AR is so
important to me because it helped me begin my teaching as a learner.
AR has
brought about improvements to both my students and myself.
My students
are English majors but they lack motivation in speaking. So I want to improve
their motivation in speaking. Jin Guoliang and Li Fang are my subjects in this
research.
Why am I
concerned about it?
1. I
personally believe that speaking is crucially important for the whole learning
process;
2. My
students regarded it as their biggest problem too.
How can I
improve it?
1.
Offering equal and sufficient chances for them to speak.
(1)
Making speaking rule i.e. asking for volunteers, which turned out to be a
failure in the end;
(2) Ask
each student to do a morning report;
(3) Ask
different members to be the ÒspeakerÓ while having group discussions.
2.
Varying speaking activities
(1)
Individual presentations;
Example,
morning speech: changing from ÒrecitationÓ to Òinterviewing speechÓ and to Òimpromptu
speechÓ.
(2) Group work.
(3) Encouraging student to Òshow offÓ.
1.
Dr. Moira
Laidlaw and Dean Tian;
2.
My students;
3.
My
colleagues;
4.
Relevant
books and online information.
What have I
learned?
1.
It helped me
to be more confident in teaching;
2.It helped my professional development;
3.It improved my personal life.
How Can I Improve My StudentÕs Motivation in
Speaking?
I believe IÕm one
of the luckiest to Òchoose what I love and love what I choose.Ó IÕm proud to
have chosen English as my major and become an English teacher in September
2003. Therefore, I determined to be a good English teacher and help my students
with their English. I even wished people around me would like English and make
great progress in it.
Despite my strong
belief and enthusiasm, things turned out to be very difficult since many
students complained to me that English was nothing but a headache to them.
Being a new teacher, I was at a loss about what to do. Then AR came as a great
enlightenment, which gave me encouragement and detailed instructions. Just As
Dr. Moira Laidlaw put it:
ÒAR is a
programme of self-directed learning about oneÕs own teaching. It is a way of
improving actions and reactions in the classroom and outside, for the benefit
of the learners.Ó
So still with my
strong belief and ARÕs instruction, I began learning to teach. Having done the
research for nearly one year, I felt more confident in teaching and I saw
improvements from both my students and myself.
IÕm in charge of
28 students of class (5), Grade 1, which is my first class and is of great
value to me. As English majors, they are meant to be good language learners and
users. But I found them only able to read and memorize a lot instead of
speaking much. Most of them didnÕt want to volunteer to speak in class. So my
question arose as to how to improve their motivation in speaking. I aimed to
improve the whole class but I collected most data on Jin Guoliang and Li Fang
who are among the most inactive students.
(1) My Self-belief
It is said that:
ÒSpeaking makes
you a more fluent language user; speaking is a chance to notice the gaps
between what you want to say and what you can say; it is a chance to test
hypotheses about language.Ó
(Marilyn Lerris[1], 1999)
So I believed that
speaking was crucially important for the whole learning process. And my
studentsÕ experience and that of my own proved to me that we didnÕt have much
chance to speak while in high school and we gradually got into a habit of
learning Òmute EnglishÓ, which was obviously harmful to a language learner.
(2) StudentsÕ
feedback
From my questionnaire[2]
given at the very beginning of the first term I knew that my students had the
same concern Ð95% said their biggest problem were speaking and listening.
So I
realised it was important to begin my research based on the two reasons above.
How can I
improve it?
I tried many ways
to stimulate my students and they mainly fell into three types:
(1) Offering equal and enough chance for them
to speak;
(2) Varying speaking activities;
(3) Encouraging them to Òshow offÓ.
(1) Offering equal
and enough chance for speaking
My first attempt
was making a rule of speaking for the class. I told my students,
ÒSpeaking is
the only way you can express yourself. You have an equal chance to speak, but I
wonÕt call your names. So it depends on yourselves whether to catch the chance.Ó
I wished my
students would challenge themselves to speak and build up a sense of making the
most of opportunities.
Some of the
students told me afterwards that this rule sounded fresh and challenging to
them because they would seldom speak unless asked to. I noted down that Ma
Fang, Yang Fan, Jiang Ni, Lu Yanru, Qian Qian and Zhang Huwei actively followed
my rule, volunteered each time to present in front of the whole class and could
do their pair work enthusiastically. Jiang Ni once talked to me that she wanted
to change her seat because her desk mate, He Yinjuan, never wanted to come to
the blackboard however much she urged him (Oct.28th, 2003). Her frustration
clearly showed her great enthusiasm to speak.
The students
mentioned above always took the chance to speak. But I found that there were
also some students (Like He Huiyan, Wang Fang,Yuan Guoping, Li Huiju) who
wanted to but hesitated. So I encouraged them every time and waited for them to
make up their minds to stand up. Those students gradually got to their feet. Li
Huiju once bravely stood up to answer my question, although her face flushed crimson
and her voice shook. When Xie Xiaojie for the first time, volunteered to
present his conversation with his desk mate in front of the whole class, he
seemed out of breath when speaking. But they were great enough to speak up and
I praised them at once.
This rule had
brought about improvements to those who never volunteered and this also
resulted in an active speaking atmosphere in which most students participated
actively. But I was worried because there were 8 students who dared not speak.
So I talked to them personally. They gave me their two main reasons. First,
they never volunteered, as it was not their nature to stand up. Secondly, they
were shy and hesitant which slowed the pace while those brave ones took the
chance. Then I told them the importance of speaking and encouraged them.
However, they were not still brave enough. I realized it was just their
personality that hindered them from being assertive. My first attempt appeared
to be a failure because some students actually didnÕt get an equal chance and
contradicted my initial purpose. This was, I suppose, my living contradiction
(Whitehead, 1989). I wanted something to happen in my class, but it seemed I
couldnÕt make it happen. So I began to doubt my rule. I wondered whether I
should change the rule and call the studentsÕ names. But I feared that would
break my promise, therefore I turned to Dr. Moira Laidlaw for help. She
suggested, ÒJust feel free to change. No method is unchangeable and
everlasting. You can change to another one if it helps.Ó So I broke this
initial rule and called on those who never volunteered while still giving a
chance for volunteers.
On the other hand,
I asked each student to do a morning report, which ensured each student would
share an equal opportunity to express himself or herself in front of the whole
class. WhatÕs more, I asked for different members of the class to be the ÒspeakerÓ
while they did group discussions so that everyone got the chance to practice.
Just as Professor
Jean McNiff said during her visit in December 2003:
ÒLet every
single flower grow because each flower is unique and has infinite potential.Ó
I tried to make it
come true in my class.
(2) Varying
speaking activities.
By doing this, I
aimed to:
1). Individual
presentation
To be specific, I
wanted to take our morning report as an example, through which IÕd varied the
way of creating conversations. I transformed it from ÒrecitationÓ to Òinterview
speechÓ and now to Òimpromptu speechÓ.
For the first
round, I just let each student recite a passage that he or she regarded as
instructive or interesting, and meantime, asked other students to conclude the
main idea after listening to the speech. Later on, I asked them to recite
passage written by themselves and be ready to answer other studentsÕ questions.
I called this an Òinterview speechÓ.
When I talked to
them after class, the students told me they loved this way . He Huiyan said
that she found it interesting and helpful although it would upset her and made
her nervous sometimes. On Nov.12th, 2003, Jin Guoliang stood up and asked the
speaker a question, which was the first time he had volunteered. He said to me,
ÒI was afraid
to speak in public, but after I tried once, I felt it was not so difficult, I
feel more comfortable to speak now.Ó
So far, he has
asked 4 questions. I also noticed that Li Fang, She Zhichen and Li Yanxia who
never volunteered came up with some excellent questions, which constituted
great progress for them. I realise that in Action Research, and in improving
methodology, applying an ipsative criterion[3]
is a very useful way of discerning improvement in individuals.
After we had two
rounds of Òinterview speechÓ, I tried another way of doing it. Actually, it
came into being spontaneously. On June 16th, 2004. I began the class with the
normal question, ÒWhose turn to give the morning report? LetÕs welcome them!Ó
My students told me the last round had finished. Thinking there were just a few
days left and it was neither possible nor reasonable to let them go another
round, I paused and thought,
ÒWhat are we
going to do today? Stop now or try something new? Well, boys and girls, since
weÕve done much prepared work, today letÕs try something new. LetÕs make
impromptu speeches.Ó
They looked
surprised and curious. I continued,
ÒI knew this
would sound difficult, but I believe you can do it, challenge yourself and have
a go!Ó
I gave them a word
ÒdreamÓ, and asked them to think for a minute. Then I asked for volunteers. I
saw some hesitating and others thinking hard. To get it moving, I called Guo
Xiaomei, who was looking at me now and then and seemed to be wanting to say
something. However, I was doubtful because she was a very quiet student and if I
had misunderstood the message from her, it would probably hurt her to stand before
such a large audience. She began speaking. It was extremely fluent and
well-organized. She opened her speech with a quotation and then illustrated it
using her own experience and ended in a beautiful conclusion encouraging
everyone to hold on to their dreams. She hadnÕt paused or stopped to think for
even a minute. All of us seemed fascinated and moved , so much so that we gave
her a big and long applause quite spontaneously. Then Lu Yanru volunteered to
be second. She, too, did an excellent job. When I asked them whether theyÕd
like to continue doing it. They affirmed me with a loud and joyful ÒYesÓ.
The students said
in their feedback that the variety arouse their interest and stimulated them to
speak more and improve their thinking and speaking step by step.
I supposed this
method to be systematic and encouraging, which would fit in with the concept of
the New Curriculum in the sense that students are encouraged to use the
language rather than think about it[4].
So I still keep it and try to explore more ways.
2). Group work
The New
Curriculum advocates that students should learn from the ÒprocessÓ, for
example, learn from experience and group work. It also encourages students to
experience and learn language in the process of self-reflecting and participating
in discussion. Here Dr. LaidlawÕs words at the conference in Nov. 2003 would
strengthen this point, ÒTogether we are stronger than we are apartÓ.
So I applied
collaboration to much of our group work. I divided my class into 6 groups, each
group elected a leader with a similar level of English. I asked them to discuss
certain topics, held competitions between groups and asked them to give lessons
by themselves.
On 17th, June,
2004, I asked the class to discuss the text in groups and then teach one part
of the text to the class. When one group was presenting, the rest of the class
listened carefully and put forward different questions. For a moment, the class
would become quite noisy because they were so engaged in heated discussions. I merely
sat by the side giving necessary instructions and help when necessary. All the
students were involved and I saw Jin Guoliang and Li Feng discussing actively
with their partners. When Yan Fang made a mistake in distinguishing ÒriseÓ and ÒraiseÓ,
Jin Guoliang spoke loudly to show the difference. This activity again showed me
that the students would speak more often and more actively when an active and
encouraging atmosphere was created to motivate them.
3. Encourage
students to Òshow offÓ
Personally I
believe encouragement and compliments are always effective and important ways
at any stage of teaching[5].
So I sought every chance to encourage my students and praise them for every
little bit of progress they made, either for a clear pronunciation or a
volunteered answer. I wrote on the blackboard a large word ÒconfidenceÓ in the
first class and told them, ÒNothing is impossible to a strong and positive
mind.Ó 15 students in my class took part in the English Speaking Contest last
term, the most in grade one. I remembered several of them, Like Ling Jingxia
and Jing Guoliang, told me before the final competition that they were too
afraid and nervous to go on. I told them the importance of making an attempt,
approved their efforts and helped them with their speeches. Finally, all of
them stepped onto the stage. Three of them even got prizes. This term, 20
students took part in the English Hosting Contest, The Speaking Contest and
other activities held for all college students and they got very good results:
Three Number Ones, One Number Two and Five Third places. I cannot say these
things all happened just because of me but I could say they happened with me.
Based on the three
methods mentioned above, I think IÕm justified in claiming that I have achieved
my goal of motivating speaking in some of my students and in the class,
because:
Here, I believe Dr.
Moira Laidlaw and Dean Tian come first. They helped me a lot and will help me
more. They gave me insights about what AR is and how to begin AR. I couldnÕt
have ventured out of my shell and carried it on throughout the whole year
without their encouragement and suggestions. Dr. Moira LaidlawÕs advice on
changing my speaking rule helped me out of my initial confusion. Her visit to
my class together with her instructive comments provoked my thinking to a
larger extent. For example, she said I should sit with the groups to inspect
and help them more.
Secondly, my
students. They are the center of the class and no doubt are my concern all the
time. My research is meaningless and unrealistically idealistic without their existence
and co-operation .So my studentsÕ feedback, either through a smile or a sigh,
approval or disapproval helped me to do a better job for them. Any sign of
improvement or frustration from any individual would help me improve my methods
and provoke a further step.
Thirdly, other
colleagues.
Having more
colleagues to visit my class and visiting theirs offered me precious opportunities
to examine myself and learn from them. And I learned from many colleagues, for example
Ma Jianfu, who adopted better ways of stimulating students by listening to
their lessons. And my dorm mate, Wang Xiaoping, who suggested I should speak
more Chinese so that my students would feel more relaxed and comfortable. Also
discussing with colleagues and students, attending AR meetings and validating
their AR reports help me think more and reflect more on my own work. The key process
I learnt from this is the significance of finding evidence for claims.
Lastly, reading
relevant books and finding out information online or on TV helped me be more
concrete and cautious while undertaking the research. I got a clearer idea of
writing my AR report with the help of two books, ÔYou and Your Action Research
ProjectÕ,[6]
and ÔAction Research: Principles and PracticeÕ (second edition)[7].
I adopted the way of doing impromptu speech from the English programme ÒOutlookÓ
on TV.
Actually, every
chance, every person around me has been of great help and value to me and they
helped me in a variety of ways. I show my great thankfulness to them all.
After doing AR for
nearly a year, I realized it has become a part of my life. It has such great
impact on me that I just donÕt know how to express myself in these few words. I
believe IÕm more confident in teaching and IÕve achieved both professional and
personal progress.
1) AR has made me
more confident in teaching in the sense that it helped me know better about my
students, myself, and the relationship between us. I came to realize it how
important it was to let the students be the center of the class and to be
always aware of their reactions in class so as to find suitable solutions to
help each of them. At the same time, I believe I knew more clearly my role as a
teacher - instructor, organizer, adviser, participant or sometimes just a
listener rather than a ÔpreacherÕ, a ÔrulerÕ or a speaker. Just as McNiff (2002)[8]
has said:
ÒAn educative
manager is to create such spaces so that people can work out their answers for
themselves, free from constraint but encouraged while they will be listened to
respectfully and encouraged while they develop their emergent thinking.Ó (p.35)
So I managed to
give students more chance to work out the problems by themselves like doing
group discussion when I stood nearby merely as an audience. My studentsÕ
problem will always be my concern. My research begins where their problem
occurs.
(2) AR has brought
about improvements to me in terms of my professional development.
Bearing a specific
question in mind, I was supposed to work out various solutions and reflected on
my teaching more often. Also, if I failed in one method (like making the
speaking rule), I would have to try another one until it finally took effect.
All the reflections and attempts undoubtedly enrich my teaching experience.
WhatÕs more, in
order to justify my claims and prove my assumptions, I had to collect data and
search for evidence, which required me to be more careful and concise for every
little action I took, and therefore, made me a more responsible teacher and
learner.
(3) AR has changed
my way of living while I was working collaboratively with others.
I was fascinated
and touched a lot every time when we were having AR meeting because I not only
got information about teaching and researching here but also took in food by
which I might live a rich and full life. I strongly felt the strength of this
great collaboration, which drove me to improve myself, and also to make some
contribution to the unity, however tiny it would be. I would feel ashamed being
the lazy and confused one. I very much like the scholarly and open-minded
atmosphere in which I was with others. I was no longer alone. I began to talk
with more people, which was not my nature before and I enjoyed this place more
than ever just because of this new research way.
Consequently, I
tried to create this same atmosphere in my class. I believed that the warmth and
strength of collaboration would not only be beneficial to my studentsÕ study
but to their lives as well. I believe this is turning out to be the case.
[1] Marilyn Lerris, (2003), Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Routledge, London.
[2] Questionnaires and other notes are available in my data-archive.
[3] This criterion refers to a comparison between past and present accomplishment by an individual.
[4] WhatÕs New about the New Curriculum? VSO newsletter, March, 2004, VSO Beijing.
[5] See Liu XiaÕs (2004) AR report: How can I help my students to learn through respect and encouragement?
[6] ÔMcNiff, J., Lomax, P., & Whitehead, J., (2002), ÔYou and Your Action Research ProjectÕ, Routledge, London.
[7] McNiff, J., (2002), ÔAction Research: Principles and PracticeÕ, Routledge/Falmer, London.
[8] Op.cit.