How consciousness-raising affects intonation and facilitates reading comprehension.

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on an investigation about the relation between a student's conscious awareness of the structure of a sentence and the degree of his/her intonation accuracy as well as his/her reading comprehension.

The research was done based on the hypothesis that: " if the students are made conscious of the infrastructure of lengthy sentences i.e., of subject and predicate division and of the relative and other WH-clauses, they are more likely to read the sentences 'correctly and with greater comprehension.

To examine the validity of the hypothesis, different groups of ESP students of different years were observed at Shahid Bahonar university of Kerman. They were, first, taught how to divide a sentence into subject and predicate and also about the form and function of WH-clauses.

Next, the application of the student's knowledge of sentence was examined whenever one of them seemed unable to read a sentence correctly. At this point, the student was asked to show the borderline between the subject and the predicate by identifying the verb at the beginning of the predicate. The next thing to do was to ask the student to read the sentence again. If he/she succeeded to read the sentence with the correct intonation, then he/she would be asked to translate it into L1. In case there were words that were unfamiliar to the student, they were ignored and the main idea of the sentence would suffice.

At last, the cross-tabulations of their immediate response to consciousness-raising with reading comprehension and intonation showed a 100% of improvement. This hypothesis proved the hypothesis.

Key words: Consciousness-Raising, Subject, Predicate, Reading Comprehension, Intonation, Language Awareness

INTRODUCTION

Language awareness and its use in language teaching has recently received considerable attention, referring to the development in learners of an enhanced consciousness of and sensitivity to the forms and functions of language. Carter (2003) one investigation in this regard, was reported to have examined "whether negotiated help provided within the learners' zone of proximal development (ZPD) is more effective than help provided randomly... ." Nassaji & Swales (2000) findings of the investigation are said to have supported the consciousness raising view of language learning.

The relation between consciousness and language learning is also accounted for by Van Lier (1998) elaborating on the issue from an ecological perspective. The writer sees consciousness and language as integral parts of human ecology.

Meanwhile, the pros and cons of grammatical consciousness raising in English as a second or foreign language pedagogy have, for long, argued that meaningful research on the effectiveness of consciousness of formal instruction must abandon notions of the accumulation of language entities and consider consciousness raising with regard to grammatical processes and learners' progressive restructuring of prior knowledge that is, building upon the body of knowledge they have already accumulated. This final view is in tandem with what the advocates of noticing maintain as in the following where Schmidt argues for the role of consciousness in language acquisition in terms of the Importance of noticing the input

It seems that if [R] was to learn and use a particular type of verbal forms, it was not enough for it to have been taught and drilled in class. It was also not enough for it to occur in input, but [R] had to notice the Input ... [R] subjectively felt as [he] was going through the learning process that conscious awareness of what was present in the input was causal.

The research problem in this investigation is the fact that complex sentences seem to be a burden for second language learners to handle. One reason for this could be the fact that most often it is difficult for the second/foreign language learners to break through the nutshell, for example, to locate the borderline between subject and predicate (c.f. Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik 1987). So, they read such sentences in a "shooting-in-the dark" fashion and consequently, the text will become almost incomprehensible for both the reader and, if read aloud, for the listener.

To solve the problem it was decided to examine two main principles: 1) that "A language cannot be taught. One can create conditions for learning to take place." (Celce-Murcia 1991: 4) and 2) the questions "What are the conditions that facilitate and promote SLA in the classroom?" and "How can we bring about those conditions?" (C.f. Ellis 1993). For this, the findings of such investigations as that by L'Huillier & Udris (1994) were studied. The study aimed to explore the extent of LA (Language Awareness) in French L2 learners and to examine the factors which control their recognition of meaning and their understanding of a written communication. They found that when L2 learners approach a text, criteria of familiarity, expectation of meaning, and the teaching context are important. They found also that the more awareness of the codes and structures of the L2 the learners have, the more able they are to make enlightened choices to read efficiently. In addition, they concluded that a critical reading strategy in L2 teaching could help learners to enhance their understanding of the coherence of the text.

With regard to the aim of their investigation they (L'Huillier & Udris 1994) maintained that "the intention was to help the students become aware of the way the organization of grammatical tools in a given written or oral French context brings out a specific message."

The following basic points were extracted from the abovementioned research:

1) The factors that enter into their recognition of meaning and their understanding of a written communication.

2) The importance of criteria of familiarity, expectation of meaning, and the teaching context.

3) The positive relation between awareness of the codes and structures of the L2, and their ability to make enlightened choices to read efficiently.

4) The use of a critical reading strategy in L2 teaching for learners to enhance their understanding of the coherence of the text.

5) Consciousness raising about the way the organization of grammatical tools in a given written or oral French context brings out a specific message.

In the present investigation, consciousness about subject/predicate division was examined as a factor, which may enhance the students' ability to recognize meaning, and to understand written texts. (C.f. no. 1 above) Also, the fact that: consciousness about "how the organization of grammatical tools (no. 5 above) brings out a message" may lead to improved reading qualitatively and quantitatively was examined in the form of consciousness-raising about the infrastructure of the complex sentences. It was expected that the students will, as a result, use the technique as a reading strategy (C.f. no. 4 above) leading to their cumulative amount of awareness of the codes and structures of the L2 and hence, to their growing ability to make progressive choices to read efficiently.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Sampling was haphazard of a judgmental type. This was because there was no other choice than waiting for the cases to appear. So it took a long time for the researcher to come up with a reasonable number of subjects. The only option observed was equal time period (one semester per group) for all the groups under investigation. Therefore, the investigation was carried out longitudinally.

Subjects were several groups of ESP students majoring in different fields of engineering, natural sciences, art and library sciences, etc., at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. The important criteria of familiarity, expectation of meaning, and the teaching context (no. 2 above) were provided with ESP textbooks.

The students were not aware of being used as the informants of the study. They were told at the beginning that they were required to learn to analyze the sentences, and that they would be checked randomly in that regard once in a while.

As the informants had already completed some courses in English as a foreign language in high school, subject/predicate relation in sentence was reviewed briefly to make sure they understood the concept. This syntactic relation was introduced comparing the Persian structure with the English i.e. through contrastive analysis. Next, I made them practice this with simple English sentences, which were gradually substituted with some more difficult and complicated ones going up the ladder of abstraction. Later, they were asked to do the reverse. That is, they were asked to take the flesh out and reveal the skeleton showing the basic simple structure, to see the rational order of the elements of sentences more clearly.

Afterwards, the essential components of an English paragraph were introduced inductively to make them aware of the coherence of the text in a wider scope. This was done based on the assumption that they would become more confident in the use of the strategy. For this, the informants were asked to think and decide about the main point made by the writer in every paragraph of the reading text which they were assigned to in their ESP course book. As their attention was directed toward the usefulness of looking for ideas rather than words, and how understanding the cohesive relations between sentences would help comprehension, they were again referred to the subject/predicate relation. All these were justified as a way of improving one's rate and speed of comprehension. In a way, this is an example of DEC-PRO procedures, changing declarative knowledge into procedural and maintaining it, (Johnson 1996: 102). This type of minimal-enhancement consciousness-raising (c.f. Sharwood-Smith 1994) is used as a facilitation strategy to substitute for instruction. The strategy of "facilitation rather than instruction" is recommended by the writers like Johnson (1996) who maintains: "In most general terms the question is how we may assist mastery of a second language by means of some form of facilitation."

The course work would proceed with reading, vocabulary, grammar and translation. During the reading-aloud task, whenever a student read a sentence with a wrong intonation, the following tasks were carried out:

* An asterisk (*) was inserted before the sentence showing that the sentence was included as a case in the study.

* The informant was asked to analyze the sentence and show the verb, which was the beginning word of the predicate.

* Then s/he was asked to read the sentence aloud if s/he could read it with a correct intonation, then s/he was asked to give the meaning in L1, i.e. Persian.

* If s/he showed improvement in either/both oral production or/and reading comprehension a plus sign (+) was put before the sentence and if there was little or no change a minus sign (-) was used.

To control the validity of the correlation between consciousness-raising and comprehension (or correct reading) a different task was also performed as follows:

1. The student was asked to read the problematic sentence a second time while intonation was checked and if it was done correctly, a check mark was put next to it, if not, a minus was put there.

2. If the student did it right then the comprehension would be checked.

3. If the comprehension was achieved another plus sign would be put there.

Reverse questioning was another task for both checking the validity of the experiment and also directing the informants' attention towards the usefulness of conscious analysis of the sentences. This happened whenever a question was put to the teacher by a student, asking about the meaning of a sentence s/he had difficulty with. The teacher (the researcher) would proceed this way:

1. The teacher would put another question back to the student asking the student about the division between subject and predicate of the same sentence.

2. A backward arrow (instead of the asterisk) was inserted next to the statement to show this type of sample sentences.

3. Once the task was performed and the sentence was analyzed the teacher might ask the student if s/he still wanted the sentence to be translated for him.

4. If the student said s/he didn't need it any more, (as the often did) then a plus sign was put next to it. Conjecture 

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 

For the ease of conjecture, the findings were tabulated. The following tables show the results for different groups in different semesters. Sample sentences and computation for the difficulty level of the texts are given after each table.

Sample sentences (general English texts):

1) The skull of a dinosaur tells us what its head looked like.

2) Near the shore where the water is not so deep, live fish and see animals that we know better.

3) Of all the 900 species of bats, not one kind is the fearsome creature seen in scary movies.

Flesch Reading Ease [206.835 - (1.015 x ASL) - (84.6 x ASW)] = 83.2 While a score of 60 to 70 is aimed for in most of the standard documents, the above score shows that the chosen text is easier than expected.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level [(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) - 15.59] = 5.7

ASL (Average Sentence Length) = 16.3

Here, the score shows the text used is easier than expected which is a score of 7.0 to 8.0. (of Grade Level) The score shows the grade level of those who can understand the document.

Sample sentences:

4) A common treatment for premature babies born with potentially fatal jaundice is to bathe them in blue light, which for reasons not fully understood, eliminates the need to transfuse their blood.

5) If we take the colors separated out by Newton's prism--red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet--add the transitional color red-violet (which does not exist in the rainbow), and arrange these colors in a circle, we have a color wheel.

Flesch Reading Ease [206.835 - (1.015 x ASL) - (84.6 x ASW)] = 38.6

Flesch-kicaid Grade Level [(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) - 15.59] = 12

ASL (Average Sentence Length) = 36

Sample sentences:

6) Throughout the school day, teachers and students / use library materials in the teaching and learning process.

7) To help solve this and other problems, many research libraries / cooperate in buying, cataloging, and sorting books and magazines.

8) For example, the materials in a chemical company's library / deal chiefly with chemistry.

Flesch Reading Ease [206.835 - (1.015 x ASL) - (84.6 x ASW)] = 35.4

Flesch-kicaid Grade Level [(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) - 15.59] = 12

ASL (Average Sentence Length) = 16

Sample sentences:

9) Most of us are familiar with the fact that any matter whether a liquid, or a solid, or a gas, is made up of molecules.

10) Electrons, which revolve in orbits around the nucleus of an atom, are easy to move.

11) Having mastered this power, scientists are now busily engaged in finding ways to use it for the betterment of mankind.

Flesch Reading Ease [206.835 - (1.015 x ASL) - (84.6 x ASW)] = 61

Sample sentences:

1) Since its development as a separate field, psychology has gone through an enormous expansion division and subdivision.

2) Indeed almost any problem involving human factors that industry or military establishments may encounter is dealt with in this profession.

3) This specialized training is obtained by serving as resident physician in a psychiatric hospital typically for three years.

4) Psychoanalysts must be given credit for helping us to appreciate the importance of an individual's childhood experiences upon one's life.

Flesch Reading Ease [206.835 - (1.015 x ASL) - (84.6 x ASW)] = 21.9

Flesch-kicaid Grade Level [(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) - 15.59] = 12

ASL (Average Sentence Length) = 18.7

Sample sentences:

1. Physics must therefore be regarded as an evolving subject, approaching closer and closer to the truth but never quite attaining it.

2. A physicist would be interested in the laws governing motion, since any piece of matter in motion would possess "kinetic energy".

3. Several everyday things operate on the principle of electromagnetism.

Flesch Reading Ease [206.835 - (1.015 x ASL) - (84.6 x ASW)] = 30.3

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level [(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) - 15.59] = 12

ASL (Average Sentence Length) = 17

DISCUSSION

All the tables have a column marked Int. and/or Comp. It refers to the cases when the researcher did not get the chance to mark intonation or comprehension separately because of the condition imposed by the situations.

The results of the first group, the Management student, indicate 100% improvement of intonation and/or comprehension. That is, all of the cases of subject-predicate analysis have led to improvement of either intonation or comprehension. (C.f. table 1)

Table 2 also shows similar results by the students of visual arts, i.e., the 100% of analysis led to 100% of improvement of both of the dependent variables.

Table 3 shows a different code i.e., 2R which means the student was made to repeat the sentence a second time. The code was listed under "not improved": the (-) sign in the same row under S-P analysis shows that no consciousness was raised in this case. So, in two of the three cases minimally enhanced consciousness of S-P analysis shows correlation with improvement in intonation and/or comprehension, while in one case lack of it and mere repetition indicates lack of improvement.

Table 4 describes the results of the engineering students. It is bigger and therefore, with a more diverse set of results. This is merely because the writer had the chance to work with different groups of them in different terms. While cases 4 and 14 show directly the positive correlation between consciousness-raising and improvement in both intonation and comprehension, cases 11, 12 and 20 indicate the fact in a rather indirect way. It was found that when repletion was not of any use in this regard, the third attempt (* 3 *) of using consciousness-raising strategy would help. Cases 9, 10 and 16 are, however examples of ineffective consciousness-raising. On the whole, 26 out of 29 subjects (86.6%), who received consciousness-raising either before the 2nd or before the 3rd attempt, overcame the difficulty.

In table 5, the arrows in the first, third and fourth rows indicate that consciousness-raising took place before the third attempt. In number 5, the arrows show that the same method of C-R was used as a basis for both intonation and comprehension in turn. So, all seven cases received C-R and led to improvement.

Similarly table 6 shows 84.6% improvement, that is, 11 out of 13 cases.

CONCLUSION

Facilitation seems to be more fruitful than mere instruction. However, this is not to be confused with a deductive approach to the instruction of rules, for which the students are supposed to memorize the rules out of context. In this facilitation approach, the students are assumed to have some knowledge of the rules in advance (at least procedurally). Minimal consciousness-raising, in this case about their already-possessed knowledge through questions can facilitate the development of correct intonation and comprehension. This is achieved by making them practice the application of structures contextually. Nevertheless as a necessary factor, it might not be sufficient because the process of learn-perform-learn (c.f., Johnson 1996) would not be complete unless we make sure the students apply the strategies (in this case using subject-predicate divisions to break through the semantic nutshells). Also, they need to get used to the act of bringing to the conscious level whatever basic rules and structures that may become necessary occasionally. In other words, consciousness-raising can be a facilitator to reading and to reading comprehension. However, as mentioned before, it is only a necessary means that may not be sufficient.

To make the terms (practice, consciousness raising, awareness of language, etc.) clear, the distinction made by Ellis (1993) was employed who is reported to have defined practice as: "... grammar activities that will require a learner to produce sentences exemplifying the grammatical feature that is the target of the activity." And consciousness-raising as: "... activities that will seek to get a learner to understand a particular grammatical feature ... but not require that learner to actually produce sentences manifesting that particular structure." (Hopkins & Nettle 1994)

According to The abovementioned writers, "teachers who engage in the teaching of grammar through consciousness-raising ... will opt to present the language for receptive use, rather than productive use, ...". They exemplified this in a teacher highlighting the form and use of the structure "have something done", to help with comprehension of reading passage without making any productive demands on the learners. This is called the linking of consciousness-raising and practice, which often takes place within the same lesson.

The present paper studied that kind of linking by highlighting the form, and by switch from teaching to learning. This is one answer to the question "What are the conditions that facilitate and promote SLA in the classroom?" and "How can we bring about those conditions? (Ellis 1993)

REFERENCES

Carter, R. 2003. Language awareness. ELT Journal, 57/1, 64-65.

Celce-Murcia, M. (ed.) 1991. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Mass: Heinle and Heinle Publishers.

Chamberlain, A. 1998. The consciousness-raising movement. Babel: Australia, 33/3, 14-17.

Ellis, R. 1993. Second language acquisition research: How does it help teachers?, an interview with Rod Ellis. ELT Journal, 47/1,3-11.

Hopkins, D. & Nettle, M. 1994. Second language research: A response to Rod Ellis. ELT Journal, 48/2.

Johnson, K. 1996. Language Teaching & Skills Learning. Oxford: Blackwell.

Krashen, S. D. 1999. Seeking a role for grammar: A review of some recent studies. Foreign Language Annals, 32/2, 245-57.

L'Huillier, M. & Udris, R. 1994. Research on reading awareness in French 12 learners. Language Awareness, 3/3&4.

Nassaji, H. & Swales, M. 2000. Vygotskian perspective on corrective feedback in L2: The effect of random versus negotiated help on the learning of English articles. Language Awareness, 9/1, 34-51.

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. & Svartvik, J. 1987. A Comprehensive Grammar of English. New York: Longman.

Rutherford, W. 1987. The meaning of grammatical consciousness raising. World Englishes, 6/3, 209-16.

Schmidt, R. & Frota, S. 1986. Developing basic conversational ability in a second language: A case study of an adult learner of Portuguese. In R. Day (Ed.), Talking to Learn: Conversation in Second Language Acquisition (pp. 237-326). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Sharwood-Smith, M. 1994 Second Language Learning: Theoretical Foundations. New York: Longman.

Van Lier, L. 1998. The relationship between consciousness, interaction, and language. Language Awareness, 7/2&3, 128-143.

MOHAMMAD SHARIATI

SHAHID BAHOHAR UNIVERSITY OF KERMAN, KERMAN, IRAN 

E-MAIL: <[e-mail]>

Table 1. The Students of Management

             S/P
Case       analysis       Intonation

                                   not
                      improved   improved

1             *
2             *
3             *
4             *
5             *
Total         5
Percent      100%

                      Minimally enhanced
                      consciousness (S-P
                      analysis)

Case         Comprehension       Int. and/or Comp

                        not                   not
           improved   improved   improved   improved

1                                   x
2                                   x
3                                   x
4                                   x
5                                   x
Total                               5          0
Percent                            100%        0%

             5/5      improved     5/5

             100%                  100%

Table 2. The Students of Visual Arts

             S/P
Case       analysis      Intonation

                                   not
                      improved   improved

1             *
2             *
Total         2
Percent      100%

                      Minimally enhanced
                      consciousness (S-P
                      analysis)

Case          Comprehension            Int. and/or Comp

                         not                       not
           improved    improved       improved   improved

1                                        x
2                                        x
Total                                    2
Percent                                 100%

             2/2       Improved         2/2
                     [right arrow]

             100%                       100%

Table 3. The Students of Library and Information Sciences

             S/P
Case       analysis      Intonation

                                   not
                      improved   improved

1             --
2             *
3             *
Total         3
Percent      100%

Minimally enhanced consciousness
(S-P analysis)

Case          Comprehension            nt. and/or Comp

                           not                     not
           improved     improved      improved   improved

1                                                   2R
2                                        *
3                                        *
Total                                    2
Percent                                 100%

                        Improved
                      [right arrow]

             66.6                       66.6

Table 4. The Students of Engineering

            S/P
Case      analysis       Intonation

                                  not
                     improved   improved

1            *
2            *
3            *
4            *          x
5            *
6            *
7            *
8            *
9
10
11
12           *
13           --
14           *          x
15           *
16           *
17           *
18           *
19           *
20           *
21           *
22           *
23           *
24           *
25           *
26           *
27           *
28           *
29           *
Total        29         2
Percent     !00%      6.89%
                                Total
                                Improved
                                [right arrow] 26/29
                                [right arrow]

                                3 cases of no
                                enhancement of
                                consciousness (mere
                                repetition)

                                3 cases of no
                                enhancement of
                                consciousness (mere
                                repetition)

Case            Comprehension              Int. and/or Comp

                               not                      not
            improved         improved      improved   improved

1                                             x
2                                             x
3                                             x
4               x
5                                             x
6                                             x
7                                             *
8                                             *
9                                                        *
10                                                       *
11                             x(2)          *3x
12                             x(2)          *3x
13                                            *
14              x
15                                            x
16                                                       *
17                                            x
18                                            *
19                                            *
20                             x(2)          *3x
21                                            *
22                                            *
23                                            *
24                                            *
25                                            *
26                                            *
27                                            *
28                                            *
29                                            *
Total                                         24         3
Percent                   [left arrow] +    82.75%     10.34%
                          [right arrow]

          Total               89.65%           not improved
          Improved                             [down arrow]
          [right arrow]     improved
          26/29            [down arrow]
          [right arrow]

          3 cases of no       0   0%          3         100%
          enhancement
          of
          consciousness
          (mere
          repetition)

          3 cases of no   26/29   89.6%      3/29      10.4%
          enhancement
          of
          consciousness
          (mere
          repetition)

Table 5. The Students of Education

             S-P
Case       analysis             Intonation

                                         not
                            improved   improved

1        [right arrow]                    2R
2             *
3        [right arrow]
4        [right arrow]
5       *[right arrow]         *         < >
6             *
7             *
                               1
Total         7
Improved =
Minimally enhanced
consciousness
(S-P analysis) =

Case        Comprehension       Int. and/or Comp.

                      not                   not
         improved   improved   improved   improved

1                                *3*
2                                 *
3                                *3*         2R
4                                *3*         2R
5           *
6           *
7                                 *
            2                     5
Total                 2+5
Improved =             7         100%
Minimally enhanced
consciousness
(S-P analysis) =       7         100%

Table 6. The Students of Computer Sciences

         S-P
Case   analysis      Intonation

                               not
                  improved   improved

1         *
2         *          *
3         *
4         *
5         *
6         *          *
7         *
8         *
9         *
10        *
11        *
12        *          *
13        *

Case      Comprehension            Int. and/or Comp.

                    not                            not
       improved   improved       improved        improved

1                                    *
2
3                                                   *
4                                    *
5                                                   *
6
7                                   3*              2R
8         *                          *
9
10        *                          *
11
12
13        *
       Total improved        11 [right arrow]     84.6%
       [right arrow]

       cases of no            2 [right arrow]     15.4%
       enhancement

       minimally enhanced         13/13            100%
       consciousness (S-P      [right arrow
       analysis)