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Issue One: Spring 2011

TheAUC TESOL Journal(AUCTJ) is a peer-reviewed online journal published bythe American University in Cairo. The mission of AUCTJ is to publish and

disseminate research conducted and best practices applied in teaching English and in

teaching content in English in Egypt and the region to the academic and practitioner

audiences in the rest of the world. AUCTJ is dedicated to bridge theory and

classroom practices and to promote carrying out high quality research in the region. It

publishes research and scholarly articles, descriptions of classroom practices thatinclude lesson plans, teaching materials, assessments, as well as book reviews and

reviews of teaching materials that describe actual experiences using these materials.The journal also publishes opinions or statements about topics that are of interest to

the profession.


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The Editorial Board

Phyllis Wachob, Chief Editor

The American University in Cairo

Deena BoraieThe American University in Cairo

Ola Hafez


Yasmine Salah El-Din


Lori Fredricks


Mona Fouad AttiaHelwan University

Ex-officio Members

Atta Gebril, Research Section Editor


Carol Clark, Classroom Practice

Section Editor


Tom Farkas, Book Review and Forum

Editor


Additional Reviewers

Arman AbedniaAllameh Tabatabai University, Iran

Mahsa Izadinia

Victoria University of Wellington,New Zealand

Rania Jabr


Heba FathelbabCanadian International College, Cairo

Mariah Fairley

English Language Fellow of the US

State Department,

Al Azhar University, Cairo

Special Issue for Nile TESOL

Skills Conference Proceedings 2011

Mariam Osman, Editor


Jonah Moos


Rania JabrThe American University in Cairo

WebmasterRachel Ramey



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Table of Contents

From the Editor 1Phyllis Wachob

From teacher training to teacher education

in second language education 4Arman Abednia

Gendered participation: Addressing inequity

in the Middle Eastern language classroom 13Mariah J. Fairley

Sustainability as a Vehicle for Language Learning:A Sample Lesson in Persuasive Writing 40Kerima Nashat

Reading and writing communicatively:

Six challenges addressed 45Mariah J. Fairley and Heba Fathelbab

"Good, Better, Best" 52

Anthony Leone

Teaching speaking and pronunciation:Where do I start? 55

Robert McMullin

Some from Here, Some from There: Global

Culture in an English Textbook 59

Alexander Lewko

Reflections on the Egyptian landscape of linguistics 62

Bonny Norton

NESTs (Native English Speaking Teachers) &NNESTs (Non-Native English Speaking Teachers):

Competence or Nativeness? 64Heba Fathelbab

Tahrir Square as learning space and the role of English 68

Phyllis Wachob


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From the Editor

It is with great anticipation and joy that we present our first issue of the AUC TESOLJournal. It has been in the works for over a year and has been delayed by the usual

start-up delays of busy personnel as well as a revolution in Egypt. However, we are

now able to present a first issue with interesting and, we hope, useful articles for and

about teachers and learners in the region.

Our first section, on professional practice and research, contains two articles, one

describing and analyzing an important concept for teachers and the other a research

article. Arman Abednia, from Iran, has given us much food for thought about the

differences between teacher training and teacher education. It is not merely a set of

words, but a set of the mind, an approach to the profession. He has called on all of us

to rethink our education of teachers to include visions of critical pedagogy as well as afocus on our learners and their needs. The second article addresses the issue of gender

participation. Although the overwhelming research shows male dominance inspeaking, Mariah Fairley has given our young women learners hope that they can take

their linguistic space in classrooms. In her research, she describes the methods she

used to invite participation by both genders, mostly by introducing controversial

social topics in the form of debates and discussion with preparation. Although she was

successful with some of her students, issues remain, especially with the concept of

extreme silence or absenteeism. For future researchers out there, more work needs to

be done.

The next section of the journal is dedicated to classroom practices. Two articles

describe activities that take place in classrooms, how they work, and what the

consequences can be. The first article, by Kerima Nishat, from Cairo American

College, tackles the issue of sustainability and how students can be engaged to solve

social problems. This article describes a class project documenting a campaign against

throw-away water bottles, a growing problem all over the world, not just in Egypt.

The teenage factor of cool meant that refillable bottles were derisive ly rejected by

many older students, even though they themselves might be in favor of recycling.Younger students tried to overcome this attitude, and the battle still goes on. The

second article, by Fairley and Fathelbab, describes six challenges in our battle to get

our students to read and write communicatively. Cooperative learning and its student-centered philosophy weigh in quite extensively in these conversations. Not forgettingthe downsides or the difficulties, Fairley and Fathelbab are upbeat and positive in

their suggestions.

The third section is for book reviews. We have three, or rather three sets, of book

reviews. Anthony Leone is a lawyer turned English teacher and brings his expertise in

both areas by reviewing two books that teach English for lawyers. In a balanced and

nuanced review, he extols the virtues and unflinchingly points out the faults of the

two volumes. His conclusion: use both. Robert McMullin, a specialist in Business

English, has reviewed two volumes on speaking and pronunciation. Although the

books are not new, Robert emphasizes the usefulness of the content and layout ofeach volume. Alexander Lewko, an MA student reviews a new book that purports to


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be culturally neutral and/or culturally inclusive. In the world of globalized English,favoring one variety of English over another has become increasingly problematic,

and indeed, teaching the culture of the English-speaking countries is increasingly

being called into question. Thus, it is important that the topic of culture - many

cultures be addressed in our textbooks. Teachers can provide examples and ideas from

their own culture, but may not be familiar with others and thus can rely on sourcessuch as well-written textbooks.

The last section in the journal is our Forum where opinions or statements about the

issues affecting our profession are presented. In October 2010, AUCs English

Language Institute hosted Bonny Norton from the University of British Columbia as a

Distinguished Visiting Professor. After that visit, I invited Bonny to give us some of

her thoughts on the state of English Language teaching in Egypt. She did, but when

the journal finally was ready for publication, she asked that we note that she had

written her essay before the January 25 Revolution. Perhaps Bonny can come back to

Egypt to see what has changed and perhaps re-envision some of her ideas. Heba

Fathelbab has researched the topic of bicultural teachers and now gives us somethoughts on the perennial issue of Non-Native Speaking English Teachers (NNEST)

and their disempowered position vis--vis their Native Speaking English Teacher(NEST) colleagues. Although this has been addressed by TESOL International and

other TESOL organizations, there still remains discrimination in hiring, promotion,

and pay. We cannot ignore this issue and hope that it will go away, but by writing and

publishing about unfair practices, we hope that the future will be different. Finally we

have an essay, written by our editor, about the role of English in a new Egypt.

Although the revolution is not over, the conclusion is that the world has noticed us,

not only because of the bravery and endurance of the youth in Tahrir Square and

elsewhere in Egypt, but because, in many cases, it was carried out in English, the

global language. It is the language of the youth of the future, through the new media,

and it now belongs to a new group. This group comprises not just native English

speakers, but also the new speakers of English who will make and change the

language to suit their purposes. May they live long and prosper.

We wish to thank those teachers and researchers from Egypt and the region who have

contributed to this issue. We hope that this space can be a place where research is

presented, teaching practices are explained and described, books and materials arereviewed, and a lively forum takes root. Although hosted by the English Language

Institute at the American University in Cairo and co-sponsored by NileTESOL, we

welcome articles and reviews from elsewhere in the region.

No endeavor of this magnitude can be done alone. I have received enormous help

from the Section Editors: Atta Gebril, the Research Editor; Carol Clark, the Teaching

Practices Editor; and Tom Farkas, the Forum and Book Review Editor. Also, thanks

go to Tom Farkas who acted as the copy editor, and the web master, Rachel Ramey.

Reviewers for this issue gave much time and energy to reviewing articles, but also

reviewing newly created rubrics. The authors, as well, have endured innumerable

emails from an inexperienced chief editor. This work has led to a steep learning curve

for all of us and I sincerely hope that lessons learned will benefit the journal long into

the future.


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I hope you enjoy this issue and pass on the website URL to colleagues and friends.We plan to have a printable pdf of the entire issue soon. It will be found on the same

page as the web-only issue link.

Phyllis Wachob

Chief Editor


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From Teacher Training to Teacher Education in Second Language Education

Arman AbedniaEnglish Language and Literature Department, Allameh Tabatabai University

AbstractIn this article, a brief introduction to second language teacher training will be presented, and itwill be argued that it does not do the complex nature of teaching justice, tends to look atteachers as implementers of others ideas, and is mainly focused on short-term and immediate

goals of ELT. As an appropriate alternative, I will argue for teacher education since it tries tocontribute to a continuous process of intellectual and experiential growth of teachers who arebelieved to have the potential to think critically and act creatively. Following the comparisonof these approaches in terms of their philosophical principles, I will make some suggestions as

to how to run teacher education courses in line with its underlying principles.

Key words: teacher education, teacher training.Teacher Training

Many teacher education programs that are currently conducted around the

world are believed to be training-oriented, meaning that they focus on teachers'

responsibilities which are of immediate concern, such as how to manage cooperative

activities or how to teach grammar inductively (Richards, 1989, 2008; Wallace,

1995). Therefore, they mainly build on short-term and immediate goals, which,

regarding the above examples, can be preparing teachers to conduct cooperative

activities effectively or developing necessary skills to teach grammar inductively.These goals, which form the basis of training programs, are mainly determined by anumber of experts who are believed to possess the essential technical knowledge and

skills of teaching and, therefore, can transfer such knowledge and skills to traineesthrough some prescriptions externally defined and delineated in methodology books

(Freeman, 2001; Richards & Farrell, 2005). Some other examples of training-oriented

goals are learning how to use effective strategies to open a lesson, using effective

questioning techniques, and techniques for giving learners feedback on

performance (Richards & Farrell, 2005, p. 3).

Teacher training is mainly aimed at training teachers to develop and display

teaching behaviors which match those of effective teachers. That is, there are certainbehaviors that have been empirically shown to characterize effective teaching, and,

thus, teachers need to develop them if they want to be considered effective in their

profession (Cochran-Smith, 2004). Such behaviors form the basis of the content of the

program. That is, the content of teacher training programs consists of skills and

techniques that are generally determined a priori by teacher trainers based on a clear

theoretical rationale;, address those aspects of teaching which are observable,

teachable, and measureable;, and are related to specific situations. The effectiveness

of the program can then be evaluated based on measurement of the differences madein teachers' expertise between the pre-training and the post-training stages (Richards,

1989). Teacher training is underpinned by a number of major philosophical principles,some of which are discussed below.


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Teacher Training is Positivist

Positivism treats knowledge as factual, residing outside of human interactions

and conceptualizations, and to be discovered rather than constructed and made sense

of in personal and social ways. Thus, passing and transferring rather than questioningand reconsidering information are the main goals of education, as perceived by

positivists (Hanley, 1994). In the context of teacher preparation, it seems that the

same ideology has colored the nature of teacher training, the procedures used in such

programs, the interactions that happen between teacher trainers and student teachers,

and the ways in which teachers are evaluated.More precisely, teachers are not necessarily expected to act creatively and to

incorporate innovative and alternative strategies based on the particulars of the local

context in which they teach. Instead, they are mainly required to follow a more or less

prescriptive curriculum/method which, at times, "actually dictates every teacher-

spoken word during instruction" (Imig & Imig, 2006, p. 289). In other words, they are

mostly expected to play the role of passive technicians who, through modeling,practice others' orders and norms presented in the training program content

(Kumaravadivelu, 2003, 2006). This prescriptivist approach has its origins in theestablishment of policies which are in line with dominant market values such as

raising students' scores on high-stakes tests (Cochran-Smith, 2004) and, therefore,

discourage reform initiatives (Bartell, 2001). This resultant market orientation is

called instrumentalism, another principle of teacher training explained in the

following.

Teacher Training is Instrumentalist

Teacher training programs are basically designed and implemented so as to

help meet the demands of the market, such as certification standards (Bartell, 2001;

Carson, 2005; McKibbin, 2001). This concern leads to teachers' exclusive focus on

technical issues such as class management or implementation of instructional

strategies which can help students obtain a high score on, say, an IELTS test.

Instrumentalism, which is based on a "what works" mentality (Mockler, 2005),

supports policies which are meant to fully align educational programs with the

priorities of the labor market (Helsby, 1999) and changes educational programs,teacher education included, into agents of economic prosperity (Ben-Peretz, 2001).

To make this happen, teacher education programs cannot and should not

prioritize teachers' autonomy in developing their own theories of action since theymay decide to focus on goals other than economic and functionalist ones. Therefore,the only room for maneuver provided for teachers is within a technical scope. That is,

they are just allowed to decide on techniques to meet pre-defined and unchangeable

ends (Cochran-Smith, 2004; Goodlad, 1998). This approach is generally referred to as

technocratic rationality, the focus of the next section.

Teacher Training is Technical-rational

Due to its positivist and instrumentalist nature, teacher training mainly

concerns itself with practical and technical aspects of teaching (Bartolome, 2004),

and, in keeping with delivery models of teacher education, it aims at producing largernumbers of teachers and training them in "requisite" and "relevant" skills (Bartell,


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2001). This technical-rational discourse builds on classical and practical views ofprofessionalism which reflect adherence to an existing body of technical skills and

knowledge already developed in an empirical and evidence-based manner. In keeping

with this technical view, student teachers in TESOL training programs are mainly

exposed to some very practical techniques of teaching different language skills and

components;, there is not much serious dialog about the rationale behind them andwhether teachers think of them as the most appropriate techniques to use in their own

local setting, and teachers are not encouraged to gain theoretical insights into them.

This view ignores the artistry and unpredictable nature of teaching (Mockler, 2005).

With regard to the practical usefulness of the technical-rational discourse of

teacher training, Singh and Richards (2006) lament that this approach is bound to be

defective as it more or less fails to affect language teachers' classroom practices since

it ignores "how human learning is emergent through social interactions, and where

context and identity play crucial mediating roles" (p. 150). In this regard, Dewey,

back in 1904, also warned all educationalists against exclusive focus on short-term

interim instructional objectives which essentially lead to a myopic treatment of long-

term educational goals in teacher education (Beyer, 2001).In light of the above, Id like to conclude that teacher training cannot do the

complex and dynamic task of ELT justice due to its tunnel vision, which leads to anarrow look at the technical side of the story and neglect of its intellectual and

creative essence. In the following section, I will discuss a more transformative,

critically-oriented, and reflection-based approach to the professional development of

teachers, i.e. teacher education.

Teacher Education

Due to the shortcomings of a training approach, teacher preparation has been

expanded to encompass the reflective and critical dimensions of teaching as well

(Richards, 2008). This expanded framework, which is usually called teacher

education, is based on principles of sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978) and critical

theories of education such as critical pedagogy and transformative education (Freire,

1972). The main aim of teacher education is to prepare teachers who have the ability

to critically reflect upon different aspects of the teaching profession, propose their

own theories-in-action, and bring about positive changes (Kumaravadivelu, 2003;

Williams & Burden, 1997). Quite opposite to teacher training, which focuses onshort-term objectives, ELT teacher education programs aim at a continuous process of

intellectual and experiential growth and prioritize long-term goals such as

understanding how the process of second language development occurs anddeveloping an understanding of different styles of teaching (Richards & Farrell,2005, p. 4). Moreover, unlike teacher training, which requires teachers to follow

experts views, in teacher education, the theoretical basis is just a starting point rather

than a prescription since teaching is considered to be a personal and intuitive response

to what goes on in the classroom. In the following section, some of the main

principles of teacher education are explained.

Teacher Education is Constructivist

Mere focus on teaching behaviors and techniques which have been handed

down to practitioners by some theoreticians has given rise to many professionalorganizations developing a common system of values and norms, conveying the


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imperative that teachers are expected to "either get better at teaching or get out of thebusiness" (Cochran-Smith, 2001, p. 263). Due to widespread dissat isfaction of many

teachers and teacher educators with this positivistic attitude to effective teaching,

teacher education has been expanded to take into account how teachers make sense of

their teaching profession and develop their own theories of pedagogy (Freeman, 1995;

Singh & Richards, 2006). This constructivist approach encourages the belief that thereare alternate ways and styles of teaching (Cochran-Smith, 2001) and, therefore, that

teachers should come up with their own theories of practice based on their

background, knowledge, and experience rather than wait for some experts to do so for

them (McMorrow, 2007). In other words, it is assumed that, while the methods and

techniques presented in methodology books have been put there because the authors

have found them useful and appropriate in their own contexts, they will not

necessarily prove to be as useful and situationally appropriate in the settings where

trainees are going to teach since they are going to teach a particular group of students

who have particular needs and objectives within a particular culture (Kumaravadivelu,

2003).Of course, this doesnt mean that in teacher education student teachers are not

presented with useful technical information as to what to do in different situations.

Rather, different ways of teaching a certain language aspect or skill or conducting acertain task are discussed, and student teachers are encouraged to deeply reflect on

different techniques and how useful they might be in a given situation and for a given

group of learners.

Teacher Education is Critical and Transformative

Mockler (2005) clearly asserts that, in the face of the competing demands

imposed on teachers such as efficiency, measurability, and accountability to a set of

established standards, the best type of teaching and, by the same token, teacher

education, is the one which contributes to the formation of critical human beings who

can act creatively and change society for the better. If a teacher education program

really strives to develop teachers who qualify as transformative intellectuals (Giroux,

1983), teachers' criticality must be given a high priority since action without critical

reflection results in mindless activism (Freire, 1972). Teachers need to develop a

critical consciousness of themselves and their environment and, accordingly,

transform them (Kincheloe, 2008). Therefore, in teacher education teachers aremotivated to develop self-questioning habits so as to appreciate their strengths and

recognize and transform their personal biases (Baldwin, Buchanan & Rudisill, 2007).

They also need to develop critical thinking skills which can help them problematizewhat they observe and experience around themselves.In teacher education programs, these habits are usually developed through

tasks such as writing critical reflective journals, sharing ideas and experiences with

each other in dialogical activities such as group discussion and dialog journal writing,

and reading texts critically (Singh & Richards, 2006). When teachers develop a

critical attitude to themselves and their environment, they can act transformatively

since they are able to recognize problems and limitations and, thus, can come up with

appropriate solutions which contribute to the development of individuals and society.

Teacher Education is Theoretically Oriented


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In teacher training, the highly complex process of teacher development isreduced to the development of certain necessary skills for meeting predetermined

objectives at the cost of developing teachers' theoretical knowledge of and insight into

teaching. That is, teachers are not presented with theoretical issues to think about and

make sense of based on their own local experiences, nor are they encouraged to

develop their own personal theories. To bridge this gap, which some refer to asdeskilling teachers (Kincheloe, 2008), advocates of teacher education have attached

a lot of importance to involving teachers in theoretical discussions as well as

providing them with the a space for developing their own theories of action in a

reflective, critical, and situated manner (Hedgcock, 2002; Leistyna, 2007).

If teachers are just given techniques to implement in their classes, they are

highly likely to get confused and fail to act appropriately and innovatively when they

are faced with different contexts and students since the set of techniques they have

mastered in teacher training courses, no matter how exhaustive, does not necessarily

guarantee their appropriateness and effectiveness in every context. However, when

teachers develop in-depth insight into teaching and its subtleties, they are no longer

limited to others' recipes since their knowledge of the different dimensions ofteaching helps them make decisions in different situations in an autonomous, creative,

and context-sensitive manner (Bax, 1997).Despite the above apparently dichotomous manner in which teacher training

and teacher education have been compared, Id like to emphasize that there is almost

no program of teacher preparation which fully represents either teacher training or

teacher education, and it is more realistic to consider these two approaches as two

extreme poles of a continuum which can be depicted as follows:

Teacher

Training Teacher

EducationPositivist Constructivist

Instrumentalist Critical andtransformative

Technical-rational

Theoretically-oriented

Concluding Remarks

In light of the above comparison of ELT teacher training and teacher

education in terms of their underlying principles, the position that this paper tends toadopt is that, while we should consciously avoid ignoring the advantages of teacher

training and incorporate them into programs of teacher preparation, teacher education

generally seems to provide a more appropriate framework because of its more

reflective and transformative orientation. Although marvelous writings have discussed

at length how to conduct second language teacher education programs (e.g. Farrell,

2007; Richards & Farrell, 2005), Id like to conclude this paper with some

suggestions as to how to put the above principles of teacher education into action.First of all, if teacher education aims at helping teachers develop their own

understanding of second language teaching rather than passively consuming othersideas and understandings, the construction of student teachers professional identity,

i.e. their definition of their teacher selves and professional responsibilities, must be apriority in the process of learning to teach (Smagorinsky, Cook, Moore, Jackson, &


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Fry, 2004). If trainees are merely given information and hands-on activities abouttechniques of teaching grammar, managing collaborative tasks, etc., they leave the

training without having made deliberate attempts to develop their professional

identities (Richards, 1989). Although they may be very good at implementing certain

techniques of teaching L2, they may not have thought about why they are teaching

and what other ways of looking at teaching exist. However, focusing on teachersprofessional identity construction in teacher education helps teachers take the

initiative to question their unexamined beliefs, gain insights into new ways of looking

at and practicing teaching, and, thus, act reflectively and creatively. To this end, they

must be provided with ample opportunity to reflect on their own ideas as well as

exchange ideas with each other, challenge each others beliefs, receive feedback from

their peers and the educator, and, therefore, revisit their understandings. Writing

reflective journals can encourage teachers critical reflection on proposed theories and

techniques as well as their own understanding of issues. Dialog among teachers

through pair, group, and class discussions as well as peer assessment (such as peer

observation) can provide another opportunity for teachers to share their personal ideas

and question each others teaching beliefs and behaviors. An immediate result ofthese tasks will be teachers becoming better prepared to teach reflectively and

creatively and to contribute to such challenging tasks as preparing materials ratherthan merely teach what they are told the way they are told.

To prepare teachers who can act reflectively and autonomously in their

classes, they should also be encouraged to contribute to content and tasks provided in

teacher education programs which then have a negotiated syllabus. In many teacher

training programs, syllabi are designed a priori and in line with institutionally defined

objectives and standards. What is practically ignored is that teachers are different and,

thus, have different needs, interests, styles of development, and even purposes of

teaching, and that they are going to teach people who are different in unpredictable

ways. In addition, even during a teacher education program, needs and priorities may

change. Thus, especially in in-service programs where teachers are already familiar

with the basics of TESOL, only a general framework should remain in place, and,

therefore, course details cannot be decided on a priori. Rather, different aspects of the

course, such as content and instructional and assessment procedures, should be

negotiated with student teachers and even renegotiated throughout the program. In

this way, the program becomes dynamic, student teachers feel like co-owners of the

course, and their motivation for learning and development is improved. However, toavoid undue confusion, instead of throwing them in at the deep end, teacher educators

should show student teachers how to contribute to the process of course development

and materials production and selection. Generally, a tangible outcome of thisapproach is that student teachers will be able to contribute to decisions that go beyondthe typical responsibilities of an implementer of others ideas.

Finally, improving student teachers theoretical knowledge of ELT must be a

priority. As mentioned above, in many training programs, teachers are mainly

expected to practice others theories through certain techniques and strategies. This

approach fails to prepare teachers to think creatively and develop innovative strategies

in new situations. Since teachers are expected to become informed, critical, and

creative practitioners, they need to gain adequate theoretical knowledge and insight in

order to act appropriately in different settings. To go beyond spoon-feeding teachers

with some practical techniques to solve predictable learning problems, a teacher

education program should incorporate critical reading and analysis of theories. In thisway, student teachers can develop insight into many different aspects of teaching and,


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accordingly, can introduce innovative strategies when they face new situations. At thesame time, since teachers are often too busy to read, teacher educators need to think

of and incorporate appropriate solutions. For example, in an in-service teacher

education course, I assigned some of the short papers published in the Key Concepts

in ELT section ofThe ELT Journalas course readings. This section publishes very

short and simple definitions of key issues and concepts in English language teachingsuch as focus on form, feedback, and noticing. The student teachers found the

readings interesting since they were about a wide range of important topics related to

teaching a second language and were short and written in clear and accessible

language. Also, they found them practically useful since the pieces generated in-depth

reflection and discussion about the situations and challenges they faced in their own

classes and how they could deal with them.Preparing second language teachers who can think critically and act creatively

appears to be an extremely daunting task as we are experiencing an era where

teacher professionalism is under assault (Kincheloe, 2004, p. 50). However, much

better than a fatalist mindset which makes us sit and desperately wait for a miracle is a

utopian attitude which encourages us to step up, take action, and make small butmeaningful changes in the status quo. Fingers crossed and sleeves rolled up!

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McMorrow, M. (2007). Teacher education in the postmethod era.ELT Journal, 61, 4,375-377.

Mockler, N. (2005). Transforming Teachers: new professional learning and

transformative teacher professionalism.Journal of In-service Education, 31, 4,

733-746.

Richards, J. C. (1989). Beyond training: approaches to teacher education in language

teaching. A keynote address given at a workshop on Second Language

Teaching Education, Macquarie University, Sydney.

Richards, J. C. (2008). Second language teacher education today.RELC Journal, 39,

2, 158-177.

Richards J. C. and Farrell, T. S. C. (2005).Professional development for language

teachers. Strategies for teacher learning. New York: Cambridge University

Press.

Singh, G., and Richards, J. C. (2006). Teaching and learning in the language teachereducation course room: a critical sociocultural perspective.RELC, 37, 2, 149-

175.

Smagorinsky, P., Cook, L. S., Moore, C., Jackson, A. Y. and Fry, P. G. (2004).

Tensions in learning to teach. Accommodation and development of a teaching

identity.Journal of Teacher Education, 55, 1, 8-24.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978).Mind in society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wallace, M. (1995). Training foreign language teachers: a reflective approach.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Williams, M., and Burden, R. L. (1997).Psychology for language teachers: A social

constructivist approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

About the author:

Arman Abednia is a sessional lecturer at Allameh Tabataba'I University, English

Language and Literature Department. He is interested in critical pedagogy, teachereducation and needs analysis. He can be reached [email protected].
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Gendered participation: Addressing inequity in the Egyptian language

classroom

Mariah J. Fairley

English Language Resource Center, Al-Azhar University, Cairo

AbstractResearch has found that about one third of the students in a given classroom are

silent, and that female students participate less than their male counterparts. Whilenon-participation does not necessarily equate with disengagement, it does pose aserious problem for EFL professionals since oral practice is arguably the mostimportant factor affecting SLA. This article explores gendered participation in the

Egyptian EFL college classroom, revisiting the issues of male conversationaldominance and female silence. Based on the poststructuralist theory that individualdifferences such as willingness to communicate and introversion are not fixed

psychological traits, but rather mediated by socially situated power relations, the useof pre-speaking interventions of input and group preparation to empower non-participating students to participate in whole class speaking contexts wereinvestigated. A convenience sample of 51 students in five intact, mixed-gendersections of an Egyptian intensive English program was used. Results showed a pre-intervention gender imbalance in dominance and silence. Post-intervention findings

suggest that the interventions investigated related not only to more equalparticipation, including that of silent female students, but also to longer turn taking.Student and teacher perceptions further suggest that participation may strongly relateto social and situational factors.

Key words: gender, participation, male conversational dominance, female

silence, input, group preparation

Introduction

The problem of unequal participation in the classroom has long plagued

teachers in the ELT field. Indeed, some research has indicated that an average of one

third of the students in any given classroom are silent, defined as those taking less

than half the average number of student speaking turns during a classroom session

(Jones & Gerig, 1994). In the words of MacIntyre (2007), many students arelanguage learners but not language speakers (p. 573). Conversely, a number of

studies have shown that in an average classroom, one or two students usually

dominate, as defined as those taking more than twice the average number of studentspeaking turns (Kelly, 1988; Sunderland, 1998). Further, it has been found that moresilent students tend to be female and more dominant students tend to be male (Jones

& Wheatley, 1990; Jule, 2001; Kelly, 1988), suggesting that participation is at least

partly linked to gender. In the Egyptian context, since it has been found that many

believe that speaking in public should remain the domain of men only (Mensch,

Ibrahim, Lee & El-Gibaly, 2003), it is possible that gendered participation in public

speaking activities in the Egyptian classroom may be even more unequal than that

found in other countries.

As collective research and accumulated experience have provided a push

towards a more communicative language teaching approach in recent decades

(Savignon, 2001), the problem of inequity in gendered participation has increased inimportance, since oral practice has now become accepted as so crucial to the language


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learning process (e.g., Schmidt, 2001; Swain, 2005). If some female students areparticipating less than other students in speaking activities, then they are placed at a

strong disadvantage compared to their more vocal counterparts. Might there be a

solution to this problem?

In the past, unequal participation was often considered an unalterable, albeit

undesirable, fact of classroom dynamics. Willingness to communicate in theclassroom was linked to individual differences of introversion and extraversion, traits

which for many years were generally viewed as primarily fixed (Dornyei, 2009; Ellis,

2008). It seemed logical to assume that an introvert would naturally participate less

and an extravert more. A number of researchers (Dornyei, 2009; Ellis, 2008; Norton,

2010; Norton-Peirce, 1995 are increasingly viewing individual differences not as

fixed psychological traits but rather as socially constructed and situation- dependent.

Seen in this light, inequity in gendered participation might be strongly affected by

manipulating situational factors in the classroom.

Since inequity in participation has been identified as a serious problem in the

EFL classroom, and very few interventions have been researched to date, identifying

possible solutions to the problem is urgently required, and could provide an importantcontribution to EFL research. Since little research had been conducted on inequity in

gendered participation in the Egyptian context, it was the purpose of the present studyto first investigate gender and its relationship to unequal participation in the Egyptian

EFL college classroom, drawing on both observable behavior and student and teacher

perceptions about participation, and second to identify and explore possible

interventions.

Literature Review

Some Characteristics of Gendered Participation

In the early decades of the emergent field of language and gender, studies

were primarily concerned with documenting the extent and describing the

characteristics of inequity in gendered participation in the general, mixed-gender

classroom. A large number of studies, mainly conducted in western countries in the

1980s, overwhelmingly showed that male students tended to dominate in the

classroom, through more and longer turn taking, interruption, topic control, and even

resource and physical space hogging (e.g., Kelly, 1988; Sadker & Sadker, 1985;Whyte, 1984). A similar phenomenon was subsequently documented in countries

outside the Western world (e.g. Rahimpour & Yaghoubi-Notash, 2007; She, 2000;

Tsouroufli, 2002) and also specifically in the language learning classroom (e.g.Alcon, 1994; Jule, 2001). Further, a number of these studies also found that more non-participating or silent students tended to be female (e.g., Jones & Wheatley, 1990;

Jule, 2001). When looking at the two extremes of male dominance and female silence

together, a clear pattern of gendered participation emerged.

A number of theories were proposed in the early years to explain male

conversational dominance and female silence, as summarized by Coates (2004).

While these models partially explained aspects of the inequity, they tended to view

gender as binary and behavior as fixed, and as such failed to satisfactorily explain

numerous findings that did not fit with these theories, such as those found in the

following examples. Sunderland (1998) found that dominance could often be

attributed to only a small number of male students, not all male students, whichsuggested that gender was not the only factor in determining a students participation


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level. Aukrust (2008) found that male dominance increased significantly with age,which suggested that inequity in gendered participation was a product of socialization.

In Townsends (1998) qualitative study of three students, she found that silent

students were not silent all the time, and that several factors affected their

participation levels, including fear of peer judgment, which suggested that social

factors, not psychological factors, were influencing their decision to participate.Because of such findings, gendered participation could no longer be viewed as purely

binary or psychologically fixed. A new framework was needed, and the sociologically

grounded poststructuralist framework began to rapidly fill this gap.

Distinct from the psychological models described and rejected by Coates

(2004), she went on to propose a dynamic model, which sees participation as strongly

linked to identity. According to Norton (2010), identity is primarily socially

constructed through conversation, and by nature is constantly changing, depending on

social and situational variables. This model provides a better explanation as to why in

one case a student might speak more, or dominate, and in another, speak not at all, or

very little. In this model, socially constructed identity, real or perceived, becomes the

primary variable influencing participation levels, rather than gender alone. From thistheory emerged a clear need to investigate some of the social and situational factors

affecting gendered participation in the classroom.

Findings viewed through the eyes of the dynamic model

In revisiting older studies, evidence to support the dynamic model clearly

emerged in looking at the behavior of parents, teachers and male students, and also at

traditional views of the acceptability of female talk. Esposito (1979) found that

parents tend to interrupt their daughters twice as often as they interrupt their sons. A

number of other studies found that most teachers also tend to favor male students with

more attention, including with more calls, more gaze, and even more praise (e.g.

Allan & Madden, 2006; Jones & Dindia, 2004; Kelly, 1988), and that some teachers

discourage unsolicited call-outs from female students but not from male students (e.g.,

French & French, 1984; Kelly, 1988; Townsend, 1998). Several studies looking at

Hall and Sandlers concept of a chilly classroom climate (1982, as cited in Allan &

Madden, 2006) found that male students tend to interrupt female students more than

they do other male students, by as much as 90% more (Brooks, 1982); even more

disturbing are the documented incidences of female students being heckled, ridiculed,or insulted at their attempts to participate, by male students in the classroom (e.g.,

Baxter, 2002; Hirst, 2007; Madhok, 1992). This documented behavior of parents,

teachers, and male students all suggests that female students may be discouraged bysociety from speaking.In order to better understand this negative behavior towards female students, it

is necessary to look at societal beliefs. Traditionally, women have long been

discouraged from speaking (Chambers, 1992; Coates, 2004; Romaine, 1999). While

this view may no longer be consciously held by many in the present day, it may still

be manifested in their unconscious behavior, such as in some of the aforementioned

examples. Indeed, there is some evidence to suggest that this behavior is largely

unconscious, since several studies have found that teachers do not perceive unequal

participation by gender in their classrooms, nor their own male differential bias (e.g.,

Sunderland, 2000; Whyte, 1984). However, in Middle Eastern culture, some of these

views are still consciously adhered to, as documented by Al-Mahadin (2004), andJoseph and Slymovics (2001), among others. In the Egyptian context, Mensch et al.,


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(2003) found that of a randomly selected group of 660 Egyptian adolescents aged 16to 19, taken from a larger group of 9128 adolescents from a cross-section of Egyptian

society participating in a larger study on gender roles, the majority still believe that

women are less important than men, that they should adopt the role of dependence,

submission, and deference to men, and that the public domain should be reserved for

men. It is perhaps these findings which have prompted Hijab (2001) to state that theinvisibility of women in the Arab world appears to be more serious than that of

women in the rest of the world (p. 41). This research suggests that the silencing of

Egyptian female students is possibly more pronounced than in western countries, or at

least indicates that further research on this subject is warranted.

All of these evidences of male preferential treatment and encouragement of

female silence suggest that the identity of female students as silent is being

influenced by the forces of socialization. In other words, individual differences are not

purely natural, but may rather be at least partly a product of identity construction.

Indeed, it has been shown that willingness to communicate in the classroom is

strongly predicted by anxiety (Peng, 2007; Woodrow, 2006), which has been found to

be at higher levels in female students than male (Holmes, 1995; Mills, 2006),including in the Middle Eastern context (Alansari, 2006). This anxiety can be caused

by prior negative experiences with peer or teacher judgment, which have beendocumented to be more prevalent for female students than male (e.g., Baxter, 2002;

Madhok, 1992). This anxiety may in turn lead to reduced participation (Cao & Philps,

2006).

The need for social and situation- based solutions

Poststructuralist researchers look at the conditions under which people speak.

Borrowing Bourdieus (1991) concept of cultural capital, which views participation as

dependent on how much right a person has to speak in a given context, and on how

much power that person has to impose reception (p. 76) in that given context,

Norton (2010) focuses on the need to increase the cultural capital of a non-

participating student in order to empower this person to speak. Since every individual

has multiple identities, some stronger and some weaker, it should be the goal of the

teacher to help students find and assume those stronger identities that will allow them

to speak. By manipulating social and situational factors, a teacher should in theory be

able to create conditions under which female students and other marginalizedidentities can speak (Pennycook, 1999). Norton Peirce (1995) asserts that these social

and situational factors can best be identified through classroom-based research. It was

within this poststructuralist framework and classroom-based research context that themethodology for the present study was developed.

Interventions

Several techniques have been suggested in the literature to create conditions

under which silent students might choose to speak. The first relates to topic choice. A

good topic is one that is interesting and relevant to students (Brown, 2001; Dornyei,

2005). It may be that controversial topics generate more participation, because they

can incite enough emotion to make students forget to be silent (Fairley, 2009; Chi,

2008; Johnson & Johnson, 1985). In other words, the identity of defender of a

particular stand might take ascendancy over that of gender. Topics of a human,social, or cultural nature have been shown to generate most interest from females


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(Bjerrum Nielsen & Davies, 1997; Shehadeh, 1999). Based on this research,controversial topics relating to marriage were chosen for the study.

Pre-speaking activities have been shown to generate more participation. Video

clips and reading texts used input have been shown to help learners access their prior

knowledge and provide new information about a topic, thus generating ideas for them

to speak about (Cao & Philps, 2006; Tomitch, 1990). When a student focuses on newinformation in English, the gender identity might possibly be overshadowed enough

for that student to speak out.

The provision of planning and preparation time before speaking has been

shown to generate more participation, because it allows students to organize their

thoughts and prepare themselves to speak, in addition to possibly reducing their

speaking anxiety (Baxter, 1999; Ellis, 2005; Ortega, 2005; Townsend, 1998).

Additionally, it appears that guided and structured planning time is more effective

than unguided time (Foster & Skehan, 1999). The use of worksheets may be an

effective means to achieve this organization and preparation of thoughts (Sangarun,

2005; Townsend, 1998). Finally, a number of researchers have found that cooperative

group pre-speaking activities can help to encourage participation in the main speakingactivities, because they can promote security and reduce anxiety (Dornyei, 2001;

Johnson & Johnson, 1985; Kagan, 1994; Slavin, 1996). Additionally, they mightstrengthen a speakers right to speak and power to impose reception (Bourdieu,

1991, p. 76), since the speaker speaks on behalf of the group, not the individual.

Therefore, assuming the more powerful identity of spokesperson for the group may

take ascendancy over the weaker identity of gender.

Since little research had been conducted on the identification of social and

situational factors that might be manipulated to help silent students take their

linguistic space, especially in the Middle Eastern context, it was the aim of the present

study to begin to fill this research gap. It was hoped that by documenting the extent of

observable inequity in gendered participation, and comparing it to participation levels

during class sessions where social and situational factors were manipulated, possible

solutions might be identified to reduce the inequity. An investigation into non-

observable data in the form of teacher and student perceptions about participation

aimed to explore some of the dynamics of gendered participation in the Egyptian EFL

classroom, which in turn might provide possible directions for future research.

Research Questions

In the Egyptian EFL college classroom:1. What are the rates of silence and dominance by gender in whole classdiscussion (WCD)?

2. How do the rates of silence and dominance by gender in WCD

compare to those found in WCD and Team Debate (TD) that use the

pre-speaking techniques of input and preparation?

3. What are some student self-perceptions about factors relating to their

participation?

4. What are some teacher perceptions about factors relating to student

participation?


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Methodology

Participants

Since little research had been conducted on addressing inequity in gendered

participation in the Egyptian EFL classroom, the study took an exploratory approach,

using a convenience sample of five intact, mixed-gender EFL study skills classesfrom the Intensive English Program at an English-medium university in Egypt during

the Spring of 2010. The program encourages its instructors to use a communicative

language teaching approach, and follows no prescribed textbook. All Egyptian in

nationality, except one Kenyan female, the 51 students participating in the study, 28

female and 23 male, ranged in age from 16 to 22 years. The five classes consisted of

three at the advanced level, of 12 students each, and two at the intermediate level, of 7

and 8 students each. Each class was divided almost equally by gender (see Table 1).

The classes were taught by five different instructors; three American females, one

Egyptian female, and one American male. The four female teachers were MA

teachers in training, while the male teacher was a recent graduate of the same

program.

Table 1Class make-up by gender

Class Section

1 (advanced)

2 (advanced)

3 (advanced)

4 (intermediate)

5 (intermediate)

# Female Sts # Male Sts Total # Sts

6

6

7

4

5

6

6

5

3

3

12

12

12

7

8

# = number; sts = students.

Instruments and MaterialsData were collected through 25 video recordings taken over a period of about

three weeks of classroom sessions; and student and teacher questionnaires (Appendix

A). Materials included: a video clip about womens right to choose a marriage

partner, shown to students as input (The Qatar Foundation, n.d.); two group

worksheets for planning and preparation to speak (Appendix B); and two teacher

lesson plans (Appendix C).

Procedures

Informed written consent was first obtained from all of the participants. Prior

to implementation of the interventions, two video recordings of 15 minutes each were

made of separate whole class discussion sessions in each class, to determine the

extent, if any, of inequity in gendered participation. Teachers were then individually

trained in the implementation of two lesson plans that would introduce the

interventions of input and group preparation into the two whole class speaking

contexts of whole class discussion and team debate. The first lesson consisted ofwatching a video clip of a team debate on womens right to choose a marriage partner

(The Qatar Foundation, n.d.). This helped learners access their prior knowledge andprovided new information about a topic, as noted by Cao & Philps (2006) and


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Tomitch (1990). This was followed by small group planning sessions using aworksheet to help students prepare to speak during a whole class discussion on the

topic of the video clip. The second lesson again consisted of small group planning

sessions to prepare students, which was meant to encourage participation by

promoting security and reducing anxiety. The students then participated in team

debates on the topics of Couples should date before marriage, and Early marriageis a good idea, both topics that related to the general marriage topic of the video clip

they had viewed in the previous lesson. Students followed the structured style of a

team debate, in which each speaker was allowed to speak for one minute, followed by

answering one question each, and then a general free rebuttal session. Video

recordings were made of the two intervention lessons taught in each of the five

classes, in order to determine the extent, if any, to which participation prior to the

interventions contrasted with a change in participation levels following the

interventions. Finally, a student questionnaire and a teacher questionnaire were

administered to investigate participant and instructor perceptions of factors that might

affect participation.

Data Analysis

The video recorded data were analyzed using a simple tally chart to count the

number and length, whether long (six words or more) or short (five words or less), of

contributions by each individual student (Appendix D). The choice of five words or

less as a short turn was based on the finding that the average sentence of an English

language learner is five words (English online: Why intonation matters, 2010), and

that an average turn for a typical English speaker is nine words (Yuan, Liberman &

Cieri,2006). Half of this average, or five words, was therefore labeled a short turn. A

second rater repeated the process for one recording of each class, which determined

an inter-rater reliability of 0.93. Counts of participation prior to interventions were

then compared to counts of participation for each session that used interventions, and

analyzed by gender. The questionnaire data were analyzed. Closed-ended questions

from the student questionnaires were tallied, including by gender, and open-ended

questions were organized by theme and analyzed by gender. The data from the teacher

questionnaires were compared to actual behavior recorded from the videos.

Questionnaire analyses aimed to provide insight and a possible explanation for the

results of the video recorded data analysis.

Results and Discussion

Based on the analysis of the video recorded data collected prior tointerventions, it was determined that participation was not equal in any of the five

classes. Overall, 16% of the students were dominant, and 35% were silent (See Figure

1). In other words, roughly half of the students were not participating equally. In

addition, 22% of the students were classified as severely silent, as defined as those

taking less than a quarter of the average number of student turns.


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Figure 1. Identification of dominant and silent students (Sts.) across all 5 classes.

Note. Silent = taking fewer than half the average number of turns; dominant = taking

more than twice the average number of turns.

Gendered Participation RatesPre-Intervention

In looking more closely at silence, it was found that 30% of the male studentswere silent as compared to 39% of the female students, which, although only

marginally more, is consistent with past research that has found that more silentstudents tend to be female than male (Jones & Wheatley, 1990; Jule, 2001;

Sunderland, 1998). In terms of turn length, however, it was found that 61% of the

female students took less than half the average number of long student turns, as

defined as contributions consisting of six or more words each. In contrast, only 35%

of the male students took less than half the average number of long turns. This

constitutes a much wider gap, and is perhaps of more significance to the issue of

participation in the language learning context, since research suggests that it is the

longer turns that more strongly affect SLA (e.g., Schmidt, 2001; Swain, 2005). While

the implications of this finding should not be underestimated, it is also important to

note that not all the female students were silent, and in fact, there was one female

student who dominated in one of the advanced classes. Further, while it was

determined that male students took more turns in all but one of the ten recordedsessions taken prior to interventions, in one session the female students took more

turns. Interestingly, in this one session, the class consisted of 5 female students and

due to absence, only 1 male student, which was the only session with such a genderimbalance. In addition, in this particular session, more turns were taken overall by thestudents than in any of the other pre-intervention sessions, by an average ratio of

about two to one. These findings support the theory that gender is a complex

construct, in that gender alone cannot predict an individual students silence, and that

the situation, in this case the gender ratio, might affect participation levels of silent

female students. In other words, silent female students are not necessarily silent all the

time (Townsend, 1998).

A startling, and even disturbing finding was that silent female students werealmost three times more likely to be absent than any other students during the

recorded lessons, including silent male students. Since it was unanticipated, no data

were specifically gathered that might provide an explanation, although some theoristshave described absence as an extreme form of silence (Morita, 2004; Opuda, 2009;

Dominant Sts.

16%

Silent Sts.

35%

Average Sts.

49%


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Pellegrini, 2007). There is some evidence to suggest that absence can be predicted byfear of peer judgment, or a negative classroom environment (Ashton-Hay, 1996;

Wilkins, 2008). Although the finding on silent female absence could be explained by

coincidence, the theory of absence as an extreme form of silence, combined with the

findings on the lack of long female turn-taking, could imply that female silence is not

only more prevalent than male silence, but also that it is more pronounced.Another unanticipated finding related to female silence and dress. It was found

that 7 of the silent female students were wearing headscarves, a result that seemed

noteworthy since only 9 of the total 28 female participants wore headscarves. In other

words, 78% of the female students wearing headscarves were categorized as silent.

Again, no data were collected that might provide an explanation as to why these

students were so much more likely to be silent than other female students. It could

relate to a number of other factors, such as socioeconomic background, or societal or

religious belief systems, such as those found by Mensch et. al. (2003).

Comparison with Participation in the Intervention Lessons

In comparing the data collected prior to interventions to those collected during

the intervention lessons, overall it was determined that in both intervention lessonsequal participation increased (see Figure 2). That is to say, incidences of both silence

and dominance decreased. In one class, however, the opposite occurred. This

instructor was found to rely more heavily on the technique of calling on students

directly by name in the sessions prior to interventions, a technique that was not

allowed during the interventions. Perhaps students in this class had been conditioned

to speak only when called upon, suggesting that the social or situational factor of

teacher behavior may greatly affect the conditions under which students speak, a

conclusion supported by Norton (2010).

Figure 2. Changes in participation with interventions.

WCD - = WCD without techniques; WCD+ = WCD with techniques; TD + = TD

with techniques (structure & preparation) used to equalize participation; Sts. =students; Dom. = dominant; Sil. = silent; Avg. = average.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

WCD - WCD + TD +

Dom. Sts.

Sil. Sts.

Avg. Sts.


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In comparing the two sessions that used interventions, it was found that

participation was more equal in the team debate context than in that of whole class

discussion. This could relate to the difference in level of structure in the two speaking

contexts, since structure has been shown to generate more equal participation (Foster

& Skehan, 1999; Howe, 1997; Ur, 1981). The team debate context is more structuredthan that of whole class discussion because it follows a strict order of timed turns.

This might only provide a partial explanation, however, since a breakdown by gender

revealed that silent female students increased their participation to almost the same

degree for both speaking contexts, to close to 70% of the average number of turns. In

contrast, silent male students increased their participation to almost the average

number of turns during the team debate, while during the whole class discussion, they

increased their participation to only just one half the average number of student turns

(see Figure 3). It would appear, therefore, that structure alone cannot fully explain the

difference in participation levels in the two speaking contexts.

Figure 3. Silent student (Sts.) participation by gender, as a percentage of the averagenumber of turns taken by all students.

WCD- =WCD without techniques; WCD+ = WCD with techniques; TD+ = TD with

techniques to equalize participation; 100% = average number of total student turns

taken.

Almost all of the individual silent students increased their participation in bothspeaking contexts. However, due to absence, data was unavailable for several silent

students. Only two silent students showed no marked change. In reviewing the videorecordings to focus on these two silent students, it was discovered that one of them

faced several incidences of negative reactions from her peers at her attempts to

contribute, including laughter and snickering, at which point she abandoned her turns.This suggests that a negative classroom climate may indeed relate to decreased

participation levels, as found by a number of past studies (Allan & Madden, 2006;Baxter, 2002; Fassinger, 1995; Madhok, 1992).

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

WCD - WCD + TD +

Male Sts.

Female Sts.


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Another important finding from the study relates to turn length. It was foundthat in the sessions prior to interventions, about two thirds of the contributions were

short. In clear contrast, during the intervention sessions, there were more long

contributions, especially during the team debate, where about two thirds of the

contributions were long (see Figure 4). These findings suggest that not only might the

pre-speaking interventions of input and group preparation relate to more equalparticipation levels, but that they may have the added benefit of resulting in more

longer speaking turns.

Figure 4. Ratio of long to short turns for all classes prior to and during interventions.

Note. Long turn is defined as 6 words or more; short turn is defined as 5 words or

fewer.WCD - = WCD without techniques; WCD + = WCD with techniques; TD + = TD

with techniques to equalize participation.

Student Perceptions of Participation

Of the 51 students that participated in the study, 42 responded to the student

questionnaire (see Appendix A); 19 males and 23 females. Findings from the student

questionnaire analysis revealed that more male students reported that they felt verycomfortable speaking to the whole class in English than did female students, findings

consistent with studies on anxiety referred to in the literature review (see Figure 5).

Most male students stated a preference for the team debate context over that of whole

class discussion, a preference which was less pronounced for female students (seeFigure 6).

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

WCD - WCD + TD +

Long Turns

Short Turns


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Figure 5. Comfort level by gender in speaking to the whole class in English.Sts. = students; 5 = very comfortable; 1 = very uncomfortable

Figure 6. Preference by gender for type of whole class speaking activity.

WCD = Whole Class Discussion; TD = Team Debate.

Responses to what caused students not to participate varied widely, but could

be categorized under several themes (see Table 2). Common themes included thoserelated to the topic being boring or irrelevant; the students physical condition, such as

being t ired; or not having enough information or language to express themselves onthe speaking topic. However, the most common theme related to social and emotional

factors, such as shyness or fear of peer laughter. More female students mentioned

these factors than did male students, which supports the theory that the classroom

climate is chillier for female students. If female students are more worried about peer

judgment than male students, then perhaps it is because they are more likely toencounter negative peer judgment than their male counterparts, which is consistent

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

5 4 3 2 1

Male Sts.

Female Sts.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

WCD TD

Males

Females


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with past research (e.g. Allen & Madden, 2006; Baxter, 2002; Madhok, 1992).Finally, female students provided 30 responses to this question while male students

provided only 18, suggesting that non-participation may be more of a concern for

female students than male, since they had more to say about the topic.

Table 2

Reported factors for not participating in whole class speaking activities

Factor Male Female Total

Emotional/ScoialEmbarrassed, fear mistakes, etc.

Due to others behavior e.g.interruption, lack of respect etc.

Subtotal

4

15

5

49

9

5

14

Physical Conditione.g. tired, unwell, bad mood, etc.

4

7

11

Topic/ActivitiesBoring, unimportant etc.

3

6

9

Lack Knowledge/SkillsEnglish not good enough

Lacks information, unprepared etc.

Subtotal

1

45

2

46

3

8

11

MiscellaneousConvinced of own opinionLikes to listen to othersWants to give others a chance

Total

1

18

11

30

48

Teacher Perceptions about Participation

When asked about their perceptions in regard to participation and gender in

their classrooms, the American male instructor and two American female instructorsfelt that there was no difference, and the Egyptian female instructor felt that her

female students participated more. This perception clearly contrasts with the findingsof the video recorded data, which found that male students participated more in

almost all of the sessions. In the class of the instructor who felt that her female

students dominated over her male students, the video recorded data showed that infact only one of her female students dominated, that three participated equally and

that three were silent. These findings suggest that a lack of teacher awareness may

exist in regard to male conversational dominance and female silence, and confirms

findings from previous studies that have looked at this issue (Stroud & Wee, 2006;

Sunderland, 2000; Whyte, 1984).

Another interesting finding emerged in the analysis of teacher behavior during

the study. It was found that overall, instructors called on silent students almost three

times less often than they called on other students (see Figure 7). Additionally, three

of the instructors called on male students more often than on female students,

suggesting that a teacher bias may exist, as documented by a number of studies on

classroom conversational dominance (e.g. Kelly, 1988). Only one instructor called onfemale students more. Interestingly, this was the same instructor who felt that her


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female students dominated, possibly suggesting that instructors tend to call more onthose students they perceive as dominating.

Figure7. Average number of teacher calls and silent (Sil.) students (Sts.).Avg. = averagely participating; Dom. = dominant.

Limitations and Recommendations for Further Research

The dynamic of the two smaller classes might be likened more to that of a

small group than that of a traditional large class size. This could explain why therewas less unequal participation in these classes as compared to the larger classes.

Further, these two classes were also of a lower English proficiency level, which couldbe a variable affecting the extent of inequity in participation. Instructor variables such

as gender, nationality, experience, and classroom management style may well have

affected participation. This could explain why one class showed a decrease in equal

participation during the intervention sessions. A statistical analysis of the quantitative

data might provide information on the significance of the inequity in gendered

participation found. This is an area which could be the basis of further analysis and

generalization to other Egyptian EFL contexts. Unfortunately, some demographic

information which might have helped to explain the relationship between silent

female students, absence, and dress, was not collected. There is a clear need forfurther investigation into these findings. Promising areas to begin this investigation

may include looking at student demographic information and interviewing silent

female students and their parents on their beliefs. Finally, an investigation into thequality of student contributions, and more qualitative analysis of discourse and

student behavior during speaking activities, could provide more insight into the natureof student silence, especially in relation to a chilly classroom climate, which could in

turn, contribute further to the identification of effective interventions to equalizeparticipation in the EFL classroom.

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Avg. Sts. Dom. Sts. Sil. Sts.


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Implications and Conclusion

The findings of this study support those of past studies on inequity in gendered

participation in the classroom. In addition, they show that female silence may be more

pronounced in degree than that of males, as evidenced by the high number of female

students who took very few or no long turns, and in the high rate of female absence,which may be viewed as an extreme form of silence. These findings imply that strong

interventions may be required to help combat female silence, perhaps in the form of

awareness-raising of both students and teachers, and in manipulation of social and

situational factors that discourage female student participation. The pre-speaking

interventions of input and group preparation appear to relate to an increase in equal

participation as well as to longer turn taking, and, further, suggest that silent female

students may differ from silent male students in the contexts that are most effective in

increasing their participation. These findings imply that manipulation of social and

situational factors in the classroom may strongly affect participation levels, and that

further investigation into these factors could help identify those interventions that

might best help to increase participation levels of silent female students. The findingsof this study also provide support for the theory that willingness to communicate is

not a fixed trait, and that it can instead relate to external factors such as social andsituational conditions in the language learning classroom. These findings further

imply that by addressing inequity in gendered participation in the EFL classroom

through the manipulation of social and situational factors, teachers and researchers

might identify effective solutions to a very important problem that continues to thwart

many EFL professionals, a problem for which few interventions have hitherto been

found.

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