Lärarutbildningen
Kultur, Språk och Medier
Examensarbete
15 högskolepoäng
English as a third language
Learner profiles of six L3 learners of English
Det tredje språket är engelska
Profiler av sex elevers lärande i engelskaLouise Ågren
Lärarexamen Examinator: Björn Sundmark
Engelska och lärande
Abstract
This paper investigates the language learning backgrounds as well as the attitudes, beliefs and expectations concerning the study of English of six immigrant L3 learners of English who all study the Individual Programme. At the time of investigation, their English proficiency corresponded to grade-5 English, in other words proficiency stage 1 according to the syllabus for English in the Swedish system. I decided to use the results of two sets of questionnaires and one observation in order to construct six learner profiles of the students. The first questionnaire had been developed by National Agency of Education and the second one was created by me, as well as the observation where notes were taken throughout the lesson.
The results show that these students’ language learning backgrounds are similar. The study also reveals that they all have a positive attitude to English. They all stated their dreams about the future, being able to choose profession, travel and communicate with people around the world. Regarding their expectations of their learning and development they are all positive and believe they have reached a higher level and are still improving.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ... 7
Background ... 7
Purpose and research questions ... 8
LITERATURE REVIEW ... 11
Learner Beliefs ... 11
Attitudes ... 12
Learner Expectations ... 13
Third Language Acquisition ... 14
METHOD ... 16 Selection of participants ... 16 Data collection ... 17 Alternative methods ... 18 Research ethics ... 18 RESULTS ... 20
The Learner Profiles of the six learners ... 22
Lisa ... 22 Kyle ... 23 Bella ... 24 Charlie ... 26 Fanny ... 27 Oliver ... 28 DISCUSSION ... 30
The research questions and the results ... 30
Similarities and differences ... 31
Attitudes, beliefs and expectations ... 32
Suggestions for further research ... 35
The Result and its Consequences ... 36
CONCLUSION ... 37
REFERENCES ... 38
Electronic sources ... 38
INTRODUCTION
When looking back to their school days, many people can think of subjects where they faced particular difficulties or where their interest did not match that of other school subjects. For me, mathematics followed me like a ghost through all my school years, making the lessons difficult. However, thanks to teachers who encouraged me and found ways to help me, my self esteem reached a higher level and I finally succeeded. For other students, language can be equally complicated, and whether English is a second or third language may be a key factor.
My interest in students’ language backgrounds arose when I spoke to a teacher of English who teaches a group of six students at my previous upper secondary school. All of these students have English as their third language and their English represents a proficiency level equivalent to grade five. I started to get interested in their language backgrounds, their experiences of studying languages and what their strengths and weaknesses might be. As a consequence, I decided to investigate their learner backgrounds as part of my degree project.
Background
The six students are between seventeen and eighteen years old. Two of them came from Iraq, two from Serbia and the other two from Bulgaria and Romania. They study Swedish as well as English as part of the Individual Programme at an upper secondary school in the south of Sweden. The programme prepares them for study at upper secondary school.
They have three 60-minute English lessons a week. The goal is to achieve a pass for grade 9 in English as well as Mathematics and Swedish. In order to track their language progress, the teacher uses the national test for grade five. The students are also tested after each chapter in their English book.
As mentioned, the students are at a proficiency level equivalent to grade five and they therefore use an English book suited for grade five. It is called Champion 5 and the teacher and the students have found this book both interesting and useful. The book contains the right amount of text and there are many pictures to help their understanding. There is also a CD which helps their pronunciation.
Their teacher is a woman with many years of experience teaching L3 learners. She has a teaching degree which qualifies her to teach at the elementary level, but she is also a trained speech and hearing therapist and a special needs teacher. She is also qualified to teach English and Swedish up to compulsory level and has taken courses in drama, linguistics and Swedish as a second language.
As far as the study of English is concerned, it may be said that the students study English by way of Swedish. When learning new English words, they do so using the Swedish equivalents. This is where the many pictures in their textbook are very useful since they facilitate the understanding of the new words.
There are many ways of explaining differences in language learning. The language teacher and the school as an educational institution clearly play a major part. The teacher teaching the six students has to identify and meet their different needs, finding appropriate teaching methods, including suitable materials. The national and local policy levels are also important. Some systems may focus on form-based approaches to teaching English, but the Swedish model emphasizes students’ all-round ability to use English to communicate, as stated in the syllabus for English, in the goals to strive for stated by the National Agency of Education. However, this study focuses on individual differences in language learning.
Purpose and research questions
The purpose of this degree project is to investigate the language learning backgrounds of six learners. Their backgrounds and their attitudes to, beliefs about and expectations concerning
learning of English are then used to construct learner profiles. Finally, the learner profiles are used to discuss possible implications for how they should be taught.
My research questions are as follows.
- What similarities as well as differences are there between the six learners in terms of their language learning background?
- What attitudes to, beliefs about and expectations concerning learning English do the six learners have?
It is important to emphasize that these questions only concern the students and what they bring to the learning context. However, any learning situation needs to be looked at more broadly than this. In Learner contributions to language learning. New directions in research (2001) Michael P Breen mentions four variables concerning how people learn a language. These four variables are as follows.
1. What learners contribute to the process.
2. The language data made available to the learners in the communicative environment in which the learning occurs.
3. The interaction between learners and environment in terms of the situated learning process.
4. The conditions or circumstances in which learning takes place.
According to Breen, these four variables are all connected to the outcomes of language
learning and formed by what the learners contribute to the process. This degree project focuses on the first variable. More specifically, it attempts to provide profiles of the six learners
through the gathering of information about their language learning backgrounds and their answers concerning their attitudes to learning English, their beliefs about language learning and their expectations concerning learning English.
The key concepts that this degree project is based on are learner beliefs, attitudes and
expectations and language learning background. In this context they refer to cognitive as well as social differences in which individuals learn. The learner profiles are thus sums of different learner attributes which in combination provide an opportunity to discuss what the prospects for further language development are like. However, it should be emphasized that such a discussion is naturally of a speculative nature.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Learner Beliefs
According to Zoltán Dörnyei (2001), most learners have particular learner beliefs about how they should be taught, but Dörnyei also asserts that these beliefs are often unrealistic. He mentions that some learners may think that they can master a language in just a few months while others may believe that they do not have it in them to learn at all. Another common belief is that it is only truly possible to learn a foreign language in its natural environment and not in an instructional setting. According to Dörnyei, negative beliefs may function as a major obstacle to learning. It is therefore part of a teacher’s responsibility to try to turn such beliefs around so that learners can approach the learning situation in a more positive spirit. Dörnyei claims that the best way to confront negative learner beliefs is to discuss them with the students and let them express their concerns. He mentions four points which can be helpful in a
discussion about learner beliefs:
1. The difficulty of language learning in general. 2. The realistic rate of progress that can be expected. 3. What is required from the learner to be successful. 4. Effective learner strategies. (2001, p. 68).
Dörnyei makes the point that most people in the world are multilingual and that many people learn a second or third language late in life. According to Dörnyei, this suggests that a lack of aptitude can be exchanged for persistence and hard work. He also points out that there is no perfect method for learning languages. Learners therefore have to find methods and techniques that suit them.
The six learners that are studied in this investigation have formed and are forming their learner strategies over a period of time through their previous language learning experiences and the
present situation. The materials that are used, the tasks that the teacher sets them and the very organisation of their learning all contribute to shape their learning and their beliefs about learning. In order to develop their English, the learners need to feel that they are progressing by being challenged to learn new language. But they also need to experience that they are
successful in their learning and have a sense of what they have to do in order to continue being successful.
Attitudes
There is an overlap between beliefs and attitudes. According to Steven McDonough (1997) “attitudes may be thought of as opinions, beliefs, ways of responding, with respect to the same set of problems” (p.14). Since they may influence learners´ behaviour significantly, attitudes may have a considerable effect on language development. Attitudes may function in relation to a number of different factors, e.g. the teacher, other students, the target language, the country in which the language is spoken and to language learning itself (ibid., p. 14)
Robert Gardner (as cited in Lightbown and Spada, 2006), investigated the relationship between learners´ attitudes towards the second or foreign language and its community. He found that it is difficult to know whether positive attitudes can lead to successful learning or if successful learning engenders positive attitudes or even if these two factors affect one another. Larsen-Freeman (as cited in Michael P Breen, 2001), also brings up this aspect and asks herself whether a positive attitude underlies better achievements, or if better achievement contributes to a more positive attitude. What seems to be clear, though, is that attitudes interact with other factors such as motivation, personality and identity (McDonough).
In this degree project attitude is one of the central concepts of the learner profiles. In the learner profiles attitude is highlighted through the students’ answers from the two
questionnaires where the students clearly show a positive attitude towards learning the English language. It is also shown through the observation where the students were the focus. Through
the interest they showed in participating in lessons and doing the different activities, it was evident that they had a positive attitude towards learning English.
Learner Expectations
In Motivational strategies in the language classroom Dörnyei (2001) refers to the most well-known contemporary motivation theories in psychology. When it comes to theories within expectancy value theories he says; “motivation to perform various tasks is the product of two key factors the individual’s expectancy of success in a given task and the value the individual attaches to success on that task. The greater the perceived likelihood of success and the greater the incentive value of the goal, the higher the degree of the individual’s positive motivation” (p. 10). Dörnyei also discusses how to increase the learners’ expectancy of success and claims that “we learn best when we expect success” (p.57). He emphasizes that expectancy of success does not suffice unless it is accompanied by positive values. According to Dörnyei, expectancy of success can be increased by arranging conditions in a way that teachers put the learner in a more positive or optimistic mood (p.58).
As mentioned before, the six learners who are in focus in this investigation have a positive attitude towards learning English, and perhaps this has helped them in their progress. It follows that they have expectations of themselves to continue to improve and seem to be aware of the teacher’s expectations on their development. They are also aware of what they have achieved so far. As far as I could gather, the teacher and the students had been able to create a learning context which has had a positive impact on the students. In the questionnaire (see appendix 3), section “expectations”, questions 1-2 concern the students’ expectations of themselves.
Third Language Acquisition
This is a study of six individuals who are learning English as their L3 language and therefore third language acquisition is relevant to include. It is important to explain what this term refers to and how it relates to these students’ answers to the two questionnaires and the result from the observation.
In Third language learners: Pragmatic Production and Awareness (2005), Pilar Safont Jorda discusses the term third language acquisition and its defining characteristics. As the term suggests, third language acquisition refers to languages learned after a second one. It will thus inevitably involve many different L2 backgrounds, second or foreign languages and learning situations. It may even refer to multilingual acquisition. As noted by Safont Jorda, it is important to distinguish between third and second language acquisition in order to be able to investigate what happens when bilinguals learn a foreign language. The main differences between second and third language acquisition concern the order in which languages are learned and what sociolinguistic factors and psycholinguistic processes are involved.
In second language acquisition, only a few possibilities of variation exist as far as the order of acquisition is concerned. Either L2 is acquired after L1 or the two languages are learned simultaneously, which in turn may lead to multilingualism. In third language acquisition, the learning process can be interrupted by another language, an L4. A second difference between second and third language acquisition concerns contextual and linguistic factors which may affect third language competence and performance. The socio-cultural context – referring to the environment where languages are learned and used – may be particularly important. According to Pilar, languages are not used in the same way or for the same purposes in what she refers to as bilingual and multilingual societies. There are obvious differences between societies where languages are used primarily in the media and for educational purposes compared to societies where people also use the same languages in everyday life.
Pilar mentions Philip Herdina and Ulrike Jessner (2000, 2002) who have done research on a dynamic model of multilingualism. The model consists of individual differences, the context
and interaction between two or three languages known to the learner. According to Herdina and Jessner, multilingualism should be viewed as a varied phenomenon, including bilingualism and monolingualism. It follows that language competence should be looked upon as a gradual process whereby learners obtain a certain level of proficiency after a training period. This is because learning often takes place within a great diversity of contexts, and when trying to learn a language in a foreign, non-native language, it is essential to put the language to regular and active use. As soon as learners stop using the language, they find it difficult to connect to their previous knowledge.
METHOD
This study is a case study. According to Backman (2008), a case study is a study which
investigates a phenomenon in its realistic environment or context, where the boundaries are not given between the phenomenon and context (p.55). This study falls under this definition since it investigates a particular group of students within their context as well as examining the phenomenon of language learning background within the chosen group.
I use the term learner profiles to describe the sum of the learners individual backgrounds as they appear in the learners response to the two questionnaires and their answers from the same questionnaires that focus on the attitudes, beliefs and expectations concerning studying
English. I also draw on the results from my observation.
I present and describe each student individually, using quotes from their answers, and then use the answers to discuss and reflect on their answers as well.
Selection of participants
The selection of participants was based on my interest in these students and their language learning backgrounds and because both the students and the teacher were interested and willing to participate. I also know the teacher from before, through personal contacts. I am also
Data collection
The methods I used are questionnaires consisting of two parts and one observation.
The first questionnaire was collected from The National Agency of Education and is a self-assessment questionnaire which the students were asked to fill out. The questionnaire was quite extensive and I therefore only included some parts of it. The selected parts consisted of eight questions and included questions such as: when did you start learning English at school? This was followed by different statements for the students to answer according to a scale. From this I was able to get a broader view of the students and this helped me to formulate the second questionnaire.
The second questionnaire (see appendix 3) comprised a total of fifteen questions divided up according to four categories: background, attitudes, beliefs and expectations. I also included a section for further comments. The reason for using this questionnaire rather than doing
interviews was because of the time limit. But another important reason was that I wanted to let the students take their time and get a chance to think through their answers. I visited the class and asked the teacher to use one of their English lessons to distribute and complete the
questionnaire. One of the students was ill on that occasion. However, the teacher later sent me the student’s answer by mail.
The second questionnaire, created by me, was distributed after the one from the National Agency of Education. Before this I had prepared myself by explaining to the students why it was important for them to fill out and answer the questionnaire, (see appendix number 2). I also encouraged them to ask me questions if they did not understand any of the questions and that it was important for them to do so. I went through the questions one by one and explained further how I had formulated the questions.
The observation was constructed based on Johansson & Svedner and their discussion about an unstructured method (2006, p 58-63. ). Using this method, the observer takes notes of events that take place during a particular lesson. I made notes about the setting, the structure of the classroom, how the desks were organized etc. The focus of the observation was the students
and the environment they were in, how they responded to the teacher, what they seemed to find difficult and challenging. I took notes of what happened during the lesson, different kinds of events in order to get an even broader view of who these particular six students are.
Alternative methods
I could have interviewed the students individually in order to receive more personal answers, and perhaps get more details about their language learning backgrounds. Such interviews would have given me the opportunity to ask even more questions than the ones written down beforehand. The methods I chose in terms of using two questionnaires can be considered limited in comparison to interviewing. I did not choose to do interviews because of the time limit and the fact that it would have taken a lot of time from the students and their tight schedule. I could also have examined the teacher and her perspective. However the time I had at my disposal was not enough for that type of study.
In the description and presentation of the students’ profiles I chose to anonymise the students in order to give the profiles more personality and show that they are linked to these students in a more direct way, rather than calling them student A, B and so forth. Therefore I decided to call them Lisa, Kyle, Oliver, Bella, Fanny and Charlie.
Research ethics
When it comes to ethical factors there are several factors to consider. The first questionnaire, given out by The National Agency of Education, the students had to write their names because at this stage I as a researcher had to be able to separate the students. The second part of the questionnaire was based on the answers by the individual student in order to be able to create the six individual learner profiles.
appear in my report, which is something the students were also informed about. Another important aspect is the students’ age since some of them are under the age of eighteen. Therefore I distributed a piece of paper with information about my degree project (see appendix number 1) which they were asked to take home and ask their parents to sign. These forms were then brought back to me. When I conducted both the questionnaires and the observation I used the guidelines formulated by The Swedish Research Council,
RESULTS
In this section I present and describe the six learner profiles based on their answers from the two questionnaires and the observation. The results are based on both the questionnaire given out by The National Agency of Education and the questionnaire designed as a writing task. In addition to this I present my result from the national survey and compare the individual cases to the broader tendencies visible in the larger material and focus on attitudes and beliefs since these two aspects are the most visible and the ones that are relevant. In the next paragraph, below I deal with the results from the national evaluation of the compulsory school 2003 (Skolverket, 2005).
The questionnaire was from the National Agency of Education and gave me an opportunity to get a closer idea of the students. The questionnaire was for students to fill out and answer and its focus was English as a school subject. To be able to compare the six students’ responses to how students’ answers from the national survey, I have chosen a part from the national evaluation called “Summary of the result and discussion” (my translation).
The six students answered that they are all interested in English and their attitudes towards English seem to be positive and they are motivated to learn and develop more. According to the students, this positive view of the subject is shared by their families who think that English is important to know. All the six students also answered that they are not studying only to pass the tests. Consequently, they seem to have understood the advantages of learning English and why it is important for them to know. In fact, they express goals for the future for what and when their English will be useful. This shows that they have realised that English is necessary for future studies. This can be compared to the national evaluation where a majority of students answered that English is a language which is used all around the world and that it therefore is important to learn (Skolverket, 2005, p 87).
Another question concerned attendance. Three of the students stated that they are absent from the English lessons occasionally. The reasons for this were not included in the question and cannot be understood from the answers. Regarding how much time that is spent on studying English and English lessons the answers were a bit different from each other. Three of the students stated that they could have more English but seemed to be pleased anyway. Two of them answered that they believed too little time was spent on English and that there should be more time for English. As mentioned earlier, they have three English lessons per week, one hour each, although all the students would like to have more English lessons.
Regarding their perception of English and if they consider English to be a difficult subject, they have different answers. Two of them believe that English is definitely a difficult subject, while another two believe that it is quite difficult and the last two state that it is not entirely true for them that English is a difficult language.
The questionnaire had questions concerning support and help. All the six students stated that they ask for help when they need it and believe they receive the help they need. During their English lessons they also help each other out. One of the advantages of being a student in such a small group is that the students can help each other a lot and learn to cooperate as a group and get to know each other very well.
The results of the national survey (Skolverket, 2005) showed that most of the students achieve the goals for English and use English both in and outside of the school environment, but it is also important to remember that there is also a group of students who do not achieve the goals. In the result of the survey distributed by the National Agency of Education, two groups of students can be distinguished. One comprises students who have not received a grade in English and the other consists of students who have performed poorly on tests but still receive a grade. The six students taking part in this study are definitely part of the former group.
The six students and the students who answered the national survey share a very positive attitude towards English as a school subject and, rather surprisingly, the results also show that the students frequently use English both in and outside of the school environment. One of the
questions I asked the students in the questionnaire I created was about this issue. All of the six students answered that they use English in their everyday life in different ways.
In the national survey, a majority of the respondents found the English lessons enjoyable but many also found the learning environment noisy to the point where they had problems concentrating (Skolverket, 2005, p 43).
The report of the national evaluation highlights a connection between the answers about motivation, interest and attitude. When students are motivated and have confidence in
themselves as learners and when they have a positive attitude towards English as a subject and the learning context, there is every reason to believe that they stand a good chance of
continuing to develop as language learners. The same can be said about putting the language to use in and outside of the classroom. When a language such as English is used regularly,
communication becomes meaningful.
I will now focus on summarising the results of the two questionnaires and the observation in the form of learner profiles. Despite the fact that my results will show that there are more similarities than differences between the six students, it is still important to see them as individual learners with unique backgrounds and individual learner needs.
The Learner Profiles of the six learners
Lisa
Lisa comes from Serbia and her native language is Serbian. She started to learn English at the age of twelve. She described her English studies in Serbia as follows: “I had English twice a week and the lesson did not last more than fortyfive minutes. The teacher was not interested in teaching us English”. This had a negative effect on her language development in comparison to the present situation: “I believe I learn faster than I did in my home country”.
In Sweden she also encounters English outside of the classroom: “I listen to music, watch TV and movies”. When describing how she feels about learning English, she uses the words “important and fun”.
Lisa’s plans for the future, when it comes to using her knowledge of English is that she wishes to travel to Spain and since she does not know how to speak Spanish, she is going to use English to communicate, “I am going to travel to Spain and I don’t know how to speak Spanish, so I am going to use English”. It is a very positive thing for her to have a goal she wants to achieve in order for her to continue to develop.
When she thinks about her learning situation today, she believes that the advantages of
working together as a group are important because they are able to help each other learn more. One of the advantages of working individually is that she gets the opportunity to as she says “ read alone” She feels that she learns English best by “ listening and speaking”.
Her English proficiency is tested by vocabulary tests and she believes this is the best way for her to learn new words. Regarding the teacher and the teacher’s expectations, she expresses that “she wants us to try to speak English”.
Kyle
Kyle comes from Bulgaria and his mother tongue is Bulgarian. He started to learn English when he was fourteen years old, and then he had English once a week and during their lessons they had grammar, communication activities and listened to music. However, when looking back to these lessons, he did not learn a whole lot: “my school situation was that my schedule was difficult, I had English only once a week”.
Similar to Lisa, Kyle uses English outside of the classroom in different ways, through watching TV, movies, music and playing computer games. He says that learning English, and knowing how to speak is good for him and his future. Kyle’s own view of learning is that he is
improving and he thinks he understands English much better as they go along: “I am learning a lot right now, it is good and I am learning faster than before”. He believes he will use English in the future, when meeting people from other countries.
Regarding the way of working and whether it is better to work together as a group or individually and their different pros and cons, Kyle feels that it is good to work together because the students are then able to help each other. The advantage of working individually is that he gets the opportunity to concentrate and everyone has the chance to work in peace and quiet. He mentions one advantage of working alone: “that is quiet so I can concentrate more”. When asking about the level of teaching and regarding his opinion about what he thinks is a struggle, he answers that he finds it difficult to speak English. A lot of time in their English lessons he feels hesitant about speaking mostly because of pronunciation. He learns best by listening and writing, which he believes are the best ways for him.
His perception of his understanding of the English language is better than it used to be and he is still improving. He believes he is best tested by written tests and he also tries to improve by talking to his friends. His expectations are that it is important for him to learn and develop his English. Regarding the teacher’s expectations of him and his classmates, he says: “she thinks that it is important for us because we need English to be able to apply to a programme at upper secondary school”.
Bella
Bella comes from Romania and her mother tongue is Romanian. She started studying English when she was eleven years old, which means that she has until today studied English for eight years. When she first started studying English, she only had one lesson per week. During her second year, she had two lessons per week. During these years she had four different teachers. There were also times when their English lessons were cancelled when it was the last lesson of the day. The consequence of this was that the students only had one English lesson per week.
Today the situation is different. Bella is better motivated to learn since she uses English outside of school in terms of watching movies, listening to English music and playing computer
games. She shows this motivation by saying: “nothing is bad about the English lessons, and it is good that we go through the homework together and that we get to read at home”. She also says that even though she studied English for eight years, she did not learn a lot because of poorly qualified teachers; “I have studied English for eight years but I didn’t learn anything, poor education for English teachers in my home country”.
She has nothing but positive thoughts when thinking about learning English and thinks that the language is good to know because she will be able to use it anywhere in the world. Bella thinks that she has learnt a lot of English while living in Sweden, studying English. She has studied the book and done her homework which was something she did not do in Romania. Regarding ways in which she will have opportunities to use her English, she mentions “her future work” and to be able to “communicate with people from around the world”. When it comes to working together as a group of six, Bella thinks it is good that they are able to learn English with the help from each other. They are trying to use the language in order to learn other languages as well. When working on her own she thinks it is good when they are studying vocabulary.
She finds the level of teaching straightforward and the use of a textbook helpful. She prefers to learn English through different methods. All the four skills – listening, writing, speaking and reading – help her to learn English but she believes she can learn faster if you both speak and listen to English. Exposure to English and the need to use the language are thus important factors.
When the teacher tests their knowledge, she uses written tests after each theme they have studied in their book. They also have a test at the end of a few chapters.
The main reason for studying and doing her homework is that she would like to apply to a programme at upper secondary school and to graduate, in order to get a good job.
She feels that the teacher is pleased and happy about her progress and is happy about their positive attitude and wants them to improve their use of English.
Charlie
Charlie, who is 17years old, was born in Iraq and his native language is Arabic. He was twelve years old when he started studying English.
One of the variables that Breen (2001) discusses concerns in what circumstances learning takes place. Charlie’s responses to the questionnaires show that his learning situation was not exactly ideal. In his home country the size of the classes was very large. There could be up to fifty students in one class. This fact can speak for itself since it is relatively obvious that when so many students are going to learn at the same time, the opportunities for improving are very limited. Another aspect that is relevant is what Pilar discusses concerning the context of language use. This suggests that the L1, L2 or L3 can be used in either a natural context which refers to the language being used in a community or in an instructional context, i.e. in a
classroom. According to her, these two settings affect the quality and the quantity of input, as well as have influence on learners’ development of the target language.
In Iraq, Charlie had two English lessons per week, and the teachers seemed not so well qualified in their English: “the teachers were not so good”. English was still studied quite extensively but many of the students in his class including himself did not understand or did not like to study English: “we worked with English quite a lot but many of us didn’t understand or didn’t like to read English”.
Today he does not only use English at school but also in his spare time, when watching
movies, listening to music and playing computer games. He finds that it is important to be able to contact people from the rest of the world, using English, and it is also important to
understand what they say in movies. Since he is interested in movies and watches a lot of movies in English, he has realised that is it important to be able to understand what films are
about. Otherwise it is not fun and he easily loses interest. Today he thinks he is learning both faster and more than before.
Regarding the future and how he will get to use his knowledge of English, he says that he is going to keep on reading as much as possible.Charlie also believes that, it is in a natural environment with native speakers of English that you will learn the most. “to continue reading as much as possible, when you meet and communicate with people who speak English” Furthermore, he believes that the ways of working in their English lessons, it is good to work together when they are able to speak to one another in English and the advantage of working individually is to be able to concentrate on the subject. Charlie’s perception of his own learning situation is that it is hard and difficult for him, and he thinks he might not receive a pass, “difficult because I don’t know a lot of English, I don’t think I will pass the course”.
Regarding the methods they use in order to improve their English, he thinks you have to read a lot to improve your pronunciation: “I think you need to read as much as possible to be able to pronounce, you have to practice your spelling and also communicate to know the language”. When they are tested he thinks this helps him to learn and develop more. In the future, Charlie would like to go to the US, which is one of the reasons why he wants to improve his English, “I would like to travel to the US”. He feels that the teacher encourages them to succeed so they can finally pass the course.
Fanny
Fanny also comes from Iraq and she started studying English at the age of ten. She described the situation as follows: “I had English every day, one lesson was about forty-five minutes, I had a good teacher and she taught me English, but I forgot everything because I didn’t use it for several years”.
In Sweden, Fanny uses English outside of the classroom by using the internet and listening to music. She does not watch movies that often but sometimes and the same goes for playing
computer games. When describing what it means to her to learn English, she says that it is important because if you know English it is easier for you to communicate with anyone in the world: “It is important and I am happy because if you know how to speak English it is a language everyone knows in the world, but it is a little difficult”. Even so she tries to read simple books and reads texts online and thinks she is learning fast. She finds English important for her future for the following reasons: “if I want to study in another country, communicate with people, being able to travel to other countries as well as help me get a good job”.
The advantages of being in this small group and working togheter are that she learns new things. They also try to speak English together. She believes she is learning everything she is expected to and the best way she learns is through speaking and listening. However, she also implies that she could proceed at a faster rate: “I think it is not so good when you are only learning things you already know and nothing new”. The way to improver her English is through conversations and building up the courage to speak. Since she would like to work with design, she will need English to contact people.
Oliver
Oliver was born in Serbia and his native language is Serbian. Unlike the other students, he only started to study English when he was seventeen: “I had not studied English before I came to Sweden”. This means that he had no previous knowledge before coming to Sweden and this group. He occasionally uses English for communication outside of the classroom: “sometimes I talk a little”. He describes learning English as “fun and good” and believes he has learned about 20 procent of English but he would like to learn it fully, “I have learned maybe about 20 procent but would like to learn up to 100 procent”.
When thinking about his future, he states that he would like to be a bus driver for tourists, driving a tourist bus and that is when he will need his English skills. He thinks it is better to work together as a group than working on your own and he believes that all the four skills are
equally important. Oliver’s finds it hard to learn English in this particular group: “for me it is hard, I have only studied English for a year”.
His knowledge of English is tested through written tests, conversations and writing exercises. He is willing to learn more and more English because he thinks it is important for him to be able to achieve his career goals, “I would like to know a lot of English. I think English is important for me to be able to get the job I want, which is being a bus driver for tourists buses” When it comes to the teacher and what she thinks about his learning of English, he says that “the teacher wants us to learn a lot of English”.
DISCUSSION
The research questions and the results
In this section the answers to the research questions and the results will be discussed.
The two research questions are:
- What similarities as well as differences are there between the six learners in terms of their language learning background?
- What attitudes to, beliefs about and expectations concerning learning English do the six learners have?
The answer to research question number one is as follows:
The students and their language learning background have definitely affected their low proficiency level which can be summarised as follows:
1. For some of the students, the classroom context has changed from approximately 50 students per class to six students today.
2. Most of the students had experienced teachers in their previous countries who were not encouraging or motivating
3. Most of the students had limited opportunities to practice English and lessons had often been cancelled.
4. Studying English had not been a priority since it had not been connected to the sense of any real future use.
Similarities and differences
The results of this case study do not show many differences between these students´ language learning backgrounds and their perceptions of it. Their experiences of learning English are very similar to each other with the exception of Oliver who had not studied any English before coming to Sweden. The other five had all experienced poor opportunities to study and practice their English, leading to them forgetting most of their knowledge. Most of them had also had teachers who were not very interested in teaching them. Some of the students had had
experiences of studying English in very large groups of students. Their opportunities for learning English may therefore have been limited. This raises the question, what do these students have in common? The answer is they all have the willingness to learn, high motivation, high expectations of themselves and their development, as well as having a
positive attitude. They have realised the importance of studying English as well as having goals and dreams about the future. Lisa, for example, chose the words “important and fun” to explain her attitude towards learning the English language.
They have one more thing in common, which is how far they have come in their way of reflecting on their learning. They are all aware of what teaching methods they prefer and have understood what the purpose of learning the language is.
Concerning the students and their opportunities to progress, all of these students seem to have what is required. But given their present limited English, the main obstacle seems to be time. Fanny described that she studied English for several years but never got the time to practice. According to Herdina and Jessner (2000) learners who stop using a foreign language, find it difficult to connect back to the language after a certain amount of time has passed. This is exactly what has happened to several of these students. Language development requires regular exposure and regular use.
Kyle referred back to his experience of the English teaching in his homeland and said that they only had English once a week. If this was the case, something was not right. Kyle said that a significant time was spent on studying English, but many of the students in his class, including
himself did not understand or did not like to study English.
The students seem to have similar experiences of teachers who have not succeeded in their teaching and therefore were not able to teach them. One of the four variables that Breen (2001) discusses concerns interaction between learners and the environment in terms of the situated learning process. For the five students who had studied English before coming to Sweden, there had not been any interaction to mention between the teacher and the students.
The learning situation today is somewhat different compared to their previous experience. Today they are six students in one class with one experienced teacher. The classroom is fairly small and the desks are placed in a row where the students sit in front of the teacher. The teacher sits on a little chair on wheels in front of the students with no desk. There is a whiteboard on the wall opposite from where the students are sitting. The students and the teacher always have a close contact with each other. The teacher always makes sure when doing an exercise that everyone has understood what all the words mean, both in English and Swedish. For example, they read a text about junk food and an experiment that was made on rats. The teacher asks the students about words that are not part of the wordlist provided beside the text, for example obesity, junk food, overweight, avoid, behave, reward and what these words mean in Swedish. There always seems to be a clear connection between English and Swedish, since the students are studying both languages.
Attitudes, beliefs and expectations
The answer to my second research question is that the students share a positive attitude towards learning English. They also show that most of them express beliefs or views about language learning and the situation that they find themselves in that do not entail any obstacles to learning. Their expectations of themselves as learners are high and they express that their teacher has high expectations of them. However, Fanny mentions that the rate of learning could be higher: “I think it is not so good when you are only learning things you already know and nothing new”.
One of the questions in the second questionnaire was about in what ways the student believe he or she learns best. One of four points that Dörnyei brings up in relation to learner beliefs concerns students’ awareness of how to learn effectively. He also claims that all students have different opinions and perceptions of how language learning should and should not be done. According to him, a key factor, in order to succeed is for learners to determine the methods and the techniques they believe work best for them (p. 68). Bella, for instance, shows that she has realised which learning methods and techniques that works best for her which is a combination of the four skills, namely listening, speaking, writing and reading.
Oliver seems to be a goal-oriented student, knowing exactly what he wants to work with and why it is important for him to learn and develop his language acquisition in English. The same goes for Lisa who also has dreams about the future. This is naturally significant since this makes language learning more meaningful and oriented towards future needs.
Kyle shows that he takes initiative and it seems like he is taking responsibility for his learning. He understands that he is learning for his own sake to be able to use it for different purposes in the future. This kind of attitude toward the English language is beneficial for Kyle’s future learning. The fact that he creates opportunities outside of the classroom to learn is his way of contributing to his own learning progress. It also shows that his motivation is high and positive. He expresses this by saying “to be able to contact the world and it is very important to
understand what they are saying when watching a movie”.
Charlie believes that it is among people who speak English that you as a learner have the opportunity to develop more efficiently. This insight is naturally good for his language
development. He also believes that he is learning fast, which means that the level of teaching is appropriate for him as an individual.
This fact also has to do with a second variable that Breen (2001) discusses: in what
between studying English in their home countries and Sweden. They went from being fifty students in one class and from teachers who did not seem interested in the students’ learning to a small group of six students and a teacher who is keen for them to improve and practice their English.
These students can be referred to as learners who have a third language. Pilar (2005) mentions Cenoz who states the differences between second and third language acquisition. The main differences are the order in which the languages are learned as well as what sociolinguistic factors and psycholinguistic processes that are involved. The order in which the six students learn the English language can be a key factor in this case being a third language for all the students. The sociolinguistic factors could also be interesting to investigate and to what extent they affect the learning process. However, to go deeper into these students and their
psycholinguistic processes would require a different approach.
In Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom, Zoltán Dörnyei lists several points in a section called “general initial motivation”. Under the title, foreign language aptitude he lists one point that is relevant to parts of my result. He says; “it is easier for someone who already speaks a foreign language to learn another one”, and “everyone can learn to speak a foreign language” (p. 69). This last statement is true for these students, who are all interested in improving their English.
Further on, Dörnyei lists under the heading “Learning and communication strategies” several points. One of them is that” it is important to repeat and practice a lot” (p. 70). My finding shows that these students use repetition as a tool to learn and improve, for example when reading out loud to the rest of the group, while the teacher helps with pronunciation. After reading a text out loud they are often asked to write their answers on the board in order for the teacher to check their spelling as well as for the students to practice their writing skills. As mentioned before, they also use music as a tool to practice pronunciation. These students need to hear and see the language as much as possible and get opportunities to repeat.
Dörnyei lists another statement that is relevant to this study is “it’s okej to guess if you don’t know a word in the foreign language” (p. 70). These students need to be able to make mistakes and guess, even though they are not sure of the answer; they need to become comfortable using the English language. During a discussion I had with a few of the students they said that they want to improve more in order to have the courage and the confidence to speak. They feel like they are not good enough and need to improve their English.
The next title that Dörnyei mentions is motivation and expectations, which can be connected to the statement above. The statement that was interesting was “if I get to speak this language well, I will have many opportunities to use it” (p. 70). This kind of attitude is shared among this group of students, they know what they want and they know what they have to do in order to reach their goals. They know what they want and they know what they have to do in order to reach their goals.
The next one was, “If I learn to speak this language very well, it will help me get a good job” (p.70). The other students also have dreams about travelling around the world and being able to experience new things, which is a very positive thing. It is a positive thing in a sense that even though they are struggling and are at this low proficiency level, they still have goals and dreams.
Suggestions for further research
When it comes to further research a possible study could be the following. This study can of course be done with a larger group of students in order to find more differences in their language learning background. There is a possibility to do a comparison with an L2 class regarding their attitudes, learner beliefs, expectations etc. There is an opportunity to take in the teacher perspectives, where the teacher and his or her view are studied. This can be done in terms of how the teachers manage to find ways to teach L3 students at a low proficiency level. It would also be interesting to see how the teacher works when it comes to his or her
students.
In addition to this, it would be interesting to see how the teacher creates and obtains L3
learners’ motivation and deals with their beliefs, expectations and attitudes, for example in the ways that Dörnyei suggests, as described above.
The fact that the result of this study showed small differences between these six students and that their stories about their language learning background were similar, can be a start to a new study, with this result as a starting point. Howcome these students have more or less the same perception of their learning background? Two pairs of the students come from the same
country, Iraq and Serbia, which could have something to do with the result. The two remaining from Bulgaria and Romania could also be interesting to focus on and go into more detail about their backgrounds. This is of course a study of its own and requires access to different students and settings.
The Result and its Consequences
The result of this particular case study and the six learner profiles presented above and its consequences are the following. For me as a language teacher to be, I have gained a greater understanding of the challenges a learner can face when studying a foreign language.
Language is dynamic which makes it interesting. It is not easy to learn a new language; it entails far more than learning the structure in terms of grammar and vocabulary, it also about learning pronunciation, being comfortable using it when travelling and meeting people from different countries.
Hopefully, these students have now started to think even more about how they learn and why they learn etc. A possible consequence of this result is that the teacher will better understand how the students look upon themselves as learners of English, and hopefully the results will be
useful for her future teaching.
CONCLUSION
According to Johansson and Svedner (2006), the importance of a degree project is that it should lead to new and useful knowledge for me as a future teacher (p. 9). This has been achieved through this study. The results show that these students are despite their low
proficiency level very positive about their language development as well as their future. They believe in themselves and their improvement of the English language.
REFERENCES
Backman, J. (2008). Rapporter och uppsatser. Lund: Studentlitteratur
Breen, P. M. (2001). Learner contributions to language learning: new directions in research. Harlow: Pearson Limited.
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Johansson, B. & Svedner, P. O. (2006). Examensarbetet i lärarutbildningen. Undersökningsmetoder och språklig utformning. Uppsala: Kunskapsförlaget.
Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Electronic sources
Jorda, Maria Pilar Safont. (2005). Third Language Learners: Pragmatic Production and Awareness. Clevedon, GBR: Multilingual Matters Limited
From: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/malmoe/Doc?id=10110164&ppg=17" http://site.ebrary.com/lib/malmoe/Doc?id=10110164&ppg=17
Den nationella utvärderingen av grundskolan 2003
Elevenkät, engelska From: http://www.skolverket.se/publikationer?id=1417" http://www.skolverket.se/publikationer?id=1417
The syllabus for English at compulsory level, in the goals to strive for;
http://www3.skolverket.se/ki03/front.aspx?sprak=SV&ar=0910&infotyp=23&skolform=11&id =3870&extraId=2087.
Vetenskapsrådet
APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Letter to receive the parents’ permission and to inform them about the study.
Hej!
Jag heter Louise Ågren och studerar sista terminen med engelska som huvudämne på lärarhögskolan i Malmö.
Jag har till uppgift att genomföra en vetenskaplig undersökning som ska ligga till grund för ett examensarbete inom mitt huvudämne. Mitt valda ämne är att undersöka 6 stycken elever med engelska som sitt tredje språk. Det jag kommer att fokusera på är deras
språkinlärningsbakgrund, vad som är svårt, lätt för dem och vad deras erfarenheter är av att studera engelska.
För att få genomföra den här undersökningen där ungdomar under 18 år deltar, behöver er föräldrar/målsmans underskrift.
___________________________________ Förälders/Målsmans underskrift
Datum/Ort
__________________________________
Har du/Ni några frågor är det bara att höra av sig, lollo98@hotmail.com
Louise Ågren
Appendix 2: Important matters which were discuss with the students when distributing the second questionnaire.
Frågor till Dig som studerar engelska!
Svara på frågorna så utförligt du kan!
Svaren kommer inte att visas för någon, de är helt anonyma.
Nyckelord att tänka på när ni svarar: BESKRIV! FÖRKLARA! BERÄTTA!
VARFÖR ska du då svara på de här frågorna?
Viktigt för din egen utveckling i engelska
Kan påverka din framtida undervisning i engelska
För att du ska reflektera över din egen inlärning när det gäller engelska. Det är viktigt för dig att vara medveten om hur du lär dig bäst.
Bra för din lärare att få respons från er elever
Viktig för mig (Louise) och min uppsats, samt för mitt framtida arbete som lärare
Fråga mig om det är någon som du inte förstår!
Appendix 3: A questionnaire
Bakgrund
1. Hur ser din bakgrund ut när det gäller din undervisning i engelska?
Hur såg din skolsituation ut? (schema – hur många lektioner hade du i veckan t.ex. lärare, hur såg en typisk engelska lektion ut? etc.).
_________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________
Attityder
1. Vad tycker du om det engelska språket? Vad väcker det för tankar och känslor hos dig? _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
2. Vad tycker du om din egen inlärning av det engelska språket? Hur lär du dig bäst? Beskriv hur du ser på din egen inlärning av engelska.
_________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________
3. På vilket sätt tror du att du kommer att ha nytta av dina kunskaper i engelska i framtiden? Berätta, beskriv!
_________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
4. Vilka är några av fördelarna med att arbeta tillsammans med andra?
_________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
5. Vilka är några av fördelarna med att arbeta själv?
_________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________
6. Tycker du att det är en bra fördelning mellan att arbeta självständigt och i grupp? _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
Uppfattningar om ditt lärande
1. Om du tänker på hur din undervisning i engelska ser ut idag, tycker du att du får den kunskap du behöver? Förklara!
_________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________
2. Tycker du att undervisningen i engelska du får är på rätt nivå för dig? Beskriv!
_________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
Övriga kommentarer, något du vill tillägga?
_________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________
3. Vilket sätt föredrar du att lära dig engelska? (läsa, skriva, prata, lyssna, använda bilder etc.,) Hur har du kommit fram till det? (med hjälp av läraren etc.) Beskriv!
_________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Förväntningar
1. Vilka förväntningar har du på dig själv som när det gäller ämnet Engelska? Berätta! _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ ____________
2. Vilka förväntningar tror du läraren/skolan har på dig som elev? _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ ____________
