seminar in language
- 1. Al-Quds University Department of English Course Title Seminar in Language 441 Project Title Characteristics of Good Language Learner Submitted by Razan Nather Submitted to Dr.Omar Abu-Humos Academic Year 2013-2014 Second Semester
- 2. Table of Content: 1-Introduction: 2- Methodology: 2.1 purpose of the study 2.2 significance of the study 2.3 research question and hypothesis 2.4 research design 2.6 procedure 2.7 definitions and terms 2.8 limitations 3-Review of literature: 3.1 theoretical framework 3.2 previous research 4- Findings: 5- Discussion, conclusion and recommendations 6- Reference: 7- Appendices:
- 3. Chapter I Introduction What makes good language learners tick? What do they do that poor learners do not do? Could we help the poor learners by teaching them some of the good language learners’ traits or strategies? Learning a foreign language is more than just a boost to your CV. It will make you smarter, more decisive and even better at English. It also helps boosting your memory; it will widen your knowledge about linguistics, people, and tradition. It also improves your communicating skills, and gives you more confidence in yourself. Knowing a foreign language helps in discovering new worlds, and gets an insider's view of another culture and a new view of your own. Studying a new language, reading other people's stories, and connecting with people in their own language can be a source of pleasure and surprise. Connect with other cultures. Learning about other cultures will help you expand your personal horizons and become a responsible citizen. Getting the language right is a major issue in almost every corner of society. The more we know about the language the more chance we shall have of success, whether we are advertisers, politicians, teachers, journalists, doctors, lawyers, or just ordinary people at home, trying to understand and be understood. This study will try to provide answers to these specific questions and many other questions. And the aim of this study is to identify the most important characteristics that the good language learner has in their characters, and through the questionnaire, I’ll try to know the strategies that are most used by good language learners.
- 4. Chapter II 2. Methodology 2.1 Statement of the problem The problem that this study will identify and make clear is the characteristics of good language learner, because knowing these characteristics and the strategies behind them will make us good learners in all fields of learning, because characteristics are linked automatically with the strategies of learning, that will be explained very well in this study, and will also give the chance for poor language learners to learn these strategies and apply them on their education process. 2.2 Purpose of the study This study is intended to identify the characteristics that good language learners have in their personalities that make them tick and succeed in their education process. And through this we will get to know which of the learning strategies are more used by good language learners, and I’ll make clear how strategies are linked together in the learning process, because strategies are very important for us to be good language learners and later independent learners. 2.3 Significance of the Study This research is important for all kind of learners, because these strategies that will be identified are all of general type. The significance of the study is to breed good independent learners that are ready to learn in all circumstances. Over the last few decades, a gradual but considerable shift has taken place, resulting in less emphasis on teaching and teachers, and greater emphasis on learning and learners. This change
- 5. has been reflected on language education and applied linguistics, and many researchers have applied researches that concerned the learner and the pedagogy of learning, and many other researches have been conducted on the subject of characteristics of good language learners, but they didn’t get to the point where they need to discuss these characteristics and identify them in a way to help poor language learners to be good language learners. In this research I’ll provide you the best way to instill these characteristics in your characters by explaining how teachers can ingrain these strategies into students through teaching strategies. 2.4 Research Questions and Hypothesis 1. What are the characteristics of good language learners? 2. What are the learning strategies that are most used by the good language learners. 3. How can teachers instill these characteristics or strategies into poor language learners in order to become good language learners? 2.5 Research Design In this research the method for data collecting that will be used is the questionnaire. The advantages of using questionnaires in researches are that they are practical, and large amount of information can be collected from a large number of people in a short period of time, and in a relatively cost effective way. And the results of the questionnaires can usually be quickly and easily quantified by either a researcher or through the use of a software package. 2.6 Population and Sample
- 6. For the questionnaire, the instrumentation of the study will be the fourth year students of the English Department at Al-Quds University, and the sample will be about 15 students. The questionnaire will be divided into four sections, and each section will contain a number of questions about a certain strategy of the learning strategies. 2.7 Procedure In this research, the questionnaire will be divided into four sections, and each section will reflect a different type of the major strategies of learning. These four strategies are; Cognitive, Metacognitive, Affective and social strategies. According to previous researches, these are the strategies of learning a second language, and in our study, learning English as a second language. At the end of the research we will see which of these strategies are most used by good language learners and according to the sample of this study, the fourth year students of the English Department at Al-Quds University. 2.8 Limitations Academic year: 2013-2014 Specific Sample: Fourth year students of the English Department at Al-Quds University.
- 7. Chapter III 3. Review of Literature 3.1 Theoretical Background Students should know what to learn and how to learn in order to be good language learners and in the future to become independent learners and be good and effective teachers to raise educated learners. And to be good learners, they need to know the learning strategies in order to follow, but they have to know that there is no specific learning strategy to be a good language learner; there are many strategies that the student should follow to be an effective learner. Learning strategies are used by students to help them understand information and solve problems. A learning strategy is a person's approach to learning and using information. Students who do not know or use good learning strategies often learn passively and ultimately fail in school. Learning strategy instruction focuses on making the students more active learners by teaching them how to learn and how to use what they have learned to solve problems and be successful. This study will divide learning strategies to four main strategies; cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, affective strategies, and social strategies. Cognitive strategies are the specific methods that people use to solve problems, including all sorts of reasoning and planning. Others said that cognitive strategy is a mental process or procedure for accomplishing a particular cognitive goal. Cognitive strategies involve the identification, retention, and retrieval of language elements, and it is all about using our brains to improve our learning process. Metacognitive strategies are taken from the concept metacognition; which means cognition of cognition or knowing of knowing. In other words they are the type of strategies that deal with the
- 8. planning, monitoring, and the evaluating of language learning activities. It is also known as the self-reflecting of thinking about thinking. Metacognitive strategies are used to supervise, control or self-direct language learning. They involve different procedures as planning, prioritizing, setting goals, and self-management. Affective strategies are those that serve to regulate emotions, attitudes, and motivation. They are also known as the skills that have to do with the growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude or self), including the manner in which we deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. This all helps the student to become more confident of him and of his English and all of his skills that are related to his learning process. The main affective strategies include cooperation and question for clarification (Brown, 2007). Social strategies are those that deal with the social side of the learner, it may include his physical and mental skills but more about the student’s interaction with the environment around him and the society that they live in, and it refers to actions learners take to interact with users of language, even if they are native speakers or not. Social skills allow the student to have good communication with people around him, not only in English but also in their own native language. 3.2 Previous Studies: 1. Carol Griffiths has conducted a study in 2010 that was called “Strategies of Successful Language Learner”, that showed the relationship between learning strategies and the good language learner. The instrumentation of her study was an interview given for two different people; a 28 year old Kira from Japan, and 19 year old Nina from Germany.
- 9. Before the interview, the two participants were asked to complete a semantic-scaled questionnaire in order to rate some strategy items. Griffiths chose these two participants because they were successful in their studies, in spite of their differences of age, gender, nationality, and their goals. The result of this study was that the researcher found a relationship between strategies conducted by students and being a good language learner. Griffiths ended her research with a simple sentence: “Those who succeed are motivated and they take charge of their own learning by means of strategies which suit their own individual characteristics, situations, and goals”. 2. Fateme Behabadi and Benham Behfrouz have conducted a study in 2012 about (The Relationship between Characteristics of Good Language Learners and The Especial Employed Learning Strategies during Educational Context). In their research, they have divided the learning strategies into five types: (Metacognitive, Cognitive, Socioaffective, Communication, and Social strategies). They also linked the good language learner to being a motivated learner, and without motivation, success will be hard to have. The method they used was a test given for a group of 56 IELTS candidates for the study. The test consisted of (25 listening comprehension, 35 reading comprehension, and 2 types of writing). 34 participants were selected out of 56, and those were the sample of the study. The researchers interviewed them and then they were asked to answer the questions in the essay type form; to ensure they haven’t missed any point in the interview. The results of the study showed that the students rely on two domains in order to be good language learners: the first domain in their personality features, which showed that good language learners tend to be tolerant, responsible of their own learning and mostly perceiving. The
- 10. second domain was the strategies they used to be good language learners, and here are some of the strategies: 1. Speaking English with friends. 2. Using monolingual dictionaries. 3. Listening to tapes, news, and stories in English. 4. Being very interested in talking to native speakers whenever possible. 5. Watching films in English.
- 11. CHAPTER VI What are the characteristics of good language learners? After I distributed the questionnaire, that involved Yes/No questions about the learning strategies that are used by good language learners among the fourth year students of the English department at AL Quds University, I found very interesting results. Table 1- reported frequency of cognitive strategy used by students Name of the strategy Yes /No Question YES NO Cognitive Are you in charge of your language learning process? 79.92% 19.98% Cognitive Do you set goals of what to accomplish every day? 39.96% 59.94% Cognitive Do you focus for long periods of time during class? 53.28% 46.62% Cognitive Do you focus on more than one thing during class? 79/92% 19.98% Cognitive Do you like group discussions and work? 93.24% 6.66% As demonstrated in Table 1, the sub skills that have the highest percentage in the use by the students are, taking charge of the language learning process, focusing on more than one thing at the same time, and liking group discussions. These sub skills are very important to be successful and good language learners. But being o good language needs preparing yourself every day for everything that would face you and especially what would face you in the language learning process, you have to be ready for any circumstance, but the students of the English department apparently do
- 12. not set goals for their language learning process, and this will reflect badly on their language learning and educational process. Table 2- reported frequency of metacognitive strategy used by students Name of the strategy Yes/ No Question YES NO Metacognitive Do you quiz yourself in order to see if you have understood particular thing in your courses? 59.94% 39.96% Metacognitive Do you evaluate yourself from time to time, in order to see if you have achieved your goal that you have been seeking? 46.62% 53.28% Metacognitive While you are reading or studying, do you question yourself? 59.94% 39.96% Metacognitive Do you underline the key words when you read? 79.92% 19.98% Metacognitive Do you list some ideas related to what you read? 86.58% 13.32% Metacognitive If you didn’t understand a certain thing while studying alone, do you go and search it on your own? 86.58% 13.32%
- 13. According to Table 2, the most skills used by students as metacognitive skills and strategies are, underlining the key words when they read, listing ideas related to what they have been reading, and searching alone for the meaning of ambiguous and unclear words in a text. Students also quiz themselves and ask themselves questions in order to see if they have understood what they have been reading. The least skill used by the students is evaluating themselves in order to see if they have achieved the goals they have set in their learning process. Table 3- reported frequency the use of Affective strategies by students Name of the strategy Yes/No Question YES NO Affective Are you afraid from asking the teacher any question about anything you didn’t understand during class? 6.66% 93.24% Affective Can you remember things that were told without taking notes? 79.92% 19.98% Affective Do you think making mistakes is a negative thing for the learning process? 0% 100% Affective Do you read English books? (Novels, short stories, history books, cultural books). 73.26% 26.64% Affective Do you like writing courses? 73.26% 26.64% Affective Do you like to go through outclass discussions? 73.26% 26.64%
- 14. Affective Do you try to understand every word in a text? 33.3% 66.6% Affective Do you like to give presentations in classes? 66.6% 33.3% Affective Do you repeat words to yourself out loud? 66.6% 33.3% Affective Do you take notes during classes? 79.92% 19.98%