Second Language Research Findings: A Wrong ...

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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 69 (2012) 984 – 989

International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology (ICEEPSY 2012) Second language research findings: A wrong generalization to EFL studies Aram R. Sadeghi*, Hoda Arkani¹ ĞƉĂƌƚŵĞŶƚŽĨŶŐůŝƐŚ>ĂŶŐƵĂŐĞĂŶĚ>ŝƚĞƌĂƚƵƌĞ͕ŽůůĞŐĞŽĨ>ŝƚĞƌĂƚƵƌĞĂŶĚ,ƵŵĂŶŝƚŝĞƐ͕^ĞŵŶĂŶhŶŝǀĞƌƐŝƚǇ͕^ĞŵŶĂŶ͕/ƌĂŶ

Abstract

Many researches have been conducted in TEFL around the world both in countries that English is taught as a second language (ESL) and those in which English is learned as a foreign language (EFL). There is a general awareness among specialists of this field that there are outstanding differences between the two. What has been neglected so far is the credibility of literature review of those papers conducted in foreign language context using second language acquisition (SLA) reference as support to their research. This paper is an attempt to show the controversy that while in Iran (an EFL situation) the researches are designed in EFL context, there are significant references of support to the studies conducted in ESL environment. To do so, 30 MA theses of TEFL at Ferdowsy University (Iran) which were experimentally conducted were studied. The results show that a significant number flawed support references in the literature.

access under CC BY-NC-ND license. © Authors.by Published Elsevier Ltd. Open © 2012 2012The Published ElsevierbyLtd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Dr. Zafer Bekirogullari of Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Dr. Zafer Bekirogullari of Cognitive – Counselling, Research & Conference Cognitive – Counselling, Research & Conference Services C-crcs. Services C-crcs.

keywords: English as Second and Foreign Language; Wrong generalization; Research.

*Corresponding author: Tel.: +98 912 322- 0638 E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Aram R. Sadeghy), [email protected] ( Hoda Arkani). ¹ Tel.: +98 915 824 8518.

1877-0428 © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Dr. Zafer Bekirogullari of Cognitive – Counselling, Research & Conference Services C-crcs. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.12.024

Aram R. Sadeghi and Hoda Arkani / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 69 (2012) 984 – 989

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1. Introduction

1.1. Second vs. Foreign Language Learning Context

Freed and Huebner(1995, cited in Longcope 2010) have assumed that there is a difference between learning a language in a second language (SL) context and that in a foreign language (FL) context. In addition to this, many researchers (Brecht, Davidson, & Ginsberg, 1993; Carroll, 1967; Diller & Markert, 1983; Freed, 1990; Lennon, 1995; Spada, 1986; Tonkyn, 1996, cited in Longcope 2010) have found that studying a second language in an SL context helps the acquisition process. This is what puts SL context in superiority for learning. Now, one question that is left open to question is how SL learning context differs from the FL learning context. The first distinction can be in terms of the environment in which learning takes place. According to Kachru (1982, p. 78, 1985, p. 210) there are three concentric circles in an English language. The inner circle which refers to the traditional bases of English, where it is the primary language: it includes the USA, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.” “The outer circle which involves the earlier phases of the spread of English in non-native settings, where the language has become a part of a country's chief institutions, and plays an important 'second language' role in a multilingual setting: it includes countries such as Singapore, India, Malawi and over 50 other territories.” “The expanding circle involves those nations which recognize the importance of English as an international language, thought they do not have a history of colonization by members of the inner circle, nor have they given English any special administrative status. It includes China, Japan, Greece, Poland; Iran (as the name of this circle suggests) with a steadily increasing number of other states. In these areas, English is taught as a foreign language.” According to Ellis (2008, p.243) in an ESL situation, “the learner is learning English in an environment in which language plays an institutional and social role in the community. While foreign language learning takes place in settings where the language plays no major role in community and is primarily learnt only in the classroom.” Chastain (1988, p.123.) also notes that “second language learning refers to situations in which students study the language of the country in which they are living. While foreign language learning describes situations in which students study the language of a foreign country.” The second distinction can be in terms of accessibility of learners to a variety of settings out of the classroom. In a SL situation, the language learner is exposed to the target language outside the classroom in a variety of settings. They have direct contact with the language, the people and the culture out of class. “While in a foreign language situation, students have no or direct contact with the language, the people and the culture. It can be challenging to find real-life communicative contexts in which to use the target language” (p. 122). The need for language skills is more real and immediate for SL students than for FL students. So it can be concluded that since SL learners have an immediate need for application of the language they are more motivated to learn the language in comparison with foreign language learners. In an ESL environment, learners are better at spoken and informal language. The purpose of learning the language is, to a large extent, for communication and survival. However, in foreign language situations the language is learned for other reasons such as academic or business purposes. That’s why second language learners are better at spoken language. However, “foreign language learners focus more on some other aspect of the language system such as writing” (Ellis, 2008, p.242). Based on aforementioned differences, we can come to conclusion that generalization of research findings conducted in an SL context is not applicable to FL context.

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1.2. Purpose The present study aimed at investigating 60 M.A. theses of English Department at Ferdowsy University in Iran in order to find out to what extent these students had wrongly generalized ESL findings to their studies in EFL context with EFL participants.

2. Study

To conduct the study, from among 60 MA theses at Ferdowsi University, 25 experimental researches were selected and investigated. The literature review and methodology of each thesis were read and the number of SLA references that the author had used as a basis and support to their study were statistically recorded. 3. Result

From among 25 documents, more than half of the references of 10 theses were SLA ones (65%). And in 15 theses less than half of the references (46%) were related to SLA. Table 1 shows the thesis titles, the number of total resources and those which are related to SLA. Although the setting of EFL was not mentioned in the titles, all studies were analytically proved to aim for EFL learners. Table 1: Specifications of MA Theses of TEFL at Ferdowsy University

No.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Thesis title

The Relationship Between Coeducation Environment And The Progress of Iranian University Students in Speaking Ability The Comparison Between The Effects of Involvement Load Factor And The Exposure Factor on The Short term And Long term Retention of a Set of Newly Encountered Vocabularies Role of Cognitive Style of Field –Dependence /Independence in Using Meta cognitive And Cognitive Reading Strategies By a Group of Skilled and Novice Iranian Students of English Literature The Relationship And Impact of Deliberate Practice And Listening Performance of a Group of High-intermediate Iranian EFL Learners Vocabulary Learning Strategies Employed By Iranian Adult EFL And Their Relations to Listening Performance On Protocol Analysis of Main Idea Construction Strategies Used By Four Iranian Skilled And Novice Readers in Reading EFL texts DSA preference Across the Sexes By a Group of Iranian Advanced EFL Speakers The Effects of Input Modification on Reading Comprehension: A Case Study on a Group of Skilled And Novice Iranian Pre-students Investigating The Effect of Reading Portfolios on The Iranian Students’

The total number of references used in each thesis

The number of ESL references

Percentage of ESL references

88

46

52.27

120

68

56.66

89

42

47.19

103

65

63.10

153

37

24.18

95

29

30.52

40

14

35

94

35

37.23

86

37

43.02

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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Critical Thinking Ability, Reading Comprehension Ability, And Reading Achievement Identification and Comparison of Inferencing strategies in L2 Reading Used by a Group of Skilled and Novice ESL Learners The Role of Explicit Contrastive Instruction in Learning Difficult L2 Grammatical Forms by The Iranian High School Students: A crosslinguistic Approach to Language Awareness The Study of The Effect of Topic-base Oral Reading Activity on The Speaking Skill Cohesion and Cohesive Devices in Second Grade High School Text Book Passages and Their Effect on Reading Comprehension The Relationship Between Locus of Control, EFL Reading and Writing Achievement, and Use of Language Learning Strategies. A Psycholinguistic Analysis of The Factors Influencing The Utility of Meta Linguistic Knowledge in Foreign Language Teaching Milieu The Impact of Collocational Instruction on The Writing Skill of Iranian EFL Learners An Investigation of The Effects of Planning on Fluency, Complexity and Accuracy in Narrative Writing of Iranian EFL Students The Role of Text Comprehension Topic Familiarity and Cognitive Style in Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Through Reading For Elementary and Intermediate Learners The Impact of Vocabulary Glosses on Reading Comprehension and Word Knowledge The Impact of Collocational Teaching on The Vocabulary Retention and Written Production of Iranian EFL Learners The Impact of Comic Strips As a Prereading Activity in Enhancing Reading Comprehension and Retention The Predictive Power of Vocabulary Breadth and Depth and Syntactic Knowledge in Reading Comprehension Performance of Iranian Advanced EFL Students The Effects of Meta Discourse Awareness on The Quality of Reading Comprehension of a Group of Iranian EFL Learners The Effects of Cooperative Vs. Individual Directed Reading-Thinking Activities on Iranian High School Students Inferential and Referential Question in Qatar The Pedagogical Effectiveness of Multimedia CALL Software on Vocabulary Recall and Retention of Iranian Pre-Intermediate EFL Learners

143

6

4.19

37

17

45.94

82

27

32.92

34

15

44.11

122

87

71.31

64

36

56.25

170

42

24.70

104

50

48.07

222

150

67.56

88

29

32.95

69

18

26.08

14

5

35.71

117

40

34.18

57

12

21.05

77

17

22.07

105

25

23.80

4. Discussion and Conclusion Regarding the different learning conditions of students in FL and SL context, the results of the research conducted in ELT are affected by those conditions. Investigating the MA thesis In Iran, a country in which English is taught as a foreign language, the researcher found that about 40 % of the main and discussed references used in literature review were overgeneralizations of

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second language acquisition findings to foreign language teaching and learning. This wrong overgeneralization due to the decisively significant variation of the learning environments is an issue neglected by researchers and experts of the field. One reason for such a problem in referencing might be lack of strong research findings in EFL situations. Most of the basic learning and teaching theories in ELT are findings of researches carrying out in environments in which English is learned as a second language. That is why when it comes to research in foreign language learning, researchers have no options except referencing to second language learning findings. One solution to this problem is conducting more research in EFL context. Researchers carrying out studies in EFL context should be aware of this fact and also be more conservative when designing their researches and referring to SLA studies and theories. As this study focused on MA thesis of one university in Iran, it is recommended that more research be conducted in other universities investigating PhD dissertation as well as MA thesis, or studying other TEFL papers published in journals to further investigate the nature of their references accordingly.

References 1.

Brecht, R., Davidson, D., & Ginsberg, R. (1993). Predictors of Foreign Language Gain during Study Abroad. Washington, D.C.: National Foreign Language Center.

2.

Carroll, J. (1967). Foreign language proficiency levels attained by language majors near graduation from college. Foreign Language Annuals, 1, 131-151.

3.

Chastain, K. (1988). Developing Second Language Skills, Theory and practice. New York: Harcourt Brace & Jovanovich.

4.

Diller, E., & Markert, A. (1983). The telescopic curriculum: An Oregon-Tubingen experiment in first year German. Unterrichtspraxis, 16, 223-229.

5.

Ellis, R. (2008). Second Language Acquisition. Oxford University Press: United Kingdom.

6.

Freed, B. (1990). Language Learning in a study abroad context: The effects of interactive and non-interactive out-of-class contact on grammatical achievement and oral proficiency. In J. Atlatis (Ed.), linguistics, language teaching, and language acquisition: The inter-dependence of theory, practice, and research (GURT 1990) (pp. 459-477). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University.

7.

Kachru, B. (1982). The Other Tongue – English Across Cultures. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press.

8.

Kachru, B. B. (1985). 'Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: the English language in the outer circle'. In English in the World: teaching and learning the language and literatures, edited by R. Quirk & H. G. Widdowson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for The British Council.

9.

Lennon, P. (1985). Assessing short-term change in advanced oral proficiency: Problems of reliability and validity in four case studies. ITL Reviews of Applied Linguistics, 109-110, 75-109.

10. Longcope, P. (2010). Differences between the EFL and the ESL language learning contexts. Retrieved November 23, 2010 from http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/proj/genbunronshu/30-2/longcope.pdf


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11. Spada, N. (1986). The interaction between type of contact and type of instruction: Some effects on the L2 proficiency of learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 8, 181-200. 12. Tonkyn, A. (1996). The oral language development of instructed second language learners: The quest for a progresssensitive proficiency measure. In H. Coleman & L. Cameron (Eds.), Change and language: papers from the Annual Meeting of the British Association of Applied Linguistics held at the University of Leeds, September 1994. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.