Proceedings of International Conference on Languages

Transcription

Proceedings of
International Conference on Languages 2013
ICL2013
“Solidarity through Languages”
16-17 November 2013
Phuket, Thailand
Editor Team:
Assoc. Prof. Awang Lanui
Dr.Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi
Dr.Ruthaychonnee Sittichai
Dr.Zulazhan Ab.Halim
Dr. Normah Yusof
Mr.Jitendra K Kakkar
Mr.Santi Senman
Organized by
In Collaboration with
Table of Contents
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
1.
2.
3.
Understanding patients’ languages on closed hospital wards
Minna Anttila, Maritta Välimäki, Tella Lantta, Raija Kontio
Solidarity between nursing personnel and patients through languages
Maritta Välimäki, Minna Anttila, Raija Kontio
Comparison of Methodology Section Move Structure Between Western and
Asian Researchers
Zurina Khairuddin
Page
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3
Fullpaper……………………………………………………………………………………………………
1
Lexical Borrowing as a Survival Strategy of Indian Regional Languages: ArabicPersian-Urdu Loan Words in the Coastal Dialect of Telugu
Rajeshwar Mittapalli
2 The Level of Use of Soft Skills in English Camp Activities
Misrah Hamisah Mohamed, Nur Salina Ismail, Azizah Endut, Sharifah Nor
Madiah Syed Omar
3 Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) in Learning Arabic for Beginners
Mohd Hazli Yah @ Alias, Mohd Firdaus Yahaya, Mohd Shahrizal Nasir,
Kamarul Shukri Mat The, Khoirun Nisak Mat Saad, Nurazan Mohmad Rouyan,
Zanirah Wahab
4 Third Language Learner’s Self-efficacy on Language Learning
Nor Suriati binti Othman, Mohd Nazri bin Latiff Azmi
5 The Role of Peer Facilitator in Enhancing English Language Proficiency in a
Simulated Environment
Nur Salina Ismail, Engku Suhaimi Engku Atek
6 Code-switching in Group Interaction among Malay ESL Learners in
Communicative English Classroom: An Analysis of Speech Acts
Radika Subramaniam
7 Psychometric Properties of the Online Survey of Reading Strategies (OSORS)
Zailani Jusoh
8 Investigating cross-border Xitsonga or Xichangana orthography: disjunctive
versus conjunctive writing
Paul Hendry Nkuna
9 A translation of serial verbs from Thai into English: A case study of Anger
management: How to Deal with Your Anger and Sleep Soundly
Wimonwan Aungsuwan
10 The use of Information and Communication Technology, Especially Facebook
Groups to Encourage and Improve Students’ Learning Autonomy
Valérie TREPIE
11 The Role of Arabic Language in the Malaysian Armed Forces
Najjah Salwa Abd Razak, Zulkarnain Mohamed, Maheram Ahmad, Ezad
Azraai Jamsari
12 The Effectiveness of Mind-Mapping As A Tool to Generate Ideas in Essay
Writing
Intan Sofrina Che Hanafi, Syaharom Abdullah
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109
Table of Contents
13 Samosa-Quoting English: Formula and Favaid of the Indigenized Language of
Pakistani-American Fiction
Muhammad Sheeraz
14 Valuing Family Obligations Through Aimee Bender’s The Girl in the
Flammable Skirt
Janice C. Gabayan
15 The Batswana’s Belief Systems as a Product of their Indigenous Proverbs
Reginald Botshabeng Monyai
16 How East Meets West in English Subtitles for Four Genres of Thai Movies
Sasi Aotarayakul
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ABSTRACT
Understanding patients’ languages on closed hospital wards
Minna Anttila
Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku
minant@utu.fi
Maritta Välimäki
mava@utu.fi
Tella Lantta
tejela@utu.fi
Raija Kontio
Hyvinkää Hospital Region, Kellokoski Hospital
Hospital Disrtict of Helsinki and Uusmimaa
raija.kontio@hus.fi
ABSTRACT
Problem: Patients are unsatisfied how their needs are being met during their inhospital stay in psychiatric hospitals. On the contrary, the professionals are often happy how
treatment procedures are being organised to patients during patients’ treatment stay in a
hospital. Due to this contradictory situation, patients have unmet and unsatisfactory needs,
which may further cause aggressive incidents on the wards. It is therefore important to be
aware of patients’ perceptions and their suggestions for development of safe and humane
way to discuss and manage violence-related situations of the wards.
The methods used: The data were collected by focus groups interviews with service
users (n=9) in one hospital district in Finland. The data were analyzed with inductive content
analysis.
Results: Patients described loneliness, boredom, control and rules, fear and insecurity
and a lack of knowledge related to the violence situations during their hospital stay.
Development ideas focused on meaningful activities and humane nursing style (including
interaction between patients and nurses), which have not been adopted enough in daily care.
Conclusions: Providing patients adequate time, humane treatment with meaningful
activities and encouraging patients and nursing staff to interact more with each other in daily
care is essential to develop safe and humane cooperation between patients and staff on
psychiatric wards. This in a basis for understanding patients’ languages - both verbal and
nonverbal communication - on closed hospital wards.
Keywords : psychiatric nursing, aggression, focus group, content analyses, communication
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Proceedings of International Conference on Languages 2013
Solidarity between nursing personnel and patients through languages
Maritta Välimäki
Department of Nursing Science
University of Turku
mava@utu.fi
Minna Anttila
Department of Nursing Science,University of Turku
minant@utu.fi
Raija Kontio
Hyvinkää Hospital Region, Kellokoski Hospital
Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa
raija.kontio@hus.fi
ABSTRACT
Problem: The professional competence of psychiatric nursing is a central factor
associated with the quality of patient care in health care services. There are gaps, however,
how health care personnel communicate with and understand patients with cognitive
impairments. This may further cause unsatisfaction in patients and even aggressive behaviour
in psychiatric hospital wards.
The methods used: The curriculum, aimed at continuing education to enhance nurses’
skills to communicate with distressed and disturbed patients in psychiatric hospitals and
inpatients units was developed. It includes instructions, information (evidence-based
knowledge, articles, Power Points), assignments, discussion forums, virtual patient (on-line
chat with a former patient etc). Learning methods used are self-awareness, reflection, peer
support and tutor feedback. A basis of the course is reflective learning (Gustafsson et al.
2007). It is a process which helps students to rethink their thoughts and feelings (Bulman &
Schultz 2004), can be described as a cycle (Gibbs 1998) and is based on reflections (Johns
2004).
Results: All together 62 nurses participated in this 6 months course during spring
2013. They evaluated that e-learning course requires individual reflection about own work. It
has also given an opportunity to share ideas via discussion forum with other nurses around a
country. In addition, an understanding of patient life has been increased.
Conclusions: The course and its’ development provides valuable information about
ideological and cultural differences and similarities between nurses and patients on clinical
settings. Besides, it provides information about possibilities and shortcomings of this kind of
learning in the field of mental health care. Language what nurses and patients in itselves used
was not the problem but a culture apart from nurses’ and patients’ life in isolated hospital inpatient wards.
Keywords: E-learning, mental health, nurse, teaching
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COMPARISON OF METHODOLOGY SECTION MOVE STRUCTURE BETWEEN WESTERN AND
ASIAN RESEARCHERS
Zurina Khairuddin
Faculty of Languages and Communication
Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin
zkzurina@unisza.edu.my
ABSTRACT
The ability to write research articles (RAs) in proper communicative moves are
essential for academic and professional success as the authors will be acknowledged within
the discourse community. The objective of this study was to examine the move structure of
methodology sections between Western and Asian researchers. Convenient sampling
technique was employed as internet search was done to choose the articles and 60 research
articles were chosen for this study, 30 research articles were written by Western and Asian
researchers each. The articles have to be high-status oral and spoken discourse articles. Data
analysis was carried out to analyse all the articles based on a framework proposed by Lim
(2006). Sentences were classified into the first, second and third moves according to the
function of the moves. The result shows that there is a slight difference between Western and
Asian researchers with regards to the move structure in the Methods section of their articles.
Although most of these research articles employ the move 1- move 2- move 3 structure, it is
also found that there are a few research articles, by both Western and Asian researchers,
which do not have all three moves. From these findings, it can be suggested that a structure
of methodology section should be introduced which could be as a guide for both Western and
Asian researchers. It is hoped that the finding of this study would enlighten the relevant
literature of the area.
Keywords : Move Analysis, Methodology Section, Research Articles, Western Researchers,
Asian Researchers
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FULL PAPER
Lexical Borrowing as a Survival Strategy of Indian Regional Languages: Arabic-PersianUrdu Loan Words in the Coastal Dialect of Telugu
Rajeshwar Mittapalli
Department of English, Kakatiya University, India
E-mail: rajeshwar9@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Telugu is the largest of the Dravidian family of languages and the most widely spoken
Indian language after Hindi and Bengali. It also ranks 17th among the top 50 languages of the
word. Of its three major dialects the coastal dialect is now popularly regarded as the Standard.
Coastal Telugu reached its current stage of development primarily because it enriched its
vocabulary by heavily borrowing words, in the beginning from the ancient Indian languages
of Sanskrit and Pali, and during the medieval times from foreign donor languages—Arabic and
Persian—directly as well as through Urdu. For the past 300 years it has also been
incorporating countless English words. In the process it gained enormously in terms of
expressive power. The focus of this paper is Arabic-Persian-Urdu (APU) loan words in coastal
Telugu. These words filled a lexical gap in this dialect over a period of about eight centuries,
and served to describe new concepts in such domains as civil administration, military, police,
judiciary, travel, trade, arts, culture, food, dressing and lifestyle. They have now become so
much a part of the coastal Telugu lexicon that most speakers of this dialect are not even aware
of their APU roots and the ideas and objects they describe of being Arabian/Persian origin.
Their use is now being actively promoted by the media and the government. This paper seeks
to explore the historical, cultural and linguistic contexts of the APU loan words in coastal
Telugu and establish, with evidence, that such lexical borrowing has proved to be greatly
helpful for its survival and progress. In light of the experience of coastal Telugu, the paper
also suggests that the threat of extinction faced by many languages today can be averted by
lexical borrowing from the major languages with which they come into contact.
Keywords : Lexical borrowing, Dravidian languages, coastal Telugu, linguistic transformation,
language death
Introduction
As a language Telugu has a history of not less than 1500 years. It has been recognized
by the Government of India as an ancient language, on par with Sanskrit and Tamil. Telugu
evolved from the proto-Dravidian like 22 other Dravidian languages. Because of its spread
over a vast area (about 900/700 km), it subdivided itself into three major dialects. Of these
dialects the coastal Andhra dialect is now popularly regarded as the Standard for a variety of
reasons. One of the important reasons for it to be so regarded is that it strengthened itself by
absorbing innumerable loan words whenever its existence as a language was threatened or
whenever it stood the possibility of being rendered irrelevant in altered socio-political
environment.
Telugu is particularly susceptible to loan words because of its elasticity. It can easily
borrow words from other languages, add its inflections to them and make them its own. That
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is perhaps why the loan words, especially those borrowed from Sanskrit and the ArabicPersian-Urdu (APU) trio are not easily identifiable as non-Telugu words.
Hypothesis
Indian culture has always been inclusive and elastic and its languages are no exception.
Indian culture and languages have survived in the face of many onslaughts on them because
they did not prefer to have a conflictual relation with the hegemonic cultures and languages
with which they came into contact. Instead, they expanded and stretched themselves to such
an extent that they eventually incorporated the salient features of the hegemonic cultures
and languages into themselves, nativised them, and thus learnt to survive. The coastal Telugu
dialect not only survived but gained in strength by freely allowing APU incursions into its
lexicon. In this paper I therefore propose to analyse the APU words in coastal Telugu and
establish, by means of suitable examples, how they contributed to its survival and growth.
Methodology
I have used a variety of sources to collect more than 1000 APU loan words and phrases
in coastal Telugu. These sources include literature written by coastal Telugu writers, radio/TV
programmes for which the coastal Telugu dialect happens to be the default choice, films and
documentaries in a large majority of which this dialect is used, personal interaction and
interviews with coastal Telugu speakers, family connections with people of the area and
finally scholarly works on the subject. The words and phrases so collected have been carefully
verified with authentic/heritage dictionaries in the Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Telugu
languages. These dictionaries figure in the REFERENCES at the end of this paper.
APU words in coastal Telugu: An historical perspective
Lexical borrowing is by no means unusual in the history of languages. It happens to
almost every language except when it happens to be a dead language. In fact the languages
that have heavily borrowed from other languages have grown in strength and prospered
rather than those that shunned foreign words. The English language is a classic example. The
majority of its words are of foreign -- mainly of Latin and French -- origin. For accepting these
words English is not a loser. It is now the unquestioned lingua franca of the world. Telugu
borrowed innumerable words from Sanskrit prior to and following the translation of parts of
the Mahabharata into Telugu by Nannaya (c. 11th C) and from the APU trio especially
following the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate and finally from English since the beginning
of the colonial rule. In their time these languages had been hegemonic languages and it is no
surprise that costal Telugu should borrow from them. Sanskrit has been the language of not
just administration but religion, literature, science and culture and English has been and
continues to be a hegemonic language – a language of science, technology, commerce and
international communication. However, the case of APU is a little different in the context of
coastal Andhra. All these three languages, but especially Urdu, which itself is made up of
mostly Arabic and Persian loan words, were used in this region for a host of reasons, including
political domination briefly during the Delhi Sultanate, and later during the Bahamani
Sultanate (whose rule of the areas lasted between the years 1541- 1571) and still later during
the rule of the Nizam of Hyderabad whose dominions, under Mir Kamaruddin (Asaf Jah I,
1724-1748), extended from Bijapur in what is now Karnataka to Machilipatnam on the east
coast. But by 1788 the Nizam had to cede to the British these coastal territories by signing a
series of treaties - the Northern Circars in 1766 and the Guntur Circar in 1788.
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APU loan words in coastal Telugu: The way they entered
The way the Arabic-Persian-Urdu words entered coastal Telugu calls for close
examination. This process can be loosely described as ‘intimate borrowing.’ In this mode of
borrowing transfer of words occurs between languages spoken in a geographically and
politically single community. This borrowing is usually one-sided, proceeding from the
language of the dominant group to the language of the group that has come under
domination. APU thus constituted the donor and coastal Telugu dialect the recipient. The
following chart graphically illustrates this process.
Arabic
Persian
Urdu
Coastal Telugu
Chart depicting the entry of Arabic-Persian-Urdu loan words into coastal Telugu
As it should be obvious from the above chart, APU words entered coastal Telugu mainly
through two routes.
Indirect route
1. Arabic to Urdu to coastal Telugu
2. Arabic to Persian to coastal Telugu
3. Arabic to Persian to Urdu to coastal Telugu
4. Persian to Urdu to coastal Telugu
Direct route
1. Arabic to coastal Telugu
2. Persian to coastal Telugu
3. Urdu to coastal Telugu
Let me explain each of these processes in some detail. Arabic happens to be the
language in which the holy scriptures of Islam have been written. Wherever Islam went it took
the Arabic language along, and India is no exception. From the account of Muslim rule of the
Circar districts it can be discerned that the Muslim rulers used the Arabic language extensively
for religious purposes, and eventually many of its words found their way into Telugu. Arabic
words also form a significant part of both the Persian and Urdu languages. Both these
languages were used by the Muslim rulers of India extensively, and because of that many
Arabic words percolated into the Telugu language via Persian and Urdu.
Persian had been the language of the court, culture, literature and religion for about
five centuries before it was replaced as official language by English in 1835. For the better
part of the Mughal rule Persian was the official language. For example, the second Mughal
emperor Humayun spoke and patronized Persian. There was a time when there were more
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Persian manuscripts in India than in Persia itself. Persian wielded tremendous influence on
Indo-Aryan languages such as Punjabi, Marathi, Sindhi, Hindi, Gujarati and Bengali. But it does
come as a surprise that a Dravidian language such as Telugu had borrowed so many words
from Persian, directly and through Urdu. Muslim rule is the most obvious reason, while there
are other reasons as we shall see.
Urdu being a native language, set to the grammar of Hindi but made up of primarily
Arabic and Persian words, and patronized by the rulers, actively contributed its vocabulary to
Telugu and it also acted as a conduit for Arabic and Persian words.
Apart from political domination, linguistic borrowing happened in coastal Telugu for
several other reasons.
1. By the 10th century itself the Telugu people had trade relations with the Arabs and the
Persians. It led to the borrowing of trade related Arabic/Persian terminology. Tikkana
(1205-88), for example, used the Persian trade term trāsu (tarāzū ‫ و زارت‬balance, pair of
scales) in his translation of the Mahabharata.
2. The Vijayanagara kings had close relations with the nawabs of Bidar, Bijapur and
Golkonda at various times in order to ensure their political survival and it led to the entry
of APU words into coastal Telugu. The Vijayanagara kings, including the greatest of them
Sri Krishnadeva Raya, used to import horses of the finest breed from Arabia and Persia1
and the horse traders brought with them their languages -- Arabic and Persian -- and
lent many words to Telugu.
3. The successive rulers of coastal Andhra used to hire the services of the Persian military
experts and high civil administrators in order to benefit from their military and
administrative experience. It has to be said in this context that the Persians have always
been known for their excellent administrative practices. Their system of coinage, office
of the vizier (minister), divan (secretary), tax collection systems and welfare measures
such as state stipends are well known. It is no wonder then that these rulers should
utilize the services of Persian administrators. This also explains the large number of
Persian words related to civil administration in coastal Telugu.
4. After the Circar districts came under the British rule, cultural and trade relations and
people to people contact with the neighbouring Muslim state of Hyderabad continued
and that too resulted in the borrowing of some Arabic-Persian-Urdu words.
5. The entry of APU words into coastal Telugu is still an ongoing process. In recent years,
in spite of the stiff competition offered by English, many new APU words have entered
coastal Telugu because of the large scale migration of coastal people to Hyderabad and
the relocation of the Telugu film industry to Hyderabad apart from the new prestige the
Telangana dialect of Telugu has gained thanks to the Separate Telangana Movement.
As things stand now it is a complex linguistic picture in which the speakers of coastal
Telugu themselves are not aware of how deeply their language has been influenced and
enriched by the Arabic-Persian-Urdu languages.
1
It is possible to see even to this day images of Persians selling horses in the Vitthala temple complex of
the now ruined city of Hampi, the capital of Sri Krishnadeva Raya.
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Almost all the words coastal Telugu has borrowed from APU have been transliterated2
and set to the inflectional patterns of Telugu and sometimes so altered -- orthographically
and phonemically -- that they cannot be easily recognized by the native speakers of these
languages. Another reason why the native speakers of these languages may not recognize
these loan words is that while in the Arabic and Persian speaking countries some of these
words have undergone drastic semantic changes, become archaisms or completely dropped
out of use they continue to form part of coastal Telugu and mean today exactly what they
meant centuries ago. For example, rumālu (Per. rūmāl ‫ لامور‬handkerchief, napkin, scarf) and
kamchi (Per. qamchi ‫ یچمق‬horsewhip) have become archaic words in Persian while they are
still in everyday use in coastal Telugu.
Survival strategy of coastal Telugu
Coastal Telugu demonstrated remarkable resilience and survival instinct all through its
history. When the first Telugu poet Nannaya wanted to translate the Mahabharata into
Telugu he discovered to his dismay that Telugu, as it obtained then, was woefully deficient in
vocabulary and it just could not measure up to the task of translating a great epic. So he found
a solution by borrowing Sanskrit words in their thousands and set them to Telugu grammar.
Subsequently, many Sanskrit literary works and treatises were translated into Telugu and it
led to the population of Telugu vocabulary with countless Sanskrit words. The establishment
of the Delhi Sultanate once again brought the lexical gap to the fore and threatened Telugu
with being rendered unserviceable for modern administrative and other purposes. In order
to describe new administrative systems/practices and accommodate new ideas in the fields
of revenue and civil administration, police and judiciary, military and warfare, trade and
industry, professions, employment and service, banking, finance and insurance, travel and
transport, land and agriculture, clothing and jewellery, food and cooking, arts and culture and
a variety of other domains Telugu had no vocabulary. It therefore started borrowing
innumerable APU words.3 It is also possible that the native Telugu speakers wished to endear
themselves to the new ruling class by incorporating as many APU words as possible into
Telugu. The APU loan words in coastal Telugu can be grouped under the different heads
mentioned above.
Revenue and civil administration
amalu (Ara. amal ‫ لمع‬action, practice, operation, implementation); arzī (Ara. arīziah
‫ ةضي رع‬Urdu. arzi ‫ یضرع‬submission, petition, plea, request); darakāstu (Per. darkhwāst ‫تسا‬
‫ وخ ر د‬request, petition, application, appeal, demand); dastāveju (Per. dastāvéz ‫زي و اتسد‬
document); hukumu (Ara. hukm ‫ مكح‬rule, order); jamābandi (Urdu jamābandi ‫یدنب امج‬
cadastral, revenue settlement); mahajaru (Ara. mahāzar ‫ رضاحم‬records, minutes); manzūru
(Urdu manzūr ‫ ر وظنم‬approve, pass, authorize); munasabu (Per. mansabdār ‫ ر ا دبصنم‬a man of
rank, village elder); nakalu (Per. naql ‫ لقن‬copy, transcript); pattā (Urdu patah ‫ ; ہٹپ‬lease
document, scroll); rusumu (Ara. rusūm ‫ موسر‬fees, charges, duties); sarkāru (Urdu sarkār ‫راکرس‬
government, state); sheridāru (Per. sarrishtah ‫ هتشر رس‬record officer, registrar, chief
2
There have been no instances of loan translation (or calque) from APU to coastal Telugu.
Rarely even when there was no explicit lexical gap APU words were borrowed because they served a
better communicative purpose by virtue of their being expressive, colourful or economic. For example,
muktasari (Ara. mukhtasar ‫ ;رصتخم‬brief, short, concise) means exactly the same as the already extant Telugu
word mitam.
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accountant); tāshīldār (Per. tahsīldār ‫ ر ا دليصحت‬revenue collector, high ranking revenue
official).
Police and judiciary
bandikhānā (Per. bandikhānah ‫ هن اخ ی دنب‬prison); bandōbastu (Per. band-o-bast ‫تسب و‬
‫ دنب‬arrangement, management, order, security); daryāptu (Urdu daryāft ‫ تف ا ير د‬investigation,
enquiry, Per. daryāft ‫ تف اي ر د‬perception, comprehension, discernment); farārī (Ara. farār ‫را رف‬
escape, flight); firyādu (Urdu faryād ‫ دا يرف‬appeal, complaint, petition, Per. faryād ‫ دا يرف‬outcry,
scream, clamour); gasti (Per. gasht ‫ تشگ‬patrol, watch); jāmīnu (Ara. zāmin ‫ نم اض‬bail, surety,
security, warranty, guarantee); jarimānā (Per. jarīmānah ‫ هن امي رج‬penalty, fine); khaidī (Urdu
qaidi ‫ یديق‬prisoner, detainee, captive); māfi (Urdu muāfi ‫ یفاعم‬pardon, forgiveness, remission);
vakāltā (Urdu vakālat ‫ تلاکو‬advocacy, attorney, pleading); vélam (Ara. e'lām ‫ مالعإ‬notification,
proclamation, auction).
Military and warfare
ballemu (Urdu bālam ‫ مللب‬dart, spear, lance); bandūku (Ara. banduqīyah ‫ ةيق دنب‬gun);
barisé (Per. barchi ‫ یھچ رب‬, spear); buruju (Ara. biraj/burj ‫ ج رب‬tower, rampart); dālu (Urdu dāl
‫ الهڈ‬shield); kabja (Ara. qabzah ‫ ةضبق‬hold, control, occupy, possession by force); pahārā (Urdu
pahrā ‫ ا رہپ‬watch, guard, patrol, security); sarihaddu (Per. sarhad ‫ دح رس‬border, boundary,
frontier); sipāyi (Per. sipāhī ‫ یھ اپس‬soldier, trooper, serviceman); tupakī (Urdu tupak ‫ کپت‬and
possibly also Per. tufang ‫ گنفت‬musket, gun).
Trade and industry
behāri (Urdu bévpāri ‫ یراپويب‬dealer, businessman, trader); bōni (Urdu bōhni ‫ ینہوب‬first
sale of the day); dalārilu (Ara. dalāl ‫ للاد‬brokers, agents, middlemen); dūkānamu (Ara. dukān
‫ ناکد‬shop); kharīdu (Per. qarīd ‫ دیرخ‬purchase, buy, shopping); kimmattu (Ara. qīema ‫ ةميق‬price,
value, cost); kirāna (Urdu kiryāna ‫ هنايرک‬grocery, provisions store); lāwādévī (Urdu lāv dév ‫ؤال‬
‫ وي د‬give and take, transaction); pachāri (Urdu pansārī ‫ ی ر اسنپ‬grocer, vendor); rāyitī (Urdu
riyāyat ‫ تي اع ر‬concession, discount, exception, rebate); trāsu (Per. tarāzū ‫ و ز ا رت‬balance, pair
of scales).
Professions, employment and service
badilī (Urdu badlī ‫ یل دب‬shift, transfer, change); bartarafu (Per. bartaraf ‫ فرط رب‬discharge,
dismiss, remove); bharti (Urdu bharti ‫ یترهب‬recruitment, fullness, filling up); chākiri (Per. chākar
‫ رکاچ‬menial service); darjī (Per. darzī ‫ یزرد‬tailor); ekimīdu (Per. hakīm ‫ ميکح‬sage, wise man,
doctor - in coastal Telugu it has come to mean master); gulāmu (Ara. ghulām ‫ ملاغ‬slave, serf,
bondman); gumāstā (Urdu gumāstā ‫ اتسامگ‬shop assistant); gundā (Urdu ghundah ‫ هڈنغ‬rowdy,
criminal); hamāli (Ara. hamāl ‫ لامح‬carrier, porter) ; kasāyi (Ara. qasāb ‫ باصق‬Urdu kasāyi ‫ئاسک‬
butcher, meatman); kūli (Urdu quli ‫ یلق‬porter); majūri (Per. mazdūri ‫ یرودزم‬bodily labour, wages);
naukaru (Per. naukar ‫ رک ون‬servant, handyman, valet, menial); pakkīru (Ara. fakīr ‫ریقف‬
mendicant, beggar); rajīnāmā (Per. razāyat nāmah ‫ ه مان ت ياضر‬testimonial, informed consent,
resignation).
Banking, finance and insurance
asalu (Ara. asli ‫ یلصا‬original, principal); bakāyi (Ara. baqīyah ‫ هيقب‬the rest of,
outstanding, remaining); bhīmā (Per. bimah ‫ هميب‬insurance); chillara (Urdu chillar ‫ رللچ‬change);
9
dammidi (Urdu damdī ‫ ی ڑم د‬dime, pice, farthing); divālā (Urdu dīvālah ‫ ہل ا وي د‬bankrupt);
kharchu (Per. kharj ‫ ج رخ‬, Urdu kharch ‫ چ رخ‬spending, expenditure); khazāna (Ara. khazīnah
‫ ةن يزخ‬treasury); nagadu (Ara. naqad ‫ دقن‬cash, ready money); rūkalu (Urdu ruqah ‫ ہع قر‬note - in
coastal Telugu it has come to mean paper money); sāukāru (Urdu sāhūkār ‫ ر اک وه اس‬creditor,
banker, money lender); wasūlu (Per. wasūl ‫ لوصو‬recovery, collection).
Travel and transport
ambāri (Urdu ambāri ‫ ی ر ابم ا‬howdah); chukkāni (Ara. sukān ‫ ن اکس‬rudder, steer); jīnu
(Per. zīn ‫ ن يز‬saddle); kalāsi (Urdu khalāsi ‫ یصالخ‬stevedore, sailor, dockworker); kamchi (Per.
qamchi ‫ یچمق‬horsewhip); koradā (Urdu kōdā ‫ ا ڑ وک‬whip); langaru (Per. langar ‫ رگنل‬anchor,
mooring); rahadāri (Per. rāhdāri ‫ یرادہار‬toll, highway patrol - in coastal Telugu it has come to
mean unobstructed way, passage); rawānā (Per. rōwānah ‫ هن ا و ر‬send, launch, dispatch);
sarangu (Per. sarhang ‫ گنه رس‬boatswain, in modern Persian it means colonel due to the
semantic process known as elevation).
Land and agriculture
dānā (Urdu dānah ‫ ہناد‬animal feed); jamīndāru (Per. zamīndār ‫ رادنيمز‬a big land holder);
kharīfu (Ara. kharīf ‫ في رخ‬fall, autumn, cultivation during this season); kushkī (Per. khuskī
‫ یکشخ‬dryness, dryland, drought); maidanam (Ara. maidan ‫ ن ا دیم‬field, square, ground); raitu
(Per. rayat ‫ تيعر‬peasant).
Clothing and jewellery
bichānā (Urdu bichānā ‫ ان اهچب‬bedding, laying); duppati (Urdu dupattah ‫ ہٹپ د‬a garment
worn to protect oneself from cold - in coastal Telugu it has come to mean a bedsheet); gundī
(Urdu gundi ‫ یڈنگ‬button); jalapōsanam (Per. zar pōsh ‫ شوپ رز‬gold covering); jarī (Per. zār ‫رز‬
gold, gold thread); jubbā (Ara. jubbah ‫ ہبج‬long loose shirt resembling a cassock); kollāyi (Urdu
kulhayi ‫ ییہلک‬hip, loin cloth); langa (Urdu lahengā ‫ اگنہل‬skirt, petticoat); lungi (Per. lungī ‫ یگنل‬long
piece of cloth worn by men); nādā (Urdu nādah ‫ ه ڑ ان‬ribbon, tape, string); paradā (Per. pardah
‫ ہدرپ‬curtain, screen, veil); shāluva (Ara. shāl ‫ الش‬shawl, scarf, wraparound); vōni (Urdu vōdni ‫ینھ‬
‫ ڑ و ا‬long scarf - in coastal Telugu it got restricted to a long piece of cloth worn by young girls
around petticoat).
Food and cooking
gasagasālu (Per. khashkhāsh ‫ ش اخشخ‬poppy seeds); kadāyi (Urdu kadāhi ‫ یہ ا ڑک‬big pan,
pot, boiler, kettle); karjurālu (Urdu khajūr ‫ ; ر وجهک‬dates); kīma (Per. qīmah ‫ هميق‬minced meat,
forcemeat); kishmish (Per. kishmish ‫ شمشک‬raisins); kottimīra (Urdu kōtmīr ‫ ریمهتوک‬coriander);
mashāla (Urdu masālah ‫ ہحل اصم‬spices, candiments); nārinja (Per. nārangi ‫ یگن ر ان‬a yellow citrous
fruit, tangerine); palāvu (Urdu palāv ‫ ؤ الپ‬a variety of fried rice dish); pannīru (Per. panīr‫رینپ‬
cheese); tāmbūlamu (Per. tambul ‫ لبمت‬betel leaf).
Arts and culture
bājā (Urdu bājā ‫ اج اپ‬drum, orchestra); kalamkāri (Per. qalamkāri ‫ ی ر اکملق‬a traditional
pattern of cloth printing); nagāra (Per. naqāra ‫ ه ر اقن‬large kettle drum); nakāshī (Per. naqāshī
‫ یشاقن‬painting, drawing); sannāyi (Urdu shahnāyi ‫ یئ انہش‬clarinet); tabala (Ara. tabl ‫ لبط‬Per.
tablah ‫ هلبط‬drum).
10
Family and lifestyle
abba (Ara. abbā ‫ بأ‬father); attaru (Ara. attar ‫ رطع‬perfume, fragrance, aroma); hukkā
(Urdu hukah ‫ ہقح‬hubble bubble, smoking pipe in which the smoke passes through water);
julapālu/junapālu (Per. zulf ‫ فل ز‬long hair); kurchī (Ara. kursī ‫ یسرک‬chair, seat); navāru (Per.
navār ‫ راون‬strong broad tape, strip, band); warasudu (Ara. wāris ‫ ثراو‬Per. wāri ‫ یراو‬heir).
It can be understood from the above discussion that the majority of APU words were
borrowed in the fields in which new ideas were introduced and new systems were put in
place. The Telugu people needed to understand and describe them for which borrowing APU
words was inevitable. Once the borrowing and nativization of the APU words was
accomplished coastal Telugu found itself modernized and brought up to date with its linguistic
resources having been replenished. The basic structure of coastal Telugu was not altered as a
result of borrowing APU terms, just as the borrowing of Sanskrit words did not affect it in the
past, because they were promptly set to the grammar and inflectional patterns of Telugu.
Code-mixing, semantic shift and other changes in APU loan words
Coastal Telugu used many linguistic strategies to absorb the APU words while still
retaining its identity. These strategies include mainly code-mixing and semantic shift. Codemixing for our purposes is the intrasentential embedding of linguistic units such as suffixes,
prefixes, words and phrases of APU in coastal Telugu, and semantic shift is the change in
meaning the APU words have undergone in coastal Telugu. The elastic and accommodative
nature of coastal Telugu is largely responsible for initiating and accomplishing these changes.
In the final analysis these APU words have become almost indistinguishable from the rest of
Telugu words. Some of these changes have been briefly discussed below.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Telugu suffixes added to APU words: badalāinchu (Ara. badl ‫ ل دب‬to change, shift,
transfer); chelāinchu (Urdu chalānā ‫ انلاچ‬lord over, compel others to do something).
Evolution of idiomatic/hybrid expressions: bastī mé sawāl (Urdu bastī mé sawāl ‫الوس ںيم‬
‫ یتسب‬challenge in the street, open challenge); sharā māmūlé (Ara. sharah mamūl ‫ح رش‬
‫ ل ومعم‬as usual, usual explanation, more of the same); māyā bajāru (Per. bāzār ‫را ز اب‬
illusory market).
Broadening/Generalization: havā (Per. havā ‫ اوه‬air, wind - in coastal Telugu the meaning
broadened to include trend, influence); katarnāk (Per. khatarnāk ‫ ک ان رطخ‬dangerous,
hazardous, serious - in coastal Telugu the meaning broadened to include irresistible).
Narrowing/Specialization: galību (Ara. ghalāf ‫ ف الغ‬casing, cover - in coastal Telugu the
meaning got restricted to pillow case); gummatamu (Per. gunbad ‫ دبنگ‬dome, cupola - in
coastal Telugu the meaning got restricted to storage device resembling a dome).
Degeneration/Pejoration: béwārs (Per. béwāris ‫ ث را وےب‬without heir - in coastal Telugu
the meaning degenerated to useless); milākāt (Per. mulāqāt ‫ ت اق الم‬meeting,
appointment - in coastal Telugu it degenerated and has come to mean illegal alliance).
Elevation/Amelioration: darjā (Ara. darjah ‫ هج ر د‬degree, rank, level, grade - in coastal
Telugu it has come to mean high status); dammulu (Per. dam ‫ مد‬breath - in coastal
Telugu it has come to mean power).
Meaning shift: The semantic field of some of the words has completely shifted so that
they have come to mean different things altogether. For example, muddāyi (Ara.
mudayi ‫ یع دم‬claimant, plaintiff - in coastal Telugu the meaning changed to defendant);
11
nāmōshī (Per. nāmūs ‫ سومان‬of honour, chastity - in coastal Telugu the meaning changed
to disgrace, shame).
Conclusion
The APU words thus helped coastal Telugu survive as a language and emerge as a
standard dialect by filling the lexical gaps it felt during a particular period of history. By
keeping its doors open, and by admitting APU words when and where necessary, coastal
Telugu also considerably expanded its expressive range. For example, any kind of
philosophical, political, academic or legal debate can be easily conducted in this language
today. Coastal Telugu has thus demonstrated that languages facing extinction can ensure
their survival by being elastic, inclusive and accommodative and by freely allowing the entry
of words from hegemonic languages when necessary. Instead of losing their identity, they will
find themselves enriched provided that the newly admitted words are set to their respective
grammars and modified in phonemic terms so as to suit their particular sound patterns.
REFERENCES
Aitchison, J. (2001). Language change: Progress or decay? (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Arlotto, A. (1981). Introduction to historical linguistics. Washington, DC: University Press of
America.
Brown, C.P. (1854). Dictionary of mixed Telugu. Madras: Christian Knowledge Society’s Press.
Crystal, D. (2000). Language death. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
David, H. (1810). Vocabulary: Persian, Arabic and English. C. Wilkins (Ed.). London: W. Bulmer
& Co.
Doctor, S.B. (1882). English and Persian dictionary. Surat: Irish Presbyterian Mission Press.
Gopalakrishna Rao, K. (1968). Telugu pai urdu parashikamula prabhavamu [The Influence of
Urdu and Persian on Telugu]. Warangal: Venkataramana Press.
Hava, J.G. (1899). Arabic-English dictionary. Beyrut, Catholic Press.
Ikram, S.M. (1964). Muslim civilization in India. A.T. Embree (Ed.). New York, NY: Columbia
University Press.
Ivir, V., & Kalogjera, D. (Eds.). (1991). Languages in contact and contrast: Essays in contact
linguistics. New York, NY: Mouton de Gruyter.
Sammanna, V. (2010). Telugu bhasha charitra [History of the Telugu Language].
Visakhapatnam: Dalita Sahitya Pitham.
Sen, R. (1841). A dictionary in Persian and English, with the pronunciation of Persian words in
the roman character. (2nd ed.). Calcutta: The Baptist Mission Press.
Shakespear, J. (1849). Dictionary: Hindustani and English, English and Hindustani. London:
Pelham Richardson.
Swarajyalakshmi, V. (1984). Influence of Urdu on Telugu: A study of bilingualism. Hyderabad:
V. Swarajyalakshmi.
Wehr, H. (1976). A dictionary of modern written Arabic. (3rd ed.). J.M. Cowan (Ed.). Ithaca,
NY: Spoken Languages Services, Inc.
12
The Level of Use of Soft Skills in English Camp Activities
Misrah Hamisah Mohamed
Faculty of Languages and Linguistics
misrahhamisah@unisza.edu.my
Nur Salina Ismail
nursalina@unisza.edu.my
Azizah Endut
azizahendut@unisza.edu.my
Sharifah Nor Madiah Syed Omar
smadiah@unisza.edu.my
ABSTRACT
English Camp program is designed as to fill in the gaps of soft skills development which
students are not able to gain during the normal study duration. Even though English camp is
known to be a success among students, studies that look into the development of soft skills
equipped in it are rather limited. Due to this, the level of use of soft skills provisions in the
English camp has remained unknown. Therefore a study has been carried out to gather
information about soft skills that are consciously or subconsciously embedded into the English
Camp program. This article is to describe a survey conducted with 114 students at a Malaysian
university. After the data were analysed using SPSS version 16, it was revealed that among
the seven main skills introduced by The Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia,
entrepreneurship skill has not been infused in any of the activities of the camp. In terms of its
level of use, the data showed that many of the activities carried out need to be equipped with
information technology management skill.
Keywords : English camp, soft skills, generic skills
1 INTRODUCTION
The present challenging economic environment and the fast increasing number of
students passing higher education system intensify the competition for established positions
in professions. Thus, having knowledge of an academic subject alone is no longer sufficient
for new graduates to gain employment. Acknowledging the fact that soft skills competency
is the key for employability, the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education has developed the
soft skills module that was introduced to the public universities in 2007. The module
highlighted seven elements of soft skills that need to be incorporated into the curriculum
namely communication skill, critical thinking and problem solving, teamwork, lifelong
learning and information management, ethics and professional moral, entrepreneurship,
and leadership skill. These soft skills can be developed though the combination of support
13
courses, students’ campus life and formal teaching and learning activities which can
standalone or be embedded,. This research focuses on the course of English Camp offered
to Diploma in Teaching English as a Second Language at Faculty of Languages and
Communication Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, in particular that has partly involved in
implementing soft skills.
“English Camp” was introduced at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin to enhance English
communication skills among students. It is one of the subjects offered as part of the
curriculum for Diploma in Teaching English as a Second Language. This course is a compulsory
subject for every student taking Diploma in TESL at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kuala
Terengganu, Malaysia. The English camp course is designed so as to allow TESL students to
master English language learning in an authentic natural learning environment which they
are not able to gain during the normal study duration. Besides, this course is to allow
students to use English confidently while learning. There are two levels of the camp – English
Camp I and English Camp II. These courses are to be taken by the students in semester two
and semester four respectively. Each participation of the camp is graded as a two-credit
paper. The duration for English Camp is two weeks.
The camp is divided into two parts – indoor camp and outdoor camp. The indoor camp is
conducted on campus whereby the activities are done in classrooms. The outdoor camp on
the other hand is usually held off campus at any resort in Terengganu. The course is filled with
language enhancing activities through the use of arts, music and adventurous activities. It is
during the camp activities that students polish, improve and enhance their language
competencies. All language activities are group-based and task-based, thus incorporating soft
skills properties. The syllabus purported that the camp aimed at training the students with
necessary skills in order to be able to:
1. communicate in English effectively
2. cooperate among themselves and develop leadership qualities; assume
responsibilities;
3. develop a sense of belongings; and
4. develop creative and critical thinking skills
The course proforma stated;
“The course, comprising controlled and partially controlled activities, exposes the students to
good communication skills, which can be used to achieve success in their command of the
English language. It also provides opportunities for students to develop their natural inborn
skills further in the context of the English language. The students will be immersed in Englishspeaking environments. The course is also designed to be enjoyable and intellectually
stimulating. It will encourage cooperative work that leads the students to assuming
responsibilities for their own progress”.
(Diploma in TESL syllabus, 2009)
It is clear from both the course objectives and course description that the skills obtained
from the English Camp is in accordance with the incorporation of soft skills, namely
communication, critical thinking and problem solving, teamwork, continuous skills and
information management, entrepreneurial skills, ethics and professionalism, and leadership.
(MOHE, 2006)
English Camp activities are comprised of all proficiency skills; writing, reading, listening
and speaking. Some of the language activities designed for this particular English Camp are
My Team, Poem of 15, Song Visualization, Grammar Chant, Motivational Talk, Trip to YPKT
14
Kindergarten, Trip to Syahbandar, Home Shopping, In No Time Flat, Bed Time Stories, If Shoes
Does Not Fit, Puppet Show and Nasyid Competition for indoor activities. Meanwhile Hot Seat,
Treasure Hunt, Campfire Horror Story and Bukit Keluang Hiking are for outdoor activities.
Very few studies have been conducted on students and lecturers’ views on the
integration of soft skills in their teaching, much less on the teaching of language courses.
Obtaining their views on this issue is of importance to the engineering education field because
they are the ones who are driving the process. The researchers are of the view that in order
to understand how to bring about a successful implementation of soft skills in the course, the
knowledge of how it is being implemented from the perspectives of students is important.
Even though, in general the camp is said to be a success based on the feedback received from
students taking part in the camp, there has yet been a study to determine whether the
students participating in the camp were conscious of the soft skills they employed during their
activities. It is vital to identify the skills available and the significance of the skills as well as
measuring the most apparent soft skills inculcated during the camp. So this study intends to
evaluate whether the activities in the English Camp involved the participants to employ the
soft skills purported and to find out the extent of soft skills they employed in executing their
tasks.
Soft skills may include an individual’s ability for leadership, his or her oral and written
communication, the willingness and aptitude for teamwork, aptitude for conflict resolution
and problem solving, the ability and willingness to learn, and the work ethics (Case, 1988;
Fann & Lewis, 2001; Nelson et al., 2001; Taylor, 2005). Acknowledging the fact that soft skills
competency is vital, the reorientation of the curriculum in higher learning institutions was
made to embed the necessary soft skills to enhance students’ competency. In this context of
this study, soft skills are to comprise all the elements except for Entrepreneurship.
Soft skills are also known as ‘generic skills” that include cognitive elements related to
non-academic abilities, such as positive values, leadership, teamwork, communication and
lifelong learning (MOHE, 2006, p.5). Generic skills are skills that are needed by students to be
academically successful as practitioners in academic, employment and life (Falk & Millar
2002 Hambur, Rowe & Luc, 2002; Lublin, 2003). Generic skills are embedded or integrated in
teaching and learning in the context of the study subjects and the transferable skills (Kearns,
2001). Soft skills refer to the cluster of personality traits, social graces, facility with language,
personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that mark people to varying degrees.
2 METHODOLOGY
This research is a quantitative study using survey method which is based in Universiti
Sultan Zainal Abidin, Gong Badak Campus, Kuala Terengganu. The population of the research
involves Diploma in TESL students from Semester 2 and 4 who underwent English Camp 1 BTS
1042 (second semester) and English Camp 2 BTS 1092 (fourth semester) that total up to 114
students. This research highly relies on a set of structured questionnaire which consists of 2
parts; Part A and Part B. Part A compiles the general information of the respondents’
knowledge on soft skills and Part B gathers information of the respondents’ perceptions on
the application or integration of soft skills in every single activity carried out during the English
Camp.
The main analysis centers on the information gathered from Part B. Items in this
section require ranking, based on a 5-point Likert scale of 1 (unsure of the skills applied), 2
(skills are not applied at all), 3 (skills are occasionally/sometimes applied), 4 (skills are
frequently applied) to 5 (skills are consistently applied). There are 17 constructs with a total
15
of 119 scale items for this section. In order to ensure content validity, each construct has been
designed to represent each activity of the English Camp, while the items are identified from
the nature of the overall activities and the skill competencies outlined by Ministry of Higher
Education (MOHE). The items in this section cover basically two elements; (1) the application
of soft skills and (2) its frequency of application in each activity.
Data collected were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS)
version 16.0 for Windows using descriptive statistics. The mean interpretation score is
adapted from Herman and Oxford (1991) as to determine the level of use of soft skills and
also to determine the most and least significant domain of soft skills used during English Camp
activities.
2.1 Population
The population of the studies is comprised of all the participants of English camp.
There were 114 respondents from semester two (2) and semester four (4) Diploma in TESL
students from Faculty of Languages and Communication, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin They
participated in the 2 weeks English Camp.
2.2 Sampling
These 114 TESL students semester two and semester four students represent a more
appropriate choice for examining the integration of soft skills in the English Camp activities as
they have been engaged in the course. Furthermore, these students have been chosen for
the study due to their current knowledge of the course, making their enrolment and output
levels are relatively high. Having gone through a two week of English camp, these students
would be able to comment and provide more valuable feedback on the incorporation of soft
skills into the various activities of the course. As the sample comprises element of
homogeneity in that respondents have undergone the course recently, this study employs
purposive sampling. Also, as the behavior of the sample does not differ much from that for
random sampling, convenience sampling is employed.
The breakdown of the respondents is presented in the table below.
Table 1 Demographic Profile of Respondents
N
Category
Gender
92
Female
Male
20
Semester
Semester 2
55
Semester 4
57
Percentage
82.1
17.9
49.1
50.9
The majority of the respondents were female students. Out of 114 respondents, 20
were male and 92 were female students. Almost four-fifths (82.1%) of the respondents were
female students. For gender, the percentage of respondents reflects the composition of
student enrolment at the university¸ which shows a much higher female to male student ratio.
Meanwhile, semester 2 comprised of 55 students with 49.1% and Semester 4 with 57 students
that gives 50.9% rate.
16
2.3 Research Instruments
The structured questionnaire is designed to gather information on students’
perspectives on the adequate infusion and frequency of acquiring the soft skills in the English
Camp program. The questionnaire is divided into two parts: Part A compiles the demographic
profile of the respondents and also the general information of the respondents’ knowledge
on soft skills and Part B gathers information of the respondents’ perceptions on the
application or integration of soft skills in every single activity carried out during the English
Camp.
The main analysis centers on the information gathered from Part B. Items in this
section require ranking, based on a 5-point Likert scale of 1(unsure of the skills applied), 2
(Skills are not applied at all), 3 (Skills are occasionally/sometimes applied), 4 (Skills are
frequently applied) to 5 (Skills are consistently applied). There are a total of 17 constructs with
a total of 119 scale items for this section. In order to ensure content validity, each construct
has been designed to represent each activity of the English Camp, while the items are
identified from the nature of the overall activities and the skill competencies outlined by
Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). The items in this section cover basically two elements;
(1) the application of soft skills and (2) its frequency of application in each activity.
2.4 Piloting
Prior to the distribution of the actual questionnaire, the questionnaire was pilottested on 30 TESL students who have joined the English Camp with the same activities. The
pilot test was to ensure that the questions were clear and easily understood by the
respondents. In general, it was observed that the selected respondents had no major
difficulties in filling out the questionnaire. However, a few changes were made to the
questionnaire to improve its format and facilitate analysis. The time taken to complete the
questionnaire ranged from 20 to 30 minutes.
2.6 Procedure
The present study investigated students’ perceptions about the soft skills learnt during
English Camp. A survey method was employed for the study, and structured questionnaires
were distributed to students to obtain their feedback on the integration of soft skills in the
English camp activities. The target respondents were semester two (2) and semester four (4)
Diploma in TESL students from Faculty of Languages and Communications, Universiti Sultan
Zainal Abidin. All 114 of them were the same respondents that have been involved in the pilot
test. The survey was carried out on the following week after their English Camp and the
questionnaires were personally distributed by the researchers. It took them approximately 30
minutes to complete the questionnaire. Upon completion, the researchers personally
collected the questionnaire from the respondents and each of them was given a token of
appreciation on the return of the questionnaire.
2.7 Data Analysis
In this study, quantitative data were collected and analyzed using the Statistical
Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 16.0 for Windows using descriptive statistics. The
data analysis was presented and analysed based on research objective. To address research
objectives 1 and 2; identify the level of use of soft skills among the students during language
camp and to determine the most and the least significant domain of soft skills used during
language camp activities, the mean interpretation by Herman and Oxford (1991) was used.
The mean of every item that measured each of the seven skills was rounded. For example,
item 1 in each construct (activity) measured the frequency use of communicative skills in the
17
activity; the mean of all item 1 in seventeen constructs were rounded to obtain one frequency
number and one percentage number that address the level of use of soft skills among the
students during English camp.
Table 2 Scale
INTERPRETATION
SCORE
High
3.5 – 5.0
Average
2.5 – 3.4
Low
1.0 – 2.4
Cronbach’s alpha reliability test was used to examine the degree of consistency
between the items representing the scale. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was reported of .975.
Since the result was higher than .7, the scale of the items was considered to have good
internal consistencies. (Wellis, 2003) In terms of content validity, each construct had been
designed to represent each activity of the English Camp. The items were identified from the
nature of the overall activities and the skill competencies outlined by the MOHE. Meanwhile,
for face validity, the questionnaire was pilot-tested on 30 TESL students who have joined the
English Camp with the same activities. There were no major difficulties in answering the
questionnaire. Only minor changes were made to facilitate analysis.
3 FINDINGS
3.1 What is the level of soft skills used during the English camp activities?
Table 3 Level of soft skills used during English camp activities
Activities
Comm Team
Critical
Ethics
Leadership
Skill
Work
Thinking
Soft
PS
Skills
My Team
3.95
4.41
3.88
3.49
3.88
Poem of 15
3.83
4.37
4.14
3.55
3.66
Song
3.83
4.15
3.81
3.39
3.49
Visualization
Grammar
4.26
4.38
4.24
3.69
3.77
Chant
Motivational 3.21
2.7
2.88
3.58
2.67
Talk
Trip to YKT 4.52
4.52
4.24
4.34
3.9
Kindergarten
Trip
to 3.43
3.88
3.54
3.45
3.40
Syahbandar
Home
4.21
4.46
4.42
3.75
3.95
Shopping
In No Time 4.04
4.20
4.15
3.6
3.46
Flat
Bedtime
4.47
4.42
4.03
3.82
3.87
Stories
Life-long
Learning
ITM
3.27
3.53
3.38
2.9
3.16
3.33
3.75
3.45
3.86
3.03
4.51
3.81
3.39
3.35
3.66
3.51
3.7
3.15
3.78
3.51
18
If Shoe Does 3.49
3.59
3.6
3.21
Not Fit
Puppet
4.29
4.34
4.04
3.71
Show
Nasyid
3.87
4.26
3.76
3.72
Competition
Hot Seat
4.33
4.52
4.35
3.71
Treasure
4.16
4.54
4.36
3.96
Hunt
Campfire
3.79
3.44
3.13
3.21
Horror Story
Bukit
3.54
3.88
3.46
3.51
Keluang
Hiking
 ITM : Information Technology Management
3.14
3.10
2.88
3.92
3.76
3.52
3.73
3.58
3.47
3.84
4.04
3.86
3.71
3.38
3.25
3.10
3.12
2.69
3.44
3.82
2.90
In terms of the level of use of soft skills in each activities carried out during English
Camp, the mean interpretation score by Herman and Oxford (1991) was adapted by looking
at overall mean and by domain category. Table 3 shows the level of use of soft skills in each
activity carried out during English Camp. Mostly the level of use of soft skills in all activities
was high and average with the mean score between 2.5 to 5.0. The level of use of soft skills
is very high in Bedtime Stories, Home Shopping, Puppet Show and Trip to YPKT Kindergarten
because all skills were applied in these activities with the mean score of more than 3.5. In
Bedtime Stories, the mean scores are from 3.51 to 4.47. In Home Shopping the mean scores
are from 3.51 to 4.46. Meanwhile in Puppet Show the mean scores are from 3.5 to 4.34. Then
the mean scores for Trip to YPKT Kindergarten are from 3.81 to 4.52.
Meanwhile all skills were applied in Poem of 15, Grammar Chant, Nasyid, Hot Seat and
Treasure Hunt are rated high except the Information Technology Management. The mean
score Poem of 15 3.53 to 4.37 except for Information Technology Management which is
placed at average at 3.16. The mean score for Grammar Chant is 3.69 to 4.38 and Information
Technology Management with 3.4. The mean score for Nasyid is from 3.58 to 4.26 with
Information Technology Management scored at 3.47. Meanwhile Hot Seat scored 3.71 to 4.25
and Information Technology Management with 3.38. Treasure Hunt scores 3.71 to 4.54 and
Information Technology with 3.21. Management Critical Thinking, Leadership and
Information Technology Management were applied in Bukit Keluang Hiking with the average
mean score of 3.4, 3.44 and 2.9 respectively.
3.2 Which of the domain of the soft skills has the most and the least impact on the
participants of the English camp?
Table 4 Mean of the Use of Each Skill
MEAN ITEM
Mean Communication Skill
Mean Teamwork
Mean Critical Thinking Problem Solving
Mean Ethics
MEAN
3.9541
4.1191
3.8841
3.6276
N
17
19
Mean Leadership
Mean Life-long Learning
Mean Information Technology Management
3.6035
3.6341
3.2524
In order to conceptualize the pattern of soft skills in language camp activities carried
out during English Camp, the highest application of each skill was extracted from all the
seventeen (17) activities carried out in the English Camp. Again, the mean interpretation score
by Herman and Oxford (1991) was adapted. Based on table 4, it can be seen that all domain
of soft skills were highly applied in most of the activities in English camp as the score was
above 3.5. However, Information Technology Management was averagely employed with the
mean score of 3.2524. Teamwork was the highest domain applied in most of the activities in
English Camp with the mean score of 4.1191. Communication Skill was the second highest
domain employed with the mean score of 3.9541. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving rated
the third highest domain employed with the mean score of 3.8841. Next is Life Long Learning
with the mean score of 3.6341. Ethics was rated the fifth highest domain of soft skill with the
mean score of 3.6276 and the last domain applied in English camp activities is Leadership
with the mean score of 3.6035.
From the analysis about the use of soft skill in English Camp activities, it is an apparent
finding that most of the soft skill domains were applied in almost all activities carried out. It
is also evident that the highest application of the domain is team work. On the other hand,
the least applied is Information Technology and Management. This could be probably
students opted for pure ideas brainstormed among the team members rather than finding
the sources from other technological devices. They may also find limited time to be connected
to technological devices to search for information requested.
In terms of the students’ perceptions on the application of soft skills in each activity,
this study clearly indicates that the students have a clear understanding on the application of
communication skill and team work in every activity as those activities require them to discuss
in their own team to ensure that the task of each activity is fulfilled. This implies that the
approach taken by Faculty of Languages and Communication to allow students to use English
while handling any language activity has been well-received. This is in line with Archer and
Davidson (2008) that students were most pleased with the activities conducted. Activities
were found not only to be fun and enjoyable but also implement one of the domains of soft
skill which is communication skill.
Another distinguished finding from this study is that the other domain of soft skill;
Information Technology Management which was found minimally applied in most of the
English Camp language activities. Students should be encouraged to do self-regulated
learning by independently searching for relevant information from various sources and to
manage them efficiently (MOHE, 2006). As the finding shows, only few language activities
required them to use technology especially when they have to submit the report and also
prepare lesson plan. The rest of the activities required them to base on discussion and their
own creativity.
From other point of view, the designed activities also played important roles in
influencing the participants not only to learn and use English but also to allow the students
to apply the embedded soft skill without them even realizing it. Besides that, the activities
were planned to ensure that the participants would freely take part in the activities without
20
being tied up with exam-oriented or classroom situation. These friendlier activities has
sparked participant’s willingness to participate in the activities and given positive impact
towards participant’s perception on the language and also the soft skills.
4 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Based on the findings, the study has given a vast contribution in fostering domains of
soft skills in language learning activities as it helps students to prepare themselves for working
exposure. English Camp activities in particular prepare the students for well-rounded
personalities that not only possess good academic result but also edging personality. Methods
used include skills-focused learning, problem solving, team building and self-reliant journeys
and activities. Overall, language activities powerfully have given impact upon a student’s
intellectual, physical, spiritual, social and moral development.
This study also interposes a clear evident that application of soft skills use makes a
major contribution to physical and environmental education and enhances many other
curriculum areas. It contributes to personal growth and social awareness and develops skills
for life and prepares the graduates to the working environment in particular. Such qualities
as emphasized by MOHE such as a sense of responsibility and a purpose in life are nurtured.
There is also a great deal of intrinsic enjoyment and satisfaction to be experienced from
participation in outdoor activities. Eventually, building self-confidence and self-esteem is
fundamental to any language learner’s development.
Thus it can be concluded that the findings evidently indicate that the English Camp is
in line with MOHE’S requirement to prepare student at tertiary level before embarking into a
professional working world. It fosters sensitivity to the environment, helps young learners to
see themselves in a global context and helps to develop citizens with an awareness of the
need for sustainable use of the world’s natural resources.
However, further research on the application soft skill should be explored, preferably
on a larger measure and also on ongoing basis, involving other public universities in Malaysia
with similar course of this nature. As this study involves a small sample and is limited to a
single university, the findings from the data collected means that it is highly improbable for
the findings to be extrapolated to represent university students in general.
In future studies, it is recommended that for such course, research be conducted to
involve studies on individual activities to determine their impacts on the participants as well
as on how each of these individual activities helps students implement any domain of soft
skills besides improving their command of the English language.
This study only focuses on the perception of students about the application of some
soft skills in the English camp activities that does not include entrepreneurship skill. Further
research may be undertaken to include entrepreneurship skill and its impact on students.
REFERENCES
Ahmad, R. H. (1998). Educational development and reformation in Malaysia: Past, present,
and future. Journal of Educational Administration, 36(5), 462–475.
Aski J. (2009) The impact of second Language Acquisition Research on language Practice
Activities: American Association of teachers of Italian, Vol 86 (1) pp 37-58
Birrell, B. (2006). Implication of low English standards among overseas students at
Australian Universities. People and Place, 14(4), 53–64.
Caudron, S. (1999).The hard case for soft skills. Workforce, 78(7), 60–64.
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De Lange, G. (2002). Cooperative education interventions aimed at transferring new
technologies from a developed economy: Germany/South African collaboration in the
automotive industry. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 3(1), 13–15.
Eastern Province Herald. (2001). Globalization—The effects on developing economies.
Falk, I., & Millar, P. (2002). Implications of ‘non-standard work practices’ for literacy and
numeracy. ALNARC National Research Program Commonwealth of Australia.
Hager, P., Crowley, S., & Garrick, J. (2000). Soft skills in the construction industry: How
can the generic competencies assist continuous improvement? Paper presented at the
Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education,
University of Sydney, December 4–7, 2000
Hager P., Holland, S., & Beckett, D. (2002). Enhancing the learning and employability of
graduates: The role of generic skills. Melbourne: Business/Higer Education Round
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Hambur, S., Rowe, K., & Luc, L. T. (2002). Graduate skills assessment. Australian Council
For Educational Research.Commonwealth Department of Education Science &
Training.
Hanapiah, M. F. (2002). English language and the language of development: A Malaysian
perspective. Paper presented at the International Conference IPBA, LembahPantai,
Kuala Lumpur, September 24–26, 2002.
Julliard, Y., & Schwab, A. J. (2000). Social competences and personal ethical development—
Soft skills or a need for survival? Paper presented at IEEE International Symposium on
Technology and Society: University as a Bridge from Technology to Society,
University of Rome, Italy, September 6–8, 2000.
Kearns, P .(2001). Review of research: Generic skills for the new economy. NCVER.
Adelaide C. Gewertz. (2007) Soft Skills in Big Demand, Education Week. 26 (40), pp 25-27
Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi. (2006). Modul pembangunan kemahiran insaniah
(soft skills) untuk institusi pengajian tinggi Malaysia. Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Kemper, C. L. (1999). EQ vs. IQ. Communication World, 16(9), 15–19.
McMurchie, L. L. (1998). Careers can rise or fall with EQ. Computing Canada, 1(9), 1821.
Lublin, J. (2003). Generic objectives and transferable skills: Centre for teaching and
learning: Good Practice in teaching and learning. Engineering Science and
Education Journal, 8 (4),161-168.
National Higher Education Research Institute. (2003). Psychological attributes of graduates.
Bulletin of Higher Education Research, 1, 3–5.
Ng, C.-H. (2008). ‘Learning for Achievement’ as a Collective Goal in Re-culturing
Teaching and Learning in Hong Kong Classrooms
Ranjit. S. M. (2009). Make yourself employable : How graduates can hit the ground
running! Kuala Lumpur: TQM Consultants Sdn. Bhd.
Ranjit. S. M. (2005). The hard truth about graduate employability and soft skills.
Kuala Lumpur: TQM Consultants Sdn. Bhd.
22
Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) in Learning Arabic for Beginners
Mohd Hazli Yah @ Alias
Mohd Firdaus Yahaya
Mohd Shahrizal Nasir
Kamarul Shukri Mat Teh
Khoirun Nisak Mat Saad
Nurazan Mohmad Rouyan
Zanirah Wahab
Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA)
ABSTRACT
Mastery of vocabulary is very important in learning foreign language as it determines
the level of students’ proficiency in the language of interest. Everybody acquires vocabulary
from a combination of more than one learning strategies. Therefore, with this spirit in mind,
this paper aims to examine vocabulary learning strategies used by students in learning Arabic
vocabulary. The respondents were four first semester students, (three Muslims and one nonMuslim) from Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin who took Elementary Arabic I (UBA 3012) subject
as part of graduation requirement. This study is qualitative in nature whereby the data was
collected through semi-structured interviews. The findings suggested that throughout the
semester, there are varieties of strategies employed by these students to master Arabic
vocabulary with note-taking strategy and memory learning (rehearsal) dominating the
acquisition process. It is also found that there is no significant difference on religious
backgrounds involved in influencing the level of Arabic vocabulary acquisition. Based on these
findings, this study suggests that the dominant strategies should be implemented in teaching
and learning Arabic for beginners.
Keywords : Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS), learning Arabic, vocabulary acquisition,
strategies, foreign language
INTRODUCTION
One of the main concerns of language learning is to ensure there is effective
comprehension between students and words in books. Comprehension of spoken and written
words is essential so that the learning and understanding process could occur. Hence, one of
the most essential components that students need to familiarize themselves with during the
process of acquiring second or third language is learning the vocabulary (Lotfi Ghazal, 2007).
Vocabulary is extremely necessary in studying any language, and it can be acquired through
various strategies or methods. The methodology and strategy of vocabulary varies as much
as the styles of individual learning which creates a challenge in teaching and learning field.
The importance of mastering vocabulary is best summarised by Wilkins (1972:111-112) when
he claims that, “Without grammar, very little can be conveyed. Without vocabulary, nothing
can be conveyed”.
23
LITERATURE REVIEW
Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) is a part of language learning strategies which in
turn is a component of a larger framework of general learning strategies. There have been a
number of attempts to develop the taxonomy of VLS, usually as part of a piece of research
into learners’ strategy use (Nation, 2001). Most researchers take a different approach in
exploring the effectiveness of VLS. Among the research done previously are on the
effectiveness of the strategies on the real activities and learning different tasks of vocabulary
which set out to explore some of the basic things that language students do with the intent
of identifying and describing strategies that used in the learning process (e.g. Cohen & Aphek,
1981). There are also other research that investigate strategy effectiveness through
correlation between the frequencies and some achievement scores while others study
learners’ views about their perceive strategies based on past learning experiences (e.g. Gu &
Johnson, 1997; Schmitt, 1997; Fan, 2003; Erten, I.H & Williams, M., 2008).
Among notable investigations on VLS as a whole was carried out by Stoffer (1995),
who designs a questionnaire containing of 53 items specifically structured to measure
Vocabulary Learning Strategies Inventory (VOLSI), and Schmitt (1997), who proposes
Schmitt’s taxonomy that consists of six main categories with 58 individual strategies in total.
Other noted questionnaire which is accordingly employed by this research is by Gu and
Johnson (1996), which covers three dimensions of beliefs in VLS, (i.e. vocabulary should be
memorised, vocabulary should be acquired in context, and vocabulary should be studied and
used) and encompasses seven categories of VLS (i.e. Metacognitive, guessing, note-taking,
rehearsal, dictionary, encoding and activation strategy).
All of these research conducted aim to study the nature of VLS and answer the
question of what actually involves in the process of acquiring foreign words. This
understanding is integral to language teachers as they have to make various decisions about
ways of enriching language students’ vocabulary as well as their teaching approach.
AIM OF THE STUDY
The objective of the study is to examine the use of VLS by students who do not possess
any basic knowledge of Arabic at University-level in order to understand better the strategies
that they applied in learning new Arabic words. This study also aims to identify the belief and
perception of these students regarding Arabic vocabulary learning.
METHODOLOGY
A. Sample
Samples are taken from Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA). The respondents were
four students (two males and two females) who took Elementary Arabic I (UBA 3012) course
as part of their graduation requirement. All of the respondents were selected randomly and
do not have basic knowledge of Arabic before taking the aforementioned course. Out of four
respondents, one of them is non-Muslim. The small size of sampling is justified as qualitative
research is not measured by the size of its sampling but rather by the purpose, the research
problem, the major data collection strategy, and the availability of information rich cases as
define by McMillan, J.H. and Schumacher, S. (2006).
B. Semi-structured Interviews
24
The method chosen for this investigation is semi-structured interviews as it suits the
nature of qualitative research which sets on gaining thorough understanding of a
phenomenon based on separate methodological traditions of inquiry that elicit human
conditions or social problem (Cresswell, 2008). Besides that, semi-structured interviews
utilisation is proven to be among major sources to obtain qualitative data from subjects
(Merriam, 1988). All interview sessions were conducted in Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin
(UniSZA) and the respondents were interviewed individually as part of the strategy to gain
deeper understanding of the respondents’ varied backgrounds in vocabulary learning and the
strategies that they used in learning new Arabic words.
C.
Data Analysis
Data collected from the semi-structured interviews sessions were analysed by using
ATLAS.ti 7 software. ATLAS.ti is a computer program used mostly, in qualitative research or
qualitative data analysis.
RESULTS
A. Beliefs in Vocabulary Learning
The Gu and Johnson (1996)’s questionnaire of vocabulary learning was used to elicit
respondents’ beliefs and their self-reported vocabulary learning strategies. In this part, the
respondents were asked about their dimensions of beliefs in Arabic vocabulary acquirement.
As evidenced by Figure 1, the respondents predominantly believed that vocabulary should be
studied though they also agreed that Arabic words can be memorized and acquired.
Figure 1: Beliefs in Vocabulary Learning
B. VLS in Learning Arabic Vocabulary
As to the least reported VLS in learning Arabic vocabulary, Figure 2 shows that even
though the respondents do not have basic knowledge of Arabic, they were aware of most of
the vocabulary strategies. It should be noted that all of these strategies have different
frequencies and respondents were more than often used vocabulary learning strategies in
either medium or low frequency. The common and specific strategies used by these
respondents will be discussed in the following section.
25
Figure 2: Vocabulary Learning Strategies
The Common Strategies Use
Chart 1 demonstrates the descriptive statistics of the respondents’ VLS. In this research,
the Gu and Johnson (1996)’s categories of strategies in learning vocabulary are utilized in
categorizing the VLS as demonstrated by the data below. The findings of the study show that
the respondents put into practice at least four of the most popular strategies such as
repeating the sound of a new word (rehearsal), looking up words that interested in
(metacognitive), writing down examples showing the usage of the new word (note-taking),
and guessing from the context.
C.
8
7
6
5
4
P 1: Azam.pdf
3
P 2: doreen.pdf
2
P 3: fauzi.pdf
1
P 4: Shahira.pdf
0
Chart 1: Common VLS Use
26
DISCUSSION
A. Applying New Arabic Words by Using The Language
One of the significant findings from this study is respondents applied new Arabic words
by using them in listening, speaking, reading and writing. They believed that new Arabic words
encountered should be put to use before they could finally be learned. At least, what a
student should know about a word is its form, its meaning and its basic usage as new
vocabulary will aid students in improving their fluency which will boost their confidence in
using the language. Constant practices as believed by the respondents of this research is
similar to Webb (2005), whose study also indicated that the greater part of vocabulary is
learned receptively through reading or listening and production through writing and speaking.
B. Learning New Arabic Words through Memorizing (Rehearsal)
The first common strategy which has been used by respondents is memorizing new words
from textual context and this is not surprising as word lists and oral or visual repetition are
commonly used strategy in learning vocabulary. Usually, if a student comes across a word
repeatedly in a text, there is a higher chance that they will learn the word quicker than only
seeing it once or twice (Nation, 1990). Besides that, conventional language teachers use the
same teaching methods such as using word lists, vocabulary cards, repeating the sound of a
new word and memorizing the spelling of a word letter by letter to improve and assist
students in learning and acquiring new vocabulary.
C.
Use of Dictionaries
It is interesting to note that out of four respondents in this study, only one of them used
dictionary strategies, i.e. using a bilingual dictionary (e.g. Arabic to Malay dictionary) in
acquiring new vocabulary. This finding is unexpected by researchers because the use of
monolingual or bilingual dictionary is a common practice among second language learners as
it provides examples of words used in various contexts and give detailed guidance on
pronunciation, grammar, and usage with explanations written in a controlled, simplified
vocabulary (Carter, 1987).
CONCLUSION
The study has discovered that students without prior knowledge of Arabic perceive
the substance of vocabulary as important part in language learning. It is interesting to note
that in their effort to master Arabic vocabulary, they have, whether consciously or
unconsciously employed widely-used strategies such as learning a word by using word list or
oral repetition through reading a text, the use of various means to explain a word, and writing
down notes on the meaning of a new word in their learning process. All of these strategies
are directly related to rehearsal, metacognitive and note-taking skills. However, strategies
which require cognitive processing and skill such as using a monolingual or bilingual dictionary
and applying new Arabic word in real situation are rarely mentioned by the respondents of
this study.
Apart from the findings, this research hopes to shed light on the of Arabic vocabulary
learning strategies in second language learning and teaching among our society. It is also
27
hoped that the study will inspire language teachers to improvise and diversify their teaching
methods. They can introduce a selection of vocabulary learning strategies and skills to their
students by designing useful exercises and giving relevant assignments.
All in all, this research hopes to spark more studies on Arabic vocabulary learning as
studies on the individual levels of language learners can be conducted both in qualitative and
quantitative methods and can be approached from many perspectives.
REFERENCES
Carter, R. (1987). Vocabulary and second/foreign language teaching. Language Teaching.
20(1): 3-16.
Cohen, A.D. & Aphek, E. (1981). Easifying second language learning. Studies in second
language acquisition, vol.3,(2): 221-236.
Cresswell, J. (2008). Research Design: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. London:
SAGE.
Erten, I.H. & Williams, M. (2008). A comparative look into how to measure the effectiveness
of vocabulary learning strategies: through using percentages or correlation
coefficients. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, vol.4,(2): 56-72.
Gu, Y. & Johnson, R.K. (1996). Vocabulary learning strategies and language learning outcomes.
Languages learning, vol.46 (4): 643-679.
Lotfi Ghazal. (2007). Learning vocabulary in EFL context through vocabulary learning
strategies. Novitas-ROYAL Research on youth and language, vol.1,(2): 84-91.
McMillan,J.H. & Schumacher, S.(2006). Research in education: evidence-based inquiry.
Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Merriam.S. (1988). Case Study Research in Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Nation, I. S. P. (1990). What is in a word. In Teaching and learning vocabulary (pp.29-50). New
York, NY: Newbury House Publishers.
Nation, I. S. (2001).Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Nunan, D. (2003). Practical English language teaching. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/
Contemporary.
Schmitt, N., & McCarthy, M. (Eds.). (1997). Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and
pedagogy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stoffer, I. (1995). University foreign language students’ choice of vocabulary learning
strategies as related to individual difference variable. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis.
University of Alabama
Webb, S. (2005). Receptive and Productive Vocabulary Learning The Effects of Reading and
Writing on Word Knowledge. SSLA.27, 33-52.
Wilkins, D.A. (1972). Linguistics in language teaching. Cambridge: MIT Press.
28
Third Language Learner’s Self-efficacy on Language Learning
Nor Suriati binti Othman
University of Sultan Zainal Abdin, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia
suriatiothman@unisza.edu.my
Mohd Nazri bin Latiff Azmi
University of Sultan Zainal Abdin, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia
mohdnazri@unisza.edu.my
ABSTRACT
Most second language learners experienced and some of them suffered from the
feeling of anxiousness and stress in ESL classroom although they are at the tertiary level of
education. The existence of anxiety either high or low will give impact on students’ language
learning. Thus, this study was designed to investigate the level of language anxiety in term of
a few classification variables viz gender, language proficiency and self-efficacy. The
respondents are among students from the Faculty of Contemporary Islamic Studies,
University of Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia who are learning English
Language as a third language learned based on the priority in the medium of instruction. The
instrument for this study is a set of questionnaire which was adapted and adopted from the
Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Horwitz at al.,1986; Horwitz (1991)
consists of 33 items to assess the degree to which a respondent feels anxious in ESL classroom
and General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) adapted by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995) consists of
10 items to identify the level of self-efficacy towards anxiety in learning English Language. The
data will be analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The hypotheses show that
there are negative correlation between language anxiety and the classification variables.
Keywords : Language anxiety, Self-efficacy , Third language learners
1. Introduction
The legacy of English since British colonial era established pre-conditions of using
English as global language, make English language grown and known as the world language.
There are three categories of English speakers such as those who speak English as first
language, those who acquired English as a second language or additional language and lastly
those who learn English as a foreign language. Therefore, English always an evolving language
as it has changed substantially in vocabulary and grammatical forms and subsequently this
has created English as a hybrid language around the world (Graddol, 2000).
In Malaysian context, the need to be proficient in English Language, both spoken and
written become significant as a tool of soft skills that is required for every student in the 21st
century. The need to be proficient in English Language enables someone to share linguistic
medium in the era of globalization. Due to that it positions that English Language retained as
a strong second language which enables us to engage meaningfully in all activities including
local and international context. It also provides us additional means of access widely to
29
academic, international trade communication, diplomatic field, science and technology,
professional and it boosts career prospects.
In higher education context, emphasis on English literacy has been scoped down to
students and hence English language are predominantly used in teaching and learning process
across academic domain based on students’ courses and disciplines (Normazidah, Koo and
Hazita, 2012). The aim of local government to implement English Language in certain subjects
as a medium of instruction in Malaysian education is to enable the learners to get the
exposure, able to communicate effectively and use the language correctly in the social
context and professional situation. Thus, without having a good command in English Language
skill or to have sufficient proficiency in the target language, it is impossible for us to interact
and have relationship with other parties neither within the nationwide nor at the
international level.
1.2 Background of the study
Learning the English Language requires a few years and it is not easy if the surrounding
environments are not encouraging enough for the learners to master the skills. This problem
is due to the affective factor that influences learning language which is known as language
anxiety (Brown, 2007). Brown claimed that the affect which refers to the emotion or feeling
on how an individual respond, belief and value his or her strategies that can influence to
second language acquisition. This feeling could interfere the process of learning language
that prevent learners from gaining the proficiency in English and subsequently make them
lack the skills and knowledge at the workplace that demanded by the employer in future.
Further to this, the researcher would like to explore the phenomenon called as language
anxiety and the relationship between self-efficacy in learning language. Zimmerman (2000)
mentioned the importance of self-efficacy on students’ achievement and the positive
outcomes by linking their beliefs to determine how they feel, think and motivate themselves
in approaching a given task.
Based in this scenario, the researcher will investigate the third language learners’ selfefficacy in learning language. In this study context, the third language is refers to the English
Language learned by students based on the priority in medium of instruction after Bahasa
Malaysia and Arabic Language.
Under this study, the learners are from the Faculty of Contemporary Islamic Studies
(FKI), University of Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Kuala Terengganu. The FKI is one of the
major faculties in UniSZA. It offers 13 undergraduate programs which consists eight diploma
programs and six degree programs while the faculty also offers four postgraduate programs
in Islamic Studies. These programs used Arabic Language as a primary medium of instruction
in all the course subjects following with Bahasa Malaysia for elective subjects.
It is a challenge for the learners of FKI to learn English Language since most of them
received a foundation in Arabic education. Dealing with three different languages, the
learners are facing many challenges that contribute to the difficulties in learning English
Language as well as struggling to maintain and retain Arabic language in the right system.
Although in general, English Language is known as a second language, but the faculty is only
focus on the Arabic Language because it is frequently used as it is a medium of instruction to
most of the subjects offered by the faculty. Hence, the status of English Language under this
faculty is the third language learned after Arabic Language as acquisition of a second
language. In Malaysian context, learning Arabic Language should be categorized as learning a
foreign language, while some others want to make it as learning a second language
30
(Kamarrulzaman, Khadijah & Mohd Amin ,2002 cited in Kamarul Shukri, 2009). However, the
status of English Language is the second language acquisition to other learners who are
pursuing in other programs in UniSZA.
1.3 Statement of the problem
There are a number of studies in Social Science and Education Psychological Research
which related to anxiety but most of these studies did not provide enough empirical study on
anxiety among third language learners which these languages are equally important in the
education field. In this study, the learners are in the process of learning two languages
namely Arabic Language as a second language acquisition and English Language as a third
language learned. In today’s competitive and globalised job market, the needs to be
proficient in both languages are equally important.
However, the deterioration of English proficiency among universities students make
the universities produce less quality of fresh graduates in employment sectors. The
proficiency in English Language among students had declined since the replacement of English
medium by a national language policy, Bahasa Malaysia became the medium of instruction
in national schools in 1970 (Wong, Lee, Lee and Azizah (2012). Following with the cabinet’s
decision to switch the medium of instruction to Bahasa Malaysia for Science and Mathematics
in all national schools started from 2012 onwards (The Star, 2009). It was reported that the
Ministry of Education had not achieved its target since the implementation of teaching
and learning in Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) in 2003 and the improvement
in English proficiency among students is less than three percent during the PPSMI period
(Broneo Post, 2011).
Drawing attention to this scenario, therefore, it is important for every student to know
their capabilities or strengths to overcome the language anxiety among themselves.
According to Bandura (1997) cited in Raoofi, Bee and Swee (2012), the key element of social
cognitive theory is to deal with self-efficacy where language learners’ belief their capabilities
to organize and execute of action which affect their performance tremendously. One of the
ways to overcome the problem is to identify learners’ self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is a
motivational variable in learning and it is actually engage with an action which the learners
have to perform in order to succeed.
Thus, looking at the scenario and the problem dealing with language anxiety, the
researcher aims to conduct a study by exploring through learners’ emotion and feeling
towards English Language and whether there is a significant relationship between language
anxiety and self-efficacy.
1.4 Objectives of the study
The objectives of the study are to find out why language learners feel anxious, nervous,
embarrass and stressful during the process of learning English Language as second or foreign
language. The aims of the study are as follows:
1. To identify whether there are significant differences in the level of language anxiety in
ESL classroom among students from the Faculty of Contemporary Islamic Studies,
University of Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kuala Terengganu based on gender.
2. To examine whether there is a significant relationship between the learners’ level of
language anxiety and level of self-efficacy?
31
1.5 Research Questions
In line with the aim of this study, the following are the questions that specifically
address the direction of the study.
1. What is the level of language anxiety in ESL classroom among students from the Faculty
of Contemporary Islamic Studies, University of Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kuala Terengganu
based on gender?
2. Is there a significant relationship between the learners’ level of language anxiety and
level of self-efficacy?
1.6 Research Hypotheses
Ho1 : There is no significant difference between the learners’ level of language anxiety
based on gender.
Ho2 : There is no significant relationship between level of language anxiety with the
level of self-efficacy among language learners from Faculty of Contemporary Islamic
Studies, University Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kuala Terengganu.
1.7 Conceptual Framework
In this study, the researcher selected individual background and self-efficacy as
independent variables. Among the individual background, the researcher also has selected
gender and self-efficacy as independent variables. Thus, the dependent variable is anxiety
that influence language learning. Besides that, the researcher will review the significant
correlation between self-efficacy with language anxiety that influence language learning.
In this study, the investigation also explores the level of anxiety towards language
learning based on gender as shown by arrow A. Next, the study will explore the relationship
between level of self-efficacy with language anxiety as shown by the arrow B.
Independent Variable p(IV)
Gender
Selfefficacy
Dependent Variable (DV)
A
B
Language
Anxiety
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of language anxiety
1.8 Significance of the study
The finding of this study will provide some worthwhile information in terms of theory
and practice that can be applied in the pedagogy.
1.8.1 Theoretical contribution
32
This study will provide some information of fundamental aspect that by nature,
Humans are potentially to acquire more than one language or multilingual. However the
person’s competence in several languages will be different at all level due to the affective
factors.
1.8.2 Practical contribution
In practice, the study will provide a pedagogical input to language lecturers and
language teachers some information about anxiety and a better understanding on how to
overcome the problems. It will also provide some information to language lecturers as well
as to language teachers the causes of anxiety and the approaches when dealing with mixed
abilities students from different background.
The result from this study can also assist the Centre for the Advancement of Knowledge,
UniSZA in the planning of taking over language teaching. The result will provide guidance and
pedagogical input to all the language teachers on approaches and methods of teaching to
individual differences and learning background especially students from Arabic school
background.
Finally, the finding will also provide some information and implications to students in
an effort to alleviate obstacles that prevent them to be competent in speaking and writing in
English.
1.9 Limitation of the study
There are some potential limitations and in this research the limitation is related to a
few factors such as subject of the study, locations of the study, respondents’ honesty in
answering the questionnaires, number of samples and variable factors.
2. Literature Review
Anxiety plays a major affective factor in several learning process and when anxiety
associated in language learning, it is known as second language anxiety or foreign language
anxiety. It relates to cognitive, affective and behavioural responses that will result to poor
performance and failures in evaluating ability and achievement of individuals (Mohd Ariff, Siti
Rosmaini and Dawson, 2008). The existence of anxiety in learning language have confirmed
by many researchers. These symptoms can affect the quality of life of an individual because
language anxiety can hinder or help the language learners in learning situation of the target
language (Bailey, 1983; Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994; Young,
1991).
Many researchers had triggered with their various opinions on the anxiety and among
them were MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) mentioned that the internal affective factor such
as anxiety is the main factor of affective variables. They also identified that anxiety on
language is the feeling of tension and apprehension that associated with second language
context including speaking, listening and learning (MacIntyre & Gardner (1992) while Brown
(2007) mentioned that as a subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness and
worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system. Anxiety can be identified
the affective factor that most pervasively obstruct the learning process (MacIntyre, 1999,
Oxford, 1999a, Young, 1999, Dornyei , 2005).
MacIntyre & Gardner, (1989) have identified three general approaches of anxiety such
as trait anxiety, situational-specific anxiety and state anxiety. Each the type of anxiety can
occur by language learners within second language learning. Trait anxiety is a type of anxiety
which is permanent and generally some people constantly anxious about many things. In
33
contrast, another type of anxiety is state anxiety whereby it is uncomfortable experience by
language learners in relation to some particular events in a particular of time or situational
level. Finally, situation-specific anxiety is a feeling of discomfort, apprehension that
experienced by language learners in a new situation or event. The nervousness arises in
response to a specific situation and it usually disappears as a learner could adjust it.
2.1 Causes of anxiety
Horwitz et al (1986) have identified three components of anxiety causes namely
communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation and test anxiety. These three
components can be seen as negative impact in language learning.
The term as communication apprehension is whereby the learners could feel negative
emotions that they may make a mistake in front of audience. For an example, it could happen
if someone has desire and ability to participate in discussion, however they prefer to be silent
due to higher degree of shyness, speechless and worry.
Voviana (2007) found that from the questionnaires that she distributed to 40
respondents in her comparative study between Malaysian Chinese students and students
from Mainland China, she found that male respondents are less confident to speak in English
as compared to the female respondents due to their feelings of apprehension to speak in
English and do not know how to pronounce a word neither could not understand what the
teacher is saying during English language classes.
Another component of cause of anxiety is fear of negative evaluation or the fearful of
negative criticisms by others. Kitano (2001) also agreed that a fear of negative evaluation as
a personality trait and self-perception of speaking ability are the two sources that could lead
to language anxiety. These symptoms where the learners can experience unpleasant emotion
such as feeling worry, fear, nervous, sweat and forgetful.
The last cause of anxiety is test anxiety which is another variable related to academic
performance. It is a type of anxiety that refers to a symptoms of worry, extremely stress,
discomfort occur accompanied by cognitive difficulties during or before taking a test.
2.2 Anxiety and gender
According to Margeret, Arthur, Gregory, Jeffrey and Geert (2012), there are
differences between genders in cognitive and emotional responses relevant to learning and
memory, language, fear and anxiety.
Based on some research about gender differences on language anxiety done by Sayed
and Harun (2013) they found that the case study done on 131 Turkey university students who
were majoring in English, showed that the result indicated males students irrespective of their
grade levels were significant more anxious than females students.
Meanwhile, study done by Eleni (2002) addresses issues of language anxiety in two
settings which is English as a second language and mainstream classrooms found that 178
middle school Mexican immigrant students who attending school in the United State of
America. The result showed that female students tended to be more anxious than male
students in both settings.
Several studies done by Aydn, Yavuz & Yeşilyurt (2006) have shown that gender factors
as independent variables have significant different in language anxiety whereby female
learners feel more anxious than males.
Voviana (2007) in her comparative study on ESL Learners at Stamford College, Petaling
Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia between Malaysia Chinese students and from the People’s Republic
34
of China (PRC). The finding was there was a significant difference in the level of language
anxiety between of male and female in her comparative study of ESL university students
between Malaysian Chinese and students from People’s of Republic of China (PRC). From the
results showed they are worried about failing in their English tests. It was reported that 60%
of male students are anxious during tests as compared to 52% of female students. 27% of
male students were reported that they are anxious in learning English while the percentage
of anxious female students is greater than male students where 44% of the female students
responded that they are anxious in learning English.
Awan, Azher, Anwar, and Naz (2010) have conducted a study on 2nd and 6th semester
undergraduate students from different departments of University of Sargodha, Pakistan who
enrolled for English as a foreign language. The finding from this study indicated that the
female students are less language anxiety than male students.
2.3 Anxiety and self-efficacy
It is important to the learner to belief their strength to produce positive outcomes.
They have to apply the concept of self-efficacy such as the beliefs to determine how people
feel, think, motivate themselves in order to achieve their goals and master the situation
(Bandura, 1997 & 2004 cited in Santrock, 2006). According to Albert Bandura, the role of selfefficacy as motivational beliefs which refers to someone’s belief or ability to approach goals,
tasks and challenges and it can influence choice of activities, effort, persistence, and
performance. The language learners who have high self-efficacy are able to influence the
intrinsic motivation that can be manifested itself in various forms such as effort, persistence,
and choice of activities (Bandura, 1977). Those learners with a high self-efficacy are more
likely to put high degree of effort to achieve their personal goals and be intrinsically
motivated. On the other hand, individuals with low self-efficacy likely to believe that a task
is tough and avoid to overcome the problems.
This idea acknowledged by Zimmerman (2000) that showed many positive expects for
self-efficacious students who undertake to face the challenges tasks than do inefficacious
students. When students find their study important and interesting, they become more
involved in the learning process and perform in their academic. Zimmerman and Kitsantas
(1997; 1999) also found self-efﬁcacy to be highly correlated with students’ rated intrinsic
interest in a technology learning task as well as in a writing revision task.
The study done by Azlina and Zaizati (2011) which involved 200 Malay students from
two small town schools and three from rural schools. . In the study, they found that the selfefficacy towards reading English materials was low and there are significant positive
correlation among reading self-efficacy, attitude and ability with higher self-efficacy belief
and interest among students.
In other study done by Liu and Huang (2011) investigated 980 which consists of 617
males and 363 females. The participants were from first year non-English major students
from various disciplines from three universities in China. They found in their study that
anxiety is significantly correlated with motivation. The analysis shows that majority of them
were motivated in learning English and interested in learning foreign language.
3.Research Methodology
In this research, the researcher will use a quantitative research methodology which
will be used a survey as a systematic procedure to collect data. In order to answer the
35
research questions, the collection of data from selected population will be administered and
analyzed by the researcher by using Statistical Package for Science Social (SPSS).
The primary sources of this research that will be used is a set of questionnaires
adapted and adopted from the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Horwitz
et al., 1986; Horwitz, 1991) and General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) (Schwarzer and
Jerusalem,1995) as a research instruments to gather information from respondents. In this
study, the items in the questionnaire were constructed in both English and Bahasa Malaysia
which consists of three sections. The idea of using bilingual because this is to ensure that the
statements would not be misread by participants and to facilitate the participants’
understanding who are lacks of English proficiency.
The researcher has identified a stratified random sampling to be used in this study
whereby a small number of respondents will select to represent the larger group. To
determine the samples size, the researcher choose to use the Table of Determination of
Sample Size approached by Krejcie and Morgan (1970) which the table helps the researcher
determine sample size corresponding to the size of the population with 95 percent certainty
of the results that had been studied.
The information from the questionnaire will be coded and analyzed by using the
software of Statistical Package For The Social Science (SPSS). This software provides a lot of
ways for researchers to manipulate the data so that to coincide with an analysis. By this way,
it is easier and more efficient to administer. The researcher has decided to apply Inferential
Statistics to answer the research questions.
3.1 Pilot Study
In this study, a small number of potential respondents from various programs under FKI
will be selected based on stratified sampling procedure will represent a population to answer
the questionnaires. The respondents will be asked to indicate their level of agreement based
on the scales given. All the items represented on an analysis of language anxiety and selfefficacy in language learning.
3.2 Instruments
In this study, the researcher has adapted and adopted the Foreign Language Classroom
Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) which the questionnaires constructed by Horwitz (1986) and General
Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) adapted by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995) have been proven the
content validity as it have been used in many studies.
As mentioned earlier, all the items in the scale were constructed in two versions which
both are in English and Bahasa Malaysia. All the items have been validated by two experts
who are qualified in the field were asked to scrutinize the scales and to give comments on the
suitability of the content of the questionnaires before a pilot study is carried out.
After the questionnaires have distributed, the researcher will select a number of
participants to give feedback. All the views and recommendations have been acknowledged
and have taken into account to improve the instruments.
Then, the instruments will be analysed by using Cronbach Alpha to measure the
reliability.
4. Conclusion
Language anxiety refers to the subjective feelings such as worry, fear, nervous, lost
focus, sweat and forgetful where the students go through associated with language learning
36
and use. It can hinder or help the language learners in learning situation of the target
language.
In this study, the researcher provides an overview of phenomenon anxiety in ESL
classroom experienced by many language learners in their effort to master the target
language. This study is focusing on the students from FKI, UniSZA who are learning English
Language as their third language learned based on the priority in medium of instruction. The
researcher also provides some comprehensive literature review on the topic under study and
has briefly discussed on the concept of self-efficacy towards language learning.
Self-efficacy is one’s ability and capability to carry out the task in order to reach their
goal which it strongly influences a person to face challenges Hence, students’ belief of their
own capabilities to learn or perform in any tasks which is known as self-efficacy, is an
important role in motivation and learning as well as to facilitate them in handling any
assigned tasks.
Therefore the hypotheses show that there is negative significant difference between
the learners’ level of language anxiety based on gender as well as self-efficacy among
language learners from Faculty of Contemporary Islamic Studies, University of Sultan Zainal
Abidin, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.
REFERENCES
Bandura,A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. New York: General Learning Press.
Dornyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of language learner: Individual differences in second
language acquisition. Mahvah, NJ: Lawrence Erbaum.
Eleni. P.N. (2002) English as a Second Language Students and English Language Anxiety:
Issues in the Mainstream Classroom. Research In The Teaching of English. Volume 36.
Retrieved from http://lchc.ucsd.edu/mca/Mail/xmcamail.2004_09.dir/att-0070/01RT0363English.pdf.
Fook Fei Wong; King Siong Lee; Su Kim Lee; Azizah Yaacob (2012). English use as an identity
marker among Malaysian undergraduates, 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature. 2012;
Volume 18, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 145-155.
Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes
and motivation. London: Edward Arnold.
Graddol, D. (2000). The Future of English? – A guide to forecasting the popularity of the English
Language in 21st century (2nd Edition). The British Council : The English Company (UK)
Ltd.
Horwitz, E.K., Horwitz, M.B., Cope, J. (1986). “Foreign language classroom anxiety”, in The
Modern Language Journal, 70: 125-132.
Kamarul Shukri Mat Teh. (2009). Penggunaan strategi pembelajaran bahasa Arab dalam
kalangan Pelajar Sekolah Menengah Agama. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
Fakulti Pendidikan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Kitano, K. (2001). Anxiety in the College Japanese Language Classroom. The Modern Language
Journal, 85, 549-566.
Krejcie, R.V., & Morgan, D.W. 1970. Determining sample size for research activities.
Educational and Psychological Measurement, 30 (3): 607-610.
MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1989). Anxiety and second language learning: Toward a
theoretical clarification. Language Learning, 39, 251-275.
Mohd Ariff Kassim, Siti Rosmain & Dawson.,R..H. (2008). Test Anxiety And Its Consequences
On Academic Performance Among University Students retrieved from
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http://eprints.uitm.edu.my/5487/1/SITI%20ROSMAINI%20BINTI%20MOHD%20HANAF
I%2010_24.pdf.
Normazidah, Che. Musa., Koo., Y. L. & Hazita, Azman (2012).
What English Language
Teachers Need to Know : Understanding Learning. Journal of English Language, Vol 12,
No 1, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Santrock, J.W. (2006). Educational Psychology (2nd edition). Classroom Update: Preparing for
PRAXIS and practice. McGRAW Hill International Edition, New York.
Schwarzer, R., & Jerusalem, M. (1995). Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale retrieved from
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/health/engscal.htm.
Young, D. J. (1991). Creating a low-anxiety classroom environment: What does language
anxiety research suggest? Modern Language Journal, 75, 426-437.
Voviana Zulkifli (2007). Language Classroom Anxiety: A Comparative Study of ESL Learners
retrieved from http://eprints.uitm.edu.my/6661/1/AJUE%203%282%29%2C%207599%2C%202007.pdf.
The Role of Peer Facilitator in Enhancing English Language Proficiency in a Simulated
Environment
Nur Salina Ismail
nursalina@unisza.edu.my
Engku Suhaimi Engku Atek
esuhaimi@unisza.edu.my
ABSTRACT
The standard of English language proficiency among university students is decreasing
especially in their academic life. They are seen to have language anxiety when using English
language particularly when speaking in English and that they face great difficulty to express
themselves in English. Thus Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) carried out an English
Outdoor Programme (EOP) in 2011 in an effort to improve the standard of English of its
students. The aim of this study is to explore the roles of peer facilitator in assisting the
students learning English during the EOP from the view of participants and the peer facilitator
themselves. This research applies mixed method approach using questionnaire and on
interview with both participants and peers involved in this programme. Data obtained from
questionnaire was analysed using SPSS version 16.0 and data from interview was analysed
using thematic coding to answer the research objectives given. A significant finding is the
positive role of the peer facilitators had in the language learning process of the participants;
not only for participants but also the peer facilitators themselves. The study is expected to
provide a stimulus in enhancing the English proficiency of UniSZA students.
Keywords : Peer facilitator, simulated environment
38
1
INTRODUCTION
Malaysian university students generally have limited proficiency in the English
language causing problems in their academic life (Rosnah Mustafa, 2006). Undergraduate
students are found to not having note-taking skills and this creates problem to them when
listening to lectures or discussions. Besides, learners are found to have limited critical ability
to appropriately respond to an academic text (Ahmad Mazli Muhammad, 2007). Studies also
found that the students are not prepared for the reading demands imposed on them at
university (Nambiar, 2007). Additionally, learners at tertiary education are found to have
limited vocabulary knowledge and are weak at understanding long sentences or sentences
with difficult words (Ahmad Mazli Muhammad, 2007; Nambiar, 2007; Zaira Abu Hasan, 2008).
Noor Hashimah Abdul Aziz (2007), in her study on language anxiety among English language
learners at tertiary education, reported that the majority of learners were very nervous when
speaking in English and that they face great dif ficulty to express themselves in English. In an
effort to partly address the lack of English proficiency among students, Universiti Sultan Zainal
Abidin (UniSZA) introduced a special English programme in 2011 for undergraduates with
limited English proficiency. Known as the English Enhancement Programme (EEP), it was an
out of class English learning activity programme carried out in the first quarter of 2011 to raise
the standard of English of UniSZA students. Within this programme, selected students were
camped in a programme known as English Outdoor Camp (EOP) to learn English through fun
language activities. The uniqueness of this programme is that the activities were well
designed to suit students’ level of proficiency and were carried out solely by facilitators who
were also students of the same age.
Hence, this study intends to investigate the role of peer facilitator in assisting the
participants learning English during the English Outdoor Camp (EOP). A literature review will
further discuss the topics on simulated environment in learning English through English
Enhancement Programme, English Outdoor programme and also Peer Facilitator. The
methods used will be discussed right after and followed by results and discussion.
2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Learning involves observing, doing, or living through things. It is associated with skill
development, practical knowledge, and action – the result or residue of experiential learning
is the long term memory associated with it. Researchers and educators have been studying
ways to enable learners to use English freely, effectively, and as far as possible accurately, in
realistic communication, which has become not only the major goal of all English language
teaching, but also the students’ main concern when they make their efforts to study English
(Jing, 2006). The opportunity for communication in authentic situations and settings is a major
factor for second-language acquisitions by adults (Perez, 2006). In the context of this study,
language learning experience refers to the exposure to the target language involving formal
or informal language learning activities, situations or environments. This may include
classroom learning, outdoor learning and any language activity meant to promote and
enhance the language ability of the learner.
In Malaysia, students spend between 11 and 13 years (6 years in primary school and
between 5 and 7 years in secondary school) learning English, but when they enter universities,
a large majority of them are still not able to master the language upon completing secondary
school (Govindasamy & Latiff Azmi, 2010). There are various factors that could have
39
contributed to these failures; learners’ learning methods, motivation, perceptions, teachers’
teaching methods and/or approach, syllabus and lesson plan, among others. Therefore, it is
imperative to understand learners’ views and experiences in learning a second language in
order to identify the difficulties and impediments that they encounter in the classrooms.
Language learning itself is a lifelong task, and language-learning strategies are
important skills for students’ self-directed language learning. It appears that successful
language students have the ability to orchestrate and combine particular types of language
learning strategies in effective ways, according to their own learning needs (Rosniah, 2006).
Thus, to facilitate students’ language learning and to promote learner autonomy, languagelearning strategies are a key point for instructors to which one must pay attention. Improving
the vocabulary and comprehension of students are ESL teaching strategies that are usually
approached with language proficiency improvements, critical thinking, and study skills.
However, such ESL programs are still misunderstood and are not yet proven effective (Chang,
2000). Chang (2000), with a number of actual cases reviewed, concluded that ESL education
fails because the programmes hold no standards or clearly defined expectations for their
learners. Furthermore, Hussin (2001) emphasised that ESL students are not well understood
and adequately addressed.
Much research has focused on second language development and academic success.
However, the debate continues on which instructional approach is the most effective with
second language learners. Fitz-Gibbon (1982), reporting on the status of bilingual programs
at tertiary levels, indicated that the most effective type is the two-way programme whereby
individuals from different cultural and lingual backgrounds learn each other’s language in
non-formal ways. Additionally, students in late-exit programmes seemed to benefit the most
in the long run.
In short, these inter-related factors are due to many ESL students getting low or failing
grades in completing their English proficiency test as a core subject for different purposes e.g.
foreign admission, job interview, university admission etc., because they performed poorly
especially on the listening comprehension and oral interview parts of the tests. They did much
better in writing and reading comprehension. Teaching a language is challenging but it is more
testing when the surrounding is not supportive of the target language. The success of the
method relies on a combination of modules, teachers and the suitability of the environment.
“In second language learning, students find difficulties to utilise the language skills outside of
language classrooms as there are fewer opportunities to do so due to poor language
environment, however, creative teachers are able to create English stimulated environment
especially at special places in school compound” (Maesin, 2009). Chang and Shu (2000) argue
that there is a positive relationship between the learning environment and student
motivation, stating that a good learning environment helps improve the learning outcomes,
and inspires and boosts the learning spirit. A review paper by Long and Porter (1985) that
analysed findings across studies that compared interaction among learners outside classroom
situations with that among learners in teacher-fronted lesson, as quoted by Pica, LincolnPorter, Paninos and Linnell (1996) revealed that learners working together in groups in an
informal setting were found to display greater motivation, more initiative and less anxiety
regarding their learning. This is further evidence that interaction in outdoor activities
facilitates and promotes second language learning.
Both EEP and EOP are considered to be a type of learning programme carried out in a
simulated environment. Merriam-Webster (2011) dictionary defines simulated as “artificial”
or “made to look authentic”. In the context of this study, a simulated environment is defined
40
as a non-authentic, non-English speaking environment that mimics an authentic English
speaking environment through the adoption of the principles of immersion in its language
learning process. This enables learners to immerse themselves in the target language in an
informal, outdoor setting that is supportive and conducive to learning that language through
the highly intensive “English-only” immersion programme. The EOP is further characterised
as a type of activity-based learning that is supported by group activities that required
participants to actively engaged themselves in the use of the English language.
2.1 English Enhancement Programme (EEP)
The EEP was introduced to cater for students who were considered to have low
proficiency of the English language and who needed the gently nudge and guidance to enable
them to gain the confidence to use the language. The EEP was divided into two components:
Indoor and Outdoor programmes. The Indoor programme was carried out for a period of two
months during the semester, with activities conducted every alternate weekend on-campus.
The activities carried out integrated the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and
writing. An important feature of the Indoor programme was the experiential learning. The
experiential learning was fundamental to the activities organised because it incorporated the
five major modes propagated by Gibbons and Hopkin (1980). These are receptive, analytical,
productive, development and psychological modes. Another key feature of the programme is
the creative, supportive and expressive environment it would create. Everyone involved in
the programme would contribute to the creation and maintenance of such environment that
would encourage participation. The Indoor programme of the EEP basically, comprised five
core activities: English Lounge, Grammar and Public Speaking, English in Action, English on
Campus and English Performances.
2.2 English Outdoor Programme
The English Outdoor Programme (EOP), the second component of the EEP, was a oneoff programme carried out off-campus over a period of three days and two nights at a nearby
resort. While integrating all the four language skills, the main focus of EOP had always been
on the advancement of oral skills. A total of 68 participants took part in the programme. They
comprised undergraduate students from the different faculties of the university. The
participants were in turn assisted by 20 peer facilitators who were made up of 2nd and 3rd year
undergraduate students from the university’s Faculty of Languages and Communication. The
peer facilitators were responsible for running the EOP as well as assisting, guiding and
facilitating the participants in their activities.
There were a total of seven language activities carried out during this outdoor
programme. They were Treasure Hunt, Campfire Story, Holiday Package, Tongue Twisters,
Show and Tell Me – Origami, Hot Seat and Who am I?
The Treasure Hunt involved the participation of all members of the EOP. Groups
comprising nine or ten members were formed. Each group acted as a team with a peer
facilitator assigned to them. The facilitator gave the clues and ensured tasks were completed
before allowing the group to continue. There were ten treasures to be found. Each group was
given a written clue to help them find the treasure. When the group had found the treasure,
they reported back to their peer facilitator. If the treasure found was correct, the peer
facilitator then gave the group a language task to perform such as a crossword puzzle,
grammar questions and English proverbs. Once the task was completed the group would then
41
be given the next clue for their second treasure. The pattern repeated itself until the group
completed all ten treasures and tasks.
The Campfire Story required all participants to gather around an open campfire at
night. Each group had the opportunity to prepare a scary story to tell the audience. This
activity concentrated on storytelling skills, using the narrative, voice projection, intonation
and stress and other story telling techniques to attract and hold the audience’s attention.
Each group was required to select only two or three members to narrate the story within the
time limit of not exceeding 5 minutes. Topics chosen could relate to ghosts, strange events,
super-naturals and mysteries.
In the Holiday Package, the objective was to prepare and sell a holiday package. Each
group had to propose a holiday package incorporating elements of expenses, duration,
destination and conditions. Besides, each group would be asked to prepare a poster
highlighting the attractions of their package. They would then be asked to present and
promote their package as well as answer queries on it.
The remaining four activities: Tongue Twisters, Show and Tell me – Origami, Hot Seat
and Who am I?, all had been injected with strong language components that contributed to
the advancement of their listening and speaking skills.
2.3 Peer Facilitators
In this study, peers refer to fellow students who act as facilitators for the programme.
They are university undergraduate students who were specifically trained for the EOP. Peers
as reflected in this research refers to behaviorist theories by Maslow (1954) whereby
relationships between people affect learning only as much as people reinforce each other (or
not) in the academic arena. For example, if the peer group encourages education and
learning, then the individual student within that group will value learning, because the
individual is reinforced, or rewarded, for behavior that indicates that learning is valued.
Topping and Ehly (1998) define peer-assisted learning as "the acquisition of
knowledge and skill through active helping and supporting among status equals or matched
companions". Reciprocal peer-assisted learning as "employs same-age student pairs of
comparable ability with the primary objective of keeping both peer student and peer teacher
engaged in constructive academic activity" (Fantuzzo and Ginsburg-Block 1998, 121).
Researches have proven that a learning process using peers rather than teachers is more
effective. The best method to stimulate learning is interaction with peers (Topping, 1996)
because students assisted by peers are more active and engaged in their learning, Fitz-Gibbon
and Reay (1982), in their study on the attitudes of children to the study of French in a British
school, concluded that peer tutoring increased their motivation to learn the language.
Positive behaviours and reactions of the subjects support the view of Seng (2006) who
acknowledged that students were able to learn better when a classmate explains something
to them due to less formality and boundary that the former feels when with the teachers.
The research aims to study the roles of peer facilitators involved in this programme.
This study investigates the perceptions of both the participants and peer facilitators in
learning English in this simulated environment of the EOP and the roles the peer facilitators
had on the participants in assisting them to learn English. Specifically, the research questions
of the study are as follows:
i) From the view of participants how did the peer facilitators play their role in assisting the
students to learn English during the EOP?
42
ii) From the perspectives of peer facilitator, how did they assist the students in acquiring their
English language?
3
METHODOLOGY
This research applies a mixed method approach. It employs a mixed method convergent
parallel design which consists of two distinct phases: quantitative followed by qualitative
(Cresswell, Plano Clark, et al., 2003). The type of research design used to conduct the research
was a case study (Idris, N., 2010) Case study researches about one particular unit or sample
in a certain time only. This research is used to observe about a specific phenomenon and at
the last stage the result is used to guess about a bigger population unit on the same
phenomenon. This research uses a case study type because it focuses on all participants who
underwent English outdoor camp only and it was conducted within a specific time frame of 3
days. As the research also uses all samples in the population, the case study type was deemed
a suitable research design to control bias factors that could refrain the result of the research
from becoming invalid. In this design, researchers first collected and analysed the
quantitative (numeric) data collected from the participants of the camp. Later, the qualitative
(interview) data was collected and analysed from both the participants and facilitators to
answer the quantitative results obtained in the first phase. The second, qualitative phase was
built on the first, quantitative phase which focused on the interview that involved both the
participants and facilitators. Subsequently the two phases were connected in the
intermediate stage in the study. The rationale for this approach is that the quantitative data
and their subsequent analysis provide a general understanding of the research problem which
is to investigate the ESL teaching and learning using an outdoor simulated environment. The
qualitative data and statistical results were then refined and explained by exploring
participants’ and peers’ views in more depth (Cresswell, 2003; Rossman & Wilson, 1985;
Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998)
3.1 Sampling
The population of the studies is comprised of all the participants and peer facilitators
of the EOP. There were 68 mixed-gender students of various first degree and diploma
programmes from Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia who participated in the
programme. In addition, there were 19 students in the third year of the Bachelor of English
programme, who also from the same university were selected as peer facilitators for the
programme.
There were two categories of respondents for the study: EOP participants and peer
facilitators. In the first category, the subjects of this study were all 68 EOP participants in the
age range of 18 – 21 years old from various educational background and courses. They were
considered students with limited English proficiency based on their previous English grade in
the SPM examination. The SPM, or the Malaysian Certificate of Education examination, is a
compulsory national higher education entrance examination for all Malaysian school students
taken at the end of Form 5 after undergoing five years of secondary school education. All of
these respondents were enrolled in the first semester of the July 2011 academic session. The
breakdown of the respondents is presented in Table 1 below:
43
Table 1: Demographic Profile of Respondents
Category
N
Gender
Female
53
Male
15
Level of studies
Degree
46
Diploma
22
Percentage
77.9
22.1
67.7
32.3
The majority of the respondents were female students. Out of 68 respondents, 15
were male and 53 were female students. Almost four-fifths (77.9%) of the respondents were
female students. As for their level of studies, there were 46 (67.7%) degree and 22 (32.3%)
diploma students respectively.
The second category of respondents, the peer facilitators, is comprised of 19 students
from the Bachelor of English programme. These were students in 2nd and 3rd year of degree
programme who were selected based on their excellent command of the English language.
Upon appointment as facilitators, they underwent a course designed to train them as the EOP
facilitators
3.2 Instruments
Since this research is a mixed method approach, two different instruments were used to
collect data: questionnaire and interview. A primary survey using a detailed set of
questionnaire was administered to the participants. The questionnaire consisted of: (i)
demographic data on gender and level of study and (ii) role of facilitators (7 items). In order
to gain participants’ perception on the role of facilitators, the respondents were asked to rate
the statement items under a 4-point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
The second instrument was a structured interview. Two separate interviews were
conducted. The first interview involved 16 EOP participants, randomly chosen, representing
approximately 25% of the respondents. The interview questions mainly sought their opinions
regarding the role of facilitators in assisting them to learn English. The second interview
involved all 19 peer facilitators. They were asked questions on their role as facilitators and
how they helped improve the participants’ language skills, their opinion on activities and
whether they perceived learning English outdoor or in the classroom would be more effective.
3.3 Procedure
The present study investigated the participants’ and peer facilitators’ perceptions of
the role of facilitators had on the participants in assisting them to learn English. Data
collection contained questionnaire and interviews. The data was collected within a week of
the completion of the EOP. This was done mainly for clarity and recall purposes on the part
of the respondents in order not to jeorpadise the quality of data collected. For quantitative
data, the participants were administered the questionnaire on the last day of EOP. It took
them approximately 30 minutes to complete the questionnaire. For qualitative data, onethird of the participants were selected randomly to be interviewed to get an in-depth
explanation of their participation during the EOP. All peer facilitators of the EOP were
interviewed within seven days of the completion the programme. This procedure was
administered in order to get personal views on their roles in assisting the participants to learn
44
English. Each interview was conducted in the friendly atmosphere of the researcher’s office
and lasted between 20 and 25 minutes.
3.4 Data Analysis
In this study, data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The questionnaire was
analysed using SPSS version 16.0 for mean by using descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics
analysis was used to obtain result from research objective 1; participants’ perceptions of role
of peer facilitators in assisting the students in acquiring their English language. All findings
were tabulated using mean. Meanwhile analysis for interview was done using the thematic
coding for research objectives 2.
For the questionnaire, the mean score indicator shown in Table 4 is used to interpret and
analyse the participants’ perceptions.
Table 2: Mean Score Indicator on Perception
Mean Score
Perception Description
1.00 – 1.75
1.76 – 2.50
2.51 – 3.25
3.26 – 4.00
Very Negative
Negative
Positive
Very Positive
4 Findings
4.1 From the view of participants how did the peer facilitators play their role in assisting
the students to learn English during the EOP?
To answer this research question, the researcher based on the item extracted from the
questionnaire. Table 3 shows the respondents’ perceptions of the role of peer facilitators. The
results suggest that respondents rated their facilitators very positively in all but one aspect.
Item 5 (M=3.24) was rated as positive only. The respondents perceived Item 1 (M=3.44) most
positively.
Table 3: Perception on Peer Facilitators
N
Mean SD
1. Facilitators were supportive.
68
3.44
.70
2. Facilitators encouraged participation in all activities.
68
3.32
.68
3. Facilitators motivated participants to use English during the EOP.
68
3.28
.62
4. Facilitators were well-trained to conduct activities.
68
3.26
.66
5. Facilitators’ command of English was understandable.
68
3.24
.63
6. Facilitators were friendly.
68
3.43
.76
7. Overall, facilitators were effective in their role to assist learning.
68
3.32
.68
Overall
68
3.33
.50
To further support the how peer facilitators assisted the students in acquiring their
English language from the perspective of participants, results from interview with participants
were used. From the interview conducted on the participants, the data revealed that all the
45
respondents enjoyed learning English in this simulated environment because it gave them a
different experience to learning in the classroom. On top of that, according to them, they felt
comfortable to use the language with the peer facilitators. Furthermore, the participants
were of the view that outdoor learning is more practical as there were language activities
conducted that allowed them to enjoy using English freely especially with other participants
and also the peer facilitators. Other than that, the data revealed that most participants
regarded facilitators as someone who is helpful, approachable, friendly and supportive. They
assisted participants in completing the task assigned and at the same time correcting
participants’ mistakes in sentences and vocabulary. Peer facilitators helped them a lot in
correcting their pronunciation. Besides, according to the participants, the facilitators
enforced and ensured that English was consistently used throughout the camp. The
facilitators’ helped them in raising their confidence to use English language.
4.2 How did the peer facilitators play their role in assisting the students to learn English
during the
simulated learning environment?
In this simulated learning environment, twenty peer facilitators who consisted of the 2nd
and 3rd year undergraduates from the Faculty of Languages and Communication, UniSZA
were given the task of running the simulated learning environment. Based on the interviews
with the peer facilitators, the researchers found that the majority of the peer facilitators
understood their roles to not only help the participants improve their English language
proficiency but also enhanced the participants’ language skills, in particular their spoken
language. This is based on their responses from the qualitative data which show the peer
facilitator’s role in assisting the participants such as PF2 to motivate and support, PF5 to
facilitate, PF6 to give moral support, PF7 to create speaking environment, PF9 trigger them to
speak, PF10 to help them to feel comfortable. From another aspect, the peer facilitators
themselves gained positive benefits by being involved in the programme as mentioned by
PF1, PF3, PF9, PF10 a partner to speak English and improve pronunciation, PF3, PF12
encourage to speak in English, PF8 build self-confidence and PF15 develop own language skill.
From another point of view, the roles of peer facilitators which were considered less formal
compared to the participant’s language teachers in the classroom has also inspired the
participants to learn English (PF18), became a good listener (PF11), corrected mistake (PF15,
PF10, PF17) and also gave guidance and motivation (PF16). From another point of view,
almost all of the participants agreed that the peer facilitators were approachable, supportive,
helpful and friendly. More importantly, the participants were in total agreement that the peer
facilitators successfully carried out both positions: facilitators and peers, and this is one of the
contributing factors for the success of the programme.
5
Discussion
Based on the findings discussed earlier, in terms of the students’ perceptions on the
simulated peer facilitator, this study clearly indicates that the participants have very positive
attitudes towards their facilitators. This implies that the approach taken by UniSZA to involve
students with limited English proficiency to undergo this programme has been well-received.
The students’ very positive experience of the simulated learning environment is further
enhanced by the role the facilitators played during the programme. The participants
perceived that peer facilitators were effective in their role in assisting the learning of the
language. This is because the participants claim that they were comfortable to learn English
46
language among their own counterparts in less formal setting. This evidence is fully in line
with (Chang & Shu, 2000;Seng, 2006) that good and less formal learning environment plays a
role in the success of learning. Again, the choice of students as facilitators may have been a
factor. Findings from this study suggest that the peer facilitators have played their role
effectively to motivate, assist and guide the students. Peer facilitators also were found to be
very supportive, cooperative and friendly towards the participants. Meanwhile findings from
the interview gathered from the participants, a role as facilitator was clearly displayed by the
peer facilitator especially in assisting English Language learning especially in correcting their
grammar and also pronunciation. Thus it can be concluded participants were confidently
communicating in English with their own counterparts as supported by Pica, Lincoln-Porter,
Paninos and Linnell (1996) that such learning experience that takes place will be less formal
and lower the anxiety to communicate.
Based on the second research question addressed, it can be clearly proven from the data
gathered from the peer facilitator, they were conscious of their role as facilitator in assisting
the English language learning. Evidently, the idea of having peers acted as facilitators carrying
out their roles in ensuring English language learning in the simulated learning environment
become a big achievement. They were fully aware that their roles help not only improve the
English proficiency of the participants but also their intrinsic motivation. The peers also
managed to build up their soft skills and self-esteem due to the recognition and respect given
by the participants. Being approachable facilitators with less formality attached compared to
classroom teaching and being good listeners have created a meaningful language simulated
environment. All these factors were in line with Nambiar (2007) who stressed on less
formality and flexible approaches in language teaching at tertiary level. The findings are in
line with the study done by Paninos and Linnel (1996) which stresses that an informal setting
in learning would create greater motivating factors and give benefits to both parties - teacher
and learner. This language intrinsic motivation shows that as peers, the facilitators managed
to implement their soft skills (leadership skills) in making sure that the participants gain world
knowledge through learning English (Biyaem, 1997).
6
Conclusion and recommendation
Based on the findings, it is proven that method of language teaching and learning helps
students especially those who have low proficiency level in the language. The method
mentioned covers the environment and the facilitators involved in the learning process. Thus,
this study has given a vast contribution in promoting outdoor or simulated environment in
language learning. The simulated learning promotes active learning through direct personal
experience and offers excitement, fun and adventure within the framework of a planned
syllabus. Methods used include skills-focused learning, problem solving, team building and
self-reliant journeys and activities. The role of facilitator also gives a significant impact in
ensuring language is learned effectively with low level of anxiety. Overall, language
challenging experience outdoors impacts powerfully upon a participant’s intellectual,
physical, spiritual, social and moral development.
This study contributes clear evidence that the use of the outdoors makes a major
contribution to effective language learning especially in communicating the language. Study
has shown that participants felt comfortable in using the language especially when
communicating with both their colleagues and the peer facilitators. Hence, it can be seen that
there is also a great deal of intrinsic enjoyment and satisfaction to be experienced from
47
participation in outdoor activities. Eventually, building self-confidence and self-esteem is
fundamental to any language learner’s development.
From another point of view, the study proves that participation in exciting and enjoyable
outdoor activities with peers as facilitators reinforces a positive attitude to education and
contributes significantly to the general ethos of an institution or youth group. Direct
experience outdoors stimulates and reinforces learning across many areas of the curriculum,
and the use of the outdoors encourages young learners to take greater responsibility for their
own learning.
The study has given a meaningful guide in encouraging rich opportunities for personal and
social development through carefully structured group work in challenging situations. Trust,
care, tolerance and the willingness to give and accept support are all encouraged and antisocial behaviour is challenged. Opportunities are presented to exhibit and develop effective
inter-personal behaviour and to work co-operatively and effectively in teams.
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Code-switching in Group Interaction among Malay ESL Learners in Communicative English
Classroom: An Analysis of Speech Acts
Radika Subramaniam
General Studies Department
Polytechnic of Sultan Idris Shah, Malaysia
radika5352@yahoo.co.uk
ABSTRACT
Code-switching is one of the common phenomena which occurs in bilingual or
multilingual society. It occurs despite settings, i.e., workplace, home, classroom. Its presence
in ESL classroom is mainly as a strategy to avoid communication breakdown and a resource
for maintaining classroom interactions (Martin-Jones, 1991). This study aims to find out the
types of speech acts performed in code-switching during group interaction and the language
used to express these speech acts among Malay ESL learners in Communicative English
classroom. Additionally, the differences of language choice (of L1 which is Malay and L2 which
is English) between male and female speakers when performing these speech acts are also
revealed. The data for this study consists of tape-recordings of Malay ESL learners’ group
interaction in Communicative English classroom at Polytechnic of Sultan Idris Shah. The data
were transcribed and both quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed to interpret
the outcome. Marasigan’s (1983) framework of language functions in code-switching was
adapted and Searle’s (1976) classifications of illocutionary acts were used for data analyses.
The findings show that ‘representatives’ was the most frequently recognised speech act in
both male and female interaction followed by ‘directives’, ‘expressives’ and ‘commissives’. It
was also identified that English language is dominant in male group interaction when
expressing all the four types of speech acts while female speakers, despite using English
language in most of the speech acts utterances, a mixture of their L1 and L2 especially when
performing ‘expressives’ was found more salient. It is hoped that the results would provide
valuable insights for ESL teachers on the phenomena of code-switching in an ESL classroom.
Hence, it is recommended that creating a learning atmosphere that is not completely
49
penalising the use of L1 but promoting highly the use of L2 would be beneficial for the ESL
learners.
Keywords : code-switching, classroom interaction, speech acts, L1, L2
1 INTRODUCTION
Bilingualism or multilingualism is a phenomenon which arises all around the world
when the speakers use more than one language in communication, regardless of their
proficiency level (Grosjean, 2001). Migration and cultural context are some of the reasons for
this phenomenon to occur. This is very likely to happen when speakers of one language
“settle” in another place where a different language is being utilised and also when “a society
imports and assimilates the cultural institutions such as religion or literature” (Sridhar,
2006:48). Malaysia is one of the countries which is constituted by multilingual society. The
exposure to different languages (i.e., Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, English, etc.) in the linguistic
environment (due to some historical and economic reasons) of a speaker paves the way to
form a code-switching society (Soo, 1987; Then & Ting, 2011). The occurrence of codeswitching in the speech pattern of the bilingual / multilingual speakers is seen as an important
element that needs to be scrutinised. This is to identify the language used naturally by these
speakers to express certain acts of speech. Thus, this study is designed to find out the different
types of speech acts produced when code-switching occurs and also the choice of language
when these speech acts are performed. In addition, this study also seeks to figure out if there
are any differences between male and female speakers’ choice of language when performing
the speech acts.
1.1 Statement of Problem
Code-switching is defined as “either bilingual speakers’ or language learners’ cognitive
linguistic abilities or classroom practices involving the use of more than one language” (Nielp,
2006:1). In a multilingual nation like Malaysia, it is inevitable that code-switching occurs
whether in spoken or written discourse. There are various settings in which code-switching is
being practised; for instance, workplace, home, and classroom. Classroom is one of the
settings where the existence of this linguistic process is unavoidable. This circumstance is
most likely to happen in the language classroom when English is taught as the second
language or foreign language. In Malaysia, English is the second language and hence, it is one
of the compulsory subjects which is being taught in schools apart from the national language
(i.e., Malay / Bahasa Malaysia). Despite the situation, the use of the students’ native
languages such as Malay, Mandarin and Tamil could not be avoided in classroom interaction
even in the English language classroom. Students tend to code switch often if not using their
first language all the time in this classroom. The presence of code-switching in the English
language classroom interaction has become very common in nature. This is due to the
students’ linguistic background where they are more familiar with the forms and functions of
the native language compared to the target language. In spite of this, there is always a
question that strikes in the mind of many educators whether or not code-switching could be
allowed to be practiced in a language classroom. This is very much a reasonable question as
the use of the students’ native language (L1) in learning the target language (L2) might
interfere the acquisition of the target language (L2) (Brown, 2000; Lightbown & Spada, 2000;
Marlyna Maros et al., 2007). Code-switching is most likely to occur when the teacher gives
tasks to the students to be discussed in groups in an L2 classroom but the students use their
50
L1 for the purpose of discussion. Therefore, this study aims to identify whether or not the
same situation exists in the Communicative English classroom for the first semester students
of Polytechnic of Sultan Idris Shah. In order to meet the requirements of the industrial sector
in future, these students are supposed to equip themselves with a good command of the
English language. Students with good proficiency in English will be very much valued by the
future employers for mastering the language means keeping abreast of the knowledge of the
world. In addition, in this study the types of speech acts that can be identified in classroom
interaction and the language used to perform these acts will also be revealed. This is found
to be useful to see the patterns of code-switching which occurs in the language classroom.
1.2 Research Questions
1.2.1 What are the types of speech acts performed when code-switching occurs?
1.2.2 What is/are the language(s) used when performing these speech acts?
1.2.3 What is the difference between male and female speakers’ choice of language
when performing these speech acts?
2 OVERVIEW OF CODE-SWITCHING
Code-switching has been interpreted differently by different researchers. It is “the
stylistic alternation when a speaker changes his speech stylistically to suit different roles”
(Ervin-Tripp, 1964:13). This clearly unveils the function of code-switching as the use of one
language in different ways to convey messages. In other words, the speaker of a particular
language may simplify the terms and choice of lexical items used in order to meet the
understanding and capability of the hearer. Kachru (1978) however illustrates that codeswitching appears when speakers switch from Code A to Code B and the changes in the code
used is depending on the situations, functions and participants. Code-switching generally
means the ability to express the complete idea of a sentence by mixing two languages and
the switching can be on word, phrase, clause or even sentence level (Soh, 1984; Valdes-Fallis,
1978). This phenomenon occurs when the participants from the same linguistic repertoire
alternate between two varieties (Trousdale, 2010). Despite various definitions of codeswitching, in this study, code-switching is viewed as the capability to use two different
languages within the same speech event. This is rather vivid in bilingual situations where
respective individuals who are the participants of this study, owns L1 (mother tongue) and L2
(language acquired) in their linguistic repertoire.
Marasigan (1983) opined that the phenomenon of code-switching occurs when the
speakers feel inadequate in the preferred language used in conversation and therefore the
other participants immediately shift to the language which everybody could understand and
utilize comfortably without any hassle. One of the ways to identify whether or not codeswitching occurs in conversation is by using borrowed lexical items. The borrowing of lexical
items occurs very commonly in code-switching due to the circumstance when bilinguals do
not remember certain words in the target language when conversing (Dopke, 1992). Likewise,
bilinguals tend to code switch more frequently when a concept can be better explained using
the other language as the word fits sometimes accurately in the structure of the sentence.
Hence, code-switching is somehow or rather useful in a way that it may prevent
communication break down when communicating.
In classrooms where teachers and learners share more than one language, codeswitching is a communicative resource for managing the pressures which arise when the
teaching and learning process occurs in L2 (language that the students are expected to gain
51
competence in) (Martin-Jones, 1991). Lack of proficiency in a particular language may result
in the use of more than one language to learn a subject or content. However, it is an
advantage being in a bilingual community where learning becomes less problematic when
two languages are used in an appropriate way to digest the subject matter. ‘Equivalence’,
‘floor-holding’, ‘reiteration’ and ‘conflict control’ are four functions of code-switching found
in a language classroom (Eldridge, 1996 cited in Sert, 2005). This point of view is akin to
Trudgill (2000) who denotes that generally, speakers tend to switch code when they wish to
convey messages which are closely related to personal intentions or informal situations to
create cohesion among the speaker and hearer and to build up intimate relationship. Thus,
code-switching in the classroom is practised to achieve group solidarity and mutual
intelligibility where students are given freedom to interact with their group members in order
to solve a task. The students’ level of anxiety is mitigated as code-switching is used whenever
difficulties arise, to enrich their understanding of the content.
Studies have shown that the practice of code-switching among students in groups has
not only benefited the ESL and EFL classrooms, but the use of code-switching by the teachers
in these classrooms too has indicated positive improvements to enhance the learning process
(Badrul Hisham Ahmad & Kamaruzaman Jusoff, 2009; Bista, 2010; Gulzar, 2010; Jiangxia,
2010; Mujiono et al., 2013). Hence, this study intends to identify if code-switching occurs too
in the Communicative English classroom when students are required to hold a group
interaction to complete the task given by the teacher and to find out the speech acts
performed when the students appear to switch code as well as the language used to express
the speech act.
2.1 The Speech Act Theory
The speech act theory attempts to explain how speakers use language to accomplish
intended actions and how learners infer intended meaning from what has been said (Kasper
and Blum-Kulka, 1989). In other words, speech act would best be described as actions that
can be performed by uttering words intended by the respective speaker to an intended hearer
who would face the consequences of the act. There are three main speech acts, namely
locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act (Austin, 1962). Searle (1969) further
develops Austin’s analysis by presenting four kinds of speech acts, i.e.; utterance act,
propositional act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. Searle’s notion towards the speech
act differs in terms of locutionary act in which it is referred as the utterance act and
propositional act. On the other hand, for the illocutionary act, Searle (1976) introduces six
categories. They are ‘representatives’, ‘directives’, ‘commissives’, ‘expressives’, ‘declarations’
and ‘representative declarations’.
Speech acts are significant when analysing speech patterns due to the meaning
conveyed through the words uttered in which an action could be right away performed by
uttering certain verbs. According to Austin (1962) all the three types of speech acts mentioned
above are important in analysing speech but the illocutionary act plays the crucial role as it
determines how the utterance is to be perceived. One of the difficulties in analysing the
illocutionary act is on how to perceive the meaning of the utterance. For instance, when an
expression such as “get the salt” is uttered, it could be an order given to another person to
fulfil the needs of the speaker or it could also be interpreted as a request by someone else.
This means, despite the similarity in the choice of words and meanings, each utterance may
carry a different illocutionary force. As for that reason, Austin (1962) suggests that these
illocutionary acts are classified in their basic groups so that these utterances are easily
52
distinguished. Hence, Searle (1976) classifies the illocutionary acts into six types, as
mentioned above.
In this study, the illocutionary act that occurs during code-switching will be analysed
to see the functions served by different languages in communication. In addition, the
language which is used to perform particular speech act will also be scrutinised. The reason
for taking the speech act into consideration as one of the variables that needs to be analysed
is that the analysis may reveal the underlying reasons for using a particular language in order
to express certain functions. As it was mentioned in Soo’s (1987) study, different languages
carry different forces when certain illocutionary acts are uttered by the interlocutors. For
instance, when an utterance like ‘I sayang pada you’ is expressed, the code-switching here
takes into account the perlocutionary act (i.e., the effect that the utterance may have on the
hearer) which will draw the response from the hearer. To reiterate, this situation discloses
the culture of the interlocutors whereby for Malays, the “open expression of love” is not part
of the culture and therefore, the mixture of both the L1 (Malay) and L2 (English) perhaps
signifies a westernised image, due to the topic (Soh, 1987:4). The concept of ‘we-ness’ and
‘they-ness’ presented by Gumperz (1982) cited in Soo (1987) supports these findings to some
extent where participants may switch code to indicate speaker involvement or speaker
distance. In a separate study of code-switching among upper primary school learners, it was
found that male speakers express more declaratives whereas female speakers express more
directives in their interaction (Rajoo, 2011).
2.2 Male and Female Speech Pattern
“Dominance approach” is one of the theories describing the language of male and
female (Fishman, 1983; Holmes, 2001; Lakoff, 1975). This approach claims that the difference
in language between men and women is a consequence of male dominance and female
subordination. In other words, the language used by males is regarded as more powerful
compared to the females’ which is known as less powerful. This is due to the standard
hierarchical position in society where males resemble as the dominants while females as the
supporters for the dominants. Thus, the language used by the dominants tends to show
power by the choice of words that sometimes can be found more direct compared to the
subordinates. It was found that male speakers when uttering directive expressions are more
direct in comparison with the female speakers who are generally more indirect with
uncertainty verbs. These direct utterances by the male speakers feature “judgemental
adjectives” (i.e., It’s good to…) and “directives” (i.e., Write this down) whereas the female
speakers’ indirect style features “uncertainty verbs” (i.e., I’m not sure), “oppositions” (i.e.,
The snow must have fallen fairly but it has been a while), “negations” (i.e., It’s not a pine),
“hedges” (i.e., It’s sort of okay) and “questions” (i.e., What do you think?) (Mulac et al.,
2001:128).
In relation to code-switching, Marasigan (1979) cited in Marasigan (1983:11) identifies
that female speakers tend to switch code from the target language (English) to their mother
tongue (Pilipino) more frequently at the word level in comparison to the male speakers.
Additionally, another difference which was found is that female speakers preferred to use
Pilipino to express and find out intellectual and emotional attitudes whereas the males used
English for the former and both English and Pilipino for the latter. Other than that, it was also
identified that the female subjects preferred to use Pilipino while the males preferred to use
mixed languages (both Pilipino and English) to express and find out moral attitudes; and in
order to get things done, the female subjects were found to use mixed languages (both
53
Pilipino and English) whereas the male subjects preferred to use Pilipino. Lastly, another
findings reported that both male and female subjects preferred to use mixed languages (both
Pilipino and English) when imparting and seeking for factual information.
Previous study on inter-group code-switching (male and female participants in a mixed
group) has shown that male speakers switched code (from English to Kiswahili) more often
than female speakers when these two groups were mixed. However, female speakers
switched code more frequently when they communicated within the female group, unlike
male speakers who used English more when communicating within their group (Jagero &
Odongo, 2011). These findings are related to the Social Psychological approach to language
which means that male speakers use the “non-standard variety” (i.e., code-switching) when
interacting with female speakers as a sign of dominance whereas female speakers keep the
use of “standard variety” (i.e., without code-switching) to show their “opposition” to the
“male domination” (Giles et al., 1979 cited in Jagero & Odongo, 2011:8). On the other hand,
Rajoo’s (2011) findings although did not show any significant difference in the functions of
code-switching between Malay (L1) and English (L2) despite gender, it was identified that the
male participants code switch more frequently than the female participants.
Studies have shown that gender does indicate a difference in communication. Hence,
this study too intends to see if there is any difference in the choice of language between the
male and female participants in Communicative English classroom when expressing the
speech acts.
3 METHOD AND PARTICIPANTS
There were altogether eight subjects (inclusive of male and female participants) who
participated in this study. These subjects were divided equally into two different groups
whereby there was one group of male participants and one group of female participants. The
subjects were first semester students of Polytechnic of Sultan Idris Shah who were then
pursuing a Diploma in Electrical Engineering (Computer). These students were selected by the
researcher based on their SPM English results. The average grades obtained by these students
for their English in SPM were B3 and B4. The subjects selected in this study are from the same
ethnic background (i.e. Malay students). The reason for this is that the researcher aimed to
limit the choice of language between Malay and English.
The data was collected by tape recording. The students were not given any briefing or
information regarding the data collection for the study. As the researcher was then the
lecturer for the Communicative English course for that particular class of students, the
researcher asked the students to sit in groups of four. As mentioned above, there were two
groups selected based on their average grade. Then, the students were given a task (such as
below) to be discussed. The discussion was then tape-recorded after getting the permission
from the subjects. After the recording, the data were carefully transcribed for analysis
purposes. The data collection for this study was carried out in a language laboratory in the
General Studies Department at Polytechnic of Sultan Idris Shah, Sabak Bernam, Selangor. This
was due to the function of the language laboratory as one of the strategic places to collect
data without any distractions.
3.1 Task
One of the topics taught as the syllabus requirement for the Communicative English
course is ‘Oral Communication Skills’. Therefore, the rationale for designing the task below is
54
to meet the syllabus requirement. The students were explained on the task before performing
the discussion.
Stimulus:
The scene is at a college canteen. Some friends are discussing on what they are going
to do during the following weekend. Among the ideas they discuss are: windowshopping, going to a popular bookstore, watching a movie, going for a picnic and
visiting the zoo. Based on the stimulus given, perform a natural discussion on what are
going to be done during the weekend.
3.2 Data Analysis
After transcribing the recorded data, the utterances produced by the subjects were
classified into its respective groups of illocutionary acts. The utterances were also categorised
in terms of the choice of language used by the subjects when uttering the particular speech
act. The number of utterances according to its type as well as the language choice was traced
in both male and female groups. Then, the number was converted into percentage by
counting the number of utterances produced for the type of speech act in a particular
language and dividing it with the total number of utterances produced for that speech act.
The result is then multiplied with 100% to get the percentage of the utterances produced
based on the language choice. This calculation method was done separately for each group.
3.3 Framework of Analysis
The framework of analysis for this study is adapted from Marasigan’s (1983) study
which highlighted four major principles which are involved in analysing the discourse of codeswitching. These principles are language functions, speech acts, conversational functions and
sociocultural and individual factors. However, in this study, there is only one principle focused
in analysing the data, i.e.; the speech acts. The rationale for looking at the speech acts in
analysing the discourse of code-switching is that speech acts are useful to reveal the speakers’
intention or purpose when producing the act. This may serve as a platform to see what
purposes different languages serve for its speakers and how these speakers achieve the
purposes. As it was mentioned earlier, the classification of illocutionary acts by Searle (1976)
is used as the framework to analyse the speech pattern produced by the subjects (i.e.,
participants) during the group interaction. Although there are six categories of illocutionary
acts as identified by Searle (1976), for the purpose of this study, these six categories were
modified into five categories that are ‘representatives’, ‘directives’, ‘commissives’,
‘expressives’ and ‘declarations’. The sixth category which is ‘representative declarations’ is
collapsed into ‘declarations’ (Marasigan, 1983).
4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This section discusses the results of the analysed data by referring to the classifications
of illocutionary acts.
Figure 1 & 2: A comparison between the percentage of English, Malay and both English and
Malay mixed utterances produced by male and female subjects for ‘Representatives’ and
‘Directives’
55
A Comparison between the Percentage of English, Malay and both
English and Malay Mixed Utterances Produced by Male and Female
Subjects for Representatives
62.565.2
70
Representative
Utterances
60
50
40
30
18.8
20
8.7
10
0
26.1
18.8
English
Malay
Language Choice
Male
Female
English and
Malay
(Mixed)
Directive Utterances
70
Subjects for Directives
60
50
61.8
55.6
44.4
40
30
23.5
14.7
20
10
0
0
English
Malay
English and
Malay
(Mixed)
Language Choice
Male
Female
Figure 1 above shows the percentage of English, Malay and both English and Malay
mixed utterances produced by the male and female subjects for the speech act of
representatives. The results indicate that the speech act of representatives has mostly been
produced using English language both in male and female group interaction. There were
62.5% of the utterances performed in the male group interaction using English language
whereby this number is slightly lower than the female subjects’ utterances in this respective
language that is 65.2%. Nevertheless, another 18.8% of the utterances produced by the male
subjects and 8.7% of the female subjects’ utterances were alternatively expressed using the
subjects’ mother tongue that is Malay. At the same time, the percentage of male and female
subjects’ English and Malay mixed utterances shows 18.8% and 26.1% respectively.
This is evident that code-switching does occur when the subjects perform the speech
act of representatives. The male and female students tend to code switch in terms of sentence
level (i.e., intersentential code-switching) when using Malay language solely to express the
act in a few utterances. Likewise, code-switching in terms of word and phrase level (i.e.,
intrasentential code-switching) occurs too when both English and Malay languages are used
within the same utterance. The result indicates that English is the most preferred language
by male and female subjects in performing the speech act of representatives which means
gender does not contribute to a significant difference to the choice of language in production
of this type of illocutionary act.
Figure 2 indicates the percentage obtained for both male and female subjects’ choice
of language when performing the act of directives. This undoubtedly shows that English is the
dominant language in expressing directives as this language is used in 61.8% of the male
subjects’ utterances and 55.6% of the female subjects’ utterances. Another 14.7% and the
remaining 23.5% of the male subjects’ directive utterances were produced utilizing Malay and
also by mixing English and Malay languages respectively. Surprisingly, the female subjects
indicated 0% to Malay language when expressing this act. In other words, there was no Malay
directive utterances performed by the female subjects during the group interaction. Moving
on to the use of both English and Malay mixed utterances for female subjects, it was found
that 44.4% of the directive utterances were constructed using these two languages within an
utterance.
56
This result indicates that although English stands as the most preferred language by
the male and female subjects when performing the speech act of directives, there is indeed a
difference in the choice of language between these two groups of subjects. The female
subjects did not use their mother tongue at all for the code-switching in terms of sentence
level although they have frequently exploited both English and Malay alternatively within an
utterance. This contradicts to the male subjects who expressed at least 14.7% of the
utterances in their native language.
Figure 3 & 4: A comparison between the percentage of English, Malay and both English and
Malay mixed utterances produced by male and female subjects for ‘Commissives’ and
‘Expressives’
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Subjects for Expressives
100
69.2
70
66.7
33.3
0 0
English
Malay
Language Choice
Male Female
0
English and
Malay
(Mixed)
Expressive Utterances
Commissive Utterances
Subjects for Commissives
60
50
45.5
40
27.3
30
20
15.4
27.3
15.4
10
0
English
Malay
English and
Malay
(Mixed)
Language Choice
Male Female
From Figure 3 illustrated above, the interpretation that can be made for the choice of
language when performing the commissive acts is that, the English language has become the
most prominent language for male subjects as the utterances for this type of illocutionary act
were solely performed in English but not the other two language choices. In contrast, the
female subjects were interested in producing 66.7% of the commissive utterances using the
English language whereas another 33.3% of the utterances were constructed using the
mixture of both English and Malay. The Malay commissive utterances did not at all exist in
female group interaction. This finding denotes that there is a difference in the choice of
language used by the male and female subjects in which the male speakers chose the English
language in expressing commissive acts while English and the mixture of both English and
Malay are preferred by the female speakers.
Figure 4 signifies that English is the most preferred language by the male subjects in
performing the act of expressives. This is indicated by the percentage above that is 45.5% as
compared to 27.3% of utterances both in Malay as well as the mixture of English and Malay
languages. Moving on to the female subjects, code-switching in terms of word and phrase
level seems to be occurring frequently as the percentage of utterances using both English and
Malay languages shows 69.2%. This number is substantially higher than those of the
utterances produced using English language which is 15.4% and Malay language which is also
15.4%.
57
This result reveals that there is a difference between the male and female speakers’
choice of language when performing the act of expressives. Although the differences in choice
of language for the male subjects were not apparent, the English language seemed to be the
most preferred language. This is different for female subjects who used both English and
Malay mixed utterances alternatively as the most preferred way of expressing this speech act.
4.1 Discussion
The data analysis provided will be able to answer the entire research questions
constructed in this study. The findings are discussed as follows:
Research Question 1
In this study, there are four speech acts identified. These speech acts are
‘representatives’, ‘directives’, ‘commissives’ and ‘expressives’. ‘Representatives’ is the speech
act recognized most in both male and female group interaction. One of the reasons for this
could be that most of the utterances produced by the students are merely statements and
their opinions on where to spend their weekend. The second most uttered act is ‘directives’.
This occurs when the students ask questions to the other group members on their plans
during the weekend and also when they divide the task on what each member needs to
contribute to the plan. ‘Expressives’ holds the third rank in terms of its occurrence while
‘commissives’ is the least performed act by the subjects. ‘Expressives’ is apparent when the
students express their reactions (i.e., emotions) towards the suggestions made by their group
members whereas ‘commissives’ exists only when the students stress on things that they
volunteer to do for the plan made. The speech act of declarations is not traced in any of the
utterances. It was suggested by Searle (1976) that declarations are speech acts that affect the
world through utterance where the speakers of an utterance bring about a new situation.
Perhaps the topic which was given to the subjects affected the outcome where the interaction
among the students was more like ‘having fun’ than bringing about changes to the world.
Research Question 2
The English language is found to be the most preferred language by the subjects when
performing the act of representatives. Nevertheless, the use of Malay solely in one utterance
as well as mixing both English and Malay within an utterance could also be seen used in the
group interaction although it is not apparent. Representatives are statements in which the
speakers perform based on their beliefs about the truth of a proposition (Searle, 1976). Thus,
the speakers may find less difficulties in expressing the statements or whatever they believe
using the target language. This could be one of the reasons for the subjects for not
emphasising the native language as well as the mixture of both English and Malay languages
within an utterance of representative. The representative utterances below illustrate that
each speaker is revealing what they believe they could best do during the weekend and some
suggestion made by ‘Female A’ speaker over what can be contributed to the plan.
Male A : I think I wanna go to Mid Valley ah.
Male B : I think I want to go there because I want see some_some new release comic.
Female A : We can bring water.
58
Female C : I want to go shopping.
Discussing on the speech act of directives, once again English plays the role as the
dominant language where it is the language used most in this speech act as compared to the
other two language choices. At the same time, Malay and both English and Malay mixture do
exist as the preference for some of the utterances produced. The use of English as the
dominant language in directives signals that it is the language of power and authority (Milk,
1981). Directives are acts performed by the speaker to get the hearer to do something. As
English language is seen as the language of power (Kachru, 1986), perhaps these subjects used
English as the most preferred language in order to get things done. Some English directive
utterances found in this study is as follows:
Male B : Then for parking you all pay yourself.
Male C : What comic you want?
Female D : Do we need to buy anything?
The conversation snippet above shows that ‘Male B’ speaker performed the act of
directives when demanding that everyone should pay for the parking. ‘Male C’ and ‘Female
D’ speakers too performed directives when interrogating, which in other words, demanding
a response from the hearer.
On the other hand, the English language and both English and Malay languages are
used by the subjects when performing the act of commissives. The most prominent language
that can be seen utilized in uttering this speech act is obviously English. Unexpectedly, the
Malay language does not occur solely within any of the commissive utterances. Hancher
(1979) says the speakers are promising and guaranteeing to do the action by performing this
act. As English is regarded as the language of power and authority, the subjects tend to use
this language to commit to future actions as the modal auxiliary ‘will’ leaves an impact to the
utterance and perhaps this would remind the speakers to keep to the promises made. The
utterances below are some of the examples:
Male A : I think I think that’s better idea because I will fetch you all.
Female C : I prepare the sandwich.
Female D : I will buy water.
‘Female C’ speaker’s utterance above although does not show the presence of ‘will’,
this speaker too performed the act of commissives as she sounded committed to her future
actions (i.e., what she would like to contribute to the plan made).
Last but not least, the speech act of expressives is performed in all three types of
language choices that is English, Malay and also by mixing both English and Malay. However,
the language used most when expressing this type of illocutionary act is by mixing both
English and Malay languages which means the subjects tend to code switch more frequently
within an utterance. This situation is most likely to occur as the speakers may feel more
comfortable using both English and Malay languages within an utterance when expressing
59
their emotions towards something. This finding is however slightly different from Marasigan
(1979) cited in Marasigan (1983) where it was discovered that both male and female speakers
code switched more frequently in sentence level, especially when dealing with emotional
attitudes. Another possible reason that could be projected is; the subjects possess insufficient
vocabularies in the target language, and hence these subjects tend to mix with Malay words
religiously, to achieve group solidarity. Some expressive utterances extracted from the group
interaction are as follows :
Male A
: After buy book, you can you belanja ah <playful>
[After buying the book, you give a treat]
Female A
: The pakcik pun macam tak best je nak pergi ha.
[The uncle is also not good for us to go there]
‘Male A’ speaker’s utterance although was found to be more of performing the
act of directives at first, this speaker sounded playful and performed the utterance in a rather
joyful manner without any serious hint over the issue. Hence, this is classified as an act of
expressives. The use of ‘belanja’ which means ‘treat’ is very common in Malay culture when
communicating, especially between friends or when the interlocutors have good rapport with
one another. ‘Female A’ too underwent intrasentential code-switching when performing the
expressive act. As it is not part of the Malay culture to undermine someone in a direct way,
the expression of grudge in Malay was mixed with English words perhaps to show the distance
between the speaker and the issue which was being discussed. This finding is in line with
Gumperz’s (1982) notion on speaker involvement or speaker distance in code-switching
(Gumperz, 1982 cited in Soo, 1987).
Research Question 3
It was found that there are indeed differences in the choice of language between male
and female speakers when performing certain language functions (Marasigan, 1979 cited in
Marasigan, 1983:11). The results of this study too indicate that there are indeed a few
differences between male and female speakers’ choice of language when performing the
speech acts. For the speech act of representatives, gender does not contribute to any
differences for the language choice as English is the most preferred language for both groups.
For the act of directives, the female speakers code switched more often within an utterance
but never used Malay solely to perform directives. This is different to that of male speakers
who used the Malay language solely when expressing a few directive utterances (such as
‘Male C’ speaker’s utterance below). Moreover, intrasentential code-switching seems to be
less frequent for the male group as compared to the female group. As it was mentioned by
Marasigan (1979) cited in Marasigan (1983:11), the female speakers tend to use mixed
languages (that is mother tongue and target language) within an utterance when expressing
directive acts which require the hearer to do something as compared to the male speakers
who are more interested in using the native language. This is one of the differences found in
the choice of language between the male and female speakers when performing the speech
act of directives. Some directive utterances extracted from this study are such as follows:
60
Male C
: Nak pergi pukul berapa? (Malay Directive)
[What time are we going?]
Male A
: So you follow us je lah. (English and Malay Directive)
[So, you just follow us]
Female C
: I prepare the sandwich.
Female A
: You prepare the sandwich? (English Directive)
Female D
: So, Syafiqa, you nak gi beli what? (English and Malay
Directive)
[Syafiqa, what are you going to buy?]
The use of particle ‘lah’ in ‘Male A’ speaker’s utterance above signifies that word level
code-switching is used to entice solidarity between the interlocutors. Despite performing the
act of directive, the speaker’s use of ‘je’ and ‘lah’ (which does not carry any literal meaning),
helps the speaker to mitigate the level of imposition on the hearer. The utterance from
‘Female A’ speaker shows that the speaker is demanding a confirmation from the ‘Female C’
speaker on what she would like to contribute to the plan. The intrasentential code-switching
by ‘Female D’ as in “So, Syafiqa, you nak gi beli what?” seems to be a direct translation from
Malay expression which could be “Jadi, Syafiga, awak nak pergi beli apa?” Hence, the sudden
change of ‘what’ here instead of ‘apa’ is perhaps due to the reason that the speaker realised
that she was having a group interaction in an ESL classroom and therefore, she should
maintain her conversation using English. The mixture of Malay in this utterance is also
perhaps to lessen the imposition on the hearer on what she would like to contribute to the
plan.
At the same time, the analysis of the speech act of commissives denotes that there is
a difference in the choice of language used by the male and female subjects whereby the male
speakers choose the English language in expressing commissive act while English and both
English and Malay mixture are preferred by the female speakers. Likewise, for the speech act
of expressives, the English language seems to be the most preferred language used by the
male speakers when expressing this act. This shows a significant difference between the two
groups of subjects where female subjects use both English and Malay languages as the most
preferred languages when expressing this speech act. The differences for both the speech
acts above signify that female speakers switch code from English to Malay and vice versa more
often than the male speakers. These findings are in line with the findings obtained based on
a research in Metro, Manila where female speakers switch code more frequently than the
male speakers at the word level (which means within the same utterance) (Marasigan, 1979
cited in Marasigan 1983:11). Some utterances for commissives and expressives which were
identified in this study are given below :
Male A
: I think I think that’s better idea because I will fetch you all?
(English Commisive)
Female B
: I’ll bring keropok. (English and Malay Commisive)
[I’ll bring some crackers/snacks]
61
Male A
: = because I want I want to take look some exercise book for
‘System’. The ‘System’ is so difficult. (English Expressive)
Female A
: Ya lah.
The green tasik. (English and Malay Expressive)
[The green lake]
The dirty tasik. (English and Malay Expressive)
[The dirty lake]
Female speakers as seen above showed some interest in intrasentential codeswitching when performing commissives but more on expressives. Despite the mixture of
both languages when uttering “I’ll bring keropok”, the word level code-switching (i.e., keropok
[crackers/snacks]) does not have a significant effect on the commissive act. This is due to the
fact that, the auxiliary ‘will’ is evident in this utterance to show that English still plays a major
role in this commissive utterance. At the same time, male speakers performed English
expressives such as the example above, more often than female speakers who code switched
more at word level as in “The green tasik” and “The dirty tasik”.
According to Tannen (1990) for most women, the language of conversation is primarily
a language of maintaining rapports or a way of establishing connections and negotiating
relationships whereas men regard talk as primarily a means to preserve independence and
negotiate and maintain status in a hierarchical social order or it is also called “report talk”. As
female speakers are more interested in maintaining a good relationship with the hearer, they
tend to switch code more frequently within an utterance to achieve group solidarity.
However, this is different to that of the male speakers who use the target language more
frequently because they are particular in preserving the social status and perhaps rarely
discuss matters pertaining to personal affairs. This is parallel to Jagero & Odongo’s (2011)
findings which identified that female speakers tend to code switch more frequently when
they communicate within their group, whereas male speakers use English more in their own
group.
5 CONCLUSIONS AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
The aim of this study is to figure out the types of speech acts which occur during the
group interaction in the Communicative English classroom and the language used most to
perform these speech acts. Moreover, as there were male and female participants in two
different groups, the differences of the choice of language between these two different
gender groups were also discussed. The analyses indicate that there were four types of
illocutionary acts identified during the group interaction, i.e., ‘representatives’, ‘directives’,
‘commissives’ and ‘expressives’.
It can be concluded that the act of representatives, directives and commissives are
performed by the students of both groups mainly in English language. However, generally the
acts of expressives are expressed using the mixture of both English and Malay languages. As
expressive acts require the speakers to express their feelings or psychological state, they may
feel more confident to express their feelings or emotions towards something by using both
their native and target language. One of the reasons here could be that the students are from
the same ethnic background and therefore, feelings are shared best in the native language to
achieve group solidarity.
62
Looking into the gender variable, overall, it can be inferred that gender does
contribute to the choice of language when performing certain speech acts. For instance, in
constructing the speech act of directives, the difference found is that female speakers are
interested in switching code within an utterance by mixing English and Malay without using
the Malay language solely in any of the utterances. However, the male speakers have some
interest in using their native language when things need to be done. At the same time, the
English language has become the dominant language to the male speakers when expressing
the act of commissives and expressives. In contrast, the female speakers express commissives
in English as well as by mixing English and Malay while the acts of expressives are performed
using the mixture of English and Malay as the most preferred language choice.
It is inevitable to state that despite the occurrence of code-switching in the group
interaction among students in the Communicative English classroom, the English language is
still found as the dominant language. The result of this study shows that the male and female
students code switch only to express certain functions of language which they may find
difficult to be expressed utterly in the target language. However when the students realized
that their discussion was being recorded and observed by the teacher, they contributed to
the best of their abilities to keep using English in their group interaction.
This study to some extent has managed to explore the underlying reasons for codeswitching to occur in an ESL classroom. Although the speech acts of code-switching performed
for certain utterances illustrate mutual intelligibility and group solidarity as the reasons for
code-switching to occur, students’ English language proficiency level which is rather average
perhaps has contributed to this situation too. Lack of competence in the language perhaps
may further hamper the students’ participation in English language task which might leave a
detrimental effect on students’ overall performance in future. However, the findings of this
study would have been more comprehensive should an interview session conducted with the
students to find out the reasons for code-switching to occur quite frequently from L2 to L1.
Nevertheless, as far as it is concerned, many studies have shown promising results
when code-switching is practiced in the ESL and EFL classrooms, especially when the teachers
communicate with their students (Badrul Hisham Ahmad & Kamaruzaman Jusoff, 2009; Bista,
2010; Gulzar, 2010; Jiangxia, 2010; Mujiono et al., 2013). It is hoped that the results of this
study would provide valuable insights for ESL teachers on the phenomena of code-switching
in an ESL classroom. Should code-switching be allowed or otherwise, it highly relies on the
teachers as each classroom gives unique experience. Hence, it is recommended that creating
a learning atmosphere that is not completely penalising the use of L1 but promoting largely
the use of L2 would be beneficial for the ESL learners.
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Badrul Hisham Ahmad & Kamaruzaman Jusoff. (2009). Teachers’ code-switching in classroom
instructions for low English proficient learners. English Language Teaching, 2(2), 4955.
Bista, K. (2010). Factors of code-switching among bilingual English students in the university
classroom: A survey. English for Specific Purposes World, 9(29), 1-19.
Brown, H.D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). New York:
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Fishman, P. (1983). Interaction: The work women do. In Thome, C. Kramarae & N. Henley
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Grosjean, F. (2001). Life with two languages: An introduction to bilingualism. USA: Harvard
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Gulzar, M.A. (2010). Code-switching: An awareness about its utility in bilingual classrooms.
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Jiangxia, L. (2010). Teachers’ code-switching to the L1 in EFL classroom. The Open Applied
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Kachru, B. (1978). Code-switching as a communicative strategy in India. The Hague: Mouton.
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Kasper, G. and Blum-Kulka, S. (1989). Interlanguage pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University
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Grammatical errors in English essay among rural Malay secondary school students in
Malaysia. Jurnal e-Bangi, 2(2), 1-15.
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classroom. California Association for Bilingual Education: Research Journal, 2(2), 1126.
Mujiono, Poedjosoedarmo, S., Subroto, E., & Wiratno, T. (2013). Code-switching in English as
foreign language instruction practiced by the English lecturers at universities.
International Journal of Linguistics, 5(2), 46-65.
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hypothesis: An intercultural analysis of male/female language differences. Human
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Master’s Thesis, University of Malaya.
Searle, J. (1969). Speech acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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10(8). Retrieved from: http://iteslj.org/Articles/Sert-CodeSwitching
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Applied Linguistics.
Psychometric Properties of the Online Survey of Reading Strategies (OSORS)
Zailani Jusoh
Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin Terengganu Malaysia
zailani@unisza.edu.my
ABSTRACT
With the advent of technology, online reading has become an essential skill for most
individuals especially students. In order to measure strategies commonly used when reading
online, an instrument named Online Survey of Reading Strategies (OSORS - Anderson, 2003)
is widely employed to serve the purpose. However, no known studies to date have ever
attempted to validate its structure. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate
the psychometric properties of the instrument using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and
to find out whether the instrument is gender invariant. 163 diploma and degree students
from a public university in Malaysia participated in the study. The findings indicated that
OSORS is actually a four-factor model. Limitations to the study were discussed and
recommendations were included.
1 INTRODUCTION
Metacognition which is the “ability of learners to be aware of and monitor their
learning process” (Peters, 2000) is an important predictor of performance in learning (O’Neil
& Abedi, 1996). Thus, it is crucial for students to master this skill to succeed academically.
However, since metacognition is a very complex construct to measure, a number of
instruments have been developed to operationalise it. One such instrument developed to
measure the metacognitive knowledge among adolescent and adult ESL readers when
reading online academic materials in English is the Online Survey of Reading Strategies
(OSORS) (Anderson, 2003). The instrument is adapted from previously developed scales
65
called Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) and Metacognitive Assessment of Reading
Strategies Inventory (MARSI). Both SORS and MARSI are based on multiple theories like
reader response theory and schema theory.
1.1 Studies on the reliability of OSORS
Theoretically, since OSORS is an adaptation of SORS, the structure of OSORS is
assumed to be similar to that of SORS (Anderson, 2003) which consists of three broad
categories of reading strategies namely global reading strategies, problem solving strategies
and support strategies. Both OSORS and SORS are widely and frequently used instruments to
measure students’ strategy use in different learning environments as OSORS was designed
for online reading while its counterpart, SORS is developed for measuring strategies utilized
when reading printed text.
Just like many other self reported instruments which are highly context, text, and goal
dependent (Hadwin, Winne, Stockley and Nesbit, 2001), the use of OSORS is also subjected
to these elements. For these reasons, many studies have been conducted using OSORS across
different cultures like Turkish (Genc, 2011), Malaysian (Ramli, Darus, & Bakar, 2011), Thai
(Jaengsaengthong, 2007; Pookcharoen, 2009) as well as across different languages from
English ( Anderson, 2003; Poole, 2005) to Chinese (Yi & Pei, 2013).
However, these studies merely reported the internal reliability of the OSORS (which
was found to be a reliable scale) and the frequency and the type of strategy used. Although
reliability is one of the criteria used to measure the quality of a scale, validity is also an
important aspect to consider. Despite the importance of establishing validity of an
instrument, to date, there has been no known study conducted to actually test its structure
empirically.
Thus, this study was undertaken to investigate this aspect. A written consent was
obtained from the author before the instrument was used.
1.2 Purpose of the study
The primary objective of the study was to empirically investigate construct validity of
the OSORS in a different context. In addition, it also intended to evaluate gender invariant
of the OSORS model.
2 METHODOLOGY
2.1 Participants
Students enrolling in various programs were invited to participate in this study.
Initially, 210 questionnaires were distributed but only 186 were returned. After the data was
cleaned, a number of respondents had to be removed. Table 1 below describes the
demographic background of the respondents.
N
%
FBK
FIT
FKI
FPPP
83
19
25
36
50.9
11.5
15.8
22.1
Gender
Male
52
31.9
Faculty
66
Female
Level of studies
Diploma
Degree
111
68.9
122
51
68.7
31.3
Table 1: Demographic information of the respondents
2.2 Instrumentation
OSORS
OSORS is a self reported questionnaire designed to measure metacognitive knowledge
of online reading strategies among learners at college level. The instrument which consists
of 38 items is answered on a 5 point Likert scale response ranging from never to always.
However, for this study, 2 items were removed, leaving the scale with 36 items. It is divided
into three factors: global strategy (16 items), problem solving strategy (11 items) and support
strategy (9 items). The position of the items was reordered to facilitate data analysis. The
procedure suggested by the author in administering and scoring the instrument was adhered
to.
2.3 Data Analysis
Since the instrument is an established scale, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using
AMOS version 16 with maximum likelihood estimation was performed in the data analysis.
Based on the theoretical structure, the hypothesized model consisted of three subscales.
Several steps were taken in ensuring the analysis followed the necessary procedure. They
include determining the model specification, performing estimation technique (using
maximum likelihood procedure) as well as assessing the adequacy of the model by looking at
the Fit statistics and parameter estimates.
In addition, measurement invariance was tested across gender. In testing gender
invariant, a simultaneous analysis was performed on both male (n=52) and female (n=111)
respondents without constraining the model to obtain baseline figures. Then, the model was
constrained to be equal for both genders. The results from these two analyses were then
compared for statistically significant differences.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
3.1.1 Measurement model
The three dimensions were tested together in a measurement model. Both the fit
statistics (χ2 = 1026.834, df= 591, p = 0.000, CFI = 0.737, and RMSEA = 0.067) and parameter
estimates (with many of the loadings shown to be below 0.5) indicated an unacceptable
model (Byrne, 2010). In addition, the covariance values were very high for global and support
(0.84). This suggested the existence of multicollinearity problem between the two factors.
Hence, the hypothesized model (Figure 1) was then rejected as it did not fit the observed
data.
Figure 1: The hypothesized model for OSORS
67
1
a1
1
a2
1
a3
1
a4
1
1
a5
1
a6
1
a7
1
a8
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
a9 a10 a11 a12 a13 a14 a15 a16
glob
1
1
supp
c29 e17
1
c30 e18
1
c31 e19
1
c32 e20
1
c33 e21
1
c34 e22
1
c35 e23
1
1
c28
e37
prob
1
b17 b18 b19 b20 b21 b22 b23 b24 b25 b26 b27
1
1
1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
e36 e35 e34 e33 e32 e31 e30 e29 e28 e27 e26
Thus, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed to examine the factor structure
of the instrument. Based on the output, four factors were extracted. These four factors were
expanded from the original three. The new factors (F1 and F2) were extracted from Global
strategies, while F3 and F4 were retained from “Problem Solving and Support Strategies”.
Table 3 summarizes the EFA analysis for the individual items. The total variance explained by
these four factors is 0.539. This means that the three factors explained 53.9% of the variance
in the model. EFA factor loading range from 0.523 to 0.804.
Table 3: Summary of Factor Analysis loadings
CONSTRUCT
NO
ITEMS
EFA
loadings
a3
I take an overall view of the online text to see
0.620
what it is about before reading it.
I use table, figures and pictures in the online
0.523
text to increase my understanding.
I use typographical features like bold face and
0.747
italics to identify key information.
I critically analyse and evaluate the
0.793
information presented in the online text
F1
a8
a10
a11
F2
a5
a12
a13
I read the online text first by noting its
characteristics like length and organization.
I check my understanding when I come across
new information.
I try to guess what the content of the online
text is about when I read
0.707
0.558
0.804
68
a14
a15
F3
b18
b19
b20
b23
b24
I check to see if my guesses about the online
text are right or wrong
I scan the online text to get a basic idea of
whether it will serve my purposes before
choosing to read it.
I try to get back on track when I lose
concentration.
I adjust my reading speed according to what I
am reading on line.
When on line texts become difficult, I pay
close attention to what I am reading.
When on line texts become difficult, I reread
it to increase my understanding.
When I read online, I guess meaning of
unknown words or phrases.
0.651
0.575
0.769
0.544
0.737
0.789
0.517
F4
c28
c29
c31
c32
I take notes while reading online to help me
understand what I read.
When online text becomes difficult, I read
aloud to help me understand what I read.
I use reference materials (eg online dictionary)
to help me understand what I read online.
I paraphrase (restate ideas in my own words)
to better understand what I read online.
-0.712
-0.687
-0.608
-0.650
Figure 2: Scree Plot for the OSORS
69
The Scree plot showed in Figure 2 indicated the number of components extracted
from the analysis. It showed the existence of four components based on rules recommended
by Jolliffe (2002) which supported the findings obtained from previous analysis.
The factor component was then tested using CFA. The results from CFA (Figure 3)
showed that the factor loadings for all the items were strong as the values are all above 0.5.
This shows that all the items are significant to the construct (Hair et al., 1995). Based on the
goodness of fit statistics obtained, the following values : χ2 = 152.34, df = 129, p = 0.079, CFI
= .968, and RMSEA = .033 were observed. In determining whether a model is acceptable or
not, Hu & Bentler (1999) recommended the following values: CFI value of more than 0.90,
RMSEA of 0.06 or less. Thus, based on the above criteria, the obtained results fall into a good
level which suggests that the 18-item model is now a better fitting model.
Figure 3: Revised OSORS measurement model
70
cmin =152.338
df =129
p =.079
cfi =.968
rmsea =.033
.26
F1
.51
.53
.71
.68
a3
.29
e1
a8
.50
e2
a10.46
e
a11
3
e
4
.28
.53
.43
e5
a12 .44
e6
a13.3 8
e7
a14.3 8
e8
a15
e9
a5
F2
.46
.61
.53
.65
.67
.62
.62
.44
.68
.67
.52
.49
F3
.79
b18.27
e10
b19 .49
e11
b20.62
e12
b23.39
e13
e14
b24
.61
F4
.54
.66
.57
.60
.29
c28.43
e15
c29 .32
e16
c31.36
17
c32 e
e18
3.2.4. Relationship among the variables of the revised OSORS model
As indicated in Figure 3 above, the relationship among the variables of the OSORS is
good as indicated by the covariance values, which fall within the acceptable range (between
0.2 and 0.8). The values between F1 and F2, F1 and F3, F1 and F4, and F2 and F3, F2 and F4,
F3 and F4 are 0.53, 0.46, 0.61, 0.68, 0.49, and 0.61, respectively. This shows that they are
moderately correlated. These values also indicated that the factors have good discriminant
validity (Zainuddin, 2013).
3.2.3 Reliability of the revised instrument
Reliability coefficient for the revised instrument was measured for overall and
individual construct to examine its internal reliability consistency. The alpha values of overall
and individual factors are presented in Table 2 below. It can be seen that all the alpha values
are above 0 .60. Hair et al (1995) mentioned that “values of .60 to .70 deemed the lower limit
of acceptability” is an indication that the instrument is reliable for the observed data.
Therefore, in this study, the revised OSORS is found to be a reliable instrument as it has good
internal consistency.
71
Table 3: reliability coefficient for the revised instrument
Construct
Cronbach’s alpha
Overall
F1
F2
F3
F4
0.86
0.66
0.75
0.79
0.68
3.2.4. Gender invariance
As one of the purposes of the study was to investigate the equivalence of the
measurement model across gender, Table 3 presents the results of the analysis. The chi
square difference between baseline model and constraint model is not significant (NS), (∆χ2 =
9.43; df =13, p > .005). In other words, the difference in the chi square value did not produce
a worse off model. The matrix of both groups is said to be identical.
Table 4: Equivalence of factor structure of OSORS across gender
Model
χ2
Baseline (Configural 361.57
Invariance)
Constraint (Scalar 371.00
Invariance)
Df
258
p value
Invariant
271
0.740
Yes
4 CONCLUSION
The outcome of the analysis shows that the factor structure for the instrument which
was previously hypothesized to consist of 3 factors is now shown to be reported by four
factors with 18 items. These four factors were achieved after rigorous EFA and CFA were
conducted. The findings regarding whether or not the instrument was invariant to gender
had indicated that gender is not a moderating variable. In other words, the instrument is not
gender biased, thus suitable for both genders.
Researchers differ in defining and classifying learning strategies in general (Oxford and
Cohen, 1992). Oxford (1990) for example, came out with an instrument containing six factors
while Rubin (1981) categorized them into two. O Malley and Chamot (1990) on the other
hand, divided the strategies into three. The same explanation could possibly be used to help
understand the underlying reason in the field of reading, although it could not be verified as
not many scales that measure reading strategies specifically are available.
As this is perhaps the first attempt taken in validating OSORS, caution should be
exercised when interpreting the results. As samples are always an issue in performing EFA
and CFA, limitations with regards to the issue are highlighted below. First of all, the sample
size in the study fell short of the minimum requirement to conduct CFA and EFA
recommended by many (Stevens, 2002; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007) although Hair et. al. (1995)
accepted 100 as the minimum number for EFA. Another shortcoming also relates to the
72
disproportion of sample size in terms of ratio of male to female. In many universities in
Malaysia, female students outnumber male students by 2:1. This is a common phenomenon
existing in many universities in Malaysia. When conducting invariance analysis, ideally similar
size groups should be used but in cases when they are not, interpretations should take this
issue into account (Brown, 2006). A third limitation deals with the samples used in the study.
The respondents were from one public university only whereby one ethnic background is
more dominant. It may not be representative of student population in different institutions
with a more heterogenous ethnic background.
Having discussed the above limitations, we therefore would like to recommend the
following. Firstly, studies need to be conducted using a bigger sample size to ensure better
and reliable results. Another recommendation is, samples from different institutions should
be collected to enable conclusive findings to be made. Lastly, more studies should be
conducted using samples from other cultural and educational background so that
comparisons can be made.
REFERENCE
Anderson, N. J. (2002). The Role of Metacognition in Second/Foreign Language Teaching and
Learning. ERIC Digest. <www.cal.org/ericcll/digest/0110anderson.html
Anderson, N (2003). Scrolling, Clicking, And Reading English: Online Reading Strategies In A
Second/Foreign Language. The Reading Matrix, Vol.3. No.3, 1-33.
Byrne, B (2010). Structural Equation Modeling with Amos. Basic concepts, applications and
programming. Multivariate Application series.
Genc, H. (2011). Paper and Screen: Reading Strategies Used by Low-Proficient EFL Learners.
Sino-US English Teaching, Vol. 8, No. 10, 1-11.
Hadwin, A. F., Winne, P. H., Stockley, D. B., Nesbit, J. C., & Wosczyna, C. (2001). Context
moderates students’ self-reports about how they study. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 93, 477-487.
Hair, J., Anderson, R., Tatham, R. & Black, W. (1995). Multivariate Data Analysis 4 th ed. New
Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Hu, L. & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis:
Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1-55.
Jaengsaengthong, W. (2007). The study of online reading strategies of graduate students
majoring in English at Naresuan University. Unpublished MA thesis. Naresuan
University.
Jolliffe, I. (2002). Principal Component Analysis. 2 nd ed. Springer: Berlin
Mokhtari, K., & Reichard, C. A. (2002). Assessing students’ metacognitive awareness of
reading strategies. Journal of Educational Psychology 94, 249-259.
Mokhtari, K., & Sheorey, R.(2002). Measuring ESL students’ awareness of reading strategies.
Journal of Developmental Education 25, 2-10.
O Malley, J. & Chamot, A. (1990). Learning Strategies in second language acquisition.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O Neil, H. & Abedi, J. (1996). Reliability and Validity of a state metacognitive inventory:
potential for alternative assessment. National Center for Research on Evaluation,
Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST).
Oxford, R. & Cohen, A. (1992). Language Learning Strategies: Crucial Issues of concept and
classification. Applied Language Learning, 3 (1-2), 1-35.
73
Oxford, R. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Boston:
Heinle.
Pallant, J (2007). SPSS Survival Manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS for
Windows. 3 ed. McGraw Hill Open University Press: NY
Pookcharoen, S.(2009). Metacognitive Online Reading Strategies Among Thai EFL University
Students. Unpublished Phd thesis. Indiana University.
Poole, Alexander (2005). Gender differences in reading strategy use among ESL college
students. Journal of College Reading and Learning, Volume: 36 (1).
Peters, M. "Does Constructivist Epistemology Have a Place in Nurse Education?" Journal of
Nursing Education 39, no. 4 (April 2000): 166-170.
Ramli, N. F. M., Darus, S., & Bakar, N. A. (2011). Metacognitive Online Reading Strategies of
Adult ESL Learners Using a Learning Management System. Theory and Practice in
Language Studies, 1(3), 195–204. doi:10.4304/tpls.1.3.195-204
Rubin, J. (1981). Study of cognitive processes in second language learning. Applied Linguistics
2, 117- 131.
Sheorey, R. & Mokhtari, K. (2001).Differences in the metacognitive awareness of reading
strategies among native and non-native readers. System 29, 431-449.
Tabachnick, B., & Fidell, L. (2007). Using Multivariate Statistics. Boston: Pearson Education
Inc.
Yi, Lu Kuo & Pei, Shan Yu (2013). Online Reading Strategy Use among Advanced American
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http://ocac.go2school.com.tw/icice2013/PDF_Full/Academic/Academic_Full_A39.pdf
Investigating cross-border Xitsonga or Xichangana orthography: disjunctive versus
conjunctive writing
Paul Hendry Nkuna
Department of African Languages
University of South Africa
nkunaph@unisa.ac.za
ABSTRACT
Xitsonga can be regarded as a cross-border language because its speech communities
are found in South Africa–Mozambique border, South Africa–Swaziland border and South
Africa–Zimbabwe border. The focus of this paper is on the Xitsonga or Xichangana of South
Africa–Mozambique border. The disjunctive or conjunctive writing of Xitsonga or Xichangana
of South Africa or Mozambique is the problem that prompted this study. A case study method
was used to investigate the rationale behind the use of disjunctive or conjunctive writing in
the Xitsonga or Xichangana of South Africa or Mozambique. The study found that the
Vatsonga-speaking groups had inhabited Southern Mozambique for centuries, but outside
interventions by Nguni-speakers from KwaZulu-Natal and contact with Europeans have
affected the region’s ethnic map. A study by Mary Bill reveals that above and beyond the
interventions, information on Xitsonga or Xichangana is found in the records of the Jesuit
priest, Andre Fernandes, which were written in 1560 and in the records of the survivors of
the many Portuguese shipwrecks and the list of Dr WM Peters, on which WHI Bleek relied for
74
the "vocabulary of the language of Lourenzo-Marques in his publication of his material in The
Languages of Mosambique that was published in 1856. The disjunctive or conjunctive
orthography of Xitsonga or Xichangana of South Africa or Mozambique was the result of the
Swiss missionaries, the Church of the Nazarene and the Lebombo Mission of the Anglican
Church in Mozambique. They produced three different types of orthography when translating
the bible. This is the major problem still troubling the Xitsonga or Xichangana orthography
even today.
Keywords: conjunctive; Cross-border Language; orthography; disjunctive; Xichangana;
Xitsonga
Introduction
Vocabulary.com (2012) indicates that ‘conjunctive’ is an uninflected function word that
serves to conjoin words or phrases or clauses or sentences; in contrast, disjunctive refers to
serving or tending to divide or separate words or phrases or clauses or sentences. This paper
reports a case study that investigated the disjunctive or conjunctive writing of Xitsonga or
Xichangana of South Africa or Mozambique. Data from WHI Bleek of the language of
Lourenzo-Marques, conjunctive writing from Xichangana orthography of Mozambique, and
disjunctive writing from Xitsonga orthography were examined. The case study was guided by
some important thoughts on orthography of African languages, such as “the more the number
of Africans who can read and write their mother tongue increases, and the more books,
newspapers, and magazines are printed in Africa, the more pressing becomes the necessity
of introducing a good, legible system for writing these languages wherever it is lacking
(Meinhof & Jones 1928:228). This challenges the disjunctive or conjunctive writing of Xitsonga
or Xichangana of South Africa or Mozambique. It means that a Mozambican Xichanganaspeaking person experiences problem to read a Xitsonga book, newspaper or magazine
written and published in South Africa because of dissimilarities in orthography. A South
African Xitsonga –speaking person also experiences similar problem. Above and beyond the
disjunctive, Xitsonga writing in South Africa and conjunctive Xitsonga orthography in
Mozambique, Ribeiro (2010:19) confirms that “the variations in the orthography of the
various forms of Xitsonga-Shangaan spoken on both sides of the South Africa or Mozambique
border also have complex roots, both in the colonial era and in the independent practices of
the postcolonial South African and Mozambican states”. The content of this paper comprises
introduction, methodology, the case study: Xitsonga conjunctive versus disjunctive Xitsonga
orthography, discussion and conclusion.
METHODOLOGY
A case study has been used in this study to examine the possibility of harmonising the
disjunctive or conjunctive writing of Xitsonga or Xichangana of South Africa or Mozambique
in order to produce a standardised orthography for the South Africa–Mozambique crossborder language. A case study is chosen in this study because the separation of Xitsonga or
Xichangana is a unique problem to be researched. Also, it provides much more detailed
information and helps to present data collected from multiple methods. It covers various
aspects: problem, steps undertaken to address the problem, results, challenges, beyond
results and lesson learned.
THE CASE STUDY: XITSONGA CONJUNCTIVE VERSUS DISJUNCTIVE ORTHOGRAPHY
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The problem
Problem identification: Some participants of the workshop organised by Huvo ya Rixaka
ya Ririmi ra Xitsonga (HURIRIXI) – the Xitsonga National Language Body – held at Tusk Hotel
in Tzaneen, Limpopo Province, South Africa, in 2005 to finalise a Pan South African Language
Board (PanSALB)’s project of Xitsonga Spelling and Orthography, were opposed to a change
into conjunctive orthography. Specifically, those participants felt that changing into Xitsonga
conjunctive orthography will weaken the history of Xitsonga orthography in South Africa. In
addition, they felt that the replacement of the accepted Xitsonga disjunctive orthography by
conjunctive orthography is linguistically wrong, and it requires systematic research.
Significance of the problem: The development of a common disjunctive or conjunctive
writing system is an important part of cross-border Xitsonga orthography, in addition to
Xitsonga language use and status. Addressing historical and linguistic concerns and objections
of some participants at the HURIRIXI workshop in order to incorporate disjunctive or
conjunctive orthography based on consensus greatly expands standardisation effort of
Xitsonga orthography and offers greater breadth and depth in the development and
promotion of Xitsonga.
Process: Conjunctive orthography is not integrated in Milawu ya Mapeletelo na
Matsalelo ya Xitsonga – 2008, loosely translated as Xitsonga Spelling and Orthography Rules
– 2008, published by PanSALB. What is likely missing and required is the exploration of the
details around this problem of the disjunctive or conjunctive orthography of South Africa or
Mozambique’s branches of the cross-border language. In the case of PanSALB’s project of
Xitsonga Spelling and Orthography, two scholars from University of Eduardo Mondlane in
Mozambique, Professor B Sitoe and Mr F Chimbutana were invited to present papers on
disjunctive or conjunctive orthography in the first workshop held at Oasis Lodge in
Polokwane, Limpopo Province, South Africa on 22 November 2004. It was revealed, during
presentations by the two scholars, that conjunctive writing is used in the Xichangana of
Mozambique in contrast to disjunctive writing used in the Xitsonga of South Africa. The
primary reason given in the presentation was linguistic science. Another reason that was
identified but not explicitly stated was that of colonial stigma.
Process effectiveness: After discussions among the HURIRIXI workshop participants, it
was determined that some participants had concerns based on a lack of scientific research
efforts by South African researchers regarding disjunctive or conjunctive of the cross-border
language orthography, particularly scientific findings from South Africa. Furthermore,
discussions revealed that a number of participants had limited and/or erroneous information
regarding the relationship of Mozambique and South Africa branch of Cross-border
orthography.
Steps undertaken to address the problem
In the case of a comprehensive response to disjunctive or conjunctive writing for South
Africa or Mozambique branch of the cross-border language, the following steps were
undertaken to address the problem:
Step 1: Investigation: The investigation had focused on two aspects leading to
disjunctive or conjunctive writing of South Africa or Mozambique branch of the Cross-border
language. The first aspect links to the investigation of the cross-border language complexities
and orthography. Activities in this aspect of investigation involved reviewing literature to
demonstrate complexities, especially hullabaloo on the name of the cross-border language in
this study and the orthography thereof. Reading was done from various sources to supply
76
arguments and quotes from the sources to build evidence-based argument to convince the
cross-border language-speakers that there was, in fact, a historical basis to conclude that
there is a common or uncommon root between the cross-border language spoken in
Mozambique and South Africa. The second aspect links to the investigation of the pioneers
of cross-border language and orthography. Activities in this investigation involved reviewing
literature to outline the pioneers who contributed to Xitsonga or Xichangana orthography to
demonstrate to South Africa or Mozambique Xitsonga or Xichangana speakers the first
writings of the cross-border language. Reading was done to supply quotes from various
sources to build evidence-based argument to convince Xitsonga or Xichangana speakers that
there was in fact a pioneer’s basis to conclude that there is a relationship or a contrast
between Xitsonga or Xichangana orthography.
Step 2: Assessment: The assessment had focused on two different aspects leading to
disjunctive or conjunctive writing of Xitsonga or Xichangana for South Africa or Mozambique
branch of Cross-border language. The first aspect links to the assessment of the cross-border
language and orthography. Activities in this assessment involved the findings on the
investigation of the cross-border language and orthography. It involves an analysis and
interpretation of the cross-border language and orthography findings and their impact on
disjunctive or conjunctive orthography for South Africa or Mozambique branch of the crossborder language. The second aspect links to the assessment of the pioneers of cross-border
language and orthography. Activities in this assessment involved the findings on the
investigation of the pioneers of cross-border language and orthography. It involves an analysis
and interpretation of the pioneers of cross-border language and orthography, findings and
their impact on disjunctive or conjunctive writing of the South Africa or Mozambique branch
of the cross-border orthography.
Results
The investigation and assessment activities resulted on revealing complexities on the
cross-border language, records of the vocabulary of the language of Lourenzo-Marques that
was mainly conjunctive, standardisation of Xitsonga or Xichangana orthography, and Xitsonga
or Xichangana disjunctive or conjunctive writing differ on verb forms.
Challenges and how they were met
One of the challenges in working in this project is pseudoscience dominating the study
of indigenous African languages. It is unlike in the 19th century where the problem of finding
a practical and uniform method of writing African languages had aroused widespread interest,
and that the efforts of the institute towards the solution of the problem had met considerable
response (IIALC Memorandum I 1927). Another possible challenge is the problems of
generalising that the orthography of the cross-border language branch in South Africa is
disjunctive. For instance, suggested format for each of the examination papers for Grades 10
to 12 in South Africa’s basic education is on disjunctive and conjunctive orthography.
Disjunctive orthography includes the following languages: Afrikaans, English, Sepedi, Sesotho,
Setswana, Tshivenda and Xitsonga. Conjunctive orthography includes the following
languages: IsiNdebele, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu and Siswati (South Africa DoE 2008:15). This requires
additional attention.
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Beyond Results
An integrated approach to study disjunctive or conjunctive Xitsonga or Xichangana
orthography to harmonise South Africa or Mozambique branch of the cross-border language
should be created to enable the project environment with strong cross-border language
speakers and stakeholder support that can be nurtured and leveraged beyond the project
duration.
Lessons learned
The experience showed that it was imperative for project leaders and staff like that of
HURIRIXI to have a very solid understanding of the problem facing indigenous languages
practical orthography in general and the problem facing the cross-border language practical
orthography in particular and to speak about these issues with Xitsonga speakers and key
stakeholders. In addition, it was important to have a good understanding of the various
complexities that faced Xitsonga in the history of its development in addition to its present
status in Mozambique and South Africa.
DISCUSSION
The discussion focuses on the results of the investigation and assessment. The
discussion on investigations focuses on the meaning of cross-border language in this study
and the development of its orthography. So, the discussion on assessment is Xichangana
versus Xitsonga orthography.
The meaning of cross-border language and the development of its orthography
This section consists of two parts: the meaning of cross-border language and the
development of cross-border language’s orthography.
The meaning of cross-border language
Table 1 introduces the cross-border languages of Southern Africa, where Mozambique
and South Africa belong.
Table 1: Cross-border languages of Southern Africa
Cross-border languages
Countries where spoken
Afrikaans
South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland
Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi
Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi
Herero
Namibia, Botswana, Angola (negligible in the latter)
Kwanyama
Angola, Namibia
Lozi
Zambia, Namibia
Nama Khoekhoegowab
Nguni cluster
Namibia, Botswana, South Africa
South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland,
Zimbabwe
Sotho–Tswana cluster
South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe
Tonga–Tsonga
Mozambique, South Africa,
Zimbabwe
Venda
South Africa, Zimbabwe
Source: Adapted from Elugbe (1998) by Ndhlovu (2013:28)
Malawi,
Lesotho,
Zambia,
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Ohinata (2002:23) says “it must be stressed at the outset that the term ‘Tsonga’ is
elusive and problematic”. This argument is supported by the views cited by Ndhlovu in Table
1 above, where Tonga-Tsonga is identified as one cross-border Language of Mozambique,
South Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Zerbian (2007:65) maintains that the alternate
names of Xitsonga language of South Africa are “Tsonga, Thonga, Tonga (not to be confused
with the Tonga spoken in Zambia and Malawi)”. Elugbe cited by Ndhlovu confused the Tonga
in South Africa or Mozambique with the Tonga spoken in Zambia and Malawi. Essentially,
“there is no consensus on classification and cultural relationships, particularly on whether the
Ronga (or Rjonga) should be classified as Tsonga and whether the Chopi group is a separate
entity. The situation is further confused because there is much terminological disagreement”
(Ohinata 2002:23). Today’s ethnographers identify varieties of the cross-border language as
outlined in Table 2 below.
Table 2: The three varieties of the Cross-border language in four countries
Cross-border
Mozambique
South Africa
Swaziland
language
varieties
Ronga
√
√
X
Tsonga
√
√
√
Tswa
√
√
X
Source: Adapted from (Paul et al, 2013)
Zimbabwe
X
√
√
The symbol (√) represents the presence of a specific cross-border language variety in
a specific country. In contrast, the symbol (x) represents the absence of each variety in the
four countries. Note that Mozambique and South Africa each have three varieties. However,
the location of Tswa in South Africa is invisible in the map,provided by the ethnographers.
They indicated that there are 20,000 population of Tswa variety in South Africa (2006), which
is classified as Central, S, Tswa-Ronga (S.51). The location of Ronga in South Africa is in
KwaZulu-Natal and the population as in 2006 was 1000; it is classified as Central, S, TswaRonga (S.54). Ronga and Tswa are dominants varieties in Mozambique, with 721,000 and
1,160,000 as in 2006 respectively. In Mozambique, Ronga is classified as Central, S, TswaRonga (S.54) as that of South Africa and located in South of Maputo Province on the coast,
closer to Kwazulu-Natal. Tswa is located South, most of Inhambane Province and classified as
Central, S, Tswa-Ronga (S.51) like that of South Africa. Tonga exists as a language variety in
both Mozambique and Zimbabwe, but it does not belong to the cross-border language
discussed in this study. It is stated by the ethnographers that Tonga from Mozambique is
different from Tonga [tog] of Malawi and Tonga [toi] of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Similarly, the
Tonga of Zimbabwe is different from Tonga [tog] of Malawi, Tonga [toh] of Mozambique, or
Tsonga (Tonga) [tso] of Mozambique. Hence, Tonga cannot form part of cross-border
language with Tsonga. Mabaso (2003:1) says “various scholars have classified Xitsonga
(generally referred to without the prefix Xi-, hence Tsonga).” Essentially, Swiss missionary
ethnographer Henri Alexander Junod called the Tsonga, ‘Thonga’, but in 1938, his son Henri
Phillip Junod stated that the group should be ‘Tonga’ and not ‘Thonga’, while in 1991, an
anthropologist David Webster used ‘Thonga’ to refer to the people and ‘Tsonga’ for their
language. Stoe, Chimbutana, Mabaso, Nkuna, Nxumalo and Hlungwani (2003) maintain: “The
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term ‘Tsonga’ has been used by scholars to designate both a whole language group (S50),
namely Tshwa (S.51), Tsonga-shangaan (S.53) and Ronga (S.54), and one of the languages.
The cross-border language (S.53) is referred to by the term Xitsonga in South Africa, but in
Mozambique people refer their language to the term Xichangana. They use the term ‘Tsonga’
to designate the whole language”.
Vocabulary of the language of Lourenzo-Marques that was mainly conjunctive
Bill (1984) wrote about 100 years of Tsonga publications, 1883 to 1983. In this article,
Bill indicates that information on some words in Tsonga are found in Portuguese records of
the 16th century, and WHI Bleek’s work represents the first systematic attempt to list material
from Tsonga group. Table 3 outlines items related conjunctive orthography from Bleek’s work.
Table 3: Conjunctive orthography from Bleek’s work
English
Lourenzo-Marques
Beautiful
tṣitṣongile
Tired
Va-karreleke
Naked, bare
a-ñga-ambalaentṣumo
Hot, warm
Tsaïsa
Divided
e-ko-tshoveka
Full
i-telle
Very small
tṣi-toñgoanyana
Other
Psiwanyana
None, no one
a-ku-nano
All
Ikwápso
Be tired, fatigued
i-ku-karrala
Live
i-ku-anya
Learn
i-ko-dïonda
Load, carry
i-ko-rroála
I shall leave
Mine e-ta-tṣika
Build
e-ko-i-aka indhlo
In the midst of
tṣi-karhi ka
Source: Adapted from Bill (1984)
Standard orthography
Xi xongile
Va karheleleke
ñga A nga ambalanga nchumu
Xa hisa
Ku tshoveka
yi tele
Xi tsongwanyana
Swin’wanyana
a kuna munhu
Hinkwaswo
i ku karhala
I ku hanya
i ku dyonda
i ku rhwala
mina ndzi ta tshika
i ku yi aka yindlu
xikarhi ka
Note that Bleek called it the language of Lourenzo-Marques and most of the words
are conjunctive, especially the verb forms.
Standardisation of Xitsonga or Xichangana orthography
In as much as the reading and writing of his language form “the native's first step in
education, no question is of greater urgency than this matter of presenting the written
language in a way that will be logically satisfactory,” (James 1928:125). The Xitsonga or
Xichangana orthography had a trouble that confuses the natives. The story of the early years
of the missionaries’ “endeavours is one of unending linguistic dispute about orthography and
spelling” (Bill 1984:69). The conditions under which Xitsonga or Xichangana was standardised
in the past have been responsible for the present diversity of practice of disjunctive or
conjunctive writing of Xitsonga or Xichangana for South Africa or Mozambique. Xitsonga and
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Xichangana were standardised by different missionaries, who also “differed among
themselves in linguistic ability and in nationality; there was no central body to coordinate the
work” (James 1928:25). The result is that Xitsonga of South Africa has its own system of
orthography, which differs from Xichangana orthography. According to Bill (1984:69), “the
Swiss missionaries, who were the pioneers in the field, differed among themselves about the
orthography to be adopted before finally deciding on the Standard Alphabet of Lepsius. The
earliest translations were made directly from Sesotho to Sigwamba and the local dialect of
Tsonga, hence the obvious Sotho influence on the first written Tsonga works”. This resulted
on disjunctive writing of the Xitsonga language in South Africa. Other mission societies which
followed the Swiss into the area “also had strong feelings about the orthography to be
adopted. It was many years before a standardised form was arrived at. In the meantime, the
Church of the Nazarene worked out and used its own orthography, and so did the Lebombo
Mission of the Anglican Church in Mozambique” (Ibid 1984:69). Orthography for Xichangana
language different from the Xitsonga language was created. These resulted on disjunctive or
conjunctive writing for Xitsonga or Xichangana of South Africa or Mozambique.
The assessment of disjunctive or conjunctive writing for Xitsonga or Xichangana
Let start the discussion of this assessment by providing examples of Xichangana and
English translations. The examples of Xichangana and English translations are outlined in
Table 4 below. The source of Xichangana examples is INDE (1997), written in Mozambique.
The cross-border language is called Xichangana and the translation was in Portuguese, but
the same proverbs are found in Junod & Jaques (1973) and Junod (1990), where the English
translations were adopted. Table 5 outlines the same examples when written in Xitsonga
Table 4: Xichangana conjunctive orthography
Xichangana conjunctive orthography
English translations
a. Ungaloti menyo ungasivona
a. Do not sharpen your teeth, when you
nyama
have not yet seen the meat.
b. Nkambana awupsali n’wana
b. The earthenware dish of food cannot
c. Ungasoli svonyikiwa.
give birth to a child.
d. Kutsana
arina
ncila
hi
c. Do not express disapproval to gifts.
d. (A “kutsana” dassie (rat rock) does not
kurhumisa
e. Kuyingisa i ndzalama ya vana
have tail because he ordered others).
f. Nambu wutala hi magova
e. Obedience is the crown of children.
f. The river is full by the spruits)
g. Mfenhe ayitsadzi hi nsinya
g. A tree cannot fail a baboon.
h. Swayampsa wunghwendza ka
h. Celibacy is better than marriage.
ntekanu
i. Experience or wisdom comes on the
i. Wutlhari bzikumeka ndleleni
way.
j. Xib’ala xa tihomu axitiyi loko
j. The cattle kraal is not strong without a
kungarina xib’ala xa marhole
calves’ kraal).
Source: The Xichangana sentences adapted from (INDE 1997), the English translation is
adapted from (Junod & Jaques 1978; Junod 1990)
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Table 5: The disjunctive orthography of Tsonga–Shangana people with English translations4
Xitsonga disjunctive orthography
English translations
a) U nga loti meno, u nga si vona
a) Do not sharpen your teeth, when
nyama.
you have not yet seen the meat.
b) Nkambana a wu tswali n’wana
b) The earthenware dish of food
c) U nga soli swo nyikiwa
cannot give birth to a child.
d) Amantsana a pfumala nkila hi ku
c) Do not express disapproval to gifts.
lerisa.
d) (A “kutsana” dassie (rat rock) does
e) Ku yingisa i ndzalama ya n’wana.
not have tail because he ordered
f) Nambu wu tala hi magova
others).
g) Mfenhe a yi tsadzi hi nsinya
e) Obedience is the crown of children.
h) Swa antswa vunghwendza ku ri
f) The river is full by the spruits)
na ku teka
g) A tree cannot fail a baboon.
i) Vutlhari byi kumeka ndleleni
h) Celibacy is better than marriage.
j) Tshanga ra tihomu a ri tiyi loko ku
i) Experience or wisdom comes on the
nga ri na tshanga ra marhole.
way.
j) The cattle kraal is not strong
without a calves’ kraal.
Source: Adapted from (Junod & Jaques, 1973 and Junod, 1990)
Only verbal forms are written conjunctively or disjunctively in Xichangana or Tsonga–
Shangana respectively, as underlined in the examples in Table 2 or Table 3 above. Note that
the verbal forms are in both positive and negative. For instance, Ungaloti/ U nga loti (Do not
sharpen) represents negative verb forms, while Swayampsa/swa antswa (is better)
represents positive verb forms. The disjunctive verb form observed in Tsonga–Shangana has
been indirectly adopted by PanSALB (2008). For example, Xipanu xa Bafana Bafana xi hlurile
(Bafana Bafana team had won); ANC yi tilulamisela nhlawulo (ANC is preparing itself for
election); Vayeni se va fikile (The visitors have arrived); Vayeni a va si fika (The visitors have
not arrived) and Loko va fika a ndzi nga si dya (When they arrived I had not eaten). Note that
the underlined items in the five examples represent disjunctive verb forms – both positive as
in examples a, b and c; and negative as in d; and positive and negative such as va fika/ a ndzi
nga si dya (arrive/ had not eaten) in e.
Xitsonga or Xichanga disjunctive or conjunctive writing differ on verbal forms
Xitsonga or Xichangana uses both disjunctive and conjunctive writing in Mozambique
and South Africa. The only difference is on verbal forms. Verbal forms are written
conjunctively with all their morphological affixes, both in their positive and negative forms in
Xichangana orthography of Mozambique. In contrast, verbal forms are written disjunctively
with all their morphological affixes both in their positive and negative forms in Xitsonga
orthography of South Africa. Stoe et al (2003) and PanSALB (2008) show that Xitsonga or
Xichangana of South Africa or Mozambique uses both disjunctive and conjunctive writings.
For instance, one example is that of conjunctive elements such as ni/na and hi (‘and’/’with’
and ‘with’/’by). They are written disjunctively with the following word, but ni/na (‘and’/’with’)
is written conjunctively when referring to part of the day in both Xitsonga and Xichangana of
Mozambique or South Africa.
4
Cross-border Language is called Tsonga-Shangana written in South Africa and the translation is in English.
82
For example, ni/na and hi (‘and’/’with’ and ‘with’/’by written disjunctively, as in
Mufana ni nhwana va vonanile/ Mufana ni nhwana vavonanile (A boy and a girl saw each
other); U bula na nhwana/Ubula na nhwana (You talk with a girl); and Ndzi famba hi
golonyi/Ndzifamba hi golonyi (I am going by car) OR ni/na (‘and’/’with’written conjunctively,
as in nimpundzu (in the morning); ninhlikanhi (during the day); nindzhenga (in the
afternoon);na nivusiku (at night). There are other forms of elements in Xitsonga or
Xichangana of Mozambique or South Africa that use both disjunctive and conjunctive writing.
A further investigation is needed.
CONCLUSION
This investigation of cross-border Xitsonga or Xichangana orthography: disjunctive
versus conjunctive writing reveals a misconception about the orthography of the cross-border
Xitsonga or Xichangana language of South Africa or Mozambique. Only one element makes
them different in the case of disjunctive or conjunctive writing. The cross-border Xitsonga or
Xichangana language of South Africa or Mozambique in both Mozambique and South Africa
uses conjunctive and disjunctive writing. The influence of Mozambique on verbal forms might
be the first record of the Portuguese and that of the Xitsonga in South Africa obviously comes
from the influence of Sesotho language on the first translation and standardisation of the
Xitsonga or Xichangana language by the Swiss missionaries. It is the duty of the Xitsonga or
Xichangana scholars and stakeholders to address this problem and other problems in relation
to the cross-border Xitsonga or Xichangana language of South Africa or Mozambique.
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Mozambique). Cape Town: CASAS.
South Africa. Department of Education. (2008). National curriculum Statement Grade 10-12
(General): subject assessment guidelines; languages: home language, first additional
language and second additional language. Pretoria: Government Printer.
Vocabulary.com .(2012). The Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.vocabulary.com.
Zerbian, S. (2007). A First Approach to Information Structuring in Xitsonga/ Xichangana. SOAS
Working Papers in Linguistics Vol.15: 65-78
A translation of serial verbs from Thai into English: A case study of Anger
management: How to Deal with Your Anger and Sleep Soundly
Wimonwan Aungsuwan
English Department
Thammasat University
Aungsuwan1@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Serial verb is a string of verbs occurring in sequence or serially within a clause. In terms
of translation studies, the previous studies are briefly done on strategies of serial verb
translation from Thai into English ([1]Decha, 2006), and focused on syntactic and semantic
aspects of serial verb translation ([2]Singvejsakul, 2012; [3]Sutthichatchawanwong, 2006).
In addition, they are focused on an autobiography (Sutthichatchawanwong, 2006, many
articles in magazines (Decha, 2006), and literary work (Singvejsakul, 2012). Thus, this study
is aimed to deeply analyse the strategies of serial verb translation from Thai into English.
Unlike the previous studies, a Buddhism book was selected. Both Thai and English versions of
Anger Management: How to Deal with Your Anger and Sleep Soundly were the sampling of
this study. Thai version was written by W. [4]Vajiramedhi and English version was translated
by Nopamat [5]Veohong. Besides, Thai version was got Chamnong Thongpraseart Foundation
award for spreading Buddhism.
The results show that the translator uses many strategies for translating serial verbs
from Thai into English. Principle translation strategies include addition, omission, and
adjustment.Besides, the strategies related to the combination of two translation strategies
84
contain omission and addition, adjustment and addition, and Omission and adjustment. The
results are useful for translation teachers and translators.
The translation teachers can use these strategies to teach their students. Furthermore,
these strategies can help the translators solve their problems when they find Thai serial verbs.
The further studies should be deeply focused on the similarities and differences of serial verb
translation from Thai into English between fiction and nonfiction.
Keywords: translation from Thai into English, serial verb, Buddhism book
1 INTRODUCTION
According to [6]Chuwicha (1993, p. 4), and [7]Filbeck (1975, p. 112, cited by Decha
2006, p. 20) serial verb is a string of verbs occurring in sequence or serially within a clause. In
addition, [8]Iwasaki, & Ingkaphirom (2005, p. 231) and [9]Thepkanjana (2006, p. 66) explain
that serial verb means a grammatical structure in which two or more verbs or verb phrases
appear together without a marker of coordination or subordination. Many studies are done
on syntactic and semantic characteristics of Thai serial verbs ([10]Thepkanjana, 1986;
[11]Wilawan, 1993). In terms of translation studies, the previous studies are briefly done on
strategies of serial verb translation from Thai into English (Decha, 2006), and syntactic and
semantic aspects of serial verb translation from Thai into English (Singvejsakul, 2012;
Sutthichatchawanwong, 2006). In addition, the data are collected from an autobiography
(Sutthichatchawanwong, 2006), many articles in magazines (Decha, 2006), and literary
work (Singvejsakul, 2012).
Corpus refers to a large collection of authentic texts, either written texts or
transcriptions of recorded speech that have been gathered in electronic form according to a
specific set of criteria. It is used with concordancing tools which are computer programs to
search for words or other linguistic entities in corpora and display them in their context
([12]Bowker, & Pearson, 2002, pp. 10-11; [13]Teubert, & Cermakova, 2007, p. 140; TogniniBonelli, 2001, p. 2). In terms of translation studies, parallel corpus, containing original source
texts in one language and their translated versions in one or more other languages, is used
for analysing translations in many languages such as a pilot study on translation equivalence
between English and Spanish ([14]Hernández, 1996, pp. 218-237), and a study on Translation
style and ideology: A corpus-assisted analysis of two English translations of Hongloumeng
([15]Li, Zhang, & Liu, 2011, pp. 153-166). In translation strategies from English into Thai and
Thai into English, there are a few studies on parallel corpus. The previous studies are focused
on the structure of the language such as The strategies of translation in passive voice of
literary work from English into Thai ([16]Manomaivibool, 2004; [17]Siriwonkasem, 2006), a
study of strategies in translation of adjective-noun collocations from English into Thai
([18]Thanalertkul, 2009), the strategies of translation in passive voice of literary work from
Thai into English ([19]Detnaraphan, & Mallikamas, 2008; [20]Rujirawong, 2006), and
syntactic and semantic aspects of serial verbs translation from Thai into English
(Singvejsakul, 2012; Sutthichatchawanwong, 2006).
There are a few studies done on religious work translation from Thai into English
especially Buddhism books. They are only focused on cultural terms translation ([21]Seesai,
2004; [22]Siaruneiam, 2011; [23]Suwannatrai, 2006). Thus, this study is aimed to deeply
analyse the strategies of serial verb translation from Thai into English found in Buddhism
work. The results of this study help the readers know the similarities and the differences
85
between translation strategies found between this work and the previous studies.
Additionally, A few previous studies are done on the use of parallel corpus in translation
studies from Thai into English. Interestingly, parallel corpus was used in this study because of
many benefits. According to Manomaivibool (2004, pp. 5-6), it is beneficial for translation
studies. Firstly, the researchers can spend less time because they can use the concordancing
tool for searching terms, containing source texts and target texts quickly. Secondly, it is the
useful tool for doing research systematically because the researchers can use the
concordancing tools for searching the desirable structures of the sentence. Thirdly, the
concordancing tool helps the researcher know the frequency of search terms quickly. The
results of this study are useful for translation teachers, and translators.
2 THE CONCEPT OF SERIAL VERBS
Serial verb is Thai characteristic. According to Chuwicha (1993, p. 4), Filbeck (1975, p.
112, cited by Decha 2006, p. 20) serial verb is a string of verbs occurring in sequence or serially
within a clause. In a series of verb, a mixture of transitive and intransitive verbs, along with
objects and locational nouns are commonly found. In Thai language, serial verb occurs when
two or more verbs occur consecutively in a sentenced.
Sutthichatchawanwong (2006) explains about Thai serial verb constructions with
directional verbs in terms of their syntactic and semantic aspects in comparison with
their English translations. English forms representing serial verb constructions contain
single words, phrases, clauses/sentences, and no form. In terms of semantic equivalence,
they include the existence of the meaning gain, the meaning loss, the meaning gain and loss,
and the equal meaning occurring in the English translations. In addition, no one-to-one
correspondence between Thai serial verb constructions with directional verbs and
their translations in English.
In addition, Singvejsakul (2012) cites that The English forms found in literary work
representing the translation of Thai serial verb constructions consisting of the word of /?au/
are verb phrase, infinitive to, interrogative word (WH-Words), noun phrase, participial
phrase, sentence, imperative sentence, Ø ( no translation conducted) and prepositional
phrase.
Singvejsakul (2012) explains that the translator may have trouble of selecting the finite
verb in English to translate the serial verbs in Thai to convey the meaning. It is because the
different of grammatical structure between Thai and English. Though there are some meaning
losses in English translation, the translator does her best to use various forms to convey the
aesthetic of literary work as well as the equivalence meaning.
Decha (2006) cites that translators use many strategies for serial verb translation from
Thai into English: addition of conjunctions, and omission of one or two verbs. In terms of
addition of conjunctions, the translators add “and” between two English verbs. Decha (2006,
p. 46) explains that since verbs in English cannot occur consecutively, it is necessary that the
translator makes an adjustment by adding a conjunction to separate the two actions. Besides,
Decha (2006, p. 55) cites that In some cases the translators omit one or two verbs of serial
verb construction and translate only one verb that gives the clearest meaning or shows actual
action.
As we have seen, the results of Decha’s (2006) studies reveal two strategies of serial
verbs translation from Thai into English: addition and omission. Interestingly, it should be
compare the similarities and differences between Decha’s work and this study.
86
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Both Thai and English versions of Anger Management: How to Deal with Your Anger and
Sleep Soundly were the sampling of this study. Thai version was written by Vajiramedhi (2004)
and English version was translated by Veohong (2005). Besides, Thai version was got
Chamnong Thongpraseart Foundation award for spreading Buddhism. In terms of parallel
corpus compilation, the contents of these books were put in the table in the sentential
alignment by using Microsoft Word 2007. This table contained two main columns: the left
column including Source language in Thai and the right column including target language in
English. After that, the source language was tagged for serial verb construction by putting
<serial verb construction> before serial verbs and </serial verb> after serial verbs. Then, two
new electronic text files were created by using Notepad. The source language in the left
column was copied and pasted in the first text file and the target language in the right column
was copied and pasted in the other text file. ParaConc was used for uploading files and
searching terms.
In terms of verb categorization, [24]Miller’s, Beckwith’s, Fellbaum’s, Gross’s, & Miller’s
(1993) and Sutthichatchawanwong’s (2006) ideas were adapted in this work. Miller &
others (1993) divide verbs into many types based on semantic aspect: verb of function
and care such as shilver, and ache; verb of change including Modify, turn, and alter; verb of
communication containing order, and question; competition verb such as fight, and race;
consumption verb containing eat, and drink; contact verb including scrup, and gasp; cognition
verb consisting of reasoning, and understanding; creation verb including Invent, and bake,
motion verb and action verb such as shake, twist, Walk, and run; Emotion verb containing
Fear, love, and amuse; stative verb including Doing, having; perception verb such as see, sniff,
and hear; verb of possession containing give, and receive; Verb of social interaction such as
Quarrel; weather verb such as Rain, and snow.
Sutthichatchawanwong defines directional verb as a verb in which its core concept
associates with path and direction of motion. This verb can co-occur with other lexical verbs
to denote additional information to the main verb in a construction. There are many
directional verbs in Thai such as ไ ป “go”, มา “come”, เข้ า “enter” (in), ออก “exit” (out), ขึ น้
“ascend” (up), and ลง “descend” (down).
4 RESULTS OF THE STUDY
The results of this study show two main strategies of serial verb translation from Thai
into English including principle strategies and the strategies related to the combination of two
translation strategies as mentioned below.
4.1 Principle strategies
Principle strategies contain only one strategy such as addition, omission, and
adjustment.
4.1.1 Addition
The addition strategies consist of two main types: addition of conjunctions and addition
of prepositions as discussed below.
4.1.1.1 Addition of conjunctions
Example 1
87
Source Language: ทานจง้ึ ลุกขุุนคุกเขุ านุุงกระหยุ งกลุ าวค าขอขมาตอ้ พระสาร้บตร
Back Translation: He gathered himself up into a position of genuflection, apologised to
the Venerable Sariputra.
Target Language: He gathered himself up into a position of genuflection and
apologised to the Venerable Sariputra.
As illustrated in this example, Thai serial verbs include two main action verbs: “gathered
up into a position of genuflection”, and “appologized”. The conjunction “and” was added in
the target language in order to show the series of action.
4.1.1.2 Addition of prepositions
Example 2
Source Language: เพราะน้้ยงไมถึงคร้ึ ้งหนึง่ ของกศโลบายคลายโกรธท่คร้ตง้ ใจจะเข้ยนถ้ึ งเลยนะ
Back Translation: I am not even half way through what I intended, wrote about the
tactics of dealing with anger.
Target Language: I am not even half way through what I intended to write about the
tactics of dealing with anger.
This example shows Thai action verbs: “intended”, and “wrote”. The preposition “to”
was added in order to show the purpose of the action.
4.1.2 Omission
The results showed many types of omission: omission of directional verbs, omission of
perception verbs, and omission of action verbs and directional verbs as illustrated in the
examples below.
4.1.2.1 Omission of directional verbs
Example 3
Source Language: หลงจากนน้ ควรไปหาท่ท่จะท าให้ ตวเองผอนคลายและสบายใจ
Back Translation: After this, you should go, find a place you can relax and feel
comfortable in.
Target Language: After this, you should find a place you can relax and feel comfortable
in.
In this example, Thai serial verbs include directional verb, “go”, and action verb “find”.
The verb “go” is omitted in order to show the clearest meaning of the target language.
Although, this directional verb is omitted, the reader can understand the meaning of the
translated version.
4.1.2.2 Omission of perception verbs
Example 4
ในชวิตของเราหร้อในชวิตของคนอ้้นล้ วนม้ท่มาทง้ สิน้
Source Language:
ปรากฏการณ้ทกอยางท้เราพบเหนุ
Back Translation: Every occurrence we find, see in our life or other's lives happens for a
reason.
Target Language: Every occurrence we see in our life or other's lives happens for a
reason.
As shown in this example, Thai serial verbs contain two main perception verbs: “find”,
and “see”. The verb “find” is omitted in order to show the clearest meaning of the English
88
translated version. Though, this perception verb is omitted, the reader can understand the
meaning of the target language.
4.1.2.3 Omission of action verbs and directional verbs
Example 5
Source Language: คุ นอล้ บม้ ้ เกา ๆ มาเปุ ดดู
Back Translation: Search, come, open, look through old photo albums
Target Language: Look through old photo albums.
This example reveals four Thai verbs: two action verbs such as “search”, and “open”,
one perception verb such as “look”, and one directional verb such as “come”. Three verb
“search”, “open”, and “come” are omitted in order to show the clearest meaning of the target
language. Although, two action verbs, and one directional verb are omitted, the reader can
understand the meaning of the translated version.
4.1.3 Adjustment
This strategy includes alteration from verbs to present participles as mentioned below.
4.1.3.1 Alteration from verbs to present participles
Example 6
Source Language: ถ้ าไมเช้้อเธอลองแกลุ งใครสกคนท่ก าลงหลบ้
Back Translation: If you don't believe me, just try, tease a person who seems to be
sleeping
Target Language: If you don't believe me, just try teasing a person who seems to be
sleeping.
As illustrated in this example, two Thai verbs include “try”, and “tease”. The verb
“tease” is changed to present participal, “teasing” in order to show the series of action.
4.2 The strategies related to the combination of two translation strategies
The strategies related to the combination of two translation strategies contain omission
and addition, adjustment and addition, and omission and adjustment.
4.2.1 Omission and addition
Example 7
Source Language: ถ้ าส้ิ ้งท่คร้กลาวมาน้ไมเป้ นความจร้ิ ง
ม้หร้อพระบรมศาสดาสม้ มาสม้ พทธเจ้ าของเราจะทรงทุุงปราสาทราชวง้
ออกมาใชุ ชุวุตอยุ ุู กลางดินกลางทรายตราบจนวาระสด้ ท้ าย
ของพระอง
ค้
Back Translation: If what I say is not true.
Would the Buddha have left His splendid
Palace, exited, come, lived the simple life until His demise?
Target Language: If what I say is not true.
Would the Buddha have left His splendid
Palace to live the simple life until His demise?
As shown in this example, it includes two action verbs: “left”, “lived”, and two
directional verbs: “come”, and “exited”. Two directional verbs are omitted in order to show
89
the clearest meaning of the target language. In addition, the conjunction “to”, is added in
order to show the purpose of the action.
90
Example 8
Source Language: ซ้ึ ้งถ้ึ งแม้ เธอจะใชุ แก้ วหร้อจอกน า้ ใบเลก ๆ มาตุกน า้ ใสุ ตุ ุมนน้ ้ ก้ตาม
แต้ถ้ าเธอพยายามตุกน ุาใสุ ตุ ุมนน้ ้
ทกวนโดยสม ้าเสมอ
ตม้้ นน้ ก้จะเตมไปด้ วยน าอยางแนนอน
เพยงชวระยะเวลาไมนานนก้
Back Translation: Even if you use a tiny glass or cup, fetch water fill the jar up, if you
try to fetch water, fill it everyday, in time the jar will be eventually filled.
Target Language: Even if you use a tiny glass or cup to fill it up, if you try to fill it
everyday, in time the jar will be eventually filled.
This example shows Thai serial verbs including three action verbs: “use”, “fetch”, and
“fill”. The verb “fetch” is omitted in order to show the clearest meaning of English translated
version. Besides, the conjunction “to”, is added in order to show the purpose of the action.
4.2.2 Adjustment and addition
Example 9
Source Language: ส้วนท้เป้ นร้ปร้างสง้ ขารซ้ึ ้งเราสามารถสุมผุสไดุ มองเหุนไดุ ด้ วยตา “ร้ป”
เน้อ้ ของเราได้ ส้วนน้เ้ ร้ยกวา้
(corporeality)
Back Translation: The form that we can touch, see is called “Corporeality”.
Target Language: What is in tangible and visible form called “Corporeality”.
In this example, it contains two perception verbs: “touch” and “see”. The verb “touch”
is changed to adjective “tangible”, and the verb “see” is changed to adjective “visible” in order
to explain the characteristics of “form”. In addition, the conjunction “and” is added to
separate two characteristics.
4.2.3 Omission and adjustment
Example 10
Source Language: หลกกฎแหงกรรมท่พระพทธเจ้ าทรงน ามาสอนนน้ ไมใชหลกการท่พระพทธองค้ทรงบญญติขน้ เอง
Back translation: The law of volitional action, as the Buddha brought, taught, is not of
His own making.
Target Language: The law of volitional action, as taught by the Buddha, is not of His
own making.
This example contains series of action: “brought” and “taught”. The verb “brought” is
omitted to show the clearest meaning of the target language and the verb “taught” is changed
to past participal in order to show passive voice.
Example 11
Source Language: คร้จง้ึ
ๆ ราวคร้ึ ้งชวโมง
เตรุยมเร้้องไปบรรยายสน้ ้
Back translation: I prepared story, went, lectured, for a half hour,
Target Language: I prepared myself for a half-hour lecture,
As illustrated in this example, Thai serial verbs include two action verbs: “prepared”,
and “lectured”, and one directional verb: “went”. The verb “went” is omitted in order to show
the clearest meaning of English translated version. Besides, the verb “lectured” is changed to
noun “lecture”.
90
5 CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
The purpose of this study is to analyse the strategies of serial verb translation from Thai
into English. Parallel corpus was used in this study. A Buddhism book was selected. Both Thai
90
and English versions of Anger Management: How to Deal with Your Anger and Sleep Soundly
were the sampling of this study. Thai version was written by W. Vajiramedhi and English
version was translated by Nopamat Veohong.
The results showed that the translator used many strategies for translating serial verbs
from Thai into English Principle strategies contain addition such as addition of conjunctions,
and addition of prepositions, omission including omission of directional verbs, omission of
perception verbs, and omission of action verbs and directional verbs, and adjustment such as
alteration from verbs to present participles. In addition, the strategies related to the
combination of two translation strategies contain omission and addition, adjustment and
addition, and omission and adjustment.
The results of this study confirm the results of previous work. The translator in this study
uses many strategies for translating serial verb from Thai into English such as addition Like
Decha’s (2006) work, and omission like Decha’s (2006), Singvejsakul’s (2012), and
Sutthichatchawanwong’s (2006) studies.
These results are useful for translation teachers and translators. The translation
teachers can use these strategies to teach their students. Furthermore, these strategies can
help the translators solve serial verb translation problems. When they find Thai serial verbs
in the source language, they may apply these strategies including addition, omission,
adjustment, and the combination of two strategies for teaching their students or translating
their work.
In terms of parallel corpus and translation studies, the author agree to the previous
study that the parallel corpus is benefit tool for translation studies. The researchers can use
concordancing tool to search terms quickly. Besides, it helps the researcher know the
frequency of search terms quickly. In addition, parallel corpus is Useful tool for doing research
systematically.
The further studies should be deeply done on the similarities and differences of serial
verb translation from Thai into English between fiction and nonfiction.
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English
Bowker, L., & Pearson, J. (2002). Working with specialized language: A practical guide to using
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Kinnaree magazine from Thai into English. M.A. Thesis, Mahidol University, Faculty of
Graduate studies, Language and Culture for Communication and Development.
Hernández, C. P. (1996). A pilot study on translation equivalence between English and
Spanish. Int J Lexicography, 9(3), 218-237.
Iwasaki, S., & Ingkaphirom, P. (2005). A reference grammar of Thai. Cambridge: Cambridge
University.
Li, D., Zhang, C., & Liu, K. (2011). Translation style and ideology: A corpus-assisted analysis of
two English translations of Hongloumeng. Lit Linguist Computing, 26, 153-166.
Miller, G. A., Beckwith, R., Fellbaum, C., Gross, D., & Miller, K. (1993). Introduction to
wordNet: An on-line lexical database. Retrieved December 1, 2012, from
wordnetcode.princeton.edu/5papers.pdf
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Seesai, P. S. (2004). An analysis of Buddhist term and concept translation from Thai into
English focusing on “Life of the Buddha”. M.A. Research paper, National Institute of
Development Administration, School of Language and Communication, Language and
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constructions with directional verbs and their semantic and syntactic equivalence in
English. Ph.D. Dissertation, Chulalongkorn University, English as an International
Language (interdisciplinary international program).
Suwannatrai, P. L. (2006). An analysis of religious concept translation from Thai into English:
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Communication.
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Thepkanjana, K. (1986). Serial verb constructions in Thai. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of
Michigan, Linguistics.
Tognini-Bonelli, E. (2001). Corpus linguistics at work. London: John Benjamins.
Veohong, N. (2005). Anger management. Bangkok: Amarin Printing.
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Thai
Chuwicha, Y. (1993). Clausehood in serial verb constructions in Thai. Ph.D. Dissertation,
Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Arts, Linguistics. (written in Thai)
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literary work from Thai into English, a case study: “The Sweet Scent of Hay” and “Many
Lives”. Thoughts, 1-30. (Written in Thai)
Manomaivibool, P. (2004). Avoidance of the /thuk/ adversative passive construction in the
Thai version of Harry potter. M.A.” Thesis, Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Arts,
Thai. (written in Thai)
Rujirawong, D. (2006). The strategies of translation in passive voice from Thai into English, a
case study: “Time in a Bottle” and “Wanlaya’s Love. M.A. Special research,
Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Arts, Translation and interpretation. (written in
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Thanalertkul, S. (2009). A study of strategies in translation of adjective-noun collocations: a
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The use of Information and Communication Technology, especially Facebook Groups to
Encourage and Improve Students’ Learning Autonomy
Valérie TREPIE
French Section
Western Languages Department
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Prince of Songkla University –Pattani Campus
vtrepie@free.fr
ABSTRACT
As a French lecturer in the French section of the faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences in Pattani Campus, one of my biggest challenge is to provide opportunities for
meaningful language use to my students. As the area is quite isolated and as learners do not
have a lot of opportunities to speak with native French speakers, Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) seem to be very effective for a successful foreign language
learning experience and for discovering the target language and the culture linked with it.
Because we have few students in different institutions (at our faculty and at Pattani secondary
school), because the levels of pupils and students are very different and because we want to
encourage them to express themselves in French and share pieces of France and French
language, we have created a Facebook group. We have also elaborated questionnaires and
we submitted them to our learners. The questionnaires attempted to answer some questions:
What is their usual use of Facebook (FB) ? What are their attitudes towards FB ? According to
them, what is interesting to find in this Facebook group ? How do they feel when using it and
do they think it helps them to improve their learning autonomy (being active in their learning
process)? The aim of this study is to know if Facebook groups can truly promote, encourage
students to search and exchange pieces of information, to be in contact with the target
language and finally to improve students’ learning autonomy.
Keywords: ICT, Facebook group, French as Foreign Language, language learning autonomy
INTRODUCTION
New generations are born into a world now largely computerized. ICT are widely used
and operated in foreign language courses. Student-teacher relationship is changing; with ICT,
there is indeed more focus on the learner learning process towards the idea of independent
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learning. ICT offers New Medias as softwares for contents creation and management by users
(blogs, wikis, social networks, etc) which, in 2000’s, were designated by "web 2.0”.
Among the Web 2.0 tools, there are social networks and one of them is Facebook. It is such a
phenomenon in the entire world and especially for teenagers and young adults, that it
necessarily affects our language learners at the French section of Prince of Songkla University.
Indeed, who nowadays does not use Facebook? Several lecturers, teachers at schools,
universities already use Facebook pages/groups to communicate with their students, to give
them exercises, instructions. Some others, like in some Alliances Françaises, Instituts Français
(French Institutes) use it not only for giving information, instructions but also to make them
communicate together.
As lecturers, we have to adapt our pedagogy to the changing practices of the learners.
These practices change according to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
evolution. Based on this observation and the fact that students do not have the opportunity
to communicate with native speakers or other learners of French in Pattani, we have created
a Facebook group “Le français pour échanger” (French language for sharing). According to our
previous research, we underlined that, because of isolation, it is difficult for them to see the
benefit of learning French; “Learners should have opportunities to use, practice their
knowledge outside the classroom. By using, speaking the target language, learners can
improve their communication skills and the more they will improve the more they will enjoy
using this target language” (Trépié, 2012).
After having analysed the results of the questionnaires submitted and completed by
students and pupils participating in this Facebook group (from Pattani and other cities), we
will show that ICT and Facebook group can truly promote, encourage students to search and
exchange information, to be in contact with the target language and to improve their learning
autonomy.
General concepts
ICT, Web 2.0 and social networks
Before the web 2.0, (the term Web 2.0 appeared at the first Web 2.0 conference in
October 2004), the web consisted of pages written in a particular language (html language)
which connected together related contents (images, sound, other pages). Internet was
reserved for specialists, IT programmers. As it mentioned on the Time Magazine, “The new
Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of
millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it
were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution” (Grossman, 2006).
Although definitions vary according to different points of view (human dimension with
users and technical aspects with technological processes), this "Web 2.0" or "social web"
represents overall the evolution of the Web towards greater simplicity and interactivity; it is
a very dynamic and interactive network. Interactions are faster so consulting Internet
becomes more comfortable. Users are aware of their power to interact on the web. They
participate and create their own social space by creating and sharing contents. This “social
web” puts the user and his relationships with others in the center of the internet process.
It is in this movement, that many "social networks" on the Internet appear; some help
you to create a new circle of friends and others help you to be connected with friends you
have in the real life, to find business partners, employment etc. There are all sorts of social
networks on the internet and there are plenty of social networking services like
EntreNousNetwork, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Mupiz, Viadeo, Instagram, LinkedIn....
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These kinds of "private" clubs for all audiences (for seniors, young, families…) often operate
by personal interests; they are so successful that some political parties, traders,
entrepreneurs and even artists also create their own social networks. These networks are
specialized and specific on public interest. For example, in 2010, 45% of American Human
Resources Directors reported using social networks to hire new staff members; this is much
more than France, with only 2%.
In this research, we will focus on that social network created nine years ago, in
February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg from his dorm. “It was called Thefacebook.com, and it was
billed as "an online directory that connects people through social networks at colleges"
(Grossman, 2010). At the beginning, registration was restricted to students of Harvard
University but since September 26th 2006, any person who was at least 13 years old and who
had valid email address could have a Facebook account.
Nowadays everybody is connected on social networks and the finding is clear,
Facebook is number one in 126 countries. The exceptions are named Vkontakte in Russia,
Qzone in China, Zing in Vietnam or Cloob in Iran (figure 1).
Figure 1: World Map of Social Networks5
For example, in France, in February 2011, the Facebook statistics spoke about 20.54
million users (plus 1.6 million in 6 months), so 31.8% of the population and 46% of French
Internet users. In addition, more than half of the users were between 18 and 34 years (31%
aged from 18 to 24years old and 28% aged from 25 to 34 years old). In May 2012, Thailand
passed 14 million users (figure 2; from 3 million on May 2010). In 2012, nearly a quarter of
Facebook users lived in Asia. According to Plasseraud (2012), Facebook had 20 million users
5
http://www.blogdumoderateur.com/carte-du-monde-des-reseaux-sociaux-juin-2012/
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more in 6 months in Asia, and so now claims more than 192 million users across 24 markets
SDMA (social digital mobile in Asia).
In October 2012, Facebook added its one billion active users, members. It exists in 78
languages (Grossman, 2010).
Figure 2: Facebook users in Asia6
ICT, Facebook and pedagogy
Information and Communication Technology is used in teaching/learning foreign
languages and in French as a Foreign Language for a long time. As ICT added "Educational" or
"for Teaching", it allowed us to combine technology and pedagogy in order to continually
improve learners communication skills. In France for example, according to the Circular BO
No. 23 of June 8th 2006: § A.47, ICT has an important role to play "for greater exposure to the
language, the development of independent learning”. The same conclusion is clear in all
countries. In terms of names in the academic field, it should also be noted that some French
speaking countries (including Canada and Belgium) have developed, as the English speaking
countries, the concept of educational technology. They have created specialised form of
academic departments. Now, many ICT training are applied to teaching.
In Thailand, the French Government tries to encourage ICT use for teaching French.
Some ICT courses are offered every year. Their aim is to improve the use of ICT and to
encourage teachers to consider their educational use and value in French class.
We have to remember indeed that in an action-oriented perspective, we practice
language to act, produce, communicate, inquire, exchange, develop cultural skills (linguistic
interaction, cultural discovery). Therefore, we do need a dynamic interactivity.
ICT and Facebook allow this interactivity that few or none of our learners of French in
the South can have. We use the term "interactivity" or « dynamic interactivity » as defined by
6
7
http://wearesocial.fr/blog/2012/05/les-rseaux-sociaux-en-asie-mai-2012/
http://www.education.gouv.fr/bo/2006/23/MENE0601048C.htm
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Giardina (1999: p. 36) in this second part of definition: "the interactivity that pushes a person
to make choices in a limited universe and the dynamic interactivity, which stimulates a person
to exchange information". 8
Facebook is very popular and fashionable; because this is a new way to communicate
and exchange, because more that one billion of people are connected, teachers and lecturers
naturally integrated this tool into their practice. Thus Facebook has been quickly imposed in
the school and university as a new teaching and learning space for languages and French as
Foreign Language. It is a real opportunity to be open to the world thanks to its popularity and
its multilingual interface. Remember that Facebook is available in 78 languages. Facebook is
successful because it is based on sharing and social interaction. As exchanging and sharing are
also the most important aspects of the communication process, it is possible to enjoy using
Facebook in foreign language teaching. Benefits of Facebook are also the fact that it is free,
and that it has a huge range of tools (groups, media, events, pages, apps, chat, integrated
information sharing).
Facebook is used in students' daily life, so using it for French as Foreign Language class
is to try to make students enjoying French while using it without thinking about it; as Horace
Salinas (2012) said: “Using Facebook and Twitter… is the perfect way to learn a bit of your
chosen language every day and on the fly without it eating into your routine. This way you
can do your revision while you're in a queue, and you can immerse yourself in the language
when you're not thinking about it...” Indeed, students can continue to learn outside the
classroom and on a more playful, less school way, by sharing with other learners.
As isolation, relevance, difficulties of French language are some of the factors which
inhibit or destroy students desire to learn French and their efforts (Trépié, 2012), and as
Facebook is a playful way for them to learn, we decided to create a Facebook group « le
français pour échanger » (French for exchanging, sharing) to encourage students to share
information about French language and culture.
Pattani is located the South of Thailand in an area called the “3 provinces”. The
political situation in the provinces of the South has been deteriorating for a decade. Since
then, the number of foreigners in theses provinces has decreased in a spectacular way as the
number of students of French language in Prince of Songkla University, reduced to 24
students today (Academic year 2013/2014). Furthermore, there are few French-speaking
organizations or French institutions in Thailand and even more in the South. Contacts with
French-speaking organizations and French speakers are very rare or non-existent, so students
have difficulties in using their knowledge and practicing in daily life situations outside the
classroom; it is difficult for them to see the interest of this language (Trépié, 2012). As we
meet a lot of students from schools and universities (in Pattani and others areas) who do not
have a lot of opportunities to use French outside the classroom, Facebook group appears very
convenient.
METHODOLOGY
We had elaborated and developed a questionnaire to learn more about the
students’practices on Facebook, to get their reaction on integration of social networking
8
Translation from French : « l'interactivité qui pousse l'individu à faire des choix dans un univers restreint et l'interactivité
dynamique, qui stimule l'individu à échanger des informations ».
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websites in language courses, and on what they think of this group. We wanted to know if
Facebook groups could truly promote, encourage students to search and exchange
information, to be in contact with the target language and so on to improve students’ learning
autonomy.
We submitted the questionnaire to the 29 students participating in this Facebook
group. Two teachers (one from Thailand and one from India) were also participating to the
group but we did not ask them to fill the form. At the beginning of September 2013, 31 people
were members of this group created at the end of June 2013.
Our audience consists of some Prince of Songkla University students from various
sectors who have chosen French courses as major or optional courses and who have learnt
French from 2 to 7 years, some secondary school students from Mattayom 5 (grade 11, so
they have learnt French for almost 200 hours) and Mattayom 6 (grade 12, so they have learnt
French for almost 400 hours) from different schools in the South of Thailand (Hat Yai, Pattani,
Phuket). As we have repeatedly intervened in camps and competitions with students outside
Pattani and because students really desire to communicate, some of them have participated
in this group.
RESULTS /FINDINGS
At the end of this step, we have collected only 18 questionnaires back: from 10
students from PSU, 3 from others secondary schools (Phuket and Hat Yai), 5 students from
PSU secondary school. Two of them are more than 23 years old, 8 of them are between 19 to
22 years old, and 8 are between 15 to 18 years old.
Our questionnaires reported that 10 students have had a Facebook account for 4 to 6
years and 6 others for 1 to 3 years; only one student has had a Facebook account for more
than 7 years and one other for less than one year. 8 students declared to check Facebook 6
to 10 times per week, 8 others check Facebook more than 10 times per week. The
questionnaire also shows that 4 students out of 18 spend more that 2 hours per day on
Facebook, 7 students spend between one to two hours per day on Facebook, 4 students spend
between 30 minutes to one hour per day and only 3 of them spend 30 minutes and less on it.
That shows that it is a real way of life.
Improving language’ skills
For the question “what would you say are the main learning benefits of this Facebook
group?” (several possible answers), 9 students out of 18 answered that this Facebook group
helps them improve their writing skills, 9 answered this Facebook group helps them improve
their reading skills. Furthermore, 7 students declared using FB to search for information on
topics they are interested in. As Purinthrapibal and Laopiyabutra (2013) said : «We note that
they prefer to use technology to facilitate their French learning process for example "do
exercises online", "review grammar on websites", "ask questions in forums (Web-board) on
websites when they meet difficulties in their learning process" or "memorize words or
phrases or sentences in French by reading aloud and recording them". It means that for them,
the most convenient way is to check what they do not know on the Internet. According to us,
youth nowadays have mastered its use”. 9
9
Translation from French : « Nous remarquons qu’ils préfèrent utiliser la technologie pour faciliter leur
apprentissage du français par exemple « faire des exercices en ligne », « révisez la grammaire sur les sites
internet », « poser des questions dans les forums (Web-conseil) sur les sites quand ils rencontrent des difficultés
dans leur apprentissage » ou bien « mémoriser des mots ou des expressions ou des phrases en français en les
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Learning and sharing about culture
But these are not the only benefits of this group; 11 students out of 18 said that they
learn new themes about French; 6 students get information that they do not get elsewhere
(multiple response items). Indeed, as we have noted earlier students have rare contacts with
native speakers. They do not use, for most of them, French outside the classroom, so they
also have rare contacts with French culture. But this is one of the aspects of French that is the
most interesting for them. We observed in a previous research (Trépié, 2012) that 13 students
out of 19 students of French wanted to learn French because they wanted to learn more
about French culture and civilization. All these cultural representations influence attitudes
towards the language and finally the learners' interest for it and motivation. We know that
language and culture are closely linked. So how to properly communicate in a language if you
know nothing or almost nothing about the culture linked with it?
Facebook group allows learners to develop their communication skills rooted in reality.
It is the teacher, me, who is the initiator of most posts so far; I post videos, images, photos,
and flashcards on the wall of this group and I ask questions to learners. For example, I posted
a video clip from YouTube and I commented on it saying that I like this song; I added a
question: Currently, what is your favorite French song? I let the learners reply and share their
videos, commenting them. I hope that they will interact more and more. In addition to this
group, learners can find on Facebook a number of pages on French language and culture. If
they “follow” them by clicking on “I like”, learners will be in contact with the French-speaking
world and its culture. Moreover, nowadays, most newspapers, television and radio shows,
and websites have their own Facebook page.
Encouraging confidence, spontaneity and autonomy due to social interactivity
Improve language’ skills, learn and share about culture are two great aspects of the
use of Facebook for learners; they enable them to gain confidence and to become more
independent in their learning process. But above all, they gain autonomy because FB is social!
Our learners, as members of this online community, learn by making and developing
connections between ideas and information, and by interacting, sharing, understanding,
commenting and so by creating their own opinions and their own daily experiences. Indeed,
“Learning is a human activity that occurs only within a social process and interpersonal
interaction, fundamental dimension of all learning process... In social terms, the interaction
is a characteristic of human relationships, which means that when a person acts, it takes into
account the response of the other»10 (Bélisle, 1997).
The more they will interact in French, the more they will be confident. That’s why 11
students declared that the Facebook group helps them in writing and sharing with others
without being afraid to make mistakes. 13 of our members think that it expands or adds value
to their social networks and relationships and that they make new friends; but 5 of them only
think that it has impact on their involvement in their French class.
lisant à haute voix et les enregistrant ». C’est-à-dire, pour eux, le moyen le plus pratique est de consulter ce
qu’ils ne savent pas sur l’Internet. D’après nous, les jeunes aujourd’hui maîtrisent bien de l’utiliser”.
10
Translation from French : « Apprendre est une activité humaine qui n’advient qu’à l’intérieur d’un processus social et
d’interaction interpersonnelle, dimension fondamentale de tout apprentissage… Au plan social, l’interaction est une
caractéristique des relations humaines : cela signifie que lorsqu’une personne agit, elle prend en compte la réponse de
l’autre ».
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In this FB group, I post very simple things about daily life for making them “express”
easier. For example, I posted a picture entitled "Sunday, for what?”. I answered the question
and I commented with "For me, I talk to my family through Skype, and you?" and I waited for
their answers. When they learn in communities, members feel at ease when learning from
their peers and not only the teacher and trust the reliability of the information provided as
this is based on experience. Sharing experiences motivates members to learn.
If the learners’ goal is to learn French, the social use of the language is essential,
compulsory. Like Pruet (2011) said, “this is what can sometimes fail under the "traditional"
class and especially in written production. Writing to the teacher or an imaginary person is
sometimes a cruel lack of meaning beyond the simple writing exercise.” Indeed, language and
knowledge are much codified in class. Pruet uses Ning (another social network) for his groups,
for increasing the learning time while providing stimulating activities and giving an active role
to learners. Codified knowledge constitutes only a small proportion of these online
communities’ language learning activities; where students interact among peers.
Limits and reservations
Despite the popularity of this tool, reservation and criticism concerning the use of
Facebook and Facebook groups in language course are still numerous. Among the most often
cited, the fact that the informal nature of interactions does not really encourage syntactic
precision. Furthermore, it is very difficult for several learners to distinguish between the
public side and the private side. Many of them have a tendency to use FB to talk about
themselves, their private life, what they are doing ("X is going to sleep! "), to post very
personal pictures, or to only click "like" on information and photos of their classmates and
friends. In our study, 14 answered that they use FB for sending private messages to their
friends or classmates, 11 use it for posting or looking at pictures; only 5 students use it for
posting message on my friends’ page, wall but 14 reported that they use Facebook for reading
news, information from others (so they look at their friends’ news but they don’t used to
write on their walls). Then how to ask them to use Facebook as a tool in their language class?
Most of them do not see Facebook as a learning tool but as a playful and easy way to
communicate with friends; so teachers and lecturers have to explain them the benefits of this
tool in their course and the way to use it for French class.
CONCLUSION
This study could be more representative if we could interview more learners of
French, and if we had more students of French language in our group. However, it allows us
to say that Facebook group is a useful tool to help our learners in their learning process.
Problems or difficulties that may arise are related to the use of this tool and not because of
the tool itself. We have to include it in a larger pedagogical approach and to first define the
purpose of the group early in the course (with learners). Using Facebook in education involves
revising our practice, the necessity for us, as lecturers and teachers to give coherence to the
work on the language skills and to find activities which contribute to the cultural enrichment
of the students.
Nevertheless, teachers can no longer ignore this tool (and other social networks and
ICT tools) in their daily teaching practice. It actually give more opportunities to write, read,
hear and speak (as now it’s possible to use the webcam on FB), more opportunities to train in
the writing and oral skills. The use of social networks is now a necessity, but we must be
careful not to overestimate it.
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ICT and Facebook create spaces where learning happens in a freely organised manner.
They bring together learners, teachers, experts, and other parties. Learners choose what they
want to know and how. Therefore, this tool really promotes students’ spontaneity and
autonomy. Priority is given to the message itself and this « "is translated into a desecration of
the language and the status of teachers" (Prévost, 2011). Facebook group is considered as a
means to collaboratively produce and share knowledge and experience, and to link people
closely all over the world. Communities like Facebook groups create cultural and social
bonding, and encourage self-esteem and learning autonomy; "Facebook affordances help
reduce barriers that lower self-esteem students might experience in forming ... social capital"
(Steinfeld, Ellison, & Lampe, 2008).
There is a range of application on Facebook, from discussions about topics seen in
class for participation credit, to special groups based on a course or a theme. The main
difficulty is pedagogical: how to help learners to appropriate Facebook and to express
themselves in order to gain confidence and independence in their learning process?
In conclusion, I think that a Facebook group can be a great classroom tool which can
encourage students’ learning autonomy if used correctly and as Gardner (2010), said “…it
helps dissolve the stigma of learning being institutionalized, stale, and boring. When learning
experiences are infused into a website students utilize everyday for fun, students realize that
learning can and should be a part of everyday life”.
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distance. Document préparé pour le Réseau d’enseignement francophone à distance
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Bélisle, C. Enjeux et limites du multimédia en formation et en éducation, Les Cahiers de
l’Asdifle, n° 9, Actes des 19e et 20e rencontres, Paris, janvier 1997- Poitiers,
septembre 1997.
Gardner, J.C (2010). Facebook’s potential in the classroom.
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complexe. Paris : L'Harmattan, coll. "Éducation et formation".
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Plasseraud, S. (May 2012). Les réseaux sociaux en Asie : mai 2012
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Pruet, L. (May 2011). Les réseaux sociaux : un outil sérieux pour apprendre ?
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Purinthrapibal, S. and Laopiyabutra, K. (2013) : L’usage des stratégies cognitives et
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Trépié, V. (2012). Difficulties met by Thai learners of French in universities in the South of
Thailand or an explanation draft of the apparent motivation decline in the language
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Fédération Internationale des professeurs de Français », Chennai (India).
The Role of Arabic Language in the Malaysian Armed Forces
Najjah Salwa Abd Razak1,2
of Arabic Studies and Islamic Civilization
Faculty of Islamic Studies
The National University of Malaysia
2 Department of Languages and Cultures Language Centre
The National Defence University of Malaysia
nsalwa@yahoo.com
Zulkarnain Mohamed
Department of Arabic Studies and Islamic Civilization
nain_ukm@rocketmail.com
Maheram Ahmad
mhm@ukm.my
Ezad Azraai Jamsari
ezad@ukm.my
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1Department
ABSTRACT
In Malaysia, the Arabic language is taught not only among students in educational
institutions but also in services such as the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF). Nevertheless, the
role of Arabic language in the MAF is still unclear and has never been documented. In reality,
the Arabic language is very crucial in developing national and international relationships.
The present study thus aimed to explore the role of the Arabic language by the MAF
staff deployed in Arabic-speaking countries. This study used a qualitative approach via
semistructured interview techniques. Twenty-four members consisting of the MAF staff were
interviewed. Data were analyzed by using NVivo9 software.
This study indicates that the Arabic language possesses a significant role in relation to the
tasks in the Arab region. The findings provide substantial implications in determining the
practice of the Arabic language among the MAF staff, MAF institutions, and Malaysia as a
whole. Recommendations are made regarding the roles of Arabic language in the MAF as well
as suggestions for further research.
Keywords : Arabic language, military, The Malaysian Armed Forces
INTRODUCTION
In the military, both cultural understanding and language are aspects to be
emphasized particularly in building military leadership (Western, 2011). Meanwhile, language
has an important role whether in a peace situation or in a war. Constantine (2011) stated that
language that is understood by both parties could help prevent accidents such as death. In
other words, language also plays a crucial role in the context of military deployment overseas.
Nevertheless, the role of language and language use in the military context is still limitedly
highlighted.
For instance, the dearth of international media coverage on overseas military
deployments does not make people think about these operations. The questions asked by
them are more likely to be, “What is the cost for operation?” “How long is it going to last?”
or “Is it even working?” (Abdiel, 2010). In fact, more empirical studies should be carried out
on military service in particular areas of language and deployment since the military service
has an important role in international relations.
In the context of Malaysia, the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) provides educational
opportunities for second and foreign languages such as Arabic, English, Mandarin, French,
Tagalog, and Thai. However, the Arabic education role in the MAF institutions is still unclear
and has never been documented. In reality, the Arabic language is indispensable in developing
these national and international relationships. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the role
of Arabic language of MAF members involved in overseas deployment.
Literature Review
The Scholars view the role of language as a medium which displays cultural identity as
well as a medium of thought. Furthermore, language is an important component of any
culture as it reflects the fundamentals of nationalism and ethnic identity in terms of race and
national heritage (Musarrat & Amir, 2010).
Individuals who love Islam and Arabs usually like Arabic. In addition, the Arabic
language not only serves as an intermediary medium but a medium to achieve satisfaction in
learning about the mission of prophets and stories of previous communities. Satisfaction is
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obtained if the learning is based on research on the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet.
Therefore, the Arabic language plays a crucial role as a medium to achieve satisfaction to
understand the Islamic sciences and scriptures (Muhammad Ibrahim, 1984).
The pronouncement of the Qur'an itself is in the form of Arabic and associated with
the Islamic law (Anwar al-Jundi, 1982). In other words, the Arabic text is an important
medium of revelation and the reality of the text is in the context of the use of syariah (Islamic
law). This is expressed by classifying, for example the obligatory and sunah in Islamic law
(Anke Iman, 2008). In short, the Arabic language is a medium of communication and cultural
identity as well as a medium of understanding Islam. On the other hand, the Arabic language
plays an extensive role other than what has been mentioned earlier. The Arabic language is
very useful for many purposes, for instance in the international business, tourism and
diplomacy as well as in the military deployment.
There are only several studies on language in the MAF context. For example, a study
on learning strategies in the French language by using learning style tests, language learning
strategies inventory, and interviews were carried out by Belinda and Erda Wati (2010). The
study concluded that the MAF staff had trouble in learning French as a foreign language due
to their inability to communicate in the target language. First, the difficulty refers to asking
questions by using the French language for further understanding. Second, French instructors
used direct method in teaching the French language. As a result, the MAF staff were unable
to understand the target language. Third, they found that a course they attended was not
sufficient to enable them to obtain good results in the French language proficiency test as a
condition to continue further training in France.
Saari Baharom (1997) has conducted a research on finding out the usage of Malay
language in the MAF institutions. The study identified the frequency of the use of a word, a
secret code language, and discourse markers that were assayed according to the lexical and
grammatical aspects. The study is beneficial to the public in terms of understanding the
culture and language use in the MAF service.
In addition to the above studies, there are other studies that are based on language
or involving military institutions in Malaysia or both. For instance, Surjeet (2011) has
conducted a study on the needs of English among the Armed Forces officers. The study
involved two institutions: the Malaysian Armed Forces Defence College (MAFDC) and the
Malaysian Armed Forces Staff College (MAFSC). His research in 1996 also applied to the
English language requirements but focused on the MAF staff of the "Command and Staff
Course", which covered the use of modules and strategic defence at the University of Malaya.
The research studied the problems of MAF staff while using English, which covered a wide
range of skills required for service purposes. The study revealed that four English language
skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing are essential for the MAF staff.
In the same vein, Ismail (2007) has conducted a study on the MAF. The study identified
the level of English language proficiency among members of LF (Land Forces) and
sociocultural factors influencing language learning. The findings showed that there is a
relationship between the variables (the use of language, academic level, attitude, rank, and
seniority) with the English proficiency level.
The aforementioned studies are specific to the MAF and focused on the English or
Malay language. Nevertheless, this study focuses on the Arabic language in the MAF context
of overseas deployment as information is needed in terms of documentation of the language
role in the MAF institutions. The documentation has implications for blueprint concrete
Arabic language curriculum particularly to the MAF.
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This study addressed two main research questions:
1. What is the Arabic language role for the UN staff in Lebanon?
2. What is the Arabic language role for the Hajj staff in Mecca and Medina?
Research method
This study was aimed to explore the role of the Arabic language by the MAF staff
deployed in Arabic-speaking countries. This study employed exploratory qualitative approach
(Colomer & Harklau, 2009) because there is no previous study documented on the role of
Arabic language in the MAF context. Semistructured interview was applied. The number of
selected participants was based on the saturated data (Gall; Gall & Borg, 2003). Twenty-four
participants from the MAF participated in a series of interviews. Fourteen participants were
involved in the UN mission in Lebanon while ten of them were involved in the Hajj operation
(in collaboration with the Malaysian Hajj pilgrims fund board, namely LUTH).
The interview protocol was viewed by three experts in the field of language, research
method, and military. The interviews were audiotaped by using MP3. Each session took
approximately thirty-five to fifty minutes. Documents such as journey memos which have
been documented in a book published by The Joint Forces Headquarters were used as a
reference for triangulating the data. Triangulation is important for validating the data as well
as using member check (Merriam, 2009). Each interview session has been transcribed
verbatimly and analyzed by using the NVivo9 software. This article reported only two
questions from the interview protocol:
1. What is your experience as a UN staff/Hajj staff member in communicating with
civilians who are using the Arabic language as a medium of communication?
2. What is your experience as a UN staff/Hajj staff member in communicating with the
armed forces/police who are using the Arabic language as a medium of
communication?
FINDINGS
1.Research Question 1: What is the Arabic language role for the UN staff in Lebanon?
From the finding, it reveals that the role of Arabic language for the UN staff in Lebanon in the
context of Malaysian Armed Forces (The Military Religious Corps) consists of two
perspectives, mainly the Arabic language and the UN staff. For the purpose of this paper, only
two roles under the aspect of Arabic language are discussed. First, the perspective on the
Arabic language as a medium of social interaction. Second, the Arabic language as a medium
of friendship.
1 Arabic Language as a Medium of Social Interaction
We can build many relationship there (Lebanon). We have brotherhood relation, community
relation. Lebanese did come here (Malaysia). They came to my home, that’s mean relation
must go forward (P1).
Experience in Lebanon was hmm..what we call as hmm obtaining new experience on
Lebanese society because the experience in finding the weapons was already completed in
the earlier MALCON (Malaysia Contingent). Our armies in earlier contingents did. At that
time there were weapons which were not exploded, so they tend to stay in their camps. By
the time we went there, the situation is already peaceful. Weapons and bullets which were
105
not exploded had been gathered. So our task focused on the interaction with communities
(P9).
6.1.2 Arabic Language as a Medium of Friendship
…and he (Lebanese) is closer to us when we speaks Arabic language (P13).
Communication with Lebanese community by using Arabic language; they are proud of us
for the communication ability because they feel that hmm they are different whenever we
know their language as well as their dialect, we can make a joke with them, they feel like we
are their families (P3).
…as a way to create closer relationship between local communities and armies…let’s say,
warm relationship among community leaders (P9).
Research Question 2: What is the Arabic language role for the Hajj staff in Mecca
and Medina?
From the finding, it indicates that the Arabic language role for the Hajj staff in Mecca and
Medina has two dimensions, which consists of the Arabic language and the Hajj staff. For the
purpose of this paper, only two roles under the aspect of Arabic language are discussed. First,
the Arabic language as a medium of a harmonious relationship. Second, the Arabic language
helps to facilitate each task in Mecca and Medina.
4.2.1 Arabic Language as a Medium of a Harmonious Relationship
For your information, Arabs staff are not local Arabs. They are Egyptians, Syrians; they are not
capable to speak other than Arabic language. So, we have an advantage (capability to speak
Arabic language), they can understand us and we can understand them. Furthermore, we can
be a mediator between them and Hajj performers. For instance there was an Arab who lifted
the Hajj performers’ bags but then one of the bags broke because of him. Meanwhile the bag
owner annoyed and so did the Arab…so our role was a mediator who explained them this and
this..consequently we create a safe situation; avoiding any dire possibility that may happen
(P2).
6.1.2
Arabic Language Helps to Facilitate Each Task
We helped a lot in the aspect of management. Whenever there was a problem in LUTH
(Malaysian hajj pilgrims fund board) or in any groups accompanying us, the usage of Arabic
language among us (Hajj staff) contribute to the solution of any problem (P3).
If Hajj staff are able to communicate by using Arabic language, indirectly the language helps
them a lot in their task. Majority of Hajj staff particularly MAF (from religious corps) dealing
with people outside. I mean not in the office. In the context of patrolling, we need Arabic
language skills in order to communicate with local community; asking them about ways and
direction, which building…(P6).
5 DISCUSSION
The role of foreign languages is undisputable in the military task particularly in
overseas deployment (Md Hashim, 1996; Mohd Shahrom, 1997; Snyder et al., 2009;
Constantine 2011; Mohd Rashidi 2011). Any military institution must take into consideration
the lack of armed forces staff who are able to communicate in foreign languages very well.
The armed forces staff engaged in operations overseas need to rely on host nationals for
support in language (van Dijk, Soeters & de Ridder, 2010, p. 918) because most of the armed
forces staff are able to converse in English but not other foreign languages.
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In the present study, the findings indicate that the Arabic language is very significant
for social interaction and harmonization between the military and the local community. The
findings also indicate that the Arabic language creates a warm friendship and leads to
invitations to their houses. This is a bit surprising as the relationship is not limited at doing
daily tasks given to them. Indeed, the relationship moves forward even though the armies
already returned to Malaysia.
In short, the MAF operations in Lebanon, and Mecca and Medina, both are significant
in the international arena. These operations signify that language is a bridge between the
MAF staff and the community. Foreign language ability helps the MAF staff in the completion
of their tasks, particularly by using the Arabic language in Middle Eastern countries such as
Lebanon. In addition, the language facilitates the MAF staff to do their tasks. The Arabic
language helps them to complete their tasks faster, easier, and more convenient. The
situation is not similar whenever they use a language other than the Arabic language though
they are already accepted by the community.
This study contributes to the knowledge of military deployment overseas, particularly
on the role of the Arabic language in the MAF. This study has some implications on designing
a foreign language programme in the MAF as well as in other military institutions, particularly
on the Arabic language. This study highlights that the usage of Arabic language
communication in the MAF operations in the Arabic-speaking countries is very important
because the MAF staff represent Malaysia. Though the MAF staff performed very well in their
operations, the MAF institutions itself and the MAF staff must take into account their foreign
language capability. Due to the under-researched field of the language role in the MAF
operations overseas, this study is limited in its approach. Further research should be done on
the development of foreign language programme or curriculum content, specifically on the
Arabic language for military purposes.
6 CONCLUSION
To sum up, the current study had been conducted to explore the role of the Arabic
language in the MAF, which focuses on the MAF staff deployed in the Arabic-speaking
countries. The findings indicate that the Arabic language possesses a significant role in
relation to the tasks in the Arab region. The Arabic language is a medium of a social interaction
and friendship as well as a medium of a harmonious relationship. Subsequently, the capability
of speaking Arabic language very well will facilitate each task given to the MAF staff. The indepth interview helps a lot in generating data for this research. Nevertheless, it is
recommended to apply mixed method approaches in future research to provide us with an
additional understanding of the role of Arabic language for every level in the MAF institutions.
The present study provides substantial implications in determining the practice of the Arabic
language among the MAF staff, MAF institutions, and Malaysia as a whole.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank warmly the Ministry of Defence, Malaysia, and the Military
Religious Corps for the access given regarding this research and also Major Hj Ahmad Rashidi
bin Bujai, Lieutenant Colonel Dr Burhanuddin Jalal, Lieutenant Colonel Hj Mohd Shukri Mohd
Ghazali for their help and very fruitful suggestions, and the MAF staff who participated in this
research.
107
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The Effectiveness of Mind-Mapping As A Tool to Generate Ideas in Essay Writing
Intan Sofrina Che Hanafi
English Language Unit
Kedah Matriculation College
Ministry of Education, Malaysia
intansofrina@gmail.com
Syaharom Abdullah
Centre for Communication Skills and Entrepreneurship
Universiti Malaysia Perlis
Perlis, Malaysia
drsyaharom@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
The Malaysian Integrated Secondary School Curriculum (KBSM) English Language
syllabus states that writing is an important component that needs to be taught to the
students. After completing the Secondary School English Language program, the students are
expected to be able to write and understand written English in the school and in real life
situations outside the school. Unfortunately, essay writing is an area that most students are
weak in and generating ideas for essay is a major problem faced by them. Mind mapping
technique developed by Tony Buzan is perceived to be able to help generate ideas for essay
writing. This study examined the usefulness of the mind mapping technique for generating
ideas for essay. 209 Form 2 respondents with mixed ability were divided into the experimental
and control groups based on their level of proficiency (good, intermediate, and weak). Tests,
interviews and observations were used to collect data. Two-Way Anova and T-test analysis of
the findings showed that as a whole, there was a significant difference between the
experimental group’s pre-test and post-test essay scores. However, separately, there was no
significant difference for the intermediate group. The results indicated that the mind mapping
training was able to help students to generate ideas. The finding also showed that factors
such as students’ attitude, vocabulary, topic and teacher’s assistance have influence on essay
writing.
Keywords: essay writing, mind map, motivation, assistance, vocabulary
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Essay Writing
Writing is an important component of the Integrated Secondary School Curriculum
[2]
(KBSM) English syllabus. The Ministry of Education states that at the end of the Secondary
School English Language program, students are expected to be able to write and understand
written English in the school and in real life situations outside the school (MOE, 1991)[3]. Thus,
in order to develop better essays in the target language, the skill of writing needs to be
emphasized. Unfortunately, this is where most students are weak in and “most students are
frightened of project writing than any other language activity” because of the “lengthy piece
of work” especially in a foreign language (Jordan, 1997)[4]. Students get low grades due to the
lack of ideas and poor development of points. So, students must be taught how to generate
ideas for essay writing as well as to gain more marks and experience the whole process of
generating ideas.
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As mentioned before, many students do not perform well in essay writing due to lack
of ideas and relevant points. In some cases, teachers found that the ideas or points given are
not enough and thus, less marks awarded. This happens in many of the English classrooms in
Malaysia. If teachers do not overcome this problem in the classroom, students will not be able
to improve in essay writing. So, it is very important to assist the students on how to generate
more ideas for essay writing as teachers look for ideas and details in marking essays as well
as in grading them. Students need to be taught on how to generate ideas. Using mind mapping
technique can help in generating ideas and assist students to perform better in essay writing.
The students were coached on how to use mind mapping as a tool to generate ideas in essay
writing. It is a possible approach to be introduced to the students. This study examines the
effectiveness of mind mapping as a tool for generating ideas in essay writing.
1.2 Research Objective
The objectives of this study are to:1)
2)
3)
4)
Examine the effectiveness of mind mapping technique on students’
performance in generating ideas for essay writing.
Examine the effectiveness of mind mapping technique on performances in
essay writing between the experimental and control groups.
Investigate the students’ perceptions towards the mind mapping technique.
Investigate the students’ behaviour towards the mind mapping technique.
2 LITERATUE REVIEW
2.1 Mind Mapping Technique
Mind mapping was first developed by Tony Buzan in 1970 (Buzan and Buzan, 1996) [5]
after reviewing research on the psychology of learning and remembering. He was a
Mathematician, psychologist and brain researcher. Mind mapping is an interesting and special
technique for taking notes as briefly as possible and also called mental maps, concepts maps,
clusters, concept clusters, concept diagrams, webs and art maps. These visual images are very
helpful in order to generate ideas and show ideas being linked to each other. Buzan and Buzan
(1996)[5] stated that the uses of different colors to make specific parts of the map outstanding
and colored images are more easily remembered than black and white ones.
Apart from that, mind mapping helps the students to see the overall view in one whole
context. This enhances understanding towards the topic. Mind mapping uses both sides of
the brain (Buzan, 1989)[6] to work together and thus increases productivity and memory
retention. Mind mapping technique has its own significance on learning and writing. In the
learning process, mind mapping technique can be used as a memory aid, to cater different
learning styles and to cater the teaching of different concepts. While for writing process,
mind map helps to foster creativity, promotes active learning, helps organize information
and connects new information with existing knowledge.
2.2 Creating The Mind Map
Peterson Anne (1998)[7] recommended the following four steps in constructing mind
maps: preparation, brainstorming, revision and presentation.
At the preparation stage, students must do background reading based on the topic
given by reading their textbooks and other sources available. This is to ensure students have
110
the background information on the topic and relate it to their prior knowledge. During
brainstorming stage, students will be given a blank sheet of paper and write the topic in the
center. Then, the respondents will do brainstorming for ideas, information, facts and points
related to that topic. Respondents are allowed to use words, colours, shapes, symbols and
other forms as long as it conveys meaning. In revision stage, after completing the mind map
the respondents should revise it to make sure there is no overlapping ideas, misconceptions
and everything needed has been drawn out on the paper. In presentation part, respondents
have to present it to others for understanding and evaluation. Corrections are much required
here for improvement. After that, respondents will start to write the essay based on the mind
map.
2.3 Advance Organizers
Mind mapping technique is one the advance organizers which can help students to
generate ideas for essay writing. An advance organizer is an information that is presented
prior to learning and that can be used by the learner to organize and interpret new incoming
information (Mayer, 2003)[8]. Advanced organizers are a concept developed and
systematically studied by David Ausubel in 1960. He was very influenced by the teachings of
Jean Piaget (Geier, 1999)[9]. Advance organizers are used to provide support for new
information. If no previous knowledge is available, advance organizers are used to give
knowledge to the students in order for this framework to be followed and new information
retained for recall and transfer. If prior knowledge is available, advance organizers do not
work as well for these students (Mayer, 2003)[8].
2.4 Theory of Constructivism
Constructivism is the theory that people construct their own understanding and
knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences.
When learners encounter something new, they reconcile it with previous knowledge and
experience. Novak (1993)[10] stated that meaningful learning occurs when individuals “choose
to relate new knowledge to relevant concepts and propositions they already know” (Novak &
Gowin, 1984)[11]. Meaningful learning gives new meaning to relevant subordinate concepts
and propositions, which facilitates integrative understanding of concepts. Novak and Gowin
pioneered concept mapping based on the meaningful learning theory by David Ausubel
(1963)[12].
2.5 Theory of Meaningul Learning
Ausubel's theory focuses on meaningful learning. To learn meaningfully, individuals
must relate new knowledge to relevant concepts they already know. According to Ausubel
(1963)[12], meaning is created through some form of representational equivalence between
language (symbols) and mental context. According to Ausubel, in order to learn meaningfully,
students must relate new knowledge (concepts and propositions) to what they already know.
New knowledge must interact with the learner's knowledge structure. Meaningful learning
can be contrasted with rote learning which also can incorporate new information into the
knowledge structure but without interaction.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1 SUBJECT SELECTION
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The experimental design was to test the effectiveness of using mind mapping technique as a
tool to generate ideas for essay writing. The sample consisted of 209 respondents of Form 2
with mixed ability. For this research, the classes were divided into experimental and control
group. The experimental groups received one hour training per week on mind mapping in
addition to the usual English lessons. While, the control groups received only the usual
English lessons.
3.2 INSTRUMENTS
The interviews, tests and observation were used to collect data. The interview was
conducted twice for the experimental groups and the control groups. During the first
interview session (before the pre-test), the focus of the interview session was to know how
they (usually) generate ideas for essays. The second interview was to identify the
respondents’ perceptions towards mind mapping technique. The test was conducted twice
for both groups, the Pre-test and Post- Test. During the Pre-test, both groups were assigned
the same topic and they were required to write an essay as usual. The Post-test was done
after the experimental group has completed the training on how to do mind mapping in order
to generate more ideas. The observation was carried out for both experimental and control
groups. The researcher was looking for the students’ behaviour while discussing and
generating ideas for essays. Particularly how did they respond in the discussion and cooperated with their friends, whether they enjoyed (or not) and to observe the students'
behaviour related to mind mapping technique while writing the essay in class.
The essays produced by the experimental and control groups were marked based on
the Marking Scheme Criteria. Marks were given based on how well students can generate
ideas and the development of ideas. All data in this study was analyzed using “Statistical
Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 14” for Windows 98.
4. RESULTS
A Two-Way ANOVA was conducted to examine the main effect of pre-point and
post-point and pre-mark and post-mark on experimental and control groups. The results
were shown in Table 4.1 below:Table 4.1
Effect Between Pre-Point and Post-Point of The Experimental and Control
Groups.
Type III
Partial Eta
Sum
Square
source
df
Mean
F
Sig.
Square
Of
Squares
Corrected Model
82.199
69
1.191
3.301
.000
.640
Intercept
167.748
1
167.748
464.859
.000
.784
Pre-Point
11.339
11
1.031
2.857
.002
.197
Post-Point
12.195
12
1.016
2.816
.002
.209
Pre-Point*Post-Point
24.346
45
.541
1.499
.041
.345
Error
46.190
128
.361
Total
965.000
198
Corrected Total
128.389
197
112
From the analysis, Table 4.1 showed that both the pre-point main effect (f=2.857, p=0.002)
and post-point main effect (f=2.826, p=0.002) were significant. There was a significant
interaction between the pre-point and post-point of the experimental and control groups
f=1.499, p=0.041 (p<0.05).
The summary of the comparison was shown in Table 4.2:Table 4.2
Comparison Between Pre-test and Post-test Points
Group
Experimental
Control
Pre-test
point
Good
1
4
Not
Intermediate
2
5
Not
Weak
3
6
Not
Post-test
point
Significant
Not
Significant
The results in Table 4.2 showed that there was no significant difference between the
experimental and control groups for pre-test points of all the three levels (good,
intermediate and weak). But, there was a significant difference between the experimental
and control groups for post-test points at the good and weak levels.
So, it can be concluded that the perception of mind mapping technique varied for the good,
intermediate and weak classes. The students’ perceptions according to their levels (good,
intermediate and weak) can be summarized as follows:1)
2)
3)
The good students thought mind mapping technique could help them in essay writing.
The intermediate students felt that mind mapping technique helped them to generate
more ideas for essay writing.
The weak students were not sure if mind mapping could really help them in essay
writing.
5. DISCUSSION
The results obtained have shown that mind mapping helped the good students in
generating ideas for essay writing. Students were very motivated to draw the mind map and
used them in the writing process. Their marks increased as more ideas were generated for
the essay. Students used their prior knowledge and thus effectively generated ideas for the
topic concerned. The students were able to broaden the topic given and generate as much
ideas as they could because they were able to relate their prior knowledge to the topic given.
These students had the prior knowledge which helped them to put in more ideas to the essay.
For the intermediate students, the findings showed that mind mapping could not
really help them in generating ideas for essay. Majority of the intermediate students obtained
average marks for their essays. There was no significant difference between students’ marks
in the pre and post-tests. They failed to come out with relevant ideas that were suitable to
the topic. They needed more assistance from the teachers and as well as their peers (Elbow
and Peter, 1973)[13]. However, Elbow and Peter (1973)[13] in his research stated that
intermediate students should have the ability in doing any discussion because they had some
vocabulary within their knowledge area. That was why the intermediate students preferred
discussion method to generate ideas for essay writing. Overall, they did not come out empty
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handed but not much was produced. This could be due to their knowledge of the world was
limited and the lack of ability to link from one idea to another. So, in the end they were not
able to produce good essays.
For the weak students, mind mapping technique was an effective tool to generate
ideas for essay (Cunningham, 2007)[14]. The post-test marks showed some increment. The
students could generate ideas using mind mapping technique even though the ideas
produced were not as good as compared to the other groups but at least they were able to
come out with the relevant points needed albeit limited. Despite the limited vocabulary, they
were able to produce some ideas related to the topic given with the help of mind map. They
relied on the mind map as a tool to help them to produce ideas for essay writing. But, if the
topic was not familiar to them it could be a bit harder for the students. The attractions from
visuals images from the mind map motivated them to explore the process even more. This
was demonstrated by their behaviour in class. Their attention helped them to be more
focused. They seemed to enjoy doing the mind map. If the topic was familiar to them, they
could elaborate more ideas and seemed satisfy with the results. Even if the topic given was
quite difficult and unfamiliar to them, they were still able to generate some ideas and did not
hand in blank papers. The mind mapping technique helped them in generating ideas. To some
extent, with some vocabulary and positive attitude, mind mapping technique had brought
them to a slightly new level of generating ideas for essay. This supported Cunningham
(2007)[14] that mind map can help the weak students to come out with their own mind map
at their own pace. Also helped them to visualize and came to a certain degree of
understanding.
Based on the interviews, most of the good students focused on their group discussion
to generate ideas, showed a lot of interest in what they were doing and developed their
thinking skills. This led them to generate their own understanding towards the topic
concerned. They would manage to come out with ideas related to the topic. Some of them
even said that mind mapping technique was even ‘interesting’ and ‘fun’ whereby they could
explore more on certain topics given. The respondents said “It was a fun technique” showed
that they were attracted to the visual images and colors (Tergan, 1986)[15]. Besides that, mind
mapping technique enhanced their motivation towards learning because they ‘learn’ and
have ‘fun’ at the same time. Geir (1999)[9] said that was the reason why they really enjoyed
in producing the mind map because it helped them to organize the ideas.
For the intermediate group, they seemed to enjoy doing the mind map and were
attracted to it. The interviews showed that most of the students liked mind mapping technique
by saying “It helped to get ‘clearer’ and ‘better’ picture of a topic”. Thus, it gave them ‘a clear
picture’ on what they were supposed to do and they could understand the topic better (Shuell,
1987)[16]. The students were very attracted to the nature of mind mapping because it used visual
images, colours and links from one idea to another (Tergan, 1986)[15]. Geir (1999)[9] said that
students were more attracted to something in the forms of visual rather than words and that
these students would be more excited by visuals (colour) than by words or numbers.
For the weak students, they admitted that mind mapping technique was fun and
enjoyable due to the visual images and varieties of colours used. But, they were not really
convinced that mind mapping technique could help them in generating ideas for essay. This
was shown from their responses by saying “…not sure” and “I’m not sure…maybe”. Most of
the students had a very low level of proficiency and this might have led them to feel less
confident in using mind map. They had lack vocabulary to articulate ideas and said “Maybe I
can write well”. This supported Tergan (1986)[15] that students felt unmotivated when they
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were lacking one or more aspects of language proficiency. Negative attitude also discouraged
them to produce more ideas.
Overall, students in each level had a positive perception of mind mapping technique.
They really felt that mind map could help them to generate ideas for essay writing and to
relate one idea to another. However, the researcher believed that whether mind map could
really help them to generate ideas was affected by factors such as proficiency, vocabulary and
motivation.
6 CONCLUSION
Overall, students’ writing skill in the secondary school appeared weak. This includes
students’ interest in essay writing and the end-product of the essays. Therefore, before the
students enter tertiary level, they need to be exposed and established on good writing
performance as far as the content of the essays are concerned. Appropriate learning must be
implemented and the preparation materials must be handled more effectively.
Motivation, attitude and training should play important roles in shaping the students’
writing skill. Halim (2004)[16] postulated the importance of generating ideas before we write.
Halim (2004)[16] portrayed ideas as the key to beginning to write, the catalyst to get the pen
moving, the fingers typing a story out of nothing. That shows how important ideas are to essay
writing. At some point, the students were only focusing on how much ideas they had
generated rather than its suitability towards the topic. Even though, the ideas generated were
not relevant to the topic concerned.
In order to inculcate interest in writing, certain techniques and tools need to be
administered to provide students with a path or direction towards achieving comprehension.
The researcher believes that many approaches and types of practice be implemented for
these students in order to help them in generating ideas (Jordan, 1997)[4]. Mind mapping
technique is a possible tool to help to organize ideas needed for essay writing (Buzan and
Buzan, 1996)[5]. When students use mind mapping technique, the ideas are well-organized
according to its groups, sub-topics, and relevancy. They also reacted to something that has
been read or listened to (Geir, 1993)[9] in order to generate ideas. Hence, these students need
to be guided by the teacher as suggested by McDonald (2000)[18] to build confident and
developing effective writing behaviour.
Mind mapping technique could help the students with different level of proficiency to
generate ideas for essay writing. They were attracted to the layout of the mind map with
visual images including colours, symbols and patterns. However, students’ prior knowledge
and vocabulary could play a role in the production of ideas. If the students have enough or
related prior knowledge and vocabulary about the topic, mind mapping technique could help
them to generate more ideas. But, if they do not have sufficient vocabulary and knowledge
of the world, mind mapping technique seemed to be less effective for them. Ausubel (1968)[19]
stated that learning is a process of building upon the knowledge and the single factor
influencing learning is what the learner already knows.
Future research on students writing skill based on their level of proficiency is very
much needed. Especially on how to cope with low language proficiency as far as writing essay
is concerned. There is a need to identify in depth the problems faced by this group and ways
to improve and help them in essay writing. It is very important to know the options that
teachers might have in order to motivate them in writing essay. Other than that, appropriate
strategies and techniques need to be identified in order to cater the needs of the students.
Researchers should provide the best technique to assist the low proficiency students in
115
writing essays with regard to their prior knowledge, attitude and classroom environment so
that they do not ‘fear’ the word ‘essay’ anymore.
REFERENCES
Cambridge International Dictionary of English. (1997). Cambridge university Press (Economy
Edition). Published 2012. page 448.
Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (2003). Huraian Sukatan Pelajaran Tingkatan VI. Kuala
Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
MOE (Ministry of Education) (1991). Ministry of Education Committee for the planning and
coordination of English language programs in schools. Compendium : A Handbook for
ELT Teachers, Vol. 1, 2 and 3. Kuala Lumpur: National Education Department.
Jordan, R.R, (1997). English for Academic Purposes: A Guide and Resource Book for Teachers.
Cambridge University Press.
Buzan, T. and Buzan, B. (1996). The Mind Map Book: How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize
Your Brain's Untapped Potential. Plume, New York, NY.
Buzan, T. (1989), Use Both Sides of Your Brain, 3rd ed., Plenum, New York, NY.
Peterson, A (1998). “Using Mind Maps to Teach Social Problems Analysis”. 48thAnnual Meeting of
the Society for the Study ofSocial Problems. San Francisco, CA, Aug. 20-22, 1998. Mayer,
H.H. (2003). "A Solution to The Performance Appraisal Feedback Enigma". Academy of Management
Executive, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 68-76.
Geir (1999) . Language and Thought. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Novak, J.D (1993). Concept Mapping: A useful tool for science education. Journal of Research
in Science Teaching, 27 (10), 937-949.
Novak, J.D. and Govin, D.B.: (1984). Learning How To Learn, Cambridge University Press.
Ausubel, D. (1963). The Psychology of Meaningful Verbal Learning. New York: Grune &
Stratton.
Elbow, P. (1973) Writing Without Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cunningham, Glennis Edge (2007). Mind Mapping: Its Effects on Studens’t Achievement in
High School Biology. The University of Texas at Austin.
Tergan, Sigmar (1986).Olaf. Modelle der Wissensreprdsentation als Grundlage Qualitative.
Shuell, T.J. (1987). Cognitive Psychology and Conceptual Change: Implications for Teaching Science.
Science Education, 71(2), 239-250.
Halim, T. (2004). Creative Writing: Where Do I Start?. Kuala Lumpur: MPH Quill.
McDonald, J. (2000). The Allyn and Bacon sourcebook for college writing teachers. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon.
Ausubel, D.P. (1968). Educational Psychology: A cognitive view. New York: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston.
116
SAMOSA-QUOTING ENGLISH: FORMULA AND FAVAID OF THE INDIGENIZED LANGUAGE OF
PAKISTANI-AMERICAN FICTION
Muhammad Sheeraz
Department of English,
International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan
Email: m.sheeraz@iiu.edu.pk
ABSTRACT
Owing to the varying ecological, social, historical, and linguistic contexts, the English
language underwent adaptations in many parts of the world, and was diversified and
fragmented, resulting many Englishes variably termed as Postcolonial Englishes/englishes,
Global English(es), World English(es), the New Englishes, Chinese Englishes, South Asian
Englishes, Indian English, Pakistani English, and so on. The process of this heterogeneity is
usually postulated as “indigenization of English” by linguists (e.g. Baumgardner, 1993; Kachru,
1983) and “appropriation” by postcolonial critics (e.g. Ashcroft et al, 2002). This type of
indigenization or appropriation is also done in fictional texts produced in various linguistic and
geographical contexts. However, it is not very extensive and open. In this paper, studying the
case of Pakistani-American fiction, I argue that the authors have so far adopted a restrictive
approach, keeping the indigenization or appropriation process limited to a minimum possible
level that could serve their purposes—cultural and ideological representations, and
exotification and authenticity, etc. The study also aims to work out the recipe—formula for,
and frequency of the use of indigenized lexis, expressions, etc., used for chutnification (Snell
& Kothari, 2011) or samosa-quoting of fictionalized English, and the reasons why it cannot
violate this recipe.
1. Contextual Definitions of Key Terms:
1.1 World Englishes: This term has two inter-related meanings: one that acknowledges the
existence of “multiple Englishes” (Gilsdorf, 2002, p. 367), and the other that refers to a field
that studies the functions of these multiple varieties of English “in their contexts and how
they empower their users to realize certain goals” (Kachru & Smith, 2008, p. 182).
1.2 Indigenization of English: This study endorses Mufwene’s definition i.e., “a process
whereby a language is adapted to the communicative habits and needs of its (new) speakers
in a novel ecology” (2009, p. 353), for English. The scholars of World Englishes usually consider
it as a “viable, ongoing process” (Baumgardner et al, 1993). However, it is argued that this
indigenization, in fiction, is controlled and conscious and not natural.
1.3 Appropriation of English: A strategically employed process of reshaping English, the
colonial language, in order to enable it to carry the burden of “differing cultural experiences”
(Ashcroft et al, 2002, p. 38) is termed as appropriation. Appropriation of English in
postcolonial studies, unlike indigenization in World Englishes, is a controlled and conscious
process. In this study, by arguing that writers are conscious of the frequency and fruit of
indigenization, it has been argued that indigenization is also strategic. This argument should
make both the terms look synonymous and interchangeable here.
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1.4 Urduization/Pakistanization of English: Indigenization of English through the use of
Urdu or, more broadly, Pakistani lexis. Urduization and Pakistanization should also be taken
synonymous to indigenization and appropriation in the scope of this paper.
1.5 Pakistani-American Fiction in English: Fiction involving settings and characters from
Pakistan or USA or both, and written in English by writers of Pakistani origin who are currently
living either in America or in Pakistan or share their time between these countries and have
lived a considerable part of their lives in America.
1.6 Cultural Representations: Depiction or framing of a particular place, person or
phenomenon in a particular way.
1.7 Exotification: Making something look other-worldly.
1.8 Authenticity: Authenticity is a technique, commonly used in realist fiction, to make an
author as well as his/her work look truthful and trustworthy.
1.9 Samosa-quoting: From samosa-quoting, I mean wrapping up bits from indigenous
flavors in English language, the way flour coating of a samosa does. Broadly it refers to cultural
and ideological representations through indigenized English language.
2. Background:
The process of indigenization of English in South Asia began with its arrival here in the
fifteenth century when “new linguistic and literary associations with the West” (Sinha, 1978,
p. 1) were established through the newly discovered sea route to India. Individuals such as
Charles Grant have been arguing during the early 19 th century that: “as the Muhammadans
employed Persian, so should the English employ their own language in the affairs of the
Government” (Yadav, 1966, p. 25). It got official recognition through Macaulay’s minutes in
1835 (Mahboob, 2009, p. 178). The process of arrival of the English language has been studied
in detail by Braj Kachru (1983) who divides it into three phases: i) with the missionaries in the
early 17th century; ii) with its increasing demand from the South Asian public in the first
quarter of the 19th century; and iii) after it became the part of government policy after 1787
when English teaching schools started receiving grants, and in 1835 when Macaulay
presented his minute (p. 20-22). This was the time when in South Asia English was declared
by the then Governor General William Bentinck as “the key to all improvements…” (Ahmed
Ali, 1993, p. 6). Ali sees it as the time when the British started “to convert Indians, the South
Asians of today, into brown Englishmen” (1993).
This conversion of the South Asians into brown Englishmen had become a natural process,
or at least it looked so, after the British left this part of the world. The English language
became part and parcel of the lives of many. Kachru sees it as a “link language for national
and international purposes” (1983, p. 52) while Rahman views it as the “language of the
domains of power – administration, judiciary, military, education, and commerce, etc (1996,
p. 1).” In Pakistan, it was adopted as the country was not ready to carry the burden of a new
official language. Haque argues that at the time of country’s independence it was preferred
as a “compromise candidate” (1993, p. 14) as no indigenous language was ready for the
purpose. The policy makers of the time were also aware of the political threat that adoption
of any other language could pose to the state. Thus English continued to hold the center stage.
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However, Urdu that was used as a unifying slogan during the independence movement was
announced as the national language of the country. It is ironical but interesting to note that
while the practically powerful and privileged position of English was not challenged by any
strong voice, the symbolic position of Urdu was rejected by many of the East Pakistanis (now
Bengladeshis). This linguistic controversy, in the presence of several other issues, was
politicized and ended up with the separation of eastern wing of the country and the
establishment of Bengladesh.
The first clause of article 251 of the 1973 constitution of Pakistan reads: “The National
Language of Pakistan is Urdu, and arrangements shall be made for its being used for official
and other purposes within fifteen years from the commencing day” (Recommendations for
Adoption of Urdu as Official Language, 2005, p. 3). So constitutionally Urdu should have been
the official language of Pakistan since 1988 which is not the case as English still is the official
language of the country. Given the power and rapidly increasing number and of the “brown
Englishmen,” it seems, Urdu will never be able to replace English in Pakistan. Urdu has,
however, kept infiltrating into Brown Englishmen’s English. Its words and expressions are
frequently used in English newspapers, texts, official documents, and literary works (See
Baumgardner, 1993).
Apart from being official language of Pakistan, English is one of the major languages of its
media, market and literature. Literary writings in English began in the subcontinent as early
as in the 19th century (William & Wanchoo, 2008, p. 92). Bankim Chandra’s Rajmohan’s Wife
published in 1864 is considered to be the first novel ever written in English in this part of the
world (Khair, 2001, p. 46).
Muthiah traces history of the indigenization or appropriation of the fictionalized English
to the 1930’s when the South Asian writers began experimenting with the lexis and syntax of
English (2009, p. 1). This experimentation with or more appropriately indeginization of the
English language has now become an established tradition in South Asian literature in general
and Pakistani literature in English in particular. Contemporary fiction by Pakistani-American
writers is also characterized by this feature termed, in this paper, as Pakistanization of English.
Bapsi Sidhwa, a Pakistani-American novelist argues in favor of the adaptation of English:
We, the excolonized, have subjugated the language, beaten it on its head and
made it ours! Let the English chafe and fret and fume. The fact remains that in
adapting English to our use, in hammering it sometimes on its head, and in
sometimes twisting its tail, we have given it a new shape, substance, and
dimension. (1993, p. 212)
This simple commentary on the indigenization process implies that the writers like Bapsi
are well aware of strategies, tools, and techniques to do what they do to indigenize the
language. Baumgardner’s (1993) choice of words is more careful as he shows it as a natural
process when he argues: “English from the outset began to absorb many of the indigenous
linguistic and cultural traits of its subcontinental users” (p. 41). Baumgardner et al (1993), as
quoted above, also view it as a “viable, ongoing process”. In order to reinforce their argument
Baumgardner et al cite Riaz Hassan’s assertion i.e., “This process of mixing has been going on
for more than a century. There is no harm in recognizing it and, if it represents a natural trend
in language evolution in our country (which it does), let it continue” (1993, p. 156). However,
as fiction is a creative but carefully constructed genre, indigenization, appropriation,
Urduization, Pakistanization or “process of mixing” in its texts is neither very natural nor
extensive. It is rather purposive as Bapsi Sidhwa’s words given above show, and follows
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strategies as Ashcroft et al suggest i.e., glossing, untranslated words, interlanguage, syntactic
fusion, and codeswitching and vernacular transcription (2002). Glossing, untranslated words
and interlanguage are more relevant to this study. “Untranslated words” is a more widely
used device (p. 63) which is what this study also shows.
3. Methodology:
In this paper, studying the case of two Pakistani-American fiction texts i.e., Daniyal
Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders and H. M. Naqvi’s Home Boy, I investigate how
fiction writers have so far adopted a restrictive approach in their works, keeping the
indigenization of English limited to a formulaic minimum possible level that could serve their
purposes—cultural and ideological representations, and exotification and authenticity—
avoiding confusion for the native English speaking audience. This study draws upon the
conceptual framework offered by Roger Fowler (1977) that theorizes literature as language
and allows a combination of linguistic analyses and literary criticism. Using also the structural
frameworks of World Englishes and postcolonial representations and appropriation, this
study works out the formula for, and frequency of the use of indigenized lexis, etc., used for
chutnification (Snell & Kothari, 2011) or samosa-quoting of fictionalized English, and the
reasons why violating this recipe could cause distaste in the text.
For this purpose apart from doing textual, and some manual statistical analyses, I have
conducted interviews of the authors of two selected texts via email in order to record their
opinions about the issues (see appendix).
In order to study the indigenization of English Ashcroft et al (2002) have worked out some
strategies of appropriation whereas Muthia (2009) has given linguistics features at lexical,
morphological, syntactic and phonetic levels that contribute towards the indigenization of the
text. This study has, for most part, been limited to lexical level of Pakistanization in the texts.
That is why the strategy of “untranslated words” (Ashcroft et al, 2002) and linguistic feature
of “native words” (Muthiah, 2009) have been focused more here.
4. Results and Discussion:
The author of Home Boy, H. M. Naqvi “spent his childhood between Karachi, Islamabad,
Algiers and New York” and graduated from Georgetown and Boston Universities
(Mohammad, 2012, p. 40).
Home Boy is a post 9/11 narrative in English that is predominantly set in New York City. It is a
story of three friends of Pakistani origin who have almost assimilated in the American culture
and learned to speak English, Bentick’s key to all improvements, and almost become Ahmed
Ali’s Brown Englishmen. However, in the middle of their American dream they run into the
nightmare of 9/11 tragedy and their dreams and realities are redefined on the basis of
religion, state, language and names. They are suddenly reminded of their origin and identity.
AC, Jimbo and Chuck are reborn as Ali Chaudry, Jamshed Khan and Shehzad Lala. They are
pushed at the public places and at one point detained by the FBI.
All of them have direct or indirect Urdu linguistic background with little exposure of
one or two other languages such as Punjabi and Arabic. But interestingly, it is only after 9/11
that these characters are seen using languages of their origin more frequently than before
that in the timeline of events in the novel which is indexical of their reawakened Pakistani
identity (see Mansoor, 2012). Thus their language is Pakistanized to some extent.
Carefully conducted and verified manual counting shows that Home Boy has
approximately 72000 words in total. Out of which the number of Urdu words, with an
120
ignorable amount of expressions from other languages such as Punjabi (e.g., mar mar ke mitti
karan ga) and Arabic (e.g., Inna lillaihay wa inna illahay rajayune) is 363. So the frequency of
Urdu words used is 0.50 %. Out of these Pakistani lexical items, 284 are nouns (78%), 4
pronouns, 9 adjectives, 15 verbs, 11 greeting and farewell expressions, and 40 discourse
markers, minimal responses, etc.
The author of the second book under study, rightly viewed as a writer who bridges
two worlds, Daniyal Mueenuddin is a hybrid child of Pakistani father and American mother,
who lived in Pakistan with frequent visits to his mother’s family in Wisconsin, and graduated
from Dartmouth and Yale, and runs his family farm in Pakistan’s southern Punjab (Lynn Neary,
2009, Para. 1). His book of short fiction, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, was published in
2009.
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders is a collection of eight thematically interlaced short
stories with the character of K. K. Harouni used as a common thread. This unifying device, as
Jeanie opines, keeps us grounded and exposes us to the diversity of Pakistani culture (2010,
Para 4). The stories are mostly set in rural Pakistan. Overall the book shows how landlords of
this region exploit their tenants, workers, relatives and their women. Neary discusses the
position of the author, Mueenuddin, in the following words:
The author says he sees himself as somewhat of a translator, interpreting life
in a remote part of Pakistan for a Western audience. But he notes that he lives
between those two cultures — and is not really part of either. (2009, Para. 2)
This outsider’s sense of belonging neither to the West nor to Pakistan, and urge to
interpret life in Pakistan for a Western audience makes him appropriate English in his stories.
This technique not only adds flavor to his work but also brings authenticity to it as he himself
asserts in an interview with me (see appendix: Q. 1). Actually it is through this controlled
indigenization or appropriation that makes Neary believe that “he writes like an insider”
(2009, Para. 4).
A carefully administered counting shows that the total number of words used in In
Other Rooms, Other Wonders is approximately 75000. Out of which the number of Urdu
words is 305. The frequency of Urdu words used is 0.40 %. Out of the total 305 Urdu lexical
items, 283 (92%) are nouns, and 12 expressions of greeting, and the rest belonging to other
categories. In order to make the stories work, a few of these nouns have also been
contextually defined, for instance, “the charpoy, a bed made of rope” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p.
7).
One reason why the frequency of lexical appropriation or Urduization is kept below 0.50 is to
avoid this glossing which seems to affect the fluidity of the text. But if the frequency of Urdu
increases further the writers may also put a separate glossary as some Pakistani-American
writers, such as Bapsi Sidhwa in An American Brat (1996), have already done so and some
“might…have to include” it in their future works (see appendix: Q. 3).
It may be noted that the use of indigenous Pakistani expressions has been kept to a
very low percentage. Interestingly, however, out of the limited number of Urdu words used,
a predominant percentage i.e., 78% and 92% in Home Boy and In Other Rooms, Other
Wonders, respectively, is of nouns. So the formula is that out of this total space for indigenous
expressions i.e., less than 0.50% of the text, more than 75% is given to the names of things.
So indigenization is actually done through native untranslated nouns. This impact is reinforced
by the use of indigenous proper nouns such as “Musharraf,” “Karachi,” “Khan Sahab,”
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“Duniyapur,” “Lahore,” “Zainab,” etc., which are 393 times in Home Boy and 1413 times In
Other Rooms, Other Wonders.
Though controlled and limited, this Pakistanization of English in the texts under study
serves various purposes i.e., it has some favaid:
1. It exoticizes the stories for their Western audience. For instance, consider the
following sentence: “The sky had darkened, and the maulvi in the plain but large
marble mosque built by the Harounis had finished the Maghreb call for prayer,
standing on a platform, his voice reedy” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 67). As most of the
western readers of In Other Rooms, Other Wonders are not familiar with the concepts
of “maulvi” and “maghreb call for prayer.” So, the description helps create an
interesting exotic setting for the reader.
2. It also helps in ideological representations done on part of the author to note the
cultural distinctiveness of the conditions characters are in and those of the readers.
For instance, the narrator in Home Boy says: “As usual, I was informed that everything
was halal, and as always, Old Man Khan proclaimed, In the name of God, the
Beneficent and Merciful, before digging in” (Naqvi, 2010, p. 51). The use of word
“halal” and translation of Bismillah alludes to the ideological philosophy related to
what to eat and what not to eat as a part of faith of the characters of Pakistani origin
in a post-9/11 America.
3. Through the use of indigenized English, fictional texts represent cultural concepts.
Consider the following extract:
He
said:
"Tum
achay
bachay ho, "which translates to "You're a good kid," and after delivering
a pithy speech
invoking
unity,
faith,
and
discipline,
principles that guided his career, he offered me a job and his
hand. (p. 43)
Here tum achay bachay ho represents a Pakistani politeness norm according to which
elderly figures are found appreciating the goodness among youth and children. “Unity,
faith, and discipline” is an oft quoted slogan given by Quaid-e-Azam, the founder of
Pakistan.
4. The language is also indigenized for the sake of authenticity. As stated above these
writers spend their lives on border lines between East and West. In order to give an
impression that their works are the insider’s view, they use nativized language that
authenticates their position as writers who are aware of the local culture, languages,
belief system, etc.
5. Another function of the use of indigenized language is that it peppers the text and
savors the taste buds of its readers. This idea may be termed as chutnification (Snell
& Kothari, 2011) or samosa-quoting. Mueenuddin argues that it is “to give the flavor
of the place more effectively” (see appendix: Q. 1)
Naqvi believes that the reason he uses Urdu is that this language is “part of the fabric of
city.” So he does so to present what he observes in New York City. The objective he believes
to have met in doing so is “to own the city” and to “own the language” (See appendix: Q. 1).
On the other hand Daniyal Mueenuddin’s purpose of using expressions from Pakistani
languages is simple and straightforward: “To make the stories more "authentic" - to give the
flavor of the place more effectively” (See appendix: Q. 1).
The reasons why the language is not further Pakistanized is that it will affect the
communicability. More indigenized language may be inversely proportional to
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communicability of the text with the readers, particularly the western audience. H. M. Naqvi
has rightly pointed out that: “One cannot write a successful novel entirely in patois. It's not
only grating but doesn't quite work” (See appendix: Q. 2). However, he wants to employ more
Urdu in his upcoming novel that he reveals is set in Karachi. For this, he “might have to
negotiate certain concerns” (See appendix: Q. 3).
5. Conclusion
In this paper, I have reviewed the background of English in Pakistan and in literature and
also the history of its indigenization. In order to investigate why and to what extent fiction
writers indigenize English in their works, I have employed conceptual and structural
frameworks developed by researchers in World Englishes and postcolonial studies. The study
shows that Pakistani-American fiction writers indigenize and appropriate English language for
the purpose of cultural representations that not only exotify the texts but also enhance their
credibility and authenticity as realistic insider accounts of Pakistani culture. However, in order
to keep the communicability and comprehendability of the text intact it seems imperative for
the writers to restrict the ingredients of indigenization to a minimum possible level. In other
words the authors have to follow a certain formula of indigenization:
Pakistani lexical items up to 0.50% (with more than 75% nouns)
Proper nouns 400-3000 (2-10 per page)
Frequent use of many indigenous proper nouns also causes indigenization of language
as these proper nouns are contextualized in a particular socio-cultural setting. These texts
may be contrasted with the recently published self help book How to get filthy rich in rising
Asia (2013) by Mohsin Hamid in which the author does not intend to exotify or limit the novel
to a specific cultural or ideological context, so the language is not indigenized. No particular
indigenization formula has been used, no fruit taken.
The study also shows that the writers are conscious of doing indigenization and they
are aware of its purposes and restrictions (see appendix). The indigenization might be keeping
the brownness of the Brown Englishmen intact. The restriction might be keeping the
communicability intact.
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Thomas & Siebers, Lucia. Eds. World Englishes—Problems, Properties and Prospects:
Selected papers from the 13th IAWE conference. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Publishing Company.
Muthiah, K. (2009). Fictionalized Indian English Speech and the Representations of Ideology
in Indian Novels in English. PhD thesis, University of North Texas.
Naqvi, H. M. (2010). Home Boy. New Delhi: Harper Collins.
Rahman, Tariq. (1996). Language and Politics in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press.
Sidhwa, B. (1993). New English creative writing: A Pakistani writer’s perspective. In
Baumgardner, R. J. (Ed.). The English Language in Pakistan. 212-220. Karachi: Oxford
University Press.
Sinha, Surendra Prasad. (1978). English in India: A Historical Study with Particular Reference
to English Education in India. Patna: Janaki Prakashan.
Snell, Rupert & Kothari, Rita. Eds. (2011). Chutnefying English: The phenomenon of Hinglish.
New Delhi: Penguin Books.
Williams, Mukesh & Wanchoo, Rohit. (2008). Representing India: Literature, politics, and
identities. New York: Oxford University Press.
Yadav, R. K. (1966). The Indian language problem. Delhi: National Publishing House.
APPENDIX: ELECTRONIC INTERVIEW OF AUTHORS
H. M. Naqvi and Daniyal Mueenuddin, authors of Home Boy and In Other Rooms, Other
Wonders, respectively, were requested to answer a set of questions regarding their works.
Three of them are relevant to this study and hence given below along with the responses of
the authors:
Q. 1 What was/were the reason(s) for the use of expressions (lexical items/phrases, etc)
from Pakistani languages? What purpose(s), in your opinion, do these expressions serve?
H. M. Naqvi: As a writer, I feel I must impress my sensibilities upon the Queen's
English. So just as Ellison might use slang or patois, or Roth might employ Yiddish, or
Diaz might slip in Spanish, I will always put Urdu to work, especially when I try to
come at a subject like New City at the turn of the last century. After all, Urdu is part
of the fabric of city, from Coney Island to Little India. (I should mention in passing
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that I do use Yiddish and Spanish in Home Boy). In a way then, I can own the city. In a
way then, I can own the language.
Daniyal Mueenuddin: To make the stories more "authentic" - to give the flavor of
the place more effectively.
Q. 2 Will further Pakistanization/indigenization of English in these short stories make them
better or worse?
H. M. Naqvi: One cannot write a successful novel entirely in patois. It's not only
grating but doesn't quite work. One must be cognizant of striking some sort of a
idiomatic balance.
Daniyal Mueenuddin: Depends on how it is done.
Q. 3 Did the editors (of literary magazines or the collection) change (suggest changes to) the
Pakistani languages expressions into English or vice versa before the publication of In Other
Rooms, Other Wonders/ Home Boy?
H. M. Naqvi: I don't recall any great discussion about the use of Urdu in Home Boy by
Random House. I suspect, however, that my next publisher will bring it up. My next
novel is set in Karachi and employs more Urdu than the last. I might have to
negotiate certain concerns. I might, for instance, have to include a glossary. If my
publisher is foreign, international, what have you, I am, in ways, beholden to
concerns they might have given their audience, but I have to do what I feel I must.
Daniyal Mueenuddin: Not at all.
VALUING FAMILY OBLIGATIONS THROUGH AIMEE BENDER’S
THE GIRL IN THE FLAMMABLE SKIRT
JANICE C. GABAYAN, MA Ed.
English Studies and Other Languages Department
Cebu Normal University, Cebu City Philippines
ABSTRACT
Literature often portrays values; and Aimee Bender’s The Girl in the Flammable Skirt
is no different. Its core values are that of love and sacrifice. This short story is about an ailing
father who hands over his backpack made of stone to an offspring who is presumably a girl.
Due to the big responsibility, the girl is disillusioned by her situation. In portraying the main
character’s emotional explorations, Bender intertwines several elements together that at first
will seem ludicrous, especially that she pairs objects that do not normally go together.
The author jumps from subplot to subplot that do not seem related neither to the
theme of the story, nor to the series of events that transpire in the main plot. However, in the
course of the literary analysis it is discovered that meanings are hidden in the author’s unique
magical realist language.
Guided by the assumption that love for family will prevail in spite of a challenging
situation, the story is looked at through several prisms- mimetic, formalist, pragmatic and
linguistic. After much assessment, it is concluded that all the parts are connected in a bigger
way. In as much, it is ascertained that an important realization is given light by the story. These
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are the values of self-direction and purpose in dealing with obligations, even in the midst of
adversity.
INTRODUCTION
There is nothing more liberating than being carefree. Not worrying about anything is
a perennial dream everyone longs to experience especially among the young ones since they
are expected to be happy-go-lucky creatures. But as they get older, as more responsibilities
come into view, being carefree becomes a luxury or worse, remains nothing but a fantasy.
Day in and day out, children of several households share the adversities that families go
through. For some, they become participants of the ordeal as they are victims of the
circumstance, being a member of the household. But for a few, they willingly become a part
of it for the obvious reasons of pity, compassion and most importantly, love.
Seeking a way out of any form of difficulty is normal for any individual. For many,
alcohol, prohibited drugs, immature romantic relationships become a source of comfort from
an unsatisfactory life. Some find refuge in the untrue. This is when daydreams set in to
occupy what is real. In addition, among the various forms is getting lost in the world of
imagination offered by literature. Inevitably, the most famous theme is magical realism.
According to one academic, seeking comfort in stories about magic happens due to the
pressure of daily life (Edwards, 2011). She says that stories describing straightforward
communication and acceptance represent a symbolic retreat from the disappointment of
reality. A good example is how Children’s literature permeated the readership of adults not
so much because of language sophistication or convoluted plots typically expected by adults,
but because of the pleasure they give.
Life’s many tests, which in the first place grind people, are the same essentials that
mold them into knowing their very nature and reaching full potential. It is in this vein, and all
other discussions on how children in a family plod along in spite of many challenges, that the
textuality of Aimee Bender’s postmodern short story “The Girl in the Flammable Skirt” is
investigated through multi-dimensional critique and linguistic description.
This analysis focuses on (1) the theme as mimesis of life, (2) the dominant structural
element, (3) prevailing postmodernist features and their implications, and (4) readers’
significant human experience.
This paper of significance to teachers and students since in assessing students’
literary level of understanding, this multi-dimensional critic may give an idea to literature
teachers on the kind of literary experience she may assign students. But most importantly,
this is beneficial to every child, son or daughter, in a family. The many spectrums on this
piece of literature is viewed is imbibed with values that may strengthen family ties.
This textual analysis assumes that love will still reign over a household stirred by
obstacles. This assumption is supported by the literary critical theories of mimesis,
expressivism, objectivism, affectivism, postmodern criticism and the linguistic theories of
linear grammar, phrase-structure grammar and transformational grammar.
The mimetic theory of literature seeks to evaluate literature as an imitation or
representation of life. This is based upon the idea of Plato and Aristotle. Plato regards the
artist as an imitator of imitations. Aristotle, on the other hand, treats imitation as a basic
human faculty, which expresses itself in a wide range of arts. For him, this world is real but
incomplete so the poet endeavors to complete it through the imitation. Thus, poets are both
imitators and creator. In contrast to him, Plato opines that artists lack creative power
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(Gassner, 2009). Nonetheless, the Mimetic theory is the earlier way to judge a work of art in
relation to reality whether the representation is accurate or not.
Where the mimetic theory focuses on what the text is about, the objective theory of
Criticism focuses on how a text communicates this meaning to the reader. Also known as the
formalist theory, it pays special attention to how a text is put together (Clarke, 2012). This
theory leans on the linguistic properties of a text and sub-divides focus into theme, setting,
point of view, style, symbolism, dialog, and the over-all development of a text.
In as much, examining a piece of literature’s structure using linguistic theories is also
useful in determining how elements are woven together to form a work of art. Through a
description of the language, the author’s distinct way of conveying meanings in the selection
can be better appreciated.
Aside from the formalistic ones, theories involving emotions are very relevant in
analyzing a literary work. One of which is the Expressive theory which treats a literary work
primarily in relation to the author (Adams, 1971). It defines a literary work as an expression,
or product of the writer’s feelings. The theory tends to judge the work by its sincerity to the
author’s vision or the state of mind.
Another prominent theory is the pragmatic approach in literary criticism, also called
the reader-response theory. It is a school of literary theory that focuses on the reader and his
experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention
primarily on the author or the content and form of the work (Adams, 1971).
For the purpose of this study, only the literary theories of mimesis, structuralism,
expressivism and affectivism will be used. As well, structure will be analyzed through linear
grammar and transformational grammar.
Significantly, since the text in focus is a postmodernist literary work, Postmodernist
theory of Criticism is given importance. This approach concerns itself with the ways and places
where systems, frameworks, definitions, and certainties break down. Also called poststructuralism, postmodernist theory maintains that frameworks and systems are merely
fictitious constructs and that they cannot be trusted to develop meaning or to give order
because there exists no singular truth or a unified order. This claim pertains to
transformational grammar’s surface and deep structure, which in post-modern literature
becomes unstable and “decentered”.
METHODOLOGY
This is a qualitative study that focuses on discourse analysis to generate data in order
to answer the variables under study and to satisfy the main problem. This study comes in
three phases that examine the literary work’s internality. It looks into the following parts:
plot, setting, point of view, style, symbolism and dialog.
The first phase involves the analysis of Bender’s theme as imitations and
representations of realities. Phase two draws out the prevailing post modernist features. In
this stage, implications based on literary and cultural structures will be given on the features
that will be identified. Phase four considers the reader’s response in interacting with the text.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This section presents the data obtained from the textual introspection.
Phase 1 A Mimetic Reading of Aimee Bender’s The Girl in the Flammable Skirt
This critical reading argues that Aimee Bender’s short story “A Girl in Flammable Skirt”
signifies a strong love for a parent that pushes toward willingness to sacrifice one’s own
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happiness. In the course of the story, readers will come to know that the main character is a
young school girl burdened with family problems that any child her age would wish to escape
from, yet she took her share of the difficulties because of strong paternal love. This claim is
supported by the critical theory of mimesis which considers a text to be a representation of
reality.
The story opens with “When I came home from school for lunch my father was wearing
a backpack made of stone. Take that off, I told him, that’s far too heavy for you. So, he gave
it to me. It was solid rock.” This line suggests that a heavy burden, here represented as a
backpack made of stone, is passed on from a parent to the child.
The story developed with the child asking “Can’t we just put it down somewhere?”.
Then the father answered “No the backpack must be worn. That’s the law.” So the child went
on her days with the backpack slumped on her back. For a time she became so used to it that
she has lost orientation on what is heavy and light. At this point, it can be observed that
whenever individuals get used to a hardship, the experience loses its identity for it becomes
a natural phenomenon to the one involved. This is true for the story’s main character. Yet she
realized the weight of her burden when a teacher brought her a Kleenex because she wants
to show the girl something that is light. This incident opened the child’s eyes.
Her realizations created illusions of a happier, more exciting life. She keeps secret an
imagined lover in her closet, whom she finds comfort in. Her imaginations bring Paul to say
“Come inside. Come join me.” This reveals that at times she feels tempted to stay in Paul’s
world. But she understands that it is something very hard to obtain. As the line in her
imagination suggests, “It is hard to kiss. As soon as I turn my head to kiss deeper, the closet
door gets in the way”. But sometimes, this desire becomes too strong that she becomes
devoid of reason “Paul shoves the door open and pulls me inside with him. He closes the door
and now its pitch black. I can feel his breath near mine, I can feel the air thickening between
us”. But she lets go of this desire, “I start shaking all over. He lets me out when I start to cry”.
This shows that she suppresses her desires although she finds consolation from her
troublesome life by escaping reality.
The reason for this is revealed in her lines during a particular interaction with her
father.
“I love you more than salt, I said. He seemed touched, but he was a heart attack
man and had given up salt two years before. It didn’t mean that much to him, this
ranking of mine.”
The protagonist openly admits her love for her father. This makes her do tasks that she
believes pleases him. She sits for many hours watching him wheel around in his wheel chair
and asks permission to stand whenever she needs to go to the bathroom. This is a clear display
of the willingness to stick it out with the sick father. For many a time, she starts knocking on
wood because after long hours of sitting she falls into dangerous thoughts of wanting her sick
father to die.
Knocking on wood is an old western superstition of making all bad luck go to the wood,
hoping that ill-conceived thoughts will not come about. Apparently, the main character’s
human tendencies fail her strong intention of caring for a sickly family member. However, in
the end, she fears the materialization of the idea.
Towards the end of the story when the father was dying, she expresses indifference over
the incident but still wishes for the presence of the father regardless of the hassles he brings.
“He grimaces in agony. He doesn’t die though. This has happened a few times
before and he never dies. This whole deathbed scene gets a little confusing when you
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play it out more than twice. It gets hard to be sincere. At the hospital, I pray a lot,
each time I pray with gusto, but my prayers are getting very strained; lately I have to
grit my teeth. I picture his smiling face when I pray. I push that face into my head.
Three times now when I picture this face, it explodes. Then I have to pray twice as
hard. In the little hospital church I am the only one praying with my jaw clenched ad
my hands in fists knocking on the pew. Maybe they think I’m knocking on God’s door,
tap, tap, tap. Maybe I am.”
It is a natural human tendency to feel anything but glad for any inconveniences that life
can bring, but wanting the problems in spite of everything is something very remarkable. At
the conclusion of the story, the protagonist is at the side of the hospital, scot-free and young
in the world. “I am as breezy and light as a wing made from tissue paper. I don’t know what
to do with myself so I keep holding in tight to the bagel and sit down by the closet door.” When
the story started, she introduced a lover living inside her closet. And as scenes shift to the
hospital where the father lays dying, she is taken back to the door of the closet known to be
her escape. But surprisingly, this time she does not turn her back from reality.
“Where is my father already? I want him to come rolling out and hand over that
knapsack of his; my back is breaking without it.”
These very strong statements are symbolic of the kind of love that she has. Caring for
the father has given her an identity. Her days are well-directed with her father’s load that
without it she has lost her purpose. This is proven true by the ending of the story.
“ I think of that girl I read about in the paper- the one with the flammable skirt. She’d
bought a rayon skirt, purple with wavy lines all over it. She wore it to a party and was
dancing, too close to the vanilla-smelling candles, and suddenly she lit up like pine
needle torch. But what I keep wondering about is this: That first second when she felt
her skirt burning, what did she think? Before she knew it was the candles, did she
think she’d done it herself? With the amazing turn of her hips, and the warmth of the
music inside her, did she believe, for even one glorious second, that her passion had
arrived?”
Like the girl with the flammable skirt, she too had her youth burned because of her
father’s situation. Unlike other girls her age, she has to stay home and look after a sick
father when she should be out having fun and enjoying her youth. Remarkably, as she thinks
about the story, what she wonders is the onset of passion. This is in parallel with her
situation where instead of being consumed by the fire which is the troubles of her life, she
has found her purpose through a life of service, brought about by her love for the sick
father.
This affirms the assumption that Bender’s A Girl in Flammable Skirt displays a rather
imperfect love toward a parent, yet the kind that endures hardships just to prove that love.
Phase 2 A Formalist Reading of Aimee Bender’s The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Highlighting
Postmodernist Features and Their Implications
In an objective point to view, the text’s form or structure is given focus. Reading as a
formalist, this short story has excellent form and an intriguing unity that is subtly shown in
the text. The language used is filled with symbolism. This means that the ideas of each line is
not expressed in direct language but instead presented in a pattern of images that requires
readers to think.
It is also interesting to note that the story belongs to the magical realism genre. In the
story magical elements are a natural part of a realistic environment. Firstly, in realistic setting,
extraordinary objects are presented as if they are normal in life. These are dappled all over
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the text. To name a few are carrying a backpack made of stone and taking it to school and
keeping a lover in a closet.
The story opens with a father carrying a backpack made of stone that he passes to the
child. Considering the nature of a father, a backpack made of stone will most likely represent
the responsibilities of a father in family. Universally, fathers are known as providers. In fact,
in most cultures they are expected to be the stronger, more dominant sex. Being regarded as
breadwinners and protectors, they are expected to level with society’s standards.
Undoubtedly, this becomes a burden to the head of the family.
On a deeper level, the character that Bender presents in the story is an image of a father
burdened by a responsibility which he considers precious. Considering his frail condition since
he is described as a heart attack man, with a weak heart, weak legs and uses a wheelchair to
get around, yet he carries a thing so heavy. This leads readers to conjure the value he sets on
this responsibility or burden.
The act of giving this heavy backpack to the child, “Take that off, I told him. It’s too heavy
for you. So he gave it to me”, is a gesture of passing on that responsibility to his offspring.
Inevitably, the child experiences the same hunching over that the father did when he was
carrying it. I hunched over the bulk and couldn’t sit down because it didn’t work with chairs
very well so I stood, bent, in a corner while my father whistled, wheeling about the house,
relaxed and light and lovely now. These lines are in every way meaningful. The child, whose
age is not revealed, took over the responsibilities that the father considered important.
In the context of society, paternal responsibilities are passed on to the male child.
However, in the story, it can be inferred that the main character who speaks in the first person
point of view is a female. She is portrayed with an escapist character. Whenever things don’t
go right, she finds refuge in the comfort of Paul, the boy she is hiding in the closet. At some
point, she gets lost in Paul’s affectionate gestures. Similarly, toward the end of the story, she
was called Darling by the second character-the father. These few evidences lead one to
conclude that the character is indeed a girl.
Entrusting the responsibility on his daughter would mean he has immense trust on his
offspring. Additionally, it can be inferred that he wants the child to be like him. To experience
what he has gone through. Whether this made a positive or negative impact is relayed in the
final paragraphs of the story. This surprise ending gives a subtle yet unifying effect to the
whole selection.
Intricate ideas in the story are string together in sentences with simple structures and
simple everyday vocabulary that it would seem the narrator is one with the reader in
discovering all the parts of the story. Interestingly, it takes deep thinking before one may
notice that all the parts are in adherence to the theme of the story. This is because Bender’s
style does not make use of unified imagery: a poststructuralist tendency to focus on the ways
in which texts themselves undermine structures.
In traversing the plot, Bender’s style of writing is similar to a story frame where a story
within a story is told. Wikipedia describes a story-within-a story as a literary device in which
one story is told during the action of another story. The inner stories are told either simply to
entertain or more usually to act as an example to the other characters. In either case the story
often has symbolic and psychological significance for the characters in the other story. There
is often some parallel between the two stories, and the fiction of the inner story is used to
reveal the truth in the outer story. Although this style has been around even before the time
of Chaucer, this is usually common in modern literature.
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However, although similarities are apparent yet Bender’s prose defies the definition of
this literary style.
In The Girl In The Flammable Skirt, Bender incorporates stories within that are unrelated
to the main plot. Unlike Emily Bronte’s story frame in Wuthering Heights where she used a
story in telling about Heathcliff and Catherine’s past, Bender integrates a stories with obscure
relevance to the plot. Considering the main event in the story which is about a father passing
on a burdensome responsibility, it is hard to locate the connection to rats hanging out in the
labyrinth and the girl in the flammable skirt who was seen dancing when her skirt caught fire,
especially that the story frames mentioned are presented without clear transition from the
main plot’s action.
This style is a standout character of postmodernism where structures are string
together in what would seem like incoherent sentences thus causing the text to appear
unstable. Bender’s prose has many of these characteristics. Foremost, the narrator’s identity
is a mystery. Readers are left inferring with gender, age and other attributes that would
construe him/her a realistic child in the family. Only very few clues will lead one to believe it
is a girl. Secondly, instead of finding order in the main character’s troublesome life, she thrives
in its complication. The author shrewdly eschews the possibility of meaning in the events. In
addition, story frames in the story are in total disarray with the situations in the main plot.
She jumps from one plot to another and connects elements with unlike things. For example,
after the narrator’s teacher showed her a Kleenex to compare with the backpack made of
stone on her back, Bender follows up this part with a two rats in the labyrinth.
This story is ensued with events that go on in the main plot. With not much clue about the
reason for such sequence, readers tend to get lost in the selection. In the later part, mice
appear as the main character is praying for her father’s recovery. The part about the mice
goes on without a clear link to the main plot of the story. As this paragraph finishes, another
story frame is presented.
These postmodernist tendencies and their implications are worth considering to find
out their significance in the story. In this next phase, the tendencies mentioned will be given
meanings.
The first story about the two rats in the labyrinth illustrates individual differences. Each
one is set with different chances and circumstances. The weight of a burden is relative to the
one carrying it. A yoke that’s heavy for one person may be light for the other.
Bender’s style gives the impression of situating such substory in this way to explain that
to the teacher who showed the stone-backpack-carrying-protagonist, a Kleenex are in many
ways different. To her this burden might seem impossible, but to the girl it is bearable. The
teacher sees herself as a rat. But the protagonist thinks, she’s better than the rat, she’s a doga much stronger being.
The second story about the two rats poking in the hole is symbolic of the character’s
situation at the time when her father’s condition was serious. At the time when she was
burdened with responsibility, she meant the whole world to her father. She felt important.
But when her father was dying she is taken out of the spotlight. This makes her feel
insignificant and purposeless, which leads her to say her back is breaking without the
knapsack made of stone.
The last substory which bears the title of the prose is positioned as the ending. This is
to reiterate that in the midst of trials, passion may be realized. Like the dancing girl who may
even for a second thought her burning skirt that caught fire was caused by the fire of her
passion- her true love.
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Further, this last framestory shows that Bender’s prose depicts a story about life. It
sends a message that people are all wearing flammable skirts; that any moment that skirt may
burn, but in the fire, passion and the purpose for living may be found. This is a reminder of
how delicate this life is, but the beauty of it is brought by its frailty. It teaches that each
weakness has a strength that can only be discovered at a compromising time.
The Girl in Flammable Skirt attempts to depict a modern fairy tale that prospers in
the intricacies of a modern complicated rock song, yet possesses depth, contemplation and
parallelism to modern life that the mass can identify with.
Phase 3 An Affective Reading of Aimee Bender’s The Girl In The Flammable Skirt
This critical reading assumes that Bender’s prose draws on the psychology of a family
to relay the emotions felt in a postmodern home that is stirred by domestic struggle.
This assumption is supported by the literary theory of reader-response, which Adams
(1971) asserts as the critical theory where the poem or literary text is seen in its relation to
the reader.
The very first thing that will catch the reader’s attention is the fact that it is the male
head of the family that is portrayed with a heavy responsibility. These may lead them to ask
if this is due to the society’s expectation of a father to bear the load of the household.
Secondly, although the gender of the narrator was not explicitly stated, some significant clues
in the story lead one to believe that the offspring he gives the “backpack” to, is a female. It is
not a common practice of a society to pass on family obligations to women, especially not to
the Filipino family. Although times are modern, most families stick to the conservative ways
of giving big responsibilities to the male children. This gives readers a realization of the
significant shift of the women’s roles in the family.
Incidentally, the short story gives the reader a feeling of poignance over a childhood
spent on service to an ailing father. Throughout the story, it can be seen that the main
character was compassionate and considerate. In spite of the unrealistic elements of the
story, she is portrayed to be purely human, that alongside the benevolence of her heart are
dangerous intentions of wanting to get out of her difficult situation. Yet, in the midst of her
tears, her good intentions win her over.
These are the times when she realizes how much she loves the sick father, that she has
given up most of her fantasies to attend to his needs. In as much, through living in her reality,
she has learned that a great deal can be admired in the abyss she is in. She has realized her
purpose in living. And with the weight she carries in her shoulders, she found life’s direction.
Simply put, the responsibility given by the ailing father has benefitted her more than
it did harm. However these realizations will not have materialized if she has not willingly
carried her cross. And that willingness, needless to say, springs from her great love to the
unwell family member.
Therefore, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender is a story that brings
about deep emotions on the readers in considering the unselfish sacrifices of a family member
to make her home a happy one.
In a capsule, the following are revealed in the findings.
1. A Girl in Flammable Skirt signifies a strong love for a parent that pushes toward
willingness to sacrifice one’s own happiness. The title is in parallel with her situation
where instead of being consumed by the fire which is the troubles of her life, she has
found her purpose through a life of service, brought about by her love for the sick
father.
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2. Bender’s short story is a postmodernist magical realism that has excellent form and
an intriguing unity that is subtly shown in the text. The language used is filled with
symbolism. This means that the ideas of each line is not expressed in direct language
but instead presented in a pattern of images that requires readers to think.
3. The Girl in Flammable Skirt attempts to depict a modern fairy tale that prospers in the
intricacies of a complicated rock song, yet possesses depth, contemplation and
parallelism to modern life that the mass can identify with.
4. On a reader-response level, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender is a story
that brings about deep emotions on the readers in considering the unselfish sacrifices
of a family member to make her home a happy one.
CONCLUSION
Based on the foregoing findings, it can be concluded that Aimee Bender’s The Girl in
the Flammable Skirt presents a situation parallel to life. It contends that despite any turmoil
that will stir a family, love will prevail. And this love is the driving force that gives meaning
and purpose to life.
Recommendations
For a more comprehensive analysis on the postmodern elements of Bender’s work,
a comparison with another literary work from a different time is recommended. In addition,
a better understanding of the text may be achieved through a background study of the
author’s life. Further, to validate the reader-response theory, it is recommended that
responses from diverse readers will be consolidated. A feminist criticism may also be exp lored
to enrich criticism.
REFERENCES
Books
Adams, H.(Ed.). (1971). Critical theory since Plato. San Diego:Harcourt Brace Jonavich,
Pub.
Marcus, B. (Ed) (2004). The anchor book of new American short stories. Toronto: Random
House of Canada Limited.
Electronic Sources
Edwards, A. (2011, Sept 23) Does Harry Potter magic away the stresses of modern life?
Adults seek refuge from reality in children's fantasy. Mailonline. Retrieved from
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Clarke, J.P. (2012) Literary form and genre: The objective approach to criticism/formalism.
Retreived from
http://www.rlwclarke.net/Theory/Notes/ArtsLiteratureFormandGenre.pdf
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166-166. Retrieved February 13 2009 from
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X00161591
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http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/08/
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_within_a_s
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The Batswana’s Belief Systems as a Product of their Indigenous Proverbs
Reginald Botshabeng Monyai
Department of Educational Studies
Tshwane University of Technology
monyairb@tut.ac.za
ABSTRACT
A belief system is usually associated with what one or a group of people cherishes and
is prepared to sacrifice everything for. For a group to be grounded, their belief system needs
to be governed by principles and rules. These principles and rules are essential as a vehicle to
transmit a culture’s best interests safely, economically and quickly. Three key principles are
important in this paper, and they underpin the centre of African culture, ubuntu/botho
intimately. They are the principle of first come first served, the principle of democracy as well
as that of caring for society’s weak. The following model will be used to clarify the above
principles:
Ubuntu based principles and rules model (U-b-PRM)
The paper will conclude by arguing that the proverbs and all lore that are associated
with a people’s pride, in conjunction with that people’s principles, rules, regulations and
values, serve to promote meaningful co-existence. The educational essence of principles is to
govern the conduct of a people by providing them with knowledge. The rules and regulations
serve the purpose of social control by arming a people with the necessary skills about life and
decorum. The values embodied in proverbs help in dealing with attitudes and attitude change,
which expedite an enhanced and stress-free interaction.
Keywords: ubuntu; culture; principles; rules; proverbs
1 INTRODUCTION
The identity and self-acceptance of any sensible nation is rooted, among others, in its
cultural fibre. This is in line with the Setswana saying: rona re na le rona (we have us to
ourselves). By fibre here it is implied the ethos on which a nation is founded. Educationally it
is important that culture be handed down from one generation to another. Since every people
determine the highest good for its members according to their needs and plans for the future,
such will be maintained, retained and where necessary, adapted to suit the changing times.
The Batswana, as do all cultures of the world strive to preserve, develop and sustain their
proverbs. Nkumane (1999: 1) asserts that this preservation is not only needful but obligatory.
She argues:
Human beings not only participate in the transmission of their
culture, or its reshaping, but they are in turn also shapes by it. Even in
this fast technocratic era, culture still influences our lives to a great
extent… Culture is not really something we have a choice in keeping or
discarding. It is in us and for us. It appears that no one can escape from
it. Without it we would be empty shells…
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2 BACKGROUND
The Batswana belong to a Sotho section of the Bantu group that originally occupied
the vast expanse of Botswana, the eastern sections of Namibia, the north-west part of South
Africa, some western parts of Limpopo province in South Africa. For them to exist as a
people, they had laws (in the form of principles and rules) and systems of governance to
ensure implementation of these laws. “Historically, the leadership structure of a nation
(Morafe/Sechaba), consisted of a Kgosi/Morena, who was the chief and a member of the
royal family, his family members and their servants. The kgosi was the ultimate authority,
who devoted all his time to the tribe and was constantly on hand to help people with their
problems. He was responsible for law and justice, defence, the health of the tribe, controlling
the wealth and bringing rain” (available online at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotho%E2%80%93Tswana_peoples#Origins accessed on 21
August 2013).
Chapman (1972) in Appendix E of Maboea (1995)’s thesis: The task and role of the educator
in moral and values education, gives a detailed discussion of the need for rules in society. He
says that rules and principles are necessary in society provided they are good. He indicates
that rules and principles let a person to learn from the past experiences of other people;
and they are a way of passing on appropriate counsel from one person to another as well as
from one epoch to another. These rules are key because the youth, due to acculturation, do
not seem to understand, and have to be aligned (Motshabi 1995)
3 PRINCIPLES BASED ON THE U-b-PRM
These principles and rules are essential as a vehicle to transmit a culture’s best
interests safely, economically and quickly. Culture has a cohesive function in the sense that it
acts like a sticky medium that binds society together. People always want what they
experience to be shared with others, as Johnson and Medinnus (1974: 219) emphasize that a
people who share a set of beliefs, values and practices, and relay these to their young ones,
actually share a culture. Three key principles that steer the culture vehicle are discussed in
this article, and they are (a) the principle of first come first served, (b) the principle of
democracy as well as that of (c) caring for society’s weak. The next section discusses these
principles, and also embraces the use of proverbs as a strategy to preserve these principles.
The result is that instead of dealing with a discussion of proverbs, it will be values based, since
the proverbs are discussed together with the principles. Also, of importance here, is that the
centre (ubuntu/botho) cannot stand on its own as a point for the same reason that it is a
golden thread that runs through the principles, rules and value system of a people. The
relationship is exemplified hereunder after the following model:
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Diagram 1: Ubuntu based principles and rules model (U-b-PRM)
Philosophy,
belief systems
Princibles &
rules
Ubuntu/
Botho
Linguistic
idiosyncracies
Lore: Provebs
& Idioms
3.1 The principle of first come ﬁrst served
The Batswana have respect for time and planning. Consider the proverb di nwa ka go
dibosana (one should not overstay his or her welcome). The educational significance of this
proverb is that the cow that arrives first at a river is first to drink and the rest will follow
accordingly. It also implies that the first one should not overstay its welcome since there are
other things that might need to be attended to. Figuratively then it suggests that one has to
be on time to finish their business and carry on with life. This proverb complements a cardinal
value of punctuality, which presupposes the virtue of diligence. Expediency in executing one’s
duties and responsibilities is fundamental in the upholding of the principle of first come first
served.
In any organization, punctuality reveals commitment, interest in what one is doing,
preparedness (morally and materially), and capacity to perform as the old saying goes:
punctuality is the politeness of Kings and Queens. This expression is testimony to the fact that
punctuality is a principle, perhaps even a rule which, although not enacted as law, is essential
to the smooth running of a group of people. To show that a Motswana cherished this
principle, when a lepatata (animal horn) was blown, no sane man would question the purpose
thereof, hence the proverb pilediwa e a lwelwa (respond to a call without hesitation). Again
the centre is involved, which suggests that I am because you are. One is only able to
appreciate their immediate needs if they are able to understand the needs of the larger group.
This notion puts perspective in one’s positional relation to others. For example, the Grade ten
and eleven examinations under the auspices of the Gauteng Department of Education are
common, with the implication that schools have to wait for the timetable from the GDE before
they can draw up their local timetables according to their needs analysis.
This does not necessarily mean blind following or unnecessary bureaucracy. It calls for
consultation and discussion. The bottom line though is that to a Motswana, mošate (palace)
is revered and honoured, and a man who knows what it means to respond speedily to a Kgosi
(king)’s call, is likely to impart the principle to his descendants, since it is intertwined with the
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centre, ubuntu/botho. The children too will be able to decipher and put into practice the
proverb moleta ngwedi ke moleta lefifi (make hay while sun shines), whose educational
significance is time bound. It teaches a Motswana’s child that he or she should attend to his
or her commitments while sun shines, which is a metaphor of youthfulness, energy, of vitality
and limelight. Essentially, a Motswana‘s child will understand that old age is not the time for
begging, but for unwinding and enjoying the fruits of one’s hard work during youth.
It would be inappropriate to leave out what one feels summarizes all proverbs that
relate to time and therefore the principle of first come first served, that is, la ka moso ga le
tlhabe kgomo (ill preparedness is not productive). Morero (planning) is a very big thing to a
Motswana. As such, it cannot be done in a haphazard way. It has to be planned and executed
according to plan. The cow in this proverb has a deeper symbolism than meets the eye. It
represents the seat of connection to the ancestors; it stands for life, for union and reunion.
How these proverbs relate to one another and ultimately arrive at the first come first
served principle is amazing. Planning, as evident in la ka moso ga le tlhabe kgomo (ill
preparedness is not productive), presupposes a sense of time management as found in moleta
ngwedi ke moleta lefifi (make hay while sun shines). This automatically comes if one
understands that pilediwa e a lwelwa (respond to a call without hesitation), to show respect
for time. Finally, a person who appreciates all these attributes of good living, is likely to know
that di nwa ka go dibosana, and will therefore value time.
Since the principle of punctuality is not enacted but essential, groups, leaders of
institutions like schools, universities and the corporate world should agree on what it means
to be punctual, and collectively adopt a stance which should be adopted by all and sundry,
including management, as a means of social control. This rubs off automatically to immediate
members of the family of a group in question, and is likely to increase productivity levels of a
community. For instance, a father who suddenly becomes punctual at work will compel the
spouse to see to his lunchbox earlier than before, and thereafter either prepare herself for
her other responsibilities on time. Traffic congestion might be reduced significantly, with
fewer chances of road fatalities that occur usually because people leave home late and rush
unnecessarily. The chain goes on and on to an extent that people become less stressed up
because of less pressure to make up for lost time. Products of the system, for example, school
children, who shall have adopted the principle of punctuality, will grow up as being on time,
and thus become more productive. This might sound simplistic in a way but it goes a long way
in producing healthy personalities who relate with others in a healthy fashion.
3.2 The principle of democracy
As an aspect of human speech, proverbs are socially driven. They are intended not
only as poetic devices in speech, but also to promote human survival. Nyembezi (1974: XI)
explains that to acquire the status of a proverb, an expression has to be accepted by other
people. Such an expression should not be forced down their throats, but has to appeal to
them. According to Forster (1968: 304), “proverbs represent a validation of accepted values,
a criticism of behaviour that does not conform to those values, a rulebook for successful living,
and a continuing commentary on the scene”. Certainly the values that Forster refers to are
the principles that govern social coexistence and also promote group thinking.
For the Batswana to function under control they had certain forms of governance,
which included the family, the kgotla and ultimately the mošate. The performative nature of
the Batswana demanded of them to know their norms and customs by heart. They depended
on proverbs to pass judgments or to warn offenders and would-be offenders. This way of
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running the affairs of either one‘s homestead, one’s kgotla and so on, placed the principle of
democracy at the top of their agenda. Cases had to be solved in a just and similar manner to
avoid discrepancies. All people at a kgotla had the democratic right to air their views whether
they were right or wrong. The proverb motla kgotla o bua la gagwe (everyone has the right
to say their say during a council’s session) is proof of that. In other words, one would not be
silenced because of their status in the community. There is also the proverb ngwana yo o sa
leleng o swela tharing (a child who does not complain will not have his or her problems
attended to) to show that indeed one has the right to raise their concerns.
Other proverbs include molaya kgosi o abo a e itaela (the law treats all equally), which
suggests that certainly all members are equal, including those who connive with the king for
their unselfish ends. The educational value of this proverb is that the very law or rule that one
imposes on others can be applied to him or her as well.
Perhaps one most appropriate proverb that puts into perspective the principle of
democracy is loso ke ngwetsi ya malapa otlhe (no one escapes death). It is a super statement
whose educational significance is that we might not be equal based on skin pigmentation,
wealth, intelligence and other attributes, but we all submit to the inability to sustain life.
This point of democracy should be adopted as an intelligent means to be proactive.
One thing extraordinary about the gift of God to man is the ability to think, and therefore to
be accountable for his or her deeds. Good leaders should know that people think and emote,
and should be respected for that. For example, a preacher in church who ignores the pain of
rich people when stressing the message that a camel can pass through the hole of a needle if
wealthy people can enter the Kingdom of the Lord, will not only repel these people from
church, but also encourage unconditional, morose and taciturn obedience among those who
remain in the fold.
A living example of the embodiment of ubuntu/botho as being central to his mode of
living is the former State President of South Africa. Rory Steyn, Mandela’s Chief Bodyguard
tells of an unusual violation of conventional protocol by Mandela when he tells them: “smile
when you push the people” (Patta 2000: back page). This is counter training and expectation
on the part of the bodyguards, but it goes a long way in teaching them that life is not all about
protocol and bureaucracy, but about feeling too. Principles of batho pele (people first) and
letsema (altruistic, collective working together) fit nicely with this principle of democracy, for
it is a good leader, he or she who acknowledges the partnership they have with their juniors,
as evident in the popular ANC slogan ‘comrades in arms’.
3.3 The principle of caring for society’s weak
A society that does not cater for those who have become economically nonproductive is as good as lost. Umanji, a Tsonga songwriter and singer says in a song Moloi: “le
se ke la re bolaela bonkgono ba rona, ke badimo ba rona”. The responsibility one is entrusted
with, as a youth is to see to the survival of those who are old and unable to work as well as
people with disabilities. The Batswana who know the value of communion and botho, might
find it very strange for people to take their parents to so called old age homes, if indeed they
were homely. We can go on and on to show how integrated these principles and values are
in the belief systems of a Motswana. For instance, a wife to a last born son in a household, if
properly brought up according to humanism and all that goes with it, will have to understand
that she is the mother of all those who are going to grow old before she does, starting from
parents-in-law to all those who got married before, which might include her sisters-in-law
who may be unfortunate as to return home after broken marriages. Such a bride understands
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that her home is head office and central court. She is likely to exude the values of honesty,
tolerance and respect for life. This aspect appears to have been lost to us, but should be
reclaimed.
4 THE VALUES IN RELATION TO A BELIEF SYSTEM
The permanence or durability of a building depends on its foundation. As such, there is
no way a culture can sustain itself and its people if it does not have a base, which has
persistently been referred to as the centre in this paper. In the words of Luthuli (1985), in Soni’s
article: The significance of culture in education; “Obviously there is a Black philosophy of life
for Blacks. Blacks have values, norms, beliefs and convictions, they have attitudes, behavioural
patterns and ways of reacting... it is to this group that they would like their adults-to-be to
belong...” (\/ital volume 11. no 11. 1997: 16). In support of the above, Letsie and du Plooy
(2005: 09) assert that the core of culture is formed by a system of values, which are broad
tendencies to prefer certain states of affairs over others. For the Batswana, this system of values
is better explained in how they view their most valued commodity, kgomo (cow).
In one conversation with a senior member of council of a Tribal Authority, the following
was revealed about the head of a slaughtered beast. The head, for starters, belongs to
malome (maternal uncle). The tongue is to be eaten by mmamalome (wife to malome)
because she leads the ululation, which is done through the tongue. Here one is reminded of
the Northern Sotho proverb: wa sa reng šate wa duma (the one that does not ululate during
a happy moment is full of jealousy).
The jaws are given to the negotiators who were sent to ask for sego sa metsi (bride)
because they represent speaking. The proverb kgomo e tshwarwa ka dinaka, motho ka
loleme (speak, so that I can know you) would have a connection here. The ear lobes are given
to borakgadi (paternal aunts) because it is believed that they are troublemakers and are
mischievous also. It can be seen therefore that each part of a cow is loaded with meaning to
a Motswana, and form part of his or her philosophy.
It stands to reason that humanism is the buzzword for unity among Africans. The
promotion of humanism is not the responsibility of the parents only but also of educators and
curriculum planners, who have the success and love of the African child at heart (Luthuli 1978:
106). It is different to capitalism in the sense that an African believes that he or she can and
should benefit from the existence of the fellow African. This feeling is mutual and acceptable.
Humanism provides for the recognition of individual differences in relation to how these bring
people together. The virtues of mutual understanding, of patience and of cooperation are
evident in the timeless anecdote of a blind but physically strong man who had to carry a
physically disabled one on his shoulders for them to manoeuvre the hostile world. It
happened that the man on the shoulders saw food and directed the blind man to it. Upon
arrival they quarrelled over whom the food belonged to, which resulted in them falling and
consequently been separated. The consequence was that neither of them could proceed on
his own, and they were therefore stuck together again.
5 CONCLUSION
The Batswana, like any self-respecting nation, are a people with integrity, whose
philosophies are their God-given heritage, without which their culture will perish. It is the
researcher’s view that the Batswana are able to determine their future, and sustain their
means of social control without being apologetic. This pride at expressing our highest good
extends beyond the borders of the family unit, for as propounded by Structuralism, societal
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components are a reflection of the larger picture. According to Pilane (2002: 04), distinctive
for the Batswana are their culture and customs, their traditional songs, traditional clothes, as
well as their distinctive marriage customs, ways of honouring their ancestors and chiefs and
beliefs in traditional healing and witchcraft. Cultural identity is partly constituted by the
cultural practices that identify and distinguish a tribe.
In the final analysis, the proverbs and all lore that are associated with a peoples pride,
in conjunction with that people’s principles, rules, regulations and values, serve to promote
meaningful co-existence. The educational essence of principles contained in the proverbs is
to govern the conduct of a people by providing them with knowledge. The rules and
regulations serve the purpose of social control by arming a people with the necessary skills
about life. The values embodied in the proverbs help in dealing with attitudes and attitude
change, which expedite an enhanced and stress-free interaction. The school, in modern times,
should be able to cater for these values, and if these values have an educational significance,
and are contained in education, then Linhard is right when he says “education pays, because
you will be poorer without it” (Linhard et al. 1985:119).
REFERENCES
Nkumane, KG (1999) Themes of Forced and Forbidden Love: Cross-cultural Trends in
Language Literatures with Special Reference to Zulu Novels. Unpublished PhD Thesis.
Pretoria. Vista University.
Maboea, LTL (1995) The Task and Role of the Educator in Moral and Values Education.
Unpublished PhD Thesis. Pretoria. Vista University.
Motshabi, E. V. N. (1995). The influence of self-concept on the future image of Batswana
adolescents . Unpublished PhD Thesis Potchefstroom. PUKO.
Johnson, R. C., & Medinnus, G. R. (1974). Child psychology: Behavior and development. New
York: Wiley.
Nyembezi, CL (1974) Zulu Proverbs. Johannesburg. Witwatersrand University Press.
Forster, E. A. (1968). The proverb and the superstition defined (Doctoral dissertation,
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania).
Steyn, R., & Patta, D. (2000). One step behind Mandela: the story of Rory Steyn, Nelson
Mandela's chief bodyguard. New Holland Books.
Soni, PD (1997) The Significance of Culture in Education. Vista Teaching and Learning.
Pretoria. Vista University.
Letsie, M and du Ploy H (2005) Who killed Kesentseng? Cultural knowledge and
narratological analysis in the interpretation of the Setswana short story “Ga le a ka la
tswa” (“Doomed to die before dawn”) by B.D. Magoleng. Literator 26(1) April
2005:101-116
Luthuli, PC (1978) A Zulu-oriented Education and School System. Unpublished PhD Thesis.
Pretoria. Unisa.
Pilane, GE (2002) An Analysis of The Construction of Tswana Cultural Identity in Selected
Tswana Literary Texts. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Potchefstroom. Potchefstroom
University for Christian Higher Education.
Lindhard, N. (1987) Guidance in the Classroom. Pearson South Africa.
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How East Meets West in English Subtitles for Four Genres of Thai Movies
Sasi Aotarayakul
Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia
Mahidol University
aotarayakul.sasi@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Movies are one of Thailand’s major exports playing a vital role in terms of economy,
art and culture. In recent years, Thailand has earned over 600 million dollars annually from its
movie industry, including both domestic sales and exports. Thai movies also have received
increased recognition at international film festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival at which
a film by Apichartpong Weerasethakul, a Thai film director, was awarded Palme d'Or. As a
means of entertainment with artistic value, Thai movies also reflect local culture and way of
life. It is, therefore, inevitable that, due to linguistic and cultural differences, communication
problems arise when Thai movies are shown to non-Thai audiences. However, it is not only
such linguistic and cultural constraints, but also technical limitations that challenge
translators in conveying culture-specific meaning through English subtitles.
In this qualitative research, funded by Thailand’s Film Archive (Public Organization),
the content analysis method was employed to study how culture-specific terms in Thai movies
are translated in English subtitles. Categorization of Thai culture-specific terms is mainly
based on the five types of cultural terms proposed by Eugene Nida (1964) while an analysis
of the subtitled English version follows the taxonomy of translation strategies described by
Mona Baker (1992). According to the research results, the translation strategies used in the
four movie genres studied, namely, ghost movie (Phobia 2), drama (Song of Chaophaya),
comedy (The Little Comedian) and historical movie (Thai Unsung Hero) include: 1)
generalization, 2) specification, 3) cultural substitution, 4) explanation, 5) transliteration, 6)
omission, and 7) word-for-word translation. The results show that the genre of the movie
determines the choice of words used in its translation and, occasionally, cultural elements in
the source text have to be adapted in the translation to fully reflect the intention of the movie.
Keywords: culture, subtitles, Thai movies, translation
1 INTRODUCTION
Movies are entertainment media which play a role in reflecting the reality of society,
culture, and way of life. Moreover, they are considered as historical records in which
evidences of different periods such as lifestyles, changes, and even ideas and beliefs have
been presented. Accordingly, movies are important heritages that are worth studying by later
generations. It can be said that a movie is a factor that enables the spread of languages and
cultures from one society to another. People can learn the way of life and ideas of people
from different cultural backgrounds through movies.
The first movie was created in 1895 by the Lumière brothers who projected a short
movie from a Cinématograph in Paris, France. After that, this kind of movie-making was
spread to other countries, including Thailand. In 1897, a movie was shown for the first time
in Thailand, and 3 years later, the first Thai movie business was founded by a member of the
royal family. As Thai people became more interested in movies, they became important
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business opportunities which could be seen from the increasing numbers of cinemas and
imports of foreign movies to Thailand, especially during the Second World War (Chamroenlak
Thanawangnoi, 2001: p. 201).
Since then, movies have become one of Thailand’s major trading products. At present,
advanced technologies allow people to communicate more conveniently and more widely –
from local to regional communication. This results in fiercer economic competition, which has
become part of Thai people’s lives. To cope with such competition, Thailand has put an effort
to develop its economy and movie export is one of its strategies.
In 2010, The Ministry of Culture had a policy to improve Thailand’s movie industry by
granting 200 million baht to fund movie making whose content was related to Thai culture
and society (Ministry of Culture, 2010). In 2012, realizing the benefit to be derived from
cultural value, the Ministry of Culture launched a five-year plan (2012-2016) to promote
movie and digital content industry in order to establish Thailand as the hub of the movie
industry in Asia (Ministry of Culture, 2012). Moreover, Thai movies have received worldwide
recognition in international film festivals such the Cannes Film Festival in France and the
Pusan International Film Festival in Korea.
For a movie to be publicized worldwide, it is essential that communication problems
be avoided in terms of both language and culture. Subtitles are often needed to overcome
such problems, but even so, they cannot fully resolve all translation problems since each
culture has a different linguistic system. Some terms have specific meaning that can only be
understood by people in that culture. This makes subtitling a challenge for translators. As
language is part of culture, it is important to know and understand the cultural and societal
rules of the target language.
As a result, this research aims to study how culture-specific terms in Thai movies are
translated into English. The Thai movie industry is developing and this research hopes to
offer a useful method for translators in terms of subtitle translation and the translation of
culture-specific terms. Possible improvements in English subtitling can hopefully earn Thai
movies greater popularity and enable non-Thai audiences to better understand Thai culture.
2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
The theories reviewed in this research include theories about culture, translation,
and subtitles. The main theory about culture is Eugene Nida’s “Five types of Sub-culture”
(1964) under which culture is categorized into 5 types, namely ecological culture, material
culture, social culture, religious culture, and linguistic culture. As for translation strategies,
Mona Baker’s “Non-equivalence Solutions” (1992) is adopted as a main theory and is
supported by Sanchawee Saibua’s “Translation Techniques of Adjustment” (2007),
Phimphan Wessakoson’s “Thai to English Translation” (2012), and Díaz Cintas & Remael’s
“Subtitle Translation” (2007). Relevant researches in the field of culture and translation,
especially culture-specific term translation with technical limitations, were also reviewed.
3 methodology
a. Movie Selection
In this research, the Thai movies selected for study are in the form of DVDs with English
subtitles and were bought from the following 2 sources:
1) Home country source: 4 movies were bought from DVD stores in the business area
of Bangkok, Thailand
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2) Outside home country source: 2 movies were bought online from the website
named www.yesasia.com and another 2 movies were borrowed from a person who had
bought the Thai movies abroad.
All 8 movies were watched and culture-specific terms were simultaneously recorded
according to Nida’s “Five Types of Sub-culture” (1964). Considering the need for a sufficient
number of culture-specific terms in total, and a variety of movie genres, the 4 movies finally
selected were: the ghost movie (Phobia 2); the drama (Song of Chaophaya); the comedy
(The Little Comedian); and the historical movie (Thai Unsung Hero).
b. Translation Analysis
To analyze the accuracy of the subtitled English versions, the meaning of the culture-specific
terms in the source text were analyzed first and followed by an analysis of translation
strategies employed in the subtitling. Also, the following peripheral factors were taken into
account:
1)
Meaning of the translated text
2)
Context in the movies
3)
Technical limitations of subtitling, notably the fact that, as Díaz Cintas & Remael
(2007: p. 23) claims, viewers are able to read only 70 to 74 characters in 6 seconds
4 Results
The strategies found in this research do not completely follow those suggested by
Baker (1992). Some strategies are consistent with the ideas proposed by Sanchawee Saibua’s
“Translation Techniques of Adjustment” (2007), Phimphan Wessakoson’s “Thai to English
Translation” (2012), and Díaz Cintas & Remael’s “Subtitles Translation” (2007), whereas some
are of the new findings. The translation strategies used in translating 4 movie genres include:
1) generalization, 2) specification, 3) cultural substitution, 4) explanation, 5) transliteration,
6) omission, and 7) word-for-word translation.
a. Generalization
In the case that a word in the source text has a very specific meaning and is difficult to
translate, the use of a word that has broader meaning is applied to cover and include the
meaning of the word in the source text. An example of this strategy can be seen in a scene
from Song of Chaophaya.
The situation is this: Saeng makes his living delivering river sand and uses his tugboat
as a transport travelling along the Chao Phraya River from the countryside into Bangkok.
However, his wife, Prang, is bored with living on the boat so she leaves Saeng for Aree, a
woman who has promised Prang to make her a star. In this scene, Saeng looks for Prang and
discovers Aree’s address. The address is written on a piece of paper which Saeng
accidentally got wet. The text is fading but the name of the road “Sukumvit” is still legible.
Tubtim, Prang’s sister who lives on the boat with Saeng, tells Saeng that this road is very
long which makes it impossible to find the exact address without something more specific.
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Example
Tubtim
ซอยอะไรละพ่
But which street?
ถ้ าสข้ ม้ วิทน้้มนยาวตง้
แตทน้้ ้้ไปจรดตราดเลย
Sukumvit is from here to Trad.
(Song of Chaophaya)
The Thai word “ซอย (soi)” in this example means an alley or a lane that runs off from
the main road. In Thailand, there are varieties of “soi” which are usually small and narrow.
Even though most “soi” along Sukumvit road are in fact quite wide, “Soi” to Thai people’s
mind is smaller than a “street”, the word used in the translated version, as there is always a
“soi” within a “soi”. The translator makes use of the different meaning of “road” and
“street”. Between the choice of “road” which means the long piece of hard ground that
connects two places in “Sukumvit Road”, which means the long piece of hard ground that
connects two places in “Sukumvit Road”, and “street” which means a road in a town with
houses along it, the translator’s use of, “But which street?” seems to better represent the
concept of “soi” and convey a more appropriate image of the alleys along Sukumvit road.
b. Specification
This technique contrasts with the one in 4.1 in that the word used in the translated text
has a more specific meaning than in the source text.
A following example is taken from The Little Comedian. In this movie, Doctor Ice is
pregnant and wants to keep it a secret from her boyfriend who is studying abroad. However,
she tells Tock, a 12-year-old boy who accidentally discovers her secret, that she is afraid that
if she tells her boyfriend it would force him to give up his scholarship in order to come back
to marry her and this would ruin his future. Tock is surprised to hear this and expresses
admiration.
Example
Tock โห
นางเอกละคร
อยางกบ้
My goodness, you sound like Rose from Titanic.
(The Little Comedian)
The underlined Thai word, “Nang Ek La Korn” means the main female character of a Thai
drama who is stereotypically self-sacrificing. Tock compares Doctor Ice with a leading female
character because of what she says about her boyfriend. Usually, the main female character
in western movies is not so self-sacrificing but rather confident and independent. However,
Rose from the movie Titanic represents a similar character to the common Thai one as seen
from her willingness to give up her luxurious life for her lover. As the universally recognized
heroine of the famous movie Titanic, reference to “Rose” is chosen as a representative of
Thai heroines to replace the culture-specific term in the original text.
c. Cultural Substitution
This strategy is used to replace culture-specific terms in the source text with one more
familiar to the target audience. As Baker (1992: p. 31) suggests that the substituted terms
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might not have the same meaning, but the reader can at least appreciate the concept that
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the movie communicates. In this research, culture-specific terms that are substitutions relate
to people, social titles, taboo words, jokes, religion-related terms, Asian cultural elements,
and address terms.
Example
Saeng
พ่ พ่ จ าได้ หร้อเปลาเม้้อวานซน
Mister, do you remember the woman
พม่ าร้บผ้ หญ้ิ งคนหนึ่งตรงน้ ้
You picked up from here yesterday?
(Song of Chaophaya)
The above example is from the movie Song of Chaphaya in which the wife of Saeng, a
tugboat sailor, leaves him for a more civilized life. Saeng goes looking for her and recognizes
a taxi driver who had earlier picked his wife up. He addresses the taxi driver whose name is
unknown as “พ”่ , a term translated as “Mister”.
The term “พ่ (Pee)” in Thai, meaning the elder sibling (male or female), can be used as
an address term for respectfully addressing an older person. Because the social structure of
Thai culture is based on family-like relationships, Thai people usually call strangers by terms
of kinship such as brother, aunt, or grandmother. The term “Mister”, according to Collins
COBUILD English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (2001), is used specifically by children to
address a man whose name they do not know. It can be seen that, even though the full
cultural implications of the family-like social structure of Thai society is not retained in the
translated version, the replacement, “Mister”, does not distort the main effect of the
conversation and lends an appreciation of the relationship between Saeng and the taxi driver
as well as Saeng’s attitude and manners toward him to the target audience.
d.Explanation
This strategy is applied from one of Baker’s theories, “paraphrase using unrelated
words”, suggesting modification based on “unpacking the meaning of the source item” (1992:
p. 38). For cases in which the word in the source text has a complex cultural meaning whose
concept does not exist in the target culture, the word is sometimes translated by explanation.
Example
Lord Wisetchaicharn
ม้พิธ้ถ้อน าตามราชประเพณ้
there was a Water of Allegiance to the King’s drinking
ceremony
(Thai Unsung Hero)
In the above example, the underlined term can be directly translated as traditional
water-holding ceremony which normally takes place when a new king is crowned. It is
compulsory for members of the royal family, noblemen, and civil servants to participate in
order to pledge loyalty by drinking consecrated water. The translation as “a Water of
Allegiance to the King’s drinking ceremony” explains the characteristic of the source-culture
ceremony by using words like “Water of Allegiance” and “drinking ceremony”.
The translation by explanation requires many characters in one line to accurately
convey the meaning and illustrate Thai culture. In this case, the subtitle is shown for 4
seconds, which should theoretically consist of no more than 50 characters. However, in order
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to transfer the meaning of the original culture-specific term in detail, this subtitle takes up to
63 characters.
e.Transliteration
Transliteration allows the target audience to read and pronounce the Thai words
easily. It is mostly used with proper names, for example, the transliteration of names and
ranks in Thai Unsung Hero:
พระสมทรสงครามเป้ นเก้ยกกาย
Lord Sumutsongkham is Kiak Kai.
The situation here is the assignation of military leaders by the king. The term
“Sumutsongkham” is the title that comes with the social rank of a nobleman while the term
“Kiak Kai” is an ancient Thai military rank referring to the head of the military department in
charge of food supplies or commissariat. It can be seen that the term “Kiak Kai” can actually
be translated into, for instance, “Head of Commissariat”. However, with only 2 seconds
available screen-time, the translator might be required to make it very concise by using the
strategy of transliteration.
Moreover, this strategy is sometimes used in combination with translation. For
example, a proper name of a place, “Pho Temple”, is rendered to indicate the category of the
place in question – in this case, the temple. More interestingly, this research found that,
sometimes, proper names are not translated using the transliteration method. An example is
raised from a name of the character in the comedy movie, The Little Comedian. His name, “ยอด
ส น (meaning the top of the pine tree)”, is directly translated as “Pine-top” instead of being
transliterated as “Yodson”. This case may be explained in a sense that the character “Pinetop” is a dwarf. So his physical characteristic which belies his name’s meaning founds a
sarcastic joke. Therefore, the translation technique is well applied to serve the movie’s
objective.
f.Omission
According to Baker (1992: p. 40), omission is acceptable in certain contexts,
especially when the meaning of a culture-specific item is not important enough to justify
providing an extended explanation.
Example
Senior monk วางลงเถอะ
Please put it down.ของในหฺมรฺ้ ้บเขาไว้ เลย้
งเปรต
(Phobia 2)
Those offerings are for the Hungry Ghosts.
The example above, taken from the horror movie, Phobia 2, illustrates a southern Thai
custom involving the belief in hungry ghosts. The people of southern Thailand believe that, at
certain time of the year, their ancestors are able to return from hell in the form of hungry
ghosts. In preparation, they hold a traditional ritual to make merit and offer food to these
ghosts by arranging food in any kind of containers, such as a basket, and putting the foodfilled containers called “หฺมรฺ้ ้บ (pronounced in Thai as ‘Mub’)”, the underlined word in
question, in the temple. The situation in this movie occurs during this time. It is a story
about a new novice who gets hungry at night, but in Buddhism, eating at nighttime is
prohibited for monks.
147
So he secretly searches for food in the “Mub” that people have set aside at the temple for
hungry ghosts. While he is cooking instant noodles he has found in a “Mub”, a senior monk
catches him. The senior monk knows where the novice got his instant noodles from, so he
asks the novice to stop and explains that the instant noodle is an offering for the hungry
ghosts and not supposed to be eaten by humans.
The sentence with the underlined word in the example can be translated into English
as “The offerings in ‘Mub’ are aimed to feed hungry ghosts”. However, the word “Mub” is
understandably omitted in the translation because it contains a very specific cultural concept
that needs a detailed explanation. Also, the use of “those offerings” makes what the senior
monk refers to quite clear enough for the target audience.
g.Word-for-Word Translation
In this research, word-for-word translation is the replacement of words in the source
text with equivalent English words. This technique preserves the meaning and cultural
implication of the source text. However, it may not allow the target audience to get a true
idea of the particular item in question.
Example
Dech
น้ องเม้ยมงสกก้ิ นได้ แล้ วน้้หวา้
Your sister-in-law is ripe enough to be eaten.
Saeng
ไอ้ เวร
You have a dirty mind.
ทบ้ ทิมเพ้ิ ้งสิบห้ าเม้้อน าท่แล้ วเอง
She’s just turned 15 on last spring tide.
Dech
อยางน้ส้ กก าลงก้ิ นเช้ยวมง้ึ
It’s just ripe.
เย่ยวยงไมฉ้ นอยางน้ ้
Her pi doesn’t stink yet.
(Song of Chaophaya)
This is an interesting example of linguistic culture from the Song of Chaophaya. In this
context, Dech and Saeng are playing chess when Dech notices Tubtim, Saeng’s sister in law,
taking a bath wearing a sarong. Dech teases Saeng as he had noticed that Saeng and Tubtim
are very close. Dech uses idioms to describe the sexual nature of the content of his
observation. Using Thai idioms, Dech first compares Tubtim to a ripe fruit which implies that
Tubtim is already fertile. This comparison may be derived from the name of Tubtim, which
means pomegranate in Thai. Then, from the context, he uses another idiom to suggest that
Tubtim is still young. The underlined phrases in English are literally translated from Thai, and
sound strange as there is no such concept in western culture. Although the audience can get
a rough understanding from the context, this word-for-word strategy may not be useful when
applied to a target audience who do not appreciate the significant cultural distinctions.
5 CONCLUSION
Thai movies can truly reflect the reality of Thai society and culture, especially as a
means of recording history. In this research, 197 cultural terms were found, most of which
belong to linguistic culture, followed by terms related to social culture, material culture,
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religious culture, and ecological culture. Each movie genre reflects different types of culture.
In drama and comedy movies, utterances reflecting linguistic culture were found the most
whereas religious cultural terms were used in the ghost movie more than in other movies. Of
all, the historical movie category revealed the highest frequency of socio-culture terms used.
The categorization of culture-specific terms in Thai movies reveals one of the unique
characteristics of Thai culture, that is, its profound relationship with Buddhism. This is
reflected in Thai beliefs and ideas, and subsequently expressed, both directly and indirectly,
in most conversations. More importantly, the dialogue of characters in movies can depict the
Thai way of life such as the word “Mub” in Phobia2 that connects the object to local traditional
rituals. In this way, movies can play a vital role in portraying Thai culture. If the translation
and subtitling are to the highest standards, together they will underpin the development of
Thai movie industry and preservation of Thai culture.
The research results show that there is an attempt to convey the cultural meaning of
the source text. The strategy that is applied the most is cultural substitution. This strategy
may be the most appropriate way in subtitle translation as the translation can offer the
concept in a way that is understandable to the target-culture audience without taking up too
much space on the screen. Because of the complicated nature of Thai culture as well as the
limited space available on movie screen, the culture-specific terms may need to be
semantically adapted or omitted. This adaptation, in my opinion, has a positive effect on the
subtitles as it allows the target-culture audience to get the same “feeling” and “flavors” as
the source-culture audience in a way that the preservation of the source text’s meaning may
fail to do.
Moreover, to make the target-culture audience really understand and moved by the
same “feeling” as the source-culture audience, recognition of movie’s genre is important. If
the translators understand the objective of the movies they are translating, they can select
the translation strategy that suits the objective better, such as, the translation of jokes in a
comedy movie. However, there is no one fixed strategy for a specific genre, especially movies
that contain different types of culture-specific terms.
As Snell-Hornby (1995: p. 42) suggests, proficiency in two languages may not be
sufficient to create good quality cross-cultural translation; the translators need to understand
the culture of both the source text and target text. This “bicultural” knowledge enables
translators to make the right choice of words.
REFERENCES
Baker, M. (1992). In Other Words. New York, NY: Routledge.
Chamroenlak Thanawangnoi. (2001). History of Thai Movies from the Beginning to the End of
World War II. Bangkok: Thammasart University.
Collins COBUILD English Dictionary for Advanced Learners. (2001). Glasgow: HarperCollins.
Díaz Cintas, J. & Remael, A. (2007). Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling. Manchester: St Jerome.
Ministry of Culture. (January 12, 2010). Ministry of Culture Grants Bt200-Million to Make
Thai Movies Universal. Retrieved from http://www.mculture.go.th/detail_page.php?sub_id=953
Ministry of Culture. (2012). Promotion Strategy of Movie and Digital Content Industry 2 nd
Phase (2012-2016) Thailand: The Asian Hub of Movie and Digital Content. Retrieved
from www.m-culture.go.th/policy/ckfinder/userfiles/files/SLPW/Asian.pdf
Nida, E. A. (1964). Linguistics and Ethnology in Translation-Problems. In D. Hymes (Ed.),
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Language in Culture and Society: A Reader in Linguistics and Anthropology (pp. 90-97).
New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Phimphan Wessakoson. (2012). Thai to English Translation. Bangkok: Thammasart University.
Sanchawee Saibua. (2007). Principle of Translation. Bangkok: Thammasart University.
Snell-Hornby, M. (1995). Translation Studies: An Integrated Approach (Rev. ed.). Amsterdam:
John Benjamins.
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Proceedings of International Conference on Languages

Transcription

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