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Experimenting on your students

Explore ethical practices in experimenting on students' writing coherence using an example from Chinese students. Discover the role of the teacher as a researcher in enhancing English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teaching. Gain insights into experimental results and the impact on students' linguistic resources.

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Experimenting on your students

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  1. Experimenting on your students Neil Allison 25/02/17

  2. Experimenting on your students ethically via an example of experimenting on Chinese students’ written coherence Neil.Allison@glasgow.ac.uk Phronesis in the Classroom

  3. Phronesis – practical wisdom “a true and reasoned state of capacity to act with regard to the things that are good or bad for man.”   Aristotle Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy “NOT experimenting on live subjects in the classroom should require ethical approval.” Neil Allison 2017 Neil Allison 25/02/17

  4. The teacher as researcher The EAP teacher… • is a teacher, a course designer and materials provider, a collaborator, a researcher, and an evaluator. • Has a vivid sense of research priorities and pressing problems and questions that need addressing • Should ensure EAP knowledge base is not reified around a small number of key theories and research methods. Harwood ResTES and Bruce ResTES BALEAP 2017 Neil Allison 25/02/17

  5. But viewed from another angle With increasing pressure to be a research entrepreneur, failure may mean you are merely a good teacher Neil Allison 25/02/17

  6. The teacher as researcherOur concerns • We come from other backgrounds: law, literature, biology, philosophy, etc • Contract unpredictability and insecurity • Contracted to teach, perhaps not to research • Time: compare a researcher’s teaching timetable robustness completeness Neil Allison 25/02/17

  7. Overview • The experiment: 1.1 Background 1.2 Aims 1.3 Methods 1.4 Results 1.5 The Literature • Critical view of research in our ‘discipline’ • Experimental washback – Phronesisappears Neil Allison 25/02/17

  8. 1. The Experiment1.1 Background YRPS (Masters) B1/B2 (5.5-6 IELTS) Writing 4 x 1.5 hours p/w 7 Chinese, 4 Arabic; 1 Japanese My experiences with Chinese writing: • Overuse of connectors; • Confusing paragraphs: topic; function or purpose • Confusing flow of ideas Neil Allison 25/02/17

  9. 1. The Experiment1.1 Background My hypotheses: • Unclear thinking / lack of topic comprehension • Poor writing strategies e.g. planning • Translation at micro level • Insufficient linguistic resource Neil Allison 25/02/17

  10. 1.2 Aims Neil Allison 25/02/17

  11. 1.3 Methods Diagram Natural science – scientific method – (laboratory or intrusive case study) Inappropriate appropriate or against method Neil Allison 25/02/17

  12. 1.3 Methods pt 2 Details see GU EAS blog Constraints re control variables: text book, linear nature of course Moderating and mediating variables? I experimented on approaches to tasks via intervention: • Instruct students to brainstorm in English v L1 • Instruct students to write in L1 and translate • Give a simple topic and function v complex • Signal coherence before task v no mention of coherence Neil Allison 25/02/17

  13. 1.4 The ‘Results’ (observations) • Formality of cohesive devices was a bigger problem for Chinese students than the act of including them in the first place – i.e. they said they didn’t have the same range of options • Explicitly teaching students about thematic progression seemed to speed up their ability to ‘think logically/ think like an English person’. However, see next slide re confusion over what coherence and thematic progression mean • Thinking in L1 appeared to reduce cognitive load and improve coherence Neil Allison 25/02/17

  14. 1.4 The Results cont.The more interesting ones • Students really enjoyed the activities, especially the opportunity to translate • 6 of my 12 students at week 8 of the 10 week course, despite experiments almost every week signalled as coherence related, were unable to explain in English what coherence was • Students were more open to revealing practices that they suspected were bad e.g. using google translate Neil Allison 25/02/17

  15. 1.5 The Literature ‘Framework’: SFL – Halliday, especially Theme & Rheme • As English proficiency (especially grammar) increases, coherence improves1 • Dispute re cultural background effect on coherence2, 3, 4 • Chinese language tendencies and grammar – less direct; back end discourse units or frame utterances with context5, 6 • Chinese language education focuses on smaller discourse units e.g. sentence7 Neil Allison 25/02/17

  16. Comparison – lab v literature LABORATORY LITERATURE Grammar proficiency is key There may not be anything important to learn about L1 – L2 or Culture 1 – Culture 2 translation Theme and rheme and thematic progression are pretty complicated concepts and not prevalent in the classroom • L1 – L2 vocabulary and interlanguage, especially register damages cohesion – coherence • Explicitly teaching students about theme and rheme is confusing for some but helps some • There are ways to reduce cognitive load and translation may work Neil Allison 25/02/17

  17. Text books: SFL – theme rheme Appears to be little direct attention. Example 1 >from Access EAP foundations Neil Allison 25/02/17

  18. Text books: SFL – theme rheme Appears to be little direct attention. Example 2 >from Oxford EAP Upper Intermediate Neil Allison 25/02/17

  19. 2. Critical Review of research in our ‘discipline’ • What ‘discipline’ do we come from? • Tony Becher (1981) perspectives of academics about each other’s disciplines • Hypothesis or no hypothesis • Anecdotal: is it a taboo? • Changing discipline: • Settings > lack of uniformity WITHIN discipline traitor Neil Allison 25/02/17

  20. 2. Critical Review of research in our ‘discipline’ • Positivism c/f humanities – semiotics – critical theories • Objective reality and theories c/f • Action research or grounded theory? or simply deepening our understanding of what happens in our laboratory akin to Exploratory Practice frameworks Neil Allison 25/02/17

  21. 3. Washback Motivation 1 - students The Hawthorne Effect Neil Allison 25/02/17

  22. 3. Washback Motivation 2 - teachers Humanistic Research Understand; sensitise; sense make QoCL – “quality depends on the degree to which attention is paid to it.” Gieve & Miller 2006:22 Neil Allison 25/02/17

  23. SUMMARY • Don’t wring your hands too much on epistemology • Phronesis = deepening our understanding of something in a virtuous way • What is more virtuous for teachers than helping your students enjoy learning? Neil Allison 25/02/17

  24. BibliographyGeneral • Allison, N https://englishforacademicstudy.wordpress.com/author/easglasgow/ • Becher, T. (1981) ‘Towards a definition of disciplinary cultures’, Studies in Higher Education, 6(2), pp. 109–122 • Bruce, I https://teachingeap.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/ian-bruce-baleap-restes-paper-january-28.pdf • Harwood, N https://teachingeap.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/restes-talk-nigel-harwood.pdf Neil Allison 25/02/17

  25. BibliographyCoherence • Halliday, M.A.K. and Halliday, M. (1985) An introduction to functional grammar. Baltimore, Md., USA: Hodder Arnold • 1. Hawes, T. and Thomas, S. (2012) ‘Theme choice in EAP and media language’, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 11(3), pp. 175–183 • 2. Bar‐LevZev (1986) ‘Discourse theory and “contrastive rhetoric”∗’, Discourse Processes, 9(2), pp. 235–246 • 3. Khirallah, M. (2004) ‘SECOND LANGUAGE WRITERS’ TEXT: LINGUISTIC AND RHETORICAL FEATURES’, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26(03) • 4. McCarthy, M.J. (1991) Discourse analysis for language teachers. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Nunan, D. (2001). Second language teaching and learning. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press • 5. Liu, X. and Furneaux, C. (2013) ‘A multidimensional comparison of discourse organization in English and Chinese university students’ argumentative writing’, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 24(1), pp. 74–96 • 6. Kirkpatrick, A. and Xu, Z. (2012) Chinese rhetoric and writing: An introduction for language teachers. Anderson, SC: WAC Clearninghouse • 7. Mohan, B., & Lo, W. (1985). Academic Writing and Chinese Students: Transfer and Developmental Factors. TESOL Quarterly,19(3), 515-534 Neil Allison 25/02/17

  26. BibliographyResearch • Arthur, J. (2012) Research methods and methodologies in education. Edited by Larry V. Hedges, Robert Coe, and Michael Waring. London: SAGE Publications especially chapters 8 and 9 • Buchanan, D. R. Beyond positivism: humanistic perspectives on theory and research in health education. Health Education Research 13.3 (1998): 439-50 • Gieve and Miller What do we mean by quality of classroom Life In Understanding the Language Classroom. 2006 Edition. Palgrave Macmillan • Punch, K.F. (2009) Introduction to research methods in education. Los Angeles: Sage Publications Ltd, United Kingdom. Neil Allison 25/02/17

  27. BibliographyStudent Books • Argent, S. and Alexander, O. (2010) Access EAP: Foundations. Reading, [England]: Garnet Education • de Chazal, E. and McCarter, S. (2012) Oxford EAP: A course in English for academic PurposesUpper-intermediate/B2. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press Neil Allison 25/02/17

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