Chapter 4
PRESENTATION, INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
This chapter shall provide the findings of the study based on recent literature and studies. This chapter shall be divided into three parts. The first part shall consist of the different strategies that teachers of ESL employ to teach the language to students. The second part shall discuss the advantages and disadvantages of ESL courses for Asians. The third part on the other hand will be assessing the performance of the Asian ESL students based on past studies.
Strategies Employed In Teaching English as Second Language (TESL)
There are numerous procedures that teachers of ESL utilize to maximize the learning process of the student. However, one problem with tutoring ESL students is that tutors often use too many words to explain a point. (Berry Berry
In the study made by Beckett and Haley (2000), it spoke of curriculum alignment for ESL instruction. ESL standards can have a significant impact on ESL student achievement by integrating academic language into the ESL curriculum. This student population needs to focus on goals of academic competence, focusing on areas such as literacy, vocabulary, critical thinking, and social skills and learning strategies. The ESL standards provide structure and guidance that can help to increase student academic success. By linking the ESL standards to state academic standards, one can ensure that ESL students will receive high quality instruction in English language and content areas.
Several strategies are offered by the authors to develop competency in social use of English. They suggest the use of seating arrangements (such as round tables, quads or pairs) to encourage social interaction. (Beckett and Haley, 2000) Teachers can also try to structure opportunities for students to use English outside of the classroom. Cooperative learning encourages the use of language in a social manner. Positive social interaction can help students perceive the classroom as a comfortable and friendly place, where they will feel safe using their new language skills and where they may find intrinsic motivation for communicating in English. Moreover, the authors stated that in order to enhance academic achievement, teachers can: create a language-rich classroom; provide students with advance organizers; label everything in the classroom to build vocabulary and help students make connections to their native language; and have different media available for student use (books, magazines, newspapers, audio-tapes, video tapes, computer software) to address different learning styles and also help build connections. To help students to use English in appropriate ways, teachers should teach what language is appropriate in what setting so students can determine when to speak and in what way (for example, formal speech or slang). Teachers should also recognize diversity and sameness in their classrooms, incorporate multicultural literature into the curriculum, and invite parents/family members to share their cultures and talents with the class. Students need to develop an understanding of and appreciation for others considering the diversity of society.
Another system used by the ESL teacher is by using written measurements to allow the development of the students. In a study made by Cogie, Strain and Lorinskas (1999), it is apparent that while the tutor's role as cultural informant can help the ESL student gain understanding of English, sometimes that role seems to translate into one of proofreader--especially when whole-essay issues are absent. The study presents the value of an ESL composition as an essential tool for language acquisition.
Nonetheless, the study uncovered that editing both contributes to passivity in a tutorial and fails to help the student take charge of the students' own writing. By using such tools as learners dictionaries, minimal marking, and error logs, the tutor can help the student become a better self-editor. These tools may take up more time initially, but will ultimately enable the student to become a better writer and not to mention a better grasp of the English language.
This finding is supported by Kroll and Schafer (1978). Their study discussed the connection between error analysis--using errors as indicators of mechanical or conceptual patterns--and a process approach to writing. It also discussed the possible sources of errors in ESL writers and shows how an understanding of the source of an error can be applied to helping the writer move toward the correct form. Moreover, a study of Matsuda (1999) purported that although ESL students constitute a significant number of students enrolled in writing classes, these students are often overlooked in composition studies. One reason for this oversight stems from the historical development of both disciplines. Teaching English as Second Language (TESL) grew out of the "scientific" work of applied linguists, while composition studies grew out of a "humanist" tradition. As a result of the two different institutional paths, compositionists fail to see the importance of incorporating insights from ESL writing into their research and theories.
On the other hand, Powers (1993) described the difficulties encountered in tutorials with ESL students at the University of Wyoming
Alternatively, Segedy (1999) introduced in her study the concept of Lit Pal, a letter writing project targeting the ESL student population in which ESL students were matched up with a peer tutor. ESL students and peer tutors exchanged a series of six letters focused on specific literary issues associated with the required reading for specific literature courses. Both students and instructors reported that they felt the program was a success. Some pointers about how to set up a similar program and how to focus the letters are included.
Furthermore, a study of faculty intolerance, or tolerance for that matter, of NNS errors was conducted by Janopoulos (1992). In his study, the faculty was given twenty-four (24) sentences that contained common Non-native speaking students (NNS) errors to rate for acceptability. Half of faculty was told they were rating NNS sentences, the other half native speakers (NS) sentences. Results suggest that faculty were slightly, but not significantly, more tolerant of NNS than NS errors.
In addition, TESL Canada Action Committee (1981) published a position paper regarding the proper TESL of Asian immigrants. The paper is based on the discussed recommendations of a 1980 symposium on English as a second language (ESL) programs for Southeast Asian adult refugees and immigrants in Canada, along with six principles toward a Canadian policy for providing ESL training to this population. Ten major points of the 53 recommendations of a position papers of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESL) Canada
Advantages and Disadvantages of ESL for Asians
English is still the principle vehicle for international communication. This being the case, there are any number of good corollary reasons why it is becoming increasingly essential to learn the English language. Further, a global culture continues to develop based on shared entertainment, the Internet, and other forms of mass communication. The English language tends to be the key to participating extensively in this shared culture. Then, of course, there is the realm of international business and commerce for which English remains the principle tool for communication. Concurrently, the English language is neither inherently better nor worse than any other language, albeit for a variety of historical reasons it has evolved into a lingua franca. There is an emerging recognition of "world Englishes" and the many and diverse environments they reflect. Thus, many people in the world are learning English not to assimilate themselves to the Anglo-American norm of behavior, but to acquire a working command of the language of wider communication and whereby to express their national identity and personal opinions. In other words, no one is forced to abandon his or her native culture and behave Anglo-American in order to acquire proficiency in English. While some adaptation to a different form may still be necessary for effective communication to take place, the shift is horizontal not vertical. In other words, English as spoken in a given community has its own inherent value. Like languages in general, it is neither better nor worse than that spoken elsewhere. These views allow us to pursue adaptive communication skills and strategies without losing a sense of who we are in the process.
Nonetheless, there are also barriers that pose to become disadvantages for the ESL method. In a study of Thonus (1999), it noted the circumstances present in academies. In college and university writing centers, native English-speaking (NS) tutors working with nonnative speakers of English (NNSs) face a series of dilemmas in their practice. First, what is considered as effective tutoring may not be comprehensible. Second, what is considered as comprehensible may be neither polite nor good tutorial practice. Whereas tradeoffs between communicative success and linguistic and pragmatic form also occur in interactions with NS tutees, the hazards of such negotiations are considerably more marked in tutorials with NNS writers. Results suggest that communication breakdowns of these types seriously threaten the tutorial context.
On the other hand, Minami (1995) provided her own study of 30 Asian high school students (9 males, 21 females), who were in U.S. schools for a variety of reasons, ranging from extended visits to families of relatives to temporary academic or occupational appointments of parents in U.S. universities or corporations investigated student perspectives on English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction and bilingual classrooms. The subjects represented a variety of nationalities and educational backgrounds. The students were interviewed, most individually, and all but one in their native languages. They were encouraged to speak openly about their experience in classrooms, with teachers, and with other students. It was found that ESL classes offer a haven for student to relax and relieve some of the tension of other classes, and also provide students with many more opportunities for active participation. The students were sensitive about being understood. Some negative comments reflect feelings of isolation and lack of incentive to learn. Clear differences between bilingual programs and ESL programs were perceived, and these students preferred an environment in which the teacher: (1) provides good instruction; (2) is sensitive to their needs; and (3) tries hard to engage them in the ongoing life of the classroom, school, and culture. This shows that the apparent lack of adeptness of the ESL student imposes difficulties even outside the classroom considering that they are required to interact with what they consider as a foreign language.
Performance of Students in the ESL Course
This part of the chapter shall provide a description of the performance of the Asian ESL students in their respective courses as provided by past studies and literature. A study of Ferris (1994), reports the results of a study involving 155 students in two levels of a university ESL composition program who responded to a survey. The study shows that students pay more attention to teacher feedback provided on preliminary drafts than to final drafts, and they appreciate encouraging comments. Furthermore, students find feedback useful in helping them improve, but sometimes have problems in understanding the comments. Teachers can overcome these problems by explaining their responding behaviors to students.
On the other hand, He (1998) conducted a pilot study addressing two related questions: do skilled and unskilled ESL writers demonstrate different behaviors in responding to essay and personal writing genres, and what are the different and identical strategies employed by both types of writers when these behaviors are categorized into strategies? The pilot described the processes of two male Taiwanese graduate students. Results indicate that both writers did demonstrate different strategies for the different genres and that each writer used fewer strategies for the personal writing than the essay writing. In general, however, the skilled writer used more strategies than the unskilled.
On the other hand, Kaplan (1980) discussed the connection between logic and grammar, and describes typical linear, inductive or deductive paragraph development in English. The study contrasts this with rhetorical patterns typical of Arabic, Korean, French. Moreover, the study concluded that each language has a paragraph order unique to itself, and that part of the learning of a language is learning the standard paragraph order of that language. Likewise, the study also gave the "movement of paragraphs in the various languages" diagrams that are reproduced in Muriel Harris's book.
In terms of specific English proficiencies, Vann, Lorenz and Mayer (1991) conducted a study assessing the performance of ESL students as perceived by their teachers. Two hundred and ninety faculty responded to a questionnaire to determine reader response to three specific errors in the written work of nonnative speakers of English. The authors hypothesized that readers would have a hierarchical pattern of error acceptability, and that reaction to errors may be predicted by the reader's characteristics including academic discipline, age, gender, etc. Results indicate that the hierarchy of acceptability is complex, yet not random. Academic discipline is a predictor of response, although other factors are weaker. Furthermore, although faculty operate with a hierarchy in mind, no standard sense of this hierarchy exists, which suggests that ESL instructors need to be careful about claiming that certain specific errors are more acceptable than others.
On the other hand, Hurley (1989) conducted a study in the Rancho Santiago Community College District to track the academic performance of 238 English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) Asian students and 301 ESL Hispanic students for three semesters (fall 1987 through spring 1988). The students had entered English 101 classes by way of ESL 110, the highest level composition class for non-native students. The purpose of the study was to determine whether these students were more or less successful in English 101 than their native English-speaking counterparts, to compare the success rates of the Asian and Hispanic groups, to assess the predictive validity of ESL grades for English 101 success, to determine whether the non-natives failing English 101 were as likely to fail other classes requiring moderate to heavy writing, and to examine whether additional hours of ESL preparation would significantly improve student performance in English 101. Asian students represented 16% of the English 101 enrollments for the period under investigation, while Hispanic students represented 20%. Study found that the no-pass rate was 20% for native students, 15% for Asian students, and 23% for Hispanic students. Moreover, it also uncovered that the grades in ESL 110 were not reliable predictors of success in English 101, with A and B students failing at almost the same rate as C and Credit students. Furthermore, a majority of the students who failed to complete English 101 did succeed in other departments such as history, political science, sociology, and philosophy. Likewise, it found out that of seven current and recent ESL 110 instructors, all felt that current ESL offerings did not provide adequate preparation for English 101.
Chapter 5
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The study intended to present the case of migrant Asians acquiring the English language through ESL courses. Specifically, sought the strategies employed by teachers in educating Asian primary school students on the English language; the advantages and disadvantages of adopting English as a second language for Asians; the manner on how Asian primary students adopt to English as a second language; and the level of effectiveness of the adoption of English as second language in the development of the Asian primary students in terms of academic performance and English language adeptness.
The study used the qualitative approach of research. The primary source of data came from published articles from social science journals, theses and related studies on ESL, education, and those concerning the Asian migration and its concurrent effects in communication.
Summary
On the basis of the data gathered in relation to the statement of the problem, the following are the significant findings:
1. ESL standards can have a significant impact on ESL student achievement by integrating academic language into the ESL curriculum.
2. Cooperative learning encourages the use of language in a social manner.
3. In order to enhance academic achievement, teachers can: create a language-rich classroom to address different learning styles and help build connections.
4. Another system used by the ESL teacher is by using written measurements to allow the development of the students.
5. Teaching English as Second Language (TESL) grew out of the "scientific" work of applied linguists, while composition studies grew out of a "humanist" tradition. As a result of the two different institutional paths, compositionists fail to see the importance of incorporating insights from ESL writing into their research and theories.
6. No one is forced to abandon his or her native culture and behave Anglo-American in order to acquire proficiency in English.
7. The apparent lack of adeptness of the ESL student imposes difficulties even outside the classroom considering that they are required to interact with what they consider as a foreign language.
Conclusion
Students with English as a second language (ESL) constitute a significant percentage of the population of schools. This population continues to increase more rapidly than that of native English speaking students (Shore, 2001). The language minority population has a high drop out rate. These students are also among the lowest ranking in academic achievement and expectations. They represent an at-risk population faced with a wide range of challenges (Thompson, 2000).
Based on the findings of this paper, this research came up with the several conclusions. First, the study posits that the students of ESL are in a strange land trying to maintain a sense of identity related to their native culture and become American. This is indeed a heavy burden. Moreover, social and political issues surrounding immigration and diversity complicate the seemingly basic task of learning English. The role of schools in the integration of immigrant students is formally identified as making them fluent English speakers.
However, ESL students encounter many obstacles in their efforts to become proficient in the English language. They often come to realize that in order to be fully accepted, they must abandon their native language, surrendering an aspect of their identity. They are caused to feel they must speak either English or nothing at all. Thus, they become caught in a painful power struggle over the use of English and their native language.
Moreover, the English that ESL students are taught is academic English. They often lack the ability to interact in social settings with English speaking peers because they are in separate classrooms and often have limited opportunity to interact academically or socially. They often have great difficulty learning the "slang" and social English because they have no one to learn it from. These children come to prefer English out of necessity, often abandoning their native languages to fit in. They end up without comfort in either language and may end up losing the ability to communicate with family members and friends in their native land. It is the position of this paper that Asian ESL students will remain torn between two worlds until society truly embraces diversity and the notion that biculturalism and bilingualism are assets. What is considered necessary in the education of ESL students is the development of English and maintenance of their native language.
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