T ING 0907597 Chapter1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses some aspects related to the background, research questions,
objectives, significance and scope of the study. This chapter ends with
clarification of terms used in this study and chapter summary.
1.1
Background
Language input which is exposed to language learners is classified into artificial
and natural input. They lead to language learning and language acquisition
respectively (Krashen 1981: 30). He clarifies that language acquisition is a
subconscious process of acquiring language, a process which acquires language
naturally. Meanwhile language learning is a conscious process of learning
language; this occurs at a formal context or classroom setting. It can be stated that
language learning may lead learners to know about language explicitly.
Different from Krashen, Ellis (1994: 12) states that both language learning
and language acquisition belong to learning as well. The point that makes a
distinction is whether the language is learnt through a natural interaction in a
social context or through a study guided with reference books or classroom
instruction, which are called naturalistic and instructed language acquisition
respectively.
Through a management of classroom interaction, instructed setting or
formal context can be led to acquire language naturally, because interaction can
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
result in an abundant and redundant language input which assists and facilitates
language learners to comprehend the input (Pica, Doughty and Young 1985: 143)
which, in turn, led to naturalistic language acquisition. River (cited in Brown,
2001: 165) asserted that interaction can drag learners to develop their language
repertoire because listening, reading and discussing linguistic material or even
practicing to exploit their repertoire of language give an abundant language input.
Formal input can be provided through classroom interaction. One of the
inputs controlling the elicitation of classroom interaction while negotiating
meaning to make them comprehensible is teachers’ question (Gebhard, 1996: 70).
It is due to the fact that teacher’s question can be used to arouse curiosity,
stimulate interest in the topic, clarify concepts, emphasize key points, enhance
problem-solving ability, encourage students to think at higher cognitive levels,
motivate student to search for new information and ascertain students’ knowledge
level to aid in modifying instruction. Thus a teacher can employ it to drive,
control and direct the teaching-learning process so classroom interaction can be
created as expected.
To make teacher’s question more comprehensible to language learners,
teachers can modify the question linguistically or interactionally. Linguistically
modified question is an effort of a teacher to make his/her question
comprehensible to learners by simplifying his questions adapted to the learners.
Thus meaning can be conveyed and a breakdown of a communication can be
avoided. Meanwhile, interactionally modified question is an effort of a teacher in
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
negotiating a meaning to confirm whether the meaning has been comprehensible
to learners such as by posing confirmation check. The modifications of question
provide opportunity for learners to negotiate meaning, which in turn provide a lot
of comprehensible input and output for learners to improve their language (Hasan,
2008: 49, Kalantari 2009: 432, Owen 1996: 49, Wu 1993: 65 and Azerefegn,
2008: 64).
Studies on the modified input have been conducted through various kinds
of exposure of target language i.e. written modified input on grammar (poniah
2008: 254), reading (Maxwell 2011: 52, Sarab and Karimi, 2008; 186 and Naimat,
2011: 681) and vocabulary (Xiaohui, 2010: 105) and non-reciprocally spoken
modified input on listening (Teng, 2001: 537).
From the elaboration, there are three important points, namely,
input, modification and question. Input is a linguistic stimulus provided by teacher
to learners. Modification is a linguistic or interactional creativity of a language to
make it comprehensible to learners. Question is a part of input, which functions to
build up an interaction in the classroom. Modified questions as input play
important roles in comprehending input. But none concerns with how far their role
in a teacher-students interaction. Therefore, this study has experimented on the
other exposure of language input, that is, the input has been exposed orally
through reciprocal interaction to find out how far the modified question affect the
learners’ ability to describe things by the use of pre-head modifier.
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
1.2
Research Questions
Based on the above elaboration, research questions can be formulated as follow:
a.
Does modified question affect on EFL learners’ ability to describe things by
the use of pre-head modifier?
b.
Are there significant differences between ability to describe things by the
use of pre-head modifier by upper and lower groups?
c.
How are modified questions implemented in building up EFL classroom
interaction in the pre-head modifier instruction?
1.3
The Objectives of the Study
The primary intent of this investigation will be to test the effect of modified
teacher’s question, which is packaged in an instruction at which language input is
exposed through two-way classroom interaction. The objectives will be to
investigate:
a.
whether modified question affect on EFL learners’ ability to describe things
by the use of pre-head modifier.
b.
whether there are significant differences between ability to describe things
by the use of pre-head modifier by upper and lower groups.
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
d.
how modified questions are implemented in building up EFL classroom
interaction in the pre-head modifier instruction.
1.4
Scope of Study
This study has covered input exposed through modified questions. It does not
intend to examine a certain kind of modification but it includes all categories,
linguistic and interactional modifications. Their treatment is situational. This
means that which kind of modification used depends on the need of the situation.
In other word, the two may happen interchangeably during the teaching-learning
process.
It has measured the effect of the modified question on the ability of
describing things by the use of pre-head modifier which includes describing
things from certain aspects such as color, age, material, quality, origin, nature,
characteristics, shape, function, activity, events, profession, classification or their
combinations.
The last, the subjects are taken from a government vocational school in
Tasikmalaya. They are the first grade of the office administration program, which
has two classes. 30 from 40 students of each class are taken to be subjects for
experiment and the other for control. All subjects are female.
1.5
Significance of the Study
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
The experiment indicates that modification of question in giving exposure of
language input affects students’ ability to describe things by the use of pre-head
modifier acquisition significantly. These findings are mainly hoped to be able to
give contribution either academically or practically. Academically, these findings
will contribute to SLA applied to the development of learning materials and
instructional techniques. Practically, they may enlighten the teachers about the
importance of teachers’ question to elicit students’ engagement in an instruction
by exposing spoken modified input through reciprocal interaction. By realizing
the details behind posing questions, they are hoped to be able to control and direct
students, so they can use questioning in classroom interaction to reach effective
process in an instruction on describing things by the use of pre-head modifier and
get to the intended target, namely that the students can describe things correctly.
Teachers are hoped to be able to create as natural interaction as possible in EFL
classroom so this can create teaching-learning process supporting toward the
natural-like language acquisition.
1.6
Clarification of terms
In this study, there are some operational terms which need defining i.e. question
and questioning, modification of question and classroom interaction. Questioning
is defined as seeking information (Wu, 1993:51). He further stated that, in
English, question can be expressed by the following linguistic forms: in
interrogative form e.g. where are you from? in imperative form e.g. tell me why!
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
And in declarative form e.g. you mean you did not do homework (falling
intonation) the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Questioning here means that all utterances,
whatever the forms, that is devoted to reveal the students’ talk which constitutes a
manifestation of their understanding toward the meaning negotiated in the
classroom.
Second, questioning modification includes simplification or Linguistic
modification and interactional modification. The former means that, by
simplifying the input or making it simple, we do the ways in which the language
addressed to EFL learners is rendered more comprehensible, for example
shortened utterances, simplified vocabulary, repetition, rephrase, wait time,
additive etc. (Ellis 1994: 248 and Chaudron 1988: 128).
The last is the one which is widely used as negotiation of meaning (Ellis
1994: 257 and Pica, Daughty and Young 1985: 124). Negotiation of meaning is a
restructuring of interaction that occurs when a communication problem arises.
Interactional modification helps the learners to continue the interaction without
interrupting it, and solves the miscommunication problem without using their
mother language, for example, echoic question, repetition of learners’ utterances
and expansion of learners’ utterances.
The classroom interaction in this study is verbal interaction between
teacher and learners while providing input through a reciprocal classroom
interaction during an instruction, which is based on the pattern of classroom
interactions according to Chaudran (1988:126) and Elis (1994: 574). They stated
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
that, basically, there are three sequences of moves in classroom interaction i.e.
solicit-response-evaluation.
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses some aspects related to the background, research questions,
objectives, significance and scope of the study. This chapter ends with
clarification of terms used in this study and chapter summary.
1.1
Background
Language input which is exposed to language learners is classified into artificial
and natural input. They lead to language learning and language acquisition
respectively (Krashen 1981: 30). He clarifies that language acquisition is a
subconscious process of acquiring language, a process which acquires language
naturally. Meanwhile language learning is a conscious process of learning
language; this occurs at a formal context or classroom setting. It can be stated that
language learning may lead learners to know about language explicitly.
Different from Krashen, Ellis (1994: 12) states that both language learning
and language acquisition belong to learning as well. The point that makes a
distinction is whether the language is learnt through a natural interaction in a
social context or through a study guided with reference books or classroom
instruction, which are called naturalistic and instructed language acquisition
respectively.
Through a management of classroom interaction, instructed setting or
formal context can be led to acquire language naturally, because interaction can
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
result in an abundant and redundant language input which assists and facilitates
language learners to comprehend the input (Pica, Doughty and Young 1985: 143)
which, in turn, led to naturalistic language acquisition. River (cited in Brown,
2001: 165) asserted that interaction can drag learners to develop their language
repertoire because listening, reading and discussing linguistic material or even
practicing to exploit their repertoire of language give an abundant language input.
Formal input can be provided through classroom interaction. One of the
inputs controlling the elicitation of classroom interaction while negotiating
meaning to make them comprehensible is teachers’ question (Gebhard, 1996: 70).
It is due to the fact that teacher’s question can be used to arouse curiosity,
stimulate interest in the topic, clarify concepts, emphasize key points, enhance
problem-solving ability, encourage students to think at higher cognitive levels,
motivate student to search for new information and ascertain students’ knowledge
level to aid in modifying instruction. Thus a teacher can employ it to drive,
control and direct the teaching-learning process so classroom interaction can be
created as expected.
To make teacher’s question more comprehensible to language learners,
teachers can modify the question linguistically or interactionally. Linguistically
modified question is an effort of a teacher to make his/her question
comprehensible to learners by simplifying his questions adapted to the learners.
Thus meaning can be conveyed and a breakdown of a communication can be
avoided. Meanwhile, interactionally modified question is an effort of a teacher in
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
negotiating a meaning to confirm whether the meaning has been comprehensible
to learners such as by posing confirmation check. The modifications of question
provide opportunity for learners to negotiate meaning, which in turn provide a lot
of comprehensible input and output for learners to improve their language (Hasan,
2008: 49, Kalantari 2009: 432, Owen 1996: 49, Wu 1993: 65 and Azerefegn,
2008: 64).
Studies on the modified input have been conducted through various kinds
of exposure of target language i.e. written modified input on grammar (poniah
2008: 254), reading (Maxwell 2011: 52, Sarab and Karimi, 2008; 186 and Naimat,
2011: 681) and vocabulary (Xiaohui, 2010: 105) and non-reciprocally spoken
modified input on listening (Teng, 2001: 537).
From the elaboration, there are three important points, namely,
input, modification and question. Input is a linguistic stimulus provided by teacher
to learners. Modification is a linguistic or interactional creativity of a language to
make it comprehensible to learners. Question is a part of input, which functions to
build up an interaction in the classroom. Modified questions as input play
important roles in comprehending input. But none concerns with how far their role
in a teacher-students interaction. Therefore, this study has experimented on the
other exposure of language input, that is, the input has been exposed orally
through reciprocal interaction to find out how far the modified question affect the
learners’ ability to describe things by the use of pre-head modifier.
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
1.2
Research Questions
Based on the above elaboration, research questions can be formulated as follow:
a.
Does modified question affect on EFL learners’ ability to describe things by
the use of pre-head modifier?
b.
Are there significant differences between ability to describe things by the
use of pre-head modifier by upper and lower groups?
c.
How are modified questions implemented in building up EFL classroom
interaction in the pre-head modifier instruction?
1.3
The Objectives of the Study
The primary intent of this investigation will be to test the effect of modified
teacher’s question, which is packaged in an instruction at which language input is
exposed through two-way classroom interaction. The objectives will be to
investigate:
a.
whether modified question affect on EFL learners’ ability to describe things
by the use of pre-head modifier.
b.
whether there are significant differences between ability to describe things
by the use of pre-head modifier by upper and lower groups.
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
d.
how modified questions are implemented in building up EFL classroom
interaction in the pre-head modifier instruction.
1.4
Scope of Study
This study has covered input exposed through modified questions. It does not
intend to examine a certain kind of modification but it includes all categories,
linguistic and interactional modifications. Their treatment is situational. This
means that which kind of modification used depends on the need of the situation.
In other word, the two may happen interchangeably during the teaching-learning
process.
It has measured the effect of the modified question on the ability of
describing things by the use of pre-head modifier which includes describing
things from certain aspects such as color, age, material, quality, origin, nature,
characteristics, shape, function, activity, events, profession, classification or their
combinations.
The last, the subjects are taken from a government vocational school in
Tasikmalaya. They are the first grade of the office administration program, which
has two classes. 30 from 40 students of each class are taken to be subjects for
experiment and the other for control. All subjects are female.
1.5
Significance of the Study
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
The experiment indicates that modification of question in giving exposure of
language input affects students’ ability to describe things by the use of pre-head
modifier acquisition significantly. These findings are mainly hoped to be able to
give contribution either academically or practically. Academically, these findings
will contribute to SLA applied to the development of learning materials and
instructional techniques. Practically, they may enlighten the teachers about the
importance of teachers’ question to elicit students’ engagement in an instruction
by exposing spoken modified input through reciprocal interaction. By realizing
the details behind posing questions, they are hoped to be able to control and direct
students, so they can use questioning in classroom interaction to reach effective
process in an instruction on describing things by the use of pre-head modifier and
get to the intended target, namely that the students can describe things correctly.
Teachers are hoped to be able to create as natural interaction as possible in EFL
classroom so this can create teaching-learning process supporting toward the
natural-like language acquisition.
1.6
Clarification of terms
In this study, there are some operational terms which need defining i.e. question
and questioning, modification of question and classroom interaction. Questioning
is defined as seeking information (Wu, 1993:51). He further stated that, in
English, question can be expressed by the following linguistic forms: in
interrogative form e.g. where are you from? in imperative form e.g. tell me why!
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
And in declarative form e.g. you mean you did not do homework (falling
intonation) the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Questioning here means that all utterances,
whatever the forms, that is devoted to reveal the students’ talk which constitutes a
manifestation of their understanding toward the meaning negotiated in the
classroom.
Second, questioning modification includes simplification or Linguistic
modification and interactional modification. The former means that, by
simplifying the input or making it simple, we do the ways in which the language
addressed to EFL learners is rendered more comprehensible, for example
shortened utterances, simplified vocabulary, repetition, rephrase, wait time,
additive etc. (Ellis 1994: 248 and Chaudron 1988: 128).
The last is the one which is widely used as negotiation of meaning (Ellis
1994: 257 and Pica, Daughty and Young 1985: 124). Negotiation of meaning is a
restructuring of interaction that occurs when a communication problem arises.
Interactional modification helps the learners to continue the interaction without
interrupting it, and solves the miscommunication problem without using their
mother language, for example, echoic question, repetition of learners’ utterances
and expansion of learners’ utterances.
The classroom interaction in this study is verbal interaction between
teacher and learners while providing input through a reciprocal classroom
interaction during an instruction, which is based on the pattern of classroom
interactions according to Chaudran (1988:126) and Elis (1994: 574). They stated
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
that, basically, there are three sequences of moves in classroom interaction i.e.
solicit-response-evaluation.
Nacep Asmara, 2014
The Effect of Modified Teacher’s Question on Describing Things in EFL Classroom
Interaction
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu