Vol. 23 No. 2 – October 2020 e-ISSN: 2579-9533 p-ISSN: 1410-7201

EFFECTS OF AN ARABIC ACCENT ON EFL LEARNERS' PRODUCTIVE INTELLIGIBILITY ...... 185 Ahmad Nazari, Majid Younus

TOWARD CREATIVITY AND SPEAKING ABILITY OF EFL STUDENTS: A MIXED-METHOD STUDY ...... 207 Debiga Fikky Abdullah, Diah Kristina, Sumardi Sumardi

INTERGENERATIONAL LANGUAGE PREFERENCE SHIFT AMONG CEBUANOS ON THE CEBUANO, FILIPINO, AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES ...... 220 Jeconiah Louis Dreisbach, Feorillo Petronilo A. Demeterio III

AUTHORIAL PRESENCE IN ENGLISH RESEARCH ARTICLES BY NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SCHOLARS ...... 241 Adelia Januarto, Tofan Dwi Hardjanto

EMPOWERING CARE’S EFFECTIVENESS FROM HIGH SCHOOL MATH TO COLLEGE ENGLISH……………………………………………....255 Deron Walker

ENGLISH TEACHING IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS: LANGUAGE TEACHERS AS CULTURAL MANAGERS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....…..273 Adi Suryani, Soedarso Soedarso, Kurnia Tri Diani, Rosmawati Rosmawati

ENHANCING COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE VIA ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES OF SPEAKING SKILLS FROM COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH ...... 293 Tam Thi Dao, Nguyen Thi Hong Thu

LEARNERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE USE OF INDONESIAN (L1) IN THE ENGLISH (L2) INTENSIVE COURSE: IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLANGUAGING PEDAGOGY ...... 304 Gregoria Dian Puspitasari, Mateus Yumarnamto

ENGLISH MEDIUM PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN NEPAL: A NEW LINGUISTIC MARKET IN EDUCATION ...... 319 Mohan Singh Saud

STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION TOWARDS GLOBAL ASSESSMENT CERTIFICATE CURRICULUM: A SURVEY STUDY ...... 334 Uswatun Hasanah, Rizki Farani

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON READING COMPREHENSION PROBLEMS IN NARRATIVE TEXT………………………………………...……....342 Gita Rosita Sari, Asih Santihastuti, Eka Wahjuningsih

USING PICTURE- ASSISTED LEXICAL INPUT APPROACH TO TEACH VOCABULARY TO THE POST-LINGUAL DEAF STUDENTS………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………354 Rahmat Soe'oed, Maria Teodora Ping, Abdul Rais Thamrin

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE OF ADJECTIVE, ADVERB AND PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES OF AWGNI………………………………………………….………368 Berhanu Asaye Agajie

THE BENEFITS OF JOINING ENGLISH DEBATING SOCIETY (EDS) FOR STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……383 Arline Thinesia Hetharie, Listyani Listyani, Maria Christina Eko Setyarini

` PEER FEEDBACK IN COLLEGE EFL WRITING: A REVIEW OF EMPIRICAL RESEARCH……………………………………………………..…...399 Yuseva Iswandari, Yizhe Jiang

ACHIEVING NEW DIRECTIONS IN SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOM THROUGH MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES APPROACH………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...... …...... 414 Luisito Manalansan Nanquil

Vol. 23 No. 2 Pages: Yogyakarta LLT Journal e-ISSN: 2579-9533 185-418 October 2020 p-ISSN: 1410-7201

Published by English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University

Vol. 23 No. 2 – October 2020 e-ISSN: 2579-9533 p-ISSN: 1410-7201

Published by English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University

EFFECTS OF AN ARABIC ACCENT ON EFL LEARNERS' PRODUCTIVE INTELLIGIBILITY...... 185 Ahmad Nazari, Majid Younus

TOWARD CREATIVITY AND SPEAKING ABILITY OF EFL STUDENTS: A MIXED-METHOD STUDY ...... 207 Debiga Fikky Abdullah, Diah Kristina, Sumardi Sumardi

INTERGENERATIONAL LANGUAGE PREFERENCE SHIFT AMONG CEBUANOS ON THE CEBUANO, FILIPINO, AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES...... 220 Jeconiah Louis Dreisbach, Feorillo Petronilo A. Demeterio III

AUTHORIAL PRESENCE IN ENGLISH RESEARCH ARTICLES BY NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SCHOLARS…………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………241 Adelia Januarto, Tofan Dwi Hardjanto

EMPOWERING CARE’S EFFECTIVENESS FROM HIGH SCHOOL MATH TO COLLEGE ENGLISH ...... 255 Deron Walker

ENGLISH TEACHING IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS: LANGUAGE TEACHERS AS CULTURAL MANAGERS ...... 273 Adi Suryani, Soedarso Soedarso, Kurnia Tri Diani, Rosmawati Rosmawati

ENHANCING COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE VIA ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES OF SPEAKING SKILLS FROM COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH ...... 293 Tam Thi Dao, Nguyen Thi Hong Thu

LEARNERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE USE OF INDONESIAN (L1) IN THE ENGLISH (L2) INTENSIVE COURSE: IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLANGUAGING PEDAGOGY ...... 304 Gregoria Dian Puspitasari, Mateus Yumarnamto

ENGLISH MEDIUM PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN NEPAL: A NEW LINGUISTIC MARKET IN EDUCATION ...... 319 Mohan Singh Saud

STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION TOWARDS GLOBAL ASSESSMENT CERTIFICATE CURRICULUM: A SURVEY STUDY ...... 334 Uswatun Hasanah, Rizki Farani

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON READING COMPREHENSION PROBLEMS IN NARRATIVE TEXT ...... 342 Gita Rosita Sari, Asih Santihastuti, Eka Wahjuningsih

USING PICTURE- ASSISTED LEXICAL INPUT APPROACH TO TEACH VOCABULARY TO THE POST-LINGUAL DEAF STUDENTS ...... 354 Rahmat Soe'oed, Maria Teodora Ping, Abdul Rais Thamrin

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE OF ADJECTIVE, ADVERB AND PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES OF AWGNI ...... 368 Berhanu Asaye Agajie

THE BENEFITS OF JOINING ENGLISH DEBATING SOCIETY (EDS) FOR STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS ...... 383 Arline Thinesia Hetharie, Listyani Listyani, Maria Christina Eko Setyarini . PEER FEEDBACK IN COLLEGE EFL WRITING: A REVIEW OF EMPIRICAL RESEARCH………………………………………………………………………...…….…..399 Yuseva Iswandari, Yizhe Jiang

ACHIEVING NEW DIRECTIONS IN SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOM THROUGH MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES APPROACH………………………..…..414 Luisito Manalansan Nanquil

LLT Journal Vol. 23 No. 2 – October 2020 e-ISSN: 2579-9533 p-ISSN: 1410-7201

LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching

Chairman : Soepomo Poedjosoedarmo Vice Chairman : J. Bismoko Editor-in-Chief : Barli Bram Editors : Patricia Angelina Lasut, Priyatno Ardi, Joseph Sorell and Concilianus Laos Mbato Reviewers : Ashadi Ashadi, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia Novita Dewi, Sanata Dharma University, Indonesia Willy A Renandya, National Institute of Education, Singapore, Singapore Nik Aloesnita Nik Moh Alwi, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Malaysia Maria Corazon S. A Castro, University of the Philippines, Philippines Deron Walker, California Baptist University, United States Christine Anita Xavier, National Institute of Education, Singapore Ignatius Harjanto, Widya Mandala Catholic University, Surabaya, Indonesia Paulus Kuswandono, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia Yohana Veniranda, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia Abbas Pourhosein Gilakjani, Islamic Azad University of Lahijan, Iran Zoraini Wati Abas, Wawasan Open University, Penang, Malaysia Anuncius Gumawang Jati, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia Maria Teodora Ping, Mulawarman University, Indonesia Website Staff : Ricadonna Alvita ISSN : p-ISSN 1410–7201; e-ISSN 2579-9533 Address : Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma Mrican, Tromol Pos 29 Yogyakarta – 55002 Phones : (0274) 513301, 515352, ext. 1220 Fax : (0274) 562383

Notes on articles contribution: LLT Journal: A Journal Language and Language Teaching, to appear twice a year (in April and October) for teachers and students, is published by the English Language Education Study Program, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University. This journal welcomes articles on language and language teaching written in English.

Indexed in:

LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 23, No. 2, October 2020

LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

EFFECTS OF AN ARABIC ACCENT ON EFL LEARNERS’ PRODUCTIVE INTELLIGIBILITY

Ahmad Nazari and Majid Younus Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar and London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom [email protected]; [email protected] correspondence: [email protected] DOI: doi.org/10.24071/llt.2020.230201 received 7 March 2020; accepted 15 April 2020

Abstract This study aimed at investigating the effects of a foreign accent, namely the Iraqi Arabic accent, at the segmental level on the productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners. Drawing on an intelligibility pronunciation principle, i.e. Gimson’s (2001) Minimum General Intelligibility (MGI), the study applied a mixed- methods research approach to measure the extent to which features of this accent impede the productive intelligibility of these learners and to identify the communication strategies they use to overcome intelligibility failures. To achieve these aims, two data collection tools were used: a production intelligibility test and a speaking task. Although the overall quantitative findings revealed that Iraqi EFL learners’ foreign-accented English was intelligible at the segmental level, most intelligibility failures were ascribed to the mispronunciation of non-existent English phonemes. The qualitative aspect of the study aimed at identifying the communication strategies Iraqi EFL learners use to overcome these intelligibility failures. In this respect, several strategies were identified, namely the let-it-pass strategy, the replacement strategy, the repetition strategy and the time gaining strategy. The article concludes with the implications and applications of the findings.

Keywords: intelligibility; foreign accent; communication strategies; mixed methods research in phonology

Introduction When learning English, non-native English speakers are expected to produce new distinctive sound features, acquire new articulatory habits and create new sound categories. Failure to achieve these articulatory adjustments will result in a type of English speech identified as foreign-accented English (Sereno, Lammers, & Jongman, 2016, p. 303). Derwing and Munro (2009, p. 476) define a foreign accent as “the ways in which a foreign language speaker’s speech differs from the local variety of English and the impact of that difference on speakers and

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listeners.” This means that a foreign accent can result from the sound differences between the native language and the target language. These sound differences occur at the segmental and suprasegmental levels of phonology. The present investigation is restricted to the effect of segmental deviations on the productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners. This restriction is based on the widely held assertion that in EFL contexts segmental production is emphasized over suprasegmental (Hellmuth, 2014; Jenkins, 2000). According to Sereno et al. (2016, p. 304), segmental deviations refer to the substitution of a phoneme with another or the modification of a phoneme. For example, the substitution of the English /p/ phoneme with the Arabic /b/ is an instance of phonemic deviation, whereas an aspirated pronunciation variant of /p/ is an instance of allophonic or phonetic modification. The term intelligibility refers to a non-native English targeted pronunciation level which can be understood by the listener with little effort (Gimson, 2001; Kim, 2008; Cruttenden, 2014). As used in this article, the term intelligibility refers to the production of English segmental phonemes in line with the permissible modifications of the English sound system as suggested by Gimson’s (2001) MGI principle (see Cruttenden, 2014). A great number of pronunciation studies conducted worldwide advocate intelligibility as the pronunciation goal for non-native English speakers (Trofimovich, 2016, p. 5). This shift of pronunciation research to intelligibility is yet to occur in Iraqi EFL classrooms and pronunciation research. According to Derwing and Munro (2005, p. 379), this type of intelligibility pronunciation research has much to offer teachers and students. The present study, hence, intends to fill a contextual gap in the literature by investigating the effect of a foreign accent at the segmental level on the productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners. As a secondary objective, the study aims to identify the types of oral communication strategies employed by Iraqi EFL learners when encountering pronunciation problems. With the above in mind, the following research questions are addressed: 1. At the segmental level, to what extent is Iraqi EFL learners’ foreign-accented English intelligible? 2. Which aspect of segmental deviations is responsible for most intelligibility failures that Iraqi EFL learners encounter? 3. What communication strategies do Iraqi EFL learners use to overcome productive intelligibility problems?

Literature Review Whether based on native or non-native English speakers, most intelligibility pronunciation studies in EFL contexts emphasize the importance of segmental phonemes in intelligibility (Hellmuth, 2014). The overall effect of segmental phonemes on intelligibility was first examined by correlation studies (see, for example, Anderson-Hsieh, 1995). Subsequent studies then sought to identify which segmental phonemes (vowels or consonants) affected intelligibility the most and delved into the relationship between the intelligibility of segmental phonemes and foreign accents (see, for example, Rogers, 1997; Kirkova-Naskova, 2010).

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Although some mispronunciations of consonants were reported to cause intelligibility failures, a considerable number of studies emphasized the effect of vowel production and perception on the intelligibility of non-native English speech. For instance, Kashiwagi and Snyder (2008) investigated the intelligibility of Japanese EFL accented English to both American and Japanese listeners. Japanese and American judges evaluated samples of speech from 20 intermediate Japanese students for intelligibility and foreign accent. Intelligibility was measured by comparing what the participants produced and what the judges orthographically wrote. The judges also rated the foreign accent of the participants impressionistically on a seven-point rating scale. Interviews were then conducted with the judges to find what pronunciation features caused misunderstanding. The researchers organized the segmental and suprasegmental errors into various categories. At the segmental level, the results revealed that vowels were more problematic than consonants in terms of understanding. At the suprasegmental level, stress was the error type which caused the most misunderstanding for both the American and Japanese listeners. As far as the pronunciation studies conducted in the Arabic speaking contexts are concerned, Nikolova (2012) investigated the influence of a foreign accent on the acquisition of English vowels by Saudi EFL learners. The investigation was based on the predicted difficulty level which was determined by contrasting the sound systems of English and Arabic. The study was limited to the investigation of ten vowels in American English. The findings revealed that partially similar vowels were difficult to produce and perceive by most Saudi EFL learners. A similar study on the perception and production of English segmental vowel sounds was conducted with Syrian EFL learners by Almbark (2012). The study was based on insights from speech perception and production theories such as the Speech Learning Model (SLM) (Flege, 1995). The researcher used a vowel discrimination task to identify the level of difficulty encountered by Syrian EFL learners. The findings revealed that these learners were able to produce some of the difficult vowels predicted by Flege’s (1995) SLM. Although the Syrian EFL learners had little exposure to the target English vowels, the researcher claimed that direct teaching of the vowels was responsible for successful production and perception of these vowels. Hassan (2014) investigated the aspects of segmental errors which caused intelligibility problems to Sudanese EFL learners. Fifty university students and 30 teachers of English participated in the study. The researcher used three data collection tools: observations, recordings, and a questionnaire. The data obtained were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings of the study showed that the mispronunciation of vowel phonemes was responsible for intelligibility failures. The researcher ascribed these failures to the differences between the sound systems of English and Arabic. L1 interference was the major reason for the pronunciation problems encountered by the Sudanese learners of English. In the Iraqi EFL context, the principle of intelligibility has been largely ignored. In this respect, Rashid (2009, p. 43) confirms that intelligibility is absent in the Iraqi EFL context. She adds that pronunciation teaching and research should be reconsidered in the light of the intelligibility principle. Although Khudhair (2015) investigated intelligibility in the Iraqi EFL context, his

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investigation was in line with the perfect mastery of the English RP accent. This was because the researcher used RP as a reference pronunciation norm to assess the speech of Iraqi EFL learners. The principle of intelligibility was suggested in the first place to equip non-native English speakers with a comfortably intelligible pronunciation. This requires modifying the sound system of RP to include features from other native English varieties like General American (Gimson, 2001). In his research, Khudhair (2015) focused on the intelligibility of 50 Iraqi university students and defined intelligibility about understanding. A list of isolated words containing potential pronunciation features was read by the Iraqi speakers. The listener was the researcher himself, who described himself as a semi-native English speaker with an RP accent. The researcher used a word dictation task to measure the intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners. The findings of the study revealed several segmental and suprasegmental errors that Iraqi EFL learners made. At the segmental level, most of these errors were made in producing vowel phonemes. Apart from the above, the bulk of pronunciation research conducted in Iraq clearly emphasizes the perfect mastery of an RP accent. For example, Mahud (2001) conducted a Ph.D. study comparing syllabic consonants in English and Arabic. The sample of the study consisted of thirty postgraduate Iraqi students from three different colleges at the University of Baghdad. Qualitative data were collected by comparing the syllabic consonants in English and Arabic. This comparison helped to identify the similarities and differences in the two contrasted languages regarding syllabic consonants. The findings of the contrastive study were later investigated quantitatively to measure Iraqi EFL learners’ production of English syllabic consonants. The findings revealed that Iraqi EFL students were unable to produce English syllabic consonants. In a similar vein, Al-Abdely and Thai (2016) investigated the production of English vowels by Iraqi EFL speakers. The aim was to examine the effect of L1 interference and learners’ proficiency levels on the production of English vowels. 85 Iraqi speakers were divided into four groups with different proficiency levels as decided by a production placement test. Data from the production test were descriptively and statistically analyzed, and the findings revealed that most of the Iraqi speakers faced a considerable degree of difficulty in producing English vowels. These vowel production errors were similar regardless of the speakers’ proficiency level. The same line of investigation was conducted by most past and present researchers. Based on Gimson’s (2001) MGI, Flege’s (1995) SLM and the findings of pronunciation studies carried out in Iraq (see Al-Hamash, 1969; Ahmed, 2000; Al-Abdely & Thai, 2016), the current researchers have summarised in three tables the segmental phonemic contrasts between Iraqi Arabic (IA) and English. In the following three tables, the red symbols refer to English phonemes not found in IA, the green symbols refer to English phonemes that have partial equivalents in IA and the black symbols refer to phonemes found in both English and IA. In the present research, these distinctions are taken as the basis of analysis for the segmental phonemes in the production intelligibility test.

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Table 1. MGI and IA consonant phonemes Manner place of articulation of bilabi labio- dental alveolar post- palatal velar labio- glottal articulat al dental alveolar velar ion stops p b t d k g fricatives f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h affricates ʧ ʤ nasals M N ŋ lateral l approxim r J w ants

Table 2. MGI and IA monophthongs

Type of Vowel front Central Back high Long iː uː short ɪ ʊ mid Long ɜː ɔː Short e ə ɒ low Long ɑː Short æ ʌ

Table 3. MGI and IA diphthongs glide to ɪ glide to ʊ glide to ə ɑɪ ɑʊ eə

ɔɪ əʊ ɪə ngs Diphtho eɪ ʊə

Whether they were based on the intelligibility or the perfect mastery of RP, what the above pronunciation studies have in common is the fact that most of the identified segmental deviations as features of a foreign accent are difficult to overcome. These features of a foreign accent have been described as non- pathological by Munro and Derwing (1995, p. 290) and fossilized by Jenkins (2000). This begs the question as to what strategies are available to EFL learners to resolve such intelligibility failures. In this respect, Kaur and Singh (2009), based on Jenkins’ (2000) study, explored the type of communication strategies used by non-native English speakers to overcome intelligibility failures. They conducted a study to locate instances of miscommunication due to pronunciation features in face-to-face interactions in English among Malaysian speakers. Accordingly, the researchers identified the types of strategies used by the speakers to avoid these miscommunications. Twenty-three hours of interaction in English were used. The researchers adopted Jenkins’ (2000) methodology to identify the miscommunications and the strategies. Four information gap tasks were used to collect data. The findings of the study identified some phonological features important for communication. These findings supported the findings arrived at by Jenkins’ (2000) study. The study also revealed several communication strategies used by the interlocutors such as lexical anticipation, phonological anticipation, spelling, and mime. Kaur and Singh (2009) emphasize that few studies have been conducted linking the use of communication strategies to pronunciation problems. Most other studies investigating communication strategies were based on lexical

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rather than pronunciation causes (see, for example, Yanny, 2006; Skold, 2008). In the Iraqi EFL context, studies on communication strategies were also lexically motivated (see, for example, Dhea, 2011). In the present study, the investigation of communication strategies follows the approach used by Kaur and Singh’s (2009) study. The focus is on the type of strategy used when the main motive is to overcome pronunciation difficulty. The difference between the present study and Kaur and Singh’s (2009) is the use of semi-free speech rather than face-to-face interaction.

Method The researchers collected and analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data to investigate the effect of a foreign accent at the segmental level on intelligibility. The use of mixed-method research was to provide a better understanding of the research topic, which could not be achieved if one method was used only (Gronmo, 2020). Moreover, the mixed methods research would expand qualitatively the quantitative findings by exploring the communication strategies Iraqi EFL learners use to overcome pronunciation problems. Therefore, two data collection tools were used: a production intelligibility test and a speaking task, as described below.

The Production Intelligibility Test The production intelligibility test aimed to measure the impact of a foreign accent on the productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners. The test was constructed based on related works done by Bent and Bradlow (2003), Kim (2008), Almbark (2012) and Sereno et al. (2016). The test consisted of the participants (speakers), the stimulus material and the measurement tools, as described in the following sections.

The Participants (Speakers) The speakers were 60 Iraqi EFL university students both males and females. The age range varied from 23 to 25. The speakers were all third-year university students studying in the English Departments of three colleges in Baghdad. These speakers were advanced university learners at the final stage of their academic study. They had been tested regularly by their lecturers until they reached this level. Moreover, they had been taught English phonetics and phonology in the first and second years of their university study. In other words, they were likely to have explicit phonetic and phonological knowledge of the sound system of English. When graduating, these students were expected to be teachers of English at intermediate and secondary schools. Thus, it was necessary to check that their productive intelligibility would be a good model to follow by their students.

The Stimulus Material The material used was a reading passage in English developed by Deterding (2006). The passage contained the distinctive segmental phonemic features in English. In other words, it could be used to measure the productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners and examine this intelligibility about a foreign accent as conceptualized by Flege’s (1995) SLM. The researchers made sure that the passage contained words reflecting the three potential levels of difficulty set by

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Flege’s (1995) SLM: identical phonemes, partially similar phonemes, and different phonemes. In this study, the choice of a reading passage in the productive intelligibility test was made for two reasons. The first reason was to ensure that all words containing the three tested difficulty levels were present. This was confirmed by Deterding (2006). The second reason was to control the lexical and grammatical factors which might influence the measurement of productive intelligibility. Thus, we decided to limit the use of spontaneous speech to the qualitative aspect of the study.

The Measurement Tools An orthographic word transcription was used to measure the productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners. All the transcriptions were done by the researchers. Two procedures were followed during the transcription process. Firstly, all content words in the reading passage were transcribed using the Oxford and Merriam-Webster Dictionaries. The reason for choosing British and American English dictionaries was in line with Gimson’s (2001) MGI principle. The sound modifications, proposed by Gimson, were based on a comparison between the sound system of British English and General American. Secondly, all the mispronunciations found in the speech of Iraqi EFL learners were assessed based on their deviations from the native English pronunciation norms as set by Gimson’s (2001) MGI principle. For example, the word ‘go’ can be pronounced as /gɔː/ because this variant in pronunciation is found in other native English varieties. The use of word dictation to assess intelligibility was suitable as it allowed the researchers to observe “the extent to which a word or utterance is recognized at the level of finer acoustic-phonetic detail” (Moyer, 2013, p. 93). A dichotomous scoring scheme was adopted. A speech sample received one score if all the content words in it were correctly produced by the speaker, whereas it received no score if one content word was inaccurately produced resulting in a change in meaning (Atechi, 2004). After scoring all the speech samples, the mispronounced words were categorized into the three difficulty levels set by Flege (1995).

The Speaking Task For the qualitative aspect of the study, the speaking task was used to elicit speech samples from 12 Iraqi EFL students. These 12 students were selected from the above 60 speakers. They were chosen based on their performance in the speech intelligibility test. Since we observed frequent segmental deviations in their reading of the passage, we asked them to participate in the speaking task. The task aimed to examine the communication strategies Iraqi EFL learners used to overcome pronunciation problems. A list of topics of general interest was used as a speaking prompt to elicit the speech for the study. These topics were related to travel, shopping, education, health, technology, friendship and so on. According to Clark (1979, p. 36), two of the ways of eliciting speech samples for an investigation are a semi-free speech and a direct free speech. This investigation used the semi-free speech to generate the speech data. These speech data were described as not completely natural because the choice of topics was already decided by the researchers, and this might affect the types of words used.

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However, such elicited speech data were not as artificial as the speech data generated by using already prepared reading passages or a list of words. Moreover, to mitigate the above limitation, when using the speaking task in this study, the 12 Iraqi EFL learners were not restricted from using the topics given as speaking prompts. They were free to use their topics if they felt that they could express themselves better and thus produce enough speech data for the study. In fact, on a considerable number of occasions, the speakers preferred to select their topics to talk about. Thus, the speech data elicited by the speaking task should not be considered completely inauthentic and artificial. In this respect, Cruz-Ferreira (2006, p. 43) mentions that “any collection of data, of course, involves a set of choices, which constrain the ways of querying the data according to the purposes that the data will serve.” As far as the speech elicitation procedures were concerned, each speaker was asked to choose a topic from a suggested list of topics and speak about it for 2 to 3 minutes. The speakers were given time to formulate their ideas before speaking. Recording started when the speakers were ready to talk. All speech recordings were done in a quiet room to ensure that clear and noise-free recording was obtained. Although there were some hesitant speech phenomena, the speaking task ran smoothly. We felt that showing signs of interest in the speech by nodding the head and keeping eye contact raised the speaker’s confidence to complete the task. As already mentioned, some speakers wanted to speak on topics of their own choice. We agreed to this since we were interested in having a speech sample large enough for the investigation. The quantitative data obtained from the productive intelligibility test and the qualitative data obtained from the speaking task were analyzed by two different approaches. These are explained in the following sections.

Analysis of the Production Intelligibility Test The quantitative data from the speech intelligibility test were analyzed in descriptive and inferential statistic terms using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (Field, 2013). The productive intelligibility test was used to measure the intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners about a foreign accent. Two types of inferential tests were used: one-sample t-test and one-way ANOVA. The one- sample t-test was used first to measure the overall productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners’ accented English. Second, the test was used to measure the productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners to every level of a foreign accent. A one-way ANOVA examined whether there were differences in the mean scores of the three levels of a foreign accent when assessing the productive intelligibility. If significant differences were detected, a Scheffe post hoc test was conducted to tell where these differences occurred.

Analysis of the Speaking Task Data analysis is considered the procedure of “bringing order, structure, and meaning to the mass of collected data” (DeVos et al., 2002, p. 339). For this investigation, a qualitative content analysis was used to identify the various communication strategies used by Iraqi EFL learners. The identification of the initial categories relied partly on the work done by Kaur and Singh (2009).

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Qualitative content analysis is defined as “a research method for subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns” (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005, p. 1278). There are three approaches to qualitative content analysis: directed, conventional and summative. The present study used a directed qualitative content analysis approach. According to Hsieh and Shannon (2005, p. 1281), the goal of a directed approach to content analysis is to validate or extend conceptually a theoretical framework or theory. Existing theory or research can help focus the research question. It can provide predictions about the variables of interest or about the relationships among variables, thus helping to determine the initial coding scheme or relationships between codes. This has been referred to as deductive category application.

Findings and Discussion Quantitative Results This section introduces productive intelligibility results. To measure the overall productive intelligibility, the researchers conducted a one-sample t-test using IBM SPSS statistics version 25. The result of the overall productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners to native English listeners is shown in table (4).

Table 4. The overall productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners

One-Sample Statistics N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean 180 2.9169 .70899 .05284

One-Sample Test Test Value = 2.5 95% Confidence Interval of the Sig. (2- Mean Difference T df tailed) Difference Lower Upper 7.889 179 .000 .41689 .3126 .5212

The above statistics revealed that the mean score of Iraqi EFL learners was (2.9169) with a SD (.70899), and the calculated t-value was (7.889), which was larger than the tabulated value (1.960) at an alpha level of (0.05). When comparing the sample mean (2.9169) with the hypothesized mean (2.5), the difference was statistically significant for the sample mean, t(179) = 7.889, p < 0.05. Thus, Iraqi EFL learners’ accented English was intelligible with a mean difference (.41689) to native English listeners. The overall result of productive intelligibility suggested that Iraqi EFL learners could produce accurately most of the English words following Gimson’s (2001) MGI principle. To determine which aspect of the English sound system caused this significant difference, Iraqi EFL learners’ productive intelligibility was measured according to each of the three levels of sound production difficulty proposed by Flege’s (1995) SLM. The

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results of a one-sample t-test about the level of sound production difficulty experienced by Iraqi EFL learners were as follows.

Iraqi EFL Learners’ Production of Identical Phonemes The researchers conducted a one-sample t-test using SPSS version 25. The result of the intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners regarding the production of identical phonemes is shown in Table 5.

Table 5. The intelligibility of identical phonemes

One-Sample Statistics N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean 60 3.4252 .54588 .07047

One-Sample T-Test Test Value = 2.5 95% Confidence Interval of the Sig. (2- Mean Difference T Df tailed) Difference Lower Upper 13.128 59 .000 .92517 .7842 1.0662

The above SPSS statistics revealed that the mean score of Iraqi EFL learners’ production of identical English phonemes was (3.425) with a SD (0.545), and the calculated t-value was (13.128), which was larger than the tabulated value (2) at the df (59) and an alpha level of (0.05). When comparing the sample mean (3.425) with the hypothesized population mean (2.5), the difference was statistically significant for the sample mean, t(59) = 13.128, p< 0.05. Thus, Iraqi EFL learners’ production of identical English phonemes was intelligible with a mean difference (.92517).

Iraqi EFL Learners’ Production of Partially Similar Phonemes The researchers conducted a one-sample t-test using SPSS version 25. The result of the intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners’ production of partially similar English phonemes is shown in table (6).

Table 6. The intelligibility of partially similar phonemes

One-Sample Statistics N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean 60 2.9175 .62047 .08010

Test Value = 2.5 95% Confidence Interval of the Sig. (2- Mean Difference T Df tailed) Difference Lower Upper 5.212 59 .000 .41750 .2572 .5778

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The above statistics revealed that the mean score of Iraqi EFL learners’ production was (2.917) with a SD (0.6204), and the calculated t-value was (5.212), which was larger than the tabulated value (2) at the df (59) and an alpha level of (0.05). When comparing the sample mean (2.917) with the hypothesized population mean (2.5), the difference was statistically significant for the sample mean, t(59) = 5.212,p < 0.05. Thus, Iraqi EFL learners’ production was intelligible with a mean difference (.4175).

Iraqi EFL Learners’ Production of Different Phonemes The researchers conducted a one-sample t-test using SPSS version 25. The result of the productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL concerning different phonemes is shown in table (7).

Table 7. The intelligibility of different phonemes

One-Sample Statistics N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean 60 2.4080 .56212 .07257

One-Sample Test Test Value = 2.5 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference T df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference Lower Upper 1.268 59 .210 .09200 .2372 .0532

The above statistics showed that the mean score of Iraqi EFL learners was (2.4080) with a SD (0.56212), and the calculated t-value was (1.268), which was smaller than the tabulated value (2) at the df (59) and an alpha level of (0.05). When comparing the sample mean (2.4080) with the hypothesized population mean (2.5), the difference was statistically significant for the hypothesized mean, t(59) = 1.268, p> 0.05. Thus, Iraqi EFL accented English was unintelligible with a mean difference (.09200). The results about the three levels of difficulty in sound production showed that Iraqi EFL learners varied in the mean scores of each level. To determine whether these differences in mean scores of the three levels of difficulty were statistically significant, a one-way ANOVA was conducted. The results about the means differences of intelligibility among the three levels of difficulty are shown in table (8).

Table 8. Production intelligibility among the three difficulty levels

One-way ANOVA INTELLIGIBLITY Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups 130.13 2 3.0.33 0606.7 .000 Within Groups .50315 177 .010 Total 530388 179

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The above statistics showed that the calculated F-value was (46.607), which was larger than the tabulated value (3.04) at the two df (2 – 177) and an alpha significant level (0.05). There were statistically significant differences among the mean scores of the three levels of difficulty, f(2, 177)= 46.607,p < 0.05. To indicate where these significant differences occurred, a Scheffe post hoc test for multiple comparisons was conducted for which the results are shown in table (9).

Table 9. Scheffe test among the three difficulty level Multiple Mean 95% Confidence Interval comparison Difference Std. Lower Upper (I-J) Error Sig. Bound Bound Identical partially .50767* .10780 .000 .2416 .7738 similar Different 1.14233* .10780 .000 .8762 1.4084 partially Identical .50767* .10780 .000 .7738 .2416 similar Different .63467* .10780 .000 .3686 .9008 Different Identical 1.14233* .10780 .000 1.4084 .8762 partially .63467* .10780 .000 .9008 .3686 similar

The critical value of Scheffe test was (0.26). When it was compared with the observed differences among the three levels of difficulty, the significance was for the first and second levels of production difficulty.

Qualitative Results The qualitative analysis aimed to expand the quantitative findings by exploring the communication strategies used by Iraqi EFL learners to overcome intelligibility problems. The following is an account of the communication strategies used by Iraqi EFL learners.

Let-it-pass Strategy The “let-it-pass” strategy was first introduced by Firth (1996) to describe a strategy that the speaker/hearer adopts when facing problems in speech and “lets the unknown or unclear action, word or utterance pass on the (common-sense) assumption that it will either become clear or redundant as talk progresses” (1996, p. 243). Out of the twelve Iraqi EFL speakers, the let-it-pass strategy was frequently observed in the speech of two speakers, Sadiq and Kamal (the participants’ names in this article are pseudonyms). Although the speech samples produced by these speakers contained several pronunciation errors, these Iraqi EFL speakers did not bother to resolve these mispronunciations. They simply let them pass. When following Sadiq’s speech, the only single communication strategy used was the let-it-pass strategy. Throughout his speech, Sadiq was indifferent to the frequent pronunciation errors he made. The following is an extract from Sadiq’s speech with the mispronounced words either underlined or missed completely.

I am a citizen. I live in Iraq, Baghdad. I wish to serve my country and develop my skills in learning English language. Speaking……. A lot of people ask me how to improve themselves in English. So, I advise them

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to watch movies in English. I advise them to use their ears to listen to the ……… I also encourage them to speak with their colleagues and to read in English. At the end, I wish luck to my friends.

In the above extract, several words were mispronounced by Sadiq. For example, the word ‘luck’ was mispronounced as /lɒk/. The speaker substituted the vowel /ʌ/ with /ɒ/. The substitution affected the phonemic status of the vowel, a change in quality. This effect brought about a lexical change in having two different lexical words. When discussing the vowel /ʌ/ in the word ‘luck’, Gimson (2001) mentions that this vowel could be substituted with /ə/ without affecting intelligibility. However, Sadiq used a different interlanguage variant for the vowel /ʌ/. Similarly, Kamal used the let-it-pass strategy in his speech, especially when he mispronounced the words ‘park’ as /bɑːk/, ‘audience’ as /ɔːdɪni:s/ and ‘buy’ as /beɪ/. The following is an extract from Kamal’s speech with mispronounced words underlined.

Last week I had a nice day with my friend. We had a small picnic. First, we went to Al Mansur Mall. We buy many things from the mall. We bought clothes and ate our lunch. I also played some games like discovery which I like it very much. After that we decided to watch a football match. I like the way the audience expressed their joy by singing and dancing.

In the above extract, all the underlined mispronunciations resulted in different words. One might argue that the correct form of the words could be deduced from context. For example, the word ‘audience’ could be inferred by the presence of a lexical item like ‘football’, due to the co-text effect (Jenkins, 2000) or lexical anticipation (Kirkpatrick, 2007). Although the present researchers do not deny the effect of context and co-text on speech intelligibility, they were more interested in finding out whether the speaker used or did not use a communication strategy when s/he made a pronunciation error. For example, the word ‘park’ was mispronounced as /bɑ:k/ by Kamal. Kamal substituted the consonant /p/ with /b/. The substitution affected the phonemic status of the consonant, a change in place of articulation and voicing. This effect brought about a lexical change in having two different lexical words. When discussing the /p/ in the word ‘park’, Gimson (2001) mentions that the consonant /p/ could be produced without aspiration and that production would not affect the intelligibility of the word. However, Kamal pronounced the consonant by modifying its voicing feature as well. By examining Kamal’s speech, the researchers conclude that the only communication strategy used by Kamal was the let-it-pass strategy. Interestingly, none of the other ten speakers employed the let-it-pass strategy. In contrast, they used other types of achievement or risk-taking strategies, such as the repetition strategy.

Repetition Strategy Another communication strategy used was when the speaker was aware of his mispronunciations and repeated the problematic pronunciation which caused intelligibility problems (Kirkpatrick 2007, p. 125). The strategy of repetition was

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observed in the speech of Iraqi EFL speakers. However, there were some differences in their use. The data analysis of the speech samples revealed two issues concerning this phonological adjustment of mispronounced words. The first one was when the speaker repeated the mispronounced word, but the mispronunciation was still unresolved. This incident indicated a likely deficiency in the speakers’ phonological competence. For example, the mispronunciation of the words ‘sixth’ and ‘materials’ was repeated by Rasha and the same mispronunciations were still heard. The following is an extract from Rasha’s speech:

When I was in the sixth, sixth, sixth class, I loved to study English very much. I wanted to enter this department. I watched lots of movies and tried to translate without even looking at the writings. I tried hard to develop my English and my listening skills. Also, I wanted to enter the English department because there are many opportunities. After I graduate, I want to be a teacher and learn many things and know how to put the materials, materials in their right place.

In Rasha’s speech, the word ‘enter’ was mispronounced as /inter/. The speaker substituted the vowel /e/ with /ɪ/. The substitution affected the phonemic status of the vowel, a change in the quality of the vowel. This effect would bring about a lexical change in having two different lexical words, the word ‘enter’ is different from ‘inter’. When discussing the vowel /e/ in the word ‘enter’, Gimson (2001) proposes that the vowel /e/ could be produced in the area of cardinal vowels [e], but it should not be confused with another vowel. However, Rasha used the vowel /ɪ/ as a different interlanguage variant for /e/. By examining Rasha’s speech, the researchers observed that the word was repeated several times with the same mispronunciation. Thus, Rasha was not successful in her use of the repetition strategy. Similarly, Kawther’s repetition of the word ‘drawing’ was unsuccessful. Kawther substituted the vowel /ɔː/ with /au/. The following is an extract from Kawther’s speech:

My favourite hobby is painting. I love painting very much. I find it fun and comfortable. I like drawings since I was a child. I used to spend my spare time drawings. My friends and teachers encouraged me to complete my dream. I also love reading long novels and long stories which contain drawings.

In Kawther’s speech, the word ‘drawing’ was mispronounced as ‘drowning’ /drauning/. The speaker substituted the vowel /ɔː/ with /ɑʊ/. The substitution affected the phonemic status of the vowel, a change in the quantity and quality of the vowel. This effect would bring about a lexical change in having two different lexical words: the word ‘drawing’ is different from ‘drowning’. By examining Kawther’s speech, the researchers observed that the word was repeated several times with the same mispronunciation. Thus, the use of repetition strategy was not successful by Kawther.

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However, the repetition strategy was successfully employed by Yasir who repeated the correct pronunciation of the mispronounced word ‘improve’. The following is an extract from Yasir’s speech:

English is an international language. It is spoken by millions of people in all countries. I would like to study English in Britain. There are many advantages to do that. I am thinking to do a course there this summer. I believe that I could improve my English language. Therefore, I intend to pursue my higher studies in English at this college.

In Yasir’s speech, the word ‘improve’ was initially mispronounced as /ɪmˈpruːf/. The speaker substituted the consonant /v/ with /f/. The substitution affected the phonemic status of the consonant, a change in voicing. This substitution would bring about a lexical change in having two different lexical words. However, the speaker was able to repeat the mispronounced consonant successfully the second time. Although the consonant phoneme /v/ is not part of the sound system of IA, it occurs in some loan words such as ‘television’ and ‘video’, and the adjustment made by Yasir to pronounce the correct form of the word could be due to the occurrence of this vowel in loan words. Likewise, another successful use of the repetition strategy was employed by Eanas, who repeated a correct pronunciation of the initially mispronounced word ‘Facebook’. The following is an extract from Eanas’ speech:

I met my best friend yesterday. I saw her when we were in the mall. We talked about everything and she asked about each one of you. She was talking about herself. She is studying now in the History department and have many friends. She gave me her number and asked me to keep in touch. She also asked me to make a group on Facebook. If you have time please do the Facebook Facebook group because I have a lot of work.

Replacement Strategy Replacement refers to the use of an alternative lexical item instead of a mispronounced one. Although this strategy can be motivated by lexical choice, its use in the data was associated with a previously mispronounced word. For example, Hasan used the word ‘funny’ instead of ‘weird’. The following is an extract from Hasan’s speech:

I had something weird today or something funny. I was going to work driving my car. Suddenly my car broke down. I could not repair it because I had little experience in car motor. I called my assistant and then my brother whose cars were broken too. When we remember what happened we all laughed.

In Hasan’s speech, the word ‘weird’ /wɪəd/ was mispronounced as /weəd/. The speaker substituted the vowel /ɪə/ with /eə/. The substitution affected the phonemic status of the vowel accompanied by having two different lexical words respectively. In discussing the diphthong /ɪə/, Gimson (2001) suggests that the centering diphthongs /ɪə, eə, ʊə/ could be simplified as vowel+r, by the retention

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of postvocalic r. This would result in producing /i:(r), eɪr and u:r/ respectively in words like ‘peer’ /pi:r/, ‘pair’ /peɪr/ and ‘poor’ /pu:r/ or /pɔːr/. Having determined the type of confusion, the researchers examined the type of communication strategy used by Hasan in this situation. By examining Hasan’s speech, the researchers observed that the mispronounced word ‘weird’ was replaced with the word ‘funny’. Likewise, Sajaad used the word ‘risk’ instead of ‘trouble’. The following is an extract from Sajaad’s speech:

I am married and have one kid. I want to talk a little bit about the challenges I faced as a family man and I believe also most of our families in Iraq face. The use of technology, the internet. This device constitutes a trouble I mean a risk to people if misused. It contained ideas which could affect especially the teenagers.

In Sajjad’s speech, the word ‘risk’ was used instead of ‘trouble’ /trʌbl/. In the word trouble, the speaker substituted the vowel /ʌ/ with /a:/. The substitution affected the phonemic status of the vowel. In the above extract, Sajaad managed to replace the mispronounced word with a semantically similar lexical item.

Time Gaining Strategy Dornyei and Scott (1995, p. 194) suggest an extension to the communication strategies to include stalling or time taking strategies (the use of pause fillers and hesitation gambits). These strategies were not used as a result of language deficiency, but rather to help the speaker gain time to keep the communication channel open when a problem is encountered. Pause fillers and hesitations were labeled as indirect strategies. According to Dornyei and Scott (1995, p. 194), these provide conditions for preventing breakdowns in communication. In our research, the data analysis of the speech samples revealed two opposite situations. These fillers were successfully used by Ali to facilitate the flow of thoughts and complete the task. For example, Ali said:

A true friend is rare and hard to find nowadays. A true friend should be near you and make you feel that err you are not alone especially in difficult times. A good friend will not be afraid to tell you when you are wrong. He mm shares your pain and grief. We cannot dispense with friends even if we have brothers and sisters.

In Ali’s speech, we were interested in finding out whether the speaker continued his speech after using the time gaining strategy or not. As the speech extract shows, the use of time gaining strategy helped Ali to form his ideas and express himself in a good way. The strategy helped him to finish the task successfully. By contrast, Mahdi employed the time to gain strategy too much. The excessive use of these time gaining strategies made Mahdi stumble at every word of his speech. The frequent pauses and hesitations distorted the meaning he wanted to convey. This resulted in the researchers having trouble coping with the

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message delivered or the speaker finally abandoning the task. The following is an extract from Mahdi’s speech:

I am a citizen. I live in Iraq, Baghdad. I err the sole brother of my family. I am divided err I am divided [long pause] between work or comp… (the speaker did not finish the word) [pause] study. [Long pause] I wish to develop my language skills.

Discussion The findings of this study will be discussed with the findings of related studies and the theoretical principles guiding their investigation. The first finding is related to the measurement of the productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners’ accented English. The finding revealed that Iraqi EFL learners’ speech production was intelligible to native English listeners [t(179) = 7.889, p < 0.05, with a mean difference of (.41689)]. This finding contrasted with the findings arrived at by other pronunciation studies conducted in the Iraqi EFL context. It was shown in the review of related studies that Iraqi EFL learners were always regarded as incompetent as far as speech production was concerned (see, for example, Ahmed, 2000; Mahud, 2001; Al-Abdely and Thai, 2016). The main reason for that negative judgment was not a defect in their performance. It was because the pronunciation model used as a reference point emphasized perfect mastery of an English RP accent, a goal impossible to achieve in a large number of EFL contexts (Derwing and Munro, 2005). For example, Mahud’s (2001) thesis investigated Iraqi EFL learners’ production of English syllabic consonants. Although the study revealed interesting contrasting results, it failed to provide an accurate assessment of Iraqi EFL learners’ performance because it was based on the native-likeness principle. Additionally, the phonological feature investigated by Mahud was of less importance in maintaining communication as suggested by Gimson (2001). In commenting on syllabic consonants, Gimson (ibid, p. 320) asserts that modifying the pronunciation of syllabic consonants by inserting a schwa before them will not affect understanding. Thus, the syllabic [l ] in the word little can be pronounced as /litəl/. The above finding supports the theoretical assumption of Gimson’s (2001) MGI. According to Gimson’s (2001, p. 298) MGI, an EFL learner’s performance in English will be understandable if the learner “possesses a set of distinctive elements which correspond in some measure to the inventory of the RP phonemic system.” The overall productive intelligibility finding of Iraqi EFL learners can be justified by the pronunciation principle adopted in the identification of the words and utterances produced by Iraqi EFL speakers. These words and utterances were identified based on the intelligibility principle. A researcher who adopts this principle will be interested in identifying only the deviant pronunciations which interfere with understanding, overlooking others with less communicative values or recognized due to the context of discourse (Kim, 2008; Gimson, 2001; Brown, 1988). The second finding of the study is related to the identification of the segmental features of a foreign accent which negatively influences the productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners. The analysis was based on the three difficulty levels of segmental production proposed by Flege (1995). According to Flege (1995), the learning of English vowel sounds can take three routes: different

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phonemes are thought to be easy to learn, identical phonemes are thought to be the easiest to learn and partially similar phonemes are thought to be the most difficult to learn. The finding of the present study revealed that non-existent phonemes in IA and MGI were responsible for most intelligibility failures with [t(59) = 1.268, p> 0.05] compared to the production of identical phonemes [t(59) = 13.128, p < 0.05] and partially similar phonemes [t(59) = 5.212,p < 0.05]. Although the finding of the present study supports other findings confirming the importance of vowel production in intelligibility (Al-Abdely and Thai, 2016; Hassan, 2014; Nikolova, 2012), it differs from them in the types of vowels identified as causing production difficulty. The present study revealed that non- existent vowels in IA and MGI were the major cause of intelligibility failures. This finding contrasts with the findings arrived at by Al-Abdely and Thai (2016) and Almbark (2012) which emphasize that partially similar vowels cause most of the production difficulties. Again, the reason for the differences in the findings can be due to the pronunciation principle adopted. Furthermore, the ability of Iraqi EFL learners to produce some of the different vowels can be justified by having linguistic knowledge and enough exposure to English. This effect was supported by Almbark (2012) when justifying the accurate production of partially similar phonemes. The third finding of the present study is qualitative. This study did not only determine the deviant pronunciations causing intelligibility failures, but it also identified the various communication strategies Iraqi EFL learners used to overcome pronunciation problems, like the let-it-pass strategy, the repetition strategy, the replacement strategy and the time gaining strategy. Although the finding supports the ones arrived at by related studies, it differs from them in terms of the purpose intended, the methodology adopted and the speech data elicited. The purpose of the qualitative aspect of the present study was to suggest alternative ways to assess the productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL learners. This means that these learners can use various communication strategies to convey their messages when they face difficulty in producing some English words. Thus, the quantitative findings can be expanded by qualitative data (Gronmo, 2020). For example, the extract from Hasan (see the ‘Replacement Strategy’ section above) showed a successful use of the replacement strategy by using the word ‘funny’ instead of the mispronounced word ‘weird’. Concerning the methodology used, the communication strategies were identified based on pronunciation rather than lexical incompetency. In this regard, the findings contrasted with those of Dhea (2011), Skold (2008) and Yanny (2006), all of whom emphasized the use of communication strategies based on the lack of lexical knowledge. Regarding the speech data elicited, the findings of this study were based on semi-free speeches produced by Iraqi EFL learners rather than speech data derived from face-to-face interaction used by Kaur and Singh (2009) and Jenkins (2000).

Conclusion This study investigated the productive intelligibility (being understood while speaking) of Iraqi EFL learners concerning segmental deviations as a foreign accent. The purpose of the study was to measure quantitatively the impact of the segmental features of a foreign accent on the productive intelligibility of Iraqi

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EFL learners and to examine qualitatively how these learners used communication strategies to overcome intelligibility failures. For this purpose, a mixed-methods research approach was adopted. The purpose of the approach was to collect different but complementary data on the same topic to expand quantitative findings with qualitative data. Thus, the quantitative data obtained from the speech intelligibility test were triangulated qualitatively with a speaking task that elicited speech data from 12 Iraqi EFL learners. The quantitative findings revealed that Iraqi EFL learners’ speech production was intelligible [t(179) = 7.889, p < 0.05, with a mean difference of (.41689)]. When examining the overall productive intelligibility concerning the three levels of sound difficulty in a foreign accent, significant differences were revealed that indicated a foreign accent had a relative impact on productive intelligibility. The qualitative findings were concerned with exploring how Iraqi EFL learners used various types of communication strategies to overcome intelligibility failures caused by deviations in pronunciation. The communication strategies used by the participants included the let-it-pass strategy, the replacement strategy, the repetition strategy, and the time gaining strategy. The assessment of non-native English pronunciation has sidelined the requirement of an RP perfection goal on the part of non-native English speakers. Instead, intelligibility is proposed as a more practical and achievable performance target for non-native English speakers (Isaacs and Trofimovich, 2016, p. 5). Thus, the present study combined pronunciation studies in Iraq with up to date theoretical and research practice in English pronunciation by adopting an intelligibility approach to the investigation of the productive intelligibility of Iraqi EFL accented English. On the one hand, the findings of the current investigation seem to be restricted to the Iraqi EFL context because the phonemic contrasts made by Iraqi EFL speakers are likely not to be the same as other Arab speakers in other EFL contexts. On the other hand, the productive intelligibility principle used in this study to research Iraqi EFL learners, namely Gimson's (2001) MGI, can be utilized in other contexts because it is based on an intelligibility pronunciation level of universal validity. In other words, similar studies based on Gimson's (2001) MGI principle can be carried out in other EFL contexts. To this end, the methodology adopted in the present investigation can be replicated in other EFL milieux. The implications of the study for the learning and teaching of English pronunciation at the speech production level are threefold. Firstly, realistic and achievable pronunciation goals should be set for non-native English speakers. This can be achieved by adopting intelligibility rather than the perfect mastery of the English RP accent. Secondly, a foreign accent is highly likely to be unavoidable. Everyone, whether native or non-native, speaks with a distinct accent. For teaching and learning purposes, the main concern is to identify the features of a foreign accent which negatively affect intelligibility, while overlooking others of less or no importance in maintaining communication. Although these identified features of a foreign accent are often described as non- pathological and fossilized, some researchers assert that explicit phonetic instructions and language exposure can improve learners’ production intelligibility (see Browne, 2016; Almbark, 2012; Flege, 1995). If these features of a foreign accent persistently reoccur, alternative oral communication strategies

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should be employed, as described in this investigation. Thirdly, most researchers assert that perception can improve speech production; hence, it is recommended that a variety of native and non-native English accents should be introduced into EFL classrooms.

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Deterding, D., & Kirkpatrick, A. (2006). Emerging South‐East Asian Englishes and intelligibility. World Englishes, 25(3‐4), 391-409. De Vos, A., Strydom, H., & Fouché, C. B. (2002). The place of theory and the literature review in the qualitative approach to research. Research at Grass Roots: The Social Sciences and Human Service Professions, 17, 265-269. Dhea, M. (2011). The effect of teaching communication strategies on Iraqi EFL students’ performance. MA thesis, University of Baghdad. Dörnyei, Z., & Scott, M. L. (1995). Communication strategies: an empirical analysis with retrospection. Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium, 21(1), 137-150. Field, A.P. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics: And sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll (4th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage. Firth, A. (1996). The discursive accomplishment of normality: On "lingua franca" English and conversation analysis. Journal of Pragmatics, 26, 237-259. Flege, J. E. (1995). Second-language speech learning: theory, findings, and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Theoretical and methodological issues (pp. 229 –273). Timonium, MD: York Press. Gimson, A.C. (2001). An introduction to the pronunciation of English (6th ed.). London: Edward Arnold. Gronmo, S. (2020). Social research methods: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. Los Angeles and London: Sage Publications. Hassan, E. M. I. (2014). Pronunciation problems: A case study of English language students at Sudan University of Science and Technology. English Language and Literature Studies, 4(4), 31. Hellmuth, S. (2014). Towards a research-led approach to the teaching of Arabic pronunciation. Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 5, 295-309. Hsieh, H.F., & Shannon, S.E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277-1288. Isaacs, T., & Trofimovich, P. (Eds.), (2016). Second language pronunciation assessment: Interdisciplinary perspectives. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language: New models, new norms, new goals. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kashiwagi, A., & Snyder, M. (2008). American and Japanese listener assessment of Japanese EFL speech: Pronunciation features affecting intelligibility. The Journal of Asia TEFL, 5(4), 27-47. Kaur, P., & Singh, P.K. (2009). Phonological intelligibility: A study of Malay and Chinese learners of English in Malaysia. PhD thesis, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Khudhair, H.J. (2015). The role of accurate pronunciation in determining intelligibility of speech. Al-Jam’ah Al-Iraqia, 31(1), 501-522. Kim, T. (2008). Accentedness, comprehensibility, intelligibility, and interpretability of NNESTs. CATESOL Journal, 20(1), 7–26. Kirkova-Naskova, A. (2010). Native speaker perceptions of accented speech: The English pronunciation of Macedonian EFL learners. Research in Language, 8, 1–21.

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

TOWARD CREATIVITY AND SPEAKING ABILITY OF EFL STUDENTS: A MIXED-METHOD STUDY

Debiga Fikky Abdullah, Diah Kristina, and Sumardi Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] correspondence: [email protected] DOI: doi.org/10.24071/llt.2020.230202 received 7 March 2020; accepted 5 May 2020

Abstract The present study employed a mixed-method approach to investigate the creativity and speaking ability of EFL learners towards its relationship and other essential factors. Indonesian EFL students of the 5th semester taken the course of Academic Speaking in a private university (n=30) who were selected randomly responded Creative Personality Scale (CPS) and Self-Rating of Creativity. For the former, they described themselves by checking off 18 positively scored and 12 negatively scored items which were given a value of +1 and a value of -1, respectively. The latter was assessed using eight items from the creativity scale. The 7-point Likert-type scales (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree) were made to respond to these items. Following this, the students' monologues based on five themes were scored using the IELTS Speaking Test Descriptor. The data were analyzed using the Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient, pattern matching, and explanation building. The finding shows a significant correlation between EFL learners' creativity and their speaking ability (ρ = .961). The students also faced up to the cultural constraints in advancing their creativity. This study should, therefore, be of value to practitioners wishing to provide EFL students with appropriate materials that are addressed to enhance their speaking ability.

Keywords: creativity, speaking ability, EFL students

Introduction The international community in the 21st century is dealing with industrial revolution 4.0 that incites a disruptive innovation. It is remarked by technological advancements such as the general use of the internet of things (IoT), i.e., artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and digital media (Geisinger, 2016). Disruptive innovation drives a strong impetus for collaboration as a prerequisite in confronting the fast-changing in almost all fields, including English language education. Following this, English language education is supposed to adapt by providing the EFL students comprehensive teaching materials that support them to possess creativity (Colucci et al., 2017). Therefore, the EFL students are supposed to be creative persons in dealing with the fast-changing industrial revolution 4.0. Under the attempt to equip EFL students with creativity, understanding the meaning of this notion is considered essential. Creativity is a broad term that refers to a skill that directs someone to create uncommon or unique things (Andy, 2018; Drago & Heilman,

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2015; Kaufman, 2015). According to a definition provided by Runco and Jaeger (2012), creativity encompasses novelty and usefulness. Following this, to maintain the existence of creativity, EFL students should produce an unprecedented and practicable achievement during their study (Runco, 2015). In the context of English language education within the 21st century, the most compelling EFL students' achievement is their success in speaking, i.e., fluency. Thus, promoting creativity to the EFL students' speaking ability is considered a crucial attempt. On the other hand, teaching EFL students who are supposed to possess both creativity and fluency will face some challenges. For many years, Indonesian EFL students were not provided with a sufficient chance to develop neither their speaking nor their creativity (Songbatumis, 2017). There is a strong assumption that this phenomenon has something to do with the absence of support from the Indonesian national curriculum (Malaikosa & Sahayu, 2019). Although some significant changes in it have been done, there were no maximum impact in public EFL classroom could be seen. It is still, in most cases, EFL learning is teacher-centered; hence, it limits the students to freely explore their potentials. Accordingly, the teachers' domination in directing the class inadvertently build a students' passive culture that directs to the passive teaching-learning process (Loh & Teo, 2017). Consequently, the students mostly rely on memorizing instead of occupying creative answers in the teaching- learning process (Poedjiastutie, 2009). Thus, curriculum support would have a significant impact on students' creativity and speaking ability improvement. Even though a collaboration between creativity and EFL students' speaking ability has gained more prominence, there are relatively few historical studies in this area. Only in the past ten years have studies of creativity directly addressed how it was viewed from the Indonesian perspectives. Tin, Manara, & Ragawanti (2009) studied the perspective of creativity from both non-native English-speaking students and non-native English-speaking teachers. In this study, the researcher highlighted the different concepts that might appear from the teachers' and the students' perspective. This study, unfortunately, did not present the supportive result, which specifically concerns in creativity and speaking ability of EFL students. Similarly, Davis (2009) has employed a meta-analytic to show how mood affects ones' creativity. These results from the former and the latter research were attempted to present creativity that attached in students' daily life with no empirical data regarding its role in students' speaking ability. On the other hand, Zuhriyah, Agustina, & Fajarina (2018) investigated the influence of creativity toward the students' speaking ability. However, its results remain big questions toward how strong the correlation between creativity and speaking ability, what direction follows such correlation, and, most important, the students' view towards their creativity. Under the above condition, previous studies have highlighted factors that are associated with creativity and speaking ability, which is essential in the English language teaching process. However, the researcher identified an apparent knowledge gap in prior research concerning the relationship between EFL students' creativity and their speaking ability. Besides, the prior research did not address the subject of cultural constraints that direct the EFL students' perceptions regarding their creativity. This subject encompasses several dimensions that lately have attracted research attention in other disciplines (e.g., Lee & Kim, 2011; Roth, 2010). The cultural constraints should be explored further to provide a more in-depth understanding of EFL students' motivation in learning. Due to a prior explanation, this paper begins with an overview

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of creativity. Next, concepts and definitions of speaking ability and EFL students are addressed. It is followed by a methodology that is applied in this research. Lastly, the findings and discussion sections are presented. As the sequence of the correct manner, the research questions of this study focused on 1) Is there any significant relationship among EFL students’ creativity and their speaking ability? Furthermore, 2) How do EFL students perceive their creativity?

On the Concept of Creativity, Speaking Ability and EFL Students’ Creativity Creativity is being accredited as a fundamental skill for the 21st century (Egan, Maguire, Christophers, & Rooney, 2017; Geisinger, 2016). It can be recognized as a product, press, and process. Product means the outcome of the creative process; the press has something to do with the force which directs creative person; and, process refers to the order of creative thinking (Runco, 2007; Tin et al., 2009). In terms of creative outcome, this notion can be interpreted as novelty and value. Following this consideration, any debate concerning creativity is supposed to assort creative outcomes from the creative process (Davis, 2009) since the latter has become a significant question in creativity research. To apprehend the creative process, there is a two- categorized elemental model of creative thinking that should be understood: the primary and the secondary elements. The former, which is acknowledged as a controlling component, consists of problem finding, ideation, and evaluation. Problem finding includes identifying, defining, and working to pursue a solution. As the essential subprocesses, problem identification signifies the process of recognizing a challenge to be conquered; problem definition relates to defining and redefining the issues into an appropriate answer. However, the secondary elements, knowledge, and motivation, give more contribution to creative thinking rather than controlling factors. Ideation is derived from particular skills such as flexibility, originality, and fluency, which refer to a variety of ideas, uniqueness of ideas, and production of ideas, respectively. In addition to these, there are three tasks which compatible with the former skills such as divergent thinking, categorization, and remote associates tasks. On the one hand, divergent thinking tasks accentuate flexibility, originality, and fluency. On the other hand, categorization tasks focus on cognitive flexibility, e.g., the categorization among concepts. Finally, the remote associates task measures the ability to recognize connections among distant thoughts. Having those three tasks in the concept of creativity understanding, however, the considerable amount of creativity research relied upon tests of divergent thinking (Runco & Chand, 1995) and has been directed into the debate. One side of researchers negates the view that support divergent thinking relates to creativity. In the middle, some researchers believe that divergent thinking tasks are the indicators of creativity potential. Such debate occurs since divergent thinking only holds the value of novelty does ignore the attribute of usefulness embraced by many creativity theorists. This privilege attention on novelty could be a trigger for much of the criticism toward these tasks. As an essential part of usefulness in creativity, evaluation is the most ignored component (Runco & Chand, 1995). Runco and Chand (1995) argued that evaluation concordantly works with ideation to make sure both original and appropriateness are fully accomplished. These two values are essential to establish a problem-solving manner since the originality or novelty lacking usefulness can not be considered as a creative performance. Therefore, in the 21st century EFL teaching context, only the

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creative ideation that applicable to the EFL students' speaking practice does it can be considered as a genuinely creative performance.

Speaking Ability Building a remarkable speaking ability to equip EFL students in facing 21st-century competition is exhausting work. It appears as an integration of both physiological and psychological factors, which should be comprised of required competencies to actuate the target language awareness (Burns & Richards, 2012). These competencies are ascribed to a sequential process of thinking that accommodates spontaneous action and decision making when one speaks. Therefore, the competencies that have been prescribed to the success of EFL students' speaking should be formed as accuracy, fluency, and complexity. By those three established standards of thriving EFL students' speaking, the following are their given explanations. Thornbury (2005) stated that accuracy refers to the ability of EFL learners to produce the correct speaking based on its contexts and its use precisely. In most standardized tests, one's level of speaking accuracy is determined by the comprehension of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and sociolinguistic competence or pragmatic competence. The results of the tests thus measure the EFL students' awareness of English in communication. Hence, accuracy reflects the comprehension of EFL students to deal with real-context English. Following this, fluency focuses on the messages being delivered rather than the form in which those messages are attached. However, the latter concept is questionable. If the employment of the appropriate form is neglected, the EFL students themselves will find difficulties in determining their capacity. Unfortunately, most EFL students in Indonesia have been motivated by their teachers or lecturers in this way. This misleading concept, somehow, is believed will decrease the burden of learning English. On the contrary, the 21st-century learning should apply the more proper understanding of fluency: it is the ability of the EFL students who have few plausible speaking in their conversation and keep focusing on the correct format based on individual circumstances. After dealing with those two notions, the EFL students then should focus on complexity. Complexity is the ability to produce a sophisticated speaking in the given context. In such a context, their creativity is stimulated and enforced to form unprecedented sentences based on new insights. Following this process, they learn some new grammar which will be understood through a real experience. Only at the end of the class do the teacher or lecturer measure the achievements of their students. Eventually, the stimulative and engaging teaching- learning process will direct EFL students to gain accuracy, fluency, and complexity in their speaking ability.

EFL Students EFL stands for English as a Foreign Language (Cambridge Learner's Dictionary online, 2020). EFL student is a collective term to denote students who learn English within non-English speaking countries, e.g., the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Australia. In Indonesia, EFL students learn English by attending a class at which is guided by in-service English teachers or lecturers. These teachers must implement the prescribed EFL curriculum established by the Ministry of Education and Culture. However, since the teacher or lecturer-centered curriculum has directed the learning culture of Indonesian EFL students for decades, the significant changes to

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revolutionize such an old-fashioned curriculum in the current years seem to have no maximum results yet.

Method Participants This study was administered at a private university that has 150 students of the 5th semester of English language major as the research population. Out of 150 students, the researcher assigned 30 of them as the sample size and utilized random selection to increase the generalizability of the data and to avoid bias. It was started by initially listed the population and numbered them from 1 to 150. Following this, the researcher read the list and picked 30 names from the multiple of 5. After all selected students have been contacted, they agreed to voluntarily participate in this study, which has been carried out from August 2019 to December 2019. For the sake of research ethics, all of their information would be kept entirely confidential.

Design Quantitative and qualitative data were collected by following sequential-embedded mixed model design (Cresswell, 2013) or sequential-dependent design (Schoonenboom & Johnson, 2017). This design was applied since the quantitative study provides a general understanding of the variables being studied; on the other hand, the qualitative data helped the researcher to explain the statistical analysis report by digging more in- depth the information. This design consists of two phases: the quantitative data collection and analysis followed by qualitative data collection and analysis (Cresswell, 2013). Firstly, the researcher collected and then analyzed the quantitative data. The quantitative data came from questionnaires that have been distributed to each student by using Google Form. The items that students should fill followed Gough's (1979) Creative Personality Scale (CPS), and Zhou & George's (2001) Self-Rating of Personality. For the former, the students described themselves by checking off 18 positively scored and 12 negatively scored items, which were given a value of +1 and a value of -1, respectively. The researcher then summed to the values for the CPS index. The scores for the CPS can range from -12 to 18. The Zhou & George's (2001) Self- Rating of Creativity was assessed by using eight items from the creativity scale. The 7- point Likert-type scales (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree) were made to respond to these items. To find the speaking score, the researcher chose five items from CPS randomly and asked the students to create a 5-minutes monologue based on these items. The monologues were then scored following the IELTS Speaking Test Descriptor. It consists of 9-bands (0-9), which describes students' fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation rigorously. Since the quantitative data came from two-ranked variables, the researcher used the Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient (Spearman's rho for short) to see whether the two variables covary; whether, the increased or decreased variable affected the other ones. Despite its ignorance in normality or equal variance of data, Spearman's rho focuses on the difference in rank orders of data rather than differences in means. It determines the strength and direction of the monotonic relationship between creativity and speaking ability and their linearity. The null hypothesis, Ho, represents a positive correlation between the results for the two variables. The coefficient has a value that ranges from -1 to 1. Both served the negative correlation and strongest positive, respectively, with a ρ-value of .05, underlies all hypotheses. If the result reflected ρ was

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less than .05, the null hypothesis was rejected. The all-gathered quantitative data, then, have been input in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The researcher operated SPSS to make data analysis more efficient, fast, and accurate. Under the above process through which the quantitative data were gathered, the qualitative data were collected and analyzed. It was started by using interview which its every question have been developed based on previous quantitative data and related creativity theories to gain EFL students’ deeper understanding toward their creative process through which their speaking ability was affected (Schoonenboom & Johnson, 2017). These data appeared as constructed patterns from which were matched with the prior constructed theories and have directed the researcher to conduct an explanation building. Those qualitative data helped the researcher to gain a more fine-grained understanding of EFL students’ creativity and speaking ability relationship.

Findings and Discussion Relationships and Essential Factors of EFL Students’ Creativity and Speaking Ability The first question in this study sought to determine whether there was any significant relationship between creativity and speaking ability of EFL students. After administered the analysis, some considerations have been taken. The final scores from CPS, Self-Rating Creativity, and speaking scores (n=30) were then analyzed using Spearman's correlation.

Figure 1 Monotonic relationship between creativity and speaking ability

A test of the scatterplot affirmed the presence of linearity for EFL students’ creativity and speaking ability. Hence, the presence of linearity authorized the use of correlation coefficients. The monotonic relationship figure, as shown above, indicated that when creativity value increases, the value of speaking ability is also improved. Accordingly, a nonparametric procedure, the Spearman's rank-order correlation

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coefficient (i.e., Spearman's rho) was performed to address each research question previously outlined. The results of the correlational analysis are displayed in Table 1. Table 1 Spearman’s correlation Nonparametric Correlation Speaking Creativity ability Correlation coefficient 1.000 .961** Creativity Sig. (2-tailed) . .000 N 30 30 Spearman’s ρ Correlation coefficient .961** 1.000 Speaking Sig. (2-tailed) .000 . ability N 30 30 ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The results, as shown in Table 1, indicate that Spearman’s rho revealed a statistically significant relationship between creativity and speaking ability (rs= .961**, ρ< 0.01), which is indicated by the double asterisks (**). The value of Sig. (2-tailed) was also strengthen the significance, since 0.000 < 0.005 or 0.01. Thus, it can be decided that there is a strong positive correlation between creativity and speaking ability of EFL students. Figure 1 and Table 1 above have unveiled the correlation between creativity and speaking ability. Following this, the second research question is acknowledged. As the nature of sequential-embedded mixed-model design, the qualitative component of this study depends on its data collection and data analysis on the findings in the quantitative component. The results of the quantitative component were also used to construct the questions of the interview to gain qualitative data The section that follows provides essential items that direct the process through which the students perceive their creativity. The percentages on the right side appeared as the constructed patterns. From these patterns, then, the explanation was built. Table 2, Table 3, and Table 4 represented the available data.

Table 2 Section 1 of Creative Personality

Items The EFL Students (%) Egotistical 0 Inventive 2.9 Snobbish 2.9 Sexy 8.8 Intelligent 11.8 Resourceful 11.8 Insightful 11.8 Unconventional 11.8 Individualistic 14.7 Informal 14.7 Self-confident 14.7 Capable 17.6 Reflective 17.6

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Items The EFL Students (%) Clever 20.6 Original 23.5 Confident 26.5 Wide interests 32.4 Humorous 44.2

It can be seen from the data in Table 2 that the students have responded toward the adjectives that represent them the most. What is interesting about the data in this table is that the students avoided choosing 'Egotistical' (0%) as the representation of their creativity. Instead, most of them chose 'Humorous' (44.2%) to portray their creativity. From this data, we can see there is a significant difference between the two adjectives. The students show an apparent denial toward the haughty manner, which relates to arrogancy and pompousness. They likely represent themselves as a jovial person who always seeks social engagement. By being humorous, they believe that their social relationship could be even more bounded. The bound reflects the trust between the students and their circumstances, which relates to the improvement of their creativity. \ Table 3. Section 2 of Creative Personality Items The EFL Students (%) Dissatisfied 5.9 Narrow interests 8.8 Submissive 8.8 Conservative 11.8 Conventional 11.8 Artificial 14.7 Cautious 14.7 Suspicious 17.6 Sincere 23.5 Commonplace 26.5 Well-mannered 32.4 Honest 41.2

Table 3 presents other adjectives that have been responded to by the EFL students. It can be seen in the table that 'Honest' got 41.2%. It can be assumed that these students benefitted from having 'Honest' as their reflection toward their creativity. The reason for this is not apparent, but it may have something to do with the previous result (Table 2). A possible interpretation for this might be that being a humorous person necessitates honesty. Being honest is more to do with the strengthening action toward their bound and their social circumstances. This astonishing finding might be explained by the fact that these students culturally constrained. It is considered since they do not innately possess creativity.

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Table 4. Self-Rating of Creativity

Neither Strongly Somewhat agree Strongly Item Disagree Somewhat Agree disagree disagree nor agree Number (%) agree (%) (%) (%) (%) disagree (%) (%) Item 1 - - 3.1 12.5 18.8 62.5 3.1 Item 2 - - 3.1 9.4 12.5 43.8 31.3 Item 3 - 3.1 9.4 15.6 28.1 28.1 15.6 Item 4 - - 6.3 12.5 25 40.6 15.6 Item 5 - - - 15.6 31.3 37.5 15.6 Item 6 - 3.1 6.3 9.4 18.8 50 12.5 Item 7 - 3.1 6.3 12.5 15.6 46.9 15.6 Item 8 - - 3.1 21.9 34.4 21.9 18.8

Table 4 presents the Self-Rating of Creativity. This scale especially measured the rates of students' creativity that have been applied in their daily learning. What stands out in this table is the general pattern of how the environments influence some phases of the learning process accordingly. Item 1, which represents 'I suggest new ways to achieve goals or objectives,' got 62.5% concerning agree. Followed by Item 2, which represents 'I exhibit creativity on the job when allowed,' got 50% toward agreeing. In the third place, Item 3, which represents 'I often have new and innovative ideas,' got 46.9%. Those three items are considered as the top three values that most affect the students' learning. How those top three values affect the students' learning can be acknowledged within some concerns. It is started when they establish their objectives in applicable methods relate to the teaching-learning process. The established objectives, then, direct the students to fully accomplish their tasks or assignments (e.g., composing conversation within a particular situation) given by their teacher or lecturer (Chen & Hwang, 2019). The creativity, however, can only be performed if, and only if, the teacher or lecturer allows the students to do it by permitting them in recognizable ways (Krashen, 1982). This permission reflects the support of the teacher or lecturer. As a result, the initial support possibly stimulates the students' innovative ideas (Montazeri & Salimi, 2019).

Discussion The Essential Consideration of EFL Students' Creativity and Speaking Ability. A primary objective of this study which employed sequential-embedded mixed method design was to investigate the relationship between EFL students’ creativity and speaking ability and other essential factors that affect such a correlation. It was hypothesized that EFL students’ creativity has something to do with their speaking ability. The higher students possess creativity, the higher their speaking ability could be. This result covaries with the prior study established such a view (Zuhriyah, Agustina and Fajarina, 2018) which revealed that the students with high creativity would possess more speaking ability than the students with the lower one. Concerning the first research question, it was found that the monotonic relationship significantly increased

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the relationship between EFL students’ creativity and speaking ability. The qualitative data showed the additional factors that accommodate the EFL students to enhance creativity to support their speaking ability. In sum, these results indicate that the way EFL students conceptualize their creativity can alter their speaking development effects. On the question of how do EFL students perceive their creativity, this study found that students are also affected by their own learning culture. The most prominent finding to emerge from the analysis regarding the students’ learning cultures is that the implementation of the EFL curriculum has more to do with students’ achievement relates to their creativity in speaking ability (Becker & Roos, 2016). This result reflects those of Perry & Karpova (2017) who also found that directed learning accommodates students to follow the prescribed curriculum and to measure their achievement. It is possible to hypothesize that this condition is less likely to occur in Indonesia. Due to the limitation of speaking exposure and the dominance of the teachers or lecturers, the EFL teaching-learning processes have failed to maintain EFL students' creativity to enhance their speaking ability. The restriction comes from teacher-centred learning is unintentionally legitimized toward students’ creativity and attenuates the students’ motivation to express their established knowledge. It results in the passiveness that teacher has to confront. This condition forces, in major cases, the more subjective assessment toward students’ speaking practices. Therefore, the significant changes in Indonesia national curriculum have no significant impact on the development of EFL students creative speaking. Considering the problems that mostly occur in the Indonesian EFL classroom due to the learning culture, the teachers and the lecturers are supposed to be a pioneer in implementing the established curriculum creatively. This manner corroborates the ideas of Bernstein (1971), Bruner (1977), and Vygotsky (1986) that promote EFL students’ daily life as the stimulation or the sources of their creative speaking. It corresponds to Wang & Kokotsaki (2018) who stated that the production of sophisticated speaking expressions reflects the success of EFL students’ speaking in the form of creativity. EFL students’ daily life also presents real-context speaking which provides students tangible results and measurements from which they judge their deliberate learning (Perry & Karpova, 2017; Vally et al., 2019; Wang, 2019). Following this, the reflections of students’ deliberate learning are actualized by their answers in the questionnaires in this study. Consistent with the literature, this study found that EFL students who respond to the initial questionnaires bring into account their daily learning results. Section 1 of the Creative Personality fairly measured the students’ perceptions toward their creativity and got humorous, wide interests, and confident as the top-three adjectives that have been chosen, respectively. According to this gained data, the EFL students who possess humour and do not hesitate to convey it as his/her nature are considered as the creative intellectual persons. It is indicated by the presents of the ability to acknowledged any hidden or intrinsic messages behind humorous acts. Only EFL students who lack humour do they suffer sensitiveness regarding any issues. The humorous EFL students, accordingly, have broad interests. This manner underly the need for a humorous person to present a real insight regarding his/her experience (Luria, S., Baer, J., Kaufman, J., 2018). Without any supporting knowledge, it seems no possible the humorous EFL students with a broad interest able to promote additional information to his/her colleagues. Finally, the two first adjectives must be supported by confidence. This last notion in Section 1 answered by those who able to manage their anxiety. Therefore,

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EFL students who possess confident will face no difficulties in expressing his/her humour and broad interests. Following the interpretations of Section 1 in the Creative Personality, Section 2 followed by Self-Rating Creativity are mutually support each other to build a thinking framework to explain how the students’ established culture rigorously, both in its broad and narrow meaning, affect the EFL students in perceiving their creativity. Following Section 2, the EFL students believe that ‘Honest’ and ‘Well-mannered’ best represents them. A possible explanation for this might be that creativity should be performed with honesty and be practised in well-mannered. Undoubtedly, these have something to do with the students’ culture since creativity unseparated from tradition, cultural norms, and societal values (Cheung & Mok, 2018). The answers for the Self-Rating Creativity, accordingly, underlined teachers’ or lecturers’ role in promoting creativity in each teaching-learning process. It explained that EFL students would be much helped if the support and permission in expressing creativity are provided by teachers or lecturers.

Conclusion Undoubtedly, creativity is an essential powerful skill in the 21st century. As a result, EFL teaching should accommodate it in its learning process, especially toward speaking ability. Returning to the questions posed at the beginning of this study, it is now possible to state that creativity has a significant correlation with speaking ability. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that students' speaking ability improved steadily along with the improvement of creativity. In general, therefore, it seems that the teacher or lecturer should enhance the support for both notions by giving more related materials and activities in the EFL teaching-learning environment. With a small sample size, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be transferable to the students who have already used to the speaking exposure. In terms of future work, it would be interesting to repeat the experiments described here using the multidiscipline method. It should be attempted to find a deeper motivation from both students and teachers or lecturers in accomodating creativity within the EFL class.

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18(1), 75–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/13598130701350791 Runco, M. A. (2015). Meta-creativity: Being creative about creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 27(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2015.1065134 Runco, M., & Chand, I. (1995). Cognition and creativity. Educational Psychology Review, 7(3), 243–267. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02213373 Schoonenboom, J., & Johnson, R. B. (2017). How to Construct a mixed methods research design. Kolner Zeitschrift Fur Soziologie Und Sozialpsychologie, 69, 107– 131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11577-017-0454-1 Songbatumis, A. (2017). Challenges in teaching English faced by English teachers at MTsN Taliwang, Indonesia. Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Learning. Thornbury, S. (2005). How to teach speaking. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Tin, T. B., Manara, C., & Ragawanti, D. T. (2009). Views on creativity from an Indonesian perspective. ELT Journal, 64(1), 75–84. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccp022 Vally, Z., Salloum, L., AlQedra, D., El Shazly, S., Albloshi, M., Alsheraifi, S., & Alkaabi, A. (2019). Examining the effects of creativity training on creative production, creative self-efficacy, and neuro-executive functioning. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 31(October 2018), 70–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2018.11.003 Vygotsky, L. (1986). Thought and language (A. Kozulin, Ed.). London: The MIT Press. Wang, H. C. (2019). Fostering learner creativity in the English L2 classroom: Application of the creative problem-solving model. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 31, 58–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2018.11.005 Wang, L., & Kokotsaki, D. (2018). Primary school teachers’ conceptions of creativity in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in China. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 29, 115–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2018.06.002 Zhou, J., & George, J. M. (2001). When job dissatisfaction leads to creativity: Encouraging the expression of voice. Academy of Management Journal, 44(4), 682–696. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069410 Zuhriyah, M., Agustina, R. K., & Fajarina, M. (2018). The influence of students’ creativity to construct sentences toward their speaking skill. Register Journal, 11(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.18326/rgt.v11i1.1-18

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

INTERGENERATIONAL LANGUAGE PREFERENCE SHIFT AMONG CEBUANOS ON THE CEBUANO, FILIPINO, AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES Jeconiah Louis Dreisbach and Feorillo Petronilo A. Demeterio III De La Salle University–Manila, Philippines [email protected]; [email protected] Correspondence: [email protected] DOI: doi.org/10.24071/llt.2020.230203 received 4 May 2020; accepted 10 June 2020

Abstract The historical linguistic conflict of the Cebuano people against the Tagalog-based Philippine national language has been evident in the literature written by Cebuano academics. However, there is no published empirical evidence that presents the on-ground language attitudes of the Cebuanos on the Cebuano, Filipino, and English languages. Employing mixed methods research, the researchers found that both generations predominantly use the Cebuano language for everyday communication. A significant difference was observed in the use of Filipino and English languages as the younger generation spoke it more than the elder counterparts. A language shift was also seen from Cebuano to English on the language used formal communication between the generations. Attitudes on everyday communication revealed that Cebuanos prefer to maintain their mother tongue as the language to be used in speaking with family, friends, relatives, and close people seeing that the younger generation has limited vocabulary on the Cebuano language. Respondents mostly favored English to be the language used for formal communication due to its stature as an international language and its association to high socioeconomic standing. A collective majority from both generations would also like to maintain Tagalog-based Filipino to be the Philippine national language.

Keywords: language use; language attitudes; Cebuano; Filipino; English

Introduction The Philippines is a linguistically-diverse country with 183 individual languages that continued to be spoken by its population. Constitutionally, the country’s official languages are Filipino and English, and the regional languages mandated as auxiliary languages in the regions they are spoken (Official Gazette, n.d.). Cebuano linguistic identity is embedded in Cebuano culture itself. The Cebuano language is spoken by 15,900,000 people in the Philippines, with most of the speakers living in the areas of Central Visayas, Southern Leyte, and Northern and Southern Mindanao (Eberhard, Simons & Fennig, 2019). In the census done by the Philippine Statistics Authority (2016), 9,125,637 people consider themselves as ethnically Cebuano, with the Cebuano language as their mother tongue.

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Table 1. Ten Most Spoken Languages in the Philippines Philippine Population of Speakers in the Philippines Languages (Eberhard, Simons, & Fennig, 2019) Tagalog 20,000,000 Cebuano 15,900,000 Ilocano 6,370,000 Hiligaynon 6,240,000 Bikol 3,799,900 Waray 2,610,000 Kapampangan 2,040,000 Pangasinan 1,240,000 Maguindanaon 1,100,000 Tausug 784,000

The Tagalog-Cebuano Conflict The Cebuanos’ historical conflict with the Filipino language emerged during the consultations that studied on what should be the basis for the national language in 1936. In the same year, the National Language Act was passed, and it established the Institute of National Language. Norberto Romualdez, a Visayan- Waray legislator, set the criteria for the languages studied for the basis of the proposed national language plan (Gonzalez, 1980). For him, the language that should be used as a basis for the national language should have rich and extensive literature, a large population of speakers, has a significant influence in its society, and a sound morphological structure. During the Institute’s consultation with the influential Cebuanos, linguist, and Tagalog language commissioner Cecilio Lopez explained that the Tagalog language fit the criteria set by the National Language Act. Senator Filemon Sotto accepted the proposition with reservations and resigned from the Institute of the National Language later on for personal reasons. Adding the political influence of Manuel Luiz Quezon, a Tagalog of the Tayabas province, his preference Tagalog propelled the language as the primary basis of the national language (Gonzalez, 1991). This conflict is political in nature as the Cebuanos marked in their history the decision of the Spanish colonial government to transfer the capital of the Spanish East Indies from Cebu to Manila in 1595. Cebu was initially designated as the colony’s capital when the Spanish conquistadores first arrived in the territory of what we know now as the Philippines. Since then, Spanish friars utilized the use of Philippine local languages, and primarily Tagalog, in teaching the gospel of the Roman Catholic Church. Alburo (2011) said that Manila-centric policies implemented across the country have a hegemonic tune in the cultural aspect of Filipino society due to the so-called ‘imposition’ of the Tagalog language – the language of the capital city. Mojares (1990) earlier pointed out that the present existing power relations and struggles between Philippine languages affect its stature in Philippine society. He mentioned that, Cebuano has historically been relegated to a position subordinate to Spanish, English, and Tagalog. The concentration of state power and media resources in a Tagalog-speaking primate region

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and the promotion of Tagalog as ‘base’ for the national language, or as the national language itself, have marginalized regional languages like Cebuano (1990: 79). As a language family, Visayan is composed of the Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Masbateño, Romblomanon, Surigaonon, Bul-anon (Boholanon), Waray, and other languages. Figure 1 shows the actual distribution of Cebuano speakers in the Philippines, as shown in black (dominant language) and dark grey (25%-49% of the population speak the language). Tagalog, meanwhile, has several dialects in the island of Luzon, but those are only variations of one single language. Visayans, in general, argue that there are more speakers of the Visayan ‘language’ compared to Tagalog. This argument was primarily heard by the primary author’s Filipino professor when he studied at the University of San Carlos (USC), the primary center of Cebuano Studies in the country. This may be a valid argument if we consider the Visayan as a language family, according to its linguistic classification (Hammarström, Forkel, & Haspelmath, 2018). Furthermore, Cebuanos and their language had a relatively close connection, both linguistically and geographically, to areas in the Visayas and Mindanao compared to the Tagalogs. Cebuano’s ecology may, intrinsically, made them have more speakers and influence in the early 20th century. Yet, at present, the institutionalization of the Tagalog-based national language and the reach of Manila-based media organizations contributed to the momentous influence of the Tagalog people in the Philippine public sphere. Fr. Joseph Baumgartner SVD (1989), then the administrator of USC, recorded the contemporary conflicts of the Cebuanos against the Tagalog-based national language during the Marcos regime. The Cebu provincial government and its council, spearheaded by Lito Osmeña, passed and implemented an ordinance prohibiting the use of Tagalog as a medium of instruction in the province’s schools, and threatened the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports of backlash if they continued to use Tagalog. Aurora Batnag (2015), in her capacity as the head of the National Committee on Language and Translation of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, did a national consultation from 1995 to 1997 among educators, students, public servants, and other organizations on their opinions and points of view on the status of Filipino and their local languages. She found that among the six cities (Cebu, Davao, Bacolod, Tuguegarao, Puerto Princesa, and Zamboanga) she visited during the consultation, only Cebu and Bacolod expressed negative opinions about Filipino as the national language. Espiritu (as cited by Tupas, 2014) mentioned that Cebuanos accept the Filipino language as a lingua franca, but not as the language that unites their culture to the Filipino identity. Godin (2008), meanwhile, criticized the so-called Filipinization of the local languages in the Philippines. According to him, since Visayan languages are treated as having ‘no class,’ speakers were not already able to learn the right grammatical structures of the said languages as students are mainly focused on studying the languages with ‘class,’ such as English and Filipino.

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Figure 1: Distribution of Cebuano Speakers in Central and Southern Philippines (Adapted from Sunita, 2006)

English as an Official Language The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines declared Filipino and English as the official languages of the country. Gonzalez (1998) clarified that the linguistic situation of most of the Filipinos is multilingual in character. Philippine local languages are spoken at home and in the neighborhood. Filipino is seen as the national language that symbolizes the unity of the people. English is used as the medium of instruction, business, science, and diplomacy. Ninety years of direct contact within Philippine soil resulted in the emergence of a variety of English that is continued to be spoken by Filipinos in contemporary society. Gonzalez (as cited by Bresnahan, 1979) referred to this variety as Philippine English – a kind of English that is not “a victim of linguistic imperialism but a case of linguistic appropriation by convenience” (p. 70). In a historical tracing of language policies and practices of the Philippines, Demeterio (2012) presented the consistent and unchanging use of the English language in the public sphere since it was first implemented by the American colonial government in the early 1900s. As such, English as the Philippines’ official language already has a 120-year history. The chronological map of Philippine language planning (as shown in Figure 1) shows that English remained consistent in the language situation of the country, whereas Filipino (then referred

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to as Tagalog and Pilipino) only became part of the system in the 1930s, and was part of the bilingual and multilingual language plans of the past and current governments. Bilingual language policies involve the use and teaching of both Filipino and English. Multilingual policies involved the use of regional languages as medium of instruction in the early years of education. Demeterio and Liwanag (2014) found that English is the preferred language for the following domains of the Philippine public sphere: national government, courts, military, education, entertainment, press/literature, local government, and business and offices. Regional languages are generally preferred secondary, and Filipino only tertiary.

Figure 2. Chronological Map of Philippine Language Planning (Demeterio and Liwanag, 2014) As of this writing, there is no published empirical study on the language use, attitudes, and preferences of Cebuanos in research journals. Ceniza (as cited by Abastillas, 2015) implicated that “Cebuanos might prefer English than Tagalog as a way to communicate to non-Cebuanos.” The ability of Cebuanos to mimic standard American English and its accent made Cebu City a preferred location for English as a second language (ESL) learners from East Asia (Dagooc, 2018). It also made the city a hub for business process outsourcing (BPO) companies (Lorenciana, 2019), with more than 100,000 Cebuanos working in the industry (Pepito, 2017). While there is a considerable number of literature that recently studied the situations of Filipino and English in Philippine society, there is a clear lack in the literature of the contemporary situation of the Cebuano language. The last analysis of the Cebuano language with regards to its interaction with the Filipino and English languages was done by Fr. Baumgartner in 1989. As such, this study is the latest comprehensive exploration of the language use, attitudes, and preferences of the Cebuano people.

Research Methods Research Design The researchers employed mixed methods research in gathering data and analyzing the language use, attitudes, and preferences of the Cebuano people on

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the Cebuano, Filipino, and English languages. Qualitative (QUAL) and quantitative (QUAN) data gathering were done concurrently through a survey questionnaire and a focus group discussion (FGD) with the research instruments developed specifically for this study. As established by Hashemi (2012), the researchers also utilized a concurrent triangulation design in the parallel interpretation of the QUAL QUAN data results. This particular mixed research design is the most common method used in applied linguistics studies that applied mixed research methods in journals such as Applied Linguistics, English for Specific Purposes, Language Learning, Language Testing, The Modern Language Journal, TESOL Quarterly, and Language Teaching Research (Hashemi & Babaii, 2013). Riazi (2016) characterized a ‘mixed research methodology’ as an innovative approach that bridges “the cognitive and the social paradigms of applied linguistics research.” Mixed methods research is relevant to this study as we are investigating both the psychological and social factors that affect the language use and attitudes of Cebuanos on the languages that are being tackled. As this study targeted specific generational demographics, the researchers employed the stratified random sampling method in gathering data from respondents by asking their year of birth to identify if they qualify within the age range. Stratified random sampling ensured the researchers of obtaining the necessary number of respondents so that there will no underrepresentation from each generation (Elfil & Negida, 2017). The researchers gathered quantitative and qualitative data on June 15-16, 2018 in Cebu City, the Philippines.

Research Instruments The survey questionnaire collected the respondents’ demographic profile (age, gender, place of residence, number of years of residency, type of school attended, educational attainment, income bracket, and languages spoken). It was then followed with their fluency in the Cebuano, Filipino, and English languages, and their language uses. Fluency and situational language use were measured through a five-point Likert scale. A t-test was performed on the numerical data provided for the said variables to identify the generational differences. As this pilot study operated on a small scale, the survey questionnaire was developed by the researchers to contain straightforward variables that can be easily understandable to the respondents. The instrument initially developed were pilot tested to 20 Cebuanos from both generations X and Z to review the understandability of the questionnaire’s items before proceeding to the actual data gathering. Following the review of a psychometrician, the researchers were able to validate its understandability and establish the statistical properties of the scale used for this study. The overall results of the test have the following interpretations: 4.50-above – Strongly Agree; 3.5-4.49 – Agree; 2.50-3.49 – Neutral; 1.50-2.49 – Disagree; and, 1.00-1.49 – Strongly Disagree. The third part of the instrument investigated their language attitudes on everyday and formal communication and on their choice for the Philippine national language by choosing among the languages studied for this research. To assess the nominal data provided by the latter part of the survey, the researchers ran a Chi-square test. The test technique allowed the researchers to discern whether the language

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attitudes of the respondents accepted the following null and alternative hypotheses: H0: There are no generational differences on the language attitudes of the Cebuanos. H1: There are generational differences on the language attitudes of the Cebuanos. The focus group discussion employed a 26-question structured interview that explored their language use and attitudes on the Cebuano, Filipino, and English languages. Their perspectives on the Philippine national language were also asked as the final question. The questions generated for the focus group followed the same pilot testing and validation procedure as the survey questionnaire. The interviews were digitally-recorded using the voice recorder application in the primary author’s smartphone. The responses were analyzed using the rapid identification of themes from audio recordings (RITA) method, a relatively new process of qualitative analysis the verbal and nonverbal information that can only be scrutinized by hearing the actual discussions (Neal, Neal, VanDyke, & Kornbluh, 2015). This method expedites the identification of specific themes that are relevant to the investigation of the researchers on the language use and attitudes of the Cebuano respondents.

Table 2. Focus Group Discussion Interview Guide

Focus Group Discussion Interview Guide Topics Example Questions How often do you use the Cebuano/Filipino/English language Perspectives on the Cebuano, when talking to family, relatives, and friends? Filipino, and English Would you like to your community to continue speaking the Languages Cebuano/Filipino/English language? How often do you read newspapers in the Perspectives on Language Use Cebuano/Filipino/English language? and Entertainment Do you listen to songs in the Cebuano/Filipino/English language? Should the Cebuano/Filipino/English language be used as the medium of instruction in the primary level of education? Should the Cebuano/Filipino/English language be used as the Perspectives on Language Use medium of instruction in all levels of the Philippine education and Education system? Should there be more teaching materials published in the Cebuano/Filipino/English language? Perspectives on the Philippine What language should be considered as the Philippine national National Language language?

Research Respondents This study focused on the language use and attitudes of Cebuanos belonging to the Generations X and Z. Berkup (2014) defined Generation X as being born in the years 1965-1979. Meanwhile, those belonging to Generation Z were born in the years 1995 to 2012. To run this study ethically, the researchers only took data from the youth who were born in the years 1995 to 2000 as they were already of legal age.

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Table 3. Demographic Profile of the Survey Respondents

Type of Educational Institution Birth Year (Age) Frequency Frequency Attended 1965 (53) 3 Public 62 1966 (52) 5 Private 38 1967 (51) 3 Educational Attainment Frequency 1968 (50) 4 Elementary 2 1969 (49) 6 High School 13 1970 (48) 18 College Undergraduate 18 1971 (47) 7 College Graduate 66 X 1972 (46) 6 Master’s degree 1 1973 (45) 4 Income Bracket (in Philippine Pesos) Frequency 1974 (44) 6 0 - 250,000 70 1975 (43) 5 250,000 - 400,000 21 1976 (42) 8 400,000 - 800,000 7 1977 (41) 12 800,000 - 2,000,000 2 1978 (40) 8 More than 2,000,000 0 1979 (39) 5

Mean of Age 45.37 Mean of Years of Residency in Cebu 36.48 Type of Educational Institution Birth Year (Age) Frequency Frequency Attended 1995 (23) 24 Public 43 1996 (22) 22 Private 57 1997 (21) 19 Educational Attainment Frequency 1998 (20) 16 College Undergraduate 36 1999 (19) 19 College Graduate 64 Z Mean of Age 21.18 Income Bracket (in Philippine Pesos) Frequency 0 - 250,000 69

250,000 - 400,000 19

400,000 - 800,000 8

800,000 - 2,000,000 2

More than 2,000,000 2

Mean of Years of Residency in Cebu 14.47

The quantitative aspect of this study involved 100 respondents from each generation. Table 1 contains the demographic profile of the Cebuano participants. The mean age of the respondents belonging to Generation X is 45.37. The number of years of residence in the city had a mean of 36.48. Most of them took their studies in a public school and are college graduates. Seventy respondents are earning PHP 0 up to 250,000 annually, which is approximately equivalent to USD 4,800. On the other hand, a majority of the respondents coming from Generation Z are college graduates as well. The mean of their ages is 21.18, with 14.47 years as the mean of the years of residency in the area. More than half (n = 57) of them have or are currently studying in private schools. Most of them also have the same income bracket as the elder generation. All the respondents spoke the Cebuano language. This is seen as a given considering that the study was done in the heartland of Cebuano culture. English

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was the language that the second-highest number of speakers. Filipino, the national language, was third. A small number of respondents spoke a variety of Philippine regional and foreign languages. From the 100 respondents each generation had, four from each took part in the focus group discussion to complete the qualitative aspect of this study. The FGD had an equal number of male and female respondents at four each. Both women from Generation X were housewives, and the males were both overseas Filipino workers. Being Cebuanos, they all spoke the Cebuano language. All of them are high school graduates, albeit coming equally from both public and private institutions. The mean of their ages is 49. Meanwhile, the mean of their years of residency in the area is 24.75. Two of the respondents are relatively well- off by Philippine standards, each earning PHP 250,000 – 400,000 (USD 4,800 – 7,700) and PHP 400,000 – 800,000 (USD 7,700 – 15,400), respectively. The two other respondents belong to the 70% percent who are earning a maximum of USD 4,8000 annually.

Table 4. Breakdown of Languages Spoken by Both Generations

Cebu X (n=100) Cebu Z (n=100) Languages Spoken Frequency Languages Spoken Frequency Cebuano 100 Cebuano 100 Filipino 77 Filipino 88 English 98 English 89 Other Languages Other Languages (Hiligaynon, (Bicolano, Chavacano, Masbateno, Waray, 10 Hiligaynon, Waray, 18 Arabic, Latin, Chinese, Korean, Greek, Korean) Japanese, French)

Respondents from Generation Z had a mean age of 20, with a mean of their years of residency in Cebu at 15.75 years. Just like the elder respondents, all from Generation Z spoke the Cebuano language and are Cebuanos as well. One already finished his bachelor’s degree. Two were still doing their college studies. Lastly, one just graduated from senior high school. Most of them studied at a state university.

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Table 5. Demographic Profile of the Focus Group Discussion Respondents Respondent Years of Highest Income Languages Generation (Birth Sex Residency Educational Bracket Spoken Year) in Cebu Attainment (in USD) Public High Cebu X1 Female 15 School 0 – 4,800 Cebuano (1969) Graduate Public High Cebu X2 7,700 – Cebuano, Female 5 School (1976) 15,400 Filipino Cebu X Graduate Private High Cebuano, Cebu X3 Male 32 School 0 – 4,800 Filipino, & (1967) Graduate English Private High Cebuano, Cebu X4 4,800 – Male 47 School Filipino, & (1965) 7,700 Graduate English Public Cebuano, Cebu Z1 Male 21 University 0 – 4,800 Filipino, & (1996) Graduate English Private High Cebu Z2 4,800 – Cebuano, Male 19 School (1999) 7,700 English Cebu Z Graduate Public Cebu Z3 Female 3 University 0 – 4,800 Cebuano (1999) Undergraduate Public Cebuano, Cebu Z4 None Female 20 University Filipino, & (1998) Answered. Undergraduate English

Findings and Discussion For the data triangulation of this study, the researchers concurrently present and discuss both the quantitative and qualitative results of the language use and attitudes of the Cebuano people on the Cebuano, Filipino, and English languages. While the researchers allowed answers to be spoken in any or a mix of the three languages, the original responses of the respondents in the focus group discussion were predominantly spoken in the Cebuano language. Because of this, the researchers translated their responses to the English for the international readership of the paper. Fluency on the Cebuano, Filipino, and English Languages This study first investigated the fluency of the respondents on the languages studied through a five-point Likert self-assessment scale. As seen in Table 4, there is no difference in the fluency of both generations on the Filipino and English languages. They are neutral on the former and agree that they are fluent in the latter. A significant difference on the fluency of the generations in the Cebuano language was found in this study as there is a 0.91-point difference in their means.

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Table 6. Fluency of the Cebuanos on the Cebuano, Filipino, and English Languages HOW FLUENT ARE YOU IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES? Generations Cebuano Filipino English Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Cebu X 4.77 0.566 3.37 1.37 4.22 1.05 Cebu Z 3.86 1.05 3.37 1.03 4.1 0.96 t-test 0.00* 1 0.39 *Result is significant at t < 0.05. In the focus group discussion, respondents from Generation X emphasized the importance for their children to learn their mother tongue, which is the Cebuano language. However, having the opportunity to learn other languages, most especially English, is also a crucial part of their parenting styles. Cebu X3 explained that the necessity to be able to speak the English language would allow their family to accommodate foreign visitors in their community. Discussions by Generation Z agrees to the importance of both the Cebuano and English languages. It was during the childhood of the younger generation when their parents started speaking at them in English. Intrinsically, this normalized the speaking of English in their generation. Cebu Z3 mentioned that she only speaks Cebuano minimally and in a casual manner. In matters where a long discussion was needed, she uses English as she can express herself better in it. Cebu Z2 raised a point on the language policy decisions of the community that all respondents from Generation Z agreed on:

I view languages in a more utilitarian aspect. So, if the community deems it fit that they could communicate properly if they speak Cebuano, then it can remain. But if the community feels the need to change it, then we must change it. It depends, really, in the community on what the language they want to use or on what is comfortable to them. The younger generation, especially Cebu Z2 who was part of the first batch of the recently implement 12-year basic education program (locally known as K-12 program in the Philippines), emphasized that they had a lot of Filipino subjects in school. The prominent speaking of the English language in home settings and the teaching of Filipino in the formative learning years of Generation Z may be attributed to their lessening fluency in the Cebuano language. Children’s lessening fluency on their parents’ mother tongue due to the latter’s persistence of learning English is common and observable among immigrant families in English- speaking countries and places where English is an institutionalized language (Wu, 2005; Anderson, 2012; Li, Tan, & Goh, 2016). Language Use for Everyday Communication This section explored the languages that respondents use in everyday and casual situations such as talking to the family, friends, relatives, and close people. Table 5 shows that significant differences were found in the everyday language use of Cebuano and Filipino languages. With regards to Filipino specifically, despite both generations disagreeing that they do not use the language for the said communicative situation, there is enough difference that says that the younger

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generation speaks Filipino more than the elder ones. There is no significant difference found in the use of the English language in everyday communication. It can still be noted that despite the Generation Z speaking predominantly in the Cebuano language, they also speak Filipino and English more than the elder ones. The increased use in the use of Filipino and English languages is consistent with the results of the study of Pontillas and Parpa (2017) on the language attitudes of Generation Z students based in the northern Mindanao region of the Philippines. Specifically, there had been an increase in the use of the said languages in home settings. Table 7. Everyday Language Use of the Cebuanos HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES FOR EVERYDAY COMMUNICATION? Generations Cebuano Filipino English Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Cebu X 4.73 0.71 2 1.31 3.27 1.52 Cebu Z 4.31 0.97 2.42 1.19 3.38 1.16 t-test 0.0005* 0.02* 0.56 *Result is significant at t < 0.05.

The differences in the language use of the Cebuano and Filipino language in this part were also found in the qualitative data. Respondents from the elder generation all spoke Cebuano for everyday communication, particularly when talking to family members, relatives, and friends from their same age bracket. Most of those from Generation Z also spoke Cebuano for everyday communication, except for Cebu Z3 who almost exclusively speaks English. Moreover, with the younger respondents studying in the country’s national university, they are also exposed to fellow students from various parts of the country. This created the need for them to speak the Filipino language frequently within their campus. Cebu’s homogenous cultural environment allows the maintenance of the dominancy of the Cebuano language in home settings. The researchers discount the possibility of a major language shift despite the empirical evidence in the increasing usage of Filipino and English in the area. Rather, an increase in the usage of Cebuano in everyday communication is expected as the use of the language as the medium of instruction was already fully-implemented in 2012 as part of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) program for the first four years of the Philippine basic education system (The Freeman, 2012).

Language Use for Formal Communication Quantitative data shows that there are significant differences in the language use of the respondents for formal communication or talking to teachers, supervisors, administrators, and clients. As seen in Table 6, the elder generation uses the Cebuano language in this context more than any other language. On the other hand, the younger ones use the English language more often. The significant difference in the use of Filipino language reaffirms the result in the past section that the younger generation speaks Filipino more than Generation X.

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Table 8. Formal Language Use of the Cebuanos HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES FOR FORMAL COMMUNICATION? Generations Cebuano Filipino English Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Cebu X 4.1 1.35 2.09 1.43 3.57 1.48 Cebu Z 3.28 1.23 2.55 1.2 4.2 1 t-test 0.00001* 0.01* 0.0005* *Result is significant at t < 0.05.

All respondents in the focus group pointed out that learning and the use of English are essential in the globalized world. The elder generation echoed the opinion of Cebu X4, an overseas Filipino worker, that with English being considered as an international language, using it both as a medium of instruction and transaction at present will help their children in “seeking greener pastures abroad.” The majority of the younger generation’s discussions on the use of English for formal communication revolved around the concept of “global competitiveness.” Albeit critical on the status of English in Philippine society, Cebu Z3 said, “we need to face the fact that in the system that we are in if we are not involved in English, we will have a hard time to earn.” The continued perpetuation of this notion on the importance of the youth using English is being reaffirmed both by the Philippine government, the educational system, and mass media (Valdez, 2011; Hernandez, 2015). For that reason, Filipino youth belonging to Generation Z are commonly required to speak English in formal settings. On the other hand, the elder generation recognizes English as a lingua franca and the primary medium of written correspondences. However, there is no actual language policy that requires them to speak English to administrators and clients. As mentioned above, the homogenous cultural environment of Cebu may maintain the continuing practice of the elders in speaking the Cebuano language in various communicative situations. The use of the English language in formal situations, most specifically in classroom settings, is common in the Philippines. Empirical studies on the language use of Filipino students show that English remains to be the dominant medium of instruction in the country and this is commonly practiced through code-switching between English and Filipino (Borlongan, 2009; Borlongan, Lim, & Roxas, 2012; Sicam & Lucas, 2016).

Language Attitudes on Everyday Communication This section begins the examination of this study on the language attitudes of the Cebuanos on the Cebuano, Filipino, and English languages. Data presented in Table 7 agrees with the null hypothesis that generational differences do not affect the attitudes of the respondents on the languages studied. It can be seen in the actual counts of the responses that they are not far from the expected count that confirms the null hypothesis. Overall, the Cebuano respondents (n = 168) chose Cebuano as the language that should be used when talking to family, relatives, friends, and close people. For Ilocano-speaking students, they strongly agreed that

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they made friends using the Ilocano and Filipino languages more than English (Esteron, 2020). When talking to family, friends, and neighbors, the youth of northern Mindanao prefer to use their variety of Bisaya and Filipino (Pontillas & Parpa, 2017, p. 35).

Table 9. Language Attitudes of the Cebuanos on Everyday Communication Generations Total Cebu X Cebu Z Count 85 83 168 Cebuano Expected 84 84 168 Count What Language Count 3 8 11 Should be Used Filipino Expected 5.5 5.5 11 for Everyday Count Communciation? Count 12 9 21 English Expected 10.5 10.5 21 Count Count 100 100 200 Total Expected 100 100 200 Count χ2 0.256 *Result is significant at p < 0.05.

Focus group discussions found that both generations unanimously said that they would like to maintain the Cebuano language to be spoken within their communities. They are also both aware of the decreasing fluency of the younger generation in the said language. Cebu X3 personally witnessed his daughter, who is studying in an English-speaking private school, asking his wife about the meaning of a particular statement written in Cebuano. Generation Z respondents themselves realized that they have limited vocabulary in the said language when their professors asked them to translate the English flora and fauna names into Cebuano. The youth also found the language to be useful in interacting with people at the grassroots level, specifically with the people who belong to low socioeconomic backgrounds as all of them are community organizers.

Language Attitudes on Formal Communication The respondents’ attitudes on formal communication also confirm the null hypothesis of this study. Similar to the past section, the actual counts of the responses are not far from the expected count that confirms the null hypothesis. It can be seen in Table 8 that a great majority (n = 173) of the respondents chose English as the language that should be used for formal communication. This empirical evidence, along with the actual language use of Generation Z on formal communication, proves the study of Demeterio and Liwanag (2014) that in formal contexts (e.g. national government, courts, businesses), English remains to be the dominant language preferred, followed by the regional language, and Filipino only is third.

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Table 10. Language Attitudes of the Cebuanos on Formal Communication Generations Total Cebu X Cebu Z Count 13 8 21 Cebuano Expected 10.5 10.5 21 Count What Language Count 3 3 6 Should be Used Filipino Expected 3 3 6 for Formal Count Communication? Count 84 89 173 English Expected 86.5 86.5 173 Count Count 100 100 200 Total Expected 100 100 200 Count χ2 0.513 *Result is significant at p < 0.05.

Preference for English in formal communication was tied by the qualitative respondents on its ability to connect Filipinos in the international scene and it is tagged as the language used by people of high socioeconomic standing. Having experience working abroad, Cebu X3 and X4 sent their children to English- speaking private schools to be able to communicate in an international workplace if they choose to work overseas as well. To explain the preference of the youth on the English language, respondents from Generation Z said that Cebuano “already has the attention” in the Philippine educational system, and it is “already being used to control our culture.” Cebu Z3 added that, at present, utilizing English as the medium of instruction and transaction is convenient as it is the primary language that is being used by institutions. However, the respondent emphasized that language policies are dynamic and if future policies would focus on the use of local languages in contexts of formal communication, then language preferences of the future generations may change as well. As mentioned in the section on the language used for everyday communication, students’ mother tongue is already being utilized as the medium of instruction in the first four years of their education. If implemented successfully, then the new multilingual nature of the Philippine education system may affect the language preferences and perspectives of the current primary school children in the future. The intergenerational preference on English as the language for formal communication is consistent with the empirical studies on the language attitudes of university administrators, educators, and students (Borlongan, 2009; Borlongan, Lim, & Roxas, 2012; Cunanan, 2013; Sican & Lucas, 2016; Pontillas & Parpa, 2017). As with the elder respondents of this study, teachers in western Mindanao city of Zamboanga expressed their negative attitudes towards the use of the Chavacano language as the medium of instruction due to the inadequate availability of teaching materials in their mother tongue. Following the continued difficulty in teaching, they preferred to shift back to English until adequate materials, training, and preparation will be provided to them (Anudin, 2018).

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Language Attitudes on the Philippine National Language Differences in the preference of each generation on the Philippine national language can be seen in Table 9. Generation X (n = 44) wishes the Cebuano language to be the primary of the national language. On the other hand, Generation Z (n = 48) would like to maintain the Tagalog-based Filipino as the national language. As such, this study partly dispels the claim of Alburo (2011) that Cebuanos have a psychological resistance against the Manila-based Filipino because the respondents of this study collectively prefer it to be the national language. In spite of these disparities, the actual counts of the responses are not significantly far from the expected count that confirms the null hypothesis. As such, this study cannot discount the data that says that generational differences do not play a role in the national language attitudes of the respondents.

Table 11. National Language Attitudes of the Cebuanos Generations Total Cebu X Cebu Z Count 44 29 73 Cebuano Expected 36.5 36.5 73 Count What Count 35 48 83 Language Filipino Expected 41.5 41.5 83 Should be Count the National Count 21 22 43 Language English Expected 21.5 21.5 43 of the Count Philippines? Count 0 1 1 Other Expected Languages 0.5 0.5 1 Count Count 100 100 200 Total Expected 100 100 200 Count χ2 0.105 *Result is significant at p < 0.05.

The majority of the focus group respondents from both generations would like to maintain Filipino as the national language as well. They believe that despite the linguistic differences between their native language and the Tagalog- based Filipino, it is the language that “binds and unites the country.” At least one respondent from each generation narrated their experience about traveling to a different island in the Visayas island group, wherein Cebu is situated at. They mentioned that when traveling to Tacloban in East Visayas and Boracay, a popular tourist destination in Western Visayas, Filipino was the language they spoke to understand each other despite being collectively Visayan. Cebu X4 also narrated that overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East speak the Filipino language altogether, most especially when they come from different regions in the Philippines.

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Conclusion This study presented the language use, attitudes, and preferences of the contemporary Cebuano people from Generations X and Z, a topic that has not been empirically studied and published for the past thirty years. The researchers employed mixed research methods in both data gathering and analysis, with the results triangulated to have a holistic view of the linguistic perspectives of the respondents. Triangulated data revealed that the elder generation is significantly more fluent in the Cebuano language as respondents from Generation Z grew up speaking in English and being exposed to the Filipino language. Despite predominantly speaking Cebuano for everyday communication, a language shift towards Filipino and English was seen in the younger generation, thus making a significant difference with Generation X. This is due to the home and institutional language policies wherein English became the preferred language of communication when they were brought up. Being exposed to an educational system that teaches the Filipino language and to fellow students that come from different parts of the country created an environment that made them speak the language more frequently than Generation X. Significant differences on the language used for formal communication were found in all languages as well, with a noticeable language shift from the dominant use of the Cebuano language of Generation X to Generation Z speaking mainly in English. The younger generation utilizes Filipino more than the elders in the said communicative situation. Discourses on English as the language for formal communication revolved around it being an international language that could give an advantage to the youth if they choose to work overseas. Moreover, a respondent pointed out that in the present societal system, being able to speak English is a necessary factor to reach people’s personal goals. On the other hand, Generation X remained using the Cebuano language for formal communication as there are no language policies that require them to use other languages when talking to administrators and clients. English, however, remains to be the medium of formal correspondence. A majority of the respondents in both the quantitative and qualitative parts of the study want to maintain Cebuano as the language for everyday communication. Being aware of the lessening fluency and limited vocabulary of the youth on the language were the primary reasons for the respondents desiring to maintain the language. In addition, respondents from Generation Z, who concurrently volunteered as community organizers during the course of this research, found that it was easier for them to make connections with the grassroots sectors if they used the Cebuano language. Meanwhile, most of the respondents preferred English to be the language for formal communication. Focus group respondents tied this preference to thinking that it would help them connect with the international scene and that it is also the language of the financially-fortunate people. Respondents from Generation Z were critical on the status of English in Philippine society, declaring that it has the primary focus of the educational system that controls Philippine culture. Yet, they were of the dynamism of language policies, believing that the recently-implemented multilingual-based

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basic education program could change the language uses and preferences of the future generations. Lastly, a collective majority of the respondents are in favor of maintaining Tagalog-based Filipino as the Philippine national language. There was also a preference shift on the national language between the generations as the elder ones mainly chose Cebuano and the young ones primarily chose Filipino. Qualitative respondents narrated that even within varying Visayan societies, the Cebuano, Hiligaynon, and Waray, among others, collectively speak Filipino when talking to each other due to the evident linguistic differences in their mother tongues. Most agreed that Filipino remains to be the common language that unites the Filipino people, a population that is composed of societies speaking 185 individual languages (Eberhard, Simons, & Fennig, 2019). Cebuano came in a close second as some respondents believed that the high population of Visayan speakers is enough a reason for the national language to be based in their language. The researchers posit that Cebuano language use and preference would still change as the current generation of primary school students is already exposed to an educational system that made their mother tongue the primary medium of instruction. Therefore, the relatively low fluency and limited vocabulary of Generation Z is only a manifestation of the societal structure that emphasized their contact on the English and Filipino languages. Consequently, future researchers are encouraged to assess the language use and attitudes of the generation following Generation Z as they will be the first batch who will then have undergone the full curriculum of the multilingual K-12 program by 2024.

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Valdez, P.N.M. (2011). English for Colonization, neo-colonization, and globalization in the Philippines: Challenging marginalization in the profession. TESOL Journal, 4(1), 72-80. Wu, C-H. (2005). Attitude and behavior toward bilingualism for Chinese nren. In J. Cohen, K.T. McAlister, K. Rolstad, & J. MacSwan (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism, 2385-2394. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

AUTHORIAL PRESENCE IN ENGLISH RESEARCH ARTICLES BY NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SCHOLARS Adelia Januarto, Tofan Dwi Hardjanto Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia [email protected], [email protected] correspondence: [email protected] DOI: doi.org/10.24071/llt.2020.230204 received 9 March 2020; accepted 6 April 2020

Abstract In this corpus-based study, we address the issue of authorial presence in English research articles (RAs) by native and non-native English scholars or writers in the field of second language writing. Our purposes are to compare the frequencies of authorial presence and to examine discourse functions of authorial presence in the native and non-native English scholars’ RAs. To achieve these purposes, 48 RAs were collected from two Scopus-indexed journals, namely Journal of Second Language Writing and Assessing Writing. Our finding suggests that native and non-native English scholars are different in terms of the degree of visibility in which native English writers are more visible than their non-native counterparts in their RAs. Furthermore, our functional analysis of authorial presence indicates that native English writers use more self-references for different purposes such as to describe research procedures, show the organization of the texts, but fewer self- references to guide readers through the texts than their non-native English peers. These differences might be caused by the idea of writer-responsible culture in native English writers’ RAs, and international publication context in non-native English writers’ RAs. Besides, these findings may be invaluable to material designs in English writing, especially in Indonesia, to assist students as novice writers to consider their explicit presence in their RAs.

Keywords: authorial presence, research articles, L2 writing

Introduction The use of first-person pronouns as the linguistic realization of authorial presence has become a subject of debate for many years in academic writing such as theses, dissertations, and research articles. On one hand, people problematize the existence of first-person pronouns in academic writing because this linguistic realization of authorial presence implies the subjectivity of the writers while academic writing is required to be objective. The use of first-person pronouns on academic writing defocuses readers from the ideational contents which the writer seeks to convey. As a result, some academic manuals (e.g., Johnson, 2016; Macmillan & Weyes, 2007; Rizvi, 2005; Wood, 2001) advocate the avoidance of first-person pronouns which signals authorial presence in their academic writing in favor of objectivity or neutrality. The avoidance of such authorial presence is commonly realized by the frequent uses of passive voice and non-human subjects

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which are claimed to focus readers on the object under study, not the writers. On the other hand, such impersonal strategies, especially passive voice, which seems to convey objective tones are not free from criticisms as well. Dunleavy (2003) and Hinkel (2003) on the impersonal style on academic writing suggest that eliminating first-person pronouns contributes to vagueness and wordiness of a sentence, as the subject of a sentence is unclear, especially in the case of the agentless passive voice. As a consequence, this area in academic writing indicates that the use of first-person pronouns in academic writing is problematic. Since written academic discourse is now widely seen as the embodiment of writer-reader interaction (Hyland, 2001, 2005), self-mention which represents social interaction plays two important roles in written academic discourse. First, first-person pronouns enable a writer to construct his/her impression of credibility as a researcher in a particular area. The credibility is usually materialized by the use of explicit self-mention I or we so the writer indicates that s/he holds the responsibility for his/her view on the materials. Second, first-person pronouns may also serve to promote solidarity to the readers by bringing readers into the research. The pronouns selected to achieve such purpose are usually inclusive we in which the writer treats the audience of the article equally as if both participants hold the same view related to the interpretation of materials. Studies to date have shown that first-person pronoun indicating explicit authorial presence varies depending on some aspects such as writers’ nativity and disciplinary convention. It is now well-accepted that not only do disciplines influence the use of first-person pronouns, previous studies also indicate that nativity also contributes to the difference, such as authority and visibility. To name a few, previous studies (e.g., Al-Shujairi, 2018; Behnam, Mirzapour, & Mozaheb, 2014; Carciu, 2009; Dontcheva-Navrátilová, 2013; Işık-Taş, 2018; Martínez, 2005) have investigated authorial presence about nativity in English RAs of various disciplines such as chemistry, applied linguistics, sociology, and business management. Overall, the findings of their studies suggest that non- native English writers use more or fewer self-references than their native English counterparts do so that the results may be inconsistent. Regarding this issue, we aim to compare how native and non-native English scholars utilize self-references in their English-medium RAs, and to understand the discourse functions of each self-reference signaling presence in their RAs. In analyzing the authorial presence, we draw on Biber, Johansson, Leech, and Conrad’s (1999) grammatical categorization of first-person pronouns and Tang and John’s (1999) discourse functions of first-person pronouns. The underlying reason for choosing Biber et al.’s (1999) categorization is because it covers all English grammatical cases which enable us to explore and collect all types of English first-person pronouns in our corpus. Besides, we consider Tang and John’s (1999) model in comparison to others (e.g., Hyland, 2002; Kuo, 1999) due to its more general taxonomy which is potentially more accommodating for new sub-categories of discourse functions such as to show an intra-textual relation and to highlight the focus of discussion.

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First-Person Pronouns as the Realization of Authorial Presence The first-person pronoun grammatically belongs to a subgroup of noun class indicating a speech role as or referring to the speaker/writer (Heath, 2004; Huddleston & Pullum, 2005). The speech role itself denotes what position a participant in an interaction takes, such as a speaker, hearer, or non-participant referent that can be categorized into first, second, and third-person respectively. In general, the first-person pronouns which are the linguistic resource to manifest authorial presence can be seen in Table 1 as follows, but the pronoun we is problematic.

Table 1. English first-person pronouns (Biber et al., 1999) Case Person Possessive Nominative Accusative Reflexive Determiner Pronoun Singular I me my mine myself Plural we us our ours ourselves

The plural we have several referents such as a speaker and the audience, people in general, a group of speakers without the audience. The first two referents consider the addressee and the writers as one group while the last does not, and thus the prior belongs to inclusive we while the latter belongs to exclusive we. Unlike the singular pronoun I whose referent is clear, i.e. the speaker/writer, the pronoun we, therefore, is vague concerning its multiple referents. First-person pronouns as the linguistic realization of authorial presence in academic writing are complex, as they do not only refer to the referent but also inform multiple identities which the pronouns perform (e.g., see Işık-Taş, 2018; Károly, 2009; Tang & John, 1999). Regarding the identities signified by the linguistic resources, Tang and John (1999) propose a taxonomy of discourse functions of self-mentions in academic writing (see Table 2) by building on Ivanič’s theory on aspects of writer identity (1998). Their taxonomy of discourse functions encompasses six roles or identities, such as representative, guide, architect of the essay, recounter of the research process, opinion holder, and originator.

Table 2. Identities/functions of self-references, adapted from Tang and John (1999) Identities Explanation Examples Least Representative To represent a group of people “The English that we know powerful or people in general today reflects many centuries of development (Script 6).” Guide through To help readers in the “Let us now look at some the essay interpretation of the text examples of J[amaican] C[reole] compared to standard British English (SBE) (Script 26).” Architect of the To show how the text is “In this essay, I will discuss the essay organized and outline the bastard status of English […] materials (Script 16).”

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Recounter of the To recount research “I tape recorded a conversation research process procedures or methods with each co-researcher […] (Ivanic, 1998).” Opinion-holder To express personal views or “I agree with Fairclough attitudes (1992b) […] (Ivanic, 1988). Originator To convey knowledge claims “To me, the phrase embodies the whole evolution process of Most the language to its present day powerful status (Script 8).”

Research Methods This corpus-based study consisted of 48 English RAs (24 RAs written by native writers and 24 RAs written by non-native writers) in the field of second language writing. A small specialized corpus was considered for our study because it allows corpus researchers to see a particular type of discourse (Flowerdew, 2004), i.e. written academic discourse in research articles. L2 writing was selected as our samples because previous studies have not dealt with authorial presence in this field while this field might not just inform us what their studies demonstrate about L2 writing but also how expert writers in L2 writing who aware of authorial presence use this option in practice. In addition, the English RAs which were employed as our data were obtained from Assessing Writing and Journal of Second Language Writing, which were chosen based on three criteria, i.e. the scope of L2 writing, English-medium publication, and Scopus-indexed status. For the article selection, moreover, we applied some criteria, such as empirical articles in favor of its AIMRD (Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) structure, native and non-native writers, and the number of writers (single and multiple authorship). The AIMRD structure allows us to see what a self-reference serves concerning where the personal pronoun or other self- referring term is found in a particular section such as showing their responsibility for the selection of procedures in the Method section. Moreover, since the concept of the nativity is problematic here, following previous studies (Carciu, 2009; Işık- Taş, 2018; Mur-Dueñas, 2007), we considered writers’ nativity from their affiliated institutions which are located in English-speaking countries. As a result, the corpus samples of native writers can be seen as follows.

Table 3. The size of NW and NNW corpus Journals Articles Total (in words) Assessing Writing (ASW) 24 172,051 (mean: 7,169) Native Writers (NW) 12 86,451 Non-native Writers (NNW) 12 85.600 Journal of Second Language Writing (SLW) 24 194,430 (mean: 8,101) Native Writers (NW) 12 98,648 Non-native Writers (NNW) 12 95,782 TOTAL 48 366,481 (mean: 7,635)

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Since we aim at exploring native and non-native English tendency in using authorial presence and examining discourse functions of authorial presence, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. The quantitative analysis for the first objective assisted with WordSmith Tools 5 (Scott, 2008) to see the frequency of personal pronouns in each journal and each group of writers. We searched authorial presence with first-person pronouns according to Biber et al.’s (1999) categorization and self-referring terms such as writer, writers, researcher, researchers, author, and authors in the corpus. Each frequency of the authorial presence was normalized to 100,000 words. Next, the chi-square (χ2) test was also done with Minitab 19.2 (Minitab, 2019) to examine whether the differences between frequencies of self-references in NW and NNW RAs were statistically significant. After finishing the calculation of the frequency distribution, the discourse functions of authorial presence were calculated and explained based on Tang and John’s (1999) classification so that we could see the functions of self- references with their co-text more comprehensively.

Findings and Discussion Native and Non-native Writer’s Differences in the Corpus

Table 4. Frequency Distribution in the NW and NNW corpus (per 100,000 words) Self- NW NNW TOTAL references Raw Norm. Raw Norm. Raw Norm. I 151 81.58 67 36.94 218 59.48 my 20 10.81 13 7.17 33 9.00 me 24 12.97 9 4.96 33 9.00 mine 1 0.54 0 0.00 1 0.27 we 341 184.23 307 169.26 648 176.82 our* 183 98.33 129 71.12 312 85.13 us 18 9.72 30 16.54 48 13.10 researcher* 30 16.21 53 29.22 83 22.65 author 2 1.08 0 0.00 2 0.55 TOTAL 770 415.99 608 335.20 1378 376.01 Note: NW = native writers, NNW = non-native writers, norm. = normalization

Table 4 shows the degree of authorial presence in NW and NNW RAs by the frequencies of self-references. As seen in Table 4, normalized frequencies of self- references in English RAs indicate that NWs use self-references more than NNWs do. These self-references in NW and NNW RAs occur respectively 415.99 and 335.20 cases per 100,000 words. This quantitative result, in general, suggests that NWs with the linguistic resources show a slightly higher degree of visibility. Moreover, our result for the significance test on self-references across two groups of writers shows that the difference is statistically significant (df = 6, χ2 = 23.91, p = 0.001). In our findings, furthermore, the frequencies of the subjective pronoun I in the two groups show the most striking difference. A possible explanation for more than twice occurrences in NNW RAs might be that the writers consider this

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singular pronoun impolite in the sense that they do not involve readers (Myers, 1989) so they choose to use more plurals to be inclusive. The quantitative analysis further shows that the self-reference researcher(s) is more prevalent in NNW RAs. This might because NNWs who use this third-person reference want to give an impression of objectivity without completely detaching themselves from the texts, or the uses of this resource might be associated with writing practices in their particular academic cultures. In general, despite inconsistent with Isik-Tas’ (2018) and Behnam et al.’s (2014) findings in the field of sociology and chemistry, our overall result for NW and NNW differences in using self-references in L2 writing RAs agrees with Dontcheva-Navrátilová’s (2013) finding which shows the higher frequency of self-references in NW RAs than in NNW in the context of international publication. Given the fact that applied linguistics and the field of L2 writing are closely related (Silva & Leki, 2004), the similarity between our quantitative finding and Dontcheva-Navratilova’ is hardly surprising. Therefore, in line with Dontcheva-Navratilova, the lower frequency of self-references in NNW might also indicate the influence of their non-Anglophone academic literacies on their L2 writing RAs.

Discourse Functions of Self-references in NW and NNW Corpus In this section, we demonstrate whether or not self-references stated in Table 4 were employed to achieve similar discourse functions in NW and NNW RAs. In addition to the quantitative analysis presented in Table 5, we also explain the discourse functions of self-references qualitatively to provide a more complete picture of authorial presence in our corpus. Here, we acknowledge that it is difficult to provide a qualitative analysis with a contrastive approach since both groups use the same devices and similar functions; what makes them different is to what extent self-references are used to serve discourse functions. As a consequence, our explanation of discourse functions of authorial presence relies on a qualitative approach without any intention to compare NWs and NNWs. Moreover, before going further to Table 5 on the different discourse functions of self-references between NWs and NNWs, we will briefly remind what first-person pronouns and other self-references can serve in RAs based on Tang and John’s (1999) taxonomy. Firstly, first-person pronouns, especially inclusive, can function as a representative when they are used to denote a group of people, and as a guide through the RA when the inclusive pronouns referring to both writers and their readers serve to navigate readers in understanding the text. Similar to guide, the architect of the RA is also concerned with directing readers but one main difference of architect from guide lies on the fact that architect is the text-oriented whereas guide through the RA is reader-oriented. Thus, personal pronouns and self-referring terms (the researcher(s), the author(s), and the writer(s) are considered as an architect when they are utilized to purely organize text. Additionally, the two high-risk functions, viz, opinion-holder and originator. Between these two and even the rest types, the originator is the most face- threatening function because authorial presence is associated with knowledge claims and findings which are new to the disciplinary literature so the writers are

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explicitly exposed to readers’ negative evaluation. Opinion-holder, on the contrary, is concerned with the writers’ role to state a personal view.

Table 5. Discourse Functions of Self-references in NW and NNW Corpus NW NNW Functions/Identities Raw Norm. Raw Norm. Representative 15 8.13 10 5.51 Guide through the RA 17 9.18 70 38.59 Architect of the RA 200 108.05 146 80.49 Recounter of the 379 204.76 275 151.61 Research Process Opinion-holder 92 49.70 68 37.49 Originator 67 36.20 39 21.50 TOTAL 770 415.99 608 335.20 Note: NW = native writers, NNW = non-native writers, norm. = normalization

Table 5 shows preferences on what authorial identities NWs and NNWs seek to construct based on the discourse functions of self-references. As seen in the table, we can note that there are three differences between NWs and NNWs. NWs use more self-references to recount research procedures (204.76 vs. 151.61 occurrences) and structure their RAs (108.05 vs. 80.49) than NNWs. However, self-references in NW RAs which are used to guide readers through their RAs are less prevalent than in NNW RAs (9.18 vs. 38.59). These suggest that while NWs employ a more personal approach in organizing texts and describing their research process to show their more concerns on the textual organization and procedural decisions, NNWs are more facilitative to their readers given the higher frequency of self-references to help readers in the interpretation of their scholarly texts. Furthermore, the more prevalent self-references to structure texts and describing research procedures in NWs are likely attributable to the idea of Anglophone writer-responsible culture (see Hinds, 2001) to clarify messages and show their responsibility for selected procedures, whereas the high frequency of self- references to guide readers in NNW RAs might be influenced by international publication context in which NNWs make attempts to persuade readers through guiding them to their preferred interpretation. Dontcheva-Navrátilová’s (2013) study, however, shows the opposite in which NWs use more self-references for guiding readers and structuring texts but fewer self-references for recounting research procedures. She explains that guiding readers and structuring texts agrees with NW academic literacy which highlights the reader-oriented character. She, furthermore, believes that the underlying reason for more prevalent self-references in NNW RAs is that NNWs opt for creating a more personal approach when recounting research procedures. Regarding Dontcheva-Navrátilová’s findings, the differences between our findings and hers are surprising. First, given the fact that the fields of study on which we focus are different, i.e. applied linguistics and L2 writing, our difference in terms of discourse functions of self-references in English RAs, particularly on recounting research procedures and helping readers in interpreting RAs, might be

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to some extent influenced by the disciplinary factor. Thus, our difference might reflect Xia’s (2018) study which demonstrates discipline as one contributing factor for differences of discourse functions. Second, we believe that the similarity of findings between ours and Dontcheva-Navrátilová’s finding in terms of organizing scholarly texts could be caused by the shared awareness of the importance of signposts to indicate the logical structure of RAs in the field of L2 writing and applied linguistics.

Representatives First-person pronouns in English RAs by both native and non-native scholars are related to their discourse functions which represent what identities are constructed by the scholars. In the corpus, writers construct the least face- threatening identity, ‘representatives’, by using sources such as inclusive we and inclusive our. Inclusive plural pronouns here are chosen to represent people in general (example 1) and writers’ disciplinary community (example 2 and 3).

(1) The launch of the digital age has ushered in a growing demand for our capacity to produce, manipulate, and interpret visual and graphical representations of information (Lowrie & Diezmann, 2007). (ASW12NNEI) (2) That is, we have not as yet fully understood in detail how the features of effective writing develop among students and therefore, we have not been able to articulate that development. (ASW13NEI) (3) […] a further exploration of the effects of intertextual processing manifested in discourse synthesis and multiple-text comprehension in both L1 and L2 settings could advance our understanding of the multifaceted nature of integrated writing and offer insights into instructional and assessment practices. (SLW19NNEI)

These examples show that how RA writers position themselves to construct ‘representatives’ through inclusive our and we with linguistic resources which involve cognition (e.g. understood and understanding) or ability (e.g. capacity) in the Introduction section. These uses of inclusive plural pronouns in the examples are related to typical ‘moves’ of Introduction (see Dudley-Evans, 1986, p. 135; Swales & Feak, 2014, p. 331) in RAs such as establishing a research territory by suggesting the relevance of their studies to either the society or their disciplinary community (1); highlighting a knowledge gap (2); and suggesting the significance of their own study (3). Aligning themselves to the society or their disciplinary community through pronouns in the Introduction section helps them emphasize the persuasive effect when creating a research space so they can promote the novelty of their researches to the readership.

Guide through the RAs Writers make themselves explicitly visible in texts through the use of we, but this pronoun, in addition to the writers, also refers to readers. The reader- inclusive pronouns in the English RAs are aimed to draw readers’ involvement in

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the interpretation of the texts, and with this linguistic resource. In these following examples, we show the role of inclusive we and our in guiding readers to the writers’ preferred reading. (4) An outstanding finding was that unlike previous studies, our study revealed a significant relationship between the holistic rating of composition quality and complexification at multiple levels of syntactic organization: the sentential, the clausal, and the phrasal level. (ASW08NNED) (5) Aggregating the distinct decision-making behaviors, we can detect a progression of the raters’ distribution of attention to textual features corresponding to the official assessment criteria. (ASW05NER) (6) For example, in Table 7 we can see that, keeping WM at the average, Grade 7 students were 3.86 times more likely to score higher on Task 4 Listen-Write than Grade 6 students [….] (SLW14NER)

In example (4) to (6), the inclusive pronouns, which occur in the Results and Discussion section, play important roles in suggesting how their RAs are better read. In the case of example (4), a single writer uses inclusive our to seek cooperation from and at the same time to involve her readers in the interpretation so they can arrive at the same conclusion about the data. In other words, the writers seek to navigate their readers to their preferred interpretation of evidence.

Architect of the RAs Unlike previous discourse functions of self-references that focus on the use of inclusive pronouns, discourse function which constructs the ‘architect’ persona is realized through exclusive self-references such as I, exclusive we, and the researchers. The architect of the RA itself by definition denotes a writer’s role to compose and organize a scholarly text (Tang & John, 1999, p. S28). Furthermore, as noted in Table 2, this identity is constructed when writers organize their own texts and outline what they aim to discuss by involving the aforementioned self- referring devices. In our corpus, we found that this identity is involved in several ways to construct ‘architect’: section structure, cross-reference, and outline of the RA.

(7) Qualitative results from DSE1, DSE2, and DSE3 typify raters’ attention to textual features; so, in the results section, I focus on these findings. (ASW01NEM) (8) As we mentioned previously, many rubrics do not consider evidence of fairness, or how independent raters utilize the rubric (Hawthorne, Bol, & Pribesh, 2017). (ASW15NED) (9) The researchers wanted to see whether (1) modeling was more effective than self-practice, and (2) collaboration was more effective than working alone in enhancing students’ detection, revision, and commenting skills. (SLW09NNEI)

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From example (7) – (9), self-references are involved in signposts, expressions showing text structures. In particular, the self-reference I in example (7) is used to structure the text by highlighting what is being the center of the writers’ interest in the section Results. In addition to section structure, the pronoun we in example (8) is used when the writers show the internal relation between one part of the text to the other. The self-reference the researchers along with the verb in example (9) serves to give an overview of their problems in general.

Recounter of the Research Process Writers exploit pronoun I, exclusive plural pronoun we, and the researchers to describe research procedures. With this alignment to research procedures, they seek to show their role as ‘recounters’ who did the research process and made their procedural decision. In our corpus, moreover, we found that self-references, which mainly occur in the Methods section, can help writers in explaining their methods, especially data collection (example 10 and 11) and data analysis (example 12 and 13).

(10) Before the program, I spent four weeks observing 20 sessions of the CE course in the five teachers classes (four sessions per teacher). (SLW07NNEM) (11) From the twenty-one students who attended the first class, I asked four multilingual writers to attend follow-up individual one-hour interviews in November/December 2016 (Interview 1). (SLW17NEM) (12) For multi-trait average scores, the researchers employed the same G study approach as the holistic scores since a single score averaged over multi-trait sub-scores was used for analysis. (ASW18NEM) (13) An additional coder who was a university English teacher with an Australian Master’s Degree in Teaching English as a Second Language was invited to work with us on examining the student drafts and WCF. (ASW24NNEM)

The uses of authorial presence, which are realized through self-references in example (10) and (11), enable them to underscore their unique personal roles in the process of collecting data. Next, in example (12) and (13), self-reference the researchers and us are used to describe data analysis procedures, but interestingly, instead of using personal pronoun we, the writers in example (12) use the third- person perspective through the researchers to mention themselves when describing and justifying his methodological decision. It seems that writers as narrators of their research use this alternative self-reference in the Methods section because they aim to highlight their role as researchers who chose the methodological approach with the detachment of their research as their preferred choice so they can maintain their objectivity.

Opinion-holder By making selves explicitly visible in the RAs through self-references in expressing personal opinions or attitudes, writers expose themselves to criticisms

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because this identity, opinion-holder carries a highly face-threatening degree (Işık-Taş, 2018, p. 31). And unlike ‘recounters’ which typically occur in the Methods section, this identity we found in the corpus is widespread in Introduction, Methods, and Discussion.

(14) The shared processes identified in our data deserve consideration in developing and using scores from integrated assessment. (ASW14NED) (15) We argue that much of the research on writing assessment has omitted an important element: fairness. (ASW15NEI) (16) As discussed below, we believe that the developmental progression proposed by Biber and colleagues represents a useful means of hypothesizing the syntactic development of maturing academic writers in English [….] (SLW16NEI) (17) We assumed that a writing task that required summarizing ideas in a source reading passage, of the kind that now features in most major English proficiency test [….] (SLW22NNEM)

In our corpus, we identified that writers use exclusive we and our to make themselves visible and at the same time to express their personal opinions on their own method (14), previous studies (15), a theory (16), and a topic of discussion (17). Furthermore, in the conveyance of opinions, the self-references which typically co-occur evaluative verbs such as deserve, argue, believe, and assume are employed to strengthen the persuasive effect of the evaluations.

Originator Writers use linguistic resources such as first-person pronouns to express their knowledge claim about a subject matter. In the corpus, exclusive pronoun we are commonly used with verbs found while exclusive pronoun our are frequently used with study and research to indicate knowledge claims.

(18) For each statistic, we found the value at the 90th percentile for each data set, and then took the average of the 90th percentile values over all the samples. (ASW16NEM) (19) In our study, there was no indication in any of the cases that students were expecting their teacher not to provide WCF. (ASW24NNER) (20) By contrast, in our research the teachers provided much more indirect feedback than direct feedback, with individual practice seen to be determined by whether the teachers believed they or the students were responsible for learning. (SLW13NED) (21) Despite the clear differences in the design of both interventions, we only found trends towards significant differential development. (SLW24NNED)

As seen in these examples, the pronouns we and our occur in the Method, Results, and Discussion sections to report their findings and to emphasize their role as people who contribute findings to their disciplinary community, and at the

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same time, showing presence when conveying findings indicates the ownership of the findings. As a consequence, making selves visible can enable them to gain recognition for their personal contribution. To serve this function, however, making selves explicitly visible is risky to their own face because stating findings or claims is the most assertive function (Hyland, 2002, p. 1103).

Conclusion and Implications In this study, we have provided evidence in the field of L2 writing that degree of visibility is influenced by nativity, and authorial presence is useful to achieve various purposes in their academic writing. Regarding NW and NNW differences in making themselves explicitly visible, our quantitative analysis suggests that even though there is a small difference between the two groups in which NWs are more visible in internationally reputable journals, our statistical measurement yields a significant difference. Such differences could be caused by the influence of NNW cultures on their English RAs. Moreover, we also note that authorial presence in NW and NNW RAs shows differences in the use of self- references to recount research procedures and to structure RAs. Two possible factors are contributing to the differences of such discourse functions such as Anglophone academic culture, viz, writer-responsible for the first two functions. Moreover, we also note that NNWs are more facilitative in terms of navigating their readers throughout their texts than NWs given NNW higher frequency of self-reference for guiding readers. What we have found in our study about authorial presence between NW and NNW RAs, in general, can contribute to our understanding of how NWs and NNWs are different in international publication context even in one discipline. Nonetheless, given the relatively small numbers of samples, generalizing the findings to a broader area should be done with caution. Future studies, therefore, are suggested to validate our findings with larger samples from multiple disciplines to show whether there is a cultural and disciplinary interplay. It is also possible to complement future studies with interviews to obtain “insider ‘emic’ approach” (Swales, 2019) on why academic writers use self-references in their RAs. Furthermore, our findings here may contribute to the English academic writing courses, particularly in Indonesian higher education. As we have shown, expert writers in L2 writing explicitly show their visibility through self-references despite the different degrees about their nativity. Thus, this study cannot only exemplify the extent to which Indonesian novice writers can use self-references in English writing but also show them how the expert writers use self-references to achieve particular functions.

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

EMPOWERING CARE’S EFFECTIVENESS FROM HIGH SCHOOL MATH TO COLLEGE ENGLISH: FROM STANDARDIZED TESTS TO STUDENT VOICES

Deron Walker California Baptist University, USA correspondence: [email protected] DOI: doi.org/10.24071/llt.2020.230205 received 9 April 2020; accepted 8 June 2020

***In this paper, Sunnyside High School, Inland Empire University (IEU) and Desert Valley, California will serve as pseudonyms to maintain the anonymity of the high school, university, district and city. Ms. Jasmine Espinoza and Dr. J. D. Hyde will represent the pseudonyms for the teacher-participants who taught the classes examined in this follow-up study.

Abstract Building upon the prior success of a rookie high school math teacher, a veteran English professor also successfully implemented empowering care at a private university in that same urban setting in Southern California. The aforementioned empowering care that contributed to better student learning as measured by district wide tests at the high school level now demonstrated pedagogical success as assessed by student evaluations in the university setting. The purpose of this paper, chronicled from a practitioner’s point of view, examines how teacher beliefs that “all students are capable of learning,” operationalized concretely in terms of empowering care, enabled students to achieve impressive academic performances on the aforementioned measures in their respective settings over two consecutive school years (D. Walker & S. Walker, 2019).

Keywords: empowering care, English education, enabling care, student evaluations

Introduction When researchers originally decided to undertake some naturalistic research based on a rookie math teacher’s, (Ms. Jasmine Espinoza), classroom experiences at Sunnyside High School, in Desert Valley, California, no one realized just how applicable what this math teacher was doing in terms of empowering care would be to college level teaching in English education. At that time, the original study focused on researching the challenges of preparing teachers to meet the rather stringent expectations of state-level test-based accountability initiated in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (D. Walker & S. Walker, 2019). Wills and Sandholtz (2009) have aptly defined the basic tension that California public school teachers often face in the era of test-based accountability that may have a

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constraining impact upon their classrooms: namely, the tension between teacher professionalism and centralized standardization of curriculum and instruction. According to Wills and Sandholtz (2009), teachers face the delicate challenge of negotiating this tension between professionalism and standardization as school administrations increasingly believe that “uniformity [of goals, curriculum, teaching methods, and assessment] offers the most straightforward way of providing equality of educational opportunity” (p. 1069). As opposed to systems that offer greater teacher autonomy to make decisions at the classroom level, a standardized approach seeks to centralize curriculum and instruction with pacing guides and collaborations at departmental meetings to unify content. The overall goal would be to ensure as much as possible that practically all course content matches the substance of state and local tests and remains uniform between all schools in the system. Meanwhile, teachers often try to employ an individualized pedagogical approach based on professionalism emphasizing their own expertise and judgment to make autonomous decisions at the classroom level, reflecting their own diverse and unique classroom environments. Wills and Sandholtz (2009) reported that this professionalism has defining characteristics “based on theory, mastery of knowledge base through extended specialized training, a high degree of autonomy in performing tasks, and a code of ethics that guides behavior” (p. 1067). It is important for teachers to be allowed to apply their own theoretical knowledge in classroom practice autonomously because of the rich diversity in their classrooms and uniqueness of each classroom environment that “preclude[s] formulaic solutions” (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards [NBPTS], 1996; D. Walker & S. Walker, 2019; Wills & Sandholtz, 2009). Essentially, teachers must be permitted to draw upon their own specialized knowledge and professional judgment to determine how to meet the rich diversity of their students’ needs concerning what and how to teach because research has identified teacher expertise as the most important factor in determining student achievement (Darling-Hammond, 2000; NCTAF, 1996; D. Walker & S. Walker, 2019; Wills & Sandholtz, 2009). Teachers impact student performance more powerfully than program variables (Hawley & Rosenholtz, 1985; D. Walker & S. Walker, 2019; Wills & Sandholtz, 2009). To be sure, an overly centralized or standardized approach tends to “emphasize transmission of information,” where “knowledge is considered to be a fixed body of information that is transferred from teacher or text to the student” (Good & Brophy, 1994). The teacher, in turn, becomes more manager than facilitator while classroom instruction grows more teacher-centered rather than student-centered and increasingly didactic rather than interactive. Thus, Wills and Sandholtz (2009) recommended a new type of professionalism which they called “constrained professionalism” that attempts to balance the needs of implementing a standards-based curriculum without reducing teacher effectiveness as teachers may be demoralized by encroachments upon their autonomy that seem to undermine their professionalism with an overly hierarchical and centralized standardization (one-size-fits-all approach) to curriculum and instruction. While it may not be as strong in American universities as it is in the secondary education system, nevertheless, the tension between teacher professionalism and standardization of instruction represents an issue for

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university professors as well. For professors, undergoing rigorous assessment and satisfying university accreditation bodies, such as the one representing the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), have become increasingly important at the tertiary level in American higher education. Internationally, teachers and professors could also feel constrained in the way they deliver content and ultimately relate to students depending on the amount and type of centralized standardization pressures that they may face from national Ministries of Education and other relevant stakeholders. It was a tension Jazmine Espinoza would be confronted with in a very personal way in that initial study at Sunnyside High School in math education. Even so, while pressures toward standardization were present, Ms. Espinoza enjoyed a reasonable amount of opportunity to cultivate her professionalism and exercise a sound degree of autonomy in her classroom. This room that her principal graciously provided her rookie teacher to operate within the curriculum, proved extremely helpful in exercising autonomy within constrained professionalism. Ms. Espinoza applied the standards while receiving collaborative departmental support but also, more importantly, the freedom to alter materials and methods to make them her own, which allowed her remarkable success in implementing empowering care with her students. While professors also feel this institutional press at the university level, they typically maintain even greater academic freedom that can permit them to be nurturing and compassionate educators focused on teaching and ministering to students (a mission of many private universities) through the implementation of empowering care. Incorporating empowering care into a personalized English writing instruction may enable professors to more effectively facilitate the growth of college level writers during those formative freshman semesters of writing instruction. Enabling care has been defined as the ideals associated with a “communitarian moral order” (Hemmings, 2006, p. 139) that fosters a sense of community and individual character that encourages school actors to ‘respect one another, treat each other as equals, but never stray too far from the idea that they are first and foremost a class, a community of learning’” (Rosario, 2000, p 30). Hemmings (2006) contrasted the concepts of “enabling” and “disenabling care” at the urban Central High School whose students were 81% Black with most living in poverty (p. 139). Some acts of enabling care included a “huge dose of TLC” --- tender loving care ---- implemented with such acts as calling parents, tracking down absent students, counseling troubled kids, and even providing clothes, transportation and other physical needs as well. As one staffer told the author, “We hug ‘em, not slug ‘em” (p. 141). As 40 year career-education Rita Pierson (2013) indicated in her recent TED Talk, “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.” Positive relationships are a key ingredient in effective teacher- student collaboration. Ironically, the same school staff that provided positive, enabling care also inadvertently provided disenabling care by watering-down classroom standards for achievement and proper behavior that made many students think that the school “did not care about the students as capable learners” (Hemmings, 2006, p. 141). Many teachers at the high school greatly reduced the sources of knowledge for students, taught primarily or exclusively from the textbook, eliminating

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massive portions of course content, and resorted to mundane methods such as fill- in-the-blanks worksheets, rote memorization and answering questions from the end of the chapter. Such teachers frequently held students to minimal standards and allowed them to socialize, laugh out loud or put their heads down during class time. One teacher explained that “loose standards” were needed to make the classroom “as pleasant as possible,” so students would not drop out of school. In her own words,

I used to feel guilty about the loose standards but then I came to the realization that these kids, you know, the kids in the neighborhood won’t come unless you make things as pleasant as possible. Parents don’t push them so if kids come it’s because they want to (p. 142).

Undoubtedly, this faculty member meant well in her effort to keep the students happy and in school given the high dropout among minorities, especially when they feel discriminated against ----- as many of these students clearly did. Nevertheless, loosening standards was not an appropriate approach to say the least. Even students themselves complained about it. As student advocate Amber explained,

They try to be cool with the kids so that classes are comfortable. They get buddy, buddy and lower the standards so that classes are a joke. Even advanced placement classes are a joke. They have pretty much written kids off even though they’ll tell you they haven’t. Kids know what is going on and it really bothers them. They don’t like being treated like that. (p. 142)

Amber even tried to petition the school to insist that lax teachers do a more professional job. Clearly, the students themselves wanted a high degree of professionalism from teachers, student-centered instruction and a rigorous curriculum that would make them proud. A long line of educational research, in fact, has delineated how structural forces, school-level practices and students’ responses to the aforementioned have all contributed to systematic passdown of privilege to white and wealthy children and disadvantage to impoverished children, especially those of color (Bordieu and Passeron, 1990; Bowles & Gints, 1976; Fordham, 1996; Fordham & Ogbu, 1986; MacLeod, 1995; Oakes, 1985; Ogbu, 1978; Rist, 1970; Roscigno, 1998; Rosenthal & Jacobsen, 1968; Solomon, 1992; Willis, 1977). Many of these institutionalized patterns of perpetuating disadvantage for minorities and poor students have centered on lower teacher expectations that have contributed to a tragic “self-fulfilling prophecy” where student self-esteem and self-efficacy have been damaged, contributing to reduced motivation. In response, teachers have often given less challenging school work (Farkas, 1996; Farkas et al, 1990) as was true at Central High in Hemmings’ study (2006). Diamond, Randolph, and Spillane (2004) reported that this leveling of school-based expectations for certain minority or low income students is rooted in institutional hierarchy and can become “embedded” in schools. These authors also argued that these low expectations could be mediated if school leaders engaged in practices designed to

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increase student responsibility for student learning. Properly implemented enabling care should not involve watering down standards, but should focus on delivering a student-centered approach toward meeting students where they are on a personal level and lifting them up toward reaching the standard. Recent research in teacher care has focused primarily on the effort to respond to students with “culturally relevant critical teacher care” (Roberts, 2010). Bondy and Hambacher (2016) explained this phenomenon as “caring for students is a moral imperative, a way to take steps toward justice for historically underserved children” (p. 50). These historically underserved children would include African-American, Hispanic, impoverished or urban youth, most notably (Acosta, 2013; Bondy & Hambacher, 2016; Cooper & Miness, 2014; Roberts, 2010). As Bondy and Hambacher (2016) elaborated,

Such caring is ‘culturally relevant’ because teachers learn about and respond to the values, knowledge and histories of their students; it’s critical because it shows insight into the sociopolitical realities of students’ lives, particularly a history of injustice that shapes their educational experience and opportunities (p. 50).

The recent push for critical care for social justice and more enhanced teacher care for all students is not merely based on ideology either. It is also founded on pedagogical practicality. Acosta (2013) argued that the most effective teachers of African-American youth were “both aware of the enduring marginalization of African American people and committed to preparing black students to preparing black students for opportunities that their ancestors were unable to experience” (Bondy & Hambacher, 2016, p. 50-51). Roberts (2010) reported that teacher care could empower students to experience positive school outcomes such as improved attendance, attitude, self-esteem, effort and identification with school, if they believe their teachers care for them and their well-being. Interestingly, the teacher care issue has not only been more closely examined in terms of traditionally marginalized communities as classified by race, high poverty, etc. but has been more recently viewed as an adolescent developmental issue as well (Bondy & Hambacher, 2016; Cooper & Miness, 2014; Gasser et al, 2018). It is especially noteworthy that Gasser et al. (2018) reaffirmed the findings of Cooper & Miness (2014) that indicated a greater need for more student connection and personalization at the high school level as demands increased and secondary level classrooms often become less personalized. Another marginalized community may then be the adolescent low achiever. Nurmi and Kiuru (2015) suggested that “evocative effects” could explain how student academic achievement and engagement or lack thereof, might impact student- teacher relationships. As Gasser and colleagues (2018) elaborated, student low academic achievement and disengagement might produce differential treatment from the teacher. Students on the receiving end of what they perceive to be more negative treatment (e.g. more criticism, less support, and lower expectations) may perceive teachers as less caring and just than their high achieving peers do. Thus, in limited studies, there does appear to be a bidirectional relationship between student-teacher relationships and academic achievement and engagement. (Kosir & Tement, 2014; Quin, 2017). All of these studies, both old and new, clearly

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point to the need to emphasize teacher care in the classroom both in the interest of upgrading academic and also of promoting social justice (D. Walker & S. Walker, 2019).

Method For the purposes of this paper, the author decided to employ a qualitative case-study approach, utilizing the same method of narrative inquiry, used to analyze the success of the high school math teacher (D. Walker & S. Walker, 2019) with the university English professor in the present study. Connelly and Clandinin (2006) described the use of narrative inquiry succinctly:

Arguments for the development and use of narrative inquiry come out of a view of human experiences in which humans, individually and socially, lead storied lives. People shape their daily lives by stories of who they and others are and they interpret their past in terms of their stories. Story, in the current idiom is a portal through which a person enters the world and by which their experience of the world is interpreted and made personally meaningful. Viewed this way, narrative is the phenomenon studied in inquiry. Narrative inquiry, the study of experience as story, then, is first and foremost a way of thinking about experience. Narrative inquiry as a methodology entails a view of the phenomenon. To use narrative inquiry methodology is to adapt a particular narrative view of experience as phenomena under study. (p. 47)

Connelly and Clandinin (1990, p. 4) stated further: "People by nature lead storied lives and tell stories of those lives, whereas narrative researchers describe such lives, collect and tell stories of them and write narratives of experience." Through the bi-directional transaction of learning from each other, researchers and participants can begin to understand specific experiences within the context of stories told and retold in community. New understandings about the content and context of a situation ideally open up possible new imaginings for future stories to be lived. High school math teacher Ms. Espinoza (D. Walker & S. Walker, 2019) in the previous study and college writing professor Dr. Hyde in the present one engaged in almost daily discussions on professionalism in education with their respective authors about empowering classroom instruction. In combination with narrative inquiry and systematic conversational analysis regarding the teaching situation, the researchers measured success ultimately by using Desert Valley Unified School District’s first and second semester Benchmark Assessments for Algebra I for two consecutive school years to measure Ms. Espinoza’s classroom success in the prior study. As for Dr. Hyde at Inland Empire University, success would be measured differently, as the American university system does not engage in systematic standardized testing as in K-12 education. As many recent sources have confirmed, university student evaluations of their professor’s teaching are very commonly relied upon as an integral and sometimes the sole measure of teaching effectiveness at the tertiary level (Boswell, 2016; Chitre & Srinivasan, 2018; Gross et al., 2015; Serin, 2019). As Gross and her colleagues asserted (2015),

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“Neary all colleges and universities in the United States use students’ evaluations of teaching as part of the tenure and promotion decisions” (p. 19). They further elaborated that “many measures of students’ evaluations have impressive validity” and that “professors’ scores on students’ evaluations correlate substantially with students’ learning,” and also that “there is reasonable agreement among current students, faculty, administrators, and alumni about which professor are most effective” (Gross et al, 2015, p. 19). Serin (2019) contended that “student feedback played an increasingly important role in the delivery of high quality teaching” (p.168). Serin (2019) further found that “Although the use of student evaluations has been criticized, it remains the main tool in measuring teaching competence of instructors in higher education….[evaluations] are useful to increase teaching quality and can lead to better student achievement” (p. 172). Specifically, students benefitting academically from teachers they rate highly may be interpreted through the lens of relational regulation theory where “some professors are unusually effective in regulating some students’ positive affect and memory and are rewarded with high teaching evaluations…[which can be important] as positive affect includes attentiveness and interest” (Gross et al., 2015, p. 29). Thus, faculty teaching evaluations have been clearly established as the university-level “gold standard,” often the sole criteria of teaching effectiveness. In the tenure and promotion formula at Inland Empire University, teaching equals 60% of the official formula, measured almost exclusively by university- administered professor-course evaluations, as stated in the faculty handbook. This reliance on teaching evaluations has appeared to be a reliable measure on teaching effectiveness judging from the rapid growth in student population from 3,000 students in 2005 to 11,000 students in 2019 and a remarkable retention rate of over 70% at Inland Empire University during that time. Thus, the author decided to rely on student voices as expressed in the professor evaluations to judge the effectiveness of teaching with empowering care in this qualitative study. Building upon prior research on teacher expectations and enabling (empowering) care and the evidence collected here, it will be argued that just as Ms. Espinoza’s (enabling) empowering care made a critical contribution toward raising her students’ test scores to a surprisingly significant degree, among the leading scores in the district in Algebra I, that a similar empowering care-oriented pedagogy proved equally successful in Dr. Hyde’s freshman English composition classes, as ascertained from course evaluations. The term empowering care will be used in place of enabling care because the term enabling care can be too easily confused with the type of loose standard care provided in Hemmings’ (2006) discussion of disenabling care. In the following sections of the paper, the empowering care implemented by Dr. Hyde and the results of two years of university course evaluations will be presented and analyzed. The narrative inquiry and conversations between the classroom teacher and author revealed that both instructors were using empowering care as a key focus in their classrooms. Since Inland Empire University uses student evaluations as the key measure of teaching effectiveness, two years of teaching evaluations were collected from 156 subjects in 10 different freshman writing classes to be analyzed to determine the effectiveness of empowering care in Dr. Hyde’s IEU freshman English writing classes. In terms

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of assessing Dr. Hyde’s teaching effectiveness, student evaluations are the primary and almost exclusively the sole indicator of teaching excellence used at Inland Empire University though colleague observations, materials created, colleague evaluations, and other measures may be considered as well, albeit to a much less degree and extent. Every semester, students fill out a fourteen question survey about their course instructors ranging from whether or not course objectives were clearly stated (Q#1) to how helpful a professor is outside of class (Q#9) and on feedback (Q #10), to how students rate the overall course instruction (Q#14). Students rate their professors on these 14 questions using a 5 point scale where “5” = Excellent; “4” = Good; “3” = Adequate; “2” = Needs improvement; “1” = Very poor. The results of Dr. Hyde’s course evaluations in all freshman writing courses he taught for both academic school years are presented as follows in Table 1.

Findings and Discussion

Table 1 Dr. Hyde’s IEU Course Evaluations for Freshman Writing Rating SP 1 SP 1 SU 1 FA 1 FA 1 FA 1 SP 2 SP2 SP2 SP 2 113D 113F 113 AE 103H 113E 113R 113A 113D 113G 113H “5” 56.3% 76.8% 65.8% 71.3% 73.7% 68.1% 57.1% 61.9% 67.3% 65.8% “4” 32.4% 21.4% 29.7% 24.6% 21.8% 29.0% 32.8% 35.3% 26.3% 28.9% “3” 8.6% 1.8% 4.5% 3.6% 4.1% 2.5% 9.2% 2.4% 4.8% 4.9% “2” 2.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.6% 0.4% 0.4% 0.8% 0.4% 1.6% 0.4% “1” 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Tot. 4/5s 88.7% 98.2% 95.5% 95.9% 95.5% 97.1% 89.9% 97.2% 93.6% 94.7% Students 16 12 8 12 19 17 17 18 18 19

In Table 1, the data clearly demonstrates that the student evaluations of Dr. Hyde’s teaching ranked consistently high. The total number of 4s and 5s, the most important indicator of teaching effectiveness from the IEU administration point of view, never fell below 88.7% (“good”) and only twice scored less than 90% (excellent) of 10 sample classes. In fact, for 7 of the 10 sample classes, the approval rating ranked at or over 95% (“superior”). The number of “5” excellent scores ranged from a low of 56.3% to a high of 76.8%, between one-half and three-fourths of the students surveyed. On the other end of the spectrum, the number of “1” responses (“very poor”) was zero out of 156 students sampled on 14 questions, a total of 2184 total survey responses. Rarely were “poor” ratings invoked, most usually fewer than 1% and never more than 3%. Overall, the mean score was 94.6% 4s and 5s while the median was 95.5%. Both numbers hovered around the “superior” standard according to the faculty handbook. In Table 2, some of the most common individual comments were recorded. Comments were enumerated by what students specifically said in their comments as follows:

Table 2 Most Frequent Student Comments on Dr. Hyde’s Teaching Evaluations Freshman Writing Comment Frequency Learned a lot / skills improved 13 Enjoyed class / fun / engaging 13 Professor helpful 13

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Professor motivating / encouraging 7 “Growth provoking” 6 Professor provides constructive criticism/ feedback 5 Professor heart / love / grace 5 Professor knowledgeable / wise 4 Critical thinking promoted 3 Bad time management 3

The most frequently specifically reported spontaneous comment from the 43 students who made explicit comments was offered 13 times. Students indicated that they “learned a lot” or “improved their (writing) skills” a total of 13 times. The same number of students also indicated that the professor was “helpful” and that class was “enjoyable,” “fun” or “engaging.” These categories were reported on nearly twice as much as any other. The next most frequent comments were that the professor was “motivating” or “encouraging” (7), the class or professor helped students with their “growth” (6) and that the professor provided constructive criticism or effective feedback (5). Other comments were about personal attributes of the professor such as his “heart,” love (for class / students), and “grace” (4) and wisdom / knowledge (4). Finally three students remarked the class provided good critical thinking / reflection opportunity. The only repeated negative response involved the professor not being good at time management (3).

Discussion Going back to the previous math study, the DVUSD standardized test data clearly demonstrated that Ms. Espinoza by all standardized test measures had a very successful first year experience of teaching math at Sunnyside High School in Desert Valley, California. Succinctly stated, Ms. Espinoza’s students, on the average, scored significantly higher than the school or district average. In addition, she had significantly more students classified as either Advanced or especially Proficient than most other teachers in her district, many with far more experience than her in teaching math in California. Equally impressive, Ms. Espinoza had significantly fewer students fall into the lower categories of performance known as Below Basic and Far Below Basic. In the present follow-up study on English composition classes, Dr. Hyde’s instruction was rated very well by students as the instruction in most of the classes he taught in the past two years was rated “excellent” (> 90% 4s & 5s) or even “superior” (>95% 4s & 5s), rarely as merely “good” (between 85 – 89% 4s & 5s), and never “unacceptable (<85% 4s & 5s). Typically, about 2/3 of student responses were “5” “excellent.” Even though the results were very good, this rating system is actually somewhat misleading as the IEU administration does not consider the “3” response to be “adequate” at all but views it as a substandard rating. Furthermore, on these course evaluations, only 4s and 5s are considered “good” and “excellent” ratings, respectively, from the university administration’s point of view. These course evaluations are taken very seriously by the university administration as the leading and nearly sole indicator of teaching success in the classroom, strongly influencing both retention and promotion. In the stated tenure formula for instance, the administration rates “teaching” as 60% of the stated formula while 20% is devoted to “research” and 20% to “service.” In actuality,

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most professors feel like teaching is really significantly more than 60% of the university administration’s emphasis. While it may be somewhat controversial to place such a strong emphasis on the student evaluations of teaching as the primary means of teaching effectiveness, it may be equally argued that this emphasis is not entirely misplaced. A substantial body of research exists suggesting that developing mutual rapport and liking both students and student writing (Corbett, 1991; Elbow, 2000; Murray, 2004) strongly correlate with teacher effectiveness in English writing classes. Also, as previously stated, recent research on teaching evaluations has strongly supported their use at the tertiary level, even suggesting that they often do correlate with student learning and academic achievement (Boswell, 2016; Chitre & Srinivasan, 2018; Gross et al., 2015; Serin, 2019). Moreover, the specific student comments that were spontaneously offered on the evaluation appear to support the idea that the numerical ratings on the evaluations more accurately represent the positive outcomes of empowering care rather than simply students rewarding an “easy teacher.” At the top of the list was the comment “learned a lot” or “skills improved,” which appeared as much as any other (13). Some even commented that the class challenged them. Moreover, the tendency for students to praise the instructor for being “helpful” (13) and “encouraging” (7) might also suggest that the freshman writing course was not too easy for them. While many noted it was easier than other classes, often more than half of students reported needing to work “more extensively” on this class than other courses. Other comments praising “constructive criticism and feedback” (5), “professor knowledge” (4) and “critical thinking skills” (3) as important also suggest that rigorous writing instruction was taking place. Both practitioners, Ms. Espinoza at the high school level and Dr. J. D. Hyde at the university, expressed a firm belief that the standardized tests for secondary math students and the teaching evaluations for college freshman writing classes suggested that the empowering care they were employing in their classes was indeed helping students to improve their skills in these respective subjects and grow as students. In the next section, the main elements of empowering care in the classroom pedagogy employed by these practitioners will be outlined in Table 3:

Table 3. Keys to Empowering Care in English Writing Personalized e.g. Learning and using student names early & showing Instruction interest in their personal lives & families, journaling, workshops, small groups Practical Purpose e.g. Connecting academic success to personal goals & providing clear goals, purpose and topic choices Positive Feedback e.g. Using peer reviews, writing conferences, rubrics and balancing criticism with praise in college level writing

Personalized Instruction In English writing, Dr. Hyde would emphasize getting to know students by name right away. On the first day of class, Dr. Hyde would take time to use an ice breaker activity “Getting to Know You” to begin to establish a “Christian- academic-discourse community” and help lay the groundwork for future teacher conferencing and peer review activities that would increasingly personalize the

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writing instruction, help students to internalize writing conventions and aid them to develop a greater sense of audience than they would get by simply turning in their essays to their teachers. Another way that Dr. Hyde would personalize writing instruction would be to take different steps to ensure the writing process was individualized for each writer. This included allowing a maximum amount of flexibility into writing prompts and providing generous amounts of feedback to students not only on formal essays but also on journal assignments in the prewriting stages of a unit. Later, during the revision stages, instruction would become highly personalized with peer review activities with each essay and teacher conferences at least twice per semester, once early on to get to know them and another time later on to assist them with their hardest assignment. Often, more conferencing would be encouraged for struggling writers. Naturally, teacher conferences, peer response activities and feedback on papers allow teachers to give very good feedback to students and enlarge their sense of audience. However, these are also venues where teachers can reduce student anxiety, encourage them to improve, provide them extra help, and just really get to know them not only for their writing but as people as well. Dr. Hyde always keeps a full candy dish ready for teacher conferences and office hours, which helps reduce the tensions of teacher as “judge.” Dr. Hyde also finds it helpful to connect with students about sports or what is happening around campus or in student lives before or even after conferencing with students about their work. Language learning is very personal, and writing is quite difficult for most freshman students. Students need to feel accepted and supported to fully relax their anxieties and inhibitions so they can take the necessary risks in their work to grow more as writers. Dr. Hyde uses a portfolio system that helps with the aforementioned efforts by delaying grading and reducing those anxieties. Portfolios are also helpful in terms of providing student-writers an opportunity to be more reflective about their work and more sophisticated in marketing it. After all, writers must then decide what papers to include and how to present them as the best choices to represent their work.

Practical Purpose Succinctly stated, students no longer do their homework or write essays because the teacher told them to do so. In order to properly motivate students in English Composition, Dr. Hyde finds it necessary to tell his students exactly why the assignments are given and how they can help the students as developing writers. For Dr. Hyde this starts with the relating the course syllabus objectives to each writing assignment given. As Dr. Hyde often tells the freshman English teaching adjunct instructors he mentors, “Teaching freshman writing is as much about teaching life as it is teaching English.” Many do not even know why the two freshman courses are required. Dr. Hyde often asks them and makes sure they understand how these courses build communication skills necessary for practically all professional jobs (even nursing and engineering) and for college success as most college classes are based on reading and responding in writing to what one reads. Another truth Dr. Hyde relates to writing students, “There is no busy work in ENG 113.” Dr. Hyde finds it important to relate to students how journal writing can help build fluency, provide notes for tomorrow’s class discussion and allow a student to generate information for their next formal paper.

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Today’s students have ridiculously busy schedules. They want an education but hate busy work. Many are first generation college students and need explicit instruction as to how the curriculum is put together: e.g. how writing skills from one unit and genre of writing can help build into the next, even in next term’s writing class. Even in terms of class activities, students often find it helpful to know why they are doing group work, peer collaboration, peer review, teacher conferencing, etc. They need to know how each activity helps them to develop as a writer and a person. They need their roles in group work or peer review clearly articulated to them or else these activities will fall flat due to confusion or lack of motivation from a sense of purposelessness. It takes a classroom instructor who has established a rapport and a connection with students to assist them in understanding how writing process works from prewriting to revision and how they can build their own personal writing process by selecting a set of tools presented that match their own intelligences, skills, preferences, etc.. Thus, students need to see how all the writing classes connect in a curriculum with practical purpose from freshman writing through senior project and how units within classes and activities connect. It increases student motivation as they trust that the teacher is on their side and trying to empower them to become the best students and writers possible.

Positive Feedback Providing positive feedback is so important but often underappreciated among writing instructors. Well-meaning teachers, often with the best of intentions, trying sincerely to help students “fix” their papers, often fall into the trap of developing a “deficit-orientation” toward student writing. Students can be frequently overwhelmed with red ink and over-correction. Sometimes they are left hurt and confused, wondering, “Did he like anything about my paper?” This is an easy trap for someone to fall into after reviewing 100 essays or seeing that run-on for the “umpteemth” time! Nevertheless, many professional writers and writing teachers (Corbett, 1991; Elbow, 2000; Murray, 2004) will attest that students need to like themselves and their writing to truly produce their best work. Many times students procrastinate not out of laziness but out of anxiety and negative feelings about writing. Staying positive about student writing must be cultivated by writing instructors from the beginning of the course through the end. For Dr. Hyde this starts on day one as many freshman students have negative prior experiences with writing to overcome. They often introduce themselves by apologizing in advance for their poor writing or sheepishly admitting they “hate writing.” Dr. Hyde typically responds by saying “You probably write better than you think” even before he ever sees a piece of their writing. How can he do that? How can he not do that? Many freshman writers have not seen that many other freshman essays, so they are usually too hard on themselves. Moreover, if the writer does not believe s/he can write well then where do we go from there? Student belief that they only produce “bad writing” will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Freewriting and journal writing can help as students may be liberated to freely write and become more fluent by having fun and writing with reckless abandon about anything they desire. Thus, they are improving by practicing freely without the anxiety of being judged in what Elbow called “the teacherless

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classroom” with their “message in a bottle.” The delayed grading of portfolio writing also helps to allow students the space to grow without constantly worrying about a grade. Thanks to the formulation of a writing pedagogy based on empowering care and supported with practical techniques, Dr. Hyde’s goal of day one often becomes realized when students either leave class “enjoying writing or hating it less.” Teachers such as Ms. Espinoza in the prior math study and English professor Dr. Hyde in the current study realize that teaching is above all things relational and contextual in nature. Secondary math success with empowering care was measured via standardized tests in math achievement while with English at the university level it was determined by student voices as expressed in standardized professor / course evaluations. Recent research has suggested that the quality of emotional support to teachers in the classroom by any means such as responding to relational warmth or responsiveness to student needs may actually protect students from developing negative relational outcomes (Gasser et al., 2018; O’Connor 2010). The findings here are similar to prior recent research indicating that teacher care can be used effectively to empower marginalized students to overcome racial barriers or high poverty and for teachers to overcome their own deficit orientations toward students; uphold high expectations while providing support; expand the meaning of achievement (e.g. including cultivating student social and communication skills); and teach with a sense of urgency that inspires students (Acosta, 2013; Bondy & Hambacher, 2016; Cooper and Miness, 2014; Gasser et al., 2018; Roberts, 2010; D. Walker & S. Walker, 2019). Thus, while teaching standards-based curriculum is important, it is of even greater importance to connect with students through the demonstration of empowering care towards them. Good teachers are often able to provide such empowering care to students because they draw upon past teaching experiences and pedagogical research. Institutional support can be important if not vital for teachers in their efforts to provide their students with empowering care. According to Wills and Sandholtz (2009), state-level test-based accountability can negatively impact classrooms and degrade teacher professionalism when the positive effort to teach a standards-based curriculum increasingly becomes confused with a misguided effort to implement an overly simplistic “one-size-fits- all” standardization of centralized curriculum. Classrooms can be negatively impacted and teacher professionalism degraded because teachers may not be allowed to make their own decisions concerning curriculum, teaching methods, and authentic assessments---including portfolios. The resulting highly rigid instructional approaches can limit students’ participation in their learning process, which also inhibits the quality of a student’s educational experience (Katz, 1999; McNeil, 1981). For instance, McNeil (1981) argued that the high school juniors in her article were not promoted to cultivate high level thinking in history classes: “the students sat in classes passively, very rarely voicing an opinion or asking a question, no research required” (p. 318). She further pointed out that “all information in the course was reduced to lists of facts, brief descriptions, chronologies of presidents, laws and court decisions” (p. 317). When centralized curriculum becomes required, class lectures tend to be tightly controlled by not encouraging students in “questioning their institutions” (p.317). Often, the

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teachers’ primary concern may deviate toward covering the materials without students’ interruption. While one might argue that centralized curriculum and uniformity of instructional strategies help provide equal learning opportunities for students, scholars have found that teachers need to differentiate classroom teaching to support all students’ best learning (Katz,1999; Ladson-Billings, 1997). Although teachers want to engage in more “student-centered instruction” (Cuban, 1993, p. 6) in their daily classroom teaching, rigid standardization of curriculum and instruction often drives teachers to mainly focus on student test performance. Teachers working within such a professionally confined and rigid system may over-emphasize practicing test-taking strategies, including “how to properly bubble in test answers, or how to eliminate wrong answers” (Wills & Sandholtz, 2009, p.1078). As strong focus on accountability through high-stakes testing often creates teaching dilemmas through over-centralized emphasis on standardization of curriculum, teachers often become too limited in exercising academic freedom, an important part of the teaching profession. Primarily due to the obligation of following the centralized curriculum, teachers can lose the autonomy necessary for creating instructional strategies to meet different students’ educational needs. It is vital for teachers to value all different students’ educational needs and provide for them accordingly. Showing respect for the various cultures in class is a sign of teachers’ care, recognizing all students “as worthwhile individuals” (Phelan, Davidson, and Cao, 1992, p. 698).

Conclusion In a more nurturing classroom environment, where empowering care is provided, students tend to engage more in class discussions and finish their class work more consistently because they feel that their teachers care about them. However, overly-standardized test-driven instructional approaches often prohibit the opportunity for teachers to adequately consider diverse students’ educational needs simply because they feel obligated to use the canned-materials from the departments following the pacing guides. According to Phelan et al (1992), students want to be acknowledged as valuable individuals by their teachers. Students want their teachers “to recognize who they are, to listen to what they have to say, and to respect their efforts” (p. 696). One student quoted in Phelan et. al. (1992) elaborated,

The class I’m getting an F in, he seems like he doesn’t really actually pay attention to anybody in particular in class, it’s just a whole class, and this is math.....So I don’t know what he really actually means. He doesn’t look at me...(p. 696)

Thus, it is easy to see how perceived teacher indifference to individual student needs can result in disconnected relationships between students and teachers, which may be harmful to individual students. In teacher-centered classrooms where teachers are pressured to get results on standardized tests, such disconnected relationships can easily form. When educators feel constrained and find difficulty being creative with their teaching practices because of the pressure

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to immediately raise test scores, students may be treated more like numbers than properly valued individual learners. While understanding that state-level testing may be an important part of the assessment process, over-emphasis on centralization of a standardized curriculum for uniformity in test preparation in schools can create a negative impact on teacher practice and student learning. Consequently, students may be drilled to perform well on their standardized testing. Without recognizing an individual’s special circumstances such as lack of English proficiency and disciplinary behaviors, a hostile classroom atmosphere may be created between teachers and students. The underlying tension between teachers’ agendas and students’ needs often may inhibit teacher efforts to cultivate the kind of healthy relationships with students that can come from application of empowering care. As administrators and policy makers try to reform schools by ensuring that standards are met, providing centralized curricula to promote students’ immediate learning outcomes with accountability in the form standardized tests represents an overreaction to problems in education. In short, this type of ‘test-driven’ classroom instruction often does not serve the best interests of all students’ learning needs (Wills & Sandholtz, 2009). Rather, a system that encourages teacher professionalism and enables teachers to employ empowering care with their students does (Walker & Walker, 2019).

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Rosenthal, R., & Jacobsen, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02322211 Serin, H. (2019). Student evaluations of teaching effectiveness: An instrument to increase teaching quality in higher education. International Journal of Social Sciences and Educational Studies, 5(4), 168-173. Solomon, R. P. (1992). Black resistance in high school: Forging a separatist culture. Albany: SUNY Press. Walker, D., & Walker, S.H. (2019). Empowering care in the inner-city: Meeting standards with high expectations. Educational Review, 1-16. DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2019.1619519 Wills, J. S. & Sandholtz, J. H. (2009). Constrained professionalism: Dilemmas of teaching in the face of test-based accountability. Teachers College Record, 111(4), 1065-1114. Willis, P. (1977). Learning to labor: How working-class kids get working-class jobs. Westmead, England: Saxon House.

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

ENGLISH TEACHING IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS: LANGUAGE TEACHERS AS CULTURAL MANAGERS

*Adi Suryani1, Soedarso2, Kurnianti Tri Diani3 and Rosmawati4 1Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember ²Madrasah Tsanawiyah Ulul Ilmi 3SMPN 20 Simbang Maros [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] *correspondence: [email protected] DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24071/llt.v23i2.2470 received 7 March 2020; accepted 18 april 2020

Abstract Teaching English could be dilemmatic since English teachers should introduce the foreign culture and sustain their own students’ culture. Today’s students were the future leaders. Thus, it was vital for English teachers to introduce the global culture and local-national culture. This study aimed to explore our own experiences at schools and higher education levels, in managing culture in our EFL practices: which cultural elements should be sustained, how, why and what the challenges were. The data were collected from our experience-based reflection. The study revealed that English language teachers played a meta-role as they were cultural managers. They selected, infused, and invented ways to teach culture through various approaches: materials, social interaction, classroom routines, and artifacts. However, this process was potentially impeded by disruptive technology, students, teachers, and organizational factors. Thus, this cultural managing role was influenced by organization, technology, learners’ adaptation process, and teachers’ own cultural awareness and understanding.

Keywords: cultural learning, EFL teachers’ roles

Introduction Language is a cultural element. It is immersed in the culture of its’ indigenous people. It reflects certain community social behavior, thinking, social and communication styles, as well as a social-natural environment. Learning a foreign language also means understanding when the native people use the language in a specific context. Thus, learning a foreign language can be both adopting/imitating and following the native culture. Recently, globalization, rapid flow of technology and information open up non- English developing countries community to learn how to speak and write in English. In the Indonesia context, currently, young children are motivated to love and learn the English language and other foreign (developed) countries languages. Today, English becomes a popular language learned by children at their pre-school age. Moreover, the English language is becoming a criterion for selecting potential schools. Many parents perceive English language competencies as children’s life

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investment. This is because many today job vacancies are seeking applicants with high quality active English skills. English language scores are also becoming one of the major parameters for determining the education standard. Furthermore, English language skills open children’s chances to participate in international programs and global acts. The international functions of the English language may in a clash with the national roles of the Indonesian language. In an international context, the English language may contribute to increasing students’ international knowledge, expanding their global relationship and networking as well as participate in global community action. However, over-emphasis on English language learning can harm the existence of national language, as students may have less interest and pride to learn their local-national language. Thus, currently, the Indonesian language is at a high risk. The increasing dominating roles of the English language and threatened the Indonesian language have been attracting many studies, especially in the areas of Indonesian language teaching, Pancasila, and national citizenship to continuously revive and strengthen students’ nationality sense and protect them from global erosion. The trans-issue of EFL, local culture/Indonesian language, and national citizenship situate the English language teachers in dilemma. This is because they should both teach the culture of the target language, while at the same time preserve and protect their students’ local culture, nationality sense, and citizenship positive behaviour through the hidden curriculum. This study intends to synergize the perspectives of English language learning necessity and local culture preservation needs. The discussion is emphasized on exploring EFL teachers’ roles and efforts in infusing local culture content in their EFL teaching. It is examined through our lived-experiences as English language teachers, who teach the English language at different educational levels: junior, senior, and higher education. Daily teaching practices are becoming sources of reflection. Teaching reflection is vital in teachers’ learning process as it encourages teachers to examine their thinking and perform self-assessed teaching evaluation (Kuswandono, 2012, p. 149).

The Battling Perspectives on the Foreign and National Language Roles Many studies explore the relationship between language and culture. Language and cultural learning is inter-linked (Khan, 2016; Klippel, 1994, p. 50). Both of them are interdependent, as language is created by the certain community to ensure their cultural existence and reflect their life (Khan, 2016), play a function as a communication tool (Sukarno, 2012, p. 203), means to express and preserve social relationship (Scarino & Liddicoat, 2009, p. 16), while language cannot exist independently from its’ cultural contexts as culture is the root of language (Brdarić, 2016). Thus, learning a language means learning the target community culture (Khan, 2016, p. 98). Language learning involves meaning-making in which learners should understand how language symbolizes certain meanings and how it is used in a real situation to interact with others (Scarino & Liddicoat, 2009, p. 16).

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Furthermore, by teaching cultural background and knowledge immersed into language, the language meaning becomes clearer (Nibler & Harris, 2003, pp. 4–5). Recently, the immersion of culture into language teaching, the increasing roles, and broadening functions of the English language provoke debate relating to local culture versus foreign culture. Many studies examine how local culture should be practiced and how foreign language should be perceived. The globalization opens freedom and opportunities for foreign language/culture to enter, change the position of indigenous language/culture as well as threaten its’ existence (Dasuki et al., 2015). In Indonesia, there is nationwide emerging anxiety on the effects of the English language on the Indonesian language. Globalization, to some extent, weakens the power of national-local culture, especially the Indonesian language (Annisa, 2019). The proliferation of the English language may harm the nationality functions and positions of the Indonesian language. The Indonesian language should function as national identity, a means of national communication, the language of science and technology, language of nation-wide knowledge (Suwardjono, 2008). The Indonesian language position should be strengthened by national policy, standardization, and public usage customization (Dasuki et al., 2015). Syamsuri (2015) argues that the Indonesian language needs to be broadened to accommodate new vocabularies embodying social, economical and political changes. The cultural perspective argues that the Indonesian language should be protected as it is not only a communication tool but also a cultural wealth (Setyawan, 2011). These concerns emerge as the English language becomes increasingly popular and desired. The English language becomes a dominant language that has linguistic power over other languages. It is the key language in global communication, science and technology advancement, social mobility, employment, and socio- economic success determinant (Isik, 2008, p. 126). The dominant language may not be able to compete with the dominating language as the dominant countries can produce more advanced knowledge, science, and social condition resulting in increasing their new vocabularies (Isik, 2008, p. 126). The other perspective tends to balance both needs on national language/culture maintenance and foreign language learning. The assimilative perspective recommends a filtering process. This process can be undertaken by fitting foreign language to local culture, instead of being dominated by foreign language (Isik, 2008, p. 113). One of the approaches used is cross-cultural understanding. Cross- cultural understanding can broaden learners’ thinking, increase tolerance and flexibility, and open learners’ mindset (Isik, 2008, p. 134). Moreover, in the 21st century, the Indonesian society should master three key languages: Indonesian as national identity, local culture as cultural wealth and international language as a tool for joining international society (Jokowali et al., 2018).

The Infusion of Local Culture into English language teaching How national-local culture is situated in EFL classrooms or how EFL can be immersed to strengthen national-local culture is explored by many EFL and cultural studies. A changing paradigm in understanding English language position in EFL classrooms has been introduced. The English language is synergized with local

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cultural learning. Teaching language should be submerged in local cultural learning for growing students’ intercultural communicative competence (Brdarić, 2016, p. 1). The new perspective of the English language as an international language (EIL) introduces the English language as a global language which is spoken by its’ global speakers and submerged into this global learners’ cultures (Andarab, 2014, p. 279). The postmodern language perspective suggests culture and cultural learning as an open discourse, which is dynamically constructed and collectively re-constructed by its’ international speakers. This construction is different from the modern perspective which perceives culture as nationally bounded to the target community (Kramsch, 2013, pp. 64–67). Thus, local cultural place within EFL has been discussed by international and national studies. Many studies reveal that incorporating local cultural content into the EFL classroom is becoming a trend. Teaching English needs content unless it just contains grammar and patterns of symbols (Sukarno, 2012, p. 202). Language education should provide cultural knowledge, awareness, and target language as well as local culture competences (Fenner, 2000). Teaching English without local cultural content may threaten a nation’s identity. As evidenced by Jia (2015, p. 52), teaching English without national content emerges “Chinese culture aphasia.” Local content can be inserted through various methods. Some of these methods are using EFL textbook with local content, which is commonly standardized by education legislation system (Prastiwi, 2013, p. 506), presenting local folktales, such as Malin Kundang to young learners (Prastiwi, 2013, p. 509) or combining English language learning with tour activities, for instance visiting local cultural sites, such as temples (Kanoksilapatham, 2015, p. 680). Andarab (2014, p. 279) emphasizes the importance of developing an English textbook relevant to the needs of international speakers. This is the manifestation of genuine roles and functions of English language as the international language. The immersion of local culture in EFL brings about some learning benefits as it provides real context, involves students’ emotions, minimizes learning difficulty, and facilitates participatory learning scenarios (Khan, 2014, p. 69). The local load can protect cultural misplacement even cultural death (Prastiwi, 2013, p. 508), and preserve local wisdom (Sukarno, 2012, p. 205). The other paradigm suggests the importance of integrating cultural learning of the target language and local culture. It intends to develop students’ cross-cultural understanding and intercultural tolerance (Karabiner & Guler, 2013, p. 1326). The students can learn diverse perspectives, instead of only embracing a single perspective (Orlova, 2014, p. 40). Students’ intercultural communicative competence, as well as cultural awareness, can also be enhanced (Brdarić, 2016, p. 1; Hong, 2008, p. 6; Jia, 2015, p. 53).

Teachers’ Roles in Language and Culture Learning English teachers play key roles in teaching culture-embedded English language. It is assumed that currently, EFL teachers are incorporating local content in their teaching practices. This situation is different from the past. In the past, language teachers focus on communicative techniques, instead of cultural content (Harrison, 1990, p. 1). However, Recently, EFL teachers use culture as a subject

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matter (Harrison, 1990, p. 1). Thus, English language teaching is linked to other learning dimensions, such as values and teachers’ perspectives, backgrounds, and communities (Harrison, 1990, p. 1). The past dominant role of the target culture is currently negotiated. The dominating power of American-English and British-English has been challenged since the global community emphasizes the need to insert their diverse global cultures (Andarab, 2014, p. 280). More English teachers start to include local cultural content and this can motivate their students (McKay, 2000). How teachers embed cultural content into their English teaching may vary. Some countries balance local cultural learning and target community learning, while others entirely discard western cultural content (McKay, 2000). In balancing both cultural sides, teachers are at the front gate. In certain restricted society, EFL teachers wisely select which target language culture is safe to be taught, insert relevant cultural materials, affirm value education (Khan, 2014, p. 69). Another perspective suggests EFL teachers should balance the target language culture and local culture by developing cultural awareness (Brdarić, 2016, p. 4). It has been suggested that EFL teachers are key determinants in integrating EFL methodology, as the EFL learning process and materials are influenced by teachers’ perspective, value, background, and experience (Khan, 2016, p. 121). Many EFL scholars concentrate on exploring the benefits of local culture integration and embedded strategies. The integration of local culture into EFL learning may promote students’ increased text/language understanding by linking the text to students’ real-life experiences, preserving cultural tradition, and exploring local wisdom (Sukarno, 2012, p. 205). Local culture in English language learning can be learned through several modes. Sukarno (2012, p. 205) suggests that English teachers divide local loads into thematic activities. The local content should also be adapted to the students’ interests and needs (Celce-Muria & Olshtain, 2000, p. 195). The teaching-learning process should be ended with connecting learning activities to local culture, exploring moral values, and students’ living experiences- based wisdom and using English language as the instructional language (Madya, 2011). There are diverse strategies EFL teachers can use to immerse local content, such as role-playing, competing activities, designing poster as visual materials (Karabiner & Guler, 2013, p. 1326), using English textbooks containing both foreign as well as local culture, navigating web-based materials (Khan, 2016), exploring and visiting local cultural places as authentic materials and creating simulation-based on life-situation or developing in house materials covering students’ life background and surrounding (Kanoksilapatham, 2015, p. 681) or incorporating specific cultural elements, such as local food, lifestyle (Khan, 2016, p. 114), values, traditions and manners (Karabiner & Guler, 2013, p. 1325).

Research Method The study adopts a qualitative epistemological stand and methods. This is inherent with the research problems and objectives. The study aims to explore our efforts in inserting local-Indonesian national culture in EFL teaching. The analysis is limited to examine diverse teaching roles and local culture immersion strategy, instead of comparing and contrasting teaching pedagogies and their benefits. A

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qualitative method is used by researchers to understand a particular social situation (Young & Hren, 2017). Qualitative research aims to analyze multiple realities from the eyes of its’ participants through naturalistic and subjective methods (Kielmann et al., 2012, p. 7). The data are collected from our living-experience, during our teaching practices. This is inherent with some qualitative research paradigms. As stated by (Brookfield, 1995, p. 29), teachers’ autobiographies as both learners and teachers can provide a mirror through which teachers can reflect their teaching practices. Qualitative research values partiality (subjectivity and reflectivity both functional and personal) and personal involvement within a natural setting to obtain deep meaning (Young & Hren, 2017). Furthermore, qualitative research is characterized by humanistic, interpretive, reflective, naturalistic, flexible, and iterative (Kielmann et al., 2012, p. 9). Co-creation of a reflective framework is developed as a tool to ensure data richness, define the data border, and provide a reflective guide. It is consisting of a set of questions that guide our thinking, memory, and reflection. Mirroring strategy is used to perceive, interpret, and analyse the data. The reflective framework/guide contains the identification of local cultural issues and teachers’ perspectives. Below are several co-identified issues.

Tabel 1. The issues identification leading to the focus of the study No Issues identification leading to the focus of the study 1 English language teachers’ perspectives on the significance of inserting local culture in EFL. 2 The basis of cultural element selection, which aspects are more vital to be inserted than others 3 Teaching approaches used to transfer those cultural values 4 Cultural transmission challenges 5 Several teaching practices relating to local culture insertion strategies

All of those issues are then translated into several questions that guide our reflection. Those questions are:

Tabel 2. Questions leading to reflections No Questions leading to reflections 1 How do you perceive, is it necessary to insert local culture in your EFL teaching? 2 Which local cultural elements are vital to be revived? 3 Why do you think it is significant? 4 How are your teaching strategies to insert them into EFL teaching? 5 What are the challenges? 6 Could you please recall your experiences and tell the experiences!

The following table shows the result of co-reflection on identified issues (Table 1), which are defined into several pre-reflection questions (Table 3).

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Table 3. Teachers’ responses

No Teachers’ response 1 “Our school is Madrasah. It is a Pondok Pesantren. Using local/national culture in EFL teaching in our school is very important since there are many western culture elements may threaten the children’s thinking. By inserting local culture, it will at least lay the cultural foundation for our students.” (R1-T1) “Local culture education is vital. Thus, teachers should be able to design learning materials. For example, the use of narrative text on local legend stories. They should not forget those stories. Moreover, they should understand the moral values which can be used to build students’ character.” (R1-T2) “Educating local culture as well as social aspect is very significant. This is because higher education students have more learning capacity, flexibility and freedom. It will be dangerous if they are only western oriented and adopt all western values and neglect their own culture. This is especially because at higher education level, they are critical youth. They can see our local-national culture weakness and are able to use their rationality to weigh between right or wrong.” (R1-T.3) 2-3 “religious tradition and customs, because if those values are strongly infused into children’s selves, Insya Allah it will protect them in the future from negative and massive influence” (R2-3-T1) “cultural elements which should be revived and preserved are gotong royong, mutual respect, tolerance, older people respect, politeness and prideful sense on their own local culture. This is because I feel that now, our nation suffers from moral crisis. That’s why character building is required. It is not only building cognition, but also maturing their emotion and strengthening their character.” (R2- 3-T2) “I think the students should be taught to detect social and cultural issues around them. As higher education students, they should be sensitive and aware of their local-national culture. Thus, students can have autonomy and freedom to think and feel what cultural and social aspects are neglecting and bring them into class discussion or use it as task/assignment materials. It is expected that through this way, they have sense of cultural belonging. “The EFL teachers are just facilitators and reminders”. (R2-3-T3) 4 “inserting local culture habits in and outside the class, connecting book materials to real local culture and increasing students’ motivation” (R4-T1) “designing my own teaching materials by relating them to local context and national situation” (R4-T2) “asking the students to design video and presenting social-cultural issues through videos” (R4-T3) 5 “students’ motivation and children character.” (R5-T1) “…students’ low motivation, especially reading interest. But, mostly they are very active in social media, updating status and sometimes they are bullying their peers.” (R5-T2) “…the students frequently can sense many social and cultural issues at their higher education age. They can build their own thinking and beliefs about the issues. They have strong arguments on the issues. Thus, it is very difficult to supervise their thinking, especially when it is related to their strong background belief and trending topic which the majority of their friends have the same interest.” (R5-T3) 6 “we start our learning with praying, greet teachers and older people by kissing their hands and saying assalamualaikum. “For instance, I connect offering help material

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with gotong royong and culture of being polite” (R61-T1) “...before entering the class in the morning, they have to do tahfidz. ...the students let us walk outside the class first after the lesson. Some take the teacher’s luggage by struggling each other. They walk behind the teacher and say thank you for teaching them until the teacher arrives in the teacher’s room...” (R62-T1) “I am in the process of writing a book containing folk stories from Sulawesi Selatan. Then, I create some questions on moral values...” (R6-T2) “ I am exploring some videos from youtube which represent social-cultural issues and differences in cultural rituals. From these videos, I open discussion and forum on multi-cultural tolerance” (R6-T3) R=Response; T=Teacher

The collected data (Table 3) are organized into several themes and categories. Structuring is a way of data management for the interpretation and analysis process by screening data through the crossing process using pre-determined criteria (Mayring, 2014, pp. 64–65). The study also accommodates the emergent criteria from the collected data.

Findings and Discussion The data show that all of the teachers emphasize the importance of elaborating local culture in their EFL classrooms. They are not only EFL teachers but also local culture teachers. The following discussion focuses on EFL teachers’ various roles in local cultural education.

Vision Creators The teachers’ teaching behaviors in their classrooms are influenced by their values and perceptions. The teachers infuse local culture in their teaching based on the different needs and characteristics of their students. Thus, teachers’ teaching perspective and vision shape teachers’ behavior and approaches towards cultural learning. This is as shown by the following data.

Table 4. Teachers’ perspective on local culture learning No Teachers’ Responses Categories 1 “Our school is Madrasah. It is a Pondok Local culture learning is Pesantren. Using local/national culture in EFL needed as a foundation of teaching in our school is very important since children behavior there are many western culture elements may (R1-T1-C1) threaten the children’s thinking. By inserting local culture, it will at least lay the cultural foundation for our students.” (R1-T1) 2 “Local culture education is vital. Thus, teachers Local culture learning for should be able to design learning materials. For teaching students to example, the use of narrative text on local legend appreciate their indigenous stories. They should not forget those stories. culture and a tool for Moreover, they should understand the moral character building values which can be used to build students’ (R1-T2-C1) character.” (R1-T2)

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3 “Educating local culture as well as social aspect Local culture learning is is very significant. This is because higher needed to develop cultural education students have more learning capacity, senses on ethical issues, flexibility and freedom. It will be dangerous if norms in society, critical they are only western oriented and adopt all social-cultural issues western values and neglect their own culture. This (R1-T3-C1) is especially because at higher education level, they are critical youth. They can see our local- national culture weakness and are able to use their rationality to weigh between right or wrong.” (R1-T3) R=Response; T=Teacher; C=Categories

The data show that the teachers believe that local culture should be inserted in their EFL teaching for different purposes. For elementary and secondary students, the EFL teachers insert local culture for growing children's cultural values and characters (R1-T1-C1; R1-T2-C1). At a young age, children should be guided to know their own culture (R1-T1-C1) and appreciate the culture (R1-T2-C1). Thus, local cultural learning should be started at learners’ young age. The starting point of developing learners’ intercultural competence is growing their awareness of their own culture (Jia, 2015, p. 54). Indonesia’s indigenous culture is rich in traditional folktales, such as Bawang Merah, Bawang Putih, Malin Kundang, and Asal Usul Tangkuban Perahu, which can promote young learners’ local cultural learning, especially for moral character building. Infusing local culture for children at their young age brings about some positive consequences: raising children's emotional bond to their locality, conserving local culture and wisdom, and building children’s character (Yektiningtyas & Modouw, 2017, pp. 47–48). The local cultural learning is also necessary for higher education students (R1-T3-C1). The EFL teacher reveals that local cultural learning at higher education can help the students identify the ethical behaviour from non-ethical, demonstrate pro-society norm behaviour and developing students’ critical thinking (R1-T3-C1). Local culture learning in higher education may be directed to grow students’ cultural sense of care, pride, and national identity. This means that higher education students are prepared to be part of the global community. They may need to adopt an international/global culture while maintaining their own cultural identity. Thus, intercultural communicative competence is needed. Quality intercultural communicators are those who understand a foreign culture, without neglecting their own culture (Jia, 2015, p. 53). Building students’ sense of national identity is the basic element in facilitating them to be intercultural communicators since identity is required in global interaction. Communicator’s social identity is an intercultural communication element since the communication process is influenced by who is the communicator (Byram et al., 2002, p. 9). Furthermore, this study emphasizes the implied need of EFL teachers to build a mental picture of how to target language-culture and local-culture are taught, what they want their students will be, and what their responsibilities are. One of the fundamental features in powerful teacher education is teachers have a clear vision of their teaching practices

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(Hammond, 2006, p. 41). Furthermore, teachers’ vision is the center of teachers’ knowledge (Hammond, 2006, p. 84).

Local Cultural Mediators Local-national EFL teachers can be valuable EFL assets, since they may understand the local culture well. As local cultural experts, they may have knowledge on which values should be enhanced and which should not be taught. The data show that EFL teachers are local-national cultural managers. This is as shown by the data below.

Table 5. Teachers’ local culture teaching management No Teachers’ Responses Categories 1 “religious tradition and customs, because if those values are Selecting cultural strongly infused into children’s selves, Insya Allah it will values, protect them in the future from negative and massive understanding the influence” (R2-3-T1) purposes of teaching certain values (R2-3-T1-C2) 2 “cultural elements which should be revived and preserved Being aware of are gotong royong, mutual respect, tolerance, older people national issues, respect, politeness and prideful sense on their own local students’ educational culture. This is because I feel that now, our nation suffers needs and selecting from moral crisis. That’s why character building is required. some vital values to It is not only building cognition, but also maturing their be taught emotion and strengthening their character.” (R2-3-T2) (R2-3-T2-C2) 3 “I think the students should be taught to detect social and Understanding the cultural issues around them. As higher education students, characters of the they should be sensitive and aware of their local-national student, fitting culture. Thus, students can have autonomy and freedom to activities to think and feel what cultural and social aspects are neglecting students’ characters and bring them into class discussion or use it as and educational task/assignment materials. It is expected that through this goals way, they have sense of cultural belonging. The EFL teachers (R2-3-T3-C2) are just facilitators and reminders”. (R2-3-T3) 4 “…students’ low motivation, especially reading interest. Understanding social But, mostly they are very active in social media, updating issues emerging status and sometimes they are bullying their peers.” (R5-T2) from students’ social interaction (R5-T2- C2) 5 “I am in the process of writing a book containing folk stories Designing materials from Sulawesi Selatan. Then, I create some questions on (R6-T2-C2) moral values...” (R6-T2) 6 “ I am exploring some videos from youtube which represent Exploring and social-cultural issues and differences in cultural rituals. From enacting the these videos, I open discussion and forum on multi-cultural explored materials to tolerance” (R6-T3) other activities (R6-T3-C2) 7 “we start our learning with praying, greet teachers and older Connecting people by kissing their hands and saying assalamualaikum. materials from

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“For instance, I connect offering help material with gotong textbook to real royong and culture of being polite” (R61-T1) context (R61-T1-C2)

R=Response; T=Teacher; C=Categories

The data imply several roles of EFL teachers in mediating local culture learning. The first role of EFL teachers is screener or filters (R2-3-T1-C2; R2-3-T2-C2), for instance, religious tradition and customs (R2-3-T1) and gotong royong, mutual respect, tolerance, older people respect, politeness and prideful sense on their own local culture (R2-3-T2). This indicates that the teachers tend to select which cultural elements they should teach to fit into a certain situation. Their selection can be influenced by some aspects, including teachers’ background (R1-T1), institution values (R1-T1), consideration of local-national situation (R2-3-T2; R5-T2), and learners’ aspects (interest, level of education and motivation) (R2-3-T3; R1-T3). Adapting the selected and designed materials is one of the EFL teachers’ challenges. The biggest teaching challenge is managing the subject matter and learners’ concern dialectic (Hammond, 2006, p. 189). The second role of the EFL teacher is material designer or enhancer (R6-T2- C2; R6-T3-C2; R61-T1-C2). Frequently, EFL teachers create their teaching materials or enhance the available (existing) contents. Teacher 1, for instance, links textbooks to local culture (R61-T1). Differently, Teacher-2 creates some texts and some questions ensuring students’ comprehension (R6-T2). Teacher-2 creates materials by fitting them to the local values and wisdom. The materials are related to local folktales: the Buffalo site legend and the legend of Bantimurung (Figure 1). The materials design also directs Teacher-2 to learn technology as she downloads part of the materials from the web. Technology demands teachers to learn internet operation for learning writing and reading, as new digital literacy (Harendita, 2014). Below are several samples of data on teaching materials.

Figure 1. Samples of reading materials used by Teachers 1 (Kurniawan & Arment, 2016) and 2 (Idris, 2018)

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Teacher-3 uses video materials created by students in groups (Figure 2). Discussion on cultural and social aspects is stimulated through the students’ videos. Video 1 (timing) teaches social care value, promotes direct social interaction and social awareness. Video 2 (teens and media) suggests youth to use social media wisely and shows the negative effect of unwise behaviour.

Figure 2. Samples of videos materials: timing (Kartohatmodjo et al., n.d.) and teens and media (Hedianti et al., n.d.) containing local social and cultural values which are created by the students

The third role of EFL teachers is the activities designer (R6-T3-C2; R6-T3- C2; R61-T1-C2). The data show that EFL teachers are not only creating or enhancing materials but also setting relevant activities (R6-T3; R6-T2). Teachers 2 and 3 are fitting perceived cultural learning needs/interests, materials, and activities. Teachers’ job is ensuring the coherence of their teaching practices (Hammond, 2006, p. 97). Teacher 3, for instance, designs activities cycles of reading-writing-creating video containing specific social-cultural messages. Teacher 2 creates some narrative texts, questions, and activities allowing the students to extract moral values from the texts (R6-T2). Furthermore, the learning activities are extended into story-telling and competition embedded in students' extracurricular activities. The fourth role of the EFL teacher is identifiers of culture learning obstacles and potential problem solvers. The data show that EFL teachers identify several barriers to local cultural learning.

Table 6. Identifications of local culture learning barriers No Teachers’ Responses Categories 1 “students’ motivation and children character.” (R5- Character-related T1) issue (R5-T1-C3) 2 “…students’ low motivation, especially reading Low interest in interest. But, mostly they are very active in social reading, media social media, updating status and sometimes they are is more preferred bullying their peers.” (R5-T2) (R5-T2-C3)

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3 “…the students frequently can sense many social and Too strong cultural issues at their higher education age. They can belief/fanaticism on a build their own thinking and believe about certain specific issue (R5-T3- perspectives. They may have too strong arguments on C3) specific issues. Thus, it is very difficult to supervise their thinking, especially when it is related to their strong background belief and trending topic which the majority of their friends have the same interest.” (R5- T3) R=Response; T=Teacher; C=Categories

The data show that all three EFL teachers face big challenges in teaching local culture. The first issue is students’ less interest in reading (R5-T1-C3; R5-T2-C3). This indicates that reading/text may not an effective media/activity to teach culture. The second problem is relating to students’ too strong belief on a specific issue (R5- T3-C3). This may potentially emerge from racism, ethnocentrism, or religious fanaticism. This strong belief can be shaped along with students’ life, influenced by their diverse life background, social environment, or specific value doctrine. This strong conviction may impede multi-cultural tolerance. Tackling students’ fanaticism behaviour is very challenging. Thus, EFL teachers are not only working within the area of language but also crossing other disciplines, such as peace education, social science, psychology, and counseling. Thus, EFL teachers possess a blurred identity (Ortaçtepe, 2015, p. 108). This blurred identity is the result of the dynamic, complex, multifaceted roles of EFL teachers (Norton, 1997). Today’s EFL teachers have expanded jobs as they are not only addressing language needs but also fulfilling students’ interpersonal and intrapersonal needs (Molina, 2013, p. 1). The fifth role of EFL teachers is a natural observer. The data show that EFL teachers adapt their materials to a certain condition: institutions/schools (R1-T1), learners, and environment (R1-T3; R2-3-T3). EFL teachers observe social-cultural issues emerging from student peer interaction (R5-T2).

Multicultural Educators The data show that teacher 3 faces the challenge of managing a large number of students from different cultural backgrounds.

Table 7. Youth and multi-culturalism No Teachers’ Responses Categories 1 “Educating local culture as well as social aspect is very Youth EFT learners are significant. This is because higher education students critical culture learners; have more learning capacity, flexibility and freedom. It managing students’ will be dangerous if they are only western oriented and culture critical thinking adopt all western values and neglect their own culture. (R1-T3-C4) This is especially because at higher education level, they are critical youth. They can see our local-national culture weakness and are able to use their rationality to weigh between right or wrong.” (R1-T3)

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2 “…the students frequently can sense many social and Youth EFL learners are cultural issues at their higher education age. They can learners with strong build their own thinking and believe about certain culture perspectives. They may have too strong arguments on background/belief; specific issues. Thus, it is very difficult to supervise their managing fanaticism thinking, especially when it is related to their strong (R5-T3-C4) background belief and trending topic which the majority of their friends have the same interest.” (R5-T3) 3 “ I am exploring some videos from youtube which Youth EFL learners are represent social-cultural issues and differences in cultural culture negotiators; rituals. From these videos, I open discussion and forum generating students’ on multi-cultural tolerance” (R6-T3) multi-culture tolerance (R6-T3-C4) 4 “I think the students should be taught to detect social and Youth EFL learners are cultural issues around them. As higher education creative learners; using students, they should be sensitive and aware of their local- technology to increase national culture. Thus, students can have autonomy and cross-cultural freedom to think and feel what cultural and social aspects awareness and are neglecting and bring them into class discussion or use understanding it as task/assignment materials. It is expected that through (R2-3-T3-C4) this way, they have sense of cultural belonging. The EFL teachers are just facilitators and reminders”. (R2-3-T3) R=Response; T=Teacher; C=Categories

The data show that Teacher-3 is aware that higher education students are coming from different areas and may embrace a distinctive cultural belief (R2-3- T3). In context, Teacher-3 should undertake multi-cultural educators. Thus, the teacher should fulfill her roles as a multi-cultural class manager by managing students’ critical thinking (R1-T3-C4), managing culture fanaticism (R5-T3-C4), and generating cross-cultural awareness and tolerance (R6-T3-C4; R2-T3-C4). The data indicate that EFL teachers may encounter multi-culturalism challenges, especially when conflicting cultural beliefs, rituals, values explode. The data show that Teacher-3 increases students’ multi-cultural/cross-cultural understanding and tolerance by using a documentary video presenting cultural ritual/belief from a certain community and creating a cross-cultural forum.

Figure 3 A cultural-based documentary video, “Living with the Dead in Indonesia” (BBC News, 2017)

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Figure 3 shows an example of a documentary video that can catalyse students’ cross-cultural discussion and tolerance. The video describes a unique traditional funeral culture in Toraja society, which is in contrast to Javanese and Muslim funeral rituals. This documentary video is representative since it may generate culture battle if the students cannot understand the funeral positive underlying cultural values viewed from the Toraja society lens. Through this process, it is expected that students’ cross-cultural understanding can be strengthened. Openness and willingness to understand other cultural perspectives can stimulate cultural tolerance, awareness, and prohibit cultural stereotypes and prejudices (Vrbová, 2006). Intercultural competence is developed through nurturing five skills: relating and interpreting critical cultural awareness, interacting and discovering tolerant attitudes, and multi-cultural knowledge (Byram, 2000). The data indicate that EFL teachers may struggle with several culturally sensitive issues during their teaching practices: fanaticism, race, gender, or social inequality. Thus, multi-cultural teaching skills may be required to accommodate learners from different cultural backgrounds. Teachers should acquire skills for teaching diverse learners, adapt to democratic principles and commitment (Hammond, 2006, p. 246). Teachers should welcome the 21st century by preparing culturally responsive pedagogy (Richards et al., 2004).

Role Models The study indicates that teaching local culture requires more than knowledge transfer. It needs the teacher to demonstrate and guide students to practice the culture in their daily interactions. The data show that Teacher-1 models and guides the students to practice cultural rituals.

Table 8. Local culture rituals No Teachers’ Responses Categories 1 “we start our learning with praying, greet teachers and Modeling, practicing, older people by kissing their hands and saying guiding the culture of assalamualaikum. “For instance, I connect offering help praying together, material with gotong royong and culture of being polite” greeting and showing (R61-T1) politeness to older people (respecting older people) (R61-T1-C5) 2 “...before entering the class in the morning, they have to Implementation do tahfidz. ...the students let us walk outside the class culture of respect and first after the lesson. Some take the teacher’s luggage by appreciation to struggling each other. They walk behind the teacher and teachers (R62-T1-C5) say thank you for teaching them until the teacher arrives in the teacher’s room...” (R62-T1) R=Response; T=Teacher; C=Categories

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The data show that Teacher-1 encourages and leads the students to pray together, greet, kiss older people’s hands (R61-T1-C5) appreciate and respect to teachers (R62-T1-C5). These activities nurture the students’ senses being together, being polite, and respect other people, and being careful. This indicates that Teacher-1 infuses cultural teaching into daily behavior and habituation process. Cultural values can be transferred through verbal and non-verbal messages (Fleet, 2006). How teachers behave in classrooms and daily life can be a model and a reference for their students. Teachers are students’ models through whom students identify their acts and behavior (Chiou & Yang, 2006, cited in Shein & Chiou, 2011). Teachers are the main agents in socializing cultural values since teachers are influential educational figures whom students meet every day (Okeke & Drake, 2014, p. 1732). Moreover, teachers have the power to affect students’ behaviour and inspire them (Bashir et al., 2014; Sellars, 2012).

Figure 4. Model of EFL teachers’ roles in inserting local culture content

The study proposes several findings. The first is it is suggested that today EFL teachers are not only responsible for developing EFL learners’ linguistic competences, but also developing learners’ local cultural awareness and multi- cultural/cross-cultural understanding and tolerance. The second is it is recommended that EFL teachers are responsible to promote, maintain, and revive local-national culture by using English as the medium/instructional language. Local culture should be introduced as foundation knowledge before knowledge on intercultural communication (Saraswati et al., 2018, p. 183). Thirdly, the study suggests that to infuse local culture, the EFL teachers fulfill and navigate through different interconnected roles of teaching-vision builders, local-cultural mediators, multicultural educators, and behavioural models/practitioners. Fourthly, it is advised that EFL teachers develop their local cultural responsive pedagogy, vision, cultural sensitivity, and awareness, build English language-non English collaborative discipline, understanding learners’ social-cultural world, and

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leveraging the roles of technology and information to support teaching. The fifth is it is suggested that reflection on cultural experience can offer new insight for the EFL teachers for designing and managing cultural activities in the English classroom. Teaching reflection leads teachers to be autonomous learners (Suryani & Widyastuti, 2015).

Conclusion This study explores how several EFL teachers attempt to infuse local cultural learning in their teaching practices. The study reveals the changing role of the English language from foreign into international language influences EFL teachers’ roles. Today, EFL teachers are not only responsible for teaching linguistic knowledge, but also for introducing and infusing local cultural element in their EFL teaching. The study suggests several roles which EFL teachers can fulfill to meet their new responsibilities. Those are vision creators, local cultural mediators, multi- cultural educators, and role models-practitioners. The study suggests several measures the EFL teachers may implement to infuse local cultural elements in their teaching practice: developing local cultural responsive pedagogy, vision, cultural sensitivity and awareness, building English language-non English collaborative discipline, understanding learners’ social-cultural world and leveraging roles of technology and information to support teaching

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

ENHANCING COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE VIA ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES OF SPEAKING SKILLS FROM COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

Tam Thi Dao and Hong-Thu Thi Nguyen Hanoi Law University, Vietnam [email protected] and [email protected] correspondence: [email protected] DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24071/llt.v23i2.2497 received 20 March 2020; accepted 2 June 2020

Abstract In teaching language, assessment plays an important role in helping teachers identify students’ linguistic proficiency, language skills and evaluating the problems that exist in the learning-teaching process. Thanks to assessment activities, teachers can actively adjust and improve teaching methods, support students to solve the difficulties they face. This article focuses on the assessment activities of English-speaking skills through the Communicative Approach (CA) for law-major students to enhance communication competence effectively. The study involved 60 students at the Hanoi Law University. The findings showed that communicative approach assessment measures bring about some benefits and challenges as well as express the perspectives of students towards applying CA in assessing speaking skills.

Keywords: assessment, evaluation, speaking skills, communicative approach, competence

Introduction In the era of international integration, foreign language in general, and English, in particular, has become one of the essential criteria in jobs, communication and study. Therefore, improving foreign language skills is significantly concerned with the national education system in Viet Nam. A wide range of conferences and workshops have focused on innovating teaching methods, selecting appropriate materials and textbooks, etc to make the process of teaching and learning foreign languages more effective. However, the innovation in teaching approaches must go well with assessment activities that take a vital part in long-life learning to meet requirements in the radical renovation of education. By 2018, Hanoi Law University had applied a two-TOEIC English-course program for non-English major students in their curriculum. However, in the content of the subject, students had been mainly taught reading and listening skills based on the 2 - skill TOEIC standard test. Speaking and writing skills were integrated into the subject as an additional knowledge with the content taken from The New Headway textbook, by Liz and John Soars. These two skills had not been tested and assessed in a specific form during English at Hanoi Law University. Speaking skills have been added to the curriculum for students in the last 2-3 years when the university had the policy of applying the Standardized Test of English Proficiency for students as a prerequisite condition for graduation stipulated by the Ministry of Education and Training. Currently,

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Table 1: Current TOEIC Test Format at Hanoi Law University Question Activity Evaluation criteria

1-2 Read a short paragraph aloud - Pronunciation - Intonation and accents 3 Description of photos - Grammar - Vocabulary - Ideas 4-6 Answering questions - relevant content - simultaneous reply 7-9 Answer the questions according to Include all of the above criteria the content provided 10 Choosing solutions to the situation Include all of the above criteria 11 Expressing opinion Include all of the above criteria

However, teaching and learning English speaking skills still has some limitations such as classroom organization, teaching method, time, student qualifications. At present, English tests for non-English-major students mainly focus on listening and reading skills through regular tests and end-term test modules. Evaluating students' speaking and writing skills during the course is still limited, especially for speaking skills. English speaking ability of students is only reflected through the TOEIC standardized examination held by the Hanoi Law University for the last-year students before graduation time. However, the number of students who register to take the internal TOEIC exam at the university is just a humble one. In addition, the assessment of speaking skills for students in the classroom is also inadequate and challenging. The paper focused on some assessment measures of English-speaking skills to help non- English major students at Hanoi Law University have the motivation and effective English learning methods. Besides, the authors also made some recommendations on testing English speaking skills for students so that teaching and learning English at Hanoi Law University could meet the development requirements of linguistic competence.

Importance of speaking skills in learning the language Speaking is considered as one of the four most important skills of English, helping learners to express their foreign language skills directly in daily communications. Researchers and educators have had different opinions about speaking skills. Chaney (1998) argues that speaking is a process of creating and sharing information in different contexts. He admits the importance of speaking skills in learning and teaching language; however, students should find out more appropriate methods to learn it best thanks to the development of modern society. He considers cultural factors and communicative rules as the most important components. According to Brown (1994), speaking is the process of interacting with each other to create information through the process of creating, receiving, and processing information. In short, language researchers are consistent with the idea that speaking is a skill that allows people to express information, express opinions, thoughts, emotions clearly, helping the process of communicating effectively. Today, no one can deny the role of foreign languages in the general development and international economic integration, in which speaking skill is considered as a productive skill, helping learners to show the ability to communicate with the best results. Brown

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LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 23, No. 2, October 2020 and Yule (1983) assert that speaking skills play an important role in everyday communication. The authors mention two main functions of speaking skills: transactional function (information transmission function) and interaction function (function to maintain social relationships). Therefore, the development of speaking skills has an extremely important meaning in the curriculum of English as a foreign language (EFL) or as a second language (ESL). Nunan (1999) argues that successful speaking skills are assessed based on the ability to carry out conversations in the target language. Obviously, through speaking skills, teachers not only assess students' English ability but also their social knowledge, communication skills, life experiences, and personalities. Some of the problems in speaking ability include: a) Students do not have enough motivation to practice in the class; b) they are too shy and afraid to take part in the conversation; c) they have nothing to say; and d) they do not like the materials (Asaei, 2011). These problems can be handled if there are appropriate and effective teaching and learning strategies.

Testing-evaluation and role of testing-evaluation in teaching and learning English The appropriateness and quality of a curriculum can be tested through specific testing and evaluation methods. Testing and evaluation are inextricably linked to each other although the two operating processes can intrinsically focus on different aspects. Testing consists of the methods and skills used to collect information which evaluates students' ability, their level of grasping knowledge and motivation (Allan, 1999). Evaluation, meanwhile, is the collection of information necessary to determine whether a program is appropriate and meets its goals or not. The evaluation must be designed to find out which method is effective and which is not. (Kaufman, Guerra, Platt, 2006). The evaluation has been considered as reflection way and it is imperative to embed reflection in the curriculum (Harvey et al., 2010). Dean, Sykes, Agostinho, & Clements (2012) argue that assessment involved in the discussion with the reflective or probing questions. Assessment should make use of the utility of the online space (Woodley & Beattie, 2011). Besides, through analyzing reflective assessment tasks, Cord & Clements (2010); and Hughes, Mylonas, & Benckendorff (2013) discover what students are learning and what teachers need to change. In summary, the testing and evaluation of English in general and of English- speaking skills in particular is an indispensable factor to promote learners' motivation to learn speaking skills. Cowie & Bell (1999) reveal that evaluations have a very important impact on the educational process in general, helping detect and improve the learning process. Assessing English speaking skills during classes opens up many opportunities for learners to show their English-speaking ability while still providing accurate information and reliable evidence on academic progress and learning outcomes of learners. Furthermore, it allows learners to participate in activities not only as a self- assessor but also in assessing others, using the information obtained through testing- evaluation to optimize learning performance. Therefore, the assessment activities should be specifically and appropriately designed to accurately assess learners' communication ability through specific activities which may positively impact the learner's attitude and passion for learning English speaking skill. Thus, learners can determine the level of their English proficiency and reach the output standard required for the training program they are attending. Currently, there is a wide range of assessment methods instructors can apply in the classroom, regardless online or offline such as e-portfolios (An & Wilder, 2010), online role-play (Ogilvie & Douglas, 2007), online journals (Cord & Clements, 2010) or blogs (Edgar, Francis-Coad, & Connaughton, 2012). However, the negative effects of some evaluation methods on teaching and learning are mentioned (Madaus,

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West, Harmon, Lomax, & Viator, 1992). Darling-Hammond (1988) and McNeil (1988) clarify the external accountability testing results in the de-skilling and de- professionalization from instructors and show their serious influence on teaching (Whitford & Jones, 2000).

Learning-oriented assessment through the communicative approach Communicative approach (CA) is a prevailing one of all current world-wide teaching methods in which learners make use of authentic material to make the meaningful real communication. Larsen-Freeman D. (2000, p.122) states that CA makes communicative competence as the key goal of language teaching and asserts that there is an interdependence between language and communication. Language teaching activities are involved in real-life situations tasks, real outcomes, collaborative and interactive performance. Thus, assessment principles are relevant to productive assessment activities. Carless (2007) indicates three principles for learning-oriented assessment as follows: Principle 1: Assessment tasks should be designed to stimulate productive learning practices amongst students; Principle 2: Assessment should involve students actively in engaging with criteria, quality, their own and/or peers’ performance [sic]; Principle 3: Feedback should be timely and forward-looking to support current and future student learning. These principles were described as figure 2 in a schematic form:

Figure 1. Learning-oriented assessment framework

As can be seen from the figure, there is an interconnection between learning and certification purposes of assessment activities. They both orient to certification and learning process with an overlapping space. To get the purposes mentioned, the instructors have to design the appropriate tasks ensuring that they are the tasks students take in the learning process. Moreover, the assessment activities have to involve all students in their awareness of assessment criteria, self-and-peer evaluation. Lastly, the assessment has to be the positive and forward reflection which affects future actions with suitable changes.

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Methodology Participants The group selected for the study consisted of 60 undergraduate students who major in law from K4232 and K4228 of Hanoi Law University. Throughout the class, students were invited to perform tasks in teams. This approach fostered communication and collaboration among students in order to generate data for the study. Students’ English proficiency mostly was at the pre-intermediate level.

Instruments To gather the data for the analysis, the writer employed a qualitative and quantitative research method. The instruments include questionnaires and reflective journals. 60 questionnaires consist of a variety of items regarding the students’ perspectives on the appropriateness towards a number of measures to test and assess speaking skills for students in the teaching process. The questionnaires were designed on a five-point Likert scale (including 5. strongly agree - 4. agree - 3. undecided - 2. disagree - 1. strongly disagree). A teaching project with the assistance of IT was also implemented in the course. After finishing the content of the course, students wrote an individual journal at the last course with the question “How do you assess the activities to test and assess speaking skills for non-English major students in the teaching process in comparison with the traditional teaching approach?”. After writing their opinions, they scored the effect of two approaches based on a 10-point scale.

Procedures In this 10-week English speaking skill course, the teacher applied both traditional approach and communicative one in two stages: the first stage for the first five weeks and the second stage for the next five weeks of the course. In the first stage, with the traditional teaching method, reading the materials to find out the ideas for the topics, presenting their speech in front of the class, getting comments and scoring from the teacher are the main activities of the subject. In the second stage, students were introduced communicative activities in the speaking learning process to suit the assessments given by the teacher. After finishing the course, the students were asked to write reflective journals about the learning experience and answer the questionnaires. In the course, the testing and assessment activities for the speaking process are involved as follows:

Assessing in pairs The time for speaking practice and speaking skill assessment for students is not much, so the teacher guided students on how to practice, asked students to prepare and check their work by themselves. To make use of classroom time, teachers asked students to practice in pairs and self-assess each other. However, for students to be capable of assessing each other's speaking skills, teachers set up specific criteria for each performance including ideas, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, intonation, stress, presentation style, etc. For each speaking task, students had an evaluation paper sheet with the given criteria to comment on their friend's speech by ticking the criteria in the form of passing or failing and even noting the mistakes their partner made when speaking if possible. Students then remarked on each other and re-practice if they had enough time. After students practiced and made their comments in pairs, the instructor asked students to present for the assessment from the whole class and the teacher as well. From this

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Evaluating in groups The teacher guided students to practice speaking skills in a group and assessed each group's speech through the criteria for speaking tasks required by the teacher. With this method, students felt confident in their speaking tasks because many students in the survey process admitted that they often felt unconfident in front of other students in the class when lecturers commented on their talks (accounting for 10%). As a result, teachers took advantage of the time to evaluate more students during the speaking time, and more importantly, all students in the class had a chance to participate in the speaking activities that teachers required. Students would be more aware of preparing speech, presentation to minimize errors to perform speaking activities most effectively.

Recording the content of speaking practice Teachers assigned speaking tasks to students and asked them to prepare their speech, practice speaking, and record their speech. With this assessment method, teachers requested students to submit audio recordings to evaluate and the teachers sent comments to students outside of class time. Thus, during class time, both teachers and students joined more speaking activities and students could also perform more speaking activities with different speaking contents and skill requirements. In addition, the teacher asked students to listen to the recording themselves and assessed their speaking progress by using the criteria paper sheet ( the rubric) given by the teacher or by the students themselves.

Communicating with people from English-speaking countries to assess students’ speaking skills Together with the explosion of modern technology and the proliferation of social networks, finding a native English-speaking friend is no longer an obstacle. Students made friends with a native speaker through Facebook or joined an online speaking class with a native teacher to practice speaking English daily. Then, students recorded the conversation for the teacher to assess. If students are exposed and communicate with native speakers regularly, they compare, contrast and detect mistakes to self-adjust and standardize their speaking ability.

Using Social networks to self-assess students' speaking skills in group To effectively use social networks in helping students develop their speaking ability, the teacher asked students to follow the following steps: Step 1: Create a common account on the forum for group members to participate in the forum. Step 2: The teacher spent a lot of time guiding students on how to comment by explaining the rules, providing students with clear criteria to evaluate their speech. Step 3: After the teacher provided the theory, topics and lectures, students were asked to submit their speech, discussions, dramatic stories, amusing anecdotes, films, video clips, role-plays that are related to the topics to the Facebook group 2 days before the submission deadline. Other students expressed their opinion through the “like” button and made comments about their partner’s work online based on the assessment criteria. For the first time, the implementation of direct speaking skills required the participation and direct instruction of the teacher so that the participants could become familiar with

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Findings and Discussion This section shows the attitude and perspectives of students and teachers towards using CA activities to assess speaking skills: (a). Benefits of using CA to assess teaching and learning speaking skills; (b). effectiveness of CA activities in enhancing communication competence; (c). challenges of applying CA in assessing speaking skills.

Benefits of using CA to assess teaching and learning speaking skills. According to the survey results during the implementation of the paper, up to 70% of students surveyed said that the evaluation of lecturers on speaking skills for students by using CA during class time was important. The rest believed that this assessment was extremely important in the process of learning the speaking skills of students. None of the students felt that the teacher's evaluation of speaking skills was unimportant or less important.

Table 2: Benefits of CA activities to assess speaking skills. No. Statements Min Max Mean STDEV 1 Providing “authentic”, “from-life” assessments 1 4 3.5 1.51 2 Enhancing communication skills 1 5 4 0.82 3 Developing critical thinking, 1 3 2.6 1.52 4 Modifying their skills to suit specific situations 1 3 2.4 0.84 5 Developing communicative reflection 2 5 3.5 1.08 6 Promoting students ‘self-regulation in situations 3 5 4 0.81 7 Arousing students’ contribution and cognitive engagement 2 4 2.9 1.32 8 More frequent connection to classmates 3 5 4.4 0.84 9 Boosting decision-making ability 1 3 1.8 1.03 10 enhancing their learning autonomy 2 4 3 0.81 11 Increasing interest 4 5 4.3 1.67 12 Improving pronunciation, phonetics, accents 1 4 2.9 1.1 13 More accurate assessment with the rubric 2 4 3.2 1.79 14 Creating an active and creative learning environment 1 4 3.5 1.51

There was a consensus among students that the assessment activities brought about “enhancing communicative skills”; “Increasing interest”; “promoting Students ‘self- regulation in situations” and “more frequent connection to classmates” with the highest mean value of 4 and more than 4. Most of the respondents strongly agreed with the significance of that assessment such as “Creating an active and creative learning environment”; “developing communicative reflection” and considered it as “authentic”, “from-life” assessments” with the mean value of 3.5. However, these opinions were different among the students with a stdev of more than 1.0. In terms of accuracy, the participants indicated the high approval of the activities of the assessment, when mentioning the decision-making ability students could gain from the assessment, only a small number of them agreed.

Effectiveness of CA activities in enhancing communication competence With the activity of writing reflective journals after the course, students showed their experience by giving scores to the traditional approach and communicative one.

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Table 3. The comparison of CA speaking activities affect scores of teaching in the traditional approach and IT-assisted approach Effectiveness of CA speaking activities Number Mean Mode Stdev Traditional teaching approach 60 6.5 6 0.9 IT-assisted teaching approach 60 7 7 0.78 P-value 0.00

After giving their reflection, students scored RP– enhancing effects of teaching in the traditional approach and IT-assisted approach. It can be clearly seen in Table 3, the mean scores of the two approaches are 6.5 and 7 (out of 10) respectively. The Independent-samples T-test shows p-value 0.00 which is lower than 0.05. These values indicate that the difference between approaches is significant. It is clear that the methods of teaching speaking skills with and without using CA are different. In other words, the CA-assisted teaching approach is more preferable thanks to its effects.

Challenges in applying the CA approach in assessing speaking skills. When investigating the challenges of the assessment process, students had a chance to show the constraints they faced in speaking class. These things were expressed in the questionnaires and reflective journals. Most of the students had a high agreement that a large number of students, short teaching time at class and lack of technology devices in a class were the first obstacles because they had bad impacts on concentration, performance and connection among the students with the high mean value of 4.3, 4.4, and 4.4 respectively. Most of the English language classes of non-English major students at Hanoi Law University consist of around 30-35 students on average and sometimes the class size can be over 40 students each class (often for supplementary classes). With this class size, the amount of teaching time in class for transferring knowledge to students about grammar, vocabulary, or reading, listening, and writing skills for students can be relatively adequate, but for speaking skills, it is a hard job.

Table 4: Challenges in applying the CA approach in assessing speaking skill No. Statements Mean Stdev 1 Emphasis is given to linguistic competence 2.5 1.51 2 Too many students in a classroom 4.3 1.08 3 Short teaching time at class 4.4 1.03 4 Unawareness of importance of communication 3.2 1.51 5 Unsuitable curriculum 3 0.98 6 Lack of technology devices 4.4 1.21 7 Subjective assessment 3.2 1.2 8 The difference in student qualifications 3.5 0.98

Moreover, for speaking skills, teachers did not have enough time to follow each student's progress in practicing speaking skills in class. Therefore, the testing-evaluation of students’ speaking ability was also limited. In fact, a short time for speaking skills limited the students’ opportunity to develop their speaking skills and somewhat prevented students from carrying out speaking activities creatively. With this time duration, it is also difficult for teachers to help students practice speaking skills individually in a class of over 30 students. Therefore, assessing activity for speaking

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LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 23, No. 2, October 2020 skills of students will also be limited, affecting the effectiveness of students' speaking skills. The unsuitable curriculum is also one of the difficulties students admitted facing with a mean score of 3.0. According to the university's internal TOEIC test structure, students' speaking skills can only be tested and assessed through short text reading activities to check students' pronunciation, intonation and stress (Questions 1-2), the skill of presenting views through a speaking topic (Question 11) and answering questions related to the content of the topic (Questions 4-6). Therefore, in the process of teaching and learning English speaking skills, speaking activities under questions 1-2, 4-6, and 11 are focused more. Therefore, the speaking skills of students do not meet the requirements of the TOEIC international speaking test. In fact, the assessment of taking Toeic English courses for modules 1 and 2 in the new 4-year program is being conducted for Listening- Reading skills with the regular tests and one end-term exam in the form of multiple- choice. Clearly, assessing students' English-speaking skills is still being a big problem in teaching English for non-English-major students, which leaves students with subjective attitudes towards the subject and fails to recognize the importance of speaking skills, resulting in ineffective learning. The learners indicated that “difference in student qualifications” had a bad effect on the effectiveness of speaking activities. Thus, assessing the speaking performance of students in groups becomes more difficult. Most of the English language classes have different levels of proficiency among students because they come from the different majors of the law of the university, as well as from different provinces in the country. According to a survey conducted with 80 students studying Toeic English at university, up to 60% of students studied English for more than 10 years, 28% of them learned 7-8 years, but when asked about the ability of English, about 50% students said that they were at a poor level, 30% chose the level of a normal level of speaking competence, and only 20% of students thought that they were at a high level of speaking skill. The differences in student qualifications sometimes also affect the student's progress and mood as well as the teacher's choice of the teaching method. If the teacher teaches easy knowledge, it will not help the good students to be motivated and interested in the lessons and the situation will be similar to the poor students when the teachers teach knowledge requiring high levels of speaking skills.

Strategies for assessing speaking skill to enhance communication competence for students In the reflective journal, students proposed the corresponding assessment activities depending on the teaching approaches such as “asking students to take part in social activities using English as the main language and call for the participation from the other group or via social networks”. By using this assessment method, the teacher can base on how the speaking tasks are done through other students’ support to assess student’s speaking skills. Or “Having students engage in problems” is also a strategy helping students improve their communication competence. Through these situations, students give their ideas to solve the problems and teachers can evaluate through this. Another assessment method is creating competition on stage for students to show their ability through activities such as role-play, games, quizzes, etc.

Conclusions English speaking skill was added to the foreign language course of non-English major students at Hanoi Law University as a compulsory skill. English speaking skill is inevitable for students if they desire to obtain a degree before graduation. This

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LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 23, No. 2, October 2020 encourages students to have positive attitudes and motivations to practice speaking skills as frequently as possible. Whether students can speak English well or not depends much on their starting points, English knowledge, and especially their social skills. A number of test-measures really help improve speaking skills for non-foreign language students from the approach of communication Through the paper, the authors made some recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of assessing activities for students’ speaking skills, and provide the prompt supplementary measures to speaking skills tests: Firstly, before each new course, the university should organize an English test to check input quality for students with the purpose of not only classifying them according to their capacity and conditions but also facilitating the teaching and learning process of both lecturers and students. Secondly, supplying the form of speaking skills tests for students through regular tests and end-of- unit tests are necessary. The speaking test will take time, but speaking is a skill that requires students to meet the foreign language learning outcomes and is designed in accordance with the standard content in the general curriculum. Therefore, organizing tests is a mandatory stage to assess speaking skills for students. At the same time, the periodic assessment set out for students also creates pressure and motivation for students to improve their own speaking ability. Thirdly, it is necessary to develop a specific rubric to evaluate students' speaking skills based on the TOEIC standard test that is being applied by the university. This helps teachers easily assess and detect students' strengths and weaknesses, and through specific criteria, students can assess their speaking ability before getting feedback from teachers. As a result, the teaching process of speaking for a big class still achieves the targeted objectives. Through this paper, the authors wish to help students find ways to improve their speaking skills. Besides, students can complete the subjects required in the learning program and meet the international English language proficiency standards.

References Allan, D. (1999). Testing and Assessment. English Teaching Professional, 11, 19-20. An, H., & Wilder, H. (2010). A bottom-up approach for implementing electronic portfolios in a teacher education program. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 26(3), 84–91. Brown, G. & Yule, G., (1983). Teaching the spoken language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Brown, H. D. (1994). Teaching by principles- an interactive approach to language pedagogy. Prentice-Hall Regents. Carless, D. (2007). Learning-oriented assessment: Conceptual bases and practical implications. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 44(1), 57-66. Chaney, A. (1998). Teaching oral communication in grades k-8. USA: A Viacom Company. Cowie, B., & Bell, B. (1999). A model of formative assessment in science education. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy, & Practice, 6(1), 101-116. Cord, B., Bowrey, G., & Clements, M. (2010). Accounting students’ reflections on a regional internship program. Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal, 4(3), 47–64. Cord, B. A., & Clements, M. (2010). Pathway for student self-development: A learning orientated internship approach. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 50(2), 287– 307. Darling-Hammond, L. (1988). Accountability and teacher professionalism. American Educator, 12, 8–13.

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Dean, B. A., Sykes, C., Agostinho, S., & Clements, M. (2012). Reflective assessment in work-integrated learning: To structure or not to structure, that was our question. Asia Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 13(2), 103–113. Edgar, S., Francis-Coad, J., & Connaughton, J. (2012). Undergraduate reflective journaling in work-integrated learning: Is it relevant to professional practice?. Asia- Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 14(3), 147–156. Graue, M. E. (1993). Integrating theory and practice through instructional assessment. Educational Assessment, 1, 293–309 Harvey, M., Coulson, D., Mackaway, J., & Winchester-Seeto, T. (2010). Aligning reflection in the cooperative education curriculum. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 11(3), 137–152. Hughes, K., Mylonas, A., & Benckendorff, P. (2013). Students’ reflections on industry placement: Comparing four undergraduate work-integrated learning streams. Asia- Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 14(4), 265–279. Larsen-Freeman, D. 1991. ‘Research on language teaching methodologies: A review of the past and an agenda for the future’ in K. de Bot, R. Ginsberg, and C. Kramsch (eds.). Foreign Language Research in Cross-Cultural Perspective, 119–32. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Co. _ Madaus, G. F., West, M. M., Harmon, M. C., Lomax, R. G., & Viator, K. A. (1992). The influence of testing on teaching Math and Science in grades 4–12. Chestnut Hill, MA: Center of Study of Testing, Evaluation, and Educational Policy, Boston College. Nunan, D. (1999). Second language teaching and learning. Boston: Heinle & Heilne Ogilvie, A., & Douglas, K. (2007). Online role plays and the virtual placement: Aiding reflection in work-integrated learning. In: R. J. Atkinson, C. McBeath, S. K. A. Soong & C Cheers (Eds.), ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning, (pp. 780–785). Singapore: Centre for Educational Development. Thompson, P. W. (1995). Notation, convention, and quantity in elementary mathematics. In J. T. Sowder & B. P. Schappelle (Eds.), Providing a foundation for teaching mathematics in the middle grades (pp. 199–221). New York: State University of New York Press. Thorndike, E. L. (1922). The psychology of arithmetic. New York: Macmillan. Tunstall, P., & Gipps, C. (1996). Teacher feedback to young children in formative assessment: A typology. British Educational Research Journal, 22, 389–404. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Whitford, B. L., & Jones, K. (2000). Kentucky lesson: How high stakes school accountability undermines a performance-based curriculum vision. In B. L. Whitford & K. Jones (Eds.), Accountability, assessment, and teacher commitment: Lessons from Kentucky’s reform efforts. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Woodley, C. & Beattie, S. (2011). Communal reflections on the workplace: Locating learning for the legal professional. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 12(1), 19–30.

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

LEARNERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE USE OF INDONESIAN (L1) IN THE ENGLISH (L2) INTENSIVE COURSE: IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLANGUAGING PEDAGOGY

Gregoria Dian Puspitasari1 and *Mateus Yumarnamto2 Universitas Katolik Widya Mandala, Surabaya, Indonesia [email protected] and [email protected] *correspondence: [email protected] DOI: 10.24071/llt.v23i2.2574 received 2 May 2020; accepted 25 June 2020

Abstract This study explores the use of Indonesian (L1) in an English class at an undergraduate program in a university in East Java, Indonesia. The English class was called Intensive Course (IC). In the class the students were expected to learn general English so that they could have the required competence to become English teachers. The students who passed the course in 2018-2019 (50 students) were asked to complete a questionnaire. Follow up interviews were conducted to four selected students representing positive and negative perceptions on the use of Indonesian. The findings of this study shows that L1 could be a potential resource to learn English but when the L1 was overused in the classroom, the learning opportunities and exposure to the target language diminished, limiting their learning opportunities and bringing about negative perceptions of the students. Implications from the findings are discussed in relation to translanguaging as pedagogy.

Keywords: translanguaging, L1, L2, EFL, Indonesian, bilingualism

Introduction The use of mother tongue (L1) in English (L2) language teaching is currently often framed in terms of translanguaging (García & Wei, 2014), which considers that the linguistic repertoires of both L1 and L2 are resources to bilingual competence. In this lens, the use of L1 in an L2 course is positive as it will help learners’ master the L2. While it is considered positive and can be empowering, the use of L1 in an L2 classroom is not without controversy. In fact, the perceptions of the L1 use in the classroom have been changing overtime. In the Grammar Translation Method (GTM) tradition, the use of L1 is common as it facilitates learning the target language (L2) because learners can compare and contrast the properties of L1 and L2 (Sapargul & Sartor, 2010). Various methods and techniques in English language teaching afterwards have criticized GTM as it is viewed to be too teacher-centered and to involve too much use of L1—depriving the use of L2 for real communication purposes. Opposing GTM, the Audiolingual Approach, for example, considered the use of L1 in the classroom as guilty as a sin and the proponents encourage the learners to practice the L2 as closely as possible to get rid of the foreign accents and

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to avoid fossilized errors. As Celce-Murcia (1991) explained, teachers who applied Audiolingual method should correct all errors, which “were the results of interference from the first language” (p. 460). Less strictly, the communicative language teaching (CLT) also encourages the use of the L2 as much as possible in the classroom and limiting the use of L1 to a minimum because learners need comprehensible inputs to be proficient language users (Krashen, 1989a, 1989b; Krashen, Long, & Scarcella, 1979; Oxford, Lavine, & Crookall, 1989). Recent discussions, however, support the use of L1 as a resource for translanguaging and developing bilingualism. The debate about the use of L1 in English classes continues and each camp has their own arguments on their positions about the use of L2 in English classroom (Almoayidi, 2018; Carson & Kashihara, 2012; Debreli, 2016; Shabir, 2017; Yavuz, 2012). In shorts, other than GTM, most English language teaching methods are against the use of L1 and encourage the use of L2 (García & Wei, 2014). In their own words, Garcia and Wei suggested that, “all methods advocated against the use of translation and encouraged only the use of the ‘target’ language which was deemed as ‘foreign’. (p. 53). Prior to Garcia and Wei’s notion of translanguaging, the use of L1 in L2 classrooms has various purposes, from instructional ones such as providing translations, explaining grammatical features, and correcting errors, to classroom management such as disciplining the students and clarifying tasks (Atkinson, 1987; Harrod, 1992; Shin, Dixon, & Choi, 2019). These functions are especially useful for L2 learners at the beginning levels where their mastery of the L2 is still limited. In short, the L1 has an important facilitating roles in foreign language classrooms (Schweers, 1999). Considering the current debate related to the use of L1, we explore students’ perceptions on the use of Indonesian (L1) at English Intensive Course (IC) in an English teacher Education program at a private university in Indonesia. The main question central to this study is the perceptions of the students in the use of Indonesian (L1) in IC classes. The results of this study are expected to fill the gap of knowledge about how the students perceive the use of L1 in English classroom in Indonesia’s contexts.

Literature Review Even though the use of the first language is perceived to be useful, the overuse of it can prevent effective learning of L2 as suggested by Atkinson (1987, p. 246). He outlined four disadvantages of the overuse of L1 in L2 classroom setting: (1) over-reliance on translation, (2) the use of crude word-byword translation, (3) avoiding the use of L2, (4) failure to realize the crucial use of L2 in the classroom. In this view, L2 should be used dominantly in the classroom, providing meaningful input to the students (Meyer, 2008). The views that L1 use in the L2 classroom may hinder effective learning can be trace back from the idea that learning L2 is the same as learning L1 as reflected in the Audiolingual Approach and the early conception of communicative language teaching (Oxford et al., 1989; Rodgers, 2001). In order to provide meaningful input of the L2, the L1 should be avoided because the interference of L1 can be the source of errors (Krashen, 1989a) . In the contexts of Indonesia, where English is taught as a foreign language, the use of Indonesian and other indigenous languages (L1) in English classroom is pervasive, reflecting a controversial perspective about the use of L1 in L2 classes

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(Almoayidi, 2018). As seen from the perspective of translanguaging, the use of L1 can be beneficial as it encourages more engagement to classroom activities. This is especially useful for students who are at the beginning level. As Lie (2007) noted, the use of Indonesian also helps many English teachers, who barely speak the language, prepare the students for English tests. The ideal situation as expected by the current national curriculum, however, is that English teachers speak L2 as much as possible so that the students can gain the communicative competence to use the language for various purposes (Agustien, 2004). In fact, the situation is similar to that of many other countries where English is taught as a foreign language. In the contexts of English taught as a foreign language, the students may have limited opportunity to use English outside the classroom. Consequently, the use of English in the classroom should be maximized (Polio & Duff, 1994). In this debate, the division is clear. One camp goes for the use of L1 as it is considered as a resource for L2 mastery. The other camp goes against the use of L1 as it is considered as a hindrance to the L2 mastery. In the backdrop of the debate, various studies have been documented. In Kuwait, English teachers perceived negatively the use of L2 in English classroom (Alrabah, Wu, Alotaibi, & Aldaihani, 2015). In Japan, as reported by Bartlett (2017), the use of L1 in English classrooms was discouraged, but the students perceived the benefits of bilingualism in English classroom. Similarly in China, most students preferred bilingual in English classroom (Wang, 2016). The situations in Kuwait, Japan, and China are similar to that in Indonesia. As a foreign language, English is taught at primary level as an optional content, and taught as a compulsory subject from junior high school to senior high school and to university as mandated in the national Indonesian curriculum (Lauder, 2008; Mistar, 2005; Nababan, 1991). This policy is aimed at enhancing students’ competence in English as language of science and technology and as a means of international communication. Similarly, while L1 use in English classroom is discouraged, the use of Indonesian is pervasive, supported by the arguments that L1 is the resource and the law also mandated the use of Indonesian as classroom language in public school. As discussed earlier in the introduction, the two extreme positions, the proponents of the L1 use and the proponents of L2-only have marked the development of foreign language teaching. The middle grounds, where both languages are valued and used to facilitate learning, have become the bridge on the gap. In the context where teachers can speak with the learners in the L1 and L2, the advantages of using L1 as drawn by (Atkinson, 1987; Harrod, 1992) are clear. L1 can facilitate communication, the relationship between teacher and students, and facilitate L2 learning. This early conception of bilingual education, however, is not considered translanguaging pedagogy as the practices are based on the perspective of using two or more linguistics systems stored in different parts of the brains. Current practices of bilingualism and plurilingualism are mostly based on the idea of translanguaging and translingual pedagogy as suggested by (García & Wei, 2014). The main idea of translanguaging in the classroom is that the learners can freely access all the linguistic repertoires to enhance the learning of the L2 and to create supportive environment for learning (Canagarajah, 2011; García & Wei, 2014). Doing translanguaging, English learners can select linguistic features of their

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L1 to communicate effectively so that learning can take place better in the classroom. In this perspective, learning L2 will be facilitated with the use of L1 in the classroom as it can help learners to reduce their anxiety and to enhance their engagement in the classroom (Bartlett, 2017; Debreli, 2016; Shabir, 2017; Yildiz & Yesilyurt, 2016). The question, however, is whether the practices of bilingual or multilingual education can be transferred into the contexts of Indonesia—where English is considered as a foreign language. Can we say when an English teacher used indigenous language in the classroom to teach English and to help students understand the lesson better the translanguaging pedagogy? In this paper we would like to embrace Canagarajah’s (2011) assertion that translanguaging does not only involve shared repertoires of different languages but also shuttle from one language to another in negotiating meaning. In this way, the practice of ELT in Indonesia, which may not always be in bilingual contexts, can be understood from the lens of translanguaging pedagogy (Cenoz, 2017a, 2017b; García & Otheguy, 2019; Otheguy, García, & Reid, 2019; Wang, 2016). To summarize, the practice of teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesian context can be considered as translanguaging when the goal is for the students to be proficient in the L2 and L1 and they make use of both the linguistics repertoires as an integrated system to advance their acquisition of L2.

Methods The participants of this study (N=50) were students who had taken IC in the academic year of 2018/2019, which were grouped in three classes. There were 13 male students and 37 female students. The students belonged to the first semester when they had their IC classes. Their English proficiency at the beginning of the semester varied as they came from different areas in Indonesia. Some of them had already good English and they were comfortable speaking in the target language. However, many students, especially from rural areas were still in their beginning level and they were not comfortable speaking and writing in English. IC was a 12-credit course offered to new students enrolling to the English education study program. As they would be trained to become English teachers, they need to master English well. This 12-credit course provided the basic training on English language proficiency development. The course was designed as an integrative course, integrating all the language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and components (grammar and vocabulary) in each meeting. The course consisted of two main sections, the regular classes to developed English proficiency and three interest groups (drama, public speaking, and storytelling) for the students to practice and use spoken English in a more meaningful ways. The classes for those sections were small classes and there were three classes for the batch of 2018/2019. There were seven instructors who taught the three IC classes as a teaching team. All the instructors were non-native speakers of English. However, they were highly qualified in teaching English. Their experience in teaching English varied, from 5 years to 20 years. As competent English teachers, they were comfortable speaking and writing in English for various purposes. They held EFL teacher licenses and they were graduated from English education program from various universities, both domestic and overseas universities.

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As the regulation of the English education department, the classroom language was English and all instructors were encouraged to use English all the times. However, the use of L1 did occur in the classroom as the dynamic and needs of the students varied. The use of Indonesian (L1) was justified as far as it helped the students and the decisions on how much the L1 could be used were left to the instructors. To get the data of the students’ perceptions on the use of L1 in IC classes, we used questionnaire adapted from Permatasari (2014). The questionnaire consists of four sections: (1) statements related to the use of Indonesian in IC classes, (2) statements related to the use of English in IC classes, (3) statements related to the use of Indonesian as a pedagogical tool to facilitate learning, (4) one open-ended question asking for opinions about the use of Indonesian in IC classes. The questionnaire required the participants to indicate their agreement to each statement in a four-level scale: strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. The participants’ responses were recorded, tallied, and summarized in terms of number of occurrences and percentage. Follow up interviews were conducted to four participants who were selected based on their responses on the survey. Two students were selected to represent those who answered positively on the use of L1 and the other two students were selected to represent those who answered negatively to the use of L1. They were Anna, Barbara, Connie, and Diana (pseudonyms). Two participants (Anna and Barbara) indicated strong preferences in the use of L2 in IC class while Connie and Diana preferred more L1 in in the class. They were asked about the use of Indonesian in IC classes and the reasons behind their answers.

Findings and Discussion There are two sections related to findings and discussion. The first section presents the results of the questionnaire and the second section reports the follow up interviews of the respondents.

Students’ Perceptions as Reflected on the Questionnaire’s Responses The results of the questionnaire are presented in Table 1, 2, 3, and 4. The first three tables reflect the three sections requiring the participants to rate their agreement to each statement. Table 1 shows the participants’ perceptions on the use of Indonesian as resources for learning and Table 2 shows their perceptions on the use of Indonesian as hindrances. Meanwhile, Table 3 shows their perceptions on the roles of Indonesian in the IC classes. Finally, Table 4 presents the summary of the students’ responses to the open-ended question.

Table 1. Students’ Perceptions on the use of Indonesian in the classroom (N=50) Strongly Strongly Disagree Agree NO The Items Disagree Agree n % n % n % n % Positive Statements related to the use of Indonesian 1 I felt more comfortable to learn the materials given 3 6% 13 26% 27 54% 7 14% when the lecturers used

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Strongly Strongly Disagree Agree NO The Items Disagree Agree n % n % n % n % Indonesian during the learning process of IC.

2 I felt more secure when the lecturers used Indonesian in expressing 2 4% 4 8% 33 66% 11 22% a complicated idea during the learning process of IC. 3 I had better understanding when the lecturers 5 10% 7 14% 24 48% 14 28% translated new words into Indonesian. 4 I had better understanding when the lecturers used Indonesian to explain the 1 2% 5 10% 29 58% 15 30% English grammar or structure. 5 Indonesian could help me to express my feeling and 2 4% 7 14% 23 46% 18 36% ideas that I could not express in English. 6 I needed an explanation of the differences between Indonesia and 3 6% 10 20% 29 58% 8 16% English grammar by the lecturers in Indonesian. 7 When the lecturers used Indonesian, I could 2 4% 10 20% 22 44% 16 32% understand the materials better. 8 I felt more comfortable when the lecturers used Indonesian in order to 3 6% 14 28% 24 48% 9 18% improve lecturer-student interaction.

Negative statements related to the use of Indonesian 9 When the lecturers used Indonesian, it reduced my 4 8% 15 30% 21 42% 10 20% chance of hearing and using English. 10 The more I used Indonesian in the class I became more reluctant to 9 18% 9 18% 24 48% 8 16% speak in English even though I could.

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Strongly Strongly Disagree Agree NO The Items Disagree Agree n % n % n % n % 11 Using Indonesian in the IC class made me underestimate the 8 16% 18 36% 17 34% 7 14% importance of using English.

On positive statements, overall the participants agreed and strongly agreed to all the eight statements related to the use of Indonesian in IC classes. The proportion for each statement, however, varied. More participants (34%, 17) disagreed to the use of Indonesian to improve lecturer-student interaction (see item 8, on Table 1). The second biggest (32%, 14) disagreement to the statement can also be seen on item number 1 “I felt more comfortable to learn the materials given when the lecturers used Indonesian during the learning process of IC.” On the three negative statements (item number 9, 10, and 11 on Table 1), bigger portions of the participants disagreed and strongly disagreed to the statements, indicating their perceptions that the use of Indonesian did not hinder their use of English (L2).

Table 2. Students’ Perceptions on the use of English in the IC Classes (N=50) Strongly Strongly Disagree Agree No The Items Disagree Agree n % n % n % n % 1 I had better understanding when the lecturers explained using synonyms 2 4% 11 22% 24 48% 13 26% or antonyms for new words in English. 2 When the lecturers used English all the time, I 2 4% 15 30% 21 42% 12 24% participated better in the classroom. 4 When the lecturers used “English-only” in the class, 1 2% 3 6% 21 42% 25 50% it would challenge me to improve my English skills. 5 I preferred the lecturers to use “English-only” in the 1 2% 11 22% 26 52% 11 22% class, so I could improve my English proficiency. 6 I preferred using English in the class even though I could not speak English 1 2% 8 16% 20 40% 21 42% fluently; so I could improve the mastery of English.

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It is interesting that Table 2 shows the participants also indicate positive attitudes towards the use of English in the classroom. It seems that the use of Indonesian (see Table 1) and the use of English (see Table 2) were not contradictory situations. They perceived positively the use of Indonesian and they also appreciate and challenged by the use of English in IC classes. It is interesting to note, however, that a bigger portion of disagreement (agree and strongly disagree) on statement number 2 (Table 2) “When the lecturers used English all the time, I participated better in the classroom.” This may indicate that some students may be discouraged to participate better in the classroom because the use of English all the time. For some students, especially those at the beginning level, speaking English all the time could be a great challenge. Table 3. The Students’ Perceptions on Indonesian as a Learning Tool (N=50) Strongly Strongly Disagree Agree NO The Items Disagree Agree n % n % n % n % 1 Using Indonesian in IC class could help me 3 6% 8 16% 26 52% 13 26% learning the materials. 2 Indonesian could be used when talking about difficult 2 4% 2 4% 33 66% 13 26% concepts or ideas during IC class. 3 Using Indonesian could help me improve my 3 6% 14 28% 28 56% 5 10% English proficiency. 4 Using Indonesian could improve the class 4 8% 11 22% 26 52% 9 18% atmosphere.

The perceptions that Indonesian could facilitate the process of teaching and learning in IC classes are generally positive as shown in Table 3. Although Indonesian could also improve the class atmosphere, the number of participants showing disagreement (disagree and strongly disagree) is bigger compared to other items in Table 3. For some participants, the use of Indonesian may not improve the atmosphere to learn English. Table 4. Opinions about the Use of Indonesian in IC Classes (N=50) Question Response What do you think about  8% (4) did not respond to this question. the use of Indonesian in  56% (28) of the respondents gave positive IC class? Please explain opinions about the use of Indonesian in IC briefly! classes. They stated that it was helpful to get the main idea of the materials, new words or phrases that were difficult to understand, to explain the English grammar. Especially, it was

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helpful for students who still had low proficiency in English.  18% (9) of the respondents stated that the use of Indonesian could help them learning English. However, it was better if the lecturers and students use English as much as possible so that they could get more exposure to English.  6% (3) of the respondents stated that it could be better if the lecturers used mixed language so that more students understood what the lecturers wanted to say or to explain.  12% (6) of the respondents gave negative opinions on the use of Indonesian in IC classes. They stated that the use of Indonesian was less effective because it did not improve their English skills, especially listening and speaking skill.

Students’ Perceptions as Reflected on the Follow up Interviews The follow-up interviews were conducted to four participants. Four main questions were asked related to the use of Indonesian in IC class. The results, as seen in Table 5, in general confirm the results of the perception survey. They do not have objections to the use of Indonesian in class but for Anne and Barbara, who described themselves as having good English and having no difficulties in IC class, English was preferred. On the other hand, for Connie and Diana, who described themselves as having difficulties in the IC class and they were not fluent in English yet, the use of both, Indonesian and English could help them in the classroom. Table 5. Students’ Opinions on the Use of Indonesian in IC Class (N=4) Questions Answers Did you use Indonesian  Not really. I usually used English and Indonesian at in IC class? the same time. When I talked to the lecturers, I used English. However, when I talked to my friends, I mixed the language. I tried my best to speak in English more often than speak in Indonesian during the IC class (Anne).  Yes, I did. I usually used Indonesian when I was talking with my friends. However, I used English when I was talking with my lecturers (Barbara).  Sometimes I used Indonesian. In the beginning of the semester, I used Indonesian to ask some questions. As time passed by, I tried to communicate in English with my friends and lecturers (Connie).  Mostly, I used it when I talked to my friends. However, I rarely used it to the lecturers. I only used it when I could not explain words or phrases in English (Diana).

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Questions Answers In the IC class, did you  Mostly, I did not need it. However, when I did not need more explanation understand it, I asked the lecturers using English using Indonesian to (Anne). explain complex ideas?  From my experience in IC last time, I did not need it. I could understand the explanation without being repeated in Indonesian (Barbara).  Yes, I did. It was because I was still a beginner in learning English. I did not know much about English vocabulary. It would be hard for me to understand when there was something complicated, for example complicated ide. Sometimes some lecturers were willing to repeat the explanation in Indonesian. So, it helped me to understand (Connie).  Yes, I needed it. Since English is not my mother language, so I needed Indonesian to understand their better (Diana). Did you need more  No, I did need it too. Sometimes, some lecturers explanation using realized that most of the students did not get the Indonesian when the explanation then, they were willing to repeat the lecturers explained the explanation in Bahasa Indonesia, and so it would English grammar or be easier to understand. Otherwise, some students structure? would just ask their friends (Anne).  No, I did not need it too. The lecturers would repeat the explanation in order to make the students understand what they were explained about and they wanted us to be more familiar with English. However, if we still did not get their explanation, we would ask our friends to explain it again using Indonesian (Barbara).  Yes, I needed it. If I did not understand well, it would become interference or me to understand the further material (Connie).  Not always. Sometimes, I just needed it when I got confused with lecturers’ explanation (Diana). In general, what do you  I think both are fine for me. But Indonesian can think about the use of become a barrier for me. In my opinion, to be able Indonesian in IC class? to speak in English fluently, we need to use and speak English more often. It would help me improve my speaking and listening skill (Anne).  I liked “English-only” more. It was because it would practice me to use and hear English more often, so I could get out from my comfort zone (Barbara).  I like English-only better. It made me more motivated and got used to English vocabulary (Connie).  I liked mixed language better. I liked it better than English only because I am still not fluent in English (Diana).

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While the students’ opinions indicate some contrasting ideas regarding the use of L1 in the classroom, in general L1 use was perceived positive as far as it did not overuse. With this perspective, we can draw the following important points:

1. For more advanced students or students who had already mastered L2 in some degree, L1 use in the classroom was perceived as not beneficial as they wanted more exposure of L2 from the teachers and from their friends. 2. For weak students or students with novice level of L2, the use of L1 was perceived beneficial to speed up their learning progress.

In fact the two points regarding the use of L1 and L2 are in line with the previous studies in which L1 is used to facilitate learning, especially at the early level of L2. This especially true in the contexts where the L2 is not widely used in daily activities such as in Indonesia.

Discussion The findings show that both the use of Indonesian and English in the IC classes was perceived positive by the students and it could facilitate their learning. The use of L1, however, will facilitate those who were in the initial stage of the L2 competence. These findings support the current literature on the use of L1 in L2 classroom (Bartlett, 2017; Debreli, 2016; Shabir, 2017; Yildiz & Yesilyurt, 2016). The perceptions of the students who took the IC class implied the important of L1 for the beginning learners to engage and to accelerate their L2 learning. The questions “how much L1 are allowed to be used in the classroom to facilitate maximum learning,” however, still persists and it is not easily answered based on the students’ perceptions (Campa & Nassaji, 2009). The lesson from the students’ perceptions on this matter can be drawn at least in two aspects: (1) the use of L1 should not be avoided or discouraged to enhance students engagement and the linguistics repertoire integration, (2) the gradual increase in the use of the L2 in line with the students’ progress. The fact that the IC lecturers were encouraged to use English most of the times might also influence the participants’ perceptions on the use of L1 as it was used as the last resort by the lecturers. This ideology, which is very close to the “English only” ideology, may not serve all the students well in terms of engagement and the expected progress in learning especially when the class members are of different levels of L2 proficiency. Those who started at the beginning level of English might not be able to catch up fast enough to succeed in the course. In fact, some of those disadvantaged students failed the IC class and they should repeat it the next semester to meet the minimum requirements to pass. As suggested by Atkinson (Atkinson, 1987), L1 can be a good resource of both teacher and learners to learn the target language but there is no method supporting this L1 use except the Grammar Translation. While the hegemonic ideology of the L2-only was pervasive as reflected in the students’ perceptions, the awareness of the function and double roles of the L1 as both facilitating language to learn a foreign language as well as an empowering tool for the disadvantaged groups of learners could bring about better learning environment for various groups of students. These findings support the idea of moderate translanguaging (Brevik & Rindal, 2020; Cenoz, 2017a, 2017b), in which

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L1 and L2 are used as resources to facilitate learning and the use of both languages are encouraged to encourage bilingualism, with equal respect to both languages. The moderate translanguaging in this perspective assumes that in the contexts of learners, L1 is dominantly used in the society and L2 is used in specific communicative events such as ones in social media and in the internet. Translanguaging, as conceptualized by García and Wei (2014) is related to the use of all linguistics repertoires in one system, not in two separate linguistics systems. The final goal is not the mastery of L1 but the mastery of both L1 and L2—full bilingual learners. This conception of full translanguaging can be ideal in the contexts where English is taught as a second language and there are equal opportunities of using both L1 and L2 outside the class. However, in the contexts of Indonesia where English is taught as a foreign language, full translanguaging pedagogy may not be realistic as learners will not have equal opportunities to use both languages in and outside the classroom. In this way, the moderate translanguaging with its transformative power for enhancing both local and global identity can be practiced in the classroom to create better learning environment and to empower disadvantaged group in the classroom. The transformative power of moderate translanguaging as discussed above can be seen from the difference between the goals of translanguaging and the traditional foreign language pedagogy. The differences can be captured in two folds. The first one is the importance of L1 for the learners and the second one is the learners’ identity transformation. In the traditional L2 pedagogy, the goal of L2 learning is the mastery of the target language, ignoring the importance of L1. It does not matter if the learners, then, have negative attitudes towards L1, considering it as inferior language. The translanguaging movement, however, see learning L2 is for the mastery of L1 and L2, a movement towards bilingualism or multilingualism. The attitudes enhanced in translanguaging practices are appreciating all languages as equal, deconstructing the very foundation of the colonized mind of the learners (Bhabha, 1994)—creating the third space or contact zone for transformative experiences (Yumarnamto, 2017). In this way, the conception of translanguaging in the contexts of English taught as a foreign language can be understood as creating the third space for learners. Moderate translanguaging practices, then, will allow L1 in the classroom to help disadvantaged groups of students to progress in their L2 mastery as well as to empower them by providing the third space for L2 learning. In the dominant ideology of L2-only pedagogy, the translanguaging practices can be “subversive” for teachers as they act out their agency to empower the powerless. The role of teachers, then, is expanded not only as a teacher facilitator but also as a teacher activist who pushes for empowerment and transformational changes on learners.

Conclusion The students’ perceptions on the use of L1 in English (L2) IC classes were generally positive on the use of both languages. For the majority of the respondents, Indonesian (L1) was helpful for them when they encounter difficult concepts about the L2 and it was very effective to introduce new vocabulary. The caveat, however, it was mostly needed for those who were at the beginning level of the L2, in which they still had difficulties in using the language to communicate. These findings are consistent with previous studies on the use of L1 in L2 classrooms (Almoayidi,

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2018; Alrabah et al., 2015; Bartlett, 2017; Bruen & Kelly, 2014; Öz & Karaazmak, 2019; Shabir, 2017; Shin et al., 2019; Yildiz & Yesilyurt, 2016). The students’ perceptions might also reflect the ideology in which English was taught as a foreign language. In the IC classes, the general policy was that L2 should be used at all times. The use of L1 should be limited. This perspective could be a reflection of the English policy in Indonesia. In Indonesia English is valued more and it provides a prestige for those who speak it (Lauder, 2008; Lowenberg, 1991; Mistar, 2005). Those who do not speak it well may be stigmatized at school such as experienced by Yumarnamto (2016, 2017) who was called as having a cassava tongue by his English teacher. The students’ perceptions on the use of L1 in IC classes, then, could shed light on the English teaching practices, which may not meet the demand of translingual pedagogy as described by (García & Wei, 2014). In the IC classes, L1 was used in limited conditions as the last resort by the instructors. It was not yet a conscious effort to include all the linguistic repertoires of Indonesian and English as one linguistic system. Therefore, the transformational values inherent in translingual pedagogy, the formation of bilingual identity and valuing both L1 and L2 equally might not take place effectively in the classroom. More importantly, in the contexts of English taught as a foreign language like in Indonesia, the moderate translanguaging pedagogy may fit to the learners need as the pedagogy could provide the third space for the disadvantaged group in the classroom to progress and empower.

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Otheguy, R., García, O., & Reid, W. (2019). A translanguaging view of the linguistic system of bilinguals. Applied Linguistics Review, 10(4), 625-651. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2018-0020 Oxford, R. L., Lavine, R. Z., & Crookall, D. (1989). Language learning strategies, the communicative approach, and their classroom implications. Foreign Language Annals, 22(1), 29-39. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944- 9720.1989.tb03139.x Öz, H., & Karaazmak, F. (2019). L2 learners’ perceptions of using L1 in EFL classrooms. SEFAD, (42), 213-222. doi: 10.21497/sefad.675180 Permatasari, R. R. (2014). Students’ perception toward the use of Indonesian in English learning classroom. (Bachelor), Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana (UKSW), Salatiga. Retrieved from http://repository.uksw.edu/handle/123456789/5402 Polio, C. G., & Duff, P. A. (1994). Teachers' language use in university foreign language classrooms: A qualitative analysis of English and target language alternation. The Modern Language Journal, 78(3), 313-326. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1994.tb02045.x Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Language teaching methodology. Eric Clearing House on Languages and Linguistics, September. Sapargul, D., & Sartor, V. (2010). The trans-cultural comparative literature method: Using grammar translation techniques effectively. English Teaching Forum, 3, 26-33. Schweers, C. W. (1999). Using L1 in the L2 classroom. English Teaching Forum, April-June, 6-13. Shabir, M. (2017). Student-teachers’ beliefs on the use of L1 in EFL Classroom: A global perspective. English Language Teaching, 10(4), 45. doi: 10.5539/elt.v10n4p45 Shin, J.-Y., Dixon, L. Q., & Choi, Y. (2019). An updated review on use of L1 in foreign language classrooms. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2019.1684928 Wang, D. (2016). Translanguaging in Chinese foreign language classrooms: Students and teachers’ attitudes and practices. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(2), 138-149. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1231773 Yavuz, F. (2012). The attitudes of English teachers about the use of L1 in the teaching of L2. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46, 4339-4344. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.251 Yildiz, M., & Yesilyurt, S. (2016). Use or avoid? The perceptions of prospective English teachers in Turkey about L1 use in English classes. English Language Teaching, 10(1), 84. https://doi.org/ 10.5539/elt.v10n1p84 Yumarnamto, M. (2016). Indonesian English language teachers’ professional growth and changing identities: An autoethnography and narrative inquiry. (Ph. D.), Indiana University, Bloomington. Yumarnamto, M. (2017). English language teaching in Indonesia: Imagined communities and identities in borderless world. Paper presented at the The 10th International Conference: Revisiting English Language Teaching, Literature, and Translation in Borderless World, Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia.

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

ENGLISH MEDIUM PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN NEPAL: A NEW LINGUISTIC MARKET IN EDUCATION

Mohan Singh Saud Kailali Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University, Nepal correspondence: [email protected] DOI: 10.24071/llt.v23i2.2571 received 1 May 2020; accepted 14 June 2020

Abstract This article is the result of the pilot study of my PhD research project. It explores the views of the school principal, teachers, ethnic students and ethnic parents regarding the need and use of English as a medium of instruction and the classroom practices of using English in a public school in Nepal. Nepal is a multilingual and multicultural country with diverse geo-biological landscape. However, public schools in Nepal have been adopting English medium instruction as a new linguistic market in education, challenging the mother tongue based multilingual education policy of the government. This paradigm shift from Nepali as a medium of instruction (NMI) to English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has raised controversy in the education system of Nepal. As this study found, there has been a growing demand of parents for EMI viewing English as a linguistic capital in the global socio-economic market and they have taken it as an economic investment in education. However, there seems a noticeable gap between the true spirit of EMI policy and actual classroom practice in public school education. Teachers were found to have been using bi-/trilingual language policy in the classroom neglecting the spirit of EMI. Public schools in Nepal need to adopt EMI only after wider discussion with all the stakeholders so that there could be well preparation with prerequisites for the effective implementation of EMI in the classroom contexts.

Keywords: Language attitudes, English medium instruction, public schools, linguistic market, paradigm shift, language ideology

Introduction The choice of language as a medium of instruction has been an issue of policy concern in the education system of a country. Generally, the national language becomes the medium of instruction in a country. However, even the international language can be the medium of instruction in the global context. Being an international language, English language has been enjoying preferences as the medium of instruction in the world, especially in “non-native English speaking countries” (Bradford, 2016, p.2). Due to the global spread of English, there has been a paradigm shift from teaching English as a foreign language to adopting

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English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in many non-native English speaking countries including Nepal. Public schools in Nepal have been adopting EMI as a new linguistic market in education in recent years. This trend is due to globalisation and socio-economic power of English language, viewing English as a linguistic capital (Bourdieu, 1993) for better “socioeconomic mobility” (Khubchandani, 1978, as cited in Bhattacharya, 2013, p.165) in the globalised socio-economic market. When the Constitution of Nepal (1990) followed the economic liberation policies (Phyak, 2016), private English medium schools have been mushroomed in Nepal. National Curriculum Framework (NCF, 2007) stated, “The medium of school level education can be in Nepali or English language or both of them” (p.34). Since then, public schools have been free to choose either English or Nepali language as medium of instruction in their schools. As a result, a large number of public schools have adopted EMI in Nepal since 2010 (Sah & Li, 2018). However, the shift from Nepali as a medium of instruction (NMI) to EMI has been a controversial issue in Nepal. The Constitution of Nepal (2015) clearly states that “Every Nepali community living in Nepal shall have the right to acquire education in its mother tongue, and the right to open and run schools and educational institutions as provided for by law” (Article 31, Clause 5). The constitution has recognised mother tongue based multilingual education (MTB- MLE) at school level. However, EMI has been adopted by private schools and this trend has been growing even in the government aided public schools. EMI has become a demanding phenomenon in public schools at present in Nepal and this issue is challenging the MTB-MLE policy of the government. Formalising in 1990 and implementing in 2007, Nepal has been following a ‘trilingual’ policy (learners’ first language, Nepali and English) at school level education as stated in School Sector Reform Plan (SSRP) report (2009). However, it has not been fully implemented until now. Most of the schools are adopting NMI from the early grades; some schools have fully adopted EMI while others both EMI and NMI. In this regard, Nepal’s language-in-education policy seems to be controversial. Written policy documents recommend using trilingual policy but most of the public schools are using bilingual policy, both Nepali and English. In fact, English has been used as a medium of instruction and as a subject around the world. EMI is “the use of the English language to teach academic subjects in countries or jurisdictions where the first language (L1) of the majority of the population is not English” (Dearden, 2014, p.2). Thus, EMI is teaching all the academic subjects in English rather than teaching the English language. Like in many non-native English speaking countries around the world, Nepal has been shifting the status from English as a subject to as a medium of instruction in public schools. Though Nepal is a multilingual country with diverse ethnic groups, EMI has become a demanding need in public schools all over the country due to the influence of neoliberalism in education. As a result, many public schools have adopted EMI in their schools to fulfill the needs and demands of the public and to address the “crisis in education”(Tollefson, 2014, p.1) that they have been facing.That crisis is the decrease of students in public schools. As Dearden (2014) reports, “there is more EMI in private than public education” (p.8) and the situation of Nepal is also the same. Almost all private schools have been

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conducting medium of instruction exclusively in English since the establishment of their schools, but just a few public schools have adopted EMI fully or partially and some are in the process of adopting it. EMI, therefore, has become a global issue and the area of interest to be researched especially in multilingual public school contexts of Nepal. Considering this context, this study explores the views of the school principal, teachers, ethnic students and ethnic parents regarding the need and use of EMI and the classroom practices of English in the multilingual classroom contexts in Nepal. To fulfil this objective, this study answers the following questions: 1. What are the perceptions of the head teacher, teachers, students and parents on the drivers for EMI? 2. How is EMI being practised in the multilingual classroom contexts?

Literature Review Under the literature review, I discuss a range of language related policy issues, empirical studies, and theoretical framework along with practical implications relevant to this study. I start with language policy and English education in Nepal followed by empirical and theoretical issues relevant to this study.

Language policy and English education in Nepal Nepal has been declared as the ‘Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal’ with seven provinces (The Constitution of Nepal, 2015). Despite its small geographical landscape, Nepal is a multilingual, multi-ethnic and multicultural country with 123 ethnic languages spoken as mother tongues by 125 ethnic groups as stated by Central Bureau of Statistics (2012). Nepal’s linguistic diversity can be seen with cultural diversity closely linked to biodiversity of the country. Nepali, with its official status, has been used as a lingua franca in Nepal used for communication among speakers of different ethnic groups in the country. The education policy of Nepal has been guided by political motives rather than academic needs and foundations from the very beginning of formal education. The formal education in Nepal began in English medium with the establishment of Durbar High School in 1854, to provide education only to the elite Rana families. Education became formally available to the public only after the establishment of democracy in 1951. Later, Nepal National Education Planning Commission (NNEPC, 1956) proposed Nepali, being the national language, as the medium of instruction in schools to strengthen the national integrity in the linguistically and culturally diverse country Nepal. All Round National Education Committee (ARNEC, 1962) and National Education System Plan (NESP, 1971) followed the same path. Moreover, NESP (1971) made the provision of both public (government-aided) and private schools. After the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal (1990) stated that “Each community shall have the right to operate schools up to the primary level in its own mother tongue for imparting education to its children” (Article 18, Clause 2). National Education Commission (NEC, 1992) reflected this spirit of the constitution. Thus, the post 1990 period moved towards pluralistic language policy (Weinberg, 2013) accepting multilingual education.

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As the literature shows, the development of English education in Nepal can be discussed in three phases: during the Rana regime (1846-1950/1), during the Panchayat system (1950/1-1990), and after the restoration of multiparty democracy (from 1990 onwards) (Awasthi, 2004, 2011; Giri, 2011; Phyak, 2011; Eagle, 2000; Sonntag, 1995, Weinberg, 2013). The Rana period was the period of opposition to education as only a few elites, especially the Rana families, received education. The Panchayat period followed the “one-nation-one-language ideology” (Phyak & Ojha, 2019, p.344) in the education system of Nepal. The Democratic period (1990-2007) was the period of multilingualism in education allowing mother tongues in schools. Political interest in each shift seems to be the sole cause in the revision of the education system in Nepal. However, in Federal Republic Nepal, the history of Nepal’s language policy, planning and practices can be divided into four periods: Rana period, Panchayat period, Democratic period and Republican period. The Republic Nepal, from 2007 with the introduction of the Interim Constitution of Nepal (2007) onwards, has now embraced the neoliberal language ideology in education allowing mother tongues, Nepali and English as mediums of instruction in schools as per the local needs and demands of the learners and parents. EMI in public schools is the result of this neoliberal language policy which has taken English language as a commodity or as capital. In this regard, School Sector Development Plan (SSDP, 2016-2023) mentions “most private schools use English as the medium of instruction and a number of community schools have also started using English as the medium” (p.29). Now, EMI has become a demanding phenomenon in the Nepalese public school education system. The adoption of neoliberal economic ideology after 1990 encouraged privatisation in education and in other sectors. English medium private schools started establishing throughout the country since then. These English-medium private schools have developed the ideology in people that teaching and learning through English medium brings so-called high quality in education. The Ministry of Education (MoE) has also encouraged the public schools to introduce English medium policy in their schools as stated in the document of NCF (2007) that I have mentioned above. NCF (2007) further mentions that the medium of education will generally be in mother tongue up to grade 3. Likewise, the Constitution of Nepal (2015) mentions, “Every Nepali community living in Nepal shall have the right to acquire education in its mother tongue” (Article 31, Clause 5), but in practice we see EMI from the elementary level in public schools. Thus, there seems a mismatch between policy and practice regarding the use of language education policy in Nepal. This is what Phyak (2016) calls “local-global tension in the ideological construction of English language education policy in Nepal” (p.199). SSRP (2009) asserts, “English will be taught as a subject from grade one onwards” (p.81). However, it mentions that the choice of medium of instruction in school can be determined by the SMC at the micro-level. This assertion encouraged the public schools to adopt EMI in their schools. Because of this policy, public schools in Nepal are adopting EMI to fulfil the demands of the parents and communities. Now, English is being taught as a foreign language from Grade one onwards as a compulsory subject. However, it is being used as a medium of education in

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private schools, and even in public schools. Giving power to the schools and communities through decentralisation, public schools are managed by School Management Committees (SMCs). “Any community (government) school can decide to change from Nepali to English as its medium of instruction” ( Ranabhat, Chiluwal, & Thompson, 2018, p.83). The right of deciding the language of instruction is with the CMC. Thus, the English language has been getting increasing space in the Nepalese education system from general social discourse to micro-level educational policies and practices due to the demands of the parents as social capital along with the influence of globalisation and neoliberalism in education. Though EMI has been a debatable topic in the Nepalese education system, it has been being adopted in public schools around the country.

Previous research on EMI As a review of the literature reveals, EMI is “a relatively new phenomenon” (Yildiz, Soruc, & Griffiths, 2017, p.388). Many developing countries have policies promoting EMI in schools. Though the spread of English is taken as “linguistic imperialism” (Phillipson, 1992), the demand for EMI has been seen throughout the world, including Europe (Aguilar, 2015; Dearden & Macaro, 2016), Africa (Viriri & Viriri, 2013) and Asia (Chapple, 2015; Lei & Hu, 2014). The British Council conducted a survey in 2014 involving 55 countries across the globe and discovered that 62% of these countries use EMI (Dearden, 2014). EMI originated from Europe in the late 1990s (Brown & Bradford, 2017) and now it has been a “growing global phenomenon” (Deardon, 2014, p.2) at present and has been growing rapidly in Asia (Walkinshaw, Fenton-Smith & Humphreys, 2017). Despite the fact that EMI is a new phenomenon, several studies have been conducted about the perceptions (Sorrell & Forlin, 2015; Al-Qahtani & Al Zumor, 2016; Nguyen, 2017), outcomes (Williams, 2014; James & Woodhead, 2014), challenges (Uwambayinema, 2013; Ibrahim, Shafaatu, & Yabo, 2017) and classroom practices (Annamalai, 2013; Nguyen, 2017) of EMI in various countries including Nepal. However, most of the studies have been carried out in higher education on EMI and EMI related issues (e.g. Vu & Burns, 2014; Hu & Lei, 2014; Huang, 2015). To take a few, Paulsrud’s (2016) study found that “EMI is offered for prestige, an international profile, marketing potential and personal interest”. Similarly, Wijayatunga (2018) found that teachers teaching in English medium in urban schools were enthusiastic but majority of them were not proficient enough in the language to teach in English. Regarding the use of EMI in Nepal, Sah and Li (2018) found that “parents, students, and teachers regarded EMI as a privileged form of linguistic capital for developing advanced English skills, enhancing educational achievements and access to higher education, and increasing the chance of upward social and economic mobility.” Similarly, Ojha’s (2018) study found that EMI has been adopted in public schools in Nepal without careful planning and the necessary preparation to make it a success. He further states that schools are shifting to EMI mostly because of demand and pressure from parents. Despite its extensive application around the world including Nepal, the EMI policy is still a debatable issue. In this regard, Saud (2019) views “EMI policy

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seems to be against linguistic and cultural diversity in multilingual English classrooms in Nepal” (p.78). Much research and reports on EMI show that “the use of English for delivering contents encounters various pedagogical challenges and difficulties” (Floris, 2014; Erling, Adinolfi & Hultgren, 2017; Ibrahim, Shafaatu, & Yabo, 2017; Simpson, 2017; Wijayatunga, 2018). While research into EMI is growing, only a few studies have been conducted in school education in Asia, particularly in Nepal. Therefore, this study explores the stakeholders’ perspectives and practices on the use of EMI in the multilingual school context.

Theoretical framework For this study, I have employed language attitudes, language ideology (Woolard & Schieffelin, 1994), linguistic capitalism (Bourdieu, 1993), diglossia (Ferguson, 1959), and English-medium paradigm (Schmidt-Unterberger, 2018) as the main theoretical frameworks for the analysis of information. Language attitudes are the feelings people have about their own language and the languages of others. Ryan and Giles (1982) define language attitudes as “any affective, cognitive or behavioural index of evaluative reactions toward different language varieties or speakers” (p.7). As Obiols (2002) writes, the study of language attitudes “can predict a given linguistic behaviour: the choice of a particular language in multilingual communities, language loyalty, language prestige...” (p.1). People’s attitudes show their behaviour towards a certain language. EMI is rooted in the ideology of monolingualism (Blommaert, 2006; Heller, 2007), “English as a global language” (Crystal, 2003) and “English as a lingua franca” (Seidlhofer, 2005) ideology and the ideology of neoliberalism in education. English language is taken as a capital to get jobs and other opportunities in the society with high prestige and social status. Diglossia is a situation in which high prestige language or language variety is used in certain situations like formal education and the low prestige language or language variety is used in community’s everyday communication – this is what Ricento (2000) calls “stable diglossia” (p.198 ). English medium paradigm “characterises the various instructional types in English-medium teaching contexts” (Schmidt- Unterberger, 2018, p.4). The theories I have discussed here are the theoretical lenses that guide the thematic findings. Moreover, English medium paradigm is guiding the study throughout this article.

Methods Study context This study employs a qualitative case study in a community school in Kailali district. The school from which I collected information is located in the Rana- Tharu community along with the emigrants coming from hilly and rural areas. It is a newly started EMI community school as it started English medium only in 2018 from grade one and in 2019 from grade nine. It has both NMI and EMI, charging a little amount of tuition fees from the English medium students in the name of aid from the community. The majority of the students are from Rana and Tharu speakers with only a few teachers of these backgrounds. However, Nepali is the dominant language of communication in school.

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Participants The participants of the study included eight subjects: the head teacher, one teacher each from Science, Social Studies and Accountancy, two students (one from Rana and Tharu ethnic group each), and two parents (one Rana, one Tharu). They were selected using purposive non-random sampling procedure. All teachers were from non-ethnic communities, speaking Nepali as their mother tongues. The head teacher, Science teacher and Social Studies teachers had experiences more than twenty years, but Accountancy teacher, who was a female, was a new teacher. The students had come from private English medium schools and the parents had children studying at grade one and two. The Rana parent was a primary level teacher while the Tharu parent was a labourer.

Data collection and analysis procedure The information was collected through semi-structured interviews with the principal, parents, teachers and students. Two classes were observed, one from grade two and one from grade nine, to see how EMI was actually practised in the classroom context. Interviews were taken once only and so were class observations. The data was audio-taped in Nepali and translated into English. Thematic analysis was adopted for analysing the information collected through interviews and class observation.

Results and Discussion After the transcription and analysis of the data, four themes have been emerged. The following section discusses these themes.

Parents’ need and demand for EMI Shifting to EMI in the public schools has become the need and demand of the parents as “a new linguistic market in education” (Rubagumya, 2010). The parents hold the belief that English education brings quality in education. “The belief in the value of English medium schools is so intense that students flock to them, despite the fact that most students are unable to learn effectively through English, with disastrous consequences for their education” (Tollefson, 2000, p.18). The belief in the value of English education is rooted in language ideology, which Fairclough (2001) defines as “common sense assumptions which are implicit in the conventions according to which people interact linguistically, and of which people are generally not consciously aware” (p.2). To be more specific, language ideology is a perspective, attitudes and beliefs about the language shared by members of a social group (Reisigl & Wodak, 2009). EMI in public schools is the result of neoliberal ideology in education.

Here is what the head teacher expressed:

We have started English medium due to the interests and demand of the parents, and the attraction of the students towards English language. We felt the desires of the community members as if there was English medium in community schools.

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As the head teacher expressed, the school started EMI due to the parents’ demands and the community’s needs. The school authority takes this shift in medium of instruction as the need of the time and the demand of the community. Almost all sorts of people from all backgrounds want to learn English as its acquisition can guarantee the availability of opportunities to employment, travelling, higher education, and even better life. Because of such perceptions of people, the demand for EMI increased and the public schools started to catch the sentiment of the community by adopting English medium. By understanding the community’s wish, the school started English medium education from the year 2018. People seem to have the strong preference toward English over the Nepali and other local languages, which Ricento (2000) describes as ‘stable diglossia’. English language seems to have high prestige, and Nepali, Tharu and Rana including other local languages have low prestige in the sense of Ferguson’s (1959) diglossia. The parents have positive attitudes towards English language so that they have demand for EMI in the public schools.

New linguistic market in public school education In fact, EMI has created a new linguistic market in Nepalese public school education because people take it as economic investment and English has been taken as a linguistic capital. As one of the parents’ said,

“Our children can get jobs in the future if they study English. So we want to teach them in English. This school has addressed our interest,” while another said, “If we teach our children by paying fees, even if it is low, in comparison to private schools, they will get jobs. So we want to teach in English medium.”

Therefore, the parents are ready to pay tuition fees even in public schools though public school education is free of charge. As the Social Studies teacher confessed:

The children of poor people can’t afford in private boarding schools paying expensive fee…it is not bad to teach children in public schools with low fee…Some materials are to be bought…teachers are to be recruited also… classes should be run differently…teachers are to be added some kind of facilities to teach in English medium. So it is not bad to take low fee just 500 in public schools. Private schools take much more.

Government has the policy that school level education is free and compulsory. However, English medium public schools are taking tuition fees from the students though it is low in comparison to private English medium schools, often known as boarding schools. When I asked the parent (Mr. Chaudhary), “Do you have to pay fee?”, he replied “Yes, but it is cheaper than boarding school”. The students also said that they had shifted from boarding school to community school due to low fees. When I asked why the school was taking fees as the government has the policy of providing free education up to

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secondary level, and it was against the government’s policy, the head teacher replied, “We have not taken fee as it is but we have taken it as grant”. It seems that public schools are doing business by taking fees from the students challenging the government policy of free education. “Some schools in the Kathmandu Valley and other parts of the country have been using both languages and charging fees even though school education is free under government-set rules” (Republica, 2016). The situation of Kathmandu and out of Kathmandu seems the same regarding taking charges in the government-aided community schools.

Parents’ priorities to English medium children The school where I visited for my pilot study of my PhD project has run NMI and EMI parallel classes within the same school. Some parents’ children are in Nepali medium classes while others’ in English medium. Parents give priorities to their children who are studying in English medium classes. The parents whose children have been admitted to Nepali medium do not come to drop and take their children, but those parents whose children are in English medium come to drop their children at school with tiffin and also come to take them when the school hour is over. According to the head teacher, “Students of Nepali medium come alone, students of English medium come with their parents and parents also come to take in the evening. Parents care more in English medium.” Actually, parents have discrimination over Nepali medium and English medium children. It is perhaps they have paid some amount of money as educational investment for English medium and they want to utilise it fully by making their children aware of education and taking care of them to make them competent in English. Both parents said that they come to drop and take their children after they admitted their children to English medium, but they did not do so in previous years while they are studying in Nepali medium classes. It seems that English language attitude has highly affected family dynamics. Not only the parents but also the community schools are creating two kinds of societies within the school, where students studying in English medium would think themselves superior and others would feel discriminated. Today, English is often taken as linguistic capital for future career and international access and for social mobility “achieving a higher social status in society” (Bourdieu, 1993). However, there is still a split between English medium and Nepali medium schools. As Reay (2006) claims, “social inequalities arising from social class have never been adequately addressed within schooling” (p.288). A wider socio- economic context on schooling to English medium creates what Savage (2003) calls “a new kind of class paradigm, recognising the mutual constitution of markets, classes and individuals” (p.535).

Bi/Trilingual practices in EMI classrooms There seems a contradiction between the spirit of EMI policy and classroom practice in public school education. EMI is framed more as a school requirement than a pedagogic model that teachers need to deliver contents in English. In practice, teachers mostly teach in Nepali with a limited use of English as a medium of instruction in the classroom. The teachers had difficulty in delivering the contents in English due to the lack of English language proficiency although

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they know the content well. In this regard, the Science teacher (Mr. Bhatta) expressed his views as Due to lack of proficiency, we are feeling difficulty in explaining subject matter, though we know the content. We are facing difficulty in making students understand due to lack of language proficiency. This is what I found when I observed the class of Accountancy teacher. She just read the content from the book written in English but she explained it in Nepali with only a few words in English. I feel that this school cannot be labelled as an EMI school because there is explanation in Nepali. It is a matter of discourse to be discussed and further research is necessary regarding how EMI should be implemented in the multilingual classroom. “While it is often not conceived as such, EMI is a form of multilingual education, as English is not usually the home language of students or teachers in such settings” (Erling, Adinolfi & Hultgren, 2017, p.20). Due to the lack of English language proficiency, EMI seems to be a burden for school teachers other than English. EMI is simply implemented in the classroom as in bilingual education. There seems a lack of clarity on language use in EMI classrooms. Mostly teachers are found to use Nepali in such classrooms. When I asked the Social Studies teacher (Mr. Nepali) whether he translates into the learners’ mother tongues or Nepali in Social Studies classes, he replied:

Generally we do not translate. Sometimes we have to translate in mother tongue. They become happy if we do so. For example, ‘feather’ means ‘pwankh’ in Nepali, but Tharu children do not understand if we say ‘pwankh’. Then we have to show in picture and they say ‘pakhana’ in their Tharu language. Then we say ‘feather’ means ‘pakhana’ and it is called ‘pwankh’ in Nepali. We have this kind of experience of teaching.

From the observation also, I found the same situation at early grades. The class teacher showed a picture and the children would say in their mother tongues. For example, when the teacher showed the picture of ‘cat’, one Rana child uttered ‘bilaiya’, while a child with Nepali mother tongue said “biralo”. Thus, there was the trilingual practice in learning. Tharu and Rana students did not understand Nepali clearly. Both students from grade nine said the same thing in interviews. They preferred English rather than Nepali as they were from boarding school backgrounds. There was the use of mother tongue (using Tharu/Rana language), Nepali and English in teaching and learning activities. From this fact, we can claim that EMI public schools have been following a ‘trilingual’ policy in education at school level education as stated in SSRP report (2009). Since all children in Nepal learn Nepali and English from grade 1 onwards, Nepal is implementing multilingual education (Taylor, 2010).

Conclusion This article is the result of the pilot study of my PhD research project. I have examined the views of the school principal, teachers, ethnic students and ethnic parents regarding the need and use of EMI, and observed the classroom practice in this study. Nepal is a multilingual and multicultural country with diverse geo- biological landscape. However, public schools in Nepal have been adopting EMI

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as a new linguistic market in education, taking fees from the parents even though it is low. This paradigm shift from NMI to EMI has raised controversy in the education system of Nepal. As this study found, there has been a growing demand from parents for EMI seeing English as a capital in the global socio-economic market and they have taken it as economic investment in education. There seems a noticeable gap between the true spirit of EMI policy and actual classroom practice in public school education. Teachers were found to have been using bi-/trilingual language policy in the classroom neglecting the spirit of EMI. English medium education has become a new linguistic market in public school education in Nepal. The community and the stakeholders have taken English education as new form of cultural and linguistic capital for better opportunities and high standard habitus in the society. As a result, English medium education has become a “discourse of linguistic capital” (Silver, 2005) in the community. Many parents in Nepal are dissatisfied with the public education system, seeing that students cannot speak English even after passing SEE and the results of SEE in Nepali medium public schools is very low. Therefore, many public schools are now adopting EMI, claiming that it is the demand and need of the community. Almost all the participants in the interviews declared that EMI brings quality in education. The neoliberal ideology of language provided public schools with space to adopt EMI policy even though this policy is contradictory to government’s MTB-MLE policy. Public schools in Nepal have been increasing community involvement with the education system to some extent, valuing local needs and demands more relevant to the community. However, they need to adopt EMI only after wider discussion with all the stakeholders so that there could be well preparation with prerequisites for the effective implementation of EMI in the classroom contexts. How EMI can effectively be implemented in the multilingual classroom contexts with its true spirit can be an issue of further investigation.

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Phyak, P., & Ojha, L. P. (2019). Language education policy and inequalities of multilingualism in Nepal: Ideologies, histories and updates. In The Routledge International Handbook of Language Education Policy in Asia (pp. 341-354). Routledge. Piller, I., & Cho, J. (2013). Neoliberalism as language policy. Language in Society, 42(1), 23–44. doi:10.1017/ S0047404512000887 Reay, D. (2006). The zombie stalking English schools: Social class and educational inequality. British journal of educational studies, 54(3), 288-307. Reisigl, M, & Wodak, R (2009). The Discourse-historical approach. In: Wodak, R, and Meyer, M (Eds.). Methods in critical discourse analysis (2nd ed.) (pp.87-121). London: Sage Publications, Ltd. Republica (August 29, 2016). Public schools in Kathmandu Valley switching to English medium. Retrieved from https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/4632/ Ricento, T. (2000). Historical and theoretical perspectives in language policy and planning. Journal of sociolinguistics, 4(2), 196-213. Rubagumya, C. M. (2010). English-medium primary schools in Tanzania: A new “Linguistic Market” in education?. In Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa-Highlights from a Project (pp. 43-59). Brill Sense. Ryan, E. B., & H. Giles. (Eds.). (1982). Attitudes towards language variation: Social and applied contexts. London: Edward Arnold. Sah, P. K., & Li, G. (2018). English Medium Instruction (EMI) as linguistic capital in Nepal: Promises and realities. International Multilingual Research Journal, 12(2), 109-123. Saud, M.S. (2019). Linguistic diversity in the English-medium instruction classroom in Nepal: Challenge or chance. International Journal of English Language Education, 7(1), 70-83. doi:10.5296/ijele.v7i1.14887 Savage, M. (2003). Review essay: a new class paradigm?. British journal of sociology of education, 24(4), 535-541. Schmidt-Unterberger, B. (2018). The English-medium paradigm: a conceptualisation of English-medium teaching in higher education. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 21(5), 527-539. School Sector Reform Plan (SSRP, 2009-2015). Kathmandu: Ministry of Education, Government of Nepal. Seidlhofer, B. (2005). English as a lingua franca. ELT journal, 59(4), 339-341. Silver, R. E. (2005). The discourse of linguistic capital: Language and economic policy planning in Singapore. Language Policy, 4(1), 47-66. Sonntag, S. K. (1995). Ethnolinguistic identity and language policy in Nepal. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 1(4), 108-120. Sorrell, D. W., & Forlin, C. I. (2015). A comparison of student perceptions towards learning English versus L1 language in an international EMI school in Hong Kong. International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, 17(1), 57-70. Taylor, S. K. (2010). Beyond bilingual education: Multilingual language education in Nepal. Gist Education and Learning Research Journal, 4, 138- 154.

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Tollefson, J. W. (2000). Policy and ideology in the spread of English. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 7-21. Tollefson, J. W. (2015). Language education policy in late modernity: Insights from situated approaches—commentary. Language Policy, 14(2), 183-189. Uwambayinema, E. (2013). Science teachers’ challenges implementing Rwanda s English as a medium of instruction policy: a case study of nyarugenge district rural secondary schools. Doctoral dissertation. Retrieved from http://repository.library.fresnostate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/105373/Em manuelUWAMBAYINEMApdfA.pdf?sequence=1 Viriri, E. &, Viriri, M. (2013). The prevalence of code-switching in secondary schools where English is the official medium of instruction: A case study of Buhera south district. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 2(1), 227-234. Vu, N. T., & Burns, A. (2014). English as a medium of instruction: Challenges for Vietnamese tertiary lecturers. The journal of Asia TEFL, 11(3), 1-31. Walkinshaw, I., Fenton-Smith, B., & Humphreys, P. (2017). EMI issues and challenges in Asia-Pacific higher education: An introduction. In English Medium Instruction in Higher Education in Asia-Pacific (pp. 1-18). Springer, Cham. Weinberg, M. (2013). Revisiting history in language policy: The case of medium of instruction in Nepal. Working Papers in Educational Linguistics (WPEL), 28(1), 6. Wijayatunga, A. (2018). English as a medium of instruction in secondary schools in Sri Lanka: Challenges. In Proceeding of the 4th International Conference on Education, 4, 151-161. Williams, E. (2014) English in African politics of education: Capital or capital illusion? International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 225, 131-145. Woolard, K. & Schieffelin, B.B. (1994). Language ideology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 23, 55-82. Yildiz, M., Soruc, A., & Griffiths, C. (2017). Challenges and needs of students in the EMI (English as a medium of instruction) classroom. Konin Language Studies, 5(4), 387-402.

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION TOWARDS GLOBAL ASSESSMENT CERTIFICATE CURRICULUM: A SURVEY STUDY

Uswatun Hasanah and Rizki Farani Islamic University of Indonesia, Yogyakarta [email protected] and [email protected] correspondence: [email protected] DOI: 10.24071/llt.v23i2.2487 received 12 March 2020; accepted 17 May 2020

Abstract This paper aims to identify motivation of students to learn English as Foreign Language for Global Assessment Certificate (GAC) curriculum in an international private high school in Yogyakarta. There were 46 GAC students from grade X, XI and XII involved in this study. The level of motivation was measured by using Attitude/ Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) which consists of 5 domains: a) desire to learn English; b) attitudes toward learning English; c) the interest in foreign language; d) language class anxiety and e) language use anxiety. The results show that the motivation of the students to learn English as EFL was at high and moderate level. The students are able to speak English well but they need improvement on self-confidence in English. The survey implies that students well perceived English as an important means for their carrier prospects and way to enhance their knowledge.

Keywords: students’ motivation, English as a foreign language, senior high school

Introduction Motivation is one of the keys to the success of the teaching and learning process because it involves effort to encourage someone to do something or the driving force of the subject to do an action in a goal (Dörnyei, 1994). In this research, the context of motivation refers to learning motivation as psychological condition that drives a person to learn (Gardner, 1985). In terms of motivation to learn English as Foreign Language (EFL) in Indonesian context, students in Indonesia need strong internal motivation to improve their English competence since English is not their vernacular and national language. Integrative motivation requires positive attitudes from students towards speakers of the target language and culture (Gardner, 1985). It implies that motivation and attitude of language can be seen not only in the form of pleasure and pride in using a particular language but also according to the concept of cultural understanding. Studies on motivation and attitude in learning English from Iran and Jordan show that students have high motivation to learn English since they have positive awareness toward the importance of English. (Chalak & Kassain, 2010; Tahaineh & Daana, 2013).

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This research discusses further about motivation of students in one of private International Senior High Schools in Yogyakarta during their study in International Program, Global Assessment Certificate Curriculum (GAC). In GAC program, students have opportunity to study all subjects by using English as their medium of instruction. To apply for GAC program, students need to take an entry test which includes Listening, Sentence Structure, Reading, Writing and Speaking Test. GAC modules consisting of English Academics, Mathematics, Computers, Study Skills, Business, Science and Social Sciences are supported by systematic learning and university success skills. Elective modules allow students to choose between the preparations for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) with the Test of English as a Foreign Language® (TOEFL). There is also ACT® test preparation. This test is an addition to the GAC core curriculum and is provided for students to have additional qualifications to apply to universities. However, passing grade of the entry test is relatively low. Students need to reach minimum score 65 to pass the test. As the impact of the policy, most students can pass the entry test and register for GA program for one year but unfortunately not all of them can meet academic achievement so School provides remediation test to improve students’ score. Based on this gap, it is assumed that there is imbalance situation between school policy and students’ psychological condition to survive in International Program GAC. They may experience low motivation during the program due to some factors, for instance mental condition, physical condition or boredom. To identify specifically about their motivation, this research intends to know: “What is the level of students’ motivation to learn English as foreign language in Global Assessment certificate curriculum?”. This research is important to be conducted as a part of GAC program evaluation. It is expected that the findings can provide overview for School to reconsider its policy.

Method This is a quantitative research in a format of survey study (Creswell, 2014) that involved 46 students who are taking GAC program in International Senior High School, Yogyakarta. Since the aim of this study is to map the level of motivation of the students, survey research is an appropriate design to answer the research question. The questionnaires used in data collection process were the revised version of Attitude/ Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) (Gardner, 2004). It contains 104 items and characterized into 12 scales (a) Interest in Foreign; (b) Parental Encouragement; (c) Motivational intensity; (d) English class anxiety; (e) English teacher evaluation; (f) Attitudes towards learning English; (g) Attitudes towards English-speaking people; (h) Integrative orientation (i) Desire to learn English; (j) English course evaluation; (k) English use anxiety; (l) Instrumental Orientation. However, there were only 5 domains used in this research because not all domain

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is appropriate with students’ characters. This decision was taken after conducting construct validity with the director of GAC program.

Table 1.1. Adaptation of Domain AMTB International Version Domain Positively Keyed Negatively Keyed (a) Desire to Learn English 1,2,3,4,5 6,7,8,9,10 (b) Attitudes towards learning English 11,12,13,14,15 16,17,18,19,20 (c) Interest in Foreign Language 21,22,23,24,25 26,27,28,29,30 (d) Language Class Anxiety 31,32,33,34,35 36,37,38,39,40 (e) Language Use Anxiety 41,42,43,44,45 46,47,48,49,50

The adaptation version of AMTB has been used in many studies of English as Foreign Language motivation (e.g., Chalak & Kassain, 2010; Tahaineh & Daana, 2013; Chairat, 2015). To measure students’ motivation, the point of “strongly agree” is 5 and “strongly disagree” is 1. For more details, the score for Likert scale by Riduwan (2016) for the questionnaire as follows:

Table 1.2. The Score for Likert Scale Likert Scale Score Strongly Agree 5 Agree 4 Neutral 3 Disagree 2 Strongly Disagree 1

The Attitude/Motivation Test Battery: Technical Report by Gardner (1985) and AMTB International revised version (Gardner, 2004) provided 8 points of Likert scale but in this research, the director studies of GAC asserted to reduce the scales to be 5 points of Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree to make students understand.

Table 1.3 The Scale Interpretation of Positive Statements Intrepretation Scale High 4,5 Medium 3 Low 1,2

Table 1.4 The Scale Interpretation for Negative Statements (reverse) Interpretation Scale High 1,2 Medium 3 Low 4,5

Note. negative statements scale is the opposite of positive statements scale

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The positive and negative statements indicated the motivation and attitudes in detail. The questionnaire was translated into Bahasa Indonesia by using the back- translation procedure in order to avoid the difficulties and misunderstanding. Back translation procedure is a technical term in translation, with procedures to translate material from language A to language B, then, the results of the translation of language B are validated by expertise (Tyupa, 2011). The quality of Back- Translation can be predicted and has a translation function that is equivalent to the original and the target versions are studied. Respondents were asked to read and check the questions carefully for 30-minute session.

Findings and Discussion Results will be discussed in terms of frequencies/percentages and the total mean value. Table 1.5 The frequencies/percentages and the total mean value Domain Freq/Perc High Moderate Total Means Desire to learn English Freq 34 12 46 4.5 Percent 73.2% 26.8% 100% Attitudes towards Freq 37 9 46 4.3 learning English Percent 78.5% 21.8% 100% Interest in foreign Freq 36 10 46 4.4 language Percent 77.8% 22.2% 100% Language class anxiety Freq 29 17 46 3.7 Percent 62.2% 37.2% 100% Language use anxiety Freq 22 24 46 3.6 Percent 49.3% 50.7% 100%

Based on table 1.5, the finding results state that the percentage level in each domain is between high and moderate. There are 78.5% of students who show positive attitudes towards learning English as well as their motivation to master various foreign languages perfectly. They also have interest in foreign languages and consider English as an important subject (77.8%). In desire to learn English, as many as 73.2% of students want to become proficient in the language. They relatively do not show any language use anxiety about speaking English including English in class presentations or when discussing with foreign students during a cultural exchange program 62.2%. However, language use anxiety shows a considerable difference since there are 49.3% students who experience anxiety in speaking English due to several internal or external factors. The factors may occur based on the existence of attitude-based motive (integrative motive) and self- confidence motivational sub processes that revealed the presence of relatively independent classroom-based sub process, characterized by classroom cohesion and evaluation (Dornyei, 1994).

Desire to Learn English There are 61.80% students who have high motivation in positive item. They are eager to be fluent in English because they need to use English as language of

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instruction in GAC program. However, there are 73.20% of students who are highly motivated in negative item. They state that they have no desire to learn English. This finding shows that motivation is perceived from learners’ desire to be more proficient in the language learning (Gardner, 1985).

Attitudes toward Learning English There are 78.50% students who wish to speak many foreign languages perfectly. It implies that they have high motivation in building positive attitude toward Learning English. As the impact of this finding, students in GAC program are able to participate in cultural exchange program where students communicate directly with native speakers. It proves that attitudes towards a language are often mirrored in the attitudes towards the members of that speech community (Fasold,1984) as cited in (Chalak & Kassain, 2010). In addition, GAC program also prepares the students to pursue their future education in English speaking country so it is obvious that students have motivation to master various foreign languages perfectly. However, the highest score is on the negative item which the students think that learning English is a waste of time. In fact, they need to learn English to survive their study in GAC program. This data implies that students is more interested in practicing the language directly than studying the concept of the language. On the other word, students in secondary and high school perceive English as an important mean to support their carrier prospects and way to enhance their knowledge and prepare them to pursue advanced studies as well as help them to communicate with foreigners when they travel to other countries (Kitjaroonchai, 2013).

Interest in Foreign Language There are 77.80% students who have high motivation in reading original English text. They do not prefer to read the translation version. The finding implies that integrative motivation plays an important role because a person needs to learn from language learning community and the ability to gain a knowledge applied from the learning language or instrumental motivation (Gardner & Lambert, 1959; Hudson, 2000) cited in (Tahaineh & Daana, 2013). The result also shows that 77.80% students are highly motivated in the statement “it is not important for us to learn foreign languages”. It can be concluded that students strongly disagree with the statement. This shows that students consider English is very important.

Language Class Anxiety In the language class anxiety, there are 37.30% students who admit that they don’t understand why students feel nervous about speaking English in class. It means that students feel confident in speaking English in class. This finding implies that integrity, attitudes toward English and positive motivation are obtained in the classroom based on different cultural contexts and gender biases (Tahaineh & Daana, 2013). In the context of GAC Program, the students consist of male and female so they have opportunity to interact with all genders but a study case in Jordan (Tahaineh & Daana, 2013) involves all female students in one class. The difference of gender can affect knowledge building.

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Despite their confidence in speaking English in the class, there are 49.30% students who states that they embarrass to volunteer answering questions in the class. They also feel nervous when they speak in the class. Mattarima & Hamdan (2011) states that some factors in anxiety is the pressure of speaking assignments that require students to present individually and spontaneously in a limited time, lack of prior knowledge about the topic and less interaction in teacher-student relationship. Students in GAC program may experience the similar pressure since they need to use English all the time.

Language Use Anxiety In the language use anxiety, there are 58.70% students who have high motivation in speaking English if English speakers are presented. They feel more secure if they can listen dan see some examples from original native speaker about how to speak in English. In addition, there are 62.20% students who have high motivation in negative statement. The students feel worried in speaking English. This means some students do not worry about speaking English including English in class presentations or when discussing with foreign students during a cultural exchange program. This is in accordance with the opinion of Oxford & Shearin (1984) cited in Chalak & Kassain (2010) that visiting other countries and communicating with native speakers can influence the type of motivation they must achieve. Thus, learner's motivation is possible influenced by whether the student learns in a foreign language environment or a second language environment. All of the findings in this research have answered the research question because the data really represent the level of students’ motivation in GAC Program at one of private international senior high school in Yogyakarta. Overall, students have high and moderate level of motivation in learning English as EFL. However, they need to improve their self-confidence. The implication of this findings are some students who do not pass the academic requirement and take remediation test actually have a good skill in English but they are not able to maintain their motivation during GAC program. They experience unstable motivation during one- year program of GAC.

Conclusion Students in GAC program have high and moderate level of motivation in learning English. However, they need to maintain their motivation for all program in terms of achieving academic learning objectives. Overall, there is no students who have low motivation. Based on the findings, school should provide additional program on motivation building to provide sufficient literacy for the students about how to improve self-confidence in learning English. School also needs to revise policy about passing grade indicators. The score of passing grade needs to be modified from 65 % to 75 % so all students who register for GAC program have good foundation in English and self-confidence. Having balance competence helps students to improve their quality in learning English.

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON READING COMPREHENSION PROBLEMS IN NARRATIVE TEXT *Gita Rosita Sari1, Asih Santihastuti2, and Eka Wahjuningsih3 Jember University, Jember [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected] *correspondence: [email protected] DOI: 10.24071/llt.v23i2.2211 received 15 November 2019; accepted 5 May 2020

Abstract This survey study aimed to know the students’ perception on reading comprehension problems of narrative text. The sample participants were randomly selected from the tenth grade students of SMAN 2 Jember in academic year of 2019/2020. Questionnaire adopted from Xiubo & Zhang (2006) was used to collect the students’ perception and it was translated into Indonesian. The result showed that the students still experienced some problems in reading narrative text. Based on the result of the questionnaire, the most problematic aspect that hinder the students’ reading comprehension was “Motivation” (65.6%), followed by “Strategies” (63.7%), “Background Knowledge” (63.3%), “Reading Process (60%)” and “Language Knowledge (55.4%)”. The result implied that the teacher should focus on fostering students’ motivation by giving intensive course and reading assignment based on the students’ interests. In order to see further into the problem faced by the students, future reseacher could use direct assesment by using diagnostic test or other measurement.

Keywords: students’ perception, reading comprehension problems, narrative text, survey study.

Introduction Reading in another language is more difficult than reading in the first language (Nation, 2009, p.3). It is due to the reasons that readers should recognize the words and sentences, and also understand the purpose of the text genre. Narrative text is one of genres studied by the secondary students, and for some of them, they still experience some problems in comprehending it. As it was found by Al-khaleefah (2017, p.35) that there were various difficulty encountered by the students in reading narrative text because it posed not only lexical difficulty but also rhetorical structuring of its action throughout the story. In other words, students need to equip themselves with sufficient reading skills to understand different genres, including narrative text. Regarding to Al-Khaleefah’s statement, it is implied that teacher should learn about the students’ problem in order to help them to improve students’ reading comprehension and make them better readers. One of the ways to identify students’ problem is by asking their perceptions. As it was found by Coddington et al (2009) that the result of students’ perception contributed in predicting students’ reading

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problems and also recording the students’ achievement in reading. In other word, the result of perception will be beneficial for students and teachers as an evaluation in teaching learning process. The teacher can fix the students’ reading problems by giving the right solution, such as provide suitable activities and provide effective activities in reading process including jigsaw and peer tutoring, for example. The issue of students’ perception on reading comprehension has been conducted by some researches in different classes with different purposes, such as: students’ perception in reading comprehension between narrative text and expository text (Al-Khaleefah, 2017; Dickens & Meisinger, 2017; Repaskey et al, 2017), students’ pereption on reading difficulty in narrative text (Margaret et al, 2013), students’ perception on reading difficuly (Kheirzadeh & Elahe, 2012; Zuhra, 2012; Jayanti, 2016), students’ perception on pre-reading activities (Vindy & Carla, 2015), students’ perception in reading motivation (Coddington & Guthrie, 2009; Brown et al, 2016). Among all previous studies, it was none in particular focusing on the students’ problem. However, Jayanti (2016) finding out that the result of students’ perception in reading difficulty will be beneficial for the teacher to provide suitable activities or task that could help them to deal with the students’ problems in reading. Meanwhile, Repaskey et al (2017) found that the girls have strong preference in reading narrative and expository text, but the boys only showed strong preference in reading expository text. Therefore, I am interested in conducting a research which only focused on students’ perception on reading problems of narrative text. Considering the information above, this research involves two research problems. First, what is the most problematic aspect of reading comprehension that students face? Second, what pedagogical implications can be drawn from the research?

Literature Review This part present some aspects related to the theories of this research. They cover about the theory of perception and reading comprehension problems.

The Theory of Perception Perception is a process of the formation of an opinion and is linked to experience, expectations and the general impression (Devito, 2009, p.56). Steward and Stylvia (1974) also stated that perception is a process as one selectively perceiver, organizes, and interpretation based on experinces. Similar with that opinion, Demuth (2013) stated that perception is the result of considerable intelligence and it influenced by the perceiver’s history. According to Forgus and Melamed (1976), perception is the process of information extraction to determine how individuals interpret their surronding. In other words, perception can be formed when the individual has the experience or knowing the surrounding. According to Lowell (1913, p.78) there are 4 stages on which the opinions can be formed. First stage is where the impressions are formed which are positively or negatively. The second stage, the issue is debated and the controversy in the mind begins to settle which helps the perceiver to take up a definite position on either side. The third stage, the perceiver takes a definite side and the fourth stage is reached when the action on the perception becomes necessary. From the four stages above, the output of perception can be divided into two kinds: positive perception and negative perception.

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Reading Comprehension Problems Students’ perception toward reading problems refers to the process of how the students recognize and interpret their problems in reading comprehension. The information was obtained by distributin the questionnaire (Coddington & Guthrie, 2009). Gunning (2002, p.7-13) divided the reading problems into: (1) Problems of language knowledge, (2) Problems of background knowledge, (3) Problems of motivation, (4) Problems of reading strategies, and (5) Problems of reading knowledge. In means that the students’ problems in reading comprehension not only come from one aspect, but there are some aspects of reading problems that may be faced by the students. First, problems of language knowledge or condition when the reader lacks mastery of five aspects of language knowledge, including phonologycal knowledge, semantic knowledge, syntactic knowledge, morphemic knowledge, and pragmatic knowledge. Second, problems of background knowledge or the condition when the readers find the differences between their own previous knowledge and what the author intended in the text (Xiubo, 2006). Another problem of background knowledge is difficulty in understanding some cultures loaded words and phrases eventhough the readers know every word in the text (Gunning, 2002, p.8). Third, problems of motivation or the students have less motivation in reading. Less motivation in reading is also the reason why the students face problems and cannot achieve the target in reading comprehension (Alderson, 2000). If the students are not interested in the topic they are reading, they might face difficulty and failure in reading comprehension. On the contrary, if the students are really interested in the topic, it can be come an important factor because positive motivation plays significant role in reading development which promotes comprehension, so that the students may be motivated to read other topics. Fourth, problems of reading strategy or the condition when the students used inappropriate strategy in reading comprehension. If the readers have a good strategy in reading comprehension, they can process the text efficiently. On the contrary, if the readers have bad strategy they will face problems in reading comprehension. In conclusion, reading strategy shows how the readers comprehend a text, how they read a text, and what they do when they face difficulty in reading comprehension (Michele et al, 2004). The last, problems of reading process or the condition when the students cannot concentrate themselves till the end of a passage (Gunning, 2002, p.60). Sometimes, the readers seem to forget what they have already read, and have to move backward and reread it (Alderson, 2000). In short, there are some aspects of reading problems that can hinder the students’ reading comprehension.

Method Design of the Study The design of this research was survey study because it involved collection of data by asking questions and recording participants’ answers to them (Breakwell et al, 2013, p.58). In line with what Haughn (2017) said that survey research is used to gather the opinions, beliefs and feelings of selected groups of individuals. Then, according to Creswell (2012, p.376), survey research designs are quantitative research when the researcher to do a survey to a sample or to the population of people to describe the attitudes, opinions, behaviors, or characteristics of the

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population. Survey study used for various purposes to estimate population characteristics. The goal of this survey study to determine the percentage of senior high school students who have positive or negative perception on reading problems. In undertaking surveys the researcher defines the study population and draws the sample. The sample must be representative of the population. The researcher could use different procedures of sampling including random sampling, stratified random sampling and cluster sampling. According to Creswell (2012, p.376), the procedures of the research were done as follows: 1. The researcher collected quantitative numbered data using questionnaires (e.g., printedquestionnaires) or interviews (e.g., one-on-one interviews). 2. Then, the researcher statistically analyzed the data to describe trends about responses to questions. The researcher interpreted the meaning of the data by relating results of the statistical test.

Participant The participants of this research were sample of the tenth grade students of SMAN 2 Jember in academic year 2019/2020. There were ten classes of the tenth grade in SMAN 2 Jember that consist of eight science classes and two social classes. Each class consists of 36 students. The researcher selected 10% of the students from each class by using random selection method (Setia, 2016). The calculation of selected the students in each class shows as follows:

10 푝푎푟푡𝑖푐𝑖푝푎푛푡 푓푟표푚 푒푎푐ℎ 푐푙푎푠푠 = × 36 푠푡푢푑푒푛푡푠 = 3.6 100 Then, the researcher rounded up the number 3.6 into 4. It means that there were four participants from each class as the sample which were expected to be the representative of the population. Thus, the total number of participants were 40.

Instrument The data were collected by using questionnaire adopted from the survey of Xiubo Yi & Zhang (2006) because that instrument could be applied to my study. The questionnaire was divided into two parts. The first part consisted the data involving personal information. The second part was questionnaire that consisted of 20 items written in Indonesian in order to avoid misunderstanding among the students. Questionnaire is suitable for doing survey because they can explore what the students think and what they do (Breakell et al, 2013:30).

Data Collection The students were asked to identify their reading problems by responding to Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, strongly disagree). The highest score which stated strongly agree counts 4 points while the lowest score which states strongly disagree counts 1 point. The specification of the questionnaire was shown below on the table:

Table 3.1 Number of Questions on Aspects of Reading Problems

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Students’ perception of Students’ perception of reading 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 reading comprehension comprehension problems problems in narrative text related to language knowledge. Students’ perception of reading 7, 8, 9, 10 comprehension problems related to the lack of reading strategies. Students’ perception of reading 11, 12, 13, 14 comprehension problems related to motivation. Students’ perception of reading 15, 16, 17 comprehension problems related to background knowledge. Students’ perception of reading 18, 19, 20 comprehension problems related to reading process.

Data Analysis The result of the questionnaire was analyzed by using Microsoft Excel. The data analyzed were percentages of each aspects of reading problems based on the students’ answer on the questionnaire.

Findings and Discussion Based on the result of the questionnaire the most problematic aspect that hinder the students’ reading comprehension was “Motivation” (65.6%), then followed by “Strategies” (63.7%), “Background Knowledge” (63.3%), “Reading Process (60%)” and “Language Knowledge (55.4%)”. The result of the questionnaire will be explained more in the following section.

Table 1. Percentages of the Students’ Perception on Reading Problems Aspects of Reading Agree Disagree Problems % % Language Knowledge 55.4 44.6 Reading Strategy 63.7 36.3 Motivation 65.6 34.4 Background Knowledge 63.3 36.7 Reading Process 60 40

From Table 2, it was known that “Motivation” has the highest percentage (65.6%) among the five aspects of reading problems. It shows us that most of the students agreed that their lack of motivation caused them difficult in reading comprehension of narrative text. As we know, motivation is one of the most aspects

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that can influence reading comprehension (Alizadeh, 2016). Ahmadi (2017) added that students’ motivation absolutely affects their reading. It means that students with stronger reading motivation can be expected to have better reading comprehension as they have enthusiasm to read further and longer. In addition, Pourhosein et al (2012) stated that reading motivation is the large amount of motivation that students have to concentrate their positive or negative opinions about reading. If the students have good motivation in reading, they will develop their comprehension by reading wide range of topic. It is also supported by Kinley and Ben-Hur (2015) who stated that it is the belief that if the students are rewarded certain behaviors they will get more of them (behaviors), and if they are punished certain behaviors, they will get less of them (behaviors). In other words, teachers or parents could be the agents to foster the positive behaviour in reading so that students have the correct motivation to read. The second aspect of reading problem was inappropriate reading strategies (63.7%). The students felt lack of reading comprehension in understanding narrative text if they used inappropriate reading strategies. Based on the result of questionnaire, the students tended to use inappropriate strategy such as always looked up the meaning of unknown words in the ditionary. It probably happened because the students may think that every single word they read should be understood so that they keep looking at their dictionary for some help in checking the meaning. Besides, the students also tended to use reading aloud strategy which was not part of the right strategy in reading comprehension. The students tended to use reading aloud strategy which was not part of the right strategy in reading comprehension. The students probably do because they assumed that reading aloud could boost their concentration and could comprehend the text quickly. While it was a mistake as when the students had to read out because half of their brain concentrated on the pronunciation (Billah, 2015). Therefore, it is needed to give model and instruction to students in apply approprite strategy in reading comprehension. The third aspect of reading problem was lack of background knowledge (63.3%). Based on the result of the questionnaire, the students’s insufficent background knowledge in reading narrative text caused them faced difficulty in following the author’s intension which made them unable to understand the purpose of the text. Students’ background knowledge is important in reading because understanding the text depends on how much background knowledge they have (Al-Jahwari & Al-Humaidi, 2015). In addition, expanding students' background knowledge could serve as an improvement or it is not only for facilitating comprehension processes, but also word identification (Priebe et al:2011). In sum up, the students not only get the information from the text, but they also need to apply their prior knowledge to process a new knowledge that intended in the text. The fourth aspect of reading problem was difficulty in reading process (60%). The most common problem experienced by the students during the reading process is keeping their concentration. It means that the students process the text slowly when reading because they have to repeat over and over again as their minds drift away. Processing the text slowly was included in difficulty of reading process because it made the reading process less effective and efficient. Besides, the students should be given limited time to complete tasks that require reading comprehension. Being a fast and efficient reader is important for not only classroom

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based lessons, but also for satisfying homework requirements and performing well on standardized exams (Martiarini, 2013). Therefore, improving the students’ ability in processing the text is important as a part of effective and efficient reading comprehension process. As the final result found from the students’ questionnaire of their reading problem is the “language knowledge” (55.4%). Based on the result of the questionnaire, some of the students did not know the sentence structure and it caused them difficult in understanding the text. It might happen because the students could not get the point in the passage when they found compound sentence, complex sentence or even it was compound-complex sentence. It could also happen because they do not know sentence structure. Akbari (2014) stated that knowing grammar, including sentence structure can help students to comprehend the text correctly. The students can face the problem in reading when their knowledge about sentence structure is limited. How the students could reading the texts with complex sentences if they do not understand the text even it in simple sentences. Therefore, their limited knowledge about sentence structure hinder their reading comprehension.

Pedagogical Implications The findings of this research have several pedagogical implications. First, the teacher as a facilitator is responsible to foster students’ motivation in reading and they need to pay attention on students' interests and what the teacher need to do to keep the students motivated. According to Sari (2013), in order to improve students’ reading habit, in the first year the students should get an intensive course and reading assignments which should meet the criteria of fun, light and short. In line with this statement, Takaloo and Ahmadi (2017) stated that students are very much interested in any reading material that consists of humor, fun, enjoyment, and pleasure. Then, they should report to the class in the form of retelling or summarizing. It is notable that the teachers need to know that the students are motivated differently (Ahmadi, 2017). The teacher teaches so many students in a class and of course they have different motivation in reading. Some of the students have good reading habit, but some of them also have low reading habit. Therefore, teacher should make an enjoyable classroom to motivate them. Second, the teacher should teach the students about various reading strategies and give a model in choosing appropriate reading strategies. In applying the strategy, teachers should also consider the text type, the students’ background knowledge, and the students’ language proficiency level. In line with the statement, (Muslaini, 2017) stated that the choice of strategy was adapted by the teachers with the materials, the indicators and the purpose of learning based on the syllabus and curriculum. Based on Comprehension: The Goal of Reading (2019), there are four strategies for reading comprehension of narrative text, including story maps, retelling, prediction, and answering comprehension questions. The teacher can apply one of those strategies to improve the students’ reading achievement. However based on the result of the research, the most problematic strategy in reading was the students always look up the meanings of unknown words in the dictionary. Therefore, it is needed to apply new strategy to improve their reading comprehension which focus on the students’ vocabulary.

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Third, the teacher should concern with the students’ background knowledge related to the topic in reading. According to Comprehension: The Goal of Reading (2019), teachers can use previewing technic to expand the students’ background knowledge. When students preview a text, they exploit the text into what they already know. It will help them understand the text and provide a framework for any new information they read. Willingham (2011) stated that the best way to boost students’ reading comprehension is to expand their knowledge by teaching them history, science, literature, and the arts that guide the students through a logical sequence from one year to the next. In addition, Al-Faki & Siddiek (2013) stated that to activate students’ background knowledge in the classroom the teacher should apply schema-based or pre-reading activities. It was reffered that teachers should activate students’ background knowledge before giving the students a reading comprehension text by using suitable strategies and method. Fourth, the teacher had a responsibility in the class to provide a model for effective and efficient reading comprehension process. According to Stevenson (2017) there were several steps that a teacher could apply in reading narrative text among the students by considering the time and place at which the students read. Each students had preference of place and time to read. Some students can concentrate more in a quiet room, but some students can focus more in a place with some background noise, such as a park, cafe, ect. It means that the teacher should decide the best situation for the students by considering the students’ preferences. Another trick is pre reading or activity to set a goal for the number of pages, the time limitation, the techniques used or the information the students will find (Ackerman, 2019). It is notable that students should also pause at the end of each paragraph to summarize or paraphrase the main idea to force the students to constantly focus and prevent them from getting lost in the text. It can also be done with note taking and marking the text. In conclusion, the teacher should guide the students and give a model based on those steps to hinder some problems in reading process, then it can improve the students’ reading process. The last, the teacher needs to take a systematic approach to vocabulary and grammatical practice in teaching reading narrative text (Azam, 2014). In this case the teacher could review the difficult words on the texts. Besides, the teacher could also combine the narrative text with appropriate teaching media such as pictures, real life object, etc to become more effective and accurate for students to produce new vocabulary because they would spontaneously recall the words. According to Thornbury (2002, p.47), teaching vocabulary should direct attention to the sound of new words, particulary the way they are stressed. It suggests that when the teacher reviews the vocabulary on the passage they should not only tell the students the meaning of word but also how to pronounce the words correctly. It was similar with grammatical approach in which the teacher could provide the best grammar instruction based on the passage. When students hear and see what is proper, they incorporate it into their own knowledge

Conclusion The result of the questionnaire answered the research questions and showed that some reading aspects should be carefully attended as the students think that it was problematic for them and hinder their comprehension. Some aspects become

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the main causes of their reading problem especially in narrative text. From those aspects students perceived that they were lack of motivation, used inappropriate strategies, lack of background knowledge, difficulty in reading process and lack of language knowledge as the sources of the students’ reading problems. In conclusion, students’ reading comprehension problems posed are not only about problems of language knowledge, but also various difficulties encountered in the narrative text. Therefore, the teacher should consider each reading problem faced by the students. The findings of this research are expected to give empirical contribution for other researchers to conduct research dealing with the similar topic with different research design. This research can also become a kind of initial sample of research which explores the students’ perception on reading comprehension problems in narrative text. Practically, the findings are expected to be useful to help the English teachers to better understand the problems faced by the students in reading narrative text, so that they can decide how to solve that problem in order to develop the students’ reading skills. Therefore, this research can give the teacher reflection and evaluation in teaching learning process.

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Billah, M. (2015). Significance of silent reading. Retrieved on July 17, 2019 from http://www.theindependentbd.com/magazine/details/8098/Significance-of- Silent-Reading Breakwell, G., Jonathan A. S. and Daniel B. W. (2013). Research method in pshycology. Retrieved on February 6, 2019, from http://egyankosh.ac.in/handle/123456789/23176 Brown C. A., Kreag D. & David T. (2016). Student perceptions on using guided reading questions to motivate student reading in the flipped classroom. Accounting Education, 23-33, doi: 10.1080/09639284.2016.1165124 Coddington, C. S. & Guthrie J. C. (2009). Teacher and student’s perceptions of boys’ and girls’ reading motivation. Reading Psychology, 30(1), 225–249, doi: 10.1080/02702710802275371 Comprehension: The goal of reading. Retrieved on July 20, 2019, from https://www.readnaturally.com/research/5-components- ofreading/comprehension Creswell, J.W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Démuth, A. (2013). Perception theories. Kraków: Towarzystwo Słowaków Polsce. Devito, J. A. (2009). Interpersonal communication. New York: Pearson Allyn and Bacon Dickens, R. H., & Elizabeth B. M. (2017). Examining the effects of reading modality and passage genre on reading comprehension in middle school students. Reading Psychology, 38(3), 321-347, doi: 10.1080/02702711.2016.1263701 Forgus, R. H., & Lawrence E. M. (1976). Perception: A cognitive-stage approach. New York: Mcgraw-Hill. Gunning, T. G. (2002). Assessing and correcting reading and writing difficulties. Boston: Allyn & Bacou. Hassan, A. S. (2000). Learners' perceptions of listening comprehension problems. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 13(2), 137-153, doi: 10.1080/07908310008666595 Haughn, M. (2017). Survey study. Retrieved on July 20, 2019, from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/survey-research Jayanti, F. G. (2016). Reading difficulties: comparison on students’and teachers’ perception. Proceedings of the Fourth International Seminar on English Language and Teaching, 4(1), 296-301, doi: 10.25157/jall.v3i2.2537 Kinley, N., & Ben-Hur S. (2015). Extrinsic motivation: Using reward and punishment in changing employee behavior. Palgrave Macmillan, 115-122, doi: 10.1057/9781137449566_4 Kheirzadeh, S., & Elahe T. (2012). The causes of reading difficulty: the perception of Iranian EFL post-graduate and under-graduate students. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 3(1), 147-152, doi: 10.4304/jltr.3.1.147- 152 Priebe, S. J, Keenan, J. M., & Miller, A. C. (2011). How prior knowledge affects word identification and comprehension. Reading and Writing 25(1), 131–149, doi: 10.1007/s11145-010-9260-0

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Repaskey, L. L., Jeanne S., & Jacqueline, J. (2017). First and fourth grade boys' and girls' preferences for and perceptions about narrative and expository text. Reading Psychology, 1-10. doi: 10.1080/02702711.2017.1344165 Lowell, L. (1913). Public opinion. New York: Longman, Green. Margaret, E. P., Adrianna, W., Gil, N., Maryanne, W., & Tami, K. (2013). Behavioral problems and reading difficulties among language minority and monolingual urban elementary school students. Reading Psychology, 34(2), 182-205, doi: 10.1080/02702711.2011.626108 Martiarini, E. (2013). The effects of speed reading method upon students’ reading comprehension. Journal LPP, 5(2), 8-105. Retrieved on July 20, 2019, from http://journal.lppmunindra.ac.id/index.php/Deiksis/article/download/463/775 Michele, L. S., Norman, A. S., & Michelle, A. F. (2004). Reading and learning strategies: recommendations for the 21st century. Journal of Developmental Education, 28(2), 2-12. Retrieved on July 20, 2019, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ718571.pdf Muslaini. (2017). Strategies for teaching reading comprehension. English Education Journal (EEJ), 8(1), 67-78, Retrieved on October 11, 2019, from http://jurnal.unsyiah.ac.id/EEJ/article/view /612 Nation. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing. New York: Routledge. Pourhosein, A., Leong, L. M., & Saburi, N. B. (2012). Study on the role of motivation in foreign language learning and teaching. I.J. Modern Education and Computer Science, 4(7), 9-16. doi: 10.5815/ijmecs.2012.07.02 Sari, R. A. (2013). Students’ perception toward their reading difficulties of different genres. Lingua Dikdatika: Jurnal Bahasa dan Pembelajaran Bahasa, 7(1), 44- 57, doi: 10.24036/ld.v7i1.3531 Setia, M. S. (2016). Methodology series module 5: Sampling strategies. Indian J Dermatology, 61(5), 505-509. doi: 10.4103/0019-5154.190118 Stevenson, S. (2017). Methods concentrate reading. Retrieved on July 20, 2019, from https://www.theclassroom.com/methods-concentrate-reading- 12126.html Steward, L. T., & Stylvia, M. (1974). Human communication: An interpersonal perspective. Universitas Michigan: Random House. Takaloo, N. M., & Mohammad R. A. (2017). The effect of learners’ motivation on their reading comprehension skill: A literature review. Retrieved on July 20, 2019, from http://ijreeonline.com/article-1-56-en.pdf Thorbury, S. (2002). How to teach vocabulary. England: Pearson Education Limited. Vindy C., & Carla, S. P. (2015). Students’ perception on pre-reading activities in basic reading II class of the English language education study program of Sanata Dharma University. A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 18(2), 133-140, doi: 10.24071/llt.2015.180206 Willingham, D. T. (2011). How knowledge helps. The NAMTA Journal, 207-223, Retrieved on July 20, 2019, from https://www.aft.org/periodical/american- educator/spring-2006/how-knowledge-helps Xiubo, Y., & Zhang D. (2006). A psychological analysis of English reading difficulty of chinese college learners. Retrieved on February 20, 2019, from http://www.aare.edu.au/06pap/yi06855.pdf

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Zuhra. (2015). Senior high school students’ difficulties in reading comprehension. English Education Journal (EEJ), 6(3), 424-44, Retrieved on February 20, 2019 from http://jurnal.unsyiah.ac.id/EEJ/article/view/2584

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

USING PICTURE- ASSISTED LEXICAL INPUT APPROACH TO TEACH VOCABULARY TO THE POST-LINGUAL DEAF STUDENTS

Rahmat Soe’oed1, *Maria Teodora Ping2, and Abdul Rais Thamrin3 Mulawarman University, Indonesia [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] *correspondence: [email protected] DOI: 10.24071/llt.v23i2.2569 received 30 April 2020; accepted 27 May 2020

Abstract English has been one of the compulsory subjects for special schools in Indonesia. However, there have been a rather limited number of studies conducted regarding the teaching of English under the framework of Special Education. Responding to this gap, this current study aimed at investigating whether a particular language teaching approach called ‘Lexical Input Approach’ assisted by series of pictures could provide a desirable effect on post-lingual deaf students’ vocabulary mastery. This research employed a pre-experimental Single Subject with a multiple base (A-B-A-B) design. The sample included three 8th grade Junior High School students with the similarity of ages and hearing-loss history. The primary data in this study were taken by using assessments and analysed statistically by calculating the Percentage of Data Points Exceeding the Median (PEM). The findings indicated that there was an improvement in the students’ vocabulary scores after the treatments (from 41/ novice advanced category to 46 and 51/ novice high category). Thus, it could be concluded that using Picture-Assisted Lexical Input Approach was effective to improve English vocabulary mastery for post-lingual deaf students.

Keywords: Lexical Input Approach, Post-Lingual Deaf, Vocabulary Mastery

Introduction Students with disability need more specialized instructions to help them acquire and master any languages for their daily communication. In Indonesia, English has been a compulsory subject that must be learned by all students, including students with special needs. Unfortunately, while the curriculum seems to be carefully and thoughtfully constructed for the normally developed students, it is a different case for students at special schools. Despite the fact that there have been a growing number of students with special needs being able to go for an inclusive education at normal schools, most of them still enrol in special schools. Furthermore, these students, including the ones with deafness, have to learn English as a Foreign Language in the same way their normally developed counterparts are required to do (Adi and Fadhilah, 2017).

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Post-lingual deaf students are special in the way that they do not have a problem with their language production system yet their language stock is rather limited. The language processing for post-lingual deaf students is different from that of the pre-lingual ones. This is due to their deafness which appears after language acquisition and stabilization (Lazard, Innes-Brown and Barone, 2014). Since they can no longer rely on their hearing as means of receptive communication, the post-lingual deaf people must adapt and use strategies that “benefit from visual images” (Birinci, 2014). Moreover, when they learn languages, they cannot learn verbal/ oral language elements and skills i.e. speaking, listening and pronunciation and mostly focus on building the written language skills and elements such as reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary. Therefore, knowing the importance of mastering vocabulary for comprehension and communication, teachers dealing with post-lingual deaf students might have to resort to the strategies or techniques which can best facilitate their students’ vocabulary learning through visual aids/ images. One of the approaches that can possibly be implemented to teach and learn vocabulary through visual aids/ pictures is the Lexical Input Approach. A number of empirical studies conducted in different contexts have indicated the effectiveness of this particular approach especially in terms of teaching English language skills and components such as vocabulary (Verspoor and Winitz, 1997; Kavaliauskienë and Janulevièienë, 2001; Karoly, 2005; Ping, 2007, 2012; Zu, 2009; Supardi, 2016; Abdulqader, Murad and Abdulghani, 2017; Attya, Qoura and Mostafa, 2019). However, there is yet a related study focusing on the implementation of this approach to teach students with special needs, in this case post-lingual deaf students. Thus, addressing this gap, this research was conducted with a specific objective to investigate whether the Lexical Input Approach assisted by pictures would be effective for enhancing the post-lingual deaf students’ vocabulary mastery. Moreover, to provide clear scopes, the research questions addressed in this research were formulated to reach the following objectives: 1). Implementing Picture-Assisted Lexical Input Approach to teach English vocabulary to the post-lingual deaf students; and 2). Finding out whether the implementation of Picture- Assisted Lexical Input Approach had a significant effect on the post-lingual deaf students’ vocabulary mastery.

The Lexical Input Approach The Lexical Input approach was primarily based on Krashen’s hypothesis (1983), arguing that meaningful input is “one of the most important things we have to consider in language acquisition”. The meaningful input itself might be in the forms of components of different lexical fields taught through implicit instruction, focusing on a particular lexical field. In addition, it was also developed based on some important principles of the Lexical Approach proposed by Lewis (1993). The Lexical Approach was conceptualized by Lewis (1993) as “developing learners' proficiency with lexis, or words and word combinations” and that "language consists of grammaticalized lexis, not lexicalized grammar". Lewis (1997) argued that language fluency and accuracy could be reached mostly by retrieving and combining ready-made chunks of language, thus the ability to chunk language would be a crucial aspect for understanding how language functions. Moreover, several studies have been conducted related to Lexical

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(Input) Approach effectiveness for language learning focusing on various grammatical and lexical aspects such as the use of collocations and lexical chunks (Verspoor & Winitz, 1997; Kavaliauskienë and Janulevièienë, 2001; Karoly, 2005; Ping, 2007, 2012; Zu, 2009; Supardi, 2016; Attya, Qoura and Mostafa, 2019). However, only two of these previous studies made use of pictures to convey the Lexical (Input) Approach, i.e. Verspoor and Winitz (1997) and Ping (2007, 2012). Verspoor and Winitz (1997) did two experiments investigating the effect of vocabulary instruction using the lexical input approach as a strategy for providing comprehensible input to the non-native learners of English participating in a 15- week ESL program at an American University. The students were assigned to listen to audio tapes accompanied by booklets with texts and pictures and could learn at their own pace during the treatment. The findings indicated that the students who learned by using this approach achieved better than the students who did not. While this approach did not emphasize on the teaching of forms or grammatical structure either explicitly or implicitly, giving input only was found to be effective to improve the grammar mastery of the students (Verspoor & Winitz, 1997). Meanwhile, Ping (2007; 2012) used Picture- Assisted Lexical Input Approach in an experiment to teach English grammar and vocabulary to the non- English Department university students in Indonesia. Different from the study done by Verspoor and Winitz (1997), the input in Ping’s study was conveyed through a computer mediated program. This computer mediated program was chosen in the place of teachers so that the participating students could get native speaker input and work at their own pace (i.e. self-directed learning). Moreover, the computer program used in the treatment of this experimental study delivered sufficient amount of meaningful input supported by both audio and visual aspects (sound and pictures). The findings revealed that lexical input approach conveyed through a computer mediated program had a statistically significant effect on students’ grammar and vocabulary achievement. In addition, the participating students seemed to be more motivated when learning grammar and vocabulary through the computer mediated program (Ping, 2007; 2012). Therefore, taking into consideration the basic rationale as well as the research procedures, this current research would specifically replicate the studies conducted by Verspoor and Winitz (1997) as well as Ping (2007, 2012). However, the main difference would lie on the subject (i.e. the other two studied normally developed ESL and EFL students whereas this research would study EFL students with disabilities) and the type of experimental study (i.e. classic experimental versus single subject design).

Post-lingual Deafness Post-Lingual Deafness is a unique case of hearing impairment because post- lingual deaf students have attained speech and language patterns some time before they lost their hearing abilities (Bala & Rao, 2004). Thus, the language processing and development of post-lingual persons/ students are different from the pre- lingual ones because they were not born deaf. Nevertheless, due to the impairment, they can neither understand speech without visual cues nor rely on their hearing as a means of receptive communication. In addition, the duration of

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the deafness contributes to the severity of speech intelligibility deterioration (Shimizu, Sakaguchi, Iwasaki, Arai, Mano, Kawano and Shirai, 2019). Students with post-lingual deafness have to use the more visual mode receptive communication such as lip reading, sign language and text reading. As Casey and Wolf (1989) stated that for these students, visualization ability, which is one of the visual literacy competencies, and the ability to understand and communicate process play an important role in their language development. Taking this knowledge into account, teachers who teach these students have to select some appropriate methodologies or approaches which are focusing on visualization ability instead of auditory system in order to develop communication skills and also their previous language stock (schemata).

Teaching Vocabulary to Post-Lingual Deaf Students Using the Picture- Assisted Lexical Input Approach Based on the abovementioned concepts, the Lexical Input Approach could be considered as one of the approaches to be implemented for teaching language skills and elements, particularly vocabulary, to post-lingual deaf students. The focus of this approach is on developing learners’ proficiency with words and word combinations which can be conveyed through various modes such as visual/ pictures as appropriate input. Furthermore, teaching vocabulary by using pictures has been a familiar practice in the classroom, including for the students with hearing impair or hard-of hearing conditions. In addition to the use of realia or the real-life objects, pictures have been considered as effective to present vocabulary particularly at the beginner level, in which the pictures are used to explain the meaning of words or to create situations and concepts. Birinci (2014) investigated the effectiveness of using visual materials in teaching EFL vocabulary to deaf students in Turkey. The findings of her study implied that using visual materials gave better results than the use of sign language. Meanwhile, another study done by Gallion (2016) revealed that the flash card combined with picture and sign language provided better results of vocabulary gain for students with hearing impairment. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, the post-lingual deaf students do not have any cognitive barriers in acquiring the language. Yet, the hearing disability they have might hinder them from getting necessary information, including the words and meaning of words, successfully. Therefore, the picture-assisted lexical input approach in this study would be used specifically as a vocabulary acquisition device for post-lingual deaf students. The concept of comprehensible input was also added to the framework underlying this study, as the Lexical Input Approach itself was originally developed based on Krashen’s Input Hypothesis. Moreover, the input-based approach to language learning has been recommended by a number of other prominent EFL figures such as Nation (2007) who included it in his Four Strands model of English Language Learning, Day & Bamford (1998) as well as Renandya & Jacobs (2016) who have worked immensely on comprehensible input in the framework of extensive reading and listening activities. Particularly in the Indonesian context, Renandya, Hamied & Sukamto (2018) have also endorsed an input-based approach to promote proficiency. Thus, the conceptual framework for this study can be illustrated by the figure below.

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Comprehensible Lexical Input Acquired Knowledge Input Approach with (Word Forms and (Visualised Pictures as Meanings) Words and Acquisition Words Device

Combination) Vocabulary Mastery

Figure 1: Teaching Vocabulary by Using Picture-Assisted Lexical Input Approach to Post-Lingual Deaf Students

Method The research design employed in this research was Single Subject Design. According to Fraenkel, Wallen and Hyun (2019), Single Subject Designs are adaptations of the experimental time series design, commonly used to study the changes in behaviour and individual exhibit after exposures to an intervention or treatment. This type of research is also considered as appropriate for researchers who would like to study children with disabilities, with only a small number of participants available. Specifically, the design used in this research was the Multiple Base A-B-A-B Design, in which the data were collected on several subjects with regard to a single behavior (Fraenkel, Wallen and Hyun, 2019). This design was chosen primarily because the dependent variable (vocabulary mastery) was not expected to return to the prior condition after the intervention (Christ, 2007) and the multiple baselines created could be used as a control. In the so-called baseline phase, the students’ vocabulary mastery prior to being taught by using picture-assisted lexical input approach was observed and assessed. Meanwhile, in the intervention phase, vocabulary teaching and learning were done by using picture-assisted lexical input approach; optimizing the visual aids (texts and pictures) while minimizing the sign language use. Then, the students’ mastery was measured by using a written vocabulary assessment. This research took place at a Junior High School for students with special needs and disabilities located in Samarinda, the capital city of East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. The students enrolled in this school were mixed in the same classes regardless of their needs and disabilities. In a similar fashion to its regular junior high school counterparts, this school has also followed the national curriculum for Special Education. However, in practice, especially for the English lessons, the teacher had only provided the students with materials for the fifth- sixth graders of Primary School and most of the time the instructions had been given personally (one-on-one teaching) by relying heavily on the sign language use. Moreover, the teacher herself graduated with a Bachelor of Education degree majoring in English Language and received some formal training related to teaching students with special needs and disabilities. In line with the research problems formulated in this study, the participants of the research consisted of the eight grade students with post-lingual deafness. Three students were further selected purposively based on the sampling criteria

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namely the similarities in age (15 years old) and hearing loss history (around 10 years). In addition, all three students had learned to communicate by the sign language since their primary school years. In this study, the primary data, which indicated the students’ vocabulary mastery, were measured by a written assessment, particularly in the form of a dynamic assessment. Dynamic assessment explores the process of language learning through the moments of co-construction of mutual understanding and learning as well as focused on the interaction with unfamiliar situations in social and cultural setting (Bagnato, 2007). Furthermore, the approach in dynamic assessment employed in this study included the following: 1) test-mediate-(re)test; 2) examination of changes between baseline testing and re-testing and 3) careful observation learning behaviours exhibited during mediation (teaching) sessions, which were deemed suitable to use in the context of this current research with post-lingual deaf students (Bagnato, 2007). The written assessment was prepared in the forms of pictorial vocabulary items, which was relevant with the topics being discussed during the teaching and learning activities (both for the treatment and baseline periods). The instances of the assessment items accompanying the instructional materials are illustrated by the following series of pictures:

Pic #1: Pic #2:

Figure 2: Examples of Picture Series In order to avoid misunderstanding in analyzing the data obtained from the assessments, a couple of specific scoring systems were prepared. A specific vocabulary rating scale, which included the measurement of two vocabulary depth aspects namely ‘grammar forming words’ (i.e. form) and ‘vocabulary’ (i.e. meaning), was used both in the baseline and intervention phases. Furthermore, the Language Proficiency Level and standards in scoring from The American Foreign Service Institute (FSI) were adopted, as follows:

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Table 1: Language Proficiency level and Standard in Scoring NO Score Level of Prof. Description 1 > 34 I Novice Normal 2 35 – 44 II Novice Advanced 3 45 – 55 III Novice high 4 56 – 66 IV Intermediate Normal 5 67 – 77 V Intermediate Advanced 6 78 – 88 VI Intermediate high 7 89 – 99 VII Proficient Normal 8 100 - 103 VIII Proficient Advanced 9 104 – 107 IX Proficient High

The quantitative data in this research were collected during the total of 16 meetings. Each meeting was divided into four different phases, in which every phase consisted of four meetings: two phases were considered as the first and second baseline whereas the other two were considered as the first and second intervention. The general data collection procedures were implemented as follows:

1. In the first and second baseline phases, the teaching and learning activities i.e. using the sign language proceeded normally without any intervention. The students’ activities were observed and their vocabulary mastery was assessed. 2. In the first and second intervention phases, the teacher taught the students using the picture-assisted lexical input approach, focusing on both the form and meaning of the vocabulary being discussed which also included the pronunciation. In this step, the teacher elaborated the picture one by one only assisted by written instructions without using the sign language. Moreover, the teaching- learning process, the students as well as the teacher’s activities were observed and eventually the students’ learning was assessed.

Furthermore, the main data analysis technique used in this research was a statistical test called “Percentage of Data Points Exceeding the Median” (PEM). According to Ma (2006), PEM analysis approaches data by using the Median of phase A (baseline) scores as the basic comparison, as opposed to the highest data point. This would bring about a number of advantages, which include using more collected data, controlling the effect of outliers, and allowing for the calculation of meaningful standardized effect size. Ma (2006) also categorised the interpretation of PEM scores ranging from 0 to 1 as follows: Table 2: PEM score category Range Interpretation 0.9 to 1 Highly effective treatment 0.7 to 0.9 Moderately effective treatment Less than 0.7 Questionable or not effective treatment

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As implied above, the data in this single subject research were not distributed to find out the mean score. Since the data were taken from several treatments, the median score of the data was calculated in the first place to measure the effect size of the data. The formula of median used in this research was as follows:

Note: Mdn = Median b = Lower real limit of median score = half the cases/the number of sample

P = The Number of Interval

= the number of frequency before the median

⨍ = frequency of median Class

Findings and Discussion The data in this research were obtained in the forms of quantitative scores and also the visual representation of the students’ vocabulary learning progress. The following graph will illustrate overall students’ vocabulary mastery before and after being taught by using picture-assisted lexical input approach:

Figure 2. Multiple Baseline Graph of Students’ Vocabulary Mastery The blue line was identified as the first student’s performance progress, the red line was identified as the second student’s progress whereas the green one was the third student’s progress. Furthermore, the students’ vocabulary mastery before being taught by the picture-assisted lexical input approach (the baseline condition), is indicated by Table 3 below.

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Table 3: Students’ vocabulary mastery before the treatments. PEM Language Proficiency Students Median Score Level S1 41 0.75 Novice Advanced S2 41 0.50 Novice Advanced S3 41 0.75 Novice Advanced

After the treatment phases, the students’ vocabulary mastery development can be seen in Table 4 below.

Table 4: Students’ vocabulary mastery after the treatments. PEM Language Proficiency Students Median Deviation Score Level S1 46 0.25 1 Novice high S2 51 0.25 0.75 Novice high S3 46 0.25 1 Novice high

According to both tables above, there were some differences in the students’ scores before and after the treatments. In the first phase, reflecting the initial condition of the students prior to being taught by the picture-assisted lexical input approach, the mastery had not reached the good category, in which the median score of the students was 41. This score was classified into the Novice Advanced Category in vocabulary mastery. In addition, this score also influenced the PEM score of the students. Based on the PEM scores of 0.5 and 0.75, the previous teaching learning experiences of these students might have seemed to be rather ineffective in promoting their vocabulary mastery, as these scores could be interpreted as ‘’questionable/ not effective’’ and ‘’moderately’’ effective categories (see the previous Table 3). After the treatments, there were 2 students who got a median score of 46, namely S1 and S3. Based on this score, both of them could be categorised into the highly effective treatments since their PEM scores increased about 0.25 from the first baseline. Furthermore, it also classified them into the Novice high category for language proficiency level. Meanwhile, the median score of S2 also increased 0.25 from the previous condition which brought S2 into the moderately effective treatment category. Hence, all students eventually had the same level of language proficiency level that was Novice High. In addition to the overall data, a visual analysis of each student’s progress in the form of a line graph was also done to support the analysis and interpretation of the numerical data regarding their respective vocabulary mastery, as follows.

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Figure 3. Visual Analysis of Student 1’s Vocabulary Mastery Progress

It could be seen from the line graph that in the first baseline (initial condition), Student 1 started with a rather low score of Vocabulary (20 out of 100) and then at the end of the first treatment, it increased into 50 (after reaching 60 at two data collection points). The score dropped to 40 at the beginning of the second baseline but then gradually improved and reached 70 by the end of the second treatment. The highest score that S1 achieved was 80 at one point during the second treatment. Meanwhile, Student 2’s vocabulary mastery progress is visualized by Figure 4 below.

Figure 4. Visual Analysis of Student 2’s Vocabulary Mastery Progress

The line graph shows that Student 2 got the score of 30 at the beginning of the first baseline (the initial mastery), The score increased to 40 at the beginning of the first treatment, reaching the highest score of 50 at two assessment points before dropping back to 40 when starting the second baseline. The highest score of S2, i.e. 80, was found at one assessment point during the second treatment and the final vocabulary mastery score obtained by S2 at the end of the treatment period was 70. As for Student 3, the vocabulary mastery progress during the experiment can be displayed as follows.

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Figure 5. Visual Analysis of Student 3’s Vocabulary Mastery Progress The line graph revealed that the initial vocabulary mastery of Student 3 was similar to Student 2, in which both obtained the score of 30 out of 100. The score of S3 went up to 40 at the beginning of the first treatment and the highest score was 60 during this phase. The vocabulary mastery of S3 tend to be stable at the scores of 40-50 in the second baseline and improved steadily until reaching the highest score of 80 at the end of the second treatment phase. Based on the analysis of both individual and overall data above, it could be implied that the treatment by using the picture-assisted lexical input approach was statistically effective in promoting the post-lingual deaf students’ vocabulary mastery development. Thus, the Ha (Alternative Hypothesis) formulated in this study was accepted and the Ho (Null Hypothesis) was rejected. More specifically, Ma (2006) stated that if treatment was ineffective, data point would be continually fluctuating around the middle line. The quantitative data of this research indicated that the improvement and the scores did not fluctuate in the middle line or median line, which implied that the treatments were relatively effective. Furthermore, these findings were generally in line with the findings of previous studies concerning the effect of picture-assisted lexical input approach on EFL students’ vocabulary mastery, most notably the ones done by Verspoor & Winitz (1997) and Ping (2007; 2012) which were done with the typical normally-developed students. It can be thus argued from the current findings of this study that this input-based approach might work with all types of students or learners, including the ones with physical disabilities. Regarding the effectiveness of using pictures in English vocabulary instructions for students with hearing impair/ deafness, the findings of this study were also found to conform the results of previous studies, in particular those of Birinci (2014) and Gallion (2016) despite the differences in the teaching approaches. Birinci (2014) argued that the use of visual materials (pictures) was more effective than the use of sign language whereas Gallion (2016) stated that the combination of the two brought the most effective results. In this study, the treatment procedure was almost similar to Birinci’s in a way that there was no sign language involved in the process. The Lexical Input Approach used in the treatment phases were then statistically tested as giving out a better improvement

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than the baseline phases in which the sign language was used. However, since this study did not make an effort to combine of the sign language and picture as what was done by Gallion (2016), a direct comparison on the effectiveness of these two approaches cannot be appropriately done.

Conclusion To conclude, the empirical findings of this research have revealed that the picture-assisted lexical input approach could potentially promote post-lingual deaf students’ EFL vocabulary mastery. Based on these findings, it is therefore recommended that teachers who are dealing with post-lingual deaf students implement this particular approach in addition to the traditional method of teaching, namely using the sign language, in order to develop students’ vocabulary mastery in a more effective way. Eventually, since this study could yet properly address the possibility of conveying the picture-assisted Lexical Input Approach in combination with the sign language, future researchers are encouraged to try this alternative out and then assess its effectiveness.

References Abdulqader, H., Murad, I., & Abdulghani, M. (2017). The impact of the application of lexical approach on developing students’ writing skills at a university level. European Scientific Journal, 13. 10.19044/esj.2017.v13n32p130. Adi, S. S., & Fadhilah, D. (2017). Teaching Special Students: English Lessons for Deaf Students in Indonesian Special Junior High Schools. International Journal of Education and Research, 5(12), 121–136. Attya, A., Qoura, A., & Mostafa, A. (2019). Using the lexical approach-based activities to enhance EFL preparatory stage students’ vocabulary learning. Journal of Research in Curriculum Instruction and Educational Technology, 4(2), 73-91 Bagnato, S.J (2007). Authentic assessment for early childhood intervention: Best practices. The Guildford Press, New York. Bala, J. M., & Rao, D. B. (2004). Methods of teaching exceptional children. New Delhi: Discovery Pub. House. Birinci, F.G. (2014). The effectıveness of vısual materıals in teachıng vocabulary o deaf students of EFL. Accessed online in January 2018 on http://www.openaccess.hacettepe.edu.tr:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11655 /1924/f3518298-0475-4e18-83fb-dd15321f44c0.pdf;sequence=1 Casey, H. V., & Wolf, J. S. (1989). Developing visual literacy among academically able fifth‐grade students. Roeper Review, 12(2), 86-91. doi:10.1080/02783198909553242 Christ, T. (2007). Experimental control and threats to internal validity of concurrent and nonconcurrent multiple baseline designs. Psychology in the Schools, 44(5), 451-459. Day, R., & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive reading in the second language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. H. (2019). How to design and evaluate research in education. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education.

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Gallion, T. (2016). Improving vocabulary comprehension for deaf or hard of hearing students. Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. Paper 989. Accessed online on: https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.c om/&httpsredir=1&article=1994&context=etd Karoly, A. (2005). The importance of raising collocational awareness in the vocabulary development of intermediate level learners of English. Eger Journal of English Studies, 5, 58-69. Kavaliauskienë, G., and Janulevièienë, V. (2001). Using the lexical approach for the acquisition of ESP vocabulary. The Internet TESL Journal, 7(3). Krashen, S. (1983). Second language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford: Pergamon. Lazard, D. S., Innes-Brown, H., & Barone, P. (2014). Adaptation of the communicative brain to post-lingual deafness. Evidence from functional imaging. Hearing Research, 307, 136-143. doi:10.1016/j.heares.2013.08.006 Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach. Retrieved Online from: http://www.ltpwebsite.com/lex-ap-review.htm Lewis, M. (1997). Implementing the lexical approach. LTP. Retrieved Online from http://www.ltpwebsite.com/implementing.htm Ma, H. (2006). An alternative method for quantitative synthesis of single-subject researches. Behavior Modification, 30(5), 598-617. doi:10.1177/0145445504272974 Nation, P. (2007). The four strands. International Journal of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1(1), 2-13. Ping, M. T. (2007). The effect of the lexical input approach on grammar and vocabulary learning of first year students, economics education study program, college of education, Mulawarman University Samarinda. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. Groningen: the University of Groningen Ping, M. T. (2012). The use of the lexical input approach to improve grammar and vocabulary mastery through computer mediated programme. In Literacy: A Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching, 8(2). Renandya, W.A., & Jacobs, G.M. (2016). Extensive reading and listening in the language classrooms. In W. A. Renandya, & H. P. Widodo (Eds.), English language teaching today: Linking theory and practice (pp 97-110). Basel, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG. Renandya, W. A., Hamied, F. A., & Joko, N. (2018). english language proficiency in Indonesia: Issues and prospects. The Journal of AsiaTEFL, 15(3), 618-629. doi:10.18823/asiatefl.2018.15.3.4.618 Risa, S., Yuko, S., Rion, I., Takayuki, A., Moriyuki, M., Atsushi, K., & Kyoko, S. (2019). Acoustic analysis on the speech of a cochlear implant patient: A case study of post-lingual deafness. Acoustical Science and Technology, 40(6), 399-401. https://doi.org/10.1250/ast.40.399, https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ast/40 /6/40_E1908/_article/-char/en

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Supardi. (2016). ESP (English For Specific Purpose): Teaching legal English using lexical approach. Proceedings of the Fourth International Seminar on English Language and Teaching (ISELT-4), Verspoor, M., & Winnitz, H. (1997). Assessment of the lexical-input approach for intermediate language learners. IRAL: International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 35. ZU, F. (2009). Using lexical approach to teach vocabulary. US-China Foreign Language, 7(8), 44-47.

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE OF ADJECTIVE, PREPOSITION AND ADVERB PHRASES OF AWGNI

Berhanu Asaye Agajie Injibara College of Teachers' Education, Ethiopia correspondence: [email protected] DOI: 10.24071/llt.v23i2.2527 received 14 April 2020; accepted 8 June 2020

Abstract College students and teachers were facing difficulties to examine syntactic structure of Awgni phrases. Thus, this study is a logical inspection of syntactic structures of Awgni Adjective, Adverb and Preposition Phrases. The article attempts descriptive research design. Through purposive sampling, 16 texts were selected. Six Awgni informants (three females and three males) were involved in group discussion to crosscheck these data. Results indicated that Awgni Adjective, Adverb and Preposition Phrases were pending in a variety of head, complement, specifier and adjunct utterances. The selections of complement, adjunct, and specifier in between phrases were to some extent syntactically similar. Moreover, the study showed that syntactic structures have dominance, and precedence relationships.

Keywords: adjective, adverb, preposition, structure, syntax

Introduction The Agaw people are one of the Cushitic races and the oldest ethnic groups in Ethiopia and Eritrea are one of the least researched (Desalegn, 2016). They are ancient inhabitants of the Northern and central highlands of today’s Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Agaw people were either forced out of their original settlements and formed a number of scattered enclaves, which they are now or assimilated with Semitic people and adopted their culture. Agaw is the branches of the Cushitic macro-family, itself part of the larger phylum generally called Afroasiatic. The Agaw language forms the main substratum of Semitic languages, particularly Tigrinya, and Amharic. The majority of the existing Agaw language speakers are bilingual, speaking both Agaw and Semitic languages (Amharic and Tigrinya). According to Esubalew (2015) the current Agaw nation can be classified into four categories. Northern Agaw is Blin. They live in Eritrea, in and around Keren in Anseba zone. Western Agaw includes Qemant (ethnic name), who live around Gonder, of the Amhara region, north of Lake Tana and West of Takkeze. Kemantney is the original language of the Kemantney people of Semen Gondar Zone, Ethiopia. According to Semalgn (2015) the Kimant are the original inhabitants of the north central Ethiopia. Their historical land stretched from north of Lake Tana, the origin of Abay River (Blue Nile), to North West rural areas around Gonder town. Eastern

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Agaw is Xamtanga. They live around Sokota sandwiched between the Southern Tigrai and the Amharic speaking people. The Southern Agaw includes Awngi. The ethnic group of Southern Agaw is Awi who are living in central Gojjam in North-Western Ethiopia. The Awgni language, in some publications (Desalegn, 2016) also wrongly called as Awngi. Here what the researcher underlined that the language of Awi ethnic group is evidently Awgni. Most speakers of the language live in the Awi Zone of the Amhara Region, but there are also communities speaking the language in various areas of Metekele Zone of the Binshangul-Gumuz Region. Awgni is not the official working language in Awi Administrative Zone of Amhara Region. Awgni heritable cultural legacies are mostly existed in the memories of tradition bearers (Yaregal, 2007). Thus, Melakneh (1991) argued that Awgni language can naturally be considered as free of the threat of endangerment and on the verge of extinction. There was high acculturation process between Awi and Amhara tribalism in Awi is slow; there is the probability of Awgni extinction soon (Haileluel 1991). Lately in 1996 (Ethiopian Calender), the language is written and service as medium of instruction in the primary, junior secondary schools and in the college of teachers' education at a diploma level (Esubalew, 2015). In order to preserve the language, syntactic structure of Awgni phrases will be studied. The attentiveness of the researcher showed that studies were not investigated syntactic structure of Awgni Adjective, Adverb and Preposition Phrases. As a result, students, teachers, researchers and other Awgni language users face difficulties to examine syntactic structure of these phrases. They were inept to explore the syntactic structures of Awgni phrase structure in explicit ways. Therefore, the drive of this research is intended to fill the gap all the way through analysing syntactic structure of Awgni Adjective, Adverb and Preposition Phrases. Henceforth, the objective of this study is to undertake a systematic examination of syntactic structures of Adjective, Adverb and Preposition Phrases in Awgni.

Literature Review Syntax refers to the ways symbols were combined to create well-formed sentences in a given language (Cinque, 2010). It defines the proper relations between the constituents of a language, thereby providing a structural description of the various expressions that make up legal strings in the language (Copeland, 2009; Miller, 2008). Furthermore, syntax concerned with the ways in which words were combined together to form phrases. The smallest unit of syntactic structure is a word that grammatically interacts with other such units, forming constructions on various levels arranged in a hierarchical order (Kim, 2007; Yasui, 2006). Phrase is a group of words that function as a constituent in the syntax of a sentence, as single unit in grammatical hierarchy (Iic, 2008; Marques, 2011). Phrases are considered as the second level of classification as they tend to be larger than individual words, but smaller than sentences. They combine words into a larger unit that can function as a sentence element (Carnie, 2013). Phrases have a hierarchical blueprint in which words are clustered jointly in to productively bigger

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structural units (Wiltschko, 2014). Therefore, Phrasal categories be able to be classified by the type of the head they take as: Prepositional Phrase (PP), Noun Phrase (NP), Verb Phrase (VP), Adjective Phrase (AP) and Adverb Phrase (ADVP) (Chung, 2012; Marcotte, 2014). According to Carnie ( 2010) and Rauh (2010), depending on the number of components inside the phrases to be analyzed, the Verb Phrase VP can be further broken down into V’; a second Noun Phrase N’, Prepositional Phrase into P’, Adjective Phrase as A’, Prepositional Phrase as P’ In transformational grammar, phrase structure rules are illustrated by the means of tree diagram, which show the structure of the Phrase. Phrase structure rules interpreted as an instruction to rewrite or expand the symbol on the left of the arrows as the sequence on the right as in (Radford, 2004):

S' → NP, VP NP → (S’), (Spec), (AP), (ADVP), (NP) N VP → (S’), (Spec), (PP), (NP), (Ad), V AP→ (Spec), (PP), (NP), A PP→ S’ P, or PP P or VP P or NP P or AP P ADVP→ (Spec), (PP), ADV

With reference to rule, N, V, A, P, and ADV were heads of their phrases based on the evidence from headedness. Typically, Awgni is head-final language that heads are located on the right of other phrasal material. Syntactic units are organized around a head. Let each head D, projects a larger syntactic unit (a phrase, AP), and each phrase AP, must have one head. This assumption captures the traditional intuition that the head of a Prepositional phrase, for instance, D is an Adjective. In one precise implementation of this idea, all syntactic constituents have the same format, which can be represented below:

AP

A’

B C

[Specifier] [Adjunct] [Complement] head

Specifier, an Adjunct and Complement position in brackets indicates that they are optional in x-bar syntax. Every Phrase structures must have obligatory heads. In Awgni, the head of the phrases all the time occurs at the right edge of the constituent in Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb and Prepositional Phrases. The position of constituency is the obligatory head of each phrase types come first, and then not obligatory complements, adjuncts and specifier may structured respectively from right to left position (Pullum, 2011). Complements are phrasal categories whose objective is to provide information about entities and locations. Heads and complements are typically adjacent; in few occasions, a head verb might have two complements. Adjuncts typically come after the sequence of head and complements. Adjuncts are

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constituents that tell us more about the how, when, where or why of the activity or situation expressed by the sentences they occur in. They can be Verb Phrase, Adjective Phrase, Adverb Phrases, Prepositional Phrases, Noun Phrases, and independent clauses (De Materials, 2011). On the other hand, syntactically, specifier can mark a given phrase boundary and it occurs at the left side of the actual Phrase structure. As a result, its position might be changed. Besides, the category of the specifier differs depending on the type of the head. It is, in fact, not so straightforward to find a case where all four syntactic terms head, complement, modifier and specifier syntactically filled (Kristin & Anne, 2013). Phrase structure is the basic unit of syntactic analysis, which is easier to see the parts of (phrases) and subparts (parts of speech) of the phrase in a tree. Apparently, syntactic tree enable to see at a glance the hierarchical structure of Phrase. Pullum (2011) depicted that structure reliance is apprehension with the hierarchical structure, normally opened in syntactic examination by means of tree diagrams. The relation that can be appearing between nodes in p-marker is dominance. A single node thoroughly dominates sets of nodes. Consequently, comprehensive supremacy holds between a set of daughter nodes and their mother node. When the mother nodes dominate the entire set, it can be said that the mother node exhaustively dominates the rest (Sag, 2010a). Where one node contains another, the containing node is mother and the contained node is the daughter. A mother node contains several daughters, where these are said to be sisters to each other (Sag, 2010b).

Method The research design used in this study was descriptive type that involves gathering data which describe syntactic structure of Awgni Adjective, Adverb and Preposition Phrases. It uses visual aids such as syntactic tree to aid the reader in understanding the syntactic structure of Phrases. Expert sampling was used to capture knowledge rooted in a particular form of expertise in Awgni syntax. Six Awgni informants (three females and three males) were involved in group discussion to crosscheck these data. Through this sampling texts based on layout, the length of data, meaning and structural simplicity as simple to display, 16 anticipated data were chosen for analysis. The method of data analysis employed was collection, systematic classification and description supported by tree.

Findings and Discussion Adjective Phrase (AP): The assumption that adjectives are an independent category from nouns and verbs and thus, authors (Cabredo, 2010; Matthews, 2015) agree on the fact that the boundaries between adjectives and nouns, and adjectives and verbs may be fuzzy. In this context Adjective Phrases are cohesive word groups that are often little more than a series of adjectives or words they can go with adjectives to modify nouns or their replacements (Cristin, 2013; Pullum, 2017). Every Adjective Phrase (AP) contains a head and possibly, but not necessarily, one or more modifiers (Meltzer-Asscher, 2012). In Awgni an adjectival phrase is a group of words in which the headword is an adjective. Adjectives can be attributive (pronominal) and Predicative refer to the position of an adjective in a phrase. An adjective is attributive or is used attributively when it comes before a noun (and is therefore part of the noun

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phrase). In the wuliji aqi (Adjective + Noun) attributive adjective is wuliji that comes before the noun aqi. Here the head of the phrase is the noun aqi not an adjective as in (1):

(1) Wuliji aqi An old man 'An old man'

VP

AP V'

A

Wuliji aqi

However, in the case of Adjective Phrase structure of Awgni, the head (adjective) must be always found in the right edge of the tree. All Phrase types in Awgni are usually right headed. Therefore, the nature of attributive adjectives will not be examined in this study. This actuality also works for predictive. An adjective is predicative when it comes directly after the verbs (ŝegere/ seem, їncoxste/ feel etc.). The resulting structure is Verb Phrase (not an Adjective Phrase) that follows the pattern Noun + Adjective +Verb. Therefore the Predicative adjective always come before Verb head as in:

(2) Kїču mїrktixusa ŝegerte Your mother angry seem 'Your mother seems angry'

VP

NP V'

N AP V

A

Kїču mїrktixusa ŝegerte

Fábregas (2016) assured that adjectives are built in a different way depending on the language. By the same token, it can be concluded that in all cases attributive (pronominal) position is not the most characteristic position for adjective Phrases structures in Awgni. Attributive position can be appeared before Noun, Verb, Adverb and Prepositional Phrase structures. Pre-nominal adjective can't acts as the head of the adjective phrase and phrasal categories can't take complements. Whereas post-nominal adjectives in Awgni fully agree with the nouns they modify in all phases of syntactic structure. Adjective Phrase heads derived from nouns do not take complements. These include amilini/sulky, lïxami/spitfire, dïkïtami/stubborn, guzgisti/esurient,

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amelena/ moody, guzgista/ esurient, and the like have been conjoined to form their own Phrase structures in the absence of complements as in:

(3) Akalu ŋitalasta dïkïtami Akalu like his father stubborn ‘Akalu stubborn like his father’

AP

NP PP A’

NP P A

N N

Akalu ŋitala sta dïkïtami

What the above tree indicates that, dïkïtami is an Adjective head that is conjoin with Prepositional Phrase ŋitalasta. Akalu and ŋitala are nouns. Sta is the preposition used to link two nouns Akalu and ŋitala. Comparison was occurred between Akalu and his father. Their act of connection and common behavior is stubbornness. The mother AP immediately dominates NP, PP and A’. PP immediately dominates NP and P. Thus, NP precede PP node; PP also proceeds A'. These in turn are daughters of AP node; similarly, all terminal nodes (N, N, P and A) are sisters to each other.

(4) Minčini ŋičujasta amelama Many times, like his sister moody ‘Many times moody like his sister’

AP

Spec PP A’

NP P A

N

Minčini ηičuja sta amelama

The preceding tree (4) provides a visual representation of the constituent structure of Adjective Phrase (AP). Thus, amelama is the head of an Adjective Phrase, ŋičujasta is Prepositional Phrase, and the specifier minčini refers the act of moody. The specifier in Awgni is not recursive and every Adjective phrase has one specifier. Regarding relations, AP node immediately dominates Spec, PP and A’. Consequently, Spec precede PP node; PP node also proceeds A’. Consequently, AP node is the mother of three constituents Spec, PP and A’. These in turn are daughters of AP node. All terminal nodes (Spec, N, P and A) are sisters to each other.

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If the root word was transitive, adjectives derived from this type of verb can take the complement. Then Adjective which is derived from such verbs can also conjoin their minimal Adjective structure with complement. Therefore, an adjective atlelsanti/cheater, aqanti/sensible, jïfi/ craven and others are derived from transitive verbs, and then they take their complements in the node labels of minimal adjective Phrase structure as in (5 and 6):

(5) fїtan sïru aqanti Fast the child knowledgeable ‘Fast the knowledgeable child’

AP

AP’ A’

A NP A

N

Fїtan sïru aqanti

What (5) tells us is that the head (aqanti) is conjoining with the Noun complement sïru. The bound morpheme (u) is added at sïr to show the relative relation between the head and the complement. An adjective fïtan describes the Noun Phrase sïru aqanti. In terms of relation AP node immediately dominates

AP’ and A’. Thus, AP’ proceeds A’ node. As a result, AP node is the mother of two constituents AP’ and A’. These in turn are daughters of AP node. Adjective Phrase A’ also immediately dominates NP and A, and all terminal nodes (A, N and A) are sisters to each other.

(6) Aylo ŋitalasta daɲiwu atlelŝanti Very like his father the umpire cheater ‘Very cheater umpire like his father’

AP

ADVP PP A’

ADV NP P NP A

N N

Aylo ŋitala sta daɲiwu atlelŝanti

The tree notation used in (6) posits that atlelŝanti is derived from transitive Verb and due to this reason; daɲiwu becomes conjoined as complement Noun Phrase. An Adverb aylo and Prepositional Phrase (ŋitalasta) are modifying the given Adjective Phrase daɲiwu atlelŝanti. On the subject of relation, the mother

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node AP immediately dominates ADVP, PP and A’. Thus, ADVP precede PP node; PP also proceeds A’. These in turn are daughters of AP node; similarly, PP at once dominates NP and P. All terminal nodes (ADV, N, P, N and A) are sisters to each other. (7) ŋičudes xïsxus aqa jïfi From his mother greater than man fright ‘He is freighter than his mother’

AP

S’

VP A’

NP PP

N NP p V’ NP A

N V N

[ ---] ŋiču des xïsxus aqa jïfi

As shown in (7), ηičudes xïsxus aqa jïfi is an adjective Phrase. Two modifiers are existing, namely complement aqa and dependent clause an adjunct ŋičudes xïsxus. S’ node can be omitted; the complement is typically obligatory and is always mentioned in the lexical entry for an adjective phrase. Concerning relation, the mother AP immediately dominates S’ and A’. Thus, S’ proceed A’ node. These in turn are daughters of AP node. Similarly, S’ immediately dominates NP and VP. VP immediately dominates PP and V’. PP also immediately dominates NP and P. Consequently all terminal nodes (N, N, P, V’, N and A) are sisters to each other. On the other hand, Awgni language has small set of adjectives which are not derived from word list in the intended language or not borrowed from other languages. It possess naturally exist adjectives (Mc Laughlin, 2014) as in:

(8) Mamu ղičusta blaŝ Mamu like his mother canny 'Mamu is canny like his mother.'

AP

NP PP A

N NP P

N

Mamu ŋiču sta blaŝ

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This (8) is a typical hierarchical tree structure. The Phrase element (represented by the symbol AP) consists of three constituents: NP Mamu, PP ŋičusta and the head Adjective blaŝ. The PP Phrase is further broken down into two bits: Noun Phase ŋiču, and the Preposition sta.

(9) Aster ղiŝesta girita Aster like his brother ingenious 'Aster is ingenious like her brother.'

AP

NP PP A

N NP P

N

Aster ղiŝe sta girita

The above structure has the subject head girita, the Prepositional modifier ղiŝesta and the Noun Phrase Aster. Prepositional Phrase (PP): A prepositional phrase is a group of words consisting of a preposition, its object, and any words that modify the object (Aarts, 2011). The object of the preposition will often have one or more modifiers to describe it. Some examples of the most basic prepositional phrase are ղїnda/ at home (ղїnu = noun, da = preposition), Akaluli/ with Akalu (Akalu=noun, li=preposition), jїmis/ by singing, Bardardes Addis Ababašo / from Bahirdar to Addis Ababa (des and šo=prepositions). Ablative (des/from), dative (s/for), locative (da/over), comparative (ta/like, tagi) commutative (li/with) directive (ŝo/to) are case systems in Awgni. The role of marking case types are often marked with a preposition. Therefore, these all are prepositions of Awgni. By the same token, des, s, da, ta, tagi, li, ŝo are primary prepositions. The primary prepositions are basic prepositions of the language, not borrowed from another language or transparently built up from other materials within the language. Prepositions in Awgni can't derive from any words. A Prepositional Phrase consists of a Preposition as its head, constituent and the complement or object of that preposition is typically a Noun Phrase. Like heads, the complements of Prepositional Phrases are obligatory. On the other hand, different kinds of complements like adverbs and other clauses might occupy the place of a Noun Phrase positions. An intriguing aspect of this analysis is that Prepositional Phrase can be used to designate a constituent consisting of a Preposition plus a Noun Phrase as in:

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(10) Ïnjabiri šo Injibara to ‘To Injibara’

PP P’ NP

N P

Ïnjabiri šo

What (10) suggests is that, the heads of the given Phrase structure is preposition šo. The town name ïnjabiri is the complement. The head (šo) determine the function of the complement.

(11) Wuxita fïrda Like hyena in a puncture ‘Like hyena in a puncture’

PP

PP2 PP1

NP P NP P

N N

Wuxi ta fïr da

Likewise, (11) could represent the fact that wuxita and fïrda are Prepositional Phrases. These categories are set of elements that have essentially the same distributional states (both PP2 and PP1) varying their positions. Thus, PP2 and PP1 are equivalent in their structure. The heads ta and da have Noun Phrases wuxi and fїr are complements respectively. As regards relation, PP immediately dominates PP2 and PP1. Thus, PP2 precede PP1 node. These in line are daughters of PP node. Similarly, PPs immediately dominates NPs and PPs. In sequence, all terminal nodes (N, P, N and P) are sisters to each other. The prepositions that can be structured with Verb Phrase are (s) and (ta) as in:

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(12) Kaseč axo zïqita Kaseč the water as drinks ‘As Kaseč drinks the water’

PP

NP P’

N VP P

NP V

N

Kaseč axo zïqi ta

As noted in (12), the Prepositional Phrase PP has the immediate constituents: NP (Kaseč) and the second Prepositional Phrase P’ (axo zïqita). This in turn has a head Preposition ta that is conjoined with Verb Phrase (axo zïqi). On the topic of relation, PP immediately dominates NP and P’. Thus, NP precede P’ node. These in turn are daughters of PP node. Similarly, P’ immediately dominates VP and P. All terminal nodes (N, N, V and P) are sisters to each other. Adjectives are conjoined as complement in the tree structure of Prepositional Phrase as in: (13) Lïko dïkili Leg unlucky ‘With unlucky person’

PP

NP P’

N AP P

A

Lïko dïki li

According to (13) the head of the Prepositional Phrase conjoins with adjective complement. As noted above for instance, Adjective Phrase dïki is immediate complement for Prepositional Phrase li. Lïko is the Noun Phrase that modifies minimal Prepositional Phrase dïkili. Regarding relation, in connection with relation, PP immediately dominates NP and P’. Thus, NP precede P’ node. For that reason, these are daughters of PP node. Similarly, P’ immediately dominates AP and P. Accordingly, all terminal nodes (N, A and P) are sisters to each other. Let us turn to look another syntactic phenomenon in which a Verb Phrase can be a complement for Prepositional Phrase as in:

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(14) Šaše axo zïqis Šaše the water as she drinks ‘As Šaše drinks the water’

PP

NP P’

N S’ P

NP VP

N V

Šaše axo zïqi s

Phrase structure in (14) utters that the head preposition (s) of the Prepositional Phrase conjoins with dependent clause complement (axo zïqi). As noted above for instance, the Noun Phrase Šaše is the subject of the verb in dependent clause. On the subject of relation, PP immediately dominates NP and P’. Thus, NP precede P’ node. These in order are daughters of PP node. Similarly, P’ immediately dominates S’ and P. All terminal nodes (N, N, V and P) are sisters to each other. Adverb Phrase (ADVP): Adverb Phrases as cohesive word groups that are descriptive, and sometimes called modifiers because they restrict meaning (Lobeck and Denham, 2014). From the structural point of view, each Awgni Adverbial Phrase must contain adverb head. This head is the most important word in the phrase; it bears the crucial semantic information. Like Tallerman's (2011) finding it determines the meanings of the entire phrase. However, adverbs in Awgni are very few in number (ïmbit/soon, dïkŋa/badly, ïndegena/again, gïmŋa/badly and so on). Their function is mostly done by Verbs. Adverb Phrases cannot build their tree structures with complement. Adverb Phrase contains a head and possibly, but not necessarily, one or more modifiers and specifiers as in: (15) Teklita dïkŋa Like Tekli badly ‘Like Tekli badly’ ADVP

PP ADV’

NP P ADV

N

Tekli ta dïkŋa

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The output representation in (15) Teklita dïkŋa is Adverb Phrase. Adverb dїkηa is the head of the phrase structure. It conjoins with prepositional phrase Teklita. The modifier PP has the head preposition ta and structured with Noun complement Tekli. Concerning relation, ADVP immediately dominates PP and ADV’. Thus, PP precede ADV’ node. These in sequence are daughters of ADVP node. Similarly, PP immediately dominates NP and P. Terminal nodes (N, P’ and ADV) are sisters to each other. (16) Mulu aylo Amsaluta šewuŋa Mulu very like Amsalu heartily ‘Mulu Like Amsalu very heartily’

ADVP

NP ADV' PP ADV’

ADV NP P ADV

N N

Mulu aylo Amsalu ta šewuŋa

What tree (16) says that, Mulu aylo Amsaluta šewuŋa is an Adverb Phrase (ADVP). Šewuŋa is an Adverb head. The structure has a Prepositional Phase modifier Amsaluta and Adverb aylo. Pertaining to relation, ADVP immediately dominates NP, ADV', PP and ADV’. Thus, NP precede ADV'; ADV' precede PP; PP precede ADV’ node. In the view of that, these are daughters of ADVP node. Similarly, PP immediately dominates NP and P. Terminal nodes N, ADV, N, P and ADV are sisters to each other. Conclusion Study showed that lexical categories found in Awgni phrases include Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, and Preposition. Henceforth, the Phrases of the intended language are classified by the type of the head they take as: Prepositional Phrase (PP), Noun Phrase (NP), Verb Phrase (VP), Adjective Phrase (AP) and Adverb Phrase (ADVP). Every phrase contains a head and possibly, but not necessarily, one or more modifiers. In the view of that, there are two types of modifiers, namely complements and adjuncts. Adjuncts are optional; complements are typically obligatory and are always mentioned in the lexical entries for verbs (or nouns or prepositions). Many collocation restrictions apply to heads and complements (but also to phrases other than complements). Heads and complements are typically adjacent; where a head has two complements, adjuncts typically come after the sequence of head and complements. On the subject of relation, every Phrase structure has dominance and precedence relation.

References Aarts, B. (2011). Oxford modern English grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Cabredo, P. (2010). Adjectives: An introduction. In Patricia Cabredo and Ora Matushansky (eds.), Adjectives. Formal analyses in syntax and semantics Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1-26. Carnie, A. (2010). Constituent structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Carnie, A. (2013). Syntax: a generative Introduction. Oxford: wily Blackwell Chung, S. (2012). Are lexical categories universal? The view from Chamorro. Theoretical Linguistics, 38(1-2), 1-56. Cinque, G. (2010). The Syntax of Adjectives. A Comparative Study. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Copeland, D. (2009). Generation A: A novel. Scribner. De Materials, E. (2011). Working with words: An introduction to English linguistics. Valencia: Universitate de Valencia Desalegn, A, (2016). An Ethnographic introduction to the Kumpal Agaw. Journal of Ethiopian Studies, 49, 35-56. Esubalew, A. (2015). Developing Awgni-Amharic Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR): A Dictionary Based query Translation Approach. Msc thesis, Gondar University. Fábregas, A. (2016). Los Adjectives no existent. Paper presented al Curs del Centre de Lingüística Teòrica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2-4. Haileluel Y. (1991). Verb complementation in Awgni. MA Thesis. Addis Ababa University. Ilić, B. (2008). Syntax for EFL students. Niš : Sven. Kim, J. (2007). English syntax: An introduction. Centre for the Study of Language and Information Kristin, D., & Anne L. (2013). Linguistics for everyone: An introduction (2nd Ed.). Boston: Wadsworth 20 Channel Centre Stress Boston Lobeck, A., Denham, K. (2014). Navigating English grammar: A guide to analysing real language. London: John Wily and Sons. Marcotte, J. (2014). Syntactic categories in the correspondence architecture. In Miriam Butt & Tracy Holloway King (eds.), Proceedings of the LFG14 Conference, Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 408–428. Marquez, M. (2011). Working with words: An introduction to English linguistics Valencia: Universities de Valencia. Matthew, P. (2015). The positions of Adjectives in English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mc Laughlin, F. (2014). Is there an Adjective Class in Wolof? In Robert M.W. Dixon and Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), Adjective classes: A cross- linguistic typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 242- 261. Melakneh, M. (1991). Themes and motifs in Southern Agaw folktales. M.A. Thesis. Addis Ababa University. Meltzer-Asscher, A. (2012). The subject of adjectives: Syntactic position and semantic interpretation. The Linguistic Review, 29, 149-189. Miller, J. (2008). An introduction to English syntax. Edinburgh University. Pullum, G. (2011). On the mathematics of syntactic structures. Journal of Logic, Language and Information, 20, 277-296. Pullum, G. (2017). Adjectives and adverbs. Lecture presented in the course of Linguistics, University of Edinburgh. Autumn 2017.

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Radford, A. (2004). English syntax: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rauh, G. (2010). Syntactic categories. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sag, I. (2010a). English filler gap constructions. Language, 86, 486-545. Sag, I. (2010b). Feature geometry and predictions of locality. In Features: Perspectives on a key notion in linguistics (ed. A. Kibort and G. G. Corbett), Oxford University Press, 236-271. Semalgn, E. (2015). Developing stemmer for Kemantney text. Msc, Gondar University Tallerman, M. (2011). Understanding syntax (3rd Ed.). London: Hodder. Wiltschko, M. (2014). The universal structure of categories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Yaregal, A. (2007). Case in Awngi. M.A. Thesis. Addis Ababa University. Yasui, M. (2006). An order-free representation of syntactic structure and the head- parameter. Dokkyo: Dokkyo University press.

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

THE BENEFITS OF JOINING ENGLISH DEBATING SOCIETY (EDS) FOR STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS Arlien Thinesia Hetharie1, *Listyani2, and Maria Christina Eko Setyarini3 Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] correspondence: [email protected] DOI: 10.24071/llt.v23i2.2504 received 2 April 2020; accepted 13 May 2020

Abstract This qualitative research study aims to analyze the benefits of joining a debating club to enhance students’ speaking skills. The data was collected from semi- structured interviews to delve into students’ perceptions about the most outstanding debaters after joining the debating club 2014 batch at UKSW. The research questions used in this study were about the benefits of joining a debating club on speaking skills and how the debating club could enhance their speaking skills. The findings show that five speaking skill traits and three other soft skill aspects were enhanced through debating. Those skills are fluency, vocabulary, comprehension of the essence of debates, pronunciation, grammar, critical thinking, collaborative learning, and problem solving. The skills were improved though the drilling practices and materials in the learning process. The significance of this study is to attest to the significant improvements found in enhancing students’ speaking skills from using the debating method.

Keywords: benefits, debate, English Debating Society, speaking skills

Introduction The existence of English as a global language, which is spoken worldwide, makes the language a must to be learned from childhood to adulthood. It can give one a promising position in a big company or a higher position in a governance office. In order to learn a new language, there are four important skills to be mastered by learners which are writing, speaking, reading, and listening. Each of the skills has its own difficulty to be mastered. Yet, some people admit that speaking is the most difficult skill. Speaking does not only require mastering the pattern of a language, but it is also about practicing the stress management skill such as having self-confidence and not feeling anxiety when you communicate in front of people. Despite its difficulty, speaking is also considered as the most important skill. Khoiruniyah in Sabbah (2015) bravely stated that the speaking skill is the most needed skill in our society. She affirmed that successful language learning is when a person can orally convey knowledge or information to an interlocutor proficiently. The situation can also achieve the purpose of having a conversation to exchange information.

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Reflecting on the importance of the speaking skill for one’s life, improving an individual’s English speaking skill in society has started to be a need. Many learning strategies have been developed to overcome students’ problems in speaking. One of the most effective strategies to improve speaking skills is through debating. Krieger (2005) stated that debating is a very good way to involve students in cognitive and linguistic ways to improve their language learning. Moreover, Tornament (2011) added that students’ skills in making arguments through competitive debate practices or competitions could help them overcome problems in society and improve the way students respond to various issues. A competitive debate should be rational, focused, and structured. Debating builds a unique set of skills, helping students to analyze problems, think critically, synthesize arguments, and present these ideas in a cogent and convincing manner. In other words, debating does not only train students to communicate in English, but debating also teaches students to have critical thinking, make an argument structurally, and deliver it effectively and decisively. Unfortunately, the use of the debating format for students in an EFL context has not been effectively used. Some researchers have tried to substantiate the effects of using the debate method for speaking skill improvements in the L2 learning class, such as Fukuda (2003), Alasmari and Ahmed (2013), and Arung (2016). Fukuda found that the ability of students to speak English increased from 30.8% to 56.7% after conducting a debate study on Japanese students. Alasmari and Ahmed discovered that debating can help students improve their speaking skills and let them practice using English language in real-life situations. However, teachers usually fail to use the appropriate debating method in the classroom. Therefore, Alasmari and Ahmed proposed a module to maximize the benefits of the debating method in the classroom. Through an appropriate debating method and teachers’ assistance, Arung found out that students joined and engaged in the classroom enthusiastically with a total of 64% to 78.4%. However, none of the researchers conducted an investigation on the benefits of debating in a smaller community like a forum or club that is offered in a school as an extracurricular activity that also contributes to one’s speaking ability. According to Baso (2016), debating as a strategy to develop students’ speaking abilities has also been researched in Indonesia. With an urgency to communicate in English, the curriculum has been developed to provide chances for students to practice and use the language from a classroom context to the National Examination. Yonsisno (2015), who once experienced the benefits of the debating method using a quantitative collecting data format, found out that debating significantly contributes to improve students’ speaking performance in the classroom. The technique was discovered to stimulate students to share their opinions confidently and increase their ability to think critically. This research aims to provide insights into the benefits of using the debate method for students of an English Language Education Program in a private university in Salatiga, Indonesia, to improve their speaking ability skills by joining an extracurricular debate club. It is hoped that future English teachers may utilize debate as an alternative format for teaching English speaking in the classroom. Moreover, students can also consider debating as an alternative tool for enhancing speaking performance outside the classroom context. This study is

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thus aimed to analyze the benefits of the debating learning process to enhance the speaking abilities of students at UKSW.

Debate Concepts Many researchers have attempted to define a debate. One definition could have a very different meaning from the others, regarding the context of having a debate practice itself. In general, Richard (2008) stated that a debate is a discussion which comprises two opposing sides to defend and attack a motion. Krieger (2005) added to his belief about the definition, in that a debate gives students the opportunity to improve their critical thinking while they are delivering their opinions to their opponents. Moreover, with the various topics discussed in debates, students can absorb new vocabulary and phrases about the topic. In this study, the students were asked to filter the information needed related to the discussed topic. Similar to Krieger, Allison (2002) also affirmed that debating is a multi- tasking job for students. Students need to speak their opinions, write their arguments, listen to their opponents, and read an abundance of materials to give their insights about a topic. Zare and Othman (2013) added that a debate provides students with better learning course content. Students may get inspired to learn how to deeply explain and justify their beliefs, convince others, and counter arguments by the various topics provided in debating. Despite all the benefits of debates embedded in the previous debate definitions, Snider and Schruner (2002) highlighted the idea of critical thinking as well as the result of using the debate method in the classroom back in the time of the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. They believe that a debate is a significant way to teach students in the classroom. According to Worthen and Pack (1992), the importance of having critical thinking for students in life prepares them to bear whatever life situation they must face. There are several objectives of having debates in a learning process, as mentioned by Leo in Azma (2008). First, it can trigger the students to practice speaking. Second, it can provide students with the chance to talk in English when they have a break. Third, a debate is able to boost students’ motivation to talk in English. Fourth, a debate may create a situation that makes students feel that learning English is easy. Fifth, students can practice talking in English without worrying about sentence patterns. Sixth, a debate may help students consider their parents, friends, and classmates as their companions to practice English. Seventh, it is able to make students’ use of leisure time more effective to practice English. Eighth, it may expand students’ desire to talk in English. Last, it can contribute to establishing the students’ everyday discussion practice with their friends. In the heart of learning English through debates in an EFL context, debates have also been proven effective for students learning English. Despite the exposure of four English skills in one debating practice, Rowland (1995), in Majidi, Graaf, and Janssen (2015), mentioned that the debating environment forces students to have outstanding performance. Mitchell (1998) added to the point of competition, in that debating can motivate novice or advanced debaters to get acknowledgment as professional and academically excellent students in their circumstances. In other words, debating can motivate students in a competitive way to master English in order to be actualized in society.

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There are several types of debates that are used to fulfill the needs of each user. According to Steven (2012), as cited in Baso (2016), there are various types of debate formats, such as the British Parliamentary (BP), Australian Parliamentary, and Asian Parliamentary systems. Those kinds of debating styles are quite often used in Indonesia. The styles have their own rules and regulations. The schools and universities can freely choose the need or style to be used in the class or competition. The difference of the style can be seen from the time allocation for the speakers, the number of people on one team (like two or three people), and the motion/problem discussed.

The Principles of Teaching English Speaking Skills In order to teach English speaking skills to students, the teacher must realize the aim of teaching to students. According to Sabbah (2015), a teacher needs to acknowledge that second language learners will not be able to produce perfect English like native speakers. Yet, students have to be able to feel confident and have to practice to use the language. Teachers should try to lessen the comments on the grammar and pronunciation and start to observe the cultural context that influences students to produce the language. The principles that are used to achieve the aims of the speaking skills were suggested by Nunan (2003) and Kayi (2006). The researchers proposed 10 principles which reveal that teachers should consider the learning contexts, create an opportunity for students to exercise and use the language, design meaningful activities related to the development of the language, provide feedback and real- context situations in which students will have courage to speak up, and exercise the target language. The big concern in learning speaking is to make students feel comfortable. That is why teachers should still guide the students to master the correct English speaking skills. There are five components according to Brown and Yale (1994) that have an important role to measure the development of one’s speaking skill ability. Those components are pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Pronunciation is an important aspect to be learned by students. In learning English speaking, pronunciation will affect the meaning of one word, so the way we pronounce a word will give meaning to the word. Moreover, Hornby (1995, p. 928) in Harris (1969, p. 81) added that “Pronunciation is the way in which a language is spoken, the way in which a word is pronounced, and the way a person speaks the words of a language.” Kelly (2000) in Seyedabadi and Fatemi (2015) affirmed that using the stress and the intonation inaccurately can cause problem for students if they do not carefully pay attention to the pronunciation of the words. Grammar is a tool for students to measure good sentences produced correctly based on the principles. Coghill and Magendanz (2003, p. 26) defined grammar as “a set of rules that govern its structure. Grammar determines how words are arranged to form meaningful units.” Reflecting on the importance of arranging meaningful units, Uibu and Liiver (2015) mentioned that by exposing students gradually to challenging and various reading materials, it can produce effective and correct language use such as in debating practice to improve the mastery of grammar.

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Vocabulary is the word choice in uttering a message. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, it defines vocabulary as a list or collection of words or of words and phrases usually alphabetically arranged and explained or defined. It has to be appropriate and effective for the interlocutor. Krashen (1981) stated that most learners improve their vocabulary through unintended exposure inside/outside of the classroom. The teacher can prepare some vocabulary in the classroom, but students might also unintentionally acquire new vocabulary from the learning process in the classroom. Fluency of speaking is a skill to speak with less fillers and pauses. In other words, speaking has to be accurate. Richards (2009, p. 14) also mentioned that fluency is “natural language use occurring when a speaker engages in meaningful interactions and maintains comprehensible and ongoing communication despite limitations in his or her communicative competence”. Khaldun (1958) in Tsou (2005) said that one of the ways to make students have a higher level of proficiency towards a language is if the teacher establishes contexts and practices for students to utilize the language itself. For comprehension, speaking is needed to be understood and responded by others or the interlocutor in order to know the message has been delivered well. Allison (2002) also affirmed that debating is a multi-tasking job for students. They need to respond and deliver their ideas to the interlocutor understandably and effectively. The benefits go to the extent that was mentioned by Gieve (1998); a debate can also improve one’s critical thinking to analyze and develop arguments or ideas. Fisher, LaPointe, Peterson, and White (2001) as well as Hall (2011) stated that debating can also improve one’s problem solving skills in which students can make optional solutions to overcome issues in society. Lastly, Brown (2015) also confirmed the idea of collaborative learning for students to deal with their friends in debating practices.

The Benefits of Debates for English Speaking Skills Some researchers have already identified the benefits of debating to improve speaking skills, as it is considered effective for students’ English improvement. Zare and Othman (2015) conducted a study to identify the students’ perceptions using classroom debates to improve their critical thinking and oral communicative competence. Sixteen university students participated in the study. They attended nine debating sessions in one semester. The data collection was done by utilizing a survey questionnaire and open-ended questions to know students’ opinions about classroom debates. Moreover, the researchers also used semi-structured interviews to know students’ feelings. The results of the study show that students’ critical thinking and oral communication abilities improved. The students also admitted that debates could help them master course content, increase their self- confidence, and improve their team work skills. Sabbah (2015) also worked on identifying the effectiveness of using debates in developing speaking skills among English major students at the University of Palestine. The research was conducted using a quasi-experimental research design in order to test the hypotheses of the study. The researcher took thirty participants for this study who were English major students in 2014/2015. The results of the study showed that debating had significant improvements on the students’

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vocabulary and pronunciation. The students also were eager to speak in English after the research session was done. Altamimi (2017) also conducted research on improving speaking skills by examining the implications of using debatable topics in an English-speaking class. The researcher utilized a quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-tests. The study involved seventy native speakers of Arabic language. The results of the study showed that debating can be an alternative for teaching speaking. It gives students the confidence of speaking in English as EFL students. However, from the research observations, it can be concluded that the teacher has to be trained well in order to maintain students’ euphoria in learning to speak English. Those previous studies obviously showed that debating can significantly improve students’ speaking abilities. However, none of the studies truly discussed the benefits of debating which serve as an extracurricular activity in school and are related to students’ opinions. Therefore, this study intends to delve into and analyze how debating can significantly affect students, especially in a smaller community like an extracurricular club. The limitations of the time to practice and a lack of control by the lecturer in the university might also be discussed in the study to know if having debates outside of the classroom context can still contribute to students’ improvements in their English-speaking skills.

Method Context of the Study This research was conducted in the Compact Semester of 2017/2018 in a private university in Central Java, Indonesia. The study identified the perceptions of students about the benefits of debates as a method to improve students’ English speaking skills. The debating method was used significantly in the club. The activity was conducted regularly using a classroom context in which the students would follow a learning process in the classroom, do drilling practices using various topics, receive feedback, do assignments, and obtain credits in the university system. The purpose of having the practice sessions was to make the students feel comfortable in using English in the competitions.

Participants The participants consisted of three students. Those participants were chosen based on the consistency when they were members of a debating club and the significance of showing improvements after joining the club. There were one male and two female participants in this study. All the participants were 2014 students and had not joined the debating club when they were in high school. EDS (English Debating Society) is an extra-curricular activity outside the class hours. These participants’ abilities were just average before they joined EDS. However, after joining EDS, it can be concluded that their abilities in speaking, debating in particular, had improved a lot, both in terms of language and content. The improvements will later be elaborated in the Findings and Discussion section.

Data Collection Instruments The data was collected from semi-structured interviews with the three participants, who were former debate members. There were six questions using English asked to the three participants. The questions were related to the benefits

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of joining the debate club. Audio-recorded interviews were conducted using a mobile phone. The data was then analyzed based on the answers from the participants.

Data Collection Procedures In the data collection, three former EDS (English Debating Society) members were interviewed. The participants who were interviewed had significant improvements since joining the debating club in a private university in Central Java, Indonesia. The interviews were conducted on July 16th and 17th, 2018. Afterwards, the interviews were transcribed and analyzed based on the emerging themes.

Findings and Discussion The interviews were conducted with the previous members of EDS from the 2014 batch. The interview results are presented in this section. In general, all the interviewees admitted that their English-speaking skills improved after joining EDS. Moreover, the interviewees also mentioned that there were other skills improved by joining EDS. They were critical thinking, discipline, and some other abilities. However, the interviewees admitted that there were still challenges that the EDS members experienced. In general, the EDS members’ speaking skills improved in the community. The reasons and explanations are elaborated below.

How EDS Helped Debaters Improve Their Speaking Skills The five aspects of speaking skills, which are fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, were all improved, as admitted by the participants who were EDS members from the 2014 batch. The materials and methods used in the practice or competition to enhance students’ speaking performance were mentioned. Here are the explanations of the five speaking skills improved.

Fluency Based on the interview results, Student A, Student B, and Student C admitted that EDS helped them to speak fluently in English. It was honed through drilling exercises and feedback which were given by the community. Moreover, Student A, Student B, and Student C explained that they also had a responsibility to achieve their goals as debaters which were to deliver the arguments effectively within the time limitations. So, the students admitted that EDS trained them to speak English confidently through all the experiences in the practices and competitions. In addition, the usage of gap fillers as the biggest challenge to speak fluently in English were also decreased from time to time for EDS members from the 2014 batch. Below are the students’ opinions about their fluency development in EDS.

Excerpt 1: “As the time goes by, our fluency is getting better. For example, we used to say “ladies and gentlemen” up to 20 times in our speeches. After all the practices, we realize that in order for us to achieve something in a competition, we need to practice omitting “ladies and gentlemen” in our

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speeches. We also have the burden to contribute in our speeches as well. Therefore, being fluent in English is needed as debaters. We need to be effective and contributive to our team. Moreover, the experiences shape us in our daily lives to speak in English fluently even in our lives.” (Student A’s statement, July 16th, 2018)

Similarly, Khaldun (1958) in Tsou (2005) affirmed students’ opinions through their research about the results of intensive speaking practices. The researcher said that the more a student utilizes a language, the higher his/her level of proficiency will be. Being fluent in English is as important as the language itself. Moreover, the stage of being fluent also means students feel confidence because of having enough practices and chances to use the language (Sabbah, 2015). Therefore, by having enough speaking practices through various contexts in the debating society, students’ self-confidence will develop automatically.

Comprehension of the Essence of Debates As mentioned in the interview results, Student A, Student B, and Student C said that their comprehension skills also improved really well. The students clearly admitted that comprehension was the key in which the dynamics of debates exist. The students read a lot of materials in order to speak defensively, and then listened and wrote opponents’ arguments in every practice. Moreover, the students said that their comprehension skill in speaking English was developed. These students needed to respond to arguments and made their arguments stand against the opponents’ beliefs. Therefore, these students were trained to understand various contexts of issues which consequently, made their comprehension increase. Here is a student’s comments about the idea of comprehension development.

Excerpt 2: “In fact, we were trained to read lots of things and watch videos to prepare us before a competition. I feel like my comprehension towards many kinds of books and diverse conversations improved in English. I was prepared with the knowledge in practices.” (Student B’s statement, July 17th, 2018)

In line with what Student B said that their comprehension was increased in EDS, Allison (2002) also affirmed that a debate is a multi-tasking job for students. Students need to speak their opinions, write their arguments, listen to their opponents, and read an abundance of materials to give insights about the topic. Zare and Othman (2015, p. 157) added that debates provide better “learning course content experience” for students. Students may get inspired to learn how to explain and justify their beliefs deeply. Moreover, debates teach students to convince and counter arguments by the various topics provided in debates. In other words, debates increase students’ understanding by having multiple activities in one practice or competition.

Vocabulary As mentioned in the interview results, the student participants admitted that their vocabulary was automatically improved by joining EDS. By regularly

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having the practices and going to competitions, they got chances to add to their vocabulary lists. Moreover, the students were forced to read lots of materials and listen to various videos which enriched their vocabulary lists. Here is a student’s comments of the development of their vocabulary lists.

Excerpt 3: “In a debate itself, there is an urgency to win a competition. How can you win a debate competition? We need to shield ourselves with lots of knowledge. So, as debaters we need to read a lot of English articles related to the motions and elaborate on the information in our arguments. Hence, by having those activities, our vocabulary will improve as well. If our vocabulary is not prepared well, we will be so confused to understand and respond to what the opponents say or even what the motion means.” (Student A’s statement, July 16th, 2018)

The benefits of vocabulary improvement through EDS were also affirmed by Krashen (1981). The researcher stated that most learners had vocabulary growth through incidental learning such as through continuous exposure in order to comprehend the language in reading, listening, speaking, and writing exercises. In other words, the continuous practice of speaking in EDS had unintended improvements in students’ vocabulary development.

Grammar As mentioned in the interview results, Student A and Student B agreed with the idea that EDS improved their grammar significantly. Through joining in the drilling practices, Student A and Student B felt that by using good grammar in debates, it helped them to deliver their arguments and understand the opponents’ arguments. Here is a student’s comments regarding the grammar development.

Excerpt 4: “When we learn debating, we will, as much as we can, follow the way a particular debater who has an outstanding performance in a competition debates. Those who have been outstanding as debaters will usually have excellent grammar. We get inspired and challenged to follow the good debaters in order to be "notified" because having good arguments is not enough if you can’t deliver the arguments using good grammar. Moreover, we also sometimes meet good opponents who already have good grammar, so in a debate there is an exchange of information of grammar unconsciously.” (Student A’s statement, July 16th, 2018)

Improving grammar through debating methods was also mentioned by Uibu and Liiver (2015). The researchers mentioned about the consequence of exposing students gradually to how challenging and various reading materials could produce effective language use. In other words, students who are given the opportunity to have lots of input of English will be able to produce the language, either verbal (speaking) or non-verbal (writing), correctly and automatically. However, Student C felt that the grammar improvement was not that noticeable. Some debaters neglected the idea of using proper grammar in their

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speeches. Student C affirmed that what the debaters were concerned about was whether or not the message could be well conveyed in the speech, instead of focusing on grammar. Yet, Student C admitted her grammar was still developed through EDS, even though it was not that significant.

Excerpt 5: “Some debaters neglect the use of appropriate grammar in the competitions. The debaters rarely addressed the proper tenses. However, reading lots of English journals and articles could improve the grammar of the debaters.” (Student C’s statement, July 16th, 2018)

However, Uibu and Liiver (2015) also stated if the students produce incorrect grammar, the exposure to peers who have correct grammar would automatically influence them. The practices and competitions give them an opportunity to communicate and exchange information. In short, by having various competitions and practices together, students will acquire correct grammar too.

Pronunciation As mentioned in the interview results, Student A, Student B, and Student C agreed that their pronunciation was developed as well as the other English speaking skills in the club. All students said the importance of the pronunciation developed was to help them deliver their arguments to be understood by their opponents. If they mispronounced a word, it could influence all the sentences of the arguments. Moreover, the students also learned to hear new vocabulary related to the various topics pronounced by their opponents. Pronunciation took an important role to convey the meanings of the words. Here is a student’s comments on pronunciation development.

Excerpt 6: “When we try to deliver and understand arguments, our comprehension and pronunciation are linked to be developed in debates. We need to understand and make others understand what we are going to say in our speeches.” (Student A’s statement, July 16th 2018)

Simply put, pronunciation development for students can influence their performance in speaking English. Similarly, Kelly (2000) in Seyedabadi and Fatemi (2015) affirmed that to use the stress and the intonation inaccurately can cause problems for students if they do not carefully pay attention to the pronunciation of the words. Therefore, through the drilling during debating practices, students lessened the chance to misinterpret the words for both the interlocutor and the speaker, and it gave the students confidence to talk in English.

Other Skills Improved in Debates Critical Thinking Student A and Student B admitted that debating activities also improved their critical thinking skills towards many issues that are popular in society. Participating in debates expanded their understanding about how to criticize the dynamic changes that happen in society or even a discussion with a teacher and

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friends in a classroom context. Joining debates taught the students not only to perceive one problem from one perspective, but also to see it from others’ perspectives too. For instance, they had to see the perspectives of the doer and the victim in a murder case. In the debating practices, the students were usually encouraged to identify, construct, and evaluate their arguments which prepared them to face various problems in society.

Excerpt 7: “I felt the other skill which was improved was my critical thinking skill. I could reflect from some subjects that I took in the university which were discussed about philosophy, pop culture, and cross-cultural understanding. I felt so comfortable in the classroom sharing and criticizing about the differences of opinions of social problems by using my base in the debate. I learned that I could not see a phenomenon just from one view. I also learned to be able to elaborate on the reasons for my choice over identifying a change in society.” (Student B’s statement, July 17th, 2018)

Similar to the students’ opinions, Gieve (1998, p. 130) stated that for students to think critically they must be able to “examine the reasons for their actions, their beliefs, and their knowledge claims, requiring them to defend themselves and question themselves, their peers, their teachers, experts, and authoritative texts”. Therefore, it was really obvious that students who were in the debating club would have critical thinking skills through the practices and competitions that they experienced.

Problem Solving Ability Student A, Student B, and Student C admitted that they also learned to overcome various issues with lots of alternative solutions provided. The students were trained to prepare lots of rebuttals in one preliminary of a competition in order to defend their main positions. It was admitted by the students that the training in the debating club automatically made them able to implement problem solving skills in real world situations. The students got used to always preparing alternative options for pro or contra discussions that they might face in a classroom context, in a social situation, in an organizational life, and even in the family.

Excerpt 8: “Besides joining in the debate club, I was also involved in other student activities. I felt it was really different when I had to deal with problems in another community. For example, we needed to work on a proposal for an event. Then we were stuck because of administrative reasons. Instead of complaining and getting angry like students in general, we’d try to directly fix the problem, we negotiated what we could do, we looked for alternatives, and so on. What I could feel was that I had more of an initiative to find a way out.” (Student C’s statement, July 16th, 2018)

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Similar to what the students said, some scholars also confirmed the idea that problem solving skills improved in debates. Fisher, LaPointe, Peterson, and White (2001) affirmed that debating gives students the ability to work with disagreements and provide another point of view in a study case or role play. Moreover, Hall (2011) mentioned in his findings regarding debates improving students’ problem solving skills that debates actually prepared his students to deal beyond their capacities as healthcare professionals. Debating forced them to work with various challenging situations. Thus, debates contributed significantly to their problem-solving skills.

Collaborative Learning Through the drilling practices and competitions, it was crystal clear that the debates trained the students to work on a team. Student A, Student B, and Student C said clearly that debates cannot be separated from “teamwork”. The students learned how to communicate with their peers and convinced them about their beliefs to achieve or rebut one goal in a competition or practice.

Excerpt 9: “At first, it was very difficult to communicate with my friends. Yet, through the practices and feedback to learn how to communicate with others, I could do that.” (Student B’s statement, July 17th, 2018)

Frijters (2006) as cited in Brown (2015) mentioned that the debate structure forces students to share and interact their ideas either for or against the points of view of their team members. In addition, Dam and Volman (2004), as cited in Brown (2015) also asserted that students need to communicate the perspectives of others who support their arguments. Therefore, debates can actually strengthen the relationships of one student with other students and encourage them to work on a team. Students will automatically learn to adjust and adapt to the different characteristics of their classmates.

Conclusion The purpose of this research was to see English Debating Society (EDS) members’ perceptions about how debates can enhance students’ speaking skills and some other soft skills. The responses to the research questions were derived through interviewing three members of the club using semi-structured interview questions, and then identifying the five aspects of English speaking skills. Those five aspects were fluency, comprehension of the debates, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. Some other soft skills which improved through debating practices were critical thinking, problem solving skills, and collaborative learning. As can be seen from the findings, all of the English-speaking aspects were improved through the debating practices and competitions experienced by the participants who were former members of EDS. The first aspect is fluency. The members admitted that through the drilling practices of EDS, their ability to speak fluently was improved. The second aspect is comprehension of the essence of the debates. The students said that by joining the EDS regular practices and competitions and then reading lots of debating material related motions, it trained

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them to easily grasp and conceive the speeches and responses for the speeches as rebuttals against the motions of the opponents. The third aspect is vocabulary. The students were forced to prepare themselves through watching videos related to motions, reading news, and listening to the different levels of their opponents in competitions, which enhanced their vocabulary lists. The fourth one is grammar. The students were exposed to sophisticated inputs from debate materials, such as news and journal articles which automatically influenced their grammar. The fifth aspect is pronunciation. The students got used to listening to their opponents and peers in competitions, which enabled them to imitate the correct pronunciation of words. Some other findings like critical thinking, problem solving, and collaborative learning were also explained in the interviews. Critical thinking skills were developed through analysis drilling practices to elaborate on ideas and defend arguments to achieve the goals. The problem solving skills were trained through expanding the reasons and arguments. The students needed to prepare various options for solving the problems. Collaborative learning as the last skill was also improved. The students learned how to share and interact with their peers in a team in order for them to win the competitions. In short, the five aspects of English speaking skills were effectively improved through debating practices in EDS. It was obviously stated from the interview results of the previous member of EDS. Thus, the benefits also go to the other aspects of soft skills improved like critical thinking, problem solving, and collaborative learning. The speaking skill improvements in the club were effectively enhanced because of the efforts and courage of the students to study hard in the club. This study was limited to only a few interviewees. This research could be expanded to engage more participants in the future. In expanding the concepts, future researchers can investigate how the debating method can be implemented for more participants in various classes at the university level, not only in an extra-curricular activity like EDS. Another weakness is that the method used for collecting the data was only through interviews. It is hoped that future researchers will use more various methods to identify the benefits of debates for students.

References Alasmari, A., & Ahmed, S. S. (2013). Using debates in EFL classes. English language teaching, 6(1), 147-152. Retrieved from http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/view/23054 Allison, S. (2002). Debating with talented and gifted students. School Libraries in Canada, 22(1), 13-14. Retrieved from https://www.coursehero.com/file/p5kr6o9d/30-Allison-S-2002-Debating- with-talented-and-gifted-students-School-Libraries/ Altamimi, N. (2017). Improving speaking skill: Implications for using debatable topics in English speaking classes. English Language Teaching and Literature. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320853097 Arung, F. (2016). Improving the students’ speaking skill through debate technique, Journal of English Education, 1(1), 70-76. Retrieved from https://usnsj.com/index.php/JEE/article/view/JEE010

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Azma. (2008). Improving students’ speaking skill through debate at grade XII IS 2 Of SMA Negeri I Pasaman. A Thesis. Unpublished. Baso, F. (2016). The implementation of debate technique to improve students’ ability in speaking. Exposure Journal, 5(2), 154-173. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322067786_THE_IMPLEMENTA TION_OF_DEBATE_TECHNIQUE_TO_IMPROVE_STUDENTS'_ABILIT Y_IN_SPEAKING Brown, G., & Yule, G. (1994). Teaching spoken language: An approach based on the analysis of conversational English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Brown, Z. (2015). The use of in-class debates as a teaching strategy in increasing students’ critical thinking and collaborative learning skills in higher education. International Journal of Teaching and Education, 7(1), 39-55. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298410885_The_use_of_in- class_debates_as_a_teaching_strategy_in_increasing_students'_critical_thinki ng_and_collaborative_learning_skills_in_higher_education Coghill, J., & Magendanz, S. (2003). English grammar. New York: Wiley Publishing. Fisher, M., LaPointe, C., Peterson, K., & White, D. (2001). Using debate to develop empowered learning in the classroom: A prescription. Retrieved August 6, 2018, from http://debate.uvm.edu/pdf/empower.pdf Fukuda, S. (2003). Attitudes toward argumentation in college EFL classes in Japan. Proceedings of the First Asia TEFL International Conference (pp. 417-418). Gieve, S. (1998). Comments on Dwight Atkinson’s ‘A critical approach to critical thinking in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 32(1), 123-149. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3587907 Hall, D. (2011). Debate: Innovative teaching to enhance critical thinking and communication skills in healthcare professionals. The Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice, 9(3), 1-8. Retrieved from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/ijahsp/vol9/iss3/7/ Harris, D. P. (1969). Testing English as a second language. New York: McGraw Hill. Huebner, T. (1960). Audio-visual technique in foreign language. New York: Cambridge University Press. Kayi, H. (2006). Teaching speaking: Activities to promote speaking in a second language. The Internet TESL Journal, 12(11). Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/ Krashen, S. P. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Krieger, D. (2005). Teaching debate to ESL students: A six-class unit. The Internet TESL Journal, 11(2). Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/ Majidi, A., Graaff, R., & Janssen, D. (2015). Invest in what energizes students to learn: Investigating students’ attitude towards debate in the foreign language classroom. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 6(5), 924-932. Retrieved from

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http://www.academypublication.com/ojs/index.php/jltr/article/view/jltr06059 24932/355 Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vocabulary Mitchell, G. (1998). Pedagogical possibilities for argumentative agency in academic debate. Argumentation & Advocacy, 35(2), 41-60. Retrieved from http://www.pitt.edu/~gordonm/JPubs/ArgAgency.pdf Mukminatien, H. G. (1999). Teaching language as communication. New York: Oxford University Press. Nunan, D. (2003). Practical English language teaching. New York: McGraw Hill. Zare, P., & Othman, M. (2015). Students' perceptions towards using classroom debate to develop critical thinking and oral communication ability. Asian Social Science, 11(9), 158-170. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277615194_Students'_Perceptions_t oward_Using_Classroom_Debate_to_Develop_Critical_Thinking_and_Oral_ Communication_Ability Richard E. (2008). Competitive debate: The official guide. New York: The Penguin Books. Richards, J. (2009). Teaching listening and speaking: From theory to practice (RELC Portfolio Series). Retrieved from https://www.professorjackrichards.com/wp-content/uploads/teaching- listening-and-speaking-from-theory-to-practice.pdf Sabbah S. (2015). The Effectiveness of Using Debates in Developing Speaking Skills among English Majors at University of Palestine. A Thesis. Retrieved from www.alazhar.edu.ps/Library/aattachedFile.asp?id_no=0048274 Seyedabadi, S., & Fatemi, A. (2015). Towards better teaching of pronunciation: Review of literature in the area. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(4), 76-81. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net Scoot, T. (2005). How to teach speaking. London: Longman. Snider, A., & Schnurer, M. (2002). Many sides: Debate across the curriculum. New York: International Debate Education Association. Uibu, K., & Liiver, M. (2015). Students’ grammar mistakes and effective teaching strategies. International Journal of Teaching and Education, 3(1), 70-87 Retrieved from https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4nZg5T_ZD8QJ:htt ps://www.iises.net/international-journal-of-teaching-education/publication- detail-82%3Fdownload%3D6+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=id Tournament, D. (2011). What is debating: World schools debating championship. Retrieved from https://wsdctournament.wordpress.com/about/what-is-debate/ Tsou, W. (2005). Improving speaking skills through instruction in oral classroom participation foreign languages annals. Asian Social Science, 38(1), 46-55. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227516826_Improving_Speaking_S kills_Through_Instruction_in_Oral_Classroom_Participation Worthen, T. K., & Pack, G. N. (1992). Classroom debate as an experiential activity across the curriculum. Retrieved from

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http://www.academypublication.com/ojs/index.php/jltr/article/view/jltr06059 24932 Yonsisno. (2015). The effect of using debate technique toward students’ speaking skill at the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 2 Kota Sungai Penuh. Jurnal Penelitian Universitas Jambi Seri Humaniora, 17(1), 40-44. Retrieved from https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/43488-EN-the-effect-of- using-debate-technique-toward-students-speaking-skill-at-the-eleve.pdf

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

PEER FEEDBACK IN COLLEGE EFL WRITING: A REVIEW OF EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

Yuseva Ariyani Iswandari and Yizhe Jiang Ohio State University, USA [email protected] & [email protected] correspondence: [email protected] DOI: 10.24071/llt.v23i2.2799 received 6 August 2020; accepted 22 September 2020

Abstract Peer feedback in EFL settings has become an interesting area to explore in the past thirty years. This study reviews 16 empirical research studies on offline peer feedback in college EFL writing. There are 4 research questions addressed in this study, namely (1) what types of peer feedback are mostly researched in the past 10 years?, (2) what kinds of research objectives are addressed?, (3) what kinds of data collection and analysis methods are implemented to address the research questions?, and (4) what are methodological challenges reported in the studies reviewed? The researchers employed Norris and Ortega (2006) characteristics of systematic research synthesis and followed a chapter from Adolescent Literacies in a Multicultural Context edited by Cumming (2012). The findings show that there are four criteria of feedback types mainly involved: written/spoken, in- class/out-of-class, anonymous/non-anonymous, and trained/untrained. Most of these studies are designed to explore the students’ perceptions toward peer feedback processes and products, with qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methodologies. Furthermore, the methodological challenges emerged from these studies are discussed, especially the ethical issues. It is hoped that the research gaps identified in these studies and future research implications provided can shed light on future research in similar areas.

Keywords: peer feedback, EFL writing, college EFL setting, methodological review

Introduction The past thirty years have witnessed a growing body of research on peer feedback in English writing classes (Chang, 2016; Hyland, 2019; Yu & Lee, 2016). Peer feedback, which has several terms like peer response (Hyland, 2019), peer evaluation (Tahir, 2012), or peer editing (Yu & Lee, 2015), is viewed as a common pedagogical activity in ESL and EFL writing classrooms. In a general agreement, it refers to a practice in a writing classroom where one student gives feedback on his/her friend’s writing during the drafting process. These students play roles as reviewer and receiver of the feedback. More specifically, we adopt Hansen and Liu’s definition of peer feedback (2012) as:

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the use of learners as sources of information and interactants for each other in such a way that learners assume roles and responsibilities normally taken on by a formally trained teacher, tutor, or editor in commenting on and critiquing each other’s drafts in both written and oral formats in the process of writing (p. 1).

Originated from L1 research, the practice of peer feedback has been given credits for providing a non-threatening atmosphere for the student, enhancing their sense of audience, and improving their drafts (Hyland, 2019; Keh, 1990). Most research has been conducted on students as feedback receivers, with some exception of investigating the students who practice as reviewers (see Patchan & Schunn, 2015). In a nutshell, most studies conducted on peer feedback practices in English writing have reported positive results (Yu & Lee, 2016). However, some scholars are more reserved about the application of peer feedback, arguing that students might lack trust in their readers or feel frustration due to miscommunication with their peers (Mangelsdorf, 1992; Carson & Nelson, 1996). Although there is a large body of scholarship that looks at the role of peer feedback in English writing education, there is a lack of comprehensive review specifically focusing on the previous studies conducted on English as a foreign language in the college writing contexts. There have been some review articles on peer feedback on writing in English. Owing to the importance of peer feedback on English language writing, Yu and Lee (2016) comprehensively review studies of peer feedback in second language (L2) writing published between 2005 to 2014, focusing on the aspects including, in part, effectiveness on writers compared with teacher feedback, benefits of peer feedback for the reviewers, and cultural issues. Another secondary study, Chang’s thematic analysis, includes 103 empirical articles published from 1990 to 2015 and analyzes them in terms of perceptions, process, and products of peer feedback in second language writing (2016). Reviewing articles about the feedback of writing in general, Hyland, Nicolás-Conesa, & Cerezo (2016) point out that while a wealth of data is generated from ESL contexts, much less is explored in EFL contexts. To the best knowledge of the authors, there is no research synthesis or meta-analysis specifically for peer feedback in the EFL college context. Furthermore, no research synthesis has centered on the methodological issues despite the important role played by methodology in English acquisition research academia. The goals motivating our research include: 1. To fill the lacunas aforementioned and provide a clear and organization review on the primary studies of peer feedback processed in EFL college settings, published from 2011-2020. 2. To showcase the most researched aspects, the recent research trends, and the challenges emerged in terms of research methodology in EFL peer feedback in the last ten years, providing valuable implications for researchers. 3. To uncover the methodological gaps of the existing literature from 2011 to 2020 and showcase the directions for future research in college EFL writing peer feedback.

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Research from various theoretical and methodological perspectives A large amount of literature on L2 peer feedback and its benefits have been conducted (Hansen & Liu, 2005; Montgomery & Baker, 2007; Lee, 2008; Lundstorm & Baker, 2009; Bitchener & Knoch, 2010). Ferris and Hedgcock (1998) state that feedback, including peer feedback, holds out to be one constant element in the pedagogy of writing. From the sociocultural perspective, the social interaction that is formed through students’ collaboration when they become a reviewer and receiver of feedback is viewed as the most effective way to facilitate students to attain higher levels of writing proficiency (Zhao, 2018). This is in accordance with Vygotsky’s theory (1987) of Zone of Proximal Development which highlights that individual cognitive development results from social interaction. This perspective highlights two important keys in learning, the importance of social interaction and process-oriented. Through peer feedback, the reviewers try to guide the receivers on how to revise their writing drafts. This guidance or assistance that is given by the reviewers is known as scaffolding (Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994). In this scaffolding, it is expected that students are able “to be both experts and novices, which helped them to assist one another to attain a higher level of performance” (Cao, Yu, & Huang, 2019, p. 103). The final purpose of scaffolding is that students are able to internalize the knowledge they have learned and become self-regulated towards their future writing tasks. From the cognitive perspective, which focuses more on the learning process inside of the students’ mind, students’ self-confidence gets improved and feel less anxiety when they receive positive comments from their peers, and they are motivated to provide feedback for their classmates (Conner & Moulton, 2000). Yastibas & Yastibas’ study (2015) also reports that peer feedback reduces students’ anxiety because it enables the students to work collaboratively with other friends, so they can learn from each other. Both L2 and L2 cognitive researchers advance that peer feedback helps writers write and review their works with audience awareness (Becker, 2006). Audience awareness, or reader awareness, according to many scholars, is an important indicator of writing quality, distinguishing expert from novice writers (e.g., Kroll, 1981; Carvalho, 2002). Moreover, through providing and receiving feedback, the writers get comprehensive perceptions of how different readers react to the same writing and thus plan, create, and revise their works more holistically (Becker, 2006). However, Van Lier (2004) recommends L2 researchers to conduct further studies on students’ cognitive processes and make them connected to the environment in order to provide broader perspectives of the L2 learning process. In terms of the methodology applied in the research of peer feedback in second language writing, Yu and Lee (2016) discuss it in their State-of-the-Art article reviewing studies about peer feedback published from 2005 to 2014. According to them, during this period, qualitative case studies, either single case or multiple cases, had been most commonly conducted in this area mainly focusing on the process peer feedback, with triangulation of multiple data sources. Quantitative studies about peer feedback frequently investigated its effectiveness on students’ compositions. Furthermore, the paper shows that mixed-method designs had been increasingly applied to garner comprehensive images about peer feedback, such as integrating questionnaires and standard tests with interviews.

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Method As it was stated in the introduction part, no research synthesis has centered on the methodology issues in this area despite the important role played by methodology in English acquisition research academia. To fill the lacunas, capture the recent research trends, and provide the implications of future research methodologies for EFL educators and researchers, we conduct a research synthesis analyzing the methodologies of empirical studies of peer feedback in undergraduate English writing published in the last ten years (2011-2020). Specifically, four research questions guiding this review are: 1. What types of peer feedback are mostly researched in the past 10 years? 2. What kinds of research objectives are addressed? 3. What kinds of data collection and analysis methods are implemented to address the research questions? 4. What are the methodological challenges reported in the studies reviewed?

Selection Criteria The writers employed Norris and Ortega (2006) characteristics of systematic research synthesis and followed a chapter from Adolescent Literacies in a Multicultural Context edited by Cumming (2012). The study followed some inclusion criteria as follows: 1. The study was limited to the discussion on face-to-face peer feedback in EFL college writing and, therefore, we exclude computer-based forms of peer feedback. 2. The study only included the published empirical research articles in the last ten years (2011-2020) in order to provide original empirical results and findings. 3. The study limited its discussion on EFL college student setting since peer feedback in EFL writing still becomes EFL teacher interest and practice. 4. The study included written and spoken modes of peer feedback because the focus was on the feedback, not on the way.

Literature Search Procedures The writers located the search by using four online databases in order to synthesize the published empirical articles and studies that are relevant to the study focus. They were Scopus, Direct Science, Web of Science, and Ebscohost. The combination of keywords related to the topic was implemented, including “peer feedback”, “L2 writing”, “EFL setting”, “EFL college students”, “revision”, “types of peer feedback”, and “role of training”. In addition, manual search was also performed in prominent journals on second language writing, such as TESOL Quarterly, Language Teaching, Journal of Second Language Writing, The Modern Language Journal. Furthermore, Google Scholar search engine and Ohio State University library database were also used to find additional research papers and/or attest the studies. Finally, the writers also searched for information from the reference page of related books and published articles to be used as sources for potential studies. After conducting an initial review of the articles obtained from the above databases at the abstract level, there were 27 articles selected. However, after thoroughly reading those articles and putting the important information into a table, there were 16 studies that were matched with the inclusion criteria.

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Findings and Discussion This study reviews 16 empirical research articles on peer feedback in college EFL writing in order to answer the four research questions, they are: (1) what types of peer feedback are mostly researched in the past 10 years?, (2) what kinds of research objectives are addressed?, (3) What kinds of data collection and analysis methods are implemented to address the research questions?, and (4) what are methodological challenges reported in the studies reviewed?

Types of peer feedback that are mostly researched in the past 10 years Background of the primary studies For the research background of these 16 studies, 10 studies were conducted in mainland China (Yu & Lee, 2015; Wang & Lu, 2016; Lei, 2017; Yu & Hu, 2017a; Yu & Hu, 2017b; Cao, Yu, & Huang, 2018; Tian & Li, 2018; Zhao, 2018; Zhu & Carless, 2018; Shen, Bai, & Xue, 2020). Others were respectively conducted in Iran (Rahimi, 2013), Indonesia (Kusumaningrum, Cahyono, & Prayogo, 2019), Vietnam (Nguyen, 2016), Saudi Arabia (Alnasser & Alyousef, 2015), Malaysia (Daud, Gilmore & Mayo, 2013) and Japan (2019). Therefore, research in different regions is strongly recommended, especially with the non- Asian EFL context.

Types of Peer Feedback Most Commonly Conducted for EFL Undergraduate Students The first question addressed in this paper is related to types of peer feedback that are most commonly conducted for EFL undergraduate students. From 16 empirical research publications being synthesized, we identify that there are four major criteria defining the feedback types: written/spoken; in-class/out-of-class; anonymous/non-anonymous; trained/untrained. These four criteria overlap with each other since every study involves more than one type of feedback.

1. Written/Spoken According to our analysis, 7 studies conduct written feedback (e.g., Cahyono & Prayogo, 2019) and 4 studies use spoken feedback (e.g., Yu & Lee, 2015). Furthermore, 5 studies employ both types of feedback as students write their comments first and then express them with their peers face-to-face (e.g., Zhao, 2018). Discussing further the positive effect of having dialogic interaction and negotiation, Zhu & Carless (2018) and Hirose (2012) propose the use of bimodal peer feedback in either peer or small group peer feedback where students are facilitated to use written and spoken modes. Furthermore, Zhu & Carless (2018) highlight that students can use their L1 in the spoken mode which enables students to exchange s and view more efficiently and make them more confident and more motivated in joining the peer feedback activity. Similarly, Yu & Hu (2017) argue that L1 usage during peer feedback is considered to be an essential facilitative factor. However, Zhu & Carless (2018) state an obvious limitation in a way that those who will participate more actively in the spoken mode are those who are normally talkative and good at social interaction.

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2. In-Class/Out-of-Class Regarding this criterion, feedbacks in the majority of studies were delivered in class (e.g., Zhao, 2018; Rahimi, 2013). Face-to-face in-class peer feedback provision is believed to be able to provide students with better interaction patterns and negotiation of meanings (Zhao, 2018; Zhu & Carless, 2018). Students who act as both reviewers and receivers can directly communicate their ideas and thoughts and, at the same time, clarify unclear ideas or feedback in a more relaxing atmosphere. Most of the in-class face to face feedback processes were video recorded, providing rich data to analyze using methods such as interview or stimulated recall, which is discussed in the data analysis section. Four studies have peer review sessions both in and after class (Yu & Lee, 2015; Yu & Hu, 2017a; Tian & Li, 2018; Shen, Bai, Xue, 2020), enabling students to be more prepared while expressing feedbacks in class. Only one study, Wang and Lu’s (2016), solely applies after-class peer feedback asking the students to act as pen pals and providing reviews in the journal books.

3. Anonymous/Non-Anonymous Non-anonymous peer feedback is suggested by most of the researchers (e.g., Zhu & Carless, 2018; Zhao, 2018). Following the sociocultural perspective, non- anonymous in-class peer feedback enables reviewers and receivers of feedback to interact directly in order to provide assistance, mediate their needs, and clarify their understanding during peer feedback (Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994). However, Yu & Hu (2017) suggest that for the success of non-anonymous peer feedback, teachers need to pay close attention to the pairing pattern. They suggest that a “friendship” grouping pattern could make students “feel less inhibited in offering criticisms and showing disagreement, and did not misunderstand each other’s good intention” (p. 32). Although most of the researchers suggest non-anonymous peer feedback practice, Wang & Lu (2016), Nguyen (2016), and Kim (2019) Take Wang and Lu’s (2016) project as an example. They conducted a study on the use of the term “pen-pals” as a peer feedback practice in China setting and found out that this practice could motivate students especially those reluctant ones to be more enthusiastic. However, their findings show that 27.6% of the participants did not think that they make progress in English writing in general. In addition, Rahimi (2013) employs non-anonymous feedback in the first round and anonymous peer feedback in the second round. Therefore, more studies with anonymous or the mixture of anonymous and non-anonymous peer review are warranted to investigate its effectiveness.

4. Trained/Untrained Researchers including Zhao (2018), Rahimi (2013), and Cao, Yu, & Huang (2018) emphasize that the success of peer feedback is dependent on the use of training given to students before they conduct peer feedback. They summarize the benefits of training in 3 main categories. First, training widens students’ focuses, from only focusing on form feedback like grammar and spelling to global errors. Second, helps students improve their self-confidence in writing as well as reviewing other’s writing draft. Finally, it benefits students’ linguistic knowledge, an important aspect of peer feedback practice.

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All the primary studies involve training with different types for the student, except Lei’s (2017) which is not clear whether the training was offered. Some use text modals in class to explain the peer feedback process (e.g., Yu & Hu, 2017a); some offer criteria of the high-quality feedback (e.g., Cao, Yu, & Huang, 2018); some provide immediate teacher assistance in class (e.g., Shen, Bai, & Xue, 2020). While the other 13 studies apply trainings to all the students, the quality and the quantity of the training in Rahimi’s (2013) and Zhu & Carless’s (2018) vary among different groups. For instance, in Zhu and Carless’s research (2018), three groups received little or minimal training whereas the other two groups were trained for 10 minutes about the procedure and criteria of peer feedback in detail. From the sociocultural perspective, training with various types provides scaffolding for students to be more prepared for providing feedbacks with higher quality. According to the primary sources published in the last ten years, it is increasingly the case that students participating in the peer feedback activities with pre-training or instant guidance from their English teachers. However, the role of training for peer feedback remains seldom explored in the college EFL context. From the studies, only one study centers on this issue (Rahimi, 2013) exploring the influences of training on the quality of students’ feedbacks and writings. Thus, more attention needs to be paid to it.

Kinds of research objectives that are addressed Based on the study review, the most commonly addressed research target is students’ perceptions toward the peer feedback processes and products, discussed in seven journal articles (e.g., Nguyen, 2016; Wang & Lu, 2016). What stood out among these studies are those explore students’ attitudes from the perspectives of receiver, giver, and even observer respectively (Tian & Li, 2018; Zhu & Carless, 2018; Nguyen, 2016. The second most frequently discussed issue is students’ writing ability and quality after receiving feedbacks (e.g., Wang & Lu, 2016; Daud, Gilmore & Mayo, 2013). Some researchers center on students’ motivation of participating in peer feedback activities (Yu & Lee, 2015; Wang & Lu, 2016) and the extent of students’ adoption of their peers’ suggestions into their revisions (Lei, 2017; Yu & Hu, 2017b). What is more, two studies target at students’ preference for types of feedbacks. Tian & Li (2018) found that, in general, the students preferred giving positive feedbacks over negative ones on their partners’ writing, in both oral and written processes. In Alnasser and Alyousef’s research article (2015), students reported preferences for receiving macro and micro feedbacks on similar levels. Seldom-voiced points in these studies are about students’ characteristics influenced by the feedback activities, including critical thinking ability (Daud, Gilmore, & Mayo, 2013), metacognition (Nguyen, 2016), and learner autonomy (Shen, Bai, & Xue, 2020), in spite of their important roles in learners’ writing development. Another marginal target is the effects of training (Rahimi, 2013). Besides, only one study investigates students’ interaction patterns involved in peer feedback dialogues (Zhao, 2018). Given that interaction enables reviewers to understand and address their peers’ needs in appropriate ways (Zhao, 2018), this synthesis also flags up the need to investigate students’ interaction patterns in the peer feedback process, both written and oral.

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Kinds of data collection and analysis methods that are implemented to address the research questions The 16 primary studies that we synthesized employed qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods to respond to their research questions. To be specific, there were 6 studies that were conducted qualitatively (Yu & Lee, 2015; Yu & Hu, 2017a; Yu & Hu, 2017b; Cao, Yu, Huang, 2018; Zhu & Carless, 2018; Nguyen, 2016) and 6 studies that employed mixed methods (Wang & Lu, 2016; Lei, 2017; Tian & Li, 2018, Shen, Bai, & Xue, 2020; Kim, 2019; Alnasser & Alyousef, 2015). The other four studies were conducted quantitatively, including the studies from Zhao (2018), Rahimi (2013), Daud, Gilmore, and Mayo (2013), and Kusumaningrum, Cahyono, and Prayogo (2019). The clear presentation can be seen in the following table. In terms of data collections, most of the qualitative studies employed interviews (most of them were semi-structured interviews). From the analysis, we found that interviews were chosen to answer research questions related to students’ motivation of peer feedback practice (Yu & Lee, 2015), students’ attitude and perception on peer feedback (Cao, Yu, & Huang, 2018; Zhu & Carless, 2018; Nguyen, 2016), types of feedback (Yu & Hu, 2017a; Kim, 2019), the extent the peer feedback is incorporated into writing (Lei, 2017; Yu & Hu, 2017b), and students’ autonomy in peer feedback (Nguyen, 2016; Shen, Bai, & Xue, 2020). The other data collections were through video recording of peer feedback sessions (Yu & Lee, 2015; Yu & Hu, 2017a; Yu & Hu, 2017b; Cao, Yu, & Huang, 2018; Nguyen, 2016), stimulated recalls (Yu & Lee, 2015; Yu & Hu, 2017a; Yu & Hu, 2017b; Cao, Yu, & Huang, 2018; Tian & Li, 2018), and the analysis of students’ drafts and revisions (Yu & Lee, 2015; Lei, 2017; Yu & Hu, 2017a; Yu & Hu, 2017b). Few of the studies also implemented open-ended questions in the survey (Tian & Li, 2018; Kim, 2019), class observation fieldnotes, and reflective journals (Zhu & Carless, 2018). Meanwhile, questionnaires with Likert Scale were mostly employed for the quantitative method by the researchers (Wang & Lu, 2016; Lei, 2017; Tian & Li, 2018; Shen, Bai, & Xue, 2020; Kim, 2019; Daud, Gilmore & Mayo, 2013; Alnasser & Alyousef, 2015). The other data collections for the quantitative method were from the students’ writing scores (Wang & Lu, 2016; Lei, 2017; Kusumaningrum, Cahyono, & Prayogo, 2019; Rahimi, 2013), and Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (Daud, Gilmore & Mayo, 2013). The complete presentation of the data collection category can be seen below.

Table 1. Qualitative Data Collection Category

Qualitative Data Studies Yu & Lee, 2015; Wang & Lu, 2016; Lei, 2017; Yu & Hu, 2017a; Yu & Hu, 2017b; Interview (most of them are semi- Cao, Yu, & Huang, 2018; Zhu & Carless, structured) 2018; Shen, Bai, & Xue, 2020; Alnasser & Alyousef, 2015; Kim, 2019; Nguyen, 2016

Video recording of peer feedback Yu & Lee, 2015; Yu & Hu, 2017a; Yu &

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sessions (5 studies) Hu, 2017b; Cao, Yu, & Huang, 2018; Nguyen, 2016

Yu & Lee, 2015; Yu & Hu, 2017a; Yu & Stimulated recalls (5 studies) Hu, 2017b; Cao, Yu, & Huang, 2018; Tian & Li, 2018

Draft and revisions (4 studies) Yu & Lee, 2015; Lei, 2017; Yu & Hu, 2017a; Yu & Hu, 2017b Open-ended questions in survey (2 Tian & Li, 2018; Kim, 2019 studies)

Audio recording of peer feedback Tian & Li, 2018 sessions (1 study)

Peer interaction protocol (1 study) Zhao, 2018

Class Observation Fieldnotes (1 study) Zhu & Carless, 2018

Table 2. Quantitative Data Collection Category Quantitative data Studies

Wang & Lu, 2016; Lei, 2017; Tian & Li, 2018; Questionnaires with Likert Scales Shen, Bai, & Xue, 2020; Kim, 2019; Daud, (7 studies) Gilmore & Mayo, 2013; Alnasser & Alyousef, 2015

Wang & Lu, 2016; Lei, 2017; Kusumaningrum, Writing scores (4 studies) Cahyono, & Prayogo, 2019; Rahimi, 2013

Cornell Critical Thinking Test Daud, Gilmore & Mayo, 2013 Level X (1 study)

Furthermore, we also classified how the data were analyzed in those 16 primary studies. Qualitatively, some researchers conducted transcripts analysis (Yu & Lee, 2015), texts analysis (Yu & Hu, 2017a; Yu & Hu, 2017b), draft and revision analysis (Min, 2016), Content analysis (Nguyen, 2016), and thematic analysis of reflective journals and observation fieldnotes (Zhu & Carless, 2018). In the quantitative analysis, the researchers preferred to conduct quasi- experimental study (Daud, Gilmore, & Mayo, 2013) and causal-comparative study (Kusumaningrum, Cahyono, & Prayogo, 2019). Additionally, there are two major data analysis tools, they are: NVivo10 to analyze peer interaction (Zhao, 2018), SPSS to analyze the students’ scores (Rahimi, 2013). The mixed-method, therefore, would be the combination of the qualitative and quantitative ones. For

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example, the study of Lei (2017) employed qualitative analysis of interviews and descriptive analysis of writings combined with analyzing the writing tests and questionnaires using SPSS. Another example is Tian and Li’s (2018) study, which analyzed interview transcripts qualitatively, employed descriptive analysis, and paired sample T-test with SPSS to analyze the questionnaire. The presentation is as follows.

Table 3. Data Analysis Category Analysis Methods Studies Yu & Lee, 2015 (transcripts were analyzed with Miles and Huberman’s 1995 qualitative data analysis scheme; drafts and revisions were analyzed with text analysis approach (Min, 2006)) Yu & Hu, 2017a (text analysis and qualitative analysis on interview and recalls) Yu & Hu, 2017b (text analysis on writing; Miles Qualitative (6 studies) and Huberman’s 1995 qualitative data analysis scheme) Cao, Yu, & Huang, 2018 (Strauss & Corbin, 1998 qualitative approach) Zhu & Carless, 2018 (thematic analysis of reflective journals and observation fieldnotes) Nguyen, 2016 (content analysis)

Rahimi, 2013 (SPSS analyzing students’ scores) Daud, Gilmore, & Mayo, 2013 (quasi- experimental study) Quantitative (4 studies) Kusumaningrum, Cahyono, & Prayogo, 2019 (causal-comparative study) Wang & Lu, 2016 (quasi-experimental-control group and experimental group; qualitative analysis of interview)

Lei, 2017 (qualitative analysis of interview, descriptive analysis of writings; writing tests and questionnaires analyzed by SPSS) Tian & Li, 2018 (Qualitatively analyzing recall interview transcripts; descriptive analysis and paired sample T-test with SPSS analyzing Mixed-Method (6 studies) questionnaire) Shen, Bai, & Xue, 2020 (thematic analysis for interview; ANOVA analysis of questionnaire of both experimental and controlled groups quasi- experimental data) Kim, 2019 (statistics analysis of questionnaire; qualitative analysis of interview and open-ended

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questions of survey)

Alnasser & Alyousef, 2015 (quasi-action study; qualitative analysis of interview)

From the explanation and tables presented above, it is identified that the research on peer feedback in college EFL writing has employed various data collection and analysis methods. It indicates that research on peer feedback in college EFL writing has provided throughgoing findings and results, both qualitatively and quantitatively from various data collections and sources. The 16 empirical articles show that the research in this field has been conducted in diverse EFL settings, including China (10 studies), Iran (1 study), Indonesia (1 study), Vietnam (1 study), Saudi Arabia (1 study), Malaysia (1 study), and Japan (1 study). However, there are still some gaps identified. First, based on the analysis, almost all of the studies were limited by their research participant sizes and sites. Most of them used one or two EFL classes for their research participants. Moreover, they only collected data from one site which was one university. Therefore, the findings could not be generalized for other EFL settings. It would be insightful for future research to focus on a similar topic in a broader setting with more participants. Second, some researchers conducted their research in their own classes, programs, and/or institutions. Although there are many benefits from being insiders, there are still several potential issues and conflicts that may appear during the data collection and the implementation processes of the research. It is suggested that future researchers have strategies to resolve or minimize the impacts of conflicts or issues resulted from positioning themselves as insiders.

Methodological challenges reported in the studies reviewed The section of methodology, especially the data collection stage, takes a very essential part among researchers’ research stages because it is the time for researchers to really interact with their research participants and data. Research in the social and behavioral sciences involves humans and commonly reveals a great amount of information about their lives during data collection and analysis. With the vast growing research interests in this field, there are increasing concerns and awareness on the paucity of the participants’ rights and privacy. From the 16 primary studies reviewed in this study, there are some methodological challenges identified, especially related to potential ethical issues. Three articles explicitly stated about research ethics and (potential) ethical issues appearing during their data collection and analysis. Zhu and Carless’ (2018) research on “dialogue within peer feedback processes: clarification and negotiation of meaning” clearly mentioned how research ethics are accommodated by mentioning that “the student received ethical approval and observed anonymity, voluntary participation, freedom to withdraw and respect for participants” (p. 888). The research data collection is carefully planned as the researcher also tried to minimize the influence on the participants by positioning self as a non-participant observer. Furthermore, the article included a disclosure statement by the end of the paper

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which stated that there was no potential conflict of interest reported by the authors. Similarly, Daud and Mayo’s (2013) study on exploring the potency of peer evaluation to develop critical thinking for tertiary academic writing implemented careful data collection steps in order to anticipate ethical issues. To deal with the selection threat, the researchers chose the participants from the same year and discipline of study. Moreover, gender, educational background, and teaching experience were also considered when selecting the instructors. Unlike the previous two studies, Nguyen’s (2016) study on peer feedback practice in EFL tertiary writing classes identified the potential ethical issue found during the observation. She pointed out that the lecturers’ organization of peer feedback grouping may result in the potential ethical issue since they only grouped the students based on the location where they were sitting down. It is suggested that pairing or grouping of the students need to consider accommodating the students’ choice of autonomy and equity. In addition to what has been stated explicitly, some potential ethical issues in the methodological part were also implicitly identified. The potential issues are mostly related to research participants’ autonomy principle, justice, and equity. First, studies conducted by Wang and Lu (2016) and Rahimi (2013) used controlled and experimental groups for their data collection in order to answer their research objectives related to the students’ attitude, motivational level, and preference. When controlled groups and experimental groups receive different treatments, it might bring the potential issue in justice or fairness. From the research ethic principle, it is stated that everyone who participates in research should be treated fairly and equally. Another potential ethical issue related to fairness is identified in Alnasser and Alyousef’s (2015) study, in which they had 41 participants who were male-only without making any justification why only male students were chosen. This decision raises a potential issue towards equity of gender being involved in research. Finally, a potential ethical issue related to participants’ choice of autonomy is also identified. Most of the research settings are conducted in writing classes in the EFL college settings. One example is the study by Kusumaningrum, Cahyono, and Prayogo (2019) in Indonesia. Their study involved 55 fourth-semester students who attended an argumentative writing course. Since the participants were taking that class, they were not given any choice whether or not they were willing to participate. Besides, the group distribution for different treatments was directly decided by the teacher. Therefore, it is actually suggested that the researcher could review the research ethic principles before making decisions on the data collection stages.

Conclusion This study synthesizes 16 empirical studies focusing on peer feedback in the college EFL settings published in the last ten years. It showcases the frequent types of feedback, the commonly addressed research targets, the data collection and analysis methods, and the methodological challenges reported in the studies reviewed. From the synthesis, there are four major types of peer feedback most commonly conducted for EFL undergraduate students, including written/ spoken, in-class/ out-of-class, anonymous/ non-anonymous, and trained/ untrained feedback. Furthermore, it is revealed that investigating students’ perceptions

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toward peer feedback becomes the most commonly addressed research objective. However, it is found out that students’ interaction patterns in the peer feedback process and the effects of training are seldom investigated. It can be a great recommendation for future researchers to investigate. In terms of data collection and analysis, the findings reveal that the researchers have employed various research methods including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. Various data collection methods are also administered to provide sufficient data for analysis. Regarding the methodological challenges reported in the studies reviewed, out of 16 reviewed studies, 3 studies acknowledge research ethics to anticipate potential ethical issues explicitly. However, there are also some potential ethical issues identified from reviewing the studies. The potential issues are mostly related to research participants’ autonomy principle, justice, and equity. It is hoped that the results of this synthesis paper can shed light on future research about peer feedback in EFL college writing. Still, some limitations associated with limited primary sources must be borne in mind. First, we excluded research of peer feedback in EFL college settings with technology, such as online composition and revision. Second, only English written publications were included in this systematic review. Future synthesis could investigate resources in other languages to further our knowledge in this area

References Atkinson, K. M., Koenka, A. C., Sanchez, C. E., Moshontz, H., Cooper, H. (2015). Reporting standards for literature searches and report inclusion criteria: Making research syntheses more transparent and easy to replicate. Research Synthesis Methods, 6(1), 87-95. Becker, A. (2006). In A. Horning & A. Becker (Eds.), Revision, history, theory, and practice (pp. 25-49). West Lafayette, Indiana: Parlor Press. Bitchener, J., & Knoch, U. (2010). Raising the linguistic accuracy level of advanced L2 writers with written corrective feedback. Journal of Second Language Writing, 19(4), 207-217. Bramer, W. M., de Jonge, G. B., Reslefsen, M. L., Mast, F., & Kleijnen, J. (2018). A systematic approach to searching: An efficient and complete method to develop literature searches. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 106(4), 531-541. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. Cao, Z., Yu, S., & Huang, J. (2019). A qualitative inquiry into undergraduates’ learning from giving and receiving peer feedback in L2 writing: Insights from a case study. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 63, 102–112. Carvalho, J. B. (2002). Developing audience awareness in writing. Journal of Research in Reading, 25(3), 271-282. Carson, J. G., & Nelson, G. L. (1996). Chinese students’ perceptions of ESL peer response group interaction. Journal of Second Language Writing, 5(1), l-19. Chang, C. Y. (2016). Two decades of research in L2 peer review. Journal of Writing Research, 8(1), 81-117. Conner, A. M., & Moulton, M. R. (2000). Motivating middle school students to revise and edit. The English Journal, 90(1), 72.

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Cote, R.A. (2014). Peer feedback in anonymous peer review in an EFL writing class in Spain. Gist Education and Learning Research Journal, 9, 67-87. Cumming, A. (Ed.). (2012). Adolescent literacies in a multicultural context. New York, NY: Routledge. Ferris, D., & Hedgcock, J. S. (1998). Teaching ESL composition: Purpose, process, and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Hanjani, A.M., Li, L. (2014). Exploring L2 writers’ collaborative revision interactions and their writing performance, System, 44, 101 - 114. Hansen, J. G., & Liu, J. (2005). Guiding principles of effective peer response. ELT Journal, 59(1), 31-38. Hyland, K. (2019). Second language writing (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Hyland, F., Nicolás-Conesa, F., & Cerezo, L. (2016). Key issues of debate about feedback on writing. In R. M. Manchón & P. K. Matsuda (Eds.), Handbooks of second and foreign language writing (pp. 433-452). Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. Keh, C. (1990). Feedback in the writing process: A model and methods for implementation. ELT Journal, 44(4), 294-394. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/44.4.294 Kothari, C. R. (2004). Research methodology: Methods and techniques. New Delhi: New Age International Ltd. Kroll, B. (1981). Developmental relationships between speaking and writing. In B.M. Kroll & R.J. Vann (Eds.), Exploring speaking-writing relationships: connections and contrasts. (pp. 32–54). Urbana, Illinois: NCTE. Kusumaningrum, S. R., Cahyono, B. Y., & Prayogo, J. A. (2019). The effect of different types of peer feedback provision on EFL students’ writing performance. International Journal of Instruction, 12(1), 213–224. Lam, R. (2010). A peer review training workshop: Coaching students to give and evaluate peer feedback. TESL Canada Journal, 27(2), 114. Lee, I. (2008). Student reactions to teacher feedback in two Hong Kong secondary classrooms. Journal of Second Language Writing, 17. Lichtman, M. (2014). Qualitative research for the socical sciences. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. Lundstrom, K., & Baker, W. (2009). To give is better than to receive: The benefits of peer review to the reviewer’s own writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 18, 30-43. Mangelsdorf, K., & Schlumberger, A. (1992). ESL student response stances in a peer-review task. Journal of Second Language Writing, 1(3), 235-254. Montgomery, J. L., & Baker, W. (2007). Teacher-written feedback: Student perceptions, teacher self-assessment, and actual teacher performance. Journal of Second Language Writing, 16, 82-99. Norris, J. M., & Ortega, L. (2006). Synthesizing research on language learning and teaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Rahimi, H. (2013). Is training student reviewers worth its while? A study of how training influences the quality of students’ feedback and writing. Language Teaching Research, 17(1), 67-89. Tahir, I. H. (2012). A study on peer evaluation and its influence on college ESL students. Social and Behavioral Science, 68(2020), 192-201.

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Van Lier, L. (2004). The ecology and semiotics of language learning: A sociocultural perspective. Kluwer: Academic Publishers. Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). Thinking and Speech. In R. W. Rieber & A. S. Carton (Eds.), The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. Vol. 1. Problems of general psychology (pp. 39-285). New York, NY: Plenum. Yastibas, G.C., & Yastibas, A.E. (2015). The effect of peer feedback on writing anxiety in Turkish EFL (English as a foreign language) students. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 530-538. Yu, S., & Lee, I. (2016). Peer feedback in second language writing (2005– 2014). Language Teaching, 49(4), 461–493. Zhao, H. (2018). New insights into the process of peer review for EFL writing: A process-oriented socio-cultural perspective. Learning and Instruction, 58, 263-273. Zoltán, D. (2018). Research methods in applied linguistics: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

BOOK REVIEW: ACHIEVING NEW DIRECTIONS IN SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOM THROUGH MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES APPROACH

Title : Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom (4th Edition) ISBN : 978-1-4166-2509-4 Author : Thomas Armstrong Publisher : ACSD Page : 243 pages

Luisito Manalansan Nanquil Bulacan State University, Philippines correspondence: [email protected] DOI: 10.24071/llt.v23i2.2674 received 22 June 2020; accepted 14 August 2020

Introduction The workplace in today’s world requires the most essential skills needed to achieve its mandated functions and objectives. Gone are the days when the primary requirement was to complete a degree and pass the interview. Most companies nowadays need competencies and skills that can help them attain sustainability and progress. This paper aims to review and discuss the impact of multiple intelligences approach and theory in building the foundation skills of learners in the classroom setting. The article thoughtfully describes the contents of the materials while the researcher connects his reflections and experiences. Other important thoughts were discovered by the researcher as he examined the approach and theory applied to the classroom environment. Moreover, since the context is English language teaching, the researcher focused his thoughts on the practices, observations, and perspectives within the said area. Readers in all fields should take some time to understand information about multiple intelligences because it is imperative in many situations.

Literature Review Shearer (2013) developed Multiple Intelligences Diagnostic Assessment Scales which is regarded as the single best tool for assessing students’ multiple intelligences and is related to simple observation, which is readily available to all. Price-Mitchell (2015) holds that research in cognitive psychology applied to education supports the belief that children benefit from instructional approaches that help them ponder on their learning processes. In connection with multiple intelligences, Archer (2015), illustrated a student diagnosed with ADHD who has a penchant and performs well in highly stimulating environment matched in a job as a firefighter or an emergency room worker; meanwhile, a student diagnosed with ASD who has a number/logic smart knack for

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computers and coding may find jobs related to Information technology field (Wang, 2014). Polya (2014) introduced heuristics as a loose collection of strategies, rules of thumb, guidelines, and suggestions for logical problem-solving. Examples of heuristic strategies include finding analogies to problems people want to solve, breaking down various parts of the problem, and proposing possible solutions to the problem. Polya further added that heuristics provides students with informal logical maps to help them find their way around the unfamiliar academic field. The cited materials and texts clearly depict the value of multiple intelligences in the classroom and the workplace. As revealed by the stories and explanations of the sources, if properly assessed and monitored, the intelligence can bring students to heights of success. The need to infuse multiple intelligences alongside other approaches and strategies can make a difference in second language teaching. The language teacher only needs to get sufficient information and background of the MI theory and approach to make learning environment engaging. It is hoped that future studies may include practical situations dealing with MI and other essential skills that may help boost the performance of schools and industries.

Discussion The first chapter is The Foundations of MI Theory. Here, the historical background of multiple intelligences is tackled and presented to give readers a glimpse of how a theorist conceptualized this area. The eight intelligences are enumerated and briefly introduced to provide a smooth and comprehensible lecture for the readers and language teachers. Chapter 2 holds MIT Theory and Personal Development where readers are gaining the chance to identify their intelligence; hence, it would be easier on their part to acknowledge the intelligence of their students. The next chapter is Describing Intelligences of Students in which the language teacher can point out and describe the most developed intelligence of his students. An inventory of MI is furnished in this chapter which can be used by the teacher to assess the most dominant intelligence of his students. Chapter 4 is Teaching Students About MI Theory. It equips language teachers with the essential method of how they can introduce intelligence and vocabulary to talk to their pupils and students. Through instructional approaches, the language teacher can engage students in the metacognitive activity. Chapter 5 focuses on MI Theory and Curriculum Development where teachers are fed and taught on how knowledge of intelligence can be used in developing curriculum and adapting relevant methods of instruction. In this part, multimodal teaching is covered, which is now a global concern since the pandemic has hit the world. Chapter 6 is the MI Theory and Teaching Strategies. Here, language teachers are immersed in the possible strategies that can work in the ESL classroom linked with the intelligence of the EFL/ESL students. Next is, MI Theory and the Classroom Environment for Chapter 7 and is closely related to Chapter 8, which is MI Theory and Classroom Management. Both of these chapters inform the target audience on the preparation and procedures in handling individual differences and diversities of the learners influenced by their intelligence. Chapter 9 holds The MI School which is sending a strong message to schools that all students who come to

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classrooms deserve holistic training and activities to develop further their existing multiple intelligences. Chapter 10 which is MI Theory and Assessment explains how educators and experts can address issues in the classroom by providing suitable and relatable assessment tools to students. In Chapter 10, authentic assessment of student experiences is expounded well. This part plays a significant role in harnessing the intelligence of students who show up to school and study. Different tools are recommended in this chapter, and all language teachers and educators have many things to take from this part. Chapter 11 MI, Neurodiversity, and Special Education helps people understand “disabilities” in a broader context. Educators now can understand that children with special needs possess strengths in many bits of intelligence. Chapter 12 MI Theory, Personalization, and Deeper Learning discusses the application of multiple intelligences approach to improve the quality of instruction. Chapter 13 MI Theory and New Learning Technologies creates the window of opportunity for teachers to better understand how multiple intelligence strategies can be applied to technology and innovation especially in this time where online and distance education is emerging. Chapter 14 MI Theory and Existential Intelligence leads readers and researchers on the discussion of existentialism and other beliefs about life, religion and so on which are not easy to explain. Ultimate questions about life and existence are underscored here. Chapter 15 MIT Theory and Its Critics offers a major review of the criticisms of MI and key misconceptions. Chapter 16 MI Theory Around the Globe talks about the international progress and influence of MI in the educational scene. Further, this chapter explains and describes the place of MI in academic, individual, and community levels. Multiple intelligences theory provides ideas and insights to all professionals. Among them are the teachers or educators who would like to understand better the problems and issues affecting learning in the classroom. In the same manner, language teachers can view similar aspects and situations when it comes to delivering lessons and assessing the performance of their students. With a picture of how MI works among students, language teachers can easily improve their instructional materials, lesson plans, and assessment tools making sure that a holistic and effective learning atmosphere is existing in schools. A huge change in policymaking may happen if only educators and officials of the Education Department may collaborate and discuss the possible enhancement of policies and curriculum. The curriculum contains all the topics and activities intended for a semester or entire academic year. Hence, with the inclusion of multiple intelligences approach, curriculum designers and educators could come up with a more customized course outline and curriculum based on the learning needs and prevailing intelligences in the classrooms. The researcher/reviewer also believes that lesson plans must be anchored on multiple intelligences approach to help learners discover their potentials and cultivate the intelligences they possess. This simple but helpful step can help build a connection between academe and industry because if intelligence is recognized

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and developed, schools could send graduates to companies and industries carrying the skills, competencies, and intelligences needed in the actual worksite. Language teachers and linguists are aware of the many issues and variables occurring in the ESL classroom. A lot of factors are believed to be vital in the development of language skills. At some point, studies are mentioning the presence of MI as a factor to consider for successful teaching.

Conclusion Several classroom cases showed failure or frustration in achieving learning outcomes even if the language teachers have done their best to facilitate and evaluate the learning experiences of students. It is the intention of the reviewer/researcher to analyze the book of Armstrong and assess possible insights and practices beneficial to language teachers and other educators in their quest for quality instruction. This paper reflects a lot of classroom realities, challenges, and transitions about how MI approach and instructional strategies should be implemented in the language settings. Other specialties in the classroom may attempt to blend the MI approach with other perspectives and practices which could enhance teaching-learning aspects or domains. If all educational centers and institutions will adopt multiple intelligences theory, learners could get the chance to explore their potentials and develop their work skills. Creativity and resourcefulness of language teachers could also be linked to the existing needs, intelligences, and learning strategies of the students. If the teacher has a clear background of the aforementioned variables and traits, most likely they could create and promote learning opportunities in the second language classroom. What follows this scenario is the feasibility and adaptability of the instructional materials that language teachers could creatively design for their students. The researcher is recommending the book of Thomas Armstrong as an effective resource material to all teachers (not just language teachers) because of the forceful, substantial, and scholarly inputs needed by them in holding and nourishing classes across grade levels. The messages from the text clearly indicate how intelligences should be handled and processed fruitfully and meaningfully by teachers. Knowing this theory will assist and inspire teachers to develop effective instructional materials they could use in their classes.

References Archer, D. (2015). The ADHD advantage: What you thought was a diagnosis may be your greatest strength. New York: Avery. Armstrong, T. (2018). Multiple intelligences in the classroom (4th ed.). Alexandria, USA: ACSD. Polya, G. (2014). How to solve it: A new aspect of mathematical method. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Price-Mitchell, M. (2015, April 7). Metacognition: Nurturing self-awareness in the classroom. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8- pathways-metacognition-in-classroom-marilyn-price-mitchell.

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Shearer, B. (2013). Multiple intelligences inspired! A common core toolkit (2nd edition). Kent, OH: MI Research and Consulting. Wang, S.S. (2014, March 27). How autism can help you land a job. Wall Street Journal. Available:https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240527023044184045794 65561364868556.

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