It is not too elaborate to claim that the person who speaks a foreign language becomes another person and has a dual and distinctive identity. In other words, as a good speaker of English, I discovered that in some places where English is spoken in Oman, such as hospitals, universities and business enterprises, people look at me differently. This is because they develop an image that the English speaker is somewhat distinguished and therefore deserves a special or different welcome. This image of mixed identity has many times made me merit special treatment by many people, such as gaining more respect or appreciation. This is my own interpretation of what I have experienced, and yet to be researched through a study looking at the effect of obtaining a second language on the speakers image, as perceived by others.
Some researches supported what I discussed above. For example. Dörnyei and Ushioda (2009) argue that learning L2 is not confined to learning the linguistic features and the verbal codes of the language only but it also involves multifaceted knowledge about that language. He includes interrelated functions of the language as he states that
“motivation to learn an L2 presents a particularly complex and unique situation even within motivational psychology, due to the multifaceted nature and roles of language itself” :117) Language is at the same time: (a) a communication coding system that can be taught as a school subject; (b) an integral part of the individual's identity involved in almost all mental activities; and also (c) the most important channel of social organisation embedded in the culture of the community where it is used. (Dörnyei and Ushioda, 2009:117)
Nevertheless, the students’ views on learning English at Ibri CAS remain controversial and ambiguous. This was mentioned earlier but I will briefly highlight the reasons again for the sake of context. Students see the need to learn English for two reasons namely: firstly their aim and desire to pass or qualify the English Foundation Year program, which is one of the requirements of the Oman Ministry of Higher Education for further pursuance of the college degree program (MOHE, 2011); and secondly, English is the language of instruction in the degree program. Therefore, the students need to learn English so that they can continue their studies. The question, however, remains in that do students enjoy learning English or are they forced to study English regardless of their wishes and preferences?
On the other hand, it can also be seen that the students who do not wish to pursue a college degree and want to get employed straight away after graduation, do not believe that learning English is useful. This is also because despite the English language being used in many companies and places in Oman, there are still a large number of local companies or organizations that do not require English language skills. I reiterate that these views have to be examined statistically as I am expressing my own views based on my contact with students and my own experience.
Finally, having talked briefly about the role of the teachers and students in CI, the following section talks about the classroom atmosphere and its impact on student participation.
2.3.5 Factors Related to Classroom Condition
Classroom context is an integral component of a good teaching and learning process, therefore its effectiveness cannot be ignored. It does not only involve the physical context but also the overall atmosphere that makes the learners enjoy being in attendance. It should thus provide students with a secure feeling and a sense of belonging so that they feel they own the environment and are an important part of it. This feeling encourages students to demonstrate good behaviour in class which facilitates the process of learning. Many researchers, however, have placed more importance on the classroom’s physical environment which is more observable being tangible and measurable. Some of the components of this environment include the seating arrangement (Byrne, 1987), the physical and spatial arrangement of the classroom (Christenson, 1994), and classroom size (Syuaztin & Graam, 1998), to name but a few.
I agree that these elements of the classroom have an important influence of their own in creating good physical conditions for learning and interaction. I take this discussion further by incorporating the outside context which surrounds the students and contributes to the classroom context. In another dimension and referring to the conditions of the college where the study is being carried out, I feel that the general condition outside the classroom needs to be explained as
it influences the students’ attitudes and perceptions of learning English, as well as the way they interact in the classroom. I would like to concentrate on two issues - English use outside of the classroom, and social and cultural considerations.
2.3.6 English Use Outside of the Classroom
Accommodating a foreign language in an environment where there are limited linguistic resources constitutes a formidable challenge for both the teachers and students. Teachers hope that the learners will apply the knowledge of language outside of the class so that they can improve and consolidate what they have learned, according to the proverb “Practice makes perfect”. Also, the teachers believe that their students want to use their English language skills outside the class and share their knowledge with each other. However, this is not always possible for many reasons. There is always the fear that some students are encouraged not to talk in English outside the class as some people misunderstand the purpose of students using English with each other, or whenever they have an opportunity to use English to communicate. They might think negatively of those students, considering their behaviour as boastful because of their command over the English language. They also might think that the students want to distinguish themselves from others who do not speak English. Therefore, they look at them in a rather negative way which discourages them from speaking in English. Other students internally feel that English should be used only in the classroom and Arabic should be the medium of communication in other places.
Furthermore, the opportunity to use English is not always available for the students due to the vast number of Arabic speakers in the college, including teachers and other staff members working in the college. Besides, Arabic is the local language which is used in communication. English, however, is only used in class as a language of instruction.
Another problem also expressed by the students when interviewed during one of the sessions was that they said that, “we do not want to use English because we are not sure of the correct language and we do not want to be seen that we do not know English”. This worry is also transferred to the classroom. Some students feel insecure about participating in class discussions because other students sometimes laugh at them when they make mistakes, as expressed by the students in the interviews. Teachers encourage students to use English when they talk to them in their offices. In the college, some senior students who are quite competent speak English with their teachers but new students lack both the self-confidence and requisite command over the language, therefore they communicate in Arabic instead, and sometimes ask other students to talk on their behalf interpreters when talking to their English teachers.
In short, these attitudes and opinions towards English, as mentioned above, might manifest into students’ behaviours and also influence the way they perceive English learning and usage outside the classroom. This might hinder students trying to communicate outside in English, while the same feeling is extended to classroom situations where students interact in the classroom.
Having discussed about some of the problems that some students might face in relation to the use of English outside classroom, there is often a bright side in the issue. Thus, it is fair to mention that the English speakers and the use of English in Oman are increasing due to vast development of economic and technology that bring English language in play as a means of communication in business enterprises (Al-Jadidi, 2009; Al-Jardani, 2012). Learners, however, need to seek good opportunities to practice their English outside the classroom and try to reduce their tension by considering that their aim of using English is to practice what they have learnt. As mentioned above that society plays an important role in contributing to learners’ attitudes and knowledge of learning FL, Oman, like any other country, has different districts where each area has its own cultural identity and context in relation to accommodating foreign languages. That is to say, large industrial district such as Muscat (the capital of Oman) provides good opportunities for the growing of English use in companies and in some public places. Also, speaking English in Muscat is not culturally considered as a show-off situation as it has been expected by society that people can easily shift to English language when communicating with non-Arabic speakers
who speakEnglish. The socio-cultural structure in Muscat is different from that of a town in the
interior part of Oman where the use of English language is limited. Again here, I emphasize the influence and the expectation of society and how people view the use of English in the society. Different districts have different attitudes depending on the social norms and expectation enforced by individual socio-context such as the example I mentioned about Muscat above. The study is not intended to talk about the different socio-cultural structures that the students of the study come from.
The above discussion leads us to consider the underlying roots from which these attitudes and
opinions have ascended. I refer to these roots as ‘the culture’ that contributes to the perceptions
of students and people in the community and their perceptions of learning English and its usage in their lives, as discussed earlier in this chapter. Further explanation of the effect of socio- cultural factors will be elaborated on in the discussion chapter.
Conclusion
This chapter presents an overview of theoretical background underpinning classroom participation. Throughout the chapter, I argue that participation and interaction in the classroom
are culturally constructed in a given context. This was discussed through different models of interaction such as the SPEAKING's model by (Kramsch, 1985), the ecology of human interaction by (Bronfenbrenner, 1993), and the model of four layers by (Breen, 2001). According to these scholars, classroom interaction is seen as a product which undergoes several integrated processes, where all participants of the classroom interaction contribute in one way or another. Different research and studies have been conducted to understand student participation. Some have focused on explicit oral production to understand students’ participation and other studies have looked at non-verbal participation. Considering classroom participation as a social action, participation was also researched from a social-cultural perspective. The focus of this study also considers classroom participation as a social event by which participation is organized and manipulated by teachers, learners, and classroom context. Furthermore, the chapter talks about the different theories of learning in which language and culture were discussed. It shows different assumptions about learning as perceived by behaviourists, cognitivists and sociologists. As previously mentioned, participation is not only understood through verbal or non-verbal production expressed by the interlocutors in the classroom, it is also important to define participation as used in this study. Therefore, the chapter then presents some definitions of classroom interaction and participation in which it shows that participation is best understood through understanding the relationship of classroom participants and the context to which they belong.
The last section of the chapter concludes by describing the roles of teachers and learners in the process of classroom participation, and how these roles are interrelated and shape social actions that take place in the classroom.
The proceeding chapter, Chapter Three describes the framework and research design of the study. It also describes the process of collecting and analysing the data.
CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY Introduction
Chapter Three describes the overarching research design and methodological processes governing the study. It is divided into three parts: part one begins by covering the epistemology and theoretical perspectives of the research, which will be closely followed by rationalizing the choices of using a small scale case study to explore the factors that influence student participation in English language classrooms in Oman. The second part provides a detailed account of the pilot study and the lessons learned for the development of actual data collections, while the last part encompasses a discussion on the processes of data collection itself.
Part I: Research Design and Methodological Processes