The Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1.
January 2008
The Chinese EFL Journal
January 2008 Volume 1, Issue 1
Editor: Paul Robertson
Chinese EFL Journal
Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008
The Chinese EFL Journal January 2008 Volume 1, Number 1 Editor: Paul Robertson
The Chinese EFL Journal: Volume1, Number 1 Published by the Asian EFL Journal Press Asian EFJ Journal Press A Division of Time Taylor International Ltd TTI College Episode Building 68-2 Daen Dong Pusan Korea http://www.chinese-efl-journal.com Asian EFL Journal Press 2007
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Editor: Dr. Paul Robertson Senior Production Editor: Shin Young
ISSN (to be issued)
Chinese EFL Journal
Index. Foreword: - Dr. Paul Robertson 1. Hong Wang and Liying Cheng. The Impact of Curriculum Innovation on the Cultures of Teaching 2. Xiuqin Zhang. Raising Awareness of Cultural Differences in Language Classrooms 3. Yang Xueqian. The Influence of Discourse Organizational Patterns on Chinese EFL Learners Listening Comprehension 4. Li Hua. Reflection can change EFL Teachers beliefs and teaching practice 5. Liu Han and Hu Xiaoqiong. An Investigation into Listening Comprehension Difficulties of More Skilled and Less Skilled Listeners and the Concordant Strategies 6. Wenhua Hsu. An Integrated Approach to Teaching English Trade Letters 7. Guidelines for Submissions 8. Editorial Group 5-30
31-40
41-61
62-77
78-98
99-130
131-134 135
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Foreword: - Dr. Paul Robertson Welcome to the winter 2008 edition of the Chinese EFL Journal. This Journal is the sister Journal to the long established Asian EFL Journal, Linguistics Journal and Asian ESP Journal. The journal has begun to deal with an area that has been overlooked for too long, and a very important area, namely the development of the English language across China. The journals above receive a vast amount of submissions from China which reflects the growing importance that English learning and the teaching of English is having across the PRC. Being a new journal we invite anyone interested in assisting the CEJ establish itself. There is of course a great deal of work which requires a large team of Editors, proof readers, web helpers and so on to get every edition on line. We look forward to hearing from you if you would like to join this new venture. We introduce 7 articles in our first edition. The first article by Hong Wang and Liying Cheng describes the Rolling Project conducted in the College English Department at a major provincial university in China from 1998 to 2000. The purpose is to explore the change process, the subsequent challenges presented to the main stakeholders in the university, and the impact that this English language curriculum innovation has brought about to the then prevalent cultures of teaching. The next article by Chanmei Yan discusses problems that may occur in English teaching in China and explores strategies to deal with them. The third paper by Xiuqin Zhang raises concerns about cultural differences between the East and West that often result in misunderstandings between Chinese students and Western teachers. The next paper by Yang Xueqian reports on an experiment designed to test whether Chinese EFL learners are affected by discourse organizations when listening in English. The fifth paper by Li Hua is a case study conducted with 24 EFL teachers from 6 different high schools in Guangdong to explore their beliefs and practices in their work place, and how their reflection changed their beliefs and their practice in a Chinese context. discourse organizations when listening in English. In a study by Liu Han and Hu Xiaoqiong, it is shown both in quantitative and qualitative study that more skilled listeners have less cognitive difficulties than less skilled listeners in terms of perception, parsing and utilization and use more strategies than less skilled listeners in listening comprehension. The final paper by Wenhua Hsu offers a conceptualized framework with content-based instruction, genre awareness, group work in continuous simulation and a courseware approach embedded, outlining the pedagogical procedures on which the framework is based Paul Robertson Asian EFL Journal
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Title The Impact of Curriculum Innovation on the Cultures of Teaching Authors Hong Wang and Liying Cheng
Bios Hong Wang is a Ph.D. candidate in curriculum studies of second/foreign language education at Faculty of Education, Queen's University, Canada. She has been a language teacher and language teacher educator for about 20 years at a university in China. Her research interests are teaching English as a second or foreign language, teacher education and professional development, curriculum implementation and evaluation. She holds an M.A. in English Language and Literature at Xi'an Foreign Languages University, China, and an M.A. in Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Carleton University, Canada. Liying Cheng (Ph.D.) is an assistant professor in teaching English as a second/foreign language at Faculty of Education, Queen's University, Canada. Her primary research interests are second/foreign language testing and assessment in relation to classroom teaching and learning. She holds an M.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from the University of Reading in England and a Ph.D. in second/foreign language testing from the University of Hong Kong. Before joining Queen's University in 2000, she was a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow (1998-2000) within the Center for Research in Applied Measurement and Evaluation (CRAME) and the TESL program at the University of Alberta, Canada.
Key words: curriculum innovation and sustainability, cultures of teaching, teachers as decision-makers, implementation
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Abstract This paper describes the Rolling Project conducted in the College English Department at a major provincial university in China from 1998 to 2000. The purpose is to explore the change process, the subsequent challenges presented to the main stakeholders in the university, and the impact that this English language curriculum innovation has brought about to the then prevalent cultures of teaching. It is argued that the failure to sustain the project is the consequence of the top-down approach to curriculum innovation during which the majority of the teachers, despite being the main stakeholders, were excluded from full involvement in the decision-making process. Critical reflections about the project point to the importance of understanding the complexity of educational change and the key role that teachers play in the process within the educational context. It is further suggested that the significant role teachers should play in curriculum reform must not be overlooked if successful implementation and sustainability are to be achieved. Introduction Educational change for improvement occurs frequently in any institutionalized context, and more often than not this change process is full of problems (Fullan, 1982, 1992, 1993; Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991). Some of the educational changes produce desired results whereas others cause frustrations among the main stakeholders. Teachers and students, especially, get discouraged because of unpredictable and insurmountable hurdles that they perceive difficult to overcome.
The Rolling Project described in this paper regards English language teaching at the tertiary level. This paper describes such a curriculum innovation1 undertaken in the College English Department2 at a major provincial university, located in Xian, a medium-sized city in China. The innovation was designed from April to June in 1998. It was officially implemented in September of the same year, but was aborted in June 2000. The purpose of the project was to solve the problems that the previous teaching model had caused to teachers and students such as lack of cooperation among teachers and students of uneven language proficiency being put in the same class. It was anticipated that this curriculum innovation would encourage cooperation and collaboration among teachers through team teaching. Teachers could benefit from
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their peers respective expertise in subject content knowledge, classroom management, and pedagogy.
Based on the theoretical framework of educational change and cultures of teaching (Fullan, 1982; Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991; A. Hargreaves, 1992, 1993; D. Hargreaves, 1980), this paper reveals the need for global curriculum reform in general education and particularly in the context of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in China. A literature review on cultures of teaching and teachers roles provides a point of entry to the curriculum innovation. The next section presents the national college English curriculum in contrast to the previous college English teaching model, identifying the main difficulties encountered during reform and implementation. This is followed by a detailed description of the Rolling Project framework, its intended benefits, and the implementation reality. Reflections about the discontinued project offer valuable information to administrators and others in leadership roles. The final sections consider the implications of this study for curriculum innovation in other settings and address limitations. Cultures of Teaching and Teachers Roles in Curriculum Reform The knowledge of teacher cultures can be traced back to the early 20th century, when Waller (1932, cited in A. Hargreaves, 1992) first pointed out the segmented and isolated nature of teachers work in a classroom setting. Much later, research on teacher isolation (Flinders, 1988; A. Hargreaves, 1989; Sarason, 1982) increased significantly in scope. However, some important questions in the analysis of teacher cultures, which A. Hargreaves (1992) raised, still remain unresolved. As he put it, the key question was whether there is a single entity called the culture of teaching that characterizes the occupation as a whole; whether there is a multiplicity of separate and perhaps even competing teacher cultures; or whether the two somehow coexist side by side (p. 218, original italics). Moreover, some researchers (D. Hargreaves, 1980; Sarason, 1982) contended that a prevailing cult of individualism exists among teachers. This is so pervasive that it could be considered a unique characteristic of the entire teaching profession.
The factors that make teacher cultures diverse are discussed by Feiman-Nemser and Floden (1986) in their extensive review of North American literature on the cultures
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of teaching. They described the differences in age, experience, gender, teaching philosophy, subject matter, and grade level among teachers, arguing that the assumption of a uniform teaching culture is untenable. However, they seemed to overemphasize cultural and subcultural factors, thus neglecting some generic features (A. Hargreaves, 1992, p. 218) always present in the teaching environment. A. Hargreaves (1992) acknowledged the presence of those diverse cultures but the absence of overall clarification and configuration of teacher cultures throughout the profession. He deemed individualism and collaborative culture as the most common forms of teacher culture, believing that they were the basis of understanding some of the limits and possibilities of educational change.
Within any culture of teaching, the role of teachers as the main stakeholders in educational reform has been the focus of ongoing interest to curriculum researchers and discussed extensively in the literature both conceptually and empirically. To probe what is occurring in the implementation phase of any curriculum reform, Connelly and Clandinin (1988) used Schwabs (1973) concept of commonplaces subject matter, milieu, learner, and teachers to explore curriculum problems. They claimed that the most influential factor among the commonplaces is the teacher per se as in Stenhouses (1980) firm belief that curriculum development is ultimately about teacher development. While examining the teacher in relation to curriculum, Clandinin and Connelly (1992) envisioned that the teacher is an integral part of the curriculum constructed and enacted in classrooms (p. 363). Munn (1995) emphasized the significance of teachers involvement in curriculum development and decisionmaking in curriculum reform in Scotland. He suggested that neglecting teachers and denying their participation in feasibility studies was the main reason national testing failed to be satisfactorily implemented in the classroom.
Teachers involvement as well as change in teachers are both indispensable to the success of curriculum reform. A. Hargreaves (1989) believed that change in the curriculum is not effected without some concomitant change in the teacher, because it is the teacher who is responsible for delivering the curriculum at the classroom level. What the teacher thinks, what the teacher believes, what the teacher assumes all these things have powerful implications for the change process, for the ways in which curriculum policy is translated into curriculum practice (p. 54). Richardson
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and Placier (2001) specifically claimed that teacher change is not entirely an individually determined phenomenon. Rather, it is shaped by the social context in which they work.
Carless (1998) pointed out the need for teachers to have a thorough understanding of the principles and practices of proposed changes in order to achieve successful implementation. He emphasized that teachers need to understand and value the theoretical underpinnings of the innovation. More importantly, teachers must realize how the innovation can be applied within their classrooms. In an exploration of how a communicative teaching syllabus was introduced and adopted in Greek public secondary schools, Karavas-Doukas (1995) discovered that teachers failed to gain a complete understanding of the EFL innovation there. Their misconceptions resulted in negative perceptions of the curriculum innovation.
Implementation of any curriculum innovation is closely connected with cultures of teaching as defined by A. Hargreaves (1992). Within any teaching culture, it is always the teachers who play a deciding role in shaping the nature and extent of implementation. The success of curriculum reform and its implementation depends on whether teachers willingly participate in and are valued and acknowledged in the process. Teachers understanding of the innovation is also indispensable in contributing to or impeding long-term success.
The Rolling Project The following section critically discusses the implementation of the Rolling Project using the above theoretical framework of educational change, cultures of teaching, and in particular, teachers role in curriculum reform. We first provide a description of the national college English curriculum in China and also introduce the context. We then examine the previous teaching model as administered at a major provincial university from 1986 to 1998, identifying difficulties encountered under this teaching model. The framework of the Rolling Project is then discussed, including intended benefits and the implementation problems. Reflections about the discontinued project are linked to concepts and issues raised in the literature review.
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The need for the Rolling Project was initially proposed in April, 1998 by the department heads at the College English Teaching and Administration Committee meeting. It was discussed by the seven key departmental committee members (see Han, 2000; Zhu et al., 1998). The committee was comprised of the head of the department, two associate heads, two directors from the College English Teaching and Research Group 1 and 2, one director from Group 3, and one from the computerassisted teaching group. This project was introduced and documented in the department meeting minutes and finally obtained official approval from the University administration in June 1998.
The national college English curriculum College English in China refers to the English instruction for non-English majors who constitute the largest proportion of students studying at the tertiary levels. The national college English curriculum (NCEC) came into existence in 1986 and aimed to develop in students a relatively high level of competence in reading, an intermediate level of competence in listening, and a basic competence in writing and speaking (College English Syllabus Revision Team, 1986, p. 1). Each year, approximately 2.3 million students are enrolled in English instruction for non-English majors in colleges and universities after sitting in the competitive unified National University Entrance Examinations (Yang & Weir, 1999). These students pursue undergraduate degrees in a variety of disciplines such as arts, sciences, engineering, management, law, medical science, and so on.
For all university non-English majors, a study of college English for two years is mandatory. Students take a total of 280 teaching hours of English about 70 hours each term (5 to 6 hours each week) in order to meet the basic requirements. To examine the implementation of the curriculum and to evaluate classroom teaching and learning, after the first two years of English study, students are assessed using a nationwide, standardized English proficiency test called the College English Test Band 4 (CET-4). For those who pass the CET-4, the College English Test Band 6 (CET-6) can be taken after three years of study. The mandated CET-4 focuses on testing students language proficiency in listening, reading, and writing. Most of the test items are multiple-choice format.
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The context Founded in 1902 and situated in Xian city, the major provincial university where the curriculum innovation took place is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in China. It is a medium-sized provincial university with a student population of 18,000. The national college English curriculum was initiated at the university in 1986 and implemented for 12 years. In 1998, when the innovation started, there were 48 faculty members and 9 administration staff in the College English Department. The department had three Teaching and Research Groups with Group 1 and 2 each having 20 teachers engaged in instructing undergraduate students EFL learning. Group 3 with 5 teachers had the task to instruct graduate students of non-English majors in their EFL learning.
The most experienced teachers in the department were in their 40s or 50s and were usually recycled teachers of Russian. Most had minimal English proficiency, particularly in listening and speaking skills (Cowen et al., 1979). The young and less experienced teachers were those who graduated from foreign language institutes or foreign language departments of a local comprehensive university majoring in English language and literature located in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi Province. This group of teachers had good training in linguistic knowledge and knowledge of English language and culture, but less experience in terms of pedagogical knowledge and research skills. Teachers tended to teach rather independently, with minimal communication and collaboration among colleagues. This was especially the case in the College English Department at that time.
The vast majority of students at the university (95%) came from Shaanxi Province. Each year approximately 2,000 students entered English classes. Every EFL teacher was typically assigned 10 to 12 hours per week of college English teaching. They taught two classes comprising 45 to 55 students each. The number of students in each class was pre-determined by administrators at departmental and university levels before the National University Entrance Examinations (NUEE) were administered. NUEE was held once a year in June and all senior high school students were tested. As fewer than 5% could be accepted for post-secondary education in China, good performance on the NUEE was very important (Hu, 2002).
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Following the guidelines of the national college English curriculum, English language teaching in the College English Department was conducted in five major prescribed skill areas, which include: 1. Intensive Reading (IR)3: 2 hours a week with a focus on grammar, vocabulary, reading, and writing, and taught through a written text; 2. Grammar and Exercises (G/E): 20 to 30 minutes practice a week included in IR; 3. Extensive Reading (ER)4: 2 hours a week with a focus on different reading skills and strategies; 4. Fast Reading (FR): 20 minutes practice a week included in ER with a focus on reading speed and testing strategies; 5. Focus Listening (FL): 2 hours a week with a focus on listening skills and testing strategies.
In the College English Department from September 1986 up until June 1998, under the one-teacher-package-class model (Han, 2000), every single English teacher was responsible for teaching the five skill areas. The university was one of the many schools adopting this teaching model. This model had the most obvious advantage in that teachers sense of accountability was strong. Teachers worked diligently so that their students could, hopefully, achieve good results when assessed with the College English Test Band 4 (CET-4). Monetary reward was part of the teaching model; teachers whose students failed to meet the passing rate requirements of 50% to 60% as set by the College English Teaching and Administration Committee in the department could even be fined a certain amount. Although nobody was fined, due to successful passing rates, teachers felt a great deal of pressure. The majority (85%) received symbolic monetary rewards in the amount of 300 to 500 RMB for successful student performance on the CET-4 (College English Teaching and Administration Committee, 1992-98). However, the positive achievements were sometimes overshadowed by the difficulties encountered during the instruction, which will be explained next.
Problems identified with the one-teacher-package-class model
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During the operation of this teaching model, both teachers and students voiced their dissatisfaction and complaints. Particularly, two groups of students demonstrated their discontent. One group was made up of advanced students with higher language proficiency. As discussed above, upon entering the university all students started their English language learning from college English band 1 regardless of their language proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In classes of students at different levels in English, teachers had to adjust their teaching methodology and conducted classroom activities to meet the needs of the majority of the students. Consequently, students with higher English proficiency often commented that the class was too slow and not challenging, and that they found doing exercises dull and mechanical. This resulted in irregular class attendance by top students. In contrast, the other group was students with poor language proficiency. They complained that the class was still too tough for them, and that they were unable to follow what the teacher was lecturing about nor could they participate in any classroom activities such as discussions, presentations, group work, or pair work. Gradually, they lost their motivation to learn English.
Teachers also expressed their concerns. The teaching culture of one-teacherpackage-class made it more obvious that teachers taught alone and received little peer feedback on their teaching. Practically, this teaching model prevented EFL teachers from communicating and exchanging ideas on subject content knowledge, classroom management, and pedagogy with their colleagues, and further prevented them from building cooperative and collaborative relationships with their peers in the teaching environment. Even worse, teachers tended to be self-content after many years of this isolated teaching experience without acknowledging how their colleagues taught, let alone learning from them. As time passed teachers started avoiding long-term planning and collaboration with their colleagues, making it impossible to create an environment where teachers could learn from each other. Thus, year by year, their teaching styles were fossilized and they lost motivation to change.
The reformed framework: The Rolling Project
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The Rolling Project was implemented in the fall of 1998 after two months of discussions. The main purpose of the Project was to solve the problems caused by the previous one-teacher-package-class which enabled teachers to teach a certain class for two years with a fixed teaching style. The rationale behind the reform was the advocacy of transforming the cultures of teaching in A. Hargreaves (1992) identification of individualism to a collaborative culture. It was expected that the reformed teaching model would enhance teaching and learning and that the project would be welcomed and sustained in the department.
Under the new model, all entering students were required to take a placement test designed by the testing committee of a top university in Shanghai, China and already in use by many universities throughout China. The test paper included multiple-choice items in listening, vocabulary, and reading comprehension, as well as a writing section including a written composition of 100 words. At the University, students were allowed to take this placement test only once and no make-up test was provided. In general, those students scoring in the top 15% of the entering group entered Level A, the bottom 15% entered Level C, and the rest placed into Level B. So the majority (70%) were in Level B. Besides placement test scores, each students English score on the National University Entrance Examinations was considered when making final placement decisions. An assessment was given at the end of each term. Students at each level were thus capable of moving up (except Level A) or down between the levels. The use of the term rolling in the project name refers to this movement between the three levels. In September 1998, of 1,800 new students, 260 students were placed into Level A (highest proficiency), 240 to Level C (lowest proficiency), and the majority (approximately 1,300 students) into Level B. The following figure provides an illustration:
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Figure 1: The Reformed Framework of the Rolling Project Level A (Class 1) Level A (Class 2) Level A (Class 3)
Placement Test
Level B(Class 1) Level B (Class 2) Level B (Class 3)
Level C (Class 1) Level C (Class 2) Level C (Class 3)
To foster teacher collaboration, two to four teachers were grouped into a team. Take a team of 3 teachers teaching Level B for example. Teacher A may teach Intensive Reading to class 1, Extensive Reading to class 2, and Focus Listening to class 3. Teacher B may teach Intensive Reading to class 2, Extensive Reading to class 3, and Focus Listening to class 1, and so on. Based on past performance as evaluated by students (using an anonymous evaluation form filled out each year) and English proficiency as judged by their performance during teaching competitions (to award teaching excellence) held in the department and the university, the Teaching and Administration Committee of the department decided the levels at which teachers were to teach. In addition to their years of teaching, teachers with more fluent spoken English were assigned to teach Level A. It was stipulated that teachers in a team should work closely by preparing lessons together every other week, sharing teaching plans, observing each others class, and organizing extra-curricular activities.
The intended benefits The Rolling Project emerged to meet the requirements of the social and economic development in the contemporary Chinese society, where students with high language proficiency were and still are in great demand in the job market. The innovation, designed to manifest the revised national college English curriculum, was based on the teaching guidelines differentiating requirements, differentiating supervision, and differentiating instruction (College English Syllabus Revision Team, 1999, p. 10). In so doing, the change was geared towards conducting the EFL class according to students different language proficiency coupled with respective language requirements. In addition, this reformed model introduced the competition mechanism
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into the teaching and learning environment and further enhanced the learning experience of students (Zhu et al., 1998). This challenge not only was beneficial to teachers progress but also strengthened students sense of competition skills (Cui et al., 1999). The fundamental difference in this reformed teaching model from the previous one resided with the strong belief that both students and teachers could benefit from the innovation. Students had the chance to get more input of the target language by attending three different teachers classes of Intensive Reading, Extensive Reading, and Focus Listening. The reformed model encouraged team teaching when teachers had the opportunity to collaborate and to learn more about teaching methodology, classroom management, and pedagogy from each other.
Ideally, through team teaching, all novice and veteran teachers teaching at different levels would have had the opportunity to discuss and consult with each other on issues about their teaching. Han (2000) gave an example of this collaboration in which a teacher in one of the B-level groups initiated a drama project to apply the communicative language teaching approach in her classroom teaching practice. She cooperated with three novice teachers in her team and conducted the project in their ten classes. They helped their students in writing up the script, in rehearsing the play, and finally in performing the plays on campus. This collaboration made other teachers in the team easily approachable and supportive. More importantly, team teaching restructured the former one-teacher-package with each teacher team teaching different classes. In this way, students benefited from three teachers with their unique teaching styles and expertise in subject content knowledge. What is most significant is the promotion of A. Hargreaves collaborative culture (1992), which eventually aims to shape the culture of teaching in the department.
Problems emerged after implementation The implementation stage of a curriculum is considered a critical phase in educational reform (Fullan, 1992). Without knowing what is happening during the implementation phase, it is impossible to probe the underlying reasons why so many educational innovations and reforms fail. Also, implementation can be viewed as problematic in that the main stakeholders in the process may be confronted with unpredicted challenges (Fullan, 1982; Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991). The same was true with the
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Rolling Project. Collectively, teachers as implementers of this curriculum innovation faced immense pressure and competition.
First, the reformed teaching model placed all the teachers into a public role in regard to their teaching. Previously, teachers with different language proficiency and experiences usually conducted their classes behind closed doors, and colleagues rarely had the chance to observe their performance. As a result, teachers tended to feel secure with whatever teaching method they preferred to employ in their own classroom. However, team teaching in the reformed model broke this practice and each teacher in the team was expected to demonstrate his or her teaching capacity in front of the same students as the other two team colleagues. Students compared, contrasted, and evaluated teachers work in terms of diligence, subject content knowledge, classroom management, and teaching methods. This competition for best performance put teachers, especially those with low language proficiency, under great pressure. As mentioned above, some middle-aged or senior instructors who received their language education during the 1950s or 1960s were less proficient in English, especially in communication skills, compared with those young teachers who had more recent comprehensive English language training. Most of the middle-aged or senior teachers used the grammar-translation approach, which did not necessarily require them to speak much English in the classroom. Second, both novice and veteran teachers considered the new curriculum reform to be demanding and challenging. With the expansion of student enrolments each year, teachers had to bear more and more responsibility for instructing more students in a big class. In an Extensive Reading class, sometimes the class size was as big as 70 to 80 students. When the innovation came about, teachers felt exhausted with all the preparation, marking, and research. Besides, they received little or no in-service professional training after many years of teaching at the tertiary level and their English proficiency actually decreased. Therefore, the revised curriculum was simply beyond their linguistic and professional capacity.
Teachers who taught the A-level felt quite satisfied academically as they instructed the best students at the university. These students were highly motivated to learn and quite active in class activities. And the excellent results from the national College
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English Test of their students further strengthened their pride with over 90% of their students passing the CET-4 in the third term and nearly 50% passing the CET-6 in the fourth term (Li, 2002). But their pride was overshadowed by teachers from B and C levels. Teachers from the B-level had an uneasy feeling about the placement. Since all the top students were placed into Level A, it was much harder for them to meet the required passing rate set by the department. Li (2002), a teacher instructing the Alevel students, commented, some teachers in B and C-levels threw their hatred to the A-level teachers, who were chosen and assigned by the head of the department, as if it was these teachers who dwarfed them. A-level teachers therefore were under siege of gossip and jealousy, and were isolated from the rest of the teaching staff (p. 104). This antagonism within the teacher group made A-level teachers feel discouraged as teaching A-level became a heavy burden physically and psychologically for them. They were involved in considerable extra work organizing extra-curricular activities for their students such as speech contest, or language clubs. They were worried about not becoming the target of jealousy. In addition, teachers who taught Level C felt embarrassed since it is a kind of indication that they are not quite competent (Han, 2000, p. 12). Moreover, these teachers were not motivated to teach C-level class because students would most of the time sit quietly in the classroom and wait for the teacher to talk. There were hardly any communicative activities such as discussions or presentations conducted in the classroom.
Third, the complaints and resistance to the innovation were also heard from students at Level C, which is the lowest level about the placement. After the placement test, 240 students who entered in 1998 were grouped into Level C and two teachers were assigned to co-teach this group. Although the planned curriculum redesigned the classroom teaching to meet the needs of C-level students so that they could have perceived the teaching materials and pace of instruction to be comprehensible and accessible, it turned out to pose new frustrations to many students. What was most intriguing was the following dilemma. Since they had comparatively low language proficiency and were known to be in the C-level class, most of them felt they lost face in front of their peers who were at A or B levels. Even though they had the chance to move up to the upper level, the placement itself made them feel
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embarrassed. Many of them came from rural areas where language education was not as good as in cities. These students had low language proficiency and struggled in their language learning. As well, when meeting their classmates who happened to be in the same dormitory and in the same courses every day, some C-level students felt humiliated and others felt ashamed by the grouping. As a result, in the third term, the C-level groups were cancelled and all the students were promoted to the B-level; Level A continued till they completed two years of study. At this point, the Rolling Project actually came to an end and the implementation of this curriculum innovation discontinued.
Discussion The Rolling Project with its intention to meet students needs and encourage collaboration among teachers caused much more chaos than the previous oneteacher-package-class teaching model. In reflection, we have come to realize the important role that teachers play in the whole change process and the implementation context where the cultures of teaching impact its success and sustainability.
Teachers role in curriculum innovation It has been attested in a considerable number of studies in both general education and in second or foreign language education that the key factor to guarantee success of any educational reform resides with the teacher (Clandinin & Connelly, 1992; Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991; A. Hargreaves, 1989; Karavas-Doukas, 1995; Markee, 1997; Munn, 1995). No matter what the reform intends to achieve, if the cultures of teaching fail to provide the desirable context for teachers, eventually it is no surprise to expect discontinuation or failure in the implementation phase.
The exclusion of a majority of teachers in the extensive discussion about the feasibility of the Rolling Project before its implementation resulted in the sad fact that most teachers simply did not buy in. This was seen from the operation of the project prior to the reform. Right from the designing phase, the majority of the teachers in both Teaching and Research Groups were excluded from participating in the discussions. They were neither invited to attend the committee meetings nor were they officially informed why such a change was considered necessary. As a result, many teachers did not comprehend the necessity nor share the feasibility of the
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curriculum change. The resistance from some teachers teaching at B and C levels during the implementation phase was seen as a case in point. The resistance to the changes in fact signaled teachers frustration and dissatisfaction, and it also implied the importance of teachers involvement in curriculum innovation discussed in the previous studies in the literature (Munn, 1995). Therefore, it is not surprising that the Rolling Project failed to gain support from the teachers.
The failure of teachers thorough understanding of the Rolling Project was another reason, the same as was seen in Karavas-Doukas study (1995). Teachers had no idea about what the new teaching model would be nor shared understanding as to how and why it should be implemented. The policymakers, namely, the committee members failed to recognize that teachers not only should have been involved in the process of curriculum innovation but also should have been required to take the initiative in carrying out the innovation in order to make the project succeed. The outcome was that the project was very unlikely to be successfully enacted and further sustained. In relation to all this, teachers should have been provided with adequate professional development sessions and emotional support in understanding what the curriculum innovation aimed to achieve (Brindley & Hood, 1990; Curtis & Cheng, 2001) prior to and during the implementation. Unfortunately, the Rolling Project did not provide such kind of support to the teachers concerned. The fact that most teachers were unable to gain a thorough understanding of the curriculum innovation or receive prompt teacher in-service training resulted in the unsuccessful implementation of the Project. This resonated with what Karavas-Doukas (1995) and Carless (1998) discovered in their empirical studies in EFL settings in Greece and Hong Kong respectively.
Isolation as the generic culture of teaching The implementation context of the Rolling Project indicated another important factor of what has been discussed in the literature about the cultures of teaching (A. Hargreaves, 1992, 1993; Hargreaves et al., 1992). Although Hargreaves et al.s (1992) delineation of the common forms of teacher culture such as individualism and collaborative culture is based on the Western ESL context, the same can be applied to the Chinese EFL setting as well. Teacher isolation and individualism as the universal nature in the teaching occupation that Sarason (1982), Flinders (1988), and A.
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Hargreaves (1989) have mentioned exist among teachers in different settings, and China is no exception. It is so unique that it is present in the entire teaching profession everywhere (A. Hargreaves, 1992). In addition, as pointed out by White (1988), a detailed analysis of existing systems already in place, especially the culture of organizations should be conducted and the innovation context should also be taken into consideration prior to implementation of an innovation.
Studies have shown that in the research on the culture of individualism, the most pervasive characteristic of teaching is that of classroom isolation. Teachers are separated into a series of egg crate-like compartments, isolated and insulated from one anothers work (Lortie, 1975). This is typical of primary and secondary teacher cultures but perhaps more so in the tertiary education context where there is less curriculum control over students and teachers. The Rolling Project administered in the aforementioned Chinese university is one such scenario. Ever since the establishment of the foreign language department, all teachers developed the habit of working alone with their own students in their respective classrooms under the one-teacherpackage. It was rare to see colleagues exchange ideas about subject content knowledge, material development, and pedagogy, and neither did they sit in each others classrooms and observe. More often the heads of the department would observe teachers classroom teaching for external evaluation purposes. Consequently, teachers had no understanding of what and how their peers conducted their language classes. One reason might be that after 1986, the national standardized syllabus and textbooks were introduced, and teachers guidebooks were provided. With all these supplementary materials to assist teachers in their lesson preparations, teachers assumed that they did not need collaboration. However, to enhance teaching and learning, teachers do need to have professional development opportunities to exchange instruction ideas and to learn from each other (Cheng & Wang, 2004).
In addition to the physical classroom isolation, teacher isolation also prevails in the teaching profession. This isolation not only restricts opportunities for professional growth but also represents a potential barrier to the implementation of reform initiatives (Flinders, 1988). As well, regarding the phenomenon of individualism as a generic heresy of educational change, A. Hargreaves (1993) echoed the same position, claiming,
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Teacher individualism, teacher isolation, teacher privatism the qualities and characteristics that fall under these closely associated labels have come to be widely perceived as significant threats or barriers to professional development, the implementation of change, and the development of shared educational goals (p. 53). From individualism to collaboration On the continuum of the teacher cultures, from individualism to collaborative culture, it seems that some forms might co-exist side-by-side, even in one educational setting. Research suggests that the culture of collaboration is a paucity, and that this culture has been difficult to create and even more difficult to sustain (A. Hargreaves, 1992, p. 227). The reason behind this might be that from novice to veteran teachers alike, there lies the sensitivity to or fear of being observed while teaching. A. Hargreaves (1993) stated, They [teachers] do not like being observed, still less being evaluated, because they suffer competence anxiety and are fearful of the criticism that may accompany evaluation (p. 54). D. Hargreaves (1980) made a similar point by saying, The heart of the matter, is the teachers fear of being judged and criticized. Any observation will be evaluative of the teachers competence, and the threat therein becomes the greater because such judgment may remain implicit and unspoken, and therefore incontrovertible (p. 141). In the case of the Rolling Project, especially those teachers who entered the teaching profession in 1970s without adequate English language training in subject matter knowledge and methodology often felt threatened by working in a team (Han, 2000). They had more teaching experience, yet they were not equipped to meet the new challenges in the revised curriculum. Such sensitivity to public performance and exposure is a major barrier to many innovations in teaching in China. Especially team teaching makes some teachers language inadequacies more noticeable in front of both students and their colleagues.
Indeed, it is very difficult to achieve collaboration among teachers. However, it is important to bear in mind that the ultimate goal of curriculum innovation and further school improvement should be targeted at collaboration and collegiality, simply because schools cannot improve without people working together (Liebeman, 1986, p. 6). Although there were some cooperation and collaboration endeavors among teachers in the Rolling Project such as the effort of some B-level instructors, it was still not a widely adopted practice in the teaching culture of the department
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during the whole implementation phase. Although team teaching was strongly encouraged at all three levels, teachers seldom observed each others teaching, nor did they discuss issues on teaching and pedagogy. In this respect, teachers preferred to retain the former status quo.
Reflections and suggestions on the discontinued Rolling Project The short execution of the Rolling Project has left much to be contemplated, particularly for administrators and those in leadership roles in the context of higher learning institutions. First of all, the absence of teachers ownership of the innovation evaded teachers, the key stakeholder in any curriculum innovation, from being interested and involved in the departmental curricular endeavor. The underpinning behind this not buying into the innovation attitude suggests the hierarchical administration characteristics in the unique Chinese cultural context. Within such a highly centralized educational system in China, any policy or innovation tends to be disseminated in a top-down instead of bottom-up manner. Whereas policymakers extol the virtue of making certain innovations in accordance with institutional development, teachers fail to see benefits related with their own professional development. Such a top-down policy tended not to be implemented in the way intended by the administration. In such a context, teachers seemed to acknowledge the innovation without actually playing an active role in implementing it (Morris, 1988). To remedy such a mismatch in bringing about any curriculum innovation, policymakers need to bear in mind that top-down policy should incorporate shared understanding about the potential benefits of any innovation among teachers themselves and their students.
Another important emergent point is the urgency of enhancing in-service language teacher training at the Chinese tertiary level. As revealed from the Rolling Project, many experienced senior teachers felt threatened by teaching the same students as their young colleagues who had better communicative proficiency. The sharp contrast dwarfed the senior teachers to a certain extent, which in fact put them in a disadvantaged position regarding classroom teaching. The innovation was beyond their linguistic capacity and further made their language inadequacies stand out in front of their students and peers. The fear of inadequacy and losing face put these veteran teachers back to the previous model of one-teacher-package. For this
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reason, upgrading the target language proficiency levels (Cheng, Ren, & Wang, 2003; Phillips, 1991), particularly for this group of foreign language teachers is paramount before the curriculum innovation is put into effect. The administration also needs to recognize that teachers need to feel safe before they can be fully involved in any innovation. Collaboration is a universal concern in terms of enhancement of teaching and learning in the school setting. As discussed in the literature, it is difficult to achieve collaboration, but it does not necessarily mean that cooperation is impossible. It is true that the teaching and learning culture in China is highly competitive, where teachers compete for excellence and promotion. The competition can terrify teachers and put them under immense pressure. In addition, the teaching culture in China does not fully recognize individuality, i.e., individual teachers strength in different aspects of teaching. Therefore, efforts should be made by institutional administrators to promote and nurture an environment where it is safe and unthreatening for teachers to observe each other without losing face or confidence. For example, teachers can be recommended to observe each others classroom teaching and then to write a reflection report on the observations and draft plans for their individual personal growth. Following up activities can be arranged by putting teachers into smaller teams of five or six where they feel more comfortable to express their views about teaching. They work together in preparing lesson plans, in discussing strategies in dealing with unpredicted classroom incidents, in sharing instructional tips, and in helping each other in research projects based on their own strength. Gradually, a climate of collaboration is expected to form within a teaching environment in which every teacher benefits. Conclusions Curriculum innovation is a complex social phenomenon because of the social, economical, political, and cultural factors embedded in the teaching and learning process (see Richard, 2001 for a situational analysis of curriculum development). The cultural factors particularly can be seen in the cultures of teaching. The mismatch between the anticipated teacher cultures described in the studies of both Little (1982) and Williams et al. (2001) and the context where teachers work often creates problems that hinder successful implementation of the changes. As well, success is
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pre-conditioned by whether the educational decision-makers have the main stakeholders engaged in the reform or not. This means that the involvement of all the stakeholders in curriculum reforms is important. Teachers active participation in and their collaborative work with colleagues turn out to be a deciding factor to ensure the success of the effort. The discontinuation of the Rolling Project lies partly in the assumptions of the policymakers who designed the project. Johnson (1989) pointed out that any curriculum development would involve a tension about what is desirable and what is acceptable and possible (p. 18). It proved to be problematic to believe that good intention to improve both teaching and learning will result in desirable results, and that teachers commitment to change is unquestionable as long as they perceive the benefits.
Unfortunately, teachers as change agentry (Fullan, 1982, 1993, 1999) are often excluded in the decision-making process of the reform. Their place in curriculum innovation and the context of their workplace cultures are usually overlooked by policymakers. To remedy this, policymakers first of all should consider the complexity of the process of any curriculum reform before implementation. They also need to bear in mind that the cultures of teaching will determine whether a desired result can be realized in the working context, where individualism gives place to collaboration and collegiality. Finally, it can be observed that to attain this goal is no easy job, because it requires the joint efforts of all who participate. This paper provides an in-depth discussion and understanding of a curriculum innovation endeavor in the Chinese EFL setting. Based on the researchers experience and observations, the reflection on the project points to the essential role that teachers actually play in implementing a given innovation, which adds to the existing change literature in English language teaching. We recognize that this scenario entails implications for other centralized educational systems in some Asian countries where teachers are bound under rigid curriculum requirements and have less autonomy in classroom teaching. We have chosen to focus our discussions on the role that teachers play in this curriculum innovation in this paper although a successful implementation must involve students as well. We also recognize that more extensive interviews with policymakers, teaching staff, and even students together with in-depth classroom observations will generate more insights on this innovative endeavor and will provide
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a much richer and more valuable source of data for further analysis on the impact of curriculum innovation on the cultures of teaching.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Professor Hugh Munby at the Faculty of Education, Queens University for his constructive feedback on the earlier version of this paper.
Endnotes 1. In this paper, the term innovation is used interchangeably with the terms reform and change. 2. This refers to a department which is involved in teaching English to non-English major students from a variety of disciplines such as arts, sciences, humanities, engineering, social sciences, law, and medicine. It is called College English Department in China to distinguish from English Department, which teaches English to those who specialize in English language and literature studies. 3. Intensive Reading (IR) in the college English curriculum is actually not a reading course, but the core course in EFL in which everything that the teacher wants to teach (grammar, vocabulary, reading aloud, etc.) is taught through a written text (Li, 1984, p. 13). Susser and Robb (1990) refer to IR as close study of short passages, including syntactic, semantic, and lexical analyses and translation into the L1 to study meaning (p. 161). In the Chinese EFL tertiary setting, IR integrates all language skills, for example, the reading, use of words, knowledge of grammar and structure, writing skills, and translation practice. All these skills are taught through a reading unit that includes two or three pages of a written text and several pages of exercises on linguistic and grammatical points and on writing topics (Wang & Han, 2002). 4. Extensive Reading (ER) in the college English curriculum refers to a reading class. However, students are required to read texts, out of class, from the ER textbooks including materials of different genres such as autobiographies, short stories, and popular science articles prior to the class. What EFL teachers do in such a class is to check students homework by asking comprehension questions, having students discuss what they have read, and doing corresponding exercises. The purpose of ER class in the college English curriculum is for general understanding of the texts, but not for pleasure reading with students choosing their own books, as discussed by
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Susser and Robb (1990). There are different viewpoints about what extensive reading is and how to teach this course (Field, 1985; Robb & Susser, 1989). However, the authors would not focus on this issue since it is outside the scope of this paper.
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Title Raising Awareness of Cultural Differences in Language Classrooms
Author Xiuqin Zhang College of Foreign Studies, Yanshan University
Bio Zhang Xiuqin, professor of English, now teaches EFL at Yanshan University in P.R. China. Her current research interests include English language teaching and inter-cultural communication. She has published several textbooks and articles.
Abstract: This paper raises concerns about cultural differences between the East and West that often result in misunderstandings between Chinese students and Western teachers. Cultural differences frequently create obstacles and difficulties in both the teaching process for the English language instructors and learning process for Chinese students. Relevant Chinese and Western teaching methods are compared, along with the Chinese culture of learning, views of communication, and the importance of facesaving. Approaches to raising awareness of the cultural differences in the classroom are provided at the end of the paper.
Introduction At the present time, many Western teachers are coming to China to work as English teachers in colleges and universities. Chinese students aiming to improve their speaking skills feel very fortunate to receive language instruction form Western
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teachers. Many Western teachers strive to improve the Chinese students speaking skills by implementing a series of classroom activities such as group discussions, oral presentations, role plays, etc. Such activities focus on classroom interaction and student participation as formidable methods to learning and developing speaking skills. Therefore, it seems that students are likely to succeed if they can make full use of these opportunities. However, research findings from the interviews suggest that neither Chinese students nor Western teachers have experienced much success. Many students learning English from Western teachers feel disappointed, stating that their speaking skills have not improved as much as they had expected, and they consider classroom activities a waste of their class time. Whereas, Western teachers report that Chinese students are too quiet in the classrooms, and thus less actively involved in the activities. Their reticence and passivity appear to frustrate the Western teachers. In fact, the way Chinese students learn language is quite different from the way they are being taught by Western teachers. As a result, this causes many misunderstandings between the students and teachers. The limited awareness of the cultural differences regarding learning and teaching may give rise to frustrations and a sense of failure on both sides. Different cultures use different approaches to language learning, and without understanding these differences, both the students and teachers may be unsuccessful in their efforts in language acquisition as well as language facilitation in the classroom.
Findings From the interviews 1. What is the most positive aspect of being taught by Western teachers of English? 2. What is the most negative aspect of being taught by Western teachers of English? 3. What is the most positive aspect in learning English for Chinese students? 4. What is the most negative aspect in learning English for Chinese students? The first two questions were posed to 23 Chinese science-major students. These students had the experience of learning oral English from native speakers for at least one year. The findings indicated that the subjects actually liked the native English speakers as summarized in the following statements: They are very patient; I can get the correct use of English and correct pronunciation; and They know how to use English correctly in speaking, reading and writing.
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With regard to the negative aspects of receiving instructions from Western teachers, the subjects statements were noted as follows: They seldom correct you when you are speaking; Always feel nervous because of many oral activities and Too many discussions in the classroom for the students. It appears that discussion activities are less popular in Chinese language classrooms. The last two interview questions were provided to five Western English teachers (two from the U.S.A. and three from the U.K.). They stated that Chinese students are very diligent workers, good at grammar and remembering grammatical rules. However, they are generally very quiet in the classroom, lack originality in ideas, and tend to follow others in discussion activities. Findings from the teachers interviews suggest that their sense of ineffectiveness in the English language classrooms may be the result of different approaches to learning, and the lack of awareness of each others cultural differences.
Comparison of Chinese and Western teaching methods A striking contrast appears to exist between the traditional Chinese teaching methods and those introduced from the West (specifically the U.K. and U.S.A.). The differences in expectations are likely to negatively influence Chinese students comfortableness, thus becoming a source of anxiety for them. In China, teaching is mostly teacher-oriented. Teachers are considered authorities, models, experts, and 'parents'. Maley (1986, p.103) reported on his experience of teaching English in China after having lived there for a year and a half. He described the importance and usefulness of books in teaching and learning English. Chinese students and teachers regard books as an embodiment of knowledge, wisdom and truth. Hence, books are treated with high reverence and value. According to most Chinese, knowledge derived from books can be taken out and put inside the students heads (Maley, 1986, p.103). Given this understanding, it is common for many Chinese students to undertake great effort in memorizing the contents of their books. Importance is also attached to intensive reading, which is carried out at all stages of English learning from middle school to the university level. It consists in taking students through a text on a word by word, phrase by phrase basis, explaining points of vocabulary, syntax, style and content along the way (Maley, 1986, p.103-104). Students are expected to memorize new words and recite the texts they have learned.
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Speaking is mainly in the form of reading texts and practicing pattern drills. Language is viewed as a subject to be understood rather than as a tool to be used. As a result of this type of educational practice, students are good at reading and grammar, but poor at speaking and writing. In other words, they appear to do well absorbing information but poor at developing skills related to language usage. On the other hand, Western education focuses more on individual student creativity. Western education encourages the teacher to be a facilitator and the students to take on some responsibility for their own learning (Richards & Lockhart, 1996). Books are regarded differently from the Chinese view. They are regarded as tools for learning. They contain facts, opinions and ideas that are open to interpretation, to dispute and discussion (Maley, 1986). Western teachers generally approach teaching in a more intimate and friendly manner with more attention paid to the learning contexts, the students needs, and to creative, appropriate expression. Classroom environments are influenced by learner-centered methodology focused on task achievement and problem-solving approaches for both linguistic and cultural learning (Jin and Cortazzi, 1998). Chinese students often regard the less directive teaching methods of the foreign teacher as a waste of time. They consider group discussion, which is positively valued by Western teachers, to be fruitless, and they believe they risk picking up errors from their classmates. They think the teacher should present knowledge and practice with the students. Group language practice should be carried out after class in order to make full use of class time (Zhang, 2006). Clearly, Chinese students and Western teachers have different views regarding the nature of the teaching process as well as different criteria for adequate instruction. What Western teachers consider important is viewed differently by Chinese students. The key differences appear to be unique conceptions of knowledge, language, and teaching. Western teachers stress skills and language use while Chinese teachers stress knowledge. As a result, these differences may increase the feelings of uncomfortableness and anxiousness in the classroom because the students are expected to learn in a different way, and readily change their learning habits that were previously formed in childhood.
Chinese culture of learning
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Cortazzi and Jin (1996) relate Chinese students method of learning to the influence of early childhood education. They assert that Chinese children are socialized into a particular long-standing culture of learning when they start to read and write Chinese in kindergarten and primary school. Learning in these early years gives strong emphasis to memory, imitation, and repetitive practice. The early experience of learning their first language seems to share remarkable continuity with key aspects of how Chinese students will approach learning a foreign language at a later stage. One of the features Jin and Cortazzi (1998, p.13) summarized as a Chinese culture of learning is the idea that learning is apprenticeship. It involves following a master in word and deed. This may explain why Chinese students are unwilling to be distracted by group work they consider talking with their peers to be a waste of time that could be spent learning from the 'master'. The apparent passivity of the students in the classroom is not a lack of involvement in the lesson, but respect for the teachers greater knowledge and wisdom. The Chinese culture of learning involves the need to listen, to think and reflect, to respect and obey the teacher and, probably not to volunteer comments unless asked, in order not to interrupt the teacher (Cortazzi and Jin, 1997, p.86). However, this passivity of students can be a major obstacle to improving speaking skills in the language classroom.
Chinese views of communication Jin and Cortazzi (1998) summarized eight key features of the Chinese culture of communication that Chinese students bring to the classroom. Without recognizing these features, Western teachers may not fully understand many of the Chinese students behaviors in the classroom. KEY FEATURES OF CHINESE CULTURE OF COMMUNICATION KEY FEATURE Communication produces harmony Communication depends on authority Communication depends on the known Communication COMMENT The chief aim of communication is to bring harmonious relationships rather than mainly to share information functionally. Communication follows tradition and authority rather than originality or spontaneity. Speakers defer to experts, including the teacher. Speakers say what is known rather than regarding saying as a way of knowing. Often inductive patterns are used background
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first, main point later or reason then result, rather than vice versa. Opposites may be part of a large truth, so there is a Communication tendency to think both and rather than either or as is holistic in binary thinking. Both participants have responsibility for Communication understanding. Not everything needs to be explicit is reciprocal hearers/readers can work out implications. Proof can come from analogy, examples or Communication indications rather than by explicit sequential links. works by analogy Silence can be acceptable on ambiguous or Silence is sensitive topics. Silence can show solidarity and avoid communication embarrassment. (Jin and Cortazzi, 1998, p.114) is inductive Communication among Chinese students centers on hierarchical relations, agreement, harmony, face and respect. They tend to look at their academic life in a collective way in which they care about their relationships, seek harmony in their learning and in their communication with others. They are tolerant of different ideas held by their classmates and avoid situations that may cause anyone (both themselves and others) to lose face (Jin and Cortazzi, 1998). This is one of the reasons they are passive in classroom group discussions because they wish to show respect to others by avoiding arguments. These differences may cause misunderstandings between Western teachers and Chinese students. A person who avoids challenging others in group discussion is viewed positively by Chinese students, while Western teachers may view it as showing a lack of independent thinking and personal opinion.
Face-saving Chinese culture attaches great importance to face, which is defined by Cupach and Metts (1994, p.3) as the conception of self that each person displays in particular interactions with others. Face threats occur when a persons desired identity or public self-image is challenged in a particular interaction. The teaching methods employed by Western teachers focus on the development of communicative competence. In other words, the use of English language may actually be a threat to loss of face for many Chinese students. Ren yao lian; shu yao pi (a person needs face like a tree needs bark) is an expression commonly used in
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Chinese discourse. Most Chinese People will not do anything that threatens their own face, and if they have to, they will try to minimize the threat. In English classrooms, any act of oral communication is a threat to face, because of the high risk of making a mistake and appearing foolish. Communicative acts may be arrayed on a scale from lesser to greater risk of loss of face. Some acts are scarcely a risk and may be done with little further consideration. Others are so grave that they may not be undertaken at all (Scollon & Scollon, 1981, p.172). Chinese students who feel they lack sufficient knowledge of English to enhance their face might react by trying to speak as little as possible, or to avoid speaking at all. This fear of losing face and of being negatively evaluated by others may lead to their reticence and passivity. As a result, their opportunities to practice speaking the target language are significantly reduced thus resulting in their slower progress. Brown (2004, p.17) points out that few people of any background would be completely oblivious to the impressions they are making on other people. But to students within the Chinese culture who attach great importance to face, this can become a particularly noticeable impediment to obtaining the necessary language practice in order to improve their speaking skills.
Approaches to raising awareness of cultural differences We have observed that the barriers to learning and teaching result from different cultural orientations to language learning, and different expectations about the roles of teachers and students. Raising awareness of cultural differences is essential for both students and teachers. Awareness of these differences can be addressed in the following ways: 1. Integrating both target language culture and Chinese culture in the textbook. Most textbook writers and compilers of foreign language teaching and learning pay special attention to the target language culture. The target language culture is mainly on the social values, customs and important Western festivals with little attention being paid to culture in academic field such as teaching methodologies employed by western teachers and how Western students learn in the school. Integrating culture in academic field will help Chinese students to understand the Western teachers teaching and learning style at the very beginning and avoid the feeling of uneasiness and frustration.
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On the other hand, Chinese culture may help Western teachers learn Chinese students better and the roots of their behaviors. Furthermore, Chinese students themselves may also develop the ability to express their own culture in English and are willing to talk about it in class. 2. Make use of visual aids Both teachers and students should have access to English and Chinese visual aids such as films and videotapes on weekends in their spare time and talk about them in class as a cultural awareness raising experience. Most people will exclude Chinese films and videotapes in English learning. However, language learning should not only develop students four skills but also the intercultural communication skills. Equipped with Chinese culture, both Chinese students and Western teachers can better communicate and discuss relevant differences in the classroom setting. 3. Discussion activity This process will enable them to better understand each others culture and improve their rapport with each other. It is proposed that the discussion can follow these steps: Step 1: The teacher asks the students to discuss in groups what differences they have noticed in Western and Chinese methods of teaching or/and learning and list their ideas on a sheet of paper. Step 2: The teacher then asks each group to present to the class the results of their discussion. While one member of the group is talking, the other members can join in. Step 3: The teacher then talks about his/her understanding of the differences in teaching and learning between the East and West. Step 4: The students are asked to share about their own culture with the teacher, and the teacher can then share about his/her own culture with the students. The rationale of the approaches mentioned above is based on Hall (1990, p.212) who claims that self-awareness and cultural awareness are inseparable, which means that transcending unconscious culture can not be accomplished without some degree of self-awareness The process of understanding, sharing, discussing and exchanging ideas about each others culture can help both the teacher and the students to better understand the expectations that each has of one another and to adopt
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appropriate behaviours in the classroom. As a result, both the teacher and students can make some movement towards mutual congruence. Both can be encouraged to express their own ideas and gain a better understanding of each others culture. Harmer (2001, p.65) asserts that the success with which learners adapt to a new cultural milieu will affect their language acquisition success, and vice versa, in some possibly significant way. Thus, this awareness raising is an essential component in the syllabus content. It will help the students overcome their passivity and reticence in the classroom and feel more comfortable in asking questions, volunteering comments, and responding better to the teacher. However, this change will be gradual and the expectation of immediate change is not realistic.
Conclusion In conclusion, cultural differences can accentuate Chinese students anxiousness and uncomfortableness in the classroom thus resulting in passiveness and reticent behaviors. The key to developing students English speaking skills, with the help of Western teachers, is to raise both the Chinese students and Western teachers awareness of cultural differences. Cultural awareness enables the students to know what they are expected to do in the classroom and respond accordingly. As a result, students may take each opportunity to practice the language in the classroom and benefit fully from the Western teachers teaching methods. Additionally, Western teachers may better understand the behaviors of Chinese students in the classroom with the ability to respond more effectively to the needs of their students. Consequently, both the students and teachers will increasingly enjoy the learning and teaching experience and achieve the desired outcomes of the language coursework.
References Brown, R. A. (2004). Learning Consequences of Fear of Negative Evaluation and Modesty for Japanese EFL Students. The Language Teacher. 28(1): 15-17. Cortazzi, M. and Jin Lixian. (1996). Cultures of Learning: Language Classrooms in China. In Coleman, H. (Ed.). Society and the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cortazzi, M. and Jin Lixian. (1997). Communication for Learning across Cultures In
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McNamara, D. and Harris, R. (Eds.). Overseas students in Higher Education. London: Routledge. Cupach, W. R. and Metts, S. (1994). Facework. London: Sage. Hall, E.T. (1990). Understanding cultural differences. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press. Harmer, J. (2001), The Practice of English Language Teaching (Third Edition). Essex: Longman. Jin Lixian and Cortazzi, M. (1998). The Culture the Learner Brings: a Bridge or a Barrier? In Byram, M. & Fleming, M. (Eds.). Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective: Approaches through Drama and Ethnography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Maley, A. (1986). XANADU- a miracle of rare device: the teaching of English in China In Valdes, J. M. (Ed.). Culture Bound. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. Richards, J. C. and Lockhart, C. (1996). Reflective teaching in second language classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Scollon, R. and Scollon, S. B. K. (1981). Narrative, Literacy and Face in Interethnic Communication Norwood, New Jersey: ABLEX Publish Corporation. Zhang, X. (2006). Speaking Skills and Anxiety. Teaching English in China. 1:34-39.
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Title The Influence of Discourse Organizational Patterns on Chinese EFL Learners Listening Comprehension Author Yang Xueqian Hainan Normal University, China Bio
Yang Xueqian, M.A., is a lecturer at Hainan Normal University; Research fields: Applied linguistics and CALL;
Abstract: This experiment is designed to test whether Chinese EFL learners are affected by discourse organizations when listening in English. Two listening texts, revised to be identical in all aspects except discourse organizations, are used as instruments on two parallel groups of subjects. Results do not directly show that Chinese learners comprehend more information when they listen to a Chinese-style English text. But observations into the position of some Information Units reveal that Chinese learners tend to perform significantly better on comprehending Information Units which locate at the end of a paragraph than those at the beginning. Key words: discourse organization listening comprehension Information Units 1. Background Since Kaplan (1966) first hypothesized that people with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds organize discourse differently, many researchers (e.g., Mohan & Lo, 1985; Wong, 1992; Yu, 1996; Kirkpatrick, 1993) have tried to verify whether or not there are structural or rhetorical differences between English and Chinese, and whether or not such differences affect English-as-foreign-language learning. Controversial suggestions have been made in literatures. Scollon (1991), following upon Kaplan, claimed that modern Chinese in Taiwan were still following the
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traditional Ba Gu Wen**1structure of Chinese. When writing in English, they also exposited in a recursive way. On the contrary, Mohan and Lo (1985) argued that both English and Chinese people are equally concerned with directness and conciseness of expression. There is no basis for claims of rhetorical differences. Nevertheless, many researchers (Scollon and Scollon, 1994, 1995; Young, 1994; Kirkpatrick, 1997a) held that Chinese writers or speakers tend to place the main point (topic) at the end of an expository discourse, which makes the text inductive rather than deductive. In his research, Kirkpatrick (1993) found that modifyingmodified sequence, rather than topic-comment, is a fundamental unit of sequencing in modern Chinese. 2. Problem This study looks into whether the possible difference in discourse patterns between English and Chinese affects Chinese EFL learners listening comprehension in English. According to Kirkpatrick (1993), Chinese speakers attach to a becausetherefore sequence in extended expository spoken discourses. Contrary to the topiccomment pattern of English, Chinese prefer to place the topic at the end of a text. His claim was also echoed in many other researches (e.g. Tai, 1975; Chen, 1986). If this is the case, we can assume that Chinese are accustomed to processing expository texts in such a way, and that they may consequently perform better in listening comprehension when information is organized in a because-therefore sequence. In listening comprehension, they used to pay more attention to the ending remarks. Hence, in this study, two hypotheses can be put forward: Hypothesis One: When a listening text in English-style discourse pattern is revised into Chinese-style, Chinese students perform better in listening comprehension. Hypothesis Two: When a piece of information is moved from elsewhere to the end of a text, Chinese students perform better in comprehending it.
** Ba Gu Wen: A discourse structure required in imperial examinations of Ming & Qing Dynasty in Old China. It follows the four parts of Kaiduan (beginning) Fazhan (development) Gaochao (climax) Jieju (conclusion).
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Chinese discourse pattern and English discourse pattern may differ in many ways. In this study, we focus on the because-therefore sequence principle. There are two reasons for that. First, as mentioned above, it is deemed to be the crucial difference between English and Chinese discourse patterns. Second, the process of listening comprehension is complex. Some others elements, such as discourse markers, can also influence listening comprehension. If such elements are also left uncontrolled, the study might not be effective. The objective of probing into this problem is to find out whether or not the difference of discourse patterns between English and Chinese influences Chinese EFL learners listening comprehension. Theoretically, this is an attempt to contribute to the field of cognitive science, because modes of information processing reflected in different discourse patterns are also ways of thinking. Practically, the result of this study can directly contribute to the area of EFL teaching/learning methodology. If the difference of discourse patterns is proved to be one of the elements that influence EFL listening comprehension, knowledge of discourse patterns should be introduced in listening training. Since both discourse patterns and the process of listening comprehension is complex, we can not expect all the concerning questions to be answered in one study. As mentioned, what the current study will do is to answer the question of whether or not listening comprehension is influenced. Other questions, such as how it is influenced and how such influences change due to learners language proficiency, would be left to further researches. 3. Literature Review Different languages bear different discourse organization patterns. When a person who is accustomed to the discourse organization pattern of his L1 learns a different L2, it is understandable that he might have some difficulties in processing the discourse structure of L2. Previous researches (see Chaudron & Richards, 1986; Tudor & Tuffs, 1991; Flowerdew & Miller, 1992) have indicated that L2 listeners often have difficulties in following the structure of a text for a gist comprehension, even though sometimes they have no lexical obstacles at all. Using an engineering lecture as instrument, Olsen and Huckin (1990) conducted a study with 14 postgraduate ESL students. After analyzing the subjects summary notes of the lecture,
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Olsen and Huckin concluded that some of the subjects could understand all the words but still have difficulties in gist comprehension. In explaining this phenomenon, they claimed that it was due to subjects familiarity of disciplinary culture. That is, students are accustomed to certain structural models of science lectures. Once the lecturer alters the way of exposition, some students may get lost in comprehension. Science lectures are all bound to solve problems with given conditions. In general, the structural models of such lectures can be no other than problem-solution or more complicated, problems-solutions. Science students might not have much difficulty in following the lecture structural models. In their study, what caused comprehension problems might be on a micro level, rather than the macro level of lecture structural models. As we know, science lecturers seldom stray away from the conventions of problem-solution model. But the way they organize their exposition of a problem or comment would be unavoidably determined by their ways of thinking and/or conventions of discourse organization. This might be the reason for comprehension difficulties, which is what we are concerned about in this study. Intuitively, we assume that difference of discourse patterns between learners native language and target language causes problems in his target language learning, but this depends on how different the two languages are. Some languages are in the same family and similar to each other, but some languages are distant. According to Kaplan (1966), as we can see in Figure 1, Romance languages and Russian are similar to each other; Chinese and Korean share the same discourse organization pattern; while English is
FIGURE 1 Major Discourse Patterns with Different Languages
totally different from East-Asian languages. Scholars holding similar views include Rutherford (1983), who took Chinese as topic-prominent and English as subjectprominent. In his study, Kirkpatrick (1993) concluded that the because-therefore
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sequence operates as an important sequencing principle in modern standard Chinese. For example, when justifying a claim, Chinese people generally deploy conditions and reasons before they come to a conclusion at the end of the discourse. This is totally different from English speakers convention of topic-comment, which declares its topic at the very beginning, followed by supporting arguments on different levels. The difference of discourse organizational patterns between English and Chinese has been shown to be influencing Chinese EFL learners writing in English. Gonzlez, Chen and Sanchez (2001) conducted a case study on how cultural thinking and discourse organizational patterns influence writing skills of a Chinese EFL learner. Two essays written by the Chinese EFL learner were assessed by American preservice teachers and a Taiwanese EFL instructor. In addition, the authors analyzed the Chinese cultural thinking patterns reflected in the discourse organization through a psycholinguistic coding of the essays. Comparison and analysis revealed that linguistic developmental problems presented by the Chinese EFL learner have connections with underlying cultural thinking and discourse organizational patterns. Gonzlez, Chen and Sanchez (2001)s study might have less relation with this one, since writing is an output skill, while listening is an input one. Sharps (2002) research from the input perspective may shed more light. He conducted an experiment on reading comprehension affected by rhetorical patterns. In his experiment, four rhetorically different texts (comparison contrast, cause-effect, problem-solution and collection of description) with identical subject matter were read by 490 Hong Kong Chinese school children. Comprehension was measured and compared. Results showed a significant difference in comprehension between the texts. With a close reading of his instruments, we can find that the description text and the problemsolution one are similar to the two instruments used in this study: the description text follows a structure similar to because-therefore, while the problem-solution text is topic-comment. In contrast to the researches on writing and reading, few studies have been conducted to investigate the influence of discourse organization patterns upon Chinese EFL listening comprehension. But for some other languages, there are some researchers who tried to approach this topic through investigating discourse markers (e.g. Chaudron and Richards, 1986; Dunkel and Davis, 1994; Flowerdew and Tauroza,
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1995; Jung, 2003). Among them, Jungs (2003) study might throw some light on the current study, since the Korean subjects used in his study, as mentioned above, are similar to Chinese in thinking patterns. Jungs study examined the effects of discourse signaling cues on L2 listening comprehension. 80 Korean EFL learners took part in the study. One half listened to the lecture with signaling cues, another half listened to the lecture without. The findings showed that signaled group performed significantly better than non-signaled group in both macro information and micro information comprehension. As we know, discourse markers serve as signposts in a text, helping listeners follow the structure of the discourse. Macro-markers (Chaudron and Richards, 1986) are naturally elements that affect L2 listening comprehension. In this study, in order to focus on discourse patterns, the variable of discourse marker is cautiously kept under control. 4. Data Collection To explore the influence of discourse organizational patterns on Chinese EFL learners listening comprehension, this study used two spoken texts as instruments on two parallel groups of subjects. One text followed Chinese discourse pattern and the other followed English discourse pattern. Subjects were required to take notes of what they had heard. All their notes were collected as data, on which comparison and analysis would be made. 4.1 Instruments Two listening texts were made to be as identical as possible in every respect except for discourse organization. The Chinese-style text was cited from a speech of the principal of Beijing University at press conference in 1990, in which a journalist asked him about military training of college freshmen students. The principal answered in Chinese and was immediately interpreted by a bilingual expert into English (see Appendix 1). This text was taken as carrying typical features of Chinese discourse organization style: because-therefore information sequence (Kirkpatrick, 1993). The English-style text was technically revised from the Chinese one. The because-therefore sequence was rearranged into the topic-comment sequence. All the other variables that might affect parallelity, such as text length, sentence length, lexis, and grammar etc. were kept under a strict control. Audio variables, such as
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accent, reading speed and pauses, were also kept under control, by having the two texts read by the same speaker and at the same speed. A pre-test was held to ensure that two instrument texts were indeed representative of Chinese and English discourse organization styles. Transcripts of the two texts were given to 23 Chinese university English teachers (proficient in both Chinese and English) to read. 21 of them could differentiate the texts and explain the difference of information sequence (because-therefore and topic-supporting) between Chinese-style and English-style texts. 4.2 Subjects 60 Subjects were chosen from the authors English-major second-year students in Hainan Normal University. They had been studying English for at least 8 years (5hour per week in their middle school and full-time in university), and were deemed to be intermediate in English proficiency. As to listening comprehension, they were accustomed to listening to longer texts, but had never been taught the knowledge of contrastive discourse organizations. Hence, they should be equally unaware of the difference between Chinese and English discourse styles. After the experiment, a post-test questionnaire was also given to investigate their knowledge of that. 4.3 Procedure Subjects were divided randomly into two parallel groups according to the scores of their listening comprehension exams in the past 3 semesters. Group one listened to the Chinese-style text and group two listened to the English-style one. Before listening, subjects were all allowed to read about the context in which the listening text was produced. Then they listened to the instrument textthe principles response. While listening, subjects were assured to take the role of the questioner and take notes of what was heard. To avoid the situation that some subjects might have heard and understood but could not spell a word/phrase in English, they were allowed to taking notes in Chinese. After collecting subjects notes, a post-test questionnaire was held to investigate their knowledge of contrastive discourse patterns. Subjects were given transcripts of both texts and a simple questionnaire sheet. They were required to identify which text was organized in Chinese/English style and explain the reason of their choice. Guess was discouraged, and they were allowed to quit if they couldnt explain the difference
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of discourse patterns. Among the 60 subjects, 53 quitted, 7 answered the questionnaire but only 3 could identify the right texts. And only 1 among the 3 could correctly explain that the two styles were different in the sequence of topic and supporting. This result testified subjects ignorance of contrastive discourse styles, as expected. To assess subjects listening comprehension, instrument texts were segmented into basic Information Units. An Information Unit (IU) is a basic meaningful unit, usually carried in a clause. For example, the following sentence is constituted by 2 IUs: The enrollment for this year, (IU1)1990, will be 1600 students, (IU2)double that of last years. As mentioned above, the instrument texts carried the same meaning, so they carried the same number of IUs (see Appendix 2). Subjects were assessed on the number of IU they had taken down in their notes (see Appendix 3 & 4). 5. Method of analysis The major method of analysis used in this study was comparison. Firstly, two groups comprehension resultsthe numbers of IUs, were compared by a paired sample t-test. As mentioned, only discourse organization was left as an independent variable. Comparison of two groups comprehension results would reveal whether or not discourse organization patterns influenced subjects listening comprehension. The assumption was that Chinese students were accustomed to the Chinese discourse pattern and therefore could be affected by it while listening to an English text. If the first hypothesis is true, Subjects should feel more comfortable listening to the Chinese-style text. Then Group 1 should score comparatively higher then Group 2. Secondly, based on the above comparisons, observation was made on certain IUs, especially on those which changed places when discourse style changed. This was to find out the possible correlation between placement of an IU and listeners comprehension of it. If subjects score significantly higher on an IU when it locates in one place than in another (e.g. the starting-point and the ending-point of a discourse), the reason might be due to the influence of discourse patterns. As we know, English native speakers used to put the topic at the beginning of an expository discourse,
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while Chinese prefer the topic at the end (Kirkpatrick, 1993). We have reason to assume that English native speakers tend to pay special attention to the starting-point of a discourse when they are listening. Due to the same reason, Chinese listeners might pay more attention to the ending-point. In observation, identity of IUs and their values in the discourse had been taken into consideration. Some IUs were of detail information (e.g. a number, a name, etc.), some were of gist information (e.g. a conclusion, a reason, a comment, etc.). Comprehension of a Detail-IU depends less on discourse context, hence, its location change may leave less influence on listening comprehension. E.g. numbers can be easily heard, no matter where they locate. Some IUs were of less important status in the discourse, and their existences per se did not catch much notice, therefore their position changes would not influence listening comprehension either. Picked off those low-value IUs, this study observed IU1, IU4, IU5, IU6, IU7, IU10 and IU11 (see Appendix 2). 6. Findings and Discussion As mentioned, subjects listening comprehension was assessed through the Information Units taken down in their notes (see Appendix 4). The amount of IUs taken down by a group of subjects reflects the groups listening comprehension performance. The following findings respond to the two hypotheses. Hypothesis One: When a listening text in English-style discourse pattern is revised into Chinese-style, Chinese students perform better in listening comprehension. Hypothesis One is not supported by this finding. Group 1 listened to the Chinese style text and took down altogether 108 IUs in their notes, while Group 2 scored 116 IUs with the English style text. Paired sample t-test reveals that there is no significant difference between the two groups listening comprehension results: t(29)=.859, p=.397 (M=.267 with SD=1.701 =.05). (Table 1)
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TABLE 1 Comparison of Two Groups Comprehension Results
Paired Differences Std. Mean Deviation Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval Mean of the Difference Lower Pair 1 group1 group2 -.267 1.701 .310 -.902 Upper .368 -.859 29 .397 t df Sig. (2-tailed)
But caution should be taken here not to jump to the conclusion that discourse organization does not affect listening comprehension at all. The non-significant difference might be due to the following three factors: The first factor is that subjects language proficiency might be too low (or instruments difficulty is too high) to reveal possible influences from discourse patterns. As shown in Appendix 4, subjects performance in listening comprehension was generally poor. Nearly 1/3 of the subjects scored less than 4 IUs from the total of 11. It would be argued that subjects who could only catch one or two IUs would have not been able to pay attention to discourse level problems. If those subjects had taken the instrument text as a collective of isolated information units rather than a coherent discourse, changes of discourse organization patterns would be meaningless to them. Taking them into account might not reveal the possible influences. In this study, even though the author had cautiously chosen the subjects and the instrument, the fact that their listening ability was relatively poorer than their reading and writing might have caused a misjudgment on their proficiency and the corresponding instrument difficulty. The second factor might come from the procedure of the experiment. Subjects were required to take notes while they were listening. This might have distracted some subjects from seeing the listening text as a forest to seeing one tree after another. While they were listening, some subjects might have just jotted down notes of whatever they heard, word by word or clause by clause, without paying attention to the general organization of the discourse. Moreover, due to time pressure, some subjects might have omitted some information, especially those which had appeared
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in the background (given before listening) and which they thought unnecessary to report. The last factor is about the criteria of comprehension assessment. As mentioned, the instruments were segmented into Information Units in order to determine subjects listening comprehension. This method of assessing comprehension might not be the best, because it still has a limitation: judging subjects comprehension by the number of IUs does not taken into consideration the value of Information Units. As mentioned, IUs are not always of the same importance in a discourse. For example, in the instrument texts, IU11 is the conclusion of a holistic paragraph, while IU5 is accessorial information added up to IU4. IU11 is more important than IU5 in listening comprehension, but they equal to each other in number. Hence, to some extent, the number of IUs does not fully reflect listening comprehension. In this case, the quantified data might not have fully revealed the possible influence of discourse patterns on listening comprehension. Due to the factors discussed above, we cautiously conclude that Chinese EFL learners in the same situations as the subjects of this study are generally not influenced by discourse patterns when listening to an English text at the difficulty level of the instrument. Nevertheless, we still have reasons to believe that the first hypothesis is not fully rejected. Hypothesis Two: When a piece of information is moved from elsewhere to the end of a text, Chinese students perform better in comprehending it. Hypothesis Two is supported by the following observations. As shown in the following chart, subjects performed differently on some key-point Information Units when their positions were changed. E.g., Only 2 subjects took down IU1 in their notes when it was placed at the starting point of a paragraph, but when placed at the ending position, 7 subjects included it in their notes. (see Table 2)
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TABLE 2 Scores Yielded* by Certain IUs
IU No. IU 1
IU Content (enrolment number) in accordance with the furtherance of educational reform
IU Features
IU Placement** Text 1 Starting Text 2 Ending
Scores yielded Text 1 2 Text 2 7
IU 4
1990 (enrolment) will be 1600 students
Responding to 1st question.
Topic sentence of 1st para, text 2
Middle
Starting
13
16
IU 5
(enrolment) double that of last year
Ending
Middle
16
IU 6
complete their (military) courses and return (to university)
Starting
Middle
13
14
IU 7
four years of academic work
Responding to 2
nd
Middle
Middle
17
18
question. IU 10 (students) can go to any job they want without any probation IU 11 the time they take is the same as for the other students Topic sentence of 2nd para, text 2 Ending Starting 13 4 Middle Ending 15 21
Notes: *Scores yielded refers to the number of subjects who has taken down notes of the respective IU.. **IU placement refers to the placement of an IU in a paragraph
Observations of comprehension scores yielded by certain IUs in different positions can lead us to the following two conclusions: (1), Chinese students performed better in listening comprehension of Information Units when they are placed at the ending position of a paragraph. Chi-Square Tests show that subjects performed significantly better on IU1, IU5 and IU11 when they were placed at the ending position. On IU1: x(1,n=30)=12.5, p.05; on IU5: x(1,n=30)=4, p.05; on IU11: x(1,n=30)=6.23, p.05. Only one exception is IU10, which did not yield significant higher score when placed at the end: x(1,n=30)=2.4,
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p.05. But this might be due to the reason that IU10s place in text 1 was also in the ending part, next to the ending IU11. This result may be due to the impact of Chinese discourse pattern. As mentioned, the conclusion point (topic sentence) is usually put at the end of a paragraph/text in a Chinese discourse. Students who are used to the Chinese discourse organization would lay more attention stress on the ending point of a paragraph/text. It might be counter-argued that Information Units at the end of a paragraph/text are comparatively easier to be memorized, since the next pause allows more time for the listener to process. No scientific researches have been done by far to support that. On the contrary, some key-point IUs can yield a high comprehension score even when placed in the middle of a paragraph, e.g. IU6 in text 2. This is obviously not due to process pause, but to subjects attention stress. (2), Chinese students do not perform better on Information Units when they are placed at the starting point of a paragraph. Compared with the ending position, IU1 and IU11 yielded significantly lower comprehension scores when placed at the starting point. IU6 yielded even less scores when placed at the starting point than in the middle; IU4 yielded a higher comprehension score when placed at the starting point, but the difference is not statistically significant: x(1,n=30)=.69, p.05. This shows that Chinese students generally do not pay special attention to Information Units at the starting point. Just like the ending position, which has a pause time for listeners to process, the starting point still has its superiority: listeners have the previous time to prepare. We have reasons to expect that students perform better on starting IUs, but experiment results did not support that. Hence, processing time (or prepare time) might not be the cause of comprehension results in this case. It would be more reasonable to suppose that subjects are not aware of the topicsupporting feature of English expositions. They dont know it as critical to catch the topic at the beginning of a paragraph/text in order to understand the gist of a discourse. 7. Conclusion This study aims to find out whether Chinese EFL learners are affected by discourse organizations when listening in English. Two listening texts identical in all aspects except discourse organizations were used as instruments on two parallel groups of subjects. Results do not support the hypothesis that Chinese learners
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comprehend more information when they listen to a Chinese style English text. But observations into the position of some Information Units reveal that Chinese learners tend to perform significantly better on comprehending Information Units which locate at the end of a paragraph than those at the beginning. Combining the two findings, and with the consideration of the fact that Chinese-style text tends to have the topic sentence placed at the end of a paragraph/text, we can cautiously conclude that Chinese learners comprehend better with a Chinese-style text. That is, Chinese discourse organization affects Chinese EFL learners listening comprehension of an English text. This result should not be too much out of expectation. Since Chinese learners are influenced by Chinese discourse organization when writing in English (Gonzlez, Chen and Sanchez, 2001), it is unreasonable to expect them to cast off such influences when listening. Compared to writing, listening comprehension involves instant information processing. Listeners have less time to ponder about discourse problems. Implication can be drawn from the findings to Chinese EFL teaching: when students are proficient enough to look at a text on discourse level, they should be taught the discourse organization of English texts as well as the differences between Chinese and English discourse organizations. The topic-comment feature of English expository texts is of critical importance, since Chinese discourse organization does the opposite. Students should be told why and be trained on how to stress and utilize the starting point (topic sentence) in listening comprehension. Implication can also be drawn to communications with non-native English speakers. People from the Outer Circle (Kachru, 1986) countries speak English with features of their own cultures. The knowledge of their discourse organizations is sometimes necessary for a better understanding, even though communication is through English. As mentioned in the discussion section, future research on this topic is advised to be cautious on subjects and instrument choosing, in order to avoid the possible impact from subjects proficiency level. The way of subjects reporting and criteria of comprehension assessment can also be improved. E.g., retrospective recall can be used instead of taking notes. If possible, native speakers can be used as subjects, so as to find out whether they significantly score more on the English-style text and/or
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perform better on the starting Information Units. Moreover, research can also be done with a comparison of subjects performance before and after the introduction of discourse organizations.
References Chaudron, C. & Richards, J. C. (1986). The effect of discourse markers on the comprehension of lectures. Applied Linguistics, 7(2), 113-127. Dunkel, P. A. & Davis, J. N. (1994). The effects of rhetorical signaling cues on the recall of English lecture information be speakers of English as a native and second language. In J. Flowerdew (Ed.), Academic listening: Research perspectives (pp.55-74). New York: Cambridge University Press. Flowerdew, J. & Miller, L. (1992). Student perceptions, problems and strategies in second language lecture comprehension. RELC Journal, 23(2), 60-80. Flowerdew, J. & Tauroza, S. (1995). The effect of discourse markers on second language lecture comprehension. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 17, 435-458. Gonzlez, V., Chen, C. Y. & Sanchez, C. (2001). Cultural thinking and discourse organizational patterns influencing writing skills in a Chinese English-as-aForeign-Language (EFL) learner. Bilingual Research Journal, 25(4), 417-442. Jung, E. H. (2003). The role of discourse signaling cues in second language listening comprehension. The Modern Language Journal, 87(4), 562-577. Kachru, B. B. (1986). The alchemy of English. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Kaplan, R. B. (1966). Cultural thought patterns in intercultural communication. Language Learning, 16, 120. Kirkpatrick, A. (1993). Information sequencing in modern standard Chinese. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 16 (2), 2760. Kirkpatrick, A. (1997a). Writing expository essays in Chinese: Chinese or Western influences. In Z. M. Golebiowski & H. E. Borland (Eds.), Proceedings of the First National Conference on tertiary literacy: Research and practice. Melbourne: Victoria University of Technology.
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Kirkpatrick, A. (1997b). Traditional Chinese text structures and their influence on the writing in Chinese and English of contemporary mainland Chinese students. Journal of Second Language Writing, 6(3), 223-244. Mohan, B. A., & Lo, W. A. (1985). Academic writing and Chinese students: Transfer and developmental factors. TESOL Quarterly, 19 (3), 515534. Olsen, L. A. & Huckin, T. N. (1990). Point-driven understanding in engineering lecture comprehension. English for Specific Purposes, 9(1), 33-47. Rutherford, W. (1983). Language typology and language transfer. In S. Gass & L. Selinker (Eds.). Language Transfer in Language Learning. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Scollon, R. & Scollon, S. W. (1994). Face parameters in East-West discourse. In S. Ting-Toomey (Ed.), The challenge of face work: Cross-cultural and interpersonal issues (pp.133-157). Albany: State University of New York Press. Scollon, R. & Scollon, S. W. (1995). International communication: A discourse approach. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Inc. Scollon, R., Scollon, S. W. & Kirkpatrick, A. (1998). Contrastive discourse in Chinese and EnglishA critical appraisal. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Sharp, A. (2002). Chinese L1 schoolchildren reading in English: The effects of rhetorical patterns. Reading in a Foreign Language. 14(2). Retrieved December 23, 2005, from http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/October2002/sharp/sharp.html Tudor, I. & Tuffs, R. (1991). Formal and content schemata activation in L2 viewing comprehension. RELC Journal, 22(2), 79-97. Wong, S. D. (1992). Contrastive rhetoric: An exploration of proverbial references in Chinese student L1 and L2 writing. Journal of Intensive English Studies, 6, 7190. Young, L. W. L. (1994). Crosstalk and culture in Sino-American communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Yu, L. (1996). The role of L1 in the acquisition of motion verbs in English by Chinese and Japanese learners. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 53 (1), 191218.
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Appendix 1: Instruments (listening texts)

Background (shown to subjects before listening) After 1989, many university students in China have to take military training at the beginning of their college lives. Beijing University students have to take oneyears military courses before they come back to campus. At a conference in early 1990 (the 1989-enroled students were still in Military Academy and the 1990 recruitment was under planning), a Japanese journalist asked the president of Beijing University a question: I understand that the number of the recruitments of the Beijing University is much reduced which is about one third of the normal figure, I want to ask whether in 1990 you will still cut down the number of recruitment of the students, and if this figure is resumed to the normal level which is about 2000 students, will all those 2000 students be brought down to the Military Academy for military training, and when the 1989 students return to Beijing University, are they going to complete their studies in Beijing University in 3 years or in another 4 years? Transcripts of two listening texts Text 1 In accordance with the furtherance of educational reform at Beijing University, / the enrolled number of students / will meet the number that the Military Academy can accept, / therefore the numbers we enrolled last year / were a little down. / This year, / the enrollment for 1990 / will be 1600 students, / double that of last year. / So, after this years group of freshmen complete their courses / and return to Beijing University, / they will have to undertake / four years of academic work. / They will therefore graduate / one year after those last year students / who went to university at the same time they did. / But, after those other students graduate / they have to do a years probation, / after this group of Beijing University freshmen graduate, / they can go to any job they want / without any probation. / Therefore the time they take is the same as for the other students. (143 words; Reading: 71 seconds; 21 pauses) Text 2 The enrollment for this year, / 1990, / will be 1600 students, / double that of last years. / The number we enrolled last year / were a little down, / because the enroll number should meet that / which the Military Academy can accept. / This is in accordance with the furtherance of educational reform at Beijing University. / The time taken for the 1989 group of Beijing University freshmen to get employment / is the same as that for other students. / This group of freshmen will have to return to Beijing University, / after completing their military courses, / to undertake four years of academic work. / They will therefore graduate a year later / than their peers / who went to university at the same time they did. / However, unlike other students, / after they graduate / they will not need to complete the required probationary period of one year / when they start employment. (140 words; Reading: 72 seconds; 20 pauses) (Note: Both texts are read by the same speaker; /indicates a pause in reading)
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Appendix
2:
Criteria for evaluating Comprehension
subjects
Listening
Two listening texts are segmented into basic Information Units (Key points that compose the main idea, underlined in the following. Mainly functional clauses, or major circumstances, but those already appeared in the Background not included). Since the two texts carry the same meaning, they carry the same IUs. Subjects are then assessed by the amount of IU they have taken notes. Text 1 (IU1)In accordance with the furtherance of educational reform at Beijing University, the enrolled number of students will (IU2)meet the number that the Military Academy can accept, therefore (IU3)the numbers we enrolled last year were a little down, this year, the enrollment for (IU4)1990 will be 1600 students, (IU5)double that of last year. So, after this years group of freshmen (IU6)complete their courses and return to Beijing University, they will have to undertake (IU7)four years of academic work. They will therefore (IU8)graduate one year after those last year students who went to university at the same time they did. But, after (IU9)those other students graduate they have to do a years probation, after this group of Beijing University freshmen graduate, (IU10)they can go to any job they want without any probation, therefore (IU11)the time they take is the same as for the other students. Text 2 The enrollment for this year, (IU4)1990, will be 1600 students, (IU5)double that of last years. (IU3)The number we enrolled last year were a little down, because the enroll number should (IU2)meet that which the Military Academy can accept. This is (IU1)in accordance with the furtherance of educational reform at Beijing University. (IU11)The time taken for the 1989 group of Beijing University freshmen to get employment is the same as that for other students. This group of freshmen will have to (IU6)return to Beijing University after completing their military courses to undertake (IU7)four years of academic work. They will therefore (IU8)graduate a year later than their peers who went to university at the same time they did. However, (IU9)unlike other students, after they graduate they will (IU10)not need to complete the required probationary period of one year when they start employment.
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Appendix 3: Samples of subjects notes

Group 1, No. 8
Group 2, No. 1
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Appendix 4: Comprehension results

Group 1 (listen to Text 1, Chinese discourse style) Grade* No. Grade* IU1 IU2 IU3 IU4 IU5 IU6 IU7 IU8 IU9 IU10 IU11 Total 1 7 85 2 5 83 3 5 83 4 4 83 5 82 6 6 3 79 7 79 7 8 78 3 9 76 7 10 73 3 11 2 70 12 2 70 13 3 70 14 70 2 15 60 3 16 4 69 17 69 4 18 69 6 19 6 68 20 3 68 21 3 67 22 2 67 23 66 5 24 1 64 25 3 60 26 1 58 27 4 57 28 2 53 29 1 42 30 1 40 2 3 5 16 13 17 8 3 15 13 108 13 Note: *Grade refers to the mean of participants Listening Comprehension Exam scores in their past 3 semesters. * indicates that the subject has taken down notes of the IU.
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Group 2 (listen to Text 2, English discourse style) No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Grade IU1 IU2 IU3 IU4 IU5 IU6 IU7 IU8 IU9 IU10 IU11 Total 7 85 7 83 3 83 83 6 8 80 8 79 7 78 78 4 7 76 5 74 2 70 4 70 70 2 3 70 4 69 3 69 3 69 69 5 3 68 3 68 2 67 4 67 4 66 4 64 1 60 1 59 3 57 1 54 1 42 1 41 2 8 8 14 18 7 11 21 4 116 7 16
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Title Reflection can change EFL Teachers beliefs and teaching practice Author Li Hua
Abstract: This is a case study conducted with 24 EFL teachers from 6 different high schools in Guangdong to explore their beliefs and practices in their work place, and how their reflection changed their beliefs and their practice in a Chinese context. The findings of this study revealed that reflection brought changes to the teachers and the teachers professional development was reflected in changes in their beliefs and teaching practice.
Key words: reflection; beliefs; practice; change; EFL; teacher development
1 Introduction To understand the professional development of teachers in an EFL context, one needs to realize what factors can influence the teaching practice. There are many factors which influence a teachers professional development such as society, education and individuality etc. These factors play different roles in influencing teachers professional development. Generally speaking, social factors mainly include economical treatment, occupational prestige, teacher support organizations and qualification certificates etc. The educational factors mainly include knowledge integration, clinical practice and professional empowerment etc. Individual factors mainly include reflecting experiences and lifelong learning opportunities etc. Darling-Hammond, and McLaughlin (1995) contend, Teachers learn by doing, reading, and reflecting; by collaborating with other teachers; by looking closely at students and their work; and sharing what they see (p. 598)The Chinese government in 2001 introduced a New Curriculum Standard which suggested communication-
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oriented and task-based language teaching. However, traditional methods of teaching still prevail in many classrooms. What affects teaching practice? English teaching in a classroom is influenced by many factors, among which the most direct factor is teachers beliefs (Tsui, 2003). Beliefs about teaching affect a teachers practice. Only by frequent reflection such as looking back on classroom events, recognizing their own weakness in teaching, and being ready to change their action, can teachers improve their English teaching. Much research has been done on teachers attitudes towards teaching, their pedagogical content knowledge, and their teaching skillsteaching methods, and the materials they use etc. However, the relationship between teachers beliefs, practice, and reflection has seldom been studied. According to Freeman, (1991) language teacher education has begun to recognize that teachers, apart from the methods and materials they may use, are central to improving English language teaching. In order to become a mature educational professional, one needs continual learning, reflective thinking, and involvement in research. Therefore, this study aims to explore how reflection can change EFL teachers' beliefs and their teaching practice in Chinese high schools. The hypothesis of this research is that teaching teachers how to reflect can change and improve their beliefs and teaching practice. Although the analysis of the data is on going, the research is motivated by the following questions: 1). What is the relationship between EFL teachers beliefs and practices as they teach in Chinese high schools? 2). How does the EFL teachers reflection change their beliefs and their practice?
2 Literature review This paper reviews how teachers acquire their beliefs, and relationship between those beliefs and teaching practices, and in turn how reflection can change teachers beliefs and practices A belief is a proposition consciously or unconsciously held as true by individuals. The term, teachers beliefs refers to their teaching beliefs. A teachers practice is the external presentation of teachers personal qualities and the teachers level of professional development. Freeman and Johnson (1998) argued
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that the core of language teacher education must centre on the activity of the teaching itself, the teacher who does it, the context in which it is done, and the pedagogy by which it is done. Actually the relationship between beliefs and actions is interactive. The connection between beliefs and practices with school cultures remains largely unexamined. Teachers are not empty vessels waiting to be filled with theoretical and pedagogical skills; they are individuals who enter teacher education programs with prior experience, personal values, and beliefs that inform their knowledge about teaching and shape what they do in their classrooms. (Freeman and Johnson, 1998, p. 401). In other words, a teachers' classroom practice is especially influenced by their beliefs Pajares (1992) stated that teachers beliefs had a greater influence than teachers knowledge on the way they planned their lessons, on the decisions they made and on their general classroom practices. Beliefs are also found to be far more influential than knowledge in determining how individuals organize and define tasks and problems, and how teachers behave in the classroom. (Hu, 2004, p. 104) Widespread evidence indicates that the teachers classroom practice and the teachers decision making in the classroom are highly affected by their beliefs. According to Zheng (2004), teachers beliefs define a teachers implicit view of language and view of language learning, and help them decide what kind of teaching will be most effective. Richardson, Anders, Tidwell, and Lloyd (1991) found that changes in beliefs preceded change in practices, while Guskey (1986), concluded that after examining some teachers who participated in teacher development programs, change in teachers beliefs is likely to take place only after changes in student learning outcomes. No matter whether change in beliefs comes before change in practice or the other way around, I think that beliefs and practice are connected and ongoing. Teachers beliefs in language teaching influence or shape what teachers do in EFL classroom. Richardson (1996) described the relationship between beliefs and actions Beliefs are thought to drive actions, however, experiences and reflection on action may lead to changes in and/or additions to beliefs. (p. 104) Pajares (1992 )also claims that beliefs cannot be directly observed or measured but must be inferred from what people say, intend, and dofundamental prerequisites that educational researchers have seldom followed. (p. 314) Beliefs are difficult to observe and evaluate, but we
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can infer them from classroom observations. They are usually formed early in life and not easy to change unless they benefit the person. However, experiences and reflection on action may lead to changes in beliefs and Teachers beliefs and teaching practice depend on how well teachers reflect. Cruickshank and Applegate define reflective teaching as the teachers thinking about what happens in classroom lessons, and thinking about alternative means of achieving goals or aims. (1981, 4, as cited in Bartlett, 2004, 202) Schon (1983) suggested that a professionals core of practice is reflection-in-practice in terms of holding a reflective conversation with the situation. Richards and Lockhart (1994) suggested that reflective teaching could be carried out by individuals working alone. In reflective teaching teachers and student teachers collect data about teaching, examine their attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, and teaching practices, and use the information obtained as a basis for critical reflection about teaching.Richards and Lockhart1998, cited in Zhu, 2004. p. 30This version of reflective teaching could be practiced in isolation as it focuses on teachers action and thoughts before, during or after class. From the observation of teaching behavior in a classroom, we can understand the strength and weakness of a teachers teaching practice and encourage them to reflect on their teaching practice so as to improve their teaching.
Methods The subjects in the study are 24 EFL teachers from 6 different high schools in 6
3.1 Subjects different regions. The 6 regions are classified according to their economic status: developed and developing regions. The 24 participants of this study are full-time high school teachers of English with different teaching experiences and different professional titles in EFL teaching. They are classified according to their professional titles such as novice teachers, who begin to teach after graduation from the university; junior teachers who have taught English at least for 3 years with a good record of teaching; sub-senior teachers who are promoted from junior teacher after at least five years of teaching with a good teaching record, and senior teachers who are promoted from sub-senior teacher after at least five years of teaching with a good record of teaching and essays.
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Appendix 1 details some background information of the 24 teachers. Code: TA1=teacher; A=school A; TA1= a teacher from school A; G1= grade 1 3.2 Procedures This study is part of a three year longitudinal research project employing multiple data sources using classroom observations, and interviews to examine high school teacher beliefs, practices and reflection in Chinese high schools. There were 24 participants who participated in 4 qualitative interviews, (one interview each half a semester) which were conducted after classroom observation, were tape-recorded, and transcribed for analysis. Field notes documented the settings, and acts of the community members. Audio tapes of the classroom supplemented field notes. Inductive approaches were used to analyze the qualitative data from interviews, observations and documents. Data collection began during the Chinese school years first semester. (September of 2005)
4 Results and discussion The results reported here are summarized according to the 2 research questions asked in this survey studythe relationship between EFL teachers beliefs and practices, and how their reflection change their beliefs and practice. 4.1 Their beliefs about language, language learning and language teaching Field notes of a classroom were gathered and the teachers were interviewed the same day based on the lesson they taught in order to further explore their beliefs on views of language, views of language learning and language teaching. The reason for conducting both interviews and observation is that teachers beliefs usually have to be measured from both what teachers say and how they behave in the classroom (Agyris and Schon 1974) The result (see appendix 2) showed that 9 out of 24 teachers held strong view that language was a set of skills, which required some listening, speaking, reading and writing. It also showed that 12 out of 24 teachers thought that Language was a linguistic system made up of various subsystems, such as vocabulary, and grammar, which indicated that most teachers believed that language consisted of language knowledge and skills. Therefore 9 out of 24 teachers thought they should teach language knowledge and skills, while 12 out of 24 thought they should only teach
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language knowledge in class. Based on this view of language teaching, these 21 teachers mostly explained new words and grammar, and asked students to memorize them since EFL learning only takes place in the classroom. They also needed to do some exercises and practiced in writing to consolidate what they have learned. Few activities were designed to provide students opportunities to experience, participate, explore, cooperate, discover and construct language as these things were regarded as waste of time. In the interviews, nearly 80% of teachers showed the main reason for the focusing on language knowledge teaching was to prepare the students to pass examinations. The examinations, which have already greatly changed in China now, focus on comprehensive use of English. Some teachers still hold stronger beliefs on traditional ways of teaching because the traditional way of teaching is not as challenging as the new curriculum requires. The effectiveness of the English Curriculum Standards execution depends to some extent on the improvement of the qualities of a teacher of English. So, teachers qualifications and development should be a top priority, as education and teaching reforms go on. A few teachers had more advanced beliefs about in EFL teaching. They believed teachers should help students not only lay foundation of linguistic knowledge but also gain the ability to use English appropriately in any context. When they were asked where their ideas came from and how they learned to teach, they said they got ideas mostly from their own learning or teaching experience, from other teachers, reading about teaching, and visiting other classrooms. The results indicated that there was no relationship between age of teachers and different teaching methods and practice. It was found that among the 24 teachers in the survey (see appendix 2) and the interview data revealed that the teachers seemed to rely mainly on their English learning experiences, their own teaching experience and other teachers teaching experiences. Interestingly, their beliefs remained constant throughout a year regardless of age or number of years teaching experiences. However, since it is three year longitudinal study, it is expected that with three years of reflection training, they may change in their teaching as long as they reflect and take action.
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4.2 Teachers practice The teachers practice was evaluated through classroom observation. (see field notes in appendix 3) Twenty four teachers lessons were observed and the teaching practices were classified according to the field notes of the classroom observer. Interviews followed after the classroom observation. The result indicated that a high percentage of the teachers purpose of teaching English was to build up language knowledge. The second purpose was to stimulate their interest of learning, and only about one fifth of the teachers had an objective to help students become independent learners and use English appropriately. Nearly half the teachers focused mostly on language knowledge, less on language skills and the least amount on understanding, discourse, and culture. A high percentage of the teachers followed the procedure of giving language input, then getting feedback from students usually through questions and answers, explanations of language forms. Structures were then done by teachers and finally, students were assigned written exercises to consolidate what they had learned. As for the teachers role, most teachers dominated the classroom as explainers, only small part of percentage of teachers played the role of helper or participant etc and created student-centered classroom learning atmosphere. With respect to resources they used, 60% of them used slide shows, videos, and computers to give presentations in class but very few teachers looked for related materials on the internet to increase students language input. The result indicated that there were all three kinds of teachers that Scrivener observed (2002): First, explainers who know their subject matter very well, but has limited knowledge of teaching methodology. They rely mainly on explaining or lecturing as a way of conveying information to their students. Second, involvers know both the subject matter and teaching methodology. They can use appropriate teaching techniques to help their students learn subject matter and actively involve students in designing activities but still retain clear control over what happens in the classroom. Third, enablers not only know subject matter and teaching methodology but also have an awareness of how individuals and groups within their classes are thinking and feeling. They actively practice this teaching plan in building effective working relationships and setting a good classroom atmosphere.
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4.3 Reflection Three main sources of data which focus on reflection-on-action were used in the study, interviews after classroom observation, workshops and reflective journals. (see appendix 4) Individual interviews were conducted with each of the participants after the classroom observation. The teachers reflected immediately after, which usually lasted about half an hour and focused on general reflection on the field experience and the reflective report they submitted. Workshops were usually held on the day before classroom observation. The teachers talked about their problems in their teaching and how they solved some problems and why they could not solve some problems. Then the teachers and university teachers worked together and had discussion on them in the workshops, where the teachers reflected, had dialogues and cooperated with each other. Triangulation data was used to examine the participants reflective thinking, which indicated that changes in their reflective thinking can change their teaching. For the content of reflection, participants were usually required to focus on the purpose of their teaching; and the procedure of their teaching, that is what they did and how they did it, and why they did it to achieve a goal. They were also asked whether they succeeded in achieving their goal, or why they did not achieve it and how they could improve it. The criteria to assess the depth of reflective thinking was measured in three levels, at the first level, Recall level (R1), one describes what they experienced, interprets the situation based on recalling their experiences without looking for alternative explanations, and attempts to imitate ways that they have observed or were taught. At the second level, rationalization Level (R2), one looks for relationships between pieces of their experiences, interprets the situation with rationale, searches for why it was, and generalizes their experiences or comes up with guiding principles. At the third level, reflection level (R3), one approaches their experiences with the intention of changing/improving in the future, analyzes their experiences from various perspectives, and is able to see the influence of their cooperating teachers on their students values, behavior or achievement (Lee, 2005. p. 703) It indicated (see appendix 4) that not many teachers joined the workshop to reflect on their teaching and write reflective reports after finishing teaching each unit. Most teachers complained that they were busy preparing lessons and had a lot of meetings at schools. They were under a lot of pressure because of examinations evaluated by the school or government. Based on the data sources of their reflection, it is possible
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to discuss the content they usually covered and how deeply they reflected on their teaching. In the part of the 3-year longitudinal program, we found out that teachers level of reflective thinking did not depend on years of teaching experiences. Instead, whether teachers reflect and take action determines whether there will be a change in their beliefs and practices. Those who kept thinking and reflecting improved to a greater extent than those who did not. The level of their reflective thinking in their reflective journals reached higher level than that in the workshop or interview. Some teachers reached level R2 and some of them even extended to level R3, which greatly improved their teaching by the time of the next classroom observation. 4.4 Changes in beliefs and practice as result of reflective thinking In the part of the program An empirical study on sustainable professional development of senior English teachers in Guangdong province, as mentioned above, those who continually look back over their teaching, find problems and carry out analysis, and take action in the classroom, to some extent, improve a lot in their beliefs and practice. It details two cases of changes (see appendix 5). It shows that TC4 has changed a lot through reflection as what she says I benefit a lot from reflection. She reflects and takes action. However, Tom almost remains the same although he has made some changes in his beliefs. What makes such a big difference between the two teachers? I think there are two main factors: First, awareness of reflection is important. TC4 is aware of the importance of reflection and she keeps reflecting in workshops, interviews and writing reflective journals, in which she tries to recall, find the problems in teaching and explain with rationale, and take some changes in classroom. However, unlike TC4, TE4 is not so informative in developing area. For example, only a few top teachers in his district can get the opportunity for teacher education in universities, while most teachers just get lifelong learning from the top teachers in the area or from reading books. The professional development of the teachers in developing areas is strongly affected by the surroundings and teaching context. Second, constant cooperation may increase the amount of interaction among teachers. By interacting with colleagues, teachers can learn a lot by working together. TC4s school has good atmosphere to cooperate each other.
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However, TE4 is not working in an atmosphere of cooperation and teachers do not tend to cooperate. Although they share lesson plans together the main purpose for doing this is to lighten the work load, as a teacher does not have to prepare each lesson. So they share without any changes for their different students. Working together usually occurs before, during and after lessons. Before a lesson, teachers can work together to plan the lesson. Such planning can entail the macro levels of an entire curriculum or the syllabus for a course, or it can be the preparation for a specific lesson plan. (Bailey, K. M., Curtis, A & Nunan, D., 2004, 181) That is the pre-active decision making. Likewise, during a lesson, teachers make decision by reflecting on what they will discuss after the lesson; teachers can have a lot of discussion on the effectiveness of lesson plan after class, which can provide good opportunities for them to learn from each other, even for veteran teachers. Therefore, team teaching really consists of three phases: (1) pre-instructional planning, (2) instructional in-class teamwork, and (3) post-instructional follow-up work... ((Bailey, K. M., Curtis, A & Nunan, D., 2004, 181) Third, it is teachers beliefs that affect teachers reflective thinking. TE4 does not think reflection is useful for improving teaching. He holds strong belief that teaching is to pass examinations in China, because our teaching is assessed according to the result of examinations which relates to a teachers income and promotion. (TE4 in interview after class) Therefore, he has to take every chance to focus on language points in teaching and practice to meet the needs of examinations without being aware whether students all involved and challenged. He sometimes wonders whether it is good way to teach English. However, TC4 holds strong belief that teaching is for the development of students. Therefore, she considers the curriculum, teaching materials, methods, learning strategies etc according to the needs and development of students. She is confident in sharing control with students. In many cases, she takes her lead from her students; seeing herself as someone whose job is to create the conditions that enable the student to learn for themselves. Her own personality and attitude are active encouragement to learn. (Scrivener, 2002. p. 6)
5 Implication and conclusion This study has explored the teachers beliefs, practice and reflection through observing what they said and did. The analysis of the data reveals a relationship
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among beliefs, practice, and reflection. The relationship is beliefs drive actions and reflection can change beliefs and action. Teachers beliefs and practice are closely related to each other. Teachers different beliefs will affect teachers practice and decision making in class both consciously and subconsciously. In examining what influenced teachers beliefs about language teaching, it was found that generally EFL teachers seemed to rely on their own foreign language learning and teaching experiences. It was of great interest that their beliefs remained constant regardless of age or number of years teaching experience. The study showed that beliefs could be changed through reflection although it is slow, process. There are several factors which could help promote the change such as reform of top-down curriculum, the use of new teaching materials, reform of examinations, expectation of school leaders and parents, and cooperation with other teachers etc. An awareness and understanding of a teachers background and teaching context is very important in order to help them to reflect, as Holt-Reynolds, (1992) states that Having knowledge about student teachers will help teacher educators in developing effective tasks and activities aimed at cultivating reflective teachers. (p. 311). In China, EFL teachers should be responsible for their personal or professional development, especially the teachers in developing regions, who lack opportunities to attend in-service teacher education in universities. Learning to critically reflect is a necessary condition for their on-going growth and life-long development. They need to think about what, why, and how to teach. They need to understand what a teacher role is before they go into the teaching field. Constant review and analysis can lead them to be more reflective and reflection can change their beliefs and practice so as to be better teachers. Besides, teachers need to set themselves free to communicate with their colleagues, students, and so on. Dialogue and cooperation can help the teachers get over their troubles, discover their problems, gain access to effective solutions. Professional development is a never-ending process. Any teacher, who can be a classroom researcher and regard his own classroom as a research site, can be an excellent practitioner. Teacher learning can occur anytime and anywhere. They should be life-long learners It is good beginning for a teacher to begin to reflect. The next step is to take action to improve their teaching.
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This study revealed the importance of examining the relationship between EFL teachers beliefs and practices, how reflection changes teachers beliefs and their teaching practice. The research could provide us with a wealth of information about how EFL teachers reflections change their beliefs and their teaching, as well as increase our understanding and awareness of EFL teacher development, which is associated with the teachers reflection and possible change of the teachers beliefs and teaching practice. As to the application of this study, this study will help EFL teachers to understand how to put the theory into application so as to improve teachers teaching ability. In practice this study will give an enlightening inspiration to EFL teachers and for EFL teacher development in China.
References Argyris, C. & Schon, D. A. (1974). Theory in practice. San Francisco: Josey Bass. Bailey, K. M., Curtis, A & Nunan, D., (2004). Pursing Professional Development, Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and research Press. 181 Bartlett, L. (2004). Teacher development through reflective teaching. In J. C. Richards, & D. Nunan (Eds.), Second language teacher education (pp. 202214). Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Darling-Hammond, & McLaughlin M. W. (1995) Policies that support professional development in an era of reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 76, 597-604 Freeman, D. and Johnson, K.E. (1998). Reconceptualizing the knowledge-base of language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly, 32 (3), 397-417 Guskey, T. (1986). Staff development and the process of teacher change. Educational Researcher, 15 (5), 5-12. Holt-Reynolds, D. 1992. Personal history-based beliefs as relevant prior knowledge in course work. American Educational Research Journal, 29 (2), 325-347 Hu Y. J. (2004).Teacher Beliefs: A case study of teaching English in China. CELEA Journal, 27 (2 ) 104-108 Lee, H. J. (2005). Understanding and assessing pre-service teachers reflective thinking. Teaching and Teacher Education. 21, 699-715. Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. Review of Educational Research, 62 (3), 307-332. Richards, J. C. & Lockhart, C. (1994). Reflective teaching in second language
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classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Richardson, V. (1996).The role of attitudes and beliefs in learning to teach. In J. Sikula (Ed.), Handbook of research on teacher education, (2nd ed.) (pp. 102119). New York: Simon Schuster Macmillan. Richardson, V. Anders, P., Tidwell, D., & Lloyd, C. (1991). The relationship between teachers beliefs and practices in reading comprehension instruction. American Educational Research Journal, 28 (3), 559-586. Schon, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. London: Temple. Schon, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Josey-Bass Scrivener, J. (2002). Learning teaching: A guidebook for English language teachers. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. Tsui B. (2003 )Understanding Expertise in Teaching: Case studies of Second Language Teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Zheng, X, M. (2004). English teachers beliefs influence classroom teaching. Journal of Foreign Language Teaching in Middle Schools. [Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press] (5), 6-10. Beijing Zhu, X, Y. (2004) The Development of Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Novice Secondary School Teachers of English, Nanjing: Nanjing Normal University Press.
Appendix: Appendix 1: background of teachers Na me TA 1 TA 2 TA 3 TA 4 TB1 Se x M F F F M ag e 41 33 29 46 23 26 Years teachi ng 12 8 5 16 1 4 Teachin g grade Senior G 1 Senior G 2 Senior G 1 Senior G 2 Senior G 1 Senior G 2 School location Develop ed Develop ed Develop ed Develop ed Develop ed Develop ed Lifelong learning status Professio nal title occasional lectures in local area occasional lectures in local area occasional lectures in local area 1 year courses in Beijing Lectures in local area Subsenior Subsenior Subsenior Senior novice
TB2 F
Take MA degree study junior now
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TB3 F
Senior G Develop 2 ed TB4 F 38 16 Senior G Develop 1 ed TC1 F 24 1 Senior G Develop 1 ed TC2 F 28 5 Senior G Develop 3 ed TC3 M 31 8 Senior G Develop 2 ed TC4 F 38 16 Senior G Develop 1 ed TD F 23 1 Senior G developi 1 1 ng TD F 27 5 Senior G developi 2 2 ng TD F 35 11 Senior G developi 3 3 ng TD F 37 15 Senior G developi 4 3 ng TE1 F 26 3 Senior G developi 2 ng TE2 F 31 7 Senior G developi 1 ng TE3 F 35 11 Senior G developi 2 ng TE4 M 39 15 Senior G developi 1 ng TF1 F 23 1 Senior G developi 1 ng TF2 F 28 5 Senior G developi 2 ng TF3 M 32 9 Senior G developi 1 ng TF4 M 44 22 Senior G developi 3 ng All the teachers names are pseudonyms.
33
Take MA degree study in 2002 3-month courses in Canada Lectures in Guangzhou Lectures in Guangzhou Lectures in Guangzhou 3-month courses in UK Lectures in local area Lectures in local area Lectures in local area Lectures in local area Lectures in local areas Lectures in local areas Lectures in local areas Lectures in local areas Lectures in local area Lectures in local area Lectures in local area Lectures in local area
Subsenior Senior novice junior Subsenior Senior novice junior Subsenior Senior novice junior Subsenior Senior novice junior Subsenior Senior
Appendix 2: Field notes on views of language, language learning and teaching description Views Language is a set of skills, needs amount of language of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Language is a linguistic system made up of various subsystems, such as vocabulary, grammar. Language is a linguistic system but also as a means for doing things. Language is a communicative tool, whose main use is to build up and maintain
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No of participants (9 teachers) TA2, TA4,TB1, TB3, TC1, TC2, TD3, TE1, TE4 (12 teachers) TA1, TA3, TB4, TC3, TD1, TD4, TE2, TE3, TF1, TF2, TF3, TF4 (2 teachers) TB2, TD2, TC4 NONE
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social relations between people. Teachers explanation, recitation and (11 teachers)TA1, TC3, TC1, exercises TC4, TD1, TD4, TE2, TE3, TF2, TF3, TF4 Teachers explain language points and (10 teachers) TA2, TB4, TB1, students practice on language points. TC3, TD3, TE1, TE4, TF1, TA3, TA4 , Participate, experience, explore, (3) TC4, TB2, TD2 cooperate, discover and construct language knowledge Language knowledge (9) TC3, TC4, TD1, TD4, Views TE2, TE3, TF2, TF3, TF4 on (12 teachers)TA1,TA2, TA3, language Language knowledge and skills TA4,TB4, TB1, TC1,TC3, teaching TD3, TE1, TE4, TF1, Language knowledge, skills and non- (3 teachers) TC4, TB2, TD2 linguistic knowledge such as affective attitudes, learning strategies and culture awareness. Views on language learning Appendix 3: field notes on teachers practice field notes of teachers practice Purpose A To foster students language knowledge such as 46.7% voc, pronunciation, structure B To develop students learning ability and arouse 32.7% students interest C To stimulate students interests and help students 20.6% become independent learners and use English appropriately. Content A Vocabulary and grammar 36.3% B Language points ; 4 skills practice; 50.4% C Textual; discourse; culture 13.3% procedure A Reading/ listening, comprehension, explaining 33.3% language points, do exercises B Language input, question and answer, language 50.3% points, written exercises C Vocabulary learning, input, textual analysis, 16.4% language practice, discussion Teachers A T-centered, authority, explainer 33.5% role B Organizer, controller, 46.7% C SS-centered, organizer, helper, participant 19.8% Resources A Text books, chalk / B Text books, chalk, Slide show, 40% C Text books, chalk, Slide show, video, computer 60% Appendix 4: Status of participate in and evaluation of teachers reflective thinking Participants in reflective program Reflective program Teachers participation Evaluation Most of them are Workshop 12 teachers in 3 schools (TB1-4; TE1level R1 ; A few are (before lesson) 4; TF1-4) level R2 Most of them are Interview 22 teachers level R1 ; A few are (immediately after
at at at at
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class) Reflective report (later after class)
TE1(6p); TE2,TE3,TC4,TF1 (5p); TC1,TC2, TC3,TF2(3p); TB1,TB2,TB3,TB4,TF4(1p)
level R2 TC4,TB2 are occasionally at level R3. most of them are at level R1; A few are at level R2
P=pieces of reflective report Appendix 5: Changes in beliefs and action name Problems reflection TC4 of Changes in beliefs (data Changes in action data from reflection ) from classroom observation Weak in theory; I read some books in decision making in her effective theory to improve my class is shared and assessment teaching. negotiated. She is a Students like good, guider, helper and partner excellent but they like in class. more specific comments or Why do you think he has assessment from their made a good peers or their teacher. speech?(elicit answer from Students are very happy students) about such assessment, Because he speaks which strengthen the good fluently. relationship between He gives us good students and the teacher. examples. His speech is informative. It is important to provide Teacher-centered discussion chances for students to classroom, the teacher activities; speak through activities. How to deal with It is useless to just check does a lot of explanation. students exercise; the answers in dealing with Still check the answers grammar with students about their students exercises. We should most focus on exercises. language points in class In most of class, the because of examinations. teacher does a lot of explanation in language points then some practice on them.
TE4
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Title An Investigation into Listening Comprehension Difficulties of More Skilled and Less Skilled Listeners and the Concordant Strategies
Authors: Liu Han and Hu Xiaoqiong Address: Foreign Languages College, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei, China, 443002.
Bios. Liu Han is a second-year postgraduate student majoring in Linguistics and English teaching at the Foreign Languages College, China Three Gorges University. Hu Xiaoqiong is a professor at the Foreign Languages College, China Three Gorges University. She completed her M.A in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at Guangzhou Foreign Language Institute, China. Her main research interests are applied linguistics, second Language acquisition and cross-cultural communication.
Abstract: There are differences in listening comprehension difficulties between more skilled listeners and less skilled listeners. Different listening groups also adopt different cognitive, metacognitive and social affective strategies to overcome these difficulties. To uncover these differences, both a quantitative and a qualitative study are conducted. Thinking aloud method is also adopted alongside.
46 students majored in Computer Science took part in the quantitative study. They were required to listen to two short passages. The first passage is the authentic material, after which, the students should finish the multiple choices of 10 questions and then write down all the difficulties they have met in the listening. The second
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passage is dictation, and students are also needed to write down their difficulties. This time spelling mistakes are not included since the aim is to test their listening ability. Results are accounted. Combined with their CET4 (College English Test 4, a national English test for all the college students), all the participants are divided into two groups i.e. more skilled group and less skilled group. Difficulties as well as strategies are analyzed according to Andersons three-phase model, perception, parsing and utilization. Afterwards, two students are selected from each group to think aloud while listening to the third short passage. Difficulties and strategies they adopt are transcribed by the author.
It is shown in the study, both in quantitative and qualitative study that more skilled listeners have less cognitive difficulties than less skilled listeners in terms of perception, parsing and utilization and use more strategies than less skilled listeners in listening comprehension. Another finding of the study is that more skilled listeners tend to try harder than less skilled listeners in listening. Keywords: listening difficulties; strategies; more skilled; less skilled; Abstract: There are differences in listening comprehension difficulties between more skilled listeners and less skilled listeners. Different listening groups also adopt different cognitive, metacognitive and social affective strategies to overcome these difficulties. To uncover these differences, both a quantitative and a qualitative study are conducted. Thinking aloud method is also adopted alongside. 46 students majored in Computer Science took part in the quantitative study. They were required to listen to two short passages. The first passage is the authentic material, after which, the students should finish the multiple choices of 10 questions and then write down all the difficulties they have met in the listening. The second passage is dictation, and students are also needed to write down their difficulties. This time spelling mistakes are not included since the aim is to test their listening ability. Results are accounted, combined with their CET4 (College English Test 4, a national English test for all the college students), all the participants are divided into two groups i.e. more skilled group and less skilled group. Difficulties as well as strategies are analyzed according to Andersons three-phase model, perception, parsing and utilization. Afterwards, two students are selected from each group to think aloud while listening to the third short passage. Difficulties and strategies they adopt are transcribed by the author. It is
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shown in the study that more skilled listeners have less cognitive difficulties than less skilled listeners in terms of perception, parsing and utilization and use more strategies than less skilled listeners in listening comprehension. Another finding of the study is that more skilled listeners tend to try harder than less skilled listeners in listening. Keywords: listening difficulties; strategies; more skilled; less skilled; 1. Introduction Listening comprehension is one of the five basic skills (i.e. listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating) that a L2 learner should acquire, and it is also the most important one. It is an active process in which people construct meaning from listening materials according to their personal experience. It involves listeners receiving of sound, processing information in brain, and the prior knowledge. For L2 learners, listening is especially paramount. Everything they meet links tightly to listening, since it is the main channel through which L2 learners distill linguistic nutrition from their L2 (Robert, 1987). Most information they acquire is obtained through listening. According to Krashens i+1 principle, L2 learners learn L2 through comprehensible input (Ellis, 1999).
Listening comprehension is different form the other basic skills of language learning, e.g. reading compression in many aspects, and has its own characteristics. Unlike reading comprehension in which readers can go back and forward to check the information they are not clear, listeners cannot do alike since they have little control over the speed of speakers. What they can only do is to try their best to catch up with the speakers. Different accent of speakers is another factor that affects listening comprehension. Listeners cognitive and metacognitive strategies and affective factors also greatly influence listening comprehension. Moreover, the familiarity of the topic is one aspect that cannot be neglected in order to have a good comprehension of the passage. Vocabulary is important, too. All these factors contribute to the difficulties of listening comprehension.
Although so many difficulties exist in listening comprehension, not every listener has the same listening problem. Some may have more prior knowledge than
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the others; some may have larger vocabulary, and the others have better psychological state in listening. To explore the differences between less skilled listeners and more skilled listeners listening difficulties, and the strategies they adopt in dealing with these difficulties, both quantitative study and qualitative study are conducted. For the qualitative study, think-aloud method is used. In the end, results of the two experiments are related to each other. Literature review will be first introduced in the paper. After that, details of the two studies will be elaborated. Finally come out the results of the experiments.
2. Literature Review
Because of the importance of listening comprehension, there are an increasingly growing number of linguists showing their interests in the area. The 1970s witnesses the turning point of listening comprehension. Before that, listening was taken as a passive process in which listeners only receive the information provided by aural materials. Listeners were like tape recorders that memorized everything they had heard mechanically. After the advent of Swiss psycholinguist Jean Piagets (Elliot, 1981) cognitive constructivism theory, listening is considered as an active constructive process in which listeners combine their prior knowledge with listening materials, and construct the meaning. Brown (1990) explains,
Listeners are not simply passive processors who undertake automatic signal recognition exercise when acoustic signals are fed into them and so construct meaning. When listening, the listeners are active searchers for meaning. The active listeners will use all relevant background knowledge---knowledge of the physical context of the utterance (the immediate surroundings, the place, the time, etc.), knowledge of speaker (gender, age, opinions), and knowledge of topic.
Asher (1982) invents the Total-body-response teaching method to teach language through listening, effective for both L1 and L2. The theory highlights the natural and relaxed listening environment. Penny Ur (1984:7-20) focuses on teaching listening comprehension. He lists out all the possible difficulties that listeners encounter during real-life listening, such as redundancy, noise, intonation, stress,
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fatigue of the listeners etc. After that, some effective teaching methods have been put forward. Tomatis (Asher, 1982:101) summarizes that Listening can be affected by several factors, and categorizes all factors into three groups, i.e. prenatal life, physical factors and psychological factors.
Listening is a complicated cognitive process and listeners are the processors of the input information. Nevertheless, it is difficult to perceive what is really going on inside the human brains when listening is going on. The clues that indicate they have not understood the listening materials are their blank facial expressions, shaking heads or anxiety. And the opposite is also true. Listeners can also show their understanding of the materials by showing their body language and facial expressions. Listeners are like puppets dancing according to what speakers are speaking (Kelly, 1991). Kelly is the vanguard in research into the importance of vocabulary in listening comprehension.
To have a clear understanding of the information processing, a mass of research has been carried out in cognitive and metacognitive area. In an attempt to find what listeners actually do while listening to aural materials, O Malley and Chamot (1990) investigate cognitive strategies, metacognitive and social affective strategies adopted by more skilled and less skilled EFL listeners. C. M. Goh (1997; 1998; 2001) has done a series of research on different cognitive strategies of more skilled and less skilled listeners, using retrospective method. She finds the different cognitive strategies of two groups in the three phases model that is perception, parsing and utilization. Vanderdrift (2003) reports on an investigation into listening strategy applications by French learners. In the study, she examines the types of strategies used and the differences in strategy use by more skilled and less skilled listeners when they are exposed to authentic texts in French. It is easy to see that, listening comprehension is highlighted in the past few years, especially from the cognitive point of view.
3. Study
3.1 Theoretical Background
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Listening comprehension has become the foundation of a number of theories of second language acquisition that focus on the beginning levels of second language proficiency (O Malley and Chamot, 1990:129). The primary assumption underlying these theories is that language acquisition is an implicit process in which linguistic rules are internalized by extensive exposure to authentic texts (ibid), which means that only through listening comprehension that input becomes intake.
According to Richards (1983, ibid), there are several reasons for doing research into listening comprehension: The significance of listening skills in a number of instructional approaches; There has been little research that clarifies what listeners actually do while listening to oral texts;
Weinstein and Mayer (1986:315, in ibid: 17) hold that, learning strategies refer to behaviors and thoughts that a learner engages in during learning what are intended to influence the learners encoding process. Many researchers hold that, these strategies can be learned though practice. Generally, learning strategies can be categorized into three groups, metacognitive, cognitive, and social affective (ibid: 45). Main content of each strategy will be mentioned in the following parts.
Anderson (1985, in ibid: 34) differentiates listening comprehension into three interrelated cognitive processes: perceptual processing, parsing, and utilization. There may be some overlapping between the adjacent two. Because human brain consists of short-term memory and long-term memory, information is stored in two distinctive ways, either in shot-term memory, the active memory that holds modest amounts of information only for a brief period, or long-term memory, the sustained storage of information, which may be represented as isolated element or more likely as interconnected networks (ibid:17).
Of the three cognitive models, in perceptual processing, attention has been drawn to the aural text. The acoustic signals are retained in the short-term memory. Since in listening comprehension the speed of speakers is beyond the control of the listeners, there is continuous stream of speech flowing into the listeners ears. The new
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information will replace the old one, because short-term memory has limited capacity and cannot accommodate all information. As a result, words or phrases with specific order will be prevented from flowing into listeners ears. In listening, due to so much unimportant information or redundancy, listeners are likely to select important information that can help them memorize the content. In this first stage of listening, information is encoded according to sounds of words.
In parsing, words and phrases are used to constructed meaningful representations of the aural text (OMalley and Chamot, 1990:34). Listeners first decode the individual word or phrase by matching the aural and visual mental representation in the long-term memory (Gagne, 1985; in ibid: 34). At this stage, segmentation takes place, i.e., a meaning unit made up of by a few words is formed. This can be also called chunk. These mental representation of words and expressions are different from the original sequences of words, rather, they are abstraction of those representation. They can be used to re-create the intended meaning of the original according to the grammatical rules, e.g. the tense and voice. The following example will illustrate it clearly. The original sentence is Over the past few years, many unhappy things have happened to her. Once the sentence enters the listeners ears, it will be stored in the short-term memory. However, after a while, having received too much new information, the listener will decode the sentence as She has experienced sufferings in recent years.
In utilizing, the intended meaning of the whole text will be summarized. The process can activate nodes in long-term memory to have meaningful connection with the ongoing new information. Utilization is the key to comprehension and the basic determinant that facilitates it (ibid). In almost any message, there is the interplay between the information we have already known and the information entirely new (ibid: 35). There rises another question, how does the interplay begin? There are two kinds of necessary knowledge, the world knowledge (the personal experience and prior knowledge on the topic) and linguistic knowledge (sound, vocabulary, grammatical rules and discourse pattern) (ibid: 36). Processing new information from world knowledge is called top-down process, while starting from linguistic knowledge is called bottom-up process (Howard, 1985; in ibid: 36). In listening
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comprehension, according to Howard (ibid), the effective processing of text requires the use of both top-down and bottom-up processing.
The three cognitive models of listening compression provide information on how aural texts are processed and comprehended in human brains. When listeners have difficulties in these aspects, concordant cognitive strategies will be adopted. The main cognitive strategies can be seen from the following Table 1 (ibid: 46).
Rehearsal Organization Inferencing Summarizing Deducing Imagery Transfer Elaboration
Table 1. Main content of cognitive strategies Repeating the names of items or objects to be remembered Grouping and classifying words, terminology, or concepts according to their semantic or syntactic attributes Using information in text to guess meanings of new linguistic items, predict outcomes, or complete missing parts Intermittently synthesizing what one has heard to ensure the information has been retained Applying rules to the understanding of language Using visual images (either generated or actual) to understand and remember new information Using known linguistic information to facilitate a new learning task Linking ideas contained in new information, or integrating new ideas with known information
Metacognitive is thinking about thinking, or cognition about cognition. It means a conscious control of ones own cognitive strategies. Metacognitive strategies involve planning, selective attention, monitoring and evaluation (Anderson, 1985; ibid: 45). According to Anderson, planning is for the organization of the aural text; the listener can choose either top-down or bottom-up process in order to understand the passage. Table 2 will show the main content of the metacognitive strategies (ibid: 46). Table 2. Main content of Metacognitive strategies Planning Planning for the organization of either written or spoken discourse Selective Focus on special aspects of learning tasks, as in planning to listen attention for key words or phrases Monitoring Reviewing attention to a task, comprehension of information that should be remembered, or production while it is occurring Evaluation Checking comprehension after completion of a receptive language activity, or evaluating language production after it has taken place
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Social affective strategies are also important in listening comprehension; those who are armed with these strategies have less listening problems than those who do not have. Table 3 will show the main information on this (ibid: 46).
Table 3. Main Content of social affective strategies Cooperation Working with peers to solve a problem, pool information, check notes, or get feedback on a learning activity Questions for Eliciting from a teacher or peer additional explanation, rephrasing, clarification or examples Self-talk Using mental redirection of thinking to assure oneself that a learning activity will be succeed or to reduce anxiety about a task 3.2 Research Questions
After introduction of all those strategies, the next thing to do is to apply them to check what is really going on inside different listeners. What are the differences between listening difficulties of more skilled and less skilled listeners? Are there any differences in using the strategies to overcome these difficulties?
3.2
Methodology
In the present study, two methodologies are involving, the quantitative one and the qualitative one. The quantitative study is made up of two tests, a pretest and a post test. The pretest includes two parts: the first part is a short passage. The second passage is dictation. The post text is for qualitative study. Listeners are asked to transcribe every word they have heard. The qualitative study is think-aloud method, by recording words of both the more skilled and the less skilled listener first. After that, the words are transcribed. Differences of the difficulties are categorized, and different strategies in terms of cognitive and metacognitive ones are categorized, too.
3.3
Participants
46 students in Three Gorges University have participated in the quantitative study. 42 test papers are available for data analysis. Their ages range from 20 to 22
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years old and they are the third year students, majoring computer science. Their English levels are different.
3.4
Procedure
3.4.1 Quantitative Study
1) Pretext
The pretext was conducted first. Participants were required to write their names, sex, age and English levels on the test paper, for the convenience of data analysis. Before the pretext, they were instructed that the results had nothing to do with their final evaluation, so they could concentrate themselves on the listening task and would not feel nervous when listening.
There were two short passages taken out of Intermediate Listening Comprehension (He et al, 2002). The first one was an authentic material on visiting dentist. See Appendix 1. After the passage, in order to check the extent to which was comprehended by listeners, there were four multiple choices as well as six true or false questions to be finished. That is to say, ten questions together for the first passage. Total points were ten, and one point for each question. The tape would be played three times.
2) After finishing the first passage, there were two questions for all the participants. One was about the difficulties they had met in real time listening. Students should list them out in Chinese. The other was the strategies they had adopted to overcome these difficulties. Both difficulties and strategies were categorized from cognitive and metacognitive perspective.
3) Participants would listen to the second short passage. This time, the aural material was not authentic and it was dictation. Students were asked to transcribe every word they had heard.
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4) After listening the second short passage for three times, a period of time was given to them to write down the words. Another 10 minutes were given to them to write down the difficulties as well as strategies.
5) All these papers were collected and judged. The results of the first passage are demonstrated as Table 4.
Table 4. Results of the first passage
Points 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Number of 1 1 5 13 5 10 4 2 1 0 students Percentage 2.38% 2.38% 11.90% 30.95% 11.90% 23.80% 9.52% 4.76% 2.38% 0% The result of dictation was really bad. Nobody could write the full text down, therefore only those who wrote down the main ideas were counted. Misspelling was neglected, since the test was for listening comprehension. It shows that those who got higher marks of listening comprehension could also do much better in dictation.
6) The participants were divided into two groups: those who had passed CET-4 and simultaneously got higher marks in the first two passages were taken as the more skilled group, while those who had not passed CET-4 and got lower marks were taken as the less skilled group.
3.4.2 Qualitative study
7) The qualitative study was carried out three days later. Two participants were selected from each group and think-aloud method was used to read their minds when they were listening. A new passage was chosen and it was from the model test of CET-41 paper (Wang, 2006). The topic was totally new to both of them, making sure that both of the two do not have the relevant prior knowledge. There were 172 words for the passage and it lasts for one minute. Both two participants were girls.
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Think-aloud method was used here to uncover what was really going on when listeners were processing information.
When researchers are attentive to the potential problems caused by the procedure and take steps to control and account for them, think-aloud protocol collection and analysis can be a remarkably illuminating research methodology, and often it is used on information-processing. (Hyland, 2005:185).
The whole think-aloud method last 10 minutes. Two recorders were used: one was for playing the tape and the other was for recording the think-aloud words. After each sentence, the tape would be stopped, and each participant would speak aloud what they had heard. Even if they heard nothing, they still needed to speak out their feelings and their difficulties. In case they did not know what they say, some words would give them hints, such as What have you heard just now? Can you describe what happened in your brain when you heard the sentence? After the think-aloud was finished, every word was transcribed.
The following transcriptions of think protocols illustrate the different approaches used by Wu (a less skilled listener) and Yuan (a more skilled listener). It can provide some insights into the difference of information processing between more skilled and less skilled listeners. The two were listening to a short passage on English education in the USA.
Today, students who want to learn English in the US have a wide choice of courses and institutions to choose from. Wu: Today It should be most students want to learn English in the US (in Chinese). And, is to., I dont know. Yuan: Today, students studying English in the US. Have a variety of what to choose or tuitions? I cant hear the words between the two parts. For the first part of the sentence, Wu only hears one English world today and translates it into Chinese. She almost misses the latter part. Yuan hears the first part of the sentence and can repeat clearly! She uses bottom-up process, trying to listen to every word.
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And, because the US is such a big country they also have a huge variety of locations in which to study. Wu: is to and the US What? Country? The main idea is that many people are concerning their English study. Yuan: Because, because US is a country. The adjective before country I havent heard clearly. They also have amore or less. The words in the middle of the sentences I have remembered just now, but now forget. Can you speak out the main idea? Yuan: There are many places to study, because the word locations I have heard. Wu totally misunderstands the sentence. Yuan, using top-down process, can hear the main frame of the sentence and neglects the unclear word, but still she knows that the missing word is an adjective. When required to speak the main idea of the sentence, she can retell it according to the key word of locations. It is the bottom-up process. That is to say, Yuan can do better than Wu at the parsing stage, where she can alternate flexibly between top-down and bottom-up process. She can also plan in listening, though she knows that she misses the adjective word, she can grasp the structure of the sentence.
The US has a long tradition of teaching English because, throughout its history, the country has welcomed immigrants from all over the world. Wu: This is the sentence she (refers to Yuan) has just mentioned. It means that more opportunists are needed to learn English. I can hear the sentence clearly, and know the meaning but cannot repeat. It is too long, and I cant memorize it. Yuan: I am not sure of the first few words, but I hear the word tradition, and throughout out history, the country has welcomed a lot of foreign students because there is the phrase of all over the world. Wu continues to misunderstand the words. Her attention stops at the previous sentence and speaks its meaning. That means the new information has not flowed into her brain yet, and her short-term memory is stilled occupied by the old information. Yuan can almost understand the sentence by hearing some key words and have better perception and parson ability. She can link the key word to the main idea of the sentence, so her utilization is also good. Moreover, though she cannot listen to every
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word clearly, she can selectively listen to some important words, such as all over the world.
Most of whom have needed to learn English. Wu: Most of them have to learn English. Yuan: Most of who have needed to learn English. Wu does not understand the sentence totally. From the linguistic elements, she only guesses the meaning; unfortunately it is not absolutely right. Yuan can repeat the sentence and form meaning units or chunks, thus have more cognitive capacity to processing other information. Today, the USs English language teaching sector is well-developed and its teachers are highly qualified and experienced. Wu: Todayeducation, I cant remember. Can you guess? Wu: Sorry, I cant. The latter part says the teachers should have rich experience. What about you? Yuan: It is supposed that the education develops fast, because I hear the word Welldeveloped (in Chinese). And the teachers should have rich experience. Wu misses the first part of the sentence. When asked to guess the meaning, she does not know where she can start from. Yuan understands the meaning of the whole sentence. And the first part of the sentence is through bottom-up process. Also, she adopts metacognitive strategy of selective listening. American universities and colleges welcome many thousands of overseas students each year. Wu: A lot of foreign students are enrolled in America (in Chinese). Yuan: American universities and colleges welcome many thousands of overseas students each year. Wu only translates the original sentence word by word, while Yuan can repeat the whole sentence. Even for the easiest sentence, Wu cannot retell any word of the sentence, and just infer the main idea according to what she heard, using bottom-up process, while Yuan can hear the whole sentence and then repeat it. This shows that the more skilled listener has a better control of her cognitive capacity than the less skilled one; therefore she can first listen to it and then repeat it.
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who enroll on degree or post-graduate courses. Wu: I have only heard two words program courses. Yuan: This sentence should be an attributive clause modifying the previous sentence, and it refers to those who want to learn English on campuses. Wu only hears two words with one of them wrong, and pays too much attention to the grammatical elements. Yuan, on the contrary, can organize the sentence according to its structure by recognizing that it is an attributive sentence. Also, Yuan uses cognitive strategy i.e. elaboration (linking the new information to the old one), and deducing i.e. using the grammatical rules to the understanding of the language.
Most of these institutions provide preparation courses for students who need to improve their English before they study English. Wu: I cant hear what it is, but there is the phrase prove English, and beforetheir English Yuan: I cant hear it clearly either, but the phrase is improve their English, and before they start their English study. Wu misunderstands the meaning again, prove English seems to mean nothing in the context. Yuan, though has not understood the whole sentence, anyway, by inferencing, i.e. using information in text to guess meanings of new linguistic items to complete missing parts, gets the right meaning of improve their English. These courses are called Intensive English Programs and Wu: Intensive English I am not sure. (In Chinese) Yuan: There is a phrase, maybe Intensive English Programs, yeah, it is Intensive English Programs. Wu dose not using any cognitive strategy at all, while Yuan uses monitoring to check the information; also, she rehearses, repeating the names of items or objects to be remembered. Moreover, she adopts social affective strategies, by self-talking.
they are the most common type of courses taken by overseas students Wu: I cannot hear it clearly by whatby students. Yuan: and there are common taken by overseas students (repeating), which means that those are chosen by overseas students (in Chinese).
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Wu knows fewer words than Yuan. For Yuan, though she does not know every word in the sentence, she can ignore it and selectively listen to the other important information, using top-down method.
In addition to language tuition Wu: I get no idea. Yuan: Language dictation, right? I dont know the last word. This time, only the phrases, but neither the two listeners gets the meaning. It means that, both of them have not prepared for listening, and they are waiting for the next sentence or phrase, so both of them select their attention. The difference is that Yuan tries her best to listen to the text though she fails.
Intensive Language Programs give students the chance to know their school and the American academic environment. Wu: It seems that students are given what sort of chance. The rest escapes from me (in Chinese). Yuan: Intensive language programs gives students chance to learn school (in English), no, gives should be give, since programs is the plural form. It means to let those students get to know their life in America. Be familiar to is shouxi in Chinese. Wu hears some important words students and chance. Yuan first monitors herself by correcting gives; then uses social affective strategies to have self-talk, i.e. using mental redirection to assure herself that she gets the right meaning.
3.4.3 Discussion From the results of the quantitative study, all the participants are divided into two groups. Those who got higher points and also passed CET-4 belong to more skilled group and those who were less than six points and had not passed CET-4 formed the less skilled group. There are sharp a difference between their listening difficulties. Table 5 shows them.
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Table 5. Difference of listening difficulties of more skilled and less skilled listeners From Table 5, it is easy to see that there are some cognitive differences and some similarities between the less skilled listeners and the more skilled listeners. At first stage, for perception, there are many similarities of both groups. The first four items are the same. At the parson stage, more skilled listeners have fewer problems than the less skilled group. The capacity of short-term memory of the less skilled listeners is smaller than that of the more skilled listeners, who have learned many words but forget them. At the third stage, the striking difference between the two groups is that the less skilled group cannot get the main idea of the whole passage while the more skilled group can, only with some detail information unclear.
By analyzing the passage sentence by sentence in think-aloud method, the differences of adopting strategies by the less skilled listener and more skilled listener are also striking. Table 6 shows the differences.
Table 6. Comparison of strategies adopted by different listeners Group Strategies Less skilled listener More skilled listener
Group Difficulties Perception
Less skilled Group
More skilled Group
1.Cannot hear clearly; 2.Too many new words; 3.Different from the previous aural materials; 4.It is too fast; 5.Cannot be costumed to the intonation; 6.Do not know the meaning of some phrases; 1.Hear the words clearly, but do not know the meaning; 2.Too long and easily to forget; 3.Cannot connect new information with the old one;
1.Cannot hear clearly; 2.Too many new words; 3.Different from the previous aural materials; 4. It is too fast; 5. Cannot recognize the Linking sound of words;
Parsing
Some words that have been already learnt, but the meaning with the sounds cannot be linked;
Utilization
Chinese EFL Journal get the gist, but not every Cannot get the gist; Can detail
94
Cognitive
Only bottom-up method; Inferencing; Translate;
Metacognitive Planning; Selective listening;
Both bottom-up and top-down methods; Inferencing; Rehearsal; Organization; Elaboration; Planning; Selective listening; Monitoring; Using self-talk to assure herself to get the right meaning;
Social affective
None
There are two another differences between the two listeners. The less skilled one does not want to try hard to listen to the passage, and she gives up easily; the more skilled one can try her best to listen to the passage though she cannot understand it totally. The second difference is that more skilled listener can alternatively change between top-down and bottom-up method. From Table 5, it is easy to see that the more skilled listener uses far more strategies than the less skilled one.
4.
Conclusion There are huge cognitive differences of difficulties in listening comprehension between less skilled listeners and more skilled listeners. There are also different strategies adopted by different listeners. These strategies include cognitive, metacognitive and social affective strategies. A quantitative and a qualitative study were carried out to uncover these differences, and think-aloud method was adopted in the study. The results show that more skilled listeners use more strategies in listening comprehension than less skilled listeners; in the process of listening comprehension, more skilled listeners try harder than less skilled listeners.
5. References Asher, J. J. (1982). Learning another language through actions. Sky oaks productions Ink. Blair, R.W. (1987). New methodology for foreign language teaching. (Translated by Xuyi). Beijing: Beijing Linguistics College Press. Brown, G. (1990). Listening to Spoken English (2nd Ed.). Landon: Longman. Elliot, A.J. (1981). Child Language. Cambridge University Press. Ellis, R. (1999). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Shanghai: Shanghai
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Foreign Language Education Press. Goh, C.M. (1997). Metacognitive awareness and second language listeners. ELT Journal 51, 361-369. Goh, C.M. (1998b). How ESL learners with different listening abilities use comprehension strategies and tactics. Language Teaching Research 2, 124-147. Goh, C.M. 1999. A cognitive perspective on language learners listening comprehension problems. System, 28, pp.55-75. Goh, C.M. (2000). A cognitive perspective on language learners listening comprehension problems. System 28, 55-75. He, Qixin at al. (2002). Intermediate Listening Comprehension. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Hyland, K. (2005). Teaching and Researching Writing. Beijing: Foreign Language and Research Press. Kelly, P. (1995). The importance of listening---a personally illustrated view. Zielspraele English, 12, 12-19. OMalley, J.M. & Chamot, A.U. (1990). Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge University Press. Ur, P. (1984). Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge University Press. Vandergrift, L. (2003). Orchestrating Strategy Use: Toward a Model of the Skilled Language Listener. Language Learning, 53(3), pp. 463-496. Vandergrift, L. (2004). Listening to learn or learning to listen? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24(4), pp. 3-25. Vandergrift, L. (2006). Second Language Listening: Listening Ability or Language Proficiency? The Modern Language Journal, 90(6), pp. 6-18. Wang, Changxi. (2006). Model Tests of Forecast for 2006 CET-4. Beijing: Xueyuan press.
Note
CET is the short form for College English Test which is promoted by the Chinese Education Department. It contains CET-4 and CET-6 which are both held twice a year, and CET-6 has a higher requirement of the participants than CET-4.
1
Appendix:
Pretest: Name Age Sex English level Tel: This is a very simple listening test for you. The results are not important, and they are only for me to finish my paper. I will keep all the personal information about
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you, so please do not worry about anything you have written on the paper. Thank you for your cooperation! ^_^ 1. Listening comprehension A) Choose the best answer (A, B or C) for each of the following questions. 1).Why does the dentist asks the man to open his mouth wide? A). To give him a general check-up. B). To give him an injection C). To pull out one of his teeth. 2).Why doesnt the patient open his mouth? A). He hates to have injections. B). His tooth aches. C). He is afraid of the dentist. 3). Why does the dentist want to give the patient an injection? A). To make him be quiet. B). To make the patient relax. C). To reduce the pain while the tooth is being pulled out. 4). What does the dentist finally do? A). He gives him an injection. B). He pulls the tooth out. C).He gives him same painkillers. B).True or False Questions. Write a T in front of a statement if it is true according to the recording and write an F if it is false. 1). ( ) The patient has come to see the dentist because his tooth has been aching for a week. 2). ( ) The injection will only freeze the area around the tooth rather than let the patient go to sleep. 3). ( ) The patient doesnt want to watch in the mirror in front of him because hell faint. 4). ( ) According to the dentist, the patient will make up the blood that he will lose in a night. 5). ( ) The dentist is angry with the patient because he is wasting her precious time. 6). ( ) The patient will probably have his tooth pulled out next week.
What difficulties do you have when you listen to the passage?

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How have you dealt with them? 2. Dictation. Please write what you have heard just now. Your difficulties in listening: Your strategies:
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Title An Integrated Approach to Teaching English Trade Letters Author Wenhua Hsu
Bio Wenhua Hsu is an associate professor of the Center for General Education in the IShou University, Kaohsiung, in southern Taiwan. She obtained her MBA degree in Kansas State University, U.S.A. and a Ph.D. degree in the field of ESP in the University of Essex, U.K. Over the past thirteen years, she has taught English courses for Business Purposes. Her current research interest is students vocabulary size and the selection of English textbooks with specific reference to readability calculation.
Abstract The present study results from a reflection on the researchers teaching procedure in her Trade Letter Writing course for undergraduate English majors in an EFL context. The paper offers a conceptualized framework with contentbased instruction, genre awareness, group work in continuous simulation and a courseware approach embedded, outlining the pedagogical procedures on which the framework is based. The researcher sought to reply to the genre theory set out in the literature to support a genre awareness, which aims to make learners recognize the communicative purpose, structure and linguistic features of a trade letter. Content knowledge and language components were phased into the course syllabus to progress in a systematic order. Group work was organized and assigned in a number of principled ways. In addition, a quasi-natural environment in the classroom was created, by modelling business 99
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correspondence through continuous simulation. From this premise, the researcher used a campus web-based learning platform to build up her teaching materials, which is called an e-course. Consequently another important goal of this study was to evaluate the proposed teaching framework and students attitude about the course. Open-ended questionnaires concerning the trade letter writing course were given at the end of the semester. The results provided some evidence of the effectiveness of genre structure knowledge in organizing and developing content. The courseware reduced students class tension and consolidated genre knowledge introduced in class. The questionnaire findings reflected the need of most students for business writing skills as well as knowledge of commercial documents and trade terms.
Key words: genre awareness, content-based instruction, continuous simulation, 1. Introduction English for business purposes (EBP) is one of the subdivisions of English for specific purposes (ESP). It is generally accepted that the development of ESP originated in the 1960s because of the growth of science and technology, the role of English and the various market demands for English language. Pickett (1989) found that EBP teaching in fact long predated English for general purposes (EGP) teaching. More specifically the earliest English language teaching was for commercial purposes with specific reference to trade. In the 1960s and 1970s, EBP course materials were mainly concerned with written language (Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998). In the 1970s EBP was oriented toward English used in international trade. The commercial correspondence courses taught model letter writing mainly relating to import and export trades such as inquires and replies. Meanwhile specialist vocabulary was emphasized. Ellis and Johnson (1994) reported that in this period the approach underlying the earlier business English course books was to present business-related terminology, a few comprehension questions on the text and exercises of randomly selected structures. Furthermore, business course books did not take the subject matter knowledge into account either. Business English was therefore largely a matter of knowing and using business-related words on the assumption that the students already knew the transactions. There was no consideration of how the learner might apply content area knowledge in language use and no development of the skills of interaction. In the late
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1970s and 1980s the growth of EBP coincided with the growth in the economies of countries in South East Asia and the Pacific Rim. Since the early 1980s, the study of English for business purposes has attracted growing interest. From the 1990s to date, within ESP more and more EBP course books have been published, because the BE market has been seen as a growth area since the 1990s (Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998). According to St Johns (1996) dichotomy, business English (BE) itself is an umbrella term encompassing English for general business purposes (EGBP) and English for specific business purposes (ESBP). In addition to this dichotomy, there is a further proliferation of terms with BE as in all ESP: BE for MBA executives, BE for international trade and business management English and BE for secretaries, etc. These terms not only show that EBP practitioners brand their offerings by developing niches through a proliferation of terms, and target different contexts for use of BE, but also reveal that various EBP programs are designed to meet learners needs.
1.1 EBP Teaching in Taiwan A glance at EBP teaching in Taiwan reveals that EBP programs differ widely. In the context of academic study, BE learners remain in their own subject while language teachers are attached to, or integrated into the learners subject department. In the context of occupational area, language classes may even be arranged within the company or in a learners spare time. McDonough (1984) has defined this as on-site learning (p. 104), in contrast with instruction in a language department or a language school. Open universities and night schools also offer EBP courses. Most of their students are people currently employed. Various EBP programs at tertiary level in Taiwan may be summarized into two formats: (1.) content-based instruction (CBI) with more content focus and (2.) English for business purposes with more language focus. The EBP courses with the former format are mainly provided for English majors, running from one term to three years. The latter format is designed for nonEnglish majors in school and in work, running from just a few days to several years. 1.2 The Course Background The school researched is one of the leading colleges of foreign languages in southern Taiwan. The EBP program in this school is split into several dominant domains such as Introduction to Business Systems, International
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Trade, Principles of Marketing, Finance and so on. Differing from St. Johns (1996) dichotomy for EBP (i.e. English for general business purposes (EGBP) and English for specific business purposes (ESBP)), the BE curricula can more strictly be called content-based instruction (CBI) programs for business purposes. They are loosely equivalent to EGBP in terms of the context of language students. It can be seen as an amalgam of English for general purposes (EGP) and deep EBP. Consequently the nature of the EBP courses in the current context is different from that of a classic EBP class. For example, the emphasis on what items of language for specific purposes are to be learnt in an EBP class turns out to be a focus on what specialized content is to be learnt in such a semi-EBP class. The semi-EBP is characterized by the redirection of attention from content in favor of language to language in favor of content. In other words, specialized content is taken into account more in syllabus design. The instructional format is a discipline-based model in the field of CBI. The organizing principle of the discipline-based model is a major theme with related topics, for example, an international trade theme with topics of price quotation and documentary credit cycle, etc. The English majors in this school take elective EBP courses mainly for two purposes: (1.) preparation for future study in business for their MA degree, especially in English-speaking countries, and (2.) job-oriented preparation. These language students regard elective EBP courses as a launch pad for their career plan. In the present study, the course, entitled English Trade Letter Writing was a 2-credit hour elective subject at the undergraduate level for the 2nd year students. The participants were a class of 48 students at the intermediate level of proficiency. Two textbooks were used: Longman Commercial
Communication (Stanton & Wood, 2005) and Company to Company (Littlejohn, 2005). The former contains a systematic coverage of the main types of business letter as well as information about the modern world of international commerce. The latter adopts an interactive task-and discussionbased approach, and provides opportunities for students to practice writing letters to each other (as the book title suggested, company to company). The class lectures and activities were given mainly in a networked classroom. The overall instructional objectives were threefold:
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1. To equip the students with sufficient export/ import documentation knowledge to deal effectively with commercial correspondence in the field of international trade. 2. To familiarize the students with style and structure requirements in the major types of trade letter. 3. To enable the students to write complete and good trade-related business letters.
The Pedagogical Framework for English Trade Letter Writing Due to lack of specificity of EBP methodology, the teaching methodology
in the present EBP context has thus been developed by the teacher-researcher herself. This paper offers an integrated framework for English Trade Letters teaching and outlines four approaches on which the framework is based. The four teaching approaches are phased into the course one at a time: contentbased instruction class. Meanwhile two aspects of knowledge are imparted: specialist knowledge with a content focus and specialized knowledge with a language orientation. From this premise, the researcher sought to rely on the theories set out in the literature to support the present integrated framework and found that each approach itself can stand alone to account for its pedagogical rationale. The rationale of each approach and its application to the class are as follows. genre awareness of routine correspondence group work and continuous simulation writing with the aide of e-course outside of the
2.1 Content-based Instruction In the literature, the various content-based instruction (CBI) program types are characterized by the balance of language and content instruction. Spanos (1989) distinguished three fundamental types of integrated language and content instruction: (1.) content-based language instruction, (2.) languagesensitive content instruction and (3.) articulated language and content instruction. The three distinctions respectively refer to cases (1) where topical content is used in the language classroom; (2.) where language instruction is conducted in the content classroom; (3.) where attempts are made to coordinate
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both content and second/ foreign language curricula. At the tertiary level, Brinton, Snow and Wesche (1989) identified three models for content-based instruction: theme-based, sheltered and adjunct formats according to their relative focus on language and content. Crandall (1993) also classified the notion of integrating language and content instruction into three types: (1.) content-based language instruction, (2.) sheltered subject matter teaching and (3.) language across the curriculum. She defined the first type of CBI as a general approach, in which ESL or EFL teachers use academic texts, tasks and techniques as a vehicle for developing language, content type and thinking/ study skills (p.14). The second type refers to an approach in which content area teachers adapt the language of their texts to make their instruction accessible to students with lower proficiency levels. The third type means an effort to integrate language instruction into all other curriculaan approach where language and content teachers are teamed together and language teachers derive their materials from the content course. The language teacher emphasizes language skills while the content teacher focuses on academic concepts. These three models can be put on a continuum. At one end of the continuum is the content-driven model (i.e. the sheltered CBI) and at the other end is the language-driven format (i.e. theme-based CBI). Extended from the content-driven model to the extreme is discipline-based language instruction (Krueger & Ryan, 1993). The content is normally disciplinary materials. This embraces instruction in non-language courses that makes extensive use of informational resources in a foreign language or in content courses taught in a foreign language. In line with discipline-based model, the sustained notion advocated by Pally et al (2000) is an important addition to the existing CBI models. She used the term sustained contentbased instruction (SCBI) to emphasize that not all content-based curricula feature sustained content. She defined SCBI as studying one content area over time and proposed sustaining a particular content instruction over a semester to lead to deeper engagement with content sources, meaningful content learning and improved language abilities. In sum, there are several features which distinguished the aforementioned models from each other (Brinton et al., 1989; Pally et al., 2000; Snow & Brinton, 1997; Wesche, 1993).
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1. Learning focus: In the theme-based model, the focus is EFL/ESL learning; in sheltered courses, it is mastery of content materials; in adjunct model, both language and content learning are given prominence. In the sustained model, a single content are is emphasized in depth. In discipline-based courses, academic disciplines are the content organizing principle. 2. Responsibility assumed by instructors: In theme-based and sustained courses, language teachers also teach content material; in sheltered and discipline-based courses, subject teachers are responsible for presenting material in the target language in a way that will support language learning; in adjunct courses, each teacher is responsible for his/her subject domain as well as coordination with the other. 3. Proficiency levels required: Theme-based, sheltered and adjunct courses can be offered at all proficiency levels whereas discipline-based and sustained courses require that students have from intermediate to advanced listening and reading skills. 4. Focus of evaluation: More attention to language objectives might be paid in theme-based courses; more focus on subject matter learning in sheltered and disciplinebased, and more concentration on both content and language in adjunct programs. The 1980s were dynamic years for those interested in content-based instruction. The literature review concerning CBI types has two purposes: (1.) To characterize CBI as a methodology with many facets, this review tries to capture the great variety of CBI formats and the contexts in which CBI is used. (2.) A reference to previous CBI models would clarify which part of CBI the present pedagogical framework fits conceptually. As aforementioned, the discipline-based model has been used in the school studied. The rationale of adopting CBI in this English Trading Letter Writing class is that these language students perceived that their primary task was not only the display of content in their writing with precision, conciseness and clarity, but also the acquisition of content. They saw the need for conveying
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their business knowledge and L/C concepts in trade-related correspondence. Incorporating content-based instruction in an EBP curriculum was a natural result of considering such a need. Appendix 1 illustrates a part of class lectures, through which indispensable background knowledge dealing with export and import is delivered.
2.2
Genre awareness of routine correspondence
Swales established genre as an independent concept in applied linguistics, especially in ESP. Awareness and knowledge of genre structure play an important role in formal writing. According to Swales (1990.), a genre can be briefly defined as a class of texts characterized by a sequence of segments or moves with each move accomplishing some part of the overall communicative purpose of the text, which tends to produce distinctive structural patterns. Genre analysis is the study of the structural and linguistic regularities of particular text-types and the role they play within a discourse community. Nwogu (1991) further specified the definition of move as a text segment made up of a bundle of linguistic features (e.g. lexical meanings and illocutionary forces, etc.), which [gives] the segment a uniform orientation and signals the content of discourse in it (114). Each move is taken to embody a number of constituent elements which combine to constitute information in the move. For example, Bhatia (1993) used a genre approach to analyze sales promotion letters and job application letters, and found that both have similar communicative purposes in the moves within the written texts. Genre-based pedagogies have particularly emphasized raising the awareness of non-expert members of a genre community of conventional structures. Swales (Ibid.) proposed that by identifying recurring discourse structures such as moves and steps and discourse markers in genre-specific texts, such a language analysis enables students to raise their genre awareness and facilitates their participation in their disciplinary discourse communities (213). It has been claimed that genre awareness has several advantages such as enhancing learners performance in discourse communication skills, benefiting learners in their professional roles, and promoting a higher level of intellectual quality in lines of logical thinking (e.g. Hyland, 2000; Mustafa, 1995; Johns, 2001). Considering the importance of the concept of genre, the question of how
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genre awareness can be realized in classroom activities follows. From the genre-awareness premise, the students were firstly directed to keep uppermost in their mind the 7 Cs principles: completeness, clearness, correctness, concreteness, conciseness, courtesy and consideration. The 7 Cs can be applied to all genres of business letter to ensure the effective exchange of information (i.e. the economy of language and writing to the point) and the successful establishment or maintenance of social relationship. As mentioned, the second aim of the course was to raise the students awareness of the generic and structural features of routine correspondence and to empower them with the strategies necessary to replicate these features in their own production. To accomplish this, they were given several sample letters for each type of business letter based on a variety of textbooks. The teacher-researcher found that regular and formal correspondence derived from textbooks often follows a standard format and hence easier for EBP learners to imitate. The 48 students were then asked to identify some of the structural characteristics, by working on the mini-corpus of sample letters in small group. In line with Swales, sample letters in the corpus were analyzed into moves, corresponding to the development of messages in the body of the letter. Although the moves may be variously labelled, students eventually managed to identify twelve types of trade-related business letter, which normally embody the following constituent elements. Table 1: The moves in trade-related business letters Sales letter Inquiries/ Requests 1. Begin with a strong opening statement that attracts the readers attention. 2. Identify your products features in a positive way. (a.) Explain (b.) Itemize the benefits. 3. End confidently and encourage the reader to respond. 1. State where you learned about the company/ product. 2. Give general information about your business. 3. State your interest. 4. Request action. 5. Close the letter and the appropriate ending.
Replies to inquiries 1. Acknowledge the letter of inquiry. 2. State what action you are taking. 3. (Focus attention on important information.) 4. Answer any specific questions the enquirer asked. 5. Suggest ways in which you could help the enquirer to make a decision (to buy). 6. Invite the enquirer to
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Order letter 1. Acknowledge the previous correspondence. 2. (State your reactions to the prices, discounts, etc.) 3. Place the order (a.) Give the detailed info. (b.) Indicate how the product must be shipped. 4. Confirm terms of payment. 5. Set deadline for delivery. Shipping advice 1. Refer to the order. 2. Give shipping details. E.g. arrival date, vessel name, shipping documents: B/L, invoice, packing list, etc. 3. Thank you for the patronage and look forward to the safe arrival of the goods.
Replies to orders 1. Acknowledge receipt of the order. 2. Confirm the supply. 3. Say what you have done about the order. 4. Say what you are going to do next about the order. 5. Assure the delivery. 6. Close the letter and the appropriate ending.
1. 2. 3. 4.
ask for further information. Refusing order Thank the customer for the order. Say that you cannot meet the order. Say why you cannot meet the order. Suggest an alternative.
1.
2.
3. 4.
Complaint/ Claim 1. Refer to the order. 1. 2. State reason for complaint. 2. 3. Suggest possible causes of the problem. 3. 4. State action(s) you require the other company to take (Recommend the 4. action that will best solve the problem.) 5. 5. state action taken by your company.
Re-application for payment Refer to the product 1. Review earlier efforts to collect payment. for which payment is 2. Give a final due. State the current status opportunity to pay by of the overdue fixing a deadline. account. 3. State that you wish to Ask for a payment to be fair and reasonable. be sent. 4. State what action you Conclude by will take if this indicating your faith request is ignored. in the customers 5. Regret the necessity for the letter. continued business. Positive adjustment Rejecting a complaint Acknowledge the 6. Thank the reader for writing and express letter of complaint. your regret about the Explain the cause of the problem. problem. State action taken to 7. Explain the prevent the problem transaction from your happening again viewpoint. (State the (Prevention action). reason for the refusal Reassure the tactfully. / Politely customer. explain why the State action taken to complaint is solve the immediate unjustified.) problem (remedy 8. Sympathize with the action). reader and show another expression of thanks.
Collection letter
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It was stressed in the class that the above moves were simply to provide students with an easy way into writing business letters. As some routine business correspondence is a highly conventionalized genre, learners have to be familiarized with the conventions governing message structuring and
appropriate use of this particular genre in order to master it (Jordan, 1997). Following the notion of genre awareness, the students were guided to pay attention to collocations. The rationale of raising students consciousness of collocations is that collocations are somewhat formulaic in nature (Bolinger, 1976). Collocations are often produced as formulaic units that are stored like other lexical expressions and can be retrieved efficiently as chunks. Lewis (2000) proposed the teaching of collocations is crucial in the following ways: 1. Collocations, which make up nearly seventy percent of every day language, are fundamental to language use. 2. The predictability of collocations will make learning easier. 3. The more collocations learners are exposed to, the better they will use them. 4. Collocations enhance fluency and speed up communication. 5. Recognizing formulaic chunks is crucial for acquisition.
The following is an excerpt from the class handouts, which were complied based on the BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations (Benson et al., 1997).
The definition of collocations involves several characteristics: 1. Collocations are combinations of words which are closely adjacent and which more or less frequently co-occur. 2. Collocations are combinations of words whose meanings can be understood based on the literal meanings of their components. 3. Collocations are combinations of words which tend to be more or less lexically fixed permitting substitution in at least one of their components. 4. Collocations are combinations of words which are grammatically structured and which are more or less grammatically fixed in forms allowing changes in their part of speech or word order.
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Collocations are of two types: lexical collocations and grammatical collocations. Lexical collocations mainly include word-associations where one
component recurrently co-occurs with one or more other components as the only or one of the few possible lexical choices. Examples include quantity discount, volume discount, bulk order, reserve the right and make payment, etc. Grammatical collocations refer to words identified by their grammatical categories rather than lexical meaning association. They consist of a content word and a function word or certain structural pattern (e.g. a thatclause, to + infinitive or gerund). For example, it is essential that + noun clause, look forward to + v-ing and would like to + infinitive are all grammatical collocations.
Table 2: Lexical Collocations: Pattern Example Pattern Example Pattern Example Verb meet deadline Adjective immediate Noun volume discount + meet 1+ + dispatch bulk order noun requirement noun competitive price Noun quantity discount make payment repeated 2 trade discount purchase make trade terms concession safe arrival worth $ reserve the right regular supplies a trial order great issue/ open a discount L/C appreciation concession most favorable arrange market penetration shipment terms invoice price make mutual advantage shipping advice no commercial arrangement product value place an order specifications receive perfect condition firm order shipment take a legal unavoidable occurrence action maintain supplies
Table 3: Grammatical Collocations: Pattern Examples Preposition in ones favor + at ones expense/ risk
Pattern Noun +
Examples delivery by date deadline of date
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noun be of interest combinations subject to change without notice up to sample/ expectations of good/ superior quality at ~ days sight with effect from below the standard in good order out of stock in strict rotation under considerable pressure
~ that noun clause
Please note that We trust that It is essential that I can only assume that We regret that We expect that You can be assured that Please ensure that We suggest that ~should ~ It is very likely that look forward to + v-ing inform sb. of + n. specialize in + v-ing/ n. Thank you for + v-ing/ n. apologize for + v-ing/ n. have pleasure in + v-ing appreciate + v-ing/ n.
Verb/ phrasal verb + preposition + gerund or noun
the letter of date the demand for a discount of ~ % an order for a breach of replacement for apology for lack of inconvenience caused by attention to/ a focus on interest in/inquiry about a shortage of a range of Verb offer to + wish to infinitive would like to feel free to do not hesitate to be glad to be pleased to There seems to There seems to have been It appears to Content payable at ~ days word + sight prep. acceptable on the combinations condition~ meet with ones approval signed with effect from date~ renewable from date~ preposition
In the next step, the students were asked to check whether they could identify any lexical expressions, which seem to correlate with the generic structures of a certain type of business letters listed in Table 1. They succeeded in detecting a number of formulaic chunks which most frequently occur in some moves of a business letter. Here are some formulaic units found by the students: We would appreciate it if/Could you please send us/We thank you
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for/We have pleasure in/ We are pleased to/We look forward to/~ will be highly appreciated./We regret to inform you that/We would be grateful if/We have seen your advertisement/For the attention of /We are writing to/Delivery byis essential., etc.
2.3
The classroom application of group work
Due to most often a large class of 45 students or more, group work (usually 4 students in a group, as per the classroom convention) was common in the school studied. The groups of four for the present EBP class were formed based on the students choice. At the beginning of the first semester, the students were told to find their own group members and the four members in the same group were required to sit close together for one academic year. To ensure students active participation in teamwork, the researcher offered a quasi-natural business environment in the classroom by modeling the process of doing business through the notion of continuous simulation (Tarnopolsky, 2000). In the business field, case studies or a seminar usually take the form of simulation, which can bring the realities of the business world into the classroom through the active involvement of the students in practice-oriented learning activities. However, traditional simulations are usually disconnected episodes in the teaching/ learning process. The driving principle was hence to connect all the simulations throughout the whole year by a single plot with the same companies (created by each group) being involved from situation to situation. In the continuous simulations, students were placed in various business situations in relation to foreign trade (such as complaint, adjustment, inquiry and replies, etc.), where each group represented its own company. Students themselves invented the companies (including logo and trademark, etc.), decided what their business would be, and assigned the positions/ jobs, etc. In the second meeting, students were required to present their company about their business, as well as what materials or machine parts they consider buying to manufacture their goods or to enhance their service, and to show the design of the companys letterhead. When each groups firm was thus organized, its day-to-day functioning started throughout the whole academic year (i.e. doing business with one another on an on-going basis). In this way, students were
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encouraged to plan their companys letters for each business communication situation. Each company could either be a buyer/ importer for raw material purchase or a seller/ exporter for its end product. Table 4 is a list of the companies invented by the students. Table 4: Twelve companies created and simulated by twelve groups of four students in a continuous way throughout the whole academic year Group Company Name Place Group Company Name 7 Momo LV Ladies 1 Kuso Office Amsterdam, Supplies Holland 2 Dreamer PC Taipei, 8 The One Textiles Home Taiwan 3 Rain Electronics Seoul, 9 Miracle Kitchen Korea 4 TBG Computers Singapore 10 A-go-go Drink Machines 5 F4 Gentlemens Yokohama, 11 Rainbow Food Outfitters Japan Processor 6 La New Shoes Hong Kong 12 Even Ovens Ltd. Satellite Dishes Place California, U.S. Pattaya, Thailand Liverpool, U.K. Toulouse, France Murcia, Spain Melbourne, Australia
The main aim of such a design was to provide students with a purpose and context for writing. When the students finished writing, they had to deliver the letter to the appropriate company (depending on being a buyer or a seller). Each letter that one group (i.e. one company) sent to another would be read for the message it contained. Meanwhile they would also receive a letter from one of the other groups, and they would have to take it into account when they wrote their next letter. When this was completed, they again delivered it to the appropriate group before moving on to the next trade-related letter. As the activity progressed, the students had to think not only about the correctness of the language they used but also of what had happened and what might happen as a result of their letters. The feedback stage took place in a separate lesson from the writing activity itself. Each group of students was required to look through the letter they received from the other group and to mark on the letters any problems they had in understanding, any mistakes they noticed in grammar, expression or any comment they might have on the tone of the letter. Next the students were told
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to pass each letter back to the group that wrote it. Each group then checked through its own letter and tried to correct any errors. The feedback session was a vital part of the activity in the sense that students were generally much slower in recognizing their own mistakes than in seeing others errors. After peer feedback, the teacher-researcher collected the revised letters for correction and marking. By this stage, this pedagogical framework comprised group work and continuous simulations, meanwhile content-bases instruction and genre awareness were phased into the course syllabus to progress in a systematic order. As a result, this teaching procedure leads to a multi-cycle subject to the letter types. For instance, if twelve types of business letter are predetermined to be covered for the whole academic year, the multi-cycles means that there will be twelve cycles progressing as follows: content-based instruction awareness group continuous simulations in letter-writing genre
feedback session.
The cycle of the teaching procedure is displayed graphically in Appendix 2.
2.4
The e-course platform
Parallel to classroom activities, the teacher-researcher also used a campus web-based learning platform to build up her teaching materials for students to study outside of the class in their free time. The e-course platform was set up in 2002 and was originally designed as a course management system for distant learning courses. It allowed teachers to enhance and expand their curriculum within and beyond the physical classroom. With the aid of software such as PowerPoint, Photo Impact and Power Director, etc. (Lin & Lee, 2003), teachers could put their lecturing materials and students work in multimedia formats into the e-course. Such technology with formulated templates provided teachers with a teaching material authoring system that was easier than establishing a websites. In addition, the e-course contained a hyperlink system in which all teachers had to do was to type a web page address, which they would like their students to navigate through. Namely, hyperlinks in the e-course allowed teachers to incorporate numerous websites, which provided ample information resources and served as the information hub for the course. Useful websites in
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relation to Business Writing provided in the e-course are, for instance: http://www.business-english-training.com/corres.htm; http://www.4hb.com/letters/; http://eleaston.com/biz/bizhome.html; http://www.better-english.com/exerciselist.html; http://www.linguarama.com/ps/polite.htm; http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/templategallery; http://www.geocities.com/athens/sparta/9487/; http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000140.htm As each web address above has hinted, these sites offer letter templates for application, a complete guide to letter writing and a splendid collection of model business letters. Other relevant websites for students reference are business glossaries and jargons, which were also put in the e-course platform. Although nowadays Google, the most powerful search engine, can find more than 200,000 hits for business English, the problem for the learners is to know where to start. As a consequence, a user-friendly courseware system not only reduces the burden of teachers in preparing extra-curricular materials but also affords students increased opportunities for autonomous learning.
3. Research methodology The approaches associated with the teaching procedure used in the researchers EBP context require no radical new approach but rather the integration of existing approaches in an order where they complement each other. The main purpose of this research thus sought to have a better understanding of how a BE teacher can help students to undertake writing on an easy systematic basis. The specific questions under investigation were: 1. What are the EBP novice learners general attitudes toward an integrated approach to learning English for commercial correspondence purposes? 2. Do content-based instruction, a genre-awareness approach, group continuous simulation, and e-course application help students to improve their business letter writing? 3. What problematic areas do EBP novice learners encounter while writing a business letter and how are they solved? To obtain the students reaction about the course and to evaluate their
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writing performance, two methods were adopted to collect the data: a questionnaire and the students written work, trade letters. An anonymous questionnaire of thirteen open-ended questions (see Appendix 3) about the students perception toward an integrated teaching approach to business letter writing (i.e. content-based instruction, genre awareness, group simulation and e-course) was distributed at the end of the academic year. The responses were classified into several categories based on the gist of their statements together with any given number referring to the accurate count. Meanwhile a quantitative analysis of the data focused on the effectiveness of the genre approach. The researcher speculated that there would be a genreawareness effect on better writing performance due to the instruction of moves and collocations. To find out how the students benefit from the learning of business genre, repeated measures t tests on pre- and posttreatments across the first three types of business letter were used (i.e. sales, inquiries and replies). The measure for writing performance was
operationalized as the number of errors. The better writing performance in this research was associated with fewer linguistic errors in a letter. Since some lexical collocations and grammatical collocations in a business letter are predicable and formulaic in nature as specified in Section 2.2, a student with this genre and collocation knowledge was expected to make fewer errors as a whole in a letter of trade type. The total errors were tallied and rechecked by a colleague of the researchers, who also taught Business English. The target of the coding reliability checks was set at 80% (0.80). This colleague read the students written work independently. The percentage of agreement between the two ratters was calculated as the formula below to establish the coding reliability.
% agreement= total number of agreements on the errors * 100 % / (total agreements + total disagreements)
The comparison was therefore straightforward. The treatment involved letter writing before (without) and after (with) genre and collocation instruction, and in total consisted of 12 groups of 4 for each letter. The prediction is addressed as in the hypothesis.
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Hypothesis: There would be fewer errors in letter writing after the instruction of genre than before the instruction of genre. Finally, the analyses were meant to check whether on some points there was convergence of results from the quantitative and qualitative data.
4. Data results and discussion Two raters agreement coefficients for the number of language errors in a trade letter met the target level of 80% (96%>80%). Table 5 summarizes the statistical results concerning the genre-awareness approach.
Table 5: Repeated measures t tests with a genre approach across three types of letter Letter type Sales letter Inquiry letter Reply letter Pre-treatment Post-treatment Mean Mean 12 8 9 6 11 6 t -2.304 -2.1 -2.382 p (sig.) 0.034* 0.048* 0.02*
Measure: the number of errors in a letter. The determination of the significance level was set at p<.05. *=statistically significant difference.
The statistics reveal that the genre approach demonstrated a beneficial effect on the writing performance across three letter types (as an average of fewer errors produced in the post-treatment across three types of letter has shown, 8<12, 6<9, 6<11). All p-values <.05 indicate a significant difference between before and after the instruction of moves and collocations in the mean value of errors. Although the expectation of the impact of genre and collocation knowledge on fewer errors in letter writing was supported, the results should be interpreted with caution. It was possible that other factors like sample size and the difficulty of letter types, and other grammatical errors could explain a writing discrepancy. As a result, to confirm and pursue the helpfulness of the genre approach, the questionnaires were analyzed based on the gist of the students statements. Students perception toward a genre-awareness approach Positive Response Useful formulaic units and collocations Count Negative Response Count 19 Little time spent on sentence 3 structure
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The structure of each type of trade letter is clearly listed and easily followed. Prefer move/sub-move activities in view of a systematic thinking process For fear of point deduction, I wrote a letter well, containing its required structure and complete messages
32
27
Insufficient explanation why some wording and tone was impolite The structure lecture for each type of trade letter is more boring, though it is helpful.
16
13
Note: The class size = 48. The total counts are not equal to the class size because the students responses to each question were classified into several categories based on the gist of their statements.
Mention was made repeatedly of the formulaic phase and collocation section, which quite a few students (19 out of 48) felt to be the most helpful component. Among the skills and language features emphasized in the class, twenty-seven students liked the moves and sub-move lecture and activities because, as they found, the steps involved in a letter were organized and easily followed (32+27 mentions). One-third of the students indicated that awareness and knowledge of genre structure, despite being more boring than other activities at first impression, has helped them to enhance writing abilities. They admitted that genre knowledge achieved an immediate effect in light of the thinking process. To some extent, there was an analogy with driving, as several students pointed out on the questionnaire.
Genre function, especially move recognition, is like signposts. It will be easier for a driver to follow directions and judge distances when a road is well signposted.
Furthermore, it was very encouraging for the teacher-researcher to see that quite a few students (13) mentioned their needs for the teachers push from behind. Their responses often resembled these:
I remember Ms. Hsus lecture about the moves/sub-moves in a letter. The move structures are deeply rooted in my head. For fear of point deduction, I think I wrote each type of letter well, containing complete messages.
Negative comments about this section implied insufficient syntax explanation. They (3) thought that too little time had been spent on grammar. Additionally, nine students remarked that in some cases it would have been more concrete to be told why some wording and tone was considered offensive
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or inappropriate. Perhaps the teacher-researcher should take the blame because of her failure to acknowledge the students specific needs for the explanation of sentence structure and some grammatical points. This also reveals that how the syllabus in this regard may be modified for the next course.
Students perception toward content-based instruction When the students were asked which approach they liked most, genre structure or content-based instruction, the bulk of students preferences (40 out of 48) tended to center around business content instruction. They gave reasons for their preferences: -Business content knowledge acquired has made me feel that I am a double major: English major and business minor. -Learning a new content area makes me feel a sense of achievement. -Business concepts are easily kept in mind once understood. I have a short memory. I dislike form-function exercises. The value of CBI was highlighted by students conception that they were more knowledgeable being a double major than being a language single major. Their needs for knowledge of another content area became prominent when chances were given. Such content knowledge needs might have dictated their preferences for CBI. This can be partly ascribed to the fact that the members of the target group researched were language majors in an EFL context. The EBP class provided them with the opportunities of learning something new and different from the language courses. The content learning needs also helped to explain why the content of the class lecture remained in their mind beyond one semester. Question 2 in the questionnaire, What did you like or dislike about the course content? did not directly address the issue of the effects of the different teaching approaches. However, very surprisingly most students were impressed with the content lecture delivered at the beginning of this course in the first semester. The topics taught were completely new to them so that CBI seemed more effective in terms of memory than genre-awareness exercises. Though collocation exercises have achieved an immediate effect on writing performance, the CBI effect on content learning stays longer. The following is a selection of their responses.
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-I remember Ms. Hsus content lecture was price quotation concerning shipping terms at the beginning of the last semester. The concepts are deeply rooted in my head. -We acquired some basic export/ import concepts, which are helpful in job-oriented settings. Ten students who intended to pursue an export/ import career have expressed enthusiasm and excitement about the direct usefulness of trade knowledge learnt in this course.
Students perception toward group continuous simulation Most students felt that group work has reduced their class tension and panic. They fully understood that their attention span was short. Nevertheless, they were aware that team spirit (the feeling of being in the same boat) promoted their thinking skills and mastery of content through collaborative learning. -Continuously role playing for the same company enabled us to learn how to function in a firm and learn to resolve any conflicts and accomplish group goals.
The continuous simulation of an invented company created an atmosphere of bringing the office to the classroom, such as competing with global competitors and sustaining growth in a corporation. Their comments often resembled these: -I felt I was a boss. -I enjoyed owing a company running on an ever-lasting basis. -Good game-very realistic and fun. One student even changed his confidence in his ability to accomplish more by working alone than with others. He indicated that such teamwork experience was different from that in other courses. He enjoyed working with partners in their partnership, and would welcome this kind of two-heads-are-better-thanone participation in the future.
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-We imagined we would make money by quoting a price with a big profit margin and getting as many orders as we could. We avoided losing money by making adjustment of a customer complaint at a minimum expenses and negotiating a favorable compensation. Another even mentioned her pride in being able to see her problem-solving ideas, which were put in the adjustment letter, came to fruition. The overall students impression of group continuous simulation is summarized as below: Positive Response Count Playful learning in company simulation 43 Due to sense of competition of doing business, there were fewer 31 chances to go off task to engage in small talk which is not closely related to the writing theme. More intensive collaboration than usual 28 Sense of achievement-speaking like a boss 5 Negative Response Count Novelty effects of continuous company simulation wore off in the 1 second semester
Students perception toward peer feedback Overwhelmingly positive comments count A less embarrassing atmosphere to encourage writing peer feedback 32 freely The peer feedback helped me to know my letter writing and thus to 40 produce fewer errors in the 2 nd draft to be submitted to Ms. Hsu The peer feedback session received considerable support (32). Some bluntly showed their happiness in finding fault with others letters. They were excited to see that other groups ended up with rewriting due to many errors spotted. No one complained about embarrassing peer correcting. They did not feel that they were not qualified to comment on the peer letters. The sociocultural factor of saving face was eased out by group writing. Despite this, none of the students mentioned that they should have been alert to language processing and keen on language accuracy during the write-up phase. Such results were not consonant with some students belief about the helpfulness of formulaic collocations in enhancing writing ability.
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Students perception toward e-course application Eight students highlighted the ease of the e-course with which they could find information from a variety of sources. A few students felt that the e-course gave them the opportunity to digest and learn class materials at their own pace and hence reduced class tension and panic. It is worth noticing that those students who kept high online learning records stated their needs in finding more sample business letters. Sales letters and negative adjustment letters were the genres they referred to most frequently. Among many types of business letters, several students (8) mentioned that negative adjustment letters were most challenging in terms of maintenance of social relationship. Somewhat surprisingly, they voiced their concern that although many letters might focus on routine matters that could be efficiently handled by copying a model letter, they still needed to learn more (like social skills and job experience) for non-routine situations as well. One concern alluded to in the students responses could not be ignored in spite of only two responses. These two students pointed to the importance of good peer work as a model on the e-course. They gave their reason that due to equal proficiency level, the peer writings were easier for them to emulate. Online materials were not really appreciated. Because of part-time jobs, campus clubs and other reasons, two thirds of the students expressed little wish to have studied more on the e-course after class. Despite this, the whole class strongly agreed that the glossary and related business writing websites were useful. They pointed out that if they needed to look it up, they would surf Ms. Hsus e-course, as relevant websites have been selected and put together in the e-course. Nine students added that the computer should only ever play a supplementary role. When asked whether they would welcome the integration of the e-course into class activities as opposed to out-of-class activities, all of the students suggested that computers should be used at home for consolidating language and knowledge areas introduced in class, or for ironing out individual weaknesses. Those students who voted for computer-free classes explained that they preferred the collaborative atmosphere of learning in a group.
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I would rather do genre-related exercises in class with Ms. Hsus presence than the expanding drills on the e-course website. They are simply the same drills in high tech format, which simply look fancy. I prefer practicing with classmates under the guidance of Ms. Hsu to working on the e-course alone. I like Ms. Hsus lecture. Exploring genre on the e-course websites on my own makes me lose a sense of direction.
Answers to research questions In their responses, most students apparently liked the course. Forty students expressed general appreciation of the recycled teaching method of each writing theme, which was predictable to them. Before the course, some students thought that business letters were becoming obsolete because of advances in communication technology such as e-mail, skype, MSN and voice mail. Later they found that subject-matter expertise, reader sensibility in the light of 7 Cs principles and language control should be given in equal prominence, although the lectures of business background knowledge were a popular session (40/48), with some (17) recommending that even more be included. The 48 students overwhelmingly positive comments on the course led the researcher to answer Research Question 1, What are the EBP novice learners general attitudes toward an integrated approach to learning English for Commercial Correspondence? and to conclude that generally speaking, the pedagogical framework appeared to be acceptable to the students. While an ESP course is highly expected to address learners particular needs and to individualize the learning process, the researcher wishes to contend that intrinsic interest should neither be ignored nor be sacrificed at the requirement of specific needs. A simple answer like or dislike may suffice. As is evident from these students responses, when the content instruction was a new experience to them and matched what they believed they would need in the near future, their curiosity was aroused, and thus led to interest. The issue of whether their interest could be sustained over time is worth investigating but beyond the current research aim. The questionnaire results gave an affirmative answer to Research Question
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2, Do a genre-awareness approach, group continuous simulation, contentbased instruction and e-course application help students to improve their business letter writing? The whole class was very sure that when it came to assessing whether they had actually learnt anything new, one hundred per cent thought they had. As some students indicated, business background knowledge and the move-structure awareness of each letter genre helped them to fill the space with content, while formulaic phrases and collocations made them ready to shift from the ideas to smooth expression in writing. They admitted that genre-structure knowledge achieved an immediate effect in the light of the thinking and composing process. Different from other English writing courses, students felt that business letter writing seems to be much easier and more straightforward in terms of literal rather than implied purposes. This reaction may be interpreted as the genre awareness effect has been acknowledged by the students. It echoes one of the class lectures about business genre---The guiding principles for commercial correspondence, 7 Cs (completeness, clearness/ clarity, correctness, concreteness, conciseness, courtesy and consideration) contribute to make fluent sentences that crystallize the writing purpose by speaking directly to the letter reader. Concerning students perception toward problem areas in writing a business letter (i.e. Research Question 3), their reactions included: (1.) word choice, (2.) modals, and (3.) voice. Based on the teacher-researchers observation of students letter writing (see Appendix 4), the most frequentlyoccurring problems were: (1.) some lexico-grammatical problems due to the influence of the native language, namely Mandarin Chinese, including the use of articles, subject-verb agreement, and tense, etc.; (2.) lengthy run-on sentences, (3.) occasionally translationese in the letter writing, in which thoughts were formulated in the native language and then translated into English. This implies that the conceptualization behind their letter composing involves common linguistic knowledge outside the boundaries of genre knowledge as well as specialist content knowledge. In other words, content domain writing (business writing) is not necessarily full of specialist terms and jargon. The rule-governed aspect of language (e.g. syntax and grammar) should not be ignored. Otherwise, students might make the same linguistic errors thousands of times while practicing. Poor linguistic ability may impede content
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from being conveyed properly. Likewise, without content area knowledge or genre knowledge, students might have written more irrelevantly, and less concisely and precisely. Further research could perhaps investigate whether the provision of grammar, specialist content knowledge and genre awareness would benefit students most.
5. Conclusion and pedagogical implications Though this research focus is not on EBP teacher education concerning specialist knowledge, the present pedagogical framework implies that mastery of the business concepts is indispensable if trade-related letters are to be effectively written. The questionnaire findings reflected a need of most English-majoring students for knowledge of commercial documents. Today teachers do not seem to have many choices under the pressure of large class size and limited instruction hours. They have to compete for and win students attention, especially when the attention span of most students in a class is short. Teachers may benefit from group work and peer feedback, which can partially erase repetitive linguistic errors. The current research failed to study the individual learning profile of the students, although the teaching framework has addressed the common goal on a whole class basis. Perhaps the best solution will be self-and peer- assessment of class participation. The self- and peer- evaluation sheets in the same group put together would show who did the most jobs in a group, who was capable but lazy and who played what role, etc. (Note: The researcher-teacher gave the students self-and peer-evaluation sheets at the end of each semester to assess each students participation. The issues of group dynamics are worthwhile to explore but they are beyond this research focus.) Last but not least, the proposed framework in which each phase progresses in a systematic order is certainly not a panacea. It may offer an alternative way to teaching English for commercial correspondence for non-business EFL students as opposed to business professionals, as well as a concrete illustration of how to help students to compose a business letter in an easier way. The class in this research was kept intact and was not run in experimental controlled conditions. The results of the data obtained from a real EFL classroom may provide a more accurate picture in illustrating the role of specialist content
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knowledge, genre knowledge and group continuous simulation in enhancing participation and writing performance under normal classroom conditions. Certainly students feedback is essential to the ongoing reflections on, in and for the practice of this course.
References Benson, M., Benson, E., & Ilson, R. (1997). The BBI dictionary of English word combinations. Amsterdam: John Benjamin. Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. London: Longman. Bolinger, D. (1976). Meaning and memory. Forum Linguistics, 1 (1), 1-14. Brinton, D. M., Snow, M. A., & Wesche, M. B. (1989). Content-based second language instruction. New York: Newbury House. Dudley-Evans, T., & St. John, M. J. (1998). Developments in English for specific purposes: A multi-disciplinary approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hyland, K. (2000). Disciplinary discourse: Social interaction in academic writing. London: Longman. Johns, A. M. (2001). Genre in the classroom: Multiple perspectives. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Jordan, R. R. (1997). English for academic purposes: A guide and resource book for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Krueger, M., & Ryan, F. (Eds.). (1993). Language and content: Discipline- and content-based approaches to language study. Lexington, Mass: D. C. Health. Lewis, M. (2000). Teaching collocation: Further developments in the lexical approach. London: Language Teaching Publications. Lin, H., & Lee, Z. (2003). Practical instructional technology development for teachers. In Selected papers from the twelfth international symposium on English teaching (pp.459-466). Taipei, Taiwan: English Teachers Association. Littlejohn, A. (2005). Company to company. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McDonough, J. (1984). ESP in perspective: A practical guide. London: Collins ELT.
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Mustafa, Z. (1995). The effect of genre awareness on linguistic transfer. English for Specific Purposes, 14(3), 247-256. Nwogu, K. N. (1991). Structure of science popularizations: A genre-analysis approach to the schema of popularized medical texts. English for Specific Purposes, 10 (2), 111-123. Pally, M., Bailey, N., Camhi, P. J., Bernard, R. W., & Carson, J. G. (Eds.). (2000). Sustained content teaching in academic ESL/ EFL: A practical approach. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Pickett, D. (1989). The sleeping giant: Investigations in business English. Language International, 1, 5-11. Snow, M.A., & Brinton, D.M. (1997). The content-based classroom: Perspectives on integrating language and content. White Plains, N.Y.: Longman. Spanos, G. (1989). On the integration of language and content instruction. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 10, 227-240. St. John, M. J. (1996). Business is booming: Business English in the 1990s. English for Specific Purposes, 15 (1), 3-18. Stanton, A.J. & Wood, L.R. (2005). Longman commercial communication. Essex, England: Longman. Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wesche, M. B. (1993). Disciplined-based approaches to language study: Research issues and outcomes. In M. Krueger & F. Ryan (Eds.), Language and content: Discipline-and content-based approaches to language study (pp.57-82). Lexington, M.A.: D.C. Heath. Tarnopolsky, O. (2000). Business English teaching: Imaginative continuous simulations and critical analysis tasks. Business Issues: The publication of the Business English Special Interest Group, 2, 12-14.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: How a Documentary Credit works
1. The importer and the exporter must negotiate and agree a sales contract. 2. The importer begins the Documentary Credit process by asking his bank to open a Documentary Credit in favor of the exporter. The importer supplies his bank with details of the transaction on an application form. By agreeing to open the credit, the importers bank guarantees to pay the exporter if the importer cannot or will not pay. 3. The importers bank (the issuing bank) sends details of the Documentary Credit to the exporters bank (or to its agent bank in the exporters country). At this stage, the exporters bank may either simply pass on the details of the Document Credit to the exporter, in which case it is an advising bank, or add its own guarantee to the credit, in which case it is a confirming bank. 4. The advising bank then informs the exporter of the Documentary Credit. 5. When the exporter receives the Documentary Credit from his bank, he checks them very carefully. These details tell him which documents he must prepare before he can be paid, for example, Bill of Lading, Bill of Exchange, Commercial Invoice, Certificate of Insurance, Packing List and Export Permit, etc. Then the exporter dispatches the goods. The B/L is signed by the captain to confirm the goods are on board ship. 6. After this, the exporter takes the documents to his bank, which checks them. If they are in order, the confirming bank pays the exporter or accepts a Bill of Exchange. At this point, the exporter has his money or a Bill of Exchange, the goods are on board ship, and the confirming bank has the documents. 7. The confirming bank then sends the documents to the importers bank, the issuing bank, which checks them and send the money to the confirming bank. (If the exporters bank has not confirmed the Documentary Credit, but only advised him of it, the exporter will not be paid until the issuing bank has checked the documents and transferred the money, or accepted a Bill of Exchange.) 8. The next stage is for the importers bank to debit the importers account.
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The importer must pay his bank in order to get the documents. Without the documents, and in particular without the Bill of Lading, the importer cannot collect the goods. 9. At this point, the importers bank has been paid, the importer has the documents and the goods are on board ship. 10. The final stage is for the importer to use the documents, which prove his ownership of the goods, to collect the goods when they arrive in port. (Stanton & Wood, 2005, pp. 67-69).
Appendix 2: Sequence in the pedagogical framework for English for commercial correspondence
Appendix 3: Post-course anonymous open-ended questionnaire 1. What stage/ part did you like or dislike about the teaching methods? (business content knowledge instruction, group simulation/ writing, genreawareness language function exercises, writing feedback session or e-course extra-curricular materials) 2. What did you like or dislike about the course content? 3. Could you tell me more about your feeling or reaction about the course? (Is there something else that you would like me to me know about, now that we have finished the course?) 4. Did something unusual or interesting happen while in the group discussion? Could you describe it? Could you make some comments on it? 5. How did your group complete a business letter? (E.g. Did someone take the decision? Or did someone disagree? Or did you have conflicts in composing the message?) 6. What did you feel about the quality of your group writing? Why? 7. In business writing, what knowledge or skills do you think you need? 8. What part of a business letter did you find was harder in writing? 9. What type of business letter did you find was harder in writing? 10. What perception of business writing did you hold before this course?
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11. How did you view your participation in doing business in English through continuous simulation? 12. Do you agree this course has helped you to enhance your business writing ability? 13. Would you like your teacher to continue teaching this way? Why? Or why not?
Appendix 4: Transcript of students business letter Dear Mr. Deely Your order No. 33421 for scanners December 4th
We thank you for your letter of December 4 th , in which you informed us that case number 9 contained the wrong goods. We have looked into this matter and discovered that there appears to have been some confusion in the numbering of two different orders which were collected by our forwarding agent for dispatch to Canada. We have reviewed our coding system and can assure you that similar mistakes will not happen again. We have already dispatched replacements for the contents of case number 9 and have arranged for the collection of the wrongly-delivered goods. Finally, we would like to apologize to you for the inconvenience you were caused and to thank you for your patience in this matter. We look forward to hearing of the safe arrival of case number 9 and to doing further business with you. Yours sincerely Peggy Huang Sales Manager
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Guidelines for Submissions Submissions for the Quarterly Issue Brief submission guidelines: The Chinese EFL Journal Quarterly is a fully peer-reviewed section of the journal, reviewed by a team of experts in EFL from all over the world. The Chinese EFL Journal welcomes submissions written in different varieties of world Englishes. The reviewers and Associate Editors come from a wide variety of cultural and academic backgrounds and no distinction is made between native and non-native authors. As a basic principle, the Chinese EFL Journal does not define competence in terms of native ability, but we are a strictly reviewed journal and all our reviewers expect a high level of academic and written competence in whatever variety of English is used by the author. Every effort will be made to accept different rhetorical styles of writing. The Chinese EFL Journal also makes every effort to support authors who are submitting to an international journal for the first time. While major revisions may be requested, every effort is made to explain to authors how to make the necessary revisions. Each submission is initially screened by the Senior Associate Editor, before being sent to an Associate Editor who supervises the review. There is no word minimum or maximum. There are two basic categories of paper: * Full research papers, which report interesting and relevant research. Try to ensure that you point out in your discussion section how your findings have broad relevance internationally and contribute something new to our knowledge of EFL. * Non-research papers, providing detailed, contextualized reports of aspects of EFL such as curriculum planning. Very well documented discussions that make an original contribution to the profession will also be accepted for review. We cannot accept literature reviews as papers, unless these are "state of the art" papers that are both comprehensive and expertly drafted by an experienced specialist. When submitting please specify if your paper is a full research paper or a nonresearch paper. In the latter case, please write a paragraph explaining the relevance of your paper to our Chinese EFL Journal readership. Authors are encouraged to conform with international standards of drafting, but every effort will be made to respect original personal and cultural voices and different
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rhetorical styles. Papers should still be fully-referenced and should use the APA (5th edition) format. Do not include references that are not referred to in the manuscript. Some pieces submitted to the quarterly issue may be reclassified during the initial screening process. Authors who wish to submit directly to the Teaching Articles section should read the separate guidelines and make this clear in the submission email. Referencing: Please refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.) Contributors are also invited to view the sample PDF guide available on our website and to refer to referencing samples from articles published from 2006. Due to the increasing number of submissions to the Chinese EFL Journal, authors not conforming to APA system will have their manuscripts sent back immediately for revision. This delays publication and taxes our editorial process. Format for all submissions (Please read this before submitting your work) All submissions should be submitted to: cejournals@gmail.com i) The document must be in MS Word format. ii) Font must be Times New Roman size 12. Section Headings: Times New Roman (Size 12, bold font). Spacing: 1.5 between lines. iii) 'Smart tags' should be removed. iv) Footnotes must not 'pop up' in the document. They must appear at the end of the article. Use the superscript font option when inserting a note rather than the automatic footnote or endnote option. iv) Citations - APA style. (See our website PDF guide) Use the APA format as found in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 5th Edition, for headings, citations, reference lists and in text referencing. Extra care should be taken for citing the Internet and must include the date the site was accessed. About APA Style/format: http://www.apastyle.org/aboutstyle.html APA Citation Style: http://www.liu.edu/cwis/CWP/library/workshop/citapa.htm APA Style Workshop: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/apa/index.html v) Keywords: All articles must include Keywords at the beginning of the article. List 4-6 keywords to facilitate locating the article through keyword searches in the future. vi) Graphs and Charts - either in the body of the document or at the end. In certain cases, a graphic may not appear in the text of the web version of the Chinese EFL Journal but a link to the graphic will be provided. vii) Paragraphs. Double space between paragraphs. Indent the beginning of each paragraph with three strikes of the space bar except those immediately following a heading, quotation, example, figure, chart or table. Do not use the tab key.
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viii) Keep text formatting (e.g., italics, bold, etc.) to the absolute minimum necessary. Use full justification. All lines to be against Left Hand Side Margin (except quotes to be indented per APA style). ix) Abstract
The abstract should contain an informative summary of the main points of the article, including, where relevant, the articles purpose, theoretical framework, methodology, types of data analysed, subject information, main findings, and conclusions. The abstract should reflect the focus of the article. x) Graphs to fit within A4 size margins (not wider) Thank you for your cooperation. Please include the following with your submission: Name School affiliation Address E-mail Phone number Brief Bio Data noting history of professional expertise Qualifications An undertaking the work has not been published elsewhere Abstract Any questions regarding submission guidelines, or more detailed inquiries about less common citation styles, may be addressed to the Editorial Board or our Journal Book Reviews: The Chinese EFL Journal currently encourages two kinds of submissions, unsolicited and solicited. Unsolicited reviewers select their own materials to review. Both teachers and graduate students are encouraged to submit reviews. Solicited reviewers are contacted and asked to review materials from its current list of availability. If you would like to be considered as a solicited reviewer, please forward your CV with a list of publications to the Book Review Editor at: cejournals@gmail.com All reviewers, unsolicited and solicited, are encouraged to provide submissions about materials that they would like to suggest to colleagues in the field by choosing materials that they feel have more positive features than negative ones. Length and Format: 1. Reviews should be prepared using MS Word and the format should conform to 12 pica New Times Roman font, 1.5 spacing between lines, and 1 inch margins. 2. The reviewer(s)' full names including middle initial(s), title, school affiliation, school address, phone number, and e-mail address should be included at the top of the first page.
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3. The complete title of the text, edition number, complete name(s) of author(s), publisher, publisher's address (city & state), and date of publication should be included after the reviewer(s)' identifying information. 4. Reviews should be between 500-700 words. 5. A brief biography of the author(s) should be included after the review. 6. A statement that the submission has not been previously published or is not being considered for publication elsewhere should be included at the bottom of the page. Organization: Reviewers are encouraged to peruse reviews recently published in the quarterly PDF version of the Journal for content and style before writing their own. While creativity and a variety of writing styles are encouraged, reviews, like other types of articles, should be concisely written and contain certain information that follows a predictable order: a statement about the work's intended audience, a non-evaluative description of the material's contents, an academically worded evaluative summary which includes a discussion of its positive features and one or two shortcomings if applicable (no materials are perfect), and a comment about the material's significance to the field. Style: 1. All reviews should conform to the Journal's APA guideline requirements and references should be used sparingly. 2. Authors should use plural nouns rather than gendered pronouns such as he/she, his/her him/her and adhere to the APA's Guidelines for Non-Sexist Use of Language, which can be found at: http://www.apa.udel.edu/apa/publications/texts/nonsexist.html.
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Publisher Paul Robertson Korea
International Business Management Mr. Scott Grigas Youngsan University Korea
Senior Advisors Dr. Roger Nunn The Petroleum Institute Abu Dhabi UAE Dr. John Adamson Shinshu Honan College Japan Professor Dr. Z.N. Patil Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages Hyderabad, India
Dr. Ahmet Acar Dokuz Eyll University Turkey
Mr. Darren Lingley Kochi University Japan
Dr. Mingsheng Li Massey University New Zealand
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Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1.

The Chinese EFL Journal

January 2008 Volume 1, Issue 1

Editor: Paul Robertson

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Editor: Dr. Paul Robertson Senior Production Editor: Shin Young

ISSN (to be issued)

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Problems identified with the one-teacher-package-class model

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

The reformed framework: The Rolling Project

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Level B(Class 1) Level B (Class 2) Level B (Class 3)

Level C (Class 1) Level C (Class 2) Level C (Class 3)

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Title Raising Awareness of Cultural Differences in Language Classrooms

Author Xiuqin Zhang College of Foreign Studies, Yanshan University

Chinese EFL Journal

Chinese EFL Journal. Vol. 1 Issue 1. January 2008

Chinese EFL Journal