Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods (MJLTM)
Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods
(MJLTM)
www.mjltm.jahanelm.ac.ir
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Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods (MJLTM)
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Director:
Mohammad Shahbazi Rad
Editors – in – Chief:
Hamed Ghaemi
Hossein Khodabakhshzade h
ISSN: 2251-6204
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Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods (MJLTM)
Director
Mohammad Shahbazi Rad, Dean of Jahan Elm Institute of Higher Education, Mashhad,
Iran.
PhD candidate in English language and Literature, Yerevan State University, Armenia.
Editors-in-chief
Hamed Ghaemi, Islamic Azad University, Gonabad Branch, Iran
PhD candidate in TEFL, University of Tehran, Iran.
Hossein Khodabakhshzadeh, Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e-Heydareih Branch, Iran.
PhD candidate in TEFL, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.
Managing Editor
Aqil Izady Sadr, Jahan Elm Institute of Higher Education, Mashhad, Iran.
Editorial Board
Abednia Arman, PhD in TEFL, Allameh Tabataba‘i University, Tehran, Iran
Eghtesadi Ahmad Reza, PhD in TEFL, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Elahi Shirvan Majid, PhD Candidate in TEFL, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran
Grim Frédérique M. A., Associate Professor of French, Colorado State University, USA
Kargozari Hamid Reza, PhD Candidate in TEFL, Payame Noor University of Tehran, Iran
Kaviani Amir, Assistant Professor at Zayed University, UAE
Kirkpatrick Robert, Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, Shinawatra International
University, Thailand
Rezaei Saeed, PhD Candidate in TEFL, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Shahbazirad Mohammad, PhD candidate in English language and Literature, Yerevan
State University, Armenia
Weir Goerge R. S., PhD in Philosophy of Psychology, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow,
UK
Zegarac Vladimir, PhD, University of Bedfordshire, UK
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Table of Contents
1. Does the vehicle of presentation affect the listening comprehension of
EFL learners? A case of Iranian learners……………..…………………………4
Mohammad Makki
2. Communication apprehension among international undergraduates the
impact on their communicative skills…………………………………………18
Manjet Kaur Mehar Singh, Anne Rowena David and Julie Chuah Suan Choo
3. Is Rasch model without drawback? A reanalysis of Rasch model
limitations…………………………………………………..…………………….31
Hamed Ghaemi
4. On the effects of two models of cooperative learning on EFL reading
comprehension and vocabulary learning…………………..…………………39
Abbas Ali Zarei, Jaafar Keshavarz,
5. Mutual intelligibility or native-like proficiency? Iranian teachers‘
attitudes toward implementing a l2 pronunciation of English……..………55
Rezvan khazaee
6. The effect of academic study on grammar attitude, grammar motivation,
and perception of grammar relevance………………………………………...66
Hadi farjami,
7. Evaluating the effectiveness of explicit and e-learning instruction on the
development of critical thinking ability of Iranian students and teachers...82
Mansoor Fahim, Houman Bijani
8. The effect of EFL teachers‘ locus of control on EFL learners‘ reading
achievement………………………….…………………………………………..97
Behzad Ghonsooly, Yasser Rezvani
9. The Effect Of Metadiscourse On EFL Learners‘ Reading
Comprehension………………………….……………………………………..112
Mohammad Reza Hashemi, Hossein KhodabakhShzadeh, Majid Elahi Shirvan
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DOES THE VEHICLE OF PRESENTATION AFFECT
THE LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF EFL
LEARNERS? A CASE OF IRANIAN LEARNERS
Mohammad Makki
Department of foreign languages and linguistics,
Faculty of literature and humanities
Shiraz University
momaki1986@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the
vehicle of presentation (live human input versus canned input
such as tape recording) on the listening comprehension of
Iranian language learners. To achieve this end, ninety-two
learners of intermediate proficiency levels in an established
language institute in Shiraz, Iran were randomly chosen to take
part in the study. They were the students of four intact classes.
The researcher read the passage for the learners of the first two
classes (n = 48) himself while he played a native speaker‘s
recorded voice for the other two classes (n = 44). Then, they were
administered a listening test. The results of the test showed no
significant difference between the two groups. Moreover, the
analysis of results revealed the students‘ overall weakness in
listening comprehension. The interview of students, elicited after
the study, proved that they did not have listening practice at all.
Their listening activities are just restricted to the class time and
no more.
KEYWORDS
Listening, comprehension, live human input, canned input,
activities
1. Introduction
For many years, listening skills were neglected in language teaching. Teaching methods
emphasized productive skills, and the relationship between receptive and productive skills
was poorly understood. The first major approach which assigned a prominent role to the
comprehension was James Asher‘s (1977) Total Physical Response. Similarly, the Natural
Approach (see Krashen & Terrell, 1983) recommended a ―silent period‖ during which
students listen to a large amount of comprehensible input. These approaches were the
result of a number of studies that showed the importance of input in second language
acquisition.
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Further pedagogical research refined the process of listening more. Rubin (1994) identified
text, interlocutor, task, listener, and process characteristics as different contextual
characteristics, which affect the speed and efficiency of processing aural language. For
example, the listeners‘ proficiency, memory, attention, affect, age, gender, background
schemata, and even disabilities in L1 are all among the factors affecting the process of
listening (ibid.).
The process of listening is very complex and eluding. To date, researchers have identified
three major processes: 1- bottom-up 2- top-down 3- interactive (see Brown, 2001; Nunan,
2002; Rost, 2001)
Another issue of concern to the experts in the field is how to teach listening. The teachers
in the classroom usually test listening rather than teach it (Field, 2002). So, testing listening
is much easier than teaching it. However, teaching listening is of no concern to us in this
paper. For more information in this regard, interested readers can consult Nunan (2002);
Field (2002); Lam (2002) to name just a few.
The issue of listening comprehension is more challenging to non-native learners. Nonnative listeners recognize only part of what they hear (Field‘s research suggests a much
smaller percentage than what we imagine), and have to make guesses that link pieces of
texts together (Field, 2002). The input, which the listener receives, is one of the main
components of Bachman‘s (1990) test method framework. This input can have different
facets such as the format of the input and the nature of the language. The former,
according to Bachman, consists of the channel of presentation (aural and visual), the mode
of presentation (receptive), the form of presentation (language, non-language, both), the
vehicle of presentation (live, canned, both), the language of presentation (native, target,
both), the identification of problem (specific, general), and the degree of speededness.
The latter contains length, propositional content, organizational structure, and pragmatic
characteristics. Each of these parts has some sub-parts, which are delineated in Bachman
(1990). The vehicle of presentation as one of the formats of input is going to be investigated
in this research. The researcher examines whether ‗live‘ human input like a teacher or the
researcher himself and ‗canned‘ human input, as in a tape recording or computer
recording have any impact on the performance of students in a listening comprehension
test. Whether canned or live, successful listening comprehension as a receptive skill
demands high working memory and attention on the part of the learners. Live and canned
input data of this research study differ in some respects. For example, rate of delivery of
input was different in the two vehicles. In fact, every language learner initially thinks that
native speakers speak too fast. However, Richards (1983) points out that the number and
length of pauses used by a speaker is more crucial to comprehension than sheer speed. In
addition to the rate of delivery, reduced forms evident in the canned form might pose
significant difficulty for classroom learners, who may have been exposed to full forms of
the English language (Brown, 2001: 253).
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1.1. Significance of the Study
The results of the research can be useful for any language teacher in the field. They can
decide whether in the 21 st century listening comprehension as one of the major skills is
paid homage or not. Moreover, they can decide whether non-native EFL teachers in
countries like Iran can substitute their voice in the classroom for a native speaker‘s voice,
which is usually provided by tapes or computer systems as in recorded voices. It can also
have consequences for future listening activities in the classrooms; that is, how to provide
incentives for language learners to listen to their cassettes, CDs or everything possible
while they are being provided with native like input.
Before exploring the issue in this study, it is worth mentioning some works done with
regard to listening comprehension and testing listening comprehension in the field.
1.2. Objectives of the Study
This study examines the effect of the vehicle of presentation (―live‖ and ―canned‖) on the
EFL learners‘ listening comprehension. To achieve this end, four classes of EFL learners of
intermediate level in an established English language institute took a listening test. They
were all studying at the same level. Two classes listened to the researcher reading the
material for them while the other two groups listened to the taped passage via a computer.
The researcher wanted to find out if there is any difference in the performance of the two
groups. That is, does the vehicle of presentation affect the EFL learners‘ listening
performance?
2. Literature Review
Shohamy and Inbar (1991) investigated the effect of both texts and question types on
participants‘ scores on listening comprehension tests. The researchers gave participants
three text types, a news broadcast, a lecture, and a consultative dialogue varying in the
degree of oral features they contained, to 150 EFL learners in their last year of secondary
school. Test takers listened to two different versions about the two topics and answered
identical questions to enable comparison of performance on the different text types. The
results of the study indicated that different types of texts located at different points
resulted in different test scores, so that the more ―listenable‖ texts were easier.
In another study, Buck (1991) argued how listening tests work through the verbal report
methodology. Six participants were asked to provide the researcher with their
introspection on four main areas: 1- the influence of the short-answer test method on the
measurement of listening comprehension 2- whether test items can measure higher level
cognitive processes 3- whether test items can measure how well listeners monitor the
appropriacy of their interpretation 4- how question preview influences comprehension
and test performance. The analysis of reports indicated a serious dilemma for language
testers in that listening comprehension involves far more than the application of linguistic
knowledge to produce a propositional representation of a text; rather it is an inferential
process in which listeners attempt to construct an interpretation, which was meaningful
based on their own assessment of the situation, knowledge, and experience.
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Chiang and Dunkel (1992) in their study investigated the listening comprehension of 388
high-intermediate listening proficiency (HILP) and low-intermediate listening proficiency
(LILP) Chinese students of English as a foreign language. The students listened to a lecture
in four formats, i.e. familiar-unmodified, familiar-modified, unfamiliar-unmodified, and
unfamiliar-modified. After the lecture, the EFL subjects took a multiple-choice exam
testing recognition of information presented in the lecture and general knowledge of
familiar and unfamiliar topics. A significant interaction between speech modification
(redundant vs. non-redundant speech) and listening proficiency (HILP vs. LILP) indicated
that the HILP students benefited from speech modification, but the LILP students did not.
A significant interaction between prior knowledge (familiar vs. unfamiliar topic) and test
type (passage-independent vs. passage-dependent) was also found. For both the HILP and
LILP participants, prior knowledge had a significant impact on subject‘s memory for
information contained in the passage-independent test items on the comprehension test.
The EFL subjects who listened to the familiar-topic lecture had higher passageindependent than passage-dependent scores.
Sherman (1997) inspected the effect of question preview in listening comprehension tests.
In Sherman‘s study, 78 subjects took listening tests in four different versions, one with
questions before, one with questions after, one with questions between the two hearings,
and one with no questions. All participants also completed questionnaires designed to
elicit reactions to each version and a week later, wrote a free recall of what they had heard.
The results obtained from the recall were inconclusive, but in the tests the version with
questions between the two hearings produced significantly more correct answers. The
questionnaires supported that the aforementioned version facilitated comprehension the
most, but also showed a strong affective attachment to previewed questions. It was
concluded that previewed questions seemed more helpful than they really were.
Brindley (1998) in his review of research on assessment of L2 listening abilities looks at
some testing issues and challenges (assessing higher-level skills, confounding of skills,
assessing listening in oral interaction, authenticity), discusses assessment methods and
techniques (test administration, item formats), and considers potential applications of new
computers and video technology.
Major, Fitzmaurice, Bunta, and Balasubramanian (2002) in another study described the
extent to which native English speaking and ESL listeners performed better on a test when
the speaker shared their native language. Four groups of 100 listeners, whose native
languages were Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and standard American English, heard
lectures presented in English by speakers with different native languages and answered
questions based on the lectures. The results indicated that both native and non-native
listeners scored lower significantly when they listened to non-native speakers of English;
native speakers of Spanish got significantly higher scores when listening to Spanishaccented speech and native speakers of Chinese scored significantly lower when they were
listening to speakers who shared their native language.
Derwing and Munro (2001) assessed the appropriateness of the speech rate of narratives
read by native English speakers and Mandarian learners of English. The narratives were
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played to listeners at their unmodified rates and at three computer-manipulated rates: all
passages were adjusted to the Mean Mandarian rate, the Mean English rate, and a reduc ed
rate, 10 percent slower than the Mean Mandarian rate. Generally speaking, the
modifications did not result in improvements in the ratings. However, the listeners
assigned better ratings to fast (compared with natural rate) productions from the slowest
Mandarian speakers. The results reflected a difference in processing costs for familiar and
unfamiliar accents. The findings of the study suggested a reproof for L2 learners to slow
down is unlikely to be a broadly beneficial strategy.
Major, Fitzmaurice, Bunta, and Balasubramanian (2005) inspected whether listeners
experience more difficulty with regional, ethnic, and international dialects of English than
with standard American English. The results of the study demonstrated that the speaker
dialect had a significant effect on both English as a second language (ESL) listeners (n =
158) and native English speaking listeners (n = 58). ESL listeners scored lower on the
listening tests hearing ethnic and international dialects of English compared to standard
American English; however, there were no significant differences between the scores of
those hearing regional dialect and those hearing standard American English. The results of
the study suggested that regional dialects be considered in listening comprehension tests
such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language.
Elkhafaifi (2008) evaluated the effect of pre-listening activities and repeated listening
exposure for listening comprehension scores of Arabic students. Participants completed a
pre-listening activity (vocabulary preview, question preview, or a distracter activity),
listened to an Arabic listening passage and took a listening comprehension test.
Participants listened to the passage again and repeated the test. Students who completed
one of the pre-listening activities scored higher than those who completed the distracter
activity; students who received the question preview did better than those who received
the vocabulary preview. The participants‘ scores improved after the second exposure to
the listening passage. The findings of the study proposed that while certain pre-listening
activities have a positive impact on students‘ scores in listening comprehension tests,
repeated exposure to the passage is a better predictor of improved performance.
In Iran Sadighi and Zare (2006) explored the effect of background knowledge on listening
comprehension. The participants of the study were the members of two TOEFL
preparation classes. The experimental group received some treatment in the form of topic
familiarity and their background knowledge was activated. When the treatment finished, a
50-item TOEFL test of listening comprehension was administered for both classes and
control groups. The results proved that the students who had background knowledge
performed better on the test.
So far the only study which has some similarities with that of us is Major, Fitzmaurice,
Bunta, and Balasubramanian (2002). Moreover, no such study has been conducted in the
context of Iran in general and in private language institutes in particular. As mentioned
earlier, the ―vehicle of presentation‖ (live, canned) is considered one of the subcomponents of ―format‖ in the ―facets of the input‖ in Bachman‘s framework. His
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framework consists of five major categories: 1- the testing environment; 2- the test rubric;
3- the nature of the input the test taker receives; 4- the nature of the expected response to
that input; 5- the relationship between input and response. The third major category had
two components; i.e., the format and the nature of language. One of the sub-components of
the format of the input is the vehicle of presentation. By this term, he refers to aural
channel of input in which data can be presented via ―live‖ human input or ―canned‖
human input as in a tape recording or the like.
According to Bachman (1990) himself, this framework of test method facets is ―a guide for
empirical research that I hope will lead to better understanding of the extent to which
these facets affect performance on language tests‖ (p. 117).
2.1. English Language Institutes in Iran
Farzin-nia (1964, cited in Razmjoo & Riazi, 2006) mentioned that the first formal English
language insitute was established in Iran in 1925 and was named The Iranian-American
society. After the islamic revolution, the name of this instiute changed to Iran Language
Institute (ILI) and together with the name, the objectives, curricula, and management
underwent some changes. Gradually, due to the limitations of English language teaching
in Iranian schools such as limited facilities and outdated textooks, different institutes
under different titles were established over the country. In the recent years, English
language institutes are mushrooming in different cities of Iran including Shiraz. ―Today,
there are more than 80 institutes for males and females in the four educational districts of
Shiraz city alone. These institutes offer different courses for different age groups‖
(Razmjoo & Riazi, 2006: 344). Razmjoo & Riazi also believe that learners‘ main objective for
attending the institutes is improving their command of English proficiency. The main
focus in these institutes are on oral skills, namely, listening and speaking. Learners listen
to large amounts of English material every session of the class. All the dialogues, readings,
pronunciation tips and the like are supposed to be played on a tape or any other similar
facility.
Children are sent to these institutes by their parents to learn English as soon as they are six
years old (Vaezi, 2008). All of the institutes are required to get a certificate or permission
from the ministry of education in order to be able to offer educational service. Moreover,
their tuition fees should be approved by the ministry of education. Interestingly, part of
the tuition fees should go to this ministry.
In another study, Talebinezhad & SadeghiBeniss (2005) delineated the delicate differences
between the English taught in the universities and the one taught in private institutes in
Iran. They believe that learners, personally motivated, attend private instiutes to learn the
language; so they spend time and money to have those classes. They continue that based
on the researches done at MA and PhD levels between 2000 and 2004 in three universities
in Iran, about 91% of the participants belonged to universities, while only 9% of the studies
counted private institute learners as the participants of their study. Rostamlu (2003) added
that learners especially at intermediate and advanced levels in private institutes are highly
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motivated. He believes that high motivation and seriousness of such participants give the
project a considerable advantage.
3. Method
3.1. Participants
Ninety-two Iranian EFL learners took part in the study. Forty-eight learners listened to a
live passage read by the researcher and forty-four learners listened to the canned passage
played on the computer. The participants were all male young adolescents and their ages
ranged from 13 to 16. They were students of four intact classes in the same level of
proficiency, namely, intermediate. The proficiency level of the learners was determined in
accordance with the hierarchy chart of the English institute. According to that chart,
elementary learners study different books based on their age; books such as Let’s Go
(Nakata, Frazier, Hoskins, and Graham, 2006), True Colors (Maurer & Schooenberg, 1999),
Connect (Richards, Barbisan, and Sandy, 2004) and Top Notch (Saslow&Ascher, 2006).
Intermediate learners studied Top Notch and Take Off (Abbs, Freebairn, Mariani, and
Chapman, 2006) books while advanced learners studied both Summit (related to Top Notch)
and Gold (Acklam& Burgess, 2001) books. During some informal interviews, they all
expressed that they expected the teacher to focus on oral skills first. They desired to
improve their speaking and listening first. They were told about the experiment prior to
the listening test in order to ensure their full cooperation.
3.2. Instrument
The instrument used to gather the data for this study was a listening test. In fact, it was a
listening passage geared to the proficiency level of the participants. To ensure such
correspondence, a listening passage from the book Take Off 3 was chosen. All the learners
had covered that listening passage some months before. The time interval was enough in
order to minimize the practice effect.
The true-false items together with the fill in-the-blanks and short answer questions that
follow the listening comprised the items of the listening test. With regard to short answer
questions and fill-in-the-blanks, acceptable-words method was applied and the researcher
was not looking for just one correct response. If the learners showed that they understood
the listening, they were given a score. For example, regarding one of the questions which
was ―Mandy Whiteman has a …………….‖ all the responses including 1- pet 2- tarantula
3- strange pet were considered correct. The listening passage together with the following
questions or the questions on which the learners were tested is shown in Appendix 1. For
further information regarding the listening, interested readers can consult Take Off 3(p. 22).
3.3. Procedures
The researcher randomly chose four classes of the same level. He attended each class and
explained in Persian what the students were expected to do. He attended the first class and
distributed the test among all the students and then asked them to have a look at the
questions before he started reading the material. Furthermore, he told them that they were
going to answer the first six questions as true, false, or I don‘t know. Then, he explained
the other six short answer questions and told them to answer the questions based on the
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listening passage. He also delineated that he was not looking for a single correct answer,
but every question can have different correct responses. He also told students that spelling
does not matter for the researcher. Moreover, in order to lessen test anxiety, they were not
required to write their names. The researcher ensured the students that this test would not
affect their final scores. Having explained all these issues in Persian, he started to read the
passage for the class. When the reading finished, they were given some time to answer the
questions. Besides, there was no time constraint for them. However, the researcher
answered no question while the students were answering the items. He read the passage
once and did not repeat any word while reading. The researcher followed the same
procedures for the second class while the vehicle of presentation changed for the third and
the fourth class. All the procedures such as the explanations of teachers and the like were
the same and in Persian. However, when it came to the passage, this time he turned on the
computer and played the passage for them, which was recorded on the system. He had
checked the quality of the instruments (computers and speakers) beforehand, and they all
had high quality. Then, all the learners listened to the native speaker‘s canned voice, the
computer, in this case. During the playing of the passage, students occasionally asked
questions about ―what he said‖, but the researcher did not answer them and asked them
by gesture to be quite and listen to the rest of the passage. When the passage finished, they
were asked to answer the questions on the listening passage. Not to mention, they were
not pressed for time. In order to bar students from cheating, the questions were designed
in four different formats. By different formats, I mean the order of the questions was
different for two students sitting next to or behind each other. The students were informed
about this tactic of the researcher before the distribution of the papers. When the learners
answered the items, the researcher collected the papers and took them home to correct
them. As mentioned before, more than one answer might have been correct for a single
question. However, all the responses were assessed in accordance with the passage and
not in a vacuum. If the answers were correct based on the passage, they would get a score.
Finally, after the calculation of the scores from four classes, the researcher entered all the
data into the SPSS. He inserted the students‘ scores, for whom the researcher himself read
the material, into one column and all the learners‘ scores, for whom the computer file was
played, into another column, and then ran t-test to see if there was any difference between
these two groups.
4. Results and Discussions
Throughout the study one t-test was administered. We wanted to see if the results of the ttest showed significantly different performance in one vehicle of presentation rather than
the other.
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Groups
Table 1: The t-test for the performance of the two groups
Mean
SD
N
df
Sig. (2 tailed)
Group 1
5.75
3.42
44
.91
Group 2
Total
5.81
2.23
48
92
73.01
P> .05
As the above results in Table 1 indicate, the significance value obtained is much larger
than the critical value (p < .05). So, it shows no significant difference between the two
groups taking the test. Furthermore, it can be seen that the mean or the average of group
two, who listened to the researcher, was a little larger than that of group one, who listened
to the canned listening passage. However, this very small difference is not significant at
all. Moreover, standard deviation of the first group is larger than that of the second group.
It means that the variance, distance from the mean, of scores in the first group, who
listened to the canned passage by the native speaker, was larger. Their scores were more
distributed.
As mentioned in the previous sections, the purpose of the current study was the analysis
of the difference between two groups of learners who listened to a single passage, once
read live by the researcher in the classroom and once played via a computer in a canned
format. The recorded voice on the computer belonged to a native speaker. Comparing the
two mean scores using t test, the research question was answered. The two groups did not
score significantly different on the listening test. Hence, it can be concluded that the
vehicle of presentation, whether be live or canned, does not affect students‘ performance
significantly. It is somehow in contrast with a previous study (Major, Fitzmaurice, Bunta,
and Balasubramanian (2002) which proved that listening to a native speaker makes
listeners perform better on a test. In our case, the canned version of the listening in the
computer was produced by a native speaker and in a normal rate. Speech rate was not
found to be a significant element in comprehension in previous studies such as Derwing
and Munro (2001).
Now, we had better deal with some questions which were among the most errorprovoking aspects in the test. Some of the answers were the results of the students‘ general
world knowledge or their cursory attention to the listening passage. For example there
was a question which asked about the life span of female tarantulas. It was a fill-in-theblanks question. ―Female tarantulas live ……. The answer is ―about twenty-five years‖,
but many students named a region they heard in the passage, which was totally unrelated
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to the question, or they said ―jungles‖, which can be a general term where might be the
residence of any animal in the world.
Moreover, it can be added that students had more problems with inference type questions
because the rate of correct answers in this type of questions was very low. Nevertheless,
their performance with more direct questions was different. They performed better on
questions the answers of which were provided directly in the passage. This performance
held true with both true-false items and short answer items; however, the students
outperformed on this type of questions. Also, almost no student left true false items
unanswered, but it was not the case with short answer questions.
As mentioned before, the language required for answering short answer questions was
kept in minimum, and there was no complex language needed to achieve that end. But in
spite of this consideration, many students left short-answer and fill-in-the-blanks questions
unanswered. In addition, another look at the students‘ scores proves that they did not
perform very well in either vehicles of presentation; neither student who listened to the
researcher nor students who listened to the canned passage performed satisfactorily on the
test. So, the results of the test somehow imply that Iranian students are not good at
listening comprehension at all. Their performance was very weak in a listening passage
which was familiar to them and was also covered before in previous terms. They should
have obtained better scores because of familiarity with the topic (see Chiang and Dunkel
1992). It might have different reasons. The most prominent one, which was revealed
during a follow up interview with the students, was their lack of exposure to the foreign
language. They do not have enough listening practice at home or other places. According
to the students themselves, they do not listen to their books‘ CDs at home. Moreover, most
of them confessed that they had not bought the CD at all. In fact, they did not pay any
attention to the listening skill at all. They do not consider it as something compulsory in
their course of learning. What mattered more to them was the ability to speak English.
Another reason can be found in their lack of attention during a listening activity in the
classroom. Whenever students are asked to listen to something in the classroom, they do
not devote all their attention to the listening task. The problem is aggravated in the case of
authentic listening tasks. As it is accepted, there are very few pure listening opportunities
in the real world without the interference of some noise. So, it is recommended that
teachers and material developers incorporate listening activities in which there is some
degree of white noise. When we listen to something or someone in the real world, there are
some other voices and sounds in the background. However, in the listening passage,
which was played and read for the students, there was not such an inconvenience for the
listeners. But again the results showed students‘ weakness in the listening comprehension
skill.
CONCLUSION
To recapitulate, the aim of this paper was to examine the effect of the vehicle of
presentation (live vs. canned such as a tape) on the listening comprehension of the young
adolescent learners. In this study, the researcher focused on language learners in language
institutes. To achieve the purpose of the study, the researcher chose two groups of
language learners at the same level of proficiency. He read a passage for one group himself
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while he exposed the other group to the canned version of the passage recorded on a
computer. The computer version was the Take Off CD accompanied by the books. Then, he
administered the same listening test to both groups. The results of the test proved no
significant difference between the two groups of learners. This lack of difference suggests
that the vehicle of presentation is not a determinant factor in students‘ listening
comprehension. Moreover, the students‘ poor performance on the test stemmed from their
lack of exposure to the listening practices revealed by students in the interview, which
followed the test. In addition, the same interview indicated that students do not respect
listening comprehension as a major skill in foreign language learning.
It should be also pointed out that this study has its own limitations. First and foremost, the
researcher collected his sample of students from one language institute, namely, Navid
English Institute. He might have fallen into the pitfall of biased sampling. In order to avoid
it, he would have had better choose different learners from different institutes. Moreover,
the test requires student to write some words. So, the skill of writing is at work to some
extent. Although the researcher claims that it has been kept to the minimum, it cannot be
concluded firmly whether the students‘ inability to answer the short-answer and fill-inthe-blanks questions was due to their listening or their writing incompetency. So, it is
better to design a test which has no writing at all and only tests the candidates‘ listening
comprehension. Last but not least, the students‘ proficiency level should have been
verified by a standard proficiency test like Oxford Placement Test (Allen, 1992). Although
students are all at the same level, it cannot be concluded firmly whether they are all really
at the same proficiency level. Another suggestion for further research is to conduct the
experiment with the same students. It would be better to read the passage for them once,
and then after some weeks play them the same passage by a computer or a tape recorder.
Also, the same test is administered twice to the students. The results of the test in the two
administrations can be a reliable yardstick in determining the effect of the vehicle of
presentation on students‘ listening comprehension.
References
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Brindley, G. (1998). Assessing listening abilities. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 18,
171-191.
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Brown, D. H. (2001). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy
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Chiang, C., & Dunkel. (1992). The effect of speech modification, prior knowledge, and
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Derwing, T., & Munro, M. J. (2001). What speaking rates do non-native listeners prefer?
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Elkhafaifi, H. (2008). The Effect of Prelistening Activities on Listening Comprehension in
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Field, J. (2002). The Changing Face of Listening. In J. C. Richards, & W. Renandya,
Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice (pp. 242-247).
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Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, T. D. (1983). The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the
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Lam, W. Y. (2002). Raising Students' Awareness of the Features of Real-World Listening
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Major, R. C., Fitzmaurice, S. F., Bunta, F., & Balasubramanian, C. (2002). The Effects of
Nonnative Accents on Listening Comprehension: Implications for ESL Assessment. TESOL
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Major, R. C., Fitzmaurice, S. M., Bunta, F., & Balasubramanian, C. (2005). Testing the
Effects of Regional, Ethnic, and International Dialects of English on Listening
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Maurer, J., & Schooenberg, I. E. (1999). True Colors. New York: Longman.
Nakata, F., Frazier, K., Hoskins, B., & Graham, C. (2006). Let's go. New York: Oxford
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Nunan, D. (2002). Listening in Language Learning. In J. C. Richards, & W. Renandya,
Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice (pp. 238-241).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Razmjoo, A., & Riazi, A. (2006). Do high schools or private institutes practice
communicative language teaching? A case study of Shiraz teachers in high schools and
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Richards, J. C. (1983). Listening comprehension: Approach, design, procedure. TESOL
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Richards, J. C., Barbisan, C., & Sandy, C. (2004). Connect. Cambridge: Cambridge
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Sadighi, F., & Zare, S. (2006). Is Listening Comprehension Influenced by the Background
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Saslow, J., & Ascher, A. (2006c). Summit 2A. New York: Longman.
Saslow, J., & Ascher, A. (2006b). Top Notch: 2A. New York: Longman.
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Appendix
Name:
Answer (T) for ―True,‖ (F) for ―False,‖ or (?) for ―I don‘t know.‖
Listening Test
1- Tammy lives in an aquarium.
2- Tammy eats cheese.
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3- Mandy wants to get another spider.
4- Tammy is going to get much bigger.
5- Tammy can do tricks.
6- Tammy‘s poison is very strong.
Complete the sentences.
1- Mandy Whiteman has a -----------------------2- Keeping a tarantula as quite expensive at first because -------------------3- Tammy eats------------------4- She is still young so -----------------5- A bite from an adult tarantula can be----------------------- but --------------------------6- Female tarantulas live ----------------------------
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COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION AMONG
INTERNATIONAL UNDERGRADUATES: THE
IMPACT ON THEIR COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS
Manjet Kaur Mehar Singh, Anne Rowena David & Julie Chuah Suan Choo
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Malaysia
manjeet@usm.my,
rowena@usm.my
cscju@usm.my
ABSTRACT
Communication apprehension is a common phenomenon in ESL
classes globally. This form of anxiety affects students‘ oral
communication. The obstacles present in a student hinder
successful language learning and communication among
students. Effective communication is compulsory in a language
classroom in order to perform better in classroom based
language activities. This quantitative study highlights the
importance of oral communication in an English language
classroom and communication apprehension faced by
international undergraduate students. For the purpose of this
study, Mccroskey‘s (1970) personal report of communication
apprehension scale (PRCA) will be utilized to identify oral
communication apprehension faced by this group of students.
The results will be able to provide insights to language
educators on the issue of communication apprehension among
international undergraduate students and measures that can be
taken to overcome the hurdles.
KEY WORDS
Communication apprehension, international undergraduate
students, English language classroom
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1. Introduction
McCroskey (1977) as cited in Holbrook (1987) defines communication apprehension (CA)
as ―an individual level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated
communication with another person or persons.‖ The causes of CA may be triggered by
situational settings (for example, public speaking) and the individual‘s personality traits
(shyness, quietness and reticence). Students when requested to communicate orally at any
level (primary, secondary or higher education) will definitely at one point of time in their
life experience apprehension. A certain degree of CA is inevitable although it varies from
person to person. CA plays an important role in English as a foreign language (EFL)
learning as it can have positive or negative effects. In the context of English language
classroom, CA is more prevalent as international undergraduate students have to
demonstrate their proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and listening. With English
being a second or foreign language for these students, it is bound to present hindrance or
obstacles.
2. Problem statement
One of the main purposes of any English proficiency course is to enable its learners to
master the basic skills in the language, namely reading, writing, listening or speaking.
Weakness or poor mastery in any one of these skills may serve as a problem to the overall
English language proficiency. Oral communication or the speaking skill is an important
skill to hone in order to achieve a good grade in the context of this study. Inability to well
communicate orally may lead to apprehension towards oral communication activities in
class, especially when students are required to express their opinions in public speaking
and group discussion tasks during their English lessons. Communication apprehension is
evident in this situation and it might affect their grades as the speaking component is part
of the coursework assessment. Moreover, the international undergraduates in this study
have to deal with learning English in an EFL setting and most of them have insufficient
background knowledge and contact with English language in their native country. This
may indirectly contribute to the variety CA levels experienced by international
undergraduates.
3. Purpose of study
This study aims to identify oral communication apprehension encountered by
international undergraduates in English language classrooms in a local Malaysian
university. This study employs McCroskey‘s (1970) Personal Report of Communication
Apprehension (PRCA-24) adapted scale to identify oral communication apprehension
faced by this group of students. It is crucial and timely to investigate whether learning
English in an intercultural setting affects learners‘ CA. This paper will discuss the degree
of the presence of CA in an intercultural milieu. The outcomes of this research will be able
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to offer pertinent and valuable information and perceptions to ESL and EFL instructors on
the issue of communication apprehension among international undergraduates and
appropriate actions that can be implemented to reduce the occurrence of CA in the
language classrooms.
4. Background
The current study is conducted in a language school in one of the public institutions of
higher learning in Malaysia. Undergraduates from schools or faculties of various
disciplines in this particular university are required sign up for language proficiency
courses and pass with a minimum grade C (40 marks) in order to proceed to the next level
and also meet the university‘s graduation requirement. The respondents in this study were
enrolled in a 14 week Academic English proficiency course, which is a compulsory course.
The students registered in this course consist of both local and international students who
possess different levels of English proficiency. This course offers a variety of listening,
reading, writing and speaking based activities, which target to improve students‘ overall
English language proficiency. It is also structured in such a way that students are required
to participate in class discussions, speak clearly and voluntarily, discuss and share ideas
openly. The graded coursework assessments consist of oral group presentation, listening
test and writing test. Students are tested on essay writing and reading comprehension
during the final examination at the end of the course.
5. Literature review
Communication apprehension is a fear which to some extent surpasses the fear of heights,
financial problems and even to the extreme of death. According to communication experts
―…2 out of every 10 individuals experience some form of communication anxiety …‖
(Watson, & Bossley 1995, p.111). These individuals experience a fear of some things they
encounter daily, and whether it is in a formal or informal situation, CA is experienced by
everyone. Four different types of CA exist: trait like, generalized-context, personal–group,
and situational. Trait like can be described as ―…a relatively enduring, personality-type
orientation toward a given mode of communication across a wide variety of contexts‖
(McCroskey, 1984, as cited in Everett, 1999, p.42). Secondly, generalized-context is similar
to trait like; however, it may occur in one situation and not in another. Personal-group CA
repeatedly occurs when an individual interacts with a certain person or group. Lastly,
situational CA depends on a situation where one can be with the same individual or
group, but the situation itself causes the apprehension (McCroskey, 1984, as cited in
Everett, 1999).
A simple definition of CA is anxiety or fear of communicating in different situations.
According to Berger, McCroskey & Baldwin (1984) it is ―the way a person feels about
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communication, not how they communicate‖. The fear or anxiety could be due to any of
the following reasons: lack of proficiency in the target language, lack of practice,
insecurity or any pre-programmed thought pattern. Even those who have high level of
proficiency in a language can experience CA. Some people may be good at
communicating through writing but they may have problems speaking in front of an
audience. Some may be good at interpersonal communication, but may not feel
comfortable making presentations and vice versa. According to Scovel (1991), anxiety is
defined as a state of uneasiness and apprehension or fear caused by the anticipa tion of
something threatening. Horwitz et al. (1986) argued that communication apprehension is a
type of shyness characterized by fear or anxiety about communication with people.
According to this definition, there are many forms of CA and that fear of oral
communication is not limited to a certain age or level of study. It is linked to interaction
among people in different settings.
Thaher (2005) classified the factors that lead to CA inside an English language classroom,
especially EFL classroom into three categories: (1) psychological factors, which include
emotion, self-esteem, anxiety, attitude, fear and motivation; (2) instructional factors,
which include goals, teacher, method, text, time, intensity and means of evaluation, and (3)
sociocultural factors, which include acculturation, social distance, second versus foreign
language learning and culturally accepted thought.
With regards to prior studies, Price (1991) investigated the causes of anxiety in foreign
language classrooms. He argued that for EFL learners, speaking English in the classroom is
the main cause of anxiety. On the other hand, according to Tunaboylu (1993) , students‘
tendency to be silent listeners rather than active speakers in oral English classes is caused
by many reasons. The most prominent of these reasons is psychological pressure of
making mistakes in the presence of their classmates. The next would be poor count of
vocabulary. So, CA is attributed to students‘ fear of poor communication and negative
evaluation.
As for gender based CA, Johnson and Faunce (1973) indicated that females expressed
greater anxiety about speaking in front of the class. However, Mukattash (1980) found in
his study that the level of females‘ attitude and motivation toward English was
significantly higher than those of males. Frantz, Marlow & Wathen (2005) found that there
was significant statistical difference in the level of communication apprehension
experienced by males and females. As for Aly and Islam (2005) gender, job status, grade
point average and years of experience have an effect on CA. Women were found to
experience a higher level of CA than men. On the other hand, Borzi and Mills (2001)
found the male accounting majors have a higher level of CA than female accounting
majors.
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Fear of speaking English in class may occur in a person‘s native language or in a foreign
language. McCroskey et al. (1999) examined levels of CA among Japanese students in
native and second language (English). The results indicated that Japanese students have
high CA in both languages. Lucas (1984) indicated that …‖if international students are
apprehensive about speaking their own languages, their fear of communicating in English
must be tenfold‖.
In a cross-cultural study, a comparison was made among Chinese and American
mainstream students‘ levels of communication apprehension. Zhang, Butler and Pryor
(1996) found that as expected, Chinese students reported a significantly higher mean score
for CA when compared to students from the United States. On the other hand, their
findings contradict earlier findings by Klopf (1984), which found that Chinese students‘
reported levels of communication apprehension did not differ significantly from those of
mainstream students in the United States. As an East Asian country, China would be
expected to be higher on the communication scale because of its orientation toward
collectivism and high power distance, i.e. acceptance of status differences as a social given
(Hofstede, 1980). In addition to that, Klopf (1984) did not translate the scale used to
measure communication apprehension, whereas, Zhang, Butler and Pryor (1996 )
translated the PRCA scale developed by McCroskey (1982).
Larsen-Freeman and Long (1991) found that communicative language situation can be
influenced by evaluation that leads to uncertainty and anxiety. In the context of oral
communication skills, which are essential in all study areas, CA has negative effects on
classroom participation and academic success since teachers reward students who take
part in classroom participation and demonstrate academic success with good marks
(Thaher, 2005) . Liu and Littlewood‘s (1997) two large scale surveys at the University of
Hong Kong indicate liking for communicative work at school and a preference for
university classes in which students do most of the talking.
Izzo (1981) indicated that learners are influenced by the setting in which they learn a
language and by the teacher who teaches them. These situational variables influence their
feelings and attitudes toward the foreign language and the extent to which they become
proficient in it. She also indicated that time is an important factor in determining foreign
language proficiency and achievement.
Aspects of individual‘s culture will drastically influence overall communicative English
proficiency of many English learners. If they do not have freedom in the classroom
because of the effect of their culture, they will be shy, quiet and reluctant to react
positively in the class. As argued by Littlewood (1984) when we try to adopt new speech
patterns, we are to some extent giving up markers of our identity in order to adopt those
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of another cultural group and accepting another culture‘s ways of perceiving the world. If
the students are in acceptance of this process, it can enrich the learning experience; if not, it
can be a source of resentment and insecurity.
6. Methodology
This quantitative study attempts to describe communication apprehension among
international undergraduates enrolled in an English language course at the School of
Languages, Literacies and Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia. For the purpose of this
study, an adapted version of McCroskey‘s (1970) Personal Report of Communication
Apprehension (PRCA-24) was utilized to measure communication apprehension among
the respondents.
6.1 Instrument
McCroskey‘s version of the PRCA-24 consists of a questionnaire which encompasses
twenty-four statements regarding the respondents‘ feelings about communicating with
their peers in the following four communicative tasks: group discussions, meetings,
interpersonal conversations, and public speaking. The questionnaire is used to gauge the
respondents‘ communication apprehension in the above stated areas. The instrument was
adapted for the purpose of this study and only a total of 18 statements pertaining to the
three communicative areas (group discussion, interpersonal communication and public
speaking) are included in the questionnaire. The instrument was administered at the tenth
week of the course.
There are two parts to the questionnaire. The first part comprises demographic details. The
respondents are required to provide personal background information such as gender,
age, country of origin, nationality, highest English language qualification and so on. The
second section comprises 18 statements from the PRCA-24 and based on the Likert scale
from ―Strongly Agree = 5; Agree = 4; Neutral = 3; Disagree = 2; to Strongly Disagree = 1‖.
The respondents are required to respond to the statements by writing down the
corresponding number of the option that they felt the most suitable to express their
opinions with regards to the communication tasks. In the original version of the PRCA, the
overall scores vary from 24 to 120. On the other hand, in this study, the overall scores
range from 18-90, with a low of 6 and a high of 30 for each communicative area. Any score
above 18 in each sub-area shows some degree of apprehension. So a CA score of 54
indicates that a student has recorded CA in two or all three sub-areas.
6.2 Respondents
32 international undergraduates from various disciplines of study in Universiti Sains
Malaysia were involved in this study. These respondents were randomly selected and are
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between 19-24 years of age. Their country of origin is as follows: China (26), Thailand (2),
Indonesia (1) and Saudi Arabia (3). From the overall total of 32 respondents, 22 of them are
in their second year, and the remaining 10 are in their first year of studies.
Table 1. Number of Male and Female Participants
Gender
Frequency
Percentage (%)
Male
18
56.25%
Female
14
43.75%
Total
32
100.00%
All the respondents in this study have had some prior experience with English either in
their native country or after coming to Malaysia. 17 of these international undergraduates
have completed the in-house Intensive English Programme, which is a non-graduating
intensive English course offered by the School of Languages, Literacies and Translation,
Universiti Sains Malaysia. 10 of them have IELTS qualification with scores ranging from
5.0 to 5.5.
7. Findings and Discussion
Table 2 illustrates the overall communication apprehension scores of the 32 respondents
who completed the questionnaire. Analysis of the data shows that 12 (37.5%) of the total
respondents in this study displayed CA scores of 54 and above in two or all three
communicative areas. The highest score attained was 70 and the lowest was 18.
It is found that a total of 7 (50%) of the female respondents recorded an overall score of 54
and above, thus indicating CA in two or all three communicative areas. Conversely, only 5
(27.8%) of the male respondents achieved an overall score of 54 and above in those same
areas. Hence, the frequency of female respondents who achieved high overall CA scores is
more than their male counterparts. The findings of this study match other similar research
by Frantz, Marlow & Wathen (2005). In their study, it was discovered that both male and
female respondents experienced considerably different levels of communication
apprehension. It is also established by Johnson and Faunce, (1973) that females expressed
higher levels of apprehension when speaking in front of an audience.
The data indicates that respondent number 7 (refer to Table 2), a female student from
Indonesia, recorded the highest overall communication apprehension score, which is 70. It
is evident that she has high communication apprehension level and this is further
strengthened by the high scores she achieved in all three areas of communication: group
discussion, interpersonal conversation and public speaking. This is attributed by the fact
that this respondent did not receive any prior instruction in English in her native country.
The respondent‘s only exposure to English in Malaysia is through the six months of
language classes under the Intensive English Programme before registering for the degree
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25
programme. Poor command of the English language and a basic level of vocabulary may
have contributed to her anxiety and meagre communication skills. Izzo (1981) emphasized
that foreign language proficiency and communication achievement are greatly influenced
by the time factor or length of exposure in the target language. The anxiety of speaking in
a foreign language may also contribute towards making mistakes during oral
communication as stressed in Price (1991) and Tunaboylu (1993). In contrast, the person
with the lowest CA score is respondent number 32 (refer to Table 2). This male respondent
from China obtained an overall CA score of 18 and does not display CA in any of the three
communicative areas. Prior to coming to study in Malaysia, he studied English in his
country for 5 years and he has an IELTS score of 5.5.
Table 2 Analysis of respondents’ Communication Apprehension
No. of
Gender
GD
IC
PS
Respondents
1
F
17
15
21
2
F
16
14
21
3
F
16
14
17
4
F
20
20
19
5
F
16
19
23
6
F
17
21
28
7
F
22
27
21
8
F
14
18
17
9
F
19
19
19
10
F
16
17
19
11
F
17
14
13
12
F
14
17
21
13
F
18
18
18
14
F
17
17
23
15
M
14
14
12
16
M
12
17
16
17
M
12
8
16
18
M
12
15
13
19
M
12
18
15
20
M
19
17
23
21
M
15
19
18
22
M
15
19
18
23
M
12
12
12
24
M
18
19
14
25
M
15
20
21
26
M
21
18
21
27
M
19
16
18
28
M
8
13
14
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PRCA
53
51
47
59
58
66
70
49
57
52
44
52
54
57
40
45
36
40
45
59
59
52
36
51
56
60
53
35
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29
M
19
19
30
M
15
17
31
M
12
9
32
M
6
6
Legend: GD – Group Discussion, IC – Interpersonal
Conversation, PS – Public Speaking
23
19
22
6
26
61
51
43
18
The analysis of the respondents‘ Communication Apprehension based on the three main
communicative areas is shown in Table 3. CA was recorded high in public speaking.
Almost 62.5% respondents experienced CA in this area with 28 being the highest score out
of the total 30. From this number, 11 were female respondents. Therefore, 11 (78.6%) out
of 14 female respondents or displayed high CA for public speaking. This phenomenon is
clearly stated by Aly and Islam (2005), who found that women experienced higher levels of
CA than their male counterparts. McCroskey et al. (1999) pointed out that the above
occurrence is further aggravated because most students are afraid to speak in public
especially in front of the class. They become very nervous and anxious, thus affecting their
oral presentation. On the other hand, the CA score for the section on interpersonal
conversation was 46.9% or 15 respondents who achieved high CA. The rate of CA in
conversations is smaller because of its informal, casual and stress-free nature as compared
to the demanding skills of public speaking. The lowest percentage of CA was documented
in the area of Group Discussions with only 9 (28.1%) respondents who experienced high
CA when involved in group discussions. This may be attributed by the larger number of
participants engaged in group discussions. Moreover, students with higher CA are usually
overwhelmed by those who exhibit lower CA in the group from the perspective of
frequency of talk time. This indirectly discourages students with higher CA from
attempting to communicate in the group.
Table 3 The Analysis of respondents’ CA in three main communicative areas.
Communicative
Percentage of
areas
Communication
Apprehension (%)
Group Discussion
Interpersonal
Conversation
Public speaking
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28.1%
46.9%
62.5%
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8. Recommendations
It is a challenge to totally eradicate the occurrence of CA in the language classroom.
However, practical proactive activities can be implemented to reduce the detrimental
effects of CA.
A less threatening language classroom environment should be formed for the students in
order to ease their anxiety towards oral communication activities. A variety of classroom
activities such as individual oral presentation, oral pair work, oral group discussion,
should be adopted to inspire students to be more involved and active in class. This would
indirectly make them less anxious in articulating their viewpoints. Delucchi (2006)
mentions that irrespective of the students‘ differences in their language proficiencies and
personalities, they are somehow able to function more effectively in groups because they
can exchange more opinions and ideas. This is because they will feel less anxious than
when they work alone. Krashen (1988) has suggested that learning English in a less
apprehensive environment can produce effective learning.
In the milieu of similar research conducted, a study by N. Osman, S. Nayan & et al (2010)
established that students‘ spoken skills developed because of collaborative learning
activities. It was found that students were more excited, conversed more with each other
and involved in group discussion effectively. This clearly shows that CA can be lowered
via collaborative learning activities. These shared learning activities are able to motivate
students to produce more ideas, and students are less anxious to express themselves in the
class. Indirectly, it is able to increase their confidence level in oral communication.
P‘Rayan & Shetty (2008) proposed a few learner centred activities whereby the students
can be encouraged to conduct self-reflection, group sharing and one to one sessions with
their language instructor. For the group sharing activity, students are allocated groups
and they share their communication anxiety or other issues pertaining to presenting in
front of an audience and how they tried to overcome these challenges. Guidelines on how
to monitor the group discussion can be provided for the students, in order to facilita te and
ensure a smooth flowing discussion takes place. The teacher who plays the role of
facilitator and also counsellor can invite students to slot in one to one sessions with the
teacher so that they can help evaluate the student‘s ability to communicate effectively in
different situations. Alternatively, students could be placed into groups based on their
high CA scores in group discussion, interpersonal and public speaking. This learner
centred guidance as proposed by P‘Rayan & Shetty (2008) enables students, who have
achieved high scores in specific areas, have the opportunity to actively improve on their
weaknesses.
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Finally, as teaching international students in an intercultural setting is an arduous task,
teachers should be equipped with multicultural awareness, and they should be more
knowledgeable on the educational, cultural and social issues affecting the learning
processes of students who come from various parts of the world. With this background
knowledge, teachers should be prepared to play a more effective and resourceful role in
handling the diverse of learning styles of the students.
CONCLUSION
This study was conducted to investigate CA of international undergraduates in English
language classrooms. The results of the study highlight the presence of CA among
international undergraduates. It is the hope of the researchers, that the findings will
inspire language teachers to measure their students‘ CA and employ the students‘
personal report of CA to assist them to overcome CA. Language teachers should persist to
create a favourable environment that can help lessen CA for the students to warrant
positive learning experiences.
References
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Borzi, M. G., & Mills, T.H. (2001). Communication apprehension in upper-level
accounting students: An assessment of skill development. Journal of Education for Business,
76(4), pp. 193-199.
Delucchi, M. (Spring 2006).The efficacy of collaborative learning in an undergraduate
statistics Course. College Teaching, Vol.54, No.2, pp.224-248.
Everett, J.D. (1999). The relationship between communication apprehension and community
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Frantz, J., Marlow, A., & Wathen, J. (2005).Communication Apprehension and its
Relationship to Gender and College Year. Journal of Undergraduate Research, MSU-Mankato,
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Hofstede, G. 1980. Culture’s Consequences. CA: Thousand Oaks, Sage.
Holbrook, H.T. (1987). Communication Apprehension: The Quiet Student in Your Classroom.
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School by Achievement, Race, and Sex. ERIC. Abs., (ED) 113391, 71-78.
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Krashen, S.(1988). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. UK: Prentice
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Larsen-Freeman, D. & Long, M. (1991). An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition
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McCroskey, J.C., Gudykunst, W.B., & Nishida, T. (1999). Communication Apprehension
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IS RASCH MODEL WITHOUT DRAWBACK?
A REANALYSIS OF RASCH MODEL LIMITATIONS
Hamed Ghaemi,
Islamic Azad University, Gonabad Branch,
English Department,
Gonabad,
Iran.
hamedghaemi@ymail.com
ABSTRACT
The present paper focuses on the main limitations of Rasch
Model as mentioned by many researchers both in the
educational and psychological fields. The most frequently cited
drawback of Rasch Model is that it requires some knowledge of
and acquaintance with mathematics. Second, the Rasch model
requires a great number of observations or replications that are
needed to estimate the parameters of the model. Third, the
Rasch model holds strong assumptions which are not easy to
meet by the observations. The next problem with Rasch Model is
that it does not have a guessing parameter. In order for the
Rasch model to produce true interval results, it appears that the
data set must be infinite, and the underlying assumptions must
be perfectly met. The last, but not the least, limiting assumption
with the usual Rasch model is that there is only one latent
dimension underlying the items. Overall, the author of the paper
recommends the psychometricians to employ the techniques
and strategies of Rasch Model with more caution. Also, various
investigations into the new ways of solving the Rasch Model are
highly required.
KEYWORDS
Rasch Model, Item Response Model, Psychometric Tests
1. Overview of the Models
Classical test theory provides a way to calculate approximately the average error in test
scores for a test and population. As the conventional measurement methods hold, a typical
analysis involves estimating item difficulty and discrimination, as well as the reliability of
test scores based on a random sample of examinees from the population. Modern
measurement methods, commonly referred to as ―Item Response Theory‖ (IRT), also
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provide a way to estimate the average error and reliability of test scores. One of these
models, the Rasch measurement model (Rasch, 1960), estimates the ‗goodness of fit‘
between item difficulty and person ability. Unlike other IRT models, the Rasch model is
unique in its capability to condition, or remove, the effects of person ability from test
scores, which results in sample-free estimates of examinee performance; this advantage has
far-reaching implications.
2. Limitations of Classical Test Theory
Several limitations of CTT have been mentioned in the literature of measurement ; its chief
weakness is that it does not promote sample-free estimates of population values
(Kundiger-Schildkmp, 1976; Hambleton & Swamiinathan, 1985; Wright, Mead, and Draba,
1976), which means that item difficulty and discrimination, as well as reliability estimates
are dependent upon test scores from beta samples. This is a significant cause for concern,
since beta samples typically fail to represent the population of interest. As a result, item
difficulty values tend to be positively bias for high ability samples and negatively bias for
low ability samples. Moreover, indices of item discrimination will tend to be higher when
estimated from a more heterogeneous group, and reliability estimates will tend to over- or
underestimate examinees‘ true ability depending upon the variance in test scores
(Hambleton et al., 1985).
A second limitation of CTT rests in its lack of control for developing strictly parallel test
forms. Since sources of variance like, practice effects, influence test scores over repeated
trials, examinees never test exactly the same on the second administration of an exam. In
light of this, researchers must be satisfied with accepting reliability estimates for parallel
forms that either over- or underestimate true ability. The Rasch model solves this dilemma
by removing person variance, regardless of their true ability. A third limitation of CTT,
according to Tucker (1946), suggests that the rules for item selection fail to represent the
optimal selection of items. If item variance is greatest at p=.50, then the optimal choice of
item difficulties for any exam would harbor around this value. If this is the case, then a test
of any number of items would be no better than a test of only one item at p = .50.
3. Overview of the Rasch Model
The Rasch model seeks to answer three questions: (1) which items are biased and for
whom, (2) which items define the trait to be measured, and (3) which persons are properly
measured by the items that define the trait (Wright et al., 1976). The model assumes that a
more able person always has a better chance of success on an item than a less able one, and
that any person has a better chance of success on an easy item compared to a difficult one.
In other words, a person‘s measure on any trait is a simple function of their ability and the
item‘s difficulty. All of the information needed about a person‘s ability is contained in their
simple and unweighted response count of the number of items answered correctly on any
measure.
The basic mathematical foundation of the Rasch model specifies how to convert observed
counts into linear (ratio) measures. Ability (β)and difficulty (б)are combined by forming
their difference (i.e., β v - бi). The difference is applied to the exponent of a ‗logit‘ (the basic
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unit of measurement in the Rasch model), which is used to compute the probability of a
correct answer. Ultimately, the fit of the data is evaluated by calculating the residual after
the data have been used to estimate ability and difficulty. Wright (1977) describes it this
way:
―When person v has more of the latent ability than item I requires, then βv [ability] is more
than б i[difficulty], their difference is positive and person v‘s probability of success on the
item is greater than 0.5. The more person v‘s ability surpasses the item‘s difficulty, the
greater this positive difference and the higher the probability of success‖ (p. 98).
Consequently, the Rasch model allows for observations that conform to a ratio scale. An
examinee with twice the ability of another examinee has twice the odds of success on that
item. And, when one item is twice as easy as another item, an examinee has twice the odds
of successfully answering the easier one (Hambleton et al., 1985).
4. Limitations of the Rasch Model
Limitations of the Rasch model typically usually lie in two issues (Licarce, 1996), an attack
on the mathematical foundation, and attacks on its use as a general and viable solution for
measurement problems.
The main disadvantage of Rasch Model is the fact that applying the Rasch model requires
some knowledge of and acquaintance with mathematics. Mostly in our field of study, i.e.
TEFL, students and even the faculties have many problems with understanding the
complicated concepts of mathematics and statistics. Also, Rasch Model requires a high
level of software understanding. That‘s why; most researchers in the field of language
testing put all the problems of sophisticated statistics on the shoulder of mathematicians or
statisticians to analyze their data.
Second, a disadvantage of the Rasch model is the great number of observations or
replications that are needed to estimate the parameters of the model. In fact, doing Rasch
model without doing large number of observations is impossible.
Third, the Rasch model holds strong assumptions, which are not easy to meet by the
observations. [In fact, Rasch specifications can never be met perfectly, but are nearly
always met usefully by thoughtfully collected data]".
Use of the Rasch item response model in test construction makes equating especially easy.
The Rasch model, however, does not have a guessing parameter, whereas most tests that
require equating contain multiple-choice items subject to guessing. This limitation of the
Rasch model has led many test developers to use a three-parameter model that accounts
for guessing, though at the expense of increased difficulty in equating. Despite the Rasch
model's limitations with respect to guessing, some test developers still use it in multiplechoice testing.
In order for the Rasch model to produce true interval results, it appears that the data set
must be infinite and the underlying assumptions must be perfectly met (fit to logistic item
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characteristic curves with common slopes, unidimensionality, local independence, and no
guessing).
The two-parameter logistic (2PL) model in item response theory (IRT) appears to produce
more accurate item difficulty estimates when even minor variations in discrimination are
present (variable uniqueness components) and guessing is limited. The three-parameter
logistic (3PL) model exhibits an advantage on item difficulty estimates when the data
contains substantial guessing (as modeled with the 3PL model).
The Rasch approach to building a measurement instrument is consistent with the careful
development of a theory or construct-linked instrument (Bunderson, 2000; Linacre &
Wright, 1999; Worthen, White, Fan, & Sudweeks, 1999; Wright & Stone, 1979). With
thoughtful efforts to refine items by maximizing the consistency of the item set with a
single construct factor while maintaining the integrity of the construct, a reasonably
reliable and valid instrument can be created (Bond & Fox, 2001).
While the creation of a set of construct-linked items that effectively load onto a single
dimension seems plausible, the concurrent Rasch requirement that these items should
have equal uniqueness components yielding parallel ICCs seems unlikely. If a practitioner
were to engage in an overenthusiastic selection and refinement of items with a goal to
create an item set that shares a common ICC form the resulting instrument might become
very reliable, and have minimal error estimates, but it would likely be also much less valid
with respect to the originally intended construct. If this process were taken to the extreme,
the elimination of all misfits would lead to the elimination of all items (Linacre, 1995).
When a more moderate approach is taken, and some misfit is accepted, then the accuracy
of the estimates is compromised to some degree and thus the interval nature of the scale is
questionable.
In response to the empirical reality of non-parallel ICCs in most large-scale tests, the 2PL
and 3PL IRT models were developed (Birnbaum, 1968; Lord, 1970, 1980). The 2PL and 3PL
models incorporate discrimination parameters that determine the central slope of the ICCs
for individual items and ultimately characterize the uniqueness components for each item
(McDonald, 1981; Pelton & Bunderson, 2002). The 3PL model also includes a pseudoguessing parameter that defines a lower asymptote for the ICCs. With these additional
parameters, more accurate fit to empirical observation is obviously possible. However,
these models cannot claim to produce a perfectly interval scale estimates, rather they are
intended to produce pragmatic approximations to interval scale values when the data set
fits the more flexible underlying 2PL or 3PL ICCs (Baker, 1992; Bock, Thissen, & Zimowski,
1997; Hambleton, Swaminathan, & Rogers, 1991; Lord, 1980).
The 2PL and 3PL IRT approaches have detractors too. As with the Rasch model, some
deny the potential of all IRT methods because of their imperfection (Cliff, 1996; Michell,
1999).
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Rasch proponents typically dismiss the other IRT models suggesting that additional
parameters are ―blandishments‖ (p. 91) that destroy additivity, and that the crossing ICCs
model ―…destroys the variable‘s criterion definition‖ (Wright, 1999 p. 95).
The 2PL and 3PL models also have computational limitations, in that they require prior
distributions of parameters and artificial constraints in order to ensure efficient
convergence (Mislevy & Bock, 1990). This limitation is directly related to the fact that there
are no sufficient statistics that allow for conjoint estimation of item difficulties and person
abilities and thus no ACM (although Lord does describe a sufficient statistic for person
ability (Lord, 1980)).
Prior to the introduction of the Rasch and IRT models, various approaches were proposed
and used that attempted to produce approximately linear scales within classical test theory
(CTT) (Burke, 1953; Gulliksen, 1950; Thurstone, 1917, 1928, 1931; Wright, 1988b). The
simplest of these approaches assumes that the distribution in question is approximately
Normal and by estimating normal deviates the results can be transformed to an interval
scale (Gulliksen, 1950). This approach is similar to the PROX algorithm used in the first
iterations of Rasch analysis (Wright & Stone, 1979), and is the fourth model examined in
this research.
The Rasch model is the same as parameter logistic (1PL) latent trait model. Other IRT
models include 2 and 3 parameter logistic models (2PL, 3PL) and 1, 2, and 3 parameter
normal ogive (1PN, 2PN, and 3PN) models. The normal ogive models follow from a
simple model that involves response thresholds and normally distributed measurement
error.
The logistic models are generally justified as close and computationally convenient
approximations to the normal ogive model. The Rasch or 1PL model, however, can be
viewed as deriving directly from a different theoretical model.
4.1. When do you use the Rasch model?
The Rasch model is fairly simple IRT model. That is an advantage and a disadvantage.
The disadvantage is that such a simple model may not fit the data. The advantage is that,
if you only have a small number of subjects, it may be better to use a simpler model with
fewer parameters .
4.2. Are there limiting assumptions?
Another limiting assumption with the usual Rasch model is that there is only one latent
dimension underlying the items; that is not a severe limitation, since one can easily
eliminate items that appear to violate the assumption. Second, because it is a" one
parameter" model, the Rasch model makes an assumption analogous to equal
measurement error for each item.
The Next criticism of the Rasch model is that it is overly restrictive or prescriptive because
it does not permit each item to have a different discrimination. A criticism specific to the
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use of multiple choice items in educational assessment is that there is no provision in the
model for guessing because the left asymptote always approaches a zero probability in the
Rasch model. These variations are available in models such as the two and three parameter
logistic models (Birnbaum, 1968). However, the specification of uniform discrimination
and zero left asymptote are necessary properties of the model in order to sustain
sufficiency of the simple, un-weighted raw score.
In the two-parameter logistic model (2PL-IRT; Lord & Novick, 1968) the weighted raw
score is theoretically sufficient for person parameters, where the weights are given by
model parameters referred to as discrimination parameters. Lord & Novick's oneparameter logistic model, 1PL, appears similar to the Rasch model in that it does not have
discrimination parameters, but 1PL has different motivation and subtly different
parameterization. The 1PL is a descriptive model which summarizes the sample as a
normal distribution. The dichotomous Rasch model is a measurement model, which
parameterizes each member of the sample individually.
The Rasch model for dichotomous data inherently entails a single discrimination
parameter which, as noted by Rasch (1960/1980, p. 121), constitutes an arbitrary choice of
the unit in terms of which magnitudes of the latent trait are expressed or estimated.
However, the Rasch model requires that the discrimination is uniform
across interactions between persons and items within a specified frame of reference (i.e.
the assessment context given conditions for assessment).
Concluding Remarks
Modern measurement methods, frequently referred to as ―Item Response Theory‖ (IRT),
provide a method to estimate the average error and reliability of test scores. One of these
models, the Rasch measurement model (Rasch, 1960), estimates the ‗goodness of fit‘
between item difficulty and person ability. Like every traditional and modern method of
measurement, Rasch Model is not without any pitfalls and drawbacks. As mentioned
earlier, the most commonly quoted shortcoming of Rasch Model is that it requires some
knowledge of and acquaintance with mathematics. Rasch model also requires a great
number of observations or replications that are required to estimate the parameters of the
model. In addition, Rasch model holds strong assumptions which are not easy to meet by
the observations. Moreover, Rasch Model does not have a guessing parameter. The last ,
but not the least limiting assumption with the usual Rasch model is that there is only one
latent dimension underlying the items. To sum up, the author of the present paper highly
urges the researchers working in the field of Language Testing to scrutinize the drawbacks
of Rasch Model with more concern. Also, Psychometricians are invited to investigate the
new ways of solving the Rasch Model problems.
References
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Andersen, E.B. (1977). Sufficient statistics and latent trait models, Psychometrika, 42, 69-81.
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43, 357- 74.
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Andrich, D. (1988). Rasch models for measurement. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.
Andrich, D. (2004). Controversy and the Rasch model: a characteristic of incompatible
paradigms? Medical Care, 42, 1-16.
Baker, F. (2001).The Basics of Item Response Theory. ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment
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Birnbaum, A. (1968). Some latent trait models and their use in inferring an examinee‘s
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Bond, T.G. & Fox, C.M. (2007). Applying the Rasch Model: Fundamental measurement in the
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ON THE EFFECTS OF TWO MODELS OF
COOPERATIVE LEARNING ON EFL READING
COMPREHENSION AND VOCABULARY
LEARNING
Abbas Ali Zarei, (corresponding Author)
Assistant professor, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin
aazarei@ikiu.ac.ir
Jaafar Keshavarz, M.A., Islamic Azad University, Takestan
aazarei@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
This study investigated the effects of the 'Student TeamsAchievement Divisions' (STAD) and 'Cooperative Integrated
Reading and Composition' (CIRC) cooperative learning models on
reading achievement and vocabulary learning of Iranian learners of
English. 132 female Language learners of EFL participated in the
study at National Iran English Language (NIEL) institute in
Takestan. The four experimental groups were taught in cooperative
learning for one semester with methods of the 'Student TeamsAchievement Divisions' (STAD) and 'Cooperative Integrated
Reading and Composition' (CIRC), the control groups were taught
in a non-cooperative method. Data collected through reading
comprehension and vocabulary post-tests were analyzed using four
one-way ANOVA procedures. The results indicated that the
cooperative learning model CIRC had statistically significant effects
on reading comprehension and vocabulary learning, particularly
for elementary EFL learners.
KEY WORDS
Cooperative learning, reading comprehension, vocabulary learning,
Student Teams-Achievement-Divisions (STAD), Cooperative
Integrated-Reading-and-Composition (CIRC)
1. Introduction
It was not until the mid-1960s that modern cooperative learning methods were introduced.
The application of cooperative learning to classroom teaching finds its root in the 1970s
when the United States began to design and study cooperative learning models for
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classroom context (Kessler, 1992 cited in Liang, 2002). Today, due to its rich history of
theory, research and actual use in the classroom, cooperative learning is applied in almost
all school content areas and, increasingly, in college and university contexts all over the
world, and is claimed to be an effective teaching method in foreign/ second language
education by scholars.
Cooperative learning group is totally different from group learning. It is commonly
believed that when students are working in small groups, the teacher is using cooperative
learning group. In this study, it is argued that merely putting students in a small group is
not cooperative learning group. Cooperative learning refers to a set of highly structured,
psychologically and sociologically based techniques that lead to learning and obtaining a
learning goal (Oxford, 1997).
The application of cooperative learning to reading comprehension skill is not new. In fact,
a review of literature in the area of cooperative learning supports its effectiveness in
enhancing reading comprehension of learners. Yet, it seems that the application of
cooperative learning to a particular component has not a long history.
Vocabulary as a component of the reading skill plays an important role in expanding the
size and depth of comprehension. Lee (2003) investigated vocabulary learning in group
work at a university in Vietnam and found that students learned new words in
cooperative groups better than in traditional methods and that the group discussion
helped them recall and remember English words better than control groups. In addition,
Heydari and Gorjian (2009) investigated the effects of learners' awareness of vocabulary
learning strategies on the reading comprehension of 120 intermediate EFL students and
found that raising learners' awareness of vocabulary strategies has positive impact on
reading comprehension. However, research on the prevalence of cooperative learning in
EFL classrooms shows that this strategy is underused. In other words, cooperative
learning does not have the place it deserves in EFL education. Perhaps, it is time to reduce
the discrepancy between what research shows to be effective and what is practiced in our
classrooms. In an attempt to do so, this study investigates the effects of two models of
cooperative learning on the reading comprehension and vocabulary learning of Iranian
elementary and advanced level EFL learners. It aims at finding answers to the following
research questions:
1. Are there any significant differences among the effects of Cooperative Integrated
Reading and Composition (CIRC), Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD),
and non-cooperative learning methods on the reading comprehension of
elementary level EFL learners?
2. Are there any significant differences among the effects of CIRC, STAD, and noncooperative learning methods on the reading comprehension of advanced level
EFL learners?
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3. Are there any significant differences among the effects of CIRC, STAD, and noncooperative learning methods on the vocabulary learning of elementary level EFL
learners?
4. Are there any significant differences among the effects of CIRC, STAD, and noncooperative learning methods on the vocabulary learning of advanced level EFL
learners?
2. Review of the related literature
2.1. A brief history of cooperative learning
According to Johnson and Johnson (2002), in the late 1700s, Joseph Lancaster and Andrew
Bell used cooperative learning groups extensively in England, and then in New York City
in 1806. Within the Common School Movement in the United States in the early 1800s,
there was a strong emphasis on cooperative learning. In the last three decades of the 19 th
century, Colonel Francis Parker made it applicable. Following Parker, John Dewey used
cooperative learning groups as part of his famous 'project method' in instruction. In the
late 1930s, however, competitive learning methods began to be emphasized in schools and
in the late 1960s, individualistic learning began to be used extensively. In the 1980s,
schools once again began to use cooperative learning.
2.2. Elements and methods of coopefrative Learning
An effective cooperative learning must meet a number of essential elements. For Sachs,
Candlin, and Rose (2003), there are four elements including positive interdependence,
individual accountability, equal participation, and simultaneous interaction. Johnson and
Johnson (1994) posit five elements including positive interdependence, face to face
promotive interaction, individual accountability, interpersonal and small group skills, and
group processing.
Based on the studies of Maddinabeita (2006), ten cooperative learning methods can be
summarized as follows: 1) TGT: Teams-Games-Tournaments (TGT), 2) Group
Investigation, 3) Jigsaw, 4) Team-Assisted individualization, 5) Cooperative Integrated
Reading and Composition, 6) Cooperative Learning and Teaching Scripts, 7) Cooperative
Learning Structures, 8) Student Teams-Achievement Divisions, 9) Learning Together, and
10) Complex Instruction. Of these, Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition
(CIRC) and Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD) are of particular concern here.
Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition was developed by Stevens, Madden,
Slavin and Farnish in 1987. In this method, heterogeneous groups work with different
reading levels, reading to each other, predicting, practicing spelling and vocabulary. CIRC
is a school-based program that targets reading, writing, and language arts. The three
principle program elements are direct instruction in reading comprehension, story-related
activities, and integrated language arts/writing instruction. Each student works with
another student. These learning teams work cooperatively on program-related activities
(Madden, 2004). STAD was developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in 1994.
In this method, students learn new materials in teams but take individual tests weekly to
ensure individual accountability. After the teacher teaches a lesson, students work in
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teams to make sure that everyone has mastered the new material. All students take
quizzes, and the scores are compared to their previous test scores.
2.3. Benefits and Pitfalls
In Cooperative learning, students who are divided into small groups experience working
together, and learn to cooperate rather than compete with each other. In classes conducted
through cooperative learning, the teacher can find time to walk around and check the
students' work. In this way, it is much easier for the teacher to work with one group while
others are getting on with their own work. Cooperative learning can also establish positive
interdependence among students in such a way that through structuring the goals,
materials, and rules, gains for one person are associated with gains for others (Oxford,
1997). In a cooperative learning class, students with different strengths and weaknesses
can work with each other. This can help teachers to solve the problem of heterogeneity in
EFL classes.
Yet, cooperative learning has also attracted some criticism. Keyser (2000) asserts that
cooperative learning strategies take much of the class time and need more advance
planning. In cooperative learning classes, teachers may only do one or two exercises in a
class period, and they do not find it easy to start with cooperative learning strategies. In
addition, the noise level may be high and teachers may lose their power in the classroom.
So, implementing cooperative learning needs to be started step by step and it is strongly
recommended to use cooperative learning strategies with more flexible activities and
exercises.
2.4. Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Learning
2.4.1. Reading
Reading can be defined as the ability to get understanding from written text. L2 reading
can best be understood as a combination of skills and abilities that individuals bring to
bear as they begin to read (Grabe, 1991). According to Chang (2002), the 1980 s was the
shining decade in research on reading in a second language and efforts to improve SL
reading instruction. In the mid to late 1960s, reading was considered as little more than
reinforcement for oral language instruction. Reading was considered as a means to an end.
The end was oral language instruction. In the late 1960s, reading and writing instruction
got more emphasis. Through the early to mid-1970s, importance of reading was felt by a
number of researchers and teacher trainers. An important development in theories about
reading comprehension occurred in the 1970s. Reading comprehension was seen as an
active process that engaged the reader. Reading comprehension was also seen as the
construction of the meaning of a written text through an interaction between the reader
and the text.
Just like teaching methodology, reading theories have had their twists and turns. Starting
from the traditional view, which focused on the printed form of a text, and moving to the
cognitive view that enhanced the role of background knowledge and ending in the metacognitive view, which is now in vogue.
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Harmer (2007) states that effective reading comprehension needs six types of knowledge
including semantic knowledge, morphological knowledge, general world knowledge,
socio-cultural knowledge, topic knowledge, and genre knowledge.
Cooperative learning strategy is one of the useful strategies that learners can implement to
increase their reading comprehension gain. There are seven instructional strategies that
affect students' achievements. They are identifying similarities and differences,
summarizing and note taking, nonlinguistic representations, cooperative learning, setting
objectives and providing feedback, questions, cues, and advance organizers. In this study,
Cooperative Strategic Reading (CSR) was used as a cooperative learning strategy that is in
line with Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC).
In a review of 203 studies dealing with text comprehension, the National Reading Panel
(2000) identified six strategies that were more effective in improving the comprehension of
readers: comprehension monitoring, cooperative learning, graphic organizer, questionanswer, story structure, and summarization. Cooperative Integrated Reading and
Composition (CIRC) uses most of these strategies to improve the reading comprehension
skill.
2.5. Vocabulary Learning
How vocabulary is acquired and what the most efficient means are to promote effective
acquisition have been worthwhile lines of investigation in the field of second language
acquisition (SLA).
There are mainly two approaches in vocabulary learning: implicit and explicit. A common
view in vocabulary studies is that the majority of words that we know are more likely to
be implicit (incidental). Incidental vocabulary is the by-product of implicit activity geared
to vocabulary learning. Intentional learning needs focal attention to linguistic form,
whereas incidental learning requires focal attention to meaning and peripheral attention to
form. In explicit vocabulary learning, students engage in activities that focus attention on
vocabulary. As Allen (1983) states, in the explicit approach, vocabulary and vocabulary
learning strategies should be taught.
Research in learning vocabulary in a second/foreign language is well documented.
However, only a few studies have investigated learning vocabulary in group work. Group
work seems to encourage learners to negotiate the meanings of new words among
themselves. It is the process by which students share their knowledge of word meanings
and forms by helping to explain new words to each other. In the process of clarifying,
elaboration, and explaining words, the students enrich their understanding of concepts.
2.6. Empirical Studies
Several studies have investigated the effects of cooperative learning on EFL learning. In a
comprehensive study conducted by the National Institute of Education in Washington DC
(1985), researchers found that cooperative learning improves the relationship between
academically handicapped students and other students. They compared the effects of
cooperative learning models (Jigsaw, STAD, and Group Investigation Model) on
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multicultural awareness, cross-ethnic friendships, interpersonal relationships and prosocial behavior, and concluded that cooperative learning models produce greater
interpersonal relationship and enhance self-esteem.
A synthesis of research on cooperative learning indicates that cooperative learning
strategies improve the achievement of students and their interpersonal relationships. In 67
studies of the achievement effects of cooperative learning, 61% found significantly greater
achievement in cooperative than in traditionally taught groups. Positive effects were found
in all major subjects and all grade levels (Dutson, 2001). George (1994) compared the
selected cooperative learning methods with traditional learning methods for 18 weeks
with 61 students in undergraduate educational psychology classes and found that
cooperative learning groups show significantly stronger performance than noncooperative learning method groups. He also reported that cooperative learning creates
more favorable attitudes toward classroom instruction. In a similar study, Ghokhale (1995)
found that cooperative learning can be a best choice for teachers to increase the critical
thinking skills in learners, help them to understand better and easily solve problems.
Chen (1998) examined and compared English achievement of junior college students
through cooperative learning techniques and the traditional whole class method. The
results showed that students in small cooperative groups achieved significantly better
results on the overall test. Chen states that the achievement gains under cooperative
learning are attributed to the methods' reward structures and carefully structured
interaction.
Johnson, Johnson, and Stanne (2000) point out that cooperative learning strategies are
widely used because they are based on theory, validated by research, and consistent with
personal philosophies. In a meta-analysis of 158 studies, Johnson, Johnson and Stanne
report that current research findings present evidence that cooperative learning methods
are likely to produce positive achievement results.
In a comprehensive study by Dutson (2001) on the effect of the Kagan's method on
learner's achievement, the results were found to be consistent with those of earlier studies
comparing other cooperative learning methods against lecture/independent styles of
instruction. He concludes that Kagan's cooperative learning model has significant impact
on overall achievement.
In a wide variety of studies the potential of cooperative learning to increase student
achievement has been consistently shown (Ghaith, 2003). Liang (2002) conducted a study
on the effect of cooperative learning on EFL junior high school learners' language learning,
motivation toward learning English and high and low achievers' academic achievements
with five structures and models of cooperative learning. Liang found that the experimental
group outperformed control groups who were taught in Grammar Translation Method
and Audio-Lingual Method.
Ghaith (2003) investigated the effects of cooperative learning on reading achievement,
academic self-esteem, and feelings of school alienation. The participants were 56 high
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school Lebanese EFL learners studying at a private school in Beirut. The result revealed
that there were no significant differences between control and experimental groups
regarding the dependent variables of academic self-esteem and feelings of school
alienation. However, the results revealed that the reading achievement of EFL learners
improved significantly as a result of implementing cooperative learning. Similarly, Jacobs
and Hannah (2004), in integrating cooperative learning techniques with reading aloud,
found that not only can they promote language learning, but they also promote active
citizenship.
Almaguer (2005) studied the effects of cooperative learning on reading fluency and
comprehension of 80 third grade English language learners in south Texas. Analysis of
data through covariance revealed that peer assisted reading strategy improves reading
achievement.
Apple (2006) holds that cooperative techniques make EFL learners to be more active in the
language classroom. Cooperative learning allows them to use language in different ways.
Cooperative learning creates more effective classroom climate in which collaboration
towards a common goal plays an important role in emotional and linguistic development.
In much the same vein, Faryadi (2007) compared the effect of cooperative learning with
individual learning and concluded that cooperative learning enhances learners' emotional
and social performance and improves their academic accomplishment dramatically. In
addition, Adeyemi (2008) found that students exposed to cooperative learning strategies
performed better than their counterparts in the other groups.
Mohammadi and Salimzadeh (2009) investigated the effects of cooperative learning
strategy training on reading comprehension and motivation of 72 Iranian intermediate EFL
learners and found statistically significant differences between control and experimental
groups.
However, Abu and Flower (1997) found no significant difference between cooperative
learning and competitive learning in home economic subject. In a similar study, Sachs et al,
(1997) compared the cooperative learning method (STAD) with competitive learning to
determine the effect of cooperative learning on academic achievement of content
knowledge, retention and attitudes toward the teaching method and found no significant
difference in students' attitude towards the teaching methods.
These studies have focused on a wide range of dependent variables, including
achievement and productivity, motivation to achieve, intellectual conflict, social support,
self-esteem, and psychological health. According to these studies, cooperative learning is a
cost-effective instructional method and consistently contributes to higher achievement and
retention, deeper-level understanding, higher-level reasoning, greater motivation to learn,
and positive interpersonal relationships among students. From these studies, it is clearly
understood that the more students work in cooperative learning groups, the better they
will learn, the easier the retention of the material will be, and the better they will feel about
themselves, the class, and their classmates. The aim of the present study is to see which of
the two cooperative learning models identified in the above-mentioned studies is more
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effective for elementary and advanced level Iranian learners' reading comprehension and
vocabulary learning.
3. Method
3.1. Participants
The participants of the present study were 132 female English language learners at the
National Institute of English Language (NIEL) in Takestan, Iran. The sample included 72
participants at elementary level and 60 participants at advanced level. The age of the
participants ranged from 15-25.
3.2. Instruments
In order to investigate the effects of two models of cooperative learning, namely STAD and
CIRC, on reading comprehension and vocabulary learning at elementary and advanced
levels, several instruments were used, including: (a) a Michigan English proficiency test,
(b) instructional materials used during treatment, and (c) a post-test.
The first testing instrument was Examination for the Certificate of Competency in English
(ECCE), 2009 Sample Test, University of Michigan. It contained 34 items of vocabulary and
3 reading comprehension passages containing a total of 30 items, all in a multiple-choice
format. This test aimed at controlling the proficiency level of the participants.
The course book taught in the institute was the fifth edition of NIEL series by Horri (2000).
For elementary level 'Book Four' and for advanced level 'Book Ten' were used.
The post-test was made up of a 34-item vocabulary section and three reading
comprehension passages containing a total of 30 items, all in a multiple-choice format.
3.3. Procedures
A week prior to the treatment, the ECCE test was administered as a measure of
homogeneity. After scoring the pre-test, students were ranked based on their performance
and then cooperative groups were formed. In each class at advanced level, the five
students who scored highest on the pre-test were identified as high achievers and the five
students who scored lowest were considered as low-achievers; at the elementary level, six
students were identified as high-achievers and six as low-achievers. The remaining
students were identified as average-achievers. The students were assigned to groups using
the following formula: one high-achiever was grouped with one low-achiever and two
average-achievers. The rationale for this type of grouping was that it would provide
opportunities for learners to peer-tutor and help each other to accomplish the learning
goals. After grouping the students, in STAD and CIRC groups, the procedure was
explained and three passages were read and modeled.
In STAD, students were assigned to four-member learning teams. The teacher presented a
lesson, and then students worked within their teams to make sure that all team members
had mastered the lesson. Finally, students took individual quizzes on the material in
which they could not help one another. Students‘ quiz scores were compared to their own
past averages, and points based on the degree to which students met or exceeded their
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own earlier performance were awarded. These points were then summed to form team
scores, and teams that met the assigned criteria were rewarded. Then, they sat for weekly
quizzes, and their quiz performance was added to their final performance.
In the CIRC group, the participants were asked to follow the four phases of Cooperative
Strategic Reading (CSR). And they were asked to write a summary for each passage and
fill in the pre-reading and post-reading sheets. Each session included five steps for any
strategy as Duffy (2009) used. They were (1) lesson introduction (2) modeling the thinking
(3) scaffolded assistance, extensive teacher help, less teacher help, no teacher help (4)
application in reading (5) application in writing.
Every session, learners were supposed to read and discuss a reading assignment. In the
CIRC class, they were supposed to make sentences with new words and write a summary
for each text. In both STAD and CIRC groups, the participants were supposed to interact
with groupmates, share ideas with each other, and help each other to accomplish the
common goal. They read each paragraph and did the four phases of Cooperative Strategic
Reading (CSR). For new words in each text, they were asked to scan the paragraph for the
new words, and to detect or guess the meaning from context. If students needed help, they
were asked to look up the words in their monolingual dictionaries at advanced levels and
bilingualized dictionaries at the elementary levels.
During the treatment sessions, while students worked in their groups, the teacher walked
around to ensure that everyone did well. He provided assistance when it was needed
while they were working together. At the end of the experimental period, the post-test was
administered to all groups. To answer each of the research questions, a one-way ANOVA
procedure was used.
4. Results and Discussions
4.1. Investigation of the First Question
The first research question sought to investigate the effects of 'CIRC', STAD and noncooperative learning methods on the reading comprehension of elementary level Iranian
learners. To do so, a one-way ANOVA procedure was used. Descriptive statistics are
summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Descriptive Statistics for ANOVA on elementary learners' reading
comprehension
Models
CIRC
STAD
NON.CL
Total
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N
24
24
24
72
Mean
21.50
20.91
18.79
20.40
SD
2.87
3.34
3.05
3.27
Std. Error
.58
.68
.62
.38
Min
16
16
14
14
Max
27
28
25
28
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A glance at Table 1 shows that the CIRC group has the highest mean, followed closely by
STAD. The mean score of the non-cooperative learning method is noticeably lower than
the other groups. To see whether or not the differences are statistically significant, the oneway ANOVA procedure was utilized, yielding the following results:
Table 2. ANOVA on elementary learners' reading comprehension
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Sum
of
Squares
df
Mean
Square
F
Sig.
97.52
661.79
759.31
2
69
71
48.76
9.59
5.08
.009
Table 2 clearly indicates that the differences among the three groups are statistically
significant. In order to locate the statistically significant differences between the means, a
post-hoc comparisons of pairs of means (the scheffe test) was used. Results of the post hoc
comparisons are summarized in Table 3:
Table 3. Multiple comparisons of means for elementary learners' reading
comprehension
(I) model
(J) model
Mean
Std.
Sig.
Difference (I-J) Error
CIRC
STAD
.58
.89
.80
STAD
NON.CL
2.12
.89
.06
NON.CL
CIRC
-2.70 *
.89
.01
*. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.
As it can be seen from Table 3, there is only a significant difference between the CIRC and
the non-cooperative groups, with the CIRC group being significantly better than the noncooperative group.
4.2. Investigation of the Second Question
The aim of the second question was to investigate the effects of CIRC, STAD, and the noncooperative methods on the reading comprehension of advanced level Iranian learners. To
this end, another one-way ANOVA was used. Table 4 contains the descriptive statistics:
Table 4. Descriptive Statistics for the ANOVA on the advanced Learners' reading
comprehension
Model
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N
Mean
Std.
Deviatio
n
Std.
Error
Mi
n
Ma
x
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CIRC
STAD
NON.CL
20
20
20
20.65
20.45
19.80
1.98
2.76
2.39
.44
.61
.53
17
16
16
24
26
25
Total
60
20.30
2.38
.30
16
26
It can be seen from Table 4 that there are no substantial differences among the means of
the three methods. Still, the ANOVA was utilized to see the extent to which the observed
differences among the groups are statistically significant. The results are presented in
Table 5.
Table 5. ANOVA Results on the advanced Learners' reading comprehension
Between
Groups
Within Groups
Total
Sum of
Squares
7.90
df
2
Mean
Square
3.95
328.70
57
5.76
336.60
59
F
Sig.
.685
.50
As it can be seen Table 5, the observed F value and the significance level are indicative of
no significant differences among the groups.
4.3. Investigation of the Third Question
The third research question investigated the effects of the afore-mentioned three methods
on the vocabulary learning of elementary level Iranian learners. To find the answer,
another one-way ANOVA was used. Table 6 contains the descriptive statistics:
Table 6. Descriptive Statistics for ANOVA on elementary learners' vocabulary learning
Model
N Mea
Sd
Std.
Mi
Max
n
Erro n
r
CIRC
4
21.04 2.59
.52
17
27
STAD
4
20.79 3.17
.64
15
20
NON.CL
4
18.79 2.78
.56
15
24
Total
2
20.20 2.99
.35
15
27
A glance at Table 6 shows that the CIRC group has the highest mean, followed closely by
the STAD group. The mean score of the non-cooperative learning method is noticeably
lower than the other groups. To see whether or not the observed differences are
statistically significant, the one-way ANOVA procedure was utilized, yielding the
following results:
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Table 7. Results of ANOVA on elementary Learners' vocabulary learning
Sum
of
Squares
df
Mean
Square
F
Sig.
Between Groups
73
2
36
4.5
.015
Within Groups
564
69
8
Total
637
71
Table 7 is indicative of significant differences among the means. The post-hoc comparisons
of means helped locate the differences as shown in the following table:
Table 8. Multiple Comparisons of Means for the elementary Learners' vocabulary
learning
(I) model
(J) model
Mean Difference Std.
(I-J)
Error
CIRC
STAD
.25
.82
STAD
NON-CL
2.00
.82
NON-CL
CIRC
-2.25 *
.82
*. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.
Sig.
.955
.060
.029
As it can be seen from Table 8, the only significant difference is between the CIRC and the
non-cooperative groups.
4.4. Investigation of the Fourth Question
The aim of the fourth question was to investigate the effects of CIRC, STAD, and noncooperative methods on the vocabulary learning of advanced level Iranian learners. To this
end, another one-way ANOVA was used. Table 9 contains the descriptive statistics:
N
Mean
Std.
Std.
Min Max
Deviation
Error
CIRC
20
20.45
2.99
.67
15
26
STAD
20
19.75
2.98
.66
14
25
NON.CL
20
18.45
2.76
.61
15
24
Total
60
19.55
2.98
.38
14
26
Table 9.Descriptive Statistics for ANOVA on advanced Learners' vocabulary learning
To see whether or not the observed differences among the means are statistically
significant, the one-way ANOVA procedure was utilized, yielding the following results:
Table 10. Results of the ANOVA on the advanced Learners' vocabulary learning
Between Groups
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Sum of
Squares
41.2
df
2
Mean
Square
20.60
F
Sig.
2.41
.09
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Within Groups
Total
485
526
57
59
8.52
Table 10 indicates that there are no significant differences among the effects of the three
methods on the vocabulary learning of advanced level Iranian learners.
These results lend partial support to previous claims for the efficacy of cooperative
learning methods. As Dutson (2001), Goerge (1994), Ghokhale (1995), and Liang (2002)
report, cooperative learning has positive impacts on the learners' achievement gains and is
much better than traditional teaching methods. It seems that integrating reading and
writing in CIRC model makes reading comprehension deeper and the classroom climate
more friendly and enjoyable. Providing positive interdependence situation among
elementary groups is the key point in making cooperative learning successful.
As to the second research question, results indicate that there are no significant differences
among the effects of CIRC, STAD and non-cooperative learning methods on the reading
comprehension of advanced level Iranian learners. This may be because students in
advanced level often modify the participant pattern or social organization of the tasks set
up by the teacher and this reduces the probability of success of cooperative learning
implementation.
With regard to the third research question, it turned out that the elementary students
receiving CIRC performed significantly better than the comparison group, noncooperative learning, on their vocabulary post-test. These results lend support to previous
claims for the efficacy of cooperative learning methods (Jacob et al, 1996 and Pica et al,
1996). The result of this study is consistent with the main findings of Lee (2003) that in
cooperative learning classes, students learn more vocabulary than traditional one. This
could be partially accounted for by the fact that CIRC requires the learners to write a
summary or story about each reading, and this improves their reading comprehension and
vocabulary.
While cooperative learning was not found to be more effective than non-cooperative
learning with respect to advanced students' reading comprehension and vocabulary
learning in this study, the literature suggests there may be additional reasons to use
cooperative learning. Certainly, the ability to work with others within a group and to
develop interpersonal skills may be justifications for using cooperative learning strategies.
Based on the data analysis, it can be concluded that cooperative learning models have
positive effects on the learners' reading comprehension and vocabulary learning at
elementary levels. The main reason possibly lies in meaning-focused output features of
this model. However, it needs to be noted that cooperative learning in its many methods
and forms is not the solution to all second language learning problems.
Although cooperative learning did not seem to reach its full potential in advanced level
classes, this does not mean that cooperative learning cannot provide a rich environment
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for second language acquisition. Cooperative learning is not a silver bullet; nor does it
deserve to be one that is tossed out when it doesn‘t work. It is a potentially powerful
instruction strategy that requires careful attention. In implementing cooperative learning
contextual factors and cultural resistance should be taken into account.
In conclusion, cooperative learning is not fully explored and much more research needs to
be done. Clearly, however, it can be a very useful instructional strategy when used
effectively and in conjunction with other teaching methods.
The findings of the present study can have implications not only for teachers and learners,
but also for syllabus designers. The selection and implementation of the appropriate kinds
of pair and group work exercises can make cooperation easier. The knowledge of the
nature of the effect of such material enables syllabus designers to prepare textbooks and to
present materials in a way which can facilitate and improve the learners' receptive as well
as productive knowledge.
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Adeyemi, A. B. (2008). Effects of cooperative learning and problem solving strategies on
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Allen, F.V. (1983). Techniques in teaching vocabulary. Oxford: OUP.
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Faryadi, Q. ( 2007). Enlightening Advantages of Cooperative Learning. Retr ieved
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Grabe, W. (1991).Current developments in second language reading research.TESOL, 25
(3), 375-406.
Harmer, J. (2007).How to teach English. England: Pearson Education Ltd.
Heydari, L. F., & Gorjian, B. (2009). The impact of Iranian learners' awareness of
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learners. Paper presented at 7th international TELLSI, Yazd, Iran.
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Jacobs, G., & Hannah, D. (2004). Combining cooperative learning with reading aloud by
teachers. International Journal of English Studies, 4 (1), 97-117.
Johnson, D.W., & Johnson, R. (2002).Cooperative Learning and Social Interdependence
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Keyser, W. M. (2000). Active learning and cooperative learning: understanding the
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vocabulary instruction. System, 31, 537-561.
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Madden, N. (2004). Cooperative integrated reading and composition. Success for all
Foundation 200 W. Towson town Blvd. Baltimore, MD 21204, (410) 616-2330.Retrieved
September 19, 2009, from www.successforall.net.
Mohammmadi, M., & Salimzadeh, R. (2009).The effect of cooperative learning strategy
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Oxford, R. (1997). Cooperative learning, collaborative learning and interaction: Three
communicative strands in the language classroom. Modern Language, 81(4), 443-456.
Pica, T., Porter, L. E., Paninos, D, & Linneil, J. (1996). Language learners' interaction: How
does it address the input, output, and feedback needs of L2 learners? TESOL, 30 (1), 59-80.
Sachs, T. G., Candlin, N. C., & Rose, R. K. (2003). Learner Behaviour and Language
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MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY OR NATIVE-LIKE
PROFICIENCY? IRANIAN TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES
TOWARD IMPLEMENTING A L2
PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH
Rezvan Khazaee
M.A student of TEFL at Tarbiat Modares University
R.khazaee@live.com
ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on the growth of English as an International
language and its impact on the speakers and learners of this
language. Today, non-native speakers of English have
outnumbered native speakers and the desire for native-like
proficiency is at its weakest point, in addition, trends concentrating
on non-native precision and mutual intelligibility are flourishing.
Twelve Iranian teachers with diverse teaching experiences have
participated in this study. They are interviewed about their current
views regarding the localization of English pronunciation; the
results, however, show contradictory consequences, the majority of
the participants are against implementing a L2 pronunciation of
English, in other words, Persian-English. Finally, explanations for
such outlooks and implications for teaching are mentioned.
“Don’t speak English, parlez Globish!”
Jean-Paul Nerriere; in his book ―Globish, the World Over‖
1. Introduction
English use has grown in the preceding decades. In 1985, Braj Kachru anticipated that
there were between 320 and 380 million people speaking English as a first language and
anywhere between 250 and 380 million speakers of English as a second language, but he
had already foretold that this stability might change (Harmer, 2007). This is evident in the
quote above by Nerriere, a retired vice-president of IBM in the United States, who coined
the word ―Globish‖ and constructed a simple, pragmatic form of English. It includes a
vocabulary limited to 1,500 words, short sentences, basic syntax, an absence of idiomatic
expressions and extensive hand gestures to get the point across (2009). This automatically
degrades the use of native-like accent by non-native speakers of English. We can even
consider Globish as a new version of English as a lingua franca. In accordance with
Kachru, Graddol also predicted that the balance between native and non-native speakers
of English has changed with L2 speakers overtaking L1 speakers (1999). Therefore, we
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have reached a point in which non-native speakers of English have outperformed the
native speakers of this language. McKay (2003) also stressed the fact that English has
relatively turned out to be a lingua franca, and it has achieved this state not because of the
growth of native speakers but rather because of an increase in the number of individuals
who have learnt this language as their second or additional language.
Initially, migration was the main reason for the spread and development of English that
resulted in the development of monolingual communities (McKay 2003); conversely, BruttGriffler (2002) argues that migration is no longer the main cause of language spread and
mentions the fact that language spreads through macroacqusition. Learners of English
have various goals for acquiring this language, which among them purposes such as trade,
economic development, scientific advancement, and introducing their country and culture
can be noted. The question arises here that how should English be taught to this vast
developing L2 speaker of English?
Research is still not inclusive of whether the native or non-native teacher is a better choice
for L2 learners of English; nevertheless it is apparent that native teachers cannot empathize
with students in the learning process (Moussu & Llurda 2008). Regarding the teaching of
pronunciation, the main issue of this paper, it is believed that now that English has become
a global language, the tactic assumption is that we should focus on intelligibility. But to
whom should they be intelligible? Most of the work done to date has assumed that
intelligibility means intelligibility to a native speaker (Taylor 1991). However, as
previously mentioned, the vast number of non-native speakers of English has falsified this
statement to the circumstance that this assumption is no longer valid. Correct
pronunciations, to some, is concealed within a native-like proficiency and successful
imitations of native speakers regarding tone, pitch, and correct pronunciation of sounds; as
for others, being comprehensible, in other words, ―getting the message across‖ is regarded
sufficient, even if correct pronunciation is not followed. This idea favors mutual
intelligibility over native-like proficiency among non-native speakers of English. This
paper will focus on different ways of teaching English pronunciation, the Iranian teacher‘s
attitudes towards the global implementation of English pronunciation, and whether they
believe English pronunciation should have mutual intelligibility or be closer to a nativelike accent.
2. Literature Review
The vast majority of pronunciation research is concentrated on the premise that learners
need to understand and be understood by native speakers of the language (Settler &
Jenkins 2005). However, this is not always the case since the large majority of English
speakers are non-natives of the language, and research has shown that there is more
interaction between L2 speakers than there is with actual L1 speakers of English. Hence,
Settler & Jenkins made a distinction between foreign language and international language.
In foreign language, interaction takes place between a native speaker and a non-native
speaker, whereas in the international language the interaction is more typically between
the non-native speakers and the main goal of EIL (English as an international language) is
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focused on the role of pronunciation in promoting and obstructing intelligibility. Below is
a statement on teaching pronunciation by Leather (1983: p.198) cited in Taylor (1991).
It has been said that only spies need truly native-like accents, and only teachers of me need
to be near to natives. For the majority of school and non-specialist adult learners, a
reasonable goal is to be ―comfortably intelligible‖ and to sound socially acceptable.
McKay (2003) also agrees on this and mentions that bilingual speakers of English have
different purposes for using English than monolinguals, so it is unjustified to suppose
bilingual speakers necessarily want or need to achieve a native-like competence. Sridhar
and Sridhar (1994, p.45) cited in McKay (2003) believe that many varieties of English (e.g.
Indian English, Nigerian English) clearly reject the native-like competence, which they
regard as ―distasteful and pedantic‖ or ―affected or even snobbish‖; furthermore, learners
receive input that is poor in quality and amount; thus, they cannot build the necessary
repertoire to acquire the language in its native-like manner. The question arises here that
how do Iranian teachers react towards this native-like competence? Do they fully receive it
or intentionally discard it? I will focus on this question in the following sections.
In accordance with the native-like proficiency, Canagarajah (1999) argues that the
Chomsky‘s ―native speaker of a homogeneous speech community‖ is an unrealistic
construct. He goes on by saying that ―in the hybrid post-colonial age we live today, one
has to develop the heteroglossic competence to cope with the realities if language
diversity, contact and mixing‖ (p.79). Therefore imposing a native speaker fallacy on nonnative speakers of the outer circle (see Kachru, 1987) is unconvincing; hence, we should
put aside the native speaker fallacy and adopt a broader perspective in which non-native
speakers of English are compared with their own group rather with native speakers of
English in which they have no intention of getting close to. McKay adds to this by
indicating that an acceptance of a native speaker fallacy will underline a narrow definition
of expertise and will grant a great deal of prestige to native-like pronunciation and
intuition (2003), which then again apparently has no desired use for many non-natives.
As mentioned before, mutual intelligibility seems to be more vital in pronunciation than
native-like competence. Jenkins (1998) conducted a research in which her aims were to
discovery exactly what features of British or American pronunciations are essential for
intelligible pronunciation; in other words, she sought out to explore elements that made
speech meaningful and above all comprehensible when perceived by native speakers.
Among the results achieved from Jenkins‘ study were the following:
• All the consonants are important except for 'th' sounds as in 'thin' and 'this'
• Consonant clusters are important at the beginning and in the middle of words. For
example, the cluster in the word 'string' cannot be simplified to 'sting' or 'tring' and remain
intelligible.
• The contrast between long and short vowels is important. For example, the difference
between the vowel sounds in 'sit' and seat'
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• Nuclear (or tonic) stress is also essential. This is the stress on the most important word
(or syllable) in a group of words. For example, there is a difference in meaning between
'My son uses a COMputer', which is a neutral statement of fact and 'My SON has a
computer', where there is an added meaning (such as that another person known to the
speaker and listener does not use a computer).
All these things are said to be important for a native speaker listener either because they
aid intelligibility, or because they are thought to make an accent more appropriate. In
another case, more specifically focusing on Persian speakers; Sharifian (2010) describes the
emerging variety of English in Iran into two distinctive groups. The first group is those
who follow either a British Received Pronunciation (RP) or American English in terms of
phonology and grammar depending on the variety, which the speaker was exposed to
either at schools or institutions, they will try to imitate it. Another group consists of those
whose pronunciation includes phonetic features that are quite similar to the sound system
of the Persian language. For example, /d/ is likely to be pronounced as dental rather than
alveolar. This dental /d/ may also be used to pronounce /ð/ sounds in English; and also
there are many incorrect stress patterns imposed on wrong syllables.
Elaborating on Sharifian‘s dichotomy of Persian speakers, one group of Iranian speakers or
better said teachers, for the purpose of our study, have a native-like accent or a very close
resemblance of it. This may be because of their residence in foreign countries or their
unique ability in speaking like British or American people. The other group, however,
have a noticeable non-native accent, in other words their pronunciation ―gives them
away‖. This group can by itself be divided into two sub-groups. One group accepts their
non-native accent and concentrates on other parts of their language ability such as
language structure and vocabulary. This is the group which has perceived that a
pronunciation should be mutually intelligent rather than following the norms of the native
pronunciation (e.g. intonation, stress etc.) The other group, however, focuses on the
demise that having correct pronunciation in terms of native-like accuracy is essential and
fundamental. These are groups who engage in reading books and listening to
pronunciation CDs and tapes that foster and teach the native pronunciation of sounds in
words. It is believed that a very small number of these L2 learners will eventually succeed
in acquiring native-like proficiency in English pronunciation. This can be due to various
reasons such as environmental factors and the Critical Age Hypothesis (see: Lenenberg,
1967). In this regard Canagarajah notes:
Many periphery professionals feel compelled to spend undue time repairing their
pronunciation or performing other cosmetic changes to sound native. Their predominant
concern is in effect ―How can I lose my accent?‖ rather than ―How can I be a successful
teacher?‖ The anxiety and inhibitions about their pronunciations can make them lose their
grip on the instructional process or lack rapport with their students (1999, p. 84 -5).
The question arises here that how should pronunciation be adapted in an Iranian
educational context, and what are the views of teachers in implementing a global
pronunciation of English that favors mutual intelligibility over native-like proficiency. In
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order to reach an answer a research was conducted on 12 Iranian teachers focusing on
their views regarding ―Persian English.‖
3. Participants
The participants of this study are 12 teachers of both genders teaching in all levels of
English from beginners to advance. The average age and years of teaching experience of
this group is 25 5, respectively. Almost all participants have teaching experiences and have
taught in institutes and schools throughout Tehran or other cities of Iran. All participants
have a degree in English, either teaching, literature or translation studies and they are
students or holders of a Master‘s degree in the mentioned fields. The participants are
categorized from A to L, from ―A‖ being less experienced to ―L‖ having the most
experience in English language teaching.
4. Instrumentation
I decided to pick an in-depth interview as my main source of data collection. I believe that
I can enter the live experience of the person in a more emphatic way. The interview
consisted of 4 general questions and 13 specific questions (see Appendix). General
questions requested information regarding age, education, level and years of English
teaching. Specific question more explicitly focused on questions regarding the subject
matter and their opinions concerning English pronunciation. The exact time of each
interview varied between 5 to 15 minutes depending on the participant‘s desire to speak.
Participants showed wide variation in terms of their knowledge of ELF (English as a
Lingua Franca) or EIL (English as an International Language). Some were familiar with the
terms while others were completely unknown to it. Regarding their prior knowledge of
ELF or EIL, participants had different attitudes towards native and non-native accents and
a willingness to teach ELF accents in practice. All interviews were recorded, transcribed
and coded based on the participants teaching experiences; furthermore, they were
categorized according to two larger themes that emerged as a result of the study (Table 1 next page).
Table 1. Interview Data Analysis Framework
Accent attitudes
Attitude to own English accent
Desire for native-like accent
Perceived attitudes of others to participant‘s accent/ L1 accent group
Participant‘s attitudes toward other NNS English accents (own group/ other
groups)
Beliefs about accent hierarchies and status
Perceived effects of experiences (educational and social) on accent attitudes
Teaching ELF/EIL or localized accents
Desire to teach their local regional L2 accent as the norm
Perception of colleagues‘ desire to teach local regional L2 accent as the norm
Perception of effect of learning about EFL/EIL accents on teacher‘s attitudes
towards and desire to teach such accents
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5. Findings
Accent Attitudes
All participants had different views regarding their own pronunciation and its degree of
correctness. Some were not sure about their pronunciation and believed it is decent
enough to be able to teach English. One participant responded quite negatively when
asked how they liked their accent:
―I‘m not satisfied with my pronunciation, I do my best, and my phonological system has
become accustomed to pronounce words in its Persian way (B)‖
Two other participants were completely satisfied with their pronunciation:
―I believe my accent is quite good actually, it is fluent and close to American English and
above all my students love it! (J)‖
―My accent may not be 100% appealing to native speakers, but it is proper English, at least
communicative, and I‘m happy with it (F)‖
There were also contradictory responses considering how they would feel if they were
detected as a non-native speaker of English at first sight. Some responded that did not
mind while others felt humiliated and left out if perceived as a non-native. Below are some
of the participant‘s responses regarding this matter:
―I don‘t want to be regarded as a native speaker; I see no good in it. I have my own
language and English is only a means for me (H)‖
―I hate it if I‘m detected as a non-native speaker. It‘s better not to be as accent matters to
me. It is a personal idea. I am borrowing a language, therefore, I have to be loyal to that
language and I should pronounce it the ‗right way‘ (E)‖
―Absolutely! It is fine with me to be a non-native speaker. This is the truth I have never
tried to contradict! (I)‖
On the contrary it was asked how they would feel if others thought they were native
speakers of English, below are interesting results:
―I am a nationalist. I would prefer to be known as a non-native speaker (F)‖
―I‘d be happy to be understood as a native speaker, this would mean a sense of
accomplishment as a successful language learner (G)‖
―I would feel like a million bucks! (L)‖
―It is much better for English teachers to be natives and thought of as natives. This will
give them confidence in their teaching (J)‖
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Participant (J) previously mentioned that she believed her accent was fluent and
appealing; she also said that English teachers should at least have some experience of
living abroad and carried on by wishing she too could have lived in America or England
for a few years. She believed her slight Persian-English accent damaged her teaching
abilities and reduced her self-esteem. This 23 year old teacher believed that a native accent
would bring her greater success in her future career. This contradicts with another
participant; (F) mentioned before that being comprehensive is sufficient and native-like
proficiency is no merit for an English teacher. There are differing results regarding how
the participants felt towards other varieties of English. Some said the varieties of English
have a language system of their own (H); participant G added ―personally, I prefer to have
a native-like accent and try to follow correct pronunciation patterns, but for others, it‘s
none of my business as far as I don‘t have problems understanding them‖ participant (I)
also agreed on this statement and said as far as mutual intelligibility was respected he did
not mind, and added by saying ―I sometimes admire them more than I admire native
speakers!‖ Participants (A) and (J) also agreed on this. However, (B) and (C) strictly
degraded the diverse varieties of English. ―I hate the varieties of English, especially Indian
English, they change the words to their own benefit; it is entirely incomprehensible‖ (B);
and ―the stress patterns change with Indian English, so I cannot understand much of it; I
would rather listen to a group of Africans speaking their local language!‖ (C). However,
one should note that the principals of EIL value these miscellaneous systems of speech and
they are rightfully confirmed as branches of English, but we can see here that not all
Iranian teachers appeal to this.
Effects of perceived experiences are reflected in question 7 and 8. The participants were
asked if they had ever encountered a bad experience in their teaching and blamed their
accent for that error. Participant (C) who teaches children and lower intermediate learners
assumed that children are not capable of distinguishing a correct English pronunciation ,
and there were times when she had pronounced a word incorrectly with no child realizing
her error. Most participants recollected different experiences they have had in their
classrooms. Below are two recalled pronunciation mistakes by participants (A, B, and L) :
―I once had difficulty in pronouncing the name ‗Malaysia‘ I was unaware of the /ʤ/ sound
so I pronounced it /malezi/ exactly how we would say it in Persian. It was then when I
realized I had serious pronunciation problems (A).‖
―I was reading a passage from an English book when I encountered a name, which
sounded very much like a taboo word in Persian. I had a hard time changing the
pronunciation of that word for it to sound more appropriate for the context of the class
(B).‖
―I always had difficulty with pronouncing ‗th‘ sounds. These sounds gave me anxiety.
And when I did pronounce them, they would sound very odd. Believe it or not a pupil of
mine pronounced these sounds perfectly and he encouraged me to practice, and practice
made perfect! (L)‖
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Recalling an experience, especially after many years, would propose that such events have
a great influence on the formation of pronunciation attitudes and the development of a
correct accent (Jenkins, 2005). Question 8 focused on how participants were understood by
their students and whether their students were happy about their pronunciation and
accent. Almost everyone answered that they had not received any complaints regarding
this matter.
Teaching Localized Accents
Asked whether they would teach their students a pronunciation model based on their local
L2 accent, in other words, the Persian-English, most participants said they would not be
happy to do so. However, two (F and J) favored localization; participant (F) believed that
localizing the speaking contents is fine as long as it is intelligible and ―I see no problem
with it.‖ (J) Also agreed with local accents in teaching and added ―it‘s a trend nowadays, I
approve it, and the majority of the teachers will accept it if it is presented well.‖ However,
the results of this study are contrary to this view. The majority of teachers, who
participated in this study, were against the act of localization. Although three participants
(C, K, and I) were not exact on their views of promoting a L2 pronunciation of English,
participants (A, B, G, E, D, H, and L) however familiar with EFL were strongly against the
idea. Below are some of their thoughts:
―My opinion is against this….it is better to speak in the native language, I mean they can
act as models, then we can imitate from them. We don‘t have to speak exactly like them;
they can function as models (A).‖
―I agree with instances of foreigner talk, what they call it as Farsi English (sic), but only at
times. Native speakers are our models, but I believe varieties of English should be taught
once in a while (B).‖
―We have to go with the native accent to end up with the so-called ‗international accent‘
(E).‖
―Such ideas are only theories, they are not applicable, and the results will be messy! (F).‖
―It is impossible; I will not follow such an idea in my classrooms. I‘m sure the students will
want ‗correct‘ pronunciations (L).‖
Participant (C), who had a slightly neutral idea towards the problem in hand, believed that
the outcome of the course is very important. If the main desire of the students is traveling
abroad and foreign accommodation, then we should promote native-like proficiency,
however, if our classes are only for internal use then a L2 accent will be sufficient.
Accordingly, the majority of the teachers were against the insertion of L2 or ELF
pronunciation; instead, they agreed upon the promotion of the native accent in their
classrooms. Participant (E) made an interesting remark; he believed that nowadays in our
institutes, we teach books that encourage American English, we teach students dialogs that
are read by native Americans; therefore, we end up with the Persian-English accent that is
at least a good result; but if we start teaching with the local accents, then ―God knows
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what the final product will be.‖ What emerges from the participants points of view is the
belief that localizing English pronunciations stands a little chance of being adopted even
by teachers who understand the concept unless it becomes legitimized by the whole
system of education and taught in teacher training courses. A number of participants
believed that non-native speakers lack a sense of confidence in their speaking, especially
among Iranian students and this may be an irresolvable issue in promoting a L2
pronunciation in English.
CONCLUSION
What was initially mentioned in this paper as mutual intelligibility and native-like
proficiency and the incline toward mutual intelligibility was to some extent precluded in
this study. The eleven participant of this study, who all benefited from high education,
disregarded the matter of promoting a Persian-English pronunciation of English. In my
initial interpretation, I supposed that those participants who had decent and errorless
pronunciations and perfect accents will not favor a localized accent, apart from minor
exceptions, this was true. The two participants who favored localization and the three who
were not sure demanded to retain their L1 identity in their classrooms and were happy to
be considered as non-natives within a native society; on the contrary, those who were
against the idea, though many of them did not have a perfect or near perfect native-like
proficiency in pronunciation, admired the native accent of what Bamgbose (1998, p.7) calls
a ―a love-hate relationship‖ with English: ―admiration for the native accent, even by those
who would rather not use it‖ (cited in Jenkins 2005). What they may have supposed is that
a native accent would bring along prestige, confidence, and a sense of achievement, whilst
a non-native accent would be degrading and corrupt. Deciding upon whether focusing
either on mutual intelligibility or native-like proficiency in Iranian English classrooms
would require more exploration. For now at least, we have allowed the participants of this
study, though a very small majority of the overall teachers of Iran, to reflect on the roots of
their uncertainty and contradictions regarding this issue.
There are a number of implications for English teaching in this study, among them
learners should be given a choice to choose whether to focus on native accents or focus on
more mutual pronunciations suitable for the international contexts. This would depend on
their current conditions and the final outcome of their learning. Also teachers should allow
more instances of local accents and additional varieties of English other than PersianEnglish in their classrooms. For EIL, this is much more important than having classroom
exposure to native speaker accents. And finally teachers should attain an open perspective
towards the Persian-English accent, we should remember that English is not our native
language, therefore, Persian-English and mutual intelligibility should be credited in
Iranian English classrooms.
References
Bamgbose, A. 1998.Torn between the norms: Innovations in World Englishes. World Englishes.
17 1-4
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Brutt-Griffle, J. 2002.World English: a study of its development. Clevedon: Multilingual
matters.
Canagarajah, A.S. 1999. Interrogating the ‗native speaker fallacy‘: Non-linguistic roots,
non-pedagogical results. In G. Braine (ed.) Non-Native Educators in English
LanguageTeaching.77–92. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Graddol, D. 1999. The decline of the native speaker. In D. Graddol and U. Meinhof (Eds.)
English in a changing world.57–68. United Kingdom: AILA Review.
Harmer, J. 2007.The practice of English language teaching. (4 thed.). London: Longman.
Jenkins, J. 2002. Global English and the teaching of pronunciation. Retrieved July 29th 2011
from: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/global-english-teaching-pronunciation
Jenkins, J. 2005. Implementing an international approach to English pronunciation: The role of
teacher attitudes and identity. TESOL Quarterly 39(5) 535-543
Kachru, B.B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English
language in the outer circle. In R. Quirk and H. Widdowson (Eds.), English in the world:
Teaching and learning the language and literatures. 11-36. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Leather, J. 1983.Second language pronunciation and teaching. Language Teaching. 16(3) 198219
Lenneberg, E.H. 1967. Biological Foundations of Language. New York: Wiley
Mckay, S. 2003. Toward an appropriate EIL pedagogy: re-examining common ELT assumptions.
International journal of applied linguistics. 13(1) 2-22
Moussu, L. & Llurda, E. 2008.Non-native English speaking English language teachers, history
and research: State-of-the-art article. Language Teaching. 41(3) 315-348
Setter, J & Jenkins, J. 2005.Teaching pronunciation: A state of the art review. Language Teaching
17(1) 1-17
Sharifian, F. 2010.Semantic and pragmatic conceptualizations within an emerging variety,
Persian English. In A. Kirkpatrick (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes.442459.New York: Routledge.
Sridhar, SN & K.K. Sridhar, 2004. Indigenized Englishes as second languages: toward a
functional theory of second language acquisition in multilingual context. In R.K. Agnihotri
& A. L. Khanna (Eds.) Second language acquisition: socio-cultural and linguistic aspects of
English in India. London: Sage
Taylor, D. 1991. Who speaks English to whom? The question of teaching English pronunciation
for global communication. System, 19(4) 425-435
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Appendix
General Questions
1. Age.
2. Level of education/degree
3. Years of teaching experience
4. Level of English Teaching
Specific Questions:
1- Tell me a little about the languages you know and speak? Which of them have you
learnt in your childhood?
2- What English accent would you say you have? What makes you think so?
3- Is it ok with you if people realize that you speak English with your NNS English?
4- How would you feel if somebody thought you were a Native speaker of English?
5- What do you think about other NNS of English? Do you approve their accent?
E.g. Indian English?
6- Have you ever been in a situation where you wished you were a native speaker
rather than a non-native speaker?
7- Have you ever had bad experiences in English teaching and you blamed your
accent?
8- Are your students happy with your pronunciation?
9- How do you feel if the goal of teaching English pronunciation would be the L2
pronunciation of English and not its native counterpart?
10- Do you have, if any, native speakers in your workplace? Or have you met any
native speakers in particular?
11- Why do you think some teachers are against the idea of implementing a global
pronunciation of English?
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THE EFFECT OF ACADEMIC STUDY ON
GRAMMAR ATTITUDE, GRAMMAR
MOTIVATION, AND PERCEPTION OF GRAMMAR
RELEVANCE
Hadi Farjami,
Department of English Language and Literature
Semnan University,
Semnan,
Iran.
zzmhadi@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
EFL learners‘ beliefs and feelings about grammar study are
hardly static. One source of change in them is arguably their
academic experience, especially experience with content courses.
This article reports on a study which compared the responses of
62 learners of English Language and Literature to a
questionnaire about their grammar attitudes, beliefs, and their
perception of the relevance of grammar learning to English skills
before and after a substantial number of content courses. The
comparison of pre- and post-experience results, and students‘
responses to a composite interview question showed positive
motivational and attitudinal backwash for academic experience
and content despite their general disillusionment with grammar
teaching in their context. The majority of the learners disagreed
with removing explicit grammar teaching from the curriculum.
They were unchanging in the belief that grammar was key to
language learning and content understanding; they also stayed
motivated and stopped short of giving up their liking for
grammar.
KEY WORD
Academic experience, attitude, content course, grammar
teaching, learners‘ beliefs
1. Introduction
Grammar has been defined and conceptualized in different ways. Moreover, grammar
instruction has taken different status ranging from a central role to staying in the
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background all through. Related to its status, approaches, methods, and techniques used
in teaching grammar have varied so vastly that the categories of form-focused, meaningbased, and integrative can throw only very dim light through the vast spectrum. However,
regardless of conceptualization, degree of visibility in the language program, or treatment
manner, many authorities would insist that formal grammar teaching should be an
important component of language teaching (e.g., Ellis, 2005; Schmidt, 2001; Spada, 1997).
In spite of its centrality, formal grammar instruction has notoriously been the bane of
language teaching. One may frequently find such words as bemoan, drag, dull, and boring
used in the vicinity of the word grammar when students' involvement in learning is
discussed. The ironical situation created by grammar gravity and a widely-supposed
grammar grudge among students urged this researcher to think of the effect that exposure
to reality and experiencing linguistic needs may have on the attitude and beliefs of
learners toward the teaching and learning of English grammar. Moreover, he tried to
probe the effect of academic experience on the perception of relevance of grammar
learning.
2. Attitudes and beliefs in language learning
The shift from teacher directed instruction to learner-centered learning has led to
numerous studies of language learning from learners' perspective. A big share of these
studies relate to learners' beliefs about the nature of language and processes of language
learning (e.g., Cotterall, 1999; Horwitz, 1988; Wenden, 1999; White, 1999). Beliefs according
to Arnold (1999) "act as very strong filters of reality "and can be of enormous influence on
the success of their learning (p. 256-257). Factors which shape thoughts and beliefs include
past experiences, culture, context, and numerous personal factors (Bernat and Gvozdenko,
2005).
Another influential force in language teaching is the linguistic needs of learners. For all its
detail and influence on subsequent needs analysis, Munby‘s Communicative Needs
Processor (Munby, 1978) only produces an unordered list of linguistic features and, as
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) point out, does not consider target needs from different
stand points. It makes no distinctions between necessities and wants. However, students
have definite opinions about their abilities in the various skills and they are able to assess
the importance of related sub-skills to their academic studies, future profession, and social
life (Basturkmen 1998). When the syllabus is also based on their genuine and personally
perceived needs, not just on externally imposed ones, it is likely to be motivating for
learners, who see the obvious relevance of what they are studying (Basturkmen, 2006).
It is hard to overestimate the importance of attitude and genuine interest. If university
teachers are asked what is the most important student characteristic associated with
successful studies, they usually mention traits such as attitude, motivation and interest in
learning (Berg 2005). Cotterall (1999) reviews the published studies of learners' beliefs and
reemphasizes his previous assertion (Cotterall, 1995) that attitudes toward learning and
the perceptions and beliefs which determine them have a profound influence on learning
behavior. It seems that Chawhan and Oliver (2000) are largely justified to say that teacher‘s
comprehensive knowledge of students' beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions of needs
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contributes to a more propitious learning environment and to more effective learning.
Many other researchers (e.g., Graham, 2006; Puchta, 1999) also suggest that teachers
should take students' beliefs into consideration in spite of the difficulty of implementation.
Wenden (1991) calls for attention to be given to person variables such as intentions,
attributions, expectations, perceptions and beliefs about learning abilities, which learners
bring to the classroom.
Moreover, Mantle-Bromley (1995) strongly recommends that "teachers design and
implement lessons on the language learning process that incorporate attitude-change
methods‖ (p.381). At that time, she cautioned, however, that ―we do not yet know enough
about the nature of incoming students‘ beliefs to design effective curricular intervention
addressing those beliefs‖ (p. 377). Yet, about 15 years on, an established tradition of
research on learners‘ beliefs has produced a database rich enough to give practitioners a
strong footing. Attempts have indeed been made in different corner of the globe to put the
suggestion of attitude change into practice. For example, Finch (2008) tried to implement
change in Korean learners‘ attitudes toward language learning by giving them activities
focusing on various issues of foreign language learning and teaching, and out-of-class
individual reflection tasks. His comparison of pre- and post-experience questionnaire
results suggested that raising learners‘ awareness of the learning process leads to positive
modification of the affective factors which drive learning, hence promote effective,
autonomous learning.
3. This Study
In view of the above considerations and in an effort to latch onto what Iranian English
learners think of grammar learning, this researcher tried to get glimpses of the beliefs and
attitudes of typical Iranian learners about the way grammar is taught in their context and
find out how their experience of different content and skills courses affected those
thoughts, beliefs and attitudes. This turns out to be of significance to language teaching
practitioners in view of its relation to issues like motivation, learning strategies, learners‘
autonomy, and the feedback we need in order to develop the right language program and
design the right materials. The need for information on how stable students‘ grammar
"scripts" and attitudes were, how strong their propensity to take action was, and the way
in which these might have changed justified addressing the following questions:
1. How do students perceive their need for grammar?
2. How does learners‘ attitude toward English grammar learning compare before
and after exposure to English medium courses?
3. How does exposure to English medium courses affect learners' views about the
necessity and relevance of learning English grammar?
4. What is the effect of academic experience on the learners‘ motivation for further
grammar study?
5. How are learners' views of the way grammar is treated different after experiencing
English-medium courses from before such courses?
The study was interested in the affective state of learners concerning classroom grammar
learning before and after a period of serious exposure to English–medium content. In
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attempting to answer the questions above, two snapshots of students‘ responses about
grammar learning were obtained at two significantly different points of time in their
academic life.
4. Methodological Notes
4. 1. Participants and their Context
Surveying students from several colleges and universities in Iran would have given this
research better grounds. However, due to practical constraints, coupled with the
apparently true perception that students‘ educational backgrounds, their demographic
profiles, the treatment they receive at university and the courses they do, are similar to a
great extent across English departments in different universities in Iran, the researcher did
the survey on students from the same department, English Language and Literature (ELL)
Department in Semnan University. To add to the population size of the participants and
increase the generalizability of the results, the study was conducted with two entree
batches of ELL students, the earlier batch comprising 8 males and 27 females, the later
batch comprising 20 female and 7 males, totaling 62 participants. The age range of the
learners was 19-22 years at the beginning of the study.
ELL students in Iran enter university to do courses amounting to 134 credits. Of the 134
credits, 18 credits are earned by passing general non-English courses, which can be taken
any time during their study, 42 are basic English skills courses, 24 are ELT, linguistics, and
translation courses and 50 are literary courses. During the first two semesters, the students
focus on language skills; then, they begin taking non-skill courses. In their fourth semester,
they have passed almost all the skills courses and are fully engaged in non-skills courses.
Few freshman students in Iran have experience in English-medium content study and
studying texts for purposes other than English learning is a new experience for them.
Grammar is taught during the first two semester of their study in two modules, Grammar
I and Grammar II. Teachers usually present a grammar point as it comes up in the
textbook and try to engage the students in doing isolated exercises, practicing the
grammar point. The job of the teacher during practice time is giving feedback and
providing more illustrations if problems or uncertainties arise. Even if there are differences
among the grammar textbooks used, the dominant traditional presentation styles of
teachers override the creative or communicative aspects and skate over the differences. So,
the impression that they create is not much different, as also understood from participants‘
responses in the interviews (see below). The course-books used by these two cohorts of
students were Modern English II by M. Frank (1972), Fundamentals of English Grammar by B.
S. Azar (2000), and Communicate what you Mean by C. W. Pollock (1982).
4. 2. Instruments
A teacher-made questionnaire, which had been piloted for clarity with 10 English learners
in an earlier semester and included 10 Likert-Type items, demanded information about the
participants‘ attitude toward English language learning and the learning of English
grammar, motivation for learning English grammar, the relevance of grammar learning to
proficiency in language skills, and their endorsement of direct grammar teaching in their
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academic context. The items were all in Persian, the participants' native tongue, to forestall
any understanding barrier that deficiency in English proficiency might create, especially
for freshmen. (See Appendix A for the English translation of the questionnaire).
In addition to the questionnaire, a broad composite question was posed to 8 randomly
chosen participants to explore their states of mind and heart about grammar, its relevance,
and what they thought of the grammar treatment they had received and how they
compared their current feelings about grammar with their feelings at the beginning of
their university study. The researcher, who had developed a good rapport with the
learners, conducted the interview and made notes while responses were being provided.
(See Appendix B for the English translation of the questions).
4. 3. Procedures
The questionnaire was administered to a group of 35 undergraduates during the first
semester of their study, when they had just begun to experience university study, had
braced up for skills and spadework courses and had established or were forming
expectations about the way the courses were supposed to be presented. That was the time
they were brewing up academic aspirations and ambitions. The same questionnaire was
administered to another group of 27 freshman students in a similar circumstance in their
first semester in the following academic year.
The questionnaire was separately re-administered to the 2 cohorts when they were
working toward the end of their 6th semester and had passed a substantial number of
literary and content courses. As most participants failed to identify themselves, the
analysis was done on the pooled data obtained from the participants in both
administrations, not on paired data for each respondent.
The interviews were conducted at the end of the 6 th semester, subsequent to the
administration of the post-experience questionnaire. It was conducted only once because
the questions directly probed the possible attitudinal changes that might have occurred
and there was no intention of juxtaposing pre- and post-experience responses.
4. 4. Definition of key terms
Grammar in this article is used in the educational sense usually used and received by
teachers and learners of languages and envisioned when one thinks of grammar textbooks.
A content course refers to a course whose immediate object of study is not language
learning but ―the acquisition of disciplinary information‖ (Kasper 1997). So, ELT
methodology, linguistics, and literary criticism are considered substance of content
courses. Post-experience and pre-experience are primarily used in this article to delimit the
periods during which learners undertook content courses, but the experience can also refer
to exposure to other academic courses such as language-skills courses. The prefixes pre and
post are also used loosely as the questionnaire was given first when the participants had
already started their academic studies and again when they still had more to study.
5. Results
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71
The questionnaire's items were not arranged in sections but in a way that one item would
not prime the respondents for another. For example, Item 2 in the questionnaire, which is
about "grammar joy" is distanced from Item 9, which is about ―liking‖ or ―interest‖.
However, in presenting the results below, for the sake of clarity of discussion, they are
grouped into the categories of 1) liking and motivation (Table 1), 2) perception of relevance
(Table 2), and 3) endorsement of grammar teaching (Table 3).
Both numbers and percentages are used to display pre-experience questionnaire results
alongside post-experience data. The results for different degrees on Likert scales are not
collapsed so that a richer picture of participants' beliefs, thoughts, and feelings is reflected.
As some respondents ignored some items and there was a different count of responses for
each item, the number of responses for each item is provided in the last column. It is
noteworthy that, in most cases, an answer to a questionnaire item has implications for
certain other items and issues and sends messages about them, too. For example, Item 1,
which is about the endorsement of explicit teaching of grammar, can easily be related to its
general relevance.
Table 1 includes responses to Items 2, 7, and 9 in the questionnaire, which concern
respondents' liking for and interest in perceived grammar. These items were designed to
probe the attitude and motivation of the learners in this respect. This table also displays
information about respondents liking for learning English.
The responses to these items show that in general the majority of the learners agree they
enjoyed and wanted to learn grammar. However, there is a decline in enjoyment and
liking (Items 2 and 9) from pre-experience to post-experience administration of
questionnaire, a drop from 79.03 % (14+35 ) to 54.09 % (6+27) and 71.66 % (14+29) to 54.38
% (7+24) in agreement with ―enjoyment‖ and ―liking‖ items respectively and an increase
from 20.96 % (11+2) to 45.90 % (22+6) and 28.33 % (15+2) to 45.61 % (25+ 1) in
disagreement with them. Item 7 targeted motivation for learning grammar. The overall
motivation the respondents disclosed did not suffer very much as a result of experience;
but, its strength diminished in view of the fact that the number of those who had been
intent to continue learning grammar reduced to half (22.58% ―strong agreements‖ at preexperience administration against 11.86% ―strong agreements‖ at post -experience
administration).
Table 1
Motivation to learn grammar and grammar study as a source of enjoyment before and
after academic experience
Items
SA
SA
A
A
D
D
SD
SD
Item 2: I
enjoy
studying
14
22.58
%
6
9.83%
35
56.45
%
27
44.26
%
11
17.74
%
22
35.06
%
2
3.22
%
6
9.83
%
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Total
Respons
es
pre ex:
62
Post ex:
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Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods (MJLTM)
grammar.
(Attitude)
Item 7: I
intend to
continue
learning
grammar.
(Motivatio
n)
Item 9: I
like
to
learn
English
grammar.
(Attitude)
Item 10: I
like
learning
English.
72
61
14
22.58%
7
11.86
%
40
67.80
%
44
74.58
%
5
8.47%
8
13.56
%
0
0%
0
0%
pre ex:
59 post
ex:59
14
23.333
%
7
12.28
%
29
48.33
%
24
42.10
%
15
25%
25
43.65
%
2
3.34
%
1
1.75
%
pre ex::
60 post
ex: 57
43
74.13%
35
58.33
%
12
20.69
%
20
33.33
%
2
3.45%
5
8.33%
1
1.72
%
0
0%
pre ex:
58 post
ex: 60
Notes: 1) the shaded columns show the numbers and percentages of responses to the
questionnaire items at the beginning of ELL students' university studies. 2) SA: strongly
agree; A: agree; D: disagree; SD: strongly disagree. 3) pre ex: pre-experience; post ex: postexperience.
Interestingly, their liking for learning English (Item 10) was still fairly strong after the
experience, but the intensity of the strength had slightly fallen off when compared with the
agreements at the beginning of the experience, i.e., at pre-experience administration of the
questionnaire, 74.13% of the respondents liked English learning strongly; while this strong
liking dropped to 58.35% after the experience.
Table 2 includes responses to 2 triangulating items concerning the respondents' perception
of relevance of grammar to proficiency. At both pre-experience and post-experience
administrations, the participants opposed the notion that grammar did not support
language proficiency -- 90.32% (32+24) oppositions before content experience and 89.83%
(40+13) oppositions after that. Moreover, they endorsed the statement that learning
grammar is essential for the acquisition of the four language skills -- 83.60% (18+33)
endorsements at pre-experience administration and 86.44% (14+37) endorsements at postexperience administration). One can also take this cognitive grammar support as evidence
for positive attitude toward grammar or motivation to study it.
Table 2
Perception of relevance before and after academic experience
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Items
SA
Item
3:
Learning
grammar
rules does
not
improve
proficienc
y.
Item
6:
Learning
grammar
is
essential
for
all
English
skills.
SA
A
A
D
D
SD
73
SD
1
1.61%
2
3.39%
5
8.06
%
4
6.98%
32
51.61
%
40
67.80
%
24
38.71
%
13
22.03
%
18
29.51
%
14
23.73
%
33
54.1
%
37
62.71
%
10
16.39
%
8
13.51
%
0
0%
0
0%
Total
Respons
es
pre ex:
62
post ex:
59
pre
61
post
59
ex:
ex:
Table 3 portrays the way the participants wanted grammar to be treated in their particular
setting. Responses to Item 4 show participant's ambivalence about the effectiveness of
grammar teaching in universities at the beginning of university experience, when they had
not seen very much of grammar teaching, yet. 50% of the students agreed that ―English
grammar teaching methods in Iranian universities are effective.‖ This ambivalence was
gone at the re-administration and 81.35% disagreed with that item. Item 1 checked on the
reaction of the respondents to a hypothetical statement about the termination of explicit
teaching of grammar rules in university curriculum. The majority of respondents opposed
that idea either in the form of disagreements or strong disagreements, 86.66% altogether.
This opposition was even stronger at post-experience stage (93.22%).
Table 3
Endorsement of grammar teaching before and after academic experience
SA
SA
A
A
D
D
SD
SD
Total
Respons
es
2
3.33%
2
3.38%
5
8.33%
3
5.08%
35
58.33
%
38
64.41
%
17
28.33
%
17
28.81
%
pre ex:
60
Post
ex:59
Items
Item 1: I
want
direct
grammar
teaching
dropped.
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Item 4: I
think
English
grammar
teaching
methods
in Iranian
universiti
es
are
effective.
Item 5: It
is better
to learn
grammar
in
context.
74
2
3.45%
0
0%
27
46.55
%
11
18.64
%
24
41.38
%
38
64.41
%
5
8.62%
10
16.95
%
pre ex:
58 post
ex: 59
17
27.67
%
18
29.51
%
16
26.23
%
32
52.46
%
21
34.43
%
10
16.39
%
7
11.47
%
1
1.64%
pre ex :
61 post
ex : 61
2
3.38%
9
14.75
%
11
18.64
%
34
55.74
%
38
64.41
%
15
24.60
%
8
13.56
%
pre ex:
61
Post ex
:59
Item
8: 3
Learning
4.92%
grammar
rules
directly is
a waste of
time.
Item 5 checked on the grammar treatment they preferred. They showed fairly strong
preference for contextualization of grammar in pre-experience administration of the
questionnaire. This support strengthened after they were exposed to major course-stuff
during about 6 semesters: 54.09% (17+16) agreements and 45.90% (21+7) disagreements in
the first administration; 81.96% (18 +32) agreements and 18.03% (10+1) disagreements in
the re-administration.
In spite of the preference for contextualization of grammar teaching, the majority of
respondents did not consider explicit teaching of grammar rules a waste of time as can be
understood from their responses to Item 8. Their negation of the proposition put forth by
Item 8 did not change much during the intervening semesters between the two
administrations of the questionnaire -- 19.67% agreements and 80.32% disagreements in
the first administration; 22.03% agreements and 77.96% disagreements in the second
administration. The fact that they still valued direct learning of grammar rules shows that
their grammar sensibility was strong enough not to be overridden by negative experience
during grammar courses and relevance was hard to be pushed aside by methodological
issues. In other words, they did not suppress the whole issue because of the way it was
handled in their particular setting. They saw the baby‘s worth, so they did not throw it out
with the bath water.
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5. 1. Interview Results
A question about multiple grammar issues was posed to 8 interviewees in one go because
the issues were overlapping in a large measure and piecemeal elicitation would have
disrupted the natural supply of information by the respondents. The points most of them
picked up and emphasized in their answers were: 1) The failure of the grammar courses
they had taken (all the eight interviewees), 2) the need for contextualization and grammar
teaching through holistic activities, particularly speaking and writing (six), 3) the necessity
of grammar teaching for language learning (six), 4) their intention to continue grammar
learning (five), 5) the strengthening of their motivation for grammar learning because of
studying content courses and their plans for autonomous grammar learning (four).
6. Discussion
This research aimed to explore the effect exposure to content courses might have on
learners‘ attitude toward grammar and on their motivation for studying grammar.
Furthermore, it wanted to find out how doing academic courses in English affected their
perception of the relevance of studying grammar. So, snapshots of their attitude,
motivation, and perception of relevance at the start of their academic experience were
juxtaposed with those obtained after a substantial amount of academic study in English.
The study also investigated how learners evaluated university grammar instruction at the
two junctures.
Although the issues of attitude, motivation, relevance, and general evaluation hugely
overlap, in the following discussion they are treated separately for the sake of convenience
and clarity. For example, Item 2 in the questionnaire is discussed in relation to attitude
toward grammar, while it has implications for motivation and perception of relevance.
Similarly, almost all other items have implications for the issue of attitude and could also
be discussed in relation to it.
6. 1. Attitude (Items: 2 and 9, Table 1)
Items 2 and 9 directly refer to taking pleasure in grammar learning, seeking to elicit
attitudinal responses from learners. Against the researcher‘s expectation and widespread
belief, few strong disagreements were expressed about grammar as a source of joy both
before and after content-course experience and the percentages of agreements were greater
than those for disagreements at both administrations. However, comparing the responses
at the two junctures, we observe a sharp decline in agreements (from 79.03% to 54.09% for
Item 2, from 71.36% to 54.38% for Item 9). A decrease in joy taken in grammar can be
something very usual as, like most of the cases in life, when we experience something, it
loses some of its interest for us and becomes mundane and ordinary (Wilson et al., 2005).
This may be due to the lure of ambiguity, which exists at the beginning of aca demic study.
Students just having left high school and entered the university have high expectations
about studying English at university, grammar study included. It seems that contrary to
the observation made by many social psychologists, who suggest that familiarity leads to
greater liking (e.g., Zajonc, 2001), with repeated encounters with skills and grammar
courses students‘ liking for grammar decreases.
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However, this decrease does not breed contempt in a linear fashion, as claimed by Norton
et al. (2007), who studied the effect of familiarity and more information on liking in the
context of human relations. As the pattern of responses related to Items 2 and 9 shows, the
decrease in grammatical interest leveled off before it falls off to an insignificant level.
Moreover, although making fine-grained attributional remarks should be based on
empirical study, it seems safe to say that the sources of attitudes before academic
experience and subsequent to that experience were probably different. It is likely preexperience attitudes were influenced by imagined ambitions, warmth toward teachers and
university and a shallow understanding of grammar tasks, while post-experience attitudes
might have been more strongly influenced by a deeper understanding of the nature of
grammatical knowledge, language experience, experience with cases grammar helped
solve language problems and the cases failure with content materials was attributed to
grammar deficiency.
The decrease can also be accounted for by the fact that when learners in this university are
well into their academic studies, they feel deeply disillusioned over skills and grammar
courses as they see that those courses have not well enabled them to tackle their content
courses-- a fact that was emphasized by all the students who were interviewed.
Nevertheless, there was still a strong residue of grammar interest (54.09% and 54.38%).
These two points reveal that grammar learning has some intrinsic value for learners and
their liking for it cannot be easily suppressed. The same can be said about liking for
English in general (Item 10), in that, negative experience takes away some of the
enthusiasm but cannot totally eradicate it.
In fact, exposure to academic content must have acted as a strong counterweight
weakening the effect of the learners‘ negative evaluation of the efficiency of grammar
teaching in their context. Arguably, without such exposure the substantial positive attitude
shown at the re-administration of the questionnaire would have been much meager. It
seems that English-medium exposure acts as a reality check and when linguistic content
proves to be ―grammar positive‖, the learners prepare to brace it up. The bottom line is
that knowledge and awareness bring about consent and tend to strengthen the will of the
students in spite of opposing forces like ineffective teachers, techniques, or materials. So, a
touch of reality may go a long way in opening the eyes of learners to what should be done
to reach a goal and sharpening their will to grammar.
6. 2. Motivation (Item 7, Table 1)
Steven McDonough (1999) defines motivation as ―a psychological trait which leads people
to some goal‖ (p. 219-220). Item 7 pertains to exploring the existence of this trait in the
participants providing a drive for them to more grammar than they already know. As
Table 1 shows, although some participants lost their earlier enthusiasm in the course of
exposure to academic experience (14 strong agreements in the first administration of the
questionnaire versus 7 in re-administration), motivation for learning grammar remained
prevalent (51 agreements versus 8 disagreements at the re-administration). The fact that a
large majority of the respondents reacted positively to item 7 shows that students had a
good understanding of what language use involves and were ready to take it up. This
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wising up can reasonably be attributed to exposure to academic experience and content
materials. This is in reasonable harmony with cognitive explanations of motivation, such
as expectancy-value theory and attribution theory, which link motivation to cognitive
processes through evaluation, anticipation, and knowledge of results.
Teachers confronted with the task of grammar teaching can be suggested to provide
language experience to boost students‘ motivation and positive attitude toward grammar
learning. While familiarization is established practice for teachers and materials
developers, the suggestion here is a strategic, large-scale familiarization period concerning
the goals of the courses of study. As an example, once the author of this article postponed
grammar and vocabulary teaching to after a preparatory course, in which pre-intermediate
learners read or listened to high-interest materials for the announced purpose of English
learning, secondary purpose of enjoyment, and the programmatic purpose of cognitive
and affective preparation to receive grammar and vocabulary. That experience and the
follow-up vocabulary and grammar course corroborated the author‘s hunch that foreign
language learners needed a fairly extended period of acclimatization, as cognitive and
affective infrastructure, before they were conscientiously receptive of vocabulary and
grammar instruction.
6. 3. Relevance (Items 3 and 6, Table 2)
Perception of the relevance of grammar to language learning and use was probed by Items
3 and 7. In both pre- and post-experience administrations, most of the respondents rejected
the idea of irrelevance of grammar learning to proficiency and agreed that it is essential for
all language skills.
As with attitude and motivation, again a relatively high score for the perception of
relevance at the two junctures may obscure a very important point: The source of
perception of relevance at the beginning might have been short-lived and superficial
feelings about grammar while at the later poll, their perception of relevance more likely
stemmed from being more informed. The responses by 6 of the interviewees also lead us to
the possibility that text experience wises learners up to the importance of grammar. One of
them vehemently said, ―It was during the course A Survey of English Literature that I
realized how faster and better I could do the assignments if I had worked harder on
grammar and vocabulary. Vocabulary takes time but it is foolish to be heedless of
grammar‖ [author‘s translation]. This effect of academic study was implied by Chambers
(1980), who said that asking learners without good knowledge and awareness of language
about their language needs can be problematic.
6. 4. Endorsement of grammar teaching (Items 1, 4, 5, and 8, Table3)
Items 1, 4, 5 and 8 relate to students‘ endorsement of direct grammar teaching in
universities. According to responses to Item 4 that students were not highly hopeful about
the grammar courses they had started and when they looked back about 6 semesters later,
they responded with more dissatisfaction. Furthermore, at the post-experience stage, even
more learners demanded contextualized grammar teaching. However, this did not cause
them to ask for the removal of direct grammar teaching or to consider direct grammar
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learning a waste of time. It seems that at the post-experience stage they had a firmer belief
in the necessity of grammar and were ready to replace it only with a better alternative —
contextualized grammar teaching/learning. This shows the significant effect that exposure
to English content and raising awareness had on the perception of needs. Students became
grammar-conscious thanks to mere exposure to English-medium content. Would they not
become even more grammar-prone if they were systematically shown that grammar is a
vital component in language processing?
CONCLUSION
Like many other pieces of research and life itself, the data produced by this study and the
discussion around it is kaleidoscopic, lacking a neat and spick and span pattern. Moreover,
there have been many uncontrolled variables which may have influenced the results
obtained. For one thing, the nature of the academic experience the participants in this
study went through was not examined closely. So, ascribing change in their liking or
dislike for grammar, or their motivation or demotivation, to any exact source will be
problematic. However, taking a coarse-grained look at the exploration, one can say that
academic experience in an EFL context, particularly engagement with content materials
augments motivation for grammar learning, breeds positive attitude toward it and induces
more realistic perception of need for grammar. The following translated excerpts from
remarks made by a female interviewee reflect the ideas expressed by the majority of the
other interviewees and are consistent with the questionnaire results in large measure.
―… It is so boring to study a certain grammar book. … altogether grammar is an
interesting subject if …. The [grammar] points should be used after presentation.
Unfortunately they [teachers] stop after explaining them. The best way to practice is to
write, to use it in writing. First I was not much interested…. Now I like it more because I
think I depend on it. … Without grammar you cannot even drink water in English
[reference to a Persian simile for very easy tasks].‖
The awareness-raising effect of academic experience has important implications for the
practice of foreign language teaching. Teachers and material developers can inject certain
doses linguistic reality in their stuff to raise learners‘ awareness of the nature of language
and what its learning entails and in thus doing enhance learners' motivation and attitude.
Such awareness will conceivably occasion healthy academic identity and autonomy, and
ultimately sustainable foreign language learning. Such students will not be all-approving
but critical thinkers who will usually judge carefully and evaluate course contents and
procedures responsibly. Because their awareness is already raised and they are needsconscious, they are expected not only to appreciate the need for the components of
language but also possess a liking for them.
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Appendix A: The Questionnaire
A Research Questionnaire
Dear student! You may agree, strongly agree, disagree or strongly disagree with the following
statements about learning/teaching English grammar. Please circle or underline the expression after
each statement which corresponds to your degree of agreement with it.
1. I want direct grammar teaching dropped.
Strongly agree
Strongly disagree
disagree
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Disagree
Strongly
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2. I enjoy studying grammar.
Strongly agree
Strongly disagree
disagree
81
Disagree
Strongly
3. Learning grammar rules does not improve proficiency.
Strongly agree
Strongly disagree
Disagree
disagree
Strongly
4. I think English grammar teaching methods in Iranian universities are effective.
Strongly agree
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
5. It is better to learn grammar in context.
Strongly agree
Strongly disagree
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
6. Learning grammar is essential for all English skills.
Strongly agree
Strongly disagree
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
7. I intend to continue learning grammar.
Strongly agree
Strongly disagree
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
8. Learning grammar rules directly is a waste of time.
Strongly agree
Strongly disagree
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
9. I like to learn English grammar.
Strongly agree
Strongly disagree
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
10. I like to learn English.
Strongly agree
Strongly disagree
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
Thank You
Appendix B: The Interview Questions
It is about three years you are studying at university. Can you please tell me about how
you think and feel about grammar courses you did at the beginning and about grammar
study? Do you like grammar now? Have you changed your mind about its usefulness
during the past semesters? Does it still have a place in your study plans?
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EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EXPLICIT
AND E-LEARNING INSTRUCTION ON THE
DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY
OF IRANIAN STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
Mansoor Fahim (PhD)
Islamic Azad university, science and research branch, Tehran, Iran
Dr.mfahim@yahoo.com
Houman Bijani (PhD candidate)
Islamic Azad university, science and research branch, Tehran, Iran
Houman.bijani@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
It has been hypothesized for several years that critical thinking
would make an important contribution to being an effective
student and an effective teacher. However, in spite of the
literature regarding the implications of critical thinking in the
area of language education, little research has investigated the
development of critical thinking skill on teachers through
explicit instruction on the one hand and on students through
explicit instruction on the one hand and on students through the
usage of e-learning and use of technology in language
education. In the first phase, 20 EFL teachers took the Cornell
Critical Thinking Test (level X) before and after the explicit
instruction on critical thinking. In the second phase, 120 EFL
students were taught using the traditional and the e-learning
language instruction in two groups and were tested by the
California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) to explore the
effectiveness of either language instruction approach in the
enhancement of critical thinking skills. The findings
demonstrated that explicit instruction of critical thinking
strategies helps teachers, especially male ones, develop thinking
critically. Moreover, it was found that the application of elearning and use of technology in language instruction enhances
students', and more specifically male students', critical thinking
judgment skills.
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KEY WORDS
Critical thinking, explicit instruction, e-learning
1. Introduction
The Concept of critical thinking
Critical thinking is referred to the thinking movement which was introduced based on the
idea that schools should focus their attention on producing and developing knowledge
and equipping students with critical competence rather than requiring them to memorize
course contents. Encouraging students to develop critical thinking skills has become
crucially important in higher education (Grafstein, 2007). A person who thinks critically
asks appropriate questions, collects relevant information, reasons logically from this
information and comes to reliable conclusions (Ghaemi & Taherian, 2011).
According to Dewey (1938) the primary purpose of education is learning to think. He
further pointed out the main purpose of education to address the teaching of thinking
rather than the only teaching of subject matter. Therefore, educators emphasize the
importance of developing of thinking skills and further believe that thinking ability should
be a primary goal of education (Pitcher & Soden, 2000). The development of thinking skills
empowers students to generate new ideas and helps them provide reasoning and
explanation of everyday events (Halonen, 1995).
According to Ennis (1989) students' reflective and thinking ability can be developed
through critical thinking schemata. Chaffee (1988) defines critical thinking as "our active,
purposeful, and organized efforts to make sense of our world by carefully examining our
thinking, and the thinking of others, in order to clarify and improve our understanding"
(p. 29). Education, for long, has required students to memorize course contents to give
correct answers, complete their assignments, do well on tests and get good grades; yet,
they are unable to think critically. However, according to Pitchers and Soden (2000), the
current educational system focuses on both the learning of content information and the
development of critical thinking skills on students. Being a critical thinker helps students
to develop awareness and pay more attention to context in which their actions and ideas
are generated. Critical thinking, being defined by Brunner (1986) as "thinking about
thinking", enables us to view our actions through the eyes of others. Current trends in
education focus more on students' critical thinking. Educators frequently emphasize the
importance of developing thinking ability and thinking skills as the primary goal of
education. Critical thinkers are actively engaged with life. They constantly question
assumptions and appreciate creativity for being inventors (Young, 1980). Siegel (1988)
states that "to be a critical thinker a person must have certain attitudes, dispositions, habits
of mind, and character traits, which together may be labeled the critical attitude or critical
spirit" (p. 39). Vygotsky (1978, cited in Feuerstein, 1999), in his study stressed the
importance of a scientific outlook along with patterns of thought and logical reasoning for
the development of students' understanding and perception skills. However, critical
thinking is more than logical and rational-empirical thinking and argumentative skills. It
requires the realization that there are specific subjective assumptions underlying belief
systems, including religious, social, ethical, political and cultural aspects. It is crucially
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vital for colleges and universities to develop critical thinking skills in the educational
system. It has so far been assumed that students who attended university would develop
critical thinking skills through attending classes, listening to lectures, taking part in class
discussions and in general completing course assignments. However, in contrast to this
assumption, Halpern (1998) indicated that the development of students' thinking and
recognition requires the teaching of critical thinking skills more explicitly. Previous
research indicated the necessity to teach critical thinking skills directly and to allow
students to practice these skills with opportunities for feedback (Beyer, 1987).
Critical thinking and teacher education
Although the literature on critical thinking in teacher education is not very extensive
(Williams, 2005), it is highly appreciated that critical thinking skills be promoted among
teachers and teacher educators. Beineke (1985) believed that the use of critical thinking
training programs within teacher education would result to teachers' better judgment of
classroom and of course the world. In this respect, according to Bangert-Drowns and
Bankert (1990), critical thinking skills instruction on teachers is best taught explicitly rather
than implicitly. Teacher training on critical thinking enables teachers to prepare good
scheme of lessons, select appropriate content, methodology, and instructional materials,
organizing the class, respond to questions, teach critical thinking skills, etc. It promotes
teachers effectiveness and efficacy in the educational system (Nassor &Vitikounen, 2009).
Schafersman (1991) believes that critical thinking for teachers can be taught explicitly
during lectures in teacher training programs.
Since promoting critical thinking is of outmost importance in teacher education, Halpern
(1998) points out to the possibility of the enhancement of teachers' critical thinking skills
through the requirement of teachers to use e-learning instruction for their students.
Radhakrishnan (2009) stated that a critical thinking teacher has the following attributes:
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He asks pertinent questions to see whether his students have learned or not.
He assesses statements and arguments.
He is able to admit a lack of understanding or information.
He has a sense of curiosity.
He is interested in finding new solutions for becoming teaching problems.
He is able to clearly define a set of criteria for analyzing ideas.
He is willing to examine beliefs, assumptions, and opinions and weigh them
against facts.
He listens carefully to others and is able to give feedback.
He sees that critical thinking is a lifelong process of self-assessment.
He suspends judgment until all facts have been gathered and considered.
He looks for evidence to support assumption and beliefs.
He is able to adjust opinions when new facts are found.
He looks for proof.
He examines problems closely.
He is able to reject information that is incorrect or irrelevant.
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Critical thinking and e-learning instruction
One of the ways which can promote metacognitive thinking reflection is the use of modern
technology (Gordon, 1995). In recent years, due to the vast application of modern
technology in language teaching and language learning, e-learning has been paid
considerable amount of attention in numerous educational institutions (Foray, 2004).
Higher educational institutes are highly interested in adopting e-learning and use of
technology in order to compensate for the shortcomings of traditional approaches to
language teaching including time and place. Modern technological society requires the
enhancement of individuals gaining access to critical thinking skills through modern tools.
According to Mylonas, Tzouveli, and Stefanos (2004), thanks to the high flexibility and
accessibility that e-learning has brought into the arena of language teaching, many
language educations have considered it to be revolution in the process of teaching and
learning. There are features of e-leaning that are particularly suitable for promoting critical
thinking. For example, Garrison and Anderson (2003) claim that the ―collaborative yet
reflective process of e-Learning has great potential for facilitating critical thinking as a core
goal of education‖ (p. 58).
The reasons for this increasing popularity of e-learning among language educators,
according to Al-Fadhli and Khalfan (2009) could be outlined as: (1) e-learning decreases
the high cost of conventional approaches to language teaching and learning to a
considerable extent. (2) e-learning is more flexible in providing new opportunities for
those learners who are interested in taking part-time language learning courses. (3) elearning enables language institutes to provide more opportunities to respond the ever
increasing demands of students for higher education. In addition to the promising
pedagogical implications of e-learning on the development of language education, it has
positive influences on the enhancement of critical thinking skills. According to Dinevski
and Plenkovic (2003), the critical thinking ability of students can be fostered to a
considerable extent through the use of e-learning instruction. Hosie, Schibeci, and
Backhaus (2005) have identified e-learning as a suitable way for language pedagogy for the
following reasons: (1) it makes learners actively engaged in the learning process, (2) it
promotes context-based and work-based learning, (3) Being at the center of learning
process encourages self and autonomous learning by learners, (4) it bridges the gap
between what students know and what they need to know.
Critical thinking and gender
The effect of gender differences on critical thinking has been a topic of discussion for long.
King and Kitchener (1994) conducted 17 studies investigating the influence of gender types
on students' critical thinking ability. Of these 17 studies, 6 showed that males
outperformed females regarding reflective thinking, whereas the rest demonstrated no
difference between the two genders. Various findings of these studies could be attributed
to different factors of these studies could be attributed to factors other than just gender
such as aptitude and age. Baxter-Magolda (1992) in her study has found more similarities
than differences in men's and women's way of thinking. It should be noted that gender
differences in critical thinking is still a topic of debate among researchers.
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Critical thinking assessment
Assessing students' critical thinking skills effectively is a major issue for higher education.
According to Facione (1990), evaluating students' critical thinking skills ena bles educators
to guide and motivate students to be better critical thinkers.
Assessment is a major concern in developing programs to enhance students' critical
thinking skills. Ennis (1993) believes that the major goals of critical thinking assessment ar e
diagnosing students' level of critical thinking, providing students with feedback about
their critical thinking abilities, encouraging students to become better critical thinkers,
informing teachers about their degree of success in teaching critical thinking, running
research into the critical thinking instructional strategies and investigating whether the
educational program is suitable enough to provide students with appropriate critical
thinking skills. Researchers have come to this belief that critical thinking can be better
taught and fostered through explicit instruction.
There are a number of approaches for the assessment of critical thinking ability. Three
main approaches to assessing critical thinking are: (a) commercial general knowledge
standardized tests, (b) researcher designed assessment tests directly related to the purpose
of research project, (c) teaching students to assess their own critical thinking ability.
Commercial general knowledge standardized tests (e.g. California Critical Thinking Skills
Test, the Cornell Critical Thinking Tests, and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking
Appraisal) test major aspects of critical thinking, including interpretation, analysis,
inference, assumptions, credibility and reasoning. None of these tests have claimed to test
all aspects of critical thinking. According to Facione (1986) the popularity of these
instruments is due to the fact that their reliability and validity have been carefully
developed, thus they are widely used to measure students' critical thinking ability. Due to
the careful development, standardized scoring and general use of such critical thinking
tests, they are suitable candidates for use in educational research studies.
The criteria representing whether people think critically or not are different. According to
Meyers (1986) emotions are central to the critical thinking process. For some people the
process of critical thinking seems to be internal, whereas for some others it manifests itself
in their external actions. Research on teacher reflection supports the hypothesis that being
a critical thinker is a major factor of being an effective teacher.
Despite discussions about the implications of critical thinking in the area of language
education (Norris, 1985), there is little research with regard to teachers' perceptions of the
critical thinking process and its effectiveness on the development of teachers recognition
skills. Moreover, few studies have investigated the influence of e-learning technology in
enhancing students' perceptions of critical thinking. Students, however, face a lot of
challenges understanding how e-learning technologies can improve critical thinking
ability. In addition to the previous shortcomings, little research has explored the process of
critical thinking development using a pre- and post-instructional design. The purpose of
this study is to examine the effectiveness of explicit critical thinking instruction on teachers
understanding of critical thinking skills on the one hand and to explore the impact of t he
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application of e-learning technology in EFL instruction on improving students' critical
thinking skills on the other hand. Moreover, the question of gender differences in critical
thinking for both the students and teachers is still a topic of controversy among scholars
and research findings haven't resolved this issue yet.
5. Research Questions
In order to investigate the potential impact of explicit training of critical thinking program
on teachers and e-learning instruction on students regarding the above mentioned
problems, the following research questions can be formulated.
1. What are teachers' perceptions regarding critical thinking before and after the
instructional program?
2. Do students display higher degree of critical thinking development using the e-learning
and technological method of language teaching delivery?
6. Method
Design
The first research question was investigated by means of quantitative-quasi pre-post
experimental research design and for the second by means of ex-post-facto design using
experimental and control groups.
Participants
The research, on both the teachers and students, was conducted at the Iran Language
institute (ILI) during the spring and summer 2011. As many as 20, 10 male and female, EFL
teachers, and 120, 60 male and 60 female, EFL students studying at the same English
language level participated in this study voluntarily. Two university professors majoring
in TEFL and having high qualifications in teaching critical thinking strategies participated
in this study as trainers. The trainers held seminar including several lectures, presentations
and workshops on critical thinking so that to enhance teachers critical thinking ability and
instruct them how to think critically using appropriate strategies. It is important to note
that an EFL instructor held the e-learning class in order to be a moderator to guide
students understand insights of the e-learning instruction.
Instruments
Two types of tests were used in this study. In the first phase of the study, to investigate the
first research question, the Cornell Critical Thinking Test (Level X) (Ennis, Millman,
Tokmo, 1985) was used. The Cornell Critical Thinking Test (Level X) is ba sed on four
major abilities which include: (1) inductive thinking (2) judging credibility of observation
reports (3) deductive thinking and (4) assumption identification. Although critical thinking
tests do not completely guarantee the true measurement of critical thinking ability, their
validity as indicators of critical thinking dispositions and abilities are high. For the second
phase of the study, to explore the second research question, the California Critical
Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) was used. The California Critical Thinking Skills Test
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(CCTST) is based on five abilities including: (1) analysis, (2) deduction, (3) evaluation, (4)
induction, and (5) inference. The CCTST is a multiple-choice standardized assessment test
designed to measure the critical thinking ability of students with regard to their attitudes,
knowledge and skills. In the CCTST, the students are asked to critically evaluate and
analyze reading passages that include problems, statements, arguments and
interpretations.
Moreover, to better explore the second research question, which investigated the influence
of e-learning on critical thinking development, modern language teaching technologies
including CDs, cell-phone language teaching software, laptops, the internet, videoprojectors, chat room discussions, audio/video conferencing and other multimedia
devices were employed.
Procedure
The Cornell Critical Thinking Test (Level X) was administered to the 20 teachers before
and after the critical thinking training program. Having administered the pre-test to the 20
teachers, a seminar on critical thinking was held. The seminar included several lectures,
presentations and workshops on critical thinking. In these lectures, presentations and
workshops, the ways and strategies to developing critical thinking was taught to the
teachers, and it was stressed that thinking critically helps teachers to develop an awareness
of actions and attitudes and guards them against stereotyped solutions and statements,
and broadens their response to alternative and corrections along with modeling
appropriate and logical reasoning. The post-test that followed the training program
measured the effectiveness of the training program of critical thinking on teachers. In the
second phase of the study, to investigate the second research question, 120 EFL students
participated in two groups including 60 students in the experimental group and 60
students in the control group. In order to investigate the use of e-learning and
technological methods of language teaching delivery in the development of critical
thinking ability on students, the control group was instructed using the classical way of
language teaching and the experimental group was instructed using modern language
teaching technologies including CDs, cell-phone language teaching software, laptops, the
internet, video-projectors, chat room discussions, audio/video conferencing and other
multimedia devices. It is worth mentioning that prior to the instructional program; a pilot
study was conducted to make sure that both groups are at the same level of language
proficiency. Having finished the instructional program, the critical thinking ability of both
groups was measured by the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST).
7. Results
RQ1: what are teachers' perceptions regarding critical thinking before and after the
instructional program?
The means and standard deviations for the teachers both before and after the instructional
program on critical thinking are given in Table 1.
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Table 1: critical thinking mean score and standard deviation of CCTT (Level X) before
and after training
Critical thinking category
Before training
After training
Introduction
Credibility
Deduction
Assumption
Total score
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
11.26
10.43
10.12
6.68
25.11
4.1
3.45
3.86
3.19
6.54
13.39
13.63
12.72
8.14
31.29
2.87
2.09
2.16
1.93
3.57
Figure 1 presents teachers' mean score on each category of the CCTT (Level X) before
and after the critical thinking training program graphically.
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Introduction
Credibility
Deduction
Assumption
Total
Before Training
11.26
10.43
10.12
6.68
25.11
After Training
13.39
13.63
12.72
8.14
31.29
Figure 1. Critical thinking mean score of CCTT (Level X) before and after training
It is clear that for all the categories of critical thinking scores, including total test scores,
there were explicitly substantial differences between the means and standard deviations at
the post-training phase of the study compared to the pre-training phase. This finding
suggests that the training program on critical thinking was effective enough to increase
teachers' ability in thinking critically to a remarkable extent. To test whether the mean
differences between the pre-training and the post-training phase of the study is significant
or not, a paired t-test was run and the t-observed was; t=2.8, df=18, p<0.05
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Moreover, the critical thinking mean scores of male and female teachers were measured to
evaluate the effectiveness of the training program on gender types. Table 2 represents the
mean score on the critical thinking test of the male and female teachers.
Table2. Critical thinking mean score of male and female teachers before and after
training
Groups
Total mean score on pre- Total mean score on posttest
test
Female (N=10)
24.40
27.31
Male (N=10)
25.83
35.28
Based on the findings obtained from Table 2, it is clearly observable that the critical
thinking training program was more effective for male teachers rather than the female
ones. Although male teachers were a little better critical thinkers than female teachers
prior to the training program, their critical thinking mean score increased much more
noticeably than females' mean score at the post-training phase. This indicates that male
teachers benefited more as a result of the critical thinking training program than female
teachers.
RQ2: Do students display higher degree of critical thinking development using the elearning and technological method of language teaching delivery?
The CCTST was conducted for both the experimental and control groups. The
experimental group was taught by the use of e-learning and modern technology in
language teaching and the control group was taught by using traditional way. Table 3
displays the mean score and standard deviation for both groups of students in each
particular critical thinking skill of the CCTST.
Table 3. Mean score and standard deviation of the CCTST
Critical thinking category
Experimental group
Control group
(e-learning)
(Traditional)
N=60
N=60
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Analysis
Deduction
Evaluation
Induction
Inference
Total score
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5.27
6.87
6.61
8.22
6.13
18.69
1.03
1.17
1.52
1.77
1.19
1.68
4.32
5.48
5.07
6.59
4.42
15.53
1.57
2.38
1.78
2.14
0.93
2.12
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Figure 2 displays students' mean score on each category of the CCTST for the
experimental (e-learning) and control (traditional) groups graphically.
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Analysis
Deduction
Evaluation
Induction
Inference
Total
Traditional
4.32
5.48
5.07
6.59
4.42
15.53
e-learning
5.27
6.87
6.61
8.22
6.13
18.69
Figure 2. Critical thinking mean score of CCTST for the e-learning and the traditional
groups
The obtained results vividly suggest that for all the categories of the CCTST the researcher
observed a remarkable increase of the mean scores of the experimental group compared to
those of the control group. The finding implies that the use of e-learning and modern
technology in language teaching is effective in increasing the critical thinking ability of the
students to a great extent.
To test whether the mean differences obtained from the experimental group and control
group is significant or not, a paired t-test was run and t-observed was:
t=2.17, df=118, p<0.05
In addition, the critical thinking mean scores of male and female students were measured
separately to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of both the use of technology and elearning in language teaching and the traditional method on students' gender types
regarding the development of critical thinking skills. Table 4 represents the mean score on
the CCTST of the male and female students.
Table 4. CCTST mean score of male and female students of both the experimental and
control groups
Groups
Total mean score of the Total mean score of the
experimental group
control group
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Female (N=60)
Male (N=60)
(e-learning)
18.30
19.08
(traditional)
15.82
15.24
With 19.08, the experimental male group has the highest mean, whereas the male control
group has the lowest mean with 15.24. It is noteworthy that male students outperformed
female students in the e-learning and use of technology group, while female students were
marginally better than male students in the traditional group. The difference between the
mean score of the e-learning and use of technology male group and the traditional male
group was 3.84; whereas, the difference between the mean score of the e-learning and use
of technology female group and the traditional female group was 2.48. the findings show
that although the e-learning and use of technology language teaching program was quite
influential in boosting the critical thinking ability of both groups, male students benefited
more as a result of it compared to female students.
8. Discussion
In order for teachers to gain mastery in language teaching, they should be able to reason
why they should act in certain ways. Therefore, being an effective teacher depends highly
on the development of critical thinking ability. The findings of the investigation of critical
thinking instruction on teachers demonstrated that explicit instruction of critical thinking
strategies helps them develop thinking critically. While it is assumed that in order to be an
effective teacher, teachers need to gain mastery over the use of and application of language
teaching methods, this study, in contrast Siegel's (1991) findings, demonstrated that in
order to increase efficacy in language teaching, teachers need to achieve higher level of
competencies in critical thinking. In other words, this study showed that any mastery by
teachers over the use and application of instructional methods plays a subsidiary role in
the enhancement of teachers' effectiveness.
Moreover, it is strongly recommended that teachers should be enabled to reason how and
why they should act in particular situations. To this point, teaching effectively depends on
the development of teachers' competencies in critical thinking abilities. Male teachers,
although they were better critical thinkers before the training program, could get better
use of it compared to female teachers which proves the better effectiveness of the critical
thinking program on male teachers rather than female teachers.
In the second phase of the study, the comparison of the effectiveness of e-learning and use
of modern technology in language teaching and the traditional approaches to language
teaching resulted in the better development of students' critical thinking ability through
the application of e-learning and modern technology in language teaching. This finding is
in line with that of Bruner (1986) and Al-Fadhli and Khalfan (2009), who believe that using
e-learning technology develops learners' intellectual ability. This study also demonstrated
that e-discussions among students play a significant role in extending the critical thinking
ability of the students to a remarkable extent; therefore, it can be introduced as a new
approach to teaching critical thinking. The outcomes Support the results obtained by
Feuerstein (1999) clarifying the contribution of an e-learning instructional program in
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promoting cognitive skills of students. Students who received the e-learning instruction
demonstrated greater achievement of critical thinking skills than those who didn't receive.
On the other hand, the findings demonstrated that although female students were
identified be better critical thinkers in the traditional approach to language teaching; male
students tended to display better development in their critical thinking skill compared to
female students in the e-learning program. The results are also in line with the findings of
Grafstein (2007) demonstrating that e-learning environment is an appropriate trend
towards the development of critical thinking skills in language teaching.
CONCLUSION
Critical thinking, being central to one's professional development, should be included
lifelong into teachers' developmental programs. The findings of this study, which is in line
with the findings of Ennis (1989), showed that explicit critical thinking training programs
are effective in helping teachers and teacher educators develop their critical thinking skills.
The outcomes of this study further demonstrated that experience is not a determining
factor in the enhancement of teachers' teaching performance (even teachers who were
identified as novice achieved significant levels of critical thinking ability).
It could be implied from this study that it is fruitful for teachers and teacher educators to
take courses and attend training program on thinking skills before commencing their
professional carrier as teachers. Therefore, it is suggested that educating teachers and
teacher educators to be critical thinkers should be formative and throughout years of
language teaching development. It is hoped that encouraging teachers to be critical
thinkers will increase their responsibility thus equipping prospect teachers with effective,
independents self-reliant and critical decision making tools. It was also implied from the
findings of this study that the use of e-learning and technology in language teaching has
positive effects on the enhancement of students' critical thinking ability. Education along
with the use of e-learning technology enhances the thinking ability of students. E-learning
and the use of technology in language teaching encourages students to think reflectively
through empowering them with the skill of analysis and evaluation. The findings of this
study, moreover, supports the assumption that through the usage of e-learning and
technology in language teaching, students will demonstrate a higher improvement in
critical thinking over students who were taught based on the traditional approaches to
language teaching.
9. Implications of the study
The findings of this study have a number of important implications for students, teachers
and teacher educators.
Teachers need to be educated through training programs to enhance their critical thinking
skills to gain new thinking command to impact the course methodology. critical thinking
process should be included in teachers' in-service education so that to provide them with
opportunities to deepen their understandings of strategies to promote critical thinking.
Teachers require opportunities to think about philosophy of critical thinking and learn
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what their own philosophy of thinking is. All students, regardless of their level of
education, should be provided with opportunities to think critically. Teacher training
programs should incorporate critical thinking courses for both students and teachers at the
beginning of the education course. From the view point of teacher educators, training
students to think critically through e-learning instruction empowers them with the ability
to analyze complex issues generate solutions and develop standards for decision making.
The findings assume that the more students gain experience in e-learning, the more
capable they will be with regard to critical thinking skills. The provision of teacher
education programs on critical thinking will build better societies by preparing future
teachers to promote critical thinking skills for students.
Teachers should avoid making differentiations about which gender of students are most
likely to benefit from the critical thinking e-learning instructional program. The outcomes
indicated that both male and female students could increase their critical thinking ability
as a result of the e-learning instructional program.
10. Suggestions for further research
Although the outcomes of this study provided evidence for the development of the
students' critical thinking skills by the use of e-learning instruction, long-lasting
effectiveness on students after being divorced from this instructional method requires
further investigation.
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THE EFFECT OF EFL TEACHERS’ LOCUS OF
CONTROL ON EFL LEARNERS’ READING
ACHIEVEMENT
Behzad Ghonsooly
Ferdowsi university of Mashhad
ghonsooly@um.ac.ir
Yasser Rezvani
Ferdowsi university of Mashhad
yaserrezvany@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Locus of control is a psychological factor heavily affecting one‘s
motivation. People with an internal Locus of control orientation
believe their success and failure depends on their efforts, while
those with an external Locus of control orientation believe luck
and fate play a big role. This study sought to explore the effect
of EFL teacher‘s locus of control on EFL learners‘ reading
achievement. Participants of the study include 100 EFL teachers
teaching in Mashhad language institutes. Teacher locus of
control questionnaire was administered to the participants of the
study. The results of the statistical analysis reveal that teacher‘s
locus of control significantly affects EFL learners‘ reading
achievement.
Introduction
Post-method pedagogy in the realm of EFL/ESL has been characterized with the motto of
theorizing what is practiced and practicing what is theorized. This motto summarizes one
of the most important duties of an EFL/ESL teacher that is reflection. Teacher's reflection
at the heart of post-method pedagogy refers to teachers' moments of reflecting upon their
previous experiences in order to improve their teaching. The objective of this study is to
investigate the possible relationship between teachers' reflection and teachers' success
using two questionnaires as the main instruments of research.
The post-method era in language teaching is characterized with a movement away from
fixed methodological packages for teaching language toward a concern with teachers'
professional expertise, growth, wisdom, experience, learners' needs, the context of
teaching, and the political conditions of the environment in which teaching takes place
(Prabhu, 1990; Kumaravadivelu, 2001; Richards, 2002).
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This is an indication of the importance of teachers' professional development in recent
years (Harmer, 2001, cited in Al-Hashmi, 2004). Also of importance is teachers' ability to go
beyond existing norms and taken for granted habits and their ability to practice innovative
ideas (Al-Jabri, 2009). One way for teachers to develop professionally is how they take
control of the responsibility of their teaching in the classroom and to what they attribute
their success or failure in their language teaching. (Calderhead & Gates, 1993).
Locus of Control (LOC) is an Individual Difference (ID) variable affecting the performance
of language learners. IDs have been shown to be "consistent predictors of EFL success"
(Dörnyei, 2005, p.6). Early studies on IDs were mainly focused on classifying learners as
good and bad, intelligent and dull, motivated and unmotivated (Horwitz, 2000). These
studies tried to investigate the potential of EFL learning in students by administering
certain tests such as Modern Language Aptitude Battery (Carroll & Sapon, 1959) and
predicting the potentially successful learners. For example, language motivation and
language aptitude have been identified as important ID variables affecting EFL/ESL
learners' success since the 1960s (Breen, 2001; Cohen & Dörnyei, 2002; Cornwell &
Robinson, 2000; Dörnyei & Skehan, 2003; Ehrman, 1996; Ellis, 2004; Oxford &
Ehrman,1993; Robinson, 2002).
One important area in the sub-field of ID variables is how EFL learners perceive
themselves. This variable called Locus of Control (LOC) is rooted in Rotters' Social
Learning Theory (1954). However, the concept was explicitly mentioned in Rotters' 1966
paper, which became the most cited article in the psychological and social science
literature of the previous decades (with 4700 citations by the 1980's) (Rotter, 1990).
LOC as an ID variable refers to a person's belief about control over life events (Findley &
Cooper, 1983). Considering LOC, there are two types of people; those who feel personally
responsible for the things that happen to them (labeled internalizers) and those who feel
what happens in their lives is determined by forces out of their control (labeled
externalizers) (Findley & Cooper, 1983). Simply put, LOC is a concept referring to t he
extent to which people believe their life events are dependent on their own behaviors and
controllable, or alternatively whether events are produced by uncontrollable factors such
as luck and fate.
Locus of control
The concept of LOC developed from Rotters' (1954) Social Learning Theory (SLT). Dollard
and Miller (1950, cited in Smith, 2003, p. 28) were among the first to use the term social
learning. Generally, there are several social learning approaches (including Bandura, 1977;
Mischel, 1973; Rotter, Chance, & Phares, 1972) all of which share the argument that
learning happens in a social context and that it accounts for human behavior. In SLTs as
well as most learning approaches the environment is viewed as the major factor in shaping
behavior. If the environment is properly controlled, the learning process will account for
the acquisition and modification of behavior (Phares, 1992, cited in Smith, 2003, p. 31).
There may be restrictions imposed by heredity and biological factors, but the focus is on
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flexibility allowed by learning rather than on restrictions imposed by biology or heredity
(Phares, 1992, cited in Smith, 2003, p. 31).
Rotters‘ SLT focuses on the variables that account for any behavior (Phares, 1979; Rotter,
1954; Rotter, et al., 1972). He was actually interested in factors that account for the
expression of learning once it is in the person's repertoire of behaviors rather than its
actual process. Rotter (1966) claims that two main variables determine any given behavior:
expectancy and reinforcement value. Expectancy is a subjectively held possibility that
certain reinforcements will occur as the outcome of a given behavior. Reinforcement value
is defined as the degree of preference for one goal over others (Phares, 1992, cited in Smith
2003, p.31).
Rotter (1954) began working on his SLT of Personality while he was at Ohio State, and his
Social Leaning and Clinical Psychology was published in 1954. He laid out the basics of his
Social Learning Theory in this book. The main idea of the book is that personality is
actually the result of interaction between a person and his or her environment. It does not
reside within an individual independent of the environment he or she is in (Rotter, 1954).
In 1966, Rotter published a monograph entitled Generalized Expectancies for Internal
versus External Control of Reinforcement (1966), in which he explored people‘s
expectation of whether they can control the reinforcements they receive. At the one end,
we see people who believe that reinforcements are a result of luck or fate. These people are
said to have an external LOC. At the other end, there are those who believe that
reinforcements are a result of one‘s own behavior. These people are said to have an
internal LOC. Rotter‘s Internal- External Locus of Control Scale (1966), aimed at measuring
difference of Locus of Control in individuals, has been widely employed and studied.
Rotter, Chance and Phares (1972) suggest that two major types of expectancy determine
behavior: The expected outcome of a behavior and the value a person places on that
outcome. In Applications of the SLT of Personality, Rotter et al. (1972) also described a
general theory of personality in which variables were based on the ways that different
individuals habitually think about their experiences. One of the important variables, I-E,
distinguished ―internalizers,‖ who believe they control events, from ―externalizers,‖ who
believe events are not within their control. Since then different studies have found direct
relationships between I-E orientations and a range of behaviors from job performance to
attitudes toward one‘s health (Rotter, et al, 1972).
Review of Literature
Research has revealed that having an internal LOC and higher academic achievement are
correlated (Findley & Cooper, 1983). People with internal LOC try harder and get better
results in school. They devote longer periods of time to homework and study more for
exams. Bender (1995) maintains if a student tries hard at school tasks and yet continually
fails to get good grades; this will lead to an external locus of control. A high external LOC,
in turn, will cause a lack of motivation for education in general. People who have external
LOC may feel that there is no point in working hard because their efforts will only bring
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disappointment. Ultimately, they may think that they are doomed to fail. On the other
hand, an external LOC leads to easy justification of poor performance without hurting the
subject‘s self-esteem (Basgall & Snyder, 1988). Externalizers escape the potential personal
damage that may result from attributing their failure to their flaws by attributing it to fate,
chance, or to someone else‘s fault. This will allow us to dismiss our inadequacy, helping
keep our self-esteem untouched. However, constant use of external excuses could cause us
to lose our motivation to improve (Basgall & Snyder, 1988).
Rotter (1966, 1979) and others (e.g., Davis & Davis, 1972; Phares, 1979) building on this
concept suggested that reporting external beliefs acts as a defensive function for some
individuals. Phares (1979) held that failing and believing in internal control frequently
leads to personal inadequacy. But failure and believing in external causes give the
individual the chance to ignore personal responsibility, thus reducing some of the
unpleasant feelings of failure (Phares, 1979).
Snyder, Higgins and Stucky (1983), in their presentation of a theoretical model of excusemaking process, have addressed the self-protective potential of externality. The model
makes considerable use of the attribution-of-responsibility literature. It suggests that
people try to ignore their responsibility for negative actions so as to maintain a positive
image for oneself and others and to protect self-esteem. In support of this position, they
noted that attribution studies have provided evidence that under conditions threatening
self-esteem, people tend to take credit for success and project responsibility for failure
(Snyder, Higgins and Stucky, 1983).
In the field of education, Anderman and Midgley (1997) found out that students who find
their poor performance caused by factors out of their control are unlikely to hope for
improvement. In contrast, students who attribute their poor performance to a lack of skills
or poor study habits are more likely to try harder in the future. Students having an
external locus of control are more likely to give up hope and not try any harder in the face
of failure, while those with an internal locus of control may try harder to improve in the
face of failure (Anderman and Midgley, 1997). If teachers can give their students a more
hopeful attitude (develop an internal locus of control), their performance tends to improve
(Noel, Forsyth, & Kelley, 1987).
LOC can also influence the way an individual responds to success. In one study (Kernis,
1984), subjects were led to make either internal or external attributions for their success at
a certain task. Those who made internal attributions had a better performance on the same
task than on a different task when tested again, whereas those who made an external
attribution had a better performance on a different task than on the same task. Therefore,
internalizers are more likely to continue performing a task that they have performed well,
while externalizers may stop working on the successful task and focus their efforts on a
different task (Kernis, 1984).
LOC also has a great impact on the student‘s motivation to continue education and to
succeed in educational pursuits (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1989). In
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education, educators, social service personnel, and others use the term ―at risk‖ to refer to
children who are highly likely to fail in school. There has been a great bulk of research on
the relationship between different demographic and social variables associated with failing
in school. The term "at risk" is generally used to describe a child or adolescent who is ―at
risk‖ of failing and/or eventually dropping out of school (Carnegie Council on Adolescent
Development, (1989).
The Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development (1989) has estimated that one quarter of
the adolescent population is at risk of academic failure, with another quarter considered
―moderately‖ at risk, which could lead to school failure and unemployment or
underemployment.
There have been studies investigating the relationship between LOC and adult basic
education as well. Many learners drop out of Adult Basic Education (ABE) before gaining
reading and writing skills. In some cases dropout rates of 60% have been reported over a 6
month period (Kent, 1973). LOC could also be related to course completion in this area
because completion of educational programs seems to rely on personal commitment.
Rotter (1966) maintains that the degree to which people recognize a relationship between
their behaviors (actions) and the resulting reinforcements (outcomes) varies. Some people,
externals, generally believe that reinforcements are under the influence of forces out of
their control such as fate, chance, luck, or powerful others. Others, internals, generally
believe that their own behaviors shape the primary factors leading to reinforcements. They
believe that control is within the power of the individual. He further points out that LOC is
in fact a result of the history of reinforcement patterns experienced by an individual.
Based on the type of life experiences many individuals in ABE programs have, it can be
assured that many may find reinforcements to be a result of external forces. Therefore a
direct relationship between completion of ABE programs and LOC is possible (Kent, 1973).
Kent also mentions that there have been only few studies investigating this relationship.
Also, Biaggio (2004) examined the relationship between LOC and anxiety. He concluded
that internalizers experienced more state-anxiety than externalizers in situations related to
―luck‖ while externals showed more state-anxiety in ―ability‖ situations than internals.
Moreover, Carden, Bryant, and Moss (2004) explored the relationship between LOC,
procrastination, and, anxiety among 114 undergraduate students. They divided the
participants of their study into two groups of internalizers and externalizers. They found
that externalizers experience higher academic procrastination and test anxiety than
internalizers.
Recently, Ghonsooly and Elahi (2010) investigated the effect of LOC on University
students‘ General English Achievement among university students of humanities,
sciences, and engineering. In their study, they also validated the Persian version of Internal
Control Index as a questionnaire to assess EFL learners‘ achievement. They found that first
there is a significant and positive relationship between university students‘ LOC and their
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general English achievement. Second, there are significant differences in General English
achievements of the three groups of students. Finally, the LOC orientations of the three
groups of students differ significantly from each other.
In another study Hosseini and Elahi (2010) explored the relationship between EFL
learners‘ LOC and their reading achievement and also their use of language learning
strategies. The findings of their study confirmed the relationship among the variables.
They also found that metacognitive strategies were used more frequently by internalizers
than externalizers.
Oxford and Ehrman (1993) mentioned that teachers should identify IDs among their
learners and take them into consideration in order to create the most effective instructions.
However, Williams and Burden (1997) despite the broad research conducted in the subdiscipline of IDs, observed some problems with regard to the research implications and
methodology. Instead of indicating useful ways to help teachers explain how learners
differ, how to assist them to take control of their own learning, and how to mediate their
learning, the research has mainly covered the selection of particular learners'
characteristics and measurement of such characteristics (Williams & Burden, 1997).
Furthermore, these constructs are mainly associated with their tests. Strengthening the
validity of such tests may lead to a belief that such constructs are fixed (Williams &
Burden, 1997). However, some of these constructs such as motivation, anxiety, and
aptitude can be changed. Learners' high degree of motivation depends on a set of
variables. Anxiety is also highly situation-based and is affected by a set of different factors
(Horwitz & Yung, 1991). Moreover, the findings of research on aptitude, the ease with
which learners learn a foreign language, may justify teachers' unsuccessful way of teaching
some learners by referring to their lack of ability or aptitude for language learning
(Dörnyei, 2005).
In general, major points regarding IDs research can be summarized as in the following:
1. Research in the IDs area is based on a theory of learning which considers
individuals' behaviors as being affected by a set of traits or attributes, which are
fixed.
2. The practical value of the findings has been limited because they do not give us
information on how teachers can help learners become effective learners.
(Williams & Burden,1997,p.95)
Therefore, as Williams and Burden (1997) mentioned a new approach including the
individuals' main contributions to the learning situation within the constructive approach
is needed because:
1. Such a theory enables EFL teachers to highlight the uniqueness of individuals and
help teachers to see what they have in common.
2. It helps EFL teachers to see how individuals change rather than how they stay the
same.
3. It enables teachers to help learners take control of their own learning.
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4. It concerns EFL learners' perceptions of themselves as learners.
So far, we have discussed learner's LOC, but the current study focuses on teacher's LOC,
which is a relatively new avenue of research. In a constructivist approach such as the one
proposed by Williams and Burden (1997), an individuals' understanding of the world is
gradually reshaped as they adapt their knowledge to new information. The way in which
EFL teachers perceive the world and themselves plays an important role in their
professional success. Thus, it would be worthwhile to concentrate on how EFL teachers
perceive themselves as language teachers and what influences their personal views on
their teaching processes. One important area, which is related to how EFL teachers
perceive themselves, is Locus of Control (LOC).
Therefore, the present study targets the effect of Iranian EFL teachers‘ locus of control on
their learners‘ reading achievement.
Methodology
Participants
The participants in this study consisted of EFL teachers.100 EFL teachers teaching adults in
language institutes in Mashhad, Iran, were selected. They were both male and female and
all had at least three years of experience.
Instruments
Teacher Locus of Control
The first instrument used in this study is Rose and Medway's (1981) Teacher Locus of
Control (TLC), which is a 28-item measure (see appendix A). In this measure, teachers are
asked to assign responsibility for student successes or failures by choosing between two
competing explanations for the situations described. Half the items on the TLC are based
on situations of student success while the other half is based on student failure. For each
success situation, there are two explanation, one explanation attributing the positive
outcome internally to the teacher (I+) and the other attributing responsibility outside the
teacher, usually to the students. Similarly, for each failure situation, one explanation gives
an internal teacher attribution (I-) while the other blames external factors.
Scores on the TLC have been significantly related to the individual Rand items (GTE and
PTE) as well as to the sum of the two Rand items (TE) with correlations generally ranging
from .11 to .41 (Coladarci , 1992; Parkay, Greenwood, Olejnik, & Proller, 1988). Rose and
Medway (1981) found that the TLC was a better predictor of teacher behavior than Rotter‘s
Internal-External (I-E) scale, probably because it was more specific to a teaching context.
For example, the TLC predicted teachers‘ willingness to implement new instructional
techniques, whereas Rotter‘s I-E Scale did not. To further examine the TLC and the two
Rand items, Greenwood, Olejnik, and Parkay (1990) dichotomized teachers‘ scores on the
two Rand questions and cross-partitioned them into four efficacy patterns. They found
that teachers with high efficacy on both measures (I can, teachers can) had more internallyoriented scores on the TLC for both student success and student failure than teachers who
scored low on both (I can‘t, teachers can‘t).
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Kay-cheng (1986) measured the validity of teacher locus of control (Teacher LOC) by an
instrument adapted for this purpose. The construct refers to the individual's perception
that changes in his or her environment result from internal or external factors. An
adaptation of a scale developed by Rose and Medway (1981) was used to measure Teacher
LOC. The first study investigated the reliability of the scale using data from 54 primary
and secondary teachers (35 female and 19 male) in a course on classroom-based research.
The external criterion was performance ratings of these teachers by their supervisors.
Discriminant analysis of the instrument indicated its efficacy in differentiating internals
from externals. The second study tested the hypothesis that more effective teachers would
be more internal as compared with less effective colleagues. Thirty female and 10 male
teachers from one secondary school completed the Teacher LOC instrument. They were
separated into effective and less effective teachers by principals' ratings. Teachers rated as
more effective were in fact more internal. To the extent that supervisors' evaluations are
reliable and valid measures of teacher performance, locus of control can be considered to
have predictive validity.
Kay-Cheng (1986) in another study investigated the validity and reliability of the Teacher
Locus of Control Scale (TLCS) developed by Rose and Medway (1981) in a different
cultural environment. Specifically, the study investigated the discriminality of the items
and the relationships of the TLCS as a whole with relevant criterion measures such as
stress, personality, and educational attitudes. A few words in two of the 20 TLCS items
were changed to suit the local linguistic style. Two hundred teachers from technical
colleges and high schools in Singapore responded to the scales at their convenience. The
reliability of the TLCS was ascertained using Cronbach's alpha, and it turned out to be .84.
And its validity was assessed through its correlation with the seven criterion measures.
The majority of the items showed discrimination power. The study concluded that TLCS
has substantially high reliability
Interview
An unstructured interview with 10 teachers of each group of high and low LOC was
conducted to obtain information on the teachers‘ attitudes toward their success and failure
attributions. The amount of time spent on each interview ranged between half an hour and
forty-five minutes. The reason why this format was used for the interviews was to let the
teachers convey what is on their mind easily in a relaxed atmosphere and with no
constraints inflicted upon them by the research agenda (Dornyei, 2007). As Dornyei (2007)
puts it, such types of interview are best for studies which focus on ―the deep meaning of
particular phenomena‖.
Data collection
The researchers first obtained permission from the language institutes participating in the
study to provide them with a list of teachers who teach adults at the intermediate, higher
intermediate, and advanced levels. Then after obtaining the consent of the teachers, the
teacher locus of control scale was administered to the teachers in each institute. The
participants were asked to answer the question ―Would you also like to take part in an
interview to contribute more?‖ on the questionnaire. Teachers were assured that the
results would be confidential. The testing departments of all the English institutes were
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requested to present a copy of the GPA (overall scores) of reading comprehension of every
class participating in the study to the researchers at the end of the term.
Data Analysis
The independent T-test and correlation co-efficient formula were used to analyze the
collected data. The mean score of teacher locus of control scale was used as the cut-off
score for dividing teachers with high levels of LOC, internalizers, and those with lower
levels of LOC, externalizers.
Results
As in any other empirical study, in this part, the basic descriptive statistics, namely, mean,
standard deviation, range, minimum, and maximum scores are reported. The calculations
have been performed for all the instruments as shown in table 1.
TLOC
N
Statistics
100
RA
100
Table 1. Descriptive Statistics
Minimum Maximum
Mean
Statistics
Statistics
Statistics
Std.
Statistics
Variance
Statistics
72.00
5.20
27.04
92.20
81.85
The first research question was ―Is there any significant relationship between EFL teachers‘
locus of control and their students‘ reading achievement?‖ In order to investigate this
relationship, the statistical technique of Pearson-product moment Correlation was used.
Table 2 summarizes the correlation coefficient between the two variables.
Table 2.Correlation between TLOC and Learners’ RA
LOC
RA
TLOC
Pearson Correlation
1
.76*
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Pearson Correlation
.76*
.003
101
1
RA
Sig. (2-tailed)
.003
N
101
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05level (2-tailed)
As observed, the correlation coefficient was calculated to be 0.78, which is significant at
P<0.05. This correlation is moderately high and positive. Therefore, it can be concluded
that higher teachers‘ locus of control leads to higher student reading achievement.
The second research question seeks answer to the question ―Are there any significant
differences between the achievement of the learners whose teachers are internalizers and
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that of those whose teachers are externalizers?‖ Table 3 shows the mean scores of the two
groups of learners.
Table 3.A comparison of RA mean scores of students with internalizer and externalizer
teachers
TLOC
N
Mean
Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
RA
High
48
5.94
.214
LOW
53
5.76
.205
As shown above, the mean score of learners whose teachers are internalizers is 86.20 and
that of those whose teachers are externalizers is 77, 50. Table 4 demonstrates whether this
difference in mean scores is significant or not.
Table 4.Determining the significance of the mean scores difference in achievement
Levene's Test t-test for Equality of Means
for Equality of
Variances
F
Sig.
t
Df Sig.
Mean Std.
95%
(
2- Differ Error
Confidence
tailed) ence
Differ Interval of the
ence
Difference
Lower Upper
G
E
Equal
variances
assumed
Equal
variances
not
assumed
.166
.684
9.0
6
98
.000
2.7042
.29837
2.1148
3.2936
9.1
0
96.
9
.000
2.7042
.29689
2.1177
3.2907
The above table shows that the difference between the two mean scores is significant, t (98)
= 9.06, p <.05, and learners with internalizer teachers have higher achievement scores than
those with externalizer teachers.
Discussion and implications
As mentioned in the previous section, the results of this study reveal a significant
relationship between teachers' locus of control and their students‘ reading achievement.
Therefore, students of teachers with internally oriented LOC achieve more on the reading
than students of teachers with externally oriented LOC. Figure 5.1 illustrates a continuum
representing the relationship between teacher's LOC and learner reading achievement.
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The
Teacher's LOC-Learner Reading Achievement Continuum
Interview sessions were also held with both internally and externally LOC oriented
teachers. Each group comprised of 10 teacher participants. Subjects were asked to speak
freely about their attitudes toward teacher's LOC. All participants including both
internally and externally LOC oriented teachers acknowledged the importance of this
factor. Those with an internal LOC did not hesitate to talk about their belief in the human
being as the agent of what happens to him. They said that this view had helped them all
throughout their career, boosting their motivation significantly. After a more thorough
introduction of the concept of LOC by the interviewer, half of those with an external LOC
(5 out of 10) admitted that internal LOC orientation can be helpful, but the rest believed
that "you can only do so much" and luck and fate play significant roles.
Given the results obtained in this study, teachers should try to take control of their
practice. LOC is a dynamic characteristic, which can be nurtured. To the best of the
researcher's knowledge, there has been little if any research on teacher's locus of control in
EFL studies. However, student's locus of control has been an active area of research for
some time and most of the findings in this area can be extended to teacher's locus of
control as well. Williams and Burden (1997) maintained that LOC's dynamic nature allows
teachers to help learners take control of their learning. In the same token, teachers
themselves can take control of their teaching. Craske (1988) and Hastings (1994) suggested
reattribution training as the main application of attribution theory. So teachers can change
their own attributions so that they will no longer view their failures as caused by stable or
uncontrollable factors but factors within their reach. This will help them double their
efforts in their professional development.
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THE EFFECT OF METADISCOURSE ON EFL
LEARNERS’ READING COMPREHENSION
Mohammad Reza Hashemi,
Associate Professor,
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.
Hossein Khodabakhshzadeh,
Islamic Azad University, Torbat-E-Heidarieh Branch, English Department,
Torbat-E-Heidarieh, Iran.
hkhodabakhshzade@gmail.com
Majid Elahi Shirvan,
PhD Candidate in TEFL,
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.
elahimajid58@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
This study is an aim to examine the effect of meta-discourse on
reading comprehension of EFL intermediate and advanced
students. 120 EFL students were assigned into four groups of 30.
There were two groups of treatment and control both in
intermediate and advanced levels. Two versions of texts with and
without discourse markers were given to the control and
treatment groups respectively. The result demonstrated a
significant difference between groups in advanced and
intermediate levels. However, there was no significant difference
within the intermediate groups. Therefore, in order to find out the
possible reasons a follow up unstructured interview was
conducted. The results revealed that the intermediate students
were not aware of the role of discourse markers in the texts. Thus,
Researchers raised their consciousness about discourse markers,
which helped the premise of the study, and the second
administration of the versions of the texts to the intermediate
groups led in a significant difference. The findings of this study
clearly display the important role of meta-discourse and the
degree of consciousness about them across different levels in
reading comprehension of EFL students.
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KEY WORDS
Metadiscourse, Reading Comprehension, Consciousness raising,
Discourse markers
Introduction
Fortunately, the significance of meta-discourse has recently been recognized as a pivotal
feature in communication. Luckily, this important issue has been touched by academia and
especially language teaching milieu and its facilitative role (Crismore, 1984, 1989; Hyland,
1998, 1999; Perez & Macia, 2002) has been acknowledged. Adding to this promising
context is the shift from the traditional textual focus to more functionally oriented
perspectives in the realm of meta-discourse. This new view according to Hyland (2005)
considers meta-discourse as a phenomenon, which is distinct from propositional meaning
and refers to the aspects of the text that embody writer-reader interactions and the
relations, which are internal to the discourse.
The presence of meta-discourse has been investigated in written discourse (Hyland, 2005;
Hyland, 2000, 2004; Carlson, 1998). The effect of the discourse markers has also been
investigated in this field as well (Martinez, 2004; Simin and Tavangar, 2009; Cheng and
Stefensen, 1996; Intraprawat, and Stefensen; 1995). Contrary to all these attempts in
determining the role of discourse markers in written discourse, the crucial role of meta discourse in spoken discourse seems to have been ignored.
Students of English as a foreign language are more required to listen to and comprehen d
great amounts of second language input (Eslami and Eslami, 2007). The importance of
meta-discourse in listening comprehension has attracted the attention of some scholars
(Chaudron and Richards, 1986; Flowerdew and Tauroza, 1995; Perez and Macia, 2002).
Despite these attempts to underscore the role of meta-discourse in written discourse, there
has been little attention paid to the role of meta-discourse in reading comprehension. So
this study is partially inspired by the few studies conducted recently and is hopeful to
highlight the crucial role of discourse markers in EFL students reading comprehension.
Definition of reading
Reading can be seen as an "interactive" process between a reader and a text which leads to
automaticity or (reading fluency). In this process, the reader interacts dynamically with the
text as s/he tries to elicit the meaning and where various kinds of knowledge are being
used: linguistic or systemic knowledge (through bottom-up processing) as well as
schematic knowledge (through top-down processing). Since reading is a complex process,
Grabe argues that "many researchers attempt to understand and explain the fluent reading
process by analyzing the process into a set of component skills" (1991, p. 379 as cited in
Alyousef, 2005) in reading; consequently researchers proposed at least six general
component skills and knowledge areas: 1. Automatic recognition skills 2. Vocabulary and
structural knowledge 3. Formal discourse structure knowledge 4. Content/world
background knowledge 5. Synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies 6. Metacognitive
knowledge and skills monitoring (Alyousef, 2005, p. 144)
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Reading to see what a text says may suffice when the goal is to learn specific information
or to understand someone else's ideas. But we usually read with other purposes. We need
to solve problems, build roads, write legislation, or design an advertising campaign.
Alyousef (2005) believes, "We must evaluate what we have read and integrate that
understanding with our prior understanding of the world. We must decide what to accept
as true and useful" (p. 144).
To assess the reliability of remarks within a text, we must go outside a text and bring to
bear outside knowledge and standards. In other words, as we read more and hear more,
we will gain knowledge and discover new contexts for our ideas. We will also come to
think more critically. According to Lachini (2003), "As readers we want to accept a fact
only when it is actually true. To evaluate a conclusion, we must evaluate the evidence
upon which that conclusion is based. We do not want just any information; we want
reliable information" (p. 1).
The situation with the written word is no different. A text does not contain a meaning.
Readers construct meaning by what they take the words to mean and how they process
sentences to find meaning. Readers draw on their knowledge of the language and of
conventions of social communication. They also draw on other factors, such as knowledge
of the author, the occasion, or the audience "They infer unstated meanings based on social
conventions, shared knowledge, shared experience, or shared values. They make sense of
remarks by recognizing implications and drawing conclusions" (Kurland, 2000).
Traditional approaches to reading
In the traditional teaching of reading comprehension, the teacher asks the class to turn to a
certain page or announces that he is going to teach a certain unit. He then explains some of
the more difficult vocabulary items. This is followed by silent reading on the part of the
class. The teacher then reads part of the text and comments on what he feels is difficult for
the students. S/he may sometimes ask a few questions, which are usually answered by a
few bright students, or if s/he fails to get the necessary response, s/he answers them
himself/herself and proceeds to the next sentence or paragraph. A question and answer
session follows in which the teacher does the questioning and a selected number of
students supply the answers, often by lifting a few sentences straight from the text. If there
is sufficient time left, the teacher asks different students to read aloud. Finally, the class is
asked to do the written exercises, which are often on vocabulary and structure.
Some of the weaknesses of the approach mentioned above or variations of it, according to
Cheng (1985), are:
1. The teacher concentrates on teaching content rather than reading skills.
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2. There is no attempt to establish a purpose in reading. In real life, one reads for a
variety of reasons. In the classroom, students apparently read in order to answer
comprehension questions, which is not what one usually does in real life.
3. While there is obviously a place for reading aloud in the language lesson, not
every kind of text lends itself to this kind of practice. Drama and short stories
containing a lot of dialogue naturally require reading aloud. Expository,
argumentative and descriptive passages do not readily lend themselves to such
vocal practice. In any case, the reading aloud attempted by students is all too often
stultifying, undirected, and of little profit to the students who read and to those
who listen.
4. The approach does not challenge students to really come to grips with the text.
There is rarely any group discussion of the text. After the silent reading by the
class, the teacher asks individual students to answer the questions in the book. If a
student gives a correct answer, the teacher passes on to another question without
bothering to find out if other students have worked out the correct answer on their
own.
5. The reading text is often used as a vehicle for the teaching of vocabulary and
structures. The textbook writer is partly responsible for this as the exercises
following the text and comprehension questions are normally those dealing with
lexis and grammar. There is a place for language exercises but these should not be
looked upon as the main components of a reading lesson (pp. 55-56).
Based on the weaknesses mentioned by Cheng (1985), which are shared by many
educators all around the world, paying attention to new features of teaching reading texts
like meta-discourse markers in the process of reading comprehension was highlighted.
Meta-discourse
Meta-discourse is a widely used term in current discourse analysis and la nguage
education that involves speakers or writers not only in producing but an interaction
between text producers, text and their audience (Hyland, 2005). In fact text producers try
to anticipate their audience expectations, requirements and resources to affect their
understanding to pave the way of an effective communication. Until recently there has
been an overarching ideology quite limited to conveying the ideas by focusing on the
grammatical patterns and rules. Today, however, new conceptualizations of metadiscourse have led to a shift towards the means that speakers or writers try to express their
attitudes. Hyland (2005) argues that ―meta-discourse embodies the idea that
communication is more than just the exchange of information, goals or services, but also
involves he personalities, attitudes and assumptions of those who are communicating‖ (p.
3).
Halliday‘s (1994) functional, pragmatic approach to language is of great help in
conceptualizing, understanding and classifying meta-discourse. He considers three major
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functional systems for the language i.e. ideational, interpersonal, and textual. The
ideational level concerns with the propositions, the interpersonal layer is dealt with all
those personal feelings, personality expressions as well as the social interplay along with
different interactional forms. The textual layer is quite essential for understanding the
ideational and interpersonal meaning. Following this functional view, metadiscourse can
be classified into two broad categories i.e. the interpersonal and textual in which we can
find other subcategories as well. Vande Kopple (1985) believes that textual metadiscourse
reveals a discoursal relationship between individual propositions that culminate in a
cohesive and coherent text. This is what Lyons (1997) refers to as text reflexivity or ―the
capacity of natural language to refer to or describe itself‖ (p. 5)
Different scholars have investigated the role of metadiscourse instruction in different skills
of the language (Dastjerdi and shirzad, 2010; Jalalifar and Alipour, 2007; Martinez, 2004).
The common result of these studies displays the positive effect of discourse markers
instruction.
Dastjerdi and Shirzad (2010) investigated the effect of explicit teaching of meta-discourse
markers on EFL learners‘ writing ability at three levels of advanced, intermediate, and
elementary. They found that explicit instruction of meta-discourse makers significantly
increased EFL learners‘ writing ability at three levels. Their findings also revealed that
intermediate EFL learners took more benefits of familiarity with discourse markers than
those at the other levels in their writing ability. In other words, intermediate EFL learners
improved their writing more significantly than the other groups.
Meta-discourse and academic lectures as monologues
The lecture discourse has been analyzed by some scholars (Murphy and Candlin, 1979;
Chaudron, 1988; Shing Chiang and Dunkel, 1992; Allison and Tauroza, 1995). They have in
fact considered factors such as speech rate, cultural differences, note-taking practices,
listening strategies and discourse organization. Listening to the lectures as monologues
has always been one of the demanding jobs for foreign language learners. It has also been
an important skill for university students (Flowerdew and Miller, 1992). Different scholars
have considered lectures as monologues from different perspectives. Some have focused
on the macro structure of lectures (Olsen and Huckin, 1990); others have paid attention to
the interactional practices of lecture comprehension (Morell, 2004).
Method
Participants
The participants in this study included four groups of 30, two intermediate and two
advanced, students taking IELTS training courses at Kishair English Institute, Mashhad.
Iran. All the participants‘ first language was Farsi and their age ranged from 22 to 43 with
the mean of 33.
First a test of TOEFL derived from Actual TOEFL tests was given to 112 EFL students
studying at Kish Air English institute. Then those whose scores ranged between 450 and
550 were considered as intermediate. Also, those whose scores ranged above 550 were
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117
considered as advanced learners. Therefore, 65 of the test takers were labeled intermediate
and 62 advanced. Other participants, whose scores were lower than 450 and did not serve
a purpose for the study were excluded from them. For the sake of the purpose of the
study, both groups of scores were ranked from the highest to the lowest. Then in each
group the one with highest score was assigned to one group and the second highest score
was assigned to another group and this process continued to the one with the lowest score.
So the participants were randomly assigned into four groups. Moreover, to make the
number of each group equal, the researchers included 30 students in each group. Finally,
in order to make sure that the difference between the mean scores is not significant and the
two intermediate and the two advanced groups are the same with regard to the construct
tested, the researchers used an independent t-test.
Table 1. Independent samples t-test for the Intermediate Groups
Levene's
Test for
Equality
of
Variance
s
F
Sig
.
GE
Equal
variances
assumed
Equal
variances
not assumed
.141
.46
t-test for Equality of Means
T
Df
Sig.
(2tail
ed)
Mean
Diffe
rence
Std.
Error
Diffe
rence
95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
9.064
58
.71
2.40
.2983
7
Lowe
r
2.227
3
9.109
57.9
.71
2.40
.2968
9
2.312
3
Upper
3.2079
3.96362
Table 2. Independent samples t-test for the advanced Groups
Levene's
Test for
Equality
of
Variance
s
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F
GE
Equal
variances
assumed
Equal
variances
not assumed
Sig
.
.163
.46
T
Df
Sig.
(2tail
ed)
Mean
Diffe
rence
Std.
Error
Diffe
rence
95% Confidence Interval
of the Difference
9.064
58
.67
2.70
.2983
7
Lowe
r
2.114
8
9.109
57.9
.61
2.70
.2968
9
2.117
7
Upper
3.2907
3.2936
The results of this test revealed that the two groups at both levels, intermediate and
advanced did not significantly differ from each other in terms of their performance on the
T-test. It means that the participants of the two groups were equal with regards to their GE
(General English) ability.
Materials
The material used for this study consisted of 5 texts based on section 4 of IELTS
examinations. 5 of these monologues were derived directly from IELTS tests. Since such
section consists of monologues, which are rich in meta-discourse (Hyland, 2005), they
serve the purpose of the study very well. The other 5 monologues were based on the first
group of monologues, but the meta-discourse was excluded.
Procedure
First, the researchers in the study selected five texts from the original IELTS exams. Then
in order to organize the second group of texts, they excluded the meta-discourses from the
original ones. Hyland‘s model of interpersonal meta-discourse (2005) was determined for
underlining the meta-discourse and their exclusion from the original texts. The learners in
the experimental groups read the original texts, and those in the control groups read those
with the meta-discourse excluded.
Results
The first research question was ―Is there any difference in intermediate EFL learners‘
reading comprehension with regard to the inclusion and exclusion of meta-discourses?‖
The following table shows the mean scores of the intimidate control and experimental
groups.
Table 3. The mean scores of the intermediate experimental and control group reading
scores
N
Mean
30
16.4313
Group
Intermediat
e
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Std.
Deviation
1.93032
Std. Error
Mean
.26104
Experimental
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Control
30
12.5284
1.46876
.24164
Table following table illustrates whether such difference in mean scores of the two groups
is significant or not.
Table 4: Determining the significance of the mean scores between the two groups
GE
Equal
variances
assumed
Equal
variances
not
assumed
Levene'
s Test
for
Equalit
y
of
Varianc
es
F
Si
g.
t-test for Equality of Means
T
Df
.12
3
9.064
58
9.109
57.
9
.4
9
Sig
.
(2tail
ed
)
.38
Mea
n
Diff
eren
ce
.35
2.70
2.70
Std.
Erro
r
Diff
eren
ce
.298
37
95%
Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Lo
Upper
wer
2.14 3.2397
48
.296
89
2.41
28
3.2087
As table 4 shows the difference between the two groups is not significant. It means that the
inclusion and exclusion of meta-discourses has no significant effect on intimidate EFL
learners‘ reading comprehension.
The second research question was ―Is there any difference in advanced EFL learners‘
reading comprehension with regard to inclusion and exclusion of Meta-discourses?‖ The
following table demonstrates the mean scores of the advanced experimental and control
groups.
Table 5. The mean scores of the advanced experimental and control group reading
scores
N
Mean
30
18.0224
Group
Advanced
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Std.
Deviation
1.94330
Std. Error
Mean
.24264
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Experimental
Control
30
14.5331
1.76486
.27415
In order to see whether the difference in mean scores of the two groups is significant or
not, the researchers used an independent t-test (Table 6).
Table 6: Determining the significance of the mean scores between the two groups
GE
Equal
variances
assumed
Equal
variances
not
assumed
Levene's t-test for Equality of Means
Test for
Equality
of
Variance
s
F
Si T
Df
Sig. Mea
g.
(2n
tail Diffe
ed) renc
e
.12 .46 9.124
58
.00 2.35
8
0
9.159
57.9
.00
0
2.53
Std.
Error
Diffe
renc
e
.2936
4
95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Low Upper
er
2.233 3.2435
5
.2162
8
2.273
1
3.2604
As table 5 shows, there is a significant difference between the mean scores of the two
groups. It means that meta-discourses have a significant effect on advanced learners‘
reading comprehension.
Discussion
The results of the first research question showed that the exclusion of meta-discourses has
no significant effect on intermediate EFL learners‘ reading comprehension. Since that was
not the case for the advanced ones, the researchers decided to conduct an unstructured
interview with 5 learners of each group to gain further insights into the causes of such
results. Therefore, 5 learners of each group were invited for a half hour interview with the
researchers. In order to elicit reliable answers from the interviewees and to keep them
motivated for the interview, the researchers paid each one 20, 000 Rials, around 20$. The
unstructured interview was used in this study because as Dörnyei (2007) words:
―It allows maximum flexibility to follow the interview in
unpredictable directions, with only minimal interference from the
research agenda. The intention is to create a relaxed atmosphere in
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which the respondent may reveal more than he/she would in
informal contexts, with the interviewer assuming a listening
role……This kind of interview is most appropriate when a study
focuses on the deep meaning of particular phenomena (p.136).
Having conducted the interviews, the researchers found that almost all the intermediate
interviewees, 9 out of 10, 5 in the control group and 4 in the experimental group, were not
aware of the concept of meta-discourse. However, most of the advanced learners
interviewed, 9 out of 10, 4 in the control group and 5 in the experimental one, were
familiar with the concept of meta-discourse. Thus, based on the findings of the interviews,
the researched decided to expand the study. They conducted a further study on the same
intermediate control and experimental groups. But this time, both experimental and
control groups were consciously familiarized with the concept of meta-discourse by the
researchers. Then, both the control and experimental groups were given five texts different
from the previous ones. However, the control group received the ones with the meta discourses excluded. Next, the mean scores of both groups were observed. The following
table demonstrates the mean scores of both groups.
Table 7. The mean scores of the intermediate experimental and control group reading
scores
N
Mean
Group
Intermedia
te
30
Std.
Deviation
1.94330
Std. Error
Mean
.21460
16.204
3
30
14.052
1.76486
.20516
1
An independent t-test was used to see whether such difference in mean scores is
significant or not (table 8)
Experimental
Control
Table 8: Determining the significance of the mean scores between the two groups
Levene'
s Test
for
Equalit
y
of
Varianc
es
F
Si
g.
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t-test for Equality of Means
T
Df
Sig
.
(2tail
ed)
Mea
n
Diff
eren
ce
Std.
Erro
r
Diff
95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Low Upper
er
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GE
Equal
variances
assumed
Equal
variances
not
assumed
.16
8
.4
6
9.062
58
.63
.000
9.109
57.
9
.63
.000
eren
ce
.298
37
2.11
48
3.2936
.296
89
2.11
77
3.2907
As table 8 shows, the difference in mean scores is significant at P<0.001. It means that
exclusion of meta-discourse can significantly influence intermediate EFL learners‘ reading
comprehension if they are already familiar with the concept of meta-discourse.
The findings of this study also corroborate those of Dastjerdi and Shirzad (2010). As
mentioned in the review of literature Datjerdi and Shirzad (2010) found that explicit
teaching of discourse markers can improve EFL learners‘ Writing ability. In this study the
researchers found that meta-discourse play an important role in EFL learners‘ reading
comprehension. Both studies highlight the significant role of meta -discourse on the EFL
skills such as writing and reading comprehension.
Moreover, Dastjerdi and Shirzad (2010) indicated that intermediate EFL learners could
improve their writing ability more significantly than those at the elementary and advanced
levels when they learned the meta-discourse markers explicitly. In this study, the
researchers found that if intermediate EFL learners become consciously aware of the role
of meta-discourse makers in their reading comprehension, their performance can improve
their reading ability more significantly than when they are not aware of them. Therefore,
both studies emphasize the explicit teaching or awareness of meta-discourse-markers can
help intermediate EFL learners to improve not only their writing ability, but also their
reading comprehension ability.
CONCLUSION
The results of the present study indicate that the effect of meta-discourse on EFL reading
comprehension should not be neglected by the teachers. Also, meta-discourse can play a
more influencing role on reading comprehension if the consciousness of the EFL learners‘
is raised by their teachers, especially at the intermediate level.
Meta-discourse
Better Reading
Comprehension
Figure1.The plausible effect of meta-discourse on EFL learners’ reading comprehension
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Researchers interested in the field of meta-discourse can do more research on the role
meta-discourse markers on the other skills and sub-skills of English Language such as
reading comprehension and speaking ability.
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