T1 112007137 Full text
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 2
Introduction
Joining the English Debating Society since my first year in English
Department of Satya Wacana Christian University gives me a lot of improvements
in learning English. Among some of the things I learned were constructing an
opinion for or against an argument (reason why I agree or disagree toward a
topic), defending and arguing the argument and supporting it with logical
explanation. Bell (1982) also states that preparing for a debate activity requires
students to use library resources, take notes, define terms, formulate arguments
and rebuttals, and develop critical thinking skills. Broda-Bahm, Kempf, Driscoll
(2004) said that critical thinking is seen as one of the most salient benefits of
joining a debate. It implies that the learners can significantly improve their critical
thinking by participating in a debate activity.
In the debate activity, there are two positions or “benches”; affirmative or
proposition and negative or opposition team. The job of the affirmative team is to
defend the arguments, while the negative team against the arguments of the
affirmative team or vice versa. In this study, I would use the term “unpredicted”
or “unexpected” arguments interchangeably to mean the arguments brought by the
opposition team that are not consciously pre-planned by either affirmative or
negative team.
Besides, the pedagogical functions, I found joining in a debate boosted my
confidence. What so special about participating in a debate is I am free to share
my idea of agreeing or disagreeing by providing reasonable arguments. The
journey of my debate was so amazing. So far, I have joined about ten
2
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 3
competitions in both regional and national level. From that, I experienced mixed
feelings of good - bad, boring - interesting, happy - sad in the competitions. I
learned how to compete with other universities and won the debate.
The hardest experience in the debate is when I had to deal with an
unpredicted argument that would be brought by the opponent team. The table
below illustrates which arguments could be predicted or not before the debate:
Table 1. Example of Jargons of the debate
Jargons Debate
Motion
This House Believes That Endorse programs protection with patent
instead of copyright
Position
Opposition (Me)
Case
programs protection should endorse patent instead of copyright
Expected
- Proves that patent is better instead of copyright for programs
argument(s) of
protection with says the benefits of patent (Benefit for economic
Proposition
field, society and creator)
- Gives the harm of copyright for programs
Argument(s) of
- Gives harm of patent protection
Opposition
- Gives benefits of copyright protection
Unexpected
- There is law protection by patent protection for programs.
argument(s) of
Proposition
3
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 4
The last column shows that there was one argument which I did not predict and
unfortunately appeared in the debate. Basically, argument is a part of case. Case is
big argument which can be supported by several arguments.
Because of my experience above, I would like to conduct the study to
counter argue the unexpected arguments in debate activity. In particular, the study
aims to explore the students‟ strategies in overcoming the unexpected argument
brought by the opponent team. In every practice and competition, I always
predicted what the opponent‟s case and sometimes my predictions was different
with the opponent‟s case and I have to think fast how to defend the case with my
logical arguments, background knowledge (schema), or even my past educational
experiences.
Because of my difficulty in overcoming the unexpected argument, I am
curious whether others use similar strategies in dealing with unexpected
arguments or not. The Public Speaking course is chosen because this is the only
course which includes debate activity. Also, in a speaking class, to my knowledge,
there is no material teaching the strategies to deal with unexpected argument. I
was also struggling to figure out strategies to deal unexpected argument in the
debate. I hope the findings of the study will give benefit for the teacher, course
designer and also the students.
Theoretical Frame work
My research is situated within several potential strategies developed in
dealing with unexpected argument. In debate activities, each student should have
their own strategy to attack their opponent‟ case or argument convincingly. In my
4
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 5
paper, there are three strategies how to deal with the unexpected argument in the
debate activity namely metacognitive, schema theory, and socio-cultural
strategies.
O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) states that metacognitive strategies involve
thinking about learning process, planning for learning, and monitoring the
learning task. It is often referred to “thinking about thinking” (Sternberg, 1986).
By using metacognitive strategy, students will be able to process the argument of
the debate, identify the problem and think with their logical thinking as people
general thought. Metacognitive strategy also involves the ability to correct errors
and analyze the effectiveness of the learning strategies students have used (Ridley,
Schutz, Glanz & Weinstein, 1992). Thus, metacognitive is one important
strategies in the debate because it can help students to think logically toward a
particular motion. Students may use their logical thinking when they are facing
the unexpected arguments. Also, they can refer to cause and effect based on the
argument brought by the opponent team.
The term socio-cultural generally refers to social and cultural contexts of
human activity (for example, Heath 1983; Ochs 1987; Ochs and Schieffelin
1984). As Lantolf (2004, p.30) explains, “socio-cultural is a theory of mind that
recognizes the central role that social relationship and culturally constructed
artifacts play in organizing uniquely human forms of thinking”. Moreover, “sociocultural strategy is focused on the impact of culturally organized and socially
meanings on the formation and functioning of mental activity” (Lantolf & Thorne,
2006). In the debate, there is an organization called EDS (English Debating
5
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 6
Society) which help students to explore their debate skills. EDS as social club also
teach students many strategies to counter the opposing arguments. Therefore, the
relationship between human mental functioning and the activities are both many
and highly consequential (Lantolf, 2006, p.1).
Another strategy of overcoming the unexpected argument is schema
strategy which implies the idea or the things that come up from student‟s mind
come from her or his background knowledge. The mind, stimulated by key words
or phrases in the text or by the context, activates a knowledge schema (Cook,
1989, p.69). So, in relating with the argument, student may reflect to her/his
knowledge which is stimulated by the key words. This idea also supported by
Savage (1998), a strategy how students organize and store information in their
brains, stimulate and arrange this information when there are key words. It means,
when students are dealing with the unexpected argument, they can organize and
store their knowledge to the debate. Bartlett (1932, p.257) supports that schema
strategy as “an active organization of past reactions, or past experience.” Thus,
when student faces the unexpected argument from the opposite team, then the
student‟s background knowledge is stimulated by the some key words or phrases
in the unexpected argument itself. If students keep this knowledge in mind as they
read, they increase their opportunities to stimulate of the information in the debate
( Aerbersold & Field, 1997).
6
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 7
The study
Context of the study
The setting of the study is the English Department of Satya Wacana
Christian University (SWCU). It is located in a small town of Salatiga, Central
Java, Indonesia. The subject of this study is the nine Public Speaking students
from Mr. Damian Blow and Miss Fanggila London (pseudonyms) classes in
English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University. Only Public Speaking
class provides debate activities. Moreover, the debate activity is held as the final
assignment of Public Speaking class. English Department hopes ED students will
be able to produce critical thinking as well as provide a learning experience for
students and increase classroom participations. The students are from second year
students which have 16 students per class at the most. Public spe aking class is
held once a week and lasts sixteen weeks approximately.
Participants
The participants of the present study were nine students registered in
Public Speaking classes in English department SWCU. The nine students are in
the second academic year (2009/2010). Table 2 gives detail information of my
participants:
7
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 8
Table 2. Detail information of participants
Name (pseudonyms) Gender
Betty
& Duration
Age
interview
Female/20
05:33
of Date of interview
February,
12th .
2011
Afgan
Male/20
05:44
February,
10th .
2011
Tesya
Female/20
06:35
March, 15th . 2011
Meysa
Female/20
03:34
February,
10th .
2011
Vuad
Male/20
04:10
March, 15th . 2011
Narita
Female/20
05:03
March, 15th . 2011
Bowi
Male/20
03:21
March, 15th . 2011
Jamal
Male/20
04:42
March, 15th . 2011
Iva
Female/20
04:01
March, 15th . 2011
The participants consist of five female students and four male students.
The participants in the study were selected among the nine participants by using a
sample of convenience (Mc Kay, 2006, p.37) which means the selection of
participant based on people who are easily accessible to me.
8
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 9
Instruments of Data Collection
I collected the data using a stimulated Recall Interview (Brown &
Rodgers, 2002) The stimulated Recall Interview is often used for teaching
learning process, but in my study, I believes a stimulated Recall Interview can be
used for debate activity. Stimulated Recall Interview is a technique in which the
researcher record and transcribes part of a lesson or debate activity and then gets
the participants to comment on what was happening at the time activity under
study takes place (Brown & Rodgers, 2002;Nunan, 1989). The aim of Stimulated
Recall Interview is to remind the participant of the unexpected arguments they
faced in the debate activity.
To obtain the unexpected argument for the stimulated recall interviews,
each participant of the debate were videotaped with the video camera for the
debate activity. Then, I asked them to watch the videotape of the debate and
thought aloud regarding their unexpected argument they faced and thought the
strategies to overcome the unexpected arguments. Participants were free to stop
the video at any time to make more detailed comments. All questions made by me
(see appendix 1, interview‟s questions) and it recorded on audiotape which was
then transcribed used as a source of data for analysis.
Procedure of data collection
The study made use of qualitative data and it was taken from stimulated
recall interview. After that, the data will be analyzed by making a clean
transcription. Clean Transcription is a transcription which focuses on the content
9
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 10
of the interview (Zacharias, forthcoming). From the interview‟s transcription, I
was planning to find the data of students‟ strategies in overcoming the unexpected
arguments. I identified the unexpected argument by students‟ saying of her/his
predictions.
I use the transcription to make the data easier to analyze. The transcription
was analyzed using content analysis (McKay, 2006). Content analysis is the way
to analyze the data by focusing on the contents or themes across the participants.
It begins by assigning emerging themes to the participants‟ transcript. Then, the
interview transcript are extracted, classified, and gathered into categories in table
3 (Zacharias, forthcoming).
Data analysis
A stimulated recall interview was designed to draw out the students‟
strategies in overcoming the unexpected argument. A content analysis based on
the research questions was done by generating emerging themes and then themes
from the answers given by the participants. The emerging themes are listed below:
10
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 11
Table 3. Emerging themes
Theoretical Framework
Substantive or emerging themes
Metacognitive
Schema theory
Socio-cultural
-
Logical thinking
-
cause and effect
-
Education
-
Cultural history
-
Experience
-
Life history
-
Developing opposing skills
-
The system of debate
According to McKay (2006), content-analysis involves identifying and
coding key topics in your data. One way to begin is to read the data over a variety
of times, look for key ideas or topics and label these ideas by marginal notes o
post-its. My overall goal is to arrive at a list of categories that develop from the
data and capture the ideas in the data. Once I have arrived at a list of emerging
themes, I can then return to the data and code the data according to the three
categories, metacognitive, schema-theory and socio-cultural.
11
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 12
Findings and Discussion
From the three strategies, metacognitive, schema theory and socio-cultural I have
discussed in the theoretical framework, the nine participants only used two
strategies namely schema theory and socio-cultural.
Schema Theory
As already mentioned, schema theory is a strategy how students organize
and store information in their brains, stimulate and arrange this information when
there are key words (Savage, 1998). Out of nine participants, five students stated
that the strategy they used to overcome the unexpected argument is schema
theory. In what follows, I will discuss students‟ strategies in using schema
theories, drawn from three aspects: previous education, experience, and cultural
history.
Previous education
Out of the nine participants, two participants drew the schema theory from
their educational background. For example, Meysa (a pseudonym) when joining a
debate in a public speaking class dated November 6 th , 2010, she was debating
against an open-border policy of countries (hereafter, the case). In other words,
she belonged to the opposition team. At that time, she explained that she was
expecting the proposition team to bring an argument for the case using western
countries such as United States and United Kingdom. Unpredictably, she
continued, the proposition team used the argument of Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan,
which she did not expect or predict. To overcome the unexpected argument, she
drew from her education in high school as she noted below:
12
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 13
“Biasanya pake pelajaran IPS waktu SMA kelas 1. Pelajaran geografi
kalau gak salah. Kalau Kirgistan dan Uzbekstan memang dua Negara yang
berbeda, kan di petanya ada, mengklarifikasi kalau Kirgistan dan
Uzbekstan adalah dua ethnic yang berbeda Negara bukan seperti Jawa dan
Sumatra dalam satu Negara. (Meysa, a pseudonym, February 10th , 2011)”
“Commonly I use my knowledge in IPS (literally translated as “social
subject”) in the first grade of senior high school. If I am not mistaken it is in
the geographic lesson. Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan are different countries
because it is in map. And then I clarify that Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan have
two different ethnicities and they are not like Java and Sumatra lay in one
country. (Meysa, a pseudonym, February 10 th , 2011, my translation)”
From Meysa‟s excerpt above, it can be seen that the way she overcame the
unexpected argument is by drawing from the social subject or “IPS” from her
senior high school, particularly the geographic lesson. The way she attacked the
case of the proposition team was from her previous educational background which
taught her that Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan were different countries and thus, had
different ethnicities.
Another example is from Tesya, a pseudonym, also belonged to the
opposition team. Tesya also said that she expected the argument of the proposition
team to be about an open-border policy between Western countries.
Unexpectedly, Tesya explained, the argument brought by the proposition team
was about particular countries, Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan. Moreover, the
proposition team brought about the conflict happened in both countries which she
13
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 14
never predicted. In order to deal with the unexpected argument, she drew from her
previous education:
“Pengetahuan umum tentang hubungan antar negara itu aku dapet salah
satunya dari pelajaran MKU, terutama hubungan negara pada umumnya.
misalnya satu negara itu gimana sih hubungannya dengan Negara lain saat
ada
konflik.
Kemarin
waktu
di
MKU
(Mata
Kuliah
Umum)
Kewarganegaraan, aku masih dijelasin tentang hak warga Negara,
misalnya aku terancam di negaraku, aku bisa minta suaka ke Negara lain.
Nah aku hubungin ke konflik di Kirgizstan sama Uzbekistan dari MKU yang
aku dapat gimana kemudian warga negara nasibnya. (Tesya, a pseudonym,
February 15th , 2011).”
“I got a general knowledge about international relationship from MKU
(literally translated as “general course”), especially countries relationship in
general. For example, how a country have a relationship with other country
when there is a conflict. In my general course, Citizenship, I learnt about the
right of citizen. One example is if I was threatened in my country, I could
ask for asylum to other country. So, I am trying to link the conflict in
Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan with the lesson in general course on how the
condition of their citizen. (Tesya, a pseudonym, February 15 th , 2011, my
translation).”
Based on Tesya explanation, it can be seen that she used the same strategy as
Mesya in dealing with the unexpected argument. She reflected on her previous
knowledge in a Citizenship course explaining the relationship between countries
14
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 15
when there was a conflict. In attacking the unexpected argument of the
proposition team, Tesya put forward an argument from her previous education.
From Meysa and Tesya‟s data, it can be seen that drawing from previous
education supports earlier findings as Cook (1989) mentioned of schema theory.
This finding suggests that the mind, stimulated by key words or phrases in the text
or by the context, activates a knowledge schema (Cook, 1989:69). The key words
of the unexpected arguments at the case of open-borders policy of countries,
“Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan”, stimulate Meysa and Tesya knowledge to go back to
their previous education where they learnt about both countries. By using
preexisting schema theory, they might overcome the unexpected case by
developing and relating their past education with the case of the debate. Because
the debate forces students to know many topics and think fast, the students may
rely on preexisting schemata to provide relevant arguments.
Own Experience
Among the nine participants, five participants drew the schema theory
from their own experiences. For instance, Ben, Vuad and Jamal (pseudonyms),
when they were joining a debate in a Public Speaking class dated September 29th ,
2010, they were debating against the case “watching more television” (See
Appendix 1, list of motions). In other words, they belonged to the opposition
team. At that time, Ben explained that he predicted the proposition team would
put forward arguments only on the benefits of television. Unpredictably, the
proposition argued with the argument about the function of ratings that could
prevent child viewers from watching inappropriate programs in television. In
15
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 16
dealing with the unexpected argument, he drawn from his own experience as
noted below:
“Saya kebetulan sekali mempunyai pengalaman pribadi bahwa sewaktu
saya masih kecil, teman-teman saya dan saya tidak tau apa itu rating di
televisi sehingga tentu saja saya tetap menontonnya karena saya tidak
tau lambang rating itu yang tertera di televisi. (Ben, a pseudonym,
March 15th , 2011).”
“Fortunately, I had experience when was a kid, my friends and I did not
know what was ratings in television so that I watched all the programs in
television. I did not understand the rating‟ symbol on the right side of
television programs directing the age of viewers in television. (Ben, a
pseudonym, March 15th , 2011, my translation).”
From Ben‟s comments, his strategy in dealing with the unexpected argument was
by drawing from his own experience. Ben‟s data showed how symbol of ratings
had no meaning in his childhood. When Ben was a child, he did not understand
the purpose of ratings in television even pay attention to the symbol.
Another example is from Vuad. In that moment, Vuad predicted the
proposition team would bring an argument about the benefits of television for
giving information and educative programs. However, unexpectedly, the
proposition team brought the benefits of visual content in television that made
children more creative.
16
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 17
Similar to Ben, he tried to rebut the proposition team‟ argument by using his
own experience as noted below:
Saya pernah membuktikan sendiri bahwa ternyata di televisi selama 24
jam itu lebih cenderung memberikan banyak contoh-contoh yang buruk
dari misalnya iklan-iklan rokok, sinetron-sinetron yang berisikan kontenkonten kekerasan dan pelecehan-pelecehan (Vuad, a pseudonym, March
15th . 2011).
I have proved that watching television for twenty- four hours might tend
to give bad examples, for instance: cigarette advertisements, sinetron that
contain harassment and violence. (Vuad, a pseudonym, March 15 th . 2011,
my translation).
From Vuad‟s explanation, it shows that his experience of watching television all
day long gives bad examples such as violence from cigarette advertisements and
sinetron programs. Reflecting on his experience, he argued against the unexpected
argument by saying that television was not good for viewers because there were
violence and harassment both from programs and advertisement.
Another example of using own experience is from Jamal, who was also
belonged to the same opposition team as Vuad and Ben. He p redicted the
argument from proposition team would have been about the benefits of television
in the term of the development of the brain. Unpredictably, the proposition team
brought the argument about by watching more television, people were still able to
17
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 18
do socialization with others. To attack the unexpected argument, Jamal drew from
his experience as noted below:
“Saya pernah mengalami, waktu itu kecanduan nonton tv sampe nonton
film apa gimana juga gitu dan ya sempet lupa berinteraksi sama orang di
sekitar gituh. (Jamal, a pseudonym, March 15th . 2011).”
“I ever had experience, at that time, I addicted to watching television. I
watched a lot of programs in television. As a result, I forgot to socialize
with others. (Jamal, a pseudonym, March 15 th . 2011).”
Based on Jamal‟s explanation, he used the same strategy as Ben and Vuad in
dealing with the unexpected argument. Using his own experience in watching
television, he had no time to socialize with people. Moreover, not being able to
socialize made him become an unsociable person at that time.
Narita, another participant who belonged to the proposition team, also used
her experience to deal with the unexpected argument. Narita, as the member of
proposition team also debated upon “watching more television”. She expected the
opposition team would bring the debate into the harm of television. Unexpectedly,
the opposition team brought the debate about the advertisement in the television
which could lead to consumerism. In overcoming the unexpected argument, she
drew from her experience as follows:
18
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 19
“Berdasarkan pengalamanku, kalau lihat iklan gak langsung pingin gitu.
Jadi gak langsung pingin mengkonsumsi itu (iklan) atau langsung pingin
nyoba. (Narita, a pseudonym, March 15th , 2011).”
“Based on my experience, when I see advertisement, I do not directly want
it. So, I do not want to consume or directly want to try. (Narita, a
pseudonym, March 15th , 2011, my translation).”
From the Narita‟s interview excerpt, it can be seen that the way she attacked the
unexpected argument is by using her experience. Narita believes that
advertisements in the television do not cause consumerism. It is proven by her
personal experience when she watched advertisement, she did not directly want or
try it.
From Ben, Vuad, Jamal and Narita‟s data, it can be seen that drawing from
their own experiences support the earlier findings of schema theory (Bartlett,
1932). This finding suggests that schema theory is an active organization of past
reactions, or past experience. Their past experience for example Ben‟s childhood
that he did not understand about symbol of ratings which brought improper
information for him. Similarly, Vuad also stated that television brought bad things
from advertisements which show of violence and harassment. Those experiences
of the danger of television were activated in their mind and made them argue the
unexpected argument brought by the opponent team.
Ethnicity history
19
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 20
Out of the nine participants, one participant drew the schema theory
strategy from her ethnicity history. When joining a debate in a public speaking
class dated November 6th , 2010, Betty was debating against the case “the media
should be prevented by law from intruding into the private life of public figures”.
At that moment, she belonged to the opposition team, supporting the media of
intruding into the private life of public figures. She said, the expected argument
from the proposition team was the media would have given bad image toward
public figures. Unexpectedly, the argument brought by proposition team was by
the bad news of media interference, it would create bad society judgment toward
public figures and their ethnicity. In overcoming the unexpected argument, Betty
drawn from her ethnicity history below:
“Aku ada pengalaman, aku ada background keturunan Tionghoa. Ketika
aku sebagai orang Tionghoa masuk menjadi suatu minoritas di suatu
komunitas tertentu, otomatis aku harus bersikap layaknya Tionghoa.
Maksudnya berhubung aku minoritas dan aku punya wajah dan mungkin
keturunan Tionghoa, di mana orang-orang pasti melihat aku ini sebagai
orang Tionghoa. Jadi apapun yang nanti aku lakukan bukan cuma aku
personal sebagai Betty, tapi aku sebagai seorang Betty keturunan
Tionghoa udah harus ngejaga sikap. Biar orang-orang ngeliat oo ternyata
orang Tionghoa ga selalu kayak gini ya (pelit contohnya). Jadi kayak aku
punya tuntutan culture di belakang dan ada society control yang akan
membuat aku bersikap lebih baik. (Betty, a pseudonym, December
2010)”
20
2nd
,
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 21
“I had an experience, as I am a Chinese descendant. Moreover I have a
Chinese face which everybody can see clearly that I am a Chinese.
Chinese is a minority group in my community, it automatically affects the
way I behave as a minority. Whatever I do, it will impact not only me as
personal but also me as a Chinese descendant. I have to behave well in
order to make people know that other Chinese people do so. I have cultural
demand here which also there is society control that makes me better.
(Betty, a pseudonym, December 2nd, 2010, my translation).”
The excerpt above shows that Betty used her ethnicity history in order to attack
the unexpected argument brought by the opposition team. She reflected her
ethnicity history as a Chinese. As a minority group, Betty has to keep her attitude
in order to prove to the society that her ethnicity is good. Similar to the case, Betty
tried to say by keeping attitude well, public figures viewed her as well as their
ethnicity.
From Betty‟s description, it can be seen that drawing from her ethnic
history supports the finding of schema theory as pointed out before. This finding
supports that schema theory is collections of information of previous experience
that are organized into related knowledge groups (Nishida, 1999). The unexpected
argument reminded Betty‟s of her past ethnicity history about the existence of
society control that makes her to have good behavior. By keeping her attitude
well, it will impact to her personality as well as her ethnicity. Using experience in
the term ethnicity may give idea to deal with the unexpected argument.
21
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 22
Socio-cultural
Out of the nine students, only one student use socio-cultural strategy.
Lantolf (2004, p.30) explains that “socio-cultural is a theory of mind that
recognizes the central role of social relationship and culturally constructed
artifacts play in organizing uniquely human forms of thinking”. In what follow, I
will discuss one student‟ strategy in using a socio-cultural strategy.
The use of socio-cultural in the strategy of student in overcoming
unexpected argument is stated by Betty, a pseudonym. She participated in an EDS
club (English Debating Society) during college years. In that moment, Betty was
joining a debate activity in a Public Speaking class dated November 6 th , 2010. The
case of the debate was about “the media should be prevented by law from
intruding into the private life of public figures”. Betty belonged to the opposition
team which is against the proposition team argument by supporting role of media
from intruding into the private life of public figures. She stated that the expected
argument from the proposition team was the media will give a bad image toward
public figures. Unexpectedly, the argument brought by the proposition team was
by the interference of media for example, spreading inappropriate news into the
public figures‟ life, it will create bad society judgment toward public figures and
their ethnicity. To rebut the unexpected argument, she used the following strategy:
“Dulu aku sempet ikut EDS (English Debating Society) dan itu cukup ada
beberapa kayak case-case yang udah mulai ngebahas soal society control,
jadi aku juga cukup familiar dengan kata-kata itu di mana dalam case
yang public figures
ini society control itu bisa banget dipake karna
22
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 23
jadinya cocok. Mungkin sedikit banyak dari EDS karena kita jadi banyak
pemikiran bahwa setiap ada argumen masuk, kita pasti harus mikir pasti
oppositenya gitu loh jadi dalam kasus ini juga dia ngomong ini kita jadi
kayak mikir kebalikannya untuk nyerang mereka balik. (Betty, a
pseudonym, December 2nd , 2010).”
I used to join EDS (English Debating Society) and there were several
cases which discussed about society control where it was quite familiar
for me. In the case of public figures, argument about society control
could be used. It was because of EDS since we would have many thought
when there were arguments, we (students) should think the opposite
arguments. So, in this case when they explained about something, we
should think the other way around to oppose their case (Betty, a
pseudonym, December 2nd 2010, my translation).”
Based on Betty‟s explanation, it can be seen that the way she overcame the
unexpected argument is by drawing from EDS (English Debating Society) clubs.
Firstly, by joining EDS clubs, she became familiar with the jargons that relate to
the case such as society control. Second, EDS clubs trained opposing
argumentative skills which forced Betty to not only think the positive argument
but also negative argument as well. For example, if there was positive argument,
Betty needed to think how to argue by saying the contradictory argument.
Somehow, the strategy of socio – cultural is little bit the same with metacognitive.
23
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 24
However, what makes it differ is that the strategy appears by the EDS which is
social clubs.
From Betty‟s data, it can be seen that drawing EDS clubs supports earlier
findings of socio-cultural (Lantolf, 2006, p.1). This finding suggests that “the
relationship between human mental functioning and the activities are both many
and highly significant”. The skill that Betty got was from EDS club. EDS club
gave her strategy in overcoming the unexpected argument. First of all, it increases
the developing of vocabulary or jargon related to the case of the debate. Next is
opposing argumentative skills which is when there is an argument, she was forced
to think the opposite argument. Therefore, by using a socio-cultural strategy,
students may overcome the unexpected argument.
Conclusion and Pedagogical Implications
When I began the study, I was curious about student‟s strategies in
handling with the unexpected arguments in debate activity in public speaking
class. Through this study, I have learned their strategies in dealing with
unpredicted argument brought by the opponent team. The study found two major
strategies how students deal with the unexpected argument. The strategies are
schema theory and socio-cultural strategies.
In the following paragraph, I give brief summary of the two major findings in the
present study.
First, the finding shows most of students used strategy namely schema
theory (Hiebert & Raphael, 1996). Students‟ schema theory is activated from their
24
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 25
previous education, ethnicity history and own experience (Anderson and Pearson,
1984). By the existence of their schema theory, their thoughts were easily to
process and overcome the unexpected argument. The finding of ethnicity history
showed that by stimulating the background of student‟ ethnicity, student was able
to argue the unpredicted argument brought by the opponent team.
Since the findings of the study have shown us that students can use their
schema theory drawn from ethnicity history, previous education, and own
experience, it suggested for the teacher to in include students‟ experiences in
debate preparation before facing the debate activity. It can be debate practices to
store the information students have that related to motion of the debate. Teacher
can also elaborate students‟ past education or experience in dealing with the
unexpected argument.
The findings of the study also pointed out to the importance of
participating a debate clubs. Betty, for example, stated that she used socio-cultural
strategy in dealing with the unpredicted argument. She said by her involving in
EDS club, she was familiar with many arguments of the several topics in the
debate. The quote showed by joining the EDS clubs made her able to overcome
the unexpected argument in the term of jargons that she have. What she could
learn from EDS club were various. First, she was able to develop vocabulary or
“jargons” that related to the debate. Second, she was capable to develop her
opposing argumentative skills.
The pedagogical implication lays on the importance of teacher in order to
make the student prepared well in facing the debate activity. Moreover, when
25
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 26
students meet with the unexpected argument, teacher needs to give more
information of dealing with unexpected argument in material for student‟
handbook. Teacher is suggested to make some activities that forcing the students
to develop opposing argumentative skills which students have to think the
opposite argument of a topic given. Next, teacher need to give the debate‟ material
that provide strategies where students can learn how to deal with the unexpected
argument. Lastly, students are suggested to join EDS club in order to learn the
mechanism and knowledge of the debate. By joining EDS clubs, students may
have better understanding in participating in a debate.
26
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 27
Acknowledgme nt
Finishing my incredible thesis is one of the best works that I have ever
done in my life. I would like to express my gratitude for my Jesus that gave me
strength and big spirit in finishing my awesome thesis. I grant my special and
deepest gratitude to my amazing supervisor, Nugrahenny T. Zacharias, Ph.D, for
her opinions, criticisms and encouragements. For my parents, I also want to say
big thanks for both of you. Thank you for sacrificing your wealth, time and effort
for your daughter‟s education. Tesya, my little sister, thanks for your jokes so that
life is full of fun. I am very thankful for my sister, Kiki, for being my grammar
supervisor. Thank you for your patience in assisting my thesis, my grammar and
also my other courses which I believe my grades was increasing a lot. Also, in
writing this acknowledgment, you still corrected my grammar. Fortunately, in my
thesis, I could beat you, cing! Finally, I would give my big thumbs for my friends:
Nining, thank you for not graduating in March, I know you intended to do that
because you want to give me flowers in my graduation. Others, thanks for Ita,
Maurin, Ester, Rini, Tiwi, Thea, Yutta, Saprol, Fika, Pristika and many more.
Without you guys, I could not boast my thesis grade. I am very thankful to all my
participants, English Department lecturers, staffs and my ED friends. Thanks guys
for all experiences and memories.
27
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 28
References
Aebersold, J. A., & Field, M. L. (1997). From Reader to Reading Teaching: Issue
and strategies for second language classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Anderson, R.C. and Pearson, P.D. (1984). A schema-theoretic view of basic
processes in reading comprehension, in P.D. Pearson, ed., Handbook of
Reading Research (pp. 255–291). New York: Longman
Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social
Psychology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Bell, E. P. (1982). Debating Controversial Issues. History Teacher, 15, 207-223.
Broda-Bahm,K. T., Kempf, K., & Driscoll, W. J. (2004). Argument and audience:
presenting debates in public settings.
: The International Debate
Education Association
Brown, J. D., & Rodgers, T. S. (2002). Doing second language research. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Carrell, P.L., Gajdusek, L., & Wise, T. (1998). Metacognition and EFL/ESL
reading. Instructional Science, 26, 97-112.
Cook, G. (1989).
Discourse in „Language Teaching: A scheme for Teacher
Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Driscoll, W., & Zompetti, J.P. (2003). Discovering the world through debate: a
practical guide to educational. New York:
The International Debate
Education Association.
Gagné, E.D., Yekovich, C.W., & Yekovich, F.R. (1993). The cognitive psychology
of schooling learning. New York, NY: Harper Collins College Publishers.
28
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 29
Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with Words. Language, Life, and Work in communities
and Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lantolf, J. P. (2004). „Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language
Deveopment. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lantolf, J. P & Thorne, S. L. (2006). Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of
Second Language Development. New York: Oxford University Press.
McDonough, J., & McDonough, S. (1997). Research methods for English
language teachers. London: Arnold.
McKay, S. L. (2006). Researching second language classrooms. Mahwah, NJ.:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Nishida, H. (1999). Cultural Schema Theory: In W.B. Gudykunst (Ed.), Theorizing
About Intercultural Communication, (pp. 401–418). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications, Inc.
Ochs, E. & B. Schieffelin. (1984). Language Socialization Across Cultures.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ochs, E. (1987). „Input: a socio-cultural perspective‟ in Hickman, M. (ed.): social
foundation of Language Development. New York: Academic Press.
O‟Malley, M.J., & Chamot, A.U. (1990). Learning strategies in second language
acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ridley, D.S., Schutz, P.A., Glanz, R.S. & Weinstein, C.E. (1992). Self-regulated
learning: the interactive influence of metacognitive awareness and goalsetting. Journal of Experimental Education 60 (4), 293-306.
Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
29
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 30
Savage, J. (1998). Teaching reading and writing: combining skills, strategies and
literature. Boston: McGraw Hill.
Sternberg, R. J. (1986). Inside intelligence. American Scientist, 74, 137-143.
Wallace, C. (2000). Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Zacharias, T. N. (2010). The Teacher Identity Construction of 12 Asian ES
Teachers in TESOL Graduate Programs. The Journal of Asia TEFL, Vol
7/2, pp. 177-197.
Zacharias, T. N. (Forthcoming). Qualitative Research Methods for Second
Language Education a Course book. Newscastle, UK: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing.
30
Introduction
Joining the English Debating Society since my first year in English
Department of Satya Wacana Christian University gives me a lot of improvements
in learning English. Among some of the things I learned were constructing an
opinion for or against an argument (reason why I agree or disagree toward a
topic), defending and arguing the argument and supporting it with logical
explanation. Bell (1982) also states that preparing for a debate activity requires
students to use library resources, take notes, define terms, formulate arguments
and rebuttals, and develop critical thinking skills. Broda-Bahm, Kempf, Driscoll
(2004) said that critical thinking is seen as one of the most salient benefits of
joining a debate. It implies that the learners can significantly improve their critical
thinking by participating in a debate activity.
In the debate activity, there are two positions or “benches”; affirmative or
proposition and negative or opposition team. The job of the affirmative team is to
defend the arguments, while the negative team against the arguments of the
affirmative team or vice versa. In this study, I would use the term “unpredicted”
or “unexpected” arguments interchangeably to mean the arguments brought by the
opposition team that are not consciously pre-planned by either affirmative or
negative team.
Besides, the pedagogical functions, I found joining in a debate boosted my
confidence. What so special about participating in a debate is I am free to share
my idea of agreeing or disagreeing by providing reasonable arguments. The
journey of my debate was so amazing. So far, I have joined about ten
2
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 3
competitions in both regional and national level. From that, I experienced mixed
feelings of good - bad, boring - interesting, happy - sad in the competitions. I
learned how to compete with other universities and won the debate.
The hardest experience in the debate is when I had to deal with an
unpredicted argument that would be brought by the opponent team. The table
below illustrates which arguments could be predicted or not before the debate:
Table 1. Example of Jargons of the debate
Jargons Debate
Motion
This House Believes That Endorse programs protection with patent
instead of copyright
Position
Opposition (Me)
Case
programs protection should endorse patent instead of copyright
Expected
- Proves that patent is better instead of copyright for programs
argument(s) of
protection with says the benefits of patent (Benefit for economic
Proposition
field, society and creator)
- Gives the harm of copyright for programs
Argument(s) of
- Gives harm of patent protection
Opposition
- Gives benefits of copyright protection
Unexpected
- There is law protection by patent protection for programs.
argument(s) of
Proposition
3
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 4
The last column shows that there was one argument which I did not predict and
unfortunately appeared in the debate. Basically, argument is a part of case. Case is
big argument which can be supported by several arguments.
Because of my experience above, I would like to conduct the study to
counter argue the unexpected arguments in debate activity. In particular, the study
aims to explore the students‟ strategies in overcoming the unexpected argument
brought by the opponent team. In every practice and competition, I always
predicted what the opponent‟s case and sometimes my predictions was different
with the opponent‟s case and I have to think fast how to defend the case with my
logical arguments, background knowledge (schema), or even my past educational
experiences.
Because of my difficulty in overcoming the unexpected argument, I am
curious whether others use similar strategies in dealing with unexpected
arguments or not. The Public Speaking course is chosen because this is the only
course which includes debate activity. Also, in a speaking class, to my knowledge,
there is no material teaching the strategies to deal with unexpected argument. I
was also struggling to figure out strategies to deal unexpected argument in the
debate. I hope the findings of the study will give benefit for the teacher, course
designer and also the students.
Theoretical Frame work
My research is situated within several potential strategies developed in
dealing with unexpected argument. In debate activities, each student should have
their own strategy to attack their opponent‟ case or argument convincingly. In my
4
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 5
paper, there are three strategies how to deal with the unexpected argument in the
debate activity namely metacognitive, schema theory, and socio-cultural
strategies.
O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) states that metacognitive strategies involve
thinking about learning process, planning for learning, and monitoring the
learning task. It is often referred to “thinking about thinking” (Sternberg, 1986).
By using metacognitive strategy, students will be able to process the argument of
the debate, identify the problem and think with their logical thinking as people
general thought. Metacognitive strategy also involves the ability to correct errors
and analyze the effectiveness of the learning strategies students have used (Ridley,
Schutz, Glanz & Weinstein, 1992). Thus, metacognitive is one important
strategies in the debate because it can help students to think logically toward a
particular motion. Students may use their logical thinking when they are facing
the unexpected arguments. Also, they can refer to cause and effect based on the
argument brought by the opponent team.
The term socio-cultural generally refers to social and cultural contexts of
human activity (for example, Heath 1983; Ochs 1987; Ochs and Schieffelin
1984). As Lantolf (2004, p.30) explains, “socio-cultural is a theory of mind that
recognizes the central role that social relationship and culturally constructed
artifacts play in organizing uniquely human forms of thinking”. Moreover, “sociocultural strategy is focused on the impact of culturally organized and socially
meanings on the formation and functioning of mental activity” (Lantolf & Thorne,
2006). In the debate, there is an organization called EDS (English Debating
5
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 6
Society) which help students to explore their debate skills. EDS as social club also
teach students many strategies to counter the opposing arguments. Therefore, the
relationship between human mental functioning and the activities are both many
and highly consequential (Lantolf, 2006, p.1).
Another strategy of overcoming the unexpected argument is schema
strategy which implies the idea or the things that come up from student‟s mind
come from her or his background knowledge. The mind, stimulated by key words
or phrases in the text or by the context, activates a knowledge schema (Cook,
1989, p.69). So, in relating with the argument, student may reflect to her/his
knowledge which is stimulated by the key words. This idea also supported by
Savage (1998), a strategy how students organize and store information in their
brains, stimulate and arrange this information when there are key words. It means,
when students are dealing with the unexpected argument, they can organize and
store their knowledge to the debate. Bartlett (1932, p.257) supports that schema
strategy as “an active organization of past reactions, or past experience.” Thus,
when student faces the unexpected argument from the opposite team, then the
student‟s background knowledge is stimulated by the some key words or phrases
in the unexpected argument itself. If students keep this knowledge in mind as they
read, they increase their opportunities to stimulate of the information in the debate
( Aerbersold & Field, 1997).
6
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 7
The study
Context of the study
The setting of the study is the English Department of Satya Wacana
Christian University (SWCU). It is located in a small town of Salatiga, Central
Java, Indonesia. The subject of this study is the nine Public Speaking students
from Mr. Damian Blow and Miss Fanggila London (pseudonyms) classes in
English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University. Only Public Speaking
class provides debate activities. Moreover, the debate activity is held as the final
assignment of Public Speaking class. English Department hopes ED students will
be able to produce critical thinking as well as provide a learning experience for
students and increase classroom participations. The students are from second year
students which have 16 students per class at the most. Public spe aking class is
held once a week and lasts sixteen weeks approximately.
Participants
The participants of the present study were nine students registered in
Public Speaking classes in English department SWCU. The nine students are in
the second academic year (2009/2010). Table 2 gives detail information of my
participants:
7
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 8
Table 2. Detail information of participants
Name (pseudonyms) Gender
Betty
& Duration
Age
interview
Female/20
05:33
of Date of interview
February,
12th .
2011
Afgan
Male/20
05:44
February,
10th .
2011
Tesya
Female/20
06:35
March, 15th . 2011
Meysa
Female/20
03:34
February,
10th .
2011
Vuad
Male/20
04:10
March, 15th . 2011
Narita
Female/20
05:03
March, 15th . 2011
Bowi
Male/20
03:21
March, 15th . 2011
Jamal
Male/20
04:42
March, 15th . 2011
Iva
Female/20
04:01
March, 15th . 2011
The participants consist of five female students and four male students.
The participants in the study were selected among the nine participants by using a
sample of convenience (Mc Kay, 2006, p.37) which means the selection of
participant based on people who are easily accessible to me.
8
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 9
Instruments of Data Collection
I collected the data using a stimulated Recall Interview (Brown &
Rodgers, 2002) The stimulated Recall Interview is often used for teaching
learning process, but in my study, I believes a stimulated Recall Interview can be
used for debate activity. Stimulated Recall Interview is a technique in which the
researcher record and transcribes part of a lesson or debate activity and then gets
the participants to comment on what was happening at the time activity under
study takes place (Brown & Rodgers, 2002;Nunan, 1989). The aim of Stimulated
Recall Interview is to remind the participant of the unexpected arguments they
faced in the debate activity.
To obtain the unexpected argument for the stimulated recall interviews,
each participant of the debate were videotaped with the video camera for the
debate activity. Then, I asked them to watch the videotape of the debate and
thought aloud regarding their unexpected argument they faced and thought the
strategies to overcome the unexpected arguments. Participants were free to stop
the video at any time to make more detailed comments. All questions made by me
(see appendix 1, interview‟s questions) and it recorded on audiotape which was
then transcribed used as a source of data for analysis.
Procedure of data collection
The study made use of qualitative data and it was taken from stimulated
recall interview. After that, the data will be analyzed by making a clean
transcription. Clean Transcription is a transcription which focuses on the content
9
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 10
of the interview (Zacharias, forthcoming). From the interview‟s transcription, I
was planning to find the data of students‟ strategies in overcoming the unexpected
arguments. I identified the unexpected argument by students‟ saying of her/his
predictions.
I use the transcription to make the data easier to analyze. The transcription
was analyzed using content analysis (McKay, 2006). Content analysis is the way
to analyze the data by focusing on the contents or themes across the participants.
It begins by assigning emerging themes to the participants‟ transcript. Then, the
interview transcript are extracted, classified, and gathered into categories in table
3 (Zacharias, forthcoming).
Data analysis
A stimulated recall interview was designed to draw out the students‟
strategies in overcoming the unexpected argument. A content analysis based on
the research questions was done by generating emerging themes and then themes
from the answers given by the participants. The emerging themes are listed below:
10
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 11
Table 3. Emerging themes
Theoretical Framework
Substantive or emerging themes
Metacognitive
Schema theory
Socio-cultural
-
Logical thinking
-
cause and effect
-
Education
-
Cultural history
-
Experience
-
Life history
-
Developing opposing skills
-
The system of debate
According to McKay (2006), content-analysis involves identifying and
coding key topics in your data. One way to begin is to read the data over a variety
of times, look for key ideas or topics and label these ideas by marginal notes o
post-its. My overall goal is to arrive at a list of categories that develop from the
data and capture the ideas in the data. Once I have arrived at a list of emerging
themes, I can then return to the data and code the data according to the three
categories, metacognitive, schema-theory and socio-cultural.
11
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 12
Findings and Discussion
From the three strategies, metacognitive, schema theory and socio-cultural I have
discussed in the theoretical framework, the nine participants only used two
strategies namely schema theory and socio-cultural.
Schema Theory
As already mentioned, schema theory is a strategy how students organize
and store information in their brains, stimulate and arrange this information when
there are key words (Savage, 1998). Out of nine participants, five students stated
that the strategy they used to overcome the unexpected argument is schema
theory. In what follows, I will discuss students‟ strategies in using schema
theories, drawn from three aspects: previous education, experience, and cultural
history.
Previous education
Out of the nine participants, two participants drew the schema theory from
their educational background. For example, Meysa (a pseudonym) when joining a
debate in a public speaking class dated November 6 th , 2010, she was debating
against an open-border policy of countries (hereafter, the case). In other words,
she belonged to the opposition team. At that time, she explained that she was
expecting the proposition team to bring an argument for the case using western
countries such as United States and United Kingdom. Unpredictably, she
continued, the proposition team used the argument of Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan,
which she did not expect or predict. To overcome the unexpected argument, she
drew from her education in high school as she noted below:
12
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 13
“Biasanya pake pelajaran IPS waktu SMA kelas 1. Pelajaran geografi
kalau gak salah. Kalau Kirgistan dan Uzbekstan memang dua Negara yang
berbeda, kan di petanya ada, mengklarifikasi kalau Kirgistan dan
Uzbekstan adalah dua ethnic yang berbeda Negara bukan seperti Jawa dan
Sumatra dalam satu Negara. (Meysa, a pseudonym, February 10th , 2011)”
“Commonly I use my knowledge in IPS (literally translated as “social
subject”) in the first grade of senior high school. If I am not mistaken it is in
the geographic lesson. Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan are different countries
because it is in map. And then I clarify that Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan have
two different ethnicities and they are not like Java and Sumatra lay in one
country. (Meysa, a pseudonym, February 10 th , 2011, my translation)”
From Meysa‟s excerpt above, it can be seen that the way she overcame the
unexpected argument is by drawing from the social subject or “IPS” from her
senior high school, particularly the geographic lesson. The way she attacked the
case of the proposition team was from her previous educational background which
taught her that Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan were different countries and thus, had
different ethnicities.
Another example is from Tesya, a pseudonym, also belonged to the
opposition team. Tesya also said that she expected the argument of the proposition
team to be about an open-border policy between Western countries.
Unexpectedly, Tesya explained, the argument brought by the proposition team
was about particular countries, Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan. Moreover, the
proposition team brought about the conflict happened in both countries which she
13
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 14
never predicted. In order to deal with the unexpected argument, she drew from her
previous education:
“Pengetahuan umum tentang hubungan antar negara itu aku dapet salah
satunya dari pelajaran MKU, terutama hubungan negara pada umumnya.
misalnya satu negara itu gimana sih hubungannya dengan Negara lain saat
ada
konflik.
Kemarin
waktu
di
MKU
(Mata
Kuliah
Umum)
Kewarganegaraan, aku masih dijelasin tentang hak warga Negara,
misalnya aku terancam di negaraku, aku bisa minta suaka ke Negara lain.
Nah aku hubungin ke konflik di Kirgizstan sama Uzbekistan dari MKU yang
aku dapat gimana kemudian warga negara nasibnya. (Tesya, a pseudonym,
February 15th , 2011).”
“I got a general knowledge about international relationship from MKU
(literally translated as “general course”), especially countries relationship in
general. For example, how a country have a relationship with other country
when there is a conflict. In my general course, Citizenship, I learnt about the
right of citizen. One example is if I was threatened in my country, I could
ask for asylum to other country. So, I am trying to link the conflict in
Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan with the lesson in general course on how the
condition of their citizen. (Tesya, a pseudonym, February 15 th , 2011, my
translation).”
Based on Tesya explanation, it can be seen that she used the same strategy as
Mesya in dealing with the unexpected argument. She reflected on her previous
knowledge in a Citizenship course explaining the relationship between countries
14
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 15
when there was a conflict. In attacking the unexpected argument of the
proposition team, Tesya put forward an argument from her previous education.
From Meysa and Tesya‟s data, it can be seen that drawing from previous
education supports earlier findings as Cook (1989) mentioned of schema theory.
This finding suggests that the mind, stimulated by key words or phrases in the text
or by the context, activates a knowledge schema (Cook, 1989:69). The key words
of the unexpected arguments at the case of open-borders policy of countries,
“Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan”, stimulate Meysa and Tesya knowledge to go back to
their previous education where they learnt about both countries. By using
preexisting schema theory, they might overcome the unexpected case by
developing and relating their past education with the case of the debate. Because
the debate forces students to know many topics and think fast, the students may
rely on preexisting schemata to provide relevant arguments.
Own Experience
Among the nine participants, five participants drew the schema theory
from their own experiences. For instance, Ben, Vuad and Jamal (pseudonyms),
when they were joining a debate in a Public Speaking class dated September 29th ,
2010, they were debating against the case “watching more television” (See
Appendix 1, list of motions). In other words, they belonged to the opposition
team. At that time, Ben explained that he predicted the proposition team would
put forward arguments only on the benefits of television. Unpredictably, the
proposition argued with the argument about the function of ratings that could
prevent child viewers from watching inappropriate programs in television. In
15
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 16
dealing with the unexpected argument, he drawn from his own experience as
noted below:
“Saya kebetulan sekali mempunyai pengalaman pribadi bahwa sewaktu
saya masih kecil, teman-teman saya dan saya tidak tau apa itu rating di
televisi sehingga tentu saja saya tetap menontonnya karena saya tidak
tau lambang rating itu yang tertera di televisi. (Ben, a pseudonym,
March 15th , 2011).”
“Fortunately, I had experience when was a kid, my friends and I did not
know what was ratings in television so that I watched all the programs in
television. I did not understand the rating‟ symbol on the right side of
television programs directing the age of viewers in television. (Ben, a
pseudonym, March 15th , 2011, my translation).”
From Ben‟s comments, his strategy in dealing with the unexpected argument was
by drawing from his own experience. Ben‟s data showed how symbol of ratings
had no meaning in his childhood. When Ben was a child, he did not understand
the purpose of ratings in television even pay attention to the symbol.
Another example is from Vuad. In that moment, Vuad predicted the
proposition team would bring an argument about the benefits of television for
giving information and educative programs. However, unexpectedly, the
proposition team brought the benefits of visual content in television that made
children more creative.
16
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 17
Similar to Ben, he tried to rebut the proposition team‟ argument by using his
own experience as noted below:
Saya pernah membuktikan sendiri bahwa ternyata di televisi selama 24
jam itu lebih cenderung memberikan banyak contoh-contoh yang buruk
dari misalnya iklan-iklan rokok, sinetron-sinetron yang berisikan kontenkonten kekerasan dan pelecehan-pelecehan (Vuad, a pseudonym, March
15th . 2011).
I have proved that watching television for twenty- four hours might tend
to give bad examples, for instance: cigarette advertisements, sinetron that
contain harassment and violence. (Vuad, a pseudonym, March 15 th . 2011,
my translation).
From Vuad‟s explanation, it shows that his experience of watching television all
day long gives bad examples such as violence from cigarette advertisements and
sinetron programs. Reflecting on his experience, he argued against the unexpected
argument by saying that television was not good for viewers because there were
violence and harassment both from programs and advertisement.
Another example of using own experience is from Jamal, who was also
belonged to the same opposition team as Vuad and Ben. He p redicted the
argument from proposition team would have been about the benefits of television
in the term of the development of the brain. Unpredictably, the proposition team
brought the argument about by watching more television, people were still able to
17
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 18
do socialization with others. To attack the unexpected argument, Jamal drew from
his experience as noted below:
“Saya pernah mengalami, waktu itu kecanduan nonton tv sampe nonton
film apa gimana juga gitu dan ya sempet lupa berinteraksi sama orang di
sekitar gituh. (Jamal, a pseudonym, March 15th . 2011).”
“I ever had experience, at that time, I addicted to watching television. I
watched a lot of programs in television. As a result, I forgot to socialize
with others. (Jamal, a pseudonym, March 15 th . 2011).”
Based on Jamal‟s explanation, he used the same strategy as Ben and Vuad in
dealing with the unexpected argument. Using his own experience in watching
television, he had no time to socialize with people. Moreover, not being able to
socialize made him become an unsociable person at that time.
Narita, another participant who belonged to the proposition team, also used
her experience to deal with the unexpected argument. Narita, as the member of
proposition team also debated upon “watching more television”. She expected the
opposition team would bring the debate into the harm of television. Unexpectedly,
the opposition team brought the debate about the advertisement in the television
which could lead to consumerism. In overcoming the unexpected argument, she
drew from her experience as follows:
18
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 19
“Berdasarkan pengalamanku, kalau lihat iklan gak langsung pingin gitu.
Jadi gak langsung pingin mengkonsumsi itu (iklan) atau langsung pingin
nyoba. (Narita, a pseudonym, March 15th , 2011).”
“Based on my experience, when I see advertisement, I do not directly want
it. So, I do not want to consume or directly want to try. (Narita, a
pseudonym, March 15th , 2011, my translation).”
From the Narita‟s interview excerpt, it can be seen that the way she attacked the
unexpected argument is by using her experience. Narita believes that
advertisements in the television do not cause consumerism. It is proven by her
personal experience when she watched advertisement, she did not directly want or
try it.
From Ben, Vuad, Jamal and Narita‟s data, it can be seen that drawing from
their own experiences support the earlier findings of schema theory (Bartlett,
1932). This finding suggests that schema theory is an active organization of past
reactions, or past experience. Their past experience for example Ben‟s childhood
that he did not understand about symbol of ratings which brought improper
information for him. Similarly, Vuad also stated that television brought bad things
from advertisements which show of violence and harassment. Those experiences
of the danger of television were activated in their mind and made them argue the
unexpected argument brought by the opponent team.
Ethnicity history
19
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 20
Out of the nine participants, one participant drew the schema theory
strategy from her ethnicity history. When joining a debate in a public speaking
class dated November 6th , 2010, Betty was debating against the case “the media
should be prevented by law from intruding into the private life of public figures”.
At that moment, she belonged to the opposition team, supporting the media of
intruding into the private life of public figures. She said, the expected argument
from the proposition team was the media would have given bad image toward
public figures. Unexpectedly, the argument brought by proposition team was by
the bad news of media interference, it would create bad society judgment toward
public figures and their ethnicity. In overcoming the unexpected argument, Betty
drawn from her ethnicity history below:
“Aku ada pengalaman, aku ada background keturunan Tionghoa. Ketika
aku sebagai orang Tionghoa masuk menjadi suatu minoritas di suatu
komunitas tertentu, otomatis aku harus bersikap layaknya Tionghoa.
Maksudnya berhubung aku minoritas dan aku punya wajah dan mungkin
keturunan Tionghoa, di mana orang-orang pasti melihat aku ini sebagai
orang Tionghoa. Jadi apapun yang nanti aku lakukan bukan cuma aku
personal sebagai Betty, tapi aku sebagai seorang Betty keturunan
Tionghoa udah harus ngejaga sikap. Biar orang-orang ngeliat oo ternyata
orang Tionghoa ga selalu kayak gini ya (pelit contohnya). Jadi kayak aku
punya tuntutan culture di belakang dan ada society control yang akan
membuat aku bersikap lebih baik. (Betty, a pseudonym, December
2010)”
20
2nd
,
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 21
“I had an experience, as I am a Chinese descendant. Moreover I have a
Chinese face which everybody can see clearly that I am a Chinese.
Chinese is a minority group in my community, it automatically affects the
way I behave as a minority. Whatever I do, it will impact not only me as
personal but also me as a Chinese descendant. I have to behave well in
order to make people know that other Chinese people do so. I have cultural
demand here which also there is society control that makes me better.
(Betty, a pseudonym, December 2nd, 2010, my translation).”
The excerpt above shows that Betty used her ethnicity history in order to attack
the unexpected argument brought by the opposition team. She reflected her
ethnicity history as a Chinese. As a minority group, Betty has to keep her attitude
in order to prove to the society that her ethnicity is good. Similar to the case, Betty
tried to say by keeping attitude well, public figures viewed her as well as their
ethnicity.
From Betty‟s description, it can be seen that drawing from her ethnic
history supports the finding of schema theory as pointed out before. This finding
supports that schema theory is collections of information of previous experience
that are organized into related knowledge groups (Nishida, 1999). The unexpected
argument reminded Betty‟s of her past ethnicity history about the existence of
society control that makes her to have good behavior. By keeping her attitude
well, it will impact to her personality as well as her ethnicity. Using experience in
the term ethnicity may give idea to deal with the unexpected argument.
21
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 22
Socio-cultural
Out of the nine students, only one student use socio-cultural strategy.
Lantolf (2004, p.30) explains that “socio-cultural is a theory of mind that
recognizes the central role of social relationship and culturally constructed
artifacts play in organizing uniquely human forms of thinking”. In what follow, I
will discuss one student‟ strategy in using a socio-cultural strategy.
The use of socio-cultural in the strategy of student in overcoming
unexpected argument is stated by Betty, a pseudonym. She participated in an EDS
club (English Debating Society) during college years. In that moment, Betty was
joining a debate activity in a Public Speaking class dated November 6 th , 2010. The
case of the debate was about “the media should be prevented by law from
intruding into the private life of public figures”. Betty belonged to the opposition
team which is against the proposition team argument by supporting role of media
from intruding into the private life of public figures. She stated that the expected
argument from the proposition team was the media will give a bad image toward
public figures. Unexpectedly, the argument brought by the proposition team was
by the interference of media for example, spreading inappropriate news into the
public figures‟ life, it will create bad society judgment toward public figures and
their ethnicity. To rebut the unexpected argument, she used the following strategy:
“Dulu aku sempet ikut EDS (English Debating Society) dan itu cukup ada
beberapa kayak case-case yang udah mulai ngebahas soal society control,
jadi aku juga cukup familiar dengan kata-kata itu di mana dalam case
yang public figures
ini society control itu bisa banget dipake karna
22
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 23
jadinya cocok. Mungkin sedikit banyak dari EDS karena kita jadi banyak
pemikiran bahwa setiap ada argumen masuk, kita pasti harus mikir pasti
oppositenya gitu loh jadi dalam kasus ini juga dia ngomong ini kita jadi
kayak mikir kebalikannya untuk nyerang mereka balik. (Betty, a
pseudonym, December 2nd , 2010).”
I used to join EDS (English Debating Society) and there were several
cases which discussed about society control where it was quite familiar
for me. In the case of public figures, argument about society control
could be used. It was because of EDS since we would have many thought
when there were arguments, we (students) should think the opposite
arguments. So, in this case when they explained about something, we
should think the other way around to oppose their case (Betty, a
pseudonym, December 2nd 2010, my translation).”
Based on Betty‟s explanation, it can be seen that the way she overcame the
unexpected argument is by drawing from EDS (English Debating Society) clubs.
Firstly, by joining EDS clubs, she became familiar with the jargons that relate to
the case such as society control. Second, EDS clubs trained opposing
argumentative skills which forced Betty to not only think the positive argument
but also negative argument as well. For example, if there was positive argument,
Betty needed to think how to argue by saying the contradictory argument.
Somehow, the strategy of socio – cultural is little bit the same with metacognitive.
23
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 24
However, what makes it differ is that the strategy appears by the EDS which is
social clubs.
From Betty‟s data, it can be seen that drawing EDS clubs supports earlier
findings of socio-cultural (Lantolf, 2006, p.1). This finding suggests that “the
relationship between human mental functioning and the activities are both many
and highly significant”. The skill that Betty got was from EDS club. EDS club
gave her strategy in overcoming the unexpected argument. First of all, it increases
the developing of vocabulary or jargon related to the case of the debate. Next is
opposing argumentative skills which is when there is an argument, she was forced
to think the opposite argument. Therefore, by using a socio-cultural strategy,
students may overcome the unexpected argument.
Conclusion and Pedagogical Implications
When I began the study, I was curious about student‟s strategies in
handling with the unexpected arguments in debate activity in public speaking
class. Through this study, I have learned their strategies in dealing with
unpredicted argument brought by the opponent team. The study found two major
strategies how students deal with the unexpected argument. The strategies are
schema theory and socio-cultural strategies.
In the following paragraph, I give brief summary of the two major findings in the
present study.
First, the finding shows most of students used strategy namely schema
theory (Hiebert & Raphael, 1996). Students‟ schema theory is activated from their
24
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 25
previous education, ethnicity history and own experience (Anderson and Pearson,
1984). By the existence of their schema theory, their thoughts were easily to
process and overcome the unexpected argument. The finding of ethnicity history
showed that by stimulating the background of student‟ ethnicity, student was able
to argue the unpredicted argument brought by the opponent team.
Since the findings of the study have shown us that students can use their
schema theory drawn from ethnicity history, previous education, and own
experience, it suggested for the teacher to in include students‟ experiences in
debate preparation before facing the debate activity. It can be debate practices to
store the information students have that related to motion of the debate. Teacher
can also elaborate students‟ past education or experience in dealing with the
unexpected argument.
The findings of the study also pointed out to the importance of
participating a debate clubs. Betty, for example, stated that she used socio-cultural
strategy in dealing with the unpredicted argument. She said by her involving in
EDS club, she was familiar with many arguments of the several topics in the
debate. The quote showed by joining the EDS clubs made her able to overcome
the unexpected argument in the term of jargons that she have. What she could
learn from EDS club were various. First, she was able to develop vocabulary or
“jargons” that related to the debate. Second, she was capable to develop her
opposing argumentative skills.
The pedagogical implication lays on the importance of teacher in order to
make the student prepared well in facing the debate activity. Moreover, when
25
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 26
students meet with the unexpected argument, teacher needs to give more
information of dealing with unexpected argument in material for student‟
handbook. Teacher is suggested to make some activities that forcing the students
to develop opposing argumentative skills which students have to think the
opposite argument of a topic given. Next, teacher need to give the debate‟ material
that provide strategies where students can learn how to deal with the unexpected
argument. Lastly, students are suggested to join EDS club in order to learn the
mechanism and knowledge of the debate. By joining EDS clubs, students may
have better understanding in participating in a debate.
26
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 27
Acknowledgme nt
Finishing my incredible thesis is one of the best works that I have ever
done in my life. I would like to express my gratitude for my Jesus that gave me
strength and big spirit in finishing my awesome thesis. I grant my special and
deepest gratitude to my amazing supervisor, Nugrahenny T. Zacharias, Ph.D, for
her opinions, criticisms and encouragements. For my parents, I also want to say
big thanks for both of you. Thank you for sacrificing your wealth, time and effort
for your daughter‟s education. Tesya, my little sister, thanks for your jokes so that
life is full of fun. I am very thankful for my sister, Kiki, for being my grammar
supervisor. Thank you for your patience in assisting my thesis, my grammar and
also my other courses which I believe my grades was increasing a lot. Also, in
writing this acknowledgment, you still corrected my grammar. Fortunately, in my
thesis, I could beat you, cing! Finally, I would give my big thumbs for my friends:
Nining, thank you for not graduating in March, I know you intended to do that
because you want to give me flowers in my graduation. Others, thanks for Ita,
Maurin, Ester, Rini, Tiwi, Thea, Yutta, Saprol, Fika, Pristika and many more.
Without you guys, I could not boast my thesis grade. I am very thankful to all my
participants, English Department lecturers, staffs and my ED friends. Thanks guys
for all experiences and memories.
27
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 28
References
Aebersold, J. A., & Field, M. L. (1997). From Reader to Reading Teaching: Issue
and strategies for second language classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Anderson, R.C. and Pearson, P.D. (1984). A schema-theoretic view of basic
processes in reading comprehension, in P.D. Pearson, ed., Handbook of
Reading Research (pp. 255–291). New York: Longman
Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social
Psychology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Bell, E. P. (1982). Debating Controversial Issues. History Teacher, 15, 207-223.
Broda-Bahm,K. T., Kempf, K., & Driscoll, W. J. (2004). Argument and audience:
presenting debates in public settings.
: The International Debate
Education Association
Brown, J. D., & Rodgers, T. S. (2002). Doing second language research. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Carrell, P.L., Gajdusek, L., & Wise, T. (1998). Metacognition and EFL/ESL
reading. Instructional Science, 26, 97-112.
Cook, G. (1989).
Discourse in „Language Teaching: A scheme for Teacher
Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Driscoll, W., & Zompetti, J.P. (2003). Discovering the world through debate: a
practical guide to educational. New York:
The International Debate
Education Association.
Gagné, E.D., Yekovich, C.W., & Yekovich, F.R. (1993). The cognitive psychology
of schooling learning. New York, NY: Harper Collins College Publishers.
28
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 29
Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with Words. Language, Life, and Work in communities
and Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lantolf, J. P. (2004). „Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language
Deveopment. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lantolf, J. P & Thorne, S. L. (2006). Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of
Second Language Development. New York: Oxford University Press.
McDonough, J., & McDonough, S. (1997). Research methods for English
language teachers. London: Arnold.
McKay, S. L. (2006). Researching second language classrooms. Mahwah, NJ.:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Nishida, H. (1999). Cultural Schema Theory: In W.B. Gudykunst (Ed.), Theorizing
About Intercultural Communication, (pp. 401–418). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications, Inc.
Ochs, E. & B. Schieffelin. (1984). Language Socialization Across Cultures.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ochs, E. (1987). „Input: a socio-cultural perspective‟ in Hickman, M. (ed.): social
foundation of Language Development. New York: Academic Press.
O‟Malley, M.J., & Chamot, A.U. (1990). Learning strategies in second language
acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ridley, D.S., Schutz, P.A., Glanz, R.S. & Weinstein, C.E. (1992). Self-regulated
learning: the interactive influence of metacognitive awareness and goalsetting. Journal of Experimental Education 60 (4), 293-306.
Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
29
SCHEMA AND SOCIO-CULTURAL STRATEGIES 30
Savage, J. (1998). Teaching reading and writing: combining skills, strategies and
literature. Boston: McGraw Hill.
Sternberg, R. J. (1986). Inside intelligence. American Scientist, 74, 137-143.
Wallace, C. (2000). Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Zacharias, T. N. (2010). The Teacher Identity Construction of 12 Asian ES
Teachers in TESOL Graduate Programs. The Journal of Asia TEFL, Vol
7/2, pp. 177-197.
Zacharias, T. N. (Forthcoming). Qualitative Research Methods for Second
Language Education a Course book. Newscastle, UK: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing.
30