Action Research Project report template

For final report mid-March 2017

Group details/ Who are you working with?Minna Maijala, University of Turku, Finland(Joanne Pagèze, University of Bordeaux, France)

Project title “How do different types of student-centred activities function in the FL classroom?”

Description of issue being investigated

In this action research project, our overall aim is to find out how different activity types enhance learner-centredness in the FL classroom. Moreover, we analyse how do different types of student-centred activities function in the FL teaching practice.

- Do the activities promote the use of target language? - How do students stay on task? - How do they use the target language (German)?

Rationale/What is the reason for your interest in this issue?

Empirical classroom research is needed, because it is not so common in the area of foreign language education. This is stated by Nunan (1991, cited in 2005, 226), who reviewed 50 studies and found that only 15 of them were classroom based. These classroom based studies reveal, for instance, that on average teachers tend to talk twice as much as students, in some studies even more than 80% of time (Nunan 2005, 227). This is a problem, especially in teaching other languages than English, because the students’ proficiency level is rather low. In addition, the role of German as a scientific language has diminished in Finland, and it is no longer as widely taught in Finnish schools as it used to be (see e.g. Kangasvieri 2017). Accordingly, teaching German as a foreign language (henceforth GFL) at the Language Centre has to be less academic and more general in nature. Students expect, above all, that the language courses have a real-life relevance to them (see e.g. Lehto & Maijala 2013).

When designing learner-centred activities the characteristics of the learner group, such as, age, learning style, motivation, and prior knowledge should be taken into account (cf. Sercu 2013). The level of activities should be located within the learner’s zone of proximal development, which means that the exercises should not underestimate or overestimate what the learner can do. In addition, they should be based on content that the learner perceives as relevant. Based on my experience as a German teacher, I can say that real life tasks or simulations are purposeful when preparing students to real life situations (see e.g. Council of Europe 2001, 9). It is also interesting to take a look at the learner talk, especially when students are quasi ‘working alone’ without teacher at the learning stations. Video recordings can reveal both verbal and non-verbal behaviour (Burns 1999, 94–95).

Action research is important for language teachers’ professional growth. It can be useful in providing a “sound source for pedagogical planning and action and enabling them to frame the local decisions of the classroom within broader educational, institutional and theoretical consideration.” (Burns 1999, 16) One important factor for the development of teachers’ personal development is self-reflection. Tsui (2003, 13) states that ”[e]xperience will only contribute to expertise if practitioners are capable of learning from it. To learn from experience requires that practitioners constantly reflect on their practices.” Action research can be regarded as a tool for reflective practice (Wallace 1991; Burton 2009) that helps teachers to learn. Based on my experience as GFL teacher and teacher educator, I would say that personal growth as a teacher cannot take place without self-reflection.

Describe the current situation/Review of and reflection on practice

What would you like to change and why?I would like to develop activities that enhance learner-centredness in teaching German as a foreign language.

What is your action plan and timeframe?

Video sequences were collected during one lesson in October 2016 at the Continuation Course (in German Fortsetzungskurs I, CEFR level A2) at the Language Centre of the University of Turku. The course lasted from the end of August 2016 to the end of November 2016. Altogether 24 students and two German-speaking tutor participated in the study.

Who are your participants?

University students learning German as a foreign language for general academic purposes at the A2-level at the Language Centre of the University of Turku (Finland).

Data:

Video sequences were collected during one lesson (90 minutes), in which different activity types were used at learning stations. The lesson was video-recorded, for which a written permission was obtained from the students and the two German-speaking tutors. The students were also informed that they take part in research (see Burns 1999, 70–71). Background noise in the classroom disturbed the encoding of students’ performance to some extent. In addition, Finnish students do not generally speak loudly in the classroom, which occasionally made the encoding very difficult. The video recordings were transcribed.

Activity types used at learning stations:- 2 stations: work with the textbook - 1 station: oral exercises with a German tutor - 1 station: Internet search- 1 station: discussion about the newspaper article with a German tutor

Teaching materials used at the learning stations:- globally used textbook for German as a foreign language (see Appendix 1); - newspaper article (http://www.spiegel.de/lebenundlernen/uni/wohnungsnot-studenten-finden-schwerer-eine-bleibe-a-1113907.html);- materials designed by the teacher M.M (Appendix 2;- learning platform Moodle/padlet-wall (see Appendix 3)

Which tools are you using?

Our reflections are based on the COLT (communication orientation of language teaching) or MOLT (motivation orientation of language teaching) framework, firstly introduced by (Spada & Fröhlich 1995), then modified by Nunan (1992) and Guilloteaux & Dörnyei (2008). We focus on:

- activity type (drill, role play etc.)- participant organization (group works/work in pairs)

- content (Was the topic selected by the teacher or students?)

- student modality (Are students involved in listening, speaking, reading, writing or combination of these?)

- materials (What types of materials are used? How long is the text? What is the purpose of the materials? How controlled is their use?)

What did you find out? What were the positive outcomes? What were the problems and limitations?

First, the activities are described by using examples of students’ conversations. Second, conclusions are drawn about the students’ performance.

Activity 1

Activity type: conversation with the German tutor (henceforth F). The German tutor does not speak Finnish.Aim: to talk about dreams and future plans and to use the conditional (Konjunktiv II)

Participant organization: group works (5 female students in the group, four of them from Finland and one from China = student 1). From now on, I use the abbreviations S1–S5 to designate the students.

Topic: to speak and use conditional. The topic was selected by the teacher. The use of conditional has been the practiced on previous lessons.Student modality: Students should be involved in listening and speaking.Materials: Powerpoint slides (by the teacher), which include the grammar structure and examples. The purpose of the materials is that students revise the use of conditional and then speak after the model: Was sind Ihre Träume und Wünsche? Wenn ich im Lotto gewinnen würde… Ich hätte gern eine Sachertorte.

Extract of the conversation

The metalanguage of the group was English, the italicized passages = original in the Finnish language, () = non-transcribable segment of wordsDuration of the recording session: 5:25 minutes

[---] F: Vielleicht können wir mit diesem Blatt anfangen. Wäre, was heißt wäre? (F shows the paper with the grammar rule) Wäre gern.

S1: Vielleicht would be?

F: Ja, also, wäre, was du gerne sein möchtest. What you would like to be. Hätte, what would you like to have, ich hätte gerne das das das. Und würde, I would like to do something. [S2 nods, the others stay still] Verben, also Dinge die du tun kannst. Fangen wir an mit wäre. Was wärest du gerne?

S2: Ich wäre hmmm eine Lehrerin.

F: Eine Lehrerin. Was für eine Lehrerin?

S2: Geographie.

F: Mit einem ganzen Satz?

S2: Ich wäre gern eine Lehrerin hmmm

F: ...für Geographie oder eine Geographielehrerin. Beides ist richtig.

S2: (nods)F: Was wärest du gerne [turns to the S3]?

S3: hmm, I don’t know, what it is in German? [laughs]

F: was was was?

S3: hmm, I don’t know. I would like to be an author.

F: An author. Ok, ich wäre gern ein Autor. Sie wäre gern eine Autorin. Oder du kannst sagen Schriftsteller. Kennt ihr das Wort Schriftsteller? Beides ist okay. Habt ihr was zum Schreiben? [---] Kannst du den Satz noch einmal sagen? [turns to the S3]

S3: hmmm, how was it once again. Ich wäre gern ... Ich wäre gern hmmm Schriftstellerin (stumbles)

F: Eine Schriftstellerin. Alle zusammen. Eine Schriftstellerin.

Studentinnen 1-5 wiederholen: Schriftstellerin

F: Sch – rift- steller [speaks very slowly]

S1-5: Schriftsteller

F: Es ist ein altes Wort aber aber es wird heute benutzt also es ist aktuell. Ja, ich wäre gern ein Schriftsteller oder sie wäre gern eine Autorin. [---] Ja, was wärest du gerne [turns to the S4]S4: ich wäre gern hmm ich wäre gern Diplomingenieur [pronounces the word incorrectly]

F: Eine Diplomingenieurin. Ja. Sie wäre gerne eine Diplomingenieurin oder Diplomingenieur. Ja [turns to the S5]. Was wärest du gerne?

S5: Ich weiß es nicht. Hmm.

F: Du weißt es nicht. Es ist okay.

S5: Hmm.

F: Es muss kein Beruf sein. S5: Hmm.

F: Es muss kein Job sein. Kann doch ein Millionär sein.

St. 5: [raises shoulders] Glücklich.

F: Ja. Ihr könnt genauso Adjektive benutzen. Ich wäre gerne Millionär. Ich wäre gerne Autorin. Aber ich wäre gerne glücklich. Heißt das du bist jetzt nicht glücklich? [turns to the S5][---]

Conclusion: Students are mainly involved in listening. They seem to understand everything the German tutor is saying. Students show their comprehension by using compensation strategies (see e.g. Oxford 1990), namely nodding, speaking with their hands or other nonverbal activity. The use of the target language is not controlled. This has the consequence that students used only single words in German and not complete sentences. They also use their “better” languages (Finnish and English). More linguistic scaffolding in the target language is needed.

Activity 2

Activity type: conversation with the German tutor (henceforth T). The German tutor speaks very good Finnish.Participant organization: group works (5 students, S1, S3, S5 = male, S2, S4 = female)

Aim: to talk about a newspaper article, use the vocabulary related to the theme “living in German-speaking countries”)

Topic: The topical article was selected by the teacher. The use of vocabulary has been the practiced in previous lessons. The article was given beforehand as a homework, available in the Moodle platform and in the internet http://www.spiegel.de/lebenundlernen/uni/wohnungsnot-studenten-finden-schwerer-eine-bleibe-a-1113907.html )Student modality: Students should be involved in reading comprehension and speaking.Materials: article “Wohnungsnot bei Studenten in Deutschland” from the magazine Spiegel

Extract of the conversation

Duration of the recording session: 6:17 minutesThe metalanguages of the group were Finnish and English, the italicized passages = original in the Finnish language, () = non-transcribable segment of words

[---] T: Genau. Dann habt ihr ja den Artikel schon verstanden. Gut. Habt ihr vielleicht ein Paar Wörter, die ihr wissen möchtet? [The students look at their papers and are silent 15 seconds, then S1 shows his paper] S1: voranT: das hängt vor allem, voran. Ihr kennt vor allem? [S1 nodds and says something in German]S1: [nodds] Ja.[There is a silence of 3 seconds.]S5: [asks something in German] Im Vergleich.T: Der Vergleich? [S5 shakes the head] Ich vergleiche. Hmmm. Ich suche ein Beispiel. Ich vergleiche zum Beispiel diese zwei iPads. [T takes the iPads and shows the students, students follow] Dann können wir sagen, das hier ist besser. [S3 stretches out his head and takes out his own smartphone] T: Tja. Ich habe wieder Englisch im Kopf. Compare. [uses the Finnish verb incorrectly]S5: To compare. [corrects the Finnish verb]

T: Ja. Also ich vergleich. [T shows the paper to the S4] Ich vergleiche das in diesem Jahr und in letztem Jahr. [Students nodd and look at the papers. There is a silence of 18 seconds. After the silence the student 4 shows something from her paper.]S4: [asks something in German]T: Hmm. Anerkannt. Hmm. Kennt ihr das Wort bekannt? [All students nod.] Ja es ist ungefähr das gleiche. Also. Anerkannt. Hmm. Ja, es ist bekannt für sagmal () deswegen erkennen alle (). Also sie sagen dann ().[There is a silence of 26 seconds.][S1 raises his head and shows his paper. T turns to him.]T: Hier auf der anderen Seite. Hier [shows something to S1] Weisst du, versteht ihr den Satz hier [shows the paper also for the other students] Der folgende Satz. (German)[S1 shows that he is interested and that he has understood.]S3: (German) (Other students nod.) T: Ja genau. Das heisst hier ist das am schwierigsten für die Studenten eine Wohnung zu finden. Das heisst wenn ihr nach Deutschland geht. Zum Beispiel nach München. Da gibt es gar keine Wohnung. Hmm. Kennt ihr alle Städte hier, die aufgelistet sind?S1: ()T: Einige aber.[There is a silence of 8 seconds.]S 5: Tübingen.T: Wo ist das?S5: (Deutsch) T: Tübingen liegt in der Nähe von Stuttgart, die Hauptstadt von Baden-Württemberg. Und Konstanz? [S1 looks at his smartphone] Liegt am Bodensee.S4: In the border of ... it is near the lake T: Ja, genau. Der Bodensee heist dieser see. S1: Karlsruhe.T: Karlsruhe. Ja. Hmmm. Das ist auch in der Nähe von Stuttgart, etwas weiter im Norden. [someone says Münster]T: Münster? (laughs) [---]

Conclusion: The students show that they have understood the main points of the article. They could have talked about the text in Finnish or in English, but in German it was too difficult. When the proficiency level in the target language is this low, there has to be, for instance, a model dialogue available and more linguistic help (see e.g. Boers et al. 2016). This example shows that nonverbal activities are very significant when foreign languages are learnt. When the correct words are not found, they are compensated through gestures and facial expressions. In addition, other languages help. Although there is often silence in the group, students seem to attend passively.

Activity 3

Activity type: Searching information in the internet

Suchen Sie Wohnungsanzeigen auf wg-gesucht.de – wo würden Sie gerne wohnen? (Flat announcements should be saved on the Padlet wall).

Participant organization: group work, 5 students (S1–2 = female, S3–5 = male)

Content: the internet address (wg-gesucht) was available in the Moodle platform and was selected by the teacher

Student modality: Students are involved in reading and searching information

Materials: the internet address (wg-gesucht), results of the study are available on the Padlet wall (see Appendix 3)

Extract of the conversation

Duration of the recording session: 6:48 minutesThe metalanguages of the group were Finnish and English, the italicized passages = original in the Finnish language, () = non-transcribable segment of words, L=Lehrerin/teacher; T = German tutor

L: Sie suchen jetzt eine Wohnung. Eine Wohnungsanzeige. () [T comes to this group). T, möchtest du hier bleiben? Ja, es geht schon los. (student take the iPads and begin to work) St. 3: WgSt. 4: WgL: (says to T) Sie kennen sich selbst aus. Wunderbar. [Silence, students are searching in the internet.]S4: Angebot is an offer or?S1: München S2: München is – there is this technical university. It is in the top ranking. The university of Munich in the top ranking. That is why it is so difficult to find a flat over there. Besides Bavaria is the most expensive state. On average it is the most expensive. S3: (turns to T) Gibt es eine technische Hochschule in Aachen?T: Ja, ich meine schon. Beziehungsweise die Universität Aachen, da gibt es sehr viele technische Bereiche. S3: [nods] Ja.T: Also – kennt ihr das Wort spezialisieren? to specialise? [All students nod.] Das heißt, sie sind sehr spezialisiert auf Maschinenbau, Technik, technische Studiengänge. [Students are looking at their iPads]T: [turns to the S1] Hast du schon eine Stadt, die du gucken möchtest? Hast du schon ein Zimmer?S1: Ja. We should show a flat together. T: Du darfst auch alleine eine eigene Wohnung suchen. Außer ihr wollt alle in derselben Wohnung wohnen. Dann müsstet ihr eine WG suchen, wo fünf Leute reinpassen. [Silence of 2 minutes, 25 seconds: Students are searching in the internet, wg-gesucht.de clearly to be seen]

[S3 mumbles something and shows S1 a flat, S5 laughs, S5 says something in Finnish.]T: In welcher Stadt bist du? [turns to S4]S4: Berlin.T: Ach, Berlin, ja, eine groβe Stadt.[S4 nods.] [---]

Conclusion: Students stay focused during the whole recorded period. They seem to enjoy the activity although they mostly stay silent. They actually seem to stay on the given internet address. When internet is used, it is of important that the links are available in the learning platform and students know where they should search for information. Results of the study can be used in next lessons, for instance, as a material for conversation.

Activity 4

Activity type: working with the textbook Participant organization: group work, 5 students (S1 = male, S2–5 = female)

Content: the activities in the textbook were selected by the teacher

Student modality: Students are involved in reading and writing.

Materials: The text “UNO-City” in the textbook Passwort Deutsch 3. The text and the exercise were given to students on the previous lesson. They should now check it in their group. The answers are available at the learning station.Activity: Lesen Sie den Text 1a. Korrigieren Sie die Hausaufgabe (die Übersetzung!).Übersetzen Sie die Sätze in der Tabelle 2 (S. 35) ins Finnische. EXTRA: Machen Sie die Übung 3 (S. 35).

What types of materials are used? How long is the text? What is the purpose of the materials? How controlled is their use?

Duration of the recording session: 3:38 minutes

The metalanguages of the group were Finnish, the italicized passages = original in the Finnish language, () = non-transcribable segment of words

[---]

S5: Does this mean that this Kristina [a person in the textbook] ()S2: But if she S3: But if this Kristina, so it perhaps is this () I don’t know. S2: But if we, but if it after all is so that in the subordinate clause () or? Why I do not find it? That part. [S1 takes out his smartphone and types something.]S2: Here it is. [S4 writes down something in her book and then rubbers it out.]

S1: Did someone notice ()?S3: [writes down something in her book.] Yes, isn’t it the just ()S1: I think it makes sense somehow S2: ()S4: Yes [The group work ends.]

Conclusion: When students work on their own without the teacher and/or German-speaking tutor, they automatically use Finnish and not the target language. The example shows that the students have difficulties in using the textbook. The textbook does not provide any help. Nevertheless, the students stayed on task all the time. As the example shows, they were discussing nothing but the textbook exercise. Finally, they actually seemed to have found out the grammar rule in question.

What did you learn?

Against this background, it can be concluded that effective open-ended productive exercises need a great deal of scaffolding of the target language beforehand. One method of how activities could be made more learner-centred at a low proficiency level is that students are provided with examples of the target phrases before/during the exercise. This was also suggested by Boers et al. (2016), who found out that adult English textbook users are not sufficiently provided with contextualized examples or any other help from the textbook. Finnish L1 students need much more guided practice and explanation of grammar, since the sentence structure is very different in Finnish compared with Germanic languages (see Maijala & Tammenga-Helmantel 2017).

The students used mostly one-word utterances in the target language. The use of compensation strategies (Oxford 1990) was impressive. This was one factor that surprised me. The students showed their attention and comprehension not only in words but with their body language, for instance, by nodding, by laughing, by pointing out etc. It was clear that the students understood what was happening in the target language but they could not yet express it with words. It was also obvious that reading and listening skills had developed very fast but speaking very slowly. This can cause frustration when adult students learn other languages than English, because they are used to it that they can express themselves very well in English. Students find themselves in a new and unfamiliar situation, which can be frustrating especially for adult learners in the university context (see e.g. McKay & Tom 1999, 16)

What are your next steps?

My next steps are to design activities in which more contextualized examples or some other scaffolding is provided. It would also be very important to think about the ways of how students can find and develop compensating practices for themselves, and use the textbook more effectively.

References

Textbooks:

Passwort Deutsch 3. Kurs- und Übungsbuch. Ed. Albrecht, Ulrike et al., Stuttgart: Klett, 2008.

Research literature

Boers, Frank, Tu Cam Thi Dang & Brian Strong (2016). Comparing the effectiveness of phrase-focused exercises: A partial replication of Boers, Demecheleer, Coxhead, and Webb (2014). Language Teaching Research, 20, 1–19.Burns, Anne (1999): Collaborative action research for English language teachers. Cambridge: CUP.Burton, Jill (2009): Reflective Practice. In Burns, Anne & Richards, Jack C. (eds.): The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education. Cambridge: CUP, 298–307.Council of Europe (2001): Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Guilloteaux, Marie J. & Zoltán Dörnyei (2008): Motivating language learners: A classroom-oriented investigation of the effects of motivational strategies on student motivation. TESOL quarterly 42 (1): 55-77.Lehto, Marja-Liisa & Maijala, Minna (2013): Special features of assessment in reading comprehension. Language Learning in Higher Education 3, 1 (2013), 109–125. Maijala, Minna & Tammenga-Helmantel, Marjon (2017 forthcoming): Grammar exercises in Dutch, Finnish, and global textbooks for German as a foreign language. The Language Learning Journal. McKay, Heather & Tom, Abigail (1999): Teaching adult second language learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Nunan, David (2005): Classroom Research. In Hinkel, Eli (2005) (Ed.): Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning. New York, London: Routledge, 225–240.Oxford, Rebecca L. (1990): Language learning strategies: what every teacher should know. New York: Newbury house publishers.Sercu, Lies (2013): Exercise types and grading. In Byram, Michael & Hu, Adelheid (eds.): Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning. 2nd ed. London, New York: Routledge, 242–245.Spada, Nina & Fröhlich, Maria (1995): COLT--Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching Observation Scheme: Coding Conventions and Applications. National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research.Tsui, A. (2003). Expertise in teaching: Case studies of ESL teachers. New York: Cambridge University Press.Wallace, Michael J. (1991): Training foreign language teachers: A reflective approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Appendix 1: Teaching materials (textbook)

Passwort Deutsch 3, 34–35.

Appendix 2: Materials designed by the teacher

Appendix 3: Padlet wall (available in the Moodle platform)