Running head: Research Proposal

Final Assignment Research Proposal Ta-Chi Margaret Lee 80794118 ETEC 500 Janet McCracken April 15th, 2013

Research Proposal Introduction In the past decade, B.C. experienced significant growth in the number of international students (from kindergarten to university level). In 2010, there were 60,473 international students in B.C., compared to 48,432 in 2006 (+24.9%) and 39,562 in 2001 (+52.9%). (Ministry of Education 2012) Also, according to the latest information of BC Ministry of Education, in 2010, international students in B.C. came from over 176 countries, especially from the AsiaPacific region. During the source countries, Mainland China took over top spot. The numbers of ethnic Chinese international students including Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong are 17 614, 2 033 and 1 494 respectively. These numbers represented one third of the total students numbers. When more and more Chinese international students choose to stay in the MetroVancouver area to study, the method used for ESL learning is more critical than ever for efficiency in learning English and consequently culture assimilation. In this article, I aim to present information about the condition of ESL students of Chinese origin comprising people from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China. These international students all reside in Vancouver now and attend the private college I teach at where they are put into small classes to provide a better learning environment that accommodates to their needs more easily by tailoring classroom materials to meet individual interests. Each class consists of sixteen students maximum and I chose one particular class of sixteen students and split them equally into two different groups in order to have them be studied. To maximize their English learning potential, these ESL students attend class only three days a week with three teachers of different ethnic background for each English subject which are grammar, speaking, and writing. Not only can the students have spare days to digest the abundant materials, but also learn from the diverse manners in the style of teaching.

Research Proposal Statement of Problem The argument of whether or not ESL teachers and students can use their mother tongue as a medium of instruction in the English classroom has never stopped. In the examples below are the conflicts. If we consider the classroom as a microcosm of a larger society reflecting the larger forces of society, then the use of the native language should be avoided. Common sense tells us that to learn a foreign/second language one must be exposed to it (Alse-Ghayer, Khalid). Students need a natural setting to help them acquire the language more effectively. Alse-Ghayer emphasizes we must note that lack of use of the target language in the classroom is one of the major methodological reasons for poor achievement levels in language learning (Alse-Ghayer, Khalid). On the other hand, Wolfgang Butzkamm mentions since the Great Reform at the end of the 19th century, the role of the mother tongue has been second only to grammar as the most discussed methodological problem. At present, the official guidelines in many countries recommend that lessons be planned to be as monolingual as possible, drawing on the mother tongue only when difficulties arise. The mother tongue is generally regarded as being an evasive manoeuvre which is only to be used in emergencies. Effective bilingual teaching techniques are, therefore, as good as unknown in schools. It looks as though the so-called direct method, now operating under the new banner of the communicative approach, has triumphed. Monolingual lessons without the help of the mother tongue are extrinsically possible; however, monolingual learning is an intrinsic impossibility. No one can simply turn off what they already know. We

Research Proposal postulate that the mother tongue is "silently" present in beginners, even when lessons are kept monolingual. (Butzkamm, Wolfgang) An anonymous ESL teacher also left his message in Macleans magazine, At my high school the foreign students were supposed to speak English on campus but they didn't. They'd clump up in the middle of hallways talking their own language. Several times I went up to them and said Hi but they'd laugh and talk back in their language. (Macleans 2010) Most ESL educators may agree that at intermediate to advanced levels, where ESL students have a better grasp of the language, nothing other than the target language should be allowed during learning. But what about those ESL students in the basic level?

As an ESL teacher for the past twenty five years, I have had an ongoing observation of myself, my students and my friends to help me determine the optimum environment for second language learners. I dwelled on the issue for quite awhile, especially for the ESL level one students who have just started their second language journey for I could not decide if it would be better to use ESL students native language as a bridge in allowing them to understand the English language better or simply by immersing them in a full on English environment.

Thus, my topic will revolve around whether I think it is more suitable for the Mandarin speaking ESL level one students in Vancouver to learn under a complete English immersion environment or under a partial (English-Mandarin) immersion background. Due to the limited scope of this research, I will only focus specifically on whether using a bilingual (EnglishMandarin) dictionary would be more helpful in enhancing students reading comprehension and oral language skills rather than a monolingual one.

Research Proposal I examine the matter of the use of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries among ESL students of Chinese origin. The report seeks to unveil what is the better support for a smoother transition among these immigrant students. Critical Literature Review All the literature that I have selected is organized in order of what is most emphasized during its implementation in my study. The last piece of literature however, is the most important one of all as it ties in nicely with my entire research proposal and all the other literature used because of its similarity in context. Ethnography In Scholarship and Practice: The contribution of ethnographic research methods to bridging the gap, it states that the main body of techniques involved in qualitative approach works under the category of ethnography. Ethnography is described to provide insight into the human, social and organizational aspects of informations systems development and application (Harvey, Myers 22). As ethnography is practiced in real life situations, the results obtained is said to be more authentic than that extracted from quasi-experimental methods in which certain variables cannot be controlled to produce a convincing conclusion. Ethnography allows researchers to look through many perspectives as it allows them to see the difference in how information technologies can be used in different contexts (Harvey, Myers 22). Since meaning in context is the most important framework being sought (Harvey, Myers 17) in qualitative research, it is also during the crucial process of the search that many can be led astray. Although the authors show that ethnography is pivotal in the qualitative approach, they fail to mention that analyzing culture and humanity through the lens of science can sometimes be

Research Proposal deceptive even with the multiple perspectives considered. Ethnography may indeed be a worthy contender in bridging the gap between scholarly knowledge and practical knowledge (Harvey, Myers 24), but because of its limitations, it must also be paired with other research methods to produce the optimal effect. Pre-test & Posttest Pretest and posttest designs can be effective in supporting the internal validity after treatment intervention. With that said, it still does not guarantee the control of extraneous variables that may affect the validity of the conclusion. It is true that analysis of posttest scores alone may result in insufficient power to detect treatment effects (Bonate 17). Although the book speaks against the pretest and posttest design by pointing out its pitfalls like how groups are not comparable at baseline (Bonate 3), it does seem to work in my case for the all my participants have the same English level. Perhaps some may be more adept language wise, however that would also be the case for the general population of level one ESL students. Double blind survey In Introduction to Psychology by James W. Kalat, the double blind procedure is described as how participants may be affected by the experimenters expectations for them and the experimenters may be biased from personal connections with participants. Observers and participants in this case, are unaware of the researchers intentions. No dispute can be made on its objectivity if all researches can be conducted in this manner, but without sufficient funding it is nearly impossible to do. Being a part of a private college and having to take on the role of both a teacher and a researcher, I am aware of the fact that my interpretations may be biased so to

Research Proposal minimize this, an administrative assistant helped distribute and collect the surveys toward the end of the course for the students. Personalization of observation The authors of Knowing & Being Known: Personalization as a Foundation for Improving Student Learning seek to recognize the need for personalization in designing structures to improve student learning. Personalization in terms of understanding the students more and forming a closer relationship will help with catering to their needs. Changing instructional pieces to meet this is what I did because interviews disguised within mini group discussion helps with my observation. Those Chinese students in ESL level one are likely to be more willing to open up in casual settings and I will therefore, better understand them in their mother tongue. ESL Adjustment The journal Chinese Voices in a Canadian Secondary School Landscape by Diane Minichiello is a study of how foreign-born Chinese-speaking high school students adjust to the urban Canadian environment where there is large population of immigrant students. It analyzes what hinders or promotes their adaptation in this environment and raises the most important question as to whether mental health plays the biggest role in obstructing them from a smooth transition, as many satellite students are in a foreign country alone without the accompaniment of their parents. Minichiello does assess the students with a vast array of research methods that seek to reveal what it is or what combination of issues in immigrant students lives that prevent them from familiarizing with Canadian language and culture. She however, seems to put too much emphasis on the mental health section that describes the ESL students to be unstable which effect their ability to adapt. I believe that the absence of their parents in this foreign land for them may

Research Proposal be difficult to cope with for some, but for most, what hinders their development is more because of a lack of guidance rather than deterioration in mental health. Methodology Research Methods My research is conducted with the use of mixed methods with the use of qualitative method, ethnographic method, quasi-experimental research within quantitative methods, pretest and posttest, mini group discussions, blind surveys, personalizing the observations, contextualizing the findings and interviews. Participants Like previously mentioned, all the international ESL grade ten to eleven high school aged students originate from Hong Kong, Taiwan or Mainland China. They were selected for the purpose of identifying the extent of effectiveness in the usage of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries among ESL students. There are sixteen students (ten girls and six boys) participating who attend three classes, three hours each, and three times a week. It is easy to use one as the control group and the other as the experimental group because the only difference is the different dictionary use. The students have already been randomly selected with regard to which class they belong to because no assessments were used to divide them into different classes simply for the reason that their English level is relatively the same, being beginners. Since the study cannot be longitudinal due to the time constraint, the effects on the students are not enough to change their course of study so it should not have any major impact on their learning. Instruments/ Research Design & Analysis

Research Proposal The inception of the study begins with a pre test and it therefore ends with a posttest to evaluate and measure the degree of change in oral abilities and reading comprehension after intervention. Small group discussions are also implemented because considering the introverted nature of most Chinese ESL students, more candid answers of their reactions to the process of their study are likely to be received due to deindividuation. This discussion is strongly valued because on a one to one discussion, new international students who are used to the teachercentred method and culture that puts education as its focal point feel somewhat obligated to meet high academic expectations from society. This forced conformity makes students rather stiff and serious and sometimes deceitful when answering questions of teachers in hopes of producing responses that are there to please. In a more relaxed and informal interview that is set up in way of casual conversation with drinks and snacks they more likely loosen up and feel as though a teacher is not pushing for a certain answer from them. Moreover, they feel less pressure in meeting the expectations of the teacher being among their peers. By using their familiar mother tongue helps the Chinese students speak up in detail in comfortable way. Blind surveys are later used to offer them even more anonymity and provide answers reliable and credible enough to see their actual progress with using either a monolingual dictionary or a bilingual dictionary at all times. To secure the anonymity of the students, it is distributed and collected by an administrative assistant at the college and she is not present during the period of time in which the students are provided to complete the survey. It is difficult to control the dictionary use of students outside of class so parents are an essential component to the supervision of their children. With that said, this variable still makes the random assignment difficult to achieve because students may not conform completely to the rules. Observations are also essential in

Research Proposal keeping a record of students progress and this works only in combining the subjectivity of teachers of all ethnicities to counterintuitively, raise the objectivity in assessing students.

Qualitative data collection technique Pre-test, Posttest

Data associated Student level before study and student level after using a monolingual dictionary or a bilingual dictionary for one month.

Small group discussions (allowed to use English and Mandarin)

Evaluates how far the students have progressed after using their specified dictionaries over the course of a month. Also seeks to uncover whether its convergent or divergent progression between the control group and experimental group.

Blind survey in both English &Mandarin (students need not provide names and

Emotions of the students during the course of their study in using only one

survey will be given by an assistant rather type of dictionary. How they are coping than one of their teachers) with it and what they find have helped or havent helped. Parental Supervision (in English & Mandarin) Parents/guardians report how consistent their child/ren has been with using a designated dictionary at home through a

Research Proposal checklist provided at the end of the research study. Observation Three different teachers including me evaluate how the two groups of students (control/experimental) progress throughout the month.

Challenge To avoid biases as much as possible and to minimize any overconfidence in analysis, I have taken in all the interpretations of the other teachers of differing backgrounds from the students to blend in with my own. We had to overcome time differences in scheduling for meetings of discussion and have to tell the two other teachers what to do during the classes they teach to accommodate my research. Schedule of Activities Both groups attend three classes of grammar, writing and speaking on a weekly basis. The classes are separated and are scheduled on different days, once a week, with three different teachers (Taiwanese-Canadian, Indian-Canadian and Caucasian-Canadian). Discussion Significance and Implications of Outcomes From the compiled information and the conclusion deducted from the data collection techniques listed above, the experimental group (those who ostensibly only used monolingual

Research Proposal dictionaries throughout the month) failed to achieve a better standing or even the same standing for in class assignments as the control group that was allowed to continue their use of bilingual dictionaries being only ESL level one students. Apart from the posttest being the greatest indicator of failure to meet the expectations of the initial hypothesis of the research, the blind surveys showed a clear discontent within the experimental group as opposed to the control group. The boxes that seven out of eight students checked in the experimental group indicated that they were altogether, overly frustrated during the process, frequently misunderstood the meanings, took more than double the time to do the assignments, and in the extra commentary section, many wrote that they found monolingual dictionaries very difficult to use because they needed to search up for the words within the definition and it wasted a lot of their time. Some others wrote down that it was painful and not useful. The same student that checked the box that the process was simply challenging also added comments that even though using a monolingual dictionary took a lot more time than usual, it forced him/her to stop attaching a direct translation of the vocabulary in Mandarin. All sixteen parental forms were dropped off at the reception area throughout the last week of the research as required and more than half (six people) indicated that their child used bilingual dictionaries at home whether it was with a hardcopy or on the internet. This finding is telling because this proves that many of the students did not follow the rules that I have laid out even though I specifically told them the marks wont be counted this month. This creates more variables that are out of my control although I have taken it into consideration before. Small group discussions in this category have been only a partial success because students expressed their irritation and disheartenment freely. The experimental groups general apathy in using monolingual dictionaries was evident. All of their reactions have been what I had expected

Research Proposal because in a months time, they are likely to only be at a stage of transition. I however, overestimated their frankness as none of the eight students have mentioned to me that they used unassigned dictionaries out of the classroom even though there was a clear indication on the parental forms that fourteen students had used bilingual dictionaries more than once at home during the past month. Last but not least, the test results for the experimental group in the grammar and writing class and oral presentation in the speaking class have been consistent with the control group. In class assignments however, showed significantly lower marks in all of the participants of the experimental group compared to the control group in the first two weeks. From the third week, two female students using monolingual dictionaries in class, achieved relatively the same mark as those who used bilingual dictionaries for a timed written piece while they failed to achieve the same standing in the grammar and oral class. As for the rest of the students in the experimental group; they continued to receive lower marks than their control group peers for in class assignments. Relationships of the findings to the literature Within the literature review, I only picked out the areas in which I hope to counter as I happen to notice some apparent loopholes within the topics studied. Importance of the Research/ Practical &Theoretical significance/ Reflection Experience is based on mistakes and research is based on past studies. The downfall of this research is the various variables that could not be controlled as there were not enough fees and labours to support this and for the ethical reasons regarding the control over students at all times. Moreover, perhaps the use of monolingual dictionaries among level one ESL students was

Research Proposal not appropriate because the students lacked even the basic English levels to benefit from them. All the data seems to have matched up from the different techniques except for the small group discussions and the parental forms that showed contradictions. Perhaps I have underestimated the students desire to impress authoritative figures that they keep themselves away from any behaviour that may trigger a negative impression and consequently bring down their marks or receive lower quality treatment. It is from the difference in parental indication that I deducted the students had lied about their dictionary usage, but with nothing to measure the validity of any of the responses, perhaps the parents misevaluated their child and provided wrong information. After a full month of research, the results that poured in from the compilation of conclusions from different methods were enlightening. If participants could have behaved according to expectation, perhaps there would be alternate results. Being a one-month study, the outcome was against the hypothesis that indicated those who use monolingual dictionaries will have more improvement over those who use bilingual dictionaries in handling the English language. After reflection, a possibility lies in the fact that a month is only when students are in the transition period, adjusting to the new mould and it is just a phase. Before absorbing an abundance of material, there must be a period of significant challenge in which students must overcome in order to improve. Speculation can therefore be made that the time was not sufficient to prove the real outcome of such a research. Seeking the advice of the two other teachers, we concluded that language is a continual process and we have a firm belief that a longitudinal study should be put in place to prove that language is a form of art that requires time for one to acquire context first. Context is gained not through enforcement but a willingness to embrace a new language. Those who are willing to commit to studying and gaining context of a language through monolingual dictionaries will likely become more fluent in the future as opposed to the

Research Proposal ESL students using bilingual dictionaries that are more fluent now compared to those struggling to use monolingual ones. Just like how life is a process, so is learning, therefore it cannot be broken into small segments of study like this one. It will likely be evident that those who put in more time and effort in the right path will succeed and like the use of monolingual dictionaries, it must be voluntary and not forced because those who are unwilling will simply not comply. The students lie to be favoured by teachers, but they are only cheating themselves. I still feel the need to present and explain my belief, but not to provide an excuse, that it is the time constraint that made this research fail only on the part of English progress because it is something that can only be seen in the long run. Using bilingual dictionaries ultimately make ESL students think in their mother tongue before transferring it to English and as it is apparent, directly translated pieces are never authentic.

Research Proposal References Al-Seghayer, Khalid (2010). The Problem of Using the Mother Tongue as a Medium of Instruction when Teaching. TotalESL.com. Retrieved from http://www.totalesl.com/e_articles_detail.php?id=806

Bonate, P. L. (2000). Analysis of Pretest-Posttest Designs. Boca Raton: Chapman & Hall. Butzkamm, Wolfgang (2003).We only learn language once. The role of the mother tongue in FL classrooms: death of a dogma. Language Learning Journal, No 28, 29-39. Retrieved from http://www.fremdsprachendidaktik.rwthaachen.de/Ww/programmatisches/pachl.html Gay, L. R.Mills, & Airasian, P.W. (2012). Educational research: Competencies for Analysis and Applications (10 Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ:Merrill Prentice Hall.

Harvey, L., & Myers, M. (1995). Scholarship and Practice: The contribution of ethnographic research methods to bridging the gap. Information Technology & People, 8(3), 13-27. Kalat, J. W. (2011). Introduction to Psychology (9 ed.). Belmont: New Leaf Publishing Services. Lambert, M. B., Lowry, L. K. (2004). Knowing & Being Known: Personalization as a Foundation for Improving Student Learning. Minichiello, D. (2001). Chinese Voices in a Canadian Secondary School Landscape. Canadian Journal of Education, 26(1), 77-96. Ministry of Education (2011). International students in British Columbia. Retrieved from http://www.welcomebc.ca/welcome_bc/media/MediaGallery/docs/communities/international_stud.pdf