Transcript Document 7811605

Faculty Institute
Pace University
May 27, 2004
Marcie M. Williams
[email protected]
Kristen di Gennaro
[email protected]
Origins and Explanation
• Dissertation Proposal
• Two parts
– Culture
– Skills Areas
• Also influenced by culture
Basic Statistics
• 1985 – 343, 777 international
students (IS)
• 1996 – 457, 984
• 2001 – 582, 996
• 10% of IS are enrolled in MBA
programs (approx. 60,000
students)
Cultural Issues
• Cultural presuppositions of a society
that could affect learning.
– philosophy & religion, concepts of nature & science,
literature, notions of government, myths. These are
very influential. Strevens (1983)
• Many professors are from dominant,
mainstream society and expect their
students to adhere to and follow the
same rules.
– Will disempower and disenfranchise.
Cummins (1994)
• Have to adopt to mainstream culture
and it could encourage academic
failure. Kraemer (1997)
Skill areas – by Students
• Reading, note-taking, asking questions
• Depended on major and class standing
• Soft Science – research papers, read academic
journals, presentations.
• Undergrads – multiple choice tests, lab reports,
read and make graphs & charts
• Grads – academic journals, presentations, research
papers, critiques, in-group discussions. (Ostler, 1980)
• Writing skills v. important
• Students spent 80% language use on
reading and listening, only 20% on
speaking and writing. (Christison and Krahnke, 1984)
Skill Areas according to
Instructors
• Writing and Language
– Hold students responsible
(Zamel, 1995)
• Varied by dept.
– Art and business listening was important
• Reading important in all depts. And
ranked first in most.
• Speaking not as important (Johns, 1981)
Writing
• Instructions
• Value Judgments
– Not real world
– Do not value writing – must tell them!
• Plagiarism
– Numerous sources in Western writing but not
worldwide – Japan/Islamic cultures.
– Cultural Gap
(Pennycook 1990)
(Spack, 1988)
• Discourse Patterns (Clyne, 1987)
• Critiques (Barks and Watts, 2001 and Connor & Kramer 1995)
Reading & Vocabulary
• Importance
– #1 skill
– Determining
factor in
academic
success
• Difference
– Amount
– Type
• Culturally loaded
• Important in all
skill areas
• 39% of word
families not
learned in EAP
• Should be
familiar with
specific vocab
• Origin of words
Mokhtari & Sheorey, 1994; Shih, 1992; Carson, 2001; Paymond & Parks, 2002; Benson, 1991, Sutarsyah, Nation & Kennedy, 1994;
Corson, 1994
Speaking
• Culture
– Vietnamese example
• Fear
• Lack of Knowledge
• Requirements
–
–
–
–
Grads - formal oral presentations
Undergrads – group work
Soft science – group work, class participation, debates
Hard science – group work, projects
• Skills
– Contributions
– Hold their own
– Presentations
Listening & Note taking
• American Professors
–
–
–
–
Jokes
Idioms
Friendliness
Clues as to when to take notes
• Culture
– Movie clips
– Asking for clarification
• Body Language
– Shrug
– Lectern
– Eye contact
Implications & what to
take from this section
• Misunderstandings could be
from a variety of sources
– Skills
– Culture
• Culture affects skills
Action Research
Moving from published literature
to identifying and investigating
issues with Pace population
Speaking Skills &
Cultural Knowledge
• What do students say/do when
they have neglected to complete
an assignment?
Apology Strategies
• What if students lack the linguistic skills to
respect social norms?
 Students appear rude, uninterested,
ambiguous.
Research Questions:
1. Do ESL students use apology strategies
similar to native speakers?
2. Do students at different proficiency levels
rely on different apology strategies?
Procedure and Results
Students at three proficiency levels:
-- low intermediate
-- intermediate
-- advanced
-- native speaker comparison group
Results: Students in different groups
relied on different types of apology
strategies; more advanced learners
closer to native speakers.
Implications
 Cultural (in this case, pragmatic)
knowledge may not coincide with
linguistic knowledge.
 Instructors should recognize that
different social norms exist and that
international students may need to
learn new social norms in addition to
language skills.
Reading & Writing
Correlations
• How much do reading and writing
correlate?
• Does L1 evidence indicate evidence
for L2?
• Pace placement test for writing
levels:
– Should we include a long reading in a
writing test?
– What would happen to our test
reliability?
– What about validity?
Reading and Writing
(cont.)
High stakes tests should be…
1. Valid
A writing test should test writing.
2. Reliable
Results must be accurate so that
students are not placed in a level
too high or too low for their
abilities.
Procedure
Administered two-part test to ENG
100A Ss:
• 20-minute reading test.
• 50-minute writing test.
Tests scored by trained raters using a
rubric.
Scores entered into SPSS for analysis.
Results…
Writing test
Normal curve
High reliability (.80)
Reading test
Normal curve
Low reliability (.21)
**Correlation between reading and writing =
.31 (R & W overlap about 30%, partly due
to chance)
Implications
Reading and writing might not
correlate as much as we think.
Skills may correlate differently for
ESL students.
Many of our students may be
Generation 1.5, not “true ESL”
students.
There is a need for more data.
Helpful Guidelines?
Assumption that including essay-writing
guidelines in the instructions to an essay
task will help ESL students write more
developed and accurate essays.
Research Question:
Does the inclusion of explicit guidelines for
how to complete an essay during a timed
in-class essay task help, hinder, or
otherwise affect L2 learners’ writing?
Procedure
Group of ENG 110A students.
Two tests: 1 “bare prompt”
1 with guidelines
Essays scored by two raters.
Scores entered into SPSS.
Results – Quantitative
4
3.5
3
2.5
Task 1
Task 2
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Grammar
Organization
Content
Instructions
Results – Qualitative
Questionnaire responses revealed
that…
• Most students did not notice the
additional guidelines as a
difference between the two test
formats.
• Most students did not find the
guidelines very helpful.
Implications
In some cases, “useful”
instructions or guidelines may
mislead students to produce
inferior work.
Instructors should consider the
effects of task instructions on
students’ performance.
Overall Implications
• ESL students’ academic skills
may not be equally developed.
• Reading and writing may not
correlate as strongly as we
expect.
• What instructors think are
“useful” guidelines may not be
so useful for students.
Conclusion
We feel there is a need to…
1. Identify practical applications of
published research and how these relate
to Pace students.
2. Increase faculty understanding of ESL
students’ needs and abilities.
3. Develop greater awareness of issues that
deserve further investigation.
4. Conduct more empirical studies with our
particular student population.