Learning another language presents a unique set of challenges for introductory-level college students. While teachers work to meet student needs as best as possible to help them progress in their acquisition of the TL, the effectiveness of additional help through peer tutoring outside the classroom is widely regarded throughout current research as effective. While the results for each research question of this study do not fully coincide with one another, they do support the overarching claim of peer tutoring’s effectiveness in helping students attain academic success in their courses. This final chapter will discuss the study’s findings and review the implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research.
Discussion
The primary purpose of this study was to research the correlational relationships between the number of peer tutoring hours introductory-level Spanish language students completed and their final course grades, as well as their performance on a standardized online oral proficiency assessment appropriate for their level of study. The research results demonstrated a need to reject one null hypothesis and a failure to reject the other. However, these findings, in part, support current research within the field and contribute to areas not previously researched in a similar manner. This section will discuss the findings related to each research question.
The first research question examined the correlation between students’ final course grades and the number of peer tutoring hours they completed. The statistical justification for rejecting the null hypothesis, which claimed there was no correlation, indicates that there is a statistically significant correlation between the number of peer tutoring hours students complete and their overall course grades. This finding coincides with the research within the body of
knowledge surrounding the effectiveness of peer tutoring in helping students gain greater
academic achievement in their courses (Bowman-Perrott et al., 2013; García et al., 2014; Worley & Naresh, 2014). Based on these and previous findings, peer tutoring supports the concepts that observation and modeling (Brendel 2012; Belhiah 2009) and reinforcement (Matthews 2010) are significant influencing factors in addressing students personal needs and helping peers become academically successful in learning another language (García et al., 2014; Worley & Naresh, 2014). Moreover, the findings related this this research question also support the general body of knowledge concerning required writing tutoring appointments. Evidence regarding required writing tutoring sessions demonstrates greater student interest in returning for additional help and increased academic success on assignments and in their courses (Gordon, 2008; Bishop, 1990; Clark, 1985; Pfrenger, et al., n.d.).
While there was a rejection of the null hypothesis for the first research question, the results of the Pearson’s r and Spearman r correlations justified the failure to reject the second research question’s null hypothesis. This question related specifically to the correlations
between the number of peer tutoring hours students completed with the university Spanish tutors throughout the semester and their proficiency scores on the Spanish AAPPL online oral
assessment in listening and speaking. Within SLA, researchers and educators recognize the need for regular contact with the TL in order gain greater proficiency in speaking the language
(Krashen, 1982; Pufahl & Rhodes as cited in Blanton, 2015; Blanton, 2015; Dunn, 2012); however, research regarding required peer tutoring’s effectiveness in helping TL learners gain greater oral proficiency in the TL is limited. Peer tutoring addresses students’ needs in many ways, particularly through personal feedback (García et al., 2014; Newton & Ender, 2010; Worley & Naresh, 2014) and by lowering student anxieties with a more relaxed setting and
personal interactions (García et al., 2014; Newton & Ender, 2010). However, the study’s findings indicate additional research related particularly to peer tutoring’s effectiveness in helping FLLs learn TLs in their native speaking environments is needed in order to advance the body of knowledge encompassing the fields of SLA and peer tutoring. This research study has taken a step toward addressing this gap in the literature; however, the results demonstrate a need for additional research.
Implications
While not wholly conclusive, the study results indicate requiring peer tutoring hours for students learning an L2 is a valid pursuit and may be worth incorporating into the course
curriculum. The findings regarding the first research question were in line with the general body of knowledge surrounding the field of peer tutoring, so the results were not surprising. However, they contributed to the field in a special way because the majority of research surrounding peer tutoring as it relates to FLL and SLA focuses on ELLs, who are studying the TL within the TL speaking environment. In this case, however, the students are studying the TL in their own, native speaking environment. As a result, the findings related to this research question not only affirmed the effectiveness of peer tutoring in helping students achieve greater academic success but also enhanced the research related to a different area of peer tutoring.
The implications concerning the correlation results for the second research question are quite interesting. While the failure to reject the null hypothesis may seem like evidence of peer tutoring’s ineffectiveness in helping SLA students gain greater oral proficiency in the TL, it is simply an indicator of the need for additional research. Required peer tutoring is an area of SLA that has not yet been thoroughly developed or researched. Therefore, this study has contributed to the general conversation of the importance of TL proficiency and explored ways peer tutoring
could, potentially, be incorporated as a required element of the course curriculum in order to help students gain not only the skills they want but also the skills they need as they move out into the work force (Auburn University, 2016).
Limitations
Although this research study was carefully prepared and executed, some limitations could not be prevented. With regard to the oral assessment, participants’ anxiety levels when taking the online AAPPL could have had a somewhat significant impact on their scores. The
participants were not accustomed to taking any sort of online assessment in the TL through an automated system, and several expressed severe anxiety either before or after taking the assessment. While the researcher provided the test information ahead of time, showed the participants and professors a video of what the oral assessment would be like, and answered all of their questions and concerns, it was impossible to avoid any test anxiety, particularly because of the high levels of anxiety involved in language learning (Awan et al., 2010; Krashen, 1982; Wu, 2010). Beyond these limitations to the study, another restriction could have been that the students within each class completed the assessment at the same time, in the same room. Participants were seated next to one another, and the noise from their classmates may have been a distraction. Some participants even expressed discomfort with their classmates’ ability to listen to them as they took the assessment. However, the classroom was equipped with desktop carrels, as well as personal headsets, to provide added privacy and limit noise disturbances in an effort to mitigate these potential influences.
Other limitations of the study include the focus of the tutoring sessions and performance of the tutors, as well as the overall participant population size and the points awarded for the tutoring hours. While the tutors were trained to focus on meeting students’ needs through a TL
conversational context during the tutoring sessions, perhaps the methods and practices of the tutors did not concentrate enough on TL oral proficiency throughout the tutoring appointments. Also, the fact that the study was restricted to one specific university population (N) may have been a limitation, and the sample population size (n = 82) was less than the ideal number of 100 participants (Warner, 2013). The number of participants may have been an influencing factor in the results of the study; however, the one-hundred points awarded for the tutoring sessions may have also been a limitation. These points could have influenced student motivation to attend and complete the tutoring hours, yet they may not have encouraged meaningful interaction during the sessions. The points awarded for the tutoring sessions may have affected the results of the study in other ways as well. Even though thorough measures were taken to mitigate these possible influences over the results of the study, these limitations could not be entirely avoided.
Recommendations for Future Research
1. Duplicate this study, particularly to add further research related to the correlation involving tutoring hours and oral assessment scores.
2. Duplicate the study while using a different oral assessment instrument.
3. Duplicate the study while testing students in a solitary environment with no noise at all and no distractions by other people.
4. Duplicate the study with students studying another target language.
5. Run a multivariate regression of the three variables involved in this study: tutoring hours, students’ course grades, and their oral proficiency assessment scores.
6. Analyze the different types of tutoring provided, including conversational, writing, and grammar tutoring.
assessment anxieties students face.
8. Carry out a purely experimental study with a control group that completes online language assignments and an experimental group that works with peer tutors.
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