Keeping a diary in EFL teaching (part 1)

 

Keeping a Diary in EFL Teaching (part 1)

 

In a qualitative or a quantitative study, data gathering is an important part. For collecting data, depending on the type and design of the research, a researcher has to decide the kind of research; a researcher has to decide the kind of research instruments he/she is planning to use in his/her research. In most, ESL/EFL classroom based research; diary/journal studies have lately established their credibility as a way of documenting a first person’s experience either as a teacher or a learner. Furthermore, dairy studies have gained validity as data collection procedure in studies on language learning and teaching (Nunan & Bailey, 2009, p. 293). Therefore, in most qualitative research, a researcher keeps a diary in which he makes entries about learning process of students with whom he is conducting an investigation to find out (an) answer/s to the question posed. The method is seen to have advantages for teachers wishing to re-examine the language learning process. It moreover promotes awareness of learning processes and pitfalls, and is evidence of progress; and language learning research, by adding to the knowledge base and also revealing new issues and factors to be considered. Keeping a diary and analyzing the data

According to Bailey and Ochsner (1983),

A diary study in second language learning, acquisition or teaching is an account of experience as recorded in a first person journal. The diarist may be a language teacher or a language learner-but the central characteristic of the diary study is that they are introspective. The diarist studies his own teaching. Thus he can report on affective factors, language learning strategies and his own perceptions-facets of language learning experience which are normally hidden or largely inaccessible to an external observer (p. 199)

Following Schumann (1977) and Bailey (1980), Matsumoto (1987) distinguishes the terms introspective and non-introspective data. According to these researchers, the term introspective is the term given to data where the researcher and the diarist are the same person while non-introspective means that the researcher and diarist(s) are different people. Introspective data is that which is gathered from subjects while they carry out a task; an example is the think aloud protocols used by Cohen (1983) in gathering data on reading strategies. Retrospective data is that which is collected after the event. Diary studies are considered as examples of retrospective data. Even though diary studies are considered to be a method of collecting data, it is not free from criticism. However, I do not intend to make this description long by adding more and more information concerning diary studies. Instead I want to publish some of my diary entries I made regarding my teaching and learning process with a group of Arab students in 2013. For ethical reasons, the names used in the diary entries are pseudonymous.

12th Sep, 2013

Went to college and we were given our class time table along with the delivery plans, course outlines and stationeries. So teaching in level 3 will begin on Monday. As I did in the previous semester, I have been assigned writing and grammar. Last semester, level 3 students did not have a grammar test for the level exit exam, but this time, students are going to have a grammar paper for which 10 marks will be given so the present students have to study grammar with more attention than the last group which did not pay much attention to grammar since it was not included in the final exam. I also have thought of changing my classroom techniques so as to make it more effective to students' learning context. Generally, when grammar is taught, teachers tend to apply deductive method in which learners are taught rules directly rather than allowing learners to discover rules and learn by themselves engaging in activities set by the teacher. I believe it would be better if learners are engaged in a speaking activity where they get a chance to practice a particular grammar point which I want them to learn. After learners receive some amount of practice in the target structure, they may be able to understand it.

17^th Sep, 2013

My class started today and I found the students’ attendance sound unlike the last semester where I had only two students out of 24. However, this semester indicates an increase of the students in level 3 compared to the previous semester. Furthermore, I believe that an increase of students should be a positive indication which makes us convinced of the fact that students have become more aware of the importance of their education.

 18 Sep, 2013

Attended the college and conducted classes for group 12 & 11 where the former was taught writing and the latter was grammar. For writing, instruction relevant to paragraph writing was given and students were asked to do activity 3 from their textbook.
The exercise is based on topic sentence. Finally students were given a writing activity in which they were asked to write a short message. Except one or two students, others did not need my help. For group 11, present continuous and simple present were taught. Most students did the activity given with an interest while a few didn't do it zealously. That is the nature of an EFL class. It is common to find students who are not diligent in their work. This kind of behavior can be ascribed to several factors which are external and internal to the learners.

19 Sep 2013

We had a workshop today about Quality Assurance and it went so well that the organizers' were fully satisfied with regards to the outcomes of the workshop. The first session was quite difficult since the members had no clear idea as to what they were expected to do. However, when it came to the second and subsequently to the third session, both the committee members of QA as well as the participants gradually became aware of what they were expected to do. This is to say that the second and third sessions went well. An official from the Quality Assurance Department of the college explained clearly how implementation steps need to be developed in line with strategies specified in a sub goal so the participants worked in line with the implementation steps that would go to the operational plan of the college for 2013-14.

20 Sep, 2013

Today was a holiday so I stayed in my room. I started writing discussion of the findings relevant to the pilot study I conducted during the last semester with a group of level 3 students. One page was written and typed on a word document but suddenly what I had typed began to erase. This was something I had never experienced before. I found my computer has a problem. This erroneous condition became a big problem so I decided to get my computer checked by someone.

24 Sep, 2013

Attended the college and I had two classes; writing for group 12 and grammar for 11. For writing, I had the class completed the previous activity given earlier in which they had to write a paragraph about "My home town" Tuesday they could write only the first draft. According to the process genre approach, they are required to write multiple before they actually come to the finished product. Today I got them write it again because I provided them with a feedback. All students wrote it again making correction. After that I taught them how to identify topic sentence, supporting sentences and the conclusion. I went up to the students and explained it to them. I found that paying individual attention was more effective than teacher fronted instruction even though it sometimes is tedious. Individual coaching is a must for low proficiency children because a skill like writing needs to be guided. As Lenneberg (1967) views, “Human beings universally learn to walk and talk, but that swimming and writing are culturally specific, learned behaviors. We learn to swim if there is a body of water available and usually only if someone teaches us. We can write if we are members of a literate society and usually only if someone teaches us. Just as there are non-swimmers, poor swimmers, and excellent swimmers, so it is for writers”

 27 Sep, 2013

Went to college. Today is free for me so I did some work such as preparing weekly lesson plans and doing correction in my second assignment. Today students had quiz in which they had some vocabulary related questions to answer. There were three questions. The first one was to match words and phrases; the second was to write synonyms for the words given. The third question consists of writing antonyms for the words provided while the 4th was about choosing the best word for each blank. The total marks for the paper was 10 and the actual marks the students receive is five. No of students sat for the test was 28 out of 29 and the scores they had obtained were as follows: 10 out 10 =3,   9 out of 10 =1,   8 out of 10 =3,   7 out of 10=5,   6 out of 10=2, 5 out of 10=6,   4 out of 10=2,   3 out of 10=1,   2 out of 10=3, and 1 out of 10=2. According to the statistics above, it can be inferred that general performance of the class is satisfactory, but the individual performance of the group is not satisfactory. This indicates that students generally proficiency in reading is not adequate. Reading greatly helps learners write effectively. Yesterday I started the next lesson (writing) for group 12. It really was the second day that I tried to expose them to writing. I first explained to them that when talk or write, we need to persuade others by expressing our opinions concerning some issues that may be socially, politically or educationally important.  I gave them a topic "using a mobile phone while driving can be dangerous” I discussed the topic with them and tried to elicit their ideas. They had some knowledge of the topic. I wrote some lexical items that they could use in their writing. I put them into 8 groups: boys and girls separately and asked them to continue by writing the topic sentence first. I allowed them enough time to complete the task. While they were writing, I monitored each group and offered to help them with any help they needed. After the activity, I collected their papers to take home to mark them. While going through their papers, there was one problem common to all. My students do not use signal words and joining words when they write. This indicates that they haven't studied them in level two or they have forgotten by now. So given this condition, I decided to teach them some sentence connectors along with signal words on Sunday. Mastering writing skill is a major issue for students who study English as a foreign language specifically in contexts where students do not pay much attention to writing in school settings. I believe that the foundation for writing should be laid at school. When the students are young, it is easy for them to acquire the skills of writing English letters clearly and legibly. Except one or two handwriting of all boys are horrible in my group. They do not know capitalization and technicalities of writing. Even though they are pointed out how they should correct them, they easily cannot absorb them. They still tend to make the same mistakes despite my feedback on several occasions.  

30 Sep, 2013

Went to college as usual and conducted two classes; grammar and writing. For grammar, adjectives; their comparative and superlative degrees were explained. I gave them a pre-prepared handout and furthermore, explained how they are used. Some students knew the rules of using comparative and superlative sentences while a majority did not. However, once they did two or three activities, they found it easy to understand. For writing, they were taught how to write business letters of which more focus was on writing job applications. I first introduced them the topic and elicited what they had already known about letter writing. I next discussed the different parts of a business letter and gradually made them convinced why they wanted to learn how to write letters needed to apply for jobs. A model letter was given and explained. Students were instructed that they were not expected to produced the same letter rather they should use it to study the structure of a job application which can be adopted to suit to their needs. Finally, I distributed their previous writings and asked them to rewrite the paragraphs attending to the correction I had already made. All students said that they were tired and postponed it the next day except one male student who completed it in the class and handed it over to me. What is evident from such behavior is that there are students who really like to work despite physical issues.

3 Oct, 2013

Today I hope to give a topic for writing in the class. Group 12 has writing so the topic is "Is fast food good or bad?" Guidelines are given and I hope to get students elicited ideas on the topic first and then I write on the board. I need to see if that technique works. I want to get the whole class participation because there are low proficiency students who cannot compose a single sentence correctly. Even though I had planned to make them more practice on expressing opinions, I decided to postpone it until next week due to time constraints. Furthermore, it should be specifically be noted here that the students who come from level 2 to level 3 have to make a dramatic transition. In other words, in level 2, students are generally taught general English but in level three they are taught academic English with different genres. Because of this reason, most students find writing either challenging or rather difficult. Another reason is that the time constraint. As per the delivery plan, a writing topic allocated per week mostly cannot be covered within that week mainly due to the fact that the students find it hard to master it. The subject matter may be a little bit higher for them to grasp. Given the condition stated above, I decided to give them more practice on writing a job application. Moreover, for the mid-semester exam, the students are given a question based on job application. I prepared a new job advertisement and got it photocopied early. I distributed the job advertisement (it is about a business development officer) as I did yesterday; I first told them what they were supposed to do. Once they started writing, most male students needed further clarification about some areas. However, I observed that there was a little improvement especially in boys in the following areas: spelling, clarity, punctuation and organization of ideas. This kind of improvement can be ascribed to the fact that they are becoming familiar with writing. Then and there, some students sought my advice but as a whole their change of behavior seems much more improved than the first two weeks. Of the 8 girls only two still have problems in certain aspects of language but the rest are quite good. Mariam, Aisha, Amna, Tahani, Reem, Munira are doing quite well. Of the boys, Salem seems still has some problems with writing.

4 Oct, 2013

Today is a holiday. So I stayed in my room and worked on improving the literature review part of my proposal. While I was re-reading the 2nd assignment, I still found some areas that need improvement. Under definition of writing, I came across what Dudley -Evans (2002) stated about short-cut methods which writing instructors employ to raise their students' proficiency in teaching contexts where time becomes a constraint. He, furthermore, views that short-cut methods can help students to write expository essays. The validity of this statement remains suspicious for some teaching contexts especially where there are no cultures of written literacy is neither promoted nor valued in social contexts. What I mean here by saying so is that in contexts where English is studied as a foreign language, writing is not given much emphasis as speaking and reading are given because there is no pressing need to learn it. According to socio-linguistic, a given community can have an influence on the language they use for communicative purposes. If the society has an influence over the language they use, they give prominence to it whether it be spoken or written. Given this condition, hypothesizing that short-cut methods can have positive effects on learners' writing proficiency is hard to accept on the grounds that every teaching context is different in its perceived socio-political constraints.  A living example to prove my claim can be cited here from my teaching context. Omani students study English as a foreign language and it is not extensively socially used. Furthermore, Omani students are not highly exposed to writing at school. They start learning English implicitly or explicitly once they enter a vocational training school or a college or a university. Therefore, teaching writing them is a Herculean task for FL teachers whose mother tongue is not Arabic. Because of these reasons identified and unidentified, most foreign EFL teachers make no stone unturned to prepare their students for the college level exit exams. In order to make students ready for the exams, the teacher makes use of different strategies in that they use past examination papers or model papers provided by the level coordinators to make the students better practice for the questions they may come across at the examinations. The students learn those answers by heart and produce them with modification or alteration in the exams and score enough to cross over to the next level. This process goes on every semester and every year. Except a very few students, a majority who goes to the next level really lacks the knowledge and skill they are expected to have at that particular level. This seems to be a pathetic situation on the part of students. However, there is no proper mechanism to avert this kind of issue in college education system.  I feel these can be some of the drawbacks inherent in the tertiary level education.

4 Oct, 2013

Went to college and today also I had two classes; group 12 &11. For group 12, I had writing where I gave them a writing activity based on business letter writing. I gave them a job advertisement published in a newspaper. Instructions were given as to how the letter needs to be written. Somehow, they wrote it before the class ended. Then and there I helped them with language issues. They can't understand what the written discourse is yet. Especially, the different genres. It takes time for them to become proficient in the target language. Unlike other skills, writing is never practiced outside the class unless the students do it purposely. The exposure to writing in the class itself is not adequate. Even in the class some don't seriously work. When one activity finishes, they want to relax. When compared with students I had worked with in different teaching contexts, my present students seem a bit lazy. The majority is not intrinsically motivated on one hand and on the other most are not independent learners. I presume this can be linked to their cultural constraints. Islam highly emphasizes the importance of education for both men and women alike. Islam asserts that seeking knowledge is the obligation of every Muslim, male or female (Seda, 2002). So I believe that they should take education serious and give prominence to it. I further believe these students should subject to proper counseling. Students are badly in need of teaching the importance of education for their future life and a learning driven culture must be established in order to reap the better results of the investment which the government makes in millions and millions money every year.

 5 Oct, 2013

A holiday so the daily routine has to go as usual. Tomorrow I should send the assignment to the supervisor and do the corrections in the 2nd assignment. In class, I plan to start writing because I find none of the students has been able to do the writing activity given in the pretest. They seem to need a lot of exposure to academic writing. Therefore, I should apply process genre approach in writing to see its effects on them soon. Most probably tomorrow. Without applying any teaching method, approach, or a technique, one may find it hard to decide the effectiveness of any of the methods or approaches stated above. As is often the case with most EFL learners, teaching and learning contexts are different. So we need to be very well aware of it. Sometimes, we feel the statement which says that teaching does not always cause learning. Then, the next issue that strikes our mind is what really causes learning. So far no one has been able to find a correct answer for that because of individual differences that are said to have an effect on learning. There are low proficiency students in my group. So I believe even they would be benefited by introducing the process genre approach because it provides students with opportunities to work as a group. Group work generally are effective in that it has lots of advantages especially for low proficient learners who lag behind others most probably due to their affective factors such as anxiety or introversion. Studies conducted into this area have evidence to prove that affective factors play an important role in language acquisition. Therefore, it seems important for EFL teachers to be vigilant of possible learners with affects in their classes.

4 Oct, 2013

Today I checked all paragraphs written by my students. Many of them should rewrite their paragraphs because re-writing helps them identify mistakes that they have made in the first draft. In the process genre approach, re-reading and revising is considered to be an important stage of writing. Moreover, re-reading and revising helps learners determine whether their subject content matches the topic and what they intended to say (Shih, 1986). Students should check whether their paragraphs have a logical order with clear topic and supporting sentences.

       While checking their paragraphs, I found both local and global errors in them. I clearly marked them for the students to identify what mistakes they have made and how they should correct them. Studies conducted into the effects of feedback have found that positive feedback has some effects on learners. I plan to employ whole class correction technique rather than individual. Then everybody can participate in it.

This is a first draft of a student’s writing and this needs re-reading and revising.

 

(Author’s data, 2014)

Meanwhile, I could formulate two research questions for my study which I plan to conduct next year (2014). My research questions are; 1. Does the application of the process genre approach in writing help tertiary level students improve academic writing proficiency as measured by the assessment scale for written work proposed by Jacob, Zinkgraf, Wormouth, Hartfiel and Hughey (1981)? 

2. How effective is the process genre approach in writing instruction for tertiary level students to perform better in examination settings as measured by the assessment scale for written work proposed by Jacob, Zinkgraf, Wormouth, Hartfiel and Hughey (1981)?  

In an attempt to answer the research questions above, the following hypotheses were posed:

1. The application of the process genre approach in writing help tertiary level students improve academic writing proficiency as measured by the assessment scale for written work proposed by Jacobs, Zinkgraf, Wormouth, Hartfiel and Hughey  (1981).  

2. The process genre approach is effective in writing instruction for tertiary level students to perform better in examination settings as measured by the assessment scale for written work proposed by Jacobs, Zinkgraf, Wormouth, Hartfiel and Hughey (1981). 

By conducting this research, I hope to achieve the following objectives:

1.      To investigate the effectiveness of an enhanced process genre approach in writing instruction for tertiary level students to perform better in an examination setting.

2.      To illustrate that using a prescribed textbook alone is not sufficient to improve tertiary level students’ academic writing proficiency in English. Therefore, the textbook should be complemented with extra teaching materials.

3.      To enlighten the Department of English Language in the Shinas College of Technology of the extent to which the process genre approach and teacher developed materials are effective in improving students’ academic writing proficiency.

4.      To recommend the implementation of an enhanced process genre approach in ESL writing classes at Shinas Colleges of Technology.

5 Oct, 2013

Holiday. No special thing to do except reading Nunan's book. It really is informative in that it presents all aspects relevant to research studies. Since it is a practical book on research, novice researchers will find it extremely useful. It discusses many topics relating to second language classroom research which is an emerging field. I started writing the proposal part by part.

 7 Oct, 2013

Went to college and today I had two classes in my section (12). First, I had grammar where I explained to the students that it was not helpful studying only rules because most of the times they tend to forget the rules as time passes unless they use what they learn. I pointed out the importance of using the rules. I told them that they learn simple present and its rules in class and do activities making no mistakes. However, after a few days they will forget all the rules and behave as if they had never heard it before when they were questioned. This is really what happens even in exams. Given this problem, I stressed that they should try to use a particular rule over and again in order to internalize it. Moreover, I said that if a rule is internalized, it will retain in their memory and will not be forgotten so that they can use it in speaking, listening, reading or writing. When learners are taught skills separately, a condition like this can arise. That is why CLT informs us to integrate all the four skills when teaching. However, I told the students to make sentences using comparative and superlative forms of adjectives for which most students responded quite well. Salem and Maktoom did not attempt even though I repeatedly asked them to do. Today in writing class I told both to come to my office after the mid-semester exam so that I can explain them areas they still find problematic. Salim is a quiet student and mostly sits at the back of the class and he says he has shortsightedness so he can't see the board. I told him to go the front of the class, but he never wants to do it. For writing, I had them practice writing a job application in which the students were required to fill in the blanks. The words were given. Most of the girls did it correctly. Bushair and Tahani finished first followed by the rest. Boys had problems of choosing the right word so I had to help them with it. Finally, I discussed the answers with the whole class. But I could not check their books due to time constraints. I promised them to check the following day. After that, I distributed the handout prepared for the current week. It is about writing paragraphs of comparison and contrast. This is an area where students need to be trained well because a question from this topic can come in the final examination.

8 Oct, 2013

Went to the College and conducted two classes (group 12&10) for both classes I did grammar. Group 12 was first given a grammar activity in order to revise the previous lessons. Since the exercise centered round simple present all students found it easy. Only Abdulla and Khalid requested my help and did it quite well. I also felt happy over their positive involvement in the activity. After that, I introduced the new lesson based on present simple passive which I had thought would be difficult for them to understand but to my surprise most students could understand it from the first example I used to explain how passive sentences are made. Moshin outperformed the others by being able to answer all the questions posed to him by me. The other days he generally didn't show any interest for the classroom activities even though he did them. Today I noticed a difference my students' behavior. The other days, when the time gets closer to 4.30p.m most boys become restless and they tend to announce “Mr. Time is up” but today they didn't feel the passage of time but seriously concentrated on finishing the activity given. Given this situation, my assumption is that if they can work all days, it is not hard for them to learn. I could finish only a few sentences discussing with them. In the next class, I taught grammar where I first discussed the important points they have already covered in the previous lessons. Today one student who continuously absent turned up in the class and one boy began to talk in his native language without caring my presence. I tolerated his unruly behavior for some time but he didn't stop. My anger also rose a little bit although I tried to control it. Finally I went to boy  and told him to be quiet if he can’t he should leave the class. Then he said "No. No, I will study" them I allowed him to stay on the condition that he should not disturb the class in any manner. I continued with my explanation and then I distributed the exercise I had prepared for grammar and asked them to do it. That particular boy who misbehaved earlier became very silent and finished answering the first section quickly and he asked me to check it. To my amazement, I found all his answers correct and he really has a sound knowledge of grammar. I talked to him and said that he was clever and not to behave badly in the classroom. After that he really showed a keen interest in all what I explained and said. Later, I got to think why that boy misbehaved and I myself concluded that he needed was my recognition first. If had done it earlier, he wouldn't have behaved like that. So it seems important to give each individual its due recognition. I generally do that but somehow or other I could not do it yesterday because a few boys entered the class after I had started. Once I start the class, I don't like or want to be interrupted by any external force.

8 Oct, 2013

Went to the college. Today we had a QA meeting where we discussed the action plan goals to finalize it. However, due to time constraints, we could finalize only goal no: 1 and we agreed to revise the rest the next day. I conducted two classes: writing for group 12 and grammar for group 11. For writing, I introduced them how to write an opinion paragraph. The topic I selected was “Is fast food good or bad?” I first wrote the question on the top of the whiteboard and drew a table below the topic with two separate columns one for good points and the other for bad points. Then I got the students to elicit their opinions. They came up with good points. Along with their points, I asked them to construct complete sentences and tell the class. I wrote their sentences on the board. Finally, the class could write two paragraphs with a conclusion about the topic and they were satisfied with their production. After that before the class stops, I gave them another topic to write at home. The topic was “Is Internet useful or harmful to students?” For group 11, first a test was given and all students found it so easy that they did it with confidence. After that, present simple passive was taught, it was not difficult for them to understand. Activity based on it was done by all students. One girl asked me permission to leave early because her father had come to take her so I allowed her to leave the class after the test.

9 Oct, 2013

Went to college as usual and did two classes. Around 1 pm we again had a meeting of QA which was held at the canteen due to lack of a place. Today we discussed goal no 2 & 4. Mr. David also joined voluntarily so he was also appointed as a member with the consent of the head of the center who happened to be in the canteen while the meeting was going on. HOC thanked the members of the QA committee for their keen interest in the duties assigned Dr. Jun, the leader of the QA committee headed the discussion and it successfully covered several goals before it was adjourned until the following day due to time constraints.

11 Oct, 2013

Went to the college and did two classes. Grammar for group 12 and again the same for group 10. Today, I first gave my class a test on grammar in which the students were required to answer 5 test items; a. Use Present or present continuous verb form to complete the sentences given. B. was on comparative and superlative forms of adjectives. C. To find which sentence is correct from the 3 given. D. Put the words in the correct order to make meaningful sentences. E. Find and mark correct sentence if the sentence is wrong they should correct it. Even though they were taught those lessons at the beginning of the month, now they have forgotten the rules of simple present and continuous. As I mentioned earlier, this is a common weakness that can be observed in my students. While students were writing, they called me for help. What I have observed in my students is that they want a teacher to correct every sentence they write at the same time. So if one student finishes writing a part or whole of an exercise, he begins to call the teacher, so sometimes it is quite disturbing to the rest of the class as well as the teacher. In one way I feel that they need feedback immediately. Therefore, perhaps you can't blame them. That may be nature of students especially those who are extroverted. However, I got them finished the test and discussed the answers. With group 10, I did the same.

 

To be continued