A SURVEY ON COMMON CAUSES IMPEDING ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDY STUDENTS OF CAN THO UNIVERSITY IN UNDERSTANDING SHORT FICTION

Can Tho, May 2008 Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu... Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu... 22 Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệ

CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

A SURVEY ON COMMON CAUSES IMPEDING ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDY

STUDENTS OF CAN THO UNIVERSITY IN

UNDERSTANDING SHORT FICTION

B.A THESIS

Field of study: English Language Learning

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Viet Anh, M Ed Researcher: Ho Hoai Bao

Student ID: 7044853Letters of English Class 03 C.30

Can Tho, May 2008

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C ONTENTS

Contents…… ……… Page i

Acknowledgements ……… ……… ii

Abstract……… ……… iii

List of tables and figures ………… …… ……… iv

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION……… ……… 1

1.1 Rationale……… 1

1.1.1 Why learning fiction.… …… 1

1.1.2 Context of learning fiction at Can Tho University.… ……… 1

1.2 Research aims……… 3

1.3 Research question……… 3

1.4 Hypotheses……… 3

1.5 Organization of the thesis ……… 3

CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW………… ……… 5

2.1 Definition of fiction……….……… 5

2.2 Fiction classification……… 6

2.3 Definition of short fictional works/short stories ……….……… 7

2.4 Factors impacting students’ understanding short fictional works………8

CHAPTER 3 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY….……… 10

3.1 Research Design……… ……… 10

3.2 Participants……….……… 10

3.3 Materials……… ……… 11

3.4 Instrument……… ……… 11

3.5 Procedure……… ……… 16

3.5.1 Data administration ……… ……… 16

3.5.2 Data analysis ……… ……… ………… 16

CHAPTER 4 – RESULTS and DISCUSSION ………… ……… 18

CHAPTER 5 – EXPECTED OUTCOMES, LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSION and DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH … ………… 26

5.1 Expected outcomes…… ……… 26

5.2 Limitations… ….… ……… ……… 26

5.3 Conclusion and directions for further research… ……… 27

References……… ……… 29

Appendix ……… ……… 34 Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

Special thanks must be offered to Ms Ho Phuong Thuy and Ms Nguyen Nguyen Tuyet lecturers of English Department, Can Tho University – who heartedly allowed me to proceed

-my delivering and collecting data in their classes Their permission was a passport to a new step

of my thesis.

I cannot forget enthusiastic faces of English Language Study sophomores course 32, Can Tho University when cooperating with me in doing the questionnaire How could I manage with

my thesis without your participation?

I also owe Mr Chau Thien Hiep - lecturer of English Department, Can Tho University - a thanks for your advice to improve my doing research I wish You good health and perfect working result in the United States.

It is so kind of You - lecturers of English Department, Can Tho University- who sacrificed your valuable time to offer me books, advice and information I am so lucky having chance to meet You.

Last but not least, I am so happy to have my family beside me in every stage of my life including the period I was doing this research Especially, Mom! It’s You that is my greatest motivation in everything.

Can Tho, May 2008

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A BSTRACT

This is a qualitative survey research on common causes of three levels:linguistics, culture, and motivation which are hypothesised to prevent EnglishLanguage Study students of Can Tho University from understanding shortfictional works The idea for conducting this research originated from thereserarcher, myself, after learning short fiction at Can Tho University, and facingcertain obstacles in learning fictional works The aims of this small research are

to investigate which are some most common causes among three mentioned levels that negatively influence English Language Study sophomores

above-in learnabove-ing short fictional works, to fabove-ind out the most challengabove-ing cause and thereasons why students consider it as the most considerable cause Suggestions forovercoming these causes also need to be detected Following these lodestars, theresearch was designed with one instrument: A questionnaire with close and openquestions on 86 English Language Study sophomores’ opinions about thecommon causes affecting themselves From collected and analyzed data, the

cause of coping with a lot of new vocabulary turned to be the most common

(84%) and the most challenging one (42%) that impeded students inunderstanding short fictional works The solution that was applied by majority of

students was Reading as many books in English as possible, especially fictional books (56%) Discussions were made after receiving the results.

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L IST OF T ABLES AND F IGURES

Table 1.1: Questionnaire components … ……… ……… page 12 Table 1.2: Questionnaires administration……… ……… 17 Table 1.3: Reasons why students chose cause 1 as the most serious one….… 23 Table 1.4: Solutions students chose to overcome the most serious cause….… 24

Figure 1.1: Rates of each cause selected by students …… ……… 20 Figure 1.2: Percentage of each cause selected by students…… ………… 20 Figure 1.3: Rates of the most serious cause opted by students……… …… 21 Figure 1.4: Percentage of the most serious cause opted by students ……… 22

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CHAPTER 1

1.1 Rationale

1.1.1 Why learning fiction?

According to Negrete (2007), experiencing other people's adventures is one

of the useful ways allowing us to obtain knowledge of worlds and subjects which

we may never have time or opportunity to experience for ourselves And learningliterature, especially fiction, is the best way to acquire the process above Whenenjoying fiction, we do not need to cost any energy or cost to witness people,things, events, internal world, etc that we want to acknowledge Instead, we sit atone place to conceive almost all of the things above by exploring fiction

He emphasized that reading fiction enables us to learn to express ourselveswith far greater depth of experience than we would if we depend only on our ownlives for material

Is there anything more to fiction than entertainment? Can we learn anythingfrom it? Landy (2004) thought that it actually helps us find out our ego byrecognizing ourselves from the characters’ internal world He argued that itdoesn't make readers become morally better right after they read it, but it doesimprove the readers’ lives He put it metaphorically, “if you go to the gym anddon't lift the weights, it isn't the fault of the weights that you don't get stronger”

From many above-mentioned benefits that reading fiction provides us, Isuppose this is the first reason why I conduct this research In learning anysubjects, students are always obstructed by certain causes To acquire ideas andknowledge from the fictional works, students (with the help of lecturers) need toperceive what causes are preventing themselves from understanding the works.Since then, they will have appropriate strategies to overcome the situation Ibelieve my research, focuses on this topic, will be a useful source for lecturersand students to regard the issue

1.1.2 Context of learning fiction at Can Tho University

As a student majoring in Letters of English at Can Tho University, ITrung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

to Literature, American Literature, and British Literature respectively The

position of the An Introduction to Literature course, consistent with Truong

(2006), is “the first step for students to explore the fantastic world of literature”

In the An Introduction to Literature course, fiction section comprises six short-short stories (A Case of Suspicion by Ed Wallace, Marionettes, Inc by Ray Bradbury, The Lady, or the Tiger by Frank R Stockton, Bill by Zona Gale,

Old Man at the Bridge by Earnest Hemingway, and The Necklace by Guy De

Maupassant) In the American Literature and British Literature courses, there are

mainly extracts from short novels (novelettes or novellas) and novels

Basing on this context, I infer the second reason why this research is ofvalue That is from the results of my research, lecturers and English LanguageStudy sophomores at Can Tho University will recognize common causesaffecting students’ learning fiction, and find out solutions for these.Consequently, they will prepare better for the two next coming courses:

American Literature and British Literature.

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1.2 Research Aims and Research Question

1.2.1 Research aims

The research aims to find out which level of causes most impedes EnglishLanguage Study sophomores at Can Tho University in understanding shortfictional works among the three levels: linguistics, culture, and motivation Also,the cause that most English Language Study sophomores suppose to impedethemselves in understanding short fictional works Solutions for this issue are thefinal aim of the research

1.2.2 Research question

From the research aims, the research is directed by this research question:

What are common causes impeding English Language Studystudents of Can Tho University in understanding short fictional works inEnglish?

1.3 Hypotheses

From my classmates’ and my experience when learning the An Introduction

to Literature course, I hypothesized that the cause “There are many new words

in the short fictional works that I do not know.” would be encountered by

most of participants I also predicted that most of participants would choose the

cause “I hardly understand the meanings of the characters’ behaviors, gestures, and sayings People in my country do not think and act like that.”

as the most serious one to them

1.4 Organization of the thesis

The thesis was set up with five chapters including:

Chapter one - Introduction - gives out typical reasons for learning fictionaccording to foreign professors and writers An overview of fiction-learningcontext at Can Tho University is also briefly mentioned The next part of thischapter addresses the aims for conducting this research and indicates the researchquestion

Chapter two – literature review – discusses different definitions of fiction,short fictional works, fiction classification and previous published writings onTrung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

factors impacting students’ understanding short fictional works From these,directions for the research were inferred.

Chapter three – Research Methodology – provides detailed informationabout methodology that I applied to conduct this research comprising researchdesign, participants, material, instrument, and procedure

Chapter four presents the results and discussions about the research

Chapter five includes expected outcomes, limitations, and conclusionrespectively

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According to Watkins (1995), fiction presents a story that is invented andnot literally “true.” Its prose language is not divided up according to principles ofrhymes, rhythm, meter or word patterning And fiction is written to be read ratherthan acted or performed, and the events described are told to us by a narrator, notenacted or dramatized The most commonly encountered fiction is novels andshort stories In this definition, the author concentrated on describing literaryfeatures of fiction Yet, I do not agree with his idea that fiction is written to beread rather than acted or performed In fact, there are countless fictional workswhich were transformed into plays or films From Gone with the Wind to HarryPotter From Odyssey to Romeo and Juliette These fictional works becameimmortal in everybody’s mind when being transformed into plays or movies.

With a more simple definition, Bhargava (2008) considered fiction as thework of imagination in the form of a novel or a short story Fiction can bebroadly classified into art and entertainment Fiction in layman terms can bedefined as something that is purely imaginary and not real However, he said that

it is a common observation that anything fictional is derived from real lifeincidences etc Fiction, to him, arouses the sleeping dreams and hidden desires ofpeople When I just read his ideas about fiction for the first time, I wondered why

he had contrast thoughts when saying fiction is purely imaginary and unreal, butconfirming that fiction is gained from reality incidences After considering hisidea carefully, I thought that his saying is accurate Although everything infiction such as characters, conflicts, plot, etc is visional, fiction really reflectssome aspects from real life Types of characters represent different types ofpeople in real world Relationships, conflicts, and settings are reproduced fromTrung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

what people experience everyday In short, I enjoy fiction as entertainment withmeaningful creation.

2.2 Fiction classification

With the idea of Kurtus (2007), it was said that fiction can be classified

as many types due to length or number of words

o Short-short stories (short-shorts)

Kurtus supposed that a short-short story is usually between 500 and 1500words in length It tells a complete story, including characters, setting, conflict,and resolution Often short-short stories have surprising endings

A subset of the short-short story is micro-fiction, which only consists ofaround 300 words This type of writing requires that every word be essential tothe story There is no detailed description

o Short stories

Longer than a short-short story, a short story was assumed to range from

2000 to 7500 words in length by Kurtus He said that short stories are lesscomplex than novels, often focusing on a single incident They have a smallnumber of characters Similar to short-shorts, short stories may have a surprisingending

o Novelette: A work of at least 7,500 words but under 17,500 words (25-60pages)

o Novella: A work of at least 17,500 words but under 50,000 words

(60-170 pages)

o The next category that Kurtus described is novel It typically runs from60,000 to 125,000 words (about 170+ pages) The plot and characters arecomplex and often need many pages to be developed

o The last one is an epic that is over 250,000 words

Despite of different types recognized, fiction is usually distinguished intoshort fictional works/short story and novel according to Watkins (1995) andBhargava (2008)

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2.3 Definition of short fictional works/short stories

The term “short story” was first defined by Edgar Allan Poe, in a review of

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales (1842), as a story that can be read at

one sitting, and in which the incidents and details establish a single, preconceivedeffect Short stories actually vary in length from very short to long However, thelimitation of length usually restricts the author's focus to one incident in the life

of one character

It was Edgar Allen Poe who established a critical theory for the short storyform that defined it as a separate genre, distinct from the novel in more thanlength It was Poe who emphasized the idea that a short story should give a singleimpression and should be of a length that allowed the reader to read it within anhour From Poe's early definition, Gifford and Katya (2002) developed adefinition of the short story as we know it today – a brief narrative that focuses

on a single incident or character and treats it so concisely that the reader is leftwith a dominant impression

With Jeff Herman’s (1999) definition, a short story is a brief piece of fictionthat is more pointed and more detailed as to character, situation, and plot than anovel Published collections of short stories - whether by one or several authors -often revolve a single theme, express related outlooks, or comprise variationswithin a genre

Marilyn Singer (2000) defined a short story as a photograph - a capturedmoment of time that is crystalline, though sometimes mysterious, arresting,though perhaps delicate But, she added, while a photo may or may not suggestconsequences, a short story always does While the photograph is still, in theshort story's moment of time, something important or something irrevocable hasoccurred The change may be subtle or obvious, but it is definite and definitive

And Lazar (1993:73), he defined short fictional works in more details thanthe others To him, a short fictional work/short story is a work of fictioninvolving the imagination, tells one event in a very concentrated way, aboutpeople who do not really exist, describes something at a moment of crisis, has aplot, characters who are somehow connected with each other

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2.4 Factors impacting students’ understanding short fictional works

This is the draft made by Lazar (1993:76) describing groups of causes thathave influence on students’ reading short fictional works

Nguyen (2008) categorized causes into many levels among which heemphasized five levels that English Language Study students may usuallyencounter:

For example, the research of Smith and Edward (1997) studied onincorporating pre-reading and post-reading activities into the English literature inorder to contribute to a more successful reading experience for students of allages and backgrounds The primary advantage of using either (or both) strategiesfor reading literature is that they actively involve students in what they arereading and studying, enhancing both comprehension and appreciation of what isbeing read

In Blachowicz and Ogle’s Reading Comprehension: Strategies for

Independent Learners (2001), the practical guidelines for reading comprehension

are given out The book integrates current research findings with real-lifeobservations about reading strategies that successful readers use to comprehendmany different types of materials It offers recommendations for organizing theclassroom effectively and planning instruction to broaden each student'scomprehension strategies In the book, concrete approaches are described to helpstudents engage with fiction and nonfiction texts, develop their vocabulary, buildstudy and test-taking skills, and help students become motivated readers.

Robert Locke’s (2002) did a research on writers’ style in which informedthat artists serve the community by producing by stylizing and aestheticizing ourworld By giving the world style, they make it a more pleasant place to live in.Unities of style help constitute cultures and make them distinctive The effortrequired to master a particular style initiates a person into a community of style

By giving the world a sense of style, artists sharpen people’s critical faculties andteach them discrimination of the beautiful from the ugly And according toNguyen (1997), each writer adopts his own mode of literary language and incultivating his language develops a distinctive style

I also consulted the two lecturers - Ms Huynh Chi Minh Huyen and Mr.Huynh Minh Hien - who taught the four groups of English Language Studystudents course 32 the subject READING 3 Both lecturers commented that most

of these students’ reading skills can be ranged at pre-intermediate level

In conclusion, directions were found basing on Watkins’s (1995) andBhargava’s (2008) definition of fiction, Kurtus’ (2007) classification of fiction,Edgar Allan Poe, Gifford and Katya (2002), Jeff Herman’s (1999), MarilynSinger (2000) definition of short fiction, Lazar’s (1993) and Nguyen’s (2008)

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3.2 Participants

The initial participants comprised 153 English Language Study sophomorescourse 32 They were studying in the second semester of academic year 2007-

2008 They studied the An Introduction to Literature course in three separate

groups: group 1 with 49 students, group 2 with 55 students, and group 3 with 49students

On the days I delivered and collected questionnaires, there were 45 students

of group 1 being present in class, 51 of group 2, and 47 of group 3

The numbers of target participants (the students who ticked the answer NO

for question (I) in the questionnaire) were 27 in group 1, 22 in group 2, and 37 in

group 3 Therefore, the research was finally done on 86 English Language Studysophomores course 32 of Can Tho University

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The reason that sophomores of English Language Study course 32 wasselected to be participants in this research were that:

o They were the groups of students who started to learn literature in thecurriculum of English Language Study at Can Tho University, and also started tolearn fiction in English Hence, there might be more causes that impeded them inunderstanding short fictional works than the ones impeding the EnglishLanguage Study juniors and seniors I did not choose the freshmen since theyhaven’t been involved in literature in English in their curriculum

o Furthermore, after finishing the An Introduction to Literature course, they will study the American Literature and British Literature in which the

extracts from many short novels and novels will be discovered That meansstudents will face to more complicated points from the novels than points of theshort stories According to Connor (1999), novels are much more complex thanshort stories to be understood in two main fields: novels contain more numerouswords than short stories, and novels express larger weight of meanings than shortstories

From this research, I expect to find out common causes and search forsolutions for these Then, I could give suggestions for the students and lecturers

to improve their learning and teaching

3.3 Materials

The material that I base on in this research is the fiction section of the An

Introduction to Literature coursebook The section comprises one lesson on the

elements of short fictional works and six short fictional works They are A Case

of Suspicion by Ed Wallace, Marionettes, Inc by Ray Bradbury, The Lady, or the Tiger by Frank R Stockton, Bill by Zona Gale, Old Man at the Bridge by Earnest

Hemingway, and The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant.

3.4 Instrument

To answer the research question, I designed one questionnaire relying onGillian Lazar’s (1993) and Nguyen’s (2008) ideas about levels of causestroubling students in understanding a short fictional work They are:

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o Inconceivableness of the culture in the work

o Absence of motivation

o Problematic linguistic features

I only did research on these three levels of causes skipping the other levelssince there were researchers who had already studied these fields (as mentioned

in the literature review) and the inconvenience of time (addressed in Chapter 5:discussions and limitations)

Though there are other types of instruments such as interviews orobservations, I chose survey research to conduct my research since the followingreasons:

First, interviews seemed to be also relevant to this research, yet I supposedthat interviews would trouble participants because they might not think out thethe causes and the reasons within short time of interviews So, I did not chooseinterview as my research instruments

Second, observations were also considered However, the two lecturers of

An Introduction to Literature course always allowed students to pre-read the

works at home Therefore, they might find different ways to overcome theirproblems at home This would lead to unreliable answers to the causes

Finally, I decided to select survey research since I thought that it couldinvestigate participants ideas on what they thought to impede themselves amongthe three levels: linguistics, culture, and motivation

The questionnaire includes six components (students’ personal information,four questions and one request) with a variety of aims as described in thefollowing table

2 To select the students of course 32 only in order to

have a homogeneous group of participants

I

(question )

1 To eliminate the questionnaires made by students

who used to read any Vietnamese versions of thesix fictional works from the material in order toTrung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

have the target participants.

II (question) 1 To check how many of the target students who

have a care for literature

III

(request)

15 To statisticize how many of the target students

have had difficulties with each cause

IV (question) 1 To investigate which is the most influencing cause

to most of students and the reason why

V (question) 1 To find out solutions from students themselves for

resolving the problem discussed in question (IV).

Table 1.1: Questionnaire components

The first component (student’s personal information) involves student nameand the course number they are studying at Can Tho University

The second component (I) was gained to filter the target participants

(students who answered NO to this question) I opted for the students who hadnever read any Vietnamese versions of the six fictional works in order to have ahomogenous group of students for the research According to Ronald andMichael N Long (1991:5), readers who used to be involved in English fictionalworks in their first language tend to pay less attention to the works than thosewho only read English versions (this is also recognized between any otheroriginal language and target language) Since they read the works in their firstlanguage, they easily obtain the plot, the theme, the setting, the climax, etc whichwere translated rather adequately This strongly influences their reading process

of English versions, and certainly influences their thought about causes whichmay affect themselves

The third component (II) was given out to check how many of the target

students who have had experience in reading short fictional works, and to havesome inferences on their care for literature

The fourth component (III) includes 15 items of 15 causes which are

classified into 3 levels:

o Linguistics level contains 5 causes (from items 1 to 5)

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o Culture level contains 5 causes (from items 6 to 10)

o Motivation level contains 5 causes (from items 11 to 15)

Linguistics level: From items 1 to 5

According to Nguyen’s (1997:57) idea, role of language to literature is likerole of sound to music and role of color to painting In other words, languageholds such a vital role in the composition of a literary piece which Gorky (1912)regarded as the primary element of literature

In Nguyen’s (1997:61) An Introduction to Literature Study, he assumed that

literature commands five components of the language They are vocabularies,word choice, idioms-expressions, grammar, and literary structures (phrases andsentences which appear only in literature) Therefore, I designed items 1 to 5basing on these five linguistic components

Culture level: From items 6 to 10

First, five items of this level were designed basing on Lazar’s (1993) ideas

He pointed out aspects of cultural difficulties that students may encounter whenlearning literature:

o Objects/products (material or non-material like beliefs, customs) that exist

in one society, but not in another

o Proverbs, idioms, and expressions which embody cultural features of theoriginal language

o Social relationships

o Representative ideas and thoughts of a society or a group of people

o Political, historic, and economic background when the works werecreated

Beside Lazar’ opinions, there are researchers who contributed theirdefinitions for “culture”:

Nguyen’s (1997:44) idea which said that the characters in a certain fictionalwork reveal the people of the society that the fictional work is trying to describe

by the characters’ appearance, dialogues, and actions

Avruch (1999) gave his own definition of culture:

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o Material culture is objects — anything and everything that men andwomen make and use It is the “stuff” of our everyday lives.

o Culture is custom, culture and conflict resolution

Vincent’s (2007) definition shared the same ideas: Culture is belief system,lifestyle, values, thoughts and identity

Gold’s (2002) definition of culture: Culture is social relationship

Alderson and Urquhart (1984:53) who concluded that readingcomprehension to literature is a function of cultural background knowledge Ifreaders possess the schemata assumed by the writer, they easily understand what

is said in the text and also make the necessary inferences about what is implicit,rather than stated Also, Nguyen’s (1997:33) affirmed that each writer, according

to his background, his life experience, his aesthetic tastes, or his world outlookmay fix upon his approaches in his writing career

Motivation level: From items 11 to 15

These causes were designed relying on the judges of Ronald and Michael

N Long (1991:4) about teachers’ work in literature classrooms They supposedthat teaching methods which rely substantially on lectures may help students topass required examinations but they do little to develop students’ knowledge ofliterature and their personal growth

Also, Ronald and Michael N Long (1991:6) believed that second or foreignlanguage learners’ interest in learning literature can be fostered by a teacher whoselects material to read which is motivating and which produces in readers adesire to read more into a particular work, and have efficient teaching methods todifferent types of literature classes

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