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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE A Study of the Effectiveness of Dictogloss on English Grammar and Motivation for Japanese Junior College Students in English Communication Class Nobumi KANAZAWA 英文法指導におけるディクトグロスの有効性とモチベーションに関する一考察 －英語コミュニケーションの受講生を対象に－ （Abstract） The present study is on the effectiveness of using "dictogloss" in teaching a specific grammar and on motivating student learning. The experiment was given to the freshman students in the Pre-education department in the two of the English Communication Ⅱ classes. Procedures are: ① The conversation with grammatical item “the comparative, and the superlative” is read twice at a natural speed ②Group activity is to reconstruct the conversation through student group discussion ③One of the group’s discussion is recorded to transcribe and analyze ④The “Check” consists of nine true-false questions and is given as a post-test to check each student’s learning achievement As the result, dictogloss seems to indicate that it is an effective teaching task for a specific grammar structure and improves student motivation to actively participate in one’s own learning through the cooperative group work. Key words dictogloss, motivation, teaching method 1. INTRODUCTION Anata no atarashii hair style wa more better The study reported in this paper used the ne. = Your new hairstyle is more better.）’ task called Dictogloss to find out how it which originated from a TV commercial worked for the specific grammatical structure popular years ago seems to be accepted in a evaluating the students’ effectiveness and for daily conversation. Besides the familiarity motivation. For the study‘comparative and which the author hoped would inspire student superlative forms of adjectives’ as a specific motivation, this grammatical structure is one grammatical structure was chosen and of the most useful ones for communication in developed dictogloss for teaching the general, and has to be taught in the 8th grade structure. as the first introduction according to the The reason for the choice of this curriculum guide given by the Ministry of grammatical structure is that a coined Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Japanese English slang‘more better（ex. Technology （MEXT）. There are some ― 1 ― reviews on it and a more detailed introduction noticing, hypothesis-testing, and metatalk is given in high schools. Therefore all the during the use of dictogloss. The students research participants have learned this often focused not only on the grammatical grammatical structure. aspect that was supposed to be emphasized A group of 4 junior college women but also orthographic and semantic issues. performing the dictogloss task was recorded and analyzed their performance on the error 2.2. Motivation theories in learning second correction task. For the data collection the and foreign languages experiment was conducted in the two English Gardner（1985） defines motivation to learn Communication classes that the author is in an L2 as“the extent to which the individual charge. Therefore, not only were the chosen works or strives to learn the language because group’s data used as a control but also the of desire to do so and the satisfaction data from other students in two classes as a experienced in this activity”（p.10）.“Takagi control was collected. （2003）defines this definition includes three components:（a） effort made to achieve a goal, 2. Background （b） desire to learn the language, and（c） 2.1. Dictogloss satisfaction with the tasks of learning a Dictogloss was created by R. Wajnryb and language ”（p48）. it appeared in her published article entitled “The Dictogloss Method of Language 2.3. Motivation studies on Japanese students Teaching: A Text- Based, Communicative learning English Approach to Grammar” which appeared in Many researches （e.g.,Malcom, 1991; the July 1988 issue of English Teaching Takanashi, 1991, Koizumi & Kai, 1992; Forum. Wajnryb （1990） proposed as a Matsukawa & Tachibana, 1996; Tachibana, procedure that encourages students to reflect Matsukawa, & Zhong,1996） have been on their own output. Nunan（1999） is the conducted on motivation studies, however advocator of the“dictogloss” and defines, many of them employed Gardner’s approach Dictogloss is a procedure for teaching that was developed in the English as a second grammatical structures in context. The language context. Since Japanese English procedure involves the teacher in reading a learning environment is the English as a short passage at normal speed. Learners note foreign language, Japanese students’ down all the words they hear, and then work motivation study was pointed out to consider in small groups, pooling their resources to the educational setting by Kimura, Nakata, & reconstruct the original text. Dictogloss has Okumura（2001）. Takagi（2000） conducted a been supported as a useful task or technique research to investigate the relationship by many researchers（Kowal & Swain, 1997; between motivation and grammar learning Lim & Jacobs, 2001a, b; Llewyn, 1989）. among high school students. The result of Kowal and Swain（1997） used the dictogloss comparing the two groups whose intention technique with 8th graders of French were learning for the sake of exams or immersion students and found the evidence of learning for gaining knowledge of culture and ― 2 ― ― 3 ― found out that the latter group had more structures are brought up when necessary in positive attitudes in grammar learning the class. For the discussion（Task1）, the （Takagi, 2000）. grouping was automatically done simply according to the students seated near to each 3. Research Questions other. Therefore the proficiency level of each One of the reasons for the choice of the member in the same group was not dictogloss for the study are that it is a necessarily the same. The group was chosen listening task, because in listening learners are at random for the survey. In the chosen group, focusing on meaning and can ‘bypass’ Student1 and Student2’s English proficiency is grammar. And it also requires cooperative higher than Student3 and Student4. Although work among the students, because the author they have had 6 years of English since 7th believes in using a teacher-centered approach grade, the average student English proficiency at the beginning but then gradually tasks that is as a false beginner. They are taking the give more and more responsibility to the English Communication Ⅱ as required for students. This should help learners to move their degree. beyond explicit to more implicit knowledge. The chosen group’s discussion was recorded Lastly, students whose English proficiency while doing the dictogloss task（see Appendix levels differ must negotiate with each other to 1） then transcribed. reach correct answers. The research questions addressed were: 4.2. Materials （1）Is dictogloss effective for teaching English Lesson 23 on comparative and superlative grammatical structure? forms of adjectives（p.22 and 23） from the （2）Is dictogloss effective for students’ Impact Grammar by Rod Ellis and Stephen motivation learning English through Gaies（1999） was selected as the dictogloss collaborative activity? material. The reasons for the choice are as follows. 4. Methods 1） It does not have any personalization 4.1. Participants questions and statements for such One of the groups of four Japanese comparisons as“Who is the tallest in this freshmen women in the junior college class（or in your family）?”, because such majoring in pre-elementary education questions might hurt some very tall girls participated in the study. The dictogloss task or very short ones as well. While looking was conducted during the regular English for the material for this study the author Communication Ⅱ class. This is a very has found that quite a few course books practical course for future kindergarten even which are said to be using authentic teachers and nursery school teachers focused materials have such comparisons as shoe on the development of English communication size, clothe size, etc. skills along with the introduction of English 2） The passage on Quiz Show can attract songs, activities and picture books with the students’ attention because there are teaching techniques. Occassionaly English some popular quiz shows on TV. It has ― 2 ― ― 3 ― some current information so students pyramid of Quetzalcoatl in Mexico is larger. In will need to listen to the questions very fact, it’s the largest monument in the world. carefully. It seems there is still a tendency for using inappropriate content for the 4.3. Procedure level of the students. Description of the complete lesson 3） Each passage is short enough with a target 1） Warm-up（Introduction of a quiz show）: 5 structure so the students’ concentration for minutes the dictogloss can be sustained. For the The teacher acts as the quiz-show hostess teacher it is easier to keep the students on and the students act as contestants. Students the engaged in the task. stand up and are asked some yes-no questions Not only to focus on the target grammatical including some comparatives in English. The form but also to make it simpler to suit the students who make mistakes have to sit down. participants English proficiency level, This warm-up activity is not only to introduce underlined parts of the original sentences the passage coming up to the next task and to below were either eliminated or reformed. motivate the students but it is also to give them a chance to recall the comparative （material） forms. Quiz Show Host: Today’s contestant, from 2） Task 1（Dictogloss）: 15 minutes Toronto, is Alison MacTavish. Welcome, Have the class listen to a passage between Alison, Please say“True” or“False” after the quiz-show host and the participant of the each statement I read to you. Remember, if Quiz Show at normal speed and have them you make three mistakes, the game is over, note down all the words they hear. Then they and you lose. Ready? will work in small groups（4 or 5 students in Alison: Yes.

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