Action Research Proposal

Action Research Proposal

Purpose of Research

There are many challenges that teachers, teaching English as a second language face. As an online English foreign language teacher, coming up with practices that work well towards enhancing the learning process is vital for the efficient learning process.  There is a need by the teacher to come up with different ways that the student is going to remember the spelling, the meaning, and how to use the words in sentences (Sabirova & Khanipova, 2019). This particular action research study looks into the impact of English and Mandarin words and their equivalent English pronunciation and spelling have on students learning online English. It also looks at how we can implement “phonetic spelling” and the translation of vocabulary words in “Mandarin Chinese” (Yoon, 2011). There is also the research on whether the use of visuals for the vocabulary words and a word map would work on helping the students remember the English vocabulary words that they are taught.

Description of the Problem

Various tactics to improve the overall reading ability of students are used during the teaching process. One such method is the provision of vocabulary words given to each student taking on the classes. The words are offered to be studied by the students (level 1) on their own, and then there is testing them on the same words the following week. This was one of the approaches to see how the strategy works and if it can be implemented across several classes. Other than coming up with the idea, the procedure was not adequately planned. Hence, it did not cover the planning stage completely. The acting stage was achieved through the use of carefully chosen words given to students and similar for each student. The approach lacked a well thought developing step, but the reflection stage was achieved via the use of tests. The tests were in a bid to understand whether the approach had any desired impact on the learning process (Yoon, 2011).

However, the tactic was found to be not equally successful since most of the students did not study the words and none of the ten students given the words could recall all the ten words. The result is the need to understand a different strategy that might work better in comparison to previous attempts (Sabirova & Khanipova, 2019).

Literature Review

There are many challenges in teaching English as a foreign language. The situation is direr in cases where the teaching is online (Li & Fu, 2010). In this respect, the study aims to look into the various problems that lead to poor performance by students taking on English as a second language and make some pedagogical suggestions that might help to resolve these issues. The research study also looks into the impact of English and Mandarin words and their equivalent English pronunciation and spelling have on students learning online English.

The review examines three learning theories that act as the three mainstream approaches to the teaching of a language as the second language (Lailiyah, 2016). The review also looks into empirical studies of online teaching and learning. The three general methods underlying in the teaching of a second language include the oral situational approach, the notional functional approach, and the task-based approach.

The Oral-Situational Approach

The oral-situational approach is based on a structural syllabus (specification of the linguistics structures to be taught). It emphasizes the meaning drawn from the structures, not just the various forms and also the importance of situational teaching structures. This approach is based on behaviorist learning theory (Lailiyah, 2016). The learning theory viewed the learning of a foreign language as similar to other types of learning, which involve habit formation. Habits were formed when the learners learned the correct responses to stimuli through repeated practice. Words are offered to be studied by the students on their own, and then there is testing them on the same words. This was one of the approaches to see how the strategy works and if it can be implemented across several classes (Lailiyah, 2016). The method is unsuccessful since the students do not form a habit of studying the words on their own. The continuous studying of the words by the students induces remembrance among the students. According to the behaviorist theory, English vocabulary is learned inductively; there is no need for and no value in explicit explanation of grammar points (Li & Fu, 2010).

Studies emphasize that this practice needs to go beyond ‘language-like behavior’ by including opportunities for learners to engage in activities that emphasize form-meaning mappings and that replicate the kinds of conditions of use found in everyday communication (Lailiyah, 2016). Without such actions, full automatization cannot take place. Ten, level 1 students taking on one-hour classes three times a week were given five vocabulary words. The students were of Chinese descent, undertaking English as a second language (He, Y. (2014)). They conducted online classes, and the students had to take an exam to evaluate their understanding and their grasping of the vocabulary words handed down to them (Lailiyah, 2016). The students were to study the words on their own, and after the exams, it was clear that more had to be done since the students did not review the words on their own. The use of phonetic spelling and the translation of words to Mandarin Chinese would form “language-like behavior” among the students developing conditions of everyday use of the words by the students in communication (Li & Fu, 2010).

The Notional-Functional Approach

This approach is accuracy based. The approach differs from the oral-situational approach in terms of the content taught. The oral-situational approach is based on grammatical competence, while the notional functional approach is based on communicative competence (Lailiyah, 2016). Another element implicit in the underlying learning theory is that language learning involves the learning of formulaic chunks of language as much as it requires learning rules. The implementation of phonetic spelling and the use of visuals in the teaching of the language enhances memorability among the students (Lailiyah, 2016).

The Task-Based Approach

Comparison of this approach to the preceding two methods, a task-based approach to language teaching does not attempt to stipulate the language forms (and associated meanings) to be taught. Instead, the learning of the language is in terms of ‘tasks.’ A task can be defined as work that needs to be done (Lailiyah, 2016). Tasks need to be distinguished from exercises (Li & Fu, 2010). The use of word maps can be categorized as a task-based approach while teaching students. This is because it is focused on meaning rather than form, which is the case of an exercise (Li & Fu, 2010).

SETTING:

The school offers online classes and has an overall population of forty-five students. Many of the students are children and teenagers whose parents lend a hand in their learning by helping them do their assignments and give necessary feedback on areas that need improvement. All the students are Chinese citizens who live in China. The students are learning English as a foreign language. All the students are at level 1 in terms of learning. They have a good understanding of the English alphabet, the colors, and they can count up to 20 as well as identify all the shapes. From the classes, the students struggle with vocab words in English.

PARTICIPANTS:

The participants are Chinese nationals. They study through online classes taking up English as a foreign language. The class consists of ten students who take three classes each week, and each class is one-hour long. Students are young children and teenagers. Classes are allocated to each teacher by the school. Each teacher obtains a specific number of students to work with for the semester. Results from previous groups will be compared to the results of the students who are taught during the study to show whether the study has a positive impact on the learning of English as a foreign language.

INSTRUMENTS:

Data from the study is collected using several tools. One such device is the oral-situational approach. The basis of the method is the behaviorist learning theory. (Lailiyah, M. (2016).), the students are given exercises that will enable them to form habits, which in turn will allow them to learn. The tasks assigned involve the study of select words, provided by the teacher, and testing the students on these words (Liu, D. (2017)). We give students exercises on phonetic spelling. The phonetic spellings will enable the students to learn proper pronunciation while teaching them fair usage of the words (LI, J., & FU, H. (2010).). The Oral-situational approach is the best in terms of grammatical competence.

There is the use of the Notational-Function approach to improving the communication competence of the students (Liu, H., & Kuo, C. (2011)). The instrument involves giving the students questions that put them in real-life situations. The teacher can have full conversations with the students, and the correct grammar and usage of words can be graded based on those conversations. Students can also be tasked with researching specific topics and presenting them to the teacher during tests (Rustamovna Sabirova, D., & Rafael’yevna Khanipova, R. (2019).). The Notational-Functional approach can enable the students to discover new words and adequately using the concepts they already know.

The Task-Based approach entails the learning of a language by offering the student ‘tasks’ (work that needs doing. (Lailiyah, M. (2016).)). There is the tasking of students coming up with different word maps for different words. Word map formation will enable the student to understand the meaning of specific words. Additionally, the word map will allow the student to discover synonyms of these words antonyms and will paint a picture of the word in the student’s mind.

CHRONOLOGY:

For observation of the student’s rate of learning, we will carry out the study for the entirety of the semester. The first three weeks will enable the teaches to test how well the students understand the meanings of words and their usage. There will be the dedication of one week to examining the students on their understanding, with the students taking a written test on the first lesson, an oral examination on the second lesson, and analyzing and correction of the tests on the third lesson of that week.

There is the focusing of the following three weeks on the grammatical competence of the students. Once the three weeks are over, the testing of students will commence for an additional one week. Two weeks will be allocated to the proper word usage in the formation of sentences and everyday speech. Final tests will be given for a week, after which we undertake the analysis of results for the remainder of the semester.

DATA COLLECTION:

Data collected in the study will be in terms of the number of words understood, the number of grammatical errors made, and the proper integration of concepts into everyday speech. There will be a collection of data from the written and oral tests given to the students.

ANALYSIS:

This particular action research study looks into the impact of English and Mandarin words and their equivalent English pronunciation and spelling have on students learning online English. The analysis of the students’ performance will address this research question.

When collecting data, splitting of classes into two groups is done, with one group taking all the tasks and exercises while the second group goes through usual lessons, without the assignments and activities. Data from the two groups is collected in terms of the tests given to all the sets of students. There will be a comparison of data to check which of the two groups: understood the words better, had the least number of grammatical errors, and could use the concepts better in everyday conversations.

References

Lailiyah, M. (2016). Content and language integrated learning in teaching English as second language: A systematic review of empirically based articles. Enjourme (English Journal of Merdeka): Culture, Language, and Teaching of English, 1(1). doi:10.26905/enjourme.v1i1.278

Li, J., & Fu, H. (2010). English word associative memory through pronunciation based vocabulary network. Journal of Computer Applications, 30(7), 1970-1973. doi:10.3724/sp.j.1087.2010.01970

Sabirova, D., & Khanipova, R. (2019). Innovative approaches to teaching and learning English as second and English as foreign language in multilingual education. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews, 7(6), 45-48. doi:10.18510/hssr.2019.7610

Yoon, S. Y. (2011). The impact of blended learning on teaching and learning English pronunciation. English Teaching, 66(4), 139-163. doi: 10.15858/engtea.66.4.201112.139

Liu, D. (2017). The Acquisition of English Word Stress by Mandarin EFL Learners. English Language Teaching, 10(12), p.196.

Liu, H., & Kuo, C. (2011). Excessive Extent in Cognition—A Contrastive Study on Mandarin and English. Journal Of Language Teaching And Research, 2(5). doi: 10.4304/jltr.2.5.1015-1022

He, Y. (2014). Production of English Syllable Final /l/ by Mandarin Chinese Speakers. Journal Of Language Teaching And Research, 5(4). doi: 10.4304/jltr.5.4.742-750

FINAL COMMENTS:

        Given a chance to redesign or re-implement the project, I would offer the students videos to go and watch instead of words to study habitually. I would do so since the students found it hard to consider these words as opposed to listening to others use the words and hearing the usage of the words in their proper context. Additionally, I would use the last ten minutes of every lesson to engage in conversation with the students and particularly urge the students to use the new words learned or give the student new vocabulary that they should research before the next class.

A few ideas that may be put into practice when researching further on this topic are the use of games with great use of the English language for the students to learn while at the same time having fun.

The action research experience and my findings have enabled me to discover a way in which the students can learn more regardless of the time they have. This learning is by using exercises and specific tasks that enable the student to form a picture in their minds.