Thai TESOL Journal Thai TESOL Journal [26 (1)]

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Vol ume26Numbe r1J une2013

I SBN22868909

Thailand TESOL Organization under the Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra

THAILAND TESOL ORGANIZATION is a professional non-profit and nonpolitical organization under the patronage of H.R.H. Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra. Its purposes are to strengthen English Language education at all levels, to undertake research in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages, to offer scholarships, to disseminate information, and to cooperate in appropriate ways with other groups having similar concerns. THAILAND TESOL ORGANIZATION is an affiliate of TESOL, Inc. located in the United States of America; the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), located in Great Britain; JALT, located in Japan; Korea TESOL; STETS, located in Singapore; ETAROC, located in Taiwan; and TESL Canada. THAITESOL JOURNAL (ISSN 2286-8909) is published 2 times a year, in January and May by Thailand TESOL Organization under the Patronage of H.R.H. Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra. It is intended to provide a forum for research and the exchange of information including opinion on theory and practice in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages. PHOTOCOPYING Material in THAITESOL JOURNAL may be photocopied for educational purposes. Under no circumstances may any part of this bulletin be photocopied for commercial purposes.

Printed in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand

THAILAND TESOL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE March 2011 – May 2013 Advisory Board

Arunee Wiriyachitra Suntana Sutadarat Naraporn Chan-Ocha Sonthida Keyuravong

Independent Consultant Ramkhamhaeng University Distance Learning Foundation King Mongkut University Thonburi Suchada Nimmannit Chulalongkorn University Chaleosri Pibulchol Distance Learning Foundation Maneepen Apibalsri Rungsit University Damon Anderson RELO, US Embassy Samatha Grainger British Council Scott Evans Australian Embassy Paul Humphries AUA Language Center Wattanaporn Rangabtook Ministry of Education

Past President Immediate Past President President First Vice President Second Vice President Secretary Assistant secretary Treasurer Webmaster

Akara Akaranithi Ubon Sanpatchayapong Nopporn Sarobol Unchalee Sermsongswad Anamai Damnet Edward B. Geerson Nipaporn Chalermnirundorn Kittitouch Soontornwipast Sarapol Chirasawadi

Chulalongkorn University Rangsit University Thammasat University Chiang Mai University Kasetsart University Thammasat University Rangsit University Thammasat University Suan Dusit Rajabhat University Public Relations Monthon Kanokpermpoon Thammasat University Wacharapong Kributr Thai Airways International Publication Andrew Lian Suranaree University of Technology Pannathon Sangarun Suranaree University of Technology Membership Coordinator Jiraporn Kakaew Kasetsart University Member-at-large Chantharat Hongboontri Mahidol University Chirasiri Kasemsin Mahidol University Paneeta Nitayaphorn Thai Airways International

SIG Chairs ESP Research

Panna Chaturongakul Kanjana Chattrakul

CALL STED

Supanit Kulsiri Chanarong Rachbuanoy

Literature IELLT ICT

Rajeev Ramnath Anamai Damnet Sarapol Chirasawadi

SAL

Nopporn Sarobol

Thammasat University Suan Dusit Rajabhat University Srinakarinwirot University Udon Thani Educational Service Area Office 4 Assumption University Kasetsart University Suan Dusit Rajabhat University Thammasat University

Regional Affiliates Northern Affiliate Wichian Sunitham Northeastern Affiliate Uthaivan Danvivath Krauwan Thongwundee Southern Affiliate Pragasit Sitthitikul

Western Affiliate

Pareedar Pakawan Singhanat Nomnian

Chiang Mai University Khon Kaen University Roi-Et Wittayalai School Thammasat University

Naradhiwas University Mahidol University

THAITESOL JOURNAL Volume 26 Number 1 Published by Thailand TESOL Organization under the Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra

EDITORS Editor Pannathon Saengarun Suranaree University of Technology Thailand Managing Editor Maneepen Apibalsri Rungsit University Thailand

CONTENTS ARTICLES An Analysis of Reading Materials Using Coh-Metrix in Conjunction with Students’ Reading Comprehension Scores

1

MARY SARAWIT Effects of Online Task-Based Interactive Listening Instruction for EFL Learners

25

XINGBIN TIAN SUKSAN SUPPASETSEREE Exploring Beliefs of Pre-Service Teachers toward English as an International Language FLORA DEBORA FLORIS

46

EDITORS Editor Pannathon Saengarun Suranaree University of Technology Thailand Managing Editor Maneepen Apibalsri Thailand

EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD Akara Akaranithi Chulalongkorn University Thailand

Anamai Damnat Kasetsart University Thailand

Andrew Lian Suranaree University of Technology Thailand

Apisak Pupipat Thammasart University Thailand

Arunee Wiriyachitra Independent Consultant Thailand

Chaleosri Pibulchol Distance Learning Foundation Thailand

Chantharat Hongboontri Mahidol University Thailand

Chirasiri Kasemsin Mahidol University Thailand

Debra Hoven Athabasca University Canada

Harald Kraus Dhurakitbandit University Thailand

Kanjana Chattrakul Suan Dusit Rajabhat University Thailand

Kittitouch Soontornwipast Thammasat University Thailand

Leslie Burke Barratt Indiana State University U.S.A

Maneepen Apibalsri Rungsit University Thailand

Nattaya Puekpong Suranaree University of Technology Thailand

Nopporn Sarobol Thammasart University Thailand

Panna Chaturongakul Thammasat University Thailand

Pannathon Sangarun Suranaree University of Technology Thailand

Pragasit Sitthitikul Thammasart University Thailand

Rajeev Ramnah Assumption University Thailand

Ruja Polsawad Rangsit University Thailand

Singhanat Nomnian Mahidol University Thailand

Somsak Boonsathorn Maeh Fah Luang University Thailand

Sonthida Keyurawong King Mongkut University Thailand

Suchada Nimmannit Chulalongkorn University Thailand

Supanit Kulsiri Srinakarinwirot University Thailand

Supatra Thongkalaya Srinakarinwirot University Thailand

Unchalee Sermsongswad Chiang Mai University Thailand

Ubon Sanpatchayapong Rangsit University Thailand

Uthaivan Danvivath Khon Kaen University Thailand

Wichian Sunitham Chiang Mai University Thailand Assistant Editor Rajeev Ramnah Assumption University Thailand

Editorial Welcome to the first issue of the Thai TESOL Journal. Until now, this journal was known as the Thai TESOL Bulletin. However, we felt it was important to rename it so as to avoid confusion with other forms of publication and to reflect clearly its status as a peer-reviewed, refereed, journal of international standing. The learning (and therefore teaching) of English is at a critically important point in its history, especially in Asian contexts. In particular, the inauguration of the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) in 2015 as part of ASEAN’s development plans will require the use of English as the common language and will place increasing pressure on English language learning resources (as well as on resources for the learning and teaching of other languages). This is especially true in light of the possible development of a Regional Economic Partnership which would include Australia and New Zealand. These developments, which is are approximately two years away, will significantly strain the already overloaded language-learning and teaching systems in the region. As a result, it is almost inevitable that the demand for English language-learning support, in both formal and informal settings, will outstrip the resources currently available. Dealing with this situation will require substantial increases in the efficiency and effectiveness of English language learning and teaching in order to meet regional needs. Thailand, as a member nation of the AEC and as an Asian country where English is not an official language, has a critically important role to play both within its borders and beyond. It is therefore very pleasing to be able to report that the Thai TESOL Journal extends the tradition of quality established by the Thai TESOL Bulletin and continues to receive a flow of high quality submissions from both Thai and International scholars. These contributions will help refine our theoretical and practical understandings of the language learning process thus helping to alleviate some of the problems which lie ahead. We hope that you will both enjoy and benefit professionally from the new and relevant contributions to

knowledge to be found both in the pages that follow and in subsequent issues of the journal. We are grateful for these contributions and very much look forward to receiving yours in the near future.

Pannathon Sangarun Editor

Join us at 34th Annual Thailand TESOL International Conference January 17-18, 2014

The Empress Hotel, Chiang Mai, Thailand www.thaitesol.org

THE AUTHORS

Mary Sarawit has been involved in English language teaching in Thailand since her role as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand from 1967 to 1969. After completing her studies for a Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of Michigan, she returned to teach in Phitsanulok, Thailand. She was Assistant to the Dean of the Humanities Faculty, Deputy Director of the Naresuan University International College, and is presently Distinguished Specialist in Language and Advisor for International Student Activities in the Office of the President at Naresuan University. Xingbin Tian received his Bachelor’s Degree in English from Guizhou University, China in 1982, and Master’s Degree in history from Shandong University, China in 2008. He has been teaching English at Tongren University, China since 1982. His research interests include technology enhanced language learning, instructional systems design and language learning strategies. Suksan Suppasetseree is currently a lecturer in English and the supervisor of the Foreign Languages Resource Unit (FLRU), the self-access language learning center, at Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. He is now a MA and PhD supervisor in his institute. His research interests include technology enhanced language learning, e-learning and instructional systems design. Flora Debora Floris completed her Master’s Degree in English Language Teaching at the Institute for English Language Education, Assumption University Thailand as a scholar of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA). She is currently a teacher in the English Department of Petra Christian University, Surabaya where she teaches English for Education Business subjects. Her areas of interest include issues of English as an International Language and teachers' professional development.

AN ANALYSIS OF READING MATERIALS USING COH-METRIX IN CONJUNCTION WITH STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION SCORES Mary Sarawit Naresuan University, Phitsanulok, Thailand [email protected]

Abstract The purposes of the study were (1) to analyze the SRA Lab 3B Rose Level using Coh-Metrix indices at a lexical level (reading ease, reading grade level, frequency of content words, concreteness of words, and lexical diversity), syntactic level (words before the main verb, pronoun ratio to noun phrases, personal pronoun incidence, number of modifiers before the noun phrase, and words in a sentence), and semantic level (additive, temporal, causal, logical connectives, and latent semantic analysis) and (2) to identify relationships between the students‟ comprehension scores on the 11 Rose readings and the 15 characteristics of the readings. The subjects were Naresuan University International College students. They read all 11 Rose readings and completed the questions that follow the readings.

This study reconfirms the relationship between

connectives and reading ease. The higher incidence of causal and logical connectives related to a higher Flesch ease score. Also, a higher Flesch grade correlated with a lower word frequency level. The Flesch grade level correlated with the number of modifiers before the noun phrases for which the number of words before the verb also correlated.

Correlations between the students‟

comprehension scores and the 15 text indices showed correlations with temporal and causal connectives. This study also found relationships between student

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reading comprehension scores and lexical diversity of content words in the passages.

Keywords: SRA Reading Lab 3B, Coh-Metrix, reading comprehension, reluctant reader

Introduction In a previous study on students‟ attitudes towards reading (Sarawit, 2009), I found that my students fit the definition of the reluctant reader: reading when necessary but not as a hobby or leisure time activity even though they consider reading in English enjoyable and useful. Teachers of English take great efforts to get their students to read more efficiently by building their students‟ vocabulary and reading skills, such as having students identify main ideas and details, identify the tone of a passage and the author‟s opinions, and make inferences. We use scaffolding, such as graded readers to build student confidence in reading. While graded readers do seem to offer a bridge to full texts, they often miss their mark. A lower level reading is found to be more difficult than a higher graded reading. In part, the background knowledge of the reader comes into play. Recent research has also shown that traditional readability scales that use number of syllables, words, and sentences only reveal surface components of language and that a better measure of readability needs to include semantic and syntactic features of a text. Researchers at the University of Memphis have over the past decade developed new tools to better assess readability that go beyond the surface structure of a text to include deeper language structures (McNamara et al., 2010).

An Analysis of Reading Materials Using Coh-Metrix in Conjunction with Students’ Reading Comprehension Scores MARY SARAWIT

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Comatrix as a Reading Analysis Program Coh-Metrix is an online computerized analysis program that produces 60 indices which describe not only the traditional syllable, word, and sentence count readability scales but also give deeper linguistic and discourse representations of the text (Schmitt, 2010, 215). Coh-Metrix was developed and is maintained by the Department of Psychology at the University of Memphis (McNamara et al., 2002). The program has been used extensively over the years to validate the use of syntactic and semantic components to analyze readability and text comprehension. A study by McNamara et al. (2011) found that five components related well with text difficulty: narrativity, syntactic simplicity, word concreteness, referential cohesion, and deep cohesion. I have for many years used the Science Research Associates, otherwise known as the SRA Reading Lab as a supplement to the two required freshman English courses. Students expand their vocabulary and develop their reading skills. They are required to read one story a week. This is only about two A4 pages and accompanied by 7 to 10 reading comprehension questions and vocabulary development exercises. At the end of the freshman year, I encourage students to continue the reading program. However, after freshman year few students come to me to continue the program. The students who do continue are the best students in the group. I have noticed that their progression from one level (each of which is color coded) to another is often not linear. That is, they move from one color to another, but often some of the readings in the new color are extremely difficult for them while others at the same color level are quite easy for them. Having become familiar with Coh-Metrix and its capacity to analyze not only surface level features of a text but deeper semantic and syntactic features, I decided to conduct an analysis of the SRA readings at the

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Rose level and study which of the features I used related to the student‟s reading comprehension scores. Identifying what makes a passage more difficult can help the teacher to help the student develop the skills the student needs to be a successful reader, on the assumption that a successful reader will read more which ultimately may lead to him/her becoming a lifelong reader who will constantly expand his/her vocabulary and viewpoint.

With this in mind, I

decided to use Coh-Metrix as follows: Research objectives The purposes of the study were 1. To conduct a text analysis of Reading Level 5, or „Rose‟ level, Science Research Associates (SRA) reading materials using Coh-Metrix. 2. To study the relationship between the features of the texts and the students‟ reading comprehension scores for the SRA reading materials. Research Questions Two questions were addressed in the study. 1. What does a text analysis of SRA reading materials reveal as regards reading ease, frequency of content words, concreteness of words, words before the main verb, pronoun ratio to noun phrases, personal pronoun incidence, number of modifiers before the noun phrase, words in a sentence, connectives, and LSA (Latent Semantic Analysis) cohesion? 2. Which factors in the text analysis are significantly related to the students‟ reading comprehension scores? Importance of the Study Teachers are constantly trying to get their students to read more. The more students read, the better readers they will become. By identifying textual

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features which students find difficult, and subsequently aiming to improve comprehension skills by focusing on these difficulties, it is hoped that students will improve their vocabulary and reading skills. As such, this study aims to identify a number of text features, from overall basic ease of reading to deeper characteristics of the text. More importantly, the study aims to identify which features of the text are related to the students‟ comprehension scores. Definition of Terms Text. The texts were readings from the SRA Reading Laboratory 3B. There were 11 readings at the Rose level. Coh-Metrix. This is an on-line program created and maintained by the University of Memphis that calculates the readability and coherence of a text using a wide range of measures. Reading ease. Reading ease refers to the difficulty of a text. In this study two measures were used to determine level of difficulty: Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Both these measures rely on the number of syllables per word and the number of words per sentence. Flesch Reading Ease formula. The Flesch Reading Ease formula is presented as a number from 0-100 with a higher score indicating an easier reading. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is represented as a grade level from 012. Word frequency. Word frequency is the mean raw frequency of Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs in the text based on the COBUILD word corpus. Concreteness of words. This is a measure of how concrete the words in the passage are. Values vary from 100-700 with a higher score indicating a more concrete word.

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Lexical diversity. This is the diversity of words in the passage as measured by type-token ratio (TTR). A higher score reflects a greater diversity of words (content words) in a passage. Words before the main verb. This is a measure of the mean score of the number of words before the main verb in the main clause. Pronoun ratio. This is the proportion of pronouns to noun phrases. Personal pronoun incidence. This is the number of personal pronouns in the reading. Modifiers before the noun phrase. This is the mean number of modifiers per noun phrase. Number of words per sentence. This is the average number of words per sentence in the passage. Connectives. These are words that signal specific relationships. Four types of connectives will be analyzed: Additive (e.g., also, moreover, but, however), Causal (e.g., because, so, consequently, although, nevertheless), Logical (e.g., or, actually, if), and Temporal (e.g., after, before, when, until). The incidence of the four types of connectives in the texts is presented. Latent Semantic Analysis of all sentence combinations. LSA is a statistical technique “for representing world knowledge” (Coh-Metrix, 2005, p.16). The mean LSA cosines are presented for all sentence combinations in the text. This measures “how conceptually similar each sentence is to every other sentence in the text” (Coh-Metrix, 2005, p.16). Students. The students were students at the Naresuan University International College. Comprehension scores. These were the scores in terms of percentage correct on the comprehension tests at the end of the SRA readings.

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Method Participants Naresuan University International College freshman students who had received an A or B+ in Foundations of English and second year English for Business majors were asked to read the SRA readings and complete the comprehension questions at the end of the readings. The researcher chose these students because the students at the International College use English as the medium of instruction for all their courses, and thus it was hoped that they would be motivated to improve their reading abilities.

In addition, the researcher

teaches at the college and was able to easily follow-up on the students‟ progress. Task From previous research (Sarawit, 2009), the researcher knew that students enjoyed the SRA readings. The SRA Reading Laboratory 3B was used and the students were asked to read one reading a week from the Rose level. There are 11 readings. The researcher corrected the comprehension questions and kept a reading chart for each student. For the purposes of this research, students were asked to complete all 11 readings in Rose. Material Eleven readings from the SRA Reading Laboratory 3B , the Rose level, were used. The SRA reading labs are an integral part of remedial and self-access programs worldwide. The iconic color coded reading labs first appeared in schools in the United States in the late 1950s. Today, as part of McGraw-Hill publishing, they are used worldwide in reading development programs. The 3B SRA Reading Lab has readings that cover general topics in the sciences and social sciences covering 9 levels from Rose (grade 5) to Purple (grade 12). The

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readings are appropriate for adults and culturally diverse.

June 2013

“SRA has not

confined itself to an exclusively Western view of culture. SRA has ranged more widely over non-Western sources, drawing on the traditions of Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Central America” (Parker, 2000, p.6).

Data Analysis In using Coh-Metrix, “a minimum of 10 cases of data for each predictor is considered to be accurate” (Crossley et al., 2008, p.482). The researcher typed one A4 page from each reading and entered it into the Coh-Metrix program which analyzed the text. To successfully calculate the Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores a passage should have more than 200 words (Coh-Metrix). The 11 readings for the Rose level which were entered into the Coh-Metrix program ranged from 442-655 words with a mean of 530 words per passage. Indicators for reading ease included both the Flesch Reading Ease and the Felsch-Kincaid Grade Level. In addition, the other following Coh-Metrix indicators were used for text analysis: frequency of content words, concreteness of words, lexical diversity using type-token ratio, words before the main verb, ratio of pronouns to noun phrases, incidence of personal pronouns, number of modifiers per noun phrase, number of words per sentence, connectives, i.e., additive connectors, causal connectors, logical connectors, and temporal connectors as well as conceptual similarity of sentences in the passage. Frequency, concreteness of words, and lexical diversity focus on the integral part played by vocabulary in reading; words before the main verb, pronoun ratio, incidence of personal pronouns, number of modifiers before the noun phrase, and number of words per sentence relate to syntactic properties of the sentence while connectives and conceptual similarity of all the sentences in the text focus on the

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semantic relationships relating to cohesion in the readings. These 15 indicators were chosen from the 62 indicators calculated by the on-line Coh-Metrix program for this study. The data for the various indicators were recorded for all eleven Rose level SRA readings and then tallied. Mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variability, and analysis of correlations were calculated for each of the 15 characteristics of the 11 texts under study. The descriptive data can be seen in Appendix A. An analysis of correlations was also conducted to find out which, if any, of the indicators related to the students‟ comprehension scores.

Results Part 1 An analysis of the SRA 3B Laboratory (Rose) was conducted using CohMetrix, a computational on-line program for analyzing text. Fifteen indices were used in this study: 5 for studying lexical characteristics of the texts, 5 for studying syntactic characteristics, and 5 for studying semantic characteristics. The lexical characteristics involved the Flesch Reading Ease and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level both of which use the number of syllables in a word and the number of words in a sentence for calculations. Word frequency, word concreteness, and lexical diversity were also investigated. Coh-Metrix uses frequencies taken from the 1991 version of the COBUILD 17.9 million-word corpus. Word concreteness is measured using the MRC Psycholinguistics Database (Coh-Metrix citing Coltheart, 1981). Lexical diversity was calculated using the type (word) divided by token (instances). Since the passages were of the same approximate length, TTR was considered an appropriate measure of lexical diversity.

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Table 1 displays the findings for the 5 lexical characteristics of the 11 Rose SRA readings. Details for the 11 readings can be found in the Appendix A. Table 1 Lexical indices Flesch Reading

Flesch-Kincaid

Word

Word

Lexical

Ease

Grade Level

Frequency

Concreteness

Diversity

x

78.334

5.480

2517.574

407.099

0.705

SD

5.554

0.712

862.207

26.122

0.050

CV

7.090

12.993

34.248

6.417

7.092

The Flesch Reading Ease mean score was 78.334 on a scale of 0-100 with the coefficient of variance only 7.090%; however, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of a 5.48 mean for the 11 readings while close to the SRA Rose grade of 5 showed a coefficient of variance of 12.003% with a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 6.503 for Rose reading 7 and 4.148 for Rose reading 11. The frequency of the content words showed a mean of 2,517.574 where the word with the lowest frequency would have a value of 0 and the word with highest frequency would have a value of 1,000,000. The mean word frequency for the 11 Rose readings had a coefficient of variance of 34.248%. The mean value for concreteness of the words in the readings was 407.099 with a rather low coefficient of variance of 6.417%. The higher the value the more concrete the word tends to be on a scale of 100 to 700. The average lexical diversity score was 0.705 with a range of 0.638 to 0.775 where the coefficient of variance was only 7.092 %. The closer the score gets to 1, the more unique the words in the passage are, and hence the more difficult for the reader to process.

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The indices used to analyze the syntactic characteristics of the 11 Rose SRA readings included the number of words before the verb. The greater the distance from the subject to the main verb, the more difficult the sentence is to comprehend.

Pronoun ratio to noun phrases and the number of personal

pronouns were also considered since pronouns require the reader to identify the noun referred to. The number of modifiers per noun phrase was also studied along with the number of words per sentence which tend to indicate more complex sentences or as Crossley et al. (2007, p.199) state: “longer sentences are a rough estimate of the number of propositions contained.” Table 2 displays the findings for the 5 syntactic characteristics of the 11 Rose SRA readings. Details for the 11 readings can be found in the Appendix B. Table 2 Syntactic indices Words

Pronoun

No. of

No. of

No. of

before

Ratio

Personal

Modifiers

Words

Verb

to Noun

Pronouns

per Noun

per Sentence

Phrases

Phrase

x

3.599

0.301

87.723

0.819

12.515

SD

1.063

0.113

34.959

0.154

1.785

CV

29.536

37.541

39.852

18.803

14.263

The mean for words before the main verb was 3.599 words with a coefficient of variance of 29.536%. The mean ratio of pronouns to noun phrases was 0.301 with a coefficient of variance of 37.541%. The mean number of personal pronouns in the selection was 87.723 with a coefficient of variance of

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39.852%. The mean number of modifiers per noun phrase was only 0.819 with a coefficient of variance of 18.803 %; and the mean number of words per sentence was 12.515 with a coefficient of variance of 13.263%. The indices used to analyze the semantic characteristics of the 11 Rose SRA readings included the incidence of four types of connectives: additive, causal, logical, and temporal. The use of connectives is related to cohesion of the text as they indicate the semantic relationships in the sentences and paragraphs. The fifth semantic characteristic of the text used was the value for the conceptual similarity among the sentences in the passage using Latent Semantic Analysis presented as cosine scores where the higher the score the more similar the meanings (Dumais, 2005, p.188). Here again, conceptual similarity adds to the cohesion of the passage. Table 3 displays the findings for the 5 semantic characteristics of the 11 Rose SRA readings. Details for the 11 readings can be found in the Appendix C. Table 3 Semantic indices Additive

Causal

Logical

Temporal

Connectives Connectives Connectives Connectives

LSA Sentence Combinations

x

36.429

21.512

29.640

13.726

0.184

SD

9.435

7.551

8.902

4.253

0.066

CV

25.900

35.101

30.034

30.985

35.870

The mean incidence of connectors in the 11 Rose SRA readings from highest to lowest incidence is as follows:

Additive ( x 36.429), Logical

( x 29.640), Causal ( x 21.512), and Temporal ( x 13.726). The coefficient of

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variance was at least 25% for all 4 connectors: 25.900%, 30.034%, 35.101%, and 30.985%, respectively. The mean cosine for the LSA of conceptual similarity for all sentence combinations in the passages was 0.184 for which the coefficient of variance was 35.870%. Values close to 1 indicate very similar words in the sentences while values close to 0 indicate very dissimilar words which should hinder the reader. An analysis of correlations between the 15 indices showed 12 significant correlations. There were significant negative correlations between the Flesch Reading Ease level and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade level (-.805 at the 0.01 level of significance). This is in line with the fact that the Flesch Reading Ease level means the higher the score the easier the reading while the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level relates to school grade 0 through 12. Both formulas are based on the average sentence length and the average number of syllables per word. The Flesch Reading Ease level also related positively with the causal and logical connectors (.822 and .848 respectively at the 0.01 level of significance). The higher occurrence of the causal connectors (because, so, although) and logical connectives (and, or, if) should make reading easier since the semantic relations in the sentence are explicitly presented. As McNamara et al. (2011, p.8) note in their discussion of deep cohesion: “…connectives help the reader to form a more coherent and deeper understanding of the causal events, processes, and actions in the text.” The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level was correlated with the word frequency level (-.709 at the 0.05 level of significance). The higher the grade level, the lower the word frequency.

The Rose level is set at grade 5; however, as

analyzed by the Flesch-Kincaid formula used by Coh-Metrix the 11 readings varied from a high of 6.503 to a low of 4.158 with a mean of 5.4804. The all

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over frequency level itself was 2,517.574 for all 11 readings from a high of 3,696.116 to a low of 1,316.016. It is generally agreed that automatic decoding of words is a strong predictor of reading performance, and as Crossley et al. (2008, 483) note “Texts which assist such decoding (e.g., by containing a greater proportion of high frequency words) can thus be regarded as easier to process.” The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level also correlated with the number of modifiers before the noun phrases (.646 at the 0.05 level of significance). The more modifiers before the noun phrases makes it more difficult for students to parse the sentence often moving the main verb farther away from the beginning of the sentence. For example, instead of Birds flew overhead we might have Three large black and white elegant duck-billed birds flew overhead. Word frequency was negatively related to word concreteness (-.881 at the 0.01 level of significance). This is unexpected. The more concrete words would tend to be of higher frequency. The small pool of 11 readings may askew the results here. For example, one story was about cowboys and included many words related to the equipment they used. Another story was about the Venus fly trap and included specific words for parts of the flower. While these words were concrete, they would not be extremely high in frequency. Words before the verb correlated with both the number of modifiers before the noun phrases and the number of words in the sentence (.689 and .729 respectively at the 0.05 level of significance). More elaboration of the noun phrase in the subject position would result in more words before the verb which also means longer sentences or a greater number of words per sentence. The pronoun ratio to nouns was, as expected, related to the number of personal pronouns (.989 at the 0.01 level of significance) and negatively related to the number of modifiers before the noun phrases (-.653 at the 0.05 level of

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significance). Sentences with long modifiers before the noun phrases might tend to exclude pronoun usage in favor of the nouns. Likewise, the total number of personal pronouns was negatively related to the number of modifiers before the noun phrases (.-698 at the 0.05 level of significance). Lastly, there was a significant correlation between the incidence of causal and logical connectives (.780 at the 0.01 level of significance). Both types of connectors often occur in the same types of discourse; such as cause and result, reasons, and other opinion paragraphs. Part 2 The second objective of this research was to examine any relationships between the 15 features of the eleven Rose level texts and the students‟ reading comprehension scores. The twenty one students read all eleven Rose SRA readings and completed the comprehension questions that followed. The average comprehension score on the 11 readings was a low of 49.660 percent (median of 42.857) for reading 3 and a high of 77.550 percent (median of 71.429) on reading 7. With regard to the students, the highest mean score for all eleven readings was 81.818 percent (median of 85.714) and the lowest mean score was 48.052 percent (median of 42.857). The minimum individual score was 0 for readings 3 and 9, and the maximum individual score was 100 percent for all but readings 3 and 5. Correlation coefficient analysis between reading indicators and reading comprehension scores using median, mean, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum as representative of the reading score revealed four significant correlations. The median reading score correlated significantly but negatively with the incidence of temporal connectives (-.710 at the 0.05 level of significance). This is unexpected. While lack of connectives should have made

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the readings more difficult because the connective supplies the temporal meaning, for these reluctant readers the additional clauses may have made the sentences longer and hence more difficult. The standard deviation in the students‟ comprehension scores was also significantly related to temporal connectives (-.611 at the 0.05 level of significance). The incidence of temporal connectives resulted in a narrowing of the deviation in the students‟ comprehension scores because the addition of the temporal clauses might confuse the better readers, thereby lowering their scores. This may be related to results found in a study by O‟Reilly and McNamara where they investigated text cohesion and students with high-knowledge and students with low-knowledge. They found that less skilled high-knowledge readers benefited from low-cohesion texts while skilled high-knowledge readers benefited from high cohesion texts. They concluded that there is “..a more complex view of when and for whom textual cohesion affects comprehension” (O‟Reilly et al., 2002, p.121). The standard deviation of the students‟ comprehension scores was related (.623 at the 0.05 level of significance) to lexical diversity. The increased lexical diversity of the passages resulted in further separating the high and low scores on the comprehension tests. This is in line with the importance of vocabulary recognition as a factor in the successful reader. Finally, the maximum students‟ comprehension scores was negatively related to the incidence of causal connectives (-.710 at the 0.05 level of significance).

While the presence of the causal connectives (because, so,

consequently, nevertheless, although) should help the reader with the intended relationships in the sentence, these connectives are difficult for intermediate level Thai learners of English.

The causal connectives like although and

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nevertheless which have a contrastive meaning are especially difficult for Thai learners of English. So, although the students overall had the highest comprehension scores, the presence of the causal connectives may not have aided their reading comprehension as much as they should have. Hence, the scores were not as high as they should have been.

Discussion This study using Coh-Metrix showed that even for readings at the same graded level there can be large variations for the lexical, structural, and semantic content of the texts. The SRA Rose Level or grade 5 showed variations of more than 15% for word frequency, number of words before the verb, pronoun ratio to noun phrases, number of personal pronouns, number of modifiers per noun phrase, connectors, and (LSA) conceptual similarity of sentences. An analysis of the eleven Rose readings found that Rose 7 was the most difficult with a Flesch Reading Ease score of 67.586 (the closer to 100 the easier the reading) and a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 6.503 (the closer to grade 12 the more difficult the reading). However, for the students in this study it was the reading for which they had the highest score x 77.550% (median of 71.429%). The students‟ lowest comprehension score was for reading 3 ( x 49.660%, median 42.857%) for which the Flesch Reading Ease score was 83.678 with a FleschKincaid Reading Grade of 5.372. There are obviously factors other than number of syllables and words in the sentences that are affecting the students‟ reading ability on these readings. While the small sample, both in terms of student population and readings, did not allow for higher level statistical analysis; a simple correlation study revealed a number of interesting relationships between the 15 indices used to

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analyze the texts. This study reconfirms the relationship between connectives, a measure of semantic cohesion, and reading ease. The higher incidence of causal and logical connectives related significantly with a higher Flesch Reading Ease score. With regard to the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, the higher the grade level was the lower the frequency of the words in the passage. This study also offers support for looking beyond lexical factors to syntactic factors when determining grade level. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level correlated significantly with the number of modifiers before the noun phrases for which the number of words before the verb also correlated significantly. This is despite the fact that the number of words per sentence did not correlate significantly for this set of 11 Rose readings. In addition, correlations between the students‟ comprehension scores and the 15 text indices showed significant correlations between temporal and causal connectives and student comprehension scores.

These are both semantic

cohesion features and should be looked at when considering reading difficulty levels. This study also found relationships between student reading comprehension scores and lexical diversity of content words in the passages.

Conclusion This study reconfirms the relationship between connectives and reading ease.

It also found relationships between student reading comprehension

scores and lexical diversity of content words in the passages. Hence, it is recommended that a larger number of reading passages at a similar grade be studied with a larger number of students to test for the role of lexical diversity and connectives on student reading comprehension. It might be useful to separate

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the causal connectives into the positive connectives (so, because, consequently) and negative connectives (although, nevertheless). Specifically for these reluctant readers, the results of this study point to a need to help the students better understand the temporal and causal connectives in reading passages. The incidence of both these connectives tended to make the passages more difficult for these readers. Coh-Metrix is a tool that can help us better understand students‟ problems in reading. A larger group of subjects and more readings at more levels of difficulty may help to better identify factors that affect the reading comprehension of Thai university students. Teachers need tools to help support and encourage the reluctant reader. It is hoped that this small exploratory study will encourage other researchers to use Coh-Metrix to study the deeper aspects of reading and their effects on the reader.

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References Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G. & Kueau, L. (2002). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. New York: Guilford Press. Coltheart, M. (1981). The MRC Psycholinguistic Database Quarterly. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 33(A), 497-505. Crossley, S. A., Greenfield, I. McNamara, Vaud D. S. (2008). Assessing text readability using cognitively based indices. TESOL Quarterly, (43)3, 475-192. Crossley, S. A., McCarthy, P. M., Duffy, D. F. & McNamara, D. S. (2007). Toward a new readability: A mixed model approach. Retrieved from http://csjarchive.rpi.edu/Proceeding/2007/docs/p197.pdf. McNamara, D. S., Louwerse, M. M., Cai, Z. & Graesser, A. (2005). Cohmethrix version 1. 4. Retrieved from http://cohmetrix, menuphis.edu. Dumais, S. T. (2004). Latent semantic analysis. Annual Review of Information Sciences and Technology, 38(1), 188-230. Graesser, A. C., McNamara, D. S. & Kulkowich, J. M. (2011). Coh-Metrix: Providing multilevel analysis of text characteristics, Educational Researcher, 40(5), 223-234. Graesser, A. C., McNamara, D. S., Louwerse, M. M. & Cai, Z. (2004). Analysis of text on cohesion and language. Behavior Research Methods. Instruments & Computers, 36(2), 193-202. Hall, C., Lewis, G. A., McCarthy, P., Lee, D. S. & McNamara, D. S. Language in law: Using Coh-Metrix to access differences between American and English/Welsh language varieties. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu

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Louwerse, M. M., McCarthy, P. M., McNamara, D. S. & Graesser, A. C. Variation in language and cohesion across written and spoken registers. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.pso.edu/viewdoc/downloaddoi= 10.1.1.123.1183& rep=rep1&tupe=pdf McNamara, D. S., Graesser, A. C., Zhiqiang, C. & Kulikowitch, J. M. (2011). AERA 2011. Coh-Metrix easability components: Aligning text difficulty with theories of text comprehension. Retrieved from http://129.219.222.66 pdf/AERA_Coh-Metrix.pdf McNamara, D. S., Louwerse, M. M., McCarthy, P. M. & Graesser, A. C. Coh-Metrix: Capturing linguistic features of cohesion. Discourse Processes, 47, 292-330. McNamara, D. S., Louwerse, M. M., McCarthy, P. M. & Graesser, A. C. (2002). Coh-Metrix: Automated cohesion and coherence scores to predict text readability and facilitate comprehension. Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis: Tenessee. O‟Reily, T. & McNamara, D. S. (2007). Reversing the reverse cohesion effect: Good texts can be better for strategic high-knowledge readers. Discourse Processes, 43(2), 121-152. Parker, D. H. (2000). Teacher’s Handbook SRA Reading Laboratory 3b. Washington, Ohio: SRA/McGraw Hill. Sarawit, M. (2009). Freshman Students’ Attitudes towards Reading: A Case Study at the Naresuan University International College. Available at www.sarawit. com/ msarawit appeared in 2012 in the Humanities Journal of Rajabhat University, Phitsanulok. Schmitt, N. (2010). Researching Vocabulary: A Vocabulary Research Manual. Palgrave Macmillan.

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Appendix A Data from the Coh-Metrix Analysis of the 11 Rose Level of the SRA 3B Lab: Lexical Indices Rose

Flesch

Flesch-

Word

Word

Lexical

#

Reading

Kincaid

Frequency

Concreteness

Diversity

Ease

Grade Level

1

78.935

4.813

3003.453

369.857

0.775

2

79.321

5.141

4213.075

360.067

0.734

3

83.678

5.372

2425.300

408.505

0.638

4

75.387

6.135

1962.864

431.698

0.647

5

85.561

4.932

1994.321

433.719

0.664

6

77.907

5.850

2055.969

421.894

0.658

7

67.586

6.503

2216.330

403.382

0.743

8

76.974

6.271

1316.016

433.287

0.742

9

79.500

5.238

2740.976

421.072

0.732

10

71.386

5.871

1968.889

414.669

0.757

11

85.437

4.158

3796.116

379.939

0.664

x

78.334

5.480

2517.574

407.099

0.705

SD

5.554

0.712

862.207

26.122

0.050

CV

7.090

12.993

34.248

6.417

7.092

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Appendix B Data from the Coh-Metrix Analysis of the 11 Rose Level of the SRA 3B Lab: Syntactic Indices Rose

Words

Pronoun

No. of

No. of

No. of

#

before

Ratio

Personal

Modifiers

Words

Verb

to Noun

Pronouns

per Noun

per

Phrase

Sentence

Phrases

1

2.720

0.475

145.349

0.734

10.320

2

3.190

0.326

86.345

0.780

11.857

3

4.326

0.495

141.985

0.729

15.233

4

3.243

0.313

91.089

0.918

13.649

5

3.521

0.221

65.253

0.844

12.833

6

3.472

0.342

99.800

0.678

13.917

7

3.458

0.157

48.450

0.987

10.750

8

6.486

0.157

37.879

1.118

15.086

9

3.587

0.216

58.099

0.922

12.348

10

2.915

0.342

106.996

0.704

10.340

11

2.667

0.270

83.710

0.599

11.333

x

3.599

0.301

87.723

0.819

12.515

SD

1.063

0.113

34.959

0.154

1.785

CV

29.536

37.541

39.852

18.803

14.263

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Appendix C Data from the Coh-Metrix Analysis of the 11 Rose Level of the SRA 3B Lab: Semantic Indices Rose

Additive

Causal

Logical

Temporal

LSA

#

Connectives

Connectives

Connectives

Connectives

Sentence Combinations

1

27.132

21.318

27.132

7.752

0.102

2

54.217

26.104

32.092

20.080

0.125

3

36.341

29.008

38.167

18.381

0.210

4

39.277

23.762

25.743

11.881

0.125

5

27.597

35.714

40.584

9.740

0.189

6

51.896

21.956

25.948

15.968

0.339

7

27.132

7.752

13.566

15.504

0.218

8

34.091

18.939

35.985

17.045

0.215

9

40.493

19.366

38.732

10.563

0.192

10

30.864

12.346

16.461

8.230

0.130

11

31.674

20.362

31.629

15.837

0.173

x

36.429

21.512

29.640

13.726

0.184

SD

9.435

7.551

8.902

4.253

0.066

CV

25.900

35.101

30.985

30.985

35.870

EFFECTS OF ONLINE TASK-BASED INTERACTIVE LISTENING INSTRUCTION FOR EFL LEARNERS Xingbin Tian Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand [email protected] Suksan Suppasetseree Suranaree University of TechnologyThailand. [email protected]

Abstract In order to meet the current trends in English listening teaching in China, the researcher constructed online task-based interactive listening (OTIL) lessons to enhance non-English major undergraduate students‟ English listening ability. The study aims at investigating the effects of using OTIL and students‟ attitudes toward OTIL. Two intact classes, 92 students in total, were selected as the sample for the study. The research instruments consisted of OTIL lessons, tests, a questionnaire and interview. The results showed that a significant difference was found in the post-test score between the experimental and control classes (P=0.000, P≤0.05). Meanwhile, the students had positive attitudes toward OTIL because the system was convenient, flexible, interactive and well-designed. The findings seem to indicate that OTIL might serve to develop English listening teaching and to improve students‟ listening ability for EFL learners.

Keywords: online task-based interactive listening, English listening teaching, EFL learners, China

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Introduction The importance of listening for language acquisition has been emphasized by a number of researchers (Brown, 2006; Feyten, 1991; Krashen, 1982; Rost, 2002).From this point of view, listening teaching is the core of ESL/EFL study.

Rost(2002) defined listening teaching as “approaches to

curriculum design and methods of instruction that aim to assist learners in improving their listening”(p. 103). In China, English listening teaching is also an important part of college English teaching. However, the listening ability of most undergraduate students‟ of English has been unsatisfactory(Cheng, 2009b; Gan, Humphreys, & Hamp-Lyons, 2004; Tan, 2003; Yan, 2006). For instance, Lin (2002) pointed out after ten years‟ English learning, students were still “deaf and dumb” (when students can read, but cannot speak English fluently, or understand what people say) (p. 8). The problem above occurs at Tongren University (TU), China as well. After two years of learning English listening in the university, the listening competence of the most students remains weak (Tian, 2010; Wei, 2006). According to Wei‟s study (2006), there was lack of interaction between students in college English listening teaching at TU. In other words, classroom instruction was still teacher-centered, and the active role of students could not be exerted completely.

Furthermore, the teaching process of college English listening

teaching via multimedia at TU was very unitary: applying the CD-ROM attached to the listening textbook and then doing the exercises associated with the listening textbook (Tian, 2010). In class, teachers stood by the computer and operated the mouse. They did not pay much attention to the communication with the students. Students fixed their attention only on the screen and played a quite passive role in such a learning environment. Although language labs at TU were

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built to enable teachers and students to teach and learn English with an Elearning environment, no teacher created his/her websites for listening instruction. Nowadays, the importance of English listening in tertiary education has been realized. In 2007, the Ministry of Education of China(MOE) issued a new English curriculum for non-English majors, namely the College English Curriculum Requirements (CECR), which emphasized “developing students‟ ability to use English in an all-round way, especially in listening and speaking” (MOE, 2007, p. 18).For this reason, the CECR (MOE, 2007) claimed that universities across China should satisfy 3 requirements as follows: 1) exploring and establishing a web-based listening teaching model; 2) delivering listening courses via the Internet or Intranet; 3) shifting teacher-centered pattern to learner-centered teaching. In order to meet the requirement of the CECR, a great number of studies on EFL listening instruction in China (Cai & Li, 2008; Cheng, 2009b; Wei, 2012; Yao, 2010) have been performed on how to promote learners‟ listening ability. For example, Cai and Li (2008) studied asynchronous listening instruction in the EFL context with pedagogical tasks, showing that the average listening comprehension score of the experimental group was much higher than the score of the control group.

Meanwhile, Cheng (2009a) conducted an

experiment to introduce learner-centered teaching theory into the listening class, and investigated its effectiveness in improving learners‟ listening skills. The results showed that the achievement of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group. After the experiment, the subjects stated that ILT aroused their learning interest and motivation. Yao (2010) carried out research on a task-based approach to College English listening teaching via the Internet. The results showed the achievements of the students in the experimental

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groupwere higher than those of the control classes. The students‟ attitude toward the task-based approach in college English listening teaching via the Internet was positive. More recently, Wei (2012) conducted research on college English listening teaching via Moodle. After the experiment, the experimental class had made more progress than the control class. The research found that English listening teaching via Moodle provided students with more interaction. The feedback from the Moodle platform was very useful to motivate students to learn more.

All in all, the findings of previous studies indicated that listening

instruction via a network with interactive tasks and activities could enhance learners‟ listening ability. In other words, the teaching of listening skills through a technology-supported task-based approach was beneficial to the integration of language skills. This was because students were able to make comprehensive use of their language ability and communicative competence. However, for the most part, tasks used in the previous research above were pedagogical tasks. Little research used real-world tasks in English listening teaching. According to Nunan(2004), “the point of departure for task-based language teaching is realworld or target tasks” (p. 19). Under real-world tasks, learners can also undertake many pedagogical tasks which represent a bridge to real world tasks. Real-world tasks do not have a single correct answer. They can often be solved in several ways and allow learners to perform the task in its natural setting (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1. A Framework for TBA Real-world/Target Tasks

Pedagogical Tasks

Rehearsal Tasks

Activation Tasks

Enabling Skills

Language Exercises

Communication Activities

(Nunan, 2004, p. 25) The present study aimed at 1) investigating the effects of using online task-based interactive listening (OTIL) with real-world tasks for EFL learners, and 2) determining students‟ attitudes toward OTIL. Online task-based interactive listening (OTIL) is defined as English listening lessons used to deliver learning online through real-world tasks. The term “online” in the present study refers to Moodle, short for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, which is used as the online learning platform for English listening at TU. OTIL aims to create a highly interactive E-learning environment for English listening, during which listeners have maximum interaction with peers, contents and teachers. The term “EFL learners” in the study refers to the nonEnglish major undergraduate students at TU who have registered to study college English. The study was carried out on the basis of two research questions as follows.

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1) Are there any significant differences in listening comprehension between the experimental and control classes? 2) What are the students‟ attitudes toward online task-based interactive listening (OTIL) instruction?

Methodology Population and Samples The population for the study consisted of1075 second-year non-English major undergraduate students at TU. There were 26 intact classes within 20 majors. Purposive sampling was adopted in the present study. The college English final examination in the second semester of academic year 2012 was used to determine the sample. According to the results, two intact classes, 92 students in total, were selected as the sample for the study because 1) the number of students in each class was similar and 2) the students‟ English proficiency level was similar. The two intact classes were a Politics Class (N=46, =64.78, SD=11.105) and a Chinese Class (N=46, =64.72, SD=8.471). The Chinese Class was chosen as the experimental class and the Politics Class as the control class. Research Instruments Four research instruments were employed in the present study, including OTIL, tests, a questionnaire and an interview. Online task-based interactive listening (OTIL). The term “online taskbased interactive listening” (OTIL)refers to the English listening lessons constructed by the researcher after a needs analysis. Real-world tasks were designed for OTIL to provide an environment to promote students‟ English listening ability.

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Tests. Two English listening tests were employed for the pre-test and post-test. The tests were adapted from the listening sub-tests of the standardized CET 4 (College English Test, Band 4). These were designed to evaluate the overall English proficiency of undergraduates in Chinese universities. The total score of pre-test and post-test was 100 points. A questionnaire. A questionnaire designed by the researcher was used to determine the students‟ attitudes toward OTIL. It consisted of two parts, including students‟ general information and the students‟ opinions toward OTIL. The format of the second part was a five-point Likert scale. That is, values on the scale were labeled from 1 to 5, namely strongly agree, agree, uncertain, disagree, and strongly disagree. Interview. Data from one source only is sometimes not sufficient to draw good conclusions from findings. A triangulation process should be applied by using more instruments, such as interviews, to collect more data. Thus, a semistructured interview was employed in the study. The interview, designed by the researcher, consisted of six guided questions. Data Collection and Analysis The data collection consisted of two phases: 1) collecting the scores of the pre-test and post-test which were given to the experimental and control classes before and after the experiment, and 2) obtaining information from questionnaires(for the experimental class only). After the students had responded to the questionnaire, fifteen interviewees were selected from the experimental class. They came from three different English proficiency levels: high, medium and low. Stratified sampling was used to select samples. Discrimination between levels was performed on the basis of z-scores from the post-test (-1.00≤Z≤1.00). Five interviewees were selected from each level for a small-group interview. All

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interviews were recorded and transcribed for data analysis. Chinese language, the respondents‟ native language, was employed for both questionnaire and interview for better understanding and convenience. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted in the study. The software Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) package was used to conduct descriptive and statistical analyses. Descriptive analysis involved the mean score and standard deviation, while statistical analysis included t-test and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Records of the interviews were transcribed verbatim. To interpret the data, content analyses were conducted using open and axial coding.

Results and Discussion Students’ English Listening Achievement for the Experimental and Control Groups Tests were used to evaluate students‟ English listening ability and to compare students‟ English listening ability before and after the treatment as shown in Table 1. Table 1 Results of Students’ English Listening Achievement Experimental Group Tests

Control Group

N SD

SD

Pre-test

46

57.30

8.897

57.17

8.160

Post-test

46

75.57

8.702

66.35

9.374

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As can be seen, no significant differences were found between the two classes‟ pre-test (P=0.942, P≤0.05). However, after the intervention, students of both classes improved their listening ability as shown in Table 2. The results showed that a significant difference between the pair scores (pre-test and posttest scores) of each class was found(P=0.000, P≤0.05) by using a paired-samples T-test. Table 2 Results of Paired Samples T-test for Experimental and Control Class Paired Differences 95% Confidence Classes

Interval of the

Tests SD

Difference Lower

Experimental Pretest Class

T

-18.261 4.855

-19.703

-9.174 4.312

-10.454

Sig. (2tailed)

Upper -16.819

-25.508

.000

Posttest

Control Class Pretest -

-7.893 -14.430

.000

Posttest

In order to evaluate the effects of using OTIL, analysis of covariance was used to increase statistical power (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007), namely by removing extraneous variability (students‟ prior English listening ability) that derived from pre-existing individual differences. The findings revealed that a significant difference was found in the post-test score between the experimental and control classes (P=0.000, P≤0.05) as shown in Table 3. This indicated that

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the students in the experimental class, instructed with OTIL, had made more demonstrable progress than those of the control class. Therefore, the OTIL approach delivered via Moodle appeared to help EFL learners develop English listening more effectively. Table 3 Comparison of Post-test Scores for the Experimental and Control Classes Source

Type III Sum

df

Mean Square

F

Sig.

7463.978a

2

3731.989

179.360

.000

Intercept

669.914

1

669.914

32.196

.000

pretest

5509.891

1

5509.891

264.806

.000

Classes

1903.611

1

1903.611

91.488

.000

Error

1851.848

89

20.807

Total

472520.000

92

9315.826

91

Corrected Model

Corrected Total

of Squares

Students’ Attitudes to Online Task-based Interactive Listening (OTIL) Results of the Questionnaires To determine students‟ attitudes toward OTIL, a frequency analysis was applied to analyze the questionnaires. The results of the analysis were presented in Table 4.

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Table 4 Students’ Attitudes toward OTIL Statements 1.

Online task-based interactive listening can make

N

SD

46

4.07

.574

46

3.93

.490

46

4.09

.626

46

4.37

.610

46

4.07

.533

46

3.96

.631

46

4.15

.666

46

3.96

.729

46

4.37

.645

English learning enjoyable. 2.

Online task-based interactive listening can meet my learning objectives.

3.

Online task-based interactive listening can enhance my listening comprehension.

4.

Online task-based interactive listening provides me opportunities to practice listening skills.

5.

Online task-based interactive listening can enhance student-student interaction.

6.

Online task-based interactive listening can facilitate student-teacher interaction.

7.

Online task-based interactive listening is convenient for reviewing the lessons.

8.

Online task-based interactive listening can promote learning.

9.

Online task-based interactive listening provides abundant materials to learn.

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Statements 10. Online task-based interactive listening can provide

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SD

46

4.09

.725

46

4.15

.595

46

3.76

.524

46

3.91

.626

46

4.24

.603

46

4.11

.605

46

4.08

.166

easy access to useful feedback from the teacher. 11. Materials in online task-based interactive listening are interesting. 12. Materials in online task-based interactive listening are suitable for my English proficiency level. 13. The activities in online task-based interactive listening are interactive. 14. The activities in online task-based interactive listening can help me improve listening ability effectively. 15. The interactive modules, such as forum, chat room and wiki in online task-based interactive listening are very useful for group discussion. Total

It should be noted that the highest mean score was 4.37, while the lowest was 3.76. The first three highest frequency statements were: 1) OTIL provides students opportunities to practice listening skills ( =4.37, SD=0.610); 2) OTIL provides abundant materials to learn ( =4.37, SD=0.645); and 3) The activities in OTIL can help students improve listening ability effectively ( =4.24, SD=0.603). The total mean score of the questionnaire was 4.08 (SD=0.166), indicating that the students had positive attitudes toward OTIL.

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Result of Semi-structured Interview All interviewees had positive attitudes toward OTIL. They claimed that they preferred learning English listening through OTIL for two reasons. First, the tasks in OTIL met learning objectives of the course. Second, OTIL could help them improve their listening comprehension. After reading through the whole transcripts, two major categories were identified from the reported statements. Each major category covered several sub-categories as shown in Table 5. Table 5 Categories of the Semi-structured Interview Categories

Sub-categories Abundant materials with different media Real-world tasks Well-designed listening stages

Satisfaction with OTIL

Learning styles Convenience Flexibility Interactivity Videos Audios

Favorite items in OTIL Self-test Comprehension exercises

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The present study was conducted to meet the current trends in the teaching of English listening skills in China for EFL learners, by investigating the effects of using OTIL and students‟ attitudes toward OTIL.The results showed that the post-test scores of the experimental class were significantly higher than those of the control class (P=0.000, P≤0.05). Meanwhile the students had positive attitudes toward OTIL. The results in response to the research questions are discussed below. Listening Achievement Although the students of both the experimental and control classes made great progress after the intervention, a significant differences between the posttest scores of the two classes (P=0.000, P≤0.05) wasfound. Five main reasons may account for the experimental class‟ listening improvement. First, OTIL was more learner-centered than teacher-centered. The goal of OTIL was for students to take on more of the responsibility of learning English listening and become more actively involved in the learning process. Students learned English listening though OTIL by doing things for themselves. They became active participants not just receivers of knowledge. Second, the tasks in OTIL provided meaning and motivation for learning. Ur (1984) argued that listening activities are most effective if they are constructed around a task. Some types of tasks in OTIL might be found in real life or approached real life tasks. This raised students‟ interest. Third, OTIL via Moodle offered a lot of useful and interactive modules such as Wikis, Forums, Workshops, Chats and Glossaries to enhance interactivity. Lee (2001) pointed out that the Internet has tremendous potential as a tool for teaching EFL. Based on a constructivist approach to learning, OTIL emphasized learning through a group‟s collaborative construction of knowledge. Students could interact with each other synchronously and asynchronously.

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Fourth, OTIL motivated students to learn English by providing immediate and effective feedback. Siragusa (2000, cited in Herridge-Group, 2004) claimed that students may be more motivated to succeed in a learning program if regular and effective feedback is provided. Finally, students could use various authentic listening resources of authentic listening drawn from different media in OTIL to practice their listening in a cultural context. Students’ Attitudes The results of the questionnaire and interview revealed that the students had positive attitudes toward OTIL. First, students strongly agreed that OTIL provided them opportunities to practice listening skills ( =4.37, SD=0.610). This might be due to the fact that OTIL was convenient, flexible, and interactive. This finding agreed with He‟s (2002)observation. He pointed out that excellent online learning provided the learners with services and opportunities, including opportunities to learn some topics by different means through different media, opportunities to experience their own knowledge, opportunities to receive feedback according to the perceptions of the learners, opportunities to consult specialists, opportunities to share and develop understanding with other learners, and opportunities to participate equally during rich and colorful discussions and collaborations. The findings of the interview also demonstrated this. Second, the students strongly agreed that OTIL provided abundant materials for learning ( =4.37, SD=0.645).The materials including images, audios, videos and text files were rich, authentic and humorous. In each topic, the lesson was broken up into five sections: warm-up, listening practice, realworld task, self-test and further development. Listening material was supported with glossaries, pictures, examples of listening skill training, audios, videos, comprehension exercises, discussion questions, real-world tasks, self-tests, and

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forum interactions. Except for the topics, a Moodle library was constructed to provide different types of materials for students to train and practice in or out of class. Third, the students also strongly agreed that the activities in OTIL helped students improve listening ability effectively ( =4.24, SD=0.603). The activities in OTIL included pair work, group discussions, listening skill practice, glossary brainstorm, vocabulary learning, prediction, forum, true or false, matching, multiple-choice, gap-filling, reporting, interview and testing. Activities in prelistening served as preparation for listening, using prior knowledge to predict the context. While-listening activities related directly to engagement with listening materials. Students were required to complete them during or immediately after listening or watching. In the post-listening phase, analysis and practice activities were designed to shift students‟ attentions from meaning to forms contextualized through the task (Willis, 1996). The findings met a „learner-centered‟ , „learning by doing‟ and „learning in interaction‟ language teaching approach (Brown, 2001; Foster, 1999; Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Finally, according to the results of the interview, students liked OTIL because it provided abundant authentic, interesting and useful materials. The materials not only raised their interest, but also helped them gain a great deal of knowledge. Among the materials in OTIL, students preferred videos more than other types. They enjoyed videos because the contents were rich, colorful, humorous and authentic. The most important aspect of this was that the videos helped them understand the contents and learn cultures of foreign countries. The students also liked the online learning style which made them learn English effectively, improve their English listening, and raised their interest. OTIL provided several listening stages to promote their listening ability. Moreover, the

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students liked OTIL due to convenience, flexibility and interactivity. Students could visit OTIL anywhere, anytime, listen to audios or watch videos as much as possible. They found it easy to assess their listening level by using OTIL and find the meanings of new words through the Internet. When they met difficulties, they could discuss and solve the problems by chatting directly with the teacher and classmates via the Chat Room. They could also use the Forum to communicate and share with others. The findings of the study agree with the study of Fan, Wang, He and Hu (2010) who developed Autonomous College English Listening Learning via Moodle in China. The results showed that the post-test scores of the experimental group who received tutoring via Moodle ( =82.30, SD=8.879) were higher than those of the control group who were taught with traditional college English listening teaching ( =76.86, SD=9.136). The students of the experimental group had positive attitudes toward the Moodle platform. Furthermore, Yang (2011) conducted a comparison between college English listening teaching via Moodle and traditional English listening teaching in China. The findings showed that the students of the experimental group ( =67.15) had a higher average post-test score than those of the control group ( =57.26). A significant difference was found between the experimental and control groups. 83.8% students reported that they were interested in learning English listening through Moodle. In addition, Dennis (2012) constructed Blended Online Learning Approach (BOLA) packages for teaching English for Careers in Technology in Thailand. The results showed that the students of the experimental group obtained higher mean scores ( =12.1) after the treatment. According to the results of the questionnaires and interview, students were very

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satisfied with the BOLA packages which could promote autonomous learning effectively. In short, OTIL was an effective and suitable English listening website for promoting student listening ability. It provided students with many kinds of materials which were authentic and interesting. Real-world tasks in OTIL were designed to meet students‟ learning goals and help them improve listening comprehension. Additionally, OTIL is convenient, flexible and interactive, thus supporting and motivating students to learn English listening without the restrictions of time and place.

Conclusion The present study was conducted to meet the current trends in English listening for EFL learners. From the results of the study, it can be found that OTIL contributes significantly to the successful development of EFL listening skills, and that real-world tasks are very important to engage students in the whole learning process. The study provides some insights into how English listening with network support might be effectively used to promote EFL learners. Furthermore, the study might serve to contribute to finding solutions for the development of college English listening teaching programs for improving students‟ listening ability in China. However, because of the limitation of the sample size, it is difficult to generalize the results of the study beyond the current sample and more research is needed before the system can be implemented as a part of China‟s reform in college English teaching.

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References Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Brown, S. (2006). Teaching listening. New York: Cambridge University Press. Cai, Y. & Li, M. (2008). A study on asynchronous listening instruction in the EFL context. CELEA Journal, 31(3), 48-54. Cheng, J. (2009a). An analysis of effectiveness of learner-centered listening teaching format. Journal of Xi'an International Studies University, 17(4), 85-88. Cheng, J. (2009b). The development and new trends of English listening teaching. Foreign Language World, 1, 51-56. Fan, Z., Wang, H., He, Y. & Hu, S. (2010). Research on college listening teaching via Moodle. China Educational Technology, 11, 106-109. Feyten, C. M. (1991). The power of listening ability: an overlooked dimension in language acquisition. Modern Language Journal, 75(2), 173-180. Foster, P. (1999). Task-based learning and pedagogy. ELT Journal, 1, 69-70. Gan, Z., Humphreys, G. & Hamp-Lyons, L. (2004). Understanding successful and unsuccessful EFL students in Chinese universities. The Modern Language Journal, 88(2), 229-244. He, K. (2002). E-learning and teaching innovation in universities. China Educational Technology, 2, 8-12. Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and Practices of Second Language Acquisition. New York: Pergamon. Lin, L. (2002). English education in present-day China. ABD, 33(2), 8-9.

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MOE. (2007). College English Curriculum Requirements. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Nunan, D. (2004). Task-based language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Richards, J. C. & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rost, M. (2002). Teaching and researching listening. Harlow, Essex: Longman. Tabachnick, B. G. & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using Multivariate Statistics (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Tan, S. (2003). Strategy training for English language learners from PRC. In G. L. Lee, L. Ho, J. E. L. Meyer, C. Varaprasad & C. Young (Eds.), Teaching English to students from China (pp. 158-173). Singapore: Singapore University Press. Tian, X. (2010). A study on need analysis of College English listening learning in E-learning environment. Journal of Tongren University, 12(4). Wei, Y. (2006). On the difficulties and countermeasure of the College English teaching on listening and saying. Journal of Tongren Teachers College, 8(3), 62-66. Wei, Y. (2012). Study on Moodle-based college English listening teaching. Journal of Heilongjiang College of Education, 31(7), 167-169. Willis, J. (1996). A framework for task-based learning. London: Longman. Yan, M. (2006). An investigation of the factors affecting Chinese students' listening comprehension of English. Sino-US English Teaching, 3(3), 27-30. Yang, H. (2011). College English listening teaching based on Moodle platform. Journal of Tongren University, 13(3), 100-102.

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Yao, Y. (2010). An organic integration of multimedia network and task-based approach in College English listening teaching. Journal of Yichun College, 32(10), 166-167.

EXPLORING BELIEFS OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS TOWARD ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE Flora Debora Floris Petra Christian University Jl. Siwalankerto 131-136 - Surabaya 60236, Indonesia [email protected]

Abstract Research has repeatedly shown that pre-service teachers have well wellestablished beliefs about teaching which have been formed on the basis of their own learning experiences. These beliefs strongly influence their professional development and how pre-service teachers interpret and acquire information from their teacher education courses. This paper presents the results of a small research conducted on 11 pre-service teachers‟ beliefs toward English as an international language (EIL) before and after joining World Englishes class in order to detect any changes in the nature of these beliefs. 4 major areas of EIL namely (a) the role of English as an international language, (b) the best variety, (c) the use of the students‟ mother tongue in English classrooms, and (d) the best teacher of English were highlighted in this study.

Keywords: pre-service teacher, teacher education, beliefs, English as an international language

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Introduction The fact that English is now the major international language in intercultural communications, business, science, technology, and other areas is indisputable. It is also the most widely learned second or foreign language in many countries; and it makes the number of second and foreign language speakers far exceed the number of the first language speakers of English. In 2003, for example, the number of English speakers according to Crystal (2003) reached approximately 1,500 million only 20% of which are the native speakers of the language. In 2008, this number had been revised upwards again in the direction of 2 billion. In fact, within 25 years, the number of speakers of English had moved from a fifth to quarter to a third of the world‟s population (Crystal, 2008). In 2070, Graddol (1999) claimed that the projected number of English speakers would be nearly 10 billion. This situation has resulted in remarkable demand in English language teachers, which has also led to an increase in the number of non-native English language teachers. In Indonesia, for example, approximately 3,047 non-native English language teachers were employed at formal schools in 2011 and 3,442 teachers in 2012. The number keeps increasing due to the growing number of Indonesian students who study English at formal schooling. In 2013, for example, Indonesia needs approximately 3,733 new English teachers and 4,130 new teachers in 2014 (Yahya, 2011). Matsuda and Matsuda (2001) state the fact that the majority of English teachers in the world are not native speakers of English. Some of these teachers learned English as children; others learned it as adults. For some, English is their third or fourth language; for others, it is the only language other than their

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mother tongue that they have learned. As there is an increase in the number of non-native English teachers, accordingly there is also an increase in the number of non-native English language speakers as pre-service teachers joining Department of English Language Teaching at universities all around the world. This is because for non-native English teachers, pre-service education is often seen as the start of teacher preparation program or in other words the first step in the professional development of teachers. Wilke (2004) says that such education often exposes pre-service teachers to new perspectives as well as prepares them in knowledge and skills. In many universities, programs for pre-service EFL teachers still tend to focus on the inner circle. This might be because people had some longestablished assumptions such as (a) students need to learn the English of native speakers, (b) the native speakers should serve as the model and standard, (c) American or British culture should be taught, and (d) communicative language teaching is the best way to teach the language (Brown, 2012).

However

considering the fact that English now is considered as the international language and that non-native speakers outnumber native speakers, work should be done to create pre-service teacher programs that focus spirit of English as an International Language (EIL). Pre-service teachers need to be informed that a language program should incorporate the promotion of intercultural competence, an awareness of other varieties of English, multilingualism in the classroom, instructional materials that include both local and international cultures and the adoption of socially and culturally sensitive teaching methodology (McKay, 2012). The English Education Business Program of the English Department of Petra Christian University Surabaya also updated its curriculum to incorporate

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the EIL principles by offering some new subjects such as World Englishes, Education Policy, Current Issues in Global Education and Intercultural Teaching & Learning and by “slipping-in” the EIL principles in other subjects such as Spoken English in which pre-service students are introduced to varieties of English or in Language Teaching & Learning in which they are asked to critically evaluate various teaching approaches. New subjects such as World Englishes whose scope is not limited to the inner circle are offered cause such courses are likely to result in a “world view . . . [that is] more consistent with the sociolinguistic realities of the spread of English as an international language” (Brown and Peterson, 1997, p. 44). The principles of EIL are also integrated in other courses so pre-service students will be aware of the current landscape of English. By introducing the EIL issues as the content of the course or peripherally, it is hoped that pre-service students will develop a favorable attitude towards EIL. The implementation of the revised curriculum started in the 2nd semester of 2011/2012 (February – August 2012). I was assigned to facilitate World Englishes course which aimed to enable the students to consider past, present, and future varieties of the English languages. Attention was given to the historical, political, and sociocultural issues associated with the globalization of Englishes and on the ideological underpinnings of debates about nativization, standardization, identity, and ownership. Students were required to attend 14 consecutive meetings. There were 11 pre-service students of Batch 2010 registered for this course. As none of the topics discussed are covered in the first two years of their university study, these students had never come across the relevant concepts before. In addition, these 11 pre-service teachers had been immersed in the

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traditional EFL classrooms since they were in elementary level. As the concept of EIL was new for these students, I was interested to observe the prior beliefs of these pre-service teachers and wished to ascertain to what extent the exposure to the relevant concepts influenced their prior beliefs. Therefore the present study was guided by the following research questions: 1. What sorts of beliefs do pre-service teachers have at the beginning of the course about (1) the role of English as the international language, (2) the best English variety, (3) the use of students‟ mother tongue in the EFL classrooms, and (4) the best English language teacher. 2. Do these pre-service students‟ initial beliefs change at the end of semester? 3. How do these pre-service students welcome the EIL principles in their future pedagogical practices? Attention was given to (1) the role of English as the international language, (2) the best English variety, (3) the use of students‟ mother tongue in the EFL classrooms, and (4) the best English language teacher because these areas are closely related to the native-speaker paradigm (see Hassall, 1996 and Matsuda, 2003) and are widely addressed in Indonesian context nowadays. Another reason why I was interested to observe these students‟ beliefs was because the literature portrays that beliefs play a central role on guiding teachers‟ instructional behavior. Teachers‟ beliefs can powerfully shape what teachers do (Pajares, 1992 and Borg, 2011).

Beliefs form “the bedrock of

teachers' intentions, perceptions, and interpretations of a given classroom situation and the range of actions the teacher considers in responding to it" (Chapman, 2002, p. 180). Johnson (1994) also states that (1) teachers‟ beliefs influence perception and judgment, (2) teachers‟ beliefs are reflected in classroom

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practices, and (3) teachers‟ beliefs should be understood with a view to improving teaching practices and teacher education programs. In the context of language teacher education, beliefs are seen to be a key element. Borg (2011) states that teacher education is more likely to have an impact when it is based on an understanding of the beliefs these pre-service teachers hold. Kagan (1992, p. 85) has suggested that beliefs “may be the clearest measure of a teacher‟s professional growth”. Therefore most of the research available on the impact of teacher education on language teachers‟ beliefs has been conducted in pre-service contexts. Studies highlight that pre-service students carry with them some strong ideas and beliefs. These beliefs are formed during the “apprenticeship of observation” which refers to the years these students have spent sitting in the student desk prior to entering a teacher education program (Lortie, 2002). In other words, pre-service teachers‟ beliefs are formed through many years of exposure to educational practices and can be traced back to early experiences, from primary education up to tertiary level. Furthermore, pre-service teachers use their previous educational experiences to interpret the input provided in their teacher education program (Kagan, 1992). The majority of pre-service student-teachers who start their education program, for example, view teaching as telling or lecturing-that is, directly transmitting information to a passive learner (Torff, 2003).This is because they are exposed to such lecturing style during their school years. Scholars have found that pre-service teachers‟ prior beliefs brought to a teacher education program significantly impact what and how pre-service teachers learn. Prior beliefs can function as filters for processing experiences and knowledge (Borko and Putnam, 1996). Prior beliefs are also related to

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motivation constructs and to pre-service teachers‟ academic performances and achievement (Pajares, 2003). Prior beliefs may hinder their ability to see the relevance of their teacher education program as well because the existing beliefs may be incompatible with their new learning in their teacher education program (Borko and Putnam, 1996). However a strong sense of confidence built on positive prior learning will expend a higher level of energy to work through the difficulty (Pajares, 2003). To change prior beliefs of pre-service teachers on language education program is a challenge. Borg (2011) has in fact observed that some studies such as Borg (2005), Peacock (2001), and Urmston (2003) report no changes in the pre- and post-course beliefs of pre-service teachers. In contrast, other studies such as Clarke (2008), Mattheoudakis (2007) and Busch (2010) provide evidence of change in student teachers‟ beliefs during language teacher education (cited in Borg, 2011). A research done by Minor et.al. (2001) also showed that at the end of the semester of their observation, the beliefs of 84 pre-service teachers observed had moved to be more in line with the instructor that is to have a more progressive orientation. Does instruction impact pre-service teachers‟ beliefs? A study by Liu and Fisher (2006) reported that belief change could be promoted in variable ways (as cited in Borg, 2011). Pre-service teachers involved in Minor et.al. (2001) „s study, for example, were required to complete a variety of assignment including a written critique of an article from a refereed education journal, an individual presentation, a group presentation, reflections of reading assignments, active participation in class activities, exams, and the development of a professional portfolio. At the end of the semester, their prior beliefs changed.

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Having read all of the review of literature and considered the nature of the World Englishes course taught at my university and 11 pre-service teachers registered for this course, I became interested to observe the beliefs that these pre-service teachers had at the beginning of the course, to see whether there were any changes on their initial beliefs, and to find out how these 11 student teachers perceive the EIL principles in their future pedagogical practices. The focus would be on (1) the role of English as the international language, (2) the best English variety, (3) the use of students‟ mother tongue in the EFL classrooms, and (4) the best English language teacher.

Method Participants The participants of this study were 11 student teachers registered for the World Englishes course of English Education Businness program of Petra Christian University Surabaya. All of them were Indonesians in their early twenties and in their 5th semester. There were 10 female students and 1 male student. Procedure This study was conducted in the 2nd semester of 2011/2012 (February – August 2012). The course itself was conducted for 14 meetings in which each meeting lasted for 2 hours. Each meeting was conducted once per week. All the names mentioned in this paper were pseudonyms. The research mainly adopted a qualitative approach. Dörnyei (2007) addressed several reasons for choosing this type of research namely: the research uses small sample size of participant, the data analysis is done with words, and it is concerned with subjective opinions.

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Classroom discussions and reflective papers of the students were used to collect data. In order to answer the first research question which aims to explore the prior beliefs, at the beginning of the semester, the pre-service teachers were required to write what they know about English as an international language, the best English variety, the use of students‟ mother tongue in their language classrooms, and the best English language teacher. They were asked to reflect upon their personal teaching and learning experiences and beliefs and explicitly provide examples. These reflective papers were not meant to be research papers and the students were not expected to do any additional reading. The paper was written in English and the participants submitted their reflective papers at the beginning of the second meeting. For answering the other research questions, I employed the online and offline classroom discussions and students‟ final reflective papers. For the purpose of online classroom discussions, I set up a closed Facebook group. All students were members of this online group and some participated in the thread of discussions quite actively. Ongoing throughout the class meetings, the pre-service teachers and I always had (offline) classroom discussions in which I asked my students some questions related to the issues of EIL so that I knew what their before-course-perceptions were. Then I asked each participant of this study to share their initial beliefs with each other, and together overview and examine the present EIL situation. During the discussions, I took notes on some interesting points of views that my students expressed. I also asked the participants to note down if listening to the classroom discussion had sparked some ideas and they felt their prior beliefs needed revision. All online and offline discussions were mainly conducted in

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English though some Indonesians occurred occasionally. At the end of the course, the students were once again asked to revisit their personal beliefs and write their reflections towards the 4 major issues highlighted in their World Englishes class. They also got an additional task, i.e. to think about how they would apply their EIL beliefs in their future classrooms. Data Collection and Analysis Data gathered from the participants‟ reflective papers and classroom discussions were then analyzed through content analysis as proposed by Cresswell (2011). The first step that I took was to explore or to obtain a general sense of the data. Then I started the process of coding the data according to the categories relevant to the research questions. After that I tried to interconnect the categories and report findings to the research questions. By doing these, I could identify the teachers‟ beliefs related to (1) the role of English as the international language, (2) the best English variety, (3) the use of students‟ mother tongue in the EFL classrooms, and (4) the best English language teacher. I could also find out the participants‟ opinions on how to implement EIL pedagogy in their classrooms.

Findings and Discussion The findings of this study would be presented in accordance with the research questions. Thus I would start with the findings on pre-service teachers‟ initial beliefs related to the following areas: (1) the role of EIL, (2) the best English variety, (3) the use of students‟ mother tongue in the EFL classrooms, and (4) the best English language teacher. For each major area, there would also be some discussions on the participants‟ (un)shifting beliefs and proposed pedagogical implementations. All the names mentioned below were pseudonyms.

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The Role of English as the International Language At the beginning of the course, all of the participants of this study had similar beliefs about the role of EIL. English was seen as a global language, a lingua franca, a medium of communication, a very important language in this globalization era. No further comments were provided probably because at the beginning of the semester these pre-service teachers were not aware of the changes that had happened to English. At the end of the course, all students still had the same beliefs of the importance of English. But now they were aware of the changes in the uses and users of English. The following comments illustrate this:

Before I joined the World Englishes class, I felt there was only one kind of English and there was no difference. But now I know that the issue of English as an international language is more complex than I thought (Henny, Final Reflective Paper).

When we talked about the role of EIL, I thought that we only talked about varieties. However, I found out that, we did not just talk about varieties but we also examined more specific components and issues in English teaching including the implementation of such EIL pedagogy in classrooms (Setiawan, 14th meeting). All participants of this study also believed that the teaching of English nowadays should acknowledge the EIL pedagogy, for example by having more local (non-native) speakers to teach English, by acknowledging the role of

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students‟ mother tongue and other varieties of English. These beliefs were written on their reflective papers and expressed on our last class meeting. The Best English Variety The analysis of the reflective papers made at the beginning of the semester showed that all participants of the study believed that American English and British English were the best varieties of English. It is not surprising. According to Farrell and Martin (2009), when someone uses the term “English”, his/her interlocutors are likely to assume that he is referring to British or American English because “the English that exists in such places as Africa, Asia, the West Indies, the Philippines and Singapore is not real or standard English” (p. 2). Some participants considered British English better than American English because they believed that English was “born” in England. Some student teachers also considered British English as the best variety because it was considered more elegant than the American English. The following were some of their comments:

British English is the best and the standard one. I believe that the English language itself comes originally from England as both names are similar (Via, Initial Reflective Paper).

[British English is the best cause] there is no slang in British English (Rosa, 3rd meeting)

British English is more difficult to understand meaning that people who speak it are more intelligent (Ida, 4th meeting).

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The majority of the participants though considered American English as the best variety. This was because of the influence of America in people‟s lives nowadays so Indonesians were more familiar with this variety. As these two student teachers said,

For me American English is the best because listening to American English is much easier than listening to British English (Dina, Initial Reflective Paper).

In fact, in Indonesia, we are more exposed to American English. There are many movies, books, and novels are from USA. Thus many people use American English (Fefe, 3rd meeting).

Interestingly, it was also found that some EFL teachers in Indonesia preferred to teach American English in their classrooms. As one of the preservice teachers shared, Once my teacher corrected the word “colour” I wrote on my test. She said it had to be “color” without the letter “u”. She then said that if I used the letter “u”, that was British English not American. Almost in every lesson, my teachers rarely mentioned British English. Thus, I think American English is the standard one. I know that there is British English but I do not really pay attention to it since I do not use it in school. (Mita, 3rd meeting).

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Nevertheless after having a series of discussions at World Englishes class, all pre-service teachers changed their beliefs. At the end of the course, none of them considers American or British English as the best varieties. They have come to acknowledge the existence of other varieties of English. Following quotes taken from the written reflective papers and the classroom discussions illustrate their new beliefs:

When I joined the World Englishes Class, I learned that actually English itself is formed from many other languages. The word like “dog” which I believed as the word in English, actually came from different language. This knowledge washed out my prejudice that British English was the original and the Standard English (Via, Final Reflective Paper).

I have learned that that there are many varieties in this world, not only the American and British English. Even in Britain itself, people in Liverpool have different kind of English compared to the variety used in Manchester. American and British English are popular because of their power (in politic and economic) and the huge number of the users (Fefe, 14th meeting).

Other varieties of English are something that we should keep since every variety reflects the unique local culture that needs to be preserved. I learn not to judge which one is better than other (Kristin, 4th meeting).

When asked how to bring their new beliefs into the classroom, all participants in general stated that they would use American/British English while

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introducing non-American/British-English varieties to their students. The American and British English were still necessary as these were the common international varieties widely used by the English speakers. As a participant wrote in her reflective paper,

It is not because American English is better than other variations, but it is because American variety is used widely in the world. In my opinion, in other to be able to communicate with other people in the world, our students have to know both local variety such as Singaporean English or Indian English as well as the international variety such as American English (Via, Final Reflective Paper).

Another reason was because these varieties were written and published in dictionaries so learners could find the references easily. As Ida commented,

I think it is still necessary to use American and British English in classrooms because only American and British English can be found in dictionaries. But I will not force my students to use American dictionaries only. They can refer to other dictionaries (Ida, Final Reflective Paper).

Some participants also mention the aspects of accent and pronunciation during 4th-classroom- discussions. They were in the opinion that which accent to be used is not really important cause “accent is part of our identity” (Dila), “it is difficult for our students to imitate foreigners‟ accents” (Rosa/Silvi), and “the most important aspect is mutual understanding” (Henny/ Ida/Fefe).

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To acknowledge both the international and local varieties, a studentteacher proposed the following classroom activities,

I will teach my students by using American English but I plan also to introduce other varieties of English. I should show them some videos of people using Singaporean English or Canadian English. So that they also know the other varieties of English existing in this world and later they can choose which varieties should be used in particular contexts. (Fefe, Final Reflective Paper).

It is an intriguing discussion when people try to decide which variety of English should be taught in EFL classroom. If, for instance, only Singlish is taught in Singapore, it might not be problematic for Singaporeans because Singlish is intelligible to them. However, teaching Singlish only might limit the learners‟ ability to communicate with other speakers as Singlish is unintelligible to English speakers outside of Singapore (McArthur, 2004; Farrell and Martin, 2009). Nevertheless teaching inner circle varieties only might be problematic as well because it does not acknowledge the development of other varieties in the world. Thus, the appropriate way, according to Mckay (2002, p. 128) is “to be culturally sensitive to the diversity of contexts in which English is taught and used”. To this, Renandya (2012, p. 19) gave an example: “When teaching a group of business people from Thailand who have business dealings with business people from Singapore, it makes sense to include teaching materials that depict features of Singapore English commonly used by Singaporeans in business settings”. Exposing learners to different Englishes, just like what Fefe

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had suggested, might be beneficial for learners as this can add the learners‟ knowledge and develop their positive attitudes towards other varieties of English. The Use of Students’ Mother Tongue in the EFL Classrooms The pre-service teachers had similar beliefs about the role of the mother tongue before and after joining the World Englishes class. They did not change their prior beliefs. They now, in fact, were more convinced that the students‟ mother tongue should be allowed in EFL classrooms for some reasons such as explaining instructions and concepts. The reflections below illustrated why the pre-service teachers held such point of view:

My first language (Indonesian) is completely different in terms of structure, pronunciation, etc compared to English. I believe learning a language which is very different from our first language is not easy. The pronunciation may be too difficult. The sentences written on the textbooks published by American publishers such as McGill and Penguin Books are probably hard to understand especially if the readers are still in their elementary or pre-intermediate level. This is the time for the mother tongue or first language to come as a helper. Helper here means a bridge for students to understand the message or ideas easily. I am not saying that the teachers who use their students‟ native language do not have enough English competence to explain in English. However I believe that when the explanation is given in the mother tongue, students will understand it better (Mita, Intial Reflective Paper).

How could we teach in English for people who do not have any or who have little experiences with English before? Of course they will not

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understand what we are talking about. At the end, the learning process will be useless. So it is better to use Indonesian for explaining difficult concepts or ideas (Sonia, Initial Reflective Paper) In sharing their (prior) beliefs related to the use of students‟ mother tongue, all participants mostly referred to their learning experiences in secondary school education when their English teachers did not allow the use of the native language. Their prior „painful‟ learning experiences had actually shaped their beliefs towards the use of the mother tongue. The following comments by the participants bear testimony to this belief:

When I was in senior high school, my teacher kept forcing us to speak in English. It is fine for some of my friends because they have already had an ability to listen and speak in English. But it was a burden for me and some other friends. Such burden led us think that English was hard to learn. We became lazy to learn English. (Henny)

I believe that mother tongue is still important because they [students] are not the native speakers of English. When I was in my first year of Junior High School, I had a teacher who explained everything in English. Almost all students in this class did not really understand about the instructions and explanations provided so we began to ask many things. But then we found some difficulties in asking questions because we were not fluent enough, had many language errors, and did not have many English vocabularies. At the end, our English teacher allowed us to ask in Bahasa Indonesia. So in my opinon, the use of mother tongue is needed

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for some cases, such as giving instruction or explaining some difficult subjects (e.g. grammar) because it helps the students to understand more about the lesson. (Rosa)

However, all participants also stated that the use of mother tongue should be done with caution for it to be effective. For instance, teachers used their students‟ native language only when they had to give instructions and explain difficult concepts. Fewer mother tongues should be used when teachers met students with high level of proficiency to avoid over-reliance. This point of view can be detected in the comment below:

For beginners, it is okay if teachers use their mother tongue as much as possible so their students easily understand the instruction or concept easily. But for advanced learners, teachers should reduce the use of their mother tongue. (Setiawan, 8th meeting).

When they became teachers in the future, these student-teachers stated that they would use students‟ mother tongue in their language classrooms. The following utterances reaffirm this finding:

When I become a teacher, I will use mother tongue in my classroom but not all the time because if I only use mother tongue, my students will not be able to speak in English. I will use mother tongue for example to explain something that my students do not understand although I explain it two or three times (Rosa, Final Reflective Paper).

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When I teach later, I will let my students speak in Bahasa Indonesia in some circumstances. I will not make them feel frustrated because of the language barrier. I want them to understand the materials, yet I want them to be able to speak in English. So, if they ask me about the materials, I will apply code mixing between Indonesian and English to answer their questions (Fefe, Final Reflective Paper),

It is interesting to note the participants of this study were against the use of English-only-policy since the beginning of the semester.

Recent studies

indeed show that arguments against using students‟ native language in classroom can easily be refuted. There are empirical evidences to support the claim that monolingual tenet is a fallacy. A study done by Storch and Wigglesworth (2003), for example, shows that students‟ mother tongue can give students “cognitive support“ during language analysis and in the completion of cognitively demanding tasks. Moreover it allows students to work at cognitively higher levels and may be a “normal psychological process” (p.768). The participants of this study mentioned that they would not discourage the use of students‟ mother tongue. However it is important to note that the students‟ mother tongue should be used selectively and not be seen as an easy option (Hawks, 2001). The use of the mother tongue should be limited or controlled. The higher the level of proficiency of the students, the use of students‟ mother tongue should be reduced. The Best English Language Teacher At the beginning of the semester, when the participants were asked to write down what they think about the best English language teacher, they all claimed that the best teacher was native speaker of English meaning someone

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from the inner-circle counties. They had this belief because native speakers were born with the language so it was assumed that native speakers could become “perfect” English teachers because they taught their own language.

In my opinion, the best teachers of English are native speakers of English because they have this language as their mother tongue. They can become the best teachers because they are able to pronounce all words correctly and to explain the grammar rule. (Yuni, Initial Reflective Paper)

I believe that the best teacher of English is the native speaker of English (American, British, Australian). They speak using that language everyday so automatically they know that language well. Sometimes when I see a native speaker, I think I can learn many things from them about their language even though they are not language teachers (Sonia, Initial Reflective Paper). I believe that the best teachers of English are „white‟ people. English is their language so they know it better than any other speakers. Many course advertisements in magazine or in newspaper also claim that they have white people as their language teachers. That is why I think that the best English teachers are white people (Setiawan, Initial Reflective Paper).

There has been a long-standing myth in ELT that native English language speakers automatically make for better teachers. Thus despite the facts that the majority of ESL/EFL teachers in the world are non‐native English‐speaking

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teachers, these teachers are still considered less credible and less competent teachers than their native counterparts. This is what Philipson (1992) calls as the native-speaker fallacy where native teachers are often judged based on their own skill in using the language, not on the basis of their specialized knowledge or their teaching ability (Johnston, 2003). In reality, as Medgyes (1994) has observed, non-native teachers have some strengths in EFL classrooms: effective providers of learning strategies, better anticipators of language learning difficulties, being sensitive to language learners‟ needs, and facilitators of language learning as a result of a shared mother tongue. According to Mahboob et.al. (2004), native speakers are not better teachers than non-native speakers. Proficiency, educational background and teaching skills are the points that should be taken into account. Over the course of the semester, my student-teachers had some discussions on the native-speaker fallacy as proposed by Philipson (1992). At the end of the semester, they apparently had changed their prior beliefs. All participants now consider anyone can become good language teachers as long as they have knowledge and skills in teaching English. Some student-teachers even said that non-native speakers were better in some cases because they knew better about their students, could acknowledge local cultures in their teaching, could speak in the students‟ mother tongue, and learnt English for more than 10 years so they knew the language system very well. The following remarks illustrate the paradigm shift of these pre-service teachers:

Even though native speakers use English every day; most of them cannot clearly explain the rules or convention of the language. In my opinion,

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the best teacher is someone who knows his/her teaching material well and can explain it clearly to his/her students (Ida,8th meeting)

To become an English teacher, someone needs to master the language and the skills of teaching the language. What will happen if a native speaker who does not know how to make a well-organized writing teach writing as a subject? So I think in this case, it is better to employ a non – native teacher who understands how to make a well-organized writing (Via, Final Reflective Paper)

Overall, all participants now had more confidence as non-native speakers who would become language teachers in the future. One of the participants (Mita) wrote in her reflective paper, “In my future class, I will teach English confidently even though I am not a native English speaking teacher. This is because now I know that non-native teachers have some benefits over the native teachers”. Another participant (Sonia) stated in our 8th class meeting, “Everybody can be a good English teacher too as long as he/she has fulfilled all requirements needed”.

Some participants who would like to open English courses in the future also say that they would choose language teacher who had good knowledge and skills on language and teaching. All said that the issue of nativeness would not influence their decision. In general, nowadays, non-native teachers are beginning to see themselves and to be viewed by others as equal partners in the ELT profession. At some schools, native- and nonnative-English-speaking teachers even collaborate with each other. This kind of positive attitude and confidence has to

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be continuously developed by the participants of this study. As non-native speakers who will become teachers of English, they need to improve their professional knowledge and skills continuously. Qualified teachers can surely contribute in meaningful ways to the field of ELT.

Conclusion At the beginning of course, 11 pre-service teachers involved in this study had some prior beliefs which were not in line with the development of EIL. However at the end of the course, these pre-service teachers did change their points of view. This might happen because the participants‟ beliefs were taken into account from the very beginning so I, as the instructor, knew my students‟ prior beliefs and the World Englishes course could be structured in order to best align these beliefs with the pedagogical practices and knowledge they would need to learn in World Englishes class. Another possibility was because the pre-service teachers themselves were required to observe their beliefs at the beginning of the course so they became aware that they held intuitive beliefs about teaching and learning formed on the basis of their experiences as learners and that sometimes these beliefs were not in line with the development of ELT. In addition, throughout the course and at the end of the semester, these pre-service teachers had systematic opportunities to articulate their beliefs. Classroom discussions and reflective assignments, as applied in this study, were some of the techniques that could assist pre-service teachers in examining their beliefs, reflecting on them and detecting possible fallacies. The results of this study suggest administrators or teachers of teacher education program pay attention to the issues of pre-teachers‟ beliefs. By taking

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pre-service teachers‟ beliefs into account from the very beginning, teacher education courses could be organized in order to change prior beliefs which are not necessary for pre-service teachers‟ future teaching careers.

If student-

teachers‟ beliefs are ignored, teacher education courses might have little chance of effecting change in their students‟ prior beliefs. At the same time, pre-service teachers should also be asked to find out and examine their own prior beliefs. Detecting incongruence within one‟s beliefs and comparing and evaluating them can be very important springboard for belief and general conceptual change.

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Cresswell, J. (2011). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. Boston: Pearson Education. Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Crystal, D. (2008). Two thousand million? English Today, 24(1), 3-6. Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics: Quantitative, qualitative and mix methodologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Farrell, T. S. C & Martin, S. (2009). To teach Standard English or World Englishes? A balanced approach to instruction. English Teaching Forum, 2, 2-7. Graddol, D. (1999). The decline of the native speaker. In D. Graddol & U. H. Meinhof (Eds.), English in a Changing World: The AILA Review, 13, 57-68. Hassall, P. (1996). Implementing EIL: The medium really is the message. New Zealand Studies in Applied Linguistics, 2, 57-77. Hawks, P. (2001). Making distinctions: A discussion of the use of the mother tongue in the foreign language classroom. Hwa Kang Journal of TEFL, 7, 47-55. Incecay, V. & Kesli, Y.D. (2011). Foreign language learners‟ beliefs about grammar instruction and error correction. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, 3394-3398. Johnson, K.E. (1994). The emerging beliefs and instructional practices of pre-service English as a second language teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 10(4), 439-452.

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Johnston, B. (2003). Values in English language teaching. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Kagan, D. M. (1992). Implications of research on teacher belief. Educational Psychologist, 27, 65-90. Liu, Y. & Fisher, L. (2006). The development patterns of modern foreign language student teachers‟ conceptions of self and their explanations about change: three cases. Teacher Development, 10, 343-360. Lortie, D. C. (2002). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Mahboob, A., Uhrig, K., Hartford, B. & Newman, K. (2004). Children of a lesser English: Nonnative English speakers as ESL teachers in English language programs in the United States. In L. D. Kamhi-Stein (Ed.), The state of the non-native teachers in the United States (pp. 100-120). Michigan: University of Michigan Press. Matsuda, A. & Matsuda, P. K. (2001). Autonomy and collaboration in teacher education: Journal sharing among native and nonnative English-speaking teachers. The CATESOL Journal, 13(1), 109-121. Matsuda, A. (2003). Incorporating World Englishes in teaching English as an international language. TESOL Quarterly, 37(4), 719 – 729. Mattheoudakis, M. (2007). Tracking changes in pre-service EFL teacher beliefs in Greece: a longitudinal study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 1272-1288. McArthur, T. (2004). Singapore, grammar, and the teaching of „internationally acceptable English.‟ English Today, 20(4), 13–19. McKay, S. L. (2002). Teaching English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Mckay, S. L. (2012). Principles of teaching English as an international language. In Alsagoff, L., Hu, Guangwei & Mckay, S. L., Renandya, W.A. (Eds.), Principles and practices for teaching English as an International language (pp. 28-46). New York: Routledge. Medgyes, P. (1994). The non-native teacher. London: Macmillan. Minor, L. C., Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Witcher, A. E. & James, T. L. (2001). Trends in teacher candidates‟ educational beliefs. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Mid-south Educational Research Association, Littlerock, USA. Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers' beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. Review of Educational Research, (62)3, 307-332. Pajares, F. (2003). Self – efficacy beliefs, motivation, and achievement in writing: A review of the literature. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 19, 139-158. Peacock, M. (2001). Pre-service ESL teachers‟ beliefs about second language learning: a longitudinal study. System, 29, 177-195. Philipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Renandya, W. A. (2012). Global English and its implication in ELT. Paper presented at the Language in the Online & Offline World 3: The Transformation, Surabaya, Indonesia. Storch, N. & Wigglesworth, G. (2003). Is there a role for the use of L1 in an L2 setting? TESOL Quarterly, 37, 4, 760-769. Torff, B. (2003). Developmental changes in teachers' use of higher-order thinking and content knowledge. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(3), 563-569.

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Urmston, A. (2003). Learning to teach English in Hong Kong: the opinions of teachers in training. Language and Education, 17, 112-137. Wilke, R. (2004). How content area influences choice of instructional methods: an examination of one component of preservice teacher belief. Unpublished master‟s thesis, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA. Yahya, T. I. K. M. (2011). Berapa sih kebutuhan guru di Indonesia? Retrieved from http://edukasi.kompasiana.com/2011/03/02/berapa-sih-kebutuhanguru-di-indonesia/

Notes for contributors THAITESOL Journal is a semiannual, international, peer-reviewed official journal of Thailand TESOL, aiming to publish articles, research papers, review articles, and book reviews on issues in applied linguistics and in language learning and teaching. The Journal is receptive to different schools of thought and approaches. Manuscripts must be original and not currently under review elsewhere. Submitted manuscripts are subjected to a blind, peer review process. They will be assessed according to the following criteria: significance and relevance of the study, clarity of the focus, relationship to literature, research design and data, relevance of the study, data analysis and use of data, use of theory, critical qualities, clarity of conclusions and quality of communication. Please adhere to the guidelines when submitting your manuscripts. Language and font

Manuscripts must be in English and must be prepared using Times New Roman 11 point and 1.5 line spacing. Set all margins to 2.5 cm.

Length

Articles, research papers, and review articles should be between3,000 – 7,000 words. Book reviews should not be longer than 2,000 words.

Title:

Should be concise and informative with all capital letters.

Authors:

Give the full name of all authors and their complete addresses. Contact information for the corresponding author, complete mailing address, and e-mail address.

Abstract:

Not to exceed 250 words. Clearly summarize the important findings of the paper. Abstracts should contain hard facts such as objectives, methods and major results.

Keywords:

Provide 4-6 keywords which can be used as an index to direct readers to articles.

Introduction:

The introduction must provide the necessary background of the paper and a brief review of related literature. A clear statement of the objectives should also be included.

Materials and Methods:

Describe the experimental procedures clearly enough for others to repeat the same experiment so that the same result could be obtained.

Results and Discussion:

This section should contain “Results” and interpretation of the results in relation to existing knowledge.

Conclusions:

State conclusion (do not summarize) briefly. Headings and sub-headings should be left aligned, with the first letter capitalized.

Other requirements:

Indicate new paragraphs by using one extra line space. Indicate new paragraphs by using one extra line space. Short quotations should be incorporated into the text and enclosed with double quotation marks. Quotations of more than about 40 words should be set off from the main text by indentation, without any quotation marks. Referencing should follow the APA referencing style. References in the text should be ordered alphabetically and contain the name of the author and the year of publication, e.g. (Thomas, 2001). For direct quotations include the relevant page number(s), e.g. (Thomas, 2001, p.34). Tables, figures or diagrams should be numbered consecutively and included in the relevant part of the text. Each should have an explanatory title. Numbers up to and including ten should be spelt out and numbers over ten should be expressed as figures.

Standard of English:

Before submitting articles for consideration, authors are solely responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts have been thoroughly proofread and edited to achieve the appropriate standard of professional English. Thailand TESOL should not be expected to improve the quality of the writers' English. Manuscripts that do not meet this requirement will be rejected or returned to the authors for revision before the peer review process is undertaken.

SUBMISSION OF THE MANUSCRIPT Submit the manuscript to: Maneepen Apibalsri Managing Editor Faculty of Education, Rungsit University, 52/347 Muang-Ake, Phaholyothin Rd., Lak-Hok, Muang, Pathumthani 12000 Thailand. E-mail: [email protected]

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