Stephen van Vlack
Sookmyung Women`s University
Graduate School of TESOL
Discourse Analysis
(Spring 2006)
Week 12 - Riggenbach (1999), Chapter 2, pp. 36-52 & Bailey (2005), Chapter 2, pp. 29-88 - Anwers
1. What are some of the issues related to data collection and working with spoken data? (Rig2)
When collecting data, qualitative researchers use various methods or techniques in order to maintain the validity of the results. They use, for example, multiple data collection methods, multiple data sources, investigators and theoretical perspectives. Some of the common methods are the observation of natural speech in natural setting organized by the researchers, and the elicitation of speech through direct inquiries. Another is the examination of photographs, written documents and artifacts that can shed light on a phenomenon by providing historical context.
A primary method of collecting data is interviewing. Before interviewing, researchers need to consider some issues. They should view the interview as a communicative event in its own right, more specifically, as a culture-specific speech event, rather than simply accepting it as a valid data collection method. With such an approach, researchers aim for objectivity in their interview by considering the ways in which interview data are shaped by the interview participant`s role relations, by researchers` own beliefs about appropriate interviewing techniques, by participants` perceptions of the interview.
Another issue in interviewing is the need for structuring and standardization. Structuring questions beforehand offers some assurance to the researchers that the predetermined questions will be answered. These research questions will help to determine what discussions are most appropriate and if time should be allowed for both on-topic and tangential discussions.
Besides the issue of structuring, another concern in conducting an interview is the closeness of relation between the interviewer and the interviewee. Interviewing an acquaintance encourages intimacy and a deeper interpretation of the data. This provides a more objective account. Beliefs about interviewing strategies, role relations between interviewer and interviewee and the fact that the interviewer is primarily responsible for determining the direction of the interview all affect the interpretation and these concerns can solve the problems of reliability and validity.
When working with spoken language data, first of all, researchers should consider the contrast between native speaker speech and nonnative speaker speech. They should know that there is no such thing as perfect speech, that is, native speakers make errors, often do not conform to a prescriptive standard. Spoken language is different than written language. From this perspective, they should perceive learners language as rule-governed and systematic rather than as moving toward target or native-like proficiency from deficiency. These perspectives have important pedagogical implications that native speaker speech is neither perfect nor error free, spoken language differs from written language in many ways, learners` language is systematic and rule-governed in its own right.
Researchers can use videotaping and audiotaping. These are appropriate for discourse analysis activities that target micro features of learners` unconscious spoken language use. The process provides details necessary to establish whether patterns exist or not. However, the process of videotaping and audiotaping interactions raise objections since some believe that speakers unaccustomed to this procedure may not be behaving naturally. For ease of analysis, audiotaped or videotaped spoken language is transformed into written text. But this process can pose problems of reliability and validity. The text, for example, cannot examine the lengths of a speaker`s pauses, the subtle changes in pitch and volume, the intonation contours and the point at which one speaker`s words overlap with another`s. And the audiotaped material cannot examine the nonverbal features such as gestures, facial expressions and bodily orientation/posture changes. So the transcription is actually an early stage of analysis since it involves determining which features are important enough to note. In working with oral data, it is important that the spoken data must serve as the original data source, that is, the written data is used as a backup source for ease of discussion and explanation, and again that researchers should use their ability to perceive other visual phenomena such as facial expressions and physical orientation of speakers to each other, and also on their ability to note complex aural information, conveyed by a speaker`s pitch, volume, and voice quality, by hesitation phenomena, by the coordination of turns between speakers.
2.What can be conducted for each step for DAA? (Rig2)
The following paradigm is useful for designing discourse analysis activities. Each stage explains research skills consistent with the principles of qualitative research. The six steps also structure the discourse analysis activity so that it is a manageable research project that can be done in a limited amount of time.
In step 1, learners predict or brainstorm what they may find. This step is designed, first, to activate schema in that learners draw insights from what they know about their native language or about the act of communicating in general, and second, to make conscious any guiding theories that may be operating in the minds of the researchers, since their analysis and collection of data are likely to be shaped by their beliefs and attitudes.
In step 2, Learners plan a research that will produce samples of the target structure. Learners discuss where and with what speakers they are likely to find samples of the target structure, and they consider questions regarding their data collection and interpretation. For example, can they collect the data in natural settings by audiotape or videotape? Will they need to describe their research objectivities to the speaker or the person they are interviewing? If the structuring they are interested in is not likely to occur frequently in natural circumstances, will they need to set up a situation that elicits the data?
In step 3, learners observe and record the target structure in its discourse environment. They collect data. They gather information about the target structure. And teachers and students may find that they can think up other data collection methods that better suit their own research style.
In step 4, learners analyze the data and explain results or draw conclusions. Learners answer to Step 1.
In step 5, learners discuss the target structure or generate the target structure in its appropriate context. They present it in form of role play. But if the research goal targets macro-level structures, then they generate language about the structure: they propose hypotheses, plan ways of validating their findings further, or discuss what was interesting or unexpected about the research findings.
In step 6, learners summarize their findings or reanalyze the data that they produced, asking whether the data conform to their conclusions in step 4, in other words, how their own learner-produced data compare to what they discovered in their earlier analysis.
In each step, researchers act as coresearchers or as facilitators rather than experts. Researchers can develop their own activities in each step.
3. What would be the goal of DAA and how would it be helpful for tour English teaching? (Rig2)
The goals of discourse analysis activities would be to stimulate students` interests in language, to develop learners` confidence in their own abilities to discover truths about the structure of language, and to help raise their consciousness not only about the structure of language but also about their own linguistic strengths and weakness. These discourse analysis activities would promote students` learning in an interesting and stimulating way in language education. Through these activities, teachers would be able to guide and help students to analyze and generate systematically based on their own experiences by raising their consciousness.
4.What are key principles for teaching speaking to beginning level learners? (B2)
There are three key principles for teaching speaking to beginning level learners. Firstly, teachers should provide something for learners to talk about. In other words, teachers need to find out the communicative needs and purposes of language learners to stimulate conversations and discussions. However, this does not mean that only teachers can nominate topics. Teachers should be open to those topics that the learners want to talk about, and incorporate them into lessons whenever possible. Secondly, teachers should create opportunities for learners to interact by using groupwork and pairwork. Lower level learners sometimes can be afraid of speaking out in class. One way to overcome their resistance and increase their opportunities to speak is to use pairwork and groupwork. One thing you need to be careful with the pairwork and groupwork is that you need to set the task clearly first by either providing written instructions or post them on the board. Lastly, teachers should manipulate the physical arrangement to promote speaking practice. Changing the physical environment can encourage speaking activities, partly because it partially alters the power structure of the traditional English classroom. The book suggested three ways of seating: inside-outside circle, tango seating, and cocktail party technique. First, the inside-outside circle is suitable for an interview task with several new people. Each person is facing a partner for two or three minutes to get the answers and then the people in the outer circle move to the right to change partners. Second, the tango seating is suitable for an information gap task. Lets imagine the classic Argentine tango style. The womans left hand is on the mans right shoulder and here right hand is in his left hand. The man`s right hand is on her back and the couple is facing in the opposite directions. Therefore, the students sit down in desks facing the opposite directions with their right shoulders together. Finally, the cocktail party technique is where the teacher sets a brief speaking task first and have the students talk briefly with different people and then move on to talk to someone new as if they were at a social gathering. After they have completed the task, they sit down again.
5.Among suggested six sample tasks and exercises, choose three activities that you think would be the most beneficial for beginning level learners and explain why? (B2)
Activities for teaching and practicing speaking arrange along a continuum from totally scripted speech, to guided output by the learners, to completely novel, self-directed output. For the beginning learners, more guided and controlled activities are needed because their oral production consists of isolated words and learned phrases within very predictable areas of need. I chose three activities which beginning level learners would enjoy and benefit from. Firstly, with regard to conversations and interviews, a guided conversation (controlled conversation) is more beneficial activity than true conversation for the beginning learners. Even though conversation is the most basic and pervasive form of human interaction, carrying on a conversation in English and be difficult for the beginners because it is quite demanding job. In a guided conversation, the students are given a framework within which to build their sentences, but the actual choice of what they will say is left up to them (Allen and Valette, 1977). Teachers can make guided conversation using a one-sided script and elicit the students speaking by letting them respond appropriately in the context. In addition, teachers need to help beginning learners have some strategies when they have communication breakdown through conversation activity. Secondly, picture-based activities that use pictures or photographs from various sources like magazines, calendars, or internet have many advantages in language lesson. Above all, visual effects from various pictures make input comprehensible and activate schema. Every level language learners including beginning learners love pictures because they provide something interest to talk about, introduce and illustrate various topics, memorable and easy to recognize. Moreover, pictures are more convenient to bring into the classroom than some other realia, add color and interest to discussion and writing exercises, can be used in many ways by different teachers for various lessons, are very adaptable to the technology of the teaching environment, and can promote creative and critical thinking. Also, pictures are not limited to use with a particular language. Therefore, we, teachers, can create various language lesson using pictures for beginning level students. For example, we can choose several different photographs that are quite similar but have distinguishing features. With beginning students, pre-teaching vocabulary for describing the pictures and giving category headings would be helpful to elicit more active participation in speaking activity. Place all the photographs on the board with numbers above them. Pass out numbers to the individual students, but have them hide their numbers. Then one by one, each student describes each picture, while the others guess which one is being described. We can create competition with picture-based activities and retelling the story activity using various pictures. Since a single photograph can be used for many different activities, it would be useful to collect a colorful photo from recycled magazines, out-of-date calendar, or from the Internet. They are very valuable resources for promoting speaking in the classroom. Lastly, activities involving physical actions can help learners remember the meanings of words and structures easily. Such activities provide a way for low-level learners to respond without speaking and break up the possible boredom. Total Physical Response (TPR) is one of most effective speaking activity for beginning learners. In TPR, students participate in activities in which they hear a series of commands in the target language, for example, 'stand up', 'sit down', 'pick up the book', and etc. They simply listen and show their comprehension by their actions. TPR was developed by James Asher, whose research has shown that students can develop quite advanced levels of comprehension in the language without engaging in oral practice (Asher 1972). The teacher quickly gets the students into the role of giving commands. After demonstrating the activity with a round of commands, the teacher can turn the leader's role over the students and have them give the directions. It resembles the children's game of "Simon says--". TPR is very beneficial for teaching speaking due to following advantages: (1) it is fun and easy; (2) simple TPR activities do not require a great deal of preparation on the part of the teacher; (3) "TPR is aptitude-free." according to Asher; (4) it is good for kinsthetic learners who need to be active in the class; (5) a good tool for building vocabulary is memorable because actions help strengthen the connections in the brain. Class size need not be a problem. "TPR seems to work effectively for children and adults. There is no age barrier." according to Asher. Therefore, we can create various TPR activities using colored paper, commands of position activity and a version of hide-and-seek activity.
6.What are effective strategies in teaching pronunciation for beginning level learners? (B2)
The key to success in learning to speak for beginning level learners is to be comprehensible, not to sound like native speakers. There are several ways to help the learners improve their pronunciation: understanding about place of articulation, minimal pairs, tongue twisters and chant. First, the place of articulation refers to where in the vocal tract speech sounds are actually produced. Vowels and consonants are called segmental phonemes of English. Vowels are produced when the air stream passing through the vocal chords is shaped but not obstructed, and different vowel sounds are produced at different places in the mouth. The consonant phonemes are also produced at various places in the mouth, and, unlike vowels, the air stream that passes through the vocal chords is obstructed. It is important for learners to understand how and where in the mouth a sound is produced because failure to master these features can lead learners to misunderstandings. Second, minimal pairs are pairs of words that have one phonemic change between them. For example: "let" and "lit"; lap and lab. Minimal pair practice helps learners to distinguish the differences between two different sounds not only for pronunciation skills, but also comprehension. Third, tongue twisters with different sounds help learners to improve their pronunciations by repeating the same sound. To get the full effect of a tongue twister you should try to repeat it several times, as quickly as possible, without stumbling or mispronouncing. For example: "She sells seashells down by the seashore."; "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." Lastly, there are bunch of songs for English learners according to their proficiency level and different parts of pronunciation such as consonants, vowels stress and intonation. While students are having fun with singing and listening songs, their pronunciation will be greatly improved.
7.What are four different purposes for assessment? Explain a classroom introduction activity that can be used as a speaking diagnostic test. (B2)
In her book, Bailey introduces four different purposes of assessment such as placement tests, diagnostic tests, progress tests, and achievement tests. Some others (Harrison, 1983, Brown, 2001), however, see diagnostic tests and progress tests are not different from each other in their purposes and they add one more kind of test, proficiency test. Here, I am going to follow Harrison and Brown.
Firstly, a placement test is designed to sort new students into teaching groups, so that they can start a course at approximately the same level as the other students in the class. It is concerned with the students present standing, and so relates to general ability rather than specific points of learning. Certain proficiency tests and diagnostic tests can act in the role or placement tests, whose purpose is to place a student into an appropriate level or section of a language curriculum or school. An oral interview can be a good way of placement tests. Secondly, a diagnostic test (sometimes called a formative or progress test) checks on students progress in learning particular elements of the course. It is used for example at the end of a unit in the course book or after a lesson designed to teach one particular point. Carefully organized, they can provide information about progress which may be used systematically for remedial work. For example, a diagnostic test in pronunciation might have the purpose of determining which phonological features of English are difficult for a learner and should therefore become a part of a curriculum. Thirdly, an achievement test (also called an attainment or summative test) looks back over a longer period of learning than the diagnostic test, for example, a years work, or a whole course, or even a variety of different courses. It is intended to show the standard which the students have now reached in relation to other students at the same stage. Lastly, the aim of a proficiency test is to assess the students ability to apply in actual situations what he has learned. It seeks to answer the question Having learned this much, what can the students can do with it? This type of test is not usually related to any particular course because it is concerned with students current standing in relation to his future needs.
As for a classroom introductory activity that can be used as a diagnostic test, Bailey introduces one of icebreakers actually she has used in her class. In this activity, a teacher aims to get students know each other as well as to assess students current speaking ability. Its procedure is as follows: (1) Give students an index card; (2) Let students write down their names on it; (3) Redistribute the cards to the students, and make sure get someone elses one; (4) Write on the board what students need to survey such as name, three things he/she likes and dislikes; (5) Have all the students stand up and find the person whose card they have; (6) Each person interviews the person whose name is on his or her card, making brief notes on the card; (7) When every student finishes interviewing or being interviewed, let him or her sit down on own seats; (8) Let the students introduce whom they interviewed. While the students introduce the interviewed classmate, a teacher assesses their speaking ability. Since the students are beginners or false beginners, their language might be quite limited and have lots of errors. A teacher can find out what they need to be corrected and learn from this activity. We also can revise this activity so that it does not make any noise in the classroom. A teacher lets students interview their partners, not walking around to find out the interviewees and then the students introduce their partners to other classmates. It`s quite simple and easy, and simultaneously, a teacher can assess students speaking ability.