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Volume 4, Number 1 Spring 2008
IN THIS ISSUE
CURRENT RESEARCH TEACHER To TEACHER
Does anyone finish the Berlitz tapes? Some Reactions to a TPRS™ Fluency
by Jeff McQuillan .................................2 Fast Mandarin class
by Stephen Krashen............................24
Beyond the Monitor Model Interview with Jim Loewen
by Hasanbey Ellidokuzo!lu .................6
by Karen Rowan ................................ 26
Anxiety is good for you. How Not to Travel in Europe
by Stephen Krashen ........................... 19 by Karen Rowan ................................. 31
Free Voluntary Reading and the Facilitating Professional Development in
Acquisition of Grammar by Adult South Korea
ESL Students by Martin R. A. Duguay .....................36
by R. Joseph Ponniah .........................20
Research Paper Submission Guidelines Links and Resources ........................ 39
............................................................ 23
IJFLT: A free on-line, peer-reviewed quarterly journal
dedicated to communicating research, articles and
helpful information regarding language acquisition to
support teachers as they endeavor to create fluent,
multilingual students.
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Page 1 The International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching © Spring 2008
Does anyone finish the Berlitz tapes? popular types of self-instructional media available on
aggregation software such as iTunes, even warranting
A novel measure of perseverance for their own category. A typical book in this genre,
commercial language courses Spanish for Dummies, had an Amazon.com sales rank
of 2800 at the time of this writing (November, 2007),
more popular than the sales of a former president’s
memoirs (Clinton, 2005).
Despite the popularity of these commercial products
aimed at the independent language acquirer, there
as been little to no evaluation of their effectiveness
or use. An exception is Harris Winitz’s Learnables
(2003), which have been subjected to several empirical
by Jeff McQuillan, examinations (Winitz & Reed, 1973; Winitz, 1982,
Center for 1996).
Educational
Development Reaching the Promised Land: Perseverance
as a Measure of Success
Jeff McQuillan (Ph.D., University of Southern Certainly one measure of a language course’s success
California, 1997) is a Senior Research Associate is perseverance or resilience in study. Do students
at the Center for Educational Development in Los make it to the upper levels of language proficiency, or
Angeles, California, and co-producer of English as a even the later chapters of the book? Dupuy (1998) was
Second Language Podcast. one of the first researchers to look at perseverance as
it pertains to university-level foreign language classes.
She monitored the number of students who reached
Introduction intermediate and upper-level language courses, and
ethod comparison research in foreign language determined what the characteristics were of the
Meducation has typically focused on classroom “survivors.” Her results showed that only a small
instruction, with relatively little attention paid to a percentage in fact make it beyond the early levels
large number of the foreign language acquirers who of language instruction to what she refers to as the
are self-taught (but see Krashen, 1991; 1996). Many “Promised Land” of upper-division courses, and those
of these acquirers attempt to use self-instructional who do make it have usually benefited from extensive
language courses popular in the United States and exposure to the language outside of school, such as in
other countries, published by companies such as a study abroad experience. It seems reasonable, then,
Berlitz, Pimsleur, Living Language, Rosetta Stone, to expect that a foreign language education program
and others. These courses usually consist of tapes aimed at beginners be effective and motivating enough
or CDs, often accompanied by a book of transcripts, that its students actually reach the intermediate level.
readings, and exercises. The courses are aimed at
adults who wish to pick up a foreign language for One difficulty in measuring the success of commercial
travel or pleasure, and are organized in a sequence of language courses is that, by their very nature, they
lessons designed to take the acquirer to progressively are used by independent learners where experimental
higher levels of proficiency. or even simple observational research is much more
While no sales figures are available, the popularity of difficult. To identify and survey individuals who have
such courses can be attested to in part by the number purchased and attempted to use such courses would
of titles available in bookstores, libraries, and on the be a difficult task for researchers. Short of purchasing
Internet. Independent courses in the form of language and distributing the course to a sample of students,
podcasts (McQuillan, 2006) are among the most measuring these courses’ success will always be
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Page 2 The International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching © Spring 2008
problematic. Fortunately, there are unobtrusive or Both erosion and accretion measures can be used to
“non-reactive” ways of examining the behavior of indicate the extent to which library books are read and
independent adult acquirers, precisely as it bears on studied. The amount of dust on a library volume can
the question of student perseverance. be used to test whether it has been removed for use,
especially useful for reference or reserve volumes.
Non-reactive Measures in Research: The Wear and While circulation records can tell us how often a book
Tear Index is checked out, only erosion and accretion measures
My own attempts at using self-instructional materials can reliably indicate the extent to which the book
to acquire French and Italian led me to see that a itself was read. Moestller (1955, cited in Webb),
“Wear and Tear Index” might provide an indication for example, looked at the use of the International
of the average progress of commercial language Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences at three academic
course users. Most of the books I checked out of my libraries by examining the number of finger smudges,
local library had well-worn page edges, indicating dirt, and underlining in different parts of the book.
heavy use, but only for the first sections of the text. From such evidence he determined which entries were
This “wear and tear” was an the most popular and more
artifact of the general use widely read.
patterns of previous library ....it is difficult to escape
patrons, indicating in effect the the conclusion that many
perseverance of the average Method
user. commercial language Public libraries provide
courses do not appear to free use of a variety
The use of something akin be utilized by independent of materials, including
to a Wear and Tear Index of acquirers for very long. language courses.
behavior is not an original Drawing from Moesteller
idea; it was advocated by Webb and Debois, I used a
(1966) as one example of an combined erosion and
“unobtrusive measure” of accretion measure, the
human behavior in a public space. Webb describes a Wear and Tear Index, to determine the extent to which
class of non-reactive “natural erosion” measures that library patrons actually used a sample of commercial
can indirectly indicate patterns of use and behavior language courses. If erosion and accretion measures
by a target population. The greater the “erosion” of correlate with actual use, then it should be possible
the physical features of an object used for a certain to determine, on average, how much patrons used the
purpose, the more use that object has had. From these courses and the extent of their progress through the
observations one can determine how people behave by use of these materials. If students complete the entire
looking at the artifacts of their actions, much like an course, or reach the final steps of an instructional
archeologist would do for an ancient civilization. For program, we should expect to find wear of the book
example, museum officials interested in determining extending to the later chapters, especially in sequential
which exhibits were most popular could examine the language courses.
rate of tile replacement in front of different exhibits,
since the “erosion” of the tiles would be a likely result For the purposes of this study, I created the Wear and
of heavy foot traffic. A related class of data analysis is Tear Index for examining the library materials. The
the use of “accretion measures,” where some deposit or Index consists of noting the last page where any one of
residue indicates unobserved behavior. Debois (1963, the following three indicators were found:
cited in Webb) cites a study from 1934 on the use of 1. The separation of the pages on the binding,
fingerprints and smudges on a newspaper to indicate 2. Fingerprints or smudges on the pages or the
which advertisements were read by readers paging corners, and
through the publication. 3. Worn or wrinkled corners likely caused by
page turning.
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Page 3 The International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching © Spring 2008
Ten courses found on the shelves of a Los Angeles texts, regardless of the topic covered or necessity of
Public Library neighborhood branch were randomly review.
selected from the shelves for analysis. Although
circulation data was not available for the materials, all Second, it may be that more appealing or effective
had been in circulation for at least one year, and all books and tapes are in constant demand at the library,
had covers and bindings which showed the likelihood and hence would not likely appear on the shelf the
of frequent use by numerous patrons. day we conducted our analysis. A survey of the Los
Angeles Public Library catalog revealed, however,
No direct measure was made of audio
materials, although all but two of the Table 1
courses that were examined contained Use of Commercial Language Courses by Library Patrons
either an accompanying CD or cassette Course Title Last Page Total Percent
tape. There is no easy way to detect the (Publisher, Year) Used Pages* Read/Used
extent or frequency of CD use, other
than nicks and scratches to the back E-Z Spanish: A Begin- 35 328 11%
surface. Although cassette tape usage ner’s Course (Barron’s,
can be gauged by whether the tape 2001)
was stopped at some point, there is no Teach Yourself: Spanish 86 318 27%
way to know if more diligent patrons (McGraw-Hill, 2003)
rewound the tape. Also, no phrasebooks Learn Spanish the Fast 37 264 14%
or “traveler’s” courses were examined, and Fun Way (Barron’s,
since they are designed for reference 1997)
use, and are organized by theme or topic Rush Hour Spanish
rather than sequentially as a course. (Berlitz, 2003)
Results 21 104 20%
Table 1 shows results of the analysis. Spanish Now! Level 1 80 505 26%
For each course, the title, publisher, (Barron’s, 2005)
year of publication, last page used, total Portuguese for Dum- 20 304 7%
pages, and the percent of use are shown. mies (Wiley Publishing,
All ten courses were examined in a 2006)
single afternoon; audio-only courses Learn German the Fast 15 252 6%
were excluded from selection. and Fun Way (Barron’s,
1997)
Discussion Chinese for Dummies 38 314 12%
A number of objections can be raised (Wiley Publishing,
concerning these results. First, it could 2005)
be argued that the situation is not unique Teach Yourself Begin- 44 193 23%
to commercial language course, that ner’s Italian (NTC/Con-
the first chapter of most instructional temporary Publishing,
books are the most worn, and that few 1999)
users “complete” their instructional
sequences. Users may also need to Teach Yourself Canton- 56 254 22%
review early chapters more frequently. ese (NTC/Contemporary
While this may be true, it is still not Publishing, 1995)
very encouraging that patrons don’t Average 16.8%
move beyond the first chapter of such * = excluding glossaries or bilingual dictionaries at the end of the volume
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Page 4 The International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching © Spring 2008
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