Determinación del coeficiente de desgaste (K).

ANALYSIS 1: STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF

ADULT L2 CLASSROOM DISCUSSION

Part of this design-based research study was to investigate the feasibility of the Talk Skills intervention to improve the way students discussed in groups. Literature review of L2 classroom talk explored in the previous chapters of this thesis has pointed to the value of engaging in exploratory talk for language learning in the L2 classroom and suggested the potential need for guiding students to improve their classroom discussion. The literature review has also pointed to successful L2 classroom interventions that raise awareness of effective classroom talk and train students in the use of communicative strategies. However, to gauge likelihood of the Talk Skills intervention succeeding in my own educational context, this short chapter presents a needs analysis of 26 students (the intermediate and high intermediate classes that were running at the time) at Konkuk University Language Institute. The students were surveyed using the survey instrument in Appendix II, to find out their perceptions of discussion in L2 classrooms and their openness towards an intervention designed to improve student L2 classroom discussion. The needs analysis was conducted before the first iteration of the intervention and acts as a precursor to the next two chapters of analysis. The results are discussed as follows.

Bearing in mind the potential limitations outlined by Hopkins et al. (1990), that students may be deceiving themselves that their discussion skills are weaker than they are, or indeed that students may simply be noting what they want the survey administrator (myself) to hear (Robinson et al., 1991), students were encouraged to answer honestly and it was clearly explained that a) the survey was anonymous and b) that the responses would not affect their current learning in any negative way.

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their classes. 77% of students replied that they had a favorable or very favorable attitude towards group discussion in L2 classes. Furthermore, 87.4% of students also perceived themselves as having average, weak or very weak discussion skills, suggesting a potential need for helping students improve their L2 discussion. Some of the challenges that students responded they encountered when talking in a group included the following:

 To elaborate using more detail

 Speaking logically

 Using exact expressions to make others understand

 Speaking more

 Learning new patterns for conversation

 Making full sentences, making them longer

 Not pausing in English conversation

The challenges that students find during group discussion noted above, are those that would be addressed with a Talk Skills intervention aimed at improving their talk.

Students were then asked about the extent to which they trust and respect their classmates in English class. While the majority of classmates felt they trusted their classmates the right amount (53.8%) or a little too much (34.6%), with regard to respect, the majority of responses were that the students respected their classmates a little too much (69.2%), or too much (19.2). Students perceptions of respect towards each other falls in line with the research on Korean students and oral interaction, that describes a somewhat passive learning style and that conforms to societal Confucian ideals of respect for elders that may problematize communicative language teaching (Finch 2013; Park 2012; Lim & Griffith 2003). This would suggest that such learners may benefit from help creating an environment conducive to asking a lot of questions, taking risks and challenging each other within their talk. This would also suggest that the learners may benefit from learning strategies for asking questions and challenging each other.

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Next, students were asked more specifically about the concepts that would form the first iteration of the intervention. When asked about their attitude towards their class creating ground rules for talking in a group, most students responded positively. Some students felt that they were unsure (26.9%), however, the majority of students felt that this was either a good idea (57.7%), or a very good idea (11.5%). Students also responded positively to the idea of learning specific strategies aimed at helping them to talk more effectively in a group. All students felt that this would have at least some impact on their learning. 65.4% of students felt that this would be useful and 26.9% felt that this would be very useful.

Regarding each specific strategy intended to go in the first iteration of the intervention, students were asked about their perceived ability to use particular strategies that form exploratory talk for language learning. Their responses are summarized in the following table:

119 Table 11 Students’ perceived ability to use discussion strategies

Excellent % Good % Fair % Somewhat

Poor % Poor % 1. Using follow up questions 3.8 7.7 42.3 38.5 7.7 2. Requesting and giving clarification 7.7 30.8 38.5 19.2 3.8 3. Checking for comprehension 15.4 15.4 50 15.4 3.8 4. Asking for help 3.8 42.3 30.8 7.7 11.5 5. Asking for more details 7.7 23.1 30.8 34.6 3.8 6. Challenging an opinion 15.4 34.6 46.2 3.8 7. Disagreeing 0 15.4 34.6 42.3 7.7 8.Volunteering an answer 7.7 26.9 26.9 34.6 3.8 9. Elaborating 0 15.4 26.9 38.5 19.2

Using Bejarano’s (1997) distinction between modified interaction strategies (2, 3, 4) and social interaction strategies (1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), students perceived their modified interaction strategies to be relatively better than their social interaction strategies. That is to say students perceived that they have developed at least some strategies for requesting and giving clarification, checking for comprehension and asking for help. These are the strategies that help L2 learners overcome linguistic problems that arise when talking in their L2.

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The students felt that they were relatively weaker in using social interaction strategies i.e. 1, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. These are the strategies that are needed to facilitate engagement in exploratory talk for language earning, which would suggest that more effort may need to be put on developing these strategies among the learners within the intervention.

Overall, students’ perceived weakness in L2 discussion skills and their openness to a) awareness raising of effective talk through making ground rules and b) learning ways to improve their group discussion, suggests that implementing the Talk Skills intervention is feasible in the context of Korean adult L2 classroom learning. The following two chapters analyse the development of the Talk Skills intervention across two iterations.

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