TESOL INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL Volume 16 Issue 4.2 2021
Chief Editor
Ramon Medriano, Jr. Published by the TESOL International Journal www.tesol-international-journal.com
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Chief Editor: Ramon Medriano, Jr.
ISSN. 2094-3938
TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2
Table of Contents
Foreword 4
1 Lexical Bundles in Saudi EFL Student Writing: A Study of Learner 7 Corpus Hamdallah Abdulkarim Alhusban Chintalapalli Vijayakumar
2 IAU Preparatory Year students: Sentence structure errors in written 32 English Tlili Saad Rajesh Arruri
3 Multicultural Education to Support Internationalization of Universities: 66 Implication for English Medium Instruction Amirullah Abduh Muhammad Basri Ramly Ramly Rosmaladewi
4 Pronouns and Modality as Ideology Carriers in George Orwell’s 78 Animal Farm: A Computer-Aided Critical Discourse Analysis Ayman Farid Khafaga Iman El-Nabawi Abdel Wahed Shaalan
5 Investigating Students' Development of 21 Century and Lifelong Skills 103 During Covid-19 Crisis Education Dalal A.Kareem Ahmed Tara Fryad Henari Abubaker Abdulkarim Alhitty
6 The Comparison between Vocabulary Prescribed in an English for 127 Engineering Commercial Textbook and the Actual Use of English Engineering Vocabulary in Working Routines: The Perception from Thai Engineers Tuntiga Wang Napapach Padermprach Apakorn Chamavit Chalida Janenoppakarn Panadda Pratoomrat
7 English Only Policies in the EFL Classroom: A Review of the Literature 148 Jennifer Yphantides
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Foreword
Welcome to the TESOL International Journal Volume 16 4.2. In this edition we present 7 papers from academics across the globe with their latest research into second language acquisition theories.
In the first paper by Hamdallah Alhusban and Chintalapalli Vijayakumar, the authors investigated the use of lexical bundles in academic writing by advanced EFL Saudi learners. In their paper entitled “Lexical Bundles in EFL Student Writing: A Study of Learner Corpus”, the authors developed an English learner corpus which included 534 essays of multiple genres based in a one-year preparatory programme. Employing the functional framework developed by Douglas Biber, Ken Hyland and Christopher Tribble, the study revealed that student’s essays had a large quantity of research-oriented location, quantification bundles and participant-oriented stance bundles. This study suggests that teachers must provide enough opportunities for students to notice these multi-word expressions either through intensive practice or extensive input.
The second paper, IAU Preparatory Year students: Sentence structure errors in written English is by Dr. Tilli Saad and Rajesh Arruri. Their research principally focuses on sentence grammar as errors in sentence construction that may lead to readability problems in their future academic writing. Errors are not only related to beginner students, but they are present in the intermediate and advanced written English. This valuable work aims at providing grammar and writing courses designers with some insights about sentence structure errors committed by non-native students of English. For ESL EFL language teachers, the findings of this research show that specific consideration should be given to the methods of teaching punctuation and its functions. The third paper in this edition is by Amirullah Abduh, Muhammad Basri, Ramly Ramly and Rosmaladewi, entitled Multicultural Education to Support Internationalization of Universities: Implication for English Medium Instruction (EMI). The authors note the lack of hitherto research and publications on developing the model of multicultural education in international English medium instruction programs. Notably this research fills the current knowledge gap by exploring strategies of multicultural education that support the international EMI programs. Multicultural education supports the internationalization of higher education and its implication to EMI.
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The fourth paper is by Ayman Farid Khafaga and Iman El-Nabawi Abdel Wahed Shaalan. Their paper presents a computer-aided critical discourse analysis to explore the extent to which pronouns and modality serve as discursive carriers of persuasion and or manipulation in the discourse of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Their paper clearly shows the extent to which computer technology is influencing the study and teaching of SLA and recommends further applications of computer software programs to discourse studies and corpus linguistics which could yield more credible and accurate results to the linguistic study of texts than those approached by means of the traditional linguistic analysis, particularly in large data texts, such as the literary ones, as is the case in this paper.
Investigating Students' Development of 21 Century and Lifelong Skills During Covid-19 Crisis Education is the title of the fifth research paper by Dalal A.Kareem Ahmed, Tara Fryad Henari and Abubkar Abdulkarim Maklef from the University of Bahrain. The paper examines the shift from traditional classroom-based instruction the new exiting normal of online education and the challenges that were posed to not on the teaching faculty but to students alike. The future of learning (traditional or pandemic study from home style) is an open question but brings to the forefront issues of renewed teacher training.
The next paper “The Comparison between Vocabulary Prescribed in an English for Engineering Commercial Textbook and the Actual Use of English Engineering Vocabulary in Working Routines: The Perception from Thai Engineers” is co-authored by Tuntiga Wang, Napapach Padermprach, Apakorn Chamavit, Chalida Janenoppakarn and Panadda Pratoomrat. Engineering ESP is a highly specialized field requiring specialist teachers and curriculum. Their study investigated the frequency use of the vocabulary items prescribed in an English for engineering commercial textbook by Thai engineers in their daily routines. As such the author’s note it is necessary for ESP teachers to include and integrate vocabulary items from various engineering fields into teaching materials of English for engineering courses in order to ensure that students are equipped with English words from multiple fields which are essential for their work in the future.
The final paper is English Only Policies in the EFL Classroom: A Review of the Literature by Jennifer Yphantides. The topic has been given much attention and debate across Asia in the last decade with countries all going their own route. In her review of the literature, the more traditional research that supports L2 only policies are examined, followed by an exploration of
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 6 recent literature which questions the “old school” approach. Finally, specific attention will be focused on how the issue of the use or ban of the first language is being played out in the increasingly complex Asian context with a focus on Japan.
We trust you find these papers useful in your ongoing research.
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Lexical Bundles in Saudi EFL Student Writing: A Study of Learner Corpus
Hamdallah Abdulkarim Alhusban Department of English Language, Deanship of Preparatory Year & Supporting Studies, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia
Chintalapalli Vijayakumar Humanities & Social Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani, India Department of HSS, New Academic Building, BITS Pilani, Pilani, 333031, Rajasthan, India
Bio-profiles: Hamdallah Abdulkarim Alhusban has an M.Phil. in English and Applied Linguistics from the University of Cambridge and an MA (Hons) in Translation and Interpreting from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh. Hamdallah has taught English/EFL in Britain, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. His primary research interests are EFL speech production and perception, corpus linguistics and English-Arabic simultaneous interpretation.
Vijayakumar Chintalapalli is a classroom-based ELT researcher. He earned his PhD in English Language Education from The English and Foreign Language University (formerly CIEFL), Hyderabad. He has designed and taught EAP and ESP courses in India and Saudi Arabia. His articles appeared in referred magazines such as Modern English Teacher, Languaging, and English Teaching Professional. He is currently working on an RIG project on corpus-based language teaching.
Abstract Academic writing in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts, particularly in the preparatory year programs, is crucial for a successful transition into specific disciplines. EAP programs, therefore, emphasise on the conventions of writing by exposing students to a variety of academic genres and themes. Although students are provided extensive practice on writing essays, it is not clear whether they are able to appropriately deploy linguistic resources, particularly, lexical bundles in their writing. Lexical bundles are important in structuring ideas, establishing links within the discourse and expressing the stance of the writers. This study
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attempts to understand the use of lexical bundles in student writing through a learner corpus of academic writing compiled over a period of three years. 534 essays covering four major essay genres were analysed in the study using the functional framework developed and updated by Douglas Biber, Ken Hyland and Christopher Tribble. The analysis of the data showed that student essays had a large quantity of research-oriented location and quantification bundles and participant-oriented stance bundles. This paper concludes with a set of practical ideas that EAP teachers can implement in EFL contexts.
Keywords: Genre, learner corpus, lexical bundles, register, disciplinary variation
1 Introduction Lexical bundles, variously known as fragments or high-frequency word combinations (Durrant, 2017), chunks (Hyland, 2008), phraseological units (Ädel & Erman, 2012) and clusters (Tribble, 2011), are units of words ‘that show a statistical tendency to co-occur’ (Biber & Barbieri, 2007). These frequently recurring linguistic combinations are ubiquitous in both spoken and written language and can be identified and extracted from corpora using specific corpus-analysis tools such as clusters in AntConc (https://www.laurenceanthony.net) and n- grams in Sketchengine (www.sketchengine.eu). Several studies have probed into the composition potential of lexical bundles in discourse in expressing stance, organising discourse and referring to ideas (Biber et al., 1999; Cortes, 2004; Hyland, 2008; Tribble, 2011). Corpus-based register studies—classroom conversations, discipline-specific research articles (RAs), counselling sessions, learner language—have also investigated the use of lexical bundles across disciplines and characterised their use in ‘functional terms’ (Durrant, 2017; Grabowski, 2015; Hyland, 2008). These studies have discovered that some lexical bundles, such as as can be seen and in the context of, tend to be frequent in formal written academic registers while some other bundles such as I am going to, I don’t think and when it comes to are found in classroom lectures (Biber & Barbieri, 2007). While an examination of these items on their face value might be misleading for they are frequently found across registers, they are rather complex patterns serving specific discourse functions and enabling the individuals express their attitude and stance towards claims, organise ideas, mark transition and locate information according to the requirements of the genre and the readers (Hyland, 2008; Staples et al., 2013).
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While several studies have discussed the role of lexical bundles across disciplines (Hyland, 2008), register-types (Biber et al., 1999) and learner-types (Vo, 2019a), fewer studies have focused on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) academic writing contexts where students’ performance is usually evaluated against their production of specific essay genres such as argumentative essays, opinion essays and compare-contrast texts. In fact, there is little research on how EFL undergraduate learners, who are aiming to pursue specialised programs, use these lexical bundles in their writing. This paper explores the use of lexical bundles in EFL academic writing across four major academic genres using a learner corpus that was compiled over three years in a university in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In the next section, we review various corpus-based studies that have examined the use of lexical bundles while discussing the role of learner corpus in determining learner needs and learner language use. Subsequently, we discuss the teaching of bundles in EAP courses in Saudi Arabia.
2 Review of Literature
The function-oriented taxonomy based on Halliday and his associates’ work (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004; Liardét, 2018; Oakey, 2020) has been useful in understanding, classifying and organising the different bundles into three main categories: research-oriented bundles (field-related), participant-oriented bundles (tenor-related), and text-oriented bundles (mode/text-related) (Biber et al., 2004; Hyland, 2008; Oakey, 2020). Over the years, disciplinary or register variation studies have used this taxonomy to analyse academic and professional registers (Durrant, 2017; Simpson-vlach & Ellis, 2010).
Aspects of meaning Metafunctions of language
Ideational Of identifying and categorising human experience/subject matter Interpersonal Of participants and communicative circumstances Textual Of organising and creating cohesion in the discourse
While some studies focused on the use of lexical bundles within specific registers oriented more towards the field (Hyland, 2008; Liu, 2012), some looked into registers oriented more towards mode (Biber & Barbieri, 2007; Gray & Biber, 2013). For instance, Hyland’s (2008) corpus contained written texts from four different academic disciplines—Biology, Electrical Engineering, Applied Linguistics, and Business Studies—and described how research writing
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across four disciplines employed specific bundles. The study by Simpson-vlach & Ellis, (2010), focusing on all three register factors, produced a corpus-based ‘academic formulas list’ (AFL) from a large corpus of texts representative of academic contexts. The target academic discourse corpus contained spoken and written texts from BNC, MICASE, and Hyland’s research articles corpus (Simpson-vlach & Ellis, 2010, p. 491). For the identification and analysis of lexical bundles, researchers compiled mainly two types of corpora: expert or discipline/register specific language (Biber et al., 2004; Grabowski, 2015; Hyland, 2008; Wright, 2019) and apprentice or learner language (Durrant, 2017; Shin, 2016; Tribble, 2011). However, the criteria used to study bundles varied from study to study in terms of its size, disciplinary variation, modality, among others (Biber et al., 2004). Wherever apprentice corpora were studied, comparable and analogous expert corpora were used (Tribble, 2011). The analogous corpora represented the language used in different registers of a type or a discipline (like BNC and A-COCA). Either field and text orientation (Durrant, 2017; Hyland, 2008; Tribble, 2011) or mode-orientation (spoken vs. written) (Gray & Biber, 2013; Simpson-vlach & Ellis, 2010) was central to corpus compilation. Tribble (2011), for example, compared the use of lexical bundles in an apprentice writing corpus with a corpus of expert writing (Applied linguistics exemplar corpus, Acta Tropica distant analogue corpus, and BAWE close analogue corpus). Most of these studies classified the use of lexical bundles not only in terms of their orientation, but also in terms of their contexts (expert vs. student, spoken vs. written, hard vs. soft disciplines).
2.1 Learner Corpora Studies and Lexical Bundles Operationalising learning difficulties or learning needs (Gilquin et al., 2007) and addressing them constitutes a major challenge in EAP pedagogy (Flowerdew, 2015). While discourse and genre studies provide detailed descriptions of the socio-cultural contexts of language use, corpus studies enable us understand the co-textual aspects that allow us to construct conventionally appropriate discourses (Gilquin et al., 2007, p. 320). Analysing learner corpora is found to be a reliable approach to both understanding student language at the micro-level(s) of lexico-grammar and determining specific language goals (Gablasova et al., 2017; Vo, 2019b). The other approaches to needs analysis—self-reflection responses, perceptions studies ( Liu et al., 2011; Youn, 2018)—are useful in determining the general objectives; however, learner corpus investigations allow us to identify the specific linguistic gaps in learner language use. Some learner corpus studies are, in fact, so wide-angled that they not only unpacked the hidden lexico-grammatical patterns, but also the genre conventions across text-types
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(Gablasova et al., 2017; Nesi & Gardner, 2012). Some other studies have examined the distribution of lexico-grammatical patterns (collocations and bundles to study variations between expert/novice or native/non-native writers (Shin, 2016; Tribble, 2011; Quero, 2017). The impetus to examine lexical bundles originates from the assumption that their usage varies across disciplinary contexts (Durrant, 2017). These variation studies, among other features, have mainly considered the learner variables (native vs. non-native/ expert vs. novice) and concluded that non-natives tended to often underuse or misuse the lexical bundles in their academic writing (Ädel & Erman, 2012; Esfandiari & Barbary, 2017; Shin, 2019). For instance, using text-oriented structuring bundles and hedging bundles can be challenging for novice writers who are not acquainted with the conventions of academic communication. Particularly, in EFL contexts such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where learners’ schematic knowledge is naturally influences by their L1 (Arabic Language), the use of specific bundles to express writer’s stance, signal transitions, and indicate a location can pose challenges. There are few studies that have examined the student’s writing for these aspects (Ädel & Erman, 2012; Shin, 2019).
2.2 Register Variation in the Use of Lexical Bundles Research on multi-word sequences has classified lexical bundles as ‘extended collocations’ (Hyland, 2008) with a distinctive register flavour. In fact, a close look at COCA, which has texts from eight different registers, shows us how the ‘clusters’ (Tribble, 2011) like in accordance with and as a result of are used across register types with more or less frequency. What makes these units register specific choices is the way they extend their network into register specific choices from just being ‘fragments’ (Oakey, 2020) to achieve various rhetorical purposes. For example, in accordance with is usually found in legal texts and specific newspaper editorials followed by the post-modifier noun phrases like law, constitution, norms of democracy, political agenda and agreements, which are discipline specific. Studies comparing various corpora have shown how certain bundles (in the present study, as the figure shows, in relation to the) occurred rarely in non-academic registers while other bundles (in the end of, at the same time, as a result of) were frequently used across registers (see the bundles highlighted in the table 1 below). An analysis of a monitor corpus such as COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English) allows us to compare texts from as many as eight registers and visualise lexical bundles variation across registers. Covering ten major academic disciplines, the academic genres of COCA alone contain 26,137 texts amounting to 120,988,361 words, which is 34 times bigger than Hyland’s academic corpus. In terms of
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scope, COCA covers both soft and hard subjects. The following table demonstrates how pervasive Hyland’s 4-word lexical bundles (Hyland, 2008) are across academic genres (Zhang, 2008). As shown in Table 1, the relative frequency of Hyland’s 4-word academic bundles is higher in academic genres than in other registers. Especially bundles such as in the present study, in relation to the, with respect to the, the relationship between the, and in the context of are typically found in written academic genres.
Table 1. Use of Hyland’s 4-word academic bundles in the eight sub-registers in COCA Lexical bundles BLOG WEB TV/M SPOK FIC MAG NEWS ACAD on the other hand 51 48.69 11.31 36.33 21.7 40.44 22.04 77.96 at the same time 64.27 69.21 22.35 74.49 43.4 58.85 53.21 86.04 in the case of 0.13 0.29 0 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.23 the end of the 73.23 86.91 40.11 73.37 73.03 66.59 66.98 73.5 as well as the 29.93 34.93 2.59 15.24 9.02 28.54 24.12 65.36 at the end of 61.98 72.26 26.12 63.65 58.02 55.86 59.37 59.47 in terms of the 7.88 8.63 0.91 28.41 0.62 4.67 4.38 25.12 on the basis of 12.35 18.95 1.05 9.3 1.19 9.91 7.02 52.31 in the present study 0.12 0.99 0 0 0 0.1 0 24.97 is one of the 49.05 50.24 11.39 47.95 7.13 48.03 45.42 31.17 in the form of 20.34 23.46 2.94 6.31 5.58 19.79 11.81 36.28 the nature of the 8.02 12.88 1.71 6.2 2.87 5.64 4.72 26.99 the results of the 3.57 4.89 1.19 2.77 0.85 3.16 2.74 23.49 the fact that the 24.55 24.8 2.36 20.49 5.45 12.91 10.88 30.15 as a result of 24.93 30.2 2.71 24.58 3.14 18.98 18.07 59.03 in relation to the 2.71 4.32 0.3 0.57 0.69 1.64 1.02 14.46 at the beginning of 11.12 14.9 2.37 12.07 5.03 9.66 8.03 24.13 with respect to the 3.09 8.41 0.26 4.42 0.3 1.48 0.82 18.25 the relationship 1.8 3.08 0.26 2.24 0.26 1.93 1.65 14.19 between the in the context of 11.27 13.06 0.44 6.65 0.98 5.98 3.59 47.58 can be used to 6.12 10.34 0.37 1.23 0.39 6.85 3.04 22.94 to the fact that 13.03 13.13 1.84 9.7 3.9 6.36 5.19 13.56 as shown in the figure 0.02 0.12 0 0 0 0 0 0.15 it was found that 0.54 0.93 0.06 0.13 0.12 0.4 0.13 5.34
Although several text-oriented bundles and research-oriented location bundles are most frequently used in academic genres, they are used as frequently in other registers (based on Durrant’s (2017) measure of 10 instances per million words) such as Blogs. There are two important factors which help us understand variation in terms of language choices across registers or genres: knowledge schemata and linguistic schemata (Partington, 1998, p. 23). In a communicative event, the context of culture or the genre in action warrants
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an interaction between the ideational or knowledge schemata—which is acquired and assimilated through ‘repeated experiences of situations of a similar type’—and its analogous linguistic schemata, which, among other aspects, contains knowledge of patterns, frames or stems and the variations. This interaction between the two schemata takes into consideration not only the ideational aspects of meaning but also the interpersonal and textual aspects. This whole process can be called contextualisation. Lexical bundles are vital in the process of meaning-making and achieving textual cohesion: • they help us establish the links between the known and the unknown information; • they signal the location of a particular idea (in the next chapter, at the end of the, in the beginning of the); • they signal speaker/writer’s stance and attitude towards an idea/argument (I therefore strongly believe; it can be argued); • they help us expand, emphasise, explain, relate, specify, and extend the ideas (in terms/the form of, it is in this, in view of the, it is important to, on the basis of the) Moreover, many of them are ‘strings without gaps’ (Oakey, 2020, p. 5); they allow us to add register specific words or phrases to produce form-meaning units. For example, the fragments, is a matter of, is an attempt to, in accordance with the, and is the result of can help us produce context-bound ideas. The following instances drawn from a corpus of open-ed newspaper articles compiled for a similar purpose by the researchers (Word tokens 629418/ Word types 25049), and COCA (Science and Technology subset from Academic genres) show us significant variations in terms of the post-modifying noun phrases used in both the registers.
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Figure 1. The use of post-modifying noun phrases in COCA and Open-Ed Newspaper corpus
Although the stem here can barely answer the question of ‘how’ something was achieved or done all by itself, without this bundle, it is not possible for us to connect the ideas in the text, unless alternative structures, which might not be usually preferred in the register, are used.
2.3 Teaching Lexical Bundles in an EAP Course Disciplinary writing and register variations have been the main focus of research on lexical bundles (Cortes, 2004). Very few studies have discussed the inclusion of lexical bundles in course materials (Oakey, 2020). In fact, most of the EAP courses offered to the ESL and EFL students give importance to the common core which includes academic word list (AWL) and a few academic genres such as argumentation and problem-solution. The course content is usually organised on the principle of thematic and genre variation, and the model texts for all the four skills are usually drawn from contexts that are that are within the comprehension range of EFL students. In terms of genre selection, instruction focuses on the functional academic genres such as description, narration, cause-effect, compare-contrast, and argumentation (Chazal & Moore, 2013; Daise & Norloff, 2016). Students are exposed to theme-based reading/listening input, contextualised vocabulary and grammar, and genre-based consciousness-raising activities. Mostly, guidance in the form of awareness-raising activities requiring the students to identify and rewrite the schematic structure of an academic genre in terms of thesis statement, topic sentences, and supporting details is given. By analysing the organisation structure, specific grammatical choices (use of subordinators, tenses, articles, adverb phrases of reason, and subordinators to compare and contrast), and phrases (makes things by hand, study in the library, goes to the beach) students learn the genre in focus. The exercises for phrases typically require the students to read the sentences (minimal
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contexts) and choose, from the two options, the best answer that fits the context. In addition, the students are asked to fill out the blanks with phrases appropriate to the context.
Example
Circle the best phrase to complete each sentence.
1. Omar likes to use his hands to make things while Hamad (prefers to play sports/ makes things by hand too). 2. Hamad likes to go fishing and camping. Though he enjoys both, he (likes camping better/ likes them both equally).
Source: Oxford Q Skills for Success (Special Edition) (Daise & Norloff, 2016)
The exercise above is part of grammar focus, where the learner has to choose the right expression based on the subordinators used to compare and contrast. Subordinators or transitions such as similarly, likewise, although, while, and on the other hand determine the appropriateness of the given phrases. This activity relies on indistinguishable contexts that their tenor and textual aspects are not usually controlled for any specific discourse type. An underlying assumption behind embedding general and concrete examples in the teaching of specific grammatical structures could be to ensure that the contexts themselves will not pose a challenge in terms of comprehension and task completion. Similarly, one other reason why neutral and familiar contexts were chosen over specific discipline-based instances was to enhance the utilitarian value of the resources across academic institutions. The point that needs to be emphasised here is that ‘context sensitivity’ in an EFL-EAP situation is constrained by the resources the institutes can afford to utilise, although researchers have favoured discipline-specific materials (Chrimes & Phillips, 2015; Gimenez, 2008; Hyland, 2013). Since the institutions offer a range of interdisciplinary majors to students whose linguistic proficiency levels vary within the disciplines, EAP courses are mostly wide-angled EGAP (English for General Academic Purposes), with minimal or no focus on discipline specific language features. In other words, the focus of linguistic production in EFL-EAP courses is genre-specific, but not discipline-specific (Chrimes & Phillips, 2015). And the genre- based activities emphasise the rhetorical realisation of the texts in terms of thesis statement, supporting details, cohesion, academic vocabulary and grammar (subordinators, tenses, and relative clauses). Put succinctly, both the curriculum and instruction give importance to familiarising students to the academic conventions of language use through various contexts.
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Whether or not the students receive explicit instruction of the lexical bundles, any EAP course taught over 300 hours should have a significant impact on student learning and use of lexical items, which includes different word-forms, collocations and patterns or constructions (Hoey, 2005). As Sinclair (1991) has pointed out, it is the learner’s approach to input that can determine the nature of processing of the units of meaning and later use them in the meaning- making process. Since the context of teaching emphasises academic language through various tasks and texts, the students are bound to come across lexical bundles that contribute to the propositional, interpersonal and textual meanings of the discourse (Hyland, 2008; Tribble, 2011). However, what is not clear is that whether these students are able to transfer their learning to academic writing. If they transfer, what kind of bundles are used frequently by these EFL advanced students in their writing? This study attempts to study the use of lexical bundles through a learner corpus of academic writing (LCAW). The corpus compiled for the corpus contains four different genres.
Table 2. Genres in LCAW corpus Argumentative/ Opinion Compare- Cause-Effect Persuasive Contrast 174 78 164 118
2.3 Research questions 1. What are the frequently used lexical bundles in EAP writing of EFL advanced students? 2. Do students show any awareness of the registers in using these bundles in their writing? 3. How different is their use of lexical bundles when compared to students on EAP programs in the UK (BAWE corpus)?
3 Methodology
This is a corpus-based study of learner language, particularly academic writing by the medical students in the preparatory years program (PYP) at a university in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (see Figure 2). After undergoing intensive EAP instruction for a period of 32 weeks (including the days of assessment) for almost 360 to 380 scheduled hours, both male and female students, who were identified as ‘advanced’ based on a placement test administered by a national body of assessment, were administered the fifth and the final take-home writing portfolio assignment. The students were given two-three weeks (last instructional day) to
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submit their five-paragraph essays which focus on one of the four key genres taught during the course: cause-effect, opinion, compare-contrast and argumentative/persuasive. Prompts given in the assignment include: a. How important it is to play for children? b. Discuss the effects of smoking on an individual’s health. c. The impact of outdoor play on obesity d. Is writing by hand still relevant in the computer era? Instructions to students included: a. The academic essays should be original and related to the topic given by the teacher discussed in the class. b. They should report less than 10% of plagiarism from any source (based on BlackBoard plagiarism tools). c. They should include a hook, thesis statement, supporting ideas and conclusion. d. They should be submitted in the Microsoft word format on Black Board, the university’s submission portal.
1 2 3 4
Advanced-level Genres: paragraph Size : 548 essays/ Criteria: less EFL learners of essays (cause-effect, 187889 token collected than 10% preparatory year compare-contrast, towards the end of the citation and program opinion, argumentative) academic years 2016- plagiarism 2019
Figure 2. Nature of the Learner Corpus of Academic Writing (LCAW)
During the writing process, the students were allowed to use the Learning Resource Centre’s (LRC) facilities (learner’s dictionaries, grammar books and other reference materials) and consult faculty members, online resources to clarify their doubts. However, students were strictly advised about the consequences of plagiarism on their scores and feedback. Data collection and sifting process was rigorous that any texts that did not meet the criteria were rejected. As can be seen, only 534 texts collected over a period of three years were considered for the purpose. Using two software, namely, AntConc and Sketchengine the corpus was processed and 430 4-word n-grams with a minimum of 5 frequencies were extracted for analysis and comparison.
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All the n-grams were screened for topic-related ‘prompt-bundles’ and those that referred to prompts were separated from the list. Some of the prompt-bundles identified included than writing by hand, in the private schools, and schools in Saudi Arabia. A final list containing only the ‘lexical bundles’ (Hyland, 2008) was prepared for the identification of their functions (see the appendix of the first 100 bundles and their functions). Meanwhile, the corpus was also analysed genre-wise to identify the specific bundles used in each of the four genres (see Table 5). This allowed us to study the type of bundles preferred by writers for specific genres. In the last stage of the study, lexical bundles in the LCAW corpus were compared (see Table 6) with the bundles used in the ‘Essay’ genre in the British Academic Written English (BAWE) corpus for a better understanding of variation.
Table 3. Sketchengine profile of the learner corpus of academic writing (LCAW) Aspect Number Words 181858 Sentences 9,305 Documents 534 n-grams 3-word clusters (min frequency 5, minimum range 5) 2086 n-grams 4-word clusters (min frequency 5, minimum range 5) 447
4 Results
There were many 4-word ‘prompt-bundles’ (Staples et al., 2013) which were thematically relevant to the prompts given; these prompt-bundles were clearly referring to the task or topic. Therefore, those clusters that specifically referred to the prompts were separated from the frequency list and only those bundles that were within in the defining scope of bundles discussed by Hyland, Biber, and Simpson (Biber et al., 2004; Hyland, 2008; Simpson-vlach & Ellis, 2010) were identified as lexical-non-prompts bundles for the study. The following table gives a list of the first 100 lexical bundles in the LCAW corpus.
Table 4. 20 most frequent n-grams used in the LCAW bi-grams Freq 3-word n-grams Freq 4-word n-grams Freq of the 826 a lot of 271 on the other hand 194 in the 656 the other hand 200 one of the most 72 video games 579 on the other 168 is one of the 64 is a 422 one of the 134 there are a lot 36 it is 402 in the past 98 are a lot of 35
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to the 332 of the most 76 when it comes to 30 a lot 322 playing video games 75 a lot of people 28 is the 297 video games are 70 at the same time 28 to be 294 be able to 69 to write by hand 27 lot of 294 that video games 69 have a lot of 26 such as 276 is one of 68 there is no doubt 25 on the 273 because of the 68 as a result of 25 the other 261 writing by hand 64 is no doubt that 24 For example 242 There are many 64 will be able to 23 there are 242 in order to 63 in the past and 23 have a 242 of video games 61 has a lot of 22 in a 239 First of all 59 for a long time 21 they are 237 As a result 58 the truth is that 18 and the 237 there are many 56 of the most important 18 can be 221 there is no 56 a lot of money 17
4.1 Functional Analysis of Lexical Bundles The use of lexical bundles depends mostly on the register and genre variables. If a researcher, for example, is writing an abstract, he tends to use the bundles such as the findings shows that and we argue that it; similarly, a classroom teacher, who is demonstrating a process through diagrams and figures, would use bundles such as I want you to, take a look at, and if you look at (Biber et al., 2004; Biber & Barbieri, 2007). In the EFL contexts, the essay genre is the most common type administered, and a typical essay writing prompt requires the students to write a minimum of 300 words. The LCAW used here has four major essay genres: argumentative, compare and contrast, cause and effect and opinion. The following table shows the first 20 bundles used across the four genres in the LCAW corpus.
Table 5. 20 most frequent lexical bundles in the four essay genres of the LCAW corpus Argumentative Compare & Contrast Cause & Effect Opinion on the other hand on the other hand is one of the one of the most one of the most when it comes to one of the most on the other hand is no doubt that one of the most on the other hand is one of the there is no doubt are a lot of as a result of has a lot of is one of the there are a lot there are a lot a lot of benefits have to agree that in the past the are a lot of are a lot of i have to agree a lot of people a lot of time there are a lot one i have to in the past was have a lot of in addition to that the other hand some at the same time is the most important in my opinion i a lot of people have a lot of not be able to the other hand some first there is no is one of the will not be able the truth is that will be able to number of students in at the same time will be able to a clear indicator that there are some differences in front of the a lot of people is a clear indicator if you want to one of the main a lot of problems
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at the same time there are many differences the most important thing and that will make in conclusion despite the a lot of things there are many causes face a lot of some people believe that for a long time there has been a of the most important when it comes to in this essay i for a long time one of my favorite be considered as a as a result of of the most important one of the best despite the fact that because it depends on as a result they one of the main
Application of the functional taxonomy (Biber et al., 2004; Hyland, 2008; Simpson-vlach & Ellis, 2010; Tribble, 2011) enabled us discover the different bundles used the corpus. As can be seen, EFL learners have heavily relied on quantification and location referential bundles to structure their experiences. They also used a large number of participant-oriented stance bundles to convey their attitudes towards the topics and readers. In the argumentative essay genre, participant-oriented bundles constituted a large chunk. The bundles such as there is no doubt that, I have to agree, a clear indicator that, the truth is that, it is important to, explicitly referred to the writer’s stance towards the topic. Most of these stance markers seemed to refer to stronger claims, and there were very few stance expressions where the writer’s commitment to claims is weaker as in the bundles found in the BAWE corpus (are more likely to, could be argued that, and it is difficult to). Distancing markers and softened generalisations like it would appear that, it seems to have/be, it may be due to, and it is likely that were also not found in the argumentative essays. The corpus search had shown fewer instances of intangible framing bundles (in the case of), text-oriented inferential and structuring bundles. It could be because the essays did not require students to write longer responses to the prompts and not all the responses needed to be data- based. Also, adding emphasis to claims or proposing stronger claims or constructing propositions in terms of binaries (yes/no, good/bad, positive-negative) could be a general tendency embedded in the culture of communication. In the compare and contrast essays, students have used relatively more number of referential quantification and location bundles: are a lot of, there are a lot, a lot of people, there are so many, in the past the, for a long time, in this essay I and at the same time. In the cause- effect essays, students have used referential quantification bundles to emphatically introduce both the causes and the effects as in (5).
4.1.1 Participant-oriented bundles in argumentative essays 1. A real example to that is my father who loves cooking, so he made it a job and opened a restaurant. That is a clear indicator that leisure activities can be a job.
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2. As many studies have shown that, the unemployment rate is increasing at our current time. Although this topic is a controversial one, I have to agree that taking your hobby, as a job is a great way to decrease the unemployment rate.
4.1.2 Research-oriented bundles in essays 3. This is contrary to modern times where space is getting smaller and smaller. In the past, children had the chance to interact with nature. 4. On the contrary, I believe that there are so many people who will continue to write with pen and paper despite all the development in the technology. 5. Obesity is one of the main causes of cardiovascular diseases and other diseases such as diabetes. In opinion essays, where the writers enjoy the privileges of introducing their ‘personal stance’ making stronger claims, they softened their claims by using modal auxiliary patterns such as can be+ verb3 (see the concordances in figure), strengthened them using the modal ‘will’ (will be able to, will + V, and will + be + comparative adjectives (harder, easier, more active) and referential quantification bundles.
Figure 3. Concordances showing the hedging bundles used in opinion essays
4.2 Comparative Analysis of BAWE and LCAW Corpus The incongruent representation of conceptual knowledge in terms of nominalisations, stance and hedging, and the use of sources in academics is common across disciplines. Expert writers tend to rely on a set of bundles to structure their propositions. For instance, the use of bundles such as it is important to, it is possible to, can be seen in, are more likely to, and the development of the in the BAWE corpus provides insights into the maturity attained in writing academic texts. In the LCAW corpus, there were some instances that signalled such an awareness. However, there were many congruent representations (particularly found in the use of research-oriented bundles) which directly reflected the ongoing thinking practices of
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students. Use of passive voice was one such aspect that is consistently missing in student writing.
Table 6. The first 50 lexical bundles in BAWE and LCAW and their functions BAWE 4-word bundles Freq Function LCAW 4 word bundles Freq Function the end of the 316 R- Location on the other hand 194 T - Transition as a result of 302 T - Resultative is one of the 64 R - Quantification on the other hand 271 T- Transition one of the most 52 R - Quantification in the form of 244 T- Framing are a lot of 35 R - Quantification as well as the 228 T - Framing have a lot of 26 R - Quantification the way in which 211 R- Procedure is no doubt that 24 P - Stance in the case of 210 T- Framing will be able to 23 P - Stance at the same time 209 R- Location there is no doubt 22 P - Stance it is important to 168 P- Stance has a lot of 22 R - Quantification the fact that the 165 P- Stance for a long time 21 R - Location the extent to which 157 T-Framing when it comes to 21 R - Location at the end of 153 R- Location at the same time 20 R - Location it is possible to 151 P- Stance there are a lot 20 R - Quantification one of the most 145 R- Quantification One of the most 20 R - Quantification that there is a 145 T-Framing in the past and 20 R - Location to the fact that 143 P- Stance a lot of people 19 R - Quantification the rest of the 140 R- Quantification of the most important 18 P - Stance to be able to 136 P- Stance not be able to 17 P - Stance the nature of the 134 R- Topic as a result of 17 T - Resultative it is clear that 131 P- Stance a lot of time 17 R - Quantification can be seen as 130 P- Engagement a lot of money 17 R - Quantification is one of the 128 T - Framing There are a lot 16 R - Quantification the role of the 126 R - Topic have to agree that 15 P - Stance a result of the 125 R - Topic I have to agree 15 P - Stance in the context of 125 T - Framing is the most important 14 P - Stance it is difficult to 119 P - Stance spend most of their 14 R - Topic can be seen in 119 P - Engagement is a controversial one 13 R - Topic be seen as a 118 P - Engagement how to deal with 12 P - Engagement the development of the 114 R - Topic are more likely to 12 P - Stance are more likely to 112 P - Stance the truth is that 12 P - Stance on the basis of 109 T - Framing they don't have 12 P - Stance could be argued that 108 P - Stance studies have shown that 12 T - Resultative the beginning of the 107 R - Location Although the statement is 12 R - Topic the use of the 105 R - Description an essential part of 12 R - Engagement in terms of the 104 T - Framing a lot of things 11 R - Quantification that there is no 102 T - Framing statement is a controversial 11 R - Topic in the same way 102 R - Procedure will not be able 11 P - Stance In the case of 101 T - Framing is a clear indicator 11 P - Stance the importance of the 100 T - Framing the most important thing 11 P - Stance can be used to 95 P - Stance it is better to 11 P - Stance It is important to 93 P - Stance if you want to 11 P - Engagement of the United States 91 R - Topic in the past was 11 R - Location in relation to the 90 T - Framing all over the world 11 R - Topic can be argued that 87 P - Stance one of the main 11 R - Quantification at the beginning of 87 R - Location a clear indicator that 11 P - Stance
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the World Wide Web 85 R - Topic most of their time 11 R - Quantification as a means of 85 T - Framing There has been a 10 T - Framing by the fact that 82 P - Stance is very important to 10 P - Stance the state of nature 80 R - Topic it is hard to 10 P - Stance a great deal of 80 R - Quantification are one of the 10 R - Quantification
5 Discussion
Our use of lexical resources is largely determined by our prior knowledge of the contexts (registers and genres) and the exposure we received. Consistent and prolonged exposure to linguistic input and of specific registers and genres enable us to subconsciously notice and learn the different aspects of language. For lexical items this knowledge includes lexical choices— collocations, technical vocabulary, and lexical bundles (Hoey, 2005; Nation, 2001). Since, conventionally, certain registers—textbooks, classroom lectures—rely on specific linguistic choices to convey information, the likelihood of encountering discipline/register specific linguistic choices more than 11-14 times within a short span of time is highly probable. However, the major concern here is whether the learners interpret these recurrent linguistic sequences in terms of the idiom principle or the open-choice principle and subsequently utilise this knowledge of the chunks in their speech and writing. Preparatory EAP programs are designed to expose students to the language used in academic contexts. As mentioned in the review of the EAP program, the courses aimed at improving the academic language proficiency of students by exposing them to a variety of genres and themes. Students were given extensive practice for genre-features, grammar and vocabulary (Daise & Norloff, 2019; Chujo et al., 2011). It was evident from the corpus data that students have used very often the quantification bundles (have/has a lot of, a lot of things), participant-oriented stance expressions (there is no doubt, is very important that, have to agree that) to structure their ideas; however, their use of text-oriented bundles, specifically structuring bundles and transition expressions (as described in the, as shown in the figure, in addition to the), was minimal. It also appears that students did not use frequently the referencing—self or source—bundles (we have acknowledged the, we have come across) in the writing. While essay genres do not specifically impose any limitations in terms of the use of specific bundles, they do consider the register variable and their preferences for a certain type of expressions which help them describe (the appearance of), compare (as compared with the), cause (as a result of) (Salazar, 2014, p. 52). For example, many location and quantification bundles used by the EFL learners are usually found in spoken registers, perhaps in the
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classroom registers. It is important to understand the impact of classroom teaching on the use of lexical bundles in student writing. It is highly probable that the students have utilised many chunks usually found in classroom discussions. This could also be a reason why there were more number of participant-oriented stance bundles in the writing. From the point of view of classroom teaching, Oakey’s (2020, pp. 5–6) argue that about ‘fragments’ is useful as language teachers tend to look for ‘dictionary like’ entries accessible to learners. However, if we understand the occurrence of the lexical bundles from the point of view of the contexts of culture (genre conventions), the common core of formulas list produced for academic purposes (Simpson-vlach & Ellis, 2010), can become a useful pedagogic tools. Hence, introducing bundles through consciousness-raising activities, where both speech and writing are given importance such as role-plays or group discussions followed by essay writing, would help students notice the differences in registers. While introducing language through multiple text-types drawn from various disciplines promote variety in instruction, it is important that students explore in detail both the disciplinary texts and the genres in focus. Flipped mode of instruction and content-based team teaching could be very useful in the EAP learning in the EFL contexts. This can be beneficial for students who are planning to pursue specific areas of study (medicine, dentistry, nursing) after their preparatory year program. In addition to introducing discipline-specific texts, the tasks should also emphasise the academic and technical vocabulary in the field (Coxhead & Demecheleer, 2018; Yang, 2015). In EAP and ESP, the view that lexis cannot always be separated from grammar, and the learners should be given opportunities to interpret texts using both idiom and open-choice principles. When students interpret texts using idiom principle, they would notice combinations of words in terms of collocations and colligations, phrases (noun, preposition, adjective), and even clauses. If a combination is found salient and visible across communicative contexts (communicative competence, task-based language teaching, on the other hand, as a result of this), it is likely they process it as a chunk. It is, however, not clear if these chunks need to be always ‘meaningful units’ to be processed as one. Some studies in corpus frequency analysis, however, has shown how a number of lexical bundles texture the contextual dimensions into unified language events, although are just fragments (Oakey, 2020). Also, their meaning potential cannot always be determined by the immediate linguistic co-text, since the cohesive ties—referencing, explicit and implicit conjunctive relations—they establish go beyond it. The meaning(s) of these bundles could be understood through the cultural practices of constructing
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logical relations within the text. Instruction in EAP contexts, therefore, can embed these practices. The publication of AWL and the other EAP and ESP word lists have no real pedagogic relevance unless they are contextualised. The contextualising process can explicitly give importance to the bundles associated with those words, specifically the research-oriented topic bundles (in the context of, an analysis of the, a significant number of, the pedagogic potential of). Whether it is discipline/register specific texts or non-specialised or general texts, we have to depend upon bundles or sequences in our language use (Perkins & Wray, 2000; Sinclair, 1991; Wray, 2009). While some sequences (lexical bundles with nouns such as the nature of and the way in which in academic prose) tend to occur frequently in certain genres, some other sequences (see in Table 1 expressions such as on the other hand, at the same time, the end of the, at the end of, is one of the, at the same time, the fact that the, and as a result of) are used across genres and registers.
6 Conclusion
The point, however, is that we must provide enough opportunities for students to notice these multi-word expressions either through intensive practice or extensive input. As Biber (1988) has shown all language production belongs to one genre or another, and English language, like any other, is a collection of genres none of which deserve the title of ‘general English’ more than any other (Partington, 1998, p. 13). In other words, non-specialised or discipline-specific texts helps insofar as the students notice and interpret the lexical bundles using the idiom principle. If the students prefer to process most of the text using the open- choice principle, the likelihood of learning chunks is lesser.
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7 References Ädel, A., & Erman, B. (2012). Recurrent word combinations in academic writing by native and non-native speakers of English: A lexical bundles approach. English for Specific Purposes, 31(2), 81–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2011.08.004 Biber, D. (1988). Variation across Speech and Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Biber, D., & Barbieri, F. (2007). Lexical bundles in university spoken and written registers. English for Specific Purposes, 26(3), 263–286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2006.08.003 Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Cortes, V. (2004). If you look at ...: Lexical bundles in university teaching and textbooks. Applied Linguistics, 25(3), 371–405. Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Ltd. Chazal, E. de, & Moore, J. (2013). Oxford EAP: A Course in English for Academic Purposes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chujo, K., Oghigian, K., Utiyama, M., & Nishigaki, C. (2011). Creating a corpus-based daily life vocabulary for TEYL. Asian EFL Journal, 49, 30-59. Chrimes, J., & Phillips, T. (2015). English for Biomedical Science in Higher Education Studies. Reading: Garnet Education. Cortes, V. (2004). Lexical bundles in published and student disciplinary writing: Examples from history and biology. English for Specific Purposes, 23(4), 397–423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2003.12.001 Coxhead, A., & Demecheleer, M. (2018). Investigating the technical vocabulary of Plumbing. English for Specific Purposes, 51, 84–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2018.03.006 Daise, D., & Norloff, C. (2016). Q: Skills for Success. Special Edition: Reading and Writing (2nd Editio). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Daise, D., & Norloff, C. (2019). Q: Skills for Success (Third). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Durrant, P. (2017). Lexical bundles and disciplinary variation in university students’ writing: Mapping the territories. Applied Linguistics, 38(2), 165–193. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amv011 Esfandiari, R., & Barbary, F. (2017). A contrastive corpus-driven study of lexical bundles between English writers and Persian writers in psychology research articles. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 29, 21–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2017.09.002 Flowerdew, J. (2015). John Swales’s approach to pedagogy in Genre Analysis : A perspective from 25 years on. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 19, 102–112.
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2015.02.003 Gablasova, D., Brezina, V., & McEnery, T. (2017). Exploring Learner Language Through Corpora: Comparing and Interpreting Corpus Frequency Information. Language Learning, 67(June), 130–154. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12226 Gilquin, G., Granger, S., & Paquot, M. (2007). Learner corpora : The missing link in EAP pedagogy. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 6, 319–335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2007.09.007 Gimenez, J. (2008). Beyond the academic essay: Discipline-specific writing in nursing and midwifery. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 7(July), 51–164. Grabowski, Ł. (2015). Keywords and lexical bundles within english pharmaceutical discourse: A corpus-driven description. English for Specific Purposes, 38, 23–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2014.10.004 Gray, B., & Biber, D. (2013). Lexical frames in academic prose and conversation. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 18(1), 109–136. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.18.1.08gra Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2004). Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Routledge. Hoey, M. (2005). Lexical Priming: A new theory of words and language. London: Routledge. Hyland, K. (2008). As can be seen: Lexical bundles and disciplinary variation. English for Specific Purposes, 27(1), 4–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2007.06.001 Hyland, K. (2013). Writing in the university : education , knowledge and reputation Writing in the university : education , knowledge and reputation. March 2011. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444811000036 Liardét, C. L. (2018). ‘As we all know’: Examining Chinese EFL learners’ use of interpersonal grammatical metaphor in academic writing. English for Specific Purposes, 50, 64–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2017.11.005 Liu, D. (2012). The most frequently-used multi-word constructions in academic written English: A multi-corpus study. English for Specific Purposes, 31(1), 25–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2011.07.002 Liu, J., Chang, Y., Yang, F., & Sun, Y. (2011). Is what I need what I want ? Reconceptualising college students ’ needs in English courses for general and specific/academic purposes. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 10(4), 271–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2011.09.002 Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge University Press.
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Nesi, H., & Gardner, S. (2012). Genres across the Disciplines: Student Writing in Higher Education. C. Chapelle & S. Hunston (Eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Oakey, D. (2020). Phrases in EAP academic writing pedagogy: Illuminating Halliday’sinfluence on research and practice. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 44, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2019.100829 Partington, A. (1998). Patterns and Meanings: Using Corpora for English Language Research and Teaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Perkins, M., & Wray, A. (2000). The functions of formulaic language. Language and Communication, 20, 1–28. Quero, B. (2017). A corpus comparison approach for estimating the vocabulary load of medical textbooks using the GSL, AWL, and EAP science lists. TESOL International Journal, 12(1), 177-192. Salazar, D. (2014). Lexical Bundles in Native and Non-native Scientific Writing: Applying a corpus-based study to language teaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Shin, Y. K. (2016). Lexical Bundles in Native and Non-Native Scientific Writing: Applying a Corpus-based Study to Language Teaching. English for Specific Purposes, 41, 82–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2015.07.005 Shin, Y. K. (2019). Do native writers always have a head start over nonnative writers? The use of lexical bundles in college students’ essays. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 40, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2019.04.004 Simpson-vlach, R., & Ellis, N. C. (2010). An Academic Formulas List : New Methods in Phraseology Research, 32(4), 487–512. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amp058 Sinclair, J. (1991). Corpus, Concordance, Collocation. Oxford University Press. Staples, S., Egbert, J., Biber, D., & McClair, A. (2013). Formulaic sequences and EAP writing development: Lexical bundles in the TOEFL iBT writing section. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 12(3), 214–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2013.05.002 Tribble, C. (2011). Revisiting apprentice texts Using lexical bundles to investigate expert and apprentice performances in academic writing. In F. Meunier, S. De Cock, G. Gilquin, & M. Paquot (Eds.), A Taste for Corpora: In Honour of Sylviane Granger (pp. 85–108). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Vo, S. (2019a). Use of lexical features in non-native academic writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 44(November 2018), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2018.11.002 Vo, S. (2019b). Use of lexical features in non-native academic writing. Journal of Second
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Language Writing, 44(June 2018), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2018.11.002 Wray, A. (2009). Future Directions in formulaic language research. In Journal of Foreign Languages (Vol. 32, Issue 6, pp. 2–17). Wright, H. R. (2019). Lexical bundles in stand-alone literature reviews: Sections, frequencies, and functions. English for Specific Purposes, 54, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2018.09.001 Yang, M. N. (2015). A nursing academic word list. English for Specific Purposes, 37(1), 27– 38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2014.05.003 Youn, S. J. (2018). Task-based needs analysis of L2 pragmatics in an EAP context. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 36, 86–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2018.10.005 Zhang, S. (2008). The necessities, feasibilities and principles for EFL teachers to build a learner-oriented minicorpus for practical classroom uses. Asian EFL Journal, 29, 1-15.
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8 Appendix
LCAW 4 word bundles Freq Core Functions most of their time 11 R - Quantification On the other hand 194 T - Transition There has been a 10 T - Framing is one of the 64 R - Quantification is very important to 10 P - Stance one of the most 52 R - Quantification it is hard to 10 P - Stance are a lot of 35 R - Quantification are one of the 10 R - Quantification have a lot of 26 R - Quantification the statement is a 10 R - Topic is no doubt that 24 P - Stance a huge number of 10 R - Quantification will be able to 23 P - Stance in a negative way 10 R - Topic there is no doubt 22 P - Stance they do not have 10 P - Stance (Obligation) has a lot of 22 R - Quantification is a lot of 10 R - Quantification for a long time 21 R - Location Despite the fact that 10 P - Stance when it comes to 21 R - Location is not the case 10 P - Stance at the same time 20 R - Location do not have to 9 P- Stance (Obligation) there are a lot 20 R - Quantification each one of them 9 R - Quantification One of the most 20 R - Quantification A lot of people 9 R - Quantification in the past and 20 R - Location In this essay I 9 R - Location a lot of people 19 R - Quantification have the ability to 9 P - Stance (Ability or of the most important 18 P - Stance possibility) not be able to 17 P – Stance in front of the 9 R - Location as a result of 17 T - Resultative when it comes to 9 R - Location a lot of time 17 R - Quantification an integral part of 9 R - Grouping a lot of money 17 R - Quantification be considered as a 9 P - Stance There are a lot 16 R - Quantification number of students in 9 R - Topic have to agree that 15 P – Stance In addition to that 9 T - Additive I have to agree 15 P – Stance an important role in 9 P - Stance is the most important 14 P – Stance a great way to 8 P - Stance (Evaluation) spend most of their 14 R – Topic that we need to 8 P - Stance (Obligation is a controversial one 13 R – Topic and Directive) on the negative side 8 R – Topic how to deal with 12 P - Engagement As a result of 8 T - Resultative are more likely to 12 P – Stance a lot of benefits 8 R - Quantification the truth is that 12 P – Stance there are some differences 8 R - Quantification they don't have 12 P – Stance it depends on the 8 T - Framing studies have shown that 12 T - Resultative the best way to 8 P – Stance Although the statement is 12 R – Topic At the same time 8 R - Location an essential part of 12 R - Engagement because they don't 8 P – Stance a lot of things 11 R - Quantification to be aware of 8 P – Stance statement is a controversial 11 R - Topic it is important to 8 P – Stance will not be able 11 P - Stance a lot of advantages 8 R - Quantification is a clear indicator 11 P - Stance that there is a 8 T - Framing the most important thing 11 P - Stance to make sure that 8 P – Stance it is better to 11 P - Stance of the most common 8 R – Topic if you want to 11 P - Engagement is going to be 8 P – Stance in the past was 11 R - Location one of them is 8 R - Quantification all over the world 11 R - Topic Some people believe that 8 P - Stance (Hedging) one of the main 11 R - Quantification spend a lot of 7 R - Quantification a clear indicator that 11 P - Stance
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that it is a 7 T - Framing have a lack of 7 R – Topic Have you ever thought 7 P - Engagement is better than the 7 T - Comparative that it is better 7 P – Stance more likely to have 7 P – Stance I am going to 7 P – Stance won't be able 7 P – Stance are many differences between 7 R - Quantification you do not have 7 P – Stance there is a lot 7 R - Quantification in order to make 7 T - Framing
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IAU Preparatory Year students: Sentence structure errors in written English
Dr. Tlili Saad Department of English Language, Deanship of Preparatory Year and Supporting Studies, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31441, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Dr. Rajesh Arruri Department of English Language, Deanship of Preparatory Year and Supporting Studies, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31441, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Bio-profiles: Dr. Tlili Saad has an MA in General and Applied Linguistics and Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Sfax, Tunisia. His research interests include ELT, Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis, Applied Linguistics, Formal Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, and Psycho Linguistics.
Dr. Rajesh Arruri has an MA in English Language and Literature and Ph.D. in Corpus Linguistics. His research interests include ELT, Applied Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, and Computer Assisted Language Learning.
Abstract The purpose of this study is to work on sentence structure errors as a grammar writing problem observed while assessing Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) Preparatory Year Programme (PYP) students’ writing assignments. Formative and summative writing assessments are the source of this paper’s pertinent data collected from the e-learning platform - Oxford Blackboard Learn. Errors mainly based on sentence categories, sentence fragments, long run on structures, and clausal relationships (coordination and subordination) are central features of analysis. Qualitative and quantitative approaches are integrated to validate the present claims of the study. Among other models, Corder (1974)’s, Ellis (1997)'s, and James (2013)'s Error Analysis (EA) procedures have methodologically instigated the processing of
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PYP students’ sentence structure errors. This paper has provided summative analyses and interpretations of a good number of structure errors that can be of academic and pedagogical service.
Keywords: grammar, writing, sentence, structure, error analysis
1 Introduction According to Richard and Schmidt (2002), the rationale behind analysing students’ errors is based on three objectives. Errors are analysed first “to identify the strategies which learners use in language learning,” second, “to identify the causes of learner errors” and finally, “to obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an aid to teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials” (p. 184). In relation to such error analysis objectives, the purpose of the present study is to examine and analyse written sentence structure errors frequently observed to be committed by Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) Preparatory Year Programme (PYP) students. Writing Portfolio Assignments of Health, Science and Engineering (SET) students are selected to be analysed. This research principally focuses on sentence grammar because it is believed that errors in Preparatory Year EFL students’ sentence construction may lead to readability problems in their future academic writing. This field work aims at providing grammar and writing courses designers with some insight about sentence structure errors committed by non-native students of English. Nine 101 (General English) and nine 102 (English for Academic Purposes) writing assignments submitted by beginner, intermediate, and advanced students are described, analysed, and interpreted following a procedure of error analysis conducted to identify the most predominant areas of structural problems. According to Corder (1976), Error Analysis (EA) is crucial for the teacher, the researcher and the learner (p.167). Corder (1976)'s, Ellis (1997)'s, and James (2013)'s EA in EFL writing are adopted as a blended analytical method to proceed with IAU PYP students’ sentence structure problems. "Errors reflect gaps in a learner's knowledge; they occur because the learner does not know what is correct" (Ellis, 1997, p. 17). Out of ignorance or carelessness, students inevitably tend to commit any type of errors. In this research, errors with sentence structure (simple, compound, and complex), sentence fragments, long run on sentences, and clausal relationships (coordination and subordination) are the focal features of analysis. The reviewed literature gives credit to the importance of grammar rules in general and sentence grammar in particular in the production of well-structured and effective writing. Talosa and Maguddaya (2018) claim
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 34 that “competence in writing can be assessed through one’s ability to properly organized thoughts using appropriate structures” (p. 173). Statistically, figures and numbers are provided to show the rate of error occurrences in the collected data. Errors such as wrong punctuation, defective compound and complex sentences structures, isolated post modifying adjectival clauses, wrong parallel structures, imperative instead of declarative sentences, redundant use of same subject, fragment structures, deletion of the verb ‘to be’, main verb missing, etc. are the most recurrent in the subjects’ written English. The provided findings of this study open up horizons for further research on grammatical errors such as word order mistakes, subject verb concord, modal verbs … etc.
2. Literature review 2.1 Importance of grammar instruction in EFL writing classes Significant studies (e.g., Basturkmen & Lewis, 2002 Cumming et al., 2002) report students’ needs for grammar instruction in EFL writing classes. A few other pertinent studies put emphasis on improving students’ structural knowledge as functional skills in academic writing (e.g., Cummings et al., 2006). According to Santos (2005) the current tendency toward accrediting the importance of teaching grammar refers back to the fact that learners simultaneously acquire a foreign language while studying composition. There is, similarly, a large body of empirical research endorsing the efficacy of explicit grammar instruction, mostly if learners are to reach advanced levels of proficiency. Several studies suggest a link between attention to language structure and positive learning outcomes (e.g., Nassaji & Swain, 2000; Spada and Lightbown, 2008). However, according to Zhang (2011), the noticeable errors that EFL students are bound to commit - weak vocabulary and inappropriate use of sentence grammar – are not attributed merely to students’ knowledge of language but to the context and to their interlanguage (p. 88). According to Calanoga and Tamayo (2019) “learning activities along grammar rules should be intensified in ESL classes” (pp. 227-228). Ho (2008) devised a three-step approach to structural errors identification and analysis. First, errors are identified (where is the problem) by writing out the sentence containing the error and highlighting the erroneous word/phrase/clause. Second, errors are defined and classified by stating and categorising them, and finally, the problem is described (explanation of rule and exemplification) by stating the violated grammar rule and providing the correct form with examples (p. 89).
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2.2 Error analysis James (2013) emphasizes that we need to know about EA criteria used by people in the present century and in L2 and FL contexts when making observations about deviant language. Ellis (2008) claims that EA and direct Corrective Feedback (CF) have the advantage of providing learners with explicit guidance about how to correct their errors. This is definitely needed if learners are unaware of the correct language used (i.e. inability of self-correction). Corder (1967) emphasised that errors, if studied systematically, can provide significant insights into how a language is learned by a foreigner. Error Analysis is, in fact, to discover “what the learner knows and does not know” and to “ultimately enable the teacher to supply him not just with the information that his hypothesis is wrong, but also, importantly, with the right sort of information or data for him to form a more adequate concept of a rule in the target language” (Corder, 1974, p. 170). Corder (1974) suggests three EA stages comprising recognition, description and explanation. Recognizing errors is a primary and essential step in the error analysis procedure. Identifying an error is a stage leading to accurate explanation of the learner's intended meaning in the context (p. 170). According to Crystal (2003), EA is a “technique for identifying, classifying and systematically interpreting the unacceptable forms produced by someone learning a foreign language, using any of the principles and procedures provided by linguistics” (p. 165). James (2013) defines Error Analysis as "the process of determining the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language" (p.1). Lee (2017) gives due credit to classroom writing assessment and feedback in the process of enhancing student learning in the second language writing classroom (p.2). Error Analysis "can help students find out the most serious errors they have made, and they can monitor and track their own development in terms of writing accuracy on an ongoing basis." (Lee, 2016, p.268).
2.3 Categories of errors James (2013) suggested error taxonomy based on basic personal characteristics such as sex, type of educational institution, nationality, and types and level of activity (p.102). Ho (2005) EA study states that there are eight types of errors described and interpreted at the sentence level. Jumbled-up or illogical sentence, incomplete or fragmented sentence, parallel structure, run-ons (fused sentences), inappropriate coordinating conjunction, inappropriate subordinating conjunction, and mis-ordering or inversion of subject-verb are emphasised in her study. James (1998, pp. 106-113) suggests five categories of grammatical, semantic, and substance errors.
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Syntactic errors such as coordination, subordination, sentence structure and ordering are of important connection to this research. Dulay et al. (1982) classify errors into six different categories; one of them, which is of relevance to this study, is mis-ordering of sentence words. Inspired by the above literature review, this study is devoted to explore and interpret sentence structure errors particularly relating to subordination and coordination, misplaced adjectival clauses, wrong parallel structures, run-ons, fragment structures, and miscellaneous errors. The nature and quantity of errors are likely to vary depending on whether the data comprise natural (clinical elicitation), unprompted language use, or carefully elicited language use (experimental elicitation). According to Corder (1981), clinical elicitation is to have the subjects to produce data by any means, for instance, by writing a composition or conducting general interviews. Experimental elicitation, on the other hand, applies a specific tool, such as pictures or graphs etc., to elicit data containing the target language or target linguistic features. Corder (1981, p. 29) states that: “The CE requires the learner to produce any voluntary data orally or in writing, while experimental methods use special tools to elicit data containing specific linguistic items.” The present paper’s collected data involve clinically elicited written language since the students voluntarily perform the assigned writing tasks. The target language is not elicited but freely written by the subjects within a framework of official and formal assignments.
3. Method This paper practically integrates qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyse the collected data and test the study’s hypothesis. The current research is stimulated by the prevalence of general English and EAP students’ English sentence structure errors. The data are collected after actual classroom observations and longitudinal follow ups of the students’ writing assignments. This is to track the subjects’ predominant sentence grammar errors to completely describe and interpret the situation. Such errors would likely entail linguistic deficiencies in the SET and Health students’ future communicative professional abilities if no efficient pedagogical measures are taken. Hence, the authors, who are the teachers of the selected subjects, opted for a large and varied data in order to guarantee validity and reliability.
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3.1 Data collection 3.1.1 Data source Nine English 101 and nine English 102 assignments are collected from Blackboard Learn over two semesters to shed light on students’ recurrent sentence structure problems. The English 101 data are assignments designed to assess students’ writing outcome starting from constructing single sentences, developing single paragraphs and ending with fully developed academic essays. On the other side, the 102 English assignments are similarly selected sentences, paragraphs and essays. This collected data are written tasks produced, organized and developed by potential Health, Engineering and Science professionals. These students’ writing activities functionally target their future professional field of study. Accordingly, this research finds it crucial to carefully mind the students’ written language in general and sentence structure in particular.
3.1.2 Selection criteria The selection is an outcome of serious observations of defective structural written and spoken output produced by the students of English as a functional language. Generally, students show evident weakness in their written compositions. Blackboard assignments are particularly chosen because of their importance as activities rigorously controlled and formally assessed. In this regard, students can only be serious enough to write something reliable and valid for such a genre of study.
3.2 Data analysis This article provides a blended methodology comprising integrative qualitative and quantitative analyses. This study relies on MS Office as an analytical illustrative software to statistically proceed with the description, analysis and interpretation of the collected data. The procedure followed in the study relies on descriptive and inferential statistics leading to appropriate explanations and interpretations.
3.2.1 Quantitative analysis In order to provide valid and reliable analyses and results, this paper has conducted corpus analysis to provide accurate statistics to describe the target language. The purpose is to highlight the errors committed by the preparatory year students in their assigned writing tasks. Numerical analyses are made to provide accurate findings about sentence structure problems
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 38 with compound and complex sentences errors, isolated sentence fragments, wrong punctuation, restrictive relative clauses, and pre and post modifying clauses.
3.2.2 Qualitative analysis The methodological philosophy adopted by this research leans on a blended EA procedure (Ellis, 1997; James, 2013) and the three-step sentential structural approach devised by Ho (2008, p. 89). Errors related to, for example, the construction of simple, compound, and complex sentences are given primary concern because they are the highest units compared to other smaller linguistic units such as clauses and fragments.
3.3 Procedure Errors are categorised into different types according to their frequency of occurrences in the students’ written pieces. Data are entered into the MS Word and MS Excel to draw counting and statistics. Target errors are counted, tabulated, and illustrated with graphs. Proper analyses and interpretations are carried out to underline the major structural defects that characterise the IAU Preparatory Year students’ English sentence. Not far from what was previously provided by Corder (1974), Ellis (1997)'s and James (2013)'s EA procedures, illustrated in figure 1 and 2 below, are interactively appropriated in the present study. Ellis (1997)'s approach encompasses procedural collection of students' written data, making observations about deviant target language (identifying mistakes), describing errors' features, categorising the errors according to their distinctive aspects and sources, and finally, interpreting their gravity and effects. James (2013) provides an EA procedure grounded on four segments: observing, classifying, specifying, profiling and evaluating errors (p.104).
Observing learner language
Classifying learner errors
Specifying learner errors
Profiling learner errors
Evaluating/correcting learner errors
Figure 1. James (2013)’s Error Analysis procedure (p. 104)
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Identification of errors
Description of errors
Explanation of errors
Evaluation of errors
Figure 2. Steps in Error Analysis Research (Ellis, 1997, pp. 15-20)
4. Results Responding to the observations of our students’ deficiencies in their written language and according to the data accumulated, series of students’ writing assignments have been reviewed to scan and scrutinize the observed and surveyed problems. Henceforth, this paper tests the proposed research hypothesis which speculates that most of IAU PYP students encounter serious sentence structure problems in their writings. The incentive of the present study is that the problem of sentence grammar is prominent and pervasive across all levels of the studied tracks.
4.1 SET and Health students’ sentence structure problems IAU PYP Health and SET Tracks students are supposed to join their corresponding colleges in which English language is the means of instruction and studies. In disagreement with such an importance of English as a functional language, beginner, intermediate and advanced students of the studied tracks show conspicuous sentence structure problems in their 101 and 102 compositions. Such findings suggest paying more attention to the problem of weak and faulty sentence structures.
4.1.1 Beginners The identified errors committed by the SET and Health beginner students relating to English sentence structure are numerous and varied. The errors which are, initially, identified, then
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 40 described, interpreted and evaluated are punctuation errors which seriously interfere in the syntactic and semantic structures of the sentence. Fragment, compound, complex and run on structure errors are second in order of study in this paper. The third error type pinpointed in this study is either the students construct defective adjective clauses or they misuse them. Miscellaneous errors (parallel structure, redundancy, verbless clauses and sentences, imperative instead of declarative, fragments as paragraph starters, etc.) are a quite long and varied set of committed errors that show weakness in constructing proper English sentences. Wrong punctuation, as a starting point of error analysis in this research, affects the unity of the sentence meaning and its syntactic relationships. Applying the chosen quantitative and qualitative methods, SET and Health beginners show serious problems dealing with sentential punctuation. Errors such as dropped comma in the compound sentence and after subordinate clause in the complex sentence, comma instead of semicolon and comma before subordinating conjunctions are not limited to what is tabulated below, but they are widely spread among the assignments of all beginner students with some variations in errors’ occurrence frequencies.
Table 1 SET and Health Tracks beginner students’ punctuation errors SET Beginners Students Concordances Errors Student 1 It cooks food more quickly and it uses 70-80% Dropped comma in less electricity than a regular oven compound sentence Student 2 To me, it is just a second language, I thought it Comma instead of semi colon wasn't necessary to learn it, I just wanted to pass or full stop the subject with no concentrating on learning it. Student 3 We learn something new every day, learning comma instead of full stop or something very important in life, you may learn semicolon things and you do not know. Long run on sentence Student 4 Nobody owned that hill, but it was beautiful Comma is used after one and peaceful and I dreamed many times about a coordinator and dropped after white house over there another Student 5 This problem has become more frequent, as Using a comma before a today’s society is all about consuming too much subordinating conjunction food with high calories and lacking exercise. Health Beginners Students Concordances Errors Student 1 The reason, if you have any problem in your Dropped comma after if energy you can call them to come to fix it clause (after subordinate clause)
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Student 2 Although they state smoking is the main cause No comma after subordinate of lung cancer many smokers don’t care about clause that. Student 3 They love you and they used to see you happy. Compound sentence comma Student 4 There are studies saying diabetes is more Comma before subordinator dangerous than smoking, due to the disorder of metabolism in the body. Student 5 So life is important and nothing can compare to Compound sentence comma teenager's life.
Statistics show that punctuation errors are frequently and widely committed by SET and Health beginners. Figure 3 below illustrates the occurrence frequency rates of the types of punctuation errors committed by the beginner students. As it is shown, the compound sentence and complex sentence punctuations errors are the most recurrent (49%+31% =80%). Punctuation errors outnumber all other committed error types. These errors represent 20% of the total sentence structure errors committed by SET and Health beginner students.
60%
50%
40%
30%
20% Frequency rate Frequency
10%
0% Compound Complex Comma instead Semicolon sentence sentence of semi colon instead of full punctuation comma or full stop stop Series1 49% 31% 12% 8% Types of puncuation errors
Figure 3. Beginner students’ punctuation errors
The students’ misuse of punctuation marks is likely due to their lack of knowledge of sentence constituents’ functions. Punctuation flaws (comma, semi colon and full stop) are likely attributed to carelessness or to ignorance of rules. The comma, for instance, which has key functions to prevent misreading of intended meanings is used in wrong positions. Students
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wrongly use it instead of the full stop or the semicolon. The semicolon, on the other hand, must not be used ad hoc. It fulfils precise structural semantic purposes based on specific clausal relationships. The full stop is observed to be ignored and often incorrectly replaced by commas and semicolons. Students are observed to rather opt for writing long run on sentences than going for proper sentences using full stops.
Table 2 Fragment, compound, complex, and long run on sentence structures errors SET Beginners Students Concordances Errors Student 1 The importance of Petra in it is ancient and Fragment historical, Student 2 For example, basketball and football. Fragment Mobile phone is important in our life ✓nobody Compound: dropped coordinator Student 3 can live without mobile phone. Student 4 Because some time the energy have problem Isolation of subordinate clause and we do not know, Student 5 Always remember that the true happiness is Long run on sentence not bought by treasures of gold and silver, but happiness is attitudes, words, aspirations and reflections on life realistically and hope, and always look inside you and around you, maybe happiness is near you, but the darker life withheld it from you. Student 6 We learn something new every day, learning Long run on sentence something very important in life, you may learn things and you do not know. Health Beginners Students Concordances Errors Student 1 Also, Mobile screen 5,8. Fragment: phrase instead of full sentence. Student 2 Due to damage or weakness of the nerves of Fragment: subordinate clause the heart, which are responsible for the pulses. without main clause Student 3 The screen quality for iphone X 1080p. Fragment: complex phrase as a full sentence Student 4 Although the Ministry of health is trying to Complex: unnecessary use of ‘but’ treat smokers but few of them respond Student 5 Cell phone use while driving can distract Long run on sentence drivers in several ways physical, visual,
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auditory, and cognitive distractions as a result of cell phone use. Student 6 So that can preserve the lives of many drivers Long run on sentence of human uses of cell phones while driving a combination of physician advocacy public education, medical community awareness, and change in legislations required to increase fines and penalties.
SET and Health beginner students’ errors relating to fragment, compound, complex and long run on structures are ubiquitous in most of their written English. These errors are found to have variant degrees of frequency with the exception of the compound sentence structure errors which are identified to be less recurrent: complex sentence (39%), fragment (36%), long run on (18%) and compound sentence (7%). As presented in figure 4 below, statistics show that these students have fewer problems dealing with compound sentence structures. They, on the other hand, tend not to take risk going for long sentences which comparatively justifies the lower rate of long run on structure errors. In contrast, complex and fragment structures’ errors are prevailing in most of the students’ written English. This problem may refer to the students’ limited knowledge of the complex sentence grammar.
45% 39% 40% 36% 35% 30% 25% 20% 18% 15% Frequency rate Frequency 10% 7% 5% 0% Complex Compound Fragment Long run on sentence sentence errors errors errors errors Series1 39% 36% 18% 7% Language structure errors
Figure 4. SET and Health beginner students’ fragment, compound, complex, and long run on sentence structures errors
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Table 3 Adjective clauses errors SET Beginners Students Concordances Errors Student 1 There are many ways can conserve energy in our Dropping subject relative daily life. pronoun from complement adjective clause Student 2 The people ✓ do not need TV they do not use it. Dropping the relative pronoun ‘that’ or ‘who’ from the complement of the subject relative clause Student 3 The Seven Wonders of the World are one of the Separating the complement most unique and historic places in the world, that relative clause from its head millions of tourists visit each year to enjoy. noun by a comma Student 4 …an ancient Roman city ✓hosts a lot of tourists Misplaced relative adjective ✓is located in southern Jordan. clause and dropped relative pronoun Student 5 Which we understand, that time is changing and Using relative clause after full students are also teaching methods. stop. Health Beginners Students Concordances Errors Student 1 Which is very little if we compared to cities… Isolated relative clause Student 2 But this campaign and fighting create positive and Isolated relative clause: after negative in our smartphones. which we use from full stop their companies. Student 3 Diabetes is the one of chronic diseases. That has Isolated relative that clause serious problems in human being. Student 4 In addition, the inventions of means of Using ‘what’ instead of transportation what use fuel and oil as materials ‘which’ and the worldwide using those vehicles make the air polluted seriously. Student 5 The smokers are carrying a burden on state because Isolated relative who clause: the state costs huge money. Who are more likely to after full stop smoke are aged 15 to 30.
As presented in the third column of table 3 above, relative clause errors are mostly due to the students’ ignorance of the rules of how to attach adjective clauses initiated with relative pronouns (who, which, that, whom and whose) to their head nouns. The students either drop
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the subject relative pronoun from the post modifier relative clause (e.g. SET student 1), or they separate the complement relative clause from its head noun with a comma (e.g. SET student 3), or they use a relative clause in isolation (e.g. Health student 2), or they wrongly use relative pronouns; they, for example, choose ‘what’ instead of ‘which’ (e.g. Health student 4). Displacement of the relative clause is a common error observed in students’ compositions (e.g. SET student 3). The values of the adjective clause errors represented by the bar chart below highlight the problems using the post modifier relative clause that SET and Health beginner students confront in their writing.
40% 36% 35% 32% 30% 25% 20% 15% 15% 12%
Frequency rate Frequency 10% 5% 5% 0% Dropping Displacing Using wrong Misusing Others (e.g. subject relative relative restrictive and using 'that' relative adjective pronoun nonrestrictive after comma) pronoun clause clauses Types of adjective clause errors
Figure 5. SET and Health beginner students’ adjective clause errors
Table 4 Miscellaneous sentence structure errors SET Beginners Students Concordances Errors Student 1 The most obvious reason ✓ of that people want to Missing ‘to be’ eat healthy and fresh food. => L1 interference Student 2 Finally, those who are live alone and do not know redundant use of the same how to cook they are used to eating from subject (antecedent subject and restaurants, like students who study abroad and its image) their income is spent on the restaurants. Student 3 As a simple machine, such as treadmill, is able to Wrong sentence structure: help reduce obesity in the society. Irrelevant use of ‘such as’ Student 4 Now students seem to want not only to listen to the Discrepancy between the teacher and to solve the exercises on their own, but subject of the first clause and
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now learning has evolved and must be kept up to the subject of the second date. clause Student 5 There were flowers, many kinds, white, yellow, Wrong placement of pre- purple and blue. modifiers Health Beginners Students Concordances Errors Student 1 Stress will make you feel bad experience, Parallel structure mentally, emotional and physical. Student 2 One of the causes of stress, Not taking enough Disorganized cluster of sleep, the lack of sleep will make you susceptible linguistic structures to stress. Student 3 Many people ignore that because they thought that Wrong structure/parallel having cigarette or shisha is giving fun and many structure friends you will earn. Student 4 Both of them they get the money from Repetition of the same subject businessman and governments… Student 5 For both there is a number of responsibilities you Unnecessary personal pronoun have to do it. ‘it’ Students should not use the personal pronoun ‘you’.
Table 4 above shows SET and Health beginner students’ various sentence structure errors. Dropping ‘to be’, which can be explained by the interference of the students’ L1 (e.g. SET student 1), redundant use of the same subject (antecedent subject and its image; e.g. SET student 2), wrong placement of pre-modifiers (e.g. SET student 5), parallel structure (e.g. Health students 1 and 3), construction of disorganized cluster of linguistic structures (e.g. Health student 2), and repetition of the same subject (e.g. Health student 4) are frequent errors committed by these students. It should be noticed, hereby, that the wide variation of the English sentence structure errors presented in table 4 above could only be explained by the weak knowledge of a good number of students about the English sentence and its structure rules. Hence, students need to be reinforced with programmes and courses strong enough to equip them with solid knowledge of the sentence essential and nonessential elements and the rules that govern their right structural order. Students need to have enough ideas about the different parts of speech and their sentential functions. Once they get more knowledgeable about the essential and nonessential elements of the sentence and the rules of their syntactic distribution, they get confident enough to logically and systematically position the sentence constituents.
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4.1.2 Intermediate students Table 5 SET and Health Track intermediate students’ punctuation errors SET Intermediate Students Concordances Errors Student 1 There are many ways that people start smoking. and Coordinator after full stop most of them are teenagers, they begin in high school Comma instead of colon when you want to try everything. Student 2 They think it's cool when you have a cigarette in the Full stop instead of comma hand. and have a lot of Psychological and health for coordination problem. Student 3 Well, because cigarette Contains nicotine, which is Complex sentence: highly addictive. like other addictive drugs directly hit Putting full stop after your body and mind. subordinate clause Student 4 Some people like to live in villages and other people Compound sentence: like to live in Cities. dropped comma Student 5 Safety, in general living in villages is safer, because Complex sentence: comma they do not have stress. before second position subordinator Health Intermediate Students Concordances Errors Student 1 when he has a headache✓ he will smoke a cigarette and Complex sentence: dropped think that is helpful for the headache. comma after first position subordinate clause Student 2 Studies show that 50% of children wear glasses, Complex sentence: comma because use technology devices before second position subordinator Student 3 when children compete✓ they may injured themselves Complex sentence: dropped during the sport competition comma after first position subordinate clause Student 4 children do not use technology✓ and the result showed Compound sentence: the children do not use technology have healthier eyes dropped comma Student 5 Some people like to live in villages✓ and other people Compound sentence: like to live in Cities. dropped comma
Intermediate students similarly show serious problems with punctuation mainly those which structurally play crucial functions as landmarks that make difference between various kinds of clausal relationships and sentential demarcation. There seems no big difference between beginner and intermediate students dealing with problems with coordination and subordination punctuation marks. Table 5 above is similar to Table 1 (Beginner punctuation errors). Such
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 48 identical punctuation error types tabulated above can only show the gravity of the recurrence of the same category of mistakes which may lead to seriously think of further work on clausal relationships of coordination and subordination. Cases in point are wrong coordination between phrases and clauses (e.g., student 4). Long run on sentences with wrong punctuation draws more attention to revisit the way students are taught sentence construction. As far as Health Track intermediate students are concerned, punctuation errors are rather related to complex sentence structure. According to this research, Health Track students show tendency toward writing complex sentences rather than simple and compound sentences. This direction toward sentence complexity may be due to more confidence in taking risks with advanced sentence construction. However, this may have led them to go further in writing very unclear long run on sentences. This has led 90% of the subjects who chose to write long run- on sentences to commit punctuation errors. Students need to be recommended and encouraged to go for simple sentences until they fully grasp the mechanisms of punctuation related to clausal relationships. Numerical descriptions and interpretations are provided by this research to show broader results with a big number of students sharing such common errors. Figure 6 below illustrates the distribution of the punctuation error types committed by SET and Health intermediate students. Compound and complex sentences punctuation errors show the students’ major area of weakness in relation to the English sentence structure (43%+37%=80%). The students’ confusion about using the comma instead of semicolon or full stop and using semicolon instead of full stop is less serious than that about the compound and complex sentences punctuation (13%+7%=20%).
50% 45% 43% 40% 37% 35% 30% 25% 20%
Frequency rate Frequency 15% 13% 10% 7% 5% 0% Compound Complex sentence Comma instead of Semicolon instead sentence comma semi colon or full of full stop punctuation stop Types of punctuation errors
Figure 6. SET and Health intermediate students’ punctuation errors
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Table 6 Fragment, compound, complex, and long run on sentence structures errors SET Intermediate Students Concordances Errors Student 1 Is part of the county where I grew up and is part of Sentence fragment: verb my childhood phrases instead of full sentence Student 2 First, working together as a team. Sentence fragment Second, better decision making. Student 3 Firstly, people who cannot afford the price of meal Fragment: phrase instead of that they want to eat, such as poor people. sentence Student 4 Technology addiction has been described as being just Compound sentence: wrong as powerful as a drug addiction yet your child’s clausal coordination excessive technology usage could lead to brain damage. Student 5 Safety, in general living in villages is safer, because Complex sentence: wrong no stress. subordinate clause Student 6 For example, when the teacher write something or Complex sentence: said in the lecture and you write anything he said. subordinate adverbial clause without main clause Student 7 Environmental pollution is all the means that cause Long run on sentence damage in the environment, and most of these means Wrong coordinated sentence widespread open waste, and smoke rising from factories, and all causes of pollution of the environment came from human activity Student 8 If we accept ourselves and if we accept the idea of that Long run on sentence there is always will be some better, and we will do the best to be better and develop our skills. Health Intermediate Students Concordances Errors Student 1 Second, waste incineration, which causes the Fragment: Noun phrase emission of many toxic gases and particles into the instead of sentence atmosphere, And this is one of the causes of pollution. Coordinating a clause to a phrase Student 2 Because of insufficient blood supply to the arteries, Fragment: Subordinate clause which loses the elasticity of the artery, especially the without main clause artery that feeds the heart ✓. Student 3 They like the taste of it and maybe some of them Compound: no clear think they can't change to eat something else. coordination relationship (addition versus contrast) Student 4 For me it was my mother who helped me and she who Compound sentence: useless motivated me and who encouraged me coordinated clause
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Student 5 Because of it releases of burned gases in the air. Complex sentence: wrong structure Student 6 Studies show that 50% of children wear glasses, Complex sentence: dropped because use technology devices subject of the subordinate clause Student 7 Always remember that the true happiness is not Long run on sentence bought by treasures of gold and silver, but happiness is attitudes, words, aspirations and reflections on life realistically and hope, and always look inside you and around you, maybe happiness is near you, but the darker life withheld it from you. Student 8 Cell phone use while driving can distract drivers in Run on sentence several ways physical, visual, auditory, and cognitive distractions as a result of cell phone use.
Students commit fragment, compound, complex, and long run on sentence structures’ errors by using phrases (noun phrase, verb phrase, adverb phrase, etc.: e.g. SET students 1 and 2 above; Health students 1 and 2) instead of sentences, wrong clausal coordination (using wrong coordinators: SET student 4), wrong subordination (e.g. because of + clause and because +verb phrase; Health students 5 and 6), isolated subordinate clauses for example adverbial clause (e.g. SET student 6 and Health student 2), and long run on sentences (SET students 7 and 8; Health students 7 and 8). The frequency rates of the mentioned error types are presented in the bar chart below.
40% 37% 36% 35% 30% 25% 20% 17% 15% 10% 10%
Frequency rate Frequency 5% 0% Complex Compound Fragment Long run on sentence sentence errors errors errors errors Series1 37% 36% 17% 10% Types of structure errors
Figure 7. SET and Health intermediate students’ fragment, compound, complex, and long run on sentence structures errors
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Table 7 Adjective clause errors SET Intermediate Students Concordances Errors
Student 1 Who are more likely to smoke are aged 15 to 30. Dangling adjective clause: no clear reference Student 2 Furthermore, children may be addicted to using it for Double relative pronoun long hours, which that affects in the Physical aspect. Student 3 A study of 100 children shows that children how using technology have weakness in focus for a long Wrong spelling of the time. relative pronoun + wrong On the other hand, those how to read a book have the structure of relative adjective ability to focus and Imagination more than those how clause using technology. Student 4 And make our children depend on the total ✓ ‘…which generates…’ dependence on technology ✓ generates inactivity in Dropped subject relative their lives, which affects the health and physical and pronoun mental development. Student 5 For those who criticize technology they will say the Redundant subject in relative technology hurt the eye. clause Health Intermediate Students Concordances Errors
Student 1 First, the research said children whose know how to Wrong relative pronoun use technology… Student 2 Children who are overused by technology and video Non-restrictive instead of games can be exposed to many violent scenes, which restrictive clause raise adrenaline levels and stress levels because they cannot tell what they are seeing. Student 3 Extra store is the best electronics store because you Redundant object pronoun can easily find any electronic device that you want it Student 4 Almutanabi bookshop involves three large sections, Comma before ‘that’ relative the first one is Novels section, that present the clause famous and the recent novels in reading world Student 5 Toys R Us has a wonderful gift wrapping which Wrong relative pronoun comes with a card where a person can write his name who the gift is for.
SET and Health intermediate students’ relative clause errors tabulated above are of such types as dangling adjective clause with no clear reference (e.g. SET student 1), double relative pronoun (e.g. SET student 2), wrongly structured adjective clause (e.g. SET student 3), dropped
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subject relative pronoun (e.g. SET student 4), redundant relative clause subject (e.g. SET student 5), wrong relative pronoun (e.g. Health student 1 and 5), non-restrictive instead of restrictive clause (e.g. Health student 2), comma before ‘that’ relative clause (e.g. Health student 4). Dropped relative pronouns (37%) and wrong relative pronouns (33%) are found to be the most frequently committed adjective clause errors; misused restrictive and non- restrictive adjective clauses are identified to be as second in recurrence (20%), and several other errors related to the adjective clause (10%) are obviously frequent.
40% 37% 35% 33% 30% 25% 20% 20% 15% 10%
10% Frequency rate Frequency 5% 0% Restrictive Dropped wrongly-used and non- Others (e.g. relative relative restrictive using 'that' pronouns pronouns adjective after comma) clauses Series1 37% 33% 20% 10% Types of adjective clause errors
Figure 8. SET and Health intermediate students’ adjective clause errors
Table 8 Miscellaneous sentence structure errors SET Intermediate Students Concordances Errors Student 1 In generally, I think that a lot of people consume fast Wrong coordination: food in KSA because of the lifestyle, the influence of coordinating nouns with a advertising, low prices, and it’s easy to order. clause Student 2 As a truck driver, too, he first learnt to drive slowly Parallel structure problem and safe Student 3 Also, keep blood pressure and sugar steady Imperative instead of declarative Student 4 …this way of thinking, think about ourselves, and Imperative instead of compare with ourselves just… declarative Student 5 the most obvious reason of that people want to eat ‘that’ clause should be the healthy and fresh food. complement of the subject
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Correct: The most obvious reason of that ✓ (is that) people want to eat healthy and fresh food. ‘to be’ is dropped Health Intermediate Students Concordances Errors Student 1 For example, the site of the car made by hand Verbless sentence/wrong because ✓ difficult to made by machine sentence. Student 2 The technology ✓ (is) like eating in your life. Verbless sentence Student 3 To sum up, living alone ✓ similar to living with your Dropped ‘to be’ family in some things and different in other things. Student 4 something made by machine ✓ more accurate than Dropped ‘to be’ made by hand Student 5 This makes one wonder what is the difference Direct question instead of between the city and the village? indirect question
This research has discovered that SET and Health intermediate students produce numerous erroneous structures such as wrong coordination (coordinating nouns with a clause; e.g., SET student 1), incorrect parallel structure (coordinating a clause with a phrase; e.g., SET student 2), imperative instead of declarative (e.g., SET students 3 and 4), verbless sentence (e.g. Health student 1 and 2), dropped ‘to be’ (e.g. students 3 and 4) and using direct questions instead of indirect questions (e.g. Health student 5). Comparatively, intermediate students tend, as well, to commit a variety of sentence structure errors even though they show better achievements than those of the beginners.
4.1.3 Advanced students Table 9 SET and Health Track advanced students’ punctuation errors SET Advanced Students Concordances Errors Student 1 Japan is one of the most developed countries, Comma instead of semi colon everyone knows this Student 2 Comma instead of semi colon government and loyalty to home, these causes made Japan one of the top three countries in economy. Student 3 Japan's population are against excessive consumption in all aspects and in all fields, they are economists in everything, as if there is a discount in shops all the shops will be crowded and this is A very long run-on sentence evidence of the reservation of the Japanese money, with wrong punctuation
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spending money in just useful things makes Japan one of top three countries in economy. Student 4 For me it was my mother who helped me and she Compound sentence comma who motivated me and who encouraged me Student 5 even the highest-ranking people, are forced to act Comma separating subject from immediately if there is any corruption in their predicate system Health Advanced Students Concordances Errors Student 1 The third reason for the excellence of innovation in Sentence missing to be: Comma Japan, the culture of… instead of « to be » (L1 interference) Student 2 The first reason for the development of Japan, is the Wrong punctuation: comma economy in consumption. Japan's population are separating the subject from the against excessive consumption in all aspects and in predicate all fields, they are economists in everything, as if Comma instead of semicolon or there is a discount in shops full stop Student 3 There are many factors that have led to this progress Comma instead of semi colon such as the cooperation of citizens, government and or full stop loyalty to home, these causes made Japan one of the top three countries in economy. Student 4 In fact, when you have too much money, it can make Very long sentences: dropped people want to be part of your life and want to be comma: commas instead of your friends, but these are fake relationships, it is semi colons; a prototype sample not for you, it is just for your money, so you cannot of advanced students’ sentences make real relationships. Student 5 In conclusion ✓ I believe that the city is the best Dropped comma after adverbial place to live because it has all services you want preposition phrase and it has a lot of malls, jobs, and you will have a No compound sentence comma chance to study in university where you live, you don’t have to leaving. Comma instead of semi colon
Table 9 above shows that SET and Health advanced students tend to commit punctuation errors because they are likely more confident with the construction of complex and compound sentences compared to the intermediate students. They, particularly, tend to opt for complex structures rather than simple and compound ones. The difference between these students and some of the beginners and most of the intermediate students is that these advanced students show more accuracy in complex sentence construction. However, some students end up by being trapped in the problem of long run on sentences, and they misuse the comma and the
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semi colon. Student 2, for instance, presented in the table 9 above, is a case in point of advanced students who keep using long run on sentences.
50% 45% 45% 40% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 15%
Frequency rate Frequency 10% 5% 0% Comma instead Dropped of semi colon or Long run on Coordination full stop comma Series1 45% 40% 15% Types of punctuation errors
Figure 9. SET and Health advanced students’ punctuation errors
Table 10 Fragment, compound, complex, and long run on sentence structures errors SET Advanced Students Concordances Errors
Student 1 As a result of this circumstance which is the speakers Sentence fragment: fixed can’t use their mother language. phrase instead of sentence Student 2 Who are more likely to smoke are aged 15 to 30. Sentence fragment: isolated relative clause Student 3 This language is not extinct but is threatened with Compound sentence: extinction, wrong coordination: clause with verb phrase Student 4 Second, waste incineration, which causes the emission of Compound sentence: many toxic gases and particles into the atmosphere, And coordination of noun this is one of the causes of pollution. phrase with clause Student 5 If he is quiet, and socially humble. Complex sentence: Isolated subordinate clause/ subordinate clause without main clause Student 6 …opinion. Although, a lot of people prefer to live in city Complex sentence: than to live in country side. Confusion between ‘however’ which indicates
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concession to what precedes and ‘although’ => Isolated subordinate clause of concession Student 7 Extinction may be a term for understanding the extinction A long run-on sentence of a living organism, but there is more to the extinction that does not limit living organisms, but it may also be a language or concept that is extinct if it is not preserved due to extinction factors and there are many languages extinct and some are threatened with extinction. Student 8 spoken by only 5 people in the world and is the oldest A long fragment structure: language in the lives of people living in some islands in No clear subject and New Zealand, Guinea, near the coast of Indonesia, one of predicate the languages that will soon be extinct.
Health Advanced Students Concordances Errors Student 1 As well as living with your family where you can learn Fragment: subject from your parents and get their advice. participial clause missing predicate Student 2 Modern life has many advantages and ✓ ✓ more Compound sentence: developed than traditional life. dropped subject and verb in the coordinated clause Student 3 Some people think that is too much money is a bad thing Compound sentence: because of many people spend their money in the bad way Extremely long run on whereas some people think that is too much money is a sentence: many good thing because of many people spend their money in coordinated and the good way, but I believe if someone is a wise and subordinated clauses rational man, and he has too much money he will spend his money in the right way, but if someone is a bad man, and he has too much money he will spend his money in the wrong way. Student 4 Although rich people will be surrounded by fake friends Complex sentence: because of their money. subordinate clause without main clause Student 5 Although, country has some methods which may be Complex sentence: useful but not like in city. subordinate concession clause without its proper corresponding main clause Student 6 The first reason for the development of Japan, is the A very long run-on economy in consumption. Japan's population are against sentence: Accumulation of excessive consumption in all aspects and in all fields, they subordination and are economists in everything, as if there is a discount in coordination
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shops all the shops will be crowded and this is evidence of the reservation of the Japanese money, spending money in just useful things makes Japan one of top three countries in economy. Student 7 There are many languages that have not been extinct Long run-on sentence because of the large number of speakers, which are used daily and stored in books and the mind of its users but have been exposed to some factors that may lead to extinction in the future because of some foreign terms have been added and changed some meanings and loss of some words.
As far as linguistic structures are concerned, it is discovered that SET and Health advanced students are not far away from the beginner and intermediate students in terms of errors categories. Sentence fragment (e.g., fixed phrase instead of sentence; SET student 1 and 2 and Health student 1), isolated subordinate clause, wrong coordination (e.g., clause + verb phrase and noun phrase + clause; SET students 3 and 4) and (e.g., dropped second subject of the second coordinated clause; Health student 2) are frequent error types committed by these students. Long run-on sentence and isolated relative clause errors are found to be more common with advanced students compared to students of other levels. This phenomenon may be attributed to the advanced students’ confidence dealing with long sentence structures. They consequently end up with falling into the problem of constructing long run-ons which affect clausal relationships (coordination and subordination). Although the advanced students show more accuracy in sentence construction, they still commit errors similar to those committed by the students of other levels. Fragment structure errors (39%), complex sentence problems (33%), long run on structures (21%) and compound sentence flaws (7%) are illustrated in figure 10 below.
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45% 39% 40% 35% 33% 30%
25% 21% 20%
15% Frequency rate Frequency 10% 7% 5% 0% Fragment errors Complex sentence Long run on Compound errors errors sentence errors Types of structure errors
Figure 10. SET and Health advanced students’ Fragment, compound, complex, and long run on sentence structures errors
Table 11 Adjective clause errors SET Advanced Students Concordances Errors Student 1 For me it was my mother who helped me and ✓she Dropped dummy structure ‘it is’ who motivated me and who encouraged me which intensively requires an adjective clause. Student 2 …a lot of languages in the world ✓some of them Adjective clause: dropped relative vanish. pronoun ‘that’ from subject relative …because there are many things ✓ have changed clause over the years. Student 3 In the last centuries. ✓ which can easily help to Adjective clause: inability to demolish language. initiate relative clause with a preposition (in) Student 4 There are many languages which they are extinct, Adjective clause: using subject and others are endangered. after relative adjective pronoun Student 5 some of specialists tried to compare between the Adjective clause: dropped relative children ✓ use technology and children ✓ do not… pronouns Health Advanced Students Concordances Errors On the first-hand people who say the country life is better because it is simple and more healthy life for you and your family and it is will teach you some handicraft, but the country doesn’t have a mall or A complex noun clause (with an Student 1 government centres. adjective relative clause) as On the other hand, people who say the city life is subject => dropped predicate better because it is amazing place to live with your (awkward long structure)
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family, it has a lot of jobs, malls, supermarket, restaurant, government center and everything you need but it has a population and crowding problem. Student 2 …but, there are people how are very rich and they Redundant subject following do not feel happy. adjective clause (who and they) Student 3 Second, the people who live in the country they have Redundant subject following many skills such as camping and climbing mountains. adjective clause (who and they) Student 4 There are many things ✓ encourage you to live in Dropped ‘that/which’ from subject city like education, Government services and health relative clause services. Student 5 Moreover, there are games ✓ can affect the Dropped ‘that/which’ from subject children’s thinking in a wrong way. relative clause
SET and Health advanced students, on the other hand, wrongly use relative clauses and embedded clauses as complements of the noun. These students tend, as well, to drop the dummy subject ‘it’ and the verb ‘to be’ ending in misusing the adjective clause (e.g. SET student 1: For me it was my mother who helped me and ✓she who motivated me and who encouraged me). They fail to initiate relative clauses with required prepositions pre-modifying relative pronouns (e.g., in which, with which, with whom, etc.; SET student 3). Many other types of adjective clause errors are listed in table 11 above. Roughly, as depicted in figure 11 below, errors committed by advanced students are varied and quite different, but the number of errors is limited compared to that committed by the students of other levels.
45% 39% 40% 35% 35% 30% 25% 20% 17% 15% Frequency rate Frequency 9% 10% 5% 0% Dropped relative Dropped predicate Redundant subject Missed preposition pronoun from after complement following adjective before a relative subject relative relative clause clause pronoun clause Types of adjecive clause errors
Figure 11. SET and Health advanced students’ adjective clause errors
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Table 12 Miscellaneous sentence structure errors SET Advanced Students Concordances Errors Student 1 Give students their homework with much exams as well as Imperative homework assignments and family duties. structure instead of Donate to charities and poor people. declarative structure Student 2 the technology ✓ like eating in your life. Verbless sentence: L1 interference Student 3 Population, in the village the population ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand. Using one word as topic of the Services, public services are similar in village and cities. paragraph followed by a comma and a full Safety, in general living in villages is safer, because they do not sentence. have stress. Student 4 what ✓ the similarities and differences between work by hand and Dropped ‘to be’ by machine? (L1 interference) Student 5 And the knowledge which disappears may we don’t find until Using clause after now. modal verb ‘may’ Health Advanced Students Concordances Errors Student 1 What I want to say ✓ too much money can be helpful if you use Dropped ‘to be’ it in the right way. (L1 interference) Student 2 Second, the education ✓ developed in the city. First, the health services in the city ✓ more common than the Dropped ‘to be’ countryside. (L1 interference) Everyone should live in modern city because the education, business and jobs ✓ better than these in country life. Student 3 In the end, people like living in the past just to relax and for fresh Parallel structure air. Student 4 Second, the country life ✓ extremely simple for example, people Dropped ‘to be’ who live there have not learned to get a job. (L1 interference) Student 5 First, simple life. For example, they depend on animals and Fragment: as a title agriculture. of the paragraph Student 6 The second reason for distinguishing Japan, ✓ the extreme Dropped ‘to be’ shyness in making mistakes and feeling ashamed. (L1 interference)
Generally, miscellaneous errors committed by SET and Health advanced students are not qualitatively different from those committed by beginner and intermediate students. Dropping ‘to be’ is one of the most common errors observed among SET and Health advanced students especially in sentences resembling the nominal sentence in Arabic language. Strikingly, the use
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 61 of the imperative instead of the declarative is ubiquitous with students of all levels though with quantitative variation. Likewise, students of all levels sporadically tend to drop the verb of the sentence or the clause. More attention needs to be given to such errors committed due to the interference of the students’ mother language (L1). Finally, enough light should be shed on the fact of using fragments or words as starters of paragraphs.
5. Conclusion Genesee and Upshur (1996) claim that writing portfolios are “a purposeful collection of students’ works that demonstrates their efforts, progress and achievement.” Credit, as perceived in the aforementioned quotation, is given to continuous electronic formative assessments of students’ efforts, progress and achievement. This study has believed in the validity and reliability of Oxford Blackboard continuous assessment of IAU PYP Science, Engineering and Health Tracks students as a data source. Accordingly, this paper has tried to collect data effective, large and varied enough to test compelling observations about the students’ sentence structure errors. Acknowledging Corder (1976)'s inspirational work in the field of Error Analysis, methodologically, this study is instigated by James (2013)'s, and Ellis (1997)'s, Error Analysis stages comprising recognition, description and explanation which do not diverge from Corder's procedure. Statistical analyses are conducted in order to guarantee efficacy and soundness of findings. The numbers and ratios of occurrences and frequencies of given types of errors have led to more valid descriptions of the most salient and common mistakes. The methodology followed observes, describes, and interprets sentences, clauses, fragments and long run on structure errors in order to identify students’ problems with the sentence construction. Students are discovered not only to commit errors in building compound and complex sentences but also in writing simple sentences and relative clauses. Misused punctuation is an evident proof of the students’ ignorance of the functions of minor and major constituent of the English sentence. Consequently, more attention should be paid to the importance of teaching the sentence and its components and consolidating the students’ linguistic faculties. Punctuation is more often than not the bête noire of the majority of ELT students. Subsequently, specific consideration should be given to the teaching ways of punctuation and its functions. The difference between the comma and the semi colon and the difference between the semi colon and the full stop seem not to be given enough emphasis in teaching.
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Referring back to the main findings of this research, errors identified in the students’ written production are listed as compound and complex sentences errors, sentence punctuation, dependent and independent clauses, relative clauses, long run on sentences, fragment structures, imperative instead of declarative form, verbless clauses and sentences, … etc. This paper has initially focused on the sentence as the largest linguistic unit and ended with dealing with the smallest sentence fragments. The errors analysed and interpreted are not merely related to beginner students, but they are clearly present in the intermediate and advanced written English. Most students - with gradual quantitative variation between different levels - have problems in constructing sound linguistic structures and in using punctuation properly. Corder (1976, p. 163) claims that the occurrence of errors is merely signs of “the present inadequacy of our teaching methods.” The present paper correspondingly yields illuminating academic and pedagogical insights relative to innovative teaching practices. The findings of this research open up brackets for future concern of befitting syllabus designs built on effective needs and error analyses. Valuable pedagogical approaches need to be adopted to radically treat the over spread students’ erroneous linguistic structures and reduce their phobia of the target language rules. Based on the drawn evidence, concerned text book designers are suggested considering the inclusion of more extended courses and practical pedagogical methods focusing on linguistic structures to enhance writing skills of PYP students and profoundly deal with the remarkably proliferating problems with the construction of the sentence and its derivatives. Figure 12 below is a summative graphical representation that contrastively illustrates the studied error types committed by the students of the studied tracks and levels that may be of any service to curriculum and syllabus designers.
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Global error analysis 60%
49% 50% 37% 37% 45% 39% 39% 43% 39% 36% 36% 40% 36% 40% 31% 33% 37% 32% 33% 30%
Frequency rate 21% 20% 15% 12% 15% 20% 17% 18% 12% 10% 13% 10% 8% 7% 9% 10% 7% 7% 5% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% Punctuation: Adjective Punctuation: Adjective Adjective Adjective Punctuation: Punctuation: comma Sentence Sentence Fragment Long run on clause: Adjective Error semicolon Punctuation: clause: clause: clause: wrong compound complex instead of errors: errors: structure structure restrictive and clause: instead of full long run on dropped dropped relative types sentence sentence semi colon or compound complex errors errors nonrestrictive miscellaneous stop clause subject pronoun full stop clauses Beginners 49% 31% 12% 8% 0% 7% 39% 36% 18% 36% 32% 15% 12% 5% Intermediate 43% 37% 13% 7% 0% 17% 36% 37% 10% 37% 0% 33% 20% 10% Advanced 15% 0% 45% 0% 40% 7% 33% 39% 21% 39% 0% 0% 0% 9%
Beginners Intermediate Advanced
Figure 12. SET and Health students’ global error analysis
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References Basturkmen, H., & Lewis, M. (2002). Learner perspectives of success in an EAP writing course. Assessing Writing, 8, 31–46. Calanoga, M. C., & Tamayo, R. A. (2019). Error Analysis of Student Interns’ Reflective Journals: Basis for a Grammar Remediation Class. Asian EFL Journal, 23(3-2), 220- 236. Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learner’s errors. IRAL-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 5(1-4), 161-170. Corder, S. P. (1974). Error Analysis: Perspectives on second language acquisition. London: Longman. Corder, S.P. (1976). The Significance of Learner’s Errors. 1RAL, 5, 161-170. Corder, S. P. (1981). Error analysis and interlanguages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Crystal, D. (2003). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics (5th ed.). London: Blackwell. http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/9781444302776 Cumming, A., Busch, M., & Zhou, A. (2002). Investigating learners’ goals in the context of adult second-language writing. In G. Rijlaarsdam & S. Ransdell & M. Barbier (Eds.) Studies in writing (series): Vol. 11. New directions for research in L2 writing, 189–208 Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. Cummings, J., Erdosy, U., & Cumming, A. (2006). A study of contrasts: ESL and university instructors’ goals for writing improvement. In A. Cumming (Ed.), Goals for academic writing: ESL students and their instructors, 50–69. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Dulay, H. C., Burt, M.K., & Krashen, S.D. (1982). Language two. New York: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. (1997). Second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. (2008). A typology of written corrective feedback types. E LT Journal, 63(2). Oxford:Oxford University Press. Genesee, F., & Upshur, J. A. (1996). Classroom-based evaluation in second language education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ho, C. M. L. (2005). Sentence structure. In Exploring errors in grammar (Second Ed.). Singapore: Pearson Education South Asia Pte. Ltd. Ho, C. M. L. (2008). Toward Exploring Errors in Grammar: A Systematic Approach for Language Teachers. TESL Canada Journal/Revue TESL du Canada, 25(2), 89. James, C. (1998). Errors in language learning and use: Exploring error analysis. New York: Routledge.
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James, C. (2013). Errors in language learning and use: Exploring error analysis. New York: Routledge. Lee, I (2016). Putting Students at the Centre of Classroom L2 Writing Assessment. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 72(2), 258–280. Lee, I (2017). Classroom Writing Assessment and Feedback in L2 School Contexts. Singapore: Springer. Nassaji, H., & Swain, M. (2000). A Vygotskian perspective on corrective feedback: The effect of random versus negotiated help on the learning of English articles. Language Awareness, 9, 34–51. Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. (2002). Dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (3rd Ed.). London: Longman. Santos, T. (2005). The role of grammar in TESL and composition. In J. Frodesen & C. Holten (Eds.), The power of context in language teaching and learning, 153–162. Boston: Heinle. Spada, N., & Lightbown, P.M. (2008). Form-focused instruction: Isolated or integrated? TESOL Quarterly, 42, 181–207. Talosa, A., & Maguddayao, R. (2018). Evaluation of Second Language Learners’ Syntactic Errors in ESL Writing. TESOL International Journal. 13(4), 172-181. Zhang, M. (2011). Error Analysis and Interlanguage. Focus 1, 85-93.
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Multicultural Education to Support Internationalization of Universities: Implication for English Medium Instruction
Amirullah Abduh Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia
Muhammad Basri Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia
Ramly Ramly Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia
Rosmaladewi Politeknik Pertanian Negeri Pangkep, Indonesia
Bio-profiles: Amirullah Abduh is an Associate Professor at English Education and Head of the Centre for Publication and Intellectual Property Rights (Pusat Publikasi dan HAKI LP2M) Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia. (Corresponding author)
Muhammad Basri is a Professor at English Education, Faculty of Languages and Literature in Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia.
Ramly is a Professor at the Indonesian Department, Faculty of Languages and Literature Faculty, Universitas Negeri Makassar.
Rosmaladewi is a Senior Lecturer at Polytechnic Pertanian Negeri Pangkep, Indonesia.
Introduction Multicultural education has become an important element both in supporting the internationalization of higher education and in the English medium instruction programs. The embedded multicultural education strategies in higher education institutions can further aims and commitments of multiculturalism. Multicultural commitments cover a broader
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Multiculturalism, Internationalization, and EMI Multicultural education encompasses fairness and equality for everyone (Antonios, 2000), critical pedagogy, social justice, and inclusiveness (Banks & Banks, 2010). Authors such as Canen and Canen, (2002) also mention that equality links to equal opportunities, which protects minorities from discrimination and unequal cultural relations. They affirm that ‘equal opportunity’ entails a focus on discrimination; a recognition of the issues of minorities; and the legitimation of positive action. In this context, educational programs should aim to understand the sensitivity of culturally diverse perspectives and promote the representation of cultural and ethnic minorities in whole institutional contexts. Multicultural education is also essential for the preparation of internationalization of higher education where the cross-cultural components (Abduh, Wello, & Asnur, 2021) may determine the successfulness of the internationalized programs.
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The internationalization of universities includes the policy and practices by individuals, academic systems, institutions (Wit, 2011). The reasons for internationalization can include the acquisition of new literacy and technology, economic motives, and internationalization of curriculum (Altbach & Knight, 2007). Others view that internationalization relates to academic mobility (Morosini, Corte, & Guilherme, 2017) and political consideration (Knight, 2003). In this context, internationalization reflects that the key driving factors are both academic and non-academic staff. Academics see this context as the opportunity to encourage mobility from one continent to another in academic and non-academic activities. For example, there are large opportunities for young scholars to work as post-doctoral scientists and researchers in western institutions. Within Asian contexts such as Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand, the internationalization of higher education have more focused on English medium instruction (Rose & McKinley, 2018). This is due to English medium instruction programs only occur to some courses, while others still use national language, rather than EMI. EMI is inevitably important for higher education in Asian contexts where many universities struggle to deliver their courses in English. One of the important reasons for this is to attract international students to study there. For Example, many universities in Indonesia have strong awareness and commitment for internationalization through supporting the internationalization of the curriculum, using EMI for course delivery, and encouraging partnership and global collaboration (Abduh, Rosmaladewi, & Basri, 2018). The use of EMI within the university context can assist the development of internationalization and improve the capacity of academic staff concerning the mastery of foreign language. The mastery of foreign language and the delivery, of course, using EMI are part of the internationalization process (Abduh & Rosmaladewi, 2019) where teaching staffs, on the one hand, learn to teach contents through English, and on the other hand, they learn other culture to deliver the course effectively in the target culture. Connecting multiculturalism, internationalization, and EMI, these three components are the essential elements to drive universities internationally. Multicultural education provides key points to facilitate internationalization through equal and fair access for everyone. The delivery of multicultural education contents are using EMI can be an integrative approach (Islam, 2021). Such EMI is one of the indicators for globalization and English becomes a lingua franca that facilitates the internationalization of universities. Since there is no research on the connection of these three components, this article addresses this knowledge gap by exploring the strategies of multicultural education and EMI for the internationalization of universities.
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Research method Research design This present study is an interpretative case study of institutional strategies of three colleges to further the aims of multicultural education. The case study provides a unique description of the phenomenon being investigated (Yin, 2013). The phenomenon here is the multicultural education that supports the internationalization of higher education and its implication to EMI. Data collection and colleges The data were collected from three sites by using a variety of techniques including the collection of information from documents, websites, and interviews. For this paper, the data reported from in-depth interviews which last more than an hour. In each college, researchers interviewed key leaders to understand their perceptions of multiculturalism, EMI, and internationalization. College A reflects a public institution, College B reflects a private educational institution, and College C reflects a religious public institution. Data analysis For data analysis, researchers used an ‘interpretational approach’ (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2007) to establish a systematic framework of multicultural education. In this approach, researchers coded each of the interview transcripts to find a framework of themes and issues that are common to the colleges and/or unique to one or some of the colleges
Findings Four distinct patterns emerged from the data. From these patterns, we categorized the following themes: Strong policy to promote equality and respect diversity, facilitating intercultural dialogue, curriculum, and participating in community.
Strong policy to promote equality and respect diversity The three colleges have placed equality as a mainstream value in their institutions, which reflected in treating all people who come to their campus the same way. As the leaders of the three colleges said: We are very conscious that different families come to our doors who are really in different situations so we try hard to make sure that if you enter a door that you are treated in the same way whether you are a very wealthy family or you are very poor family (College A)
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This means that the institution promotes the values of anti-discrimination as part of the equality strategy. The institution also ensured that there was no discrimination in terms of race and gender: We will make sure that there is no discrimination on race, there is no discrimination on gender, and there is no discrimination on how much money your family has (College A). Equality is expressed from the outset in the attitude of welcoming everyone to the campus. One of the things is to set core values to welcome everybody. Similarly, in College B, equality is part of the essential key multicultural value in their institution. Equality is introduced through the formal curriculum and values. The leader explained: We introduce the notion of equality again through our curriculum and through our values, approaches to education where the values of love and dignity of men are paramount in our value scale (College B). The multicultural perspective is included in the unit of the formal curriculum, for example, the culture of Asia Pacific countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Srilanka. This perspective aims to promote a holistic perspective of students in understanding different cultures, different values, and different systems. In college C, an institution is a caring place that caters to the need and the interests of each student through building teams of academics to look after them: The college is catering for each individual, we offered strong pastoral care support, we offered many support services, special supports for disabled and disadvantaged students and families (College C). The college also supports the students through pastoral programs. One of the examples is that the campus conducts research into effective teaching and learning that emphasizes building a close relationship with students, the learning environment, and developing cognitive learning. Establishing a relationship with students is the basic condition for having them ready to learn.
Facilitating multicultural dialogue The institutions encouraged their students to understand and to be aware of other beliefs, religions, and cultures. As an important part of intercultural understanding, the students also established international partnerships with their Japanese counterparts. It allows students to look and understand a different part of the world: We have a relationship with the Japanese institutions that we want to continue because culturally it gives our students a look at another part of the world, and another way,
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which students function. We have been doing that for quite a few years...We have two institutions from Japan coming at different stages of the year. Even though we are different, we can all work together. It is important for us in terms of exposing our kids to a completely different world and completely different culture, making them more aware again about the world around them and the people are different (College A). The institutions have placed importance on developing students’ knowledge and cultural awareness. To understand other cultures and beliefs, the institution runs outreach international cultural programs. The leader said: We run very dynamic international outreach programs. These programs are run continuously throughout the year where integration of students, and certainly exposure to students from other religions, identities, and cultures is a high priority for us. Because it is our views of multicultural harmonious society (College B). The other activity is the city project where the students can participate in several things such as cultural events, and music festivals. Those activities aim to expose students to be part of and to be familiar with events and activities of the wider community: Well, it is part of preparing students for changing of a global society; the city will become part of their lives, because of cultural events, sporting events, festivals, music, the theatre, and the entertainments. There is very little connection to the broader community and other cultures (College C). The institutions have also done brilliant community capacity-building programs including social capital, intellectual capital, and organizational capital. These capitals help them to promote intercultural understanding and dialogue among students. Curriculum Multiculturalism in education largely has been placed in the curriculum. One of the leaders of the college has indicated that: We do very well in making people feel welcome when they are coming to the doors because it can be very frightening walking through the gate. After all, you do not know what you can get and you do not know what beyond the gate. However, the first image people can get is the place that you can get in. that is also part of the curriculum (College A). Students need to understand a broader perspective of the worldviews in the order they can accept that there are different ideas, different philosophies, different religions, and different views that exist around them. Therefore, multicultural education strategies are placed through curriculum
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We certainly have a curriculum focus that encourages and leads our students to be broad-minded. The aim is for accepting those arguments that normally have more than two sides and very often issues are not just black and white. They have various sides of grey in the middle that students need to understand and accept that. Very often world views are derived from one’s personal beliefs, values, ideals, which may not always others’ people's personal beliefs, values, and ideals, and all of that indicates that there is a difference (College B). College C is also committed to open to all students not only the intellectually disadvantaged children in the curriculum. The leader indicates: In my time, the institution was certainly committed to being an open and inclusive campus that took all comers to it. The campus is seen as a caring place for all students that is the emphasis of the curriculum (College C). Participating in the community The experience of learning provides opportunities for students to develop their learning skills and to start to take responsibility for their learning actions. In addition, this will help students to improve their confidence in decision-making and problem solving through different types of community participation. One of the colleges stated: One of the things they are certainly focusing on is environmental sustainability, and looking at how we have damaged the environment and how we can improve that, so it does not continue. Therefore, they have a clear picture and they have a very clear focus on what they want to do, and it makes more aware of students the world around them and they make differences (College A). The campus provides several activities for students so that they can learn from and contribute to the surrounding community. The students learn culture and community focusing on local communities, the broader community, and international society: We have a theme focusing on students coming to college feeling safe and getting settled in. They are moving to the local community, and we do the engagement there. They also focus on international communities and global perspectives. They learn about different cultures and different communities a lot at this stage (College B). Many students at this campus receive welfare support and some of them come from single-parent families. This is part of community programs to ensure equal access. The leader commented:
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As part of the government program, many of our students receive support, and it is to aim that they can continue their education and ensure equal access for everyone in education (College C) The institutions in this study conduct a community consultation involving students, parents, and teachers to establish a clear vision for the campus. This vision becomes a shared goal for the parents and the colleges
Discussion Equality is seen as a basic value underpinning college policy in multicultural contexts. The colleges have practiced the values of equality as Abduh, Wello, and Asnur (2021) have written about, as all students, the staff is equally valued, and this includes valuing their differences. Equity is shown in the way the colleges treat students and their staff, and in the way, colleges treat anyone who comes to the colleges. All students regardless of their backgrounds have equal opportunities to enhance their potential to succeed. Across the four colleges, there are five main strategies for building multicultural values and activities to varying degrees. These are: 1. Strong policy to promote equality and respect diversity 2. Facilitating intercultural dialogue 3. Curriculum 4. Participating in community The colleges have mediated cross-cultural interactions with other colleges through dialogues, conferences, sporting events, and visiting campuses. These intercultural relations are based on acceptance and mutual understanding of differences between individuals among different ethnic and cultural groups. The values of acceptance and intercultural understanding of differences have been embedded in every aspect of college life. In this way, the principles of multiculturalism (Saud & Abduh, 2018) in professional ways (Rosmaladewi, Abduh, & Basri, 2020) are being carried out. Intercultural communications have become part of the colleges’ value systems to promote tolerance, look at similarities and respect the differences. In this context, the colleges have shown their roles in improving inter-group relations and empowering positive relationships among multicultural communities (Banks, 2009). This eventually will bring a united and harmonious interaction and communication among multiethnic and multicultural societies.
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The focus on multiculturalism at colleges reflects its multi-ethnic and multicultural college population. Its policies reflect a strong commitment to social justice, underpinned by the beliefs and a very strong commitment to multiculturalism, equality, and social justice, enacted in various ways. This commitment can be interpreted in many forms of colleges’ translation of multicultural practices (Jabu, Abduh, & Rosmaladewi, 2021). This would also be an outcome of the culturally diverse college population and surrounding community. The colleges’ values are based on secular ideas of social justice as reflected in social democratic education policies. In each college, the curriculum has a pivotal role in introducing and teaching students about multiculturalism that support the internationalization of each college. Students are encouraged to learn about other beliefs, other cultures, and their characteristics. Students are taught about different ethnic communities that exist in other parts of the world as well as the values of respecting individual and human dignity. These multicultural practices can enhance the process of internationalization: quality factors (Madrid & Julius, 2017), and academic mobility (Altbach & Knight, 2007; Park, Kim, & DeMatteo, 2016). For example, the colleges have provided a wider perspective on curriculum contents that enable students to learn about different ethnicities and communities from international perspectives. The inclusive curriculum enables students to have a wider perspective on what is happening around the community and all over the world. This also makes students more aware of and sensitive towards multicultural and multiethnic communities.
Implication for EMI The development of multiculturalism in the context of internationalization of colleges has several implications for English medium programs. This is due to EMI is a type of delivery program for international programs where multiculturalism exists there. The pedagogical implication is: • EMI program needs to incorporate multicultural education activities both inside and outside campus activities to ensure that students to expose to the local, regional and national cultures. • EMI stakeholders need to consider the development of national and international multicultural engagement activities so that students can participate to develop their multicultural awareness and cross-cultural competence.
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• It is pivotal for teachers and students who enroll in EMI programs to expose themselves in a variety of ways to develop their learning plan on developing their competencies of multiculturalism so that they can be a global citizenship
Conclusion We found that in each of the three colleges there was a strong spirit or ethos of the college to further multiculturalism within the colleges and to contribute more broadly to a multicultural society, which can be a key factor in the internationalization of colleges. We encounter that the colleges have successfully adopted multicultural policies and implemented them in different ways in the college and the community. This process is very useful in developing and promoting cross-cultural and cross-religious understanding within the multicultural community. Building those understandings, we believe, at the end can bring about the spirit of living in unity and harmony by promoting and celebrating the similarities and respecting the characteristics of each individual and each ethnic and culture. This spirit is essential for building an international campus that can accept international students from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The colleges also have a strong commitment to continuously expose their students and their students to wider local and global communities through curriculum and college programs. In terms of curriculum, students learn about global society and its characteristics through special programs such as going out to a certain community to help and to live with them will help students to better understand the community. More importantly, this research looks at the positive strategies of colleges, without describing challenges and unavoidable negative images of multiculturalism. Therefore, it is important to conduct further research on multiculturalism by investigating challenges, and unpleasant multicultural practices that can occur in Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Latin America.
Acknowledgment This research is supported by Directorate Research and Community Services (DRPM) through the scheme of Basic Research (Penelitian Dasar). The contract number is 127/SP2HH/LT/DRPM/2021. We thank all people and participants for supporting this research.
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References Abduh, A., Wello, M. B., Asnur, M. (2021). Strategies to Improve Intercultural Communication Knowledge of Business English Students in an Indonesian Higher Education. Asian Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Education, 1(1), 43–51. Abduh, A., & Rosmaladewi, R. (2019). Language Policy, Identity, and Bilingual Education in Indonesia: A Historical Overview. XLinguae, 12(1), 219–227. Retrieved from http://xlinguae.eu/2019_12_01_17.html Abduh, A., Rosmaladewi, R., & Basri, M. (2018). Internationalization Awareness and Commitment of Indonesian Higher Education. New Educational Review, 51(1), 162– 171. https://doi.org/DOI: 10.15804/tner.2017.50.4.13 Altbach, P. G., & Knight, J. (2007). The internationalization of higher education: Motivations and realities. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11(3–4), 290–305. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315307303542 Antonios, Z. (2000). Dealing with Difference in Our Colleges: Just Where Does Santa Claus Fit in? In Victorian Multicultural Education Conference. Melbourne: Victorian Multicultural Education. Banks, J. A. (2009). The Routledge International Companion to Multicultural Education. New York and London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. M. (2010). Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Canen, A. G., & Canen, A. (2002). Innovation management education for multicultural organisations: challenges and a role for logistics. European Journal of Innovation Management, 5(2), 73–85. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060210428177 Dangan, J. P. N. P., & Cruz, R. A. O. D. (2021). Effectiveness of English Learner’s Material in Enhancing Grammatical Competence of Grade 9 Bilingual Students: A Basis for Supplementary Material Development. Asian Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Education, 1(1), 1–12. Dollah, S., Abduh, A., & Talib, A. (2017). Intercultural Sensitivity in English Department Students of An Indonesian Higher Education Institution. International Journal of Language Education, 1(2), 38–43. Gall, M., Gall, J., & Borg, W. (2007). Educational research: an introduction. Boston: Pearson/ Allyn & Bacon. Islam, F. S. P. (2021). Using Cartoon: An integrative approach to teaching multiculturism and second language. Asian Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Education, 1(1), 53–
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61. Jabu, B., Abduh, A., & Rosmaladewi, R. (2021). Motivation and challenges of Trainee Translators Participating in Translation Training. International Journal of Language Education, 5(1), 490–500. Knight, J. (2003). Internationalization of Higher education Practices and Priorities: 2003 IAU Survey Report. Higher Education. Paris: International Association of Universities. Madrid, D., & Julius, S. M. (2017). Quality Factors in bilingual education at the university level. Porta Linguarum, 28(1), 49–66. Morosini, M. C., Corte, M. G. D., & Guilherme, A. (2017). Internationalization of Higher Education: A Perspective from the Great South. Creative Education, 08(01), 95–113. https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2017.81008 Park, J. K., Kim, Y. D., & DeMatteo, K. (2016). Nation branding through internationalization of higher education: A case study of African students in South Korea. New Educational Review, 45(3), 52–63. https://doi.org/10.15804/tner.2016.45.3.04 Rose, H., & McKinley, J. (2018). Japan’s English-medium instruction initiatives and the globalization of higher education. Higher Education, 75(1), 111–129. Rosmaladewi, R., & Abduh, A. (2017). Collaborative Teaching Cultures of English Lecturers in Indonesian Polytechnics. International Journal of Language Education, 01(01), 20– 28. Retrieved from http://ojs.unm.ac.id/index.php/ijole/article/view/2868 Rosmaladewi, R., Abduh, A., & Basri, M. (2020). English Lecturers ’ Experiences on Professional Development in Indonesian Polytechnics. International Journal of Language Education, 4(2), 314–321. Saud, S., & Abduh, A. (2018). Intercultural Understanding in Foreign Language Learning in an Indonesian Higher Education. The Journal of English as an International Language, 13(2.2), 203–210. Tonbuloglu, B., Aslan, D., & Aydin, H. (2016). Teachers’ awareness of multicultural education and diversity in school settings. Egitim Arastirmalari - Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, (64), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.14689/ejer.64.1 Wit, H. De. (2011). Internationalization of Higher Education: Nine Misconceptions. International Higher Education, (64), 17–19. https://doi.org/10.6017/ihe.2011.64.8556 Yin, R. (2013). Case study research: Design and methods. California: Sage Publications.
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Pronouns and Modality as Ideology Carriers in George Orwell’s Animal Farm: A Computer-Aided Critical Discourse Analysis
Ayman Farid Khafaga* Department of English, College of Science and Humanities, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Suez Canal University, Egypt *Corresponding author
Iman El-Nabawi Abdel Wahed Shaalan Department of English, College of Science and Humanities, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia College of Humanities, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt
Abstract This paper presents a computer-aided critical discourse analysis to explore the extent to which pronouns and modality serve as discursive carriers of persuasion and/ or manipulation in the discourse of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. More specifically, the paper attempts a critical discourse analysis to expose the hidden relations of power that influence a persuasive and/or manipulative type of discourse by the employment of pronouns and modality. Analytically, the focus is on three types of pronouns: the first person singular I, the first person plural we, and the second person pronoun you. Also two types of modals are discussed in this article: the truth modal will and the obligation modals must, shall and should. In doing so, this paper draws upon two analytical frameworks: critical discourse analysis (CDA) and the computer-aided text analysis manifested in a frequency distribution analysis via concordance. Two main findings are reported in this study: first, pronouns and modality in the discourse of the selected novel go beyond their grammatical functions towards further pragmatic functions constituting persuasion and/or manipulation. Second, the frequency analysis shows that despite the high frequency of the pronouns and modals investigated in the discourse of the selected novel, only few occurrences of them are indicative in generating both a persuasive and/or manipulative discourse in the novel. This, in turn, accentuates the relevance of employing a computer-aided
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 79 critical discourse analysis and to decipher specific interpretative meanings of the linguistic unit in corpus and text linguistics in general and literary texts in particular.
Keywords: pronouns, modality, persuasion, manipulation, frequency analysis, Animal Farm
1. Intrduction Any literary genre, specifically the narrative, as is the case for the one at hand (i.e., Animal Farm), contains a huge number of pronouns, such as I, we, you, as well as an enormous number of modals, such as will, shall, should and must. These, for Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik (1985), are categorized within language as function words; that is, they are linguistically employed to communicate a grammatical function. As such, a pronoun grammatically serves as, for example, a subject of a verb (e.g., we enjoy reading English), an object of a verb (e.g., Thomas gave her the money), a complement of a verb (e.g., it was you who wrote the report), an object of a preposition (e.g., I bought a new dress for her), and as apposition of a noun (e.g., the books, those which are on the table, have been sold). In the same vein, modals, according to Palmer (1990, 1986), are function words in language. They are used to express various grammatical functions, such as obligation (e.g., must), prohibition (e.g., mustn’t), permission, ability and possibility, either in the present time (e.g., can) or the past time (e.g., could), probability (e.g., may), and certitude (e.g., will). However, pronouns and modals can go beyond their surface grammatical functions towards intended discursive purposes. For example, within specific discourse situations and in the hands of particular speakers, pronouns can communicate the discourse function of competency (e.g., the pronoun I), can convey solidarity (e.g., the inclusive pronoun we), can express power and domination (e.g., the pronoun you), and can communicate distance (e.g., the exclusive pronoun we). Likewise, modals can be discursively employed to express commitment and give promises (as is the case for the modal will). In all these cases, both pronouns and modals are dexterously utilized to achieve particular discourse functions that are often speaker-oriented. This article, therefore, attempts to explore the extent to which pronouns and modals are employed in Orwell’s Animal Farm to express communicative discourse functions rather than what they convey by their ordinary grammatical use. To this end, The paper draws on critical discourse analysis (CDA) to show how these pronouns and modals are used by powerful speakers to express their power and domination, either persuasively or manipulative towards their recipients. The reason why CDA is particularly chosen for the analysis of the selected data is due to the fact that this model of analysis, i.e., CDA is concerned with exposing hidden
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 80 relations of power and domination in discourse, as well as it casts emphasis on the ideological use of language (see e.g., Fairclough, 1989, 1995; Fowler, 1981, van Dijk, 1995, 1997a, 1997b; Wodak & Meyer, 2001; Wood, 2004), among others. This is analytically accompanied by a frequency analysis to the selected pronouns (I, we, you) and modals (will, shall, must) that serves to mark all the occurrences of the indicated pronouns and modals in the novel under investigation. The frequency analysis is analytically enabled by the program of concordance, which helps delineate credible and concise results to each entry of the function words at hand. Four research questions are addressed in this article: first, what are the different ideologies the selected pronouns/modals communicate in Animal Farm? Second, are these pronouns/modals employed to influence a persuasive discourse or a manipulative one? Third, to what extent a frequency analysis relevant to highlight the indicative occurrences that thematically reflect the intended discourse functions of the selected entries? Fourth, to what extent can CDA and the frequency analysis be incorporated analytically to expose hidden relations of power in discourse? The answer of these research questions serves to mirror the main objective this paper tries to achieve: to explore the extent to which specific pronouns and modals exceed their grammatical functions to communicate further discursive and communicative functions in the discourse of the selected novel. The remainder of this study is divided into five sections. Section 2 presents the literature review of the study and reviews the previous studies relevant to the topic under investigation. Section 3 offers the methodology of the paper, in which a brief account of the collection and description of data, the rationale of the study, and the analytical procedures adopted in the paper is provided. Section 4 is confined to the analysis of the selected data, wherein some conversational turns are extracted from the novel to undergo the analytical process. Section 5 is dedicated to discussing the findings of the study, whereas Section 6 demonstrates the conclusion of the paper and offers some recommendations for future research.
2. Theoretical Preliminaries and Literature 2.1. Critical Discourse Analysis Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is discussed and approached by many linguists as a multidisciplinary approach of analyzing and exposing the hidden ideologies and the different power relations in language (e.g., Fairclough, 1989, 1995; Fairclough & Wodak, 1997; van Dijk, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2001a, 2001b; Weiss & Wodak 2003; Wodak & Meyer, 2001; Partington, 2003; Widdowson, 2007; Malimas, Carreon & Peña, 2018; Sabio & Lintao, 2018; Alonzo, 2019; Hidayat, Septiawan &Sufyan, 2020, among others). It constitutes textual
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 81 analysis that draws on the different features of texts. For Widdowson (2007), CDA is a socio- political approach of analyzing texts and talks in order to reveal the hidden ideologies pertaining to these texts. CDA, van Dijk (2001a) argues, is an analytical approach of language research that tends to highlight the manner through which power relations are manifested in text and talk within different political and social contexts. Along with its interest in the analysis of language critically, CDA is also concerned with the relationship between discourse and power, language and ideology, and language and social relations in society (Edelman, 2001). CDA pays much concern to social problems and political issues because it deals with discourse as a social practice (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997). For van Dijk (2001a), within CDA’s analytical and ideological framework, discourse structures are enacted, confirmed, legitimized and reproduced to uncover the different power relations practiced and represented by various linguistic devices in texts and talk. van Dijk (2001a) maintains that there are different types pertaining to CDA, and each type has its analytical characteristics. For example, he differentiates between the CDA of a conversational genre and that of a news report. The linguistic and discursive representations employed in each type of analysis are different. Each type constitutes its principles, and is dealt with from different perspectives. However, all of them are linguistically analyzed in light of CDA’s theoretical and analytical framework to demonstrate the way through which particular discourse structures are employed to produce and reproduced relations of power, dominance and hegemony. van Dijk (1993) maintains that CDA focuses on “the structures of text and talk” (p. 259). This approach serves to clarify the way the different relations between discourse participants are linguistically represented in discourse. This in turn functions to reveal the hidden ideologies beyond the surface semantic expressions of discourse. Significantly, the ability to understand these hidden meanings in discourse contributes to the understanding of the intended message and the global meanings of discourse (Wood, 2004). To clarify the significance of CDA in exposing the hidden discursive structures of power, van Dijk (1993) argues that discourse analysts need to know how speakers encode their ideological assumptions in discourse, the purposes these ideological meanings are employed in discourse, and the structures of discourse involved in this ideological process.
2.2. Computer-Aided Text Analysis In tracing the different computational software packages, it becomes obvious that the program of concordance is the most appropriate tool for the analysis of the corpus in this paper. This is because concordance can collect, access, and check the relevance of a large amount of data that
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 82 can be indicatively used in corpus linguistic analysis. For Wiechmann, and Fuhs (2006), concordance can load a corpus from different files, offers some changes on the files of any corpora, and provides various types of analysis, varying from simple text searches to the search of specific expressions, words, or phrases. According to Peachy (2005), concordance is a computer software program that serves to access a large amount of data for specific analytical purposes. To Flowerdew (1993), concordance is a tool through which analysts and users can access data to discover how a given word or a phrase and their contextual environments occur in a corpus. The application of this software, thus, facilitates the browsing of a corpus in order to obtain results concerning the number of occurrences of particular words or phrases, as well as offers useful insights into the use of language in particular contexts. According to Yavuz (2014), concordance has extensively used in the analysis of literary texts with the aim to count the frequency and function of a particular word/phrase in a given text. Its main concern is to offer a better understanding of the searched word/phrase within its contextual use in text. Obviously, revealing the frequency of any word is indicative in clarifying various research purposes beyond any corpora. The application of concordance can contribute to thematic analysis, collocations, contextualization, and even technicalities of texts (Flowerdew, 1993). The frequency analysis is one option among other uses and applications of concordance. This program also provides other analytical strands that are relevant to the study of particular topics in literary texts such as the theme of manipulation through the positive and/or negative presentation, as is the case for the current study. Among these options is the Key Word in Context (KWIC) verifiable input, through which words are shown in combination of their neighboring lexical items. This in turn valorizes the reason why concordance is relevant to the linguistic and ideological investigation of texts (Hockey, 1980; Kennedy, 1998). The use of concordance in general and the frequency distribution analysis in particular in the investigation of literary texts has many advantages. One advantage of concordance is its ability to achieve authenticity, credibility and transparency in corpus linguistic analysis. This merit is clearly evident when concordance targets literary texts. This is because such type of texts abounds in words that would be difficult to be verifiably studied manually (Khafaga & Shaalan, 2020). Another advantage of applying concordance is that it helps analysts not only to find out the various patterns of language use, but also the contextual environment in which these linguistic patterns are employed in texts (Krieger, 2003).
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2.3. Related Literature Pronouns and modality have been approached within the scope of critical discourse studies (e.g., Fairclough, 1989; Wood& Kroger, 2000; van Dijk, 2001b; Pinto, 2004; Widdowson, 2007, Khafaga, 2019; Khafaga& Aldawsari, 2021, among others). Fairclough (1989), in his attempt to theorize for a framework of CDA at the description, explanation and interpretation levels, has specified one separate level for the grammatical devices in discourse. This includes linguistic criteria that should be followed in the analysis of discourse, either spoken or written. Pronouns and modality are among these aspects. Fairclough (1989, p. 111) maintains that a discourse analyst should investigate the experiential, relational and expressive values that grammatical aspects carry in discourse. So, he clarifies that notions, such as agency, passivization and nominalization should dexterously analyzed in terms of their linguistic ability to communicate the various values listed above (i.e., experiential, expressive and relational). Pronouns, in Fairclough’s model, are linguistic indicators of expressing agency in discourse that are employed to communicate particular meanings. The choice among the different pronouns as well as their position in a sentence may represent textually a particular action, event, or to maintain a specific type of relationship among discourse participants. He also clarifies that the choice among these grammatical types functions to highlight agency, which, in turn, may be “ideological or they may be conscious hedging or deception” (Fairclough, 1989, p. 122). Widdowson (2007) also argues that pronouns exhibit an ideological weight in expressing agency in discourse. This, for him, is related to the linguistic characteristics of pronouns in the communication of relations of power in discourse; the use of the first person singular I, the first person plural we, or the second person pronoun you is often for ideological reason, particularly when they are utilized within the framework of politics. Widdowson’s viewpoint has previously been accentuated by Wood and Kroger’s (2000) contention that the use of pronouns is ideologically in nature; that is, the use of the first person singular pronoun I, for example, is to reflect the speaker’s responsibility, his/her competency, as well as authority over hi/her recipient. Further, the same ideological viewpoint of using pronouns in discourse has been emphasized by Fairclough (1989) who differentiates between the inclusive we, which includes both speaker and hearers, that is, all participants in discourse; and the exclusive we, which excludes all members outside the speaker’s group. Widdowson’s (2007) and Fairclough’s (1989) arguments go in conformity with Pinto’s (2004) claims that the use of the exclusive we indicates that the speaker has power over his/her recipients, whereas the employment of the inclusive we communicates the feeling that the rights, goals, attitudes and beliefs of the
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 84 individual are inferior to those related to the group. Crucially, this in-group and out-group discourse is also discussed by van Dijk (2001b) when he highlights the indicative role of pronouns to demarcate the ‘we’ and ‘them’ discourse. Modality, for Fairclough (1989), is another way of communicating ideology in discourse. He differentiates between relational modality and expressive modality, where the former refers to the authority practiced by one discourse participant over another, and the latter constitutes such authority which is concerned with the truth or probability of a representation of reality. Modality, according to Fairclough (1989), is linguistically manifested in modal auxiliary verbs, adverbs or tense. He maintains that there is, sometimes, some sort of grammatical overlap between expressive modality and relational modality. So, some modals appear to carry more than one grammatical function. For example, must can indicate both obligation and certainty; should can communicate probability and obligation; and may can be associated with the meaning of permission and possibilities.
Wood and Kroger (2000) also argue that modality is employed to maintain discursive agency. They clarify that the use of the obligation modal must in, for example, Thomas must leave now, indicates that Thomas has no freedom to choose or to decide. This agency that is discursively practiced in discourse often carries ideology, that is, it reflects the indented meaning of its users, which is always shaped by the cognitive background of the language user. Indicatively, the combination of both modals and pronouns, Pinto (2004) argues, indicates a high level of obligation internalization. Halliday (1985) further differentiates between modalization and modulation; the former indicates probability and usuality, whereas the latter constitutes obligation and inclination. Halliday’s account of modality focuses on both functionality and pragmaticization of the concept. In light of this paper, pronouns and modality will be discussed in terms of not only their functional perspective, but also their pragmatic one. This means that an analytical and linguistic link will be established to relate linguistic structures to social structures (the functional dimension); and to allow more effective role for the reader in the process of interpretation of discourse (the pragmatic dimension).
3. Methodolgy 3.1. Data The data in this article constitutes George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1944). The selected novel consists of 10 chapters. For Bolton (1984), the novel tells the story of the totalitarian Russia and calls for a socialist system that is based on democracy. In Animal Farm, Orwell portrays
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 85 and satirizes three important events in the Soviet history. The first event is the failure of the first five year plan laid down by Stalin from 1929 to 1933. Trotsky is to be blamed on this failure. The second event is concerned with the Great Purge Trials in which many Soviet leaders were forced to confess of committing crimes against the Bolshevik Revolution. These trials ended with merciless executions for those leaders who were claimed to be traitors. The third event is connected to the Russia-Germany relations that end with Hitler's invasion to Russia (Welch, 1980). These events indicate that there is a close relationship between what is written in the novel and what is really happened in history. This apparent political background of the story associated with its symbolism shape the whole atmosphere of the novel. The rationale for selecting this novel in particular is that it abounds in linguistic uses of pronouns and modality that go beyond the perceived grammatical use of these items towards further pragmatic and ideological purposes. These ideological purposes revolve around one main function: to produce, reproduce and maintain one particular type of discourse, either persuasively or manipulatively. Crucially, marking such an ideological weight of both pronouns and modality is analytically enabled by the use of a frequency-based analysis, through which not only all occurrences of the selected pronouns and modals are highlighted, but also the indicative ones in the realization of the intended pragmatic functions are reported.
3.2. Procedures Four procedural stages are adopted in the analysis of the selected novel. The first stage is textually-based, in which the novel was precisely read to highlight the different textual expressions that carry any of the pronouns (I, we, you) and modals (must, shall, should, will), the core concern of the present study. This stage further provides a general idea of the way through which the linguistic items under investigation are employed at the character-to- character level of discourse. With the second stage comes the role of the computational linguistics work manifested in the frequency-based analysis. In this stage, the selected pronouns and modals are searched through concordancing to arrive at the total frequency of each searched item. The third stage is contextually-based, in which all occurrences of each searched item are investigated in terms of their contextual environment in the novel. This contextual reading has resulted in marking the indicative occurrences out of the total frequency of each searched item. The fourth stage is an interpretative one, wherein the indicative occurrences are linguistically analyzed by means of CDA tools to arrive at the different pragmatic and ideological purposes beyond the use of the selected pronouns and modals. After the fourth procedural stages, some findings are reported, and then interpreted in terms of the
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 86 extent to which the searched items are contributive in conveying particular ideologies in the discourse of the selected novel. Importantly, all italicized words in the extracts are emphasized by the author for analytical purposes and they are not there in the original text of the novel.
4. Analysis 4.1. Pronouns This section analyzes three pronouns as carriers of persuasive and/or manipulative discourse in the selected novel. These are the first person singular pronoun I, the first person plural pronoun we, and the second person pronoun you.
4.1.1. The First Person Pronoun I The first-person singular pronoun I is used in the discourse of equality to indicate agency which serves to achieve pure persuasion. Consider Old Major’s following words: Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. But I will come to the dream later….I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have had a long life, I have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you. (Animal Farm (henceforth AF), pp. 7-8, my emphasis) Old Major gathers the animals to tell them about a dream he had the night before. Old Major, here, foregrounds himself as the authoritative I who has the right to speak on the animals’ behalf due to his long experience as the oldest animal on the farm who understands the nature of life more than any other animal. Major’s overuse of the pronoun I reflects his power and authority over the other animals. It indicates that he has a strong popularity among animals, the thing which makes everyone on the farm “quite ready to lose an hour's sleep in order to hear what he had to say” (AF., p. 5). Old Major uses the first-person singular pronoun to emphasize his competency via showing his experience on the farm’s affairs. He attempts to assert his trustworthiness and benevolence in order to prepare the animals’ minds to accept what he is going to communicate. Major’s utterance I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom implicates that he is the only authoritative source of wisdom. The phrase my duty accompanied by the word wisdom functions to convey that he is more experienced and more competent than the rest of animals in the farm. Major’s use of the pronoun I then is to implicate the animals in his reasoning and persuade them to action.
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Table 1. Concordance of First person singular I I...... TF (82) Indicative Occurrences (10) Context Word Context Line longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to 83 you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have 84 have had a long life I have had much time for 85 think I may say that I understand the nature of life 86 It is about this that I wish to speak to you. 87 Comrades, he said, I trust that every animal here 99 actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our 107 Comrades, here and now I pronounce the death sentence upon 133 then paused and added impressively I warn every animal on this farm 213 ‘Snowball! He has been here! I can smell him distinctly!’ and 246
Table 1 demonstrates a high frequency of the first person singular I (82 occurrences). However, only 10 occurrences are indicative in communicating specific ideologies in the discourse of the novel. These can be monitored by the contextual environment wherein the pronoun occurs.
4.1.2. The First Person Pronoun We The first-person plural pronoun 'we' is employed in Animal Farm both inclusively and exclusively. In the discourse of equality, the pronoun 'we' is used inclusively, including both speaker and hearer. In this case, it is used to achieve pure persuasion, whereas it is used exclusively in the discourse of inequality to refer to speaker alone. In such a case, it is employed to achieve manipulative persuasion. Consider the following extracts: Our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. (AF., p. 8) And above all, no animal must ever tyrannize over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. (AF., p. 12) Old Major uses the first-person plural pronoun we inclusively to express solidarity and intimacy between him and the other animals. He attempts to convey that they share the same fate. In the first extract, Major explains to the animals how they suffer under Major’s rule. Major's use of the pronoun we + passive construction in we are born, we are given and we are slaughtered is to emphasize that the animals are both the agent and the patient in an attempt to persuade them of their ability to lead the farm themselves. Major tries to assure them that their silence is the main reason beyond Mr. Jones’s exploitation to them. Major’s words implicate that all animals
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 88 do not have the right to decide any of their affairs even the simplest ones like food and living. He tries to assert that both he and the animals share the same suffering. This atmosphere of closeness and solidarity which Major tries to create functions to pave the way for what he is going to convey. In the second extract, the same solidarity and inclusion are expressed by Major in his utterance we are all brothers. He uses the pronoun we to emphasize the animals’ equality, and to unify their efforts to end the oppressive regime of Mr. Jones. The inclusive we is employed to achieve pure persuasion. The following table presents a frequency analysis of the inclusive we.
Table 2. Concordance of Inclusive We WE...... TF (59) Indicative Occurrences (12) Context Word Context Line are miserable, laborious, and short. we are born, we are given 62 and short. We are born, we are given just so much 62 has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty 65 our imagining. Why then do we continue in this miserable condition 74 is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the 77 And even the miserable lives we lead are not allowed to 94 a year. To that horror we all must come cows, pigs 99 be our own. Almost overnight we could become rich and free 106 and free. What then must we do? Why, work night and 107 that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble 133 or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. No animal 137 us free. For that day we all must labour, Though we 173
Table 2 shows that the first-person plural pronoun we is used inclusively 12 times out of 59. These occurrences are indicative in conveying a persuasive ideology of their speakers. Once the rebellion had been accomplished, the pronoun we is ceased to be used inclusively; that is, including all animals. The pigs begin to use the same pronoun exclusively; excluding themselves from the other animals and establishing a discourse of distinction between them as the most intelligent ones on the farm and the rest of animals. The exclusive we then is employed to emphasize the pigs’ superiority over other animals. Notice the following extract: Comrades! He cried. You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health….We pigs are brain– workers. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. (AF., p. 32)
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Squealer uses the first-person plural pronoun we exclusively, referring to the pigs alone and emphasizing that there is a great distinction between the pigs and the other animals. Squealer employs the pronoun we to assert the pigs’ higher status and their skill in running the farm. He emphasizes the pigs’ need for such milk and apples to be able to organize the farm. Proclaiming public interest is a way of justifying their violation of the principles of animalism. This public interest is engulfed by an indirect threat as the alternative of the animals’ objection. This alternative is represented in Jones’s return. Here, there is a big difference in the terms of address; that is in the discourse of equality, the pronoun we is uttered and is followed immediately by a verb as in we are slaughtered, we are born, and we are given (AF., p. 8), but now the same pronoun is followed by the word pigs which indicates that there are two different groups of animals on the farm: the pigs and the others. The exclusive we, then, is used to establish a we / they relationship which emphasizes the superiority of one group over the other. Thus, inclusive we is used to produce pure persuasion, while exclusive we is employed to achieve manipulative persuasion. The following tables present concordances of the exclusive we and us.
Table 3. A Frequency Analysis of Exclusive We WE...... TF (59) Indicative Occurrences (5) Context Word Context Line not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in 528 the well-being of a pig. we pigs are brainworkers. The whole 532 is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat 534 know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty 535 then, comrades,? He said, ?that we pigs now sleep in the 1041
Table 4. A Frequency Analysis of Exclusive Us US...... TF (20) Indicative Occurrences (5) Context Word Context Line selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples 529 of this farm depend on us . Day and night we are 533 our enemies would be upon us . Surely, comrades, you do not 859 nowadays. You would not rob us of our repose, would you 1047 comrades? You would not have us too tired to carry out 1048
The two tables indicate that the pronoun we is used exclusively 5 times out of 59 in table 3 to achieve manipulative persuasion, and the pronoun us is used exclusively 5 times out of 20 in table 4 to achieve manipulative persuasion.
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4.1.3. The Second Person Pronoun You Old Major uses the second-person pronoun you in the discourse of equality to produce pure persuasion. Notice the following words by Old Major: You Cows that I see before me, how many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last years? ....And you hens, how many eggs have you laid this year, and how many of those eggs ever hatched into chickens?...and you clover, where are those four foals you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of your old age? ….you will never see one of them again….you young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year….you, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the Knacker. (AF., pp. 49-50) Old Major is addressing the rest of animals during his long speech in which he tries to expose their suffering under Jones’s regime. Major uses the pronoun you before each group he is addressing to instigate them to action. Major tries to assure them of their potential power by clarifying for each group in isolation the services each one has provided the farm with. Directing the speech by using the pronoun you+ proper noun aims to attract the attention of the addresser to something important the speaker is going to say. The use of the pronoun you in you cows, you hens, you clover, you young porkers and you Boxer serves to attract the animals’ attention to be certain of their power and ability to afford a decent life for themselves which, in turn, makes them sure of their ability to rebel against Mr. Jones who exploits them and seizes all what they produce. Accomplishing such a rebellion is exactly the ultimate goal beyond Major’s whole speech.
Table 5. A Frequency of the second person You
YOU...... TF (48) Indicative Occurrences (7) Context Word Context Line More than his bare skin. you Cows that I see before me 118 the throats of our enemies. you hens, how many eggs have 122 for Jones and his men. And you clover, where are those four foals 126 was sold at a year old you will never see one of them again 129 the cruel knife in the end. you young porkers who are sitting 137 dogs have no better fate. you Boxer, the very day that those great 141 you do not need sugar. you will have all the oats 230
Table 5 indicates that despite the high frequency of the second person pronoun you (48 occurrences), only 7 occurrences are employed to influence a persuasive discourse.
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4.2. Modality This section presents two types of modality: obligation modality, which is represented by the modals must and should; and truth modality, which is linguistically manifested in the modal will.
4.2.1. Obligation Modality The obligation modals must, shall, and should are used to produce both pure and manipulative persuasion in the discourse of equality and the discourse of inequality. Notice the following extract: And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument must lead you astray. Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animal have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others. It is all lies. (AF., p. 11) The obligation modal must in your resolution must never falter and no argument must lead you astray is employed by Old Major to emphasize the animals' enmity towards Mr. Jones, and to arouse their revolutionary spirits to revolt against him. The modal must carries a sense of necessity and obligation and signifies to force the animals to get rid of Man. Major assures the animals not to listen to any argument that lead to forget the enmity of man or make them imagine that they may share him his interest. Obligation modality then is used to achieve pure persuasion. The following table presents a concordance of the modal must.
Table 6. A Frequency Analysis of Must
MUST...... TF (26) Indicative Occurrences (7) Context Word Context Line And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument must 114 must never falter. No argument must lead you astray. Never listen 114 in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble him 133 adopt his vices. No animal must ever live in a house 134 And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own 136 are all brothers. No animal must ever kill any other animal 137 For that day we all must labour, Though we die before 173
Table 6 displays that 7 occurrences out of 26 of the modal must are indicative in the production of pure persuasion.
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Another example of using the obligation modals to achieve pure persuasion can be found in the following words: 'Ribbons', he said, should be considered as clothes, which are the mark of a human being. All animals should go naked. (AF., p. 20, emphasis in original) Snowball tries to persuade the animals that ribbons which some of them used to wear are forbidden now since they are considered clothes which are considered to be a mark of a human being. In doing so, Snowball uses the obligation modal 'should' in ribbons should be considered as clothes and all animals should go naked to reflect the necessity of removing such ribbons. The obligation modal should is preceded by the positive quantifier all to generalize the process of prohibition in order to include all animals without any exception. Using the obligation modality is carefully selected by Snowball because this type of modality is the most appropriate way that can be used to express seriousness when speaking about one of the principles of animalism. Again, obligation modality is employed here to achieve pure persuasion. The following table presents a concordance of the modal should.
Table 7. A Frequency Analysis of of Should SHOULD...... TF (33) Indicative Occurrences (2) Context Word Context Line market days. ?Ribbons,? he said, ? should be considered as clothes, which 297 a human being. All animals should go naked.? When Boxer heard 298
Table 7 demonstrates that 2 occurrences out of 33 of the modals should are indicative in the production of pure persuasion. Obligation modality is also used to produce manipulative persuasion. Notice the following: Remember, comrades, there must be no alteration in our plans: They shall be carried out to the day. Forward, comrades! Long live the windmill! Long live Animal Farm. (AF., p. 63) Napoleon is talking to the other animals after the destruction of the windmill. He uses the obligation modals must and shall in there must be no alteration in our plans and they shall be carried out to the day to make them certain of their ability to build another windmill. He narrows the gap between him as the leader of the farm and the other animals by using the word comrades in an attempt to show that both of them share the same fate. Napoleon’s use of the obligation modals must and shall functions to motivate the animals to work day and night in order to rebuild the windmill. Napoleon tries to manipulate the animals into submission to his
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 93 orders which lies in his desire to rebuild the windmill. The following table presents a concordance of the modal must.
Table 8. A Frequency Analysis of Must MUST...... TF (26) Indicative Occurrences (2) Context Word Context Line The needs of the windmill must override everything else, he said 966 so easily. Remember, comrades, must be no alteration in our 1100 there
Table 8 shows that 2 occurrences out of 26 of the modal must are indicative in the production of manipulative persuasion. It is noteworthy to mention that the obligation modal shall is also employed to formalize a number of the seven commandments. Four commandments out of seven are formed using the modal shall to indicate necessity of commitment towards these principles. Notice the following: No animal shall wear clothes. No animal shall sleep in bed. No animal shall drink alcohol. No animal shall kill any other animal. (AF., p. 23) The obligation modal shall is used here preceded by the quantifier no to express negative generalization which serves to leave no room for any exceptions. It also leaves no chance for any animal to violate any of these commandments.
Table 9. The Frequency analysis of Shall SHALL...... TF (25) Indicative Occurrences (9) Context Word Context Line so that future generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious 168 day is coming, Tyrant Man shall be overthrown, And the fruitful 229 trod by beasts alone. Rings shall vanish from our noses, And 231 our back, Bit and spur shall rust forever, Cruel whips no 232 Cruel whips no more shall crack. Riches more than mind 233 No animal shall wear clothes 507 No animal shall sleep in a bed. 508 No animal shall drink alcohol. 509 No animal shall kill any other animal. 510
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As indicated from table 9, the obligation modal shall has a total frequency of 25, but only 9 occurrences are indicative in communicating both persuasive and manipulative ideologies in the novel.
4.2.2. Truth modality The truth modal will is used to produce pure and manipulative persuasion. Consider the following extract: You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year .… you, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds. (AF., p. 10). The use of the truth modal will in you will scream your lives out at the block within a year and Jones will sell you to the Knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down signifies to reflect a high level of certitude and serves to persuade the animals of the expected suffering under Jones' regime if they remain silent. Old Major tries to communicate that if the animals do not carry out what he is going to deliver, they will not escape the atrocities of Mr. Jones. He tries to motivate them to rebel against Mr. Jones in order to end their suffering and toil. The phrases scream your lives and cut your throat, which follow the modal will, together with the verb boil in boil you down function to arouse their fear since these phrases carry torture-related verbs: scream, cut, and boil. These verbs carry the connotative meanings of death and suffering, which in turn forces them to do their best in order to remove Mr. Jones. The modal will then is used to achieve pure persuasion. The following table presents a concordance of the modal will.
Table 10. A Frequency Analysis of Will WILL...... TF (36) Indicative Occurrences (7) Context Word Context Line at a year old?you will never see one of them 91 me, every one of you will scream your lives out at 98 yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker 101 you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil 101 not know when that Rebellion will come, it might be in 109 that sooner or later justice will be done. Fix your eyes 110 do not need sugar. You will have all the oats and 230
Table 10 shows that 7 occurrences out of 36 of the modal will are indicative in the production of pure persuasion.
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The truth modal will is also employed to produce manipulative persuasion. Notice the following extract by Napoleon. This very morning we begin rebuilding the windmill, and we will build all through the winter, rain or shine. We will teach this miserable traitor that he cannot undo our work so easily. (AF., p. 63) Napoleon is talking to the other animals after the destruction of the windmill. He tries to motivate the animals to rebuild it, pointing out that Snowball is the only one who is responsible for this destruction. To manipulate them into working again, Napoleon uses the truth modal will in we will build all through winter and we will teach this miserable traitor that he cannot undo our work, so easily. Napoleon’s use of the truth modal will has two functions: to emphasize Snowball’s treachery and to stimulate the animals’ potential capabilities to rebuild the windmill. The modal will here indicates credibility and certitude of doing the job. The connection between the first-person plural pronoun we and the truth modal will serves to prove closeness and intimacy between Napoleon and the other animals. Napoleon tries to win the animals’ support against Snowball and to assert the feeling of enmity towards him. Through using the modal will, Napoleon attempts to manipulate the animals into accepting both Snowball’s treachery and his decision to rebuild the windmill. Here is a table presenting a concordance of the modal will which indicates certitude and truth and functions to achieve manipulative persuasion.
Table 11. A Frequency Analysis of Will WILL...... TF (36) Indicative Occurrences (4) Context Word Context Line rebuilding the windmill, and we will build all through the winter 1099 winter, rain or shine. We will teach this miserable traitor that 1099 two years!? ?What matter? We will build another windmill. We will 1622 will build another windmill. We will build six windmills if we 1622 Table 11 shows that 4 occurrences out of 36 of the modal will are indicative in the production of manipulative persuasion.
6. Findings and Discussion The above analysis shows that pronouns and modals are employed in Orwell’s Animal Farm to achieve persuasion (I, you, we, must, should, shall and will) or manipulation (we, must, and will). Table 12 below adds more clarification.
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Table 12. Linguistic manifestations and ideological functions of pronouns and modals and their frequencies in Animal Farm Word Type Linguistic Ideological Total Indicative Manifestation Function Frequency Occurrences Pronouns I Persuasion 82 10 We (inclusive) Persuasion 59 12 We (exclusive) Manipulation 64 10 You Persuasion 48 7 Modality Obligation Must Persuasion 26 7 Manipulation 26 2 Shall Persuasion 25 9 Should Persuasion 33 2 Truth Will Persuasion 36 7 Manipulation 36 4
Table 12 clarifies that pronouns and modality are utilized in the discourse of Animal Farm as carriers of both persuasion and manipulation. The table shows that the first person singular pronoun I occurs 82 times in the novel under investigation, but only 10 occurrences are indicative in the realization of persuasion. The first person plural pronoun we is used has a frequency of 59 when it is used inclusively, and occurs 64 times when it is employed exclusively; only 12 and 10 occurrences are indicative in carrying either manipulative or persuasive ideologies, respectively. Further, the second person pronoun you has a total frequency of 48 occurrences, but only 7 of which are used to communicate a persuasive ideology. In the same vein, the obligation modals must, shall and should have the total frequency of 26, 26 and 25, respectively; yet the indicative occurrences for each modal are 9, 9 and 2, respectively. Likewise, the truth modal will has the total frequency of 36; 7 of which are employed to convey a persuasive ideology, whereas 4 of them are utilized to channel a manipulative ideology. The paper also clarified other findings as follows.
6.1. Pronouns and Modality are not only Function Words, but also Ideology Carriers The analysis demonstrates that pronouns and modality are conduits of specific ideologies. They cease to maintain the mere grammatical functions in language and prove useful in communicating particular pragmatic meanings. These meanings usually target the benefits of
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 97 those in power. This ideological weight of such linguistic devices goes in conformity with Fowler’s (1996) argument that each single word in language is ideological. That is, all lexis are ideological in nature in the sense that they reflect the cognitive background of their users. Such a cognitive background is called “store of knowledge” (van Dik, 2004), and is always shaped and reshaped by the individual’s ideology concerning the different aspects of life. Consequently, pronouns and modality in the discourse of the selected novel go beyond their grammatical functions towards further discursive functions constituting persuasion and/or manipulation. Furthermore, ideology is always there in language, and agency is one of the linguistic conduits of such ideology. This reconciles with Fowler’s (1991) argument that language is ideology- laden means of communication. Each communicative act has a purpose which serves the benefit of either parts in the communication process, i.e. discourse participants (writer/speaker and reader/hearer). This sheds light on an important idea; that is, the word, being the smallest syntactic unit, can carry further meanings and communicate different ideologies rather than what is conveyed by its surface propositional meaning. It is analytically evidenced that it is not only content words that can carry ideological significance in discourse. However, function words are also contributive in this regard. The analysis shows that pronouns and modality go beyond their semantic functions of conveying their prescribed grammatical function, such as the deictic function, truthfulness, certitude, etc. towards further pragmatic functions that add to the general understanding of the ideologies encoded in discourse.
6.2. A Frequency-based Analysis is Analytically Relevant to Critical Discourse Studies It is analytically evidenced that the application of a frequency-based analysis to the critical study of discourse is relevant. This manifests itself in the obtained results shown in the analysis part, which clarifies that despite the high frequencies of the pronouns and modals under investigation, only few occurrences are indicative in the realization of both persuasion and manipulation in the selected novel. As clarified in the analysis, the use of concordance proves useful in the linguistic investigation of texts, particularly those that contains a gigantic number of words such as the literary ones. The analytical part conducted by the frequency analysis in the current study shows that not only high frequency words are indicative in communicating ideologies, but also low frequency words are of great linguistic weight in communication ideologies of their users. The application of computer software to the study of large data texts proves useful not only in the current study, but also in the EFL and TESOL contexts (Alhusban & Torki, 2021). Obviously, the frequency analysis makes it possible to process and examine
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 98 large data for a variety of purposes and to investigate questions which could not feasibly be answered if the analysis was carried manually. This has previously been accentuated by Kennedy’s (1998) contention that the application of computer-aided frequency analysis to large data texts allows analysts to monitor more credible and authentic results than those realized by a mere manual analysis.
6. Conclusion This paper applied a computer-aided critical discourse analysis to test the hypothesis that pronouns and modals can exceed their semantic functions towards further pragmatic purposes. The analysis has linguistically evidenced that pronouns and modal are ideology carriers that convey particular pragmatic functions. These intended pragmatic functions revolve around concepts such as persuasion, manipulation, competency, and dominance. The analysis showed that a computer-based frequency analysis proves useful in discourse studies in general and in linguistic analyses in particular. This computational approach helps arrive at credible and accurate results during the process of data analysis, which, in turn, helps to uncover the hidden ideologies beyond the use of each single word in the text under investigation. The frequency analysis conducted in this study also accentuates the ideological weight pronouns and modals convey in texts, either individually, by the number of occurrences they have, or in combination with other neighboring words, by the contextual environment wherein they occur. The analysis further showed that language can be utilized to persuade and/or manipulate. The extent to which both persuasion and manipulation are linguistically communicated by means of pronouns and modals in discourse is better revealed if the linguistic expressions are better understood. To understand language, one has to deconstruct its elements, i.e. words, phrases, and sentences in order to uncover the ideological purposed beyond each single word used for each linguistic component in a particular context (Khafaga, 2017a, 2017b). In fact, such a process of decoding meanings is analytically proved to be strengthened by the application of computer work in corpus linguistics. Finally, this paper recommends further applications of computer software programs to discourse studies and corpus linguistics. This could yield more credible and accurate results to the linguistic study of texts than those approached by means of the traditional linguistic analysis, particularly in large data texts, such as the literary ones, as is the case in this paper. Pedagogically, the paper further recommends the use and application of computer-assisted tools in the EFL and TESOL contexts. This is anticipated to contribute to the teaching methods
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Acknowledgement This publication was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, KSA.
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References Alhusban, H. A., & Torki, S. (2021). An original computerized and web-based method for assessing textbook readability via lexical coverage. TESOL International Journal, 16(2), 7-30. Alonzo, E. H. (2019). Ibanag identity and worldview through songs: A critical discourse analysis. Asian ESP Journal, 15(1.2), 76-92. Bolton, W. F. (1984). The language of 1984. Orwell's English and ours. Basil Blackwell Publisher Limited. Edelman, M. (2001). The politics of misinformation. Cambridge University Press. Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. London & New York: Longman. Fairclough, N. (2013[1989]). Language and power (2nd ed.). London & New York: Longman. Fairclough, N., & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical discourse analysis. In T. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse as social interaction: Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction (Vol. 2, pp. 258–284). Sage. Flowerdew, J. (1993). Concordancing as a tool in course design. System, 21(2), 231-244. Fowler, R. (1981). Literature as social discourse. London: Batsford Academic and Educational Ltd. Fowler, R. (1991). Language in the news: Discourse and ideology in the press. London: Routledge. Fowler, R. (1996). On critical linguistics. In Carmen Rosa Caldas- Coulthard & Malcolm Coulthard (Eds.), Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis (pp. 15- 31). London & New York: Routledge. Halliday, M. A. K. (1985). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Hidayat, D. N., Septiawan, Y., &Sufyan, A. (2020). Critical discourse analysis and Its potential for English language teaching: A study on beauty advertisement products in Indonesia. Asian ESP Journal, 16(2.2), 271 – 297. Hockey, S. (1980). A guide to computer applications in the humanities. London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Kennedy, G. (1998). An introduction to corpus linguistics. London & New York: Longman. Khafaga, A. (2017a). Linguistic manipulation of political myth in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. International Journal of English Linguistics, 7(3), 189–200.
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Khafaga, A. (2017b). Discourse interpretation: A deconstructive reader-oriented approach to critical discourse analysis. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 6(2), 138-146. Khafaga, A. (2019). Linguistic representation of power in Edward Bond’s Lear: A lexico- pragmatic approach to critical discourse analysis. International Journal of English Linguistics, 9(6), 404-420. Khafaga, A., & Shaalan, I. (2020). Using concordance to decode the ideological weight of lexis in learning narrative literature: A computational approach. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 11(4), 246-252 Khafaga, A.,& Aldawsari, M. (2021). Ideological agency in Edward Bond’s Lear. Applied Linguistics Research Journal, 5(2), 11-23. Krieger, D. (2003). Corpus linguistics: What it is and how it can be applied to teaching. The Internet TESL Journal, IX(3), 123-141. Malimas, M. P., Carreon, J. D., & Peña, N. W. (2018). Critical discourse analysis of Filipino women politicians’ campaign speeches, Asian EFL Journal, 20(12.2), 387-404. Orwell, G. (1944). Animal Farm. Penguin Books Ltd. Palmer, F. R. (1986). Mood and Modality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Palmer, F. R. (1990). Modality and the English Modals, London and New York: Longman. Partington, A. (2003). The linguistics of political argument: The spin-doctor and the wolf-park at the White House. London &New York: Routledge. Peachey, N. (2005). Concordancers in ELT. In British Council Teaching English, Retrieved from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/concordancers-elt Pinto, D. (2004). Indoctrinating the youth of post-war Spain: A discourse analysis of a Fascist Civics textbook. Discourse &Society, 15 (5), 649-667. Sage Publications. Quirk, R., Greenbaum S., Leech, G., and Svartvik, G. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. Sabio, D. A., & Lintao, R. B. (2018). The language of PDU30: A discourse analysis of selected speeches of President Rodrigo Duterte. Asian EFL Journal, 20(12.2), 198-251. van Dijk, T. A. (1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society, 4(2), 249- 283. van Dijk, T. A. (1995). Ideological discourse analysis. In E. Ventola, & A. Solin (Eds.), Interdisciplinary approaches to discourse analysis (pp. 135-161). New Courant.
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 102 van Dijk, T. A. (1996). Discourse, power and access. In C. Caldas-Coulthard, & M. Coulthard (Eds.), Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis (pp. 84-104). London & New York: Routledge. van Dijk, T. A. (1997a). Political discourse and racism: Describing others in western parliaments. In S. H. Riggins (Ed.), The language and politics of exclusion: Others in discourse (pp. 31-64). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. van Dijk, T. A. (Ed.) (1997b). Discourse as interaction in society. In Discourse as social Interaction: Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction (Vol. 2, pp. 1-37). Sage. van Dijk, T. A. (2000). On the analysis of parliamentary debates on immigration. In M. Reisigl & R. Wodak (Eds.), The semiotics of racism: Approaches to critical discourse analysis (pp. 85–103). Vienna: Passagen Verlag. van Dijk, T. A. (2001a). Critical discourse analysis. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannan, & H. Hamilton (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 352–392). Blackwell. van Dijk, T. A. (2001b). Discourse, ideology and context. Folia Linguistica, 35(1-2), 11-40. van Dijk, T. A. (2004). Communicating ideologies. New York: Academic Press. Weiss, G., & Wodak, R. (Eds.) (2003) Critical discourse analysis: Theory and interdisciplinarity. Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Welch, R. (1980). Animal Farm. Longman. Widdowson, H. G. (2007) Discourse analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wiechmann D., & Fuhs, S. (2006). Concordancing software. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 2(2), 107-127. Wodak, R., & Meyer M. (Eds.) (2001). Methods of critical discourse analysis. London: Sage. Wood, T. (2004) Ideology: The power of prior discourse. In Martin P., JoAnne N. A., & T. A. van Dijk (Eds.), Communicating ideologies: Multidisciplinary perspectives on language, discourse, and social practice (pp. 39-58). New York & Oxford: Peter Lang. Wood, L., & Kroger, R. (2000). Doing discourse analysis: Methods for studying action in talk and text. London: Sage Publications, Inc. Yavus, F. (2014). The use of concordancing programs in ELT. Procedia- Social and Behavioral sciences, 116, 2312-2315.
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Investigating Students' Development of 21 Century and Lifelong Skills During Covid-19 Crisis Education
Dalal A.Kareem Ahmed English Language Centre, University of Bahrain
Tara Fryad Henari College of Applied Studies, University of Bahrain
Abubaker Abdulkarim Alhitty English Language Centre, University of Bahrain
Bio-profiles: Dalal A.Kareem Ahmed is an English Language Lecturer with 15 years of experience working in the tertiary education sector. Her areas of interest and expertise are in e-Learning, integration of technology in the ESL classroom and the appropriate use of smartphones in the classroom to enhance student achievement. She has organized four international conferences on Foundation programs and English Language Teaching and Learning. She espouses the idea of integrating lifelong learning skills in the EFL classroom. She played a vital part in the successful implementation of micro-credential skills for foundation students. She also promotes the use of Blockchain digital badging to formally recognize students’ life-long and employability skills. She is a fellow of The Higher Education Academy (HEA) -UK.
Tara Henari is a lecturer at the University of Bahrain for the past fifteen years. She completed her MSc in Managing Business with IT from the University of Salford and is a fellow of the AHE. Besides her academic duties, she is involved in mentoring in the Unit for Teaching Excellence and Leadership and has been actively involved in creating and updating programs in her college. Her research interests include social responsibility, education and entrepreneurship.
Abubaker Abdulkarim Alhitty is a lecturer and coordinator of the English Foundation Programme at the English Language Center, University of Bahrain. He has an MA in Translation and Interpretation from the University of Salford, UK, and a BA in English
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Language and Literature from the University of Bahrain. His areas of interests and expertise are in e-Learning and curriculum design. He is the co-founder of the Exam Extractor, a digital assessment management tool and also a Microsoft certified educator. He has developed several programmes & courses that serve the students’ language development and encourage autonomous learning.
Abstract The purpose of this research is to identify and evaluate the type of skills students gained during their unplanned shift of emergency remote teaching during the Covid- 19 outbreak. Identifying the students' gained skills resulted in allowing students to be independent learners and teachers resorting to the facilitator role. It will also show that “adversity” brings out the resilient characteristics of students. Hence, educators need to design their lessons in the form of challenges that enables students to use and improvise skills allowing them to advance. The survey research approach was applied. Data was collected through two sources: audio logs and a questionnaire. The results of this study showed that students naturally found the readiness and ability to utilize 21-century skills in managing their emergency remote learning during the adversity of Covid-19. This research aims to identify the importance of allowing students to explore their strengths by identifying their skills and using them as tools in their learning within a student-centered classroom environment. It also aims to encourage educators to allow students to take control of their learning abilities and help guide them to self-discover their strengths in acquiring knowledge.
Keywords: Autonomous learning, self-directed learning skills, lifelong learning skills, 21st Century Skills, e-learning, emergency remote learning, education, higher education, crisis education
1.0 Introduction Almost everyone will agree that acquiring an education online is increasing in popularity. Still, whether it is a single course or a full program, the reality is that teachers and students are poorly trained to effectively deliver or learn from online content. However, in the first quarter of 2020, most countries had to close all educational institutes due to the coronavirus pandemic and had to move online for the remaining of the academic year. April 2020 may be considered a
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 105 revolution in the education system worldwide, with schools and universities closing their doors in front of all their students and teachers in a manner that has never been witnessed before. Mirroring online learning to face to face learning as both students and teachers tried to adapt to this “new norm” was soon to be found ineffective. Online education revealed its limitations, including technological requirements, delivering traditional face to face learning online, and other hurdles related to unforeseen situations that can emerge. Many researchers covered these limitations in the early stage of this vast educational disruption. However, the picture was not as dark as it sounded at the beginning of the adversity. Many students around the globe prevailed and were able to succeed by acquiring novel tools independently, as support from teachers or others within their environment was limited. As such, the crisis provided a powerful test of potential online learning skills acquired by the students. The shift of attitudes from the students’ perspective towards online education altered learners’ long-life skills as they adapt to improving and using 21st-century skills in an online learning environment. Adjusting to the ‘new normal’ educational life, rethinking these skills from a learner's perspective as they are confronted with unprecedented challenges is important as it reflects on the opportunities posed by the pandemic. This paper addresses the learners shift in acquiring and using skills in an online learning environment. Its overview of analyzing students’ feedback provides a context for understanding this new learning paradigm. It considers how engaging students in online environments could also support the development of 21st-century skills. More specifically, the paper considers how educational institutes can support students’ development of learning and innovation skills, digital literacy skills, and life skills.
2.0 Literature Review 2.1 Covid-19 The Covid-19 pandemic has had a drastic impact on education all around the world. Approximately 20,000 higher education institutes closed down forcing around 200 million students to acquire knowledge online (Brown, 2020). Students found themselves in a situation they did not opt for. Many students resisted the decisions made by higher education to go online. Some students considered the decision to go online as discrimination and refused to abide by the government decision. Tunisian Student Union is one example. Students in the UK asked for a fee refund claiming that they did not sign up for an online program. Students in Zimbabwe protested against the transformation plan
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 106 of going online and described the decision made by authorities as “unjust” due to internet prices rising by 225% (Mukeredzi, 2020). Despite the reasons behind student's opposing the decision to go online, there is one mere fact; students were not given the choice to transform from a face-to-face mode of learning to an online one. The rapid transformation to secure social distancing whilst continuing the wheel of education was a reality all students had to face. In a handbook prepared exclusively for its members, the Consortium for School Networking states that many assume students are ready to transform online because the generation is considered to be “tech-savvy.” This, according to the handbook, may not be the case. Being familiar with technology does not necessarily mean students are ready to acquire knowledge online. Students who have not previously studied online “will not be prepared to be successful in a fully online school experience” (CoSN, 2020). Bianca Hooten (2020), a Care Coordinator in Canton in Ohio, believes that in order to succeed during this crisis, higher education students need to prioritize two things in their lives; one is money and the other is time. She also thinks that although many students may not be aware of it, they possess both the strength and talent to overcome the changes that have fallen suddenly upon them. According to Hooten, students have the resilience to succeed and all they need is “ a plan” (Hooten, 2020; para.4). China’s Ministry of Education, one of the first countries to halt face to face education, generated a set of guidelines on the “Organization and Management of Online Teaching in the Higher Education Institutions During Epidemic Prevention and Control Period” (Ministry of Education, 2020). In it, students were encouraged to take control of their learning during the pandemic in a “self-directed” mode of learning (Zhu, 2020). Zhu believes that during the crisis a new “paradigm” of education has been formed. A paradigm that has shifted “from traditional, teacher-centered, and lecture-based activities towards more student-centered activities including group activities, discussions, hands-on learning activities, and limited use of traditional lectures.” (Zhu, 2020).
2.2 21st-Century Skills With all the social, economic, and political change, the 21st-century came in with a new perspective towards knowledge. The way people saw and used knowledge involved a complete shift from the previous era. Therefore, many refer to the 21st-century as the “Knowledge Age”. In this age the “know what” was not the target of learners anymore but the resource of “something to think or work with”.
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In 1993, UNESCO formed the Commission on Education of 15 researchers headed by Jacques Delors. Together they published “Learning: The Treasure Within”. The Commission derived that successful education is based on 4 main pillars “learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together” (Carneiro, 2008). Globalization and the rise in digital awareness had an impact on education. The core knowledge was no longer enough for students to compete in the job market. Realizing this, a group of business leaders and educators formed the Partnership of the 21st Century (P21). Together they established a framework for what they thought a student needs to be equipped with to be successful in his life and at work. The framework is known as the “Framework for 21st-Century Learning,” and it includes 18 different skills (P21, 2011). Acknowledging that students needed the basic core subjects like Mathematics, Language, History …etc. But these subjects are considered as the basis that needs to be supplemented by three groups of skills. The first, which is considered as the most important by many, is the “learning skills” or what is also known as the “4Cs”. The National Education Association (NEA) states that “If today’s students want to compete in this global society, they must also be proficient communicators, creators, critical thinkers, and collaborators (4Cs)” (NEA, 2012). The second set of skills are information, media and technology skills which are related to technology and media awareness of the students. The last set of skills are related to the interpersonal skills that enable students to adapt to the rapid changes in their professions (Rutten, 2016). These skills are discussed further throughout the paper.
2.2.1 Learning and Innovation Skills Communication skills: Goldsmith (2008) considers communication skills as “global connectedness” in which students can become active listeners and communicators. Jerald (2009) says that communication “involves interacting with other people to acquire information, to explain it, or to persuade others of its importance”. According to P21, effective communication can be achieved through the expression of ideas verbally and non-verbally in different contexts. Students should also be able to evaluate the information and have the ability to determine when, where and how to use it (P21, 2011). Collaboration: Collaboration, like communication, is a skill that requires interaction with other people whether at work or inside the classroom. It is a process that involves six facets: social interdependence, new ideas, cooperation, conflict resolution, sharing resources and communication (Child, 2016). The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2005) consider the word “collaboration” as a synonym for the word “teamwork”. They
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 108 describe collaboration as “the ability to interact in heterogeneous groups” stating that it can be achieved by “working together,” “cooperation” and showing the ability to “manage and resolve conflicts” (2005). In a study conducted by Akindele (2012) on how to enhance skills amongst young learners, he found that students perceived collaboration as a skill that will “help prepare them for how to interact with the people in the world of work”. He further states that from teamwork, students master other skills like “communication; building trust; developing awareness of self and others” (Akindele, 2012) Critical Thinking: Although Bloom's taxonomy does not use the term “critical thinking” in the hierarchy, it has analyses and evaluation, where a student thinks, evaluates and later applies what they have learned to different situations, as the highest level of learning (Anderson, L. W., 2001). Many set tests, like the California Critical Thinking Skills and Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, evaluate critical thinking based on the student's ability to interpret, analyze, evaluate; explain, and infer and the ability to deduce and induce reasoning. (Watson. 2009). Davies and Barnett (2015) classify critical thinking into “cognitive elements” and “propensity elements”. The cognitive elements include concepts like making, arguments, inferences, and judgmental reasoning while propensity elements include disposition, abilities, and attitudes. Creativity: Kampylis and Berki (2014) define creativity as “thinking that enables students to apply their imagination to generating ideas, questions and hypotheses, experimenting with alternatives and to evaluating their own and their peers’ ideas, final products and processes.”. In 2009, Kaufman and Beghetto categorized creativity into four levels. The first category was “high creativity” also known as “big creativity” . This level is to describe the creativity of the “elite” that introduced creative ideas that have impacted humanity like “Einstein’s theory of relativity” or Beethoven symphony”. The second level is “Pro-c creativity” which describes creativity that requires timely efforts in order to fully develop. For example, a young boy interested in astronomy grows up to be a NASA researcher. The third level is “Little-c creativity” which describes everyday creativity like problem-solving at work or having creativity in design. The last level of creativity is referred to as “mini- creativity”. It portrays any “human act” that results in physical or mental innovation. (Kaufman, 2009) Lucas Bill reintroduced the first reference of creativity by Guilford (1950) “divergent thinking”. He divided it into three parts: fluency, flexibility and originality. Fluency, according to Guilford, is related to problem-solving skills, flexibility to find various alternatives and originality to uniqueness (Lucas, 2019). Governments, educationists, and organizations have emphasized the importance of implementing pedagogies that arm students with creative abilities. In her
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 109 research on creativity as a graduate attribute Rampersad (2014), stated that employers are demanding “creativity” from new graduates. Students are expected to find “creative solutions instinctively and spontaneously” in order to maintain their place in their organization (Rampersad, 2014). Students will not be able to thrive in their future jobs unless they are able to apply what they learnt in university creatively in a different situation.
2.2.2 Digital Literacy Skills According to the American Library Association (ALA), in order for students to be considered information literate, they need to be able to determine what information is required and know the best way to access it. They should also have the ability to evaluate and later incorporate the needed information to accomplish their tasks, bearing in mind the legality and the morality of using the information (ALA Report, 2000). The report further emphasizes the importance of information literacy for knowledge acquisition amongst higher education students. It is considered to be the “key” factor to independent establishing “lifelong learners” that are predicted to be successful employees and “informed citizens and members of communities” (ALA Report, 2000). During university life, students are facilitated by faculty and other staff members on how to effectively use ideas and information. Information Literacy is not a set of concrete rules that can be taught in a traditional “declarative” way but rather needs to be introduced to higher education students in the form of “multiple information-seeking experiences” (Arp, 2003). Therefore, students need to find themselves in situations where they are given the chance to determine what information is required from them and later have the ability to evaluate the best way to apply the information in order to maintain the best outcome. In the 1990s a new term related to digital literacy emerged in academia “Media Literacy”. It overlaps with information literacy in the sense that the information found in different media resources coexist and derive from information found in other sources. Media literacy is defined as “‘critical’ literacy based on reflection, analysis, and evaluation, not only of the content and structural elements of specific media texts but of the social, economic, political, and historical contexts in which messages are created, disseminated, and used by audiences”.” (Hobbs, 2000). Other scholars like Douglas Kellner & Jeff Shar (2006) link media literacy to critical thinking and believe that it “critically analyzes relationships between media and audiences, information, and power” and like information literacy, Kellner and Shar state that the best approach to incorporate media literacy in education is through “hands-on experimental” methods. The Media Literate America came up with a framework (The CML MediaLit™ Kit) that is used to set the foundation or as they refer to it, a map for “Learning & Teaching in a Media Age.”
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Students are urged to explore the relationships between the content, form, purpose and effects of a media message by following 5 core media literacy concepts: “authorship, format, audience, content and purpose” (Center for Media Literacy, 2005). Another concept related to digital literacy is Technology Literacy. Unlike information literacy and media literacy, technology literacy is related to the machines that make the former types of literacy accessible. Ollis, David, and Pearson (2006) present two dimensions of a technology literate person. The first being the ability to understand “basic engineering concepts and terms” related to technology. Words like “system, constraints, and tradeoff” should be familiar to them. The second technology literacy dimension O is a cognitive dimension. It refers to the ability of the learner to evaluate the risks, costs and benefits of using technology and the ability to evaluate the need to develop new technology based on the learners' needs. A technically literate person should also be able to solve basic problems by applying “a design-thinking process to solve a problem at home or in school” (NAE, 2002). The National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council believes that the best way to be technologically literate is by the actual use of technological devices like computers, tabs …etc. Another way to acquire technology literacy is by a “do it yourself” method. Where learners are required to design solutions to a given problem. The final method referred to by the NAE and NRC is to get information through various sources of media including the internet, TVs, books, magazines …etc. (NAE,
2002).2.2.3 Life skills Flexibility: With the continuous changes that are ongoing in the world in general and in the classroom specifically there is a greater need for students to be able to adjust according to the changes around them. The goals a student sets do not necessarily need to be changed but persisting in certain methods used in order to achieve these goals may lead to failure. This “ability to adapt to changing circumstances and environments” has become a necessary trait for students to succeed in the fast pace of an “Information Age fueled by technology” era (Kivunja, 2015). Post Covid-19 has become a necessity that students master the skill of flexibility in order to succeed in not only school but also in life. Learners need an “open mindset” that enables them to work under stress and be able to cope with the new norm of education. They need to be able to take on additional responsibilities and prioritize their set goals (Lukins,2020). Dr Charles Kivunja states that flexibility means that “if your role’s routine is suddenly altered you can quickly adjust to the new requirements and execute your role effectively.” (Kivunja,2015). The Framework for 21st-Century Skills Learning suggests that the best way to enhance student's flexibility is through feedback. When students have a certain goal to achieve, providing them with constructive feedback, not direct solutions, can motivate them to find new ways in order to achieve their goals. Flexible students reflect the ability to handle praise and criticism positively and are able to
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accept “diverse views” by demonstrating negotiation skills that lead to a “workable solution” for all parties concerned (P21, 2011).
Leadership (self-leadership): Self- leadership was first introduced by Manz in 1986 where he defined it as "one's self-motivation and self-direction process in order to achieve personal and organizational desired end state". In 2013, Daniel Goleman stated that the best leaders are those who have high self-leadership traits (Goleman, 2013). Literature identifies these traits as the ability to know “who you are, what you can do, where you are going coupled with the ability the influence your communication, emotions and behaviors on the way to getting there” (Browning, 2018). The Hong Kong Institute of Service Leadership and Management (HKI- SLAM) coincides with this notion by affirming that in order to be able to lead others, one must self-lead first “leading oneself before leading others.” Students that have self-leadership behave in ways that are self-directed and self-motivated in order to achieve a specific set goal. A number of self-leadership theories categorize it into behavior-focused strategies, natural reward strategies, and constructive thought pattern strategies. The first strategy involves 5 tasks in order to be accomplished: self-observation, self-goal setting, self-reward, self-punishment, and self-cueing (Houghton & Neck, 2002). The second dimension of self-leading is the natural reward strategy. It is related to motivating oneself to accomplish a goal with the constitutive reward of success. Students can either focus only on the “pleasant” aspect of a task by disregarding all negativity that comes with it or by modifying all negatives to positives in a task. The third dimension is achieved by one's ability to self-motivate oneself by adapting to a positive way of thinking. The former, according to Ricketts et al. (2015) can be achieved by “visualizing successful performance, self-talk and evaluating beliefs and assumptions”.
Initiative and self-direction skill: 150 years ago, scholars like Craik and Smiles wrote about the concept of “self-help” in learning (Bergamin, 2019). However, it was Houle who paved the way for research on self-education, using the words “alone” and “individuals”, Houle introduced a new idea of self-directed learning emphasizing that learning can be achieved alone which was a contrast to other ideas at the time (Brockett, 2005). Self- directed learning is when the learner takes responsibility for his learning. It is derived from the humanist theory in which the learner is autonomous, self-directed, accountable, and is given the freedom to choose what and when to learn (Gidden, 2015). Gidden also corrects the false assumption that some people have about self-directed learning. He claims that although self-directed learners take responsibility for their learning it does not mean they are
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“isolated”. In fact, learners engage in many collaborative activities but are responsible for their own learning. The learner also engages with the teacher who becomes a facilitator in this student-centered environment rather than the “traditional” teacher in a teacher-centered one (Gidden, 2015). In his PhD dissertation, Oswalt (2003) presented a complete picture of a Self-Directed learning process. He attempts to develop a model that integrates previous models presented by scholars on self-directed learning. Oswalt develops nine characteristics for self-directed learning in which he divides into three major groups. The first group is “learning situation” which includes “opportunity”, “support” and “collaboration”. The second group, “learning attributes” includes skills like “content skill”, “SDL skill” and “willingness to direct one’s own learning”. The final group includes “motivation”, “context” and “cognitive skill” and was referred to by Oswalt as the “components of learning” (Oswalt, 2003). There are four major strengths of self-directed learning: the first is the individual learner as the core developed from a humanist theory of learning, the second is the skills and attitudes required to thrive in a rapidly changing age of knowledge and technology, the third is a teaching/learning, student-centered approach, and the fourth is strong support for technology in online learning. These skills are reflected in the ability of students to manage their time and set their goals independently (Rakhmawati, 2019). Many scholars, including Song and Hill (2007), emphasize that initiative and self-directed skill is not only about identifying one's goals and setting a timeline to accomplish them, but it is rather the process of taking control of the learning process. The Ministry of Education in Singapore offers a set of qualities that initiative and self- directed learners possess. They are seen as able to set their learning goals and identify their learning gaps, navigate different approaches and reach subtle decisions, always inquire, use time effectively by planning their learning process, and the last quality is the ability to reflect on their work using constructive feedback from their peers or teachers (MOE, 2011). The framework for 21st-century Skills Learning (P21, 2011) lines three strategies to teach students initiative and self-direction skills by teaching them how to; manage goals and time, work independently and be self-directed learners. A theory that has proven to be timeless is the use of SMART as a means to motivate self-directed learning. Individuals and groups motivate and boost themselves by setting goals that need to be achieved (Camp, 2017). Les Macleod (2013) modifies SMART goals into SMARTER goals. According to him, students should set their goals to not only to be “Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely” but also “Engaging” and “Rewarding” (Macleod, 2013). When students apply SMART to their tasks,
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 113 they are pressured to complete the goals that they have set within the time phase they have also set for themselves. Another way to promote self-directed skills among learners is to allow students to reflect on their learning. According to Prasetiyowati (2016), through reflection “students are able to assess their ability by themselves about what their strengths and weaknesses are”. Students that “work independently” learn how to prioritize their work and manage each step and adapt to changes and challenges in the process. This opposed to the teacher- centered learning environment where students are given a list of things to do, usually by their teachers, and they follow the list to achieve their goals (Kivunja, 2015). Although the latter may also result in achieving a goal, it will not give the students full ownership of their success. Productivity & accountability: These skills are related to the student's ability to produce work that is of quality and value. Not only are productivity and accountability two interrelated skills but they also relate to other life skills. It may be considered as the root of other skills for it is the skill that holds the student accountable for the task he or she is given. It is the sense of responsibility that drives the student to acquire the other skills in order to fulfil their task and produce work of value. It drives the students to prioritize their tasks, set their goals, manage their work using SMART and manage their time efficiently. Because of this interrelationship with other goals not many studies have covered “productivity & accountability” as a skill for students as much as a skill for employees. But like other 21st-Century Skills, they are skills that students acquire in their education and later apply in their jobs. Trilling and Fadel (2009), state that “Good project management skills are crucial to both work and learning projects”. They believe that one of the most important skills for a student to have is the ability to define, plan, execute and evaluate a project that is efficient, effective and of high quality. The researchers proceed to suggest that students should own most of their learning and teaching. Teachers are encouraged to be “coaches” not “lecturers” in a method called “project cycle.” Teacher and students are required to collaborate on a project, with the teacher being the “coach” while the students are the “workers”. Trilling and Fadel (2009) advocate that members of the community are involved in evaluating the end results of a given project and feedback is taken into consideration by both the teachers and students. The productivity & accountability of this type of learning is introduced by many researchers as “self-regulation” where students behold a “metacognitive ability to monitor their own work, seek and accept critical feedback from multiple sources, and strive to improve their work products.” Social skills: The possession of social skills for students is extremely crucial for their success. Learning is not a thing that can be done in isolation whether it be face to face or online, students
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 114 need others to acquire knowledge. Even when a student individually searches for information on the web, he or she is interacting with an author or researcher who in turns is presenting ideas of others (Trilling, 2009). Therefore learning, whether in groups or alone, is considered a “social act.” Students use social skills when they share ideas with others, when they communicate or when they work together in groups. It can be defined as the ability of individuals to communicate verbally and nonverbally with others in different contexts and situations. Social skills are a core part of the teaching and learning process as they play a role in the “individual’s development” when occurring in an appropriate “environmental stimulus” (Verderer R., et al, 2016). Some scholars even suggest that students who lack social skills may fail academically (Schoenfeld,2008). The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) presents three cores that can be accounted as social skills amongst students. The first is social awareness where students are able to identify suitable social resources and accept other perspectives with a display of respect and empathy. The second one is relationship skills. It includes the student's ability to provide and seek help when needed and the ability to resolve conflicts by negotiation. The last core part by CASEL is responsible decision making. This relates to making responsible choices like managing goals, times and tasks that will not only benefit the students themselves but also those around them (CASEL, 2017). Social skills are not natural skills that are born within humans. They are skills that need to be taught to students in an early stage of their lives. Teachers are advised to first identify the skills that need to be taught and explain why they are important in a given social context. Then teachers should lead by example by modelling these skills in class by exposing students to different examples. Allowing students to practice these social skills by providing them with opportunities to do so in class. Finally, teachers should follow up with students’ use of these skills inside and outside of class (Miller, 2010) even if it requires the involvement of other people in the student's social circle.
3.0 Method 3.1 Research goal and questions The survey research approach was deemed suitable for this study because it enables the “collection of information through responses to questions” (Check & Schutt, 2012). It also allows the adaptation of various methods to “recruit the participants”, collect the data and use various “methods of instrumentation” like qualitive, quantitative and mixed methods. (Ponto, 2015). A mixed method was adopted by the researcher to i) identify what new skills students utilized while studying remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic ii) what of those skills were
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 115 the most effective? iii) whether these skills should be promoted in a regular classroom environment. The research follows the steps presented by Julie Ponto (2015) on how to conduct a survey research successfully in order to “describe and explore variables and constructs of” the study (Ponto, 2015).
3.2 Sampling The population included in the study were Arab university students who had completed one semester of remote learning due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. A sample of 175 students (30 audio logs, 125 survey) were randomly selected. The number and characteristic of the sample increased the prospect that the results will accurately reflect the population (Ponto, 2015).
3.3 Data Collection Methods The data used in this study was collected through two main sources: audio logs and a questionnaire. The audio logs were used to gain a wider contextual understanding of learners’ experiences, whereas the survey was used to verify the responses. The combination of methods allowed for a triangular approach confirming the skills obtained. The first method of data collection involved audio logs of a sample size of 30 students using online WhatsApp voice messages. The students were asked to identify the new skills they gained, if any, during the emergency remote teaching period of Covid-19.
3.4 Survey and Interview Research In analyzing their responses and identifying common themes, it was identified that the skills were aligned to the 21st-Century skills (see table 1), with a high focus on the life skills: initiative and self-direction. These skills were listed and formed into a questionnaire with close- ended questions and one open-ended question, allowing the respondents to express their related thoughts. The second method of data collection was the questionnaire, which was distributed to a further 125 students to identify if their responses were unified. Hence, ensuring the validity of the students’ replies.
21st-Century Skills Learning and innovation "The 4Cs" Critical thinking & Problem solving Creativity & Innovation
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Communication Collaboration Digital Literacy Information literacy Media literacy ICT literacy Life Skills Flexibility & adaptability Leadership & Responsibility Initiative & self-direction: • Setting own learning goals. • Identifying appropriate learning resources. • Selecting appropriate learning strategies. • Selecting important from unimportant • Integrating material from various sources. • Time management • Monitoring achievement of learning outcomes • Monitoring effectiveness of own study habits Productivity & accountability Social skills: Meeting and networking with others for mutual benefit Table 1: 21st Century Skills
4.0 Results In analyzing the 30 respondents’ common skills were identified, which can be seen in figure 1.
Figure 1: Skills Identified from Audio log
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The most skills achieved during this period were time management and ICT literacy, with students having to adjust to a new online schedule and using new software. On asking what technology they gained skills on, the response included learning management systems, video creating, messaging systems and online testing software.
In expanding the list to include all aspects of the 21st Century skills, with a high focus on the initiative and self-direction skills as per the responses of the audio log, the questionnaire was administrated, and the results can be seen in figure 2.
Figure 2: Skills Identified from Questionnaire
The top three skills gained by students during this period were ICT literacy, communication, and time management. In comparing the responses from both methods of data collection it is evident that the top four skills they have gained are identical: ICT literacy, communication, collaboration and time management. The former three being stand-alone 21st Century skills and the latter being under the initiative and self-directed learning skills.
5.0 Discussion Although this generation is considered tech-savvy, it did not necessarily mean students were ready for online learning (Consortium of School Networking, 2020), however, with the enforced online learning, students learned to use new technology which enabled them to learn and at the same time gain further ICT literacy. They were also enforced to find new ways to communicate, as during times of distress there is an increased need for communication
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(Herman and Howitt, 2007). This is considered as two-way communication, where the lecturers communicate with the students, and students communicate and become active listeners. As technology may have enabled this interaction, the method of interaction is different from a regular to a face-to-face classroom environment. Students had to write more than before, asking questions through messages and learn the “etiquettes” of communicating online. These tools of communication enhanced the ability for students to collaborate amongst each other doing group work or even just being involved in conversations that may generate new ideas or even help each other. A respondent's response:
“We face great difficulty in studying remotely (had it not been for students' cooperation with each other, we would have been in trouble)”
Time management was a skill student were forced to learn with students having to manage their time “at home” and be able to compartmentalize their home life and university life, enabling independent learning. A respondent's response:
“I learned a lot from studying from afar. And a lot of skills I was not aware of, but now I know my skills more and more and that I am able to organize my time.”
Students have gained a new skill set they would not have otherwise. One respondent said:
“Distance education made me a special person and made me depend on myself as well”
Another respondent's response was:
“Online classes taught me how to rely on myself in all fields and strive to get the information I need, both in lessons and other than lessons”
Some respondents stated that gaining knowledge was not the only benefit they gained from remote learning but it also made communication with others easier:
“It made communication easier and it doesn't feel I would have gained more knowledge in a traditional classroom setting”
Confidence was also increased in certain aspects of assessments, like presentations:
“Online boosted my confidence in presentations”
The responses of this study indicate that students resorted to the use of 21st Century skills (some skills more than others) while acquiring knowledge during the pandemic. They support the assertion made by many researchers that remote learning promotes “independent, self-
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 119 directed learning because students are able to learn and review materials at their own pace” (Martin-Chang & Levesque, 2017). The responses also align with prior research on learning during adversity, in this case, Covid 19. People are found to “exhibit resilience, evidencing normal development in the face of adversity.” (Noltemeyer, 2016.). The “resilience” demonstrated by the students was evident in the utilization of skills that led to achieving their goals. Despite all the inequities that have surfaced with Covid-19, there are still some educational benefits that have thrived with the pandemic. The responses made by students in this study indicate that Covid-19 has positively enhanced students’ autonomous skill acquisition.
6.0 Conclusion 21st Century Skills have proven to be of high importance. However, transferring these skills to the students under a traditional classroom is a challenge and requires a conceptual and philosophical rethinking of teaching and learning roles, and connections among teachers, learners, and teaching materials (Jandrić et al. 2018). These skills can be introduced to learners by promoting the use of day-to-day tools as teaching tools (SiRicord, 2016). Covid-19 forced education into a new paradigm, as the traditional method of teaching was no more. Educators had to adapt as did the students. This led to students learning in a way they did not choose, and although the majority were said to prefer on-site education, there is no doubt that the students gained skills they otherwise would not have. The importance of continuing to transfer these skills to students post Covid-19 needs to be examined and incorporated when designing and updating programs, as these skills not only contribute to the success of a graduate in the current and future job market (P21, 2011) but also an exceptional means of bringing about personal development and building relationships among individuals, groups, and nations (Carneiro, 2008), as well as being an essential way for dealing with the complexity faced in all aspects of their lives. (Guglielmino and Long, 2011).
In addition, students’ self-reliance is the main factor in adaptation to current and future educational distributions. Students during the pandemic have shown great resilience which may not have become apparent in a normal face to face classroom. Students tend to depend on their facilitators during their studies in a normal classroom setting. However, with the adversity of “COVID-19” and all the changes in the learning environment that were associated with it, students were forced to work through a mechanism that helped them adapt to the novel changes. LeThu Huong and Yee Ki Au (2020) highlight the importance of students’ resilience as well as 21st-Century skills in overcoming situations with educational disruption. An important
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 120 finding of this paper is how adversity forced resilience among the students and improved the quality and outcomes of their learning experience. Benjamin Franklin once said “Out of adversity comes opportunity” and we as teachers must take advantage of this opportunity for our future teaching environment. A setting needs to be created, maybe not as extreme as COVID-19, where students are pushed to dig deep and explore their abilities to exhibit their full potential in both a normal and an online classroom setting.
The results of this paper highlight the importance of creating independent students who can take control of their learning. This of course will need major emendation to current teaching approaches where students are thought to be self-reliant and able to utilize all the skills that are necessary to succeed in their educational phase and later use the same skills in their careers
7.0 Further Research Although it is clear students successfully gained new skills, the measurement of success was not related to the students' grades and academic performance. Further research can be conducted comparing students grades pre, during and post Covid-19 in programs that have not changed.
Further research can also include a study on graduates to analyze the use of attained skills in the labor market. Research can identify from an employer's perspective if they believe the students are better prepared than those that graduated pre-Covid-19.
Further research can also be conducted from an educator's perspective, and how these skills are to be implemented post Covid-19 and identify their method of implementing successfully.
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Hobbs, R. (2004). Media literacy, general semantics, and K12 education. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 61(1) http://www.generalsemantics.org/wp- content/uploads/2011/05/articles/etc/61-1-hobbs.pdf Houghton, J. D. & Neck, C. P. (2002). The revised Self Leadership questionnaire: Testing a hierarchical factor structure for self-leadership. Journal of Managerial Psychology, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240257951_The_Revised_Self- Leadership_Questionnaire_Testing_a_hierarchical_factor_structure_for_self- leadership Houle, C. O. (1972). The Design of Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Jerald, C. (2009). Defining a 21st Century Education. Retrieved from http://www.mifras.org/know/wpcontent/uploads/2014/06/Defininga21stCenturyEduca tion_Jerald_2009.pdf Kampylis, P. & Berki, E. (2014). Nurturing creative thinking. [pdf] International Academy of Education, UNESCO, p. 6. Available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002276/227680e.pdf Kaufman, J. C. & Beghetto, R. A. (2009). Beyond Big and Little: The Four C Model of Creativity. Review of General Psychology Kivunja, C. (2015). Teaching students to learn and work well with 21st century skills: Unpacking the career and life skills domain of the new learning paradigm. International Journal of Higher Education, 4(1), 1–11. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1060566.pdf Le T. H. & Yee K. A. (2020) 21st Century Skills in the time of COVID-19 Retrieved from: https://www.norrag.org/21st-century-skills-in-the-time-of-covid-19-by-le-thu-huong- and-yee-ki-au/ (Accessed on: 31-1-2021) Lucas, Bill. (2019). Teaching and assessing creativity in schools in England. Impact Journal, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335789933_Lucas_2019_Teaching_and_ass essing_creativity_in_schools_in_England_Impact_Journal_7_5-8 Macleod, Les. (2013). Making SMART goals smarter. Physician executive. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256098067_Making_SMART_goals_smarte r Manz, C.C. (1986) Self-Leadership: Toward an Expanded Theory of Self- Influence Processes in Organizations. Academy of Management Review, 11(3), 585-600, 1986. Martin-Chang, S., & Levesque, K. (2017). Academic achievement: Making an informed choice about homeschooling. The Wiley handbook of home education. Retrieved from
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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313850770_Academic_Achievement_Maki ng_an_Informed_Choice_about_Homeschooling Miller, M., Fenty, N. Scott, T. & Park, K. (2010). An examination of social skills instruction in the context of small group reading. Remedial and Special Education,1-11. Ministry of Education of P.R. China. (2020). Guidance on the Organization and Management of Online Teaching in the Higher Education Institutions During Epidemic Prevention and Control Period. Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_gzdt/s5987/202002/t20200205_418131. html Mukeredzi ,Tonderayi. (2020). Students Reject Online Learning as Data Costs Hiked By 225%, Retrieved from https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200504142003239 NAE and NRC (National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council). (2002). Technically Speaking: Why All Americans Need to Know More About Technology. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. National Education Association. (2012). Preparing 21st century students for a global society: An educator's guide to "the four Cs." Washington, DC: Retrieved from https://www.aledoisd.org/cms/lib/TX02205721/Centricity/Domain/2020/Preparing21 C_Learners.pdf Noltemeyer, A. L., & Bush, K. R. (2013). Adversity and resilience: A synthesis of international research. School Psychology International, 34(5), 474–487. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034312472758 Ollis, David, and G. Pearson. (2006) What Is Technological Literacy And Why Does It Matter? Proceedings of the 2006 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference American Society for Engineering Education. Retrieved from https://peer.asee.org/what-is-technological-literacy-and-why-does-it-matter.pdf. Oswalt, D.F., 2003, Instructional-design theory for fostering self-directed learning, PhD thesis, Indiana University. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/docview/305333004 Prasetiyowati, Eni. & Sa’adah, Lailatus. (2016). The use of Self-Assessment for Teaching English for Young Learners. The Asian EFL Journal, Volume 20, Issue 8 Ponto J. (2015). Understanding and Evaluating Survey Research. Journal of the advanced practitioner in oncology, 6(2). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4601897/#A3
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P21. (2011). Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). Framework for 21st Century Learning. Retrieved from http://www.P21.org Rakhmawati, D. M., & Priyana, J. (2019). A Study on 21st Century Skills Integration in the English Textbook for Senior High School. JEES (Journal of English Educators Society),4(1), 9-16. Rampersad, Giselle & Patel, Fay. (2014). Creativity as a desirable graduate attribute: Implications for curriculum design and employability. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335789933_Lucas_2019_Teaching_and_ass essing_creativity_in_schools_in_England_Impact_Journal_7_5-8 Ricketts, K.G., Carter, H.S., Place, N.T. and McCoy, T. (2012). A look inside: Self-leadership perceptions of extension educators. Journal of Extension, 50(5). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287996305_Leading_the_Self_Self- Leadership_Skills_of_Lebanese_Private_School_Principals Rutten, M., Ros, A., Kuijpers, M., & Kreijns, K. (2016). Usefulness of Social Network Sites for Adolescents' Development of Online Career Skills. Educational Technology & Society Journal, 19(4), 140-150. Retrieved from https://www.j- ets.net/ETS/journals/19_4/12.pdf Schoenfeld, N.A., Rutherford, R.B., Gable, R.A., & Rock, M.L. (2008). ENGAGE: A blueprint for incorporating social skills training into daily academic instruction. Preventing School Failure, 52 (3), 17-27. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3200/PSFL.52.3.17-28 SiRicord, T.S., & Yunus, M. (2016). Learners’ perceptions on the effectiveness of videoscribe on improving listening and speaking in rural school of Sarawak. The Asian EFL Journal, Volume 20, Issue 8 Song, L., & Hill, J. R. (2007). A conceptual understanding of self-directed learning in online environments. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 6(1), 27 – 41. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250699716_A_Conceptual_Model_for_Und erstanding_Self-Directed_Learning_in_Online_Environments Trilling, B. & Fadel, C. (2009). 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times, Jossey- Bass, San Francisco, CA. Verderer, R., Macgoerge, E.L., & Verderer, K. (2016). Interpersonal Communication Skills. Oxford University Press, UK. Retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/document/444691030/Inter-Act-14th-Edition-Com35-pdf
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Watson, G., & Glaser, E. M. (2009). Watson-Glaser TM II Critical Thinking Appraisal: Technical Manual and User’s Guide. Pearson. Zhu, X., & Liu, J. (2020). Education in and After Covid-19: Immediate Responses and Long- Term Visions. Postdigital Science and Education, 1–5. Advance online publication. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00126-3
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The Comparison between Vocabulary Prescribed in an English for Engineering Commercial Textbook and the Actual Use of English Engineering Vocabulary in Working Routines: The Perception from Thai Engineers1
Tuntiga Wang, Napapach Padermprach, Apakorn Chamavit Chalida Janenoppakarn, and Panadda Pratoomrat International College for Sustainability Studies, Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok, Thailand
Bio-profile: Tuntiga Wang is a lecturer at the Language and Academic Services Centre in the International College for Sustainability Studies for Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok, Thailand. Her areas of expertise and interest include English language teaching, the use of English for specific purposes, and the implementation of technology in motivating students when learning a foreign language.
Napapach Padermprach is a lecturer at the Language and Academic Services Centre in the International College for Sustainability Studies for Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok, Thailand. She has vast experience working in the field of education, both teaching English and in the use of English for specific purposes. These areas represent her primary research interests.
Apakorn Chamavit is a lecturer at the Language and Academic Services Centre in the International College for Sustainability Studies for Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok, Thailand. She has many years of experience teaching English, using English for specific purposes, and with translation. These three areas represent her primary research interests.
Chalida Janenoppakarn is a lecturer at the Language and Academic Services Centre in the International College for Sustainability Studies for Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok, Thailand. She graduated with a Ph.D. in English Language Studies. Her main areas of research
1 Funding for this research is granted by International College for Sustainability Studies, Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok.
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 128 interest are writing strategies and motivation, in addition to the use of English for specific purposes and English language teaching.
Panadda Pratoomrat is a lecturer at the Language and Academic Services Centre in the International College for Sustainability Studies for Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok, Thailand. She has extensive experience working in the field of education, both teaching English and using English for specific purposes. She also has familiarity with researching intercultural communications and interaction competence, in addition to a background as a freelance translator.
Abstract English vocabulary is recognized as one of the most important elements in the professional life of engineering graduates. Teachers of English as Specific Purposes (ESP) need crucial information to develop students’ skills. The engineering graduates’ voice can be useful information for teachers to make the decision on materials in response to the real needs in real- life applications to develop better ESP materials based on the frequency of applying word lists in the real working environment. This study investigates the perception of engineering graduates towards commonly used engineering vocabulary prescribed in an ESP commercial textbook. There were 420 engineering graduates from six disciplines of engineering (i.e., chemical engineering, civil engineering, industrial engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, and mechanical engineering) participated in the study. The data was collected from the questionnaire on the perceptions of engineering graduates towards commonly used engineering vocabulary. Results indicate that the word lists from industrial engineering are the most widely used vocabularies in engineer professionals.
Keywords: English for Engineering, Engineering Vocabulary, ESP
1. Introduction Several educators and scholars have emphasized that vocabulary instruction is essential to English learning and vocabulary knowledge is regarded as one of essential assets for language learners (e.g., Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Loong & Chan, 2012; Mustafa & D‘Auria, 2019; Nation, 2001; Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Notably, to be able to understand the communicative content entirely and accurately, the experience of vocabulary has been recognized as a prime knowledge. “Without grammar, very little can be conveyed,
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 129 without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (Wilkins, 1972; p.111). Moreover, Rivers in Nunan (1991) also highlighted that with limited vocabulary knowledge, students would not be able to understand the structure form, and it will not lead to one’s understanding. As illustrated above, vocabulary knowledge is essential and is an influential part of students’ success. This is because the sufficient knowledge of English words is required to understand other people ideas and expression as well as to comprehend educational materials. According to Wang & Rajprasit (2015), Thai EFL students perceived English vocabulary as their most necessary knowledge. The students further reported that their limited understanding of English vocabulary obstructed them in the communication of EFL settings. In addition to the necessary of vocabulary knowledge in ESL and EFL contexts, the vocabulary acquisition is also considered essential for learning English for specific knowledge of jobs and careers. As Nation (2001) and Hutchinson and Waters (1987) emphasize that the instruction of vocabulary knowledge in specific academic, professional, and scientific fields should be emphasized in all classrooms contexts, especially in English for Specific (ESP) courses. One of the most predominant ESP courses in language learning is English for engineering and English vocabulary knowledge has been recognized significant skills for engineering students. As mentioned by Hsu (2014), engineering students should be equipped with the most frequent 5000 English word families including proper nouns, apparent compounds and abbreviations in order to command 95% lexical coverage of engineering textbooks for adequate comprehension textbooks with specific technical terms. Additionally, the Student Engineering English Corpus (SEEC) reports that there are almost 2,000,000 words in engineering textbooks, and these words are obligatory for all engineering students, regardless of their areas of specialization (Mudraya, 2006). This means English vocabulary and engineering wordlist are considered necessary for engineering students. Despite the significance of English vocabulary and engineering wordlist, the comprehensive conclusion regarding how to select appropriate engineering vocabulary as well as how many words should ESP teachers include in teaching materials has been inconclusive. To shed the light on these issues, the current study aims to analyse and compare the vocabulary items prescribed in an English for engineering commercial textbook with the actual use of such words in Thai engineers’ daily routines. The findings of the study might be applied as a reference for ESP teachers and course designers when selecting the most practical words to teach students in English for engineering courses.
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2. Literature 2.1 The Importance of Vocabulary Knowledge 2.1.1 The Importance of Vocabulary Learning Vocabulary learning has been recognized as a pillar of English language instruction for ages as several linguists and scholars (e.g., Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Nation, 2001; Richards & Rogers, 2001) have proposed that the acquisition of vocabulary is one of essential assets for language learners. In English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL), learning vocabulary items is critical in all language skills (i.e., listening, speaking, reading, and writing). According to Nation (2001), the acquisition of vocabulary is extremely important for successful language use and vocabulary knowledge plays a vital role in the construction and the development of complete spoken and written communications. In addition to the necessary of vocabulary acquisition in ESL and EFL contexts, the emphasis of vocabulary acquisition should be established rather clearly extended into language learning for specific knowledge of jobs and careers. Nation (2001), Hutchinson and Waters (1987) further emphasize that the development of language learners’ vocabulary knowledge in specific academic, professional, and scientific fields should be promoted in all classrooms contexts, especially in ESP courses. They explain that learners’ needs for learning discipline- specific language and the development of learners’ background for specific academic vocabulary should be taken into the consideration of language teachers in order to entail teaching lexis and developing learners’ skill to independently learn and comprehend vocabulary used in their own specific academic disciplines. Qureshi (2018) expresses that different disciplines (e.g., medical sciences, accountancy, engineering) require different vocabulary. Not only are major concepts represented by different words, but also the same words might have dissimilar meaning across disciplines. That is to say knowledge of such specialized word meanings should be obtained and learners should be taught discipline-specific meanings of words. In conclusion, vocabulary knowledge is significant for social, emotional, academic, and professional growth. To acquire necessary vocabulary for surviving academically and socially, learners may take upwards four to seven years (Gehsmann, 2018), and it is the learners’ ultimate goal to have social competence and access more rigorous curricula. These mean language learners must have greater perseverance to acquire vocabulary and teachers should find the appropriate method to motivate learners to engage in vocabulary instruction is necessary to help them reach potential.
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2.1.2 The Importance of English Vocabulary in Engineering Context As the globalization and the immergence of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), English has adopted as a common spoken language by people all over the world (Crystal, 2003), and it has been also used as the main medium of communication in every discipline, including engineering. As an engineer, English might be required for writing logs, reading manuals, and speaking with colleagues, customers, subcontractors as well as suppliers (Changpueng and Pattanapichet, 2015). This means knowledge of English vocabulary is necessary for engineers to perform their duties and job-related tasks. According to Shrestha, Pahari and Awasthi (2015), engineers in Nepal apply English vocabulary in various contexts such as academics, job applicants, and scholarship applicants. The reason that English vocabulary is required for Nepalese engineers is that all engineering technical terms are only in English, not their local languages. Hsu (2014) also approves the importance of vocabulary knowledge for engineering students by stating that knowing the most frequent 5000-word families including proper nouns, apparent compounds and abbreviations can enhance students’ performance to command 95% lexical coverage of engineering textbooks to ensure adequate comprehension. In Thailand, a study conducted by Wanpen, Sonkoontod, and Nonkukhetkhong (2013) confirm the importance of English vocabulary knowledge among engineering students by concluding that with the growth of ESP in the professional and technical areas of study, vocabulary learning is considered to be one of the most important factors for student success in learning English. Shamsudin, Husin, and Manan (2013) also assert that English vocabulary is regarded as an essential knowledge of engineering students to successfully comprehend textbooks with specific technical terms. They also mention that there is a need for a corpus- based engineering vocabulary or engineering word list as engineering dictionaries are not sufficient. The significance of English vocabulary and engineering wordlist are additionally reported by Mudraya, 2006. He mentions that according to the Student Engineering English Corpus (SEEC), there are nearly 2,000,000 running words reduced to 1200-word families or 9000 word-types encountered in engineering textbooks, and these words are compulsory for all engineering students, regardless of their fields of specialization. In brief, it can be said several scholars have acknowledged the importance of English vocabulary learning for engineering students by confirming that vocabulary knowledge is considered one of the platforms for students to succeed in both academic and professional life.
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2.2 English for Specific Purpose (ESP) Tracing back to almost 50 years ago, ESP was considered as a comparatively new area of English Language Teaching (ELT). The first ESP courses provided for language learners are ‘German for Science Students’ and ‘Travelers Language Course’ (Strevens, 1978a, 190- 191, cited in Albakrawi & Almutairi, 2013). Historically, ESP scholars believed that learners have different interests and needs, both of which have an impact on learners’ motivation to learn. Additionally, the effectiveness and appropriateness of the course provided for learners to meet their needs are vitally important. Consequently, the way to achieve this is using texts related to learners’ area of specialization (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987), or teaching what learners will encounter in their working experience (Darian, 1972). Robinson (1980) defined ESP as a new emphasis in teaching where its emphasis is on students rather than on teachers. Owing to the fact that language learning has provided inadequate knowledge and practice in the area of language in profession, ESP primarily focuses on the developing professional expertise (Musikhin, 2016), together with being aware of diversity and specification of learners’ needs (Amirian& Tavakoli, 2009), with aim towards preparation for learners’ future profession or occupational roles. Therefore, ESP courses are generally intensive and concentrate on specific skills in specific contexts for specific learners. Interestingly, due to the fact that the majority of ESP teachers do not specialize in the target field of the ESP courses provided for learners, Porcaro (2013) raised an interesting question with regard to how much knowledge teachers need to have in the field of study to order to be capable of selecting, adjusting, and simplifying authentic texts so that the selected texts meet the requirements of ESP courses. Some teachers are likely to struggle to get used to materials they require to thoroughly understand. Therefore, good relationship between teachers and learners is needed since teachers are regarded as language experts whereas learners are liable to be familiar with knowledge in their own field (Musiklin, 2016). According to Talberg (2006), activities that are related to the profession in an international context should be included in ESP courses. Crucially, teachers should consider the situation where their learners might be in real context to make the most effective learning for their learners. Hence, the initial stage of ESP courses should value the fluency in communication rather than accuracy in grammar while communication. In order to encourage learners to master ESP, appropriate texts should include general information about subject, theoretical background, and applications in real context. It is vitally important to note that the introductory part should not be too difficult for learners (Musikhin, 2016). Equally importantly, textbooks need to be updated every two or three years since their contents can be outdated.
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2.3 ESP Textbooks as Teaching Materials of English for Engineering According to Richards (2015), textbooks are crucial to most language programs. This is because textbooks can provide many advantages to both teachers and learners. Teachers can consult textbooks and use them as a reference to outline course structure and design a teaching plan. Textbooks also help teachers maintain quality of their courses as the materials in textbooks must generally be verified and approved. Not only teachers, but textbooks also provide learners with choices for learning, and they set language models and inputs for learners. Textbooks are additionally regarded as visually attractive teaching materials, so they can encourage leaners’ learning motivation. Regarding ESP teaching materials, textbooks selection, modification, or writing is considered an essential part in ESP course development, representing a practical result of effective ESP teaching and providing students with materials that will equip them with the knowledge they will need in their professional life in the future (Vicic,2011). This means the selection of ESP materials should depend on the needs of learners in relation to their future or current careers. Ellis and Johnson (1994), therefore, recommend that ESP materials need to emphasize on the appropriate topics and must include tasks and activities aiming to practice students’ target skills in a specific area. In addition to learners’ target needs, the current level of students’ language proficiency and knowledge and the target level they need to communicate successfully in their jobs are another important criterion that should be considered when selecting ESP materials. As there are two main categories of ESP materials (i.e. commercial textbooks and tailor- made materials), it might be difficult for ESP teachers to make a choice of selection between these two types of materials. Vicic (2011) recommends that the decision on whether to use readily commercial textbooks or tailor-made materials is principally based on the learners’ subject area. If learners’ subject area is more general, the likelihood of finding suitable published materials is much higher. Accordingly, ESP teachers will most often select suitable materials from existing printed materials. In the case of more specific subject areas, the most widely accepted view is that ESP teachers should also first “question whether the learners’ needs are significantly different from those of other groups” and, if possible, select from existing printed materials and resort to writing materials “when all other possibilities of providing materials have been exhausted” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1994, p. 125). Apart from considering learners’ subject area, ESP teachers should evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each material type (i.e. commercial textbooks and tailor-made materials) in order to gain desirable outcomes from the use of materials. In term of commercial
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 134 textbooks, it might be convenient and can help teachers maintain quality of their courses; however, the selection of structures, vocabulary, skills, functions, and so on is probably conditioned and restricted. Tailor-made materials, on the other hand, provide the teacher with the opportunity to decide on combinations of vocabulary, functions and structures and to develop materials that will introduce most relevant vocabulary and related functions and structures. Although learners can undoubtedly learn most of the needed skills and functions from commercial textbooks, they might undeniably gain even more when using tailor-made materials or a combination of commercial textbooks and tailor-made materials because these two options are more likely to provide them with directly applicable knowledge. To sum up, after analysing learner needs and setting objectives for the course, the ESP teacher has to select materials that will help the students achieve the course objectives (Ellis and Johnson, 1994). These materials should also relate closely to the learners’ specific skills and content needs, which is an important precondition for full exploitation of the materials as well as the learners’ motivation.
3. Research Questions 3.1 To what extend do the vocabulary items prescribed in an English for engineering commercial textbook actually occur in the daily routines of Thai engineers? 3.2 What are the vocabulary items prescribed in an English for engineering commercial textbook reported by Thai engineers classified into chemical engineers, civil engineers, industrial engineers, electrical engineers, computer engineers, and mechanical engineers as the top ten of the most frequently used words in their daily routines?
4. Methodology 4.1 Participants The participants of this study comprise of 420 Thai engineers having a least five years of experience in one of the six disciplines (i.e. chemical engineer, civil engineer, industrial engineer, electrical engineer, computer engineer, and mechanical engineer).
Table 1. Participant Information Disciplines of Engineering N (%) Chemical Engineer 70 16.66 Civil Engineer 70 16.66 Industrial Engineer 70 16.66 Electrical Engineer 70 16.66 Computer Engineer 70 16.66
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Mechanical Engineer 70 16.66 Total 420 100.00
Table 2. Participant’s Experience in Engineering Year of Experience N (%) 5 -10 years 186 44.28 11-15 years 134 31.90 15-20 years 72 17.14 21-25 years 25 5.71 more than 25 years 3 0.71 Total 420 100.00
4.2 Research Instrument The main research instrument is the questionnaire divided into two main parts, as follows: Part I—Demographical information: the personal information of the participants was collected in this part, including educational background and working experience. Part II—The frequency of the used vocabulary: the participants were asked to rate how often they encounter the vocabulary on the list. The answer is in the format of a five-point Likert Scale. The questionnaire items regarding the list of the used vocabulary in the field of engineering were developed based on the results of the pilot study where twelve experienced senior engineers from the six disciplines of engineering were asked to identify the frequency of the vocabulary prescribed in an English for engineering commercial textbook and the actual use of these words in their working routines. The results from a pilot study was used as references to develop the wordlist in the questionnaire. Then, the wordlist was verified by the six experts in the field of English language teaching and engineering, and the data obtained from the experts was analyzed to find the Index of Item-Objective Congruence (IOC). The results of IOC revealed that the questionnaire was correlated to the research questions. The reliability of the questionnaire was in the acceptable level of internal consistency as the Cronbach’s Alpha of the questionnaire in this study was 0.953, which is considered a high level of internal consistency.
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Table 3. Participant’s Experience in Engineering Likert Scale Description 5 Very High Frequency 4 High Frequency 3 Moderate Frequency 2 Low Frequency 1 Very Low Frequency
4.3 Data Collection and Data Analysis The questionnaire was administered to 420 engineers with 70 engineers in each discipline. After receiving the completed questionnaire, the quantitative data analysis was conducted to calculate Mean and Standard Deviation of the answers in the questionnaire so as to provide the comprehensive answers to research questions 1 and 2.
5. Results The researchers summarized the major research findings which reflect the main purpose of this study. The quantitative data regarding the reported use of English vocabulary in daily routines of Thai engineers are presented in accordance with the research questions of the study, as follows:
The first research question aims to indicate the frequency use of the vocabulary prescribed in an English for engineering commercial textbook by Thai engineers
Table 4. The Common Use of English Words Shared among Thai Engineers of all Disciplines Level of Word Rank Words Mean S.D. Frequency Category 1st Quality control 3.96 1.17 High Industrial 2nd Capacity 3.89 1.24 High Industrial 3rd Cost-effective 3.76 1.21 High Industrial 4th Logistics 3.74 1.26 High Industrial 5th Scale 3.69 1.13 High Civil 6th Inventory 3.60 1.31 High Industrial 7th Drafting 3.54 1.11 High Mechanical 8th Stresses 3.52 1.28 High Mechanical 9th Simulation 3.49 1.31 Moderate Mechanical 10th Computer networking 3.48 1.36 Moderate Computer
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According to Table 4, the 420 Thai engineers from all six disciplines indicate that the word ‘quality control’ categorized as the Industrial Engineering word is the most frequently used word in their daily routine ( = 3.96 and S.D. = 1.17). In addition to the word ‘quality control’, there are four more words from the the Industrial Engineering discipline being reported in the top-ten of the frequently used words. These words are ‘capacity’ ( = 3.89 and S.D. = 1.24), ‘cost-effective’ ( = 3.76 and S.D. = 1.21), ‘logistics’ ( = 3.74 and S.D. = 1.26), and ‘inventory’ ( = 3.60 and S.D. = 1.31), and they are ranked in the 2nd place, the 3rd place, the 4th, and the 6th place, respectively. There are also other three words belonging to the Mechanical Engineering discipline being ranked in the 7th place, the 8th place, and the 9th place, and these words are ‘drafting’ ( = 3.54 and S.D. = 1.11), ‘stresses’ ( = 3.52 and S.D. = 1.28), and ‘simulation’ ( = 3.49 and S.D. = 1.31). Apart from the words belonging to Industrial Engineering and Mechanical Engineering discipline, one word from Civil Engineering and another one from Computer Engineering are also reported in the top ten of the frequently used words. The word from Civil Engineering is ‘scale’ ( = 3.69 and S.D. = 1.13) and it is ranked in the 5th place, while the word belonging to Computer Engineering is ‘computer networking’ ( = 3.48 and S.D. = 1.36) which is ranked in the 10th place. In term of the level of frequency use of these ten words, the first eight words in the top ten are reported in the same level which is high-frequency use. There are only two words being indicated in the level of moderate use, and these two words are ranked in the 9 place, the 10th place.
The second research question aims to reveal the top ten of the vocabulary prescribed in an English for engineering commercial textbook reported by Thai engineers classified into chemical engineers, civil engineers, industrial engineers, electrical engineers, computer engineers, and mechanical engineers
Table 5: The English Words Used by Mechanical Engineers in Daily Routines
Frequency Word Rank Words Mean S.D. Level Category 1st Simulation 3.74 1.06 High Mechanical 2nd Drafting 3.69 0.79 High Mechanical 3rd Renewable 3.57 1.04 High Chemical 4th Non-toxic 3.56 1.04 High Chemical 5th Inventory 3.54 1.33 High Industrial 6th Components 3.30 0.86 Moderate Electrical
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7th Quality control 3.29 1.23 Moderate Industrial 8th Fuel 3.27 0.68 Moderate Chemical 9th Computer-aided Design (CAD) 3.19 1.21 Moderate Mechanical Computer-aided Manufacturing Moderate 10th 3.17 1.23 Mechanical (CAM)
As indicated in Table 5, the 70 mechanical engineers reveal that ‘simulation’ is the most frequently used word in their daily routine with the high level of frequency use ( = 3.74 and S.D. = 1.06). Additionally, ‘drafting’ ( = 3.69 and S.D. = 0.79), ‘renewable’ ( = 3.57 and S.D. = 1.04), ‘non-toxic’ ( = 3.56 and S.D. = 1.04), and ‘inventory’ ( = 3.54 and S.D. = 1.33) are ranked in the 2nd place, the 3rd place, the 4th place, and the 5th place, respectively. Although these words are ranked differently, they are reported in the same level which is high- frequency use. Apart from the high-frequency used words, the words being ranked in the 6th place, the 7th place, the 8th place, the 9 place, the 10th place with the level of moderate use are ‘component’ ( = 3.30 and S.D. = 0.86), ‘quality control’ ( = 3.29 and S.D. = 1.23), ‘fuel’( = 3.27 and S.D. = 0.68), ‘Computer-aided Design (CAD)’ ( = 3.19 and S.D. = 1.21), and ‘CAM’( = 3.17 and S.D. = 1.23), respectively. Interestingly, there are six words categorized in other engineering disciplines that are recognized by the mechanical engineers as the first ten of the frequently used words in their daily routines. These words are ‘renewable’ (Chemical Engineering), non-toxic (Chemical Engineering), ‘inventory’ (Industrial Engineering), ‘components’ (Electrical Engineering), ‘quality control’ (Industrial Engineering), and ‘fuel’ (Chemical Engineering).
Table 6. The English Words Used by Computer Engineers in Daily Routines
Frequency Word Rank Words Mean S.D. Level Category 1st Computer networking 5.00 0.00 Very High Computer 1st Software 5.00 0.00 Very High Computer 1st Digital signal processing 5.00 0.00 Very High Computer 1st Algorithms 5.00 0.00 Very High Computer 1st Human-computer interaction 5.00 0.00 Very High Computer 6th Artificial intelligence 4.84 0.37 Very High Computer 7th Components 4.83 0.38 Very High Electrical 7th Mechanism 4.83 0.38 Very High Mechanical 9th Logistics 4.69 0.73 Very High Industrial 9th Quality control 4.69 0.73 Very High Industrial
Based on Table 6, the data collected from the 70 computer engineers surprisingly indicate that there are five words being considered as the most frequently used word in the 1st
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rank with the highest mean ( = 5.00 and S.D. = 0.00). These five words are ‘computer networking’, ‘software’, ‘digital signal processing’, ‘algorithms’, and ‘human-computer interaction’. The word being ranked in the 6th place is ‘artificial intelligence’ ( = 4.84 and S.D. = 0.37), and there are two words in the 7th rank which are ‘components’ and ‘mechanism’ ( = 4.83 and S.D. = 0.38). Other two words being ranked in the same position which is the 9th place are ‘logistics’ and ‘quality control’ ( = 4.69 and S.D. = 0.73). Remarkably, despite being ranked in the different orders, these ten frequently used words are similarly reported in the same frequency of use which is very high use. Although the data were collected from the computer engineers, there are four words in the 7th rank and the 9th rank which do not belong to computer engineering discipline. They are ‘components’ (Electrical Engineering), ‘mechanism’ (Mechanical Engineering), ‘logistics’ (Industrial Engineering), and ‘quality control’ (Industrial Engineering).
Table 7. The English Words Used by Industrial Engineers in Daily Routines
Frequency Word Rank Words Mean S.D. Level Category 1st Quality control 4.46 0.85 High Industrial 2nd Logistics 4.43 0.97 High Industrial 3rd Capacity 4.30 1.27 High Industrial 3rd Power supplies 4.30 1.15 High Electrical 3rd Input voltage 4.30 1.04 High Electrical 6th Volts 4.29 0.98 High Electrical 7th Output power 4.26 0.96 High Electrical 8th Output voltage 4.23 1.02 High Electrical 8th Computer networking 4.23 1.11 High Computer 10th Scale 4.20 1.20 High Civil
As mentioned in Table 7, the 70 industrial engineers indicate that the word ‘quality control’ is the most frequently used word in their daily routines ( = 4.46 and S.D. = 0.85) followed by the word ‘logistics’ ( = 4.43 and S.D. = 0.97). These two words are ranked in the 1st place and the 2nd place, and they belong to the same word category which is Industrial Engineering. There are also three words (i.e., ‘capacity’, ‘power supplies’ and ‘input voltage’) being ranked in the 3rd place with the same mean ( = 4.43). The word being ranked in the 6th place is ‘volts’ ( = 4.29 and S.D. = 0.98) and the word ‘output power’ is ranked in the 7th place ( = 4.26 and S.D. = 0.96). The word ‘output voltage’ and ‘computer networking’ are
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ranked in the same place which is the 8th with the same mean ( = 4.23). The ‘scale’ is ranked in the 10th place with the lowest mean ( = 4.20). Interestingly, although the data were collected form only industrials engineers, the majority of the words that the industrial engineers believe they are related to their working routines belong to the Electrical Engineering (i.e., ‘power supplies’, ‘input voltage’, ‘volts’, ‘output power’, and ‘output voltage’). Apart from the words belonging to Electrical Engineering, there are two words from the Computer Engineering (‘computer networking’) and Civil Engineering (‘scale’) being reported as the frequently used words in their daily routines. On the other hand, the electrical engineers indicate only three words from their discipline (i.e., ‘quality control’, ‘logistics’, and ‘capacity’) as the frequently used words.
Table 8. The English Words Used by Civil Engineers in Daily Routines
Level of Word Rank Words Mean S.D. Frequency Category 1st Construction 4.79 0.51 Very High Civil 2nd Scale 4.54 0.72 Very High Civil 3rd Civil 4.40 1.04 Very High Civil 4th Quality control 3.93 1.03 High Industrial 5th Infrastructure 3.87 1.27 High Civil 6th Computer Aided Design (CAD) 3.86 1.40 High Mechanical 7th Residential 3.77 1.42 High Civil 8th Cost-effective 3.67 1.15 High Industrial 9th Capacity 3.64 1.16 High Industrial 10th Road construction 3.61 1.00 High Civil
With reference to Table 8, the data collected from the 70 civil engineers reveal that the word ‘construction’ is the most frequently used word in their daily routine ( = 4.79 and S.D. = 0.51) followed by the word ‘scale’ ( = 4.54 and S.D. = 0.72) and ‘civil’ ( = 4.40 and S.D. = 1.04) which are ranked in the 2nd place and the 3rd place, respectively. The first top three words are reported in the very high level of frequency use and all of them belong to the same word category which is Civil Engineering. In addition to the very-high used words, there are seven words being reported as the high-frequency used words and these words are ranked from the 4th place to 10th place. Among these seven words, there are three words categorized in the discipline of Civil Engineering, and they are ‘infrastructure’ in the 5th place ( = 4.79 and S.D. = 0.51), ‘residential’ in the 7th place ( = 3.77 and S.D. = 1.42), and ‘road construction’ in the 10th place ( = 3.61 and S.D. = 1.00).
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Not only the words from the discipline of Civil Engineering, but the civil engineers also mention the words from other disciplines as the most frequently used words. These words are ‘quality control’ ( = 3.93 and S.D. = 1.03) in the 4th rank from Industrial Engineering, and ‘Computer Aided Design’ ( = 3.86 and S.D. = 1.40) in the 6th rank from Mechanical Engineering. There are also another two words belonging to Industrial Engineering, and they are ‘cost effective’ in the 8th rank ( = 3.67 and S.D. = 1.15) and ‘capacity’ in the 9th rank ( = 3.64 and S.D. = 1.16).
Table 9. The English Words Used by Chemical Engineers in Daily Routines
Level of Word Rank Words Mean S.D. Frequency Category 1st Renewable 3.89 1.26 High Chemical 1st Capacity 3.89 1.34 High Industrial 3rd Petroleum 3.87 1.35 High Chemical 4th Chemical engineer 3.81 1.04 High Chemical 5th Robotics 3.80 1.00 High Computer 6th Quality control 3.71 1.13 High Industrial 7th Diesel 3.61 1.23 High Chemical 7th Logistics 3.61 1.33 High Industrial 9th Pressure vessel 3.60 1.42 High Mechanical 10th Fuel 3.57 1.25 High Chemical
In Table 9, the 70 chemical engineers indicate that there are two words being ranked in the 1st place with the same mean ( = 3.89), and these words are ‘renewable’ and ‘capacity’. The words that are raked in the 3rd place to the 6th place are ‘petroleum’ ( = 3.89 and S.D. = 1.26), ‘chemical engineer’ ( = 3.81 and S.D. = 1.04), ‘robotics’ ( = 3.80 and S.D. = 1.00), and ‘quality control’ ( = 3.71 and S.D. = 1.13), respectively. For the 7th place, there are two words similarly ranked in this position, and they are ‘diesel’ ( = 3.61 and S.D. = 1.23) and ‘logistics’ ( = 3.61 and S.D. = 1.33). The last two words being ranked in the 9th place and the 10th place are ‘pressure vessel’ ( = 3.60 and S.D. = 1.42) and ‘fuel’ ( = 3.57 and S.D. = 1.25), respectively. Although these ten words are ranked in different orders, all of them are reported with in the same level of frequency use which is high. In term of the word category, the majority of the top ten words belongs to the Chemical Engineering (i.e. ‘renewable’, ‘petroleum’, ‘chemical engineer’, ‘diesel’, and ‘fuel’. There are also the words from other engineering disciplines reported in the top ten of the frequently used words by the chemical engineers. These words are ‘capacity’ (Industrial Engineering),
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‘robotics’ (Computer Engineering), ‘quality control’ (Industrial Engineering), ‘logistics’ (Industrial Engineering), and ‘pressure vessel’ (Mechanical Engineering).
Table 10. The English Words Used by Electrical Engineers in Daily Routines
Level of Word Rank Words Mean S.D. Frequency Category 1st Capacity 4.04 1.40 High Industrial 1st Watts 4.04 1.40 High Electrical 3rd Cost-effective 3.87 1.45 High Industrial 3rd Volts 3.87 1.33 High Electrical 3rd Output voltage 3.87 1.33 High Electrical 3rd Input voltage 3.87 1.33 High Electrical 7th Quality control 3.70 1.37 High Industrial 7th Circuit analysis 3.70 1.37 High Computer 9th Control engineering 3.54 1.38 High Computer 9th Power supplies 3.54 1.38 High Electrical
As stated in Table 10, the data collected from 70 electrical engineers show that the words ‘capacity’ and ‘watts’ are the most frequently used word being ranked in the 1st place with the highest mean 4.04. Interestingly, there are four words (i.e. ‘cost-effective’, ‘volts’, ‘output voltage’, ‘input voltage’) being ranked in the 3rd place of the frequently used words and these words are reported with the same mean ( = 3.87). For the 7th place and the 9th place, there are two words being ranked in each position. These words are ‘quality control’ and ‘circuit analysis’ in the 7th place ( = 3.70 and S.D. = 1.37) and ‘control engineering’ and ‘power suppliers’ in the 9th place ( = 3.54 and S.D. = 1.38). Despite the fact that these ten words are ranked differently, all of them are reported with the high level of frequency use. In the area of the word category, the majority of the words in the top ten words (i.e., ‘watts’, ‘volts’, ‘output voltage’, ‘input voltage, and ‘power suppliers’) belongs to the discipline of Electrical Engineering followed by the three Industrial Engineering words (i.e. ‘capacity’, ‘cost-effective’, and ‘quality control’). The other two words being ranked in the top 10 frequently used words by the electrical engineers are from the discipline of Computer Engineering and they are ‘circuit analysis’ and ‘control engineering’.
6. Discussion and Conclusion The present study aims to investigate the frequency use of the vocabulary items prescribed in an English for engineering commercial textbook by Thai engineers in their daily routines as well as to compare the reported actual use of those vocabulary among six groups of
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Thai engineers (i.e., chemical engineers, civil engineers, industrial engineers, electrical engineers, computer engineers, and mechanical engineers). According to the results collected from 420 Thai engineers classified into six engineering disciplines with equal number in each group, the Thai engineers reflect that most of the words prescribed in the English for engineering commercial textbook that are highly used in their daily routines. Interestingly, the most common use of English words shared among Thai engineers of all disciplines are ‘quality control’ followed by ‘capacity’, ‘cost-effective’, and ‘logistics’, and ‘inventory’, and all of these words are Industrial Engineering words. There are also other three common use words belonging to the Mechanical Engineering, and they are ‘drafting’, ‘stresses’, and ‘simulation’. Apart from the words belonging to Industrial Engineering and Mechanical Engineering discipline, one word from Civil Engineering and another one from Computer Engineering are also reported in the top ten of the most common use of English words shared among Thai engineers. The word from Civil Engineering is ‘scale’ and the word belonging to Computer Engineering is ‘computer networking’. Remarkably, these words reported by Thai engineers as the top ten of the most common use of English words in daily routines should be emphasized in English for engineering courses as well as being included in English for engineering teaching materials. Additionally, when separately analysing the frequently used words based on each engineering discipline, most of the vocabulary items of industrial engineering are also reported as the frequently used words in daily routines by Thai engineers of all disciplines and these words are included in the top-ten wordlist of engineers in all fields. One evidence from the findings is that the word ‘quality control’ which belongs to Industrial Engineering discipline is ranked in top ten most frequently used words by engineering from all fields. This means the word ‘quality control’ is considered as one of the most frequently used words in the working contexts of engineers. The reason why the words ‘quality control’ is used frequently in all engineering disciplines is that the word probably is related to the process of maintaining standards in manufactured products, and this process is mostly performed by engineers in every disciplines. In other word, industrial engineering discipline might be related to working routines in of all engineers, whose main responsibilities are to develop, improve and implement systems; therefore, engineers in different fields are likely to familiarize with some vocabulary items in industrial engineering field. These findings suggest that when selecting English vocabulary for English for engineering courses, ESP teachers should consider the responsibilities and job-related activities of engineers in order to arrive at the engineering wordlist.
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Moreover, the findings of the current study further demonstrate that Thai engineers recognize English engineering words from various fields as the top ten frequently used words in their daily routines, not only their own engineering discipline. For example, apart from words categorized as computer engineering words, those words from electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial engineering are also included in the top ten of the most frequently used words indicated by computer engineers. Another example is that, in addition to words in industrial engineering, there are also words belonging to electrical engineering, computer engineering, and civil engineering included in the top ten of the most frequently used words of the industrial engineering field. One possible factor contributing to this phenomenon is that the product lines and main duties of the companies where engineers work is different from their own fields or areas of expertise. To illustrate, computer engineers work for an electricity company; therefore, it is likely that they are accustomed to some words related to electrical engineering. This assumption can possibly be proved by the results of the current study. As indicated in the findings of the current study, there are five words in electrical engineering field included in top ten most frequently used words in industrial engineering. The findings, however, reveal that most of the words in each category are still used in high frequency of its own field. Therefore, it is cleared that although the product type of the company where engineers work probably has significant influence on the application of vocabulary in workplace, the word lists in their own fields are still considered highly important and necessary for vocabulary learning and teaching in engineering. According to the findings, the possible conclusion from the findings reflects that it is necessary for ESP teachers to include and integrate vocabulary items from various engineering fields into teaching materials of English for engineering courses in order to ensure that students are equipped with English words from multiple fields which are essential for their work in the future. This is because they will gradually familiarize themselves with a number of general engineering words in order to enable them to have better understanding of terms in their ESP in engineering textbooks in the following years of studies, together with more specialised words in their own field. This is in line with Shamsudin, Husin, & Manan’s (2013) findings which pointed out that first year engineering students should study various fields of studies to help them with current and future studies. The study of Shamsudin, Husin and Manan (2013) also indicated that engineering students should get used to engineering terms from engineering corpus. Differently, this study primarily focuses on the frequent use of engineering words from engineer graduates’ perceptions, reflected from their real-life application. Besides, the
2021 TESOL International Journal Volume 16 Issue 4.2 | ISSN: 2094-3938 TESOL International Journal | Volume 16 Issue 4.2 145 importance of response from engineer graduates should also be taken into consideration since some general words are used by engineers in various fields in their real-life working environment. Speaking of the real work context, product types of companies where particular engineers in this study work might be different from their specialized field; therefore, it is necessary for them to know general terms of engineering so that they can understand various content areas in their work. It might be beneficial for ESP students in engineering to study a variety of words related to engineering. Therefore, teachers should include engineering words from different fields into an ESP engineering textbook so that engineering students are familiar with most general engineering words in various fields of study. Apart from words in their own field, engineering students are likely to have a chance to use those words in their working life.
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References Albakrawi, H.D., & Almutairi, F.M. (2013). The effect of ESP Program on the Engineering Students’ Proficiency at the University of Tabuk. Journal of Education and Practice, 4(3), 117-124. Amirian, Z., & Tavakoli, M. (2009). Reassessing the ESP Courses Offered to Engineering Students in Iran. English for Specific Purposes World, 8(23), 1-13. Changpueng, P., & Pattanapichet, F. (2015). An analysis of English in the workplace: the needs of engineers in writing in English. Silpakorn University Journal of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts, 15(3), 151-176. Crystal, D. (2003). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Darian, S. (1972). English as a foreign language: History, development, and methods of teaching. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. Ellis, M. & Johnson, C. (1994). Teaching Business English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gehsmann, K. M. (2018). Motivating and Engaging Vocabulary Development. Retrieved November 13, 2019 from https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0851 Hsu, W. (2014). Measuring the vocabulary load of engineering textbooks for EFL undergraduates. English for Specific Purposes. 33. 54–65. Hutchinson, T, & Water, A. (1987). English of Specific Purposes: A Learning-Centred Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hutchinson, T. and Waters. (1994). English for Specific Purposes. Glasgow: Cambridge University Press. Loong, Y.C.W. & Chan, L. (2012). A Study of Vocabulary Learning Strategies Adopted by Dentistry Students in Hong Kong in Learning Specialized Dental Vocabulary, Asian ESP Journal, 8(3), 28-49. Musikhin, A. (2016). English for specific purposes: teaching English for science and technology. ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 3(6), 29-35. Mudraya, O. (2006). Engineering English: A lexical frequency instructional model. English for Specific Purposes, 25(2), 235-256. Mustafa, F. & D‘Auria, P.T. (2019). Differences in vocabulary, clauses, and voices in published academic articles written by native and non-native speakers of English, Asian ESP Journal, 15(1.2), 302-325. Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge
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University Press. Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology. Prentice Hall International. Pocaro, J. W. (2013). Teaching English for Science and Technology: An approach for Reading with Engineering English, English Teaching Forum, 2, 32-38. Qureshi, M. A. (2018). Building student background for specific academic vocabulary. The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0730. Richards, J. (2015). The Role of Textbooks in a Language Program. Cambridge University Press. Richards, J. C. & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Content-Based instruction. In Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. Robinson, P. (1980). English for Specific Purposes. Oxford: Pergamon. Shamsudin, S., Husin, N., & Manan, A.A. (2013). Exploring fundamental engineering word list for engineering students: A literature review. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70(2013), 1275-1281. Shrestha, R., Pahari, B. & Awasthi, J. (2015). Impact of English on the Career of Engineering Students: A Brief Overview in G(local) Context. Journal of the Institute of Engineering, 11(1): 182-188 Talberg, O. (2006). Teaching EFL for Engineering Students. Paper presented at The ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences (ISPRS Annals). https://doi:10.5194/isprsannals-III-6-29-2016. Vicic, P. (2011). Preparing materials for ESP teaching. Inter Alia, 2(1), 107–120. Wang, T., & Rajprasit, K. (2015). Identifying Affirmative Beliefs about English Language Learning: Self-Perceptions of Thai Learners with Different Language Proficiency. English Language Teaching, 8(4). Wanpen, S., Sonkoontod, K., & Nonkukhetkhong, K. (2013). Technical Vocabulary Proficiencies and Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Engineering Students. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 88, 312–320. Wilkins, D. A. (1972). Linguistics in Language Teaching. Hodder & Stoughton Educational.
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English Only Policies in the EFL Classroom: A Review of the Literature
Jennifer Yphantides Soka University, Tokyo, Japan
Bio-profile: Jennifer Yphantides has been teaching EFL since 1993. She has worked in Europe, The Middle East, and Asia and has been teaching at the tertiary level in Tokyo for more than a decade. She has a Doctorate of Education and conducts research on language policy, teacher identity, and women in higher education leadership.
Abstract Although there is a growing body of research which supports the use of the students’ first language in the foreign language classroom, the majority of institutions and the teachers who work in them tend to try to enforce L2 only policies and to assume that allowing students to use their first language is a hindrance to the learning of the target language. This assumption does not appear to be restricted to ESL or EFL situations or to any specific region of the world. In this review of the literature, the more traditional research which supports L2 only policies will be examined, followed by an exploration of the recent literature which questions the “old school” approach. Finally, specific attention will be focused on how the issue of the use or ban of the first language is being played out in the increasingly complex Asian context with a focus on Japan. In A History of English Language Teaching, Howatt (1984) traced the trajectory of the developments in English language teaching that highlight the shift from Grammar-Translation to more communicative methods. He further reviews some of the seminal studies made by Wilkins in the 1970’s and by Swain and Krashen in the 1980’s which bolstered the notion that L1 should be banned from the foreign language classroom so that students’ learning of the new language could be fast-tracked through maximum exposure to input and maximum opportunity for output of the target language. While scholars such as Roberts-Auerbach (1993) argue that this shift towards exclusive use of the target language, most often English, is primarily a political and ideological one, others such as Cook maintain that the change in pedagogy was due mainly to assumptions on how a person learns a second language. Cook (2001) states that the majority of institutions and
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teachers who support L1 bans do so based on three notions; first, that a second language can be acquired in the same way as the mother tongue, second, that two languages need to be separated and compartmentalized in the brain and third, that maximum exposure to the target language produces a more successful outcome than allowing learners to use their first language. Cook further posits that since the “Great Reform” at the end of the 19th century, there was a tendency for pedagogical practice to be based on the ideas that speech is easier than writing, that teachers should avoid explicit grammar explanations, and that a focus on whole language was superior to dividing language into parts. As a result of these shifts in theory, Cook argues that since the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of methods that have been used in the foreign language classroom are direct, communicative methods. In addition, the general approach that was born out of these shifts and that has been widely accepted by foreign language practitioners since the 1980’s is that the students’ first language should be completely banned from the second language classroom. Although it is difficult to obtain specific numbers, researchers such as Lin (2003) and Chavez (2003) argue that according to wide ranging surveys conducted in their respective EFL and ESL situations, the majority of teachers subscribe to the point of view that it is more effective to ban L1 than to allow its use in the language classroom. In addition, Belz (2003) reports that an internet website hosting an open forum for more than 10,000 teachers on the topic of L1 usage in the classroom demonstrated the tendency of the teachers to be ashamed to admit using the students’ language during lessons and that they believed student use of their mother tongue was a result of a lack of proficiency in the target language. She further states that the thread on the use of L1 in the classroom became a forum on how to discourage or prevent students from using their mother tongue during foreign language class. A brief survey of the research conducted both by scholars and by teachers appears to support the claims of Lin, Chavez and Belz. In an almost canonical exchange on the issue of first language use in the foreign language classroom, Polio (1994) argues with Roberts Auerbach (1993) that L1 needs to be limited, if not entirely restricted. In her response to Roberts Auerbach’s challenge of L2 only policies, Polio questions Roberts Auerbach’s claims of the ideological underpinnings of such policies and points out that the terms “use” and “allow” need clarification (p. 153). Polio further contests that we cannot generalize Roberts Auerbach’s arguments since a distinction needs to be made between ESL and EFL situations and that any pedagogical practice needs to be based on SLA research rather than political opinions.
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Another well known exchange on the issue is between Prodromou and Gabrielatos who both teach in the EFL context. While Prodromou (2001) advocates judicious use of L1 by teachers for the purposes of contrastive analysis and expedient translation of higher level vocabulary in response to student requests for such support, Gabrielatos (2003) counters that contrastive analysis can be accomplished in L2 and that translation of advanced vocabulary prevents students from fully grasping the connotations of that word in L2 and what collocations go with it. While Gabrielatos does not advocate a complete ban on the use of L1, he maintains that it is impossible to quantify how helpful (or harmful) the use of the students’ language may be in the foreign language classroom and he rejects the argument that banning L1 amounts to an exclusively ideological statement. He emphasizes that context is an important determining factor when considering ideology and that both students and teachers in most European countries view English as a language of business rather than as a language of domination, an attitude that may differ from those living in former colonies. In addition to the theoretical arguments made by scholars in the field and the debate between teachers on the ground, both of which tend to sway strongly in favor of the banning of L1, there has been quite a lot of action research undertaken, the goal of which is to determine why students are using L1 and, based on that information, to propose ways of reducing the use of the mother tongue. One example of such a study is the research conducted by Bawcom (2002), an EFL teacher in Spain. In her work, Bawcom (2002) recorded, transcribed, and categorized student use of Spanish during English class. She determined that students spoke in their mother tongue to build learning strategies (41%), to reduce the “affective filter” (36%), and for expediency (18%). The remainder of L1 use was for undetermined purposes and the total use of Spanish amounted to 33% of the talk in class. Bawcom (2002) does not appear to think that the reasons students use L1 in the class are valid because she simply asserts that the percentage of Spanish being spoken is “far too high” and she finishes her paper by proposing methods of reducing the use of Spanish in the class. In a follow-up to her research, Bawcom reports to her readers that by implementing her ideas on how to reduce L1, she has been successful in prompting the students to use 10% less Spanish in the classroom. While it appears to be that the majority of institutions and teachers favor L2 only policies, that researchers who challenge L2 only policies open up fierce debate, and the bulk of action research done by teachers tends to focus on why students use L1 and on methods of reducing L1 usage, there is a growing body of literature that advocates the use of the first language in the foreign language class. Studies that endorse the use of the mother tongue can
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be grouped into four different categories; ideological arguments, student attitudes towards L1 use, teacher attitudes towards L1 use, and recent research in SLA theory. As briefly outlined in the previous section, Roberts Auerbach’s (1993) argument for the use of L1 in the foreign language classroom rests primarily on the theory that English only policies are rooted in a particular ideological perspective. Roberts Auerbach (1993) cites Tollefson who argues that English only policies create unequal social and economic relationships, Skutnabb Kangas who states that English only leads to an unequal division of power and resources, and Phillipson who maintains that the dominance of English only policies in the classroom reflect a post-colonial strategy to conserve the status quo balance of power. Unfortunately, Roberts Auerbach (1993) does not address specifically how English only policies in the classroom (as opposed to on the national level) create unequal relationships and she does not mention the counter argument that students who become proficient in English may be allowed access to greater economic and social power. Instead, Roberts Auerbach (1993) grants that she believes the majority of English teachers in the American ESL context are ideologically opposed to the English only movement in The United States yet unwittingly enforce national policies on a micro-level through their pedagogical practice. Roberts Auerbach (1993) continues her argument by claiming that allowing the use of L1 will empower students and create a more inclusive environment. This may in fact be the case with certain students in certain classes. However, as Polio (1994) points out, Roberts Auerbach’s (1993) arguments cannot be generalized and one of their major weaknesses is the absence of SLA research to support them. In a follow-up to her original article, Roberts Auerbach (1994) responds to Polio’s criticism of her work and clarifies that it is her belief that English only policies need to be questioned rather than blindly accepted and that it is important for teachers to be aware of the context in which those policies were developed, even if teachers do not identify with that context in their modern teaching situations. Roberts Auerbach (1994) further states that the use of L1 should be exclusively for the purpose of enhancing L2 learning, not for dominating the L2 classroom. She maintains that use of L1 must be negotiated according to the specific teaching context including the level of the students, their attitudes on L1 use, their teacher’s ability to use L1 and the institutional constraints that may be in play. While it may be safe to argue that the majority of English language teachers working in the 21st century are not in the profession to promote an agenda of post-colonial world domination, Roberts Auerbach’s (1994) point about being sensitive to students’ attitudes towards the use of L1 in the classroom is an important factor to take into consideration when
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determining a formal language policy. In fact, several studies from different areas of the globe tend to confirm that the majority of students would like to be able to use their L1 in the language classroom and hope that their teachers have a good knowledge of the local language. Schweers (1999) conducted a study at the University of Puerto Rico which revealed that 88.7% of EFL students enrolled in that institution are of the opinion that Spanish should be used in English classes as they felt it facilitated comprehension. Also, surveys conducted by Prodromou (2001) at a language school in Greece reiterate the responses of the students in Schweers’s study. According to the data that Prodromou collected, 65% of lower level students wanted some use of L1 permitted in English class as did 50% of higher level students. Students surveyed said that they mainly wanted L1 to be used for explanations of grammar, contrastive analysis, and for preparation of written and oral work. Finally, surveys conducted by Burden (2000) in Japan further confirm that students tend to want to be allowed to use some L1 in the foreign language classroom. According to student comments on the surveys, the majority felt that using Japanese in the class helped them to relax and to build relationships with other students as well as with the teacher. While some teachers may argue that students are not in the best position to make pedagogical decisions because they are neither professional educators nor do they have a background in SLA theory, Roberts Auerbach (1993) is likely correct in her assumption that it is in part difficult to enforce and L2 only policies because the majority of students do not agree with them. Teachers who spend time both inside and outside the classroom devising and implementing plans on maintaining English only policies will probably face frustration if they do not have the full support of their students. To remedy this situation, Roberts Auerbach (1993) suggests that teachers ask their students about preferences on the use of the first language in the classroom and that they make flexible guidelines together so that student needs and wishes are respected. In addition to the important focus put on student views on the use of L1, several studies have also examined teachers’ attitudes to and practices of using their students’ language. As previously noted, the majority of teachers tend to want to maintain an English only policy in class, which precludes them from using the students’ language. However, several studies focus on researchers and teachers who see value in selective use of the students’ L1 and put forward recommendations on how their native language may be used in class. Similar to the studies on student attitudes towards using L1, this body of research spans the globe. Some of the best known work on the issue was conducted in 1987 by Atkinson, who was open to use of the students’ L1. Atkinson’s (1987) study looked at the efficiency of the use of L1 for quick
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translation of vocabulary and his research suggests that students learn new words more effectively when they have a translation of them into their mother tongue. Although Atkinson’s study was considered unorthodox at the time, several researchers picked up on it and continued to explore other potential uses of L1 in the classroom. Roberts Auerbach (1993) used the work of Atkinson as well as Piasecka (1998) and Collingham (1998) to support her argument that L1 should be used in the classroom. She summarizes the research of Piasecka (1998) who suggests that L1 can be used for negotiation of the syllabus, record keeping, classroom management, language analysis, the discussion of cross cultural issues, and error explanation. She also cites Collingham’s work and proposes that L1 can also be used to help students develop their ideas, the lower the affective filter, and to elicit various language learning strategies. Although some teachers may feel that using L1 to accomplish the above mentioned purposes is helpful to students, Polio (1994) makes a valid point in counter arguing that if a teacher uses L1 for all those purposes, there remains very little else to do in L2. Gabrielatos (2001) also critiques the above suggestions for L1 use by stating that there is no solid proof to support that using the L1 in these situations actually promotes L2 learning. In addition to the work of Atkinson, Piasecka, and Collingham, several other scholars and teachers have contributed to the body of research which advocates use of the L1 by suggesting that code-switching represents natural speech among bilinguals or developing bilinguals. For example, Rolin Lanziti (2003) did a study of teacher code-switching and determined that the teacher went from L2 into L1 to provide grammar explanations, to translate vocabulary, and the check student comprehension. In Hong Kong, Lin (1990) also studied teacher code-switching and observed that the switches occurred when a negotiation of some sort was required between students and the teacher (p. 78). In Japan, Fotos (1995) did a study on code-switching of both teachers and students and determined that the switches occurred for emphasis, clarification, getting attention, identifying new topics, and for repair. In the United States, Broner (2003) did a longitudinal study in Spanish immersion school which demonstrated that the majority of code-switching happened when students wanted to interact socially with the teacher (p. 2). Finally, Cohen and Swain’s (1976) Canadian study on code- switching indicated that switches occurred when teachers felt the need to maintain control the class or to exercise discipline. While these researchers and teachers are not arguing that use of L1 facilitates acquisition of L2, their studies indicate patterns of speech rather than random switches in language classroom. These patterns represent the natural code-switching that
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occurs between bilingual people in certain contexts and should therefore be supported rather than shunned. The previously mentioned studies indicate that some teachers have a positive attitude towards using L1 and may want to speak the students’ language in order to accomplish certain tasks in the classroom. However, one may ask if there is any substantial evidence that the use of L1 actually facilitates the learning of L2, apart from suggesting that it may be more “politically correct”, that it may lower the affective filter, and that it may be a natural phenomenon of bilingualism. Indeed, there are several SLA studies that focus on how the use of L1 directly contributes to the learning of a second language. First, Nation (2003) states that his research, as well as the work of others, has repeatedly shown that L2 - L1 translation is the most effective method of conveying meaning and that L2 – L1 word cards are more efficient than other ways of studying vocabulary. Nation (2003) also notes that students can benefit from their L1 knowledge of words that have cognates in L2 and, in the case of Japanese, thousands of loan words originating from English. Second, Swain and Lapkin (2002) conducted a study on how the development and maintenance of L1 may support the acquisition of L2. The researchers approached their topic from the perspective of Vygotsky that language is a mental processing tool as well as a means of mediation. They examined the speech of the students in a French immersion class and noted that those students used their L1 for scaffolding, to maintain inter- subjectivity, to internalize speech during cognitively difficult tasks, and for private speech. In contrast to Bawcom (2002) who studied the use of Spanish among her students and determined that 33% of the talk time in L1 was too much regardless of the purpose, Swain and Lapkin (2002) determined that the use of L1 served important cognitive and social functions and to deny students the opportunity of using their mother tongue would not help their acquisition of L2 but rather prevent them from taking advantage of a valuable cognitive tool. In addition to the work of Nation (2003) , Swain and Lapkin (2002), other SLA studies reinforce the notion that the use of L1 may facilitate the acquisition of L2. As Buskmaster (1999) argues in his work, when we teach another language, we are not teaching a separate body of knowledge but rather adding to an existing one. The following studies focus on reading, writing, and speaking and approach the issue at hand under the assumption that languages need not and in fact cannot be compartmentalized in the brain and the results of the research indicate that the use of L1 does indeed facilitate quicker and easier acquisition of L2. In the ESL context, Seng and Hashim (2006) studied students’ “think aloud” comments while they read passages in English. The remarks made by students while reading demonstrate
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that their L1s helped them to solve word related and idea related difficulties they encountered in the text and that using L1 aided in transferring reading strategies from L1 to L2 and in developing further reading strategies in L2. Similar to Swain and Lapkin (2002), Anton and DiCamilla (1998) approached their study of adult learners in Spanish writing classes from the Vygotskyan socio-cultural theory that cognition occurs within the “zone of proximity”, which, for most learners, occurs in L1. Anton and DiCamilla (1998) noticed that students used L1 for scaffolding, to construct a shared perspective of the task, for private speech, and for the resolution of problems. In the study, the researchers taped and transcribed student conversations as they negotiated and executed a writing task. In the interpretation of the data they collected, Anton and DiCamilla (1998) theorized that L1 was a useful tool for the students in that it helped them limit and simplify the task, negotiate on how to execute the task, and it provided student to student teaching opportunities. More recently, Stapa and Majid (2006) carried out a study in Malaysia in which one class was divided into two groups of 30 students in each. The first group was permitted to use L1 while preparing for a writing task while the second group was not. Students were requested to submit their brainstorming sheets along with their final piece of writing. When the work was graded by independent markers, it was found that students who were allowed to use their L1 had double the ideas on their brainstorming sheets than those students who could not use L1 (p. 8). Furthermore, students who used L1 in the preparation phase of writing produced work that the markers judged as having superior content, organization, vocabulary, and mechanics (p. 9). Other studies which focus on speaking also confirm that the use of L1 appears to facilitate L2 learning. Brooks and Donato (1994) conducted research on students learning Spanish. Between two groups, one of which was permitted to use English (L1) and one that was not, the group that used English completed the task more quickly and more successfully than the groups that did not use English. As a result, Brooks and Donato (1994) concluded that the meta-talk that revolves around the task is usually done in L1 and serves as a mediator between students and the new language. Hancock (1997) also did research on the use of L1 during speaking tasks. In his work, he recorded two English classes in Spain: one at the beginning of term and one at the end. In both cases, students were permitted to use their L1. Although teachers of the class were concerned that the quality work produced when L1 was permitted would be lower than in other classes where L1 was not allowed, their worries were shown to be unfounded. According to
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the data collected, students used L1 as a negotiation tool and as a means of helping themselves and others comprehend the tasks. Hancock (1997) concluded that students select L1 for particular purposes that they either consciously or unconsciously know L1 will help them negotiate meaning and work through a task. As a result, attempts to prevent students from using the L1 tool that they have at their disposal will likely be unsuccessful. While L1 may be useful in either ESL or EFL situations when students approach a text for reading, the use of L1 may be problematic when tackling writing or speaking tasks in both ESL and EFL contexts. In any context, relying too heavily on L1 when writing may result in the production of a text that is either structurally or culturally inappropriate. In these situations, contrastive analysis, either in L1 or in L2 may help to remedy the problem. Also, in both ESL and EFL contexts, when speaking tasks are being done, there is a risk that the use of L1 may exceed the limits of what many teachers are comfortable with and students may find themselves discussing matters not connected to the work at hand. Furthermore, in the ESL context, students may not be able to use their L1s at all since the other students may not know them or using L1 would include certain members of a group while excluding others. When exploring how the use of L1 may facilitate the learning of L2, teachers cannot lose sight of the context and the students they are working with. In order to appropriately address each context and each group of students, it is recommended that teachers and students make guidelines together on the use of L1 in the classroom and their negotiation should be based on the policies of the institution in which one is working, the students’ needs and feelings, the teacher’s perspective and SLA research (Roberts Auerbach, 1994). Roberts Auerbach’s (1994) point about fully considering all the factors which make up a teaching context is imperative when determining a classroom language policy and, once that policy has been set, it is likely that it will not reflect the binary options of the permission to use L1 or the ban of L1 but a rather more complex set of attitudes and rules, as is the case in Asia. In Korea, Dash (2002) has discussed the possibility of loosening English Only policies. O’Hara Davies (2011) also explores this option in an authethnographic account of teaching in Brunei and discusses how difficult it is to encourage a paradigm shift. When it comes to the issue of using the mother tongue in Japan, Critchley (1999) points out that relatively few studies have been conducted on the topic, probably because most institutions market courses based on the exclusive use of English during class time. However, one such study carried out by Schmidt (1995) approaches the topic from the standpoint that most teachers, whether they are ashamed to admit it or not, use some Japanese in the classroom (p. 25). Schmidt reports that teachers use L1 for simple word to word translations and to establish positive rapport with the class.
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Also, some teachers permit students to use L1 when they brainstorm ideas or prepare for tasks to be done in L2. Despite his apparently open stance on the use of the mother tongue, Schmidt concludes his paper by cautioning teachers not to allow L1 to dominate, to slowly wean students from using Japanese, and to use various methods of teaching vocabulary in order to avoid an over- reliance on translation. Although Schmidt’s (1995) work indicates a step away from the traditional ban on the use of L1, both Weschler (1997) and Klevberg (2000) note the intense institutional pressure that teachers in Japan face to implement English only policies. Based on interviews with representatives from the three largest language schools in Japan, Klevberg (2000) reports that the rationale behind the L2 only policies which are so common is that there is parental pressure for such education and that many parents and school managers believe that students who speak Japanese “for six days and 23 hours a week…should have an intensive English lesson…and hear a native English speaker”. Other arguments for L2 only policies include the idea that when preparing students for home-stay programs abroad, they should not be able to use any Japanese in the class because they will not be able to depend on their mother tongue once they are living with their host families. Interestingly, despite these arguments for exclusive use of L2, 50% of teachers in these institutions admit to using Japanese some of the time. They reported doing so in order to help out lower level students, to translate vocabulary, and to provide grammar explanations. While it may seem as if some contexts are relatively simple when compared to others, for example some researchers and teachers may think that the EFL context in Japan would be easier to cope with when it comes to making language policies than the ESL one since students would likely all share the same mother tongue, be at approximately the same level, and encounter the same difficulties when tackling L2, a closer examination of the changing face of the teaching situation in Japan indicates that even EFL education in a country that is often considered to be monolingual and mono-cultural may not be as straightforward as can easily be assumed. The research of Schmidt (1995) , Weschler (1997), and Klevberg (2000) demonstrates that although there is pressure to submit to the L2 only policies established by institutions for various reasons, many teachers are in fact using some L1 in the classroom. However, the work of these teachers appears to portray the situation in Japan as a monolithic one in the sense that all students are native speakers of Japanese and use Japanese exclusively in their daily lives. While this may be true for the majority of students, the situation in Japan, particularly in Tokyo, is changing rapidly and is becoming more complex. As a result, the
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issue of allowing the use of L1 to a certain extent or attempting to ban it completely is also becoming more difficult to address. As Lacorte and Canabal (2003) note, once a population becomes more diverse, so do the students in the language classroom. Several scholars in Japan are beginning to explore this new phenomenon of diversity from within their own context. In their book, Studies in Japanese Bilingualism, Noguchi and Fotos (2001) focus on the emerging multilingual, multicultural situation in the country and stress that the creation of a new English language education paradigm is required in post-modern Japan which includes native English speakers, near-native English speakers, returnees, heritage learners, language minority students, and EFL learners. Train (2005) further notes that within the one nation, one language, one culture construct, bilingual and multilingual identities are often seen as threats. However, he suggests that in a new paradigm, it is possible to re-imagine “foreign” language education as a boon rather than a danger by focusing on how cross-cultural, multicultural and socio-cultural education are beneficial to Japan both economically and socially. Despite the apparent enthusiasm of Noguchi and Fotos (2001), and Train (2005), the goal of creating a new paradigm to fit the varied profiles of students in Japan is a daunting one. The issue of allowing the use of L1 is no longer simple when dealing with students of different mother tongues and varied proficiency levels in English. In addition to this are other problems. As Seibert Vaipae (2001) notes, the majority of teachers who work with “language minority” students (defined as students whose mother tongue is not Japanese) often lack special training since there are no solid programs set in place by the Ministry of Education for these students (p. 203). Furthermore, as Katz (2003) points out, while native or near native speakers who are in EFL classes have valuable linguistic and cultural insight, they often have no clearly defined role in the classroom. Another contentious issue is that traditional EFL students are often intimidated by students who are proficient in English and, as a result, students with a high level of English and a native like accent often become the target of bullying. Although there is a myriad of problems that language teachers in Japan may be facing with new kinds of students, some teachers are working on creating the a viable paradigm at the grassroots level in the hopes of addressing issues raised by the changing situation. Some teachers have been focusing on how to help students with various backgrounds by creating a learning context which is more appropriate to their needs. For example, Bialystok and Hakuta (1994) stress the importance of constructing a context for meaningful interaction amongst students which takes advantage of their rich personal, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. This may involve assigning special roles to returnees and other more proficient speakers and
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changing lesson materials so as to include more socio-linguistic elements (Kanno, 2005). Also, Train (2003) recommends using Critical Language Awareness to tap into the experience of multilingualism within an ideologically monolingual society. He says that one of the ways this can be accomplished is by allowing students to write about their family language background or imagine what the family language background of another student in their class may be. As Blythe (1995) notes, the constant challenge of teachers in the 21st century will be to create a sense of belonging and community in the language classroom despite various ethnic backgrounds and levels of proficiency. One way to do so is to deconstruct the notion of “the native speaker”. Some scholars such as Finger (2003) and Cook (1999) are questioning the validity of “the monolithic view of the native speaker model” which has been the ideal model to emulate for over a century of foreign language education (Finger, 2003). This deconstruction may take foreign language education even further away from the binary notion of L1 versus L2 use which has been so prominent since the end of the 19th century. Perhaps Blythe (2003) best foresees the future of the profession when he states that the question will not longer be what is gained or lost when considering whether or not to allow the use of the L1 in the L2 classroom but rather how we can transform our language classrooms into “multilingual speech communities”. Although at present there is an argument in the fields of ESL and EFL on whether or not to allow the use of L1 in the classroom and, if so, how much and for what purposes, the time may soon come when this argument is moot because of rapidly increasing diversity amongst populations, because of the deconstruction of the model native speaker, and varying definitions on what it means to be bilingual or multilingual. Until then it appears that, particularly in EFL situations, the debate of allowing or banning L1 will continue, slowly moving away from L2 exclusivity towards a new paradigm which allows for bilingualism and multilingualism to manifest itself in tangible ways in the language classroom.
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Nation, P. (2003). The role of the first language in foreign language learning. Asian EFL Journal, 5:2, 1-8. Noguchi, M. (2001). Bilingual and bicultural children in Japan: A pilot survey of factors linked to active English-Japanese bilingualism. In M. Noguchi & S. Fotos (Eds.) Studies in Japanese bilingualism. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Noguchi, M. & Fotos, S. (2001). Studies in Japanese bilingualism. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. O'Hara Davies, Breda 2011, 'English only? inda kali eh! (not likely!) - Changing the paradigm' Asian EFL Journal, 13, 4, 288-299. Polio, C. (1994). Comments on Elsa Roberts-Auerbach’s “Re-examining English only in the ESL classroom”: A reader reacts. TESOL Quarterly, 28, 153-156. Prodromou, L. (2001). Using the L1 in the classroom: From mother tongue to other tongue. TESOL Greece Newsletter, 67, 7-12. Roberts-Auerbach, E. (1993). Re-examining English only in the ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 27, 9-32. Roberts Auerbach, E. (1994). Comments on Elsa Roberts-Auerbach’s “Re-examining English only in the ESL classroom”: The author responds. TESOL Quarterly, 28, 157-161. Rolin-Lanziti, J. (2003). Justifying selected uses of the learner’s first language in the foreign language classroom within communicative language teaching. Retrieved August 22nd, 2008 from http://llas.ac.uk/resources/paper=1428 Schmidt, K. (1995). Use of Japanese in the EFL classroom: Which way to go? ETAPS Journal, January, 21-32. Schweers, C. W. (1999). Using L1 in the L2 classroom. English Teaching Forum Online. 37:2, 6-10. Retrieved December 20, 2007 from http://exchanges.state.gov/forums/vols/vol37/no2/p6.htm Seibert-Vaipae, S. (2001). Language minority students in Japanese public schools. In M. Noguchi & S. Fotos (Eds.) Studies in Japanese bilingualism. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Stapa, S. & Majid, A. (2006). The use of the first language in limited proficiency classes: Good, bad or ugly? Jurnal E-Bangi Malaysia, 1:1, 1-12. Swain, M. & Lapkin, S. (2000). Task based second language learning: The uses of the first language. Research and Teaching, 4:3, 251-274. Train, R. (2003). The (non)native standard language in foreign language education: A critical perspective. In C. Blythe (Ed.) The sociolinguistics of foreign language classrooms:
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Contributions of the native, near native and non-native speaker. Boston: Thomson and Heinle. Weschler, R. (1997). Uses of Japanese in the English classroom, TESL Journal, 3:1, 1-12. Woods, P. (1993). Teacher cognition in language teaching. Cambridge: CUP. Yamamato, M. (2001). Japanese attitudes towards bilingualism: A survey and its implications. In M. Noguchi & S. Fotos (Eds.) Studies in Japanese bilingualism. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters
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