uum college of arts and sciences fundamental of elt

8/9/2019 Uum College of Arts and Sciences Fundamental of Elt

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UUM COLLEGE OF ARTS

AND SCIENCES

EDUCATIONAL STUDIES

SGDB5013 FUNDAMENTALS OF

ENGLISH LANGUAGETEACHING


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UNDERSTANDING SUCCESFULAND UNSUCCESSFUL EFL

STUDENTS IN CHINESE

UNIVERSITIES

ZHENGDONG GAN

GILLIAN HUMPHREYS

LIZ HAMP-LYONS

The Modern Language Journal, 88, ii, (2004)

Presented on 17.07.2010 by :

Norlela @ Norlaila Ali (804818)


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Success in learning a second or foreign language

is considerably more variable. Recently, second

language acquisition researchers have called for

more integrative research on individual difference

factors. With this goal in mind, this study followeda larger, quantitative study of the links between

self-directedness for language learning and

English language learning attainment among

university students on the Chinese mainland and in

Hong Kong.


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Based on the findings of study by(Gan, 2003)

this 1-semester study looked closely at 2 small

groups of tertiary-level English as a foreign

language (EFL) learners in China in order to

document how they carried out their out-of-class (self-directed) English learning, as well as

to elaborate issues that may be critical to

understanding the variability that had already

been observed in their English learning

outcomes.


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The data were gathered through interviews,diaries, and follow-up email correspondence with

9 successful and 9 unsuccessful second-year EFL

students at 2 Chinese mainland universities.

Using grounded theory methodology (Strauss &Corbin, 1994, 1998), 6 categories of qualitative

data were constructed: conceptualizing English

language learning; perceptions of the College

English Course; learning and practicing

strategies; self-management; internal drive; andEnglish proficiency tests.


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INVESTIGATIONS INTO THEDIFFERENCES

Differences between successful andunsuccessful learners in the field of

second and foreign language learningattracted attention with the studies ofRubin(1975), Stern (1975), and Naiman,Frhlich, Stern, and Todesco (1978),

which aimed to establish what goodlanguage learning strategies might beand to share them with unsuccessfullearners.


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The general findings from these studiesare that successful students demonstrate a

greater use of learning strategies or more

appropriate application ofstrategies to the

learning task, whereas less successful orunsuccessful students use a limited or

inappropriately applied repertoire of

language learning strategies.


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Previous studies on differences between

successful and unsuccessful languagelearners have, however, focused mainly

on learning strategies. The combined

effects of the use of strategies with other

learner factors (e.g., attitudes andmotivation), which may play an

important role in the variance of

language learning outcomes, have not

received due consideration.


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The scarcity of adequate empirical researchon learner difference factors in languagelearning within the Asian English as aforeign language (EFL) context, a research

project comprising both a quantitativesurvey and qualitative study was started inChina and in Hong Kong in 2000 in anattempt to map out a picture of key learner

variables that might lead to differentlanguage learning outcomes among tertiarylevel Chinese EFL students.


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ATTITUDE, MOTIVATION, AND STRATEGY

USE Ames (1986) suggested that the effectiveness of the

learner must be examined in relation to those beliefs andperceptions that enable learners to become involved,independent, and confident in their own learning.

Similarly, McCombs (1990)suggested that attitudes andbeliefs about the self and the learning environment caninfluence a students tendency to approach, expendeffort in, and persist in learning tasks on a continuing,self-directed basis. Such a rationale thus places languagelearners attitudes at the centre of their language

learning process because it assumes that attitudes tolanguage learning condition language learningbehaviour.


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Anattitude is usuallyassumedto consistofthree

componentscognitive, affective, and behavioural(Mantle-Bromley, 1995; Wenden, 1998; Zimbardo& Leippe, 1991).

The cognitive component comprises whataperson

knows or believes aboutthe objectofthe attitude. The affective component is the degree oflike or

dislike, approval or disapproval associatedwiththe attitudinal object, suchas the teacher andthe

class. The behavioural component consists ofattitudes

thatpredispose people toact ina certainway.


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RESEARCH QUESTIONS1. Are there anytypical attitudinal

differences between successful and

unsuccessful tertiary-level Chinese

EFL students?2. What strategies dothey reportusing in

their English learning?

3. Howare theytypicallymotivated intocarryingouttheir English learning?


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METHODOLOGY

The students are supposed to apply to take the CETBand 4 (CET4) at the end of semester 1 of year 2.The CET is a large-scale standardized test (Yang,

2000), administered by the National College EnglishTesting Committee on behalf of the ChineseMinistry ofEducation, with a view to :

1) promoting the implementation of the NationalCollege English Teaching Syllabus, and

2) measuring objectively and accurately the real

English ability ofcollege students in China

(Yang, 2000, p. 197).


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Participants

The participants for this qualitative study

were fromtwouniversities in Hefei:2 the

UniversityofScience and Technologyof

Chinaand Anhui University.

Atthe time ofthis qualitative study, the

students hadjust completedtheir CEC and

taken CET4.


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Five teachers were given criteria for distinguishing the two

types of students were (a) for successful students, CET4

scores should be above 80% on a 100% scale; for

unsuccessful students, CET4 scores should be below 60%

on a 100% scale; (b) successful students should not merely

be good test takers, their performance in the regular

English classes should put them among the top 5% of theclass based on their teachers perception; the unsuccessful

students should not merely be poor test takers, their

performance in the regular English classes should put

them among the bottom 5% of the class based on their

teachers perception. The five teachers recommendedaltogether 18 students (9 successful and 9 unsuccessful)

from the two universities.


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Data Types

The present studyusedmultiple datatypes, forexample, interviews, diaries, andfollow-up emails asatriangulation strategytoprovide a richandcomplex picture ofsome social phenomenon

beingstudied (Mathison, 1988, p. 13). According to Denzin (1989), triangulation can often

be achieved via three basic approaches: (a) usingmultiple methods, (b) using multiple sources, and (c)using more than one investigator in the research

process. In this study, all the data analyses werecarried out through cooperation among the threeresearchers in order to accommodate the third typeof triangulation.


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RESULTSSix themes emerged from the analysis of the data: (a)

conceptualizing English language learning; (b)

perceptions of the College English Course; (c) learning

and practicing strategies; (d) self-management; (e)

internal drive; and (f) English proficiency tests.

Comparisons between the 9 successful and the 9

unsuccessful students are reported based on each theme

for the sake of clarity, although there is some overlap

among responses between categories.The six themes

according to a f ramework of three dimensions:attitudinal characteristics, strategies reported, and

motivational experiences.


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Attitudinal Characteristics

Conceptualizing English Language Learning.

A broad range of language learningconceptions emerged among the successfulstudents. Most notably, all the successfulstudents referred to English vocabularylearning as a very important part of theirlanguag

e lea

rn

ing

.

Wor

ds

are

the bric

ks

abuilding is made up of. Without bricks,where will the building be?


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The unsuccessful students seemed to recognizethat English learning in a sense means amastery of basic linguistic knowledge as well.Most commonly expressed among theseunsuccessful students was their emphasis on

both vocabulary and grammar. Their view oflanguage as knowledge was clearly reflected ina response like the main problem with myEnglish is that Im very weak in the basics of

English, the basic grammatical knowledge andthe basic vocabulary. I need to work hard atboth


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Perceptions of the College English

Course

The majority of the successful students,however, felt that the College English Coursewas too rigid or too traditional.

All the unsuccessful students indicated that thesource of boredom in the College EnglishCourse was the teaching style. A feeling thatwas expressed by about half of the unsuccessful

students was that their university Englishteachers were not particularly supportive orapproachable.


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Strategies Reported

Learning andPracticingStrategies.

As a whole, the successful students reported awider range of English learning activities than

the unsuccessful students, already indicated inthe previous section. In order to look at thedifferences in the use of specific learning andpracticing strategies, the researchers examined

how the two groups ofstudents went about twocommon learning activities: vocabularylearning and lesson previewing.


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Self-Management

The successful students seemed to be able to

set particular objectives for themselves,

such as enhancement of specific language

skills or expansion of vocabulary. They

appeared to have a clear idea of what

learning materials should be used, what

possible phases they might undergo, andhow the learning activities should be carried

out.


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The unsuccessful students made noreference to settingtheir own language

learningobjectives. Theygenerally

appearedto lackthe initiative to improve

their English bytheir own efforts; inother

words, they lackedthe kindofglobal

strategies (Wenden, 1985) throughwhich

theythemselves could create learningandpractice goals or opportunities.


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Motivational Experiences

InternalDrive.

In the case of these Chinese students, it seems that thequestion of what makes them decide to choose English doesnot apply because English is a compulsory subject from

secondary school to university. The more relevant questionwe pursued here is: What makes these students persist andmaintain English learning activity on their own? Whatresearchers found from the tertiary-level Chinese EFLstudents may shed some light on the argument that it is notknown whether it is, in fact, high motivation that makessome people choose to study the language or the study ofthe language that creates motivation (Inbar, Donitsa-Schmidt, & Shohamy, 2001).


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English Proficiency Tests

By the time of this research project, all thesuccessful students had taken the CET4; theirscores ranged from 82% to 97% (on a 100%scale). All of them had set the new personalgoal of taking the CET6; a majority of themvolunteered to take the CET Spoken EnglishTest, and half of them mentioned they wouldtake the Test of English as a Foreign Language

(TOEFL) or the International EnglishLanguage Testing System (IELTS) in the nearfuture for the purpose of doing graduate studyinthe United States or the United Kingdom.


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The unsuccessful students. At the time of this study, these students were

preparing for the CET4 for the second time.The majority of them indicated that a CET4

certificate would suffice for them (i.e., theydid not have any intention of taking CET6and the CET Spoken English Test, let aloneTOEFL, IELTS, and GRE). Overall, the

unsuccessful students expressed anxiety,panic, indifference, or hatred towards theCET.


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DISCUSSION

the present qualitative research focused on

potential patterns and processes among two

types of EFL learners in a Chinese context.

This focus is consistent with assumptions of

grounded methods used to infer a

substantive theory that evolves from the

study of phenomenon situated in oneparticular situational context (Strauss &

Corbin, 1990, p. 174).


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This study showed both similarities and

differences betweenthe successful and

unsuccessful students interms ofhowthey

may be conceptualizingthe process of

language learning.

Learning a language means learning its

culture; language learning means

developing and maintaining language sense;language learning entails learning the

language through using it.


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Implicit in this finding is that the wholesocio emotional and cognitive system of

classroom interaction may stimulate

progressive development among

successful students but regressive

coping efforts among unsuccessful

students. The unsuccessful students

displayed an overall negative attitude.


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FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Mainstream Second Language Acquisition

research has been largely anchored within a

cognitive framework(Larsen-Freeman, 2001).

The past decade, however, has seen an

appreciation of the role ofcontextual factors in

learners second/foreign language learning

(Gardner, Masgoret, & Tremblay, 1999;Lantolf& Appel 1994; Norton & Toohey, 2001;

Siegel, 2003).


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The findings from the present study lead us to

agree with researchers who argue thatinteraction of learner difference factors andcontextual factors contribute to differentialsuccess as language learners (Clment &

Gardner, 2001; Sinclair, McGrath, & Lamb,2000).

How foreign language aptitude may beimplicated in learning achievement at different

learning stages, in different socio culturalcontexts, of both, should be a very promisingavenue to be explored.


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THANKYOU

uum college of arts and sciences fundamental of elt

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