sqc and the fluency hypothesis
TRANSCRIPT
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
SQC and the fluency hypothesis
Abdul Wahid Mir
Received: 15 October 2011 / Accepted: 5 January 2012 / Published online: 17 March 2012
� Springer-Verlag London Limited 2012
Abstract Students’ Quality Circles (SQCs) are consid-
ered in the context of English Language Teaching in
Pakistan, with a focus on oral expression. SQCs offer many
educational benefits.
Keywords Empowerment � English language teaching �Fluency � Pakistan � Students’ quality circles
1 Empowerment
The main focus of Students’ Quality Circles (SQCs) is to
empower students. SQC is indeed a wonderful approach for
creating a total quality person by integrating the technology
of quality engineers and managers with the good intention
of educationists and child psychologists (Chapagain 2006,
p. vi).
It is the responsibility of an educational institute to
prepare total quality people for the wellbeing of society
(Chapagain 2006, p. 71). The initiation of SQCs is directly
dependent on the commitment of its top management. It is
their responsibility to create a conducive environment,
where the seed of total quality could germinate into a
strong tree. Once initiated, SQCs tremendously improve
the environment of educational institutions in many ways.
According to the observations of teachers, the students
actively participating in SQCs activities have developed a
number of leadership traits, skills and habits. These include
many of the required quality character attributes to become
a total quality person. These traits encompass self-confi-
dence, self-discipline, interpersonal and public relations
skills, empathy, social responsibility, time management
skills, scientific and analytical skills, communication skills,
creativity and lateral thinking habits, and working habits in
a team and broader vision (Chapagain 2006).
Though many aspects of SQCs need to be discussed, the
aim of this article is to look into the contributory factors
that help students improve their oral expression in a target
language.
2 Students’ quality circles and total quality
management
Total Quality Management (TQM) is defined as both a
philosophy and a set of guiding principles that represent the
foundation of a continuously improving organisation. It is
the application of quantitative methods and human
resources to improve all the processes within an organi-
sation and exceeds customer needs now and in the future
(Besterfield et al. 2007).
Every organisation, country or civilisation has its own
culture. According to the value systems of that culture, a
phenomenon is either accepted or rejected. Very popular
management models of one culture sometimes do not work
in another culture. TQM is no exception. On one hand, it
has many admirers but on the other, there is no dearth of
sceptics as well. Still, it is considered to be the most
important contributory factor in the unprecedented fast
growth and improvement in Japanese industry in 60s and
afterwards (Mukherjee 2006).
SQCs work on the original philosophy of TQM. During
the problem-solving process in an SQC, students carry out
different activities based on the principles, techniques and
statistical tools of TQM. The efficacy of TQM is dependent
on the fact that practitioners change their mindset and
A. W. Mir (&)
WCTQEE, Abbottabad, Pakistan
e-mail: [email protected]
123
AI & Soc (2012) 27:417–420
DOI 10.1007/s00146-012-0382-6
adopt TQM as a way of life and not just as a management
model.
It is commonly observed that young professionals enter
in the corporate sector, with a fixed mindset. Though
rigorous trainings and refresher courses enable them to
perform like professionals, yet their mindset remains
unchanged. A very important question could be asked here
that at what age the students should be exposed to the
concept of TQM so it becomes an integral part of their
personalities. The intervention for a three-year child may
not be very effective, but beyond 5-year age, the learning
capability increases very fast up to the level of 25 years.
Thus, the slogan ‘‘Catch Them Young’’ is true and should
be followed (Chapagain 2006). If trained to think in terms
of excellence from a very young age, the term ‘Total
Quality’ does not remain just a fancy term but it becomes a
way of life for them.
2.1 How SQCs work
An SQC is formed to identify, analyse and attempt to solve
one problem at a time. Typically, a group of five to ten
students meet for 1 h every week (The frequency and
duration of meetings are negotiable). The school adminis-
tration helps them in providing venue, etc., and a teacher
acts as a facilitator. The members of the Circle are trained
to use scientific and statistical tools and techniques to
identify the interfering factors in achieving excellence.
Students identify problems in their immediate environ-
ment, prioritise them, apply appropriate tools and find out
several solutions. After going through a very effective
process, the best solution is applied to eliminate the most
important cause of the problem. During this process, all
procedures are documented to standardise and generalise
the solutions for replication in other institutions.
2.2 Some additional benefits of students’ quality circles
1. Improvement in communication skills.
2. Fluency in L2 (2nd or target language).
3. Development of culturally, socially and politically
correct language.
4. Understanding about different cultures.
5. Developing an ability to respect opposing ideas.
6. Development of an understanding for quality relation-
ship that emerges as a base for global peace.
7. Developing confidence, self-esteem.
8. Valuing the esteem of others, being respected.
9. Developing a sense of belonging.
10. Recognition for achievements
11. Desire for continuous self-development.
12. Always challenging the status quo and wanting to do
better.
13. Making education a lifelong process.
2.3 SQC and oral fluency in a target language
SQCs’ role to improve fluency in students in a target lan-
guage is very fascinating. During my association with
SQCs, I observed that along with the acquisition of other
skills, a dramatic improvement came in the oral expression
of my students in their target language which was English
in this case. Those shy students who were at the babbling
stage in the first meeting of the SQC were explaining their
slides very confidently towards the end of their project. It
seems pertinent to mention that English has not got a
second language status in our country but is regarded as a
foreign language.
When the contributory factors were observed and ana-
lysed according to some approaches in the field of lin-
guistics, a few very interesting aspects of the phenomena
came up.
3 Linguistics, English language teaching and SQCs
Let us look into some findings of linguists and ELT prac-
titioners about attaining fluency. In the field of Linguistics
and ELT, it is said that on the basis of their background
knowledge, the fluent speakers of any language have cer-
tain abilities and they are able to perform some linguistic
tasks.
To speak a language, speakers need an opportunity to:
• Comprehend the vocabulary
• Produce speech
• Conceptualise and formulate ideas
• Fix an incorrect expression.
3.1 Comprehension of vocabulary
Students do not acquire anything that they do not com-
prehend. When it comes to expressing themselves in
speech, the students who have not thoroughly internalised
the vocabulary that they need to express their thoughts
cannot adequately come up with the necessary words, since
they have not been acquired (Ray and Seely 2002, p. 10).
In SQCs, students perform in a controlled situation with
the help of limited vocabulary, which they comprehend
properly, because they use it time and again in discussions
during meetings. As everyone is encouraged to give his/her
input at every step of different activities, so no one is left
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behind, and every member gets a chance to use the newly
learnt vocabulary in a meaningful way.
3.2 Producing speech
There must be at least one vehicle for developing fluent
oral expression: a way for students to express themselves
orally in their own words, not memorised lines. It must
include a way for them to develop an often ignored aspect
of fluency: connected speech in which they say one sen-
tence after another in their own words (Ray and Seely
2002, p. 15).
One of the essentials in SQCs is that students interact
with each other, their leader and facilitator and later with
the audience. They develop a very clear picture in their
mind regarding problems under discussion, so they just
narrate their experience in simple words and start their
journey to their destination: fluent expression. While
working in SQCs, students regularly undergo brainstorm-
ing sessions. At the initial stages of brainstorming, they just
supply words, clauses or phrases. Then, the process is
stopped for a while and students are persuaded to develop
more ideas. At this point, students again discuss and accept
or reject the ideas presented, and simultaneously they
unfold the supplied words and terms. They explain words
or phrases and give argument to substantiate their ideas. It
is a fact that students use very limited vocabulary in SQCs,
but they reap the benefits of limited vocabulary, as it
becomes very easy for them to do prefabricated chunking.
This chunking makes students fluent in expression.
The use of statistical tools at the stage of problem
solving also helps students in becoming fluent, as almost all
tools have some particular applications. While describing
the usage of tools and their results, students use the limited
vocabulary in a very meaningful way. There are tremen-
dous opportunities to produce speech in this whole process.
It is observed that even the students of beginner level speak
two to three consecutive sentences to unfold their word or
idea.
3.3 Conceptualise and formulate ideas
The role of a facilitator is very important in an SQC.
Generally, it is the prerogative of the management to
appoint a facilitator of a Circle. The role of a facilitator is
not to influence the thinking process of students, but rather
to provide them the environment to induce new ideas on
their own. The number of members in any SQC is limited
and should not go beyond 10 (more likely 6–8). All
members need to develop consensus on each point; hence,
the interaction between members and facilitator is a must.
When the class is conducted in the target language, nearly
all of the students must understand everything that is said.
Those who do not feel they understand everything often
say, ‘‘I can’t remember anything that I didn’t understand’’
(Ray and Seely 2002, p. 19).
The lack of expression is not always due to deficient
vocabulary but mainly it is due to ambiguous ideas and
vague concepts. During activities of SQCs, students not
only think creatively but latterly and critically. This pro-
cess helps them in the formulation of ideas in internalisa-
tion of even very slippery concepts. As the whole Circle
needs to reach a consensus on almost every point, so
everyone owns the ideas discussed and suggested solutions
of the problems they are dealing with.
3.4 Fix an incorrect expression
At every stage of the problem solving, students get into
smaller groups and share their findings and feelings. Peer
feedback and correction in a very low anxiety environment
is the best way to fix an incorrect expression.
The speaker should be able to do:
• Self-analysis
At different stages of the case study, students keep
comparing their findings with the findings of their co-
members. This provides them with an opportunity to ana-
lyse the strong and weak points of their analysis.
The speaker should be able to develop a capacity to
give:
• A Conditioned response
In every meeting, the recap of previous meetings takes
place. Thus, some ideas are talked about again and again.
This not only helps students to look into different angles of
the same situation but enables them to condition their
response. Repeated different responses bring a kind of
automaticity in their responses.
The same way fluent speakers also know:
• Socio-cultural aspects of the language
• Register
• Pragmatics of the target language
• Grammar.
3.5 Socio-cultural aspects of the language
SQCs are being practiced in thousands of schools and
colleges of 22 countries. Many countries hold their national
conventions every year, where they interact with different
cultures of the same country. Every year, one international
convention is held. Every alternate year, it is held in India,
and in a member country other than India. Students from
member countries participate in these conventions. The
lingua franca in such conventions is no other language than
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English. Students learn the socio-cultural aspect of the
language in such conventions. All Circles present their case
studies and participate in different competitions in a way
that is easily comprehensible for everyone. The students
get a chance to not only learn about a different perspective
of social aspects, but also to understand the socio-cultural
aspect of the language as well.
3.6 Register
The use of socially appropriate language is another con-
tributing factor in the overall fluent expression of a student.
In Circles, very frank discussions take place, but at the time
of the Case Study Presentation in front of national or
international audience, the formal language takes over.
This use of socially appropriate language boosts the con-
fidence of a speaker.
3.7 Pragmatics of the target language
There is nothing hypothetical about the way in which the
members of SQC conduct their research. They must choose
a real-life situation in which they themselves are experi-
encing a problem, and attempt to solve it. This context
always gives them an added advantage to explain things in
a meaningful way.
3.8 Grammar
Students start with very simple grammatical structures, but
in their second or third Circle, they start using almost all
tenses.
3.9 Experiential language teaching methodology
and fluency and SQCs
Many aspects of Experiential Language Teaching Meth-
odology are considered to be very effective for learning a
target language. The popularity of this methodology is
based on the fact that it is a very low-risk technique. With
the help of this methodology, learning and use of a lan-
guage come from the field experience where students
observe and analyse and synthesise (Jerald and Clark
1994).
It is so fascinating that all the above-mentioned tech-
niques of Experiential Language Teaching Methodology
are very much evident and prevalent in SQCs.
The methodology of ELT can be utilised very easily at
different stages of the problem-solving process, e.g. stu-
dents go out in different classes of the school or community
for surveys and there they ask prefabricated questions.
These questions are rehearsed many times in the meetings
of SQCs, before sending students out in the field. Some of
the expected answers and counter questions are also
rehearsed, so that the students move easily all around and
accomplish their task. Still they have every chance to come
across with certain unforeseen situations. This builds stu-
dents’ confidence and motivates them to take initiative in
using target language.
The characteristics of verbal expression and persistent
practices in Circles support students to use them are
amazing. The steps mentioned above can enhance the
utility of SQCs tremendously.
It is interesting to know that apparently distant fields of
English Language Teaching and Total Quality Manage-
ment have a lot in common.
References
Besterfield DH, Besterfield-Michna C, Besterfield GH, Besterfield-
Sacre M (2007) Total quality management. Prentice Hall of
India, New Delhi
Chapagain DP (2006) Guide to students’ quality circles. Network for
Quality Productivity and Competitiveness-Nepal, Kathmandu
Jerald M, Clark CC (1994) Experiential language teaching tech-
niques. Pro Lingua Association, Brattleboro
Mukherjee PN (2006) Total quality management. Prentice Hall of
India, New Delhi
Ray B, Seely C (2002) Fluency through TPR storytelling. Command
Performance Language Institute, Berkeley
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