as: the translator, the type of chosen corpus, the theoretical grammatical background present in both languages, the existence of national corpora, etc. The paper emphasizes the importance of time adverbials in a linguistic system and aims to help: language teachers and learners to use time adverbials correctly without the influence of the mother tongue; Macedonian translators to be able to formally identify and place semantically different English time adverbials in their most preferred positions; and linguists to deepen the knowledge of Macedonian as well as English time adverbials, and further develop the field of lexical temporal markers in the study of linguistics. Keywords: Time Adverbial, Linguistics, Position Introduction This research aims at elaborate and concise presentation of Macedonian time adverbials in comparison to English time adverbials. Having the background theory of English linguistics in perspective (as well as the research methodology) (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik, 1985; Huddleston & Pullum, 2002; Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finega, 1999) and using it as a comparison milestone, this research attempts to offer a detailed and versatile description of Macedonian time adverbials from morphosyntactic and positional point of view. The semantics of Macedonian time adverbials is a rather complex field of study and it will be substantially analyzed in a further research. The research objectives are to provide the gap in Macedonian linguistics of clear identification and description of Macedonian time adverbials and supply broader and more comprehensive comparative view of English and Macedonian time adverbials. These research objectives should help build Macedonian theoretical linguistics, improve the translation process from Macedonian into English and vice versa regarding time adverbials, their form and position, as well as aid the learning process of Macedonian ESL/EFL learners through identification of the usage of English time adverbials, as well as their interaction with other temporal markers in the sentence (structural, lexical and prosodic). Literature Review English linguists have contributed sufficiently in the field of temporal language phenomena, though not as much in the area of lexical temporal markers. Some linguists 15

(Klein, 2008; Jaszczolt, 2009) maintain that this field is generally neglected by the majority of the linguists, especially in comparison with the structural temporal markers (grammatical tense and aspect). However, time adverbials have been closely examined by major linguists (Quirk et al.,1985; Huddleston & Pullum, 2002; Biber et. al, 1999) and others (Hasselgard, 2010; Ernst, 2004; Cinque, 2004). Macedonian linguistics currently lacks any theoretical foundations concerning adverbials in general (including time adverbials), their morphological forms, sentence position, semantic descriptions, rate of occurrence, etc., i.e. there is a shortcoming of adverbial research beyond the general and most basic definition (-, 1994; , 2008; -, 1990). Most of Macedonian linguistics/grammar research deals with the rather intricate tense system and verbal-lexical categories (verboids), almost completely disregarding the taxonomical linguistic area of time adverbials. Theoretical findings of the three most influential English comprehensive and extensive grammars of the last three decades were used (Quirk et al.,1985; Huddleston & Pullum, 2002; Biber et. al, 1999), while in Macedonian the comprehensive grammar of Blazhe Koneski ( , 1996; first published in 1952/1954) and several other contemporary Macedonian grammar books (, 2008; -, 1994; , 1996; -, 1990; , 1990; , 2003). Methodology In the first two parts of the research the existent theoretical grounds in English and Macedonian are thoroughly presented. The third part is the comparative study. Considering the fact that currently no national Macedonian corpus is available (only portioned small-scale corpora devised for special purposes), this research was based on a specially compiled corpus1 comprised of translations from Macedonian into English done by native English speakers. Time adverbials were extracted together with their host sentence-like constructions (single predicate sentences or clauses), and were systematically and statistically analyzed in both translational equivalents. 3160 temporal adverbials were analyzed out of which 2649 were extracted from the literary part and 527 of the academic part of the corpus.2 Regarding the fact that most of the implications (if not all) are in Macedonian linguistics (the Macedonian existent theoretical foundations for time adverbials are practically negligent), both parts of the corpus (i.e. English translational equivalents and Macedonian translational equivalents) were compared and conclusions were made solely on the basis of the corpus findings.3 English theoretical already existent findings were used as a milestone for establishing relevance. Findings and Discussion The findings can be grouped in three categories: morphological, semantic and syntactic/positional (sentence position).

Of about 700 pages

The ratio of 3:1 of literary corpus vs. academic corpus is due to reasons stated in the Problems section of this paper. (Because of the non-overlapping (and statistically non-influential) nature of the typical time adverbial phrasal forms for both the corpora (literary and academic), the rest of the paper statistically deals with the corpus as a whole.)
3

It was illogical to compare English theoretical findings with findings of a Macedonian portioned corpus.

16

1. Morphological findings English temporal adverbials are mostly phrases; adverb phrases (sometimes, soon, tonight) and prepositional phrases (at the beginning of this century, on Monday, for three days) are the most often used phrases. There also are the noun phrases which are not as common comparing to the others (three years, Mondays, this week), and temporal clauses4 (Quirk et al., 1985). The Macedonian forms of temporal adverbials include the same phrasal types as English, but with different qualitative and quantitative distribution. Following the Macedonian tradition (, 2008, p. 22), the form recognized as a basic sentence element is the noun phrase. Prepositional phrases are simply noun phrases preceded by a preposition, which actually functions as a syntactic means for connecting the sentence elements. The statistical participation of the three phrasal categories in the overall corpus is presented in table 1. It can be concluded that the adverb phrases form the majority of the corpus, and that it is the influence (and characteristics) of the literary corpus (table 2). In the literary corpus the temporal adverbs and adverb phrases in Macedonian are greater in number and more common than in English (table 1), and the situation is reverse with prepositional phrases in English. The academic corpus is mostly comprised of prepositional phrases, and the situation is rather static there the style seeks prepositional phrases as the most convenient means for expressing calendrical information, as well as descriptive temporal information (table 3).5 Table 1 Corpus (overall) Phrasal forms of time adverbials Macedonian corpus Adverb phrases 2122 Prepositional phrases 675 Noun phrases 328 English corpus 1854 953 318

Table 2 Literary corpus Phrasal forms of time adverbials Macedonian corpus Adverb phrases 1957 Prepositional phrases 357 Noun phrases 320 English corpus 1708 583 309

Table 3 Academic corpus Phrasal forms of time adverbials Macedonian corpus Adverb phrases 159
4

English corpus 147

Finite, non-finite and verbless clauses

The subtle statistical incongruity of the numbers is caused by a small percentage of time adverbials which have other translational equivalents (clauses, conjunctions, adjectives, etc.)

17

Prepositional phrases Noun phrases

352 16

370 9

More than 82% of Macedonian time adverbials are translated with the same type of phrasal form (2595 of a total of 3160, table 2); 13% are translated with a different phrasal form, (table 5), and the remaining 5% are translated either with a non-phrasal time adverbial form (or other sentence functions) or are lacking the translational equivalent of the Macedonian (or English) time adverbial. . Table 5 AdvP mac = PP eng AdvP mac = NP eng PP eng = AdvP mac PP eng = NP mac NP eng = PP mac Total

Table 4 AdvP mac = AdvP eng6 PP mac = PP eng NP mac = NP eng Total

1789 601 205 2595

237 79 48 34 110 508

Adverb phrases The predominance of the adverb phrases in the overall corpus (table 1), with more than 67% (2122 out of 3160) in the Macedonian corpus, is generally attributed to the nature of the corpus. Table 2 shows us that the majority of the adverb phrases are extracted from the literary part of the corpus, which is abundant with time-setting initial temporal adverbials which serve as story-line connectives. These connectives are mostly anaphoric or deictic, and can many times have different translational equivalents, depending on their meaning.7 The deictic temporal adverbial in (1) assumes the position after the subject, unlike in English. It is also the case that such Macedonian deictic temporal adverbials can be interpreted differently and translated with different English equivalents, so can be translated as: at that instant, back then, in those days, etc., and thus obtain different sentential positions, mostly on the length basis, example (1)8. Other such deictic expressions designating literary time act in the same way: now, later, afterwards, etc. (1) ,... (, p. 24) Then father goaded the bullocks with a stick (Andreevski, p. 19) The bigger percentage of Macedonian adverb phrases (67% in the Macedonian corpus vs. 58% in the English corpus, table 1) is a direct consequence of the process of adverbialization of word groups of prepositions and nouns in the course of the past in Macedonian ( , 1996; , 1990). The degree of adverbialization can be different, and many of those word groups have even come to be written and considered as ne single word. For example, (on time), (in the evening), (till noon), (at noon), - (from time to time), (in the
6

Abbreviations explained in the annex section.

Some Macedonian adverbs have a complex semantic structure, as well as multi-class membership (e.g. , , , etc.).
8

The different sentential position can be caused by other reasons as well, discussed in the Sentence position findings in this paper.

18

morning), (during the night), (the day before yesterday), (the day after tomorrow), etc. The common prepositions in this kind of adverbs are (on), (from), (till), (through), etc. Their translations are PPs most often. We can evidence this in the following corpus examples: (2) . (J, . 259) The next morning, the cousins realized there werent as many soldiers as they had believed the night before. (Jovanovski, . 19) The influence of the process of adverbialization on the number of adverb phrases in Macedopnian and prepositional phrases in English can be seen from the fact that the biggest number of Macedonian adverb phrases which are translated with prepositional phrases in English, table 5. Macedonian and English are similar in the production of adverbs from adjectives by using productive derivational suffixes, such as ly in English, and in Macedonian. The difference is that Macedonian temporal adverbs which end in o have the same form with the corresponding adjectives for neutrum gender, and sometimes the morphological status can be determined only by the sentence function. For example, in (3) is an adverb and in (4) it is an adjective. 9 (3) . (, p. 269) The cousins exchanged glances and stood looking at one another for a long time. (Jovanovski, p. 29) (4) . (, p. 286) A long time passed. (Jovanovski, p. 48) Prepositional phrases and noun phrases The situation with the prepositional phrases is rather fixed (especially in the academic corpus, table 3). The prepositional phrases in the Macedonian corpus examples mainly remain prepositional phrases in the English corpus examples. The difference can be noted in the translation of Macedonian noun phrases with English prepositional phrases for durative time adverbials, which are basically translated with the preposition for in English. (5) . (, p. 243) ...and her son had been serving in somebodys army for the past four years. (Jovanovski, p. 1) Other typical adverbial temporal forms in Macedonian are the verboids (, 1990, p. 67), which are actually lexical forms (nouns, adjectives and adverbs) stemming from verbs, thus carrying out a verbal function. These forms are usually translated with temporal clauses in English. (6) , . (, p. 52) As soon as we he went out of the house hed catch a spell from an unclean woman and (Andreevski, p. 41) (7) , . (, p. 52) No sooner had I rubbed it onto his head than the crust vanished. (Andreevski, p. 40)

These are also mostly expressed by prepositional phrases or long- or time-phrases.

19

2. Semantic findings English temporal adverbials have been thoroughly semantically analyzed by more English major linguists (Quirk et al., Biber et al., Huddleston & Pullum). Yet it is a field which is still being worked in, especially by linguists intrigued by the interaction of time adverbials and other lexical temporal markers (Klein, Jaszczolt). Generally three basic semantic types are recognized: time position, time duration and frequency. Some of these, such as frequency, do not refer solely to time (Huddleston & Pullum, 2002). Other subtypes are mentioned as well, such as time relationship (Quirk et al., 1985) or serial order (Huddleston & Pullum, 2002), which quite often overlap in their definitions. Blazhe Koneski in his extensive grammar of the Macedonian language ( , 1996) tried to incorporate semantic meaning of certain forms which belong to the field of temporal adverbials, but by no means can this be considered to be an elaborate structural analysis of the semantics of temporal adverbials. Blazhe Koneski basically tried to address certain word groups and the difference of form which causes the semantic distinction (such as the difference of and )10 and prepositions with secondary temporal meanings (no Macedonian prepositions are purely temporal, like the English since). However, their semantic presentations depict individual patterns and show no systematicity. The temporal adverbs in either language can sometimes encode meanings which are not present in the other language. For example, the Macedonian adverbs and encode the meanings the day after the day after tomorrow and the day before the day before yesterday respectively. The finite temporal clauses in Macedonian and English employ temporal conjunctions which basically convey similar meanings. The temporal clauses are the only grammatical feature linguistically and systematically explained in semantic terms in Macedonian (-, 1990). The basic distinction is made on the two states: simultaneity and non-simultaneity (anteriority/posteriority) (-, 1990, p. 12). In this research there were not enough theoretical foundations in Macedonian to base the semantics comparison of time adverbials. 11 3. Sentence position findings As it is already well known from the research of English linguists (Quirk et al., Biber et al., Huddleston & Pullum), temporal adverbials are the most mobile semantic type of adverbials, they can virtually appear in every single sentence position available for adverbials (Quirk et al., 1985, p. 490). The position of temporal adverbials in sentence or sentence-like formations (clauses) can vary according to their meaning. They can be found in the following positions: initial, medial and final (end). Quirk et al. (1985) offer several varieties of the three basic positions: initial-medial, medial-medial, end-medial, initial-end, medial-end, end-end, etc. Biber et al. (1999) offer a simpler positional view, which excludes the many confusing subtypes and only keeps the general types of initial, medial and final position. We have decided to use Bibers positional classification as a starting point and have devised the following positional comparative criteria:

10

refers to the last Wednesday, while refers to the next Wednesday ( , 1996:562)
11

We are hoping to proceed researching in that area in the future.

20

Table 6 Specifications of the possible positions of time adverbials in the English and Macedonian corpus translational equivalents Corpus Position Initial MedialMedialMedialFinal initial medial final the Before the Between the After the At the end Macedonian At beginning of VP, but after verb VP, before of the the another / any other sentence, sentence, obligatory and an sentence after all the before any sentence infinite element remaining other element verboid sentence sentence elements elements After the At the end the At the after English the VP, before of beginning of subject, other sentence, before the any the after all the sentence VP sentence, remaining element before the sentence subject elements The distribution of time adverbials in the three basic positions is given in table 7. Table 7 Sentence position of time Macedonian English adverbials corpus corpus 1802 1222 initial position 1374 1954 final position 727 649 medial position 12 2960 Total: 2960 It is evident from table 7 that the initial position is typical for Macedonian time adverbials, and this is the case especially for adverb phrases (process of adverbialization), and in the literary part of the corpus (initial time-setting adverbials and story-line connectives), as shown in table 8. Expressed in percentages, more than 57% of Macedonian time adverbials of the corpus are located in initial position, while this is the case with about 38% of English time adverbials. Biber et al. (1999) claim that although the final position is most typical of all adverbials (50%), the initial position is typical mostly for time adverbials (almost 25%). Still, from table 7 we can conclude that Macedonian has greater tendency to put time adverbials in initial position.

12

The number of relevant corpus examples is 2960 out of 3160. The remaining 200 examples lack a translational equivalent and thus cannot be analyzed.

21

The total distribution of phrasal forms of temporal adverbials in initial position is shown in the following table 8: Table 8 Initial position Adverb phrases Prepositional phrases Noun phrases

Macedonian corpus 1223 309 204

English corpus 680 359 117

The sentential positional location of the English translational phrasal time adverbial equivalents of Macedonian time adverbials in initial position is as follows: Table 9 Position of the English phrasal translational equivalents of Macedonian temporal adverbials in initial position: Final 467 Medial-medial 90 medial-initial 83 medial-final 66 This table is evidence of the property of the English language to be end-weight, topicfinal language and its tendency to place time adverbials in final position (50% of all adverbials are in final position according to Biber et al. (1999)). As an evidence of this, the distributions of the positions of Macedonian time adverbials which are relocated to final position in English in this research are as following (table 10): Table 10 Positions of the Macedonian temporal adverbials and their shift to final position in the translation process into English: initial into final 467 medial-initial into final 147 medial-final into final 76 final into final 398 It can be inferred from the table that most of the Macedonian time adverbials in initial position are relocated to final position; the ones which were found originally to be in final position in Macedonian kept their sentence position. Relocations also happened to Macedonian time adverbials before the VP, because Macedonian does not illustrate problems of having a longer PP or even a clause in the medial-initial position, example (8). (In English this is possible only for emphasis.) (8) ... XX ,... (, p. 9) platforms of such a sort would not be repeated at the close of the 20th century. (Address, p. 23) The distribution of time adverbials in the three medial positions is shown in the following table 11. 22

Table 11 Corpus Position Medial-initial Medial-medial Medial-final Total Macedonian corpus 458 13 256 727 English corpus 195 200 254 649

The relocation from non-final position of time adverbials in Macedonian to medial position in English happened mostly to short time adverbs. The most notable relocation is to medial-medial position in the English corpus. This is the position between the operator and the main verb13 and is typical for all English progressive and perfect tenses, together with the passive aspect. The Macedonian translational equivalents of these tenses are present tense, definite and indefinite past tense14, all composed of one word. Even the complex verb phrases, composed of more than one verbal element do not place time adverbials between the VP elements. The passive aspect is more typical for English than for Macedonian and often the English translational equivalents of active Macedonian sentences are actually passive ones. All the given positions of temporal adverbials in English often have to do with their temporal semantics, but mostly with their syntactic structure and length15, as well as the level of the subordinate relationship to certain parts of the clause.16 The looser Macedonian word order, allowing the sentence elements to shift their places quite often, is mostly due to the inflections of the verb showing number, person and gender at the same time, as well as the short clitic forms of the objects. Objects can easily come before the verb, and subjects are often implied by the verb form (the verb form can show person and number, and even gender in some cases). Without any positional prototypes of temporal adverbials in Macedonian, from this research we came to a conclusion that Macedonian temporal adverbials can show vague positional preference only in some cases. Time-relationship simple adverbs are the ones which have shown the greatest differences in the comparison process. Examples such as again, still and yet almost always assume different position in English in comparison to Macedonian. In Macedonian, agains full form is , but its short form is mostly used. Regardless of the form being used, its position in Macedonian is mostly preverbal (initial or medial-initial), while in English it is postverbal (medial-final or final). In example (9) a complete explanation of a Macedonian sentence is depicted, with its English equivalent for comparison.

13

This position (in this research) employs all the positions between the operator and the main verb exemplified by Quirk et al. (1985): after the operator and after any other auxiliary in the multi-auxiliary VP.
14

There are differences of the use of perfective and imperfective verbs (characteristics of all Slav languages).

15

Longer English time adverbials (PPs, NPs, temporal clauses) tend to move to the extreme points of the sentence (left or right) and they rarely occupy the medial positions.
16

Temporal adverbials show less mobility if they demonstrate subordinate relationship to certain parts of the clause (e.g. just) (Quirk et al., 1985, p. 490).

23

(9)

And And

again will takes root

. (, . 7) itself take root-IT. again (Andreevski, p. 4)

II Problems The English findings (for example, positional characteristics) were extracted from the English speaking countries national corpora (British National Corpus, London-Lund corpus, LWSGE corpus, etc.). Biber et. al (1999) have especially successfully endeavored in supplying substantial statistical corpus research findings (writing, conversation, news, academic writing). The basic problem of this research of time adverbials in Macedonian (and in Macedonian linguistics as well) is the absence of national corpus, together with theoretical findings and conclusions. Secondly, the corpus chosen for this research, as we have previously mentioned, consists of translations done by native English speakers. The reason for this is that the inexistence of national Macedonian corpus prevented us from comparing theoretical findings in English and Macedonian. That is why we used the theoretical findings in English as a milestone for relevance, but still drew all the conclusions from the research corpus. Another corpus-related problem was that works translated by English native speakers were difficult to find.17 The ones that were found were mostly only partly translated by native speakers; Macedonian translators were also involved in the work. This may have clouded the objective natural sentential place of English temporal adverbials, but the consoling circumstance is that usually the work of Macedonian translators is heavily edited and revised by the native English speakers, so the influence of the place of Macedonian temporal adverbials is not as great.18 Other circumstances may have also influenced the accurateness of the findings, but many of them were impossible to leave out because of operational short-comings (for example, there were not enough works translated) or simply to isolate (for example, the translators momentary state of mind) to obtain objectivity. These are discussed in the further text of this paper. a) The translator 1. The choice of forms to be used in the translation is sometimes dependent on the translators and their judgment. Very often different temporal forms are used to convey the meaning intended by the author more clearly. The knowledge that, for example, there is the same phrasal form available in the target language (English) made us wonder why another one was used. Part of this can be assigned to the process of transliteration, which is also an available technique in translation, but an obstacle in research like this one.

17

Hence the difference in ratio of literary and academic time adverbials in this research.

18

Some of the native English translators were even consulted concerning the degree of their involvement in the translation process. However, the translators admit that during the translation process, time adverbials have not received special attention by the translators. This leads us to the conclusion that, on one hand, if their work was only editorial, they might have not had any influence in the position of time adverbials, and on the other hand, that if they did the translations themselves, the place of time adverbials is the genuine one. That is why we tried to use translations only by English native speakers as much as possible.

24

*Sometimes, though, the semantically more complex Macedonian verb has to be analytically translated with an additional time adverbial, example (10). (10) , , (, . 10) The ploughmen returning from the fields stopped for a moment, (Andreevski, p. 10) 2. The origin of the translator is also important. Different English language varieties can sometimes show different positional preferences of time adverbials. 3. The level of interference of the knowledge of Macedonian of the translator, who on the other hand needs to have a good command of Macedonian to be able to interpret the meaning. However, if the translator uses advanced Macedonian, some positions of temporal adverbials in Macedonian can seem natural to them Englishwise, though they are not.19 4. The choice of positions of temporal adverbials can make a difference in the conveying of the main idea intended by the author. Sometimes they are missed. example (11). (11) . (, . 263) The soldiers positioned Srbin first. (Jovanovski, p. 23)20 b) The author The style and the dialect used by the Macedonian author play a great role in the placement of Macedonian temporal adverbials. Having in mind that the standard Macedonian is not used by native Macedonians in its purest form quite frequently their positions are not the most preferred ones in the Macedonian standard language, so the interference of those cases seems not eligible for the overall research findings. c) The type of translated work The type of translated work (e.g. literary, academic, etc.) as well as spoken language (newspaper, conversation style, etc.) has the capacity to influence the form and position of time adverbials in both, the source and the target language. That is why a full comprehensive corpus compiled of all the necessary parts in an equal ratio is expected to be effective in dealing with this kind of problems Conclusion Lexical temporal elements have been usually underestimated in the linguistic research in English and especially in Macedonian. The absence of Macedonian national corpus is a serious obstacle for research like this one. However, with this research we have tried to build up on some missing parts of theoretical linguistics in Macedonian in the area of time adverbials. We also aim at helping: language teachers and learners to use time adverbials correctly without the influence of the mother tongue; Macedonian translators to be able to formally identify and place semantically

19

The translation of one academic article exemplifies several time adverbials as prepositional phrases placed in medial positions, which is not typical for English, but typical for Macedonian. The translators Margaret and Graham Reid have lived in Macedonia for more than twenty years and have a fairly good command of Macedonian. The possible positions of the time adverbial is given in parentheses: (First) the soldiers (first) positioned Srbin. Otherwise, the Macedonian translation of the English sentence in (11) is: , meaning that Srbin was the first to be seen (up-front) in the new position.
20

25

different English time adverbials in their most preferred positions. We are hoping for more work to be done in the future. References Units in Macedonian: , . (1996). [Grammar of the Macedonian language]. : . , . (2003). k ( ) [Word formation in the contemporary Macedonian language (2nd Ed.)]. : . , . (1990). [On grammatical topics in Macedonian]. : . -, . (1994). [Syntax of the Macedonian standard language]. : . , . (1996). [The universal grammar and the Macedonian language]. : . , . (2008). 3 [Contemporary Macedonian language 3]. : . -, . (1990). [Semantics and syntax of temporal relations in Macedonian in comparison with Polish]. : . Units in English: Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad and Edward Finegan. (1999). Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman. Burton-Roberts, Noel. (1997). Analysing Sentences: An Introduction to English Syntax. London and New York: Addison Wesley Longman Limited. Ernst, Thomas. (2004). The Syntax of Adjuncts. New York: Cambridge University Press. Greenbaum, Sidney. (1969). Studies in English Adverbial Usage. London and Harlow: Longmans. Hasselgard, Hilde. (2010). Adjunct Adverbials in English. New York: Cambridge University Press. Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jaszczolt, K.M. (2009). Representing Time, An Essay on Temporality. New York: Oxford University Press. Jovanchevska-Milenkoska, Jovanka. (2010). Time adverbials and their interaction with other temporal markers in the sentence, Proceedings of the 6th ELTAM-IATEFLTESOL International Conference, Skopje. Klein, Wolfgang. (1994). Time in Language. London: Routledge. Klein, Wolfgang. (2008). Time in Language, Language in time. Language Learning 58:Suppl. 1, 112. Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. Corpus units examples: , , . (2007). . : . Andreevski, Petre, M. (2008). Pirey. Trans. Will Firth. Wareemba: Pollitecon Publications.

26

, . (1985). , . : , . 241345. Jovanovski, Meto. (1987). Cousins. Trans. Sylvia Wallace Holton & Meto Jovanovski, San Francisco: Mercury House. a . (1999). . : . Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. (1999). Address on the occasion of the publication of the Platform on the Resolution of the Albanian National Question by the Albanian Academy of Sciences Appeal for Peace. Trans. Graham Reid and Margaret Reid. Skopje: author.

27

Exploring the Use of Audio Files in Foreign Language Mobile Learning: Tips for Educational Practitioners Florence Lojacono Department of Modern Languages, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain flojacono@dfm.ulpgc.es Carmen Lujn-Garca Department of Modern Languages, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain clujan@dfm.ulpgc.es Abstract This paper intends to provide a recent account of the first results found in the research carried out under the project Web@idiomas. This project, sponsored by University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) and the Spanish telephone company Telefnica, has two objectives. First, it aims at analyzing the potential capacity of portable devices as useful tools in the teaching / learning process of foreign languages (m-learning). Second, it intends to create and extend teaching materials addressed to foreign language teachers, especially at University level. These materials may be used in different portable devices (mobile phones, laptops, tablets, and so on). The languages involved in the project are Arabic, English and French. In summary, this project seeks to offer users an alternative way to learn foreign languages by means of portable devices. Keywords: Mobile Technology, Foreign Languages, Ubiquitous, EHEA, CEFR Introduction In the last decades, there has been an increasing prominence in the use of media technologies in peoples daily life. Most people are familiar with some kind of ICT (Information and Communication Technology), as they may use these devices in their jobs and at their homes. This paper was born from a competitive research project carried out by a team work of language teachers, with little or none ICT literacy. This is probably the most important aspect to highlight, as one of the objectives of this project is to encourage practitioners with little or no ICT literacy to create, record and to broadcast short audio files for language teaching/learning. The research project, running from July 2010 to July 2011, is co-financed by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) and the Spanish telephone company Telefnica. The name of the project is Web@Idiomas, and its main goal is the development of an audio data bank that enables users to download onto their portable devices specific educational audio files in three different foreign languages: Arabic, English and French. The reasons for having chosen these languages are the following: first, English because is the most international foreign language, and the lingua franca used among speakers whose native languages are not English; second, French and Arabic, because those languages are largely spoken in North and West Africa and because of the growing relationships and closeness between Spain and a number of countries in North Africa. The big picture of this project consists of bringing the use of new technologies and the process of learning foreign languages together, so that people may take advantage of the applications offered by their portable devices in order to teach and or to learn foreign languages. Some more specific objectives have also been drawn: To create downloadable, reusable and copyright free audio files addressed to learners and teachers in foreign language learning. 28

To promote self, mobile and lifelong learning To enhance foreign language competencies To research on the foreign language teaching/learning process supported by mobile devices

In this paper we will provide some useful tips, as a result of our experience that may help other language practitioners to create their own tailored audio data bank. Previous Research A vast volume of literature has been devoted to deal with the influence of the use of ICT in the teaching / learning process from many different perspectives. Young (2000) has studied whether there are gender differences in terms of use of computers, and this author states that male users tend to feel more self-confident when using this device. Yuen and Ma (2002) have focused their research in gender differences when it comes to the use of computers in the educational setting, and they conclude that men have a more positive attitude towards this device. Schumacher and Morahan-Martin (2001), in a study focused on the use of the Internet and computers, they found that men showed more experience and abilities than women when using the Internet, except when it comes to the use of the email, where both, males and females, show a great mastery of this resource. Lujn-Garca (2009a; 2010) has shown the impact of gender in terms of Internet and ICT mastery. Male users seem to be fonder and more efficient users of technologies. In Education, the use of media technologies is not new at all. The absolute novelty comes from the gradual increase of portable devices which open the way for ubiquitous learning (uLearning) called also mobile learning (mLearning). Thus, teaching and learning in the 21st century has experienced a radical change, see for example the The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (http://www.p21.org). LangMedia (http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu) brings authentic material for digital authentic material for less-commonly taught languages. A few years ago, pre-load iPods started being used as educational language tools (see the work of Alex Chapin at Middlebury College, VT (https://segue.middlebury.edu/view/html/site/achapin-ipod/node/2357887). Conceptual Positioning There is a strong connection between students expectations, any language course objectives and new portable technologies: the oral skills. Portable devices can be geared to teach and learn without those inherent difficulties and limitations of the traditional academic approaches. Today many learners, especially in online education, do not have much time to study. They need effective learning tools to take advantage of their short time. Digital files may be a useful, effective, and attractive learning format, as this kind of tool encourages a flexible teaching/learning process. These files can be gathered and organised into online repositories for independent and self paced access. Introducing organised, tailored and adequately tagged digital audio files helps teachers to meet higher education requirements regarding lifelong learning, mobility, distant education activities and technology literacy. In addition, self-recorded ad hoc audio files foster exchanges of learning resources within the educational community and help address different learning rhythms within the classroom. Beyond the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre_en.asp) used mostly to access level proficiency in foreign languages instruction and certification (CEFR), the construction of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA http://www.ehea.info/) started in 1999, relies on a basic set of competences. These competences are aimed to 29

improve employability as well as social understanding and to promote European research across the globe. Therefore, the European Union pointed out eight key competences in a document published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 30 December 2006 (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/pdf/ll-learning/keycomp_en.pdf) 1) Communication in the mother tongue. 2) Communication in foreign languages. 3) Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology. 4) Digital competence. 5) Learning to learn. 6) Social and civic competences. 7) Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. 8) Cultural awareness and expression. Following these recommendations, the Web@Idiomas project meets three of these key competences: to be more specific, competencies 2, 4 and 5 are dealt with in this project. As we are working with educational resources aimed to teach or to support the process of teaching/learning 3 languages, competency n2 is quite obvious. But we were also willing to go beyond the obvious foreign language skills. ICT literacy is currently neither an option in day-to-day life, nor a mere fancy skill in a CV. ICT literacy is now as necessary as driving a car or use a cell phone. This project dwells on 21st century new competencies in education and fosters the use of mobile learning in order to meet the needs of working learners, traditional students and even users. The third key competency we reach with the Web@Idiomas project is the learning to learn capability. Stand alone audio files that can be associated with a wide array of learners needs or courseworks guide the learner on his/her learning path. This will also promote lifelong learning. Method The main objective that involved the members of the project was the creation of an audio data bank. Nonetheless, we understood in a short time that this would be a long term objective and that we would need several short term objectives in order to build this audio data bank. As we broke the main objective into the necessary steps, fundamental questions came up. Surprisingly enough, those technical questions about software and hardware turned out to be pedagogical ones and helped us to deeply review the way we were teaching so far. We considered that our main objective was the creation of an audio data bank. Therefore, we needed to follow two main steps: First, to create the audio files; and second, to broadcast them. Each step opened in front of us a mist of technical problems and important decisions.

30

Figure 1: General plan of the project This figure presents the steps followed. They are explained in more detail in figure 2. In this paper we will only discuss the first short term objective: To create. The creation of the audio data bank, which includes three processes: first, designing; second, recording; and third, tagging the audio files. The section on broadcasting is beyond the scope of this paper, and it will be explained in a future work.

Figure 2: The creation section of the project In order to create the audio files, the team had to get familiar with different computer programmes specialised in audio files recording (Lojacono, 2010b). The programmes most frequently used to record audio files are: Windows Sound Recorder for PC GarageBand for Mac

31

Audacity, an open source software for PC and Mac, downloadable here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net.

Findings Our findings are above all practical. The Web@Idiomas project is all about the educational use of software and hardware. Here we have the protocol we followed for the creation of audio resources: 1- What to design? This step involves several pedagogical decisions. - Decision about the learning contents: grammar points, vocabulary lists, riddles, texts, dialogues and so on. - Decision about the learning objectives: pronunciation, listening and comprehension skills, peer-assessment, and peer-training. - Decision about the learning environment: self-paced and individual learning, audio file to be used in a blended course. - Decision about the learning delivery: stand alone audio files, audio files with transcripts, audio files with pictures and/or transcripts. In the case of our project, the decisions that we made were: - Learning contents: we chose to begin with riddles as they are like a game and make the process of learning attractive. We invented and recorded 100 riddles in each language. - Learning objectives: the riddles were aimed to enhance listening and comprehension skills. - Learning environment: these audio files were designed for self-paced individual learning as well as to accompany a blended course. - Learning delivery: first we recorded stand alone audio files, then we added transcripts and, for some of them, illustrations. 2- How to record? This step involves several technical decisions. - Decision about the length of the audio files - Decision about the audio format - Decision about the software to record the audio files - Decisions about the minimum acceptable quality sound level In the case of our project, what we decided was: - Length of the audio files: stand alone audio files are short and are not heavy. A 30 second record is more or less 500 KB. This is the core concept of the audio data bank project. Small audio files are easily downloadable, are reusable and can be combined together in a wide array of learning paths. - Format of the audio files: we chose the MP3 format as it is the most widely used. The compression ratio is very good. To export MP3 files from Audacity, an MP3 encoder is needed: the open source software LAME (http://lame.sourceforge.net). Once installed in your computer, you will not need to think about it anymore. Just export your record in MP3 format when you are done in Audacity. Tip: It is advisable to save also your records in the Audacity format (.aup) if you want to be able to edit them in the future. - Software to record the audio files: we chose Audacity. The team decided to use Audacity to record the audio files. This programme is free and easily accessible. It may be downloaded from the internet. Even though, this programme seemed to be 32

the easiest one to use, it has some sophisticated applications that proved to be very useful for the researchers. For example, the possibility to choose part of the recording and maximize or minimize its intensity; erase extra-recording sounds; and so on. Minimum acceptable quality sound level: we recorded the first audio files with first-price microphones and a PC. This produces an acceptable quality. Nevertheless, we realised that it would be necessary to upgrade the quality of our recordings if we want to broadcast our work via Podcast, that is to say, to give more visibility to the project. Therefore we bought a good microphone and a little mix table (2 bands).

3- Why to tag? This step involves several conceptual decisions. - In which language should the audio files be tagged? - Which software should be used? Labelling properly each audio file is necessary to easily identify and search them in your computer or mobile device. This process of identification needs to be done in a way that it contains key words in specific standardised boxes called fields. This description of digital data is called metadata. In the case of our project, what we decided was: - Language: this is an open-discussion. So far, we have decided to tag the files in English as accent marks used in French and Spanish as well as written Arabic are not well supported by most common portable devices. - Software: we chose a free software, MP3Tag editor, downloadable from this website: (http://www.mp3tag.de/en/). MP3Tag editor enables the user to edit 10 metadata fields. In this stage of our project, 10 fields are more than we need. Editing metadata is a long run work but you will be able to change your metadata at anytime. TIP: when exporting your work as an MP3 file using Audacity seven fields of ID3 tags are available, included a comment box where to put the transcript of the audio for example.

33

Figure 3: How to tag audio files with MP3Tag

Figure 4: How to tag audio files directly in Audacity

34

Conclusions After having developed this project on the teaching/learning of foreign languages by using mobile and portable devices so far, we can state the following conclusions. First, the use of audio and audiovisual aids is very motivating for teachers and for students of any age, but mostly for the youngest ones, no matter the subject we refer to. Audio resources can be integrated into any level of a coursework. They can be delivered via email, uploaded in a LMS or personal website or blog, or broadcast via iTunes. Second, the creation and use of purpose-made resources does not require an excellent knowledge of new technologies from teachers, language practitioners and people involved in the area of teaching. Third, we want to highlight the increasing importance of creating materials adapted to our real students, to their interests and motivations, materials which meet their needs and reality. Furthermore, students may feel more empowered as they can navigate through the material at their own pace. For example, in the case of foreign language learning, language textbooks have traditionally been written in England or the USA, and sent to the rest of the world to be used. No distinction has been made by publishing houses between students who live in Spain and students who live in Mongolia, whose realities, and needs are totally different. Therefore, the creation of local materials adapted to the needs and interests of our students is also considered by this project. Last, but not least, is the consideration of this project as something which is continually being revised, since tecnology is evolving all the time, so this project is. References Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre_en.asp. Last accessed July 5th 2011. Lojacono, F. (2010a). Wiki universitaires:10 aspects pratiques in II International Congress about Didactics, Gerona University, Spain. Lojacono, F. (2010b). Crer des ressources audio pour le cours de FLE in Cdille, revista de Estudios franceses. Asociacin de Profesores de Francs de la Universidad Espaola, La Laguna, Spain. 276-288. Lujn-Garca, C. & Lojacono, F. (2011). An Alternative Approach to Foreign Language Learning through: the Web@Idiomas project in Global Time: Association for the Advancement on Computing in Education (AACE). 266-271. Lujn-Garca, C. (2008). The use of New Technologies in the English Language Classroom: Which ones are preferred by students? in I Congreso Internacional de la enseanza y aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras. Valencia, Spain. Lujn-Garca, C. (2009a). New Technologies and Gender: Different Approaches of Teachers to the Use of ICT in the classroom in International Multidisciplinary Womens Congress (IMWC), Izmir, Turkey. Lujn-Garca, C. (2009b). The New technology in the ESL Classroom: Some evidence from Spain in 2nd International On-line Conference (IOLC). Lujn-Garca, C. (2010). Women vs. Men: The Use of New Technologies in the EFL classroom in Spain. International Conference From Teaching to Learning: Current Trends in ELT, Tetovo, Republic of Macedonia. Schumacher, P. & Morahan-Martin, J. Gender. 2001. Internet and computer attitudes and experiences in Computers in Human Behavior, 17 (1). 95-110. Young, Betty J. (2000). Gender Differences in Student Attitudes toward Computers in Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 33 (2). 204-216.

35

Yuen

K.K. & Ma, Will W. K. (2002). Gender Differences in Teacher computer Acceptance in Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 10.

Web resources: Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net. Last accessed July 5th 2011. MP3Tag editor: http://www.mp3tag.de/en/. Last accessed July 5th 2011. LAME encoder: http://lame.sourceforge.net. Last accessed July 5th 2011. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills: http://www.p21.org. Last accessed July 5th 2011. LangMedia: http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu. Last accessed July 5 th 2011. Alex Chapin homepage: https://segue.middlebury.edu/view/html/site/achapinipod/node/2357887. Last accessed July 5 th 2011. Official Journal of the European Union, on 30 December 2006: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/pdf/ll-learning/keycomp_en.pdf. Last accessed July 5 th 2011.

36

Experimentation of English Language by Some Women Writers: Shashi Deshpande, Bapsi Sidhwa, Uzma ASlam Khan and Tony Morrison Dr. Shamenaz Bano Dept. of Professional Communication, AIET, Allahabad, India shamenaz@gmail.com Dr. Shaista Maseeh Dept. of English, Universiy of Allahabad, India gemshaista@gmail.com Abstract Language is the most remarkable tool that man has ever invented so far. Language is the most effective means of communication that enables us to express our ideas, views and emotions empathetically. Although one can communicate without using a language through the process of kinesics to some extent, but the use of language becomes imperative for the expression of fine ideas. It is the language that distinguishes man from the other species of nature and makes him the best creation of God. Thus, man has a genuine need of linguistic communication. It is an important aid for the socialization for it fosters enmity and brotherhood round the globe. The current paper examines English language by some women writers. Keywords: Third World Women, Experimental Language, Feminine Writing The English Language is considered to be a global language. It is spoken in every country, be it first world, second world or third world. Shashi Deshpande, the Indian fiction writer, has the opinion: Whatever the problems; it is by now clear that just as language has found its space and its own constituency, English writing too is as much a part of the literatures of our country as the other language literatures are. And just as the importance of the language in the world and the fact that it has now undoubtedly become global has made a language spoken by so few so important in our country, the literature too seems to be getting a greater significance than its merits. English is today no longer a colonial but a global language whose only rival today is Spanish. There is an increasing demand for learning the language which cannot be argued with. And globalization, as also the increasing Americanization, has brought the language into the daily lives of the Indians much more than before. Which is why and how urban lives in our country are being increasingly lived in English___ a queer case of life imitating arts, it seems! This may make a novel written in English much more plausible than before. (78) Due to the popularity of English language, English novel has become the most favorite form of literature. With the increase in the number of people gaining expertise in the language, novel writing too has attained a remarkable growth. There is a surge of English authors, both men and women, involved in writing novels on multiple themes. Post modernism had gifted authors with a variety of themes to deal upon. With the evaporation of boundary between different genres of art, there is an intermingling of disciplines and themes. 37

Postmodernism had also brought a drastic change in the style of writing. The post modern novel is often found to be de-structured to de-centralize the master narrative, or a final point of view. It is quite interesting to note that both men and women writers have equally accepted post modern techniques in the writing of fiction. But it is also one truth that there has always been and will always be a noteworthy difference between the writings of men and women. Even if the themes are same, the manner of presentation and the style differs in a great deal. This difference in style of writing between men and women writers comes from a difference in their perceptions of this world. There was also a time when it was a sin to hold a pen for women. Writing was thought to be a male bastion only. Woman was the queen of her four walls and a roof under which she could do anything feminine but not writing that was only a masculine task. Mary Shelleys most popular science fiction, Frankenstein was first published anonymously. Mary Ann Evans used the pseudonym George Eliot to write her novels. Robert Southy had told Charlotte Bronte that literature cannot be the business of womens life and it ought not to be (108) Thanks to the Feminist Movement of the twentieth century that metamorphosed the attitude and perception of the world. It provided a better understanding of womens issues and rights and endeavored to bring them forward because they had been marginalized for so long. But there was one more question in feminism that was still unquestioned. Were all the women, irrespective of class, race, religion and color received equal opportunity to voice their problems? The answer was no, at least to some extent. Feminism proved a white middle class and educated movement providing profiting only white women of America. The fact that religion, class, race and color do make a vital difference in the condition of women was proved soon. While the white and privileged women of the continent got into limelight by means of their writings, women belonging to third world still had their voice unheard. Ergo, the second half of twentieth century witnessed a whole galaxy of writers from third world who were ready to speak about their country and culture. Writing is relieving to the mind of the writer, and when it is written from heart in an uninhibited manner it becomes therapeutic. This applies to the works of four women writers who write from their heart and while writing there seems to be an urgency to tell all. Bapsi Sidhwa, Shashi Deshpande, Uzma Aslam Khan and Toni Morrison belong to the category of writers who despite of belonging to an unprivileged and non white class are able to create a lasting impression in the field of writing. The innovation of language in their works, and the experimentation with words and vocabulary along with syntax that is found in them make them stand in the line of the innovators in novel in the English language. This paper will study the technical novelty and experiments that these four writers have brought about in the process of novel writing. Shashi Deshpande is an award winning Indian fiction writer. Writers of ten novels as The Dark Holds no Terror (1980), Roots and Shadows (1983), That long Silence (1988) and A Matter of Time (1999), to name few. The Indian writing scenario before Shashi Deshpande was quiet plain and the writers focused on storytelling without bringing any innovation in the style of writing. She readily believes that men and women do have a distinct mode of expressing their thought in novel that provides difference in style of their writing. She says: I think it is very clear that my own writing is very much a womans writing. I think just one little example, the beginning of That Long Silence for example: its a very stark beginning- at the same time it uses the metaphor of childbirth for the act of writing. It uses the idea of looking into mirrors to 38

speak of different images. I somehow feel that anybody who read this would know this is a womans writing. Although Shashi Deshpande believes in a natural use of English language she employs it in a way to avoid monotony in narration. She writes about Indian society and culture with an interesting creativity: Deshpande eschews linguistic pyrotechnics and formal experimentation, but has sufficient command of her tradition to give the lie to the belief that the English language is incapable of expressing any Indian world other than a cosmopolitan one. Seemed to be inspired from the master of narration, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Deshpande changed the usual first person narrative of Indian fiction into an amalgamation of first and third person narrative. That was a daring experiment in narration of novel for an Indian woman fiction writer because writing scenario was still fresh in late 1920s and even prominent male writers did not attempt this experiment in language. The significance of such narration was that it could depict the minds of a multiple characters at a time rather than one. Like the working of a womans mind, and flow of her thoughts Shashi Deshpande also employed the tool of flashback. The language in the pen of Deshpande becomes feminine. It shows that it comes direct from the emotional thoughts of a woman belonging to a developing country. Roots and Shadows contains more themes besides the main one of Indu and Naren. Despande is able to tie them all into a neat narration without any thread of theme going lose. This she is able to achieve by means of her deftness in language. Language provides strength to the storyline and it becomes a closely packed novel. That Long Silence tells the story of Jaya, a literarily sensitive woman. A same story with straightforward narration could turn it into an insipid one. Shashi Deshpande brings realism in it by writing it in a style and language that is more like life of a woman in Indian society. It is given in the novel itself: All this I have written- its like one of those multicolored patchwork quilts the kakis made for a new baby in the family. So many bits and pieces- a crazy conglomeration of sizes, shapes and colors put together. Deshpande adorns her writing like a new born baby, with language of multiple shapes sizes and colors but it does not look weird in any way. Her writing is by an Indian woman and about Indian women, and it could be well understood by all. Her play with language enhances the effects of her writing in readers and they, especially Indian women, can identify themselves well with the novel. The use of language in Shashi Deshpandes work could be studied in her biographical context. Being daughter of a Sanskrit scholar, and born in Karnataka; she has also lived for some years in Maharashtra. So, she is a person who is well- versed in five languagesKannada, Marathi, Hindi and Sanskrit. This linguistic quality can be seen in her writings. She has used many Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and Sanskrit words and phrases in her writings. The use of hindi words while referring to relatives, for instance, baba, kaka, kaki, mama, mavshi, gives a genuine quality to her writing. This is experimentation makes reading of her novel a real experience. The sentences like, Why do I need kaajal when I have Ghanshayam in my eyes,? (103) Yes I am missing chum chum of your bells (28) mingle hindi words perfectly with English. She also makes allusions to religious epics like Mahabharata, Ramayana, Upanishada and Puranas. For example, Sokamayati bahushyam prajayeya iti . . . meaning every living cell desires to multiply. These allusions ground her language more to the Indian roots and also posing a comparison with western texts with Biblical allusions. Moreover they color the text with a spiritual quality that is often found in the writers as Paulo Coelho. 39

The noticeable thing about the experimentative quality of Shashi Deshpandes writing is that it never hinders the lucidity of language. It also adds significance to the meaning as it gains proximity with the readers. She becomes a precursor of the writers like Arundhati Roy, winner of Booker Prize for her The God of Small Things in her very Indianization, poetic bent, lucidity and simplicity of the new language. Pakistan born Bapsi Sidhwa, who later moved to US, is considered as pioneer of Pakistani writing in English. Writer of many acclaimed novels including The Pakistani Bride and The American Brat, and Cracking India has the power of assimilating poetry into prose. Many south Asian writers are bilingual but none use the non English words with as ease as Sidhwa uses it in her novels. Besides, she is greatly inspired by Urdu and Punjabi language and her art reveals it. Being a feminist writer she creates her language into a feminine space where her novels flourish Bapsi Sidhwa quotations in her novels from great Urdu poets as Allama Iqbal and Faiz Ahmad Faiz not only give a specific charm to her novels but also accentuate its content. The basic nature of woman is more emotive than men, and emotions cannot be better expressed than in poetry. In this respect Bapsi Sidhwa becomes a womans novelist. It is rather an audacious attempt in literature to incorporate urdu poetry in English novel in the Roman English script. But Sidhwa does it so beautifully that both the languages become one. Few instances goes as: Mere bachpan ke sathi mujhe bhool na jana___ Dekho dekho hanse na zamana, hanse na zamana. Friends from our childhood dont forget us. see that a changed world does not mock us. (159) Tum aye ho na shab-e-intezar guzri haiTalaash main hai seher baar baar guzri hai! You never came the waitful night never passed___ though many dawns have passed in the waiting. (245) Kiya mujhe ishq ne zalim ko aab ahista ahista, Ke aatish gul ko karti hai gulab ahista ahista. (248) Bapsi Sidhwas writing is what is known as gynocritique in the terms of Elaine Shoewalter. Gynociticism is concerned with woman as writer- with woman as producer of textual meaning, with the history, themes, genres and structures of literatures of literature by women. Its subjects include psychodynamics of female creativity, linguistics and problem of a female language; the trajectory of the individual or collective female literary career; literary history; and of course, studies of particular writers and work.(147) Being a diasporic writer, she has the themes of expatriate feelings in her works. In addition to this she addresses the issues related to women in minority community. It is whether Zaitoon of The Pakistani Bride or Freddy of The Crow Eaters, the language is refined but experimental enough to depict the psyche of women. In Ice Candy Man she experiments with narrative strategies thereby giving a twist to the language while delineating the detesting communal violence. Like a true gynocritic Bapsi Sidhwa gracefully employs her imagination and then evolves a language of narration to paint her novels. Uzam Aslam Khan is a writer who cannot be ignored in the discussion of women writers who are venturing in new English. A Pakistani diasporic writer Uzma is known for her novels like The Story of Nobel Rot, Trespassing and The Geometry of God. Her art is witty and her language is rich in metaphor and images.

40

The noteworthy thing about the writing of Uzam Aslam Khan is her expertise in wordplay. Her wordplay disrupts the set stereotype of writing by women. Inside me, a devil is unleashed. Like Al Khwarizmi, God needs empty space to create. Without it, He faces an impasse. His intersections get crammed, like the roads in Lahore. He leaves. (16) Uzma Aslam Khan has implemented a new technique in her novel, The Geometry of God, which is the spelling of words according to the sound as it is written in Hindi script. In a way she has used her own spellings for many words. For example, cheep for cheap, qu for queue, windo for window, sat lite for satellite, pawridge for porridge, dizz aster for diasater and numerous other words. Such innovations brought revolution in writing by women belonging to South Asia. The experimentation with language in English novel is not new but it belonged only to western writers. Queens English got a challenge in the works of Uzma Aslam Khan. Uzma has used the spelling of because as big cause. She writes: Then the man said the making of the road reminded him that a bird does not sing big cause it has an answer it sings big cause it has a song and Nana started to cry. (49) Nana digs for wail in a few weeks. It is another thing he can do big cause he is sacked. (49) In a way she has given a new meaning to her sentences. There no lack of form but the diction and vocabulary makes her distinct in novel writing. She was criticicized but very few could read between the lines: arrival of writing with language familiar to one and all. For instance: She does not stop. It is you taught me there are two ways of noing intelligence and taste. Khayal and Zauq. In the first, what is nown is seprit from what nose. In the second, it is the same. Without Aunty messy, no taste. (51) There are many other examples also in the novel: There is a connection between how we relate to wild animals and to God. When we see the lion, what is ex perienced is not only a fear or aww. It is a desire to konk er To know Him, person ali. It is a sir ender but also a konk west. (52-53) Not the way the glamaris woman in the front seat keeps agling. (55) How do I no he is cute? I want Nana to speak Amal puts her arm around me, this is called desprit (57). In this way, it is a technique which is innovative and not employed by anybody before in the Literay world. Toni Morrison, the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, may well be regarded as the most accomplished, innovative and important living novelist of African American Literature. As a subtle technician of words she most adeptly combines lyrical modernism with magic realism and naturalism. The results of such craftsmanship are intricate but fascinating tales of love, relationships, death and betrayal. In literature Post-Modernism is 41

not the end of modernism but rather its extension. Modernism was characterized by a breaking away from established norms, traditions and conventions. There was also a great deal of experiment in forms and styles and techniques. Other features were an eclectic approach and the use of magic realism. Morrisons writing is characterized by several of these so called post- modernist features and she has the methods of deconstruction. To do justice to her role as a black woman writer of the twentieth and twenty first century, and referring to some of her narrative techniques she says: Neither blackness nor people of color stimulates in me notions of excessive, limitless love, anarchy, or routine dread. I cannot rely on these metaphorical shortcuts because I am a black writer struggling with and through a language that can powerfully evoke and enforce hidden signs of racial superiority, cultural hegemony, and dismissive othering of people and language which are by no means marginal or already and completely known and knowable in my work . . . The kind of work I have always wanted to do requires me to learn how to maneuver ways to free up the language from its sometimes sinister, frequently lazy, almost always predictable employment of racially informed and determined chains.(x- xi) Morrison wants to write her own version of blackness and people of color and while doing this her language becomes her deconstructive tool. In writing her stories she herself becomes an ancestor figure, an important part of the black community, and guides her readers to understanding a culture/heritage and a past. For this purpose her language is powerful, poetic and political. Barbara Hill Rigney says: . . . like the Sibyl of mythology, Morrison scatters her signs, her political signs, and it is only through an analysis of her language that we can reconstruct an idea of the political and artistic revolution constituted in her art work. Confrontational, unpoliced, hers is the language of black and feminine discourse- semiotic, maternal, informed as much by silence as by dialogue, as much by absence as by presence. (7) Frantz Fanon argued that, [m]astery of language affords remarkable power.(xi)Toni Morrisons language has got the extraordinary mastery that infuses her writing with remarkable power. For her, language is an agency by which she can voice the powerful stories she imagines of her community and especially of its women. In The Bluest Eye (1970), she introduces the novel with lines from the Dick and Jane nursery reader: Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door . . . Here is the family. Mother, father, Dick and Jane live in this green- and- white house. They are very happy.(1) What follows in the rest of the chapter is in stark contrast to the ideal world portrayed in the primer. In fact Morrison adopts this technique in the entire novel, comparing and contrasting not only the emotional elements but also the material world that is inhabited by the two races. Thus the houses belonging to the whites are shown as wellkept, beautiful and imply the presence of money. The artifacts, the cutlery, the food, the children and even the neighbourhoods are well appointed. The houses of the blacks on the other hand are sparse, in many cases shabby and dirty, and have the air of deprivation. As the novels progresses the words of the primer become progressively smaller and start to run into each other. This condensed form of the primer represents the chaos in black lives in harsh opposition to the ideal version of a white American family. The story of the young, unloved black girl Pecola Breedlove is as much an indictment of the black 42

community as it is the portrayal of the cruel world that black girls and women live in. As a feminist Morrisons believes that the responsibility of the black community lies in nurturing its own people, more so because the world outside the community is so harsh. She shows how Pecolas conclusion that the world would love her if only she had a pair of blue eyes is the result of the failure of not only her own family but the failure of the community as well to sustain her and counter the ravages of the racist world. Morrison has experimented in the same way in Beloved (1987) also. Throughout the section where Beloved narrates the story of her return from death to her mother Sethe, there are no punctuation marks save the very first line. The narrative goes as: I am Beloved and she is mine. I see her take flowers away from leaves she puts them in a round basket the leaves are not for her she fills the basket she opens the grass I would help her but the clouds are in the way how can I say things that are pictures (248) Morrison has invented this form to depict the after death experience of Beloved. But it could also be read as the symbolic representation of slavery that was no different from death for the slaves. Gurleen Grewal aptly states: Morrison certainly deterritorializes the English language. Entering the bourgeois aesthetic field of the Anglo American novel, Morrison appropriates classical and biblical myths and the canonical writings of high modernism and places them in the matrix of black culture.(10) The use of magic realism in her writings puts Morrison in the same category as novelists Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gunter Grass, Angela Carter and Salman Rushdie. A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory describes the characteristic features of Magic Realism as, mingling and juxtaposition of the realistic and the fantastic and the bizarre, skilful time shifts, miscellaneous use of dreams, myths and fairy stories, the element of surprise or abrupt shock, the horrific and the inexplicable.(488) Morrison has made use of these elements in her novels to drive home the points she wants to make. In Song of Solomon, Milkman meets an old woman Circe in his quest of gold. It is said that she died a long time back. He thinks: Perhaps this woman is Circe. But Circe is dead . . . she had to be dead. Not because of the wrinkles, and the face so old it could not be alive, but because out of the toothless mouth came the strong, mellifluent voice of a twenty year old girl.(240) Similarly the reference to the blind horsemen of Isle des Chevaliers that Son sees is also a part of magic realism. In Tar Baby, there are two instances of the supernatural. The first is the women in the swamp Jadine encounters and second the women in Rosas room where she spends a night. In Beloved, Beloved is a ghost that returns to its mother to quench her mother hunger. It is important to note here that Morrisons blending of the realistic and fantastic and her use of magic realism is not without a purpose. In Song of Solomon and Tar Baby, Circe and the swamp women, signify the past and ancient knowledge that they wish to share with other women. Circe provides Milkman with the information about his grandmother and her marriage with his grandfather. The swamp women and the women in Rosas room try to draw Jadines attention towards a culture she is oblivious of. They are symbols of the celebration of feminine rootedness. The blind horsemen represent the legendary history of the survival of the African American people while Beloveds return from death verbalizes the struggle to avoid black erasure in white society by stating her need for recognition as accepted subject rather than as a marginalized other. (1) Beloved might also be understood as an effort to establish a black feminist identity by a woman who has been destroyed by slavery. So we find that magic realism for Morrison is not merely a means to add to the effects of the background and setting of her novels, but it becomes in her hand a tool to present her views more metaphorically and symbolically.

43

Toni Morrison is contemporary, literary and experimental in her style with a reputation of a masterful stylist storyteller who creates magic through her writing. But she is also firmly grounded in the culture of her community especially, the community of women. There seems to be multiple reasons due to which these experimentations come in writing. Sometimes they seem to be a spontaneous outcome from the pen of the writer. They emerge from a mind that wants to discharge what it has experienced in a particular cultural surrounding. Sometimes manner of speaking becomes petty in front of matter. Due to the factors related to their history, society, and personal life, the content of novel downsizes the importance of form of writing. The emotional outflow is virile enough to ignore the matter. Then the result is a novel that tends to break free of all the traditions in language. If viewed from a post colonial perspective sometimes such form of experimentation in writing might also be a deliberate attempt to carve out a style of writing non-conforming to the standards of writings as set by colonizers. Since writing similar to the previous masters in content and style show a feeling of reverence to them, the writers opted a way other than them. Writing exists beyond that set norms of language. These four writers, by writing different and carving their own niche uphold the names of their countries and give a voice to their history that was often ignored in the works of the big players in novel in English. Writing in the hands of these women becomes a tool to retaliate, reply and reveal their past as well as present. Writing in a manner that is often plain and simple might not produce the effects on readers that it should. That could seem similar to the works as written by women from decades. Moreover it could also show a monotony and readers might not feel the significance of what is written. Difference in style evokes an interest in reading. Often a new manner of depicting and developing the story symbolically aims towards a meaning deeper than the intended one, as in case of Morrison. Similarly the usage of non English and dialectic words produce a genuine effect in the story. It doesnt seem to be told from a third person point of view. The play with language that these four writers employ in their works show their daring attitude in writing that could hardly be seen in any man or women writer of third world. Postmodernism has definitely provided them with the opportunity to deconstruct the structures of language but they have performed it beautifully in their novels without spoiling the narrative pattern or the storyline. The exposure of binary opposite, where one was privileged and the other suppressed, is hardly possible without employing language in an innovative and experimental way, and Shashi Deshpande, Uzma Aslam Khan, Bapsi Sidhwa and Toni Morrison have won the battle in novel with their own new and original weapon of language. References Deshpande, Shashi, Writing from the Margins & Other Essays. New Delhi. Penguin Books. 2003. Southy quoted in Francoise Basch, Relative Creatures: Victorian Women in Society and Novel (New York: Schoken Books, 1974) http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/womenwriters/deshpande_style.html Mario Cuoto, In Divided Times, review of That Long Silence, Times Literary Supplement, 1 April 1983. Deshpande, Shashi. The Dark Holds No Terror. New Delhi Penguin Books. 1990. _____ _____ That Long Silence. New Delhi Penguin Books. 1993. _____ _____ A Matter of Time. New Delhi. Penguin Books. 1996. _____ _____ Small Remedies. New Delhi. Penguin Books. 2000. 44

Sidhwa, Bapsi. The Pakistani Bride. New Delhi Penguin Books. 1987. ______ ______ Ice-Candy Man. New Delhi. Penguin Books. 1989. Philip Rics and Patricia Waugh. (eds), Modern Literary Theory. 4th edition (London: Arnold) Khan, Uzma Aslam, The Geometry of God. New Delhi. Rupa Books. 2008. Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992) Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992) Barbara Hill Rigney, The Voices of Toni Morrison (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1991). Qtd. by Shelley Eversley in The Real Negro: The Question of Authenticity in Twentieth Century African American Literature, Ed. William E. Cain Ed. (New York: Routledge, 2004) xi. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (London: Vintage, 1970). Toni Morrison, Beloved (New York: Vintage Books, 1987). Gurleen Grewal, Circles of Sorrow, Lines of Struggle: The Novels of Toni Morrison (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998). Magic Realism. A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Ed. J A Cuddon (Delhi: Maya Blackwell, Doaba House, 1976). Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon (London: Vintage, 1977). Evelyn Jaffe Schreiber, Subversive Voices: Eroticizing the Other in William Faulkner and Toni Morrison (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee press, 2001).

45

Teaching Academic Genres in Digital Contexts Samuel de Carvalho Lima Instituto Federal de Educao, Cincia e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil CNPq-Brazil samclima@gmail.com Jlio Csar Arajo Universidade Federal do Cear, Brazil araujo.ufc@gmail.com Messias Dieb Universidade Federal do Cear, Brazil mhdieb@gmail.com Abstract As it is known, the academic community has its own means to have its members communicate among themselves: researchers make use of appropriate genres to share their findings, according to their needs (Swales, 1990). Besides that, we believe that print literacy is essential, but not enough to support peoples successful lives in our society in digital times (Snyder, 2008; 2009). Due to this, teaching academic genres at university becomes mandatory, as well as trying to make students digitally literate (Arajo and Dieb, 2009; Arajo et al. 2010). Thus, the objective of this paper is to analyze the online activities of the semi-presence undergraduate course Reading and Writing Academic Texts, at Federal University of Cear, Brazil. The results of our analysis allowed the description of the online activities that are currently being suggested in teaching academic genres in digital contexts, and the skills that are potentially developed when accomplishing their proposals. It follows that there is a need for technological training for the language professional, because this way there can be the teaching and learning academic genres through the web by making students expand their reading and writing academic practices. Keywords: Teaching, Genres, Web Introduction As it is known, the academic community has its own means to have its members communicate among themselves: researchers make use of appropriate genres to share their findings, according to their needs (Swales, 1990). Besides that, we believe that print literacy is essential, but not enough to support peoples successful lives in our society in digital times (Snyder, 2008; 2009). Due to this, teaching academic genres at university becomes mandatory, as well as trying to make students digitally literate (Arajo and Dieb, 2009; Arajo et al., 2010). Lankshear et al. (2000) highlight the fact that many educators need to find a way to meet the demands of a world mediated by information technology (IT). Teachers and professors, then, have to find a way to integrate IT into their pedagogical practices and make them relevant to the commitment to forming students into active citizens. The interface between IT and education, thus, enables us to notice the emergence of new practices of reading, writing, teaching and learning. These practices are related to what we understand as digital literacy, namely, the way we successfully communicate through virtual web pages (Shetzer and Warschauer, 2000).

46

Taking all this into consideration, the guiding question we propose for this paper is the following: how can teaching academic genres in digital contexts promote digital literacy? Our hypothesis is that if teaching academic genres in digital contexts foresees web interactivity, it is possible that online activities take into account digital literacy skills, which may promote multiple reading and writing practices in virtual environments. As Franco et al. (2003) point out the advantages of integrating web interactivity into university pedagogical practices, we aimed to analyze the teaching of the semi-presence undergraduate course Reading and Writing Academic Texts, at Federal University of Cear, Brazil, taking into account the online activities proposed in the course and the literacy practice students have to perform. Doing this, we believe that we affirm our commitment to the Applied Linguistics, a field that helps us understand human social practices and interactions (Moita Lopes, 2006). Literature Review Regarding teaching academic genres in digital times, we believe that teachers who are aware of web interactivity may be more likely to develop pedagogical practices which include digital literacy. These teachers, more digitally literate, can create more opportunities for students expand their social practices of reading and writing in virtual environments, taking into account the different uses students already update in front of a web-connected computer. To Cristea (2004), web interactivity and teaching-learning process can benefit from each other, and this confluence can bring a synergistic effect, resulting in meaningful experiences to the participants involved. When considering the web as a phenomenon that prioritizes the authorship and information construction online, as well as its purpose of promoting its output pondering cultural, language and education diversity worldwide, we can say that teachers should be encouraged to make use of web interactivity in language teaching-learning contexts. So, the result of all this can promote participants communication and social interaction in authentic language use, which emerges from social practices of reading and writing in virtual environments, for instance, during the course Reading and Writing Academic Genres. We highlight that the actions that update web interactivity in order to mediate teachinglearning processes at undergraduate level in Brazil are very new. A prominent initiative in this context is the Open University of Brazil, which in partnership with other several Brazilian universities, including the Federal University of Cear, promotes access to university education using Distance Education methodology. It is within this context that we seek to carry out a preliminary descriptive study, trying to elucidate some of the practices that are being held in the context of teaching academic genres in digital times, adjusting our investigation to digital literacy and online activities present in this context. Concerning digital literacy, Shetzer and Warschauer (2000) state that it is composed of communication, construction and research. Regarding communication, it means particularly computer-mediated communication (CMC), which deals with contacting individuals or groups to ask questions, giving opinions, sharing advice and knowledge, responding to other peoples contact, participating in collaborative projects, selecting the most appropriate tool and genres to mediate interaction, etc. Regarding construction, it means the practice of creating and managing web pages and hypertexts, individually or collaboratively, which involves multimedia and co-construction. Regarding research, it means finding, organizing and making use of information available on the web. In relation to online activities, we believe that they can be used as potential collaborators to digital literacy development, especially in distance learning courses, as they can provide students with familiarity with web interactivity, namely: global interactive communication; 47

multimediatic hypertext creation; audio, music, video, photo and animation production and editing; easy network-connected publication (Warschauer and Ware, 2008). Salmon (2002) coined the expression e-tivities to refer to online activities that enhance active and participatory learning. To the author, these activities can be responsible for organizing principles and pedagogies focused on implementing web technologies. They should be also easily accessible with their guidelines exposed in a simple message called invitation. Lima (2010a; 2010b; 2010c) and Lima and Arajo (2010; 2011) show how online activities proposed in Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) can be responsible to the expansion of reading and writing practices and promote digital literacy. The focus on online activities are justified by the fact that students, participants in teaching-learning processes in VLE, should perform an active and autonomous attitude in relation to their needs, taking into account speed and flexibility when interacting with the contents available online. Therefore, we believe that, when teaching academic genres in digital times, online activities tend to be digital literacy potential collaborators, since they can take hold of the wide range of web interactivity. Methodology The Federal University of Cear and its Virtual Institute in partnership with the Open University of Brazil provide courses with distance education resources, such as VLE and other web technologies. The undergraduate courses are offered in a semipresential way, aimed at expanding university education to regions where this opportunity is considered difficult. Students, then, have 20% of the workload in presential meetings and 80% of the workload through distance activities held in the VLE developed by the university itself. This way, students need to get online by internet access, so they can carry out the online activities available at Federal University of Cear VLE. The online activities present in the course Reading and Writing Academic Texts constituted the corpus of this research. They also represented the way teaching academic genres in digital times may happen. For the purpose of our analysis, then, we used 10 online activities found in the course Reading and Writing Academic Texts, comprising all online activities that are offered by the teachers/professors and should be performed by students in this course. Thus, we intended to establish a relationship between digital literacy skills and online activities by conducting the description of the online activities guidelines and the skill they potentially promote. We highlight that, for this, we focused on the most prominent feature present in each online activity, considering layout, orientation, etc. It is worth mentioning that the results of description, categorization and analysis are based on the information raised by the data itself and its interpretation. Thereby, the procedures performed to elucidate the description of teaching academic genres in digital times were: accessing to Federal University of Cear VLE; exploring the contents of the course Reading and Writing Academic Texts; finding the online activities; relating online activities and potential promoted skills. Findings and Discussion In this section, we present the online activity types found in teaching academic genres in digital times. Accordingly, the course Reading and Writing Academic Texts has 2 types of online activities. The first type deals with digital literacy and web interactivity and the second type deals with digital literacy, web interactivity and communication. This kind of description is relevant to our study, because it takes into account the information that emerged from the data found in the research and our interpretation based on digital literacy 48

theory (Shetzer and Warschauer, 2000). The course Reading and Writing Academic Text presented a total of 10 online activities, which are clearly related to 2 different practices students have to update in Federal University of Cear VLE: 6 online activities related to the portfolio and 4 online activities related to the virtual forum, both available in the VLE. In relation to the 6 portfolio online activities available in the course Reading and Writing Academic Texts, we realize that they are online activities that deal with digital literacy and web interactivity in a way that they make students feel more comfortable with web and VLE resources. This kind of activity guides students to, first, read papers and articles, then, reflect on what they have read and, after that, write some other texts, which may result in various academic genres, such as abstracts, reviews, papers, etc. Then, students have to post their compositions in a virtual portfolio available in the VLE. Based on data observation, we noticed that, at first, regarding interactivity, this kind of activity lacks communication, because it does not promote interaction between students or between students and teachers, necessarily. The only interaction clearly noticed and necessary in this case is the one between student, online activity itself, and class content. It is worth noting that the reading and writing practices promoted by this kind of online activity do not seem very different from the ones carried out in presential contexts, although they can happen in VLE: reading print material, reflecting on contents and writing compositions based on readings and reflections are practices that can be performed without any digital technology or web interactivity. We also understand that the literacy practices promoted by this kind of activity refer typically to the academic area, and that the practice of reading articles and writing comments, summaries, reviews, and other texts, have always been related to teaching academic genres regardless internet use, web interactivity or digital times. Moreover, although this kind of online activity asks students to a construction movement, it has always to do with the production of a verbal text, without updating the construction described by Shetzer and Warschauer (2000): integrating different modalities, such as audio, video, etc. However, it is important to notice that, as the course is a semipresential one, students need to submit their compositions by using web interactivity updated in the Federal University of Cear VLE, as they must post their compositions in a virtual portfolio to be evaluated and graded. We believe it is pertinent to highlight the fact that this kind of online activity fosters a familiarity with web and VLE resources, as it customizes web interactivity by offering a virtual place for students to keep their compositions, so that they can be available to teachers as they need to evaluate and grade students outputs, fulfilling a well defined pedagogical purpose. We, then, present an example of the guidelines of a portfolio online activity: read the article and select the definitions of genres and text sequences that you find more interesting. Based on the concepts chosen, write a short essay commenting on text genres and liking them with text sequences Do not forget to provide the references at the end of your text Post it in your portfolio. As we can see, this kind of online activity used in the course Reading and Writing Academic Texts does not meet the skills of communication, construction and research, presented by Shetzer and Warschauer (2000). However, it is worth noting that it deals with other skills: it provides students with the opportunity of being online in web pages; it provides some interactions between student and web content; it provides students with contact and familiarity with web interactivity. Concerning the 4 forum online activities, available in the course Reading and Writing Academic Texts, we realize that they are online activities that deal with digital literacy, web interactivity and communication in a way that they make students interact between them and the teacher through web and VLE resources. This kind of activity guides students

49

to, first, read a text available in the VLE, and, then, discuss the reading with other students and the teacher in the virtual forum, also available in the VLE. Regarding web interactivity, it is important to highlight the virtual forum genre, interpreted as a reissue of the text genre used to discuss specific problematic situations in a given community, in order to, collaboratively, find a solution to problems, through the exposure of ideas and diverse opinions listed in a broad debate. As the former, in digital times, this issue continues to preserve the initial function of playing with and refining arguments to develop new ideas and reaffirm or change positions by deepening knowledge (Xavier and Santos, 2005). This online activity also promotes interaction and communication that may result in the formation of a group discussion on relevant issues concerning the topics studied, enhance message exchange that encourages frequent communication in VLE, promote frequent reading and writing practices in the VLE, rise reflections and allow collaborative knowledge construction (Freire et al., 2007). Thus, when teaching academic genres in digital times, we may find practices that deal mainly with communication, by mediating the interaction between participants in the VLE, through virtual forum online activities. Taking all this into consideration, we can say that this kind of online activity promotes digital literacy and communication, as it demands to contact individuals, when interacting with classmates, and to select the appropriate web technology for the purpose of forming a group discussion on relevant topics, when using the virtual forum. We, then, present an example of the guidelines of a forum online activity: After reading the article try to list the stylistic and rhetorical differences between a scientific article and a disclosure paper. Discuss with your classmates the implications and the changes that may occur in the process of adapting a scientific genre to another. Taking into account the demands of this type of online activity, we highlight that it may enhance active and participatory learning, as it provides students with the opportunity for discussion and knowledge construction. It is clear that it also makes use of web interactivity for the realization of principles and pedagogies organized and aimed at optimizing teaching in digital times, as it is suggested by Salmon (2002). Conclusion This paper presented, in an exploratory way, the description of teaching academic genres in digital times, updated by Federal University of Cear and its undergraduate course Reading and Writing Academic Texts, taking into account the online activities and the potential development of digital literacy in the course. After understanding that web interactivity may enhance teaching-learning processes and be successfully used in distance education, we realize the importance of online activities, as they may be important resources to promote autonomous and knowledge construction by interaction, when they consider web interactivity, digital literacy and communication. Regarding the pedagogical implications that emerged from our results and discussion, we noticed that both the flexibility of web interaction and teachers creativity may be responsible for developing and offering dynamic online activities that bring together learning contents and developing digital literacy. Therefore, careful planning and commitment to training students for successful practices in society need to be taken into account when teaching academic genres in digital times. References Arajo, J. C. et al. (Ed.) (2010), Lnguas na web: links entre ensino e aprendizagem, Editora Uniju, Iju. Arajo, J. C.; Dieb, M. (Ed.) (2009), Letramentos na web: gneros, interao e ensino, Edies UFC, Fortaleza. 50

Cristea, A. I. (2004), What can the Semantic Web do for Adaptive Educational Hypermedia?, Educational Technology & Society, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 40-58. Franco, M. A. et al. (2003), O ambiente virtual de aprendizagem e sua incorporao na Unicamp, Educao e Pesquisa, No. 2, pp. 341-352. Freire, F. et. al. (2007), Leitura e escrita via internet: formao de professores nas reas de alfabetizao e linguagem, Trabalhos em Lingustica Aplicada, No. 46, pp. 93111. Lankshear, C. et al. (2000), Teachers and techno-literacy: managing literacy, technology and learning in schools, Allen & Unwin, New South Wales, 2000. Lima, S. C. (2010a), Atividades on-line mediadoras da familiarizao com as potencialidades de interatividade da web, Hipertextus revista digital (UFPE), Vol. 5, pp. 1-10. Lima, S. C. (2010b), Letramento digital e atividades on-line de comunicao, Educao & Tecnologia, Vol. 15, pp. 23-36. Lima, S. C. (2010c), Potential relationship between digital literacy and e-tivities in English language teaching, in Shafaei, A. (Ed.), Frontiers of language and teaching: proceedings of the 2010 International Online Language Conference. Universal Publishers, Boca Raton, pp. 236-243. Lima, S. C.; Arajo, J. C. (2010), Letramento digital em ambiente virtual de aprendizagem: descrio das prticas de leitura e escrita promovidas por propostas de atividades no curso de Letras/Ingls, in Arajo, J. C. et al. (Ed.), Lnguas na web: links entre ensino e aprendizagem. Editora Uniju, Iju, pp. 243-266. Lima, S. C.; Arajo, J. C. (2011), Relaes entre letramento digital e atividades on-line no processo de ensino-aprendizagem de lngua materna em ambientes virtuais, in Gonalves, A. V; Pinheiro, A. S. (Ed.), Nas trilhas do letramento: entre teoria, prtica e formao docente. Mercado de Letras, So Paulo, pp. 159-204. Moita Lopes, L. P. (2006), Por uma Lingustica Aplicada Indisciplinar, Parbola Editorial, So Paulo. Salmon, G. (2002), E-tivities: the key for active online learning, Kogan Page, London. Shetzer, H.; Warschauer, M. (2000), An electronic literacy approach to network-based language teaching, in Warschauer, M; Kern, R. (Ed.), Network-based Language Teaching: concepts and practice. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 171185. Snyder, I. (2008), The literacy wars: why teaching children to read and write is a battleground in Australia, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest. Snyder, I. (2009), Ame-os ou deixe-os: navegando no panorama de letramentos em tempos digitais, in Arajo, J. C; Dieb, M. (Ed.), Letramentos na web: gneros, interao e ensino. Edies UFC, Fortaleza, pp. 23-46. Swales, J. M. (1990), Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Warschauer, M.; Ware, M. (2008), Learning, change, and power: competing discourses of technology and literacy, in Coiro, J.et all. (Ed.), Handbook of research on new literacies. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New York, NY, pp. 215-240. Xavier, A. C. S.; Santos, C. F. (2005), E-forum na internet: um gnero digital, in BiasiRodrigues, B; Arajo, J. C. (Ed.), Interao na internet: novas formas de usar a linguagem. Lucerna, Rio de Janeiro, pp. 30-38.

51

Analysis of the Function of Picture Books and Decoding Images in Children Literature Eisa Amiri Department of Education, Islamic Azad University, Lamerd Branch, Lamerd, Iran Daryoosh Hayati Department of English, Islamic Azad University, Lamerd Branch, Lamerd, Iran daryooshhayati@gmail.com Sayed Ahmad Hashemy Department of Education, Islamic Azad University, Lamerd Branch, Lamerd, Iran hashemy.ahmad@yahoo.com Abstract Picture books are commonly assumed to be related to and about very young or pre-literate children, a simple form that is beneath serious critical notice. However, some consider them as childrens literatures genuinely original contribution to literature in general; they are a polyphonic form that embodies many codes, styles, textual devices and intertextual references, and which frequently pushes at the boundaries of convention. This essay, based on the second view considering children literature as a serious contribution to literature, demonstrates not only how much there is to say about a picture, but also how much there is to learn about the process of decoding pictures in children literature in John Burninghams Mr Gumpys Outing. Moreover, it is further discussed how Picture books in general, and all their various components, are what semiotic experts call signs. Keywords: Inter-texuality, Polyphonic, Textual Devices, Decoding, John Burningham Introduction The book, John Burninghams Mr Gumpys Outing (1970), is intended for the least experienced of audiences young children; and therefore it is a Picture book, a combination of verbal texts and visual images. He provided children with books like this on the assumption that pictures communicate more naturally and more directly than words, and thus help young readers make sense of the texts that accompany. But are pictures so readily understood? And are picture books really so straightforward? If one tries for a moment to look at the picture of Mr Gumpy Without engaging ones usual assumptions, one realizes that they are taking much about it for granted. Burninghams image does in sonic way actually resemble a mail, as the words man or `Mr Gumpy do not; it is what linguists identify as an iconic representation, whereas the words are symbolic, arbitrary sounds or marks which stand for something they do not resemble. Nevertheless, if one doesnt know that what they are actually looking at marks on a page represented something else, they would see nothing in the picture but meaningless patches of color. sonic general understanding of what pictures are is required before one can read these patches as a person, apparently named Mr Gumpy, living in a real or fictional world which exists somewhere else, outside the picture. Even so, previous knowledge of pictures leads to assure that this man is different from his image. He is not four inches tall. He is not flat and two-dimensional. His eyes are not small black dots, his mouth not a thin black crescent. His skin is not paper-Whitt, nor scored with thin orange lines. these qualities of the image are translated into John Burninghams work. 52

The objects they represent, and assume that the four-inch figure is a man of normal height, the orange lines oil white merely normal skin. But before translating the lines into skin, one must know what skin is, and what it looks like. A pre-existing knowledge of actual objects is needed to understand which qualities of representations, like the orange color here, do resemble those of the represented objects, and which, like the lines here, are merely features of the medium or style of representation, and therefore to be ignored. For the same reason, it must be assumed that the sky seen above the man does not end a few inches above his head which this is a border, an edge to the depiction, but not a representation of an edge in the world depicted. And it must be realized that the house is not smaller than the man and attached to his arm, but merely at sonic distance behind him in the imaginary space the picture implies. But now, perhaps the degree to which the picture requires is exaggerated. After all, more distant real objects do appear to us to be smaller than closer ones. But while thats true, its also true that artists have been interested in trying to record that fact what we call perspective only since the Renaissance, and then mostly in Europe and Europeaninfluenced cultures. Not all pictures try to represent perspective, and it takes a culturebound prejudice to look at visual images expecting to find perspective and, therefore, knowing how to interpret it. Children must learn these prejudices before they can make sense of this picture. Those who can accurately interpret the relative size of Mr Gumpy and the house do spoil the expectation that the picture represents the things as they do actually appear to a viewer. Applying that expectation might lead a viewer to be confused. Burninghams depiction of Mr Gumpys eyes. These small black dots evoke a different style of representation, by means of simplified exaggeration rather than resemblance. In order to make sense of this apparently straightforward picture, then, one must have knowledge of differing styles and their differing purposes, and perform the complex operation of interpreting different parts of the pictures in different ways. So far understanding of this image is dealt with, and the fact is ignored that pleasure is evoked by looking at it. Shapes and textures leads one to agree with Brian Alderson (1990: 114), when he names Mr Gumpys Outing as one of `those picture books which have no ambitions beyond conveying simple delight. But Alderson forgets the extent to which experiencing that simple delight depends on still further complex and highly sophisticated assumptions about what pictures do and how viewers should respond to them. These particular assumptions are especially relevant in considering art intended for children. Ruskin famously suggested in 1857 that taking sensuous pleasure in pictures requires adults to regain all `innocence of the eye he described as `childish (Herbert, p.2). The implication is that children themselves, not having yet learned the supposedly counterproductive sophistication that leads adults to view pictures only in terms of their potential to convey information, are automatically in possession of innocent eyes, automatically capable of taking spontaneous delight in the colors and textures of pictures. According to Herbert: This sort of PLOT visual perception, freed from concerns with function, use, and labels, is perhaps the most highly sophisticated sort of seeing that we do; it is not the `natural thing that the eye does (whatever that would be). The `innocent eve is a metaphor for a highly experienced and cultivated sort of vision. (p. 118) Indeed Burningham captures effects of light falling on grass and bricks relates strongly to the impressionist tradition the Picture evokes for one a tradition that build a whole morality upon the pleasure viewers could and should take in just such effects.

53

Could pleasure be gained innocently, without the knowledge of impressionism? As Arthur Danto asserts, to see something as art requires something the eve cannot descry an atmosphere of artistic theory, knowledge of the history of-art: an artworld.(p. 431) The `simple delight sophisticated adults like Brian Alderson take in this picture is not likely to be shared by children unaware of the ethical Value of all `innocent eye, untutored in the artworld. Nor is the picture the only thing read in the context of previous assumptions. There arc also the words. This is Mr Gumpy, they say. But what is it exactly? The paper page in view? The entire image visible on it? Of course not but it is essential to know conventions of picture captioning to realize that these words are pointing towards a perusal of the contents of the image, in order to find somewhere within it a depiction of the specific object named. And besides, just who is telling us that this is Mr Gumpy? It is possible, even logical, that the speaker is the person in the picture as it is, for instance, when we watch TV news broadcasts; and then perhaps he is telling us that Mr Gumpy is the name of the watering can he is holding? It is our prior knowledge of the narrative conventions of picture books that leads us to assume that the speaker is not the figure depicted but someone else, a narrator rather than a character in the story, and that the human being depicted is the important object in the picture, and therefore the most likely candidate to be `Mr GUITIPY. Methodology In this essay a descriptive and analytical approach is applied in an intertextual study of children literature, especially in decoding picture books so as to prove not only there is much to say about a picture, but also how much there is to learn about the process of decoding pictures in children literature according to the views of experts in children literature like Hunt and Alderson, Moreover this study is based on the theoretical views of psychologists as Arnbeim as well as communication experts in the field like Schwarcz and the Philosophers of the Visual Arts like Danto in practice. Findings and Discussion As does in fact turn out to be the case but only for those who know the most elementary conventions of reading books: that the front of the book is the cover with the bound edge on the left, and that the pages must be looked at in a certain order, across each double-page spread from left to right and then a turn to the page on the other side of the right-hand sheet. And, of course, these conventions do not operate for books printed in Japan for example, even if those books contain only pictures, and no Japanese words. In other words: picture books like Mr Gumpys Outing convey `simple delight by surprisingly complex means, and communicate only within a network of conventions and assumptions, about visual and verbal representations and about the real objects they represent. Picture books in general, and all their various components, are what semiotic experts call `signs in Umberto Ecos words (1985: 176), `something [which] stands to somebody for something else in some respect or capacity. The most significant fact about such representations is the degree to which we take them for granted. Both adults and children do see books like Mr, Gumpy as simple, even obvious, and, as discovered in the exercise report above, it takes effort to become aware of the arbitrary conventions and distinctions we unconsciously take for granted, to see the degree to which that which seems simply natural is complex and artificial. It is for that reason that such exercises are so important, and that thinking of picture books in semiotic terms is our most valuable tool in coming to understand them. According to 54

Marshall Blonsky, `The semiotic head, or eye, sees the world as an immense message, replete with signs that can and do deceive us and lie about the worlds condition (p.67). Because we assume that pictures, as iconic signs, do in some significant wav actually resemble what they depict, they invite us to see objects as the pictures depict them to see the actual in terms of the fictional visualization of it. Indeed, this dynamic is the essence of picture books. The pictures `illustrate the texts that is, they purport to show us what is meant by the words, so that we come to understand the objects and actions the words refer to in terms of the qualities of the images that accompany them the world outside the book in terms of the images within it. And the world as they show it is not necessarily the world all viewers would agree to see. Speaking of what he identifies as `visual culture, Nicholas XIirzocff sets all visual information firmly in the context of the specific culture that produces and receives it, and describes it as `a constantly challenging place of social interaction and definition in terms of class, ender, sexual and racial identities (p.4). Picture books, with their intended purpose of showing what the world implied by the words looks like, and thus means, are particularly powerful milieus for these sorts of interactions. Furthermore, the intended audience of picture books is by definition inexperienced in need of learning how to think about their world, how to see and understand themselves and others. Consequently, picture books are a significant means by which we integrate voting children into the ideology of our culture. As John Stephens suggests: Ideologies ... are not necessarily undesirable, and in the sense of a system of beliefs by which we make sense of the world, social life would be impossible without them (p. 8). But that does not mean that all aspects of social life arc equally desirable, nor that all the ideology conveyed by picture books is equally acceptable. Picture books can and do often encourage children to take for granted views of reality that many adults find objectionable. It is for this reason above all that we need to make ourselves aware of the complex signification of the apparently simple and obvious words and pictures of a book like Mr Gumpys Outing. As Gillian Rose says: Looking carefully at images ... entails, among other things, thinking about how they offer very particular visions of social categories such as class, gender, race, sexuality and soon (P.11). What, then, does John Burninghams picture and text mean- What have we been led to assume is natural in agreeing that this is, in fact, Mr Gumpy? Most obviously, it is accepted that what matters most about the picture is the human being in it: it encourages a not particularly surprising species - centricity. But it does so by establishing a hierarchic relationship among the objects depicted: only one of them is important enough to be named by the text, and so require more attention from the viewer. Intriguingly, young children tend to scan a picture with equal attention to all parts; the ability to pick out and focus on the human at the centre is therefore a learned activity, and one that reinforces important cultural assumptions, not just about the relative value of particular objects but also about the general assumption that objects do indeed have different values and do therefore require different degrees of attention. Not surprisingly, both the text and the picture place the human depicted within a social context. He is Mr Gumpy, male and adult, his authority signaled by the fact that he is known only by his title and last name and that he wears the sort of jacket which represents business-like adult behavior. The jacket disappears in the central portions of the book, as 55

visual evidence that Mr Gumpys boat trip is a vacation from business as usual, during which the normal conventions arc relaxed. Then, at the end, Mr Gumpy wears an even fancier jacket as host at a tea party which, like the meals provided to children by adults at the end of childrens stories from Little Red Riding Hood through Potters Peter Rabbit (1902) and Sendaks Where the Wild Things Are (1963), confirms the benefits for children of an adults authority. But despite the absence of this visual sign of his authority in many of the pictures, Mr Gumpy always remains Mr Gumpy in the text and lie is always undeniably in charge of the children and animals who ask to accompany him on his ride, always entitled to make the rules for them. Apparently, then, his authority transcends the symbolism of the jacket, which might be donned by anybody and therefore represents the status resident in a position rather than the power attached to all individual person. Mr Gumpys authority must then emerge from the only other things we know about him: that tic is male and adult, and that, as the text makes a point of telling us, lie owned the boat. Apparently it is more important to know this than anything about Mr Cumpys marital status or past history or occupation about all of which the text is silent. Both by making ownership significant and by taking it for granted that adult male owners have the right to make rules for children and animals, that do not and presumably cannot own boats, the book clearly implies a social hierarchy. Nor is this the only way in which it supports conventional values. A later picture shows us that one of the children, the one with long hair, wears a pink dress, while the other has short hair and wears shorts and a top. In terms of the behavior of actual children, both might be girls; but a repertoire of conventional visual codes would lead most viewers to assume that the child in shorts is male just as we assume that trouser-wearing figures on signs signal mens washrooms, skirt-wearing figures womens washrooms. But whether male or not, the wearer of shorts behaves differently from the wearer of the dress. A later Picture of the aftermath of a boating accident shows the one wet child in shorts sensibly topless, the other equally wet child still modestly sodden in her dress. This picture takes for granted and so confirms that traditionally female attire requires traditionally constraining feminine behavior. As suggested earlier the text is silent about Mr Gumpys marital status. That silence might itself speak loudly, for it mirrors and might be seen to represent the silences created by the closeting of homosexuality in the world outside the book the need of many people not to speak about it. I might then follow Melynda Huskers advice, view the book as might queer theorists (those interested in becoming aware of the attitudes to homosexuality lurking in literary texts), and try to make visible the ways in which queerness inheres in a variety of picture books (P. 69). Mr Gumpys outing might reveal the degree to which picture books, indeed childrens books generally, replicate counter-productive cultural prejudices about sexual diversity by their forms of silence about it. More obviously, the story of Mr Gumpys Outing revolves around promises that the children should not squabble, the cat should not chase the rabbit, and so on, before he allows them oil to his boat; the creatures break their promises, and the boat tips. My knowledge of the didactic impulse behind most picture-book stories leads me to expect that an ethical judgment is about to be made: either Mr Gumpy was wrong to demand these promises, or the children and animals were wrong to make them. Curiously, however, the book implies no such judgment. The pictures, which show Mr Gumpy as a soft, round mail with a pleasant, bland face, suggest that he is anything but the sort of unreasonable disciplinarian we ought to despise; and even though the breaking of promises leads to a spill, nothing is said or shown to insist that we should make a negative judgment of the children and animals. After all, exactly such outbreaks of anarchy are the 56

main source of pleasure in most stories for young children, and therefore to be enjoyed at least as much as condemned. Mr Gumpy himself is so little bothered that he rewards the miscreants with a meal, and even all invitation to come for another ride. Not accidentally, furthermore, the promises all relate to behavior so stereotypical as to seem inevitable: in the world as we most often represent it to children in books, on TV and elsewhere, cats always chase rabbits and children always squabble. In centering on their inability to act differently, and the fun of tile confusion that ensues when the story reinforces both the validity of the stereotypes and the more general (and again, conservative) conviction that variation from type is unlikely. But why, then, would Mr Gumpy elicit promises which, it seems, could not be kept? This too the text is silence allows us to become aware that his asking the children and animals to do what they are not sensible enough to do reinforces the storys unspoken but firm insistence on his right to have authority over them. If they ever did mature enough to keep their word, then we couldnt so blindly assume they were unwise enough to need his leadership. Someone else might be wearing that jacket at the final tea Party. Mr Gumpys Outing thus reinforces for its implied young readers as not uncommon set of ideas about the similarity of children to animals, the inevitability of child-like irresponsibility in both, and the resultant need for adult authority. In accepting all this as natural, readers of Mr Gumpys Outing and many other apparently simple picture books gain complex knowledge, not just of the world they live in but also of the place they occupy as individual beings within it their sense of who they are. This latter is important enough to deserve further exploration. Like most narrative, picturebook stories most forcefully guide readers into culturally acceptable ideas about who they arc through the privileging of the point of view from which they report oil the events they describe. Knowing only what call be known from that perspective, we readers tend to assume it ourselves to see and understand events and people as the narrative invites us to see them. Ideological theorists call such narrative perspectives Subject positions: in occupying them, readers are provided with ways of understanding their own subjectivity their selfhood or individuality. But, as John Stephens suggests, in taking up a position from which the text is most readily intelligible, [readers] are apt to be situated within the frame of the texts ideology; that is, they are subjected to and by that ideology (p. 67). All stories imply subject positions for readers to occupy. Because picture books do so with pictures as well as words, their subject positions have much in common with what Christian Metz (1982) outlines as the one films offer their viewers. The pictures in both offer viewers a position of power. They exist only so that we call look at them: they invite us to observe and to observe what, in its very nature as a representation, cannot observe us back. In Mr Gumpys Outing, Burningham makes the authority of our viewing position clear in the same way most picture-book artists do: by almost always depicting all the characters with their faces turned towards us, even when that makes little sense in terms of the activities depicted. Indeed, the picture in which Mr Gumpy stands with his back to his house while smiling out at us makes sense only in terms of the conventions of photography or portrait painting; as in family snapshots, he is arranged so as to be most meaningfully observable by a (to him) unseen viewer who will be looking at the picture Sonic time after it was made. In confirmation of the relationship between this image and such snapshots, the caption tells us, This is Mr Gumpy, in the same present tense we use to describe photographic images of events past. In making their faces available to all unseen observer, the characters in Mr Gumpys Outing imply not just the observers right to gaze, but also their somewhat veiled consciousness of all observer and therefore their own passive willingness, even desire, to 57

be gazed at. Like the actors in a play or movie, and like characters in most picture books, they share in a somewhat less aggressive form the invitation to voyeurism that John Berger (1972) discovers in both pin-up photographs and traditional European paintings of nudes. Their implied viewer is a Peeping Toni with the right to peep, to linger over details, to enjoy and interpret and make judgments. But meanwhile, of course, the power suite pictures offer is illusory. In allowing us to observe and to interpret, they encourage us to absorb all the codes and conventions, the signs that make them meaningful; they give us the freedom of uninvolved, egocentric observation only in order to enmesh us in a net Of cultural constraints that work to control egocentricity. For that reason, they encourage a form of subjectivity that is inherently paradoxical. They demand that their implied viewers see themselves as both free and with their freedom constrained, and both enjoy their illusory egocentric separation from others and yet, in the process, learn to feel guilty about it. Interestingly, Mr Gumpy confirms the central importance of such paradoxes by expressing them, not just in the position of its implied viewer, but also in the ambivalence of its storys resolution. Are we asked to admire or to condemn the children and animals for being triumphantly themselves and not giving in to Mr Gumpys attempts to constrain them? In either case, does their triumphantly being themselves represent a celebration of individuality, or an anti-individualist conviction that all cats always act alike And if all cats must always act in a cat-like way, what are we to make of the final scene, in which the animals all sit oil chairs like humans and eat and drink out of the kinds of containers humans eat and drink from? Does this last image of animals and children successfully behaving according to adult human standards contradict the apparent message about their inability to do so earlier or merely reinforce the unquestionable authority of tile adult society Mr Gumpy represents throughout? These unanswerable questions arise from the fact that the story deals with animals which both talk like humans and yet cannot resist bleating like sheep who act sometimes like humans, sometimes like animals. While such creatures do not exist in reality, they appear frequently in picture books, and the stories about them almost always raise questions like the ones Mr Gumpy does. In the conventional world of childrens picture books, the state of animals who talk like humans is a metaphor for the state of human childhood, in which children must learn to negotiate between the animal-like urges of their bodily desires and the demands of adults that they repress desire and behave in socially acceptable ways that is, as adult humans do. The strange world in which those who bleat as sheep naturally do, or squabble as children naturally do, must also sit oil chairs and drink from teacups, is merely a version of the confusing world children actually live in. Mr Gumpy makes that obvious by treating the children as exactly equivalent to the other animals who go oil the outing. The attitude a picture book implies about whether children should act like the animals they naturally are or the civilized social beings adults want them to be is a key marker in identifying it either as a didactic book intended to teach children or as a pleasurable one intended to please them. Stories we identify as didactic encourage children towards acceptable adult behavior, whereas pleasurable ones encourage their indulgence in what we see as natural behavior. But, of course, both types are didactic. The first is more obviously so because it invites children to stop being `child-like. In the same way as much traditional adult literature assumes that normal behavior is that typical of white middle-class males like those who authored it, this sort of childrens story defines essentially human values and acceptably human behavior as that of adults like those who produce it.

58

But books in the second category teach children how to be child-like, through what commentators like Jacqueline Rose (1984) and Myself (1992) have identified as a process of colonization: adults write books for children to persuade them of conceptions of themselves as children that suit adult needs and purposes. One such image is the intractable, anti-social self-indulgence that Mr Gumpy so assertively forbids and so passively accepts from his passengers. It affirms the inevitability and desirability of a sort of animal-likeness and child-likeness that both allows adults to indulge in nostalgia for the not-yetcivilized and keeps children other than, less sensible than, and therefore deserving of less power than, adults. That picture books like Mr Gumpy play a part in the educative processes Ive outlined here is merely inevitable. Like all human productions, they are enmeshed in the ideology Of the culture that produced them, and the childlikeness they teach is merely what our Culture views as natural in children. But as a form of representation which conveys information by means of both words and pictures, picture books evoke (and teach) a complex set of intersecting sign systems. For that reason, understanding of them can be enriched by knowledge from a variety of intellectual disciplines. Psychological research into picture perception call help us understand the ways in which human beings and particularly children see and make sense of pictures; Evelyn Goldsmith (1984) provides a fine similarity, of much of the relevant research in this area. The, Gestalt psychologist Rudolph Arnheim (1974:11) provides a particularly useful outline of ways in which the composition of pictures influences our understanding of what they depict, especially in terms of what lie calls the interplay of directed tensions among the objects depicted. Arnheim argues (11) that these tensions are as inherent in any precept as size, shape, location, or colour, but it can be argued that they might just as logically be viewed as signs culturally engendered codes rather than forces inherent in nature. In either case, the relationships among the objects in a picture create variations in `visual weight: weightier objects attract our attention more than others. In the picture of, Mr Gumpy in front of his house, for instance, the figure of Mr Gun-ipy has great weight because of its position in the middle of the picture, its relatively large size, and its mostly white color, which makes it stand out from the darker surfaces surrounding it. If we think of the picture in terms of the three-dimensional space it implies, the figure of Mr Gumpy gains more weight through its frontal position, which causes it to overlap less important objects like the house, and because it stands over the focal point of the perspective. Meanwhile, however, the bright red color of the house, and the arrow shape created by the path leading towards it, focus some attention on the house; and there is an interplay of tensions among the similarly blue sky, blue flowers and blue trousers, the similarly arched doorway and round-shouldered Mr Gumpy. Analysis of such compositional features can reveal much about how Pictures lead us to interpret the relationships among the objects they represent. Visual objects can have other kinds of meanings also: for a knowledgeable viewer, for instance, an object shaped like a cross can evoke Christian sentiments. Because picture books have the purpose of conveying complex information by visual means, they tend to refer to a wide range of visual symbolisms, and can sometimes be illuminated by knowledge of everything from the iconography of classical art to the semiotics of contemporary advertising. Consider, for instance, how the specific house Burningham provides Mr Gumpy conyers, to those familiar with the implications of architectural style, both an atmosphere of rural peacefulness and a sense of middle-class respectability. Furthermore, anyone familiar with Freudian or Jungian psychoanalytical theory and their focus on the unconscious meanings of visual images will find ample material for analysis 59

in picture books. There may be Freudian implications of phallic power in Mr Gumpys punt pole, carefully placed in the first picture of hint on his boat so that it almost appears to emerge from his crotch; in the later picture of the aftermath of the disastrous accident, there is nothing in front of Mr Gumpys crotch but a length of limp rope. Meanwhile, Jungians might focus on the archetypal resonances of the watering can Mr Gumpy holds in the first few pictures, its spout positioned at the same angle as the punt pole in the picture that follows, and the teapot lie holds in the last picture, its spout also at the same angle. The, fact that this story of a voyage over and into water begins and ends with Mr Gumpy holding objects that carry liquid, and thus takes him from providing, sustenance for plants to providing sustenance for other humans and animals, might well suggest a complex talc of psychic and/or social integration. Nor is it only the individual objects in pictures that have meaning: pictures as a whole can also express moods and meanings, through their use of already existing visual styles which convey information to viewers who know art history. Styles identified with specific individuals, or with whole periods or cultures, can evoke not just what they might have meant for their original viewers, but also what those individuals or periods or cultures have come to mean to us. Thus, Burninghams pictures of Mr Gumpy suggest both the style of impressionism and the bucolic peacefulness that it now tends to signify. In addition to disciplines which focus on pictures, there has been an extensive theoretical discussion of the relationships between pictures and words which is especially important in the study of picture books. Most studies in this area still focus on the differences Lensing (1766/1969) pointed out centuries ago in Laocodn: visual representations are better suited to depicting the appearance of objects in spaces, words to depicting the action of objects in time. In a picture book like Mr Gumpy, therefore, the text sensibly says nothing about the appearance of Mr Gumpy or his boat, and the pictures are incapable of actually moving as a boat or an animal does. But pictures can and do provide information about sequential activity. In carefully choosing the best moment of stopped time to depict, and the most communicative compositional tensions among the objects depicted, Burningham can clearly convey the action of a boat tipping, what actions led the characters to take the fixed positions they are shown to occupy, and what further actions will result. Furthermore, the sequential pictures of a picture book imply all the actions that would take the character from the fixed position depicted in one picture to the fixed position in the next from not quite having fallen into the water in one picture to already drying on the bank in the next. Indeed, it is this ability to imply unseen actions and the passage of time that allows the Pictures in picture books to play the important part they do in the telling of stories. Conclusion Nevertheless, the actions implied by pictures are never the same as those named in words. The bland statement of Burninghams text, and into the water they fell, hardly begins to cover the rich array of actions and responses the picture of the boat tipping lays Out for us. W. J. T. Mitchell (p. 44) concludes that the relationship between pictures and accompanying texts is a complex one of mutual translation, interpretation, illustration, and enlightenment. Once more, Mr Gumpys Outing reveals just how complex. Burninghams text on its own without these pictures would describe actions by characters with no character: it takes the pictures and knowledge of visual codes to read meaning into these simple actions. Without a text, meanwhile, the pictures of animals that make up most of the book would seem only a set of portraits, perhaps illustrations for an informational guide to animals. Only the text reveals that the animals can talk, and that it is their desire to get on the boat. Indeed, the exact same pictures could easily support a different text, one 60

about Mr Gumpy choosing to bring speechless animals on board until the boat sinks from their weight and he learns a lesson about greed. So the pictures provide information about the actions described in the words; and at the same time, the words provide information about the appearances shown in the pictures. If we look carefully, in fact, the words in picture books always tell us that things are not merely as they appear in the pictures, and the pictures always show us that events are not exactly as the words describe then. Picture books arc inherently ironic, therefore: a key pleasure they offer is a perception of the differences in the information offered by pictures and texts. Such differences both make the information richer and cast doubt on the truthfulness of each of the means which convey it. The latter is particularly significant: in their very nature, picture books work to make their audiences aware of the limitations and distortions in their representations of the world. Close attention to picture books automatically turns readers into semiotic experts. For young children as well as for adult theorists, realizing that, and learning to become more aware of the distortions in picture-book can have two important results. The first is that it encourages consciousness and appreciation of the cleverness and subtlety of both visual and verbal artists. The more readers and viewers of any age know about the codes of representation, the more they can enjoy the ways in which writers and illustrators use those codes in interesting and involving ways. They might, for instance, notice a variety of visual puns in Mr. Gumpys Outing: how the flowers in Birminghams picture of the rabbit are made up of repetitions of the sane shapes as the rabbits eyes, eyelashes and ears, or how his pigs snout is echoed by the snout-shaped tree branch behind it. The second result of an awareness of signs is even more important: the more both adults and children realize the degree to which all representations misrepresent the world, the less likely they will be to confuse any particular representation with reality, or to be unconsciously influenced by ideologies they have not considered. Making ourselves and our children more conscious of the semiotics of the picture books through which we show them their world and themselves will allow us to give them the power to negotiate their own subjectivities - surely a more desirable goal than repressing them into conformity to our own views. References Alderson, B. (1990) Picture Book Anatomy, The Lion and the Unicorn 14, 2: 108-14. Arnbeim, R. (1974) Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing, London: BBC and Penguin. Blonsky, M. (cd.) (1985) On Signs, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Birmingham, J. (1970) Mr Gumpys Outing, London: Cape. Danto, A. (1992) The Art-world, in Alderson, P. (ed.) The Philosophy of the Visual Arts, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 426-33. Eco, U. (1985) Producing Signs, in Blonsky, M. (ed.) On Signs, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Goldsmith, E. (1984) Research into Illustration: An Approach and a Review, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Herbert, R. L. (ed.) (1964) The Art Criticism of John Ruskin, Ruskin, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor. Lensing, G. E. (1766/1969) Laocobn: An Essay upon the Limits of Poetry and fainting, trans. Froth-inghain, E., New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

61

Metz, C. (1982) The Imaginary Sign: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Mirzoeff, N. (1999) An Introduction to Visual Culture, London and New York: Routledge. Mirzoeff, N. (ed.) (2002) The Visual Culture Reader, 2nd edn, London and New York: Routledge. Mitchell, W. J. T. (1994) Picture Theory, Chicago, IL and London: University of Chicago Press. Moebius, W. (1986) `Introduction to Picture book Codes, Word and huge 2, 2: 63-6. Mitchell, W. J. T. (1986) Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Nikolajeva, M. and Scott, C. (2001) How Picture books Work, New York and London: Garland. Nodelman, R (1988) Words about Pictures: The Narrative Art of Childrens Picture Books, Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. Nikolajeva, M. and Scott, C. (1992) The Pleasures of Childrens Literature, White Plains, NY: Longman. Nodelman, P. (1992) The Other: Orientalism, Colonialism, and Childrens Literature. Children, Literature Association Quarterly 17, I: 29-35. Potter, B. ( 1902) The Title of Peter Rabbit, London: Frederick Warne. Rose, G. (2001) Visual Methodologies, London: Sage. Rose, J. (1984) The Case of Peter Part The Impossibility of Childrens Fiction, London: Macmillan. Sendak, M. (1963) Where the Wild Things Are, New York: Harper and Row. Stephens, J. (1992) Language and Ideology in Childrens Fiction, London and New York: Longman. Schwarcz, J. H. (1982) Ways of the Illustrator: Visual Communication in Childrens Literature, Chicago, IL: American Library Association. Schwarcz, J. H. and Schwarcz, C. (1991) The Picture Book Comes of Age, Chicago, IL and London: American Library Association.

62

Postcolonialism, Children, and their Literature Sayed Ahmad Hashemy Department of Education, Islamic Azad University, Lamerd Branch, Lamerd, Iran Hashemy.ahmad@yahoo.com Daryoosh Hayati Department of English, Islamic Azad University, Lamerd, Iran daryooshhayati@gmail.com Eisa Amiri Department of Education, Islamic Azad University, Lamerd Branch, Lamerd, Iran Abstract This essay discusses whether the term Postcolonialism is applicable to the study of children literature or not. As it is clear postcolonialism is regarded as the need, in nations or groups which have been victims of imperialism, to achieve an identity uncontaminated by universalist or Eurocentric concepts and images as a phenomenon of late twentiethcentury political, economic, and cultural reality, such definition exempt children literature from being considered postcolonial, however this essay discusses that regardless of the commonly accepted idea of children being exempt from postcolonialism, how some postcolonial elements as being subaltern, victims, colonized and the other to name a few could be traced in books written for children. Yet the core question dealt with is: What do we mean by postcolonialism in relation to childrens literature? Moreover, through a historical survey of works of children literature as well as a look at cultural products aimed at creating a global brand, it is further discussed how culture bound children literature is and why its engagement with contemporary issues of each epoch approves postcolonialism as suitable rather than odd for the contemporary period due to its concentration on the most prevalent issues of the age as globalization, Eurocentrism and identity crisis. Keywords: Postcolonialism, Subaltern, Peripheral and Eurocentrism Introduction Children are the subaltern and simply to speak of them in the context of postcolonialism is to raise a contradiction: postcolonialism and children. If we think of postcolonialism as a phenomenon of late twentieth-century political, economic, and cultural reality, then children are to a great extent exempt. It is true that childrens rights interest us, and that, as Gareth Matthews points out, our society is moving slowly in the direction of assigning rights at an earlier and earlier age (80). Having remarked this, it must be added that children remain the most colonialized persons on the globe. This is apparent even in the literature labeled for them. As Jacqueline Rose pointed out in a comment on J. M. Barries The Little White Bird, the literature published for children is a way of colonizing (or wrecking) the child (27). Perry Nodelman argues something similar when he applies Edward Saids notions of Orientalism to the study of children and their literature, and it is this colonizing tendency of both the literature for children and the adult criticism of that literature that Peter Hunt opposes when he calls for a childish reading of childrens literature (Hunt, p.192-94). So the first thing to be clear on is just how deeply colonizing are the activities of writing for children and commenting on childrens books and to which extent can children literature be regarded as postcolonial.

63

These activities are so colonizing that one might say, as Nodelman does, that none can escape the role of colonizer. Speaking of their own imperial tendencies, Nodelman admits: in order to combat colonialism, I am recommending a benevolently helpful colonizing attitude towards children (Nodelman, p. 34). If we conclude with Nodelman and Rose that both the writing about childrens literature and the writing of it are colonialist, then it could be concluded that no such thing as a postcolonial childrens literature or a postcolonial criticism of it exists. While the above idea seems theoretically true, critics who study childrens literature have found that children literature and what has been written for them adheres closely to a cultures notion of what a child isa notion that may change considerably from epoch to epoch. To make the idea tangible many critics traced the history of children literature dealing with the most current issues of each epoch. As discussed below, as far as the issues of the age children literature has been concerned with in previous centuries indicates, it seems that the cultural issues as identity, hybridity, diaspora and generally postcolonialism as the most outstanding current issues of our time are not also relevant to literature for children, but also as it appeals to logic such issues are essential. As Anne Scott MacLeod has shown, the nineteenth century opened with a prevailing belief in a rational but imperfect child and moved to the Romantic idea of childish purity and innocence. When late eighteenth-century popular cultures were dominated by religion, either Catholic or Protestant, notions about the nature of children were grounded in the doctrine of Original Sin. As a result, literature written for children, which became considerable in the first half of the nineteenth century, consisted of moral tales designed to instruct children in proper behavior and codes of conduct, the most important of which was obedience to ones parents and God. Consequently, most of the authors were devout Protestantsespecially women concerned with the instruction of children, including most notably Anna Letitia Barbauld and Maria Edgeworth. The gradual blending of these various currents allowed for the prevalence of a hybrid creature in the 1860s, the beginning of the golden age in childrens literature, when it became common for childrens verse and novels to offer a sugared pilla lesson imbibed through entertainment. Lewis Carroll marked the extreme in playful entertainment with the publication of Alices Adventures in Wonderland in 1865. By the end of the century, fantasy and adventure novels dominated the market, defined by Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, and Louisa May Alcott, among others. Although inexpensive adventure novels known as shilling shockers or penny dreadfuls drew some fire for their sensationalism, they still served an instructional function, as contemporary critics have shown. Recently, several critics have examined in particular how this prolific genre taught children socially accepted gender roles and proper codes of conduct. The didactic contributions and innovations of the 19th century continued into the 20th century, achieving a distinct place in literature for childrens books, and spawning innumerable genres of childrens literature. Yet in the case of the social and cultural reflections in the 20th century, it was not until the 1960s that socially relevant childrens books have appeared, treating subjects like death, drugs, urban crisis, identity crisis, discrimination, the environment, and womens liberation to name some of the most frequently reflected themes. S. E. Hintons The Outsiders (1980) and Robert Cormiers I Am the Cheese (1977) are two works that offer vivid portrayals of the sometimes unpleasant aspects of maturing. These books also reveal the trend toward a growing literature for teenagers. Other novelists that write convincingly of growing up in contemporary society include Ellen Raskin, Judy Blume, and Cynthia Voigt.

64

As the brief historical review of children literature in previous centuries indicated, children literature, as a result of being mostly written by adults, is culture and social bound and therefore applies the most prevalent ideas, attitudes and views of its time. As many works of children literature both written or translated to English, for example the Little Black Fish by Samad Behrangi, the 20th century Iranian short story writer represents ideas as freedom, identity, existential dilemma, diaspora, nonconformity and cultural issues of the time, so it can be assumed that the term postcolonial designates a time after imperial powers have departed (in one way or another), and that the postcolonial voice is a voice speaking its own authority and identity in confidence of that authority and identity, then children only express a postcolonial voice after they have ceased to be children. Adults speak for and construct versions of children, so their identity and existence is shaped by them. On the whole, however, adults continue to colonize young readers. Children, then, may not be in the position of postcolonial subjects, speaking for themselves and taking responsibility for their own actions. The literature which they read may also participate in a colonizing enterprise if it is assumed that it sets out to draw its readers into the world as adults see it and construct it. On the other hand, the postcolonial critics are not to set out to de-colonize children; rather they try to clarify how childrens literature and the criticism of that literature manifest the powerful force of Eurocentric biases and in doing so the critics try to dismantle that powerful force. And yet the earlier mentioned contradiction takes another twist: children and their literature are always postcolonial, if by postcolonial it is meant that which stands outside and in opposition to tradition and power. Methodology This study is based on postcolonial critics like Said, Bhabha, Fanon and Simon During combined with the critics in children literature as Peter Hunt and Bannerji so as to show that children literature from a postcolonial prospect includes the same elements as hybrid identity, Eurocentrism, subaltern, Otherness to name a few just in the same way as adult literature does. Findings and Discussion Not only in the case of literature but also in many other cases children are subjected to colonialism. The term cultural policy is one of the dubious ones. While such policy is called cultural policy by diplomats and those seeking to maintain good relations with culture workers (i.e. writers, theatre people, composers, artists), a less considerate or more cynical term used by marketers is nation branding. Branding is now a buzzword in marketing, in the era of cultural diplomacy, the use of the term has shifted from products such as Coca-Cola, or services such as those offered by McDonalds, to the cultural exports of individual countries, and their reputations, as animations produced mainly by companies as the Walt Disney. Taneja summarizes this approach as giving products and services an emotional dimension with which people, especially children can identify (Taneja, 2006, p. 2). While it may be difficult for those working in literary and cultural fields to imagine the emotional dimensions of Coca-Cola or of a McDonalds hamburger or of an animation, it is a fact that marketers try to achieve such an impact by telling stories, i.e. engaging their clients through narratives closely related to literature and culture. This is also where literature comes in while the bitter fact is that such products are mainly meant to address children as their global subject through making their products as global brands. From the mid-1990s on, new marketing strategies for products have moved away from disseminating the same standardized glossy images throughout the world. Instead of selling products in the same way to every culture, marketers have turned to narrative, to 65

finely-tuned story-telling, carefully adapted for individual cultures, for specific audiences, with specific cultural backgrounds and beliefs with stories that may only tangentially relate to the product especially for children who are ready to accept whatsoever they have been told in form of stories or narrative poetry. Moreover, much of the neocolonial trend is done through translations to the target markets languages. The negative aspects may not seem so important at the first glance, but a close attention on the cultural, religious and such effects of translations that usually make a role model for children remains long, the effects of some of which are lifelong. Such a trend facilitates the idea of Eurocentrism, hegemony and neo-imperialism to name a few through shaping global images all of which serve the superiority of the West and self negation among children. In other words, the translating culture is as much, if not more, involved in the selection of the foreign materials it wishes to have circulated and read as any neo-colonialist force providing the funds to make this possible. The above trend can be of oppressive, repressive and in some cases even abusive contents imposed on helpless children readers, all aimed at superimposing the superiority of the West to pave way for the neocolonial tasks. As earlier discussed, cultural policy consists of at least two basic strands: the export of culture for ideological purposes, and the export of culture for trade initiatives through making images of role models. They are connected and overlapping but while the first generally includes translated literature and sometimes addresses its importance, the second (the image making approach) avoids the topic of translation. Indeed, though nation branders know the value of story-telling, they try to tell their stories through picture books (for children as their target markets). They may have a point, as many post-colonial studies have revealed. In a recent book on post-colonialism, Changing the Terms. Translating in the Postcolonial Era (Simon and St-Pierre 2000), Sherry Simon begins her introduction with an anecdote about the literary texts available in the ancestral home of the Indian writer, Amitav Ghosh, when he was a child. These were works of European children literature, all translated into Bengali, a collection of books that could be found in much the same form in all corners of the (then) British Empire. They represented, on the one hand, the childrens access to the European world of letters, and, on the other, they were the physical representation of a certain canon of recognized works, identifying imperial tastes in genteel settings (p. 9). In Simons words, as texts that came from outside for example, Indian culture, they served the imperialist, Orientalizing cause: Much of what has been called post-colonial theory in recent years, and applied to the translation of literature, takes a dim view of translation. Translation has been accused of deliberate misrepresentation for the purposes of marketing, much of the translated stories for children has been seen as imposing colonial texts as the norm, to the exclusion, denigration and stereotypification or Orientalization of local culture. (Simon, 2000 p.123) The American citizens who produced the document behind the very recent American Global Cultural Initiative certainly do not see the translation of literature as a nefarious form of neo-colonialism; they simply say that culture matters and that cultural diplomacy reveals the soul of a nation. For them, cultural diplomacy via the translation of literature is a strategy that can restore the view that America is a beacon of hope rather than a dangerous force to be countered, while at the same time serving to broaden the horizons of the reading public of the United States. Although children and their literature are not inevitably outside a Eurocentric vision of things, they do represent a challenge to the traditions of mainstream culture. Simply to acknowledge children and their literature in a journal such as ARIEL is a postcolonial act; it is a gesture toward re-conceiving the canon and toward redefining what academic and 66

professional criticism does and says. In this sense, childrens literature benefits from the expanded field of inquiry that is an aspect of cultural studies. If, as earlier discussed, certain genre films or certain forms of graphic art such as the comic books, translated books, picture books and cartoons are considered seriously, then we can rest fairly easy taking books for children seriously. However one cannot get away from contradiction: when we take childrens books seriously as an object of study, we initiate the very colonizing of the field that that field had seemed to resist. In short, the notion of postcolonialism in relation to childrens books requires some organization. What do we mean by postcolonialism in relation to childrens literature? Heres a controversial question. As others have noted, postcolonial now serves to mean many things to many people. Postcolonialism is a site of debate as much as it is anything else. Stephen Slemon, in an earlier number of ARIEL, notes that: the attributes of postcolonialism have become so widely contested in contemporary usage, its strategies and sites so structurally dispersed, as to render the term next to useless as a precise marker of intellectual content, social constituency, or political commitment (Slemon,1995, p.8). More recently, Shaobo Xie argues that no such a thing as an uncontaminated or indigenous postcolonial theory exists (Xie, 1997, p.7). What is of central importance Xie finds in Simon During, who writes: post-colonialism is regarded as the need, in nations or groups which have been victims o f imperialism, to achieve an identity uncontaminated by universalist or Eurocentric concepts and images. (Xie, 1997, p.7 ) . Xie, speaking in a general sense, remarks that postcolonialism represents an urgent need and determination to dismantle imperial structures in the realm of culture (Xie, 1997, p.15). The tension here resides in the inability of these descriptions of postcolonialism to account for children who are a group well practiced in colonial attitudes, and who hope to grow out of their colonial positions through accommodation to their colonial elders. Children are always marked by (contaminated by) the attitudes of an older generation. This older generation might encourage children to speak, but it does so expecting them to speak its words, to pass on its wisdom, to perpetuate its vision of the world. The subject of childrens literature in the quotation from Xie is the notion of cultural multiplicity. Children may not speak their own literature, but we can assure that the literature they read comes to them in the fullness of the cultural situation of the late twentieth century. It can, for example, be acknowledged that a novel such as Shyam Selvadurais Funny Boy (1994), set in Sri Lanka, is a welcome contribution to literature (the quotation derives from the Globe and Mail and appears on the back cover of Selvadurais novel). A similar example is Althea Trotmans How the East Pond Got its Flowers ( ggi ) , a Canadian picture book for children, set in Antigua during the time of slavery. In other words, we can introduce our children to works of literature that represent the range of cultural experiences and histories that make up the national and international communities that touch all of us. This is one aspect of postcolonial studies: breaking the hold of the great traditions that have dominated the study of English literatures since the rise of English studies during the heyday of British imperialism. We have arrived at a consciousness that, as Charles Larson argues: When we try to force the concept of universality on someone who is not Western . . . we are implying that our own culture should be the standard of measurement (Larson, 1999. p.64). In fact as Leslie Kant notes on the importance of early reading on attitudes and behavior in her foreword for a Schools Council publication, not only is not it too soon to make children aware of what the existing circumstances are, but also the idea of making children 67

aware of their true identity and their cultural circumstances is of priority over mere entertainment: It is never too soon to start thinking about the ways in which attitudes may be influenced by reading. Most teachers would argue, it says, that apart from the acquisition of language, the major role of fiction is to encourage children to explore relationships and to develop sensitivity in their understanding of their own behavior and that of others, and the images that children encounter when reading are a powerful means of shaping such thinking and behavior. If, as the Bullock Committee states above, fiction has a major role in encouraging children to explore relationships and to develop sensitivity in their understanding of their own behavior and that of others, then childrens stories based on folktales do much more than open vistas of beauty, adventure, and splendor in the bewildered minds of children with their mystic and dreamlike qualities. ( Bullock, 1975, p 2) In addition to Leslie Kants view, some other critics also agree that children must be exposed the facts, especially those historical ones that has shaped their ancestors identity, so as to help construct their identity. In such case texts giving them an awareness of their cultural diversity so as to help shed light on their future existence are of utmost importance. Conforming to this idea, Staples states: Hunting for History: Childrens Literature Outside, Over There, and Down Under, points out how persistent is the tendency to see even the literatures of such postcolonial countries as Canada and Australia in terms of Western European and American traditions. Indigenous voices and diasporic voices continue to speak from the periphery of what Zohar Shavit refers to as the literary poly-system. (Staples, 1989 , p.12) If we locate the term postcolonial in the period of national independence movements arising with greater urgency after World War II and the Korean War than they did prior to these wars, then at least one of the texts featured in these pages will appear anomalous: Burnetts The Secret Garden, considered in Michael Caddens article. Here is a decidedly colonial book, but one we need to examine from a postcolonial perspective. Just as Said has taught us to read early texts by the likes of Jane Austen or Charles Dickens for their evocations of a colonial mind-set, so Cadden teaches us to look for a similar mind-set in Burnett. John Ball does the same for our understanding of Sendaks Where the Wild Things Are, also noted as an imperialist text by Michael Joseph in his essay on Achebe, and June Cummins does something similar in her treatment of the Curious George books. Our current awareness of cultural diversity within political and economic borders goes some way to readjusting the manner in which we read such familiar texts as The Secret Garden or Where the Wild Things Are or the books about Curious George. E. B. Whites Charlottes Web. Is discussed by Sidhwa quoting from a student who was given the task to read and discuss their idea this way: In Charlottes Web, the reader meets many animal groups on the Zuckerman farm; the animals face other animals very different from themselves. Each animal comes to recognize and accept the other animals cultures. The animals accept one another because they acknowledge the others perspective, habits, and feelings. In short, they accept the culture of the other animals, and they attempt to understand creatures different from themselves. Because children identify with animals, this kind of literature (i.e., animal fantasy) can show that the different cultures in the animals world are similar to the different cultures in the humans world. In education today, children are faced with classrooms full of children from many different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Through literature, we can introduce the concept of cultural diversity, and facilitate an understanding and acceptance of this diversity. (Sidhwa, 1993, p.15)

68

They lengthy quotation above is to indicate how this students focus on Charlottes Web derives from the perspective of their cultural moment. She is, in effect, using a postcolonial perspective to read what it is a deeply colonialist book. It is argued that the farm with its various animals served as an allegoric reminder of Americas great melting pot. My argument would have attached this book to the traditions of American populism and agrarianism; it presents an idyllic vision of just how America brings a disparate group of people together and forges a homogeneous culture. Lynn, however, sees another model at work in Charlottes Web, the model of multiculturalism. If the book is multicultural, this does not necessarily mean it is postcolonial. But Lynns reading is itself a sign of a kind of reading which can be called postcolonial because it partakes of the ideological urge to read texts within our cultural moment and to argue for the rights of diversity and for what Charles Taylor calls a regime of reciprocal recognition among equals (p.50). One aspect of postcolonialism, then, identifies a revisionary reading of canonical texts that articulates how these texts construct worlds. Graeme Harper, Clare Bradford, and Robyn McCallum take up this subject in their essays in the pages that follow. The books we read inevitably construct versions of the world and its various peoples, and we need to understand just how these constructions influence our notions of what we have become accustomed to refer to as the other. Difference, diversity, othernessthese are watchwords when we come to examine any world construction. Canonical texts such as The Secret Garden or Where the Wild Things Are or Charlottes Webtend not to foreground issues of difference; rather the notions of difference remain a backdrop hardly impinging on our consciousness. We tend to take difference and the privileging of one group over another as natural. Postcolonial reading uncovers the construction of cultural identity. More recent and directly postcolonial texts bring difference into the foreground and by doing so they remind us just how unnatural the division of human beings into hierarchical groups is. Works such as Selvadurais Funny Boy or Himani Bannerjis Coloured Pictures confront us with racial diversity and the agony that can accompany decolonization. As Raj Raos article in this issue points out, Selvadurai illustrates just how the colonial mentality that often surfaces as racism works its way into gender relations, both heterosexual and homosexual. Part of the postcolonial enterprise is a liberation from the diminishing placement of people according to their racial origins, their religious beliefs, their gender, or their sexual preference. The relationship of an individual to a group marks the beginning of the colonial process, as the novels of Emecheta indicate. Rose Mezus schizoanalytic analysis of two of Emechetas novels points up this continuing tension between individual desire and group cohesion. My mention of fiction by Emecheta, Selvadurai, and Bannerjii raises another problem: the definition of childrens literature. Clearly, the publishing and marketing of the books by Emecheta and Selvadurai differ from the publishing and marketing of Bannerjis Coloured Pictures. And a glance through the table of contents to this issue will indicate that the childrens literature examined in these various articles comprises books clearly targeted at a very young readership, at books for the middle years, and at books accessible to adolescents. The most difficult area is the last. Publishers now explicitly label certain books as young adult, and we have books placed in such sections in book stores. But books such as Funny Boy or The Bride Price are not marked off for such a specialized readership; some will argue that they are not what we mean when we refer to childrens literature.And yet they not only concern childhood and adolescence, they are also important for young readers. Their content offers important experience for young readers. They deal with difficult issues both relevant and accessible to young readers; such themes as social, national, and sexual identity are referred to as colonial. In short, a novel such as

69

Funny Boy deals with growing up, and the problems and anxieties attendant upon growing up that this book presents are not in any way inaccessible to an adolescent readership. The question as to what makes a work of literature suitable for children remains vexed. And authors continue the vexation in their choice of creative work for this issue. Clearly, a poem such as Shirley Geok-Lin Lims Presumed Guilty, participates in the textual web of folklore and fairytale, but it does so in the revisionar) and haunting manner of Sextons Transformations. And Lims The Rebel speaks from the point of view of an adolescent (like M . Nourbese Philips The Bearded Queen, an extract from her Young Adult novelin-progress), but it seeks an audience that crosses generations. Poems such as Rienzi Cruszs Distant Rain, Lynne Fairbridges I Do Not See Them Here, Claire Harriss Tower Power, Richard Harrisons speaking of voice (identity[politics]), and Richard Stevensons Homo Sapiens Strut speak across age lines, but are clearly not inaccessible to young readers. Some of these poems have strong political voices; we might argue that political work offers young readers an important perspective from which to view the world into which they are growing. In other pieces, we move into experiences that depend upon age and maturity; but who is to say young readers ought not read of an older persons coming into realization. The experience of understanding knows no age limit. What many of the speakers of these poems confront is identity. Identity is at the heart of the matter. Just what does this familiar and over-worked word mean? Is identity some Keatsian afflatus derived from an act of anti-self-consciousness? Do human beings have an identity in common? Does identity take shape from social, cultural, and political realities? Does identity derive from blood ties to specific groups? Can any identity follow from an act of liberation untying the individual from ideological forces which seek to corner him or her at every turn? Can such a thing as a postcolonial condition exist? The essays in this issue of ARIEL seek to investigate such questions. They provide intriguing forays into relatively new territory, but of course they do not provide definitive answers. The best they can hope to do for us is unblind our ears to the global reality in which that which we have taken for granted for so longthe Eurocentric vision of thingscan no longer smugly assume primacy of value in the human community. Postcolonialism is a manifestation of the desire for the acceptance and understanding of otherness, and as such it has a logical affinity with children who seem to strive for recognition. The contradiction lies in the desire of children to join the group that holds authority over them. The desire is always and ever to become the other. Many postcolonial critics disagree the use of the term postcolonial to discuss the reactions of people from former colonies to the imperial influences in their culture, As an example K. Singh proposes the term post independence K. Singh argues that the term postcolonial places emphasis on the political, economic, social, and cultural subjugation of a nations spirit of nationalism, freedom, and heroic struggle against foreign oppression. Rod McGillis in his editorial note looks at the relationship between postcolonialism and childrens literature and childrens literature in postcolonial societies. I want to address briefly some aspects of the postcolonial, this contentious term that Singh and many others in postcolonial societies find troubling. Singhs comments makes me reflect on my recent editorial for the postcolonial issue of Bookbird, in which I trace my colonial heritagemy British-style schooling, the conflict between Western and Indian values, the clash between school and home. Had the term postcolonial, which leads to colonial constructs and imperial nostalgia, according to Singh, prompted me to focus on my experiences at Auckland House School, in Simla? Would the term post independence have made me stress my nationalistic side, my fierce pride in being the first member of my family to be born i n a free Indiaone of Rushdies midnights children? Would I then have focused on my enjoyment as a child in reading the biographies of freedom fighters 70

like the Rani of Jhansi, Bhagat Sing, Gandhiji, Subhash Chandra Bose, and Jawaharlal Nehru? This aspect of my upbringing infused in me no confusion of values, no contradiction of loyalties and motives; rather, it was an empowering moment to grow up in the new India. The message of our leaders was that the young (women in particular) needed to throw off the shackles of the past, to become educated and forward-looking, to seize the untold opportunities in this new reality. However, my ambivalence should not be mistaken for insecurity or disharmony. What I find lively about postcolonial discourse (whether of childrens or adult literature) is that it is no longer a confrontation between colonial versus nationalistic. A blurring of boundaries is occurring as writers and scholars both Western and non-Westernexplore the contradictions and complexities of the postcolonial global situation. This has come about through changes in global politics, economy, trade, cultural exchange, and immigration policies. Postcolonial literature covers a vast canvas and is essentially idealistic in nature as it attempts to right the wrongs of the past. If colonial literature was characterized by imperial propagation of the ideology of supremacy over the colonized races, postcolonial literature re-evaluates colonialism for its hypocrisy and self-serving racist attitudes. If colonial literature perpetuated stereotypes of backwardness, of barbaric and uncivilized peoples through narrative, characterization, and themes, postcolonial discourse counters this by recognizing achievements in the arts and sciences and contributions to technology and culture. It is the story of the other. Postcolonial literature speaks in multiple voices; it gives agency to and embraces all hitherto marginalized segments of the population children, women, untouchables, and ethnic and racial minorities. Decolonization has led also to forms of liberation of children, not least of whom are the children of colonial officials, missionaries, and traders who were colonized through their upbringing, education, and leisure reading. As Argentinean author Graciela Montes states, adults colonize children by granting the gift of language to them: words name things and, when they name, they inevitably carry with them a huge cultural load, a way of looking at, of feeling, and of dealing with the world ( p.22 ) . Whether Portuguese, British, French, or Spanish; colonial children were exploited as historical objects to perpetuate their empires. Colonial literature dictated how they should perceive the land of their birth and childhood. Yet the words, the characters, and situations in these stereotypical, derogatory books often contradicted the experiences that surrounded them. As adults, many of these colonial children have written about their lives in the colonies, rejecting the dissociation and rootlessness of their colonial life by linking their emotional and psychological well being with their rich experiences of indigenous cultures. Iris MacEarlane, Rumer Godden, Manuela Gerqueira, and Alberto Oliveira Pinto, to name a few, have tried to relive their isolation, redefine race relations, and integrate their dual identities. To Godden, who grew up in Bengal, the British viere a society of exiles; they were rootless as cut flowers (Macmillan, 1998). As Edward Said states in Culture and Imperialism, we are just becoming aware of: How oddly hybrid historical and cultural experiences are, of how they partake of many often contradictory experiences and domains, cross national boundaries, defy the police action of simple dogma and loud patriotism (Said, 1970). Critics level charges of reverse elitism and exclusion against postcolonial discourse. Russell Jacoby, for instance, while applauding it for opening up new areas of study beyond traditional Western literature, censures postcolonial theorists for being contradictory, obscure, undefined, confused, and elitist. He raises the question of whether Western writing about postcolonial or post-independence societies should be construed as the 71

appropriation of the voice of the other and as a form of domination. This attitude has led to debates concerning such works as Susanne Fisher Stapless Shabanu. Is Staples, an American, stereotyping Pakistani culture by focusing on one small group, the camel herders of the Cholistan desert? Can she write authentically of Pakistani culture? Is she not indulging in cultural appropriation. Yet other issues emerge in this debate: Who speaks for whom? Can Western writers/ theorists speak for non-Western subjects? Whose voice is legitimate? Are such questions valid? Many feel that postcolonial scholars have marginalized certain groups by not including them in the discourse. In 1995, at the Mid-Atlantic Writers Association Conference in Baltimore, one participant observed that postcolonial works routinely exclude diaspora Africans and the experience of slavery from their studies. Are postcolonial studies strictly a matter of history, or is it a modern all-embracing concept that brings all marginalized groups to the centre of the debate? The experiences of the enslaved and the distortions and omissions of their history have parallels in postcoloniality. For instance, James Berrys Ajeemah and His Sort fictionalize the thoughts and feelings of two enslaved Africans uprooted from their home in Ghana. The postcolonial aspects of subalternity can be found in their stories: their internalized rebellion, their sense of outrage at being denied freedom, and their helplessness in the face of crushingly superior often militaryforces. Despite these dehumanizing conditions, they maintained their pride and dignity and safeguard themselves against the demoralizing impact of slavery by retaining something of their former lives. Widespread immigration from the former colonies to Western countries (to find better economic opportunities, to flee political oppression in some instances, and to seek freedom from the constraints of traditional cultures) has created what could be seen as another form of postcolonial literature, a literature of exile characterized by conflict between Western and traditional values, by cultural marginalization, by racial conflicts, by pressures to assimilate or integrate. Lesley Beakes A Cageful of Butterflies (1989), Ramabai Espinets The Princess of Spadina; A Tale of Toronto (1992), Rosa Guys The Friends (1973), M. Nourbese Philips Harriets Daughter (1988), Indi Ranas The Roller Bird of Rampur (1993), Nazneen Sadiqs Camels Can Make You Homesick ( 1985), Bipsi Sidhwas An American Brat ( 1993), and Rukshana Smiths Sumintra Story (1982)works on which we would have liked to receive articlesare all powerful narratives of children and adolescents trying to negotiate between their former and adopted societies. Conclusion According to what has been discussed earlier perhaps Prahbat K. Singh is right in stating that this preoccupation with a hybrid identity and the crisis of a split identity is relevant only to those living abroad in adopted Western homes and not to those in the newly independent nation, who are developing national identities, free of the ambivalences of the colonial period. They can do this despite the inescapable Western impact on their lives for they have integrated the English language, Hollywood films, Western medicine and technology, clothing and music, in their overarching post-independence culture. Moreover the tension here resides in the inability of these descriptions of postcolonialism to account for children who are a group well practiced in colonial attitudes, and who hope to grow out of their colonial positions through accommodation to their colonial elders. Children are always marked by (contaminated by) the attitudes of an older generation. This older generation might encourage children to speak, but it does so expecting them to speak its words, to pass on its wisdom, to perpetuate its vision of the world. The subject of childrens literature according to Xie is the notion of cultural multiplicity. Children may 72

not speak their own literature, but we can assure that the literature they read comes to them in the fullness of the cultural situation of the late twentieth century. In other words, we can introduce our children to works of literature that represent the range of cultural experiences and histories that make up the national and international communities that touch all of us. This is one aspect of postcolonial studies: breaking the hold of the great traditions that have dominated the study of English literatures since the rise of English studies during the heyday of British imperialism. This essay is not a comprehensive representative of what is happening creatively, critically, and theoretically in postcolonial childrens and young adult literature as we would have liked it to be. But as Victor J. Ramraj, the editor of ARIEL (whose editorial contribution to this issue was indispensable and very much appreciated), assures us, it is difficult with an operating on deadlines to wait for all the promised submissions; a published book can. What we have included here, however, does provide an interim report on some current areas of and approaches to the field. Attention must be paid to the fact that Childrens literature must be a bridge between the colorful, blissfully ignorant and innocent world of children, their dreams and sweet imaginations, and the dark world of the adult whose consciousness is drowned in bitter and painful truth and in the hard social environment. The child must cross this bridge and venture into the dark world of adults with awareness and armed with light in hand. It is in this way that a child can be a help and a real friend to his father in life and a positive force for improvement in the sluggish and ever-sinking society. Moreover, accurate information about the current issues of the world as well as the necessary information regarding identity, threats to ones identity and such items must be reflected in children literature, because the children of today are much more culturally threatened by the new imperialism through mass media, games and similar items under the cover of globalisation. We should give them values which enable them to deal with and evaluate the various moral and social problems in the ever-changing conditions and circumstances of society so as to prepare them for their future life and avoid otherness and identity crisis. Thus it need not be mentioned that the term postcolonial is relevant and a must-be in children literature. References Bannerji, Himani. Coloured Pictures. Toronto: Sister Vision, 1991. Beake, Lesley. A Cageful of Butterflies. Cape Town: Maskew Miller, Longman, 1989. Berry, James. Ajeemah and His Son. New York: Perlman, 1991. Braithwaite, Lynn. Charlottes Web and Multiculturalism. Bookbird 34.4 (1996): 2-3. ----- Bullock Committee of Inquiry final report into Reading and the Use of English, A Language for Life, London, 1975. During , Simon. Postmodernism or Postcolonialism Today. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Ed. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, a n d Helen Tiffin. London : Routledge, 1995. 125-29. Espinet, Ramabai. The Princess of Spadino: A Tale of Toronto. Toronto: Sister Vision, 1992. Goldthwaite, John. The Natural History of Make-Believe: A Guide to the Principal Works of Britain, Europe, and America. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. Guy, Rosa. The Friends. New York: Holt 1973. Hunt, Peter. Criticism, Theory, & Childrens Literature. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991. Jacoby, Russell. Marginal Returns: The Trouble with Postcolonial Theory . Lingua Franca Sept & Oct. 1995: 30-37. Khorana, Meena. G. To the Reader. Bookbird 34.4 (1996): 2-3.

73

Larson, Charles. Heroic Ethnocentrism: The Idea of Universality in Literature . Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, 1999. Pp. 62-65. Macmillan, Margaret Olwen. Women of the Raj. London: Thames and Hudson , 1998. Matthews, Gareth. The Philosophy of Childhood. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1994. Montes, Gracida. Wild Language and Official Language. El Corral de la Infacia [A Pen For Childhood ] . Trans. Susanna Gullco Groisman . Buenos Aires: Libros de lQ, 1990. 21-26. Nodelman, Perry. The Other: Orientalism, Colonialism, and Childrens Literature. CHLA Quarterly 17 ( igg2 ) : 29-35. Philip, M. Nourbese. Harriets Daughter. Toronto: Womens Press, 1988. Rana, Indi. Roller Birds of Rampur. New York: Fawcett Juniper, 1993. Rose, Jacqueline. The Case of Peter Pan or the Impossibility of Childrens Fiction. London: Macmillan, 1984. Sadiq, Nazneen. Camels Can Make You Homesick. Mus. Mary Cserepy. Toronto: Lorimer , 1985. Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Pantheon, 1970. Shavit, Zohar. Poetics of Childrens Literature. Athens, GA: U of Georgia.1999, P, 86. Sidhwa, Bapsi. An American Brat. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1993. Simon and St. Pierre, Changing the Terms. Translating in the Postcolonial Era New York: Coward Mc Cann, 2000. Slemon, Stephen. Introductory Notes: Postcolonialism and its Discontents. ARIEL 26-1 (1995): 7 Smith, Rukshana. Sumitras Story. New York: Coward Mc Cann , 1982. Staples, Suzanne Fisher. Shabanu. New York: Knopf, 1989. Taneja, Nalina. US Cultural policy as Imperialist Foreign Policy Retrieved from the world wide web (October 16, 2006) At http://pd.cpim.org/2006/0820/08202006_nalini.htm. Taylor, Charles. Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition. Ed. Amy G. Princeton, N J: Princeton UP, 1994. Trotman, Althea. How the East Pond Got its Flowers. Illus. Sasso. Toronto: Sister Vision, 19 91. Xie, Shaobo. Rethinking the Problem of Postcolonialism. New Literary History 28 (1997): 7-19.

74

Text-oriented Competence and the Ways for its Achievement Ekaterine Mzhavanadze Shota Rustaveli State University, Georgia eka1@rambler.ru Abstract Text-oriented competence is the complex knowledge about the text as the means of communication, the textual activity of a person. It is an indicator of the readiness of a person for interaction with the text. Studying texts, issues of their structural characteristics, analyses, synthesis, comprehension are of big significance in today sciences. Researches of the problems connected to texts have been recently carried out in psycholinguistic, didactic, philological directions. Social, cultural and economic factors as well as existence of new kinds of artefacts conditioned new definitions of a text. Defining knowledge and skills that represent the common objective for teaching/learning have become a significant direction of today didactics. It is desirable to overcome subject specific limitations and carry out integral teaching/learning of languages. In the process of learning a native or a foreign language students face the same challenges. Moreover, the same linguo-communicative tasks are set in non-lingual subjects, such as history, mathematics, physics etc. when it is necessary to understand, compose texts and present them in front of audience. Activities that can be used for developing text-oriented competence are finding implied or hidden message in the section, guessing the word meanings from context, describing the contents of the text using connecting words, summarizing the text, finding the main idea of the paragraph. Thus, the above-mentioned activities assist learners to develop text-oriented competences and become critical thinkers, which is the goal of a student-centered education. Keywords: Text-based, Competence, ESL Introduction The parameters for attaining high standards of education are based on the shared experience of general and specific competences as defined by the European higher education area, that argues that attaining both general and specific competences will enhance students potential for successful outcomes, make the educational process more significant and more determined. In relation to this, it is important to mention the results of the Tuning Project - Educational Structures in Europe (2005); Qualifications Framework for Higher Education of Georgia (2008) based on Qualifications Framework for Higher Education Dublin Descriptors (2005); The Dublin descriptors, while defining the logical links between the outcomes at different levels of education and levels of their qualifications, one of the seven components for competence developing - the communication competence includes: comprehension of lengthy texts and understanding the given information; the ability to read texts and understand included details regardless of their connection to ones profession; composing structured texts of different forms; In the process of teaching foreign languages it must be taken into account that, these classes basically are text based. Texts represent basic teaching resources on which the central tasks involved in the teaching of native and foreign languages are carried out. Texts are connected to the cognition of various linguistic systems as well as to the norms and

75

rules of linguistic relations, and to the definition and assessment of various life- speech behaviours. Text Definitions Opinions about the nature of a text have been in constant flux. For example, today one can find new concepts of textuality, such as the hypertext or interactive texts, which would not have been considered texts in the past; Before 1973 a text could not have been a webpage, a computer game, an interactive narration, or artefacts. However, according to postmodern theory the world is, itself, a text and the whole of reality is can be referred to as a text, an ongoing discourse, and a place of constant interactivity. According to Kris Van Lewen (2001) a text is the result of a social act. The significant question here is whether or not a text is only a linguistic phenomenon or if a text can also include graphics? And, furthermore, if one were to conclude that a text is not merely a linguistic phenomenon but can also be comprised of visual images, then should the written part of a text be discussed differently than the directly visual aspects? The form and contents of a text have been always changing. Generally, the linear structured texts are mostly common, but alongside with this kind of texts we meet the texts created in the form of images. The vivid example of this is visual poetry in which the visual arrangement of text, images and symbols is important in conveying the intended effect of the work. It is sometimes referred to as concrete poetry, a term that predates visual poetry, and at one time was synonymous with it. Also, there are texts that unite verbal information, images and sound, so-called 3-D texts. Linguists have been arguing on the notion of the text whether it implies only a message or it is a notion of higher dimension. Social, cultural and economic factors as well as the existence of new kinds of artefacts have conditioned the various definitions of the term text. In the given work we rely on the definition of a text by Avtandil Arabuli (2004) found in his work Culture of Georgian Speech, wherein he states that A text is the specific result of the language activity, completed meaningfully and integral structurally The essential structural signs of a text are as follows: 1. It has a beginning and an end. 2. It is characterized with meaningful unity and integrity between its separate parts. 3. A text has a common idea (it is possible to concentrate the whole idea in a single phrase). 4. A text has or may have a title. 5. A text has structural unity: words are united into sentences forming thoughtful sections (indentions), indentions are united into textual blocks (paragraphs, chapters, parts). Philologists and linguists while researching the problems of working on texts draw significant attention to interpretation - the main aim of which is acknowledging a complex structural united system of a text as interrelated and inter-conditioned components. It means explaining literary work cognizance of its meaning, idea, and concept. Obtaining maximum information from a text gives the possibility of not only understanding what the author wrote but also what he is implying by writing such a text. Standards of Working on Texts Text-based competence or the unity of knowledge, skills and textual activities is considered to be a generic learning competence. It is worth mentioning that new educational plan of Georgian schools established standards for working on texts. For instance, the aim of teaching Georgian language and literature is to develop skills for 76

expressing ideas logically and creating written texts for various purposes. In the final stages of teaching a foreign language the main source for the development of oral or written speech is reading texts. Through this practice students enrich their vocabulary and become more autonomous learners. The higher the school grade is the more difficult the texts become. It is expected that school pupils be able to comprehend and analyse authentic literary or functional texts of various genres and types. The National Education Plan of Georgia establishes standards of working on texts according to different stages. While studying the text school pupils are first introduced with the text and asked to scan it and to: 1. Try to guess meaning of the unknown words based on familiar verbal (context, stem of words, affixes) and non-verbal (text composition, illustrations, different print, quotes) information. 2. Search for the meaning of words in the available resources (textbook, dictionary, competent person). 3. In case of necessity they should reread the text or a part of the text and in the process of this selective reading, or skimming of the text, they should be able extract the necessary information. The definition of a common objective for teaching/learning any language, be it Georgian as a native language or Georgian as a foreign language, German, French, Russian or English has become a significant direction of today didactics. It is desirable to overcome subject-specific limitations and carry out integral teaching/learning of languages. While learning any language (native or foreign students face the same challenges such as defining the structure of the text, its contents , language peculiarities, applying strategies for its comprehension etc.) Moreover, the same language-communicative tasks are set in nonlanguage subjects such as history, mathematics, physics etc. when it is necessary to understand, compose texts and present them for the audience. Thus, the languagecommunicative skills are essential a person needs to acquire them in the process of mastering any subject especially the subject of integral teaching Integral teaching entails the interrelation of experience gained by studying languages, supporting of transmission of obtained experience from one language to another. Such an approach reinforces skills, enriches experience and increases the efficiency of a students performance. In order to carry it out teachers must think of ways to construct bridges between already known and new languages. For example, the strategy students read the whole of text, marks main and supporting issues, key words using various symbols foreseen by the standard of a foreign language - belongs to those skills that can be efficiently used for text comprehension at any subject. Nowadays there is a contradiction between the requirements of standards and the actual knowledge of students. Development of speech is implemented by the assignments specific for the subject, which results in students failure to express their ideas in the form of a spontaneous text or to distinguish their attitude towards the read text. The abovementioned is clearly revealed by the fact that senior school pupils need additional preparation for the Higher School National Examinations. The observation of the study process in the higher schools carried out from 2008 to 2010 shows that the teaching/learning of texts is oriented towards language analyses and oral learning. It is worth mentioning that though new methods have been implemented in teaching foreign languages and many teachers have greatly succeeded in this regard, students dismal ability to work on texts is still noticeable, namely that they have difficulty in delivering a 3-minute text retelling without prior preparations; they can neither compose written texts; scan the texts for specific issues and list them according to the categories; nor create different versions of the text and move from analyses to syntheses.

77

Text-Based Competences It is worth mentioning that the text-oriented competences are directly connected to problem-solving skills and other general competences - independent work, research, informational management skills, decision-making, analyses and syntheses, learning skills, oral and written communication skills, critical and self-critical abilities, appreciation of diversity and multiculturalism, understanding of cultures and customs of other countries. Higher school baccalaureate level text-oriented subject-specific competences include: 1. Text perception and understanding; 2. Text analyses and interpretation; 3. Text language and style comprehension; 4. Text research and assessment competences; 5. Text composition.. The characteristics of the attained results of text-oriented competences during teaching/learning sessions are given. Activities for Attaining Text-Based Competences: The biggest problem students have is understanding theme and conceptual contents of texts. Though they can easily find various imagery expressions, students have difficulty in understanding their aesthetic functions and connecting them with implied idea of the author. Reading activities should reflect needs and desires of students. According to Sandra Silberstein (1994) If your medical students are preparing to study with English Language texts, activities can include the kinds of tasks found in a medical curriculum. For example, this may suggest integrating reading and writing activities in the form of lab reports. Extensive reading is an approach to language teaching in which learners read lot of easy material in the new language. Different reading comprehensions skill developing activities can be used. For example, main idea, context clues, cause and effect, facts and opinions, sequencing, summarizing, idioms, inferences, multiple meaning words, literary element unit, drawing conclusion. (Day 2004:56) One of the activities for developing extensive reading skills is finding implied or hidden message in the section. For example: The task describing the contents of the text using connecting words can be used working with non-literary texts. For example, the text is about Global Warming. Global Warming is caused by many things. The causes are split up into two groups, manmade or anthropogenic causes, and natural causes. Natural causes are causes created by nature. One natural cause is a release of methane gas from arctic tundra and wetlands. Another natural cause is that the earth goes through a cycle of climate change. This climate change usually lasts about 40,000 years. Man-made causes probably do the most damage. Pollution is one of the biggest man-made problems. Pollution comes in many shapes and sizes. Another major man-made cause of Global Warming is population. More people means more food, and more methods of transportation Students read the text and then paraphrase the text using the following connecting words: furthermore, nevertheless, even so, however, meanwhile, on the other hand, to sum up, to make matters worse. The next activity that can be performed working on the above-mentioned text is summarizing. It is the method of finding the main idea of the paragraph. First, students write prcis of the 106-word paragraph given above within the limit of seventy words. Then they reduce it up to thirty-five words. Activities choosing the sentence and debates are based on discussions and are especially productive while working on fiction.

78

Organizing this activity is quite simple. Students are given sentences expressing ideas about the characters and the events from which they choose one and justify their choice. The above-mentioned activities assist learners to develop textual competences and become critical thinkers, which is the goal of a student-centered education. Together with selecting the various activities for developing text-based competence it is necessary to set the criteria for their assessment. The assessment rubrics must be introduced to the students in advance, which let them observe their achievement and asses themselves independently. Assessment rubrics give the teacher the tool to enhance their evaluation techniques and to, accordingly, outline what is expected of their students to better allow their students to set goals for themselves and ultimately to better achieve these defined goals. In order to determine the validity and efficiency of the above-mentioned activities we found it appropriate to deliver the experiment. The aim of the experiment: To assess the attained outcome of text-oriented competences using the selected methods, forms, activities for teaching/learning and assessment. Tasks of the experiment: 1. Organization of the experiment process; 2. Composing examples, models, schemes for the experiment. 3. Delivering experiment and analysing the results. In order to carry out the first task of the experiment, the controlled groups were formed out of third and fourth-year students attending Shota Rustaveli State University. There is a total number of 60 students. The experiment was carried out within the course schedule designed by the Deans Office. Neither extra classes, additional expenditure nor workload was implied. The experiment was carried out in the lecturehall and library due to the availability of internet access. In order to accomplish the second task - composing examples, models, schemes for the experiment the examples of lectures, independent work, schemes and models were carried out that consequently were used in the experiment. According to the third task - delivering experiment and analysing the results - the experiment was conducted . The result of the experiment is presented in the figures below. Analyses were made during three different stages: 1. At the initial stage; 2. After two months; 3. Final outcome. Table 1: Degree of applying the achieved competence 1 st stage of the experiment Characteristics Students applying of competences in the studying process Students applying the attained competences for obtaining credits for independent work 1) working in the library 2)working with internet -resources Students applying the attained competence for obtaining knowledge in different subjects 22 %

Outcomes of the 2nd stage of the experiment 42%

Outcomes of the 3rd stage of the experiment 78%

23% 25%

40% 30%

70% 40%

25%

42%

77%

We have considered completeness, depth, readiness of applying acquired knowledge in similar or variant situations, choosing and applying the specific action for the given moment for establishing links between general and specific knowledge, remembering 79

activities for achieving competences and their appliance in various situations - as the indicators of students achieved competences. Peculiarities of constituent parts of the text-oriented syllabus which represents the language as a part of text for using a specific social context were taken into consideration. Significant attention was drawn to the process of obtaining credits for independent work: time management, selection of priorities, terms of time-limit, application of acquired knowledge, skills and experience for obtaining knowledge or enriching existing knowledge. The outcomes of the independent work were delivered at the lectures and seminars, where it was clearly shown what the student already knew, what knowledge they obtained and what demonstration skills they have. For the seminar, students were given the task of preparing and delivering a presentation on a specific aspect of a basic problem. Questions from the audience and involvement in the discussions were encouraged. Conclusion and Recommendations The outcomes of the experiment stated that defining text-oriented competences, selected system of teaching/learning and assessment provides raising the interest of the students towards the teaching tasks, upgrades the level of activity at the lecture, provides an example of the application of the achieved competences for obtaining knowledge. By the analyses of the research outcome the following decisions were made: Text as a basic teaching resource can successfully provide high levels of learning outcomes at different stages of teaching/learning by implementing corresponding learning objectives. Studying actual situations wherein students were studying texts made it clear that at various stages of education specific activities are carried out. In this regard, the situation at the mid-stage of the secondary school, that represents the pre-condition of the activities to be carried out at the higher schools, is very interesting. The study revealed that there is a significant contradiction between the actual knowledge of the students concerning the text-types and kinds and the requirements of the curricula. The experience of applying text-oriented competences at the higher schools exists but very often the learning outcomes of the textual work are not clearly understood. Forms of activities for their achievement are not specified; criteria and methods of assessing of the process of working on texts are not defined. Defining text-oriented competences will enhance achieving learning tasks set by the learning objective; condition the realization of the leaning outcomes; clarify the objectives; and upgrade the level of the students independent work. Text oriented competences are divided into two groups: general and subject-specific competences. Achievement of the outcomes of the general competences is applied to the obtainment of knowledge in different fields and situations. Specific competences are peculiar for the field. Principles of choosing activities for teaching/learning text-oriented competences are their correspondence with the teaching objective, students interest towards working with texts, text comprehension, expressing attitudes towards the text. Priority is given to the developing assessment which conditions diagnosing the achieved outcome and planning the achievement for better results. The definition of the correspondence of components and criteria of assessment with the teaching objectives is performed during the designing of the syllabus, in collaboration with the students. Forms of assessment are: oral presentation, text analyses, theses presentations, written account, critical analyses of a research article, testing. Assessment is based on students involvement (activity) at the lectures, group-work, individual work, their final outcome. 80

References Arabuli A., Culture of Georgian Speech (in Georgian), Universal, Tbilisi, 2004 Audigie F., Basic Concepts and core competencies for education for democratic citizenshipm Switzerland, 2000 Collie J. & Slater S. Literature in the Language Classrooms. Cambridge: University Press, 2001 Day R., Extensive Reading Activities for Teaching Language, Cambridge UniversityPress, 2004 Goodman, K. S., What is Whole in Whole Language? Portsmouth, New Hamp., Heinemann, 1986 Gonzalez J. & Wagenaar R., Universities Contribution to the Bologna Process, An introduction, 2nd edition Grabe W., Reassessing the term interactive, Cambridge University Press, 1988 Kress, G. Learning to Write. London: Routledge, 1994 Maria, K. Reading Comprehension Instruction, Issues & Strategies. Parkton, MD: York Press, 1990. Silberstein S., Techniques and Resources in Teaching Reading, Oxford University Press, 1994 Valerija M., Aukse Marmiene., text-based language teaching and the analysis of tasks presented in English course books for students of information technology and computing, Fililogija, Edukologija, T. 14, 2006 Reading comprehension overview, retrieved from http://www.landmark.edu/institute/assistive_technology/reading_overview.html Global Warming, retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/J003411/causes.htm Using Inference, retrieved from http://www.rhlschool.com/read6n3.htm Visual poetry retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_poetry

81

Contrastive Linguistics: Rhetorical Study of Social Deixis of English and Persian Novels as Non-Academic Texts Sepideh Mirzaee Islamic Azad University, Mashhad Branch, Iran spdmirzaee@gmail.com Abstract The aim of this study is to consider the way of utilizing one subcategory of deictic expressions, social deixis, and its various kinds as rhetorical devices in writing. Subsequently the consequences of cultural differences between English and Persian languages on using them, were analyzed by employing the contrastive procedure: Three types of comparisons were done: (a) an original English novel written by a native speaker of English was compared with an original Persian novel written by an Iranian writer (as a non-native of English), (b) another original English novel written by a native speaker of English was compared with its translation into Persian and (c) finally both English texts under investigation were compared with both of the Persian texts under study regardless of being original or translation. In order to do this study, approximately 10000 words (30 pages) from the beginning part of each novel and the translated version were chosen. In order to realize the cultural differences and even similarities between English and Persian writers, and give an explanation for the kinds and amounts of social deixis used by these groups, the investigation focused on the definition of social deixis and its different kinds adapted from Levinson (1995). As said by him and according to his classification, social deixis includes: Honorifics and kinship terms. Chi-square tests were run to make clear the possible differences. The examination revealed that these groups of writers differ in their use of the social deixis and its various kinds as rhetorical devices under investigation. Different groups were found to be different in using social deixis and its kinds. However, some of them were used similarly by the writers of these two languages and some others were used differently. Keywords: Social Deixis, Rhetoric, Cohesion, Text Introduction This study deals with a contrastive rhetoric of differences and similarities between social deixis (one of the main subcategories of deictic expressions) in English and Persian nonacademic texts. It also deals with the implications of this contrastive rhetoric for foreign language teaching and learning especially for written skills. According to Kaplan (2005) contrastive rhetoric can be considered for both written and spoken discourse but its focus is mostly on literacy that is writing. As a result, the focus in the present research is mostly on the manner of writing of different writers, (native and non-native) and translators, more specifically how their respective cultures have affected their writings regarding the use of social deixis. That is, the present research tries to find out how these writers use social deixis according to their cultures and whether this kind of deixis is used in both languages or due to some cultural differences there are some differences in using it. Since deixis is considered as a cohesive device and it is analyzed within the texts, and actually it is related to the context of situation, consequently it is a part of semantic and also pragmatic knowledge of EFL learners. Social deixis is one of the main types of deictic expressions which is excluded in the categorizations of deictic expressions by some linguists and actually it is included in some other categorizations of these expressions by other linguists (Lyons 1968, Fillmore, 1971b, 1975, Levinson 1995). 82

Research Questions 1. Is there any significant difference between native speakers of English and Iranians in their use of social deixis in their writings? 1.2. Is there any significant difference between native speakers of English and Iranians in their use of honorifics in their writings? 1.3. Is there any significant difference between native speakers of English and Iranians in their use of kinship terms in their writings? Literature Review On Contrastive Rhetoric Rhetoric is one of the old branches of human knowledge. According to Valero-Garces (1996) rhetoric refers to the strategies the writer uses to convince readers of his/her claims and to increase the credibility of his/her research (p. 281). But flower (1993) claimed that rhetoric is not just as a tool for persuasion but as a method of inquiry and as a process of social and individual meaning making.(p.171) And he considered this as new rhetoric. There are two major trends of rhetoric: Generative rhetoric and contrastive rhetoric. Generative rhetoric was under the influence of Noam Chomskys transformational generative grammar, which is out of the domain of this study. Generally speaking, comparative studies in linguistics have a long history and yet there are great concerns about using this field of study in order to overcome many potential problems in language learning and teaching. Robert Kaplan, one of the early founders of contrastive rhetoric believes that language and writing are cultural phenomena and that each language has its own cultural conventions. Kaplan (2005) believes that the focus of contrastive rhetoric is on written discourse, since, a major real-world problem (p.2), lies in literacy. Kaplan and Grabe (2002) define literacy as a kind of ability to encode and decode discourses. In fact, contrastive rhetoric emerged when Kaplan (1996) pointed out this fact that there are different thought patterns for the people of different cultures/languages and according to him these different patterns of thought can cause differences in peoples writing in different languages. Although there were a lot of criticisms about Kaplans idea in this field, he was a pioneer in the field of contrastive rhetoric. He revised his ideas in his next publications and at present contrastive rhetoric covers a wide range of topics, including cohesion, clause types, frequency, and etc. Also Kaplan in his 2005 article mentions the influence of Sapir- Whorf hypothesis as the underlying assumption of contrastive rhetoric. He believes that different grammars of different languages reflect the differences in patterns of thought of their speakers. It is also worth mentioning that one of the most important parts of any contrastive study is to consider a third term or a common ground between two phenomena which allows them to be compared and contrasted. This common platform of reference has been named tertium comparationis (Krzeszowski, 1984).This phenomenon mainly refers to the equivalence of structural form or, at most, the equivalence of the functions of the two texts. Many scholars have emphasized the necessity for establishing this common ground before making a comparison between texts. For example, Grabe (1987) argues that contrastive studies must be limited to text types which are really comparable. On Social Deixis According to Levinson (1995) social deixis concerns the encoding of social distinctions that are relative to participant roles, particularly, aspects of the social relationship holding between speaker and addressees or speaker and some referent (p.63). In many languages , distinctions of the fine gradation between the relative ranks of speaker and addressee are 83

systematically encoded throughout, for example, the morphological system, in which case we talk of honorifics; but such distinctions are also regularly encoded in choices between pronouns, summons forms or vocatives, and titles of address in familiar languages (p.63). Levinson restricts social deixis to those aspects of language structure that encode the social identities of participants, or the social relationship between them. Obvious examples of such grammaticalizations, as he considers, are polite pronouns and titles of address (1983, p.89). For the sake of feasibility of any study, there should be clear limitations on its scope. So this study includes only those titles of address which covers honorifics and kinship terms. However, it may seem necessary to mention that kinship terms are considered just in kin relations, leaving aside other probable usages of them. Methodology Corpus The corpus collected for this study, consisted of one Persian novel, two English novels and one Persian translation (10,000 words from beginning part of each which is equal approximately to 30 pages for each category). Instrumentation In order to compare and contrast the probable similarities and differences between social deixis in the beginning 30 pages (approximately 10,000 words length) of English and Persian novels, it was necessary to choose a model. So, in this study the ideas of Levinson (1995) as a most comprehensive one were utilized as the main theoretical model. Procedure Three different novels were selected from among realistic novels of three groups of novelists: native Iranian speaker of Persian i.e. Sadegh Choubak, native speaker of English, i.e. Mark Twain, and an Iranian translator, i.e. Mohammad Ghazi who had translated the English novel into Persian. The body of these novels from the beginning was chosen for study and was analyzed for the types and amounts of social deixis and its subcategories honorifics and kinship terms used. It is worth noting that, since novels are chosen as non-academic writing, in comparison with academic texts they dont have different sections like introduction, body and conclusion. Therefore, it was believed that the beginning part of them shouldnt be very different from other parts regarding the types and amounts of social deixis used by the writers. To begin with, the texts were carefully read word by word in order to identify and locate the first subcategory of social deixis which is honorifics social deixis. After that, they were analyzed for kinship terms. All cases were examined in the context to determine the discoursal and semantic functions. Of course, the analysis of the text was carried out twice in order to increase the reliability of the findings. Data Analysis This research aimed to investigate whether there is any statistically significant difference in the use of social deixis by authors and translators of English and Persian novels. In addition to descriptive statistics, since the present study is mainly concerned with frequency, Chi square as the appropriate non-parametric statistical test was used to analyze the data.

84

Findings and Discussion In order to compare the type and amount of social deixis objectively, the sample corpuses which were English and Persian novels and translation were analyzed to gather raw data for reaching the answers to the research questions. The first chi-square test was run in order to show the total frequencies of social deixis used in all of the English and Persian texts under investigation. The results are as follows:

Figure 1: The comparison of social deixis between English and Persian texts a. the value of observed Chi-square (all English and Persian corpus): .873, p> 0.05; b. the value of observed Chi-square (original versus translation group): 4.935, p< 0.05; and c. the value of observed Chi-square (original versus original): 5.224, p< 0.05. In the view of the above chi-square values and by considering that p<0.05, in count (a) the value of observed chi-square equals a=.873 which was not significant at 0.05 level with a degree of freedom of 1 (df=1) but in count (b), and (c) the value of observed chi-square equals b=4.935, and c=5.224 which were significant at 0.05 level with a degree of freedom of 1 (df=1) indicating that except for count (a), there is a significant difference between the native speakers of English and Iranians in their use of social deixis in their writings. So, there is a significant difference between English and Iranian novelists in their use of social deixis, except for the comparison of all of the English and Persian texts under study. The second chi-square test was run to compare the first subcategory of social deixis, honorifics, used by these three groups. The summary of the chi-square results is as follows:

85

Figure 2: The comparison of Honorifics between English and Persian texts a. the value of observed Chi-square (all English and Persian corpus): 8.781, p< 0.05; b. the value of observed Chi-square (original versus translation group): 7.801, p< 0.05; and c. the value of observed Chi-square (original versus original): 1.000, p> 0.05 In the view of the above chi-square values and by considering that p<0.05, in count (a) the value of observed chi-square equals a=8.781 which was significant at 0.05 level with a degree of freedom of 1 (df=1) and also in count (b), the value of observed chi-square equals b=7.801 which was significant at 0.05 level with a degree of freedom of 1 (df=1). In count (c) the value of observed chi-square equals c=1.000 which was not significant at 0.05 level. So, these results showed except for count (c), there is a significant difference between the native speakers of English and Iranians in their use of honorifics in their writings. Therefore, there is a significant difference between English and Iranian novelists in their use of honorifics, except for the comparison of original English and original Persian texts under study.

86

Figure 3: The comparison of Kinship terms between English and Persian texts

a. the value of observed Chi-square (all English and Persian corpus): 8.963, p< 0.05; b. the value of observed Chi-square (original versus translation group): .265, p> 0.05; and c. the value of observed Chi-square (original versus original): 18.050, p< 0.05. By considering the above chi-square values and by noticing that p<0.05, in count (a) the value of observed chi-square equals a=8.963 which was significant at 0.05 level with a degree of freedom of 1 (df=1) and also in count (b), the value of observed chi-square equals b=0.265 which was not significant at 0.05 level with a degree of freedom of 1 (df=1). Furthermore, in count (c) the value of observed chi-square equals c=18.050 which was significant at 0.05 level. So, these results illustrated that except for count (b), there is a significant difference between the native speakers of English and Iranians in their use of kinship terms in their writings. As a result it can be said that, there is a significant difference between English and Iranian novelists in their use of kinship terms as a subtype of social deixis, except for the comparison of original English versus its translation. Conclusion This study was an attempt to investigate and analyze the rhetoric of deictic expressions, social deixis of the beginning part of English and Persian novels and translations. In order to achieve this aim, the beginning part of novels, three novels and one translation, were investigated. As mentioned in previous sections, these novels were written by a native speaker of English, a native speaker of Persian, and a translator who translated from English into Persian. A total of three novels and one translation (30 pages of each one) were analyzed to discover the types and amounts of social deixis used by the above mentioned novelists and translator. The aim of this study was to find out whether the use of social deixis is affected by different languages and/or cultures. According to Levinsons model, Social deixis, concerns the encoding of social distinctions that are relative to participant-roles,

87

particularly aspects of the social relationship holding between speaker and addressee (s) or speaker and some referent (p.63). Also according to Levinson, there are some sub-types for this major type i.e., social deixis: honorifics and kinship terms. The results of Chi-square tests indicated that two subtypes of social deixis are employed by English and Iranian novelists and translator. However whether the main type or its sub types, were used similarly or differently by these groups. The analysis of the corpus of the present study of social deixis and its sub types indicated that writers of both groups -native and non-native speakers of English- used the major type and its sub types in their writings, although there are some outstanding differences and similarities in their use of social deixis both in types and amounts. One of the important findings was that, the frequencies of occurrence of social deixis used by English writers are more than those used by Iranian writers. Another finding about social deixis illustrated that there are different usages: in the comparison of a. original versus translation, non-native speakers use more social deixis; in the case of b. original versus original, native speakers use more social deixis, and in the comparison of both English and Persian texts under study, as it was discussed in the previous section, there isnt any significant difference between native and non-native speakers of English. Regarding the use of sub types of social deixis, non-native speakers of EFL use more honorifics and the native speakers of EFL use more kinship terms except in the comparison of original versus translation in which there isnt any significant difference between two groups of writers. The results of the present study have obvious importance in increasing students awareness of the way native speakers of English organize their writings by using social deixis as a kind of cohesive device. As Thompson (2001) indicates, activities aimed at increasing language awareness can strength writers acquisition of proficiency. To reach this goal, teachers of English as a second/foreign language are required to have knowledge of the differences between accepted rhetorical patterns of learners first language and those in English. Also as mentioned earlier, the findings of contrastive works can be used for language teaching problems. Using the findings of contrastive rhetoric for different areas and by determining even similarities between two languages, learners may overcome many problems in the process of learning. Generally speaking teaching and learning can be facilitated by knowing these differences. Also it is a fruitful means for teachers to help students write more effectively in another language. Also as mentioned by Kaplan (1987), by considering contrastive works, native speakers will become aware, not only of different forms but also they will be aware of the sociolinguistics constraints associated with those forms, and consequently the consequences of selecting a particular form. And also it is very important to know that non-native users of a language do not necessarily possess the same competence. According to Kachru (1995) it is important to notice that unless as a result of utilizing the findings of contrastive rhetoric, the non-native users of English become competent in English rhetorical patterns, the vast body of scientific and technical information stored in English will remain in varying degrees inaccessible to them. References Choubak, S. (1384). Tangsir. Tehran: Nashre Jamedaran. Fillmore, C. J. (1971). Some problems for case grammar. In R. J. OBrien (Ed.), 22nd Annual Round Table. Linguistics: developments of the sixties-viewpoints of the seventies, volume 24 of monograph series on language and linguistics. Washington, D. C.: Georgetown University Press. 88

Fillmore, C.J. (1975). Santa cruz lectures on Deixis. University of California, Berkeley. (Cited in Levinson, S. (1983), Pragmatics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Flower, L. (1993). Cognitive rhetoric: Inquiry into the art of inquiry. In Enos, T. and Brown, S.C. (Eds.), Defining the new rhetorics. (pp. 171-190). CA: Sage. Ghazi, Mohammad. (1374). Shahzadeh va Geda. (Prince and the Pauper). Tehran: Jami. Grabe, W. (1987). Contrastive rhetoric and text-type research. In U. Connor and R.B. Kaplan (Eds.), Writing across languages: Analysis of L2 text (pp. 115-137). Kachru, Y. (1995). Contrastive rhetoric in world Englishes. English Today 11, (1), 27. Kaplan, R. B. (1987). Cultural patterns revisited. In U. Connor and R. B. Kaplan (Eds.), Writing across languages: Analysis of L2 text (pp. 9-21). Reading, MA: AddisonWesely. Kaplan,R. B. and Grabe,W. (2002). A modern history of written discourse analysis. Journal of second language writing, 11, 191-223. Kaplan, R.B. (2005). Contrastive rhetoric. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 375-391). Mahwah, N: Lawrence Erlbaum. Krzeszowski, T. P. (1984). Tertium comparationis. In J. Fisiak (Ed.), Contrastive Linguistics. Prospects and problems, New York. (Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs; 22), pp. 301-312. Levinson, S. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Levinson, S. (1995). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lyons, J. (1968). Introduction to theoretical linguistics. London: Cambridge University Press. Thompson, G. (2001). Interaction in academic writing: Learning to argue with the reader. Applied linguistics, 22 (1), 58-78. Twain, M. (1995). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (Electronic version) Twain, M. (1995). The Prince and the Pauper. (Electronic version) Valero-Graces, C. (1996). Contrastive ESP rhetoric: Metatext in Spanish- English economic texts. English for Specific Purposes, 15(4), 279-294.

89

Language and Gender: Do Women Speak a Better Language? Masoud Azizi University of Tehran, Iran m.azizi@ut.ac.ir Abstract There has been copious literature on the linguistic differences found in the language men and women speak, but there have not been enough discussions about the reasons why such differences exist. This has resulted in the misunderstanding that women speak a better language than men do. In this article, existing theories in modern and postmodern approaches (Cameron, 2005) to language and gender are discussed, and it is argued that it is not legitimate to do such a comparison between the languages men and women speak. No gender speaks a better language in comparison with the other gender, but each speaks just a different and unique language which is only comparable with the same-sex groups of that gender. What triggered the writing of this article was the fact that in many cases, here and there, people, even in some cases some sociolinguists, are heard saying that ladies speak a better language than men do. This misunderstanding could be the result of the pile of research on the linguistic differences of the two genders since 1970s. For instance, women have been found to speak a more standardized language, use more hedging, interrupt less when others are speaking, speak a more indirect language, and use different types of adjectives to describe an event. Consider the following sentences: 1) Open the door, John. 2) Would you please open the door, John? Which sentence do you prefer? Which one is of a better language? Most probably you choose the second one which is a sentence most probably uttered by a lady rather than a gentleman. Having observed such differences in the language of both genders, are we in a position to claim that women speak a better language? The answer this article gives is a big NO. There are some different and sometimes opposing theories in the literature to explain the existence of such linguistic gender differences. During 1970s to 1990s, research on language and gender was focused on identifying the differences between men and womens use of language. However, since the first half of the 1990s, the concept of binary gender difference has been subdued by a concern for the diversity of gender identities and gendered practices. Cameron (2005) calls the former issue the modern view of gender and the latter one the postmodern view. There have been other terminologies in the literature to describe the same issue e.g. the modern/postmodern is also described as second / third wave, and older/newer. The modern or difference view is best characterized by two approaches: the dominance approach and the cultural difference approach to language and gender. In these approaches a distinction is made between the innate biological condition of being female and the achieved sociocultural status of being a woman, the former being called sex, while the later is known as gender. The linguistic gender differences the researchers sought to identify and explain based on this view since early 1970s were not treated as expressions of the innate dispositions of men and women, but as the results of a patriarchal 90

socialization which produced the two groups as different and unequal (Cameron, 2005, p. 485). Lakoffs (1975) notion of womens language is the result of such a view in which it is defined as a marked register indexing feminine gender and displaying the lower social status to which women were assigned, which was characterized by powerlessness, insecurity and triviality. Lakoffs proposal was an example of dominance approach in which the effects of gender inequality was emphasized and it was argued that male dominance and female subordination were produced and reflected in gender-differentiated linguistic behavior. Later on, the cultural difference approach came into scene. The proponents of this approach, the best known of whom Tannen (1990), argue that linguistic gender differences are not produced by the subordination of women as such, as claimed in dominance approach, but it is the social arrangements that separate the genders in the formative period of childhood and adolescence. It is also argued that boys and girls learn different ways of speaking in the same-sex peer groups in which their main socialization takes place. These two approaches, though very different from each other, have many points in common. As Cameron (2005) truly mentions, in both approaches researchers looked for differences between men and women, groups which they implicitly considered as welldefined and internally homogeneous. Both regard linguistic differences as a matter of gender rather than sex, and both often describe them as the product of early socialization. Moreover, they focus on a prototype of femininity or masculinity which, in practice, is most often that of speakers who are white, straight, middle class, and monolingual. The diversity view, however, calls into question all these assumptions. Butler (1990) sees gender as a phenomenon brought into being when it is performed. For Butler there are no brute facts of biology in gender differentiation. We know sex only through the ideological filter of discourse about gender. One is no more natural than the other; both are cultural constructs, and the distinction between them thus collapses. In her words Gender is the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural kind of being (p. 32). Gender is therefore not something you acquire once and for all at an early stage of life, but an ongoing accomplishment produced by your repeated actions (Cameron, 2005). In difference approach the main question is how are women and men different from each other?, while in diversity approach this question is immediately followed by the question that which women and which men do you mean? In diversity approach there is no such a thing as generic man or woman, instead masculinity and femininity come in multiple varieties affecting and affected by all the other dimensions of someones social identity, i.e., their age, ethnicity, class, occupation and so forth. The other important point is that in this view, gender identification is constituted less by contrasting the genders with each other, but more by contrasting other versions of the same gender (Cameron, 2005). Considering these approaches still there are other arguments some of which can be treated as relevant to these broad categories. In both cultural difference and dominance approach, linguistic differences between men and womens language were seen as the product of early socialization. Considering socialization and its role in language development, one cannot ignore the interactional view of language and the constructivism approach. In constructivism social interaction is seen as the major factor in shaping a childs language. It focuses on individuals engaged in social practices,on a collaborative group, [or] on a global community (Spivey, 1997, p. 24). Constructivists argue that each individual can

91

have her own version of reality, as a result multiple contrasting ways of knowing and describing are equally legitimate (Brown, 2000, p.11). Observing most societies in which masculinity, using Hofstedes (1986) term, is the norm, including the Iranian society, the difference between the interactional patterns and contexts each sex is brought up in is clear. Usually girls social environment is much more limited in comparison with that of boys especially in their teens. They cannot take part, as much as boys are allowed to, in many social occasions. In other words, boys enjoy more freedom in having and choosing their social interaction and interactional patterns. This situation is another manifestation of dominance approach in which women stand in an unequal position in comparison with men. Another dimension worth paying attention is the notion of communicative competence. The use of a more standard language or a more cautious language by women is more related to the pragmatic competence (Bachman, 1990) rather than organizational competence. Acquiring the illocutionary and sociolinguistic competence, comprising the pragmatic competence, is not something done in a matter of seconds but takes ones whole life by participating in different social settings. Regarding all these factors and the different socialization process each sex undergoes, it should not be odd to expect different kinds of language knowledge and different interpretations of the same context by the two genders. A situation which may show itself as formal to a lady may appear semiformal or even informal to a gentleman because each analyzes the situation from a different point of view. This can be one reason why a man is more likely to utter a sentence like number (1), and a woman utters a sentence such as number (2). Related to these two arguments is the notion of face in pragmatics as ones public selfimage. It is the social and emotional sense of self that one has and expects others to recognize. Two faces are depicted in the literature: a negative and a positive face. Negative face is our desire to be independent and free from imposition, and the positive face refers to our need to be connected, to belong and to be a member of a group (Yule, 2006). What one says or does in interacting with others is the reflection of her perception of other peoples face, that is, whether her interlocutor is showing her positive or negative face. But since ones different interactional patterns during her life has resulted in different types of pragmatic knowledge and as a result different interpretations of the same context by each gender, each genders perception of his or her interlocutors face may be different. This can be again another justification for such a difference in the language each gender uses. Based on all these reasons presented, it seems logical to conclude that in dealing with language men and women speak, we are faced with two completely different phenomena that any comparison and contrast of which with each other is not legitimate. As Wardhaugh (1986) states there is a bias in comparing womens language with that of men, because in doing so we are taking mens language as the norm. As the diversity approach to language and gender asserts the difference observed in the two sexes language is because of the different processes involved in acquiring gender. And since each gender group is not homogeneous in nature, at least to the writer, it seems that comparing womens language with that of men is not legitimate. So instead of taking mens language as the norm, why not to take the language of an intra-sex group, for example that of educated, middle class women, as the norm for comparing other female groups language with. This can also be true in case of mens language. Therefore, in the case of sentences number (1) and (2), each sentence, whether being the result of different processes of socialization, or different patterns of interaction and the result of different types of pragmatic knowledge and perception of the addresss face, can

92

function effectively in its proper context, making their comparison as the utterances of different sexes not legitimate. References Bachman, L. (1990). Fundamental considerations in language testing. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Brown, D. (2000). The principles of language learning and teaching. 4th ed. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge. Cameron, D. (2005). Language, gender, and sexuality: Current issues and new directions. Applied Linguistics. 26(4), 485-502. Hofstede, D. (1986). Cultural differences in teaching and learning. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 10, 301-320. Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and womans place. New York: Harper & Row. Spivery, N.N. (1997). The Constructivist metaphor: Reading, writing, and the making of meaning. SanDiego: Academic Press. Tannen, D. (1990). You just dont understand. New York: Morrow. Wardhaugh, R. (1986). An introduction to sociolinguistics. UK: Basil Blackwell Ltd. Yule, G. (2006). The study of language. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

93

Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) in Persian: Counter Evidence for its Universality Masoud Azizi University of Tehran, Iran m.azizi@ut.ac.ir Abstract Generativists claim that there are some structural properties of the grammar that cannot be acquired on the basis of input only. It is argued that such principles are part of UG and common to all languages. One piece of evidence presented in support of this approach is the argument for the acquisition of the distribution of null pronouns in pro-drop languages such as Italian, Spanish, and Japanese by L2 learners. This is more often known as Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) based on which in languages in which an alternation between overt/null pronoun is possible, the overt pronoun in an embedded clause cannot take a quantifier such as someone, everybody, and nobody as its antecedent in the main clause. This study pursued two major questions. First, whether OPC is operative in Persian, a prodrop language. Second, whether changing the word order of the overt pronoun in the embedded clause, which is allowed in Persian, can affect Persian native speakers identification of the antecedent. A questionnaire consisting of 20 items in 5 conditions was administered to 29 native speakers of Persian. It was observed that OPC, while operative in some conditions, failed to work as predicted and claimed in Generativist approach when the word order changed, suggesting that OPC may not hold true in its strong version. This can call into question the universality of this principle. Keywords: OPC, UG, Persian, Pro-drop languages Introduction There have been debates between the Generativist and Probabilistic approaches to language learning regarding the process of language development. The probabilistic view holds that the statistical properties of the input language determine all or most of what happens in the process of language development. The proponents of this view argue that what appears as Universal properties are simply a byproduct of the developmental system. They reject the existence of an independent innate module in favor of the acquisition of a large database of words and their statistical probabilities of cooccurence (Perez-Leroux & Glass, 1999: 221). However, in the Generativist approach, it is claimed that there are structural properties of the grammar that cannot be acquired on the basis of input only. The Poverty-of Stimulus argument comes from this view, in which it is held that language learners attain knowledge of structural properties which are underdetermined by available input (PerezLeroux & Glass, 1999: 221). Some evidence has been presented in favor of each approach. One such evidence presented in support of the Generativist approach is the argument for the acquisition of the distribution of null pronouns in pro-drop languages such as Italian, Spanish, and Japanese by L2 learners. This is more often known as Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC). Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) The Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC), originally proposed by Montalbetti (1984, cited in Lozano, 2002), states that in pro-drop languages such as Spanish and Japanese in which an alternation between an overt/null pronoun is possible, the overt pronoun in an embedded clause cannot take a quantifier such as someone, everybody, and nobody as its antecedent

94

in the main clause. OPC is claimed to be universal for the following reasons (Lozano, 2002: 55): 1. Similar effects can be found in other pro-drop Romance languages like Portuguese, Italian, Greek and in typologically unrelated languages like Chinese and Japanese and Korean. 2. In learnability theory, the OPC represents a typical case of a poverty of the stimulus phenomenon, since the ungrammatical construction [*QDPi overti] is not present in the Spanish input (neither in L1 acquisition nor in L2 acquisition). Input in the form of positive evidence alone does not contain ungrammatical expressions. Therefore, OPC knowledge must be part of UG principles. 3. OPC constructions are never explained in textbooks. Therefore, instruction can be discarded as the source of knowledge of OPC. In the following section, some of the studies carried out regarding OPC are mentioned and the results are summarized. Kanno (1997) Using 20 Japanese native speakers as the control group and 28 English speaking students learning Japanese at the University of Hawaii, Kanno (1997) tested subjects knowledge of the contrast between null and overt pronouns in terms of the antecedent they take in Japanese. The sentences she used were as follow: 1. Null pronoun with a quantified NP as antecedent Who i said that (he i) bought a car? 2. Overt pronoun with a quantified NP as antecedent Who i said that he i bought a car? 3. Overt pronoun with a referring NP as antecedent Tanaka i says that he i is the best in the company. 4. Null pronoun with a referring NP as antecedent Tanaka i says that (he i) is the best in the company. The participant having been presented with one of such sentences, were asked a question like the one below: Test sentence: Who said that he bought a car? Question: Who do you suppose bought a car? Options: a) Who b) another person c) both (a) & (b) The Japanese native speakers were reported to accept the coreferentiality interpretation of the overt pronoun (47%) when the antecedent was an NP, but they rejected it when the antecedent was a quantifier. The pattern of responses by non-native speakers was found very similar to that of native speakers in this regard. Perez-Leroux and Glass (1999) Their aim of study was to find out whether OPC is operative in the early stages of acquisition of Spanish. They had 98 participants in 3 proficiency groups (elementary, intermediate, and advanced). They also had a control group with members from Latin America, Spain, and Caribbean. They used a set of 8 stories followed by a sentence to be translated. The stories were designed in a way that the participants had to translate the 95

given sentences with a referential noun phrase as the antecedent of the pronoun in the embedded clause in four of the sentences, and for the other four sentences, a bound variable interpretation was required. Referential story In the O.J. Simpson trial, it is clear that the press has a negative bias against the defendant in their reporting. Some journalist said that he was a wife beater. To translate: But no journalist said that he is guilty. Target translation: Ningn periodista dijo que l era culpable. No journalist said that HE was guilty. Bound-variable story The court charged that some journalists had been in contact with the jurors. Several of them were questioned by the judge. To translate: No journalist admitted that he had talked to the jurors. Target translation: Ningn periodista admiti que le haba hablado a los jurados. No journalist admitted that to-them-had spoken to the jurors. (Perez-Leroux & Glass, 1999: 233234) It was observed that all the proficiency groups could well distinguish between the two types of contexts in the use of overt pronouns. No group used the overt pronoun when the antecedent was a quantifier. Lozano (2002) Lozano tried to find out if L2 speakers are sensitive to OPC in L2 when their L1 has such a principle and when it does not. This way, he could determine whether L1 or UG is the source which learners use in processing. He had 2 groups of learners learning Spanish as L2. One group was English native speakers who do not follow OPC in their L1. The second group consisted of Greek native speakers who knew English and were learning Spanish. OPC is operative in Greek as in Spanish. They hypothesized that if both groups show almost the same response, it is reasonable to conclude that it is UG which is the source of transfer in non-native OPC contexts (p. 57). An acceptability judgment test with a five-point Likert Scale was used, in which a contextualized sentence was followed by 2 other sentences to be judged as in the following example: El seor Lpez y la seora Garca trabajan en la universidad y en una famosa editorial. No obstante (a) cada estudiante dice que l tiene poco dinero. 2 1 0 +1 +2 (b) cada estudiante dice que tiene poco dinero. 2 1 0 +1 +2 Mr Lpez and Ms Garca work at the university and at a famous publishers. However each student says that he has little money each student says that has little money It was observed that each group could discriminate between the ungrammatical construction (overt pronoun) and the grammatical construction (null pronoun). The 96

between group comparison showed that the English speakers and the Greek speakers did not differ from the Spanish natives and they were sensitive to OPC. Since OPC is not operative in English, they concluded that learners knowledge of OPC comes from UG rather than their L1. Yamada (2002) Yamada tried to extend Kannos (1997) study by examining L2 learners knowledge of OPC in the embedded object position since embedded objects are also null in Japanese. She included both embedded subjects and objects (pp. 179-80): (I) a. QNP .. null subject (n = 3) Someone said that (he) had a camera. b. RNP .. null subject (n = 3) Tanaka said that (he) would play the guitar tonight. c. QNP .. kare subject (n = 3) Someone was saying that he had a camera. d. RNP .. kare subject (n = 3) Tanaka said that he would play the guitar tonight. (II) a. QNP .. null object (n = 3) Someone says that Tanaka will help (him) today. b. RNP .. null object (n = 3) Masao was saying that John would help (him) tomorrow. c. QNP .. kare object (n = 3) Someone says that Tanaka will help him tomorrow. d. RNP .. kare object (n = 3) Koji says that Tanaka will help him tomorrow. The participants were given a sentence like the ones above and were asked a question as in the following example: Test sentence: someone was saying that he had a camera. Question: Who do you suppose had a camera? Options: a) Who b) another person c) both (a) & (b)

They found that while the L2 speakers were similar in response patterns to the native speakers in case of the embedded subjects, they were quite different in the case of embedded objects. The L2 speakers allowed both null objects and kare to take QNP antecedents, but native speakers did not. The present study

97

Generativists believe that some principles are parts of UG and, therefore, common to all languages. OPC is one such principle, which has been explored in many pro-drop languages such as Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Greek, and Turkish. However, to the best knowledge of the researcher, it has never been explored in Persian, which is also a prodrop language. What makes Persian a good area of interest for such a study is that Persian has an almost free word order with some elements of a sentence being able to appear in more than one position. For example, the overt pronoun in the embedded clause may appear after or before some adjectives: . Everybody says that he is responsible. . Everybody says that responsible he is. Since there has been no study so far exploring the operationality of OPC in Persian, the present study can be a step toward filling such a gap. Research Questions Two research questions were raised: 1. Is OPC operational in Persian? 2. Does changing the word order of the overt pronoun in the embedded clause affect native speakers identification of the antecedent? Method Participants 29 Persian native speakers who were all MA students studying different majors at the University of Tehran, Kish International Campus took part in this study. They were all elementary students studying English as a requirement to thier MA degree. Their age ranged from 25 to 35.

Instrument A Persian questionnaire consisting of 20 items was used (see Appendix A). It involved five sets of questions each testing one sentence condition using four items. Each item was followed by a question asking for the referent of the pronouns. Three options were given to the respondents as in the following examples: 1. RNP .. overt pronoun (n = 4) . Sara is sure that she is brave. 2. RNP .. null pronoun (n = 4) . Sasan knows that (he) is knowledgable. 3. QNP ..overt pronoun +adj + verb (n = 4) . Everybody believes that he is responsible. 4. QNP ..adj + overt pronoun +verb (n = 4) 98

Everybody believes that responsible he is. 5. QNP ..null pronoun (n = 4) . Nobody believes that (he) is a good man. Question: Who is a good man? a) nobody b) someone else c) both a and b

Procedure The data collection was done off-line, that is, the participants were given a printed version of the questionnaire and were required to fill it in 5 minutes. Before they start, the researcher provided them with a simple example on the class board and asked them to orally indentify the referent. The respondents were told that the rest of the questions follow the same procedure. They were asked to provide the first answer that comes to their mind. They were also asked not to go back to the previous questions they had answered. Participants were not required to provide any information which could help identify them. Their questionnaires were then coded and the responses were entered to an SPSS file for data analysis. Out of the 29 questionnaires collected, 4 were removed from analysis due to participants selection of the same option for all the items. Data analysis In order to answer the two research questions, the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used. Results Table 1 summarizes the number of times participants chose each option in the 5 conditions. Since in all the conditions the total equals 100 (25 participants * 4 items), the frequencies reported can also be treated as percentages of participants choices. Table 1: Descriptive Statistics for the Five Sentence Sets Option 1 Total 52 Option 2 35 14 58 4 17 Option 13 13 17 18 15 3

1. RNP .. overt pronoun 100 2. RNP .. null pronoun 73 100 3. QNP ..overt pronoun 25 100 4. QNP .. adj + overt pronoun + verb 3 5. QNP ..null pronoun 6

Concerning the first research question, one has to check for participants responses to conditions 1, 2, 3, and 5. When the antecedent in the main clause is an NP, and there is an 99

overt pronoun in the embedded clause (condition1), the overt pronoun can take either the NP in the main clause or an antecedent external to the sentence. Lack of a significant difference between options 1 and 2 (z = -1.89, p = .058) confirms that. However, a null pronoun in the embedded clause may take a referential NP in the main clause as its antecedent. Participants response to condition 2 show the existence of such a tendency (z = -4.37, p = .000). Finally, based on OPC, a quantifier in the main clause cannot be an antecedent to an overt pronoun in the embedded clause. Conditions 3 and 5, test this hypothesis. The significant difference between options 1 and 2 in condition 3 ( z = -2.74, p = .006), and condition 5 ( z = -4.30, p = .000) show participants tendency to interpret the quantifier as the antecedent when the pronoun is null (condition 5) and avoid doing so when it is overt. In order to answer the second research question, one should consider the difference between option 1 and 2 in case of conditions 3 and 4. In case of the condition 3, learners were observed choosing second option (someone else, 58 %) more than the first option (the quantifier as an antecedent, 25 %), which is consistent with OPC. In the fourth condition, however, which is another form of condition 3 possible in Persian, in which OPC is expected to show itself if operative in Persian, a somewhat different pattern was observed (37% vs. 45%). Although participants favored the second option, the difference does not seem that much high suggesting that they had difficulty deciding on the referent of the overt pronouns. The results obtained show that the difference between options 1 and 2 in the third condition is statistically significant (z = -2.74, p = .006), suggesting respondents preference for an antecedent other than the quantifier in the main clause. However, considering the results in condition 4, the difference between the two options was not significant (z = -.14, p = .88), suggesting respondents lack of preference for one option or the other. Table 2 summarizes the results discussed above. Table 2: Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test between Options 1&2 for all Conditions Z Asymp. Sig (2-tailed) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. RNP .. overt pronoun RNP .. null pronoun QNP ..overt pronoun + verb QNP .. adj + overt pronoun + verb QNP ..null pronoun -1.89 -4.37 -2.74 -.14 -4.30 .058 .000 .006 .88 .000

Discussion Persian native speakers were observed showing a preference for a quantifier as the antecedent when the pronoun in the embedded clause was null (condition 5). When it was overt, as in condition 3, they preferred a referential NP outside the main clause. Also, they preferred a referential NP inside the main clause as the antecedent when the pronoun was null and did not distinguish between a referential NP inside or outside the main clause when the pronoun in the embedded clause was overt. All such evidence is compatible with the conditions for the OPC to be operative in a language. Up to here, everything indicates that OPC is operative in Persian. However, in condition 4 participants were found not distinguishing between or preferring one option over the others in cases in which the overt pronoun followed, rather than precede, the first part of the verb (QNP .. adj + overt pronoun + verb). If OPC is a universal principle, it is expected to be operative in all pro-drop languages including 100

Persian. This may call into question whether OPC holds true in its strong version. It could be possible that OPC is operative only under specific conditions and in some pro-drop languages but not under all conditions and in all languages. Still one more point worth considering is the fact that in all previous studies learners answers to sets of sentences, all in the same condition, were compared. The same thing was done above. However, an item by item analysis of the sentences in each condition may reveal points which may go unnoticed when considering the respondents general preferences. Tables 3 to 5 summarize participants choices for each question in conditions 3 to 5. Table 3: Participants Choices for Items in the 3rd Condition QNP ..overt pronoun + verb Option 1 Option 2 Question No. 4 7 15 Question No. 9 7 12 Question No. 14 2 20 Question No. 20 9 11

Option 3 3 6 3 5

Total 25 25 25 25

Table 4: Participants Choices for Items in the 4th Condition QNP .. adj + overt pronoun + verb Option 1 Option 2 Total Question No. 2 12 3 Question No. 10 10 12 3 Question No. 17 6 12 7 Question No. 19 1 5 Table 5: Participants Choices for Items in the 5th Condition QNP .. null pronoun Option 1 Option 2 Question No. 5 17 4 Question No. 8 1 5 Question No. 13 17 5 Question No. 15 16 3

Option 2 25 25 25

Option 3 4 2 3 6

Total 25 25 25

In case of the items in the fifth condition, it seems that everything goes as expected. In all items, participants have followed almost the same pattern, showing a high preference for the quantifiers as the antecedent of the null pronouns in the embedded clauses. However, in the case of the third condition, it seems that the respondents have not followed the same pattern. While they have preferred referential NPs outside the main clause as the antecedent, their preference was not the same for all items. For example, while they show an almost the same tendency for questions number 4 and 9, it seems that the second option in question number 14 has strongly attracted their attention. Also, it seems that in case of question number 20, participants could not decide on which option to choose. This was also quite evident in participants feedback to the researcher after data collection. Moreover, in case of the fourth condition, participants seem to follow the same pattern for questions number 2 and 10. However, for question number 17 and 19, it seems that participants had difficulty choosing among the three options. While they show an almost clear preference for the second option in 16, they choose the first option for question

101

number 19, which is quite unlike the patterns observed for the previous questions in the same condition. Since all the elements in the test sentences were similar to each other except for the verbs that changed, it is possible to hypothesize that such an inconsistent pattern of responses may result from the effect of different verbs (in case of all conditions) and word order (in case of conditions 3 and 4). As such, it seems that to shed light on the vagueness of the conditions under which OPC operates, one needs to examine the effect of the choice of different verbs on respondents choices. Moreover, since the present study was carried out using only 25 participants, it would be much more plausible if the same research questions were followed using a higher number of participants. Moreover, lack of filler sentences was another important shortcoming in this study. Including fillers can also help shed more light on the results obtained. References Kanno, K. (1997). The acquisition of null and overt pronominals in Japanese by English speakers. Second Language Research 13. 265-287. Lozano, C. (2002). The interpretation of overt and null pronouns in non-native Spanish. Durham Working Papers in Linguistics, 28. 53-66. Prez-Leroux, A. T. and Glass, W. R. (1999). Null anaphora in Spanish second language acquisition: probabilistic versus generative approaches. Second Language Research 15. 220-249. Yamada, K. (2002). The status of the Overt Pronoun Constraint in grammatical theory and SLA of Japanese. Essex Graduate Student Papers in Language and Linguistics, University of Essex. Retrieved August 10, 2008, from http://www.essex.ac.uk/linguistics/pgr/egspll/volume7/ PDFs/Yamada.pdf

102

Appendix .Test sentences used in the questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

301

Tasks in Language Teaching: A New Orientation Masoud Azizi University of Tehran, Iran m.azizi@ut.ac.ir Abstract Tasks have been the cornerstone of most attempts in language teaching, but it seems that the current use is going the wrong way. Among all textbooks available, it is almost impossible to find a single communicative activity in which aspects other than the conveyance of the intended meaning is the focus of the activity. As a fluent English speaker who has learnt English in an EFL context with almost no contact with the NSs of English and their culture, when something goes wrong in my present communication with English NSs, the first thing I doubt about is my lack of knowledge about their sociocultural rules of language use. In this article, the reasons why the current practice in the use of tasks has been misguided are discussed and a solution is proposed in form of a three layer view of tasks to be adopted by language teachers and material developers. Keywords: Task, Culture, Context, Real life. Introduction The realm of foreign language teaching has seen the rise and fall of different activities during its long history. Whatever activity developed for the use in classroom, from translation activities in Grammar Translation Method and the use of language drills in the 3Ps of presentation, practice, and production in Audio-lingual Method, to the more recent use of tasks in Task Based Instruction, has been more or less intended to prepare learners for the use of the target language in the target language situation and context outside the classroom for real communication with the native or nonnative speakers of that language. What is now widely used and believed to satisfy such an objective is the use of tasks. Tasks have been defined differently by different scholars in the field. Having a lot in common, still Bygate, Skehan, and Swain (2001), Nunan (1989), Prabhu (1987), Richards, Platt, and Weber (1985), and Skehan (1998) have their own definitions of tasks. Maybe the most widely cited definition is the one given by Skehan (1998: 95). He believes that a task is an activity in which meaning is primary; there is some communication problem to solve; there is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities; task completion has some priority; [and] the assessment of the task is in terms of outcome. Tasks have often been contrasted with exercises. While Ellis (2003) restricts tasks to those activities calling for mainly meaning-focused language use and exercises to those with form-focused language use, Widdowson (1998) argues that a task is different from an exercise not in the opposition of form to meaning but in the kind of meaning concerned. He holds tasks to be concerned with pragmatic meaning, that is, the use of language based on the context in which it occurs, and exercises with semantic meaning, or what form conveys irrespective of the contexts in which a language event occurs. Ellis (2003), however, believes that the distinction Widdowson makes is not different from the one between form-focused and meaning-focused activities. He also relates this distinction to the role of participants. While a task requires the participants to act primarily as language users employing the same kind of communicative processes as those involved in real world activities, an exercise needs them to function primarily as learners (p. 3).

104

Still no activity, being language drills or tasks, can be developed in vacuum. They must be congruent with the theoretical developments of the time. While the form-focused activities or exercises tend to comply more with the notion of linguistic competence, the meaning-focused activities or tasks tend to be more compatible with the notion of communicative competence. Cummins (1981) distinction between context-reduced and context-embedded communication also reflects the same idea. Tasks supposed intended focus Now the question is to what extent material developers and language teachers have taken into consideration different dimensions of the communicative competence or features of the context in which the tasks are used? The word context is found in most definitions given for communicative activities and tasks, but to what extent this context is similar to that of real life or at least the one defined in the definitions of communicative competence is a matter of contention. Canale (1983) held four subcategories for the communicative competence (CC): Grammatical competence concerns that aspect of CC that deals with the knowledge of lexical items, rules of morphology, syntax, and phonology; Discourse competence deals with the ability to make longer stretches of discourse; Sociolinguistic competence is comprised of the knowledge of the sociocultural rules whose primary focus is on the extent to which certain propositions and communicative functions are appropriate within a given sociocultural context depending on contextual factors such as topic, role of participants, setting, and norms of interaction (Canale & Swain, 1980, as cited in Fulcher & Davidson, 2007: 207). A secondary focus they believe these rules concern is the extent to which a particular linguistic form within a given context conveys the right attitude, register or style. They also give an example of how inappropriate it would be for a waiter in a restaurant to actually command a client to order a given item, even if the communicative act and function were expressed grammatically correct. Finally Strategic competence is what Savignon (1983: 40) defines as the strategies that one uses to compensate for imperfect knowledge of rules - or limiting factors in their application such as fatigue, distraction, and inattention. In another classification, Bachman (1990) and later Bachman and Palmer (1996) draw grammatical and discourse (now called textual) competence into one category named organizational competence. They further divide Canale and Swains sociolinguistic competence into two separate categories of illocutionary and sociolinguistic competence; the former dealing with the speakers intended meaning, and the latter dealing with considerations of politeness, formality, register and the culturally related features of language use. They, though, keep strategic competence as a separate executive phase in language ability which makes the final decision among the available options in the process of the negotiation of meaning (Brown, 2000). It seems plausible to keep Canale and Swains first 2 categories or Bachmans organizational category to be more directly applicable to and underlying element of the form-focused activities or the exercises which are often contrasted with tasks. Moreover, Bachman (1990) believes that strategic competence can act upon the language ability and is not part of that. As such, it is independent of the distinction between tasks and exercises. What remains and what is supposed to distinguish tasks and the communicative nature of tasks from that of an exercise is the sociolinguistic competence. Here are raised again the questions asked before: To what extent have different dimensions of CC or more specifically sociolinguistic competence been attended to in the tasks used in language teaching classrooms? Tasks are believed to be meaning-focused, related to reallife, and outcome oriented, but where do features of real real-life context such as 105

participants social status, their power relations, and formality of the language context fit in such a definition? While Cummins (1981) context-embedded communication and Ellis (2003) assertion of the fact that learners should act as language users employing the same kind of processes as those in real word activities fit well with such notions in sociolinguistic competence, very few instances of their actualization and consideration have been observed in the use of tasks by material developers and language teachers in EFL contexts. Among textbooks available, it has been too difficult to find a single communicative activity in which aspects other than the conveyance of the intended meaning is the focus of the activity. Even if they have the potential to be more congruent with the realities of real world context, that potentiality is not used and unfortunately is not paid attention to as expected. As a fluent English speaker who has learnt English in an EFL context with almost no contact with the native speakers of English and their culture, when something goes wrong in my present communication with English native speakers, the first thing I doubt about is my lack of knowledge about their sociocultural rules of language use. If in language drills language form was the focus, in todays tasks the only thing that is of importance is the conveyance of the intended meaning, and the significance of being pragmatically-focused is ignored. If not in theory, the importance of context and contextual factors involved in an interaction is not recognised. Even the distinction between instructional tasks and real-life tasks is very simplistic in the sense that by reallife it simply means being outcome-oriented and meaning-focused rather than being learning-focused. It ignores the numerous realities of a real real-life activity. A new orientation to adopt It is highly recommended that material developers and language teachers adopt a new orientation and pay more attention to issues in a real interaction: issues previously neglected such as the right use of nonverbal communication, the appropriate use of issues identified in the field of conversation analysis such as topic nomination and turn taking, and the ways in which native speakers of one language provide appropriate feedback to their interlocutors. Communication is not just carried out through the use of language; a great part of an interaction is fulfilled through what is known as nonverbal communication. We communicate more information about ourselves and others through the signals we sent than the words we utter. Through having or not having eye contact, we can convey how we feel about the subject being discussed. Body language also plays a major role in nonverbal communication, which may differ widely from culture to culture. While an American may move her head from side to side to show No, an Iranian may do so to show dissatisfaction, and still an Indian might do the same to show agreement. Clothing itself conveys a lot of information, sometimes indicating ones socioeconomic status, selfesteem, or even her right perception of the situation she is in. The physical distance between interlocutors is another element of nonverbal communication that may vary in different cultures. Even the presence of objects such as a desk or computer monitor can sometimes determine the register, the tone and the formality of a conversation (Brown, 2000). Still another element in this regard is the touching. How to touch, if to do at all, and where to differ widely from culture to culture. For instance, shaking hands, as the most common type of touching, with ladies is not regarded appropriate in many Eastern cultures. Moreover, having interaction is not just a matter of talking and listening; it involves a lot more. How one starts a conversation, establishes a topic, develops that topic, takes turn, holds the floor, interrupts, shifts to or avoids a certain topic, uses fillers, and most 106

importantly ends a conversation are not issues to be easily ignored in teaching a language to learners who are supposed to use it in their interactions with native speakers of that language, especially to learners in EFL context in which they do not have a lot of opportunities to practice them outside the classroom. While for an Iranian saying goodbye is a must when ending a conversation on the phone, an American may simply hang up, which can cause a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings for the Iranian. Still another point to be considered is to teach learners how to provide their interlocutors with the right feedback when having a conversation. Having had experience with a lot of English learners in Iran, I always remind my students of how native speakers use words and phrases as well as body language to provide their interlocutors with feedback about how they feel about the subject being talked about and to ensure them that they are actually listening. Phrases such as Cool, Great, Oh, my God, Really?, come on, Good God!, Damn!, or interjections such as Wow!, Uh huh, Uh-oh, Uh-uh, Ugh!, and Gosh! are commonly used in a pieces of conversation based on the formality of the conversation and the role and social status of the participants. So why not to include teaching them in our so called real-life tasks? The implications of such an orientation Imagine a role play such as a job interview as a real life task in which the interviewer is a middle-aged lady who is going to interview a young man. What usually happens in language classes when performing such tasks is requiring the interviewer to ask relevant and meaningful questions, and expecting the interviewee to provide her with the right information. Being linguistically and semantically right are the major criteria. A second objective might be to reach an outcome such as filling a form by the interviewer using the questions she asks. However, still remain a lot of questions unanswered. Does it suffice? Is this task real-life? To what extend such tasks corresponds to the realities of interactions in real life? Does it help learners realise the complexities of real interaction outside the class with the native speakers of the language being learnt? Do such tasks prepare them to take part in such or similar situations? Adopting the perspective discussed so far entails that language teachers and material developers pay attention to more features which correspond with realities and complexities of what goes on in real life interactions. If one applies such considerations, the same task will be quite different. How students should get dressed in such a context, if not asked to be done, should be discussed. How and the extent to which each one in their roles should have eye contact, the type of gestures they usually use, who is supposed to start the conversation in such a context and how, how each one should greet the other considering their positions, how formal or informal their language should or might be; which one is allowed to be more informal because of his or her status and power, whether the interviewer is allowed to sit or should wait for permission, whether they are allowed to or required to shake hands, how far they should stand from each other in case there is no desk, the kind and the formality of the feedback each should provide the other with regarding their own positions, and finally who is supposed to end the conversation and how are all among issues needed to be taken into account. Putting the importance of cultural awareness aside, this view of tasks can be very helpful in a number of other areas. The first to mention can be in the area of task complexity and task grading. Grading tasks has always been problematic. Though many studies have been carried out and many task features affecting task complexity have been identified, manipulating such factors seems far from reality in language classes by language teachers. They can be best used for large scale standardised tests. As a rule of thumb, for beginners 107

it is easier to manipulate language forms to have more or less difficult activities; for intermediate to low-advanced learners tasks with focus on conveyance of meaning can do the job; however, the question is that what can be done about advanced learners who seem not to have any trouble conveying their intended meaning and reach the outcome specified in a task? For them whose interlanguage has reached a point at which progression is done at a very low speed, a shift of attention to the above-mentioned factors can best manipulate the demands of language tasks and the extent to which they appear challenging to the learners as well as letting other aspects of their language ability grow. Taking such an orientation can also be a special help to those with integrative orientation wishing to integrate into the second language culture and community. As a response to learners needs in language programs, adopting such a perspective on the use of language tasks can best satisfy their needs to learn and practice having authentic interactions with people of the target language. This can also give learners a better conception of the social distance between their culture and that of the second language by observing the similarities and differences of the sociocultural rules followed in interactions. As such, it can help them avoid misunderstandings possible in mutual communications. Concluding remarks In sum, it is suggested that material developers and language teachers view a single task as a three layer activity (see Figure 1) at the heart of which lies the form of the language that can be the focus of the activities in which linguistic acceptability is the major criterion. The second layer, which embraces the first one, is the meaning layer that is possible to be the focus of activities in which linguistic and semantic acceptability are the major criteria. Finally, the third layer embracing the other two layers is the context. It involves paying attention to being linguistically, semantically, and pragmatically or socially appropriate regarding issues of illocutionary force of utterances, initiation and termination and other related features of a conversation, the right use of nonverbal communication tools, giving the right feedback to ones interlocutor, and any other sociocultural factors followed in a real real-life activity. Such a perspective entails that language teachers be provided with right information regarding the sociocultural rules of the language they are teaching. This in turn makes the job of materials developers much more challenging because they will need to provide a thick description of the features of the context in which a task can be performed.

Figure 1: A three layer view of a communicative task As such, the distinction between form-focused and meaning-focused activities do not suffice anymore; we need to add a third category of context-focused activities. This third category is not different in shape from the second one, but it is distinct from that in the aspects which language teachers and material developers attend to. This is the Golden 108

Rule of Context, that is, the perspective which gives us more room for maneuver in language classes and gets the most out of the least of opportunities available to learners and teachers. References Bachman, L. 1999. Fundamental considerations in language testing. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bachman, L. and Palmer, A. 1996. Language testing in practice: designing and developing useful language tests. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Brown, H.D. 2000. Principles of language learning and teaching. (Fourth Edition). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Bygate, M., Skehan, P., and Swain, M. 2001. Introduction in M. Bygate, P. Skehan, and M. Swain (eds.) Researching Pedagogic Tasks, Second Language Learning, Teaching and Testing. Harlow: Longman. Canale, M. 1983. From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy in C. Richards, and R.W. Schmidt (eds.) Language and Communication. London: Longman. Cummins, J. 1981. The Role of Primary Language Development in Promising Educational Success for Language Minority Students. Sacramnto: California State Department of Education, Office of Bilingual Bicultural Education. Ellis, R. 2003. Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fulcher, G. and Davidson, F. 2007. Language testing and assessment: An advanced resource book. NY: Routledge. Nunan, D. 1989. Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Prabhu, N.S. 1987. Second Language Pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sauvignon, S.J. 1983. Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Skehan, P. 1998. A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Skehan, P. 2001. Tasks and language performance assessment in M. Bygate, P. Skehan, and M. Swain (eds.) Researching Pedagogic Tasks, Second Language Learning, Teaching and Testing. Harlow: Longman. Widdowson, H. 1998. Skills, abilities, and contexts of reality. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 18: 32333.

109

Scaffolding: A Factor of Second Language Development Harison Mohd. Sidek Islamic Science University of Malaysia harison@usim.edu.my Abstract This case study was conducted based on Vygotskys (1978) theory of scaffolding within the zone of proximal development (ZPD). According to Vygotsky, a learner has the potential to progress from their actual developmental level to their potential developmental level via scaffolding that occurs during interaction with superior others. In line with this theory, this case study attempted to examine the role of scaffolding via informal interaction in second language (L2) development in terms of semantic and lexical development. A preschool L2 learner was the participant in this study. A set of narrative sequential pictures was used as an instrument in this study. The pre-description of the selected pictures was obtained prior to the commencing of adult-child scaffolding sessions during which the child was presented with the model description. The childs delayed post description was acquired one week after the conclusion of the scaffolding sessions. The childs predescription and post-description of selected pictures were compared to model description provided by an adult as a method of tracing his semantic and lexical development. A revised Homzie et al.s (1975) content rating scores was used to analyze the childs semantic development. The childs lexical development was analyzed by examining context-appropriate usage of target words in the childs post-description in line with the words and their usage in the model description. The results showed that the childs deep structure reflected in his post descriptions was primarily similar to the model description suggesting semantic development as a product of scaffolding. The findings on lexical analysis provide evidence that the child was able to reproduce many of the target words with context-appropriate usage. The findings of the study were discussed in relation to the roles of scaffolding in language development. Keywords: Second language, ZPD, scaffolding, semantic development, lexical development Introduction Acquiring a second language (L2) in a non-rich L2 environment can be a challenging task due to lack of available exposure to the target language. Hence, L2 acquisition tools or mediation that may contribute to a more efficient and effective acquisition process becomes necessary. Many contend that scaffolding may serve as one of the effective mediational tools for L2 development (e.g., Hatch, 1978; Donato, 1994; Van Lier, 1988). However, the roles of scaffolding in L2 development in the Malaysian setting had been generally conducted for older learners especially at the tertiary level (e.g., Rafek-Galea & Nair, 2008; Stapa & Rajamoney, 2009; Vethamani & Nair, 2007). Studies on how scaffolding may contribute to the development of L2 semantic and lexical especially among young learners within the Malaysian context are really scarce and if such studies existed, those studies are not made available in the mainstream publications. This is an indication that L2 development among pre-school learners has not been of much focus among L2 researchers in Malaysia. Hence, considering the scarcity of studies on L2 development among young learners within the Malaysian setting, the present study attempted to find out how scaffolding in a young English language learners zone of proximal development (ZPD) may assist L2 semantic and lexical development. The 110

findings of this study may have implications for young L2 learners, not only in the Malaysian setting, but also in other non-English speaking contexts. Literature Review The current paradigm of second language acquisition (SLA) in relation to the sociocultural theory of language learning perceives learning and development to be interactive and such interaction acts as mediation for language acquisition. Following the Vygotskyans view, sociocultural theory contends that learning and development is the socio-genesis product of meaningful social interactions among the community members in the respective learning context. According to Vygotsky, a childs performance in completing a task with the assistance of others would exceed what he or she could do without assistance. Vygotsky labels this potential performance through the theory of scaffolding within the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Newman and Holtzman (1993) contend that ZPD takes place during an interactive activity where a novice and an expert work together to complete the targeted task. The expert elicits the novices existing knowledge regarding the task and provides new knowledge to the novice to enable the novice to move from his or her actual developmental level to his or her potential developmental level. This process is successful when both the expert and the novice are able to share knowledge and understand each other. This type of ZPD situation provides learners with a comfortable and communicative activity where they are able to participate and simultaneously learn from the activity. For instance, an interaction between a native speaking teacher and second language learners may only be fruitful in assisting the learners fulfilling a task as desired when the interaction is comprehensible to both learners and the teacher. Since ZPD theory is based on sociocultural theory, it is important that learners and the superior others build a social relationship within the activity by nurturing understanding of one another as well as the understanding of the task at hand. Another important element of ZPD is scaffolding. When an expert provides the needed information to a novice to enable the novice to progress in the process of task completion, this assistance is known as scaffolding. Therefore, ZPD involves scaffolding embedded in interactions between a novice and an expert. The provision of scaffolding would reduce the level of learners frustration and simultaneously increase their confidence and motivation to complete a task at hand, which he or she might not be able to fulfil independently. Scaffolding is effective provided that the expert identifies vital features of the task. This way, the expert would be able to guide the novice through the facilitation of appropriate information and instruction for the novice to reach the desired solution. Gradually, the expert shifts the responsibility of solving the problem to assisting the novice to solve the problem on his or her own with appropriate scaffolding. In using the ZPD as an activity to enhance language acquisition and learning, mediation would increase the effectiveness of ZPD. For instance, the use of visuals such as pictures, books, opportunities for interaction in the target language, directs and explicit instruction, as well as experts assistance (Donato & McCormick, 1994). Other than that, the expert may provide appropriate vocabulary and verb conjugations upon identifying learners lacking in these two areas. Apart from the above mediational tools, the language itself may serve as scaffolding. Through verbal modeling of language that the expert provides, learners could use the language models to mediate their language learning. Studies have shown that scaffolding may assist in language development. The findings of a study by Proctor, Dalton, and Grisham (2007) using technology as a mediation via social interaction among fourth graders whom were identified as struggling English language learners (ELL), indicate significant gains in reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge via the use of scaffolding. This finding suggests that scaffolding has a potential 111

in enhancing L2 comprehension competence and lexical acquisition. In another study, Nishida and Yashima (2010) examined how teacher-student scaffolding via social interaction using musical project as mediation may contribute to the development of English as foreign language (EFL) among third graders. Despite the challenging language tasks used in the study, the use of scaffolding resulted in the significant improvement in the participants language level; an evidence that support the effectiveness of language learning with the use of scaffolding. Bailey, Huang, Osipova, and Beauregard (2010) longitudinally studied the use of scaffolding in improving ELL pre-kindergarten childrens academic language via classroom observation and strategies intervention to improve teacher scaffolding via interaction. The results show significant achievement in learning outcomes as a result of the use of scaffolding in the intervention program. The finding of Bailey et al.s (2010) study provides further evidence on the role of scaffolding which can be extended to the academic domain involving L2. Nishida and Yashima (2010) contended that a better understanding of L2 development particularly among young learners can be acquired by examining adult-novice interactions in the ZPD through the use of scaffolding. Unfortunately, there has not been any known study within the Malaysian setting on the role of scaffolding on L2 development among preschoolers. Hence, the present study attempted to unravel the role of scaffolding in L2 semantic and lexical development for young learners in the Malaysian setting. Methodology The review has shown that prior studies used various methods and mediation in examining the roles of scaffolding via teacher-student interaction in L2 development. Unlike past studies, this study used narrative illustrations as the mediation of social interaction aimed at enhancing a young L2 learners semantic as well as lexical processing and reproduction. The current study was a delayed post-test experimental study. Instead of conducting a longitudinal study like some past studies (e.g., Bailey, Huang, Osipova, & Beauregard, 2010; Proctor, Dalton, & Grisham, 2007) the present study was designed as a short-term study to conform to the common formal instructional period. Such a decision was made considering the purpose of the study was to find out the effectiveness of scaffolding via social interaction within the formal instructional setting. Therefore, scaffolding via social interaction can only be considered an effective tool for L2 lexical and semantic development if it can be used and work within a common formal instructional time framework. The child who participated in this study was a 4 years old L2 learner. The experimenter served as the language model to the child in this study. A picture book comprising 23 narrative picture series in the form of multi-colored drawings was used as the instrument for this study. This book was used because it comprises a large number of illustrations. The use of numerous pictures enables an elicitation of a wide variety of vocabulary, particularly nouns. In order for the child to reproduce the target nouns with context appropriate usage in describing the pictures, the child needed to understand the semantic aspects of each description. In general, each picture contains actions and nouns. The density of the actions and nouns increases in the sequence of the pictures. Thus, the illustrations involve simple to complex descriptions. The language and the types of nouns used in the model descriptions were designed to be age-appropriate to ensure that the input was comprehensible (Krashen, 1982) and suitable to be nurtured within the childs ZPD. The model descriptions for the 23 illustrations were validated by three experts in English as a second language. The experts were provided with the illustrations and the corresponding model description. Using a 5-point Likert scale (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree), the experts were asked to rate the extent to which each model description 112

represents the corresponding illustration based on their professional judgment. The content validity was 0.72. The study involved a three-phase sequence. The first phase occurred before the treatment commenced. During this initial stage of the experiment, the child was shown a picture book. The pre-description task was conducted in three sessions on three consecutive days. Each time, the experimenter sat with the child in a quiet room and started showing the pictures one by one in sequence as they were presented in the book. The experimenter elicited the pre-description of approximately ten pictures in each pre-describing session by asking the same instructive questions (Tell me about this picture?). These data provided the experimenter with the childs actual developmental level data concerning his ability in describing the pictures on his own without any assistance from the expert (Vygotsky, 1978). On the fourth day immediately after the pre-description data collection, the second phase of the study commenced in which the experimenter began to talk about the pictures with the child. The experimenters input was controlled to conform to the model description. The scaffolding sessions were spread out in three weeks and were conducted on variable days instead of on consecutive days, however, with the same procedure and exact predetermined model of language in describing the illustrations. Each session lasted about twenty minutes. During each scaffolding session, the child negotiated meaning by asking questions, to confirm or clarify around the models description of the pictures or illustrations. The scaffolding session for each narrative picture was conducted twice within the treatment period. At the end of the fourth week, the experimenter stopped the treatment sessions and deliberately allowed one week gap before the post-description data were acquired. This was to see if the child was able to retain the input after the treatment gap. The third phase of the study was the delayed post-test stage. At the end of the fifth week, the experimenter once again sat with the child in the same quiet room and posted the same instructive questions to the child as in the pre-description session (Tell me about this picture?). The child described the same picture book in three post-describing sessions. However, during these sessions, the experimenter provided some facilitation when the child halted for a long time in describing some of the illustrations. This was to enable the child to continue the description process. The facilitating questions, phrases and words were such as, What are they doing?; After that.; Then.. The pre- and post-describing sessions were tape recorded throughout. The child seemed to be oblivious to the tape recording. He was so engrossed and seemed to be in an enthusiastic mode while describing the pictures during both pre- and post-description sessions. Analysis of Data In this study, L2 semantic refers to the childs ability to reproduce similar message in the form of picture description as presented to the child by a sophisticated adult in the treatment period. Since the pictures used in this study were numerous, each of the childs reproduction which meaning was in keeping with the modeled description and the use of context-appropriate lexical would be inferred as the outcomes of his understanding of the intended description for each picture as the outcome of scaffolding via social interaction. Therefore, the data were analyzed in order to trace semantic and lexical development. Analysis of Semantic Development Semantic development was analyzed based on content analysis of the childs postdescription using the adapted model of Homzie, Gravitt and Deeses (1975) content reproduction rating. The child was given a score ranging from 0 to 5 points. This rating 113

was selected due to its function in measuring childrens ability to tell stories of various lengths. Reliability procedure was conducted by three experts in English as a Second Language (ESL) for the content analysis rating. The ESL experts were required to indicate their agreement or disagreement on the criteria of the rating using a 5-point Likert scale. The inter-rater reliability index was 0.83. Table 1 provides the rubric for content rating based on Homzies et al. (1975). Table 1 Content rating 5 Points: Relationships between characters in the descriptions and relevant contexts are preserved with some changes in wording 4 Points: Substitution occurs, however, related to original content but inadequate or important segment of the descriptions is deleted 3 Points: Unrelated substitution occurs or meaning is changed but not completely altered 2 points: A major portion of the description is deleted with no presupposition present or meaning is drastically altered 1 point: Production of only word fragments from the original descriptions are present, and none of the suggested meaning is present 0 Point: Description is not reproduced at all. Analysis of Lexical Development The focus of development in vocabulary in this study was primarily on nouns. The childs lexical development was analyzed qualitatively by comparing his pre-descriptions with his post-descriptions of the illustrations. If a new vocabulary item emerged in his postdescription which, however, not present in his pre-description of the same illustration, he was assumed to have acquired the new lexical through imitation. This was provided that this lexicon in the childs post-description was similar to the one used by the experimenter for the respective illustration. When the same noun appeared in both model description and the childs post-description, whereby the noun was used with appropriate meaning as suggested in the model description, a conclusion will be made that the child had made a lexical development through the mediation of scaffolding within the childs ZPD. Since the focus on lexical development was only on the similarities in nouns used in adults description versus the childs post-descriptions, thus, qualitative analysis was considered sufficient to indicate noun acquisition. Findings and Discussion Semantic Development In analyzing the content, Table 2 was constructed to show the rating of content of the childs post-description. The data in Table 2 were analyzed based on the assumption that the content for each illustration in model descriptions was considered as a 5-point score. Table 2 Post-Description Content Rating Scores Narrative Picture Sequence 1 2 3 4 Post-Description 5 4 5 5 114 Narrative Picture Sequence 13 14 15 16 Post-Description 5 4 4 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

4 4 5 5 4 4 5 4

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 13

4 3 4 4 1 2 5 5

Based on the rating of content as presented in Table 2, 52.3 % of the childs reproduction of the descriptions scored 4 points. As shown in this table, the child scored 4 points for narrative pictures 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, and 20. This indicates that the child made some substitutions but his descriptions were still related to the proposed content in the model descriptions. Nonetheless, the child had somehow deleted certain important segment presented in the model descriptions for some of the illustrations. The childs substitutions along with some omissions in the post-descriptions were somehow, still related to the original content proposed in the model descriptions. This indicates that the childs ability to primarily comprehend the intended content in the model description even though the child used a different surface structure for most of his post-description. The child in this study was able to perform better in the post-description in comparison to his pre-description performance. In fact, a major segment of his pre-description was less intelligible to listeners who do not have access to the visuals. However, his description was more self-explanatory after receiving the appropriate input exposure as part of scaffolding by the adult. Without assistance and scaffolding from the adult, the child would remain at his actual developmental level regardless of the number of times the child was asked to describe those pictures. Without the supplement of the required language resources, the child would not be able to perform the describing task successfully. The finding of this study is in line with the finding of proctor et al.s (2010) to support the role of scaffolding in improving L2 comprehension. Hence, it can be reasonably construed that the overall data on semantic analysis in this study support the notion that scaffolding has its significant share in enhancing meaning making in L2. Lexical Development When the comparison was made amongst the three scripts of description, some new lexical items seemed to have been successfully acquired by the child based on the reproduction of the nouns in the childs post-description scripts. In order to show lexical development as a result of scaffolding, it would be appropriate to provide some samples of scripts that show context-appropriate use of the target lexical. Narrative Picture 1 The Childs Pre-Description Script The boy ride this one and this one.

Model Description Script

The Childs Post-Description Script A boy and a girl are playing The girl and the boy ride the on swings. swing.

The example in narrative picture 1 shows that the child acquired the noun swing, which he was able to use appropriately in relation to the context. This is regardless of the fact that the child omitted the plural morpheme s which was used in the model description. 115

With reference to narrative picture 4, the emergence of the word barking in the childs post description script was also an indication of lexical development through imitation. This lexical item was not used in the childs pre-description script. The absence of vocabulary bark in the child existing repertoire prior to the exposure to the model description, causing the child to resort to creating an assumption in describing the dogs action, which was not depicted in the illustration. This could be seen in the following excerpt: Narrative Picture 4 The Childs Pre-Description Script The dog want to ride this boat.

Model Description Script The dog is barking

The Childs Post-Description Script The dog barking

Despite the omission of the auxiliary verb in the example for narrative picture 4, the child was able to reproduce the word barking as used by the adult in the model description. Another instance is reflected in the description of narrative picture 16. The reproduction of the word carrot in the childs post-description in replacement of the word chilly that he used in the pre-description is also an indication of lexical development via imitation. Below are the scripts for illustration 16. Narrative Picture 16 Childs Pre-Description Script The rabbit run. He want to eat this biscuit and the chilly

Model Description Script

Childs Post-Description Script The girl is feeding the rabbit The girl want to give carrot with carrot and water. and water to rabbit

In the example above, the noun water was not considered as a new lexical item although the child did not use this noun in his pre-description for illustration 16. The reason is that the child has the noun water in his existing repertoire, which he uses regularly outside the frame of this study. The use of the noun biscuits could be due to the childs own perception or interpretation of how he viewed the object as presented in the illustration. Nonetheless, the data which show that the child used the noun chilly suggests that he was aware of the need to use a noun to describe the illustration of carrot. This could be concluded as a procedural knowledge that the child had cognitively developed, although the lack of appropriate lexical items handicapped an accurate description prior to getting assistance from the adult. The next example is in describing narrative picture 19. The term soccer also appeared in the childs post-description script for this illustration, which was parallel to the usage of the word in the model description of the same illustration. Narrative Picture 19 The Childs Pre-Description Script the girl and the boy, they are going to play the ball.

Model Description Script Some boys are playing soccer.

The Childs Post-Description Script The boy play the soccer.

116

The findings on lexical analysis indicated that scaffolding could be used as a vehicle for lexical development in L2. The noun swing which emerged in the childs postdescription for illustration 1 led to the intelligibility of the childs post-description. Considering that this noun was not used by the child in his pre-description of the same illustration to the extent that the child had to use circumlocution to convey meaning, the correct and fluent use of this noun in the post-description could be concluded as a result of scaffolding via the use of the same noun by the adult in describing a similar illustration. The childs ability to reproduce the word barking in the post-description for narrative picture 4 assisted the child in improving his comprehension competence as reflected by a correct content assimilation. The same situation holds for the childs acquisition of new lexical such as carrot for narrative picture 16 and soccer for narrative picture 19. Nevertheless, the nature of this experimental study which involved drawings had somehow affected the acquisition of other lexical items. The agreement and disagreement in terms of perception influenced the childs potential lexical development. The abovementioned nouns that the child acquired could be due to the congruity of the perception of both the childs and the adults. The compatibility of the adults perception and the childs perception in his current developing imagery system resulted in the agreement on the vocabulary presented by the adults who is a sophisticated second language speaker. Conclusion Based on the findings of this case study, it can be concluded that scaffolding within the childs ZPD seems to play a significant role in semantic and lexical development in second language acquisition. Scaffolding provided the child language models that helped refine his content comprehension from his actual comprehension developmental level to potential comprehension developmental level. In the same manner, scaffolding also acted as a refiner of his understanding for the need to use the nouns in context-appropriate way. Thus, besides the indication of the childs development in meaning processing, which is a higher order language skill processing, scaffolding provided by a sophisticated other via social interaction also seemed to contribute to expanding the childs L2 repertoire. The child in this study was able to not only reproduce the target lexical, but also use the lexical in appropriate context; an indication of meaningful and functionalistic lexical acquisition. Although this study was conducted within a short period of time, the results of the study demonstrate the positive contribution of scaffolding to the development of L2 acquisition in terms of semantic and lexical processing in the forms of context-appropriate reproduction of content and meaning as socio-genesis products. In implication, the findings of this study suggest that scaffolding via social interaction may enhance L2 lexical and semantic development. Therefore, such instructional method should be given appropriate consideration for its use in the formal instructional setting, not only for young L2 learners, but also for older L2 learners. References Bailey, A., Huang, Y., Osipova, A., & Beauregard, S. (2010). A Teacher-Researcher Collaboration for the Academic Language and science learning of young English language learners: Facilitating the transition from pre-kindergarten to kindergarten. The California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators Conclave, Los Angeles, CA. Retrieved March 15, 2011 from http://calsa.schoolfusion.us/mod ules/groups/homepagefiles. Donato, R. 1994. Collective scaffolding in second language learning. In J. P. Lantolf. & G. Appel (eds). Vygotskian Approach to Second Language Research (pp. 33-56). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. 117

Donato, R., & McCormick, D. E. (1994). A sociocultural perspective on language learning strategies: The role of mediation. The Modern Language Journal, 78(4), 453-464. Hatch, E. (1978). Discourse analysis and second language acquisition. In E. Hatch (Ed.) Second Language Acquisition: A Book of Reading. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Homzie, M. J., Gravitt, B. C. & Deese, J. (1975). Childrens reproductions: Effects of event order and implied vs. directly stated causation. Journal of Child Language, 4(2), 237-246. Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Newman, F. & Holtzman, L. (1993). Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary scientist. London: Routledge. Nishida, R. & Nasyima, T. (2010). Classroom interactions of teachers and elementary school pupils as observed during a musical project in a Japanese elementary school. System, 38(3), 480-490. Proctor, C. P., Dalton, B., & Grisham, D. L. (2007). Scaffolding English language learners and struggling readers in a universal literacy environment with embedded strategy instruction and vocabulary support. Journal of Literacy Research, 39(1), 79-93. Rafek-Galea, S. & Nair, P. (2008). The use of scaffolding strategies among ESL learners in the comprehension of literary texts. Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching, 4(2), 140-154. Stapa, S. H. & Rajamoney, M. S. (2009). Support from a distance: Perception of Malaysian students on computer-mediated collaborative learning. Turkish Online journal of Distance Education, 10(4), Article 6. Retrieved from https://sremote.pitt. edu/tojde36 /articles/,DanaInfo=tojde. anadolu.edu.tr+article_6.htm. Van Lier, L. (1988). The Classroom and the Language Learner: Ethnography and SecondLanguage Classroom Research. Harlow: Longman. Vethamani, M. E. & Nair, P. (2007). Using analogy as a scaffolding tool for facilitating the comprehension of literary texts. Malaysian Journal of ELT Research, 3, 1-18. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between learning and development (pp. 79-91). In Mind in Society. (Trans. M. Cole). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University

118

Pedagogical Application of Weblogging in EFL Education: Practices and Challenges Arnel E. Genzola, MA Ed. Faculty, English Department Jilin University Lambton College Peoples Republic of China agenzola@yahoo.com Doctoral Student, Faculty of Information & Communication Studies University of the Philippines- Open University Republic of the Philippines arnel.genzola@upou.edu.ph Abstract The role of ICT in EFL education has been consistently evolving providing a wide range of learning opportunities and educational affordances in reinforcing second language learning. Educators reported a great deal of benefits; thus, weblogging continues to occupy a popular spot in educational contexts at different levels. Blogs in education may be used in manifold ways (Dieu, 2004), and ELT practitioners who are into multi-modal media of communication and expression like weblogging should continue to create conditions that reinforce learning and keep on developing a list of best practices that encourages flexibility in learning, greater interactivity, and sustainability (Genzola, 2010b, p. 15). This study aims to describe the pedagogical practices employed by the author for the past two years in utilizing weblogs in English language learning among Chinese learners in an institution of higher learning in China. Further, it attempts to discuss weblog interface and associated activities found engaging as well as analyze the challenges and issues of weblog application in language education. Keywords: Weblogging, EFL education, blog practices, blog application Introduction The application of learning technologies such as blogs in higher education environment particularly in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning and teaching has attracted a great deal of research attention because of its pedagogical benefits and affordances in promoting development of EFL skills. With the ultimate goal of getting the second language learners (L2) to develop ability to communicate in the target language, language teachers continue to explore the capability of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) technologies in providing learning contexts that will reinforce development of target language skills. As a prevalent example of Web 2.0 application, the author considered the use of weblog as a CMC platform in engaging learners to communicate, interact, and express themselves in the target language to other individuals who speak the language and to the members of the online community. What has really set fire to the author is the likelihood of enhancing the quality of EFL learning through the utilization of multi-modal media of communication and expression like weblogging. Weblogging keeps on drawing recognition and growing interest not only in the popular media but also in the field of education especially in the area of language teaching (Genzola, 2010a). In language learning, the application of learning technologies has become very popular (Kavaliauskien, Anusien, & Maeikien, 2006, p. 221) since these media have become an integral part of individuals communicating through computers, a hallmark of the 119

information age. Weblogs offer learning opportunities online (Godwin-Jones, 2003), create a collaborative class environment (Barrios, 2003), promote exploration of English websites (Campbell, 2004), provide teachers supplemental aid in teaching (Johnson, 2004), offer authentic writing practice (Brooks, Nichols, & Priebe, 2004), and can make available a genuine learning context for EFL learners who have limited opportunities to be exposed to the target language in authentic environment (Fageeh, 2011). The utilization of weblogs on the account of its educational affordances in EFL education continues to attract ELT practitioners in bringing CMC platforms to play a part in improving L2s English learning. While a great deal of studies focused on the benefits of weblogs as utilized for a semester or a full-year program in EFL context, Genzola (2010b) proposed a need to further research on how this innovation would be translated into continuing language learning in terms of practices employed that encourage flexibility, greater interactivity, and sustainability (p. 15). This paper, therefore, attempts to address this need. It aims to describe the weblogging activities employed by the author for the past two years that engaged Chinese learners in an institution of higher learning in China to take an active interest in weblogging as an emerging approach in target language learning. It further seeks to address the challenges and issues of weblog application in language education. Literature Review The potential for language learning development is one of the reasons that drives language teachers to invest in CMC technologies. These CMC applications brought about varieties in EFL teaching approaches which are inevitable and also in a lot of ways desirable. It is deemed pedagogically appealing because it can be claimed that Constructivist Approach and Socio-cultural Theory are facilitated by CMC. Constructivist approach which developed from the theories of Bakhtin (1981), Bruner (1966) and Vgotsky (1978) points out that knowledge is fluid, not fixed, and learners construct their knowledge by taking part in collaborative activities with other students, teachers, and the learning environment (as cited in Fageeh, 2011, p. 34). Constructivist learning posits that teachers should offer learning opportunities and hands-on experience for learners enabling them to construct meaning for themselves. Online collaborative learning via CMC is realizable because weblogs provide a viable environment for collaboration since members of the blogging community go through a new experience of taking part in sharing ideas, thoughts, and insights electronically. Given these ideas about constructivism, experiential learning can be less demanding with electronic media because large amounts of data are available and students can easily build and revise electronically (Nguyen, 2008, p. 136). Like the Constructivist approach, Socio-cultural Theory has had substantial impact in language teaching. From a socio-cultural perspective, Swain (2005) points out that language production plays a significant role in second language learning where language can be learned through interactive meaningful communication in a pragmatic setting. According to Warschauer (1997) Socio-cultural approach stresses the role of social interaction in creating a learning environment favorable to learning language and to learning about language through language. Weblogs, in this sense, afford viable learning environment and alternative contexts for social interaction that promote interactive language learning endeavors for learners to be exposed to the target language and to negotiate meaning with the teacher and the other learners. Weblogs are used in manifold ways in education (Dieu, 2004) because new technological tools like weblogs afforded educators in higher learning institutions opportunities for students to explore the target language in a new forum (Genzola, 2010a). As an adaptation to our age of technology, weblogs have been used as a platform for distributing learning 120

resources (Downes, 2003), as a portal to online language learning resources and links appropriate for the learners needs (Oravec, 2002; Genzola, 2010a), and as a medium for information dissemination of daily school bulletin, a record of classroom activities, upcoming events, assessments or class homework details (Culley, 2006). Weblogs have been used not only to enhance the learning experience, but also to increase opportunity for students to move from surface to deeper levels of learning. To fuel class discussions through exposures to real tasks provided to the learners, language teachers can explore and select relevant materials made available by the tremendous search capabilities of the World Wide Web. As cited in Nguyen (2008), for the academic, pedagogical materials can be posted (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008) and teachers can also publish lecture notes and handouts (Walker et. al., 2008). To provide extra reading practice for learners, to deepen sense of community among the members of the class, to promote active participation among students, and to build electronic portfolio of learners written work are uses of weblogs in education identified by Stanley (2005). Further, L2s can use weblogs as an electronic portfolio of their writings and postings that will show progress over time. Those who often write will produce quality work since they are not only writing simply for posting, but they are writing for audience members of the community like fellow learners and the teacher who in turn will read their work. Several scholars have reported on how they use blogs to support their classroom instruction and have found that blogs offer many reading and writing incentives (Zhang, 2009). Weblogging provides students learning avenues to encounter new ideas; it also enhances students language skills from reading and responding to their own posts or their fellow learners. This interactive engagement increases readership, language input and output, and participation which in due course will bring the members to a certain convergence a community of learners. It is this interactive and cooperative spirit that makes this online community even more conducive for language learning. The more the learners are involved in blog posting and in responding, the higher the likelihood of this engagement to establish a viable learning environment (Godwin-Jones, 2003). Blogs can also be used as an expressive tool to encourage introverted students to speak up or to give frustrated students a way of letting off steam, possibly reducing transference to the teacher (Culley, 2006). In the study of Genzola (2010a) that sought to determine responses of students in the use of weblogs in English for Academic Purposes class, not only were the students afforded an after-class space for language practice and selfexpression under non-threatening conditions, but weblogs proved to be a viable digital conduit in bridging the gap in the traditionally sanctioned hierarchy of unquestioned authority of teachers inherent of a Chinese academic milieu. Weblog is a digital learning equalizer in encouraging language learners to take a dynamic interest as active participants in getting significant progress in the language that they all strive to be proficient at (Genzola, 2010a). As EFL practitioners persist to explore, discover, and investigate the benefits weblogging offers in EFL education, there is no doubt language teachers will find many examples of best practices in engaging the learners to collaborate and interact in the target language that can be adapted and adopted. Ongoing Weblogging Project This initiative arose out of the need to motivate and inspire L2s to learn English by providing them an online learning community as an after-class activity to promote collaborative learning, to reinforce language learning, and to increase greater contact with the target language. The web-based blog originally set up by the author for his English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students has been going on for a little over two years. Due to assignments of other Academic English classes a year later, non-EAP students were also 121

encouraged to take part by signing up an account at the start of the semester. The students who have been participating in this ongoing project aged 20-23 major in Business Administration, Management Information Systems, Electronics Engineering Technology, Banking and Finance, and International Accounting. Academic English classes including EAP are courses in the regular college program taken by the students of Jilin University Lambton College in China upon successful completion of at least one and a half years of EFL instruction as a major entry-requirement to be admitted. The students were brought to the schools computer laboratory in signing up and a thorough discussion on policies, purposes, and on how to proceed was detailed. The succeeding blog engagements take place in their spare time. Each learner has a laptop and the dormitory is internet-ready. Blog posting and commenting on entries and posts happen at the convenience of the learners. For the duration of each course, only two blog posts are expected of each learner. They are free to decide what to publish. Links and websites that are of interests are regularly posted to provide extra reading practice and to reinforce learning done in the class, and to expand content coverage. Using the blogs forum section, common idiomatic expressions, business idioms, and new vocabulary acquisitions related to their specialization are also posted to increase greater awareness and exposure to these English phrases, expressions, and terminologies. The author utilized some of the relevant blogging activities as springboard for class discussion by allocating five to ten minutes of the lecture at the start of the lesson. The author used SocialGo, a browser-based hosting software. It is one of the recently developed web-based applications which does not require software download, hence, even more convenient for learners to access the network from wherever they may be. Weblogging Activities The following figures will describe the weblogging applications that engaged the students to communicate in the target language and to participate and collaborate with the members of the learning community. Some of the figures contain two screenshots collated and labeled as one. The first week of each term exposes the learners to the features of the webbased blog. The basic parts of the English for Academic Purposes 300 (EAP300) class blog are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Screenshot of EAP300 class blog

122

Figure 1 provides the learner the overview of the blog network. The homepage which is the main navigation panel has home, profile, members, class, events, forum, exemplars, news, photos, and videos as the major sections. Other features such as bulletin, instant messaging, activity feed, status, chat, photo and video sharing, and manage account are also available which can be seen in the sidebar. Figure 2 shows the members and the different classes within the network. To date, the network has 323 members from 19 Academic English (ENG) classes (see Figure 2). Every member is provided with his or her own personal space My Profile which allows students to share as much details about themselves as they wish to disclose. They can also customize their profile and privacy settings. The succeeding figures demonstrate the applications of weblog activities.

Figure 2: Screenshot of blog members from the 19 ENG classes Figures 3 and 4 show the application of weblogs as a portal to online language learning resources and links appropriate to the needs of the learners (see Figure 3) and as an online hub for any particulars allied to the course like course content, class rules, and guidelines, assignments, reminders, as well as lectures and handouts (see Figure 4).

Figure 3: Screenshot of the class blog used as a portal to language learning resources 123

The blog as illustrated in Figure 3 offered enhanced interaction between the students and the teacher and among the learners themselves. They find additional materials downloadable and accessible through the links posted a pleasurable learning experience and helpful in motivating them to a greater exposure in the target language. In fact, one of the learners as shown in Figure 3 requested for more links and activities that will stir them up for optimum language development. Active participation in the course is evident in this language engagement.

Figure 4: Screenshot of the class blog used as an online hub for any particulars allied to the course like course content, lectures, and handouts Further, the blog provided them a place to extend lessons and conversations past the day because the teacher posted lectures and handouts in the blog as well as topics in the forum section intended for questions or doubts they may have pertaining to class discussions or assignments they wish to be clarified with. Its been observed that students become more active in participating and making posts once their queries are responded to. They also show certain degree of confidence to communicate with the teacher because weblogs bridged the gap between teacher-student communication that provided a non-intimidating learning atmosphere especially in a Chinese setting where hierarchical social relationship places teachers in the position of authority. To illustrate, see Figures 5 and 6. Figure 5 shows a student from ENG211-3 class writing to clarify about the originality report from Turnitin.Com that each of them is required to submit along with the draft of their research essays. ENG 211-3 is Communications II a reading and writing course focusing on expository and argumentative styles (see Figure 5). Figure 6 exhibits a blog member from ENG 312-3 (Written Business Communication) asking about business terminologies in relation to the short business report that they are expected to submit as one of the requirements of the course (see Figure 6).

124

Figure 5: Screenshot of a blog member from ENG 211-3 class

Figure 6: Screenshot of a blog member from ENG 312-3 class Students felt weblogs afforded them equal opportunity for their voices to be heard in a non-threatening environment. It is apparent from this case that weblogs have the capacity to motivate and engage L2s in English language learning through an environment that promotes a favorable learning atmosphere and equal opportunity. In Figures 7 and 8, what is presented is the use of weblogs as a digital decanter of vocabulary and common idiomatic expressions. Some of the idiomatic expressions are linked to their respective majors. For instance, business idioms for those blog-participants whose majors are in the business stream. Each week, new words and idioms are introduced. Students were made to post and share their work after coming up with a personally-constructed sentence using any of those posted expressions. 125

Figure 7: Screenshot of the class blog used for vocabulary building

Figure 8: Screenshot of the class blog used for learning idiomatic expressions The thread of the learners responses and interactions to the activities shown in Figures 7 and 8 extends to several web pages. An attestation that this blog interface for language development is regarded meaningful by the learners in their pursuit of becoming proficient in the target language. Some students made comments in class for their new acquisitions and sought help from the teacher the correct pronunciation of some words they have difficulty articulating. Weblogging in this sense becomes even more feasible and realistic in developing language skills. This is one of the reasons expressed by the learners in the course of their interaction why they would like to continue blogging even after the end of the course. Proof to this is the presence of learners from previous semesters who continue to read, post, and interact with the teacher and their peers.

126

The next figure depicts weblogs use as an e-space for pre and post-class discussion of reading tasks (see Figure 9). A total of 10 reading topics were assigned for the entire duration of the course. Reading topic is posted every other week allowing students more time to research, share, and interact in the discussion forum. Some of the students recommended several sites that led to the focused reading topic. They used the forum to discuss concepts and terms and the main idea and supporting details of each assigned reading.

Figure 9: Screenshot of the class blog used as an e-space for pre and post-class discussion of reading tasks Students appreciated the room reserved for posting topics of upcoming readings and class discussions alongside vocabulary words that were unlocked prior through link sharing and forum discussion. The blog was also used as online bulletin for posting commentaries on English-language movies for film reviews and a certain language learning goal with thematic connection to the course. Figure 10 illustrates this application.

127

Figure10: Screenshot of the class blog used for movie review and commentaries Because of the networks capability to upload and embed images, songs, podcasts, and videos, this enabled the learners to learn from one another and to be exposed to real multimedia environment. This corroborates to the claim that weblogs are of great benefit in foreign language courses. Some of them shared in the class that in coming up with their own views they were able to get help from reading other members posts and from their classmates each time they go online in their respective dormitories. Figure 11 displays published blogposts of students on a topic of their choice. Only two blogposts were expected of each learner at the end of the course, but some of them did a remarkable effort of posting more. The prompting and inciting themes of their posts on a range of interesting personal and social concerns brought out a stream of interactive exchanges. Weblogging paved a way for learners to write in a new forum and opened avenues to read, communicate, share, reflect and collaborate with one another. They responded to the post by giving advice or making comments on each blog entry and writing a blog post as sub-content to ones post. For instance, one student posted a topic about wedding and a fellow learner after several responses to the main topic shared a blogpost about wedding practices in China. This promoted student-student, students-teacher, and students-others interactions central to the goals of English language teaching and learning.

128

Figure 11: Screenshot of students blogposts The exposure the learners had for this weblog undertaking prepared them to have accomplished another class writing project at the end of the term, a compilation of each learners written work taken from their blogposts and classroom writing activities incorporating what has been learned from the blog interface Anthology of Selected Writings in English for Academic Purposes class (see Figure 12).

Figure 12: Screenshot of class anthologies accomplished through the learners writings from their blogposts and classroom compositions Some titles of their collections came from the idioms learned and shared reflections to the weblogging activities. The students expressed that their learning experience in weblogging and other associated activities provided them not only avenues to further their skills, but gained them grounds in enhancing English language skills and in cultivating a passion for learning in general. The introduction from one of the anthologies expressed: 129

Each activity is much more than mere discussion forum or thread; it is coming together. It is a union where everyone grows in the spirit of respect, cooperation, meaningful interaction, and selflessness in helping one another. (Sojourn) Challenges While weblogs in education offer a plethora of potentialities, several issues have been identified that potentially challenge those in ELT practice. It is imperative for language teachers to be digitally competent in this age of technological revolution because these learning technologies have boundless capabilities for language teaching and learning. A working knowledge on these various CMC applications mutually benefits the teacher and the learners especially those learners who lack the necessary skills about these tools that would trigger unnecessary fear and panic. It is important to note that some students may need sufficient time to learn how to handle and use them. Another challenge to deal with is the dedication and amount of time this innovation will require of the teacher. Since online interaction takes place as an outside the classroom activity, it necessitates the participation of the teacher especially in keeping the learners on the right track and in giving continuous feedback to keep them focused, willing, active and interested to take part in the blog. Language educators are also challenged to develop a model of an inclusive learning environment that extends beyond the boundaries of classroom weblogging. Those who are engaged in this activity may collaborate and work a common ground for blogs potential to foster intercultural and target language communication among L2s. Weblogs potential for interactive engagement in the target language is apparent as documented in this paper and previous researches reviewed. Too, weblog is a fertile source for learners to acquire new language patterns and phrases. The development of communicative skills among L2s is focal to English language teaching. While the teacher offered help in giving feedback to a particular learner about language errors in the posts and discussion threads, it is of great magnitude to address linguistic issues in the target language exchanges such as common orthographical, lexical, and grammatical errors. Although certain time for classroom discussion can be allotted to discuss linguistic issues observed from the textual record provided by the blog on the way students use the language, the challenge is on how this innovation will be used to address problematic areas in a way that will not inhibit active participation especially to learners who have foreign language writing anxiety. Research that focuses on blogs use in reducing foreign language writing apprehension is still scarce in the literature. Conclusion It is indeed of value to language teachers who have come to realize the wide array of opportunities CMC technologies bring. Undeniably, the teachers play a crucial role in keeping this innovations interactivity and sustainability. To be adept in the ever evolving uses of communication technologies will translate into learning opportunities that promote a learning environment where students come together to learn, practice, share, and interact beyond the borders of the traditional classroom. With the support coming from the teacher and peers, members of the blogging community become more engaged in the process of language learning particularly when the learning opportunities suit students needs. A foreign language learning activity like weblogging that commits to facilitate after-class interaction in the language would lend immense support in immersing the learners in authentic online environments that bring together 130

language partners for meaningful language engagement. It is for this reason that weblogging in EFL education is worthy of continuing research attention. References Barrios, B. (2003). The year of the blog: Weblogs in the writing classroom. Retrieved from http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/barrios/blogs/index.html Brooks, K., Nichols, C., & Priebe, S. (2004). Remediation, genre, and motivation: Key concepts for teaching with Weblogs. In L. Gurak, S. Antonijevic, L. Johnson, C. Ratliff, & J. Reyman (Eds.), Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs. Retrieved from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/remediation_genre.html Campbell, A.P. (2004). Using live journal for authentic communication in EFL classes. The Internet TESL Journal. Retrieved from http://itesljorg/Techniques/CampbellLiveJournal/ Culley, A. (2006). Supporting learning and teaching with Weblogs. Retrieved from http://www.instructionaldesign.com.au/Academic/Blogging.htm Dieu, B. (2004). Blogs for language learning. Essential Teacher, 26-30. Downes, S. (2004). Educational blogging. EDUCAUSE Review, 39(5), 1426. Retrieved from http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/Educational Blogging/40493 Fageeh, A.I. (2011). EFL learners use of blogging for developing writing skills and enhancing attitudes towards English learning: An exploratory study. Journal of Language and Literature, 2(1), 31-48. Retrieved from http://www.lit.az/ijar/pdf/jll/5/JLL2011(1-5).pdf Genzola, A.E. (2010a). Learners responses on weblogging in an EAP class: A Chinese experience. In R. Tupas (Chair), 2010 CELC International Symposium. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the 4th Center for English Language Communication International Symposium, National University of Singapore, SG. Genzola, A.E. (2010b). Learner autonomy through weblogging: An ICT-mediated pedagogy in ELT. In A. Shafei (Ed.), Frontiers of language and teaching: Proceedings of the 2010 International Online Language Conference (pp. 4-19). Boca Raton: Universal-Publishers. Godwin-Jones, R. (2003). Emerging technologies: Blogs and Wikis, environments for online collaboration. Language Learning and Technology, 7(2), 12-16. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/emerging/default.html Johnson, A. (2004, August). Creating a writing course utilizing class and student blogs. The Internet TESL Journal, 5(8). Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Johnson-Blogs/ Kavaliauskien, G., Anusien, L., & Maeikien, V. (2006). Weblogging: Innovation for communication in English class. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 3(2) 220-233. Retrieved from http://e flt.nus.edu.sg/v3n22006/kavali.htm Nguyen, L. V. (2008, December). Technology-enhanced EFL syllabus design and materials development. English Language Teaching, 1(2). Retrieved from www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/download/465/475 Oravec, J.A. (2002). Bookmarking the world: Weblog applications in education. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45(7). 616-621. Stanley, G. (2005). Blogging for. British Council. Retrieved from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/blogging-

131

Swain, M. (2005). The output hypothesis: Theory and research. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning (pp. 471-484). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Warschauer, M. (2007). Computer-mediated collaborative learning: Theory and practice. The Modern Language Journal, 81(4), 470-487. Zhang, D. (2009). The application of blog in English writing. Journal of Cambridge Studies, 4(1), 64-72.

132

English Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Islamic Azad University Students of Sirjan and Its Relation to Major Marjan Moiinvaziri Department of English Language, Sirjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sirjan, Iran moiinvaziri@hotmail.com, moiinvaziri@iausirjan.ac.ir

This research tries to a) determine the most and least frequently used categories of vocabulary learning strategies by Islamic Azad University students of Sirjan and b) find out whether there is any significant relation between the kind and amount of vocabulary learning strategy use and students field of study. The instrument used in this study was a 34 item revised version of vocabulary learning questionnaire adapted from Gu and Johnson (1996) which was given to 220 students having General English Course at Islamic Azad University of Sirjan. The questionnaire examined students use of seven vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) including meta-cognitive regulation, guessing strategies, dictionary strategies, note-taking strategies, memory strategies (rehearsal), memory strategies (encoding) and activation strategies. Statistical analysis revealed that students were low strategy users and the most and the least frequently used strategies were memory strategy: rehearsal and activation strategy, respectively. In addition, significant differences were detected in strategy use of Civil Engineering and Computer majors but not in other majors. Keywords: vocabulary learning strategy, major, amount of strategy use Introduction Vocabulary is one of the smallest and the most important components of a language. As it is often cited in the literature, without grammar, very little can be conveyed. Without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed (Wilkins, 1972, p.11). Although it is one of the most important aspects in foreign language learning; before the mid-1980s vocabulary was considered to be a neglected area of second language learning and teaching (Maiguashca, 1993; Meara, 1981). But in following years especially in 1990s there were noticeable number of publications and today vocabulary is a current focus in ESL pedagogy and research. For EFL learners, vocabulary learning can be considered a never-ending process as well. Learners always feel that the dearth of vocabulary prevents them from reaching higher level of English proficiency, and as such, vocabulary learning is one of the most challenging tasks they face (Gan, Humphery, & Hamp-Lyons, 2004). Vocabulary has been increasingly recognized as essential to language use; inadequate vocabulary could lead to learner difficulties in language reception and production. Besides, most students complain about the difficulty of learning and memorizing the new vocabulary items. Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) are a part of language learning strategies which are receiving more attention since the late 1970s and their investigation has advanced our understanding of the processes learners use to develop their skills in a second or foreign language. There is no doubt that students take in and comprehend information in different manners. Therefore, in regard to vocabulary learning strategies, it is believed that different students may use different strategies and some may use fewer numbers of strategies than others or even may not use an effective strategy that helps their learning activities. The view of Gairns and Redman (1986) is that students should be more responsible for their learning and pay greater attention to individual needs. The reason is that after elementary level, it is increasingly difficult for teachers to select vocabulary equally useful 133

to all students. Schmitt (2000) sees the need to help learners acquire the strategies necessary to learn words on their own. Thus, going through the literature, one encounters empirical evidence that strategy use will result in more effective vocabulary acquisition and recall among L2 learners. This, in turn justifies why teachers should embark on strategy training. Moreover, the significance of strategy training is pointed out even by scholars who believe that context is a major source of vocabulary learning. These scholars have expressed their concern over how well students can handle context on their own. Therefore, they have strongly emphasized the teaching of specific learning strategies to students so that they can effectively learn from context (Coady, 1997). This study reports the findings of an empirical investigation of vocabulary learning carried out in Sirjan, Iran. Specifically, it examines the overall vocabulary strategy use of Iranian University students and its relation to their field of study. It is hoped that this study can get us closer to a comprehensive understanding of vocabulary learning practices of Iranian learners and provides some implications for both the learning and teaching of vocabulary in English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Review of literature Background on language learning strategies With the increased focus of second language acquisition research on individual differences in language learning and on learner-centered language education, language learning strategies were brought to the fore as an interesting topic warranting much research. Interest in learning strategies first developed in the 1970s with research to identify the characteristics of good language learners (Naiman et al., 1978; Rubin, 1975). In 1966, Aaron Carton published his study entitled the method of inference in foreign language study which was the first attempt on learner strategies. After Carton, in 1971, Rubin started doing research focusing on the strategies of successful learners and stated that, once identified; such strategies could be made available to less successful learners. Rubin (1979) classified strategies in terms of processes contributing directly or indirectly to language learning. Wong-Fillmore (1976), Tarone (1977), Naiman et al. (1978), Cohen and Aphek (1981), Chamot and OMalley (1987) and many others studied strategies used by language learners during the process of foreign language learning. The study of language learning strategies, especially in applied linguistics, peaked around the early 1990s when two of the most influential volumes on this topic were published (OMalley & Chamot, 1990; Oxford, 1990). As studies on language learning strategies came to the foreground of ESL/EFL research, the definition of language learning strategies was developed (Gu, 1996). OMalley and Chamot (1990) defined learning strategies as the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information (p. 1). Oxford (1990) proposed a more comprehensive definition: learning strategies are specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations (p. 8). Cohen (1998) further elaborated on the definition of strategies and presented it as processes which are consciously selected by learners and which may result in action taken to enhance the learning or use of a second or foreign language, through the storage, retention, recall, and application of information about that language (p. 4). These definitions are the most representative ones and are cited often in the learning strategies literature. Vocabulary learning strategies Vocabulary once a neglected aspect of language learning was brought to attention following the advent of communicative approaches to teaching. It is widely accepted today 134

that to learn English as second or foreign language, a person should set himself to the task of acquiring a huge amount of the lexicon of English. In addition, research studies in corpus linguistics point out that the language which is used in speech and writing covers a high proportion of prefabricated language (Rott, 2004); therefore, foreign language learners must develop a good L2 vocabulary in order to grasp what they hear and read and to express themselves fluently and appropriately (Lehr, Osborn, & Hiebert, 2004; Nation, 2006). Vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategies which in turn are part of general learning strategies (Nation, 2001). Language learning strategies encourage greater overall self-direction for learners. Self-directed learners are independent learners who are capable of assuming responsibility for their own learning and gradually gaining confidence, involvement and proficiency (Oxford, 1990). It is the same with vocabulary learning strategies. Thus, students need training in vocabulary learning strategies they need most. Research has shown that many learners do use more strategies to learn vocabulary especially when compared to such integrated tasks such as listening and speaking. But they are mostly inclined to use basic vocabulary learning strategies (Schmitt, 1997). This in turn makes strategy instruction an essential part of any foreign or second language program. It is a very well-known fact that, research has largely sought the best strategy for vocabulary acquisition. In reality, however, learners tend to use a variety of strategies in combination. Oxford (1990) developed a categorization system which includes a list of six major vocabulary learning strategies, containing (1) memory, (2) cognitive, (3) compensation, (4) meta-cognitive, (5) affective and (6) social. Schmitt (1997) claimed that the lack of attention on vocabulary learning strategies is due to the lack of a comprehensive list or taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies. He utilized Oxfords (1990) taxonomy and added new category so that the overall taxonomy can be divided into discovery strategies (initial discovery of a words meaning) and consolidation strategies (remembering the word once it has been encountered). Based on different categorizations of VLS a number of questionnaires were developed one of which was presented by Gu and Johnson (1996) administered in Mainland China. This questionnaire consists of two parts: beliefs about vocabulary learning and vocabulary learning strategies including: metacognitive regulations, guessing strategies, dictionary strategies, note-taking strategies, memory strategies: rehearsal, memory strategies: encoding and activation strategies. This study confirmed that strategies aiming at vocabulary retention relate more to vocabulary size than to English proficiency, which raises the issue of the appropriateness of using vocabulary size as the major criterion to assess vocabulary learning effectiveness. The existing evidence indicates that the belief that vocabulary is simply the memorization of separate word forms with fixed meaning is too simplistic and inadequate for the learner to build up his/her lexical knowledge. However, what has been neglected is that the actual beliefs, needs and problems of learners might be connected with strategy use, which in turn will affect effectiveness of the learning process. It was hoped that this study could present a comprehensive framework of the vocabulary learning strategies used by Islamic Azad University students of Sirjan and its relation to major and by using this information help teachers in their methods of teaching vocabulary and students in their vocabulary learning. Vocabulary learning in Iran and in Islamic Azad University of Sirjan Vocabulary is generally given little emphasis in the university curriculum in Asian countries (Fan, 2003). In Iran the same as in other Asian countries, in an input-poor EFL environment vocabulary learning tends to be discrete (e.g., Gu, 2003a): Once students step 135

out of the classroom, they simply do not need to speak or listen to English. Generally, the emphasis on English teaching in universities in Asian countries is on the four skills. Vocabulary teaching in many classrooms is largely incidental (Fan, 2003; Catalan, 2003). Considering this fact in many classes a number of linguists have long recognized the importance of learner independence in vocabulary acquisition. In Islamic Azad University most of the students take a two credit course of English called Pre-university English and all of them have to take a three credit course called General English. An average of 40 students with different majors attends these courses, two sessions a week (each 75 minutes). The purpose of the course is mainly reading comprehension in which there are a large number of new words presented. Students are usually complaining about their trouble with learning and retaining new vocabularies. One of the major concerns of this study is detecting students VLS used in order to help them deal with their problem. Significance of the study This study aims to look into students vocabulary learning strategies. It is believed that an awareness of individual differences in learning makes EFL educators and curriculum designers more sensitive to their roles in teaching and learning. Furthermore, it will permit them to match teaching and learning so as to develop students potentials in EFL learning as well as to assist students to become cognizant of the ways they learn most effectively. It also helps the students to develop strategies and ways to become more motivated and independent learners. The understanding of the students vocabulary learning strategy use enables teachers and researchers to design appropriate materials and activities to help them improve their vocabulary learning so as to enhance their lexical competence. Objectives of the study This study was designed to investigate the vocabulary learning strategies used by Islamic Azad University students of Sirjan in their learning English. Specifically, the study sought answers to the following questions: 1) What are the most and least frequently used categories of vocabulary learning strategies by Islamic Azad University students of Sirjan? 2) Are Islamic Azad University students of Sirjan, high, medium, or low vocabulary learning strategy users? 3) Is there any relation between the students major and amount of vocabulary learning strategy use? 4) Is there any relation between major and each of the seven mentioned strategies? Method Participants Two hundred and twenty students of Islamic Azad University of Sirjan (118male and 102 female) who were currently having the General English course from different majors took part in the study. The students having General English course were selected instead of those having pre-university English because not all the students will pass the preuniversity English course, furthermore, these students had received enough input to answer the vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire. The participants were selected among the different majors of Islamic Azad University of Sirjan including: Computer, Management, Architecture, Accounting, Industry, Metallurgy and Civil Engineering.

136

Instrument The instrument used in this study was a 34 item revised version of vocabulary learning questionnaire adapted from Gu and Johnson (1996). It was divided into seven parts including meta-cognitive regulation, guessing strategies, dictionary strategies, note-taking strategies, memory strategies (rehearsal), memory strategies (encoding) and activation strategies to examine the students vocabulary learning strategy use. The original questionnaire contained 91 items and the students answered a 7-point Likert scale but after the pilot study, considering the cultural differences and also the fact that the students were not English majors and as a result they were not familiar with some of the strategies and did not use them at all the number of items was reduced. The respondents were asked to rate each strategy statement on a 5-point interval Likert scale in term of their frequency of use in ascending order ranging from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always).The questionnaire was translated into Persian and as measured by Cronbachs alpha and showed an overall consistency of 0.79. Data collection The instrument required about 10 minutes to be completed and it was administered in students regular General English class. There were 12 General English classes at university in this semester (with average of 40 students) from which subjects were selected randomly. Before filling out the questionnaire, students were told that their participation was voluntary and their responses would remain confidential. The instruction as to how to complete the questionnaire was given in Persian. Data analysis The data gathered through the questionnaire were coded for statistical analysis to answer the research questions indicated above. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, version 13) was used for statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation), Independent-samples t-test, one-way ANOVA and Duncan multiple range test were used for analyzing data. Coding scheme Vocabulary learning strategies: Meta-cognitive regulation (MET) (6 questions) Guessing strategies (GUE) (5 questions) Dictionary strategies (DIC) (4 questions) Note-taking strategies (NOTE) (5 questions) Memory strategies: Rehearsal (REH) (5 questions) Memory strategies: Encoding (ENC) (6 questions) Activation strategies (ACT) (3 questions) Results and discussions Overall strategy use A preliminary examination of the data showed that the average mean for frequency of strategy use ranged from 2.01 to 2.86 with a mean of 2.42, which indicated an overall low strategy use. The most frequently used strategy was memory strategy: rehearsal and the least used strategy activation strategy. According to Oxford (1990, p. 300), mean scores that fall between 1.0 and 2.4 are identified as low strategy use, 2.5 and 3.4 as medium strategy use, and 3.5 and 5.0 as high strategy use. These categories of ratings were theoretically and arithmetically chosen. 137

Table 1: Total mean-score of each strategy used by the students METM GUEM DICM NOTEM REHM N Valid 220 220 220 220 220 Missin 0 0 0 0 0 g Mean 2.2788 2.3218 2.7364 2.2991 2.8664 Mode 1.67 2.20 3.00 2.00 3.40

ENCM 220 0 2.4712 2.00

ACTM 220 0 2.0106 1.33

Strategy use by major In order to evaluate whether there are significant differences in strategy use between the different majors, one-way ANOVA analysis was used. Table 2: ANOVA results for the relation between each strategy and different majors
Meta-cognitive Between Groups Within Groups Total Guessing Between Groups Within Groups Total Dictionary Between Groups Within Groups Total Note-taking Between Groups Within Groups Total Memory: rehearsal Between Groups Within Groups Total Memory: encoding Between Groups Within Groups Total Activation Between Groups Within Groups Total Sum of Squares 127.805 3410.631 3538.436 126.822 2509.560 2636.382 130.711 3234.634 3365.345 255.016 3877.979 4132.995 158.177 3478.600 3636.777 235.095 4346.341 4581.436 61.316 1295.461 1356.777 df 6 21 21 6 21 21 6 21 21 6 21 21 6 21 21 6 21 21 6 21 21 Mean Square 21.301 16.012 21.137 11.782 21.785 15.186 42.503 18.206 26.363 16.331 39.183 20.405 10.219 6.082 F 1.330 Sig .245

1.794

.102

1.435

.203

2.334

.033

1.614

.144

1.920

.079

1.680

.127

As the Table 2 illustrates, with the level of significance P<0.05 there is no significant relation between the different majors and their use of meta-cognitive (0.245), guessing (0.102), dictionary (0.203), memory: rehearsal (0.144), memory encoding (0.79) and activation (0.127) strategies. However, as shown in table 3 there is a significant difference among different majors use of note-taking strategy (0.033). Therefore, this result confirms the effect of major on the use of this strategy.

138

Table 3: ANOVA results for the difference between means of note-taking strategy use among all majors

Between Groups Within Groups Total

Sum of Squares 255.016 3877.979 4132.995

df 6 213 219

Mean Square 42.503 18.206

F 2.334

Sig. .033

By the use of Duncan multiple range test it was shown that Management and Architecture majors used note-taking strategy less than the others while Computer students used it more. Table 4: Duncan test for note-taking strategy among different majors
notetaking Duncan
a,b

Subset for alpha = .05 Major Architecture Management Industry Metallurgy Accounting Civil engineering Computer Sig. N 23 16 43 21 43 20 54 1 9.96 10.31 10.51 11.14 11.70 12.20 .099 10.51 11.14 11.70 12.20 13.00 .061 2

Means for groups in homogeneous subsets are displayed.

Additionally, the result from comparing total strategy use of different majors shows that with the level of significance 0.014 there is a meaningful difference. By the use of Duncan multiple range test it is shown that Management and Architecture majors use VLS less than the other majors. On the other hand, Computer and Civil engineering students use the VLSs more than the other groups. These two majors with a mean score of 2.6 and accounting majors with a mean score of 2.5 are medium users of strategies while the other majors are low users of the strategies. Table 5: ANOVA results for different majors total strategy use Sum of Mean Squares Df Square F Between 5531.972 6 921.995 2.739 Groups Within Groups 71691.38 213 336.579 7 Total 77223.35 219 9 139

Sig. .014

Table 6: Duncan test for strategy use of different majors The results of the study reveal that the students reported overall use of the strategies at the

Strategy M Duncan
a,b

Major Management Architecture Industry Metallurgy Accounting Computer Civil engineering Sig.

N 16 23 43 21 43 54 20

Subset for alpha = .05 1 2 2.1875 2.2749 2.3160 2.3160 2.3333 2.3333 2.5041 2.5041 2.6051 2.6118 .059 .079

Means for groups in homogeneous subsets are displayed. . .

low level, with memory strategy: rehearsal at the highest end of the frequency scale and activation strategies at the lowest end. The least attention paid to activation has also been observed by Gu and Johnson (1996). In contrast, memory: rehearsal strategies have been widely used among learners. This contrast suggests that decontextualized rote learning is still predominant in VL compared to contextualized processing. As mentioned before all the students were non-English majors therefore, this fact may explain the reason for the low amount of strategy use among them. For most of the strategies there was no difference among different majors except note-taking strategies that Computer majors used more and the reason may be related to the nature of their field of study. Summary and Implication The results of the present study showed an overall low use of VLS by students of Islamic Azad University of Sirjan who are actually a part of Iranian students. These results regarding strategy use approximately resembles those of other similar studies conducted with Asian students. With respect to strategy use and major, it was shown that all majors were low strategy users and only the Computer majors were better than the others in using note-taking strategy but still with a low mean. Strategy use is closely related to the problems that Iranian students encounter in VL, particularly in long-term retention and the ability of using vocabulary. In Iran, a typical EFL environment, words are primarily taught through decontextualized activities in English classes. A considerable amount of time in class is assigned to explaining and defining terms. Then, students are supposed to learn the new vocabulary on their own and they mostly try to learn it by mere memorization without using or having any knowledge of vocabulary learning strategies. This way of learning vocabulary (memorizing a list of words without teachers guidance) cannot be an effective one; despite, teachers can help the learners enhance their communicative competence of the target language and recognize a much larger vocabulary. It is important that curriculum designers and foreign language teachers consider the fact that in this input-poor environment of EFL they should try to use integrated and effective methods. Since learning vocabulary is one of the basic and important parts of learning a 140

foreign language, curriculum designers should try to revise the English textbooks in a way that can guide students toward the way of learning vocabulary that can be of real use. Pedagogically, it is important and feasible that teachers play a more active role in students vocabulary learning, as pointed out by Oxford and Scarcella (1994), by providing learners with systematic L2 vocabulary instruction, offering contextualized learning opportunities, helping students learn specific strategies for acquiring words, and showing students how to learn words outside of their L2 classes. The ultimate purpose is to encourage learner autonomy so that students can learn vocabulary wisely both inside and outside of the class for more productive outcomes. Despite the informing findings, this study because of the limited number of participants and investigated strategies only caught a glimpse of the present vocabulary learning situation in Iran. In addition, only the interaction between students major and VLS was investigated. There are still so many influential factors to be considered. Furthermore, as with other similar studies, the data for the study were based on the self reports of the participants. Since the extent to which self reports reflect reality is an issue, this study is not meant to offer any conclusive findings about vocabulary learning in Iran. However, its intention is to be part of a discussion on the complex construct of vocabulary learning, particularly in EFL contexts. Hopefully, this will lead to more thorough investigations in the field. References Cataln, R.M.J. (2003). Sex differences in L2 vocabulary learning strategies. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 13/1, 5477. Chamot, A. U., OMalley, J. M., Kupper, L., & Impink-Hermandez, M.V.(1987). A study of learning strategies in foreign language instruction: First year report. Rosslyn, VA: InterAmerica Research Associates. Chamot, A. U., & OMally, J. M. (1994). Language learner strategies. In N. C. Ellis (Ed.), Implicit and explicit learning of languages, 371- 392. London: Academic. Coady, J. (1997). L2 vocabulary acquisition: A synthesis of research. In J. Coady & Th. Huckin (Eds.), Second language vocabulary acquisition: A rationale for pedagogy (pp.273-91). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cohen, A. D. (1998). Strategies in learning and using a second language. London: Longman. Cohen, A. D. & Aphek, E. (1981). Easifying second language learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 3(2), 221-236. Fan, M. Y. (2003). Frequency of use, perceived usefulness, and actual usefulness of second language vocabulary strategies: A study of Hong Kong learners. The Modern Language Journal, 87(2), 222-241. Gairns, R, Redman, S (1986). Working with Words - A guide to teaching and learning vocabulary. Cambridge University Press. Gan, Z., Humphreys, G., & Hamp-Lyons, L. (2004). Understanding successful and unsuccessful EFL students in Chinese universities. Modern Language Journal, 88, 229-244. Gu, P. Y. (1996). Robin Hood in SLA: What has the learning strategy researcher taught us? Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, 6, 1-29. Gu, P. Y. (2003a). Fine brush and freehand: The vocabulary learning art of two successful Chinese EFL learners. TESOL Quarterly, 37, 73-104. Gu, Y., & Johnson, R.K. (1996): Vocabulary learning strategies and language learning outcomes. Language Learning, 46, 643-679.

141

Lehr, F., Osborn, J., & Hiebert, E. H. (2004). A focus on vocabulary. Honolulu, HI: Pacific Regional Educational Laboratory. Retrieved Oct 17, 2009. Maiguashca, R. U. (1993). Teaching and learning vocabulary in a second language: Past, present, and future directions. Canadian Modern Language Review, 50, 83-100. Meara, P. (1981). Vocabulary acquisition: A neglected aspect of language learning. Language Teaching and Linguistics Abstracts, 13, 221-246. Naiman, N., M. Frohlich, H. Stern, & A. Todesco (1978). The good language learner.Research in Education Series No 7. Toronto: The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Nation, I. S. P., (2006). How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening? Canadian Modern Language Review, 63(1), 59-82. OMalley, J. M. & Chamot, A. U. (1990). Learning strategies in second language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Oxford, R (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. NY: Newbury House. Oxford, R. & Scarcella, R. C.(1994). Second language vocabulary: learning among adults: state of the Art in vocabulary instruction, System, 22(2), 231-243. Rott, S. (2004). A comparison of output interventions and un-enhanced reading conditions on vocabulary acquisition and text comprehension. The Canadian Modern Language Review,61(2), 169202. Rubin, J. (1971). Evaluation and language planning. In Rubin, J. and Jernudd, Bjorn, H. (eds.) Can Language Be Planned? Sociolinguistic Theory and Practice for Developing Nations. Honolulu: East-West Center, 217-252. Rubin, J. (1975). What the good language learner can teach us. TESOL Quarterly, 9 (1), 41-51. Rubin, J. (1979). What the good language learner can teach us. In J.B. Pride (Ed.), Sociolinguistic aspects of language learning and teaching, 17-26, London: Oxford University Press. Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in Language Teaching. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Tarone, E. (1977). Conscious communication strategies in interlanguage: a progress report. On TESOL 1977. Washington, D.C:TESOL. Wilkins, D. A. (1972). Linguistics and language teaching. London: Edward Arnold. Wong-Fillmore, L. (1976). The second time around: Cognitive and social strategies in second language acquisition. Dissertation Abstracts International, 37, 10A, P. 6443. (University Abstracts International No. DDJ77-07085)

142

Organizing Vygotskian-based Mediating Classrooms to Enhance EFL Learners Communication Abilities Sorayya Behroozizad Islamic Azad University, Maragheh Branch, Iran sorayyabehroozi@yahoo.com Abstract Foreign language learners are always in real challenge in the process of learning English as a foreign language. In the light of being situated in an EFL context, in most cases they suffer from traditional modes of instruction which is limited to the textbook and the use of material is scheduled by the teacher. The students are highly dependent on the teacher and have very limited opportunity to talk about their learning experiences. This leads to minimum interaction and makes students recipients of the teachers knowledge. So, this situation calls for a shift in classroom culture from a teacher-directed process to a more interaction-based pedagogy. Using Vygotskys theory promotes a learning context in which teacher acts as a mediator or facilitator in constructing meaning and individuals are involved in complete participation in socioculturally-based practices of their classroom. Thus, there will be a reciprocal relationship between students and teacher in learning process. Reconfiguring the sociocultural context of the classroom helps the learners to achieve certain communicative targets. It is hypothesized that such a setting helps the learners take responsibility for their own learning; regulate their learning and have a sense of self-assessment by setting accurate and communicative goals. This will lead to both strategic orientation to learning and training of motivated and capable communicators in social community. Keywords: EFL, Sociocultural theory, Scaffolding, ZPD, Mediation Introduction Learning English as a foreign language has been a great source of concern in non-native countries including Iran where the learners have very limited exposure to English and thus do not have any immediate purpose to use English for communicative functions. In such a context, English is learnt through classroom instruction and the use of audio-visual materials for educational and or academic purposes, job opportunities and increasing the possibility of higher education. In Iranian universities, English is offered both as General English and English as a university major with different fields including Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), English Language and Literature, and Translation. In the first four semesters of the 7 semester Bachelor degree in the English language, all students are instructed in four main skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing. In the next three semesters the students receive instruction for their specialized field of study. So, the students who have completed the Bachelor program are expected to be able to use English communicatively by using different strategies. However, even most graduates have difficulty in communicating in English. In identifying the sources of EFL learners problems, some Iranian researchers believe that the programs presented in schools and universities do not provide the students with opportunities to use English communicatively. It seems that in language classes, listening and speaking have not been centralized and emphasized as two very basic and dominant skills of communication. So, this may be one source of the mentioned problems.

143

In addition to learners difficulties, research indicates that EFL teachers also have problems in their teaching and assessment methods. Non-native teachers who are less confident in their proficiency are reluctant to adopt teaching methods and opportunities that are more target language-intensive (Hortwiz, 1996; Li, 1998). Eslami-Rasekh and Valizade, (2004) believe that in Iran, the traditional teacher-centered curriculum dominates the teaching and learning process in both schools and universities. Teachers and lecturers transfer knowledge and experiences to students with the aim of helping them pass examinations. Talebinezhad and Sadegi (2005:86) indicate unsatisfactory instruction in schools and universities in the sense that: deficiency of public schools and universities in satisfying students ever-increasing desire to learn English communicatively resulted in an extensive and still growing private sector of English language in the country a distinctive feature of which is introducing English at primary school and even pre-school levels. It can be summarized that the university classes conducted in Iran, reflected many principles and characteristics of the Grammar-Translation-Method (G.T.M.) or in some cases a combination of G.T.M. and the Audio-Lingual Method. The instructional material is limited to the textbook and the use of this material is scheduled by the teacher. The teacher instructs the whole class, and determines the content of learning. The students have very limited opportunity to talk about their learning processes and experiences. So, they are highly passive and dependent on the teacher. This leads to minimum interaction and makes students recipients of the teachers knowledge. Accordingly, little room is left for the use of communicative functions of the L2 especially important in classrooms where students learn the L2 as a foreign language and have very restricted contact with the target language outside of classroom (Duff and Polio, 1990; Polio and Duff, 1994). So, this situation calls for a shift in classroom culture from a teacher-directed process to a more interaction-based pedagogy suitable for students to find the possibility of developing learning strategies. Looking through a socio-cultural lens, some of the difficulties EFL learners face can be traced to their learning context. Vygotskys sociocultural theory (1978) sets the scene for a kind of learning in which the social process, interactions and the use of signs and tools as vehicles for constructing knowledge are emphasized. One of the outstanding features of Sociocultural theory is considering learning as social where meaning is derived from language use within the social context. The assumption of this paper is that reconfiguring the culture of EFL classroom based on sociocultural theory of learning will tackle part of EFL learners communication problems. In order to contextualize Vygotskian-based description of classroom culture, the paper first provides some crucial information concerning sociocultural theory and some of the key components of the theory. This information facilitates the understanding of the application of the sociocultural theory to the EFL classrooms which is the basic concern of this paper. In the following section the fundamentals of the theory are described . Yet, first the background of Lev Vygotsky, the founder of sociocultural theory, is portrayed to enhance our understanding of his theory and particularly his description of mediation, context, and scaffolding. Lev Vygotsky and His Sociocultural Theory (SCT) Lev Semenovitch Vygotsky was born in 1986 of Jewish parents in Orsha, a city in the western territory of the Russian Empire. He attended Moscow State University, and 144

graduated with a degree in law in 1917. While attending Moscow university, he studied a range of topics including linguistics, psychology sociology, and philosophy. His formal work in psychology was started when he attended the Institute of Psychology in Moscow where he began to collaborate with Alexei Leontiev and Alexander Luria. Vygotskys theory attracted the attention of many scholars, in spite of being criticized for having non-Marxist feature during the Stalin period. After introducing sociocultural theory, his premature death at age 38 grabbed the opportunity from Vygotskys work to attain sufficient eminence. However, his theory continues to be widely-accepted and paramount due to the distinctive work of his followers including Wertsch (1981, 1985); Daniels, Cole, and Wertsch, (2007) and Daniels (2008). William (1999) states that Vygotskys theory of mind came out of his unsatisfactory standpoint on behaviorism and psychological subjectivism. Contrary to cognitivist theories who believe in mediation between stimulus and the response, Vygotskys theory investigates the context of the behavior or the social situation where the action occurs. The basic assumption in Vygotskys theory is the idea that psychological structures do not exist in individuals mind, rather they are formed as the result of interaction with the social context. In other words, the emergence of mental functions depends on social interaction. Sociocultural theory or cultural-historical psychology is a theory of the development of higher mental practices which regards social interaction as the core of communication and learning process, and its root is derived from the sociological and economic writings of Marx and Engels in eighteenth-and nineteenth century. The theory emerges from the work of the Russian psychologist L.S. Vygotsky (1978), Leontiev (1981) and Wertsch (1985). Schmit and Celce-Marcia (2001:11) introduce socio-cultural theory as a view of cognition which emphasizes: individual-social integration by focusing on the necessary and dialectic relationship between the socio-cultural endowment (the inter-personal interface between a person and his or her environment) and the biological endowment ( the intra- personal mechanisms and processes belonging to that person), out of which emerges the individual. Socio-cultural theory suggests that in order to understand the human mind, one must look at these two endowments in an integrated manner. They continue that the only way to develop ones language and cognition is through social interaction with others . The basic theme of Vygotskian sociocultural perspective as Guoxing (2004) notes is that knowledge is social in nature and is formed as a result of collaboration, interaction and communication among learners in social community. According to Mitchell and Myles (2004) sociocultural theory views learners as active constructs of their own learning environment. Confirming Mitchell and Myles viewpoint, Guoxing (2004), states that learners in this sense are responsible for their own learning environments. Accordingly, teachers are a kind of active constructors of their own teaching environment. Whatever teachers think of learners language learning will definitely affect their constructions of their teaching environment, though learners are the main focus of the teaching activities. Teachers will reconstruct their perceptions of L2 through practice and progress in language learning and teaching. Clearly, the main focus of the sociocultural perspective is not on individual but on the surrounding of the individual. Claiming that learning is a social activity, sociocultural experts (Cole & Engestrom, 1993; Lantolf,2000) made a shift in their attention from individual cognition into mental activity of members of the same social community. 145

Wertsch (1991) also emphasizes that sociocultural point of view should be distinguished from the other perspectives (e.g. constructivism) based on the context or surrounding of the learners. Learning is considered as the product of shared activity. In this sense, solutions to learners problems are gained through the involved participants or members behaviors in a shared context. As regards the context of shared activity, knowledge is highly valuable for the members. As Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005:232) interpret, successful learning involves shifting control within activities from the social to the individual, from the external to within self. This is evident in Vygotskys (1981:163) description of cultural development: Any function in the childs development appears twice or on two planes. First it appears on the social plane, and then on the psychological plane. First it appears between people as an interpsychological category, and then within the child as an intrapsychological category. In sum, the most significant contribution of sociocultural perspective to learning is providing a supportive environment for cognitive development. Thus, for any learner to be successful in language learning, during social interaction within classroom it is necessary to change his learning status from first dependent other-regulation to subsequent independent selfregulation. Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005) believe that self-regulation in L2 learning is indeed learners internalizing the knowledge to be learned through his involvement in other-mediated interaction. Mediation Vygotskys cultural-historical psychology, which as mentioned earlier is known as SCT in linguistics and second language acquisition, provides an insight in which cognition and culture are investigated in combination with each other through mediation. The central idea for Vygotsky and SCT according to Lantolf (2000a:80) is that higher forms of human mental activity are mediated. Mediation is one of the most significant constructs of his theory which is also central to this study. According to Vygotsky (1978), humans do not make their relationship with outer world only through direct stimulus-response reflexes; rather they have the ability to use physical tools to make indirect connections or in fact to mediate their relationship. In so doing they can regulate and control their behaviors via psychological and technical tools or artifacts. These physical tools which mediate the relationships are generated by human cultures and gradually transferred to next generations. In his theory Vygotsky underscores that mediation is a cornerstone of learning which creates a distinguished basis to form an instructional theory that facilitates the understanding of pedagogy in social context. He asserts that development cannot take place out of its social and cultural context. Based on this claim it can be said that the best way to gain a clear and deep perception of ones mental processes and development is to understand mediation. Zone of proximal Development (ZPD) and Scaffolding Vygotsky (1978: 86) defines ZPD as the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. From Vygotskys point of view the difference between potential level and actual development is that the former serves more as an indication of mental development than the latter as only a learner with an advanced level of development is able to react to the support provided by more experienced other (Vygotskian term to refer to a capable adult or peer). Based on the intent of this paper, language learner as a novice and the 146

teacher as an expert or more capable other interact with each other in social setting of EFL classroom. In order to facilitate the learners cognitive development and social construction of knowledge within their ZPD, the teacher scaffolds the students in different ways such as giving helpful suggestions in the process of doing tasks, asking leading questions, drawing tables and charts, giving feedback concerning the students and group work. Scaffolding The term scaffolding was initially coined by developmental Psychologist Jerome Bruner (1985). From his point of view, It refers to the steps taken to reduce the degrees of freedom in carrying out some task so that the children concentrate on the difficult task she is in the process of acquiring ( Bruner 1978:19 italics in original). In characterizing the nature of scaffolding, Murray and McPherson (2006:140) state that Scaffolding, then, is more than help and instruction because it involves the use of taskspecific explicit strategies that help the learners become independent by exploiting their ZPD. Their distinction can be justified, as any simple help does not essentially require a specific planning or grading, however an important aspect of scaffolding is offering controlled help based on the task difficulty by a competent partner. To conceptualize scaffolding from Vygotskian perspective in association with sociocultural theory, Stone (1993) summarized his analysis. According to Vygotsky, learning first occurs on a social or interpersonal /intermental domain before it occurs on an individual or intrapersonal/intramental. Interestingly, in the process of studentteacher interaction the only active participant is not the teacher, but within scaffolding process which is a dynamic reciprocal process the learner is a kind of active participant as well. Both teacher and learner construct a shared understanding by means of communicative exchanges in which the student as a novice learns from the teacher as a more expert other. Also, when learners are confronted with supportive and collaborative condition provided by adults they can learn more effectively. Organizing a Vygotskian-based EFL classroom Based on the discussions and studies reported so far, it can be understood that sociocultural theory enables the researchers to investigate individuals learning and how their learning is affected by the context in which interaction is germane and central to the process of learning. As mentioned earlier, the main focus of this paper is to construct a Vygotskianbased EFL classroom to reduce part of the learners communication problems. It is assumed that organizing EFL classrooms based on Vygotskys sociocultural theory takes some steps to enrich the social setting of learning in an EFL context. The significant point is that within social context of a classroom EFL learners face some tasks or structures which are impossible to accomplish without receiving social assistance from capable peers or teacher. This problematic aspect in learners development maximizes the need for providing assistance in students ZPD. Drawing on Vygotskys theory, the attempt is to organize a social context in which a more capable peer would be paired with a less capable one. In this case the former would be able to promote the latters ability and knowledge. Consequently, as indicated in figure 1, this joint problem-solving context would lead to cognitive development which in turn facilitates the possibility of strategy development in learning.

147

Figure 1: Interaction and collaboration among learners, peers and teacher in an EFL context Interestingly, in the process of studentteacher interaction the only active participant is not the teacher, but within the scaffolding process which is a dynamic reciprocal process the learner is a kind of active participant. Both teacher and learner construct a shared understanding by means of communicative exchanges in which the student as a novice learns from the teacher as a more expert other. However, it is not a logical idea to apply the same techniques of scaffolding in different contexts in the light of the dynamic nature of scaffolding. It depends to a considerable extent upon the situation such as the kind of task/activity, students responses and level of proficiency. Thus, in any EFL context, it could be assumed that the use of different mediational tools such as keeping diary by the learners in which they can transfer their learning experiences from their classroom context, establishes good opportunities in terms of interaction for classroom members. This interaction is a key to most events (discussions, role-play) inside classroom. Likewise, the nature of language tasks introduced by teacher, creates a natural context for collaboration and interaction. As through these tasks and activities students are required to exchange information and thus understand each other. In this way, mutual interaction between teacher and students and between students and their peers would be promoted. This enhanced interactive relationship is very likely to raise students interest and motivation in exploring natural features of the target language which could result in effective communication by employing a set of learning strategies. Conclusion This paper tried to introduce Vygotskian principles suitable to be considered in constructing EFL classrooms in order to reduce foreign language learners problems in learning English as a foreign language. In this respect, using Vygotskys theory promotes a learning context in which teacher acts as a facilitator in constructing meaning. Thus, there will be a reciprocal relationship between students and teacher in learning process. So, the paper suggests a number of principles to be considered and applied in the EFL classroom culture based on Vygotskian perspective as steps to reduce learners problems and to make them capable communicators: a) Language classroom should be postulated as a sociocultural setting where an active participation in the target language culture is taught, promoted, and cultivated (Johnson (2004:180). 148

b) It is better for the teacher to implement Eclectic Methodology (for example, a blend of Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT, e.g. performing different tasks by the students), Communicative Language Teaching (CLT, e.g. role-plays, language games, discussions), and Notional Functional Syllabus (e.g. being student teacher) to make the learning context more interactive, and communicative. c) For the construction of new knowledge, the interaction between peers and peers and teacher should be regarded the keystone for learning and teaching. Listening and speaking skills should develop through interaction. d) Different tools (learner-diary, log, or journal) should be available for learners as part of sociocultural instruction to mediate and assess their learning and reflect their functional learning experiences. e) Teachers scaffolding should be viewed as an important aspect of the learning process. f) Learners should be exposed to interactive instruction such as encouraging panel or group discussions, picture description, role play, etc. by the teacher within sociocultural environment. References Cole, M., and Engestrm, Y. (1993) A cultural-historical approach to distributed cognition, in G.Salomon (ed.) Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and EducationalConsiderations, New York: Cambridge University Press. Daniels, H., M. Cole and J. Wertsch. (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Vygotsky. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Duff, P.A. and C.G. Polio. (1990). How Much Foreign Language Is There in the Foreign Language Classroom? Modern Language Journal 74 (2), 154-166 Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford. Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. and Barkhuizen, G. (2005).Analysing Learner Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Eslami-Rasekh, Z. and Valizadeh, K. 2004. Classroom Activities Viewed from Different Perspectives: Learners Voice Vs. Teachers Voice. TESL EJ, 8 (3),1-13 Guoxing, Y. (2004). Perception, Practice, And Progress: Significance of scaffolding And Zone of Proximal Development for Second or Foreign Language Teachers. Asian EFL Journal. Vol.6 (4) Hortwiz, E.K. (1996). Even Teachers Got the Blues: Recognizing and Alleviating Language Teachers Feelings of Foreign Language Anxiety. Foreign Language Annals, 29 (3), 365-372. Jamalimanesh, A. (2009). A Glance at the Ailing System of Teaching Translation in Iranian University. Translation Directory.com Johnson, A. (2004). A Philosophy of Second Language Acquisition .London: Yale University press. Lantolf, P. J. (2000). Socio-Cultural Theory and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lantolf, P. J. and Thorne, L.S. (2006). Socio-Cultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Leontev, A.N. (1972/1981). The concept of activity in psychology. in Wertsch, J.V. (ed.), The Concept of Activity in Soviet Psychology, Armonk, NY: M.E.Sharpe. Li, D. (1998). Its Always More Difficult than You Plan and Imagine: Teachers Perceived Difficulties in Introducing the communicative Approach in South Korea. TESOL Quarterly, 32 (4), 677-703

149

Maleki, A. and Zangani, E. (2007). A Survey on the Relationship between English Language Proficiency and the Academic Achievement of Iranian EFL Students. Asian EFL Journal, 9 ,86-96 Mitchell, R. and Myles ,F. (2004). Second Language Learning Theories. London: Edward Arnold. Murray, D. E. and McPherson, P. (2006). Scaffolding instruction for reading the Web. Language Teaching Research 10,(2), 131156 Ohta, A.S. (2001). Second Language Acquisition Processes in the Classroom: Learning Japanese. Mahwah, N.J. : Lawrence Erlbaum. Polio, C.G. and Duff, P. A. (1994). Teachers Language Use in University Foreign Language Classroom: A Quantitative Analysis of English and Target Language Alternation. Modern Language Journal, 78 (3), 313-326. Sadeghi, A.R. (2005). ESP in Iran: A Transition from Present State. In: Kiany, G.R. and Khayyamdar, M. (eds.), Proc. of the First National ESP/EAP Conference, 2, Tehran. Schmitt, N. and Celce-Murcia M. (2001). An Overview of Applied Linguistics In Schmitt , N.(ed.).An Introduction to Applied Linguistics. P.11. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Smidt, S.( 2009). Introducing Vygotsky. New York: Routledge Talebinezhad, M.R. and Sadeghi, A.R. 2005. Non-academic L2 Users: A Neglected Research Pool in ELT in Iran. Linguistik Online, Vol. 25,4 Vaezi, Z. (2008). Language Learning Motivation Among Iranian Undergraduate Students. World Applied Sciences Journal 5 (1), 54-61 Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Vygotsky, L.S. (1981). The Genesis of Higher Mental functions in Wertsch, J.V. (ed.) The concept of Activity in Soviet Psychology. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and Language. Cambridge: MIT Press. Wertsch, J.V. (1985).Vygotsky and Social Formation of Mind. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Wertsch, J.V. (1991). Voices of Mind: A Sociocultural Approach to Mediated Action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Williams, M. 1999. Wittgenstein, mind and meaning: toward a social conception of mind. NewYork: Routledge

150

Demotivating Factors in the EFL Environment Dr. Nilfer BEKLEYEN Turkey n.bekleyen@gmail.com Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the demotivating factors that affect university students learning English as a foreign language. The participants of the study consist of freshman students majoring in different fields at a state university in Turkey. These students spend eight hours every week in the Foreign Language Center of the university to improve their English language skills. The main instrument used in the study is a questionnaire prepared by the researcher after an overview of the relevant literature. The results suggest that, since the students are not required to use English language in their future studies, this long and tedious process of learning a language make them feel tired. Their other courses related to their main fields of study also cause demotivation. Introduction Demotivation can be described as a decrease or drop in level of motivation. It is not an absence of motivation because motivation must exist before there can be a decrease. It has been discussed in different studies that demotivation is a factor that can influence the learners attitudes towards language learning (e.g. Crookes and Schmidt, 1991; Oxford, 1996; Drnyei, 2001; Kikuchi, 2009). Because of some demotivational factors, the initial motivational levels of learners gradually decrease. It is necessary to differentiate between amotivation and demotivation. Deci and Ryan (1985) defined amotivation as the absence of motivation. Demotivation, on the other hand, refers to external forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioral intention or an ongoing action (Drnyei, 2001:143). First demotivation studies date back to a few decades ago. Chambers (1993) administered a questionnaire to 191 students enrolled in four schools in Leeds, UK. Teachers also filled in a questionnaire and according to the results of the teacher questionnaire, the main characteristics of the demotivated pupil were that they - made no effort to learn; showed no interest; demonstrated poor concentration; produced little or no homework; failed to bring materials - lacked a belief in their own capabilities - demonstrated lethargy and gave negative or nil response to praise - were unwilling to cooperate On the other hand, the students gave different responses. For example, they blamed their teachers for giving long and boring lessons, not giving clear enough instructions, using inferior equipment, not giving sufficient explanations, criticizing students and using oldfashioned teaching materials. Oxford (1998) analyzed essays written by 250 American students in high schools and universities about their learning experiences over a period of five years. Four themes emerged in the analysis of students essays: - The teachers personal relationship with the students - The teachers attitude towards the course or the material - Style conflicts between teachers and students 151

- The characteristics of the classroom activities Ushioda (1998) performed another study with 20 learners of French and found the following points to be demotivating: negative aspects of the school context, such as particular teaching methods and learning tasks rather than personal factors such as falling grades or negative self-perceptions of ability. On the other hand, in a descriptive study conducted by Kikuchi (2009) the demotivation factors were listed as individual teacher behavior in classroom; the grammartranslation method used in instruction; tests and university entrance examinations; the memorization nature of vocabulary learning; and textbook/reference book-related issues. Dornyei (1998) conducted structured interviews with 50 secondary school pupils who were studying either English or German as a foreign language and identified nine demotivating factors. These are listed below in order of frequency: - teachers personalities, commitments, competence, teaching methods; - inadequate school facilities (e.g. very large classes, not the right level, or frequent change of teachers); - reduced self-confidence due to their experience of failure or success; - negative attitude toward the foreign language studied; - compulsory nature of the foreign language study; - interference of another foreign language that pupils are studying; - negative attitude toward the community of the foreign language spoken; - attitudes of group members; - coursebooks The present study aims to measure the factors that demotivate the freshmen students learning English as a foreign language. Drnyeis study (1998) is taken as the starting point. The effects of the abovementioned factors on the subjects have been examined. Another purpose of the study is to find out whether the students from different departments have different demotivational levels. Method The study was conducted at the Foreign Language Center of Dicle University, a state university located in the Southeastern Region of Turkey. The freshmen students of different departments are offered English language lessons at the center for eight hours a week. The participants of the present study were students majoring in three different subjects: Mechanical Engineering, Electronics and Medicine. There were 74 participants. 55 of them were male and 19 of them were female. Table 1 describes the distribution of participants by their subjects. Most of the participants (81,1%) graduated from state high schools whereas 18,9% were graduates of English medium Anatolian high schools or private high schools. Table 1: Distribution of participants by their subjects. Subjects F Mechanical Engineering 23 Electronics 40 Medicine 11

% 31,1 54,1 14,9

152

Instrument In this study, the instrument used to collect data was a questionnaire prepared by the researcher, which was originally written in Turkish to increase the level of understanding of the students. It was divided into three parts; the first part included questions about demographics. The second part of the questionnaire consisted of 11 items about demotivational factors. These items were prepared according to the nine demotivational factors determined by Drnyei (1998). The scale used in this part of the questionnaire was four-point Likert- type scales. Finally, there was an open-ended question asking about the other factors that demotivated the students. Before finalizing the questionnaire, the questionnaire was piloted with five students similar to the students in the target group in order to check whether they would have any problems in answering the questionnaire items. They were encouraged to ask questions about the items that were not clear. After the pilot study, the format of the questionnaire and the wordings of some items were changed to reduce comprehension difficulties. Data Collection Procedures Permission was requested from the Foreign Language Center of Dicle University to administer the questionnaire. After the institution granted permission, students were asked to complete the questionnaire, and were told that the questionnaires would not be graded. They were given 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire. Then, the collected questionnaires were numbered, and the items were coded. Statistical Packages for Social Sciences was used to analyze the data. Results In this section, the data obtained from the questionnaire is examined according to eight demotivating factors listed in Drnyeis study (2001). One of his factors was not applicable to the study because the participants of the study did not learn another foreign language. Therefore, the findings were examined under eight headings. Table 2: Students answers to Likert type questionnaire items (f/%) Items Strongl Disagre e y Disagre e 1. My motivation decreases because of the 38/51,4 22/29,7 negative attitudes of teachers. 2. My motivation decreases because of the 37/50 28/37,8 incompetence of teachers. 3. My motivation decreases because the 29/39,2 31/41,9 classrooms are too crowded. 4. My motivation decreases because the 10/13,5 24/32,4 technological equipment in classrooms is not appropriate. 5. My motivation decreases because of my 22/29,7 15/20,3 negative experiences in primary and high school education. 6. My motivation decreases because I think 55/74,3 13/17,6 learning English is useless for me. 7. My motivation decreases because I dont like 35/47,3 27/36,5 153

Agree

7/9,5 7/9,5 8/10,8 21/28,4

Strongl y Disagre e 7/9,5 2/2,7 6/8,1 19/25,7

15/20,3

22/29,7

1/1,4 6/8,1

5/6,8 6/8,1

English. 8. My motivation decreases because English lessons are compulsory. 9. My motivation decreases because my opinion about English speaking countries is not positive. 10. My motivation decreases because of the attitudes of my classmates. 11. My motivation decreases because I dont like the coursebooks.

36/48,6 45/60,8

22/29,7 20/27

7/9,5 4/5,4

9/12,2 4/5,4

23/31,1 22/30,1

25/33,8 30/41,1

13/17,6 13/17,8

9/12,2 8/11

1. Teachers: The first questions in the Likert-type questionnaire asked about the effects of teachers. As can be seen in Table 2, most of the students disagreed with the idea that teachers had negative attitudes or that they were incompetent (M=1,77; M=1,64 respectively). However, the answers given to the open-ended question reflected that some students were demotivated because of the teaching method used by the teachers. Four students mentioned the excessive teaching of grammar as a demotivating factor. 2. School facilities: A total of 81,1% of the students stated that the classrooms were not crowded. However the lack of the necessary equipment in the classroom demotivated the students and the mean score of the relevant item was the highest (M=2,66). Answers to the open-ended question revealed that some students felt demotivated because of the lessons scheduled early in the morning. Three students mentioned the effect of this factor. 3. Students past experience of failure or success: 50% of the students were demotivated because of their negative experiences in primary and high school education. The mean score of the item was 2,50. The open-ended question asked at the end of the questionnaire also revealed that the students had bad experiences in their previous language education. Eight students especially mentioned their past education as demotivating. 4. Attitude toward English: The results of the data analysis showed that students did not have negative attitudes towards English language. The lowest mean score belonged to Item 6, which asked about the students opinions about the necessity of learning English (M=1,40). The answers given to the next item showed that only 12 students reported a dislike towards English language (M=1,77) 5. Compulsory nature of English: the fact that English lessons were compulsory did not have a negative effect on the motivational level of the students. The mean score of the relevant item was 1,85. 6. Negative attitude toward English speakers: The item measuring the students opinions about English speaking community also had a low mean score (1,54). Only 8 students reflected that they had negative opinions about English speaking countries. 7. Attitudes of peers: The attitudes of the peers had a relatively high mean score compared to the other items (M=2,11). 29,8% of the students were negatively affected by the attitudes of their classmates. Some students complained that their classrooms were monolingual and they stated that they would feel more motivated if they had some classmates in their departments who spoke different languages, especially English as a native language. 8. Coursebooks: Twenty-one students stated that they felt demotivated because of the coursebooks used in the lessons (2,09). Some students also mentioned the coursebooks in their answers to the open-ended questions. These students generally felt demotivated because of the difficulty of the books. They also noted that the lessons were generally

154

based on coursebooks. Some other students reflected that teachers emphasized reading and writing more than aural/oral skills in spite of the use of integrated coursebooks. Table 3 shows the mean scores of the students from the Faculty of Medicine and the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Electronics. It was observed that the overall mean scores of the students from the Faculty of Medicine (M=25.45) were higher than the scores of the students in the two other sections, Mechanical Engineering (M=19,47) and Electronics (M=21,47). Table 3: Mean scores of students from different departments Section N M Mechanical Engineering 23 19,47 Electronics 40 21,47 Medicine 11 25,45

Sd 3,94 6,43 8,07

To find out whether the differences between the scores of the students from different departments were statistically significant, an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was calculated (Table 4). The results indicated a significant difference (F(71-2)=3.61, p<.05). Table 4: Analysis of variance for the departments Sum of squares df Section Between groups 265.842 2 Within groups 2608.441 71 Total 2874.284 73

Mean square 132.921 36.739

F 3.618

Sig. .032*

Table 4 displays the results of a post hoc Scheff test that was performed to find out the groups in which significant differences were observed. As the following table suggests, the test revealed that the mean scores between students of the Faculty of Medicine and the students of the two other sections were significantly different. Table 4: Post Hoc Scheff test for the sections Section (I) Section (J) Mechanical Engineering Electronics Medicine Electronics Mechanical Engineering Medicine Medicine Mechanical Engineering Electronics

Mean (I-J) -1,99 -5,97 1,99 -3,97 5,97 3,97

Sig. .457 .032* .457 .163 .032* .163

The reason of this difference may be seen in the comments of some students of the Faculty of Medicine, who mentioned the subjects that they majored and stated that it was difficult for them to concentrate on a foreign language with all their other homeworks and projects. Eleven students mentioned the fact that in the following years of their university education, they would not have the opportunity to use the foreign language again and that because of this; it just seemed meaningless to try to learn a foreign language. Conclusion Based on the findings of the present study, the following points may be considered: The students do not feel the need to learn English since they do not have to use English in their other courses. They should be given a reason to learn English. If possible, some of the 155

lessons in their subject matter can be conducted in English or they may be given some opportunities to talk to the native speakers of English. Visiting researchers whose native language is English may help increase the motivational levels of the students. The students find the classroom atmosphere as demotivating. More use of technological equipment could make it more interesting for the students to learn English. The coursebooks used in the lessons may also be evaluated once again. When the lessons are based on a single coursebook alone, this may also be demotivating for the students since they become boring. Some students mentioned their language education in primary school and high school as demotivating. Instead of using the same language teaching methods, teachers may try new language teaching methods and focus on different skills to motivate their students. The participants of this study did not define their teachers as demotivating. However, the other factors such as language teaching method, skills emphasized in the lesson and the use of coursebooks are directly related to the teacher. References Chambers, G. (1993). Talking the de out of demotivation. Language Learning Journal, 7, 1316. Crookes, G. & Schmidt, R.W. (1991). Motivation: reopening the research agenda. Language Learning, 41, 469512. Deci, E. L. & Richard M. R. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum Press. Drnyei, Z. (1998). Demotivation in foreign language learning. Unpublished paper presented at the TESOL 98 Congress, Seattle, WA. Drnyei, Z. (2001). Teaching and Researching Motivation. London: Pearson ESL. Kikuchi, K. (2009) Listening to our learners voices: what demotivates Japanese high school students? Language Teaching Research. 13(4) 453471. Oxford, R. (Ed.) (1996). Language learning motivation: pathways to the new century. University of Hawaii at Manoa: Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center. Oxford, R. L. (1998). The unravelling tapestry: Teacher and course characteristics associated with demotivation in the language classroom. Demotivation in foreign language learning. Paper presented at the TESOL98 Congress, Seattle, WA.

156

Teaching EFL Writing in Russia: Traditional and Current Approaches in Teaching Writing Methodology Elina Chuikova Associate Professor in Samara Branch of Moscow City Teachers Training University Russian Federation chuikova_elina@mail.ru Abstract The research focuses on one of the most deficit language skills developing in the process of foreign language teaching writing. The author defines different stages in modern EFL methodology that writing has undergone in Post-Soviet period: particularly, from being totally neglected to being equally treated along with other communicative skills. Different factors that boosted teaching EFL writing in Russia are described. Among them are National Russian Exam (EGE) and the abundance of English-speaking textbooks and teaching resources. The researcher raises the question: to what extent the foreign scholars approaches introduced intensely in home education are new and correspondent with native teaching theory? To find the answer traditional approaches in teaching writing methodology are analysed. It allows to conclude that Russian scholars in this area developed and tested the similar ideas half a century ago already. However, many traditions in teaching writing either were neglected or remained primarily in the area of teaching native language. Both, Russian and English-speaking methodology could contribute to teaching EFL writing in this country. It could be fruitful to combine thorough theoretical and practical experience of native and foreign scholars to develop writing skills efficiently taking into consideration cultural peculiarities of the target language. Keywords: writing, teaching, EFL writing, native language Introduction Teaching methodology overlaps with other numerous fields of knowledge that may contribute to it. This well-established fact concerns theory of teaching in general and some of its aspects in particular. The research, which objectives are EFL writing, covers also related topics in physiology of writing, psychology of language skills development, methods of teaching writing both in the native and foreign languages. In Russian science one can distinguish a gap between fundamental theoretical works in writers culture development and their implementation in teaching writing practice. There is also an obvious difference in concepts of teaching writing in a native and a foreign language that may not coincide. The mentioned above is the strangest of existing phenomenon in teaching methodology as both teaching practices (teaching writing for a native speaker and for a foreigner) have the object in common, i.e. writing process. The objectives of the research, consequently, will be: - to define the status of teaching EFL writing in Russian methodology; - to describe current changes in requirements for EFL writing skills development and explain their causes; - to list the peculiarities of teaching EFL writing in Russia; - to analyse theoretical and practical ideas in teaching writing in a native language; - and to suggest which of the native valuable experiences should be implemented in the process of EFL writing teaching successfully.

157

Literature Review The research is based on the authors observation as well as on the previous research. A thorough analysis of the Russian and English-speaking specialists works on theory of teaching writing has been done and resulted in publishing two books Socio-cultural Peculiarities of writing (based on the English language material) (, , 2006) and Academic Writing: English Phenomenon in Russian Interpretation (, , 2010). Initially the Russian scholars as well as the English-speaking ones highlight the following essential questions in the writing theory: 1. The process of generating a written text and the stages of the process The chart below shows a strong correlation between writing-a-text stages distinguished in both cultures. Table 1: Stages of writing a text The English-speaking sources - brainstorming - organizing/ structuring a text - writing - polishing/ editing - and proofreading (Boardman, 2002, Creame and Lea, 2005, Leki, 2005, Rose, 2007, Zemach et al., 2008 )

The Russian sources generating ideas (), structuring the content ( ), - writing the ideas ( ), - following the style conventions (- ) - editing (). ( 1956; 1958; 1969 etc.). -

2. Discourse types of written texts Narration, description and argumentation are the forms of speech that we naturally use to shape our ideas. M.M. Bahtin claimed that these forms are initially given to us, and we acquire them with the mother tongue (.. , 1996). While assisting students in writing, we traditionally come across three forms of a written speech, no matter what language we teach (Boardman , 2002, Brookes and Grundy, 1998, , , 2010, , 1973). 3. Genres of written texts Genres of authentic written texts are numerous and the list of texts to be taught varies from course to course and within different educational institutions. However, the common classification includes study writing, social writing, institutional writing, personal writing, public writing and creative writing in the English speaking sources (Hedge, 2005) and texts of belles-lettres, publicistic, science and business styles in the Russian sources (, 2004). 4. Patterns of structuring texts in different language cultures It is established that genre conventions vary and are determined by the language culture. Some scholars believe that native language patterns of thinking and writing cannot be simply imitated , and writers cultural schemata may be a source of difficulty (Brown, 2007, Clyne, 1996, Connor, 2007, Kaplan, 1998, , 2005, , 2004, 158

. 2010). A balanced position would uphold the importance of your carefully attending to the rhetorical first language interference that may be at play in your students (Brown, 2007). 5. Methods of teaching EFL writing. The last question is closely analysed in this article through cross-cultural comparison of methods and strategies described in the Russian and English writing textbooks. Methodology Teaching practice and work as a facilitator for 2 years at Teaching EFL Writing Courses for Russian Teachers (www.jorabek.com/distance) provided the author with enough experience to claim that methods of teaching writing vary in the English-speaking and Russian traditions, which is mostly determined by social and historic factors taken place in Russia for the recent 20 years. Participating at Teaching EFL Writing Courses in March-April 2010 and in December 2010-April 2011, the author had an opportunity to closely monitor the status of teaching writing in different regions of Russia. Two groups (30 participants each) included foreign language teachers from all over the country. As their final assignment they wrote an essay to share their vision for teaching practice in Russia, problems they face, and to provide a fair analysis of the possible causes. 90% of the teachers assume that writing was primarily the means in EFL writing methodology in writing. Before Perestroika they did not teach writing as they see it now. In Russian schools teaching writing played a second role in comparison with speaking and reading, and most teachers followed the opinion of the well-known Russian methodologist S.P. Shatilov who wrote that writing and teaching writing is mostly a means and partly an end of teaching process (, 1986). It means that teaching writing mostly aimed at grammar, vocabulary and functional language practicing as well as at checking comprehension and not at developing writing skills as an end. Only in 1998 when teachers in Russia began to use first authentic text-books they got acquainted with the western models and standards of writing. Since then they have started teaching students authentic types of writing and their rules, for example, film and book reviews, recipes, descriptive stories and, of course, compositions, friendly and official letters. The year 2005 was significant for Russian schools as the Russian National Examination (EGE) experiment started. The role of English writing has increased tremendously as it is part of EGE which is based on Common European Framework. Now students have to follow the outline of each written work strictly and keep in mind the scoring rubric which the rater will use. At the same time, today students are eager to master their writing skills because they want to get the highest points in EGE as well as in different English Olympiads and competitions in which the written assignments are of great importance. Moreover, recently Russian government has set new goals for school education which should show the best correlation with the European and world standards including standards in writing. Nowadays (2009-2010) schools have received the standards of new generation from Ministry of Education which teachers must put into life and which certify the number of written works which students should be able to produce at the end of each school year. At the same time, the majority of Russian language teachers point out that Government does not provide everything for teachers to be skillful and qualified experts in writing. Still 159

little attention is paid to teaching EFL writing. There are few special L2 courses and seminars or conferences in which writing theory is popularised. Findings and Discussion The survey focuses on methods of teaching EFL writing, on their cross-cultural analysis, to be precise. There may be distinguished three basic sources of knowledge for a language teacher to use to master their teaching writing skills. They are: - Native scholars experience in teaching EFL writing; - English-speaking scholars experience in teaching EFL writing; - Native teachers experience of teaching writing in Russian. It seems of crucial importance to compare how much from the foreign and native experience was taken to teach EFL writing in Russia. If we compare and contrast the ideas implemented in two methodology schools, i.e. teaching EFL writing through the Englishspeaking scholars perspective, and teaching writing in a native language in Russia, we may definitely show who contributes to teaching EFL writing in Russia and what they contribute. The table below illustrates the significant differences and similarities in teaching writing strategies. Table 2: Cross-cultural comparison of teaching writing methods and strategies. Teaching Teaching EFL Teaching writing in a Teaching EFL strategies writing through the native language in writing in Russia English-speaking Russia scholars perspective Writing is 1. Writing is 1. Writing is perceived 1. perceived as the as the means and the mostly perceived means and the end. end. as the means. Aims of teaching writing Criteria to compare 2. Different approaches are adopted: - focus on structures - focus on text functions; - focus on creativity; - focus on process; - focus on content; - focus on genre. (Hyland, 2009). 2.Various approaches are adopted: - focus on the formal conventions of the genre (style, structure, language clichs) - focus on text functions (narration, description, argumentation), - focus on creativity, - focus on content. (-, 2008, ,1973, 1990, , 2001, , , 2009). 2. Focus on the genre and structures prevails.

Approaches to teaching writing

160

Stages in the process of writing

Teaching writing is generally framed as prewriting-draftingrevising process.

Editing is perceived as an essential part of the process.

Types of classroom writing performance

Controlled writing is a step to responsive and extensive writing. Topic-based writing Theme-based is appreciated. prevails.

Teaching writing is Teaching writing generally framed as is generally prewriting-draftingframed as revising process. prewriting-writing process. Further the writer is no longer responsible for the result. Proofreading is Proofreading required: however, its strategies are not strategies are not taught. taught. Controlled writing is a Controlled and step to responsive and guided forms of extensive writing. writing prevail. writing As in a native writing tradition theme-based writing is dominant for a long time. As a result there are certain difficulties in formulating and disclosing the main idea. is Writing is generally Writing out-of-class activity; generally out-ofactivity. the means to assess class ones knowledge of Writing is often the topic. Writing is perceived as the often perceived as the final assignment. Till recently the final assignment. preliminary stages of writing were often for home assignment as well. Peer assessment is a Assessment by a part of the teacher only collaborative culture; prevails, which though it is not decreases perceived as a teaching motivation. strategy (it takes place out of class generally).

Writing may take a significant proportion of classroom time.

Types of assessment

Selfand peerassessment are widely employed.

161

Various ways of assessment are used: analytic and holistic approaches as well as grading with checklists. The scoring system is more precise than in Russia.

The idea of analytic assessment has been introduced with EGE format. Traditional scoring system involved grading the text with 2 marks (the first is for content; the second is for the rest). No definite criteria were elaborated. The score was rather an overall impression (like in a holistic approach). Consequently, the idea of a checklist was impossible. Extensive written assignments may or may not be accompanied by learning some rhetoric elements (e.g. 3-part structure of argumentation or the structure of a plot in a typical story).

The process of writing goes along with learning rhetorical conventions. Teaching writing conventions

The idea of analytic assessment has been introduced with EGE format. Traditional scoring system involved grading the text with 2 marks (the first is for content; the second is for the rest). No definite criteria were elaborated. The score was rather an overall impression (like in a holistic approach). Rhetorical conventions either are taught as in the authentic writing books (explicitly) or not taught (implicitly imitating the patterns of a native way of writing). Native-languagerelated rhetorical traditions do not contribute to understanding conventions of a written text in some other language and culture.

Rhetorical conventions taught since early stages education.

Rhetoric has recently are been introduced into the the educational process of (last 10-12 years).

162

Style conventions Style conventions are are taught and paid acquired implicitly. much attention to. Imitation of models is mostly the way to improve ones style.

Style conventions are traditionally not taken into consideration seriously till students start learning language for academic purposes. Style is taught in the course of EAP.

The cross-cultural comparison of teaching writing methods and strategies illustrates well peculiarities of teaching EFL writing situation in Russia. On the one hand, it has adopted (or imitated) teaching writing traditions in a native language in terms of such criteria as types of classroom writing performance, types of assessment, teaching rhetorical and style conventions. On the other hand it remains unique in terms of the aims of teaching writing, the approaches taken to teach writing, and the stages that the writer comes through in the process of writing. Conclusion The survey focuses on the teaching writing methods common for different teaching traditions. It highlights the methods described by Russian and English-speaking scholars and implemented in writing textbooks. Through their comparison the author comes to conclusion that all the methods are thoroughly developed in both traditions. Thus, learning native scholars experience may contribute greatly to professional competency of a language teacher in general and to teaching writing knowledge in particular. In Russia some improvements in teaching EFL writing methodology could have been made if we followed the teaching traditions of native scholars (teaching writing in Russian), adapting various approaches and prewriting-drafting-revising strategy of teaching writing to full extent. We could also accept some other ideas, for instance, those of the English-speaking scholars who suggest teaching with taking cultural peculiarities in mind. The way of language thinking influences all aspects of writing, i.e. text structure, its style, genre conventions. It also characterizes the process of assessment, scoring and giving a feedback. We may implement some of these ideas along with following traditional strategies of teaching writing. References Brown, H. Douglas (2007). Teaching by Principles, An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. 3rd ed. Boardman, Cynthia A. (2002). Writing to Communicate: Paragraphs and Essays.- 2nd ed. Pearson Education, Inc. PP. 194. Brookes, A. and Grundy, P. (1991). Writing for Study Purposes. Cambridge University Press. PP. 162 Clyne Michael. (1996) Written Discourse Across Cultures. Inter-cultural communication at work: Cultural values in Discourse. Cambridge University Press. 160-164. Connor, Ulla. (2007). Contrastive Rhetoric: Reaching to Intercultural Rhetoric. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 3: 291-304. Creame, P. and M.R. Lea (2005) Writing at University. UK: Open University Press. PP. 184. 163

Hedge, T. (2005). Writing. Oxford University Press. PP. 168. Hyland, Ken (2009). Second Language Writing. Cambridge UP. Jordan, R. R. (Ed.) (1999) Academic Writing Course. Pearson Education Ltd. PP. 146. Kaplan, R. B. (1998). Culture and the Written Language. Culture Bound. Bridging the Cultural Gap in Language Teaching. Edited by Joice Merrill Valdes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PP. 8- 19 Leki, I. (2005) Academic Writing. Exploring Processes and Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PP. 433. Rose, Jean. (2007) The Mature Students Guide to Writing. Palgrave Macmillan. PP. 304. Smalzer, W. R. (1998). Write to be Read. Reading, Reflection and Writing. Cambridge University Press. PP. 274. Zemach, Dorothy E., Lynn Stafford-Yilmaz (2008) Writers at Work: The Essay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PP. 167 .., .. ( ): . : - , 2006. .. // .. . . .: , 1996. .5: 1940-1960 . .159-206. .. // , .: , 1984. .2. - .. . 5-8 . : . 2008. .. . .: , 2005. .. . .: 1958. .. . .: , 1997. .., .. // : / . .. . : , 2010. . 179-212. .. . ., 1969. .. // . 2004. 2 (14). . 26-29. .. // , 233, 2492-2514, 2004. http://zhurnal.ape.relarn.ru/articles/2004/233.pdf : (8-9 .): / .. , .. , .. . .: , 1990. .. : : .. -. 3- . .: : , 2001. .. . English Teaching Methodology: . . .; , 2005. .., .. - 9 11 : - . /: , 2009. 4-8 . . .. . . 2-, . . .: , 1973. .., .. . Academic Writing: English Phenomenon in Russian Interpretation. : , 2010.

164

 .. : /... - .: , 1986.

165

ESP Education in Tunisia: the Way for a Reform Abdelfatteh Harrabi PhD student, Tunisia fethi_1@yahoo.fr Abstract The paper highlights the current situation of ESP education in Tunisia. It sheds light on the specific context of medical institutions. Examples of these include the faculty of medicine of Sousse and the faculty of medicine of Monastir. The study sheds further light on medical students perceptions of ESP education in their institutions. The practical part of the paper was made possible by investigating learners attitudes towards the courses adaptability to their professional context as well as the importance of the subject compared with secondary school English language education. Our study constitutes an attempt to respond to the needs previously stated by students in learning languages in general and English in particular. It seeks to achieve the needed progress in teaching and learning medical English within the specific context of Tunisian higher education. Keywords: English for specific purposes, medical English, learners attitudes. Introduction For Tunisia, English is a third language. Tunisia, a former French colony (18811956), is also part of the Arab world. To give a comprehensive view of the linguistic situation in Tunisia, one should mention the place of French. In addition to Arabic, the national language, French has a special status. It is the most widely spoken language among middle-aged educated Tunisians, and therefore the language of privilege (Jrad, 2004). French was inherited from the countrys colonial past, and used as the language of education and administration in the early decades after independence (Daoud, 2000; Daoud, 2001; Daoud, 2007). The status of French in postcolonial Tunisia has mostly depended on the political agenda of the ruling elite (Labassi, 2009). Recently, attitudes towards the language of the former colonizer have changed, probably because of the loss of prestige and influence of French in the worlds of science, technology and business. The advent of English in Tunisia is relatively recent and it has made the linguistic situation more complicated (Battenburgh, 1996; Champagne, 2007; Daoud, 2007; Walters, 1996). English was introduced in Tunisian secondary schools in the early 1960s with the modest aid of some American institutions such as US Aid, the Ford Foundation, and the British Council (Hemissi, 1985). Most teachers of English were British Volunteers for Overseas, Peace Corps Volunteers and Fulbright lecturers. In the 1980s, only 54% of higher education institutions in Tunisia offered English courses (Hemissi, 1985). By the 1990s, more than fifty science, business and engineering departments taught English, but the major boost came with the 1998 Reform which generalized the teaching of English at the undergraduate level in all higher education institutions. The British Council and the American Cultural Centre were involved in ESP consultancy, seminars and projects in the early 1980s. They also provided funds for visiting experts, summer schools, and sustained programs such as the Key English Language Teaching (KELT) project. The Tunisian ESP Centre was founded by the British Council under the Key English Language Teaching (KELT) project in the 1980s. The Centre organized some summer schools in the UK and Tunisia. It provided funds for training days and invited ESP experts to give lectures. A Tunisian Director, the holder of a PhD in Applied Linguistics from an American University, took over after the departure of the British ESP expert. The Centre is 166

now located in a building next to the Institut Suprieur des Langues de Tunis. The name of the Centre changed after having been taken over by the Tunisians. It became The Department for the Promotion of the Teaching of Specialised English (Dpartement pour le Dveloppement de lEnseignement de lAnglais de Spcialit). The creation of the department came after the political decision to generalize the teaching of English at the undergraduate level in Tunisian universities in the late 1990s. The Tunisian ESP Centre published a newsletter (Tunisia ESP Newsletter) which developed over time and had the potential to become a journal for the entire Maghreb (the term generally applies to Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco). At the Third ESP Maghreb Conference, held in Tunis in 1997, there were talks about the foundation of a refereed journal that could be twinned with journals in the West. The idea was encouraged by top ESP figures at the international level, and consequently an interview with John Swales was published in Tunisia ESP Newsletter (1995, 12, 611). However, the last volume of the first and last Tunisian ESP Newsletter in the field was published in 1999. It was discontinued when the editor left the country and because local contributors preferred to publish articles in journals considered in academic promotion. Methodology Study design We have used a cross sectional study to describe learners attitudes towards English for Specific Purposes in the Tunisian higher education during the academic year 2008/2009. Population The studied population was composed of students of medicine of the Faculties of medicine of Monastir and Sousse. All the students of these institutions were included in the study and a class of students was picked out randomly (all the classes of each institution were numbered, a simple random picking out was done and a class was selected and included in the study). Data collection The data were collected using a self administered and anonymous questionnaire. Questionnaire The questionnaire adopted in the present study depends on the particular nature of the set of themes. I was initially based on the personal criteria of age, sex as well as the sociodemographic characteristics to draw a distinction between learners. The specialty before undertaking the higher education is also used as a parameter in the questionnaire in order to determine the importance of English language. We have also collected information about students point of view towards the importance of English for Specific Purposes, ESP courses adaptability to the professional context as well as a comparison between ESP and English in secondary schools. Results General Characteristics The studied population included 33 third year students at the faculty of medicine of Sousse and 35 first year students at the faculty of medicine of Monastir. These students were aged between 20 and 25 years. The average age of this population was 21 years. The percentage of males slightly exceeded that of females in the studied population. In fact, 44,6% of this population were males whereas 55,4% were females. These students obtained their bachelors degree in different sections. The students who had the bachelors degree in the 167

specialty of mathematics represented 52,2% of the population, while the students who had a bachelors degree in the specialty of science represented 31,5% of it. Importance of English for Specific Purposes The study showed that an overwhelming majority of students appreciate the English language. In fact, 76% of the students of the faculty of medicine of Sousse and 94 % of the students of the faculty of medicine of Monastir state their appreciation of the English language. As far as students attitudes towards ESP teaching are concerned, the answers vary from one institution to the other. In fact, 66% of the students of the faculty of medicine of Sousse are dissatisfied with ESP teaching whereas 76% of the students of the faculty of medicine of Monastir are satisfied with the teaching of this subject. ESP courses adaptability to the professional context About the question of the courses adaptability to the professional context, the study shows that 59 % of the students of the faculty of medicine of Sousse and 73% of the students of the faculty of medicine of Monastir consider the English courses as well adapted to their professional career. Comparison between ESP and English in secondary schools Compared with English in secondary school education, ESP teaching isnt more interesting for most of medical students. Only 10% of the students of the faculty of medicine of Sousse and 31% of the students of the faculty of medicine of Monastir consider English courses at university more interesting than English in secondary school education. Recommendations The above answers highlight the lack of importance of ESP courses compared with English in secondary schools. Based on our experience of ESP teacher for several years, we suggest some recommendations in order to improve the situation of ESP teaching and learning. Needs analysis ESP is driven by the specific learning needs of the language learner. The first step for ESP curriculum reform is research to identify the specific learning needs of students, for these will inform the decisions the English teacher makes about the ESP program. Before starting a needs analysis, however, the English teacher should first answer the following crucial question: Will students use English at university or in their jobs after graduation? If the answer is no, then ESP is not a reasonable option for the universitys English language program. The university will have to justify its existence and improve the program via other means. If the answer is yes, however, then ESP is probably the most intelligent option for the universitys curriculum reform. ESP needs analysis lays a solid foundation for a stable ESP program. In an ESP analysis, answers to the following questions should be sought. Establishing learning targets The English teacher should begin with some basic questions to survey what he thinks will be needed. Will students use English at their university or in their jobs after graduation? In what situations? For what purposes? What language skills will be required? (reading, writing, listening, speaking) What are the significant characteristics of the language in these situations? (lexicon, grammar, spoken scripts, written texts, other characteristics). 168

What extralinguistic knowledge of academia, specific disciplines, specific vocations, or specific professions is required for successful English usage in these areas? Answers to these fundamental questions will begin to specify the target skills and language required to function successfully in target English language situations. Clear objectives make program design much easier. It should be noted, however, that identifying, understanding, and describing the spoken and written discourse considered appropriate by specific academic, professional, and vocational discourse communities is not an easy, onetime task. Many scholars in theoretical and applied linguistics devote the bulk of their careers to this work. Initially, careful local inquiry supplemented with input from a balance of practical and scholarly ESP literature is enough to begin an ESP program, but the content and instruction must be continually refined according to input from on-going local research and new findings announced in the professional literature. Establishing entry levels Identifying the language targets toward which students must aim may comprise the largest percent of needs analysis, but it does not comprise it all. We must also discover where our students currently stand and how much distance lies between them and the target before we can begin to determine where instruction is necessary. Many good publications exist on language testing, so the issue need not be discussed here in detail; however, it should be noted that the goal of testing for ESP instruction is to determine what portions of the target language students dont know. TOEFL, TOEIC, and other popular tests can be useful for testing how much general English students know, but they cant provide adequate data on student competence in the spoken scripts and written texts characteristic of a specific discipline or vocation, such as medicine. The vocabulary and grammatical/rhetorical structures that surface most frequently in many work situations lie beyond the narrow range of English tested in popular standardized tests. Program Design Program design is guided by three parameters: 1) target learning goals, 2) entry-level language competence, and 3) available resources for education. These three elements shape the design of ESP and make it unique in every university. Though curriculum designs and their development will inevitably vary from context to context, I believe the following will work well at most Japanese universities. Content selection In Tunisia, most ESP teachers have been using commercial textbooks, designed, in most cases, to answer the needs of nonnative students enrolled at universities in the US or the UK. In-house materials are very rare, and most ESP teachers admit that they are not willing to engage in the time-consuming task of designing their own materials (Sfayhi, 2006). The following steps will aid the English teacher in content selection. 1. Identify the following in the target language: essential vocabulary essential grammar essential spoken scripts essential extralinguistic features 2. Determine which elements students dont know. 3. Consider resources: time available for instruction 169

 faculty size and qualifications facilities and equipment budget other relevant matters 4. Prioritize content material by degree of necessity. 5. Determine how much of the content material can be reasonably taught given student entry-levels, the quantity of teaching material, available time, and other available resources. Content delivery After the selection of instructional content and sequence, the English teacher should decide how he will deliver it. The nature of the content, the staff and facilities available, and the nature of students will guide his decisions. Will he create a self-study program where students can learn some parts of the material at their own pace via CD-ROMs? Will he balance lectures with groupwork or class discussion? Will he put his course syllabi on Web pages with links to lecture notes and interactive exercises? No matter what he decides, it is advisable to keep students specific learning goals in mind so that modes of delivery will complement the material. For example high-tech, individualized computerassisted instruction might be best suited for ESP students preparing for the computer field, whereas formal lectures, discussion, and debate may be better suited for ESP programs aimed at training future lawyers. Again, specific learning needs will uniquely shape every ESP program. Materials development One of the most time-consuming activities for many ESP programs is the preparation of appropriate teaching materials. Few materials sold in bookstores fit the specific needs identified in a needs analysis. ESP textbooks, for example, must appeal to consumers in a wide variety of contexts to turn a profit. Consequently, the best course of action is to find as much prepared material as possible that genuinely meets students needs, and then supplement it with material the English teacher designs himself. In principle, if efforts at one or more universities can be coordinated, where learners share similar goals, the process can take less time. Unfortunately, in actual practice in Tunisian universities this is rare. Implementation, evaluation, and refinement The final step for creating a good ESP program includes implementation, evaluation, and refinement. Here, plans are implemented, student progress measured, educational effectiveness evaluated, and the program improved when better ideas surface. Viewing ESP programs as organic entities in states of eternal growth is best, since they are designed to meet the changing needs of students and the continual demands of new discoveries and new technologies. Conclusion ESP is growing in popularity and university educators in Tunisia are expressing great interest in this new phenomenon since it seems to hold promise for more effective and genuinely useful English language instruction for Tunisian students who increasingly need English for specific purposes in academic, vocational, or professional contexts. The study shows that, although students of medicine are aware of the importance of ESP in their academic careers, they dont find a substantial difference when compared to English in 170

secondary schools. The simple plan outlined above offers one possible option for a program reform and promoting ESP education in the Tunisian higher education. References Battenburgh, J. (1996). English in the Maghreb. English Today, 48, 312. Champagne, J. (2007). Job seekers and enterprise incubators: Educational reform in Tunisia. Changing English, 14, 201215. Daoud, M. (2000). LSP in North Africa: Status, problems and challenges. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 20, 7796. Daoud, M. (2001). The language situation in Tunisia. Current Issues in Language Planning, 2, 152. Daoud, M. (2007). The language situation in Tunisia. In R. Kaplan & R. Baldauf (Eds.), Language planning and policy in Africa (pp. 256277). New York: Multilingual Matters. Hemissi, H. (1985). Some aspects of ESP in Tunisian higher education. Unpublished DRA Thesis. Tunis: Faculty of Letters. Jrad, N. (2004). La politique linguistique dans la Tunisie postcoloniale. In Ouvrage Collectif (Ed.), Trames de Langues (pp. 525544). Paris: Maison Neuve. Labassi, T. (2009). Current linguistic pressures in FrancoArabo-Anglicized Tunisia. Cahiers de Tunisie, 200, 1121. Sfayhi, R. (2006). Evaluation of post-graduate in-house reading materials at the Faculty of Sciences and the High School of Commerce in Tunis. Unpublished DESS Dissertation. Tunis: University of Manuba. Walters, K. (1996). New year happy: Some sociolinguistic observations on the way to the anglicization of Tunisia. In Proceedings of the TSAS Conference on English in North Africa. Tunis: TSAS Innovation Series.

171

Polysemy in Adults Second Language Acquisition and Learning: The Cases of apo- phrase and Morphology me in Modern Greek Dr. Irini Kassotaki Language Teacher, University of Crete & Institute of Continuing Adult Education, Greece ikassotaki@yahoo.gr Abstract Since Modern Greek apo -phrase reflects different meanings (time, location, Agent etc.) and in combination with verbal morphology-mes polysemy (inherent reflexivity/reciprocity, passivization etc), it seems to be a problematic area for adult L2 learners. In this paper we present the results of two offline experiments which tested the comprehension and the production of sentences in Modern Greek. The sentences consisted of: NP+NP (subjects), morphology-me (passive or reciprocal meaning), apo-phrase (temporal use or Agent- phrase). They were one comprehension and one production experiment. In both experiments 21 adult L2 learners of Modern Greek (advanced level) took part. The results of comprehension experiment showed that the adult L2 learners made a high percentage of expected interpretations and they didnt manage to interpret correctly sentences with reciprocal verb and temporal apo-phrase in a low percentage. From the other hand, in production experiment, the unexpected interpretations were in higher percentage. Adult L2 learners seem to have difficulties to produce sentences with more than one NP expressing theta-roles (Agent) and it seems to prefer one-place apo, confusing the meaning for Time and Agent. Based on these results in combination with: a) whether the frequency of a grammatical items use may influence the language performance or not and b) whether the learners over-generalize the prototypical meaning using the mechanism of analogy or not, we present a teaching proposal for Modern Greek as foreign language. Keywords: comprehension, production, polysemy, morphology, apo- phrase, Agent, temporal meaning, written speech Introduction There are two morphological endings for Modern Greek (MG) verbs: a) active21 and b) mediopassive22 or morphology -me23. Both represent different meanings and associate with

21

Active morphology- Present Tense Person 1 singular 2nd singular 3rd singular
st

Ending -o -is -i

Person 1 plural 2nd plural 3rd plural

st

Ending -ume -ete -un

22

Mediopassive morphology (morphology me)- Present Tense Person 1st singular 2nd singular 3rd singular Ending -me -se -te Person 1st plural 2nd plural 3rd plural Ending -maste -ste -nde

172

different connections between theta-roles and grammatical relations of a sentence. The active form could have an alternative type in mediopassive form (morphology me), which has various meanings, like reciprocity, reflexivity or passivization among other meanings, as the theoretical research has discussed24. On the other hand, the Prepositional Phrase (PP) expressed with apo could have several meanings25, for example: 1) Agent Phrase: I Maria katigorite apo ton Kosta The Marianom accuse- morphology-me, 3rd sing. apo the Kosta acc Maria is accused by Kostas 2) Temporal: Gnorizomaste apo pedhia Know-morphology-me, 1st pl. apo children We know each other since children hood 3) Locative: Ime apo tin Elladha I am, 1st sing. apo the Greece I am from Greece In this paper we investigate whether or not the polysemy of verbal morphology in combination with the PPs polysemy may be a problematic area for adult L2 sentence production and acquisition. Previous research In previous comprehension off-line experiments (Kassotaki, 2005) it is observed that the L2 adult learners are confused with the meaning of Prepositional Phrase (PP) apo (byphrase, temporal meaning, locative meaning etc) in combination with verbal ending-mes polysemy, in extended sentences26. In more details, the L2 learners were influenced by the presence of PP as indicator of Agents theta-role. The learners used this strategy even in sentences in which the preposition apo in PP had a different meaning (i.e. temporal). In
23

In this paper we call it as morphology-me, because of the suffix me, which indicates the 1st person in

singular.
24

For further exploration see Theophanopoulou-Kontou 1981, 1999, Triantafyllidis 1941/2000, Mackridge 1985/1987, Tsimpli 1989, 2006, Holton, Mackridge & Philippaki-Warburton 1997/1998, Embick 1998, Alexiadou & Anagnostopoulou 1999, 2004, among others
25

For detailed presentation of preposition apo and its uses in MG, see Philippaki-Warburton 1997

26

In that experiment, the sentences consisted of an extended structure, for example:

main clause+main clause main clause+subordinate clause clause:(NP)+verb+PP +PP

173

sentences like (4), the L2 learners interpreted the verb as passive and not as reciprocal, because temporal PP was mistaken for an Agent Phrase. 4) [] agapiomaste apo pedhia me ti Maria [] love-morphology-me, 1st pl. apo-children with the Maria We love each other with Maria since we were children This may mean that L2 learners use the preposition apo (=by, since, from etc) as a clue for comprehension of passive construction and they consider it to be an Agent marker, like in comprehension of L1 children (Stromswold, Pinker & Kaplan 1985, Sudhalter & Braine 1985). Methodology 1 st experiment: written speech production Based on the fact that: a) the presence of two Noun Phrases (NPs) as Agents and plural verbal form are common features for reciprocal constructions (Theophonopoulou-Kontou 1981, Joseph & Philippaki-Warburton 1987, Holton, Mackridge, Philippaki-Warburton 1999, Babiniotis-Kontos 1967, Clairis-Babiniotis 1999, Heim, Lasnik & May 1991 among others) b) morphology-me is a common ending for some groups of inherent reciprocals, inherent reflexives and passives c) the order S(ubject)-V(erb)-O(bject) is the main clause order for MG active verbs and S(ubject)-V(erb) is one of the most frequent orders for passives (Lascaratou 1989) d) although the presence of PP (Agent Phrase) in passives is not so frequent in MG27, in passive orderings having expressed Subject and Agent, the Agent occurs at the end of the clause (SVAg) in the highest percentage of the cases (Lascaratou 1989) the sentences construction in this experiment was as following: 5) Subject (NP +NP) -verb (morphology-me) -PP This construction was common for both passive and reciprocal meanings. This means, firstly, that the same verb (with morphology-me) had two different meanings in two different contexts and secondly, that PP had two different meanings depending on the presence of the Subjects and the verb: 6) Reciprocal meaning +PP [+temporal] O Nikos ke o Kostas parexijunte apo to proi Nikos and Kostasnom misunderstand-morphology me, 3rd pl. apo the morning Nikos and Kostas misunderstand each other since the morning 7) Passive meaning+PP [+human, +definite] O Nikos ke o Kostas parexijunte

apo tus filus tus

27

Tzartzanos (1946) and Philippaki-Warburton (1975) proposed that passives with expressed Agent-Phrases are rare in MG 28 agapiunte (love each other, be loved), misiunte (hate each other, be hated), kontraronte (dispute the one with the other, be disputed), parexijunte (misunderstand each other, be misunderstood), pirazonte (tease each other, be teased)

174

Nikos and Kostasnom misunderstand-morphology me, 3rd pl. their friends Nikos and Kostas are misunderstood by their friends

apo

There were five (5) verbs28 which were the same in both cases (in reciprocal and passive sentences). All were presented in 3rd person in plural, in Present Tense. The total number of the sentences was fifteen (15): the experimental sentences were ten (10) and five (5) sentences were fillers. Twenty one (21) adult L2 learners of Modern Greek took part in this experiment and their knowledge of Modern Greek was advanced. The experiments task was for the learners to produce new sentences, referring in an alternative way as many of the NPs with theta-roles and the PPs as possible. The L2 learners were asked to rewrite each sentence where the one of the two Agents was presented in the beginning of the sentence, so they had to continue it. 8) a. Original sentence: O Nikos ke o Kostas parexijunte apo to proi Nikos and Kostasnom misunderstand-morphology me, 3rd pl. apo the morning Nikos and Kostas misunderstand each other since the morning b. Reconstructed sentence: O Kostas Kostas c. Expected production: O Kostas parexijite me/apo to Niko apo to proi rd Kostasnom misunderstand-morphology me, 3 sing. with/apo Nikoacc apo the morning Kostas misunderstand with Nikos/is misunderstood by Nikos since the morning 9) a. Original sentence: O Nikos ke o Kostas parexijunte apo tus filus tus Nikos and Kostasnom misunderstand-morphology me, 3rd pl. apo their friendsacc Nikos and Kostas are misunderstood by their friends b. Reconstructed production: O Kostas. Kostas c. Expected production: O Kostas parexijite apo tus filus Kostasnom misunderstand-morphology me, 3rd sing. apo their friendsacc Kostas is misunderstood by the friends

175

Findings and discussion of 1st experiment The L2 learners constructed expected sentences in percentage of 69,52% and unexpected productions in 30,47% (Diagram 1):

Diagram 1: L2 adult learners productions In sentences where the construction was not the expected one (30,47%), the data showed that: In passive constructions, the learners didnt face any particular problem in reproducing them, since the percentage of unexpected interpretations was too low (0,95%, Diagram 2). This may mean that it is clear the passive construction to them: 10) Subject(s)- morphology me (passive) -(PP as by-phrase) On the other hand, in sentences with reciprocal meaning, the unexpected productions were 29,52% (Diagram 2):

176

Diagram 2: L2 adult learners productions in passive and reciprocal constructions In these specific constructions (reciprocal, for example see 8a), we observed that (Diagram 3): a. They produced the expected constructions (20,47%), using both Agents and PP: 11) O Kostas parexijite me/apo to Niko apo to proi Kostasnom misunderstand-morph. me, 3rd sing. with/apo Nikoacc apo the morning Kostas misunderstand with Nikos/is misunderstood by Nikos since the morning b. The highest percentage of unexpected interpretations (20,47%) was in case that they produced sentences with one Agent (the NP given in the beginning of the sentence), the verb in morphology me and the use of PP as temporal. 12) O Kostas parexijite apo to proi Kostasnom misunderstand-morphology me, 3rd sing. apo the morning Kostas is misunderstood since the morning c. Also, they expressed the one of the Agents in PP as by-phrase, as the participant of the action (4,76%): 13) O Kostas parexijite apo ton Niko Kostasnom misunderstand-morphology me, 3rd sing. apo Nikoacc Kostas is misunderstood by Nikos d. They used both participants of the action as Agents but with wrong verbal morphology (0,95%): 14) *O Kostas misiete Nikos apo pedhia Kostasnom hate-morphology me, 3 rd sing. Nikosnom apo children Kostas is hated Nikos since they were children e. They didnt use the second Agent and the temporal phrase (0,47%) 15) O Kostas parexijite Kostasnom misunderstand-morphology me, 3rd sing. 177

Kostas is misunderstood

Diagram 3: L2 adult learners productions in reciprocal expected and unexpected constructions These results show that the basic construction the L2 adult learners used was: 16) S(ubject)-Verb (morphology-me) which is one of the most frequent orders for passives in MG, as the research has shown (Lascaratou 1989). In cases that the L2 adult learners used PP (apo), its position was after the verb: 17) S-V-PP Based on the data we may suggest that even the learners understand the presence of two Agents in sentences with morphology-me and reciprocal meaning, they misunderstand the meaning of preposition apo as polysemantical item. So they confuse the PP as an expression of the Time and of the Agent, using analogically their previous knowledge of the prepositions meaning29 and it seems that they prefer to use one PP each time. We may combine this confusion for apo with researches on children language production which

29 30

For strategy of analogy, see Goswami 1990a, Mantziara 2002, Kokkinov & Petrov 2001 among others In more details, when children first try to express oblique agents, before acquisition of conventional by, they choose from for this purpose because agents, as instigators of action, are conceived of as the source of the action and its results (Clark & Carpenter 1989a). More specifically, the research data showed (Clark & Carpenter 1989b) that the two-year-olds assigned from to mark locative sources and chose from more often than by to mark oblique agents. They chose with to mark instruments. Older children reserved from for locative sources, with for instruments, and by for agents. Only at age three or later do children switch their allegiance to by for marking an oblique agent as the agent.

178

have shown that 2-year old children produce from for agents and older children shift to by for agents (Clark & Carpenter 1989a,b)30. 2 nd experiment: reading comprehension The same constructions were given to learners and they were asked to choose which was the appropriate meaning for each. They had to choose among these choices: a) by someone else, b) by himself, herself, themselves, c) each other The questionnaire with the experimental sentences was given to the following groups of learners: a) 21 adult L2 (foreign language) learners of Modern Greek (advanced level) b) 40 children L1 learners of Modern Greek (Secondary School, 14 years old) c) 10 children L2 (second language) of Modern Greek (Secondary School, 14 years old) Findings and discussion of 2nd experiment As the data have shown, there isnt any significant difference among interpretations of the three groups of learners. The three groups comprehended successfully the constructions in a high percentage (L2 adults: 89,52%, L2 children: 91%, L1 children: 90,75%) (Diagram 4):

Diagram 4: interpretations of L2 adult, L2 children and L1 children learners of MG In comprehension of constructions S-V-PP, the learners of the three groups used clues to solve ambiguities, like verbal morphology or the meaning of PP. It seems that they have acquired the prototypical groups of verbs like inherent reciprocal and this may happen because these verbs are frequent in their input31. They are able to understand the different use of these verbs when these verbs occur in passive constructions. So, it seems that they use PP as clue for the different verbal meaning, since in experimental reciprocal sentences PP had the feature [+temporal] and in passives [+human, + definite].

31

For a detailed exploration for the relation between frequency and language performance, acqusition, see Ellis (2004), Fotiadou & Tsimpli (2010) among others

179

In conclusion, the data have shown that the L2 adult learners interpret successfully the experimental sentences in comprehension test, since the percentage of unexpected choices was equal to percentages of L1 and L2 childrens unexpected choices.

Conclusion and teaching proposal For conclusion, it is worth to say that, as the data have shown, it is easier for L2 adult learners of MG to comprehend polysemantical constructions than to produce them. In both skills they used analogically their previous knowledge which is related with language items which are frequent in their input. The results showed that they have acquired the structure S-V-(PP) and they prefer to use one PP apo each time. One of the future steps of the research would be to investigate the role of L2 learners native language (L1) in learning process (production). Based on the unexpected constructions, the teacher could adapt the teaching procedure presenting the appropriate structures, since that error analysis could be a useful device for language teaching (see Norrish, 1995). For example, he/she could present to L2 learners not only the different meanings of morphology-me, but also the different uses of preposition apo with the specific features for each case and each context: temporal PP, Agent PP [+human], locative PP etc. This can be succeed within communicate skills, like describing pictures, narrating stories etc. Furthermore, the L2 learners would be exposed in alternative verbal constructions (i.e. reciprocal constructions, like in 18), where the one of the Agents would be expressed by a PP (me/with) and not a NP. In this way, they may recall this information easily in production skills. 18) O Kostas parexijite me to Niko apo to proi Kostasnom misunderstand-morphology me, 3rd sing. with Nikoacc apo the morning Kostas misunderstand with Nikos since the morning Acknowledgements I would like to thank my L1 and L2 students who participated in the experiments. Also, I thank the attendees of the 4th International Online Language Conference (IOLC 2011) for comments which assisted my research. References Alexiadou, A. & Anagnostopoulou E. (1999), Non active morphology and the direction of Transitivity alternations, NELS 29, 27-40 Alexiadou, A. & Anagnostopoulou, E. (2004), Voice Morphology in the CausativeInhoative Alternation: Evidence for a Non-Unified Structural Analysis of Unaccusatives, in Alexiadou A., Anagnostopoulou E. & Everaert M. (eds), The Unaccusativity Puzzle. Explorations of the Syntax-Lexicon Interface, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 114-136 Babiniotis, G. & P. Kontos (1967) Sihhroniki grammatiki tis kinis Neas ellinikis (Synchronical Grammar of Modern Greek), Athens: Babiniotis-Kontos Clark, E. V., K. L. Carpenter, (1989a) On childrens uses of from, by and with in oblique noun phrases, Journal of Child Language, Vol 16 (2), pp 349-364 Clark E. V. and K. L. Carpenter (1989b) The Notion of Source in Language Acquisition, Language, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Mar., 1989), pp. 1-30

180

Clairis Ch., G. Babiniotis et al (1999) Grammatiki tis Neas Ellinikis. II To rima tis Neas Ellinikis (Grammar of Modern Greek. II The Modern Greek verb),Athens: Ellinika Grammata-Clairis, Babiniotis Ellis, N. (2004) Cognitive Aspects of Usage-based and Form-focused SLA. Amsterdam: LOT Winter School Embick, D. (1998), Voice Systems and the Syntax/Morphology Interface, MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 32, 41-72 Fotiadou G. and I.-M. Tsimpli (2010) The acquisition of transitivity alternations in Greek: does frequency count?, Lingua 120, 2605-2626 Goswami, J. (1990a) Phonological priming and orthographic analogies in reading, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology and Psychiatry 31, 310-311 Heim, I., H. Lasnik, R. May (1991) Reciprocity and plurality, Linguistic Inquiry 22, 63101 Holton D., P. Mackridge, I. Philippaki-Warburton (1997/1998) Greek Grammar. A Comprehensive Grammar of the Modern Language, Athens: Patakis Joseph B. D. & Philippaki-Warburton I. (1987) Modern Greek, London: Croom Helm Kassotaki, I. (2005) apophrase (=by-phrase) and the mediopassive morphology in Modern Greek: how L2 learners interpret passive constructions, Newcastle and Durham Working Papers 11, 57-65 Kokinov, B. & A. Petrov (2001) Intergration of Memory and Reasoning in AnalogyMaking: The AMBR Model, in: Gentner, D., K. Holyak K. & B. Kokinov (eds.) The Analogical Mind: Perspectives from Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Lascaratou, Chr. (1989) A functional approach to constituent order with particular reference to Modern Greek, Anthens: Parousia Mackridge, P. (1985/1989) The Modern Greek Language, Athens: Patakis Mantziara, N. (2002) Reading by analogy? Nyborg Colloquium, Education for all-how how inclusive can you get?, available at: http://www.ispaweb.org/Colloquia/Nyborg/Nyborg%20Presentations/Mantziara.htm (accessed 15 July 2011) Norrish, J. (1995) Language learners and their errors, UK: Modern English Publications. Stromswold, K., S. Pinker & R. Kaplan (1985) Cues for understanding the passive voice, Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 24, 123-30 Sudhalter. V. & Braine, M. (1985) How does comprehension of passives develop? A comparison of actional and experimental verbs, Journal of Child Language 12,45570 Theopanopoulou-Kontou D. (1981), Ta mesa rimata tis Neas Ellininikis-Merikes prokatarktikes paratirisis sto sistima ton diatheseon (The middle verbs of Modern Greek: some remarks on system of diatheses), Studies in Greek Linguistics, Thessaloniki, A.U.Th., 51-78 Theopanopoulou-Kontou D. (1999), Ta mesa ametavata tis NE ke i mesopathitiki morphologia (The middle intransitive verbs in Modern Greek and the mediopassive morphology), Proceedings of 3rd International Conference in Greek Linguistics, University of Athens, Athens, 114-122 Triantafyllidis, M. (1941/2000), Neoelliniki grammagiki tis dimotikis (The Modern Greek grammar of demotiki), OEDV/Editions of Institution of M. Triantafyllidis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Tsimpli, I.-M. (1989), On the properties of the passive affix in Modern Greek, UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 1, 235-260

181

Tsimpli, I.-M. (2006), I foni stin elliniki: Perigrafi tu sistimatos ke meleti tis anaptiksis tu stin elliniki os mitriki ke os defteri/kseni glossa (Voice in Greek: a description of the system and a developmental study of voice in Greek as a native and non-native language), in Georgiafentis M., et al Laskaratou Chr., Spyropoulos V., Tsamadou I., Tsimpli I.-M., Filippaki-Warburton I. & Heila-Markopoulou D. (eds) I sintaksi sti mathisi ke sti didaskalia tis ellinikis os ksenis glossas (Syntax in learning and teaching of Greek as foreign language), Patakis, Athens. Tzartzanos, A. (1946) Neoelliniki Syntaxis (Modern Greek Syntax), v.A, Athens:OEDV Warburton, I. (1975) The Passive in English and Greek, Foundations of Language 13, 563-578. Appendix The experimental sentences (Experiment 1 & 2): 1) O Brad Pitt ke i Angelina Jolie agapiunte apo persi Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie love each other since last year 2) O Brad Pitt ke i Angelina Jolie agapiunte apo to kino Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are loved by the fans 3) I Bonnie ke o Clyde misiunte apo pedhia Bonnie and Clyde hate each other since children hood 4) I Bonnie ke o Clyde misiunte apo tin astinomia Bonnie and Clyde are hated by the police 5) I Anna ke i Evridiki kontraronte apo palia Anna and Evridiki dispute the one with other since older times 6) I Anna ke i Evridiki kontraronte apo tus simathites tus Anna and Evridiki are disputed by their classmates 7) Nikos ke o Kostas parexijunte apo to proi Nikos and Kostas misunderstand each other since the morning 8) Nikos ke o Kosta parexijunte apo tus filus tus Nikos and Kostas are misunderstood by their friends 9) I Eleana ke o Giorgos pirazonte apo mikri Eleana and Giorgos tease each other since they were young 10) I Eleana ke o Giorgos pirazonte apo tus dimosiografus Eleana and Giorgos are teased by the journalists

182

Devoicing of Voiced English Stops and Affricates [ b, d, g, dz ] in Word-final Position: An Articulation Problem for Turkish EFL Learners Murat Hismanoglu Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey hismanoglu@gmail.com Abstract The articulation of [b], [d], [g], and [dz] consonant sounds of the English language in word final position causes a significant problem for Turkish EFL learners since the phonological system of the Turkish language does not allow for the occurrence of voiced stops and affricates word finally. Turkish EFL learners are inclined to convert word-finally occurring voiced stops and affricates in English into their voiceless counterparts, which is not only a clear case of turkification but also an uncontrollable phonological happening because of the heavy pressure of the mother tongue, Turkish. Hence, they mispronounce a wide range of words ending with [b], [d], [g], and [dz]. For instance, they articulate the word lab as [lp] instead of [lb], the word bed as [bet] instead of [bed], the word bag as [bk] instead of [bg] and the word judge as [dzats] instead of [dzadz]. These misproductions of English words by Turkish EFL learners, undesirably, lead to miscomprehension or communication breakdown during the act of communication, particularly when the linguistic context is not clearly created by the non-native speaker for the hearer. The aim of this paper is, thus, to design a sample pronunciation lesson based on Demirezens (2003, 2004) audio-articulation method with some internet assisted applications. Keywords: Pronunciation error, pronunciation teaching, audio-articulation method, teacher education Introduction Pronunciation is unquestionably a significant component of foreign language learning and teaching and a basic part of learning a word. However, time limitations or lack of teacher training on pronunciation teaching techniques often cause this language component to be disregarded in the classroom by the teacher (Breitkreutz, Derwing, & Rossiter, 2002; Burgess & Spencer, 2000; Derwing & Munro, 2006; MacDonald, 2002). One point that may have led to this scenario is the way pronunciation was viewed prior to the changes advanced by the communicative theories (Elliott, 1997), and the idea that pronunciation was an ingredient of linguistic rather than communicative competence and hence time spent on pronunciation drills was viewed as unnecessary (Pennington & Richards, 1986). However, it should be strongly stressed that pronunciation goes beyond minimal pairs and meaningless drills (Morley, 1994). In our times, instructional goals go beyond linguistic competence. The aim is to help learners to attain the goal of enhanced comprehension and intelligibility (Harmer, 2001). In this respect, many coursebooks (Grant, 2001; Hahn & Dickerson, 1999) stress the teaching of suprasegmentals. Likewise, A number of pronunciation specialists (e.g., Brown, 1995; Chela-Florez, 2001) emphasize the prominence of teaching suprasegmentals for developing learners intelligibility. Languages differ from one another not only in terms of their segmental features (vowels and consonants) but also in terms of their suprasegmental features such as stress, pitch, intonation and juncture. The phonetic characteristics which are utilized to distinguish vowels, consonants, and suprasegmental features also change from one language to the other. As Wayland, Guion, & Lanfair (2006) indicate, these differences have a remarkable 183

effect on the way in which adult listeners perceive and produce the phonetic features not represented in their mother tongue, hence resulting in a noticeable degree of foreign accent. A plethora of studies have been conducted to investigate the production and the perception of second language (L2) consonants and vowels by adult L2 learners over the past several decades (see, e.g., Flege, 1992; Flege, Mackay, & Meador, 1999; Flege, Munro & Mackay, 1995; Lado, 1957; MacKay, Flege, Piske, & Schirru, 2001; Major, 1987; Michaels, 1974; Munro, Flege, & Mackay, 1996; Richie, 1967). The present study engages in the production and the perception of [b], [d], [g], and [dz] consonant sounds of the English language by Turkish EFL learners. The great majority of Turkish EFL learners are inclined to change word-finally occurring voiced stops [b], [d], and [g] into their voiceless counterparts [p], [t], and [k] and similarly word-finally occurring voiced affricate [dz] into its voiceless counterpart [ts] because the phonological system of the Turkish language, unlike that of the English language, does not allow for the existence of voiced stops and affricates in word position. In reality, Turkish EFL learners tendency to changing voiced stops and affricates into their voiceless counterparts indicates a clear case of turkification which is an unstoppable happening due to being under the heavy pressure of the mother tongue, Turkish. Hence, they misarticulate a number of words ending with [b], [d], [g], and [dz]. To illustrate, they pronounce the word lab as [lp] instead of [lb], the word bed as [bet] instead of [bed], the word bag as [bk] instead of [bg] and the word judge as [dzats] instead of [dzadz], These misarticulations of English words by Turkish EFL learners, unfortunately, give rise to misunderstanding or communication breakdown during the act of communication, especially when the linguistic context is not overtly established by the speaker for the hearer. The aim of this paper is, thus, to remove the pronunciation errors brought about by word-finally occurring voiced obstruents [b], [d], [g], and [dz] for Turkish EFL learners by presenting a sample pronunciation lesson based on Demirezens audio-articulation method with some internet assisted applications A sample pronunciation lesson based on the audio-articulation method Introducing the topic After doing warm-up and motivation and reviewing the previous material, the teacher introduces the topic by writing [b], [d], [g], and [dz] consonant sounds with some examples on the whiteboard. Table 1: /b/, /d/, /g/ and /dz/ sounds Sound 1 Sound 2 /b/ /d/ pub bad gab mad cub cod

Sound 3 /g/ frog tag bag

Sound 4 /dz/ edge ridge surge

Listening and repetition Designing the corpus The teacher develops a corpus of 70 to 100 words with [b], [d], [g], and [dz] sounds. First, the teacher reads the words in the corpus. Second, s/he asks the students to repeat these words after her/him.

184

Table 2: Corpus on word-finally occurring /b/, /d/, /g/ and /dz/ sounds Sound 2 Sound 3 Sound 4 Sound 1 /b/ word-finally /d/ word-finally /g/ word-finally /dz/ word-finally cob bride peg purge gab bead beg edge lab bad dig large mob ode lag age swab head wag ledge tab hand bag urge lob add hog lunge cab brad tag village robe card pig ridge sub bold snag badge flab dead prig surge pub mad dog luggage job bed rag baggage club sad frog college dab send bug strange jab mend crag image ebb and clog wreckage rib thread log cottage Making up the minimal pairs The teacher constitutes minimal pairs for /p/ x /b/, /t/ x /d/, /, /k/ x /g/ /and /ts/ x /dz/. First, the teacher reads these minimal pairs loudly. Second, s/he asks the students to repeat these words after her/him. Table 3: Minimal pairs for /p/ x /b/, /t/ x /d/, /, /k/ x /g/ /and /ts/ x /dz/ sounds Pair 1 Pair 2 Pair 3 Pair 4 /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/ /ts/ /dz/ pup pub hat had lack lag etch edge rope robe cot cod back bag rich ridge gap gab heat heed dock dog match madge cup cub let led clock clog perch purge lap lab debt dead frock frog larch large cap cab bat bad rack rag lunch lunge tap tab coat code tack tag batch badge

Generating tongue twisters in short forms (1) a cop a cop with a cap a cop with a cap in a cab a cop with a cap in a cab by the club

(2) a card a red card a red card in hand a red card in Donalds hand

185

(3) a frog a frog in a bag a frog and a snag in a bag a frog and a snag in Craigs bag

(4) a cabbage a cabbage in a fridge a strange cabbage in a fridge a strange cabbage in a strange cabbage

Recognition exercises The teacher writes numbers under eight different consonant sounds on the whiteboard and asks students to say these numbers when they hear these sounds. 1 tap cap Teacher Teacher Teacher Teacher Teacher Teacher Teacher Teacher 2 tab cab 3 debt coat 4 dead code 5 frock rack 6 frog rag 8 4 2 5 1 7 3 6 7 lunch batch 8 lunge badge

cottage need club rock pop brunch boat beg

Students Students Students Students Students Students Students Students

Identification of sounds in terms of points and manner of articulation The teacher describes how [b], [d], [g], and [dz] sounds are produced in terms of points of articulation and manner of articulation by showing video animations (http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html) to the students. The teacher describes these four consonant sounds as follows: The consonant [b] is a voiced bilabial stop, while [p] is a voiceless bilabial stop. The consonant [d] is a voiced dental-alveolar stop, whereas [t] is a voiceless, dentalalveolar stop. The consonant [g] is a voiced velar stop, while [k] is a voiceless velar stop. The consonant [dz] is a voiced alveo-palatal affricate, whereas [ts] is a voiceless alveopalatal affricate. Contextualized Drills The teacher generates some sentences with contextual clues and asks the students to repeat them after her/him. Some sentences with contextual clues are as follows: Show me the CAP in the CAB. He saw a PUP in the PUB. She hid a ROPE in her ROBE. There was a CARD in the CART. The BAT was in a BAD condition. Look at the COD on the COT. A DOG was barking at the DOCK. She cleaned a wine RACK with an old RAG. Some countries LAG behind the rest of Europe due to LACK of dedicated workers. The branches of the LARCH were very LARGE. We will SEARCH the SURGE of refugees into the country for preparing our paper. The RICH made their way carefully along the RIDGE. 186

Techniques and activities for contextualization/production Role playing The teacher asks students to work in pairs and play the given roles. In the following section, the situation and the related role cards are presented. Situation: At a hospital Student A: You are a mother having a newborn boy. Ask all family members to find a name that sounds good and is easy to articulate. Student B: You are a father having a newborn boy. Tell your wife how happy you are because of being a father and recommend several names for the newborn baby by having a look at the list of proper names with /p/ and /b/ sounds. Student C: You are a father-in-law having a newborn grandson. Tell your bride how happy you are because of being a grandfather and recommend several names for the newborn baby by having a look at the list of proper names with /p/ and /b/ sounds Student D: You are a mother-in-law having a newborn grandson. Tell your bride how happy you are because of being a grandmother and recommend several names for the newborn baby by having a look at the list of proper names with /p/ and /b/ sounds List of proper names with /p/ and /b/ sound Bob Rob Kipp Paco Palmer Patamon Perri Barclay Barnet Berkly Pilan Bentley

Using pictures The teacher asks the students to look at the pictures, write names of the objects under the pictures and articulate names of these objects by giving importance to word finally occurring /b/ sound.

1) ..

2)

187

3) .....

4) .

(Expected answers are: 1) wardrobe, 2) bib, 3) crib, 4) bathrobe) Using a song The teacher uses Mariah Careys song entitled Fly like a bird to enhance students perception and production of word-finally occurring /d sound. After distributing the handout of the song lyric to the students, the teacher asks the students to listen to the song and fill in the blanks with words containing word-finally occurring /d/ sound. After students finish doing the given task, they check whether their answers are correct or incorrect by the help of their teacher. Then, they try singing the song by giving importance to the production of problem causing word-finally occurring /d/ sound. The song lyric used by the students in the lesson is as follows: Somehow I know that Theres a place up above With no more hurt and struggling Free of all atrocities and suffering Because I feel the unconditional love From one who cares enough for me To erase all my burdens .(4). And let me be free to Can we recover Will the .(6). ever be A place of peace and harmony With no war and with no brutality If we loved each other We would .(7) victory But in this harsh reality .(13). Sometimes Im so despondant .(14).. That I feel the .(8). to Keep your .(15). to the sky With Gods love youll survive Fly like a ..(16).. Take to the sky I .(17) you now Lord [chorus] Fly like a ..(1).. Take to the sky I .(2).. you now Lord Carry me high Dont let the world break me tonight I .(3). the strength of you by my Sometimes this life can be so .(5).. I pray youll come and carry me home [chorus] Fly like a .(9).. Take to the sky I .(10). you now Lord Carry me high Dont let the ..(11). break me tonight I .(12). the strength of you by my Sometimes this life can be so

I pray youll come and carry me home Sometimes this life can be so ..(21). I pray Youll come and carry me home Carry me higher, higher, higher Carry me higher, higher, higher Carry me home 188

Carry me high Higher Jesus Dont let the ..(18). break me tonight Carry me higher Lord I ..(19). the strength of You by my ..(20) (Expected answers are: 1) bird, 2) need, 3) need, 4) side, 5) cold, 6) world, 7) find, 8) need, 9) bird, 10) need, 11) world, 12) need, 13) side, 14) cold, 15) head, 16) bird, 17) need, 18) world, 19) need, 20) side, 21) cold) Word Bingo This is a pronunciation game played in groups consisting of five members. One student articulates the following words containing word finally occurring /g/ sound in any order. The remaining four students select one of the boxes A, B, C, D below and they place a small piece of paper on top of each word when it is articulated. The student who finishes placing a small piece of paper on top of each word must produce all the words in her/his box accurately so that s/he can become the winner of the game. If the student cannot pronounce all the words in the box accurately, s/he get out of the game. The game continues until a student places a small piece of paper on all her/his words in her/his box and pronounces all these words correctly. Words rag, log, snag, peg, lag, prig, wag, dog, bug, bag, dig, hog, pig, beg, clog, big, leg, tag, nag, flag, pug, sag, zag, hug, mug, fog A rag nag flag B log pug sag C pig hug mug

snag bug beg

dog hog clog

peg log lag

prig dig zag

wag bag fog

big leg tag

My best friend Teresa went to Chicago yesterday The teacher divides the class into groups consisting of four or five members and writes the following words containing /ts/ and /dz/ sounds on the whiteboard. /ts/ cheese cherries a chessboard a chicken chocolate a torch /dz/ a kilo of orange a cottage a jug a bridge a kilo of cabbage a fridge 189

Each member tries to repeat what the former student said before and adds a new word to the list. Sample: Student A: My best friend Teresa went to Chicago yesterday and she bought a fridge. Student B: My best friend Teresa went to Chicago yesterday and she bought a fridge and a kilo of cabbage. Making a summary The teacher makes a summary of the lesson before the bell rings. S/he repeats the main points of the lesson and tries to answer the question(s) that students have and remove all the unclear points with respect to [b], [d], [g], and [dz] sounds. Giving assignment to the students The teacher asks students to find out 10 minimal pairs for p/ x /b/, /t/ x /d/, /, /k/ x /g/ /and /ts/ x /dz/ sounds and write ten sentences with contextual clues with respect to p/ x /b/, /t/ x /d/, /, /k/ x /g/ /and /ts/ x /dz/ sounds. Conclusion To attain pronunciation that facilitates mutual intelligibility is, unarguably, the primordial goal in pronunciation teaching within the framework of communicative competence. A number of studies have investigated the production of prosody and its relevance to the intelligibility of L2 learners, due to the conviction that intelligibility is particularly affected by suprasegmental aspects of speech (Derwing, 2008). To illustrate, Derwing, Munro and Wiebe (1998) unearthed that language learners receiving instruction and practicing in English prosody exhibited a higher level of enhancement in intelligibility when articulating spontaneous English narratives than did students receiving either segmental instruction or no pronunciation instruction. According to Munro & Derwing (2001), such findings have caused a number of researchers to support the view that prosodic errors are more detrimental to speech intelligibility than are segmental ones (Munro & Derwing, 2001). However, it should be noted, as Hewings (2004) also indicates, that not only suprasegmental aspects of speech but also segmental aspects are to be produced in a native-like fashion so that L2 learners can best be comprehended by English listeners. Language transfer is one factor that potentially has impact on a second language learners speech. Transfer, also known as interference in the literature, can have influence on not only segmental but also suprasegmental aspects of speech (Major, 2008; Zampini, 2008). Segmental characteristics can give rise to the perception of a foreign accent once a second language learner articulates vowels or consonants that do not have the characteristics of those of native speakers. Flege (1995) states that these segmental divergences mostly emerge when the segmental inventory of a speakers L1 does not match that of the L2, in which case the L2 speaker may approximate a sound based on the segmental inventory of the L1. At this juncture, the audio-articulation method can be language teachers to remedy language learners articulation problems brought about by dissimilar segmental characteristics of speech in Turkish and English. References Breitkreutz, J., Derwing, T.M., & Rossiter, M.J. (2002). Pronunciation teaching practices in Canada. TESL Canada Journal, 19, 51-61. Brown, A. (1995). Minimal pairs: minimal importance? ELT Journal, 49(2), 169-175.

190

Burgess, J., & Spencer, S. (2000). Phonology and pronunciation in integrated language teaching and teacher education. System, 28, 191-215. Chela-Florez, B. (2001). Pronunciation and language learning: An integrative approach. IRAL, 39, 85-101. Demirezen, M. (2003). Articulation problems caused by English theta phoneme for Turkish EFL learners. TOMER Language Journal. 120, 57-71. Demirezen, M. (2004). Articulation problems caused by English eth phoneme for Turkish EFL learners. Cankaya University, Journal of Arts and Sciences. 1(1), 7-22. Derwing, T. M. (2008). Curriculum issues in teaching pronunciation to second language learners. In J. G. Hansen Edwards & M. L. Zampini (Eds.), Phonology and second language acquisition (pp. 347-369). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Derwing, T., Thomson, R., & Munro, M. (2006). English pronunciation and fluency development in Mandarin and Slavic speakers. System, 34, 183-193. Derwing, T. M., Munro, M. J., & Wiebe, G. (1998). Evidence in favor of a broad framework for pronunciation instruction. Language Learning, 48(3), 393-410. Elliott, A. R. (1997). On the teaching and acquisition of pronunciation within a communicative approach. Hispania, 80, 95-108. Flege, J. E. (1992). The intelligibility or English vowels spoken by British and Dutch talkers. In R.D. Kent (Ed.), Intelligibility in speech disorders (pp. 157232). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Flege, J. E. (1995). Second language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech Perception and Linguistic Experience: Issues in CrossLanguage Research (pp. 233-277). Baltimore: York Press. Flege, J. E., MacKay, I. R. A., & Meador, D. (1999). Native Italian speakers perception and production of English vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 106, 29732987. Flege, J. E., Munro, M. J., & MacKay, I. R. A. (1995). Effects of age of second-language learning on the production of English consonants. Speech Communication, 16, 126. Grant, L. (2001). Well Said: Pronunciation for clear communication (2nd ed.). Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Hahn, L., & Dickerson, W. (1999). Speechcraft: Discourse pronunciation for advanced learners. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of English language teaching. Essex: Pearson Education. Hewings, M. (2004). Pronunciation practice activities: A resource book for teaching English pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. MacDonald, S. (2002). Pronunciation: Views and practices of reluctant teachers. Prospect, 17, 3-18. MacKay, I. R. A., Flege, J. E., Piske, T., & Schirru, C. (2001). Category restructuring during second language (L2) speech acquisition. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 110, 516528. Major, R. (1987). A model for interlanguage phonology. In G. Ioup & S. Weinberger (Eds.), Interlanguage phonology (pp. 101224). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Major, R. C. (2008). Transfer in second language phonology: A review. In J. G. Hansen Edwards & M. L. Zampini (Eds.), Phonology and second language acquisition (pp. 63-94). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Michaels, D. (1974). Sound replacements and phonological systems. Linguistics, 176, 69 81.

191

Morley, J. (1994). A multidimensional curriculum design for speech-pronunciation instruction. In J. Morley (Ed.), Pronunciation pedagogy and theory (pp. 64-91). VA: TESOL. Munro, M. J., Flege, J. E., & MacKay, I. R. A. (1996). The effects of age of second language learning on the production of English vowels. Applied Psycholinguists, 17, 313334. Munro, M. J., & Derwing, T. M. (2001). Modeling perceptions of the accentedness and comprehensibility of L2 speech. Studies in second language acquisition, 23, 451468. Pennington, M., & Richards, J. (1986). Pronunciation revisited. TESOL Quarterly, 20, 207-225 Richie. W. (1967). On the explanation of phonic interference. Language Learning, 18, 183197. Wayland, R., Guion, S., & Lanfair, D. (2006). Native Thai speakers acquisition of English word stress patterns. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. 35, 285-304. Zampini, M. L. (2008). L2 speech production research: Findings, issues, and advances. In J. G. Hansen Edwards & M. L. Zampini (Eds.), Phonology and second language acquisition (pp. 219-249). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

192

Computer Assisted Pronunciation Teaching: From the Past to the Present with its Limitations and Pedagogical Implications Murat Hismanoglu Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey hismanoglu@gmail.com Abstract Computer assisted pronunciation teaching (CAPT, henceforth), one of the major subbranches of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL, henceforth), deploys technology to teach the segmental and suprasegmental features of the sound system. This paper identifies three phases of CALL, discusses pedagogical, technological and teacher preparedness related difficulties that CAPT has faced, provides an overview of speech technologies utilized in teaching pronunciation to EFL learners and presents the limitations of CAPT programs as well as the pedagogical implications of CAPT programs. It concludes with some recommendations for effective deployment of CAPT and future directions. Keywords: Pronunciation teaching, computer assisted pronunciation teaching, language teaching Introduction CALL is the utilization of technology enhanced methods and techniques in language learning and teaching (Gruba, 2006; Kedrowicz & Watanabe, 2006). CAPT, one aspect of CALL, depends on the use of technology for teaching the segmental and suprasegmental aspects of the phonological system, and is defined by Rostron and Kinsell (1995) as the employment of digitized speech for developing language pronunciation. In pronunciation teaching, the computer has been employed to realize two purposes: (a) determining the students deviation in pronunciation and (b) helping him/her to amend any such deviations (Kawai & Hirose, 1997; Machovikov, Stolyarov, Chernov, Sinclair, & Machovikova, 2002). The strengths of CAPT software for advancing English learners pronunciation have been studied thoroughly (Butler-Pascoe & Wiburg, 2003; Kim, 2006; Neri, Cucchiarini, Strik, & Boves, 2002). As Neri (2002) stresses, computer-based pronunciation programs are beneficial for students and teachers since these programs address individual problems, enable students to work at their own tempo, and may decrease classroom anxiety. It is the indefatigable, non-judgmental composition of the computer that provides students with a variety of opportunities to study any part of the materials and receive further assistance presented by the system. CAPT software allows students to study independently, selecting what function to employ and how often they utilize it. As for teachers, they also benefit from using CAPT software in their pronunciation classes in that it can give students drilling practice, which teachers view tiring and time-wasting. Lastly, CAPT systems create an interactive learning context in a wide range of modes: whole class, small group or pair, and teacher to student (Pennington, 1999). This paper describes three phases of CALL, stresses pedagogical, technological and teacher preparedness related difficulties that CAPT has faced, presents an overview of speech technologies used in teaching pronunciation to EFL learners and summarizes the limitations of CAPT programs as well as the pedagogical implications of CAPT programs. Finally, it makes some recommendations for effective utilization of CAPT and future directions. 193

Literature review Employing computers to identify and examine human speech goes back at least to the 1970s. Created originally to assist those with hearing or speech defects, speech recognition was also utilized early on experimentally in language learning. During the past twenty years, developments in the fields of linguistics and second language acquisition have given rise to a higher level of interest in deploying computers to assist in improving speaking and listening skills. Hence, there are now effective devices and technologies available for making speech analysis (Godwin-Jones, 2009). According to Seferolu (2005), there have been changes in various aspects of CALL since 1970s comprising not only how language is regarded and the English teaching paradigm adopted, but also the kind of technology employed, the kind of activities presented, and the major objectives of language learning and teaching. Warschauer (2000) describes three phases of CALL as shown in Table 1. Table 1: Three stages of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) Stage 1970s-1980s 1980s-1990s 21st century Structural CALL Communicative CALL Integrative CALL Technology Mainframe PCS Multimedia and Internet English teaching Grammar-translation Communicative Content-based, ESP/EAP paradigm and audiolingual language teaching View of language Structural (a formal Cognitive (a mentally Socio-cognitive (developed structural system) constructed system) in social interaction) Principal use of Drill and practice Communicative Authentic discourse computers exercises Principal objective Accuracy [Accuracy] and fluency [Accuracy] and agency _________________________________________________________________________ _________________ ESP= English for Specific Purposes; EAP= English for Academic Purposes. From Warschauer, 2000. A plethora of studies concerning how various aspects of pronunciation can be taught effectively have revealed the flexibility and significance of CAPT. A number of pronunciation-related features have been investigated, including general pronunciation quality (Seferolu, 2005); speech rate, fluency, and liveliness (Hincks, 2005); vowels and consonants (Neri, Cucchiarini, & Strik, 2006a; Wang & Munro, 2004); vowel lengthening and pitch accents (Hirata, 2004; Kawai & Hirose, 2000); intonation (Cauldwell, 2002; Levis & Pickering, 2004); and English stress timing (Coniam, 2002). Most of these studies indicate that CAPT can be not only powerful but also flexible in addressing pronunciation instruction when it is constructed reasonably. However, difficulties remain. In Leviss (2008) view, while some of the difficulties that CAPT has encountered are pedagogical, some are technological, and some are related to teacher preparedness. Pedagogically speaking, in many cases, there is a prominent gap between CAPT applications and goals adopted by current pronunciation theory and 194

pedagogy. That is, CAPT applications can seem to be suspiciously like classical, drillfocused pedagogy in new dressing. Applications which are overtly based on theory, like Streaming Speech, are rare. Since applications are often not based on suitable characterizations of pronunciation, they cannot systematically measure development in meaningful ways (Pennington, 1999). One of the issues regarding CAPT which teachers and developers must first focus on is goals. While many pronunciation teachers adopt the goal of intelligibility, others adopt a goal of near-native pronunciation. These two goals are very different from each other and necessitate dissimilar approaches to teaching. Intelligibility can be described as an unclear goal somewhere along a space from total unintelligibility to native pronunciation. While utilizing CAPT for near-native pronunciation concentrates on suprasegmental aspects of pronunciation such as linking, assimilation, and intonation, using CAPT for intelligibility concentrates on segmental aspects of pronunciation such as vowels, consonants, and phoneme clusters (Donaldson, 2009). Despite the fact that intelligibility is viewed as the most general goal for pronunciation training, there is no shared definition of intelligibility, nor is there a shared adopted measure thereof. There is no empirical evidence to enable teachers to recognize what pronunciation features are key to intelligibility. Intelligibility is difficult for native English speakers to rate. Since intelligibility is impossible to define and any effort to assess it will be highly subjective, it is improbable for computers to assess intelligibility. Hence, CAPT systems will always be restricted if the goal of pronunciation teaching becomes intelligibility in that computers necessitate overtly specified goals by their nature. However, if near-native pronunciation becomes the goal, as is the case with automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems comparing speech with a database of recordings by native English speakers, the choice and employment of CAPT systems will be easier (Donaldson, 2009). Technologically, CAPT systems generally suffer from difficulties in providing learners with sufficient, correct feedback and an incapability to present correct and automatic determination of pronunciation errors. Both of these areas are relevant to the employment of ASR for accented speech (Levis, 2008). Overt and thorough feedback is essential to make the learner familiar with the dissimilarities between his/her articulation (output) and that of the model speaker (input). Interferences from the mother tongue that can be regarded as the primary source of pronunciation errors can sometimes impede learners perception of such dissimilarities (Demenko, Wagner, & Cylwik, 2010). As Lyster (1998) indicates, ASR technology should offer immediate feedback since it is prominent. It should comprise the aural and visual channels and present assessment of these errors that are key to intelligibility, and hence it should consider not only the segmental but also the suprasegmental features of the phonological system of the language that is studied. Nevertheless, in addition to scoring learners articulation (ideally, on the foundation of some hierarchy of misarticulations with respect to intelligibility), the feedback should present information on the kind and place of an error and show the learner how to remedy it (Demenko, Wagner, Cylwik, 2010). For CAPT to work properly, the feedback should be the right kind of feedback, dependent on what pronunciation teachers and students state as the fundamental kind of feedback. Although the majority of pronunciation specialists today advocate the view that not every error should be corrected and that the correction to be made should not be made immediately, the majority of students support the idea that most errors should be corrected (Engwall & Blter, 2007). Relevant to providing accurate and automatic diagnosis of pronunciation errors, Neri et al. (2003) indicated that recent research on ASR-based

195

CAPT has shown that this technology is not yet mature enough to provide relatable detailed diagnoses of pronunciation errors (p. 1159). Finally, a number of language teachers cannot make effective use of applications due to not having been trained in pronunciation and in the employment of technology. Teachers should be able to comprehend spectrograms, waveforms, and fundamental frequency contours to analyze students articulations of target language words. Freely available programs like PRAAT and WASP, or more costly options like the Computerized Speech Lab (CSL), should be a part of any pronunciation training course. Teachers should also comprehend the advantages and disadvantages of employing ASR technology and make a criticism of the use of ASR in a wide range of language learning applications. Teachers should raise their awareness with respect to the exercises that seem to be appropriate or inappropriate with a computer interface, and they should have the chance to design and test their own computer-based pronunciation exercises via the deployment of basic CALL authoring devices (Levis, 2008). Technologies used in teaching pronunciation to EFL learners Automatic speech recognition ASR can be defined as a cutting edge technology which enables a computer or even a hand-held PDA (Myers, 2000) to describe words that are read aloud or spoken into any sound-recording device. Although the main purpose of ASR technology is to allow 100% accuracy with all words that are intelligibly spoken by any person regardless of vocabulary size, background noise, or speaker variables (CSLU, 2002), most ASR engineers accept that the current accuracy level for a large vocabulary unit of speech (e.g., the sentence) remains less than 90%. Generally, in automatic speech recognition systems, L2 learners pronunciation is compared against native speakers pronunciation and learners are informed of their pronunciation errors and/or these pronunciation errors are remedied accordingly. Speech recognizers are utilized in the development of automatic (phone) pronunciation error detection as a tool in pronunciation teaching classes or for individual learners (Truong, Neri, de Wet, Cucchiarini, Strik, 2005). Wachowicz and Scott (1999) indicate that language learners listen to native language examples, repeat and record their articulations, and compare their articulations to native speakers articulations in these applications. Previously developed ASR-based software programs utilized template-based recognition systems that perform pattern matching employing dynamic programming or other time normalization techniques (Dalby & Kewley-Port, 1999). Among these programs are Talk to Me (Auralog, 1995), the Tell Me More Series (Auralog, 2000), Triple- Play Plus (Mackey & Choi, 1998), New Dynamic English (DynEd, 1997), English Discoveries (Edusoft, 1998), and See it, Hear It, SAY IT! (CPI, 1997). The majority of these programs do not offer any feedback on pronunciation correctness beyond roughly refering to which written dialogue choice the user has made, dependent on the nearest pattern match. Learners are not provided with information with respect to the accuracy of their pronunciation. However, todays systems are more advanced, complicated, and smart, generally employing a probability-focused system called the Hidden Markov Model (HMM). They are structured around a very large collection of speech samples (Neri, Cucchiarini, Strik, & Boves, 2002). To put it differently, Hinks (2003) indicates that HMM computes the probable match between the input it receives and phonemes contained in a database of hundreds of native speaker recordings (p. 5). That is, a speech recognizer dependent on HMM computes to what extent the phonemes of a spoken input are similar to a 196

corresponding model, dependent on probability theory. While high probability denotes good pronunciation, low probability denotes poor pronunciation (Larocca, et al., 1991). Among more recently developed ASR programs that have integrated HMM are Subarashii (Entropic HTK recognizer used), VILTS (SRI recognizer), FLUENCY (Carnegie Mellon University SPHINX recognizer), Naturally Speaking (Dragon Systems), and FluSpeak (IBM ViaVoice recognizer). Although a number of studies (e.g., Anderson, KewleyPort, 1995; Dalby, KewleyPort, 1999) revealed the fruitfulness of ASR systems in pronunciation training, these systems perform poorly when faced with non-native speakers (Morgan, 2004) and a variety of methods have been suggested to maximize their performance with non-native speech (e.g., Bouselmi et al., 2007; Goronzy, 2002). The powerfulness of CALL systems dependent on speech recognition is identified both by the facilities of the speech recognizer and by (a) the feedback type and teaching method and (b) the integration of repair tactics to safeguard against the recognizers error. Unfortunately, at present speech recognition systems are weak at processing information included in the speakers prosody. The restrictions of the technology indicate that the learners utterances should be foreseeable and that the determination of pronunciation errors is only probable with a limited degree of detail, which makes it hard to provide the learner with corrective feedback (Neri et al. 2002a). However, speech recognition systems can be utilized to assess the speed at which the learners speak and the rate of speech has been shown to correlate with L2 learners proficiency (Hinks, 2005). Speech synthesis Speech synthesis, computer-generated speech production, is generally utilized for rudimentary listening comprehension and for learning sound-symbol (phonemegrapheme) correspondences (Chun, 2006, p. 279). To illustrate, RealSpeakTM Word by Nuance, a commercial software package, employs speech synthesis to convert the words and idioms from a dictionary into speech output, to enable learners to hear how words should be pronounced. Handley and Hamel (2004) examined the requirements of speech synthesis for CALL and described an experiment in which utterances articulated by a speech synthesizer were presented to a group of teachers and CALL researchers. The participants of the experiment rated the comprehensibility and the acceptability of the utterances for three different functions of speech synthesis in CALL, which were reading machine, pronunciation tutor, and conversational partner. The results of the experiment displayed that the ratings of comprehensibility, acceptability and overall appropriateness were different with respect to three different functions. While the utterances were found to be most comprehensible in the context of use as a conversational partner, they were found to be least comprehensible in the context of use as a pronunciation tutor. Likewise, the output of the speech synthesizer was found to be least acceptable and appropriate for use as a pronunciation tutor, whereas it was found to be most acceptable and appropriate for use as a conversational partner. Discussing the problem of evaluation of speech synthesis for CALL, Handley and Hamel (2004) made the assertion that evidence is necessary to show the developers that speech synthesis is appropriate for use in CALL applications. Speech synthesis is not commonly employed in CALL; at present most developers appear to prefer recordings of natural voices in that speech synthesis can often sound quite unnatural. Nevertheless, some studies have been conducted to examine the probabilities of deploying synthetic stimuli in language teaching. For instance, in a study mentioned by Hincks, formant synthesis was successfully utilized to teach distinctions in English vowel 197

quality to Cantonese and Mandarin learners. In Hincks (2005) viewpoint, the prospective for speech synthesis in CALL applications lies in employing text-to-speech synthesis, and particularly in the probabilities of combining speech synthesis with visual models of the face, mouth and vocal tract. Speech analysis Speech analysis has been employed for teaching suprasegmental aspects, especially intonation patterns to second language learners since 1970s. The basic principle is that the sound waveform or pitch contour of a students utterance are visually represented alongside those of the model utterance. Studies have indicated that audio-visual feedback enhances not only perception of target language intonation and prosody but also segmental accuracy. Although a number of commercial software packages integrate a speech analysis component into their composition, the guidance in expounding the feedback is often inadequate (Hincks, 2005). A number of tools for speech analysis exist on the market and many of these tools can be and have been adapted for language learning. Among these tools are Visi-Pitch, Computerized Speech Lab (CSL), Multi-Speech, The EduSpeak speech recognition system. Other speech analysis tools are RTSPECT, WASP (both from the University College London), WaveSurfer (from the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology), the CSLU Toolkit (from Oregon Health and Science University), PRAAT (Dutch for talk), from the Institute of Phonetic Sciences, University of Amsterdam, the Hidden Markov Model Toolkit (HTK), from Cambridge University, and AUDACITY. It is possible to utilize these open source tools to design quite advanced language learning software. To illustrate, a free video annotation tool, Anvil, enables teachers to import data from Praat to display voice patterns in a multi-layered video annotation. Among other programs which utilize open source tools are Fluency from CMU, an English language speech-focused learner-computer conversation program, and CandleTalk, a similar English conversation program designed in Taiwan (Goodwin-Jones, 2009). Several high-profile ESL/EFL programs such as DynEds Intelligent Tutor (previously known as Dynamic English), also utilizes speech technologies. Although these programs are high-end and high-cost and, in terms of their use of voice recognition, have gotten mixed reviews in professional journals, they are widely used by professionals (Hincks, 2003). These programs are popular, yet there are not sufficient number of studies going beyond reviewing these products and examining and evaluating their utilization in controlled language learning environments, covering when employed as a supplement in traditional classroom contexts (Goodwin-Jones, 2009). Talking Heads Talking Heads refer to computer-animated heads which integrate speech technology with studies on gestures and head and face movements. They are structured to appear on the learners computer monitor and act as the learners virtual tutors to engage in a variety of aspects of his/her language learning process, from reading to pronunciation to conversation practice (Busa, 2008). As Massaro (2006) states, talking heads will become patient and motivating interactive tutors for learners due to having realistic speech and expressions and convincing emotions. Massaro and his team have designed probably the most popular talking heads: Baldi and his sister Baldette (e.g. Massaro, 2006b), Timo (the interactive childrens tutor, see http://animatedspeech.com), Baldini, the Italian version of Baldi (e.g., Cosi, Cohen and Massaro, 2002). Other teams doing research into talking heads are working with Kalberer and Mller at the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (Computer Vision Laboratory) in Zrich (http://www.vision.ee.ethz.ch). 198

Granstrm, at the Centre for Speech Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, is also designing a virtual language tutor (Granstrm, 2004). Limitations of CAPT software Despite having a number of advantages, CAPT software has some limitations. According to Neri et al. (2002), many commercial products have selected technological innovation over pedagogical value. To illustrate, a product may present a visual representation of the learners utterance (e.g. a speech waveform or a spectrogram) against that from a native speaker. However, these visualizations may be both hard to comprehend for nonspecialists and confusing. That is to state that two utterances can have dissimilar acoustic representations, albeit having been articulated accurately. Pennington (1999), for instance, indicated that most CAPT software made overwhelming emphasis on the decontextualised mechanics of articulation. Neri et al. (2002), for example, stressed that although they seem to be vivid to purchasers, the graphical wave forms displayed in software do not provide users with meaningful feedback. A number of researchers (e.g., Derwing & Munro, 2005; Neri et al., 2002) indicated that the design of much of the CALL software was also found to concentrate on the impressive multimedia capabilities of computers and lack content which is linguistically and pedagogically complete. It was owing to the above mentioned limitations that researchers (e.g., Chappelle, 1997; Salaberry, 1996) suggested that more conclusive empirical evidence should be provided for the pedagogical strengths of utilizing computers in language classrooms. Pedagogical implications A first implication is that CAPT can create a powerful way to enable students to develop their ability to perceive and produce segmental and suprasegmental features of English pronunciation within a classroom context. A second implication is that CAPT programs enable students to work at their own tempo and increase students motivation to the pronunciation lesson. A third implication is that students can review any part of the pronunciation materials and get further feedback presented by the system. A fourth implication is that CAPT programs provide students with a variety of drilling practice so that they can internalize the phonological features of the target language. Conclusion A number of technological devices are being designed that help learners to develop communicative competence in L2. It is because of development in research into language and speech, enhanced computer capabilities and lower computer costs that the number of applications available to both the teacher and the individual learner is increasing rapidly. Hence, these are exciting times for second language instruction. However, much more research should be conducted so as to find teaching methods which are in line with the modern technology, as well as ways of developing and implementing classroom activities which can effectively and suitably benefit from the employment of technological devices (Busa, 2006). There is an impending need for the revision of the curricula to include a pronunciation component. Teachers should be educated to teach pronunciation, develop their own pronunciation teaching materials based on the needs and expectations of their students and utilize new technologies to accomplish that. Software which focus on individual needs for both classroom use and further consolidation at home should be developed. New technologies can be very motivating and can therefore maximize students effort to enhance their pronunciation (Kypriaonu, 2008).

199

Future directions A direction for the near future is the emergence of voice recognition in mobile learning programs. A plethora of projects exist underway that target mobile devices specifically. The newest version of the Apple iPhone has voice recognition constucted in (in 6 languages) but only for dialing numbers in the address book or playing music. Recently a voice API (application programming interface) for the iPhone, CeedVocal SDK (for English, French, German), has been released, which enables developers to construct speech recognition into their iPhone practices. Googles Android phones also have some voice recognition capabilities built in. It is highly probable that this inclination will continue and accelerate and that standards will develop in this area as well (GoodwinJones, 2009). References Auralog (2000). AURALANG user manual, Voisins Ie Bretonneux, France: Author. Bouselmi G., Fohr, D., Illina, I. (2007). Combined Acoustic and Pronunciation Modelling for Non-Native Speech Recognition, Proceedings of INTERSPEECH, pp. 1449 1452, Antwerp. Busa, M.G. (2008). New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation. Retrieved May 20, 2011 from http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/bitstream/10077/2850/1/bus%C3%A0.pdf Butler-Pascoe, M. E. & Wiburg, K. M. (2003). Technology and teaching English language learners. MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Cauldwell, R. (2002). Streaming Speech: Listening and advanced pronunciation for advanced learners of English. Talking Computers. Proceedings of the IATEFL Pronunciation and Computer Special Interest Groups, pp. 1822. Chapelle, C. (1997). CALL in the year 2000: Still in search of research paradigms? Language Learning & Technology, 1(1), 19-43. Chun, D. M. (2006). Technological Advances in Researching and Teaching Phonology. In Pennington, M (ed.), Phonology in Context: Advances in Linguistics Series (pp.274299). Palgrave, Macmillan. Coniam, D. (2002). Technology as an awareness raising tool for sensitising teachers to features of stress and rhythm in English. Language Awareness, 11(1), 3042. Cosi, P., Cohen, M., Massaro, M., Dominic, W. (2002), Baldini: Baldi speaks Italian. Proceedings ICSLP 2002, 7th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing. September 16-20, Denver Colorado. CPI (Courseware Publishing International) (1997). See It, Hear It, SAY IT!, Retrieved July 05, 2011 from http://www.usecpi.com. CSLU (2002). Retrieved June 10, 2011 from http://cslu.cse.ogi.edu/learnss. Dalby, J., & Kewley-Port, D. (1999). Explicit pronunciation training using automatic speech recognition. CALICO, 16 (3), 425-445. Demenko, G., Wagner, A., & Cylwik, N. (2010). The use of speech technology in foreign language pronunciation training. Archives of Acoustics, 35(3), 309-329. Derwing, T., & Munro, M. (2005). Second language accent and pronunciation teaching: A research-based approach. TESOL Quarterly, 39(3), 379397. Donaldson, J. (2009). Literature review: computer aided pronunciation training. Retrieved June 10, 2011, from http://www.jonan.net/portfolio/portfolioartifacts/ResearchWriting /Jonan%20Donaldson%20ED%20633%20Final%20Literature%20Review.pdf. DynEd. (1997). New Dynamic English CD-ROM Series, CA, USA. Edusoft (1998). English Discoveries CD-ROM Series, Hebrew, Israel. 200

Engwall, O., & Blter, O. (2007). Pronunciation feedback from real and virtual language teachers. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 20(3), 235-262. Godwin-Jones, R. (2009). Emerging technologies: speech tools and technologies. Language Learning and Technology. 13(3), 4-11. Goronzy, S. (2002). Robust Adaptation to Non-native Accents in Automatic Speech Recognition, Springer Verlag. Granstrm, B. (2004). Towards a Virtual Language Tutor. Proceedings of InSTIL/ICALL Symposium: NLP and Speech Technologies in Advanced Language Learning Systems, Venice, Italy 17-19 June 2004, pp.1-8. Gruba, P. (2006). Playing the videotext: A media literacy perspective on video-mediated L2 listening. Language Learning & Technology, 10 (2), 77-92. Handley, Z. & Hamel, M. (2004). Investigating the requirements of speech synthesis for CALL with a view to developing a benchmark. In Proc. of InSTIL/ICALL2004 Symposium on Computer Assisted Language Learning, Venice, Italy. Hashim, H. (n.d). Pronunciation teaching technology: An overview. Retrieved July 20, 2011, from http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/hebahashim/Documents/Pronounciation%20Teaching %20Technology.pdf Hincks, R. (2003). Speech technologies for pronunciation feedback and evaluation. ReCALL 15(1), 320. Hincks, R. (2005). Computer Support for Learners of Spoken English. Stockholm: KTH School of Computer Science and Communication. Hirata, Y. (2004). Computer-assisted pronunciation training for native English speakers learning Japanese pitch and duration contrasts. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 17(34), 357376. Kawai, G., & Hirose, K. (1997). A CALL system using speech recognition to train the pronunciation of Japanese long vowels, the Mora nasal and Mora obstruents. Proceedings of EUROSPEECH97, Greece, 2, 657-660. Kawai, G., & Hirose, K. (2000). Teaching the pronunciation of Japanese double-mora phonemes using speech recognition technology. Speech Communication, 30, 131 143. Kedrowicz, A., & Watanabe, S. (2006). Infusing technical communication and teamwork within the ECE curriculum. Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences, 14 (1), 41-53. Kim, I. (2006). Automatic speech recognition: Reliability and pedagogical implications for teaching pronunciation. Educational Technology & Society, 9(1), 322-334. Kyprianou, M. (2008). Teaching pronunciation and CAP (Computer-Aided Pronunciation). Retrieved July 15, 2011, from http://www.etpe.gr/extras/download.php?type= proceed&id=1307. Larocca, S. T., Moagan, J., & Bellinger, S. (1991). On the path to 2X learning: Exploring the possibilities of advanced speech recognition, CALICO, 16 (3), 295-310. Levis, J. (2008). Computer technology in teaching and researching pronunciation. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. 27, 184-202. Levis, J., & Pickering, L. (2004). Teaching intonation in discourse using speech visualization technology. System, 32(4), 505524. Lyster R. (1998). Negotiation of Form, Recasts, and Explicit Correction in relation to error types and learner repair in immersion classrooms. Language Learning, 48, 183-218. Mackey, A., & Choi, J.-Y. (1998). Review of Tripleplay Plus! English. Language Learning and Technology, 12 (1). 19-21. 201

Machovikov, A., Stolyarov, K., Chernov, M., Sinclair I., & Machovikova, I. (2002). Computer-based training system for Russian word pronunciation. Computer Assisted Language Learning. 15 (2), 201-214. Massaro, D. W. (2006a). The Psychology and Technology of Talking Heads: Applications in Language Learning, In Bernsen, O, Dybkjaer, L., Kuppevelt, J. (eds.). Natural, Intelligent and Effective Interaction in Multimodal Dialogue Systems. (pp. 183-214). Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Kluver Academic Publishers. Massaro, D.W. (2006b). A computer-Animated Tutor for Language Learning: Research and Applications, In Spencer, P.E & Marshark, M. (eds.). Advances in the Spoken Language Development of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children. (pp. 212-243) New York, NY, Oxford University Press. Morgan, J. (2004). Making a Speech Recognizer Tolerate Non-Native Speech Through Gaussian Mixture Merging, Proceedings of InSTIL/ICALL 2004 (pp. 213216), Venice. Myers, M. (2000). Voice recognition software and a hand-held translation machine for second-language learning. Computer-Assisted Language Learning, 13 (1), 29-41. Neri, A., Cucchiarini, C., & Strik, H. (2002a). Feedback in computer assisted pronunciation training: Technology push or demand pull? Proceedings of International Conference on Spoken Language Processing 2002 (pp. 12091212). Denver, CO. Retrieved July 7, 2007, from http://lands.let.kun.nl/literature/neri.2002.2.pdf Neri, A., Cucchiarini, C., Strik, H., & Boves, L. (2002). The pedagogy-technology interface in computer assisted pronunciation training. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 15(5), 441467. Neri, A., Cucchiarini, C., Strik, H. (2003). Automatic speech recognition for second language learning: how and why it actually works. In: Proc. 15th Internat. Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Barcelona, Spain, pp. 11571160. Neri, A., Cucchiarini, C., & Strik, H. (2006a). Selecting segmental errors in L2 Dutch for optimal pronunciation training. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 44, 357 404. Pennington, M. (1999). Computer-aided pronunciation pedagogy: Promise, limitations, directions. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 12(5), 427440. Rostron, A., & Kinsell, P. (1995). Learning pronunciation using CALL: Some experimental evidence. ReCALL Newsletter, 5 (1). Retrieved July 10, 2011 from http://www.fredriley.org.uk/call/pubs/newsletter/content95.htm. Salaberry, M. R. (1996). A theoretical foundation for the development of pedagogical tasks in computer mediated communication. CALICO Journal, 14(1), 5-34. Seferoglu, G. (2005). Improving students pronunciation through accent reduction software. British Journal of Educational Technology, 36(2), 303316. Truong, K., Neri, A., de Wet, F., Cucchiarini, C., & Strik, H. (2005). Automatic detection of frequent pronunciation errors made by L2 learners. Proceedings of InterSpeech (pp. 13451348). Lisbon, Portugal. Wang, X., & Munro, M. (2004). Computer-based training for learning English vowel contrasts. System, 32, 539552. Warschauer, M. (2000). The death of cyberspace and the rebirth of CALL. English Teachers Journal, 53, 61-67.

202

Secondary School Students Used to Traditional Lessons Face Cooperative Learning: Perceptions over Time and Differences due to Gender Sara Servetti PhD, Universit degli Studi di Torino, Italy sara.servetti@libero.it Abstract This paper presents the results of a small case study focusing on how a group of 25 15year-old students who attended the first year of Italian secondary school and had mostly experienced traditional lessons perceived the very first encounters with cooperative learning activities, which were carried out in a period of 8 weeks. The students perceptions and reactions collected through anonymous questionnaires before the experiment and after the first, second and third cooperative activities are compared and integrated with the notes taken in class by the teacher on how they behaved during the three cooperative activities , in order to understand how (and if) their opinions and behaviour changed over time. Moreover, as the sample considered was a mixed class, the answers given by boys and girls were also compared, in order to establish if gender may influence the students reactions and opinions in some ways. Although students perceptions and evaluation of cooperative learning is not a new topic for researchers, this case study aims at offering an insight in the very first reactions to cooperative learning in a secondary school class, where, according to Tan, Sharan and Lee (2006:5) research is still uncharted territory despite scattered reports. Keywords: Cooperative learning, students opinions, observation. gender differences, class

Introduction This paper focuses on how a group of students used to traditional lessons faced their first cooperative activities. The aim is understanding how the students reacted to this new type of lesson, if their opinions changed after experiencing some cooperative activities and if any difference between boys and girls responses could be found. In addition to the anonymous questionnaires given to students at the beginning and at the end of the project, and after each cooperative activity, the notes taken in class by the teacher while students performed the activities are part of the data. Literature Review How do students perceive the cooperative activities they experience? What are their opinions about them? Researchers have tried to answer these questions for decades, and many studies were carried out. However, it is not easy to compare the studies conducted because they show a high degree of heterogeneity in the variables adopted (e.g. the samples, the methodology and the duration). In fact, the sample size of the studies conducted varies considerably ranging from very small numbers (e.g. 6 students in Ahuja, 1994) to larger ones (e.g. 142 in Tan, Sharan and Lee, 2006) , as well as the age of the students taken into account from university level (e.g. Jackson, 1994) to 3rd grade students (e.g. McManus and Gettinger, 1996), from 5th and 6th (e.g. Mulryan, 1994) to 11th and 12th graders (e.g. Whicker, Bol and Nunnery, 1997). The methodology used to collect the students opinions is also quite different, as many studies used written questionnaires (e.g. Wicker, Bol and Nunnery, 1997; Tan, Sharan and 203

Lee, 2006), some others used interviews (e.g. Mueller and Fleming, 2001; Slesinski, 1998), and others, beside collecting the students opinions, also included the teachers comments (e.g. Mulryan, 1994; McManus and Gettinger, 1996). Also the duration of the studies differs some lasted some weeks (e.g. Wicker, Bol and Nunnery, 1997), while some others lasted some months (e.g. Jackson, 1994) or even years (Cowie and Rudduck, 1988) as well as the model of cooperative learning under examination from a version of STAD in Wicker, Bol and Nunnery (1997) to group investigation in Tan, Sharan and Lee (2006). Surprisingly, despite all the above mentioned differences, the results of the studies are somewhat similar and lead to a sense of positive perception of cooperative activities by the learners, although the extent of this positive perception varies from research to research. Many studies in fact report favourable responses by nearly all the students in the sample (Whicker, Bol and Nunnery, 1997; Mueller and Fleming, 2001; Mulryan, 1994; Ahuja, 1994): they perceived themselves as more autonomous and confident learners, felt their social relationships improved and valued academic achievement (McManus and Gettinger, 1996). Some other studies (Jackson, 1994; Slesinski, 1998; Cowie and Rudduck, 1988; Tan, Sharan and Lee, 2006) show a more varied situation: most students appreciated the cooperative activities they performed or found at least partial value in them, while some students gave negative responses, as they found no value in working together. The experiment The sample The sample was made up of 25 15-year-old students who attended their first year of secondary school Liceo Classico Govone Alba (CN - Italy) , where they studied subjects like Italian literature, Greek, Latin, Mathematics and English. The sample class was a mixed class, although the girls (20) outnumbered boys (5), and the experiment was carried out in lessons of English as a foreign language. The class (4A) was chosen for the experiment because the students who were all from Italy, had studied English for at least 3 years and had a proficiency level which was mostly A2 were very calm and no discipline problems and conflicts were observed among them. They were used to following traditional lessons during which they were attentive and often intervening and responded very well when they worked in pairs carrying out the tasks effectively and within the given time. Methodology The aims of this study were to focus on how the students opinions changed as they experienced their first cooperative activities, and if there was any difference in boys and girls answers. The method of data collection chosen was the anonymous questionnaire. It was preferred to other methods (e.g. oral interviews) because it could be given to students simultaneously and immediately after the cooperative activities, and it encouraged honesty from respondents, as they were able to write their comments freely, without being heard by any interviewer. Moreover, the questionnaires contained both open and multiple-choice questions and space for open comments, so students were asked to concentrate on some aspects of the experiment but could also add individual notes. Before the experiment which took place from March to June 2010 , students were given a general questionnaire, which asked them some information on how they liked studying, what type of lesson they preferred and what they thought about working together. The class experienced 3 cooperative activities once a month, and precisely in midMarch, mid-April and mid-May and after each activity a questionnaire was given, focusing on what they thought about the new type of lesson, the activity performed, the 204

way they cooperated, the results achieved and how they carried out the activities (e.g. problems encountered, positive aspects). The model of cooperative learning adopted was the Jigsaw (Aronson & Patnoe, 1978). The students received some learning material and were divided into small groups (of 5 people), in which each member had a different task (e.g. examining a part of the text). Those given the same task in each group formed new groups and worked together. After a given time they returned to their original group and exchanged the information they worked on in the expert groups, so that in the end all the members knowledge was shared in the whole group. In the cooperative activity in mid-March students had to read some short texts about sport and answer some questions about each of them. Then, as a final activity, they had to complete a table with some information which was to be found in each text. In the cooperative activity in mid-April the class had to read and understand some short texts about British pubs, examine one of them in each expert group, report them to their classmates in their home group and complete together a summary whose structure was already given about all the texts examined. In the last cooperative activity which took place in mid-May students received the text of a ghost story (The concert and the cold hands by Daniel Linder), in which the final was missing. Each student in each group received a part of it, they had to read and understand its meaning in expert groups and then they had to tell their part of story to the others and write a common final together. The cooperative activities performed involved different skills, such as reading and understanding (as students had to answer specific questions), looking for and organizing relevant information (students had to report their groups), speaking and listening (students could communicate only in English), note-taking (they had to complete a table), creative writing. After all the cooperative activities there was a plenary moment, in which all the groups compared and discussed what they found out. After the experiment the students answered another general questionnaire (in June), which was quite similar to the one given before the experiment. The students answers were examined and compared over time as well as according to the gender of the respondent, and integrated with the teachers comments, who observed the students behavior during the activities. Findings Results of the first questionnaire A questionnaire was given at the beginning of the experiment, in which students were asked some information about their favorite way of studying, their perception of group activities, the type of lesson they had experienced and their opinions about the teachers who proposed cooperative activities. Most students wrote they preferred studying on their own (68% - 40% boys and 75% girls) some in pairs (28% - 40% boys and 25% girls), few in groups (4% - 20% boys and 0% girls). In spite of their preferences, however, all the students wrote that they actually studied on their own (100%) at home. In the classroom most students preferred a traditional lesson (52% - 40% boys and 55% girls), a few preferred working in pairs (12% - 20% boys and 10% girls), and some others in groups (36% - 40% of boys and 35% of girls). They had experienced mostly traditional lessons and they had rarely worked in pairs or in groups in their previous school experience. However, when they had experienced group work, in elementary and middle school, most of them (87% - 87% of girls and 83% of boys) found it useful, fun and helpful although some students highlighted some negative aspects of working together, such as the difficulty in communicating and in sharing the work evenly. 205

Students also expressed their opinions on the teachers who proposed group work in the classroom: they judged them positively (54% - 80% of boys and 47% of girls), negatively (17% - 0% of boys, 21% of girls). The remaining 29% (32% of girls and 20% of boys) expressed a negative judgment if group work was proposed too often by the same teacher. Results of the first, second and third questionnaire Answers to the first, second and third questionnaire were analyzed and compared. As the questions were quite similar, the answers will be analyzed according to the aspect of the activity taken into account. - Perceived usefulness and appeal of the cooperative activity While after the first activity 92% of the students (90% of girls and all the boys) valued the cooperative activity in a positive way, describing it as both useful and pleasant, after the second and third activity all the students, independently of their sex, expressed their positive attitude towards the cooperative activities. - Preference of C.L. over traditional lessons 73% of the students (80% of boys and 63% of girls) wrote they preferred the cooperative activity than traditional lessons after the first activity. The majority of students in fact wrote that working with peers made the work more interesting, they were able to compare and share ideas, and they felt more autonomous in learning. On the other hand, the remaining 27% of students expressed their perplexity towards cooperative work because the concepts were not as clear as when explained by the teacher. The percentages however changed slightly after the second activity 85% preferred cooperative activities (100% of boys and 81% of girls) and considerably after the third, since all the students wrote they liked working in groups more than traditional lessons. - Perception of group work Some questions focused on the students perception of group work if all the members participated, if the decisions were taken together, if the roles of every member were respected and if any problems occurred. After the first activity students wrote they all participated, they respected their roles in most cases, they took decisions together and they had few problems, for example difficulties connected to the different pace every member of the group had in working with the material, and to the difficulty in speaking English all the time. They found it easy (82% of girls, 60% of boys) to work together, or quite easy (18% of girls, 40% of boys), but no student found it difficult. In the questionnaire after the second activity students wrote their participation and cooperation were higher, and they had fewer problems than in the first activity. Also their perception of the second activity was different: 75% of boys and 81% of girls wrote they cooperated more easily in second activity than in the first one, and the remaining 25% of boys and 19% of girls felt they worked together as easily as in the first activity. Very similar answers were given in the questionnaire after the third activity, thus showing that probably practice helps students feeling more comfortable and at ease in this type of task. - Perception of oneself The students perceived themselves in a positive way while working in groups for the first time, defining themselves as interested in the activity, relaxed, at ease, useful in the group at the same level of the other students, helping others and also helped by others. No negative comments were written. Very similar definitions of themselves were 206

written also in the second and third questionnaire, where students defined themselves as happy to cooperate, more considerate, more involved and more confident than the previous activities. No differences were found between boys and girls answers. Results of the final questionnaire At the end of the experiment students were given a final questionnaire about the cooperative activities carried out. Students wrote that their favorite way of studying new material was in cooperative groups (79%, of which 100% boys and 75% girls), followed by pairs (8% - 10% girls, no boys), traditional lessons (8% - 10% girls, no boys), and finally on their own (4% - 5% girls, no boys). Also their perception of the group work changed considerably from the first questionnaire, as the students defined cooperative activities in a much more positive way: 97% of them wrote the activities were useful, interesting, involving, and a chance to learn together and to be active in learning. Only 3% of them (4% of the girls but none of the boys) did not like this way of learning, and defined it a chance only to chat with friends and lose time. They perceived their performances in groups got better over time thanks to practice - as 75% of them, of which 90% of girls and 50% of boys, declared. They wrote there was more cooperation among them, they got more used to and at ease in cooperating and it was easier for them to respect their roles and the time limits. 90% of the students (all the boys, 73% of the girls) wrote they would like to perform cooperative activities also in other subjects, and not only in English, while the remaining 10% (made up all of girls) would not like to repeat the same experience also in other subjects, because in their opinion traditional lessons are clearer and more effective. From the teachers point of view The students behavior and attitude towards cooperative activities were observed by the teacher and they changed remarkably during the experiment. In the first activity students had some difficulties in moving around the class between home groups and expert groups probably not understanding the structure of the activity itself very well and in keeping their tone of voice under control which in some cases was quite high. Moreover, two groups out of five were not able to complete their tasks within the given time and therefore, to save time, they copied the other members answers without any discussion or explanation. Apart from these difficulties, no conflict of any kind was observed among students, and some episodes highlighted a start of cooperative spirit: when a member of a group had to go out of the classroom for some minutes, the other members of the group did not continue working but waited for him. In another case, a group of students which included a boy quite weak in English understood his difficulties and helped him spontaneously in carrying out the activity. The students reacted with enthusiasm to the second cooperative activity, during which they kept their tone of voice under control and they moved around between home groups and expert groups much more confidently. Moreover, all the groups finished their tasks on time and no one copied other students answers for lack of time. The positive reaction noticed in the second activity was confirmed also in the third one: students knew the structure of the activity better and showed no problem in changing groups and working together. Discussion As the questionnaires show, at the beginning of the study half of the students preferred traditional lessons at school, and all of them studied on their own when they were at home, 207

while at the end of the study their opinions were overturned: nearly 80% of the students declared they preferred studying in a cooperative group, while only 10% preferred traditional lessons. This change may be due to the simple fact that they experienced some cooperative activities in class once a month for 8 weeks a type of activity which had occurred very rarely in their previous school experience and they were not familiar with. Students therefore experienced a new way of learning, probably more active and involving than the one they were used to, and they may have liked the fact of working together, taking common decisions, learning actively from and with classmates. As the questionnaires after each activity show and as observed by the teacher, the students felt more and more at ease after every cooperative activity in carrying out their tasks, in respecting the time limits and in working together, which could mean that some practice is essential to understand and acquire confidence in this type of activity. Another interesting aspect which can be found comparing the students answers is that in the first questionnaire most students declared they had worked in groups very rarely, but in those occasions 87% of them liked the fact of working together. This perception was confirmed and reinforced also in the final questionnaire, where 97% of them wrote they found cooperative activities useful and involving. These answers could mean that first of all working together is an experience that students remember quite well also after time some of them wrote about working in groups in primary school and which most of them recall with pleasure. Moreover, the positive feeling associated with the experience of working together was confirmed and reinforced also after the study, with very enthusiastic comments from nearly all the students. Although working together seems to be enjoyed by almost all the students, only half of them judged in a positive way the teachers who propose cooperative activities, while the other half gave a negative judgment either in general or if group work was proposed too often by the same teacher. This comment may be due to the fact that traditionally teachers are expected to explain and give lectures, so if teachers make students work in groups, they may be seen as not doing their job. However, if boys and girls answers about this aspect are compared and percentages analyzed, some differences between gender can be highlighted. First of all, girls seem to be more likely to appreciate traditional lessons and teachers who give lectures instead of organizing cooperative activities: 47% of girls judged teachers who proposed cooperative work in a positive way (a much higher percentage of boys 80% had the same opinion), 21% of girls (but no boy) judged them negatively and the remaining 32% (20% of boys) also negatively, but only if cooperative activities were carried out too often. Also in other answers the girls in the sample seemed to be less enthusiastic and ready to work cooperatively than boys: in the final questionnaire 73% of the girls but all the boys wrote they would like to perform cooperative activities also in other subjects, and not only in English, while the remaining 27% of girls but no boy wrote they would not like to repeat the same cooperative experience in other subjects, since the teachers explanation is in their opinion clearer and traditional lessons are more effective. On the other hand, some similarities in boys and girls answers can also be found. In fact there were very similar answers in the way they perceived themselves during the cooperative activities as interested, at ease, relaxed and useful in the group , in the way they perceived group work the easiness in cooperating, the respect of time limits and roles and in the way they perceived cooperative activities as useful and appealing. Moreover, no difference in behavior between boys and girls was observed by the teacher while they were working together.

208

However, even though some similarities but also some differences between boys and girls answers were highlighted, further research should be conducted about the reactions towards cooperative activities, since the sample was small (25 students) and included 20 girls but only 5 boys. Conclusion This study, which focused on how the students opinions changed as they experienced their first cooperative activities, showed that after some practice the students judged cooperative learning as positive, and they felt more and more at ease and relaxed after every activity. This study therefore seems to fit in the long line of studies cited in this article, which highlight a general sense of positive perception of cooperative activities by the learners, although the extent of this positive perception varies from research to research. As one of the aims of the study was to establish if there was any difference in boys and girls answers, the results show that in some aspects their answers were very similar, in particular about the perception of themselves during cooperative activities, and of the group work. Some differences between boys and girls were found above all in the answers about the judgment of the teachers who proposed cooperative activities and on their opinion about cooperative activities in other subjects: boys seem more enthusiastic and inclined to work together than girls. Further research should however be conducted to confirm these data, as the sample examined was quite small. References Ahuja, A. (1994) The effects of cooperative learning instructional strategy on the academic achievement, attitudes toward science class and process skills of middle school science students. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University, cited in Tan, I.G., Sharan, S., & Lee, C. (2006) Group Investigation and Student Learning Singapore, Marshall Cavendish Intl Aronson, A. and Patnoe, C., (1978) The Jigsaw classroom, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Cowie, H. & Rudduck, J. (1988) Co-Operative Group Work: An Overview, London, BP Educational Service Jackson, B. (1994) Cooperative Learning: a case study of a university course in system analysis Educational and Training Technology International, 31(3), 166-179. McManus, S.M. and Gettinger, M. (1996) Teacher and student evaluations of cooperative learning and observed interactive behaviours The Journal of Educational Research, 90(1), 13-22. Mueller, A. and Fleming, T. (2001), Cooperative Learning: listening to how children work at school The Journal of Educational Research, 94(5), 259-265. Mulryan, C.M. (1994) Perceptions of intermediate students cooperative small-group work in mathematics The Journal of Educational Research, 87(5), 280-291. Sharan, S. (2000) 2000 by 2002: Recent research on cooperative learning International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education Newsletter, 19 (1), 2-15. Slavin, R.E. (1996) Research on cooperative learning and achievement: what we know, what we need to know Contemporary Education Psychology, 21(1), 43-69. Slesinski, C. (1998)The role of concepts, plans and enactment when cooperative learningis implemented for purpose of school reform. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Albany, State University of New York, cited in Tan, I.G., Sharan, S., & Lee, C. (2006) Group Investigation and Student Learning Singapore, Marshall Cavendish Intl

209

Tan, I.G., Sharan, S., & Lee, C. (2006) Group Investigation and Student Learning Singapore, Marshall Cavendish Intl. Whicker, K.M., Bol, L., and Nunnery, J.A. (1997) Cooperative Learning in the secondary mathematics classroom The Journal of Educational Research, 91(1), 42-48.

210

Enhancing English Vocabulary Learning Using SMS in Rural Areas Ebrahim Ezati A faculty member of Payam-e Noor University of Guilan E_ezati@pnu.ac.ir Kiomars Kimyayi Payam-e Noor University of Guilan k.kimyayi@gmail.com Abstract Today, wireless data communications in form of Short Message Service (SMS) have gained global popularity. In Iran, particularly in rural areas, students in junior high schools have little contact with English language. Most of the time, the English language class is the only means of exposure to English vocabulary. As a result, their used vocabulary for expression is very limited. On the other hand the use of mobile phones in Iran is increasing, with everyone having at least one mobile phone and SMS becoming the most common way of communication among different people. Therefore, this great technology is capable of being used as an educational tool. The action research undertaken in this study is carried out to investigate how SMS, which is a popular mobile application among students, is able to assist learners of English as Foreign Language (EFL) in vocabulary learning. The participants were 60 students in two classes of grade three of junior high school with elementary level of English as a foreign language. One of the classes was randomly selected as experimental and the other as control group. Previous to starting the research, an interview was performed for the experimental participants to get known that all had mobile phones and also could send and receive SMS. The phone numbers of all the participants were equally recorded. The researchers categorized the names of experimental group in their own mobile phones to ease sending process. First of all, to find out if there were significant differences between students achievement, a pretest was administered to both groups. Then during the time when the experimental and control groups were taking classroom lessons from the same teacher, simultaneously, the experimental group was receiving SMS-based teaching such as a word meaning in the form of text message and additional classroom teaching such as the meaning of the same word on the whiteboard. After that, posttests were handed out to both groups. It is worth mentioning that both the pretest and posttest were the identical modifications of Key English Test (KET). Finally, in this study, to determine the significant difference between the groups, an independent sampled t-test was employed and the results obviously showed that after receiving the SMS-based teaching, the experimental group performed better than the control group who had received additional classroom teaching. Keywords: EFL, junior high school, KET, m-learning, mobile phones, SMS Introduction Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) describes an approach to language learning that is improving daily through use of mobile devices. MALL is a subsection of both Mobile Learning (m-learning) and Computer-assisted language learning (CALL). Mlearning is rather a new concept. It is defined as a form of E-learning that occurs via portable devices. M-learning is a convenient way of sending and receiving information which is accessible anywhere. This ubiquity of mobile technologies makes it available for every student in each part of the country to have a good opportunity of learning. Its 211

concentration is on the mobility of the learner, interacting with portable technologies, and learning that reflects a focus on how society and its institutions can accommodate and support an increasingly mobile population (Wikipedia, 2011). Nowadays almost each person has a mobile phone. The high level of mobile phone ownership among middle school students gives me as a researcher a boldness to say that this is not an exception for students in rural parts of Iran. SMS is is one of the cheapest ways of communications among different people in different parts of Iran. Iranian people use this technology for many purposes frequently. Its common to send SMS in religious occasions, New Year, birthday and many other celebrations to congratulate people. Its also a way of notification, alert, announcement, and advertisement. So, Why not to use it for instructional purpose? A mobile phone is a ubiquitous device and it is so practical to use it in the teaching/learning process of rural students who are deprived from many other facilities of urban students. This action research investigated the junior high schools in rural areas indicated that while one or two students have PC or access to the Internet, majority of class owned at least one mobile phone. It is so frequent that always the teachers try to find ways to ban its use in class. Also, SMS sending and receiving is such a habitual act among the students that many times I as a teacher observed in the classes that since switching off mobile phones in my classes is a must, some students are able to type massages in their phones without looking at the keys like a professional typist while seemingly pay attention to the lesson! Therefore, this widespread use of these handy devices gave me the motivation of this new approach to utilize them for enhancing English learning among rural students. Literature Review Current surveys have indicated that employing mobile appliances and wireless handhelds in learning environments are so beneficial that allow for considerable obtainability of information networks by involving students in learning process in varied settings (Gay et al., 2001). In general, this mobility has three advantages: availability, practicality, and rapidity. Mobile phones turn out to be appropriate systems to learn English on the air by using SMS for delivering leaning content (Collins, 2005). Thornton and Houser (2005) elucidate an experiment in which utilized SMS to deliver English vocabulary and their meanings to their students at a Japanese university. They sent short lessons on single words to their students mobile phones three times a day. All the lessons introduced a word list every day and these words were reviewed secondhand within following lessons. Once every two weeks, students had quizzes and compared to control group that had same lessons in traditional methods on board or paper. The results implied that the SMS students productivity augmented twice the number of words learnt by the traditional students, and also SMS students grades were doubled in comparison with the students in control group. In another study, Song & Fox (2005) reported on a study that explored the role of SMS in English as second language (ESL) vocabulary learning for working adult learners. The study findings suggested that mobile technology improved the learners performance in their learning. Li (2009) undertook an action research to investigate how SMS assisted ESL student vocabulary learning as well as investigating students acceptance and usage of it. The study results revealed that SMS based vocabulary learning was able to enhance ESL students learning by adding flexibility and providing a stronger motivation for study. Looking at the disadvantages of mobile learning, Lee (2005) criticizes small screens, inconvenient miniature keypads, and limited battery charge as restrictive factors to 212

effective mobile learning. However, pros of utilizing SMS in educational contexts are greater than its cons. Lomine and Buckhingham (2009) regarding SMS benefits pointed out: Quick, discreet, to the point and inexpensive Can improve student motivation and retention Can involve students more actively/interactively Can contact any group or individual immediately Students can text in for help and advice No need for familiarization or training. Objective of the Study The purpose of this study is to explore the efficiency of utilizing SMS to reinforce teaching vocabulary of English as a foreign language to junior high school students of rural areas in Iran. The reason behind selecting English vocabulary as the content in this study has been many students low vocabulary knowledge. Methodology Setting This research was executed in two junior high school located in the rural regions of West Azerbaijan province in north western Iran, during the spring-summer seasons of 13891390 academic year (2010-2011). The names of villages are Qarebagh and Alikan with respectively 80 and 65 kilometers distance from Urmia city the capital of West Azerbaijan. Although, these villages are in underprivileged condition but have suitable access to and network coverage of the two famous mobile telecommunication system operators of Iran. Subjects Participants were 60 students in grade three of junior high school with elementary level of English as a foreign language who were randomly selected and classified into two groups of control and experimental. Previous to starting the research, an interview was performed which throughout it, all the participants declared to have mobile phones and could send or receive SMS messages. The phone numbers of all the participants were equally recorded. I classified the names of experimental group in my own mobile phone to ease sending process. Instrument I set my mobile phone organizer so that every day to remind me exactly at 5:00 p.m. for two weeks to send the experimental group two words and/or expressions with their meaning in Farsi. I was presented the meanings in Farsi language in order not to let comprehension problems arise, because as mentioned before the students, proficiency in English was low. Data Collection and Analysis In order to determine the efficiency of this innovative approach and the learning abilities of participants, pretests and posttests were carried out. A modification of vocabulary parts of Key English Test (KET) was used in pretest and posttest which were of equal difficulty level. Prior to the pretests, all the participants received classroom instructions from the same Teacher. Subsequently, posttests were administered to both groups, after the experimental and control groups had received SMS-based instruction and extra classroom instructions respectively. In this interval the experimental group received text messages containing the words and their meanings in Farsi. To increase validity of the tests, the 213

conditions of both tests (i.e. time allocation and other environmental issues) were identical as much as possible. Results The results given in this section are based on students marks obtained in the pretest and posttest. In order to determine whether or not there was any statistically significant difference between students achievement in pretest and posttest, two independent samples t-tests were carried out and the results are shown in Table 1 and Table 2. The mean of pretest scores comparing control group (= 23.47) with experimental groups (= 23.30) was negligible when the same traditional teaching used for both groups (Table 1). These results clearly indicate that before using the SMS-based mobile learning system, the amount of t = 0.167 and significance (S=0.868) doesnt confirm any considerable relationship. Therefore the results of both groups in pretest are nearly the same. On the other hand, an independent samples t-test based on the results of control and experimental has indicated a significant difference between the two groups (t = 6.640, p < 0.05) in favor of the experimental. Table 2 indicates that the average score of the control group was minimal after the receiving additional classes (M = 29.87, SD = 13.793). However, the average grade of the experimental group was significantly higher after learning English vocabulary via SMS. (M = 56.80, SD = 17.415). It is clear that there is a significant difference between the control and the experimental groups in terms of posttest marks. Also, the amount of t = 6.640 and the resulted significance (S = 0.000) are acceptable. Therefore, it can be concluded that the level of students regarding vocabulary learning has been enhanced after two weeks of SMS learning. Table 1: The scores of groups in pretest Group Pretest Control Experimental N 30 30 Mean 23.47 23.30 Std. Deviation 4.369 3.282 Std. Error Mean .798 .599 T-test t = 0.167 S = 0.868

Table2: The scores of groups in posttest Group Posttest Control Experi mental N 30 30 Mean 29.87 56.80 Std. Deviation 13.793 17.415 Std. Error Mean 2.518 3.179 T-test t = 6.640 S = 0.000

Conclusion This action research extends the advantages of mobile phones, which by now are utilized for communication and entertainment all over the world, to education. Its end product confirms the constructive support of SMS-based English learning. The efficiency of the SMS-based education in enriching vocabulary acquisition is easily comprehensible after observing the average grades which were 23.30 and 56.80 for the experimental group before and after the experiments respectively. Except for some minor problems in utilizing mobile devices like small screens or low battery life, students of this survey were in favor 214

of using this helpful technique for learning. Students gained considerable proficiency in remembering correct meanings of words after the experiment and the higher grades they attained from the posttest is a sign of this capability. Furthermore, utilizing mobile phones in educational settings helps instructors to prevail over the difficulties they undergo in order to motivate students to start studying. References Collins, T. G. (2005). English Class on the Air: Mobile Language Learning with Cell Phones. Proceedings of the Fifth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies. Gay, G., Stefanone, M., Grace-Martin, M. & Hembrooke, H. (2001). The effects of wireless computing in collaborative learning environments. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 13(2), 260-270. Lee, L. (2005). Using web-based instruction to promote active learning: Learners perspectives. CALICO Journal, 23(1), 139156. Li, Chun. (2009). SMS-based vocabulary learning for ESL students( MCIS thesis). Retrieved June 12, 2011, from http://repositoryaut.lconz.ac.nz/bitstream/10292/746/5/LiC_a.pdf. Lomine L. & Buckhingham C. (2009). M-learning: texting (SMS) as a teaching & learning tool in higher arts education. ELIA Teachers Academy 2009, Sofia Song, Y. & Fox, R. (2005). Integrating m-technology into web-based ESL vocabulary learning for working adult learners. Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE international workshop on wireless and mobile technologies education. Jhongli, Taiwan, IEEE Computer Society. Thornton, P., & Houser, C. (2005). Using mobile phones in English Education in Japan. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 21, 217-228. Wikipedia, Retrieved June 10, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLearning.

215

Teaching Potential of Mass-Media Concepts Eugenia Dubovikova Volgograd State University, Russia dubovikovaem@mail.ru Irina Yanushkevich Volgograd State University, Russia jairina@mail.ru Abstract The article aims at analyzing the teaching potential of mass-media concepts which help realize the students need in being informed. The informative core of the communicative situation is represented by the concepts event, fact, and news which are reflected in massinformative discourse. Mass-informative discourse is based on a presentation structure which is understood as a semantically and semiotically organized flow of speech, the goal of which is to implement effective influence on a person changing his/her behavior according to the needs of the speaker. The communicative act will be accepted as something informatively new if it has a presentable and cognitively convenient semiolinguistic packing; for mass-informative discourse it is manifested in the news concept. One of the main functions of news is accumulating data and shaping them in order to be processed by the humans mind. The semiolinguistic packing of these data when they function in mass-informative discourse may be called a presenteme. The combination of presentemes in the news structure provides a person with basic semiolinguistic parts of the discourse: time, place, participants, actions, primary assessment of the meanings conveyed. The presentemes possess the ability to influence the communicants; this ability stimulates developing of the discourse and communication, on the whole. The news concepts interpreted by the teacher by means of a set of presentemes can be of use in teaching practice when forming the language competence of students at different levels. Keywords: mass-media discourse, news concept, presenteme, language competence. Introduction The informative and communicative space of modern world represents the conglomeration of various knowledge both of the world and of the facts and events produced by man. This knowledge is a kind of socio- and lingua-cultural environment, created and reflected by an individual or a group of people, and then passed on to other people with the help of various communicative means. The basic means of doing this is speech consisting of a variety of texts, or one global text immersed into life (Karasik, 2010: 5) which is called discourse. In general communication it becomes wide-spread and acquires new specific features with which it differs from other types of communication in its capacity and a multi-level structure. That is why this type of discourse is called mass-informative. At present this type of discourse becomes a kind of prototype for political, religious, commercial and other types of institutional discourse, in other words, it can be called a dialogue between the power and the people. Mass-informative discourse is prepared in advance; it is admass and subject to censorship. Being integrative in its nature, it breaks up into a variety of subtypes and genres, which rapidly change in new communicative environment first and foremost in mass- media. 216

Since mass-informative discourse is related to valuable knowledge, it is axiological by nature and contains three forms of basic components eventful, factual and news-like which intersect and complement one another. The central concepts of these information layers are event, fact, and news; they represent the nucleus of the communicative situation which is reflected by mass-informative discourse. The paper is aimed at examining the basic semiolinguistic features and characteristics of the concepts mentioned above; at describing their integrative role in the formation of the presentation structure of mass-informative discourse, the latter depending on the individuals need in being informed about the surrounding world and the changes occurring in it. Context and Methodology While considering the semantics of the key concepts event, fact, and news we can easily figure out their presentational potential (see the markers in definitions): 1) event something that takes place and is being presented; an occurrence; a significant occurrence or happening; a social gathering or activity; (sports.) a contest or an item in a sports program; 2) fact information presented as objectively real; something having real, demonstrable existence; the quality of being real or actual; (law) the aspect of a case at law comprising events determined by evidence; 3) news information about recent events or happenings, especially as reported by newspapers, periodicals, radio, or television; a presentation of such information, as in a newspaper or on a newscast32. Indirectly the denominations of these concepts contain the potential of influence which is exposed through interpretation of real, actual, significant, final, through naming of the means and instruments of influence (newspapers, radio, periodicals, television, program, newscast), and through the communicative environment of influence having emotional connotations (contest, social gathering, social activity, happening, crime, case of law). The function of the concepts under study is evident it is informing the society. As far as the content difference is concerned, it is more vivid in the environment of massinformative discourse as a complex discursive unit. This environment defines the dominating nature of the event in the triad since, as T. van Dijk puts it (Dijk, 1998: 122), discourse in the wide meaning of the word is the complicated unity of the language form, meaning, and action, which could be best characterized with the help of the notion of a communicative event. E. Kubryakova stresses the importance of the approach used by T. van Dijk and its connection to pragma-linguistic and extra-linguistic factors of communication as it presents various and multilateral definitions of discourse as a specific communicative event, as an interaction (between the speaker and the listener). She argues (Kubryakova, 2000: 8) that discourse is not only a sequence of sentences but a semantic unity (cohesion) as well. In order to understand this cohesion, one has to be aware of the world, the situation, society, and to have some cultural knowledge. O. Dubrovskaya (Dubrovskaya, 2001: 102) uses the term complicated speech events when speaking about the connection between a language form, meaning and action in researching speech genres. In her opinion, complicated speech events filling in the most important areas of communication and reflecting national-specific cultural peculiarities are the basis of
32

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from INSO Corporation

217

speech genres realization. M. Kochkin states that the notion of a complicated communicative event is broader if we speak about mass-informative discourse because the latter can include such marginal genres as political caricature (Kochkin, 2009: 56). V.P. Rudnev studying the event concept (Rudnev, 2000: 143) identifies its hyperonimic status in relation to the fact. The author emphasizes the three constitutive elements of the event: 1) anthropomorphism, 2) modal coloring of the event, 3) its presentational or descriptive potential (a phenomenon can only become an event when it is described and presented as collated with the news concept). N.D. Arutyunova considers the event to be the concept which serves as a language indicator of non-objective meanings reflecting everything that is happening to the reality (be it a process, a situation, an action, a change, etc) (Arutyunova, 2007: 516-519). The author argues that event as a name is characterized by 1) relation to the life environment (unlike occurrence); 2) belonging to the mainstream of life (unlike the incident); 3) dynamics and culmination (having a point of implementing which can be recorded in social actions under specific conditions, unlike the situation); 4) having a scenario; 5) lack of control (unlike actions), 6) a weak structure (unlike purposeful actions); 7) integrity, and being distracted from the time period (unlike processes). But at the same time, the event comes in line with the fact because both of them are concrete, distracted from the time period, and included in semiotic context. In other words, fact is contrasted to event as being a logical concept, non-discursive, devoid of emotivity and personal meanings. Event unlike fact has a definite narration structure with the dynamics of its own, and involves observers and a specific context. The semantics of the word event includes modality stimulating the arising of new texts and expressing some definite attitude to the thing happened, unlike the absolutely neutral fact. Being discrete the event concept implies the possibility of breaking it up into smaller communicative acts in communication; e.g. an appeal as part of the court case; an interrogation as part of investigation. The term communicative act is described by V.V. Krasnykh as a functionally integrated excerpt of communication (Krasnykh, 1998: 180181) characterized by 1) a co-situation, i.e. the conditions of communication and its participants; 2) a context; 3) presupposition; 4) speech. Communication, thus, is considered to be the unity of three components: generation speech perception, each of them is equally important and meaningful. Now we can make a conclusion that the terms communicative act and complicated communicative event are interdependent. The conglomeration of such fragments of communication (or communicative acts) as speech in front of the voters, TV debates, and press conferences is a complicated communicative event of political discourse, namely, the election campaign. In the same way, a scientific conference (with participants presentations, discussions, banquets) can serve an example of a complicated communicative event of scientific discourse. Findings and Discussion As we can see, a very important component is missing if we understand a communicative event and a communicative act in the way stated above: to be functionally integrated the communicative act must be presented for perception in a certain way. A scene from life has to be understood by the person who perceives it; so, the conditions, participants (cosituation), place/time of the action, and speech coding should be cognitively presentable. The representability of a communicative act is only possible when it is perceived as something new. If we want a communicative fact or a communicative event to be perceived as something containing new information, we should provide it with an attractive semiolinguistic packing. In case of mass-informative discourse such packing is a news concept. It is the news that makes the event and the fact attractive and effective. 218

News is some new knowledge about the world which has just become known to a person and has begun to influence him/her in some way attracting his/her attention within the period of the day. This day-time period can be explained through peoples experience when people learn something new and separate it from the old. Day is a minimal time structure of the 21st century experience. However, new technologies (e.g. news channels and news Internet sites) have created a lower time threshold parts of the day, hours during which people are in the space of news and/or events. First and foremost for the news to be processed is the problem of the purpose for which the news content is made up. We single out two different types of purposes which can be called narrative goals (to make up a story) and sense goals (to make up sense). The narrative type of news implies that the audience themselves can impart sense to the news, and the newsmakers task is to select the most important news and to present the most detailed pictures of the events. The sense type of news implies that sense should be imparted to the news by the newsmaker as a separate component of the news content. The former type implies diversification in perception of the events and excludes the interpretation of sense of the news; the latter type implies both the diversification in perception and the interpretation of sense. In the narrative type of news the reconstruction of the whole picture of the event is based on the questions which the audience can ask while learning the news. In the sense type of news the presentation of the event is made by the journalist him/herself while missing parts of the information can be replaced by the interpretation of sense and deducing it from the information already known. One way or another, both types of news present the basis for discourse formation and make up a presentation structure of the mass information. The facts and events are presented as new due to the specific feature of news to accumulate and to structure the original information in peoples mind. Semiolinguistic unit of this presentation structure might be considered as a specific unit of discourse a presenteme33 that helps describe the systemic, structural and communicative processes taking place in discourse. The presenteme is thus the smallest unit of influence represented by a semiolinguistic (sign) complex denoting the images of the world and communicated to the participants with the purpose of influencing them. Then the process of communication can be viewed as a sequence of presentemes developing in time and space by means of words (discourse) and signs. The peculiarity of the presenteme as a complex sign is reflected in its complicated nature: on the one hand, it is a language sign or a combination of signs; on the other hand, it is a unit of communication that reveals the information contained in speech; the third part of the presenteme is the intention of the communicant exerting his/her influence on the audience, and this is the most important thing in the presenteme. We consider news as one presenteme or a combination of presentemes of different types. It can be a simple discursive element (a title in a newspaper or a magazine, a press-release, a news lead-in in radio- or TV news issues) and a complicated one (an analytical fragment of an article or the whole article; radio- or TV comments of a fact or an event made by an expert). The news is presentable in the sense that the important semantic components of its structure (those indicating time and place of the event, participants, actions or conditions, a primary assessment or analysis of the corresponding senses) are always presented first urbi et orbi. These components have an effective potential inculcated in them, and this potential initiates further development of the discourse, and communication, on the whole. In order to create and present the news it is important to choose an informative type of the news and the news facts. We distinguish between the following informative types of the
33

The term introduced by A.V. Olyanitch (Olyanitch, 2009).

219

news: 1) an event (the monitoring of a process); 2) a type of reaction to the event (the positions of policy makers, the analysis made by newsmakers); 3) numerical data (figures); 4) the experts assessment; 5) intentions, plans or statements; 6) a topic-based report; 7) new knowledge and its transmitters; 8) new people (ones talent as the news). There are standard structures of presenting each informative type of the news as well as there are target audiences. The presentation structure of the news includes the following necessary elements. Object informing for the largest target audience General structure: 1) a piece of new information; 2) its connection with the old information; 3) a prognosis. Event (talented people as an event) The whole audience is informed about the event and its consequences; the facts are told: a) the event participants reports; 2) the witnesses or observers reports; 3) the experts assessment and strangers attitudes. Monitoring of a process All the participants of the process are informed of its current condition and latest changes: a) what has already been told (the former process conditions); 2) what changes have taken place and what new characteristics of the process have been found out. Numerical data The target audience begins to trust the information supplied, namely: a) the data; 2) the degree of reliability; 3) assessments and analysis. New knowledge The audience is informed about the new knowledge: a) the old knowledge and its discrepancy with the facts or what it is limited with; 2) the new knowledge and the prospects of its development; 3) the specialists assessment of the new knowledge relating to the consequences or meanings. Subject informing for those who make decisions General structure: 1) a lead-in (or two leads-in); 2) a quotation; 3) a background. The reaction (the policymakers positions) the policymakers positions in politics or on the market are announced: a) a position; 2) a related object (or environment); 3) their position among other policymakers. The reaction (the newsmakers analysis) the context for choosing and making a decision is described: a) all points of view are announced (the policymakers position or the experts assessments); the points of view are compared and analyzed. The experts assessments the conception is changed; the old knowledge is confronted with the new knowledge. The assessment of the policymakers position: a) a thesis; 2) the comparing of different approaches; 3) the arguing of the optimum approach. The analysis of the situation: a) the point of the matter; 2) the traditional approach; 3) a new approach suggested. For those interested in this or that topic General structure: 1) an addressing thesis; 2) proving or explaining of it.

220

A special (thematic) report; a journalist investigation a topical matter is analyzed: a) the point of the matter; b) the circumstances and their assessment; 3) a prognosis. Standard spheres of information (culture news, high society chronicle, entertainment, curious things, sport, weather, etc.) standard news information is announced: a) an intriguing announcement; 2) a narrative authors discourse. Mention should be made of some weak parts in the structure of presentation of the news; they are the main hindrances in the achieving of communicative goals: a news pile-up lack of discriminating among object, subject and theme news as far as the place and structure of presentation are concerned; non-discriminating between the event news and the monitoring news, the policymakers positions and the experts assessment, the newsmakers analysis and the experts assessment; lack of corresponding structure of presentation for each type of news; the predominance of a newsmakers news presentation, often lacking subject, over the announcements of the policymakers positions and the experts assessment (the narrowness and underdevelopment of the factual and expertise bases with the newsmakers); a vague object of news presentation, the predominance of assessment over facts; the use of wrong reference words (for example, the word announce is used in relation to the expert while it is the policymaker who can announce his/her position; but it is the expert who can make an assessment, i.e. consider); lack of standard news attributes: relating the news to a proper type, pointing out the time and source of information, personalization (the person talked about in the news, the speakers name and status), the relating to the author, place, and destination. Conclusion Some conclusions can be made after all these things have been discussed. Mass-informative discourse is connected with values and is characterized by three types of basic components: event, fact, and news complementing each other. The concepts event, fact, and news are the informative core of the situation of communication which is reflected in mass-informative discourse. For a communicative act or an event to be perceived as something new they should have a presentable and cognition-friendly semiolinguistic packing. In case of mass-informative discourse a presentable packing can be the concept of news. The news packing makes the event and (or the fact) attractive for the audience. The speech unit representing such kind of packing is a presenteme. The combination of presentemes in the news structure provides a person with basic meaningful parts of discourse (participants, actions or conditions, primary assessment, etc.). The presentemes possess influencing potential for the discourse to develop into communication. All these characteristics inherent in the news concept can be of use in teaching practice when interpreted by the instructor-mediator through the appropriate set of presentemes. The mass-media concepts event, fact, and news underlying mass-informative discourse contain the whole range of clusters of information which can form language competence at all levels, from beginners to advanced learners. References Arutyunova, N.D. [, ..] (2007), : . . , , , 341 p. Dijk, N.A., van [, .., ] (1998), , available at: www.nsu.ru/psych/internet/bits/vandijk2.htm (accessed 10 April 2011). 221

Dubrovskaya, O.N. [ ..] (2001), , , , 236 p. Karasik, V.I. [, ..] (2010), , in : , , , pp. 5-19. Kochkin, M.Yu. [, ..] (2009), , , , p. 79. Krasnykh, V. [, ..] (1998), ? , , 352 p. Kubryakova, E.S. [, ..] (2000), , in , , : , . , , pp. 3-16. Olyanitch, O.V. [, ..] (2009), , , , 524 p. Rudnev, V.P. [, ..] (2000), . , , , 432 p.

222

Blended Learning in a Traditional Classroom Dr. Revathi Viswanathan B.S. Abdur Rahman University, India viswanathan.revathi0@gmail.com Abstract Language skills have to be taught in multiple learning settings for students to learn and use the skills effectively in real life situations. By providing a blended learning environment teachers would be able to promote language learning both within and beyond the classroom. An action research has been undertaken in a university where the author is currently working, to offer a blended instruction to engineering students for training them in technical English and communication skills. The training is provided through tasks in a traditional classroom and with the help of technological tools like Blog and Podcasts. The curriculum has been revamped accordingly to accommodate the integration of the use of technology with classroom teaching and this paper would discuss the way the program is being handled in a traditional classroom. It would further highlight the outcome of this action research and also suggest a recommendation for further research. Keywords: Blended Learning, Integration, Technological tools, Continuous assessment Introduction Teaching technical English to tertiary level students is a challenging experience to language teachers for various reasons. Firstly, students who are normally been exposed to general English at their schools, have no knowledge of technical English. Orienting these students to basic technical vocabulary is time consuming within a class. Secondly, students have no idea of applying technical English to learn their engineering subjects and need to be shown the significance of the course. In other words, English teachers are most often forced to show the way to apply technical English to learn the core subjects to students. Thirdly, it is quite challenging to maintain a good level of students motivation towards learning English on par with other core subjects. Finally, teaching in a traditional classroom set up pose various constraints to language teachers as they need to complete a rigid syllabus with in allotted class hours and train students for content- based examination (both are commonly found in Indian institutions). This often restricts teachers from training students in language skills in technical English. This results in poor performance of majority of students particularly in using the skills effectively in semester examination and real life situations. Thus it is evident that these students need to be given additional training. How could teachers provide such training? The most feasible option would be to offer additional training with the help of the advanced technological tools either within or beyond the classroom. Considering this option, an action research has been undertaken in an engineering college, where the author is currently working, to integrate technology with traditional classroom teaching in order to offer training in technical English and communication skills to students. It must be stated that these students receive instruction in traditional classrooms and have difficulty in using the language skills in real life technical scenario. In other words, it is felt that the instruction given within the classroom on technical language skills is inadequate for students to use them in real life situations. Hence, a blended instruction is given in order to expose students to authentic situations, in which technical English could be used, through Web 2.0 tools like podcasts and blogs besides classroom training in using language skills. Web Learning @Penn State, which offers Blended Learning Initiative and 223

Web Course indicates that a blended learning approach offers an integrated instruction by combining face to face classroom methods and computer-mediated activities. Moreover as Garrison & Kanuka (2004) put it, the word blend correlates with flexibility, responsibility and control given to students for their learning activities.(Eugenia, 2010). Students who have not been used to taking individual responsibility for their learning process would learn to monitor their learning and work towards better performance. Thus, in this action research, the classroom instruction focuses on developing reading and speaking skills and the online instruction on developing listening and writing skills among students. It is worthwhile to mention that this research work has adopted some of the features mentioned by Khan (2001) in his framework for e-learning. Khan suggests various dimensions such as pedagogical, technological, interface, evaluation, management, resource support, ethical and institutional in this framework. With regard to pedagogical dimension, our university has revamped the syllabus and chosen the blended instruction approach to teaching technical English and communication skills. The integration of podcasts and blogs into the syllabus has addressed the issue of technological dimension. With regard to evaluation, a continuous assessment pattern has been incorporated for monitoring students performance. The resource support is given by way of providing inputs through technical podcasts and web resources for developing writing skills focusing mainly on writing survey reports, writing instructions, checklists, recommendations to list a few. Being a deemed university, it has given the freedom to the language teachers to design learning materials and deliver them through classroom instruction and Web 2.0 tools like podcasts and blogs. Saeed et al (2009) believe that, With the creation of emerging web technologies such as blogs, wikis, instant messengers (IM), social bookmarks, podcasts and vodcasts, the web is transforming into a fully interactive space and the control of content has been decentralized to allow every one to collaborate, create, publish, subscribe, and share information.(p.98). Thus, the integration of Podcasts and Blogs in the current language curriculum is purposeful. The aim of this research program is to enhance students proficiency in technical English with the help of blended instruction. Accordingly, the research aims to achieve the following objectives: 1. To offer authentic technical vocabulary through technical Podcasts. 2. To develop listening skills among tertiary level students by providing web-based listening tasks. 3. To show the use of technical vocabulary in technical subjects through Podcasts. 4. To train students to use language skills in real life situations. 5. To develop students writing skills through web-based tasks provided in blogs. 6. To develop collaborative writing skills through classroom activities and blogs. 7. To prepare students for life long learning. Literature Review The emerging web technology offers many tools for promoting purposeful learning within and beyond the classroom. Lot of research studies have been carried out at tertiary level both on using web tools beyond the classroom for developing language skills and also on providing blended learning as a part of a language curriculum. To quote a few, the University of Nottingham works on a podcasting project in order to promote postgraduate students critical engagement with theory and research. The best aspect of this project is that students are given an opportunity to learn about the TESOL program by making them interact about TESOL-related topics, which is been recorded as podcasts. In a blended learning environment students are involved in using the web for responding to the podcasts 224

in a structured, supportive and safe virtual space which is nothing but three course blogs. Besides this students indulge in learning circles in the face-to face sessions too. The three course blogs have been created to help students share throughout the process, ie commenting on the learning circle discussions and also about podcasts.( Evison & Pemberton, 2009). Similarly, a research study was conducted in 2007 with 204 students in a web programming course in Swinburne University of Technology. The aim in conducting this study was to explore the learning styles of students on academic performance and see the variation in their learning styles when technology is integrated into the course. Considering this, a course blog, a social bookmarks page and audio/video casts (podcasts/vodcasts) of recordings of lectures were incorporated into the course. The blog was created to promote student feedback on teaching and learning issues and enhance collaborative work. In order to get the feedback, students had to reflect on the lecture that they had heard and indicate the problems or challenges they faced in the blog. They were encouraged to help each other online by posting solutions to queries posted by other candidates, and also publish their thoughts in the blog. The Podcasts provided recordings of lectures in the web programming course. Analysis of the outcome in blog postings showed correlations between learning styles and technology preferences of students. The study proved the fact that intuitive learners and sequential learners preferred the use of technological tools for learning thus proving the hypothesis that instructional technology was influenced by learners learning style. (Saeed et al, 2009). Universities in various countries do run blended learning programmes on regular basis. One such university is the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. It runs hybrids, courses in which a significant portion of the learning activities are handled online, thus reducing the classroom hours. Its main aim is to provide a combination of the best features of inclass teaching and online learning and promote active participation among students in their learning process. It is believed that the flexibility offered would promote self-directed learning opportunities for students. Vaughan (2007) in his Perspectives on Blended Learning in Higher Education speaks about high level of satisfaction drawn by students in time flexibility provided by this blended format. The above mentioned research studies and the ongoing teaching practices highlight the possibility of integrating technology in the language curriculum. This action research, which the author has taken up for discussion, also deals with the idea of offering blended learning in a traditional classroom but of course with a different perspective. As mentioned earlier, the aim of this research program is to enhance students proficiency in technical English with the help of blended instruction. This research study follows the learning theory advocated by Merrill (1994). Carman (2005) quotes Merrills (1994) Component Display Theory, which could be classifies as situational design theory. It believes that every learning situation (e.g., facts, concepts, procedures, principals, processes) corresponds with instructional treatments, which should necessarily be used for receiving good results. Effective treatments may include the appropriate use of examples, nonexamples, instructional animations, try it interactions, drill and practice flash card exercises and hands-on labs.(p.4). In this blended research design, major portion of technical English syllabus are being handled both within the classroom and online. Blended learning offers scope for combining more traditional formats and newer formats, which paves the way for finding solutions for learning problems. It also facilitates newer ways of learning to learners. (Byrne,2004). Considering this fact, the current research design is framed with the aim of providing additional input on technical English through Podcasts and Blogs to redress the gap that arises in classroom instruction.

225

Methodology The ongoing action research aims at preparing technical English students in using their language skills in authentic situations. The hypothesis of this research is, It is possible to provide a blended learning environment to students of traditional classrooms and help them to enhance their language skills. The students, who are exposed to this curriculum, are those who pursue their bachelor degree in the first semester in various engineering disciplines. As mentioned earlier, it is believed that students need to be provided more language inputs with the help of Web 2.0 tools besides classroom instruction and it could be achieved by offering a blended instruction in the second and third semester. This has led to revamping the syllabus to facilitate both types of instruction. With the syllabus focusing on developing all the four skills, students are trained to do tasks relating to those skills and technical vocabulary within the classroom and online. For example, technical topics such as energy conservation, pixel technologies, to name a few are initially discussed in the class before students are asked to listen to podcasts pertaining to those topics. Similarly, the method of writing survey reports, preparing checklists, writing a description of a flow chart are handled in the classroom before students work on web-based tasks posted in a blog. Thus the syllabus is framed in such a way that teachers are able to supplement a few web-based materials through podcasts and blogs. The purposes in using podcasts, as mentioned earlier, are 1. To provide inputs in technical English. 2. To motivate students to do online tasks that accompanies technical podcasts, to develop their listening comprehension. The related tasks include identifying true or false statements, gap filling exercises and note taking. 3. To expose technical vocabulary and their usage in authentic contexts presented in Podcasts. 4. To provide them inputs on technical subjects for preparing for making presentations. It is believed as Saeed et al (2009) put it, that Podcasts and vodcasts provide an innovative and exciting way for people to improve communication, collaboration and social networking (Ractham & Zhang, 2006) (p.99). The other Web 2.0 tool that has been integrated into the blended learning program is the Blog. We are aware, as Ferdig & Trammell (2004) put it, blogs facilitate the publication of knowledge, opportunities for subsequent reflection and analysis, and help learners understand the relational and contextual basis of knowledge, knowledge construction and meaning making. (Saeed et al, 2009,p.99). Students of this programme are initially given orientation to create an individual blog for academic purposes. Then, a few writing tasks like writing reports, preparing a checklist, writing a description of a flow chart (to list a few) are uploaded in a separate blog created by individual teachers who handle different classes. It is worthwhile to mention that teachers prepare practice tasks relating to the discipline that students belong. Students are asked to access them and post the completed answers in their individual blogs for the concerned teachers to view and evaluate answers. The reasons behind involving students in such online tasks are, 1. To expose students to the online reports to make them learn the format. 2. To provide hands-on experience to create and work in a Blog, thereby motivate them to contribute, to share ideas with others and publish their views online. 3. To encourage them to do collaborative work. For example, to prepare a survey report or minutes of the meeting, they were encouraged to work in groups and prepare them.

226

4. To teach them to use the web for learning purposes, thus preparing them for life long learning. The continuous skill based assessment pattern (that includes five tests and assignments) is followed in the curriculum. It must be stated that this evaluation pattern follows the framework advocated by Bloom(1956) that states the six levels of cognitive learning: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and evaluation. (Carman,2005). To explain further, the continuous assessment pattern is framed in such a way that while the grammar questions test students knowledge level, note-taking tasks test their comprehension level, the questions on writing a process description based on a flow chart test their application level and the questions on interpreting a bar chart test their analyzing skill. Similarly, the assessment done on students oral presentation on various topics assesses their level of synthesizing points and the questions on writing a survey report test their level of evaluating data and preparing a report. The above-mentioned continuous assessment is done both within the classroom and online, that is, while students speaking and reading skills are assessed in the class tests, their listening and writing skills are assessed online. The end semester examination comprises of a combination of all the four skills. So far a batch of students (550 students) has taken this new curriculum. It is worthwhile to mention that the results are quite encouraging, compared to the old system, which followed only classroom instruction and content based evaluation pattern. Findings and Discussion The concept of learning by doing is nothing new to students of this digital age and a blended learning program offers hands on experience to students in using the language skills in authentic situations. With quite a number of students (550 nos) passing out last year, the analysis of the effectiveness of the blended learning program has shown that out of 550 students, 1. 73% (401) of students have secured 85 % and above in Listening and Speaking Skills only. 2. 65% (357) of them have secured 80 % and above in the test conducted in Reading and Writing skills. 3. 88% (484) of the students have secured 90 % and above in the end-semester examination that included all the four skills. The analysis indicated that the performance of students in the end semester showed improvement, compared to the continuous assessment. The figure presented below gives a clear picture of the improvement in students language skills (which includes all four skills), particularly in the end semester examination.

227

Performance #students 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Continuous L. & S skills R & W Skills End semester All four skills 90% 85% 80%

As mentioned earlier, the results drawn from the analysis is encouraging. Similarly, considering the effectiveness of providing blended learning program, it has shown the following facts: 1. Students attitude towards learning in a blended environment is very encouraging, as they have participated with enthusiasm in doing all activities. The idea of posting completed tasks has motivated them to show improvement in their performance. This proves the fact that, Todays digital native students expect their learning environment to include technology because it is an intrinsic part of their lives (Lowes, 2009, p. 3). 2. Students have developed a basic knowledge of technical vocabulary and their usage. That is evident in their presentations made on technical topics, which form part of continuous assessment. Similarly, in written exercises like writing flow charts or process description, writing instructions, transferring information from a bar chart, to list a few, students have effectively used technical vocabulary. 3. The idea of publishing has made the majority of students to complete the tasks within the time given. 4. The freedom given to students to work in a relaxed atmosphere, without any compulsion of doing activities within the classroom has helped them to take the initiative to perform well. Further more, the continuous assessment pattern included in the curriculum has helped them to keep track of their performance. However, there are few constraints in training these students. Though majority of students are tech savvy, they exhibit some amount of limitations in using the web for learning purposes in general. They need to be repeatedly shown the significance of accessing the web tools and working with them. In that way, the introduction of continuous assessment has to some extent served as a driving force for completing the online assignments in time. The limitations in getting high-speed Internet connectivity in hostels pose another challenge to the inmates. Teachers most often encourage those students to complete the tasks within working hours. Though the students are exposed to doing the tasks online, quite a few students miss the opportunity to work in flexible hours. Considering the scope for further research, it is believed that research studies could be conducted on the feasibility of offering individualized online training to slow learners through advanced technological tools in a traditional classroom. 228

Conclusion It is worthwhile to mention that this attempt to offer a blended learning program has paved the way for teachers to involve themselves in material design. Teachers of our university have become very proficient in designing task-based modules. The hands on experience in integrating technology with classroom teaching have helped them to update themselves with latest technology. Further more, the blended instruction has helped students to focus more on language skills and also prepare them for life long learning by showing the advantage of using advanced technological tools like Podcasts and Blogs. References Akkoyunlu, B., & Soylu, M. Y. (2008). A Study of Students Perceptions in a Blended Learning Environment Based on Different Learning Styles. Educational Technology & Society, 11 (1), 183-193. Byrne, Declan (2004). Blended Learning. Training Reference. Retrieved from http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/blended_learning/bldacg1.htm Carman, Jared.M. (2005). Blended Learning Design: Five Key Ingredients, 1-10.Retrieved from http://www.agilantlearning.com/pdf/Blended%20Learning%20Design.pdf . Dziuban, Charles D., Hartman, Joel L., & Moskal, Patsy D. (2004). Blended Learning.Educause. Center for Applied Research.Vol.2004. Issue.7. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERB0407.pdf Evison, Jane., & Pemberton, Richard.(2009). TESOL Talk from Nottingham: Using Podcasts to Develop Criticality Amongst Postgraduate TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Students. Retrieved from http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/integrativelearning/images/File/Case_Studies_Volume _2/CS_Evison_Pemberton.pdf Eugenia, M. W. Ng (2010). A Comparative Study of Blended Learning Activities between Two Classes. Proceedings of Informing Science & IT Education Conference (InSITE). 307-314 Khan, Badrul H (2001).A Framework for E-Learning. Retrieved from http://BooksToRead.com/framework Lowes, Susan (2009). Blended Learning: Where Online and Face-to-Face Instruction Intersect for 21st Century Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from www.blackboard.com/getdoc/...8cf4.../K12_Blended-Learning_2011.aspx Saeed, N., Yang, Y., & Sinnappan, S. (2009). Emerging Web Technologies in Higher Education: A Case of Incorporating Blogs, Podcasts and Social Bookmarks in a Web Programming Course based on Students Learning Styles and Technology Preferences. Educational Technology & Society, 12 (4), 98109. Vaughan, N (2007). Perspectives on Blended Learning in Higher Education. International Journal on E-Learning, 6, 81-94. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp ?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ747810&ERICExtSearch_Sear chType_0=no&accno=EJ747810 What is Blended Learning? (2009)Web Learning @Penn Stat . Retrieved from http://weblearning.psu.edu/blended-learning-initiative/what_is_blended_learning

229

Student Perceptions of Language Learning with Facebook: An Exploratory Study of Writing-Based Activities Joseph M. Terantino Kennesaw State University, United States jteranti@kennesaw.edu Abstract This research-based article presents survey and interview data related to university students perceptions of a Facebook writing project, which was integrated into a beginning level Spanish course. The students perceptions of this project were collected in an effort to further define the role of social media in language learning and the resulting collaborative processes. Modeled in part after a previous survey-based study (SteppGreany, 2002), specific questions were designed to elicit responses related to the students perceptions of how using Facebook affected 1) the role of the instructor, 2) the nature of the language learning, 3) the interest level and relevance of the activities, 4) the students confidence as language learners and as users of technology, and 5) the nature of the collaborative processes that took place. Data analysis revealed that the students felt more connected to the instructor and other students after participating in the Facebook platform, and as a result more motivated to participate in classroom-based activities. The study also revealed a common theme expressed by the students that Facebook created a less restrictive environment for writing in Spanish, and it afforded an opportunity for more student-centered language production. The article ends with a discussion of lessons learned from this project and several practical implications for integrating social media into foreign language courses. Keywords: Facebook, language learning, social media Introduction Over the past few years the use of social networking services, such as Facebook, has expanded exponentially across the globe. Originally created strictly for the students of Harvard University in 2004, Facebook now has more than 600 million active users worldwide (Socialbakers Heart of Facebook Statistics, 2011). Because the Facebook platform is popular with university students and it is highly interactive and multidimensional, in a more subtle manner Facebook has also been adopted for purposes related to foreign language education (Damron, 2009; Mills, 2009a, 2009b, 2011; Roberts, 2009). As the number of these Facebook-related projects increases, it becomes essential that language researchers and instructors investigate how the platform of the social media affects the students language learning. Although extensive research and discussion have been conducted in foreign language education with regards to social networks and web 2.0 tools (Arnold & Paulus, 2010; Harrison & Thomas, 2009; Kern, Ware, & Warschauer, 2008; McBride, 2009), relatively little research has examined the effects of utilizing Facebook specifically for language teaching and learning. Among these projects some have reported benefits including: establishing a sense of community (Blattner & Fiori, 2009; Damron, 2009; Mills, 2011), developing socio-pragmatic competence (Blattner & Fiori, 2009), increasing motivation and learner engagement (Mills, 2009b), and developing writing skills in the target language (Roberts, 2009). In an attempt to continue defining the potential benefits and pitfalls of utilizing Facebook for foreign languages, this article reports on an exploratory study designed to gather 230

students perceptions of the integration of Facebook in a beginning level, university Spanish course. More specifically, the study focuses on the following components of the Facebook activity: the role of the instructor, the nature of the language learning, the interest level and relevance of the activity, the students confidence as language learners and as users of technology, and the nature of the collaborative processes that took place. Literature Review: The Effects of Social Media The Role of the Instructor Thus far, research that has investigated the role of the instructor in the Facebook environment has focused primarily on student-instructor relationships and the effects of instructor self-disclosure (Mazer, Murphy, & Simonds, 2007). Mazer et al., which is frequently cited in Facebook-related research, examined the effects of instructor selfdisclosure in their Facebook pages. They found that the students responded well to higher self-disclosure, reporting higher anticipated levels of motivation and a more positive classroom environment. More specifically in language learning, Stepp-Greanys research (2002) refers to teacher usefulness in the technology-enhanced environment. Her research indicates that the students strongly perceived that their instructors facilitated instruction and that they were important to the TELL environment. This finding implies that utilizing a particular technology for instructional purposes does not replace the instructor. It merely changes the nature of the instructors role. Inherently, when technologies are utilized educationally to create an online collaborative environment, the role of the instructor transforms to accommodate this new teaching space. Berge (1995, 1996) describes four dimensions, which encompass the modified roles of the instructor in this new environment: pedagogical, managerial, technical, and social. When applied to teaching foreign languages with Facebook these dimensions provide a framework by which to define and categorize the actions of instructors. Language Learning Skills In the 1990s there was a series of technology-based research, which investigated how the use of networked computers impacts the development of linguistic skills. For example, Beauvois work (1992, 1994, 1996, 1998) is indicative of this time period. Her research suggests that writing in a networked computer environment encourages increased student communication and more equal participation among the students (1992), which results in improved writing skills (1998) and reading skills (1994). Much of Beauvoiss research attributes these benefits to the less restrictive nature of the networked environment. Beauvois even attributes improvements in speaking skills to writing with networked computers (1994, 1998), suggesting that linguistic output from computer-mediated communication resembles that of oral output (1992). More recently, and related directly to Facebook, foreign language researchers have noted similar benefits related to writing skills and subsequently reading skills. Roberts (2009) found that the use of Facebook as an instructional tool aided in developing university students writing skills in the target language. In a semester-long study she implemented a series of 15 Facebook-based writing activities. Using the Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency rubric (STAMP), she measured modest improvements in the students writing skills and reading comprehension by comparing pre and post semester writing samples. Interest and Relevance Research related to social networking sites appears to support that these sites can be beneficial for increasing students levels of motivation by creating greater interest in the 231

course. A notable study conducted with Facebook, Mazer et al. (2007), describe how students perceived similarities between the students and the instructor via personal information shared in Facebook. As a result of this forged relationship, Facebook may contribute to student comfort and ultimately better learning outcomes. This is also supported by Hewitt and Forte (2006), who indicate students were comfortable while communicating with faculty in Facebook. Similarly, studies have found that students who accessed instructors sites reported higher levels of motivation (OSullivan et al., 2004), and this increased motivation may carry over to the classroom as well (Mazer et al., 2007). In foreign language education, Mills (2009a) implemented a French writing project in which students pretended to be tenants of a Parisian building. Each student developed a character and played the role of that character in Facebook. Throughout the project Mills examined the impact of using Facebook on motivation and learner engagement. Her results indicate the students enjoyed the Facebook assignment (11 of 13 students agreed). In addition, most admitted that the use of Facebook was valuable to their French learning experience. In the students own words, using Facebook makes the class more fun and applicable, it also enhanced class discussion, and it made French more interesting. Students Confidence Levels Stepp-Greany (2002) is one of the few studies to investigate foreign language students perceived confidence levels with regards to their language learning and their use of technology. In this study, which investigated the effects of immersing students in a technology-enhanced language learning environment, it was found that 72% agreed to gaining confidence in completing technology-based activities, and 54% agreed to gaining confidence in their ability to use the technologies. These results further supported the work of Beauvois (1994), which reported that students gained confidence in their reading skills, and as a byproduct they gained confidence in their speaking skills. Establishing a Sense of Community Several researchers have discussed the potential for Facebook to establish a sense of community in foreign language courses (Blattner & Fiori, 2009; Damron, 2009). In particular, in Damrons article (2009), the editor of ACTFLs Language Educator indicated that social networking sites such as Facebook offer a dynamic tool where students create a sense of community that extends beyond the classroomas well as an opportunity to use the language they are learning and practice intercultural communication. Aside from these theoretical discussions, actual research investigating the role of Facebook in establishing a community of practice for language learning has been sparse. To date, Mills (2011) is one of the few studies to investigate the role of Facebook in establishing a community of practice. Mills describes the use of Facebook by an intermediate French class to develop a collective narrative. Her study reveals that the use of Facebook for foreign language instruction appears to aid in establishing a sense of community among the students and the instructor. By applying situated learning theory as an analytical lens for viewing the Facebook-based interactions, she further defines this sense of community in terms of commons interests and collective goals (joint enterprise), mutual engagement in the activity, and shared artifacts, resources, or points of reference (shared repertoire). Likewise, research outside of foreign languages also appears to suggest that utilizing Facebook may aid in establishing a sense of community via relationships among the students and the instructor (Hewitt & Forte, 2006; Mazer et al., 2007).

232

Methodology Description of the Spanish Facebook Activities The primary goal of introducing Facebook in the Spanish course was to promote interpersonal communication among the students in the target language. To accomplish this, two principal activities were implemented. These writing-based activities included an autobiographical profile and a family picture narrative. Initially, the students were asked to enter basic information about themselves in Spanish, including a written description of themselves, their university, and their daily life. For this purpose, Facebook was a good fit, because much of the basic information included in the Facebook profile is related to material that was previously covered in the course: la escuela, la universidad, el empleador, and la informacin bsica. After the students had completed their profiles, they were asked to friend the instructor and the other students in the class so that they could begin posting target language messages on each others pages. Later in the semester the students were asked to create a Facebook photo album including pictures of their family members. The students were encouraged to use real pictures or videos; however, fictitious family pictures were allowed. For each family picture the students wrote a three sentence description. Of particular importance for this writing assignment were family vocabulary, descriptive adjectives, and possessives. In addition to the two principal assignments described here, the students were also required to update their status at least once a week, comment on other students statuses, and post questions, pictures, and videos related to other coursework. The Study After being piloted and subsequently revised in the fall semester of 2010, the Facebook activities were implemented in a beginning level Spanish course for the spring semester of 2011. At the end of the semester a survey was administered to the students. All 26 students completed the survey, which was designed to elicit responses related to the students perceptions of how using Facebook affected their language learning. Specifically, this data was collected to answer the following questions: 1. How do students perceive the role of the instructor when participating in the Facebook platform? 2. What is the nature of the perceived effects that using Facebook has on language learning? 3. Do students perceive the Facebook-based activities as interesting and relevant to their language learning? 4. How do students perceive the effects of using Facebook on their confidence as language learners and users of technology? 5. How do students perceive the nature of the collaborative processes that take place in Facebook? It is important to note that this research was exploratory in nature. Aside from a studentcentered approach, no existing theoretical framework was applied in the collection or analysis of the data. However, the survey administered in this study was modeled after a previous survey-based study (Stepp-Greany, 2002), which examined students perceptions of language learning in a technology-based environment including the use of multimedia. Using a five-level Likert scale the students were asked to rate 50 statements according to their level of agreement: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or strongly agree. The statements were designed specifically to elicit the students general perceptions related to 233

the following five areas: 1) the role of the instructor, 2) the nature of the language learning, 3) the interest level and relevance of the activity, 4) the students confidence as language learners and as users of technology, and 5) the nature of the collaborative processes that took place. Last, the survey was created as a Google Doc and hyperlinked in Facebook to provide easy access to the students. After the survey-based data was tabulated, seven students were invited to participate in a follow-up interview. Convenience and criterion sampling methods (Patton, 1990) were utilized to select the interview participants according to their availability and accessibility (Stake, 1995). These individual interviews were open-ended and semi-structured in nature (Rubin & Rubin, 2005). Several questions were prepared beforehand; however, the student participants were also able to discuss their unrestricted thoughts and feelings. Each interview lasted approximately 30 minutes and was recorded using a digital voice recorder. Consequently, the procedures for data analysis of this interview data drew heavily from the work of Miles and Huberman (1994, pp. 10-12), which describes qualitative data analysis in three phases: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification. Throughout the review of the interview transcripts these phases were treated as cyclical processes. Findings and Discussion Upon analyzing the students perceptions of utilizing Facebook for completing a series of Spanish writing assignments, this study identified several poignant trends in the students responses. In the following discussion these findings are reported as percentages of the total number of participants (n=26). A copy of the survey and the tabulated results are included in the Appendix. In addition, results from the follow-up interviews are presented and discussed as they relate to the survey-reported perceptions. The Role of the Instructor More than 80% of the students agreed or strongly agreed the instructor interacted with the students in Facebook during the writing assignment, and more than 61% indicated the instructor provided linguistic feedback. In addition, more than 92% agreed they were able to complete the assignment without assistance from the instructor; however, 15% indicated the instructor helped them set up the Facebook account. When one student was asked to describe the role of the instructor in the Facebook environment she replied: I think its neat to have the professor online in Facebook with us. He was there to help us when we needed help, like when I needed help understanding some of the Facebook directions in Spanish. But, he also participated in the posts like he wasnt trying to just give us a grade all the time. It kind of brings him down to our level, like hes not just a teacher. I think I probably know things about him, and he knows things about me and other people, that we wouldnt know just from class. With regards to establishing this type of relationship with the instructor, more than 80% of the students agreed (50% strongly agreed) they were able to know the instructor better in the Facebook platform. Over 57% agreed they may maintain contact with the instructor via Facebook after the course ends. However, indicating whether they would maintain this contact in Spanish produced more balanced results among the students. Approximately 42% disagreed, 35% agreed, and 23% were neutral. For example, a student made the following comments when asked about maintaining contact with the instructor via Facebook after the course ends: 234

I would like to maybe keep in contact with the professor after this class ends, but I dont know about doing it in Spanish. I think I would probably want to ask him questions about my next class, especially if I cant get into his class, but I would do that in English. But I mean, if I have to use Facebook again in my next class I wouldnt mind. It was kind of fun. Discussion Examining the students perceptions on the role of the instructor in the Facebook environment further revealed the multi-faceted nature of the instructors responsibilities in online teaching as previously promulgated by Berge (1995, 1996). The results of this study indicate that the students did perceive the instructor as having multiple roles. Of emphasis are the results related to the technical and social roles of the instructor. Judging by the students perceptions of the instructor in this study, there was less emphasis on the instructors role to provide technical assistance. Some students admitted needing help to set up the Facebook account; however, this was related primarily to navigating the Spanish commands and directions. Not needing technical assistance could be due to the fact that Facebook is widely used by the student population; therefore, the students began the activity with existing knowledge of the platform. For example, in several cases the students were able to augment the initial activities designed by the instructor by interjecting alternative capabilities of Facebook. In this manner most students were able to demonstrate their own level of expertise with Facebook. The students also appeared to value the social presence of the instructor in Facebook. A few students commented how they appreciated the instructor coming down to their level to participate in Facebook discussions. Again, this result pertaining to the social relevance of the instructor seems to support previous research (Mazer et al., 2007; OSullivan et al., 2004), which highlights the potential benefits of establishing student-instructor relationships via social media. The Nature of the Language Learning Time Invested With regards to the amount of time invested, over 57% of the students agreed they put more time into completing the Facebook writing assignments than they would have a traditional writing assignment (approximately 27% disagreed). In addition, 41% indicated they returned to Facebook to read and post more than was necessary to complete the assignments (19% disagreed). This was evidenced by the shear amount of writing that was posted in Facebook unrelated to any assigned activity. Much like in normal, daily Facebook activity, the students frequently visited other students pages, reviewed their updates, and posted target language messages about a variety of topics. All of this extracurricular target language writing was done voluntarily, not at the request of the instructor. One student indicated: I know I wrote a lot more than I had to, but there is something about Facebook that makes you want to read what everyone posts and then you have to like make a comment on it. Normally, you dont do that with a paper or something. Maybe you do some research or something, but then you just write, turn it in and wait to get it back. On Facebook everything you write is like there immediately and everyone can read it. Then, you read other peoples posts and write back to them. Its like a never-ending cycle of reading and writing. I guess thats why he had us do it.

235

Continuing with this idea of the never-ending cycle, more than 65% of the students indicated they will continue to monitor their Spanish Facebook site after the course ends. The results for monitoring Facebook after the course ends (65%) were slightly higher than the previous statement for maintaining contact with the instructor after the course ends (57%). Discussion The results for the amount of time invested by the students in the Facebook environment of this study appear to support the premise of willingness to communicate described by MacIntyre, Clment, Drnyei, and Noels (1998). As the authors suggest willingness to communicate describes how language learners, who are willing to communicate, will seek opportunities to communicate in the target language. In this case it appears that the Facebook platform provides an outlet, and perhaps motivation, for this willingness to communicate to be exercised. Language Skills Approximately 88% of the students reported they learned a lot by participating in the Facebook activities. More specifically, the students agreed that they improved their writing skills (88%) and reading skills (73%). Likewise, 73% reported learning about grammar and vocabulary. 69% perceived learning more than a traditional writing assignment. When asked to describe more specifically what he learned from the activities, one student responded: What did I learn? Its hard to describe because I feel like I learned a lot. Obviously, I learned about writing sentences better from completing the autobiography and the picture descriptions. But even after those I was constantly reading what other people wrote and I was able to see mistakes that they made. I even corrected a few people, but then I would make the same mistake, so a couple of times I even corrected myself after I posted. Although error-correction was not an explicit goal of the Facebook activities, as described by the students in the follow-up interviews, it became a natural outcome for some of the students. Conversely, other skills that were not emphasized in the Facebook activities, such as listening, speaking, and culture, were not perceived to have been learned in the same manner. For example, 84% of the students indicated that completing the Facebook assignments did not improve listening skills. 96% indicated it did not improve speaking skills. In addition, there was a more balanced distribution for learning culture. 50% disagreed, 35% agreed, and 15% were neutral. Discussion As would be expected for a writing-based project, the students indicated they improved most in areas related to writing (88%) and subsequently reading (73%). This may be attributed to the amount of time spent focusing on writing and reading for the Facebook activities. It may also be possible to associate this occurrence indirectly to the idea of time on task in language learning as a benefit (Fredrick & Walberg, 1980; Gass & Varonis, 1994). In this case there appears to be a connection, at least perceived by the students, that the amount of time spent writing and reading in Facebook contributed to improving their writing and reading skills in the target language. Furthermore, as an extension of this time spent writing and reading in Facebook, the students also reported being able to self-correct. This was evidenced by students in their 236

interviews and by the 73% who reported learning about grammar and vocabulary. However, the students did not report being able to carry this experience over to their speaking and listening skills. This finding contradicts what was previously reported by Beauvois (1994). For the purposes of this study, it is important to note that during the class no explicit links were established between writing and reading and speaking and listening. Perhaps, the students were unable to make this connection on their own. The Interest Level and Relevance of the Activity A majority of the students (88%) reported that using Facebook made the course more interesting (57% strongly agreed). Likewise, 73% of the students indicated they enjoyed using Facebook for the writing assignments, and 76% agreed they would take another Spanish course that used Facebook (69% strongly agreed). When asked what she thought was interesting about working in Facebook, one student commented: Honestly, using Facebook for the class made me want to participate more because I use Facebook so much outside of class. Why not use Facebook for class? It was kind of like class and Facebook blended together. It was pretty interesting, every day I would come to class and people would be talking about things that were posted on Facebook. Everybody knew what was going on. Beyond finding the Facebook activities as interesting, 80% of the students indicated they enjoyed the Facebook writing assignment more than a traditional writing assignment. Furthermore, if given a choice between a Facebook-based writing assignment and a traditional writing assignment 88% agreed they would choose a Facebook-based assignment (73% strongly agreed). Last, there was a more equal distribution among the students for the relevance of the Facebook-activities in consideration to their real-life needs for Spanish (42% disagreed, 35% agreed, and 23% were neutral). Discussion Based on these results it was clear that the students perceived the Facebook activities as interesting and as an extension motivating. This may be a byproduct of establishing a sense of community for the class, which Mills (2011) describes in terms of mutual engagement. Anecdotally, the instructor also noted there was a significant difference in the apparent level of excitement on behalf of the students when they began working in Facebook. Based on this research alone it is difficult to determine to what extent the novelty of using Facebook for foreign languages or the sense of community that was established as a result impacted the students perceived interest levels. On the contrary, the students perceptions related to the relevance of the Facebook activities were not as favorable. In fact, only 35% of the students noted the Facebook activities as relevant to their real-life needs in Spanish. Again, it is important to note that relevance is not easily defined in the context of this study. For a more in depth understanding of this result it would be necessary to further delineate the students perceived real-life needs. The Students Confidence as Language Learners and as Users of Technology In response to the questions about gaining confidence a majority of the students reported feeling more confident with regards to specific linguistic skills. For example, 76% agreed they had learned how to find the meanings of words or phrases that were difficult to understand, and 61% felt more confident about learning independently. 61% of the students also gained confidence in their ability to do Spanish language activities. More 237

specifically, the students reporting feeling more confident about writing (69%) and reading (69%) in the target language. In addition, similar to the results reported previously in the section related to language skills, a majority of the students did not feel more confident about speaking (84%) and listening (65%) in the target language. Aside from gaining confidence about their language learning abilities, 57% of the students felt they had gained confidence in their ability to use technology. 84% disagreed about being frustrated by using Facebook to complete the assignment. This was further evidenced by students in the follow-up interviews. In particular, one student described his confidence level with regards to using Facebook: I didnt realize it, but yeah, I did get more confident towards the end of the semester. I wouldnt say I was more confident about Facebook because everyone already knows how to use Facebook, but I thought it was easier to read everyones comments on their pages. I guess its like learning to read as a kid. The more you do it, the better you get. Maybe I felt more confident about using Facebook in Spanish, which I never would have done before doing it in this class, but other than that Facebook is what it is. This students nonchalant view of using Facebook was also reported by the students with regards to using the internet and a computer to complete the assignment. 80% disagreed about being frustrated by using the internet and a computer to complete the assignment, and 80% disagreed about being frustrated by completing the assignment via Facebook. Discussion With regards to the students perceived confidence as language learners it appears that completing the Facebook activities had a positive effect on writing and reading skills; however, as described previously this did not carry over to speaking and listening skills. Overall, the findings related to the students confidence levels are comparable to SteppGreanys (2002) investigation of students perceptions of a TELL environment. Although only 57% of the students in this study reported gaining confidence in their ability to use technology, an overwhelming majority indicated they were able to use Facebook for language learning with relative ease. This may indicate that students already feel confident about using Facebook because it is widely used by college-aged students (Lenhart & Madden, 2007). It may also indicate that using Facebook has become normalized in society for this age group. Bax (2003) describes the normalization for technology as a process in which the technology is integrated to the point that it becomes expected as a component of the activity. It could be argued that the use of Facebook has reached normalization in society; however, it has not been normalized in the context of language learning. In the context of this study, it appears that the students were able to transfer their existing knowledge of Facebook into the educational setting for their language learning purposes. The Nature of the Collaborative Processes The results of this study indicate an increased ability on behalf of the students to communicate in the target language with other students via Facebook. 88% agreed Facebook provided an opportunity for them to interact with their classmates, and 69% indicated they interacted a lot with classmates. 76% agreed they interacted with classmates

238

more than they would have for a traditional writing assignment. One student explained this disparity between using Facebook and traditional writing assignments: It was more about us in Facebook. Personally, I did what I normally do in Facebook, but I did it in Spanish. I think I probably read what other people had written and posted more than I would have if we just turned in papers. Sometimes professors make you read someones paper to give feedback, but even then you only usually read one paper. With Facebook its like you read 20 to 30 papers every day. And Facebook is so easy to use so you just respond right then and there to what you read. If I had written a paper to turn in I never would have done that much work. In response to questions about sharing information via Facebook, the majority of the students indicated positive perceptions. 65% indicated they learned a lot about their classmates in Facebook. In addition, the students appeared to enjoy this type of interaction. 65% of the students reported that they enjoyed reading about their classmates, and 69% enjoyed posting information for others to read. Last, 53% indicated they would continue to visit Facebook to read and writing in Spanish with classmates after the course ends. When asked what made using Facebook enjoyable, one student responded: I think I liked it because I got to know everyone better. This helped because when you went to class you knew the other students. In some classes you just go and sit minding your own business because you dont really know anyone. Using Facebook kind of forced us to get to know each other and then we you went to class you already knew stuff about everyone. It helped with group work in class too, because it was easier to find group members. In addition to enjoying the additional opportunities for interaction provided in Facebook, the students did not appear to be concerned with issues related to privacy or security. 65% disagreed that Facebook is for personal use only. 84% disagreed that using Facebook invaded their privacy. However, there was an even distribution for agreeing to the statement, I would rather do an individual writing assignment in which my classmates did not read my submission. 54% disagreed and 46% agreed. This divided perception was further evidenced in one of the follow-up interview responses. One student indicated the initial desire to keep her writing private and not share it with other students: I am not going to lie, I was a little nervous about having other people read what I wrote for class. I just know my Spanish is not the best and I dont want to be embarrassed when other people are writing so much and here I am barely writing sentences. The only good thing is some of the people who read my stuff gave me tips about fixing certain things. Discussion Based on the results of this study the students indicated that Facebook provided opportunities for them to interact with each other in the target language. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that the students enjoyed these interactions. In a more subtle manner, the findings also hint at the ability of Facebook to assist in establishing a sense of community online which may also carry over to the classroom. This finding corroborates the work of Mills (2011) in which she describes how university French students were able to forge relationships using Facebook by sharing student posting and profiles. Similarly, in 239

the context of this study the students described a sense of community and collaboration, which was promoted through discussions, messages, and comments in the target language. It appears that this was supported in large part by the Facebook environment, which enabled more multi-dimensional linguistic experiences. Conclusion Pedagogical Implications This study found that instructors maintain an active role in the Facebook environment; however, the nature of this role is less clear according to the students perceptions. For this reason the following pedagogical implications are divided according to Berges four categories related to online instruction: pedagogical, managerial, technical, and social (1995; 1996). Grouping the pedagogical implications according to this framework may further elucidate the specific duties of the foreign language instructor in Facebook. First, when considering a pedagogical approach in the Facebook environment, it is important to align the intended activities with a specific teaching method. This will allow creating and instituting future Facebook-based projects in foreign language courses that reflect sound teaching principles. For example, the use of social media in education often reflects teaching principles associated with social constructivism (Bruner, 1960, 1966; Vygotsky, 1962, 1978) and student-centered curriculum. Ensuring that the defining characteristics of the intended teaching method are integrated in the activity may help in developing more effective activities. Aside from aligning with a teaching method, the results of this study also highlight the need for integrating speaking and listening components in the Facebook environment. This could be accomplished by utilizing more multimedia. Second, in terms of managing the Facebook environment, privacy and security remain important issues. Although research has established that self-disclosure in Facebook may be beneficial to establishing relationships with the students (Mazer et al., 2007), it is still essential to filter the information that is posted online by the instructor and the students. Instructors should approach self-disclosure in the same manner they would in a face-toface class setting. In addition, security measures are needed to ensure that all texts, pictures, and videos created and posted online are appropriate for class viewing. In many cases this could be handled with a simple student conduct agreement, which reflects the general expectations of the educational institution. Third, it would be beneficial for instructors to create technical instructions for the students to follow when creating their Facebook account and completing the assignments. Although the students may not need a lot of technical assistance in the Facebook environment because it is a mainstream and widely used too, this research has demonstrated that several students struggled with comprehending and following the Spanish commands and directions provided in Facebook. Furthermore, in some cases it may be necessary for instructors to receive some technical training prior to implementing a Facebook-based learning activity. This would further develop the instructors ability to respond to the students technical needs. Last, with regards to the social duties of the instructor in the Facebook environment, it is important that they support and encourage student participation and interactions online. In addition, it is equally important that the instructors participate as members of the Facebook community. The perceived benefits as illustrated by this study highlight the positive influence that instructor participation has on student motivation and interest.

240

Recommendations for Future Research Under the guise of an exploratory study, the current article presents research framed by the five broad categories under examination: the role of the instructor, the nature of the language learning, the interest level and relevance of the activities, the students confidence as language learners and as users of technology, and the nature of the collaborative processes that took place. Based on this loosely applied structure, the research findings are limited in the depth of understanding they reveal. To achieve a more thorough understanding of the language learning which occurs in Facebook, future research should include a more systematic review utilizing a theoretical framework. Based on the highly social and collaborative nature of Facebook and the possible language processes that take place in this environment, an appropriate choice for theoretical framework would be Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky, 1962, 1978) or Activity Theory (Leontev, 1978, 1981). Aligning future research with such theoretical frameworks would further promulgate the idea of language learning as a social process, and it offers the potential to emphasize the interplay between the external and internal processes involved in language learning (Johnson, 2004). Aside from applying a stronger sense of theoretical framework, future research should also examine the effects of integrating more authentic materials including that of multimedia. Facebook offers a variety of video and audio posting options that can be utilized for foreign language courses. This would also allow researchers to investigate the effects of using Facebook on students listening and speaking skills. As noted in the findings of this study the students did not perceive any improvement in these linguistic areas. Similarly, it would be practical to further investigate the use of Facebook according to the use of specific tools in the platform. Additionally, it would be useful to measure student achievement in specific areas. Concluding Remarks The findings of this exploratory study offer an initial look at how the students perceive the use of Facebook for learning a foreign language. In particular, the study notes that the students attribute an active role to the instructor in the Facebook environment. The students also report positive effects on their writing and reading skills and their confidence related to these skills, which may be a byproduct of the amount of time invested and the increased levels of interest and motivation reported. Last, the students indicated that Facebook enables student interaction in the target language and that this interaction assisted in generating student relationships and a sense of community, which extended to the classroom as well. With these findings in mind, it is important to remember that this study reports on an isolated context, which may not be representative of all foreign language courses. For this reason, combined with the fact that the study relies extensively on self-reported data, the findings of this research are not readily generalizable to other contexts. Regardless, the results do provide a rich and valuable description of the students perceptions of language learning via Facebook. Furthermore, this study may serve as a starting point for future research. In closing, it is essential to highlight that a piece of technology itself is not a solution to teaching (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). Utilizing Facebook in a given language learning context is not necessarily the ultimate solution. This study demonstrates several advantages and potential concerns. However, to fully understand the potential of this relatively new and innovative technology more instructional examples need to be presented and more research and pedagogical discussions need to be conducted.

241

References Arnold, N. & Paulus, T. (2010). Using a social networking site for experiential learning: Lurking, modeling and community building. Internet and Higher Education 13,188196. Bax, S. (2003). CALL past, present, and future. System, 31(1), 13-28. Beauvois, M. (1992). Computer assisted classroom discussion in the foreign language classroom: Conversation in slow motion. Foreign Language Annals 25(5), 455-464. Beauvois, M. (1994). E-talk: Attitudes and motivation in computer-assisted classroom discussion. Computer and the Humanities, 28(1), 177-190. Beauvois, M. (1996). Personality types and megabytes: Student attitudes toward computer mediated communication (CMC) in the language classroom. CALICO Journal, 13(23), 27-45. Beauvois, M. (1998). Write to speak: The effects of electronic communication on the oral achievement of fourth semester French students. In: Muyskens, J.A. (Ed.), New ways of learning and teaching: Focus on technology and foreign language education. Heinle & Heinle, Boston, MA, USA. pp. 93-115. Berge, Z.L. (1995). Facilitating computer conferencing: Recommendations from the field. Educational Technology, 35, 2230. Berge, Z.L. (1996). Example case studies in postsecondary, online teaching. In G. Hart & J. Mason (Eds.), Proceedings of The Virtual University Symposium (pp. 99105). Melbourne, Australia, November 2122. Blattner, G., Fiori, M. (2009). Facebook in the language classroom: Promises and possibilities. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 6(1). Bruner, J. (1960). The Process of Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bruner, J. (1966). Toward a Theory of Instruction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Damron, J. (2009). Communicating with Students through Facebook. The Language Editor, 4(1), 41-43. Fredrick, W.C & Walberg, H.J. (1980). Learning as a function of time. Journal of Educational Research, 73, 183-194. Gass, S., & Varonis, E. (1994). Input, interaction, and second language production. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 16, 283302. Harrison, R., & Thomas, M. (2009). Identity in online communities: Social networking sites and language learning. International Journal of Emerging Technologies & Society, 7(2), 109124. Hewitt, A. & Forte, A. (2006). Crossing boundaries: Identity management and student/faculty relationships on the Facebook. Presented at the Computer Supported Cooperative Work Conference, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Johnson, M. (2004). A Philosophy of Second Language Acquisition. New Haven: Yale University Press. Kern, R., Ware, P., & Warschauer, M. (2008). Network-based language teaching. In N.V. Deusen-Scholl & N.H. Hornberger (Eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education, 2 nd Edition, Vol. 4: Second and foreign language education (pp. 281-292). New York: Springer. Lenhart, A. & Madden, M. (2007). Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/198/report_display.asp Leontev, A. N. (1978). Activity, consciousness, personality. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall. 242

Leontev, A. N. (1981). Problems of the development of the mind. Moscow: Progress Publishers. MacIntyre, P.D., Clment, R., Drnyei, Z., & Noels, K.A. (1998). Conceptualizing willingness to communicate in a L2: A situational model of L2 confidence and affiliation. The Modern Language Journal, 82(4), 545-562. Mazer, J., Murphy, R.E., & Simmonds, C.J. (2007). Ill see you on Facebook: The effects of computer-mediated teacher self-disclosure on student motivation, affective learning, and classroom climate. Communication Education 56(1): 1-17. McBride, K. (2009). Social-Networking Sites in Foreign Language Classes: Opportunities for Re-creation. In L. Lomicka & G. Lord (Eds.), The Next Generation: Social Networking and Online Collaboration in Foreign Language Learning (pp. 35-58): CALICO. Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Mills, N. (2009a). Facebook and the use of social networking tools to enhance language learner motivation and engagement NEALLT conference, Yale University. New Haven, CT. Oct. 2009. Available at: http://works.bepress.com/nicole_mills/29 Mills, N. (2009b). Simulation and Facebook: The use of social networking tools to enhance language learner engagement. Invited guest speaker at the Emory University Language Center. Atlanta, GA. Nov. 2009. Mills, N. (2011). Situated learning through social networking communities: The development of joint enterprise, mutual engagement, and a shared repertoire. CALICO Special Volume: Second Language Acquisition Theories, Technologies, and Language Learning (Eds., S. Thorne & B. Smith) 28(2). Mishra, P. & Koehler, M. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054. OSullivan: P.B, Hunt, S.K., & Lippert, L.R. (2004). Mediated immediacy: A language of affiliation in a technological age. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 23(4), 464-490. Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Roberts, W. G. (2009). Facebook interactions and writing skills of Spanish language students. Unpublished masters thesis, Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota. Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2005). Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Socialbakers Heart of Facebook Statistics (2011). Facebook reaches 600 million users! Available at http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/100-facebook-reaches-anothermilestone-600-million-users/ Stake, R. (1995). The art of case research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Stepp-Greany, J. (2002). Student Perceptions on Language Learning in a Technological Environment: Implications for the New Millennium. Language Learning & Technology, 6(1), 165-180. Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

243

APPENDIX SURVEY RESULTS

Category 1 -Perceptions for the Role of the Instructor 1. The instructor interacted with me in Facebook for the Writing Assignment. 2. Once I learned how to complete the Facebook Writing Assignment, the presence of the instructor was not necessary. 3. The instructor provided language-based help in Facebook. 4. I was able to complete the Writing Assignment without the assistance of my instructor. 5. The instructor helped me set up my Facebook account or with other technical difficulties. 6. Nobody helped me complete the Facebook Writing Assignment. 7. I feel I was able to know my instructor better by participating in the Facebook platform. 8. I may maintain contact with my instructor via Facebook after the current course ends. 9. If I choose to maintain contact via Facebook, I will use Spanish to do so. Strongly Disagree N % Disagree N % Neutral N % Agree N % Strongly Agree N %

7.7

3.8

7.7

12

46.2

34.6

19.2

34.6

7.7

23.1

15.4

7.7

15.4

15.4

30.7

30.7

7.7

15

57.7

34.6

20

76.9

7.7

11.5

3.8

11.5

15.4

23.1

23.1

26.9

7.7

11.5

30.7

13

50

19.2

15.4

7.7

30.7

27

27

15.4

23.1

15.4

19.2

244

10. The instructions for the Facebookbased assignments were easy to understand and follow.

7.7

11.5

3.8

20

76.9

Category 2 Perceptions Concerning Effect on Learning 11. I put more time into completing this writing assignment than I would have a traditional writing assignment. 12. The information I reviewed and learned from completing the Facebook Writing Assignment contributed greatly to my knowledge of Hispanic culture. 13. My reading skills improved as a result of completing the Facebook Writing Assignment. 14. My listening skills improved as a result of completing the Facebook Writing Assignment. 15. My speaking skills improved as a result of completing the Facebook Writing Assignment. 16. I learned a lot from completing the Facebook Writing Assignment. 17. My writing skills in Spanish improved as a result of completing the

Strongly Disagree N %

Disagree N %

Neutral N %

Agree N %

Strongly Agree N %

7.7

19.2

15.4

34.6

23.1

27

23.1

15.4

19.2

15.4

7.7

11.5

7.7

16

61.5

11.5

20

76.9

7.7

15.4

22

84.6

11.5

3.8

7.7

3.8

16

61.5

27

7.7

3.8

14

53.9

34.6

245

Facebook Writing Assignment. 18. I learned more writing skills from completing the Facebook Writing Assignment than I would have in a traditional essay. 19. Completing the Facebook Writing Assignment assisted me greatly in learning about the grammar and vocabulary of the Spanish language. 20. I returned to the Facebook site to explore further than was necessary to complete the Facebook Writing Assignment. 21. I think that I will continue to monitor my Facebook site even after this course ends.

7.7

7.7

15.4

11

42.3

27

3.8

11.5

11.5

11

42.3

30.7

11.5

7.7

7.7

11.5

16

30.1

19.2

7.7

7.7

30.7

34.6

Category 3 -Perceptions on Interest and Relevance of the Activities 22. This Facebook Writing Assignment made the course more interesting. 23. I enjoyed using Facebook for this assignment. 24. The task I completed in the Facebook Writing Assignment was relevant to my real-life needs in the Spanish language.

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

3.8

3.8

3.8

30.7

15

57.7

7.7

11.5

7.7

30.7

11

42.3

19.2

23.1

23.1

15.4

19.2

246

25. I would take another Spanish class that used Facebook. 26. I enjoyed completing the Facebook Writing Assignment more than I would have a traditional writing assignment. 27. If given a choice between a Facebook Writing Assignment and a traditional writing assignment, I would choose the Facebook Writing Assignment. 28. I though the Facebook Writing Assignment was boring.

3.8

3.8

15.4

7.7

18

69.2

3.8

7.7

7.7

14

53.9

27

3.8

7.7

15.4

19

73.1

18

69.2

11.5

7.7

11.5

Category 4 -Perceptions Concerning Confidence as a Learner and Technical Skills 29. I learned to find the meanings of words or phrases that were difficult. 30. I gained confidence in my abilities to do Spanish language activities. 31. I gained confidence in my Spanish reading skills. 32. I gained confidence in my Spanish writing skills. 33. I gained confidence in my Spanish speaking skills 34. I gained confidence in my Spanish listening skills.

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

3.8

3.8

15. 4

30. 7

1 2

46. 2

11. 5

15. 4

11. 5

34. 6

27

7.7

15. 4

7.7

30. 7

1 0

38. 5

7.7

7.7

15. 4

1 0

38. 5

30. 7

30. 7

1 4

53. 9

11. 5

3.8

30. 7

34. 6

7.7

19. 2

7.7

247

35. I gained confidence in my ability to learn independently . 36. I was frustrated by the Facebook Writing Assignment. 37. I gained confidence in my ability to use technology. 38. I was frustrated by having to use the Internet and computer to complete this writing assignment. 39. I was frustrated by using Facebook to complete this assignment. 40. I felt this was a difficult assignment to complete. Category 5 -Perceptions Concerning the Collaborative Processes That Took Place 41. I feel I interacted more with my classmates in the Facebook Writing Assignment than I would have for a traditional writing assignment. 42. I feel using Facebook for this class has invaded my privacy. 43. I learned a lot about my classmates by referring to their Facebook sites and posts. 44. I enjoyed reading information about my classmates in Facebook.

11. 5

15. 4

11. 5

23. 1

1 0

38. 5

18

69.2

19.2

7.7

3.8

15.4

7.7

19.2

27

30.7

20

76.9

3.8

7.7

7.7

21

80.8

3.8

3.8

7.7

3.8

1 5

57.7

19.2

11.5

7.7

3.8

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

11.5

11.5

15.4

16

61.5

14

53.9

30.7

7.7

7.7

11.5

7.7

15.4

30.7

34.6

11.5

3.8

19.2

10

38.5

27

248

45. I enjoyed posting information about myself for others to read. 46. I think Facebook is for personal use only. 47. I feel that I interacted a lot with my classmates to complete these assignments in Facebook. 48. I feel the Facebook Writing Assignment gave me an opportunity to interact with my classmates in Spanish. 49. After the course ends this semester I will continue to visit Facebook to read and write in Spanish with my classmates. 50. I would rather do an individual writing assignment in which my classmates did not read my submission.

7.7

7.7

15.4

30.7

10

38.5

10

38.5

27

23.1

7.7

3.8

7.7

7.7

15.4

10

38.5

30.7

7.7

3.8

10

38.5

13

50

19.2

7.7

19.2

30.7

23.1

34.6

19.2

11.5

34.6

249

Comparative Analysis of Pragmatic Formulas with Opaque Inner Form in English and Turkish Languages Gulshat Safiullina Kazan Federal University, Russia zhimesh@inbox.ru By definition, of O.S. Akhmanova clich is a hackneyed, stereotyped expression, mechanically reproduced in typical speech and personal contexts. [15, p. 197] Language clich in linguistic terms is denoted as speaking formula, etiquette formulas, pragmatic idioms. [7]. Pragmatic clichs, along with proverbs and sayings constitute a group of linguistic stereotypes. When idioms are used as embellishment in the form of clichs have the following characteristics of phraseological unit: stability, reproducibility, separate registration, figurative expressive value, emotional and expressive richness, limited contacts of one of the components, value generalising conclusion and inner form. In the present article idioms are characterized by opaque inner form. Some clichs are semantically motivated, while others are completely unmotivated. Use of pragmatic formulas is specific for certain situations, so that these formulas are part of the cognitive representations in the minds of some situations in the mind of an individual. It should be noted that the degree of predictability of the clichs is rather high along with mandatory reactive cues. The type of relations of the interlocutors can be defined as the official, professional, friendly, familiar, etc., and can be expressed by clichs in two ways: explicitly (through the observance of customary speech etiquette) and implicitly (through individual choice of linguistic means). The group of pragmatic formulas is the smallest of the selected and studied groups of idioms in compared languages. It is worth mentioning that this type of pragmatic formulas is presented in the Turkish language much wider than in English. In our opinion, to some extent, this is determined by features of cultures. In Oriental culture, unlike in the Western one, certain metaphorical, veiled statements are generally accepted as a social norm of conduct. Witty remarks to a place expressed by the figurative idioms are appreciated and expected even in situation of everyday communication. In English, this group includes 37 idioms, which constitute 1, 3% of the whole quantity of the studied idioms; in the Turkish language this group is comprised of 55 idioms, that make 5,5% of all the amount of Turkish idioms with opaque inner form, studied in the project. ENGLISH PRAGMATIC FORMULAS surrounding history literature religion proper archaisms reality name 6 4 2 6 5 1 3 3 3 3 3 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 250

Semantic group Damned! By golly distrust treat excessively How are you? threat no

total amount

I give up! damme Start! Wish of good health farewell What is the time now? Wish of luck Don`t interfere

2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

2 1 1 1 1 1 1(belief) 1

Semantic group wish of luck deception statement death help reluctance self-paise way curse hurry love news complaint meticulousness hostility stupidity farewell arrival money child problem consent consolation threat law quarrel

total amount

TURKISH PRAGMATIC FORMULAS surrounding history literature religion proper name archaism reality s 6 3 3 6 4 1 1 5 3 1 4 2 2 4 3 1 4 3 1 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Consider the semantic subgroup wishes of luck, presented in both languages. In English: May your shadow never grow less! - I wish you health! Keep your fingers crossed for me Wish me luck. We share the point of view of D.G. Maltseva that traditional wishes and greetings often don`t have equivalent translation and reflect the specific features of culture of the speaker, their customs, habits and rituals. These idioms are motivated by beliefs that existed among the English people. In the Turkish language: Helal olsun! - The happiness; Anamin ak st gibi helal olsun 251

Fortunately; Ggsnde ak kllar bitsin I wish a long life; Gzn aydn - Good luck, congratulations; Greyim seni - I wish you success; Eyyam ola I wish you success. Two of the six idioms contain the components of a religious nature: helal. The word helal means permitted, allowed by the Shariat. The lexeme eyyam is marinizm and means favorable tailwind. On the base of these examples, we can say that good fortune and success is often attributed to the higher powers and not directly to the merits of man. Let`s consider phraseological unit mavi boncuk kimde? (Benim gnlm orada) . Mavi boncuk is a palm made of copper or silver with a blue bead - it was a hand of Fatima - on behalf of the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, this jewellery serves as an amulet. People hang it on the wall of the house, put it under construction, permanent homes, are a defense against the evil eye and evil forces. According to the extra linguistic data, the fourth Caliph, named Ali, had blue eyes. Perhaps this served the reason for the wide spread of beliefs. It is very interesting for our study to analyze the similarities and differences of images of idioms of the given subgroup. In the Turkish language the group lie is represented, meanwhile, it is lacunaria in the corresponding group of English clichs. For example: Anan gzel mi? - Why are you kidding? ; Adam sen de - Do not cheat; Anasn sataym - Do not cheat; Atma Recep, din kardeiyiz - Do not cheat; Hanmm aada grdm seni - Do not cheat (I know its not true); Iki elini yanma gelecek - If I cheat, then I will be punished in another world. Attention is drawn to the attitude and evaluation of deception. Judging by semantics of idioms, deception is perceived as a hoax and is criticized as something out of the ordinary. Incrimination in this case is made in allegorical form. We can assume that in some way cheating is a kind of trick, practical joke, with the intention to check the shrewdness of the interlocutor. The next idiom iki elimi yanina gelecek proves the firm belief of Turks in the life after death. The traditional lifestyle of the Turkish people is elevated to highly respected and appreciated level the invitation and reception of guests in one`s dwelling. This custom demonstatres the unwritten laws of Oriental hospitality. At the same time, we can see also the follow of the requirements of Islam to accept even enemies as guests on the territory of the house, as the blessed benefit will flourish on the family due to this act of hospitality. A casual visitor is called misafir Tanri - Guest of God. Guest helpfully is provided the best seat in the house, is treated to the best food, is obliged in every possible way, etc. Guests stay up late, come for the whole day, and discuss for hours everyday affairs. The hosts try to keep guests in their house as long as possible. We enumerate the idioms of the above mentioned subgroup hospitality. Yerinde su mi kt? - What don`t you sit still?; Altn ta stn toka m? - What don`t you sit still? ; Ate almaya mi geldin? - Why did you leave so quickly? Ayana scak su mu dkelim? - Finally, you have come!; Ce demeye mi geldin? - Why did you leave so quickly? ; Ite geldik gidiyoruz, sen olasn Halep ehri - Thanks for the wonderful reception, come to visit us. In English, a subgroup of pragmatic formulas, expressing amazement is widely represented. This subgroup of idioms, denoting amazament is lacunar in pragmatic clichs in Turkish. Amazement in the Turkish language is expressed by means of mono- and diosyllabic words, for example: Aman! The following are examples of English units: By George - What do you mean; By Jove - What do you mean; Gee Whiz - Oh, my God; I `ll be - Oh yeah; Marry come up - Oh yeah; So `s your old man - you crazy; Gordon Benett - Wow; Son of a gun - Damn.

252

These expressions are excessively used in works of literature, owing to their expressivity, emotivity and colloquial character. - Take your pick. - By Jove, what a lot! I said looking at the greedily. - Oh, it `s all rubish. They `resent down for review. [10, p. 80] - I must be in good form. Tom expects to get a comission for a portrait out of it By George, you `ve got courage. [11, p. 205]. Who but English would pay to see dancers so decrepit that they can hardly put one foot before the other and say to on eanother admiringly in the intervals: By George, sir, d` you know he `sa long way past sixty?. [11, p.28 ] When I came to the railway bridge I noticed that two or three houses were being built. - By Jove, - I said .- Lord George is doing it. [10, p. 87]. It should be highlighted that the basis of expression Gee Whiz is a euphemistic transformation of Jesus Christ. By Jove is the reference to the Roman God Jupiter; By George - reference to the patron Saint of England - St George. The studied material allows au to come to conclusion that in the case of collision with the unknown and mysterious a man, a representative of any nation, tends to appeal to the higher power. In situations of usage of pragmatic clichs speech and thought act always a priori assumes the existence of a script. By definition of V.Z.Demyankov a set of expectations of what in the perceived situation should happen next and which can allow understanding not only the real or described situation, but also a detailed plan of conduct prescribed in this situation. Thus, the script is the mental representation of the situational dynamics that, on the one hand, affects on the subject, as a result of previous experience, and n the other hand, is influenced by the subject. If we base on the foregoing it can be stated that the pragmatic clich in some ways are the expression of the public code. Phraseological units with opaque inner form are certainly connotationally colored connotation layers the statement, giving it an expressive coloring. Idioms become twoplanned - report about the world of emotion and express the emotive attitude of speaker to the subject. Let`s consider the associative links of phraseological units with opaque inner form. Associative bias, inspired by nature denoted by the word object and possessing the same ontological status as the denotate, one can call or adherent, characterized by the same order with the properties of reality. Examples of English pragmatic formulas: I `m from Missouri, you` ll have to show me - I do not believe you have to prove it; The answer `s a lemon - I do not agree; I `am Dutchman, if - It can not be. In the Turkish language: Ya bal olsun - Bon Appetit; Yznze gller - Excuse me for interrupting; Tuz ekmek olsun - Bon Appetit; Ne eker inedi Why is speaking so sweet? Inherent associations are the basis of the values of the same logical order as the generating value, since they are not characterized by switching to a different of extra-linguistic row. The examples of English idioms are presented by the following: By cook; Gee Whiz (Jesus Christ) - Oh, my God; How goes the enemy (To kill the enemy) - How long? Turkish idioms: Allaha smarladk - bye; Anan gzel mi? - Do not lie; Klahna anlat - do not talk nonsense; Mavi boncuk kimde? (Benim gnlm orada) - Who do you love now most of all?; Gle gle - yet; Iki elini yakasnda olmak - In the world of revenge. Some of idioms with inherent associations can absolutely correctly be called rethought in the tertiary category (A.V. Kunin). From idioms that are already units of secondary category, were formed new idioms, derivatives, whose meaning is determined by the meaning of their phraseological prototypes. We dwell on the problem of the metaphorical and metonymic reinterpretation of idioms, giving the following definition of phraseological reinterpretation, as 253

complete or partial transformation of meaning of the prototype idiom, based on a semantic shift. [2, p.134] It is worth mentioning that the metaphor denotes not only common features inherent in the objective world, but the attributes, that are ascribed to him by a man. Metaphor is more subjective than metonymy. During the analysis of pragmatic clich the following types of metaphorical reinterpretation were identified: 1. Transfer according to the similarity of behavior and action. In English: I `m from Missouri, you` ll have to show me. In the Turkish language: Ate almaya m geldin?; Ce demeye mi geldin?; Ayann altnda yumurta m var? ; ekerin suya m dt? 2. Transfer according to the similarity of external form. In English, this group is lacunary. In Turkish: Bulgurlu `ya gelin mi gidecek? ; Ggsnde ak kllar bitsin. 3. Transfer according to the similarity of phenomena. In English: The answer `s a lemon. In Turkish: Ziftin pekini yesin. 4.Transfer according to similarity of character. In English: I `m a Dutchman, if ... In Turkish: ----Metonymy reinterpretation: 1. The nomination of a part instead of the whole entity. 1.1. Designation of a part of a human body, even the result of the action of a body, instead of the person himself/herself, usually containing their moral or psychological characteristics. In English: May your shadow never grow less. In Turkish: eytan grsn yzn; Allah drt gzden ayrmasn; Eline salk; Azn peyim. 1.2. Designation of a person due to the peculiar features of his clothing. In English: ----In Turkish: Al klahn, ver pabucumu. 2. Designation of a body organ instead of its function. In English: All hands; By this hand; By nails. In Turkish: Iki elim yanma gelecek. 3.Designation of a goal instead of an action. In English: Down the hatch. In Turkish: ----4.Designation of a color of the object instead of the object itself. In English: ----In Turkish: Aktan kara kalkt m? 5.Designation of one action instead of another, for the commission of which the first is a prerequisite. In English: ----In Turkish: Kna kna yaksn. Pragmatic clich of English and Turkish languages with opaque inner form are the rarest subgroups of idioms with opaque inner form in both languages. The inner form of the idioms of the fore mentioned subgroup is darkened due to the transfer by the components of the idiom the surrounding realities, beliefs, historical and cultural facts that are unique and characteristic of the very nationality. Accordingly, having 254

conducted the etymological analysis of idioms with opaque inner form, we reveal the cultural and common shared values of the specific nation. English and Turkish cliches possess both adherent and inherent connotations. In both systems of phraseological units two types of interpretation process were observed: metaphorical and metonymic reinterpretation, simultaneously they are characterized by slight differences. Transfer according to the similarity of external form; the designation of a person according to the peculiarities of his clothes; the designation of colors instead of the object; are more pronounced in the Turkish language. While the transfer according to the similarity of character; designation according to similarity of nature; designation of purpose instead of action is more widespread in English group of pragmatic formulas. Types and means of translation of pragmatic clichs with an opaque inner form. The group of pragmatic clichs with an opaque inner form includes a sentence structure and an interjection structure phraseological units. Many scholars, such as N.N. Amosova, A. Molotkov, N.L. Shadrin, N.T. May, have noted the specific features of interjection idioms, such as expressivity and emotional coloring [8, 1, 4], along with the wide range of semantics [8]. Regarding the problem of translation of this group of idioms, the necessary components of adequate translation is a reflection of the emotional and stylistic coloring of an idiom, which is often complicated by the limited number of analogues of these formulas with similar or approximate meaning of the thesaurus of the recipient language. N.L. Shadrin distinguishes the following groups of interjection pragmatic formulas. 1) expressing different feelings; 2) incentive formulas; 3) wishful formulas (wishes, greetings, curses, oath formulas, expletive formulas). N. T. May points out the following types and forms of interlingua correspondence of etiquette formulas of translated language and recipient language: 1) the equivalent compliance; 2) variable compliance, the use of which is restricted by the context;3) lacunaria: a) partial, the number of semes/meanings of the formula of one language exceeds the number of semes/meanings of an analogue of another language; b) complete lacunaria, are observed in the case of absence in recipient language units, corresponding to the phraseological unit of the translated language. [3, p.41]. In the course of study, we came to the conclusion that among the pragmatic clichs with an opaque inner form of English and Turkish languages, there is no one equivalent match. Among the variant of partial correspondence can be named a group of functional analogues: language clichs that have different significative-denotative meaning, syntactic structure, but are used to express the same etiquette functions. Let us introduce the following examples: The English pragmatic clich do as I do is the analogue of the Turkish functional pragmatic clich ya bal olsun - let there be honey and butter. These pragmatic clishes with OIF have different significative-denotative meanings, syntactical structure (V + Prep + V) in English) and (N + N + V) in Turkish), imagery base, but are used to express the same function of etiquette to treat guests to food during their visit to one`s house help yourself. How are you off the soap? = Olan msn, kz msn? meaning what are the news? How now brown cow? Emotional and estimational information is actualized at the lexical and at the syntactic level. In translation the paramount importance plays the situation of the usage of certain pragmatic clichs, which provokes the appearance of various emotions, leading to the emergence of certain evaluation by a speaker. In this case we can speak of a fragment of a notional means of translation [5, p. 73]. 255

The following levels of equivalence between the original ones are appropriate etiquette and language translation are distinguished: 1) at the level of communication objectives; 2) at the level of identification of the situation; 3) at the level of message; 4) at the level of statement; 5) at the level of linguistic signs. [3, pp. 55-57]. To make the conclusion of the report we state that pragmatic clichs of English and Turkish languages are equivalent at the level of 1) communication objectives; 2) identification of the situation; 3) at the level of message. It should be noted that the most important aspect of language translation of clichs is equivalent at the level of communication objectives. Consider the following example: English pragmatic formula My foot is equivalent to Turkish anan gzel mi? (An expression of distrust in the information, provided by the interlocutor). In the example of compared English and Turkish pragmatic formulas the equivalence at the level of 1) communication goals (statement of no confidence); 2) identification of the situation (some previous action or words of the speaker caused mistrust of the listener); 3) message was reached. The overall volume of information concluded in the original pragmatic formula was saved in the translation. Pragmatic clichs are not equivalent 1) at the level of expression, because their lexical and grammatical structures are different; 2) at the level of linguistic signs, as the translation does not retain all the components of the original, the full divergence of the component composition is observed. Pragmatic clichs possess bright expressive and emotional evaluation characteristics that are reflected in their syntactic structures. Transfer of expressivity, emotional and evaluative characteristics is a prerequisite for translation, but in some cases it is not achievable. The primary factor in determining the adequacy of the translation of pragmatic clich is their correspondence to respective situations of usage, the transmission of their pragmatic value. Consequently, it is expedient to use the semantic notional translation, and to select an appropriate analogue from the available range of variants. References 1) .. : . - . . - ., 1963 - 637 . 2) .. - . . 2, .: 1964, .12 3) . : .// .: , .: 1979. - .77-79. 4) .. ( , ) : . ... ., 1992. 166. 5) .. : . ... - , 1998. - 170 . 6) .. . - .,1977. - 283 . 7) .. . .: , 1980 - 143 . 8) .. ( ): . - .. ., 1991. 455. 9) inarl M. Msralarda gezinti. Ankara: Kltr Bakanl, 1997. 167s. 10) Hust J. The Scarlet Ibis // Prentice Hall Literature. Gold. New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs, 1991.- P. 189-201. 11) Jerome K. Jerome. Three Men in a Boat. M.: , 1998. - 286 . 12) Adgzel H. Deyim Hazinemiz. Trk Dnyas Aratrmalar Vakf, Istanbul, 1990, 136 s. 13) Aksoy .A. Deyimler Szl. Istanbul: Kitabevi, 1997. 1205s. 256

14) . - . / .., , 1996, 1184 . 15) .. ., , ., 1969, 605 . 16) Guilland D.M., David G. Penguin Dictionary of English Idioms. London: Pengiun Books, 1994. 316p. 17) .. - . .: , 1967. 1264. 18) ., .., .. . .: , 1998. 457. 19) zn M.N. Trke Tabirler Szl. Istanbul, 1948. 20) . - - ., Trk dnyas Aratrmalar Vakf, , 1997, 101 . 21) Rogers J. The Dictionary of Clishes. New York: Wings Books, 1985. 305 p. 22) Yurtba M. rnekleriyle Deyimler Szl. Istanbul: zdemir Yaynclk, 1996.

257

Enhancing Texts Written Language Characteristics through Grammatical Metaphor in Research Articles Dian Yuliana Master Student of Indonesia University of Education dian313@live.com Abstract There has been a growing interest in studies investigating the contribution of grammatical metaphor to the texts written language characteristics in academic writing (among others Christie and Derewianka, 2008; Ravelli, 2005; Schleppegrell, 2005). Using the corpus of nine research articles of three Indonesian graduate students, the present study was conducted to investigate the use of grammatical metaphor to create written language characteristics in the texts. Drawing on the notion of grammatical metaphor developed by Halliday (1998), Halliday and Matthiessen (2004); and Martin (1992), this study found that 1) all types of grammatical metaphor were found in the research articles; 2) nominalisation was the dominant type of grammatical metaphor; 3) grammatical metaphor contributed to the texts written language characteristics through the creation of: a) lexical density; b) abstraction; c) implicit logical connection and d) impersonal construction. It was also found that the participants less successful deployment of one type of grammatical metaphor, textual metaphor, reduces one texts written characteristic regarding clear text structuring. It is expected that the results of this study will raise awareness of using grammatical metaphor for better academic writing especially in Indonesia EFL setting. Keywords: written language, spoken language, academic writing, grammatical metaphor Introduction The distinctive features of written language include lexical density, abstraction, implicit internal logical relations; impersonal constructions; and clear text structure (Christie and Derewianka, 2008; Halliday, 1985; Halliday and Martin, 1993; Hyland, 2004; Martin, 1991, 1997; Martin and Rose, 2008; Schleppegrell, 2005; Thibault, 1991). Referred to as the transference of grammatical function to mean another in realizing ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions (among others, Halliday, 1985, 1994; Martin, 1985, 1992; Ravelli, 1999, 2005), grammatical metaphor is argued to be one rich resource contributing to these written features (Christie and Derewianka, 2008; Halliday and Martin, 1993; Martin and Rose, 2008; Unsworth, 2000 among others).. Grammatical metaphor takes place in cases when, for instance, processes are realized as things (nouns) instead of verbs and in this case the incongruent realization is called experiential metaphor (Martin, 1991, 1995; Martin and Rose, 2008; McCabe, 1999; Taverniers, 2003). Experiential metaphor is a type of ideational metaphor which creates technicality and abstraction in written academic texts (Martin 1997; Schleppegrell, 2005; Thibault, 1991). The most dominant type of experiential metaphor, nominalization, typically leads to incongruent realization of relative conjunctions which in turn affects the movement of logical connection from clause external position to internal, from explicit realization to implicit (Christie and Derewianka, 2008; Martin, 1991; Martin and Rose, 2008; Schleppegrell, 2005; Unsworth, 2000). By virtue of these two types of grammatical metaphors, academic writing is presented in an abstract, concise and lexically dense fashion (Martin and Rose, 2008; McCabe, 1999). Other types of grammatical metaphors, interpersonal and textual metaphors respectively contribute to the objective orientation of 258

the writers opinion (i.e. the texts impersonal constructions) and effective text organization (Schleppegrell, 2005). In short, grammatical metaphor helps create a text as a text (Martin, 1997). Most studies on grammatical metaphor so far have been focusing on one or two areas of grammatical metaphors especially in experiential and/or interpersonal metaphors, such as studies conducted by Chen and Foley (2005) on nominalisation; that by Miremadi and Jamali (2003) and Taverniers (2004) on interpersonal metaphor; and that by Ravelli (2005) on textual metaphor. Considering the importance of all types of grammatical metaphors for comprehensive features of written language, this study was accordingly conducted to investigate how grammatical metaphor (on ideational, interpersonal and textual domains) was used in writing to create written language characteristics. Grammatical Metaphor Metaphor and Written Language Ideational Metaphor Numerous studies have demonstrated the importance of ideational metaphor in creating written language characteristics in academic writing. These include the study conducted by Gardner (2008) which shows the effect of grammatical metaphor on abstraction (i.e. the use of abstract things, concept or phenomenon as points of departure in clauses) in the corpus of university students writing in the UK across 28 fields of study. The findings of this study resemble those of a series of studies conducted by Martins (1991, 1993, 1997) which investigates the contribution of grammatical metaphor to the creation of discursive power in technical writing. The written language characteristic, abstraction, reported in Gardners and Martins studies above is particularly attributed to nominalisation, a type of experiential metaphor. Nominalisation, a transference of meaning realization from: 1) quality, 2) process, and 3) circumstance and 4) relator to entity (Halliday, 1998), is also associated with condense information packaging known as lexical density (Christie and Derewianka, 2008; Eggins, 1994; Halliday, 1994). Nominalization makes lexical density possible since information can be expanded more through noun (Eggins, 1994; Martin, 1997) as the following excerpt exemplifies (nominalizations underlined, congruent versions underlined in the brackets). [2.1] Teachers need general sociocultural knowledge about child and adolescent development; about second language acquisition; about the ways that socioeconomic circumstances, language, and culture shape school performance. (Teachers need to know generally about society and culture; about how child and adolescent develop, about how they acquire a second language; about how schools perform -- which is shaped by what happen to society and the economy, language and culture.) As shown in the excerpt, nouns are expandable through modifiers such as knowledge which is pre-modified by sociocultural and post-modified by the prepositional phrase about child and adolescent development. Development in the phrase is also an entity which is modified by another element. Such expansion condenses information packaging which in turn increases the clause lexical density. By dividing number of the lexical items with number of clauses (Eggins, 1994), the lexical density of the metaphorical clause above is 19, while the congruent one is 3.3. Still in the domain of ideational metaphor, the metaphorical manifestation of conjunction has been reported to create implicit logical connection (Martin, 1991, 1997; Schleppegrell, 2005), which is another feature of written language. Metaphorically manifested as entity, quality, process and circumstance (Halliday, 1998), it is argued that the metaphor of conjunction system also known as logical metaphor creates natural-like cause and 259

effects links between effects (Veel, 1998). Such implicit connection can be seen for example in Some students effort to learn might also be influenced by other factors that need to be investigated in further study, where the process be influenced realizes the causal-effect conjunction because. Such construction allows realization of logical connection within a clause rather than between clauses and is referred to by Martin (1991) as buried reasoning. To date, the most comprehensive model for identification of ideational metaphor is that developed by Halliday (1998). This framework classifies experiential metaphor into 13 types as presented in Table 2.1 (adapted from Halliday, 1998). Table 2.1 Types of Experiential Metaphor (Halliday, 1998) No Semantic Type Class Shift Congruent Metaphorical Quality Entity Adjective noun 1 Process Entity Verb noun 2 Circumstance[minor Entity Prepositional phrase noun 3 process] Relator Entity Conjunction noun 4 Process Quality Verb adjective 5 Circumstance Quality Adverbadjective; 6 prepositional phrase adjective; prepositional phrase noun modifier Relator Quality Conjunction adjective 7 Circumstance Process Be/go + preposition verb 8 Relator Process Conjunction verb 9 Circumstance Conjunction prepositional 10 Relator phrase Entity 0 noun 11 0 12 0 Process 0 verb Modifier (of entity) Noun various 13 Entity 2.1.2 Interpersonal metaphor Interpersonal metaphor has also been reported to play role in creating written language characteristics. For example, Schleppegrell (2005) shows that the use of explicit objective type of modality metaphor objectifies the writers proposition. This finding confirms the results of the previous study conducted by Miremadi and Jamali (2003) regarding the use of modality metaphor in research articles (see also Xu, 2009). Explicit objective modality metaphor detaches the writer from the proposition as in It seems that most of private schools *employs full-timers to teach English, where the projecting clause that metaphorically realizes the writers certainty prevents the writer from being readily identifiable in the proposition. The objectivity created through the writers detachment from the text is also manifested in mood metaphor. The type of mood metaphor serves the above-mentioned function by shifting modal responsibility to someone or something else (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004). To illustrate, Isaacson in Isaacson (2009) reports that there are now more than 13,000 local standards in the U.S is made responsible for the proposition in the projected clause and at the same time gives support to it. This shift of subjecthood is valued in academic writing especially when it is shifted to authority in the field to avoid centrality claims (see Swales, 1990 and Swales and Feak, 2008). 260

Another instance of mood metaphor reported to characterize written language is the incongruent realization of speech function, particularly the typical realization of proposal (commands, requests) in indicative mood rather than congruently in imperative. Regarding this, Martin (1985) argues that direct imperative is avoided in academic writing and thus the metaphorical version is more preferred. In addition, Eggins (1994) states that metaphorical realization of command in writing as a declarative clause shortens the psychological distance between the writer and his readers. Textual Metaphor Textual metaphor organizes texts through four functions, as suggested by Martin (1992): 1) meta-message relation, 2) internal conjunction, 3) textual reference, and 4) texture negotiation. Due to the limited space of the study, only the first function that was elaborated in the study. Meta-message relation concerns text organization at a more global level (Martin, 1992). This includes text development through macro-Theme and hyper-Theme. The concept of both macro- and hyper-Themes is an extension from the Theme system developed by Halliday (see Halliday, 1994). While Theme system concerns the point of departure of a clause, hyper-Theme is the point of departure at paragraph level and macro-Theme is the point of departure at yet broader level that includes a point of departure for one subheading, heading, chapter, or one whole text depending on the texts internal complexity (Gardner and Holmes, 2006; Martin, 1992). Hyper-Theme is the point of departure for a paragraph that provides prediction and, for certain paragraphs in texts that have certain functions in texts development, summation of the discourse in the previous paragraph (Christie and Derewianka, 2008; Martin, 1992, 1997; Martin and Rose, 2008; Ravelli, 2005). Both prediction and summation provide clarity to the texts structure and this is a characteristic of written texts which go through the process of planning and revising as opposed to the dynamic spoken texts which are characterized by spontaneity (Martin, 1992). An example of a paragraph with a hyperTheme is presented below. [2.2] Beside display and referential questions, they also proposed types of question based on the function of the questions. Comprehension check (e.g. All right?, OK?) is used to determine whether the other speaker has understood a preceding message, clarification request (e.g. what do you mean?) is used to seek assistance in understanding the other speakers preceding utterances through questions, and confirmation check (e.g. carefully?) is used to seek confirmation of the others preceding utterance through repetition, with rising intonation, of what was perceived to be all or part of the preceding utterance (Pica, 1987). The underlined parts in the excerpts above are parts of the hyper-Theme that refers backward to the previous discourse Besides display and referential questions and predicts forward the things to cover in the paragraph based on the function of the questions. As shown in the excerpt, these dual functions draw own nominalizations. Nominalisation is said to be a feature hyper-Theme, yet non obligatory in nature as asserted by Ravelli (2005). In addition to hyper-Theme, the function of giving prediction is associated with macroTheme. Macro-Theme has similar function of giving prediction like that of hyper-Theme only that it is situated in the beginning of a text and can be in forms of a sentence or group of sentences, a paragraph or even a chapter that provides prediction for the whole text (Martin, 1993). When taking form in a paragraph, usually in a longer text, macro-Theme is commonly known as introductory paragraph (Martin, 1992). 261

Apart from paragraph, due to the internal complexity of longer texts, macro-Theme can take forms as headings and subheadings (ibid). Macro-Theme and hyper-Theme are similar to marked-Theme in spoken texts, but the function of the latter is to explain the text in episodes as it unfolds rather than scaffold it as a macro-constituent structure that is in some sense preconceived (ibid: 483). Methodology The study investigated nine research articles of three students of a state postgraduate school in Bandung, Indonesia. Thus, three assignments were taken from each participant, each of which was written for assignment in their first three semesters. The three participants were chosen based on their GPA, each of whom representing low, mid and high achievers. The limitation of nine research articles in the study was for the purpose of comprehensive analysis. In addition, the rationale behind the involvement of the written work of the three participants in this study was the fact that they were products of adult writers whose exposure to the mature written work through their education is likely to incorporate grammatical metaphor in their texts. Data Collection The texts used in this study, along with the course for which each was written are presented in Table 3.1 below. Table 3.1 Texts Used in the Present Study Students Semester 1 Title, Course Title: The Effectiveness Low of Using Pictures in achiever Descriptive Writing: A Case Study at the Second Year Students of SMA Islam al Musyawarah Lembang in Academic Year 2008/2009 Course: EFL Methodology Title: English Learning MidMotivation Score and Its achiever Correlation with Integrativeness and Attitudes Toward the Learning Situation Course: EFL Methodology Title: Grouping by HighLearning Style: a achiever Comparison with Unpremediated Grouping Schemes in EFL Classroom Course: EFL

Semester 2 Title, Course Title: Indonesian EFL Curriculum and Malaysian ESL Curriculum A Comparative Study of Primary School and Secondary School English Curriculum Course: EFL Curriculum Analysis Title: Flouting of Conversational Maxims Found in the Movie Kung Fu Panda Course: Language in Use Title: Comparing Educational-UnitBased Curriculum (KTSP) for English as Local Content in State and Private Elementary Schools 262

Semester 3 Title, Course Title: Identifying the Types of Teachers Questions Asked in the Teaching and Learning Course: Language Testing and Evaluation

Title: The Functions of Teachers Questions in Learning process: A case Study at SMU 1 CIsarua Course: Language Testing and Evaluation Title: Teacher-Student Cultural Congruence as Reflected in the Usage of Teaching Media Course: Language

Methodology

Course: EFL Testing Curriculum Analysis Evaluation

and

Data Analysis Data analysis in the study involved the theory of grammatical metaphor, especially those developed by Halliday (1998) for ideational metaphor; that by Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) for interpersonal metaphor, and that by Martin (1992) for textual metaphor. For ease of analysis, abstracts and texts in tables or figures found in the research papers were not analysed. In addition, excerpts of (video/audio) recorded observation/interviews and direct quotation from data were not analysed. The method used to analyse the grammatical metaphors investigated in this study is elaborated in the following. Ideational Metaphor In conjunction with the systemic tradition, clause was the unit of analysis. The analysis looked into metaphorical realizations at structural configuration level based on Hallidays (1998) taxonomy of Ideational grammatical metaphor as illustrated in Table 2.1 of the previous section. Incongruent realizations of relator (types 4, 7, 9, 10) were classified as logical metaphor while the rest were classified as experiential metaphor. Types 11 and 12 however were not addressed since these two types do not have congruent forms. In the analysis, type(s) of ideational metaphor occurring in a clause was first identified with notation. Then, the number of each type of ideational metaphor was totaled. An example of analysis on ideational metaphor at a clause level is presented in excerpt [3.1] below.

Interpersonal Metaphor Since interpersonal metaphor covers areas of Modality and Mood, these two resources of interpersonal metaphors were also analysed in this study. There are three points to note regarding the analysis of interpersonal metaphor in this study. First of all, since projection is a characteristic of interpersonal metaphor that is manifested in both metaphors of mood and modality (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004), the unit of analysis for cases of interpersonal metaphor involving projection was the clause complex. Secondly, the projecting clause was then further analysed to identify whether it presents modality or mood metaphor. Thirdly, incongruent realization of speech functions of statement, question, offer and command as another was classified as a case of mood metaphor; while incongruent realization of assessment was classified as modality metaphor. Textual Metaphor There were two types of unit of analysis for textual metaphor in this study. First, related to hyper-Theme, the unit of analysis was paragraph. Second, the unit analysis of macroTheme was headings and subheadings. For identifying hyper-Theme, each paragraph in the study was read closely whether or not the first sentence of the paragraph encapsulates the overall paragraph development. For 263

identifying macro-Theme however, the first paragraph of each heading/subheading and the paragraphs following this first paragraph were analysed to see whether or not the development in that particular heading/subheading followed the idea encapsulated in the first paragraph. Effects of Grammatical Metaphor on Texts Written Language Characteristics After classifying the types of grammatical metaphors used in the texts, the next analysis was conducted on the written characteristics contributed by the use of grammatical metaphors. This analysis involved the scrutiny on how the use of grammatical metaphor in the text helps structure the clause in ways that allow: (a) lexical density; (b) abstraction; (c) implicit logical connection; and (d) impersonal construction; and e) clear text structuring. Findings and Discussion Effect of Grammatical Metaphor on Written Characteristics of the Texts All the types of grammatical metaphor were found in students writings despite the difference in quantity and success of across individuals and assignments. Data analysis revealed that the type of grammatical metaphor dominating the research articles is that of experiential metaphor (around 80%); while the types used least frequently are logical and modality metaphors (below 2%). These findings indicate that the participants are familiar with using experiential resources in their texts, a skill reported to reflect maturity in writing and a benchmark for academic and scientific written work (see e.g. Christie and Derewianka, 2008; Halliday and Martin, 1993). The low proportion of logical and modality metaphor however suggests that the participants have not yet demonstrated similar familiarity to exploit logical and modality resources. Martin (1991, 1993, 1997), Ravelli (2007) and Schleppegrell (2005), among others, argue that the mastery of experiential metaphor is not the only key to written language since the ability to exploit logical reasoning and interpersonal resources such as modality metaphor is also important where written language is concerned. Secondly, the data also suggest that there is different tendency on the spread of grammatical metaphor in the sections of the research papers among the three students as can be seen in Table 4.1. Table 4.1 Distribution of GM in the Sections of Students Assignments Sections GMs Distribution in Students Assignments (in Clauses) Low-Achiever Mid-Achiever High-Achiever Smt. 1 Smt. 2 Smt.3 Smt.1 Smt. 2 Smt. Smt. Smt. 2 Smt.3 3 1 Introduction 26.4% 12.70 9.30% 26.3% 22% 8.6% 18.7 22.5% 31.9 % % % Literature 27.7 % 28.40 51.70 26.6% 28.4% 51.8 26.6 23.3% Review % % % % Method 27.4% 45.70 12.10 17.4% 7.2% 14.9 18.7 29.1% 19.1 % % % % % Findings & 7.8% 1% 21.30 26.5% 28% 21.6 24.6 12.9% 30.1 Discussion % % % % Conclusion 12.10 5.60% 3.1% 14.4% 2.9% 11.3 12.1% 18.1 10.6% % % % As indicated in Table 4.1, the use of grammatical metaphor across sections of the research articles is different among the participants. A sharp contrast is apparent between Findings 264

(1%) and other sections of low achievers second semester assignment. Such contrast is also shown in the assignments of mid-achiever but with lesser degree. Compared to the other two writing products, high-achievers assignments show the least gap. This relatively small gap may signify high achievers consistency in using grammatical metaphor in her research articles across the semesters. More detail regarding types of grammatical metaphor found in the study and the effects of its use on creating written language characteristics in the texts is taken up in the following section. Ideational Metaphor The study found that the incongruent realization of speech categories into entity (types 13), nominalisation, is slightly higher than those into quality (types 5, 6, 8, 13) 58.2% VS 41.7%. This finding confirms the popular notion held in systemic tradition that nominalization is one single most powerful type of grammatical metaphor (among others Christie and Derewianka, 2008; Eggins, 1994; Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004). In line with the previous studies on ideational metaphor, nominalisation in the study increases texts lexical density as illustrated in the following excerpt (congruent version in the brackets). [4.1] KTSP, in Indonesian setting, is the form of common standards [[guiding the certain amount of freedom and flexibility [[to devise the details of learning competence and minimum achievement.]]]] (KTSP, in Indonesian setting, is the form of common standards that guides how much schools can freely and flexibly devise specifically what students should learn and how much they should at least master.) Excerpt [4.1] shows that the metaphorical version has higher lexical density than the congruent one. The metaphorical version has 17 lexical items and three clauses resulting in lexical density of 5.7. The congruent version, on the other hand, has more lexical items, 18, but with more clauses, 5, resulting in lesser degree of lexical density of 3.6. Lexical density is not only attributed to nominalisation but also to logical metaphor as exemplified in excerpt [4.2] below, with a more congruent version in brackets (some nominalizations are not unpacked since the focus is on logical metaphor). [4.2] Data collection before treatment allowed a normal growth of performance over seven meetings (4 weeks) (Students performance increased normally because the data were collected before the treatment was given) The number of lexical items in the metaphorical version is 9, resulting in lexical density of 9. On the other hand, the number of lexical items in the more congruent version is 13 and the number of clauses of 3, resulting in lexical density of 4.33. The relatively high number of lexical density of the more congruent version was due to some nominalizations in the version which are not unpacked. Despite the low proportion of logical metaphor in students writing, conclusion can be drawn that the high-achiever has better mastery of this linguistic feature than the other two students. This is particularly apparent in the use of this metaphor in the section of Findings and Discussion where these students have to use their own linguistic repertoire to discuss what they found in their data and relate the findings with the theories and related literature (see Miremadi and Jamali, 2003; Schleppegrell, 2005). Thus, their use of grammatical metaphor in this section, including that of logical type, most probably reflect their true 265

control of these written resources as opposed to, say, the use of the same resources in other sections particularly that of Literature Review since what they write there might be highly influenced by experts issuing the theories or arguments. By the same token, the absence of logical metaphor in this section in two research articles of the other two students might indicate their unfamiliarity with this grammatical feature. An example of these students unfamiliarity can be seen in [4.3] taken from low achievers writing (grammatical mistakes in the assignment is not the concern of the present study). [4.3] Pictures media is a practicable and applicable teaching or instructional media. Because, besides it can be used in teaching language elements, it is also more practical in accompanying the teacher in delivering his materials to be presented Excerpt [4.3] shows that poor control over logical metaphor creates wordiness in expressing the message. The wordiness is partly due to the students failure in incorporating experiential metaphor in these sentences, a problem which would be easier to avoid with the deployment of logical metaphor (see Martin, 1992; Martin and Rose, 2007). This evidence re-emphasizes this students poor mastery over experiential metaphor. A better control of logical metaphor would have presented the message as In addition to its use in teaching language elements, pictures(sic) media is a practicable and applicable teaching or instructional media due to its and its higher practicality in material delivery. Apart from increasing lexical density, the underlined prepositional phrases realize logical connection implicitly which is opted for in academic writing (Martin and Rose, 2008; Schleppegrell, 2005; Veel, 1998). This phenomenon which is common in written language is referred to as buried reasoning (Martin, 1993). Other effects of ideational metaphor, especially the nominalisation type, found in the study are abstraction and impersonal construction (Nominalisation also plays an important role in clear text structuring, but this will be elaborated in the discussion of textual metaphor). An example of function served by nominalisation in abstraction is displayed in the nominalised process investigation in Investigation into the area of learning styles and grouping is interesting due to two facts The nominalised process investigation is an abstract thing which creates abstraction in the clause. When denominalised, the abstraction in the clause above disappears as exemplified in [4.4] below. [4.4] I am interested in investigating the area of learning style and grouping because of two things. The use of pronoun as point of departure in [4.4] removes the abstraction of the metaphorical version and this version now reflects more everyday, spoken language. The contrast in these two versions indicates that nominalisation also influences impersonal construction through removal of personal pronouns from the clause. Interpersonal Metaphor Interpersonal metaphor creates impersonal construction through mood and modality metaphors. In the participants texts, impersonal construction was realized mostly through clause projection as exemplified in the following excerpts. [4.5] It is recommended to acknowledge English as national content rather than local content for elementary school. (S3B) [4.6] and that it is rare for teachers to evaluate grouping (S3A)

266

Despite featuring projection in both [4.5] and [4.6], projection in each excerpt has distinctive function from each other. The projection in [4.5] signals the realignment of imperative mood to declarative. The use of declarative mood for metaphorical realization of imperative is reported to be favoured in academic writing (Martin, 1985). Another conformity with expectation in academic writing in this construction is added through the use of dummy it which detaches the writer from the proposal and hence further enhances its objectification (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004; Martin, 1985; 1995). The projection in [4.6] on the other hand, marks metaphorical realization of assessment. It is rare in [4.6] metaphorically reconstrues the adjunct rarely construing modality of usuality as an ideational fact. Similar to the case of mood metaphor, the construction of dummy it detaches the writer from the proposition and thus adds more objective nature to it. In addition to modality, proposition was also realized through mood metaphor. This type of mood metaphor contributes to written language in particular reference to that used in the realm of academic writing. This notion is exemplified in excerpt [4.7] below. [4.47] Gardner argues [[that these three components belong together]] (S2A) Similar to the two previously discussed excerpts, excerpt [4.7] also involves projection. This projection differs from the previous two excerpts in that it detaches the writer from the proposition through a source of authority, Gardner in above case. Such detachment is a common feature of academic writing which doesnt appreciate centrality claim without references to authorities in the field (see Swales and Feak, 2008). Due to the objectification of proposition and proposal offered by interpersonal metaphor exemplified so far, it is argued that in most cases, academic writing favors this construction. This genre expects that the distinction between the writers evaluation and fact not to be sharp -- a function served by both types of interpersonal metaphor (Miremadi and Jamali, 2003; 2010; Schleppegrell, 2005; Taverniers, 2004; Swales and Feak, 2008; and Xu, 2009). The strong position of objectification in academic and formal writing is apparently well known to the participants since nearly all metaphorical realizations of interpersonal meanings in their texts are of explicit objective types. The subjective explicit modality metaphors were only found four times. These are even not realized in first person singular as commonly is (as noted by Halliday, 1994; Martin, 1995). Three cases use of an inclusive we, and the other uses the term the researcher to refer the writer as presented below, taken from first semester assignment of low achiever. [4.8] In conducting the research, the researcher assumes that the second year students of SMA Islam Al-Musyawarah Lembang have been taught well with writing subject The personal projection in [4.8] is polished to appear objective as ostensibly non-self (see Ebeling and Wickens, 2009 for types of interpersonal projections), which might indicate an attempt on the writers part to hide subjectivity an attempt which very likely arises from the awareness of expectation for objectivity in the genre (also see Colombi, 2006 on similar discussion). Textual Metaphor All participants used macro-Themes and organizing vocabulary serving as hyper-Themes in their writing. Despite the relatively few occurrences and the varied degree of success among the participants, the use of this textual resource indicates the participants awareness of texturing text in predictive and summarizing manner as asserted by Martin (1992; 1993), Ravelli (2005) and Schleppegrell (2005). Macro-Theme

267

The use of paragraph-type macro-Theme in the assignments is relatively few. MacroThemes are typically scattered locally in each chapter/section or subsections in a chapter, as exemplified in [4.10]. [4.10] In addition to the statistical analysis of the students English learning motivation, integrativeness, and Attitudes towards the learning situation, a correlation analysis was conducted to explore the relationship between the students English learning motivation and integrativeness, and between motivation and attitudes towards the learning situation. Excerpt [4.10] is taken from the section of Finding and Discussion of mid-achievers first semester assignment. It is the first paragraph under the sub-heading Testing the Coefficient Correlation. This excerpt is categorized as macro-Theme since it predicts what to be covered in the subsequent paragraphs. Another type of macro-Theme found in the study is that in the form of headings and subheadings. This type of macro-Theme presents in all the students writings as all research articles in this study are partitioned by headings and subheadings for rhetoric and information organization of the text. However, there are variation regarding the use of headings and subheadings among the participants. The first difference concerns the use of headings for the purpose of global organization of the research articles and the second concerns the success of these texts partitioning to serve their function as macro-Themes. In regard to the first variation, most research articles are generally divided into six sections/chapters: Introductions, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings and Discussion, Conclusion and Bibliography. This global organization is an accepted format in research report as mentioned by McPherson, Pereira and Laird (2007). One variation to this general format is displayed in third semester assignment of high-achiever which follows APA style formatting of Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. It is argued that this style, known as IMRD style, is popular in research article writing (Bordens and Abbott, 2008; Dawson, 2009; Gay, 1992; Swales, 1990; and Swales and Feak, 2008). Another variation in format was found in the second semester assignment of low-achiever. The format is similar to the non-IMRD format mentioned previously but with different numbering style as illustrated in Table 4.3.

268

Table 4.3 Outline of Low Achiever Research Article Indonesian EFL Curriculum and Malaysian ESL Curriculum: A Comparative Study of Primary School and Secondary School English Curriculum I. Introduction II. EFL and ESL III. Indonesian English Curriculum IV. Malaysian English Curriculum V. Method VI. Data VII. Analysis VIII. Discussion VIII. 1. Curriculum Intent VIII.1.1. Aims VIII.1.2. Goals VIII.1.3. Objectives VIII.2. Curriculum Content VIII.2.1. Content Selection Approach VIII.2.2. Content Selection Criteria IX. Findings X. Conclusion XI. References In addition to problems with numbering convention (see for example, Bordens and Abbott 2008) for standard numbering styles in academic writing) which is not the concern of the present study, the outline presented in Table 4.3 above does not indicate a clear logical development. Most sections are presented in a stand-alone manner as if each stood independently from the other; while as a matter of fact, sections II to IV are parts of section I; sections VI VIII are parts of section V. Moreover, the term Discussion used in Section VIII does not refer to discussion on findings of the study as commonly is (see, Bordens and Abbott, 2008; Dawson, 2009; Gay, 1992; Swales, 1990; and Swales and Feak, 2008) but, since it is a part of Method Section, refers to the process of data analysis as apparent in excerpt [4.10] a paragraph under this section (grammatical errors are not the concern of the present study). [4.10] To analyze the elaboration of the two curricula, the writes (sic) frames the analysis into two categories; curriculum intent and curriculum content. Curriculum intent refers to as the direction that the curriculum developer wish (sic) learners to go as a result of participation in the curriculum; Curriculum content refers as to the subject matter of which the learner learn. Regarding the second variation, the analysis revealed that unsuccessful development of macro-Theme in this study was attributed to dislocated method of development and poor elaboration. The first factor is displayed in the following excerpts from low-achievers first semester assignment. [4.11a] In this particular part of writing, the researcher would like to present and to show the data obtained and its discussion of data computation through statistical analysis, and at the end of writing he will deliver a kind of testing hypothesis. [4.11b] This part of the writing deals with the analysis of the data obtained. Several formula will be worthy applied to find out the last results of t-test formula that need 269

to compare its result to a t-table on certain degrees of difference and levels of significance to attain out its significance. Furthermore, the researcher would follow several integrated procedures, such as; a. Calculating the students means scores of the two groups. b. Identifying the significance of the deviations from the two means scores. c. The two problems above will be developed and discussed in detail in the following parts. Excerpt [4.11a] serves as a macro-Theme to the Chapter of Findings and Discussion in which it predicts things to be covered in the whole chapter. Excerpt [4.11b] on the other hand, is the first paragraph under the first heading, Findings, in the chapter. However, this paragraph, and subsequent paragraphs under the heading, was not developed according to the previously set macro-Theme. The cause of this failure is the use of future time indicating the steps to be taken for data analysis, as in Several formula will be worthy applied to find out the last results of t-test formula and the researcher would follow several integrated procedures which are more proper to be included in the methodology section (Emilia, 2008; Swales and Feak, 2008). As indicated previously, the second factor contributing to the failure of macro-Theme development concerns that of poor elaboration. This was, for instance, displayed in the Findings Section of low achievers third semester assignment which only presents the transcript obtained in the research. This method of development is not in conjunction with the standard format for the section in the field as suggested by, among others, Adnan and Zifirdaus (2009); Bordens and Abbott (2008); Emilia (2008); and McPherson et. al. (2007). It is argued that due to the non self-descriptive nature of data, the section should be developed through a clear presentation and description of what was found in the study. Thus the absence of description about data presentation in low-achievers Findings section jeopardizes the successful macro-Theme development of this section. Hyper-Theme Hyper-Theme operates at paragraph level which informs the reader what to be discussed and at the same time, in some cases, provides reminder of the previous discourse. This dual function in text structuring is served particularly by nominalisation as exemplified in [4.12]. [4.12] The same calculation was done to find the general tendency of the students integrativeness and attitudes towards the learning situation. The previous discourse is summarized using nominalisation, the same calculation and what to be discussed in the paragraph is predicted using another nominalisation the general tendency which thus gives focus for the paragraph development (Ravelli, 2005). Through this dual function, hyper-Theme provides a clear text structure as is common in written texts (Martin, 1992, 1993, 1997; Ravelli, 2005; 2007). The use of nominalization in this type of textual metaphor is in conjunction with Martins (1992, 1993, 1997), Ravellis (2005, 2007) and Schleppegrells view (2005) that textual metaphor serving in meta-message relation relies heavily on grammatical metaphor (nominalization type) to play its role as organizing vocabulary in text structuring. As a matter of fact, one factor that may be attributed to the absence of textual metaphor functioning as hyper-Theme in some parts of the participants texts is their problems in using nominalization. This, for example, is apparent in the first sentence of a paragraph in

270

the Introduction section of high-achievers second semesters assignment presented in the following excerpt. [4.13] Investigation into the area of learning styles and grouping is interesting due to two facts: that individuals who make up a group are different, and that it is rare for teachers to evaluate the grouping (Anderson in Griffith 2008) The absence of nominalisation in the excerpt above offers too specific information for a hyper-Theme. The use of nominalisation in the hyper-Theme would allow generalization and analysis on the topic to be discussed in the paragraph (Schleppegrell, 2005). Conclusion The present study has confirmed the previous studies (among others Christie and Derewianka, 2008; Ravelli, 2005; Schleppegrell, 2005; Thompson, 2010) regarding the importance of grammatical metaphor in the construction of written language. The pervasiveness of nominalisation in the participants writing lend support to the findings of previous studies regarding nominalisation (Colombi, 2006; Christie and Derewianka, 2008) as the most powerful and the most frequent type of grammatical metaphor to occur in academic writing. It has been elaborated in the previous section that each type of grammatical metaphor contributes to text written characteristics; however it has also been pointed out that experiential metaphor of nominalisation type is attributed to the creation of most texts written characteristics, from lexical density, abstraction, impersonal construction to clear text structuring in which it is deployed as a part of textual metaphor. The study has shown that participants were relatively successful in creating written language with most types of grammatical metaphor. Some problems displayed in their use of textual metaphor however lead to the less successful clear text structuring.

References Bordens, K.S and B.B. Abbott. (2008). Research Design and Method: A Process Approach. Singapore: McGraw Hill. Christie, F. and B. Derewianka. (2008). School Discourse: Learning to Write across the Years of Schooling. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. Colombi, C.M. (2006). Gramamtical Metaphor: Academic Language Development in Latino Students in Spanish. In H. Byrness (ed.), Advanced Language Learning: The Contributions of Halliday and Vgotsky. London: Continuum Dawson, C. (2009). Introduction to Research Methods: A Practical Guide for Anyone Undertaking a Research project. London: How to Books. Eggins, S. (1994). An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. London: Pinter. Emilia, E. (2008). Menulis Tesis dan Disertasi. Bandung: Alfabeta Chen, Y. and J. A. Foley, (2005). Problems with the Metaphorical Reconstrual of Meaning in Chinese EFL Learners Expositions. In L.J. Ravelli and R.A. Ellis (eds.) Analyzing Academic Writing: Contextualized Frameworks. London: Continuum, pp. 190-209 Gardner, S. (2008). Mapping Ideational Meaning in a Corpus of Student Writing. In C. Jones, and E. Ventola (eds.) New Developments in the Study of Ideational Meaning: From Language to Modality. London: Equinox, pp. 169-188. Gay, L. R. (1992). Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application. New Jersey: Macmillan Publishing Company.

271

Halliday, M. A.K (1985). Spoken and Written Language. Hongkong: Oxford University Press. Halliday, M. A.K (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold. Halliday, M.A.K. (1998). Things and Relations: Regrammaticising Experience as Technical Knowledge, in J.R. Martin and R. Veel (eds.), Reading Science. London: Routledge Halliday, M.A.K and C.M.I.M Mathiessen (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar 3rd Edition. London: Edward Arnold Halliday, M.A.K. and J.R. Martin (1993). Writing Power: Literacy and Discursive Power. London: Falmer Hyland, K. (2004). Genre and Second Language Writing. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press. Martin, J.R. (1985). Factual Writing: Exploring and Challenging Social Reality. Victoria: Deakin University Martin, J.R. (1992). English Text: System and Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Martin, J.R. (1997). Waves of Abstraction: Organizing Exposition in T. Miller (ed.) Functional Approaches to Written Text: Classroom Applications. Washington: USIA, pp. 244-260 Martin, J.R. and D. Rose. (2007). Working with Discourse: Meaning beyond the Clause. London: Continuum Martin, J.R. and D. Rose. (2008). Genre Relations: Mapping Culture. London: Equinox McCabe, A. (1999). Theme and Thematic Patterns in Spanish and English History Texts. Unpublished PhD Dissertation: Aston Univerity. Miremadi, S.A. and F. Jamali. (2003). Interpersonal Grammatical Metaphor in the Written Discourse of the Social and Natural Sciences in IJAL Vol. 6/2, pp. 69-86 Ravelli, L.J. (1999). Metaphor, Mode and Complexity: An Exploration of Co-Varying Patterns in M. Berry, et. al. (eds.) Monographs in Systemic Linguistics Number Twelve. Nottingham: Nottingham Trent University Ravelli, L.J. (2005). Signaling the Organization of Written Texts: Hyper-Themes in Management and History Essays. In L.J. Ravelli, and R.A. Ellis (eds.) Analyzing Academic Writing: Contextualized Frameworks. London: Continuum, pp. 104-130 Ravelli, L.J. (2007). Integrating Theory and Practice in A.M Simon-Vanderbergen, M. Taverniers and L.J. Ravelli (eds.) Grammatical Metaphor: Views from Systemic Functional Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 37-64 Schleppegrell, M. J. (2005). Technical Writing in Second Language: the Role of Grammatical Metaphor In L.J. Ravelli and R.A. Ellis (eds.) Analyzing Academic Writing: Contextualized Frameworks. London: Continuum, pp. 172-189 Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Glasgow: Cambridge University Press. Swales, J.M. and Feak, C.B. (2008) Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills. Michigan: the University of Michigan Press Taverniers, M. (2003). Grammatical Metaphor in SFL: A Historiography of the Introduction and the Initial Study of the Term. In AM Simon-vanderbegen, M. Taverniers and L. Ravelli (eds.) Grammatical Metaphors: Views from Systemic Functional Linguistic. Amsterdam: Benjamis, pp. 5-33Taverniers, M. (2004). Grammatical Metaphors in English. Moderna Sprak: 98(1), 17-26. Taverniers, M. (2004). Interpersonal Grammatical Metaphor as Double Scooping and Double Grounding. Available online at:

272

http://users.ugent.be/~mtaverni/pdfs/Taverniers_2004_InterpersonalGM-PP.pdf Page retrieved: January, 12th 2010 Thibault, P.J. (1991). Grammar, Technocracy and the Noun: Technocratic Values and Cognitive Linguistics in E. Ventola (ed.): Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monograph 55: Functional and Systemic Linguistics Approaches and Uses. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 281-306 Unsworth, L. (2000). Investigating Subject-Specific Literacies in School Learning. in L. Unsworth (ed.) Researching Language in Schools and Communities. London: Cassel, pp. 245-274 Veel, R. (1998). The Greening of School Science: Ecogenesis in Secondary Classrooms in J.R. Martin and R. Veel (eds.), Reading Science. London: Routledge Xu, J. (2009). Interpreting Metaphor of Modality in Advertising English in English Language Teaching Vol. 2/4 Available Online Page Retrieved 9 www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/view/4459 December, 2010 Zifirdaus, A. and I. Zifirdaus. (2009). Merebut Hati Audiens Internasional: Strategi Jitu Meraih Publikasi di Jurnal Ilmiah Jakarta: Masyarakat Linguistik Indonesia

273

The Importance of Teaching Writing in a Communicative way in EFL Classes in Albania Marsela Harizaj English Lecturer, Department of Foreign Languages, University of Vlora, Albania marselaharizaj@yahoo.com Abstract Nowadays when Learning to communicate has become the principal object while studying a foreign language, each skill plays an important part. To have success a very important part is played by teaching language skills in a communicative way. The aim of this paper is to consider the importance of teaching writing skills in a communicative way and what teachers should do to have effective teaching. Writing also enhances language acquisition; it develops critical thinking and helps learners to express freely as in their mother tongue, using English for communicative purpose. This article highlights the potential of the writing process, its important place in using English for communication. The teacher has to use different techniques and strategies to develop communicative writing according to the age and language level of students. Teachers should have clear objectives in the teaching process. When texts do not offer a lot of writing activities is the teacher who has to prepare communicative writing assignments. An effective writing assignment can advance important course objectives, the instructions should be given clear, in this way it encourages students to learn actively. The goal is not simply dictate and written down a part but to develop into a higher level so as it continues the idea of what they hear at communicative level. Keywords: Communicative writing, language acquisition, effective writing. Introduction Nowadays the whole world speaks English and the ways and purposes of studying it are different for everyone. English is one of the main foreign languages that are studied in elementary, high schools and universities in Albania along with other foreign languages like French, Italian, German, Spanish Greek and other languages as well. To study a foreign language does not mean merely to read it but to use it in all the forms that is to say to use the language for communication. The target language is a vehicle for classroom communication, not just the object of study (Larsen, 2000). In this context we should try to study a language for and with a communicative purpose. The aim of my study is the implementation of CLT in our schools, problems of using communicative expressions in English language. Part of my study is the writing skill, its problems, difficulties of students to writing, and what can be done to improve it. Communicative Writing Approach Linguists passed from grammar translation method to other methods just for the fact that communication stands above all when we study a foreign language, and we communicate not just by reading but even by writing. Students may know the rules of grammar but they are not able to use the language. (Widdowson, 1978)To be communicative we should try to make use of the four skills. All the languages are composed of skills where writing is one of them. Writing as a skill has been neglected compared to the treatment of other skills but it is important as other skills as well. To be communicative teachers should use strategies and techniques, communicative methodology to help students master the communicative factor. Raimes (1991) argues that the teaching of writing must be 274

undertaken with recognitions of the complexity of composing, student diversity, learners processes, politics of pedagogy, and the value of practice. A major role is not played just by speaking but even by writing in a communicative way, because we develop our hidden side of thoughts and feelings and express them in writing, in a certain way our students become creative in English language. Writing like speaking, is a productive skill, but the big difference between them stands in the fact that writing should be done correctly because we do not have the reader there to correct us. The writing is seen as a process of learning and communication. To master a language means to use it, understand and be understood. Writing is speaking in a silent way and like speaking we use thoughts, feelings. In communication we interpret, negotiate, and we understand a text by using grammar competence, discourse competence and linguistic competence. (Savignon, 1997). By developing writing in a communicative way we develop and make use of all competences such as Linguistic competence, critical thinking and creative writing, Sociolinguistic competence and Cultural competence as well. The aim of this paper is to show the importance of writing in the communication process, how we can improve it by using different techniques and strategies. Strategies & techniques of effective writing We communicate even by writing. Writing is a form of communication at a high level. First of all is the teacher who tries to direct guiding activity from composition to a mere sophisticated level of writing- essays. To have effective communicative writing the activities should vary according to the age and language level of students. When we speak about writing sometimes we neglect the fact that writing does not mean writing grammar in the right way. What happens usually in our class is that EFL students often have an idea that their writing is quite good if they write correct grammar, and this is the opinion of most teachers, even this is wrong because if we keep correcting grammar we prevent them from expressing freely. Many students lack the basic skills of writing. Just as oral communication is seen to take place through negotiation between speaker and listener, so too is meaning thought to be derived from written word through an interaction between the reader and the writer. (Larseen, 2000) One of the factors to make students involved in writing exercises is that the topic chosen should be of interest, of value so to serve to them even outside the classroom. Writing shouldnt be seen as just a means to give them an assignment, but even as a means to involve their participation. In our English classes we have got passive and active students. Writing as an assignment is a good mean of involvement. Different activities, different strategies help passive students and those shy ones that do not like speaking too much but find themselves better in writing. To ensure student participation in the exercise, the teacher should be clear on the skill she /he needs to reinforce, next the teacher decides what type of activity to choose concerning the language level of students. Usually in an English class we begin with a simple writing activity from writing a paragraph to an extended level like composition and essays. Choosing an activity depends on many factors: What language level are the students? What is the age of the students? How motivated do they feel to write? Will this writing exercise help them to be creative in writing? Other questions may be: What should the students be able to reinforce at the end of this exercise? Will it be communicative enough? Experience Communication can be achieved through interaction. From my experience pair work, project- work helps a lot. In my English classes I give writing assignments to my students as I teach English language methods and British Cultural studies, so I try to use different 275

strategies and different assignments. Apart from English students I teach students of other branches and their language level is A1 while English students vary from B2 to C1 so the writing assignments are not the same. In A1 we can give writing paragraphs and composition while in B2 and C1 essays are a very good means of developing fluency, critical thinking. To my British classes as the range of topics vary a lot; I make use of essays as we have an interaction of history and culture. They do not have just to write about British but making comparison to Albanian one in this way the y understand better the points. They have to write about different traits of British culture. Anyway the problems that I have found from my observations sometimes are the same and sometimes different. The language level of high school students vary from A1 to B1. Methodology I have observed different EFL classes in schools in Vlore, elementary and high schools. The study is based in two plans, in theory and practical side of it. To take the needed information I did questionnaires and interviews with teachers and students. There were about 300 students and 30 English teachers. Questionnaires included concepts of English acquisition, motivation, teaching and learning process. Questions about language skills, difficulties, likeness and dislikes in concern to English language. Writing skill was one of the parts that was treated like the other skills, and it was made a class experiment for each of the skills in elementary and high school. From my observations in some schools, elementary and high schools, writing was dealt in different ways. Questions to teachers about which language skills are more difficult for their students. There were about 45% of teachers that think that writing after speaking is very difficult for their students. The same question to pupils and students to high school 38 % of them thing that writing is difficult for them after the speaking is difficult for them. The difficulties that they encounter are almost the same they think in Albania and write in English, they are not too much creative, they dont find interest in writing, they do not have clear concepts about what does it mean to write, and why should they write. To overcome these difficulties the teacher should not only choose the proper assignment but even giving clear instructions to each writing assignment. The Writing Process The Writing Process is very important. Individual work, pair work, group work are very good options to enhance communicative writing. Authentic materials as well because they are not made for pedagogical purposes, so interesting topics from real life are a good way of enhancing writing. For each writing assignment the teacher should follow the stages of the writing process to his/her own students and using different techniques for it as by brainstorming, clustering, using pictures act. Pre writing and post writing activities shouldnt be neglected. It is very important to give instructions to how are they going to write, how are they going to realize their writing. We should see writing by two points of view, that of the teacher (stages of writing- pre writing, post writing) and point of view of learners (organizing the writing). Even in the first even in the second its the teacher who plays a very important role. An effective teaching results an effective learning. Effective instructions results in effective writing. Organization of writing work in is important. Pre writing In this stage the students are encouraged to write. It stimulates thoughts to start writing. The writing process in itself is seen as comprising four stages: planning, drafting, revising and editing. To help students acquire this stages , in pre writing the teachers give clear 276

instructions such as the topic, the reasons why should they write, main clues and ideas about what to write, how to organize the writing. Brainstorming, clustering are good techniques of organizing ideas, using pictures, arousing their interest? Once having ideas students plan their draft. Clustering is another technique that is used. Clustering is a simple yet powerful strategy: Its visual character seems to stimulate the flow of association and its particularly good for students who know what they want to say but just cant say it(Proett and Gill, 1986) When writing, students should consider the organization of ideas, goals they want to accomplish and then write. The writing may be individual or in group. For example, to write for a birthday can be individual, while writing for the holidays can be individual or group work. To help students to perform much better job of writing we can help them by presenting different pictures or posters. After planning the students may continue with drafting which is not difficult if they plan well, but if not it becomes difficult. As research has suggested many good writers employ a recursive, non- linear approach, writing a draft may be interrupted by more planning, and revision may lead to reformulation, with a great deal of recycling to earlier stages.(Krashen, 1984) For each activity the teacher should give clear instructions on what he expects from students and how will they organize ideas. For this teacher may use the blackboard by submitting items to be covered in written work. Post writing This is another important phase, the students get feedback from their own writing, the teacher analysis how is this accomplished. Once students complete the written work the teacher should examine how this work is done in writing. By writing our students develop their critical thinking, they become more creative. By developing writing students develop critical thinking. Creative writing leads to communicative writing because it incorporates the four skills together thus, reading, speaking, writing and listening. By writing about something that they like students develop their creativity, make use of an extended vocabulary and are not judged for their own opinions. Communicative Writing Activities Observations and experiments We shouldnt forget that using communicative teaching method it enables us a lot of possibilities for choosing a variety of activities, in this context. What is characteristic of writing activities in almost all English texts used in schools is the fact that we dont have to do with creative writing or communicative writing. Usually we find fill in gaps exercises, write an email (where it is given most part of it, and students have to fill out the rest) this is not creative. By teaching and learning the language in a communicative way, the writing assignment is not merely dictation. The purpose is not just dictating a part to students, but to develop it in a more sophisticated way for example we may dictate a reading part to our students but not the whole of it, we have to let them finish it, by using imagination. Apart from these from my observations students lack the ability to write because of two reasons one is that they find it boring, not interesting to write about emails or description, the other fact is that they dont have clear instructions about the purpose and what they are going to acquire. If we let them free to choose about topics in connection to everyday life than they find a purpose and would serve to them later, as an example if we let them fill out a job interview, or write about the most interesting things, or write about hobbies, or life experiences, than well see that they will write. Project works are even another good way of being creative and communicative. There are different clues about it as give a point for discussion, give direction and let the m create the 277

story. Compositions and essays especially the last are good ways of enhancing communicative writing because students express themselves in a free way, by developing ideas and opinions. Let us have a look at two experimental exercises that I prepared myself by modifying to have communicative writing exercises in two different classes one in elementary (language level A2) and the other at a high school (language level B1) .My Experimental classes Experimentation modification of the text to promote communicative writing: o Wow 2 - Grade 7 School Drita e Dijes o Teaching Subject: Famine in Africa Task 1 o The level of students A2 o Type of duty - Description (individual) o The audience - other students o Time given 10 min Aim- to be communicative and express themselves free in writing. Make a detailed description about the development of agriculture in our country. you should consider a few things before writing such as : How developed is it? Do you produce a lot in your country? Why are most of the products imported from other countries? Although most imported products? Through these questions are stimulated thoughts, ideas and therefore increase the communicative forms of writing. Task 2 About the same topic. In some pieces of paper is written the reading part but with lack of information. Students are divided into pairs, they have to exchange ideas and fill out the information according to their opinion about the theme. I wrote back to the reading, but the lack of information such as part of the left middle, left or sentence by half. I divided the students into pairs and each pair has to fill the missing information. Experimentation modification of the text to promote communicative writing: Wishes - Unit 2 - Year IV School 1 Maji Teaching Subject: Health: Mirror mirror on the wall ... Task 3 (High School) Student Level B1-B1.2 Type of Task - Essay (individual) Audience - Students in classroom Time given 15min Purpose - to express freely using communicative language, develop critical thinking. Essay: Topic: Healthy mind in healthy body. Some things that should be considered before writing this essay: What psychological and social factors greatly affect our health? What is the role of the parents and that of the society in our life? What other disorders can be caused to us by the lack of appetite? What problems are created to us by anorexia and how to fight it? Results of these two experimented activities were very surprising; from a boring class activity they collaborated, gave their opinions and were not prejudiced about grammar mistakes. By the writing assignment we dont practice just the writing skill but we practice even speaking. If a text does not offer too much we can be creative by modifying it, not just retrieving ourselves to what the text offers. We can modify and prepare extra exercises ourselves to help them acquire better the language. So as we can see we can be creative to have effective teaching, and our students can be creative if we provide possibilities to them. As I mention previously how I deal in my English classes, teachers as well can lead students to powerful creative writing, by letting them free to write for whatever they want. 278

Being communicative pair work helps a lot; an assignment in an EFL class is to let students write stories, journals, dialogues, stories, essays, and tales. Conclusion Skills are very important. To be communicative we need to acquire the language in a communicative way. It is the role and the task of teachers to provide the best activities that help students mastering the language. A combination of skills makes our students acquire better the language. Writing skill shouldnt be neglected. By writing our students develop their knowledge; they develop their creativity and broaden their cultural knowledge a well. To have effective writing we should be creative ourselves, our students should be left free, should be encouraged to write not because they are going to take a mark but because it would help them to be communicative. Effective way of teaching brings effective learning and if our students reach their goals we as teachers may say that we have accomplished our teaching aim .Writing can be fully integrated with other skills and be communicative as any other classroom activity. References and suggestions for reading Krashen, S.D. (1984). Writing: research, theory and applications. Oxford: Pergamon Institute of English. Larsen, F, D. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford. Oxford University press. Proett, J, & Gill (1986). The writing process in action: A handbook for teachers. Urbana, IL; National Council of Teachers of English. Raimes, A.(1991). Out of woods: Emerging traditions in the teaching of English. TESOL Quarterly, 25, 407.430. Savignon, S (1997). Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice (2nd editing). Widdowson, H.G. (1978).Teaching language as communication Oxford. Oxford University Press Suggestions for further reading. Breen 1985 - Authenticity in the language Classroom. Applied Linguistic.6/1. 60-70 Dell 1971. Competence and performance in Linguistic theory. Language Acquisition. London Academic Press. . Littlewood William 1981- Communicative Language teaching. Cambridge University Press Leonard H. Clark & Irving S. Starr- Secondary and Middle School Teaching Methods. Macmillan Publishing Company New York 1991.fq.2 Morrow Johnson 1981 - Communication in the classroom. Essex Longman Nunan D.1991- Basic Features of CLT. Oxford University press. Peacock 1997- The Effect of Authentic Materials on the Motivation of EFL learners in ELTJ .51(2). 144 156. Rosie Tanner & Catherine Green.2001.-tasks for teacher education.Longman.Fq.16-30 Savignon Sandra 1997 - Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice (2 ndeditin) .Sydney: Mc Graw Hill Companies. Language teaching fq.105 Thomas G. Devine 1987 - Teaching study skills sec. edition .Boston Ally and Bacon. Widdowson H.G.1990 - Aspects of language teaching. Oxford. Oxford University press.3Hymes Wilkins David 1976 . Notionall Syllabus. Oxford University Pres.

279

An Exploratory Study of Hedges Used in the EFL Yemeni Undergraduates Job Application Letter Ali S. Alward English lecturer at the International College, University of Science and Technology, Yemen PhD student in the College of Arts and Sciences at Universiti Utara Malaysia a.alward06@yahoo.com Abstract Research on hedges has been largely on scientific discourse (i.e. research articles and scientific texts) which are written mostly in English, French, Spanish, German, Bulgarian, and Chinese (Salager-Meyer, 1994; Hyland, 1994, 1996a, 1999; Varttala, 1999, 2001; Silver, 2003; Hinkel, 2004; Vold, 2006; Alberto et. al., 2007; Yeung, 2007; Martin-Martin, 2008; Dafouz-Milne, 2008 & Winardi, 2009). Existing research on hedges used by EFL learners or non-native speakers of English in written discourse has been overlooked (Hinkel, 2005; Lee, 2006 & 2008 & Shengmeng, 2009). It has been recommended that hedges are much needed in relation to second language writing (Alireza, et al., 2008). This paper is an attempt to explore various types and functions of hedges used by Yemeni EFL undergraduate writers. The instrument used for this study is the job application letter written by 120 undergraduate students majoring in English at Sanaa University. The findings revealed that Yemeni EFL learners overuse certain items of hedges which are largely associated with spoken style. Hedges identified in the students written texts included personalized expressions, shields, readers appeal markers, approximators, impersonalization and If-clause constructions. Introduction The genre of job application letter is associated with academic business matters. This genre can, to some extent, influence the readers decision to accept or reject the applicants request for the job. The purpose of a job application letter is to promote oneself in a most persuasive manner, in an attempt to win the advertised job applied for. Despite the significance of the genre of job application letter, there is little research conducted in this field (Ging, 2004). Among those few studies is Bhatias (1993) analysis of the job application letter. According to him, job application letter can be viewed as a promotional genre because it promotes the job applicant in response to an advertisement. Despite the importance of this genre for the graduate admissions process, there has been little research and instruction in academic writing courses (Ding, 2007). Thus, this study focuses on exploring hedges in the genre of job application letter which play a vital role in the persuasive import of academic communication (Vzquez et al., 2009). Methodology Participants The data was collected from 120 application letters written by third-year undergraduate students enrolled in the Fall Semester, 2010. All subjects were non-native speakers of English and their ages range between 22 and 24 years. Instrument The instrument of this study consisted of an open-ended writing task of job application letter (henceforth JAL). The open-ended writing task was recommended by researchers as a valid instrument to collect such type of data (Oller, 1983; Hyland & Milton, 1997; 280

Cumming et al., 2005; Gebril & Melenhorst, 2006; Sekaran, 2007 & Plakans, 2008). Thus, the assigned task was modeled on almost similar writing task administered by the English Department, or those found in many writing textbooks. The writing task version is given below: You have seen an advertisement in the newspaper for the position of teaching English as a foreign language at a popular local institute. Write a letter of application giving information about yourself, your qualifications and previous experience, as well as explaining persuasively why you would be suitable for the job. Data collection and Analysis This study is quantatively oriented in that it tries to quantify hedges with their types and functions in the students written texts. It is important to point out that there are various taxonomies of hedges proposed by different researchers in the literature. However, there is no agreement among researchers to establish a unified taxonomy for hedges (SalagerMeyer, 1998). Accordingly, Hyland (1998a, 2004) and Salager-Meyer (1998, 2000) suggested that taxonomy of hedges can be left to the researchers part to choose. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore various types of hedges which involve Personalization, Shields, Readers Appeal Markers, Approximators, Impersonalization and If-Clause. The analysis techniques entail three stages: device identification, frequency computation and contextual explanation. In order to locate these two items in the texts, the researcher carefully read the text word by word, highlighting these items by two different colors. The second stage was to establish the frequency rates of each subtype of hedges in the texts. Having the statistical process established, the researcher examined the function of each sub-category of hedges in the context of their occurrence. This involves a certain amount of pragmatic interpretation. Results and Discussion The overall distribution and frequency of hedges in the job application are presented in Table 4.1 and Figure 4.1 below. The number and frequency of hedges were calculated and distributed based on their forms. An analysis of hedges in the job application letter accounted for almost 19% of text totaling 14600 words. As Table 1 and Figure 1 below show, personalization represents the largest portion 7% followed by shields 5% and readers appeal markers 3%. Approximators 2%, imperson1alization and if-clause made up 1% for each. Table 1: Overall distribution and frequency of hedges in the job application letter Category Sub-category Personalization Shields Readers Appeal Approximators Impersonalization If-Clause 281 JAL (14600 words) Number Frequency 964 7% 760 5% 480 3% 285 2% 159 1% 123 2771 1% 19%

Total

Hedges

Frequency of items

Figure 4 Frequency rates of hedges in the job application letter Types of Hedges Personalization Personalized forms refer to the explicit personal expressions of the writer in the text. The highly personalized expressions are viewed as a form of hedges in the writing discourse. Personal involvement weakens the claim and its objectivity (Myers, 1989; Swales, 1994). Students are expected to present their claims objectively and approach topic from a balanced perspective (Hinkel, 1999). As stated by Carlson (1988), overusing subjective forms may diminish the writers credibility in writing. Personalization is measured by the use of the first person pronouns. It is evident from the percentage recorded above that the personal pronouns (e.g. I, me, my, we, us, our) represent the largest portion among other categories. These findings were consistent with Ohta (1991) who notes that non-native-speakers of English noticeably employ more first person pronouns in their compositions. Similarly, Milton (1999), Hvitfeldt (1992), and Neff et al. (2004) report that writing by novice English learners typically contains a high degree of personal involvement, especially the first person voice which is a characteristic of novice EFL writing. Examples below involve personalized items written in bold. Ex. 1: I am responsible, active and cooperative. I have good communication skills and I am able to work hard and in anytime. Ex. 2: In my opinion, I see myself as a person with good expression style and my perfect size and confidence in myself. Ex. 3: Enclosed with this letter my CV and my certificates, I hope that you accept my letter and my all experience liked for you. I wish you contact me for this job. Ex.4: According to what I said before. I think I have all the qualities that is very suitable for your job. Ex.5: I believe I would be creative and energetic teacher to you. The examples above indicate that that the writers used the first personal pronoun I to exclusively refer to their own identity for purpose of promoting themselves for the job applied for. The use of the first personal pronoun I accompanied by the cognitive verbs think, believe in example (4) and (5) shows that the writer simply indicates to his/her personal point of view. In this case, the writer shows politeness for readers by inviting them to be involved in the claim presented. Brown and Levinson (1983) and Aijmer (1997) point out that the expression I think has the function of mitigating face threat, and thus weakens the writers commitment to the claims being made. Shields Shields signal the writers uncertainty. Their meanings have to do with the attitude of the writer towards the claim being made as a possibility and prediction (Biber, 1988). Examples of shields are given below: 282

Ex. 6: You can get the answers for every question you may have. Ex. 7: I believe I could be excellent teacher as a candidate in this position. Ex. 8: I believe I could be cooperative active, supportive, passionate and reliable in every members team. I can be contacted at. The examples below are shielded to avoid any possible risk of readers denial. the phrase I think indicates that the writers assessment is uncertain of the claims being made. The most frequent shields that students used include expressions like I think, I believe, I mean which all have mitigating function. Ex.9: I think I have the qualification that you need. Ex. 10: I think I can do my best with you to have your satisfaction. The types of shields found in the data are associated with informal and conversational discourse style such asI think, I believe, and I mean. This finding is confirmed in previous research that the widespread of the simple and informal discourse in students writing is not surprising (Nikula, 1996; Shaw & Liu, 1998 & Hinkel, 2002). Readers Appeal Markers This category is hedged by addressing the reader directly through the use of the second personal pronoun you and your. Hyland (1998) points out that readers are addressed in the text as if they were capable of making the same claims and inferences on a shared knowledge. The use of you and your indicates that writers are concerned that their claims might receive an objection from the readers. Therefore, they seek to be closely linked to readers through bringing them into the text. The use of the second person was found common in the non-native English speakers writing (Petch-Tyson, 1998 & Biber et al., 1999). Examples on the involvement of the second person are given below: Ex.11: I am sure that you will not be regret after you accept me and apply me in your institute. Your students will be more and more. Ex.12: I am applying for the position of an English teacher for your institute. I saw your advertisement in bdjob.com for an English teacher for your foreign language institute. Ex.13: I hope that you accept my letter and my all experience liked for you. I wish you contact me to this job as soon as. Approximators Approximators are those items or expressions which indicate vagueness, and impression such as any, some, approximately, thing, and kind of (Salager-Meyer, 1994). Chanell (1994) states that writers resort to employ approximators when they are under stress due to the uncertainty of the claim, the lack of information about the subject matter or do not command the necessary vocabulary. Some examples of approximators are given below: Ex. 14: I said for yours I have more skills and experience in these things especially in Arabic and English. Ex. 15: I wish to be accepted at your institute and if you desire for any interview or making any test with me. Impersonalization Unlike personal involvement strategy, impersonalized forms are used to avoid reference to the writers personal involvement when commenting on his/her claims. As stated by Hinkel (2004), impersonalized expressions project a degree of detachment of the claim presented. These expressions include passive voice constructions, introductory phrases and 283

existential subjects which all function as hedges. Examples on these types of impersonalized expressions are given below: Ex. 16: Regardless of this, you can determine and my speech can be proved when you see Ex. 50: It will make me lucky if I win the job I applied for. Ex.17: There is a few numbers of institutes that have a good reputation. my way of delivering information. Impersonalization in students writing was noted in earlier studies that NNS writing is characterized by detached style of the truth of the claims presented (Myers, 1989). These constructions can function as a detached style to convey distance and uninvolvement (Biber, 1988 & Master, 1991). In the case of this study, passive construction was not found common, however existential and introductory phrases appear to be commonly used. It has been found that there is a tendency for students to use inanimate subject constructions in form of existential subjects and introductory phrases as given in these examples below: Ex. 18: I think it is my chance to improve my capability independently by each good in your institute. Ex. 19: There are many course and workshops that I attended before. If-Clause Construction Conditional if-clause functions in academic text as a hedge (Huebler, 1983), although they are more frequent in spoken than in written discourse (Biber, 1988). If-clauses involve a tone of uncertainty which indicate that there is a possibility that the presumed knowledge might be uncertain. The writers hedge their claims as if they would be denied or refused (Brown & levinson, 1987). Ford (1993) views conditionals as a structure mostly found in conversational discourse, and states that the use of conditional clauses hardly makes for an effective persuasive device and it tends to signal the claim as problematic or questionable. Examples on if-clause expressions are given below: Ex. 20: I will be lucky if you accept me in this job because I think it is my chance to improve my capability independently by each good in your institute. Ex. 21: I would like to teach here if you do not mind and I will be happy if you accept my application. Ex. 22: I will be glad if I work at your wonderful institute. It was noted that most of the If-clause constructions were found in the clause-end position of the claim which indicates that the writer wants to avoid making preconditions. Conclusion The primary focus of this paper was exploring and describing various types of hedges used by Yemeni EFL undergraduate students in the job application letter. Following SalagerMeyer (1994), Hyland (1998) and Martin-Martin (2008), six categories of hedges were identified as extensively overused or misused by EFL Yemeni writers. Pedagogical Implications and Recommendations Drawn from the major findings of this study, some suggestions are presented to EFL writing stakeholders to transfer these findings to pedagogical grounds. I believe there is a need to include hedges in EFL writing materials. These materials should explicitly address hedges in written examples to enable EFL learners recognize their types and pragmatic functions. It is recommended that future research should compare hedges in the EFL persuasive writing produced by Arab learners with those written by native-speakers of 284

English. Such research would shed light on whether this phenomenon is universal or culture-specific. References Aijmer, Karin. (1997). I thinkAn English modal particle. In T. Swan & O. J. Westvik (Eds.), Modality in the Germanic languages (Proceedings of the IXthInternational Symposium on Language). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 1 47. Alberto, O., Cassany, D. & Martin E. & Gonzales, C. (2007). Approaching the use of hedging in Hispanic Dental Case Reports. Paper presented in the 1 st International Conference on Language and Health Care. Alireza, J. & Mohammed, A. (2007). How explicit instruction makes a difference: metadiscourse markers and EFL learners reading comprehension skill. In: English as a foreign language, Journal of College Reading and Learning. Biber, Douglas, (1988). Variation across Speech and Writing. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman. Biber, S. Johansson,, S. Conrad, G. Leech, and E. Finegan (1999) The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman. Brown, P. & Stephen L. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage, New York: Cambridge University Press. Carlson, S., (1988). Cultural differences in writing and reasoning skills. In: Purves, A. (Ed.), Writing Across Languages and Cultures: Issues in Contrastive Rhetoric. Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp. 109137. Channell J. (1994). Vague Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cumming, A., Kantor, R., Baba, K., Erdosy, U., Eouanzoui, K., & James, M. (2005). Differences in written discourse in independent and integrated prototype tasks for next generation TOEFL. Assessing Writing, 10, 543. Dafou-Milne, E. (2008). The pragmatic role of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers in the construction and attainment of persuasion: Across-linguistic study of newspaper discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 40, 95-113. Ding, H. (2007). Genre analysis of personal statements: analysis of moves in application essays to medical and dental schools. English for Specific Purposes 26 (3), 368 92. Ford, Cecilia, 1993. Grammar in interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gebril, A. (2006). Independent and integrated academic writing tasks: A study in generalizability and test method. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Iowa, Iowa City. Ging, H. J. (2004). Genre analysis and cultural variations: A comparative Analysis of British and Chinese TEFL/TEFL Application letters.( pp.110-131) .Curtin University of Technology. Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Hinkel, E. (1999). Objectivity and credibility in L1 and EFL academic writing. In: Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning, Cambridge University. Hinkel, E. (2002). Second language writers text. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hinkel, E. (2004). Teaching academic EFL writing-practical techniques in vocabulary and grammar. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hinkel, E. (2005). Hedging, Inflating, and Persuading in EFL Academic Writing. Applied Language Learning, 15(1 & 2), 29-53. 285

Hebler, A. (1983). Understatements and Hedges in English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Hvitfeldt, Christina (1992). Oral orientation in ESL academic writing. Hyland, K. (1994). Hedging in academic writing and EAP textbooks. English for Specific Purposes 13, 239-256. Hyland, K. (1996a). Nurturing hedges in the ESP curriculum .System, 24 (4). 477- 490. Hyland, K., & Milton, J. (1997). Hedging in L1 and EFL student writing. Journal of Second Language Writing 6, 183206. Hyland, K. (1998a). Boosting, hedging and the negotiation of academic knowledge. TEXT 18, 349-382. Hyland, K. (1998d). Persuasion and context: The pragmatics of academic metadiscourse. Journal of Pragmatics 30, 437-455. Hyland, K. (1999). Talking to students: Metadiscourse in introductory course books. English for Specific Purposes 18, 3-26. Hyland, K. (2004). Disciplinary interactions: metadiscourse in EFL postgraduate writings. Journal of Second Language Writing 13 (2), 133151. Lee. H., S. (2006). The use of interpersonal resources in argumentative/persuasive essays by East-Asian EFL and Australian tertiary students. PhD Dissertation, University of Sydney. Lee. H., S. (2008). An integrative framework for the analyses of argumentative/ persuasive essays from an interpersonal perspective. Text & Talk 28 (2), 239270. Martin-Martin, P. (2008).The mitigation of scientific claims in research papers: A comparative study. IJES, 8 (2) 133-152. Master, Peter, 1991. Active verbs with inanimate subjects in scientific prose. English for Specific Purposes 10: 15-33. Melenhorst, M. (2006) . Highlighting professional writing: On screen note-taking as part of writing-from-sources by professionals. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Twente, The Netherlands. Milton, J. (1999). Lexical thickets and electronic gateways: making text accessible by novice writers, Writing: Texts, Processes & Practices, Longman, Harlow: UK, 221-243. Myers, G. (1989). The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles. Applied Linguistics, 10, 135. Neff, J., Ballesteros, F.,Dafouz, E.,Martnez, F., Rica, J. P.,Dez, M., et al. (2004). Formulating writer stance: a contrastive study of EFL learner corpora. In U. Connor & T. A. Upton (Eds.), Applied corpus linguistics. A multidimensional perspective (pp. 73e89).Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi Nikula, T. (1996). Pragmatic Force Modifiers: A study in interlanguage pragmatics. PhD thesis, Department of English, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla. Ohta, Amy Snyder (1991). Evidentiality and politeness in Japanese. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 2 (2), 211-238. Oller, J. W., Jr. (Ed.). (1983). Issues in Language testing Research. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Petch-Tyson, S. (1998). Writer/reader visibility in EFL written discourse. In S. Granger (ed.). Learner English on computer, 107118. London and New York: Longman. Plakans, L. (2008). Comparing composing processes in writing-only and reading-to-write test tasks. Assessing Writing, 13, 111129. Salager-Meyer F. (1994). Hedges and textual communication function in medical English written discourse. English for Specific Purposes 13, 149-170.

286

Salager-Meyer, F. (1998). Language is not a physical object. English for Specific Purposes, 17, 295-302. Salager-Meyer, F. (2000). Procrustes recipe: Hedging and positivism. English for Specific Purposes, 19, 175-187. Sekaran, U. (2007). Research methods for business: A skill building approach, 4th edition, Wiley India, Ansari Road, New Delhi. Shaw, P. & Liu, E. T. K. (1998). What develops in the development of second language writing. Applied Linguistics, 19 (2), 225-254. Shengming, Y. (2009). The pragmatic development of hedging in EFL learners. Phd dissertation. Department of English, City University of Hong Kong. Silver, M. (2003). The stance of stance: A critical outlook at ways stance is expressed and modeled in academic discourse. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 2: 359374. Swales, J. & Feak, C. (1994). Academic writing for graduate students. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. Varttala, T. (1999). Remarks on the communicative functions of hedging in popular scientific and specialist research articles on medicine. English for Specific Purposes 18, 177-200. Varttala, T. A. (2001). Hedging in Scientifically Discourse: Exploring variation according to discipline and intended audience. Published PhD Dissertation, University of Tampereen Yliopisto. Finland, Accessed online from Website:http://acta.uta.fi//pdf/951-44-5195-3.pdf. Vzquez, I. & Diana, G. (2009). Writing with Conviction: The Use of Boosters in Modelling Persuasion in Academic Discourses. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 22, 219-237 Vold, E. T. (2006). Epistemic modality markers in research articles: a cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary study. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 16(1), 61 87. Winardi, A. (2009). The use of hedging devices by American and Chinese writers in the field of Applied Linguistics. Journal of SASTRA INGGRIS, 8(3) 228-237. Yeung, L. (2007). In search of commonalities: Some linguistic and rhetorical features of business reports as a genre. English for Specific Purposes 26: 156-179.

287

The Effect of Model Essays on Developing Accuracy and Complexity of EFL Learners Writing in the Iranian Context Farnaz Sahebkheir Islamic Azad University, Ilkhichy Branch, Iran Farnaz.sahebkheir@yahoo.com Abstract During the last decades, finding methods to teach essaywriting more efficiently and effectively has been a challenge for EFL English teachers. The main purpose of this study was twofold: first, it aimed at investigating the effect of model essays on EFL learners noticing different aspects of language which were classified into four categories (lexicon, grammatical form, discourse and content); second, it attempted to find out the effect of model essays on developing accuracy and complexity of EFL learners writing. The participants in the present study were 40 female EFL learners. There were two groups: control group and experimental group. The Control group received teachers written error correction as feedback and experimental group received model essays as a feedback tool. The results of the study showed that students in the experimental group mostly noticed vocabulary in the model essays. Furthermore, ANCOVA test was used to assess the effect of modeling of native speaker writing on accuracy and complexity of EFL Learners writing. The results revealed that modeling of native speaker writing significantly affected the accuracy and complexity of EFL learners writing. The findings of the study suggest that model essays should be included in writing courses and teachers should encourage students to use models by promoting noticing. Keywords: Model Essays, Complexity, Accuracy, and Writing Skill Introduction In the recent SLA research, much emphasis has been placed on the role of attention, awareness, and noticing, which have been viewed as key issues in L2 learning by many researchers (e.g., Robinson, 1995; Schmidt, 1990; Schmidt & Frota, 1986, as cited in Hanaoka, 2007; Swain, 1998; Swain & Lapkin, 1995). Swain and Lapkin (1995) conclude that noticing may occur because of either internal or external feedback which may prompt, for example, the generation of alternatives and assessment of them from simple inspection to complex thinking (p. 386) .There are several types of feedback in L2 writing instruction, such as teachers essay correction, reformulation (native-speaker instructors rewriting to keep the students original ideas and correct only grammar mistakes and inappropriate vocabulary), and peer feedback. A model essay written by native speaker writers may also be a beneficial resource if it can function as a feedback tool (Qi & Lapkin, 2001). The present study focuses on the role of model essays (native speaker writing) and attempts to investigate whether modeling of native speaker writings are a beneficial feedback tool or not. Here model essays and native speaker writing has been used interchangeably. Some scholars believe that modeling of native speaker writing may improve writing skill better than teacher error correction (e.g., Abe, 2008; Hanaoka, 2006, 2007; Qi & Lapkin, 2001; Vickers & Ene, 2004).

288

Literature Review Model Essays Model essays in general are good examples of writing provided by instructors or textbooks for students to read and imitate. Certainly few people will take exception to the general rule that one good way to learn how to write is to follow the example of those who can write well. You have to read, read, and read says Walter Ong (1979, as cited in Eschholz, 1980, p. 21). There is no way to write unless you read, and read a lot (p.21). Eschholz (1980) states that in reading, writers see the printed words, the shape and order of sentences, and the texture of paragraphs. He believes that the prose model approach to the teaching of writing holds that writers can develop and improve their writing skills through directed reading. Ferris and Hedgcock (1998, as cited in Abe, 2008) argue that L2 writers have to be exposed to various types of reading material since it is difficult to acquire L2 writing skills by only writing. Similarly, Eschholz (1980) points out that what L2 learners write depends on what they read and they can improve their L2 writing skills by reading. He also argues that given the opportunities to learn rhetorical modes, L2 learners can eventually apply their knowledge about those modes to their writing. Watson (1982) believes that model essays provide powerful input. Based on Cummings (1995) empirical study, which demonstrates the significance of rhetorical aspects of texts in model essays, Smagorinsky (1992, as cited in Abe, 2008) discusses that model essays are the most helpful tool if L2 writers have a sufficient amount of content knowledge. Thus, some researchers emphasize the necessity of a model text illustrated in an academic writing textbook, which enables L2 writers to pay attention to the various aspects of TL (e.g., Hyland, 2003).Watson (1982) states that: 1) Models provide exposure to the lexical items, structural patterns, and conventions of the target language at all levels of discourse; in particular, they take us beyond sentence-level; 2) They demonstrate many modes of rhetorical organization and stylistic variety, related to variables such as communicative purpose and anticipated audience; 3) They are, especially when authentic rather than composed to order, windows onto culture in its widest sense, revealing customs, values, assumptions, and attitudes toward the world and man as perceived by speakers of the target language. (p. 6) However, there are also several objections to using model essays in an L2 writing context. Murray (1980) points out that the process of making meaning in L2 cannot be achieved by referring to written texts. In addition, Goby (1997) asserts that model essays prevent L2 learners from having creativity, which she believes is one of the important aspects of L2 writing skills. Writing instruction with model essays has also been criticized by other researchers (Collins & Gentner, 1980, as cited in Abe, 2008; Judy, 1980) for laying emphasis not on content but on form. They insist that language form and the content of composition are inseparable. Even among researchers who claim that model essays can be beneficial pedagogical tools, there has been agreement that reading model essays is important but not totally sufficient (Ferris & Hedgcock, 1998, as cited in Abe, 2008; Hyland, 2003). Moreover, Paulston and Dykstra (1973, as cited in Watson, 1982, p. 6) believe that the model is the product of other peoples writing, not the students own product, and it is the productnot the processof writing that is observed. Similarly, Eschholz (1980) believes that critics seem not to question the value of prose models, instead, their criticism is directed at how and when teachers use prose models. He believes that models are important to every writer and when appropriately integrated into the context of writing process they become a powerful and effective teaching tool.However, 289

there has been little empirical research to explore the role of model essays in L2 writing pedagogy. The Traditional Model based-Composition Teaching The method of the traditional prose models approach is simple: read, analyze, and write. In preparation for writing an essay, students are asked to read an essay written by a good writer. Next, students are asked to study the essay, answering questions about thesis, organization, paragraph development, sentence structure, dictation, writers purpose and so on. Finally each student is asked to write his or her own composition, using that sample essay as a model (Eschholz, 1980). Eschholz (1980) states that in this approach teachers use readings to stress form. Their interest in form includes those aspects of writing which insure clear thinking and accurate expression: organization, thesis, paragraph structure, coherence, logic and unity. Traditionally, the reading and discussion of an essay are necessary preliminaries to student writing. It is assumed that it is better to anticipate problems than to deal with them as they occur. Watson (1982) believes that in this approach, model essays provide input for readers but this cannot insure the intake. However, there are also several objections to using traditional model based-composition teaching. Dykstra (1973, as cited in Watson, 1982) believes that this model-based composition teaching is product- based composition. This approach treats the model largely as a source of patterns to be reproduced or manipulated in various ways. Furthermore, Watson (1982) states that one of the disadvantages of this approach is that the students pro product that results is likely to be very artificial: a collection of sentences rather than a text, something that no experienced writer would ever produce. Moffett (1970, as cited in Eschholz, 1980) proposes that models tend to intimidate students and that the study of models make students feel awkward and uncomfortable about writing. They claim that the models are too good; students are overwhelmed by the distance between them and professional writer. Thus, Eschholz (1980) believes that traditional model based approach with its emphasis on product tends to dictate rules and structures for writers. In essence students are encouraged to know what their essays should look like before they have written them. Emphasis on the product usually leads to difficulties with the process. New Approach to Using Model-based Composition The last decade has seen growing dissatisfaction with traditional model-based writing lessons, especially in the L1 teaching situation, for reasons strongly presented and summarized by Eschholz (1980). Eschholz (1980) states that the models used tend to be too long, too remote from students own writing problems, too likely to promote reading comprehension and rhetorical analysis rather than writing. The traditional sequence of activities in model based writing lessons (read, analyze, write) is also criticized, for it involves an underlying assumption that advance diagnosis of writing problems promotes learning (p. 24). In general, the imitation of models is seen as stultifying and inhibiting writers rather empowering them or liberating them (Eschholz, 1980, p. 24). After reviewing the criticism that has been leveled against the prose models approach, researchers such as Eschholz (1980) concludes that the critics were not objecting to the models themselves, but rather to the various uses that teachers made of readings. Eschholz (1980) describes new way for presenting model essays: 1. Students learn to write by writing, and they do a considerable amount of it each semester. 2. Writing is taught primarily as a process.

290

3. Individual conferences are used to teach writing because they permit the instructor to address the particular needs of each student. 4. Students read widely at the same time that they are writing. 5. Prose models, instead of being presented before the writing process begins, are introduced into the process as the student needs them. (p. 28) Escholz ( 1980 ) believes that Students must be permitted to discover their own writing problems, but once they have made that discovery models may be very helpful, demonstrating solutions that others have found and that students can utilize for themselves (p. 35). Murray (1968, as cited in Eschholz, 1980) argues that, although, we now teach writing as a process, we no longer feel that it is in conflict with our use of models. He further mentions that, if we are going to teach writing honestly, it is only fair that we look at what writers do and pattern our instruction after them. Furthermore, he mentions that an understanding of the composing process tells us that students learn to write by writing and rewriting and that students must discover what they have to say before they can determine how to say it. They know that there is a process, a series of steps, through which most writers find it necessary to pass most of the time. When a writer is trying to solve a specific process, however, prose models can be valuable if introduced appropriately. This study intended to investigate the role of model essays on the accuracy and complexity of Iranian EFL learners writing and also it tries to show what aspects of language students notice by comparing their writing to a model essay. Model essays can provide enough input for EFL learners to improve their writing skill. Escholz (1980) points out that what L2 learners write depends on what they read. Regarding the purpose of the study, the following research questions are presented: 1. What aspects of language do EFL learners notice by comparing their own writing with the model essays (native speaker writing) in the experimental group? 2. What is the effect of model essays on developing accuracy of EFL Learners written performance in comparison with teachers written error correction? 3. What is the effect of model essays on developing complexity of EFL Learners written performance in comparison with teachers written error correction? Methodology Participants The participants in the present study were 40 female EFL students from Jahade Daneshgahi English Institute in Tabriz, Iran. Their ages ranged from 16 to 28, and they were all at intermediate level. In order to motivate the learners to participate in the study, the researcher explained that using model essays is a new approach that can improve their writing. Also, the researcher chose those topics for writing that students were interested in. The researcher as the teacher of two classes gave two positive marks for all participants. Therefore, students got interested to follow the treatment sessions. At the end of the study, nearly all students came to ask for their scores in their writing tasks. As a result, all participants enthusiastically took part in the writing tasks. Instrumentation The proficiency Test employed in the present study was Preliminary English Test PET. It included four parts: listening, writing, speaking and reading. The subjects scores were out of 100. Those who were chosen for the study had obtained 60 or more than 60 in this test. Writing tasks and model essays for those tasks were chosen for this research project from book how to prepare for the TOEFL Essays edited by Abbas Zahedi (2002). Four kinds of writing tasks AD (agreeing or disagreeing), PR (stating a preference), EX (giving 291

an explanation), and MA (making an argument) were chosen from this book. The writing tasks (Appendix C) and model essays used in the treatment are presented in (Appendix D). For both pre-test and post-test, PR writing tasks were used (Appendixes A and B). UCLES (2007, as cited in Abe, 2008) refers to the definition of argumentative task in which candidates are required to write an argumentative essay in response to a problem, opinion or controversial proposition. They have to show an ability to demonstrate an argument from a certain standpoint, suggest the solution, justify their opinion by drawing on their own knowledge and experience, weigh it against other opinions, and support their argument with their own experiences. Therefore, all writing tasks in Zahedis book are different types of argumentative tasks. Procedure The study consisted of 21 sessions on a Saturday, Tuesday, and Thursday schedule in classes including female students. No dictionaries were allowed to use by participants, because the participants should only use model essays and teacher error correction for improving writing. Subjects were given some instructions before writing about the task. To make sure of the participants homogeneity, the researcher measured their language proficiency level using a PET test. Forty students who had obtained 60 or more out of 100 were selected for the study. They were randomly divided into two groups, each consisting of 20 participants: the experimental group and the control group. In order to know whether there were significant differences in English Proficiency among the members of two groups, an independent t-test was computed between the proficiency scores of two groups. The data collection procedure consisted of three stages in two groups. Because of time limitation, every stage was conducted in a different session during instruction. Both groups had to write about the same topics. The pre-test, including a PR kind of writing task, was administrated for both control and experimental groups before the treatment and the accuracy and complexity of students writing were measured. Accuracy was measured by calculating the number of the grammatical errors per the total number of T-units (Gaies, 1980). Complexity was measured by calculating the number of content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) per the total number of T-units (Hunt, 1965, as cited in WolfeQuintero, et al., 1998). Students writings were rated by two raters to obtain inter-rater reliability (one of the raters was the researcher herself). In order to increase the validity of writing tasks, the researcher also conducted a pilot study. A test is said to have content validity if its content constitute a representative sample of the language skills, structure, etc. with which it is meant to be concerned (Hughes, 2003). Writing tasks should not make demands on creativity, imagination, and intelligence of students. Therefore, one of the major factors that the researcher had to consider in choosing the topics was about the general knowledge of the participants; it was clear that the students were at the same level of writing proficiency but the level of general knowledge differed in each of the participants. So, the researcher had to choose the topics, which were familiar enough for the participants. Also, a pilot study was conducted for eight sessions to a sample group which was similar to the main group. The purpose of the pilot study was to gain insights about writing tasks and usefulness of model essays in different writing books which offered writing tasks and model essays. At last, the researcher found that writing tasks and model essays in Zahedis book are suitable for students with intermediate language proficiency. Treatment consisted of three stages in both groups in which every stage took approximately 30 minutes. Instruction in the experimental group was as follow: 292

In Stage 1, students were asked to write about the topic. In Stage 2, students studied a model essay about that writing task and they underlined or took notes about those aspects of language that they noticed in the model essay written about the same task (Taking note stage was exactly the same as taking note process mentioned by Hanaoka , 2006, 2007). In Stage 3, students were asked to rewrite the writing task. In the experimental group, in Stage 2, what students noticed (as written in notes or displayed as underlining) was classified into four categories (the researcher followed Abes (2008) classification): 1. Lexicon: words, phrases, expressions, 2. Form: articles, plurals, sentence structures, verb forms, tenses, prepositions, comparatives and superlative, punctuation, and spelling, 3. Discourse: cohesive devices, 4. Content: own opinion, knowledge, experiences, evidence, and supportive ideas. Examples of what students noticed: 1. One of the students wrote that it would be worth it is used in the model essay. I did not know about it and I want to use it in my essay. (Lexicon) 2. I used Its harmful but in the model essay it has used would be harmed. I think using passive tense here is better. (Form) 3. The model essay has used the words such as first, then, secondly, on the other hand, etc at the beginning of paragraphs. I want to use such words in my essay too. (Discourse) 4. In the third paragraph, the model essay describes about tax and tax payers. I want to write about such information in my essay. (Content) The students in the control group wrote about the same topics as the experimental group during the instruction sessions with the same time table. In the Stage 1, control group wrote about the writing tasks and their writings were collected by the researcher, as their teacher, and the researcher corrected their errors. In the Stage 2, students in the control group reviewed their errors and feedback they got from the researcher, as their teacher. In the Stage 3, students rewrote their writings. Every stage took approximately 30 minutes and because of the time limitation every stage was conducted in a different session. At the end of the seventh week program, the participants in both groups were post tested. The post testing procedures were exactly the same as pretesting. Students in both groups had access to another PR kind of writing task from Zahedis book; they wrote about the topic and the researcher measured accuracy and complexity of their writing. Design Due to the proposed research question, this study required a quasi-experimental method of research. It contained a pre-test (Appendix A), a post test (Appendix B), a control group and an experimental group. Feedback which has two levels of essay modeling and teacher error correction, was the independent variable, which is the major variable hoped to be investigated (Hatch & Farhady, 1981). The accuracy and complexity of participants writing are the dependent variables which are observed and measured to determine the effect of the independent variable (Hatch & Farhady, 1981). In this study, students language proficiency and gender were controlled by taking PET test and choosing two homogenous female language learner groups. 293

Results and Findings In this chapter, first, the results of t-test for proficiency test will be presented. Then, the descriptive data gathered for question one will be described by Tables and Figures. The results of questions two and three will be presented in the following section that include a descriptive statistics of data, Pearson Correlation for showing the inter-rater reliability between the scores of two raters , Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for finding the normalness of data, t-test for showing the homogeneity of pre-test scores, and results of ANCOVA tests. Finally, the researcher will discuss the results. Language Proficiency Test To make sure of the participants homogeneity, the researcher measured their language proficiency level using a PET test. The results of the language test are shown in Tables(1)and (2). Table 1: Descriptive data for proficiency scores
Group Statistics GROUPS 1.00 2.00 N 20 20 Mean 64.1500 64.4000 Std. Deviation 2.88873 3.20197 Std. Error Mean .64594 .71598

PET

Table 2: Independent sample t-test for proficiency scores

Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper -2.20212 -2.20279 1.70212 1.70279

F PET Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed .213

Sig. .647

t -.259 -.259

df 38 37.604

Sig. (2-tailed) .797 .797

Mean Difference -.2500 -.2500

Std. Error Difference .96430 .96430

As a result of the t-test, there has not been a significant difference in scores for control group (M = 64.15, SD = 2.88) and experimental group (M=64.40, SD = 3.20), t (38) = .259, P>.05. Frequencies and proportions of features noticed in the Stage 2 The first research question aimed to investigate which aspects of language the participants noticed in the model essays. In order to explore what aspect of language they were paying attention to, major four categories (lexicon, form, discourse, and content) were identified and the descriptive statistics for each category were calculated. Table 3 shows the frequencies and proportions of features noticed in the Stage 2 by the experimental group. Table 3: Frequencies and proportions of features noticed in the Stage 2 by the experimental group. F % M SD lexicon 134.2 38.37 9.50 4.15 Form 77.8 22.24 5.64 3.50 discourse 35.9 10.26 3.14 1.92 content 101.8 29.11 7.64 2.92 294

total

349.7

100

25.92

5.34

As Table (3) indicates, the largest proportion and mean frequency of the noticing was lexical (38.37%, M = 9.50), followed by content (29.11%, M = 7.64), form (22.24%, M = 5.64), and discourse (10.26%, M = 3.14). To provide a better understanding of the frequency of features noticed by experimental group, the results are shown in Figure (1).

Figure 1: Frequencies of features noticed by the experimental group Inter-rater Reliability for Accuracy Scores The descriptive statistics of administered pre-and post tests for raw scores (non-adjusted scores) of accuracy are summarized in Table 4. Table 4: Descriptive Statistics of Raw Scores of Accuracy in Pre-test and post-test of Control and Experimental Groups
Descriptive Statistics Minimu m Statisti c .57 .48 Maximu m Statisti c 2.15 1.34 Std. Deviati on Statisti c .3910 .2530 Skewn ess Statisti c .712 .747 Kurtosi s Statisti c 1.303 -.330

GROUP control

Experimental

pre-accuracy post-accuracy valid N(listwise) pre-accuracy post-accuracy valid N(listwise)

N Statisti c 20 20 20 20 20 20

Mean Statisti c 1.0928 .8013

.50 .16

2.00 .51

1.0823 .2776

.3765 .0965

.615 .811

.214 .213

As Table 4 indicates, the mean score for pre-test of control group is 1.0928, and the mean score of pre-test of experimental group is 1.0823. The mean score for post-test of control group is 0.8013; the mean score for post-test of experimental group is 0.2776. For answering the research question two, the researcher used the mean of scores gained by two raters in pre-test and post-test of accuracy scores. As mentioned before, the scores of the students were rated by two raters. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used to establish the inter-rater reliability through computing the correlation between Rater 1 and Rater 2 on the mean score of pretest and post-test of control and experimental groups for accuracy ( see Tables 5 and 6). 295

Table 5: The Pearson Correlation for Accuracy Scores between Two Raters in Pre-test of control and experimental groups
Correlations pre-accur rater1 1.000 . 40 .937** .000 40 pre-accur rater2 .937** .000 40 1.000 . 40

pre-accur rater1 pre-accur rater2

Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Table 6: The Pearson Correlation for Accuracy Scores between Two Raters in Post-test of control and experimental groups
Correlations post-accur post-accur rater1 rater2 1.000 .974** . .000 40 40 .974** 1.000 .000 . 40 40

post-accur rater1 post-accur rater2

Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

As Tables 5 and 6 show, the computed Pearson correlation coefficient for pre-test of accuracy is (r =.937, p =.000), and for the post test of accuracy is (r = .974, p = .000), which indicates that there is a high positive relationship between the scores rated by Rater 1 and Rater 2 in both pre-test and post-test for control and experimental groups. Results of Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for Accuracy Scores in two Groups The researcher used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for checking the normalness of data. The results show that the p>.05, so the data are normal. The results of KolmogorovSmirnov Test for pre-test and post test of control and experimental groups for the variable of accuracy are shown in Table 7.

296

Table 7: K-S Test Indicating the Normalness of Data for Accuracy scores
One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test GROUP control pre-accur 20 1.0927 .3910 .158 .157 -.158 .707 .700 20 1.0822 .3765 .127 .127 -.070 .569 .902 post-accur 20 .8012 .2530 .138 .138 -.099 .618 .840 20 .2776 9.654E-02 .113 .113 -.102 .504 .962

N Normal Parameters Most Extreme Differences

a,b

Mean Std. Deviation Absolute Positive Negative

Experimental

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) N Normal Parameters a,b Most Extreme Differences Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)

Mean Std. Deviation Absolute Positive Negative

a. Test distribution is Normal. b. Calculated from data.

Results of ANCOVA Test for Accuracy Scores Before conducting ANCOVA test, A T-Test was used to compare the means of scores between two groups in pre-test, to further show the homogeneity of two groups. The results of students scores in pre-test are shown in Tables (8) and (9). Table 8: Descriptive data for Pre-Test Scores of Accuracy in two Groups
Group Statistics GROUP control Experimental N 20 20 Mean 1.0928 1.0823 Std. Deviation .39097 .37651 Std. Error Mean .08742 .08419

pre-accur

Table 9 Independent sample t-test for pre-test scores of accuracy in two groups
Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances

t-test for Equality of Means 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper -.23520 -.23521 .25620 .25621

F PRE_accur Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed .000

Sig. .983

t .087 .087

df 38 37.946

Sig. (2-tailed) .932 .932

Mean Difference .0105 .0105

Std. Error Difference .12137 .12137

The mean score and standard deviation in control group is (M = 1.09, SD = .39) and the mean score and standard deviation in experimental group is (M = 1.08, SD = .37), t (38) = .087, p>.05, which shows that there are not any significant differences between two groups in pre-test. To answer the second question of the research, What is the effect of model essays on developing accuracy of EFL learners written performance in comparison with teachers error correction?, ANCOVA test was used. The independent variable is 297

feedback which has two levels of Essay Modeling and Teacher Correction and the dependent variable is accuracy scores in post-test between two groups and pre-test data of two groups are recognized as covariate. Table (10) shows the results of ANCOVA test. Table 10: The Results of ANCOVA Test for Accuracy between the Post Tests of Control and Experimental Groups
Tests of Between-Subjects Effects Dependent Variable: POS_TEST Source Corrected Model Intercept PRE_TEST GROUP Error Total Corrected Total Type III Sum of Squares 2.956a .452 .214 2.720 1.178 15.774 4.135 df 2 1 1 1 37 40 39 Mean Square 1.478 .452 .214 2.720 .032 F 46.408 14.176 6.731 85.394 Sig. .000 .001 .014 .000 Partial Eta Squared .715 .277 .154 .698

a. R Squared = .715 (Adjusted R Squared = .700)

Table (10) shows that (F (1, 37) = 85.394, p =.000). In other words, the difference between adjusted means in post-test of two groups is significant. The magnitude of this difference is high (Eta Squared) = 69.8%. This shows the positive effect of modeling of native speaker writing on the accuracy of EFL writing by keeping the effect of pre-test. The results of adjusted mean of accuracy scores between control and experimental groups are presented in Table 11. Table 11: The Results of the Adjusted Means for Accuracy Scores
Estimates Dependent Variable: POS_TEST GROUP control Experimental Mean Std. Error .800a .040 a .279 .040 95% Confidence Interval Lower Bound Upper Bound .719 .881 .198 .360

a. Covariates appearing in the model are evaluated at the following values: PRE_TEST = 1.0875.

The adjusted mean of experimental group (M = .279) is less than the adjusted mean of control group (M =.800), which shows that modeling of native speaker writing has positive effects on improving accuracy. It can be said that there are significant differences between the control and experimental groups in terms of accuracy of written performance. Inter-rater Reliability for Complexity Scores The descriptive statistics of administered pre-and post tests for raw scores (non-adjusted scores) of complexity are summarized in Table 12.

298

Table 12: Descriptive Statistics of Raw Scores of Complexity in Pre-test and Post-test of Control and Experimental Groups
Descriptive Statistics N Statistic 20 20 20 20 20 20 Minimum Statistic 2.58 2.50 3.10 4.61 Maximum Statistic 5.22 5.10 5.00 7.50 Mean Statistic 3.8538 3.8785 3.8543 6.0020 Std. Deviation Statistic .6158 .6194 .5683 .7616 Skewness Statistic Std. Error .559 .512 .278 .512 .700 .446 .512 .512 Kurtosis Statistic Std. Error .763 .992 .622 .992 -.239 -.043 .992 .992

GROUP control

Experimental

pre-complexity post-complexity Valid N (listwise) pre-complexity post-complexity Valid N (listwise)

As Table (12) indicates, the mean score for pre-test of control group is 3.8538, and the mean score for pre-test of experimental group is 3.8543. The mean score for post-test of control group is 3.8785; the mean score for post-test of experimental group is 6.0020. The pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used to establish the inter-rater reliability through computing the correlation between Rater 1 and Rater 2 on the mean score of pre-test and post-test of control and experimental groups for complexity (see Tables 13, and 14.). Table 13: The Pearson Correlation for Complexity Scores between Two Raters in Pre-test of control and experimental groups
Correlations pre-com rater1 1.000 . 40 .930** .000 40 pre-com rater 2 .930** .000 40 1.000 . 40

pre-com rater1 pre-com rater2

Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Table 14: The Pearson Correlation for Complexity Scores between Two Raters in Post-test of control and experimental groups
Correlations post-com rater1 1.000 . 40 .988** .000 40 post-com rater2 .988** .000 40 1.000 . 40

post-com -rater1 post-com-r ater2

Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

As Tables 13, and 14 show, the computed Pearson correlation coefficient for pre-test of complexity is (r =.930, p =.000), and for the post test of complexity is (r = .988, p =.000), which indicates that there is a high positive relationship between the scores rated by Rater 1 and Rater 2 in pre-test and post-test for two groups. For answering the research question three, the researcher used the mean of scores gained by two raters in pre-test and post-test of complexity scores. 299

Results of Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for Complexity Scores in two Groups The researcher used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for checking the normalness of data. The results show that the p>.05, so the data are normal. The results of KolmogorovSmirnov Test for pre-test and post test of control and experimental groups for the variable of complexity are shown in Table 15. Table 15: K-S Test Indicating the Normalness of Data for Complexity scores
One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test GROUP control pre-compl exity 20 3.8537 .6158 .186 .186 -.181 .833 .492 20 3.8542 .5683 .192 .192 -.092 .861 .449 post-comp lexity 20 3.8785 .6194 .170 .168 -.170 .760 .611 20 6.0020 .7616 .203 .203 -.136 .909 .380

N Normal Parameters a,b Most Extreme Differences Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) N Normal Parameters a,b Most Extreme Differences Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)

Mean Std. Deviation Absolute Positive Negative

Experimental

Mean Std. Deviation Absolute Positive Negative

a. Test distribution is Normal. b. Calculated from data.

Results of ANCOVA Test for Complexity Scores A T-Test was used to compare the means of scores between two groups in pre-test, to further show the homogeneity of two groups. The results of students scores in pre-test are shown in Tables 16 and 17. Table 16: Descriptive data for Pre-Test Scores of complexity
Group Statistics GROUP control Experimental N 20 20 Mean 3.8537 3.8542 Std. Deviation .61584 .56834 Std. Error Mean .13771 .12709

pre-compl exity

Table 17: Independent sample t-test for Pre-Test Scores of complexity in two Groups
Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper -.37984 -.37992 .37884 .37892

F pre-compl exity Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed .041

Sig. .841

t -.003 -.003

df 38 37.758

Sig. (2-tailed) .998 .998

Mean Difference -.0005 -.0005

Std. Error Difference .18739 .18739

As Table (17) indicates, the mean score and the standard deviation in control group is (M = 3.85, SD = .61) and the mean score and the standard deviation in experimental group is

300

(M = 3.85, SD =.56), t (38) = -.003, p>.05, which shows that there is not any significant difference between two groups regarding pre-test scores. To answer the third question of the research, What is the effect of model essays on developing complexity of EFL learners written performance in comparison with teachers error correction?, ANCOVA test was used. Independent variable is feedback which has two levels of Essay Modeling and Teacher Correction and the dependent variable is complexity scores in post-test between two groups and pre-test data of two groups are recognized as covariate. Table (18) shows that (F (1, 37) = 234.639, p = 0.00). In other words, between the adjusted means in post-test of two groups, the difference is significant. The magnitude of this effect is high ( Eta Squared) = 86.4%. This shows the positive effect of modeling of native speaker writing on developing the complexity of EFL writing by keeping the effect of pretest. Table 18: The Results of ANCOVA Test for Complexity Scores of Post-test in two Groups
Tests of Between-Subjects Effects Dependent Variable: POS_TEST Source Corrected Model Intercept PRE_TEST GROUP Error Total Corrected Total Type III Sum of Squares 56.295a 1.744 11.203 45.073 7.108 1039.646 63.403 df 2 1 1 1 37 40 39 Mean Square 28.148 1.744 11.203 45.073 .192 F 146.529 9.079 58.319 234.639 Sig. .000 .005 .000 .000 Partial Eta Squared .888 .197 .612 .864

a. R Squared = .888 (Adjusted R Squared = .882)

Table (19) shows the results of the adjusted means for complexity scores between two groups. Table 19: The Results of the Adjusted Means for Complexity Scores in two Groups
Estimates Dependent Variable: POS_TEST GROUP control Experimental Mean Std. Error 3.879a .098 6.002a .098 95% Confidence Interval Lower Bound Upper Bound 3.680 4.077 5.803 6.200

a. Covariates appearing in the model are evaluated at the following values: PRE_TEST = 3.8540.

The adjusted mean of experimental group is 6.002, and the adjusted mean of control group is 3.879. The mean of the experimental group is more than the control group which shows that modeling of native speaker writing has positive effect on improving complexity of EFL writing. It can be said that there are significant differences between two groups in terms of developing complexity of their written performance.

301

Discussion At first, the descriptive statistics of students noticing show that model essays help students to notice vocabulary more than the other categories. The finding was in line with Schmidt (2001, as cited in Abe, 2008). Based on the assumption that noticing and understanding are different in the level of awareness and on the psychological view that attention is of limited capacity, he states that limited attentional resources are directed first at those elements that carry message meaning, primarily lexicon, and only later, when the cost comes down, towards communicatively redundant formal features of language (p. 13). Furthermore, the findings of this study with regard to the first research question is consistent with some of the previous L2 writing studies which include a comparison-stage of students original writing and a model text (e.g., Abe, 2008; Hanaoka, 2006, 2007). Hanaoka (2006, 2007) investigated the role of model texts written by a native speaker in promoting noticing in a four-stage study consisting of output, comparison, and two revision stages. In the comparison stage, participants were asked to write on whatever they noticed as they compared their original text with the models. The data was coded into four categories; lexis, grammar, content, and other. The findings of this study indicate that the participants noticed the lexical aspects far more frequently than the other three categories. Abe (2008) asked students to write essays about one descriptive and one argumentative task. He used model essays in Cambridge IELTS books as a feedback tool. Students compared their own writing text with a model essay and verbalized what aspect of language they noticed. The data was classified into five categories, lexis, grammar, content, discourse, and others. The findings of this study, similarly, indicate that participants noticed lexis more than other categories and they were able to find solutions to the lexical problems more than other categories in the revised task. For analyzing the second and third questions, first, a T-Test analysis was run to determine if there were any statistically significant differences between the two groups mean scores on the pre-test measuring accuracy and complexity of EFL writing. The statistical analysis of written pre-test data showed that there were not any differences between the two groups. The homogeneity of the two groups has been shown in Tables 8, 9, 16, and 17. Second, after the instruction, the post-test was administered to the participants and the results showed a significant difference between the two groups mean scores, using ANCOVA test (see Tables 10, 11, 18, and 19). The findings of the present study also support Qi and Lapkins finding (2001) that modeling of native speaker writing may be better than teachers error correction. Students who received model essay improved their writing skill more than students who got teacher feedback. The reason behind the positive effect of model essay is the learners cognitive processing system and the factor noticing. Some L2 writing researchers argue that L2 learners should be encouraged to use a model essay for improving their writing skills in terms of the relationship between reading and writing. Ferris and Hedgcock (1998, as cited in Abe, 2008) argue that L2 writers have to be exposed to various types of reading material since it is difficult to acquire L2 writing skills by only writing. Eschholz (1980) points out that what L2 learners write depends on what they read and they can improve their L2 writing skills by reading. He also argues that given the opportunities to learn rhetorical modes, L2 learners can eventually apply their knowledge about those modes to their writing. Based on Cummings (1995) empirical study, which demonstrates the significance of rhetorical aspects of texts in model essays, Smagorinsky (1992, as cited in Abe, 2008) discusses that model essays are the most helpful tool if L2 writers have a sufficient amount of content knowledge. Hyland (2003) mentions the necessity of model essays in an academic writing textbook, which enables L2 writers to pay attention to the various aspects of target language. 302

Referring to the results of this study, it can be concluded that using model essays has a high positive effect on developing accuracy and complexity of EFL writing. References Abe, M. (2008). The role of model essays in the IELTS writing test. Retrieved April 25, 2008 from http:// www.asian- efl journal.com/Thesis_M_Abe.pdf.htm. Cumming, A. (1995). Fostering writing expertise in ESL composition instruction: Modeling and evaluation. In D. Belcher & G. Braine (Eds.), Academic writing in a second language: Essays on research & pedagogy (pp. 375-397). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Eschholz, P. A. (1980). The prose models approach: Using products in the process. In T. R. Donovan & B. W. McClelland (Eds.), Eight approaches to teaching composition (pp. 21-35). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Gaies, S.J. (1980). T-unit analysis in second language research: Application, Problems, Limitation. TESOL Quarterly.14 (1), 53-61. Goby, V. P. (1997). Arguments against providing model answers in the writing skills classroom: The Singaporean case. TESL Reporter, 30(2), 28-33. Hanaoka, O. (2006). Exploring the role of models in promoting noticing in L2 writing. Retrieved March 5, 2009 from http://www.tc-japan.edu/Library/Journals/current_journals.html. Hanaoka, O. (2007). Output, noticing, and learning: An investigation into the role of spontaneous attention to form in a four-stage writing task. Retrieved January 14, 2008 from http://www. ltr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/11/4/htm. Hatch, E. & Farhady, H. (1981). Research design and statistics for applied linguistics. Tehran: Rahnama Publication. Hughes, A. (2003). Testing for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hyland, K. (2003). Second language writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Judy, S. (1980). The experiential approach: Inner worlds to outer worlds. In T. R. Donovan & B. W. McClelland (Eds.), Eight approaches to teaching composition (pp. 37-51). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Murray, D. M. (1980). Writing as process: How writing finds its own meaning. In T. R. Donovan & B. W. McClelland (Eds.), Eight approaches to teaching composition (pp. 3-20). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Qi, D. S., & Lapkin, S. (2001). Exploring the role of noticing in a three-stage second language writing task. Retrieved April 18, 2008 from http:// www.ltr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/11/4/htm. Robinson, P. (1995). Attention, memory, and the noticing hypothesis. Language Learning, 45(2), 283-331. Schmidt, R. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning.Applied Linguistics, 11(2), 129-158. Swain, M. (1998). Focus on form through conscious reflection. In C. Doughty, & J .Williams (Eds.), Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (pp. 6481), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (1995). Problems in output and the cognitive processes they generate: A step towards second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 16, 371 391. UCLES. (2007). IELTS handbook 2007. Retrieved March 14, 2009 from the IELTS Web site: http://www.ielts.org/pdf/IELTS_Handbook_2007.pdf.htm.

303

Vickers, H.C., & Ene. E. (2004). Grammatical accuracy and learner autonomy in advanced Writing. ELT Journal, 60 (2), 109- 115. Watson, B. C. (1982). The Use and Abuse of Models in the ESL Writing Class, TESOL Quarterly, 16(1), 6- 15. Wolfe-Quintero, K., Inagaki, S., & Kim, H.-Y. (1998). Second language development in writing: Measures of fluency, accuracy and complexity. Retrieved January 28, 2009 from http:// www. ase.ufl.edu/LINSeminar/pubs/09Apr09.pdf Zahedi, A. (2002). How to prepare for the Toefl Essays. Tehran: Zabankadeh Publication. Appendix A Writing task (Pre-test) PR The government has announced that it plans to build a new university. Some people think that your community would be a good place to locate the university. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of establishing a new university in your community. (You should write at least 250 words) Use your own knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence. Appendix B Writing task (Post-test) PR A company has announced that it wishes to build a large factory near your community. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this new influence on your community? (You should write at least 250 words) Use your own knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence. Appendix C Writing Task (PR) Should governments spend more money on improving roads and high ways, or should governments spend more money on improving public transportation (Buses, trains, subways)? Why? (You should write at least 250 words) Use your own knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence. Writing Task (PR) A university plans to develop a new research center in your country. Some people want a center for business research. Other people want a center for research in agriculture (farming). Which of these two kinds of research centers do you recommend for your country? (You should write at least 250 words). Use your own knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence.

304

Writing Task (MA) Many students choose to attend schools or universities outside their home countries. Why do some students study abroad? (You should write at least 250 words). Use your own knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence. Writing Task (EX) You have decided to give several hours of your time each month to improve the community where you live. What is one thing you will do to improve your community? Why? (You should write at least 250 words). Use your own knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence. Writing Task (AD) Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People are never satisfied with what they have; they always want something more or something different. (You should write at least 250 words). Use your own knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence.

305

Appendix D

306

307

308

309

310

Autonomous Learning: Is it one size fits all? Najat Saleh Al Kalbani Sultan Qaboos University, the Sultanate of Oman najat@squ.edu.om Abstract It is common for students difficulties with learning to be diagnosed in terms of a lack of study skills with the implication that the student is at fault and that some kind of training in these skills will resolve some or all of these difficulties (Gibbs, 2005). Providing students with training in the area of study skills is believed to help learners become independent learners. In the area of autonomy, one major area for discussion is whether autonomy is appropriate as a universal goal or whether it is less valid and appropriate in particular cultural contexts such as the Arab culture (Palfreyman, 2003). More often than not, study skills training is offered to students without paying attention to their cultural background and how this background affects their approach to learning. Study skills seem to be always presented as neutral ideas, i.e. what is good in the USA, the UK or Malaysia is also good and true in Oman. The interest in the area of study skills has been always present at the Language Centre at Sultan Qaboos University. Yet, it was only recently that an initiative to develop a course on study skills has been taken up. The object of this library-based research is to examine study skills training from a cultural perspective. The paper begins by discussing the importance of establishing a definition of what the concept of autonomous learning means and entails in a given teaching/learning context. It then moves to discussing the importance of avoiding stereotyping students. The paper also argues for allotting enough consideration to the cultural context in which autonomous learning is being promoted. Keywords: Study Skills, Autonomous Learning, Stereotyping Background The Language Centre started with the opening of Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in 1986. SQU is the only government university in Oman. Every year, the university admits a student intake of about 3000 students. The main admission criterion followed by SQU is the percentage obtained on the secondary school general examinations. Because of the prestige attached to SQU, only the top 10 % of the total number of secondary school graduates from all over the country get accepted into the university. The school percentages of the students who are admitted range between 80%- 99%. Since English is the medium of instruction at SQU, a placement test (PT) is administered by the Language Centre (LC) two weeks before the beginning of the fall semester which normally starts during the first week of September. One of the most important tasks of the LC is to help students improve their English level to the extent that they can read, comprehend and interact with the academic texts in their subject areas. In order to effectively respond to the needs of the newly admitted students, a placement test is administered. The aim of the Language Center Placement Test (LCPT) is to asses the English level of the new entrants to the University and to place them at the appropriate level that corresponds to their English ability. Currently, there are six levels, 1 to 6, from beginner to upper intermediate, at the Foundation Program English Language Program (FPEL) with level one being the lowest and level six being the highest. Currently, each level lasts eight weeks. Hence, two levels can be completed in one semester (a semester lasts about 16 teaching weeks at SQU). At the end of each level an achievement 311

test is administered, the results of which decide if a student is to move up to the next level or to repeat the same level. Depending on the initial level a particular student starts with, s/he may end up spending a semester (16 weeks), two semesters (32 weeks) or two semesters in addition to summer school (40 weeks) in order to complete the 6 levels in the FPEL. Since the LC shoulders the responsibility of preparing students for their subsequent university studies, it is of great importance for the LC to provide its students not only with the necessary language skills, but also with the study skills which they will need to cope with the demands placed on them once they commence with their degree studies. In the Academic year of 2003/ 2004, the Language Centre at Sultan Qaboos University embarked on an overall revision project of what was known then as Intensive English Language Program (IELP); (the program was renamed the Foundation Program English Language Program in Fall 2010). One of the recommendations of the project was the identification of a need to offer SQU students explicit training and instruction of the study skills deemed necessary for successful university study. A team was formed to be in charge of identifying what study skills first year Omani students are lacking so the Language Centre can focus on these skills to help these students with their subsequent university studies. In order for the team to identify the study skills mostly needed by first years students, they have closely examined the Independent Project component across all programs in the IELP. The team members have also held discussions with Program Coordinators and teachers from the different programs in order to get their perspective. As a result, the team has identified five main areas of study skills students will need training on. The project team has recommended that these skills are to be integrated in the projects the students are required to do in the Independent Project component in the levels two through four. On the other hand, a separate study skills component is to be introduced at the higher levels of five and six. While it is understandable why the LC wants to pay more attention to a vital area such as study skills, I believe that the introduction of a set of study skills, whether integrated in an existing component or as a new separate course, requires more than the mere identification and teaching of a set of skills. There are important questions to be asked and major implications to be taken into consideration. The argument this paper is presenting is that the introduction of study skills is done in order to promote independent learning. As teachers, we want our students to take responsibility of their learning. Although the identification and subsequently teaching of specific study skills are undeniably important steps, one could argue that they do not necessarily lead to the development of independent learners. Gibbs (2005) argues that study skills training has a rather poor record in terms of improving student learning or performance. However, other scholars such as Boud (1981) find study skills training essential. Boud states that In order to help learners develop a skill as important as that of autonomy in learning, it is the responsibility of teachers in higher education to do something about creating the conditions in which it can flourish. It is the responsibility of all teachers to ensure that they construct their courses to foster autonomy and that this goal is compatible with the discipline-centred goals which often dominate (p. 22). The poor results of study skills training which Gibbs refers to should not be taken to mean that there is no value in offering students training in the area of study skills. Rather, it should alert teachers and program administrators to the importance of discussing all pertinent issues before introducing a study skills course. Unfortunately, the project team at the LC, did not refer, in their report, to any of the issues this paper is discussing even though these issues are pivotal to the success of any autonomous learning training. One of these is establishing a definition or a set of characteristics of what the concept of autonomous learning means and entails in the context of the Language Centre 312

The Importance of Establishing a Definition of Autonomous Learning Smith (2003) draws our attention to a very important question: What might learner autonomy mean in the context of a particular culture?(p. 255). A variety of answers can be offered in response to such a question especially in a multicultural context such as the Language Centre which currently encompasses a teaching force of 205 teachers representing 27 nationalities not to mention the varied educational backgrounds, teaching experiences national and ethnic cultures of these teachers. Smith acknowledges that autonomy is indeed a multifaceted concept, susceptible to a variety of interpretations. A definition such as Holecs (1981, p. 3) definition of learner autonomy: the ability to take charge of ones own learning which, according to Schmenk (2005), has been quoted in every publication on learner autonomy, may serve as a reference point. Yet, according to Smith, even this seemingly straightforward definition raises a myriad of questions. One might raise a question regarding what the ability to take charge entails. Additionally, there may exist different views of what an individuals own leaning might mean when learning is viewed as occurring within the constraints and with the resources of particular context (Smith, 2003). The matter is even further complicated by the many terms which have been used to describe approaches to developing student autonomy in higher education: independent study, self-directed learning, student-initiated learning are just a few examples (Boud, 1981). Schmenk (2005) states that learner autonomy has been promoted across the globe and consequently has gained currency as a buzzword in language leaning and teaching. In that respect, learner autonomy could be compared to concepts such as Communicative Language teaching (CLT) or authentic materials. These are all concepts that have gained so much popularity in the field of language teaching that they have become buzzwords that every teacher feels obliged to refer to when describing their teaching practices. Even though teachers coming from different backgrounds may often use the term CLT, this does not necessarily mean that they all define CLT in the same manner. Similarly, teachers in the Language Centre may all agree that autonomous learning is a great goal. Yet, it should not be assumed that they all share the same definition of the concept. That is why it is of great importance for the LC, as an institution, to provide a set of characteristics of its view of autonomous learning. Such a set of characteristics will serve as a guide so LC teachers know how to go about promoting learner autonomy in their classes and what in reality is included under the concept of autonomous learning. Identifying the Scope of Autonomous Learning in the LC According to Holec (1981), a simple way of describing the ability to take charge of language learning is to describe the various decisions which such ability renders possible. Holec argues that taking charge of ones learning involves making decisions with regards to fixing objectives, defining content and progressions, selecting the methods and techniques to be used, monitoring the acquisition procedure and evaluating what has been acquired. Boud (1981) argues that the centrality of the goal of developing autonomy in learning in higher education is such that it cannot be limited to peripheral topics or extracurricular activities and it cannot be pursued partially. The exercise of autonomy cannot be realistically limited to one part of the learning process: for example in course content but not in assessment or in choosing ones own pace but not in ones objectives. Some teachers may be tempted to argue that there are already some opportunities for students to work independently through student societies and other on-campus activities and therefore there is no need to touch the core of the curriculum. Unfortunately, doing this, according to 313

Boud, gives the message that the goal of independent learning is not important enough to be pursued in the main part of the program. The same applies to providing opportunities for students to make decisions about parts of a course, such as the topics to be included, but not to crucial aspects such as assessment. The message being sent to the student is the same: you are not to be trusted with important decisions, you should be content with the minor ones (ibid, p.25). Boud contends that it may not be viable for students to be involved in making assessment-related decisions especially at early stages, but unless students can see a progression to wider involvement, the claim to be developing autonomy is suspect. The same argument is made by Heron (1981) concerning the necessity of involving students in matters related to their assessment when the goal is to develop them into independent learners. Heron argues that students are seen as rationally competent to grasp the subject matter taught by their academic superiors and to respond appropriately to their assessment. Yet, they are not seen as rationally competent to participate in determining their own academic destiny, nor in assessing their own competence. According to Heron, for a well-rounded education, three facts of intellectual capacity need to be developed together. These three capacities are: the capacity to learn, the capacity to know how to learn and the capacity to know what has been learned. These capacities, Heron contends, can be developed by a significant amount of self-directed practice, facilitated and guided by teachers. The initiation of students therefore needs to be more reciprocal and consultative with students not simply learning their subjects but also participating in decisions about how they learn them in the assessment of their learning (ibid, p.56). Unilateral control and assessment of students by staff mean that the process of education is at odds with the objective of that process. Heron sees the objective of the process is the emergence of an educated person who can set his/her own learning objectives, devise a rational program to attain them, set criteria of excellence by which to assess the work he/she produces. But the traditional education, Heron argues, does not prepare the students to acquire any of these self-determining competencies. In each respect, the teachers do it for or to the students; An educational process that is so determined by others cannot intend to have as its outcome an individual who is self-determining (p. 58). Heron (1981) argues that assessment is the most political of all the educational process. It is the area where issues of power are most evident. If there is no staff-student collaboration on assessment, then staff exert stranglehold that inhibits the development of collaboration concerning all other aspects of the educational process. If a mixture of self, peer and collaborative assessment replace unilateral assessment by staff, a completely new educational climate can be created. Heron also emphasizes that self-determination with regards to setting learning objectives is not likely to move forward without some measure of self assessment. Heron explicitly states that he does not advocate that everything about the educational process is to be a matter of negotiation and consultation between students and staff. If everything is negotiable, then teachers do not stand for anything ie. have nothing to offer (p.63). Instead, Heron argues for collaborative assessment which he sees as an important intermediary stage between traditional unilateral assessments of students and self and peer assessment Heron is arguing for. In collaborative assessment, the student assesses himself in the light of criteria agreed with his/her tutor, the tutor assesses the student in light of the same criteria and then they negotiate a final grade. This model, according to Heron, can be introduced and applied quite quickly to students coursework by staff working on authoritarian system in which assessment is designed and done solely by staff. Herons argument is that if coursework counts for some percentage of final marks, then through the

314

use of collaborative assessment, the student is granted some small say in his own degree award. One can rightly argue that a discussion of learner autonomy is not complete without considering what implications that may have in learners and teachers roles. Holec (1981) argues that the context of autonomous learning changes the learner/learning relationship. The position of passivity and dependence in which the learner was necessarily confined because the knowledge was not accessible to him without the help of an expert-teacher is no longer the case. Freed, even if not totally, from a need for a mediator actually possessing that knowledge, it is no longer necessary for learning to be taken charge of by the teacher; the learner himself/herself can assume responsibility for it. Holec argues that the acceptance of this responsibility can operate only if the learner is willing and that he or she is capable of assuming responsibility. Holec warns teachers that learners may feel frightened by the opportunities offered to them to take responsibility for their learning. They may also feel inhibited to make use of these opportunities because they have never had the occasion to be in charge of their learning. This fear or inhibition may make students appear as being passive and indifferent to their learning. Yet, this shouldnt deter teachers from encouraging, or even pushing, their students to take responsibility, however small, for their learning. Teaching under autonomous learning should no longer be looked at as producing learning but as facilitating it. It must take place in the shape of a set of procedures most of which are still to be discovered, procedures that help the learner to learn and not to make him/her learn and which are used by the learner rather than mould him (p. 23, emphasis added). In a system where the learner assumes responsibility for his learning while still learning how to do so and where the teaching is centred on giving support to the learner, the teacher must define his/her role taking into consideration that the focus is on the learners and their learning. Depending on the degree of autonomy the learners are allowed within their education context, the teacher may have to help the learners to develop their ability to: define their learning objectives, to define contents and progressions to be made, to choose methods and techniques, to monitor the learning procedure and to evaluate what they have required. Holec (1981) argues that in contrast to apprehension often created by the concept of autonomy in learning, the teacher will find his/her role more varied rather than curtailed, strengthened rather than weakened and much greater demands will be made on his/her creativity than on a highly developed knowledge of teaching techniques.(p. 25 ) There is no denying that the changes in teacher and student roles which accompany this kind of approach tend to counter conventional expectations, representing a challenge to established norms of classroom culture in most institutional learning contexts, Western or non-Western (Smith, 2003). It is necessary to recognize that in many settings students may appear reluctant, at least initially, to take on greater control over classroom learning. Additionally, when students are willing to engage in this kind of approach, teachers freedom to innovate may itself be or appear to be constrained by a lack of autonomy with regard to institutional requirements (Smith, 2003). Palfreyman (2003) warns that an educational organization which attempts to promote learner autonomy without facilitating discussions about what this means to different participants may run into practical difficulties. In order for the LC to avoid facing such difficulties in its campaign to encourage autonomous learning, it is imperative that the LC management holds the discussions Palfreyman is recommending. Taking into Consideration Students Previous Educational Background One also has to acknowledge the background Omani students are brining with them into the Language Centre. Generally speaking, Omani government schools do not instil in 315

learners the importance of them being in charge of their learning. Yet, this should not be taken to mean that none of the students joining the LC are already, at least to some extent, independent learners. The team members who were responsible for developing the study skills at the LC did not make any mentioning in their Study Skills Report of variations that are likely to exist among students with respect to the study skills they may have acquired at school level. Students joining the LC come from different school systems: the majority of these students have been taught at government schools which use Arabic as their medium of instruction. Teacher-centred approaches to teaching and learning have tended to be dominant in the General Education system. [.] over-reliance on such methods often encourages students to become passive learners who are dependent on the teacher to tell them what and when to learn (Ministry of Education, 2004, p.16). On the other hand, some students have been educated in bilingual or international schools based in Oman; yet others have been educated abroad either in other Arab countries or in western countries particularly the UK, Canada or the US. These students, especially those educated in the West, are likely to have achieved a higher level of independence by the time they join the LC. Consequently, the teaching of study skills may be viewed by these students as a futile exercise. We, at the LC, should acknowledge the existence and inevitability of such variations among students and keep in mind these differences when deciding on what study skills to teach and how to go about teaching them. Avoiding Stereotyping Students Holliday (2003) refers to a dominant conceptualisation of student autonomy which, according to him, is characterised by a long-standing us them native speakerism. He defines native-speakerism as a set of beliefs supporting the view that native-speaker teachers represent the ideals of both the target language and of language teaching methodology (p. 111). Holliday explains that with the idea of native speakerism comes the idea of seeing the educational origin of students as Other to that of TESOL. The implication in this case is to provide what Foucault (cited in Holiday, 2003) has referred to as corrective training. The purpose of this kind of training is to help foreign, non-native students coming from other contexts to fit into the context of TESOL. The offering of study skills training at the LC could be viewed as an example of corrective training whose purpose is to rid the new students joining the LC from the inappropriate behaviour they have brought from Other educational cultures; in this case the schools they have attended. The us-them view, Holiday explains, projects the teacher as unproblematic. The teacher is viewed as an independent individual capable of teaching and training his or her students how to become independent learners. In this us-them polarity, students are considered autonomous when they behave in ways which conform to an image of the native speaker and his/ her culture. Holliday argues that it is not possible for teachers, who do not belong to the world of learners, to easily understand what it really means for a class to be learnercentred. According to Holliday, the conceptualisation of the learne in this case is problematic in that, rather than being viewed as a whole person, he or she is defined by, limited and therefore reduced to measurable skills and needs(ibid, p. 115, emphasis added) decided by the teacher or the institution. Holliday rightly argues that in this case, what appears to be a more learner-centred situation turns out to be highly controlled by the teacher. Kubota (cited in Holliday, 2003) critiques the current TESOL narrative, in which Asian students from the Pacific Rim are constructed as lacking in the autonomy and critical thinking which are seen as necessary for effective learning and teaching. Teachers with experience in teaching Arab students, Omani students included, are very likely to have noticed clear differences between Arab students and South East Asian students specifically 316

in terms of their speaking abilities. Yet, Omani students are still stereotyped by many teachers at the LC that they are not independent learners. Holliday (2003) discusses a different kind of autonomy which he refers to as social autonomy. Social autonomy, according to Holliday, may be manifested in the social talk which is used by students as an autonomous means for dealing with the pressures of the classroom and sometimes to support fellow students who are nominated to speak by the teacher. In a study of a small fragment of video sequences of Japanese high school students, Holliday observed students engaging in a considerable amount of personal talk. At the same time, these same students said very little when they were interacting with their teachers. Holliday also cites other examples of social autonomy which include students organising seating, distributing lecture notes, forming informal study groups, collaborating with their fellow peers when they were asked to speak out in English, making the choice to assent and appreciate the nature of power the teacher enjoys and even choosing to react to teaching with some disruptive behaviours when they lose interest. Social autonomy normally goes unnoticed by many teachers who choose not to challenge the stereotypes they have accepted about their students. Holliday explains that there is a tendency in the Othering of foreign language learners to blame the student, or the students culture for behaviour which might instead be attributed to other factors external to the student such as the classroom atmosphere. Students, according to Holliday, may appear passive and lacking in autonomy in all or some of their classes, not because of the culture which the students bring with them. Rather, it could be more the impact of the strangeness or the novelty of the culture of the classroom which they are not used to. Holliday states that The regime of TESOL classroom can be a major factor in inhibiting student behaviour and hiding their autonomy (ibid, p. 119). Autonomy cannot therefore be created in an educational setting. It can only be encouraged because its origin, according to Holliday, lies within the world the student brings with him or her. Holliday believes there is a clear evidence of a social autonomy which students of all types and from all sorts of places utilise both in their daily lives and within their educational contexts. Yet, this kind of autonomy can be invisible to teachers who are preoccupied with their own professional agendas. Teachers bring with them their discoursal baggage (p. 125) which sees learner autonomy having certain characteristics and unless students are able to reflect these characteristics, they will not be considered autonomous learners. Students, in this view are unfortunately reduced to prescribed national or regional cultural stereotypes. Holliday argues that we, teachers, should be looking at our students, first and foremost, as university students. Paying Attention to the Cultural Context In the area of autonomy, one major question is whether autonomy is appropriate as a universal goal or whether it is less valid and appropriate in particular cultural contexts such as Arab culture (Palfreyman, 2003). Palfreyman refers, on one hand, to one view which describes a desire for autonomy as one of the defining characteristics of humanity (p. 7). Such a view implies that autonomy is more of a global goal that should be pursued by every human being regardless of their cultural background. On the other hand, Palfreyman refers to an opposing view which sees learners ethnic culture as a determining factor in the success of autonomous of learning. This view argues that culturally related factors such as gregariousness, attitudes to authority and individual initiative seem to make the development of autonomy more or less successful. The national cultural background has often been viewed by teachers as a hindrance in promoting autonomy especially if the national culture is seen as a collectivist culture whereby a greater emphasis is placed on the group rather than the individual. More recently, writers have suggested that the concept of 317

autonomy itself may be ethnocentric and culturally inappropriate to non-western cultures. The ethnocentriticity of the concept of learner autonomy results, according to Schmenk (2005), causes two forms of cultural blindness (p.108). The first of these forms concerns with the fact that autonomy is a cultural construct whose origins, Schmenk states, can easily be traced back in western ideologies. Cultural blindness in this case results from educators choosing to neglect this fact when promoting autonomous learning among their non-western students. The second form of cultural blindness arises when autonomy is promoted worldwide because it largely ignores the specific cultural backgrounds of the potential audience who presumably will benefit from fostering learner autonomy. Palfreyman (2003) discusses the role of culture in facilitating or hindering the development of autonomous learning in terms of learning styles, learning strategies beliefs about learning and motivation. Various studies in the area of learning styles and strategies suggest that learners from different cultural backgrounds may adopt different learning styles and strategies. According to Oxford (1992, 1996), cultural background affects strategy choice. Oxford explains that because of Hispanics global and field dependent style preference, many Hispanic ESL/EFL students choose particular learning strategies, such as predicting, inferring, avoiding details, working with others rather than alone, and basing judgement on personal relationships rather than logic. In contrast, many Japanese ESL/EFL students use analytic strategies aimed at precision and accuracy, search for small details, work alone, and base judgements more on logic rather than on personal interactions. Cultures that encourage concrete-sequential learning styles such as those of Korea or some Arabicspeaking countries often produce widespread use of rote memorisation strategies. Extroverted learning styles, such as those of many Hispanics and Arabic speakers, promote the use of social strategies for learning. In contrast, Oxford states, many introverted Asian students display strategies for working alone. Exploring the underlying learner attitudes and beliefs is another way of investigating links between culture and autonomy. Cotteral (cited in Palfreyman, 2003) analyses individual learners reported beliefs about the role of the teacher as an authoritative or facilitating figure, the role of feedback (teacher feedback as opposed to self-monitoring), risk-taking and self-confidence. These beliefs are then interpreted in terms of learners readiness for autonomy: a student who states a belief that the teacher should be authoritative is taken to mean that this student is less ready to be autonomous than another who states a preference for a facilitating teacher. Beliefs and attitudes students hold with regard to learning, their role and the role of the teacher are all influenced by students ethnic culture. Hofstede (1997) categorises countries according to social-psychological dimensions. These dimensions include individualism/collectivism; high/low power distance (distinguishing hierarchical societies from egalitarian) and high/low uncertainty avoidance (distinguishing individuals/societies which try to minimise ambiguity as much as possible from those more tolerant of flexibility in interpretation). Hofstede uses these dimensions to analyse prototypical work and learning/teaching patterns in different societies. These dimensions may also be linked to the development of autonomy. Individualism involves loose ties between individuals and an emphasis on individual selfdetermination which is often assumed to be associated with autonomy. Collectictivism, on the other hand, is characterised by tight, regulating social networks which is seen as an obstacle to autonomy. In a society of a high power distance, respect for the teachers authority is seen as a cultural obstacle to developing learner autonomy. It is even seen as leading to passivity since learners see the teacher as the high authority which commands and transmits 318

knowledge. They see themselves at the receiving end and therefore should respect and obey this authority. In a society which is characterised by high uncertainty avoidance, importance is attached to the concept of saving face. Teachers tend to avoid any display of ignorance or doubt in front of their students. Students, on the other hand, seem to always think that there is only one right answer and that answer almost always lies with the teacher. Such qualities both on the part of the teacher and students are seen as obstacles to autonomy. Palfreyman (2003) discusses motivation as another variable which is sometimes linked to both autonomy and culture. He states that autonomy tends to be associated with intrinsic motivation (ibid, p. 9). Palfreyman argues that motivation in general is framed by culture, since what is motivating for an individual learner is partly a function of what is valued in his/her society. If one accepts the argument that students who are intrinsically motivated are more inclined to developing as autonomous learners then it does not seem wise to introduce a study skills component as a one size fits all. Students have varying degrees of motivation and this fact needs to be reflected in the training provided to them. Conclusion While it is true that autonomous learning started as a western concept, it should not be presented and taught following western rules, norms and assumptions when being promoted in a non-western context. Autonomous learning needs to be taught in a manner that takes into account both students educational background and cultural context. The current paper, which is a library-based paper, highlighted these issues in addition to the importance of establishing a common understanding, within any given institution, of what autonomous learning is and what it entails. This paper reported on ideas and arguments pertaining to its three central issues as discussed in the literature. Future empirical research studies on these issues are highly needed. References Boud, D. (1981). Toward student responsibility for learning. In D., Boud (Ed.), Developing student autonomy in learning (pp. 11-17). London: Kogan Page Ltd. Gibbs, G. (2005). How students develop as learners. Retrieved Oct 5, 2005, from http://www.learning.ox.ac.uk/iaul/pdf/studyskills.pdf Heron, J. (1981). Assessment revisited. In D., Boud (Ed.), Developing student autonomy in learning (pp. 55-68). London: Kogan Page Ltd. Holec, H. (1981). Autonomy and foreign language learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Hofstede, G. (1997). Cultures and Organizations: software of the mind. NY: McGrawHill. Holliday, A. (2003). Social Autonomy: Addressing the dangers of curriculum in TESOL. In D. Palfreyman & R. C. Smith (Eds.), Learner Autonomy across cultures (pp. 110126). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Ministry of Education, Sultanate of Oman (2004). National Report on the Quality of Education in Oman, Retrieved September 15, 2005, from http://www.ibe.unesco.org/International/ICE47/English/Natreps/reports/oman_part_ 1.pdf Oxford, R. L., Holloway, M., E., & and Horton-Murillo, D.(1992). Language learning styles: Research and practical considerations for teaching in the multicultural tertiary ESL/EFL classroom. System, 20(4), 439-456. Oxford, R. L. (1996). Why is culture important for language learning strategies? In R. L. Oxford (Ed.), Language learning strategies around the world: Cross-cultural

319

perspectives (ix). University of Hawaii, Manoa: Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Centre. Palfreyman, D. (2003). Introduction: Culture and learner autonomy. In D. Palfreyman & R. C. Smith (Eds.), Learner autonomy across cultures (pp. 1-21). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Palfreyman, D. (2003). The representation of learner autonomy and learner independence in organisational culture. In D. Palfreyman & R. C. Smith (Eds.), Learner autonomy across cultures (pp. 183-200). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Palfreyman, D., & Smith, R. C. (Eds.). (2003). Learner autonomy across cultures. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Schmenk, B. (2005). Globalising learner autonomy. TESOL Quarterly, 39(1), 107-118. Smith, R. C. (2003). Pedagogy for autonomy as becoming-appropriate methodology. In D. Palfreyman & R. C. Smith (Eds.), Learner autonomy across cultures (pp. 129-146). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Smith, R. C. (2003). Postscript: Implications for language education. In D. Palfreyman & R. C. Smith (Eds.), Learner autonomy across cultures (pp. 254-260). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

320

English to Ameliorate the Productivity of the Organizations: The Effect of Knowing English on the Attitudes of the Students of Management Javad Shekarriz, Ali Mohammad Fallahi, and Mahdieh Razi Department of Management, University of Payame Noor, Barzok, Kashan, Iran Javadsh2020@yahoo.com, fallahimer@yahoo.com, mahdierazi@gmail.com Abstract With the high speed of technology and the increased globalization which push back the boundaries of wide borders, the survival of the organizations is highly dependent on international communication and considerable use of IT and the Internet. The relationship that promotes an organization to its level of effectiveness with high power of learning and increased administrative negative entropy. Needless to say, the productivity of an organization in line with the global communications is highly contingent upon mutual understandings, intelligibility, and knowing a common international language. The stronger these commonalities in the global village, the more productive the organization will be. One element that guarantees the success of an organization is the psychological variables (self-confidence, self-esteem, etc.) amongst the staff. The present research investigates the role of English, as a lingua franca and a psychological incentive, in the productivity of the university as an organization and the teaching staff and the students. To accomplish this objective a sample of 200 management students, both male and female, at the University of Payame Noor, were asked to fill in a detailed piloted questionnaire. Out of these students, 76 returned the questionnaire to the researchers. The study demonstrated that mastering good English creates a positive effectual feeling in students of management. It was also ascertained that the students regarded that English brought about a sense of self-assurance and authority in professors and students. This research also evinced that the students accepted the professors as more knowledgeable if the professors would know English. Keywords: English, Lingua Psychological Variables Franca, Organization, Productivity, Management,

Introduction The global development at the turn of the twenty first century has been dramatically accelerated with the advent of technology and modern science and their tremendous influence on different aspects of human life. Today, communications are undoubtedly regarded as a privilege for the development of organizations in the global village. Although these communications are in the state of flux in and out of the organizations, the survival of the organizations is highly dependent on their organizational and administrative relations. This advance in technology caused almost all of the global events to become dependent upon each other so that the ties among the nations made the role of a lingua franca as inevitably indispensable. Literature Review The importance of social communication is so indispensible that Maslow (cited in Alvani, 2010), in his hierarchy of needs, considers the social needs (including communication) as the third level of his hierarchy. He points out that to reach self-actualization that is the apogee of the needs and forms the apex of his pyramid, one should pass this stage. To be socialized, one should make close relationships with others and the base of this communication is the mutual understanding that depends on a lingua franca. Not only does 321

a lingua franca play a significant role in the human social life but in the administrative life. With regard to the globalization process and the global village, this role becomes much more rudimental. Researches (Dadgar & Najimeidani, 2004; Torabi & Mohammadzadeh Asl, 2010) show that successful organizations are those which have moved far to the process of globalization and have not limited themselves within internal borders. From among these organizations are the universities which are in acute need of these relationships and communications. Communication is in close contact with multifarious variables (multiple intelligence, talent, self-esteem, self-confidence, etc.). In a research conducted by Yamini and Tahriri (2006) the results evinced that there was a negative and significant relation between the female group as apposed to the male group about two variables of commotion and self-esteem. Sheikholeslam and Khayyer (2006) in another research ascertained that there was a negative and significant relation between learning and a lack of motivation among the learners and a positive and significant relation between intrinsic motivation and learning a foreign language. They found no relation between extrinsic motivation and learning a foreign language. Mobashernia and Aqamohammadi (2008) in a study on students attitudes evinced that familial, social, emotional, and cognitive variables had positive influence on the students attitudes towards English language. The analyses of findings in the research conducted by Heidari and Azari (2009) demonstrated that there was a negative relation between multiple intelligence and language skill, and a positive relation between language learning strategies and the students language skill. Akbari, Mirhosseini & Bahri (2005) reported that there was a significant disparity between the different kinds of personality of teachers according to their methods of teaching. It was stated that every kind of personality had been in close contact with its special teaching method. It was also declared that there was a meaningful relation between the understanding of the students and teachers personalities. The study by Bazoki and Rastegar (2009) on personality is in line with the aforementioned researches. They found out that there was a significant interface between personality of language learners and language skill. Other studies on the role of confidence and motivation demonstrated convergent results. The results of factor analyses in the study done by Stankov and Lee (2008) indicated that confidence was a separate psychological trait, somewhere between ability and personality. The findings also suggested that confidence was related to, but separate from, metacognition. Gender and ethnic differences in confidence were also reported, with men and African Americans showing higher overconfidence bias than women and Whites or Hispanics, respectively. Diabs (2006) research evinced that most students revealed strong instrumental motivations for learning English and significant differences in the students beliefs were found related to variables such as languagemedium educational background and gender. Methodology Participants The study was conducted on the male and female Iranian BA students of managements (N=200) at the University of Payame Noor in Barzok. Out of these students 76 returned the questionnaires back to the researchers. Among these 76 students who aged between 1931, 24 (80.8%) were male and 54 (69.2%) were female. Of these students 46.1 percent expressed that they had little mastery over English, 37.2 percent stated that they had average mastery, and 15.4 percent declared that they had complete mastery on English. Instruments To achieve the objectives of the study, a questionnaire was employed in the current study. The questionnaire was used to glean data from students attitude and beliefs towards the 322

role of English in ameliorating the productivity of the university as an organization vis-vis the effect it brings about on the students self-esteem and self-assurance. The questionnaire was piloted with 25 management students before it was handed out among the population. This questionnaire encompassed 11 questions among which 3 were utilized to gather demographic information and 8 were applied to investigate the research questions. It should be notified here that the students were given the Persian questionnaire because they were nonnative students of managements and the researchers deemed that it would be more convenient for the students to deal with the mother tongue to digest the questions. Procedure In this survey, the BA management students were polled by a piloted questionnaire to elicit their ideas, attitudes, and beliefs about the influence of English on teachers and students behavior and, as a result, the success of the university. 200 male and female Iranian BA students of managements were administered the questionnaire. Of those 76 returned the questionnaire back to the researchers on paper. After the data were gathered from the questionnaire, they were put in SPSS (version 16) for statistical indexes. Some questions were just used to report demographic backgrounds of the students while others were used to broach the main subject. Results and Discussion The purpose of the present study was to investigate the beliefs, ideas, and attitudes of Iranian BA students (N= 76) of management about the role of English in improving the university productivity as an organization and its effect on the students feedbacks in student-teacher interactions, self-confidence and self-esteem. To fulfill this aim a questionnaire was administered among these students. Table 1 presents the main 8 items applied in the Student Questionnaire which aimed to elicit responses based on students beliefs, attitudes and ideas. The items were constructed on five-point Likert scales. Table 1: Belief, Attitude, and Ideas Items of Student Questionnaire ITEM 1 As a student of management, how much do you think it is effective to know English to be successful in management courses? 2 In your idea, how much does knowing English affect students and teachers self-confidence, and authority? How much are you interested in using English as the medium of instruction for 3 the students of management at university? How much are the deft-in-English management professors at the university 4 successful in conveying management technical terms and concepts in English? How much does management professors mastery in English affect they way 5 students estimate the professors level of knowledge? How do you assess the management professors mastery in English at the 6 department at which you are studying? How much does management professors mastery in English motivate you in 7 your education? 8 How much does Knowing English inspire positive effectual feelings in you? Table 2 represents the frequencies, percents and the valid percents for the eight items constructed on the five-point Likert scales. The number of missing items (or items with no 323

response) has been calculated in the percents while the valid percents show the percents of the responses disregarding the missing items. Table 2: Items analyses for Likert-scale Questions of Student Questionnaire Options Missing Items Very High High Average Poor Very Poor

V. V. V. V. V. Fre*. Per. per. Fre. Per. per. Fre. Per. per. Fre. Per. per. Fre. Per. per.
27 30 21 27 16 9 28 34.6 38.5 26.9 34.5 20.5 11.5 35.9 34.6 38.5 26.9 34.5 20.8 11.5 35.9 4 32 35 23 13 41 30 38 5.1 41.0 44.9 29.5 16.7 52.6 38.5 48.7 5.1 41.0 44.9 29.5 16.7 53.2 38.5 48.7 31 14 12 20 18 17 26 9 39.7 17.9 15.4 25.6 23.1 21.8 33.3 11.5 39.7 17.9 15.4 25.6 23.1 22.1 33.3 11.5 33 3 12 13 2 7 3 42.3 3.8 15.4 16.7 2.6 9.0 3.8 42.3 3.8 15.4 16.7 2.6 9.0 3.8 10 2 1 2 7 1 6 12.8 2.6 1.3 2.6 9.0 1.3 7.7 12.8 2.6 1.3 2.6 9.0 1.3 7.7 -

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

*Fre.: Frequency; Per.: Percent; V. per.: Valid Percent

As the results show for the first item, 55.1 percents of the students (N=78) believed that knowing English does not affect the way students study their management courses, 39.7 percents expressed that it has average influence and 5.1 percents stated that it has strong influence. So to discuss the first question: As a student of management, how much do you think it is effective to know English to be successful in management courses?, more than half of the students disagreed with the statement that knowing English positively affects their success in their major (management). The findings evince that for the second item, 6.4 percents of the respondents deemed that knowing English gives them low selfconfidence, 17.9 percents agreed with average self-confidence, and 75.7 percents believed that knowing English provides them with high self-confidence. It should be notified here that all the students considered self-confidence, self-assurance, and self-esteem synonymous and they expressed that English brought about a sense of self-assurance and authority in professors too. So to take the second question up: In your idea, how much does knowing English affect students and teachers self-confidence, and authority?, it was ascertained that most of the students (75.6%) consented that knowing good English instilled high self-confidence and authority in both the students and the professors. The data analysis for the third item indicates that 1.3 percents of the respondents did not tend to use English at their department, 15.4 percents accepted the average point and 83.4 percents evinced great interest in using English as a medium of instruction. Considering the third question which was: How much are you interested in using English as the medium of instruction for the students of management at university?, most of the students (83.4%) showed great interest in using English at the campus and as a medium of instruction. The forth items asked the students to come up with the question that: How much are the deftin-English management professors at the university successful in conveying management technical terms and concepts in English? and the results show that 18 percents of the students believed that management professors were not successful in conveying technical terms in English, 25.6 percents agreed with average point and 56.4 percents highly estimated the issue. The fifth item, How much does management professors mastery in 324

English affect they way students estimate the professors level of knowledge? evinced that 25.7 percents of the respondents put forward the idea that management professors mastery in English exerted little influence on their level of knowledge, 23.1 percents exchanged the average rate, and 51.2 percents agreed with considerable influence. Put it in a nutshell, more than half of the respondents consented that they would consider their professors as more knowledgeable if they were mastered in English. The sixth item posed the students assessment of their management professors mastery in English at the department at which they were studying. The findings demonstrate that 3.9 percents of the students assessed the English level of the management department as low, 21.8 percents viewed it as average, and 73.1 percents evaluated it as high. The seventh item asked the students to express their ideas about the influence of the professors mastery in English on motivating them in their education. The results indicate that 16.7 percents of the respondents expostulated the idea, 33.3 percents occupied the middle ground, and 50 percents agreed that they were highly motivated when they felt that their professors were skillful enough in English. The last item brought a holistic idea to the fore! The question was: How much does Knowing English inspire positive effectual feelings in you?, 3.8 percents of the respondents expressed that knowing English inspires little or no positive feeling in them, 11.5 percents agreed with average point, and 84.6 percents reported that knowing English inspires an effectual positive feeling in them through their education. Conclusion The present study aimed at investigating the influence of English on the productivity of university as an organization. The study also strived to demonstrate the teacher-student interaction vis--vis psychological variables (self-confidence, self-esteem, beliefs, etc.). The findings of the study indicated that knowing English as a lingua franca has a significant influence on the students success in the courses of management. It was also ascertained that knowing English provides students with a positive sense and selfconfidence and they accept the management professors with mastery in English as more knowledgeable. All in all, it is believed that providing an English-based milieu at the management department positively affects the productivity of the university as an organization. References Akbari, R., Mirhosseini, A. and Bahri, H. (2005). The interface between language teaching and the personality of the English teachers in Iran. Applied Linguistics. 8(1). 1-22. Alvani, M. (2010). General Management. Tehran: Nei publication. pp. 157-159. Dadgar, Y., and Najimeidani, A. (2004). The effects of business globalization on economic growth in Iran. Nameye Mofid. 10(42). 33-64. Diab, R. L. (2006). University students beliefs about learning English and French in Lebanon. System, 34(1), 80-96. Heidari Kaidan, J. and Azari, M. (2009). The Relationship between Multiple Intelligence and English Learning Strategies with Language skill among the students. Yaftehaye no dar ravanshenasi (New Findings in Psychology). 3(9). 95-114. Mobashernia, R., and Aqamohammadi, Gh. (2008). The evaluation of students attitudes towards English Language. Pajooheshnameye oloome Ejtemaee. 1(4). 34-45. Pazooki, M., Rastegar, M. (2009). Extrinsic and intrinsic concepts, shyness, skill of English as foreign language. Pajooheshhaye ravenshenakhti. 12(1-2). Sheikholeslam, R., and Khayyer, M. (2006). The investigation of the motivational beliefs and the use of the English learning strategies among the university students. Journal of Psychology. 10(1). 23-33. 325

Stankov, L., and Lee, J. (2008). Confidence and Cognitive Test Performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100(4).961-976. Torabi, T., and Moahammadzadeh Asl, N. (2010). The Analysis of Globalization Role in Foreign Investment Collect and economic Growth. Pajooheshnameye Eghtesadi. 10(2). 217-240. Yamini, M., and Tahriri, A. (2006). Ezterab dar Classe Zabanhaye Khareji dar beine faragirane Zaban va ertebate an Ba ezate Nafs (Commotion in foreign language classes among language learners and its relation with self-esteem). Applied linguistics. 9(1). 129-101.

326

The Effect of Cooperative Teaching Techniques on the Comprehension and Production of L2 Idioms Seyyede-Mahsa Amini Islamic Azad University, Takestan Branch, Iran mahamin2000@gmail.com Abstract In the EFL context, cooperative learning is increasingly used to achieve many academic goals. Since few studies have examined the effect of cooperative learning on leaning idioms, the present study investigated the effects of Jigsaw, Group Investigation (GI), and Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD), as 3 techniques of cooperative learning, on the comprehension and production of English idioms. Four classes of Iranian EFL learners (n=137) at BA level participated in the study. Each group received instruction in one of the above-mentioned cooperative teaching techniques, and there was a comparison group, which received conventional non-cooperative treatment. Two one-way ANOVA procedures were used to analyze data. The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between cooperative teaching and traditional methods. As a result, Jigsaw, STAD, and GI were all more effective in both comprehension and production of English idioms than individual learning. The findings can be implicated by the syllabus and textbook designers, teachers, and learners. Keywords: Cooperative Learning, Competitive Learning, Idiom Comprehension, Idiom Production Introduction The teaching of idioms, due to their quite unpredictable meaning and extensive use, has been one of the major practical challenges in foreign language teaching in recent years (Liu, 2003). Native speakers of English fluently use idioms in their every day conversations. Accordingly, having the knowledge of idioms is regarded as a prerequisite for comprehension and production of ordinary conversations and for effective use of language. In the decade of cooperative learning, cooperative teaching techniques can be applied to the learning of various areas of knowledge. The cooperative teaching techniques are those which provide opportunities for comprehensible and meaningful input and output by using group work in a non-threatening environment that is conductive to language learning (Ghaith, 2003). The present study aims at investigating the effects of cooperative teaching techniques on the learning of L2 idioms. Jigsaw, Group Investigation, and Student Teams Achievement Division techniques are those which have been chosen for this study. Literature Review Traditionally idioms were defined as fixed expressions whose constituents literal meaning cannot determine their figurative meaning (Abel, 2003). Therefore, Idioms are fixed combination of words literal meanings of which cannot help their comprehension. Most of the research done on idioms targeted the corpus-based study of them. For example, Liu (2003) analyzed the most frequently used English idioms to address the problem of their limited usefulness to ESOL students. His corpus-based analysis revealed the inadequacy of idiom teaching materials in terms of item selection, meaning and use explanation, and the appropriateness of the example provided (p. 671). The etymology of idioms has also been examined by Boers et al. (2007), who found that in spite of the 327

arbitrariness of the meaning of many idioms, their original and literal usage has motivated the meaning of idioms. Boers et al. (2009) studied the pictorial elucidation of idioms and concluded that it helps comprehension and remembrance of their meaning. It is currently believed that cooperative teaching techniques can be used for various areas of knowledge (Ghaith, 2003), and cooperative teaching and learning will improve learning outcomes (e.g., Willis, 2007). It follows that cooperative learning can also be applied to learning idioms. Clemen and Hampton (1994) refer to the definition of cooperative learning as an organized group of students who try to work collaboratively to attain academic goals. In these collaborative structures, students help each other and become stronger in their weaknesses. Not all group works are cooperative. The essential components of cooperative work according to Liang (2002) include: 1- Positive social interdependence 2- Individual and group accountability 3- Face-to-face interaction 4- Use of interpersonal and small group skills 5- Self-assessment of the team or group processing According to Johnson et al. (2000), the structure of learning goal of the students can be cooperative (positive social interdependence) competitive (negative social interdependence), or individualistic (lack of social interdependence between participants). Hence, on the opposite side of cooperative situation, there is a competitive situation in which students work individually for achieving a goal and the success of other students are not significant for their classmates. In a competitive learning model, which is a teachercentered approach, learners are non-active. In this model, teachers are in charge of learning (Fathi-Ashtiani et al., 2007). Various advantages of cooperative learning are described in different ways by many scholars. Cooperative learning improves academic performance and interpersonal and communication skills. It also teaches students the principles of decision making which in turn promote their democratic skills (Clemen & Hampton, 1994). Cooperative learning is beneficial because of its generating interaction, providing a clinching affective environment, promoting learner autonomy and liability, and moving toward individualized instruction all of which are regarded as four main advantages of cooperative learning (Liang, 2002). According to Apple (2006), cooperative teaching techniques increase the amount of comprehensible input which is required for enhancing the extent of learning. In addition, the social interaction which is established among learners enhances their selfconfidence and motivation as well as their self-regulation and self-reliance in the language classroom. Then, cooperative teaching techniques cause affective engagement of EFL learners in the classroom. Cooperative Teaching Techniques Any type of assignment and course can use cooperative learning. But depending on the form of the course or task and group size different types of cooperative teaching techniques can be used. The present researcher intends to investigate the effects of Jigsaw, Group Investigation, and Student Teams Achievement Division cooperative teaching techniques on the learning of L2 idioms. The effects of cooperative teaching techniques have been investigated by many scholars, but they have not considered the effects of cooperative teaching techniques on learning idioms. The present study aims to shed light on this issue.

328

Jigsaw According to Cuseo (2002), in Jigsaw, the component pieces of a whole puzzle are worked by members of the group separately, then the teammates incorporate separate pieces and bring about a whole task. According to Chen (2005), the Jigsaw method helps students master a large quantity of information by content-based and positive environment and carefully structured activities. Students work in a group to synthesize the information. Walker and Crogan (1998) studied Jigsaw and its effect on academic performance and prejudice of students. Results revealed that Jigsaw develops liking, racial prejudice, and academic performance of students. They believe that the success of Jigsaw is due to both cooperative relations of group members and interdependent context. Therefore, cooperation and interdependence are two main reasons for the triumph of Jigsaw technique. Group Investigation Group Investigation (GI) technique was first introduced by Sharan and Sharan. Group Investigation is a strategy which uses both interaction and communication as well as academic inquiry process (Vhpassi, 1998). The reaction toward teacher-centered questions results in Group Investigation in which a small group of students decide on the whatness of subtopics which will be explored and the manner in which the investigation will be carried out. After the completion of the investigation, group members opt for the howness of the presentation of the results of their work, and then the teacher and the students evaluate their effort (Cuseo, 2002). According to Vhpassi (1998), investigation; interaction; interpretation; intrinsic motivation of the students; and the teacher as a facilitator, source provider, and evaluator are the major distinguishing characteristics of the GI method. Student Teams Achievement Division The Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) technique was first developed by Slavin who assigned four to five students to each team. Teams were composed of heterogeneous students in terms of their learning performances, gender, or background (Balfakih, 2003). Armstrong and Palmer (1998) describe features of STAD as teachers group assignment, teams study time, regular individual quiz, and evaluation of teams scores. STAD involves team composition, and instructional cycle. Team composition is based on heterogeneous ability level, gender, and ethnic group. Instructional cycle involves direct instruction, group study, individual quiz, and group recognition (Maloof & White ,2005). According to Ghaith (2003, p.453), STAD is organized around the components of teacher presentation, team study, individual quizzes, individual improvement scoring, and team recognition. Armstrong and Palmer (1998) believe that STAD is easy to put into practice and administer; besides, it is appropriate for a block time table (fewer classes but extended period of instruction); and it well presents course content and encourages group work. Competitive Learning Competitive learning, a consequence of negative social interdependence of the learners, appears to be quite the opposite of cooperative learning (Johnson et al., 2000). According to Liang (2002), in a competitive situation, the achievement of the participants is not correlated and each individual participant attempts to achieve his or her goal. This traditional approach to teaching increases learners self-interest and unawareness of others accomplishment. Thus, according to this built-in self-centeredness, the success of others is

329

threatening. Attle and Baker (2007) refer to the definition of competition as the comparison of performances of people who are doing the same activity or task. Competitive learning is the traditional learning model in which a goal is achieved by one or a few of the students who work against each other. In the traditional learning model based on competitive learning, learners are non-active and the teacher presents the subjects. In this model, teachers are in charge of learning. This approach to learning trains students for real life experiences. It enhances self-confidence and self-reliance of the students. But the use of competitive learning is the cause of students apprehension, and expressive and behavioral problems (Fathi-Ashtiani et al., 2007). Methodology The participants were 137 male and female BA level juniors majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language or English Translation. All of the participants were native speakers of Persian who were taking a course of idioms as part of the requirements of their BA program. The level of proficiency of learners was intermediate. The participants were divided into four groups to receive different treatments: Jigsaw group: It was based on the cooperation of groups of two members on puzzled idioms. Groups were to solve the puzzles and find the idioms by looking up the keywords and checking which of the idioms had the meanings implied by the puzzles. STAD group: It was based on teachers direct instruction of idioms and the allocation of average of individual scores to the group. GI group: It was based on students investigation of the meaning of intended idioms Comparison group: It was totally based on teachers direct instruction and students competition. To homogenize the participants, a 35-item multiple-choice vocabulary subtest of Michigan test was administered. To minimize the effect of the participants prior knowledge of the target idioms, a 150 multiple-choice items pretest was also administered. The book entitled English idioms in use by McCarthy and ODell (2002) was used as a source of idioms. Having presented the idioms (15 idioms over 10 sessions) in individual and cooperative ways, a 30-item fill-in-the blank test and a 30-item multiple choice test were used to measure the participants productive and receptive knowledge of idioms. Two separate one-way ANOVA procedures were used to analyze the scores of the participants on the post tests: One ANOVA procedure for idiom comprehension and the same procedure for idiom production. Results Descriptive statistics on both comprehension and production post tests showed that the Jigsaw group has the highest mean, followed closely by STAD which is followed by GI. The group instructed through non-cooperative learning method has the lowest mean. In order to see if group differences are statistically significant, two one-way ANOVA procedures were used, yielding that there are statistically significant differences among the four groups in comprehension and production of L2 idioms. Therefore, two post-hoc Scheffe tests were used. The results of the post-hoc comparisons are presented in Table 1:

330

Table 1: Multiple comparisons of means for idiom comprehension (com.) and production (pro.) ANOVA Pro. (I) groups (J) groups Com. Pro. Mean Com. Sig. Sig.
Mean Difference Difference

(I-J) .071 .812 .000 .382 .000 .000 3.81* 2.02 7.32* -1.79 3.50* 5.30* .014 .353 .000 .476 .027 .000

(I-J) Jigsaw GI 2.97 STAD 1.05 Non-CL 9.68* STAD -1.92 GI Non-CL 6.71* STAD Non-CL 8.63* *. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level

As it can be seen, members of all the three cooperative groups have outperformed the participants of the non-cooperative group in idiom comprehension and production. Moreover, the participants of the Jigsaw method have outperformed the participants of the GI technique in idiom production. Discussion Results indicated that the performance of Jigsaw, STAD, and GI groups was significantly better than the comparison group on the comprehension and production post tests. Along the same line, Walker and Crogan (1998) found evidence in support of the use of Jigsaw technique among other techniques of cooperative learning, indicating that Jigsaw enhances students performance. The findings are also consistent with Van Wyk (2010), who found evidence in favor of the benefits of STAD compared with Individual learning. Similarly, Nurcahyo (2009) indicated that STAD and Jigsaw improve students comprehension compared with individual learning. The findings of the present study also reveal that the STAD is more effective than individual learning, while no significant difference was found between the two in Armstrong and Palmers (1998) study. It seems that the use of the Jigsaw technique, due to its puzzle shape and focusing the students attention on the keywords of idioms, makes idioms more memorable. Regarding the equal task division, group management, teachers control, and equal participation of members, the Jigsaw technique made the classroom climate friendlier and enjoyable compared with GI. Due to instances of problems of equal task divisions and cases of conflicts among the group members, the classroom climate of the GI technique was relatively less pleasant and cooperative. Reasons behind the success of STAD group may have been the interactions between lower-achievers and higher-achievers in order to achieve higher scores, periodical and individual quizzes, and the allocation of average score to the group and consequently the reduction of the wide gap between the teacher and learner. Conclusion By way of conclusion, CL is helpful to comprehension and production of L2 idioms. There is little doubt as to the positive effects of CL on learning outcomes. Therefore, the most obvious implication is for teachers, textbook and syllabus designers, and learners; because in CL the burden of learning is on the learner and the teacher is a facilitator, provided that textbooks and exercises be designed and prepared for cooperative works. 331

References Abel, B. (2003). English idioms in the first language and second language lexicon: A dual representation approach. Second language research, 19(4), 329-358. Apple, M. T. (2006). Language learning theories and cooperative learning techniques in the EFL classroom. Doshisha Studies in Language and Culture, 9(2), 277-301. Armstrong, S., & Palmer, J. (1998). Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD) in a twelfth grade classroom: Effect on student achievement and attitude. Journal of Social Studies Research, 22(1), 3-6. Attle, S., & Baker, B. (2007). Cooperative learning in a competitive environment: Classroom applications. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 19(1), 77-83. Balfakih, N. M. A. (2003). The effectiveness of student team-achievement division (STAD) for teaching high school chemistry in the United Arab Emirates. International Journal of Science Education 25(5), 605-624. Boers, F., Eyckmans, J., & Stengers, H. (2007). Presenting figurative idioms with a touch of etymology: More than mere mnemonics? Language teaching research, 11(1), 4362. Boers, F., Piriz, A. M. P., Stengers, H., & Eyckmans, J. (2009). Does pictorial elucidation foster recollection of idioms? Language teaching research, 13(4), 367-382. Chen, S. (2005). Cooperative learning, multiple intelligences, and proficiency: Application in college English language teaching and learning. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Australian Catholic University. Clemen, R. T. & Hampton, H. (1994). Cooperative learning and decision making. National Science Foundation under Grant (No. MDR-9154382). Cuseo, J. B. (2002). Igniting student involvement, peer interaction, and teamwork: A taxonomy of specific cooperative learning structures and collaborative learning strategies. Retrieved March 7, 2010, from http://www.qcc.mass.edu/ t3/ORT110 /doc/cuseo1styear.doc Fathi-Ashtiani, A., Salimi, S. H., Ayubi, M., & Mohebbi, H. A. (2007). A comparison of the cooperative learning model and traditional learning model on academic achievement. Journal of Applied Sciences, 7(1), 137-140. Ghaith, G. (2003). Effects of the learning together model of cooperative learning on English as a foreign language reading achievement, academic self-esteem, and feelings of school alienation. Bilingual Research Journal, 27(3), 451-472. Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Stanne, M. B. (2000). Cooperative learning methods: A meta-analysis. Retrieved March 7, 2010. From http://www. tablelearning.com/uploads/File/EXHIBIT-B.pdf Liang, T. (2002). Implementing cooperative learning in EFL teaching: Process and effect. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Graduate Institute of English, National Taiwan Normal University. Liu, D. (2003). The most frequently used spoken American English idioms: A corpus analysis and its implications. TESOL Quarterly, 37(4), 671-700. Maloof, J., & White, V. K. B. (2005). Team study training in the college biology laboratory. Journal of Biological Education, 39(3), 120-124. McCarthy, M., & ODell, F. (2002). English idioms in use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nurcahyo, M. A. D. (2009). The effectiveness of cooperative learning model in teaching reading comprehension at the English education department of teacher training and education faculty. Jurnal Sosial dan Budaya, 2(2), 1-9.

332

Shehadeh, A. (1999). Gender differences and equal opportunities in the ESL classroom. ELT Journal, 53(4), 256-261. Vhpassi, A. (1998). Variations of co-operative learning: An analysis of four different approaches. In T. Nummi, A., Rnk, & J.Sariola, in collaboration with H. Kynslahti, R. Ristola, S. Tella, & A.Vhpassi. Virtuality and Digital Nomadism: Introduction to the LIVE Project (19972000). Media Education Publications, 6, 5169. Van Wyk, M. M. (2010). Do Student Teams Achievement Divisions enhance economic literacy? A quasi-experimental design. Journal of Social Sciences, 23(2), 83-89. Walker, I., & Crogan, M. (1998). Academic performance, prejudice, and the Jigsaw classroom: New pieces to the puzzle. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 8, 381-393. Willis, J. (2007). Cooperative learning is a brain turn-on. Middle School Journal, 38(4), 413.

333

Language Instruction and Acquisition (Case study: West Africa) Kadidia V. Doumbia French Teacher, Rabun Gap Nacoochee School Director-at-Large, International Society for Language Studies/ISLS, USA kdoumbia@rabungap.org So much has been said about womens rights these past thirty years. In West Africa between 40% thru 60% of the population are illiterate. It has been said that it is one of the lowest literacy rates of the 21st century. The 2009 Campaign for Education report that out 14 million childrenout of primary school 8 million of them are girls. The main problem is after independence most African countries decided to choose a lingua franca that was not one of the vernacular languages of the country. First, they wanted to avoid issues regarding the choice of one language over the others and secondly it was a way to reach out and to be connected with the rest of the world. It is understandable when one knows that in certain countries there are more than 60 vernacular languages with their own sub-groups. Unfortunately, such a choice did not take into account the cultural values and realities of the concerned countries. Emmanuel Aito statedthat ... African children have quite often already acquired two or five languages before they start learning French :1 This statement underlines the main problem in the African educational system: the lingua franca is taught as a first language and not as a second or third language because, it is aimed at a particular class of the society not at the entire population.African governments, in particular, believed that this approach was the best venue to help the country to reach the status of a nation with, one official language. Learning a new language is a serious matter especially when it comes to ones survival. It is the road for social integration, acceptance and recognition. Standard Language learning and acquisition become essential in todays global world. It is not to say that language diversity in Africa should be lost, but the use of a language understood and spoken in the rest of the world is the way to get the right to be a part of the so-called global world. Indeed, the National Communication Association established that nowadays to be a responsible citizen of the world both socially and culturally an individual needs to be able to communicate efficiently. Seventy-Five percent to Eighty percent of a persons day is spent communicating. Today, the role of the woman in African society is not clearly defined. In the history of many civilizations of the continent her place and charge were clearly defined. In the Mandingue Empire of the 13th century for instance, there was a Charter, the Kouroukan Fouga, the first world constitution, that stated in articles 14 thru 16 the role of women; the article 16 for instance stated that women must be consulted in all aspects of the societys decision process. Therefore, it is difficult to understand why women find themselves at the lowest level of the society in many African countries of the former Mandinka Empire and other areas of the continent, in this 21st century. Recently West African countries have put in place a program for adult literacy, especially in rural areas. The main focus in education from the past 15 years has been, formal education in schools. Unfortunately, this system of education is not available for most children. To counterbalance the lack of instruction and the need to survive, the population has created a form of creole that represents an official second language in cities where the population has to acquire the standard language in a naturalistic way. The Ivory Coast (West Africa) is a good example of that. In this country there is now a new French 334

language spoken by the population with its own grammar and recognized as such, called the dioula which means in Bambara language spoken by the Mandinka population in West Africa, the merchant.Taking into account the poverty of this area of the world, families continue to make choices about who will go to school, even though elementary education remains free. Unfortunately, most of the time, the boys are sent to schools and the girls stay home because as they always say: a girl will get married anyways and the husband will provide for her. UNICEF, in its report on The State of The Worlds Children, pointed out that discrimination against girls is the largest impediment to achieving universal primary education.2 I remember my father telling me about one of his male relatives who did not understand why he sent me to the USA to study. This man was educated. He told my father that it was a waste of money and I was to be well married so I did not need to bother studying too much. It was in 1988, not too long ago. In Senegal, for instance, even today, girls get married as early as 13 or 14 years old meaning that if they are in school they have to stop their education. It is a violation of their rights as written in Article 16 of the Declaration of Human Rights: marriage should be entered only with the free and full consent of the intended spouses.3 Most African countries have signed and ratified this Declaration but cultural values stop most governments from enforcing it. I remember my cousin telling me about one of her classmates who was forced to enter a marriage because her father threatened to divorce the mother if she did not do as he wished; repudiation is the ultimate shame for a woman in traditional African society. Some countries are trying to overcome this problem. In Guinea for instance, early marriage has been identified as the main reason for low completion rates for girls, and the government has now made it illegal to force a girl into marriage before the 9th grade.4 As Caroline Pearce stated in her report The quality of education is also poor: the disastrous lack of trained teachers and literacy facilitators .there is a gap of more than three quarters of a million trained teachers in West Africas primary schools..5 In such a situation it is easy to understand why the priority is given to boys education without even speaking about the financial part of the matter. The main drawbacks are: the teachers trainings, lack of materials, early and sometimes forced marriage of the girls, lack of school in certain rural areas unless the children walk 3 to 5 miles, lack of female teachers especially in Muslim countries, often children are pulled out of school when help is needed on the farms orin the fields. For a married woman, it is still illegal in some areas to even open a bank account without the husbands permission. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has been telling the world for decades that women feed the world but they are the most disadvantaged group. The FAO reported in 1998 that half of all food produced in the world and up to 90 percent in some regions is produced by women who still cannot receive basic education. This situation is a serious drawback whenever they want to expand their commercial activities. The battle for food security can be won only if the invaluable contribution made by women is recognized, and if the social, political and economic context empowers them to develop their potential as farmers, actors of development and human beings.6 From 1997 to 1998 I was at the Head of the Communication Committee of the FAO TELEFOOD Program in the Ivory Coast. TELEFOOD was created at The World Food 335

Summit in 1996 in Rome, Italy. Its objectives are to reduce by half the number of undernourished people in the world no later than 2015. The funds of the program were to finance micro-projects in rural areas in every country, especially for women. The problem is to educate girls the women without destroying the social and familial organization as the majority of societies are patriarchal societies. It will be wise to choose a gender oriented approach over a feminist approach by making sure that both boys and girls, women and men have access to education. The understanding of the benefits of a basic education should be emphasized in national campaigns in every country.. A woman who can read and write can take better care of herself, her family, and be a full citizen. Concerning the elementary school level, a bilingual teaching approach may be the best venue for many many african children who dont speak the Standard Language at home; it will help them transitioning from their vernacular language to the Standard Language because French, English, Spanish and Portuguese are second or third languages for most of them and have been taught for the past five decades as a first language which is the absolute mistake. Diversity is a reality on the continent and the oral tradition which is one of its components has been seriously neglected. Even in the United States oral communication is used to convey information to children using story telling for instance. To this end, the African educational system should find a balance between the western approach and the cultural realities of learners to receive a fair education. Vernacular languages are to be used for adult literacy programs. For learners who never went to school immersion in a foreign language canbe possible but may also be very frustrating. In the Campaign Force Education report it is stated that a year of education raises by 10% the individuals income, children of educated mothers survive beyond five years old because the mother can better follow their health. This is fact should be stressed when campaigning for girls and women education. The economic growth of a country is positively related to its literacy rate. Currently, in Africa, a small group of people are highly educated while the rest received have little or no education. Approximately 60 millions Africans cannot read or write and 45 millions are women.7 To be an integral part of society, to know ones rights in the marriage and in the society, to educate children properly, to know that one has choices and to be able to express ones ideas, literacy is the one and only option. In the Ivory Coast, the NGO OFACI (standing for Active Women of the Ivory Coast) with which I work is fighting for womens human rights, particularly the right to have an education that enables all to become full participants in society. It is to be understood that rural women and city women dont have the same priorities, African women and European women dont have the same priorities even if they received the same education, taking into account each countrys culture and inner diversity, making sure that ambitions for womens emancipation are what they desire, explaining to the population what the practical goals are by using the oral tradition as one means of education, then, the path for a viable education policy can be organized. The main points are: -accepting the fact that there is no possibility for the entire African population to receive a formal education and to use the alternative of the children and adult literacy programs; -to be respectful of the vernacular languages that should be used in certain areas to teach 336

the lingua franca and certainly used in adult literacy trainings where the lingua franca is not necessary for the everyday life; -to emphasize gender equality following the United Nations Millennium Development goals; -to have programs to attract more women teachers especially in Muslim countries and improve their salaries; -to launch a national campaign to rehabilitate the status of teachers; -to explain to the population, most African societies being patriarchal, that it is not because girls or women will get some education that they will be above the rest of them (meaning the men) but the advantages of an education should be emphasized. This point is one of the most important ones to consider. There is no way a program whatever it is can work if the cultural values are not taking into account. It should be the opportunity to inform the population about the gender concepts. Assuming social barriers have been overcome, what is the best method to use when teaching African women to read and to write? In cities, a naturalistic acquisition is the way for survival for most people but it does not imply that they are literate. But in terms of child and adult literacy programs, the aim is to understand and to be understood. As Krashen stated in his input hypothesis when communication is successful, when the input is understood and there is enough of it 8 then social integration is possible. Some of these students at least find themselves in the precarious situation of learning print literacy for the first time, in a language that is not their first and in which many have only basic levels of competence.9 Africa is in search of its true identity in this modern and global world. Identity as a continent, identity of each country, identity of each African as a member of his community, identity of the african as a citizen of his country and of Africa, as a world citizen and at the same time keeping his cultural roots. In this context, the woman in Africa has to find her place. It is a quest for social recognition as a member of a society on a continent that lost so many of its values through slavery, colonization, independence and dictatorships. Endnotes
1 Emmanuel Aito of the University of Rgina underlines the fact that African students are bilingual or trilingual before starting school and, French/Spanish/English is taught as a first language to them without taking into account their linguistic and cultural background to format an adequate teaching methodology. 2 Each child has the right to an education without gender discrimination 3 Early and forced marriage are still a reality in certain areas of the world 4 Certain countries are taking some legal steps to protect young girls and allow them to receive a minimal education 5 The training of elementary teachers is to be reviewed and also the level at which they are accepted into the Teachers training program 6 Mr Jacques Diouf, Director of the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture/FAO has been telling the world for more than a decade that the women are feeding the world and they need to be educated and to receive more financial help to help ending world starvation 7 The African continent biggest challenge is the education of its population

337

8 The ability to communicate with your closest environment is a sign of recognition, integration and security 9 Most people dont realize the difficult adjustments one has to make as an adult to receive education in this global world everything seems obvious to most of us: reading, writing, using a computer

References 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child Article 11 Ali, Bencheneb. Lillettrisme, une atteinte au droit de chacun linstruction. Revue Russir. December 2003. <http://www.irinneus.org/Report.aspx? Reportid=705567> At a glance Womens Literacy. September 2008. <http://www.worofwomen.org> Caroline, Pearce.From closed books to open doors West Africas literacy Challenge. Oxfam international. April 2009. <http://www.campaignforeducation.org> Emmanuel Aito, National and Official Languages in Nigeria: Reflections on Linguistic Interference and the Impact of Language Policy and Politics on Minority Languages. Cascadilla Press 2005 2005 proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism, ed. James Cohen, Kara T. McAlister, Kellie Rolstad, and Jeff MacSwan, 18-38. Somerville, MA) FAO. Countdown to World Food Day and TeleFood 98 heads into the home stretch <http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/highlights/1998/981002-e.htm> Global education. The Boston Globe. 30 April 2006. <http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2006/04/39global_education/ Making right to education a reality. Africa Recovery. December 1998. <http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/subjindx/123educ.htm> Natalia, Fabisz. Analysis of Krashens Theory of Second Language Acquisition <http://www.geocities.com/pan_andrew/sla.htm?200928> UNESCO.<http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.phpURL_ID=12228&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html> West Africa: Maintaining the right to youth, education Irin News Report. 7 March 2007. <http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70556> Womens Literacy: investing in the Future. Women, Literacy and Development. <http://www.globaled.org/curriculum/wlita.html> Woods, A. Learning to be Literate.. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies. June 2009.

338

Reading Story Books and Its Impact upon Language Development in Persian Child Discourse Dr. Maryam Iraji Islamic Azad University, Central Branch, Tehran, Iran miraji180@gmail.com The paper seeks to focus on certain issues emerging from a developmental psycholinguistic study that has dealt with an exploratory inquiry into the development of communication. The study is largely based on the data pooled from the investigators own daughter at the 4 + span of development of first language acquisition. The study shows that the Storytelling is an ideal routine for the childs acquisition of information about language. Since the child has limited basis for generating utterances, then certain requirements are placed on the childs social environment if the strategy is to be successfully exploited. These include recurrence of the situation and identification of this recurrence. A major motivation for this comes from the fact that studies of child communication have brought into focus such a domain will help child to talk appropriately only if the situation do recure in her daily routine life. Different situations with a strong potential for communication, presented to the child in the natural home environment through different episodes. The below topics were taken into consideration for a period of twelve months, and all the acts were recorded by a camcorder in a very friendly environment, which came out to be thirty hours data collected in each episode consisting of approximately 15 -20 minutes. l. Play situations involving some kinds of puzzles etc. 2. Reading storybooks. 3. Watching movies related to the same story book. The collected data were carefully analyzed and the unwanted acts were eliminated, so the cream of data was polled out and came to be five hours. The present work will give a longer duration of data collected, tried to be absolutely normal and real environment at home and outside, while the child was playing with her own friends or her parents. Conclusions are drawn from the data collected in a different and real situation of interactive discourse comprising mother-child, father-child, childchild situations with the child at the epicenter of discourse. INTRODUCTION Reading story book for the child by her mother or her nursery teacher has been noted to considerably evoke production of utterances in the child. The child utilized the strategy of saying that she heard the other saying precisely the same situation. Successful use of such a strategy implies that the child successfully identifies the situation, remembers what is said to her, and tells the same story next time. This chain of utterances also reveals how it is helpful to her in language learning. The child prefers to analyse and segment utterances that she is producing at the given time, rather than this obviously leads support to carrying out the analysis on the utterances. It may be pointed out that the willingness to analysis ones own output is related to a tendency to imitate and the child happens to utilize immediate imitation of adult utterances Snow, et al. (1981). The usefulness of book reading has emerged as self-evident is to show books often serve as a great facility for child language acquisition and thus provides the more predictable modelled utterances for each child Snow and Goldfield (1983). Shared book reading between parents and the child not only is an opportunity that introduces the preschool child to literacy but also enriches her societal role along with the acquisition of communicative competence several studies with more complex and 339

demanding tutorial forms of language use (Snow, et al. 1976; Sorsby and Martlew, 1991), have reported that mothers speech to children while reading a book was more complex than during their free play with toys. On the basis of such observations of her own book reading behaviour, Snow and Ninio (1986) concludes that book reading may be the ideal routine for language learning. She further proposes that the quality of early parent child interactions can influence the development of literary as well as language. Wells (1983) suggests that story book conservation provides a bridge between the context embedded talk that accompanies everyday activity and the more explicit and context independent talk characteristic of many school settings. Mother and child enter a world created by the book which in itself is an abstraction going beyond the immediate context, working with a secondary symbolic system. This reflects the relationship between language, thought and socialisation put forward by Vygotsky (1962) in viewing the childs attainment of higher intellectual functioning as part of a joint exercise in dialogue between child and mother. Also, as Olsen (1983) points out, there are a series of mental activities that relate almost exclusively to written rather than spoken utterances. Writing, of course, encourages a particular form of meaning literal meaning. The Question of the present study is: How the book reading can be useful for the development of Child communication?. The Hypothesis can be assumed as: Improvement of Child communication can be developed by the help of book reading. A Brief Review of the Researches in Language Acquisition Last fifty years have seen a fast growth of researchers in language acquisition and child discourse. The usefulness of routines as a context for language acquisition has been pointed out by a number of researchers Snow, et al. (1981). Some of the studies point out that many of childs early learned words and expressions can be traced directly to their source in recurrent, routine situations, and are often reserved for use initially in those routines Ferrier (1978). Only gradually do children emerge capable to recognize the usefulness of an expression such as a general request, not just a request to be placed in a high-chair, or bye bye as a term more appropriate to anyones disappearance, not just Mummys disappearance during peekaboo games. The routines which have received the most attention include various dynamic games played during the preverbal and early one-word stages. Ratner and Bruner (1978) study give-and-take games, whereas Burner (1989) seeks to discuss the games of building, bashing and bouncing and care taking routines in which adult utterances are often regarded as the predictable points. Ferrier (1978) for interactive play and request sequence and book-reading, especially the labeling of pictures during the first stages of language acquisition (Ninio and Burner, 1978; Ninio, 1980). The question arises how such routines tend to support language acquisition. What is the mechanism of acquisition whose operation is either made possible or facilitated by the existence of routines in the childs daily life. Making hypotheses about the process of language acquisition and the cognitive mechanism which make language acquisition possible require in a view the study of language acquisition in the context in which it occurs. The social context of language acquisition is not a topic separate from language acquisition proper, as it has often been treated, but is central to an understanding of language learning that could generate any hypothesis about process and mechanism of acquisition. One acquisition strategy which could account for the usefulness of routines is as the 340

following: say in any particular situation what others have said in previous occurrence of that situation. Clearly, such a strategy will help the child to talk appropriately only if situations do recur. Thus, a child whose daily life offered little or no access to predictable, routinized situations would never put such a strategy to use, whereas the child whose life was punctuated with recurrent situations would have considerable opportunity to function as an effective communicator by exercising this strategy. Some studies aimed to examine the evidence that one child did seem to be using a strategy such as that suggested above. Such strategy is also considered to account for the examples of word learning in games and other routinized contexts reported by Burner, Ferrier (1978) and many others. Although the existence of such a strategy does not come close to providing a mechanism for language acquisition it does begin to tell us about some of the processes that characterize language acquisition. Childrens use of such a strategy suggests that they are learning language incrementally, picking up adult utterance one at a time and using them in highly situationspecific way, at least initially. Although childrens overgeneralization has also been supported received much by researchers with considerable evidence that children are very likely to under generalize both word-meanings and rules for word combinations (Bowerman, 1976; Braine, 1976; Maratsos and Chalkly, 1980). As opposed to it, a tendency of under generalization is also reflected in situation-specificity of the first language acquisition. Child, as she grow, may generalize a learned from beyond the situation which is specific to its acquisition fairly quickly. This facility should not be taken as evidence that the original learning was abstract or general. The ability of young child of acquisition utterance for use in later discourse in particular situations reveals considerably greater memory capacity than is normally attributed to children of that age range. The degree to which specific word and word-situation combinations can be retained in long-term memory has implications for how much of analysis and combinatorial rule-based production can be assumed in order to explain the early patterned utterances. It may be pointed out in this regard that Book- reading is an ideal routine. Assuming that a strategy such as say in a particular situation what you have heard others say in that same situation does operate for child at the stage when she has limited basis for generating utterances, then certain requirements are placed on the childs social environment if the strategy is to be successfully exploited. These include: (1) That situation should recur. (2) That child can identify a recurrence as an instance of the original situation. (3) That particular utterance has been produced during previous occurrences and often predictably enough as associated with the situation in the childs memory. Book-reading appears to be lives the best context for the fulfillment of such conditions. The situation is defined by the act of looking at a particular page in a particular book; other factors, such as time of day, location of the activity, the previous and subsequent activities, appear to be irrelevant to the situation. Not only is the situation well defined, its recurrence is also easily identifiable by the child. In fact, child often tend to demand to re -read the particular book very many times, thus creating the recurrences. As the mothers potential utterances are greatly constrained by the content of the book, the mother more often, than not, happen not to reading the text but comment on its pictures, the mothers utterances will be predictable and recurrent. Many other activities in a childs life can function to be routinized, few may even provide some ideal examples of well defined, frequently repeated, and highly structured routines. A further advantage of the book-reading routine is that it is subject to considerable elaboration as the childs language develops. All of the research that has focused at the development of the book reading routine Ninio and Burner (1978) and at book reading as a 341

context for vocabulary acquisition Ninio (1980) has focused on the relatively early stages in the development of book reading. The primary activities of the mother-child pairs have established joint attention of the pictures and electing or providing appropriate labels for pictures. Microanalysis of such process of book-reading in somewhat older children using more complex books have been carried out Anderson, et al. (1980) with book-reading as a context for acquisition of information about literacy, not about language. Empirical investigation of the development of language has usually focused on the child as a speaker, and primarily on his spontaneous verbalizations. It is fairly evident from this work how a picture of the successive stages of speech of the English-speaking child begins to emerge. The studies (Weir, 1962; Braine, 1963; Brown and Fraser, 1964) seek to describe the period in which the child begins to put two or three words together under a unified intonation contour which appears like that sound to experimenters (and mother) like a rudimentary sentence. They coined the term telegraphese to describe this kind of speech, since the childs utterances contain precisely those items we should want to keep if we were paying by the word. Many of the psychologists who have chronicled the development of language have attempted to provide a description of the childs organization of linguistic material by inference from such spontaneous telegraphic utterances. For example, some of such psychologists reason that even at this very primitive stage of speech, the childs utterances seem to be internally structured. The words in the childs utterances are not haphazardly ordered. Words differ in their positional privileges, means, the child who says ball throw does not, in general, alternatively say throw ball. Thus, from the evidence of the spontaneous speech alone, psychologists infer that there are already classes of words at younger age, though these classes may differ from those of the mature speaker. It seems clear, however, that the study of spontaneous speech does not provide a sufficient basis for insight into what the child knows about language at various stages of development. There is ample evidence, from three decades of failure by the Bloomfieldian linguists, a study of spontaneous speech, however objective and comprehensive, forms a poor basis even for the study of adult language. Chomsky (1964) has pointed out that the use of this dubious basis for studying childrens language multiplies these difficulties by a rather large factor. Therefore, a study of children verbalizations may not provide the kinds of information needed in developing a theoretical description of the course and process of language acquisition. Linguistic inquiry has finally succeeded only when the attempt to collect and codify natural speech has largely been abandoned, it began to ask about the individuals organization of language for some linguistic competence. The distinction between performance and competence in the child is a critical one for understanding how language emerges in the individuals. Chomsky, (1965) and others (McNeill, 1966; Lenneberg, 1967) have taken a strong nativistic stand on this issue: language is assumed to emerge as a function of neurophysiological maturation, and aspects of underlying linguistic structure are taken to be inherent in cognitive organization. In support of this view, linguists have argued that the onset of language is regular and tied to other aspects of maturation that it appears more or less independently of practice, in spite of environmental and physical handicaps, and has a critical period. Chomsky (1959) has shown that the acquisition of language cannot be accounted for in the terms of Skinnerian theory of learning. Particularly, transformational linguists have asserted that the speech of adults is so chaotic (interlaced with errors, interruptions, changes of direction, etc.) as to make learning by inductive generalization virtually impossible: the learners data simply will not support the kinds of inductions she is called upon to make. The position is taken in the Chomskyan enterprise that the child comes equipped with very specific principles concerning the nature of grammatical structure from which, given a corpus of natural 342

speech (provided, largely, by motherese), she can deduce the details of the languages she happens to be exposed to. Most developmental psychologists in their account of language acquisition suppose, that the child is endowed with more general organizational and procedural abilities (by no means specific to language) that enable him to form inductive generalizations from regularities that exist in the speech she hears. They suggest certain features in the childs language acquisition that might, for example, give hint as to how to form lexical classes: differential stress (adjectives are spoken more loudly than articles); positional restrictions (nouns often appear in last position in an utterance, while articles and adjectives rarely do); and semantic consistencies (a noun is very often the name of the person, place or thing while a verb is often an action). Thus these psychologists suggest that the child might be more successful than linguists have been in abstracting the structure of language from a consideration of regularities in the stream of speech. Acquiring Conversational Skills Even at the beginning of early childhood, children are found to be already skilled conversationalists. In face-to-face interaction with peers, they take turns, make eye contact, respond appropriately to their partners remarks, and maintain a topic over time Garvey (1974). Yet certain conversational strategies that help sustain interaction are acquired at later ages. One of such strategies is the turnabout, in which the speaker not only comments on what has just been said but also adds a request to get the partner to respond again. Turnabouts increase over the preschool years. Very young children may not use them because they cannot yet generate many words in each turn. Between ages 5 and 9, more advanced conversational strategies emerge. One such strategy is shading, in which a change of topics is initiated gradually rather than abruptly by modifying the focus of discussion. Effective conversation also depends on comprehension of the illocutionary intent of utterances that is, what a speaker means to say, regardless of whether the form of the utterance is perfectly consistent with it. For example, the statement Would you like to make cookies? can be a request for information, an offer to province an activity, or a variety of utterances as requests for action even when she is not directly expressed that way, such as I need a pencil or Why dont you tickle me? Garvey (1974). During the middle childhood, illocutionary knowledge develops further. For example, in the context of having forgotten to do his chore of taking the garbage out, an 8-year-old understands that his mothers statement The garbage is beginning to smell really means, Take the garbage out! It is argued that in order to appreciate form intention pairings like this children need to make subtle inferences between content and utterance that remain beyond cognitive capacities until the child enters the school and thus passes through another phase of socialization. Development of certain other skills, though, precede such a phase. Surprisingly advanced conversational abilities are present at a very early age, and they probably grow out of early interactive experiences with adults and siblings. In fact, conversational give-and-take with skilled speakers seems to be an especially important context for all aspects of early language development. Whereas play activities and genomic expressions provide an important developmental source of early child discourse, opportunities to interact with adults, either at home or in preschool, are recognized as consistently related to general measures of language development and progress Maccoby (1992).

343

Child discourse Emergence of child discourse and the development of discourse strategies as well as other aspects are primarily explained due to a natural process of discourse development owing to an innate predisposition Myers (1979). Child discourse provides evidence of the emergence of such expressions that do not follow the given code to which the child is exposed. Many such expressions are aphoristic and, in all probability, indicative of the development of a certain extent of the multifunctionality of verbal communication on the one hand and of a language-specific metaphor on the other. No doubt, their spontaneity, often noted in several investigations, indicates their emergence as a natural dimension of the process now explained due to language faculty. It is fairly well documented that doing discourse is an innate communicative capacity in the child (Bullowa, 1979; Halliday, 1979) underlying the progressive elaboration and differentiation under favourable circumstances. Such an innate sensitivity to discourse and its processing along with a communicative capacity in the child, supported by the Biological-Nativist view of language acquisition is regarded to enables the child to actively participate in discourse (Halliday, 1979; Bullowa, 1979). It is for such communicative capacity that the human child is found to show evidence of the epigenesis of conversational interactions in the mother-child exchange and of both undirected and directed messages Bullowa (1979). A survey of the literature on child language shows that throughout the span of development, the child manifests this sensitivity to discourse as a process of developing, what Halliday would call textual potential in speech, when the childs proto-language, comprising sounds or vocal gestures, gives way to the pragmatic orientation even though it is regulatory rather than instrumental in function, since it is directed towards the behaviour of a particular person, it illustrates an early form of proto-texture Halliday (1979). It is, therefore logical to consider the emergence of early child discourse as an innate biologically endowed process. Discourse as we understand it involves the ability to construct, in the mother tongue, sequences that hang together that in some sense form structure at the semantic or semiological level Halliday (1979). This view is particularly reflected in the methodological perspective of discourse as a process which includes verbal interactivity either realized by reciprocal behaviour that is between addressor and addressee or not realized in this way Myers (1979). When realized, the instance of discourse qualifies to be considered as conversation. The functional approach to discourse as a process is, therefore, an approach which gives precedence to the communicative function of language as its primary area of investigation and consequently seeks to describe linguistic form as a dynamic means of expressing the intended meaning Brown (1977). As such the discourse process subsumes verbal interactivity and embracing both its realization as the speakers anticipation to the addressees reaction; and its realization by reciprocal behaviour in form of conversation Myers (1979). Propelled with such theoretical motivations, early child discourse has always been a focal theme in psycholinguistic literature. Accounted in terms of an innate communicative capacity in the child (Bullowa, 1979; Halliday, 1979), progressive elaboration and differentiation under favourable circumstances Lyons (1979) and a subsequent shift from an early sensitivity to normal course of discourse development (Shatz and McCloskey, 1984; Sharma, 1990). The relation between action and thought vis-a-vis language has came to be a vexing problem in developmental theory of process approach to development of language and discourse particularly in Vygotskian and Piagetian view points even though both of these differ in certain respects such as there is a primary role of social interaction in Vygotskys theory whereas only a relatively secondary role is assigned in Piagets theory. Moreover as argued by Hickmann (1966). Piaget seems to focus on the childs cognitive development, whereas 344

Vygotsky lays emphasis on language development. It can be mentioned that the principle of motor development is seen to mediate the childs participation in both her intellectual and social life. Mother Child interaction The process of parental socialization of young children has been the central subject of interest in developmental psychology for decades. Although researchers from different theoretical perspectives vary in how much impact they attribute to this process compared to other influences (e.g., biological factors, extra-familiar, environments), most agree that parents play a fundamental role in their childrens development Maccoby (1992). Despite that longstanding interest, however, there remains a lot to be learned about the dynamics of that influences. More recently, mother-child socialization came to be viewed as a bidirectional process, beginning with Bell (1968) control system approach, and the continuing efforts grounded in a contextual-ecological system model Belsky (1984), and relationship-based and transactional analyses of mother-child influence (Maccoby and Martin, 1983; Hinde, 1992; Maccoby, 1992). The result of (Maccoby, 1984, Maccoby and Martin, 1983, 1992) have proposed a reconceptualization of mother-child socialization as the process of inducting the child into a system of reciprocity, or, in other words, the formation of a mutually binding, reciprocal, and mutually responsive relationship. Such relationships are often described as communal in social psychology Clark (1984). Briefly, two partners in a communal or mutually reciprocal relationship feel invested in and responsible for each others welfare; one feels concern for and act responsively to the others needs, and, at the same time, one comes to expect the other to be responsive to ones needs and to be concerned about ones welfare. Not all mother-child relationships develop along the trajectory of increasing communality or mutual responsiveness. Sometimes, they progress along an adversarial developmental path (Maccoby, 1983; Patternson, et al., 1989). The degree of the mutual reciprocity or responsiveness appears to be an important quality of the parent-child relationship and one that differentiates individual dyads. Moreover, such mutual or reciprocal orientation is a foundation for a host of outcomes central in successful socialization Kochanska (1997). Method The Present study is based on the data collected from my own daughter from 4+, a native speaker of Persian language, covered during normal language acquisition environment at home. In order to minimize the subjective influence to creep an observation, all efforts were made to attain objectivity. It rather turned out to be a convenience in disguise as data could more easily be video recorded in a natural set up. Collection of Data The data were collected on a Sony camcorder. The camera was so naturally used that most of the time, the child would not even be aware of the recording being done. Hence, successful recording of data of childs intention in to communicate the early childhood discourse, particularly the data pertaining to the arguments between the mother and the child in a relaxed but natural and real live situations of mother-child, father-child and child - child communicative intention where the child intend to do communicative act. Experimental Setting and Tools Different situations with a strong potential for negotiations, were conceptualized and presented to the child in the natural home environment through different episodes, each episode 345

consisting of an average 20 minutes. Most of the communications in such situations of the mother-child discourse happen to be in terms of: 1. Play situations involving some kinds of puzzles etc. 2. Reading story books. 3. Watching movies. These conversations consist of nearly 1500 utterances OBSERVATIONS AND DISCUSSIONS After collection of the videotaped data with a camcorder, the first step in isolating data for analysis was to locate sequences between the mother and the child. It involved identification and marking of an initiating move followed by a protest or countering move of some form. Nonverbal as well as verbal moves thus recognized as concluded in the data. The first round in a comunication, it was found, had established the topic or the theme with discussions developing further in the ways which were to be described or terminated without further interactions. The categories as finally identified, are listed below in order of their relative frequency of occurrence, along with some examples of the opening sequence which would illustrate each type. It was taken care of that when utterances appeared not to be idiomatic they had been produced by the non English speaker and thus needed to the recognized separate from the target data in Persian and hence needed to be represented in translation. 1- Play situation Ch: na No maamaan mother, omaa. you.

M:

and umad? how many come.

What is the number? Ch: M: , , , , ,

i taa boro jolo. go front. )Continued the play( M: ki bord? dobaare who won? again who do baare maamaan again mother again. na. No,. please maamaan, please mother, ni ni maar please. please. biyaaram un 346 man balad ki bord? won? dobaare.

Ch:

M:

Ch:

Ch:

sting

sting

snake bring pro. suf. 1st. sg that

know

nistam ino man baladam. neg. mkr. am pro. suf. 1st. sg

this

know pro. suf. 1st. sg

Shall I bring snake & steps (name of a puzzle )? I dont know that. I know this me. She wants to play a game with her mother. During the game she learns from mother that how many person requires for the game once how the game should be started and proceed. It is about learning how to count the numbers, select the color that she likes, and to select different color for different people whom they are playing. Since the game is new to her, she wants her mother to start it. So she starts the game with little confidence and slowly, slowly she learns how to play and she reaches in the position that she wants to win and that gives her a very good self confidence. Especially by mothers confirmation about childs won child becomes so happy. Ch: (She is laughing) bemor. . , , , count. 1, 2, 3, 4. Now she starts playing with her father. M: This is also a new game to child. Even the naming of the game which refers by the child it is absolutely related to the way of playing not its real name. Mother explains how to play and they start. Then she explains the way of playing to her father and exactly in the same way that mother explained it but in a simple way and not a complex utterances which an adult uses. However she does her best effort to coincide her sentences and mothers. But rejecting father regarding play the game she cries, but mother control the situation and doesnt allow her to cry more by playing the game with her. Finally father will be in the game and they play together. However it is very late and the child knows that it is time to drink a glass of milk and go to sleep. She refuses to drink milk but they remind her that a good girl will be awarded by a toy, then she agrees to take her milk. She is counting the days and with the help of mother she understands the meaning of getting closer day by day to a particular day which is Christmas here. Then she questions mother about her information and what she said is right or wrong. Infact a kind of confirmation about what she learned during this motherchild interaction. It is the same case which has been told earlier. It is review of her knowledge on that time. Only there is a different with the earlier case and this time the child shows more confidence regarding the matter she know it very much better than earlier. She shows it while explaining to mother by saying that each day ends to the night and then next day starts. Father-Child Communication Some studies are the first to document reliably that fathers and children experience more communicative breakdowns than mothers and children. In the current study, fathers requested clarification of the childs utterance proportionally more than twice as often as mothers. Presumably, these requests result in most cases from a comprehension failure. Also consistent with this conclusion is the finding of this study that mothers tend to use more specific requests for clarification that involve the repetition of a part of the childs utterance (which requires comprehension), while fathers tend to request clarification in a nonspecific manner. It is equally important that, proportionally speaking, fathers fail to 347

acknowledge their childs utterance when it would have seemed appropriate to respond almost twice as often as mothers. Presumably, many of such breakdowns and nonacknowledgements emerge from comprehension failure. And we would like to emphasize the importance of including non-acknowledgements in our concept of communicative breakdown because implicit breakdowns such as these may be just as important in signaling to the child that adjustments are needed as are the more obvious explicit breakdowns signaled by such requests for clarification. Children utterance more often repeat for their fathers when they fail to acknowledge their intent than they do for their mothers in the same situation. This would seem to be inconsistent with the findings of Tomasello and his colleagues who found that children repeated more for their mothers and less for a stranger (unfamiliar adult) when presented with nonspecific requests for clarification (Tomasello et al., 1983; Tomasello, 1990). In the data presented here the results are not the same as in the work done earlier but certainly point out a communication breakdown as more often prevalent in the father-child dyad and the result is the childs crying. Most of the time the situation is regulated by the mother through her inference. According to Parpal and Maccoby (1985) even the situationally induced maternal responsiveness to child tends to result in childs cooperation with mother while mother uses the sensitive maternal feeling for her child in a natural interaction. It has been pointed out that the early conscience development demonstrate different correlates including the specific correlates of maternal references to feelings and moral evaluatives. It is also found that a warm and supportive mother is more cooperative and crucial in her role in the childs communication development Dunn (1987). Assumptions postulated at the outset of this study thus stand vindicated. F: dolfin ke dolfin that paa leg nadaare. neg. pro. suf. 3rd. sg

Dolfin doesnt have legs. Ch: F: sg Dolfin can swim in the sea. The child is watching the movie. She heard the story before watching the movie. Whatever she doesnt understand she asks mother. Mother asks her that which character is good and which one is bad. She answers that sea witch is bad because she disturbs melody. M: bisto aahaar. and 24 Ch: bisto panj 25 In the case of movies are absolutely new to her and she doesnt have any idea about it therefore comparing to the movies which mother read its story book earlier, she has a shortage of ideas. This can be a reason she cant answer some mothers question and she cant understand some parts of movie as well. dolfin? dolfin mitune tuye daryaa enaa kone. dolfin prog. mkr. can pro. suf. 3rd. sg inside sea

swim do pro. suf. 3rd.

348

Going out for boating: She goes to boating and feeds the ducks. Meanwhile there is a comparison between the situation and the story book (ugly duckling) which she heard before. For example the duck which stayed alone she gives the resemblance of ugly duckling only there is one different between the story book and the situation which is swan. She tries to find a swan according to the story book but mother explains that. Swan is not available here, these are geese. Still she has got some idea about goose with the help of a movie. So she starts to repeat the same sentence that geese were talking on that movie (name as Aristocats). She watches a movie, she cant understand it so she changes it. In the case of watching movie, child prefers to watch a movie which she heard its story before. Reading story books: There are different story books which mother reads for the child. Mother asks questions about the story sometimes child answers and sometime child doesnt understand answering them. Sometimes it is about the good and bad character of the book and childs opinion about those. Playing with blocks: Child offers to play with her puzzles and blocks for making a house and a train. She takes a permission from mother. While she is making a house there are some questions and answer series. Some of those are not understandable by child so she cant answer her mother only she looks at her. For example the word divaar wall is not familiar to her but after mother says the word she repeats wall. She makes the house for her dolls according to her choice and the knowledge she has from the house (for e.g. making a candle stand). But she doesnt feel that stairs are necessary for the house. She tells father it doesnt need stairs, because they are leaving inside the house and she doesnt make them. But she is clear about the size for instance the house is so small for her and father it is only for dolls. Meanwhile she doesnt accept fathers interference in the game. Child and mother are working on an activity book. There is not so much interest through activity book. The reason is that the child feels so sleepy because it is very late. Both mother and father tell her to go to sleep and she refuses till fathers order the child and this is a time for child to listen to her adult. General discussion: Research on adult child interactions has revealed differences between spontaneous conversations between adults and children in informal situations and more formal conversations in situational contexts. They are found to employ the reason owing best in conversations within a frame of familiarity: familiar people, familiar circumstances, familiar subjects Elbers (1991). The point is not so much relevant because these persons help them particularly, but because their partners in conversation share both the motive of the interaction and the background knowledge. Establishment of mutual interest and mutual understanding and childrens awareness of the fact that they will be helped if necessary, their reasoning is often valid and adequate (Wells, 1983; Tizard and Hughes, 1984; Elbers, 1991). However, this development can generally be summarised as follows. Early on we find elementary adult child and child child dialogues. The adult child dialogues have the features which have been discussed above: the adult, if necessary, speaks for the child and helps the child to be a partner in the conversation. Gradually, specialized discursive genres tend to differentiate themselves from such elementary dialogues, such as storytelling and reason by argument. As children begin to participate in contexts outside the home, they get introduced to new genres which belong to these 349

Conversational Asymmetry 209 contexts. Children ultimately acquire a variety of dialogue patterns, some informal and some formal and linked to institutional contexts Elbers (2004). Watching Movie Watching the cartoons takes the child to the wolrd of her imagination. She learns lexical items and uses them in specific situations around herself e.g. in boating she repeats the utterance that has just been used by the geese,We are not swans, we are geeseand she repeats it for her father to make him understand better. She learns that fish has fin not feet and she also learns the word nok beak. There are some Q-A happenings during the episode of watching the movie. These help the child develop her lexical items and use them in her routine life. Previous research has only shown that movie can be used for evaluating the childs judgment. It has been used as an instrument to show that childs moral judgment is intentional or not. It has not been noticed as a source for childs lexical development. It works its best specially when the child heard the specific story first and then see the movie. The data presented and examined here shows that the child tries to see the movie as she has heard its story before. In spite of her fathers insistence for something else, she prefers to select the familiar movie to such works. Out of an array of diverse CDs of cartoon movies, she is given the freedom to choose any one. Even she sees the new one but her mind has no idea about it so that she refuses to continue watching the movie or at the beginning she says no to her father insisits for a new movie. The child is sometimes not able to understand the movie and she says I dont like this. Therefore story book can unfold a fairly comprehensive and imaginative a base and background for the pre school child to understand and follow the same picture. In fact she can imagine and see all the personalities presented by the book come alive teach her different social behaviours and which have not been mentioned in previous studies. The question and answer during the story in the motherchild discourse helps the child to imagine the situation and also helps her for her negotiations and discussions about the situation. For instance when the child goes out for an outing in a boat she has a picture of duck in her mind based on the ugly duck duckling in her story book. She thus tends to use her knowledge for the situation. She seeks for the specific duck that she heard in her story book and refers to that duck which stands alone in the corner and can be matched to that specific personality in her story book. In an answer to the mothers question,Do you think that is the ugly duckling,she answers,Yes! Because she is aloneor referring a stone to the egg since birds are sitting on the stone and the shape of the particular stone is almost like an egg. Search of a child for swan on the lake because that specific duck will change to the swan and according to the story and childs imagination the lake cant be without swan. She insists her mother but as they find no swan there. Using the dialogue she heard in a movie as well as a story about the geese and believing that geese can speak English because she heard in the movie and her story book, the English sentences by them and she explains it to her father. Either in boating or in outing to a park and watching the ducks swimming all are a reminder of the story book for her. CONCLUSION The present study has made an exploratory psycholinguistic inquiry into childrens intentional development in a wide spectrum of interactional discourse covering the motherchild, father-child and child-child interactions. In a free flow dialogue situation, the conversation shows to be more real and as such it involves the daily routine interaction between child and her parents. Usually such studies 350

in a contextual set organized for data collection more often depend on the parents who tend to put more effort to pool data from the child. This, however, has not happened in this study. The usefulness of book reading also turns out to support that the experience with books functions as an additional facilitator to the child for language acquisition. Book reading happens to be an ideal routine for language learning that has already been well documented (Wells, 1983, Snow & Ninio, 1986 & Sorsby and Martlew, 1991). Watching a movie, specially the one whose story the child has heard before appears to be a big source of language acquisition. It provides utterances to the child to enable her use them in her social life in situations with analogical similarity. The child more often tends to imitate the utterances used by a character in the movie of this investigation. It emerges as a significant observation with related to role of movie in childs language development. Since in previous research, they used movie for the scaling of intentional evaluation of child. A breakdown of communication is more often the father-child dyad and it often culminates in the childs crying. According to Parpal & Maccoby (1985) even the situationally induced maternal responsiveness to child leads to childs cooperation with mother if the mother happens to use the gamut of sensitive maternal feeling for her child in a natural interaction. Earlier studies, no doubt, have pointed out that the early conscience development has different correlates including the specific correlates of maternal references to feelings. It is also found that a warm and supportive mother tends to be cooperative and crucial by her role in the childs communication development (Dunn, 1987). Findings of the present study thus lend support to co-indicate the assumption postulated at the outset of the report. Findings show the childs less use of utterance while interacting with the peers of the same age group. This does not invariably culminate in a successful communication. Moreover, as they are of a younger age group and hence less experienced, they fail in their communication. The communicational intention thus develops with age. Taking out the child to the park or boating has always proved to be a very good opportunity for conversation that can potentially unfold the childs use of the new words she has learnt. In this respect, the study is in consonance with some strands of work in child language and discourse (Vygotsky, 1962, Wells, 1983, Olsen, 1983 & Snow and Mino, 1986). There are different situations where children are together and if they are in the same age group of 4+, 5+ their interactional discourse gives good insights into the nature of child discourse on the one hand and acquisition of intention to communicate on the other. They play with each other, draw, recite a song, make a house with black and white blocks feeding the sheep, etc. As they are younger the number of conversations is less and the number of conflicts between them is more. But as they grow, they provide evidence of more cooperation. They grow to have an effective conversation. However, our results also suggest that it is unrealistic to expect preschoolers to always engage in a cooperative dialogue during play, same as has been pointed out in the earlier studies (Schober-Peterson & Johnson, 1991). The present work, seeks to bring under focus the vast gamut of interactional child discourse the mother-child, the father-child, and the child-child interaction. Since each of these mutual relationships plays a key role in the development of intention to communicate in the pre school years. Refrences Anderson, E. (1986). Acquisition of register variation by Anglo-American children. In B. 351

Schieffelin and E. Oehs (Eds.), Language Socialization across Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bell, R. Q. (1968). A reinterpretation of the direction of effects in studies of socialization. Psychological Review, 75, 81-85. Belsky, J. (1984). The determinants of parenting: A process model. Child Development, 55, 83-96. Bowerman, M. (1976).Semantic factors in the acquisition of rules of word use and sentence construction. In D. Morehead (Eds.), Directions in Normal and Deficient Child Language. Baltimore: University Park Press. Braine, M. (1963). The ontogeny of English phrase structure: The first phase. Language, 39, 1-13. Braine, M. (1976). Childrens first word combinations. Monogr Social Research, Child Development, 41, 1. Brown, R. and Colin, F. (1964). The Acquisition of Syntax. Bellugiand Brown, 43-79. Brown, R. W. (1977). Induction. In C.E. Snow and C.A. Ferguson (Eds.), Talking to Children. Cambridge University Press. Bruner, J. (1978). The role of dialogue in language acquisition. In A. Sinclair, R. Jarvellaand W. Levelt (Eds.), The childs conception of language. New York: Springer-Verlag. Bruner, J. (1989). Childs talk: Learning to Use Language. New York: Norton. Bullowa, M. (1979). Children as Conversational Participants. In Myers (Ed.), 44-60. Chomsky, N. (1964). Formal Discussion, 35-9. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Clark, M. S. (1984). Record keeping in two types of relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 549-557. Dunn, J. (1987). The beginnings of moral understanding: Development in the second year. In Kagan, J.and Lamb, S. (Eds.), The Emergence of Morality in Young Children. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Elbers, E. (1991). The development of competence and its social context. Educational Psychology Review, 3, 7394. Elbers, E. (2004). Conversational asymmetry and the childs perspective in developmental and educational research. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 51, No. 2. Ferrier, L. (1978). Some observations of error in context. In N. Waterson and C. Snow (Eds.). The Development of Communication. London: Wiley. Garvey, C. (1974). Some properties of social play. Merill-Palmer Quarterly, 20, 163-80. Halliday, M. (1979). Development of Texture in Child Language. In Myers (Ed.), 72-87. Hickmann, M. (1966). Psychological aspects of language development. In P. Pletcherand M. Garman (Eds.), Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Hinde, R. A. (1992). Developmental Psychology in the context of other behavioral sciences. Developmental Psychology, 28, 1018-1029. Kochanska, G. (1997). Mutually responsive orientation between mothers and their young children: Implications for early socialization. Child Development, 68, 94-112. Lenneberg, E. (1967). Biological Foundations of Language. New York: Wiley. Lyons, J. (1979). Deixis and anaphora. In Myers (Ed.). 88-103. Maccoby, E. E. (1984). Socialization and developmental change. Child Development, 55, 317-328. Maccoby, E. E. (1992). The role of parents in the socialization of children: An historical overview. Developmental Psychology, 28, 1006-1017. 352

Maccoby, E. E. and Martin, J. A. (1983). Socialization in the context of the family: Parentchild interaction. In E. M. Hetherington (Ed.), P. H. Mussen (Series Ed,), Handbook of Child Psychology. Vol. 4. Socialization, Personality, and Social Development. Maratsos, M. P. and Chalkly, M. A. (1980). The internal language of childrens syntax: The ontogenesis and representation of syntactic categories. In K.E. Nelson (Ed.), Childrens Language. Vol. 2. New York: Gardner Press. McNeill, D. (1966). Developmental psycholinguistics. In (Ed.) F. Smithand G. A. Miller, The Genesis of Language, 15-84. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Myers, T. (Ed.). (1979). The Development of Conversation and Discourse. Edinburg: Edinburg University Press. Ninio, A. (1980). Picture book reading in mother-child days belonging to two subgroups in Israel. Child Development, 51, 587-90. Ninio, A. and Bruner, J. (1978). The achievement and antecedents of labelling. Journal of Child Language, 5, 1-15. Olsen, L. (1983). Informational functions of mother-child discourse: Knowing them when we see them. Journal of Child Language, 10, 223-229. Parpal, M. and Maccoby, E. E. (1985). Maternal responsiveness and subsequent child compliance. Child Development, 56, 1326-1334. Patternson, G. R., DeBaryshe, B. D. and Ramsey, E. (1989). A developmental perspective on antisocial behavior. American Psychologist, 44, 329-325. Ratner, N. and Bruner, J. S. (1978). Games, social exchange, and the acquisition of language. Journal of Child Language, 5, 391-402. Schober-Peterson, D. and Johnson, C. J. (1991). Non-dialogue speech during preschool interactions. Journal of Child Language, 18, 153-170. Sharma, R. C. (1990). Early Child discourse: Implications of genomic expressions. Paper read at National Seminar on Linguistics and Language Teaching, 16-18. Shatz, M. and McCloskey, L. (1984). Answering appropriately: A developmental perspective on conversational knowledge. In Kuczaj (Ed.), 19-36. Snow, C. E. and Goldfield, B. A. (1983). Turn the page please: Situation specific language accession. Journal of Child Language, 10, 551-570. Snow, C. E. and Ninio, A. (1986). The contexts of literacy: What children learn from leaning to read books. In W.H. Teale and E. Sulzby (Eds.), Emergent Literacy: Writing and Reading. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Snow, C. E., Aelman-Rup, A., Hassing, Y., Jobse, J., Joosten, J. and Vorstyer, J. (1976). Mothers speech in three social classes. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 5, 120. Snow, C. E., Dubber, C. and DeBlauw, A. (1981). Routines in parent child interaction. In L. Feagans and D. Farran (Eds), The Language of Children Reared in Poverty: Implications for Evaluation and Intervention. New York: Academic press. Sorsby, A. J. and Martlew, M. (1991). Representational demands in mothers talk to preschool children in two contexts: picture book reading and a modelling task. Journal of Child Language, 18, 373-395. Tizard, B. and Hughes, M. (1984). Young Children Learning: Talking and Thinking at Home and at School. London: Fontana. Tomasello, M. (1990). Cultural transmission in chimpanzee tool use and signalling. In S.T. Parker and k. Gibson (Eds.), In Language and Intelligence in Monkeys and Apes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tomasello, M., Farrar, J. and Dines, J. (1983). Young childrens speech revisions for familiar and an unfamiliar adult. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 27, 359363. 353

Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge: M. I. T. Press. Weir, R. H. (1962). Language in the Crib. The Hague: Mouton. Wells, G. (1983). Talking with children: The complementary roles of parents and teachers. In M. Donaldson, R. Grieveand C. Pratt (Eds.), Early Child Development and Education, 127150. Oxford: Blackwell.

354

Language Teacher Education in Brazil: Discourses of pre and in-service teachers Cristiane C. de Paula Brito Universidade Federal de Uberlndia (UFU) Brazil carvalhodepaula@yahoo.com Maria de Ftima F. Guilherme de Castro Universidade Federal de Uberlndia (UFU) Brazil fatimagc@terra.com.br Abstract This paper aims at discussing the results of research developed in Brazil in which we investigated pre and in-service teachers discourses concerning the relation they establish not only with their mother tongue (Portuguese) but also with English as a foreign language. In relation to the mother tongue, we analyzed the discourse of pre-service teachers throughout their graduation course in order to comprehend the conceptions they have about what it is to speak Portuguese well. We may say that there is a movement of acceptance-resistance of normative grammar and the desire of completeness and the perception of lack, as well as the construction of several dichotomies as a way to achieve the completeness of the language and of the knowledge. Concerning the foreign language, we investigated the constitutive representations of oral-enunciative competence (OEC) in English constructed by some Brazilian subjects when occupying distinct discursive places undergraduates (pre-service teachers) and graduates (in-service teachers) majoring/majored in Foreign Languages. Some findings of the study indicate that preservice teachers relation concerning their OEC in English is ruled by three representations: i) the OEC in English as lack; ii) the OEC in English as projection; iii) the OEC in English as exclusion. In-service teachers relation concerning their OEC in English is ruled by four representations: i) the OEC in English as lack; ii) the OEC in English as projection; iii) the OEC in English as reference; iv) resisting to the lack of OEC in English. The results of both research may contribute to Applied Linguistics, especially in the area of mother tongue and non-native English teacher education. Keywords: Applied Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Language Teacher Education. Introduction As language teachers educators in a federal university in Brazil, we have been interpellated by the discourses which are constructed by pre and in-service language teachers once they may affect their pedagogical practices. In relation to mother tongue pre-service teachers, we were interested in understanding the voices that constitute the discourse of these teachers when they enunciate about what it is to know Portuguese well. We specifically investigated if there were meaning movements and dislocations of these voices taking into consideration the term attended by pre-service teachers at the university. Concerning foreign language pre-service teachers, we have observed that these teachers, as undergraduate students of Foreign Language Courses, inscribe themselves in some discursive formations not only about their position of learners but also as future English teachers. So they assume their discursive places (Pcheux 1969/1990), that is, they inscribe themselves in a given ideological formation which is bounded to a diversity of discursive formations inscriptions. In Pcheuxs words (1975/1982:111), a discursive formation is 355

understood as that which in a given ideological formation, i. e., from a given position in a given conjuncture determined by the state of the class struggle, determines what can and should be said. When assuming the position of learners and future teachers, many are the discourses in which they inscribe themselves about the relation they have with the English language, more specifically, the relation they have with their oral-enunciative competence (OEC)34 in English. In this perspective, we question what would be the echoes of this relation in their professional life; which would be the relations that could be established between the graduation moment (pre-service teachers)35 and the moment of their professional life (inservice teachers), some years after majoring in English at the university. Both research were developed in an inter/transdisciplinary approach that involves Applied Linguistics (AL) and French Discourse Analysis (FDA). They were developed in a qualitative perspective in which we analyzed the data by describing and interpreting the subjects speech, that is, when they enunciated about what it is to speak Portuguese well and when they enunciated about their OEC in English. When analyzing the data, we tried to see the enunciators as discursive subjects who speak from a social-historical-ideological determined place (undergraduates and graduates), we described and interpreted their speech taking into consideration that the production of meanings is taken as part of their social activities and constructed under specific conditions of production of discourse. Literature Review The literature in the area of Applied Linguistics has shown that Language Teachers Education has been studied in different contexts and from different theoretical and methodological approaches. The origin of Language Teacher Education research started in the 90s of the XX century, when, according to Gil (2005), interaction in the classroom became the object of study in the area of language teaching-learning process. Such research found out some existing lacks in pre and in-service teachers education. Therefore teacher education became the focus of investigation which led Applied Linguistics to work in an inter/transdisciplinary approach. Some of the research developed investigated teacher education under the light of different theories (FULLAN, 1997; GIROUX, 1988; FREEMAN and RICHARDS, 1996; RICHARDS & NUNAN, 1990; PENNYCOOK, 1990; SCHN, 1987; SMYTH, 1987, 1992; CELANI, 2001, 2004). In both research presented here, from a theoretical-methodological inscription in the studies of discourse, we try to look at teacher education so that we might make Language Teacher Education problematic. That means questioning the positivist and hegemonic conception of language conceived as transparent to the subject and the conception of subject conceived as being unique, rational, autonomous, owner of his words and capable of acting and thinking out of his historicity. In short, we try to question some issues concerning the social-historical-ideological aspects that permeate the (conflicting) relation of the subject with the mother and foreign languages he learns and teaches.

34

Oral-enunciative competence (OEC) in English is, in this study, understood as a competence which is desired by the non-native speaker as enunciator in another language, as this subjects capacity of establishing an interlocution with other subject(s), constructing meanings, enunciating and understanding, that is, attributing meanings to other speakers enunciations in another language. 35 Pre-service teachers: undergraduate students; in-service teachers: graduate students who become language teachers.

356

Mother Tongue Research Methodology From 2005 to 2007, we collected answers given by pre-service language teachers to the questions What is it to know Portuguese well? and Do you think you know Portuguese well? These questions were answered throughout different disciplines attended by the teachers in a Brazilian federal university. The students were majoring in Portuguese and Foreign Languages (English and French). In fact, pre-service language teachers were asked to respond to a questionnaire of 22 questions related to general aspects of their language teacher course (the reason, for instance, why they were taking the course) as well as to specific aspects of their objects of study (Mother and Foreign Languages and Literature). From a question posed in our questionnaire (Do you think the Language Course changed your way of considering the language, the teaching of languages (mother or foreign ones) etc? Comment on that), we realized that a very relevant aspect in the discourse of these pre-service language teachers was that their relation with the knowledge of their mother tongue (in our case, Brazilian Portuguese) was based on the relation they had with normative grammar. Thus, we found it appropriate to analyze the conflict between the constitutive knowledge of the subjects (built before they started taking the Language Course) and the knowledge they came to be aware of within the course. We investigated the clash of two main voices that we called here: the voice of the language-user-subject-position and the voice of the pre-service-language-teacher-subjectposition. The former refers to the discursive place of the subject who was not exposed to the legitimated knowledge of the language (currently represented by disciplines such as Linguistics, Applied Linguistics and others that may be considered the Science of Language). The latter regards the position of the subject who is continuously exposed to discourses of language learning and teaching, once he is attending a Language Teacher Education Course.

Findings and Discussion in the Mother Tongue Research After a previous reading of the answers to the question What is it to know Portuguese well?, we established three linguistic marks that, in our view, show the clash of these two main voices. They are: (i) linguistic marks that show opposition; (ii) linguistic marks that show quantification; and (iii) expressions such as know/comprehend/understand/analyze the language. Among the first one linguistic marks that show opposition we found, in the answers, the use of clauses with adversative and concessive value as well as the use of the negative adverb not, usually associated with another adverb with an additive value, such as: it is not only / it is not just / it is not necessarily to know grammar rules, but also Let us observe the example below from a participant who was in his third year of the course: To know Portuguese well means understanding the language in its social aspects and know how to use it in an appropriate and convenient way; that is, it is not to have a memorized grammar in the tip of the tongue, this is not essential. We can notice that, in the surface of the answer, there is a voice which apparently is denied or ignored. This voice, which is already consolidated in the discourse of the subject, shows the opposition between the knowledge of the language-user-subject-position and the voice of the pre-service-language-teacher-subject-position. In other words, we see that the previous knowledge of the subject may be questioned in its status, but it is never 357

eliminated or fully erased. In this sense, knowing Portuguese well still means to know normative grammar or to master grammar rules; however it means something more than that. Thus, the use of these marks allied to the discourse of linguistic appropriateness works to lighten the place of normative grammar. For the second marks, the ones that express quantification, we highlighted the expressions that, in a certain way, indicate some measure of knowledge, or the belief that there is totality in terms of language. So here we included linguistic marks such as as much as possible, at least partially, everything, all, master, correct/correctly, totally, complete, as we see in this example of a subject in his first year: To know how to write correctly the most as possible, to know how to speak, with all the regionalism, and above all, its to respect and not criticize those people who dont know. In the speech of this subject, one can only speak or write correctly within the limit of the linguistic diversity, once the discursive position he occupies would impose the impossibility of assuming the discourse of speaking correctly or mastering the language absolutely. Nevertheless, if it is not possible to reach the totality of the normative grammar, it is expected that one may master all the regionalism, as if it was something possible. Hence, according to what this subject says, knowing Portuguese well would be mastering the normative grammar until the limits established by the linguistic theories. Finally, among the third linguistic marks expressions such as know/comprehend/understand/analyze the language we considered the answers in which the subjects explicitly appear to assume the perspective of analysts of the language by the use of verbs such as know, explain, understand, (not)judge. From this view, to know Portuguese well would be knowing the linguistic norms, understanding the existence of the linguistic varieties, and comprehending that there are some appropriate contexts to use a determined variety of the language. That is what we can notice in this example from a subject in the last year of his course: To know Portuguese well is to understand the reason of the language of a farmer in the countryside of the Northeast for example without underestimating him for not knowing the pattern language for example. The subject puts himself in the position of a scientist: the one who, according to the image consolidated in the common sense, looks at an object of study from the outside and aims at investigating the facts impartially. As a scientist he should not judge something by saying if it (in this case, the language) is right or wrong. He should only observe, analyze, comprehend a supposed reality with neutrality. The position of the scientist is also the place of the rational cartesian-logic subject, the one who sees himself as able to categorize and establish dichotomies such as the ones who know x the ones who do not know the language or the appropriate use x the inappropriate use of the language, for instance. For the analyst-scientist-teacher, the farmer in the countryside of the Northeast or the speaker who does not master the pattern of the language should be respected, for they produce meaning through the language and would have therefore the right to speak the way they do. However, in discursive terms, they are placed in a position of inferiority, a position that is not occupied by the pre-service language teacher as he would know (or would have) the legitimate language. After the partial analyzes of our corpus, we found it interesting to request another question which had not been posed in the questionnaire. The question Do you think you know Portuguese well? was asked during an exam and it enabled us to investigate the 358

conceptions our subjects have concerning their mother tongue when they were explicitly solicited to talk about their relation to this language. A very regular meaning that we observed in these answers refers to what we may call the discourse of lack: it appears that the subjects are interpellated to justify the knowledge they say they have (or do not have), as if they were in a continuous relation of debt to the language, and, more specifically, to the normative grammar. In the linguistic materiality of the answers, we are able to notice the use of conditional, adversative and concessive clauses and also the use of negative words in order either to introduce the voice that questions the assertion that the subject knows Portuguese or to justify his affirmation of not knowing it. Let us see some fragments from the answers: Looking at the side of the normative grammar, I can say I dont know Portuguese very much... (from a subject in the first year) Yes, because although I dont write according to normative grammar... (from a subject in the first year) What I dont know well is the Portuguese idealised by normative grammars(from a subject in the second year) I dont fully master what is established by the social standard dialect. (from a subject in the third year)

If, on the one hand, the grammar establishes the perception of lack in the subject, on the other, the linguistic theories, allied to the pedagogical discourse, appear to fulfill this gap. The linguistic theories would support the subject by providing him with the discourse of the importance of communication, whereas the pedagogical discourse would do it by emphasizing the importance of continuous improvement, as we see in the following examples: From the point of view of traditional grammar I dont know Portuguese well, as I dont master the rules imposed by this grammar. From the point of view of the Linguistics, I think I master Portuguese well, as I can deal well with the communicative situation in which Im exposed. (from a subject in the second year) ... I think I need to study the structure of the language deeply, analyze the linguistic facts in a broader way... Im aware that I need to get better, but Im making some effort... (from a subject in the second year) We believe that the clash of voices can be seen in the necessity the subjects have of justifying themselves in relation to the normative grammar, as if they had to pay a debt or compensate a lack that cannot be erased once it constitutes them.

Foreign Language Research Methodology In 1997 we collected data in a federal university in Brazil in the context of university conversation classes of English and the subjects were majoring in Foreign Languages. In 2005 we collected data in the several contexts experienced after graduation when they interacted in English. Concerning the data collected in 1997, we studied how eighteen subjects represented their OEC in English and that of their classmates in the context of university conversation classes of English and how these representations were translated into their learning

359

experiences. The corpus was constituted by an open questionnaire in which they evaluated their OEC in English and that of their classmates. In relation to the data collected in 2005, we studied how eleven of these same subjects represented their OEC in English and that of their interlocutors in the several contexts experienced after graduation and how these representations were translated into the English teaching experiences in the different educational contexts. The corpus was constituted by a questionnaire based on AREDA (Anlise de Ressonncias Discursivas em Depoimentos Abertos) developed by Serrani-Infante (1998a, 1998b), which is an instrument that aims at analyzing the functioning of discursive resonances in the construction of representations of identification processes which are present in the process of enunciation of bi/multilingual subjects. According to the author, discursive resonance is conceived as a mutual semantic vibration which has the tendency of constructing, in the intradiscourse, the reality of a meaning. She understands that discursive analysis can contribute to the language teaching-learning area as it tries to understand the incidence of discursive factors in the process of enunciation in a foreign language. Findings and Discussion in the Foreign Language Research Some findings of the study indicate that, in 1997, the participants relation concerning their OEC in English is ruled by three (3) representations: 1) the OEC in English as lack; 2) the OEC in English as projection; 3) the OEC in English as exclusion. When the OEC in English is represented as lack, five (5) instances of manifestation could be detected in which they inscribe themselves: a) in the lack of vocabulary (I feel like taking part, but I do not speak, because I lack the words, my vocabulary is too small), which leads them to produce a discourse that oscillates between the contingency of lacking the systemic knowledge of the language and the desire of constituting subjects in this language; b) in the absence of speaking (I feel like speaking English, //, but when I have to speak I feel as if I were blocked and my voice does not come out), by obliterating themselves as subjects of discourse in the face of the interpellation that compels them to constitute subjects by this way of speaking; c) in the lack of speaking right, spontaneously (Sometimes I am afraid of speaking because I do not know if what I am going to say is really correct), when they silence their condition of subjects who enunciate with an incomplete enunciative-linguistic competence; d) in the incompleteness (I speak very little /.../ In my opinion, I should break this ice and let myself go), when the participants constitute English speaking subjects by the others who are those that able to constitute themselves as subject of their discourses in a way that is impossible for them; e) in the illusion of completeness (I always feel comfortable and secure to take part in the classes //), when they forget the conflicting and tense relation they have with their lacunary and limited English language condition. When the OEC in English is represented as projection, three (3) instances of manifestation could be delineated when they represent their classmates as those: a) who have a superior OEC in English. That makes them link their competence to the image they construct to the other classmates competence (The inscription in the asymmetry of/in the other: Some students are more advanced and they also dominate English more than the others and somehow that makes me feel inhibited); b) who help and encourage them, that is, they create an image in order to erase the conflicts that are inherent to their own constitution as subjects who orally enunciate in

360

English (The inscription in the interlocution of/in the other: My classmates help me take part in the classes very much /.../); c) who experience similar problems, i. e., they establish an alterity relation in which identification with the other is pointed out in the enunciative process and consequently they silence their condition of subjects who enunciate with an incomplete enunciative-linguistic competence (The inscription in the identification of/in the other ([My classmates] seem to have difficulties which are similar to mine). When the OEC in English is represented as exclusion, it was interpreted in a single instance (Dealing with the ghost of exclusion: I feel embarrassed when I try to express with the little I know. Some classmates seem not to understand me or look at me in an unequal way as if they asked: What is this girl doing here?). In this case, alterity enunciative mechanisms of discursive-linguistic inscription in English also prevail. The participants, when representing their OEC in English as lack, projection and exclusion reveal they are permanently in the search of reaching an idealized and desirable OEC in English. When analyzing the production of discourses in 2005, four (4) representations could be outlined: 1) the OEC in English as lack; 2) the OEC in English as projection; 3) the OEC in English as reference; 4) resisting to the lack of OEC in English. When the OEC in English is represented as lack, two (2) instances of manifestation could be detected: 1) lack of the past; 2) lack of the present. The first one is constituted by three (3) sub-instances: i) before graduation (I started to develop mechanisms of resistance); ii) during graduation (When I was in college I think I was afraid of speaking, I think my great insecurity was to speak); iii) after graduation/starting to work as an English teacher (The school principal took a text and asked me to read it to see my pronunciation). We can observe that in these three sub-instances the participants constitute subjects of/in the English language by the experiences they shared with the others (classmates, teachers, school masters) in different historical moments of their lives. The second one is constituted by six (6) sub-instances: i) lack of pronunciation (My goodness! But its not possible that after so many years Im learning this is how I have to speak); ii) lack of fluency (We really would like to be fluent in English); iii) lack of enlarging vocabulary (I wish I could know all the vocabulary the native speaker knows); iv) lack of listening more and better (I have to listen more often, to be in a greater contact with the listening in order to train my ears); v) lack of speaking more (Speaking itself,...,I do not talk to anyone in English); vi) lack of an experience abroad (I believe that this can make a great difference for us who work with English); All these six sub-instances allow us to state that the lack became part of their constitution as non-native English speakers since the remaining constitution of their anteriority traverses their practice and continues working as a reference for them. When the OEC in English is represented as projection, as well as in 1997, three (3) instances of manifestation could be identified in which they inscribe themselves: a) in the asymmetry of the other (I wish I could speak as a native speaker); b) in the interlocution of/in the other (Ah, you really know how to speak English!); c) in the identification of/in the other (I believe that speaking is the greatest difficulty not only for me but for all the people who learn English). 361

When the OEC in English is represented as reference, representations were analyzed in two (2) instances: a) the OEC in English as fundamental to the teacher (I believe this would be something indispensable to a teacher). In this case, they silence the place and role of the other abilities (listening, reading and writing) in their in-service practice; b) the OEC in English as fundamental in the teaching-learning process (In the first day of class I speak English), what reveals that they deny their students constitution in the foreign language and they also deny the mother tongue as a founding part of their students discourses. When they inscribe in the resistance to the lack of OEC in English: a) they deny the lacks that constitute them and resist to them by representing the inservice practice as a space of apprenticeship (My learning itself was in the classroom, after graduation). They represent such practice not only as a space of learning English but also as the space of learning how to teach it. They also represent their pre-service education as non-determinant in their English teacher constitution. b) they deny, forget and silence these lacks by inscribing themselves in the process of citizenship (I like being an English teacher a lot because I see some students learning with me). In their subject constitution as English users/learners/teachers they are interpellated by the place the foreign language occupies in their social formation; c) they deny, forget and silence these lacks by inscribing themselves in the desire of persisting (I do not intend to abandon education, but I intend to fight for it), that is, they inscribe themselves in the desire of persevering in the job as an English teacher. This inscription reveals subjects who are interpellated by the language and use it as an element of resistance to exercise their places in the discursive universes they take part in. Conclusion At the end of this paper, we are interested in discussing and reflecting about the relevance of our research to Applied Linguistics, especially in the area of Language Teacher Education. Taking our analyzes into consideration, we argue that there is a discursive memory concerning the normative aspect of the mother language which constitutes the discourse of pre-service language teachers and which cannot be eliminated. There is indeed a space of interdiction for these subjects. In other words, as pre-service language teachers, they are surrounded by speeches, knowledges and conflicting voices. In the attempt to articulate the various images which take place in the discourse36, these subjects evocate non-coincident voices, which reveal contradictory knowledges and conceptions about what it is to know Portuguese well. Despite being affected by the place from where the subjects enunciate as we can see by their appropriation of linguistic theories they still consolidate, in their discourses, dichotomic relations concerning the concept of language. We may, for instance, notice the dichotomization between colloquial/regional language x formal language; written x oral language; unity x diversity, in which only one of the sides is privileged. The participants of the foreign language research enunciate the dispersion and the lack of unity, that is, multiple voices can be heard when they enunciate about their OEC in English. By enunciating from the discursive places instituted in both discursive events (1997 and 2005), pre and in-service teachers signify representations under singular
36

The image they have concerning the knowledge of the language, the institution, the experts of the area and the society. The image they construct about the images others have about them as pre-service language teachers.

362

conditions of production but which are linked to the same becoming process: the idealized OEC in English which is constituted by the discursive practices that are inherent to each period. We believe that the results presented here may contribute to Applied Linguistics to the extent it reveals the necessity of examining the discourses that are produced and that circulate in pre and in-service educational contexts and the impacts of these discourses in Teacher Education. The theoretical notions from Discourse Analysis in an interdisciplinary approach to Applied Linguistics may contribute to Language Teacher Education for they assume that learning and teaching is more than a matter of good or efficient strategies and methodologies. It is indeed a process of discursive filiations which are built through movements of identification with determined discourses that, for unknown and unpredictable reasons, interpellate and capture the subjects. References CELANI, M. A. A. (2001). Ensino de Lnguas Estrangeiras: Ocupao ou Profisso? In: V. Leffa (Org.) O Professor de Lnguas Estrangeira: Construindo a Profisso. Pelotas: EDUCAT. 21-40. _____. (2004). Culturas de Aprendizagem: Risco, Incerteza e Educao. In: M. C. C. Magalhes (Org.) A formao do professor como um profissional reflexivo. Campinas: Mercado de Letras. 135-160. FREEMAN, D. & RICHARDS, J. (1996). Teacher learning in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. FULLAN, M. (1997). Broadening the concept of teacher leadership. In: S. CALDWELL (Org.) Professional Development in Learning-centered Schools. OH: National Staff Development Council, 34-48. GIL, G. (2005). Mapeando os estudos de formao de professores de lnguas: contribuies da Lingstica Aplicada. In: FREIRE, M.; ABRAHO, M. H. V. & BARCELOS, A. M. F. (Orgs.) Lingstica Aplicada e Contemporaneidade. So Paulo: ALAB, 173-182. GIROUX, H. A. (1988). Teachers as intellectuals. Nova York: Bergin & Garvey Publishers. RICHARDS, J. C. & NUNAN, D. (1990). (Orgs.). Second Language Teacher Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PCHEUX, M. (1969). Automatic Discourse Analysis. In: T. Halk and N. Helsloot (Ed.) Michel Pcheux Automatic Discourse Analysis. Rodopi:Amsterdam Atlanta, GA. 63-121. 1990. _____. (1975). Language, Semantics and Ideology: Stating the Obvious. Translated by Harbans Nagpal. Hong Kong: The Macmillan Press LTD. 1982. PENNYCOOK, A. (1990). Critical Pedagogy and Second Language Education. System, 18/3, 303-314. SCHN, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. SMYTH, J. (1987). Educating Teachers. Changing the nature of pedagogical knowledge. London: The Falmer Press. _________. (1992). The teachers work and the politics of reflection. American Educational Research Journal, v. 29 (2), 267-300. SERRANI-INFANTE, S. M. (1998a). Identidade e segundas lnguas: as identificaes no discurso. In: I. SIGNORINI (Org.) Lngua(gem) e Identidade Elementos para uma discusso no campo aplicado. Campinas: Mercado de Letras. 231-261.

363

_____. (1998b). Abordagem transdisciplinar da enunciao em segunda lngua: a proposta AREDA. In: I. SIGNORINI & M. C. CAVALCANTI (Orgs), Lingstica Aplicada e Transdisciplinaridade. Campinas: Mercado de Letras. 143-167.

364

The Interface between Morphology and Pragmatics in Persian Affixes and Clitics Mojdeh Salavati Department of Linguistics, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Salavati89@gmail.com Neda Hedayat Department of Language, Varamin Pishva Branch, Islamic Azad University, Varamin, Iran nhedayatins@yahoo.com Abstract The present article seeks to study the interrelationship between pragmatics and morphology, which is called morphopragmatics. First, the interface between pragmatics and morphology has been discussed in some languages. Then, some inflectional and derivational affixes and clitics which convey a contextual meaning in Persian have been represented. In addition to their syntactic function, some of these affixes have pragmatic implications. In a number of cases, however, the affixes are determined just by pragmatic factors. In other words, they have no syntactic functions. Keywords: pragmatics, morphopragmatics, Inflectional affix, derivational affix, clitics Introduction Before we deal with morphopragmatics, it is necessary to define morphopragmatics. It can be defined as the functional perspective on language. It is about using of language in different situation which contains: (i)time , location, social setting and participants ,roles, on the one hand and (ii) the interlocutors, strategies, plans, goals, and intention on the other.(i) may be related to speech situation and (ii) as speech event(Dressler and Merlini-Barbaresi, 1993:3-4). Morphopragmatics is in fact the study of reciprocal relation between morphology and pragmatics. The morphology which is related pragmatically to word structure (affix, clitics ) that can indicate speech situation and/or speech event. Morphopragmatics is different from syntactic pragmatics (e.g. case and plural marking) and lexical pragmatics (like complex form in German e.g. dorthinein in there). Morphology include two parts: Grammatical morphology is rule-governed, and is thus part of grammar and Extragrammatical morphology does not obey the rule of grammar. The second is related to expressive morphology(Zwicky and Pullum, 1987;Dressler and Merlini-Barbaresi, 1993: 23-6). Both of them may be pragmatically relevant, but in the case of extragrammatical morphology it is difficult while this is different with grammatical morphology in which the main question should be asked whether a morphological rule has pragmatic effects or not, and if so, which ones. A number of works on morphopragmatics deal with morphopragmatics under the heading of semantics (e.g. Wierzbica, 1983, 1984). Mey (1989) had worked on morphology and pragmatic, and have a brief survey of some morphological means for expressing power and solidarity. The next section contains two parts. In the first part we express the relationship between inflectional and derivational affixes and pragmatics in some languages, the second portion is introduced pragmatically derivational affix in some languages and the.

365

Literature Review (or Previous Research) Pragmatics and inflection Inflection has usually a syntactic function (e.g. person and number with affix) but in many cases it determined by pragmatic factors. In this part we introduce the affixes that are inflectional and affected by pragmatic factor. At the first we take examples in other languages and in the next section of paper we will focuse on Persian language . Case marking in Polish In Polish the nominative plural has several allomorphs whose usage depend on different factors. For example, human masculine nouns with a hard stem can take on the following endings:-I, -y, and -owie. The first ending is neutral; it has no pragmatic implications. The ending y, however, implies contempt, and the ending -owie importance or dignity. Some masculin nouns have choice between two or three of these endings. thus, fore instance, an inherently respectful word such as professor or astronom, which takes the y suffix, can be lowered to a neutral form such as profesorzy or astronomy, and jokingly even a contempyuous word such as lobuz rascal can be raised to a marked neutral form such as lobuzi, but not to respectful from such as *lobuzowie. Consequently, in addition to phonological and semantic factor, the choice of nominative plural depends on pragmatic factor, on the intention and goals of the speaker. (Kiefer, 2001: 273) Inflectional suffixes in Hungarian and stylistic layer The choice of inflectional suffix in this language may have stylistic consequences. The style of suffixes can range from substandard to formal. For instance, the first-person plural conditional has two variant for the definite conjugation ( ). The first variants is neutral ; the second one belong to the elevated style and can be used in an appropriate speech situation only. (Kiefer, 2001: 274) Inflectional suffixes as indicators of the speech event It is possible that the choice of one inflectional variant indicate the strength of illocutionary force. For example, in Hungarian some imperatives appear in two forms i.e., ad-d (give) and ad-jad, mond-d say and mond-jad, both second person singular imperative. Typically the shorter forms are used to issue stronger order , and the longer forms are preferred when the speaker wants to issue an attenuated order. (Kiefer, 2001: 274) Inflectional suffixes and honorifics in Japanese In Japanese, which have the most complex system of honorifics, some variants are because of morphology rather than to syntax. For instance; the sentence Here is a book are expressed in three ways: (i) kokoni hon ga aru, (ii) koko ni hon ga ari-masu, (iii) koko ni hon ga gozai masu ,(i) is the neutral form, (ii) is the polite and (iii) the super-polite variant(harada 1976:553-4). masu is an inflectional suffix, and gozai is suppletive form of the existential verb aru. The relevant speech situation may be analysed in terms of the speaker, the hearer, other participants, place, time, and topic (Dressler and MerliniBarbaresi, 1993: 48-51). It has been observed, for example, the femaile speakers use the polite masu form more than the mail speakers. In focusing on hearer, -masu forms are used with members of an out-group. In this case, television and radio speakers also, oral announcements in train and subway stations use these forms, because the addressees are considered to be members of an out-group. If the hearer has authority over the speaker (social status, power, age), the masu forms has to be used. In the case of place and time 366

must be said that it is relative to the situation of speech, in weddings and opening ritual the masu forms are used. Also the their topic is changed from personal items to business. (Kiefer, 2001: 274-5) Derivational morphology and pragmatics The derivational processes that affect the syntactic structures do not interface with pragmatics directly. Therefore, the causative and passive verbs derived from a verb stem, or verbal nouns could get some pragmatic meaning through syntactic structures. Morphopragmatics is not often applied to those derivational affixes that do not have an effect on syntax. Pragmatic effects can also be found in non-prototypical derivational affixes. In this part, we will discuss the interface of derivational affixes with pragmatics in some languages. The Japanese beautificational prefix Japanese has a derivational beautificational prefix o-, which is used to make speech softer and more polite (Harada, 1976: 504). For example, by using this prefix, an offer becomes more polite. (i) biira ikaya how about a beer? (ii)O-biira ikaga? Would you like some beer? Italian diminutives Italian has a considerable number of diminutive suffixes. The productive suffixes are ino, -etto, ello, (u)olo, -uccio/-uzzo, -otto, and -onzolo. For example: (i) film ______ film-ino (ii)verme worm _______ verm-etto Pragmatically, diminutives express an evaluation or judgment which depends on the speakers intentions, perspective and standards of evaluation. The use of the diminutive can be analyzed adequately in terms of (i) speech situations, (ii) speech acts, and (iii) regular factors such as playfulness, emotion, intimacy, understatement, modesty, euphemism, etc. (Kiefer, 2001: 276) Italian intensification (augmentatives) Intensification in Italian can be expressed by means of the suffix -one as in porta door _ port-one, mano hand _ man-one. Like diminutives, augmentatives indicate the fictiveness of the situation at hand. But, in contrast to the diminutive, where in most cases the semantic meaning of smallness is lost, the augmentative preserves the semantic feature of bigness. (Kiefer, 2001: 276). In other words, augmentatives indicate exaggeration and intensification.

Methodology Required data have been collected on this paper through the library methode i.e at the first, the issue has been studied in the articles and books about other languages and later studied in the Persian language. Findings and Discussion Inflectional affixes in Persian As in other languages, there are some inflectional affixes in Persian which are used to connote such pragmatic features as honorofics, exaggerate, humility and endearment. 367

Inflectional suffixes and honorifics in Persian The morphopragmatics is relative to inflectional suffixes which affect syntax. The pragmatic meanings of syntactic structure in sentences influence the meaning of individual words. Persian has strong verb inflection in which we can find the suffixes have pragmatic meaning. The endings of verb that agree with sunject is different between singular and plural. Normally,the suffix -nd is used with the plural subject or third person plural and the suffix -d is used with singular subject or third person singular . If the addressee has power then this suffix will be used with singular subject ( 3rd person singular) and show honorific in this language. In other words, in this case there is not any agreement between verb and subject (when subject has power). Now,look at the following examples: (i) )?qa -e modir amad-nd. Mr. head come-3rd person pl. The head comes. (ii)Pyambar-e akram farmud-nd. Holy prophet say-3rd person pl. The holy prophet comes. In the examples above, the endings of the verb do not agree with singular subjects ,but the sentences are well-formed. So, the social status (power) which is pragmatic factor affects inflectional affix in Persian so that the syntax structure dosen't obey the agreement and will be changed in term of the situation or the power of the subjects to the pragmatic meaning. Inflection, exaggerate and humility There is other type of verb inflection in Persian that has pragmatic meaning. In this case the verb (1st person singular) is used with the subject (1st person plural), i.e, there is no agreement between subject and verb ending but the sentence is well-formed and express the humility. When the addressee has high social status (For example teacher in the class), the speaker (with low status e.g, the student ) utilize the pronoun ma,(we) instead of mn (I) with the verb singular. In fact the speaker speaks about (herself/himself) but donot use pronoun I but rateher than we. (i) xanom mollem, ma soal-o Mrs. teacher, we question object marker Teacher, may I answer the question? jvab answer bed give -im? 1st plural

The other way of conveying the meaning of magnitude and dignity is talking about oneself, showing a little respect. Essentially, outstanding people use the pronoun ma we, and the plural form of the verb when they talk about themselves. In some verses of holy Koran, when God is the first speaker, he refers to himself as nhno we, instead of n I. It seems that these morphemes not only convey the concepts of magnitude and respect, but also indicate that God is totally comprehensive and controls the whole universe. First person plural pronoun is also used in the colloquial speech of low or low-mid class people when they are going to show off or magnify their personality. The following example illustrates the fact that such people use the plural pronoun to refer to a single person. (i) ma oza ro rast-o-rist mikon -im. 368

we situation obj. marker control future tense I will control the situation / I will solve the problem (ii) ma xodemoon ?inkarewe ourselves of this type Im of this type myself. -im. are

do

1st plural ending.

Inflection and endearment Another inflectional suffix that connotes a certain concept besides its basic meaning in an appropriate context is -am my in the words like doxtr-m, my daughter, pesrm, my son, and ?ziz-m, my dear. Here, the suffix conveys the meaning of endearment as well as possession. Persian derivational affixes and pragmatics As in other languages, there are some derivational affixes in Persian which are used to connote such pragmatic features as endearment, diminutive, and intensification. Endearment and degradation One of the derivational suffixes in Persian, which expresses two secondary and figurative meanings is -k. This suffix not only changes the word category, but also adds two pragmatic meanings to the word, endearment or degradation. When a speaker intends to show his/her close and friendly relationship with somebody, or decrease the distance between themselves, adds -k to the word he is going to use to address him/her. This happens mostly when the speaker likes someone with whom he/she has an intimate relationship, or when he/she talks to a child. Forexample: (i) ?sl -k heney endearment suffix Come here honey. -e ezafe (genitive) marker mn my bia come inja. here

(ii)Sheitoon -k, ?aroomtr rah boro Naughty end.suf. slower walk. Walk slower, naughty (boy). In the above examples, the suffix k means little too. For example, the word sheitoonk means little honey. Although some words like pesr-k boy and doxtr-k girl mean little boy and little girl respectively, they are also used to show degradation. In this case, the words are used to refer to older boys or girls. The negative connotation of degradation increases in some other words as mrd-k man and zn-k woman. Adding the suffix -e to these two words also adds a quite high degree of negation to them. In fact, degradation changes into insult when the words zn-ik-e and mrt-ik-e are used to address people. It is worth mentioning that after the addition of -e to the words, some phonological changes occur in their stem. For example: (i) (ii) zn-k + -e _______ znike mrd-k + -e _______ mrt-ik-e

369

Persian has another suffix that is used to indicate endearment. The suffix -i is attached to proper nouns to indicate that the person you address is highly loved, so you may use the names Shabnam-i instead of Shabnam and Farzadi for Farzad. It should be noted that -i is sometimes added to a common noun. In this case, the speaker looks for or demands something and tries to persuade the listener to do him/her a favor. For example, children call their mother and father as maman-i and baba-y-i with a change in intonation when they have a great demand. These words are sometimes used by parents to address their children with great love. The suffix -i is also attached to the clipped form of a proper noun through the process of hypocorism, and the derived word is used to call the people with whom you have an intimate and friendly relationship. So, such names as Esmail and Ashraf change into Es-i and Ash-i respectively. The suffix -i adds the meaning of degradation to a word. For example: (i) Qoloom-i, bepar do ta chaii Qoloom-i jump two postpsition tea Qollom-i, bring two cups of tea (immediately). biar. bring.

In this case, the speaker believes that he/she is in a stronger position and degrades the listener. Another suffix used to increase intimacy and to express smallness and love is -che. This suffix indicates the semantic meaning of smallness in the words like aloo-che damson and moor-che ant. In some cases, adding -che to a word connotes smallness and endearment together. For example, a mother addresses her child as bla-che to show her love. (i) drs-a -t-o xoond -i, bla-che? lessons your object marker studied 2nd singular naughty (boy)? Have you studied your lessons, naughty boy? Endearment and intensification One of the affixes in Persian, that expresses warning and intensification, is -ha which changes into -a in spoken language. For example, -a is attached to the end of the duplicated word xanom xanom lady and changes it into xanom xanom-a. The given word conveys both concepts of intensification and endearment. Clitic particles and pragmatics The study of the pragmatic effects of clitic particles may be subsumed under the heading of morphopragmatics, since they behave in many respects exactly like affixes. (Kiefer, 2001: 277) Like inflectional and derivational affixes, clitics sometimes connote contextual meaning, but, unlike these affixes, they cannot bear stress. They are not like words too because they cannot stand by themselves and should be attached to a word. Here, we will discuss the pragmatic effects of some enclitics and the meanings they connote in Persian. Enclitics and warning One Persian enclitic with the meaning of intensification and warning is -ha which is added to the end of the verbs. This verb intensifying enclitic is changed into -a in spoken language. (Shghaghi, 2006: 74). Threatening and warning are also expressed by this enclitic. The following verbs are some examples that illustrate what was said: (i) mive dare geroon mishe-ha 370

fruit is expensive _ing become intensifying enclitic (I intensify that) fruit is becoming expensive. (ii)?lan mi-a-m -a st now future tense come 1 singular warning enclitic (I warn you that) Im coming just now Enclitics and intimacy The enclitic -e which is added to some nouns can express intimacy with a little endearment. A noun containing such an enclitic is uttered with a special tone, which depends on the relationship between the speaker and the listener. For example: (i)?qa- -h-e, chera zang nazad -i? Mr. intermediary affix enclitic why ring didnt 2nd singular why didnt you ring, Mr.? The enclitic -e cannot be used with the word xanom Mrs.. This pragmatic meaning is expressed by adding the suffix -i to the word xanom, which changes it into xanoom-i. Conclusion In the present article, we discussed about the interface of morphology with pragmatics in using some Persian pronouns, affixes and enclitics. After studying the pragmatic effects of some affixes in other languages, we introduced and investigated the way Persian affixes can connote pragmatic meanings. Finally we classified the inflectional and derivational affixes and enclitics which express diminution, endearment, polite and respectful speech, magnification, degradation, insult, intensification and warning. It was found that besides their grammatical and syntactic function, the Persian affixes, mostly suffixes, can also connote pragmatic meanings. In some cases, enclitics and inflectional affixes are just used to convey pragmatic concepts. In other words, they do not have any syntactic function or semantic meaning. References Dressler and Merlini- Barbaresi.(1993). The Acqusition of Diminutives: across Linguistic Perspective. Edited by Ineta Savickiene. John Benjamins publishing company. Harada, S.L.(1976). Honorics in Masoyoshi Shibatani. editor: Japanese generative grammar, volume 5 of syntax and semantics, new york . Kiefer, F. (2001). Morphology and Pragmatics: The Handbook of Morphology. Spencer, Andrew and Arnold M. Zwicky (eds). Blackwell Publishing. Mey, J. (1993) .Pragmatics: an introduction. Oxford: Blackwell. Shaghagi, V. (2007). An introduction tomorphology. Samt publisher. Spencer, A.and Zwicky, A.(2001) . The hand book of morphology. Blackwell publishers ltd, uk. Zwicky, A.M. and Pullum, G. (1987) .Plain morphology and expressive morphology. proceedings of the thirteenth annual meeting of Berkeley.

371

Metaphonological Awareness and Learning English Pronunciation Keivan Mahmoodi English Department Islamic Azad University Malayer Branch, Iran keivan_mahmoodi@yahoo.com Abstract Learning to read and how to pronounce words is an important area in any language teaching effort. This study aims to investigate the relationship between how teaching English metaphonological rules can help learners improve their awareness of the rules underlying English words. For the purpose of this study, 60 students studying English were chosen to participate in the experiment. The participants were then randomly divided into two groups each containing thirty students. The first group included thirty participants who received explicit instruction of word segmentation, substitution, and manipulation for five vowels. The second group was just flooded with the materials containing the mentioned vowels. As a result of running a number of statistical procedures, instruction on metaphonological rules revealed a positive effect on the participants achievement in pronunciation learning. The results of the study have some implications for materials designers; they can improve a learners ability to pronounce and read words better. Introduction Metaphonological awareness is considered essential to reading and the acquisition of literacy (Chow, McBride-Chang & Burgess, 2005) because it requires the association of sounds with letters (that is, the understanding of grapheme-phoneme conversion rules and their exceptions). The beginners in reading need to know that words can be broken down into phonemes and that the phoneme is typically the unit in the speech stream that is represented by symbols (letters) in alphabetic writing (Cockcroft et al., 2001). Metaphonological awareness provides the chance for children to understand the association between the sounds in words and the orthographic symbols that represent these sounds, whereas phonological decoding transforms letters into the corresponding sounds. The extent to which children are successful in developing phonemic awareness will influence their ease of acquisition of an alphabetic strategy for reading and spelling and consequently they can transfer this knowledge to their pronunciation. After years of being exposed to language, foreign language learners, here Iranian EFL learners, still have problems with English pronunciation. This is easily seen among even advanced English learners. That is to say, although they obtain high scores in proficiency tests, when it comes to pronunciation they do not perform well. Due to some similarities between the Persian and English sound system, Iranian EFL learners tend to transfer some sounds from their L1 to L2, and this might cause them to pronounce words more in a Persian way than English. In producing vowels, they do not distinguish vowels such as / /, //, //and / /. To give an example, in the word historical, Iranians tend to pronounce the final schwa as //. It is believed that if these materials are taught and learned explicitly, learners will have a straightforward way of understanding how language works. That is, if learners are provided with metalinguistic knowledge, they can figure out language mechanism better. The issue of implicit / explicit learning and teaching has been under discussion and consideration for several decades. Teachers have been wondering how much of a learners knowledge of a language is obtained through the learners conscious attention to what he

372

takes in and to what extent he absorbs this knowledge without conscious attention. This issue is of vital significance for both teachers and learners. Teachers can be benefited in their teaching if they know how much explicit presentation of rules of language can help learners in their complex process of learning, be it grammar or phonology. On the other hand, learners are always looking for mechanisms and strategies to lower the learning process burden on their shoulders. They are constrained by the time and the existence of a previously learned language which may hinder or facilitate learning the second language. This research tries to show the extent to which raising learners phonological awareness can help them to better master the English pronunciation and save them a great deal of time to deal with other parts of language learning process which need more attention and consideration. According to Adams (1990), phonological awareness is comprised of a number of specific skills; namely syllabic tasks which require the segmentation of words into specified units, that is onset/rime segmentation which requires the splitting of a word into its onset and rime components and phonemic tasks which involve making connections between graphemes and phonemes. This study could be significant since implicit learning requires being exposed to abundant amounts of language materials on the part of learners so that grammar and pronunciation could be learned and this might not be always possible for a foreign language learner who is constrained by time and opportunities of language use. But if we present him the rules of language explicitly, we may be able to save him enough time to devote to other time demanding parts and elements of language. Although incidental acquisition through practice is the only way to internalize implicit linguistic competence, it is not the only way to become a proficient, fluent speaker of L2. Explicit learning may lead to speeded-up controlled use of a second language (and may even, with repeated practice, indirectly lead to the internalization of some components of L2). As Hulstijn (2007) puts it, although explicit knowledge cannot be transformed into implicit knowledge neurophysiologically, explicit grammar instruction may indirectly be beneficial to the establishment of implicit knowledge(p.701). Due to the extension of language system and the available time for learners, they might not always be able to learn all elements of language implicitly because implicit learning requires availability of a lot of opportunities for learners to use and experience lots of samples of a language element so that it can be mastered. Based on what was mentioned, the following research questions were formed: 1. Is there any significant difference in the learning of some phonological forms between an explicit, teacher directed instructional approach and an implicit, learner-discovery approach? 2. Is there a significant difference in the learning of some phonological forms between an explicit, teacher-directed instructional approach and an explicit, learner-discovery approach? More specifically, is there a significant difference at various proficiency levels: 2a.for beginner language learners? 2b. for intermediate language learners? 2c. for advanced language learners? Implicit language learning takes place without either intentionality or awareness. However, there is controversy as to whether any learning is possible without some degree of awareness. This raises the important question of what is meant by awareness. Schmidt (1994, 2001) distinguished two types of awareness: awareness as noticing (involving perception) and metalinguistic awareness (involving analysis). The former involves conscious attention to surface elements, whereas the latter involves awareness of the underlying abstract rule that governs particular linguistic phenomena. Schmidt argued that noticing typically involves at least some degree of awareness. Thus, from this perspective, there is no such thing as complete implicit learning and so a better definition of implicit 373

language learning might be learning without any metalinguistic awareness. That is, the processes responsible for the integration of material into the learners interlanguage system and the restructuring this might entail take place autonomously and without conscious control. Other researchers (e.g. Williams, 2005), however, have argued that learning without awareness at the level of noticing is also possible. N. Ellis (2005: 306) has also claimed that the vast majority of our cognitive processing is unconscious. Thus, there is no consensual definition of implicit learning although all theorists would accept that it excludes metalinguistic awareness. Explicit language learning is necessarily a conscious process and is generally intentional as well. It is conscious learning where the individual makes and tests hypotheses in a search for structure (N. Ellis, 1994: 1). As Hulstijn (2002: 206) put it, it is a conscious, deliberative process of concept formation and concept linking. Method The purpose for conducting this research was to establish whether there is a significant change in the pronunciation ability/ marks of students when they had form focused instruction as opposed to only meaning focused instruction. Participants Target populations include all the participants that are of theoretical interest to the study, and to which the researcher would like to generalize. In such a Form-Focused and Meaning-Focused Instruction on EFL Learners case, the target population for this study was EFL learners in the university who were also taking English as their academic course. The participants (N = 70) were intact groups of L2 learners ranging in age from 20 to 25. There were put into two treatment groups with N = 35 in each group. Later on, ten people left the classes, so the study ended up with 60 subjects. The people in the treatment groups were further divided by proficiency levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The three levels as to proficiency were established through a PBT TOEFL test. The ten people with the lowest scores were assigned to the beginner section, the ten people with the highest scores were assigned to the advanced section and the rest to the intermediate. There was a minimum of n = 10 in each level of each group. The two groups were assigned a corresponding treatment: Treatment One (Explicit) and Two (Implicit). Procedures Before the treatment started, the subjects were supposed to read aloud 30 sentences containing a set of vowels [//, //, /:/ , /:/ and //] and the performance was recorded and scored. The students performance was scored by two English teachers through the same criteria and based on the American pronunciation. The perfect score was 30. The pretest and posttest used were uniform in number, kinds of vowels tested but with different words in different sentences. To answer the research questions, a quantitative study was conducted over approximately a 3-month period. There was a treatment aiming to teach five vowels [//, //, /:/, /:/ ,and //] to learners at three proficiency levels using three testing opportunities over the phonological forms explanation. For both methods (explicit teaching and implicit teaching), the vowel forms were purposefully chosen; the procedures were carefully followed; and the assessments were uniformly executed. The two different treatments covered teaching five vowels: The treatments were administered in two sessions, each one lasting 90 minutes, over the period of the study (15 weeks). In the explicit treatment group, the subjects were given the explicit explanation of 374

how words with specific spelling were pronounced. During the explicit treatment, the following activities were done: 1. Rhyming: the teacher presented the rhyming words such as burn, turn, earn and learn followed by an explanation of how the segment ur and ear are pronounced /:r/. 2. Phonemic deletion: The teacher presented words such as call, mall, hall, ball and deleted the beginning phoneme to get to the segment all followed by the explanation that the segment al is pronounced / :l/. 3. Phoneme manipulation: a word such as cut was given to the learners and they were asked to change the beginning phoneme into b h r g followed by the explanation that u is pronounced / / here. 4. Phoneme substitution: the beginning phoneme in a word like shop was substituted with /t/, /h/, /p/, /k/ and //. Among these vowels, schwa seems to be the most problematic vowel for Iranian EFL learners in such a way that they tend to pronounce it // or / / in words such as important and chemical. When schwa appears in the beginning of words like words about, ago or a lot, it causes less problem than the time when it appears in the middle position in words like doctor and actor. So the rule explanation was like this when they came across words such as milkman, batman, historical, tropical, royal, chemical: They were told that a in these words would sound // because it appears in unstressed syllables. While in the implicit treatment group, the learners were not given the explicit rule explanations instead they were exposed to passages in which those vowels contained and the researcher tried to have the learners see and read these vowels in different passages. To control the intentional learning on the part of the learners in both groups, the researcher embedded this research within a reading course and did not tell the learners that he was going to teach them pronunciation during the course. The two treatments both used the same steps of noticing, comparing, integrating, error correction and feedback. The major difference between the treatments was in the input stage of the teaching/learning process. The explicit treatment was a teacher-directed, formal-teaching of the rules; the implicit treatment was a task-based, self-discovery of the same rules. Each treatment was applied to each proficiency level, and the lessons within each treatment were consistently applied at all 3 levels. Pronunciation tests over the targeted vowel forms were administered three times during the study: a Pre-Test, Post-Test, and Delayed-Post-Test format. The same number of total test items, kinds of exercises, and vowels forms were on each of the three tests. The number of correct items from each test for each student in each treatment group and by each form was counted and recorded separately from the three pronunciation tests. The number of correct items (tallied as frequency counts and verified independently) was the dependent variable. The data was recorded according to treatment groups, vowel forms, and proficiency levels on spreadsheets. To find out if there was any significant difference between these two methods of teaching, it was investigated whether the gains in the explicit group was greater than those for the implicit group. For this reason, a paired t-test was performed. Paired t-test was selected because the groups were not independent and the focus was within the group. Results

375

What is this study is trying to investigate is that how instruction methodology can make a difference in learners performance and how learners with different proficiency levels can benefit from this instruction. That is, how explicit and implicit teaching of some phonemic forms can help learners in their pronunciation ability. Regarding the first question Is there any significant difference in the learning of some phonological forms between an explicit, teacher directed instructional approach and an implicit, learner-discovery approach? the following results were obtained. Table1. Pretest results for both groups Group n Mean s.d. implicit 30 13.73 3.17 explicit 30 14.50 2.62 The above Table shows scores from the two pretests. As the Table shows, the two groups were not equal in the beginning of the study, due to the design of the study which is quasiexperimental. Table2. Posttest results for both groups Group n Mean s.d. implicit 30 16.76 4.01 explicit 30 16.76 2.19 Table two shows the posttest results for both the Explicit and Implicit groups in which there is an increase in the mean scores of the two groups, but as the Table shows this increase is more for the explicit group. Table 3. Comparison of the explicit groups means Group Mean Observed t critical t Explicit 1 14.50 3.36 2 Explicit 2 16.76 For a two-tailed test, and a level of significance at .05, it shows that the difference between the pretest mean and the post test mean of the explicit group is statistically significant. The above mentioned tables show that teaching does make a difference. A significant increase in learning the phonological forms was demonstrated by both treatment groups after instructional intervention regardless of the method. The findings demonstrate that both treatment groups learned the forms. SLA researchers such as Krashen and DeKeyser have different opinions regarding whether an L2 is and/or can be learned or must be only acquired. This has led to the idea whether we should try to intervene in the languagelearning process or just flood the learners with input. Table 2 presents the results of the tests for significant increases in learning of the phonological forms by all the participants regardless of the methods. For the implicitly taught group, the overall finding showed that the group benefited from the instruction. It may suggest that if adult learners have sufficient opportunity to interact with the new learning, they have the cognitive ability to unconsciously analyze the material and transfer that learning to new experiences. They can somehow assimilate and correctly form the structures without explicit instruction of the rules. The findings were that the learning of phonological forms did increase significantly and was maintained by learners in the implicitly taught groups. Since this group was not formally taught the rules, the findings indicate that they may have somehow learned them through self discovery. 376

For the Explicitly taught group, the findings (Table 2) show that the learners outperformed the other group and the means are different. This is, in large, due to the fact that explicit focus on form instruction directs attention to target form and, at the same time, it is predetermined and planned. In addition, it presents target forms in isolation. This is more in line with Norris and Ortegas (2000) meta-analysis in which they reported a clear advantage for explicit treatment. Regarding the question Is there a significant difference in the learning of some phonological rules between an explicit, teacher-directed instructional approach and an explicit, learner-discovery approach? the findings (Table 1,2 and 3) show that this is the case. Table 4. Mean scores for intermediate groups Pre test Post test implicit 12 13.8 explicit 12.2 15.6 Table 5. Mean scores for beginner groups Pre test Post test implicit 17 18.7 explicit 12 13.8 Table 6. Mean scores for advanced groups Pre test Post test implicit 17 18.7 explicit 16.5 20.5

Delayed post test 14 16.4

Delayed post test 18.7 14

Delayed post test 18.7 20.8

As you can see in the Table 5, the advanced explicit section has benefited the treatment more than the other one. This might be due to the learners large repertoire of vocabulary, so they can easily assimilate these forms and generalize from one form to other forms. Besides, thanks to their greater exposure with second language input, advanced learners are cognitively in a better position to process linguistic rules. The findings also show that there was a significant increase in learning the forms between the pre-test and the post-test and between the pre-test and the delayed-post-test during the course of the study.. The findings further indicate that the advanced and intermediate groups scored the highest among the six groups of both implicit and explicit groups implying that these learners can better assimilate explicit rules of language due to their strong background knowledge of language. In fact, they can easily generalize what they learn to what they already have in their language competence. Conclusions The study suggests that: 1) Explicit knowledge of phonemes plays an important role in improving L2 phonemic segmentation. 2) Perception of phonemes could also contribute to a better grasp of L2 phonemic segmentation. The author understands that these results do not necessarily indicate any causal relationship. However, when interpreted in the context, they do seem to indicate that when declarative knowledge about phonemes is gained, it might lead to a better overall performance, just as explicit knowledge about grammatical rules might promote 377

acquisition. Perception is also relevant in the development of L2 phonology, even though perfect perceptual ability is not required in order to produce the sounds correctly. By pointing out the importance of explicit instruction, the author is by no means suggesting that teachers once again subscribe to the traditional mode of a rigid teaching sequence, where presentation of abstract rules must come first, followed by practice and error correction until the rules are mastered. Teachers must be aware that explicit instruction does not lead directly to automatic, productive use, but direct instruction, consciousness-raising, and a focus on form are valuable to the extent that they help learners bring order to the input they encounter, facilitate understanding, and boost or support natural acquisition (Schmidt, 1995, p. 4). Efforts should be made to explore how direct instruction of rules can be incorporated within a communicative framework. Formal instruction permits L2 learners to leave out some stages on the sequential development. With the knowledge that adult L2 learners are able to learn from several instructional approaches, and are bound to be influenced by affective and motivation factors, it is critical to address phonemic issues that L2 learners have, using explicit instruction rather than sole dependence on implicit instruction. Systematic instruction enables L2 learners to focus attention to specific language elements and their usage. Present research agrees that meaning-focused input is highly effective in L2 learning, particularly in the instruction of adult L2 learners through form-focused instruction. Nevertheless, a model L2 lesson should integrate some focus on forms that are rooted in meaningful and Form-Focused and Meaning-Focused Instruction on ESL Learners comprehensible language. This acquires meaning since, through focusing on some specific forms L2 learners observe and take note of elements which would have been overlooked in the rush for overall comprehension of meaning (Adamson, 2005). Form-focused input involves a wide variety of instruction, which agrees with proponent theories of the role played by attention and consciousness in L2 learning. Within this framework, formfocused instruction is centered on bringing in the attention of learners to specific forms, within meaningful context. This is often achieved using a pre- established syllabus. Proponents of form-focused input challenge the concept behind structural form syllabus, because materials that are designed along structural basis present the process of language acquisition as an accumulation of independent entities. Task-input perceive form focused instruction as capable of allowing adult L2 learners to attain linguistic features that cannot be acquired through comprehensible input or pragmatic learning. In this context, noticing words pronunciation in the input might not be sufficient to eliminate the erroneous elements. As an example, if the learner operates within this hypothesis that the word man is always pronounced /mn/ even in the words such as postman, and policeman, it is a bit difficult to eliminate this hypothesis unless it is explicitly explained. This might explain the reason why most Iranian EFL learners, even after years of intensive exposure, tend to ignore these forms. Before deciding on the effectiveness of the preferred approach, it is essential to note that teaching language involves integration of both explicit and implicit instruction. Effective teaching approaches combine, to some extent, structured input, output, practice and correction. In present practice, there is consensus that explicit instruction of language elements will result in enhanced learning. However, there is still contention of which aspects essentially impact comprehensive teaching practices and meaningful learning. References Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 378

Adamson, H. D. (2005). Language minority students in American schools: An education in English. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Chow, B. W., McBride-Chang, C., & Burgess S. (2005). Phonological processing skills and early reading abilities in Hong Kong Chinese kindergarteners learning to read English as a second language. Journal of educational psychology, 97, 81. Cockcroft, K. A. S. (2002a). Ready for reading: concurrent and longitudinal predictors of reading in English. Unpublished Doctor of Philosophy thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. DeKeyser, R. (1995) Learning second language grammar rules: An experiment with a miniature linguistic system. Studies in Second Language Acquisition17, 379_410. DeKeyser, R. (1997) Beyond explicit rule learning: Automatizing second language morphosyntax. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 19, 195-221. DeKeyser, R. (1998) Beyond focus on form: Cognitive perspectives on learning and practicing second language grammar. In C. Doughty and J. Williams(eds) Focus on Form in Second Language Acquisition (pp. 42_63). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DeKeyser, R. (2000) The robustness of critical period effects in second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 22 (4), 499_533. Ellis, R. (1987). Interlanguage variability in narrative discourse: Style-shifting in the use of the past tense. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 9. 1-20. Ellis, R. (1996). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. (1997). Second language research and language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. (Ed.). (2001). Form-focused instruction and second language learning. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. Ellis, R. (2002). The place of grammar instruction in the second/foreign language curriculum. In Hinkel, E. & S. Fotos (Eds.), New perspectives on grammar teach ing in second language classrooms, (pp. 17-34). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Hulstijn, J.H. (1995). An experimental study on the learning of arbitrary and nonarbitrary gender of pseudo Dutch nouns by nonnative and native speakers of Dutch. Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen, 53, 121-136 [non- international journal]. Hulstijn, J.H. (1999). Some empirical evidence for the Involvement Load Hypothesis in vocabulary acquisition. Language Learning, 51, 539-558. Hulstijn. J. (2007) Theoretical and empirical issues in the study of implicit and explicit second language learning: Introduction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 27, 129_140. Hulstijn, J. and De Graaf, R. (1994) Under what conditions does explicit knowledge of second language facilitate the acquisition of implicit knowledge? A research proposal. In J. Hulstijn and R. Schmidt (eds) Consciousness in Second Language Learning (pp. 97_112). AILA Review 11. Johnson, J. S. & Newport, E. L. (1995; orig. pub. Date 1989). Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. In H. D. Brown & S. Gonzo (Eds.). Readings second language acquisition, (pp. 75-113). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall Regents.

379

Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning.Oxford: Pergamon. Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and practices in second language acquisition.Oxford: Pergamon. Krashen, S. D. (1985) The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. London: Longman. Krashen, Stephen. D. (1999). Language Acquisition and Language Education- Extensions and Applications. Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd. Norris, J. and Ortega, L. (2000) Effectiveness of L2 instruction: A research synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis. Language Learning 50 (3), 417_528. Ortega, L. (2003). Syntactic complexity measures and their relationship to l2 proficiency: A research synthesis of college-level l2 writing. Applied Linguistics, 24(4), 492518. Richards, J. C. (2002) Accuracy and fluency revisited. In Hinkel, E. & S. Fotos (Eds.), New perspectives on grammar teaching in second language classrooms, (pp. 3550). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Roehr, K. (2006) Metalinguistic knowledge in L2 task performance: A verbal protocol analysis. Language Awareness 15 (3), 180_198. Roehr, K. (2008) Metalinguistic knowledge and language ability in University level L2 Learners. Applied Linguistics 29 (2), 173_199. Schmidt, R. (1990) The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics 11, 129_158. Schmidt, R. (1994) Deconstructing consciousness in search of useful definition for applied linguistics. AILA Review 11, 11_26. Schmidt, R. (1994a) Implicit learning and the cognitive unconscious: Of artificial grammar and SLA. In N. Ellis (ed.) Implicit and Explicit Learning of Languages (pp. 165_209). London: Academic Press. Schmidt, R. (2001) Attention. In P. Robinson (ed.) Cognition and Second Language Instruction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schmidt, R. and Frota, S. (1986) Developing basic conversational ability in a second language: A case-study of an adult learner. In R. Day (ed.) Talking to Learn: Conversation in Second Language Acquisition (pp. 237_326). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Spada, N. (1997) Form-focussed instruction and second language acquisition: A review of classroom and laboratory research. Language Teaching 30, 73_87. Williams, J. (1999) Memory, attention and inductive learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 21, 1_48.

380

Opportunities and Challenges in ELT: A Teachers Pride vs. Plight Dr. Divya Nimit Walia IIS University, Jaipur, India divy81@gmail.com Abstract With the rising demand for proficiency in English language and communication skills, the field of English Language Teaching has acquired considerable importance within the last few years. One can witness quite a number of professional colleges opening every other day and with English language being an integral component of the curriculum, language teachers have suddenly landed up in the midst of abundant professional opportunities and openings. Despite being a field with multitude of opportunities and avenues, ELT is still under the impact of professional imbalance. In proportion to the demands, the other dimensions have not been adequately upgraded leaving the teachers in an unfortunate state of a dual challenge challenge of performance versus challenge of low return. This profession is now becoming increasingly challenging on account of excessive demands, changing requirements, industry expectations and stressful work atmosphere. However, it is high time to address these concerns so that the declining interest and enthusiasm towards this professional field could be checked and corrected. The paper thus is an attempt to explore and give an insight into these issues and look at the field of language teaching and learning from the other side of the table i.e. the teachers perspective. The concern is to make this profession and field more result oriented by focusing more on the concerns of the teacher and their interest so as to enhance their contribution in an effective manner. Keywords: ELT, Professional Challenges, Language teachers Introduction The field of language teaching has gained considerable importance and significance over last ten years owing to its rising demands in the professional scenario globally. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics the general population has grown 9% from 1993 to 2003, while the English Language Learners population has grown 65% in that same time. The ELL student population now comprises 10% of all students. Besides the students pursuing professional courses, the industry is also looking up to the language teachers with great expectations. As English has turned into a universal language, its presence and value in the world has expanded enormously in the past decades. Many money-earning activities such as BPO, Medical Transcription and IT add to the importance and relevance of English in every walk of life. (Rao and Thilakha, 2010, p.221). On one hand the students in hope of getting placed well professionally are striving hard to improve their language skills and enhance their future employability and on the other, industry representatives are placing demands to the academia for providing well equipped professionals who are fit for the global work scenario. According to Prof. Jacob Tharu, English is no longer some remote but a powerful mystery, lying hidden in the world of textbooks and examination. With such scenario around, the language teachers are in great demand and are in the midst of abundant professional opportunities. Despite so many professional opportunities rampant in this field, the academic world is still facing critical shortage of well qualified and committed language professionals.

381

Over the last few years there has been increase in interest and consequent diversion towards the corporate jobs as against the field of teaching. Earlier where teaching used to be a preferred profession for the females, today despite the challenging working hours and stressful nature of the jobs, more and more individuals are turning towards the corporate jobs. The need is to explore the declining enthusiasm towards this field and the consequent dearth of professionals. In order to address this concern the papers attempts to identify the challenges that deter people from taking up this professional field and propose certain recommendations to check this field from losing its esteem and significance. Literature Review (or Previous Research) English as a foreign language (EFL) programs throughout the world face numerous challenges, not least of which are a lack of English proficient teachers, large classes, student passivity and apathy, over-reliance on traditional methodologies, and insufficient authentic materials to offer students. The concern towards these professional challenges of the language teachers has been taken up for study by not many researchers, though there have been studies on identifying the challenges faced by the teachers within the classrooms. Cheng & Watanabe with Curtis (2003) through their research concluded that the challenges that these teachers face are teaching methods, high-stakes testing, their language proficiency and ways to motivate their students to learn English. Such a context can also be found in other parts of the world especially within the EFL teaching and learning context where English is taught as a subject in schools. Another research conducted on the language teachers in California indicated that the challenges that Californias teachers most frequently noted include teacher-parent communication and understanding of home-community issues, the need for more time to teach English learners both English and academic subjects, and the extremely variable academic and English language needs of their students. Another major challenge, especially at the secondary level, was teachers inability to communicate with their students about the academic content of the class as well as the social and personal issues that can hamper student learning. (Patricia et al., 2005). Katy Allen (2008) in her study presents an analysis of the obstacles in the way of effective pupil-centred teaching and learning of the English language in Tanzanian government primary school and contends that the standard of English has declined dramatically over the years, that the main cause of this decline is the teaching of English in primary schools following the English language syllabus and using the current textbooks. Kizildags (2009) study also aims at identifying the challenges of the language teachers but this study involved and focused only on Turkish teachers at primary levels. The present study in addition to the challenges within the classroom goes a little ahead and addresses the professional concerns of the English language teachers in India while taking whole of the professional scenario in its purview and focusing on the issues like monetary compensation, overall job satisfaction etc. Methodology For the present study, the methodology followed was the interview method. 25 participants (language teachers, teaching at the college level in the private sector) were randomly selected. They were asked to list the challenges in the order of being the most commonly and frequently encountered as a teacher during instruction and as a professional in terms of monetary benefits and overall job satisfaction. The responses elicited from the participants were then analysed to identify the challenges experienced by the teachers of private colleges. The researcher would like to emphasize here that only the teachers associated with private academic bodies have been included here in the study and the teachers 382

employed in the public sector have not been taken into the consideration of the present study since the teaching experience as well as overall job experience and consequently the challenges of the latter would have been of different nature from the former considered Findings and Discussion For the convenience of study as well as the analysis, the challenges most commonly experience by the language teachers have been categorized as (i) Instructional or Academic Challenges and (ii) Professional/Academic challenges. I. Instructional or Academic Challenges On the basis of the responses received from the participants, the following have been identified as the Instructional or Academic challenges:

S. No. Instructional or Academic Challenges 1 Lack of Enthusiasm towards the Subject 2 3 Selection of Appropriate Methodology

No. of Respondents 9 7

Lack of curriculum based on specific language 5 needs Overcrowded Classrooms 4

4 Table- 1

Lack of Enthusiasm towards the Subject: Drnyei (1998: 117) points out that motivation has been widely accepted by both teachers and researchers as one of the key factors that influences the rate and success of second/foreign language (L2) learning. Lack of motivation towards learning English has been listed as one of the most frequently encountered problems by most of the language teachers. Despite the growing demand for the proficiency in English as one of the essential skill for future employability, the students often exhibit lack of interest towards this subject. This usually happens because for learning a language, the students are required to understand how to use grammar correctly, how to follow the correct pronunciation and vocabulary and other such aspects of the language. This often results in students assuming that learning English is complicated and tedious. Besides, being a skill, language acquisition comes gradually and in absence of immediate result or output, the interest and the enthusiasm towards the subject gradually diminish. Selection of Appropriate Methodology: In consequence of lack of interest towards the subject, selection of appropriate methodology that is interactive, interesting and effective, becomes pretty burdensome for the language teachers. Many of the teachers stated that the problem becomes even more complex as due to diminishing interest of the students, the teachers too start feeling de-motivated and lose the urge and passion for teaching which ultimately results in frustration and dissatisfaction for both the parties. Lack of curriculum based on specific language needs: In most of the private colleges, the syllabus once designed is followed for all the professional programmes irrespective of the specific needs of each course. Now such a curriculum fails to generate interest and 383

enthusiasm towards the subject since it does not directly address the language needs of the students. This concern has been indicated by the teachers as an indirect cause for diminishing interest towards language learning. Overcrowded Classrooms: The large number of students in a classroom also poses a challenge to effective language teaching and learning. Being a skill based subject, individual practice and attention is essential for easy and effective acquisition of any language. Without Adequate opportunity for interaction, language acquisition not only becomes restricted but also tedious and boring. The increasing popularity of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach also places demands for interactive teaching and learning environment in a classroom which is certainly difficult to be created in an oversized classroom. Nolasco and Arthur (1988) also identified five likely problems of large classes: coping with the noise, persuading the class to use English, managing the introduction and setting up of activities, making limited resources go a long way and monitoring the work of individuals within the class (p.5). II. Professional/Organizational Challenges S. No. Instructional or Academic Challenges 1 Low Salary 2 3 No. of Respondents 15

Indifference of management for monetary or 6 administrative support Non cooperative attitude of management towards 4 training and development opportunities: Table-2

Low Salary: This has been cited as one of the major reasons for the loss of interest and enthusiasm towards language teaching by almost all the respondents. In all private colleges, English is not considered to be the core paper/subject, as such neither the management nor the students realize or value its significance. Consequently the management would prefer to appoint less qualified teachers at a lower salary than a qualified one at higher salary. Resultantly despite the high demand the teachers are either compelled to change the line of profession and seek the corporate jobs or else accept the job at a lower salary. This not only leads to job dissatisfaction but also high level of stress and frustration ultimately affecting the efficiency of the languagew teachers. Sommers (2005) wryly observes that Not paying teachers has a direct and negative impact on educational quality. Indifference of management for monetary or administrative support: English language as a subject has never received its due in the professional college. This ultimately determines the healthy and comfortable existence of the subject in terms of financial and administrative support. The management too shies away from extending any support in terms of finance or resources as this discipline is always underrated. As suggested by the language teacher, this poses challenges in effective teaching and not only affects the quality of teaching, but also causes frustration and dissatisfaction from the job.

384

Non cooperative attitude of management towards training and development opportunities: Once employed in the private sector, the language teachers also encounter problem of lack of support and cooperation for attending training and development programmes. Language teaching and learning is a field wherein the demands and needs keep on changing, as such it becomes essential for the teachers to keep themselves abreast with the latest in the field. But the language teachers revealed that neither are such programmes organized by the college nor are the faculty members ever encouraged to attend it. Recommendations The issues and concerns discussed above cannot be resolved in days or months time since it would require a lot of changes and improvement in the academic system or the overall working of the education sector and, such an overhauling for immediate result is farfetched. Yet, at preliminary level certain measures can be certainly be undertaken and certain reforms can definitely be implemented. 1. A little more planning and effort in the instructional design and strategy would lead to increased enthusiasm and interest among the students. Moreover, with the variety of media used by teachers, students interest in learning will increase. Exercises based on group work or pairs will also attract students and enhance student interest towards learning. 2. Being ever watchful of productivity concerns, most organizations also tend to stipulate many regulations that infringe on ESP teachers abilities to provide conducive, engaging and relevant lessons for their adult students. Notwithstanding these constraints and obvious productivity-oriented inclinations of many business enterprises, ESP teachers need to be mindful of developing courses that are learnercentred and help to meet the English language needs of their learners. (Kaur, 2007) If the teachers are not able to exercise adequate autonomy in designing specific needs based curriculum, at least while planning their lectures and the instructional material they can reflect on the needs of the students, thereby rendering the content more useful and need specific. 3. To counter the problem of over sized classrooms, group activities should be prefeered and for individual activities, classes should be conducted in batches. 4. Regarding the professional challenges, the policy makers and the corporate leaders will have to ensure that deserving and dedicated professionals are offered adequate compensation and are lured towards this field. It is high time that all the stakeholders start acknowledging the importance of English language and the language professionals by making this professional field conducive in terms of job satisfaction and further professional enrichment. Conclusion Challenges before the English Language teachers in India are enormous and apparent. They should be able to cater to the practical needs of learners, to make them competent enough to interact with one another and also to retrieve information all over the world. English has a base in several countries and is considered as the most suitable and convenient tool for International Communication. The people who have proficiency in this language could access large number of jobs and also were seen holding high positions in many National and International Organizations. In the earlier days English was just like a Library language, but now that notion has changed totally. At present the challenges 385

visible before the English language teachers in India are diverse and it is necessary for them to shape up accordingly to meet the demands of the day. (Rao and Thilakha, 2010) With the emergence of private sector, the working scenario and employer employee relationship has definitely undergone a notable change. Earlier where teachers enjoyed complete autonomy over their professional tasks and assignments, now they constantly encounter adjustment and compromises. Such a scene has rendered their professional life full of challenges and complexities leading to higher rate of attrition on account of mounting level of frustration. The field of language teaching too is experiencing this kind of indifference and disinterest from the professionals and consequently witnessing a shortage of committed and competent professionals. Despite being a field with multitude of opportunities and avenues, ELT is still under the impact of professional imbalance. In proportion to the demands the other dimensions have not been adequately upgraded leaving the teachers in an unfortunate state of a dual challenge challenge of performance versus challenge of low return. As language teachers, the challenges pertaining to instruction can be resolved to certain extent by the teachers themselves, provided they gear themselves up for their role not only as a teacher but also as a facilitator and mentor while directly addressing the learning needs of the students. However, for the professional challenges, the academic builders of the nation from the various segments of economy will have to realize their role and responsibility in retaining the talent by providing them adequate professional environment and growth. The attempt has been made to identify such challenges and suggest certain recommendation so that the charm of this noble profession could be retained and more and more talented individuals could be attracted to become a part of this field.

References Cheng, L., & Watanabe, Y. with Curtis, A. (Eds.). (2003). Washback in language testing: Research contexts and methods. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Drnyei,Z. (1998). Motivation in second and foreign language learning. Language Teaching31/2: 117135.) Gndara, Patricia., Maxwell-Jolly, Julie & Driscol, Anne (2005). Listening to Teachers of English Language Learners -A Survey of California Teachers Challenges, Experiences, and Professional Development Needs. The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning: California. Jacob, Tharu (2006). A second look at English as a window on the world that has changed, Communication Curriculum in Higher Communication: Challenges & Opportunities Kaur, Sarjit (2007). ESP Course Design: Matching Learner Needs to Aims. English for Specific Purposes World. TransEarl Company Ltd.Vol. 6 (1) Kizilda, Ayse. Teaching English in Turkey: Dialogues with teachers about the challenges in public primary schools. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education. Vol.1(3). 2009. 188-201 Nolaso, R. &. Arthur, L.(1988) Large Classes. London: Macmillan Publishers Rao, D. Kanta & Thilakha, J.M. Kanthi (2010). Language Teaching -The Present Day Challenges. Language in India. Vol.10. 221-227

386

Sommers, M. (2005). Islands of Education. Schooling, Civil War and the Southern Sudanese (1983-2004). Paris: UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP).

387

A Scheme for the Study of Arabization Planning Faiza Dekhir University of Saida, Algeria khfaiza1@yahoo.fr Samira Abid-Houcine University of SidiBel-abbes, Algeria Abstract This study is dedicated to describe Arabization from a language planning perspective. It also discusses how language planning can be used to provide a theoretical framework for Arabization planning. In order for these objectives to be achieved, the researcher goes through language planning definitions, Arabization definitions, and presentation of an accounting scheme for the study of Arabization planning. This latter is meant to improve our ability to describe and draw generalizations concerning Arabization planning. Keywords: Arabization, Language Planning, A Scheme for Arabization Planning. Language Planning Definitions Accordingto Cooper (1989:29), there is a general disagreement upon to what term should be utilized to refer to language planning, in the sense that some scholars have proposed the term language engineering (Miller, 1950 cited in Al-Abed Al-Haq, 1994), others prefer to use language management to describe the activity(Jernudd&Neustupny, 1986 cited in AlAbed Al-Haq, 1994), languagestandardization, language elaboration and language reform. In any given multilingual situation inthe world, when one speaks of language planning, what immediately comes to mind is a set of strategies to solve various problems generated in such a multilingual context.Accordingly, language planning is said to focus on problemsolving or the organised pursuit of solutions to language problems, typically at the national level (Fishman 1974b cited in Cooper, 1989:30). As such, language planning is characterized by the formulation and evaluations of alternatives for solving language problems to find the best, optimal, and most efficient decision (Rubin &Jernudd, 1971b:XVI). A more pertinent definition might be that of (Jahr, 1992 cited in Eastman, 1993:109) who states that: Language planninginvolves an organized activity (private or official) which attempts to solve language problems within a given society, usually at the national level. Through language planning, attempts are made to direct, change, or preserve the linguistic norm or the social status (and communicative function) of a given written or spoken language variety of a language. In this way, language planning has been referred to through different definitions by different scholars. However, all the definitions may fall under two rubrics: 1). A political and/ or administrative activity, also named status planning. 2). A linguistic activity, also labelled corpus planning (Quedraogo, 2000:13). Status planning involves the allocation of languages to different societal domains, such as the official status, education, business, mass mediaetc. However,corpus planning refers to such activities as the production of grammarsand dictionaries; the innovation of orthographies, spelling reformsetc (Kaplan &Baldauf, 1997:30-38).

388

Arabization The termArabization has been explained through many definitions based on varying views of authors. Even though the term refers to two broadly definable concepts, it is a ubiquitous term. In one of its senses, Arabization is the extensive use of the Arabic language in all domains of life: political, social, and culturali.e., it refers to the promotion of Arabic as a medium of interaction in public and private sectors (Grandguillaume 2004, and others). In another sense suggested bySayadi (1982:38), Arabization means: lexical expansion which involves the rendering or coinage of new terms, either from existing words, or through translation of foreign terms, and the adoption of already existing words through borrowing from foreign languages or reviving and revitalization of older usages in the same language Thus, Arabicization is a more adequate term that has been coined to refer to the second sense, because it is derived morphologically from Arabic, that is, thelanguage, and therefore denotes more adequately the idea of Arabic language planning (Al-Abed AlHaq,1994:55).However, Arabization refers more adequately to Arabs, i.e., the people and their behaviours. Having defined Arabization in two spatially different concepts, it is worth noting that Arabicization planningrefers to corpus planning; however, Arabization planning refers to status planning. Nonetheless, the terms are often used interchangeably. Based on a number of careful investigations of Arabization in the Arab world, three important trends that Arabization has witnessed can be delineated: 1). pro-Arabization, 2). anti-Arabization, and 3). undecided Arabization (Al-Abed AlHaq, 1994:57). There are two groups within the first trend. The first group is a fervent advocate to Arabization for religious matters. This group is enthusiastic about the Arabic language for being the language of the Holy Quran.In this respect, Benrabah (2007:58) writes: The constituent parts of national identity comprise Arabic-Islamic tradition (culture), Islam (religion) and Arabic which is the carrier of Quran, the Holy book of Muslims. The second group is composed of protagoniststo Arabization for nationalistic reasons. In this sense, Suleiman (1994,cited in Benrabah, 2007:59)declares: Arab nationalism is synonymous with the Arabic language.Within the second trend, two attitudinal groups have emerged. The first holds instrumental orientations towards the use of a language. This group favours the target language (being English in the Middle East and French in North Africa) because of its stature as the language of breadi.e., an international language affording practical benefits and advantages associated with using it. Accordingly, learning French or English for these people is motivated by utilitarian motives (forexamplebetter job prospects). Lasagabaster(2002:1694) describes the situation: The objective (for instrumental attitudes) isnot to seek for integrationin thetarget group, but rather the achievement of social acknowledgement and economicadvantages, or just the desire to pass an exam. Typicalinstrumental items in a questionnaire would be Studying French can be important forme because Ill need it for my future career orStudying French can be important tome because I think it will someday be useful in getting a good job.

389

According to Al-Abed Al-Haq (1994:58), those people have good intentions and bear Arabization no ill will. However, the second group displays integrative orientations towards the target language. More often than not, those people are called westernized people who wish to maintain the target language forsocial and interpersonal orientations.Lasagabaster(2002:1693) comments on these peoples attitudes: They reflect a desire to identify with a language and its culture, towardswhich the L2 learners show some empathy: there is the aim of establishing closer bonds with the L2 community and language from a personal viewpoint. In fact, those people would claim: Studying French can be important to us because it will enable us to better understand and appreciate French Canadian art and literature or Studying French can be important to us because it will allow to us to be more at ease with fellow Canadians who speak French (Gardner, 1985 cited in Lasagabaster,2002:1694). The third trend is not aware of the advantages either of Arabization or of the maintenance of target language (French or English) (Al-Abed Al-Haq, 1994:58). An Accounting Scheme for the Study of Arabization Planning Based on Coopers definition of language planning, Arabization planning can be defined as a sum of deliberate efforts that influence the behavior of Arabs with respect to the acquisition, structure, or functional allocation of the Arabic language, the ex-colonizer language and other regional dialects. Those efforts refer to Corpus Arabization,Status Arabization, and Acquisition planning of Arabization. In this respect, Corpus Arabization refers to intervention in the forms of a language. It includes activities like:elaboration,cultivation, codification and standardizationof Arabic(Robinson, 1988 ;Gadelii, 1999). Status Arabization is mainly concerned with the allocation of languages or dialects to given status, for example: official, provincial, wider communication, international, capital, group, educational, literary, school subjects, and religious (Quedraogo, 2000:2736).Acquisition planning of Arabization refers to the adoption of Arabization, Arabic language spread, and teaching-learning Arabic process(Al-Abed Al-Haq, 1994: 60). In order to be able to understand, describe and analyseArabization planning in a scrutinizedway, it is a necessity to set some theoretical framework to develop Arabization planning. Cooper (1989:46) suggests four crucial criteria to judge the success or failure of language planning, which can be in turn useful criteria for the evaluation of Arabization planning: (1). Descriptive adequacy, (2).Predictive adequacy, (3).Explanatory adequacy, and (4). Theoretical adequacy: 1).Descriptive adequacy refers to our success in representing what happened in a given context (ibid).However, a scholar or investigator faces two broad questions: (a). what should be described? (b). on what basis should the description be evaluated? 2).Predictive adequacyrefers to forecasting events. Arabization planning in Algeria is an illustrative example.The Algerian decision-makers suggested that after Arabization implementation there might be seen a gradual decrease in language diversity in Algeria, and hence a decrease in: bilingual education, bilingual government, public jobs, and minority languages. This may make political monolingualism possible. 3).Explanatory adequacyrefers to the ability to afford plausible explanations for the aforementioned predictions. In other words, this criterion refers to the ability to account for particular outcome (Cooper, 1989: 50). 4).Theoretical adequacy deals primordially with the set of available variables that should be described, predicted, and explained in given situations. Accordingly, with no theory of 390

language (Arabization) planning, no principled means are available to decide what factors should be included or excluded in descriptive, predictive, and explanatory studies (AlAbed Al Haq, 1994:60). As there is a no one agreed upon framework for Arabization planning, many disciplines and sub-disciplines can be combined to better understand Arabization planning. Therefore, it is feasible to turn to frameworks proposed for marketing, for example. Arabization as an Instance of Marketing The analogy existing between Arabization planning and marketing may seem strange at first glance, for people are not used to view language use, structure, or acquisition as products that can be promoted. However, the picture may be clear after defining the concept of marketing which holds that: The organizations task is to determine the needs and wants and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that preserves or enhances the consumers and societys well-being(Kotler, 1971 cited in Weinreich, 2006:1). In the same respect, Arabic use, Arabic structure, proficiency and attitudes towards Arabic are products of Arabizationwhose acceptance can be marketed and promoted in the same way the product managers of toothpaste, detergent, or automobile are marketed(Cooper, 1989:72). Probably, one single nuance may exist between the two marketings in that the primary aim of Arabization marketing is to encourage people to adopt behaviours that will enhance their own - and their citizens- lives. In other words, it looks for social good, while in commercial marketing the aim is merely financial. However, this does not mean that commercial marketers cannot aid in the achievement of social good. According toKotler&Zaltman (1971),the marketing problem is seen as developing the right product backed by the right promotion and put in the right place at the right price;these rubrics are referred to as the four Ps. Product Unlike commercial marketing product, Arabization marketing product is not necessarily a tangible offering, it is a set of intangible ideas.A feasible product should be perceived by the language usersas the best solution to the actual problem.Accordingly, products must be designed with specific features that appeal to target language user.When the Algerian authorities, for instance, decided to assign Berber a national language position, they had foundit very imperative to know which of the Berber dialects were most useful for nationhood standards. Promotion This consists of the integrated use of persuasion in order to induce language users to adoptcommunication innovation, allocation of functions etc, whether adoption is viewed as awareness, positive evaluation, proficiency, or usage(Cooper, 1989:75). The focus is on creating and supporting demand for the product.Advertisements, announcements, editorials, or media sponsorship are one way. In general, language planners use a number of techniques of persuasion to promote their poducts, for instance, in the 1980s the Algerian High Council of the Arabic Language launched a set of decrees to adopt Standard Arabicin the sense that itinvited the functionaries to attend the courses in the language that were daily presented in the administrations. Besides, the Council put signs and slogans like Islam is my religion, 391

Arabic is my language, and Algeria is my country in public settings exhorting Algerians to use correct Arabic and be proud of their identity, ethnicity, and loyalty to the Arabic language. However, it should be stated in this respect that language planners must be innovative and careful not to overwhelm their target adopters. In order for these techniques of persuasion to be viable, language planners sometimes award prizes or grants to stimulate awareness, interest, proficiency, or usage(Cooper, 1989:76). In the first decades after Independence, the Algerian President HouariBoumedienne (1965-1978) employed means to promote the proficiency and use of Standard Arabic in different walks of life.Administration was a case in point.The president made the knowledge of Standard Arabic an employment requirement for administrative jobs. While language planners can use all of the persuasive devices available to any user, they may sometimes enjoy coercive power to compel and enforce language planning decisions.the Algerian authorities, for instance, forbid any use of language other than Standard Arabic in public administrations.To fulfill their objective, they relied on punishing the functionaries by affording them very cheap salaries, imposing fees on them, or dismissing them from their job sectors. Price Itrefers to what the language user must do in order to obtain the social marketing product. It includes money costs, or it may instead require the language user to give up intangibles, such as being fired from a company as a sign of embarrassment and disapproval(Weinreich, 2006:2).Alanguage planner, like amarketer must balance costs with benefits (Moses, 2009:1). In other words, if the product is priced too low, the language user may perceive it as being not beneficial (Kotler&Zaltman, 1971:16).On the other hand, if the price is too high, some will not be able to afford it. For instance, adults in Algeria, study English (as a foreign language) and/or French (as a second language) in private schools. They believe that knowledge of French or English will improve their earning capacities, so economic incentives are a good stimulus to this learning. Seemingly, they view that the projected financial benefits are higher than the present costs of schooling fees, efforts, or time while learning. Place Thisdescribes the way the product reaches the language user. It entails selection and development of appropriate means to decisions about the channels through which language users are reached with information or training (the product). This may include mass media channels.To take another example, language education system in Algeriamay function as an instrument for the attainment of wider Arabization planning goals, particularly Arabization acquisition planning goals. However, this can be possible only if the language planners provided instruction materials, effective teachers in Standard Arabic, and better teaching-learning locus to spread the use of Standard Arabic.

Conclusion A descriptively adequate account of Arabization planning can inform investigators, at least, of what actors attempted to influence what behaviours, of which people, for what ends, by what means, with what results, under what conditions(Al -Abed Al-Haq, 1994:63). The marketing approach, for instance, seems to represent a bridging process that 392

links scientists and economists knowledge with that of language planners. In this way, it offers a useful framework to improve capacities to describe, predict, explain, and draw generalizations about social matters that become more relevant and critical. References Al-Abed Al-Haq, F. (1994). Toward a Theoretical Framework for the Study of Planning Arabicization. A Paper Presented to the Thirteen International Conference on Linguistics, Literature and Translation at Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan. Benrabah, M. (2007).The Language Situation in Algeria. In: Kaplan, R.B &Baldauf, R.B. (eds). Language Planning and Policy in Africa, Vol. 2 Algeria, Cte dIvoire, Nigeria and Tunisia. Multilingual Matters. Cooper, R.L. (1989).Language Planning and Social Change. Cambridge University Press. Eastman, C. (1993).Language Planning: An Introduction. San Francisco: Chandler &Sharp. Gadelii, K. E. (1999). Language Planning: Theory and Practice Evaluation of Language PlanningCases Worldwide.Paris: UNESCO Language Division EducationSector. Available from: <URL:http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001184/118456eo.pdf> Grandguillaume, G. (2004). La Francophonie en Algrie. Herms, 40,75-78. Kotler,P &Zaltman, G. (1971).Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change. Journal of Marketing ,35. Lasagabaster, D. (2002).The Role of Instrumental and Integrative Attitudes in a Multilingual Context.ACTAS / PROCEEDINGS II SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL BILINGISMO. Moses, I. (2009). About the Concept of Social Marketing, Kotler, Known as the Fatherof Modern Marketing Says. Available from :<http://www.pressreleasepoint.com> Quedraogo, R.M. (2000).Language Planning and Language Policies in Some Selected West African Countries.Burkina Faso: IICBA. Robinson, D. (1988). Language Policy and Planning:ERIC Digest. Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics. Washington DC. Rubin, J&Jernudd, B., Eds. (1971).Can Language Be Planned?Sociolinguistic Theory and Practicefor Developing Nations. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii. Sayadi, M. (1982). Arabization in the Arab World, inArabization and its Role in Supporting the Arab Existence and Unity.In Arabic. Beirut:Center of Arab Unity Studies. Weinreich, N. K. (2006).What is Social Marketing? Available from: <www.socialmarketing.com>.

393

The Use of CALL in Improving Speaking Competency for Information and Technology Department Students Pikir Wisnu Wijayanto, M.Hum Information System Study Program, Department of Information and Technology, Telkom Polytechnic Bandung Indonesia pikirwisnu@yahoo.com Abstract Learning English especially for non-English department students, especially for Information and Technology (IT) students needs some strategies of pedagogy used in order to improve their English proficiency and competencies, especially in speaking skills. The common problems that appeared here are; the students respond in involving the activities in English learning. They still have anxiety and lack of motivation in practicing their speech. Most of them were afraid of making mistakes, in term of accuracy or pronunciation, accurately, fluently, and courageous as parts in speaking competency. Therefore, the use of teaching strategies of pedagogy used is needed in order to eliminate those problems. The writer recommended using a set of media of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) as an alternative solution, and tried to evaluate the effectiveness of it. Based on the problems identified and limited, the writer formulated the research question as how is the effectiveness a set of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) application in improving the speaking ability of Information and Technology (IT) Department students at Telkom Polytechnic Bandung. The research took place in Information and Technology Department at Telkom Polytechnic Bandung. The methods used in this study were participant observation and mark documents. The participants were 29 students from Computer Engineering Study Program with the class code BC192-TK-2010-2, from the 5th semester who took English 4 as their subject. The research findings indicated that most of students have some progress in improving their speaking competency, and became high motivated in practicing English speech. They also could evaluate themselves in term of speaking ability and the learning process run well and conducted in a good atmosphere. Therefore, it can be concluded that the use of software application in CALL could improve the students competency in terms of speaking English. Keywords: Learning EFL, and Speaking Competency, and CALL Introduction This chapter is proposed to introduce the research and give explanation for the necessity to conduct it. A brief description of the context where the research is conducted related with the use of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) for improving the speaking ability for Information and Technology (IT) Department students at Telkom Polytechnic Bandung. This chapter consists of six main parts, namely the background of the study, problem identification, problem limitation, problem formulation, research goals and objectives, and research benefits and contributions. A. Background English still as a foreign language in Indonesia, therefore learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) needs some strategies in order to achieve the learning objectives decided 394

by the institution, in term of communication practice and tasks. There are four integrated skills in learning English that must be achieved as the objectives for the learners; listening, speaking, writing, and reading. In this paper, the writer only focused on improving speaking skill or ability as a competency in learning EFL for IT department students in Telkom Polytechnic, because the common problems faced; the students respond in involving the activities in English learning. They still have anxiety and lack of motivation in practicing their speech. Most of them were afraid of making mistakes, in term of accuracy or pronunciation, accurately, fluently, and courageous as parts in speaking competency. The main objective determined by the institution was how to improve their speaking as a productive skill that must be achieved in learning atmosphere and in their environment after they graduate from Telkom Polytechnic Bandung. In order to alleviate the problem, the writer tried to find a strategy to assist the students to improve their speaking ability by using Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) to engage learners more in the learning process, and analyzing the effectiveness from the use of it, and the use of CALL here is to emphasis on communication and task, in order to improve the speaking competency of IT students. B. Problem Identification In this study the writer would like to evaluate the effectiveness of CALL in order to improve the speaking ability of students of Computer Engineering study program at Information and Technology Department in Telkom Polytechnic Bandung. Before investigating whether the CALL application could facilitate learners English materials, it is important to ensure that the chosen of materials sources in the web for online learning and software applications were satisfactorily designed for educational purposes is designed for learners who wish to learn how to increase their English proficiency in term of speaking ability. C. Problem Limitation In doing limitation of the research achievement, the research only focused on the improvement of speaking performance based on the use of some software applications and internet connection as source of speaking materials by analyzing and comparing the cyclists and mark of students of Computer Engineering study program at Information and Technology Department in Telkom Polytechnic Bandung, for their first and second speaking performance. D. Problem Formulation The research problems are formulated as follows: 1. How is the effectiveness a set of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) application in improving the speaking ability of Information and Technology (IT) Department students at Telkom Polytechnic Bandung? E. Research Goals and Objectives The research had been conducted to serve some goals and objectives, namely: 1. To know the effectiveness of CALL usage in order to improve the speaking ability of IT Department students at Telkom Polytechnic Bandung. 2. To evaluate the effectiveness of CALL in term of improving the competency of speaking for IT Department students. 3. To improve the students language proficiency in English in term of speaking ability. 4. To implement The Tri Dharma College such as teaching, doing the research, and society dedication.

395

F. Research Benefits and Contributions 1. This research will be beneficial for the lecturers especially in learning process so that they will pay more attention toward the students speaking skill in learning the language. They will know how to treat the students in learning foreign language so that the students will learn better with a high enthusiasm. 2. By conducting this research, it is hoped that by analyzing the effectiveness of CALL, it would engage IT Department students motivation and improve their competency in term of speaking performance 3. This research will be usefull for the students to evaluate their own progress or improvement in speaking based on the target determined for each level of competency. 4. CALL system can be useful to evaluate the progress of learning process, therefore teacher and learners can involve the process in developing materials to get the skill improvement in mastering the language proficiency. 5. The institution is also will get beneficial by having some references of CALL system or software application for measuring the language proficiency in term of speaking ability. Literature Review This chapter aims to review the theories underlying this study that become the bases for the discussion. The discussion consists of two main parts, namely, theoretical review and theoretical framework. A. Theoretical Review The related theoretical review mainly discusses about Learning EFL, and Speaking Competency, and CALL. 1. Learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) English as a foreign language all refer to use, study, or learn of English by speakers with a different native language. There are some difficulties that learners face in learning English as the consequence of the degree to which their native language differs from English (wikipedia.com). Learning EFL in term of improving speaking ability needs a hard effort in order to achieve the target language determined by the institution. There are many English learners criticize that they understand English actually, but they dont feel confident enough to join a conversation in speaking practice subject. There are several reasons for this, including: a. Students are just trying to translate from their native language into English. b. Production "blocking" in producing words or sentences of speaking activities is occurring due to nervousness, lack of confidence, etc. c. The student sometimes complicates themselves by looking for a specific word, rather than using simple language to describe what is meant. d. Students have lack of conversation opportunities in or outside of class or in the society. e. Students arent able to speak to peers (for example: mixed classes of different level of competency or ability). f. Exam preparation is just focuses on grammar, vocabulary, etc. and leaves little time for active use. 2. Speaking Competency Most of English adult learners in Indonesia still have a problem in speaking English fluently; even they have already learnt English since they were in elementary school. This is a very crucial problem to face. The problem relies on the method how English is learned or taught. Learning English is not a matter of 396

acquiring a set of rules and building up a large vocabulary (Alexander, 2005, vii). Competency in speaking is the ability to communicate orally using clear, coherent, and effective language appropriate to the purpose, occasion, and audience by building up the vocabulary and expressions. It also includes utilizing non-verbal communication to support the verbal message. There are some learning strategies suggested to improve speaking ability such as: a. Practice of speak, converse, explore, share, talk, etc, as much as you can, because this is the most important skill to develop when learning a foreign language. However, these strategies can help you as a teacher or your students make the most out of your efforts. b. Create a good preparation of the conversation lesson plans. It will help teacher to give the appropriate material to the learners according to the learning objectives determined by the institution. c. Use a kind of pedagogy to support learning activities so that students can involve in active. The common problem is that foreign language books or references rarely give enough opportunity for practicing speaking: they are mostly for reading and writing or only give a kind of receptive skill, not productive one. Therefore, to help improve your English speaking skills, participate in all conversations in English, whether it is just chitchatting in online and offline by using any kind of learning media such as software application or internet connection to make more interactive, especially if you find a difficulties in finding a partner in speaking practice, whether youre in the classroom, and whether youre with a teacher. 3. CALL: As a media for learning language Recently, the use of offline and online media are familiar in learning process. For example, the use of computer, software applications, and internet connection become popular in teaching-learning process to enhance the language proficiency for learners as a set of pedagogy called Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). CALL systems often use multimedia to engage learners more in the learning process. CALL offers the language teacher and learner a number of activities that when carefully planned as part of the pedagogical room will help the learner learn a language. The students used CALL systems to evaluate their speech progress by using some software applications and internet as an online media, in term of English proficiency in speaking. CALL can probably mean as the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning (Levy, 1997:1). This definition means that the application of the computer is highly used to support the language learning process. It offers the language teacher and learner a number of activities in learning process that when carefully planned as part of the pedagogical room to help the learners learn language proficiency as learning target. Therefore, the application of software applications, or internet connection to the specific needs of CALL research and development is really need to be considered as one of the ways of the skills improvement in teaching and learning practice. The role of the computer in CALL has moved from the input control feedback sequence to management of communication, text, audio, and video. Future domestic appliances will integrate and merge video, television, audio, telephone, graphics, text, and internet into one unit as can in 2006 be seen on newer generations of mobile telephones/communicators. Based research and practice conducted by Lee (2009), there are eight advantages of CALL. The advantages are: experiential learning, motivation, enhanced student 397

achievement, authentic material for study, greater interaction, individualization, Independence from a Single Source of Information, and global understanding. One of the ways to use the CALL program is using the ready-made CD-ROMs in PC. There are two ready-made CD-ROMs suggested here, one is Speaking of Values Audio CDs and the other is New Interchange CD-ROM, Speaking of Values is aimed at encouraging intermediate and high-intermediate students to address and discuss different real-life problems. Such issues encourage students to compare their ideas and values with those classmates with other background, personalities, and cultures (Mills, 2006). New Interchange is a revision of Interchange, one of the worlds most successful and popular English courses, and also a multi-level course in English as a second or foreign language for adult and young adult learners. Through this book and its CDROM, teachers can integrate language work with high-interest themes and a proven multi-skills syllabus. The course covers the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, as well as improving pronunciation and building vocabulary. Particular emphasis is placed on listening and speaking. The self-study Audio Program can be downloaded via www.cambridge.org/interchangearcade. The book and the CD-ROM can also be purchased via www.mentaribooks.com, the book store under the license of Cambridge University Press. (Richards, 2005). Learners can also join the English forum or group through the internet and download some materials on CDs to enhance their speaking skill, especially sharing and exploring ideas or sentences. The following websites can be accessed to join on-line English learning: http://eng.cilacapedu.com/ http://www.dpb.dpu.dk/infodok/sprogforum/Espr11/caudery.html http://teguhhandoko.com/ A software which is free when used for online exercises: www.halfbaked.com www.clarity.com.hk with Author Plus Light CD free trial etc B. Theoretical Review There are at least three ways to use CALL. Firstly, design our own CALL program based on the competency want to achieved, secondly, use the ready-made CD-ROMs from some book references or resources, and thirdly, access world web sites or connect our computer to the internet. When planning to use CALL it is important to understand how a language is learned. Language learning is a cognitive process, i.e. it is the result of the students own processing of language inputs. What is learned here is mainly the result of this process and not just explanations, rules, and questions presented by a teacher or a computer, but also based on learners existing knowledge on the topic being worked on, language, and language acquisition the learner processes the input and fits it into the language system he/she possesses. Therefore, the preparation in using CALL in language learning is needed and the lecturer as a facilitator must determine the goal or objective in language learning. Methodology This chapter discusses the methodology used to conduct the research. This chapter consists of method, the nature of data, pilot study, data setting and source, data gathering instruments, data collection, data analysis, and data validation. 398

1. Method The research method employed in this study was quantitative data. Quantitative methods are those which focus on numbers and frequencies rather than on meaning and experience. They are associated with the scientific and experimental approach and are criticized for not providing an in depth description. Quantitative research involves counting and measuring of events and performing the statistical analysis of a body of numerical data (Smith, 1988). 2. Nature of Data The nature of the research data of this research was quantitative data. The data were quantitative inquiries used numerical of students mark and statistical processes to answer specific questions. Therefore, the obtained data described the improvement in term of speaking ability of the students in Computer Engineering Study Program of Information and Technology Department at Telkom Polytechnic. The institution wants to improve their speaking ability in English by joining the language course; therefore, the students are able to successfully perform their proficiency and competencies activity in order to communicate in global era. The data were investigated and generated from the result of participant observation activities and the mark documents. 3. The Pilot Study A pilot study was previously conducted before conducting the research. A good research strategy requires a careful planning and a pilot study will often be a part of this strategy. In other words, pilot study was conducted to know whether the study was feasible and worthwhile to continue. It is also to know whether the two instruments were applicable and whether changes are needed. The pilot study was conducted for the two instruments used in this study. They were participant observation and mark documents. From the piloting, it was found that the instruments were applicable. The respondents could give the respond from all of the instruments guideline well. In addition, there were no changes in three instruments because the respondents did not give any comments. They assumed that the instruments were appropriate. 4. Data Setting and Source The research was conducted from September 20th, 2010 until January 22nd, 2011. It was done by conducting the participant observation and mark documents in learning process in the classroom with students. Source of data used in this research was the students of Computer Engineering Study Program with the class code BC192-TK2010-2 of Information and Technology Department at Telkom Polytechnic Bandung. 5. Data Gathering Instruments The current research implemented three data gathering instruments; they were participant observation and mark documents. a. Participant Observation. Participant observation was a technique of collecting data done by observing the participants respond in term of students responds activities in learning process and phenomena happened in research setting, related with the research problems. By applying the observation technique, it was expected that the complete description and the whole object observed could be gathered. To help in finding the result on the observation, the blueprint was made on Table 3.1. Table 3.1 The Blue Print Observation for Evaluating the Effectiveness of CALL Respond Indicator No. Good Average Poor 1. Students attention in learning process % % % 399

2. 3. 4.

Students; respond in term of speaking activity Students enthusiasm in looking information of the materials Students respond in term of leacturers explanation and question

The respond of each indicator could be deliberated from the mark as the progress evaluation based on their respond for each cycle from three cycles in learning process of speaking. The writer used percentage to make easier in analyzing based on the number of students achieved their own mark for each cycle. A good respond if the mark of each cycle is 75. In term of average respond if the mark 65, and poor respond if 55 from 100 scale. b. Mark Documents Besides conducting the observation, the writer also made an evaluation from the mark documents of students in the learning process. There were three cycles evaluated in the learning process. The first cycle, the learning process conducted without any kind of pedagogy used in term of software applications, and internet connection. The use of software applications and internet connection in learning process started in the second cycle. In every cycle the students were given a kind of activity of speaking and would be evaluated for knowing their progress. From the evaluation process, the writer could evaluate the effectiveness of CALL used and the progress of language proficiency in term of speaking ability of students. 6. Data Collection The research took place in Information and Technology Department at Telkom Polytechnic Bandung. The methods used in this study were participant observation and mark documents. The participants were 29 students from Computer Engineering Study Program with the class code BC192-TK-2010-2, from the 5th semester who took English 4 as their subject. 7. Data Analysis According to Hopkins (2002), there were two types in quantitative data analysis. They were summarizing data and generalizing from sample to population. Data analysis used in this research was quantitative data analysis with the type of summarizing data analysis The type of summarizing data analysis is drawn in schema as follows:

Variables

Complex models

Summarizing Data

Simple statistics

Effect statistics and statistical models

Figure 3.1 Type of Summarizing Data Analysis Scheme (Source: Hopkins WG (2002). 8. Data Validation In order to ensure the internal validity and reliability, this research used data verification to check the validity of data that used other source(s) for checking or 400

comparing data. The purpose of data verification was to check the data validation, therefore the research findings are real based on the reality and condition in research setting. The process of data verification in this study were by comparing and confirming the data gathered from one informant to other informant.

Findings and Discussion This chapter presents the results of the research instruments in gathering data as well as data analysis in order to answer the research problems. 1. Students Responds based on the class observations. This research conducted into three cycles in term of evaluating the students responds. The first cycle the learning condition for speaking class had been conducted without sets of CALL systems or software. Teachers provide students with specific instructions to complete the tasks of speaking activities. Students only produced a few words or sentences in speaking practice. They can produce sentence by their own. So its like an imitating class even they are adults learners. The result was only 7 students or 17% could give a good respond on this learning activity. The respond of learning activity and lectures explanation and question and the students enthusiasm in looking information were still in average. It was 15 students or 52%. But there were still many students were poor in having the respond. There were 9 students or 31% from the total students. They were still in passive condition and lack of motivation in the learning process. The result of the first cycle can be seen in table 4.1 bellow. Table 4.1 Results Findings of Students Respond without CALL on Cycle Respond Indicator No. Good Average 1. Students attention in learning process 2. Students; respond in term of speaking activity 15/29 5/29 3. Students enthusiasm in looking information of or or the materials 17% 52% 4. Students respond in term of leacturers explanation and question I Poor 9/29 or 31%

By the evaluation identified above, then, for the second cycle the class conducted by using web quests as sets of CALL system and some software applications. In this strategy, teacher provided students with specific web sites and software in speaking learning activity that can help them complete the same tasks. Teacher must thoroughly review each source for relevance and credibility. Students can produce their speech as a respond or media presentation, which may include giving short and long answer from the conversation practice, and sharing their own ideas or opinions about some question or cases given. The progress or improvement in speaking compression has increased significantly. The respond from students interest and motivation was also increased, especially the improvement from the average respond into good respond, from 17% became 38% of increasing. They could perfom their own skill in producing sentences or develop their own ideas with their own words or expressions to express some information asked in the intruction taks. But there were still some students (9 students) only performed in a poor respond, and this number was still the same with the previous cycle. The result of the second cycle can be seen in table 4.2 bellow. 401

Table 4.2 Results Findings of Students Respond used CALL on Cycle II Respond No Indicator Goo Avera Poo . d ge r 1. Students attention in learning process 9/2 2. Students; respond in term of speaking activity 11/2 9/29 9 3. Students enthusiasm in looking information of the 9 or or or materials 38% 31% 31 4. Students respond in term of leacturers explanation % and question In the third cycle, the using of CALL system and software tried to be implemented in more various sources and involved the role of students in searching the sources by them self. The result of students responds was completely increased significantly. All of the indicators could be responded well. Most of students gave high attention and respond in term of all indicators. The result of the third cycle can be seen in the table 4.3 bellow. Table 4.3 Results Findings of Students Respond used CALL on Cycle III Respond No Indicator Goo Averag Poo . d e r 1. Students attention in learning process 2. Students; respond in term of speaking activity 22/29 5/29 2/29 3. Students enthusiasm in looking information of the or or or materials 76% 17% 7% 4. Students respond in term of leacturers explanation and question 2. Students Progress Evaluation based on mark documents. After conducting the observation, the writer made an evaluation based on the mark documents of students in the learning process in order to evaluate the effectiveness of CALL usage. There were also three cycles evaluated in the learning process. The first cycle, the learning process conducted without any kind of pedagogy used in term of software applications, and internet connection. The use of software applications and internet connection in learning process started in the second cycle. In every cycle the students were given a kind of activity and would be evaluated for knowing their progress. From the evaluation process, the writer could evaluate the effectiveness of CALL used and the progress of language proficiency in speaking in term of accuracy or pronunciation, accurately, fluently, and courageous as parts in speaking competency. The complete result of mark evaluation in every cycle can be seen in figure 4-1 bellow.

402

Figure 4.1 The Progress from Mark Letters of evaluation of English Speaking Ability (Cycle I, II, and III) Based on the mark evaluation, from the first cycle, when the teacher conducted he learning process without using CALL, the level of speaking competency most of them were in good level; there were 15 students who could achieve B, but only few of students (5 students) could get excellent level (A), and there were still 7 students in average level (C), and 2 student in poor level (D). Started in the second cycle, the teacher used some CDs or VCDs collections in term of software application in learning language and also used some sources from the internet connection for learning online. The improvement from poor into average level was happened here, and also from good into excellent level. There were no students in poor level, and the excellent level increased well. On the third cycle the use of CALL system and software tried to be implemented in more various sources and practices, then involved the role of them more interactively and comprehensively. The result increased significantly, especially for the excellent level. There were 22 students or 76% from total students could reach in this level. The average level was also decreased from 9 students became 2 students only, therefore it could be concluded that the use of CALL in speaking class had a good effect and could help the learners improve their language proficiency in term of speaking. Conclusion and Recommendation This chapter deals with two parts, namely conclusions and recommendations. The first part deals with giving conclusions of the study. The second part deals with the recommendations for the teachers, the students, and further research. 1. Conclusion The main objective in this paper has been mentioned in the previous chapter was to find the effectiveness of the CALL usage in improving English proficiency in term of speaking ability for IT department students. The model is constructed by identifying mark documents of students and four main indicators of students respond; attention, respond in speaking activity, enthusiasm in looking information of the materials and respond in term of leacturers explanation and question. Those indicators were integrated into a whole. From results finding and progress evaluation it can be concluded that the use of CALL system and software has increased the respond of IT department students in English language proficiency in term of speaking competency. . According to the mark evaluation, in every cycle, most of students have got a good progress significantly. The students proficiency in speaking has improved significantly, in term of accuracy or 403

pronunciation, accurately, fluently, and courageous as parts in speaking competency. Therefore, the use of CALL 2. Recommendation After knowing the effectiveness of CALL system and software for improving the English proficiency in term of speaking competency, the writer would like to give some recommendations as follows; a. The use of CALL must be implemented as a source of teaching methodology in learning English as a foreign language for IT department students. b. The teacher must prepare well in implementing of CALL and involve the students in creating a creative teaching-learning process. c. The use of technology as an aid tools in learning process must support in learning process, therefore the language proficiency is not only increase but also their competency in using technology will also improve. d. Teacher must concern with teaching learning process that conducted in every semester. Teacher can also conduct Tri Dharma College, not only conducting the teaching activity but also such as making an evaluation as a research, and creating a product (software application as learning resources). References Alexander, L.G. (2005). Practice and Progress. Jakarta: Kanisius. Beare, Kenneth. (2009). Speaking Strategies for English Learners. See at http://esl.about.com/od/speakingenglish/a/speaking_hub.htm. Hopkins WG (2002). Quantitative Data Analysis (Slideshow). Sportscience 6, sportsci.org/jour/0201/Quantitative_analysis.ppt (2046 words) Lancaster GA, Dodd S & Williamson PR (2004). Design and Analysis of Pilot Studies: Recommendations for Good Practice. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 10(2): 307-12 Lee, Kuang-wu. (2009). English Teachers Barriers to the Use of Computer-Assisted Language Learning. See at http://itslj.org/Articles/Lee-CALLbarriers.html. Levy, M. (1997). Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Context and Conceptualization. Oxford, New York: Clarendon Press. Mills, Robin. (2006). Speaking of Values 2: Conversation and Listening. London; New York: Longman. Richards, Jack C. (2005). New Interchange. Cambridge University Press. Schoenberg, Irene E. (2004). Speaking of Values: Conversation and Listening. London; New York: Longman.See at Wikipedia, Computer-Assisted Language Learning. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_language_learning> accessed on November 25th, 2010See at Wikipedia, English as a Foreign Language. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_a_foreign_language> accessed on December 15th, 2010 Smith M.J. (1988). Contemporary Communication Research Methods. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Inc.

404

MTBMLE in the Philippines: Perceptions, Attitudes, and Outlook Maria Kristina S. Gallego University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines mariakristinagallego@yahoo.com Louward Allen M. Zubiri University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines louward.zubiri@gmail.com Abstract For several decades, education and language policies in the Philippines have been a popular subject of debate especially among policy makers and school administrators. The 1974 Bilingual Education Policy (BEP) and the 1987 constitutional mandate on the status of Filipino, in particular, were significant issues contributing to the course of the Philippine education system (Rubrico, 1998; Acua & Miranda, 1994). More recently, the implementation of DepEd Order No. 60, s. 2008 and DepEd Order No. 74, s. 2009 caused a significant change in the current educational landscape. The former recognizes that the mother tongue, when used as the language of instruction (LOI), is the most effective way to improve student learning. Correspondingly, the latter mandate aptly institutionalized Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) as a fundamental educational policy program, founded on the basic premise of starting where the learners are, and from what they already know (Nolasco, 2009: 2). MTBMLE advances education beginning with the childs first language (L1) and the subsequent gradual introduction of other languages along with the buildup of the childs L1 skills. The effectiveness of MTBMLE is irrefutable. However, the success of this approach lies not entirely on the school administrators but on the support it gets from the community as well. By looking into the surveys done on the local community, this study aims to give an overview of the current attitudes and perceptions regarding MTBMLE, consequently providing a glimpse of the Philippine education system in the future. Keywords: MTBMLE, Bilingualism, Language Policy, Philippines Introduction Of multilingualism and language policies The linguistic context of the Philippines plays an important role in the formulation and implementation of various language and education policies in the country. Home to 171 extant languages (Lewis, 2009), the archipelago is a colorful mix of cultures, traditions, and languages. In many ways, the interaction we see among the languages spoken here are by no means a product of different social factors language preference, shift, borrowings, and contact are brought about by the concepts of prestige, ideologies, labels and stereotypes the speakers continue to propagate. The multilingual situation of the country is far from simple. Aside from the vernaculars (ex. Bugkalot of the Cordilleran region), a prototypical Filipino can speak several languages of wider communication such as a regional lingua franca (ex. Ilokano in the Northern Philippines), the national lingua franca (Filipino), and a global language (ex. English). The diglossic situation of these languages, however helpful and healthy, contributes in some ways to the maintenance and proliferation of such aforementioned stereotypes and images the speakers put on their languages. For example, if English and Filipino are often used in schools while the vernaculars are typically restricted within the 405

realms of the home and the immediate community, a speaker may deem his vernacular unfit for official and formal use. Educators and administrators are faced with several difficulties regarding language and education policies in the Philippines because of this complex multilingual situation. This is compounded by that fact that the Philippines has been under at least two colonial regimes: Spanish and American. English and Spanish were integrated to the countrys educational system. For a time, the former remained the primary medium of instruction (MOI) in schools, and even up to now, the language is recognized as one of the official languages of the archipelago. Not until 1974 was there a move to replace English with Filipino as the MOI in the social sciences, physical education, arts and music, and etc. with the implementation of the Bilingual Policy through Dept. Order No. 25 s. 1974 and Dept. order No. 52, s. 1987 (Rubrico, 1998; Acua & Miranda, 1994). Moreover, the regional languages, as mandated by the 1987 Constitution, serve as the auxiliary media of instruction. Operationally, the term auxiliary is defined as the use of the local vernacular as the medium for transitional bilingualism (Gonzalez, 1996: 1). The implementation of the Bilingual Policy is not without problems. English proficiency continues to be the primary marker of skill, intellect, and social class, whereas the vernaculars remain in the periphery. However, the TIMMS report showed the low aptitude of Filipino students in science and mathematics despite the use of English as MOI in the said domains (Martin, et al., 2000; Martin, et al., 2004; Mullis, et al., 2000; Mullis et al., 2004). Thus, the need to assess other plausible and possibly better approaches to the educational system became paramount. The shift to the native language as MOI started with the Lingua Franca Education Project through DECS Memo 144, s. 1999. The current Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) policy is the continuation of this project. This MTBMLE approach is based on the premise that in order to be academically competent, a student must have a strong grasp of his native tongue/first language (L1). This means that education should start from where the learners are and what they already know (Nolasco, 2009: 2). Building a strong L1 foundation, the student is then bridged to his/her second language/s (L2) by providing a strong training in his/her L2 listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills (loc. cit.). The proposal met opposing views from legislators however. One such move counteracting MTBMLE was the Executive Order 210 aimed at strengthening the students English proficiency by establishing the language as the primary MOI in schools (Executive Order No. 210, 2003). Despite this however, the movement in favor of the mother tongue approach to education pushed through, with DepEd Order No. 60, s. 2008 and DepEd Order No. 74, s. 2009 institutionalizing MTBMLE as a fundamental educational policy program. The transition towards a mother tongue-based multilingual education is not a simple feat. Several factors should be considered such as the production of materials, training of teachers, management of resources, and perhaps of equal importance, the socio-cultural support fueling this project. Focusing on the communitys perception and attitudes regarding this policy, this study hopefully contributes to the successful implementation of MTBMLE in the Philippines. Related Literature Of MTBMLE determining school success Using a language unfamiliar to the learner is often cited as a barrier for communication and education. The best way towards school success is the use of a language common to both the teacher and the students. This entails the use of the native tongue as the medium 406

for learning, starting with what the students know and making use of what they already have. A number of studies have already shown that academic competence can be achieved by starting instruction with L1, with the continuous strengthening of the L1 foundation followed by the gradual transition to L2 (or L3). This is the main premise of the mother tongue-based multi-lingual education. On the effectiveness of MTBMLE Thomas and Colliers 1997 study on the academic performance of language minority students in the United States shows that academic instruction using L1 accompanied by the gradual transition to L2 is the predictor for long-term academic success. Perhaps another important part of their research is their prism model which illustrates the drive for L2 learning in school. The prism model consists of four interrelated parts: linguistic, academic, cognitive, and at the very core, sociocultural. If these areas are strengthened and nourished, a student would effectively learn his/her L2 alongside the improvement on his/her academic performance. In terms of evaluating an effective educational program for language minority students, the researchers stress the importance of L1 instruction, good teaching strategies, interaction with the native speakers of their L2, and finally, a supportive sociocultural environment. Aside from Thomas and Collier (1997), Walter & Trammell (2010) investigated the effectiveness of MTBMLE in the Boyo Division of North West Province, Cameroon. As expected, there was an improvement in the academic performance of students taught in their mother tongue, Kom. As the project is still in its incipient stage, the full effect of MTBMLE on the school success of the students is yet to be seen. What is important to note here is that only three years after the implementation of the project, we already witness significant gains in educational efficiency for children in the experimental schools in all subjects (pg. 1). The effectiveness of MTBMLE as an educational program is indeed undeniable. The next question then would be on how Filipino students, given the multi-lingual situation of the country, perform with this kind of approach to education. The MTBMLE in the Philippines Similar to the Kom Experimental Mother Tongue Education Project of Cameroon, Dumatog & Dekker (2003) and Duguiang & Dekker (2010) wrote about the Lubuagan Project in Kalinga, Philippines, in which it modeled a system of teaching using the mother tongue. Lubuagan is located in the Cordilleran Mountains of Kalinga and has a population of 10,183 residents according to the 2007 Philippine Census. Schools in Lubuagan followed a western approach as most of its educators stem from missionaries. This approach eventually resulted to the disjunction in relationship between teachers and students. Utilizing a standard design with a control and experimental group, the researchers attempted to determine whether mother tongue-based education would improve the education system of Lubuagan. Scores in five domains (Reading, Math, Filipino, Makabayan and English) were analyzed and compared. Higher percentages in scores across all domains of the experimental group (taught in L1) indicates empirical evidence of the effectivity of the mother-tongue based program. Hence, it has been found that the mother tongue is indeed a valid bridge or transitional medium of instruction. The realization of the advatanges of this approach spearheaded the initiation of other similar programs. Several factors contributed to the success of the whole Lubuagan project, but perhaps of great importance is the invaluable sociocultural support the project has received from the community. In a macro-perspective, we take a look at the whole education system of the Philippines. 407

Gonzales (1996) describes the situation of Philippine education as a result of its multilingual background and the implementation of its diverse policies. It stems from the unequal status of the two languages used in the bilingual policy Filipino and English. In terms of resources, materials and development, the two languages as media of instruction are highly disparate. Realistically speaking, the bilingual policy is enacted as the separation of the use of Filipino and English in distinct domains. Filipino is used in arts and humanities subjects while English is used in science and mathematics. The vernacular assists the use of these two languages by providing a bridge or a transitional medium of instruction. It has been mentioned that the Bilingual Project is not a very effective educational policy program as the academic performance of the students was found to be mediocre especially in the areas of science and mathematics. Thus, educators and policy makers sought alternatives to this approach, and the MTBMLE is found to be an excellent option. With MTBMLE, students are first taught to read and write in their L1, and subjects such as mathematics and science are to be taught using the L1 as well. Continuously building a strong foundation of the students L1, Filipino and English, as separate subjects, are introduced. Skills in speaking, writing, and reading will be focused on. Gaining enough proficiency in their L2/L3, these languages are then used as the primary media of instruction. MTBMLE rests on the premise that the students can transfer the skills and knowledge they gained from their intensive L1 instruction to their L2 (Filipino and English) provided they get sufficient training and education. Thus, effective L2 learning is ensured alongside the improved academic performance of the students (Nolasco, 2009). Current efforts in MTBMLE Awid (2010) reports the current efforts concerning MTBMLE in the Philippines. Advocacy meetings among the Department of Education, local government units, universities, and the private sector held in various municipalities are being conducted. Moreover, strategic planning, conferences, advocacy and mobilization, teacher training, and materials development are ongoing. As Malone (in Nolasco, 2009) notes, there are several essential factors determining the long-term success of the MTBMLE program, namely (1) preliminary research; (2) awareness-raising and mobilization; (3) setting a standard writing system; (4) materials development; (5) accessible reading materials; (6) training of MLE staff; (7) evaluation of the learners academic progress; (8) cooperation among agencies; and (9) supportive political environment (pg. 16). Most of these are already underway. However, the program faces several challenges such as those concerning resources, materials, and curriculum, as well as several other factors internal to the policy makers and school administrators (Awid, 2010). However, the community also poses an immense challenge to the program. As MTBMLE is largely community-based, building a supportive environment is a priority. The family and the immediate community are the main stakeholders in this, and thus, awareness-raising at the grassroots level should be given of chief importance. As mentioned, a lot has already been done for the MTBMLE in such a short time. However, very few efforts were done regarding the attitudes and perception of families and the community towards the program. In this study, we take a look at the challenges MTBMLE is facing in its immediate milieu the home. Methodology The study aims to determine the communitys attitudes and perception regarding the MTBMLE program. Utlizing surveys conducted by several researchers on different schools in the Philippines regarding the language preference of students, teachers, and families, the researchers interpret the survey results as suggestive of the respondents 408

attitudes towards the use of their L1 as MOI. Deriving from the current attitudes and perceptions of the community regarding MTBMLE, the challenges the program currently faces at the grassroots level is highlighted. The surveys used in this research are the following: (1) Adarve & Hipolitos (personal communication, March 23 2011) survey on high school students in a public high school in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. (2) Espinosa, et al.s (personal communication, May 14 2009) linguistic survey of Pelaway Alfonso Castaeda, Nueva Vizcaya. (3) Grivas & Salomes (personal communication, March 23 2011) survey on high school students and teachers in two private high schools: one in Tarlac and another in Quezon City. (4) Javier & Vicerras (2010) survey on high school students in a private high school in Malabon, Metro Manila. (5) Rafael & Rosarios (2011) interviews with parents in Dagupan City, San Carlos City, and Lingayen, all located in Pangasinan. (6) Rosarios (2010) survey on parents in San Carlos City, Pangasinan. All surveys were conducted in places where Tagalog/Filipino is mainly used as the language of communication, except in Pelaway Alfonso Castaeda where Bugkalot is spoken, Tarlac where Kapampangan is used alongside Tagalog/Filipino, and Pangasinan where Pangasinan, Ilocano, and Tagalog/Filipino are used. The survey results were consolidated to highlight the recurring issues and themes regarding language preferences and attitudes.These are presented in the following section. Findings and Discussions Of attitudes and perceptions Looking into the attitudes of speakers towards their own language, Filipino, and English, we draw attention to several key points, namely: (1) the diglossic situation of the languages in the Philippines; (2) the vestiges of the Bilingual Education Policy (BEP); (3) the language preference of speakers; and (4) the attitudes and perceptions regarding MTBMLE. The double-edged diglossia Vernacular languages are spoken at home while Filipino and English are used in schools. For example, eventhough Bugkalot is spoken by both parents and children at home, the language is rarely used in the school as Filipino and English are preferred.Kapampangan finds itself in a similar situation, wherein it is in some ways restricted within the realms of the home and the immediate community. Although these vernacular languages are sometimes used as auxiliary languages, Filipino and English remain the primary languages of instruction. In the studies of Adarve & Hipolito (2011, pers. comm.) and Grivas & Salome (2011, pers. comm.), teachers explicitly showed preference towards English, not only because the language is the prescribed MOI, but also because the teachers feel that more exposure to English would improve the students skills in the language. The distribution of these languages can be characterized as diglossic, in which languages are assigned different roles within a community (Ferguson, 1959 and Quakenbush, 1998). Although we face immense problems regarding language endangerment and death, diglossia in the Philippines helps in the maintenance of languages as the languages involved do not compete among each other. They are rather distributed according to the 409

roles they play in the speech community (Quakenbush, 1998). However, looking more closely, certain problems arise in a situation of diglossia. Fishman (1967) sees the distribution of languages as a matter of language prestige. Looking into the Philippine context, Durano (2009) sees this diglossia as an affirmation on how Filipinos regard English as the language of prestige and of skill, whereas the vernaculars remain in the periphery, exclusive to local-based interactions. Diglossia, according to Durano, is clearly an offshoot of the Filipinos colonial mentality (pg. 18). We will further explore the consequences of diglossia in the following sub-sections. The vestiges of the Bilingual Education Policy The 1974 Bilingual Education Policy aimed at putting Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, equal to English especially in the domains of the academe, business, and government (Rubrico, 1998). Taking the view that Filipino has in its core the Tagalog language (Zubiri & Gallego, 2011) in that it is basically seen as the liberal variety of the language characterized by its heavy borrowings from English (Sikat, 1990: 5), we see that Filipino has indeed become the intellectualized Tagalog largely because of this bilingual education policy. Transcending its status as a regional language (Tagalog), it has become a national lingua franca, the countrys national language. In the diglossic Philippines, Filipino, from its Tagalog roots, has gone beyond the realms of the home as it now moves into the larger domain of education and government. With BEP, we see that Filipino is now being used as one of the primary MOI, whereas its sisters, the other vernacular languages, maintain their position as mere auxiliary languages (Gonzalez, 1996: 1). As mentioned, MTBMLE is only in its incipient stage, and so we are still left with the vestiges of BEP. What remains of the vernacular languages? BEP, although empowering Filipino, has pushed the vernaculars further into the realms of the home. Bugkalot is not used as MOI in Pelaway Alfonso Castaeda, and although most of the students speak the language as their L1, they are still being taught in Filipino and English. Speaking Bugkalot is strictly prohibited in schools, and penalties are given to those students who fail to follow this rule (Espinosa et al., 2009, pers. comm.). We find a similar trend in the other schools surveyed. The Speak English Campaign encourage (or perhaps compel) the students to speak English in class, going as far as sanctioning them if they use their native language. The issues on the implementation of this campaign deserves its own study, but it is enough to note that such existing prescription on language use restricts the use of the vernaculars, reinforces diglossia, and affects the speakers attitudes towards the different languages. As mentioned, Filipino (from its regional Tagalog core) has transcended its status as a regional language. The vernaculars, however, still fail to enter the larger sphere of education as speakers still restrict them within the four corners of the home. This reinforced diglossia, then, is a barrier to MTBMLE. With the multi-lingual speakers sorting out their languages according to their respective domains, a language normally exclusive to the home would be difficult to be used outside it: difficult, speaking not of the limitations of the language in terms of its grammar and lexicon, but of the attitudes of the speakers towards the said language. For Filipino to have broken from the shackles of diglossia, we have witnessed years of debates and language wars (Rubrico, 1998). How long will it take for the vernaculars to achieve such a feat? Checkmate? Language preference and MTBMLE When asked regarding their perception on the English language, students and teachers alike see the language as the key to the world. As it is the language of wider communication, proficiency in English is valued. Being able to speak the language means more job opportunities as well as added prestige and class. To illustrate, Rafael & Rosario 410

(2011) note that Pangasinan parents prefer that their children learn Filipino and English first because these languages enable their children to communicate with a wider range of people (pg. 4 5). Similarly, Grivas & Salome (2011, pers. comm.) asked students and teachers to rank their languages according to their importance. Results show that Kapampangan, the language of the community, only ranked 3rd with respect to English and Filipino. Javier & Vicerra (2011) present similar findings in that the students prefer to pursue education in English and other foreign languages than Filipino or the other Philippine languages as they see the former as a tool for socio-economic advancement (pg. 8). Clearly, the students and teachers place much prestige on English. The motivation to study the language is based on their view that mastery of the language means global competitiveness (Rafael & Rosario, 2011: 5), whereas the motivation to study Filipino and the vernaculars is based on a more emotive aspect, in that learning these languages strengthens their sense of identity and belongingness (Javier & Vicerra, 2010: 8). Thus, we see that such motivations clearly explain how the languages are ranked based on their importance. Parents, moreover, go as far as opposing L1 instruction as they see this as an empty and worthless effort. Their children already know how to speak their native language, why then would there be such a need for a formal teaching of the language? Driven by the phenomenon of partial language shift, majority of the younger generation of Pangasinan speakers interviewed in Rafael & Rosarios study have no intention of teaching the language to their children since English and Filipino are more relevant and important (2011: 6). Aside from this lack of interest in the formal teaching of L1, parents, teachers, and students still have this notion that more exposure to English would entail a certain level of proficiency in the language. This is the motivation of the aforementioned Speak English Campaign of schools as well as the Executive Order 210 discussed earlier. Although longitudinal researches have proven that the critical variable in L2 development in children is not the amount of exposure, but the timing and manner of exposure (Nolasco, 2009: 7), the former notion regarding the students exposure to English still prevails. Since motivation is a major factor in learning, the lack of motivation in studying their L1 poses a big challenge to MTBMLE. The students and their parents are the major stakeholders in this program, and without their support, MTBMLE would be deemed futile. However, declaring checkmate would be too rash. MTBMLE follows a three-language education program, in which students start their education using their L1, building stronger foundations as they transition to L2 and L3 instruction (Nolasco, 2009: 2 3). Starting the basic education with L1 instruction would not mean forsaking the study of English and Filipino. A strong grip of his/her L1, on the contrary, prepares the student for his/her L2 learning. Thus, MTBMLE does not in any way circumvent the students motivation to study English. It rather equips them for this. Moreover, the surveys conducted show that students still prefer using their L1 as medium for learning since they face difficulties in using English. At certain times, teachers tend to switch to Filipino or the vernacular when explaining concepts further. Without complete mastery of the language, receiving instruction primarily in English has been proven detrimental (Nolasco, 2009 and Thomas & Collier, 1997) as concepts and knowledge are not effectively transferred. Thus, we can say that although there is a lack of motivation in using and studying L1 in schools, we see that the language aides in the learning of L2 and L3. We witness here how MTBMLE bridges L2 preference and the use of L1 as the initial MOI. However, there is still the nagging concern regarding the communitys perception on the program. How will MTBMLE address the challenges posed by the lack of socio411

cultural support we have stressed so far? The attitudes and perceptions on MTBMLE We have seen in the previous sections that the issues on language preference and diglossia directly affect the communitys perception regarding MTBMLE. How would the program gain support from the community if its immediate stakeholders do not see their mother tongue as a relevant tool for their socio-economic advancement? Thomas & Collier (1997) identifies the characteristics of an effective school program, wherein we give particular emphasis here on the importance of sociocultural support. A supportive environment in which the stakeholders themselves are fully invested in the program determines the success of MTBMLE. How then would we go past the restrictions of diglossia and language preference? Perhaps we can say that the relationship between MTBMLE and the vernaculars is circular. MTBMLE empowers the local languages as it promotes these as the language of education. We see here that MTBMLE permits the expansion of the domains these local languages are used. However, we can also say that the vernacular languages must first be empowered before they break through this diglossic situation, eventually expanding into the domain of education. MTBMLE cannot induce this empowerment on its own. The program relies on the attitudes and perceptions of the speakers regarding their own languages. Thus we see here the need to promote the program at the grassroots level. First, there is a need to increase awareness regarding the health of the languages. Unless the speakers themselves see their languages as being threatened, the stagnancy of diglossia and perhaps the more deadly language shift will continue to limit the boundaries of the language. What these local languages need is a little push from those aware of these threats in order for them to expand and grow. Thus we have MTBMLE, a program clearly supporting the use of the mother tongue in education. This is different from the Bilingual Education Policy wherein Filipino and English are prescribed as the MOI. Here, MTBMLE eludes favoring one language over another as the program is largely community-based. It is more decentralized, thus we are giving the community more autonomy regarding their educational program. As MTBMLE recognizes the importance of local languages, garnering support from the local community would be easy and straightforward, contrary to what Filipino (as the national language and the MOI through the BEP) has undergone with its long years of opposition from other regional languages. As Rosario (2010) writes, parents are more open to using the mother tongue as medium of instruction in schools given their view on their own language (pg. 11). Second, we see the need to raise awareness all the way down to the immediate stakeholders of the program the family. Administrators and policy makers should not stop at the school level since opposition regarding the program would first come from the parents. Without proper knowledge regarding L2 learning, the parents would go on favoring English as the exclusive MOI based on several popular but misguided beliefs (see Section 4.3). Without correcting these notions, MTBMLE will continue to face such oppositions, definitely hindering the success of the program. At this point, we can say that it is indeed important to look at the attitudes and perceptions of the community regarding MTBMLE. In so far as the efforts regarding the program are concerned, we witness here the lack of movement at the grassroots level. Awid (2010) notes in her report that one current challenge regarding the program is the opposition it faces from the parents. This is possibly because we still havent reached the realms of the home with regards to awareness-raising. Aside from the logistical issues of MTBMLE, this issue should be regarded of equal weight.

412

Conclusion Of looking beyond: A sustainable future We can clearly say that MTBMLE provides a sustainable future for Filipinos. Not only does it improve the quality of education as well as the long-term school success of the students, it also boosts the health of the local languages. The program puts the vernacular languages alongside Filipino and English as important tools in an effective educational program. It thus expands the domains of these vernaculars, encouraging the use of these languages outside the home. Materials produced such as books in these local languages, moreover, provide a stronger push for the preservation of these languages. With the local languages of the Philippines thriving through the help of the MTBMLE, we preserve the richness of our culture and we maintain the many different windows through which we see the world (Nettle & Romaine, 2000: 199). The future we have imagined for the Philippines is indeed promising. However, unless we resolve the challenges the program faces, this future remains vague. We must first establish a supportive environment for the MTBMLE via awareness-raising at the most local level as we go up into the logistics of the program. With this, we secure the success of the program and ultimately, we provide a sustainable future for the Philippines. References 2007 Philippine Census Information. (2007). Retrieved June 21, 2011, from the National Statistics Office website: http://www.census.gov.ph/data/census2007/index.html Acua, J. & B. Miranda. (1994). A closer look at the language controversy. In The Language Issue in Education. Acua, J. (Ed). Manila & Quezon City: Congress of the Republic of the Philippines. Awid, M. (2010, Nov). MLE in the Philippines. Paper presented at the MTB-MLE Forum, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Collier, V., & Thomas, W. (2004). The Astounding Effectiveness of Dual Language Education for All. NABE Journal of Research and Practice, 2(1) , 1-20. Duguiang, N., & Dekker, D. (2010, Feb). Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education The Lubugan Experience. Paper presented at the 1st Philippine Conference Workshop on Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines. Dumatog, R., & Dekker, D. (2003, Nov). First language education in Lubuagan, Northern Philippines. Paper presented at the Conference on language development, language revitalization and multilingual education in minority communities in Asia, Bangkok, Thailand. Durano, F. (2009). Attitudes towards English and Fil-English code-switching amongst high school students in Ormoc City, Philippines. Retrieved July 02, 2011 from http://dspace.mah.se:8080/bitstream/handle/2043/9650/FilipinoEnglish.pdf?sequence=1 Executive No. 210. (2003, May 17). Manila: Supreme Court E-Library. Retrieved July 02, 2011, from http://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/index10.php?doctype=Executive+Orders&docid= a45475a11ec72b843d74959b60fd7bd645f73003691a4 Ferguson, C. (1959). Diglossia. Word, 15, 325 340. Fishman, J. (1967). Bilingualism with and without diglossia; diglossia with and without bilingualism. Journal of social issues, 23, 29 38. Gonzalez, A. (1996). Using Two/Three Languages in Philippine Classrooms: Implications for Policies, Strategies and Practices. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 17 (2-4) , 210-218. 413

Javier, J. & P. Vicerra. (2010, Dec). Mashed media: attitudes of secondary school students towards English, Filipino, and their mother tongue. Paper presented at 15th English in Southeast Asia Conference, University of Macau, Macau SAR China. Lewis, M. P. (2009). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Martin, M. O., Mullis, I. V., Gonzalez, E. J., & Chrostowski, S. J. (2004). TIMSS 2003 International Science Report. Retrieved June 21, 2011, from TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center website: http://timss.bc.edu/PDF/t03_download/T03INTLSCIRPT.pdf Martin, M. O., Mullis, I. V., Gonzalez, E. J., Gregory, K. D., Smith, T. A., Chrostowski, S. J., et al. (2000). TIMSS 1999 International Science Report. Retrieved June 21, 2011, from TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center website: http://timss.bc.edu/timss1999i/pdf/T99i_Sci_All.pdf Mullis, I. V., Gonzalez, E. J., Chrostowski, S. J., & Martin, M. O. (2004). TIMSS 2003 International Mathematics Report. Retrieved June 21, 2011, from TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center website: http://timss.bc.edu/PDF/t03_download/T03INTLMATRPT.pdf Mullis, I. V., Martin, M. O., Gonzalez, E. J., Gregory, K. D., Smith, T. A., Chrostowski, S. J., et al. (2000). TIMSS 1999 International Mathematics Report. Retrieved June 21, 2011, from TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center website: http://timss.bc.edu/timss1999i/pdf/T99i_Math_All.pdf Nettle, D. & S. Romaine. (2000). Vanishing voices: the extinction of the worlds languages. New York: Oxford University Press. Nolasco, R. (2009). 21 Reasons why Filipino children learn better while using their Mother Tongue: A primer on Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education (MLE) and other issues on language and learning in the Philippines. Guro Formation Forum. Quakenbush, J. S. (1998). Other Philippine languages in the third millennium. Philippine Journal of Linguistics, 29 (1 2): 1 22 Rafael, R. & F. Rosario. (2011, June). On language shift and revitalization: the case of Pangasinan. Paper presented at the International Conference on Humanities, Penang, Malaysia. Rosario, F. (2010, Jan). Languages at Home: The Case of Bi-/Multilingualism in Pangasinan. Paper presented at the International Conference on Language, Society and Culture in Asian Contexts, Maha Sarakham Province, Thailand. Rubrico, J. (1998). The metamorphosis of Filipino as national language. Retrieved July 02, 2011 from http://www.languagelinks.org/oldsite/pdf/fil_met.pdf Sikat, R. (1990). Tawagin mang Tagalog o Filipino, ang Pambansang Wikay narito na. In A. Santiago, P. Catacataca, & P. Villafuerte, Bantayog: Mga Piling Sanaysay sa Wika at Panitikan. Quezon City: Phoenix Publishing House, Inc. Thomas, W. & V. Collier. (1997). School effectiveness for language minority students. Retrieved January 24, 2011 from National Clearinghouse for Education: http://www.crede.ucsc.edu/research/llaa/1.1_final.html Walter, S. & K. Trammell. (2010). The Kom experimental mother tongue education project report for 2010. Unpublished research report. Zubiri, L. A. & M. K. Gallego. (2011, June). Revisiting the incipient creolization of Filipino. Paper presented at the International Conference on Humanities, Penang, Malaysia.

414

Monolinguals, Multilinguals and Size of Receptive Vocabulary Azadeh Nemati Assistant professor of Islamic Azad University, Jahrom branch, Iran azadehnemtiar@yahoo.com Abstract It is said that 70% of the worlds population is thought to be bilingual or multilingual (Trask, 1999). Thus, this paper responds to the need for research on lingulity. The aim of this study is two-folds: first, to determine the difference between receptive vocabulary size of mono and multilingual undergraduate students in India. Second, it was also intended to find out the effect of gender on the size of vocabulary. The results of the twoway ANOVA reiterated that multilingual participants had a vocabulary size advantage. Likewise, the size of vocabulary of females was higher in comparison to their males counterparts. Keywords: Receptive vocabulary, Vocabulary size, Monolinguals, Multilinguals. Introduction It is said that 70% of the worlds population is thought to be bilingual or multilingual (Trask, 1999). This means that it is a norm and a large percentage of people in the world are acquiring at least another language aside from their first language, points to the importance of the topic and the need for doing research in this area. Despite the importance of the topic, still there is not a straightforward definition for the terms bi/multilingualism and the definition varies from situation to situation. Generally speaking, the two terms of bilingualism and multilingualism have interchangeably been used to refer to knowledge or use of more than one language by an individual or a community (Maghsudi, 2006). More specifically, bilingualism can be defined differently based on diverse purposes. For some group of researchers the maximal definition is proposed, it is the ideal of equal knowledge in the two languages. May be the word ambilingualism can better define those group (Johnson and Johnson, 1999). The opposing idea is based on the idea of use. For example if a tourist can get successfully a cup of tea in Germany by saying Ein Kaffee is a bilingual (Johnson and Johnson, 1999). In other words, it can be said that bilingualism can be ranged from acquiring "native-like" control of both languages (Bloomfield, 1993) to reproducing meaningful utterances in another language (Haugen, 1953). The following two diagrams regarding the degree of bilingualism adapted from Hakuta and Diaz (1985) clears the point. The first rectangle is an ideal situation where a balance line is drawn between L1 and L2, where the vertical line from left represents L1 ability and the bottom horizontal line is L2 ability. The next triangle with the two rectangles in between shows the two hypothetical samples, colored and colorless, where the colorless sample represents a group of individual that is more balanced i.e. they have nearly equal commands in both languages. Still one can locate individuals within the sample spaces and observe different degree of bilingualism.

415

As a result, as stated in Johnson and Johnson (1999) to avoid this dichotomized use of bilingualism, the neutral multi-competence has been introduced to refer to knowledge of a second language (Cook, 1992). Bilingualism can be classified based on many other factors such as the way of learning another language, the type of learning situation encountered and the age of the learner, namely late bilingualism versus early bilingualism, the relationship between the two languages or coordinate and compound bilingualism. Putting aside the issue of social and individual bilingualism, the most common classification of bilinguals is as follows (Caroll, 2008): Simultaneous bilinguals: are those bilinguals who are exposed to two languages from birth since they are born into a community that is bilingual. As a result they learn two languages as first languages. 2) Receptive bilinguals: understand two languages but express themselves in one language only. 3) Sequential bilinguals: refers to learning one language after establishing another one. For instance, when the child is exposed to one language in the home and another one at school. This type of bilingualism is also referred to as second language acquisition. Another important issue regarding linguality to be considered is distinguishing between societal and individual bilingualism, since whether or not a country is officially bilingual has little to do with whether an individual is bilingual or whether that country has many bilingual individuals. And this situation is met well in India where individuals are bilingual because they live in bilingual regions i.e. either their home language is not the same as their school or business language or they grow up in homes with two languages. According to the Census of India (1961) there are more than 18 official languages used in India and more than 1652 mother tongue spoken there. Bayer (2009, P. 24) described India in this way, Diverse and united India is complex with many cultures and faiths, way of life, dress and food habits, tradition and rituals. The different religions of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Muslim, Christian, with a variety of sects, and varying tribal religious beliefs are like petals of one flower. This diversity extends over to Indian languages as well. Literature is full of works done in the area of lingualism with great deal of fragmentation and inconclusive results and a lot of riddles in this field. Some studies suggested that bilingualism was associated with negative consequences for bilingual groups compared to monolingual counterparts such as academic retardation, lower IQ, being socially maladjusted (Keshavarz & Astane, 2004). Some more studies concluded that bilingualism enhance the cognitive and social growth of children (Bialystock, 1986; Ben-Zeev, 1977). According to McCarthy (1993) bilinguals have advantage in cognition and emotion since they deal with problems using systems of two languages and views of two cultures. Learning two languages helps mental flexibility, concept formation and more diverse set of mental abilities. Further, Bialystock (1986) hypothesized that in comparison to monolingual children, bilingual children have an advantage in the control of linguistic processing needed for metalingusitic problems. Physiologically point of view even the brain of bilingual children is different. Based on different research the brain of bilinguals differs dependent on the time of acquiring the second language. Bilinguals who know two languages from childhood (simultaneous bilinguals) showed activity in a single part of Brocas area, however, for sequential bilinguals Brocas area is the home of two separate sites of activity, each for each language (Chattejee, 1997). 416 1)

Amid these controversies regarding lingualism measuring size of vocabulary of monolinguals and bilinguals is a question of interest. Though, it is another vexed issue indeed. Doyle et al.s (1978) work on bilinguals showed that on test of vocabulary bilinguals frequently seemed to perform at lower levels in comparison to monolinguals. Allman (2005) justified that since bilingual children have to learn two different labels for everything this reduces the frequency of a particular word in either languages. Even in another experiment with college students it was revealed that the bilinguals had lower receptive and expressive English vocabularies than their monolingual peers (Portocarrero et al., 2007). The pattern was consistent with that found in other researches such as Ben Zeev, 1977; Umbel et al., 1992 to name but a few. In contrast, other researchers like Allman (2005) and Bialystok (1988) expressed that when vocabulary scores of tests in both languages are combined the vocabulary of bilinguals equals or exceeds that of monolingual children. In an experiment done by Allman (2005) with preschool children it was illustrated that when only the English receptive and productive size of vocabulary was measured, the English monolingual group performed better than bilingual group. The researcher then concluded that "young bilinguals lag behind their monolingual peers in the size of their English receptive vocabulary "(p. 64). As a result, the researcher concluded that a smaller English productive vocabulary size for bilingual makes sense since productive vocabulary development closely follows receptive vocabulary development. While considering the size of vocabulary the researcher concluded that bilinguals have a vocabulary size advantage revealing the benefits of bilingualism even during preschool years (Allman, 2005). Thus, built upon prior research the first overriding goal of this article is to evaluate differences in the receptive vocabulary size of monolinguals and multilinugals. In other words, the researcher is going to find out which group is in advantage monolinguals or multilinuals. Gender as a variable in individual differences has received little attention in vocabulary research (Jimenez and Gallego, 2008) and "there is a gap concerning studies that focus on the relationship between receptive vocabulary knowledge and individual differences such as sex variables" (ibid). In different studies conducted by researchers there is no consensus regarding the superiority of each gender. Different researchers provided evidence of difference in diverse areas of vocabulary strategy use, choice of word, productive vocabulary in written compositions and productive vocabulary in lex30, word recognition and recalling task and word knowledge in favor of girls (Jimenez, 2005). Jimenez (2005) then brought some counter example where boys in the 8th grade of Dutch primary education outperformed girls in English word knowledge. Hence, another central purpose of this article is to determine whether this trend will also appear in receptive vocabulary of monolingual and multilingual males and females. With these considerations in mind, the presents study deals to reject or accept the following null hypotheses. Null hypotheses 1) 2) 3) Monolingual and multilingual students do not differ significantly in the size of receptive vocabulary. Male and female students do not differ significantly in the size of receptive vocabulary. There is not a significant interaction between linguality and gender in the size of receptive vocabulary.

417

Methodology Participants The participants recruited in this study were 133 undergraduate college students from a randomly selected English medium college (Mahajanas college) in Mysore Karnataka state, India. Their age ranged from 18-29 with the mean of 20.77. The learners attended intact class of General English 2 at the beginning of the Fall semester of the academic year of 2010-2011 from different fields of study, such as Computer Science, Psychology and Biotechnology. All had passed General English I in the previous semester. The general English textbooks were prepared by a committee of teachers and approved and published by the University of Mysore. All colleges utilize those books; therefore, the sample was homogeneous concerning the medium of instruction and type of instruction. They were included in monolingual/multilingual group if they met the following criteria a) English was not their native/first language, b) They rated themselves as monolingual or bilingual/multilingual, while English, the associate official language, was not considered as an additional language. Furthermore, they were asked to write the name of home language or languages. There was an approximately equal representation of males and females in each group. In all the there were two groups in the study as follows: Monolingual (34 male, 32 female) Multilingual (36 male, 31 female) Not all the participants were from Karnataka state with Kannada as the mother tongue. Some of the participant were from other states with different Indian languages most of the multilinguals knew kannada as the first language of the state, Hindi as the national or official language and another home language. Among the participants some Persian and African bilinguals with Farsi and Swahili language respectively were observed. Instruments Biodata questionnaire: To elicit information about the participants, a background questionnaire was developed by the investigator. It consists of some questions such as the participants name, age, gender, linguality status as well as the name of the languages they know and field of study. Receptive vocabulary level test: To measure the size of receptive vocabulary of the participants vocabulary level test (VLT) was used in this study. The employed VLT was one of the equivalent forms of the original one revised and validated by Schmitt et al. (2001). This test has been used in different studies such as Laufer, 1997; Schmitt and Meara, 1997; Cobb, 2001. Furthermore, as stated in Jimenez and Gallego (2008) research has also been devoted to the validation of this test (Read, 1988). The test embodies five parts, representing five levels of word frequency in English namely, 2,000, 3,000, 5,000, Academic and 10,000. According to Nation (1990), the 2000and 3000-word levels contain the high frequency words that all learners need to know in order to function effectively in English. The 5000-word level represents the upper limit of general high-frequency vocabulary that is worth spending time on in class. In other words, it is in the boundary of high and low frequency words (Nation, 1983). Words at the Academic level should help students in reading their textbooks and other academic reading material and finally the 10,000-word level covers the more common lowerfrequency words in the language (This level was not used in the study simply because it was far beyond the vocabulary level of learners.). There are 10 groups of words with 6 in each and the subjects are required to pick out three from the 6 words given in each group to match relevant explanations on the right respectively.

418

Procedure The students biodata, as well as the VLT were distributed in the same sitting among the students of each intact class during the class time. Clear instruction was given both orally and in written form at the beginning of the class. The students were given enough time to finish the test. The class teachers were invited to help carry out the investigation and test during the classroom teaching time to avoid the participants casual answering. Then, all the questions were marked by hand and the participants were divided into monolingual and multilingual groups carefully based on their answers to linguality question. Appropriate statistical tools were used in the analyses of date the results of which are shown in the ensuing part. Results Table 1: Mean scores of vocabulary multilingual groups Linguality Gender Monolingual Male Female Total Multilingual Male Female Total Total Male Female Total

size of males and females in monolingual and Mean 74.00 84.43 79.06 84.05 102.93 92.79 79.17 93.53 85.97 S.D. 20.79 24.49 23.09 26.99 8.50 22.56 24.53 20.53 23.76 N 34 32 66 36 31 67 70 63 133

Table 2: Results of two-way ANOVA for mean score of vocabulary size Parameters Source of variation F value D.f. P value Linguality/gender Between linguality (A) 14.39 1, 129 .000 Between gender (B) 15.17 1, 129 .000 Interaction (A x B) 1.25 1, 129 .264 As indicated in the above table mono and multilingual students differ significantly in the size of vocabulary since the observed F Value of 14.39 was found to be highly significant at the .000 level. From the mean values it is clear that multilingual students had significantly higher scores than monolingual students (92.79 versus 79.6). Thus, the first null hypothesis regarding the size of vocabulary and linguality is rejected. Similarly, the result of two-way ANOVA showed that there was a highly significant difference between male and female students (F= 15.14, P< .000). As illustrated in the mean table the mean score of females was higher than that of males (93.53 versus 79.17). Hence, the second null hypothesis concerning gender and size of vocabulary is rejected in favor of females. The same conclusions are shown graphically in the following figure.

419

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Male Female Male Female Monolinguals Multilinguals

Figure 1: Mean scores of vocabulary size of monolingual and multilingual males and females Generally and irrespective of being mono or multilingual, the mean score of females was higher than that of males in both groups (79.17 vs. 93.53). It can be seen from the above figure that the mean score of mono/multilingual females was higher than the mean score of mono/multilingual males (84.43 vs. 74 and 102.93 vs. 84.05). Furthermore, by comparing the total mean scores of the monolingual and multilingual groups, it was clear that size of receptive vocabulary of multilingual participants was higher than their monolingual counterparts (92.79 vs. 79.06). Likewise, multilingual females enjoyed higher receptive vocabulary than monolingual females (102.93 vs. 84.43) and in the same vein, though lower than females; multilingual males had higher score in comparison to monolingual males (74.00 vs. 84.05). The third hypothesis sought to determine the interaction of the lingulaity and gender. The result of the two-way ANOVA depicted that the interaction effect between linguality and gender was not significant (F= 1.25, P< .264). This implied that the size of receptive vocabulary of male and female students was the same irrespective of the lingual background they had. Discussion The purpose of the present investigation was to determine the differences of the size of receptive vocabulary of monolinguals and multilinguals. The results of the two-way ANOVA reiterated that the size of multilingual participants was higher than that of monolinguals. Knowing two or more languages brings advantage of being familiar with two different cultures, thinking and communicating with a wider variety of people. The results correspond to other researches that showed linugality has positive effects on different aspect of language viz, third language (Keshavarz and Astane, 2005), metalingusitc ability (Bialystock, 1986), cognitive growth and social development (BenZeev, 1977), general English proficiency and grammatical judgment (Maghsudi, 2006). Hence, the findings can match the conclusion of Allman (2005) and Bialystoks (2001) suggestion that bilinguals have a greater total vocabulary than monolinguals. This result that multilinguals have a vocabulary size advantage seems reasonable because they have access to and participate in communication events in two communities as opposed to their monolingual counterparts. The findings have wide pedagogical implications since a positive correlation can be reveled between this greater vocabulary size and essay quality, reading comprehension (Agustin & Gallego, 2009) and strategy choice such as using dictionary for word learning 420

and noting down usage (Zhang, 2009). Therefore, it might be a good idea to teach practice and test vocabulary consistently and systematically. With respect to the second null hypothesis i.e. gender and size of receptive vocabulary it was found that the size of receptive vocabulary of females was higher than that of males. This is compatible with Boyle (1994) and Jimenez (2008) who proved gender differences in size of vocabulary in favor of females. References Agustin, P., & Callego, M. T. (2009). Examining the relationship between receptive vocabulary size and written skills of primary school learners. Atlantis, Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies, 31.1, 129-147. Allman, B. (2005). Vocabulary size and accuracy of monolingual and bilingual preschool children. Proceeding of the 4 th international symposium on bilingualism. In J. Cohen et al. (Eds.), pp. 58-77. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. Bayer, J. M. (2009). A birds eye view of language in society in India. Learning Curve, XIII, 24-27. Ben-Zeev, S. (1977). The effect of bilingualism in children from Spanish-English low economic neighborhoods on cognitive development and cognitive strategy. Working Papers in Bilingualism, 14, 83-122. Bialystok, E. (1986). Childrens concept of word. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 15, 13-35. Bialystok, E. (1988). Levels of bilingualism and levels of linguistic awareness. Developmental Psychology, 24,560-567. Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy, & cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press. Bloomfield, L. (1993). Language. Holt: New York. Carroll, W. D. (2008). Psychology of language. USA: Thomson. Chatterjee, C. (1997). Are bilinguals of two minds? Psychology Today, 30(6), 9-13. Cobb, T. (2001). One size fits all? Francophone learners and English vocabulary tests. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 57 (2), 295-324. Doyle, A., Champagne, M., & Segalowitz, N. (1978). Some issues in the assessment of linguistic consequences of early bilingualism. In M. Paradis (Ed.), Aspects of bilingualism (pp. 13-21). Columbia, SC: Hornbeam Press. Hakuta, K., & Diaz, M. R. (1985). The relationship between degree of bilingualism and cognitive ability: A critical discussion and some new longitudinal data. In K. E. Nielson (Ed.), Childrens language, 5. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Haugen, E. (1953). The Norwegian language in America: A study in bilingual behavior. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. Jimenz, R. M., & Gallego, M. T. (2005-2008). The receptive vocabulary of English foreign language young learners. Journal of English Studies, 5-6, 173-191. Johnson, K. & Johnson, H. (Eds.) (1999). Encyclopedic dictionary of applied linguistics. USA: Blackwell Publishers. Keshavarz, M. H., & Astane, H. (2004). The impact of bilinguality on learning English vocabulary as a foreign language (L3). Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 7 (4), 295-301. Laufer, B. (1997). The lexical plight in second language reading: Words you dont know, words you think you know and words you cant guess. Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition, (Eds.) Coady, J. and T. Huckin. 20-34.

421

Maghsudi, M. (2006). The impact of bilingulity on pre-University studnets in English Achievement. South Asian Language Review, XVI (2), 26-35. McCarty, S. (1993). Bilingualism theory and Japan in Japanese. The Kagawa junior college bulletin 21, 1-6. Nation, I. S. P. (1983). Teaching and testing vocabulary. Guidelines, 5 (1), 12-25. Nation, I. S. P. (1990). Teaching and learning vocabulary. New York: Newbury. Portocarrero, J. S., Burright G. R., & Donovick J. P. (2007). Vocabulary and verbal fluency of bilingual and monolingual college students. Archive of clinical neuropschychology, 22(3), 415-422, Special Issue: Cultural Diversity. Read, J. (1988). Measuring the vocabulary knowledge of second language learners. RELC Journal, 19, 12-25. Schmitt, N., & Meara, P. (1997). Researching vocabulary through a word knowledge framework: Word association and verbal suffix. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19(1), 17-36. Schmitt, N., Schmitt, D., & Clapham, C. (2001). Developing and exploring the behavior of two new versions of the Vocabulary Level Test. Language Testing, 18(1), 55-88. Trask. R. L. (1999). The key concept in language and linguistics. New York: Rutledge. Umbel, V. M., Pearson, B. Z., Fernandez, M. C., & Oller, D. K. (1992). Measuring bilingual childrens receptive vocabularies. Child Development, 63, 1012-1020. Zhang, B. (2009). FL vocabulary learning of undergraduate English majors in Western China: Perspective, strategy use and vocabulary size. English Language Teaching, 2(3), 178-185.

422

Gender of teacher and learning of EFL students in Iran Bahare Daneshdoust Islamic Azad University Tabriz-branch, Iran Bahar.daneshdoust@gmail.com Abstract There is a large body of research which shows that gender is a relevant variable which must be taken into account when explaining the functioning of classes and teacher-student interaction. This study aims to investigate the influence of teacher gender on learning of EFL students in Iran and provides qualitative and quantitative evidence collected from MA students (n=100) from Tabriz Azad University. This investigation provides evidence to suggest that the construction of more supportive and democratic learning environments are more observed among male teachers, while more prescriptive environments associated with feminized forms of teaching are less helpful in obtaining successful learner outcomes. Keywords: Language learning, teacher gender, learner gender Introduction In Streitmatters study (as cited in Ilatov, Shamai, Lazarovitz & Mayer- Yong,1998) gender stereotypes exist in society at large and in education. These stereotypes portray males as dominant and females as subordinate. Different studies that reported on teachers interactions with students demonstrated that males were found to get more attention than did females (Borphy; Sadker, Sadker, &Klein,1991).According to Dee(2006,p.529): The literature on student-teacher interactions has also focused whether student outcomes differ when a student and teacher share the same gender.Assignment to a same gender teacher could be educationally relevant for a number of reasons. For example ,it could influence student engagement or behavior through role-model effects and stereotype threat. Furthermore ,same gender teachers also may communicate different expectations to the boys andgirls in their classrooms. Borphy (1985,p.137)believes that teachers do not systematically discriminate against students of the opposite sex. In terms of teacher gender and its effect on students, Wilkinson and Marret(1985) investigated that the variable of gender must be taken into account to explain behaviors in schools, also Lawrenz (1987) showed that in secondary school, girls are more comfortable than boys with a male teacher. Various studies have investigated the gender differences and students achievement, some of these studies (Dickman,1993;Duffy,Warren & Walsh,2001;Hoftman,Oreopoulous,2007;Buchman,Diprete,&McDaniel,2008) believed that the subject matter which was taught had an important role in instructional discrimination. But generally, male students receive more attention in class from teachers than do female students (Borphy,1985;Bailey,1993) these interaction patterns may partially depend on the gender of the teacher. In Lavy study (as cited in Hoffmann & Oreopoulos, 2007) an evidence was found that public high school teachers discriminated against male students and that these effects varied by the gender of teacher and subject. Methodology Participants Because the main subject in this paper is to find out the relationship between gender of teacher and amount of learning in EFL students, then the researcher needed to have access to EFL students, fortunately it was available. A total of 100 MA students of EFL (50 423

females and 50 males) participated in this study. All participants were from Tabriz Azad University. Instrument In this study, a questionnaire which other researchers (Madrid&Hughes,2010) used, was applied. This questionnaire included two parts (qualitative and quantitative).Quantitative part consisted of two questions and qualitative part included four questions to answer.(See Appendix I.). Procedure By using a questionnaire which was applied to MA students of EFL, the researcher has studied the perceptions of students with regards to the following teaching and learning preferences in EFL (Madrid&Hughes,2010): Variable 1:respondents preference for male teachers and the incidence of this in EFL. Variable 2:respondents preference for female teachers and the incidence of this in EFL. Variable 3:perception that male students prefer female English teachers. Variable 4:perception that female students prefer male English teachers. The questionnaire was applied in Tabriz Azad University and it included 100 MA student respondents.(Table 1). Table 1. University Male Female Total Tabriz Azad 50 50 100 University For the quantitative data, after calculating mean scores and standard deviation the researcher calculated the reliability of the scales employed in the questionnaire, also a T.test in order to examine significant differences based on the gender of respondents was calculated. Results Quantitative data The mean scores, the standard deviation in relation to the variable of gender provided by students are reflected in Table 2.By using Cronbach alpha, the researcher found a high degree of reliability(a=0.65) in the scale of the questionnaire applied to students. Table 2. Students preference for teacher gender based on academic level variables university Mean SD 0.14 V1. Preference for male teachers and 0.67 incidence in T/L EFL 0.21 V2. Preference for female teachers and 0.69 incidence in T/L EFL 0.76 0.30 V3. Boys preference for female teachers 1.03 0.32 V4. Girls preference for male teachers In terms of the students preference of teacher gender and their opinion of learning (Variables 1 and 2) it was observed that scores were homogenous and there were no significant differences. However , there was a preference for female teachers. In terms of the opinion that boys and girls work better with teachers of the opposite gender (Variables 3 and 4) the researcher saw that all students showed that the belief that male students 424

work better with female teachers was not as high as the belief that female students work better with male teachers. The comparison between the preferences of students grouped by gender and their assessment of gender was given in table 3. Table 3. Students preference for teacher gender based on student gender variables girls T.test Boys Mean V1. Preference for 1.31 male teachers V2. Preference for 1.23 female teachers 1.19 V3. Boys preference for female teachers 1.3 V4. Girls preference for male teachers SD 0.70 Mean 0.36 SD 0.17 T 1.65 Sig. 0.2

0.64

0.21

0.10

0.45

0.02*

1.07

0.43

0.16

1.4

0.1

0.47

1.7

0.6

0.23

0.6

* values of sig. is equal or lower than 0.05. By examining variables 3 and 4 ,the researcher saw that female students believed that there was greater preference for teachers from the opposite sex in contrast to male students. Furthermore , by looking at the mean scores, it appeared that both girls and boys believed that male teachers were better than female teachers and that they learnt more with this group.(variables 1 and 2). Qualitative data In terms of student responses, the researcher textual analysis indicated there was a shared opinion among most of the students that there were real differences between male and female teachers and most of the students preferred male teachers rather than female ones and some of them believed that the ability of teachers to teach was more important and there was no real difference between male and female teachers. When differences were expressed, there were a number of students who made observations which should be taken into account. A number of these differences are provided below. Translated sample responses from MA EFL students S1 the pedagogical and methodological techniques used by teachers are important not gender of them. S2 knowledge and skill of teacher are important not gender of teacher. S3 female teachers are better, because they are nicer and friendlier. 425

S4 male teachers are more respected and female teachers have to impose themselves in class to gain respect. S5 female teachers are better because they understand girls better. S6 I like female teachers because they are more intelligent than male teachers. S7 male teachers are better because they can control the class better than female teachers. S8 some students prefer male teachers because they are patient at the final exam and do not create a stressful environment in the class. S9 perhaps there are no differences, but some male students appear to be shy with a female teacher. Discussion The quantitative and qualitative data provided by the questionnaire allow the researcher to respond to the questions of this study, which were: 1) whether students perceive to learn more in the English class with male or female teachers. 2)whether male and female students work better with male or female teachers. Male and female students expressed their belief that there is a great difference in the performance and functioning of the teacher in terms of gender. Both male and female students but most of these students were females believed that they learn more with male teachers. When differences are stated, these differences want to suggest that there is a perception that male teachers are more authoritarian and obtain better results. Reading of the qualitative and quantitative results obtained in this study suggests that the sociopsychological environment stimulated by the presence of conscious or subconscious pedagogical strategies employed by teachers may have led to the students perception that they learn more with male teachers rather than with female teachers. This is in contrast to the previous studies which have indicated that both male and female students prefer to learn with teachers of the opposite sex. One of the important aspects of good teaching is in the quality of the teacher-student relationship, in this study this quality is higher with male teachers than with female teachers. This study has an important limitation, this limitation is that the students perceptions are subjective and are not supported by external evidence. At the end it is important to mention that there is a need for more democratic and cooperative forms of teaching and learning. References Bailey , S. M. (1993). The current status of gender equity research in American school.Educational psychology , 28, 321- 339. Borphy ,J. (1985). Interactions of male and female students with male and female teachers :Gender influences in classroom interaction. Orlando: Academic Press Inc. Buchmann ,C ., Diprete , T. A. ,& McDaniel , A. (2008). Gender inequalities in education. Retrieved 03 12 , 2011, from http:// www.ar journals. annual reviews.org. Dee, T. S. (2006). Teacher and the gender gap in student achievement. The journal of human resources. Retrieved 02 24 ,2011, from http:// www.jhr. Uwpress.org. Dickman , C. B. (1993). Gender differences and instructional discrimination in the classroom. Journal of invitational theory and practice , 2. Retrieved 04 14, 2011, from http:// www.invitational education.net. Duffy, J., Warren , K., & Walsh, M. (2001). Classroom interactions: gender of teacher, gender of student, and classroom subject. The journal of sex roles, 45. Retrieved 04 24, 2011, from http:// www.springer protocols.com.

426

Hoffmann, F., & Oreopoulos , Ph. (2007). A professor like me: the influence of instructor gender on college achievement. Retrieved 04 21, 2011, from http;// www.u toronto.ca. Ilatov, Z. Z., Shamai, Sh ., Lazarovitz, R.H. , & Mayer-Young , Sh. (1998). Teacherstudent classroom interactions: the influence of gender, academic dominance, and teacher communication style. The journal of adolescence. Retrieved 03 24, 2011, from http:// www.questia.com. Lawrenz, F. (1987). Gender effects for student perception of the classroom psychosocial environment. The journal of research in science teaching, 24, 689- 97. Madrid ,D.,& Hughes, S.(2010). Speaking the same language? Gender-based teacher performance in the EFL class. The open applied linguistic journal,3. Retrieved 03 11 ,2011 from http://www.ugr.es/dmadrid/publications/Gender-based. Sadker, M., Sadker, D., & Klein, S. (1991). The issue of gender in elementary and secondary education. In G. Grant (Ed). Review of research in education (pp. 269335). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.Wilkinson, LC., & Marret, CB. (1985). Gender influences in classroom interaction. New York : Academic Press.

427

Appendix I.
School/University: ................................................................................. Year: .............. Sex: M ...... F........ Date: ................

Express your opinion on the influence of the following aspects on students learning. QUALITATIVE PART What influence does the gender of the teachers have on the way they act in English class? ..

Who are better, male teachers or female teachers? Who obtains better results in English class?

QUANTITATIVE PART Now express your opinion on the following using this scale: 4 = always 3 = almost always 2 =sometimes 1 =hardly ever

0=never

1. Male English teachers are better than female teachers and you learn more with them (....) 2. Female English teachers are better than male teachers and you learn more with them (....) 3. Boys work better with female teachers than with male teachers and learn more with them (....) 4. Girls work better with male teachers and learn more with them (....)

428

The Need for Self-Directed Training to Improve ESP Learners Self-Directed Language Learning at Distance Education of Iran Mohammad Mohammadi Urmia University, Iran moh.mohammadi@urmia.ac.ir Parinaz Mohammadi Urmia University, Iran pn.mohammadi@gmail.com Abstract The major role of self-directed learning, a sub-division of autonomy, in successful learning at distance education has been confirmed by various studies. Although learners pass General English courses before studying any ESP courses at distance education of Iran, they usually lack the preliminary skills for independent language learning. The current study aimed to explore ESP learners degree of readiness for self-directed language learning (SDLL) and the need for equipping them with essential skills for this type of learning. For data collection two questionnaires were administered to 86 B.A students (19 male and 67 female) studying English for Students of Economy and Management (ESEM) at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University. Data displayed learners demographic information and their self-directed learning readiness (SDLR) tested by Guglielminos (1977) Selfdirected Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS). Data analysis revealed a mean score of 221.4 with a standard deviation of 16.32. According to results 42% of participants ranked at high level, 48% at average level, and 10% at below average level of SDLR. Participants with high SDLRS scores implement their own learning successfully while those with average scores are not fully competent in handling the entire process of learning at distance education. The issue becomes an even worse tragedy for those with below average scores who hinge on traditional classrooms with lecturing of teachers and lack the ability to conduct their own language learning. An independent samples t-test indicated that there is no difference between genders regarding their readiness for SDLL. The study implies that around half of the participants were not qualified for SDLL at Payam-e-Noor University. This may be affected by learners tendencies for teacher-directed classes in educational system of Iran. Therefore, the need for appropriate training to improve learners SDLR that directly contributes to a successful ESP learning at distance education of Iran becomes apparent. Keywords: distance education, ESP, self-directed learning, self-directed training, selfdirected language learning Introduction Traditionally, language learning was realized through classroom teaching based on a scheduled program. We can refer to it as a teacher-directed learning or teacher fronted style in which focusing on knowledge and skills is reiterated by the teacher. It includes a selection regarding what should be learnt, lecturing of it, assigning exercises, and a test to assess the grasp of that knowledge (Gibbons, 2002). As stated by Schmitt (2002), in this system of education, learners are solely thought as a container into which language knowledge could be poured. While learners are passive accumulator of the knowledge, teachers are the authority of the class who control the process of teaching and learning. On the contrary, humanistic education put more emphasis on the fact that learners should 429

have their own voices in learning. Learners decisions on what should be learnt and how should be learnt contribute to the main concern of education that is promoting learners autonomy (Nunan, 2002). In contrast to autonomous learning that is totally learner-directed and teacher-fronted learning that is totally teacher directed, teachers roles in SDL are not diminished at once. Teachers modify their roles according to learners degree of selfdirectedness and become facilitators during the process of language learning. In recent decades, the aim to make learners independent from teachers leads to a new concept in the system of education called Distance Learning. As Petty and Johnston point out distance learning takes place out of rigid boundaries of classroom, using a textbook accompanied by lectures on tapes, CDs, or online programs handed on a particular schedule to learners studying at home, with the aim to create a hybrid program by combining elements of learning at classroom and distance learning (2002, p. 2). The term Distance Learning was first introduced in Iran by establishing Payam-e-Noor University in 1988. At this University, students study the materials provided to them independently, but meet on a regular basis with other students in order to consult and solve their problems with the help of a teacher. As the research has grown in the area of SDL, scholars initiated to explore it in the area of foreign or second language learning. It is claimed that a considerable amount of language learning occurs outside the classroom; consequently, students perform one of the major roles in organizing this aspect of learning (Horwitz 1987 cited in Gan, 2004). Therefore, the need for addressing other aspect of SDL called self-directed language learning (SDLL) becomes apparent. The main reason in conducting this study originated from the experiences that many ESP learners shared with the researchers. Learners at Payam-e-Noor University usually encountered difficulties in carrying out their ESP learning efficiently. Learning ESP is an eminent prerequisite for non-English majoring learners to act efficiently not only in their current education, but also in their future work. Hence, learners spend a considerable time learning ESP during their B.A. studies. The need for learning ESP even gets more prominence thanks to the rapid changes and creation of new knowledge, and access to technology. ESP learners must keep abreast of new information, current issues, and technological aspects of their scientific studies. For that reason, they need to broaden their ESP abilities by updating their sources of information independently beyond what is needed to know about ESP in order to pass entrance exams of postgraduate studies. This effort can be labeled as self-directed learning (SDL). Whereas SDL is common among all ESP learners, it is a salient feature of ESP learners in distance learning. In such a setting, learners are obliged to apply self-directed learning (SDL) during their whole studies and cope with requirements of this university. It is claimed that SDL is the essential factor in succeeding at accomplishment of courses in distance learning (Gearhart, 2002; Gan, 2004). However, as learners in Iran are accustomed to learn in formal education with teacher-centered style for many years, learning in a SDL method seems very demanding for them. As a result, they may confront with problems in conducting SDL in their courses, especially language learning courses. In order to estimate the depth of ESP learners problems and the need for self-directed training in distance education of Iran, a research conducted by Araghi and Mohammadi (2011) on 275 ESP learners majoring in Theology and Islamic Science, and Economics and Social science, Management, Geology, and Chemistry at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University. The fact that around 75% of ESP learners were not aware of skills and strategies to promote SDLL and preferred to be taught directly by teachers implies that it is needed to make learners aware of benefits and steps of SDLL in order to facilitate ESP learning in distance education system of Iran. 430

These findings, lack of research in the area of SDLL, and the critical condition of ESP learning in distance education of Iran makes conducting of this research vital. Moreover, this study aims to demonstrate a clear view about learners SDLR for ESP learning at distance educational system of Payam-e-Noor University in Iran. Literature Review (or Previous Research) We usually expect learning to take place in educational institution under the direction of teacher based upon a textbook and a systematic course. However, this is a narrow view toward learning process because learning does not cease outside the confines of the classroom (Gibbons, Baily, Comeau, Schmuck, Seymour & Wallace, 1980). SDL that leads to conducting independent studies is not totally a new concept in the field of learning (Grow, 1991). It is a concept widely used in the context of learner autonomy. It can be defined as a process in which individual learner take the advantage to recognize his learning needs, establish learning goals, identify appropriate materials, implement relevant strategies in learning, and evaluate the learning progress, with or without the help of others (Knowles, 1975). Earlier researches in the area of SDL spawned numerous publications, researches, and instrument developments by other researches throughout the world during recent decades. Gibbons et al. (1980) studied the biographies of 450 self-directed learners to propose principles for SDL. Long (1989) focused on the importance of building theory and principles for SDL in terms of sociological, pedagogical, and psychological dimensions. Candy (1991) illustrated the dichotomy of SDL as a process and as a goal. Brockett and Hiemstra (1991) proposed Personal Responsibility Orientation (PRO) model that focused on similarities and differences between SDL as an instruction method and as a set of personality characteristics. Hiemstra (1994) studied SDL in terms of learning and learners ability or willingness to take the responsibility of learning and accepting its consequences. Hiemstra and Brockett (1994) explored how to overcome internal and external sources of resistance to SDL. In the field of language learning, characteristics and behaviors of third language learners were explored and compared to second language learners. Two main results were revealed by this study: a) Third language learners succeeded in language learning faster than second language learners. b) The characteristics and behaviors of third language learners were similar to self-directed language learners (Rivers, 1996). The importance of self-directed learning as a prerequisite for online courses in context of distance learning is confirmed by as study at Dakota State University (Gearhart, 2002). It is found that there is a relationship between the level of self-directedness, measured by a self-directed self-assessment test and the final course grades. Gan (2004) studied the SDLL attitudes and strategies of Chinese EFL students. The results confirmed that SDLL strategies are directly concerned with language proficiency of learners. However, learners attitudes toward SDLL do not have a strong effect on their proficiency. He further concluded that students SDLL attitudes and strategies were shaped by the constraints posed from the contexts of teaching and learning. Moreover, this notion that Asian learners are passive and dependent was rejected by him. SDLL attitude comprises six components according to Cotterall (1995): a) the role of the teacher; b) the role of feedback; c) learner independence; d) learner confidence in their ability to study; e) experience of language learning; f) approach to studying (as cited in Gan, 2004). The major role in conducting SDLL is played by teachers as facilitators and consultant. Many researches in this area explored the ways that teachers provide advice to learners during carrying out self-directed language learning (Gremmo, 1995; Kelly, 1996; Riley; 1997; Voller et al., 1997; Carter, 2001; cited in Pemberton, Toogood, Ho, & Lam, 2001). 431

Moreover, the approaches of the advisers towards advising and the learners perceptions of the role of adviser during SDLL were investigated by Pemberton et al. (2001). Despite the plethora of literature developed in the area of SDL across the world, it seems that we are far from understanding the beneficial role of SDLL in distance learning of Iran. Methodology Participants of the study Participants of this study was 86 B.A students including 19 male and 67 female learners majoring at Economy, Accounting, Tourism Management, Industrial Management, and Governmental Management. They were studying English for students of Economy and Management at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University that is based on distance education. All the students passed General English course that is a prerequisite course for selecting ESP courses. Data gathering Instruments For data gathering, two questionnaires were used. A demographic questionnaire was prepared by researcher to elicit general information of students including name, age, gender, major, general English score, language learning experiences, etc. The Self-directed learning readiness scale (SDLRS) developed by Guglielminos (1977) was applied to test students degree of readiness for SDLL. SDLRS is a 58-item scale, a highly valid and reliable questionnaire, used in more than 250 studies of self-directed learning. The main focus of items are on 8 factors: openness to learning opportunities, self-concept as an effective learner, initiative and independence in learning, informed acceptance of responsibility for ones own learning, a love to learn, creativity, future orientation, and the ability to use basic study skills and problem-solving skills. Each item have a 5-point likert format scale including almost never true of me, usually not true of me, sometimes true of me, usually true of me, almost always true of me. Some items of SDLRS are negatively stated; therefore, there they are reverse scored. A pilot test of questionnaire was conducted at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University among 30 students of Business Management who had the same ESP course with another English language teacher. The Cronbachs alpha value of .876 for this 58-item questionnaire confirmed that it is a reliable instrument to test ESP learners readiness for SDLL at Payam-e-Noor University. Data gathering procedure Data was collected during second semester in 2011 at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University. Two questionnaires were distributed among learners and they were assured that all information would be confidential and would not have any effect on their scores. They were instructed to complete demographic questionnaire and then read the items of SDLRS. Although written instruction were supplied to learners, to make it more tangible the researcher explained orally that learners should read the items and select one of 1-5 points according to their first impression of statement about their learning experiences. They were told to complete all the items. Data analysis All the data collected in this research were analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 16.0 to carry out descriptive statistical procedure and further calculation. In order to find out any gender difference regarding ESP learners readiness for SDLL an independent samples t-test was calculated.

432

Findings and Discussion Data analysis of SDLR obtained from SDLRS questionnaire displayed a mean score of 221.4 with a standard deviation of 16.32. The findings revealed that 42% of participants ranked at high level, 48% at average level, and 10% at below average level of SDLR (Table 1). Students with high SDLRS scores can implement their own learning successfully while those with average scores are not fully competent in handling the entire process of learning at distance education (Guglielmino, 1978). The issue becomes an even worse tragedy for those with below average scores who hinge on traditional classrooms with lecturing of teachers and lack the ability to conduct their own language learning. Since 58% of participants in this study classified in average or below level scales of SDLR, it is apparent that SDLL in distance education of Iran needs some essential revisions and training programs in order to improve the level of learners readiness for SDL. Table 1: Self-directed Learning Readiness Level Frequency Percent Valid above average average below average Total 36 41 9 86 41.9 47.7 10.5 100.0 Valid Percent 41.9 47.7 10.5 100.0 Cumulative Percent 41.9 89.5 100.0

An independent sample t-test was calculated to find out any gender differences on learners SDLR. The mean score of male learners was 217 with SD=18.81, whereas the mean score of female learners was 223 with SD=15.47 (Table 2).

Table 2: Male and Female learners SDLRS Statistics sex SDLRS male N 19 Mean Std. Deviation Std. Mean 4.31472 1.89083 Error

2.1705E2 18.80743 2.2263E2 15.47710

female 67

The t-value of -1.320 with a significant level of 0.19 (Table 3) leads to acceptance of hypothesis that gender does not have any contribution to students level of SDLR at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University, which is based upon distance education.

433

Table 3: Independent Samples Test Levenes Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means Std. Sig. Mean Error (2Differe Differ tailed) nce ence .190 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper

F SDLRS Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed .669

Sig. .416

df

-1.320 84

4.2232 5.5742 2.82409 1 13.97256 3 4.7108 5.5742 4.12166 4 15.27013 3

25.32 -1.183 .248 3

Conclusion There is no doubt that formal education gained high value in most countries compared to SDL, but as Paul.E. Gray (cited in McGuiness, 2005) believes "The most important outcome of education is to help students become independent of formal education. The prominent state of SDL in todays life is clearly understandable from Gibbons (2002) statements: Globalization is rapidly expanding the economic field of play. Change is dramatically shifting the nature of life and work. Knowledge is doubling every few years. Technology is transforming the way we live and the way we work. Work itself is transformed from the well-protected lifelong job to the precarious shortterm performance contract. Individuals will not be looked after from the cradle to the grave; increasingly, they must look after themselves. Students must know how to learn every day, how to adapt to rapidly shifting circumstances, and how to take independent initiative when opportunity disappears. SDL prepares students for this new world in which the active learner survives best. (p.2) Considering all related literature, an analysis of ESP learners SDLR who were studying ESEM at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University was conducted in this study. The findings revealed that learners level of readiness is not appropriate for conducting a successful SDLL in distance educational system of Payam-e-Noor University. In order to keep the trends of SDLL at this university, a helpful instruction of how to conduct SDL is required. Several researchers implemented learner-training courses as an intervention program in various fields of study. They found that it enhances learners readiness for SDL and achievements of main courses (Gearhart, 2002; Gan, 2004; Saha, 2006; Huang, 2008). This study implies that most of the learners at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University were not qualified to carry out a successful SDLL. This may be affected by learners tendencies for teacher-directed classes in educational system of Iran. Findings of this study can directly contribute to ESP teaching in distance education system and preparing insightful guidelines to promote ESP learning in a self-directed procedure. Moreover, teachers and material developers will be persuaded to smooth the way for learners of ESP courses in distance education in order to engage not only in lifelong updating of their knowledge in the related majors of study through medium of English language, but also in learning English for meeting their daily needs. 434

References Araghi, S.M., & Mohammadi, P. (2011). Iranian ESP learners awareness of self-directed learning strategies in Distance Education. Manuscript submitted for publication. Brockett, R. G., & Hiemstra, R. (1991). Self-direction in adult learning: Perspectives on theory, research, and practice. New York: Routledge. Retrieved on January 10, 2011, from http://www-distance.syr.edu/sdlindex.html Candy, P. C. (1991). Self-direction for Lifelong Learning. A comprehensive guide to theory and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved on January 10, 2011, from http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-selfdr.htm. Gan, Z. (2004). Attitudes and strategies as predictors of self-directed language learning in an EFL context. International Journal of Applied Linguistic,14 (3). Gearhart, D. L. (2002). The effect of self-directed learning skills on the successful completion of an online course. PhD Dissertation, Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.homepages.dsu.edu/gearhard/dissertation_final2.doc Gibbons, M. (2002). The self-directed learning handbook: challenge adolescent students to excel. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Retrieved on January 10, 2011, from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=7xrxPudNcGgC&oi=fnd&pg=PR 13&dq=Gibbons,+M.+(2002).+The+selfdirected+learning+handbook:+challenge+adolescent+students+to+excel.&ots=_e T3uTltDu&sig=kuTR-5VsLdCpq33OhSZDOSYHFL0#v=onepage&q&f=false Gibbons, M., Baily, A., Comeau, P., Schmuck, J., Seymour, S., & Wallace, D. (1980). Toward a theory of self-directed learning: Astudy of experts without formal training. Journal of Humanistic Psycology, 20 (2). Grow, G. (1991). Teaching learners to be self-directed. Adult Education Quarterly, 41 (3), 125-149. Retrieved on January 10, 2011, from http://www.longleaf.net/ggrow/SSDL/SSDLIndex.html Guglielmino, L. M. (1978). Development of the Self-Directed Leaming Readiness Scale (Doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia, 1977). Dissertation Abstracts International, 38, 6467A. Hiemstra, R. (1994). Self-directed adult learning. In T. Husen & T. N. Postlethwaite (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (second edition), Oxford: Pergamon Press. Hiemstra, R., & Brockett, R. G. (1994). From behaviorism to humanism: Incorporating self-direction in learning concepts into the instructional design process. In Long, H. B. & Associates, New ideas about self-directed learning. Norman, OK: Oklahoma Research Center for Continuing Professional and Higher Education, University of Oklahoma. Huang, M.B. (2008). Factors influencing self-directed learning amongst Taiwanese nursing students. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland, Australia. Retrieved on January 10, 2011 from eprints.qut.edu.au/20709/1/Mei-hui_Huang_Thesis.pdf Knowles, M. S. (1975). Self-directed Learning: A Guide for Learners and Teachers. Cambridge Book Co., New York. Long, H. B. (1989). Self-directed learning: Emerging theory and practice. In H. B. Long & Associates, Self-directed Learning: Emerging Theory & Practice. Norman, OK: Oklahoma Research Center for Continuing Professional and Higher Education, University of Oklahoma. Retrieved on January 10, 2011 from http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/pl3p/Self-Directed%20Learning.pdf

435

McGuiness, A. M. (2005). Strategies for self-directed learning: Motivating todays learner. AST Instructors Workshop, May 2005, Retrieved on January 10, 2011 from www.ast.org/ppt&doc&xls/2005InstrForum_Strategiesof_Self.ppt Nunan, D. (1988). Syllabus Design. Oxford University Press: New York Pemberton, R., Toogood, S., Ho, S., & Lam, J. (2001). Approaches to advising for selfdirected language learning. AILA Review, 15, 16-25. Petty, L.I., & Johnston, J. (2002). Handbook of Distance Education for Adult Learners. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research, Project IDEAL. Rivers, W.P. (1996). Self-directed language learning and third language learner (Report No. FL 024 730). Eric Clearinghouse on language and linguistics: Washington, D.C. (Eric Document Reproduction Service No. ED 411 679). Saha, D. (2006). Improving Indonesian nursing students self-directed learning readiness. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland, Australia. Retrieved on January 10, 2011 from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/16293/ Schmitt, N. (2002). An introduction to applied linguistics. London: Arnold

436

Teaching Adults: Some Techniques and Strategies for Developing Adults Language Proficiency Naima Afrin Assistant Professor, Department of English University of Information Technology & Sciences (UITS), Bangladesh naima_afrin@yahoo.com

Abstract Teaching adults in different situations is a great challenging and interesting tasks for the language instructors. Many of the adults do not have much schooling and appropriate guide for learning from childhood. Therefore, lack of knowledge and skills become barrier for their academic success. In addition, they most of the time face tremendous financial distress and family responsibilities that oftentimes prevent them from concentrating on their studies. Teaching them can be a significant challenge for the teacher and curriculum developer .So before starting teaching it is important to acknowledge their previous levels of knowledge and recognize their ability as a learners. Teachers can change their teaching style by understanding adults needs and their level and concept of learning. The technique emphasizes the importance and necessity of informing the learners of basic aspects of learning and language learning in order to aid them to build up their learning strategies effectively and consciously. A teacher can enhance his techniques and classroom strategies by understanding the area which the adults needs and their concerns about learning the aspects appropriately. Teacher should be flexible or can change situations or become less than ideal because teaching adult learners requires more advanced teaching skills than teaching traditional students. This interactive session will focus on ways for classroom instructors to help adult learners overcome their fears, handle the transition into academic area, develop support groups, and be less likely to drop out. . By pointing out dimensions of adult learners and teaching, this article aims to discuss a way of strengthening the awareness by which an instructor can motivate the adults in the classroom teaching and bringing learning and self-esteem in adult language classes. Key words: Well organized and contextualized course content, Respectful learning process, Supportive and student-centered atmosphere, Developing Adults level of confidence, Pay attention to the students needs. Introduction Adult learners bring a very different set of skills, knowledge and expectations than the young students do. So teacher can make the classroom more fruitful and interesting for the learners by remembering the difference .In many language teaching classes in our country, It is a common scenery that after introducing so many innovative methods in language teaching the adults are reluctant to learn successfully because the teacher was not interested in them as facilitator to teach something new, and the lesson developed like the workings of a machine, functioning in isolation.(P.6)As Hay craft emphasizes, the best lesson may fail due to the fact that the personal diversity and needs are underestimated. Moreover, when we think of a class in which the audience is willing to participate in, speak and produce yet they can not break their walls. So as a facilitator in the classroom the teacher has to pay attention to the adults needs and has to remember that they have different learning styles. 437

Literature Review (or Previous Research) Learning opportunities for adults exist in a variety of settings ranging from a formal institution to a place of employment. It is important to acknowledge prior knowledge and experiences of learners, including their ability to recognize their own skills as lifelong learners. (Merriam, 1999). Andragogy is the art and science of helping adults learn. Malcolm Knowles is the father of andragogy as he proposed five factors involved in adult learning. The five assumptions underlying andragogy describe the adult learner as someone who: Has an independent self-concept and who can direct his or her own learning Has accumulated a reservoir of life experiences that is a rich resource for learning Has learning needs closely related to changing social roles Is problem-centered and interested in immediate application of knowledge Is motivated to learn by internal rather than external factors (Merriam, 2001, p.5) Knowles used these principles to propose a program for the design, implementation and evaluation of adult learning. Since the development of his theory, Knowles has acknowledged that the principles he outlined did not apply solely to adult education. The development of the theory simply illustrates that the designer "should involve learners in as many aspects of their education as possible and in the creation of a climate in which they can most fruitfully learn" (Merriam, 2001, p.7). Knowles main focus with the development of andragogy was the notion of the material being very learner centered and the learner being very self-directed. The professional development toolkit for trainers should include: The basics of design and delivery - needs assessment, developing objectives, creating an agenda, selecting appropriate activities, providing for transfer, and designing and conducting evaluation activities An understanding of diverse clients and their different learning styles The ability to read the context, assess needs, and select or create appropriate minilearning sessions that are often delivered as just in time learning The use of reflective practice skills to make sense of their situation, tailoring learning solutions to their own and other local learning needs, developing and nurturing collaborative communities of practice The ability to coordinate university-based, certificate, and in-service programs designed as learning laboratories The ability to develop activities that increasingly involve active experiential learning and debriefings The ability to use more than one delivery system, particularly online and eLearning The use of learner-centered instruction, especially self-directed learning, means trainers will need to create better ways to include opportunities for reflection, clarification, and guidance. The Flash animation above provides an overview of four Learning Theories related to Adult Learning. They are Action Learning, Experiential Learning, Self-Directed Learning, and Project-Based Learning. In each section, you can see a brief introduction and pros and cons of each theory. The animation was designed and developed by Cheng-Yu Tsai and IYung Hou (2007)."If the education is life, then the life is also education."Linderman. In the 1950s, the attention on adult education had researchers to identify the differences between young and adult learners. In the following decade, educators reached a consensus on the concept "Andragogy" (Knowles) referring to adult education. The studies on adult education can be classified in two main streams: the scientific stream and the other the artistic or intuitive/reflective stream (Knowles 1998:36). In his book, Throndike notes that the scientific stream seeks to discover new knowledge through rigorous (and often not 438

experimental) investigation. On the other hand, the artistic stream seeks to discover new knowledge through intuition and the analysis of the experience. Very similarly to this study, another educational pioneer, Carl Rogers (1969) distinguished two types of learning : Cognitive (Meaningless) and Experiential ( Significant). Cognitive learning refers to academic knowledge while the experiential equates to personal change and growth. Also Rogers states that all human beings have a natural ability to learn. The nature of experiential learning is: * Setting a positive climate for learning * Clarifying the purposes of the learners * Balancing intellectual and emotional components of leaning * Sharing feelings and thoughts with learners but not dominating * Organizing and making available learning results As the experiential learning suggests a personal change and development process, it is clearly a mere fact that learners should feel safe in the classroom and also clarifying the purposes of the learners and organizing and making available learning results can be fulfilled effectively if this process is linked to learn about the learning. We will discuss this issue in detail in CTT class techniques. In order to take a closer look at adult education, the brief summary of Linderman should be underlined, as follows: 1. Adults are motivated to learn as they experience the needs and interests that learning will be safe. 2. Adults orientation to learning is Life-Centered. 3. Experience is the richest source for adults learning. 4. Adults have a deep need to be self-directing. 5. Individual differences among people increase with age. One important issue is that most of the studies on pedagogy and andragogy dichotomize adult versus youth education. However, Linderman draws a line between adult versus conventional education. In a recent theory, Cross (1981) developed the Characteristics of Adults as Learners (CAL model). The CAL model integrates the previous studies on adult learning such as andragogy, experiential learning and lifespan psychology. The CAL model consists of two variables, personal and situational. The former include aging, life phrases, many sort of stages such as marriage, job changes and retirement. Situational characteristics include part-time versus full-time learning, and voluntary versus compulsory learning. The CAL model of adult learning aims to provide guidelines for adult instruction programs. The principles are as follows: * Adult learning programs should adapt to the aging limitations of the participants. * Adults should be challenged to move to increasingly advanced stages of personal development. * Adults should have as much choice as possible in the availability and organization of learning programs. Among all these theories, one can easily anticipate that one of the major roles of an adult education policy and program is to build up an experience process that they can reflect upon their own development, and go through this program by cooperating with other adult learners. Methodology The study is based on both primary and secondary data, like-

439

1. The researcher has closely observed English language Teaching (ELT) classrooms with adult students, discussed with teachers, students and educationists who shared their frank opinions regarding this issue. 2. Books and modern websites have extensively been used. 3. Moreover, existing ELT syllabuses of different universities have been analyzed. 4. Thereafter, the information has been analyzed to asses the present Adult Teaching problems in various situations and to find out techniques and strategies to overcome the problems. Findings and Discussion By Observing some Adult Teaching classes I have found some findings about Adult teaching. They are: Teaching style By knowing your group, teacher can play to their strengths so none feel left out or overwhelmed. Using a variety of learning tools such as hand outs, practical, overheads, slide shows and Power points as well as traditional front of class talks can make lessons interesting for all. Successfully learning occurs when a facilitator utilizes a variety of training methods that will incorporate the learning style(s) of the individuals in the classroom. Visual, auditory and hands-on learning are three ways in which an individual can take in information. Some examples of training methods that incorporate various learning styles include: 1. Lecture: auditory learning. 2. Class Discussion: auditory learning. 3. Reading: visual learning. 4. Video: visual learning. 5. Practice: hands on learning. 6. Role Play: visual, hands on and auditory learning. Using a variety of training methods for each topic will help participants successfully learn and understand the topic or skill being taught. Characteristics of Adults i) Adults are sometimes problem centered and tend to seek solutions when they want to achieve something in life. ii) Adult students are result oriented and they will drop out education if they dont get expected result or facilitator cannot fulfill their desire of getting good grades. Their participation in the course is voluntary. iii) Adults are often cynical about new information and believe to try it out before accepting it. They bring more and expect to bring more in the learning environment. iv) They accept education that relates or applies directly to their needs at present that is appropriate and effective for their lives and has immediate relevance to their job or personal life. v) Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction By Observing various adult teaching classroom & questionnaire some Common problems of adults have been revealed. Those are: a) Adults have-not been keeping in touches with study for many years. So they cannot read and write appropriately like the regular learners. b) Adult learners have many responsibilities at home, office and outside .So they sometimes fail to finish the assignment and others class works on time.

440

c) Adult students often begin courses feeling anxious, isolated, and out of place. Nervousness and fear are greatly diminished by expressing them openly. Some Teaching Techniques for Developing Adults Proficiency in Language As Teachers role is a facilitator and needs to remember that learning is best brought by a combination of motivation and stimulation. So the teachers role is to be a performer and provider of knowledge. Adult teaching strategies and techniques must focus on studentcentered approach. Sometimes adults have negative learning experiences involving large class room, endless note taking, instructors lecture delivering straight from a book from earlier college or training courses. Adults prefer to learn from that environment which considers their personal and prior knowledge or experiences. Instructors have to understand the mentality of the adults before starting teaching. Many Adult learners usually have a substantial number of years of working experiences. Besides, most of them are mature and older than thirty. They come from all walks of life and more importantly, most of them know what they really want from the courses they are attending. They will also consider if their educators have the experience and expertise to guide them in their academic endeavors. Thus, any educators who wish to enter this market has to be mentally prepared that what they are offering in terms of academic content has to comprehensive and meet the expectations as well as the standards of the adult learners. Educators must also ensure that what the adult learners bring away with them after the course is applicable in the real world. The instructors should teach an in-depth understanding of the subject that they are teaching. 1) Adults come to class with a lots of expectations and it is the responsibility of the instructor to clarify and fulfill those expectations by making a well-organized course content on the first day instructor can start the class by introducing your name ,background ,What skills will be teaching in the course, How to improve proficiency in English e.t.c. Once you have introduced yourself, the participants introduced themselves. The instructor provides adults with the opportunity to learn and achieved an understanding about the participants, reason for taking the course and what they want to learn. So teacher can achieve faith and trust with the adult by presenting such a way and build your relationship with the adults in the first class so that they wont find the classroom a scary place to learn. 2) A teacher can provide contextualized and relevant materials to facilitate adults in their working life. The instructor should remember before selecting the materials that those materials are benefiting for them in their place of work and they can apply the skills at work. Course content information must have applications which allow adults to use the information in realistic situations so faculty should endeavor to provide variety in manner at the time of teaching to adult learners. 3) Before starting the first class it is better to talk to the students to know details about the students .Suppose any student who hasnt studied for years or who is very weak in his level. So teacher can make sure to the students that this class will not be like that they have in some extent bad experience .So talking to the students friendly way and knowing all the problems in advance help them to overcome their fears, hesitation and nervousness. 4) To facilitate learning the instructor should keep in mind to make fun in the classes so that the adults wont be bored in the classes. The adults dont want to spend three hours each week with a teacher who is boring, serious in every time. If the teacher teaches the subject very interestingly and with enjoying mind, the students will also enjoy classes. 5) An important thing to remember when teaching adults is that some of them are from very high rank or position and some of them have experiences for long .So they are very experienced and responsible people as they have the responsibly to hold so many important duties at office or business. So you have to be respectful and helpful all the time 441

.The learning process should be respectful manner. You have to understand the situation and background of the adults and than prepare to start the class. 6) At the time of teaching adults it is a fact that they are not from the same level. Some of them just passed undergraduate degree and some of them have not any touch with education for years. So if you have to make the class effective you have to balance the level of the students in the class room. So group work will be best for this reason and you can let them discuss the worksheet and material amongst each other so that they can learn better from discussing with each other. Adult learners come into the classroom with the intent of actually learning. They are anxious about every aspect of returning to school and are the most eager to please the teacher. They need assurance that they can do it and that the teacher is there to guide them through the process. They question their ability to understand the material, to keep up with the notes and homework, and whether they will be able to pass the tests. Many of them have little if any experience with computers which makes them even more apprehensive. As the instructor your first task is to put them at ease. Dont discourage their enthusiasm or scare them but be realistic with your expectations. Have a syllabus ready that includes every class date and what objectives will be taught on those days. Have assignments, labs, and projects well marked so they can plan ahead. Adults are more apt to follow through if they are aware of future requirements so they can plan how to blend them into their own schedules. 7) As this is adult teaching it is an important matter to make an easy and comfortable environment to learn. They have come to classroom with the intent of learning. So dont disappoint them in their expectation. You should make a course content includes your plan, objective of your teaching .They will be energetic and motivated to follow the course if they have acknowledged that their requirements are fulfilling according to their need. 8) When any adults ask any questions to the conductors, it is better to answer them with more elaboration to make them clear about the queries. Adult learners always tend to create confusions or doubts among the educators expecting should they fail to explain that particular topic clearly. So Instructor should explain the topic relate to the students practical life .For example when discussing business report writing with the students the teacher can explain the example of report based on their real job experience and which type of report they have to write in their office .So by these example from their practical life the adults can easily understand its application on their life and benefited a lot .Adult learners are more adjusted to the case studies, conceptual analysis and application of materials in their job life. 9) Teacher should be flexible regarding attendance, assignments and other requirements related to teaching adults. As adults are busy with their job and other responsibilities for home, it is better to allow them to give more time to complete their assignments .Teacher can enable them to go easy when other responsibilities are keeping them busy. Teacher can consider their one or two absence sometimes and can consider making up the time by attending another section. 10) Instructor should have some controls over the students through student centered learning .Such as presentations, debates and discussions, sharing of relevant experiences etc. 11) The Instructor can provide online course material for readings, viewing videos, email communication with instructor, and current information. Those are essential in adult learning as these learners want to be able to communicate and feel the information is relevant todays world in which they live.

442

12) The student will find learning effective if he gets the opportunity to practice simple concept first and then apply these concepts to more complex ones. However the materials are not same for all .One student can finds simple, another may find complex. The teachers can asses the students level in the first class and then apply the teaching materials according to the students level. 13) The teacher can make the learning easier when the students are aware of their progress. The adults want to take part in assessing their progress towards learning goals. So, the teacher can give feedback once a week that how they are progressing. The feedback which they get from the teacher can enhance their learning progress. 14) The teacher can praise the students when they are improving so that the students will retain material or repeat the behavior. If the instructor reassures them that they have learned the desired material or technique can help them retain and refine it. 15) Adults sometimes feel nervous and scared to learn and express any content. They have not been any keep in touch with the text for many years. As a facilitator, the teacher can break their hesitation by creating a non-competitive atmosphere that encourages cooperative learning and develop their level of confidence. 16) The instructor should answer the adults with clear concept. The conductor should use more explanation/elaboration when answering them. Adults learners are usually more likely to cast doubts on their educators should they fail to explain a particular concept clearly or succinctly. In another words, it takes much more to please an adult learner than a young learner as adults have more knowledge and expectation than younger. 17) Before starting class the instructor always keep in mind that adults are self-directed and responsible. So the instructor has to find out what they hope to learn from the lesson. If teacher cannot find out than the teacher has to take a few minutes presentation of what they hope to learn from the lesson. 18) Provide a supportive and student centered atmosphere for the students and Teachers should show them that they value their participation, be positive and always encourage questions. Build their self confidence by including frequent opportunities for their positive reinforcement and success. 19) Teachers have to keep in mind that some adult learners participating in the classroom know as much or more than they do. So the instructor can make some small groups to enhance their knowledge and strengthen the weak students. So before starting the topics the teacher has to find out how much they familiar about the topic as the adults have different background and experiences. 20) Teacher should keep in mind that adults have other responsibilities besides their learning. Teacher should consider solving worksheet individually or in groups so that they can learn the lesson without tension and difficulties. Conclusion Effective learning is successful amongst the adults when there is a learning environment that includes active interaction between students and faculties. So this effective learning is achieved through the use of motivating techniques and creative strategies that have designed only not to teach but also stimulate adults proficiency in language learning. Adults come to class with a variety of personal knowledge and experiences, along with the fact that they are not pressed from the same mold. All adults have different learning styles and instructors must address these factors in their courses to support adult learning. The teacher can make the class effective in addressing students needs, setting higher expectations, providing individual support, introducing various communicative skills and promoting integrated language proficiency among the adults.

443

References Source: www.adultstudent.com/eds/articles/teaching.html Asian EFL Journal (2003): The Cognitive Therapy Technique (CTT) In Adult EFL Classes Kemal Senan Ozmen Adult Education Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 4, 220-228 (1985) DOI: 10.1177/0001848185035004004 Teaching Adult Students the Way They Learn: The Instructors Role in Retaining Adult Learners and Increasing Their Chances of Success in College Al Siebert, PhD Make Them Be Aware, Not Beware Of Learning: The Cognitive Therapy Technique (Ctt) In Adult Efl Classes By Kemal Sinan zmen Asian Efl Journal( Volume 6. Issue 1 Article 6 5 Principles for the Teacher of Adults: Teaching Adult Learners By Deb Peterson, About.com Guide.adulted.about.com/od/teachers/a/teachingadults.htm Characteristics of Adult Learners online. rit.edu/faculty/teaching_ strategies/adult_learners.cfm Principals of Adult Learning: By Stephen Lieb Senior Technical Writer and Planner, Arizona Department of Health Services and part-time Instructor, South Mountain Community College from VISION, Fall 1991 The volunteer Teacher Teaching Adults: Renee A. Daughhearty PhD,Ext Educational Methods Specialist. Seven Principles For Good Practice In Undergraduate Education: By Arthur W. Chickering and Zelda F. Gamson From The American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, March 1987 Reprinted with permission. Adult Learning From Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching and Technology Julie Conlan, Sarah Grabowski, Katie Smith Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia Tips for teaching adult learners instead of younger learners: Krista Tannahill. Joan Schroeder, Jane Mays-Evans, by Ahmed Zaki, S D Rios Teaching Strategies for Adult Learners: By Denise Baxter, Ed,D, Rivier Academic Journal, Volume 3,Number 2,Fall 2007.

444

The Impact of Teacher Feedback and Peer Feedback on the Writing Performance of EFL Students with Different Learning Styles Azar Najafi Marboyeh Islamic Azad University, Shahre Ghods, Iran azarnajafi@msn.com Abstract Feedback plays a central role in writing development. The purpose of current study is to investigate the impact of teacher written feedback and peer written feedback on the writing performance of Iranian EFL students with different learning styles. The subjects were homogenized by KET Cambridge proficiency test. Afterward 91 subjects took part in the treatment process. Over a fourteen-week semester, students received teacher written feedback and peer written feedback in two different groups in order to achieve the mentioned goal. Their pre-test and post-test scores were assessed analytically by TEEP attribute writing scale and were compared by applying a t-test. The researcher used Daz Maggioli Learning Style Questionnaire (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) to determine students learning style. Considering their learning style, the students scores were analyzed to discover any writing improvements regarding the kind of feedback they received by the researcher through an ANOVA test. Out of five null hypotheses posed by the researcher, three were statistically rejected and two of them were statistically supported. Accordingly, the result verified that teacher written corrective feedback and peer written corrective feedback had a significant effect on the writing performance of the subjects. In the teacher feedback group, there was no significant difference between the three different learning styles, whereas in the peer feedback group, visual learning style outperformed the other two learning styles. Keywords: Teacher feedback, Peer feedback, Learning styles. Introduction Written corrective feedback is one of the important issues in pedagogical instruction and since there is no approved instruction or a corrective feedback recipe for all students to be followed, it needs more thorough investigation. Teacher corrective feedback is one of the main aspects of the academic writing classrooms, and peer corrective feedback could be a complementary version of corrective feedback, which has several benefits on the improvement of students writing. Peer feedback was selected because of its importance and specifications which are essential to be addressed, such as helping students to become more independent in the process of foreign language learning and engaging students not only in cognitive problemsolving upon the kind of feedback they receive but also in following self-correction strategies effectively. The very fundamental issue in all language classes is considering the individual differences, along with all individual-different variables, language learning styles and strategies appear to be among the most important variables influencing performance in a second language (Oxford, 1989, p. 21). Literature Review (or Previous Research) Written accuracy is important to students and teachers in many contexts, and students themselves want and expect feedback on their written errors from their teachers (Hedgcock & Lefkowitz, 1994). On the other hand, issues surrounding how and even whether to give 445

L2 students feedback on their written errors continue to be a source of agreement and disagreement among researchers, instructors, and students (Truscott, 1996). It is worth mentioning that, teachers should be sensitive to the needs, abilities and personalities of their students in providing feedback. As a result, there is no one-size-fitsall form of teacher commentary (Ferris, Pezone, Tade & Tinti, 1997, p. 178); accordingly, there are different typologies of feedbacks. The following typology is based on Ellis (2009). Direct corrective feedback, indirect corrective feedback, metalinguistic corrective feedback, focused and unfocused corrective feedback, and feedback on the form or on the content. Teachers provide the students with correct form. It is the provision of the correct linguistic form or structure above or near the linguistic error. It may include the crossing out of an unnecessary word, phrase, or morpheme, and the insertion of a missing word, phrase, or morpheme (Bitchener, 2008). Direct corrective feedback has the advantage of providing learners with the explicit guidance about how to correct their errors, especially in the cases that learners are not capable of self-correcting and do not know the correct form of their errors (Ellis, 2009). Peer readers can provide useful feedback in the EEL/ESL writing classrooms. For instance, Rollinson (2005) found high level of valid feedback among his college-level students. Peer feedback procedure may make students more critical readers and revisers of their own writing while, at the same time, becoming critical readers of the others. To have a general classification, Zhang (1995) added several advantages for peer feedback such as: (1) Learners can receive social support from peers. (2) Peer feedback can be more informative because peers are at the same level of language proficiency. (3) Students can learn by providing each other with feedback. (4) Learners may prioritize what peers say over teachers feedback. (5) Peers provide a broader audience for students writing. Peer response operates on a more informal level than teacher response. It provides a change from the one-way interaction between the teacher and the students, especially in the cases that students may end up the revisions without necessarily agreeing or even understanding the teachers authoritative comments. The student writer receiving comments from peers retains the right to reject comments; thus the students are more able to maintain the possession of their own work (Rollinson, 2005). Jacobs, Curtis, Braine, and Huang (1998) emphasized that the combination of teacher and peer feedback can be valuable for language development. They highlighted the need for teachers to be a kind of consultant who, while encouraging and guiding students to use peer and self-directed feedback, they intervene with the necessary support. As mentioned earlier, in the list of peer feedback advantages by Zhang (1995), the value of studentstudent collaboration was highlighted. Moreover, he mentioned that such collaboration can provide the building of knowledge about how to write, as well as the construction of knowledge about the topics of their writing, and the contexts in which they are situated. Villamil and De Guerrero (1996) have a similar idea in this regard. They believe peer revision offers an opportunity for bilateral rather than unilateral participation and learning. In other words, both peers may give and receive help, teach and learn how to revise; it even promotes communicative behaviors. They consider peer interaction as a useful training ground for the students future social and professional relationships. They added that peer collaboration in the writing classroom may provide the stage for students to learn to cope with different types of people with different abilities and points of view, as well as regulating their own behavior accordingly. Learning styles are those general characteristics of intellectual functioning and personality type that pertains to a person as an individual; thus it differentiates one student from the others (Brown, 2000). According to Oxford (2002), learning styles are general approaches 446

used by students in acquiring a new language or in learning any other subject. Learning style is the biologically and progressively imposed set of characteristics that makes the same teaching method wonderful for some and terrible for the others (Dunn & Griggs, 1988, cited in Oxford, 2002). In order to have a better view towards learning styles, Ehrman and Oxford (1990, cited in Oxford, 2001) referred to several style dimensions, among which two dimensions of learning styles which strongly associate with second language learning are sensory preferences and personality type. Sensory preferences can be broken down into three main areas: visual, auditory, kinesthetic (movement-oriented). Sensory preferences refer to the physical and perceptual learning channels with which the student is most comfortable (Oxford, 2001). According to Nilson (2003), visual learners rely on sight to take in information and organize information or ideas in spatial interrelationships. Visual learners prefer presentation of information in the form of diagrams, pictures, and symbols. They use colors and layouts to enhance knowledge retention. Students with an auditory learning style prefer having information explained to them. These learners benefit from hearing information in various types of verbal presentations including speeches, discussions, or debates. These kinds of learners do well with the traditional teaching methods most commonly used in college classrooms. Kinesthetic students prefer a concrete approach to learning and value practical and relevant information. They require active involvement because of excellent eye-hand-mind coordination Methodology Over a fourteen-week semester, students received teacher written feedback (TFG) and peer written feedback (PFG) in two different groups after being homogenized by KET proficiency test. The subjects had a pretest writing exam before the procedure and a posttest writing exam after it. The students wrote a descriptive paragraph as their pretest and another descriptive paragraph after receiving feedback as their posttest. Concerning the issue of scoring the students papers, the analytic approach was taken in this study. In order to reduce the marker errors contributed to the reliability and validity of the scores given to each paper by the raters, the researcher employed TEEP analytic scoring rubric. The subjects pre-test and post-test writing papers were assessed by TEEP attribute writing scale (Weir 1990, pp. 69-70) by two raters. To establish the learning style preferences of the participants, a questionnaire used by Daz Maggioli (1996) was given to the participants. The questionnaire consisted of 24 items with a rating scale of 1 to 3. The questionnaire divided the learners into the three sensory preferences, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. The general procedures of this study were divided into the following phases: First KET proficiency test (2004) version was administered to 116 subjects at Islamic Azad University. The subjects were studying English translation, and were taking Advanced Writing Course. Then 91 students who scored between 63 and 83 were considered to be the main subjects of this study. They were divided into two groups; one group received teacher feedback and the other one peer feedback. The researcher held briefing sessions for the subjects, in TFG and PFG. Both groups had two briefing sessions one at the beginning of the treatment, and another in the middle of the term. The researcher held the first briefing session by providing PFG with two guidelines, one of them was at-a-glance student guideline for preparing a peer response which was a student guideline for preparing a peer response (developed by Berg, 1999). The second guideline for PFG was peer response guideline, which was the revised form of TEEP Attribute Writing Scale (Weir, 1990) as an analytic scoring rubric by the researcher to help the students focus on 447

different components of the writing assessment. The researcher tried to lead the student to give feedback on each others drafts by providing them with a list of characteristics that were important to their success on paragraph writing assignment. At the beginning, the students were assigned to write a paragraph on the mentioned topic at home, and then in the next session, the teacher gathered the papers and distributed them among the peers. Afterward every student could give comments on the writing of his or her peer besides writing his or her name (the respondents name) on the paper, the subjects were required to give comments to their peers with the guidance of At-a-glance student guideline for preparing a peer response and peer response guideline. In the following session, all the students brought the papers and the comments back to the class and gave them all to their teacher. The teacher gave them back to the student writer. Instead of simply handing back the first draft of peer feedback in the next session, the teacher set aside the class time and encouraged the students to discuss on the received comments with their respondents (the peers). This was due to the possibility that the student writer might have misunderstood the comments the student respondent made. So after delivering each paper to its writer, the students were given time to read the comments and ask any questions or seek clarifications about what their peers had written. Allotting time for discussion would allow the subjects to have more clarification and elaboration. Therefore, the researcher made an effort to let the students have the opportunity of discussion and negotiation on the raised points before returning the amended draft. Then in the following session, the student writer had to write the amended draft based on the comments provided by the respondent. In TFG group students were assigned to write the specific topic then the next session the teacher gathered the students papers and after giving feedback and writing comments on the students papers, the teacher gave the papers and the comments back to the students in the following session. Instead of simply handing out the first draft of teacher feedback in the following session, the students were given time to read the comments and ask any questions or seek clarification about their teachers comments. Allotting time for discussion would allow the subjects to have more clarification and elaboration. To fulfill this aim, the student writer had to write the amended draft based on the comments provided by the teacher for the following session. First, a t-test was applied to investigate any significant improvements in the writing performance of TFG and PFG after receiving the treatment between the pre-test and the post-test of TFG, as well as the pre-test and the post-test of PFG. Then, in order to compare any significant differences in the writing performance between TFG and PFG, another t-test was applied on the post-test of TFG and the post-test of PFG on the result of descriptive statistics. Afterward, considering the students learning styles, in order to discover the most successful learning style in each group, a one-way ANOVA was run for each group, for TFG and PFG, separately. Findings and Discussion In order to discover any significant differences between pre-test and post-test in TFG, a paired t-test was employed. As table 1. shows the amount of T-observed (T= 12.37, P<.05) at the 0.05 level was significant. As a result there was a significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test of TFG. So the teacher corrective feedback had a significant effect on the learners writing achievement.

448

Table 1: Result of the Analysis of T-observed in TFG Paired Differences 95% Confidence Interval Of The Std. Sig. Differences Std. Error (2Mean Deviation Mean Lower Upper T Df tailed) Pre.Test.Teacher feedback Pair Post.Test.Teacher 1 feedback 2.29545 1.23099 .18558 2.66971 1.92120 12.369 43 .000 Table 2. shows the results of the analysis of T-observed in PFG. The amount of Tobserved (T= 11.84, P<.05) at the 0.05 level is significant; so it has been proved that there is a significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test of the PFG. therefore, peer corrective feedback had a significant effect on the learners writing achievement. Table 2: Result of the Analysis of T-observed in PFG. Paired Differences 95% Confidence Interval Of The Std. Std. Differences Deviatio Error Mean Lower Upper n Mean Pre.Test.Pee r feedbackPost.Test. Pai Peer 2.0212 .1706 2.3648 1.6777 r 1 feedback 8 1.17009 7 3 3

D f

Sig. (2tailed )

11.84 3

46

.000

It has been proved that teacher corrective feedback and peer corrective feedback had both significant effects on the writing improvement of students. In order to investigate the more effective corrective feedback between TFG and PFG, the researcher applied an unpaired or independent t-test. In this process TFGs post-test and PFGs post-test were compared. The result in table 3. confirmed that the T-observed (T= 1.76) was not significant at the 0.05 level. The mentioned data showed that although TFG had higher mean score than PFG, but this difference was not statistically significant to be considered as a more successful group. So it can be concluded that TFG and PFG were both successful after receiving feedback.

449

Table 3: Result of the Analysis of T-observed in TFG and PFG. Levenes Test for Equality of t-test for Equality of Mean Variances 95% Confidence Interval Of The Sig. (2Mean Std. Error Differences tailed) Difference Difference Lower Upper .27694 .06672 1.03384 .27415 - 1.02873 .06161

Sig.

Df

Post.test Equal Variances 89 assumed 6.621 .012 1.746 Equal .1.764 84.146 Variances not assumed

.084 .081

.48356 .48356

In order to discover the differences between the mean scores of different learning styles in both groups the researcher applied a one way ANOVA to compare several group mean scores simultaneously. In teacher feedback group the statistical results of the F-observed in ANOVA test (F= 1.8 and p>.05) showed that the F-observed was not significant at the 0.05 level, so there was no statistically significant difference between three learning styles of TFG in this study. Although the figure A. shows different learning style mean scores but it could not be taken as significant difference.

16 .4 16 .2 16 15 .8 15 .6 15 .4 15 .2 15 14 .8 Visua l A uditory K ines the tic

m ean

Figure A. Graphical Bar Graph of the Mean Scores of Different Learning Styles in TFG. In order to discover the most successful learning style in PFG, a one way ANOVA was applied to the results. The results showed that the F-observed (F= 4.103, p>.05) was at the 0.05 level significant. As a result, there were statistically significant differences between different learning styles in PFG. As figure B. shows that visual learning style outperformed the other two learning styles in PFG. So in PFG the most successful learning style was visual then kinesthetic and finally auditory. 450

16.5 16 15.5 15 14.5 14 visual auditory kinesthetic

mean

Figure B. Graphical Bar Graph of the Mean Scores of Different Learning Styles in PFG. Conclusion On the whole, this study reveals that feedback, in its general sense, affects students writing performance which subsequently means that students do incorporate suggestions made by their teacher and peers in their writing. This proves that the students can certainly learn from their mistakes, but this depends on adopting an appropriate feedback method that encourage students to return to their work after being assessed; in other words, the finding of this study support the claims made by other researchers (Lalande, 1982; Leki, 1991; Hedgcock & Lefkowitz, 1994; Ferris et al., 1997; Ferris, 1999; Ferris & Roberts, 2001; Rabiee, 2006; Sheen, 2007; Bitchener, 2008; Ellis, 2009) who supported the idea of providing students with different forms of feedback, such as peer feedback and teacher feedback on the bases of their efficacy. In order to analyze the results meticulously, the researcher considered the development of each learner style in both groups. As it has mentioned before, there was no significant difference in the improvement of learner styles in TFG although visual learning style was the most successful group, then auditory, and finally kinesthetic were the other successful groups, but that amount of difference was not statistically significant. On the other hand in PFG, the order of successful grouping considering the significant differences showed visual learning style was the most successful, and then kinesthetic learning style, and finally auditory learning style demonstrated different level of improvement. The finding of current study shows that although the teacher feedback and peer feedback were both effective in improving the students writing, but regarding learning style, peer feedback treatment triggered a change. While the individual learning style must be taken into account, the nature of communication and implication for language learning and problems in communicating, such as regional or social variation play a very important role. The researcher believes in order to be effective to improve teaching techniques and methods, teachers must be aware of the benefits of styles and strategies. So learning languages cannot be approached mechanically and in isolation, and different learning styles reveal different results. References Berg, E.C. (1999). The effects of trained peer response on ESL students revision types and writing quality. Journal of Second Language Writing, 8(3), 215-241. Bitchener, J. (2008). Evidence in support of written corrective feedback. Journal of Second Language Writing, 17(2), 102-118. Brown, H.D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching. New York: Longman.

451

Daz Maggioli, G.H. (1996). The good, the bad, and the ugly. Learning preferences in EFL. Forum 34(2), (32). Retrieved 10.10.2008 from http: //exchanges.state.gov/forum. Ellis, R. (2009). A typology of written corrective feedback types. ELT Journal, 63(2), 97107. Ferris, D. R., Pezone, S., Tade, C. R., & Tinti, S. (1997). Teacher commentary on student writing: Descriptions and implications. Journal of Second Language Writing, 6(2), 155-182. Ferris, D. R. (1999). The case for grammar correction in L2 writing classes: A response to Truscott (1996). Journal of Second Language Writing, 8(1), 1-11. Ferris, D. R., & Roberts, B. (2001). Error feedback in L2 writing classes: How explicit does it need to be?. Journal of Second Language Writing, 10(3), 161-184. Hedgcock, J., & Lefkowitz, N. (1994). Feedback on feedback: Assessing learner receptivity in second language writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 3(2), 141-163. Jacobs, G. M., Curtis, A., Braine, G., & Huang, S. Y. (1998). Feedback on student writing: Taking the middle path. Journal of Second Language Writing, 7(3), 307-317. Lalande, J. F. (1982). Reducing composition errors: An experiment. Modern Language Journal, 66(2), 140-149. Leki, I. (1991). The preferences of ESL students for error correction in college level writing classes. Foreign Language Annuls, 24(3), 203-218. Oxford, R. L. (1989). The role of styles and strategies in second language learning. Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Language and Linguistics. Oxford, R. L. (2001). Language learning styles and strategies. Celce Murcia, M. (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language. (3ed ed.). (pp. 359 -367). Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Rabiee, M. (2006). Interactive feedback model: Modeling a collaborative learning approach in providing feedback in writing classrooms. Unpublished doctoral dissertation: Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Campus, Tehran, Iran. Rollinson, P. (2005). Using Peer feedback in the ESL writing class. ELT Journal, 51(1), 23-30. Sheen, Y. (2007). The effect of focused written corrective feedback and language aptitude on ESL learners acquisition of articles. Journal of Second Language Writing, 5(1), 51-75. Truscott, J. (1996). The case against grammar correction in L2 writing classes. Language Learning, 46(2), 327-369. Villamil, O.S., & De Guerrero, M.C.M. (1996). Peer revision in the L2 classroom: Socialcognitive activities, mediating strategies, and aspects of social behavior. Journal of Second Language Writing, 5(1), 51-75. Weir, J. (1990). Communicative language testing. New York: Prentice Hall. Zhang, S. (1995). Re-examining the effective advantage of peer feedback in the ESL writing class. Journal of Second Language writing, 4(3), 209-22.

452

The Business of Business English: An Overview Shameem Ahmed Universiti Malaysia Sabah- Labuan International Campus shameem_1970@yahoo.com Abstract In the last two decades, business English has attracted increasing interest and awareness. Business English courses are offered by many language schools worldwide. Because success in the global business world depends on it, using Business English confidently will enhance professionals potential for success. Every day millions of people all over the world use English in their business activities. Business English is about communication with other people within a specific context. Business English is Standard English, the formal language pattern that is used in textbooks, professional journals, local and national news, and nonfiction books. Business English consists of the grammar rules presented in handbooks and reference books. Business English must be seen in the overall context of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), as it shares the important elements of needs analysis, syllabus design, course design, and materials selection and development which are common to all fields of work in ESP. The main function of business English is to inform, remind or call for action to its targeted audience. Thus business English has got a very distinctive language style: standardization, formalization and specialization. It also has got the essential language features that are called the seven Cs: completeness, concreteness, clearness, conciseness, courtesy, consideration and correctness. Business writing has changed drastically over the years. Surveys show the most soughtafter skill in todays business arena is: the ability to communicate clearly, correctly, and concisely, both in speech and in writing. The language of the new millennium is- simple, straightforward, to the point. Writing for the business environment requires special consideration. Limited time, technological advances, and an increased pace of communication make it essential that every written word count. Keywords: Business English, ESP, Language Style/Variety, Communication

453

Similarities and differences of wrong English Pronunciation among the Chinese, Indian and Malaysian Speakers Shabbir Ahmed Universiti Malaysia Sabah- Labuan International Campus shabbir142005@gmail.com Abstract When it comes to understand what speakers say either in an ESL or EFL situation, many of their articulations demonstrate some common English Pronunciation problems which need addressing. This paper refers to some similar and different pronunciation errors made by the undergraduate students at Labuan International Campus of University Malaysia Sabah while they were asked to share ideas in the form of individual speech, impromptu two-way communication and group discussion. The problems were detected in sound level, marking their various positions, and also in word level as a larger part than their smaller counterpart- sound. The demography of the sample population shows a variety in speaking English due to their ethnic mix: Malay, Indian, Chinese and other Indigenous origins. The International Chinese students who deserved to be clustered separately speak Hokkien and Cantonese as their L1whereas the Indians communicate in several languages such as Hindi, Talegu, Tamil, etc. Conversely, the local Malaysians chiefly speak in Bahasa Melayu. The samples were selected randomly to collect data, compare and contrast them. The data analysis methods used for the study were quantitative and qualitative in nature. Major data collecting tools used were questionnaires, personal interviews, and recorded speeches. A few findings after the data analysis suggest that some sounds were accented wrongly showing similarities among all speakers while others show differences in wrong positional articulations and dropping features. In fine, the acoustic and articulatory features, in some cases, as evidenced from of their speeches proved to be misleading in forming larger parts i.e. words to convey the ideas through meaningful utterances. This investigation is significant in preparing relevant teaching materials in EFL or ESL situation. Furthermore, it leaves some scopes for future research on how the influence of L1 and the speakers background lead them to inaccurate pronunciation of English sounds.

454

Incorporating Peer Feedback in ESL Classroom: Learning through Reflection Nur Syuhada Binti Mohd Radzi Politeknik Tuanku Sultanah Bahiyah, Malaysia syuhada@ptsb.edu.my Sheela Paramasivam Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia sheilly_08@yahoo.com Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia Abstract Writing is difficult, even in ones language (Rubin & Thompson, 2000). Therefore, feedback is essential for the learners to improve their performance. With the shift in focus from teacher-centred to student-centred learning, the incorporation of peer feedback in writing instruction is becoming popular among practitioners. As Grami (2010) states, peer feedback is an effective tool to help students improve their writing quality while helping teachers reduce their grading time. Despite the solid foundation, studies on peer feedback remain limited especially in the ESL Malaysian context. This article reports on a study conducted on the efficacy of peer feedback. Three research questions were examined: (1) Does peer feedback affect the quality of students writing? (2) What are the types of language features that peer reviewers comment on? (3) What is the perception of ESL learners towards peer feedback in writing? This qualitative and quantitative study includes both writing instruction and questionnaire survey. A sample consisting of Form Four ESL students were selected for this study. Findings reveal that peer feedback does create awareness for students to improve the quality of their writing. However, despite the optimistic response towards peer feedback, students preferred peer feedback as a supplementary tool to the ordinary teacher red-penned notation. The study concludes with some recommendations to include peer feedback in writing instruction. Keywords: Peer review, Peer feedback, Error correction, Autonomous learning, ESL Writing, learner centred teaching, cooperative learning, L2 Writing, Introduction Writing proficiency develops over time. It begins as an association of ideas, growing knowledge of stylistic conventions and the use of processes for planning, evaluating and revising. Writing becomes more unified as writers write for an audience and transform experiences into knowledge(Bereiter, 1980). Peer feedback or peer evaluation, according to Gueldenzoph & May (2002 p. 18) is a means of assessment that allows students to participate in the assessment process by evaluating a classmates written work, but the final grade for students work is determined by the course instructor. In the teaching and learning of writing, the audience for the students writing is often only the teacher. With the shift in current teaching practices; the role of the teacher as the sole feedback and knowledge provider has also shifted. These changes are apparent especially in todays writing instruction. Educators and academicians advocate education which puts more emphasis and autonomy on the students themselves instead of the teacher as the center of attention. Hence, learner-centered technique of error correction such as peer feedback has emerged. Furthermore, in recent decades, significant 455

changes can be seen in the writing instruction especially in the English language. Among others, is the idea proposed by Peter Elbow that the process should be the focus point, not the product. The idea was later endorsed by other researchers (Flower & Hayes, 1981; Hillocks, 1986, Kroll & Vann, 1981 as cited in Min, 2006). However, in the traditional writing class, product centred evaluation is practiced by most teachers as it is less time consuming, less dragging and it emphasizes on the grades (Cohen, 1990). With such attention on the end product, especially in Malaysian school scenario where little emphasis is given on the students and their process of learning, it is about time to advocate collaborative learning such as peer feedback to improve proficiency in writing. Statement of Research Problem Halim (2004) and Stapa & Majid, (2006) found that the most prominent problem is that a large number of students continue to fail to master the basics of English language even after nine years of formal education (from Standard One to Form Three) although English has become the language of global communication. Meanwhile, the conventional writing instruction in Malaysia does not allow for frequent immediate interaction and teacherstudents response to occur (Stapa & Majid, 2006). In Malaysia, writing is usually done in isolation with unchanging routines (Halim, 2004; Lee, 1997) where the students are engaged in a writing cycle that prioritizes on products rather than the process of writing itself. The study is also important to overcome the third problem that is the writers issue with having the real audience. Most often, teacher is the only audience in many classes in Malaysian school (Stapa & Majid, 2006). A responsive real audience will let the writers know if the message in the essay is successfully conveyed to the readers, thus helping them to be better writers (Rollinson, 2005). While error corrections is a tedious job, peer feedback helps in a way that it reduces teachers workload because students have technically revised and edited their work before the final submission (Tsui & Ng, 2000; Halim, 2004; Ferris & Hedgecock, 2005; Chi, 2005). Thus less time and effort are spent on markings. Finally, both negative and positive perceptions were reported especially on the students part (Tsui & Ng, 2000; Yang, Badger & Yu, 2006). While many students have more confidence in the teacher to make judgment and corrections because of their experience and competency, there are also many who find comments given by peers as valid and reliable as the teachers. (Guenette, 2007, 2000; Rollinson, 2005; Saito & Fujita, 2006). Due to the mixed findings reported, an extensive study is necessary to elucidate the inconclusive results. Literature Review Peer feedback in writing Previous studies indicates that peer feedback has been acknowledged by many researchers and educators as useful to increase learners writing achievement (Min, 2006; Grami, 2010; Rollinson, 2005) because it requires both beginner and expert writer to examine errors in their friends writing (Hyland & Hyland, 2001). In addition, peer feedback allows learners to revise their writings as it gives learners the motive to recheck and revise their essay so errors and weakness can be corrected and minimised (Grami, 2010). Without feedback, learners assume that their writing has communicated the intended meaning (Grami, 2010, p.31), thus they dont see a point to improve their writing anymore. Berg (1999) also sees peer feedback as an effective complementary to teacher feedback and that peer feedback can result in positive effects on the quality of student writing. While feedback improves writing, it also allows learners to measure their writing ability. 456

Learners are able to see their level of proficiency, thus realizing where they stand at. With feedback, they will learn how to improve and become better writers (Gibbs & Simpson, 2002). Advantages of peer feedback on students One of the advantages of doing peer feedback in writing is that the process provides a stage for the learners to play different roles they have never experienced in traditional settings. According to Richards & Rodgers (2001), students can play different roles such as tutors, checkers, recorders and information sharers of their peers while at the same time, peer review enhances a sense of audience, because it encourages authentic learning. Likewise, peer feedback also raises learners awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses while also encouraging collaborative learning. Most importantly, peer feedback process has proved to benefit the students in lowering their anxiety level because they feel less intimidated to be criticized by their fellow peers as compared to receiving criticism from the teacher (Tsui & Ng, 2000). To support students level of preference, a research conducted by Jacob (1998) indicates that students prefer to have their friends evaluate their writing because they see their peers as more understanding, more encouraging, less threatening, and less busy than teachers. The perception of the participants is as equally important as the quality of feedback given. Perception with close regards to peer feedback is how learners observe and conceptualize peer feedback. At another point of peer feedback, positive perceptions have been gathered from the students indicating that peer feedback is perceived as a beneficial technique (Mangelsdorf, 1992, Obah, 1993). Literature indicates that students perceive peer feedback as a beneficial teaching and learning tool because it allows them to make social contact with their peers by providing the opportunity to speak English and share ideas, as well as the chance to learn from others. A study conducted by Chuang (2005), as cited by Chen (2009) on 60 university students in Taiwan regarding their perception of peer feedback produced optimistic responses. Majority of the participants considered peer feedback as facilitating, interesting and favourable compared to teacher feedback. In addition, it is also found that students like peer feedback because it gives them an authority to take charge of their own learning without having to rely on the teacher (Tsui & Ng, 2000; Nelson & Carlson, 2006; Min, 2006). Drawbacks of peer feedback There are radical perceptions that are opposed to the belief that peer review can in a way benefit the students writing piece. For example, according to Ferris & Robert (2001) using peer responses is similar to having the blind leading the blind. Zhang (1995) reported that students preferred teacher feedback to peer feedback as some students did not trust peer feedback due to either student inability to critique peers texts or to student disinterest in the texts. In those instances where peer review was not helpful, Chen (2009) suggests that students were unsure of the purpose of peer review and their role in the peer review group. Often the students gave unfocused, vague and unhelpful comments (Tsiu and Ng, 2000; Stanley, 1992). But most importantly, they sometimes give advice that does not lead to revision (Leki, 1990). Often students are unsure if their peers comments are valid and distrust the opinions of peers (Ferris, 2003; Leki, 1990; Nelson and Carter, 1998; Nelson and Murphy, 1993; Zhang, 1995). Finally, in some cases, researchers found that students do not regard their peers as real audience (Ferris, 2003; Stanley, 1992). The beneficial values of peer feedback have also not gone unchallenged. Previous studies indicated that peer feedback was viewed negatively by students because they feel that 457

having their inexperienced peers to decide on what is bad and what is good in their essay is not acceptable (Zhang, 1995, Tsui & Ng, 2000). In addition, cultural background of the learners also influences their perceptions towards peer feedback. Nelson and Carlson (2006) found that students generally had negative views on peer feedback because of the need to maintain harmony among friends. They do not want to criticize nor make an argument for fear that it will hurt their friends feelings. Furthermore, It is interesting that "almost all of the students with totally negative views come from cultures that stress teacher-centered classrooms" (Zhang, 1995 p. 280). These results are of particular interest to the present study as the students of this study are all of Asian backgrounds. Research Objectives and Questions The purpose of this research is to find out whether peer feedback in writing affects the quality of students written work, thus improving the score of their final essay. In addition, this study also intends to investigate the types of comments or feedbacks that are given by the reviewer to the writer when they engage in peer feedback process. Finally, this research attempts to explore students perception towards using peer feedback to improve writing skills. In short, the research questions are as the followings: 1. Does peer feedback affect the quality of students writing? 2. What language aspect do readers mostly provide comment on? 3. What are their perceptions towards peer feedback? Methodology Participants This study involved 28 Form Four students (16 female and 12 male) in a secondary school in Malacca. The 16 years old subjects were not native speakers of English language and received around 140 minutes (2 hours) of English lesson per week. All of the participants were learners of English for about 9-10 years and had no previous experience in peer feedback activity. Most of these participants also received extra English lessons after classroom at tuition centres after school hours. The participants had mixed level of English proficiency with the average grade of B for English. Majority of the participants only practiced and spoke English during English class. Beyond the class, mother tongue was extensively used Research Instrumentation The instrumentation used to gather data for this research included the (a) writing task and (b) the questionnaire. Both participants in the control and experimental group were assigned the same essay topic. They were asked to write a continuous essay entitled What do you think could make you happy?. At the final stage of the peer feedback process, a questionnaire was given to the participants to gauge the overall perceptions towards entire process. Research Procedure. There were two groups participating in this study; Control group (14 participants) and Experimental group (14 participants). Prior to the actual peer feedback process, the participants were introduced to peer feedback. They were informed about the rules and guidelines of peer feedback. In short, in order to get better quality of the process, the researcher demonstrated the entire process of peer feedback during the first class for training purpose.

458

Writing task

First draft

Peer feedback

Second draft

Teacher feedback (Final

Figure 1. Procedure in the experimental group

Writing task

First draft

Teacher Feedback (Final

Figure 2. Procedure in the control group Participants in the experimental group were asked to select a partner that they were comfortable to work with. Writing task was continuous essay assigned by the teacher. Both control and experimental group received the same title. Once completed, the participants (in experimental group) exchanged their writing piece with their partner. Next, the participants read the essay and provided feedback in the checklist. The checklist was adapted from Chen & Lins (2007) study on the effect of peer feedback on young nonnative speaker in writing instruction. Once comments were given, the participants exchanged their essay back with the attached checklist. The participants then read their own essay. Following that, the participants had to revise their first draft based on the comments they received from their peers. During this revision stage, the checklist served as guideline for the participants to write a new draft. Finally, the revised version of their essay was submitted to their teacher the next day for final grading. However, the participants in the control group did not use peer feedback. Instead, participants in the control group went about their writing task using the conventional method that their English teacher usually used in previous classes. At the end of the writing task, participants essays from both groups were evaluated using the standard SPM English Marking Scheme. Their essays were rated twice; by the class teacher and the researcher for reliability purpose. Findings and Discussions Both qualitative and quantitative data were presented and discussed in this section. The findings are based on the three research questions:

459

1. Does peer feedback affect the quality of students writing? Table 1. The writing scores of the participants in both experimental and control group First draft Second draft Grade Group Mean score (%) Mean score (%) Experimental 70 82 A Control 71 B In comparison to the control group, the mean score for experimental group was 82%, while control group received 71%. There was a difference of 11% between both groups. This indicates that the incorporation of peer feedback is useful. As stated previously, peer feedback was used in between drafts. Revision was also done using the comments given by peers as guideline. Thus, students writing scores improved remarkably. More comments and corrections were given by peers during this stage, which then allowed the writers to revise and correct their errors. As Ferris and Robert (2001) stated, error feedback improves students self-editing skills, which consequently improve writing accuracy on the new writing. In short, the mean scores of the participants increased by 11% and the grade improved from B to A. This explains that peer feedback was beneficial and positive to the students writing development. 2. What language aspect do readers mostly provide comments on? Chart 1. The percentage of feedback given according to language aspects. (Experimental Group)

The percentage of items checked in the checklist 93% 50% 43% 21% 68% 14% 75% 29% 43%

7%

The types of comments provided by the participants were mostly on local errors made in writing as provided in the checklist. As this is the first attempt done by the participants on providing feedback on the peers writing task, the researches felt that the participants would feel more at ease and can apply the knowledge they have learnt in the classroom. As can be seen in Chart 1, Handwriting was the most prominent language aspect that the participants provided feedback on. Meanwhile, Sentence Structure received the least number of comments, from only 2 participants commented in this area. This may be due to Handwriting being a less difficult aspect to comment on as compared to Sentence Structure which requires more comprehensive evaluation. Ideas and Content (75%) is 460

another aspect commented by most of the participants as well as Spelling (68%). Chen (2009) stated that, good English proficiency is not required for the participants to contribute and share their new ideas with their friends, thus it is less intimidating to give feedback on ideas and content. As opposed to giving feedback in language aspects such as vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure which may require them to be skilled and proficient first. This explains the results obtained in areas such as Organization (29%), Vocabulary (21%), and Grammar (14%). Ultimately, the findings concurs the conclusions made in previous researches that student reviewers prefer to give comments in areas that are less demanding due to the lack of linguistic skills. They feel that important areas especially grammar should be corrected by teachers as they are more qualified, knowledgeable and experienced (Miao, Badger & Zhen, 2006; Lin & Chen, 2007, Tsui & Ng, 2000, Diab, 2006). 3. What are their perceptions towards peer feedback? Participants generally had more positive attitude (81%) than negative (19%), towards peer feedback. 75% of the students surveyed found that reading peers writing is useful. 70% of them rated that they benefit from comments and feedback given by their friends. 67% of them responded that they would like to use peer feedback activity again in their next writing lessons. However, few of the participants claimed that peer feedback is useless, discouraging, shallow, incompetent and careless. Besides, some of the subjects also mentioned that their peers were not experienced enough when editing their work because many errors remained uncorrected. Thus, they feel that peer feedback is ineffective. In short, the participants had mixed feelings towards peer feedback. Conversely, the majority of the participants clearly expressed that they preferred their teacher to be the primary evaluator of their writing (57%). Teacher is favoured over their peers because they perceive the teacher as being more knowledgeable and experienced. 32% of the respondents also stated that if their peers were to evaluate their writing, it should be done with the presence of the teacher. Despite the negative response, 64% of the participants enjoyed reviewing their essays with friends as well as with the teacher. They reasoned that peer feedback allowed them the opportunity to learn from one another, write for an audience, plan and revise their writing, gain more ideas from fellow friends and engage in a process that their English teacher could not normally have time to fulfil;- a one-to-one discussion like what they received during peer feedback session. To conclude, the overall perceptions of the participants indicated that they were fairly optimistic towards peer feedback. Summary of Major Findings The study aimed to examine the effect of peer feedback on Form Four students in Malacca. The participants receptiveness towards the activity was also measured. The receptiveness mentioned was in terms of the participants incorporation of the feedback given by peers in their new draft and their perceptions towards the activity. The major findings are summarized as in the following: 1. Students writing score improved upon engaging in peer feedback activity (from grade B to A.) 2. Participants in experimental group performed better than those in control group. 3. In the experimental group, the grade in second draft improved by almost 12% as compared to the grade in the first draft. In short, writing several drafts was helpful because students get to do corrections and add new ideas to their writing.

461

4. Corrections and feedback were mostly centered on surface level errors. Participants generally commented on Handwriting (93%), Ideas (75%) and Spelling (68%), as opposed to Grammar (14%) and Sentence Structure (7%). 5. In general, students were receptive towards peer feedback because the percentage of feedback incorporation was generally high (67%). 6. Although majority of the participants were fairly receptive to have fellow friends evaluate their essay, they are more positive if the activity was to be done with the teacher too. 7. In general, the participants perceived peer feedback positively (81%) Conclusion In conclusion, this study aimed to investigate the effect of peer feedback in improving ESL students quality of writing. Overall, the research is considered successful because the research questions are answered. Upon engaging in peer feedback, students writing quality improved. Scores and grades increased because writing contents were enriched. In general, peers mostly contributed feedback on the surface level (e.g ideas, spelling, handwriting, etc) as compared to detailed writing components. Generally, the participants were quite receptive of the activity, but not fully tolerable to have their peers substituting the customary teachers role. In terms of receptiveness, students incorporated a good amount of feedback suggested by their peers, although there were some who did not. However, the amount of incorporated comments surpassed ones that were not. Thus, this indicates that the participants regarded comments by peers as valuable and perhaps meaningful. The overall attitude towards the peer feedback was pleasing although one or two grouses were reported. Despite the flaws, the participants still found peer feedback to be beneficial in improving the quality of their writing . Collaborative learning was enjoyed and most participants suggested they would like to have the activity again in future. However, it can be said that students preferred having the teacher also as the final evaluator than their fellow peers. To conclude, it is recommended that peer feedback should be incorporated in the ESL classroom to supplement the conventional teachers feedback in writing. However, it should not be used as the sole source of evaluating students writing as the role of the teacher is still vital. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research Time constraint is noted as the most prominent concern in conducting peer feedback. The duration of English periods allocated was insufficient for the researcher to conduct peer feedback in the classroom. Another shortcoming to peer feedback was that the participants did not have enough practices prior to the actual peer feedback session. Practice was only given once, during their first class. The lack of practice then resulted in vague, uncritical, not evaluative and general comments. Students unwillingness to participate in peer feedback activity was listed as the third problem of this study. Some students reported that they were uncomfortable to exchange their essay and be evaluated by their friends. Finally, the last limitation was the lack of expertise on the teachers part considering that the research was partly conducted and supervised by the trainee teacher. However, in order to fully utilize peer feedback session, a number of weaknesses need to be addressed. Some of the suggestions are to: 1. explain the benefits of peer feedback 2. provide trainings for students to be evaluator 3. revise and improve on the checklist form

462

References Berg, E. C. 1999. The effects of trained peer response on ESL students revision types and writing quality. Journal of Second Language Writing, 3, 215-241. Bereiter, C. (1980) .Development in writing in Gregg, L. W. & Steinberg, E. R. (Eds.) Cognitive Processes in Writing. Hillsdale: Erlbaum.73-93. Chen, T. (2003) Reticence in class and on-live: Two ESL students experiences with communicative language teaching. System, 31, 259-281. Chen, Y.H. (January, 2009). The Effect of Peer and Teacher Feedback on College EFL student writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, Cohen, A. D. (1990) Language Learning: Insights for Learners, Teachers, and Researchers. Heinle and Heinle Publishers: Boston Diab, R.L (2006). Error correction and feedback in writing classroom. English Teaching Forum, 44,3,2-13. Ferris, D. and Roberts, B. (2001) Error Feedback in L2 Writing Classes: How Explicit Does It Need to Be?, In Journal of Second Language Writing, Vol. 10, pp 161 184. Flowers, L. & Hayes, J (1981). A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing. College Composition and Communication, 32(4), 365-387. Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2002) How Assessment Influences Student Learning: A Conceptual Overview, In Student Support Research Group, 42/ 2002, Centre for Higher Education Practice: The Open University. Available at <cehep.open.ac.uk/cehep/ssrg/projects/index.htm>, last accessed on 13 January 2007. Grami, G. M. (June, 2010). The Effects of Integrating Peer Feedback into University-Level ESL Writing Curriculum: A Comparative Study in a Saudi Context. Newcastle University, School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences Gueldenzoph, L. E., & May, G. L. (2002). Collaborative peer evaluation: Best practices for group member assessments. Business Communication Quarterly, 65(1), 9-20. Gunette, D. (2007) Is Feedback Pedagogically Correct? Research Design Issues in Studies of Feedback on Writing, In Journal of Second Language Writing, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp 40 53. Halim, T (2004). Creative Writing: Where Do I Start? Kuala Lumpur: MPH Quill. Retreived 23 rd September 2010 on http://tunkuhalim.wordpress.com/2007/04/13/creative-writing-where-do-i-start/ Hyland, F. and Hyland, K. (2001) Sugaring the Pill: Praise and Criticism in Written Feedback, Journal of Second Language Writing, Vol. 10, 185 212. Jacobs, G. M., Curtis, A., Braine, G., & Huang, S. Y. (1998). Feedback on student writing: Taking the middle path. Journal of Second Language Writing, 7, 307-317. Leki, I. (1990). Coaching from the margins: issues in written response. In B. Kroll (Ed.), Second Language Writing: Research Insights for the Classroom (pp. 5768). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. Mangelsdorf, K. (1992). Peer review in the ESL composition classroom: What do the students think? ELT Journal, 46(3): 274-284. Miao, Y., Badger, R. and Zhen, Y. (2006) A Comparative Study of Peer and Teacher Feedback in a Chinese EFL Writing Class, In Journal of Second Language Writing, Vol. 15, pp 179 200. Min, H. T. (2003). Why peer comments fail. English Teaching & Learning, 27, 85-103. Min, H. T. (2005). Training students to become successful peer reviewers. System, 33, 293-308. 463

Min, H. T. (2006). The effects of trained peer review on EFL students revision types and writing quality. Journal of Second Language Writing, 15, 118-141. Nelson, G. L., & Murphy, J. M. (1993). Peer response groups: do L2 writers use peer comments in revising their drafts? TESOL Quarterly, 27, 135142. Nelson, G., & Carson, J. (2006). Cultural issues in peer response: Revisiting culture. In K. Hyland & F. Hyland (Eds.), Feedback in second language writing: Contexts and issues (pp. 42-59). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Obah, T (1993). Learning from Others in the ESL Writing class. English Quarterly 25(1), 8-13. Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rollinson, P. (2005). Using peer feedback in the ESL writing class ELT Journal, 59/1, pp 23- 30 Stanley, J. (1992). Coaching student writers to be effective peer evaluators. Journal of Second Language Writing 1(3), 217233. Stapa, S.H & Majid, A.H (2006). The Use of First Language in Limited English Profficiency classes: Good, Bad or Ugly? Journal e-Bangi, Vol , Jul-Dec 2006 Retreived 14th July 2010 on http://pkukmweb.ukm.my/ebangi/papers/2006/sitihami.pdf Saito, H., & Fujita, T. (2004). Characteristics and user acceptance of peer rating in EFL writing classrooms. Language Teaching Research, 8, 31-54. Tsui, A. B. M., & Ng, M. (2000). Do secondary L2 writers benefit from peer comments? Journal of Second Language Writing, 9, 147-170. Wang, L (2003). Switching to First Language Among Writers with Differing Second Language Profficiency. Jornal of Second Language Writing Online. 12(1): 347375. Retreived 25th August 2010 from http://www.aitech.ac/iteslj./html Yang, M., Badger, R., & Yu, Z. (2006). A comparative study of peer and teacher feedback in a Chinese EFL writing class. Journal of Second Language Writing, 15, 179200. Yang, L. and Wilson, K. (2006) Second language classroom reading: A social constructivist approach, The Reading Matrix, 6(3), 364-372. Yu, K. H. (2003). The measurement on college students English competence and the orientation of college English curriculum. In Ming Chuan University compilation, The Proceedings of 2003 International Conference and Workshop on TEFL and Applied Llinguistics (pp. 512-514). Taipei: Crane. Zhang, S., 1995. Reexamining the affective advantage of peer feedback in the ESL writing class. Journal of Second Language Writing 4, pp. 209222. Zhu, W. (2001) Interaction and feedback in mixed peer response groups. Journal of Second Language Writing, 10, 251-276.

464

Transgressing the Written Literary Norm and Redefining Textness in Contemporary Childrens Literature Moula Evangelia Secondary Education, Greece moula@rhodes.aegean.gr Abstract The cultural shift that takes place in our era, changes the institutional status of traditional categories and establishes new conditions. Among them remarkable is the shift from the work-to-text . This leads to a new, diversified definition of the text itself. Text becomes generous, liberal, polysemous, and above all situated within the complex of cultural practices. Text, thus, can refer to many kinds of practices which demonstrate the primary and secondary features of textness (the qualities of text) which we have conventionally applied narrowly to written records only. Obviously, visual, oral, and numeric data (prints, photographs etc), and any other modifications of traditional literary devices can be included. Literature in the digital era is materialized through all the available modes, partaking of literary tradition and at the same time introducing crucial transformations that redefine what literature is. The boundaries between written texts and all the other modes mobilized to generate literary meaning and to communicate with the reader are fluid. Anyway, literacy is () understood as the communicative practices that shape the world we live in, while communication in our era is marked by interactivity, immediacy, non linear progression, multimodality, hybridity and complexity of both images and texts. On the other hand, childrens literature is nowadays considered to have come to age, meaning it has entered post modern reality and has been enriched with commensurate practices. Having overcome the phase of its aggressive didactic instructional role, of the intentional manipulation of the reader and of the aspiration to realistic representation, childrens literature of our era adopts alternative and miscellaneous techniques and is being influenced- even transformed - by the present day fermentations under the dominance of the new technological media and the electronic reality of our time. Childrens narrative experience changes radically as it transgresses the conventional norms and transcends the boundaries of the traditional print literature. We are going to go after and examine the above mentioned qualities in childrens books and we will try to prove that childrens literature inaugurates a new phase that marks the transition from print literature to the electronic one. Keywords: childrens literature, transgression, hybridity, intertextuality, multimodality. Introduction: Cultural context and the transition of literature into a new paradigm The place of writing is in turmoil. Crucial transformations under the impact of large-scale social and cultural changes redefine what literature is. In his important late essay "The Problem of Speech Genres" Bakhtin outlines his theory of the utterance as the basic unit of actual speech practice. However, unlike the parole of Saussure to which it is often compared, every utterance belongs to a specific speech genre, with certain generic conventions constraining the form that the utterance might take. Furthermore, these generic conventions imply specific worldviews and ideological investments. All utterances are thus profoundly historicized, and historical changes in language are closely linked to historical changes in the world at large. As Bakhtin puts it: "Utterances and their types, that is, speech genres, are the drive belts from the history of society to the history of language" (Bakhtin, 1986, p.65). Bakhtins dynamic historical 465

view of the utterance implies that all utterances within a specific genre are produced in a dialogue with previous utterances in that genre. Any speaker (or writer) is thus inevitably not only expressing his own ideas, but repeating and responding to the ideas of others as well: his given utterance enters into one kind of relation or another (builds on them, polemicizes them, or simply presumes that they are already known to the listener). Any utterance is a link in a very complexly organized chain of other utterances. This understanding of the profound historicity of all language use supports the view of historical embeddedness and situatedness of all discourse that Spanos (1987, pp. 189-276) and others have described in relation to postmodernism. No text is produced in a vacuum; Every discourse has its innate ideology and every new literary paradigm is rooted in an ideological starting point. The matching of the ideological content with the appropriate ideological frame has always been the catalyst for literary evolution (Williams, 1977, p.185). In 1962 Thomas Kuhns The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) showed that most of the time the scientific community sails along happily within a paradigm, a consensus about methods and ends. From time to time, however, new evidence or contradictions within the paradigm accumulate until the paradigm itself falls into doubt. At this point there is a crisis. Thereafter, a new paradigm is established, theoretical questions are put on the shelf and things return to normal. This seems to be the case with literature as well. The Russian Formalist model of literary history gives a central role to transgression: literature evolves, as new rule-breaking works come along to redefine the literary. But, as Bakhtin (among others) has pointed out, this Formalist notion of literary evolution tends to divorce itself from events in the world outside of literature, being concerned only with the "intrinsic, immanent laws of the development of forms within a closed, purely literary system" (Bakhtin, 1985, p.159). Bakhtins point is that no strict separation between literature and the society around it, is possible. We as readers also approach the text with our own preexisting tool-kits of interpretive techniques, techniques that derive not only from our previous encounters with fiction, but also from our interactions with the world at large. The contemporary psychoanalytical theories about the segmentation of the subject, the post- structuralist, postmodern challenges to the self cohesiveness and to the integrity of ones consciousness as well as the claim of the multiplication of ones image under the decisive impact of the Warhol- ian viewpoint and the disruption of the western monocultural philosophical foundation, are culturally commensurate with the rupture which takes place within the conventional concept of literature, imposed by post- modernism and new technologies. Postmodernism established a crossing or dissolving of borders - between fiction and nonfiction, between literary genres, between high and low culture. Jacques Derrida for example reached the conclusion that the category narrative is nothing but a fictional construct artificially imposing temporality and meaning upon an endless chain of signifiers (Derrida, 1980). Writers have employed new techniques and devices borrowed from nonliterary models in the popular culture, such as newspaper layout, advertising, photography, film and television to renew worn fictive forms, without being necessarily conscious of the impact of modern technology (Duangsamosorn, 2005, p.258). At the same time a whole brand new literary experience is emerging through hypertexts immense possibilities. Borges Garden of forking paths may be used as a metonymy and a forerunner of internet and its never ending bifurcations37.
37

About the interaction and merging of theory with technology see: Landow George P., 1992, Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins.

466

Literature Review: Changes in childrens literature paradigm In the meanwhile the narrative modes employed in childrens literature seemed to bem stagnant. Narration was mostly restricted to either first-person narration by a main character or third-person one with one character focaliser (Stephens, 1991:63). Texts used to be monological rather than dialogical, with single-stranded and story-driven narratives, closed rather than open endings, and a narrative discourse lacking stylistic variation (Moss, 1985, pp. 79-92). These were strategies which functioned to situate readers in restricted and relatively passive subject positions and to implicitly reinforce a single dominant interpretive stance. Restrictions on narrative point of view in particular frequently have the effect of restricting the possible interpretive positions available to implied readers (Stephens, 1992b: 27). This had been the case until the last three decades. Childrens literature, existing in the margins of the mainstream adults literature, absorbs the fermentations of the social and cultural milieu and dares innovations which establish a new paradigm or better, to use the Bakhtinian term, articulate a new utterance. To be more accurate, childrens literature follows the norm of the entire social, historical, and cultural moment which imposes a new communicative paradigm and promotes differentiated utterances, integrally involved with the contemporary social and political moment in which they are generated. Childrens literature is nowadays supposed to have come to age (Nikolajeva, 1996), meaning it has entered post modern reality and has been enriched by commensurate practices. Having overcome the phase of its aggressive didactic instructional role, of the intentional manipulation of the reader and of the aspiration to realistic representation, childrens literature adopts techniques and is being influenced- even transformed - by the present day changes under the dominance of postmodernism, the ongoing preponderance of images in our lives and the new technological media (ICT) of our time. In many cases the traditional term literacy is being replaced by the term "electracy" (Ulmer, 2002) or one even refers to ergodic literature (Aarseth, 1997). Findings and Discussion 1. Literary transgression, multi-semiotic communication and interrogation of existing authoritarian discourses. Thus, childrens literature today consists of a bricolage of different styles and genres, constructed by patching together a variety of heterogenous kinds of texts (documents, letters, scientific treatises, plays, poetry, notebook, journal entries, magazine articles, and so on). Even the characters are taken from other books. Obtrusive narrators who directly address readers and comment on their own narration; disruptions of the spatio-temporal narrative axis and of diegetic levels of narration; parodic appropriations of other texts, genres and discourses; typographic experimentation; mixing of genres, discourse styles, modes of narration and speech representation; multiple character focalisers, narrative voices, and narrative strands and so on. These are strategies which distance readers from a text and frequently frustrate conventional expectations about meaning and closure. Implied readers are thereby positioned in more active interpretive roles. By foregrounding the discursive and narrative structuring of texts, such narratives can show readers how texts mean and, by analogy, how meanings are ascribed to everyday reality. By leaving the seams between these patches openly exposed, literature acquires self- referentiality (McCallum, 2004, p.587/ Waugh, 1984, Stevenson, 1984).

467

Even more, multimodality38 seems to be the most outstanding characteristic of the present day. Communication for children of the net generation (Tapscott, 1999) is marked by interactivity, immediacy and complexity of both images, sounds, various effects and texts. For the net generation semiotic devices such as cuts, flashbacks, split screen images, non linear progression, hyperlinks and multiple conclusions are the norm. Kress claims that communication has always been multi-semiotic (Kress, 1997, p.60), but writing has been the main means of providing information (Kress, 2003, p.1)39 while images have been seen to support but not necessarily provide new information. However, the roles of image and text communication are changing. Over the past decade society has embraced a visual turn (Jay, 1989, p.49) or a pictorial turn (Mitchell, 1984, p.13). The reading path for images, unlike text, is relatively unstructured. The variety of elements in an image including size, color, perspective, shape, and so on, allow for viewers to construct meaning in different ways. The use of images challenges the dominance of writing and allows texts to be seen not just as print but as a combination of word and image or image on its own, while the issue of interactivity and multimodality become key aspects of childrens narrative experience (Dressang, McClelland, 1999, pp.160-7). 2. Hybridity and blurring of the boundaries: childrens literature and comics affinities to new media The blurring of existing genres and the emergence of new ones generates new fluid narrative categories which are difficult to classify. Hybridity breaks the literary conventions of childrens literature. Written text is combined with design, documents, photos, elements from different artistic areas and even more some novels sometimes create an interactive bridge to new media, mobile phones, emails and internet. Such transmedia projects enrich traditional narrative with dynamic elements of the interactive world of social networking, on line games, virtual reality and even of usergenerated content, by creating on line communities, who partake in competitions, exchange opinions or even write part of the story (Amanda Project40 etc). Multimedia narratives mobilize both the book and the computer and adopt elements from the so- called cyberaesthetics (Sarris, 1999, pp.27-1). Such transmedia projects create cyber bridges, on line communities or are even based on user- generated content. Such are The 39 Clues Series41, the Skeleton Creek42 or the Amanda project43. They are mostly mystery books, most of them have sequels written by different authors and are influenced by ICT not only thematically but also structurally (Giannikopoulou, Fokiali, 2001, pp.207-225). Debates, quizzes, tell your story or become a character are some of the choices the visitor encounters in the official websites of the books. As expected prominently stands the shop, where one can buy t- shirts or other gadgets from and become a declared fan of the reading community . In other words, such multiplatform concepts adopt the most effective

38

A mode may be defined as a set of communication resources. A minimal list might include: body language audio language layout (2-D) image space (3-D) typography/lettering interaction colour sensations (e.g. touch, smell) movement. 39 Kress predicts that language-as-speech will remain the major mode of communication; language-as-writing will increasingly be displaced by image in many domains of public communication, though writing will remain the preferred mode of the political and cultural elites. Kress Gunther, 2003, Literacy in the New Media Age. Abingdon: Routledge, p.1. 40 http://www.theamandaproject.com/ 41 Riordan Rik, 2008, The 39 Clues Book 1: the Maze of bones, New York: Scholastic Press. 42 Carman Patrick, 2009, Skeleton Creek, New York: Scholastic Press. 43 Lennon Stella, 2009, Amanda Project, Harper Collins Publishers- 4th Story Media.

468

promotion practices and lend methods from other social spaces and especially the commercial one, which debase literatures supposed acculturation purpose. A prominent example of this kind is Cathys trilogy (Cathys book, key and ring44). Part romance, part thriller, part mystery, one can experience the story by calling phone numbers, searching websites, examining evidence, discovering secrets, and exploring locations hidden in the pages of Cathys private sketchbook. Worth to mention is the commercial agreement between Cover girl (Procter and Gamble) and Perseus Books Group (Cathys trilogy) to promote each other, which inaugurated a new ethos in the field of literature, that foregrounds the inextricable and indissoluble relation between art and profit. Besides, nowadays the demarcation between e- literature and video games is anything but clear- cut (Aarseth, 1997/ Eskelinen, 2004). Transubstantiation of books into videogames, role play material or mini adventures are common. Equally, books inspired by videogames or dealing with them, narratives being transformed into games and gadgets is a very common practice which establishes the interconnection of childrens literature with the broader cultural fermentations and specifically with new technologies. Only You Can Save Mankind (1992) is the first novel in the Johnny Maxwell trilogy of childrens books and fifth young adult novel by Terry Pratchett45, whose story is based on a video game adventure. Another kind of convergence that takes place is that of narrative and knowledge books, while at the same time written texts obtain a multi sensory dimension. The distinction between fiction and non-fiction is blurred and constantly shifting (Fisher, 1972, p.10). Transitional genres emerge and become precursors of more mature not to say transgressive forms. Textured touch and feel books and lift the flap books (which reveal hidden objects) encourage an interactive, playful approach. Mixture of fact and fiction (photographs, documents, newspapers material) creates a pastische of illustrative formats and styles which integrates multiple sign systems. This tendency is not irrelevant to or independent from the new environment of mass media and multi- media. The sovereign overarching experience of new technologies influences childrens literature which imitates and even emulates their means. Interactive learning literature is becoming a flourishing branch and edutainment, sustained theoretically is getting more and more popular. As long as popular culture is part of childrens one as well, we cannot omit to mention comic books evolution and their affinity to an all- encompassing technocracy, regarding content and form. A definition of comics today is extremely elusive, due to cultural variables, intersections with cognate media such as video-art, cinema and advertising and, more generally, the number of transformations undergone by comics worldwide in the past few decades. The contemporary scene is characterized by more articulate and complex crossfertilization between comics and television (including digital and satellite TV), cinema, literature, video-games, internet and computer software, graphics and animation in general. The 1980s inaugurated the era of interactive video-games growing, which borrowed
The authors of the trilogy are Sean Stewart, Jordan Weisman and Cathy Brigg and Cathys book was forst publihed in 2008 45 Twelve-year-old Johnny receives a pirate edition of the new video game Only You Can Save Mankind from his friend Wobbler. However, he hasn't been playing for long when the ScreeWee Empire surrenders to him. After accepting the surrender he finds himself inside the game in his dreams, where he must deal with the suspicious Gunnery Officer as well as the understanding Captain, and work out exactly what they're all supposed to do now. This might all be the result of an over-active imagination except that the ScreeWee have disappeared altogether from everyone else's copy of the game. With the help of another player, Kirsty, who calls herself "Sigourney" (as in Weaver), Johnny must try to get the ScreeWee home.
44

469

extensively from traditional comics, employing, for example, the stories of Mickey Mouse, Flash Gordon, Peanuts and Judge Dredd. Mangas also featured prominently in videogames, such as Pokmon. Moreover, comics since the 1980s have also interfaced more frequently with advertising, competing more and more fiercely with USA and Japanese cartoon animation (Hunt, 2004, p.391). An outstanding category, info-comics, are more like video-games since they are entirely supported by computer technology. They are also interactive, allowing users to select alternative developments in the plot via their computer keyboard (Brancato , 1994, p.137) In addition, while film continues to influence comics, comics continue to inspire the film industry, thanks to the development of computer graphics and digital technologies. Another characteristic of comics is their role in reconsidering high brow culture and their contribution to its deconstruction. Comics mold old content into new forms (Manga Shakespeare (Schodt, 1983, p.15) / Greek classics in Marcia Williams Homer (Moula, 2011) and demystify it by parodying it or by simply transforming classics into visual narratives. Some other times classics and cartoons collide in an unexpected hybrid way. Although following the narrative line faithfully the use of a concrete graphic style transforms the original text and comments on it critically. In R. Sikoryaks brilliant comics, the overlapping of fictional legacies creates a funny fusion which is at the same time provocative and makes us contemplate about ourselves. Dante, Bronte, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Wilde and others are presented through the style of superhero stories, cat cartoons or even gum wrappers. Comics journalism is also worth to mention, as an indication of the multi- faceted possibilities of the medium and even more of the interweaving of the genres. Comicsjournalism takes full advantage of the graphic language and foregrounds an individual perspective as an organizing consciousness. This way such comics achieve layers of meaning inaccessible to prose journalism alone, because of the blending of words with images and by blurring the line between factual and fictional (Joe Sacco, Palestine (2002), Safe area Gorazde (2001)/ Ted Ralls In Afganistan and back (2002)/Art Spiegelmans A Jew in Rostock (1992)). Another outstanding species of literary transgression is the comics-oriented picture books by David Wiesner, Art Spiegelman, Eleanor Davis, Posy Simmonds, Peter Ss, Mo Willems, or Marcia Williams that could be included in the same broad field. 3. Image-text combination as a prominent feature of todays childrens reading experience Children learn to read pictures before they learn to read words. Lewis (1990, p. 142) suggested that this characteristic, the interplay of written and illustrative text, makes picture books a supergenre. In the same way that written text has a grammar that supports the construction of meaning through semantics and syntax, so illustrative text has a grammar of its own (Anstey, Bull, 2000). Conceivably a picture book can contain more meanings and be able to be read in more ways than the novel, by virtue of the presence of both the illustrative and written texts. Therefore in Bakhtins (1981) view a picture book can be polyphonic or have many voices that can work contrapuntally combining to produce a dialogic whole. Nevertheless, picture books that self-consciously contain multiple meanings by virtue of the fact that the written text and the illustrative text combine to construct the narrative are a relatively recent development. In postmodern picture books the narrative is often told by both the author and the illustrator, and so decisions about illustrative grammar have the potential to augment, modify or change existing meaning in the written text. Image and text may then create a counterpoint or even 470

contradict each other, a fact that activates the creative engagement of the reader (NIkolajeva, 2000, pp.227-231). Jeff Quinnys Diaries are representative of this function, instigating humor and reflection at the same time. Certain works set a fully unexpected sui generis norm, either by rejecting words or by combining words and images in an unthought-of way. As their forerunner one could regard Raymond Briggs The Snowman, published in 1978. This was the first book fully composed only by images. Tracing this penchant a remarkable example is Shaun Tans The Arrival (2006). The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a long forgotten time. Borrowing the language of old pictorial archives and family photo albums which have both a documentary clarity and an enigmatic, sepia-toned silence. There is no guidance as to how the images might be interpreted, and we must ourselves search for meaning and seek familiarity in a world where such things are either scarce or concealed. In the absence of words, an image can often have more conceptual space around it, and invite a more lingering attention from a reader. Brian Selznicks The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2008) sets another paradigm of its own. This 526-page book is told in both words and pictures. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not exactly a novel, and its not quite a picture book, and its not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things. Each picture (there are nearly three hundred pages of pictures!) takes up an entire double page spread, and the story moves forward because you turn the pages to see the next moment unfold in front of you. It is like entering into a 1930s black and white movie. In some comic books the multi leveled construction of the image breaks the rule of linear reading and imposes a crooked reading path just like in e- literature. In Marcia Williams comic- orientated picture books of Iliad and Odyssey the structure of the images does not imitate anything in the real world. They are unconventional visual arrangements based on a visual code. The components of the whole stand out as separate, distinct units, so that there is not an imposing authoritative meaning. The constructedness of the images, their sensory mode, the way the elements are compositionally brought together imply a non linear reading that empowers the reader (Kress, Van Leeuwen, 1996, pp.25-7). The multitude of the details create embedded unstructured analytical processes (Kress, Van Leeuwen, 1996, pp.92-3) that distract from the main narrative and bring variety. 4. Intertextuality- intervisuality- metafiction- parody Intertextuality (Wilkie , 1986, p. 181)46 denotes the myriad conscious ways in which texts are alluded to or cited in other texts: the dense network of quotation, glancing reference, imitation, polemical refutation and so on in which all texts have their being47. This characteristic resounds the electronic reality of our era and the function of hyperlinks in particular, that materialize intertextual nets towards multiple directions and layers in such a

46

It is possible to identify three main categories of intertextuality: (1) texts of quotation which quote or allude to other literary or non-literary works; (2) texts of imitation, parody, pastiche, paraphrase, 'translate' or supplant the original, which seek to liberate their readers from an over-invested admiration in great writers of the past and (3) genre texts where identifiable shared clusters of codes and literary conventions are grouped together in recognizable patterns which allow readers to expect and locate them, and to cause them to seek out similar texts: Wilkie Christine, 1996, Intertextuality, in International Companion Encyclopedia of Childrens Literature, (P.Hunt), Routledge, London and New York: 181. 47 In art and literature we find a proliferation of critical terms designating reflexive practices: metafiction (Waugh 1984) is defined as fiction about fiction that comments on its own narrative or linguistic identity; and narcissistic narrative is the figural adjective designating this textual self awareness (Hutcheon 1984:1).

471

point that the hierarchical relation of sub-text and hyper-text is unsettled (Moula, 2010, pp.23-34). The same thing happens to the literary experiments. Cognate to intertextuality is metafiction and parody: The term metafiction is used to refer to fiction which self-consciously draws attention to its status as text and as fictive. It does this in order to reflect upon the processes through which narrative fictions are constructed, read and made sense of and to pose questions about the relationships between the ways we interpret and represent both fiction and reality (Waugh, 1984:2) Metafictive texts often draw attention to their own artifice through the parody or inversion of other texts, genres and discourses. What is important in metafictive narratives is a demonstrated relationship between play-oriented activities, such as verbal puns, jokes and rhymes, role play and story-telling, which support the acquisition of language and of complex cognitive and social skills (Vygotsky 1934/1962). Underlying much metafiction for children is a game with linguistic and narrative codes and conventions. McNaughton, Scieszka and Janet and Allan Ahlberg exemplify this kind of writing, the intertextual and metafictive one, for quite young children, by producing narratives which are parodic reversions of familiar childhood texts In Have You Seen Whos Just Moved in Next Door to Us? by Colin McNaughton (1991), traditional formatting has been restyled to a double fold-out page supported by cut-away houses. This is reinforced by the use of rhyming couplets and many plays on words (eggcellent and eggsactly), the use of a subtext that plays out in the background and intertextuality in the form of well-known characters from other tales and even plays on other titles. Scieszka and Lanes The Frog Prince Continued (1991) and Janet and Allan Ahlbergs The Jolly Postman (1986 and sequels) are fundamentally intertextual. A characteristic trope of intertextuality takes place in comics versions, where heroes from well-known novels reappear and live a life, absolutely different from the one they had been attributed before. This way they present themselves in new molds and their character is extended and lightened from a new perspective. The League of extraordinary gentlemen (Alan Moore- Kevin O Neill) is an excellent example of this kind. 5. Interactivity- Choose your own adventure Related to electronic navigation, which concerns the selection of participation options and the construction of the story. The choose your own adventure novel is a relatively recent popular genre which explicitly constructs readers as players in a fictional game and as active participants in the construction of the story. A pioneer work in the field had been Hopscotch, a novel by the Argentine writer Julio Cortzar. Written in Paris and published in Spanish in 1963 and in English in 1966. This novel is often referred to as a counter-novel, is an introspective stream-of-consciousness novel where characters fluctuate and play with the subjective mind of the reader, and it has multiple endings. Readers construct characters from an assortment of traits and roles, and at each narrative juncture readers are offered a choice, usually from two or three possible narrative paths leading to a range of possible endings - see for example Steve Jacksons and Ian Livingstones The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (1982). It is not, in itself, particularly metafictional, though it does clearly have a metafictive potential which has been exploited by writers such as Gillian Rubinstein In Beyond the Labyrinth (1988). Rubinsteins main character attempts to transpose the rules and conventions of the Fighting Fantasy fiction which he is reading on to life.

472

Conclusion To take the long way short, literature as a means of communication under the impulse of postmodernism and new technological media is marked by: the predominance of images, with emphasis on the interrelation of both image and text (Unsworth, 2005, p.6), hybridity- genre blurring, narrative disruptions self-referentiality and parody, interactivity, intertextuality, and multimodality. This set of characteristics constructs different points of view (Unsworth, 2003, pp.55-70) and opens up childrens literature to new interpretations. As Bakhtin implies that "realistic" fiction operates in complicity with existing authoritarian value structures, and thereby can have only a conservative political force, we on the other hand can claim that transgressive works that interrogate their own modes of discourse call existing value structures into question at a fundamental level, and thus have the potential for instigating significant changes of attitude and viable social reform (Bakhtin, 1981). References Aarseth, Espen J., Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Anstey, M. and Bull, G. Reading the Visual, Sydney: Harcourt, 2000. Bakhtin, Mikhail & Medvedev, Pavel, The Formal Method in Literary Scholarship: A Critical Introduction to Sociological Poetics. Trans. Albert J. Wehrle. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985. Bakhtin, Mikhail, The Dialogic Imagination. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Ed. Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981. Bakhtin Mikhail, Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. trans. Vern W. McGhee. Ed. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986. Brancato, Sergio, Fumetti: Guida ai comics nel sistema dei media, Rome: Datanews, 1994. Carman, Patrick, Skeleton Creek, New York: Scholastic Press, 2009. Derrida ,Jacques, The Law of Genre, Critical Inquiry, 7.1, 1980. Dressang Elisa, McClelland Katie, Radical Change: Digital Age literature and learning, Theory into Practice, 38 (3), 1999, pp.160-7. Eskelinen, Markku, Six Problems in Search of a Solution: The Challenge of Cybertext Theory and Ludology to Literary Theory, 2004, http://www.brown.edu/Research/dichtungdigital/2004/3/Eskelinen/index.htm Fisher, Margery, Matters of Fact, Leicester: Brockhampton Press, 1972. Giannikopoulou, Aggeliki & Fokiali, Elita, Young Adult novel in the electronic era, in Hunt, Peter, International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. Volume: 1.London: Routledge, 2004. Jay, Martin, The Visual Turn: The advent of Visual Culture, Journal of Visual Culture, 1989, 1 (1), pp. 87-92 (49). Kanatsouli M., Politis D. (eds.) Contemporary Young Adult Literature, Athens: Patakis, 2011, pp. 207-225. Kress, Gunther, Literacy in the New Media Age. Abingdon: Routledge, 2003. Kress, Gunther & Van Leeuwen Theo, Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge, 1996, pp. 25-7. 473

Kress, Gunther, Visual and verbal modes of representation in electronically mediated communication: the potentials of new forms of text in I. Snyder (ed) Page to Screen. London: Routledge, 1997. Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962. Landow, George P., Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, 1992. Lennon, Stella, Amanda Project, Harper Collins Publishers- 4th Story Media, 2009. Lewis, David, The Constructedness of Texts: Picture Books and the Metafictive,Signal, 1990, 62, pp. 130-146. McCallum, Robyn, Metafictions and experimental work in Peter Hunt (ed.), International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, Volume: 1, London: Routledge, 2004. Mitchell W.J.T., Picture Theory, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. Moss, Anita,Varieties of Children's Metafiction, Studies in the Literary Imagination 17, 1985, 2, pp.79-92. Moula, Evangelia, E- literature and narrative theory, I-teacer, issue 1, 2010, pp. 23-34. Moula, Evangelia, Teaching classical texts through comic books, paper presented in Joint International Conference of Graphic Novels, Bandes Dessines and Comics, July 5-6, 2011 Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester, UK. Nikolajeva Maria, Childrens literature :Comes of age :toward a new aesthetic, New York London, Garland, 1996. Nikolajeva, Maria & Scott Carole, The Dynamics of Picture Book Communication, in Childrens Literature in Education, 31 (4), 2000, pp. 225-239. Riordan, Rik, The 39 Clues Book 1: the Maze of bones, New York: Scholastic Press, 2008. Sarris Dimitirs, New aesthetic conditions from new technologies, RAM 129, November 1999, pp. 270-271. Schodt, F.L., Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, New York: Kodansha International, 1983. Spanos, William, V. "Postmodern Literature and Its Occasion: Retrieving the Preterite Middle" in (his) Repetitions: The Postmodern Occasion in Literature and Culture. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987, pp. 189-276. Stephens, John, Did I Tell You about the Time I Pushed the Brothers Grimm off Humpty Dumpty's Wall? Metafictional Strategies for Constituting the Audience as Agent in the Narratives of Janet and Allan Ahlberg, in Stone, M. (ed.) Children's Literature and Contemporary Theory, Wollongong: New Literatures Research Centre, 1991. Stephens,John, Language and Ideology in Children's Fiction, London: Longman, 1992. Suthira, Duangsamosorn, 2005, Re-Imagining Language and Literature for the 21st Century: Selected Proceedings of the XXII International Congress of Film held at Assumption University, Bangkok, Thailand from 19-23 August 2002, Amsterdam: Rodopi. Tapscott, Don, Growing up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation, New York: McCrawHill, 1999. Ulmer, Gregory L., Internet Invention: From Literacy to Electracy, New York: Longman, 2002. Unsworth, Len, A. Thomas, A. Simpson, & J. Asha, Childrens Literature and Computerbased Teaching, McGraw Hill, London: Open University Press, 2005. Unsworth, Len, Reframing research and practice related to CD Rom narratives in classroom literacy learning: Addressing radical change in digital age literature for children, in Issues on Educational Research, 2003, 13 (2), pp. 55-70. 474

Vygotsky, Lev Semyonovich, Thought and Language, ed. and trans. Hanfmann, E. and Vakar, G., Cambridge: MIT Press, (1934/1962). Waugh, Patricia, Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction, London: Methuen, 1984. Stevenson, Debora, 'If You Read This Last Sentence, It Won't Tell You Anything: Postmodernism,Self-referentiality, and The Stinky Cheese Man, in Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Spring 1984, 19, 1, pp.35-40. Wilkie, Christine, Intertextuality, in International Companion Encyclopedia of Childrens Literature, (ed. P.Hunt), Routledge, London and New York:, 1996, p. 181. Williams, Raymond, 1977, Marxism and Literature,Oxord: Oxford University Press, 1977.

475

Secondary School EFL Teachers beliefs about English Language Assessment in Iran Sedigheh Abbasnasab Sardareh University of Malaya, Malaysia Abbasnasab@gmail.com

Abstract Issues of assessment design and implementation in Iran have attracted some attention over recent years, but teachers` perceptions and beliefs about assessment has remained unexplored. This study reports the findings of a qualitative study into the assessment roles and beliefs of a group of teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in secondary schools in Iran. Based on an open-ended questionnaire, the study showed that teachers` views on the nature of assessment were informed by their knowledge of the field of language teaching and learning and by the contextual background and sociopolitical factors that rule their employment conditions. The study also indicated that teachers didnot play a significant role in assessment because of top-down managerial approaches to assessment and education system. Key words: Assessment, Teachers` beliefs, education system, assessment role Introduction In recent decades, issues of assessment design and implementation has gained increased attention in education. However, teachers` beliefs about language assessment has remained underexplored. Moreover, English language teaching in many countries has resulted in vigorous discussions on assessment of EFL students English language learning. Assessment refers to any method, strategy, or tool a teacher may use to collect evidence about student progress toward achievement of established goals. It is a process of collecting information and gathering evidence about what students have learned (Chen, 2003; Wishon, Crabtree, & Jones, 1998). Thus, We can define assessment as the process of collecting information about a student to aid in decision making about the progress and language development of the student (Cheng, Rogers, & Hu, 2004, p. 363). With this practical defi nition, however, we also believe that assessment is an exercise of power that is caught up in an array of issues about testers and test-takers voices, roles, and beliefs. This critical view of assessment, with an agenda of understanding and social change, suggests that teachers, students, and other stakeholders construct the assessment knowledge by trying to make sense of the knowledge in a dialogical and co-operative way (Shohamy, 2000, p. 136). Assessment that is incorporated into the school curriculum design consolidates the goals of education and enables practitioners to reflect on the actual leaning situation (Zahorik, 1995), thereby benefiting students and requiring teachers to focus on working toward student progress (Wishon et al., 1998). In particular, the purposes and functions of assessment may be classified as follows: (1) understanding the strengths and weaknesses of students learning ability, (2) assisting teachers in monitoring student learning progress, (3) evaluating students learning, and (4) placing students in learning groups based on given institutional standards (Heaton, 1990; Popham, 1995). This paper describes a qualitative investigation of secondary school EFL teachers` beliefs about language assessment in Iran. The study was designed to yield data that would contribute to current understanding of teachers` beliefs about language assessment in secondary schools in Iran, and that would provide information for both EFL instructors 476

and EFL students about the nature and task of L2 academic language assessment, thus giving a direction for teaching and learning. Specifically this study aims: a) To find out secondary school EFL teachers` assessment beliefs. b) To examine secondary school EFL teachers roles in student assessment in Iran. Literature Review Mostly beliefs are shaped by a persons interactions with peers in daily life, his/her personal experiences and interpretations (Al-Sharafi, 1998; Hsieh, 2002). These beliefs are changed into attitudes that affect a person`s intentions and decisions (Bauch, 1984). In the context of education, beliefs refer to teachers` behaviors, with some individual teaching practices reflecting teachers` beliefs about language teaching (Bauch, 1984; Graves, 2000; Huang, 1997). Teachers` beliefs impact their thought processes and instructional decisions (Borg, 1999). These beliefs influence teachers` decisions and instructional practices like defining teaching objectives, planning lessons, selecting classroom activities and tasks, and assessing students` performance (Rios, 1996). Therefore, in the classroom context, teachers not only transmit knowledge to their students but also they might impose their own beliefs about teaching and learning on students (Horwitz, 1988). Findings of a study conducted by Cheng, (1977) showed that teachers` beliefs about language learning had a critical influence on students` learning due to the fact that Chinese teachers put a great emphasis on very good pronunciation, instantaneous error correction, vocabulary memorization and grammatical rules. Studies on teachers` beliefs are highly encouraged due to the fact that teachers` beliefs about language teaching and learning are so crucial in the classroom context. Isenburg (1990) mentions that research on teachers` beliefs assist educators find out why teachers do what they do in their classrooms. A study conducted by Adams and Hsu (2003) examined mathematice teachers` perceptions about assessment and their assessment practices in the classroom. The results showed that teachers had different conceptions about assessment techniques, tasks and strategies and these conceptions influence the assessment techniques that teachers used in their classrooms. In another study Delanshere and Jones (1999) investigated factors that affect teachers` beliefs about assessment in mathematics. The findings suggest three main factors including (a) the external definition of functions and purposes of assessment, (b) teachers` perceptions of the curriculum and their position regarding the subject matter, and (c) teachers` appreciation of students and their learning. In language learning context, however, little research has been done on teachers` beliefs about assessment practices and how these beliefs are formed by cultural and institutional contexts (Davison, 2004). Some recent studies have started investigating the role of the English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL) teacher and his/her perceptions of assessment practice. Cheng et al. (2004), for instance, argue complex roles played by university instructors in Canada, Hong Kong, and China. This large-scale comparative study showed that teachers practices changed in three major areas including assessment purposes, methods, and procedures. These distinctions, within and across environments, were because of varying cultural, institutional, and contextual factors; the nature of the courses; teachers knowledge of assessment; teaching experience; students needs; and the role of external testing on teaching and learning (p. 378). Davison (2004) conducted a comparative study in which 24 secondary school teachers in Hong Kong and Australia were inquired about their views and interpretations of the construct being assessed, and if they felt that their judgements in the classroom were legitimated and trusted in their communities. The findings of this qualitative study 477

indicated that teachers assessment practices and tendencies can be grouped along a continuum from assessor as technician, to interpreter of the law, to principled yet pragmatic professional, to arbiter of community values, to assessor as God (p. 324). This diversity in interpretation of roles was also linked to the effect of assessment approaches like norm-, criterion-, or construct-referenced on teachers perceptions and how they interact with teachers knowledge. So far, some studies have investigated teachers assessment practices, with little, if any, focus on teachers beliefs and knowledge influencing their decision-making processes in classroom assessment (Chang, 2005; Davison, 2004). No research of this kind, however, has been conducted in Iran. Thus far, all studies have focused on either the psychometric and quantitative element of assessment with an emphasis on students performance (e.g., Addamigh, 2006; Gamaroff, 2006) or on a number of factors involved in the assessing of the four language skills (e.g., Al-Busaidi, 2007; Al-Hamly & Coombe, 2005; Lanteigne, 2008). As such, this study is an attempt to investigate secondary school EFL teachers roles and Beliefs about English language assessment in Iran. Methodology Participants 35 Iranian EFL teachers from different secondary schools all over the country took part in this study. The subjects in this study were selected using purposive sampling. Most of the teachers hold bachelors degree in TEFL or English literature and their teaching experiences ranges from 4 to more than 20 years. It should be mentioned that fictitious names were used to protect teacher identities. Instrument An open-ended questionnaire designed by the researcher was used in this study (see appendix). The questions developed for this qualitative questionnaire aimed to identify assessment practices of the teachers, explain why phenomenon occurred, investigated factors behind their occurrence, and develop new perception and understanding (Richards, 2003; Ritchie & Lewis, 2003). The questions were explanatory, contextual and generative in nature and allowed the teachers to express their views in detail. Data collection and analysis It took one month to collect the data. Since participants worked in different parts of Iran, it was not possible to conduct interview with them. So, the researcher sent the open-ended questionnaire via e-mail to them. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. The emerging themes were categorized and codified and then compared with the whole set of data using a constant comparison method that included reading and rereading within and across the responses of the participants (Lalik & Potts, 2001). Findings and Discussion The participants in this study expressed a number of varied beliefs about assessment. The themes that emerged from the data are discussed in the following section. Teachers beliefs a) Fairness in assessment Teachers in this study invoked the issue of fairness in assessment and viewed that assessment should only discriminate students on grounds of ability being assessed. Thus, other extraneous factors like cultural differences should not affect the assessment process. One of the teachers mentioned that teachers should attempt to make the assessment of 478

students fair. He stated that every student should have an equal chance of getting a good assessment. Elaborating on his view, Amir stated that: Teachers assessment orientations might be affected by cultural and contextual factors, their knowledge of the students and also their own beliefs. Thus in an assessment process, teachers should consider the learner and context as well as assessment criteria. This perspective confirms observations made by Davison (2004), who argues that within a student-based assessment approach, teachers consider not only common assessment criteria and community constructs, but also the learner and the context (p. 326). Teachers believed that using multiple methods in assessing students ensures that our tests and related products are of the highest quality and as free of bias as possible. Sahar, one of the teachers stated that: In Irans education system, there are various traditional assessment methods and there is a great emphasis on standardized tests. In my opinion, authenticity has a key role in fair assessment. Students should not only be tested at the end of a program or a unit of study. Alternative assessments such as self- and peer-assessment, and portfolios are also important. b) Providing students with constructive feedback One of the significant findings in this study was that most of the participants put a great emphasis on the role of feedback. Ahlam mentioned that: Giving feedback to the students is essential. Feedback can provide students with information about strengths and weaknesses of their responses, the outcomes achieved and their performance. In my classes I always provide my students with feedback so that they can improve their learning. This is in line with Sadler (1989) who believed that giving feedback to the students help them understand where they are relative to the learning goals and where they should go. Feedback help the students alter this gap. Another participant, Sara, claimed that assessment should help learners improve their learning. So, providing students with feedback help students understand what is expected from the task, provide meaningful information about the quality of their work, clear statements about how to improve learning, correction of misunderstandings, and encouragement of what has been done well. One of the teachers argued that we have better provide students with descriptive feedback rather than just judging students` performance compared to their peers. Descriptive feedback should inform students of how their learning and performance can be improved. Teachers in this study believed that feedback is a very important part of assessment and learning. It lets the learner know if they are on the right track. As another participant viewed I think when teachers tend to give feedback to the students, their focus should be on description rather than judgment, observation rather than the person. Shirin added that the aim is to provide guidance by providing information in a useful manner, to support effective behavior and also to guide the student back on track toward successful performance. c) Pedagogical beliefs The majority of teachers focused on the pedagogical and practical side of the assessment. One of the participants with more than 25 years of teaching experience emphasized the monitoring purpose of assessment. In his opinion learners` errors are very important and students should have an active role in self-reflection and correction of their mistakes. He

479

mentioned that If the students do not correct their mistakes, no learning happens, and they would never know what they have done. Assessment is a tool that supports the pupil in taking responsibility for his/her own learning. So, teachers` focus on continuous daily assessment is of utmost importance. He added that: Assessment has to be done on a daily basis, I mean what the learner do day by day should be assessed by the teacher, so we can find out if the learners have reflected on what their teacher taught them. According to Leung & Mohan (2004), tests should be a motivating factor for learners. Thus, a test must be designed to be a learning as well as assessment experience. In this study, it was clear that teachers beliefs and their interest in the educational experience of their students often clashes with some of the assessment practices put in place by the Ministry of Education (MOE). As expressed by Emad: Test should be designed in such a way that the format does not prevent students from showing their real abilities. Considering that, students should get familiar with the test format. In addition, the test must reflect the planned curriculum as well as learners needs. As opposed to Rea-Dickins` (2004) report saying that teachers give priority to formal assessment procedures; teachers in this study were cognizant of the limitations of the current formal assessment procedure. d) Societal beliefs Societal beliefs refer to the impact of assessment on teaching, learning, and teachers` and students` accountability. In the word of one teacher: To me assessment is not useful; teachers should only focus on their teaching. Assessment is only good for students to study hard because they fear of getting bad grades. In her answer we can identify that she believed that assessment is not a part of her teaching duties. She perceived that the only usefulness of assessment relies on extrinsically motivting learners and make them study hard. She mentioned that it is important for families and student themselves to receive gradesand see the results, but for me it is useless. This teacher believed that assessment is only a tool to communicate with parents who are interested in final grades only. The results indicated the complexity of school assessment. Teachers in this research believed that assessment should monitor and improve learning otherwise it is useless. As Shohamy (2001) states, teachers` attention and concern should be about the quality of the pupils performance. Teachers role in assessment process Most of the teachers in this study believed that they were not involved in the test designing process; they mentioned that they were excluded more often and their views were not important. They pointed out that teachers are excluded from the assessment process due to the fact that they were discern not to have enough experience in this regard. Some teachers mentioned that most of the time they are not aware of the content of the midterm or final exam until the exam date. One of the teachers, Farzin, viewed that teachers should be given more authority in assessing their pupils to meet the learners` needs. In fact, the findings showed that assessment is centrally controlled, and only a few teachers are involved in decision making about assessment. One of the teachers concerned that there is no special training for those teachers involved in assessment decision making.

480

They usually do not have an idea of testing. Therefore, I think it is not that easy for them to design tests that meet all pupils` needs. Conclusion The results of this qualitative study revealed secondary school EFL teachers` beliefs about assessment and indicated that there is a gap between teachers` assessment beliefs and their practices. Generally, due to the top-down managerial approach to assessment, teachers were not involved in assessment decision making. And most of the teachers in this study desired an influential role in the assessment process. Having years of teaching experience, many of the teachers have substantial knowledge of their students` learning. This knowledge and experience make the learning environment more conductive for teaching and learning. Although participants in this study did not have an efficient role in the assessment process, they expressed major concerns about the nature of assessment. Teachers acknowledged the importance of standardized tests, but they also accentuated the role of classroom-based teacher assessment and believed that teachers` role in the assessment process should not be neglected. References Addamigh, K. (2006). Construct validity of foreign language tests. In C. Coombe, P. Davidson, & D. Lloyd (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th & 8th Current Trends in English Language Testing Conference (pp. 5572). Dubai: TESOL Arabia Publications. Al-Busaidi, S. (2007). Assessing the active and passive vocabulary knowledge of EFL students in the Sultanate of Oman. In A. Jendli, S. Troudi, & C. Coombe (Eds.), The power of language: Perspectives from Arabia (pp. 114127). Dubai: TESOL Arabia Publications. Al-Hamly, M., & Coombe, C. (2005). To change or not to change: Investigating the value of MCQ answer changing for Gulf Arab students. Language Testing, 22 , 509 531. Al-sharafi, A. (1998). An investigation of the beliefs and practice of foreign language teachers: A case study of five American high school foreign language teachers in Leon County. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. College of Education of Florida State University. Bauch, P. (1984). The impact of teachers instructional beliefs on their teaching: Implications for research and practice. ERIC Digest. ED252954. Borg, S. (1999). Teachers theories in grammar teaching. ELT Journal, 53(3), 157-167. Chang, C. (2005). Oral language assessment: Teachers practices and beliefs in Taiwan collegiate EFL classrooms with special reference to Nightingale University . Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Exeter, England. Chen, H. (2003). A study of primary school English teachers beliefs and practices in multiple assessments: A case study in Taipei City. Unpublished master theses. Taipei: National Taipei Teachers College. Cheng, M. (1997). The impacts of teachers beliefs on students anxiety about foreign language learning. The proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on English Teaching (pp. 113-129). Taipei: Crane. Cheng, L., Rogers, T., & Hu, H. (2004). ESL/EFL instructors classroom assessment practices: Purposes, methods, and procedures. Language Testing, 21 , 360389.

481

Davison, C. (2004). The contradictory culture of teacher-based assessment: ESL teacher assessment practice in Australia and Hong Kong secondary schools. Language Testing, 21 , 305334. Delanshere, G.G. & Jones, J.H.J. (1999). Elementary teachers beliefs about assessment in mathematics: A case of assessment paralysis. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 14 (3), 216-240. Gamaroff, R. (2006). What do test scores mean? In C. Coombe, P. Davidson, & D. Lloyd (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th & 8th Current Trends in English Language Testing Conference (pp. 8789). Dubai: TESOL Arabia Publications. Graves, K. (2000). Designing language courses: A guide for teachers. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Heaton, J. (1990). Writing English language tests. New York: Longman Inc. Horwitz, E. (1988). The beliefs about language learning of beginning university foreign language students. The Modern Language Journal, 72, 283-294. Hsieh, H. (2002). Teachers beliefs about English learning: A case study of elementary school English teachers in Taipei County. Unpublished master thesis. Taipei: National Taipei Teachers College. Hsu, Y. (2003). Researching multiple assessment: Evidence from EFL elementary school classroom. English Teaching and Learning, 28(1), 29-60. Huang, S.L. (1997). The domestical situations and prospection of the study of teachers beliefs. Journal of Humanity and Society of National Chung-Hsing University, 6, 135-152. Isenburg, J.P. (1990). Teachers thinking and beliefs and classroom practice. Childhood Education, 66, 322-327. Lalik, R., & Potts, A. (2001). Social reconstructivism as a framework for literacy teacher education. In C. M. Roller (Ed.), Learning to teach reading: Setting the research agenda (pp. 119135). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Lanteigne, B. (2008). Using advertisements in test item writing. In A. Jendli, C. Coombe, & S. Troudi (Eds.), Best practices in English language teaching (pp. 345354). Dubai: TESOL Arabia Publications. Leung, C., & Mohan, B. (2004). Teacher formative assessment and talk in classroom contexts: Assessment as discourse and assessment of discourse. Language Testing, 23 , 335359. Popham, W.J. (1995). Classroom assessment. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Rea-Dickins, P. (2004). Understanding teachers as agents of assessment. Language Testing, 21 , 249258. Richards, K. (2003). Qualitative inquiry in TESOL . London: Palgrave. Rios, F. (1996). Teacher thinking in cultural contexts. New York: State University of New York Press. Ritchie, J., & Lewis, J. (2003). Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students and researchers . London: Sage. Sadler, D. R. (1989). Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science, 18, 119-144. Shohamy, E. (2000). The relationship between language testing and second language acquisition revisited. System, 28(4), 541-553. Shohamy, E. (2001). The power of tests: A critical perspective on the uses of language tests .Harlow, England: Pearson Education.

482

Wishon, P., Crabtree, K., & Jones, M. (1998). Curriculum for the primary years: An integrative approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill, An Imprint of Prentice Hall. Zahorik. J. (1995). Evaluating. In L. Anderson (ed.). International encyclopedia of teaching and teacher education (pp. 283-286). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Appendix Open-Ended Questionnaire Please try to answer these questions in as much detail as you can. 1- How long have you been teaching English in secondary schools in Iran? 2- What is your educational qualification? 3- What is your personal beliefs about EFL assessment in Iranian secondary schools? 4- Please give me some explanations on how pupils are assessed in secondary schools. Please provide me with some examples. 5- Please tell me about the grading system in your school. 6- What is your opinion about the current assessment practices in you school? 7- Do you have any recommendation for enhancing students` assessment in secondary school EFL context? 8- What are the teachers` role in assessment in Iran? 9- What do you think about your role in assessing students? 10- Would you please tell me about assessment challenges you might face in your classroom? 11- What strategies do you use to overcome these challenges?

483

Analyzing Vantage Point in Local and Global TV News: A case of Free Direct and Free Indirect Quotations Sattar Mutaqid PhD student in TEFL, Mysore university-India smutaqid@yahoo.com Shabnam Salehi BA in Literature shsalehi@yahoo.com Abstract Using a corpus-based approach, this study compared the reported speech types in two series of news items by native and non-native writers of English TV news and reports. The aim of this study was to determine the potential similarities and differences concerning the frequency of reported speech types (direct, indirect, free direct, and free indirect quotations) used by news reporters and interpreters and compare the vantage point of free direct and free indirect quotes in English and Persian English TV news. 60 news items about the same political incidents were selected among local and international TV news, and they were analyzed based on Obiedats (2006) taxonomy of reported speech in the study. The result of statistical analysis revealed that, in general, there was no significant quantitative difference between the reported speech types used by native and non-native English news reporters, but concerning the one to one comparison, significant differences were found between direct and free direct quotes. Compared to other types of quotations, the number of free indirect quotes in this corpus was low which might attest to genre related nature of news reports. Significant differences were also found between the vantage point of free indirect quotations used by native and non-native news reporters. These differences, in addition to the content of the news, might indicate first language interference and lack of sufficient linguistic knowledge of non-native reporters in some cases. Further comparative research is needed to make generalizations about the way reported speech is realized in news genre. Key Words: Reported speech, Free direct quote, Free indirect quote, Vantage point. Preliminaries Reported speech as a significant part of written and spoken discourse has been considered by philosophers (e.g., Clark & Gerrieg, 1990), applied linguists (e.g., Thompson 1996, Myers 1999) and others scholars in past few decades. Obiedat (2006, p. 282) maintains that reported speech is a discourse within a discourse, which necessarily means that there are two discourse events or two speech events at issue, a reporting speech events, i. e. the speech event the report is made of and the reported speech event, i. e. the speech event about which the report is made. By speech event, he means any case of linguistic communication, including written communication. Cacchione (2006, p. 5) considers reported speech as a term that corresponds to a particular linguistic function; it is the possibility of creating a multi-level discourse, embedding different parts of discourse coming from different sources. She points out that this function allows us to report other peoples words and that is the reason why it is called reported speech. Cacchione (2006, p. 6) believes that a reported speech is not necessary to really have an original discourse to re-tell since it is a mechanism that makes possible all the

484

cases of inserting a speech into another one, even those regarding future or hypothetical, i.e., fictitious speeches. By introducing citation as the most explicit form of inclusion of other discourse in onesdiscourse, Calsamiglia and Lopez Ferrero (2003, p. 149) point out that citation means managing the words of others to convey and serve the purpose of the writer, giving a slant to what is said. Reporting the speech of other people has a significant place in journalistic discourse. According to Obiedat (2006, p. 282), in the case of TV news reports, a reported speech event includes the reporting speaker (the news reporter), the general public (i.e. the audience) as an addressee, and the spatio-temporal and socio- cultural context in which the report is included. He maintains that the interpretation of instances of reported speech requires differentiating three speech events: 1. Reporting speech event (the journalistic text, i. e. the news report/story), including a reporting utterance, 2. Reported speech events (represented in the text), including the reported utterance, e.g. direct or indirect, and 3. Original speech event (outside the text), including the original utterance. Based on other studies on reported speech in the media (Obiedat, 2006; Redeker, 1996), news reporters frame the news in different forms of reported speech such as Direct Quote (DQ), Indirect Quote (IQ), Free Direct Quote (FDQ), and Free Indirect Quote (FIQ) with their related vantage point. Vantage point includes verb tenses, personal pronouns, and adverbs of time and place which are differently used in these types of quotations. Free direct and free indirect quotations are both sub-modes of direct and indirect quotations which are two familiar terms. Leech ( 1988, as cited in Obiedat 2006) pointes out that these two constructions (FDQ, FIDQ) aid concision by allowing the writer to retell someones word, directly and indirectly, at length and without having to keep inserting expressions like he said/he said that.etc(p. 300). Another way through which news reporters also represent news is by using narrative reported speech (NRS). According to Thompson (1996, p. 504), NRS covers a somewhat loosely-defined range of structures which have in common no separate finite reported clause. Reporting verbs followed by to- infinitive clauses, prepositional phrases, and noun groups function as objects. As Thompson (1996) argues, journalistic materials, including TV news, are one of the areas in which the relationship between the report and the original language is important. He states that linguistic analysis of the language of report has played a major role in the study of journalistic discourse, particularly in recent years. Research has shown that four types of reported speech, i.e., (DQ, IQ, FDQ, and FIQ) with their specialized vantage point have a broad range of uses, though other types of reported speech might also be used. It is not clear e. g. whether native speakers of English and non-native speakers, in this case Persian news reporters, handle the above types of reported speech in the same way. One area that may affect the choice of reported speech is the context of situation. In the case of reported speech in TV news, the way the reporter reports the news indicates his/her vantage point and shows how s/he wishes his/her addressee to see the situation, including the event s/he is reporting. In addition, knowledge of the differences between the reported speech types by the reporter enables him to convey the news more effectively. Therefore, it is expected that the results of this study by comparing the vantage point of free direct and free indirect quotations in the local and International TV news will reveal important points in relation to the functions of this part of language (Reported speech) in journalistic materials including TV news. The current study attempts to answer the following questions: 485

1. Is there any difference in the frequency of reported speech types (DQs, IQs, FDQs, and FIQs) in the local and international English TV news? 2. What kind of vantage point is used in free direct and free indirect quotations in English TV news broadcasted locally and internationally? 3. Is there any relationship between the vantage point used in free direct and free indirect quotations in local and international English TV news? Methodology Corpus description The corpus consisted of 60 political items of news about the nuclear energy which were selected from British broadcasting Corpus (BBC), Press TV News, CNN, and Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting (IRIB) Khabar channel and Jam-e-Jam Channel by Iranian and International writers of English. Among these news items, 30 were selected from (IRIB) Khabar channel and Jam-e-Jam Channel written by non-native English writers broadcasted in Iran. And the rest were selected from BBC, CNN, and Press TV News written by the native editors (in this study we use the word International to refer to English native news). The main criterion for selecting this area of discourse was that reported speech has a significant place in TV news. And following Calsameglia and Lopez ferrero (2003) journalism is an active domain of writing for a wide general public, with genres of its own (p. 149). Within this genre, on average, about ten quotes are used in news that contains 350 to 400 words. So quotations in this part (news) of TV news are more frequent than other parts. The rationale for selecting the above mentioned Channels, in addition to their availability among other channels, was that in Iran English News by IRIB is in fact official and authentic English news, and they cover domestic, political, social, foreign, and sports news. Therefore, they seem to have the most audience and among their counterparts. On the other hand BBC, CNN, and Press TV News are three authentic native speakers written and edited TV news. CNN is one of the global American channels and BBC and Press TV News are authentic global news managed by British writers and editors in the UK. In order to avoid time as a variable affecting data collection process only the news broadcasted from 2003 to 2009 was selected. Also in order to draw the boundaries of research, care was exercised to include those news items that covered the same political incidents of Iranian nuclear energy which was a topical and also a common issue between local and International TV news (See Appendix A and B for the list of news). Framework of the study Compared to the existing models of speech and thought representations, following Thompson (1996, p. 504), the most developed and comprehensive model of speech and thought representations is that given by Leech and Short (1981). The main categories which Leech and short (1981, as cited in Thompson, 1996, p. 504) set up are: 1. Narrative reported speech / thought act (NRSA/NRTA). 2. Indirect speech/thought (IS/IT). 3. Free indirect speech/ thought (FIS/ FIT). 4. Direct speech/ thought (DS/DT). 5. Free direct speech / thought (FDS/FDT). Following these categories by Leech and Short (1981), we based our study on Obiedats (2006) definitions of the reported speech types as the main taxonomy for analyzing the materials. The rationale for selecting this taxonomy, besides its recency, was that like Leech and Shorts (1981) model of speech and thought representation, it contains the 486

definitions for all four types of quotations in the study (Direct quote, Indirect quote, Free direct quote, and Free indirect quote). Moreover in contrast with other definitions of quotations on literary text, Obiedat (2006) presented the definitions on political new stories, very similar to the corpus under study. In order to analyze FIQs, in addition to Obiedats (2006) definition, a combination of different classifications by different scholars including Halliday (1985), Redeker (1996), and Vandelanotte (2004) were also used. The reason for applying these classifications is as follows: As Obiedat (2006, p. 299) argues, identifying FIQs in news stories is very difficult. He analyzed the materials by using pass system and counted and recorded the number of occurrences of different types of quotations including FIQs by this program. Since the corpus under study was analyzed manually and Obiedats (2006) definition of FIQ was not complete, in order to analyze FIQs, the classification presented by the above mentioned scholars were also used. In any case the researcher considered Obiedats classification as the criteria for comparison. Obiedat asserts that the most important characteristic of FIQ is that both the news maker and news reporters are speaking or thinking at the same time. Therefore, FIQs consists of two perspectives: news maker and news reporter. According to Obiedat (2006), the altered person deixis and adverbials of time and place as well as tense shift of the verbs, are all determined from the news reporters perspective. But he does not clarify the news makers perspective. To take care of this, we also incorporated Vandelanotts (2004) and Redekers (1996) definitions of FIQs. Vandelanotte (2004, p. 494) also maintains that in FIQs the grammatical persons and verb tense are determined from the vantage point of the speaker (in this case news reporter), and other mood adjuncts (Halliday, p. 1994, p. 82-83) such as possibly, seldom, and really and some of the Hallidays comment adjuncts (p. 49) such as surprisingly and apparently are all determined from the perspective of the sayer (in this case news maker), as in: Was she really going to cry now, he asked. (p. 495) In analyzing the materials, there was one group of quotations that could not be categorized based on Obiedats classification. In this group, the reported clause precedes the reporting clause. Halliday (1985) defined this type of quotation as FIQ. Therefore, Hallidays definition of FIQ was also used in analyzing materials. Procedure After selecting, recording, and transcribing the news items, the researcher conducted the word count, and it produced a corpus of 22,500 words excluding titles and subtitles. Following the taxonomy and definitions of reported speech types presented before, the researcher annotated the corpus manually for different categories of reported speech (direct quote, indirect quote, free direct quote, and free indirect quote). Next the frequency of the four types of quotations was calculated manually and arranged in related tables. Finally, the vantage point of free direct and free indirect quotations was investigated, and the similarities and differences of using vantage point in these two types of quotations between both series of news were presented. In order to give authenticity to the method of the analysis of the materials, 10 news items from the corpus were also analyzed by an experienced researcher in applied linguistics and agreement was made on the method of analysis. Results The news items were analyzed for the frequency of occurrence of reported speech types (Direct, Indirect, Free direct and free indirect quotations) based on the taxonomy used in 487

the study. The initial results of the four types of reported speech are presented in the following tables in percentage:

Table1 Reported Speech Types in the Local TV News No. of DQ (%) IQ (%) FDQ News items (%) 30 124(31) 207 (50) 18(6)

FIQ (%)

Total No. of quotes 395

Total words 10600

46 (13)

Table 2 Reported Speech Types in the International TV News No. of DQ (%) IQ (%) FDQ FIQ (%) News items (%) 30 78 (20) 192 (46) 91 (23) 38 (11)

Total No. of quotes 399

Total words 11900

As it is evident from the tables, the most frequently used types of reported speech in both series of TV news belong to IQs (399, 48%), and DQs (202, 26%). Among these quotations, Overall FIQs had the least frequency of occurrences in both corpora. This is compatible with the result obtained by Obiedat (2006). It might be the case that in TV news, the low frequency of FIQs is genre-specific. What appeared distinct in both corpora was the greater use of FDQs in international TV news which was in fact the least frequent item in local News. The observed frequencies could not be used alone to judge the differences. Therefore, chi-square test comparing the overall frequency of reported speech types in the local and international TV news was carried out. The result is shown as follows: Table 3 Overall Chi-Square Test in the Local and International TV News Total No. of 0.001 d f. words quotes Local 0.071 29 395 newspaper 10600

0.789 International newspapers 11900 399 27 1

: Chi-square amount, d f.: degree of freedom, P: level of significance As seen from the table, the observed value of Chi-square (0.071) was less than the critical value of chi-square (3.84) with 1 degree of freedom (df) at 0.05 level of significance (See Appendix C). Therefore, there was no significant difference between the frequency of reported speech types in both series of news, and the first null hypothesis was supported. In other words, local and international TV news were similar concerning the frequency of the use of reported speech types. In spite of the overall similarity, it was assumed that there might be variations between the different categories of reported speech types. For example, the number of DQs or IQs in non-native TV news was greater than the same categories in native TV news. In order to find whether these differences were statistically 488

significant, a one to one comparison was carried out by applying Chi-square tests in the following table: Table 4 Chi-Square Tests of Reported Speech Types d Total No. (0.0001) quotes f. Local DQs 126 (89) 9.127 1 International DQs 78 (53) Local IQs 207 (144) 1.493 1 International IQs 192 (124) Local FDQs 18 (17) 25.633 1 International 91 (62) FDQs 46 (36) 0.754 1 Local FIQs International FIQs 38 (29) : Chi-square amount, d f.: degree of freedom, P: level of significance

P 0.003 0.222 0.000

0.385

All of the above values of chi-square were obtained with 1 degree of freedom (df) at 0.05 level of significance. In order to find the differences, they were compared with the critical value which was (3.84) (See appendix C). As can be seen, the values of observed chi-square in the case of DQs and FDQs were 9.127 and 25.633 respectively, and these values were greater than the critical value of chi-square (3.84) which indicated significant differences between native and non-native TV news. On the other hand, in the case of IQs and FIQs, the observed values of chi-square were less than the critical values (3.84) in both cases. Therefore, the differences were not meaningful. Direct quote Direct quotes with the frequency of 202 cases (26% of all the quotes) had the most frequency after IQs among other types of reported speech. The difference may be related to the nature of news genre. In the following table, the variations regarding the position of reporting clauses of DQs are illustrated. Table 5 The Position of Reporting Clauses of DQs in Local and International TV News Initial (%) Medial (%) Final (%) Total (%) Local 15 (5.4) 6 (3.3) 87 (22.3) 106 (31) TV News International TV News 13 (4.9) 7 (3.5) 42 (11.6) 62 (20)

The final position of reporting clauses of direct quotes was more preferred than the initial or medial position in both native and non-native TV news. This is more similar to the results that was obtained by Ikeo (2003, p. 282). He argued that the position of reporting clauses of direct quotes varies according to text types. He showed that in news reports texts in the Longman Spoken and Written English (LSWE) corpus, Concerning the probable differences between the frequency of DQs in the local and international TV news, results (Table 4) revealed significant differences between the frequency of DQs in both series of news. Iranian news reporters used DQs more than native writers. This is probably because non-natives compared to native reporters tend to 489

reproduce the original speech of the people who are involved. It is also likely that nonnative reporters lack the native reporters ability to paraphrase original speech quickly, and since they are pressed for time, they prefer DQs which seems more manageable within the time frame available to them. Indirect quote As said earlier, IQs had the most frequency among other types of reported speech in both series of news items. As can be seen in Table 6, in the case of IQs, the initial position of reporting clauses was more established, and there was no reporting clause in the final position. As stated earlier, the structure of IQs in contrast to direct, free direct, and free indirect quotations is hypotactic, i. e. the reported clause has a dependent status and always follows the reporting clause. Therefore, when the reported clause is placed before reporting clause, it is paratactic, and following Halliday (1985, p. 239) it is always FIQ not IQ. Concerning the IQ position, IQs with reporting clause in the medial position constructed one third of all IQs in the international corpus. This figure is much lower in local TV news. The low frequency of IQs in the Iranian TV news might indicate non-native English inadequate ability to handle reported speech in a variety of linguistic contexts. In the following table the position of reporting clauses of IQs is illustrated. Table 6 The Position of Reporting Clauses of IQs in the Local and International TV News Initial (%) Medial (%) Total (%) Local TV news 190 (46) 9 (4) 199 (50) International TV 145 (35) 39 (11) 184 (46) news Partial quote One of the differences between IQs in the local and international TV news was in applying partial quotes (one or more words quoted directly). Native reporters used this in 54 (16% out of 46%) cases of IQs, but this type of quotation was rendered by non-natives writers only in 3 (4% out of 50%) cases. According to Thompson (1996), partial quotes may appear within paraphrases (Indirect quote) and summaries (Narrative reported speech). He maintained that these types of quotes distance reporter from the language (p. 513). Based on these explanations, it seems that in the case of IQs, native reporters tended to distance themselves from the language they used. This may increase authenticity and objectivity of news, as international news reporters might be more concerned for authenticity and reliability. Verb tense in indirect quote Another difference between IQs in the local and international TV news was related to verb tense in the reported clauses. Among 199 cases of IQs in the local TV news, 103 (28% out of 50%) cases were simple present or present perfect. But the verbs in the reporting clauses were present tense only in 11 (6%) cases. On the other hand, of 184 cases of IQs in the international TV news, 21 (8% out of 46%) cases of reported clauses were present. And in 11 (6%) cases, the tense of the verbs in reporting clause was also present Therefore, in 58 (22%) out of 199 and 2 (2%) out of 184 cases of IQs in the local and international TV news respectively, the tense of the verbs in the reporting clauses was past but in reported clauses it was present which indicated significant difference. In the following table, the variations concerning the verb tense in IQs are illustrated.

490

Table 7 Verb Tense in Indirect Quote (IQ) Reported clause Present (%) past (%) Local TV news 103 (28) - -

Reporting clause Present (%) past (%) 11 (6) 74(22)

Total (%) 199 (50)

International TV 21 (8) - 11 (6) 1(2) 184 (46) news 199: Total number of IQs in local TV news. 184: Total number of IQs in international TV news. In the rest, the rule of sequence of tense was observed in both series of news. According to Dixon (1959), this rule requires that if the main verb of an English sentence is in the past, all other dependent verbs must also be put in the past tense. In spite of the above mentioned differences (verb tense and partial quote), the result of the Chi-square test in table 4 showed that, there was no significant difference between IQs used by native and non-native news reporters in terms of frequency. Free direct quote As said earlier, FDQs did not appeal to reporters in general and in local TV news the tendency to use FDQs was much lower. Of 10 cases, non-native reporters incorporated 2 (4% out of 6%) cases of FDQs with quotation marks and without reporting clauses. Following Obiedat (2006, p. 299), these types of quotations are a sort of direct interaction between news maker and audience. On the other hand, 62 (20.5% out of 23%) cases of FDQs without quotation marks were cited in international TV news; this was an area that marked the distinctive use of quotations in local and international TV news. According to Obiedat (2006, p. 289), by using these types of FDQs, they create an ambiguity with regard to identifying their sources- the sources can be either the news makers or the news reporters themselves, as in: The United States strongly suspects Iran has a weapons program, and has been lobbying fellow members of the IAEA board to declare the country in breach of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. (BBC, 21 October 2003) The following table illustrates the form of FDQs with or without quotation marks. Table 8 FDQs in the Local and International TV news Quotation marks (%) No-quotation marks (%) Local TV news 17 (4) 9 (2) International TV 11 (2.5) 88 (20.5) news

Total (%) 26 (6) 99 (23)

The result of the Chi-square test in Table 4 indicated significant differences between the frequency of FDQs in the local and international TV news; native reporters used more FDQs compared to non-natives. Free indirect quote In the present corpus, non-native English reporters applied Hallidays definition of FIQs in 39 (11% out of 13%) cases which indicate differences. Out of these numbers, 8 cases were used in one news item only.

491

An interesting finding of this study was that no case of FIQs without reporting clause was found in local TV news. The frequency and percentage of FIQs in the local and international TV news are as follows: Table 9 FIQs in the Local and International TV news Reporting clause No -reporting clause (%) Initial (%) Middle (%) Final (%) Local TV 7 (1.6) 2 (0.4) 45 (11) 54 (13) news International TV news. 10 (2.32) 1 (0.23) 11(2.5) 24 (6)

Total (%)

46 (11)

As depicted in table 4 , both native and non-native news reporters have the same view concerning the frequency of FIQs. Vantage point In spite of the significant difference between the frequency of FDQs used by native and non-native news reporters (table 4), results showed no significant difference in their vantage point, because the observed value of chi-squares in both personal pronouns and verb tense in FDQs was less than the critical chi-square (3.84) with 1 d.f. and 0.05 level of significance, and the null hypothesis regarding the vantage point of FDQs was supported. But in the case of FIQs, since the observed value of chi-squares was more than the critical chi-square (3.84) in verb tense and personal pronouns (appendix C), the difference was meaningful and the null hypothesis was rejected. In other words, the difference between the vantage point of FIQs in the local and international newspapers was significant. In the case of personal pronouns in FIQs, native reporters tended to use third person pronouns frequently to refer to the original speakers while non-natives applied proper names. With regard to verb tenses, non-native reporters used 30 (7% out of 13%) cases of FIQs in present (or present perfect) tense in the reported clause, while native reporters used present tense only in 6 (1.5% out of 11%) cases of FIQs (In other cases the tense of the verbs in the reported clause was past in both series of news). Table 10 Chi-Square Tests to Compare the Vantage Point (Verb Tenses) d.f. Verb Tense Total No. of Present (%) Past (%) quotes (%) local FDQ 25 (5.8) 1 (0.2) 26 (6) .031 1 International 99 (23) 99 (23) FDQ local FIQ 30 (7) 24 (6) 54 (13) 40.912 1

P .861

000

International 6 (1.5) 40 (9.5) 46 (11) FIQ : Chi-square amount, df.: degree of freedom, P: level of significance

492

Table 11 Chi-Square Tests to Compare the Vantage Point (Pronouns) Total No. of Pronouns First person (%) Third person quotes (%) (%) local FDQ 3 (1.8) 1 (1.1) 18 (6) 2.802 International 91 (23) 3 (1.8) 4 (2.7) FDQ local FIQ International FIQ 1 (0.9) 13 (5) 46 (13) 38 (11) 28.698

d.f.

.094

000

: Chi-square amount, d.f: degree of freedom, P: level of significance Among 46 cases of FIQs in the local TV news, the reporting clause of 37 cases was placed in final position following Hallidays (1985) definition of FIQs, and in the rest the reporting clause was placed in the initial or middle of the sentences (table 9). Concerning the vantage point (verb tense), in 13 cases of FIQs with reporting clause in the final position and in 3 cases of FIQs with reporting clause in the initial or middle position, the verb tense in the reported clause was present or present perfect. On the other hand, in the international newspapers, among 38 cases of FIQs, the verb tense in 3 cases was present, and out of these numbers 1 case were among the FIQs with their reporting clause placed at the final position. Discussion Direct quote By looking at the overall occurrence of DQs in both set of news items and the result of Chi-square test, it was found that Iranian news reporters used DQs more than native reporters. This type of reported speech, as Obiedat (2006) argues, is used to add vividness and a sense of authority to the news items and show that what is reported is an uncontrovertible fact (p. 289-92). One possible linguistic reason that non-native reporters, compared to native reporters, used more DQs may arise from this fact that, these reporters are usually pressed for time, working quickly to prepare their reports for broadcasting in time. In order for the reporter to report the news, he needs to spend time selecting the appropriate reporting verb tense and pronouns, and this requires more time for non-native speakers of English. Therefore, they resort to DQs. Besides, by doing this, they maintain the same attitude as reflected in the quote, and so they would cover their own attitudes behind the quote. Another reason may be that, DQs imply faithfulness to the content of the original reported utterance, and since the content of the news reports is about human rights, non-native reporters tend to present themselves more faithful to the original speech situation by using more DQs compared to native reporters. In addition, Redeker (1996) maintains that DQ has much drier and soberer uses, where it is employed as an objective report of what was said or written and serves what she has called a documentary function (p.231). Therefore, using more DQs by Iranian news reporters may create the content of news more formal and objective by reproducing or mimicking the words of original characters. Probably this is the first reason for the difference between the reported speech types (content) of the local and international TV news.

493

Indirect quote As it was mentioned in the results section, IQs had the most frequency among other types of reported speech in both series of news items and there was no significant difference between the frequency of IQs in the local and international TV news. Despite these similarities, some differences were also cited as discussed here. In using partial quotes, which were used more frequent in International news items, in this study, it seems that native reporters tend to distance themselves for such reasons as disassociation, superiority and etc. Note the following examples: Example 1: She told reporters that the EU would implement the sanctions as speedily and effectively as we can. (BBC, 22 January 2007) Example 2: In Berlin, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that Iran was sending very disastrous signals on its nuclear program. (CNN, 10 January 2006) Example 1 may be a case of disassociation in which news reporter aims at showing that he did not put it in these words. For this reason he placed them in quotation marks in order to dissociate himself. But example 2 can be a case of superiority in which news reporter tries to show that these are not the words that he had used by applying partial quote. In fact, they were the words of newsmaker which did not suit news reporter; perhaps if they were expressed in different words (language), the news reporter would not put them in quotation mark. In the case of IQs there is only one voice and it is news reporter, but when partial quotes are used as part of news makers speech, in fact DQs are inserted into what is primarily known as indirect quote, and it makes the content of news more interactive and somewhat dramatic. The content of non-native news in this respect may also be different from that of the native because non-native reporters apply these types of quotes less frequently. Regarding the differences between the verbs tense in the reported clause of IQs of the corpora (Section 4.2.2.2), this study puts forth two reasons. Following Dixon (1959), in stating a universal truth, one can use present instead of past tense in the reported clause as in the sentence: Shakespeare said that neither borrower nor lender be. (p. 96) But since the corpus under study is a political one, some problems might arise. According to Obiedat (2006), if news reporters use the present or future tense in the reported clause (with past tense in the reporting clause) of IQs, they will give the state of permanent fact to what was said in the reported clause which seems to be biased and prejudiced against some political groups (p. 295-96). Considering this point, one might claim that due to political reasons local news reporters tend to give the status of permanent fact to 92 cases of IQs by preserving the verbs in present in the reported clause while the tense of the verb in reporting clause is in past, as in: Example1: He regretted that the EU follows the US blindly while it does not befit Europe to follow incorrect American policies. (Jam-e-Jam, 25 April 2007) Example 2: EUs press spokes woman, Christina Gallach, also said Saturday that Iran is adopting a clear stance on its nuclear activities. (Khabar Chanel, 2 September 2003) These two examples are permanent facts from the perspective of news reporter. In example 1, news reporter tries to show that the EU permanently follows the US blindly by preserving the tense of the verb in present form in the reported clause. In the second example, news reporter is also given the status of permanent fact by preserving the verb tense in present continuous form in order to give the readership a continuing state of affairs, and Iran is always adopting a clear stance on its nuclear activities, and that Iranians are persistent in continuing their nuclear programs. In fact, the news reporter supports Irans government stance by applying the present continuous form of the verb in the reported clause in spite of the past tense in the reporting clause.

494

The second reason arises from the rule of sequence of tense which does not hold true in Persian language, i.e. when the main verb of a sentence in Persian is in past tense, the dependent verbs can appear in different forms including present, present perfect, future, or past. Dixon (1959) has also emphasized that though the rule of sequence of tense does not apply in all languages, it is an important one in English (p. 96). Therefore, when news reporters translate the news from Persian to English (which they may often do), they may ignore the importance of this rule in English and use verbs with present or present perfect tense in the reported clause in spite of the past tense in the reporting clause which seems to be an awkward structure due to its rarity in international news reports, as in: He declared that Iran prefers the meeting to be held at the level of foreign minister of Iraqs neighboring states plus Egypt and Bahrainian in Iraq. (Khabar Channel, 10 April 2007) Using present tense in the reported clause of IQs by non-native reporters can create problems in those cases which do not contain subordinator that. What distinguishes IQs from DQs is in using past tense and third person pronouns that refer to the original speakers in the reported clause after the subordinator that. Therefore, in cases of IQs without the subordinator that and third person pronouns, if the verb tense does not shift to past, they can be interpreted as DQs without quotation marks, as in: The foreign minister further said certain problems in the International arena arise from the globalization. (Jam-e-Jam, 11 September 2005) In this form of IQ in which the subordinator that is omitted and there is no third person pronoun in the reported clause from the perspective of news reporters, the only distinguishing feature of this sentence from DQ is the verb tense. But since the tense of the verb is also present, it can be interpreted as DQ without quotation marks. Free direct and free indirect quotations Another difference between the reported speech types used by native and non-native news reporters refers to the variations in applying FDQs and FIQs. According to Obiedat (2006, p. 275), FDQs and FIQs are interpretation of what was said by news makers, and news reporters aim at creating ambiguity by applying these types of quotations. In this study, native reporters created an ambiguity by applying FDQs in high frequency, and also they increased this ambiguity by applying those cases of FDQs without reporting clause and quotation marks in 72 out of 83 cases in question in which their sources could be either the newsmakers or the news reporters themselves, as in: Workers were said to have begun injecting uranium gas into a new array of 3,000 centrifuges, a large set up from the 328 centrifuges known to be operating at Natanz. Iran aims to operate more than 50,000 of the devices at the site. (Press TV, 13 April 2007) In this example, the underlined part of the sentence is ambiguous to the audience in which the source could be either the newsmakers or the news reporters themselves. Here, the reason may be related to the content. Since this is political genre and the content of the news is about atomic energy, it is likely that native reporters use FDQs intentionally, in order to distance themselves and create ambiguity. In fact, by applying this form of FDQs, native reporters select those parts of news which they think are important from political view points while reducing their roles. Another reason may be that, both news reporter and newsmaker may have the same attitude about Irans nuclear program and use FDQs intentionally as a way to create the impression that what they report is a fact, shaping the ideological scaffolding on Irans nuclear program, projecting Iran as a threat to peace and orienting audience to a specific interpretive framework by manipulating language which could pave the way for imposing sanctions on Iran.

495

On the other hand, non-native reporters avoided this structure and of 18 cases of FDQs in question 9 cases with quotation marks and without reporting clause were cited in their corpus. In fact, they created a direct interaction between news maker and readership by applying FDQs. In other words, they make clear the sources of FDQs as newsmakers, as in: We had a session today that showed that there were still som firm views on all sides, I am hopeful still that we can overcome these remaining differences.(Khabar, 13 March 2007) Following Obiedat (2006), in this form of FDQs, news maker speaks for him/herself which contains no authorial interference, and if the reporting is continued, news maker ends up telling the whole news by using first person pronouns (p.299). This indicates that, these are the words of news makers and by using this type of FDQs non-native reporters try to decrease ambiguity. As it is mentioned in the result section, in general, FIQs had the least frequency compared to other types of reported speech in both series of news items. As Clark and Gerrig (1990, p. 787-88) argue, FIQs often appear in stories, where speakers are moving from indirect to direct quotations with more characters point of view. Since news texts contain less subjective elements than those of stories, the reason for the low frequency of FIQs may be genre related and genre specific. Thompson (1996, p. 514) refers to FIQs as a technique that can be used for manipulative purposes and claims that part of the attraction of the technique is in creating ambiguity concerning the source. Native reporters used half of the cases of FIQs without a reporting clause, and by using FIQs like FDQs, they create ambiguity. In fact, these reporting strategies, as ideological frameworks portray the West as superior, problem solver, and authentic observer and Iran as inferior, problem maker, peace threatening, and evil. Here the interesting point is that non-native reporters did not use FIQs without a reporting clause presumably to avoid obfuscation. On the other hand, they used 37 cases of FIQs with the reporting clause placed before the reported clause. Furthermore, by using these forms of quotations, non-native reporters make the content of news more formal and serious; and the attractiveness created by using FDQs in high frequency and also those forms of FIQs without reporting clause in the international newspapers does not exist in the local newspapers. Vantage Point Analysis of the corpus showed that only two types of vantage point (verb tense and personal pronoun) were used and adverbs of time and place were not found in this genre. As the result indicated, the second null hypothesis was supported. But in the case of the vantage point of FIQs, the hypothesis was rejected. Regarding the difference in the vantage point (pronouns) in FIQs, native reporters used third person pronouns but non-natives used proper names. The reason may be related to the lack of linguistic knowledge of non-native reporters in this respect and that they may be unaware of the importance of this principle. Non-use of third person pronouns by non-native reporters in the case of FIQs will create problems especially when the verb tense in the reported clause of FIQs is present or present perfect (as will be discussed later). Another difference between the vantage points of FIQs is related to verb tense which is regularly shifted to the past in the international TV news but rarely in the local news reports. As mentioned before (section 3.3), in FIQs, there are two perspectives in which third person pronouns and past tense are determined from the perspective of news reporters like IQs, but other expressive statements are determined from the vantage point of news maker like DQs. Therefore, it is an intermediate form between direct and indirect 496

quotations. The other form of FIQs consists of reported clause placed before reporting clause independently and the reporting clause placed at the end of the sentence as a tail. But the personal pronouns and verb tenses are shifted to third person and past tense respectively in the reported clause. The problem is that non-native reporters did not shift the tense of the verb in 30 cases of FIQs in both forms. The following examples depict the verb tense in both forms of FIQs, and the possible reasons for the structures being used by non-native reporters will follow:

Example 1: The president said Iran has always favored negotiations to solve the nuclear dispute and stood by its principled stance during talks held in the past few years. (Khabar, 16 October 2006) By looking at this sentence one may suppose that it is an IQ, but it contains a mood adjunct i.e. always which, following Vandelanotte (2004), comes from the news maker not the news reporter (section 3.3). Therefore, it is an intermediate between direct and indirect quote; in other words, it is FIQ in which both news maker and news reporter are speaking at the same time. But the tense of the verb in reported clause has not been changed by news reporter, the sociopolitical impact of this verb choice lies in the picture that is constructed through the tacit agreement between news reporter and news maker. Contrary to the picture depicted in the western papers, local papers portray Iran as being negotiable, problem solver, loyal to its promises and law-abiding. Example 2: Russias recent pretexts are a sign of new political pressure on Iran, he said. (Jam-e-Jam, 13 March 2007) In this form of FIQ, following Halliday (1985), the verb tense in the reported clause should conform to the verb in the reporting clause. Linguistically, the reason for using present tense in the former example by non-native reporters is probably related to interference of native language. Because, as mentioned before (section 5.2.2), in contrast to English, there is no limitation concerning the verb tense in Persian. Concerning example 2, since this pattern does not exist in Persian, it cannot be interference. Possibly, it is not part of nonnative news reporters linguistic competence, or they are unaware of how this structure should be handled in English. However of 3 cases of FIQs with present tense in the international newspapers,1 cases were used in FIQs defined by Halliday (1985) like example 2, (Section 4.2.5). In fact non-natives and to some extent native reporters do not follow the rule of shifted tense in FIQs presented by Halliday. A possible explanation is that FIQs in newspaper reports are genre specific and different from other genres, and in the view of non-native reporters, in reports on political issues (content) the reference time usually is the time of reporting and tense shifting is rare. Regarding example 2, since the verb tense does not shift to past and there is no altered person pronouns (i. e. first person to third person) from the perspective of news reporters in the reported clause as dominant signs of FIQs defined by Halliday (1985), it can be defined as a direct quote without quotation mark with its reporting clause at the final position. As mentioned before, non-native reporters used proper names instead of third person pronouns and by analyzing FIQs with present verb tense in the reported clause, there were only 1 cases of third person pronouns from the perspective of news reporters; therefore, in about half of FIQs in both forms used by non-native reporters what distinguished them from DQs lies solely on the use of quotation marks. In other words, they are DQs without quotation marks. Therefore, considering these problems and also the verb tense in IQs (section 5.2.2), one might claim that the use of quotation marks in non497

native English TV news may not be very reliable, and these cases can be interpreted as direct quote. The ideological underpinnings of the latter example are very interesting. One interpretation might be that recent political pressures on Iran have forced Russia to change direction and stop supporting Iran on its nuclear enrichment program. A further and most plausible interpretation might be that Russia has always tricked Iran in the past and now his recent pretexts are reminiscent of its past misdemeanor. Conclusion Results showed that in spite of the overall similarity concerning the frequency, there were some differences in some cases of reported speech types across the corpora. The study proved that reported speech is an important part of written discourse, and it is necessary for non-native reporters to pay more attention to the importance of reported speech in TV news, as it can affect authenticity of the language they are using, and this would consequently distort the image of the TV Cannel. Besides the informative function of the press and news broadcasting Cannels, they are sometimes used in academic contexts for instructional purposes. Therefore, it is essential for these Persian English TV cannels to present an authentic model of English in order to save their own public face. Implications The results of this study can be beneficial to those interested in journalistic discourse including TV news especially news reporters to make the structure of the news more similar to that of native writers. It is clear that the findings of this study can help EFL teachers and students to improve reported speech in writing and speaking which is one of the basic skills in the process of language learning. The findings of this study made clear some of the differences that are attributed to nonnative news reporters. Linguistically, this study may be directly helpful to non-native reporters. It suggests them paying to the importance of the rule of sequence of tense in the case of IQ, because ignoring this rule may create problems especially in the case of political news like the corpus under study. On the other hand, the current research has specified some of the grammatical problems concerning the reported speech types especially in the case of IQs and FIQs caused by interference from L1. References Cacchione, A. (2006). Reported speech: toward a definition as a communicative and linguistic universal. Journal of Universal Language, 7, 1-28. Calsamiglia, H. & Lopez ferrero, C. (2003). Role and position of scientific voices: reported speech in the media. Discourse studies, 5 (2), 147-173. Clark, H., & Gerrig, J. (1990). Quotation as demonstrations. Language, 66 (4), 764-805 Dixon, R.J. (1959). Graded exercises in English. New York. Halliday, M. A. K. (1985). An introduction to functional grammar. London: Arnold. Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar. London: Arnold. Ikeo, R. (2003). The positions of reporting clauses of speech presentation with special reference to the Lancaster speech and thought and writing presentation corpus. Retrieved 22 April 2006, from http: //Ucrel.Lancs.ac.uk/ publications/2003/cl2001%20conference/papers. Myers, G. (1999). Functions of reported speech in group discussions. Applied Linguistics, 20 (3), 376-401.

498

Obiedat, N. (2006). The pragma-ideological implications of using reported speech: The case of reporting on the AL-Aqsa Intifada. Pragmatics, 16 (2) 3, 275-304. Redeker, G. (1996). Free indirect discourse in newspaper reports. Linguistics in Netherlands, 221-232. Thompson, G. (1996). Voices in the text: Discourse perspectives on language reports.Applied Linguistics, 17(4), 501- 530. Vandelanotte, L. (2004). Deixis and grounding in speech and thought representation, Journal of Pragmatics, 36, 489-520.

499

An Investigation of Iranian EFL Learners Formality of Writing Regarding Their Emotional Intelligence Fatemeh Khademi Islamic Azad University, Tehran Central Branch Shideh_khademi@yahoo.com Afshin Ahangari Islamic Azad University, Rudehen Branch Afshin.ahangari@yahoo.com

Abstract This study examined the EFL learners emotional intelligence (EI) in the interpersonal, stress-management, and intrapersonal levels and the degree of formality in writing. To identify the impact of EI on EFL learners style of writing, the researcher used the BarOns (1988) emotional intelligence questionnaire to identify the participants outstanding emotional intelligence and the writing papers of the participants which were coded and scored according to Heylighen &Dewaele(1999) .i.e. F score. At first 90 students who have been selected based on their general proficiency scores were asked to complete the questionnaire and based on the questionnaire results 60 out of 90 students who had dominant interpersonal, stress-management, and intrapersonal emotional intelligence types were selected as the participants of this study. A one-way ANOVA was computed for the writing products of the participants to investigate whether there is any significant difference among the participants of the three selected groups, i.e. interpersonal, stressmanagement, and intrapersonal regarding the degree of formality in their writings. The results of this study suggest that the mean score of Intrapersonal group is higher than the others. However, the difference of mean score among other selected sub skills is not significant regarding the formality of writing. This study is fruitful for specific programs in college settings to improve and train those skills and it is also recommend for English teachers and classes. Key Words: emotional intelligence, intrapersonal, interpersonal, stress management, formality Introduction If teachers want to help their students develop their second language ability, they should concern and address students emotional intelligence (EI) skills. Emotional intelligence is different from the traditional view of cognitive intelligence (Chau 2003). At the most general level, emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize emotions in ourselves and others (Goleman, 2001). According to Chastain (1988) all learners, in actuality, perform in accord with the positive and negative input of all the factors influencing achievement. EI is emerging as a significant element in high performance at academic context. Different emotions will stimulate different outcomes: positive emotions can facilitate the language learning process and creation for knowledge, while negative emotions reduce knowledge retrieval. Learning involves both cognitive and emotional processes. In fact, emotional intelligence is recognized as an essential component to the success of human learning processes (Goleman, 1995; Salovey &Mayer,1990).

500

Regarding the importance and the impact of emotions on learning, this study seeks to find out whether an individuals emotional intelligence skills have any relationship with his/her style of writing or not. In order to have a clear view of the issues at work, it is better first to deal with the history and definitions of EQ and the degree of Formality in writing. Emotional Intelligence The earliest roots of emotional intelligence can be traced to Darwins work on the importance of emotional expression for survival and second adaptation. In the 1900s, even though traditional definitions of intelligence emphasized cognitive aspects such as memory and problem-solving, several influential researchers in the intelligence field of study had begun to recognize the importance of the non-cognitive aspects. For instance, as early as 1920, Thorndike used the term social intelligence to describe the skill of understanding and managing other people (Wikipedia, 2010). The term EI was coined by two psychologists, Salovey and Mayor (1990) and popularized by Golemans publication of emotional intelligence in 1995. Mayer and Salovey,(1997) defined emotional intelligence as the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth ( p. 10). Emotional intelligence has emerged as a salient concept for describing a persons ability to manage intrapersonal as well as interpersonal processes (Mayor & Salovey, 1995). According to (Nelson & Low, 2003), emotionally intelligent behavior is wise behavior. To behave wisely requires the synergistic effect of the emotional mind with the cognitive mind. Thinking and feeling are not totally independent processes, and emotionally intelligent behavior requires a harmony of the two minds. Emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995) is usually defined by five Emotional Quotient (EQ) skill dimensions: a) Self-Awareness of feelings: knowing how and why you are feeling and using your self-awareness to make better decisions; b) Emotional self regulation: controlling strong negative emotions such as anger and anxiety and organizing positive personal support to enhance that control; c) Self- monitoring and goal setting: being goal-oriented and planning to reach your goals by being hopeful and optimistic; d) Empathy and perspective taking: showing genuine appreciation for the feelings and opinions of others; e) Social and communication skills: ability to work effectively in groups and using skills such as leadership, problem solving and decision-making, careful listening, the spirit of give-and-take, and clear verbal and nonverbal communication. The Bar-On model in which interrelated emotional and social competencies, skills and facilitators impact intelligent behavior, are measured by self report questionnaire. Consistent with this model, to be emotionally and socially intelligent is to effectively understand and express oneself, to understand and relate well with others, and to successfully cope with daily demands, challenges and pressures(Bar-On,2006). Stottlemyer (2002) conducted a study to examine the role of emotional intelligence in academic achievement. The subjects of the study were 200 eleventh and twelfth graders from three school districts in South Texas. Subjects completed the assessment instrument Emotional Skills Assessment Process. Academic achievement was measured by the Texas Learning Index scores in mathematics and reading from the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. Data analysis determined significant correlations between emotional intelligence skills and academic achievement. Results also suggested that gender differences may be influenced by emotional intelligence skills. The resilience of students

501

to succeed despite their low socioeconomic status may also be related to emotional intelligence skills. Formality of writing The underlying assumption of most approaches is that formal language ischaracterized by some special "attention to form" (Labov 1972), where the formal speaker tries to approximate as closely as possible the standard form and pronunciation of the language, perhaps the way it is defined in textbooks. According to Heylighen and Dewaele (2002), the opposite of contextuality may be called "formality". Formal language will avoid ambiguity by including the information about the context that would disambiguate the expression into the expression itself, that is to say, by explicitly stating the necessary references, assumptions, and background knowledge which would have remained tacit in a contextual expression of the same meaning. The basic advantage of formality as expressed by (Heylighen and Dewaele, 2002) which is derived from its definition, is that more formal messages have less chance to be misinterpreted by others who do not share the same context as the sender. This is clearly exemplified by written language, where there is no direct contact between sender and receiver, and hence a much smaller sharing of context than in speech. We have demonstrated that written language is in general more formal or explicit than spoken language. The concept of formality/contextuality is proposed as the most important dimension of variation between linguistic expressions. Formal communication conveys information explicitly, through the linguistic expression itself, whereas contextual communication conveys information implicitly, through the context of the expression. An empirical measure of formality, the F-score, is proposed, based on the frequencies of different word classes. Nouns, adjectives, articles and prepositions are more frequent in formal styles; pronouns, adverbs, verbs and interjections are more frequent in contextual styles. This measure adequately distinguishes different genres of language production using data for Dutch, French, Italian, and English. Factor analyses applied to data in 7 different languages produce a similar factor as the most important one. Both the data and the theoretical model suggest that contextuality decreases when unambiguous understanding becomes more important or more difficult to achieve, when the separation in space, time or background between the interlocutors increases, and when the speaker is male, introverted and/or academically educated (Heylighen &Dewaele, 1999). The anthropologist Edward T. Hall (1976) has distinguished two fundamental types of situations: high-context and low-context. In low-context situations, communication is explicit and overt, stating the facts exactly and in detail. In high context situations, communication is implicit, and information is conveyed more by the context than by the verbal expression. Although Hall introduced this concept primarily to distinguish different types of cultures (e.g. American and Northern European cultures are typically low-context, while Mediterranean and Eastern cultures are high-context), the same distinction can be applied to different communicative situations within the same culture. For example, twins who have grown up together will be able to make themselves understood with a minimum of explicit communication (high-context), while lawyers in a courtroom need to formally state all their assumptions, arguments and inferences (low-context) (Hall, 1976). Deictic words on their own have a variable meaning. "He" might refer to John Smith, to Peter Jones, or to any other male member of humanity. Yet, only one of them will be referred to in any actual expression. Which person that is will be determined by the context. We will use the general term context-dependent or contextual for expressions such as these, which are ambiguous when considered on their own, but where the ambiguity can

502

be resolved by taking into account additional information from the context ( Heylighen, 1999). In conclusion, the formal, non-deictic category of words, whose frequency is expected to increase with the formality of a text, includes the nouns, adjectives , prepositions and articles. The deictic category, whose frequency is expected to decrease with increasing formality of speech styles, consists of the pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and interjections. The remaining category of conjunctions has no priori correlation with formality (Heylighen and Dewaele 1999). Conjunctions, which have no reference, neither too an implicit context, nor to an explicit, objective meaning, do not seem to be related deixis or formality of an expression, but only to its structure. Therefore, they are not put in either category, (Dewaele 1996, as sited in Heylighen and Dewaele 1999). Argamon , Koppel, Fine, Shimoni (2003)conducted a study to investigate the impact of gender, genre, and writing style in formal written texts. The study explored differences between male and female writing in a large subset of the British National Corpus covering a range of genres. Several classes of simple lexical and syntactic features that differ substantially according to author gender were identified, both in fiction and in non-fiction documents. In particular, they found significant differences between male- and femaleauthored documents in the use of pronouns and certain types of noun modifiers: although the total number of nominal used by male and female authors was virtually identical, females used many more pronouns and males used many more noun specifiers. More generally , it was found that even in formal writing, female writing exhibited greater usage of features identified by previous researchers as "involved" while male writing exhibited greater usage of features which have been identified as "informational". Finally, a strong correlation between the characteristics of male (female) writing and those of nonfiction (fiction) was demonstrated. This descriptive study has tried to explore the relationship between the degree of formality in writing and Emotional Intelligence skills in the interpersonal, stress-management, and intrapersonal levels among Iranian EFL College students. This is the issue, which makes the aim of this study. Methodology Participants The participants of this study comprised 60 undergraduate students (male and female) aged between 20 and 24, majoring in English translation at Allameh Tabatabai University in Tehran and were in their third and fourth terms of study. Having passed a national entrance examination successfully, these students were admitted to university to get a BA degree. Moreover, since English is considered a foreign language in Iran, so the students dont have much access to English language out of classroom, and therefore they had to learn English mainly in class. At first 120 students were given a general proficiency test PET and 90 students who had received one standard deviation above and one standard deviation below the mean score were selected as the initial participants of the study. Then they were asked to complete the questionnaire and based on the questionnaire results, 60 of them who had dominant interpersonal, stress-management, and intrapersonal emotional intelligence types were selected as the participants of this study. Instrumentation The researcher in this study used three instruments in order to determine whether there was any significant difference among participants with different emotional intelligence types in terms of their style of writing regarding the degree of formality. 503

The Preliminary English Test (PET) was used to test the homogeneity of the participants. The Bar-ons (1988) emotional intelligence questionnaire used to identify the participants outstanding emotional intelligence was originally designed in 1980 by Bar-On. To avoid any misunderstanding about questions, a translated version of Bar-ons test (English to Persian) was administered. The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) contains 133 items in the form of short sentences and it is about different skills of EI. The inventory takes approximately forty minutes to complete. An example of an item from the EQ questionnaire is It does not bother me to take an advantage of people, especially if they deserve it. Subjects respond on a 5-point Likert type scale continuum from Very seldom or Not true of me to Very often or True of me. (Bar-On, 1997). For the EQ-i (Bar-On, 1988), high and low scores are identified by how distant they are from the mean score of 100. Scores exceeding the mean or falling below the mean by one SD (15 points) are considered to be within the normal range. In order to examine the reliability and validity of the Bar-On model, the EQ-i has been translated and piloted by a group of psychologists of Sina Behavioral Research Institute in Iran (Ghods, 2007). In order to determine the face validity of the test, after consulting with experts in the field, 30 tests were distributed among the students of different majors. They were asked to determine the ambiguous items. After removing the deficiencies and ambiguities, the revised version was administrated to 500 students in different universities in Isfahan and Khurasgan. Then, all the items were analyzed and correlation coefficient was calculated. As a result of omitting the unacceptable items, the number of the questions reduced to 90. In the final step, the mentioned sample took the test again and was interviewed and the internal consistency of the questions concerning each scale was calculated. It was concluded that only question 63 had a low and reverse relationship with the total score of the test. This question was edited and the final format of the test was prepared. The final format included 90 questions with the total reliability of 88 percent at the p<0.0001 for both female and male students. The maximum and minimum scores for the whole test are 450 and 90 ( Saeidi.M and Yusefi.M, 2008). During the second part of data collection, the writing papers of the participants were coded and scored according to Heylighen, & Dewaele (1999). i.e. F score has been proposed , based on the frequencies of different word classes. The purpose was to research the impact of the selected subcategories of emotional intelligence with the degree of formality in writing in Allameh Tabatabai University of Tehran. Design A factorial design was used in this study. The researcher divided the participants into three groups based on their dominant emotional intelligence types and assigned some topics for them to write in order to see whether there was any significant difference among that groups in terms of their style of writing. The independent variable of the study was emotional intelligence types (intrapersonal, interpersonal, adaptability, stress management, general mood) and the dependent variable was the learners degree of formality in writing. To do that, the degree of formality in writing and the level of EI in total were extracted .The level of each selected subcategories of emotional intelligence, that is, (interpersonal skills, intrapersonal skills and stress-management skills) was taken out, too. Finally, the collected data were analyzed via the SPSS (V.17) statistically. Procedure Identifying Iranian EFL learners dominant emotional intelligence and its relevant links with their writing style was the main purpose of this study. For this purpose the selected 504

participants were asked to complete the questionnaire and the personal characteristics (name, family name, age, term, major). They were supposed to write their names for matching with their writings. Before distributing the questionnaire, some explanations were given to them about Bar-Ons EI assessment scale. Meanwhile, the students became very much interested to know about their own EQ and formality of writing and it was promised to inform them about the results of the tests, which was a very strong motivation causing them to answer the tests more carefully. Based on the questionnaire results, 60 of the students who had dominant interpersonal, stress-management, and intrapersonal emotional intelligence types and were in their third and fourth terms of study, were chosen as the participants of this study. The Bar-ons emotional intelligence Questionnaire as well as the writing papers were administered. In order to wipe any language barrier, Bar-ons Emotional Intelligence test was translated and the Farsi version was administrated. EQ questionnaires were first scored based on the guidelines provided by Bar-On (1988), then the total EQ scores, and the scores of EQs three major subscales (intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills and stress management) were computed. Since there was no need to transform the raw scores into standard ones, the raw scores were used in this study. The Bar-ons emotional intelligence questionnaire was administered among a selected number of participants in order to find out about their dominant emotional intelligence; then, the participants were given a topic to write about and their writings were coded and scored following Heylighen, & Dewaeles (1999) F score. The selected sub skills of emotional intelligence were reported to see if there is any significant difference among the participants of the three selected groups, i.e. interpersonal, stress-management, and intrapersonal regarding the degree of formality in their writings. A one-way ANOVA was computed to investigate whether there is any significant difference among the groups with different Emotional Intelligence skills regarding the formality of writing . For analyzing the data, the EI questionnaire answers were analyzed then the writing papers of the participants were coded and scored according to Heylighen & Dewlaeles (1999) F score, which has been proposed based on the frequencies of different word classes in the data such as: nouns, adjectives, articles and prepositions are more frequent in formal style; while, pronouns, adverbs, verbs and interjections are more frequent in informal styles. F = (noun frequency + adjective freq. + preposition freq. + article freq. pronoun freq. verb freq. adverb freq. interjection freq. + 100) / 2 The frequencies are here expressed as percentages of the number of words belonging to a particular category with a respect to the total number of words in the excerpt. The frequencies of F will then theoretically vary between 0 and 100% (but obviously never reach these limits). The more formal the language excerpt, the higher the value of F is expected to be (Heylighen, & Dewaeles 1999). So, the measurement of formality was done manually by counting the colored highlighted words. Since the frequency of interjections was too partial, and also the use of articles as determinants of formality is under debate (Hudson, 1994), so to have an accurate score of formality, they were not included in the measurement of formality. Data Analysis In order to get the participants scores in the three EI domains of Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Stress management, the scores in the sub-skills of each domain were calculated, and then the mean scores of the participants in the writing test were calculated too. 505

Table 1.Descriptive Statistics for the mean differences of formality score among three EQ groups Std. N Minimum Maximum Mean Deviation Intra 20 53.00 91.00 68.2000 11.87035 Inter Stress Total 20 20 60 45.00 32.50 81.00 91.00 60.4000 58.5750 9.35780 14.45162

According to the data in table (1), the mean score of the Intrapersonal group is (68.20), the mean score of the Interpersonal group is (60.40) and the mean score of the Stress management group is (58.57) which means that the mean score of the Intrapersonal groups writing is higher than the others. To answer the Research Question, a One-Way ANOVA test was conducted to determine whether there was any significant difference among the three groups. Table 2.One-Way ANOVA for formality measures VAR00002 (formality scores) Sum of Squares Between Groups Within Groups Total 1045.408 8309.138 9354.546 df 2 57 59 Mean Square 522.704 145.774 F 3.586 Sig. .034

Data in Table (2) indicate that F (2,57) = 3.586 , p =.034 .It means that there is a significant difference among groups regarding the formality scores since the observed p is smaller than .05. In order to find out about the location of difference a post-hoc test (Tukey) was calculated. Table 3. Post Hoc Test. Tukey (I) VAR00001 EQ groups Intra (J) Mean VAR00001 Difference EQ groups (I-J) Inter Stress Inter Intra Stress Stress Intra Inter 7.8000 9.6250(*) -7.8000 1.8250 -9.6250(*) -1.8250 Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval Sig. Lower Bound .111 .038 .111 .882 .038 .882 -1.3878 .4372 -16.9878 -7.3628 -18.8128 -11.0128 Upper Bound 16.9878 18.8128 1.3878 11.0128 -.4372 7.3628

3.81804 3.81804 3.81804 3.81804 3.81804 3.81804

* The mean difference is significant at the .05 level. 506

Based on the data in Table (3), it is seen that there is a significant difference between Stress management group and Intrapersonal group. But there is not any significant difference between Intrapersonal group and Interpersonal group. Therefore, among these three groups only Intrapersonal group and Stress management group have the significant difference with the P value of 0.03. If we look at the mean scores of these three groups in Table (1) we notice that the mean score of intra-personal group (68.20) is higher than the other groups. So intrapersonal group wrote more formally than the other groups.

Bars show Means

60.00

formality scores

40.00

20.00

0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00

EQ groups

Figure 1. Mean differences of groups As the figure shows the mean score of Intrapersonal group is (68), the mean score of the Interpersonal group is (60) and the mean score of the Stress management group is (58) which means that the mean score of Intrapersonal group is higher than the others; and the table 2. indicates that only the difference between the intrapersonal and stress management groups is significant. Findings and Discussion English is considered a foreign language to Iranians, because it is spoken only in class. English classes generally create a kind of threatening environment in Iran. Students errors are corrected immediately in a direct way. Students generally suffer from error phobia, meaning that they do not write or speak until they think they are perfect. Therefore, it seems to be natural that emotional factors, especially intrapersonal competencies can be of great importance in this context of learning, especially in writing the formal text. There are many researches investigating the emotional intelligence types and their relationship with different variables and language learning. Although in this research the comparison between male and female participants EI types couldnt be determined because of the small number of male participants, in some studies researches have investigated this factor. For example an analysis of variance of the North American normative sample (n=3,831) was conducted to examine the effect of age, gender and ethnicity on EQ-i scores (Bar-On, 1997b). Although the results indicated a few significant differences between the age groups that were compared, these differences were relatively small in magnitude. 507

The findings of the present study were in line with the findings of the study conducted by Pishghadam (2007) who examined the influence of EQ and verbal intelligence on second language success among 576 EFL students at Allameh TabatabaI University. The results indicated that second language skills and grade point average strongly correlated with stress management, intrapersonal skills in the Bar-Ons emotional intelligence test. Besides, the results of the experimental phase revealed that verbal intelligence was related to second language learning success. Emotional intelligence was also found to be effective in developing productive skills. The researcher concluded that higher levels of emotional intelligence and verbal intelligence can lead to success at the university. Heylighen and Dewaele (2002) used F-measure to explore corpus data derived from Dutch, Italian, and English sources. The results were consistent: spoken language scored lower than written language, meaning that the latter was more formal; newspaper were more formal than works on fiction; interview data was more formal than casual conversation. Importantly, Heylighen and Dewaele were also able to analyze the relation between gender and contextuality, and the results consistently showed that women used more contextual language- both in written and spoken texts -while men tended toward formality. Heylighen and Dewaele (2002) applied their F-measure to texts of known gender and found a distinct difference between sexes. Females score lower, preferring a more contextual style, while men prefer a more formal style. Based on the findings of this study, among three groups of emotional intelligent skills, those who had higher Intrapersonal skill, had higher level of formality in writing. It may be because this group of people have higher self awareness and self expression and can effectively and constructively express their emotions and themselves. (Bar-On.,2006) Conclusion The study began with the hypothesis that the different types of emotional intelligence (Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Stress Management) affect Iranian EFL learners writing style in terms of formality. The Bar-ons (1988) emotional intelligence questionnaire was used to identify the participants outstanding emotional intelligence. Based on the questionnaire results 60 students who had dominant Interpersonal, Stress-management, and Intrapersonal emotional intelligence types were selected as the participants of this study. The participants were given a title to write about and their writings were coded according to the selected criteria and scored following Heylighen, & Dewaeles (1999) F score. A one-way ANOVA was conducted to determine whether there was any significant difference among groups. Based on the findings of this study, EI groups differ significantly regarding their Formality in writing. The selected skills of EI in this study were: (1) Intrapersonal skills (Self-Regard, Emotional Self-Awareness, Assertiveness, Independence, and Self-Actualization),(2) Interpersonal skills (Empathy, Social Responsibility, and Interpersonal Relationship),(3) Stress Management (comprising Stress Tolerance and Impulse Control). The results of this study suggested that the mean score of Intrapersonal group was higher than the others regarding the formality of writing. However, the difference of mean scores among other selected sub skills was not significant regarding the formality of writing. References Argamon, S., Koppel, M., Fine, J. & Shimoni, A. (2003). Gender, genre, and writing style in formal written texts, TEXT,23,3 200-225.

508

Bar-On, R. (1988). The development of an operational concept of psychological well being. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Rhodes University, South Africa. Bare-On ,R.(1997 ).The emotional quotient inventory (EQ_i):Technical manual. Toronto:Multi Health Systems. Bar-On, R.(2006).The Bar-On model of Emotional-Social Intelligence (ESI).Psicothema, 18, supel.13-25.Retrieved 21, Jun 2009 fromhttp://www.eiconsortium.org. Chastain, K. (1988).Developing second language skills, Theory and Practice (3rd ED). University of Virginia .Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Chau,Ch-T. (2003). Foreign language anxiety and Emotional Intelligence: A study of EFL students in Taiwan. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M universityKingsville. Ghods, S. (2007). The effect of emotional intelligence on reading comprehension and structural ability of Iranian intermediate EFL students (MA Thesis), Islamic Azad University of Garmsar. Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books. Retrieved 29,May 2009 from http://www.eiconsortium.org. Goleman, D. (2001). Emotional intelligence: perspectives on a theory of performance. In C. Cherniss & D. Goleman (eds.): The emotionally intelligent workplace (pp.1326). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Hall, E. T. 1976. Beyond Culture. Anchor Press, New York. Heylighen F. (1999): Advantages and limitations of formal expression, Foundations of Science, 4(1), p. 25-56. Heylighen, F. & Dewaele, J. (1999). Formality of language,definition, measurement and behavioral determinants. Retrieved October, 16, 2009. from the web: http:// www. Hcrc.ed.ac.uk/jon/papers/idc.pdf. Heylighen, F.&Dewaele,J.(2002).Variation in the contextuality of language :an empirical measure .Foundations of Science 6, 293-340. Hudson, R. (1994) About 37% of word-tokens are nouns, Language 70, 331-339. Labov, W. (1972) Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press. Mayer, J.D. & Salovey , P. (1995). Emotional intelligence and construction and regulation of feelings. Applied and preventive psychology ,4, 197-298. Mayer, J.D. & Salovey, P. (1997). What is emotional intelligence? In P. Salovey & D.J. Sluyter (eds.): Emotional development and emotional intelligence (pp. 3-31). New York: Basic Books. Nelson,D. & Low,G. (2003). Emotional Intelligence and College Success: A ResearchBased Assessment and Intervention Model . Javelina Emotional Intelligence (EI) Program at Texas A&M University-Kingsvill. Pishghadam, R. (2007). On the influence of emotional and verbal intelligence on second language learning. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran. Saeidi,M. &Yusefi,M.( 2008). The relationship between EFL Learners Emotional Intelligence and Critical Reading Salovey, P., & Mayer, J.D. (1990). Emotional Intelligence. Imagination, Cognition, Personality,9,185-211. Stottlemeyer, B. (2002). An examination of emotional intelligence and its relationship to academic achievement and the implications for education. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Wikipedia,(2010). The free encyclopedia.htm.

509

English Language Teaching in India and Body Language Narendra Sonu Tayade Dadasaheb D.S.Patil Arts, Commerce and Science College, Erandol, Dist- Jalgaon, Maharshtr, India tayadens@gmail.com Abstract The principal purpose of this paper is to study, confer and make thought provoking discussion about the practices of Teaching English Language in India and the role of body language in it. As far as non-native language is concerned, it looks quite impossible to convey thoughts originally to others without proper gestures and body movements. The same happens when the teacher of English uses his /her facial expressions, gestures and hands movements upward and downward. The understanding of a language lies more in the body movements of the speaker. The methods of non-verbal communication are fruitful and more beneficial for verbal communication particularly if English is taught as non-native language. As Albert Meherebian observes that The communication with nonverbal methods, like symbol, signs and gestures squeezes more into the mind of receiver than the communication with spoken words.(1). The teacher of English uses words, phrases and sentences in class but due to mother tongue influence intonation of his own language is exercised by him and consequently the students cant get the meaning fully of what the teacher teaching in the class. Considering one aspect of Indian English there are two ways of framing Interrogative sentence.-1. As per English grammar 2. Nonacceptable according to English Grammar but acceptable in Indian context E.g. 1. Are you going there? (English Grammar is followed here) 2. You are going there? (Indian Context). In these two sentences though the first sentence is known as an interrogative sentence the second one will also be the interrogative sentence if the speaker uses proper facial expressions and movement of neck for it. Language teaching itself is nothing but communication with the students. The present paper focuses on the role of body language in teaching English as non-native language in class. Facial expressions, hands movements, gestures and eye contact are the major focusing aspects of the paper. It is an attempt to draw attention on the role of body language for teaching effective English, even though the English teacher is following this to some extent. It is also an attempt to underline the necessity and importance using body language in English teaching. It highlights the application of various body language aspects like eye contact, hands movements, Facial expressions, nodding etc. Keywords: Body language, English language teaching in India, Facial expressions, Hands movements, Eye contact. Introduction The present research paper focuses on the role of body language in teaching English as non-native language in India. English language came in India with the advent of British and coincidently Indians have adopted it before a century or more as language of their business with the British. Gradually English has changed its place from only business to language of education and more than that. Today, in India English has acquired global place among Indians so that English is being taught as global language. To teach such significant language various methodologies have been used by Indian teachers of English. Can the teacher of English teach it without the use of proper body language? And if he/ she teaches it; to what extent he/ she will be successful in teaching English? Though, in this 510

present era of information technology and globalization various new methods are invented to teach English yet body language is an inseparable part of teaching English. It may be treated as one of the methodologies of teaching English. The Slow-Learners appreciate those teachers who make the learning situation conducive, and interesting through their effective teaching process with the help of face and relevant body language. Body language is expressing how one feels by the way one sits, stands, and moves etc, rather than by words. (Oxford Advanced Learners English -Chinese Dictionary, 2001). The gestures, postures, and facial expressions by which a person manifests various physical, mental, or emotional states and communicates nonverbally with others are the elements of body language. Body Language is imparting information by means of conscious or subconscious bodily gestures, posture, etc. When the teacher of English uses his /her facial expressions, gestures and hands movements the teaching of English is more perceptive. The understanding of a language lies more in the body movements of the speaker. The methods of non-verbal communication are fruitful and more beneficial for verbal communication particularly if English is taught as non-native language. As Albert Meherebian observes that The communication with non-verbal methods, like symbol, signs and gestures squeezes more into the mind of receiver than the communication with spoken words.(1). The teacher of English uses words, phrases and sentences in class but due to mother tongue influence intonation of his own language is exercised by him and consequently the students cant get the meaning fully of what the teacher teaching in the class. Considering one aspect of Indian English there are two ways of framing Interrogative sentence.-1. As per English grammar 2. Non- acceptable according to English Grammar but acceptable in Indian context E.g. 1. Are you going there? (English Grammar is followed here) 2. You are going there? (Indian Context). In these two sentences though the first sentence is known as an interrogative sentence the second one will also be the interrogative sentence if the speaker uses proper facial expressions and movement of neck for it. Language teaching itself is nothing but communication with the students. The following scholar has also highlighted the same thing that what role of body language in teaching. Albert Mehrabian found that the total impact of a message is about 7 percent verbal (Words only) and 38 percent vocal (including tone of voice, inflection and other sounds) and 55 percent Non-Verbal. Professor Bird-Whistell also similarly found that the verbal component of face to face conversation is less than 35% and over the sixty five percent of communication is done Non-Verbally. Literature Review Very few articles are found by the researcher those revolve round the same topic to be discussed here. But some authors have tried their hands to write articles, papers and books about this topic. There are very few articles with internet about the use of body language in teaching English from foreign writers but the articles written by Indians are nearly none. Teaching English to native student is different from to teach it to non-native student. Some books like IT Revolution, Globalization and the Teaching of English by P. Shailaja and M. Rajeshwar, Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching by Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers and Video in Language Teaching by Jack Lonergan comprise few chapters about gestures, total physical response and body language in teaching. Total physical response is discussed in Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. This method is built around the coordination of speech and action; it attempts to teach language through physical activity. The method is developed by James Asher, a professor of psychology. It draws on several traditions, including developmental psychology, learning 511

theory, and humanistic pedagogy, as well as on language teaching procedures proposed by Harold and Dorothy Palmer in 1925. In Video in Language Teaching a chapter comprises visual cues and the role of arm movements, facial gestures and eye contact. According to the author paralinguistic features form an important part of communication; often gestures and mime can carry the whole meaning. For language learners the ability to recognize, understand and perhaps use these features of the target language is an integral part of achieving communicative fluency. Methodology The researcher has used the analytical, experimental and descriptive methodology. The researcher has collected the data from internet and Books. He analyzed it to take out the conclusions for his research paper. He has taken experience in his own College by teaching few lectures of English without the use of body language such as gestures, eye contact, facial expressions and hands movement while few lectures have been conducted with the sue of body language. Then he has taken informal feedback from the students to know the impact if body language in teaching. The collected data also has been analyzed. Objectives of the paper (1.) It is an attempt of the researcher to find out the role of body language in teaching English in India. (2.) It is also an attempt to draw attention on the role and significance of body language in teaching English. (3.) This paper is meant to study how body language affects teaching. (4.) It is to study positive and negative outputs of teaching in respect to body language. (5) It is to study students psychology to understand their teachers body language. Findings and discussions A) Role and effects of eye contact: Eye to eye contacts have been very earlier means of Teaching-Learning process. Avoiding the eye to eye contact by the students may be read as telling lies or lack of confidence or something being kept secret as the case may be during interaction. Overtime contact may signify the obstinacy, challenge and even threat in worst situation for the teachers. Eye contact may be used to sending and receiving particular type of messages during the lecture or it may be used for asking question. B) Role and effects of movement of hands:It has been observed that when the teacher delivers his lecture without associating the gestures by the hands according to the situations and content, the teacher fails to develop interest and imagination in the minds of the students. The teaching, therefore, often falls into criticism being boring or monotonous and uninspiring. Therefore, the movement of the hands play very significant role in developing interest, imagination and concentration up to required level in the teaching learning process. C) The effects of the inflection oF the tone of the voice:The inflection of tone simply refers the rise and fall of the tone of the voice of the teacher. It plays very significant role in conveying and transmitting the real message through the words uttered by the teacher. The word may have one plain meaning in its natural articulation and presentation but when it is uttered in different tone and inflection, it may give different messages and sometimes quite contrary to that of its actual explanation in that situation. 512

D) Role Of facial Expression: Facial expressions play important role in teaching English too. A teacher of English must be with smiling face to engage his class positively. Facial expressions are used to express various feeling and the English vocabulary may be explained well with facial expressions. The emotions and human nature can be displayed well with the help of facial expressions. These are the best means of showing the authentic expressions and disguised aims of teacher. Findings It is observed that body language plays important role in English language teaching because one has to use the gestures and facial expressions of his own mother tongue but not of the target language to avoid misunderstanding. If he or she uses the non-native symbols of gestures, facial expressions then the students will not understand them due to their mother tongue influence. Body language makes the meaning different. Anger, smile, hate, love, affection are shown by facial expressions and so body language may be used to positive or negative outputs. Gradually students get themselves involved in teachers teaching and consequently interpret the teacher through his/ her body language. Conclusion All the details of this paper have drawn our attention on the role and utilities of the body language in Teaching - Learning Process. The ultimate aim of the proposed article is to put the significant method to the English teachers. In brief , we can observe that body language is interlinked with Teaching English. One cannot teach English without the use of body language. It is one of the effective teaching methods of English teaching. Though the teachers of English are using modern methods to teach English they cannot teach it properly without eye-contact, gestures, Facial expressions and the inflection of the tone of the voice. Teaching with this method attracts students and more fruitful. References www. thefreedictionary.com. IT Revolution, Globalization and the Teaching of English by P. Shailaja and M. Rajeshwar.Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching by Jack C. Richards and Theodore S.Rodgers. Video in Language Teaching by Jack Lonergan. Oxford Advanced Learners English -Chinese Dictionary, 2001. Shabdawin Sanvad (Body language) - Lata R.Chaudhari. Nonverbal Communication: Forms and Functions- Andersen, Peter. Effective technical Communication - Prof. S.Agrawal. http/img/baidu.com

513

Motivation to Complete Homework: Insights from ESL/EFL Learners in Malaysia Azadeh Shafaei School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Azadeh.shafaei@gmail.com Abstract Homework plays an important role in students learning process by enforcing them to practice the acquired knowledge on their own. Some learners are reluctant to complete their homework due to various reasons which have been seldom explored. This paper aims to investigate motivation of ESL/EFL learners to complete classwork or homework by examining a sample of 117 learners from an English centre in Penang, Malaysia. It applies a well established motivation scale, namely Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-A) developed by Ryan and Connell (1989), and strives to validate its factorial structure in a culturally different context. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in a 3factorial structure. Findings of the study indicated introjected motivation to be the most important motivation of ESL/EFL learners to complete classwork/homework followed by intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Keywords: Academic Motivation, ESL/ EFL Learners, Motivation Types Introduction Attitude is an important concept about learning. Students attitude toward learning affects how well or how often they do it, and how much enjoyment they gain from it. Many students who are learning a language find it difficult and sometimes they think they are not successful in that. However, this difficulty is not related to ability, but rather related to the attitudes that are held to learning (Yenilmez et al., 2007). Attitude is a mental set or disposition, readiness to respond and the psychological basis of attitudes, their permanence, their learned nature and their evaluative character. It includes object things, peoples, places, ideas or situations. Intelligence is not the only determinant of academic achievement but also high motivation and engagement in learning results in students success (Kushman et al., 2000). Students motivation is an important criterion in learning (Daniels, 2008) and lack of motivation displayed by students is a major concern for many teachers. As argued by Tileston (2004, p. 2) students learn new materials so long as three things are present: (1) the desire to learn new information or new processes, (2) the right method of learning, and (3) consistency. Learning does not commence with cognitive process, but rather it begins in the selfsystem. It is also called as Do I wanna? system by Tileston (2004), which refers to the decision of the learner as to whether he/she is going to pay attention, engage in the learning, or simply ignore it. Motivation is defined as a students willingness, need, desire and compulsion to participate in, and be successful in the learning process (Md. Yunus and Wan Ali, 2009). Motivation has long been a controversial issue with researchers in learning. This is not because there is any doubt about the importance of motivational factors in general for learning, but because the contrast between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, which has dominated the debate, is subject to serious criticisms. Importance of motivation in learning has been highlighted in literature for 40 years (Cleary and Chen, 2009). Students can gain a high level of participation and also better understanding of material when they have confidence and are motivated (Fisher and Baird, 2005). There are several factors that can motivate students. One of them is peer learning. Learning from peers leads 514

to better learning outcomes, teamwork, reflection, communication skills, and learning meaningfully (Boud, 2001). According to Topping (2005) peer learning is the acquisition of knowledge and skills through active help. Putting students into a teaching role, makes them motivated to review, learn, and comprehend the material (Cavallaro and Tan, 2006). Besides, by doing working in groups they can support each other, and thus ensure that their learning goals are fulfilled (Liaw et al., 2008). This paper strives to examine an established scale of academic motivation developed by Ryan and Connell (1989) in a culturally different context to verify the validity and factorial structure of the scale. The objectives of this paper are to investigate whether the originally proposed four sub-dimensions of academic motivation still exist in the population of ESL/EFL learners in Penang, Malaysia, and to examine the motivation of EFL/ESL learners in completing their homework. Academic Motivation Interests and motivations have been a key issue in studies of educational psychology. Interest is defined as an interactive relation between the individual learner and his or her environment or aspects thereof including objects, events, and ideas (Krapp, 2002). Figure 1 shows the four types of motivation that can impel people to act.

Figure 1: Four Types of Motivations Motivation is drive to do something and can be both in the form of internal or external driver. The former is can be either intrinsic or introjected, while the latter can be classified as both extrinsic and identified motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the drive which comes from within. This is when students do something for the sheer joy of doing it or in order to discover something, find the answer to a question or achieving self-accomplishment (Tileston, 2004). Introjected motivation is similar to intrinsic motivation in that it is internalized, with the main difference in that the person feels the tension of guilt, if it is not done. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is the desire to do something because of the promise of a tangible and marketable reward (Tileston, 2004). This type of motivation is highly linked with behaviourism and was supported by B. F. Skinner, who conducted numerous experiments on animals. However, before his death, Skinner himself stated that it was foolish to think that human beings react similar to other experimental animals. Caine and Caine (1997, p. 16) also criticise the behaviourism approach in learning and argue that a single behaviour of teacher might have vast, but initially invisible, consequences. Finally, identified motivation is where a person knows that something needs to be done, but has not yet decided to do anything about it. 515

Methodology The required data for this study was collected by using and distributing a structured questionnaire among ESL/EFL learners in an English centre located in Penang, Malaysia. Questionnaire link was emailed to learners and they were invited to participate in the research by completing the online survey. Participation was voluntary. A total of 117 learners participated in this research (64 male and 53 female). The measurement items for this study were adapted from Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-A) developed by Ryan and Connell (1989). The original scale had 4 dimensions (9 items to measure the external motivation, 9 items to measure the introjected motivation, 7 items to measure the identified motivation, and 7 items to measure the integrated or the intrinsic motivation). However, in the current study, only 22 items which appeared to be relevant to the context were selected and applied for further investigation. Respondents were supposed to announce their agreement to either of the statements using a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). To analyze the collected data, descriptive, reliability and exploratory factor analysis were applied using SPSS version 13. In order to explore dimensions of academic motivation based on collected data, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the questionnaire items. In order to assess the factorability of the data and ensure adequacy of sampling, Bartletts test of sphericity (Bartlett, 1954) and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy (Kaiser, 1970, 1974) were applied. For the factor analysis to be considered appropriate, Bartletts test of sphericity should be significant (p<0.05) and KMO index should be higher than 0.6 (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2001). In this study, Bartletts test of sphericity was significant (p=0.000) and initial KMO index was measured to be 0.630 which indicates a good data suitable for EFA. Normally, factor loadings are considered to be high when they are greater than 0.6 and moderately high when they are above 0.3 (Kline, 1994). In this study, a factor loading of 0.60 or greater on one factor was considered significant as suggested by Chin et al. (1997). As for tackling the issue of high-cross loadings, the criteria set by Snell and Dean (1992) was applied whereby we deleted items when the differences between the loadings across factors were less than 0.10. Findings and Discussion After removing a number of items to ensure that anti-Image correlation and communalities are within the acceptable limit (items 12 and 3 respectively), and removing the item with a factor loading below the cut-off point (item 1), the final rotated component matrix using Varimax was obtained and is shown in Table 1. The result of factor analysis indicated a 3factorial structure explaining 78.5% of total variance.

516

Table 1: Results of exploratory factor analysis for academic motivation Item No. 1 2 ITEM 14 -0.004 0.936 ITEM 13 0.078 0.869 ITEM 8 0.012 0.865 ITEM 11 0.865 -0.068 ITEM 7 0.137 0.856 ITEM 5 0.251 0.796 ITEM 21 0.477 0.610 ITEM 17 0.068 0.965 ITEM 16 0.055 0.926 ITEM 9 -0.016 0.914 ITEM 18 0.118 0.887 ITEM 15 0.382 0.777 ITEM 22 0.080 -0.006 ITEM 20 -0.008 0.476 ITEM 19 0.259 0.280 ITEM 4 0.288 0.000 ITEM 6 0.364 0.053 ITEM 10 -0.198 0.475 ITEM 2 -0.456 0.451

3 -0.004 0.261 0.230 -0.188 0.150 0.193 0.306 0.154 0.137 0.114 0.073 0.330 0.853 0.792 0.745 0.744 0.744 0.722 0.601

The internal consistency of each scale was assessed using Cronbachs levels and verified as all the scales had a Cronbachs levels higher than 0.70, except dimension 5 where the Cronbachs alpha is slightly lower than 0.70 due to the small number of items. Table 2 shows the Cronbachs levels for the scales applied in this study. Table 2: Reliability analysis Scales Dimension 1 (Extrinsic Motivation) Dimension 2 (Introjected Motivation) Dimension 3 (Intrinsic Motivation)

Number of Items 7 items 5 items 7 items

Reliability Coefficients 0.937 0.942 0.877

Result of descriptive statistics for identified dimensions is summarized in Table 3 and reveals that dimension 2 (introjected motivation) is the most important motivation for ESL/EFL learners to do their homework followed by dimension 3 (intrinsic motivation) and dimension 1 (extrinsic motivation). As shown in Table 3, introjected motivation possesses the highest mean score which indicates that most of the students do their homework because of their internal motivation and goals. The distinctive aspect between introjected and intrinsic motivation is that in introjected motivation the person feels the tension of guilt, if it is not done. The second highest score is for intrinsic motivation. Besides, the least important motivation is found to be extrinsic motivation. This shows that internal factors have greater impacts on students to do their homework as compared to external factors. It indicates that the strongest motivations to do homework come from students themselves, as well as internal drivers rather than external forces. The students in the case centre learned English through team work and cooperative learning which increases their motivation and helps them to achieve their goals. As mentioned earlier, learning from peers leads to better learning outcomes, teamwork, 517

reflection, communication skills, and learning meaningfully (Boud, 2001). Putting students into a teaching role, makes them motivated to review, learn, and comprehend the material (Cavallaro and Tan, 2006). By working in groups students can support each other, and thus ensure that their learning goals are fulfilled (Liaw et al., 2008). Therefore, working in groups increases students motivations toward learning to achieve their goals. On the other hand, achieving goals is an internal factor of ones success. Therefore, it is conjectured that learning in groups can increase students internal motivation toward learning and being successful. Table 3: Descriptive statistics for academic motivation Dimension Dimension 1 (Extrinsic Motivation) Dimension 2 (Introjected Motivation) Dimension 3 (Intrinsic Motivation)

Mean 3.409 4.757 3.673

Std. Deviation 1.110 0.696 0.856

Conclusion and Recommendations This research is an initial investigation of the revised SRQ-A scale among EFL/ESL learners. Findings of this study reveals that the 22 selected SRQ-A survey items do not fit well on the four factorial structure as we used a new population in our study and items have loaded on a three-factorial structure and three items had to be removed. This warrants researchers to be cautious while using the SRQ-A scale to measure students academic motivations. By examining a group of EFL/ESL learners who learn English in cooperative environment, this study highlighted the greater role of internal motivations over external motivations in students endeavours to complete their homework. However, this does not deny the importance of external influences. Teachers can also play an important role in increasing students engagement in learning through bringing high energy to their teaching which can boost students motivation and improve their overall participation in the learning process. This can be achieved by creating an interactive lesson plan which ensures students participation in learning process through team work and peer collaboration. In conclusion, one of the most important factors which increase students internal motivations is team work and peer learning. It is important to cultivate a learner-centred culture in the classroom. Such an environment is encouraged by teachers when they directly teach and observe student-directed learning strategies (Wehmeyer et al., 2000). This study is not without limitations. The main limitation of the study pertains to study sample which was selected from one centre and limits the generalizability of the findings. Future studies might explore the issue further by examining the effect of academic motivations on study success of EFL/ESL learners. References Bartlett, M. S. (1954). A note on the multiplying factors for various chi square approximation. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 16 (Series B), 296-298. Boud, D. (2001). Introduction: Making the move to peer learning. In D. Boud, R. Cohen, & J. Sampson. Peer Learning for Higher Education. (pp. 120). London: Kogan Page Limited. Caine, R. N., & Caine, G. (1997). Education on the edge of possibility. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Cavallaro, F., & Tan, K. (2006). Computer-mediated peer-to-peer mentoring. AACE Journal, 14(2), 129-138.

518

Chin, W. W., Gopal, A., & Salisbury, W. D. (1997). Advancing the theory of adaptive structuration: the development of a scale to measure faithfulness of appropriation. Information Systems Research, 8(4), 342-367. Cleary, T. J., & Chen, P. P. (2009). Self-regulation, motivation, and math achievement in middle school: Variations across grade level and math context. Journal of School Psychology, 47, 291-314. Daniels, B. M. (2008). Motivation, academic success, and learning environments: Comparing high school face-to-face and online courses (Doctoral Dissertation). Retrieved March 02, 2011 from: http://digilib.gmu.edu:8080/xmlui/handle/1920/3366. Fisher, M., & Baird, D. E. B. (2005). Online learning design that fosters student support, self-regulation, and retention. Campus-Weg Information System, 22(2), 88-107. Kaiser, H. (1970). A second generation Little Jiffy. Psychometrika, 35, 401-415. Kaiser, H. (1974). An index of factorial simplicity. Psychometrika, 39, 31-36. Kline, P. (1994). An easy guide to factor analysis. New York: Routledge. Krapp, A. (2002). Structural and dynamic aspects of interest development: Theoretical considerations from an ontogenetic perspective. Learning and Instruction, 12, 383409. Kushman, J. W., Sieber, C., & Harold, K. P. (2000). This isnt the place for me: School dropout. In D. Capuzzi & D. R. Gross (Eds.), Youth at risk: A prevention resource for counselors, teachers, and parents (3rd ed., pp. 471-507). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Liaw, S. S., Chen, G. D., & Huang, H. M. (2008). Users attitudes toward Web-based collaborative learning systems for knowledge management. Computers & Education, 50(3), 950-961. Md. Yunus, A. S., & Wan Ali, W. Z., (2009). Motivation in the Learning of Mathematics. European Journal of Social Sciences, 7(4), 93-101. Ryan, R. M., & Connell, J. P. (1989). Perceived locus of causality and internalization: Examining reasons for acting in two domains. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(5), 749-761. Snell, S. A., & Dean, J.W., Jr. (1992). Integrated manufacturing and human resource management: A human capital perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 35(3), 467-504. Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2001). Using multivariate statistics (4th edition). New York: HarperCollins. Chapter 13. Tileston, D. E. W. (2004). What every teacher should know about student motivation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Topping, K. J. (2005). Trends in peer learning. Educational Psychology, 25(6), 631-645. Wehmeyer, M. L., Agran, M., & Hughes, C. (2000). A national survey of teachers promotion of self-determination and student-directed learning. The Journal of Special Education, 34, 58-68. Yenilmez, K., Girginer, N., & Uzun, A. O. (2007). Mathematics anxiety and attitude level of students of the faculty of economics and business administrator; The Turkey model. International Mathematical Forum, 2(41), 1997-202, Retrieved March, 02, 2011 from: http://www.m-hikari.com.

519

Specific Aspects of Teaching Foreign Languages to Seniors, students of Universities of the Third Age Mgr. Iva Koutsk Czech Republic Iva.Koutska@ujep.cz Abstract The presented contribution deals with the specific aspects of foreign language education process for the age group 55+. It focuses mainly on the limitations that accompany senior foreign language teaching and learning. It is based on personal experience with teaching English and German at the University of the Third Age at the Jan Evangelista Purkyn University in st nad Labem, Czech Republic. The contribution brings a short survey analysis of problem situations and outline of possibilities (instructions) how to solve them. Senior education is extremely important element of personal development as well as society development especially during recent demography change. In modern globalized world also seniors are forced to learn foreign languages. This educational process however has some specific aspects and has to be changed (adjusted to seniors) in many ways. The topic of senior education integrates knowledge of many sciences and humanities, but foreign language methodology still underestimate the problems (not much is written and researched about senior foreign language education.) Keywords: Senior Education, University of the Third Age, Foreign Language Education, Language Competences Introduction In the past the main topic from senior education point of view was a necessity discussion, debates about possible benefits and last but not least also about the definition of the term senior (see e. g. Mhlpachr P., Gerontopedagogika, Masarykova Univerzita, Pedagogick fakulta, Brno, 2009). Nowadays senior education is not questioned as such, resulting for example in long-lasting tradition of educational activities e. g. at Universities of the Third Age. The term senior is generally understood as a term changing its connotations and meaning according to the specific tradition of the society or country. The following contribution brings remarks to foreign language methodology or more precisely foreign language methodology to seniors, students of Universities of the Third Age. Foreign language education at Universities of the Third Age and at the University of the Third Age in st nad Labem Today all together 20 universities in the Czech Republic are joined into the Association of the Universities of the Third Age of the Czech Republic48. Almost at all of them foreign language education is organized, especially of English language49. On the other hand it is worth noticing that for example the project Senior Language (funded by Socrates Gruntvig) names in the Czech Republic as senior foreign language educators only University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and Czech Technical University in Prague, from NNGOs Athena, esk spolenost pro trnovn pamti (The Czech Society of Memory
48

http://au3v.vutbr.cz/clenove.php. [2011-05-25] http://www.icm.cz/univerzity-tretiho-veku-jazykove-kurzy. [2011-03-23]

49

520

Training) and Svaz dchodc esk republiky (The Federation of Retirees of the Czech Republic).50 At the University of the Third Age in st nad Labem (a part of the Jan Evangelista Purkyn University; U3A UJEP) foreign language courses have been organized since 2006/2007 in English and German. From long term point of view interest in foreign language courses is increasing, although foreign language courses are in comparison with other courses more demanding they are organized 12 times a period (12 x in six months) each time 2 x 45 minutes mostly in an interactive form. The other courses take place usually once a month and are led as lectures.

Chart 1: Increasing number of students of foreign language courses English language. The sum of the number of students false beginners, beginners and students preintermediate, intermediate, advanced. (Source: Annual reports about educational and other activities UJEP 2006-2009). The Chart starts with winter term (1st October 28th Fabruary) through summer terms (1st March 30th June)/winter terms.

Chart 2: Increasing number of students of foreign language courses German language. The sum of the number of students false beginners, beginners and students preintermediate, intermediate, advanced. (Source: Annual reports about educational and other activities UJEP 2006-2009) The Chart starts with winter term (1st October 28th February) through summer terms (1st March 30th June)/winter terms. Study at the U3A UJEP takes always two years. In 2009-2011 conversation in English was added. In 2011-2013 the plan is to add Russian language. The courses reflect interest of participants of the U3A UJEP in foreign language education. The motivation to study foreign language is not a topic of the presented contribution but as an insight see e. g. Trim
50

Senior Language (2006), pp. 14-15

521

J. and his presentation at Symposium during the European Day of Languages51 or The Common European Framework of Reference itself. According to the participants of foreign language courses at the U3A UJEP seniors are motivated to study languages because they want to be able to be understood during their holidays and not to feel embarrassed among their grandchildren. Selected specific aspects of foreign language education at the Universities of the Third Age in connection to language skills The remarks to selected specific aspects of foreign language education at U3A in this contribution are based on personal experience with teaching English and German at the U3A UJEP, it is not based on geriatrics or gerontology. Generally it can be said that In spite of existing in the society stereotypes concerning slow acquiring knowledge and information by older learners, recent research concerning teaching of older learners especially in the area of language learning shows that: there is no decline in the ability to learn as people get older; except for minor considerations such as hearing and vision loss, the age of the adult learner is not a major factor in language acquisition; the context in which adults learn is the major influence on their ability to acquire the new language.52 Language skills listening (passive/receptive skill53): there is a generally worsened ability to hear, with foreign language there is a worsened ability to perceive, recognise, decode and interpret foreign language phoneme. Hearing apparatus together with brain receptors is used to and set for mother tongue. The greatest difficulties senior find with fine distinctions such as minimal pairs (as for example defined by G. Yule: When two words such as pat and bat are identical in form except for a contrast in one phoneme, occurring in the same position.54 Taking into consideration the three kinds of phonetics according to Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics: articulatory, acoustic and auditive55, in the articulatory phase one of the important limitations for seniors is worsened ability to imitate foreign language phonemes. Acoustic phase is the factor that influences the hearing process itself. For a senior hearing a foreign language and listening to it a very demanding and complicated process (especially listening for comprehension) that every background noise can hinder, deteriorate or negatively influence. It is more necessary than with other age group to consider the distance between the source and the listener. It is important to take into consideration also the intensity and the quality of the sound, the intensity of background noise and correct acoustic qualities of the classroom. In the auditive phase the ability to perceive foreign language sound is generally worsened and as mentioned above it is especially the ability to distinguish between tiny differences as for example clear /l/ in [lat] light and dark /l/ in [h] hill56. In English language very important element is also
51

Trim, J., (26th September 2001) (v Morrow, K. (ed.) (2004), p. 6) Schleppegrell, M. (1987) (In Senior Language (2006), p. 34) Richards, J., Platt, J., Weber, H. (1985), p. 160 Yule G. (1996), p. 46 Richards, J., Platt, J., Weber, H. (1985), p. 215 Richards, J., Platt, J., Weber, H. (1985), p. 215

52

53

54

55

56

522

different rhythm of the language. The Czech language is syllable-rhymed and English is stress-rhymed. Great advantage for many seniors (in comparison with younger age groups) is higher ability to predict and expect. Seniors can on basis of their life experience interpret the phonemes, graphemes as well as the semantics of the speech in a better way. During their lives they met many speeches, topics and therefore their ability to use this previous knowledge in the process of comprehension is higher. At the same time there is higher probability of negative interference occurrence. Learner does not hear its individual elements (sound system of the language) in their real form, but through filter of their mother tongue sound system, and this concerns not only individual sounds or syllables, but also pausing of the speech and all phonostylistic features. The effects of negative transfer are growing with learners age.57 It is not possible to hinder all elements of negative transfer, there are however some possibilities how to increase the successfulness of the listening as a whole: Reduce background noise; Stand in good lighting with the mouth in clear view; Speak clearly, loudly and slowly; Use facial expressions or gestures to give additional meaning cues; Check students hearing aids; Reinforce oral language with visual materials; Make referrals to hearing specialists or doctors as appropriate.58 Speaking (active/productive skill59) Czech pupils/students or other learners as well as seniors tend to have the greatest problems with the production, i. e. speech itself. The reasons for unwillingness to talk are not dealt with in the contributions. It is for sure that U3A participants usually aim at speaking because they are personally convinced that it is necessary and needed. Seniors mainly understand which activities can bring something, can lead to something. The problem is with setting of their speaking apparatus and the consequent ability to articulate phonemes of a different language. Many seniors have problems with the speech itself after cerebral apoplexy, after throat or vocal chords surgery ) Dorothy Kalloch60 list the most problematic types of exercises: a) large amounts of oral repetition and memorization b) extensive pronunciation correction, or expectation of error-free speech c) irrelevant content, eg. stressing of grammar rules out of context Reading of foreign language literary books comes out mostly of seniors life attitude, from past (current) job and is in percentage not very common. More usually seniors meet reading as a part of their educational process or as self-study. Seniors tend to word for word reading, i. e. they do not read for gist or for comprehension, rather for individual words or general content. It is probably a result of Czech educational system of the past when grammar-translation method was mostly used. Seniors in general are not willing to accept the fact that they do not understand everything. It can be said that there could be a connection to worse ability to imagine and use the imagination, or higher importance of keeping the details, i. e. individual elements of the language (especially words). One of the biggest limitations for the seniors is worsened ability to identify. Reader identifies (reidentifies) language means from which the text is formed; he/she identifies them as
57

Hendrich J. (1988), p. 196 Aguirre Institute (2000), p. 4 Richards, J., Platt, J., Weber, H. (1985), p. 160 Kalloch, D. [2011-05-01]

58

59

60

523

elements he/she knows. At the same time (or almost at the same time) he/she realizes their meaning.61 For a senior this process is very problematic in every of its phase, very often there is no interconnection of individual elements of this process, i. e. for example a senior identifies the language means but he/she is not able to realize its meaning; it can be connected with worse memory skills and the ability to call something back. Very often there is even no identification itself. Especially in English, where differences between written form and the pronunciation is very clear, seniors more than other age groups are not able to distinguish that it is one and the same element, for example knife knives. In pronunciation (while listening) the basis of the word is [naf], in written form the difference in grapheme evokes two different words, not one in sg and pl. Aguirre Institute suggests Read familiar words (starting with signs and products with which the learners are familiar, such as the McDonalds symbol, Coca Cola cans, STOP signs or no smoking symbols) to allow them to build confidence in their own ability to interpret print.62 Writing is a very popular activity with seniors. It is probably a result of its qualities: Writer is enabled to choose its own working pace, to express himself/herself thoughtfully and in a compact way and when necessary to use for example dictionaries or other manuals.63 Very important role while writing is a personal working pace. Seniors can have very different working pace within the group. U3A UJEP can have participants starting from 55 of age, so it means that the difference can be more than 20 years. Writing is an ideal form of self-studying and preparation for classes. Conclusion The contribution briefly outlines some specific aspects of educational process with senior foreign language teaching and learning. It is not a complete list and it aims at offering a survey of possible limits that are necessary to incorporate to foreign language education to seniors at the Universities of the Third Age. It offers a basis for further work and research in which the possibilities of elimination of these limits will be stated. References Ellis, R. Understanding Second Language Acquisition, 1994. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN-0-19-437189-1 Hendrich, J. a kol. Didaktika cizch jazyk, 1988. Prague: Sttn pedagogick nakladatelstv. Morrow, K. (ed.). Insights from the Common European Framework, 2004. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-194-30950-9. Richards, J., Platt, J., Weber, H. Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics, 1985. Harlow: Longman. ISBN-582-55708-9. Trim, J. The work of the council of Europe in the field of Modern Languages 1957-2001, 26th September 2001. Graz: Evropsk centrum pro modern jazyky (In Morrow, K. (ed.), 2004). Yule G. The Study of Language, 1996. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-76527-5.
61

Hendrich, J. (1988), p. 225 Aguire Institute (2000), p. 8 Hendrich, J. (1988) p. 237

62

63

524

Internet Sources Aguirre Institute Coalition of Limited English Speaking Elderly. Bright Ideas Tips for Teaching ESL to the Elderly, 2000. www.clese.org/Products/Tips%20for%20Teaching.doc. Asociace univerzit tetho vku, The Association of the Universities of the Third Age of the Czech Republic, [2011-05-25]. www.au3v.cz. Drr, K. a kol. Handbook Teaching Methods for Senior Citizens, 2006. Volshochschule am Landkreis CAM e.V. http://www.senior-language.com. Jan Evangelista Purkyn University. Univerzita tetho vku pi Univerzit Jana Evangelisty Purkyn v st nad Labem (The University of the Third Age at the Jan Evangelista Purkyn University in st nad Labem), [2011-03-23]. http://u3v.ujep.cz Jan Evangelista Purkyn University. Vron zprva o innosti UJEP za rok 2006 (The Annual Report about educational and other activities 2006, [2011-05-01]. http://www.ujep.cz/userfiles/file/VZC2006.pdf. p. 21. Jan Evangelista Purkyn University. Vron zprva o innosti UJEP za rok 2007 (The Annual Report about educational and other activities 2007, [2011-05-01]. http://www.ujep.cz/userfiles/file/VZC2007.pdf. p. 22. Jan Evangelista Purkyn University. Vron zprva o innosti UJEP za rok 2008 (The Annual Report about educational and other activities 2008, [2011-05-01]. http://www.ujep.cz/userfiles/file/VZC%2008%20final1.pdf. p. 23. Jan Evangelista Purkyn University. Vron zprva o innosti UJEP za rok 2009 (The Annual Report about educational and other activities 2009, [2011-05-01]. http://www.ujep.cz/userfiles/file/VZC%202009%20final.pdf. pp. 60-61. Kalloch, D. Older Learner, [2011-05-01]. http://www.stevenmikki.com/Archive/OlderLearner.htm Nrodn informan centrum pro mlde (National Information Centre for Youth). Univerzity tetho vku Jazykov kurzy, [2011-03-23]. www.icm.cz. Senior Language. The Situation of Geragogic-Pedagogy for Senior Citizens in European Countries, Volshochschule cm Landkreis CAM e.V., 2006. http://www.seniorlanguage.com Schleppegrell, M. The Older Language Learner, 1987. http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/87-9dig.htm.

525

EFL Learners Sensitivity to Linguistic and Discourse Factors in the Process of Anaphoric Resolution Zohreh Yousefvand Young Researchers Club, Khorasgan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khorasgan, Iran z.yousefvand@gmail.com Abstract The main purpose of this study is to investigate the underlying process of anaphoric resolution, focusing on different types of anaphoric ties occurring in expository texts and their different inferential rigidity. Ninety EFL learners were randomly selected from among the accessible population of undergraduate EFL students at a university in Iran. The instrument was an anaphoric resolution test containing 30 different expository texts. The experiment comprised identification by underlining task, in which participants were asked to underline all the words/phrases they considered as the antecedents of anaphors in paragraphs. The data once properly collected and scored were subjected to a number of appropriate statistical procedures using SPSS, namely, mean overall distribution of different anaphoric ties and one-way ANOVA. It had been demonstrated that anaphoric resolution was affected by underlying linguistic and discourse factors. These factors contributed to the process of anaphoric resolution and had differential resolution effects. Based on the findings a new anaphoric resolution continuum emerged. The implications of the study are briefly discussed at the end. Keywords: Anaphoric ties, Anaphoric resolution, Linguistic factors, Discourse factors, Inferential rigidity, Expository texts Introduction Reading skill is really crucial skill since so much of what we need to know, especially in the academic context, is communicated via the written mode. As a result, most teachers emphasize reading comprehension practice. Teachers know that students need to be good readers in order to comprehend difficult texts that are used in their academic courses. In addition, for English as foreign language learners (EFLs) in particular, every text that they encounter is a text of English and students who do not read English well will have difficulty understanding different texts. Specifically, it is necessary for students to read expository texts effectively to succeed in the academic context. In the process of reading comprehension, it is important for readers to construct a coherent representation of a given text (Graesser, Millis, & Zwaan, 1997). In order to do so, readers have to understand the relations that exist between different parts of a text. To construct this coherent representation, the readers partially rely on the cohesive devices that are present in a text (Halliday & Hasan, 1976). On the other hand, a text contains more information than what is stated in a text explicitly (Davoudi, 2005). Accordingly, the process of coherent representation of the content of a given text also contains representation of information that is expressed by the text implicitly: information that a writer supposes a reader will compute from the text and as a result will not express them explicitly. According to Vonk and Noordman (1990), the computation of the implicit information is referred to as inferencing. An important aspect of this inference making is anaphoric resolution. This enables the readers to identify anaphoric devices and trace them back by finding the appropriate antecedent, and by doing so integrate new information with given information.

526

A number of studies have revealed that, anaphoric resolution is one of the essential skills to the improvement of students reading comprehension ability. According to Paterson, Sanford, Moxey, and Dawydiak (1998) it is assumed that students who can successfully resolve anaphoric ties have a better understanding of their textbooks. Berkemeyer (1994) also found a positive relationship between the ability to resolve anaphoric references and texts comprehension for readers of German as second language. Kral (2004) in another study tried to investigate whether or not being able to locate the referents to anaphoric ties would increase EFLs reading comprehension scores. She tested the students' abilities to locate the referent to a pronoun and gave them a reading comprehension test before and after a six-week pronoun identification and pronoun reference practice. The results of the study showed that some of the students' scores were higher during the post-testing. In another study that was conducted by Yang, Wong, and Yeh (2008), they tried to investigate the role of referential resolution ability in the process of reading comprehension. Ninety college students were asked to complete the online referential resolution practice. Results of the study indicated that the correlation between referential resolution and reading comprehension ranged from 61% to 75%. The results revealed that, more-proficient students were able to construct and integrate references in different parts of a text to form a coherent representation of a text; while less-proficient students often referred the references to incorrect or unrelated information. Anaphoric Resolution The linguistic term anaphora is used to refer to a common phenomenon. Everyone uses anaphora on a daily uses whether they know it or not. Nowadays, the term, anaphoric devices, is used to talk about linguistic devices that refer back to textually given or previously mentioned information. Although there is not a unanimous agreement in the literature as to how they should be categorized, the approach taken in this study is to define five main types of anaphoric expressions, which were proposed by Halliday and Hasan (1976). The process of determining the appropriate antecedent (among several prior antecedents) and successfully linking it with an anaphor is called anaphoric resolution. A typical problem in the resolution of anaphoric devices is the presence of more than one candidate for the antecedent of the anaphor. According to Garrod and Sanford (1994), anaphoric devices vary in terms of their degree of referential rigidity, their difficulty for interpretation, which is determined by the context. Through reviewing the related literature, the present study supposes that anaphoric resolution occurs on a continuum, involving greater or lesser cognitive activity. These cognitive activities depended actually on a set of text-based variables. In the following section, these influential variables would be discussed in more details. Factors Affecting Anaphoric Resolution It has been indicated that there are several morphosyntactic, semantic and discourse variables affecting the process of anaphoric resolution. Four different variables in particular have been shown to influence anaphoric resolution: featural overlap, topic continuity, discourse focus, and the distance between anaphor and antecedent. Featural Overlap Featural overlap refers to the point that how easily and successfully an antecedent can be linked to an anaphoric item. This factor includes linguistic and featural overlaps between the antecedents and the anaphors, as well as strength of association between them. Findings of several studies have supported the hypothesis that the more features an 527

antecedent and an anaphoric item share, the easier would be the resolution of an anaphoric tie. For example, Ishida (1991) in her study found that there was an interaction between the anaphors surface form and resolution of anaphoric tie. Reduced referring expressions such as pronouns in contrast to the full anaphors provided less information about their referents. This made it possible to match a given pronoun, in theory at least, with several potential antecedents. McDonald and Macwhinney (1995) in their study investigated effects of implicit verb causality and gender agreement information in anaphoric resolution. The overall results indicated that gender agreement as one of these featural overlaps had an effect on the process of anaphoric resolution. Lee (2004) in another study investigated anaphoric inference in expository text, and examined the effects of anaphora type, mention order and typicality of antecedent. The results showed that finding appropriate antecedents of noun phrases were faster than that of pronouns. It was also shown that the variables of the mention order and antecedent typicality influenced more on the resolution of pronouns than noun phrases. As a whole, the results suggested that syntactic cues of pronouns had strong effect in antecedents' access. In another study, Kaiser, Runner, Sussman, and Tanenhaus (2009) investigated how syntactic and semantic factors guide the interpretation of pronouns and reflexives. The results showed that the interpretation of anaphoric ties was sensitive not only to purely structural information, as was commonly assumed in syntactically oriented theories of anaphor resolution, but also to semantic information. Topic Continuity Factors such as topic continuity also have an effect on anaphoric resolution. Givn (1983a) argued that there was a correlation between topic continuity and anaphoric form and accordingly between topic continuity and ease of anaphoric resolution. Based on the topic continuity scale, which was proposed by Givn (1983b), the more disruptive, discontinuous or hard to process a topic was the more coding material must be assigned to it, while the more non-disruptive, continuous and predictable a topic was the less coding material must be assigned to it. Accordingly, he investigated topic-marking devices, which were used in oral narratives produced by native English speakers. He found that there was a correlation between the degree of continuity/predictability of topic NPs and the average size of the marking devices used to express them. Givns research demonstrated the point that referential distance was an important factor that had quite a significant influence on the choice of referential expressions in native English speakers oral narratives. Furthermore, Tomlin (1987) investigated the alternation of full nominals and pronouns in narratives, and showed that during the narrative productions his participants tended to use nouns to reinstate reference after an episode boundary, in contrast they tended to use pronouns to maintain reference within an episode boundary. Al-Kahtany (2007) in another study also emphasized that discourse factors, like topic worthiness of antecedents and discourse units, play an important role in the distribution of different anaphoric patterns and pointed to their influence on the process of anaphoric resolution within a text. Discourse Focus Discourse focus also has an effect on anaphoric resolution. Several scholars have suggested that a restricted number of antecedents that are in focus of readers working memory affect the process of anaphoric resolution (Kim, Lee, & Gernsbacher, 2004; Klin, Weingartner, Guzmn, & Levine, 2004). A number of studies have also shown that in certain discourse contexts, repeated anaphors rather than reduced anaphors may cause difficulty for skilled readers. These scholars have suggested that repeated anaphoric forms 528

in contrast to reduced anaphoric expressions are not always quicker to resolve because they are supposed to be associated with the reintroduction of referents that are introduced much earlier in the text. For example, Gordon, Grosz, and Gilliom (1993) found that reading times for repeated anaphor (i.e., namename) was significantly longer than for reduced anaphors (i.e., pronounpronoun or namepronoun). Kennison and Gordon (1997), who used eye-tracking experiments in their study, also replicated these results. Furthermore, in a study by Gordon and Chan (1995) it was concluded that under certain circumstances an utterance would be comprehend with difficulty, and read more slowly, when it contained a repeated name rather than a pronoun. Anaphoric Distance The distance between anaphors and antecedents is also another factor that has been shown to affect anaphoric resolution. Different studies have demonstrated that it is easier to resolve a pronoun with a proximal referent than one with a distant referent. In this regard, Ariel (1990) has developed an accessibility theory in which high accessibility markers signal the default choice of continued activation. By contrast, low accessibility markers signal termination of activation of the current topical referent, and the reintroduction of a different referent. Ariel has also developed an accessibility marking scale from low to high accessibility markers as follows, Full name > long definite description > short definite description > last name > first name > distal demonstrative > proximate demonstrative > NP > stressed pronoun > unstressed pronoun > cliticized pronoun > zero. Ariel (1990) had shown that the distance between antecedent and anaphoric expression was a significant factor in the accessibility of referents and consequently the choice of anaphoric markers. Boudeguer and Cowan (1992), also demonstrated that among EFL learners, the distance between the pro-form and antecedent aided comprehension among lower proficiency college students. In another study, Dongmei and Lei (2007) indicated that, there was no facilitation when there was a substantial distance between an anaphor and its referent. According to resonance model, when the anaphoric items occurs soon after the antecedents, then the antecedent information is still active in memory, and is recovered more easily and quickly than when there is greater distance between the anaphors and the antecedents (OBrien, Raney, Albrecht, & Rayner, 1997). Problematic Anaphoric Devices According to Tomlin (1994), certain discourse structures are more difficult to comprehend than others are. He argued that, the interaction between form and function was not accidental, instead certain form-function interactions were occurred to make a discourse either easier or more difficult to comprehend. More specifically a number of other researchers have tried to investigate the problems that both L1 and L2 readers have in processing the different cohesive devices in general and anaphoric devices in particular. They have tried to make it clear which one of anaphoric ties are most problematic to resolve, and the following results have been proposed. Packenham (1980) examined lexical anaphoric resolution among advanced L2 learners of English. Based on his findings he concluded that anaphoric reference involving repetition was easier to resolve than reference involving synonym, which in turn, was easier to resolve than reference involving paraphrase. Packenham concluded that even at the advanced level, second language students of English depended highly on the surface lexical and syntactic constrain of the anaphoric items than did native English students. In another study, Monson (1982) investigated the difficulties that children had in comprehending three types of anaphoric structures: pronoun-referent, lexical cohesion, substitution-ellipsis. She concluded that substitution-ellipsis structures were the most difficult among different 529

anaphoric ties for all age groups. It was also shown that lexical structures were easiest for all age groups to resolve and comprehend. Furthermore, Robbins (1984) investigated the difficulty level of different anaphoric ties among bilingual children and concluded that the participants had difficulty in comprehending anaphoric third-person subject pronouns. AlJarf (2001) in another study investigated processing of cohesive ties by EFL Arab college students. It was found that substitution was the most difficult to process, whereas repeated lexical markers were the easiest. Pretorius (2005) in her study demonstrated that anaphoric resolution was affected by linguistic and textual factors in a given text and that anaphoric ties involving more complex forms of referring expressions such as those involving paraphrase and determiners, were more difficult to resolve. She also indicated that pronominal anaphoric ties were easier to resolve that repeated anaphoric ties. Research Questions As it was reviewed in the related literature, anaphoric resolution has been studied by previous studies in a general way without making any distinction between the different categories composing them. Accordingly, the main purpose of the present study is to examine the anaphoric inferencing abilities of EFL readers during their reading of expository texts. The present study has also attempted to investigate the difficulty hierarchy of the different anaphoric ties among a special group of EFL students who are native speakers of Persian. Regarding the present study, two broad aims were set up to determine whether: - There is any relationship between anaphoric resolution ability of EFL learners and different kinds of anaphoric ties occurring in expository texts. - There is any relationship between anaphoric resolution ability of EFL learners and inferential rigidity of different anaphoric ties. Methodology Participants The participants of the study comprised ninety undergraduate students, both male and female, majoring in English-Persian translation at a university in Iran. The age range of the participants was from 20 to 28 with an average age of 24. They were English as foreign language learners who were native speakers of Persian. The participants had completed at least three semesters of listening, speaking, reading and writing courses in EFL. They were in different academic terms in their process of studying at university, namely, 4, 6, and 8. Students of different six classes were randomly selected and participated in this study, two classes for each academic term. The justification for choosing the said participants was that at the time of the experiment, they had passed different course of formal instruction in English language. Thus, it was reasonable to assume that the participants would be well familiar with the vocabulary and the structures presented to them. All the students who participated in this study were informed of the general aim and procedures of the study and no one participated in the experiment against his or her will. Instrumentation In order to tackle the questions underlying this study an experiment, which was originally used by Pretorius (2005), was conducted. The material for testing anaphoric resolution ability of the participants included thirty different paragraphs of approximately 72 words [min. 55 / max. 95]. All paragraphs included thirty-eight different anaphoric ties, with an average of eight items per anaphoric category. The frequency distribution of the different anaphoric ties is shown in Table 1. The paragraphs were taken from different academic 530

textbooks, typical of the texts that students were needed to read for their studies in an academic context. The anaphoric test had an alpha (Cronbach) reliability score of .88. Table 1: The Frequency Distribution of the Different Anaphoric Ties Frequency Repetition 8 Pronominal 7 Synonymy 9 Paraphrase 6 Determiner 8 Total 38

Percentage 21% 17% 24% 16% 21% 100%

In order to investigate the role of referential rigidity in the process of anaphoric resolution, different anaphoric devices were also divided into two categories of high inference and low inference anaphoric devices. The frequency distribution of the different anaphoric ties based on their inferential rigidity is displayed in Table 2. Table 2: The Frequency Distribution of the Different Anaphoric Ties Based on Their Inferential Rigidity Frequency Percentage Low inference High inference Total

18 20

Data Collection Procedure At the beginning of the administration, the anaphoric resolution tests were distributed among participants. The test on anaphoric resolution comprised a set of different paragraphs; all of them had specific underlined anaphoric items. In the process of the experiment, the participants were required to read each paragraph and then were asked to underline all those words/phrases that they thought the underlined words referred back to them. The test contained written instructions in English, concerning the way in which the anaphoric questions should be answered, and an example paragraph was provided to show the students how to answer the questions. These instructions were repeated orally in Persian by researcher herself, to avoid any misunderstanding. Although no time limit was set for the test, the time it took the first five students and the last five students in the group to complete the test, was noted. Data Analysis Procedure Scoring of Anaphoric Responses The task of anaphoric resolution was operationalized by asking the participants to underline all the words/phrases they considered as the antecedents of the anaphors in paragraphs. A scoring procedure, which was adopted in this study, was as follows. When the appropriate antecedent of an anaphoric expression was identified and underlined completely a full mark, (1), was given to that item. When the appropriate antecedent was underlined partially, a half mark, (0.5), was given. Partial underlining referred to cases where, the appropriate antecedent was underlined minimally; the head of the antecedent noun phrase and its primary modifiers. A zero score, (0), were given to incorrect and/or blank answers.

531

Analytical Tools To determine how the typical EFL readers resolved different types of anaphoric ties, two analytical approaches were used in the study. In the first approach, different types of anaphoric ties were categorized according to traditional Hallidayan text linguistic categories of reference. These different categories were as follows: repetitions, pronominals, synonyms, paraphrase, and determiners. In the second approach, anaphoric relations were categorized into either low or high inference anaphors, depending on the relative amount of inferencing required to resolve them. The Linguistic Categorization of Anaphoric Ties The anaphoric ties were divided into the five Hallidayan linguistic categories of anaphoric ties, namely, repetition, pronominal, synonymy, paraphrase, and determiner anaphoric ties. These five different categories of reference were placed on an inference continuum based on their ease of recoverability in terms of their underlying linguistic features. The rationale for conducting this continuum was based on featural overlap between the antecedents and the anaphors. The more linguistic clues were in the anaphoric tie, the more obvious the link would be, and hence, the more easily anaphoric ties would resolve. On the other hand, the fewer the clues were, the less successful the resolution would be (Pretorius, 2005). In the following section, a brief review of these different categories has been presented with the illustrating examples taken from the anaphoric resolution test. 1. Repetition. The repetition category included anaphoric ties where the anaphors were exact repetition or a close repetition of the antecedents, in the case of derivational morphological changes. Repetition anaphoric ties were placed first on the continuum, because they contained explicit morphosyntactic clues that could guide the readers to make a link (e.g. believed > belief). 2. Pronominal. The pronominal tie included pronoun anaphors, which were referred to previously mentioned constructs. Although, English pronouns only share gender and number features with their coreferents, and could potentially be link into several antecedent noun phrases in a preceding text, they have a very high frequency rate (Genc & Bada, 2006; Shinichi, 2009) and as a result they were placed second on the continuum (e.g. economy food plan > it). 3. Synonym. The synonymy category included anaphoric ties where the anaphors were semantically, but not morphologically, related to the antecedents. It was therefore placed third on the anaphoric continuum (e.g. stage > phase). 4. Paraphrase. The paraphrase tie consisted of the determiner this or such followed by a single noun that paraphrased the contents of the antecedents. According to Packenham (1980), an anaphoric item in this category does not have a morphological and/or semantic overlap with an antecedent. According to him, pragmatic or strategic knowledge helps the reader to make the link between an anaphor and its antecedent. Accordingly, paraphrase anaphoric were placed fourth on the continuum (e.g. more challenging work, greater worker participation and control, and more worker autonomy > such conditions). 5. Determiners. The determiner category included anaphoric ties where the anaphors comprised only the determiner this (or these). Determiners in English only mark number, therefore they provide only few morphosyntactic and no semantic or pragmatic cues for their antecedents. Consequently, they were placed at the end of the continuum (e.g. symptoms of patients with brain damage showed, however, that this is not always the case > this). It worth to mention that, antecedents of the proceedings' anaphors could refer to a single word or to a more complex concept as expressed in an entire sentence or even a paragraph. 532

Strength of Inference In order to tackle the second underlying question of this study and to assess whether the anaphoric resolution was affected by the amount of inferential rigidity of anaphoric ties another analytical tool was adopted. By using this analytical tool, it had been tried to assess how different discourse factors affect inferencing process required for anaphoric resolution. According to this analytical procedure, the anaphoric ties were categorized along a second continuum in terms of their inference strength into low and high inference anaphoric ties. The concept of inference strength was operationalized by giving an index for each anaphoric tie in terms of five different parameters, namely, distance between antecedents and anaphors, length of antecedent construct, grammatical functions of antecedents and anaphors, featural overlap between antecedents and anaphors and availability of more than one potential antecedents. These five parameters were assumed to influence the process of anaphoric resolution as it was reviewed in the preceding sections. Binary score of 1 or 0 was used for each parameter (except for one parameter that included 1, 0.5, or 0 scores) giving a total score of 7. Anaphoric ties that obtained scores of 4.5 or more were classified as high-inference anaphoric ties, whereas those that obtained scores of 4 or less were classified as low inference anaphoric ties. 1. Distance between antecedents and anaphors. To measure the distance between antecedents and anaphors, all paragraphs were analyzed into F units (i.e., clauses or clause equivalents that serve an identifiable rhetorical function in written discourse; Pretorius, 1996, p. 391). If an anaphor and its antecedent appeared in the adjacent F unit, then the anaphoric tie assigned a 0 value. If one or more F units separated an anaphor and an antecedent, then the tie was classified as distant, and assigned a 1 value. 2. Length of antecedents. This parameter considered the length of the antecedents. It was assumed that the shorter the antecedents, the easier it was to map the anaphoric items onto it (Pretorius, 2005). If an antecedent item consisted of a single word, it was classified as short and assigned a value of 0. If an antecedent item consisted of a more complex noun phrase, then it was classified as long, and assigned a value of 1. 3. Featural overlap. Here, morphological, semantic, and pragmatic overlaps between antecedents and anaphoric items were counted. Anaphoric ties that had any of these features were given a value of 0, respectively; those without these features were given a value of 1. 4. Grammatical functions of antecedents and anaphors. This parameter considered the grammatical functions of the anaphoric ties, based on whether the antecedents and anaphors were in subject or object position. Three possibilities were used: subject subject, objectsubject, and objectobject, which were assigned values of 0, 0.5 and 1 respectively. The rationale behind this classification was that, anaphoric ties in subject subject position continue the discourse focus but those in objectobject position are not in discourse focus. 5. Availability of more than one potential antecedent. This parameter considered the existence of more than one potential antecedent. The argumentation is that, reduced referring expressions such as pronouns in contrast to the full anaphors provide less information about their referents. This makes it possible to match a given pronoun, in theory at least, with several potential antecedents (Ishida, 1991). When more than one potential antecedent was available value of 1, was given to an anaphoric tie, in contrast, a value of 0, was given to an anaphoric tie which had only one potential antecedent. Results The study was intended to examine the effects of different types of anaphoric ties on their resolution. The first research question was set to examine the relationship between 533

anaphoric resolution ability and different types of anaphoric expressions. Accordingly, the distribution of successful anaphoric resolution across the different categories of anaphoric ties was examined. It was hypothesized that there was a relationship between different kinds of anaphoric ties occurring in expository texts and the difficulty hierarchy of them. As it went, it was also hypothesized that ease of resolution would be determined by the amount of morphosyntactic and semantic featural overlaps between an antecedent and an anaphor and that successful anaphoric resolution would decrease in this order: repetition > pronominal > synonym > paraphrase > determiner. The display of scores in Table 3 shows the distribution of anaphoric resolution across the different categories of anaphoric ties. Table 3: Mean Overall Scores for Anaphoric Resolution in Different Categories repetition pronominal synonym paraphrase determiner Anaphoric resolution 44.044 38.556 33.378 26.356 52.178

As it was tabulated in Table 3 the EFL university students in this study were able to identified 44% of the repetitions, 38% of the pronominals, 33% of the synonyms, 26% of the paraphrases and 52% of the determiners in the anaphoric resolution test. The variations in the mean scores for different anaphoric categories reflected the difficulty hierarchy of different anaphoric ties. Surprisingly, the most successful resolution occurred in the determiner category, which was expected to be the most difficult one. The next category that the students were able to resolve successfully was the repetition one. Contrary to the expectations, the paraphrase category, and not determiner category, proved to be the most challenging one. Consequently, it can be concluded that paraphrase category was the most difficult anaphoric ties under investigation. The second most difficult category was synonym followed closely by pronominal and repetition. Determiner was the easiest anaphoric tie to be resolved. To examine the difficulty hierarchy of the five anaphoric types, and to see whether these differences were significant, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run. Results of the analysis of variance revealed a significant effect of different categories of anaphoric ties, F (4, 87) = 10.28, p <.000. Results indicated that the differences among the mean scores of different types of anaphoric ties were significant. To examine the next research question, regarding the influence of linguistic and discourse factors on anaphoric resolution procedure, the mean overall scores for low inference anaphoric relations and that of high inference relations were calculated. It was hypothesized that ease of resolution would be determined by whether the anaphoric tie was a low inference or a high inference tie. Analysis of the correct responses showed that the mean overall score for low inference anaphoric relations was 41.5%, whereas that of high inference relations was only 34.8%, clearly showing differences between the two types of anaphoric ties. The results demonstrated that high inference anaphoric relations were more difficult for the participants than low inference anaphoric relations. Successful anaphoric resolution was dropped by about 7% when the anaphoric tie required greater inferential processing. To examine the difficulty hierarchy of the different anaphoric ties based on their inferential rigidity, and see whether these differences were significant, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run. Results of the analysis of variance revealed a significant effect of different categories of anaphoric ties, F (1, 87) = 43.4, p <.000. Results indicated

534

that the difference between the mean scores of low and high anaphoric ties was highly significant. Discussion Many of the EFL students who were tested had problems resolving anaphoric ties successfully. The majority of the EFL students had completed the anaphoric test slowly, which took about 40 to 50 min to complete the whole test. The mean performance of participants in anaphoric resolution test was 32% (SD = 5.9). This is cause for concern, because anaphoric inferencing is an integral component of skilled reading. Anaphoric resolution became even more unsuccessful when the anaphoric ties involved complex forms of referring expressions and high inference anaphoric ties in contrast to low inference anaphoric ties. Regarding the first research question, the results suggested a relationship between anaphoric resolution ability of participants and different categories of anaphoric ties. According to the findings, a new anaphoric continuum emerged. As a whole, findings indicated that determiners occurred first in the emerged anaphoric continuum, followed by repetition, pronominal, synonym and paraphrase. The findings did not support the results obtained in Gordon, Grosz, and Gilliom (1993), Gordon and Chan (1995), Kennison and Gordon (1997), and Pretorius (2005). Their findings indicated that anaphoric references involving pronominals were easier and faster to resolve than anaphoric references involving repeated nouns. They indicated that reading time and sentence recall improved when successive sentences referred to the same entities using pronouns. However, in this study, pronominal ties were not resolved most successfully, but they were placed third in the emerged anaphoric continuum, after determiner and repetition ties. Regarding the findings of the present study, it can be argued that resolution of repeated anaphors is sensitive to different factors such as readers level of proficiency and their stage of reading development. For example, repeated anaphors, which are common in the early grade readers, may be helpful for readers in the early stages of reading and second language readers whose L2 reading skills is poor (Kennison & Gordon, 1997). On the other hand, except for determiner category, the findings supported the results that were obtained in, Packenham (1980), Monson (1982), and Al-Jarf (2001). They indicated that anaphoric ties involving repetitions were easier to resolve and comprehend than ties involving synonyms and paraphrases. They concluded that substitution structures such as synonyms and paraphrases were the most difficult among different anaphoric ties to be resolved. According to their findings, lexical substitutions (i.e. synonyms & paraphrases) were the most influential in a texts difficulty and readability. Furthermore, Ehrlich and Rayner (1983), Robbins (1984) and Lee (2004) indicated that readers had difficulty understanding a text correctly, when references took the form of a pronoun in contrast to repeated anaphoric form. Ishida (1991) in her study also found that reduced referring expressions such as pronouns in contrast to the full anaphors provided less information about their referents and caused difficulty for readers. Interestingly, findings of the study indicated that anaphoric ties involving determiners had the highest success rate among different five anaphoric ties under investigation. The relatively high success rate of resolving determiners suggests that, despite the fact that determiners are potentially opaque and provide few morphosyntactic and no semantic or pragmatic cues for their antecedents, they are very frequent, especially in informative texts and as a result they are familiar anaphoric referents for EFL readers (Fortanet, 2004; Kennison, 2003). The high frequency of determiners in informative texts makes them a relatively familiar feature of written texts, even for less skilled EFL readers, and this 535

might accounts for their successful resolution. In this regards, it can be hypothesized that pronouns occur most frequently as referential expressions for story characters in narratives in contrast to informative texts (Genc & Bada, 2006; Shinichi, 2009), and perhaps this is why they are not resolve most successfully by EFL readers in reading expository texts. Nevertheless, frequency of different types of referential expressions in different genres is a matter that needs further research. As expected, the paraphrase category of anaphoric relations proved to be challenging to be resolved. In fact, the most errors in anaphoric resolution test in this study were those involving paraphrase relations. Paraphrases, particularly those that referred back to longer and complex antecedents, were sometimes ambiguous to resolve, and were difficult even for more-proficient L2 readers of English. Writers of expository textbooks should bear this factor in mind, especially when the intended audiences comprise EFL readers. The differential performance in anaphoric resolution suggests that the concept of an anaphoric continuum is a useful one. However, the predictions made by the anaphoric continuum based on only linguistic factors need to be modified for it failed in some respects to accommodate the complex interplay of linguistic and textual features. For example, anaphoric ties involving repetitions of items with derivational changes (e.g. believed > belief) posed difficulty for many students, whereas anaphoric ties involving determiners showed the highest success rate. Kaiser, Runner, Sussman, and Tanenhaus (2009) also supported the point that different kinds of information interact with each other during reference resolution. They further claimed that treating structural information and semantic information as separate sources of information influencing reference resolution was an oversimplification, and that reference resolution was a process, which was influenced by multiple constraints. They also claimed that, different anaphoric forms showed different degree of sensitivity to different structural and discourse/semantic constraints. Nonetheless, further research is needed to support the modification of the emerged anaphoric continuum. Regarding the second question, the analysis of anaphoric resolution in terms of a continuum with low inference anaphoric ties occurring on one end of the continuum and high inference ties occurring on the other end was also useful. Results of the study demonstrated that resolution of different anaphoric ties was highly affected by inferential demands of anaphoric ties. Anaphoric resolution became increasingly challenging as; the antecedents became longer, the anaphoric ties stretched over longer sections of discourse, the featural overlaps between anaphoric devices and the antecedents became more opaque and as the number of potential antecedents preceding the anaphoric devices increased. The findings of the study supported the findings of a number of related studies. For example, Ishida (1991), McDonald and Macwhinney (1995) and Lee (2004) had supported the hypothesis that the more features the antecedents and the anaphoric items shared, the easier would be the resolution of the anaphoric ties. On the other hand, Boudeguer and Cowan (1992) demonstrated that among English as second language learners, the distance between the pro-forms and antecedents was an influential factor in the process of reading comprehension. The argumentation was that distant antecedents were no longer in active working memory and needed to be reactivated to be resolved and as a result, they took the longer resolution time (OBrien, Raney, Albrecht, & Rayner, 1997). Conclusion This study was intended to shed some light on the difficulties that undergraduate EFL students had in processing different types of anaphoric ties. It was also demonstrated that the correct association of an anaphor with its antecedent required a combination of 536

decisions at several levels on the part of the student: morphosyntactic, semantic and discourse. To wrap it up the researcher would like to emphasize that, university students are required to read expository texts. To be able to read and fully comprehend specialized texts, the students must be able to apply advanced reading skills and to synthesize meaning from the different parts in a given text. In this regard, anaphoric resolution has been considered as an important factor in the process of reading comprehension. Anaphoric resolution possibly relies not only on linguistic proficiency but also on general cognitive and memory abilities, which includes attending to cues in texts to construct meaning. Anaphoric resolution errors produced by the participants in this study showed that the students were unable to make the logical connections between ideas presented in the texts, and thus perhaps were unable to build a coherent mental representation of their content. The resolution of anaphoric ties by EFL readers in expository context is obviously an area that requires further exploration. There are many factors, which could play a role in making anaphors easier or more difficult to resolve, including lowfrequency lexicon, unfamiliar topic and context, unfamiliar vocabulary and obscure wording or grammatical structures. Further research can clarify the role of each one of these factors in the process of anaphoric resolution. Implications of the Study Skill in anaphoric inferencing is particularly important in the learning context because readers need to rely on different cues in texts to comprehend texts that deal with topics about which they have little prior knowledge. There are some conflicting views on whether or not anaphoric ties should be explicitly taught. Nevertheless, what is obvious in this regard is that, students should be familiar with different types of anaphoric ties in discourse and be sensitive to linguistic and textual cues in resolving them. It is suggested that EFL students in general, and low achieving students in particular, be taught strategies that will raise their awareness of anaphoric ties and the way in which authors use various anaphoric ties to relate information in a given text. Such strategies should enable students to better attend to text cues. According to Nuttall (1996), the first step in teaching students to identify the correct referent of an anaphor is to make the students take the problem of finding an ambiguous anaphoric tie seriously. After that, students should be aware of the different types of anaphoric devices. For instance, be informed that determiners or pronominals always signal the presence of already given information. Then students can be provided with texts with some anaphoric devices omitted and replaced by gaps. The instructors should also supply a list of omitted anaphoric devices, in random order. The students task then is to insert the items into the correct gaps. In a similar exercise, students can also be provided with texts containing no anaphoric ties and can be asked to substitute lexical items by anaphoric devices. At this stage, cohesive ties should be practiced one at a time. Students should proceed from the easiest to the most difficult ones. In the next stage, instructions in the recognition of markers of anaphoric ties and in identifying relationships between an anaphor and a referent are recommended. References Al-Jarf, R. (2001). Processing of cohesive ties by EFL Arab college students. Foreign Language Annals, 34, 141-150. Al-Kahtany, A. H. (2007). Anaphoric relations in native and non-native English conversations. Scientific Journal of King Faisal University (Humanities and Management Sciences), 8, 14-28. 537

Ariel, M. (1990). Accessing noun-phrase antecedents. London: Routledge. Barnitz, J. (1980). Syntactic affects on the reading comprehension of pronoun-referent structures by children in grades two, four and six. Reading Research Quarterly, 15, 268-289. Berkemeyer, V. (1994). Anaphoric resolution and text comprehension for readers of German. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, 27, 15-22. Boudeguer, M., & Cowan, R. (1992). How ESL students resolve anaphora in reading. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED357600. Davoudi, M. (2005). Inference generation skill and text comprehension. The Reading Matrix, 5, 106-123. Dongmei, Z., & Lei, M. (2007). The integrative factors of anaphoric inference during reading process. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 39, 225-234. Ehrlich, K., Rayner, K. (1983). Pronoun assignment and semantic integration during reading: Eye movements and immediacy of processing. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22, 75-87. Fortanet, I. (2004). The use of 'we' in university lectures: reference and function. English for Specific Purposes, 23, 45-66. Garrod, S. C., & Sanford, A. J. (1994). Resolving sentences in a discourse context. In M. A. Gernsbacher (Ed.), Handbook of psycholinguistics. (pp. 675698). New York: Academic Press. Genc, B., & Bada, E. (2006). Oral narrative discourse of anaphoric references of Turkish EFL learners. The Reading Matrix, 6, 135-143. Givn, T. (1983a). Topic continuity in discourse: An introduction. In T. Givn (Ed.), Topic continuity in discourse: A quantitative cross-language study (pp. 5-41). Givn, T. (1983b). Topic continuity in spoken English. In T. Givn (Ed.), Topic continuity in discourse: A quantitative cross-language study (pp. 347-363). Gordon, P. C., & Chan, D. (1995). Pronouns, passives, and discourse coherence. Journal of Memory and Language, 34, 216-231. Gordon, P., Grosz, B., & Gilliom, L. (1993). Pronouns, names, and the centering of attention in discourse. Cognitive Science, 17, 311-347. Graesser, A. C., Millis, K. K., & Zwaan, R. A. (1997). Discourse comprehension. In J. Spence, J. Darley, & D. Foss (Eds.), Annual Review of Psychology (pp. 163189). Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews. Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Ishida, M. (1991). Comprehension processes of successive sentences: The relationship between the surface form of anaphor and the syntactic position of antecedent. The Japanese Journal of Psychology, 62, 200-206. Kaiser, E., Runner, J. T., Sussman, R. S., & Tanenhaus, M. K. (2009). Structural and semantic constraints on the resolution of pronouns and reflexives. Cognition, 112, 55-80. Kennison, S. M. (2003). Comprehending the pronouns her, him, and his: Implications for theories of referential processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 49, 335-352. Kennison, S. M., & Gordon, P. C. (1997). Comprehending referential expressions during reading: Evidence from eye tracking. Discourse Processes, 24, 229252. Kim, S. I., Lee, J. H., & Gernsbacher, M. A. (2004). The advantage of first mention in Korean: The temporal contributions of syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic Factors. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 33, 475- 491. Klin, C. M., Weingartner, K. M., Guzman, A. E., & Levine, W. H. (2004). Readers sensitivity to linguistic cues in narratives: How salience influences anaphor resolution. Memory & Cognition, 32, 511-522. 538

Kral, J. M. (2004). The effect of pronoun reference drill and practice on the reading comprehension scores of middle school ELLs. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Lee, J. H. (2004). The role of syntactic cues in pronoun referential resolution: The effects of number and gender cue. The Korean Journal of Cognitive Science, 15, 27-35. McDonald, J., & MacWhinney, B. (1995). The time course of anaphor resolution: Effects of implicit verb causality and gender. Journal of Memory and Language, 34, 543566. Monson, D. (1982). Effect of type and direction on comprehension of anaphoric relationships. Proceeding of the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York. Nuttall, C. (1996). Teaching reading skills in a foreign language. Oxford: Heinemann. OBrien, E. J., Raney, G. E., Albrecht, J. E., & Rayner, K. (1997). Processes involved in the resolution of explicit anaphors. Discourse Processes, 23, 124. Packenham, K. J. (1980). The resolution of lexically-reinforced anaphoric reference and its relation to reading in English as a second language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, Russia. Paterson, K. B., Sanford, A. J., Moxey, L. M., & Dawydiak, E. (1998). Quantifier polarity and referential focus during reading. Journal of Memory and Language, 39, 290306. Pretorius, E. J. (1996). A profile of causal development amongst ten-year-olds: Implications for reading and writing. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 8, 385406. Pretorius, E. J. (2005). English as a second language learner differences in anaphoric resolution: Reading to learn in the academic context. Applied Psycholinguistics, 26, 521539. Robbins, B. (1984). Language proficiency level and the comprehension of anaphoric subject pronouns by bilingual and monolingual children. Proceeding of the 18th Annual Convention of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL '84). Houston, Texas. Shinichi, I. (2009). An analysis of referential expressions in written English narratives. Bull. Coll. Edu., Ibaraki Univ. (Edu. Sci.), 58, 139-158. Tomlin, R. (1987). Linguistic reflections of cognitive events. In R. S. Tomlin (Ed.), Coherence and grounding in discourse (pp: 455-479). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Tomlin, R.S. (1994). Functional grammars, pedagogical grammars, and communicative language teaching. In T. Odlin (Ed.), Perspectives on Pedagogical Grammar (pp: 140-178). Cambridge:CUP. Vonk, W., & Noordman, L. G. M. (1990). On the control of inferences in text understanding. In G. B. Balota, D. Flores, & K. Rayner (Eds.), Comprehension processes in reading. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Yang, Y. F., Wong, W. K., & Yeh, H. C. (2008). A computer system of referential resolution to assess students reading comprehension. Educational Technology & Society, 11, 173189.

539

Education Must Change: Time for PBL? Hajrulla Veneranda Lecturer, University of Vlora, Albania hajrulla@univlora.edu.al Abstract Research on ways to improve curricula and pedagogy has been conducted at various levels, from elementary school to undergraduate education. In a world filled with challenges where evolutionary innovations are increasingly valued, the capacity for creativity and innovation has emerged as all-important. To be compatible with the demands exerted on individuals today, education must change such that problems are used as a means of fueling learning and as a vehicle for cultivating creativity. This need provides the basis for problem-based learning, an instructional method that encourages the development of creative thinking and creative problem solving. Recommendations for an education that is future-ready are considered, with emphasis placed on the salient role that must be granted to creativity and problem-based learning if this goal is to be achieved. The thrust of education is to help students construct their own knowledge about the world rather than passively receiving information. The following article casts a view on the necessity of using PBL in foreign language learning, even in traditional classes and in countries under eager educational development , like Albania. INTRODUCTION What is PBL? Problem-based learning is a total approach to education. PBL is both a curriculum and a process. The ability of problem-based learning to enhance creative thinking in students has been reported in various countries across disciplines. To solve real-world problems, we need not only logical thinking but also ana-logical thinking, the ability to creatively and laterally transfer a whole set of ideas across to another situation. Problems given to students are ill-defined with many potential solutions. Problems should be authentic and similar to those faced by professionals in a given field. For example: Pre-service teachers should be given difficult classroom situations to resolve, or engineering students should be given the task of planning a difficult, new structure: The use of PBL emphasizes: students pre-existing knowledge; start with what you know; students actively participate by helping plan, organize, and evaluate the problem solving process; interdisciplinary connections stressed; students undertake authentic roles. Chapter 1. Problem-based learning continues to be used in diverse ways across different subjects and disciplines worldwide. Yet there remains confusion about the difference between problem-based learning and problem-solving learning. In problem solving learning, the learning problem scenarios are set within and are bounded by a discrete subject or disciplinary area. In some curricula, students are given specific training in problem-solving techniques, but in many cases they are not. The focus in this kind of learning is largely upon acquiring the answers expected by the lecturer, answers that are rooted in the information supplied in some way to the students. 540

Thus the solutions are always linked to a specific curricular content which is seen as vital for students to cover for them to be competent and effective practitioners. In problem-based learning, the focus is on organizing the curricular content around problem scenarios rather than subjects or disciplines. Students work in groups or teams to resolve or manage these scenarios but they are not expected to acquire a predetermined series of right answers. Instead, they are expected to engage with the complex scenario presented to them and decide what information they need to learn and what skills they need to gain in order to manage the situation effectively. Problem-based learning is increasingly being seen as a means of educating students to learn with complexity. What I mean is that problem-based learning helps students to see that learning and life take place in contexts, contexts that affect the kinds of solutions that are available and possible. One difficulty in enabling people to understand the difference between problem based learning and other similar approaches to learning relates to comprehension of curriculum design. The design of the curriculum is central to effecting problem based learning because of the way in which the design impinges upon teachers and students roles and responsibilities, and the ways in which learning and knowledge are perceived. It is possible, in many conventional curricula, to add on projectbased learning, games and simulations and work-based learning in a variety of ways. Bolting on problem-based learning is usually quite difficult because of the need for inquiry and student- centred practices to be central to the learning approach. Problem-based curricula should ideally be designed with the problem scenarios as the central component of each module, so that lectures, seminars and skill laboratories can feed into them so as to inform students, rather than offering them great chunks of propositional knowledge that they may find difficult to integrate into their understanding. So whether it is a module or an entire programme that is designed to be problem-based, the starting point should be a set of problem scenarios that will equip students to become independent inquirers, who see learning and epistemology as flexible entities and perceive that there are other valid ways of seeing things besides their own perspective. It is recommend that schools begin with PBL and at the same time encourage the development of creativity and the creative attributes of risk taking. The rationale for employing PBL in developing creativity is that students feel more confident when working in groups. Students, especially those studying foreign languages, may be exposed to different artistic media and ways of expressing themselves orally, visually, or kinesthetically, in words, or other creative modes. Teachers may ask students openended questions and deploy problem-based scenarios to illicit unusual responses. - With PBL implemented in EFL schools, students will become proficient in the methodology of guided discovery learning. At the same time, as teachers strive to provide the pedagogy and environment to nurture creativity in various subject areas, including incorporating PBL as part of the curriculum, students will gradually integrate creative attributes into their lives. With the passage of time and with maturity, highly creative students will surpass their peers and may go on to produce original and true linguistic discoveries .As students are used to work on common projects, working and collaborating in teams, there is a lot to be done on the difference between PBL and Project Based Learning: 541

The differences between the two approaches are as follows: PROJECT BASED LEARNING Students are required to produce an outcome in the form of a report or design. students are required to produce a solution or strategy to solve the problem; An input from the tutor occurs in project-based learning, in the form of some type of teaching, during the lifespan of the project. Students are usually involved in the choice of project (sometimes from a predetermined list). Project-based learning is often seen as a mechanism for bringing together several subject areas under one overall activity at the end of a course. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING Solving the problem may be part of the process but the focus is on problem management, not on a clear and bounded solution. - The focus in problem-based learning is on students working out their own learning requirements. Some problem-based learning programmes use lectures as a means to support the students rather than to direct the learning. Students may choose problem scenarios from practice although the problems are usually provided by staff, but what and how they learn is defined by the students. Problem-based learning works from the premise that learning necessarily will occur across disciplinary boundaries, even at the beginning of a course. Project-based learning, therefore, is more often seen as a teaching technique in a given area of the curriculum rather than an overall educational strategy such as problem-based learning. Action learning is based on the idea that through the process of reflection and action, it is possible to solve problems. The idea is that a group of people come together to form an action learning set. The difference between problem-based learning and action learning is that the essence of an action learning set is its focus on the individual and their future action. In problem-based learning, the group functions as a team which seeks to achieve the tasks collaboratively. Action learning sets are more individualized, freer flowing and centred upon personal learning and reflection to achieve effective action.

Chapter 2 Problem-based learning curricula The difficulty with designing curricula stems from attempts both to define clear models of problem-based curricula and to use curriculum design models that centre on content, process or outcomes. First let us explore the issue of defining clear problem-based curriculum models. There have been a number of discussions about types of problem based learning, the most basic being that there are two types: - the pure model and - the hybrid model. The so-called pure model is also often termed the Medical School Model and is invariably defined as necessarily having a dedicated facilitator for small teams of eight to ten students, being student-centred and being seen to be a good choice for highly motivated experienced learners. 542

The difficulty with this notion of there only being two types a pure model and a hybrid model is that given the current number of forms of problem-based learning in existence, is it possible to distinguish whether a model is hybrid or not?

Problem-based learning has much to offer . As a teaching approach it has both linguistic benefits and affective benefits in the form of raising student motivation and promoting learner autonomy and transfer of learning beyond the classroom. To achieve these benefits, teachers and administrators must ensure that students understand the principles behind problem-based learning and recognize that they are participating in an effective learning process, even if it is unfamiliar to them. Teachers need support from program administrators, from initial training in how to conduct problem-based learning to help with making resources available to students.

Chapter 3 Initiatives for implementation: This was undertaken by the English Subject Department in the University of Vlora, and run under the scheme of teaching and learning the English Language, Literature and Linguistics. The course chosen for implementation, was a final-year option ( on American Eighteenth-Century Poetry),involving twenty five students. These students had spent their first two years in a traditional learning environment with teaching being offered by a mixture of large-scale lecture and small group tutor-led seminars. Their exposure to PBL meant a radical change in their approach and their working methods. 543

- The key effect was to make the learning natural. Just as literature is part of life, not something artificially separated from it, so the learning should be. Frequently we heard students repeating: My heads buzzing, being in there doesnt mean staying passive, we have to be active and participate, we talk to each other, exchange experiences, information, ideas. We are almost learning by accident. Its not like being in the lecture hall. - Another big problem our team encountered, was students anxiety about innovatory methods, especially in the third year of a degree programme, and when other courses were delivered in traditional methods and ways. A lot of students were nervous because it was something new they didnt know what was going to happen, the style of the course was a surprise to them. But on the other side they accepted that the way they were presented PBL wasnt intimidating. They had a practice problem to allow them to make their mistakes and suggestions. The course began with a non-assessed problem, so that students learnt by experience- which is, after all, the essence of PBL- without an assessment outcome depending on it. Feedback helped them to improve. They knew exactly what went well and what went wrong. Receiving peer feedback was welcomed. Ensuring that a course makes room for peer feedback demonstrates that students responses were valued, giving them confidence in their own opinions. The more responses students received, the more information they were gathering. CONCLUSION Problem Based Learning is a broad category, a coat of many colours, as it has been called ( Lloyd-Jones, Margetson & Bligh) Its principles remain solid and clear, but models are myriad and open to intensive debate about their value and viability. Although our study is still continuing, this was just the beginning and it was based on a small group of final- year students, who have experienced traditional teaching methods in their first two years, the transition to a PBL model of teaching, was a sort of hybridity spectrum. The difficulties encountered and the responses made to them can do range across subject boundaries. What we really value of this experience is: a greater recall of knowledge, retention interdisciplinary, can require accessing and using information from a variety of subject domains, better integration of knowledge. development of life-long learning skills: -how to research, - how to communicate in groups, - how to handle problems. increased motivation, interest in subject area. increased student-student interaction and student instructor interaction. LITERATURE How to Use Problem-Based Learning in the Classroom Robert Delisle. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development: 1997 Problem-Based Learning & Other Curriculum Models for the Multiple Intelligences Classroom Robin Fogarty. SkyLight Professional Development: 2001 Problems as Possibilities: Problem-Based Learning for K-16 Education (2nd Edition) Linda Torp, Sara Sage. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development:2002. 544

 Abdullah, M. H. (1998). Problem-based learning in language instruction: A constructivist model. Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication. Esch, C. (1998). Project-based and problem-based: The same or different? San Mateo, CA: San Mateo County Office of Education. Retrieved December 11, 2006, from http://problem-based learningmm.k12.ca.us/problem-based_learning Guide/problem-based learning & problem-basedlearning.htm Peterson, M. (1997). Skills to enhance problem-based learning. Medical Education Online, 2(3). Retrieved December 21, 2006, from http://www.Med-Ed-Online.org The role of the tutor. (n.d.). Problem-based learning at Queens. Kingston, Ontario, Canada: Queens University. Retrieved December 11, 2006, from http://meds.queensuca/medicine/problem-based_learning/problembasedlearninghome6.htm.

545