TESOL Methodology

Assignment 1 Interview a non-English speaking background (NESB) student currently studying an ESL course.1 Write a profile of this student in accordance with two or three aspects of the relevant features of Yorios taxonomy. Discuss the implications of your observations with reference to current research. Yorios Classification of learner variables (1976: 61) offers us one way to look at the different factors that impact on a students language learning. But before I embark on the task of Writ[ing] a profile of [a] student in accordance with two or three aspects of the relevant features of Yorios taxonomy (Riddell 2004: 9), it is necessary to unpack the assumptions of a taxonomy and variables. A taxonomy is a system that organises knowledge. All systems that organise knowledge are culturally bound and so reflect sociocultural values. As a system that then gets taken up and used (for example, in TESOL courses), taxonomies also reproduce these sociocultural values, re-enacting them in different contexts, while at the same time presenting themselves as timeless, universal. Taxonomies seek to classify things in relation to general laws (OED). In other words, taxonomies seek to decontextualise and universalise variables. Yorios taxonomy, his Classification of learner variables (1976: 61) seeks to separate variables to make them knowable to the teacher rather than show interconnections. The word variables reflects a pseudo-scientific approach to language teaching, again reflecting a desire to make language learners knowable through generalisations. The term suggests a normative form, from which learners vary. These assumptions are particularly problematic in the area of education. Not only do they position teachers and researchers as the knowing subjects, with students as the knowable objects, they also presuppose a normative ideal against which
1

2 differences are classified. This normative ideal is unspoken (and it must be added, impossible), working as a hidden lens through which the learner of English as an additional language can only be seen as Other. This profile of a student in an ESL setting takes as its starting point that all aspects of the students experiences, learning and context are interconnected. To separate them is artificial, at best enabling more understanding, at worst, effacing the specificities and agency of the learning through a process of objectification. It is important to see the complexities of how a range of experiences and attributes intersect; how they are context-dependent.2 It is also important to locate myself within this process. I brought to my discussions with Ulia my own ideas of language learning shaped by my experience of learning to be an ESL teacher whose first language is English, as well as my concerns about whether the school is providing her and others with enough support. This necessarily shaped our discussions, both enabling some ideas and information to emerge but closing off other possibilities. Ulia is in year 7 at a high school in an outer north-eastern suburb of Melbourne. At the time of the interviews (May 2006), she was eleven years old. She migrated from Indonesia with her family last year, attending primary school in a northern suburb of Melbourne from September. In my discussions with Ulia, I focused my attention on the areas of parental expectations and support; opportunities for developing and practicing the four language macroskills of listening, speaking, reading and writing; learning strategies; and, relationships with peers. In the eight months she had been in Australia at the time of the interviews, Ulias English language skills had developed considerably. She has clearly built on her strong first language
I have borrowed this phrase from Arjun Appadurais work on the global movement of people, money, ideas, technology and images. His argument is global cultural flow[s] (1994: 328) are radically context-dependent (1994: 337) and cannot be characterised by unidirectional causality (1994: 338).
2

3 proficiency, demonstrating a very good understanding of the English language and language learning strategies. Ulias speaking skills at the time of the interview fit in between Stages S2 and S3 of the English as a Second Language (ESL) Companion to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (2006). While she was demonstrating sufficient control of stress, rhythm and intonation to be understood in most contexts (Stage S3), her overall level of oral communication best fits the description of Stage S2, where she communicate[s] effectively in a range of familiar social and some basic academic contexts, experimenting with and adapting their developing English and awareness of Australian cultural expectations appropriately. She demonstrated more difficultly with listening, struggling to understand oral English when spoken in unfamiliar or unsupported contexts, such as during telephone calls or by unfamiliar teachers or students. Instead, she had more success in familiar contexts, with familiar people, using familiar vocabulary (Stage S2). Since the interview, she has built on her language learning strategies, and has shown self-motivated interest in the Learning Focus of Stage S3, practis[ing] stress, rhythm, pausing and intonation at the word and sentence level, and identif[ied] the way these can impact on meaning. Further, she identif[ies] sounds that affect their own communication or that they find hard to articulate, and intensely practice[s] them (Learning Focus Stage S3).3 Ulia is reading at Stage S3 of the English as a Second Language (ESL) Companion to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (2006). She demonstrates an understanding of the main ideas, issues or plot developments in a range of accessible texts (Stage S3) and is able to use paratextual features such as headings and
3

Recently, Ulia was observed working intensively with another student to practise specific sounds that affect the meaning of her words. She had drawn pictures of pairs of words that others commonly mishear when she speaks, and asked her friend and her teacher to demonstrate the parts of the vocal tract where these specific sounds are made. She recognises both the importance of her listeners being able to distinguish between her pronunciation of, for example, sit and shit, while at the same time enjoying the humour that such mishearings can provide.

4 diagrams to facilitate her understanding and use of texts. Appendix 1 is a written response to the novel, Chandra (Hendry 2004). In this, Ulia demonstrates a strong understanding of the struggles faced by the protagonist, her motivations and her emotions. She is using her interpersonal knowledge effectively to produce a creative response to the text. Appendix 1 also demonstrates Ulias writing skills to be in Stage S2 of the English as a Second Language (ESL) Companion to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards. She is using the basic text model of a letter as a basis for her own texts (Stage 2). She is independently writ[ing] some basic texts and experimenting with presenting [her] own ideas (Stage 2). Her text show[s] varying grammatical accuracy and she is using an increasing range of simple connectives to indicate relationships (Stage 2). Ulias school does not have an ESL program and does not have any specific positions of responsibility (for example, an ESL coordinator) to ensure the needs of ESL students are being met. Historically, the schools population has been perceived to be made up of AngloAustralians, although this has been changing over the past decade. While many students parents have come from overseas, few students themselves were born overseas. Ulia, then, is learning English in an environment that does not have established practices for supporting students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Her subject teachers have a general awareness of her language needs, while specific language support is provided to her by her English teacher. This teacher uses Ulias written work for diagnostic purposes, using error analysis to identify areas Ulia needs particular help with. This teacher has expressed her concern that, while she is able to identify errors, she is not necessarily able to understand these errors within the context of Ulias second language acquisition, and so is unsure if she is providing appropriate and effective support for Ulia to address these. This concern has a number of implications. It points to the trend in schools that, in the absence of a qualified ESL teacher, ESL support falls to the English teacher who may not have the experience or resources to do this

5 effectively. It also reveals that, in schools with few ESL students, the language needs of these students can be marginalised. In a secondary school context, without a person whose specific role is to advocate for these students, it is left up to individual teachers to pick up the responsibility, which makes a whole school approach to meeting their needs difficult, if not impossible. Before her arrival in Australia in September 2005, Ulia spent her childhood in Indonesia, with the exception of two months in Singapore. The process of migration took the family two years. Both parents had to perform well in English language testing as part of this process. Ulia says they both speak English well. The family had been to Australia two years earlier to visit relatives. This branch of the family has been living in Australia for more than four years. Ulia expressed that this was one motivating factor for her family to migrate to Australia. Ulia studied English at school in Indonesia and says she was really good at it. In Indonesia they start learning a second language in prep or grade one. Beginning with numbers and days, by grade six they are translating stories. A lot of learning activities were translating. Ulia learnt a lot of vocabulary from this. English lessons in Indonesia were one day a week for two hours. Her English teacher in Indonesia thought her English was good, and told her she should practice more. When they were in Indonesia, her parents encouraged her to speak English at home to prepare for their migration. Ulia considers her parents quite accomplished, and so have high expectations of her. Her father is a very skilled architect, and her mother always got first ranking at school. Ulia told me her mother expects her to do the same. Ulia also has high expectations of herself, in terms of academic achievement. She expects to receive A+ grades. She told me she worries about getting a bad mark. She considers the grades of C and B to be bad. Getting such a mark once would be okay, as long as she learnt from it. These

6 worries are a motivating force for her. Yorios Classification of learner variables divides motivation into integrative and instrumental (1976: 61). Brown (2001: 75) suggests that integrative and instrumental refer to an orientation rather than motivation. Instead, he defines motivation as the intensity of ones impetus to learn (Brown 2001: 75). He differentiates between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. This designates a continuum of possibilities of intensity of feeling or drive, ranging from deeply internal, self-generated rewards to strong, externally administered rewards beyond oneself (Brown 2001: 75). In Ulias situation it is difficult to distinguish between integrative and instrumental orientations. At her stage in life (early adolescence), she is not in a position to make the same kinds of language learning decisions as an adult. She is not in a position to choose to learn English for instrumental or integrative purposes. Instead, as a person whose schooling and socialising must now be done in English, her orientation can be seen as simultaneously instrumental and integrative. Seeing her motivation on a continuum between intrinsic and extrinsic is helpful to the degree that it allows us insight into the different ways motivation may manifest in different contexts. An A+ grade can be seen as an extrinsic motivator in that it is a reward from outside and beyond the self (Brown 2001: 76). Ulias parents expectation that she get such marks can be seen as both an extrinsic motivator in itself and a reinforcement of the teachers extrinsic motivator. While grades are often held up (and criticised) as motivators that can only be extrinsic, given by teachers to reward particular levels of achievement, they can also be seen as part of the dialogue between teacher and student, where the teacher gives a measurable and comparable value to students efforts, achievement and knowledge demonstrated. In other words, Ulia may be motivated to get A+ grades because she wants her particular levels of achievement and effort to be recognised by and valued by another, a person whom she considers an authority. The need for recognition by another does not necessarily equate with needing external validation.

7 The new, government mandated, reporting system, that comes into effect in Ulias school next year, may have negative consequences for her perception of herself as a high achiever. While the Minister for Education and Training claims the new A to E reporting scale is to provide students and parents with an indication of student progression measured consistently against statewide standards (Kosky 2006: 1), there is concern amongst teachers that the scale will give information about capabilities, but not account for the efforts students put in.4 The scale of progression may be conflated by students and parents as a grade of achievement. The subtle difference between these ways of perceiving an A+ or a C is potentially more difficult for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, who may have particular expectations about what these letters signify. Ulia has developed very sound study practices. She has a pragmatic attitude towards homework, accepting it as something she needs to do, and doing it as soon as she can. She identified a difference in the homework load between Australia and Indonesia, saying that teachers in Australia do not set as much homework. She also suggested that her parents see completing homework as her own responsibility and do not monitor this. When asked if she discusses her homework with her parents she replied that they trust that she will do it. Parental expectations here point, not just to the motivational issues discussed above, but also to the development of responsibility in their adolescent daughter. While Ulias comment suggests that her parents do not take an active role in monitoring their daughters school work, this is not the case. They are actively involved in working with her teachers to develop her English skills. Ulias mother has encouraged Ulia to participate in the after school drama program in order to develop her oral language skills. She has also identified that Ulia has problems with English grammar, particularly verb tenses, and has sought the schools support to help
4

When C is the average measure of progression, students may be discouraged from putting in more time, or taking on extra tasks, as this may not be reflected in their grade.

8 her with this.5 Yong identifies Indonesian verbs as not marked for person, tense or number (Yong 2001: 286). Because of this, Yong suggests that, Even the most proficient speakers have difficulty in mastering the complexity of the English verb phrase (2001: 286). Ulias comments are consistent with this. She pointed out that Indonesian grammar is easier and she understands it well. She identifies English grammar as something she struggles with, particularly past tense, while vocabulary and spelling she sees as her strengths. Ulia is using Murphys Essential Grammar in Use (1996) to learn English grammar conventions. While this is providing her with important practice, it is decontextualised from the other learning she is doing at school. Ulias parents both value education highly. Ulia discussed how her father thought education in Australia was better than education in Indonesia, and this was another motivating factor in the familys decision to migrate. Both parents, according to Ulia, have very good proficiency in English. It may be that her parents have been very good role models of effective language learning strategies. Ulia spoke confidently about the different strategies she uses to help her language learning. She uses a range of private and social strategies. Ulia takes an active approach to texts. However, she expressed ambivalence about reading. She borrows picture story books from the local library as part of her efforts to develop her vocabulary. She translates these books, and any words she does not understand she checks her dictionary, then memorises them. Ulia finds reading novels very difficult. Indeed, if there are no pictures, she says she will not read the book. For enjoyment she will read Tintin, Asterix and Garfield comics. She will not read books for information, unless she has to at school. While Ulia began our discussion about reading in a positive way, talking about how she uses reading to develop her
Appendix 1 supports Ulias mothers concerns. It demonstrates Ulias difficulty with verb tenses and the use of auxiliary verbs. It also demonstrates a degree of confidence in experimenting with these verb forms, as well as with sentence structure and conjuctions. In this way, Ulias errors reflect her learning strategies: she is trying out complex structures, rather than opting for simple structures.
5

9 vocabulary, she went on to assert that she hates reading in English. This could point to the frustration she experiences when she reads English texts as she cannot perform her reading ability within the expectations she has of herself. It is difficult to ascribe a single causal connection between her perception of herself as a high achiever and her dislike of reading in English. Wales asserts that it is important to look at a students level of oral competence and literacy in the first language as having an effect on the students progress in English language learning (1990: 170). This can be extended to include the importance of understanding the students attitude towards reading and texts in their first language. It is reasonable to assume, given her academic competence, that Ulia has developed strong literacy skills in preparation for the advanced literacy skills needed and developed in secondary schooling. 6 In terms of reading for pleasure, however, Ulia read mostly comics in Indonesia. She informed me that there are not many Indonesian novels, then went on to tell me, as a statement of fact, that she doesnt read novels she decided this when she was little. To expect Ulia to enjoy reading novels in a second language would be unreasonable, following that she does not enjoy reading novels in her first language. Her choice of comics published in English are contributing to the development of her English skills and literacy development. While Garfield comics have sparse written text and very short narratives, Asterix and Tintin comics have extended, more complex narratives and increased lexical density. Some of the available pleasures in Asterix comics are language-based jokes, with word play particularly drawing from the Latin contributions to the development of the English language. It is difficult to measure how much of these Ulia is understanding, but it can be suggested that in being exposed to these jokes, her awareness of English morphology,
6

Frances Christie asserts that advanced literacy is developed in the secondary years (2002: 45). Advanced literacy means being able to manage the specific demands of language use in adult life, including work and further study. Christie foregrounds the importance of secondary school in the development of this: it is with the transition to the secondary school that students must learn to handle the grammar of written English differently from the way they handled it in primary schooling, and that it is these changes that constitute the advanced literacy that is needed for future participation in further study and many areas of adult life (Christie 2002: 45)

10 particularly the function of prefixes and suffixes, may be increased. This is an area that her teachers can build on. Ulia is confident in her role as a student in the classroom. She expects academic help and support from her teachers and is assertive about getting this help. Ulia identified different teaching strategies that make understanding easier for her, demonstrating an awareness of herself as a learner and the teaching styles she responds to. The teachers she understands the best are her English, French and Science teachers. These teachers, she says, dont talk too quickly, or too much They talk a bit, then give us something to do. Other teachers, however, speak too quickly and say too much. Interestingly, the teachers she identifies as having the most difficulty understanding, are the teachers with the more broad Australian accents. This is consistent with her assertion that Australian accents dont match the dictionary and can be hard for her to understand. Despite having some teachers she understands better than others, Ulia suggested that she does not understand much of teachers whole class instructions. Instead, she waits until students begin work, then seeks further explanation from the teacher. Her teachers have identified an increase in the effectiveness of her questioning since the beginning of the year, with her questions targeting specific tasks and expectations. This can be attributed to both her increased proficiency and her confidence within the learning environment. The timing of Ulias migration, in the early stages of her adolescence, contributes significant challenges as well as enabling specific coping strategies. The move from primary school to secondary school has been identified as a significant time of transition for young people (Department of Education and Training 2006: 4). There has been a strong move towards providing comprehensive transition programs for students moving from year 6 to year 7 in Victorian schools. In addition to the challenges students face in the mainstream, Ulia also had to negotiate this change through a second language, and in a different education system.

11 This challenge was compounded by the fact that her secondary school did not have any practices in place to identify and support ESL students. During adolescence, young people generally develop increased independence from their families (McCarter 2003: 267-8). This may suggest that Ulia is becoming better equipped to manage the challenges of secondary school and second language learning, and is more able to take responsibility for, and be an active agent in, this process. Ulia focuses a lot on improving her speaking and listening skills. Her peer group is extremely important in this. McCarter asserts that [p]eer relationships contribute to adolescents identities, behaviors, and personal and social competence (2003: 269). Ulia expressed some ambivalence towards her peer relationships. They are clearly important to her, and she expressed that she enjoys spending time with friends. She also hinted at a degree of self-consciousness with her peers, and suggested that at times she feels overwhelmed in their company. This common adolescent experience is made more challenging for Ulia by the fact that communication with her peers takes place through a second language that she is in the process of learning. While sometimes she enjoys the challenge of this, she is still reliant on friends to help her decode some of the subcultural references and intertexts. This process of decoding is important to her negotiation of a place for herself within the discourse community of her peers.7 Ulia interacts with her friends with differing levels of activity and assertiveness. She uses questions with confidence to seek clarification and feedback. When speaking with friends she will ask Is this right? or Do you mean this? She sees speaking with friends as a learning strategy. She talks to friends often, paying
7

Kramsch points out that the establishment of discourse communities involves marking the boundaries between insiders and outsiders (1998: 8). Ulias negotiation of this boundary highlights the fraught nature of processes of inclusion: while her friends may actively include her, their use of culturally specific references exclude her at the level of shared understanding; their acts of decoding these for her are gestures of inclusion, that at the same time speak of her difference.

12 close attention to their vocabulary, pronunciation, stress and intonation. She seeks feedback on her pronunciation of words, sometimes using the strategy of exaggeration to identify which parts of her vocal tract is making the sound. Ulias speaking and listening strategies indicate her strong awareness of herself as a language learner. Her awareness of the differences in pronunciation between English and Indonesian is in itself a learning strategy because she focuses on these differences in order to increase her understanding of English. While she is using this awareness effectively on her own, her teachers could be building on this to better support and extend her skills. Ulia informed me that often she will just listen to friends conversations. If she understands, she will participate, but if she does not, she says, she keep[s] quiet. She identifies the difficulty of listening in a second language: sometimes her friends talk too much and she forgets what they are talking about. This suggests that she may be focusing her attention on understanding all utterances, rather than selecting the words and phrases that are conveying the most meaning. It also points to the level of cognitive awareness that is involved in communicating in a language she is in the process of learning, where lapses in concentration during conversations have greater implications for her than for her friends. Ulia identified that her moods affect her ability to understand English. When she is in a bad mood she doesnt want to talk to anyone, and finds it harder to understand. At these times she avoids her peers, choosing to sit by herself in class. This suggests that Ulia finds her situation overwhelming at times negotiating the complex terrain that is year 7 in a secondary school through a language that she is still learning. It points to the need for more support within the school structure. Indeed, the language support Ulia gets from her teachers is significantly due to her assertiveness and her perception of herself as an active learner. That is, her expectation that she should be learning and achieving and so should be receiving support to do this, enables her to get this support. The

13 implications of this for other ESL students is concerning. Students who are not as confident in themselves, or have as much language proficiency as Ulia, or have different expectations of the studentteacher relationship, may take a more passive approach to their learning in mainstream classes. It will take a more active approach then, on the part of their teachers, for their learning needs to be met. Ulias active approach to learning, her assertiveness in getting support from teachers and friends, her range of language learning strategies, and her confidence with taking manageable risks, all contribute to her effective language learning. The role modelling by, and support from, her parents provide a nurturing context for her learning. Her teachers have identified that she continues to develop and extend her skills and shows increased proficiency in the macroskills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as increased confidence in negotiating her secondary school environment. It is reasonable to assume that Ulia will continue to build on these successes. It is important, however, that her school looks closely at the support it provides students who are learning English as an additional language, focusing on ways it can take a whole school approach to meeting students language learning needs.

14

References
Appadurai, Arjun. 1994. Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy. Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory: A Reader. Ed. Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. New York: Columbia University Press. 324-339. Brown, H. Douglas. 2000. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. 4th edition. White Plains, NY: Longman-Pearson. Brown., H. Douglas. 2001. Teaching By Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. White Plains, NY: LongmanPearson. Department of Education and Training. 2006. Victorian Government Secondary Schools Guide. Melbourne: Department of Education and Training. Hendry, Frances Mary. 2004. Chandra. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kosky, Lynne. 2006. Letter to School Council President, Spensley Street Primary School. 18 October. Kramsch, Claire. 1998. Language and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. McCarter, Susan Ainsley. 2003. Adolescence. Dimensions of Human Behavior. Second edition. Ed. Elizabeth Hutchison. Thousand Oaks, Ca.: Sage. 247-302. Murphy, Raymond. 1996. Essential Grammar in Use: A Self-Study Reference and Practice Book for Elementary Students of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Oxford English Dictionary. 1993. Riddell, Christine. 2004. TESOL Methodology Readings. Footscray, Vic.: Victoria University. Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. 2006. English as a Second Language (ESL) Companion to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards. <http://vels.vcca.vic.edu.au/support/esl/esl.html> <http://vels.vcca.vic.edu.au/support/esl/sstages.html> Date accesses 8 November 2006. Yong, Janet Y. 2001. Malay/Indonesian Speakers. Learner English: A Teachers Guide to Interference and Other Problems. Second Edition. Ed. Michael Swan and Bernard Smith. New York: Cambridge, 279-295.

Yorio, Carlos. 1976. Discussion of Explaining Sequence and Variation in Second Language Acquisition. Language Learning, Special Issue. 4: 59-63. In Brown 2000.

15