nghiên cứu việc sử dụng chuyển giao ngôn ngữ với tư cách là một chiến lược giao tiếp và chiến lược học tập của sinh viên năm thứ nhất trường đại học ngoại thương hà nội

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter will present the theoretical background needed for the research by discussing the definition, different views of communicat

TABLE OF CONTENT

Candidate‟s statement i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study 1

2 The objectives of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Methods of study 2

5 Significance of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Communication strategies 4

1.2 Second language learning 5

1.3 Learning strategies 6

1.4 Learning strategies and communication strategies 8

1.5 Language transfer 10

1.6 Transfer as a communication strategy 11

1.7 Transfer as a learning strategy 11

1.8 Related studies 12

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16

2.1 Population 16

2.2 Measuring instruments 16

2.3 Data collection procedure 18

2.4 Analyzing data procedure 19

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 22

3.1 Research findings 22

3.1.1 Transfer as a communication strategy 22

3.1.1.1 Language switch 22

3.1.1.2 Literal translation 33

3.1.2 Transfer as a second language learning strategy 44

3.1.2.1 Language switch 44

3.1.2.2 Literal translation 46

3.2 Comparing to the original research 47

3.2.1 Transfer as a communication strategy 47

3.2.1.1 Language switch 47

3.2.1.2 Literal translation 49

3.2.2 Transfer as a second language learning strategy 50

3.2.2.1 Language switch 50

3.2.2.2 Literal translation 51

PART C: CONCLUSION 52

1 Summary of the findings 52

2 Pedagogical implications 54

3 Limitations of the research 55

4 Recommendations for further research 56

5 Conclusion 56

REFERENCES 57

APPENDIX

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Statement of the problem and rationale

Terence Odlin once stated that “language contact situations arise whenever there is meeting of speakers who do not all share the same language and who need to communicate When the communicative needs of people go beyond what gestures and other paralinguistic signal can achieve, some use of a second language becomes necessary.” The speakers may use language mixing, that is the merging of characteristics of two or more languages If mixing does occur, the speakers use their native language to overcome the difficulties they encounter in communicating with others In other words, the mother tongue has influence on the target language Another kind of mixing is in the form of borrowings from a second language into the native language For example, Vietnamese people use the word “meeting” in English

to talk about a certain kind of assembly with a little different in spelling, or the use by English speakers of the loan word ”croissant” from French to describe a certain type

of pastry Last but not least, the speakers may use code switching, in which there is a systematic interchange of words, phrases, and sentences of two or more languages

From the researcher‟s own experience, there are some cases when students use language transfer When they are asked to work in pairs or in groups during their English lessons, and when they talk to the native teachers, it is amazing that they can communicate effectively despite their low proficiency in the target language In addition to body language such as gesture, mime, facial expression, sometimes, they replace the target language by a native one, translate word for word It can be seen that the mother tongue plays an important role in second language learning, even has big impact on the achievement of the learners However, many language teachers in Vietnam do not recognize and make use of the native language With the hope of discovering the influence of Vietnamese in communication in English, and how it affects the studying of a second language, the researcher conducted this study Besides, I also expected to find out some possibly applicable methods in teaching English

2 Objectives of the study

This research is carried out in order to get sufficient understanding of language transfer as a communication and learning strategy, and how this strategy works in the case of study with first year students at FTU during 2009-2010 academic year as well

as propose some suggestions to improve teaching methods

3 Scope of the study

Four first year students from different classes at FTU are involved in the study The participants include two male and two female students This helps to reduce the effect of gender in communicating

Two productive skills, speaking and writing are investigated

The following research questions are addressed

1 How is transfer employed as a communication strategy

by a group of students at FTU in the performance of oral and writing tasks?

2 Are there similarities and differences in the way transfer

is employed as a communication strategy in the oral and writing tasks?

3 What is the potential learning effect of transfer when employed as a communication strategy in these tasks?

4 Methods of study

This research collects multiple sources of evidence, which are the results of three oral tasks, the writing task and observation of classroom activities It studies the subjects from real-life contexts (how they produce English in their English classes)

The study employs the ethnographic approach in its qualitative-interpretive mode, using the principles of discourse analysis

5 Significance of the study

It is hoped that the findings from this study will be of some benefits to teachers of English as a second language in general, to Vietnamese ones in particular, especially those who are teaching beginners or elementary students of English The study contributes to our understanding of the language transfer between English and Vietnamese in certain situations and offers some suggestions of activities, games, and exercises for teaching low proficiency students

6 Design of the study

This thesis contains three parts

- Part A presents the state of the problem and rationale, the objectives, the scope, as well as the significance of the study

- Part B prepares the theoretical background for the thesis concerning communication strategies, learning strategies, and language transfer in the first chapter Then chapter two describes in details the methodology underlying the research The final chapter provides specific description of research findings, a thorough discussion of the findings of the study and some recommendations as well

- Part C is the conclusions

- The Appendix is the last part of the study, following the references

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will present the theoretical background needed for the research

by discussing the definition, different views of communication strategies, learning strategies, language transfer, their relationships, as well as the related studies

1 1 Communication strategies

We are living in a society where communities and individuals within the society must communicate with each other The communication tools are diverse They can be written, oral, pictorial or even non-verbal, as in body language where mood and compliance or demand may be made through gesture rather than text Communication comprises more than simply the speech of one individual to another Successful and productive conversations are inevitably multi-directional, with responses between the participants taking a pattern in which one speaks while the others listen and, in turn, respond However, people sometimes face difficulties in communicating due to the low communicative competence To have successful conversations, they use “communication strategies”

According to Canale and Swain (1980), the ability to use communication strategies constitutes strategic competence, which is a component of communicative competence They define strategic competence as “the verbal and non verbal communication strategies that may be called into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to performance variables or to insufficient competence” Meanwhile Faerch and Kasper (1983) see communication strategies as

“potentially conscious plans for solving what to an individual presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular communicative goal” The main distinguishing criteria in this definition are problem-orientedness and consciousness Faerch and Kasper contend that L2 learners want to express something through the second language but encounter problems as a result of their limited interlanguage They therefore resort to communication strategies, which are solutions to the communication problems encountered For example, if a speaker want to express the meaning of “waiter”, but he does not know the equivalent in the target language, he

may paraphrase “someone who bring the food from the kitchen to the table for the customer”

Faerch and Kasper (1983) emphasize that the speaker‟s choice of a communication strategy is influenced by his underlying behaviour They explain that there are two kinds of behaviour that the speaker can adopt, avoidance or achievement behaviour If the speaker chooses avoidance or to opt out of the problem, then he may change his communicative goal He gives up, avoids or revises his original plan On the other hand, he attempts to reach his original targets In this case, he uses language transfer, appeals, paralinguistic means, word coinage, and circumlocution

Second language learning

There are two broad views to language learning – the behaviouristic view and the cognitive view This cognitive view believes that “in learning a second language, the learner actively constructs the rules of the second language from the L2 data he encounters and gradually adapts these rules in the direction of the second language system” (Paramasivam, 2009) The processes are called rule formation, including the formation and testing out of hypotheses about rules of the target language are In the first step, the learner forms a hypothetical rule of the second language based on the L2 data he is exposed to Then this hypothetical rule is subsequently checked for its validity by being used in communication or, in formal learning settings, in exercises etc In the second step, the hypothesis is tested to be confirmed or rejected With positive feedback from the interlocutor, the hypothesis is confirmed and the hypothetical rule becomes a fixed rule of the learner‟s interlanguage system On the other hand, the negative one leads to hypothesis rejection and induces the learner to either look for new L2 data or to use the feedback to form a revised hypothesis The procedure of hypothesis formation and testing is repeated until the learner‟s hypothesis is confirmed and gets stored as a fixed rule Once a fixed rule is established, the learner is said to have stopped learning in this particular interlanguage area (Paramasivam, 2009)

However, second language learning constitutes more than the mere construction of L2 rules It also constitutes the automatization of L2 rules so that they can result in fluent performance in communication (Faerch and Kasper, 1980; Spolsky, 1989) This is to say that the learner not only has to learn L2 rules but also to develop his ability to use these rules in communication Faerch and Kasper (1980) see no contradiction in emphasizing the importance of rule automatization and

holding a cognitive view of language learning at the same time They contend that “since there is no direct way from the integration of an interlanguage rule into the learner‟s cognitive structure to the free availability of that rule in communication, i.e., without the learner having to monitor” (p 76), it is necessary to assume rule automatization as an intervening variable which can account for the difference between these two stages in L2 learning They state that in order to achieve a more or less automatic access to the interlanguage system the most obvious plan to follow is to practice L2 in a variety of communicative situations

In short, second language learning includes both cognitive aspects and behavioural aspects The cognitive aspects involve rule formation and the behavioural aspects involve rule automatization With this understanding, learning strategies are discussed in the following section

Learning strategies

Many people say learning strategies are devices which learners make use of to learn a language However, Rubin (1975) sees them in a broader sense as “the

techniques or devices which a learner may use to acquire knowledge” Faerch and

Kasper (1980), on the other hand, propose a psycholinguistic definition in which they define a learning strategy, as they define a communication strategy, in relation to problem-orientedness and consciousness The criterion of problem-orientedness implies that the learner is having a problem in reaching a particular learning goal, whereas the criterion of consciousness implies that the learner is consciously aware of his having the problem As a result, Faerch and Kasper (1980) view learning strategies as “potentially conscious plans for solving what to an

individual presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular learning goal” The

learning goal is in relation to constructing and mastering the rules of the target language Since language learning constitutes of rule formation and rule automatization, the learning problems may lie in hypothesis formation or it may be in hypothesis testing and in increasing automatization Accordingly, they classify learning strategies as “psycholinguistic” and “behavioural” learning strategies (Faerch and Kasper, 1980) “Psycholinguistic” learning strategies are used when the learner encounter a problem in hypothesis formation meanwhile “behavioural” learning strategies are found in hypothesis testing or in increasing automatization

As the two linguists explain, learners form hypotheses basing on two sources which consist of their L2 input and their prior knowledge and experience relating to language learning Psycholinguistic learning strategies are classified based on the way the learner makes use of their experience in language learning In this way, they differentiate the psycholinguistic learning strategies of “induction”, “inferencing” and “transfer” and “behavioural learning strategies” composing of strategies that allow for practice of the L2 rules like “appeal” where the learner appeals directly to some authority, for instance, a native speaker, or looks up reference materials like dictionaries or textbooks to test the validity of a hypothetical rule (Paramasivam, 2009) However, Naiman et al (1978) propose five broad categories and a number of secondary learning strategies The primary classification composes of an active task approach, realization of language as a system, realization of language as a means of communication and interaction, management of affective demands, and monitoring of second language performance The active task approach means students react positively to learning opportunity or search for and exploit learning environment; they add concerning language learning activities to regular classroom program; and practice the target language The realization of language as a system refers to the analysis of individual problems, the comparison between the mother tongue and the second language, the inferences from the target language, and the use of language as a system The realization of language as a means of communication and interaction overweighs fluency over accuracy, and finds opportunities to speak English with other learners The management of affective demands finds socio-cultural meanings and copes with affective demands in learning Finally, monitoring of second language performance means constantly revises L2 system by testing inferences and asking L2native speakers for feedback

Similarly, Rubin (1981) divides learning strategies into primary and representative secondary ones The former consists of strategies that directly affect learning, including clarification or verification, monitoring, memorization, guessing

or inductive inferencing, deductive reasoning, practice and processes that contribute indirectly to learning referring to create opportunities for practice and production tricks

Nunan (1999) says “learning strategies are the mental and communicative procedures learners use in order to learn and use language” He classifies learners into different types with different learning preferences The first kind is “concrete learners” who acquire the target language through audio-visual teaching methods, i.e pictures, video, films, cassette players, and communicative activities like talking in pairs and practicing English outside the classroom The second type is “analytical learners” They prefer to learn formal written English independently As its name suggests, “communicative learners” learn effectively in “native environment”, i.e exposing to the native speakers, learning through talking and listening The last type

“authority-oriented” ones “prefer the teacher to explain everything, like to have their own textbook, to write everything in a notebook, to study grammar, learn by reading, and learn new words by seeing them”

Jones, et al (1987) found that “effective learners aware of the process underlying their own learning and seek to use appropriate learning strategies to control their own learning” Besides, O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) discover that

“students who were designated by their teachers as more effective learners use strategies more frequently, and use a greater variety of strategies than students who were designated as less effective”

1.4 Learning strategies and communication strategies

There are many different views about the relation between communication strategies and learning strategies Brown (1980) notes that they are clearly different because “communication is the output modality and learning is the input modality” Yet, he makes an exception for rule transference noting that this strategy may have a dual function For example, a learner may apply the strategy in learning a language as well as when communicating in it Similarly, Ellis (1986) also finds the differences between communication strategies and learning strategies He in fact argues that

“successful use of communication strategies may prevent learning since skilful compensation for lack of linguistic knowledge can make the need for learning unnecessary” (Ellis, 1986 quoted in Paramasivam, 2009)

However, some researchers are for the opposite opinion Tarone (1980) suggests that the learner may be exposed to language input that may result in language learning even though they are lack of grammar and vocabulary She then concludes

that communication strategies can help learners expand language Rubin (1981) views communication strategies as indirect learning strategies He refers communication strategies to production tricks that can “indirectly help contribute to language learning” (quoted in Paramasivam, 2009) Using communication strategies is therefore seen as a springboard to language learning

The distinction between a learning strategy and a communication strategy, in fact, lies in the difference between learning and communication Firstly, about second language learning, there are two broad views to language learning – the behaviouristic view and the cognitive view The latter one believes that in second language learning, the learner actively forms the rules of the target language from the L2 data he encounters and gradually adapts these rules in the direction of the second language system Besides, second language learning also constitutes the automatization of L2 rules so that they can result in fluent performance in communication (Faerch and Kasper, 1980; Spolsky, 1989) In other words, the learners do not only learn L2 rules but also put these rules into practice in real life communications

Faerch and Kasper (1980) contend that “since there is no direct way from the integration of an interlanguage rule into the learner‟s cognitive structure to the free availability of that rule in communication, i.e., without the learner having to monitor” Therefore, it can be said that second language learning consists of both cognitive aspects as well as behavioural aspects The cognitive aspects involve rule formation and the behavioural aspects involve rule automatization

However, communication does not involve rule formation and rule automatization but ways of using the interlanguage system in interaction as communication provides exposure to the target language which is a necessary criterion for learning the language The more the learner communicates in the target language, the more chances he has to practice his interlanguage and test it

As learning and communication are closely related, it is not always easy to distinguish a learning strategy from a communication strategy, especially in actual communicative situations (Tarone, 1981; Ellis, 1994; Brown, 1994) The difference is distinguished according to the problem which the strategy attempts to tackle Learning strategies like “transfer”, “inferencing”, “induction”, “word coinage”, “appeal” will solve troubles in hypothesis formation, hypothesis testing and increasing automatization processes Meanwhile, communication strategies, such as reduction strategies consisting of “avoidance” and “omission”, and achievement strategies like

“code-switching”, “translation”, “restructuring”, “circumlocution”, “word coinage” are used to cope with problems in the planning and realization of speech production

Apart from the differences above, a communication strategy can function as a learning strategy at the same time Faerch and Kasper (1980) state that a communication strategy enhances learning when it contributes to the two important aspects of language learning – hypothesis formation and automatization As discussed above, a strategy is used when the learner encounters a problem in communication The reason may be his interlanguage system does not yet contain the appropriate item (planning problem), or that the appropriate interlanguage item is difficult to retrieve

or is considered problematic from a correctness or fluency point of view (realization problem) Therefore, they conclude that communication strategies that aim at solving problems in the planning phase can lead to L2 learning with respect to hypothesis formation, and that communication strategies which attempt to tackle problems in the realization phase can lead to learning with respect to automatization Nevertheless, a communication strategy can only lead to learning if it is governed by achievement rather than avoidance behaviour If a leanrner avoids communicating his intention, hypothesis formation and automatization do not occur His interlanguage system remains unaffected which means learning cannot occur

1.5 Language transfer

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, language transfer (also known

as L1 interference, linguistic interference, and cross meaning) refers to speakers or writers applying knowledge from their native language to a second language They classify language transfer into the positive and negative one When the relevant unit

or structure of both languages is the same, linguistic interference can result in correct language production called positive transfer Therefore, it can be inferred that the more similar the two languages are, the more the learner is aware of the relation between them, the more positive transfer will occur However, most of language transfer is negative It occurs when speakers and writers transfer items and structures that are not the same in both languages

1.6 Transfer as a communication strategy

As a communication strategy, transfer refers to “the use of items from a second language, typically the mother tongue, particularly syntactic and lexical, to make good the deficiencies of the interlanguage” (Corder, 1992) In other words, the second language learner expresses his intended meaning in the second language by using some aspects of his mother tongue Tarone (1983) calls it “borrowing” strategy where the learner either translates word for word or uses the L1 to convey his meaning Faerch and Kasper (1984) refer to this similar strategy as “L1/L3 strategies” where the learner uses the features of his native language or second or third language

to express his intended meaning in communication Poulisse (1987) refers to the strategy as “transfer” where the speaker transfers one language to the other If the learner exploits the similarities between languages and transfers from one language to the other, he is said to have used the transfer strategy Transfer is manifested either by

a “language switch”, where the learner uses words from the L1 or any other language

to express his intended meaning in the target language, or “literal translation”, where the learner literally translates his intended meaning from one language into another

1.7 Transfer as a learning strategy

According to Faerch and, language transfer may or may not enhance learning depending on the context in which it is used It does not support language learning if the learner does not use the second language at all or he uses this strategy to deal with language problem only The speaker therefore does not learn the L2 item of the problematic word However, if the learner uses L1 in order to communicate, he may

be aware of his limited vocabulary After the activity, he can resort to sources of authority like a dictionary or the class teacher or his friend to learn the English equivalents of the problematic words In this indirect way, language transfer may be viewed as having the potential as a language learning tool

1.8 Related studies

In 1998, Shamala Paramasivam who is a lecturer at the Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, University Putra Malaysia,

carried out a large research on communication strategies She used a group of

undergraduate Malaysian students who learn English as a second language She found out that language transfer was used as a communication strategy as well as a learning strategy Then she published her report on Asian EFL Journal (2009)

Paramasivam selected four Malay (two males and two females) first-year students They were studying at the Science and Computer Department, Faculty of Science and Environmental Studies, University Putra Malaysia They were pursuing a Degree in Computer Science, and were at the intermediate level of English proficiency

To make it easier and more reliable to define the level of their English, Paramasivam chose only Malaysian students Also, in order to reduce the influence of gender on the use of language, an equal number of male and female participants were used They all had learnt English as a second language for eleven years, in six years of primary education and five years of secondary education

Basing on Anderson, Brown, Shillcock and Yule‟s (1984) classification of oral tasks, Paramasivam used three types of oral tasks, which are static task, dynamic task, and abstract task

To collect data, the researcher put the students in four pairs They are named Pair 1 Male-Male (P1Mi & P1Mii), Pair 2 Female-Female (P2Fi & P2Fii), Pair 3 Male-Female (P3M & P3F) and Pair 4 Female-Male (P4F & P4M) respectively Each pair performed the three mentioned above task-types, the Instruction-Giving Task (Task A), the Story-Telling Task (Task B) and the Opinion-Giving Task (Task C)

In the first part of data collection, all four pairs performed the Giving Task (Task A) P1 (Male-Male pair) and P2 (Female-Female pair) were required to repair a leaking tap P3 (Male-Female) was asked to fix a wire into a three-pin plug and P4 (Female- Male) had to make a flower out of ribbon In the second part, a person of each pair was given a picture story to look through for two

Instruction-minutes before telling his/her partner a story based on it while the second person in the pair listened In the third part, the four pairs performed the Opinion-Giving Task (Task C) They were each given a survival situation for which they had to put the items in order of importance which they need to survive

After transcribing the recorded data, the researcher firstly identified the discourse units that contained the communication strategy on the basis of problem indicators like hesitation phenomena and temporal variables such as laughs, repetitions, mimetic gestures, pauses , false starts , sighs rising intonation and comments like “what you call” Then Paramasivam compared the respondents‟ L1 and corresponding L2 utterances of the task to see exactly what the learner wanted

to say in English and the learner‟s adjusted meaning or message The third stage

of the identification procedure involved the use of the learners‟ retrospective comments obtained from an interview session with the subjects

After that, the recordings were analyzed Firstly, the researcher described the communication problems that the participants encountered Afterwards, basing on Poulisse‟s (1987) taxonomy of communication strategies, Paramasivam classified the ones used by the students, then compared then analyzed for the application purposes

Finally, Paramasivam found out that the students switch language in all the three task-types to solve language problems at the word level A Malay word was used to express the target word Moreover, literal translation was used in all the three task-types to deal with problematic word or message Besides, she also pointed out the effect of language transfer on second language learning

In addition to Paramasivam, many other researchers have conducted studies on the related fields For example, Bialystok1(983), Paribakht (1985), Corrales (1989) Fernandez Dobao (2003) investigate transfer as a communication strategy in relation

to learner variables like the learners‟ level of L2 proficiency or Palmberg (1979) studies learners‟ L1 or Corrales (1989), Poulisse and Schils (1989), Yarmohammedi and Seif (1992) conduct researches on nature of communication task

Bialystok (1983) examined communication strategies used by advanced and regular 17-year-old students learning French as a second language and found that advanced students used proportionately more L2-based strategies than the regular

students, who relied more on L1-based strategies, did L2 strategies referred to approximation, circumlocution and word coinage, whereas L1-based strategies referred to borrowing, language switch and literal translation

Fernandez Dobao (2003) who investigated communication strategy use of Galician learners of English across proficiency level when performing three types of oral tasks (picture story narration, photograph description, and conversation) also found that elementary students used more avoidance and transfer strategies compared

to intermediate and advanced students However between the intermediate and advanced learners, there was a higher use of transfer among the advanced students as she found they resorted to this strategy in their desire to be highly accurate and detailed Transfer included both language switch and translation

Corrales (1989) investigated communication strategies in relation to nature of the oral task amongst Spanish students of English and found that the Simulated

Conversation Task elicited significantly more transfer strategies than the Structured

Question Task She noted that this was because the Conversation Task prompted the learners to monitor their speech more than they did in the Question Task, causing native language features to surface more frequently

Poulisse and Schils (1989) conducted an analysis of communication strategies across three oral tasks - picture description, story telling and an interview – amongst Dutch learners of English who were required to perform these three oral tasks with a native speaker of English Poulisse‟s taxanomy, which consists of three major communication strategies, namely reduction, interactional and achievement strategies, was used to identify and classify the strategies used by the learners The researchers found that the subjects predominantly used analytic conceptual strategies most in the picture description task and frequently resorted to holistic conceptual strategies and transfer strategies in the story telling and the oral interview tasks

Yarmohammedi and Seif investigated (1992) task-type and communication strategy of intermediate Persian learners of English Three types of tasks were used in their study: writing a composition on a series of pictures, translation and the narration

of a completed picture story The tasks involved both written and oral productions of the subjects The findings revealed that achievement strategies were employed more frequently than reduction ones in both the written and oral tasks However, a number

of strategies such as cooperative, mime and retrieval strategies were more specific to

the subjects‟ oral performance In the written production of the story, there was a greater use of the literal translation strategy than in the oral production, and the reverse was true for code-switching

Summary

This chapter has covered theoretical background needed to support the study That background includes the clear definition, different views of communication strategies, learning strategies, language transfer, their inter-relationships, as well as the related studies The next chapter describes the research methodology in detail

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents a detailed description of the research methodology the author chose for the achievement of the aims and objectives of the study and the data collection and analysis procedures

2.1 Participants

The subjects of the study are first-year students from two classes, including two male and two female, studying at Foreign Trade University, Hanoi at 2009-2010 academic year All respondents have learnt English as a second language for seven years, four years of junior secondary education and three years of senior secondary education They are all native Vietnamese They are all nineteen years old An equal number of males and females were used to minimize the influence of gender on the use of communication strategies and to ensure that there would be sufficient talk-time for each task-type in order to establish a reliable profile of strategy use for each task-type

2.2 Measuring instruments

For the oral tasks, the participants will be paired off They will perform the given tasks These task-types are selected based on Anderson, Brown, Shillcock and Yule‟s (1984) classification of oral tasks involving static, dynamic, and abstract relationships

If the speaker is asked to describe static relationship among objects like describing a picture, giving instructions, following route directions and diagram drawing, they are involved in static tasks These tasks require the speaker to give sufficient information to the listener to identify the objects and their spatial relationships

On the other hand, dynamic tasks pose a higher degree of communicative demands on the speaker These tasks ask the speaker to describe events or relationships which change over time and space, or in other word, dynamic Some examples of the tasks are telling a story and narrating an event like an accident

Yet, the abstract tasks require the speaker to communicate abstract notions Apart from static and dynamic tasks when students are provided with all information needed to communicate, the speaker in abstract tasks has to think of the actual content

to be communicated with the help of stimulus material

The purpose of using different oral tasks on the difficult scale is to investigate the use of language in different communication problems All tasks reflect realities of real-life communicative situations and involve pair-work

1 Static Task: Instruction-giving task (henceforth referred to as Task A)

One of the pairs gives instruction for the other student to perform a task like making a flower or repairing a leaking tap The respondents can ask for clarifications

2 Dynamic Task: Telling a story (henceforth referred to as Task B)

One member of the pair is asked to tell a story basing on a sequence of given pictures while the other of the pair listens and asks for clarifications if necessary

3 Abstract Task: Opinion-giving (henceforth referred to as Task C)

The students are required to exchange opinions and try to reach an agreement

on the rank of importance of selected items which help them survive in a survival situation

The students‟ performance in these tasks was recorded then analyzed

In addition, students are given a series of pictures They have to write a composition basing on the pictures taken from “Listening extra” book by Miles Craven (2000) (see appendix)

2.3 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure was divided into two main phases The first one follows Pamavasima‟s research and the second one is based on Yarmohammedi and Seif‟s study in 1992

In the first phase, the subjects were paired off into four groups as the followings

- Pair 1 Male-Male (P1Mi & P1Mii): Cuong-Tuan Anh

- Pair 2 Female-Female (P2Fi & P2Fii): Ngoc-Ha

- Pair 3 Male-Female (P3M & P3F): Cuong-Ha

- Pair 4 Female-Male (P4F & P4M): Ngoc-Tuan Anh

Each pair performed the three task-types mentioned above All three tasks were first performed in English and then immediately in Vietnamese Data collection involved three parts

In the first part, all four pairs performed the Instruction-Giving Task (Task A)

- P1 (Male-Male pair) and P2 (Female-Female pair) performed

a task that required the pair to repair a leaking tap

- P3 (Male-Female ) and P4 (Female- Male) had to make a flower out of ribbon

In the first stage of data collection for this task-type, the researcher instructed a member of the to repair a leaking tap and to make a flower out of ribbon Then the student had to perform the task themselves Meanwhile, the researcher evaluated how well the instruction is understood In the second stage, these subjects instructed their partners to do the task The subjects were allowed to ask as many questions and to request for as much clarifications as they required

In the second part, the four pairs performed the Story-Telling Task (Task B) Two picture stories were taken from Heaton‟s (1976) Beginning Composition through Pictures In this part, one person in each pair was given a picture story which he/she looked through for two minutes before telling his/her partner a story based on it while the second person in the pair listens The second of the pair was also instructed to participate as naturally as he/she would in a real life situation

In the third part, the four pairs performed the Opinion-Giving Task (Task C) They were each given a survival situation for which they had to rank a list of items in order of importance for survival purposes The two survival situations used referred

to as Survival Situation 1 and Survival Situation 2, are taken from Ur (1981)

In the second phase, the students were given a set of pictures taken from the book “Listening extra” by Miles Craven (2000) Then they had ten minutes to compose a story basing on the given pictures without any dictionary

2.4 Analyzing data procedure

After transcribing the recorded data, the researcher identified the discourse

units to discover the communication strategies used To get a reliable identification of

the strategy used, three identification procedures were used, including pointing out the problem indicators, comparing the respondents‟ L1 and L2, and the use of the

learners‟ retrospective comments

Firstly, I indicated the discourse units containing the communication strategy on the basis of problem indicators which include hesitation phenomena and temporal variables like pauses, sighs, laughs, repetitions, false starts, mimetic gestures, rising intonation and comments like “what you call”, “how to say” However, the purpose of using such problem indicators may be different The students paused to give themselves more time to think or to organize his ideas The use of hesitation might refer to the choice of the words used In other words, this stage alone was not sufficient As a result, the researcher then had to come to the second step

In this step, I compared the respondents‟ L1 and corresponding L2 utterances

of the task The respondents in L1 were the intended meaning, or what exactly the participants wanted to express On the other hand, what they said in L2 reflected their adjusted meaning The strategy which the students used was identified by putting the corresponding L1 and L2 versions of the task together then comparing to show where they did not coincide

According to Palmberg (1979), there are four possibilities of the presence of

a particular intended meaning in the L2 version of a task were used to determine the instances of strategy use

Intended meaning

in L1 version

Intended meaning

in L2 version

Finally, basing on the retrospective comments obtained from an interview session with the subjects which helped to identify the problems encountered by the participants, the researcher confirmed that the discourse studied was the result of a linguistic handicap

After that the discourse units containing communication strategies were analyzed following three stages Firstly, the researcher described the problems which the students encountered in the three given tasks Then using Poulisse‟s (1987) taxonomy of communication strategies, what strategies the students used were divided into different types according to their linguistic configuration, communicative function and communicative intent in each of the task-types Afterwards, the researcher compared the types to find out the similarities as well as the differences among them Then, each type of communication strategy was analyzed for its potential learning effect

Similarly, the second phase of the study was analyzed The researcher first compared the compositions both in Vietnamese and in English to identify the intended

meaning conveyed in the mother tongue and how they expressed in the target language Then, the problems encountered by the students were identified basing on

an interview session with the subjects Finally, the discourse units containing communication strategies were analyzed following three mentioned above stages

Summary

This chapter presented the research population, the research methodology, instruments of data collection, and procedures of data analysis To achieve data for the research, different instruments were used including three oral tasks and a writing task These instruments were employed in the hope to gain triangulation and more reliable and valid data Next chapter will present the data analysis and discussion

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS

Chapter Two presents the chosen research methodology and instruments of data collection, which included three oral tasks and a writing task This chapter analyzes the data as well as compares to the findings of the original research

3.1 Research findings

3.1.1 Transfer as a communication strategy

In order to overcome the difficulties they encounter when communicating, the students apply different types of strategies which can be summarized as language switch and literal translation The first strategy means the respondent used a Vietnamese word to replace its equivalent in the target language to express his intended meaning Meanwhile, the latter one can be understood as literally translated his intended meaning from Vietnamese into English

3.1.1.1 Language switch

Language switch was used as a communication strategy in all the three types to solve language problems at the word level A Vietnamese word was used to express the target word

task-In Task A, language switch was used to refer to objects used in the task and to explain the non-verbal aspects of the task, which is the actions required for performing the task

In example 1, this strategy was used to refer to the “tap”, the “screw”,

“spanner” which the instructor did not have the English equivalent for He referred to

as “vòi nước”, ốc vít”, “cờ lê”

Example 1: Task A-repairing a leaking tap

P1Mi: Now I want to show you how to cover “vòi nước” because it‟s dropping water So, first you have to use this “cờ lê” to twist this “ốc”

P1Mii: This one? (point at the screw)

P1Mi: Right Then you use the tape, the professional one and roll around the tap

P1Mii: Ok

P1Mi: Now you put the “ốc” back and twist it again

The second pair had a similar problem The instructor had difficulty in finding the English words for his intened meaning

Example 2: Task A-repairing a leaking tap

P2Fi: Today I will tell you how to repair a pipe that is „rỉ nước” Firstly, you must get the tools ready You need a roll of “băng dính”and “cờ lê”

P2Fii: OK I‟m ready

P2Fi: Now you use the “cờ lê” to open the pipe then you put the tape over and

over it until you don‟t see water any more

P2Fii: Ok

P2Fi: Then you put the “ốc vít” back then “vặn” it to the right position

As can be seen from this example, the instructor use “rỉ nước”, “băng dính”,

“cờ lê” “vặn” instead of “leaking”, “tape”, “spanner”, “twist”due to his lack of the

target vocabulary

In example 3 and 4, the pairs demonstrated the use of language switch by replacing some Vietnamese words for their intended meaning

Example 3: Make a flower out of ribbon

P3F: I love doing this I‟ll tell you how to make a flower out of ribbon

P3M: OK

P3F: You have to “gấp” the ribbon like this (demonstrating the action at the

same time)

P3M: OK

P3F: You keep doing like that until you make the enough big “flower”

Example 4: Make a flower out of ribbon

P4M: You need to be rather careful to make the flower out of this “ruy băng” You have to fold it to make a “nơ” Then you continue making three more of them

Finally, you tie them together to make the flower

P4F: performed as instructed

In task B, the students used language switch to describe the object, and its parts as well as the actions in the stories

Example 5 (pair 1 Male-Male (P1Mi-P1Mii)

P1Mi: Two children were playing … uhm …ping pong, but the table was too

high so the children take a “cưa” and “cưa” a…

P1Mii: the table?

P1Mi: No, a”chân” of the table

P1Mii: Oh?

P1Mi: Then one child can play well but the other cannot, so they “cưa” all the

“chân” When their parents came back home, they were very surprised and the two children were “xấu hổ”

The interview revealed that P1Mi‟s intended meaning was that “the two children were playing table tennis but the table was too high so they used a saw to cut the legs of the table Now, one child could play but not the other Therefore, they cut all the legs of the table When their parents came back home, they were very surprised and the two children were very shy” (Có hai cậu bé đang chơi bóng bàn nhưng vì cái bàn cao quá nên chúng quyết định dùng cưa để cưa chân bàn đi Nhưng chỉ có một bên chơi được còn bên kia thì không Nên chúng quyết định cưa cả hai chân.Khi bố

mẹ chúng về nhà, họ rất ngạc nhiên, còn hai đứa trẻ thì rất xấu hổ) As P1Mi did not know the English equivalent for the word “cưa” and “xấu hổ”, he used the Vietnamese words to replace

Another example is with pair 2 Female-Female (P2Fi & P2Fii)

Example 6

P2Fi: I‟m going to tell you a story about three men

P2Fii: That sounds interesting!

P2Fi: The first man is a “customer” who seems to come from India He is wearing a…uhmmmm

P2Fii: Uhm

P2Fi: The little boy comes to ask the customer some questions And when the customer doesn‟t attend his luggage, the second man next to him picks up the luggage and runs away

P2Fii: Oh, dear Then?

P2Fi: In the street, a policeman blows his “còi” to make the sound louder and

louder to attend people

P2Fii: (laugh)

P2Fi: But the man and the kid still run away And when the two people have escaped, they open the luggage

P2Fii: What‟s inside?

P2Fi: It‟s amazing because there is a big snake going out of the luggage They were very scared

P3M: The story is about a man who comes to one place When he comes to

this place, he‟s very “bỡ ngỡ” There‟s one boy He comes to talk with him When

they are talking, one thief takes his suit

P3M: Blows his ”còi”

P3F: Sorry, I don‟t understand

P3F: I can‟t imagine anything

P3M: It‟ll make you very surprised It‟s a snake

P3F: “rắn”?

P3M: yes, it is

P3F: That man must come from ”Ả rập”

P3M: Yes, I think he‟s from India

In this example, the students switched the language from L2 to L1 six times to name the object “còi” (whistle), “rắn” (snake), to describe the action “thổi còi” (whistle), to name the country ”Ả rập” (Arab), and to describe the feeling “bỡ ngỡ” (anxious) , “lo lắng” (worried)

Pair 4 Female-Male (P4F & P4M) performed the task with similar strategy

P4F: Now they are too tall but the table is too short When their parents come

back home, they are very surprised “khi nhìn thấy cảnh đó” The two boys are very shy “về hành động của mình”

As can be seen in this example, the student did not use language switch at the word level She used phrases instead “Vẫn quá cao” means “Still too high” “Khi nhìn thấy cảnh đó” refers to “when they see it” “Về hành động của mình” equals

“about what they have done”

In task C, with survival situations, language switched was still used as an effective strategy for communication

The first pair was given Survival situation 1

Example 9

P1Mi: A group of people of which I am a member are trapped underground Nobody knows me and my friends are trapped I have to find the way to save myself

I have a number of items which I have to bring

P1Mii: What are the items?

P1Mi: First, I choose 20 meters of nylon robe

P1Mii: Why?

P1Mi: I think it will help me “buộc” or “nối” to the land And I can use it to

climb

P1Mii: Ok What‟s next?

P1Mi: I‟ll bring a small amount of explosive because it will “phá” the stones

and find the way to escape

P1Mii: I see what you mean

P1Mi: Then I‟ll take a coat and warm clothing because I think underground at night will be cold

P1Mii: That‟s right

P1Mi: I‟ll also bring a magnetic compass It will help me know “hướng” so I

can choose the right way

P1Mii: But it may not work underground

P1Mi: Maybe, but it may work I‟m not sure I‟ll take it anyway

P1Mii: Ok

P1Mi: I‟ll take protective helmet In the land very dangerous

P1Mii: Yeah, you may hit the rock

P1Mi: Right, so it will protect me And I‟ll take battery-run transistor radio

because I think someone on land can “bắt được tín hiệu” from my radio and come to

save me That‟s enough for me to survive

In this example, P1Mi and P1Mii were discussing what to take to help them

survive As he said in the interview later, “em sẽ chọn 20 mét dây nilong để buộc hoặc nối với mặt đất.Em cũng dùng dây này để trèo lên Em sẽ mang theo thuốc nổ để phá đất đá, làm đường hầm để đi Em dùng la bàn để định hướng Em đội mũ bảo hiểm vì dưới lòng đất rất nguy hiểm Cuối cùng em chọn đài với hy vọng ai đó trên mặt đất sẽ bắt được tín hiệu từ đài của em và sẽ cứu em” So he meant that he would choose 20

meters of nylon robe so that he can use it to tie or link to the ground He would also use it to climb up He‟d bring a small amount of explosive because it would help to make the way A magnetic compass would help him to find the right direction As it is dangerous underground, he would wear a protective helmet Finally, he would take battery-run transistor radio because I think someone on land can catch the signal from his radio and come to save him He did not know the English words for some verbs so

he replaced them by the Vietnamese equivalents, like buộc, nối (tie), or phá (destroy), hướng (direction), and bắt được tín hiệu (catch the signal)

The second pair dealt with the similar problem in a similar way

Example 10

P2Fi: I‟m a member of a group which is trapped underground Nobody knows

we are trapped I had to find the way up myself There are a number of items which I have to number in order of importance for the survival purpose First, I will choose water because water is very important for me If I don‟t have any food, water can help

me survive for a week

P2Fii: That‟s right We cannot survive without water

P2Fi: I‟ll choose the spade to break the stone and the land to help me go up to the square

P2Fii: Spade? What‟s the spade?

P2Fi: Spade is the thing I can use to dig, to make the way

P2Fii: I see

P2Fi: I‟ll choose watch to know the hour, the time., when it is night time, when it is day time

P2Fii: Yeah Ok

P2Fi: I‟ll take a small amount of explosive It‟s also very important because like the spade, it can make a big “beng” to make the way

P2Fii: Big “beng”? You mean when it explodes?

P2Fi: Yes, I‟ll bring coat and warm clothing for each person and cigarette lighter They will help me and my friends survive through the night because in the night, under the ground, the temperature is very low

P2Fii: It‟s a good idea

P2Fi: I‟ll use the chalk to take the note where I go through to announce the

people that my friends and I are “mắc kẹt” underground

In this example, the student use mắc kẹt instead of stuck or trapped The

problem may arise from her nervousness as the word “trapped” has been used many

times previously Another interesting thing is the use of the word “beng” It is a

Vietnamese word describing the sound when people hit a metal thing Some people also use this word to talk about the explosion Surprisingly, this word is pronounced

similarly to the word “bang” in English, which is used to talk about the explosion As

a result, this language switch may be ignored and can be considered as a correct utterance

For another survival situation, the third and the fourth pair also applied very similar strategy The third pair used only one Vietnamese word in the place of the English one

Example 11

P3M: If I and three other people are trapped in the middle of the ocean And I have become separated from the main ship It‟s very far from the land or any island In this case, I will choose some important items in order of necessity to survive The first thing is a small boat

P3F: To row the boat to the shore?

P3M: Right, but I cannot row without oars, so I will choose oars next With them, I can row to land or to the island

P3F: Ok What else?

P3M: I will take the map of the ocean and the compass as it‟s very very

important to know “hướng” to move my small boat

P3F: I‟m terrible at reading maps

P3M: Then string, water, fishing hook will be my choice because in the middle of the ocean, I don‟t have fresh water

P3F: What‟s the string, fishing hook for?

P3M: ah, I‟ll use them to catch fish to eat

P3F: Good idea!

P3M: Then I will choose blanket because at mid-night in the ocean is very cold

The forth pair used đường, tồn tại, nhiệt độ to convey her intended meaning

In Vietnamese she said ”…Em dùng bản đồ đại dương và la bàn để tìm đường Ngoài

ra, em sẽ mang chăn vì nhiệt độ ban đêm trên biển rất lạnh…Em chọn lưỡi câu để bắt

cá Nếu bạn không ăn, bạn sẽ bị đói, mệt và có thể chết đói Và cái lưỡi câu có thể giúp bạn tồn tại” (I use the map of the ocean and the compass to find the way

Besides, I choose blanket because the temperature at midnight in the ocean is very low… Then I will choose the fishing hook to catch fish If you don‟t eat, you may suffer from hunger, feel tired, then starve So the fishing hook can help you exist.)

P4M: Rowing a boat is not easy

P4F: My partners can do it We can relax when we are tired and I can sleep at night Then I choose water because in the ocean without water, I may die

P4M: Right But how do you get to the land?

P4F: I‟ll use the map of the ocean and the compass to find “đường” Besides,

I choose blanket because the temper…”nhiệt độ” at midnight in the ocean is very

cold

P4M: You may get cold and you may die because of coldness

P4F: Then I will choose the fishing hook to catch fish If you don‟t eat, you

may be hungry, feel tired, then die of hungry So the fishing hook can help you “tồn tại”

As it is clearly seen from the above example, language switch is frequently used as a communication strategy in spoken situation However, in the writing experiment, no one used it in their compositions

3.1.1.2 Literal translation

Literal translation is registered when the problematic word or message is translated from the L1 into the L2 It was used in all the three task-types to deal with problems at the word and message levels as an independent strategy

In Task A, it was used for problems at the word level involving the non-verbal aspects of the task

Example 15: Task A-repairing a leaking tap

P1Mi: Now I want to show you how to cover “vòi nước” because it‟s dropping water So, first you have to use this “cờ lê” to twist this “ốc”

P1Mii: This one? (point at the screw)

P1Mi: Right Then you use the tape, the professional one and roll around the

tap

P1Mii: Ok

P1Mi: Now you put the “ốc” back and twist it again

In stead of using “specialized”, the student used the word “professional” because when being translated into Vietnamese, the two words have similar meaning, which is “chuyên nghiệp”

The second pair had a similar problem The instructor had difficulty in finding the English words for his intended meaning so he replaced them with the ones he thought to have same meanings The word “pipe” which means “ống nước” in Vietnamese was used to replace “tap” Later, in the interview, it was revealed that the student used the word “pipe” because he was thinking about the shape of the pipe Also, he said he did not know how to express the action of “removing”, he combined body language with the use of the word “open” The same strategy was applied for the

case of “over and over”, which should be around”, and “don‟t see water anymore” which is “it is fixed

Example 16: Task A-repairing a leaking tap

P2Fi: Today I will tell you how to repair a pipe that is „rỉ nước” Firstly, you

must get the tools ready You need a roll of “băng dính”and “cờ lê”

P2Fii: OK I‟m ready

P2Fi: Now you use the “cờ lê” to open the pipe then you put the tape over and over it until you don‟t see water any more

P2Fii: Ok

P2Fi: Then you put the “ốc vít” back then “vặn” it to the right position

In Task B, literal translation was used for problems involving actions performed by characters in the story

Example 17

P2Fi: I‟m going to tell you a story about three men

P2Fii: That sounds interesting!

P2Fi: The first man is a “customer” who seems to come from India He is

P2Fi: The little boy comes to ask the customer some questions And when the

customer doesn‟t attend his luggage, the second man next to him picks up the

luggage and runs away

P2Fii: Oh, dear Then?

P2Fi: In the street, a policeman blows his “còi” to make the sound louder and louder to attend people

P2Fii: (laugh)

P2Fi: But the man and the kid still run away And when the two people have escaped, they open the luggage

P2Fii: What‟s inside?

P2Fi: It‟s amazing because there is a big snake going out of the luggage They were very scared

P2Fii: My God!

In the utterance “the first man is a “customer” who seems to come from

India”, P2Fi meant a passenger As she put it in the L1 version of the task, “người đàn ông đầu tiên là một du khách hình như đến từ Ấn Độ” However, she did not know how to express the word in English Her utterance shows she translated her intended meaning into the target language as when being translated into Vietnamese, customer and passenger sounds similar in terms of meaning Similarly, she said “and when the

customer doesn‟t attend his luggage, the second man next to him picks up the

luggage and runs away” instead of her intended meaning was “and when the customer

doesn‟t notice his luggage, the second man next to him picks up the luggage and runs

away” or “ Khi vị khách này không để ý đến hành lý của ông ấy, người đàn ông bên cạnh ông ta xách hành lý và chạy mất” Moreover, she said “In the street, a policeman

blows his “còi” to make the sound louder and louder to attend people” Later, in

the interview, she revealed that her intended meaning was “In the street, a policeman blows his whistle to get people‟s attention” (một người cảnh sát trên đường phố thổi còi rất to để mọi người chú ý)

In Task C, literal translation was used for problems involving the use of words and phrases in relation to the opinions expressed about the functions of the items specified for the survival situation and their necessity

Example 18

P1Mi: A group of people of which I am a member are trapped underground Nobody knows me and my friends are trapped I have to find the way to save myself

I have a number of items which I have to bring

P1Mii: What are the items?

P1Mi: First, I choose 20 meters of nylon robe

P1Mii: Why?

P1Mi: I think it will help me “buộc” or “nối” to the land And I can use it to climb

P1Mii: Ok What‟s next?

P1Mi: I‟ll bring a small amount of explosive because it will “phá” the stones and find the way to escape

P1Mii: I see what you mean

P1Mi: Then I‟ll take a coat and warm clothing because I think underground

at night will be cold

P1Mii: That‟s right

P1Mi: I‟ll also bring a magnetic compass It will help me know “hướng” so I can choose the right way

P1Mii: But it may not work underground

P1Mi: Maybe, but it may work I‟m not sure I‟ll take it anyway